No one at that point was authorized to go through the portals to see where the portals led; but they had experienced the pull of the portals, so they knew they went somewhere. What they didn’t know about the portals was that not only did they lead to another place but another time (at least most of them). Soon, they would travel through the portals and learn that they opened in a world that was eerily similar, yet at the same time, very odd. The team would surmise that the portals led to an alternate reality but that was not true.
The first portal they used was the fountain in Jackson Square. The fountain was built in 1960, but what most people didn’t know was that the fountain was built on an original water source that was instrumental in the French Mississippi Company’s decision to settle the town of New Orleans. The native tribes who lived there prior to the French told stories of the water. The water was said to posseses great mysticism but the tribesmen refused to describe what that meant.
Julius was part of the first team that went over. He was shocked to learn that the exit point was the Taj Mahal portal. They didn’t think much about it at the time, but years later they were astonished when they reused the portal and discovered that it led to a time before the world shook. It led to their past.
That discovery caused debate on whether they should go back through and return to when the planet was full of billions of living people. Many in the group argued that they had to go back and warn the world that there would be a catastrophic event that would claim nearly the entire population of the earth. Julius considered his sister and her family but argued that going back would change nothing. “No one will listen. Don’t you remember those times? As Americans, we were so consumed with ourselves that we thought we were above the atrocities of the world. Remember how we largely ignored the invasion of China and India? The government back then would think we were crazy. Or worse – we could be looked at as a terrorist group.
“Besides, we can’t inhabit our old lives. There can’t be two of us in the same time. The only reason we lived is that we were in the facility. It’s not like we can just knock on the door and explain that we’re from the future and would like to live through everything again. What happens next, a third group of us shows up, and then a fourth?”
Julius’ logic was sound, even though not everyone was content with the decision. In the end, they stayed and chose to learn all they could about the portal. To protect the waters and to give them a better environment in which to learn, they erected a building around the fountain.
Through their study of the portal, they eventually began to gather details on how the portal worked. They didn’t have all of the specifics but they had some general theories. These notes detailing the theories would allow a future generation to build the Bejárat after the original portal was buried beneath the rubble of the building that was designed to protect it.
One of their greater accomplishments was the genetic creating of the Pishacha, engineered to protect the buried portal.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Jacques looked down at the Tipler cylinder – the device that originally been designed for time travel. The group that had disagreed with Julius on the decision not to go back in time developed the device to accomplish just that without use of the portals.
It didn’t work. All of the theories behind the cylinder were sound but in the end, the cylinder didn’t establish a means to travel through time.
The cylinder did have an unexpected side effect, however. While it did not allow for time travel, it did allow for travel from place to place.
Jacques had been part of the team that developed the cylinder. He had seen the empty world. It was a world of death. He knew that mankind would not survive long-term and did not want to be a part of it. He had argued that in going back, they could at least warn their families.
During the research on the cylinder, Jacques had come across an obscure report of two scientists in Tennessee who had developed a method of traveling through time (he wasn’t entirely sure how the copy of the report had ended up at the facility). Filed with this documentation were other reports of people throughout history suspected of being able to travel through time. During World War I, there were rumors of men who would appear and then disappear. Someone had deduced that Jack the Ripper was a time traveler. There were also several century old written records that spoke of mystic waters. One of those written records mentioned a great battle waged to protect those waters. Unbelievably, two of the people named in the battle were Juan Ponce de Leon and Christopher Columbus.
In the end, however, time travel was not produced as they had hoped. But they had succeeded in developing a method of moving mass from one location to another. Jacques now held that method in his hand. It would allow him to search the world for other people. He had searched the old remains of Mexico, Canada, Russia, and China but to no avail. But Europe, Africa, South America, and Australia remained. Who knew, perhaps the war had changed the environment so that Antarctica was now inhabitable. Jacques intended to use the device to find out. At the very least, it would give him purpose once again.
Triana watched
