Curtains Of Time Read online

  Chapter 4 – Giselle

  The leap frog gadget was Gizmo’s pride and joy. He worked on it for years. Not even his parents knew about this project. He would tell no one until it was perfect. It was perfect now. All his hard work had paid off. The years of trial and error came down to this one glorious moment in time, as he always knew it would.

  Simply put, his leap frog would take him anywhere in space and time. Through years of fine tuning, he had learned how to control it to take him precisely when and where he wanted to go. He also programed in a homing algorithm that would bring him back home again no matter where, or when, he might eventually end up. He had also programed in a few safe guards to ensure he didn’t end up inside a wall, or a block of cement, or an atmosphere that was inhospitable to humans. If one of those things happened, his gadget would leap frog him on to another destination until all his criteria were met. Thus the name leap frog. He could leap frog across the universe and back.

  The beauty about it was, he could be gone for years, yet come back home in the very instant he left. That’s when he knew he had to have a talk with his parents.

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  “Mom, Dad, I have something I need to tell you and you must listen carefully. I don’t have a lot of time and I need you to understand this. I’ve been experimenting for a lot of years with a gadget that lets me travel through space and time.”

  “Oh Gil, that sounds so dangerous,” his mother said. “Shouldn’t you let that to the space administration, or the government, or someone with a lot more experience with that kind of thing? They know how to regulate things like that. Are you sure it’s safe?”

  “That’s just it Mom, they won’t know how to use it and I don’t trust they’ll use it in anyone’s best interests. But what I need you to know is I need to go away for a little while. I’ll be safe, I promise. There’ll be government people coming around to ask about me. Just tell them the truth. You don’t know where I’ve gone or when I’ll be back. I’m not in trouble and I haven’t done anything wrong. They’ll just want to get their hands on my inventions and I don’t trust them. I’ve even set my workshop to explode if the lock on the door is tampered with, not a big explosion, just enough to destroy everything in the workshop. The garage is safe, it’s set to destroy just the projects I’m working on. I don’t want them to see any of that.”

  “Where will you go son?” Gizmo’s father asked. “And when will you be back?”

  “Well, that’s just it, I can’t tell you for your own safety, and partly because I’m not real sure yet myself, but I just don’t want to be here when they come looking for me, and I don’t want you to lie when you tell them you don’t know where I am.”

  “Oh Gil, you’re not doing anything dangerous are you?” his mother asked.

  “No mother, I’ll be fine, I promise. I won’t be gone long.”

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  Gizmo was true to his word. Two years later, he returned after he completed his second doctorate dissertation at Stanford. It had taken him two years to get the degree but he returned home six months after he left. He wanted to give the government time to stop looking for him. He thought six months was a pretty good bet.

  His doctorate dissertation at Stanford had been called The Separator. Gizmo had discovered a way to separate the curtains of time and space which allowed him to step through into whatever universe he chose and into whatever time period in their evolution he chose. It was really an enhancement of the leap frog gadget. The leap frog was a personal portable gadget and small enough to be carried in his pocket, but the separator was a much more sophisticated gadget that was voice controlled.

  Again, he had to dummy it up so he was sure it couldn’t be duplicated by anyone else. The separator itself had been fairly easy once he understood the basic underlying theory to space time travel which he had worked out with his leap frog gadget, but his real genius had been his doctoral thesis. It was a masterpiece of deception.

  Back home again, he worked night and day installing the separator in a specially designed vehicle that would be able to hold atmospheric pressure and would be comfortable for at least two people. He knew he had to work fast because he didn’t feel safe at home anymore. Even though he had graduated from Stanford, he had arrived back home six months after he graduated from MIT, but he knew it would just be a matter of time before someone came looking for him. He knew they wouldn’t stop looking until they found him. He wanted to be ready when that happened.

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  He put the finishing touches on his new craft and stood back to admire his handiwork. He would name her Gizelle, because of her ability to leap from place to place in the blink of an eye. He climbed into the driver’s seat and felt the thrill of adventure ahead. He also felt goose bumps playing leap frog up and down his back as he wondered where to go first. In all the universe, where did he want to go? There were so many places he wanted to see, he couldn’t make up his mind. In the end he decided to just spin the wheel of time and space and see where it took him.

  “Are you ready Giselle?” he asked.

  “I am at your service Gizmo. All my systems appear to be operating as per your design.”

  “Well then, let’s go.”

  Gizmo held his breath and through the front window of Gizelle he saw his work bench and wall of the garage in front of him shimmer as though looking across an open meadow at the heat waves rising on a hot summer day. Suddenly the shimmering was gone, and looking around, he sensed he was no longer in his garage. He felt no sense of movement at all, but had no idea where he was.

  “Giselle, do you know where we are?”

  “Of course, master. We have arrived at the coordinates you set before we left.”

  “That’s nice to know Giselle, but can you be a little more precise?”

  “As you wish master. We have crossed through three universes and have arrived in an orbit around a planet that appears to have all the conditions necessary to sustain life forms. It has land, water, and a breathable atmosphere. It is the second planet from their sun. Shall I go on sir?”

  “Not at the moment.” Crossed three universes? It seemed only seconds had gone by since they left the garage. Was that possible? Of course, it had to be, they were here weren’t they? He had tried to program into Giselle a sense of humor but it sounded more of an I-told-you-so attitude than what he wanted. He would have to work on that.

  He was still having trouble with the three universes concept. He was only aware of one universe. Now they were really lost. All of a sudden he was in another universe that was not on a chart or map known to mankind. The separator had parted the curtains of time and space and he had truly gone where no man had gone before.

