Chapter 1
FALLON BENTLEY COULDN'T BELIEVE THE DAY was finally here where they could test their inventions. Their inventions were completely theoretical even after five years of theorizing, research, testing parts of the inventions, and much speculation or guesswork. Today was the day they were going to put all the parts together and test the whole machine, as they called the invention as a whole sum of all the parts.They named the invention the BTM, the Bible Time Machine. The purpose of it was to travel back in time and prove or disprove God and the Bible were true.
They were a group of six: 3 males and three females of three of the A-Team and three of the G-Team. The A-Team were those who were anti-God and anti-Bible. The G-Team were those who were for God and the Bible and were Christ followers. The group of Christians consisted of the following: Daniel Giles, Erin Ballard, and Fallon Bentley. The A-Team consisted of the following: Adora Dallon, Billy Martinez, and Caleb Deverell.
They were the original people of the project. They each had two assistants now. One was a lab assistant and one was a research assistant. They also had donors who had given them 316 million dollars so far. (The Christians had a joke about that number, which will be explained later.) Therefore, they had enough for five years of wages and experiments. If they were successful today, they almost had the same figure again for the next round of experimentation on the BTM.
Two of the group would stay behind in case the other four never returned and their replacements were already chosen. However, as of this moment, they didn't know which two would stay behind. The three names of the G-Team would go into one hat and the three names of the A-Team would go into another hat. Then the opposite team's leader would pick one name from the hat and that individual would be the one who stayed behind.
They used a similar method to pick which book of the New Testament they would use to travel back to in time. They decided the New Testament was the best point to start with in order to determine if God and the Bible were true. Consequently, the twenty-seven books of the New Testament were put into a hat and Billy, the Non-Christian, picked since he was the one in charge of that A-Team and Fallon was in charge of the G-Team. Billy picked the 'John' slip; therefore, John was the book they would use for this round of experiments. They kept everything as fair as possible between their two teams so that everything remained as equal as possible.
Fallon realized they had no idea what to expect today in their experimentation. Four could die or be lost in time or between times for ever. Then again, four might have the experience of their lives or absolutely nothing at all may transpire. They really did not know because it was all theory and speculation and it made Fallon slightly nervous.
The six spent the last month getting their affairs in order just in case the worst case scenario was realized. They paid off their bills, if they had any, and they lived as minimally as they could so they could use as much money on their project as possible.
They also had Plan B where if the four didn't return right away, the two would wait a year before they shut down that experiment permanently. In the meanwhile, they would continue researching and experimenting with new ways to make their project work and to help it work better if it did indeed work. It was far more crucial to prove or disprove God and the Bible in a quantifiable manner. It was a goal they refused to lose sight of and they would continue. The scenario would be difficult, but the project was important.
Fallon was both excitedly nervous and was nervously excited at once for today's events to unfold and she couldn't wait to see what happened. Nonetheless, she tried her best to keep calm and focused in spite of the adventure of the upcoming day. She hoped she would be picked, but was scared of what it might mean. It was okay, though, she told herself. This was where faith came to play. She had to take a leap of faith and trust God and His plans for the situation.
The experiment consisted of three phases:
A. The first phase involved taking a verse from the Holy Bible and entering each word of the verse into a VR (Virtual Reality) computer program. The VR program converted the words on the page into an image or a scene.
B. The second phase was putting the image or scene into a projector, which was actually a hologram, and magnifying it to life-size in a pitch black room.
C. The third phase consisted of the four entering the projected image like the movie or television show, Stargate. The two left behind would use the main computer program called BTM and the computer would open a wormhole and take the four to the scene in the verse.
They conjectured that the wormhole would take them there directly and they would be able to observe the scene. they would be able to see things, hear, taste, smell, and feel. The only thing they would not be able to do was enter the scene directly. They would be invisible to the people there and wouldn't be able to accidentally or intentionally change anything and then would not be able to change or impact history. They would be invisible, after all, because their bodies would have gone through a change in matter as it went through the wormhole. It wasn't known if they would be able to converse with anyone of their group and this was rather disturbing to Fallon.
She finished putting on her flight suit with regular clothes underneath for the travel through the wormhole. After all, they assumed the one layer on top without anything hanging down, loose, or free, would make their travel safer. She glanced in the mirror and said a prayer before she left. "God, guide us. Bless or block whatever transpires today. We want to do it all for You, if it's Your will. We want to bring you the glory. Protect us and help us to draw nearer to You regardless of what happens or doesn't happen."
Chapter 2
THE FIRST NAME CHOSEN TO stay behind was Billy Martinez of the Anti-God Team. He appeared disappointed for a moment, but he quickly recovered. "I'll support whoever goes to the best of my ability and will wholeheartedly maintain the home-effort. I won't let any of you down."
