At the end of Wormhole Part Three, Captain Fremont was overwhelmed by El’s technology and his unbelievable stories about the future. It gets worse.
“Please sit down, Sir? I need to explain a few events that will happen in the future to put this satellite map into context,” El explained as he sat back in the chair looking at the bewildered captain.
“In the future, the USA and many other countries launch what are called satellites into orbit above the earth’s atmosphere…”
“Launch?” The captain interrupted. “How are they ‘launched’?”
“They are launched on rockets,” El answered. “Rockets become very useful beyond wars in the future. Satellites are mostly used for communications, spying, and taking pictures of the earth from space. The image you see on the screen is a picture taken by a satellite and a map put on top of the picture.”
“How did you get the picture onto the screen?” The captain asked. “I downloaded it from Google Earth…” “Google Earth? What kind of name is that? It sounds ridiculous.” The captain replied. “Indeed it does!” El answered. “Google is a search engine, and it has an app called ‘Google Earth’ that allows users to search for satellite maps all over the world in 2016.”
“You make my head spin with all the incomprehensible words you use. I do not understand all this.” The captain explained, exasperated over El’s strange vocabulary.
“I can see how difficult this is, but I don’t know how to explain this stuff in 1943 terms.” El showed frustration trying to explain concepts that the captain had never imagined. “Satellites are the result of ‘The Space Race’. In 1957, the Soviet Union will launch the first satellite into space on a rocket called ‘Sputnik’. A few years later, the Soviet Union launches the first man into space…”
“A man in Space?” The captain interrupted. “You are getting more and more unbelievable!”
“And it gets even more unbelievable,” El continues. “The USA starts trying to catch up to the Russians, and in the 1960s we send men into space and by the end of the ‘60s, we send astronauts to the moon.” The captain just shook his head in disbelief. “You are correct. What you are telling me is unbelievable. Now you are going to tell me that people can go and live on the moon in 2016?” “Ha! Ha!” El shook his head. “That’s what they were thinking in the 1960s, but the space program was cut back in the 1970s, due to civil unrest over the Vietnam war, the oil shock, and cultural and political changes from the 1960s into the 1970s. We continue developing satellites and launching them into orbit. By 2016 there are literally tons of ‘space junk’ orbiting the earth. Anyway, this map on the screen is the product of those satellites.”
El closes the image on the screen and opens another folder with photos in it. “The photo I want to show you is in this batch of photos” El explained. “Now I’m doing what we call ‘scrolling down’ through the images to find the particular photo I want to show you. Here it is.” El double-clicked on a photo of the Sandias, and the photo opened up into a larger window. “See all those towers on the Sandias? That’s what I was referring to when I told you that after I came through the wormhole, I noticed there were no towers on the Sandias.”
“I see the towers. There are so many of them. What are they for?” The captain asked.
“They include radio towers, TV towers, cell towers, and towers for wireless Internet service. KOB radio was one of the first stations to put a tower on the Crest.”
Sergeant Prescott came back in and announced that Major Pierce would be joining them shortly.
“Prescott! Come over here and look at these photographs!” Capitan Fremont commanded. Prescott walked over and looked bewildered at the screen and asked about all the towers on the Sandias.”Those are the towers he said he noticed were not on the mountains when he came through the time warp.” The captain told Prescott.
“I can’t believe the color and detail in the photograph.” Sergeant Prescott noted as he stared at the screen. “What is this ‘device’ I am looking at?” He asked.
“It’s a personal computer in the form of what we call a ‘laptop, notebook or portable computer. Specifically, this is an Apple Macbook Pro.” El explained. “You might have heard of IBM? They made one of the first personal computers, which evolved from what will be called ‘Main Frame’ computers. The closest thing you may have to a computer in 1943 would be an ‘adding machine’ I believe?”
Prescott and Fremont looked at each other “Adding machine?” Fremont said. “Do you know what that is, Prescott?”
“I think I saw them in accounting once, Sir. The accountants had machines with punch keys like a typewriter but laid out differently. I can’t say for sure if they were ‘adding machines,’ but they probably were. But thinking about them now, they were primitive compared to this ‘device’ as he calls it.”
A tall, slender man walked into the room. Prescott and Fremont turned and saluted him.
“At ease,” he told them. “What’s all this about security clearances and labs that you were talking to me on the phone about Prescott?”
“Excuse me, Sir!” El interrupted, “I can explain the security clearance issue.”
“You must be the man from the future? Prescott told me unbelievable things about you.”
“Yes, Sir! I have a lot of unbelievable things here, but more importantly, I know about what’s happening with the war effort, plus the top-secret goings-on here and in Los Alamos.”
