No Time Like The Past

           Walter Kory, an amateur astronomer, and full-time physics student had been enthralled by the topic of Quantum Physics in his class at the university. His teacher, Professor Theodore Gelding was a brilliant scientist and had taken his prize pupil, Walter, under his wing.

           They had been doing scientific experiments outside of school hours at the observatory on Stargazer Hill Drive. Professor Gelding believed that using the theory of quantum physics, they could prove that wormholes could exist.

           He believed that these wormholes could allow individuals to travel beyond physical space and across the universe in a fraction of the time. He thought it even plausible that one could travel through time as well. Walter was skeptical at first, but it fascinated him, so he continued to aide the professor in his work.

           In theory, everything they calculated made sense, but when tested, the experiments had failed. He believed that the problem was with the power source. The amount of energy that would be needed for such an experiment would be exponential to what the city as a whole could provide.

           Weeks had passed and the experiments continued. Each day bringing them one step closer, but all of it soon came to a stop when word of nuclear threats began circulating throughout the media circus.

           Unrest due to a global pandemic and a failing economy worldwide had made the world leaders edgy and unclear with their intentions. If one country fires off a nuclear missile, the others would soon follow suit and launch their own. Word of this threat caused panic around the city. Residents began looting stores in search of food that they planned to hoard. Others ran to the churches seeking protection from God.

           The origin of the pandemic had been traced back to a government facility in China so they were the initial target for a strike by several leaders, except of course for the other countries surrounding China.

           Chelsea Johannson reported for Channel 7 news from Washington. The President along with his top advisors and their families had been moved into the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC) located under the East Wing of the White House. This was always a bad sign. It meant a pending attack.

           Walter watched intently as each news station reported the insanity that was going on around the planet. Civil Wars that had been going on for decades had ceased as soldiers prepared for war on a much larger scale. Walter’s cellphone rang, arousing him from his media stupor.

           “Hello, Walter? It’s Professor Gelding. Can you meet me at the observatory right now?”

           “Yes, professor, but don’t you think that any experiments now are irrelevant?”

           “On the contrary, my boy, this is a perfect time.”

           When Walter arrived at the observatory, he hurried inside to see what the professor had planned. The professor sat at the massive electron telescope staring into the Eastern night sky.

           “What’s up, Professor Gelding?” he inquired.

           “Walter, my boy, I found a way to power up the wormhole! Here, have a look.”

           Walter stared into the telescope and immediately knew what the professor had in mind. An electromagnetic storm was nearing the city, and if they could harness the power of the lightning, they could create enough energy to complete their experiment.

           “That’s a brilliant idea professor!” Walter exclaimed. “How will you harness the lightning though?”

           “That is the easy part. This observatory is already equipped with several lightning rods and I have connected them all to an inductor unit that I have set up near the site of our experiments. If this fails, then I have a Plan “B” as well.”

           He pointed towards the corner of the room where two suits that resembled Hazmat suits were hanging.

           “If the lightning doesn’t create enough power, then I have prepared a device that will use the energy from a nuclear blast to open the portal for us. Everything is in place. All we need to do now is wait.”

           But how will we know if the portal is open after a nuclear attack? We will be incinerated!”

           “Ah, but I had considered that as well. Underneath us is a bomb shelter that the observatory was built on top of. It can be accessed through a panel on that wall.” he said as he pointed to the West wall. The panel had already been removed, and when Walter looked inside, he saw a spiral staircase leading down into darkness.

           “Do you think that bunker will be able to withstand a nuclear blast, professor?”

           “Theoretically, it should. If not, we won’t need to worry about it for long.”

           The storm neared so the professor and Walter checked the equipment one final time to ensure it was ready, and it appeared to be all good. One strike after another, the lightning traveled through the lightning rods, across cables, and into an inductor which sat fifty-feet from the back steps of the observatory. They watched in amazement as the machine that they co-created started to come to life and out of nowhere, the air around it began to spark. It was like someone was on the other side trying to force their way through a fabric opening as the sky itself had torn open revealing an image of a more peaceful time before the pandemic. People sat in wonder staring into the sky at the billions of stars. Walter and the professor looked at each other then embraced. They had done it. They had created a rift in space and time, but just as fast as their celebration had begun, it ended. The portal had closed as the machine had lost all power.

