Across Time (PDF)

High in their mountain watchtower, testing a new device for tracking aircraft, Carl Halleck and his wife, Sylvia, saw blips on their radar screen that signaled the approach of Unidentified Flying Objects. They signaled Captain Zachary Halleck, back at the farmhouse, to turn off all power... immediately! Zack recognized those blips, quickly turning into green dots, drawing closer to the isolated secret Air Force research station. They were exactly the same objects Zack had encountered earlier while test piloting the latest jets for the USAF. His skirmish with the UFO on that occasion had hospitalized him, resulting in his being sent here to assist the brother he hated and the sister-in-law who should have been his wife. “Turn off the power now, goddamit - it’s attracting them!” came the cry from the tower. Captain Halleck’s hand closed on the switch, but he didn’t finalize his move. He waited, his eyes fixed on the screen, anticipating the flare of light; then silence. At that instant, Zack held himself responsible for the disaster that he had not caused. And, whatever else others might say, the captain knew he was the one who had held his hand back deliberately - knowing that disaster would strike up there on the mountain. And, it did! Had Carl and Sylvia been killed? Were they lost in the mountains? Or, had they been taken? Zack didn’t know, but he knew that somehow he would have to find out. And later, when he saw another object hovering in the sky - something that was apparently seeking him - there was only relief. Now he would learn the answer to the eternal riddle, find Carl and Sylvia or join them in oblivion, joining that journey where the first stopping point was Earth - a million years in the future. Here is a story in the tradition of the wonderful “voyages” and inventive daring of Jules Verne, combined with the cosmic sweep of Olaf Stapledon. Here there are no sword-swinging heroes, captive princesses or extraordinary technical deeds. Here, instead, one peels back layers to uncover a vision of the far tomorrows that may be, when man has conquered himself and the universe around him. Dive into the depth of characters: two brothers and the guilt between them - two grown men who still reach for childish things until the challenge confronts them from across time. Carl and Zachary Halleck, brothers who learn the meaning of maturity in a world so advanced that Einstein would have been regarded as a clever child.