Hidden Truths at All Costs

    The a small device referred to as the time machine, was a rectangular prism approximately as big as match-box. Yet it had successfully traveled back in time and had visually recorded certain important events such as part of the Gettysburg Address at the Gettysburg National Cemetery on November 19, 1863. Parts of the battle at the Little Big Horn, on June 25–26, 1876. However, there were severe restrictions. You see, each temporal-regress attempt required that the machine be physically transported to the geographical location in which the specific past events had occurred.

     Also, its arrival in the past had to be very brief, and never at ground level lest it kill someone in the past and affect our present in significant ways. For example, one person's death could prevent another's birth, and if that person killed had made some significant contribution to human civilization, then all events linked to that contribution would vanish. In fact, thousands of people in our present would vanish if their existence were linked in some way to such an individual. So extra care had to be taken to avoid such thing from happening. Precautions included fitting it with an invisibility cloaking devise to assure that it would not in any way distract people in that time frame lest he distraction also cause a slight fluctuation in the event sequences leading to our present and causing devastating results. 

     To facilitate all this this, a small parachute had been fitted to it to allow descent from approx. 300 feet while recording the events below. Neither could it remain there for more that three minutes since regression to the present seemed inevitable after that time. So whatever it recorded had to be fast. Why? The scientists really didn't know, just as they didn't know what dark matter is yet considered its existence irrefutable.

     So unfortunately, time-travel was not as simple as had been depicted in popular films where dialing a date was all that was needed. Eventually, numerous small successful trips back in time gave the scientists enough confidence to attempt going back farther. The attempt, of course, had to be monumental in order to be governmentally subsidized. So the scientists proposed sending the machine back to the year that would provide evidence so conclusive over some controversial matter, that the attempt could not be denied any support.

     And so it was. The government did supply the needed funding and all had been arranged in the geographical location necessary for the attempt to succeed. No, it had not been announced to the public due to its extremely sensitive nature. So only those directly involved in the project were aware of the missions significance, and as a precaution, they were placed under strict oath not to reveal it to anyone. Yet there were those who disagreed both among technicians and scientists. 

    "I disagree with all this hush hush secrecy about the project with the public. They have a right to know. After all, it’s the citizen's tax money that’s being used." the nuclear physicist Ignacio Caraballo said to his colleague standing beside him at the instrument console situated before the machine. 

    "Well, that might be true,” his colleague, a short husky American male of Italian lineage named Joe Malanga, finally replied after a prolonged silence, "...but the vote was unanimous except for you and that other physicist." he shot back in an annoyed tone of voice. They had often discussed the matter in private, and it had always ended in an abrupt silence, and this was no exception. They both ignored one another as usual and concentrated on getting the job done.
 
    Before them, machine stood perched on a mushroom-shaped diamantine pedestal approx. 20 feet away as both men were made minute final adjustments in order to assure precise chronological accuracy. Soon, in response to their computer impute, the machine began to hum and oscillate. Then, after suddenly glowed brightly blue for a few seconds, it was gone. It's expected return to the present would be in three minutes, and all eyes were fixed on the large digital rectangular wall-clock above the machine's pedestal which was displaying the passing seconds in red letters against a black background. And so it was as it had been before as the machine reappeared as it usually had during all previous missions, hovering four feet above its pedestal, and then gradually descending and powering down.

    As usual, there were cheers and effusive mutual congratulations for a job well done. Hugs, patting on the back and handshakes.  All was perfectly fine until the machine's visual recordings were projected on a large screen. Then everyone gasped at what the images revealed.

     Then the head scientist, Haruto Yamamoto, a slim, pale, middle-aged man of Japanese descent, blanched and immediately shut off the projection. Then he angrily ordered everyone out of the room. When they hesitated, he shouted his orders and everyone complied since he had signaled for security, and the black-suited guards were entering with rifles fixed to assure that his orders were followed.  After the evacuation, the room was then hermetically sealed and guards posted at its doors. 

     Then all workers associated with the project were immediately sent back to the States in military transport aircraft. Each was methodically debriefed and very carefully questioned. They were also repeatedly told that what they believed they had observed in the film that the machine had brought back, was not what they had observed. That they were strictly prohibited to speak with anyone about what they imagined that they had observed. 

    Those that did not immediately agree to comply, were then transported to the USA Guantanamo naval base in Cuba, and subjected to physical beatings. That included the physicist Ignacio Caraballo who had refused to cooperate, as well as Joe Malanga his colleague who had both been seen emerging from such intense questioning at the Guantanamo military base, with eyes swollen shut, and bleeding profusely from their noses. Eventually, they too had been forced to agree to keep what they had seen to themselves.  

     In the long-run, the government strategy worked. Ultimately, the machine was described as having disintegrated during  its attempt to return to the present, that mission and never retrieved any data from a bogus date that they provided. Of course, the public had accepted it. After all, why would the government be lying to them?

   Also, the time travel project had been announced discontinued although it had been resumed in private.  However, never again was the machine sent back to the past in that geographical location and to that specific date that had caused the problem, the date of 5,767 BCE. the date that biblical chronology indicated God created man.