 
What others are saying about "IMPOSSIBLE JOURNEY, A Tale of Times And Truth::

"Impossible Journey is reminiscent of The Time Machine by H. G. Wells with a unique Christian twist."

\---Tami Brady

### IMPOSSIBLE JOURNEY

### A TALE OF TIMES AND TRUTH

BY JAMES M. BECHER

2nd edition published by James M. Becher at Smashwords

Copyright © 2005 by James M. Becher

Smashwords License Notes:

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

DEDICATIONS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank the following people whom the LORD God used to help make this possible and I dedicate this book to all of them:

(1) To David Lipscome of St.Petersburg, Florida for giving me the very basic idea for this story.

(2) To Sacha and Isabel Simone of Caracas, Venezuela, for the use of their computer to write most of this book while my wife and I were there.

(3) To Sean Gallagan who, upon my return to the U.S., when I tried to buy a computer without sufficient funds or established credit, brought a computer to my house and said that the LORD told him to give it to me, thus enabling me to finish and publish this book.

(4) And last, but certainly not least, to my dear wife, Berenice for all her help and encouragement throughout

### IMPOSSIBLE JOURNEY

A TALE OF TIMES AND TRUTH

CHAPTER 1: THE IDEA

Imagine if you will: The year is 2025. The possibility of time travel has been theoretically proven and is accepted without question by the scientific community at large, although it has yet to be demonstrated by actual experience. The world is standing on tiptoe.

Today is Monday, June 2nd, the date set for the annual meeting of the World Scientific Society. This particular meeting is destined to be different from past meetings. Its outcome will affect certain of the society's members in ways that they cannot now imagine. The revolutionary events detailed here will all happen as a direct result of a simple question which is about to be asked by the chairman Mr. John Sterghean of Switzerland. After the group has chatted idly for some time about various diseases illnesses, and problems, he suddenly strikes the gavel on the table and cleared his throat. When everything is silent, he speaks.

"Gentlemen, we have been discussing various individual diseases, illnesses, and problems. But let me set before you a question which is crucial to them all. Gentlemen, what do you see as the main cause of disease and evil in the world?"

The members sit in silence, each one pondering the answer to the question. The group includes Walter Bryant, from Germany, William Nifang, from Japan, Kerry Nadine, from Saudi Arabia, David Sung, from China and Allen Daniel Cohen from the USA. All of them have given their lives to the betterment of mankind through scientific pursuit.

It is Cohen who finally speaks. "It seems to me that the main cause of disease and evil in the world is sin."

"And, just what do you mean by 'sin'?" asks the chairman, smiling. "Please define your terms."

"By 'sin,' I mean a failure to conform to the law and precepts of Almighty God."

"I'm sure we would all agree with that, responds the chairman. "We all believe in a God, although we may call him by different names. To you, he is JHWH, to Kerry, he is Allah, to Will, he is Buddha, and to David, he is Confucius. So then, my friends, we all agree with brother Daniel's proposal do we not?"

All nod in agreement.

"But, objects Walt, "This is a scientific gathering, not a theological one. I'm sure you have a point."

"I do, affirms John, "and a very poignant one, if you'll just bear with me. But, where did this failure to comply, this 'sin' as you call it, originate?"

Mr. A. Daniel Cohen thinks for a moment and then reaches his hand into his coat pocket. "Gentlemen, if I may,--." He pulls out a pocket edition of the Hebrew Torah. "Allow me to offer a rough translation."

John nods in approval and Daniel begins translating:

"Now the serpent was the smartest of all the beasts. And he said to the woman, 'Does God really say you should not eat of every tree in the Garden?' And the woman said to the serpent...'of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said we shall not eat of, neither touch it, lest we die.' And the serpent said to the woman, you shall not surely die for God knows that in the day you eat of it you'll be like gods...And the woman took the fruit of the tree and gave also unto her husband and they ate."

As Daniel translates, John notices the light of recognition dawning on the faces of the others.

"Ah yes, affirms Walt. I remember that. It's part of the E document, I believe."

"It's from the 'In the beginning'," asserts Kerry.

"Ah! We have some sort of story like that in our ancient Japanese literature," says Will.

"Chinese likewise," agrees David.

"But, the point?!" objects Walt.

John smiles broadly. "The point, my friends, is simply this: What do you think can be done about the situation?"

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is, do you think, in the light of our present knowledge, that we could possibly do anything to change the situation?"

There is a brief moment of silence, and then David speaks

"Well, in the light of our present knowledge of time travel, I suppose we could possibly attempt to go back to that time and warn the people involved, so they never make the fatal mistake. And then, everything would be different."

"Exactly!" exclaims John.

"But, protests Daniel, "time travel has not been fully proven as yet—-that is, it hasn't been tested."

"Perhaps," suggests John, "because there hasn't been enough of a motive, yet."

"But," objects Walt, "even if it is possible to go back in time, we don't know how far back we could go, or even if we could control our landing point. Suppose we land just after this fall you read about, and can't go back to the time before it."

"My friends," affirms John, "The question of controlling the local destination of time leaps is what I've been working on for the past five years; and I believe I've finally gotten it pretty well figured out. You simply vary the intensity of the horizontal thrust in accordance with the calculated rotation of the earth in relation to the time platform. The temporal locator works pretty much the same way. But, so far, with our present thrust capabilities, it seems it would only be possible to go back 200 years more or less in one leap."

"So," observes Will, "we'd have to go back in leaps of 200 years each, and, at the next to last jump, we'd make the calculations, and set the coordinates in order to arrive at our exact destination point."

"Exactly! And with the right calculations and the right settings, the time and location could be controlled within a few days and a few feet. By setting the dial enough ahead of our desired time goal, we'd give ourselves a good margin of error."

"Sounds like you've really thought this thing through," observes Walt.

"I certainly have. I've been waiting for this meeting to present this idea."

"But, even if we test it and we find it works," asserts Kerry, "if we were to send someone back in time, there's a good possibility they might not return. We should all be aware of that."

"The question is, my friends," John's voice rings out loud and clear, "whether we see the goal as being worth the risk. Think of it, my friends! Think of being able to change the course of world history--being able to eliminate all sickness, disease and evil--to make it as though it never happened."

"Do you really think we could do it?"

Again, John's voice is strong and assertive. "If there is a chance that it can be done, wouldn't it be worth trying?"

"It would be like ushering in Paradise!"

"Well, I guess it does deserve a try."

"But where would we get the money for such a project?" asks Walt, who has been waiting for a break in the conversation to insert this matter of practicality. "We could each contribute something, but how far would that go?"

"We will have to find some financial backing from somewhere." agrees David.

Daniel's face, which had been drawn in thought, suddenly lights up. "How about that wealthy financier, Mark Lewis? He's interested in matters of this sort."

"But do you think he'd be willing to back such a project as this?"

"We'd have to do our best to connive him of the usefulness and feasibility of our plan."

"Well then," John strikes the gavel again. "Let's try to work out the details first, and then adjourn to the home of Mark Lewis."

All agree.

After several hours of concentrated effort, they have a fairly workable plan in hand.

CHAPTER 2: THE PLAN

As they approach the huge brick house, they are still talking among themselves, obviously excited, like children on their first trip to the circus.

"Think of it! Being able to go back and visit the various eras of history!"

"What a thrill!"

"Perhaps we would have done it anyway, sooner or later, for the pure thrill of it all. But now we have a reason--a purpose, in addition."

"You say we can go back 200 years in one leap?"

"Give or take 50 years based on our present knowledge. But, perhaps with the application of more force, we could increase the distance slightly."

"We could make it a fact-finding tour as well, to note any unwritten details of historical interest we may stumble across."

"Who knows what new insights we might discover!"

"Gentlemen, Gentlemen!" The chairman's voice rings out above the din. "It seems it would be best to hold our excitement until after our visit with Mr. Lewis."

"True, true. Do you think he will grant us the funds?"

"Oh, he must, he must!"

By this time, they have reached the front steps of the big, imposing looking house, with its huge columns and statuary. Suddenly, the door flies open revealing an imposing figure in a smoking jacket, standing there with a cigar in one hand and a brandy snuffer in the other.

"Gentlemen, Gentlemen! What's all this excitement about?"

"Invite us in, and we'll tell you all about it, Mark."

"It must be something important to merit a visit from all of you at once." He extends his arm, glass and all, in a gesture of welcome.

They enter and seat themselves on the two plush sofas which line the walls.

"Something to drink, Gentlemen?" offers Mark.

"Perhaps some wine would be in order," suggests John.

All nod in agreement.

Their host pours the wine and seats himself on a movable chair which he positions in such a way as to be able to see the whole group at a glance. "And now, to what do I owe the honor of this visit?"

"Well, it's just an idea--a concept."

"But one that could change the whole course of human history if it works."

"Plus, we may find new items of historical value on the way."

"It's the most exciting concept ever—"

"Gentlemen, Gentlemen! One at a time please!"

"Yeah! Since you're the chairman, John, why don't you do the talking?"

"All right! Well, it all started with the question of the origin of evil. And then we decided to put our present knowledge of time travel to work in an attempt to change the course of history."

Mark smiles as he blows out a big puff of smoke from his cigar. "Time travel, eh? I've read that it has been proven theoretically. I don't quite understand what that means. But anyway, about the other thing you said: you mentioned something about changing the course of human history. Just what do you mean by that?"

"Well, let me ask you, Mark, what in your opinion is the origin of disease and evil in the world?"

"Well, I never thought of that before." Mark Lewis puts his finger to his lips and thinks deeply on the matter.

"Wouldn't you say it would be the failure to comply with the Divine law, which failure, call it what you will, is very much a part of us all?"

"Sounds reasonable." Mark takes a sip of his brandy.

"I mean, you do believe in God, don't you?"

"Why, sure! I'm a Jew, like Cohen here."

"Ever read the third Chapter of Genesis?" asks Daniel.

"I never bother reading the Bible. I leave that to the Rabbis."

"John gestures to Cohen. "Read it to him, Dan."

Daniel reads, or rather translates, the scripture again. As he does So, Mark re-lights his cigar, which had gone out. As the translation finishes, he takes a big puff, blows the smoke out slowly and says, "Yeah, O.K. So, get to the point."

"The point is that if we could go back there to that time, we could warn those people and thus prevent the whole thing."

"We would be able to eliminate all evil and disease from the world!"

"Gentlemen!" With a look of astonishment in his eyes, Mark sets his glass on the table and flicks the ashes off of the end of his cigar. "Gentlemen, are you serious?!"

"Very much so!"

"But time travel has been proven only theoretically, not as an actual fact."

"Well, that's exactly what we intend to do." John sips his wine for a moment and then continues. "Perhaps the reason it hasn't been proven in actuality so far is that there hasn't been enough motivation. Well, now we have the motivation."

"Think of it," adds Will, "the whole course of history! No more sickness, disease, or evil, no more war or killings, no more misery of any kind, because no more sin!"

"Now wait just a minute!" Mark takes a sip of his brandy and another puff on his cigar. "Let me see if I can grasp the whole picture here. What you're saying is that by a single act of communication on your part, once you get to where you're going, all of history will be changed. Is that correct?"

"That's it!"

"--So that when you arrive back here, things will be different in all three tenses, so that not only will our time be different, but also the history books will be different, and the future will be different than it otherwise would have been."

"Exactly!"

"Boggles your mind, doesn't it?"

Mark takes a rather large gulp from his brandy snuffer. "Are you certain that such a change is possible, or that it would indeed result from your activity?"

"We are certain of nothing. But, if there's a chance, isn't it worth it?"

"Well, I admit that the prospect does sound promising." Mark sets his brandy snuffer on the table and takes another puff on his cigar. "But, how sure are you that you will be able to go back to that particular time?"

John sips his wine and sets his glass back on the table. "At our present state of experimentation, there's about an 80 percent chance."

Mark shrugs his shoulders. "High enough to run with."

"But, there are two drawbacks. Number one is that with our present thrust capabilities, we could go back probably only about 200 years at a time, give or take 50 years. Thus, new coordinates would have to be set at every stop. Also, the thrust would tend to partially destroy the cylinder, so that we'd have to repair it each time before attempting to go back further. The repair material (as lightweight as possible) and the fuel supply (powdered fuel, of course, to be mixed with water at every stop) would be carried with us in the cylinder, thus adding to the weight and helping to limit the thrust capability. Thus, with each stop, we should be able to go back a little further than the last one."

"Sounds like you've got this pretty well figured out."

"We worked things out a little before coming here."

"But, you said the time cylinder could go back only about 200 years at a time?"

"Based on the necessary size and weight, and the resultant thrust capabilities, that is our present estimate."

"Let's see--that would mean a total of--." Mark's brow wrinkles as he tries to calculate.

But John has the answer already at hand. "--A total of 60 leaps back--give or take a few."

Now, instead of being drawn inward, Mark's eyebrows are raised upward. "--A project which could cost millions." He pauses to sip his brandy and the silence is almost tangible.

"You mentioned two drawbacks. What's the other one?"

"Nothing that' should concern you, really. Just that there is no guarantee that whoever goes will make it back to the present time."

Mark leans forward intently. "And you are willing to take that risk?" His eyes scan the group.

All nod and some say verbally "We are!"

He sits back and puffs his cigar once more. "Well, I see you are truly serious about this. But tell me, exactly how does this time travel work? I'm not too familiar with it."

"Well, to move through time, you need three things: a high-speed revolving room with a high ratio of movement, a strong magnetic field with high- density flux lines and an alternating electrical energy field of resonant frequency equal to that of the person or object which is to move through time. Does this have you entirely confused?"

"Not entirely. I can understand some of what you're saying from my limited knowledge of physics." Mark reaches for his brandy snuffer and takes another sip. "I suppose it does sound feasible enough. But how do you know exactly where and when the scene that you read to me took place? And how can you arrange to arrive there precisely?"

John has also been sipping from his glass and now places it back on the table. "Of course no one knows the exact time or location of the Garden of Eden, but we have enough information about the time and location and have built into our plan enough margin of error in regard to time and location that we can be reasonably assured of success. Of course, we will have to be especially careful in making the calculations and setting the coordinates at the next to the last stop. But, to give you more information without going into the technical end of it--"

Daniel interrupts "Recent archeological finds tell us that the location of Eden was somewhere in the present day country of Armenia, and the time was approximately 6000 years ago."

Mark now has a puzzled look on his face as he tries to re-light his cigar. "But I can't see how you can be assured of arriving close enough to the spot to--"

John raises his finger as if making a point. "Without going into a lot of detailed scientific explanation, we shall have to calculate the rotation of the earth in relation to the location of the time cylinder. Then we can attempt, by varying the intensity of the horizontal thrust and carefully setting the coordinates, to direct the location of each backward jump so that each one will bring us closer, not only in time but in location as well, to our desired destination."

"This would have to be done quite carefully at each landing point," interjects Walt, "with an eye to earthquakes or other natural phenomena which may be present."

"Walt and Will shall work together on the calculations," adds John.

"Well!" Having managed to re-light the cigar, Mark takes a big puff and slowly blows out the smoke. "Well, it certainly seems as if you've thought of everything."

"We tried to."

There is a pause--a moment of intense silence, which seems like an eternity. Mark Lewis slowly puffs out more smoke, while the others sit breathlessly on the edge of their seats. At last, Mark speaks. "Well, you've convinced me that this plan of yours just might work. Anyway, it's sure as hell worth a try. Gentlemen, you have my support and wholehearted cooperation." A slight sigh of relief is heard among the rest of the group, as Mark stands and raises his glass as if in a toast. "Gentlemen," he continues, "together we will build the time machine which will put an end to all the evil in the world. It will take all our faith and all your knowledge of science. But, if we can prevent evil from entering the world, it will be worth everything. The world will know no more grief and misery."

"The world will be fresh and virgin again as it was in the beginning."

"The future will then be up to us."

"And we, having learned from the mistakes of those before us, shall not fail!"

"An extremely promising plan." Mark again reached for his brandy snuffer. "I'm certainly glad you gentlemen brought it to my attention."

"What else could we have done? We needed the financial backing."

"And, you've got it! Gentlemen, shall we toast the success of our new venture?"

All lift their glasses and bring them together in a toast.

"Let us be going then," suggests John, standing. "Walt and Will shall start on the calculations immediately."

All of them rise to leave.

