"That’s for sure--'Just in time'!"
Once again, the cylinder lifts upward from the earth and hangs there suspended, revolving in preparation for the time jump. In this one minute, as all three glance out the window, they see something even more startling than all the things they have seen so far. The sky above them suddenly splits apart, revealing a great void beyond. A moment later, the earth beneath them splits open and the mountains move from one place to another. Although they are able to see this for only one minute, the scene will leave a lasting impression on their minds.
Once again, the cylinder is making its way slowly back in time.
"Wow! What was that?"
"Nothing like anything I ever saw before."
"Did you see th' way th' sky just split wide open?"
"Th' sky? Did you see th' way th’ mountains moved around?--like they were playing musical chairs--and just that quick too!" Walt snaps his fingers.
"Sure is th’ weirdest thing I’ve ever seen!"
"What could have caused it?"
"Maybe my uncle was right,” Walt muses. “I mean, they said something about the people who believed in Jesus disappearing and, well, my uncle said that the New Testament says that once the believers in Jesus are taken up, a great time of tribulation will come upon the earth. Maybe everything we’ve seen is part of that tribulation. Maybe God allowed us to be pulled here in order to show us we are wrong about Jesus and Christianity."
"Ha!" scoffs Daniel, "Come on! Get ahold of yourself and be reasonable will y' Walt! What could Jesus possibly have to do with any of this?! Anybody knows he was just a man like us--oh, a wonderful teacher to be sure, but he died over 2,000 years ago. I fail to see what he could possibly have to do with any of this."
"That’s for sure!" asserts Kerry. "We certainly don’t need to concern ourselves with the ridiculous claims of Christianity. What we’ve seen is simply Nature responding to the sin and wickedness around her."
"Of course," agrees Walt. I know that Christianity is just a small off-beat religion, hardly worth considering. And everybody did say my uncle was crazy. It’s just that everything started to fit together. But, like you say, the disappearances are probably only coincidental, and the phenomenon can only be the natural response of Nature itself to all of the--"
Walt’s rambling pensive discourse is suddenly interrupted by the sound of a loud thumping noise, coming from the direction of the supply dump.
"What was that?"
"I don’t know, but let’s find out!"
"Probably a rat."
"Seems to be coming from over there."
They creep up slowly on the pile of boxes and, together, suddenly lift three of the boxes away. To their surprise, they find a person. It’s the stocky scientist from the troublesome time.
“A stowaway!?!”
"Well, Gentlemen, you found me. I-I-a-suspected you might try to get away when the darkness first came, so I ran to your ship and stowed away here."
"But, why?"
"I always wanted to ride on one of these old models. And besides, I wasn’t having too much luck bringing back primitives with that transmat beam. I thought I’d try and see how I could do with your machine."
"Now wait just a minute! You mean you expect us just to put aside our mission and allow you to use our ship to transport fighters for your stupid war?"
Reaching into his pocket, the stowaway pulls out a pistol. "I’m afraid, Gentlemen, you have no choice.”
"Oh yeah?!" yells Kerry, knocking the pistol to the floor with a mighty sweep of his arm.
Walt reaches down and picks up the pistol. "What’ll we do with him now?"
"Let’s throw th’ baggage overboard."
"Yeah! We don’t need th.’ likes of him."
"What are we waiting for?"
They start to grab the man, who raises his hands in protest. "Wait a minute! Wait a minute! I have something which could be quite helpful to you."
"And what might that be?"
"It’s called a turbo-thrust amplifier. It’s a little device which I developed just before they abandoned these ships for the transmat beam. It can give added thrust and, therefore, allow you to go further back in time than is possible without it."
"And you’ll show us how to use this device?"
"Certainly, in exchange for letting me stay with you."
"What do you think, guys?" Walt’s eyes scan the faces of the others.
"Well, we do need to go back as far as possible, especial since we lost so much time."
"Yeah! A device like that would really help."
"O.K., wise guy, show us how the thing works!"
The man walks slowly over to the engine, with Daniel and Kerry right behind him. Reaching into his pocket again, he pulls out a small, square metal box with plugs at one end. He searches the engine for a moment, and, locating a certain place where there are sockets, he plugs the box in and stands aside. "O.K., now for the coordinates." He rushes to the coordinates, followed by Daniel, and makes a few adjustments, with Daniel looking on. "Well, Gentlemen, that’s all there is to it. We’re on our way! Of course, I can’t guarantee how far back we’ll go. It would have been further if it had been installed before take-off. But anyway, it should take us back a considerable distance."
************
They ride in silence. The minutes pass. Finally, Walt speaks: "Since you are going to be with us, we might as well call you by your name. We didn’t catch it over there."
