Time Camp Episode 1: Family Time (2 page)

“That sounds fair,” said Jenna, and the other two went to their own rooms.

Downstairs, Tom and Liz were unpacking and putting away their suitcases.

“Liz, I feel really weird about this”.

“Me too, honey. It’s like we’re holding out on them.”

“We were gone so long. Two months is too long to be away from the kids,” replied Tom.

Liz replied, “They are too smart. How could we ever explain the scar to Andy? And the picture! What are the odds that Laura would pick this one week to look back at that one event? “

“Well, Lana told us it would be hard, and we’d have to make one decision for all of us.”

“We have all of the time we need, she assured us of that,” said Liz. “But I don’t think we should take a lot of time to decide. The kids know something is up, and I don’t like how I react when we have to cover something up. I say we get this out in the open. We’ll just have to trust the kids to deal with this in confidence.”

“I agree completely. Sunday morning, we have a family meeting”, replied Tom, as they got ready for bed.

Chapter 7: Family Meeting

Saturday was busy as usual, with shopping, the kids at sports and lots of running around. Liz and Tom were a bit reserved and nervous about their upcoming meeting. They told the kids not to make plans for Sunday as they had a special activity planned. There was a bit of grumbling, but no outright fireworks. In fact, the kids were relieved that they would have a chance to talk to their parents about the strange things going on.

Sunday morning, after everyone was up, they cooked a big breakfast and everyone ate their fill. As they were cleaning up, Laura asked the question. “So what’s the big deal? What can be so important that we have a family meeting?”

Their mom answered, “It’s going to take a while, and we need your complete attention, so phones off and get comfortable.”

So everyone took a cozy seat in the living room and Tom and Liz sat down with fresh coffee. “We need to ask one thing before we start. You must never discuss this with anyone outside of this house, unless we tell you that the person is OK to talk to about this,” started Tom.

Andy was first to chime in. “We kind of figured out something was up, but you’re kind of freaking us out with this cloak and dagger stuff, Dad.”

“Yeah,” replied Jenna, “Did you guys get in some kind of trouble in Buffalo?”

“Well, after we’re done, you’ll know why we’re having this meeting,” replied Tom, a bit annoyed.

After a few awkward glances around the room, Liz began, “This is going to sound totally strange, but please keep an open mind and let us finish before you interrupt us”.

“You see, you might think we were gone five days last week. But we were really gone about two months.”

“What?” hollered Laura. “That’s not possible!” The twins just looked at each other with strange faces.

Dad replied, “We’re going to tell you the whole story from our perspective.”

Chapter 8: The Story

Tom explained.

“We got to the convention hall Sunday night. There were a bunch of people there at the cocktail party we told you about. One lady was a bit of a strange bird, but she introduced herself to us as Lana and started talking to us like she knew us. I thought I had seen her in Erie a while ago, but she brushed off the question when I asked her.

During the whole week, we’d run into her at least once a day or more, and she’d manage to catch us at meals, and ask lots of questions about us, about our whole family. We asked her where she was from, but we didn’t get anything more than that she was from Canada. I guess that kind of explained her accent, or so we thought. We also noticed some strange tattoos on her wrists and around her ears, but we didn’t want to embarrass her by bringing it up.

It wasn’t until Thursday that things got strange. She asked us to join her for lunch. During the meal, she asked us if we were interested in some really experimental, confidential research. We were curious, and she invited us to join her at a research facility in downtown Buffalo that night. We were a bit nervous about it, but we decided to go with her.

We met her outside the convention center. She had a car with a driver, which impressed us. We climbed into the limo and he drove us all off downtown and then north near Niagara Falls. Now we’re pretty familiar with Buffalo, but he took us to some warehouse area over near Tonawanda on a side street we’d never seen. The warehouse was medium sized, and looked pretty much like all of the others nearby: single story, a few windows, some truck bays and a front office with the light still on.

Once we arrived, Lana led through the office us to a conference room behind the warehouse. There were three other people waiting there – one woman with short, dark hair, and two men. One of the men was older, and had no hair at all, and the other man had long blonde hair and looked to be in his thirties. They all had the same kind of tattoos on their faces, neck and arms as Lana, which was kind of strange, and they were wearing clothing that didn’t really fit with a warehouse facility – kind of shimmery suits.

Lana looked at the three others and they didn’t say a word. After a couple of moments, they nodded at each other and Lana turned to us.

“They approve of you. We need your complete promise of confidentiality and permission to memory wipe you if you refuse,” Lana told us.

We were scared at this point. We looked at each other and got up to leave.

“…Please,” said the older man. “You are very important to us. To all of humanity. Please listen to us before your leave.”

We were very uncomfortable and confused, but we sat back down. Lana began to explain:

“We are not exactly who we have led you to believe. We belong to an exclusive research group that observes historical events and records them for future people to preserve.”

“In order for us to tell you more, we need your promise of confidentiality. We will not harm you, we promise. But if you refuse, we will need to remove the memory of this discussion. It will not hurt you.”

I’ll be honest, we were scared, to death, but we were also quite curious at this point, so we agreed to continue.

We asked them to level with us about their outfits and their tattoos – to come clean.