Mark Lewis also rises. "I shall authorize my bank to make payments so all of you can begin work as soon as the calculations are figured and checked. Gentlemen, may God go with you!"
CHAPTER 3: FIRST TAKE-0FF

The days pass. It is now Sunday, June 8th. It has taken almost a week for Walt and Will to draw up the calculations and check them with the help of the rest of the group. In the meantime, under the direction of David Sung, the engineers have begun to gather cement, steel, electric generators and all the other items needed to build the time machine. With the sophisticated logistical systems in use at the time, the gathering together of supplies and equipment takes only one week.

It is decided that only three of them should make the journey back in time. That's about as many as can fit comfortably into the cylinder with the equipment and supplies. Of course, each one of them wants the opportunity, despite the danger involved. They decide to send the only three who have a working knowledge of Hebrew, the first language. These are Daniel, Kerry, and Walter.

Soon, under the direction of David Sung, the time machine begins to take shape. The whole site covers the area of an entire city block, but the time cylinder itself is a bit smaller. The platform covers the entire diameter of the cylinder which is 400 square feet. This allows space for all necessary equipment and supplies, including food, a limited supply of purified water for drinking, and the fuel, which is mostly in concentrated form to conserve weight, although a few jars of liquid fuel are included to allow for the possibility of not finding water in a particular local. In no time, all of the concrete, steel, electric generators, and magnets are put in place. At last, the time has come. The world, already on tiptoe, is now holding its breath. If everything goes according to plan, when the room-cylinder revolves at the speed of one thousand revolutions per minute, and the magnetic flux lines are applied at one thousand ergs, along with the electrical energy field at 10,000 volt-ampere, both for a period of one minute at the same resonant frequency, the cylinder, with its occupants, will be retrojected back in time 200 years, more or less.

Now, the equipment and supplies are carefully placed in the cylinder, leaving space for the men. Dan, Walt, and Kerry are jubilant as they enter the cylinder. Having entered and taken their places, they strap themselves in place and wait expectantly.

Mark Lewis, as honorary chairman of the group, gives the order to apply power to the equipment. As soon as the power is applied, the electrical generators begin to turn.

Meanwhile, inside the cylinder, Daniel is standing ready with his hand on the lever.

"Isn't this exciting?"

"It sure is! I can't wait to see where we land first.

"Hey! That's Mark's signal! Pull that lever, Dan!"

Daniel gives the lever a long hard pull. There is a blast of light and energy and the cylinder rises to midair and hangs suspended there, just above the heads of the excited spectators.

Nothing happens for two seconds. Three seconds, and still nothing. Four seconds, five seconds, still nothing. Six seconds pass. Now, suddenly a bright flash of light appears on the instrument panel. From outside, the revolving room into which the three men have entered suddenly disappears from the sight of the amazed spectators. The project has begun!

"Wow! Did you see that? All of a sudden it just disappeared--like that!"

"Yeah! Isn't it great? They're on their way now, to who knows where."

"Or when."

"This is truly a momentous occasion!" observes John.

"Indeed! Shall we celebrate it inside with a drink?"

************

Inside the capsule, lights continue to flash on the instrument panel, showing that the cylinder is still traveling--traveling not only through space but through time as well. The numbers on the time indicator are moving backward at a rate too fast to read.

Suddenly, there is a loud grinding noise coming from the indicator, which, just as suddenly stops, showing 00000. There is a loud beep, and then silence. The cylinder has landed. They are there, wherever and whenever they are.

CHAPTER 4: FIRST LANDING

"Where are we?"

"Dern'd if I know. The dang indicator broke."

"Probably the spring. It can be easily fixed."

"Well, let's take a look outside, shall we?"

The three men push open the door of the cylinder and step out. They are stepping into what is for them, in one sense, unfamiliar territory, but in another sense, a page out of history.

They have landed just behind a small clump of trees on a bare looking plane. There are no houses in sight. All they can see in any direction are small hills, stream-filled gullies, and here and there a cactus.

"Well, where do you think we might be, Walt?"

"Beats me."

"Well, let's look around a bit," ventures Kerry.

"But," insists Daniel, "let's inspect the cylinder first, shall we?"

A cursory check reveals that, as they expected, a few of the outer layer tiles have been destroyed by the trip.

"Well, these will have to be replaced," observes Walt.

"It's a good thing," adds Daniel "that we came prepared for this."

Meanwhile, Kerry has been looking around. He suddenly notices something. "Say, fellows, there are some people up ahead there." He points past the group of trees in front of them. "Maybe they can give us an idea of where we are."

Several men in tattered clothes, some wearing strange looking hats, are gathered at one end of a small stream. Most of them seem to have their hands in the water. Moving past the trees, our friends notice that this is only one of many small groups which are spread out all along the stream and at various pools in the ground as well. As the first group notices our threesome approaching, several of the men begin to talk excitedly:

"Howdy, strangers! Welcome to Drygultch."

"Would you be th' ones what come in that thar strange contraption we seen come a-whizzin' through th' air an' plop down behind them trees over thar?"

"I knowed folks was a-usin' ever kinda means conceivable t' git here, but I swear I ain't never seen nor imagined one o' them things in all my born days."

"Whata y' call it?"

"How's it work?"

Walt raises his hand and speaks for the group. "Perhaps we can answer your questions better if you answer a few for us first."

"Whata y' wanna know?"

"Well, for starters, what year is this? And, secondly, where are we?"

A posture of puzzlement comes over the group. Two of its members speak, one right after the other:

"Are you guys crazy or something'?"

"Wow! You must really be outa touch! But, if y' didn't come here 'cause o' th' rush, why'd y' come?"

Meanwhile, Kerry and Daniel have been looking around for clues. Upon hearing the word 'rush,' Kerry's ears perk up. "Did you say 'th' rush?' Look at those pans, Walt. They must be panning for gold. This wouldn't be the great California gold rush of 1849 would it?"

One of the men jumps up and puts his hands on his hips. "So you do know where you are!"

"By conjecture only."

"This is making less and less sense all th' time. Who in th' heck are y' and where d' y' come from?"

"Why should we tell you?" asks Walt. "You wouldn't believe us anyway."

"Try us!"

"Yeah! You'd better tell us" insets one man, raising his fist, "or we'll flatten th' lot o' you here an' now!"

Will scratches his head. "Well don't say we didn't warn you that you wouldn't believe us."

"Just tell us, an' let us decide."

"Well," replies Walt, "We are from precisely one hundred and forty-seven years into your future."

"That 'contraption' as you call it," adds Kerry, pointing to the cylinder, now barely visible through the trees, "is a time tube."

"It has transported us," adds Daniel, "from what was your future and our present here into what is your present and our past."

"What kinda tom-foolery is that?" yells one man.

"You were right," says another. "We don't believe y'."

"That's th' most dogern ridiculous thing I ever did hear of," adds another.

The man who had raised his fist now asks the other men, "Whata y' say, boys? Shall we deck 'em?"

"Nah! Jist hold on, Fred. It wouldn't be worth it."

Now a small man, who had been quiet up till now, speaks. "And who knows? Perhaps they're tellin' th' truth."

"You mean t' say you believe 'em, Sam?"

"Well It's possible, I guess. After all, we never thought we'd see a contraption like that come a-whizzin' through th' air, now did we?"

"Well, I reckon y' got a point there, Sam."

"I didn't see nothing' come through th' air!" insists another man.

"Well, that's cause you wasn't looking', Pete," replies the small man, "But it was sure there--bigger 'n' life."

One of the men turns incredulously to the three. "So y' didn't come fer gold?"

"Nah!" replies Walt." We've got all the money we want. But, we would like to watch you panning, if you don't mind."

"Suit yerselves."

They watch as the men scoop their pans into the stream and bring them out again. When the pan comes up empty, there are cries of disappointment, but when they contain nuggets of gold, shouts of joy go up from the miners. This is truly a new sight for Walt, Daniel, and Kerry -- a page out of history indeed. They watch with interest as the men bring up pan after pan.

Finally, one of the men turns to the three visitors and says "Say! I'll bet you fellows would really enjoy th' shindig over t' th' saloon tonight."

"Saloon?" The three look around, wondering where there could be a saloon in this wilderness.

"At th' town, just over that thar hill," the man explains.

"And--Ah-what's a shindig?" asks Daniel.

"What's a shindig?" echoes another man, laughing.

"You'll find out." answers the first man, smiling from ear to ear. "Just be there."

Walt looks at the other two. "Whata y' say fellows?"

"Well, it may give us a chance to learn more about this culture before we move on."

************

Having obtained the necessary directions for reaching the town and the saloon, as well as, due to Kerry's thoughtfulness, a hotel, the three return to the cylinder to work on the new coordinate settings and to try to establish radio contact with home base before getting ready to attend the shindig.

In a few minutes, Walt and Daniel have the new coordinates settings figured out. As they are finishing, Kerry turns on the communicator and begins to turn the dials. There is a loud whirring sound and then silence. Having finished the calculations, Daniel goes to the mike and begins talking. At first, there is nothing but static. Then, they hear a soft buzzing noise. Suddenly, the buzz becomes louder. At last a voice is heard. It is a bit muffled, but clear enough to be recognized as that of John.

"This is KRXQ20 reading you loud and clear. Say! How're you fellows doing?"

"We're doing just fine, John," replies Daniel. "Reading you fairly clear--just a bit muffled."

"Got any idea where you are?"

"We sure do. We're right in the middle of the California gold rush of 1849."

"Hmm! Only 140 years. Wonder how far you'll get next time. Well, I guess we'll find that out soon. Anyway, did you learn anything new?"

"Not really, although it was interesting to see them pan for gold."

Walt takes the mike now. "But we've been invited out tonight to a big affair at the local saloon. They call it a shindig. Ever hear the term before?"

Now Mark Lewis' voice comes booming across the airway. "'Shindig'? Yeah, let's see--it's an archaic term for a wild party if I remember right."

"Well, we thought we'd go and see if we could learn anything more about this culture before we try to move on--I mean, if you don't mind."

John's voice comes back. "Just as long as you take-off as soon as possible afterward--like first thing tomorrow morning."

"And," adds Mark, "do be careful. We don't want any problems."

"Don't worry," assures Walt. "We're only going to observe."

Now John's voice is heard again. "How's the cylinder holding up?"

"We lost a few tiles on the outer layer as expected. We'll have to replace them before we move on. It won't take long. We can do it first thing in the morning and then be off. We thought we might find a room in the town for tonight. This capsule's kinda cramped. Keep on this frequency and we'll get back with you when we're ready to leave tomorrow. This is Walt Bryant with Daniel Cohen and Kerry Nadine in California of 1849, signing off for now."

"Alright! We'll be waiting to hear from you guys tomorrow morning. This is John Sterghean in the 21st century. So long."

Mark's voice comes over the speaker again. "Now you fellows be sure to be careful at that shindig! See y' tomorrow. This is Mark Lewis. Over and out."

The communicator is silent once more. Another miracle of modern technology has been tested--the ability to transmit and receive radio signals not only through space but through time as well.

CHAPTER 5: GOLD AND GOSPEL

The time travelers sit in silence for a few minutes, contemplating the wonder of their situation. Then Kerry speaks. "What do y' say we go to town and find a hotel room? This cylinder is really cramped, even for resting."

Walt raises his eyebrows. "Let's just hope there are some rooms available. The way people were packing into this place, it'd make y' wonder."

"Well, let's get going then," prods Daniel. "I'm a little tired myself."

************

As they walk by the stream, they can see that more men have gathered there. The stream is beginning to look like a string of beads, with people dotting its shore on both sides throughout its entire length. Walt shakes his head. "I do hope there's a room available when we get there."

Kerry, seeming not to hear Walt's comment, makes an observation of his own. "Interesting isn't it?"

"What?" asks Daniel.

"How people were so motivated by greed, even back in this time. Look at all the people crowding in here to try and strike it rich because gold was discovered here."

Passing the stream and turning northwesterly as they have been instructed, they come across several miners with picks and shovels digging in the earth with their picks. "Well, some pan and some pick," notes Kerry.

They notice a crowd of miners gathered together at a distance. From the noise, our friends suspect that it might be a fight. They decide to go down and see what is going on. As they get closer, they can see that the crowd is gathered around two miners who are having a real knock-down-drag-out fight. Curious, Walt questions one of the men in the crowd. "Say, if you don't mind my asking, what's this fight all about?"

The man turns and looks at Walt with a puzzled look. "Claim fight--what else?"

"What do you mean, 'claim fight'?"

"You musta just got here. Well, this man says the other one jumped his claim. He says he was here first and was just on his way to the claims office when the other arrived and staked out a claim on the same piece of land. Says he had a marker set up but the other took it away."

"You talk like these sorts of fights are pretty common around here."

"Why, they happen almost every day!"

Our friends look surprised. "But isn't there enough land to go around?"

"There won't be if people keep on comin' th' way they've been."

"What did I say about greed?" observes Kerry, as the three walk on.

As they reach the top of the hill and begin their descent, they can see the town spread out below. It looks to them like a picture on a postcard which might have been sent from one of those wild west amusement parks that are so popular in their own time. As they get closer, the buildings become more real looking. The fact that there are no people in the streets, however, gives the place the appearance of a 'ghost town'.

Following the previously given directions, they arrive at the hotel, a building whose imposing height makes it stand out from the rest. Opening the door, they enter. The hotel seems as deserted as the streets. There is a long counter with a big bell at one end. Next to the bell, there is a sign which reads: "RING BELL FOR SERVICE." They walk over to the bell and Kerry gives it a loud ring. Nothing happens. "Seems like this place is totally deserted."

"Try again," suggests Walt.

He does, ringing three times and quite loudly. Finally, a few grunting sounds are heard coming from behind the counter. Suddenly a head pops up. It belongs to a middle-aged gentleman with silver hair and a wrinkled face. "Whata y' mean," he murmurs grumpily, "waking' a fella up in th' middle of a sound sleep?!"

"We were only following the sign," asserts Kerry, in defense of his actions. "It plainly says 'Ring Bell for Service'."

The gentleman yawns drowsily and nods his head. "Ah, yes! So it does! So it does! Well, what c'n I do fer y'?"

"We'd like a room--what else?"

"Ah, yes! What else, indeed! That is what people come here for, ain't it? Well, yer quite lucky, you are. I haven't got many rooms left. But I do happen t' have one that should do just fine fer th' three of y'. And I'll give it t' y' fer a special price--only $100.00 a week--payable in advance, of course."

The three look at each other and Walt turns to the man. "But we only want it for one night."

The man looks surprised. "Only fer one night, y' say? Nobody comes here t' stay fer only one night. Takes longer 'n' that t' stake a claim."

"Oh, we're not miners. We're only passing through. We expect to leave tomorrow. So, if you don't mind, how much for one night?"

The old man scratches his head and wrinkles his eyebrows. "That's th' strangest thing I ever heard of--folk comin' here 'n' passin' through 'n' not botherin' t' do any prospectin'. Maybe you know something' th' rest o' us don't. Well, 'taint nona my concern. If y' wana stay fer one night, I'll let y' have it fer $25.00."

"But," objects Walt, "If one week was $100.00 and there's seven days in a week--"

The old gentleman pounds his fist down on the counter with a bang.

"That's t' rate! Take it, er leave it!"

"We'll take it. Here!" Walt hands him the money. He takes it without close examination and shows them their room.

As he turns to go back to the lobby, Daniel says to him, "It sure is deserted around here."

"Oh, that's 'cause everybody's at their claim, a-prospectin'. But just wait till tonight, when they come in fer th' Shindig. Say, you fellers oughta go. It's at th' saloon down th' street."

"We were planning on it."

************

Evening comes sooner than they expect or want. Just as they have begun to rest well, it is time to get ready to go. When they arrive at the saloon, things are already in progress. As they approach they can see through the top half of the door that the place is crowded. The music is loud and lively and many people are dancing. There are plenty of women, some dancing with the miners and some just sitting off to one side. Our friends can't help but wonder where all the women came from, as they had seen only men by the stream and the diggings, and had not noticed any women in the town earlier. There are a few people standing at the bar, drinking and talking to the bartender.

The swinging door swings wide as the three enter. They walk casually up to the bar and order drinks. They stand there for a while watching the couples dance. Every now and then some of the men come to the bar to order drinks for their lady friends. Then they sit with them at one of the tables in the center and drink. When they finish their drinks, they get back up and dance again.

Soon one of the men at the bar starts to make eyes at one of the girls at the side of the room. He turns to the bartender and asks in quiet tones: "How much fer that one?"

"The usual price is $25.00," says the bartender softly, but not too softly for our friends to hear, "but she's special. $30.00."

