Time Bridge

Time Bridge Chapter 1

The lab was huge, like a factory with stark gray walls and ceiling, and white tiled flooring. Sprinkled everywhere were computers, machinery, storage tanks, and electrical equipment, with miles of wires and piping connecting everything together. Elevated walkways with dozens of men and women in lab coats were checking monitors and dials and tweaking controls. This was a very important day. This was the first real test of the Time Bridge device.

Thomas McAdams had a dream many years ago. He dreamt that a wormhole could be created that could create a bridge to another time. He spent the next five years working on the equations that could support his dream. Although his engineering position at MIT didn’t exactly allow him the freedom to work on his pet projects, he nonetheless would spend many late hours on this problem. Two years ago he finally approached his supervisor with his idea. After several discussions, to his surprise, he was granted the funds to embark on his dream. He requested two of his colleagues to work on this new and exciting project; Tao Chen, mathematician and Heidi Mueller, physicist.

Heidi was a buxom blonde German beauty. It’s no wonder that Thomas fell for her the day he first set eyes on her. He hadn’t noticed her come into the room when his boss came in to introduce her to him. When he turned around and their eyes met, mentally he said “wow!”. At least he hoped he didn’t say that out loud. She was wearing a tight skirt and blouse and her hair was long and flowing over her shoulders. She had gorgeous blue eyes that seemed to twinkle mischievously.

Thomas had always been shy and had made no indication to Heidi of how he felt about her. After all, they worked very closely together. But Heidi suspected. It was Heidi who made the first move. Just an innocent date for lunch in the park, to get acquainted with her new co-worker. Things just took off from there. Within a couple of months, they were nearly inseparable.

Heidi was thrilled to be working at her dream job. After all those years of schooling, she was finally putting her extensive knowledge of physics to good use. The pay was rewarding too. Now she would be able to pay off all her student loans. “Granddad would be proud,” she thought.

Heidi loved her grandfather. He had been through so much at a young age. Jodl Mueller was 19 years old in 1942 and was an aide to Colonel Kessel of the German Wermacht, the Nazi High Command in Berlin. Jodl, like many his age in Germany, was led to believe he was a superman and that he and his people were destined to rule the world. He knew nothing of the brutalities going on during the war. He had heard the rumors but gave them no heed. “Just the ramblings of kooks” he would often say.

Jodl often told Heidi about the time he met the infamous Adolf Hitler. The Colonel had been invited to the Eagle’s Nest, Hitler’s secluded retreat in the Bavarian Alps, overlooking a beautiful alpine village. Jodl was the Colonel’s favorite boy, so he thought the young lad would enjoy meeting the Fuhrer. Jodl remembered Hitler as being a doting family man. He played with some small children, petted his dog and acted very lovingly towards Eva, his girlfriend. Not exactly the fearful leader that his reputation painted. Jodl had an immensely great time at the retreat and from then on was totally committed to the cause of Hitler and the Third Reich.

At the end of the war, Jodl was intensely interrogated by the Allies to determine if he should be tried for war crimes. Fortunately he was simply a clerk and gave no orders to justify any further action. But that didn’t stop the Allies from publicly condemning him and all the other “monsters” of the Third Reich.

When Jodl was released, he had no home to return to. It was completely destroyed by Allied bombs. Inside were his parents and younger brother. It would be several years before Jodl could get back on his feet, journey to America, fall in love and start a family. He simply adored his granddaughter Heidi and would spend countless hours playing with her and telling her stories about the great war in Europe and of his profound loss of his family.

Thomas remembered the first meeting with Tao and Heidi to discuss the theories of time travel.

“Well, according to Einstein,” said Tao, “time travel should be possible. One way to attain it is to travel at speeds approaching the speed of light. Experiments involving watches were conducted years ago. Two identical watches were used. One was on the ground, the other on a very fast jet. After several hours, the jet landed and they compared watches. The watch on the jet had slowed down by a small amount. This experiment showed that time is not a fixed, linear measurement.”

“Yes, but traveling at near light speed is virtually impossible,” offered Heidi. “Mass approaches infinity, so no one would survive the trip.”

“My theory,” countered Thomas, “involves wormholes. Einstein also thought that time and space could be folded like a sheet of paper. Two great distances could then be laid close to each other. The trick is to bend space/time and open a corridor of travel to bridge the two points.”

“Wormholes could be a possibility,” said Heidi. “But whether anyone or anything could travel safely through one is anybody’s guess. But to create a wormhole in a lab is pure science fiction. Even if a wormhole could be generated, how could you control it to a point where you could actually dial in a specific point in time to journey to?”

“Well,” replied Thomas, “that’s what we’re here for. I think I have some rudimentary formulas that can put us in the ballpark. I’m hoping that you and Tao will refine my work and make it a success.”

“This will be the most fun I’ve had in years,” Tao said. “And we’re getting paid too! Have you given any thought about what you want to achieve if we can travel through time?”

“I’m sure we each could list a dozen historical events we’d like to personally witness,” said Thomas. “The JFK assassination is at the top of mine. I’ve always believed that Oswald was a patsy and there was a gunman on the grassy knoll. If we could go back and witness that day in Dallas we’d know what really happened.”

“But would you change it?” Heidi asked.

“Changing history would open a Pandora’s Box,” countered Thomas. “I wouldn’t be foolish enough to even entertain the thought. I’m sure the result would be disastrous.”

“The Butterfly Effect,” said Tao matter of factly. “Even the most insignificant change can have the most dramatic effect. What about the time travel paradoxes? I’ve always been intrigued by these. If you go back and kill your parents, how would that affect you when you returned to the future?”

“I’ve given some thought to that,” replied Thomas. “Not that I plan on doing anything radical like that. But it’s fascinating to think about. If you go back and kill your parents, you never get born. But in the original timeline you were born and went back in time. I see two possibilities; one that you open an alternate timeline. You could think of time like branches on a tree. If you go back and change something, or possibly just the act of going back and doing nothing, you create a new time branch, a parallel dimension, if you will. In that reality, you wouldn’t need to be born. The other possibility, and the one I subscribe to, is that if you open a gateway in time and that gateway remains open, you could travel back, affect a change and return to your current time. Since the gateway remained open during your travel, any change you made back in time should become part of your new history. So even if you kill your parents, you still would exist when you returned to your current time.”

“It boggles the mind,” said Tao.

“But it is fascinating!” replied Heidi.

Thomas’s theories were soon put to task. Ample funding was granted, which allowed them to start construction on a remote South Pacific island that already had the needed power station in place. It would take an enormous amount of energy to generate a wormhole, if it was even possible. It was also possible that instead of generating a wormhole, they would instead blow the entire island to smithereens.

And so began the construction of the Time Bridge.

“Everything is in place,” said Thomas into the video camera. “The target is this island, two years ago to the day, before we started construction of Time Bridge. If successful, we will journey back to observe the past and to prove that the theory of time travel is possible.”

Thomas and his team started up the machinery. Within minutes there was an almost deafening roar of spinning turbines, generating the needed power to open a wormhole. When power was at the predetermined level, Thomas threw the switches that opened the wormhole and crossed his fingers. His and everyone’s life was on the line. At first nothing happened. Then within moments a turbulent wind engulfed the lab. A portal started to appear like a rip in the universe. It was sucking anything not secured down into itself. Thomas operated his little radio controlled car and drove it right into the portal.

The RC car had a small video camera attached to it that would hopefully transmit or at least record images on the other side of the wormhole. So far the monitor in the lab was still receiving images of a journey through a violent vortex. No one was sure how long this journey would last. After a few minutes went by, the image settled on a view of the power station on the island. Thomas worked the controls to pan the car around for a 360 view of the island. Only the power station was there! No lab building! The rest of the island was deserted. That could only mean that the Time Bridge was successful and they actually journeyed back two years into the past!

Thomas directed the car back through the portal and closed down the wormhole. Everyone just looked at each other with their mouths agape. “Oh my God. We did it!”

