History Shattered

Caffa, Crimea – The Crimean Peninsula, also known as Crimea, is a major land mass on the northern coast of the Black Sea almost completely surrounded by water. Crimea has historically been at the boundary between the classical world and the Pontic-Caspian steppe. Its southern fringe, including the settlement of Caffa, was colonized by the ancient Greeks, ancient Romans, Byzantine Empire and the Ottoman Empire, while at the same time its interior was occupied by a changing cast of invading steppe nomads such as the Cimmerians, Scythians, Sarmatians, Goths, Alans, Bulgars, Huns, Khazars, Kipchaks, and the Golden Horde (Mongols). After the Russian Revolution of 1917, it became a republic within the USSR.

Caffa was a port sitting on the Bay of Caffa, a body of water arching eastward. Caffa is now known as Feodosiya, a summer resort for the region’s wealthy. The Black Sea resort offers quick access to the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, which is what attracted early European merchants to Caffa for access to eastern trade. (Crimea is actually the Italian term for Qirim, the capital of the Crimean province of the Golden Horde.) The city was founded in the 6th century B.C. by the Greeks as Theodosia and had an estimated 2013 population of approximately 70,000. The 1346 invasion by the Golden Horde is believed to mark the beginning of The Black Death pandemic. The Mongol army, led by Janibeg, was believed to be withering from the plague, and launched plague-infected corpses into the city in one of the first examples of biological warfare. (excerpted from Wikipedia under Crimea and Feodosiya, Crimea)

Tyler’s sleep was much more fitful the night before the scheduled collision than it had been the previous night. It wasn’t that he was experiencing a relapse or an increase in the damaging effects of his battle with the combination of plague and flu. This was simply a case of nerves. He had not expected to be a volunteer for the first ever successful attempt at time travel during the inadvertent earlier misadventure. This time, he knew what he was about to be exposed to. Another blast of energy would be surging all around him; through him possibly. He lacked the equipment inside Station 28 to even begin to analyze the effect the first energy surge may have had on his body, his health, even on individual cells. He struggled to think of a scenario where it would’ve had no effect. A second exposure, especially so soon after the first, could exponentially increase any deleterious effect. Even that assumed he would survive the attempt; a notion which seemed at least reasonably questionable. Tyler decided it was probably better that he didn’t know the answers to any of those questions. Perhaps a few lost hours of sleep were preferable to the knowledge that he was either doing permanent damage to himself or beginning a journey guaranteed to end horribly for him. At this point, that seemed to be a more than reasonable trade for billions of lives and a repaired human history, regardless of the personal risks.

Monica had a largely sleepless night as well. All of her fears and doubts regarding this current undertaking seemed to press heavily upon her mind any time she drifted near sleep. She kept seeing images of Tyler, a young man who was now so different than the man she had shared her bed with just a few short nights ago. He was alone…, not isolated in Station 28, but instead trapped in some foreign place in a different time, and he was dying. Those images would be replaced with others of seemingly endless row upon row of people, clothed in garb which covered centuries of common fashion, all extending outstretched arms in her direction. These jarring images would waken her, and each time it seemed as if the clock had barely advanced from the time before. She found herself perspiring and breathing heavily after each such episode. It was as if time itself was reaching out to warn her of the enormity of the task they were about to embark upon.

At four in the morning she finally gave up on any further attempts at slumber. She showered quickly and headed toward the comm station in the military wing, knowing it would be manned throughout the night for any potential communication emanating from Station 28. The Corporal on duty nodded in her direction as she entered the small room filled with electronic equipment.

“Any noise from our friend in 28?”

“I’m not sure he’s talking to me. Evidently he feels like I ratted him out yesterday…, but he’s awake if that’s what you wanted to know.”

“Actually, both of those bits of info are useful. Thanks, Corporal. May I?”

The young serviceman held out a second headset. Monica accepted it, and placed it on her head.

“Earth to Station 28…, we have a collect call from the facility director. Will you accept the charges?”

A few moments later, a shaved and showered Tyler appeared on the video feed. He looked much better than he had at any time since his return from the past.