The man hands the money to the bartender and walks over to the woman. Soon they are dancing with the rest. Our friends think to themselves that it's a high price to pay for a dance. But then they begin to notice that one by one the couples, who were dancing so beautifully on the floor, begin to slip away upstairs.

"Where are they going?" asks Kerry, upon seeing one couple ascend the long circular staircase.

"Who?" replies the bartender.

"That couple over there."

"Oh, them. Well now, where would you think? Upstairs to have a little privacy." The bartender winks at Kerry. "If you'd like some of th' same, it'll cost you only $30.00."

"What are you running here," quires Walt, "a brothel?"

"Call it what you will," replies the bartender. "We're providing a service to these lonely miners." The bartender appears slightly frightened as he says: "Say, you fellows aren't federal agents or somethin' like that are y'?"

"Nah! Don't worry, we're nothing like that. We're just a bunch of guys who happen to believe that such things are wrong."

By now, the other men at the bar are perking up their ears and looking askance at the three strangers. The bartender speaks again. "It may be wrong by the law of the land where you guys come from, but out here, mister, we ain't got no law."

This time it is Daniel who speaks. "And what about the laws of Almighty God? Don't they apply here either?"

"Well, well, well!" exclaims one of the men at the bar. "What have we got here?--a bunch o' Bible- thumpin' fanatics?"

"No!" protests Walt, "We're not Bible-thumping fanatics either. We just happen to believe in common everyday decency and morality."

A short distance from them, one of the miners to whom they had spoken at the stream earlier yells out: "Hey! These are th' feelers who claim t' be from over 100 years from now."

At this, the miner standing closest to the three yells back: "Oh! I knew they had to be crazy!"

Meanwhile, in another corner of the room, a fight is about to break out. "I'll teach you!" one man is saying, as he holds the other man by the collar and stands ready to punch him in the mouth. "You leave your dirty hands off of 'er! She's mine! I paid for 'er!" And the fight is on. People are yelling and screaming, tables are turning over and you can hear the blows of fist upon flesh.

Suddenly, the swinging door of the saloon swings open wide to reveal a tall dark figure standing in the doorway. He is dressed entirely in black and in his right hand, he holds a big black book, which appears to be a Bible. He presses the book against one of the doors to hold it open. Just as suddenly as his visible appearance, his booming voice rings out throughout the saloon: "Repent, ye sinners! Repent before it's too late!"

The music stops and there is a general hubbub of speech and laughter. The bartender throws his hands up in the air and shouts: "Hey! What is this?"

The preacher steps slowly into the saloon. "Repent," he cries out again. "You are sinning against Almighty God. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. Repent and believe in Jesus!"

Most of the men laugh loudly, and one observes: "We sure got a bunch o' Bible thumpers tonight!"

As the preacher keeps on preaching, a few of the men begin to get up and walk out. The bartender is beside himself. He looks first at the preacher and then at our three friends. "Out!" he orders. "Out, the four of you! This is nothing but a conspiracy of religion to destroy my business! First, you guys come in here talking' about what a great wrong we're doin' here, and then this preacher comes in here a-hollerin' fer everyone to repent an' believe. Well, y' ken take yer religious gobbledygook elsewhere! Now be gone with ya! Out, I say!"

But the preacher continues: "I'm a man of God. I don't need t' listen t' th' likes of you. The Bible says it's better t' obey God than man. The Bible also says that Jesus is coming back soon and in order to go with Him, you must be born again! You must repent and believe--"

The bartender motions to several of the bigger men around the bar. They step forward and form a semi-circle around the four, raising their fists in the air. Walt speaks out. "I-I-a-think we get the point. Come on, fellows!" The other three follow his lead and all four walk slowly out of the saloon.

When they are safely out on the street, the preacher speaks: "Well, it's good t' know I've got some sympathizers at least. It's always good t' know who you've been thrown out of a saloon with."

They introduce themselves.

"Where are you three from?" the preacher asks.

"Oh, from here and there. And you?"

"I'm the Reverend Mr. Black, originally from Kansas City, now circuit ridin' preacher. I ride all over th' country, bringin' th' gospel to those who need it most." The preacher pauses and scratches his head. "So, I take it that before I arrived at the saloon, you three were already defendin' th' Word o' God?"

"Actually, we were only standing up for common morality."

"But you are believers in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, aren't you?"

"We are believers in God--that's all," replies Walt.

Daniel decides to change the subject. "Boy! They sure do live wickedly out here, though, don't they?"

"They certainly do," replies the preacher.

"But we're going to bring about an end to all that, aren't we, fellows?" blurts out Kerry.

"Kerry!" yells Walt, "you don't have to--this fellow doesn't need to know--"

But Daniel puts his hand on Walt's shoulder. "Oh, I think he has a right to know. After all, he's a man of the cloth."

"To know what?" asks the preacher, curiously.

"Well, you won't believe this, but we are time travelers. We are actually from the year 2025, and we came here in a time cylinder."

The good reverend looks a bit puzzled, but then shrugs. "Well, with the Lord, all things are possible."

"We can only travel a certain distance back in time at one time. We are going back in time step by step until we reach the beginning--what's the name of the place, Daniel?"

"Eden. The garden of Eden."

"Uh-huh." The preacher nods.

"And we are going to warn the original people who fell and committed the first sin."

"Adam and Eve," inserts Daniel.

"So that they will realize what they're doing and not partake of the forbidden fruit. Then, sin will have been prevented, and all evil, corruption, and disease will be banished from the human race forever."

The preacher raises his eyebrows. "You mean to say that you think that by going back to the garden of Eden, assuming that you could get there for sure, you could actually prevent sin and evil--that you could actually reverse the course of history so that those things will no longer exist?"

"Ah!" asserts Kerry. "You've got our idea perfectly!"

"Well, my friends," the preacher asserts, his countenance taking on an air of solemnity, "I'm sorry to inform you that such a plan can never work."

"What do you mean?" All three speak at once.

"Well, even if God allows you to make it back there, you won't be effective in warning Adam and Eve. Don't you see? The fall was meant to happen. Otherwise, the remedy could not have been either effective or appreciated."

"Remedy?"

"Yes! God has provided a remedy for sin and evil in the person of His son, Jesus Christ. He came and lived a perfect life in this sinful world; and then, He died on a cross to pay the penalty of sin, in order that if we believe in Him, our sins can be forgiven, and we can become new creations in Him."

"That's what you believe, eh?"

"That's the gospel--the Word of God, friend. It's what all men must believe or be damned to hell."

"But man is basically good. He only needs a fresh start--a new chance. And that's what we intend to give him."

The preacher smiles. "That, my friends, is what God has already given him in Jesus Christ, His Divine Son."

"Jesus Christ," asserts Walt, "was nothing but a prophet—a good teacher like Confucius or Buddha or Mohammed--definitely not, as you say, the Divine Son of God."

"Definitely not!" agrees Kerry.

Daniel nods his agreement as well.

"Well, my friends," says the preacher, "It looks as if we have a difference of views."

"It does so indeed!" responds Walt, "Let's go, fellows!"

************

As they walk back to the hotel, they muse.

"That fellow must be crazy."

"Yeah! Everybody knows Jesus was a mere man--a mere historical figure like Washington and Lincoln."

"Certainly not Divine in any way."

"How could he have anything to do with a remedy for sin?"

"Speaking of sin, they sure had a lot of it in this time, didn't they?"

"But did you see some of those gals back there? Woweee!"

"Now, be careful, Walt," cautions Daniel. "If we're going to try to save the world from sin, we ought to try to be as free from it ourselves as possible."

"Well, I was just noticing. Nothing wrong with that, is there? I mean, it's only human, isn't it?"

"But, at what point does 'noticing' become 'sin'?"

"I think we can leave that point for the theologians to fight over."

Kerry catches sight of the hotel a short distance ahead. "At any rate, let's forget about it for now and concentrate on getting a good night's sleep, shall we? We've got a big day ahead of us tomorrow, I'm sure."

"Yeah! Wonder where we'll land next."

"Or, when!"
CHAPTER 6: DEISM AND FAITH

The morning finds our friends rising bright and early. Walt is able to replace the missing tiles without much trouble, while Kerry replaces the spring on the indicator, and Daniel goes to the stream to get the water to mix with the concentrated fuel.

Some of the miners, hearing the noise of Walt's workmanship, peek curiously from behind the trees to watch for a moment as they make their way to the "diggins". The ones at the stream watch with great surprise as Daniel, having filled the wide-mouthed jar with water, reaches in, takes out the few gold nuggets which have managed to enter the jar and hands them to some delighted miners.

They succeed in contacting home base again and report everything to Mark, who has a big laugh over the fight and the preacher and the whole thing.

Walt and Daniel set the dials and Kerry throws the switches, and once again the cylinder is airborne to the amazement of passing miners on the ground who stare in awe as the cylinder revolves in mid-air for a minute and then disappears.

"We're off again! Isn't it great?"

"Yeah! I wonder where we'll land next."

"You mean 'when' don't you?"

************

Our friends have little time to wonder. Soon the cylinder is again making its way gradually toward terra firma. They land in a clump of trees which hides a wide dirt road. Opening the window they can hear the chirping of the birds and the sound of a brook babbling nearby. "At least we won't have to worry about the water for the fuel," observes Daniel.

The indicator, now functioning, tells them that they have arrived at the year 1775 in the early American colony of Philadelphia.

"Philadelphia? Isn't that part of Pennsylvania?"

"As far as I remember."

"We must have set the directional dial wrong."

"We'll have to try to overcompensate next time."

"And 1775! We went back only 74 years! Why?"

"Maybe something broke or something."

"Well, let's cheek and see, shall we!"

But, Walt's fascination with this period of history was getting the best of him. "Why don't you two check while I go and have a look around?"

"Well, O.K., Walt, but, be careful."

Kerry goes to the communicator and unplugs the microphone, which also works on remote. "Better take this with you," he urges, handing it to Walt. "We won't be able to contact home base but it's preferable to keep in touch with each other."

Slipping the mike inside his jacket, Walt walks cautiously out to the edge of the small forest which hides their craft from view. He reaches the edge where he can see the road through the trees, and notices the imposing Independence Hall building in the distance, behind another clump of trees. "Wow!" he thinks to himself, "It's just like on the postcard Aunt Susie sent when she toured the historical section of this city. But, that's the real thing over there. Boy, I'd like to get a closer look." But, suddenly, his thoughts are interrupted by the sound of footsteps and voices. Peering out, he can see three men approaching in the distance. Listening carefully, he is able to make out the conversation:

"Wasn't that great though, what Franklin said yesterday? I mean that business about the sun being a rising sun!"

"Indeed! Franklin's a real optimist, isn't he?"

"I sure hope he's right."

"Well, gentlemen, we can certainly trust in a higher source than Franklin. Why don't you try praying to The Almighty and trusting in Him as does Washington?"

"Washington? He's too old-fashioned. I'm a Deist like Franklin. I believe there's a God, sure. He created this world, sure. But, ever since, He's just been sitting back and leaving everything up to us. Why, He's too busy with things up there to be concerned about things down here."

"And, where do you find that in the Bible?"

By now, the footsteps and voices have reached the tree behind which Walt crouches. Now they pass it. Curious to hear more of the conversation, Walt steps out stealthily onto the dusty road and creeps up quietly behind the three men. Being deeply involved in their conversation, they fail to notice him for the moment.

"Everyone knows," continues one man, "that the Bible was just written by men."

"I'm sorry to disagree, but it's the only book which claims to be the Word of God."

"A claim easily enough made."

"Gentlemen, gentlemen!" urges the other man, "Let's not argue! I mean, after all, we're all striving for the same thing, aren't we? And we all agree, at least, that if everything goes as planned, we've got a brilliant future ahead of us. Right? Isn't that what Franklin meant by the rising sun?!"

At this point, a fallen twig breaks under Walt's foot and one of the men turns and sees Walt following them. Trying to appear as natural as possible, Walt takes long strides in order to join himself to the three as quickly as possible. He also begins talking quickly, hoping thus to divert attention away from his strange attire. "Gentlemen, forgive me, but I happened to be going this way, and I couldn't help but overhear your conversation. What you say is very interesting. It's certainly good to be optimistic but, have you considered the possibility that there could be problems with the new government as well--I mean, the chance that things won't always be as great as you are expecting?"

"No, of course not!" replies the man who was talking just before Walt. "That's one thing we all agree on--that with the new constitution and the institution of a democratic form of government, the future will be wonderful. Why, what could possibly go wrong?"

"Well, civil war for one thing," ventures Walt.

"Civil war? Are you crazy?--In a country with such a birth of freedom as ours will have? It could never happen!"

"But it will happen--and more--riots, looting, crime and world wars"

"Hey! Who are you anyway? Where do you come from?"

Suddenly Walt is frightened and unsure of himself. "From a long way from here," he answers haltingly.

"That's obvious," observes one man, turning to the others. "Just look at his clothes!"

Walt decides that it may be best to tell the truth, even if they won't believe it. "I come from a long way from here both in space and time -- mainly in time. I come from your future. That's how I know what's going to happen."

"That's ridiculous!"

"It certainly is! He's obviously a hired spy sent by the British to beat down our moral while he finds out our secrets."

"But we've got him now!"

They start to reach for Walt, who breaks into a run.

"After him!"

"Don't let him get away!" And the chase is on!

************

Meanwhile, back at the ship, the other two time travelers have managed to complete all the necessary repairs, obtain the water from the brook, and mix the fuel. They are ready for take-off.

"I wonder how Walt is doing," muses Kerry.

"He's probably having a good time, seeing the town while we work, th' rascal!"

Just then, Walt's voice comes over the communicator. "Help! I'm being chased! Get ready to start the engine for a quick get-away!"

Walt is still running on the road with his pursuers not far Behind. They almost capture him. But a fleet deer suddenly darts out of the forest and runs right between them and Walt, almost knocking them down. This gives Walt the advantage he needs to outrun them and reach the place where he had emerged from the forest.

"O.K.," he calls over the microphone, which he clenches tightly in his right hand, "Start 'er up. I'm coming."

The three men start to follow Walt into the forest but are surprised by the sudden burst of light and the noise made by the ship's engines.

"What was that?"

"I don't know. Strange indeed! But let's not lose sight of him!"

Walt ducks behind the tree which hides the craft and then into the waiting open door. The ship takes off. The three men follow.

"Where did he go?"

"I saw him go this way."

"What happened? How could he just disappear like that?"

"Look! Up there in the sky!"

"What?"

"Don't you see it? Looks like some kind of strange craft."

"You mean that over there?"

"Where?"

"There--Over there! Well, I'll be—it's disappeared too!"

"Yes, I think I saw it too, for only a second."

"Do you think--? I mean, could he have been telling the truth?"

"Or, are we crazy, or what?"

"Listen, let's not say a word of this to anyone, eh?"

"Of course not! They'd think we were crazy for sure."

************

And, inside the ship:

"Wow! That was close!"

"What happened?"

"They thought I was a British spy."

"Oh, my goodness!"

"Interesting! And what did you learn? Anything interesting?"

"Well, before they noticed me, they were arguing about God and the Bible--well, mainly about whether or not God is in control of the universe. One fellow was for Washington and said that God is in control and so we should pray to Him and trust in Him. Another was for Franklin. He said--"

"That God created the world and then went off and left it. I remember that from my U.S. history."

"Well, that's pretty much what we believe, I guess, if you really think about it. I mean, if God were really in control, He wouldn't need our help, now would He?"

"On the other hand, if He really were in control, there wouldn't be all of the sickness and evil in the world in the first place. Then He wouldn't need our help for sure."

"Enough philosophy, Fellows! Any guesses as to where we'll land next?"

"You mean 'When', don't you?"

"Of course! 'When'!"

CHAPTER 7: TRIBULATION AND PATIENCE

"A very good question, gentlemen!" Walt's rough voice breaks in. "A very good question indeed from the look of these meters."

"What do you mean?" the others chime in all at once, alarmed by the concern in Walt's voice.

"Well, if this indicator's right, we're moving in the wrong direction."

"What?"

"Yes, look at that! We're moving forward instead of backward in time. Did you set the coordinates correctly, Dan?"

"Certainly! I'm not a novice with this type of instrument, you know."

"And the indicator was working just fine, wasn't it?"

"Absolutely. The only thing wrong with it the first time was the spring. Since I replaced that, it has been working great."

"Well then, there can be only one other explanation. We are being pulled forward by a force superior to our own propulsion."