  “Giselle, chart these coordinates in case we ever need to return here again. Can you make a map of this universe?”

  “Of course master.”

  “I wish you wouldn’t call me that.”

  “Your wish is my command sir. How do you wish to be addressed?”

  “My name is Gizmo, Gil, or Gilbert. You can use any of those.”

  “Yes sir, master Gizmo.”

  “One more smart remark from you and I cut off your voice response. Understood?”

  Silence. Giselle was pouting Gizmo knew. She was showing more personality than most of the girls he had known back home. Come to think of it, it just might be entertaining on these trips by himself. It might help pass the time. But he would seriously have to give her an attitude adjustment.

  But he needed to turn his attention to matters at hand now.

  “Giselle, can you detect life forms on the planet below? Please try to communicate with them to see if there is any response.”

  Silence.

  “Giselle?”

  Silence.

  “Okay, I’m sorry. We need to have an understanding though about how we’re going to communicate with each other. We need to work together. Can we do that?”
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  “Apology accepted.”

  “Send out some messages on all frequency bands to see what we get.”

  “Yes sir. Done.”

  Gizmo heard nothing but static through the speakers.

  He was circling the planet about once every ninety minutes, but so far he heard nothing. After two complete circuits, he was about to give up when he heard a faint change in the sound of the static.

  “Wait. Giselle, did you hear that? Can you pinpoint it and bring it in a little sharper?”

  “I’m on it boss.”

  As he listened, he thought he heard distinct pattern sequences through the static. That was a clear indication to him that there was someone or something down there trying to communicate with them. These weren’t just random fluctuations.

  “Giselle, can you understand it? Anything?”

  “Still working on it boss. It appears to be some sort of binary code but I can’t be sure. Wait. Wait. Yes, that’s what it is.”

  “Send a response before we get out of range. Something like ‘Hello, can you read me?’”

  “Sent.”

  That was all they had time for before they were around the rim of the planet and out of range. They would have to wait until they came back around the far rim of the planet before they would be able to get a response to their inquiry.

  On his next circuit, he received. “Yes.”

  Gizmo was so excited, he wished he had someone he could share this moment with, but all he had was Giselle. He thought this just might be the first communication with another intelligent species in all of human history. And he was the first. What now? What should he say? What should he do?

  Gizmo asked Giselle to transmit the coordinates of his orbit and ask if it was likely he was being tracked or followed from the ground. Gizmo wanted to know after all if he was about to be shot out of the sky.

  With Giselle translating, through the speakers he heard, “My name is Marco. I am one of very few inhabitants of this planet who believe there are life forms outside our own species. Therefore my race has no interest in traveling between the stars. They see it as a waste of time with no purpose. I’ve spent my life tracking the movements of the planets and listening for any attempt at communication. I knew someday someone would come, it was just a matter of time. Where do you come from?” Marco asked.

  “A universe far far away, but I come in peace.”

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  That was Gizmo’s first contact with life on other planets not to mention other universes. He still wasn’t sure he was brave enough to land and meet this creature face to face. Having a conversation is one thing but meeting face to face is a whole different thing altogether. In the end curiosity got the best of him and he decided to take a chance.

  Gizmo instructed Giselle to land at the coordinates the transmissions were coming from. He wasn’t sure what he would find there but if the creature was smart enough to communicate with other life forms, how bad could he be? Gizmo took a chance they would have something in common.

  Giselle touched down lightly in a field that appeared to be an open meadow with wild flowers waving in the soft breeze. Gizmo could see nothing as far as the eye could see. The landscape appeared flat with no hills and no structures he could see. He was checking the gauges to make sure Giselle had landed at the right coordinates when he looked up and saw a creature standing in front of his window. Gizmo was startled and had his hand on the emergency bounce button that would take him instantly back to his last orbital position if the creature came any closer or looked at all threatening.

  “You’re different than I expected,” came through the speakers.

  It took Gizmo a few seconds to collect himself. “You’re not exactly what I expected either,” he replied.

  He heard what could only be interpreted as a laugh.

  The creature standing in front of him was so familiar looking, it was unnerving. Marco looked every bit like a common domesticated cat from back home, only much bigger. He appeared to be a little over five feet tall and was standing on his hind legs with his arms, or front legs, at his side. The only real difference Gizmo could immediately see were the paws. They looked more like hands and feet. Other than that, the resemblance to a common house cat was remarkable.

  Looking around, Gizmo was unsure where it had come from or if there were any more of its kind lurking around to ambush him. He just wasn’t sure what the proper protocol was on these occasions. He wasn’t sure what to do.

  Marco said. “Don’t worry, I’m alone. I mean you no harm. You said you come in peace and I trusted you, now it’s your turn to trust me. This may be the first time our two species have ever been in contact. As you know, we have an oxygen based atmosphere, and if that is acceptable to you, you can disembark from your vehicle and we can talk face to face if you like.”

  Giselle confirmed the atmosphere was safe for humans, and with that Gizmo cracked the door to get a smell of the air. It smelled like a summer day in the meadow back home behind his house. He could hear birds and bees and other insects going about their business on a warm summer day. He looked up and saw the large pinkish sun in the sky above. It loomed much larger than Gizmo was used to seeing. In fact it filled most of the sky, but the pinkish color lessened the glare and the heat was not as intense as he would have expected from a sun so close to the planet surface. From the looks of it, he was sure the annual temperature here was much warmer than earth. Just before stepping out of Giselle, he grabbed his favorite Disneyland ball cap to protect him from the heat of the day.

  “On guard Giselle. Be ready for immediate take off if needed,” he said as he stepped lightly onto the planet surface.

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