Traveller Inceptio
33

The room was in one of a number of mysterious underground tunnels adjacent to Welbeck. Hurley’s observation that the entire operation had been put together with haste and no budget seemed accurate, as if the powers-that-be had received project confirmation only recently. They sat on old tin foldout chairs and the room had the dusty smell of a storage room that had been only recently full of mouldy old building materials. A white-board sat at the front of the room, and while there was power, a computer, and an image projector, some of the electrical cabling was still exposed and the fluorescent lighting had a dim, depressing feel.

The blonde woman Hunter had seen jogging earlier stood at the front of the room. She was dressed in British military fatigues yet, in a very unBritish move, was adorned with neither insignia of regiment or rank. Her hair was tied back into a severe bun and her face had a hardened look, as if her natural beauty was pushed down until only a severe professionalism remained.

None of the men spoke. As instructed, they had changed into their British military issue fatigues. Hunter was particularly relieved as the room lacked heating and comfort of any kind. There were only ten in the squad, so the room echoed whenever a sound was made. Another man, relatively young, dressed in a suit and tie, stood somewhat nervously at the front of the room with the woman.

“Good morning, gentlemen. My name is Captain Murdoch of the British Army. Welcome to Welbeck. You are currently located in an unused British government facility being upgraded to look after the needs of ‘Project Traveller’. We apologise for any inconvenience this upgrade process will incur.” Hunter noted Murdoch did not appear at all apologetic.

“For anything to do with Project Traveller, naturally the usual security and need-to-know applies.”

Her accent was pleasantly English, probably from a private school education. Despite her small stature, she looked capable and professional, though her jaw muscles bunched when she talked as if she chewed out words like she chewed on the gristle of life. “This is a civilian operation overseen by the British Defence Department and currently we operate with neither formal structure nor regiment. We act under the direction of a joint initiative of the British, US and Australian Governments, and you will note, representatives of Special Forces from these countries are present. The only exception is that we also have a representative from Canada here with us.”

“Odd combination,” Hunter mused and Hurley grunted in agreement.

“The three governments have been part of a significant scientific breakthrough which has seen the development of Project Traveller. You are seconded to this project for possibly the next year and will undergo specialist training for the duration of your stay. If, at any time, any of you would like to leave this project, simply advise me.” Murdoch looked around at the men, as if daring anyone to opt out before she turned to the suited man standing nearby.

“Let me introduce you to Mr Zak Chandler. He’s our mission specialist.”

***

Yeti stepped forward. The intervening years had not only seen Yeti lose his nickname, but also his golden surfer locks, shorn along with much of his cavalier attitude and indirection. He represented the other research team members who had survived the painful metamorphosis that resulted from their unauthorised beach trip.

He shook his head at the memory. Unknown to the team, the university had been compelled by Helguard to approve the installation of monitoring devices in The Factory. They saw it as some kind of olive branch to a number of influential government agencies concerned about any potential misuse or public exposure of the mysterious invention. The team’s academic paper had been a scientific tour de force or a public relations nightmare, depending on which side of the secrecy fence you stood. Australia’s domestic security agency, ASIO, attempted to place a belated lid on one of the most spectacular scientific discoveries in Australia’s history. As the story on the device came, every media hound, from high profile news conglomerates with franchised programmes down to the university’s student newspaper, wanted clarification on what had been discovered and what it all meant.

Later the team learned from Crowley that the university’s Vice Chancellor, Professor Mackay, had his academic scrotum on the chopping block as he was compelled to keep the lid on a story that had exploded. Initially it was hoped that a controlled release of the story would increase the university’s profile without revealing any details on the actual discovery or the discoverers. It was a huge mistake. Politicians interested only in the safety of their well-padded backsides began to be asked difficult questions, and even though they knew nothing, felt obliged to comment. Incredible pressure was brought to bear on the university’s council, and in the spirit of self-preservation, a few of those present at the demonstration confirmed the discovery and the details of the researchers involved.

While Yeti and the team enjoyed their big day out, the consequences of their published paper were just beginning to be experienced. As warned, they hadn’t considered the significance of their actions, and the repercussions were spectacular, to say the least.

The Vice Chancellor, Professor Mackay, was incensed at their use of The Transporter without proper authorisation, and through Dean Jackson, promptly placed The Factory under lock and key until he could decide what to do next. Meanwhile the media was engaged in one of the greatest frenzies the world had seen in years. Crowley and the Dean had been humiliated, and to make matters worse, as soon as it was leaked that the researchers had actually used the device on themselves, every budding Woodward and Bernstein threw themselves into getting the scoop. Lavish sums of money were mentioned to tempt any of the team to tell all, while barely a news bulletin went to air where there was not some mention of the supposed ‘Time Travel’ invention. Social media seethed with all kinds of comments, outlandish theories, and false news stories.

Yeti all too clearly recalled how, after the euphoria of their trip, the team was devastated by their plummet from grace, removal from the project, and the intense pressure to reveal all. Soon each of their homes was under siege. Paparazzi poked their cameras into every nook and cranny. Allen became incensed the media was so careless of the privacy of his mother, while Mel ended up moving from her flat to barricade herself and Felix in her parents’ home.