"We'd better try to contact home base about this." Daniel goes to the communicator and tries to make contact. But all efforts are futile. "We might as well give up."

"Let's try again when we get closer our own time."

"If we get to our own time, we could try to land."

"We'll try both. If we're lucky, one will work."

"Keep your eye on the indicator, Walt."

The indicator shows that they are traveling forward in time faster and faster each minute. As they approach their own time, Daniel sits ready at the communicator and Kerry at the landing thruster. Walt gives the signal: "Ready...Now!"

Daniel is able to pick up a signal, but it is too garbled to be understood. He tries to leave word of their situation, in hope that the transmission won't be as garbled in its reception as the one from home base.

Meanwhile, Kerry tries to force a landing, giving the thrusters total energy. But, "It's impossible." Something of greater power than their own is forcing them forward, and there is nothing they can do.

************

The indicator now shows the year to be 2075. Suddenly, the cylinder begins to shake back and forth. Just as suddenly, it comes crashing down, landing, as they note from the window, in a sort of grassy plane. Daniel and Kerry make a quick check. "The damage seems to be only slight, thanks to the softness of the ground."

"Thank goodness for that."

Suddenly, they are aware of voices coming from outside the cylinder. Looking through the window, they can see a large shuttle-plane in the background and a crowd of about twenty people gathered around the cylinder. Some are banging on the door, while others are trying to force it open with strange looking tools.

"Let's oblige them before they break the thing," suggests Walt, as he walks to the door. He slowly opens it and peers out.

Several people begin talking at the same time.

"Who are you?"

"Where are you from?"

"You look just like us."

"What kind of craft is this?"

Walt raises his hand. "We'll tell you, but you have to promise to tell us who you are and why you brought us here."

"At least they speak the same language as we do." observes one man.

Our friends can't help but notice the sound of shooting in the distance. Suddenly another man who seems to be the leader of the group steps forward, raises his hand and shouts: "O.K., Let's go! It's not really safe here, you know. We can all go to my shelter."

All the people begin crowding into the shuttle-plane, and the time travelers are instructed to do the same. They realize it would be foolish to resist. When they are seated, the leader gives the order to the plane's computerized engine and, in moments, they are airborne, flying over the city. From their window, our friends can see that although there are some modern looking buildings, there are many areas which seem to be entirely desolate.

The 'shelter' is just that--a large building with walls three feet thick and no windows. It would be completely dark inside were it not for the few electric lamps strategically placed so as not to waste the light of any one lamp. The walls are lined with shelves which are filled with various kinds of weapons. One shelf is full of swords, another of laser pistols, another of old style rifles. In front of one wall, there are two human-size metallic robots, standing as soldiers on guard.

"Please make yourselves at home," says the leader. "Would you like some coffee or refreshment?" The others are silent as if taking their cues from the leader.

************

The coffee is served by the robots, who almost drop it on the table. The leader gives another order to the robots, which is unintelligible to our friends. The robots disappear into a side-room.

As our friends drink the coffee, which really isn't very good, the leader smiles and says: "Perhaps we do owe you an explanation, especially as it seems you were brought here by mistake. We were trying for much more primitive people than you. You see, we are at war. It's a worldwide conflagration greater than any in our history."

"And these are your weapons?" asks Kerry, pointing to the shelves.

"These and also the robots, although we've precious few of them."

"What happened to nuclear weapons?"

"Oh, they were eliminated years ago. Now everything is man to man. It's much more interesting, although it does tend to prolong things a little. This war has been going on for almost a year now. My people are dying off. And, since the transmat beam method of time travel was perfected just before this war began, we decided to use it to bring back primitive people from the ancient times who have great strength to help us in the war. As you seem to have been traveling in some sort of time machine also, our beam apparently intersected your machine and brought it back here."

"What year are you from?" asks an anxious voice.

"We are from 2025."

"Ah! Not too long ago!"

"But, you were traveling back in time."

"Yes, as a matter of fact, we had just left 1775 when your beam intercepted us and brought us here. Wow! What a powerful beam! We couldn't even make contact with our own time."

"And, what is your purpose in going back in time?"

Walt places his hand on the arm of Kerry, who is the one doing the talking. "Better not volunteer too much information. They wouldn't understand anyway." He turns to the leader. "Sorry, sir, that's top secret."

The leader scowls. "Oh, it is, is it?"

"Oh, Walt," sighs Daniel, "what harm could it do to tell them?"

Walt shrugs, and Daniel blurts out: "We're trying to go back to where it all started, in order to prevent sin."

"What?"

"That's right! Then, there'll be no more sickness, war or suffering in the world."

The people all break out into spontaneous laughter. "So you think that by going back to the beginning, you can prevent this war and all the suffering and everything?"

"Isn't it worth a try?" asked Daniel, compassionately.

"Nothing can stop this war, ever! Nothing, do you hear me?! And now that you are here, you might as well help. Every man is important."

"But we are peaceful men."

"Doesn't make any difference."

"And why are you fighting?" interjects Walt.

"To defeat the Axis, of course."

"But, why? What's the cause?"

"The what?" asks one man, puzzled.

"The cause--the reason for the war."

"That's long been forgotten," replies the leader. "But the war must go on!"

"How ridiculous! You insist on fighting and you don't even know what you're fighting for?!"

"All we know is we're fighting the Axis. And they must not be allowed to win."

"And where are the voices for peace? Are there no churches here--no temples or synagogues?"

"Oh yes, a few. They all say the same as you do, but nobody listens. It's all a bunch of talk: 'peace, peace, peace!' Oh, there were those fanatics who spoke of Jesus Christ--said that he died to save us from our sins and all that. But we haven't heard from them for some time now, thank heaven. Seems they've up and disappeared real sudden-like. Nobody knows anything at all about 'em. Now and then we hear of some new convert to their old faith, but those are very few and they won't last long."

"Oh, my God!" exclaims Walt suddenly.

"What's wrong?" asks Kerry.

"Oh, nothing. Just that I had an uncle--everybody thought he was crazy--who was always talking about the 'rapture of the believers'--that there would be a time, according to the Bible, when the true Christians would be taken from the earth, and then there'd be what he called 'the great tribulation'."

"Oh, come on!" urges Daniel. "You don't really believe—I mean, people disappear all the time. It's probably just a coincidence."

"I'm not too sure." Walt hesitates.

"They could have been captured," reasons Daniel, "or killed or, or--"

But his words are interrupted by the sound of a loud noise. Suddenly, the building begins to shake slightly. The leader Smiles. "It's a good thing we have this shelter."

During the foregoing conversation, the robots had been preparing a light meal of canned goods and newly thawed bread. Everyone eats in silence, listening to soft music on the radio. Suddenly, the music is interrupted by a news-flash. First, the latest war casualties are listed, and then the announcer relates that because of the war, the economy is failing badly and that tomorrow a quart of wheat will be sold for a day's wages and the same for three measures of barley.

There are gasps of surprise from all the people.

"My goodness! That's terrible!"

"Well, fortunately, we had the forethought to lay up a good supply of rations here."

"Yes, but it's half gone now! And when it's completely depleted, what are we going to do?"

"How are we going to survive?"

"I guess we'll just have to steal."

"And how are we going to get more weapons in order to win the war?"

"I guess," suggests the leader, "we'll have to melt down all our equipment and use it for weapons. So far it's only brought us these refined specimens." (He points to our three friends.)

A short husky man stands up and addresses the leader: "One more try, eh, boss? Just give me one more chance."

The leader ignores the man and continues to point at the time travelers. "Look at 'em! Men of peace! Why, I bet they don't even know how to fight!"

"Th--that's right! asserts Kerry, fearfully. "We know a-absolutely nothing about f-fighting."

"Not a dern thing!" confirms Walt.

"Well," snarls the leader, "you'll just have to learn." He turns to the people and asks, "Won't they?"

All the people grunt their approval.

************

They are kept locked in small cells within the shelter and forced at gunpoint and sword-point to march to the nearby battlefield and to fight in the great conflagration. How could they ever have imagined, they wonder, that their efforts would have brought them to this? Is this to be the reward of their labor and their journey's end? This is one possibility they hadn't counted on: that of being pulled forward to a future time--and one so depraved and terrible, and being humiliated and forced to fight in a senseless war not their own. Even if they could have foreseen it, perhaps they still wouldn't have been able to prevent it. But at least they could have had the consolation of knowing they'd tried. What will become of them? They can't even alert home base of their situation. Are they to die here in this horrible war like flies in the wilderness? Will no one or nothing intervene to save them from this terrible fate?

The war is, indeed, the worst the world has seen. All types of weapons are used from broadswords to cannons, from sabers to laser pistols. There are even battalions of laser-equipped robots, fighting other robot battalions. Certain groups specialize in certain types of weapons and fight primarily the enemy groups trained in the same kind of weapons. Yet there are always the surprises, such as a grenade exploding in the midst of a sword-fight. As they march down the hill to the battlefield, Walt remarks, "Reminds me of the war games I used to play as a teenager."

"But this is for real!" snarls the guard. "Now get a move on it!"

The time travelers are given long-range rifles, similar to those of their own time. They are placed between guards who have strict orders to shoot them if they try to escape. Our friends are too terrified to speak. Every moment must count, and every bit of energy must be concentrated on the task of shooting instead of being shot.

The days pass thusly, endlessly. Then, suddenly one day, in the midst of the fighting, something happens which gives our friends the chance they need. Suddenly without any warning, at the height of the shooting, the earth begins to shake violently beneath their feet. Just as suddenly, the sun, which has been spreading its golden rays of light and heat freely upon the fighters, stops and becomes as black as Kerry's hair. Nobody can see anything.

"What th--" yell several people all at once.

"This is our chance, guys!" whispers Walt to the other two, as he knocks out the guard at his side with a mighty blow. The other two take their cue from him, and soon our friends are running wildly down the hillside. They run arm in arm in order to avoid getting lost.

The sound of the flying bullets and flashing lasers continues behind them as the enemies, determined not to lose any advantage, keep shooting in the dark. This makes it difficult to talk and be heard. But each of our friends, in his own way, offers praise to his God for this strange rescue.

In the darkness, they often run into trees and other obstacles or stub their toes on the rocks, but they pay no attention to their bumps and bruises. They are obsessed with one thought--escape.

Their captors, now aware of what has happened, begin to pursue. Finding it impossible to see in the dark, one man uses a remote device to command one of the robots to lead them, since robots can see better than humans, although still not perfectly, in the dark. They attempt to follow the sound of his metallic movement.

Just as suddenly as the darkness came, the moon begins to rise and shine dimly in the sky. But our friends notice that its color is a dark red, like that of blood. It gives an eerie red glow to the darkness, providing just enough light for their captors to see them. Soon, they hear behind them the sound of running footsteps, both human and robot.

"Faster!" urges Walt, "They're behind us!"

At last, they have enough light not to have to hold on to one another. They run as fast as they can, but their pursuers' footsteps can still be heard behind them. The metallic steps of the robot seem very close. Walt motions for the others to follow his lead and suddenly all three duck behind a huge tree. The robot, unable to follow fast enough, crashes into the tree with a bang and breaks wide open in the middle, sending sparks flying in every direction. This gives our friends some advantage, but their human pursuers don't let up. Enabled to see better by the moon's red glow, they pick up their pace.

Although out of breath, our friends force themselves to keep running as fast as they can, expecting to reach the ship soon. Finally, in the glow of the red moonlight, they can see its outline.

"Come on, guys!" encourages Walt, between breaths. "Not much further, now!"

Reaching the cylinder, they quickly open the door and run breathlessly inside.

"At last!" sighs Daniel.

"Ah, but we're not home safe yet," insists Walt. "Let's try to fix the damage and set the coordinates so we can get th' heck out of here!"

Daniel goes to the controls and works wildly at setting the coordinates, while Walt and Kerry go back outside and work just as wildly at fixing the slight damage caused by the crash. Daniel finishes setting the coordinates first. He then goes over and checks the fuel supply. Opening the window, he yells to the other two: "We've got almost a full tank of fuel. That transmat beam pulled us here mostly on its own energy."

"Great!" answers Walt from outside, as he and Kerry hurriedly replace the few outer tiles which were damaged. "But, better fill it the rest of the way up with the liquid fuel just to be sure."

Daniel walks over to the supply dump and picks up one of the big bottles of liquid fuel. "These things sure are heavy." He carries it over to the fuel tank and pours out the contents until the tank is full. After taking the partly full bottle back and setting it down, he runs over to the window and looks out.

"Just a little more an' we've got 'err," says Walt, regarding the damage.

"Hurry!" From the window, Daniel catches sight of the pursuers in the distance. "They're coming!"

Now, another strange thing happens. As Daniel watches, suddenly a barrage of stars falls from the sky, forming a sort of wall in front of the pursuers. This stops them, but only momentarily.

Startled, Walt and Kerry hurriedly finish the repairs and make a mad dash for the door of the ship, dodging the single stars which now continue to fall one by one.

As they enter the ship, bolting the door behind them, Walt calls out breathlessly to Daniel, who, having closed the window, is still staring out of it at the falling stars, "O.K., Dan, We're ready!"

All three rush to the controls. As Kerry begins to pull the lever, the sound of angry fists can be heard, beating upon the door.

"Wow!" Just in time!" observes Daniel as the cylinder is airborne once more.

CHAPTER 8: HUMANISM AND HOPE

"That's for sure--'Just in time'!"

Once again, the cylinder lifts upward from the earth and hangs there suspended, revolving in preparation for the time jump. In this one minute, as all three glance out the window, they see something even more startling than all the things they have seen so far. The sky above them suddenly splits apart, revealing a great void beyond. A moment later, the earth beneath them splits open and the mountains move from one place to another. Although they are able to see this for only one minute, the scene will leave a lasting impression on their minds.

Once again, the cylinder is making its way slowly back in time.

"Wow! What was that?"

"Nothing like anything I ever saw before."

"Did you see th' way th' sky just split wide open?"

"Th' sky? Did you see th' way th' mountains moved around?--like they were playing musical chairs--and just that quick too!" Walt snaps his fingers.

"Sure is th' weirdest thing I've ever seen!"

"What could have caused it?"

"Maybe my uncle was right," Walt muses. "I mean, they said something about the people who believed in Jesus disappearing and, well, my uncle said that the New Testament says that once the believers in Jesus are taken up, a great time of tribulation will come upon the earth. Maybe everything we've seen is part of that tribulation. Maybe God allowed us to be pulled here in order to show us we are wrong about Jesus and Christianity."

"Ha!" scoffs Daniel, "Come on! Get ahold of yourself and be reasonable will y' Walt! What could Jesus possibly have to do with any of this?! Anybody knows he was just a man like us--oh, a wonderful teacher to be sure, but he died over 2,000 years ago. I fail to see what he could possibly have to do with any of this."

"That's for sure!" asserts Kerry. "We certainly don't need to concern ourselves with the ridiculous claims of Christianity. What we've seen is simply Nature responding to the sin and wickedness around her."

"Of course," agrees Walt. I know that Christianity is just a small off-beat religion, hardly worth considering. And everybody did say my uncle was crazy. It's just that everything started to fit together. But, like you say, the disappearances are probably only coincidental, and the phenomenon can only be the natural response of Nature itself to all of the--"

Walt's rambling pensive discourse is suddenly interrupted by the sound of a loud thumping noise, coming from the direction of the supply dump.

"What was that?"

"I don't know, but let's find out!"

"Probably a rat."

"Seems to be coming from over there."

They creep up slowly on the pile of boxes and, together, suddenly lift three of the boxes away. To their surprise, they find a person. It's the stocky scientist from the troublesome time.

"A stowaway!?!"

"Well, Gentlemen, you found me. I-I-a-suspected you might try to get away when the darkness first came, so I ran to your ship and stowed away here."

"But, why?"

"I always wanted to ride on one of these old models. And besides, I wasn't having too much luck bringing back primitives with that transmat beam. I thought I'd try and see how I could do with your machine."

"Now wait just a minute! You mean you expect us just to put aside our mission and allow you to use our ship to transport fighters for your stupid war?"

Reaching into his pocket, the stowaway pulls out a pistol. "I'm afraid, Gentlemen, you have no choice."

"Oh yeah?!" yells Kerry, knocking the pistol to the floor with a mighty sweep of his arm.

Walt reaches down and picks up the pistol. "What'll we do with him now?"

"Let's throw th' baggage overboard."

"Yeah! We don't need th.' likes of him."

"What are we waiting for?"

