Today I'm featuring a guest post by Tim Ashby on time travel in his new novel Time Fall.
About
Time Fall
Lt. Art Sutton’s team of six US
Rangers parachute into Nazi Germany… but they vanish in 1945. They land, a few
minutes later, in 2011. The Rangers are unaware of the passage of time all
around them and the valiant, misguided soldiers begin to attack “enemy”
targets.
They face the age old question - What is good? What
is evil?
About
Tim Ashby
Timothy Ashby's life has
been as thrilling as one of his action/adventure novels. Visit his author blog
at www.timashby.com.
An international lawyer,
businessman, and writer, Tim Ashby worked in Washington DC as a
counter-terrorism consultant to the U.S. State Department, and then as a senior
official - the youngest political appointee of his rank - at the U.S. Commerce
Department, responsible for commercial relations with Latin America and the
Caribbean. He held two Top Secret security clearances and worked with a number
of colorful characters, including members of the U.S. military's Joint Special
Operations Command (JSOC). He has lived in the Caribbean and Europe as well as
various places in the United States. An avid historian, he published widely on
military history, archaeology, business and international relations. A licensed
attorney in Florida and the District of Columbia, Tim Ashby has a PhD degree
from the University of Southern California, a JD from Seattle University Law
School, and an MBA from the University of Edinburgh Scotland.
Time
Travel in TIME FALL by Timothy Ashby
In my new thriller, Time
Fall, I chose to treat time travel as a "natural" freak of nature
– a severe electrical storm as portrayed in the book. The plot device that
causes the World War II soldiers to “fall” through time is therefore neither
supernatural nor some advanced sci fi technology. I introduce this in the
book’s opening scenes:
The
transport’s teenaged flight engineer ducked inside the cockpit. “Radio operator
just picked up a weather report,” he said. “Severe electrical storms northern
France, southern Germany. Low cloud ceiling.”
Soon
afterwards, as the military transport enters the storm, the crew experience the
beginning of the natural phenomenon:
“What the hell?” Woody
yelled. Cal’s eyes swept the windshield, widening at a kaleidoscope of sparks
flecking the glass. Beyond, the aircraft’s nose was bathed in an eerie glow. He
glanced out a side window, seeing the same bluish flame flickering along the
port wing.
“It-it’s only St. Elmo’s
Fire,” he said, quavering voice betraying his doubt. “Happens when you’re
flying through a charged atmosphere like this thunderstorm. Nothing to worry
about.”
Woody continued to watch,
mesmerized by the ghostly display.
“Glad you think
so,” he said hoarsely.
Then,
as Lt. Art Sutton and his Rangers team prepare to jump into Nazi Germany on
their sabotage mission, they begin to feel the effects of the electrical storm
that will propel them into another time:
Heart
pounding, Sutton shuffled forward, the bulky parachute pack jouncing against
his thighs. Then he was at the doorway, fingers hooked into the perforated
jambs, hunched against the shrieking gale outside. He could see the tip of the
aircraft’s horizontal stabilizer shimmering with phosphorescent light. The
metal skin of the aircraft hummed ethereally, rising in volume like a celestial
chorus.
An
uncanny prickling raised the hairs on the back of Sutton’s neck. He wondered if
it was a premonition of death.
The
moment that the “time fall” takes place is described from the pilot’s
perspective:
An
enormous thunderclap shook the aircraft. At that moment the electric blue glow
shrouding Bouncing Betty intensified along with the humming sound. Sparks
crackled throughout the cockpit. The aircraft’s radio went dead and the compass
spun like a demented top. Cal’s jaw fell open, fingers tightening on the
control yoke as the airplane seemed to plummet into a void. Ears ringing, he
frantically scanned the instrument panel, watching its gauges fluctuate. A spasm
of nausea wrenched his gut.
“Woody!”
he gasped, glancing at the copilot before returning to the instrument panel.
His eyes widened. The banks of red-lighted instruments were now functioning
perfectly, every needle steady.
“Wh-what
was that?”
Woody
bit his lower lip to control its trembling. “Felt like we took a direct hit!”
Cal
shook his head, feeling vertigo like oxygen deprivation. He figured that the
phenomenon had lasted several seconds, roughly the length of time it took for
the parachutists to leave the aircraft.
“Dunno,”
he said, “but that weird St. Elmo’s Fire is gone.”
Although
the aircraft and its crew safely return to their wartime base, the effects of
the phenomenon linger:
From
the corner of his eye, he saw Woody shake his left wrist, then lean forward and
rap on the instrument panel clock. “Hey,” the copilot said, “let me borrow your
watch. Both mine and the aircraft’s have stopped.”
Cal
pushed up his sleeve. Surprise tightened his features.
“Mine’s
stopped too.”
“Hey,”
added Ward, “so’s mine.”
Two
days later, Bouncing Betty’s crew
gathered in a country pub. Cal rambled drunkenly about the strange phenomena
and instrument failure while Woody watched a trio of WAAFs at the bar. But Jim
Ward drank quietly, wondering what had caused every timepiece aboard the
aircraft on the Bandstand mission to irreparably stop at 11:08 P.M.
Later
in the book, I offer a hint about what had caused Sutton’s team to land in
Bavaria in 2011 after parachuting from their aircraft in 1945:
Leafing
through the paper, he noticed a story in the Science section: “Magnetic Convulsions Behind Sun Storms.” The
article said that solar storms causing massive convulsions of magnetic energy
were exceptionally powerful that spring. Physicists were speculating that solar
flares could influence weather patterns and even affect the space-time
continuum. Yeah, sure, Eddie thought
cynically before closing the paper.
Do I
think that “time travel” as described in my novel is possible? While the story
is fictional, I describe – in a dialogue between two Vietnam veterans – an
actual incident that inspired me to write Time
Fall. During the Vietnam war a military helicopter mysteriously disappeared
after flying into a strange cloud during the monsoon season. Hundreds of
military personnel witnessed the phenomenon, a high-level investigation took
place, but no trace of the aircraft or its crew was found. Perhaps one day that
helicopter will land in a very different Vietnam with its unsuspecting crew of
young American soldiers.
Filled with historically accurate details, Time Fall is a complex military tale that keeps readers riveted through every surprising twist. Read an excerpt and to enter to win a FREE copy of Time Fall, visit http://www.timefallbook.com/. For your copy, visit http://amzn.to/190ZMwe. You can also get your copy at all major book retailers.
No comments:
Post a Comment