Window of Opportunity (standard:science fiction, 13322 words)
Author: Eutychus	Added: Aug 23 2020	Views/Reads: 1428/960	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Three associates discover that counter rotating gravity fields can open a window to other eras at the point where the fields overlap. Intending to observe the first Christmas, they find themselves thirty years too late and the homing device has felt the e

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The seeds of interest in things of the spirit had been planted by his
parents from his youth.  As a teen, he had asked for space to sort out 
just how important he wanted these matters to be in his life, and the 
folks had wisely granted him the room.  They never tried to force 
anything, but they took every opportunity to stress why they felt their 
beliefs were valid. 

College had granted him the occasion to test waters without the parental
lifeguards always on duty.  He enjoyed the freedom, but in the process 
discovered the necessity of limits as well.  I'll skip the details 
surrounding the aforementioned discoveries because more than he cared 
to admit were rather embarrassing.  In establishing limits for himself, 
Susan had come around at decisive moments and brought to mind again 
many things about life that he had chosen to ignore.  Her influence had 
nudged him farther down the road that leads to belief.  When Steve 
learned that Jerry had placed his faith in a carpenter from Galilee, he 
had taken to using the term “saint” most probably as an epithet 
intended to irritate. 

“No, just an off the wall interpretation of scripture.  In verse two of
this particular psalm, the writer says of God, ‘From everlasting to 
everlasting, Thou art God,' and then two verses later states that a 
thousand years in God's sight are like ‘yesterday when it is past'.  
Later on in the book of Isaiah, God's place of habitation is referred 
to as ‘Eternity'.  The use of this sort of language seems to indicate 
that God exists in such a state that time as we understand it has 
little or no meaning.  How would the word ‘eternity' be defined if we 
were to look at this situation from the standpoint of physics majors?” 

The answers to my question ranged from “the totality of time, past,
present and future,” to “a simple interest loan on a car,” which seemed 
on the surface like perfectly adequate definitions, but they all missed 
the spirit of what I intended. 

“Those work if we are limiting our discussion to chronological
definitions.  But what if there is something outside this realm that we 
call Time?  What if we were to define eternity not as an impossibly 
long and unimaginable stretch of time, but as a place in which it is 
always right now?  Yesterday is the same as today, today is the same as 
tomorrow or ‘a thousand years when it is past'.” 

There were a few confused looks and then objections to the entire
notion.  “I understand your problems with this line of thinking and I 
admit that I have trouble with it as well, if I ponder it too long.  
But look how bound we are by the clock.  Humans have a preoccupation 
with marking the passage of time.  We have seasons, phases of the moon, 
years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds, and even the 
occasional leap second.  The human body is built around a variety of 
cycles that are monthly, yearly, and anywhere in between.  There is 
virtually no escaping it.  We are so bound by these markers that to 
think about a state of existence in which these points of reference 
have no meaning is next to impossible.” 

Steve suggested trying to illustrate what I was talking about so I spent
a few moments searching for an appropriate symbol.  I finally chose a 
figure eight lying on its side. 

“Infinity?” Steve asked. 

“Yes, but for the sake of my argument, allow the left side of the eight
to represent eternity past while the right side will represent eternity 
future.  The point of intersection represents the time that has passed 
and will pass prior to the onset of eternity future.  And in that a 
point really has no dimensions, eternity past and future touch each 
other, making time a bubble existing within a timeless bubble of 
eternity.  Therefore in this realm it can be both infinite past and 
infinite future at the same time.” 

“An interesting proposal.  Surely you aren't basing this on two verses
of scripture,” Steve said, probing for details. 

“No, I don't.  There is an incident in the book of Joshua that might
lend some respectability to this idea.  The Israelites were in the 
process of taking possession of the Promised Land and were going up 
against a group of people called the Amorites.  The general of the army 
of Israel, Joshua Ben Nun, petitioned God to keep the sun from going 
down on the battle. God granted this petition and it remained high noon 
for the space of a full day.  I realize that this sounds like I'm 
interpreting scripture just to support my own little version of 
science, but consider it for a moment.  What if God allowed eternity to 
penetrate our bubble of time until the battle was brought to a 
successful conclusion?” 

He had already lost most of his audience.  One guy had fallen asleep in
the only comfortable chair in the lounge and the rest had drifted away 
as soon as the pizza disappeared. Steve alone remained alert and 
interested. 

“Are there other examples of this sort of thing in the Bible?” 

“Nothing so dramatic as that one incident, but there are many instances
that I view as implying that sort of thing.  For example, an angel 
named Gabriel interprets visions for the prophet Daniel and explains 
the timetable for the future appearance of the messiah.  Then, several 
hundred years later, Gabriel announces to a Jewish priest that his 
postmenopausal wife is going to become pregnant and that the child will 
be the forerunner of the messiah.  He also announces to a young virgin 
that she will become pregnant by supernatural means and give birth to 
the same messiah discussed with Daniel.” 

“Let me see if I can guess where you're going with this. Gabriel is able
to appear wherever along the timeline that God requires him to be 
because he can enter the timeline at any point from eternity where 
today and a thousand years past are the same.  He could speak to Daniel 
confidently about the coming messiah because for him the events had 
more or less already happened.  We've returned to the subject of time 
travel.” 

“There is evidence in the Bible which gives the impression that angels
understand the nuances of temporal existence as well as the eternal, so 
I don't want to lock myself into a view of spiritual existence which is 
far too narrow.  And there are some qualities about angelic visitations 
which make me think that some of your earlier concerns regarding 
celestial motion and time travel are, in my scenario, nullified along 
with the laws of motion on which those concerns were based.” 

“And just how do you invalidate Newtonian physics?” 

“I haven't a clue, but doesn't it make sense that if our understanding
of time has no place in eternity, then our understanding of space and 
motion in space may be equally inappropriate?  Besides, there are only 
a few accounts in the Bible of angels arriving.  Their appearances were 
usually accompanied by words like ‘behold' or ‘suddenly', indicating an 
arrival which took the witnesses by surprise.  To appear out of thin 
air would bypass a number of Newton's laws.” 

“I'm a little unsure of the practical applications which might go along
with this theory of yours, but you hope to be an engineer someday, and 
that's part of the job description, finding practical uses for the 
really bizarre,” Steve said with a smile and began collecting his books 
and papers.  “Well, best of luck on your midterms and thanks for never 
failing to give me something to think about.” 

Midterms were painless as were finals a couple of months later.  Shortly
after graduation and entry into the engineering graduate program, I 
began receiving information concerning an internship at the Serendipity 
Group.  This came my way because one of my professors was familiar with 
the new electromagnetic controls being developed at Serendip for the 
next generation of nuclear power plants which would much more 
efficiently manipulate control rods within the reactor core.  He 
claimed to notice an aptitude on my part for things of an 
electromagnetic nature and had gotten in touch with an old classmate of 
his who was working on the project. 

Unlike so many other think tanks that produced little more than esoteric
ideas, Serendip also had a production division which turned their 
impossible dreams into useful realities.   After one productive summer 
as an intern and two invitations to return whenever my schedule 
permitted, they decided to make it official midway through my PhD 
program and hired me. 

