In the year of our Lord, Nineteen hundred and ninety eight, there lived a boy named Luke Owens. He was 16 years old and lived with his Aunt and Uncle in Southern England. He had been born in America, but when his parents died three years ago, he came to live with his only other relatives other than his older sister Andria. She had married some guy named Mike Wyllam and so did not come with him.
His best friend, H. Anthony Newman, who was 18, had moved back to England with his father after his American mother got a divorce. She left, taking his little twin sisters with her. It was not surprising though: Mr. Newman had been an irresponsible alcoholic who had not cared about her or Anthony. Last they had heard Anthony's mother had married another man. So Anthony spent most of his time over with Luke.
Luke spent a lot of his spare time reading technical journals about time travel and time machines that were built but never worked. One day while he was cleaning up his room, he suddenly realized what was missing in the time machines other people had built. So when he finished his room he went to the workshop to start carrying out his idea. He had already started to built the rest of a Time Machine, all but the circuits having to do with the actual time traveling and the outside walls.
Luke was searching for some sheets of metal in his Uncle's machine shop to make the walls when the shop's phone rang. He tripped over a pile of boxes to get to the phone. "Hello," Luke answered.
"Hi, This is Tony," came the reply "What's up?"
"I'm working on a science experiment" replied Luke.
"What experiment is that?"
"Oh, I'm going to make my Time Machine work."
"Give me a break," Anthony said, "you know how many people have tried and failed to make a working time machine?"
"Yeah... So?" Luke said.
"You really think yours will work?" asked Anthony
"It might, who knows."
"I'll come over tomorrow to see how you're doing." Anthony said, "See ya."
"OK, Bye," Luke said and hung up. He glanced at the clock,
"I got plenty of time till lights out," he said and began to hammer away at a piece of bent metal. It broke. "You stupid piece of metal, breaking when I'm trying to fix you!" Luke yelled in disgust, and threw the two pieces of metal on the floor. "I think I'll make the time circuit first." So he got out his soldering equipment and went to work with the circuit board. He put the finished circuit inside a small square metal box with two small round metal bars about half an inch long, with a twisted wire in between them. Then He put it in the time machine frame, which would be just big enough for two people (hoping that Anthony might come along sometime -- if it worked) with two seats inside and a door on the right side. In front of the seats were the controls. Behind the seats was an unfolding solar cell to recharge the 12-volt batteries.
The next day was a Saturday so Luke spent the morning working on his machine. He put metal walls on the frame and added a few cardboard pieces, and painted it, to look like a rock, hoping it wouldn't stand out too much. Anthony came in through the door at the back of the garage at that moment.
"Like it?" Luke asked him.
"Not bad" Anthony said. "You know, I was thinking last night, and came to the conclusion that if this contraption of yours worked you might need some company." There was a moment of silence, then he added "But if it doesn't, what are you planing to do with it?"
"I'll probably keep it in the back yard. You know, `Modern Art', Heh, Heh... Well anyway getting back to the subject of last night, are you thinking of coming?" Luke asked.
"Yeah... But wait a minute," Anthony said, "we don't know if it even works yet."
"I'm going to test it in a minute." Luke replied. "will you come?"
"I might as well, to keep you out of trouble." Anthony reluctantly agreed, and then asked "Do you have food and supplies? Or tools and spare parts?"
"Well, I have some food" Luke answered.
"What kind, and how much." Anthony persisted.
"Hold on, I'll look." Luke replied, and went to look in the compartment behind the seats. "Well let's see, I've got some cheese chips, two bananas, a soda, and a candy bar." Luke said while he rummaged through the compartment.
"That's all!?" Anthony asked surprised.
"Well, yeah. I mean it's just a start. I'm still gathering supplies." Luke answered.
"What about the tools and spare parts?" Anthony asked. "I'm looking." Luke replied "I've got a basic tool kit, a soldering iron, enough spare components to rebuild the time circuit and the control panel. Oh, I've got an apple in here also. And then there's the solar charger for the all the batteries. I've also have my Laptop Computer hooked up to the control board." Luke answered.
"What about sleeping bags, and flashlights?" Anthony asked.
"Well, I'm having a hard time getting my Aunt to get me some sleeping bags. She says I need to sleep in my bed and not in the back yard." Luke replied. "And the flashlights are in my room. I've got rechargeable batteries for them. I'm planing on going to the store in a few minutes." He glanced at his watch which read 2 o'clock, "good grief, I missed lunch -- I mean dinner."
"Doesn't your Aunt call you to the table for dinner?" Anthony asked.
