Chapter 4: CHAPTER 2

Jake woke up to the smell of pancakes and coffee. He had a fitful sleep last night, dreaming of sinking ships, hourglasses, and beautiful women. As he stood, he noticed he was still wearing the same clothes as yesterday, but at least he’d been aware enough to take off his shoes.

Jake stretched his back and then walked into the attached washroom. He washed his face and unsuccessfully tried to set his hair. He had a short back and sides hairstyle with a long top and front, which made setting his hair tedious without gel.

After his morning routine, he walked back into his room and looked around. It was a big room. Bigger than his old room. It had a large king-size bed with a cushioned back in the center of the room. The walls were painted with a forest theme, a mix of green, yellow and brown. The rest of the room was well furnished. There was a coffee table with two green sofas on one side, and a study table on another. There was also a book rack, which on closer look seemed to hold history books all the way from the prehistoric era to the modern history.

Jake walked out to see Zoe and Liam already seated at the coffee table. Zoe, like him, looked as if he had a bad night. 

“Morning”, Jake greeted them, as he sat down at the mahogany table. 

“Morning Jake” Liam greeted. Zoe just nodded towards him. “Not a morning person?” He asked Liam, nodding towards Zoe.

“No, she doesn’t seem to be,” Liam answered, smiling. “Coffee? And we’ve also got pancakes,” he said, nodding towards the coffee pot.

Jake poured himself a cup, nodding in thanks to him. He also placed a couple of pancakes on his plate and poured syrup on them.

He looked around as he ate. He was too tired yesterday to look at the hall last night. The TIme Mansion was pretty huge. The table Jake was sitting at was pretty big. It could fit at least eight people comfortably. The rest of the room was proportionate to it. There was also a gray sofa set for eight to 10 people on the other side of the large hall. The mahogany table was directly in front of a room which, based on the delicious smell coming from inside, Jake guessed was a kitchen. The hall had royal blue colored walls with dark green curtains at the windows. The roof was painted a lighter shade of blue and the room was also pretty well decorated. 

The large door at the side of the room, which looked like the main entrance, was made of a dark brown wood with beautiful carvings done on it. Beside the door was an umbrella stand. The walls were decorated with paintings of famous historical scenes. Jake noticed a painting marked as ‘The French Revolution" and another marked as ‘The American Civil War’. Based on these paintings and the books in his room, Jake suspected that whoever owned this place was a big history buff.

“You said you would explain everything in the morning,” Zoe said, breaking him away from his observation. She looked at Liam expectedly.

“Yes, I did. And I will explain everything. But first introductions. Zoe, This young man here is Jake Webster. And Jake, this is Zoe Jackson. And both of you can call me Liam.”

They both nodded hello to each other.

“Let’s start with how I rescued both of you. I have a machine that can use tachyons to open a window across space and time, thus making it possible to rescue you. But before I begin to explain what tachyons are and how I have this machine, we have a whole other thing to discuss.”

“Jake, when I rescued you from your ship, that day was January 13th, 2012.” Jake heard a gasp beside him, “and Zoe, when I rescued you from your plane crash the date was September 11th, 2001.” Jake could feel his eyes widening. 

“You were on a 9/11 flight?” He asked Zoe, who looked back at him, confused. “Yes, she was,” Liam answered for her. “That’s what people call the plane crash you were a part of,” he explained, turning towards her. “Please don’t interrupt me again. If I have to keep answering questions, we’ll never get through this explanation,” he said, not unkindly.

“Sorry”, Jake said. “It was just a shock.”

Liam smiled, acknowledging his apology. “Anyway, right now we are in New York, and the date is March 22nd, 2007.”

Liam stopped to take a sip of his coffee. 

“That’s about our current situation. Now about the tachyons and machines. Our story starts in the year 2050 in a lab in an underground lap in Germany where the famous scientist, Dr. Charles Jane, was working on a secret project. You see, Dr. Jane was one of the most distinguished scientists in the world but his true love was history.”

‘This seems interesting,’ Jake thought, taking a sip of his coffee. 

