Lost: Somewhere in Time [Published - Sample Only]

Chapter 2 - Time Travelers Avoid Stepping on Butterflies

Chapter 2 - Time Travelers Avoid Stepping on Butterflies

TIME-COORD: 6/11/2045/1730hrs. GEO-COORD: Cleveland, North American Alliance. Vector: Null.

No one laughed. Michael had been staring at the old whiteboard while the conversation was going on. He then pointed to a series of equations. "J, that function there should be impossible. It makes time a four-dimensional variable vector in an eleven-dimensional matrix."

James shook his head. "If you say so, Mike. It's all Greek to me. I just know that it works and how to operate the thing. Perhaps I should show you the machine." The three friends stood up and followed James. He stepped over to a marble bust of Albert Einstein...

Michael laughed and quipped. "J, tell me that you're not gonna' tip old Al over and press a red button and take us down to the Bat Cave..."

Angelina laughed. "bat cave, WTF?"

James shook his head and toggled a hidden switch behind the bust. As a section of the bookcase moved aside, and a control panel with flat panel screen and holo-imager appeared in its place. "No, it's not quite that simple. The technology below in the main lab; it's quite sophisticated. And it's very, very expensive. Okay everyone please step over here so the AI can image you in the holo pickup."

Hiroko stepped over to James and held him tight. Mike and Gina moved closer as James said aloud. "House, security scan, please. Login the following three people for limited access to level seven: Hiroko McAdams, Angelina Lincoln, and Michael Watson. Recognize voice, retina and BMI scans. Please store and catalog. Epsilon, Zeta, seven."

From somewhere above a smooth voice announced. "Cataloged and locked. Level seven access granted."

Gina did not miss a beat. "James, who keeps speaking to us?"

James touched his brilliant friend's hand. "That's just House. Grandpa's AI."

Gina gave a puzzled look to James. He looked at her and smiled. "G, you have been speaking to House since the first time you came up here for a visit a long time ago."

Michael interrupted. "Yeah, but not like this. Before today, it, he, was always just an interactive home auto sub-routine with voice-activated lights and locks and all that other stuff. I mean just about everyone has one now..."

Gina gave James that stare. "So, just when were you planning on telling us about this!"

James looked down at his shoes for a moment and said quietly. "Right now, sorry. No plan. I mean, guys I need your help."

James then lightened the mood and laughed a bit. "Sorry, it's not my fault. Grandpa told House to play dumb and emulate those everyday home units. House..."

"Yes, Mister James."

"Please override and cancel previous security directives with regards to my three friends present now."

"Acknowledged and locked."

James gestured to the pretty brown skinned woman and said. "Go ahead Gina, ask away."

She nodded her head and asked softly. "House, please um, tell us a little about yourself please?"

The AI then announced in a much more masculine voice than the androgynous simulacrum it had used while impersonating a basic AutoHome™ system. "Certainly Ms. Lincoln. I am the latest in bio-factured artificial intelligence systems. My clone siblings are currently or will soon be installed at Fleet headquarters on Luna and on deep space stations LG-1, LG-2, and LG-3. My primary functions here are to monitor and maintain the fusion power core, continuously update required calculations and take into account all possible variables for Doctor Scott's dimensional doorway device."

Michael laughed. "Ya' mean the so-called Time Machine?"

"Precisely sir. Additionally, I maintain and constantly update my historical database to ensure that each journey is successful."

James gave his friends an open hands gesture. "You never would have believed me if I told you. Let's just take a trip down the rabbit hole..."

James' three friends were silent and didn't really know what to think. For an instant Gina thought that it might be an elaborate gag...that is until James said. "House, please take us to sub-level seven."

"Yes, sir." Acknowledged the AI as the entire study, minus the bookshelves slowly dropped into the depths like a giant elevator. Hiroko held tight to James. Mike shook his head and said "YGBFM bro!"

Gina laughed aloud and said. "J, I'm guessing this is not a holo set is it?"

James did not even crack a smile. "No G, not even close. In the holos they make time travel out to be fun and games with lots of silly paradoxes. But this is for real..."

After few minutes, the study finally stopped descending and James said firmly. "House, James plus three to enter the secure area. Hebrew, Aleph eight."

A section of the steel wall slid aside and they exited the elevator shaft into a brightly lit corridor.

James keyed a code pad and print reader with his thumb and an inner door also slid aside silently as the AI responded. "Access granted Mister James."

James gestured to his three friends. "Well, it's time to step through the looking glass guys. Here it is; my Grandfather's Time Machine..."

Michael was first to speak. "Holy crap bro, I read all of his papers; only understood half of it. But he did it!"

James nodded silently and then said. "Um, please don't touch anything."

Angelina was more circumspect. She took in the massive underground chamber and exclaimed. "James this facility is... It must be more than fifty meters on a side and ten or more high."

At that point the voice of House interrupted. "You are very close Ms. Lincoln. This part of sub level seven is exactly fifty-five meters on a side and ten meters high. Sublevel eight is quite a bit larger but is not currently configured for human habitation. The power core produces quite a bit of residual heat and some low-level beta and neutrino radiation."

Hiroko thought for a moment, wanted to be mad at her friend and then thought better of it. She put her arm around her best friend and lover. "What can we do?"

James smiled and kissed his friend. "We have to find him and bring him home from wherever, that is whenever he is. First, let me give you all a tour of my Grandfather's Time Machine."