This is a short sci-fi I wrote back when I was a senior at Rutgers. It’s a story about time travel, and teleportation. It’s also about three college best friends meet again in the future. Lots have changed. But the past in the future won’t! Please enjoy!
88 Central Ave.
Jason Lin
To my hilarious college best friends/roommates – Grant and John.
- College Reunion
Time: 15:00, May 15th, 2056.
Location: 88 Central Ave. New Brunswick, NJ.
Weather: Misty and windy.
The story started 41 years ago. Jacob, Scott, and Mike went to Rutgers University, a state university of New Jersey, together. They all enrolled the same year. Jacob Li was an international student from China majored in Biomathematics who went to US for higher education and wanted to stay in US permanently, ambitious, independent, but can be dorky sometimes. Scott Ilmer, a math major, came from a little Jewish family in south Jersey, likes to party and “BS” his way out, super intelligent, loved music, but can be manipulative, all the times. And Mike Park, divorced once, went to college to pursue his true passion, math and physics, was raised by a workaholic Korean couple, Loved singing, working out, scotch whiskey. They used to live in the apartment located at 88 Central Ave, New Brunswick for the last two years of their college. They were best buddies in college, drank together, sang drunk karaoke together, solving math problems together, skipped school and went to the most epic comic con together. Things have changed quite a bit in the last 40 years. After graduation Jacob went to a top graduate school for his PhD in applied math. Despite his talent in mathematics, the 5th wave of economic crisis in US forced him to work a math professor in a community college in, Charleston, South Carolina. Scott quitted his “BS” life style and worked hard in a bank after graduating college. Despite his low grades in college, people recognized his talent and he is now the one of the Chairs of the Council of Economics Advisers under the cabinet of current president. As for Mike, nobody knows what he’s been up to; people only know that he’s been living in New Mexico after he got his PhD in Biophysics. And most importantly, Professor Paul Lenard and his team at Rutgers University have successfully proofed the plausibility of human teleportation and they are going to launch their brand new product, Telewatch, a small watch-shaped device that can teleport humans from one location from another around the world. The problem for teleportation is that it was impossible to transform material into energy and vise versa in a lossless way. Also it was extremely hard to restore human body back to its original form and it was impossible to figure out a way to store and restore human memory. However, Professor Lenard figured out a brilliant way to store and restore human body as well as the memory perfectly by introducing fractal patterns into the algorithm. And he invited three people to test his theory and product. He is waiting for his guests to arrive at 88 Central Ave, the place where Professor Lenard is currently residing in.
Jacob, Scott, and Mike arrived at 88 Central Ave at 2:50 in the afternoon. Jacob was smoking, as usual. He was wearing his good old black pants, a pair of brown Chelsea boots, a red T-shirt, and his leather jacket. Scott and Mike looked depressed. They just sat in front of the doors. They have been talking to each other for almost 30 years.
“What’s up Jacob; what’s up Scott?” Said Mike.
“So finally we are here again. 88 Central Ave. God that brings so much good memories!” Said Jacob.
“Yeah! I agree. So what you guys’ been up to?” Scott asked Jacob and Mike.
“Not too well for me, because of the economic crisis, I cannot find a decent job and that’s why I am teaching in a community college. What about you, big shot, the Chairs of the Council of Economics Advisers?” Jacob answered, while smoking.
“Well, not so good actually. President blames me for the crisis and right now I am about to loose my job! You know what, I kind of want to go back to college and be silly again! Remember all the stupid things we’ve done during those four years? It was stupid but fun!” Scott answered, sadly.
“So what’s up with Professor Lenard, why he invite us to his house. I know it’s for testing his theory and product, Telewatch. But why us?” Mike asked.
“We’re about the find out”. Jacob responded.
They unlocked the front door. The key to the house was teleported to them. By that time, it was relatively easy for humans to teleport small non-organic objects. They entered the house and found various framed fractal patterns hanging on the walls of the apartment. Professor Paul Lenard was sitting in a red sofa in the center of the living room.
“Wow, this place surely changed a lot!” Jacob stared at all the fractal patterns surprisingly.
“What you’re looking at is a path generated by a one dimensional Weiner process – a fractal curve of dimension 1.4. It is the new project I am working on at the moment. I am glad to meet all of you gentlemen! My name is Professor Paul Lenard; please call me Paul.” Professor Lenard greeted three guests.
“So Paul, long story short, why do you invite us here? I know that there are way more qualified scientists that can test your theory and product.” Scott asked Paul impatiently.
“That’s an excellent question! I believe you all read my paper on the theory of teleportation and using fractal pattern to store human body structures and memories, and as you know my theory is perfect and there is no flaw in my product. As a matter of fact, I can demonstrate the product right now.” Professor Lenard responded confidently.
Professor Lenard looked at the Telewatch on his wrist. He types in some parameters and said: “Well, you should guys should take the bus to Livingston campus right after I disappear, I will wait at the Quad IV dorm entrance.” Right after he said “entrance”, his body started to twist, stretch, and suddenly sucked into the Telewatch. The Telewatch started to spinning on the floor and generated lots of sparks. Then suddenly it disappeared.
