“Martin, my friend, t’ank you for coming”. Ty dipped a small bow as he held the door and painted an entry path with the back of his open hand. He was the same Ty of years gone by; white short sleeve shirt, no tie and freshly pressed tan slacks; a small man, flat Asian face, but with an uncharacteristically effervescent smile. As always, Ty made me feel as though I was being welcomed home from a long journey, which, in a sense, he was.
It was definitely Ty's office, everything neatly in place; pencils in a new foam cup; a couple of handbooks set in place on his reference table; and a couple of trade journals with post-its marking articles of importance. A family picture perched at the mid-point of the outer edge of his desk; the place of honor. Next to it sat a work of clay art, obviously fashioned by tiny proud hands. Next to that a freshly washed coffee cup stood like a soldier waiting for orders. And in the center of his reference table, the ever-present remnant of his contract consulting days, his trusty leather attaché case stood open and ready.
His office echoed a sense of one passing through; of one who had known an intimate taste of the fickle nature of permanence. His office was decorated in company issue early Truman, along with wall art befitting a less than top of the line fast-food restaurant.
Ty was not a complainer and he certainly didn't let his surroundings define who he was. He had a sense of integrity and honor equal to any man I knew; his character reflecting that of someone immune from circumstance.
Martin had known Ty as a mechanical engineer, but obviously he had gone back to school for a career upgrade of some sort. He was now a Senior Systems Analyst. The Project Manager had obviously taking advantage of his new training. If he had a credential, it wasn't posted on his wall. He knew who he was, and it remained for others to seek it out.
Martin seated himself. Ty closed the door as if to prepare for the latest joke session in privacy. Martin hardly thought that was the reason for the invitation. As easy as it was for Ty to smile, he now conveyed a sense of urgency.
“I wan ask you many question? We need to do it before interruption occur. Preeze be patient with me? I try to be receptive to aw you hab to say. I t’ink I am not furry prepare for what you will say.”
Ty says what he means and means what he says. Martin didn’t know anyone who deserved higher regard.
In the past, he had shared several harrowing accounts of his escape from Vietnam in the seventies. Though he was and may still be a Buddhist, he expresses a deep respect for Jesus; “He the one who answer prayers”.
In one of his accounts he fully credits the petition to Jesus for the survival of many refugees including him.
He had been accessory to an escape from the Viet Cong. It involved the desperate purchase of a derelict barge and a flash mob like launching of dozens of refugees in the middle of the night. They launched into the South China Sea with marginal provision, minimal space, little water, questionable engine and fuel.
On two occasions the engine failed sending them drifting back to shore and into the hands of roaming bandits. After being relieved of some but not all of their provisions, they managed engine repairs and a re-launch.
On the third attempt they succeeded in entering an outward current. Another engine failure left them adrift in the open sea for forty-two days.
In the midst of the ordeal, and after going for many days without food and running short even of bilge water, they were reaching the limit of their ability to survive. The space on the barge was so limited that lying down to sleep could only be done in shifts.
One person died, and had to be buried at sea.
A Catholic priest, one of the few Christians aboard, offered the only thing he could. He preached a basic gospel sermon of repentance and salvation, and then led the group in a prayer of deliverance. He then directed several men to drop their fishing lines into the water on the shadow side of the barge.
The numerous fish in the shadow of the barge had previously eluded every attempt at capture, whether by hand, spear or fishhook. With little hope of success, and out of shear obedience they submitted to the priest's directive. Immediately the men began to haul in fish as fast as they could set their lines; with no more than bent wire for hooks and no bait. In time everyone was fed to the point of saturation.
The following day the men fished again but from that point until the end of the ordeal were unable to snag another fish.
After more anguishing days adrift, they finally beached in Malaysia; all but the one survived.
Ty expressed that he knew nothing of the biblical accounts of Peter's fishing exploits. But he fully attributed his miracle of the fishes to a true expression of Jesus’ love.
“Fire away Ty?”
“As P’oject Systems Analyst I have broad view of aw da data an’ utter tings. This morning 'Sparkle' stop in my office after downloading da mission data. He stop because of peculiar glitch he t’ought I would be interested in. He don't have any idea bout it; it was like he find new toy and want to show me.”
Glitch! What evil this way cometh? “What was it?” Martin tried to convey an appropriate level of curiosity, with no tinge of disbelief.