Phil accepted Yeti’s offer to crash at his parents’ and it was there, over a few bottles of home-brew, they decided to take the future into their own hands. It had all been Yeti’s idea. Phil contacted a couple of major media companies and expressed his interest in telling his story, vying one company against the other to negotiate a multi-million dollar tell-all deal. With Yeti and the souvenir spear in tow, Phil was interviewed by a celebrity journalist and their entire story was told, backed up with their documented testing procedures, results, images, Craig’s initial trip, and the footage Allen had taken when they met the aboriginal warriors. Before the interviews, Yeti and Phil advised each of the other team members what they were planning and asked them to trust them.

Phil and Yeti became two of the highest profile news celebrities seen for years and the media was in a lather of excitement as they labelled The Transporter a ‘Time Machine’. None could deny the spectacular nature of their discovery. Their meeting with aboriginals made for a fabulous story, so good, in fact, that at first the media company was sceptical. That didn’t stop their story from being splashed across magazines, newspapers, the Internet, and television. As part of their media negotiations, Phil and Yeti agreed to convince the entire team to be interviewed, for an additional fee, of course.

The plan hadn’t progressed well. Mel, Allen, and Craig accused Phil and Yeti of selling their souls to the media, but when Yeti detailed his plan, they were eventually convinced. Before the university or government agencies could block their appearances, their corroborating stories were compiled into a global, ratings-dominating, prime-time television event. Previously untold details and footage, including Phil’s ‘nude romp’, made for extensive media consumption.

Yeti convinced the others the fees from the media would allow them the financial foundation for their own business, so they would no longer be victim to the whims of other corporate interests and petty bureaucrats. With their funds pooled into a joint account, the team overcame their differences and developed a framework for their own research company. One of their first tasks was to make their previous sponsor, Peter Conti, an offer he couldn’t refuse. With Yeti in his newfound role as representative, armed with a detailed, legally stringent proposal, the team initiated their change in role from sponsored researchers to business associates.

As directors of Woomera Technologies, they proposed to develop inventions that would continue to enhance their business stakes. The media recognised Helguard as one of the world’s most progressive security companies, and with impressive presales, the new scanners were rushed into production as a joint initiative of Helguard and Woomera to become the industry standard for every modern airport, shipping port, land border checkpoint, and international mail centre. With increased efficiencies in import control, some highly publicised drug and weapons seizures increased the publicity of the new units and the money rolled in faster than even Conti ever imagined.

The new team of Woomera soon designed scanners that were adapted for medical diagnostics, structural scanning, engine diagnostics, aircraft structural analysis and more. Conti’s team confirmed that any such inventions could net Helguard billions, so Conti was eager to build an even closer relationship with Woomera.

Yeti also experienced his share of change. He finally made peace with his father and found he possessed a natural skill for business that was entirely lacking in his scientist friends’ skillsets. When he enrolled at the university’s faculty of business, the excited team took every opportunity to assist their new protégé. Never lacking in intelligence, only drive and direction, Yeti soon established himself as a business natural and found no difficulty in acing his course requirements. He smiled at the thought of his past schoolteachers who would now never recognise him, having written him off as a loser focussed only on skating, surfing and girls. Now Yeti had a thirst for knowledge and a drive to succeed, the key being his desire to help his brilliant, but commercially challenged friends.

Conti was under intense, persistent pressure from the US government to gain possession of his property, The Transporter, so they could examine what it actually did. Unable to deny the desires of one of his most influential clients, and his own adoptive country, a joint US and Australian research taskforce took over the device, expecting public interest to wane. The taskforce included none of the original researchers because there was a common belief that they were merely media fluff who had a lucky break. As a result, the Woomera directors withheld their notes and were soon approached by taskforce scientists, cap in hand, for their research rationale. With the project manager’s fiery resignation, The Transporter once again entered the media spotlight. It was finally conceded that the original inventors were enlisted as consultants.

One of the most significant taskforce replaceings was that The Transporter could not be easily duplicated. A ganglion of super-fine wires had accidentally fused and it appeared it was integral to the operation of the device. There was an immense reluctance to dismantle the damaged master control for fear that it would stop all Transporter operation.

It was also discovered that The Transporter sent any test subject back to the same ‘place’ the machine was located. Initial testing was undertaken carefully for fear of disturbing the aboriginal warriors of the ‘Beach Day’ event. The only other measurable parameter seemed to regard Time, for the star fields indicated a placement one thousand years before present, something all researchers considered too neat to be purely coincidental. Some questioned whether the ‘when’ was still ‘here’, or in an alternate universe where the star fields differed. The brightest minds examined Mel’s mathematical theories while Allen’s software was lauded as revolutionary. Though Phil was unpopular, as he had become a darling of the popular media, none could fault his and Craig’s engineering brilliance. After another year of research and testing, none could adequately explain how The Transporter worked or why it was bound by its limitations.

