Dave Hoffman as Doyle Marshall

“There it is again. Right there.” The volunteer at the console tapped the eraser of the pencil lightly against the screen. “0604, on the nose. You could set your watch by it.”

“Right, well, log it and send the report over to the office,” Alma Geddes instructed, peering alongside the volunteer at the display monitor. “You know how they get if you don’t log, even if it’s just a ping off a satellite.”

“Yup. Logging it now.” The volunteer’s fingers flew over the keyboard nimbly. “Do you think we should…”

But Alma’s hand lifted sharply to halt the sentence. Her eyes were fixed on the screen and the volunteer frowned, leaning in to try and see what it was the scientist was seeing. “Start capture. Now.” Geddes’ voice was soft, insistent. The volunteer pressed a button and three more channels were recording the feedback.

“What is it?” the volunteer asked, voice equally hushed.

“We need Marshall up here. Right away,” was Geddes’ only reply.

~*~

Doyle Marshall had a cup of coffee in one hand, a cigarette in the other and a very grim expression on his face. He looked beleaguered, but he always looked beleaguered. Even though he’d been in diapers at the time, he looked like a Mission Control Ops from the Apollo years – shirt, tie, spectacles, unshaven, perpetually exhausted. Even when he hadn’t been yanked out of bed at six in the morning…which, today, he had been.

“All right, and where’d it come down?” He was leaning on the table, eyeing the monitor.

“Reedy Creek,” Alma answered. “Specifically, Epcot.”

They exchanged looks, but the obvious statement was so blatant and awful, neither voiced it. “Anyone from there reporting anything?” Doyle asked.

“No,” said Alma. “It happened so early, I don’t think anyone would’ve been around, even if there were something to witness.” She checked the log, then eyed Marshall carefully. “What do you think it is?”

“Well,” he drawled, shifting his stance a little and stubbing his cigarette out on the bottom of a dirty ashtray, “we’re going to classify it as an aberrant anomaly, which is code for ‘what the crap?’, but unofficially I think it’s a relay flux.”

“Which means…?”

“Which means something’s bounced down to us. Could be a distant solar flare, could be a ricochet electrical impulse from an uncategorized meteor, could be a satellite fart.” He sipped his coffee leisurely, considering a moment or two. “I’d better go over there and take a look, just the same.”

“What are you going to tell Disney? I mean, SETI coming into Epcot?” her tone was dubious.

Marshall shrugged. “I’ll think of something.” He refrained from adding that if ‘something’ meant jumping the gate, he’d do it. Even if it’d give him a third ulcer.

He also refrained from offering his opinion that this was about as far from a solar flare as he’d ever seen. In fact, he’d never seen anything like it at all. But there was no sense panicking the astral-hippies ‘til he knew more.

Bwah ha ha ha ha ha!!!

Please, someone remind Cotton that it would be too mean to pretend to be a powerful alien intelligence inhabiting the body of a hippie/cowboy doctor to mess with the heads of researchers from the past.

"Remember the time when a huge mouse in shorts dominated America?"

"Oh, Cotton, you and your wacky stories....wait..."

Sammhael wrote:

Bwah ha ha ha ha ha!!!

Please, someone remind Cotton that it would be too mean to pretend to be a powerful alien intelligence inhabiting the body of a hippie/cowboy doctor to mess with the heads of researchers from the past.

I think it's a great idea, haven't had an excuse for a dissection in weeks.

I’m making this record tonight while it’s fresh in my head. All the data I collected on the energy signals, personalities, and oddity of information has been saved to static media in hopes to keep it safe. I have setup this system off the network so that I keep logs of my new projects without risk of it true purposes being learned.

The knowledge gain this weekend, my world isn’t ready for. Some of it would be to dangerous to ever learned.

I have two days of time left before I must return to the office. It going to eat into my fishing time, but I have to work up data to explain things. Something the average person will buy.

Part of me worries about the Agents, but honestly no one going to believe it if it goes public without proof, and I’m fairly certain the CIA wanted to keep Time Traveling Space Marines under wraps. They have enough trouble about terrorists. If they let this out, especially if it’s learned said people traveled around Disney all day, they will never hear the end of it. Maybe they will be smart and shred the report this time.

Jonas I’m going to have to keep an eye one for a while, but once he has a day to think of it I think he’ll calm down. I doubt he’s going to do anything to strange.

I’m curious if my theory that he’s related is right or not. It was nice of them to loan me their Jackets so I can confirm. Hopefully some genetic markers will show up from their hair. I’m glad they didn’t have an object when I mentioned it, not that I’m sure I wouldn’t have done it anyways.

Seems I have two new projects now. The first is to study the energy waves. My understanding and knowledge may be equal to an elementary student in their time, but elementary students sometimes figures out things scholars miss. If this happened once, there a reason and it might be reproducible. If nothing else, it a great thing for me to think on when fishing.