“And so, after years of sleepless nights and endless research, Dr. Jane was ready to test his machine. And as he set up the coordinates and the time stamp, the bright golden particles gathered at the top of the machine. Dr. Jane called these the tachyon particles.”

The old man set aside his cut and looked at both of them “Dr. Jane believed that these tachyon particles were spread throughout the world and that they were connected to each other. And since they were connected, it was possible to use his not insignificant knowledge of quantum physics to perform a quantum jump between any cluster of them as long as sufficient energy was provided. The machine functioned by bending the distance between two clusters of them across time and space, thus making travel instantaneous. And so, Dr. Charles Jane had done it. He had made time travel possible. Something that only existed in books and movies had now become reality.”

“Now, any questions about the machine or tachyons?” Liam asked the pair.

“Yeah,” Jack asked, ”You mentioned that it’s possible to travel anywhere across time and space. Does that include the future as well?”

“Yes, it does.” The old man replied in a grave voice. “But knowing the future is a terrible thing. People often try to change their future, making it much worse in the process.”

“But if it’s possible to travel to the future, doesn’t that mean that free will is an illusion and the future is set in stone?” Zoe questioned.

“Ah, the great philosophical question. Is it free will or is it fate? And the answer is, I don’t know for sure. But the way I see it, the future is the way it is because you chose it. You could have just as easily decided that instead of taking the 8 O'clock flight you would prefer to sleep in and take the 10 am flight. You are here because of the choice. And if you knew that the plane was going to be hijacked that day, you wouldn’t have gotten on it, right? So, doesn’t that mean that if it’s possible to travel to the future, then it’s possible to influence it?” the old man gently explained.

“Anyway, after Dr. Jane had completed the machine, he set out to test it. Have you heard stories of any strangely dressed men seen throughout history? Or seen those photos of a strange man at various major events?” Liam asked them.

You are reading story Time Knights at novel35.com

Jake nodded. He had heard these stories on Facebook. Back then he had thought that it was just baseless rumors or people making up shit as they generally did on the internet, but now he wasn’t so sure.

“Yeah, that was Dr. Jane. It’s impossible to keep such a huge discovery a secret. Fast forward a few years, Dr. Jane’s secret was leaked and other people had started work on this undoubtedly dangerous technology. You see, Dr. Jane was so busy wondering if he could do it, that he didn’t stop to think if he should. And that’s where we come in.”

Jake leaned forward, deeply intrigued. He had an idea of what exactly they were here to do, but he didn’t want to get his hopes up. Zoe and Liam mirrored his movement.

“When Dr. Jane’s secret came out, he knew it wouldn’t be long before people started traveling to the past and changing it which would in turn change the course of time. Realizing his mistake, Dr. Jane built a team. A group of people who would stop these… Time Criminals and correct the course of history. That team was called Time Knights. That’s the team I recruited you for.” Liam finally finished his tale and looked at them expectantly. 

“Uh, I need a minute to process this,” Zoe groaned, rubbing her forehead. ‘She looks very cute with her eyebrows furrowed’ Jake thought.

And he couldn’t believe what was happening. He had thought of time travel in his dreams. Traveling through history and fighting criminals. Saving the fate of the world. And he could actually verify which legends were true and which ones were just stories. 

‘Maybe I’ll go and see some dinosaurs and maybe some of the extinct species,’ Jake smirked, thinking how awesome it would be if he could get a chance to see some of the legendary beasts. 

“How do you know that history has changed? After all, if history was altered, wouldn't our memories change too?” 

Jake looked at Liam as he answered Zoe’s question. “That’s a very important question. And Dr. Jane thought of it too. When Dr. Jane built this team, he needed them to be outside the flow of time so that the people on his team won’t be influenced by any change in history. And that’s why he used the Tachyon particles and placed The Time Mansion in a loop. All the people and the things here are outside the flow of time. That’s why we have so many history books. In case anything changes we can verify it in the books and make the decision based on that. Every March 24th, 2007, The Time Mansion releases a pulse of energy that takes us back to March 22nd, 2007. “

“You’re saying we’ll forever be trapped in a three-day cycle? And why these three days in particular?” Jake asked, shocked at Liam’s words.

