Author : Ian Clarke

Professor Rogers said, “The way we measure and mark points in time is completely artificial and irrelevant to time travel, using clocks and calendars to locate points in time is impossible. Without a reference point we have no means to locate the time we want to go to.”

The student replied, “Yes I agree but what if we could step out of the time stream then select the time location and re-emerge there?”

The Professor thought about this as he sipped his coffee, these conversations usually depended on fantasy. This time however he decided not to dismiss it out of hand but to see how far David had developed this idea. “How would you do that?” he asked, genuinely curious.

“OK,” David began, “we know that all elements have their own resonant frequencies and by harmonizing with it’s frequency, we can affect the structure of an object.”

The Professor agreed, “Yes, like sound breaking glass.”

David continued, “If we manipulate the resonance of an object correctly, then it would shift out of this dimension and time, by controlling the parameters of the frequency, we control the shift.”

Professor Rogers acknowledged the logic but an obvious question occurred to him,
“To control it, it would have to be self contained with a power source and complex frequency generator all with exactly the same resonant frequency, how is that possible?” he asked.

“By building a shell from one pure element and isolating the mechanism inside from the shell, only the shell needs to resonate and when it shifts out of this dimension it carries everything inside with it.” David explained.

It seemed like he was being drip fed enough information to raise the next obvious question.
“So how would you find the event in time that you want to travel to?” Asked Rogers.

“When you alter an objects resonance it becomes transparent, from inside you can see where you are in the time stream,” David said, “by carefully adjusting the parameters of the frequency you can control the speed, distance and direction of travel.”

There was something about the way David said this that made Rogers think he had already experimented, “Have you tried this?” he found himself asking, he was reluctant to think it was possible but followed up with “Do you have a prototype?”

David reached down into his backpack by his feet and produced a metal capsule about the size of a wine bottle without a neck, he gave it a twist and it came apart in two sections exposing the innards. It had a couple of simple controls inside, he pressed a button, screwed it back together, laid it on the table and in a few seconds it vanished.

Professor Rogers was stunned, “Wait, what happ…? Where did it go?” he blurted out, uncertain if he wanted to know the answer.

“It’s still there” said David “but no longer in this dimension. It can only be controlled from within so this model has a predetermined time shift, our timeline will catch up in a minute.”

Rogers frantically tried to absorb it all, “Is it that simple?” he thought to himself, “No Wormholes, no Warp Drive just a simple change of frequency?”
As he stared at the empty space, the biggest question in his mind was, “How could a student come up with this?”

When the capsule reappeared Professor Rogers had a sudden and shocking realisation,
“So you have travelled back in time to demonstrate this to me.”

“Yes” David said “but it was important to locate the time when you were ready to accept it, come with me.”

Discuss the Future: The 365 Tomorrows Forums
The 365 Tomorrows Free Podcast: Voices of Tomorrow
This is your future: Submit your stories to 365 Tomorrows