“Sparkle, he show me da data stream print-out for vital sign monitors. He see dat dare is discontinuity dat he not seen before. I look at it, he tink it might be a power spike. I know dat not possible but he didn't.”
“Why isn't that possible?” I asked, not wanting to raise the threat level.
“Because system protected by an APU. Power spikes in the grid, day don't reach our computer system.”
“So?”
“I copy his tape for monitor. I look at it berry closely. Most of da traces have very regular cycle but day are not da same frequency; dat is normal. But dees traces have break dat define clear discontinuity. I use da data to interpolate possible gap dat day represent. It seems to be thirty seven second, or a multiple of dat.”
“I look at da cooling system monitor as well as the air system monitor to see if day show a similar gap. Day don't reveal anything odd. Martin Trask, do you have idea what might have happen?”
Martin Trask! This is serious; he's going directly for my throat, he knows more than he was letting on. I can’t lie to him. He is one of the few men in this world that I can trust with my life, and in my position I badly need to maintain that level of trust.
Ty always treated Martin as part of his family. To this day he insisted that they knew one another longer than Martin could recall. His first recollection of Ty occurred when Martin started a new contract engineering job with a Colorado company.
At that time, Ty related a story as though it was a part of their shared history. Martin had to credit his own poor memory for the lack of recollection.
The story involved an incident in which Ty’s wife nearly succumbed to cancer, an error resulting from misdiagnoses. The misdiagnoses happened on several occasions. Ultimately cancer was detected and she received overdue care and managed to survive a close call with death.
As a result of the misdiagnosis and against his instincts, Ty was advised to pursue a malpractice suit against the offending doctor. His slam-dunk case proceeded poorly and on what seemed to be the final day of the trial Ty was faced with eminent defeat. Four doctors had testified in behalf of the defendant and it looked overwhelmingly in the defendant's favor.
During a noon recess Ty and his wife sat in the hall outside the courtroom; stunned at what seemed inevitable. Ty said he sat with his face in hands, elbows on his knees. He said he didn't know if his wife was praying or not, or to whom she was praying but as for himself, he was praying to Jesus. After lunch and prayers, they returned to the courtroom for the afternoon session.
In the next couple hours all four doctor's testimonies were discredited and recanted; one doctor for illegally discussing the case at lunch, one doctor for being caught in perjury. The other two rescinded their testimonies for varied reasons. The defendant
was convicted, in the face of what had previously seemed a certain acquittal.
“That's great news Ty” was my reply. “I didn't realize you had gone to Houston for the trial” which was where Martin assumed the trial had been held.
“We didn't” Ty said. “The trial was here in town; last week. The verdict was rendered on Tuesday.”
My face must have expressed a little shock as these details began to register like the wheels of a “one-armed-bandit” clunking into place. “Tuesday” was the clincher.
Teal, Martin’s wife, had chosen a ministry of intercessory prayer for the town and its citizens. For months prior, she regularly had spent her days literally walking the streets, silently praying for whatever or whomever she felt lead to intercede for.
On Wednesday evening, following the Tuesday in question, and prior to Martin’s encounter with Ty, Teal had shared a concern with Martin. “I pray as often as I feel lead and for the least provocation. I try to listen for God's voice in this endeavor and then respond as best I can. But in reality, I don't know if I hear correctly or not. I know that my responsibility is to service and it is not mine to know the value or result of my works, if any. But it would sure be nice if I could see the evidence of answered prayer on occasion.” She continued, “For instance, on Tuesday I thought that the Lord was directing me to walk the halls of the County Courthouse and to offer a prayer. I thought he wanted me to pray for the vindication of the innocent; that the enemy would be defeated in his attempt to crush the faithful. But I have no way of knowing the outcome of that exercise. Did I hear correctly or not? I only wish I knew.”
Teal's prayer for the vindication of the innocent had been answered. The Lord revealed it to her in a most unlikely way and in a way that left little doubt. It was verified as to the very hour, place and outcome. There was no doubt in my mind that Ty and Teal were counted among the trustworthy and faithful.
“Ty . . . are you sure you're ready for this?”
“What? Da truth? Try me buddy, we been through lots together.”
“Yes we have, Ty. And I don't know anyone who needs to hear this more than you.”
