Link to beginning of story:
https://steemit.com/fiction/@justephen/justin-time-chapter-1-an-original-novel
Link to Chapter 21: The Tumor
https://steemit.com/fiction/@justephen/justin-time-chapter-21-an-original-science-fiction-novel
Chapter 21 Review:
Justin has his head checked by a physician and finds he has an inoperable tumor. He and Blair take a leave of absence from work to attempt to expedite his pursuit of time travel hoping that will lead him to a cure. Mark Hannity's mother seems cured after taking the stroke reversal medicine. Mark goes to the liquor store to buy a nice bottle of champagne for he and his mom to celebrate. In the parking lot he meets Larry Van Morrison who recently got out of the mental hospital for killing his wife. Larry found out that Mark Hannity was the reason Katherine Time was found not guilty. In Larry Van Morrison's mind Mark Hannity is responsible for the death of his wife as well as him losing his restaurant. Larry shoots Mark at point blank range dead.
Chapter 22: Spiritual Traveling
It had been a couple more weeks and both Justin and Blair thought Justin was ready to move on to the next task. In Justin's basement, they went to the safe and Justin opened it.
"Let's see what the next set of instructions say.", said Justin.
"Okay..wait..hmm..wasn't there a yellow envelope?", asked Blair.
"I kinda of recall there was, but I can't tell you for sure."
"Did you open any envelopes are move stuff around?", Blair asked.
"No. It is probably your imagination. I am anxious to see the next set of instructions.", hurried Justin.
"Okay, let's continue where we left off.", said Blair.
The next set of instructions gave Justin a step by step process as well as a pictorial on how to actually build his time traveling devise. It certainly couldn't be called a time machine since it was just a contraption that looked like something one would see in the hospital in ICU. It looked like a gurney and the person who would be on this gurney would be sitting at a 45 degree incline. Attached to this person was a great array of tubes, wires and brain sensors. Next to the gurney were two incubators. There were several mechanical arms with hand like claws and one with a syringe. There were also a couple of computers and a keyboard. It was used to convert the desired start location using not only longitude and latitude coordinates, but also topography and date. Topography was necessary so he wouldn't be transported into a wall or a mountain. He was also given a set of instructions on how to practice 'moving about' in his mind while in a comatose state. He was told to practice continually. He was also told that after he perfected moving about, the next challenge would be the cloning process.
Justin and Blair built the device within a few weeks. After following instructions exactly, they were now ready and it was time to try out the time traveling device. The first phase was for the device to first induce Justin into a coma, and then set a timer for the device to pull him out of the coma. They set the timer for six hours. With Blair at his side, Justin sat down and all the attachments was connected to Justin. Most of the connections were automated so Blair was more-less just observing.
Justin took a deep breath and said, "Well..here goes. nightie night."
With that, Justin flipped the final switch and closed his eyes. After about six hours Justin opened his eyes.
"What happened? Why didn't it work?", asked Justin.
"What do you mean? You were gone for six hours. Look.", Blair said pointing at the clock.
"Wow..really?" It really worked?”, questioned Justin.
"Yeah. It looks like you now need to practice moving about. Remember, do it just like you did in your dreams. Focus first on the fact that you are entering a coma. Be aware.", Blair said.
"Okay. Be aware. This is just like dream control. Be aware.", Justin repeated.
For the next few weeks with Blair at his side, Justin practiced and practiced. He found it was very similar to what his subjects had told him. Justin got quite proficient at not only moving about, but pinpointing a location where he would begin his cranial journey. Although the computer had coordinates, without the proper focus, one could slightly misguide themselves to the wrong coordinates or the wrong timeline.
They finally felt they were ready for the cloning process. Cloning had been around for many years now. It begins with the growth of a DNA sample. Usually the subject is placed in a room size incubator and then it grows at its regular life pace. Recently, science had been able to stimulate the production process which enabled it to grow at a faster pace. The state of the art new science and technology that Blair and Justin were using had a few additional components. First, was an exponential growth increase to replicate the subject who is being transported. The process now will just take a few minutes. Secondly, there is a replication of the clothing one is wearing and the items one is carrying. Finally, there is a three minute timed delay when the clothing and objects arrive at the desired location. In both of these cases, the arrival point must be in an environment and location that is private and conducive to DNA growth.
