Days later he knew the answer to many of his questions, and he also knew why there had been no answer from the distant future when Aziz and LeGrand had called out to their successive generations. From that day forward his life, and his entire understanding of the world he lived in, was never the same. But who to tell?
He would spend a long time thinking about that before he ever spoke a word of this key again. Yet it was something too big for him to carry alone. Like Frodo’s ring it began to weigh upon him, seeming heavier and heavier with each day that passed. But unlike Frodo, there was no place he could take it and cast it away, and there was no way he could simply forget about it either… not this… not this…
Then one sunny afternoon at his cottage in Carmel, he was sitting with his good friend Kelly, down on a getaway visit while Maeve and Robert stood watch back in Berkeley. They had been walking on the coastline of Asilomar that day, and dined at one of Paul’s favorite restaurants, the Sardine Factory in Monterey. Now they were drinking wine in the cottage, looking at some of Kelly’s photo albums, and listening to the music they loved and shared together, talking over things in a way only two very old friends could. The music played on in the background and Kelly came in with a good bottle of Pinot Noir from Paul’s wine rack.
It was now or never, thought Paul. “Kelly,” Paul said quietly. “Before we open that, sit down for a moment, will you? There’s something very, very important I have to tell you…”
He knew the moment he opened his mouth he would pass this hidden knowledge on to his friend, germ like, and Kelly’s life, already made wholly new in the this altered Meridian, would change once again. He, too, would never be the same. He hesitated briefly, thinking to leave his friend in the relative innocence and simplicity of his life, to leave him unbothered, unburdened, unaware. But if this would eventually lead them all to renewed Time missions, the whole project team would have to be informed. He could bear it no longer. The sheer loneliness of carrying the key, and all he knew about it now, was like a great weight crushing down on his soul.
He reached into his shirt and slowly drew out the key on its chain, feeling like Gandalf visiting Frodo in the Shire, there to tell him what the quaint little magic ring was really all about.
For one last moment he waited. Then he spoke. “It’s about this key,” he said…
Later that night the Arch was still slowly spinning on low power mode back in the Berkeley Hills, just enough to keep the systems energized and ready for quick startup if needed. The project team was taking no chances. They wanted to be able to monitor the newly enforced cease fire closely. The Golem Module was to be in use 24/7, now strongly reinforced with the addition of many installations active again on the east coast of the United States. Boston was still there, as was New York, Baltimore and Washington. Florida was no longer a flooded wreck. The Palma disaster had never happened.
At around four A.M. that evening, the Golem Module suddenly came to life again. The threat warning filters had been jarred awake by a lone sentry, while the world slept, blissfully unaware of the impending danger. Normally it would take an assessment from at least three Golem Banks to trigger a warning like this, a call to arms as it were. At Paul’s urging, however, the system had been reconfigured by Kelly to move into alert mode if just one Golem Bank reported sufficient evidence of a variation. So the alarm went out again, the threat module responded and sent start signals to the main turbines, and the low thrum of the Arch immediately revved up from 20% to 40% power, just enough to open and sustain a small Nexus Point around the facility.
One of the Golem Banks had found something oddly incongruous while it performed its routine scans of data available on the Internet. It was out of alignment with at least fifteen data points in the RAM Bank, and so the digital “stand to” had been sounded again by the vigilance of this single search cluster.
It was Kelly’s lost sheep again, Golem 7.
TIME GLOSSARY – Terminology
From Dorland’s Theory
ABSOLUTE CERTIANTY – A condition brought about by willful determination that serves to limit variation in the continuum, creating a kind of tunnel in the Time Meridian that restricts outcomes to an absolute certainty.
ATTENUATION – A property of an incomplete Time shift, where the traveler manifests across a range of several milliseconds, slightly out of synch or phase with his correct manifestation point.
CLARITY – Clear or good understanding of a temporal locus, pattern, event, Outcome or Consequence.
CO-LOCATION – The presence of an object transported back through time to any point or Meridian on the continuum where that object existed. This is expressly forbidden by Time, and therefore impossible. In like manner, no person can ever shift in Time to a point where they co-locate with themselves.
EXCEPTION: See Vanishing Point.
CONSEQUENCE – An undesired result achieved by a temporal Transformation – Usually referring to the negative. (i.e.) Sometimes certain Consequences must be accepted in order to achieve a desired Outcome.
CONVOLUTION – The relative difficulty or complexity of a given temporal event or condition.
DEEP NEXUS – Sometimes called a “Void” – A crucial, significant Nexus Point where radical alteration of the time line is possible. A Deep Nexus has a universal effect on all moments in Time until resolved, and can therefore be a portal into any potential Meridian passing through the Nexus.
DENSITY – A relative term describing factor counts in temporal events.
ELASTICITY – The tendency of Time to resist alteration and reassume its original shape. Also known as “Quantum Memory Foam.”
FACTOR – An element contributing to convolution in temporal events.
FINALITY – A catastrophic Grand Imperative (like the Cuthulu asteroid strike that led to the eradication of the dinosaurs and other life.)
FREE RADICAL – A dangerous, erratic variable in the course of temporal events – usually only existing within a Deep Nexus.
GOLEM – A special search program written by Kelly Ramer and distributed to hundreds of thousands of computer users via the Internet. Golems are able to search and report on information on the net and can perceive data on every Meridian during a time of Deep Nexus through the phenomenon known as “Resonance.”
GREAT VOID – An interminable shadow or Penumbra cast by a Grand Imperative.
HAZE – Obscurity in the understanding of a temporal situation or event.
IMPERATIVE – An event in Time which must happen – Usually a natural event. A Grand Imperative is a natural event of special significance. Some Grand Imperatives can become a Finality.