“Why can’t they travel back within the last one-hundred-twenty-five years?” Elko asked.
“The time travel law states that there should be no possibility of interfering with the past of anyone alive in the present,” John told him. “It’s one in a series of laws restricting what Technica can do with time travel.”
“It’s also one we can definitely use to our advantage,” Franz said. “Give me a day or so to work out the details. I think we can do it.” He nodded to himself, looking more cheerful than Elko had ever seen him. “I think it is entirely possible.”
#
It was two weeks later when they made their move. Elko was walking down the ramp from the fifth level commons to the Temporal Studies Complex, as planned, when he ran into Professor Raymond Burns. “Hello Elko. Looking for me?”
Elko fidgeted. “Not really.”
“Where are you going, then?”
“I was going to go take a look at the time devices. To observe.”
“You don’t have access, Elko.”
“Oh.” Actually Elko did have access, as Franz had raised Elko’s access level in the computer system. He couldn’t tell that to Raymond, though.
Raymond looked at his watch. “Actually, my schedule’s free for the next hour. Come with me, I’ll give you a personal tour.”
Unable to think of a reasonable reason not to accept, Elko went along with him. The guard door took Raymond’s full hand print, voice print, and retinal scan before letting them inside.
Beyond was a curved hallway which encircled the high-energy fusion plant, and which led to each of the three surrounding temporal study labs. While Raymond paused and was explaining something about the power plant, Elko caught a glimpse of Franz in the corridor ahead. He’d seen Raymond and ducked back around the curve, out of sight. After a few moments both Franz and John came into sight, walking quickly around the curve toward them. They had Raymond surrounded before he recognized either of them.
“My goodness, what are you two doing here?” Raymond asked.
John grabbed the back of Raymond’s suit collar and pressed a ball-point pen against Raymond’s head. “You feel that?” John said.
“That’s a cerebral disrupter set at full. Don’t force me to scramble your cortex.”
“What is this?” Raymond said, his voice rising in astonishment. “What do you think you’re doing?!”
“Keep silent and do as we tell you.”
“What are you doing?” Elko exclaimed.
“We only have five minutes to get out of here,” Franz told him. “We have no other choice but to take him with us.”
“Take me?” Raymond said. “Take me where?” Already they were dragging him down the hall to the door of the closest temporal study lab.
Elko watched in confusion and horror. “We can’t take him with us!”
“If we let him go, we won’t get out of here,” Franz said.
“The options are that we give up, or we let him go and get caught, or we take him with us, or we kill him.”
“Kill me!? Don’t do that!”
“Only if you force us to,” John said, winking at Franz. He still had the ball-point pen pressed against the back of Raymond’s head. They entered Temporal Transfer Chamber #1 and John forced Raymond to lie face-down on the floor, his hands together behind his head. “Elko, keep him covered. If he tries anything, push this button.” Out of Raymond’s sight, he handed Elko the pen and winked several times.
Deception! Elko’s mind shouted. Subterfuge! He nodded and sat down on Raymond’s shoulders, the pen pressed against the back of the Professor’s head. John and Franz disappeared out of the chamber to set the final variables.
“Elko, why are you a part of this?” Raymond whispered. “What do you hope to accomplish?”
“We’re quitting Technica.”
“My God, why?”
“Corruption and hypocrisy.”
The skin on the back of Raymond’s neck was flushing a deep red. “You think you can escape corruption and hypocrisy by leaving Technica?!” he said. “Good luck, Elko. Good goddamn luck! If there’s one thing I’ve learned in all the studies of man throughout the ages, is that there is no escape from corruption and hypocrisy!”
“I don’t doubt this,” Elko said. “We want to leave nonetheless.”
“Elko, you can’t get away with it. Think about it. They’ll know where you went simply by watching you go with one of the other time devices. You can’t escape, it’s impossible!”
“Franz thinks differently.”
“It’s madness, Elko! If you let me go, I can end this and I’ll make sure you’re not a part of it. I can keep you clear from it.”
“Sorry, Raymond.”
“You owe it to me! I saved your life!”
“I had no choice in the matter. You did it without asking me.
It was my time to die, and you took it away. You gained from it.
You. Not me. All for you. Then you threatened my life. I owe you nothing, Raymond.”
The others came back down the ladder. “It’s all set,” John said. “The transfer will take place any second now.”
“Where are we going?” Elko said.
“Well, we don’t precisely know,” John admitted. “Franz had to program a random variable into it to prevent them from finding us.”
“You can’t prevent them from finding you!” Raymond yelled.
“You idiots! They’re watching us right now!”
“If they are, they’re breaking the law,” John told him. “You should know that.”
“They can still track you down!”
“Not if we travel to a destination within the blackout zone.”
“You can’t travel within the blackout zone.”
Franz smiled. “You can if you reprogram the central computer.”
There was a deep puffing sound, like air suddenly escaping out of a big tank, and a sudden, intense concussion like being in a train wreck. All of them fell a foot or so onto hot dry soil, and there was a half-dozen startled screams. Robes fluttering in the wind, a crowd of people scattered away from them, heading in all directions.
John pushed himself up into a sitting position, and dusted off his jacket. “Say,” he said, “Franz, this doesn’t look like the blackout zone to me.”
Raymond got to his feet, staring off at the people they’d just frightened. “You idiots! I can’t believe you pulled this stunt!”
John helped both Franz and Elko to their feet. Elko stared around him, feeling like he was in a dream. The barren landscape above and the farm fields below were all very familiar.
“All that I was saying,” Franz said, “were things I had to say, because Technica will hear it. It is not the truth.”
“I should say not!” Raymond said. “This is the cradle of civilization. Technica’s going to be here any second to take us back. You idiots!”
Elko looked longingly at the farmland.
“I couldn’t actually disable the blackout program,” Franz told John. “But I could make it look like I did. My program chose this destination, sent us here, erased itself, and then crashed the computer. It’ll be days before they’ll be able to get it going again, and there’s no way for them to see where we went. They’d have to scan all of time.”
“That’s what you think,” Raymond said. “They’ll find us any second.”
“You scanned this region yourself during your project, Raymond. Did you ever see us here?”
Raymond started a reply, but stopped, his mouth hanging open.
“You fools! You idiots!” He turned away from them, raging. “You’ve stranded us here! Here! Look at that village, Elko hasn’t even invented the wheel yet! Of all the places you could have picked, you stranded us in this place!”
“It’s the cradle of civilization,” Franz said defensively.
“Where else would we have greater opportunities? We have all of history ahead of us.”
“Idiots!”
John looked bemused. “Well, I suppose to survive we’re going to have to start some sort of enterprise. Elko my friend,” he said, patting him on the shoulder, “let’s go build you a pottery shop somewhere. Once we get ourselves established, I’ll run for office.” He and Franz laughed. Elko, still dazed, managed a smile.
They headed off over the hill with Raymond, still cursing and grumbling, tagging behind.
#
It was a year later when a young Elko, awakened from his sleep by strange noises, looked out his window and saw the nomads and their strange contraption. An oxen driven cart – on wheels – with the strange markings painted on the side: “John & Franz’s Traveling Medicine Show” Of course the young Elko couldn’t read Esperanto. He was fascinated by the wheels though, as the cart lumbered past and disappeared into the gloom. He returned to his bed and fell asleep, the thought still in his head. Round things spinning, turning, moving …