He looked at Zoe to see her reaction. She wasn’t doing any better. Jake could see confusion all over her face.
“Yes, while you’re at The Time Mansion, You will be living these three days over and over. That’s for multiple reasons. First, Jake, do you remember what major event happened in 2007?” Liam asked him.

“Uh, The Great Recession?” Jake answered hesitantly.

“Yes! The Great Recession!” the older man exclaimed. “A lot of people were out of jobs. There were people all over the streets looking for any job they could get, just to put some food on the table. And that’s why a few more people dressed in different time periods’ clothes and showing strange behavior won’t be noticeable.” 

“We’ll be hiding in plain sight,” Jake said, his voice filled with awe.

“Um, I’m sorry, but what’s The Great Recession?” Zoe interrupted. Jake looked at her, just remembering that she’s from September 2001 and has no idea about a lot of events in the later part of the 2000s.

“The Great Recession is the term people use to describe the economic collapse from 2007 to 2010. A lot of people lost jobs all over the world. No country escaped unscathed. Even the most brilliant economists were stumped.” Liam explained. 

Zoe nodded. 

“Anyway, as I said, The Great Recession is just one reason. There are a bunch more”, Liam continued. ”During the 2000s, a lot of stuff was still offline. There were ways for people to get past the system. During the later years, this got more difficult until finally, everything was on the internet. There was no getting through the system unnoticed. There were no more holes to slide through. That’s why this time was perfect.”

“The final reason is that when you live these three days, again and again, you’ll remember everything. You’ll remember all the people you run into. You’ll remember what they were wearing and what they were eating. You’ll remember what news you saw running on time square and at what time. Hell, you spend enough time in the loop and you’ll remember enough to walk through the city with your eyes blindfolded.”

“And why’s that important?” Jake asked. 

“Because if anything happens as you don’t remember it, then that’s the first sign something is wrong. Even if you see something as inconsequential as a person choosing a different shop to eat a bagel, that’s still a red flag.” the old man replied. “The thing about the timewave is, it doesn’t change instantaneously. If a person has traveled to the past, then as he makes more changes at that time, the present time changes.” 

“Think of it like this. If you simply go to JFK’s assassination to witness it then the change will be as inconsequential as your photo being in a newspaper article at that time and if it’s shared again on his death anniversary maybe someone will see it and notice the similarities. But if you plan to go to the assassination and then suddenly decide to stop it, then you’ll alter the course of history. That will be noticeable in a large way. Maybe the current president will be different. Maybe the United States would be at war with another country. It could be anything.”

“Okay… so we have to remember all the stuff that’s going to happen in this three-day cycle. You also said that Dr. Jane created a team. Where are all the other guys?” Zoe asked.

Liam’s eyes went dull. There was an incident in the last mission we were on. We were in the American civil war and someone from 2063 had assassinated Abraham Lincoln before the war came to its conclusion. We noticed it too late. When we went to stop the guy we didn’t see his men hiding in the area. While we were able to kill him before he assassinated Lincoln, my team was gunned down in the process.” The old man’s eyes were teary. 

Jake couldn’t imagine what he was going through. To spend your life with only a small group remembering who you are and losing them all in one fell swoop. He was surprised that the old man hadn’t gone crazy. 

Jake placed his hand on Liam’s shoulder and gave a soft squeeze to show support. The old man smiled sadly.

“That’s why it’s so important that you be careful. And train hard. The pain of losing your only friends, the only people who even remember you, is very hard. Think about the person you’ll leave behind. Think of what they’ll go through.” The old man stood up. “I’ll go and get everything ready for your training. The two of you sit here and get to know each other. You’ll be working together in the field and have nobody else to trust.” With that, he left Them alone.

You can find story with these keywords: Time Knights, Read Time Knights, Time Knights novel, Time Knights book, Time Knights story, Time Knights full, Time Knights Latest Chapter