Time Bridge Chapter 2

Thomas climbed into bed with the printouts from the Time Bridge test from the previous week. Everyone on the island lived in these very plain barracks-like buildings. They each had a living room, bedroom and bath. At least each building had a small yard. Most people had BBQ grills, hammocks and lawn chairs. Many tried to spruce things up by trying to grow the natural flora on the island. It’s tough though. It’s not like you can run down to the Home Depot and stock up on yard and garden items. There were no stores on the island. Just the power plant, the lab, a community building that had billiards and ping pong tables, and the individual houses where the 200 plus workers lived. There weren’t even any cars on the island. There were a few dozen golf carts and some bulldozers that got left behind, in addition to a few utility trucks. It had been two years since Thomas had driven a car. He used to like driving.

Thomas was going over the figures from the test to verify that he fully understood the relationship between the power levels and the amount of time that was bridged. The more power used, the further back in time you could journey. But he needed to be more precise. He wanted to be able to pinpoint a date he could travel back to. If he wanted to witness a historic event in the past, he would need to arrive at that exact time and place. What makes time travel so difficult is that it’s not just time you’re traveling through; it’s also space. Since the Earth is constantly moving, you have to anticipate exactly where your location will be when you move through time. A wrong calculation and you end up in deep space, solid rock, or 500 feet in the air. That’s why it’s wise to send a camera through first. The next step would be to send an animal through to see if live tissue can survive the journey. If successful, then a human team would step through.

“One thing we need to verify,” yelled Thomas to Heidi, still in the bathroom, “is that the presence of the wormhole doesn’t affect our timeline. I’m thinking we should go online and scour the news feeds to see if anything strange shows up.”

“What would happen,” asked Heidi from the bathroom, “if a team went back in time and the wormhole collapsed? They’d be stuck back there. Another team would have to open a new wormhole and rescue them.”

“But that would mean that the first team would have to stay put for as long as they can. If they moved, the rescue team would never find them. I think we’ll need to set up some protocols to follow when we actually send a team through.”

Heidi emerged from the bathroom with just a towel wrapped around her. Thomas didn’t even notice her until she took off the towel and draped it over his head. Thomas removed it and took in Heidi’s figure. “You’re so beautiful Heidi. And I am such a lucky man.”

“Well Buster, you better give me some attention or I’ll go elsewhere.”

Without any hesitation, Thomas threw his papers from the bed and sat up on the edge, next to Heidi, standing there in all her glory. As he planted his face between her soft, luscious breasts, he firmly caressed her round butt with both hands.

When their lovemaking was over, Heidi made conversation. “I know you’d like to journey back to Dallas to witness the JFK assassination. What makes you think that Oswald wasn’t the lone gunman?”

“There are so many discrepancies surrounding the events that cast a serious doubt on the official findings.”

“Like what?” asked Heidi, displaying a real interest.

“OK, there were three shots fired that day, according to all the evidence and eye witness testimony.”

“Yes…” replied Heidi, yearning for more explanation.

“The first shot missed the limousine and struck the curb. The FBI removed the piece of curbing as evidence.”

“OK.”

“The second and third shots were caught on film. Abraham Zapruder was filming that day on a raised platform with an 8mm camera.”

“I’ve seen this film on TV a few times. How does it show a conspiracy?”

“Kennedy is clearly reacting to the second shot. His arms come up and his body moves forward. Texas Governor Connally, who is sitting in front of JFK, is seen first looking over his left shoulder to see what’s happening. Next, Connally turns right to look over his right shoulder, and is then seen reacting to a shot and slumps over on his seat. Another shot hits JFK in the head and his body is thrown violently left, towards Jackie.”

“Yes, I remember it that way too. So what’s the problem?” quizzed Heidi.

“Since there were only three shots, supposedly all fired from the Texas Book Depository building, and the first and third account for a miss and the fatal head shot, then that means that the second shot that struck Kennedy also had to have hit Connally as well. And the bullet that hit Connally first went through Kennedy’s back, exited his throat, hit Connally in the back, exited his body, then cut through his wrist and landed in his leg. This bullet was found on Connally’s stretcher when he was admitted to the hospital. And this bullet had almost no damage to it. You’ve seen enough TV forensic shows to know that bullets get flattened when they pass through something, especially when they break through numerous bones. This is why they call it the ‘Magic Bullet’. A young jerk named Arlen Specter came up with the theory that one bullet had to have caused all that damage because the evidence showed only three shots fired. Yet Connally himself stated from his hospital bed that he was struck by a different bullet than Kennedy because he turned around to see Kennedy shot and turned back around before he felt the impact of the bullet that struck him. If you read the notes that the doctor at the hospital made when trying to save Kennedy, it shows that he thought that the neck wound was an entrance wound, not an exit. He performed a tracheotomy on Kennedy on this entrance wound, which caused it to become larger, which confused the autopsy doctors into believing that it was an exit wound. That means the shot came from the front, not the back, and in addition to the bullet that entered Kennedy’s back, fired from the Book Depository building! When the head shot was fired, archival footage shows people pointing up to the grassy knoll as if to say, ‘that’s where the shot came from’. A few people are even seen running in that direction. One eye witness stated that he had just completed military training and clearly heard the shot come from behind him, from the picket fence above the grassy knoll. A minute after the shooting, a policeman entered the Book Depository building and began searching for the gunman. He found Lee Harvey Oswald in the lunch room on the second floor, drinking a soda from the vending machine. Someone from the building identified Oswald as an employee, so the policeman continued up the building. Later the policeman stated that Oswald did not appear to be out of breath or agitated. There’s been a lot of speculation as to whether Oswald could have fired the shots, run down to the second floor and nonchalantly drink a soda. The rifle found was a very cheaply made Italian rifle that had a bad sight. Whether someone could have aimed and fired that rifle and made all three shots in six seconds is also up for conjecture. And since Kennedy was thrown back and left, and not forward, it’s logical to assume that the shot came from the front right, not from behind him. Usually a bullet affects an object the same way a thrown baseball would. If I threw a baseball from behind you and hit your head, your head would lurch forward from the impact. Not to the left and back. But if I threw the ball from your front right, your head would react just the way that Kennedy’s did. And no one ever mentions the possibility that other gunmen could have used silencers on their rifles. Only three shots are accepted. So you see, there just are too many unanswered questions.”

“Then Jack Ruby shot Oswald.”

“Exactly. Oswald stated to the press that he hadn’t been told what he was charged for and that he was a patsy. People doing research into the assassination think he was set up to take the fall. If I could go back, I’d go behind the picket fence and see for myself if there was a gunman there.”

“I see. But even if there was another shooter, what difference would it make? Kennedy would still be dead.”

“Yes, but it proves there was a cover up. Was it covered up just to spare the American public the anguish of their beloved president being killed or was there a more sinister motive? Was there a coup in this country? Kennedy was starting to remove the advisors he had sent to Viet Nam. Johnson is sworn in and almost immediately escalates the war. Or was this just a coincidence? Some researchers believe that organized crime was behind the assassination. Supposedly the mob helped Kennedy get elected, then Bobby Kennedy, the Attorney General, started to stamp out organized crime. This pissed off the wrong people. There’s also the theory that the CIA was about to be broken up by Kennedy, because they had planned the invasion of Cuba before he took office. Against his better judgement, JFK went along with it. Then, as the invasion started, Jack and Bobby changed their minds and gave orders to stand down. This caused the Bay of Pigs fiasco where several CIA operatives lost their lives. And doesn’t it sound a little fishy that the FBI had already determined that Oswald killed JFK before he was even apprehended? Where was the evidence? The FBI needed to quickly resolve this mess and put the blame on a ‘lone nut’. Then along comes Jack Ruby, a night club owner with ties to the mob, and he kills Oswald. Nice and neat.”

“And Ruby said he killed Oswald to spare Jackie the ordeal of a public trial.”

“Nice and neat.”

“Well Thomas, I sincerely hope you get a chance to witness this event and uncover the truth.”

“Me too.”

Thomas, Tao and Heidi met for lunch in the conference room in the lab building. One section of the lab had a pretty good cafeteria that offered several hot food choices, along with salads, soups and sandwiches.

“I think I have a pretty good handle on the power needs in relation to how far back we travel in time,” opened Thomas. “Our next step will be to send a living creature through, probably a dog or something. I’ll see what’s available to us.”

“I don’t think anyone’s gonna offer up their pet to us,” replied Tao. “Why don’t we round up some of the geckos that are everywhere on this island and send them through? At least we’ll know if living tissue can make the journey.”

“Great idea Tao,” said Thomas. “You wanna have one of your assistants do that? I’ll have to see how much power we have to work with. That will be our greatest limitation. We used 40 percent power to go back two years in our test. We’re gonna need a lot more power to journey farther back.”

