The Resurrection Wager

Chapter 5

Chapter 5Clyde began his existence as a heavy-duty industrial equipment cart, which was heavily modified. He had oversized pneumatic tires which were about ten inches in diameter. He was four feet wide and five feet long and stood just over three feet tall. There was a flat surface on top. Sitting in the center of that surface was a large metal box with numerous indicator lights and digital readouts. This box is where the computers that held the data for the time jumps were mounted. Also in there was the secret technology that allowed for Clyde to communicate with the actual time machine that was permanently located in the basement of the institute, even if he had traveled to a different time. There was a shelf below, just above the wheels, which held four deep cycle marine batteries. These provided all of Clyde's power when he was not plugged in.

While it was true that Clyde was the first to make the trip to the past and back successfully again, he was not the first to try.

When Paul first began working on the idea of moving something or someone back in time, there were many obstacles to overcome. Paul had always envisioned a standalone time ship that would carry people from one time period to another. As the research progressed, it became clear that there were enough serious problems with that plan that it became highly impractical. First, his time machine would need enormous amounts of power and would have to have that energy available when it was in the past, where external electricity might not be possible. There were only a couple ways to overcome that. One would be a massive diesel generator that would make the time ship extremely large and very loud. That was not practical for the purpose of slipping into a past time period and back unnoticed. The other option was a small nuclear reactor. While a reactor would be silent and more portable; it was not possible for Paul to get his hands on one for this project. The regulations and safety concerns would never allow it. Paul knew he had to come up with a different approach. At the time these challenges were being worked out was when he brought Tom on board. Together they took the problem apart and realized that the massive amount of energy and most of the hardware were for calculating the matrix and created the portal to the past. Once that was done, the portal could be maintained as long as there was something on the other side to help hold it open. Instead of sending the time machine to the past. It could remain in the present, and open the portal, and sent a small low power device through. Together the two machines would hold the portal to the past open, and the remote system could initiate the transit back at the given time. This change removed the need for a large, possibly loud device to make the trip to the past.

Because of this, most of the early work centered on the large device they built in the basement of the institute. It was controlled from the lab and did the heavy work for opening the portal to the past.

As this work progressed, they built the first remote system. It was an early version of Clyde, and it sat on a lab bench. The team nicknamed the device Mona. No sooner was Mona created than the team noticed the problems. It was not portable and would never be able to carry a person to the past. However, with the use of Mona and the systems in the basement, they were able to open a portal to the past. They just could not get a clear understanding of what time period it opened into.

This first success excited the team. They reworked many of their processes, and this included rebuilding the device that would move through the portal. This time Paul and his team built the machine on a utility cart. It was far more portable than Mona and corrected many of her defects. This unit was named Wally. Early tests went better, and eventually, they decided it was time to send Wally back a day in time. Wally arrived at precisely the correct time, but the location calculation needed refining. No one is sure of the exact location he arrived but was over the main parking lot. It could have been one hundred feet in the air or a thousand. Either way, Wally was found in pieces and made a small crater in the asphalt on arrival.

This setback did not deter any of them because they had sent an object back in time, just not as planned. The project team pushed on. They worked to refine the process and rebuild the remote device. This time they built a much more rugged machine. Up to four seats could be added, or they could come off to allow for multiple remote cameras or other equipment to be mounted. After much debate, this remote was named Clyde.