What it's Like to Travel Time is no longer free.

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What it's Like to Travel Time is free!

That's right. For one day only, my latest book, What it's Like to Travel Time: Double Trouble, is free. Get it while you can. Tomorrow will be too late.

You're welcome.

Greg Wilhelm, author of The Pendleton Files and What it's Like to Travel Time

No Freebie this week because...

I can only post so many chapters without giving away the book. I'm sorry but I am trying to sell this book.

Another Freebie!

 This chapter takes place after the alternate version's first attempt to knockoff our main characters and also reveals a couple of things about the primary protagonist. It's also the first chapter to give us a glimpse into the far future. If it sparks your interest and you would like to find out more about the book or perhaps purchase it, click here  or wherever ebooks are sold.

Enjoy

Signed- Greg Wilhelm, author of What it's Like to Travel Time and The Pendleton Files

Chapter 6

   “What the hell was that?!” Candace said. 

Obviously, it was time to tell her. He couldn’t think of any other way to do it without it sounding bad, especially since it was incredibly unbelievable. Though after having traveled through time, you would think a person could believe anything. But this was definitely under the heading of unbelievable.

   “It’s us,” said the Traveler.

   “What?! Wait a minute. Where are we? Is this our lab?”

   “Yes. Five seconds after we left, to be exact. It’s a safeguard. I’m a firm believer in finding out how the brakes work before getting behind the wheel. Or in this case, making sure there are brakes.”

   Candace started pacing. She looked at everything around her, trying to see if she could find proof of what he said, seeing if she could find confirmation that they had actually returned only five seconds later. Then for no obvious reason, she stopped. She turned to the Traveler and said, “Double tapping activates emergency jump trip.”

   Damn those naNabots! “Yes,” said the Traveler.

   Candace thought for a moment. She looked at her arm. She took the index finger of her right hand and swiped the skin on the inside of her left arm. The Traveler’s display popped up. “Oh .. my God.”

   “It’s an access display. The naNabots can form any pigmented pattern on the skin.”

   She was hesitant and unsure. The display wasn’t that different from a smartphone. “So … how do they do that? I mean … it’s like there’s a futuristic holographic smartphone in my arm.” She looked at the display and read the titles under the icons. Then she swiped the screen from the left, bringing the main menu into view. “What?”

   “Candace, please. Be very careful.” But was it like he hadn’t said a thing. She winked out of existence, then phased back. “Candace! Stop!”

   She was surprised. “What happened? Did I do something?”

   “I don’t know. You tell me. You’re the one messing with your display.” He grabbed her arm and tapped the part of her skin that was outside her display to close it. “Yes,” he said. “I need to tell you everything. They may have been my naNabots before but they became yours when I injected you.” He put his finger on her arm. And then he moved it in a circular motion. A different kind of display popped up. It was a circle within a square showing primary icons that govern the system’s main functions.

   “What the hell was that?!” said Candace. “Was that a gun? Why does it sound like a banshee?”

   “Damn!” The dust on the floor drifted inward to the spot where they had been. They traveled. The crowd in the courtyard of the food hall ran away in fear when he started shooting. It was nothing they had ever seen or heard before. They had no idea what it was.

   “Why did they look like us?”

   He put away his gun, meaning it had unfolded and refolded until it became design on his hip pocket. He turned to Candace and said, “That’s because it was us.”

   “Why are you trying to kill us? Is this how you wanted me to help you?” Candace started to think about it. She was beginning to understand. Her enhanced thinking helped her see that it was one of the necessities that come with time travel.

   “I needed to get a reading on her quantum signature from this universe,” he said. “But in order to do that, I had to inject you with my naNabots.”

   “So … you already got what you needed? Are you going to kill me too?”

   He didn’t know what to tell her. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do. “No. I’m not going to kill you. It wouldn’t be right. You are the correct version. Those … those were not.” He saw someone peeking around a doorway, probably the equivalent of security. “We should leave.” He swiped his arm to bring up the display.

   “Wait!” Candace said. “So that’s it? I don’t have a say? It’s like I’m your hostage!”

   “You’re not a hostage. I would tell you or ask you about where we’re going but right now we have to leave.”

   Apparently, she also saw someone. “Oh,” she said. “Right. We have to go.”

   “So I swipe this menu to bring up this icon. Double tap it and this coordinate screen comes up,” said Candace.

   “Yes but don’t change anything,” said the Traveler. “Just tap the GO button. That’s all. You’ll be brought to a safe time.” He didn’t like having to split up. But it had to happen. It was an important part of what happens. They said it would be alright. It needed to happen this way. Everything will follow into their proper order, they said. “It’ll be okay,” he said. “I promise.”

   “And I can’t leave until I see you again?”

   “I know. I’m sorry. It shouldn’t take long.” He swiped his arm and brought up the menu showing the link option. He tapped it to turn it off. “I’ll be right back.” Then he tapped the GO button and vanished.