“Why not go forward?” asked Tao. “So far we’ve only talked about going back. Maybe we should go forward to see what the future holds.”

“I just had a scary thought,” said Heidi, her blue eyes opened wide. “What if we go two years into the future, meet our future selves, then have them come back to our present to work out all the details they’ve already worked out? We could save ourselves a lot of time.”

“What, and keep leap frogging with ourselves?!” asked Tao. “Why don’t we just go forward in time and use their Time Bridge? Our future selves wouldn’t need to come back to work for us.”

“This discussion is getting way too freaky!” said Thomas. “My head is ready to explode.”

“You were just telling me that we should have a rescue team on hand in case we get into some kind of trouble and get stuck in the past,” said Heidi to Thomas. “What better rescue team than our future selves? Instead of going back in time, we go forward, meet with ourselves, then use their Time Bridge to go back in time. They probably have already resolved the power issues. If something unforeseen shuts down the wormhole, our future selves could fix the problem and reopen it and rescue us. Then we travel back to our current time. Looks like we can go at least four years ahead. They should have everything figured out for us.”

“I may be crazy,” replied Thomas, “but that actually makes sense. What do you think, Tao?”

Tao erupted in laughter. “You know we’re all gonna end up in a padded cell.”

Thomas and Heidi joined Tao in hysterical laughter.

Time Bridge Chapter 3

Thomas readied the video camera. “Time Bridge test two. Target is this island, four years in the future. We are sending live geckos to see if living tissue can survive the journey.”

Just as in their first test, the machinery started up with a deafening roar and a wormhole appeared. This time, the RC car had a little wagon attached to it. Inside the wagon was a small cage containing six geckos. On top of the cage were several sensors that would record the pressures, temperatures and wind velocities of the vortex.

All the monitoring devices were operating, so Thomas directed the RC car into the vortex. The geckos were clearly distressed by the wormhole effect. Once through, Thomas spun the car around for a 360 view. This time there was nothing to see. They chose a remote location on the island to bridge to, so as not to alarm anyone. Thomas brought the car back and shut down Time Bridge.

A group of techs in lab coats collected the geckos and went off to run tests. “Well, they’re still alive,” said Tao with a sigh of relief.

“Let’s check the sensors to see what kinds of forces we’re dealing with,” said Thomas. “We’ll all meet in the conference room tomorrow morning and go over the figures.”

The next morning, Thomas, Heidi, Tao and the animal techs met. “The geckos are unharmed,” said one of the techs.

“And the sensors indicate conditions akin to a hurricane force,” said Tao. “Nothing lethal. Probably not very comfortable, though.”

“I think we’re ready to send a team through!” announced Heidi, unable to restrain her excitement.

“Woh,” replied Thomas. “We’ll need a lot more testing before we’re certain that it’s safe to survive a trip through the vortex.”

“But all the sensors say it’s safe,” pleaded Heidi. “What more testing do we need?”

“Let’s just slow down and take it one step at a time,” Thomas said with a stern voice.

“You’re the boss,” replied Heidi. She knew him well enough to know that there was no arguing with him.

“Well, when it’s safe for us to go through,” offered Tao, “I don’t think the three of us should all go together. If anything should go wrong and we meet an untimely end, the whole project’s dead.”

“Not to mention the three of us,” added Heidi. “Only one of us should go. We should draw straws to decide.”

“We could send someone else through,” said Thomas, “other than the three of us, to protect the brain trust.”

“Could you live with the knowledge that you sent someone to their death?” asked Tao.

“I’d be happy to be the first one through,” said Thomas.

“You’re the main brain behind Time Bridge,” said Heidi. “For that reason, it can’t be you!”

“Alright,” conceded Thomas. “Let’s draw straws.”

“Only two straws,” said Tao. “One for me and one for Heidi.”

Thomas shot a glance at Heidi. Tao was right. How could he live with himself if his device killed her?

Thomas woke up the next morning, still thinking about yesterday’s conversation about who should be the first to go through Time Bridge. After all, it will be a historic event. As Thomas focused his eyes around the room, he noticed that Heidi was not in bed. “Heidi?”

Heidi had gotten up early that morning. All she could think of was walking through the vortex. “Thomas will be furious,” she thought to herself, “but I have to show him that’s it’s safe. I just know it is.” Heidi sneaked out of bed, being careful not to awaken Thomas. She quickly dressed and went over to the lab to start up Time Bridge. It took some doing to check all the monitors herself, but the machinery started up and the vortex opened.

Heidi’s heart was pounding through her chest. Even though she believed it was perfectly safe to step through the Time Bridge, there was still the unknown facing her. She mustered up all her courage and stepped into the spinning vortex. Her hair started blowing violently about her face. It was hard to see anything. She kept walking forward. It was like a tunnel inside with walls of wind swirling around her. It was hard to keep her balance, but she took another step forward. It was now getting hard to breathe. Heidi realized they didn’t measure how much oxygen was available in the vortex. Would she make it through to the other side? One more step. She could see an opening now through the tunnel. She was gasping for breath now. Another step. She started to collapse under the strain of the power of the vortex. She made another step but lost her balance and fell forward.

Thomas had gotten dressed and headed over to the lab. He could hear the machinery running. He started to run as fast as he could and entered the lab. There was the open vortex. He looked around for Heidi. No one was there. He looked at the readings and saw that the vortex was set to four years into the future. “Heidi?!” screamed Thomas into the vortex.

There was a loud noise coming from one of the spinning turbines. A red light warning indicator started to flash. The turbine was starting to shut down. As it started to slow, the vortex began to collapse. Within a minute, the vortex was gone and all of the machinery powered down. Thomas frantically tried to restore the vortex, but it was hopeless. He ran over to the phone and rang up Tao’s house. “Tao, come over to the lab! We have a problem.”

Heidi picked herself up from the hot sand. She looked behind her, expecting to see the vortex and her way home, but there was nothing but sand. A cold chill ran down her spine, despite the heat from the tropical sun. She had used the same location they sent the geckos to, so she could make this journey in secret. Her plan was to prove that it was safe, then step back through the vortex. Now that her way back was gone, she sank to her knees and thought about what she should do next. “I’m four years in the future,” she thought to herself. “Why haven’t they reopened the vortex to rescue me? What could have gone wrong? Surely they figured out where I went. They’ve had four years! Heidi – you’ve really done it this time!”

Heidi started walking towards the part of the island where the lab should be. “I’ll just use their Time Bridge and go back four years,” she thought to herself. On the way she went over what she would say when she met her counterparts. “I’ll just introduce myself, explain that I’m stuck in the future and need to use their Time Bridge to return to my own time." Thirty minutes later, the lab came into view. “It looks pretty much the same.” As she continued to walk, she noticed there were three power stations. “So that’s how they resolved the power problems.”

Activity on the island didn’t seem any different than it did four years ago. It was mostly deserted. Everyone was inside, working. As Heidi came to the lab door, she hesitated for a moment. “Oh boy, here we go.” Heidi opened the door and walked in.

“Heidi!” yelled Thomas, “What the hell have you done?!”

“I…” stammered Heidi.

Thomas ran over to Heidi and forcefully grabbed her arm.

“You’re hurting me!” cried Heidi.

“Shut up!” growled Thomas.

Now Heidi wasn’t sure what was going on. “Did I go forward in time?” she asked herself. “Maybe I didn’t. Maybe it didn’t work. Wait – I saw three power stations! I am in the future!”

Thomas lead Heidi into the conference room and physically planted her in a chair. “We checked the history. Did you think you’d get away with it?”

“All I did was,” began Heidi, still in a daze.

“All you did was change history! How could you be so foolish? If this place had a cell, I’d lock you up in it!”

“How did me traveling four years into the future change history?”

“Why are you playing games with me? We know you went back to 1939 Germany. We’ve seen the video archives taken back then. Heidi Mueller, advisor to Adolph Hitler. Do you realize what you’ve done?” Thomas was so upset he could hardly contain himself. Not only had Heidi corrupted the timeline, but also violated his trust.

“Wait a minute,” pleaded Heidi. “I just came through from 2012. It was our first human test of the Time Bridge. I’m not your Heidi! I’m the Heidi from four years ago!” Heidi paused to let this idea sink in. Thomas gave her a puzzled look. “Tell me exactly what your Heidi has done.”