"She went to a meeting at 11:30, and my Uncle went fishing early this morning. She left some food in the kitchen for dinner. But I forgot to eat it." Luke replied, "I'd better go eat. You want some?"
"Sure" Anthony said.
"I like to eat dinner in front of the TV when my Aunt isn't here." Luke said
"I grew up on TV dinners" Anthony replied with a grin.
After dinner they went to the grocery store and bought a number of canned foods. Then they went to a hardware store and bought two sleeping bags, a couple of machetes and hunting knifes.
"Is there anything else we'll need?" Luke asked Anthony as they walked out of the dry goods store.
"I don't know." Anthony replied. "Where are we planning on going, the past or the future?"
"Maybe both." Luke replied, "which would you rather do?"
"How about the past. Like the medieval days." Anthony answered.
"Sounds good to me" Luke said, "does any store sell swords?"
"We could barrow some as soon as we get there" Anthony suggested "let's get back to your Aunt's house before she gets home."
When they got back to Luke's relative's house they made the final preparations for testing the time machine. "Do we have everything?" Luke asked Anthony.
"I think so" replied Anthony and then suggested "Maybe we should write a note to your Aunt and Uncle and tell them where we are going, just in case we get stuck in the past or future and they don't know where we went. I don't need to tell my old man, he wouldn't care if I were dead."
"Ok. I'll go do that." Luke said and went into the kitchen. He came back in a few minuets with a note. "All set" he said and put the note on the workbench.
"Finally" Anthony said. "What did you say in the note?"
"I just told them where we went, and a few other things." Luke replied. He walked over to the door on the machine, went in and sat down in the seat on the left. "Hop in." he said to Anthony.
"Close the door" Luke told Anthony. When the door shut a light on the inside of the time machine came on.
Luke flipped the power switch on the control panel, and all the controls lighted up. Then he turned on his Laptop Computer which was connected the control panel. "Input departure date. Saturday, June 23, 1998." Luke said.
"Select destination date" He said to Anthony.
"I think it would be safer to go to the future. We could find suitable replacement parts in the future," Anthony said, "whereas there won't be any in the past. If this thing works anyway."
"Ok. How about 2000?" Luke asked.
"Fine with me." Anthony replied.
Luke typed the date, and then entered the access code `25438.2'.
"Ready for departure" Luke said. "Start count-down."
5...4...3...2...1...
There was a loud bang and a high voltage spark of electricity jumped from a nearby outlet and hit the time machine and set them to a date centuries later than they had planned.
"What happened?" Luke Owens asked himself. He and Tony were still in the time machine. Though Tony was asleep.
"I guess I must'a fallen asleep," he told himself, "Well lets see if this machine worked or not," he got out his Laptop computer, and requested the date. It read 6115 A.D.
"WHAT?!!!!!!!" he screamed. Beside him Tony almost went through the roof.
"You just gave me a heart attack," Tony wheezed, "If I live, don't ever do that again!"
"But... but... I Uh... well...." Luke said all confused and then yelled "WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?!"
"Calm down Luke. What's goin'on...." Tony was interrupted when something began pounding on the door from the outside.
"ALIENS!!" Luke screamed, "They're gonna kill us! We're dead!"
A voice from outside asked something they could not understand.
"WHAT?!" Luke and Tony cried. Tony opened the door and they both jumped out.
The man who had been pounding on the door gestured for them to follow and started running over to the door on the other side of the room they were in. Tony and Luke ran after him, through the door, down a hall and down a ramp.
The man asked another question.
"Huh? What does that mean?" asked Luke.
He held up his hand and ran off.
"What was that all about?" asked Tony.
Luke shook his head. Suddenly the man reappeared carrying a strange looking device. He asked another question.
"We can't understand you mister," Luke said again.
The man adjusted something on the device. His eyebrows raised and he said something else -- this time the device translated, "So you two speak old Terran. How in the universe did you get on my ship?
"I have no idea," said Tony.
"Mmm. Well I'm Lieutenant Randy Wilkens, who are you?"
"I'm Tony Newman, and this is Luke Owens."
"Nice to meet you."
"Same here."
"So where are we?" Luke asked Randy.
"The capital," he answered.
"Oh, that's nice," Luke said, "I've never been to London."
"Uh... London's on Terra," Randy said, "We're on Mandis, the Capital of the Mandisian Empire."
Luke exclaimed, "Wow! I get it! The high voltage from that outlet scrambled the transporters, which in turn gave a high energy spark that fried the Superconductor which..." Luke continued talking but what he said made absolutely no sense to Tony or Lieutenant Wilkens.
"What's he raving about?" Randy whispered to Tony.
"Who knows," Tony whispered back.
