Madam, I'm Adam free porn video

Warning: This story uses scripture to explore the perils facing time travelers if the bible (and in particular, Genesis) could be interpreted literally. If you are a rabid bible-thumper, you should probably stop reading here. On the other hand, if you actually possess a sense of humor, please continue. Madam, I'm Adam By Sue Kidder Chapter 1. "Adam, you've got to give up this foolishness. Even if time travel were possible, you shouldn't do it," Everett said. "You're just worried that I might travel back in time and discover that your Jesus wasn't the guy you thought he was. Or maybe I'll find out that Adam and Eve were monkeys!" Adam could never resist the urge to tease his super-religious brother. "No, I'm worried that you will run into trouble over some unimaginable problem you did not anticipate. I'm confident that God and Jesus can take care of themselves, but I don't want to lose my brother in some kind of time warp black hole. Almost anything could go wrong!" "Like what?" Adam challenged. Everett had given this latest project of his brother's some thought. "What if you travel back a few hundred years and discover that you are lost in space? Remember, the earth wasn't here then; it is moving through space as well as time." "That's why I built in a spatial synchronizer -- think of it as an anchor -- to tie the location of my timeship to the location of the earth. In fact, it should arrive at the exact same physical location it left, relative to the earth, just in a different time. The spatial synchronizer is so accurate that I can adjust the settings to have my timeship arrive anywhere I want. This way, if I go back several centuries, I can arrive in Europe or some other place of interest. Also, it prevents me from being buried or submerged due to land and water movements, or finding myself arriving hundreds of feet above the ground because of erosion or other tectonic activities." "Still," Everett insisted, "it has to be dangerous. If time travel is possible, and safe, why aren't we knee-deep in time travelers? Even if you are the first person to invent a time machine, you wouldn't be the last. Where are all the others, and why haven't we heard of them?" That was a good point, and one that Adam had worried about. He would never admit that to his brother, so he said, "You've seen the movies and read the stories about time travel. I suspect most or all time travelers worry about changing history. Maybe in the future time travel is outlawed, and they have some kind of enforcement agency that limits or controls it. Those laws and controls would not apply to me, and even if they did, so what? I'd get arrested and have my timeship confiscated. Not exactly the end of the world." "Maybe the time police have harsher penalties than just confiscation of your time machine. Or maybe there are no time police because there is no need for them. There may be some flaw in the theory that makes time travel self correcting, so that changing history becomes impossible." "Well, if you're so sure time travel is impossible, why don't you come with me? At least that way, if you are right, you'll know what became of me," Adam said. "Thank you. I was planning to come with you, assuming you go anywhere -- or should I say anywhen? I did not want to stay behind and try to explain to people that my brother died thousands of years ago." "Meet me here in my lab tomorrow after lunch. We'll depart as soon as I get loaded and finish my pre-flight inspection," Adam said. Chapter 2. Everett arrived as Adam finished loading his toolkit into his timeship. Everett gave the machine a hard look and thought that the term 'Timeship' may have been a bit generous for the strange looking vehicle sitting in the center of the workshop. The basic chassis looked like a large soup bowl, with a bench running around the inside of the rim and a short wide column in the center. The circular shape and its rounded bottom fit within the spherical field that was supposed to transport the contraption through time. The transparent hemispherical canopy gave the vehicle the appearance of a giant snow globe. The center console contained the field generator, and the bench encircling the rim provided plenty of seating. "What's in the basket?" Adam asked. "I packed a lunch. Knowing you, we're going to be traveling for thousands of years. I suspect we'll be getting hungry." "Millions of years, if I have any say about it," Adam agreed. "Good idea. But what's that?" "It's my bible, of course. We may need it." Adam just shook his head, but gave no further protest. He knew his brother. "Stow it aboard. We are going to make a short test hop to check out the systems, and then we'll be on our way to the Jurassic period. I've always wanted to see a live dinosaur." Everett found a place for his basket, but kept his small bible in his hand. He started to sit on the bench, but Adam said, "Come with me." "I thought you said we were going for a test hop," Everett said. "We are. But first, wouldn't you like to know whether it worked?" Adam led Everett outside to the small lawn behind his workshop. "It's almost one o'clock. Watch." Everett stood there watching the bare expanse of grass, wondering what Adam was trying to show him. Just as Adam's watch turned to one o'clock, there was a short humming sound, and a large object materialized on the grass. It was Adam's timeship. The two occupants of the strange vehicle waved at them, and the timeship vanished. "That was us!" Everett said. "Yep. My timeship passed its test. We're about ready to go. Get in and find yourself a seat." They re-entered the workshop and boarded the timeship. Adam seated himself at the control console, adjusted the settings, and said, "First stop, one o'clock!" "Why are we going to one o'clock? You already know your timeship works. Are you just trying to avoid creating a paradox?" "Exactly," Adam admitted. "We know we appeared at one o'clock, so if we don't deliberately travel to that time, it may very well be that we appeared then accidentally. And that could only happen if we somehow lost control. I'd rather know that we appeared then because we control the timeship." Everett heard a low humming sound as the field generator charged up. The view outside of the timeship faded out until nothing could be seen except a gray fog. Adam said, "I adjusted the physical location of our arrival to be about fifty feet east of here. That should put us outside on the grass." The outside world faded back into reality as quickly as it had earlier faded out. Everett could see that they were now outside the workshop. He saw two men standing near the back door of the shop. "Wave," Adam said. Everett and Adam waved to their earlier selves. Adam changed the settings on his control panel and engaged the field. The world faded away again. "Ha! The look on your face was priceless." Adam crowed. "Jurassic, here we come!" "Shouldn't we try a shorter trip first? I know your time machine passed its operational test, but a trip of a few minutes has to be very different than millions of years," Everett said. "Don't worry, it won't take that long. We'll be a few minutes accelerating, but soon we'll be traveling at hundreds of thousands of years per minute. The whole seventy