Date the Squid

by Dave Krenitsky

"The squid is gone," yelled Dave.

"So have the sushi. Don't be such a baby," Cathy never could figure out Dave's sense of humor.

"No. the Ancient Sacred Squid. The icon of the Clovman order," Dave pushed Cathy aside and jumped into the time pod. "The metal squid that was supposedly handed to Cloyman by an Angel of God." "It was stolen?" "No, get serious. It was time napped." Dave slammed the pod door closed and hit the activate button. He hoped that enough data would be downloaded before the pod disengaged from the time line. "Where are we going? Or should I ask when?" Bob asked. "Who are you?" "I'm Bob. I'm writing an article on the Time Research and Recovery Department for Scientific American." Dave looked at the control panel. They had disengaged from the time line and he still remembered the squid. But that meant nothing. He looked at the readouts. A revision wave had passed their departure time just minutes after they had disengaged. "Hello. What's happening?" Dave looked over at his passenger, then the panel. The pod was hovering outside the time line. Next he had to determine the date he needed to reach. A science writer would be a help in doing the research. "Sorry for all of this. But it was an emergency." "What's going on?" "Ok. The Ancient Sacred Squid of Cloyman was time napped. That means it was taken out of the time line. We have to go back and prevent that from happening. Otherwise all of history will change." "Why the rush? Cathy was telling me that one of the nice things about time recovery was that time is not of the essence. When you can travel in time it doesn't matter when you start from." "Usually. Suppose someone leaves 2150 and modifies the time line, say in 1900, a revision wave is generated. That revision wave travels forward in time until it reaches the moment in 2150 when the time traveler left. The wave collapses and it becomes history. We can't change it because all knowledge that a change has occurred disappears in the collapse. But from the moment of the change back in 1900 it is possible to detect that wave as it travels forward in time. If we disconnect from the time line before the wave reaches us we keep that knowledge. We can go back and stop the change." "So what happened this time?" "We can see a revision wave coming but don't know the cause. Our method of determining the cause and date of the time change is to scan historical documents. Documents change when the time wave passes their creation date. So the original document changes when the wave passes it but a copy of the document changes when the wave passes the date the copy was created. We make copies of historical documents every few years and look for differences between them and the originals. We can study the changes in the documents and determine what was changed and when. The Ancient Sacred Squid is over 800 years old. We should have had plenty of time to see a revision wave coming." "So the squid is gone." "The Ancient Sacred Squid!" Dave snapped back. He set the controls to travel back in time at the most energy efficient rate. The time pod had not been fully charged and the trip would be long. Plus they needed the time to determine the date of the time napping. He showed Bob how to operate the pod's computers and set him searching for the earliest records of the ancient sacred squid. Such research bordered on heresy to Dave for the acceptance of the squid as a gift from god was a major tenet of his church. "Dave, I can't find any ancient records of the squ..., ah, the Ancient Sacred Squid. The computer is suggesting that the first confirmed records are from the 2000's and that we should focus our search there. The recent creation of the Ancient Sacred Squid would explain why there was so little notice." "That's PC propaganda. The Protest the Cephalopod group is constantly spreading that falsehood. The Ancient Sacred Squid was given to Cloyman in the 1300's." "But there is no data from that era. After we passed 2051 all references disappeared." "The Ancient Sacred Squid is real. We have to get the exact date that the Ancient Sacred Squid was stolen. Once we get that we can stop the theft" Dave was losing it. He was seeing the same data as Bob. There was no denying that the squid had been created in the 2000's. The pod continued it's journey toward 1300. "If we stop now we have enough energy to search the 2000's for the theft," Bob said gently. "What's the use. The Ancient... The squid is a lie." Dave punched the go home button. The pod started forward in time. Dave slumped in his chair. "But don't we have to save the time line? If the it changes we may not even exist. We'll be going past the time the squid was created. We can still date the squid and save the time line." "No," was all Dave could say. The pod reached their departure time and stopped. The energy reserves were near zero. They could only spend a few more minutes before having to rejoin the time line. Dave looked at Bob. "This may be a bit disorienting. Normally when you rejoin the time line you just step out of the pod like you step out of a car. In a few cases the returnees seem disoriented. It has been postulated that the time line changed and the disorientation is a result of the revision wave replacing the memories of the time travelers. Of course it is impossible to know what really happened. The collapse of the revision wave removes all information of the previous time line." The pod reconnected to the time line and Dave and Bob stepped out. They both grabbed the edge of the door to steady themselves. "So how was the trip? Did you get enough for your article, Bob?" Cathy looked at the two as they walked toward her. "You guys look a bit pale. How about some lunch? The seafood restaurant has a special on calamari today." Dave turned and threw up. "Maybe not today. Too bad, Dave was always a big fan of squid." END