"Alex," the man replies. "My name is Alex."
The rest of the journey is relatively uneventful. They speak idly of the differences between their times.
They try to contact home base but get nowhere. "I guess in-flight communication is impossible."
"We'd better try when we land."
The spring of the indicator comes off again, and Kerry tries to put it back on. While he is working, suddenly the ship lands.
"Well, let’s see where we are."
As they start to leave the ship, Alex pulls the box from the engine and puts it in his pocket again. "In case you get any ideas--"
************
Again, they have landed in a field of grass. Just ahead of them they see an open square, supported by pillars. In the center, there is a man carving a statue from stone. He seems to be the only person around, although, in the distance, they can see a beautiful city.
"This seems strange. Wonder who he is."
"Let’s go and find out, shall we?"
The man is hard at his work and at first, doesn’t pay attention. Suddenly, he looks up, startled.
As they walk toward him, they talk:
"Must be a famous sculptor."
"I wonder who."
"Could be Michael Angelo."
"Nah, I’ll bet its Leonardo Da Vinci."
Upon hearing his name, the sculptor looks up again. "How do you know my name?" he asks in Italian. Fortunately, all the time travelers, including Alex, have a working knowledge of Italian from their schooling.
"Just a lucky guess,” replies Walt.
“So then,” ventures Kerry, “this must be fourteen hundred and something."
"1490 to be exact. But anybody knows that."
"1490!” sighs Daniel, now speaking English to his companions. "We’re only 285 years back from our previous stop."
"But at least,” observes Walt, “We made up some of the time we lost by being pulled forward.”
The sculptor/philosopher scratches his head in puzzlement. "What language is that, and who might you people be, if I may ask?"
"Travelers from distant places--and times, if you can believe that."
He thinks for a moment and answers slowly: "I guess I can. I know that anything is possible, given the full development of the human potential. In fact, I was just thinking about this earlier today. It’s somewhat amazing how far we’ve come. But even more exciting is our potential. There’s no telling what can be accomplished through the full development of human reason, now lying neglected."
"But,” interjects Daniel, "aren’t you forgetting one thing?"
"And what might that be?"
"The fact of sin. Your concept would be perfect if it weren't for original sin, which taints all of human nature."
"That," blurts out Kerry, excitedly, "is what we’re going to eliminate!"
"But," insists Leonardo, holding one finger pedantically in the air, "human reason, properly nourished and developed, can overcome any obstacle, hindrance or malignant force--even this 'sin' as you call it."
"Impossible!" insists Walt. "As long as the sin is there, it will taint everything and never allow human reason its proper chance."
"I disagree!" asserts Alex.
"What?!" queries Walt, turning in astonishment to Alex. "With all of the debauchery and misery you’ve seen in your time--the terrible war and everything? Are you crazy?"
"But," insists the stowaway, "perhaps Leonardo's concept wasn’t really given a fair chance. Maybe if everyone would have embraced his concept,--"
"Oh, don’t talk nonsense!" Walt starts walking back towards the ship. "Come on, guys! We’re wasting our time here. Let’s go and see if we can repair the damage to the ship."
They all start walking towards the cylinder--all, that is, except Alex.
"I want to talk more about this with Leonardo here. Call me when you’re ready to leave, will y'!" He turns to the sculptor. "Ah, Leonardo--I may call you Leonardo?"
"Of course."
"Well, tell me, Leonardo, do you think that by the concentrated development of human reason, war could be completely eliminated?”
"War is the end result of the neglect of human reason and the resultant illogical upsurge of certain of those evil tendencies within man, which your friends called 'sin'. My concept is that if enough people catch the vision of the potential of human reason and concentrate on its development, not only war, but many other evils as well, could be eliminated. You see, if human reason were brought to its fullest potential, mankind would realize the utter foolishness of war, for example, and--" The sculptor’s voice trails off behind the three as they walk briskly toward the ship.
************
They manage to replace the missing tiles and fix the other minor damage quickly, including the spring of the indicator. Meanwhile, since there doesn’t seem to be any sign of water around, Daniel fills the fuel tank with the rest of the bottle of liquid fuel.
"O.K., guys, ready!"
"Walt, open the window, and tell Alex we're ready."
Walt starts to open the window. As he does so, his arm inadvertently hits the lever. Suddenly, the cylinder is airborne.
"What happened?"
"My arm hit the dern lever!"
They can hear the cries of Alex below, as the cylinder hovers above the square: "Hey! Wait for me!"
Walt tries to move the lever in order to bring the cylinder down. "It’s stuck!"
Daniel and Kerry try to help, but to no avail. Soon the cylinder is on its way again.
"And he’s got the dang device in his pocket! Darn!!"