million year trip won't take more than a couple hours." "Wait a minute. Hundreds of thousands of years per minute? That makes no sense. You're using a measurement of time as both distance and duration. Convert those years into minutes, and your 'velocity' measurement becomes a huge number of minutes per minute. Your units of measure cancel out and all you have left is a meaningless number," Everett pointed out. He might be religious, but he wasn't stupid. "Well, yes, you are correct. That conundrum is what keeps most people from inventing their own time machines. However, my timeship cheats a little. Quantum physicists have theorized the existence of multiple universes existing in the same space, but out of phase with each other. They have likened the many universes to the layers in an onion, and called them membranes, or just 'branes for short. Through my experiments in time travel, I accidentally discovered a way to open up portals to the different universes. That gray fog you see outside is all we can perceive of the 'brane, or universe, that we are occupying now. We had to leave our universe and enter a different, but nearby, universe where the dimensions are slightly rotated with respect to ours. What passes for linear distance in this universe corresponds to time in our universe. We only have to travel the appropriate 'distance' and re-insert ourselves into our universe, to arrive at a different era," Adam explained. "So in effect, we are really traveling so many miles per hour?" "At least until we return to our universe. Simple, yes?" Everett did not comment on how UN-simple it had to be to switch between universes and navigate within time and space while doing so. He knew his brother was smart. But he sometimes wondered if his brother was completely sane. "Maybe we should slow down? How do you know there isn't something solid in this universe that we might hit? And anyway, how 'fast' is 'hundreds of thousands of years per minute'?" Everett asked. "Don't worry," Adam assured him. "There is nothing solid in this universe. And our maximum 'speed' is about the equivalent of forty miles per hour. There is no danger." "But what happens when you hit the start of creation? I know you think the universe is billions of years old, but according to the bible, it is only about six thousand years old," Everett pointed out. Adam had really hoped Everett wouldn't bring up that old argument. Part of his motivation for inventing his time machine was to prove his brother wrong about the nonsense of the bible and religion. Science, not superstition, ruled Adam's life, and his greatest desire was to persuade his brother to disengage himself from the idiocy of religion. Sure, the bible was a good book. Adam had read it and was well aware of the good advice, the entertaining fables, the poorly written and incomplete histories, the after-the-fact (or obtusely vague) prophecies, and everything else. He had tried to convince his brother of the absurdity of an omnipotent supernatural being who could create an entire universe with a habitable world populated with a complete ecosystem, yet who needed the help of an old man to build a boat to rescue some people and animals from a global flood. To Adam, the bible was a manual for con artists -- the priests who make their living off the gullible. The religion scam has been going on for millennia and it galled him to see his brother victimized by it. "Please don't tell me you believe we cannot travel beyond 4004 BC?" Adam knew about the chronology of James Ussher, the Anglican Archbishop of Armagh, who calculated that God created the universe on Sunday, October 23, 4004 BC. John Lightfoot, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, concluded that creation happened around Wednesday, October 25, 3929 BC, allowing for the differences between the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Other biblical scholars arrived at dates similar, although few, if any, agreed exactly. Everett knew what his brother was thinking. He said, "We are going to find out, aren't we? I'm just suggesting that we slow down. Anything could happen." Everett was not particularly worried about the date of creation. If it was not around 4004 BC, then it would simply mean that God's time scale was different than man's, and creation actually happened billions of years earlier than some biblical scholars believed. On the other hand, if creation actually happened around 4004 BC, then what was going to happen when Adam's timeship tried to pass that point in time? If they traveled past the point of creation, then the earth would not yet have existed, and they might find themselves lost in space after all. "What? Are you afraid we will end up like some of the old time-travel stories and find ourselves the first and only humans on the planet? If we are to become Adam and Eve, you'll have to be Eve, EVErett!" Adam chuckled at his little joke. "Don't be silly, Adam. Where -- I mean when -- are we now?" Adam looked at his instruments and the computer screen. "Looks like we are approaching 3500 BC. We still are not up to full 'speed' yet. Drat! We're going to have to invent some new terminology for discussing time travel." "I wish we had a way to view our progress. This gray fog is depressing and singularly uninformative," Everett complained. "I have in mind a viewer for my next upgrade. It will be linked to our earth 'anchor,' and will allow us to watch the sun spinning in its orbit or see the pyramids being disassembled. But don't worry; my instruments are very accurate and have been calibrated to compensate for Julian time, Gregorian time, and even BC time. We are now quickly approaching 4000 BC, for example." WHAM!-AM!-AM!-Am!-Am!-am!-am!-am-am-m-m-m-m-mmmmmm The world lurched, turned inside out and upside-down. Both Adam and Everett saw their lives flashing across their eyes, although there seemed to be some errors in the replay. The impact was not physical, even though it seemed to produce the sound of a collision, along with a strange echo effect. There were other effects also, inducing strange and inexplicable sensations that overwhelmed their minds and rendered them unconscious. Chapter 3. Everett gradually regained his senses, then became instantly alert when he realized the timeship had been involved in some kind of accident. He noticed a very beautiful woman tinkering with the timeship's control panel. He blurted out, "Who are you? Where is Adam?" "Madam, I'm Adam," the strange woman said. Adam had always wanted to say that, and this bizarre situation seemed to call for a flippant answer. She had regained her senses a few minutes before Everett did, and was trying to evaluate the damage, if any, to her timeship. "But you're a woman," Everett protested. Even as he said it, he knew he believed this woman really was Adam. "Look at yourself," Adam suggested. "You're a woman too." Everett looked at his body and realized that he was indeed a woman. She suspected that her new body was just as beautiful as Adam's, but had no way to verify it. "What happened?" "I'm trying to figure it out. It looks like we hit something and bounced. I'm having a hard time reading my instruments. The accident apparently scrambled my displays. It looks like everything is in a foreign