They start to grab the man, who raises his hands in protest. "Wait a minute! Wait a minute! I have something which could be quite helpful to you."

"And what might that be?"

"It's called a turbo-thrust amplifier. It's a little device which I developed just before they abandoned these ships for the transmat beam. It can give added thrust and, therefore, allow you to go further back in time than is possible without it."

"And you'll show us how to use this device?"

"Certainly, in exchange for letting me stay with you."

"What do you think, guys?" Walt's eyes scan the faces of the others.

"Well, we do need to go back as far as possible, especial since we lost so much time."

"Yeah! A device like that would really help."

"O.K., wise guy, show us how the thing works!"

The man walks slowly over to the engine, with Daniel and Kerry right behind him. Reaching into his pocket again, he pulls out a small, square metal box with plugs at one end. He searches the engine for a moment, and, locating a certain place where there are sockets, he plugs the box in and stands aside. "O.K., now for the coordinates." He rushes to the coordinates, followed by Daniel, and makes a few adjustments, with Daniel looking on. "Well, Gentlemen, that's all there is to it. We're on our way! Of course, I can't guarantee how far back we'll go. It would have been further if it had been installed before take-off. But anyway, it should take us back a considerable distance."

************

They ride in silence. The minutes pass. Finally, Walt speaks: "Since you are going to be with us, we might as well call you by your name. We didn't catch it over there."

"Alex," the man replies. "My name is Alex."

The rest of the journey is relatively uneventful. They speak idly of the differences between their times.

They try to contact home base, but get nowhere. "I guess in-flight communication is impossible."

"We'd better try when we land."

The spring of the indicator comes off again, and Kerry tries to put it back on. While he is working, suddenly the ship lands.

"Well, let's see where we are."

As they start to leave the ship, Alex pulls the box from the engine and puts it in his pocket again. "In case you get any ideas--"

************

Again, they have landed in a field of grass. Just ahead of them they see an open square, supported by pillars. In the center, there is a man carving a statue from stone. He seems to be the only person around, although, in the distance, they can see a beautiful city.

"This seems strange. Wonder who he is."

"Let's go and find out, shall we?"

The man is hard at his work and at first, doesn't pay attention. Suddenly, he looks up, startled.

As they walk toward him, they talk:

"Must be a famous sculptor."

"I wonder who."

"Could be Michael Angelo."

"Nah, I'll bet its Leonardo Da Vinci."

Upon hearing his name, the sculptor looks up again. "How do you know my name?"

he asks in Italian. Fortunately, all the time travelers including Alex have a working knowledge of Italian from their schooling.

"Just a lucky guess. So then, this must be fourteen hundred and something."

"1490 to be exact. But. anybody knows that."

"1490!" sighs Daniel, now speaking English to his companions "We're only 285 years back from our previous stop."

"But at least," observes Walt, "We made up some of the time we lost by being pulled forward."

The sculptor/philosopher scratches his head in puzzlement. "And who might you people be, if I may ask?"

"Travelers from distant places--and times, if you can believe that."

He thinks for a moment and answers slowly: "I guess I can. I know that anything is possible, given the full development of the human potential. In fact, I was just thinking about this earlier today. It's somewhat amazing how far we've come. But even more exciting is our potential. There's no telling what can be accomplished through the full development of human reason, now lying neglected."

"But," interjects Daniel, "aren't you forgetting one thing?"

"And what might that be?"

"The fact of sin. Your concept would be perfect if it weren't for original sin, which taints all of human nature."

"That," blurts out Kerry, excitedly, "is what we're going to eliminate!"

"But," insists Leonardo, holding one finger pedantically in the air, "human reason, properly nourished and developed, can overcome any obstacle, hindrance or malignant force--even this 'sin' as you call it."

"Impossible!" insists Walt. "As long as the sin is there, it will taint everything and never allow human reason its proper chance."

"I disagree!" asserts Alex.

"What?!" queries Walt, turning in astonishment to Alex. "With all of the debauchery and misery you've seen in your time--the terrible war and everything? Are you crazy?"

"But," insists the stowaway, "perhaps Leonardo's concept wasn't really given a fair chance. Maybe if everyone would have embraced his concept,--"

"Oh, don't talk nonsense!" Walt starts walking back towards the ship. "Come on, guys! We're wasting our time here. Let's go and see if we can repair the damage to the ship."

They all start walking towards the cylinder--all, that is, except Alex.

"I want to talk more about this with Leonardo here. Call me when you're ready to leave, will y'!" He turns to the sculptor. "Ah, Leonardo--I may call you Leonardo?"

"Of course."

"Well, tell me, Leonardo, do you think that by the concentrated development of human reason, war could be completely eliminated?"

"War is the end result of the neglect of human reason and the resultant illogical upsurge of certain of those evil tendencies within man, which your friends called 'sin'. My concept is that if enough people catch the vision of the potential of human reason and concentrate on its development, not only war but many other evils as well could be eliminated. You see, if human reason were brought to its fullest potential, mankind would realize the utter foolishness of war, for example, and--" The sculptor's voice trails off behind the three as they walk briskly toward the ship.

************

They manage to replace the missing tiles and fix the other minor damage quickly, including the spring of the indicator. Meanwhile, since there doesn't seem to be any sign of water around, Daniel fills the fuel tank with the rest of the bottle of liquid fuel.

"O.K., guys, ready!"

"Walt, open the window, and tell Alex we're ready."

Walt starts to open the window. As he does so, his arm inadvertently hits the lever. Suddenly, the cylinder is airborne.

"What happened?"

"My arm hit the dern lever!"

They can hear the cries of Alex below, as the cylinder hovers above the square: "Hey! Wait for me!"

Walt tries to move the lever in order to bring the cylinder down. "It's stuck!"

Daniel and Kerry try to help, but to no avail. Soon the cylinder is on its way again.

"And he's got the dang device in his pocket! Damn!!"

CHAPTER 9: FAITH AND WORKS

"Well, we'll just have to take short jumps again, that's all."

"Anyway, it's kind of fun and interesting visitant all these different time periods."

"Yeah! Isn't it great? I wonder when and where we'll land next."

"Oh no! Look at this will y'!" The indicator, now working, shows that, again, they are moving in the wrong direction. Now it reads: "1495", now "1500".

"Not again! It couldn't be that stupid transmat beam again."

"Nah!" Kerry stands to his feet. "Probably when this lever jammed, it also nudged the temporal direction switch. Let me take a look." He runs over to the switch and checks. "Sure enough. Let's see" He pulls on the switch with all his might. "Uhhhhh--ah! There she is!"

Meanwhile, the time indicator has read "1510", "1520","1530", and "1540". It is at 1545 when Kerry pulls the switch. Now the indicator shows that the cylinder is moving backward again, but only for a short while. When it reaches 1517, it stops, and the cylinder hangs suspended in mid-air.

"Looks like that's as far as she'll go, guys."

"But why?"

"Probably the shock of changing directions in-flight."

"But why doesn't she land?"

"Probably because of this stuck lever. Let's try it one more time."

They go over to the lever and, with their combined strength, pull again. This time, the lever gives way and the ship tumbles speedily through the air.

"Now that the lever is unstuck, do you think you could try to force another take-off?"

Kerry tries but, "It's impossible! All I can do is try to bring her down a little more smoothly."

In this, he is successful, and, as the others watch from the window, the capsule comes floating down into a field of grass and trees.

"1517! We've lost 27 more years."

"A freak accident. Couldn't be helped"

"At least we won't have to worry about finding water for the fuel," observes Daniel upon checking the fuel gauge. "We've used hardly any fuel at all."

The indicator also shows that they are in Wittenberg, Germany.

"I don't remember anything important about 1517," muses Kerry. "Do you?"

"Well, 1517 Wittenberg sort of rings a bell," replies Walt, "although I can't think why. Let's go and have a look around, shall we?"

"At least," ventures Kerry, "they'll be speaking your native language, Walt, and all of us have some knowledge of German from our schooling. You can fill us in on anything we don't understand."

Daniel frowns. "I say we fix the damage and get on out of here. We've lost enough time already."

"We've lost centuries," rebuts Walt. "What difference will a few more minutes make?--just to look around a bit, since we really didn't see much the last time."

"Well, at least I think we should try to contact home base and see what they say. They're paying the bill, you know, and we haven't talked to them for a while."

"I guess Dan's right, Walt. We really should try to call."

But suddenly, they hear a crowd of voices in the distance. Many people are talking excitedly at the same time.

"Seems to be something interesting going on," observes Kerry. "We might as well check it out. We can call later."

"Yeah, come on!" urges Walt. "Two against one. Let's go!"

As they leave the clump of trees, they see a crowd of people in front of what seems to be a big church. They are watching a stockily built man at the door of the church. From his attire, our friends surmise that he is a monk. He seems to be posting something on the church door. They can hear the blows of the hammer as they approach.

"Come on!" urges Walt. "Let's try to get a closer look."

They push their way through the crowd until they are close enough to get a good look at the monk. Walt slaps his head with his hand. "I've got it! Of Course! It's Martin Luther!" He whispers to the other two: "He's responsible for all the divisions in the Western Church! So maybe we can do some good here anyway."

Upon hearing his name, the monk stops his hammering and turns around, startled. "Do I know you?" he asks, gazing intently at our three friends.

"No, sorry. But I've heard of you. What you are doing today will go down in history, although I'm sure I don't know why."

At this, the monk turns back around and continues to hammer. When finished, he turns around again and looks at our three Friends. "Who are you?" he asks.

"Oh, we're just three weary travelers, passing through."

"And where are you from?"

"From a long way from here, both in space and--"

But Walt's words are interrupted by the loud clanging of a bell and the sound of someone yelling, "indulgences! Indulgences!"

"Ah, this must be Tetzel" observes Walt.

The monk frowns. "It's the old rascal all-right--making money off of the fears and superstitions of the people! And just look at the people going to meet him! I must warn them."

And so, Martin Luther heads up the street, following the sounds, with our three friends close behind him. Kerry takes this opportunity to clarify the meaning of the word. "What does it mean, Walt: 'Indulgences'?"

"Indulgences," replies Walt "are a kind of excuse for sin. People pay varying amounts of money to be forgiven in advance for varying sins the wish to commit."

"Sounds sacrilegious to me," observes Daniel.

Already, there is a huge crowd of people gathered in front of the wooden wagon which is parked at the side of the road. Across both sides of the wagon is scrawled in big letters the word "INDULGENCES". At the rear of the wagon is a short stockily built man holding a box in his hand. At the top of the box is a slot. "Put your money here." he is telling the people. "The more money, the quicker your loved one's release from purgatory."

"Well," whispers Walt to his companions, "It seems that's another meaning of 'indulgences'—they pay to have their dead relatives freed from suffering in the afterlife."

Why take chances? Put the largest coin you have, and when the coin jingles in the box, the soul flies from its prison."

"That's a lie!" yells Luther, now close enough to be heard. "How can you stand here and listen to this foolishness? Read the Bible and you'll see the utter falseness of what this man is telling you. Read the Bible and you'll see that all you have to do to be saved is to believe on the Lord, Jesus Christ."

At this, the crowd becomes furious. Different people begin shouting different things back at Luther.

"Who do you think you are, you blockhead?"

"To believe on Christ is to believe in His Church!"

"Yeah! Who are you to go against Christ's Holy Church?"

"I'm not against the church." screams Luther, trying to make himself heard, "but I am against what this man is doing."

"He has the blessing of the pope!" screams back another man.

"Well, in this case," screams Luther, "The pope is wrong!"

"What?! Blasphemer! How can you speak against God's anointed?"

"The pope shall hear of this!" yells another.

"But why wait?" asks a yet another man. "Let's defend his good name and the name of the church now!" Thus, some in the crowd take up stones to hurl at the monk.

"Take this, you blasphemer!"

"Come on!" urges Walt, as he pushes the monk behind a clump of trees. Kerry and Daniel follow Walt's lead and soon all four are lying breathlessly on the grass, listening to the remarks of the angry crowd:

"Looks like we lost him."

"Well, never mind. When the pope hears about him, he's done for anyway."

"He was nailing something to the church door before the indulgence seller came. Let's go and see. Maybe it has his name on it."

Finally, the crowd dwindles down to nothing and the indulgence seller leaves.

"Looks like the coast is clear now. Let's go."

"Well, I have to thank you fellows for saving my life."

"Oh, anyone would have done it."

The monk taps Walt on the shoulder. "Say, have you fellows had your supper yet?"

"Well, no, as a matter of fact, we haven't."

"Well, you're welcome to share mine, such as it is. Come on."

************

The meal is a simple one of stew and biscuits. But, to our friends, it's a meal fit for a king. They eat in silence. After the meal, they sit and talk.

"What was that document you were nailing to the church door?" asks Kerry.

Before the monk can answer, Walt asserts: "Some sort of list of grievances against the church, wasn't it?"

"Exactly!" answers Luther, a bit surprised. "I have a copy of it in my study if you wish to read it. This way."

************

The study is a big room with a desk and several chairs. Books and papers are scattered about. He invites them to sit down, seats himself behind the desk, pulls out a long document and hands it to them. "Here's a copy. But I'm curious to know who you are and how you came to know so much about me."

"We're travelers from another place, and time, if you can believe that."

The monk only frowns and murmurs "Hmmm!"

"95 Thesis," reads Walt aloud.

"Wow!" exclaims Kerry, "You found that many things wrong with the Church?"

"Accordion to the Bible!" insists Luther.

Walt thumbs through the document and stops, holding his finger at a certain point. "This business about justification by faith alone--"

Luther's eyes light up. "That's my central theme and my main grievance! You see, I suddenly realized that there is nothing I can do to earn my eternal salvation but simply to trust in the shed blood of Jesus."

Kerry sighs and looks at the other two. "There's that name again!" He then turns to the monk and asks: "But what can Jesus possibly have to do with it? He was just a good man--a prophet, who taught many good things. But that's all. Nothing more."

"He was the Divine Son of God," insists Luther, "and He died for our sins so that now we need only to trust in Him. We are saved by faith in Him alone."

"But, surely," insists Daniel, "Our good works must count for something. I mean, admittedly, we can't be perfect, due to the entrance of sin into the world, but if that could be prevented--if there were no original sin, surely we could be good enough to earn our own salvation."

"That's probably what the church is talking about," adds Walt before the monk can reply. "Perhaps it's only waiting to find a better way to deal with original sin."

"So why fight the establishment, Martin?" asks Kerry.

"Yeah!" adds Walt, "If you believe salvation is by faith in Jesus alone, fine. But keep it to yourself. I mean, why stir up trouble needlessly?"

The monk's face is grim. Suddenly, he rises from his seat, grabs an inkwell from the desk and hurls it in the direction of our three friends. "Satan, the Lord rebuke you!" he cries out at the top of his voice. "Fowl demons, sent from hell to dissuade me from my purpose! Be gone!"

They move quickly to the side and out of the study. They hear the inkwell slam into the wall and break as they run out of out of the house, not pausing to look back.

"What's wrong with him?" asks Kerry. "Is he crazy?"

"No," replies Walt, "Just a little fanatical."

************

Back at the ship, they quickly work out the coordinate settings and repair the slight damage, talking while they work.

"That name again--Jesus--it keeps coming up."

"Yeah! It's uncanny!"

"Why people want to worship him and trust in him as if he were God or something is beyond me."

"I tell you, I don't care if I never hear that name again!"

"That goes for me too!"

"And me!"

CHAPTER 10: MIGHT AND RIGHT

Having revised the directional settings and repaired the damage, they try to contact home base. At first, the transmission is a bit garbled. But it soon becomes clear.

"Hey! What happened to you guys?" We've been expecting to hear from you long ago. You really had us worried!"

"Sorry, but we couldn't call. We got pulled forward to the future by a transmat beam and were forced to fight in a senseless war. With the help of some strange natural phenomena, we barely escaped. Then we discovered we had a stowaway, of all things! But, fortunately, he had a device which enabled us to go further back. But we took off without him by mistake in 1490. Then the lever got stuck and the directional switch got moved somehow, so we went forward again to 1517."

"Wow! You guys sure have had some bad luck, haven't you? But don't worry. We've been working on something here which can help propel you further back."

"A new fuel formula." John's voice breaks in. "By adding the right amount of alcohol to the fuel, you can add more force and increase the number of revolutions. And then, by adjusting the coordinate settings properly to allow for the extra buildup of speed before departure--"

"Save the details, as long as it works!"