The two main divisions at Serendip are Life and Physical sciences,
identified in the Serendip logo as a double helix looped back into 
itself like a chemical Moebius strip representing the life sciences 
enclosing the Greek letters alpha, beta, and gamma which represent the 
elemental particles of nuclear, or the physical, sciences.  Information 
exchange between the two takes place on a strict “need to know” basis.  
The isolation is necessarily extreme because of the threat of espionage 
in the newly tapped resource that was being dubbed by the most adamant 
proponents as “the world-wide web”.  But caution can be taken to 
excess, for it wasn't until the party thrown in honor of my doctorate 
that I learned a Dr. Steven Alton was employed by Serendip. 

“Congratulations, Dr. Trumbauer,” Steve said with a smile and emphasis
added to the “Dr.” 

“You mean this is where you disappeared to four years ago?” 

“Certainly.  Where else would someone with advanced degrees in math and
physics go?  So what have they had you working on?” 

“Do you remember the Nestuca Bay control rod problems two years ago?” 

“Yes.  You were involved in that public relations fiasco?” “Sure was. 
What did the N.R.C. think it was doing granting a permit for a nuclear 
power plant so close to a state park?  The only reason we came as close 
to a critical situation as we did was because the protestors wouldn't 
let us do our work.” 

“But you brought things to a healthy conclusion despite your
unanticipated notoriety.  What have you been doing lately?” 

“I'm presently on the downhill side of the gravity generator project.” 

“Good.  I'm glad to hear that you're working on something of mine.” 

“We've improved efficiency by a factor of ten.  Yesterday, we realigned
the emitters in a slightly different pattern that the computer models 
tell us should boost the output by another five percent.  Any chance 
you can tell me what this thing is for?” 

The gravity generator works by focusing and amplifying the earth's own
relatively weak field of gravity through a series of graviton coils.  
With this device we had successfully caused a five pound dictionary to 
weigh just over two hundred pounds without affecting its mass.  Thus 
far we had spent two point five million dollars developing the better 
paperweight. 

“At the outset, we just wanted to see if it could be done.  We in
Physical live by the technological imperative.  If it can be done, it 
must be done!  Once it was done, we needed to boost the power so that 
it would be useful in another project slated to begin just after the 
fiscal year ends.  Don't worry; you'll be involved in this one, too.  I 
guarantee you'll find it interesting.” 

“I take it details will be forthcoming?” 

“I'm afraid so, but I'll see what I can get you through the mail.  You
are set up to receive electronic messages, aren't you?” 

“I've been told I am but I haven't given it a lot of thought. I've never
gone in for passing fads. Send whatever and I'll try to read it.” 

“It won't be much because all phases of this project are under very
tight security. But for now, you've got some mingling to do.  Go let 
them pat you on the back.” 

“First, tell me, if we've managed to build a device that can generate
gravity, can anti-gravity technology be far behind?” 

“The Weintraub Institute has been toying with that end of things since
the early seventies and produced much of the research which made our 
gravity generator possible, but things never got much beyond theory. 
Still, I keep hearing rumors in my own section that a workable version 
of some of those theories may be less than a year away.” 

He nodded in appreciation for the information and returned to his role
as the honored party guest.  He did his best to demonstrate an 
appropriate amount of humility while accepting congratulatory remarks 
for another forty-five minutes.  After that, he went down to the lab, 
made sure the graviton coils had regenerated properly, locked things 
down, and headed for home. 

As soon as he turned on the computer a window opened on its own to tell
him that his mailbox was full.  It turned out to be a transmission from 
Steve that consisted of CAD files for a unique looking building.  The 
specs indicated that the building, which was little more than a ninety 
foot cube, was to be built out of concrete but was to use no 
reinforcing rod.  Normally, such a structure would require multiple 
grids of epoxy-coated rebar to add strength to the sides to carry the 
weight of the roof and to make the roof strong enough not to collapse 
from its own weight.  But concerns regarding magnetic and gravity 
fields within the building made steel reinforcing an impossibility, so 
the structure made use of a new building material known as polycrete, a 
polymer/concrete composite which was stronger and lighter than standard 
concrete, required no structural reinforcing, and proved to be a 
ghastly pink in color.  He learned this the next day on the way to work 
when he finally gave in to his curiosity and headed down a newly built 
road at the Serendip complex.  A quarter of a mile into the forest 
which surrounded the main buildings, he found the pink cube. 

Two weeks and another successful test of the gravity generator later, a
meeting was called by Jerry's immediate superior to outline for the 
main players involved the next big project. Since the generator no 
longer required his presence, it was time to move on. For Jerry this 
would mean a pioneering role in a genetic coding concern named D-Code, 
which would be based in some suburb of Philadelphia, though right now 
all they had was an empty facility that needed to be populated with the 
right people and equipment. Because this project wouldn't in fact begin 
until the following fiscal year, it was determined that he should 
continue to assist with the gravity generator project. 

Steve took center stage at the briefing and explained in a rather broad
sense the extent of the project. We were taking on no less daunting a 
challenge that attempting to construct a model of a unified field based 
on the theories of Schrödinger and Einstein.  Steve made it clear that 
he had improved upon the existing theories to the point of eliminating 
a couple of stubborn problems that had to do with gravity and had 
plagued any practical use of the theory since it had first been put 
forth a century ago.  Not being well versed in quantum mechanics, Jerry 
listened with an interested, though less than genuine, look on his 
face.  He didn't need to know the theory behind it anyway.  All he had 
to do was build it. 

“We can work the formulas and equations and approximate how
electromagnetic and gravitational fields relate pursuant to these 
theories, but now that we have a working gravity generator, we can 
build a model and study it.  I'll be the first to admit that what I've 
done with the unified field theory in no way solves all the problems, 
but if we can build the model, we can study it and tweak things up in 
much the same way Andrew Wiles does with the proof he's working out for 
Fermat's Last Theorem.” 

After the meeting broke up and individual assignments were made, he did
his best to avoid the debates that had sprung up over the promise 
and/or folly of attempting to build such a model.  Was it worth the 
expense?  What would be done with the knowledge acquired?  Could we 
justify putting the general public through all the “rethink our 
understanding of the universe” discussions which would likely clog all 
venues of the media for much longer than necessary?  I suppose each 
viewpoint had its merit, but I had much work to do.  Social ethics took 
a back burner to my unforgiving new schedule.  In two months time, the 
centerpiece of the project, an 8.9 tesla magnet, was scheduled to 
arrive.  It was Jerry's job to prepare the pink cube for its arrival. 
This meant that magnetic shielding had to be installed, preparation for 
computer control had to be made, and the field definition system (an 
electromagnetic array which would serve to give the fields involved a 
specific shape) had to be in place and ready for calibration upon the 
arrival of the magnet.  All this would require a lot of overtime, but 
the team managed to do it with about three days to spare. 

It took a few weeks to get the magnet in place and ready for use. 
During that time, personnel records were checked for possible dangers 
to life and limb.  As it turned out, there was only one person who had 
to be restricted to shielded areas because of non-original equipment.  
The technician in question had several staples in his head, the result 
of an operation to correct damage done to the optic nerve in an auto 
accident some ten years earlier.  A magnetic field of lesser intensity 
(say the .4 tesla field occurring in an MRI scan) would have posed no 
problem, but our field would have ripped the staples out of his head. 

With those final safety precautions out of the way, clearance was given
to power up the fields and start testing.  The magnetic field proved to 
be easy to establish and was willing to assume nearly any shape the 
technicians chose to give it.  The problems arose when they tried to 
make the gravity field mesh with it.  The two fields were distinctly 
separate and did not want to share the same space, even though Steve 
had assured us that they should.  Readings began to fluctuate wildly 
and without any real warning, the fields collapsed. 