“I see how it is. Yesterday you rat me out, and today you’re the one cracking jokes. You sure as shit better hope I don’t come back from the past, Corporal, or you had better come up with some decent jokes. …and yes, I’ll accept the charges. I know you’re not wanting to have a conversation before five in the morning.”

Monica spoke. “It’s me, Tyler. I couldn’t sleep either. I figured now might be a good time to talk if you were awake. It may be our only chance before things get crazy around here.”

“Mon, in case you haven’t noticed, it would be impossible for things to get any crazier than they’ve been for the past week. I’m pretty sure if you looked up the word crazy in the dictionary you’d see a picture of PD.”

“Yeah, you’re right about that. Corporal, why don’t you take a quick break? I can serve as comms monitor for the next few minutes.”

“Are you sure, Director?”

“Yes, Corporal…, I can handle it just fine for the next ten minutes. Go on.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

After the soldier had left the room, Tyler couldn’t resist another smart remark. “What a suck-up that guy is. I think he’s hoping I don’t make it back so he can sleep with you.”

“Yeah…, I’m sure that’s it, especially knowing I’m his mother’s age.”

“You’re still a beautiful woman, Mon, even after twenty-five years have passed. Everyone else just looks older, but you…, you’re still spectacular.”

“I would’ve thought your eyesight would be better when you were younger.”

“My eyesight’s just fine. You saw the photos I sent to your e-mail. You’ve always been so modest when it comes to your looks. It’s like you viewed it as a liability…, like you were afraid it would cause people to discount your intellect.”

“OK, how about we not go there. But we do need to talk about what’s happening and…, about us.”

“Yeah…, I guess I’ve been avoiding it. I knew you had your hands full trying to absorb all the chaos that’s been going on around here. Besides that, I wasn’t exactly sure what our relationship might be like now. …and by now, I mean when we’re in our fifties.”

“I knew what you meant. How was our relationship in your world?”

“It was great! You’re beautiful and powerful and smart. I’m handsome and funny and smart. You laugh at my jokes. The sex is great! You only snore a little after you’ve had a coupla beers. You put up with me shaving only every other day.”

“No, I don’t. At least not anymore. Maybe your beard’s gotten coarser or something.”

“And we’re deeply in love.”

“Well, then I guess when you get to the bottom line, things really haven’t changed all that much.”

“Yeah, well our age difference always bothered me a little. I wanted to shag an older woman. If I ever get out of this mess, maybe I’ll get my wish.”

“Let’s just worry about the first part of that for now. Tyler, I’m scared. I know our intentions are good, but this is about as risky an endeavor as has ever been attempted in scientific history.”

“Or human history for that matter. But even if it looks like I’m getting better, which it does, we’ve still gotta act now before we have an exodus from Caffa that’s carrying both the plague and H2N2. If I’m right and every three hours here equates to a day in 14th century Caffa as measured in wormhole time, then five days here equates to forty days there. We just can’t afford to chance any additional delay.”

“Yeah, but I’m not just talking about the scientific risk or the risk to history. I’m scared I might be sending you to your own death. I can’t shake that feeling.”

“Hey…, I’m a big boy. I volunteered to go back. It’s the only course of action that makes sense. You’re not making me do anything I don’t already want to do. Mon, I can’t live with the thought that I’ve somehow killed four or five billion people. I save lives. If I couldn’t try to undo what I’ve done, then that would be something to be upset about. You’re giving me a chance to erase my name from the history books in a good way. If I die, then at least I die doing something noble rather than being known as the most colossal fuck-up in the history of the world…, yours or mine. I gotta do this, Monica.”

“I know…, I understand the issues. I just can’t completely set my personal feelings aside.”

“You don’t need to. I’m not. I’m hoping that in addition to correcting history, I can return and it’ll be 2018 again. You’ll be young and hot, and I’ll get the added benefit of knowing how smokin’ hot you’ll be twenty-five years later. It’s kinda like getting a sneak peak at your present before Christmas.”

“Can you be serious for just a minute?”

“No…, but I am being serious in a humorous kinda way.”

“Tyler, I don’t know what happens when you come back, and I truly am frightened…, but I hope to God you do come back…, regardless of what it means for us.”