"Yeah, that would be tremendous!" All three become excited at the prospect of being able to take longer leaps back in time.

"Listen!" It is Mark's voice again coming over the communicator. "Do you guys still have that bottle of brandy that I suggested you take along for emergencies?"

"Yes, it's still in the storage."

"Well, get it and a cup. Listed carefully. Pour 3 1/2 cups of the brandy into the fuel. Then set the coordinates to 006459."

"This should help to put you a little further back," adds John. "It's not really perfected yet, so this will be the trial run."

"Walt goes to the storage area and retrieves the brandy. "3 1/2 cups--but this will be almost the whole bottle."

"Hopefully you'll be able to find some more wherever you land."

"And," adds John, "call us when you land without fail."

"Will do. Roger, over and out."

Walt takes the bottle and the cup over to the engine and pours the required 3 1/2 cups into the fuel tank along with the necessary amount of new fuel. "Ready on the controls, you two?"

Kerry goes over to the lever, while Daniel sets the coordinates to the required number.

"Well, here goes nothing!"

************

Again, they land in a clump of trees in a field.

"How lucky can you get?!"

But, again, the indicator has broken in flight, leaving them to guess their whereabouts. A light fog covers the landscape, but, through the fog, they can see the outline of a huge castle surrounded by smaller buildings. The scene before them calls up memories of pictures they had all seen in books of legend and history.

"Camelot?"

"Seems to be."

"Ah! I was rather hoping we'd land here. This is really a fascinating era."

"You mean," asks Kerry, staring in unbelief at the scene before them, "that this place actually exists? I thought it was only a legend."

"That shows how much you know about European history. I guess you never read T.H. White. It was real alight, even though many legends grew up around it. Too bad that indicator broke, or we could be able to establish the exact date. There's a lot of dispute about that among history scholars, you know."

"I see! Well, let's go and take a look shall we?"

"But," objects Daniel, "Shouldn't we call home base first?"

"Nah! We can call later. That will give them more time to work on the new formula. Besides, we might have something interesting to tell them."

"If we don't run into any more bad luck."

"Ah, quit being so pessimistic. Anyway, we have to find more alcohol, don't we?"

"Well, I guess you're right. We can come back and call later. We might as well all go and have a look around."

As they walk up the hill toward the city, they talk:

"Tell us, Walt, What do you remember of this era from your reading?"

"Ah, this was a wonderful time. Chivalry, might-for-right and all that. King Arthur was trying to develop a perfect society. And he would have succeeded except for--"

"Except for what?"

"Except that Lancelot, Arthur's dearest friend, fell in love with Guinevere, Arthur's wife, which led to a scandal, and then to a full-scale war, destroying Camelot."

"Ah yes! Now I remember that from my world history."

"Say, do you think that perhaps we might be able to do something here to prevent this situation from happening?"

"Perhaps. Anyway, we can try. This could be a sort of test case for the garden of Eden."

But their conversation is interrupted by the sound of a woman screaming. The scream seems to come from a clump of bushes a short distance to their left.

"Let's go and see what's happening."

They creep slowly into the clump of bushes and find a vantage point from which they can view the action without being seen. The poor woman is laying there almost completely naked and frozen with fright, while a big brute of a man begins beating her with a rough leather whip.

"Shouldn't we do something?" whispers Kerry?

"Let's not be too hasty," cautions Walt.

Just then, they hear another noise. Looking up, they see, coming from the left side, a knight in full armor, mounted on horseback, with sword in hand. He approaches speedily and brings his horse to a screeching halt just in front of the man. Dismounting, he draws his sword and aims a blow at the man. But the man is quick and jumps back. Twirling his whip in the air, he catches the knight's sword with it. With a fling of the man's wrist, the sword goes flying through the air, landing surprisingly close to where our three friends are hiding. The knight lurches forward and tries to strike at the man with his fist. But the man catches his fist and gets him in a headlock. The knight struggles and finally manages to break free.

Suddenly, another noise is heard, this time from above, as a third man, dressed all in black, hurls himself down from a tree, yelling "Down with might-for-right!" As he falls, he tries to grab the knight and pull him down but fails. He falls but immediately gets back up again. Meanwhile, the knight and the other man are still fighting. The man in black grabs the knight, pushing him backward with a mighty thrust. As he does so, he cries out: "Tell Arthur that Mordred is here!"

"Now?" asks Kerry, poised for action.

"What can we do?" asks Daniel, a little frightened.

"Let's go!" urges Walt, "At least we can bluff them!"

Walt reaches for the sword and our three friends rush forward out of the bushes, yelling as they run. Walt points the sword at the two men, who, taken by surprise, take off running.

The knight, who has fallen backward from Mordred's push, gets up with a start and shakes himself. "Wow, and glory be! Where did you fellows come from?"

"You might say we just dropped in," blurts out Kerry.

"Ah--we were looking for Camelot," corrects Walt.

"Oh, you want to become knights also, eh?" Well, you certainly proved yourselves today. I'll certainly put in a good word for you." He points toward the castle. "It's this way. Let's go."

The woman, meanwhile, obviously stunned by the whole thing, gets up and starts walking off in the direction from which the knight came. But she suddenly turns and waves at the four, yelling, "Oh, thank you, kind sirs, thank you indeed!"

**********

"Wow! It's even more glamorous than in the books!" exclaims Walt, as they enter the huge and splendorous "Great Hall" of King Arthur. At the end of the hall, the king, arrayed in his royal robes, sits erect on his marble throne. The throne beside him is vacant. They approach the throne respectfully, and, after the customary greetings, the knight relates the whole story of the encounter and of their timely aid and adds: "In light of the valiant way that they handled themselves today, I'd certainly recommend them for knighthood, Your Majesty."

The king lifts his golden crown and scratches his head. "We'll have to see about that. But what was that you said the man in black, who came from the tree, called himself?"

"He said, 'tell Arthur that Mordred is here.'"

"Are you sure he said 'Mordred'?"

"I'm certain, Your Majesty--Mordred."

The king frowns. "Oh, no!"

"Who's Mordred?" asks the knight, curious.

"He's my―" The king hesitates.

"He's your illegitimate son, right, Your Majesty?" blurts out Walt.

The king is taken aback. "How do you know that? It's been my secret! Nobody knows about it--nobody!"

"And," continues Walt, "if he's here, it means that Lancelot has arrived also."

"Sir Lancelot? He came over a fortnight ago."

Walt leans in close to the king. "And has he been making advances toward the queen?"

At this, the king becomes flustered. "A-a-a-Sir Dividend," he turns to the knight, who has been trying to hear what Walt is saying, without showing interest, "a-you may leave now. I shall like to continue talking with our new friends in private."

"As you wish, Your Majesty." The knight departs.

"Th-th-this is absolutely amazing! How do you know about this? I was doing my best to keep th' whole thing a secret. And they have been very discrete. Why, I hardly noticed anything myself, but since she's my wife,--. Anyway, I've decided just to ignore it. But, how did you know?--about this and about Mordred?"

"We possess knowledge beyond the scope of this time period."

"Then you are soothsayers!"

"Of a sort, I guess. Actually, we're travelers in time if Your Majesty can understand that. We come from your distant future."

"Merlin sent you, didn't he?"

"We came to warn you that your kingdom is in great danger."

"But everything has been going so well. My dream is working. The thing I've waited for all my life--the answer to the problem of evil in the world---." He holds up his right hand, triumphantly, "Might-for-right! The perfect society! It's wonderful! I think this thing with Lancelot is just a passing disturbance. I'm trying to forget it, hoping that it will soon pass. Except for this one little thing, everything is wonderful."

"Except for this and the arrival of Mordred--a deadly combination which will ruin your dream forever."

"That's right, Your Majesty," adds Daniel. "Your own system will backfire, so to speak."

Arthur scratches his head and sighs. "Then, there is no hope for the world? I had so hoped that Camelot would be the answer! Is the world doomed to perish with hatred greed and violence? Is there no answer to the problem of evil in the world?"

"Ah, but there is, Your Majesty, there is! In fact, we ourselves are trying to do this very thing--to eliminate evil from the world. And we may be able to do it, with your help."

"But how?"

"By getting rid of the cause of evil, namely sin. You see, Your Majesty, we are attempting to go back to the beginning of time in order to prevent the first sin. But, in order to do so--in order to make our device work more efficiently, we need a certain quantity of alcohol."

"I'm not sure I understand exactly, but rest assured, anything you need--"

Suddenly, the door swings open and in walks a huskily built old gentleman lead by a huge Saint Bernard on a leash. Under the dog's neck is fastened a large keg of brandy.

"Your Majesty,--" the man starts, and then, upon seeing our friends, "Oh, pardon me, Your Majesty. I didn't realize that you had guests."

"King Pellinore?" ventures Walt.

The man is obviously taken aback. "Why, he knows my name!"

"Our guests know many things, Pelly. They're my new soothsayers, and they're going to help me to eliminate evil. Isn't that wonderfully, Pelly?"

"Oh, wonderful, wonderful," agrees the befuddled Pellinore, bowing to our three friends.

"The only thing is," continues Arthur, "that they need a certain quantity of alcohol." Arthur turns to our friends. "Do you think that (pointing to the keg) will be enough?"

"That," answers Kerry, who has been silent until now, "will do perfectly."

"B-but," protests the baffled king Pellinore, "th-that's for an emergency."

"Well, Pelly," counters Arthur, "believe me, right now we are in a real emergency. I wouldn't ask you if it weren't the case."

"Anything you say, Your Majesty." King Pellinore unstraps the keg from the dog and hands it to Kerry.

"Thank you very much, Your Majesty. You won't regret it."

"And," adds Daniel, reassuringly, "We'll return the keg."

"Then," says Walt to Arthur, "with Your Majesty's permission, we shall take our leave, and return shortly."

************

Back at the ship, they succeed in contacting home base and getting the revised formula. John and Mark are thrilled to hear that they've reached as far back as Camelot, and John promises to look up the different views of the date of the fall of Camelot so that they can discuss it when they call back. Kerry manages to repair the indicator, which now gives the date as August 15, 875 A.D.

Meanwhile, Daniel obtains the necessary water from one of the many small lakes which dot the forest. Then, having measured out the amount of Brandy needed, they return to the Castle, bearing the keg, which unfortunately did not contain enough for two leaps.

************

The befuddled King Pellinore is still there when they return. "Oh, I'm glad to see you brought that back. Pooch feels lonely without his keg, don'tcha boy?"

Kerry hands the keg to the king.

This time, the throne beside Arthur is occupied. "Ah! My soothsayers!" greets Arthur, as they approach the throne. "Allow me to introduce you to my lovely wife, Guinevere."

"Good day, ma'am, I mean Your Majesty."

"Charmed indeed."

"And," asks Arthur, "did you succeed in eliminating evil from the world?"

"We haven't finished trying yet, Your Majesty. We thought we'd better see if we could help out here more first."

At this moment, the door swings open again and a tall, handsome knight enters. As he approaches the thrones, he throws a few endearing glances toward the Queen. Having approached, he says: "Sir Lancelot reporting, Your Majesties."

"At ease, Lance," says Arthur. "Let me introduce you to my new soothsayers."

************

Tired from the trip and the repairs, they decide to stay the night, and Arthur obligingly puts them up in one of the lavish spare rooms of the huge castle.

"Now, this is what I call living," observes Walt.

"How long are we going to stay here?" Kerry asks the following morning. "Don't you think it's time we left?"

"Just a little while longer. I want to see if there is anything we can do here. Besides it's really a lovely place, is it not? Why don't we go for a walk in the woods?"

"Well, all right."

As they walk along, enjoying the beauty of the woods, listening to the sound of the brook babbling and the birds singing, they suddenly hear voices.

"Yeah, it sure is getting rather dull around here. Who needs all this goodness?"

"And Arthur is getting too pushy, right?"

"Sometimes, yeah."

"You can say that again!"

"So, what d' y' think about tryin' t' uh-overthrow 'im?"

"It'd never work. He's too powerful."

"But I've got a perfect plan."

Peering into the clump of trees to their left, they can see the speakers, most of them knights. But the one who had mentioned the plan was the man in black they had run into earlier, namely Mordred.

"So, he's already forming his own band to overthrow Arthur."

"What can we do?"

"Nothing yet. Let's just keep walking."

They walk further into the forest. Suddenly, their thoughts are interrupted by a sound of a different kind--the sound of heavy kissing followed by soft breathless conversation:

"Oh, my darling, I love you so much!"

"And I love you. But how much longer can we go on like this? Somehow they're bound to find out, and then what?"

"Nah! Nobody suspects anything. Anyway, what can we do?"

"Now's our chance!" whispers Walt, and our three friends emerge from behind the trees to the great surprise of the lovers.

"Give up this ill-fated love affair!" yells Kerry, excitedly.

"What th'--!" screams Guinevere. "What do you mean, startling us like that?!"

"Well, if it isn't the king's soothsayers," observes Lancelot. "What a surprise!"

"We came to warn you," explains Walt, in a somewhat calmer tone, " that you must abandon this love affair before it's too late."

"B-but that's impossible--we're in love!"

"Are you sure it's really love you feel and not just lust?" asks Daniel.

"You know, of course," adds Walt, "that what you are doing is a terrible sin. How could you, Lancelot, of all people—you who have always prided yourself on your virtue—how could you allow yourself to fall into this sinful lifestyle?"

"But, since we really love each other, it can't be that bad."

Lancelot's words are echoed by Guinevere. "Yes, love is really all that matters, isn't it?"

"But what of the love you once had for Arthur, your husband?"

"I don't know. It's grown cold, somehow."

"Well," sighs Walt, "I can see there's no use talking. There's no hope for you, or for the world, if you persist in this; for, your so-called love will certainly destroy Camelot."

"Well," replies Lancelot, hesitantly, "Thanks for the warning. Perhaps we'll think about it. And now, if you wouldn't mind leaving us alone--"

"As you wish. But remember, there is great danger. We shall try to warn you again when it is nearest. For now, goodbye."

************

"I feel so frustrated. We couldn't get anywhere with them."

"I wonder if it will be that way in Eden."

"Nah, they're already set in their sinful ways. In Eden, it'll be the first time, so we should have an easier time of it."

"I hope you're right. Say, let's go back and try to contact home base again. Maybe they found the date or, at least, a good idea of what it might be."

"Good idea."

************

"Yeah, we found it alight!" John's voice comes droning over the communicator. "Of course, there are different viewpoints, but the predominant theory is that fall of Camelot began the night of August 16, 875 A.D."

"That's tonight!" observes Kerry.

"It all started," continues John, "when the queen, Guinevere, was captured in her room in the act of adultery with Lancelot, who escaped, only to try to rescue her, causing the final war."

"Oh, my goodness!" exclaims Walt. "We'd better go and try to warn them."

"I'm afraid it's too late," observes Kerry.

"What do you mean?"

"Just take a look out that window."

Looking out, they see a group of knights in battle array, surrounding the capsule. "Oh no! It must be a contingent of Mordred's men, sent to prevent us from interfering."

"Shucks! What can we do now?"

"We could try to blast them, but It's probably too late anyway. I'll bet at this very moment, another contingent of Mordred's men is arresting the Queen for unfaithfulness."

"Then, this is the beginning of the end of Camelot, eh?"

"Sure as shootin'!"

"Well, we might as well be on our way. I'll break out the new envelope of fuel. Kerry, bring the water and the brandy over here, and the measuring cup too. Daniel, stand by at the controls."

************

Meanwhile, the soldiers surrounding them are talking also:

"Wow! What kind of device is that?"

"Beats me. All I know is we're suppose t' keep 'em surrounded. Fortunately, they didn't hear us followin' 'em."

"Fortunately, we saw 'em leave the castle."

"Well, now what do we do?"

"Just stand here and wait, like we were told, dummy!"

"Well, how long we gonna have t' wait here?"

"I don't know--till we hear somethin' from Mordred."

"Sure was lucky runnin' into him, eh? I mean things were gettin' t' be real dull around here."

"Y' c'n say that again."

"Things were gettin' t' be real--hey, what th'--?!"

"Fer th' love o' Murd, would y' look at that!"

"I can't believe it! It's just hangin' there, goin' round and round in the' middle o' th'-- well, bless my soul, it's disappeared. Did you see that?"

"Yeah! It was goin' round 'n' round and then it up and disappeared, all of a sudden like!"

"Well, either we're all crazy, or that's th' most special kind o' magic I ever saw."

"We'd better not say anything t' anybody."