   Candace was surprised how alone this made her feel. She looked at the three white-erase boards that the Traveler had filled with his equations. There was one equation that held her interest. Of course. It’s so simple. I don’t know why I never thought of it. She got an idea. She went behind the desk and opened drawers. She found a pen and paper, dragged a chair over to the far corner, and started to copy the equations.

   “Oh wow!” said Candace. “Are we in space? This is a spaceship! How are we not floating?”

   “Uh, gaviplates? Duh.” The other Traveler rummaged through his desk compartments. Or he should say his other version’s desk compartments, considering that his timeline was gone. He was grabbing everything he thought he might need.

   “Whoa! I think there’s more spaceships out there.” She was looking out the viewport where she could see small points of light moving about in the distance, not far from a grayish planet that had a few patches of washed-out blue about its surface.

   “Yes. They are. And by the way, this is not just a spaceship, it’s a Weathership.”

   “What planet are we orbiting?”

   “Earth.”

   “Earth?! What happened to it? Why does it look so dirty?”

   “I would love to give you a history lesson but now is not the time.”

   “Hold on,” she said. He could see something was going on inside her head. “Oh. This is weird. Your nanites are way ahead of you. It’s like I’m being given part of your life. Wait. There was a war? What kind of war? Oh my God! They were right about global warming? I can’t believe this. How long did it take?”

   He was standing beside Candace. He had found everything he could think of, plus a couple he couldn’t. “I suppose I should thank you for destroying your planet,” the other Traveler said. “Sorry. I know it wasn’t your fault, your generation that is. Let’s just say the oil industry was too invested to change overnight and leave it at that.”

   “Did you just say your planet?”

   “Yes. Technically, I’m a Martian but I’m still considered an Earthling. We’re waiting for the bill to pass in parliament that would recognize us as Martians.”

   Candace didn’t how to reply to that. She was befuddled.

   He was about to take her to where the other versions of themselves had gone but thought he should do something else first. “Would you like to see the plus side of my time? Or I should say, what was my time.”

   “There’s a plus side?” she said.

   “Of course,” he said. “Apparently, when it comes to adapting to planetary evolution, it turns out we humans really can make lemons out of lemonade.” He summoned an AR version of his display, manipulated a few controls and tapped some indicators associated with an integral map of the ship. Then he splayed his fingers in an area to zoom in on that section. He studied it for a minute and then tapped outside it, causing the whole thing to disappear. Follow me.” They left the lab and headed for the Liftpod portbay. He would’ve taken his personal pod but he wasn’t sure if it would work for him. Everything appears to be his timeline but he knows it isn’t. He wasn’t even sure if it belonged to that other version of him.

   “I can’t help notice you tend to use the AR display more often now,” Candace said.

   “Yes,” was all the other Traveler said.

   “Why don’t you do that all the time?”

   “I don’t think that would go over too well with prehistoric people. Could you imagine?” he laughed and mimicked the movements he made when his display was up. “They would either lock me up or stone me.”

   Candace nodded and said, “Good point.”

   Candace couldn’t stop looking at everything. Not that there was much to see.

   The technology in the Traveler’s time is designed to be seen only when needed. And the only reason the intruder alert isn’t sounding is that she has his naNabots. It’s probably causing the computer to think he’s gained some weight. He didn’t want to tell her, mainly because it wasn’t necessary.

   Weatherships are very large ships. Their plush color coded walkways are wide enough to handle a lot of people. Doors might not be visible but the intersecting walkways are. You walk far enough and you’ll start to notice the slight curve that follows the contours of the ship.

   “Not a lot of stuff in the future,” she said. “Oh wait.” She slowed her pace as the naNabots answered the question she didn’t ask. She smiled and said, “No way!” The other Traveler could tell she wanted to test it out. She wanted to touch the eggshell white polyalucarbon coated wall to see if a computer screen really would appear out of nowhere.

   He grabbed her arm and said, “We don’t have time.”

   She pouted.

   “You’re acting like a child.”

   They came to an area where a portbay symbol was on the wall, indicating where the door was. The other Traveler was about to tap it but thought, She’s dying to try something. “Would you like to do it?”

   Her eyes lit up and her smile was beaming. She tapped the wall. The door seam appeared and separated with a whisper of air. Then the door panels slid apart revealing the walkway.

   “Whoooaa!”

   “Ladies first.”

   The walkways that connect to different outer sections of the ship are lined with holopanels. The holopanels have holographic images that relate to the section the walkway connects to. Because this one leads to a portbay, it’s displaying images of the space around them in real-time. But it’s not just for show. It also allows people to see what the traffic is like. Candace was amazed. It still amazed him, to be honest. It looks as though they’re walking across a walkway in open space. The other Traveler had to pick up his pace to keep up with her.

   “This is so cool!” she said. She jumped back when a pod drifted too close to the walkway after nearly getting bumped while jockeying for bay entry.

   A group of satellite techs coming from the opposite direction were smiling at her. One of them laughed. The other Traveler shook his head and felt a little embarrassed for her. “Careful, Candace.” She was so engrossed in watching everything happening outside that she almost bumped into the door.