The Fog

by John Kallimanis

Chapter 1
Preamble
George was in the kitchen, getting a glass of orange juice, when he saw
something strange in the garden. Mist was forming. In the middle of the
Arizona desert. That was meteorologically impossible. Rushing towards the
door, he stepped outside. His instruments read a temperature of 5 C and
humidity of a wooping 80%. What?, said he, taking a sip of juice from his
glass to compensate for the excitement. It s certainly fog. But how?
As he was about to return inside in order to catalog the event, his astonishment grew even greater. The mist was condensing, forming minute
droplets which fell as a peculiar rain of silver light. Have I drunk anything
weird lately? Or is it that I am allergic to oranges?
But he was utterly dazzled and absurdly fascinated by the visionary that
was forming. He was witnessing a sunrise, although it was near midnight and
his orientation was towards the west. A round, fake-looking Sun was shining
upon a landscape of lush vegetation and exotic creatures, some known to
be extinct. Pterodactyles dominated the clear blue sky and bright-coloured
unicorns roamed the nearby hills.
Is that... a dream?, was he about to ask when the fantasy setting
faded away, substituted by three masked bandits in black who approached
him in a threatening manner. George pulled out his firearm and aimed at
the intruders, which did not seem to mind. What the hell !, said he as he
fired a warning shot. All of a sudden, the vision disappeared after pausing
for some tenths of a second.
Out of the blue, a voice could be heard, amplified by some sort of megaphone.
Are you nuts? You ve just destroyed my lens. Why would anyone ever
do that? And... how could you aim through that mist?
It was a man with a profound scottish accent, of certainly old age.
WHAT?, said George in a trembling voice. I didn t fire on anything
1

CHAPTER 1. PREAMBLE

particular....
I m your new neighbour, former engineer., the stranger continued. I
ve built that hollogram projector myself. You ve just ruined it, but ain t
it nice?
Well, highly REALISTIC , shouted George ironically. And the fog?
I m certainly not responsible for that. Maybe we should investigate it
together...
Fine! Could you let me have some sleep? It s about midnight. And you
are still an invading stranger after all...
Come. There is not much time!, the old man proclaimed seriously.
I d like to, but you don t seem to make any sense., said George. The
engineer, now obviously worried, apologized for what he was about to do
and hit George in the head with a well placed strike, in order to render him
unconscious. Glancing at the sky that was now getting clearer, he slowly
started dragging George away.

Chapter 2
Abducted
George felt a splash of water upon waking up. Welcome aboard the scaphe,
said the former engineer, soaking George with water from a sizeable bucket.
What s the scaphe... where am I... who are you?, asked George, confused.
Ah, now I remember! you are the kidnapper from last night. What I don
t get is your motive. And your proffesion. You are not an engineer...
Shut up! Of course I am. We don t have much time. I need to activate
the scaphe.
George was now aware of his environment. They were in a hot-air balloon,
gaining altitude. Hot air balloons are obsolete. And dangerous. And you
haven t cared to disarm me, said George, aiming towards the balloon. A
shot and that thing pops. You can t survive that. Now land it.
Of course I will. On the scaphe.
Aren t we aboard the scaphe, as you told me? What s that scaphe
actually?
Finally... I was afraid I would need to keep provoking this question for
much longer. Anyway. Lower that goddamn gun of yours and I ll tell you.
And no. We are not aboard the scaphe. Not yet... All of a sudden, the
engineer toggled a switch and protruded his right arm in a theatrical way,
pointing to the horizon. The image of a gas balloon, about 200 meters in
diameter became visible, fading slowly in.
An... Another hot air balloon..., stuttered George flabbergasted.
Close but no cigar, answered the engineer. That s a scaphe. The first
of its kind. The most advanced craft on Earth. And beyond. A masterpiece
of engineering. My masterpiece of engineering!
Believing he was addressing a nutcase, George proclaimed that the Mongofliers invented that type of craft, five hundred years ago.
But the Monglfliers craft could not do that.
Could not do what? Fade in and out? Come on, invisibility cloaking is
3

CHAPTER 2. ABDUCTED

common grounds nowadays...