Lana replied, “We’re not from around here. To be honest, we don’t belong here. This may sound unbelievable to you, but we’re from a time about 100 years into your future. We don’t adapt well to your time, and we are not completely comfortable in your clothing.”

We didn’t believe them. We were really shaken by that comment. It could have been a joke, or some kind of test.

The talking man replied, “You notice our markings. Everyone in our time has them. It allows us to communicate with each other and the communal intellect.”

Tom said, “Prove it.”

Lana said, “Write a number on that tablet. Hand it to one of us.”

So I did. I made up a combination of our street address, social security numbers, birth dates and shoe sizes. It was about 25 digits long. I handed it to the quiet lady. Immediately, the other three in unison recited the numbers. Then Lana added, “You are not very creative. House address, personal identification, we get. What are the last two digits?”

As amazed as I was, I answered them, “Shoe size.” They raised their eyes in amusement.

I said, “OK, so perhaps we believe you. That was at least an impressive trick. If you are here from the future, how did you get here, why are you here, and what do you need us for?”

Lana replied, “In about 100 years, humans will undergo a fundamental change. These markings indicate that we have been joined, minds tied together and merged to the communal intellect. We can’t survive without that tie, without serious mental distress. Plus, we have observed that we are somewhat easily detected by people in the past, from our markings and behaviors.”

I told them, “You are right, you stuck out like a sore thumb.” The four observers cocked their eyes in puzzlement for moment, and then a look of recognition crossed their faces, as they processed the metaphor. “So you are telling me you can travel into the past, but you can’t do it well because you’ll be discovered?”

“Precisely,” said Lana. “We are limited to future travel because we can’t blend into the past. There are others more advanced than us from many eras in the future. They are the people who created spatiotemporal travel, and the Guild which oversees travel and research throughout time.”

“Because you have not yet been tied to the communal intellect, people of your time can most easily travel to your past without distress, and without being easily detected. Therefore, we are recruiting you to be potential travelers and observers to the past.”

We asked them, “What do you need to know about the past for? Aren’t history books and videos enough?”

They collectively smiled in response. Lana replied, “People in our era, and especially in later eras, can experience events directly as they happened, provided there are human observers there, properly equipped with observing devices. This is the predominant way that events are observed and recorded in the future. Plus, we need to have baseline recordings recorded for temporal enforcement.”

“Enforcement? Like the police?” Liz asked.

“Kind of like that. The problem with temporal travel is that sometimes people do the wrong thing in the wrong time, and the timeline can be shifted.”

“So you want to make us into time cops?” I asked them.

“Oh no. You will become observers. In the Guild, there are observers, auditors and agents. We want to you become observers and go back in time to witness and record the truth. The auditors will monitor the timeline from a safe placetime, and the agents will step in when needed to keep the timeline accurate,” replied Lana.

“So we’ll carry cameras and stuff? Into the past? Isn’t that kind of dangerous?” asked Tom.

“It will be much simpler than that. You’ll be outfitted with biological enhancements that will allow you to record your experiences in full fidelity for us to retrieve later,” replied the talking man.

Liz commented, “We are NOT going to have things stuck into our bodies! That’s crazy!”

Lana jumped in, “You will not need them at first, and if you accept, you will be in full control of them. They will not affect you the way they affect us, since you grew up without them. Please believe us when we say that you will not have any discomfort from them.”

“Won’t we look and act like you?” asked Liz.

Lana answered, “No, the temporal observer enhancements are different. They are specifically designed for people from your Era. They are organic, and allow you some limited communication with others, and control of your sensation recording. They are only active when you are on a mission, and turned off when you are back in your own timeline. But you still remain individuals, and can act independently.”

Tom said, “Umm….can we try this on before we would submit to, to enhancements?”

“Certainly. That is precisely the idea that we have in mind for you. A short trip to the past with a trained observer so that you can gain our trust and understand how we work.”

Liz asked, “How long will this take? We have to get back to Erie tomorrow or we’ll be missed.”

The four strangers all smiled. The older man said, “You may take as much time as you need. You will be returned to this time once you are through, and you will be able to return to your family on schedule.”

We were clearly confused, but we were catching on. “How will that work?” we asked.

Lana replied, “Once we go through that door, we’ll pass into the InterTime Zone. We can spend as much time there as we need. We’ll note when you need to come back, and will return you to then when your introduction is complete.”

Tom looked at Liz, and she shrugged and smiled. Tom said, “This is really strange. Very strange. But given the evidence, we have to believe some part of your story. It’s crazy, but I think we’re willing to give it a try.”

So, we got up with them and went through the door.

Back in the Watson’s living room, the kids were visibly uncomfortable. Jenna jumped up and said, “I KNEW something happened Thursday night. I even told Grandma Jean about it. I had a strong feeling that you both disappeared. That must have been when you walked through the door!”

Liz and Tom looked at each other. Liz replied, “Jade told us that you had a very strange sense about Time, that only one in ten million people can even sense time shifts. I think that’s one of the reasons that Lana approached us.” Andy and Laura just stared at Jenna and her parents.

Andy said, “You mean Jenna has some super ability to detect time changes?”

“Apparently,” said their mother. “Are you ready for the rest of the story?” They all nodded, and she continued.

Chapter 9: Intertime Zone

Liz continued the description of their adventure.