by Dan Jones
This bedtime story is about astronauts trying to find their way back to their own time by creating a time machine in space. They visit various periods on Earth, from Dinosaurs to the modern day and back to their own time in the future. They have been on a multi-year mission to distant solar systems before returning home.
Transcript
So as you listen to me and begin to drift comfortably asleep, I don't know whether you'll drift more comfortably asleep to the sound of my voice or the spaces between my words or perhaps to the words that I use. And as you drift comfortably asleep, I'm just going to tell you a story in the background. It's a story about a person who is travelling on a spaceship and the year is way off in the future from here, And they've been travelling from Earth for many years, They've explored different planets, Different solar systems, Their technology has advanced to a tremendous level where they can travel at almost the speed of light. But there's a flaw with this, That although time doesn't take long for them, Now they're heading back towards Earth, They're aware that thousands of years will have passed and all those loved ones will have also passed, So although it's only been a few decades to them, Time has been different for those they love. So while they're making their journey, They start working with some colleagues on ideas to address this, And they end up creating this idea of warping space and time around them using light, By firing some long beams of light and then spinning those beams of light and speeding up the spinning of those beams of light faster and faster and faster, Until the beams of light are spinning at almost the speed of light, And that those spinning beams should create a path of being able to travel from the present into the past, Where you can travel around the beams in one direction and you'll go into the past, And you can travel around the beams in the other direction and you'll go into the future. But they don't know how to make sure they're fine tuned, So as they approach the Earth, They fire these beams from a satellite they send out into space from the ship, They then fly the ship close to the beams into the twisted space, And they barely notice anything as they get close to those beams in the twisted space and then pull away from the beams a little bit. And as they do, They can see the Earth beneath them. They decide to travel down to the Earth to take a look at where they are now. They're not picking up any communication, They can't seem to pick up any satellites. And they go down to the Earth with a lander, And they land that ship on the Earth, And with a small team they wander out onto the Earth to explore, And they're aware that something is different about the atmosphere. It just seems a bit heavier and a bit more sluggish in some way, While at the same time it makes them feel a bit light-headed. Then they notice the ground vibrate, They hear a thud, Then they hear another thud and the ground vibrates again, Then another and another. They look around trying to work out where this thudding is coming from. They walk through some trees and then they see what they thought was giant tree trunks, Except that they raise off the ground and slam back down. They look up and notice it's a huge dinosaur with a long neck stretching way out in front of it, A long tail stretching way off behind it, And it's sweeping its head from left to right and then right to left, Eating at the plants. And it eats its way along, A bit like a typewriter moving along from one side to the other. Then once it reaches the end and has cleared all the food there, It takes a big step forward with all its legs, Making four thuds. And now it's slightly further forward and it repeats, It just eats, Swinging its neck from that side back to where it came from, Eating all the food and then it steps forward again. And they look around, They notice there's many of these dinosaurs doing this. Then they hear a loud, Ear-splitting screech and loud thuds, Like running, Like something enormous running. Then they see what looks like a T-Rex burst out from the forest and jump at one of these dinosaurs. And the dinosaur just pushes them off. But the T-Rex-type dinosaur tries again and again. And the astronauts are unsure of what time period this is. But it seems that this dinosaur must be a bit desperate if it's trying to take on something so big. And was wondering maybe these dinosaurs had started to die out, Maybe some infection or something had happened before any asteroid had hit. But they thought to themselves, If they've come that far back into the past, What if they're unlucky enough to have come back to just when an asteroid is about to hit? So they go and get back on their ship, Take off back towards space, Fly back to their main ship and head back to their time machine. They swing round again and then fly off again. They fly in a ship back down towards the earth. Again, They don't notice any satellites. They don't pick up any signals. They don't have much hope that this will be about their time. But at least the earth this time round looks more like the earth they're familiar with. So they fly down to the earth and they land on a shoreline. And they can see out to sea vast numbers of huge whales. It seems like whales have taken over the earth, Taken over the ocean. And they watch from the shore as whales breach the surface. Let out breath of a rainbow of water, A cloud above their head before diving down as a group. And they watch this a while and they try and figure out where and when they are. And they notice that this must be prior to humans doing lots of whaling because there are so many whales. And they can't see any human settlements. And they decide to get in their ship, Fly to another area to see if they can find evidence of humans somewhere to get an idea of what time they're in. Because although they're attempting to get back to their time, The time they set off, They're intrigued by this ability to time travel and what it is they can learn. But at the same time they know they can't change the past. They've got to do their best not to interfere with anything. And they fly over the earth and their ship travels faster than anything that would be seen