Prologue
I didn’t know what I was doing… The endless abyss of outer time was as dark as ever. The only thing I could hear was the loud hissssssss! of the compressed air cylinders. Suddenly the air rushed past me so quickly, it felt as if every cell inside my body was being torn apart, every atom. Electrons separated from neutrons. I thought it was the end…
Chapter1
It was 10:30 p.m. July 2 2024. I was reading all about Einstein's theory that anything traveling faster than the speed of light would be able to travel through time. Then, as I was reading, an idea hit me. What if I could calibrate a computer precisely to activate the rockets on my wagon (they were really just compressed air cans.) would I be able to travel through time? I began to experiment with my toys. I ignited it to make it go faster than the speed of light backwards by one mile-per-hour. I ignited the thrusters and I saw a line of light flash and my toy was gone. Suddenly, I remembered seeing an object appear before my eyes exactly one year ago! I tuned and calibrated as best I could. I tuned it so precisely that I could hit exact milliseconds, nanoseconds even! I even tested every exact location. I sent the toy to the future once but I wasn’t sure if it worked. Then, all of a sudden, it arrived one minute later just as I had set it! It was finally time to become the first homo sapien to travel through time. It was time to go. I decided to test if the machine would do anything if I set it to 0. So, I typed “0” into the keypad, got in, then pressed “go”. I sped up so fast it looked as if I were going to crash. Suddenly, the houses around me, the trees, the road, the sky, and the clouds disappeared, replaced by nothing but black all around and a light dimly shining to the left of me. I felt I was not going forwards, nor backwards, but sideways, as if I were leaving time itself. Suddenly, I felt air rushing past me, going faster and faster. Soon, I felt the worst sensation I've ever felt. Thud. I landed in a heap launched out of my wagon/time machine. Ouch. I quickly got off the floor and as soon as I did, I felt as if I needed to vomit. The sickness soon faded and I felt better. I also noticed that I had a small but deep cut in my right arm. It didn’t hurt, but also, it didn’t bleed. I had rigged the tablet on my wagon to be able to tell me anything that was discovered at any time. I looked up my predicament and stuff related to it. I found this: The website crashed. I had one thought, I must be in a time hollow, the website said I could only look at it from a time hollow. My brain started connecting the dots, if I’m not bleeding from my arm and I’ve never gotten hungry here or had to use the bathroom once. A time hollow must be a place where time doesn’t exist at all! Time sickness must be what I felt as soon as I was tossed out of my wagon. I did research about the topic on the time net. Time sickness happens to time travelers only. There are two types of time sickness, one of them is from the act of literally traveling through time and the other is from being in a time that you are not native to. Why? And, how? Well, think, your body is made of atoms, and atoms cannot be created or destroyed, so in traveling through time you are essentially displacing millions of atoms at the same time. Paradoxes are when you do something that could destroy time. The Grandfather Paradox, for example, if you go back and kill your grandfather, you wouldn’t be born, and then you couldn’t go back and kill your grandfather so you would be born and then you'd go back and kill your grandfather… Also you can’t go to a time you’ve already been to because if you do you’ll cause time to split. Where would I go? I had one date in mind that I had been obsessed with since I was three. September 11, 2001…
Chapter 2
I typed into my keyboard, 9112001800a,Manhattan Island New York, and leaped into my wagon. I remembered to bandage my arm up so that it wouldn’t open more. I pressed “go” on the tablet and instantly, I went really fast towards the wall! Again, it felt as if I was going to crash, until the blank walls disappeared. WHOOSH! Back in Outer Time whooshing through the endless abyss that remains black for eternity. I felt myself flying sideways and then stopping as if I were returning to the time stream. As soon as I stopped, my wagon began to shake and fly backwards. So fast that the lights in front of me and behind me began to blur. Instantly I flew quicker and quicker. I felt as if my whole body was being torn apart. Atom by atom neutron by electron. Until I finally appeared in a vacant dumpster on Manhattan Island in a little alleyway at 8:00 a.m., it would be about an hour and a half before the plane crashed. I ran to get the best viewing spot. Crud. It was Manhattan rush hour. I had to wait a whole hour to get through! Nooooooo! It’s 9:00! I might miss it! I ran through the the sidewalks and found the best spot on the street with the perfect view of the towers Then I saw something that shattered my heart. Children, youths, and even babies going into the towers. I had to do something! I ran over to a spot near the towers and shouted at the top of my lungs, “DON’T ENTER THE TOWERS!” many people heard and stopped, their tracers continuing without them. Some listened and walked away, and some didn’t and hurried to rejoin their tracers. That reminded me of something I’ve heard in a church sermon once, something like, “For many are called but few come.” Just then I heard a loud WHOOSH and then a CRASH! I turned around to look and saw something that I could never unsee. A large jet crashed into the north tower! Fire and smoke rushed out of the gaping hole! In a few seconds I saw burning kerosene fly out of the base of the tower, parboiling anyone and everyone in the vicinity. A small drop of kerosene fell onto my arm. It gave me a third-degree burn. I ran back to the dumpster. When I got there, I powered on my wagon and flew out of that time, back to my own time.
