EMIT (THE EMIT SAGA) (37 page)

“But Daniel, the computers from the past are so different.”

“Computers and all electronic equipment are the same in the EMIT offices for all the years. Whenever we need anything or there are new inventions,
its sent using the time machine. Technology is the panacea for the EMIT program.”

“All the time travelers can’t go back before 1969 or just you?”

“There a few that can go back as far as 1967, but the original time travelers from the 1940’s and 1950’s are now retired,” Daniel explained.

“How do they find time travelers?” I asked. Maybe they were all spies from the CIA.

“The first group of travelers were recruited from the CIA, but they found it difficult and a lot of them resigned after completing the required ten years. So when NASA started recruiting for their astronaut program in the late 1950’s, EMIT started getting the time travelers from there.”

“Why?”

“The astronaut selection process consisted of a series of intense physical and psychological screenings. EMIT picked from the people NASA rejected.”

“If they weren’t good enough to be astronauts, why would they make good travelers?”

“EMIT didn’t pick anybody who failed the psychological screenings. The maximum height requirement to be an astronaut was no more than five feet eleven inches because of the limited cabin space. The EMIT group would find travelers from the taller candidates that NASA couldn’t use and from other applicants that NASA didn’t want.”

“That’s why all the agents I’ve seen are tall.” Honestly, I thought it was to be intimidating. “That’s how they were picked? If they were tall?” I joked.

“No.” Daniel shook his head at me. “They looked for candidates that had little or no family to hold them back. After that, they were told about the EMIT program.”

“But if somebody refused to be a time traveler and rejected the job, wouldn’t they go blab to everybody that there was a time machine?” I asked.

“Yes, some refused and when they did, one of our agents went back in time.”

I didn’t get what he was saying and then I understood. “Oh and didn’t ask him.”

“Correct. Keeping the time machine secret has been the most important part of the new recruiting process. From that point on, EMIT changed the length of service to forty years for continuity and to ensure that the program remained clandestine.”

“I don’t understand. There have been so many disasters. Why didn’t EMIT fix them?”

“So many events are happening simultaneously that it’s impossible to fix them all. We zero in on the worst catastrophes and stop those. There aren’t that many time travelers.”

“But why?
It sounds very exciting.”

“You have to commit for a long time and watch your family and friends grow old and die. It wreaks havoc on your personal life.”

“It must be so hard,” I said understanding what the issues were.

“It is. The first five years we’re assigned a partner to learn all that time travel entails and how to do the job competently.”

“How many travelers in total are there?”

“I can’t say, but a new traveler is hired only when another
traveler retires to keep the program as secretive as possible.”

“But you told me,” I said. I was the first person that Daniel had trusted with his secret. Suddenly, it clicked and I gasped, “Oh, if I freaked out, you’d have someone travel right before you told me and not tell me.”

“Yes. James gave me the authorization.”

“How come James isn’t a traveler?” I
struggled with the implication of this. If Daniel stayed here in my time, he would watch his brother die. If he went back to his time, he would age with his brother and I would lose him.

“
He was engaged and had no interest. As a matter of fact, he was angry that I signed on, but he wasn’t able to change my mind.”

“If a traveler marries, he tells his wife, right?”

“Yes, the spouse is told, but a lot of marriages end because of the aging issues and time spent away from home. It’s a lonely existence for both spouses.”

“What happens when they divorce? How do you keep the ex from telling all about it?”

“With a combination of hypnosis and a type of nepenthe from the future.”

“What’s a nepenthe?”

“A drug that erases specific memories. The hypnosis targets the memory and the drug completes the erasure of it. The job memory is changed to whatever the couple had told family and friends.”

“Like traveling salesman?” I chuckled and Daniel nodded.

Tired of sitting, we continued down the beach towards the Point. Seeing the sand bar, I walked out into the bay. Daniel followed. We got so far out that when I looked back all I saw was water because the tide was coming in.

Daniel warned, “I suggest we go back unless you’re planning on swimming with one arm.”

After giving him a snide look, I turned around. Daniel headed for shore first and I copied his steps gingerly, fearful of falling in. Safe on the beach, we resumed our discussion. Our walk was a nice distraction. We passed the noisy osprey nest and sat on the sand.

Daniel looked at me and asked. “
I need to know. Can you deal with this or not?”

“I’m sorry that I got so upset before
, but when you told me the year, I lost it.”

“
I understand. It’s a lot to process.”

“As long as you’re staying this age, I can handle the rest.”

A sigh of relief passed through his lips. “A big weight has lifted. I couldn’t stand deceiving you. It never mattered before, but it does now.” That comment made me smile.

“I’m drained. Can we talk more later?” 

“Sure, I’m spent too.”

This really had been quite an emotional afternoon and could’ve been a total disaster. I couldn’t imagine Daniel not a part of my life. Realizing everything he knew and had done, I was intimidated by him. No wonder he was so smart, he had lived and learned so much.

Daniel put his arm around me as we walked towards the car. “I won’t let anything happen to you.” I knew Daniel would keep me safe or wouldn’t rest until I was.

He kissed my head and whispered, “Everything’s going to be okay. We’ll be okay.”