Time Bridge Chapter 4

The day before Heidi appeared four years in the future, Thomas had a disturbing meeting with the suits in charge of the Time Bridge project.

“How did your meeting go today?” Heidi asked Thomas. “Did it have anything to do with our four year anniversary of operating Time Bridge?”

“Not exactly,” replied Thomas. Thomas and Heidi had met for dinner in the cafeteria. They hadn’t seen each other since lunch. “I met a five star general and some other guy from the government. I learned where our funding has been coming from.”

“Our funding?”

“Yes, it seems that the good ol’ U.S. Government has been providing us the money for the last six years.”

“But I thought MIT was backing the project?”

“Yeah, so did I.”

“I’m getting a bad vibe from this…”

“You guessed it. They want to turn Time Bridge into some sort of weapon.”

“What?!”

“They plan to redo certain events in our history so that the outcome puts us in a better position.”

“No! They can’t do that!”

“Apparently they can. I argued about the repercussions of meddling with history. Till now we’ve only gone back to observe. Guess that’s not good enough. They assured me they would proceed cautiously, but I’m totally against this and need to decide what I’m gonna do about it.”

“They might take you off the project if you put your foot down.”

“That’s why I’m pretending to go along with them. We have to tread carefully here. From what I can gather, they plan on sending their own teams back. Probably soldiers to tweak some events in their favor."

“This is not good.”

“I know. We need to continue to be a part of this project. If they completely take over Time Bridge and banish us from the island, there’ll be no one to stop them.”

“Or even know what they’ve done.”

“Exactly.”

Heidi and Thomas both fell silent and picked at their food.

Heidi didn’t sleep much that night. She kept going over and over in her head all the harm the government was about to enact with Time Bridge. There had to be a way to stop them and prevent them from ever attempting such actions in the future. Maybe if she were to show them the results of meddling with history?

In the morning, Heidi sneaked out of bed without waking Thomas. She left him a note about going for an early morning jog on the beach. She had done this before, so it shouldn’t arouse too much suspicion. Heidi instead went to the lab before anyone had come in. She got on one of the laptops and started downloading videos about World War Two, especially anything describing Germany’s mistakes. When she was done, she calculated the coordinates to send her to Germany in 1939, just as Hitler was building his empire. Heidi was still grieving over the loss of her grandfather. He had passed away three months ago from cancer. Maybe she’d be able to meet him when he was a teenager.

Heidi programmed Time Bridge for the Eagle’s Nest, Hitler’s Bavarian retreat that her grandfather told her stories of so many times. It was secluded, so it would make a good location. She set it up to automatically shut down after she stepped through. Doubt started to enter her mind, but she’d come too far now to stop. She was doing this for the better good, she thought as she started up the vortex and stepped through with the laptop. In a few minutes the wormhole closed and the machines went silent. This was a one way trip.

Heidi emerged from the vortex onto a large patio on top of a mountain with a spectacular view. Out in the distance were snow covered mountains of the Alps. “What an amazing view,” she thought to herself, not noticing the five soldiers running towards her. When she came to her senses, she saw that she was surrounded by five Nazi soldiers pointing machine guns at her.

“My name is Heidi Mueller,” said Heidi in German, “and I have something that the Fuhrer will want to see.” Heidi hoped the German that her grandfather taught her would be adequate enough to make her point with the soldiers. Her heart was racing. She had to follow her plan now, as there was no way back.

Heidi was lead indoors to a small room with a small table, a couple of chairs and a couch. Three of the guards stayed with her, still pointing their weapons at her. She could make out from the muffled voices outside the room that Hitler was not at Eagle’s Nest.

After about thirty minutes had gone by, the door opened and a gray haired uniformed man entered the room and quietly sat down at the table opposite Heidi. “I am Captain Reinhardt,” he said. “Who are you and how did you get here?”

“My name is Heidi Mueller,” said Heidi in her best German. “You may not believe how I got here. Do you speak English?”

“Yes, I speak English. You’re not British,” stated the Captain in very good British English.

“I’m from America. I have something of great importance to show Adolf Hitler.”

The Captain looked at the laptop on the table. “If that’s a bomb, the Fuhrer is not here.”

“It’s not a bomb. It’s a computer.”

“A computer? What does it do?”

“Among other things, it displays movies. I came from the future; 2016 to be exact. My movies will show how Germany lost the war, and I can offer advice on how to win it.”

The Captain’s left eyebrow raised. He then barked something to the soldiers that Heidi was unable to translate. One of the soldiers responded, but seemed unsure of what he was saying.

“The Sergeant here,” stated the Captain, “says that a swirling tunnel of wind appeared on the patio and you stepped through it.”

“Yes, that’s the vortex that carried me from 2016 back to 1939. This is 1939, isn’t it?”

“This is 1939. What is this word, vortex?”

“A vortex created a doorway between my time and yours. I’m a scientist from the future here to warn you about all the mistakes Germany will make in the next six years. I have movies on that device that historians made after Germany and Japan were defeated in 1945.”

“I see.” The Captain took this incredible story in stride and showed no emotion on his stern face. “May I see the movies?”

Heidi opened the laptop. When she did, the guards all took a step towards her with their machine guns aimed directly at her. The laptop booted and Heidi started up one of the videos. The Captain looked intrigued by the clarity of the image. One after another, he watched and listened to the videos. Then he stood up and left the room. Heidi waited a few minutes for him to return. When he didn’t, she turned off the laptop to save the battery.

Within the hour, a soldier came into the room and motioned for Heidi to follow him. She was led to a medium sized room containing a small single bed, table and couch, with a connecting bathroom. The soldier left Heidi in the room, exited and locked the door.

Four days went by before Heidi was let out of the room. They had provided her with ample food and clothing, but nothing to idle away the time. Then another soldier entered the room and led Heidi into a large room with a long table with a dozen chairs. There was a large fireplace behind the table with a nice fire burning. “This must be the room that Grandfather told me about,” thought Heidi. She was seated at the end of the table farthest away from the fireplace. There were eight guards around the room with machine guns. These guards were different than the others. These had black uniforms with the SS emblem on their collars. Suddenly Heidi’s pulse increased. Maybe she would be meeting the Fuhrer himself today?

Within a few minutes, more soldiers entered the room. Some sat at the table while others stood around the room. Then in came Captain Reinhardt with Adolf Hitler! Heidi immediately rose to her feet, along with everyone seated at the table. Hitler saw her rise and nodded to her. Heidi’s heart was pounding now. Hitler sat across from her at the table as the rest of the standing soldiers and Heidi took their seats.

Captain Reinhardt started speaking in German. Heidi could make out most of it. Something about who she was, where she was from and what the strange flat object on the table was.

“Heidi,” said the Captain, now speaking in English, “I will translate for the Fuhrer.”

Heidi nodded. She had a lump in her throat.

“How did you travel from 2016 back to 1939?”

“In 2016, my team of scientists used a device we call Time Bridge, which allows us to open a wormhole.” The Captain translated her words into German. “This wormhole allows us to bend space and time and journey to specific points in time.” Again the Captain translated. “I came back to warn you that you will make certain mistakes that will cause you to lose the war in 1945.” After the Captain translated this sentence, several people at the table let out a small gasp. Hitler frowned and looked like he wasn’t believing a word.

“Please show the Fuhrer your movies,” directed the Captain.

Heidi opened the laptop and started playing the videos. Everyone at the table was intently studying the images and sound on the little screen. When directed from Captain Reinhardt, Heidi would pause the videos so that the Captain could translate the narrative. Everyone was glued to Heidi and her laptop for hours. During this time, they learned that they could not defeat Great Britain or Russia, and when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and America entered the war, it was only a matter of time before Japan and Germany were defeated. They also learned about Germany's use of the first jets, rocket planes and the V2 missles.

“How can we make use of this information?” asked the Captain, first in German, then in English.

“My advice,” replied Heidi, “is not to attack England or Russia, convince Japan not to attack Pearl Harbor and stop the gassing of civilians in your concentration camps.”

“Gassing of civilians?” asked the Captain.

“Yes. Your concentration camps killed twelve million civilians. Half were Jews. History was not kind to Adolf Hitler.”