The results of this collapse were most immediately apparent to the three
technicians who were in the tesla chamber taking readings from sensors 
in direct contact with the fields.  Two of them were quick to lay down 
their clipboards which had suddenly acquired an extra thirty pounds.  
The third, an attractive young lady named Elsbeth Forestal, appeared to 
have a Jiffy Pop popcorn thing going on beneath the bonnet portion of 
her clean suit.  They made it into the control room and once behind the 
shielding were free of the effects of the collapsed fields, although 
Elspeth's hair still looked as though she had been involved in a 
demonstration of a Van deGraaff generator. 

Beth and Jerry had first become acquainted three years earlier when
Jerry spent a semester in England at Cambridge's Faraday Institute. 
They both shared an interest in the micro-engineering of genetics while 
studying macro-engineering principles and had naturally gravitated 
toward similar coursework. When the gravity generator project first got 
off the ground, Jerry had suggested fleshing out her resume by applying 
for a position on the team and she was testing the relationship between 
the graviton and Tesla coils inside of three months. 

When field integrity decayed with regularity, Jerry did not take it as a
foreboding development, one indicating wasted time and effort.  If 
things had fallen into place, he probably would have been disappointed. 
The real delight in the job came when things didn't work right and he 
was required to find out why.  He was by nature a puzzle solver and 
tended to enjoy that sort of challenge. 

A few more attempts to form a coupling of the fields produced enough
data to begin trying to figure out what had gone wrong.  The initial 
evidence was pointing to an incompatibility in the frequencies at which 
the two fields operated.  By overlapping the fields, we had in essence 
caused them to resonate off one another.  They would push away from 
each other only to be drawn back by the same force from which they had 
repelled.  They would then push away with greater force, be drawn 
together again, and repeat the process until the gravity and 
electromagnetic energy was unable to keep them from falling away from 
each other.  It was one thing to find the problem.  Finding the 
solution to the problem was another matter entirely. 

It seemed logical to Jerry that the best place to look for that solution
would be with the works of Einstein and Schrödinger.  Instead of 
immediate enlightenment, he became bogged down by the mathematics of 
the theory.  A quick reading of the abstract would have told him that 
he was looking at things from the wrong perspective anyway.  The 
unified field theory was not so much a thing to be studied as it was a 
philosophy by which to view the universe.  What these two physicists 
had attempted to do was to describe the universe as an infinitely vast 
collection of fields intertwining, overlapping, and cohabitating.  This 
notion even (in fact, especially) extended to the level of atomic 
structure wherein matter didn't consist of particles with certain 
physical properties that would react with one another based on laws of 
chemistry.  What the uninitiated would refer to as “matter”, those 
espousing a unified field view of the universe would see as an 
extremely dense area of that field. 

The more he read, the more convinced he became of several things. 
First, he was convinced that a reading of the literature would do him 
no good in solving the resonance problem.  Furthermore, he began to 
have doubts that a model of a unified field was going to be of much use 
in studying the theory behind that model.  Sure, we could observe how 
the fields meshed and extrapolate from there regarding other forces at 
work in the universe and how they tied into this unity, but to 
establish this model, it appeared that we were going to have to force 
it into existence. If a unified field was a viable way of looking at 
the universe, then it should occur naturally without the use of 
technical manipulation. 

It was at this point that he could not help but point out a spiritual
aspect of this mystery in establishing a unified field model to Steve. 

“I can offer you a likely reason we have to force this into being, but
I'll have to quote scripture to do so.” 

“That's fine,” Steve said with a sigh. 

“Speaking of Jesus' role in creation Paul tells us in the letter to the
Colossians that ‘...by Him all things were created, in heaven and on 
earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or 
authorities--all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is 
before all things, and in Him all things hold together.' This to me 
states that the universe, if left to its own forces, would not hold 
together as nicely as we like to think it does. Christ has an active 
role in keeping His creation from coming undone. The universe is not a 
natural thing and is in fact supernaturally maintained.” 

If this possible explanation made any sense to Steve he did not
immediately let on. Three days and several attempts at field harmony 
later, they hit upon a solution which had potential. Elsbeth and Jerry 
spent half a day setting up an oscillation of frequencies between the 
two fields which would counter the resonance and stabilize things.  
Working it out was somewhat tricky because we ended up having to change 
field frequencies once every three point five seconds to maintain the 
fields.  After working out the bugs in the program which would control 
these adjustments, they finally managed a combination of fields which 
would maintain their integrity indefinitely. 

Steve seemed quite pleased with what had been accomplished in so
relatively short a time.  He helped us set up the charged particle 
emitters which, when added to the fields, would allow us to see what we 
had built.  For greater effect, we shut down the lighting and added a 
stream of charged particles to the tesla chamber.  What we noticed at 
first was the striking similarity between the shapes swirling about the 
chamber and the designs iron filings made when placed near a magnet.  
Then, maybe a dozen frequency shifts later, we noticed an even more 
complex set of patterns located just beneath the patterns of 
electromagnetism which we could only assume were gravity waves. 

That evening, as we were marveling at the recordings of what we had seen
earlier, the question of “the next step” arose.  From this point on, 
any ideas would be entertained.  If anyone could think of a potential 
use for the fields, they were free to develop their idea.  Beyond that, 
they would be spending a few weeks mapping out the relationship between 
the fields and maybe modify notions regarding how the universe began in 
the process. 

Midway through this mapping process, Jerry had occasion to corner Steve
with some of his concerns over the methodology behind the unified field 
project.  He seemed totally unflustered by what Jerry was implying, but 
he did offer to give me an explanation in private.  By “in private”, he 
meant away from Serendip, so an invitation to dinner was proffered.  As 
he prepared a microwave dinner, Steve asked where in my computer he 
could find a model of the origin of the universe. 

“Click the NIV icon,” Jerry said and awaited his look of consternation
when the computer displayed the text of Genesis 1 in the new 
international translation.  Before the formal protest erupted, Jerry 
sent him to a detailed review of the relationship between the Big Bang 
theory and the Biblical account of creation. 

“This cross-referencing to scientific subject matter . . . are these
links that you dreamed up?” Steve asked. 

“No, it's Cyber Sword 2.0 software.  Not only was it a download that I
didn't have to send someone a check to use, but the software is 
self-upgrading.  As soon as pertinent information which is science 
related and scripture confirming becomes available, an over-zealous 
programmer uses this internet thing you're so fond of to automatically 
upgrade the program. The last upgrade tied ‘inflation theory', the 
rapid expansion following the ‘horrific space kablooey', in with the 
idea that God ‘stretched out the heavens'. I found it interesting that 
Old Testament prophets use that term so frequently, the stretching out 
of the heavens, which is a literary way of expressing the same idea as 
inflation, that there was a sudden, controlled increase in size of the 
universe.” 

“All right, then.  Give me a minute to call up some numbers and I'll
explain what I didn't want to earlier. I hope you won't mind if I take 
the old universe approach and refer to the big bang,” Steve said and 
started crunching keys.  Soon the screen displayed the following 
information: 

T= Moment of Big Bang T0= 3 *10^38 seconds  All energy in form of
radiation. T1= 100 seconds. Helium forms. Nuclear reactions die out. 
T2= 1000 seconds. Shift from radiation dominated universe to matter 
dominated universe. 

“Jerry, do you remember a conversation we had in college regarding time
and eternity?” 

“Yes, I think I do.  You bought the pizza, if I recall correctly.” 

