A New Discovery At six-thirty on a mid October morning, Allissa sat at her kitchen table drinking coffee and reading her newspaper. She had just finished eating breakfast when she read an article about a woman building the first scientific computing machine. Before she had read this article, she assumed a male scientist built the first computer. The men, where Allissa works, are very arrogant and pick on her for being one of three very smart women in the GWI, Gate Way Travel Institute, building. So, as she traveled to work that morning, Allissa remembered the article about the woman who built the engine. She couldn�t help but wonder why the woman in the article did not have a name. After entering her office, she found a note on her desk from the Major General Jack O�Tars asking her to meet him in his office. As she traveled in the elevator all alone, she asked herself, �Why does he want to see me? Did I do something wrong? I hope he is not going to fire me.� When she finally reached his office, the general greeted Lieutenant Colonel Allissa Woods with a very big smile on his face. �Have a seat Colonel,� he said, as he shut off his silver, laptop computer. �Have you ever heard of a place called Area Forty-Five?� �No, Sir, I don�t think I have.� Allissa replied. �Good, it is one of the top secret facilities in America. Anyways, I called you here to give you an assignment. We have received intelligence from our operatives, and they said that some archaeologists have found a time machine that might be over a million years old. They just don�t know how it works.� The general said as he passed the Lieutenant Colonel a picture of the time machine. This machine was a large, grey circle standing about nine feet in the air, over twenty-five different ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, and seven, green chevrons. As the general looked at Allissa�s face, he said, �I know this is a lot of information, but the president thinks that you should be the one to investigate the history of this machine and figure out how it works. �No problem, Sir. I would be happy to do this, but why did the president pick me? I know that I am smart, but not as smart as any of the other people here.� �On the contrary, Colonel, the president wanted someone who has military training and a brilliant mind. I know what you are saying, �there are plenty of other military trained and very smart people at this facility.� We picked you because you might be the only one able to operate this machine. You have an abnormal gene in your DNA strand that is not found in many other people. Not many people know about this, but we think that you might be related to some aliens.� �I�m related to Aliens?!� Allissa replied with her eyes popping out of her head, �How can I be related to aliens? Was I abducted? Oh my word.� �I know that this is a lot for you to take all at once, but we think you should head to the Nevada desert, where Area Forty-Five is located, right now.� �What is the rush? Are aliens on their way to attack us?� Allissa said with a sarcastic tone. �Well, I was hoping I wouldn�t have to tell you this, but yes there are aliens on their way to attack us. They will be here in a matter of weeks.� �When is my flight?� the Colonel replied with a straight face, after she realized that this was not a joke. �The faster you can travel over to the airport, the sooner it leaves. It is a private jet, which was sent by the president himself, so it leaves when ever you get there. Oh, before you leave,� �Yes Sir?� �Good luck!� �Thank you, Sir. Please, let me know when you have received more information on these aliens.� Woods commented as she left the General�s office. As Allissa traveled in her black, General Motors Corporation Sports Utility Vehicle, she thought about what the General had told her. Her mind could not keep from asking, �how come I am the only one with this gene? Am I adopted? How come I am only finding out about this now? Maybe it is because the aliens are closer to earth. But why do they want me to figure out how to use the time machine now instead of after the aliens come? I might be able to help them defend earth. For some odd reason, I don�t think he told me the whole story.� By the time she had finished asking herself these questions, she arrived at the airport. Deep down in Woods� heart she was scared, but she would never admit that to any one. Before long, Allissa had reached Nevada and was transported to Area Forty-Five. The airmen greeted her very courteously and showed her the way to her office. �Thank you, airmen.� She said, as they opened the door to her office for her. She had an office with glass walls, a white desk, and a silver, inspiron 6000, dell computer. She did not know what would happen in the next few weeks, but she decided that she would try to help the earth as much as she could. So, Allissa called the front desk and asked what room the time machine was in. The secretary replied, �Room twenty-three, Ma�am, but I do have to warn you. I don�t think the airmen have been updated on your arrival. So, they may take action to prevent you from accessing the room.� �Don�t worry about it. I�ll figure out some way to explain it to them.� The colonel answered the secretary, as she hung up the phone. �Well, I guess I will have to get used to another new place,� she told herself. Allissa had been reassigned to many different projects and places. So she did not have many good friends, except the ones she had during high school. As she traveled down the hall to room twenty-three, she took out her name badge and showed it to the airmen. Both of the men looked at each other, and one of them said, �Colonel, you are going to have to come with us.� �Excuse me?� Replied Woods. �We do not have any record of a Lieutenant Colonel Allissa Woods being assigned to the time machine project.� The other airmen replied. �Listen, General O�Tars briefed me this morning on this project. You can ask him or the secretary at the front desk if I am supposed to be stationed here. Either way, I am going to figure out how to work the time machine, so step aside.