While the research continued, Conti came under even more pressure from his new business partners at Woomera. It became obvious that Woomera would be vital to Helguard’s future profitability, so he was compelled to heed their suggestions on the fate of The Transporter. They became half-owners of the device. The American government was furious, and while the secret storm raged, The Transporter remained at the original Factory under a Helguard security cordon that rivalled Fort Knox.

There was still confusion as to what, if anything, was to be done with The Transporter. Of what real use was a device that sends a person back only one thousand years in time?

Yeti recalled one of the more touching repercussions of the often highly publicised battle for control over The Transporter. Representatives from local Aboriginal groups requested an interview. Phil and Yeti agreed to meet, as they were intensely interested in understanding more about the aboriginals they had met. Unfortunately their meeting ended up being anything but friendly. A representative of the relevant government department loudly abused Phil and Yeti for interfering with native peoples without permission. Yeti felt she was the typical sort who often railroaded the real interests of traditional peoples.

Belligerent, she had a tendency to talk over anything Phil or Yeti said by yelling, “You interfered with our people, OUR PEOPLE!” She eventually stormed off yelling threats of legal action. She left behind her companion, a quietly dignified aboriginal man who had simply sat through the entire exchange.

As her noisy departure faded, he introduced himself as John, a local Gabi Gabi tribal Elder. Yeti reckoned John was between sixty and seventy years old. Thankfully, John didn’t take up the woman’s torrent of abuse; he respectfully asked for details of their encounter. As the young surfers described their experiences, his eyes shone with pride while his long-fingered hands lovingly stroked the spear Phil had given him. He laughed when Phil described how terrified he was when the man hugged him.

“Hmm, yes, he would have thought of you as an ancestor,” suggested John with a gentle nod and a smile. “He’d never have seen a whitefella. Ooh, yes, he’d see your white skin and your eyes. Your eyes, they’re pale like a dead man or a dead fish. That’s what they would think.” He laughed out loud as Phil reared back in surprise. “They would have only seen blackfellas, no whitefellas!” He looked at Phil closely. “You would have been his ancestor who had returned from the land of the dead. He saw white skin, blue eyes and clothing. He saw an ancestor he loved and lost.”

John described how his people originally lived, how they hunted, and how they were numerous before the coming of the white settlers and soldiers. Ignorance, greed, and disease had killed them until only a few were left. Even fewer remembered the old ways. To Yeti, John had the same feeling about him as did the men they met near the beach: quiet strength and spirituality that commanded respect.

After over an hour, John sighed and nodded. “You’ve told me things only one of the people could know. You spoke to one of my people, those from long ago.” His eyes welled with tears and he wiped them with a crumpled-up white handkerchief pulled from his trouser pocket. He sniffed and lovingly stroked the spear again and was particularly interested in stains at the tip. “Yes, this spear is a real one. See this stain here, that’s blood! Ahh, this took a warrior a long time to make it. He put a lot of his power into it, you know.” As he smiled, he looked excited and a little afraid. “This has strong magic, strong power.” He sighed and held the shaft to his cheek, closed his eyes a moment, feeling the ancient, long-dead fingers that had shaped and moulded this most valuable tool.

His eyes opened and he handed the spear back, but Phil said, “No, mate, you can keep it if you like.”

John shook his head. “No, he gave it to you. It is a great gift. You must keep it with respect.” He smiled and stroked the spear. “This is of the old ways. Too many have forgotten.” Suddenly he hefted the long weapon with a look of joy and wonder as he stood and danced about with energy, then stood on one leg, poised as if to strike his prey.

Yeti watched and could imagine the older man dressed, or undressed, as his ancestors had been, hunting as they had hunted and living as they had lived.

As John left, Yeti and Phil watched him, a small white-haired man with a sense of heart rarely seen in today’s world of frantic materialism where more stock was placed in possessions than in matters of spirit. Yeti wondered what would be lost as those like John passed on. Was their legacy the bureaucrats who risked understanding these gentle people so little?

That loss would be a sad legacy indeed.

***

In the subterranean classroom, Zack Chandler paused in his summary of the history of The Transporter.

“So what was to be done with The Transporter? Could it indeed be used? Some months ago, an international symposium of the world’s most eminent historians gathered in New York to discuss The Transporter. One academic, a brilliant, yet controversial specialist in Saxon language and culture by the name of Professor Adrian Taylor had knowledge of the final test results through connections with one of the researchers into The Transporter. He prepared and submitted a paper that argued for The Transporter as an operational Time Machine that could be used for the development of a whole new field of study: Practical Historical Research.

“Many in the conservative ranks of academic historians were scandalised by his suggestion and arguments raged, the main issue being could safe, practical historical research even be possible? If it was possible to access The Transporter for historical research, and if the various interested parties, especially governments, could be convinced, then the timing of The Transporter’s destination might help better understand some considerable gaps in historical knowledge. There seemed to be too many ifs!

“Professor Taylor suggested The Transporter would be a tool to research one-thousand years into the past, in the historic period of about 1000AD to 1020AD. Now we know this was a time of instability in many populations, but imagine the opportunities The Transporter could offer?”