“No, I paid for the pizza expecting to get reimbursed.  At any rate, you
got me thinking about eternity, and as my work led me into areas 
related to gravity and electromagnetics, I began to see a relationship 
between the two which could be traced back to the moment of the big 
bang or to the utterance of the words ‘Fiat Lux', depending on where 
your cosmological loyalties lie.  Concerning the unified field theory, 
it unfortunately begins to break down between ten and one hundred 
seconds after the big bang occurred.  When matter formed, it became 
next to impossible to demonstrate the universe as interacting fields 
because the nature of matter won't allow it to share in the field.  
Matter is extremely individualistic. And like it or not, this notion 
ties in with your reference from Colossians.” 

“Then what exactly are we trying to accomplish in the tesla chamber? 
You seem to have admitted that the entire project is based on a fraud.” 


“Not quite true.  As I studied the relationship between electromagnetic
energy and gravity, I discovered a very specific and definable 
relationship existing between the two at every era of the development 
of the universe. Eventually, this got me to thinking about just where 
the notion of time enters the picture.  If your thoughts on the subject 
of eternity have merit and God exists outside of time, then I would say 
that a division between time and eternity must occur at somewhere after 
T0 and  before T1.” 

“You mean that time begins at the formation of matter in the universe?” 

“Yes, mainly because there was no reason for it to exist prior to that
point.  Time doesn't affect the spiritual, but matter must be bound by 
its constraints.  Radioactive isotopes can't help but decay at a given 
rate and stars will exhaust their fuel and burn out.  Entropy is 
unavoidable.  But don't think that I'm implying time and eternity 
cannot interact.  As you pointed out years ago, the temporal and the 
eternal have interacted on more than one occasion in the realm of 
biblical history.  In fact, I'm rather counting on the fact that the 
two can interact to a relatively high degree.” 

“Any chance I can get you to make your point?” 

“The point of the field generator project is to move backward through
the relationship between gravity and electromagnetic radiation to a 
point where it may be possible to look across eternity.” 

“You mean that you tried to find an application for that discussion in
college?” 

“Yes, and you only have yourself to blame.” 

“But what would possess you to bother?  It was an idle discussion
brought on by a lack of sleep and too much studying.” 

“What is your earliest memory, Jerry?” 

“I've had to answer this question before.  Give me a second.  Ah, there
it is.  I was probably a little over three years old and was playing on 
the kitchen floor.  My mom had just put something in a cupboard and had 
then gone outside to take some clothes off the line.  At some point, 
the potatoes on the stove boiled dry and the resulting smoke set off 
the smoke detector, which frightened me into incontinence.” 

“Admittedly, a terrible experience, but it was merely a momentary
embarrassment, and not the sort of thing that would leave a permanent 
scar.  While the effect of early memories on later development is still 
the subject of heated debate, I have always felt that these early 
experiences have a definite correlation to later levels of self esteem 
and the formation of a world view.  I cite myself as an example. 

“My earliest memory takes place on a boat.  My parents had the use of a
cottage by a lake on alternating summers.  When I was around four, my 
older brother convinced my dad that I could be taught to fish and that 
I ought to learn in a rowboat.  Twenty odd feet from the dock, I 
learned how to stab a worm and was instructed on when to pull in the 
line. 

“After fifteen minutes of impatient waiting on my part, the float went
under and I pulled a small bluegill out of the water.  I was so 
surprised that I dropped the bamboo into the lake.  When my brother 
attempted to retrieve it, he miscalculated his center of gravity and 
went into the lake. Now, because we were only in six feet of water, 
there was ample excess rope between the anchor and the boat for my 
brother to become entangled in.  By the time I realized that something 
was wrong and began yelling for my dad, the worst case scenario had 
been played out.” 

Jerry remained quiet when Steve paused in his narrative.  He never knew
what to say in situations like this.  Because the account had been 
revealed to him when he wasn't expecting it, he felt even less prepared 
to give a meaningful response.  But then, when someone chooses to tell 
that sort of story to someone else, they generally aren't expecting a 
response.  They usually just want someone to listen. 

“In the next few days, I was forced to confront something with which no
four year old should have to deal.  The idea of mortality set in early 
as did the feeling that your God is extremely unfair.  The feeling that 
God is not to be trusted was only reinforced by the way my parents 
clung to the sentiment expressed in Romans 8:28.  All things did not 
work together for good for my family and I maintained an unacknowledged 
anger at my parents for holding to a faith which had so desperately let 
them down.” 

“You do realize that the promise of that verse of scripture is one of
the easiest ones to latch onto in circumstances such as your parents, 
don't you?” 

“Yes, but I doubt that something like ‘I am the resurrection and the
life', would have offered lasting comfort.  And I realize that blaming 
God was a very four year old thing to do, but it never seemed 
appropriate later in life to let Him off the hook.  And because of the 
way my life became colored by that incident of neglect on the part of 
your loving God, I still want nothing to do with Him.” 

“Except where he meets with your work?” 

“Of course.  And I know that it isn't fair of me to blame God for what
was essentially an accident, but I've become so comfortable with the 
assignment of blame that to think otherwise is now uncomfortable,” 
Steve said with perhaps a hint of regret which at the same time 
explained a lot about why unbelief comes so easily for some.  It's 
always easier to maintain old patterns of thinking than it is to 
acquire new.  A dog returning, so to speak. 

“At any rate, the prospect of changing that one event in my life made
the possibility of time travel an ever present curiosity.  Who hasn't 
had something in life that they would change if they could?  And your 
biblically based views of time and eternity sent me in a direction that 
I probably would never have explored on my own. 

“When I noticed the correlation between the background radiation in the
universe and where the equations were leading concerning an ‘eternity' 
state, I began making efforts towards the creation of a quantum field 
generator which would combine the necessary fields in such a way as to 
open a window on eternity.” 

Time Travel Fundamentals 

If he was to be brutally honest about the entire matter, this story
began on a boat in the early 1960's.  From his point of view, however, 
it didn't really begin until college.  It was late one evening not long 
before midterms when most students had studied to the point of burnout 
and were in desperate need of diversion. 

Steve Alton, a graduate assistant who was leading the study group,
officially ended the session by ordering pizza and then steered 
conversation away from serious matters.  Before long, they were all 
involved in a rousing debate over who was the preeminent hard science 
fiction author of the recently passed century.  The nominees were 
quickly narrowed to Heinlein, Clarke, Niven and Asimov.  This 
discussion led directly into another, which dealt with some of the 
classic problems with the genre.  The biggest complaints had to do with 
the lack of details regarding how the future technologies functioned.  
It's one thing to claim that a ship can cover a light year in fifteen 
minutes and it's quite another to expect a roomful of physics majors 
who know better to accept such a proposition with ease. 

It wasn't long after the pizza arrived that the subject of inquiry
became time travel and all its inherent problems.  They ran through the 
standard problem of paradoxes with nothing really new to add to the 
body of knowledge.  There was an overview of the Grandfather Paradox 
(which occurs when you use a time machine to interrupt your own past 
making it impossible for you to be born or to build the time machine 
and use it in such a self-destructive fashion) because it's such a fun 
argument to have.  And then Steve pointed out that since the universe 
isn't nearly so stationary as it seems to be, time travel becomes 
infinitely more complicated. 