language," Adam said. "Could that 'something' have been the beginning of time?" Everett asked. "What do you mean?" "Well, when God created the universe, he created time too. Maybe we couldn't travel past the creation point because time did not exist before then. Since we cannot exist without time, we stopped traveling 'back' and bounced into the normal forward time stream." Everett was sure she was expressing herself poorly, but hoped Adam understood what she was getting at. "But that would mean there really was a creator. And it would mean that we are the first people on the planet. By your logic, we should be Adam and Eve, just like those characters in all those old time-travel stories. So why are we both female?" Adam asked. "I don't know. Can you get your timeship running again?" "I'm still trying to figure out my controls. Do you have any theories about why I suddenly cannot read my own instruments?" "No, but keep working on it and I'll see if I can find some answers." Everett retrieved her bible and opened it to Genesis. Adam sighed. Even with their strange experiences, she did not really expect any help from the bible. She returned her concentration to the task of getting the timeship going. "Adam, it isn't just your instruments that have gone goofy. Look at my bible." Everett handed her bible to Adam. "Okay, this is getting even weirder. Why would your bible suddenly be printed in a strange language? Why are we female? What did we hit? What is going on here?" "Can you figure out your instruments?" Everett asked. "Maybe I can," Adam said. "Let me see your bible again." She accepted the bible from Everett and began comparing symbols in the bible against the symbols on her control panel. With Everett looking over her shoulder, she said, "Look here. This is obviously verse 1:1, so this symbol must represent the numeral 1. There are similar symbols on my control panel and in my computer display. Give me a few minutes and I think I can at least decipher the numeric digits. With my memory of the controls and my knowledge of the operation of the timeship, that might be enough to get us out of here." It did not take Adam as long to decipher her instruments as she expected, and she soon announced that the timeship was ready to go. Everett persuaded Adam to eat lunch before they took off again, and she laid out a very nice picnic. "Thank you, Everett. That was a very good lunch. Now let's get out of here." Adam set up her controls and engaged the field generator. "I'm pretty sure I have set the timeship to return us to our starting point. As far as an outside observer would know, we will have been gone only a few seconds, if that," she assured Everett. "What's that noise?" Everett asked. The quiet hum of the generator sounded different, somehow. It was louder this time, and sounded uneven. "I don't know," Adam said. She had noticed the same thing and it worried her too. But what could she do? Suddenly, smoke curled out of the central console, sparks flew everywhere, all the controls went inert, and the rasping sound died. Everett noticed that the world was back, the gray fog no longer visible. The timeship rocked on its rounded bottom a few seconds before it finally settled down. Everett cried out, "What happened? This is starting to look like a bad episode of 'Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea'! Don't you use fuses and circuit breakers?" "Of course I do," Adam insisted. She opened an access panel and peered within. "Obviously, the collision did more damage than I thought. It looks like the field generator is completely shot." "Great! When are we?" "As near as I can estimate, we are several decades after the collision. If you're right about that being the Creation, then we may get to meet some of the descendents of the original Adam. " "Are you still having doubts about the Creation?" Everett asked. "I haven't made up my mind," Adam said. "Your argument has become much stronger, I'll admit, but I don't think all the evidence is in just yet." "You are not going to admit God exists even if He walks up and pokes you in the eye, are you?" Everett felt vindicated, now that they had experienced undeniable evidence of God's existence and the reality of the Creation. Many years of her brother's teasing and skepticism had suddenly been refuted by the evidence of their own eyes and personal experiences. Adam was not yet ready to concede the argument. "Okay, if you're right, where are the dinosaurs?" "What do the dinosaurs have to do with anything?" "Bible scholars argue that the dinosaurs walked with men. One of your books insists that Noah took dinosaurs on the Ark, but the post-Flood world killed them off. If Creation happened only a few decades ago, where are the dinosaurs?" "I don't know," Everett admitted. "But consider this; even without being able to read my bible, I can remember enough verses to provide some explanations. For example, 1 Corinthians 15:45 says Adam was the first man. When we traveled back in time to the point of Creation, we had to become women; otherwise WE would have been the first men!" "Okay, then why were your bible and my instruments scrambled?" "I don't think they were. My bible is still printed in English, and your instruments are still exactly like you built them. I think WE have been scrambled. According to the bible, everybody spoke the same language until the Tower of Babel incident. Genesis 11 verses 5 through 11 tell the story. I could recite it verbatim, but you've read it too." These ideas disturbed Adam greatly. If true, then everything she thought she knew about reality and the nature of the universe had been turned on its head. It would have been difficult enough to have returned to their 'home' time as women; finding that they no longer spoke or understood their original language would have multiplied the handicap enormously. But what other explanation could there be? The physics Adam thought she knew had allowed her to prove the existence of many dimensional membranes, within which existed our universe and possibly an infinite collection of other universes. Since there were possibly an infinite number of these 'branes, then anything could happen, no matter how unlikely or nearly impossible, and probably would happen, somewhere. Could one of those highly unlikely events have spawned a being with the power and ability to create a universe by itself? Adam wondered if she was just unlucky enough to have been born in such a universe. "At this point," Adam said, "I have to concede that your explanations are better than mine. It certainly appears that someone or something created this world and established the rules of its operation. From our perspective, it would indeed be a god. I'm going to keep looking for a better explanation, though. I just don't like that one." Everett shook her head. You cannot convince diehard atheists even when their favorite tools of logic and evidence are stacked against them. "So what do we do now?" "It looks like we're stuck. I guess we try to find other people, and learn to fit in. We are going to be here a long time. After all, if you are correct, people in this day lived for hundreds of years." "That's about what I figured too. But before we go hiking cross-country, I need to go to the