Time Camp Episode 1: Family Time (4 page)

Liz commented, “Not bad. I knew I was out of place in the mall, but I was conscious of needing to be inconspicuous. I guess since it was so recent, I didn’t feel too strange.”

“Tom, how about you?” asked Brad.

“It was good. I’m still getting used to the whole time travel thing, but I really got into the experience. I was suprisingly moved by the whole inauguration ceremony.”

“I noticed that about both of you, and that’s a good attribute. Observers are prized for their emotional responses to historical events. It really enhances the sensory experience.”

“Just who are these people in the future that made the Guild? Have you ever met them?” asked Liz.

Brad shook his head. “There’s a huge separation between us and Era 50, the tattooed ones. Beyond them, the gaps get bigger and bigger as humanity evolves and diverges. They are still human, still us, but communication is very difficult. To help with communication, there are actually translators at both sides of each of the Era boundaries, people who specialize in translating from one Era to another. I’m afraid it would be about as easy for us to communicate with Era 60 people as it would be for us to talk to whales.”

“Whoah. That’s pretty strange. When will someone explain these Eras to us?” asked Tom.

Brad replied, “Soon. It’s part of Time Camp training, and that’s your next decision. “

“Explain Time Camp for us,” asked Tom.

“Well,” said Brad, “It’s an orientation program where you learn how to be observers on your own. You’ll need to be taught some things, and you’ll receive your enhancements. These will prepare you to travel and operate as observers in time.”

“We’re still a bit freaked out by the whole enhancement thing, but it feels like you guys know what you are doing,” said Liz.

“I do, we all do, and we have been recruiting in various eras for many thousands of years. We’ll take good care of you!”

“Thanks, we appreciate that,” said Tom, yawning. “Can we get some shuteye? I’m bushed!”

“I hear ya. Let’s pick this up tomorrow. And I’m even going to sleep this time!” said Brad.

They all smiled, and the Watsons headed off to their suite for a good meal and some rest.

Chapter 12: Commitment

They slept well and in the morning after a magically fast breakfast delivery, were met by Brad, wearing a fresh outfit. He also had a young lady with him.

“Tom, Liz, meet Kara. If you sign up for Prime Mission, she’ll take you through Time Camp and get you ready. Let’s go to my office,” said Brad.

Off they went to Brad’s office. He took orders for coffee and seconds later, an orderly arrived with excellent drinks for everyone. As they sat drinking coffee, Kara introduced herself.

“I’m from California, born 2010, and recruited 2030. I’m single, and loving the temporal life. So are you ready to jump in the pool?” asked Kara.

“What’s involved? We went on our Observation Mission and I guess the next step is Prime Mission?” asked Liz.

“Well, the next step is Time Camp training. It gets you ready for your Prime Mission. But this is kind of the ‘point of no return’. You are either in or out at this point. Are you ready to commit?” asked Kara.

Tom and Liz exchanged glances. They had talked it over extensively in their suite. They were very much excited by the promise of adventure, and were ready to go. “Yes!” they both said. “But we miss the kids terribly. We would like to get back as soon as possible.”

“Great!” exclaimed Kara. “I assure you that the training will proceed quickly and you’ll be back to your family right on schedule.”

Brad gleamed, and congratulated them. “I’ll see you after training. Good Luck!” he said. Kara led Tom and Liz out of the office and down the hall.

Kara took them to the operations center. “Melissa, please set us up for Time Camp, Era 47 registration.”

“Era 47 registration. Booth 12. Return in +1?”, asked Melissa.

“Booth 12, return +1, have a Good Day”, said Kara and led the couple off to booth 12.

Back in the living room, the family took a collective breath.

“Holy crap,” said Laura. “This is getting deep. You’re telling us you stayed in some hotel in the middle of time, went back to Barack’s inauguration, and are now headed off to some camp?”

“You bet, kiddo. It gets better. You ready?” said Tom.

Andy piped in. “Let’s take a potty break. This sounds like it could take a while.”

“Granted. Let’s meet back here in 10 minutes. We’ll make some sandwiches and get ready for round 2,” said their mother.

In a short while, in which no one said a word, they were all back on the couch with sodas and sandwiches, ready for the next part of the story.

Chapter 13: Time Camp

Upon entering booth 12, the trio was zoomed off to a new destination. When the gateway opened, the room was huge and filled with a brilliant light streaming in from a huge clear domed ceiling, which was at least a 200 feet tall and nearly a quarter mile across. There were hundreds of people milling about, in a variety of clothing styles. Entrance booths appeared around much of one side, and passages headed off in many directions, with signs above each in a variety of languages. Tom and Liz noticed that most of the people in the area were adults, with very few children present.

“This looks like the same place we came from. Where is this? Or When is this?” asked Tom.

“You are right, it’s the same place, but a much different time, about 10,000 years later. We bring new recruits in at times of low activity. This is our main Placetime for Era 47 operations.”

“It’s about two and a half million years in your past, in a very neutral location that will, in your time, be buried under a mile of ice. We use it as a station for training so we don’t have to maintain a strong temporal field around it.” replied Kara.

“Does everyone who comes to Time Camp come here, and now? Wouldn’t it get crowded?” asked Liz.

“Great question. No, people come here at staggered times, but they are divided by Eras. The entire place gets torn down and rebuilt about every 50,000 years to accommodate visitors from different Eras, as they have very different needs. For example, we need very different atmospheres for beings from Era 53 and beyond. It’s complicated, but understand that not all of our ‘visitors’ from the future breathe Oxygen,” commented Kara.

“Curiouser and Curiouser,” moaned Tom. Liz nodded in agreement, and they followed Kara into the massive station.