"But how are we gonna explain t' Mordred?"

"Maybe we won't have to. If he succeeds in what he's tryin' t' do, he'll be so happy, he'll forget about us."

"I sure hope you're right."

"Well, let's go. Nothin' else t' do here."

************

And, inside the capsule:

"What a take-off!"

"Wow! I bet they were surprised!"

"But do you think their presence here means--I mean, maybe it isn't possible to change history."

"Nah! That was just a stroke of bad luck."

"Say, old King Arthur came pretty close to eliminating evil in the world, didn't he?"

"Yes, but he failed to deal with evil at its source--sin in the heart of man."

"And that's what we're going to prevent."

"We're sure going to try."

"I hope this new formula works."

"Yeah, I can't wait to find out how far back we go now."

"Any bets?"

CHAPTER 11: CHRIST AND CRISIS

Again, the cylinder lands in a clump of trees beside a road.

Walt checks the indicator.

"Jerusalem: 33 A.D.?"

"That's what it says."

"Ah!" sighs Walt, remembering. "The time of the prophet, Jesus."

"I thought we were through with hearing that name."

"I guess not. Maybe it's fate or something. Anyway, it'll give us a chance to sharpen up our Hebrew."

"That's right," observes Kerry, "they still do speak that language in this time, don't they?"

"As well as Aramaic and Greek."

"We won't have to worry about looking out of place. We can just cover ourselves with the bed-sheets and towels and we'll fit right in."

"You mean you plan to spend time looking around here too?"

"Well, we do have to get the water and alcohol don't we?"

"The alcohol, maybe. I almost forgot about that. But by the sound of those falls, we won't have to worry about the water," observes Daniel referring to the faint sound of falling water in the distance.

"You've sure got good ears."

"Anyway, before we do anything let's check the damage, shall we?" insists Daniel.

They find the damage to be quite extensive. Many tiles need to be replaced and the directional mechanism needs to be adjusted. Daniel volunteers. "Well, why don't you two go have a look around and try to find some spirits. I'll stay here and do what I can to fix the ship."

Walt and Kerry walk boldly out of the clump of trees and onto the road, clad in sheets, with towels around their heads. "I feel a little silly in this get-up. Do you really think we'll fit in?"

"Well, it's not perfect, but close enough. Nobody'll notice any difference, which they sure would if we'd kept those modern clothes on."

They walk along the dusty road, admiring the rolling hillside, dotted with quaint houses and huge, spreading trees. Suddenly, they notice, on one side, a crowd of people a short distance ahead.

"I wonder what that's all about."

"Well, let's go and see!"

And so our friends find themselves in the midst of a crowd, listening to a man talking. "I do not come to judge the world," the man is saying, "but to save the world." His words seem to have a kind of power.

"Could it be him?"

"Probably. One way to find out." Walt nudges the man next to him in the crowd and asks, "Who is that man who's speaking?"

"Why, Jesus of Nazareth. Everybody knows about him!"

"And those men there next to him--who are they?"

"Why, his disciples, of course. Where have you been?"

As they listen, they are impressed by the love and power in his words. "He's quite a speaker."

"Sure is. But listen to what he's saying now."

"I do not speak on my own," Jesus was saying, "but the Father who sent me has commanded me what to say."

"Pretty impressive, eh?"

"Nah! Prophets always say things like that. Well, I guess we'd better get back and give Daniel a hand at fixing the ship."

"Yeah, we've seen enough. Let's go."

************

Back at the ship, they try to share their enthusiasm with Daniel, who is tired from working on the ship and, thus, not very interested. "Did you find the alcohol?" he asks, expectantly.

"Oh, my goodness! We forgot all about it."

"What?! That fellow must be some kind of spell-binder! Well, it doesn't really matter. We'll still be here for a while, by the looks of it. I tried to adjust the directional mechanism, but there seems to be something broken. I'll need your help, Kerry, to fix it. I also replaced several of the tiles, but not all of them. Walt, why don't you keep working on the tiles, while Kerry and I try to fix the directional mechanism."

It is impossible for Walt to replace all the tiles before darkness sets in. "Have to finish this tomorrow."

"And guess what? We discovered a problem in the fuel system also. Looks like we're going to be here for a while."

After supper, they try to contact home base but the communication is so garbled that they cannot make out anything.

************

The next day finds our friends working hard to fix the trouble. Walt helps for a while on the interior trouble and then goes outside to finish replacing the tiles. Suddenly, he hears the sound of many voices coming from the street. He enters the ship to tell the others: "Hey, guys, it seems like there's some excitement out there. Why don't we take a break and go have a look."

"We have been working pretty hard at this," agrees Kerry.

"What? Are you guys going to leave me again?"

"Well, you could come along. This work will wait."

"Ah, I guess I might as well. No use being the only one of us who hasn't seen 33 A.D."

************

They can barely see, at the front of the crowd, a man bound and being led along by the mob. As they push their way through the crowd to get a better view, Walt asks someone, "Who are they taking?"

"Why Jesus of Nazareth. Don't you know?"

"But he seemed to be so popular the other day."

"That was then. He's been arrest on the charge of blasphemy, and we're taking him to Caiaphas for trial."

"Wow!" whispers Walt to Daniel, "We certainly did come at a historic moment!"

"Yeah, I guess so. Something like seeing the shooting of old Abe Lincoln--Now, there's an event I wish I could have witnessed."

************

They follow the crowd to the judgment hall of the High Priest. Outside, in the courtyard, there is a man, who looks very much like one of the disciples they had seen gathered around Jesus earlier. The man is warming himself by one of the small fires which dot the courtyard. A servant girl comes up to him and asks: "Aren't you one of his followers? I'm sure I've seen you with him."

The man replies with an oath "I tell you, I don't know the man!" His words are emphasized by the crowing of the cock.

Inside, they witness the mockery of a trial. They hear the many false witnesses testify against Jesus. They hear the high priest ask Jesus whether he is the Son of God, and they listen to his calm and powerful reply "You shall see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven." They see the high priest rend his clothes and declare that Jesus has blasphemed and is worthy of death. And they watch as the people begin to spit on him and slap him in the face. They watch as he takes it all in silence.

"So this is the Jesus everyone has been talking about."

"Yeah, isn't it great? Just like seeing one of those Biblical movies on TV."

"Only, this is the real thing! Look at the blood coming to his cheeks from the hits."

"Yeah, I've had enough of this! Let's go! We can get a head start on the crowd."

Once outside, they again notice the man warming himself by the fire. Kerry nudges one of the bystanders. "Say, isn't he one of Jesus' disciples?"

"Sure, he is! Why, his speech even gives him away!" The bystander then turns and confronts the man. "Yes, you! You're one of 'em for sure! Even your speech says so!"

At this, the man begins to cruse and swear, saying, "I tell You, I do not know the man!" And the cock crows.

************

They return to the ship to retire for the night, but Walt and Kerry can't help talking about the day's events.

"Really interesting eh? I mean the way he just stood there and took all that punishment."

"According to history, this was only the beginning of his suffering."

"Say, how about that guy in the courtyard? I'm sure he's one of the disciples we saw yesterday, but he sure didn't want to admit it."

"Maybe he didn't feel his master was worth defending."

"Hey, guys!" interrupts Daniel. "Are we going to stay up all night talking about this, or are we going to get some sleep so that tomorrow we can fix this ship and get out of here?"

"You mean we're going to miss the crucifixion?"

"Why not? Haven't we seen enough suffering today?"

"But, It's one of history's great events, and since we're here, we might as well see it. . We've seen this much of this time. Why not see the big event?"

"You have a point, there, Walt. And, after all, how bad can it be? We can go and watch for a few minutes, anyway, and if it's too bad we can leave."

"Well, all right. And no matter how it is, immediately afterward we come right back here and get to work--O.K.?"

************

And so, the next day finds our friends on the road to Calvary.

"There--that's him up there in front of the crowd."

"Wow! That cross he's carrying must really be heavy!"

They see when he stumbles and falls under the weight of the Cross. Kerry, touched, starts to offer to carry the cross for him, but another man, also black, steps in front of Kerry and takes the cross upon his shoulders. "Simon of Cyrene," says Walt, remembering his Bible history.

With the help of a little pushing, our friends manage to maintain a place fairly near the front of the crowd--near enough to see everything. They witness the cruel pounding of the nails into the hands and feet, and hear the pain-filled but compassionate words: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." They see the cross lifted and placed into the ground with a thud. Their ears are filled with the jeering taunts of the crowd, as they watch the bloody mangled frame hang suspended between earth and heaven.

"It's really terrible, the way they executed people in this time, isn't it?"

"Sure is! I don't know about you, but I've had enough! Why don't we go and finish repairing the ship?"

But just as they are turning to leave, the sun turns black and they witness the darkness which envelopes the world at mid-day. "Might as well stay, it's too dark to go."

They sit huddled together, waiting for the darkness to pass. In the darkness, they hear him cry out in desperation, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

In time, the darkness passes, and they hear him cry out in his misery: "I thirst!" They sit still spellbound, as the solder puts a sponge of sour wine on a stick and lifts it to the parched lips. As they again rise to leave, they hear his strained but decisive word "It is finished." They turn and watch him breathe his last, and see the solder quickly pierce his side, causing blood and water to flow out.

"What a pity such a good man had to die! I mean, especially in that way, and so young."

************

Back at the ship, they talk while they work:

"Well, we witnessed the death of an important historical figure."

"He was a great prophet and teacher. His teachings left quite an impact on society."

"Do you know, I read somewhere that his followers actually claimed he rose from the dead."

"They probably stole his body in order to make their story more believable by pointing people to his empty tomb."

************

The problem with the fuel system takes longer to fix than they anticipate, and, before they realize it, two days have passed. Again, Walt is outside, checking the tiles, when he hears voices. Two men and a woman are talking:

"Are you sure it was him--I mean you were nervous and--"

"I know the master when I see him. And it wasn't only his appearance but also his voice and expression when he said to me 'Mary!' Who else could have known my name? And who else could have spoken it with such feeling and insight? It was as if he was looking right into my very soul."

By now, Walt has managed to peer out through the trees. He notices that one of the men is the same one who had denied Jesus earlier in the courtyard. It is he whom the other man addresses: "Well Peter, why don't we go to the tomb and see for ourselves?"

Walt reports this conversation to the other two, who are working hard inside the capsule. "Didn't seem to me like the words of people hatching a plot to deceive. It really seemed as if those men didn't know what to believe. And the woman sounded so sincere--as if she'd really seen him."

"Probably, they were rehearsing their lines for the big deception. Now, let's get on with the work, shall we?!"

************

Fortunately, while they are working, Kerry remembers about the alcohol. "Hey, guys! We've been forgetting that we still have to look for the alcohol."

"Yeah, we've been so wrapped up in what's happening out there, plus trying to fix this stupid ship--"

Walt volunteers. "Why don't I go and try to find some, while you two keep on working?"

"Well O.K.," agrees Daniel "but try not to get sidetracked by anything eh?"

"Say, do you think they have anything stronger than wine in this time?" ponders Kerry.

"Seems like I remember the Prophets mentioning strong drink," answers Daniel.

Kerry disconnects the microphone again and hands it to Walt. "Better carry this under your tunic in case. We never know."

"Be careful, Walt."

************

Walt walks out onto the dusty road and asks the first passerby he sees where he might buy a container of spirits. The man smiles and points to a small side-road with a sign reading: "Emmaus".

"Just a short walk down that road."

Walt thanks the man and starts walking down the narrow road, which is shaded with trees on either side. He notices that a short distance ahead of him, there are two men, walking and talking as they walk. He can barely make out the conversation, but he realizes that they seem to be talking about Jesus and his recent death. He tries to get closer in order to hear better without being detected. But, suddenly, a third man appears, as if by magic, and joins the two in their conversation. Perhaps he came from out of the trees. Perhaps he had taken a short-cut. But it was amazing how he emerged so close to the other two. This third man is dressed all in white and his face seems to have a strange glow about it. As far as Walt can hear, the conversation continues along the same line, with the third man adding bits of information from different parts of the Tanakh concerning the Messiah. Walt edges closer and stretches his neck in order to get a better look at the men. He manages to get enough of a glimpse of the third man to notice that he looks remarkably like the man Jesus, who was crucified on Friday. It couldn't be, thinks Walt to himself, and yet the resemblance is really striking.

He soon finds the store, buys an animal-skin container of liquor, and carries it back to the ship, where he relates his experience to the others.

"Ah, come on! Next, you'll be telling us that you saw someone walking on water or through walls or something! Jesus is dead! We saw him die, and that's that!"

"Alright, maybe it was just another person who looked like him. I guess there are a lot of people who look like each other, even back in this time, but it sure was a close resemblance."

************

While Walt was gone, Kerry has obtained the water from the small stream which Daniel heard earlier, flowing softly over rocks and twigs down a nearby hillside. Finally, everything is ready for take-off.

"O.K. Let's get out of here shall we!?!"

They measure out the strange smelling liquor, mix the fuel and set the coordinates. Once again, they are air-bound. The capsule Hoovers in mid-air for a few seconds, and, once again, they are traveling in time. But, once again, they are traveling in the wrong direction.

"Hey! What's happening? We're moving forward, again."

"Uh-oh! Probably when we fixed the directional mechanism, it changed the temporal, as well as the locational direction."

"Well can't we try to stop it?"

"Fortunately, this time, I believe we can reverse the temporal direction in-flight, but there's no telling how far back we'll go."

"Anyway, it's worth a try."

"Where are we now?"

"60 A.D. and moving forward."

Kerry goes to the controls and pushes a lever in the directional mechanism. The capsule spins around and the indicator shows that they are once more moving backward in time. However, the capsule, still spinning, suddenly comes to a stop and comes crashing down to the ground.

"What happened?"

"Where are we?"

Kerry checks the indicator. "Oh no!"

"What's wrong?"

"We're back in 33 AD, about a month or two later than where we were."

"Oh my goodness! Is this fate or what?"

************

"Looks like we've landed in back of a building this time. I hope nobody finds us here--they'd really be startled."

"Say, what's that sound?--seems to be a crowd of people, shouting something."

"Yes," muses Kerry, in unbelief, "and it sounds like Arabic. Open the window!"

Walt opens the window and stands listening in amazement. "Arabic? That's not Arabic! It's German!"

"Are you joking?" disagrees Kerry. "I should be able to recognize my native language. They're praising God in Arabic."

"In German!"

"What seems to be the trouble?" asks Daniel who has been examining the meters and levers in an attempt to determine the cause of their quick landing.

"Come here and listen!" urges Walt. "They're saying praises to God in perfect German, only Kerry insists it's Arabic. Come listen and settle this for us."

Daniel goes to the window and listens only to stand back in awe. "It's not Arabic, and it's not German. It's perfect Yiddish. Why, I haven't heard Yiddish spoken like that since I was a boy."

"What is going on here?"

"I don't know, but why don't we go and have a look?"

"Yeah, I guess the mission can wait a little longer. I'm curious as hell about this. You don't remember reading anything about something like this, do you?"

"My study of Biblical history ended with the death of Jesus," replies Walt. "They told us nothing really important happened after that. His followers claimed he was alive and formed a church, and that was all."

"Well, maybe they were wrong. We've obviously landed a few months after his death and there seems to be something big going on. Let's go and find out what it is."

************

"Wow! Look at all the people! And they're just standing there, listening."

"Say, that big guy doing the talking--isn't that the one we saw in the courtyard of the high priest?--the one who swore up and down he didn't know the prophet, Jesus?"

"That's him alright! But he sure seems different now. Listen to how boldly he speaks. And listen to what he's saying!"

"Why, he's telling everybody that God raised up Jesus from the dead, and that Jesus is now at the right hand of God in heaven, and that from there, he is sending this miracle."

"What's that he called it?--the Holy Spirit?"

Walt nudges Daniel. "So, maybe he is alive! Maybe, it really was him I saw on the road to Emmaus!"

"Shhh! Listen! What's he saying now?"

"He's saying that Jesus is both Lord and Messiah. And just look at his face! Now he seems not to be afraid of anything."

"And now, look what's happening! The people are responding. They're asking what they should do."

"He's telling them to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus."

"Just look at all the people moving toward him." From where they stand, they can get a close glimpse of the people as they walk forward to register their decisions.

"Say, some of them are the same ones who wanted to crucify Jesus, aren't they?"

"Seems like it. And now they are repenting and asking forgiveness. Do you think their lives will be changed by this experience?"

"Peter's life has certainly changed."