There was mumbling around the room once the Captain did the translation. Heidi looked at Hitler. He no longer looked angry. Just amazed. “The Third Reich could last a thousand years if you follow my advice. If not, in 1945 all of you at this table will either be dead or in prison.” Now a lot louder rumbling after the translation.

Hitler stood, said something very sternly, then left the room with several of the men seated next to him.

“The Fuhrer would like me to work out some of the details with you,” said the Captain to Heidi. Heidi nodded.

And so began the collaboration between Heidi Mueller and Adolf Hitler. In the next two years, the Me 262 jet plane and the Me 163 rocket plane were developed by the Messerschmitt company, well ahead of the time that Heidi’s videos suggested. And because Hitler convinced the Japanese Emperor not to attack Pearl Harbor, America never officially entered the war. The Japanese conquered the Pacific and Germany controlled continental Europe. Both empires prospered without much opposition. In this timeline, there were no oil or raw material shortages for the Axis powers. Germany perfected their jet and rocket planes and mass produced both in staggering numbers. Their V2 missiles would soon reach other continents and they were starting development of the atomic bomb.

Hitler wanted Heidi to lead a team to develop their own Time Bridge, but Heidi explained that they still didn’t have the technology to make the device. They needed transistors and super computers, but they didn’t yet exist and she didn’t know how to create them.

Over the next ten years Heidi became Hitler’s most trusted advisor. She continued to reside at Eagle’s Nest and was quite content. She often wondered how the seeds she planted here would affect the future life she once knew. Since it was now 1954 and Japan and Germany were still the only super powers on Earth, her plan to change the course of history was a success. Five years ago, Great Britain and Russia were easily defeated. North and South America capitulated under the threat of atomic missiles raining down on them. The Third Reich would indeed last a thousand years.

The only thought that haunted Heidi was that since Jodl Mueller never went to America to start a family, her future parents would be different than the ones she knew. Since America was no longer free, would there ever be a Time Bridge in the future?

Once there were no more countries to conquer, Heidi outlived her usefulness. Hitler had reverted to his evil ways and started a worldwide campaign of ethnic cleansing. Heidi was imprisoned and died after a sadistic guard’s brutal attack. A war between Japan and Germany was inevitable. Both empires sustained considerable losses, but Germany emerged victorious. Hitler was eventually assassinated by Jodl Mueller, who had risen from a lowly clerk to a trusted member of Hitler’s cabinet, and took up the reigns of the Third Reich. This pattern of treachery and murder continued as Germany ruled over the Earth.

Time Bridge Chapter 5

Back in 2016, Thomas explained to the Heidi from the past what his Heidi did. These events were discovered online. Thomas always believed that his island was immune to changes in the timeline. He and the rest of the inhabitants on the island knew their own history. That couldn’t be suddenly changed. And they knew Heidi. Once she disappeared and he found the world news feeds had a different content than he remembered, it was simple to track down the event that started the alternate history. He may have also understood why she did it. But now he needed to undo this history and return it to the way it should be, and to prevent anything like this from happening again. And especially stop the government from future meddlings in history.

Thomas, Heidi and Tao met in the conference room. Tao was updated on the situation. The three would now put their heads together and devise a plan.

“Well, we can go back a few days and simply stop Heidi from using Time Bridge,” said Tao.

“But if she’s convinced that her actions will prevent the government teams from misusing Time Bridge,” replied Thomas, “I’m afraid she’ll just try again. She’s accomplished what she set out to do. Any minute now the suits will discover what she’s done and will want to take action against her. We need to resolve this ourselves and do it now.”

“What do you think we should do?” asked Heidi.

“Heidi,” started Thomas, “our Heidi is your future self. Do you have any idea why you would want to go to Germany?”

“Well, my grandfather was a soldier in Berlin during the war. He once went to the Eagle’s Nest and met Adolf Hitler. His parents and brother were killed during the Allied bombing.”

Thomas also knew that Heidi’s grandfather had succumbed to cancer a few months ago. That’s what must have driven her over the edge. She was very despondent ever since the funeral. Thomas decided not to share this information with Heidi. “I’m not sure what the rules are concerning time travel and altering the past. I never thought we’d ever be in this situation. I’m not so sure that simply going back to stop Heidi from using Time Bridge will prevent the history that she changed.”

“We could go back to 1939,” said Tao, “and bring Heidi back before she gets a chance to change anything.”

“We have the coordinates she used,” said Thomas. “We could do that.”

“But we don’t know exactly what happened when she went back,” replied Heidi. “What if we go back and something goes wrong? There’s a lot of unknowns.”

“I’m thinking we just open the Bridge a few minutes after Heidi opened hers,” said Thomas. “Then we grab her and pull her back through with us.”

“It’s as good a plan as any,” replied Tao. “But just one of us should go back. For obvious reasons, it shouldn’t be you, Heidi. It should be Thomas or myself.”

They each looked at one another and thought through the scenario. “Agreed,” they all stated.

Thomas, Heidi and Tao went to the lab and started up Time Bridge.

“Tao,” said Thomas, “you should be the one to get Heidi. I’m afraid if I go, she may not come willingly.”

“I’ll get her through if I have to knock her out and carry her.”

“And that’s why you’re the right person. I don’t think I could do that.”

The vortex opened and Tao stepped through. When he reached the other side, he saw Heidi standing there, looking out at the vista from the patio. She didn’t notice the vortex behind her. Tao stepped towards her and grabbed her forcefully. The guards commanded them to halt, but Tao dragged Heidi back to the open vortex. The guards opened fire and sprayed their entire clips of machine gun bullets into the swirling tunnel of wind.

Back at the lab, Thomas and Heidi awaited the return of Tao and Heidi. Suddenly, Tao and Heidi stepped through the vortex and fell onto the floor of the lab. Thomas and Heidi shut down Time Bridge.

There was blood all over them both and it was seeping under their bodies. Thomas and Heidi both ran to them. They were both barely conscious.

“Mission accomplished,” gasped Tao with his last breath.

“Thomas…” whispered Heidi as she succumbed to her wounds. She died in Thomas’ arms as Heidi from the past looked on, sobbing.

After a few minutes, Thomas gently laid Heidi down and wiped the tears from his face. “We need to destroy this machine and all the documents. You need to go back to your time and tell them to do the same.”

Heidi muttered an “OK, Thomas.”

Thomas set up Time Bridge for four years into the past and opened up the vortex. Without a word, Heidi stepped through. Thomas then set about destroying all documents and files related to the construction of Time Bridge. He found fuel cans that the carts ran on in the supply area of the lab. He poured the contents over every piece of machinery in the lab. Just to be sure, he also started whacking everything with the fire axe that was hanging in the corner. After he totally exhausted himself, he disabled the fire suppression system and lit the lab on fire. He just stood there and watched his dream go up in flames.

The lab door burst open and several men came running in. They had seen the smoke from outside. “Thomas, what happened?”

Thomas said nothing and just watched the bodies of Tao and Heidi feed the flames.

“What have you done?” called out one of the men.

One of the men in the lab was a security guard. He instinctively unholstered his sidearm. Thomas was still holding the fire axe. Thomas looked up at him, raised the axe and charged him. The guard fired three shots into Thomas’ chest. Thomas fell to the floor, smiled and died.

Heidi emerged from the vortex, back in the lab in 2012. No one was in the lab at this time. She checked for the date and time and discovered that she reappeared about sixteen hours after she had originally stepped through. It was 3 AM. Heidi left the lab and walked over to her house and wakened Thomas. “Thomas, I have a story to tell you.”

Later that morning, Thomas, Heidi and Tao met in the conference room. Heidi related her adventure to Tao. Thomas announced that they must destroy Time Bridge.

“But what about us?” asked Tao. “They could force us to rebuild it.”

“My plan is to use Time Bridge one last time. The three of us will escape to the past and make sure the lab self destructs. We’ll choose a time where they don’t have the technology to even dream about the possibility of time travel.”

It took several days to repair Time Bridge. When Heidi had jumped to the future, it caused a system overload. It took the three of them to make the repairs without alerting anyone that an unauthorized trip had occurred. Afterwards, Heidi and Tao went about deleting files and documents. Thomas gathered gas cans.