Martin continued “The data does not lie. There is no gap in the time sequence. However, during that instant of 'no gap' I was not present in this universe or in any universe for that matter. I don't know if any time lapsed but I do know that I had the experience of time passing.”
“Where were you, if you not here?” Ty's mouth stayed open as if poised for a question not yet formed.
“Nowhere . . . nowhere, is the best that I can say. The experiment your team ran went off without a hitch. However your assumptions were flawed and the system was not designed to contain the real outcome. The data trap did not translate a data bundle over the distance from Alpha to Beta site in zero time. Instead it translated the bundle and me from 'now' to 'then'. I went to a different time. At least that is the way it should have happened. But this time, that was not to be. Instead, I went . . . nowhere and at no time.”
Ty threw up a hand. He paused to check his next utterance. “You are talking . . . about a dream?”
“No. No, Ty I'm not talking about a dream. I'm talking about a completed cycle. But this time I was trapped in a null. How I passed through it is a bit of a mystery. Maybe it wasn't my time. God seems to have intervened in my behalf on this and several other occasions for that matter. In any case I was in a null point . . . nowhere to be exact.”
“Null point . . . nowhere? Martin, what you talking about?”
“Null point; just like the null point in a sine wave. Smack-dab on the x axis, between plus and minus; it’s a value of zero. In this case it's not a simple sine wave, it is the white noise of creation; the common point, here and there, between now and then. It is the common point where all of creation meets and passes through; the Big Bang without the bang.”
“Wha’” Scientific surety was at war with everything he was hearing and understanding.
“Ty. The universe operates on a frequency, just like electricity. A ripping fast frequency but a frequency never the less. The average value of all mass and energy is zero and that is where I. . .”
“Frequency! What frequency? Ty cocked his head, gazing blankly.
“Particle Physicists is about to discover it. Ty, it's not a secret, it's just that the theory is trailing reality. If it hasn't happened yet, it will soon. Science is out stripping its ability to measure because of technical limitations.”
“Ty, can you see the light on your desk flicker?”
“No. It's a little fast.”
“Exactly. Sixty hertz is too quick for the human eye to detect. Well, 1035 hertz is too fast for any instrumentation to sense or measure until about now. There are new developments in sensing and techniques that will allow the detection of creation's pulse.
The null, it's not much but it comes often. At that moment all kinds of things can happen and in fact do. It is apparently the instant in which changes can be implemented particularly in time and consequentially in distance. At that moment all mass exists only in the form of information; essentially there is no mass.”
“Maybe dat’s what day were talking about in da las’ design review. Something about da Higgs-Boson particle, da 'God Particle', holding the timing functions of the atomic structure. I didn't understand. It was dos guy's in da wrinkle lab coats. Day muss sleep in dem. I tink day loss dare comb too.”
“Yeh. It would be them. Also, I don't think they close their eyes when they sleep.”
I continued “That's the frequency I'm talking about. It is universal. All of creation operates on that frequency; it even regulates photons. Photons that reach here from distant galaxies are on exactly the same frequency.”
Ty shook his head “Do you mean that during da null nothing exists?”
“No. I mean yes. Well, actually, it all exists, but in the form of information; there is no mass at that moment. No mass, anywhere. None. In that instant, I believe the only existing remnant of the physical universe is the Higgs-Boson particle; a mass-less piece of pure information. That is the thing that makes time travel possible. The momentum necessary to carry the creation back into the physical realm is part, if not all of the function of the Higgs-Boson. At the present, time travel seems to be a collateral transparent effect, but it happens. The researchers don't realize that it has happened, it is happening, or that I am living proof. I have only experienced cycles into the past and back, and only a few into the near future. Even with that, I not sure some of it isn't in the form of a dream. The future is knowable. It can be demonstrated.”
“Really. Who do it? You, Martin Trask?”
“It is a psychological experiment that has gained attention recently.
“The experiment goes like this.
The test involves two people, one being tested and second person to perform the test. The test subject is isolated from view of the second person, the viewer. A deck of cards imprinted with easily recognized individual symbols such as squares, dots, triangles, circles, stars, etc, is used for the test; the symbols are known to the test subject who views them prior to the shuffle. The viewer then randomly cuts the deck and sets half the deck aside, so that the exact ratio of symbols within the test deck is not known. The viewer then begins the test by viewing the cards one at a time, allowing time for the reader to announce his guess as to what the viewed card might be. The actual symbols observed and the associated guesses are tabulated. This process is continued until the half deck is depleted.