"That's good because we're counting on you to do so." Adora Dallon, the leader of the A-Team reminded him with a tone that was in-your-face and was rude about the ordeal.
The second name would get pulled from the hat in a moment. Adora glanced at the God Team and wiggled her fingers in the air about the hat. "Blessed be to the ones going and the one who stays behind."
Erin Ballard couldn't help but cringe as Adora made a Wiccan or New-Age comment and couldn't help but cringe because she didn't know whether to hope to be left behind or hope to be chosen to go on the first excursion. She was okay either way. Later, she'd feel more passionately about going, but right now, it was rather nerve-wracking wondering about if the experiment would be successful or if the unthinkable might happen.
"Here goes nothing," Adora reached into the hat and pulled out a slip and read, "Fallon Bentley."
Fallon took in the information for a moment before she allowed emotion to come to her face. Erin gave her hand a squeeze and offered her opinion on the subject, "That makes me feel better, Fal. I trust you with my life and know if anything goes haywire, you would be able to get us out of it since Adora is going." She didn't say it to be rude to the others, but because the entire group knew it was true.
Billy and Fallon would stay behind and Adora, Caleb, Daniel, and Erin would take part in the first test phase of the BTM. Erin was sure her heart beat so desperately that it would pound through her chest and fall onto the ground in front of her. She was picked to go first. She couldn't help but say a quick prayer for God's guidance and protection. She was cognizant, after all, that they would get started with everything almost immediately. They didn't have time to spare.
They were to start the VR at precisely 9:00 a.m. and it was 8:30. Therefore, time was of the essence. They needed to prepare themselves and make a log entry. Every member of the original six founders of the BTM Group kept a log or a journal about their exploits. Erin was the overall logkeeper or journalkeeper of the project. She recorded both her own log and a collective log of the group. It was her responsibility to read everyone's logs and to compile a summary of them into the summary log. She had the passion of writing and the group tended to put each other into positions where they would be able to live out their strengths and where they would be the greatest asset to the group. Consequently, she guessed it was appropriate that she would go with the group of four for the first test-run of the BTM.
"I have John 1:1 pulled up on my screen and am ready to go when it's time." Billy gave the group information as to what he had completed. The six prepared for both roles--if they went or if they stayed, so it was not something they had to think twice about at this point. They just acted accordingly as they slid into their responsibilities.
"Now, let's do our log entries for the next ten minutes and then we'll start." Fallon instructed the group. She had the most education of anyone in the group and was the one most qualified to do the BTM. As a matter of fact, the entire project was her idea. She met Daniel and then Adora and the project came more to life. Hence, she was the project manager and was the one with the final say about everything.
TEN MINUTES LATER, IT WAS time to start the process of getting the three stages fired up and ready to be used. Billy was already off to a good start, however. He had John 1:1 on his screen already and it stated,
John 1:1
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God," (NIV).
They found it ironic and appropriate how the very book of the Bible they chose from the hat about a month ago to use for round one of their testing of the Bible Time Machine described precisely their whole goal of their project. They wanted to make the Word or the Bible to literally come alive. They wanted to step into the Word and witness it for themselves; consequently, they would all shake their heads when they read it. Even today, Caleb couldn't help doing so after he completed his log entry. He also couldn't help but chuckle and think of the Star Trek and how they did log entries as well. Their project was like Star Trek, Stargate, and any other time traveling television show, book, or movie. Except theirs was centered around disproving or proving God and the Bible. He decided it was easier to laugh at this point and find things amusing than to think about what they were about to do.
"The VR and Hologram Projector are up and running," Billy called out and Fallon prepared the third stage and the computer program which ran the final segment of the overall BTM. When, and if, they got to the other side, they each had a tiny handheld computer (HC) to record their observations and to open the wormhole when they would return. Since it was opened at the other side, less was needed at this side to go back. They called the modern day time the MT and the BTM time the BT time.
"Billy, start Stage 1." Fallon called out as the four stood in a line. They had on their flight suits and had a backpack of MREs (Meals Ready Eat, military issue), their HCs, and a few other odds and ends and were ready to proceed.
Daniel watched Billy hit a few buttons on his computer. Then, Fallon said, "Billy, start Stage 2." The moment she said it, all of their assistants worked furiously between the actual machine and at their own computers. It was a flurry of activity and Daniel counted his lucky stars they were able to quiet the hologram. It was pretty loud now, he couldn't imagine what it would be like if it was the louder version.
What Daniel saw next was astonishing. They theorized that this was what would happen, but actually witnessing it working for the first time was nothing he expected.
By Stacy Duplease
of Stories by Stacy
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