Time Bridge was started up one last time. Heidi and Tao stepped through as Thomas spread gasoline about the lab. He disabled the fire suppression system, lit the fire and ran through the vortex. As the lab started to burn out of control, the vortex sputtered and collapsed. By the time anyone saw the smoke from outside, the lab was totally destroyed.

Thomas joined Heidi and Tao in Dallas in 1963. He selected a secluded area of the rail yard just beyond the Texas Book Depository building. “Let’s go see if someone’s behind that picket fence.” The three time travelers started walking towards the historic event about to happen.

Back in the Eagle’s Nest in 1939, Captain Reinhardt went out to the patio to see what all the commotion was about. His guards swore that a tunnel of wind opened up, a beautiful blonde stepped through, then another tunnel opened and a Chinese grabbed her and pulled her through the tunnel. Both tunnels then closed. They fired their weapons, but there were no bodies. Just this strange looking case that was dropped by the blonde.

The Captain curiously and cautiously opened the case. It emitted a beep and the small screen flashed some images. “What is this…” thought the Captain as the laptop booted.

Time Bridge Chapter 6

Thomas had set Time Bridge to deposit them in Dallas about an hour before JFK’s assassination. This would allow enough time for Thomas to try to get up to the sixth floor of the Book Depository building and observe the sniper’s nest, and for Tao and Heidi to position themselves to see if a sniper was behind the picket fence on the grassy knoll. As they made their way to their positions, they all realized that something was not quite right.

“Wait,” said Thomas. “Where are the crowds of people that should be lining Elm Street?”

“You’re right,” replied Heidi. “It looks like an ordinary day.”

Thomas walked up to a lady walking along Elm Street. “Isn’t President Kennedy supposed to come by today?”

“President Kennedy?” asked the woman. “I don’t believe I’ve heard anything about him visiting Dallas today. He’s in Washington, I think.”

“My mistake,” replied Thomas, perplexed. Thomas gathered Heidi and Tao. “Something’s wrong. That lady isn’t aware of Kennedy coming to Dallas today. Either we’re here on the wrong date…”

“Or something has corrupted the timeline,” finished Tao.

All three scanned Elm Street up towards the Book Depository building. It was just an ordinary day.

“We need to find a library,” announced Heidi, “to see what’s going on here.”

Heidi asked the first person that came along, where the nearest public library was located. They all started up the street.

As they walked, Thomas was mesmerized by all the classic cars driving on the street. “I feel like I’m at a car show! The big fin era phased out a few years ago, but there’s still plenty of the older cars on the road.”

In the library they verified that it was November 22, 1963. Time Bridge brought them to the correct coordinates. They located the microfiche readers and each started to scan the newspapers. What they ultimately discovered was that Adolph Hitler was assassinated in 1940 by a Captain Heinrich Reinhardt. Fuhrer Reinhardt still ruled over the Third Reich. He maintained Germany’s hold on continental Europe and never attacked Great Britain or Russia. He had Hitler’s concentration camps closed down and treated his subjects fairly. Germany prospered through the years and became the center of technology. They developed the first jets and rocket planes, nuclear energy and were about to launch a massive rocket to land men on the moon. There was no sneak attack by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor in 1941, so America never entered the war. Germany stopped its aggression in 1940, so Europe was relatively at peace once Hitler was removed. Japan continued to conquer the South Pacific and Asia. Eventually they defeated Russia and China in 1959. There was no threat against Germany, but consensus indicated it was just a matter of time before the Japanese Empire would reach out to try to smother Europe and the Americas. The only thing standing in their way was Germany’s nuclear arsenal. The Japanese leaders knew if they attacked, they would unleash Armageddon.

In the U.S., the economy was booming. Since America never entered the European or Asian conflicts, life remained somewhat unaffected, other than the massive buildup of troops and equipment, just in case they would be needed. The U.S. had also developed the atomic bomb, but didn’t have the intercontinental missile system as yet in place that Germany had. The U.S. was just in the development stage of jet aircraft, aided by Great Britain, who had pioneered one of the first jet engines. The U.S. was ready for a war with Japan and was united with Germany and Great Britain.

After Truman served as president, Joseph Kennedy Jr. was elected in a close battle with Dwight D. Eisenhower. Joseph Kennedy Sr. had groomed his eldest son for the presidency all his life. Kennedy was a very popular president, along with his fashionable wife, Jackie. Joseph’s brothers John, Ted and Robert were all senators; John and Ted representing Massachusetts and Robert, New York.

“From what the future Thomas told me,” started Heidi, “my future self advised Adolph Hitler and kept America out of the war. I don’t know who this Heinrich Reinhardt is, but he obviously made the same decisions that my future self had suggested to Hitler.”

“Somehow he had the same information,” said Tao.

“And he killed Hitler and took over,” finished Thomas.

“I don’t see how that’s possible,” stated Tao. “From what we know, that timeline was corrected when my future self snatched the future Heidi in the Eagle’s Nest in 1939. She didn’t have time to tell anyone about her future knowledge.”

“I wonder,” started Thomas, “if she could have brought with her some physical proof to present to Hitler.”

“Physical proof?” asked Heidi.

“Yes,” replied Thomas. “Put yourself in her place. You claim to have knowledge about future events and what mistakes you’ll make. Wouldn’t it be more believable if you had proof?”

“What kind of proof?” asked Tao.

“I’m sure you’ve seen documentaries about World War Two,” replied Thomas. “How hard would it have been to bring a laptop with videos on it? Who could argue with them?”

“Very interesting,” Tao said. “Heidi – did the future Tao mention the existence of a laptop?”

“No,” replied Heidi. “But that doesn’t mean there wasn’t one. In all the excitement of grabbing Heidi with all the bullets flying around, he may not have noticed a dropped laptop.”

“And this Reinhardt picked it up,” said Thomas. “And he was clever enough to figure out how to view the videos. That certainly explains everything.”

“OK,” replied Tao. “Now how do we fix it?”

“It’s 1963,” stated Heidi. “None of us have been born yet. America doesn’t seem to be at the center of technology in this timeline; Germany is. Maybe our Time Bridge is never built.”

“Well,” replied Thomas, “we certainly can’t just wait around for forty-five years or so and hope it gets built. We’ll be too old to correct the timeline.”

“What if we build it now?” proposed Tao.

“That will be difficult,” replied Thomas. “We didn’t save our notes. We’ll basically have to start from scratch.”

“Well, we know the mistakes we made,” offered Heidi. “It shouldn’t take us as long as it did originally.”

“And we may not have a lot of time to spare,” said Tao. “Looks like this timeline is poised on the brink of war with Japan. We’ve got to do something and do it now.”

“How in the world are we gonna get anyone to listen to us?” asked Thomas. “We have no valid credentials in this timeline. We never existed here. Who will take us seriously about creating a time machine?”

“Fuhrer Reinhardt would,” offered Heidi. “If he did in fact, make use of a laptop that my future self left behind, he might just give us the go ahead.”

“From what I read,” contributed Tao, “this Germany is at the forefront of technology. I doubt they’d take a chance that another nation would develop a time machine before them. Reinhardt knows the edge such a device would give him.”

“Sounds like a plan,” said Thomas. “But we’d better hurry. From what I read, Reinhardt is about to step down. He’s handing over the Reich to your grandfather, Heidi. Although in this timeline it doesn’t appear that Jodl Mueller has a family.”

“What a mess we’ve gotten into,” said Heidi. “And nobody even knows except the three of us.”

“And Reinhardt,” said Thomas. “Since we’re here in Dallas, there’s something I must do. Follow me.”

Thomas led Heidi and Tao to a nightclub called the Carousel Club. “I need to look up an old friend.” Heidi and Tao shot quizzical looks at each other.

They entered the darkened club. There was a small band playing off stage while a stripper was putting on a show on center stage. Thomas, Heidi and Tao sat at a table and ordered drinks. When the waitress returned with the drinks, Thomas asked her if Jack was there.

“Yeah, he’s in the office,” replied the waitress.

“Could I talk to him?” asked Thomas. “I have a message from a mutual friend.”

As the waitress walked away, Heidi grabbed Thomas’ arm. “Who the hell is Jack? Who do you know in 1963 Dallas?”

Thomas had a big smile on his face. “You’ll see.”

After a few minutes, the waitress returned with the club owner, Jack Ruby.

Heidi, Tao and Thomas desperately tried to contain the excitement of meeting such a historical person.

“How you folks doin?” asked Jack.

