Tempus Fugit, Déjà Viewer, Part 3

Chapter 4 

With willpower and logic her twin foci, unfazed by calamity or fortune, and known covertly by coworkers at Barclays Bank as Black Madonna, She Rock, or Spook, Daphne Drake was no less a driving force of Nature. Not only were her ducks always in line, they were tagged and sorted by size, species, and color. Jokes circulated clandestinely that one day her grave marker would read, "Momentum Mori". Anyone who made fun of her name soon were befuddled by her multifaceted retaliation and doubting whether their firm footing wasn't mired in quicksand. 

Daphne had a good friend, several years her junior, in high school teacher Rosario Rivera. Together they often met for late lunches, long past noon rushes, and debated the issues, personalities, and events of the day. Dubbed Rosie the Riveter by her clueless truant male pupils, Rosa was more brain than brawn with a sweet, subtle, serene side that could balance Daph's brash wit. A broad network of family and associates contributed to her diversity, strengths, and stability. She was usually first to broach new topics. Minor matters like age, politics, and sexual orientation couldn't dissuade these two, who seemed deemed to mesh. 

They both knew Tim Travers independently. Daph met him when she was still a teller, while Rosa often saw him at her health club where he was also a member. He always told them weird stuff, like occasional audio virus alerts his security software ignored, messages claiming he lost Internet connection, his DVD drive sometimes mysteriously popping open, or arriving home to find his laptop's on/off light winking out hours after he had shut it down, so they never knew when to believe him. The recent droning-phone, door-pounding incident gave them all a good laugh. After all, it was merely terrorists, albeit a pesky whining variety. They had better items to discuss, like "What happened to America's Olympic athletes at Pyeongchang-gun?" 

Unexpectedly, Daph began the discussion, "Never mind that the IOC is about as corrupt as it can be. With Russia barred for doping at 2014 Sochi Games, 2 Koreas symbolically reuniting for opening ceremonies, a bevy of 230 cheerleaders from DPRK, V.P. Pence disrespecting his hosts, and dueling charm offensives by first family females, topsy-turvy was status quo at this Olympics."

Not to be outdone, Rosa retorted, "Well, a stentorious roar erupted from the red white & blue contingent, "We're number four! We're number four!", while tiny Norway led the medal count, ahead of Canada and Germany, but the Olympics are about friendly competition, athletic prowess, and camaraderie, not party rivalry or mean-spiritedness, right?"

Since the USSR dissolved and far behind China and India, the 3rd most populous nation on Earth has been the United States, some 60 million ahead of Indonesia at number 4. Norway had a 2017 estimated population of just 5,295,619, 117th in size and 213th in density. At 148,728 sq. mi., it is 67th in area. It once placed 6th for medal count with 31 in the 1920 Antwerp Summer Games, but usually does better in winter games and is poised to amass a record medal count in 2018.

When Daph didn't reply right away, Rosa took the initiative to switch gears, "Meanwhile, Starman is on his long inner solar system victory lap, before parking in a Martian orbit, if he gets that far. The track record for Earth spacecraft around Mars is sobering with only 18 out of 44 official missions deemed non-failures, not quite 41%, actually an improvement over only 1 success in Earth's first 10 tries."

"Colonization of Mars has long been a dream of engineers and rocketeers. Planners among them vary widely in their time, cost, and relative risk calculations," Daph added wistfully.

At about 72,000 feet (13.6 mi.), Olympus Mons is the tallest planetary mountain and volcano in our solar system, nearly 2.5 times the height of 'Mount Everest, known in Nepali as Sagarmāthā and in Tibetan as Chomolungma'. It towers almost as much over the combined heights of Mauna Loa, above and below sea level. 

Ever at a conversational loss with these two in tandem, but okay one-on-one, Tim saw an opportunity to chime in about his new diversion. "Guess what! You're not going to believe it," he prompted. Neither of them imagined what it could be this time and were quite sure he was right in his assessment of their responses. "Just talking about it can't do it justice so I have to show you instead." He pretended not to notice them sneaking peeks at their timepieces and opened his laptop to access the café's Wi-Fi. 

For a quick demo, he chose, "46.1912, -122.1944" and "CE, 1982, 5, 18, 8:31". A gorgeous Cascade peak appeared. "That's nice," said Daph. Rosa followed up with, "Is it Mt. Hood or Rainier?" Tim answered, "Just wait a second." Suddenly, its sheer face began to slide and Mt. St. Helens erupted with fiery lava, smoke, ash, and an explosion that flattened all the trees in view. Daph asked, "You found that on YouTube?" 