Suddenly Luke stopped talking and looked past Tony with a shocked expression. He had just seen the burning starship they had come out of.
"Great Scot!" he exclaimed and fell backwards, unconscious.
"What happened to him?" Randy asked Tony as they both knelt down beside Luke.
"He had a revelation that was to heavy for him," Tony said with a laugh, having already seen the starship.
Luke's eyes suddenly popped open, and he grinned. "It worked!" he said.
"I don't know what you're talking about, but you'd better have a good excuse for being on a Mandisian Battle Cruiser," Randy said loudly, and then whispered to Tony, "Sorry for becoming unfriendly all of a sudden, but my commanding officer is coming toward us. That's Captain Tenered. And he's not very friendly most of the time," the last word was drown out by the huge ship exploding.
"My poor Laptop," Luke said sadly as he got to his feet.
"My poor ship!" the Captain cried and stood staring at the smoldering wreckage. Then he noticed Tony and Luke.
"Who are they?" he ask Randy.
"Uh, well," he said nervously, and gave Tony and Luke a helpless look, "I found them in one of the holds of your ship, and...."
"Stowaways!" the Captain cried, "Lieutenant, take them to the main headquarters. At once!"
"Yes sir!" Randy said and marched Tony and Luke away.
"I'm really sorry about this," Randy said once they were out of hearing range, "I was friendly toward you, because I was once a stowaway." They walked the rest of the way to the headquarters in silence. Randy was rather glum. He knew all about the terrible things that could happen to stowaways. Randy gave them the translator and left them with a guard in the main office, which was crowded at the moment.
"Lets try to sneak out when the guard isn't watching," Luke whispered to Tony. So they slowly inched toward the door.
"Now!" Luke whispered while he turned the door handle. He opened it quietly and squeezed out when the guard was busy with another person. They walked down the hall, around the con, and saw that two guards were coming towards them.
"Through this door," Luke suggested and went in. Tony followed and closed the door behind them.
Inside was a brown haired man behind a desk, and a young woman with ash blond hair and light tan skin sitting in the chair in front of the desk. The man was speaking.
"First you'll go through all the training, and then, if you qualify, you'll be admitted to the Red Falcon Squadron, which is in need of pilots. Here fill out these papers," he handed the girl some sheets, then added, "you must be at least sixteen to enlist."
"I am sixteen," she said.
Then he noticed Tony and Luke.
"Are you two coming to sign up?" he asked.
"Sure are," Luke said, all excited after he had caught a glance from the girl. He had seen her eyes. They weren't just one color, but two: red and green. They gave her beautiful face such an amazing quality to it -- he had almost gasped. If she was in the Red Falcon Squadron, he wanted to be in it too. Maybe she was the girlfriend he'd been looking for all of his teen years. He had to jump back to reality in time to catch what the man was saying.
"Good. You three go to the Red Falcon Squadron..."
"Yes!" Luke thought.
"Providing you pass, that is," he continued, then asked, "you two are over sixteen, right?"
"Yep," Luke said. Tony was thinking what a great mess Luke was getting them in.
"Then fill out the papers," The man said, and Luke began to do as he was told. Tony gave him a 'hope you know what you're doin' look, and began to fill his out too. He noticed Luke was hesitating, and realized he must be at the birth date. He looked at the calendar, and then whispered to Luke,
"Just put whatever 6111 - 16 equals," indicating the date.
"Yeah. Good idea." Tony watched him count on his fingers.
"Can't you subtract?!" Tony whispered.
"Nope. I can only multiply and divide." Luke whispered back.
"I'm done," said the girl, handing her set of papers to the man.
"Me too," Tony and Luke said, handing theirs in too.
"Mmm... let's see, you must be Tiffany Lexton," he said pointing at Luke, with a twinkle in his eyes. That brought a little laugh from Tiffany, and Tony grinned at Luke.
"Well, actually, its pronounced Luke Owens," Luke said, squirming. Tiffany gave Luke a little smile. That smile made Luke forget the embarrassment of the moment ago.
"Oops! I'm so sorry!" the man said, "you're Tiffany, and you're..." he paused while he turned Tony's paper right side up, "Anthony Newman."
"Call me Tony."
"Ok Tony. Well spacers, lets start your training," he swiveled in his seat and pointed to the door behind his chair, "through that door to the computer simulation. They're fun I know I've tried 'em."
The trio walked through the door to a month of training. They hardly got to see any one during the day, because they spent the whole time in the simulations. Tony and Luke shared a room, so they got to see each other. Luke saw very little of Tiffany during those four weeks, but they did both get a start at learning the language.
Copyright (c) 2000 by Jakim Friant. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be produced in full or in part without written permission.