“Just fine, Jack,” replied Thomas. “I bring greetings from a mutual friend.”

“Yeah? Who’s that?”

“Lee Oswald.”

Jack frowned, trying to place the name. Then a look of recognition. “Oh yeah. Lee from New Orleans. He’s been in here a few times. How’s he doin’?”

“He’s doing well. How do you guys know each other?”

“I knew Lee when we were both in New Orleans. Nice fellow. Kinda quiet. Cute wife though. Say hello for me.”

“I will, Jack.”

As Jack walks over to the bar, Heidi says “OK, Thomas, what was that all about?”

“Just as I thought – Jack Ruby knew Lee Harvey Oswald.”

“That doesn’t prove anything. There isn’t a JFK assassination in this timeline.”

“But it proves the researchers were correct about them knowing each other.”

“Why don’t we get out of here before we get into trouble?” suggested Tao. “Remember guys – we have to save the world!”

Heidi giggled and Thomas shook his head. They left the club and embarked on their journey to Berlin.

Time Bridge Chapter 7

Thomas, Tao and Heidi hitchhiked from Dallas to Houston. They were able to find a warm bed and meal to eat at various Salvation Army locations across Texas. Once they got to Houston, they managed to stow away on a freighter bound for Germany. They were lucky enough not to be discovered and to find food on the ship. Once in Germany they again hitchhiked to Berlin. Along the way Heidi was able to charm her way to free food for the travelers with her elementary German and good looks.

In Berlin, Heidi attempted to talk her way into meeting Fuhrer Reinhardt. She didn’t get very far without the valid credentials and not being able to speak fluent German. She and her companions were soon locked up. Several weeks had passed before word finally made it to Fuhrer Reinhardt’s desk. The message simply said that a group of foreigners wanted an audience with the Fuhrer. They claimed to have scientific knowledge on how to create a machine to travel through time. Most of the officers laughed them off and thought that the Fuhrer would have a chuckle at this nonsense. Instead, the Fuhrer requested a meeting with them.

Thomas, Heidi and Tao were taken under guard to the Reich headquarters in Berlin. They entered a room with a large conference table. Five security guards lined the walls just behind them. In a few minutes, two uniformed men entered the room and sat. Heidi recognized one of the men as a younger version of her grandfather.

“I am Fuhrer Reinhardt,” said the first man. “I understand you claim to know how to build a time travel device.” His English was flawless.

“I am Thomas McAdams. This is Heidi Mueller and this is Tao Chen.” Thomas gestured to the others as he introduced them. “Yes, we can build a time machine.”

“And why would you want to build such a device?” asked the Fuhrer.

“The world is poised on the brink of war,” replied Thomas. “A conventional war will bring a lot of death and destruction to both the Japanese Empire and to the Third Reich. If you use your atomic missiles, the eastern countries will suffer fallout for generations. Radiation could be blown eastward towards the Americas and eventually here. We offer a better solution. Travel back in time and stop the Japanese Empire before they grow into the world power they are now.”

“You’ve seen proof of time travel,” said Heidi to Reinhardt. “You know what can be accomplished.” Heidi gambled that Reinhardt rose to power by the aid of her future self.

A small grin formed on Reinhardt’s face. He then spoke in German to Jodl. To their delight, Reinhardt gave them permission to build their time machine. Since Reinhardt was soon to step down as Fuhrer and be replaced by Jodl Mueller, Reinhardt acted as project manager to the German Time Bridge. He procured an island off of Norway where all the facilities could be built. Because this island was deserted, it took ten years before they were operational. Power stations, labs and housing had to be built, in addition to roads and other infrastructure. Norway was chosen because it was close to Germany, but still isolated. Luckily, Japan had still not made an aggressive move during this time.

Thomas and Heidi made the best of the situation during the ten years. They lived together in a small house within walking distance of the lab. Armed guards followed them everywhere. They were told the guards were there to protect them, but they knew they were keeping on eye on them. Tao lived in the house next door. He wasn’t adapting as well as the others. He had no life there other than working in the lab. He had to keep telling himself that he was working on the greater goal of fixing the timeline.

When the Time Bridge was fully operational, the team tried to keep this fact from Reinhardt and their German co-workers. Their plan was to make an unauthorized journey to correct the timeline. The presence of the guards in the lab would make this tricky. But at long last, they were ready to put their plan into action.

As the events in Norway were progressing, the Empire of Japan launched a dastardly attack. Unbeknownst to the rest of the world, Japan had been building an arsenal of their own atomic bombs with the aid of defecting American scientists. One thousand long range Japanese bombers armed with one atomic bomb each, flew over the Third Reich to drop their loads. Most were shot down, but five bombs were dropped over Europe. Berlin, Paris, London, Rome and Budapest were completely destroyed. In retaliation, the surviving German military launched all their atomic missiles at various preset targets within the Japanese Empire. Most found their mark. Five hundred cities throughout Asia, Japan and Australia went up in mushroom clouds.

As this was occurring, fifty Japanese bombers flew over the United States. Pearl Harbor, Los Angeles and San Diego were destroyed. The winds would soon begin to spread radioactive fallout over the Earth.

Norway and the Time Bridge island were still unaffected by the Japanese attack. In fact, no one on the island even knew what was happening. Communications were in a state of chaos. There were always three armed guards in the lab. Thomas, Heidi and Tao coordinated a simultaneous attack on all three at once by hitting them over the head with whatever heavy objects were available to them. When the time was right, a signal was given and they overpowered the guards and picked up their machine guns. They set Time Bridge for 1939 Eagle’s Nest, but this time to arrive on the opposite side of the patio than in the previous two journeys.

Thomas and Tao stepped into the vortex with the guard’s machine guns. When they emerged on the other side, they saw the other vortex on the other side of the patio. There they saw the other Tao grab Heidi and run back into their vortex as the Nazi guards fired at them. They saw Heidi’s laptop drop, just as they suspected. The guards weren’t aware of this new vortex behind them. Thomas and Tao fired their weapons at the guards. After they fell, Thomas ran over to retrieve the laptop. He and Tao safely stepped back through their vortex and returned to the lab.

“I’ve got the laptop!” yelled Thomas, excitedly. “All we need to do now is go back again and warn ourselves not to ever build this damned device.”

Just then, the lab doors burst open and a dozen guards entered. Last through the door was Heinrich Reinhardt.

“Do not move,” commanded Reinhardt. “Don’t make us kill you.”

Thomas, Tao and Heidi looked at one another, not certain about what to do. Suddenly, Tao let out a scream and started firing at the guards. He killed five before he was killed. Thomas and Heidi opened fire as Reinhardt ran out of the lab. Thomas and Heidi managed to kill the remaining guards. Quickly, Heidi started setting up Time Bridge to take them to Princeton New Jersey in 1999, the year Thomas graduated from Princeton University. Their plan was to warn the young Thomas not to embark on this disastrous course.

Before she could finish her programming, the lab doors burst open as more guards came charging through. Thomas opened fire as they entered the lab as Heidi hurriedly finished her programming and opened the vortex.

“Go through, Heidi,” yelled Thomas. “I’ll be right behind you.”

Thomas popped in another clip and continued firing at the guards. Heidi ran through the vortex. Thomas knew he couldn’t follow Heidi through. He had to destroy the equipment. He turned his machine gun on the banks of computers and machinery and emptied the clip. Soon the vortex sputtered and shut down. The guards were able to hit their target and Thomas dropped to the floor. A fire started burning in the lab. With his last breath, Thomas wished Heidi luck on her mission.

Time Bridge Chapter 8

Heidi emerged from the vortex in a soccer field just outside of the Princeton University campus. She waited impatiently for Thomas. Within a minute, the vortex shut down. “No!” Heidi screamed. She lay on the ground sobbing for quite a while. Again she was on her own. When her tears finally subsided, she stood up and started walking towards the campus. She would find the twenty-one year old Thomas and warn him not to develop Time Bridge. As she walked, this scenario seemed more ridiculous with each step.