           “That’s what I was afraid of,” stated the professor somberly. “The charge was powerful enough but did not last long enough.”

           The Emergency Broadcast Alert on their cellphones caught their attention…

           “This is not a test. I repeat this is not a test. Seek shelter immediately. A nuclear attack is imminent for this broadcast area. This is not a test.”

           Walter looked at the professor with concern but Professor Gelding had a smile on his face which caught Walter off-guard.

           “Okay, Walter. It looks like Plan “B” is our only other option. Time to get on your radiation suit and head down into the bunker. I just have one more adjustment to make to the equipment before I follow you.”

           Walter did as the professor suggested and about five-minutes after, the professor joined him and sealed the heavy door behind them. The professor then snapped a glow stick in half causing it to light up the room in an ominous green color. With the flick of a switch, the bunker lit up brighter as the generator kicked in, and filtered/recirculated air began to pump in through the vents. The sound of the blast could even be heard through the six-feet of concrete and twelve-feet of soil above them. The structure rumbled slightly, but it seemed to be holding.

           The professor and Walter waited three days before attempting to leave the shelter, and they prayed that the radiation level wasn’t too high for short-term exposure in the radiation suits. With his Geiger counter in-hand, the professor opened the door. The radiation levels were high enough to kill them, but in the suits, they should be safe for a short time.

           The observatory had been destroyed and the panel that they entered through was now gone completely. All they could see was a hazy sky above with a glowing light in the distance. Once they reached ground-level, they could see that the rift had re-opened and they wasted no time running toward it. People on the other side of the rift looked in terror toward the destruction they were witnessing and they looked even more horrified when Walter and the professor jumped through the portal wearing their radiation suits.

Police and media personalities had begun gathering at the site of this anomaly that had been created. Guns were pointed at the two of them so they raised their hands in surrender and dropped to their knees.

The professor began to call out to the police officer in charge…

“We must speak to someone of importance immediately. As high up as you can go on the political ladder. It is of the utmost importance, I assure you. My name is Professor Theodore Gelding. This is my colleague, Walter Kory. We need to prevent the earth’s destruction. This is not a hoax.”

The police Sergeant would have thought that they were a couple of crazies if he hadn’t witnessed them jumping through a hole from what appeared to be a city that had been destroyed. He took them into custody and had ordered officers to guard the anomaly. They were told to shoot anyone who tried to go through it…from either side.

Walter and the professor had a meeting with Mayor Woodbridge. Her disbelief had been altered after visiting the rift for herself. She then arranged a meeting with the Governor who contacted a Senator, who in turn set up a meeting at the White House with the President and his Chief of Staff.

They de-briefed the President on all that had occurred before the nuclear holocaust. They also told him the name of the government-run pharmaceutical company that was creating this virus in China. According to the news, they had traveled back in time two-years almost to the day. This was before signs of the virus began to emerge. The President took the threat very seriously and had his Chief of Staff make arrangements to investigate their claim immediately.

A few days had passed and intelligence agents had gotten word back to the President that the claims appeared to be true. Evidence was found to support all that the professor and Walter had stated. The pandemic may have been averted.

They were escorted back to the site of the rift on Stargazer Hill Drive. What they saw through the rift had everyone around it staring in amazement. What had once been an area filled with ash and destruction, now stood a new world flourishing with flowers and green grass. Birds whistled joyously in the bright blue skies. A bluebird passed through the rift unaware of what had transpired. Mayor Woodbridge was there to send them off as well. Media cameras filmed the complete event from beginning to end as everyone watched these two men who traveled back from the future to save the world from the apocalypse walk through the portal one last time.

The professor decided to close the rift and destroy his machine so it didn’t fall into the wrong hands. On the front lawn of the observatory, a statue was erected of Walter and Professor Gelding with a plaque that read, “This statue is dedicated to two unlikely heroes who did the impossible to save a dying world. Professor Theodore Gelding and Walter Kory, BS, Ph.D.”