This entire exercise is repeated for several cycles. When the test is completed and several hundred guesses have been recorded the results are statistically analyzed.
It has been noted that some people who have been tested in this manner demonstrated a very positive result. What is more interesting is the way in which the result is manifested. Some tested individuals show a marked sensitivity to
the card that is being viewed by the reader; a demonstration of ESP. Other individuals show a marked sensitivity more toward guessing the symbol which has not yet been displayed with the next card; a clear demonstration of clairvoyance.
It is not clear what cerebral mechanism is at play. What is clear is that we have at our disposal some level of access to future events that is beyond chance.”
Ty cocked his head, giving Martin a chicken-look.
“I’m not making this up Ty. The past and future are givens. We’re just picking our way through it.”
This was pegging Ty’s 'freak-meter'. He offered “Le's go back?”
“Name it.”
“You tow me dat you been on more den one, what you say? Translation?”
“Yes, Ty. I have been on many.”
“When you call it a cycle, is dat the same ting?”
“Yes, a cycle for me begins when I leave and ends when I return. I think.”
Ty's brow knitted as he continued. “You t’ink? Why do you say dat? Isn't it obvious?”
“No. In fact it is not obvious. It's hard to explain.” Martin scrambled for an explanation but for lack of a better one he added “It's like drinking from a glass containing tea when you think it is cola. It disorients you for a moment. But it's not as easy to recover from the disorientation of a translation. The line between a dream and reality gets real fuzzy.”
I continued “What did you see in the data stream that made you suspect something else was going on?”
“Well, I saw da vitals and day don't look right. Some of da traces not right. It seem lak a gap in da data stream; a gap in aw da channel. Lak a piece cut out and da ends of da tape put back together with a mismatch in da vector traces. Because of regularity of several of da vectors I was abo to interpolate da gap. There is 37 seconds minimum missing but dat is not necessarily maximum. Could be days, weeks, me’bee but it missing any ways.”
“Well, Ty, I can assure that I arrived here but I not so sure that I left here.”
“Oh, oh!” He cocked his head again. “Preez continue?”
“I guess what I'm saying is that I am laced through. . . . time . . . maybe I should say, creation. Actually, I believe you are too but for now we are looking at how it works for me. I left in a cycle, but it may not have been this reality that I left from. I may have arrived from an experiment that happened in a different time and place. I think it's about parallel universes but that's out of my league.”
Ty stared at the top button of Martin’s shirt as he chewed on the dots swimming in his head. He mumbled “parallel universes . . .? You don't remember where you go before you come here?”
“Sometimes I think I do, but it's like getting knocked unconscious and waking up not recalling exactly what happened. You may remember something but you can't be sure it's the last thing, the right thing or even the same day. The reality that I left from is not necessarily the reality that I returned to. I suppose it could be but it seems highly unlikely. I can't be sure that the sequence hasn’t been altered and then maybe it's not important.”
Ty paused, his lips poised for the next question. “Do you see difference in environment between dis leaving and returning?”
“Yes. My mother's middle initial changed” I chuckled. “I don't really know what that means. I didn't think that I could have done anything to alter history this time; but I must have. I didn't think that I went back in time. I was stuck in a null point and didn't have an opportunity to affect anything. And yet mom's middle initial changed”.
“Dats it!”
“Yes.” I said. “Isn’t that enough?”
Ty asked “Who else know dis?”
“That my mother’s middle initial changed?”
“No. I mean, who know aw dat you have toe me?”
I chuckled “well, you do for one. The scientists believe and understand at a different level. They are looking for something else. They don't realize that they have sent me anywhere. It's sort of like the discovery of nylon. That happened a hundred years before anyone realized its true value. It's the same here. One of these days they will figure out what has really been happening all along. They think that they are dealing with t = 0 with distance irrelevant. Instead t ≠ 0, and there is a phase shift. When they do understand, they will also find that the opposing particle exists out of phase and on the threshold of a parallel universe.
They are trying to do the 'spooky action at a distance' anomaly that Einstein observed. But instead of sending me from the home site to a target site with no elapsed time, they are actually sending me from one time frame to another. Fortunately I come back, but not always immediately. Each time they are on the verge of figuring out exactly what's going on.”