bathroom." "Me, too," Adam admitted. "You take that bush over there, and I'll use this bush on the other side of the timeship." Adam left the timeship and walked around behind her shrub and did her business, so to speak. It wasn't easy, since she had to almost completely remove the jumpsuit she was wearing. She was taking the gender change remarkably calmly, she thought, but at that moment she would have given a small fortune for a penis. Adam suddenly understood why women liked dresses. She noticed the glint of reflection off water nearby, and found a small stream with a quiet pool out of the flow. This made a very good reflective surface, so Adam was able to see what she looked like for the first time since the timeship's accident. "I'm beautiful!" she thought. If Everett was right, then some biblical scholars may have been correct in their claims that the first humans were perfect. She knew Everett was the most beautiful woman she had ever seen, and she seemed every bit as beautiful as Everett. Besides the longevity mentioned in Genesis, apparently the first people were also extremely attractive. Adam took the opportunity to wash her hands in the stream. She picked up a rock and noticed that it contained a partial fossil of a trilobite or some similar creature. "Interesting," she thought. She heard a sound and whirled around to see a man standing behind her. But what a man! As much as Adam admired her own and Everett's appearances, THIS had to be the very definition of physical beauty! Adam had never considered homosexuality; other men just never appealed to 'him' when 'he' was a man. But the rules had changed, and Adam knew this perfect Adonis would have to be hers. "You are truly a beauty, my lady, but what strange garb you wear!" the incredibly handsome and attractive man said. Adam realized she had been staring, mouth agape. "What is your name?" she asked. "I am Cain, son of Adam. What is your name?" "Uh, my name is Adam," she said, and immediately realized how stupid it sounded. "You cannot be Adam; that is my father's name," Cain said. "Uh, right, call me Sue," Adam said, picking the first female name she could think of. Thank you, Johnny Cash. "Welcome to the Land of Nod, Sue," Cain said. "Where do you live? My bro... sister and I are lost, and are looking for a town or something." "We live nearby. I'd be happy to take you." That's what Adam -- Sue -- wanted to hear. She knew she would go anywhere with this man. "Let me find my sister." Cain followed Sue back to the timeship. As they approached, Sue could see Everett talking to a man. Everett saw them coming, and announced, "Adam, come and meet Seth!" "It's Sue, Everett!" "Er, right! And it's Ann, Sue!" As they followed Cain and Seth back to their settlement, Ann said, "It looks like Genesis is still playing out. Genesis 4:16 and 4:17 tells of Cain finding his wife in the Land of Nod. Genesis didn't mention it, but it looks like Seth found his wife here, too!" "I take it you are as content to be Seth's wife as I am to be Cain's? Why are we accepting this so easily?" Ann said, "Don't forget Genesis 1:28 and others that command us to be fruitful and multiply. And Genesis 3:16 says, 'Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you.' It's all God's great plan!" "So we've been turned into brood mares, and we are going to like it?" Sue asked. "Apparently so. Isn't it wonderful? And just think; since we will probably live for hundreds of years, we are going to have LOTS of kids!" Chapter 4. "Hi, Sue! How are you taking to motherhood?" Ann asked. She and Sue had not seen each other in years, since Cain moved from Nod and started building his city. "Hi, Ann. I'm just back for a little bit. Wanted to see you and introduce my oldest boy, Enoch. Ann, this is Enoch. Enoch, this is your Aunt Ann," Sue said. "Cain is very proud of Enoch and plans to name his new city after the boy. But we have a problem I'm hoping you can help us solve." "And that would be?" Ann asked. "Enoch is almost thirty years old. No doubt you're aware that most children born these days are male. This makes it very difficult for men to find mates. Some boys marry their sisters, but there just are not enough girls to go around. We know where Cain and Seth found their wives, but where can we get wives for our sons?" "I've got an idea about that. Be ready to take a hike tomorrow and let's see if I'm right," Ann suggested. Chapter 5. They walked for almost an hour. Sue thought she recognized parts of the path, and finally realized that Ann was leading them to the site of their timeship's last landing. Ann spread out a blanket near the remains of the timeship and offered a picnic lunch. "I don't know how long we will have to wait, if I'm right. May as well enjoy this wonderful day," Ann said. Suddenly a strange sound seemed to emanate from the other side of the clearing. The grinding, rasping noise reminded Sue of the sound Doctor Who's Tardis made in that old British television series. When their eyes turned toward the source of the sound, they saw a strange contrivance materialize on the grass. It seemed full of smoke, and there were flashes of light and sparks coming from the interior. A door opened in the side and a figure emerged. It was an extraordinarily beautiful woman. "Go introduce yourself, Enoch," Ann said. Enoch approached the woman and said, "Hello, my name is Enoch." The woman waved her hand in front of her face to disperse the wisps of smoke that followed her out of the machine. She looked up at Enoch, and froze. Ann and Sue could see the intense attraction and devotion overwhelm the woman's brain. She was instantly imprinted on Enoch, and would be his loving wife forever after. "Hi, my name is Geor... uh, Gina!" the new woman said. Enoch escorted Gina to the picnic blanket and introduced her to his aunt and mother. Sue whispered to Gina, "We would like to talk to you about your trip, when we get a chance. What year are you from?" Gina looked startled, and Sue could imagine that she never expected to meet other time travelers. She said, "I'm from 2089. You?" "We're from 2025. Welcome to the Land of Nod." Chapter 6. "This place looks like a time machine graveyard," Ann said. Sue agreed. They had made several trips back to this site during the past fifty years to find mates for their sons. It was remarkable how little could be salvaged from the high-tech equipment scattered around the clearing. And none of the chrononauts ever succeeded in repairing their crafts. Sue always cringed when she saw how overgrown and decrepit the time machines were becoming, and especially the oldest one -- hers. In spite of the fact that they had been living in the 'past' so long that they now considered it their 'present,' both Ann and Sue still appeared to be in their twenties, and were still as beautiful as the day their timeship crashed here. "What's the bet this time, Ann? With your son Eber and my son Abram both looking for a mate, will we get a time machine with two passengers, or two time machines?" "I'm guessing one machine with two passengers. Remember to wait until they are separated before sending the boys in. We don't want both women imprinted on the same guy." Sue helped Ann lay out the picnic blanket. They ate their meal and chatted while