“How do you know about Los Alamos?” Major Pierce looked very surprised at the mention of Los Alamos. “Nobody is supposed to know about Los Alamos.”
“I’ve been thrown back in time, or into a parallel universe, from 73 years in the future. I can tell you a lot about what’s going on right now and what will happen in the future up to 2016.” El explained. “But when I mentioned the labs and the Manhattan Project to Sergeant Prescott and Captain Fremont, I realized they didn’t have the proper clearances to know about them. So I asked if they knew of anyone I could talk to with a top-secret clearance, and Sergeant Prescott called you. I hope I haven’t already got them in trouble.”
“This is a precarious situation,” said Pierce. “You obviously have information that regular people, especially civilians, are not supposed to have. You are obviously not from around here by the way you talk…”
“I was born and raised in the Albuquerque area, Sir, I may be more native than any of you!” El interrupted. “It’s not that I’m not from around ‘Here’; I’m not from this time,” El explained. “The situation is this, Sir. I have the technology on that computer over there to speed up and advance the whole atomic effort. I can do many of the calculations that are painfully done by hand in seconds on that computer. Since I know what happens in the future, we can possibly change the future. Unless I can find another wormhole or time warp to put me back into the time I came from, which I have no idea how to do, I’m stuck here, and I have no problem trying to influence and change the future.”
Major Pierce stood and thought for a while. He got a look of resolve, and said, “Let’s see if we can change the future!”
The End
Off Center & Not Even 
Oh, if only we could go back and change mankind’s future, possibly a lot of lives could be saved. And some wrongs that caused irreparable damage, righted…like the last election.
I’m with you on that. There’s a comment we’re not supposed to mess with the past. However, in this situation, there would be no way to avoid it. Thanks, KT.
Probably not.
Ahhh, I see they are going to dive into this changing the future possibility. I can’t wait to see how the story unfolds from here. Great write, Tim.
Thanks, Jeff. Al fine for the moment. Maybe I’ll get energy to work on it some more at some point in the future.
You’re welcome, Tim. Ah, I completely understand.
It would be interesting to see where it would go. But I would really need to follow JYP’s advice and add how everyone feels about the situation, especially El being stuck in the past not being able to see his wife, kid, cats, owls. I’d need to develop the characters and that’s all overwhelming for me to think about. I’m in awe of writers like Shehanne and Teagan who can write novels and develop all their unique characters.
It overwhelms me reading your words about it. I’ve always loved writers that have great character development. Honestly, I don’t know how they do it. It’s seems like a lot of work. Murakami is one of my favorite writers. The depth of his character and story development blows my mind.
A fascinationg story Timothy …but according to Dr Who, we should not tamper with the past,… it may cause the future to have a time-warp …
I’ve never seen Dr. Who. But I disagree with him. If something like this actually happened, it would be impossible not to influence the future from that time forward. Thanks, Ivor.
A great British show about Dr Who traveling the universe in his Time-machine 🤗
I know what the show is. I’ve just never seen it. I don’t have TV and haven’t had it for nearly 40 years now.
Very interesting and educative.
Thanks, Eunice.
🙏💙
Wonderful way to end this Timothy. you HAVE to do another chapter story again, when you have time .
Thanks, Shey. When I can find the imagination. My imagination is pretty good with photos and twisted parodies. But I hit the wall when it comes to stories. I’m in such awe that you can write such cool smexy, historical novels and develop cool characters and storylines. I get overwhelmed thinking about it.
Oh lord Timothy, the truth?? I never know where anything is going from one line to the next. I just have awee flash of an idea. And as if that is not bad enough, just when things have sort of progressed to maybe like chapter three, lines appear from nowhere that I never saw coming. Lines that entirely throw the book. Like there was never meant to be viking in the Viking and the Courtesan. that was a Regency romance pure and simple when it started out. And the hero in O’Roarke’s Destiny was never with the law till he opened his big mouth and said so. As for what Lady Fury had been up to in Jamaica?/ Well, it was news to me she’d even lived there. I just live in chaos and disorder and probably constant terror that I won’t get to the next chapter, when I write. It is so kind of you to say what you have. it means so much to me cos the process is anything but thought out. if I tried to do that I would never have written a word. .
Hahaha! Yes! But you turn chaos into wonderful, brilliant, and well developed novels, with interesting characters, plots and subplots. I try to plot and flop around, and never seem to fight my way out of all the chaos.