Currently, there are a few major issues with this process. Because of the incredibly rapid increase in growth of the subject, there is a huge lack of molecular stability of the subject. The cloned subject has around a six hour window before it becomes unstable at which point it could dissipate. The subject and its possessions must arrive back to its original spawning location. If that doesn't happen, the subject will slowly dissipate leaving only the spirit. The spirit will successfully arrive back, as it is void of matter, however, the clothing and articles that was worn, stays at the location where the body dissipated. Since inanimate objects are much simpler to replicate they don't experience the molecular break down. The theoretical issue with leaving objects behind is the fear of duplicity.
Here is an example of The Theory of Duplicity: If it was Monday and I had my coffee cup on the kitchen table and then on Tuesday, I had the same coffee cup in my hand and went back to Monday at the same time that the coffee cup was on the table. On that Monday I would now have two identical coffee cups. Thus, replicating them. If one continue this process, one could have infinite coffee cups. Some people may be tempted to reproduce infinite money! The fear of the duplicity theory is that it could lead to increased instability. Not only would the objects be unstable, but if abused it also could warp the time continuum. The theory suggests that not only multiple identical objects can destabilize that object, but also the proximity of the same object to each other. Of course the same object touching itself could theoretically lead to the quickest destabilization.
So they began the studying and implementing of the rapid cloning process. Although they had exact instructions on how to accomplish the cloning process, it still took them about a month to accomplish it.
Justin would still speak to Kirstin every night on the phone and they had visited each other a few times. Deep inside Justin wanted to let her know what he was doing. And whenever she asked, he had to hold back and just say, "You will know in time." Kirstin was progressing wonderfully on her play as they had a couple of dress rehearsals and they were actually scheduled to perform in a week. This performance is what they call a soft opening. The people who they were performing for was non paying friends, family and associates. It was a 'trial run.' The actual performance where people would pay, would be about a couple weeks after that. It was scheduled to be a six week rendition on every Friday and Saturday night at the Highlight Amphitheater. The shows that played there were not the absolute top of the line with all the well known actors, however it was highly recognizable and their would be plenty of high profile agents and managers who could lift their clients to the next level.
After a month, Justin and Blair finally felt they had completed their most recent task of perfecting spiritual traveling and were now ready to open up the second envelope. It read:
As I am sure you are quite aware, your health is getting much worse. If you do not do anything about it, you will die. The concussion you suffered when you were a child was indeed the cause. As you may have guessed, you need to prevent this from happening. As I mentioned before, it is critical that you must do it in the order mentioned even if it doesn't make sense to you. By changing events which you are attempting to do, it could lead to a chain reaction of many other events. The idea is to minimize or eliminate any chain reactions.
Now it's time to travel. Your goal is to prevent or delay yourself from getting in the car where the accident occurred. A five second delay before you get into the car, is all you need and you will avoid the car from hitting you. As you may remember, the day before the accident you went to the zoo. There is a 20 second moment in time, where you are by yourself. Tell little Justin to wait ten seconds before entering the car. You must be alone. Do not let your mom see you. When you are through, open the next envelope.
Justin was given the exact time and coordinate on where to arrive. He was also directed to go back to those exact coordinates when he is through with his task.
Justin was wearing casual cloths as well as his favorite sweater as this was a very important event to him. He was also instructed to have a stop watch as every deed he was to do, had to be exactly at a particular time.
"Here we go.", said Blair who helped Justin sit down.
The automated time device slowly connected Justin to all of the sensors and wires.
"Wow. We are finally doing this. We have been working on this for months. Well..wish me luck." said a very nervous Justin.
"Good luck friend. I will see you back in two hours."
Justin typed in the appropriate coordinates closed his eyes, and prepared for his journey.