“Monica, I love you. I’m in love with you. Nothing’s different now than it was five days ago in that department…, except I guess I’ll have to get used to the notion of shaving every day. Boy, that sucks.”

“You’re lucky I can’t get my hands on you through the video monitor.”

“Yeah, well you’re lucky, too. I just may be well enough to have my way with you.”

“OK, stop already. The Corporal’s gonna be back in a couple of minutes.”

“Yeah, well I just wanted to make sure you knew how I felt…, how I still feel.”

“Tyler, I love you, too. I need you to know that. I’ve never been good at saying it.”

“Yeah…, I’d say the ratio’s about five-to-one in my favor. But I do want to get serious for a minute. In case I don’t make it back…”

“I don’t like to hear you talk like that.”

“I’m a scientist. I can’t help but think about next steps regardless of the result of the current experiment. In this case, whether I make it back or not, if I was successful in changing anything in the past, then the now you’re living in will be different…, different than it is right now, and in all likelihood different than the now I was in with you a few days ago. I’m leaving all kinds of clues and instructions inside Station 28, so that regardless of whether I make it back or not, it should be easier for you and the team to figure out what happened. That way, there won’t be a need for such an elaborate dance to take place in order for all of you to be convinced what happened this time.”

“That makes sense. I guess with everything going on, I haven’t stopped to think about the possibility that none of us on this end could remember that we created a wormhole. Shit, that’s a real possibility though, isn’t it. Seven hours from now, I might not even be here anymore. Wow…, that’s a heavy concept to try to grasp.”

“You’ll be here, Monica…, as beautiful as ever. But even if I don’t make it back, I want you to be able to figure out what happened. And there’s one more thing. If I don’t make it back, regardless of what age you become or whether or not you even remember who I am, I want you to find love and happiness. You deserve that, Mon.”

“Stop it. I’m starting to cry.”

The Corporal walked back in the Communications Center door. Monica held up a finger, and the man stepped back outside into the hallway.

“If you come back and I’m not here, I want you to do the same.”

“Fuck that. If you’re not here, I’m going back in time again until I make sure you’re here when I get back to now.”

“That doesn’t sound exactly fair.”

“Too bad…, my time travel, my rules. Speaking of which…, I’ve got a ton of stuff to do before my wormhole leaves, so I probably need to get busy on this end.”

“Yeah, I guess I probably need to put my Director hat back on, too.”

“That’s it…, throw your title around on me. It’s a good thing I’m not threatened by a woman who makes more money than me.”

“Yeah…, well, be thankful I can put up with a boyfriend who leaves and is gone for centuries at a time.”

“Touche!”

“I love you, Tyler!”

“I love you back!”

They both reached their hands to their respective monitors for just a moment. It was as close to intimacy as the circumstances would permit. After a few moments, Monica called to the soldier waiting patiently in the hallway.

“OK, Corporal, it’s all yours.”

The serviceman walked back in the doorway. Monica handed him her headset and walked out the door. He put his headset back on.

“Hey, Tyler…”

“Yeah?”

“Good luck, man!”