Kara said, “Your first stop will be Medical, followed by Enhancements. Since your Prime Mission will be in your Era, you won’t need education. I’ll be with you the whole time, so you don’t need to worry.”

At Medical, they were introduced to a small Asian woman named Jade. “Good to see you again, Tom and Liz. I will take your medical profile”, she said.

“What do you mean again?” asked Liz.

Jade chuckled. “Sorry. You’ll get used to that. We’re very good friends in your future. This happens to be the first time you have seen me, but I’ve known you for years. If this timeline stays solid, you’ll be the sponsor parents of my daughter Lindsay.”

“My head is spinning, but we’ll take your word for it,” laughed Liz.

They submitted to a barrage of tests with equipment that they did not recognize. Tom asked, “What is this stuff?”

Jade said, “The best primitive equipment that they could make for us Level 47’s. Without full Level 50+ enhancements, this is the limit of what we can comprehend. It does fully interface with Level 50 and beyond, so they know what we are testing and how to interpret it.”

“So do we pass?” asked Tom.

“With flying colors,” replied Jade. “Now on to Enhancements if you’re ready”.

“I guess so, we’re pretty nervous about this”, said Liz. Tom nodded in agreement.

“Not to worry. The Enhancements have been grown for a year and tested on an analog of your body, so there’s no risk of rejection or malfunction,” commented Jade.

“A year? Oh, wait, the time thing. We get it. It’s still a bit strange,” said Tom.

They went across the hall to Enhancements, with Jade leading the way. She had them sit, and gave them each a cup of liquid to drink, and a tissue. “It’s a bit primitive but it works,” said Jade.

“What’s the tissue for?” asked Liz.

“As soon as you swallow the liquid, the agents will incorporate themselves into your cerebral-neural system. The signal of incorporation will um, come out your nose.”

“Hmm, OK,” said Tom. He took the drink in one swallow, and before he could set the glass down, he sneezed violently into the tissue.

“Look at it,” said Jade. It was of course snotty, but bright purple. “Purple is Good. Orange is Bad,” said Jade. “Orange means the match didn’t work, and we’d have to try again.”

Liz did the same. Sneeze, Purple, Good!

Tom said, “I don’t feel different. Did it work?”

Kara said, “We haven’t turned them on yet. You might want to sit down.”

They sat down on the chairs nearby. “Ready?” asked Jade. They nodded their assent.

Kara and Jade looked at each other and nodded. Immediately, Tom and Liz experienced a flood of sensations that left them reeling – motion, thoughts, sounds, sights, sensations.

Jade hollered to them over the roar, “Think ENHANCEMENTS OFF!”

They both thought *ENHANCEMENTS OFF*, and immediately, the sensations disappeared.

It took a bit of time for them to recover. Once they had their bearings back, they asked “What in the blazes was that?”

Jade replied, “These enhancements are very complex, but at their core, they provide four functions. One is a temporal flow detector, to let you know how strong the time flow is around you, and to warn you of impending temporal violations. It’s called the Timeline ability. The second one allows you to record sensations that you are experiencing – that’s the main purpose of the enhancements. The third lets you communicate with anyone and anything that is enhancement enabled while you are on a mission. And the fourth will control certain biological functions while you are on a mission.”

“I’m not so sure I want all of that control inside of me!” exclaimed Liz. She was visibly upset.

“Please relax. You will have complete control over most of these functions, once you learn to talk to them. Over the next two weeks, you will learn how to use and control them. They will become second nature to you, I promise. For now, I will disable them so you don’t have any problems until we meet tomorrow.”

Jade led them to a suite similar to the one at Recruitment, where they wearily drifted off to sleep. When they awoke and emerged, Kara was right there. “So, ready for Enhancement training?” she asked.

“I guess so. Time to tame the beasts within,” commented Tom. Kara led them back to Jade, who was their coach for the Enhancement training.

The next week was taken up with intense sessions where they learned to turn on and off the various senses, and, strangely enough, to be able to communicate with each other without speaking!

The first thing they learned was that the Timeline and biological controls were pretty much unconscious and automatic. The temporal controls showed them how strong the critical timelines were to any place they were, so they knew which places or actions to avoid in order to avoid disrupting the time line. Of course inside Time Camp, they needed a simulator to provide that input, but they learned how to deal with it in any case.

The biological controls were pretty much automatic, although they could control some of them. The main function was to make the travellers sterile while on a trip, so they couldn’t have or make children in a strange time. It also served to make them aware of impending infections, and render them harmless or minimize the symptoms and effects of toxic substances.

They learned how to turn on and off the experiential recording that was the critical portion of their roles as temporal observers. Once on, it would record all of their experiences. They learned that they alone could control exactly how much of that recorded information was transferred back to headquarters when they returned from a trip. That gave them some degree of comfort knowing that their personal experiences weren’t totally open to the observation of some anonymous future people!

The last area of training was on communications. They learned how to communicate mentally with each other, first by announcing their availability to communicate, and then by initiating and accepting a communication link with each other, or with intelligent devices in the vicinity.

At first, they were on a restricted access, so they didn’t interrupt other people or devices in the Time Camp station. Once they learned how to control their access, they were granted more access by Jade to the devices, and eventually to more people in Time Camp.

As they worked to master their communication ability, they were introduced to other new visitors to Time Camp and spent time interfacing with them. They learned how to control the amount and speed of transfer of information, and to accept greater volumes of information from other senders, and to automatically control the flow. By the end of the two weeks, they had very good control of all of the aspects of their enhancements: biological, Timeline, recording and communication.