Carol Serling (ed) More Stories From the Twilight

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.”“Correct, but Gerry was the first to think of applying the theory to the naval code the Nips were using in the early forties, stuff we were picking up on shortwave radio with no idea of what it meant.“So when we went back to forty-two, I passed Gerry off to naval authorities at Pearl Harbor as a cipher code expert, while I already had my current FBI security clearance as a consultant on rocket weaponry.I put a 1939 date on Gerry’s much later dissertation and showed it to the Navy brass.They were impressed and desperate enough to let him use that collection of stranded ship’s musicians to prove the theory would work on Japan’s naval code.“With help from some Japanese-speaking linguists and Gerry’s expertise, they broke the code, the Midway invasion force was ambushed, and we shortened the war by at least two years while saving Britain in the process, not to mention Mr.Stalin’s ass, with lend-lease aid.By that look on your face, I gather you don’t believe us.”“No, I don’t!” Endicott snapped.“You’re telling me the two of you changed history.And I’m telling you such a thing is impossible.Answer one more question, Alan.Why did you decide it was necessary to tamper with real history?”“Because that supposedly theoretical scenario I gave your class wasn’t theory.When we left the present in my machine, the world was not what it is today.If you think things are bad now, they were a hell of a lot worse when we decided to do something about it.“Listen well, Josh.This is how things really were in 1987, the year after I finished building and testing the time machine, and when Gerry and I decided to use Midway as the pivotal event that had to be altered.“Britain, which the Nazis occupied for more than a decade, had become three separate nations—England, Ireland and Scotland—and was just beginning to consider re-unification.A defeated Russia had split into five different countries, all neo-fascist.So the Axis was victorious, but war drained Germany—which incidentally, still revered Hitler, who died a natural death in 1949, instead of committing suicide in forty-five—which still stayed very carefully out of Japan’s way.“As well it might.Japan ruled half of China and most of the Far East, including all of Korea.Incidentally, the Korean War never happened.Japan also was dictating much of our own economic policies.Every automobile plant in the U.S.was Japanese-owned.GM, Ford, and Chrysler no longer existed.Japan also owned our TV networks, movie studios, and forty percent of America’s banks.It had become the world’s richest nation, a status made possible by the true story of Midway, the one we had to rewrite.“These are just the highlights of what the world was like because there was no miracle at Midway.A world of which you and everyone else have absolutely no memory whatsoever, because we went back and made sure the real aftermath of Midway never happened.Any comment?”Endicott’s jaw had dropped like the hinged prow of a ferry boat.It took several seconds before he could reply, and when he did, his voice had descended to the lower decibels of uncertainty.“I’ll be damned if you’re not serious.But you didn’t have to swear me to secrecy because nobody would believe me anyway.And frankly, I still don’t.Words, however convincing they sound, are not proof.”“Agreed.So here’s visible proof.”Petibone opened the envelope he had been carrying and took out an eight-by-eleven, black-and-white glossy photograph that he handed to Endicott.“This was taken at Pearl Harbor, on March 28, 1942, almost one month before Doolittle’s B-25s took off from the carrier Hornet.The musical group you’re looking at happens to be the band from the California.See that capsized hull in the background? That’s what’s left of the old target ship Utah, which the Jap pilots mistook for a carrier.Visible proof of the photo’s vintage.“Now, very closely, look at those two men in the front row of the band, the ones wearing civilian clothes.Care to identify them?”Endicott stared hard at the photo, then looked up at Petibone with an expression of absolute shock.“It’s you and Gerry,” he breathed.“Will you give me your word that photo hasn’t been doctored?”“I’ll do better than that.Turn it over and read what’s on the back.” Endicott complied.“It’s stamped ‘Official U.S.Navy photograph.Classified and not for publication.’ Then a date.”He paused, took a deep breath, then muttered, “March 28, 1942.” Petibone put the photo back in its envelope.“Satisfied?”“Up to a point.How about showing me this alleged time machine of yours?”Petibone shook his head.“No can do.”“I’m not surprised.Why not?”“Josh, I just don’t want anyone to see it, to find out it exists.In effect, we’ve been playing God by tampering with time itself, and there are people who’d stop the U.S from ever using it again, on moral grounds.”“You’re going back in time again?”“Gerry and I are going to make one more trip, despite our concerns about the long-range effects of the metabolic disruptions.When we return, I’ll dismantle the machine and destroy all the technical data I used to build it.”“I’d be willing to risk those effects.So how about taking me with you?”“The machine can handle only two people safely.Believe me, with three passengers one of us wouldn’t survive.”“Then let me go instead of Gerr.You said yourself that he went because he had to teach those band members.”Petibone shook his head.“Too dangerous.Look, neither Gerry nor I have any kids.You have three.Besides, you weigh well over two hundred pounds, and our early experiments with relatively large animals, like obese hogs, showed that the more weight, the more drastic the metabolic problems.Death is possible, and shorter life expectancy almost a certainty.Gerry and I accepted those risks because we felt changing Midway was all-important to the world’s future.”Endicott sighed.“All right, but can you tell me how far back you’re going this time? It must be tremendously important or you would have already destroyed your machine.”“Yes, it’s for damned important reasons.We’re returning to September 11, 2001.Trying to prevent three airline flights from taking off.”Professors Petibone and Redmond have not yet returned from their second and final voyage.Are they still trying to complete their mission?Did Petibone’s time machine prove to be their coffin? Or have these two intrepid time travelers ended up at the wrong destination? Such as being trapped forever in what we know as the mysterious and unpredictable world of.the Twilight Zone.BY THE BOOKNancy HolderRespectfully submitted for your approval [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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