It’s ironic that figuring out theory of time and space manipulation will be easier then the second. Their food options offend me, but Jenks was nice enough to provide the answer though he was joking with Jonas at the time. They had a good laugh about the send a care package. But then, I don’t think they consider that what a man with a large amount of expendable income and access to computers designed for space research can do. Wonder if I can make it happen alone or have to get a grant for some kind of Time Capsule project. On the bright side I can honestly tell people that I want to preserve certain seeds because of the change of them being extinct in the future.

It’s been just over a month yet so much has happen. Jonas has signed a book deal. It seems a certain editor who owes me a favor found Jonas’s manual script interesting enough to publish. Jonas got his initial check already, it’s small, but I think he made the right choice of going small up front and larger part of royalties. I’m pretty certain it’s going to hit the best seller. I mean the story good, but the devil in the writer’s skill and weather he’s a natural or just inspired, Jonas’s book is amazing.

I’ve decided to include a copy in the pod I’m sending to up. There not sure their enough room for the printed copy to be stored properly, but Jonas has offer to giving me a digital copy of it to include along with a small box. Not sure what the box is, he’s come close to telling me a couple times but I get the feeling he’s embarrassed by it.

I finally figure out the company name thing. It’s been bothering me that if Jonas grabs the domain name now that it would mess things up. But I have a theory thanks for a friend. If his book does well, it may become some obscure book in the future. Some young idealistic person who starts that company in the future may have heard of the book and decided to name the company base on it. Regrettably there no way to know for sure though Jonas told me I should start a company under it. That would be a hoot, created the company that eventually makes space travel possible.

My care package project is well under way. I’ve got the grants I needed and approvals. It’ll still be some time before we launch but it’s coming together well. I knew my name carried a little bit of weight in this field, but I didn’t realize how much of the private sector was willing to back it. It’s a publicity thing for most of them and likely a bid at the future space projects if NASSA get the overhaul the governments trying for but it suites my purposes. Most impressive is it’s not going to be just US based. Groups in Japan and Italy have contacted me.

I’ve also managed to get capsule named Sadie. I there a certain pleasure in being 500 years in the past of its objective. Namely it’s hard to hit me. Hopefully she will enjoy it. It occurs to me that there is something amusing and odd about flirting with women 500 years in the future. I’m pretty certain they’ve committed people for that.

The lab I had built is finished. The privacy fence and the tree I add to land should keep local prying eyes out. The cage lead lining and concrete walls I add should keep anyone more official from detecting my research. About half the equipment I need has arrived, but I can get started when the Atomic Fluorescence Spectrometer (AFS) arrives this week. All the computer models I have done say it’s theoretically possible to recreate the signal artificially. The AFS will let me start determining which material come closest to generating the energy type needed.

I got the second set of results from the genetics test back this week. I had them run it a second time to be sure. I always suspected that Jonas was related to one of them and I was right. Jonas is coming up this weekend and I’m going to tell him then, but that not why I ran it twice. I was surprised when I got the initial results to find that a second person on the Valdosta was connected to our little Epcot group and this time not to Jonas. I’m not sure who going to be more surprised, Morgan, Polly or Hazard.

So I’m writing this cause I need to put it down on paper and make sense of it.

I told Polly the news and after several pointed threats from her decided that Morgan just really didn’t need to know. I was perfectly happy to let it stand there and not do anything with it. Heck I would have been happy to let that crazy bird be for the rest of her life.

Yet, today I find myself in need of someone with her kind of services minutes before a friend of mine from the agency calls me. I had asked him to keep an ear open concerning Polly and Morgan and he wanted to let me know she’s quit.

It’s just too odd.

Plans for the rocket and pod are well under way. A suitable rocket is nearly done being built and we’ve started preparing the pod for its payload. Looks like we’ll be launching later this year.

Several educational groups have contacted me about the project and I’ve been asked to review essay from students concerning what they would like to send. There a small team of people who are going to filter through them, but I’m going to read as many as I can. Figure it something to do when I go fishing this weekend.

Jonas is currently traveling due to his book. Much as I expect it took off like a fire cracker. I’ve already heard through some friends of mine tentative thoughts on a movie. I told Jonas if they do I want a walk on part and a consulting job.

Polly been better than I thought, nothing gets past that girl. She figure out what I’m doing in my lab and arm twisted me into letting her in the lab and to follow what I’m doing. No really, she twisted my arm, some weird Kung fu judo move. Anyways she got a lot of gray matter under the tough girl acted which has been interesting when through ideas around.

She taking a couple days next week for a vacation, I have been teasingly asked her if Morgan happens to be taking time off at the same time.

On the lab front I’ve identify and can on a low level duplicate the signal and energy. So far I’ve been careful to shield it so it doesn’t get out anywhere. But I’m having a lot of problem stabilizing it. I think there a competent missing.

I have two theories right now. Ether the event created a standing wave due to the earth rotation or there is a second signal that was moving in the opposite direction and the two meeting caused it.

The problem with the second theory is I’m fair certain that Emerald created the first wave, I’m not sure what would have created the wave in this time zone. I know Jonas didn’t generate it, I checked him already. So was here than?