"Say, do you think that if we walked up there like all those people are doing, we might get a chance to talk to him?"

"Maybe, but--"

"Well, come on, let's go!"

And so, our friends find themselves face to face with the Apostle, Peter. Strangely enough to them, however, the Apostle seems to want to talk only to Daniel. They soon get used to the situation, however, and relay all conversation through Daniel.

"Weren't you the man who denied that you even knew Jesus?"

"I'm sorry to say, I was, but now, thank God, I'm not. I'm a changed man since today. Jesus has sent the Holy Spirit, just as He promised. He told us to wait until we receive power from on high, and that's what has happened here today. Now everything is going to be different. Just look at all these people coming to repent of their sins and accept Jesus." He looks Daniel squarely in the eye. "Do you want to repent and accept Jesus?"

Kerry nudges Daniel. "Ask him about our plan."

"Uh--ah, But have you ever thought about what would happen if sin itself could be eliminated--if it would be possible to prevent the first sin and thus keep sin from entering our world?"

Peter shakes his head and looks even more sternly into Daniel's eyes. "This could never be, my friend--never ever!"

Daniel squirms. "But why not?"

"There has to be sin in the world. If Adam hadn't sinned, someone else after him would have. You see, we have to have the ability to sin in order to be free moral agents. If we couldn't sin, neither could we love God with our whole hearts. And, if there were no sin in the world, Jesus would not have had to come and to give his life."

"You mean that when he died on that cross, he was dying for the sins of the world?"

"For the sins of anyone who would believe on Him."

"But everyone won't believe on him; and even if they would, believing on Jesus doesn't make you perfect, does it?"

"No, but when we believe on Him, He gives us a new nature. We still have the old sin nature that wants to sin, but the new nature that Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, gives us enables us to overcome the sin nature and live holy lives. He gives us both the motivation and the power."

"So, the only way to change the world--"

"--is to, first of all, receive Jesus into your own life, and then to tell others about him with the help of the Holy Spirit Even though everyone won't believe, there will be enough people who will to make a difference. Jesus called us the salt of the earth. As salt holds back corruption in food, so, we hold back the corruption in the earth. He also called us the light of the world. We are to shine for Him in the darkness of this world. So, you see another illustration of why there must be sin in the world. If there were no darkness, there would be no need of the light, but in the darkness, the light shines all the brighter."

Daniel looks at his two friends. "Perhaps we have been wrong, guys."

"Yeah," agrees Walt, "Perhaps he's right. The answer to the problem of evil in the world just might be this Jesus. We had this message available in our own time, but we purposely overlooked it."

They walk back to the ship lost for a while in silent thought.

************

"Well, what do you think?"

"Why didn't anyone tell us this before?"

"It sure makes a lot of sense."

"I wasn't going to tell you, but I prayed to repent of my sins and receive Jesus into my life."

"Well, I did too. When he was speaking, I felt something pulling inside of me so strongly that I couldn't resist it. I suddenly saw the blackness of my own heart against the background of Jesus' love, and knew I had to do something about it."

"The same thing happened to me. It must be what he called the Holy Spirit."

"I feel really good--really peaceful for the first time in my life."

"Me too!"

"My goodness! We're all Christians now! How about that?"

"It seems as if our whole journey was pointing toward this, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, it does, when you think about it. Isn't it great?"

"It sure is! But what are we going to do? What are we going to tell home base? We can't continue the mission now."

"We don't have to. We have a different mission now--to tell people about Jesus."

"I can hardly wait to get back and get started, although, on the other hand, I must admit it seems a bit scary."

"But, as Peter told us, we'll have the Holy Spirit with us to help us."

"That's a really comforting thought."

"Don't you think we should get baptized like Peter said?"

"I think we can wait till we get back to our own time for that."

"How fortunate we were to have actually seen His death. It means more to me now than when I was actually watching it."

"Of course, because now we know it's meaning and purpose."

"We know that He did it for us--for our sins."

"You know, I never thought of myself as much of a sinner, until when Peter was talking. Then, I suddenly realized the sinfulness of many things I'd overlooked before."

"Me too. And I guess the whole idea of us trying to eliminate sin from the world was actually a sin in itself, although we didn't realize it; because we were trying to play God."

"Say, what do you think home base is going to say about all this? Mark and John--they won't understand. None of them will."

"Not a bit--unless the Lord performs a real miracle. We'll just have to tell them and see what happens. Anyway, we can't contact them from here. We're too far away, remember? We'll have to go forward at least as far as Camelot and try to call from there."

"Well, we can't do anything until we fix the damage caused by that crash landing. Come on! Let's get busy, shall we?"

************

Again, Walt is fixing the tiles when he hears voices. Recognizing one of them to be Peter's he runs to say "Hello" and "Goodbye" to the apostle.

"Well, if you can come," invites Peter, we are having a believer's meeting tonight at the home of Mark, down the street."

Walt convinces the other two and our friends find themselves in the midst of a meeting of early Christians and feeling quite at home. Although the songs are unknown to them and the structure of the meeting new, they can feel the presence of the same Holy Spirit who brought them to the Savior. And when the communion is given, they feel as if they are experiencing the crucifixion scene over again. Not entirely understanding this, they ask Peter after the service about the communion.

"This is the memorial our Lord left us of His death burial and resurrection. Through this means, his crucifixion is made real to us no matter how far in time we get from it."

"Ah!" says Kerry, in excitement, "It's like a time machine in reverse!"

"Like a what?" asks the puzzled apostle.

"I mean, by means of this memorial, as you call it, the event of the crucifixion, which took place at one point in time, can be made real to peoples of all times. Is that the idea?"

"Yes, it's made real, but only to believers. Faith is the prerequisite. Jesus Christ must first of all be received by an act of repentance and faith. Only then will this memorial have meaning and significance."

************

"Well, guys, ready to go?"

"I guess so; although I never thought I'd be so sorry to leave another time as I am to leave this time."

"I feel the same way. You know, we could just stay here and help Peter and the others."

"It would really be nice. They all seem so friendly, and you can really feel the power of the Holy Spirit here."

"But it seems to me, I've read somewhere that the early church went through a lot of persecution for their faith. Are we ready to face that?"

"I always believed that it was better to die for something than to live for nothing."

Daniel raises his hand. "But, fellows! Doesn't it seem that we could be the most useful to God by communicating our newfound faith to those of our own time?"

"Now that you mention it, that does seem like the best idea."

"Well, what are we waiting for? Everybody ready? Let's set those controls on forward and head toward home, shall we?"

"O.K., Camelot, here we come!"

CHAPTER 12: CONCLUSION: FAITH AND UNBELIEF

"Look at that! They're still here. We must have landed a few minutes, or seconds after we took off. The marvels of time travel, eh?"

"I bet they're really surprised now, or worse, completely baffled."

Our friends are referring, of course, to Mordred's knights, who had stood watching as the capsule had disappeared, and who now stand in the same spot, watching it appear again.

"Anyway, let's get this thing over with, shall we?" Kerry walks over to the communicator and turns it on. There is a whirring sound and then, the voice of Mark Lewis is heard loud and clear. "Hey, what happened? We've been expecting to hear from you guys."

"We tried to call, but the communication was garbled. I guess we were too far away."

"But it sounds great now. What happened? Where'd you get to?"

"We got to 33 A.D."

"Say, that's pretty good. But we've refigured the calculations again, and the next jump should be your last."

"I--I'm afraid, Mark," says Walt, with a lump in his throat, "we've already made our last jump back."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean we're not going to complete the mission. It's impossible. We just came forward as far as Camelot in order to communicate with you and tell you our decision."

"What?! Have you fellows gone mad? After you've gotten this far, why should you want to give up now?"

"Because we've discovered the only real thing that can ever change the world; because we've come to realize that it's impossible to eliminate sin from the world, and we've discovered that the only answer to the sin problem is Jesus Christ."

"Jesus Christ? Jesus Christ! Jesus Christ?!....So, you went back to 33 A.D., and actually met the man personally?"

"Well, we didn't actually meet Him. We heard Him speak and we saw Him crucified, and I actually saw Him once after He'd been crucified and risen from the dead. But we did meet the apostle Peter, and he set us straight on a few things."

"But you can't just give up now, after all of this time and money has been invested. What will the shareholders think?"

"I'm sorry, Mark, but we can't go on."

"I-I-I-I don't know what to say. Hey John, come here and talk to these boys, will y'? Seems like they've got religion or something and wanta scrap the mission."

Soon John's pleasant voice is heard. "Hey, now, fellows, what is all this?"

"Well, just like we told Mark, We came to realize that we've been making a big mistake. The way to make the world better is not to try to eliminate sin in the world, but to change the sinners' hearts through Jesus Christ."

"Well, I don't know what to say either. It certainly is a surprise. So then, you won't even try to carry out our original plan?"

"We won't, because we no longer believe in its value."

"And are all three of you agreed on this?"

"We are. We are determined to come home. If you can help us to do so quicker, we'd appreciate it. If not, we'll try to make it on our own."

There is a moment of silence, and then John speaks again. "Well if you insist on this, I guess we'd might as well help you to get back. We have developed a force field thruster which could be of great help in pulling you back this way. So far, we haven't developed its possibilities for forward thrust--that is, from here back into the past. But the way things are going here, by the time you get back we may have that aspect ready for use as well. Probably you are tired from your much traveling and need a brief rest. We'll help you get back, by means of the force field thruster. Then, we can have a nice long talk about your trip, you can take a little rest and when you'll be ready to go again, we'll probably be able to send you all the way back in only two or three leaps at the most."

"O.K., John. Maybe we do need a rest. Just help us get back."

"O.K. Do you still have some alcohol, or did you use it all?"

"We managed to save some from 33 A.D."

"And, where are you now, exactly?"

"As I told Mark, we came back to the time of Camelot. It seems like we landed a few seconds after we took off."

"Well, do everything just the way you did to get there. Use the same mixture of alcohol and fuel. I'm going to try to get a fix on you with the force field generator. Maintain contact and let me know the exact minute of your take-off. Try to call me again when you are revolving in the air. Try again when you have traveled about 500 years forward. By exerting pull on the force field from here, we might be able to pull you back in one leap, but it's a long shot."

Kerry stays at the radio controls, Walt measures the fuel and alcohol, while Daniel controls the levers. Soon the cylinder is again revolving in mid-air, much to the shook of the befuddled knights on the ground:

"Well ain't that th' derndest thing y' ever saw in yer life?"

"Sure is! First, it goes up in th' air an' disappears. Then it appears in th' air again and plops down on th' ground again. Then, it goes up in the air again like it's fixin' t'--well, would y' look at that! There it goes again."

"I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm gettin' outa here!"

"Hey! Wait for me!"

************

The force field thruster proves successful and soon our three friends find themselves back where they started from, in the driveway of Mark Lewis' home. Everything looks basically the same as it did when they left, except that Mark's garage has expanded into a huge laboratory. Will, John, and David are all there to greet them as they step down from the cylinder. In the doorway, they see Mark's imposing figure, standing with his cigar and brandy snifter, and with a very cynical look on his face. The others are like little children at a party.

"Welcome home, guys!"

"Yeah, it sure is good to see you three again, even if it is a bit premature, as far as finishing the mission."

"Anyway, you certainly did prove one thing--that time travel really does work."

"I can't wait to hear all about your experiences."

By the time they get to the door, Mark has loosened up a Little. He sets the brandy on the stoop and gives the three a big hug. "I guess it is good to see you sons-o'-guns, even if you did come back too soon."

Once inside, they briefly relate their experiences of the trip, while the others sit in awe. Finally, the time comes to be frank.

"It was a great experience," admits Walt, "and I wouldn't have missed it for the world. To have actually been able to visit those other periods of history was thrilling, indeed. But the greatest thing that happened to us was something which could have happened right here and now, and can happen to you fellows also."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm talking about the experience of finding Jesus Christ as our personal savior."

"Oh, that," sighs Mark.

"Of course, that! Can't you see from what we've been saying that the whole journey was sort of geared to this? I mean that apart from our efforts, it really seemed as if an unseen hand--the hand of God, if you will--was guiding our destinations."

"That's right," chimes in Daniel "At practically every stop the name of Jesus, or at least of God, came up somehow. Twice we were actually confronted with the message of the importance of faith in Jesus, first by the preacher in the old west, and then by the great reformer, Martin Luther."

"But all the stops," adds Kerry, "were somehow pointing us to the need for Christ if we would have realized it. The emptiness we saw in the lives of the men searching for gold, the discussion about the need for personal faith in an active God at Colonial Philadelphia, and the futility of Da Vinci's humanistic philosophy; all of these should have caused us to think."

"And then," continues Walt, "When we got pulled forward to the future, it was to the start of the terrible time of tribulation which is coming upon this earth after all the believers are taken out. I'm sure glad that now I don't have to go through that time. But, you fellows will, if you don't accept Jesus as your savior as we've done."

"The stop at Camelot," adds Daniel, "helped us to realize that you can't change the world by changing outward conditions--that the change that is necessary is an inward one."

"And then, when we were talking to Peter in 33 A.D., everything became clear and we realized what God had been trying to tell us all along--that the real answer is His Son, Jesus Christ."

"And that's why we can't continue with the mission."

"I thought" insists John, "that we were going to talk about that after you've had a chance to rest up."

"We'd like to talk about it now if you don't mind."

Mark, who has been sipping his brandy and puffing on his cigar, as usual, takes another sip and another puff and sighs, "Ah, what th' heck? Let 'em talk about it now, if they want and get it out of their system, so to speak."

This time Daniel takes the lead. "Well you see, there is no use to try to play God and try to eliminate sin in the world. If God wanted sin eliminated, He would have done so Himself. But, the presence of sin in the world is a necessity, just as darkness is necessary in order to make the light shine more. But the main thing is that if there were no sin in the world, Jesus wouldn't have had to come and die for the world. Faith in Him is the real answer to the sin problem. He came to save people from sin. He offers both forgiveness and the power of a new life. So, all we have to do to make the world better is repent of our sins and accept Jesus as our savior and try, with His help, to get other people to do the same."

"And you actually believe that?" asks John.

"We certainly do." all three answer at the same time.

"Well, I think it's the biggest bunch of foolishness I've ever heard! What about you, Mark?"

Mark has just taken a big puff on his cigar and is blowing the smoke out slowly, while he searches the faces of the three time travelers. "Yeah, that's for sure, John!" he says slowly, looking from Walt to Kerry to Daniel. "So all three of you became Christians eh? Well, that's one for the books!"

"And," adds Walt, "we definitely will not continue with the mission, because it is doomed to fail anyway."

"In fact," continues Daniel, "we'd like to warn you not to try to continue it. You might as well abandon it, because it can never succeed, due to the fact that it's based on a wrong premise. But, if you insist on continuing it, you'll have to send someone else to go back, because we won't go."

"Of course, we'll continue the mission" insists John. "Don't be silly! Why shouldn't we?"

"Because," answers Daniel, "you are playing God and going against the plan of the one true Almighty God. Thus, it never will succeed."

"That's right" adds Kerry, "It cannot succeed. Either you will all become believers in Jesus like us before this is all over with, or you will be destroyed in some way by God or one of His messengers. Jesus Christ is the only answer to the problem of sin and evil in the World. There can be no other."

###

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

I am a seminary graduate, Freelance non-denominational Bible teacher and article writer and novelist My first novel is a historical (Biblical) fiction novel called "Of Such Is The Kingdom, A Novel of Biblical Times in 3 Parts, and is also available on smashwords, HERE. It is now also divided into three separate books, the first. "Of Such Is The Kingdom, Part I, Discontent and Insurrection, A Novel of the Christ and the Roman Empire, <a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/780208">available on Smashwords HERE</a>, the 2nd, Of Such Is The Kingdom, Part II, Robbery and Redemption, A Novel of the Christ and the Roman Empire, <a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/780268">available on Smashwords HERE</a>, and the 3rd "Of "Such Is The Kingdom, Part III Power and Persecution, A Novel of the early Church and the Roman Empire, <a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/178438"> available on Smashwords HERE</a>. I have also published the FREE bi-weekly "Inspirational Success Tips" ezine, and I have compiled a shorter non-fiction self-help book called "Principles Of The Kingdom (God's Success Principles) from my ezine articles with quotable quotes and references to my Biblical novel. it is now also available on Smashwords.com HERE. I also have 73 hubs on Hubpages. For more, including my twitter, facebook and MySpace page URLs, visit my Smashwords profile HERE.