� Reluctantly, both airmen stepped aside and let her in. After she had walked through the door, her mouth dropped down to her feet. She walked up to the machine and touched it, but her face had a confused look, and asked one of the scientists in the room, �Did you figure out what this is made of?� He replied, �No, we were waiting for someone to order us to perform the analysis.� �You should have taken some initiative and performed the analysis. Here�s your order, find out what type of metal it is made out of and make an archaeologist study the symbols. When you two are finished, tell me what you have found out.� �Yes Ma�am.� He replied with a very sarcastic tone in his voice. He said to himself, �she thinks she can just come in here and order us around, but she can�t. I am a major, she can�t tell me what to do.� He walked back over to Allissa and said, �You know what, I don�t think you should be bossing me, a major, around like I am your slave.� Allissa smiled and said, �Can you read my jacket, major?� �Of course I can read your jacket. Do you think I am dumb? It says c-c-colonel. I am very sorry. Please, forget what I just said a few minutes ago.� �I will let you go this time, but the next time I hear that you were speaking inappropriately to me or a higher officer there will be consequences.� The major nodded his head and walked away. Allissa looked at the machine again and hypothesized that it needs energy and a different machine that can input a time period into the mechanism in order to work. So, Allissa walked 360 degrees around the object and found a newspaper, about the same woman who invented the first engine, behind the tall ring. She could not believe why that article would be in the time machine room. She leaned up against the time machine again, this time with her whole back touching it, and everything in the room started to shake like an earthquake started to happen. Then all of a sudden the ring threw out a blue, ball of light and then, almost immediately afterward, it sucked it back in. After that the inside of the machine looked like a puddle of water, except no one could see through it. Colonel Woods ordered everyone away from the machine and told someone to call security. After two hours of answering questions, Allissa called the general and asked him if she could travel through the time machine to see where it went. �Sir, I have an idea of how the gate works. As you told me earlier, I possess a certain gene. I think that this alien gene allows the gate to work, and since I was holding a news-paper about the past, I think that is why it opened. The first time I touched the machine, nothing happened. Only this time, I leaned against it with a designated time period. So, Sir, can you have some doctors� work on isolating this particular gene so that other people, besides me, can start this machine.� The general replied, �Wow, I knew that I assigned you to this project so that you could figure out how it worked, but I did not know that you would do it that fast! Let me contact the president to see what he thinks, and I will let you know what he says about actually traveling through the gate. Good job Colonel.� �Thank you, Sir,� Allissa said with a smile. After about a day, the doctors had given the alien gene, found in Allissa, to about twenty people, and each of the patients were able to open the gate. While the Colonel watched them practice, Allissa received a call on her cell phone from the General. �Hello?� she answered. �Morning General, any more news?� �Actually, yes. The president agrees with me that you should take a team of four people, including your self, through the time machine. You are able to choose three people you want to take with you. When you have picked these officers, you may go through the gate.� �Are you serious?! Thank you very much, Sir. I will start picking right now.� She picked a male lieutenant named John Oreos, an archaeologist named Daniel Turtle, and a major named Tiffany Eraser. After she had picked these three people, they walked through the gate. To their surprise when they arrived on the other side, they found a woman and a man studying their notes in the basement of a house. Woods remembered that she had seen the same image somewhere else before. Then she realized that this was the scene on the newspaper she read in her kitchen and on the paper she found in the time machine room. As she walked over to the couple, she asked Turtle, �What kind of a language do you think they speak?� �Well,� he started, but then was interrupted by the woman studying the notes. �We speak English just like you four do. What time period are you from?� As Allissa introduced her self she replied, �We are from the year 2005. What time period is this?� �This is the year 1833. You have traveled back over 172 years,� the woman said with a big smile on her face. �Oh, I am very sorry I didn�t introduce myself. I am Ada Byron, one of the mathematicians of this era.� �Do you know anything about aliens coming to earth?� Allissa asked her. �Actually, I do know something. We defeated them last month by using a couple lava lamps and a satellite. We were able to rig the satellite to shoot lava, which was about 2000 degrees Fahrenheit, at the alien ships, and it obviously destroyed them. Why did you need to know that?� �Well, they are coming again, and I believe that they will be more powerful this time. Our information indicates that they will enter our solar system in about three weeks, and we believe that, this time, they have shields.� �Oh dear, I was afraid that they would come back. You will need to figure out a way to make the lava invisible and be able to pass through high-tech shields so that you can destroy the ships. You can buy the ingredients from your local grocery store and you will be able to combine the substances in a chemistry lab. Allissa, you will need to purchase white iodine, distilled water, and about four ounces of lead. Simply combine white iodine, distilled water, and the lava from the lamps. The satellite is cloaked, but if you use this remote, you will be able to find it. Good luck.� �Okay, thanks. We should probably be going, now. Nice meeting you,� Allissa said as they dialed up the time machine, and took the remote Ada was talking about.
Copyright © 2005 Kari Fontenault |