“Let's say there's a working time machine in this room.  If you want to
travel back to last night's study session and pick up a couple of 
points you might have missed the first time around, you may.  But look 
at what the time machine must be able to do.  In that twenty-four hour 
period, the earth has moved a million and a half miles in its orbit 
around the sun.  Add to that the facts that this room is moving sixteen 
hundred feet per second as the earth rotates, the solar system is in 
motion around the center of the galaxy, and that the galaxy is itself 
in motion.  Not only does the time machine have to be able to find this 
location in space a day ago, but if the trip is to seem instantaneous, 
it will have to get you there by exceeding the speed of light sixty 
some times over.  Since we are bound by that ‘light speed limit' thing, 
time travel becomes unlikely from yet another perspective.” 

Amid the nodding of heads accompanying Steve's analysis, Jerry was
developing a mild uneasiness.  He had a new dimension to explore and 
knew that it was likely to receive low to moderate enthusiasm at best.  
Still, no hypothesis should ever be rejected out of hand, regardless of 
its source of inspiration.  But because he was relatively young in his 
faith, he was still nervous about trying to sound like an expert in 
scientific theory that found its basis in scripture. 

“Am I correct in assuming that no one here is in choir?” Jerry asked,
fairly certain that no one was.  Because he was minoring in music, 
membership in choir was compulsory.  After heads stopped shaking in 
confirmation of what was already suspected, he continued.  “All this 
semester we've been working on a piece written by a fellow named 
Charles Ives sometime in the early portion of the twentieth century.  
This piece is based on the ninetieth psalm.  A line from the work has 
been eating at me for a while now.  This sounds like the perfect 
opportunity to air a point of view which is hardly orthodox from a 
scientific perspective, but which I feel has some bearing on our 
discussion.” 

“The gospel according to St. Jerry?” Steve asked.  The title “saint”
that he had attributed to his friend  had come about not long after a 
number of encounters Jerry had during his sophomore year with “the 
Prophet”.  This woman, named Susan, was a person of great strength of 
character, and frequented the dining halls speaking to anyone willing 
to listen.  Her methods tended towards the conversational, getting to 
know the person she was talking to and determining an angle from which 
they could be approached with the Gospel.  He had found discussions 
with her to be quite interesting. 

The seeds of interest in things of the spirit had been planted by his
parents from his youth.  As a teen, he had asked for space to sort out 
just how important he wanted these matters to be in his life, and the 
folks had wisely granted him the room.  They never tried to force 
anything, but they took every opportunity to stress why they felt their 
beliefs were valid. 

College had granted him the occasion to test waters without the parental
lifeguards always on duty.  He enjoyed the freedom, but in the process 
discovered the necessity of limits as well.  I'll skip the details 
surrounding the aforementioned discoveries because more than he cared 
to admit were rather embarrassing.  In establishing limits for himself, 
Susan had come around at decisive moments and brought to mind again 
many things about life that he had chosen to ignore.  Her influence had 
nudged him farther down the road that leads to belief.  When Steve 
learned that Jerry had placed his faith in a carpenter from Galilee, he 
had taken to using the term “saint” most probably as an epithet 
intended to irritate. 

“No, just an off the wall interpretation of scripture.  In verse two of
this particular psalm, the writer says of God, ‘From everlasting to 
everlasting, Thou art God,' and then two verses later states that a 
thousand years in God's sight are like ‘yesterday when it is past'.  
Later on in the book of Isaiah, God's place of habitation is referred 
to as ‘Eternity'.  The use of this sort of language seems to indicate 
that God exists in such a state that time as we understand it has 
little or no meaning.  How would the word ‘eternity' be defined if we 
were to look at this situation from the standpoint of physics majors?” 

The answers to my question ranged from “the totality of time, past,
present and future,” to “a simple interest loan on a car,” which seemed 
on the surface like perfectly adequate definitions, but they all missed 
the spirit of what I intended. 

“Those work if we are limiting our discussion to chronological
definitions.  But what if there is something outside this realm that we 
call Time?  What if we were to define eternity not as an impossibly 
long and unimaginable stretch of time, but as a place in which it is 
always right now?  Yesterday is the same as today, today is the same as 
tomorrow or ‘a thousand years when it is past'.” 

There were a few confused looks and then objections to the entire
notion.  “I understand your problems with this line of thinking and I 
admit that I have trouble with it as well, if I ponder it too long.  
But look how bound we are by the clock.  Humans have a preoccupation 
with marking the passage of time.  We have seasons, phases of the moon, 
years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds, and even the 
occasional leap second.  The human body is built around a variety of 
cycles that are monthly, yearly, and anywhere in between.  There is 
virtually no escaping it.  We are so bound by these markers that to 
think about a state of existence in which these points of reference 
have no meaning is next to impossible.” 

Steve suggested trying to illustrate what I was talking about so I spent
a few moments searching for an appropriate symbol.  I finally chose a 
figure eight lying on its side. 

“Infinity?” Steve asked. 

“Yes, but for the sake of my argument, allow the left side of the eight
to represent eternity past while the right side will represent eternity 
future.  The point of intersection represents the time that has passed 
and will pass prior to the onset of eternity future.  And in that a 
point really has no dimensions, eternity past and future touch each 
other, making time a bubble existing within a timeless bubble of 
eternity.  Therefore in this realm it can be both infinite past and 
infinite future at the same time.” 

“An interesting proposal.  Surely you aren't basing this on two verses
of scripture,” Steve said, probing for details. 

“No, I don't.  There is an incident in the book of Joshua that might
lend some respectability to this idea.  The Israelites were in the 
process of taking possession of the Promised Land and were going up 
against a group of people called the Amorites.  The general of the army 
of Israel, Joshua Ben Nun, petitioned God to keep the sun from going 
down on the battle. God granted this petition and it remained high noon 
for the space of a full day.  I realize that this sounds like I'm 
interpreting scripture just to support my own little version of 
science, but consider it for a moment.  What if God allowed eternity to 
penetrate our bubble of time until the battle was brought to a 
successful conclusion?” 

He had already lost most of his audience.  One guy had fallen asleep in
the only comfortable chair in the lounge and the rest had drifted away 
as soon as the pizza disappeared. Steve alone remained alert and 
interested. 

“Are there other examples of this sort of thing in the Bible?” 

“Nothing so dramatic as that one incident, but there are many instances
that I view as implying that sort of thing.  For example, an angel 
named Gabriel interprets visions for the prophet Daniel and explains 
the timetable for the future appearance of the messiah.  Then, several 
hundred years later, Gabriel announces to a Jewish priest that his 
postmenopausal wife is going to become pregnant and that the child will 
be the forerunner of the messiah.  He also announces to a young virgin 
that she will become pregnant by supernatural means and give birth to 
the same messiah discussed with Daniel.” 

“Let me see if I can guess where you're going with this. Gabriel is able
to appear wherever along the timeline that God requires him to be 
because he can enter the timeline at any point from eternity where 
today and a thousand years past are the same.  He could speak to Daniel 
confidently about the coming messiah because for him the events had 
more or less already happened.  We've returned to the subject of time 
travel.” 

“There is evidence in the Bible which gives the impression that angels
understand the nuances of temporal existence as well as the eternal, so 
I don't want to lock myself into a view of spiritual existence which is 
far too narrow.  And there are some qualities about angelic visitations 
which make me think that some of your earlier concerns regarding 
celestial motion and time travel are, in my scenario, nullified along 
with the laws of motion on which those concerns were based.” 

“And just how do you invalidate Newtonian physics?” 