Hold tight!, said he as he started tapping the keyboard of a computer
that was installed on the balloon. There are gonna be nasty perturbations.
That s an issue worth addressing. Then the engineer, calmly untied the
basket from the balloon and they started falling. George did not shout. He
was so astounded that he was left speechless. They were about 1000 meters
above the ground when the free fall started. If he believed in God, he would
even have the time to finish a prayer.
Yet, 25 meters before reaching the ground, a great mechanical shock could
be felt and the duo was found inside a spacious room, with three more hot-air
balloon baskets parked. Is that a storage room?, asked George. Actually,
it s the scaphe s storage room. We re in now. Teleportation is a scientific
impossibility. We can t be there.
I completely agree with you. Teleportation is impossible. Even if it was
not, an ordinary balloon like that would not be able to teleport..., answered
the engineer with a weird stern wittiness.
Why do you say that?
Because there was no damn electronic equipment apart from that lousy
computer aboard. That s why! Now the old man was actually annoyed.
George inferred that actually the Scaphe had moved right below them through
a manner completely unknown to him and the scientific community, after
being commanded to do so by its engimatic inventor who had released their
basket onto free fall towards it, with a withheld fascination and yet without
fear. For he would have performed that manouvre numerous times before...
Let me show you around. And he did.
The scaphe had 5 rooms including the storage room. First of all, I need
to explain myself. apologised the engineer. It was certainly not kind to
pick you up like that, if I hadn t, you would be dead. Your house has been
turned into asses.
What? How dared you...
Nope. I didn t do it. A test for a new type of nuclear warheads, the new
small-sized ones was issued. The actual reason was to destroy your research
on the fog. You are safe in here though.
That s quite unpleasant, but the scaphe seems intersting, go on...
Ah! the scaphe... Let us go to the engine room...
Does it have an engine? Ain t it a balloon?
Well... Yes, and no. For both questions., explained the man pushing
the thick black skeleton of his glasses towards his forehead. Weirdly enough
given his sharp vision, George hadn t noticed them previously. Listen
carefully, as you may need to fly this thing at some point: First of all, this is

CHAPTER 2. ABDUCTED

not an airship. It s a tachyon craft. The first of its kind. I invented it. It is
predominantly a time machine, although I mostly use it for transportation.
May I remind you that time travel is scientifically impossible?, noticed
George in an ironical manner, while staring on a surface that looked like the
front panel of an ancient computer, with dozens of twinkling red and green
lights along with hex toggle switches.
Come on, our physicists have predicted that we can travel forward in
time, given that we move with a speed similar to that of the light.
And can this scaphe of yours do that?, asked George disbelievingly.
Nah, that would be stupid. It can just move faster than light.
George was astounded. According to the Theory of Relativity c, the speed
of light cannot even be reached, let alone superseded. But when he tried to
doubt his cospeaker, the engineer was annoyed by his disbelief.
I m an engineer. I know that. But there is nothing preventing us to
supersede the speed of light before reaching it. Before saying that this is total
nonsense, let me make a small demonstration: He started rushing around,
from room to room, toggling switches and pulling levers. A subtle buzzing
noise was heard. You see that door over there? It s a Faraday cage. Get
inside if you don t want your brain to fry.... The engineer waited for George
to get inside and then stepped in. There were 7 safety seats inside, like those
of an airplane, in a circular ordering. On the ceiling was an inscription
stating:
Fasten your seatbelt and then hold tight. The scaphe will move,
faster than light.
Why does it rime?
Nah, just for fun, it s cool up there. After all the turbulence is not due
to the speed. It s before it get s to it.
Then he pressed five buttons in order. Hold tight. We are in free fall. I
have retracted the balloon. A loud bang was heard. Now the engines are
going. Comfy, huh?
Yeah, well.
After ten seconds a the bang was heard again You should install some
noise insulation.
We are here
Where exactly?
Floating above your house, a week ago. We ll get there in a minute.
Just let me explain the mechanics of this craft.