“Thanks…, I’m pretty sure I could use all of it I can get.”

~~~~o~~~~

Pat’s team felt like they had recreated the exact environment that was in place during the original particle collision. Unfortunately, it was still nothing more than an educated guess, but at least this particular educated guess was being made by about as intelligent and highly educated a group of physicists as could be assembled. Pat was still uneasy and communicated his distress to Monica, Colonel James and the other team leaders during the pre-test briefing. Even Tyler broke away from his pre-wormhole to-do list to attend the briefing via video, although he was constantly popping in and out of view as he multi-tasked his way through the meeting. Given Tyler’s apparent improvement in health, the mood of the group was noticeably lighter, although there was still more than enough apprehension to go around.

Tyler expressed confidence in Pat’s team. The man with the most to lose if something were to go awry during the collision and subsequent twin waves of energy reasoned that Pat’s best guess was likely far more accurate than just about anyone else’s sure thing. Colonel James was most concerned about the physical and structural integrity of the facility. He was aware of the role of awesome power as the key ingredient in the effectiveness of most weapons. This group was about to attempt to recreate the most powerful burst of energy in history. Even a minor malfunction could trigger disastrous results. He chuckled to himself, realizing immediately that particular point had already been made in grand style during the previous particle collision.

Monica was attempting to fulfill the role of traffic cop, giving each team leader his or her time to address issues and concerns. Almost every scientist was egocentric enough to feel as though their particular portion of this team effort was somehow about the most important element in the attempt. She tried to be respectful of the egos in the room while keeping the meeting moving. Only Tyler and Jasmine seemed to feel no need to squawk about their respective roles. Jasmine’s efforts at documentation had been wrapped up earlier in the morning, as her team had worked through the night to create as complete a case for each history as possible. In fact, while everyone else was on pins and needles in anticipation of the looming collision, three of Jasmine’s team members were sleeping right now. Tyler’s mind was only partially engaged in the subject matter of the briefing. He was at least partially focused on his own activities inside 28 and was perhaps already mentally dealing with fourteenth century Caffa as well.

The meeting broke up with a green light decision. They were proceeding with the collision. It seemed ironic to virtually everyone that the collision itself had taken on a secondary level of importance. Less than a week ago, the collision was the crowning achievement of years of scientific research. Today, it was merely a means to an end. The collision was useful not for what they could all learn from it, but rather as a tool to create a wormhole. Even the wormhole was just a tool. Time travel was the ultimate end result they were all shooting for. That it had occurred only once, and that solitary event as a completely accidental byproduct of the earlier particle collision, wasn’t lost on anyone. But they were all just arrogant enough to believe they could duplicate their efforts. If asked individually, none of them would’ve bet on their success enough to care to gamble Tyler’s life on it, but collectively there was a tremendous and almost irrational sense of belief in their collective skill to pull this scientific miracle off.

The Colonel set in motion the notification of the regional electrical utility companies that they would once again be seeing a drain in power as part of a military exercise. That notification was critical. It allowed the utilities to draw power from other neighboring power grids to supplement their existing capacity. Without such notification, there was a risk of a power failure in PD’s power grid, a development which would doom the particle collision. Today, it might also pose a risk to Tyler’s life. The power ramp up was the first tangible signal to all of the facility’s personnel, scientific and military alike, that the particle collision was really going to happen. This outlandish idea was about to become as real as it was possible to get.

The usually outgoing and jovial Tyler was noticeably silent. He looked as though he had gained about fifty pounds in the video image being piped into the control room. He was loaded with medicines, MRE’s, water, historical documentation, two small video cameras, his cellphone, extra batteries and an array of additional medical equipment. Much of it was stuffed inside the largest Hazmat suit contained in the Station 28 Biohazard Lab’s decontamination closet. Considering that Tyler weighed all of about 150 pounds, it looked almost like he was wearing one of those inflatable sumo wrestler suits often seen being worn by fans during timeouts at professional sporting events. In addition, he had a backpack stuffed with a laptop, also with extra battery power, a flashlight and just about anything else he could think of that he could reasonably carry with him. He had laughed at his own attempt to come up with a packing list. How could anyone reasonably develop a packing list for a trip heading seven hundred years into the past? Ten minutes before the collision, Tyler had gotten up and disappeared from view of the station’s video camera. Everyone assumed he must need to make a final bathroom visit, but he returned to view thirty seconds later with two packs of chewing gum, which he proudly waved in front of the camera before offering a thumbs-up to indicate he was now ready to go. It was another quintessential Tyler moment, easing the nerves of everyone else involved.

He put his headset back on and spoke once more to everyone who could hear his voice.

“Shit…, almost forgot my gum. That woulda been a fuckin’ disaster. But being serious for just a moment…, thanks everyone for helping me try to fix this…, this mess. I’ll try not to let you down.”

Almost everyone was immediately choked up by the emotion they heard coming through their headsets. Pat was the only scientist who responded, but he summed up what everyone was thinking.

“Tyler, we’re proud of you, man. We know you’ll do your best, and that’s all any of us could ask. Safe journey, my friend!”