Chapter 3
When I got back, my little ten-year-old sister, Jamie, saw the flash of light and ran to see what it was. “Ricky!” (that's what my name is in case you were curious) “what did you do to your wagon?” she asked in her nosy little way. “Sorry, I can’t tell you.” I replied. “Ugh! That is sooooo unfair! Mark my words, I will find out!!” Jamie exclaimed angrily as she stormed off. “I will.” I murmured sarcastically. I went on another trip. In Outer Time I was interrupted by the voice of my sister, “Where are we?” she said. It surprised me so much that I almost fell out of the wagon. “What are you doing here?!” I asked. “I told you I would find out what you were hiding.” she replied, “and now I’m going to find out what this place is, also I can tell you don’t want me messing with your tablet right there.” She pushed me out of the way and pressed cancel on my time coordinates and typed random numbers. Soon we began to speed up. “What did you do?!” I yelled. “I don’t know!” she yelled back. “Maybe I would know if you told me what this wagon is supposed to be!!!” We ended up coming out in a rocket. I felt myself float up. “What are you doing here?” said a man in a space suit. “Jamie what did you do?” “You shouldn’t be here! You should be on earth” said the man. Oh, so we’re in space. I thought. BANG! “Swigert! What did you do?!” the man said. Jamie saw the patch on the space suit of the man it said “Jim Lovell, Apollo 13” the man left. “Ricky,” Jamie said, “Apollo 13 exploded, and it also takes place in 1970, Ricky, did you build a time machine?” She knows. I thought. “Yes, I did.” I replied. “Also, Ricky, we really need to get out of here.” She also said. “Houston we have a problem.” Said Jim Lovell. “adios!” she quickly said and hopped into the wagon. “You don’t know how to operate the wagon.” “Yes I do! I got us here, didn’t I?” “I’m not letting you operate it because you got us here.” “Fine.” I got in and away we went. We soon landed in a time hollow where we needed to look at the time net to see what to do if you are caught. This is what we found: I looked at my tablet and when we landed in the command module of Apollo 13, we did cause the ship to change direction slightly but it was corrected by the astronauts. “Jamie,” I said, “Guess what!” “What” she said. “Our little adventure didn’t destroy time!” I said. “That’s great Ricky.” she said back. “Now what?” “Jamie, do you expect me to take you on another trip after that little stunt you pulled.” I said. “But Rick—” Jamie, you almost destroyed time!” I interrupted. “Since when did you become such a time fanatic?” she remarked. “Ever since I learned what catastrophic effects my and your actions could have on the time stream.” I answered. “If only you knew.” “You’re saying that as if you know something that I don’t.” Jamie said. “Even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you, or show you.” “Ricky, why?” Jamie said, as tears began to form in her eyes. Instantly, I remembered all the times when Jamie depended on me. I walked to Jamie’s room, I heard her sobbing, her pet dog had died. I opened her door, “Jamie?” I called, “are you alright?” “No,” she replied, “you wouldn’t be okay if you lost something, would you?” I had to reply, “Well no, but—” “Ricky, why?”... “I’m sorry Jamie,” I said, “I shouldn’t have been so harsh.” “It’s okay.” She replied. “Okay Jamie, let’s go home.” I said, just as I was walking towards the wagon. I turned it on. “Are you coming?” I said. “Yep.” she replied. She got in the wagon. I set the coordinates for home. 722024936a Tuckersville, Montana. Soon we were home.
Chapter 4
When I woke up the next day, at home, I decided that I would give Jamie another chance. I walked over to Jamie’s room. It was 8:00 and Jamie wasn’t a late sleeper, so she might be up now. Just have to be quiet enough so that mom doesn’t find out. I thought as I tip-toed over to Jamie’s room. As soon as I opened the door, Jamie ran to me and said, “Ricky! Are we going on another adventure?” I rolled my eyes as I said, “Yeah, we are.” Soon we were in the wagon, then we were in the time hollow. Soon somebody appeared in the time hollow with us. We had nowhere to hide. “Wait, are kids in the time hollow.” The person said, It was a tall, strong man. The man had deep, dark, and curly hair. “How did you get in here?” he said. I felt urged to reply, but I was also scared to see what this man’s reaction to the information would be. Jamie, of course, didn’t care. “Wagon, compressed air, computer, woosh!” she said. “Wait, are you guys the Sigres?” the man said. “Lemme guess, Ricky Sigre and Jamie Sigre.” “How did you know?” I said. “I’m Gary Drigo, time cop of the USTO and I’m capable of knowing these things. Ricky Siger, the first human to travel through time and who wrote all those “what to do if…” things on the time net.” Gary said, “Jamie Sigre, mother of three, goes on time travel trips with her brother—” “Gary, you shouldn’t be telling us these things!” I blurted, “Us knowing this information could destroy time! I thought you were a time cop!” “Who told you that?” “You did!” “No.” “You said ‘Gary Drigo, time cop of the USTO’ you can’t deny it!” “You actually fell for it!” Gary said, “don’t you expect a ‘time cop’ to be wearing a uniform?” “Well kinda,” Jamie said. “Honestly, I don’t really care about time at all!” said Gary, “Time travel is a hot mess, I only care if it makes me money.” “What are you going to do?” said Jamie. “Well first, I’m going to do what I got paid to do.” he said as he pulled a coin from his pocket, “Begin the cataclysm.” Gary said into the coin. Instantly, Gary began to age very quickly, his hair growing gray and wrinkles forming on his face. Soon his hair fell out and so did his teeth. His skin got flabby and wrinkled too. Then he was lying dead on the floor. We were both shocked at what had happened. We still had so many questions like, What is the cataclysm? I had no idea, Jamie had no idea. It sounded horrible, but how bad could it be?
Author’s note:
Thank you for reading this book. Whether you picked this book up at a library, bought it, or a friend shared it with you, we can all agree on one thing, this book series is probably the best time travel book you’ve ever read. If you do anything with this book, share it with your friends. —Micah.S