“I haven't a clue, but doesn't it make sense that if our understanding
of time has no place in eternity, then our understanding of space and 
motion in space may be equally inappropriate?  Besides, there are only 
a few accounts in the Bible of angels arriving.  Their appearances were 
usually accompanied by words like ‘behold' or ‘suddenly', indicating an 
arrival which took the witnesses by surprise.  To appear out of thin 
air would bypass a number of Newton's laws.” 

“I'm a little unsure of the practical applications which might go along
with this theory of yours, but you hope to be an engineer someday, and 
that's part of the job description, finding practical uses for the 
really bizarre,” Steve said with a smile and began collecting his books 
and papers.  “Well, best of luck on your midterms and thanks for never 
failing to give me something to think about.” 

Midterms were painless as were finals a couple of months later.  Shortly
after graduation and entry into the engineering graduate program, I 
began receiving information concerning an internship at the Serendipity 
Group.  This came my way because one of my professors was familiar with 
the new electromagnetic controls being developed at Serendip for the 
next generation of nuclear power plants which would much more 
efficiently manipulate control rods within the reactor core.  He 
claimed to notice an aptitude on my part for things of an 
electromagnetic nature and had gotten in touch with an old classmate of 
his who was working on the project. 

Unlike so many other think tanks that produced little more than esoteric
ideas, Serendip also had a production division which turned their 
impossible dreams into useful realities.   After one productive summer 
as an intern and two invitations to return whenever my schedule 
permitted, they decided to make it official midway through my PhD 
program and hired me. 

The two main divisions at Serendip are Life and Physical sciences,
identified in the Serendip logo as a double helix looped back into 
itself like a chemical Moebius strip representing the life sciences 
enclosing the Greek letters alpha, beta, and gamma which represent the 
elemental particles of nuclear, or the physical, sciences.  Information 
exchange between the two takes place on a strict “need to know” basis.  
The isolation is necessarily extreme because of the threat of espionage 
in the newly tapped resource that was being dubbed by the most adamant 
proponents as “the world-wide web”.  But caution can be taken to 
excess, for it wasn't until the party thrown in honor of my doctorate 
that I learned a Dr. Steven Alton was employed by Serendip. 

“Congratulations, Dr. Trumbauer,” Steve said with a smile and emphasis
added to the “Dr.” 

“You mean this is where you disappeared to four years ago?” 

“Certainly.  Where else would someone with advanced degrees in math and
physics go?  So what have they had you working on?” 

“Do you remember the Nestuca Bay control rod problems two years ago?” 

“Yes.  You were involved in that public relations fiasco?” “Sure was. 
What did the N.R.C. think it was doing granting a permit for a nuclear 
power plant so close to a state park?  The only reason we came as close 
to a critical situation as we did was because the protestors wouldn't 
let us do our work.” 

“But you brought things to a healthy conclusion despite your
unanticipated notoriety.  What have you been doing lately?” 

“I'm presently on the downhill side of the gravity generator project.” 

“Good.  I'm glad to hear that you're working on something of mine.” 

“We've improved efficiency by a factor of ten.  Yesterday, we realigned
the emitters in a slightly different pattern that the computer models 
tell us should boost the output by another five percent.  Any chance 
you can tell me what this thing is for?” 

The gravity generator works by focusing and amplifying the earth's own
relatively weak field of gravity through a series of graviton coils.  
With this device we had successfully caused a five pound dictionary to 
weigh just over two hundred pounds without affecting its mass.  Thus 
far we had spent two point five million dollars developing the better 
paperweight. 

“At the outset, we just wanted to see if it could be done.  We in
Physical live by the technological imperative.  If it can be done, it 
must be done!  Once it was done, we needed to boost the power so that 
it would be useful in another project slated to begin just after the 
fiscal year ends.  Don't worry; you'll be involved in this one, too.  I 
guarantee you'll find it interesting.” 

“I take it details will be forthcoming?” 

“I'm afraid so, but I'll see what I can get you through the mail.  You
are set up to receive electronic messages, aren't you?” 

“I've been told I am but I haven't given it a lot of thought. I've never
gone in for passing fads. Send whatever and I'll try to read it.” 

“It won't be much because all phases of this project are under very
tight security. But for now, you've got some mingling to do.  Go let 
them pat you on the back.” 

“First, tell me, if we've managed to build a device that can generate
gravity, can anti-gravity technology be far behind?” 

“The Weintraub Institute has been toying with that end of things since
the early seventies and produced much of the research which made our 
gravity generator possible, but things never got much beyond theory. 
Still, I keep hearing rumors in my own section that a workable version 
of some of those theories may be less than a year away.” 

He nodded in appreciation for the information and returned to his role
as the honored party guest.  He did his best to demonstrate an 
appropriate amount of humility while accepting congratulatory remarks 
for another forty-five minutes.  After that, he went down to the lab, 
made sure the graviton coils had regenerated properly, locked things 
down, and headed for home. 

As soon as he turned on the computer a window opened on its own to tell
him that his mailbox was full.  It turned out to be a transmission from 
Steve that consisted of CAD files for a unique looking building.  The 
specs indicated that the building, which was little more than a ninety 
foot cube, was to be built out of concrete but was to use no 
reinforcing rod.  Normally, such a structure would require multiple 
grids of epoxy-coated rebar to add strength to the sides to carry the 
weight of the roof and to make the roof strong enough not to collapse 
from its own weight.  But concerns regarding magnetic and gravity 
fields within the building made steel reinforcing an impossibility, so 
the structure made use of a new building material known as polycrete, a 
polymer/concrete composite which was stronger and lighter than standard 
concrete, required no structural reinforcing, and proved to be a 
ghastly pink in color.  He learned this the next day on the way to work 
when he finally gave in to his curiosity and headed down a newly built 
road at the Serendip complex.  A quarter of a mile into the forest 
which surrounded the main buildings, he found the pink cube. 

Two weeks and another successful test of the gravity generator later, a
meeting was called by Jerry's immediate superior to outline for the 
main players involved the next big project. Since the generator no 
longer required his presence, it was time to move on. For Jerry this 
would mean a pioneering role in a genetic coding concern named D-Code, 
which would be based in some suburb of Philadelphia, though right now 
all they had was an empty facility that needed to be populated with the 
right people and equipment. Because this project wouldn't in fact begin 
until the following fiscal year, it was determined that he should 
continue to assist with the gravity generator project. 

Steve took center stage at the briefing and explained in a rather broad
sense the extent of the project. We were taking on no less daunting a 
challenge that attempting to construct a model of a unified field based 
on the theories of Schrödinger and Einstein.  Steve made it clear that 
he had improved upon the existing theories to the point of eliminating 
a couple of stubborn problems that had to do with gravity and had 
plagued any practical use of the theory since it had first been put 
forth a century ago.  Not being well versed in quantum mechanics, Jerry 
listened with an interested, though less than genuine, look on his 
face.  He didn't need to know the theory behind it anyway.  All he had 
to do was build it. 

“We can work the formulas and equations and approximate how
electromagnetic and gravitational fields relate pursuant to these 
theories, but now that we have a working gravity generator, we can 
build a model and study it.  I'll be the first to admit that what I've 
done with the unified field theory in no way solves all the problems, 
but if we can build the model, we can study it and tweak things up in 
much the same way Andrew Wiles does with the proof he's working out for 
Fermat's Last Theorem.” 