As she walked up Washington Road, the campus buildings were spread out on both sides of the road. Not knowing exactly where she was headed, she continued to walk towards the center of town. It was a nice spring morning with hardly any traffic on the road. Several students were making their way to class; some walking, others riding bikes. Up on the right side of the street was a large fountain and pool. Heidi stopped to take a look and sat on a bench facing the pool. Next to her on the bench was a copy of the campus newspaper. She picked it up. “Oh no!” The date was 1979, not 1999. In her haste of programming Time Bridge in the midst of machine gun fire, she must have put in the wrong date! It was twenty years too early. Thomas would only be one year old. Heidi sat there on the bench contemplating what she should do.

After a couple of hours went by, Heidi realized she was getting hungry and had to go to the bathroom. Further up the street on the left side of the road was a huge library. Heidi entered and found the ladies room. The campus was very open. Anyone could wander into these buildings. Heidi went to the microfiche reader and started checking the newspapers to see if the correct history was restored. Thankfully it was. Now all she had to do was to prevent Time Bridge from ever being created.

Just outside of the library was another building where Heidi could smell food coming from. She entered and discovered the Student Center. As students went in, they placed their food choices on their trays cafeteria style, then paid at the registers. Heidi had no American money on her, so she walked out into the dining area and sat at one of the tables. She kept a keen eye out for an opportunity to get some free food. After a short wait, she noticed a young man leave his table to go back to get something else. He hadn’t even started eating yet. There was no one else at his table. The food was about eighty feet away from the tables and partially blocked by counters. Heidi slowly got up and walked over to the student’s table and grabbed the hamburger and soda. She calmly walked to the far exit, went outside and walked a few feet and sat down on a bench. She hungrily ate her catch. Heidi realized she wouldn’t be able to do this indefinitely, so she must get a job and a place to stay and figure out what to do. She had twenty years before Thomas turned twenty-one.

Heidi managed to secure a low paying job at a shop on Palmer Square. The Square was comprised of shops, restaurants and residences right in downtown Princeton. It had been built in 1939 by Edgar Palmer and made to resemble Colonial Williamsburg. When he died, he willed the property to the University. The entrance to the University was right across the street. At first, Heidi simply slept at the Student Center. There was hardly any security on this campus. All she had to do was find a comfortable place to sleep and nobody bothered her. As she started to earn money at Clayton’s Yarn Shop, she found a room for rent a few blocks away in a huge house that had rented out its bedrooms to graduate students.

Princeton University didn’t house all of their graduate students. There were various dorms and apartments available from the Housing Office, all off campus, but there were more students than accommodations. Conversely, all the undergraduates were guaranteed dorm rooms on campus.

Heidi’s room was one large bedroom. The bathroom was down the hall and shared by everyone else on the floor. The building owners lived downstairs. Utilities were included, so it was affordable. She didn’t need a car. Everything was in walking distance. She paid in cash for everything and tried to maintain a low profile. She used her real social security number at Clayton’s and hoped it wouldn’t cause her any problems.

Before she knew it, a couple of years had gone by and Heidi led a fairly content existence. There were great places to eat in town. Her favorite place to eat pizza was at Conte’s, down Witherspoon Street. Victor’s on Nassau Street made the best cheese steaks (they burned the onions for her – Heidi hated raw and semi-cooked onions). Chuck’s Café on Spring Street had the best buffalo wings in town. Further down Nassau Street was Hoagie Haven, where the best hoagies in town were sold. There was always a line to get into this place. Even students paid cash to eat there although their meal plans provided ample food on campus. Thomas Sweet, the best ice cream place in town, was just down the road. Over time, Heidi managed to pack on quite a few extra and unwanted pounds.

Heidi had located the McAdams family at their residence on Wilton Street, just a few blocks away from Thomas Sweet. Whenever she indulged in her sweet tooth, she would burn off the calories by strolling by Wilton to see if she could catch a glimpse of the baby Thomas. James and Maggie McAdams rented a charming duplex. Their side of the building had no driveway, but that was okay, as James didn’t have a car. Originally they had an old clunker, but Wilton Street had no overnight parking, so he had to leave his car blocks away in a University lot. Since everything was in walking distance, he soon sold it.

Money was tight in the beginning for the McAdams family. On rare occasions they would venture to New York City and take in a museum or show. Getting there was simply a matter of catching the Dinky train (an Amtrak car that ran from the small train station in town to Princeton Junction), then switching to the train to take them into the city. The trains ran regularly around the clock and were very convenient. Many Princeton residents took these trains to work in New York.

James was a physics professor and his wife Maggie was a secretary in the history department. Maggie quit her job when Thomas was born, to take care of him full time. James didn’t yet have tenure, but they hoped that he would, by the time Thomas started school.

As the years passed by, Heidi found it amusing to see history ‘repeat’ itself. She often contemplated buying stock in companies she knew would return great profits, but she couldn’t risk doing anything to corrupt the timeline.

Thomas had turned into a cute little boy. Heidi would often watch Maggie take her son to the park. She prayed that in the future, Thomas and a younger version of herself would be reunited. Occasionally her thoughts would turn dark when she realized how easy it would be to snatch little Thomas away. But what would she do? Kill him? This innocent little boy? What would that action do to the timeline? No – she would bide her time and somehow convince him not to develop Time Bridge.

In 1985, Heidi went to the movie theatre in town to see Back to the Future. She got quite a laugh at this entertaining movie. But the idea of a person fading from a photograph when the timeline changed was just ridiculous. “It doesn’t work like that,” she thought. Heidi decided to use one idea from the movie. She would buy a video camera and record a message for when Thomas turned twenty-one. She would explain about the construction of Time Bridge and all the misadventures in the alternate timelines. Surely this would convince him that the device shouldn’t be built under any circumstances. Heidi thought about confronting him directly, but she didn’t think she could handle seeing a twenty-one year old Thomas when she was an older lady of fifty-five. Heidi followed her plan and made her recording. She wrapped up the camera with the recording inside as a gift and would get it to him on his graduation from the University, just a few years away.

The McAdams were still living in the duplex on Wilton Street in 1999, but now they owned the entire building and rented out the other side. Thomas would be graduating soon, so Heidi needed to give him the gift. She boldly went up to the McAdams house when Thomas was in class and introduced herself to Maggie.

“Hello, Mrs. McAdams?” asked Heidi.

“Yes, may I help you?”

“I work for one of Thomas’ professors and have a graduation gift for him. May I leave it with you?”

“Oh, yes of course. And who should I say stopped by?”

“Tell him Mrs. Sherman for professor Langford.” Heidi had done her homework and was prepared. Professor Langford was one of Thomas’ professors and Mrs. Sherman ran his office, so Thomas shouldn’t get suspicious.

“Thank you, Mrs. Sherman.”

Heidi walked away and headed towards her room, several blocks away. As thoughts flooded her head about what the future would bring, and whether or not she should reinforce her message with a personal visit, she didn’t notice that she stepped out onto Nassau Street against the traffic light. A UPS truck had sped up to make the light. The driver didn’t see Heidi step off the curb until it was too late. The truck struck her going about 35 miles per hour. Heidi was thrown several feet in the air and landed on her back, but her neck had twisted when she impacted with the ground. Heidi died instantly. A large crowd had gathered. An ambulance soon came to take Heidi to Princeton Hospital, just a few blocks down Witherspoon Street.

After graduation, Thomas returned home for the party his proud parents had thrown for him. He had opened Heidi’s gift, but didn’t get a chance to view the recording for several days. Thomas had been accepted to MIT and was very excited to start working as an engineer. Thomas had spent most of his days at Princeton inventing marvelous things for the advancement of mankind. His favorite thing was his design of an electric car that drove itself on a roadway with an implanted guide wire. Thomas loved classic cars and hot rods. His electric car was designed around the famous belly tank racer that broke speed records in the forties. These early racing pioneers, most of them ex-servicemen from WW II, took an external fuel tank from a fighter plane, stuffed an engine in it and broke land speed records. Thomas used a very similar design since it was small, light and aerodynamic.

When Thomas finally got around to viewing Heidi’s recording, he thought it was an elaborate joke played by one of his demented buddies. But this gray haired, plump lady was so sincere, he was totally enamored by her. After viewing it several more times, he became intrigued by the idea that a wormhole could be created that could bridge together two points in space and time. And what a wonderful name – Time Bridge.

After a few days went by, Thomas still couldn’t shake the idea that time travel could be possible. In his spare time he started to work on some equations that might prove this theory. He never discovered who played this prank on him with the recording. He wanted to thank her for providing him with the idea of what could turn out to be his most magnificent invention.

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