Chapter 3
The scaphe
The scaphe is a tachyon craft. That is, it moves with a tachyon sail. Tachyons
are particles predicted by the Superstring theory, effectively disstabilizing it.
Scientists have long been trying to get rid of them, because their mass is
described by an imaginary number and their characteristic speed is greater
than c, which effectively means their temporal velocity is from future to the
past. Although their existence was highly doubted, I noticed a loss of test
fluid from the tanks of the neutrino detector Super Kamiokande in Japan.
The heavy water utilized there was possibly able to capture tachyons. Due to
the momentum of the tachyons, the heavy water s particles were effectively
dragged back to time. It was an interesting theory, but I needed to prove
my point. I invented a test fluid more capable of capturing tachyons and
managed to have it transfered back to time. (The fact that it went back to
time was a safe assumption, as it can t have simply disintegrated, due to
the law of preservation of mass).
Further experiments led me to the invention of a fluid that is tachyonattractive only when electric current flows through it. That solves the storing
issues that arised from previous experiments, in which the liquid disintegrated
instantly upon its synthesis. Then, I developed the scaphe. If I was to travell
in time, I would need a way to follow the fluid back in time. The greatest
challenge was the development of a material that can be joined firmly with
the liquid, so that it, too gets dragged in the liquids direction. And with it,
me! Ordinary tubes and bottles do not suffice. The liquid flees from there
and that s why it seems as if the water disintegrates.
The scaphe s main body is built from graphene micro-tubes. Its molecules
can easily get attached to the liquid s, because they both convey electricity
well. When voltage of about 1500 Volts is directed to the graphene, it is
transfered to the liquid, too. But the liquid is attached to graphene at a
molecular level. Hence, the whole structure goes back in time.
6

CHAPTER 3. THE SCAPHE

As a safety measure, a pump circulates the fluid through the micro tubes,
hence the buzzing noise of the craft prior to the activation of the engine. This
is vital, because if the liquid does not circulate well, only part of the structure
will travel back to time, as only part of the structure will be in touch with
the liquid. During the final activation phase, I direct the electric current
through the fluid via a switch.
However, there is another caveat: Tachyons are coming from virtually
any direction. So if we activate the machine without a directioning cirquit,
it will travel to everywhere. That means that the ship s inhabitants and
the ship itself will be stretched towards every direction until their atoms are
spread through the whole time and space. Practically, when this strethcing
starts to occur, the graphene molecules become seperated from the tachyonattracting fluid, which means that the fluid instantly disintegrates and the
craft goes nowhere.
Thus, I needed to find a way to collimate the tachyons before reaching
the fluid. After long and strenuous research I discovered that this can be
done by setting up intense electromagnetic fields around the craft. These are
dangerous for every living being, including us, hence the Faraday cage we
are in. Without it, we would be dead.
The whole ship constitutes a huge tachyon sail. But tachyons move from
the future to the present and past. That means that, in contrary to an normal
sailing ship, which moves at the same direction as the wind, the velocity of
the tachyon sail is the opposite of the velocity of the tachyon ray. It s quite
like a windship literary sailing against the wind. That happens always, as
the scaphe acquires it s velocity instantaneously. It either has tachyonic
velocity or not, because the tachyons move through fermionic dimensions.
The scaphe goes backwards in time, and because of that, it has seemingly moved backwards in space when its journey is over. So in order to go
somewhere with the scaphe, you need to go towards the opposite direction.
However, it s not as simple as that. Tachyons are a form of CBR, Cosmic
Background Radiation, which I call CTB, the Cosmic Tachyonic Background.
This is isotropic and thus could be considered a static coordination system.
Thus, the Earth moves through the CTB and its velocity has to be taken into
account, too. These are really complex calculations, carried out with crappy
precision by the ship s computer. These calculation could be carried out
better by a supercomputer, but they are far too bulky, heavy and expensive
to be used here. Hence the limited precision of the navigational system. But
the fact that it goes back in time alleviates the difficulties. We already know
where the Earth has been previously, so it is rather easy to adjust our course
to its orbit.
Rather more complex is travel to the future, because then the tachyon

CHAPTER 3. THE SCAPHE

sail cannot be utilized. What we can do is the following:

1. Use the sail to throw the ship back to time, but into outer space and
near a large center of gravity, exempli gratie a large star or a black
hole.
2. As the ship is attracted towards the center of gravity, it accelerates.
3. Before it collides to the celestial object (or falls into the Schwarzild
horizon, if it s a black hole), steer the ship towards Earth and towards
another object.
4. When it reaches about 90% of the speed of light, point it towards the
Earth. If it is too far away, use the sail to get closer in space to Earth
yet further back in time. The velocity of the craft before the sail was
activated is resumed after the sail is deactivated, due to the law of
preservation of momentum.
5. Now you should be orbiting the sun with a relativistic velocity (maintain elliptical orbit using rocket boosters, etc).
6. Calculate when you should stop, using the equations of plain, old theory
of general relativity. Time inside the ship flows slower than the time
outside. Thus, after some months of journey the ship should have
made up for the time lost during the use of the sail and keep travelling
forward in time.
7. Brake the ship and enter the Earth s atmpsphere. Make sure the heat
shields are working properly.
8. Open up a parachute to slow you descent.
The ship is equiped with a gas balloon for short distance travel. Moreover,
because its computer is crappy, it cannot land properly even after a short
journey of two minutes back in time. Thus, when the sail is deactivated, a
parachute and the balloon are activated to stabilize the ship in midair. Then
it can be controlled as an ordinary airship.

Chapter 4
Revelations
What s that computer front panel to which you had been keying instructions in? I thought those had been obsoleted at least 60 years before...,
wondered George.
The hasty-looking engineer glanced at the clock on the opposite wall,
which indicated UTC no matter of where, or more approprieately when the
weird airship travelled. Judging that they could afford it, he acquired a
sound and calm expression and started talking. But he sounded surprised
and unprepared.
How the hell do you know what this is? You youngsters have never seen
such stuff...
Well, I ve read a book or two, replied George. But what the hell is
that doing here?
Ah, said the Engineer, it was not supposed to be here. It s one of my
earliest embarassments...
When I first built the scaphe, part of the structure was not rigid enough.
The ship was powered by a descent server, and controlled via normal set of
display and keyboard. A workstation.
I was on an early stage of developing tachyon-sailing algorithms. I had
created the theory, built the machine and calculated the voltage that should
circulate through the tachyon attractive fluid. I knew, from theory, exactly
how the directioning cirquit controlling the antennas I told you about earlier
should function. But implementing it was tough and frustrating. At first
I thought I could control the ship manually, adjusting the direction and
polarization of the directioning signal through a steering wheel.
What a nonsense... That would be far too dangerous. I could as probably
end up inside the scorching heart of a Super Nova in Andromeda Galaxy, as
in a corner shop in Cornwall, but thirty years earlier or fifty years after.
So I started writing a computer programme, one that would preepmtively
9

CHAPTER 4. REVELATIONS

10

calculate the course of the Scaphe before the engine was fired, according to
my theory, take into acount the position of Earth and other astronomical
data as well as the latencies of the computer and the scaphe itself. Then,
it would execute a set of directioning instructions precisely and with good
timing (as possible). It should also take into account measurements of several
instruments aboard the Scaphe, evaluate the readings in real time and make
adjustments.
Sounds pretty obvious, yet cool...
Yeap, Certainly. But writing it was difficult and debugging took forever.
I couldn t risk losing the actual thing to a test, so I used a simulator programme for testing. But, given how complicated the thing was, simulation
took for ever. Sometimes the test took more than 3 weeks to complete. And
if a single error was encountered, it would abort. And so it went.
After 5 years of strenuous and kinda masochistic software engineering, I
was close to the solution. The simulator, running for about 27 days and 2
hours more or less, had revealed no errors. Never before had I reached
that far. Then, a passer-by walked onto my office. Furiously.
He had mistaken it for the office of one of his personal enemies. A corrupt
contractor who had caused financial devastation to his business. And, he,
having nothing more to lose as he was one step after bankruptcy, decided to
take revenge by... beating the crap out of him. Or me.
I instantly jumped from my seat, ready to defend myself using a mixture
of the 7 martial arts I was profficient at. And yes, that s how I managed to
put you out so swiftly...
But during the brawl for he was tough he tripped over the power line of
one of my servers. The one that was smoking from the proecessor intensive
time flight simulation. Not having considered to use an auxiliary power
supply for this very machine, the simulation/debugging face aborted.
I saw red.
The building s security eventually came. And put an end to the fight.
Yet, I was still mad about the destruction of my simulation process. However,
the programme seemed alright. Never before had the simulation managed
to go that far. I had commanded my virtual Scaphe to get to 5210 B.C. in
Easter Island, and it was almost halfway there. Previous attmepts failed just
after the preparations face.
And then I thought that I d rather die due to a fault on the Scaphe
s systems, rather than of old age, waiting for its software to be perfected,
ironing out minor bugs and glitches. For that is how long it seemed to take.
Scaphe is actually plural in Latin, ain t it?
Of course it is, it means boats, but quite few people know this and
Scaphe sounds cool. It s just a name.