awaiting the arrival of their sons' mates. Soon they heard the teeth-rattling noise heralding the appearance of another time machine. "Eber, Abram, hide back in the trees until we call you," Ann said. The men obediently disappeared into the woods. The time machine materialized in one of the few bare spots remaining in the clearing. After a few minutes, a door opened, and two extraordinarily beautiful women (of course) exited the vehicle. "What do you mean, you can't fix it?" demanded the blond. "We're nearly six thousand years in the past. What am I supposed to do -- call Triple-A?" responded the brunette. "And how did you turn yourself into a woman? Answer me that!" said the blond. "I didn't do it! I don't know the answer. You don't look the same either," said the brunette. "Maybe not, but at least I'm still a woman." Ann and Sue were startled. This was the first time they knew of that one of the time travelers had been a woman originally. Evidently the transformation was not strictly a gender change. It appeared that even women were affected. Ann and Sue stood up. The newcomers had not noticed them until that moment. Sue said, "Ladies, may we speak to you a minute?" "Who are you?" asked the blond. "How is it you speak our language? Are you time travelers too?" asked the brunette. Sue said, "We're all speaking the same language, but it is not your original language. And yes, we are time travelers too. Welcome to Nod." Ann said, "Due to circumstances we will explain later, you are now stranded in this time period. If you have any personal belongings in your vehicle, please get them. We will be returning to town shortly." As she hoped, the blond said, "Fred, go get my purse. As soon as we get to a nice hotel, I'm arranging transportation home. And you can forget about coming home with me!" Fred nodded to Ann and Sue apologetically and headed back to her time machine. As soon as she entered it, Ann called, "Eber, come here." Eber stepped out of the trees. The blond woman saw him and was instantly transfixed. By this time Ann and Sue were very familiar with the look and the effect. After all, they had experienced it themselves. Ann said, "Take her over there, out of sight." "What may I call you, my lady?" asked Eber. "Anything you want, big boy," she said. "My name is Martha." "Come with me," Eber said. He led the way into the trees and Martha followed him eagerly. Fred returned, carrying a purse. Sue said, "Abram, come here." Again, Ann and Sue watched the introductory imprinting. Chapter 7. "Thank you for the hospitality, Ann," Sue said. "We will be returning to Enoch in the morning." "You're welcome, Sue. Visit anytime." "Well, the birthrate is getting close to fifty-fifty, and it looks like there can't be too many time machines left to arrive. I don't know when we'll get back to this neighborhood. I think Cain is getting anxious to start building his next city. But it's a small world. As long as we can expect to live, our paths will surely cross again." "Before you go, Sue, I have to ask you: did you ever accept that God created this world? Or are you still grasping for some kind of 'scientific' explanation?" "I have a number of theories but little proof, I admit. If I could just get Adam to discuss his origin with me, I'm sure my theories would prove out. But one of my theories postulates that Adam was somehow coerced into silence about that subject. I just don't know if the coercion was some kind of threat or whether it was biologically enforced, the same way our attachment to our husbands was." "You're almost sounding like one of those conspiracy nuts." Sue grinned. "At least I'm not one of those religious nuts. Do you want to hear my theories?" "Yeah, go for it. It will be interesting to see what kind of hole you can dig yourself into." "Okay. Remember my explanation about how my timeship worked? The universe is much bigger than it first appears, and is actually made up of many -- maybe an infinite number -- of sub-universes. We can think of the encompassing universe as the 'multiverse'. All these sub-universes are separated by many dimensions. My timeship took advantage of those dimensions to jump between the universes and return to this universe." "That only proves that God is much more powerful than we realized," Ann pointed out. "Stay with me. If a scientist like me can figure out how to travel between these universes, perhaps another scientist went further and figured how to manipulate them. I have come to believe that a scientist, or team of scientists, somehow found a way to create or copy whole 'branes. We are standing on a world in such a universe." "Scientists instead of God? You're really reaching, aren't you?" Ann said. "Maybe. But my theory answers a lot of questions your God does not," Sue said. "God is the answer to everything," Ann said. "Have you ever seen God?" "God is all around us. God is everywhere," Ann said "You know that is not what I meant. Spare me the religious mumbo-jumbo. I want to know if you have ever actually laid eyes on God? Has He walked up to you and shook your hand? Have you spoken to Him and received a reply that would have registered on a voice recorder?" "God does not work that way." "We are living in the days of Genesis and you can say that? According to your bible, God was in the habit of talking personally to Adam and many other people. So where is he?" Sue asked. "This is your theory. You tell me where God is," Ann said. "God has gone home. The person who created this universe has returned to his home universe. It is very unlikely we will ever see or hear from him again." "God would not abandon His children. That's ridiculous!" "Remember Genesis 6:3 where God said, 'My spirit shall not always strive with man.' If parts of the bible can be taken as true, I think we can believe this one," Sue said. "So you believe some parts of the bible? Why not all of it?" "There is just too much of it that is unbelievable, even you don't believe every word in the bible to be the literal truth. Otherwise, you would have to believe that pi equals three." Sue knew that Ann was aware of 1 Kings 7:23 because they had previously argued about the literal truth of the bible. Ann (then Everett) had to grudgingly admit that the verse described a physical impossibility. Sue continued, "I think the person you call God set up this universe, stayed around long enough to see that it was going properly, then went home. He time-traveled forward a few thousand years, left a bunch of amazed yokels with stories of angels and miracles, and maybe even started a rash of flying saucer sightings in the mid-twentieth century. I suspect he met and befriended Moses and related the story of the early days of the world to him, which Moses wrote up as Genesis. But I also suspect that Moses put his own slant on the story and added a bunch of stuff that never happened, such as the Flood, the Tower of Babel, and others. If he did not deliberately confuse the story, it may have been a result of poor comprehension or bad communication. I imagine that God's language had drifted considerably by then, and it was very difficult for God and Moses to understand each other." "Good grief!" Ann said. "You refuse to believe in God and the bible, yet you can contrive a tale even more