“How do da “null point” figure in to aw dat? Where . . . what happen dare?”
“Well.” Martin paused “actually, any other time you could ask where or when, but when it comes to a null, neither is appropriate. It isn't anywhere and it isn't time sensitive. And since mass does not exist, I'm not really there; at least not in body. I'm there, in essence only. I'm just a fragment of information. No, maybe I should say in spirit only.”
As Asian as Ty's eyebrows are, they were taking a beating. More had to be said.
“Oh, I was there alright. I was by myself. I'm sure God was there but he wasn't talking. He was there, just like he's here. I don't think I was in heaven, or hell.
There is another aspect to this that I should point out. The realm that we experience, this here and now, is just one of many realms. The functional difference between realms is definition. Realms can relate in an infinite manner of ways.
The physical realm that we experience operates by physical laws that we recognize a bit at a time. At the same time that we're operating in the physical realm, we are also operating in a spiritual realm. That realm is often relegated to fantasy or superstition. I'm suspecting it is more real than the physical one. Just about everyone knows it but at the same time they deny it. The physical realm is too much in our face for us to fully accept the spiritual realm. That's why we have to do it on a faith level, and most people can't stomach that as well.
The fact is, Ty, that if there is a superiority of realities, than, the physical is subordinate. In any case when I was present in the null, I was out of the physical realm, and fully into one of the spiritual realms. Which one, I don't know. It wasn't the heaven that I hoped for but it also wasn't the hell that I imagined. The sense of despair and loneliness may have eventually put me there.”
Ty shifted to the edge of his chair. “What is it lak? What it feel lak?”
“Nothing, absolutely nothing. I couldn't feel anything. I couldn't even sense that I had a body of any sort. The only thing I was aware of was my awareness. Aware that I had no pain, no heart beat, no warmth, no coldness, no light, just deafening silence and loneliness.”
“Were you frighten?”
“Scared witless. I screamed like a little girl, but I didn't hear anything. There wasn't any sound or even the feeling of noise in my throat or of air passing out my mouth. I flailed my arms to get hold of something but it was a useless effort; no arms or place to grab.”
“Where dis place be?”
“What do you mean by ‘where’? I was nowhere, or, maybe, I was everywhere. It's a meaningless point if there is no mass or no universe. Any single point in space would be every point in space; literally and figuratively. And as far as location is concerned it would be 100% of location.”
“Dis hurt'n my head. Was it lak outer space?”
“Outer, inner, deep; whatever. I don't know. There weren't any stars for sure. But then there wouldn't be if there wasn't any mass. In that case the difference between infinite and infinitesimal is probably zero. It's mainly a brain cramp. Without mass, then time and location are irrelevant. The past would be the same as the present, and the future. I think
that is why it is the place where shifting through time and space is easy and instant. If you arrive there with no momentum to pass on through, then you might stay there. I don't know what got me through it.
The Higgs-Boson particle, it seems, is central in the passage throughout the null. Finding out how to manipulate the Higgs-Boson will therefore, allow the switching of universes as well as the changing of time.”
Ty, the particle physics guys, seemed to be at the threshold of understanding the nature of the beast. Keep the faith, oh brother-o-mine.”
“Martin, you mus’ tell dem what you know.”
“No Ty. I can't tell anyone but you. You're the only person I can trust."
“I da only person you can trus’ with what?” Ty looked even more confused.
“Ty, I'm a fugitive. This is the only way I know how to keep from getting caught.”
“Martin, what you talk about? Fugitive from what?”
“I don't have the RFID implant. My records say that I do, but I don't. I managed to dodge the implant after my record was updated at the implant center. They must have screwed things up because they checked me off as 'completed'.”
“Martin. How you survive? How you feed yourself? How you trabel?”
“I'm a contract employee. They always give me a company expense card and that puts all charges on the company’s bill. I won't leave a footprint unless I leave the agency or maybe if I change agencies.”
“You sure? The chip, it tracked many ways.”
“I have to move very carefully. I never enter the system without the agency coverage and I try to avoid areas where random scans are performed. If I get the sense that someone is onto me, I go into hiding until it's time for another cycle; there always is. I’ve got a bit of an advantage; they always start with an empty folder.”
* * * * *
Chapter 3 – The Consultation
We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.
Albert Einstein