We the People (eBook)

CHAPTER 1

Ed emerged from the wormhole from where he had just left Thomas Jefferson in 1789 and was standing in the room that was his laboratory not so very long ago but in this timeline it never was in the year 2037, the specific instances that had led to him creating the equipment that eventually allowed him to create the device he now wore on his arm to travel through time, had not happened since the last changes with Jefferson. He didn’t know what had happened to the nation outside the walls of the Smithsonian and right now he didn’t really care. Though he didn’t know exactly what time it was, he knew it was late and that most people had gone home, only security personnel would be left at this time of night.

There were just a few things that he needed access to. The new device on his arm could measure and record the tachyon time hack and estimate the number of years between the current time and the time of the state change of the material it is scanning. It could then use that time hack at any instance without having to refocus on the material to open the wormhole. The only limitation was that it still needed an external power source to generate enough charge to engage the system and open the wormhole. Ed estimated that with a few modifications he would be able to hold enough of a charge to be able to accomplish two or maybe three engagements before the power was too low to open up another wormhole. He also calculated that if he designed the power discharge coupling correctly he could open up wormholes of any size he needed based on what he was sending. The larger the wormhole the more power and of course the smaller the wormhole the less power. If his calculations were correct he could open up and target a wormhole from 12 inches to 12 feet in diameter.

There was no such thing as size inside the wormhole, it was only the event horizon on each end that took the power to generate. The event horizon on each end was a mirror of the other and transition through was almost instantaneous before the two ends closed at the same instant. An event horizon was not an opening to a funnel or tunnel or like one of the slides on a children’s playground where you jumped into the top end and then slid round and round until you dumped out the bottom. A wormhole is more like the surface of a pond where you entered and then emerged on the other side. It has no real thickness or depth. The momentum that you possess upon entering the wormhole, you carry through to the other side. It is much more like an open door but you can’t see the other side, you have to take a leap of faith as you jump into it in hopes that the fall will not n

be too devastating. Because it is an opening it cannot open up into a solid or a liquid of any substance. It will always open up into the emptiest space in the vicinity of the original location and time of the substance being targeted to establish a lock on the tachyon time hack.

As quietly as he could, Ed slid the door of the room to the side and peaked out into the hallway. There was nobody that could be seen, so he stepped out and reclosed the door. He walked down the hallway and over to the bank of elevators. He watched for a moment to see if any were in operation and when he was sure that there was no one in them he turned to the staircase and made his way up to the janitor’s office and smiled when he saw Thom’s throne sitting in the break area. He grabbed one of Thom’s janitor coveralls and put it on so that even if someone did see him, they would think it was a janitor working late and it covered up the device on his left arm. Then he pushed one of the cleaning carts in front of him as he started down the hallway. The Smithsonian is such a huge building with so many different displays that it took a while for Ed to find the ones he was looking for even though he had worked in the building before.

The first display that he knew he had to find was the one that contained the artifacts from before human habitation of New Zealand. This was not a permanent display but as luck would have it, it was out. Ed walked up to it and started looking for the items he remembered. It was sitting in a section of the display on the extinct birds of the southern island. The large bird skull had been found in the mountains just south of Christchurch and had been dated to being from between 200 and 300 A.D. Ed focused the device on it and copied the tachyon time hack. He would now be able to create a wormhole to that time and location anytime he wanted to.

Ed then began looking for the other display that he wanted to see on this night. But as he searched from hallway to hallway and floor to floor, he realized that it wasn’t where it had been in the previous timeline. He was so focused on his task that he didn’t hear the person walking up behind him.

“What the hell are you still doing here?” The security guard asked.

Ed spun around, “Just trying to get shit done so I don’t get in trouble.”

“If the folks up in the Executive Suite knew you were down here at night without advance permission, you would be in trouble. What’s your name?”

Ed smiled. “I’m Ed, you know, the new guy that Thom brought in. Yeah I suppose you are right but I was told to clean the Viking display and the Jefferson display but then I forgot…you ain’t gonna write me up are you?…” Ed tried to remember the guy’s name… “Bob?”

“I don’t want to deal with the paperwork and besides you are not in a secure area. The problem that you got and the reason you didn’t get your shit done is because the Viking display is in prep room one and Jefferson is in three. Come on, I will walk you down there and open the doors, but when you are done you have to promise to relock them on your way out.” They talked as they walked.

“You betcha Bob, I really appreciate this. I would hate to get my ass chewed just because I didn’t know where stuff is.” Ed stated.

“No problemma, but next time come and let me know first so I don’t get an alarm going off or some shit down here. I just about pissed myself when I walked up on ya not knowing you were here.” Bob replied.

Ed laughed a bit to release the tension. “Sorry dude, it won’t happen again.”

“Yeah…you bet yer ass it won’t! How long have you known Thom?”

“For a while I guess…a little over a year.”

“You ever sit in the throne?” Bob asked with a smile.

“I hate that damn thing! Once you get in its all comfy, but when you try to get out, you are just about stuck!”

Bob laughed. “Yeah it only took me only one time to figure that out. Sat down in it to take a little nap one night when I was exhausted but when I got up I had to climb over the arm to escape. I ended up on the floor. How the hell does that big man do it?”

“He maybe old but he is strong…and he kinda has a process.”

They stopped at a door just down the hall from the expedition staging room where teams of archeologists would get their equipment ready to go out on a dig. Bob pulled out his keys and unlocked it. He swung it open and turned on the light. It was a large room filled with display cases.

Bob just shook his head. “How they expect you to get this done on your own. You could work all night and not finish!”

“Well, I plan to just work for a while so that they can see that something was done and then go home. That way I can say that I worked on it and not be lying. Nothing Thom hates more than a liar!”

Bob nodded his head in the affirmative. “When you are ready to go, just lock up and pull the door closed.”

“Sure, you want me to come and let you know when I am leaving?”

“Yeah, I think that would be best. You got a car in the garage or the lot?” Bob asked.

“Nope, just riding the bus.”

“That’s good…that way nobody will see ya leave. Well, good luck and see ya later.”

“See ya Bob…and thanks!” Ed responded.

Bob closed the door as he left and Ed could hear his footsteps echo down the hallway as he walked away. They got quieter and quieter the further he walked. Ed breathed a sigh of relief. It had actually been lucky that Bob had found him. He would have never found the displays on his own. He began looking for the items that he wanted. There were writings and clothing from different periods ranging from around 100 A.D. up through the middle ages from Norway, Sweden, Denmark and even Iceland. He scanned each one and set their tachyon time hacks in the devices memory with a listing of what it was. It took almost two hours to dig through all the cases. When he was done he opened the door and pushed the cleaning cart back out into the hallway and over to prep room 3. In one of the cases he saw what he was looking for…Jefferson’s diary, and he stuffed it into his pocket. As he walked back to the janitor’s office he stopped every now and then to add another item into the memory. As he walked past the Early Man display he stopped and just for the fun of it gauged the tachyon time. The skull of the Neanderthal was over 15,000 years old but Ed set it in the memory. He then aimed the device at a Woolly Mammoth and it showed over 12,000 years. He set that hack in the memory as well.

Once he had stowed the cart away, he walked back up to the security...