After the meeting broke up and individual assignments were made, he did
his best to avoid the debates that had sprung up over the promise 
and/or folly of attempting to build such a model.  Was it worth the 
expense?  What would be done with the knowledge acquired?  Could we 
justify putting the general public through all the “rethink our 
understanding of the universe” discussions which would likely clog all 
venues of the media for much longer than necessary?  I suppose each 
viewpoint had its merit, but I had much work to do.  Social ethics took 
a back burner to my unforgiving new schedule.  In two months time, the 
centerpiece of the project, an 8.9 tesla magnet, was scheduled to 
arrive.  It was Jerry's job to prepare the pink cube for its arrival. 
This meant that magnetic shielding had to be installed, preparation for 
computer control had to be made, and the field definition system (an 
electromagnetic array which would serve to give the fields involved a 
specific shape) had to be in place and ready for calibration upon the 
arrival of the magnet.  All this would require a lot of overtime, but 
the team managed to do it with about three days to spare. 

It took a few weeks to get the magnet in place and ready for use. 
During that time, personnel records were checked for possible dangers 
to life and limb.  As it turned out, there was only one person who had 
to be restricted to shielded areas because of non-original equipment.  
The technician in question had several staples in his head, the result 
of an operation to correct damage done to the optic nerve in an auto 
accident some ten years earlier.  A magnetic field of lesser intensity 
(say the .4 tesla field occurring in an MRI scan) would have posed no 
problem, but our field would have ripped the staples out of his head. 

With those final safety precautions out of the way, clearance was given
to power up the fields and start testing.  The magnetic field proved to 
be easy to establish and was willing to assume nearly any shape the 
technicians chose to give it.  The problems arose when they tried to 
make the gravity field mesh with it.  The two fields were distinctly 
separate and did not want to share the same space, even though Steve 
had assured us that they should.  Readings began to fluctuate wildly 
and without any real warning, the fields collapsed. 

The results of this collapse were most immediately apparent to the three
technicians who were in the tesla chamber taking readings from sensors 
in direct contact with the fields.  Two of them were quick to lay down 
their clipboards which had suddenly acquired an extra thirty pounds.  
The third, an attractive young lady named Elsbeth Forestal, appeared to 
have a Jiffy Pop popcorn thing going on beneath the bonnet portion of 
her clean suit.  They made it into the control room and once behind the 
shielding were free of the effects of the collapsed fields, although 
Elspeth's hair still looked as though she had been involved in a 
demonstration of a Van deGraaff generator. 

Beth and Jerry had first become acquainted three years earlier when
Jerry spent a semester in England at Cambridge's Faraday Institute. 
They both shared an interest in the micro-engineering of genetics while 
studying macro-engineering principles and had naturally gravitated 
toward similar coursework. When the gravity generator project first got 
off the ground, Jerry had suggested fleshing out her resume by applying 
for a position on the team and she was testing the relationship between 
the graviton and Tesla coils inside of three months. 

When field integrity decayed with regularity, Jerry did not take it as a
foreboding development, one indicating wasted time and effort.  If 
things had fallen into place, he probably would have been disappointed. 
The real delight in the job came when things didn't work right and he 
was required to find out why.  He was by nature a puzzle solver and 
tended to enjoy that sort of challenge. 

A few more attempts to form a coupling of the fields produced enough
data to begin trying to figure out what had gone wrong.  The initial 
evidence was pointing to an incompatibility in the frequencies at which 
the two fields operated.  By overlapping the fields, we had in essence 
caused them to resonate off one another.  They would push away from 
each other only to be drawn back by the same force from which they had 
repelled.  They would then push away with greater force, be drawn 
together again, and repeat the process until the gravity and 
electromagnetic energy was unable to keep them from falling away from 
each other.  It was one thing to find the problem.  Finding the 
solution to the problem was another matter entirely. 

It seemed logical to Jerry that the best place to look for that solution
would be with the works of Einstein and Schrödinger.  Instead of 
immediate enlightenment, he became bogged down by the mathematics of 
the theory.  A quick reading of the abstract would have told him that 
he was looking at things from the wrong perspective anyway.  The 
unified field theory was not so much a thing to be studied as it was a 
philosophy by which to view the universe.  What these two physicists 
had attempted to do was to describe the universe as an infinitely vast 
collection of fields intertwining, overlapping, and cohabitating.  This 
notion even (in fact, especially) extended to the level of atomic 
structure wherein matter didn't consist of particles with certain 
physical properties that would react with one another based on laws of 
chemistry.  What the uninitiated would refer to as “matter”, those 
espousing a unified field view of the universe would see as an 
extremely dense area of that field. 

The more he read, the more convinced he became of several things. 
First, he was convinced that a reading of the literature would do him 
no good in solving the resonance problem.  Furthermore, he began to 
have doubts that a model of a unified field was going to be of much use 
in studying the theory behind that model.  Sure, we could observe how 
the fields meshed and extrapolate from there regarding other forces at 
work in the universe and how they tied into this unity, but to 
establish this model, it appeared that we were going to have to force 
it into existence. If a unified field was a viable way of looking at 
the universe, then it should occur naturally without the use of 
technical manipulation. 

It was at this point that he could not help but point out a spiritual
aspect of this mystery in establishing a unified field model to Steve. 

“I can offer you a likely reason we have to force this into being, but
I'll have to quote scripture to do so.” 

“That's fine,” Steve said with a sigh. 

“Speaking of Jesus' role in creation Paul tells us in the letter to the
Colossians that ‘...by Him all things were created, in heaven and on 
earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or 
authorities--all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is 
before all things, and in Him all things hold together.' This to me 
states that the universe, if left to its own forces, would not hold 
together as nicely as we like to think it does. Christ has an active 
role in keeping His creation from coming undone. The universe is not a 
natural thing and is in fact supernaturally maintained.” 

If this possible explanation made any sense to Steve he did not
immediately let on. Three days and several attempts at field harmony 
later, they hit upon a solution which had potential. Elsbeth and Jerry 
spent half a day setting up an oscillation of frequencies between the 
two fields which would counter the resonance and stabilize things.  
Working it out was somewhat tricky because we ended up having to change 
field frequencies once every three point five seconds to maintain the 
fields.  After working out the bugs in the program which would control 
these adjustments, they finally managed a combination of fields which 
would maintain their integrity indefinitely. 

Steve seemed quite pleased with what had been accomplished in so
relatively short a time.  He helped us set up the charged particle 
emitters which, when added to the fields, would allow us to see what we 
had built.  For greater effect, we shut down the lighting and added a 
stream of charged particles to the tesla chamber.  What we noticed at 
first was the striking similarity between the shapes swirling about the 
chamber and the designs iron filings made when placed near a magnet.  
Then, maybe a dozen frequency shifts later, we noticed an even more 
complex set of patterns located just beneath the patterns of 
electromagnetism which we could only assume were gravity waves. 

That evening, as we were marveling at the recordings of what we had seen
earlier, the question of “the next step” arose.  From this point on, 
any ideas would be entertained.  If anyone could think of a potential 
use for the fields, they were free to develop their idea.  Beyond that, 
they would be spending a few weeks mapping out the relationship between 
the fields and maybe modify notions regarding how the universe began in 
the process. 

Midway through this mapping process, Jerry had occasion to corner Steve
with some of his concerns over the methodology behind the unified field 
project.  He seemed totally unflustered by what Jerry was implying, but 
he did offer to give me an explanation in private.  By “in private”, he 
meant away from Serendip, so an invitation to dinner was proffered.  As 
he prepared a microwave dinner, Steve asked where in my computer he 
could find a model of the origin of the universe. 