unbelievable. So God was a scientist? How did He create a universe? More importantly, if He was 'just' a scientist, why did He do it? Are we just a laboratory experiment?" Sue knew she had little chance of convincing Ann of her theories, but she had given much thought to them over the past eighty years or so. She was determined to voice them, whether they were believed or not. "Okay, I don't know how it was done. Maybe they managed to provoke some kind of universal mitosis, causing an existing universe to split into two universes. Or perhaps they invented some kind of copying machine that would reproduce a complete universe. I suspect the latter. I think this universe is a copy of their home universe with the people and artifacts subtracted. Keep in mind, with their mastery of time travel, they could set a process into motion that could take billions of years to complete, and return the 'next' day to see the finished product." "What makes you think this universe is a copy of God's universe? Wouldn't that be Heaven?" Ann said. "Well, in a way it is. This world is ideal for our species. Since we are the descendants of your God's people, it seems reasonable to think this world is very similar to God's homeworld." "What makes you think we are descendents of God's people? Wouldn't that make us gods too?" "Again, speculation. Don't forget that the bible says Adam is the son of God. And we are the descendants of Adam. The bible also says we are made in God's image, so we are probably every bit as god-like as the guy who created this 'brane. And if we can use the bible as evidence, your God seems very human. He had to rest after creating the world, according to Genesis 2:2 -- something an omnipotent deity wouldn't need to do. Plus, if your God was omniscient, why did he have to ask Adam to reveal himself in Genesis 3:9?" "I can't buy that God is human. You're forgetting that God created Adam," Ann said. "But Jesus was God's son." "I have my doubts about Jesus. But if you will recall Luke 3:38, you will see that Adam is the son of God." "You're right. I had forgotten that verse," Ann admitted. She felt she could be forgiven that little lapse of memory, since neither of them had seen a bible they could read in over eighty years. The perfect bodies they had been given when their timeship crashed came equipped with very good memories, otherwise it would probably be impossible to be having this discussion. Ann pressed on, "You still haven't said why this scientist or group of scientists would create this universe." "That's a tough one," Sue said. "At first I thought maybe this world was built as a reservation to contain retarded, rejected, or criminal members of their society. I'm guessing they have a high regard for life and did not want to kill anybody, but still wanted to separate certain elements from their population. Then I began to see that only one member of their world was put here: Adam. All others are descended from him." "You're forgetting Eve," Ann reminded Sue. "No, I think the God-folks -- for lack of a better description -- wanted only Adam to inhabit this world. But they were not cruel, and did not intend to make this imprisonment or exile a solitary confinement. So they cloned Adam, somehow making his clone female. Adam and Eve are basically the same person. I suspect this cloning process was the reason so many male children were born during the first hundred years." "Clone? That is the most ridiculous thing I ever heard!" Ann scoffed. "Really? Think about it. According to Genesis 2:21-22, God took a rib from Adam, made a woman, and brought the woman to him. With time travel, the fully grown clone could have been brought to Adam before the incision healed. Personally, I doubt that a whole rib had to be used, but again Moses may have embellished the story a bit." "Okay, then who is Adam that he would get this kind of attention?" "I wish I knew. I can't get him to talk about it. I tend to think he may have been a younger son of the king of his world, and had to be hidden from his older brother due to castle politics. Either his brother would try to eliminate him as a possible threat, or maybe Adam intended to remove his brother and become heir to the throne. Purely speculation, I'll admit, but there had to be some highly significant reason to exile Adam to a new world. Or maybe I'm giving him too much stature. Maybe the society he originated from has perfected 'brane copying to the point that every miscreant is given his own universe. A personalized Botany Bay, perhaps?" "You're saying Adam was either a prince or a criminal?" "Yeah, Adam was someone who earned exile to his own universe. Or maybe he was a rich hermit who wanted to retire on his own world. I suspect he was exiled against his wishes, though -- your God-folks took too many pains to make this jail escape-proof," Sue said. "More guesses?" In spite of her disbelief, Ann was fascinated by Sue's ruminations. "Think about it. If the God-folks took the trouble to create a complete universe to exile Adam, and even gave him the ability to reproduce and spawn a population that could eventually evolve into a technological society, why would they allow some time traveler from Adam's distant future to return and rescue him?" "How could they prevent it?" "Let's say you have a machine or something that can create a whole 'brane, probably by copying a known 'brane. You don't want the new 'brane to be an exact copy, so you program your machine to make some changes, such as ignoring people and artifacts that exist on the original 'brane. You also program your machine to remake any people it finds in the new 'brane, turning them into perfect females. Further, you program these perfect female bodies with the hormones and brain chemistry that will cause them to fall helplessly in love with the first male they encounter. Think of it as a high-tech love potion, if you like. It also replaced the time traveler's language with the God-folk's language. Now set your trap for the time travelers. I don't know if this 'brane is really only a couple hundred years old, or if the God-folk's access road contained some kind of roadblock. But all the time travelers would hit that boundary in the gray- fog 'brane and get funneled into the copy machine. Remember that strange echo when we hit? We were hearing all the other time machines hitting the wall simultaneously." "Incredible! I'm aware of the many time travelers who finally crashed into our clearing, but wouldn't you agree that is too much a coincidence? Surely God had something to do with that?" "The God-folks, I agree. If I'm right, they posted some kind of robot to watch for time travelers returning to the future, and when their time machine reached a point on the timeline when a male was present in or near the clearing, they were shot down," Sue said. "You mean we didn't crash because your timeship malfunctioned?" "No, I think we were shot down. As you say, it is too much coincidence to believe that we all happened to break down in the same place, just when there was a mateless male nearby." "But why?" "Don't forget, most children born to Adam and his immediate family were male. Females were needed to help expand the population. By transforming time travelers, a steady supply of