CHAPTER 4. REVELATIONS

11

Well, let me continue. So I decided to quit debugging. After all, as long as

I kept researching there, patent agents would eventually show up, requiring
me to register the Scaphe. I would rather dump the prototype in the depths
of the Pacific Ocean, burn the blueprints and destroy any sign of my research.
For something that immensely powerful, revolutionary and dangerous is not
to be left under the protection of a system too weak for that purpose.
Dangerous? How can vehicle be dangerous?
It s a time-machine, remember? Can you imagine every rich, spoiled blister with enough funds to buy a Scaphe, or bribe one with access to blueprints
to gain access to them and have it constructed? And then use it as a yaught,
to impress girls and go on vacations to Pangaia?
Does it actually WORK?
Don t ask silly questions, answered the engineer strictly.
We actually know too little about time travel. One may be able to change
the past or cause paradoxes, or change the course of history. That godly
power should not fall to the wrong hands. If it is to be actually acquired by
people at all, they should be sane and responsible. At least...
And are you that kind of person?, asked George, looking quite reflective.
I don t know, maybe not, answered the engineer mockingly.
For instance, imagine a mighty general, brave and patriotic, acquiring a
small fleet of time vessels and using it to to eliminate their enemies before
they were born. I can even foresee the names of those crafts. You are
familiar with the meaning F20 and F22. And the legacy, F16. F stands for
Fighter-plane. I d rather not allow my Scaphe to be used as an instrument
for inconventional warfare. Nor will I ever let its name be shortened to a
numbered S.
I am just an engineer, performing tests for a new vehicle. It s not ready
yet. And Benz did not consider the environmental pollution to be caused by
cars while he was inventing the internal combustion engine.
Ah, and I forgot! George, hot-air balloons don t pop when shot by a
small firearm. Just so you know.

Chapter 5
Parallelisms
As the duo rapelled down from the hull on the cold, dessert night, George
noticed something weird. They had landed, on purpose of course, at the
back of the house, where no windows were visible, apart from a portholelike openning from the attic. But, as George and the Engineer both knew,
George was not at the attic at that particular moment. They where not in
danger of being seen.
As they where making their way over the perimeter through the thick
darkness, dressed in ninja-style hoods, a loud bark took them by sheer surprise.
Is this... my dog?, George proclaimed.
Shhh... Aparrently, so..., whispered the engineer.
But... I don t have a dog, actually, whispered George, beweirded.
I didn t say otherwise.
Whaaat?
Damn it, be quiet.
Where you planning to buy a dog?
Why the hell would I need a dog?
To protect you from time-travelling burglars such as... us, probably?
Nah, I hadn t thought of that.
Then it must be a gift from someone you know.
It is not exactly easy to have friends in the middle of the desert.
The dog was smelling around, searching for something.
Luckily, it does not seem well trained. Otherwise, it would have gotten
us by now, whispered the engineer, watching the movements of the large
German Sepherd.
Apparently, George, how would you name your dog?
I don t know.

12

CHAPTER 5. PARALLELISMS

13

The dog, as if voltage was applied to it, halted and looked around curiously. Then it started closing the two men, who were hiding behind a wall
of middle-height cacti.
You d better come up with a name. Now, said the worried engineer
quietly.
Well, lets call him Rex.
Alright, said the engineer and called the dog Rex, over here!. Now
its your turn, lad, said the engineer, hastingly pushing George outside their
shelter. George, with almost no experience with animals allover, said Rex,
come here boy, its alright. The dog leaked his arms moving his tails, jumped
around for half a minutes and was lost at the other side of the perimeter.
Well, it seems that you are no good with animals, George. She s a
bitch, how could you name her Rex? Regina, for instance would be far more
appropriate., joked the engineer.
Well, I hadn t noticed the sex..., replied George.
No, that was really her name, she responded. You named her that way.
Or, almost you.
That s insane.
Nope! We must have slipped to a parallel universe, explained the engineer warmly, one in which you have a dog.
Are we sure it s me?
Yes, we must have hit a software bug. Again. Time to fix that programme. It has happened at least three times exluding this.