“Wow! So that’s human teleportation!” Scott shouted shockingly.
“We better hurry and go to Quad IV in Livingston!” Said Jacob.
“Well, here is the problem! Remember senior year college, we tricked freshmen to go to a party in Quad IV. Don’t tell me you guys forgot that Quad IV never existed!” Said Mike.
“Maybe they build one after we left. Anyway, we should go and check it out.” Said Jacob.
The three of them hoped on the bus and arrived at the Quads dorm. They looked around but cannot find Quad IV. However, professor Lenard was already waiting for them in the central garden of the dorm.
- Professor Lenard and Quad IV
Time: 23:00, May 16th, 2056.
Location: Quads (Rutgers dorm).
Weather: Humid.
“Greetings, my friends!” Professor Lenard talked towards the three of them slowly.
“So what’s the plan, chief? We cannot find Quad IV! And I don’t think there will ever be a Quad IV right? You tricked us!” Scott shouted at the professor loudly.
“Well, how can you be so sure?” Said professor while smiling.
Professor continued: “The truth is, I asked you guys to come back here and test my theory for time travelling. I over heard from a math professor couple years ago that 35 years ago some students of his were writing some crazy paper about using fractal patterns to travel back in time. So I did some research and pulled your old paper. And I think I might have solved the impossible time travel!”
“That’s impossible, the reason why we think fractal pattern can be a solution to time travel is because assume time is not a vector function pointing towards one direction but a complex function that goes toward and backward. However, the complex function for time is too complicated and we didn’t figure out the right fractal pattern for such function!” Said Jacob.
“Aha! So it turns out that the fractal curve of dimension 1.4 is the right fractal pattern for the time function. As you can see, the finite form of that fractal pattern represents the classic Brownian motion. You see, space-time as a separate dimension might be chaos, but in an organized random pattern and that pattern is the right way to go. So if my theory is correct, we can not only teleport through space not also time!” Said Professor Lenard very excitingly.
“What?! We didn’t thought of it! If it’s promising, then let’s do this right now?” Said Scott.
“Unfortunately, we can’t. You see, I need an important ‘key’ to adjust the parameter for the dimension of the fractal curve. And one of my students stole my ‘key’. I looked into his whereabouts and it turns out that he is having a party in ‘Quad IV’, a secret underground club at Rutgers. I have found the coordinates for the bathroom inside the club and we could teleport their.” Said Professor Lenard.
“Cool! Why are we waiting?” Said Mike.
As planned, four of them teleported into the bathroom of ‘Quad IV’.
“Listen, the president of the club is called Matt, AKA my former student. I am going to stay in the bathroom since if I showed up he will get suspicious. I am going to send his profile to you and I want you guys to locate him and get the ‘key’ back. Since they are having a party, it should be easy to blend in.” Said Professor Lenard.
“Alright! Let’s do this!” Said Jacob to Scott and Mike.
Three of them walked out of the bathroom. It was indeed a party, and a big one. They quickly located Matt. He was dominating beer pong and was looking for an opponent. They told Matt their intension and challenged him through beer pong.
“Very well gentlemen! If you want the ‘key’, you have to win the beer pong! And it doesn’t matter of three of you guys play against me because I am the KING OF THE BEER PONG! Ladies, fill the cups with vodka!” Said Matt.
“Well, I believe you’re about to loose this because we are the BEST!” Mike shouted towards Matt.
Both teams were very competitive, and after 12 rounds of beer pong. Both team have only one cup left. And it was Matt’s turn.
“Looks like you guys are about to loose the BEER PONG!” Said Matt.
Matt threw and the ball weren’t even close to the cup. Now Jacob got the ball.
“Now who’s going to win!” Jacob threw the ball and it went into the cup.
Matt drank the last cup of Vodka and gave them the ‘key’. The ‘key’ was simply a screwdriver. They walked towards the bathroom.
“What’s so special about the screwdriver?” Scott asked.
“I agree, it is definitely fishy. My theory is that there is nothing special about the screwdriver and Paul set this up. I think he just want to get us drunk and be the guinea pig for his time travel experiment. However, I was thinking. Paul was right about Brownian motion; it is perfect for the complex function for time. However, I believe he miscalculated, and the parameter for fractal curve should be 1.5 instead of 1.4.” Said Jacob.
“Are you sure? He might force us to do this and we might end up die! I mean I still need to feed my guinea pig at home.” Scott was concerned about his own guinea pig, Donald.
“I did some calculation before the beer pong and I think it is correct!” Said Jacob.
“Then what are we waiting for! Let’s do this! Let’s set the time to college! I can’t wait to go back to college again!” Said Scott!
They went back into the bathroom and met Professor Lenard. They handed over the “key”, and they teleported back to 88 Central Ave.
- Time to go back
Time: 6:00, May 17th, 2056.