"No!" he exclaimed and tried again with, "5.55, 95.316667" and "CE, 2004, 12, 26, 8:15". The onscreen image shook violently as the speakers roared for several minutes. Then a 50+ foot wave obliterated it. "That was Banda Aceh Indonesia," he added somberly. "How did anyone upload that to YouTube?" Rosa wanted to know. 

"It's not YouTube, it's MeTube," was his attempt at levity, but it fell flat. While crossing his fingers, he made one last desperate try for gold with, "21.2752, -157.8312" and "CE, 1866, 8, 15, 13". 

Coconut palms fluttered in an onshore breeze, as a distracted Samuel Langhorne Clemens looked around himself then right at him and began walking briskly in his direction. "Here, let me show you how to use that thing, before you hurt yourself, friend." Travers' mind whirled, then Clemens was at his keyboard. "This'll give you a menu of advanced functionality," he said as he pressed 'Ctrl + Alt + F10'. Sure enough, the screen filled with dozens of variations to normal settings. "I've been to the future," said the early sci-fi writer. "Do you recall in StarTrek-TNG a holodeck scene in San Francisco?" he queried, then struck a pose. "A starship!" he recited. "That was me playing myself in cameo. I fooled the casting director! Come visit me in Nikola Tesla's laboratory for more fun later." 

His eyes twinkled, as he chuckled and returned to his Waikīkī reverie, admiring wahines riding bareback, literally. "Th-thanks, Mr. Clemens!" was all Travers could manage. Rosa and Daph were duly impressed. 

Chapter 5 

Travers toyed with some of the new features he was shown in Déjà Viewer, wondering what Clemons meant by them keeping him from hurting himself. Voice-activated commands linked to space-time coordinates, worlds besides just Earth using arbitrary time vectors, and even split-screen alternate universes, all looked pretty dangerous to him. Then he saw the 'Don't Panic!' sign and big red 'Abort Mission' button. His companions chatted the hours away, speculating how Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft could easily eliminate spam and internet disinformation, if it wasn't so lucrative for them. 

While he made a mental note to ask Clemens and Tesla about the moon and Mars, into the café shambled 'Insanity Claus', a jelly bellied old troll Travers had once seen spread jeers, his version of Xmas spirit, aboard a Syzygy to A'ala Park omnibus. As if demonically directed, the sot meandered toward the 2 women, then zeroed in on his weaker target, Rosa.

"I like fat women," his nose glowed red and ashy beard wagged as he began his assault. Daph opened her mouth to tase him, but Rosa gestured her to wait. "No, I'm not and it's offensive to say so. You need help," she stated magnanimously. "Who are you to tell me what I need, you fetid sow!" was his sour, sordid response. Both women then stood, but his attention was diverted away by an angry male voice from another table. Rosa dialed 911.

The wait seemed interminable and café management, who had to be aware of the developing situation, were nowhere to be seen. At last, a squad car and lone cop arrived, but by then 'Elves-R-Us' had left the building. While Rosa briefed the officer, Tim dashed across the parking lot to regain sight of the departing offender and point out his direction to them, then he too went home by a different route.

A block away the 'Ghost of Christmas Past' ambled toward him, as the police cruiser continued down a side street. What an ideal opportunity to use his homemade pepper spray, but he no longer carried it, lest he accidently spritz himself or be overpowered and have it weaponized against him. Better to keep it in reserve for potential home invasion. Karma would catch up with 'Old Anti Nick' eventually. 

Another shiftless, shuffling stumblebum, this one shirtless and younger, accosted him on the sidewalk to his building. "Remember me? You once called the cops on me, you c*** s*****!" Travers knew that wasn't so and left the dolt to his delusions without a word. 

Never a dull moment in the chaotic city, he thought, bucolic bliss briefly beckoning. Time to book a break with Mother Nature or visit fed zoo prisoners, in their hapless lives of quiet desperation, to paraphrase Walden. Dozens of ducks and ducklings used to navigate and interbreed in his neighborhood stream, along with an occasional heron. Now there were only fish, pigeons, rats, and trash. He preferred to believe the endangered birds found better habitat, not that they were poisoned by misguided rat control efforts. 

Was it too soon to visit the Time Travel Research Center at Anderson Institute? After all, they do have a Time Travel in Science Fiction section, but no street address. Theoretical physicist Michio Kaku provides a handy User's Guide to Time Travel that claims, "All it takes is a grasp of theoretical physics, control of the space-time continuum, and maybe a ball of cosmic string." 

His search for clues to possible undiscovered red or brown dwarf companion stars to our sun found disagreement among scientists. He weighed the likely sea of flat Earth and Masonic sewage he'd have to sail and saw it wasn't worth it. No wonder people weren't all that curious anymore. Walter Cruttenden's Lost Star of Myth And Time would just have to wait. The Law of One was proving too much to assimilate all at once.