“It is a scale of proportions which makes the bad difficult and the good easy.”
Einstein

Mom was relentless in talking to Daniel about going to college. Grammy looked at me and when I rolled my eyes at her, she asked him a question. I was glad that she changed the subject.

They started talking about the Middle East and terrorism again. I didn’t want to hear anymore, so I
surreptitiously mouthed to Daniel, ‘Let’s go.” We got up to leave for the movies.

“Gabby thanks for everything. It was a pleasure to spend time with you this week,” Daniel said as we made our exit.

“I really don’t want to see a movie. Can we just go for a ride?”

“Sure, how about Greenport?”

It sounded great to me. As I stared out the window, I saw the trees swaying in the wind and asked, “So please tell me why were you collecting those nuts and plants in Central Park?”

“Oh, some scientists in my time asked for them.”

“I knew that it was weird! Why?”

“In my time, there was a chestnut blight, a fungus, which almost wiped out the chestnut trees on the East Coast. They’re working on developing resistant chestnut trees to the blight and getting present day specimens will help.”

I looked at him incredulously. “You’re saving the world and you’re also worried about chestnut trees?”

Laughing, he said, “You said I was an oddity.”

I shook my head. “Amazing.”

“The basis of all science and technology that is present today was started in the past. All future years are working on things that have already been discovered and updating and creating new technology from old. Everything is co-dependent on each other.”

“Tell me more about your parents.”

“After Oxford, my dad joined the Tube Alloys program.” He looked at me
as if I should know something about that, but I shook my head no. “The Tube Alloy was the code name for the nuclear weapons program and where the principles for time travel were discovered. A separate team was put together to study that and my dad joined the new group. They eventually succeeded and the time machine was built.”

As he drove, he rattled on about scientific stuff. At one point he looked over and said, “Do you want to hear this?”

“Yes, go on,” I insisted.

“New areas of physics were being explored such as nuclear power, electricity, magnetism, and shock waves. The goal was to achieve military advantage during WWII. There was information that Hitler was also researching nuclear power.”

“If that ever happened.” I winced at the thought

“
Weapons like rockets, the atom bomb, and radar technology were impossible to keep hidden, but the time machine has been a very well guarded secret.”

“
Yeah because you guys go around and eradicate people’s memories,” I said jokingly.

Daniel glanced at me and his expression troubled me. “I have to tell you something. When I go to DC tomorrow, I’ll check the repercussions you
knowing. If the outcome is bad, I have to come back to right before. That’s my deal with James.”

My face went white. “No. Why? I won’t tell anybody, I promise.”

“I trust you, but I have no idea what the consequences might be. I’m telling you everything in the hopes that everything will be okay.”

“But how can you check that?”

“If the future events stay the same and nothing horrific is added, we’ll know.”

As he drove through the center of Greenport, I was freaking out. Daniel kept trying to reassure me, but it sounded hollow. He couldn’t guarantee that everything would be fine, definitively fine.
I didn’t want to forget everything he had told me. Daniel parked in the lot across from the gelato shop and saw how upset I was. He promised that whatever happened, we’d still be together and I felt a tiny bit better.

Knowing that there was nothing I could do about it, I asked him to finish the story.

“You sure?”

“Yeah, maybe it’ll keep my mind off the fact that you might erase my memory.”

“I hope that won’t happen.”

“I know. Go on tell me the rest, please.” I needed to focus on something else or I’d cry.

“Okay. They initially created two machines and experimented by first sending objects, and later animals, back and forth. After many trials, they felt ready to try human travel. In the beginning, they were sent to the past and future with mixed results. After some casualties, the machines were adjusted and eventually perfected. Wherever the time machine was, was where the agent exited. Because England, the US, and Canada were united through the war, England informed them of the nuclear findings and time travel machine. Known as the ‘British Mission,’ a team of scientists went to work at Los Alamos on the nuclear bomb and to set up a time machine. In Canada, a joint British-Canadian laboratory was set up and a time machine was constructed there. Once that was in place, time travel between the three countries was possible. Dad remained in England and was in charge of the time machine there.”

“How many time machines are there in total?”

“I can’t answer that, but there are machines in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the US.”

“How did Australia and New Zealand get involved?”

“The UK–USA Security Agreement established an alliance of five English-speaking countries for the purpose of sharing intelligence. The alliance comprises of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. The countries involved are known as AUSCANZUKUS. AUS stands for Australia, CA is Canada, NZ for New Zealand, UK is United Kingdom and of course you know what US stands for.”

“With all those countries involved, how can you be sure that it hasn’t leaked?”

“The program is top secret, only the top personnel of each country know of its existence. Only the actual time travelers know of each other. All that the other NSA agents know is that we are agents from another department. EMIT is an elite group in the NSA, but not everyone in EMIT are travelers.”

“Are Pierce and Brad?”

“I can’t say.”

“Why?”

“It’s one thing telling you about me, but I can’t talk about other agents.”

“Fine.
You can only travel between those five countries?” I asked. 

“
For now. They’ve been working on a traveling time machine for quite some time and soon we’ll be able to travel anywhere.”

“That’s amazing.”

“It is, but it’s dangerous depending on what country we end up in.”

“Is a traveling time machine safe? Have there been deaths?” I asked, worried about Daniel.