Location: Robert A. Schommer Astronomical Observatory.
Weather: Stormy.
After Professor “fixed” the Telewatch.
“So what time period you guys want to travel to?” Said Professor Lenard.
“We decided to go back to our college life!” Said Scott.
“Now before we do this, professor, would you mind taking a picture with us together? If the experiment is not successful, we want people to know that at least we tried!” Said Jacob.
Professor agreed to take a picture with Jacob, Scott, and Mike. A picture of Jacob, Scott, Mike, and Professor Lenard standing in front of the black wall of 88 Central Ave, New Brunswick, NJ.
“Now you just have to set the fractal curve dimension to 1.4 and the time to 15:00, May 15th, 2016. And then hit enter. You might be able to go back in time and see Obama at the commencement again!” Professor said it to Jacob.
“Well, I don’t know anymore. I mean, what’s the point going back. Granted, college life was full of fun, excitement, stupidity, and we don’t have to worry about reality. But we’re adults now, we have to face the challenge and struggles in life! It is true that real life might not be fun, and might be scary and frightening. But that’s how humans evolve through out the history. Not through smooth roads but various obstacles!” Said Jacob.
“You’re right. Then why are we doing this?” Scott and Mike responded.
“For science, you dummies! I’ve already hit the ‘enter’ and there is no turning back from now on! The only reason that I wanted you guys to go to that stupid party is to make you guys drunk enough to say yes to this!” Said Professor Lenard while laughing crazy.
“Well, time to go back I guess!” Scott bumbled.
“We’re already back.” Said Jacob while smiling.
- Back to the future
Time: 10:00, May 6th, 3556.
Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico, US.
Weather: Sunny and Calm.
It is a sunny day as usually in Santa Fe. Like every other morning, Dr. Mike Park said goodbye to his wife and two beautiful daughters and went to work in of the top-secret biophysics laboratory. He arrived at his lab at precisely 9:50 am. After checking patients’ brain wave functions, cardiovascular activities, and nutrient stability level. At 9:59AM sharp. He sat down next to two patients of his. Stared into two vacuumed coffin-shaped tubes, it seemed like he knows those two patients for a long time. Today is an important day for Dr. Park, and two of his friends.
“Natalie, reduce the glycerol levels of patient 10020343 and patient 10020344. Start nutrient substances injection, introduce oxygen into the tubes, and simulate the activation brain wave function. Increase the temperature from -50 Celsius to 37 Celsius by magnitude of 1 degree every hour. After 3 days of operation, open the tube and transfer to patients to regular observatory lab.” Dr. Park said to his assistant.
After a week, Dr. Park arrives at his lab at 9:50 precisely as usually. He entered the observatory lab and sits down next to two of his patients, patient 10020343 and patient 10020344. He just sits there. Suddenly he heard increasing heartbeats from two patients start to increase. Patient 10020343 and patient 10020344 slowly opened their eyes.
“What’s up Jacob; what’s up Scott?” Dr. Park talks to those two patients of his, with a smile on his face, a genuine smile.
“What’s Mickey?” Jacob and Scott respond quietly but quickly.
“You know, you guys been frozen for a thousand years. A THOUSAND years! Can you believe it?” Says Dr. Park.
“I mean, that’s what we’ve signed up for right?” Says Jacob while laughing.
“Well, it could go south since we are the first group of people to get frozen for a thousand years. It’s hard to imagine that we are revived after a thousand years!” Says Scott.
“Talking about sleeping for a thousand years, I had a really weird dream whiling being frozen. I dreamed that all three of us went back to Rutgers after 40 years. Met Professor Paul Lenard who invented teleportation. Then we went through all the epic parties and fights to get Professor’s ‘key’ back. Afterwards I volunteered to test professor’s theory of using Telewatch to travel through time. Then I woke up. How amazing is that?” Says Jacob.
“What!? That’s is impossible, first of all, it is impossible to dream while being frozen. We artificially shut down your brain function to reserve all your memories and brain functions.” Says Dr. Park shockingly.
It’s been two hours after Jacob and Scott woke up. Jacob realized that he could never go back in time. However, he is till confused about the dream that he had while being frozen. He goes to his lockers to pick up the clothes he stored in the lab. He opens the locker, and found his good old black pants, a pair of brown Chelsea boots, a red T-shirt, and his leather jacket. He takes all his belonging from the locker and goes back the lab to sign the check out form. He reached in the inner pocket of his jacket for his pen. However, he found a picture, a picture of him, Scott, Mike, and Professor Lenard standing in front of the black wall of 88 Central Ave, New Brunswick, NJ.
He brings the picture to Scott and Mike: “we are thinking what I am thinking?”
Jacob, Scott, and Dr. Park leave the lab and go straight to the airport.
They arrive at the airport. “What is your final destination?” One of the flight attendants asks them.
“88 Central Ave.” Jacob, Scott, and Mike respond simultaneously, while smiling.
The end.
Jason's random thoughts 