Okay, well i abide by the simple rule of goal, motivation and conflict. Cos I never plot. So you have your overall goals for each character the driving force for this and the conflict that arises. Then within every scene , you also have the goal for each character,–and this is a diff goal. yeah it relates to what they want but it can be something simple, the step along the way in other words–you have the driving force for that, then you have the conflict when they either don’t get it, get thrown into another universe completely, or get it and then feel bad, or wrong, or drawn to the other character, or whatever. Also when you set up that goal, think of your character… what would they do here, not you, cos they ain’t driven by what you are. Then you got your next bit . I mean I got stuck big time on Splendor about three quarters of the way through… I was writing viking mind you. Anyway it sat and sat. I did write some bits and they were all stupid. So i hauled back to the point where I was stuck and asked myself what these two would now do. And cos she now had all this access to dosh, and she’s not terribly happy. I thought…she’d spend it bigtime, that is what she does, and it would drive him crazy cos he is a skinflint with good reason. I think books are about characters. I start with the idea. Like this was her being a brilliant chess player actually and having fallen down on her luck badly, not being allowed to compete in the big money comps cos she is a woman. So she enters as a guy. I thought there was potential there for him to start helping her and maybe fall for her ‘female friend’ who is her and I can develop along these lines THEN I thought..that is an insult to people that he was that stupid he never saw they were the same from like chapter 3. So then it’s what he can extort to pay back his mistress. All of that is down to character. That is why i never even try to plot.
You are brilliant. I could never be that articulate about putting characters together. It all makes so much sense. I’m like the dude who doesn’t get she’s the same guy and gal.
And you’re too kind. Seriously. People have just always fascinated me.
That helps a lot.
Lol. I guess it does. I especially love the fact that there’s those who are so gloriously unselfaware. They are often rich pickings.
That is true.
“The End”?!!!!
I was looking forward to see how they will change the future!!!
Excellent writing, El!
👌👍👌
Yep. Getting that much developed stripped out a lot of brain gears. I’ll see if anything else brews in my tired brain. Thanks, Marina.
I think I can already hear the …brewing! 😉
Purrculating with the cats.
Sounds good!!!!
I have been following this story Timothy and I love the way you write. Also Bravo to you for not having a t.v for the past forty years….If everyone lived without a tv that would change the world we live in….and you can thrown I phones into that mix:). Thank you – Janet
Thanks, Janet. There too many other things to do than watch TV. I don’t have the patience to sit through TV shows. I used to have a dumb phone that I loved. At least no my pesky smartphone is mostly used for photography.
I turn my phone off 24/7 and check it occasionally and like you use it for photography.
I like the way El is trying to explain modern technology to the people of the 1940s. Very well written, Timothy!
It would be difficult for people in the 1940s to grasp what we do today. Thanks, Dawn.
Yes, they would be amazed, awed, and overwhelmed!
Good writing and a good story, Tim!
Thanks, Lavinia.
Great story, Tim! I love time travel stories! It makes think about the possibilities!
Thanks, Becky. Time travel is interesting to ponder.
You are so welcome
A history lesson in a much more creative medium than those boring textbooks!
Historical novels are fun. Did you ever read any of William F. Buckley’s Spy novels. In Saving the Queen, he has sex with her, also. I don’t think that part was very historical, but it added spice to the story. Thanks, Brian.
Oh dear, Timothy, change the future! I hope I won’t disappear as a result [smile].
Surely not. Thanks, Roberta.
Hmmm … sounds like El wants to change the timeline. If he does, things that should happen will not happen and things that should not happen will happen. Foreknowledge of the future is just as dangerous. El will pick and choose what he deems as important according to his knowledge base. If anything and anyone is not to his liking, it will not exist in the new order.
If he’s in a parallel universe it hardly matters what El does. It won’t affect our present. Did you see Jet Li’s movie “The One” where the bad Jet Li is moving between the multiverses killing the other Jet Lis and gaining their power, but the power gains are shared and when he gets to the last good Jet Li he has a force to deal with? If anyone was thrown back in the past he or she would try and change things. A person would be stupid not to. Thanks, David.
I would change things if I could, Tim.
Gripping tale!
You’re good man.
Maybe El did change the future? We’ll never know.
,,,,, unless……
I feel warped already. Thanks, Resa.
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Checkout today’s post when you get a chance. It answers a lot of questions regarding the wowlets.
Heading over!
Love this, almost every time travel story I have read the characters are always nervous about doing anything to change the future where they are from, and from El’s cool-hand way he has handled all this it was the perfect sentence for him to say: “…and I have no problem trying to influence and change the future.” Enjoyed this very much.
I remember old Star Treks where they ended up in the past and worried about changing the future. I think by chance one ends up in the past, that person changes the future trying or not. Thanks, Randall.
So many dangerous things could happen when changing the future. Then again, so many fabulous things could, as well! (Sorry I am so late. I’m in catch-up mode!)
Thanks, Dale.