“Click the NIV icon,” Jerry said and awaited his look of consternation
when the computer displayed the text of Genesis 1 in the new 
international translation.  Before the formal protest erupted, Jerry 
sent him to a detailed review of the relationship between the Big Bang 
theory and the Biblical account of creation. 

“This cross-referencing to scientific subject matter . . . are these
links that you dreamed up?” Steve asked. 

“No, it's Cyber Sword 2.0 software.  Not only was it a download that I
didn't have to send someone a check to use, but the software is 
self-upgrading.  As soon as pertinent information which is science 
related and scripture confirming becomes available, an over-zealous 
programmer uses this internet thing you're so fond of to automatically 
upgrade the program. The last upgrade tied ‘inflation theory', the 
rapid expansion following the ‘horrific space kablooey', in with the 
idea that God ‘stretched out the heavens'. I found it interesting that 
Old Testament prophets use that term so frequently, the stretching out 
of the heavens, which is a literary way of expressing the same idea as 
inflation, that there was a sudden, controlled increase in size of the 
universe.” 

“All right, then.  Give me a minute to call up some numbers and I'll
explain what I didn't want to earlier. I hope you won't mind if I take 
the old universe approach and refer to the big bang,” Steve said and 
started crunching keys.  Soon the screen displayed the following 
information: 

T= Moment of Big Bang T0= 3 *10^38 seconds  All energy in form of
radiation. T1= 100 seconds. Helium forms. Nuclear reactions die out. 
T2= 1000 seconds. Shift from radiation dominated universe to matter 
dominated universe. 

“Jerry, do you remember a conversation we had in college regarding time
and eternity?” 

“Yes, I think I do.  You bought the pizza, if I recall correctly.” 

“No, I paid for the pizza expecting to get reimbursed.  At any rate, you
got me thinking about eternity, and as my work led me into areas 
related to gravity and electromagnetics, I began to see a relationship 
between the two which could be traced back to the moment of the big 
bang or to the utterance of the words ‘Fiat Lux', depending on where 
your cosmological loyalties lie.  Concerning the unified field theory, 
it unfortunately begins to break down between ten and one hundred 
seconds after the big bang occurred.  When matter formed, it became 
next to impossible to demonstrate the universe as interacting fields 
because the nature of matter won't allow it to share in the field.  
Matter is extremely individualistic. And like it or not, this notion 
ties in with your reference from Colossians.” 

“Then what exactly are we trying to accomplish in the tesla chamber? 
You seem to have admitted that the entire project is based on a fraud.” 


“Not quite true.  As I studied the relationship between electromagnetic
energy and gravity, I discovered a very specific and definable 
relationship existing between the two at every era of the development 
of the universe. Eventually, this got me to thinking about just where 
the notion of time enters the picture.  If your thoughts on the subject 
of eternity have merit and God exists outside of time, then I would say 
that a division between time and eternity must occur at somewhere after 
T0 and  before T1.” 

“You mean that time begins at the formation of matter in the universe?” 

“Yes, mainly because there was no reason for it to exist prior to that
point.  Time doesn't affect the spiritual, but matter must be bound by 
its constraints.  Radioactive isotopes can't help but decay at a given 
rate and stars will exhaust their fuel and burn out.  Entropy is 
unavoidable.  But don't think that I'm implying time and eternity 
cannot interact.  As you pointed out years ago, the temporal and the 
eternal have interacted on more than one occasion in the realm of 
biblical history.  In fact, I'm rather counting on the fact that the 
two can interact to a relatively high degree.” 

“Any chance I can get you to make your point?” 

“The point of the field generator project is to move backward through
the relationship between gravity and electromagnetic radiation to a 
point where it may be possible to look across eternity.” 

“You mean that you tried to find an application for that discussion in
college?” 

“Yes, and you only have yourself to blame.” 

“But what would possess you to bother?  It was an idle discussion
brought on by a lack of sleep and too much studying.” 

“What is your earliest memory, Jerry?” 

“I've had to answer this question before.  Give me a second.  Ah, there
it is.  I was probably a little over three years old and was playing on 
the kitchen floor.  My mom had just put something in a cupboard and had 
then gone outside to take some clothes off the line.  At some point, 
the potatoes on the stove boiled dry and the resulting smoke set off 
the smoke detector, which frightened me into incontinence.” 

“Admittedly, a terrible experience, but it was merely a momentary
embarrassment, and not the sort of thing that would leave a permanent 
scar.  While the effect of early memories on later development is still 
the subject of heated debate, I have always felt that these early 
experiences have a definite correlation to later levels of self esteem 
and the formation of a world view.  I cite myself as an example. 

“My earliest memory takes place on a boat.  My parents had the use of a
cottage by a lake on alternating summers.  When I was around four, my 
older brother convinced my dad that I could be taught to fish and that 
I ought to learn in a rowboat.  Twenty odd feet from the dock, I 
learned how to stab a worm and was instructed on when to pull in the 
line. 

“After fifteen minutes of impatient waiting on my part, the float went
under and I pulled a small bluegill out of the water.  I was so 
surprised that I dropped the bamboo into the lake.  When my brother 
attempted to retrieve it, he miscalculated his center of gravity and 
went into the lake. Now, because we were only in six feet of water, 
there was ample excess rope between the anchor and the boat for my 
brother to become entangled in.  By the time I realized that something 
was wrong and began yelling for my dad, the worst case scenario had 
been played out.” 

Jerry remained quiet when Steve paused in his narrative.  He never knew
what to say in situations like this.  Because the account had been 
revealed to him when he wasn't expecting it, he felt even less prepared 
to give a meaningful response.  But then, when someone chooses to tell 
that sort of story to someone else, they generally aren't expecting a 
response.  They usually just want someone to listen. 

“In the next few days, I was forced to confront something with which no
four year old should have to deal.  The idea of mortality set in early 
as did the feeling that your God is extremely unfair.  The feeling that 
God is not to be trusted was only reinforced by the way my parents 
clung to the sentiment expressed in Romans 8:28.  All things did not 
work together for good for my family and I maintained an unacknowledged 
anger at my parents for holding to a faith which had so desperately let 
them down.” 

“You do realize that the promise of that verse of scripture is one of
the easiest ones to latch onto in circumstances such as your parents, 
don't you?” 

“Yes, but I doubt that something like ‘I am the resurrection and the
life', would have offered lasting comfort.  And I realize that blaming 
God was a very four year old thing to do, but it never seemed 
appropriate later in life to let Him off the hook.  And because of the 
way my life became colored by that incident of neglect on the part of 
your loving God, I still want nothing to do with Him.” 

“Except where he meets with your work?” 

“Of course.  And I know that it isn't fair of me to blame God for what
was essentially an accident, but I've become so comfortable with the 
assignment of blame that to think otherwise is now uncomfortable,” 
Steve said with perhaps a hint of regret which at the same time 
explained a lot about why unbelief comes so easily for some.  It's 
always easier to maintain old patterns of thinking than it is to 
acquire new.  A dog returning, so to speak. 

“At any rate, the prospect of changing that one event in my life made
the possibility of time travel an ever present curiosity.  Who hasn't 
had something in life that they would change if they could?  And your 
biblically based views of time and eternity sent me in a direction that 
I probably would never have explored on my own. 

“When I noticed the correlation between the background radiation in the
universe and where the equations were leading concerning an ‘eternity' 
state, I began making efforts towards the creation of a quantum field 
generator which would combine the necessary fields in such a way as to 
open a window on eternity.”


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