females could be provided to these early men. And before you ask: I don't know how that trick was done. I tend to wonder if it was something like the Star Trek transporter. But this allowed a variety of genes to be added to the pool without having to bring more God-folks to this 'brane." "That story is incredible. It answers almost every question, but it still does not prove that God did not create the universe -- or multiverse, if you prefer. If God did not create THIS universe, then surely He created the universe of the people who you claim created this one. At most, you have simply pushed God back a little bit," Ann said. "Yeah, but it puts your bible in a different light, doesn't it? One of the God-folk may have thought it would be a good idea to tell the story of Adam's exile to Moses, thinking the information might be useful to Adam's descendants someday. But Moses either did not get the story straight or rewrote it to serve his own purposes. Later, other scam artists in the priesthood built onto that framework. And if there is a bible-equivalent in the God-'brane, you have no way to get your hands on a copy." "Well, you never got to see your dinosaur, did you?" "I've been wondering ever since we got here whether dinosaurs really existed. Maybe they once existed on the God-world and their fossils were copied when this 'brane was created. Or maybe the copy machine was programmed to add those fossils into the geologic strata. For a world that may only be a couple hundred years old, you can find fossils everywhere." "Now that's ridiculous! Why would these scientists put fake fossils into a copy of a world?" Ann asked. "Bait." "Bait?" "Certainly," Sue said. "What better way to lure a time traveler into the trap than by giving him the hope of seeing thunder lizards in the flesh? I would expect every time traveler to make at least one trip into the distant past to see the dinosaurs. Before we embarked on our trip, you asked me where all the other time travelers were. Now you know." "Your theory explains everything, but as you pointed out, you have no proof. A lot of speculation and guesses, but nothing to back them up except that Adam won't admit to anything." Ann marveled at Sue's logical constructions, but thought it was only a house of cards. With nothing to support Sue's theories, she may as well declare that aliens in flying saucers abducted the two of them, transformed their bodies, and dropped them onto an almost uninhabited world. Surely that scenario would be just as believable? "I did not say I had no proof," Sue reminded her. "I said I had little proof. But I consider it significant." "Really? What proof do you think you have?" "This language we are speaking. If you're correct, our brains were reconfigured to replace our language with the God-folk's language. Tell me, what do you think when I mention the word 'elevator'?" "It is a device for transporting people vertically inside of tall buildings," Ann said. "What does that prove?" "Have you seen an elevator since we've been here? For that matter, have you seen any skyscrapers?" "No," Ann said. "So why does this language have the words and concepts for such things? If you use words like 'elevator,' 'aircraft,' or 'radio' around second and third generation people, they'd have no idea what you're talking about. But if you throw words like that into a conversation with Adam, he doesn't even blink. He won't use them himself, but I have no doubt that he understands them. You and I have discussed time travel, reminisced about our lives before the trip, and talked about multiple dimensions and infinite 'branes. How could we do that, if the language lacked the terminology?" Ann remembered during their trip into the past that Sue (then Adam) had problems making English serve to describe certain aspects of time travel. If a language lacks the words to convey an idea, it is difficult indeed to make people understand what you are trying to tell them. She remembered that it took decades before even a tiny percentage of the population could understand what Einstein was trying to tell the world about relativity. Ann was jolted. She had never thought about it like that. But she would not admit that to her sister. She said, "You're right. That is small proof. There may be a number of explanations for this language having those words. Our brains may be filling in the blanks with words from our original language that had no equivalent in this language. How could we tell? Or it may just be God's grace that allows us to retain our original minds and memories and vocabularies, even with a new language imposed over them." "Yeah, there may be many explanations for this whole situation that still haven't occurred to me. I wish I had my twenty-first century resources. I bet I could figure it out and get some solid proof. Maybe I could even track down and haul your God back here and introduce him to you. Without those resources, my theories will remain just that; theories. But at least my theories explain things without resorting to some kind of supernatural magical deity waving his arms and saying, 'Let there be light!'," Sue said. Chapter 8. Ann watched as Sue and Abram led their pack mule down the path. Ann was much more disturbed than she was willing to admit to Sue. She had thought their experiences confirmed the validity of the bible and proved the existence of God. Thinking that God might just be some futuristic scientist from another universe seemed like the worst kind of blasphemy. But Ann had seen what her own brother could do with dimension and time travel. Why would it be too much of a stretch to think that somebody with more science and knowledge could do even more amazing things? Like create or copy a whole universe? Living with a brother like Adam was a constant assault on one's faith. Everett had never yielded or wavered, and Ann did not think she should either. Throughout history, as Ann remembered it, mankind has been pushing God away. Aristotelian physics were incorporated into the text of the bible, then had to be excused or justified when Copernican physics came along. The Copernican universe eventually had to be replaced by Newtonian physics, although it took some religions hundreds of years to accept it. And then, just as churches were beginning to allow that there might be something to Newton's ideas, along came Einstein and blew everything out of the water again. Yet most of the faithful took these changes as further proof of the majesty of their God. With each change, the universe became bigger and more complex, revealing the greater glory of God. Sue's theories about the multiverse with its infinite 'branes and super-scientific civilizations only magnified God's power and grace. The farther scientists tried to push God away, the bigger He became. Maybe Sue was correct about the origin of this universe. But could she also be correct in her belief that there is no God? Naaaaah. Chapter 9. Sue turned around to wave to Ann again before she and Abram had walked out of sight. She felt much better after telling her theories to Ann, even though she was sure Ann would belittle or deny them. Still, giving voice to her theories helped her settle and solidify them in her own mind, and the more she thought about them the