for many years, For centuries. Taking just minutes to fly around the earth. And so as they fly, They scan. And they can't see any significant structures while they fly around. And then eventually they notice as they fly over Egypt, There are some large structures there. And they notice that there's a pyramid, A huge pyramid, Just in the process of having the outside of it put into place. And they land some distance away and they decide to go and investigate. And they walk into a nearby village. Get some clothes to blend in. And they walk to go and investigate the building of this huge pyramid. And they watch from a distance, Trying not to draw too much attention to themselves, While also trying to study. And they see the way the slabs are being pulled into place. And the huge numbers of people that are working on the structure, While others are farming, Others are ferrying things down the river. They notice all the hustle and bustle in this area. And they decide that they need to go back to their ship before they get noticed or accidentally interfere with the timeline. So they go back, Get in their ship, Launch off into the sky, Go back into space and head back to their main ship. They try to work out the calculations for exactly the point they need to reach when passing their time device. So they can come out in their time. They know they're getting closer. They've gone from dinosaurs to Egyptian civilization. So using those two measurements, They work out pretty much where they think they need to reach as they pass around their time device. So that when they pull away from it, They should be in their usual time, In the time they set off. And so they fly towards it, Swing close to the beams of laser, Pull away, And they immediately pick up that there are satellites joining them in space. They can hear chatter coming through radio signals. So they realize that they're at least at a point where there's a civilization on the planet that has things in space. They fly down to the earth. They see that there's cities everywhere. They notice that it doesn't look like they're back to their usual time yet. But they don't know exactly what time this is. So they land in a park on the outskirts of a city. They head into the city to have a look, See where they are, When they are. And they recognize it as being the late 20th century. They recognize a yellow bus that goes past. They don't yet know the exact date, But they know the time period. And then they find a newspaper stand, And they now know the exact date. And they know that by knowing the exact date, They can now refine their judgments and refine how they can make sure that their next leap takes them home. They continue to explore for a while, Taking the culture, Learn what they can about this time period, While not interfering. Before heading back to their ship, Getting on board their ship, And launching and heading back into space, Joining their main ship. And they start working on making sure that their next close encounter with their time device will take them home. And they realize that to make these really tiny time jumps of just a few hundred years, You have to be incredibly accurate. And using just these two lasers spinning in close proximity, They've got to be more accurate than a couple of atoms of the exact spot they need to reach. So they realize they need to make their time device larger. They need it to be wider, So there's more circumference to target at. But to do that, They need to energize the time device. They need to make those lasers even more powerful and add in more lasers. So they work day and night, Adding in more lasers, Adding more power, Finding ways to increase the power. They become aware that they're going to need so much power, It will almost totally drain the remaining power supplies of their ship. They need to know that this time, They land close enough to their usual time, Within perhaps just a few years, So that they can stay wherever they land. So after energizing those laser beams, Broadening the laser beams, They start the device again, Firing those laser beams, Spinning them. And as they spin faster and faster, They begin to twist, Twisting time and space around with them. And they're broad enough now that they're confident they can get within five or ten years of the destination they're seeking. So they decide to aim for about ten years after they set off. They've aged by about thirty years, But they decide if they aim for about ten years after they set off, Hopefully they'll arrive either just as they seem to have set off, And no more than about twenty years after they set off. And so they plot the coordinates to be as close as they can to the correct spot around the edge of those laser beams. And they fly the ship to that point, Before curving off away from the laser beams. And they find themselves in a crowded space, In a familiar space. They can pick up communication, They're aware that this communication seems to be from around their kind of time that they set off. They can see that there's lights and there's artificial buildings on the moon. So they can see that they're in around the time that they should be. And they have to take the whole ship down to land, Because they won't have enough power. For the ship to remain in space, And have a lander go down and come back and then land the ship. They have to do it all at once. So they go down to the surface of the earth. They land the ship. The crew leaves the ship across a narrow bridge from the ship onto a landing pad. Everything seems familiar. They were guided in, Their ship landed, Following automated processes of the era. And they get greeted by people who know who they are and realise who they are. Who tell them that it was as if they've only just left, And yet they look quite old. And they realise they've landed, Not long after they took off and went exploring. And they explain what their journey has been. They explain where they've been to distant solar systems. They explain the creation of their time device. And how they've learned to master that time device. And how one can be built in space, Above the earth, To be powered from the earth. And they all go their separate ways back to their loved ones. To enjoy their time back on earth.
