The Final Countdown, page 22
“You didn’t—”
“No. He tried to force the chopper crew to take him to Pearl so he could sound the alarm about the attack. He got into a fight, probably using a flare gun. It went off in the helicopter and the machine exploded and killed everyone aboard. The crew could the because they didn’t affect the main thrust of time or history. Sam had to the because any change in his life that way would have been a big bump. Since it could not happen—ergo, it didn’t.”
Lasky sat quietly for several minutes and they respected his need for unbroken thinking. Finally he leaned forward to face both people. “I wondered. With what you knew, if you might have prevented the next big war. Hitler, all that.”
“You mean a crusade to stop that war? You can’t do that without massive interference with lives and events. And since you’re operating from what would be predestiny you’ve got to do good, because you’re trying to prevent bad. It sounds very cut and dried, but it’s true. It’s also a hopeless cause. The world doesn’t recognize good or bad, Warren, and it offers neither of those two conditions any advantage. The world needs performance. History has proved that over and over, and, well, that’s reality. Do-gooders are held in contempt by history, I’m afraid.”
Lasky again held court in his own mind. Slowly but surely he had come to realize there was a lot more here than simply all these explanations. “You said something, before, Mr. Tideman—”
“None of that with you, Warren. Of all people in this world who are close to us, none is closer than yourself.”
“Thank you. You said before that the paradox—the time discontinuity—could be accommodated. You also made a point that this was terribly important to you.” “It is,” Tideman said. “And to you as well. You’re going to be in it right up to your ears, Warren.”
He waited.
“History accommodates. Forward and backward,” Richard Tideman said. “Do keep in mind that the United States won the Second World War, that we were the first to harness atomic power, that we were the first to build computers still far ahead of anything the rest of the world knows, that we were the first to walk on the moon. I could go on with a very long list. Time allows me a nudge factor, as it were. Laurel and I played more than a small role in those affairs.”
Lasky nodded. “I can imagine.”
“Yes, of course. You of all people would understand. But there’s more. I have some truly incredible laboratories. Not even Warren Lasky, my top computer scientist, knew of them before this moment. We possess power systems unknown to the world. We are, how shall I say, dabbling with the affairs of time.”
Lasky felt dizzy. “You don’t mean you’re… .” He couldn’t get the words out.
Tideman looked at him with compassion and with honest warmth. “Yes, Warren. We are literally on the brink of being able to control movement in—through-time. The return of Nimitz was the final confirmation of being able to move mass through time. Now that we know we’re right, that the capability of movement in the time stream is within our grasp, we will move in that direction.”
Tideman stood before him. “You need rest, and you need to do a great deal of thinking. We would have you accept our hospitality and stay with us in our living quarters right here. Everything you need is in your apartment, already waiting for you.”
“Yes, yes,” Lasky murmured. “Of course I will.” He also climbed to his feet, met Tideman eye-to-eye. “One more question.”
“Of course.”
“You intend to travel through time … and be able to control that travel.”
“Yes. The legendary dream come true. We are, you are.
He couldn’t speak for a moment. “The past? The future? Where?”
“Not where, Warren. When. That’s the key word. Not elsewhere, but elsewhen.”
Lasky’s voice was a painful scratch. The truth struck him a numbing blow. “You’ve been into the future.” There was no response.
“Please. You know I’ll never sleep unless you tell me… . What was it like? Richard Tideman and his wife smiled at him.
“Alien, my dear friend. Alien”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
MARTIN CAIDIN, a versatile writer with more than 100 books to his credit, is also a commercial and military pilot, a stunt flyer, a parachutist, the owner and pilot of a huge three-engine German WWII bomber, and a recognized world authority in the fields of aviation and astronautics. After military service in the U.S. Merchant Marines and U.S. Air Force in many parts of the world, he served as nuclear warfare specialist for the State of New York and as international consultant on mass-destruction weaponry systems from 1950 to 1954. He analyzed in great detail the effects of nuclear, biological, chemical and other weapons on potential targets in the United States. As a commercial multi-engine pilot, Mr. Caidin has owned and flown a wide variety of civil and military aircraft and he flies often throughout the U.S. He has flown fighters and multi-engine bombers to and within Europe, has earned the permanent title of “Thunderbird Eight” from flying with the USAF team, is a member of the Army’s Golden Knights jump team, and has flown as a stunt pilot in movies and air shows.
Martin Caidin’s first novel, Marooned, a thrilling account of a space rescue, became a major motion picture, and many other novels were bought for films. Cyborg, published in 1972, became the world-acclaimed TV series, The Six-Mittion-Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman. Mr. Caidin is the author of an impressive list of authoritative books on military air history. Many of them, including Samurai! and The Ragged, Rugged Warriors, are considered classics in the field. Martin Caidin is a Charter Member of the Congressional Hall of Fame, a Fellow of the British Interplanetary Society, the founder of the American Astronautical Society, the Rebel Flying Corps and other world-known organizations. He and his wife, Dee Dee, who is also a pilot and balloonist and former parachutist, live in Gainesville, Florida where they teach a wide variety of subjects. Mr. Caidin continues to devote much of his time, in addition to flying and writing, to advanced scientific projects and the problems we have fashioned for ourselves with sophisticated weapons. Among his most recent books are Aquarius and Starbright.
Martin Caidin, The Final Countdown