more she was convinced that she was right. There were still a lot of hows and whys that she could not explain, but she was sure she was on the right track. Sue regretted that she was never able to convince Ann of the nonsense of religion. Supernatural deities make no sense, and Sue much preferred a universe that made sense. Sometimes Sue almost envied Ann her belief in a God. It would occasionally be very nice to have a supernatural shoulder to cry on, an omnipotent God to beseech for small favors, or even a devil to blame things on. Sue's logical mind even denied her the catharsis of profanity. She always thought that religious people should not use profanity because it denies the principles of their faith and reduces their God to a servant ordered to mitigate small annoyances for His master. But for that same reason, atheists could not logically indulge in profanity, otherwise they would be invoking a deity they did not believe. Even if Sue convinced Ann that this universe was created by scientists, she knew that Ann would just conclude that God created those scientists. A lot of people believe in God; could Ann be correct that there is a God? Naaaaah. The end. ****************************************************************** Author's notes. The story is finished. What follows this point are ramblings from the author that may safely be skipped and ignored. If you read any further, it's on your own head. First, I'd like to thank Ed K. for his work in editing and proofreading this story. It is people like Ed and other Fictionmania editors who help make these stories as good as they can be. The idea for this story arose from a book loaned to me that attempts to explain how the universe can be only 10,000 years old or less, mostly by using references from Genesis in the bible. The book is called "The Revised & Expanded Answers Book," edited by Don Batten, Ph.D. This book was loaned to me by a friend in August 2006. Some of the assertions this book makes: 1. The earth (and the whole universe) is only 6,000 to 10,000 years old, maximum. 2. God created everything at that time. In fact, time itself did not exist until God created it. 3. All creatures on earth were vegetarians until Adam's fall (eating the forbidden fruit). No accidents or injuries, and no deaths happened to any creature until after Adam's fall. Everything was perfect. 4. Dinosaurs and other extinct species co-existed with man until the Flood. The Flood somehow produced all the fossils and caused the continental plates to drift apart. Dinosaurs and other creatures could not cope with the new post-Flood world and died out. 5. Everybody spoke the same language until the Tower of Babel incident. The authors of this book tried to convince the reader that science was just guesswork, dating methods were unreliable and inaccurate, geology 'proved' the Flood, and the only accurate and reliable account of the history of the world was written in Genesis. Frankly, I did not think their arguments were very convincing. But the thought occurred to me: suppose we accepted that they were right; what would a literal reading of Genesis (and the rest of the bible) do to time travelers? I had read stories in which the time travelers were stranded thousands of years in the past and became Adam and Eve. In this story I wanted to avoid that 'obvious' result, so I should probably apologize for using the teasing names Everett and Adam. If you bailed out of the story early because you 'knew' how it was going to end, then you're probably not reading these notes. Fooled you! My story also provides theories to explain how million-years-old fossils could exist on a 'young' earth, and where the women came from that the sons of Adam married. If you ever saw the movie "Inherit the Wind," you'll remember Clarence Darrow questioning William Jennings Bryan about the bible. He brought up the subject of Cain's wife and asked, "Did you ever discover where Cain got his wife?" Well, my story provides an answer to that mystery. The result of my speculations about time travelers vs the bible is the story you just read. I hope you enjoyed it. BTW, the Johnny Cash reference was about his song, "A Boy Named Sue." The "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" reference was about a science fiction series on television in the last half of the 1960s. The series was about a futuristic super-scientific submarine and its crew. It started out as a very good science fiction show, but devolved into a "monster-of-the- week" series. In every episode the ship would hit something or something would hit it causing it to rock violently, tossing the crewmen around and showering them with sparks and smoke. The crew would rush around in a panic, extinguishing small fires, tending the injured, assessing 'damage control', scrabbling at their controls, etc. It was very exciting for anybody under ten years old. Everybody else was left to wonder why such a super-scientific craft seemed to lack fuses and circuit breakers. For more information, Google "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea". Now you have some idea how old Adam and Everett were when they started their adventure. For those of you curious enough to wonder about the bible verses used in this story, here is a list. These verses were taken from the King James Version of the bible. Genesis 1:28 -- And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. Genesis 2:2 -- And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Genesis 3:9 -- And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where [art] thou? Genesis 2:21 -- And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Genesis 2:22 -- Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. Genesis 3:16 -- To the woman He said: "I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you." Genesis 4:16 -- Then Cain went out from the presence of the LORD and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden. Genesis 4:17 -- And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. And he built a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son Enoch. Genesis 4:26 -- And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the LORD. Genesis 5:5 -- And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died. Genesis 6:2 -- That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they [were] fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. Genesis 6:3 -- And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also [is] flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. Genesis 11:5 -- But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. Genesis 11:6 -- And the LORD said, "Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Genesis 11:7 -- "Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech." Genesis 11:8 -- So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. Genesis 11:9 -- Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth. 1 Corinthians 15:45 -- And so it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being." Luke 3:38 -- the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God. 1 Kings 7:23 -- And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other: [it was] round all about, and his height [was] five cubits: and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about.