Oil Change, Sanity & 018 The Investigation’s Focus Shifts

Good Morning Ted and Jody:

I was out early this morning to get the oil changed in the Ridgeline.  It went 8,000 miles before the change oil soon notification appeared on the information panel on the dash.  Then it still had 15% oil life left, according to the panel.  I watched the oil come out.  It was the blackest oil I have seen from an oil change.  Neither Fred nor I like the color.  However, as he says, “It’s their warranty and if they say go this long, who are we to argue.”  I have had the Ridgeline since January.  Fred said, “At your age, this should be the last vehicle you buy. But, the way you put miles on it, I wouldn’t bet on it.” However, given the rate at which self-driving vehicles are progressing, this could be the last vehicle I buy and drive.  That got me to thinking, how will a self-driving vehicle be at stopping long the way to take photos?

I picked up a copy or the Seattle Times this morning since Longview’s newspaper takes Mondays off.  There was an article about how the pestilence is planning on directing funds in his budget to the states that voted for him. Given the bent of the Republican majority in Congress, he may have it written into law.  On that same note, I ran across this article on how to stay sane if the pestilence is driving you insane.   https://medium.com/@robin.chancer/how-to-stay-sane-if-trump-is-driving-you-insane-advice-from-a-therapist-42e982195e22  Nancy has observed that she is less concerned by the pestilence than she is by all the people who still think he is doing well between his weekend golf outings that cost us millions.

I walked around the yard this morning and can see that I am only six months behind in my efforts to keep this place looking inhabited.

I trust this finds you happy, healthy and not reading the news.

Warmest regards, Ed

018 The Investigation’s Focus Shifts

Fiction in 1013 words by T. Edward Westen, 2017

 

When Amanda White arrived back at the detective squad she found Special Agent Fleishman trying to explain the large empty space on the current cases board to Detective Philipson and Captain Batan.  “. . . so, you see, it is the same as it never happened.”

Amanda White said, “I see you got to Mr. Clancy and diverted him to a more promising future.”

“Yes,” replied Special Agent Fleishman. “I was just trying to explain to Detective Philipson and Captain Batan, but since they don’t have time travel implants little changes in the timeline go, shall we say, unnoticed by them.”

“It was confusing to me at first,” replied Amanda White. “But, when little corrections are made, it is best if we forget them too least we confuse others.”  She paused and continued, “But I need to give you an update.  My assignment was to try to discover the source of several anomalies, contraband, if you will, showing up in the wrong time period.  I identified the five bodies you had materialize as being associated with a fellow I identified who was associated with the other contraband, a Mr. Wilbur Seams.  Mr. Seams provided the bodies to the inventor who used them as subjects and inadvertently sent them to the area of 38^th and Mulberry.”

“What kind of contraband?” asked Special Agent Fleishman.

“In addition to the five bodies, various synthetic narcotics, forged currency, synthetic precious mineral and metals, and live extinct species individuals several centuries after they went extinct.” Replied Amanda White.

Captain Batan said, “All that tied to one person.  And I thought criminals in the here and now were inventive. How would they capture extinct species?”

“All they have to do is be near one individual of a species, pivot to a place that is enclosed, say a cage and take it with them.  Then pivot back out leaving the animal behind in the cage,” said Special Agent Fleishman.  “Get back to the guys you fingered for the contraband, Agent White.”

“In tracking Wilbur Seams to the bodies that Thomas Aldrich Edison sent here, I ran into what I take to be his brother, Walter Seams,” said Amanda White.  “I do not know if there are more, but Walter and Wilbur both seem to have time travel abilities yet we have no record of them in our system.”

“While I suppose one could learn to use implants without the five night of sleep training,” said, Special Agent Fleishman. “It would take a lot of time and luck.”

“Why luck?” asked Detective Philipson.

“Not to pivot into a solid object like a tree, bolder or wall,” replied Amanda White.

“So, the copse in the cab, the bus and the one in the delivery struck were lucky they weren’t embedded in the cab, bus or delivery truck?” asked Captain Batan.

Both Amanda White and Special Agent Fleishman nodded their heads. “By all rights, each of those should have at least have been partially embedded,” replied Special Agent Fleishman.

Detective Philipson shuddered.  “So, how do you two keep from being embedded every time you jump?

“Pivot,” corrected Special Agent Fleishman.  “Every time we pivot, we send out virtual radar like transmissions to the spot we are going.  As the virtual radar returns solid objects, it corrects the 11-dimensional address so that we miss solid objects and end up on our feet.”

“But I have gone with you, and it is in less than the blink of an eye,” said Detective Philipson.

“Yes,” replied Special Agent Fleishman.  “But the calculations are not conscious, and they happen in less than Nano-seconds. So they happen a quantum times faster than completing the pivot.”

“But, still . . . “Detective Philipson said.  But he was interrupted.  Special Agent Fleishman picked up a staple from the desk and tossed it to the Detective who reached up and grabbed it in midair.

“If you can explain to me how you managed to catch that stapler that you did not know was coming,” said Special Agent Fleishman, “You are smarter than I am.  Yet, you did the calculations in the blink of an eye without even thinking about it and plucked it out of the air.”

“You are saying they are like my built-in motor skills,” said Detective Philipson.

“Yes, and self-preservation,” replied Special Agent Fleishman. “Implants do not always work for everyone.  Some people simply lack the built-in equivalence to motor skills.  That is one reason for the five nights of sleep training.  Part of the training is to wake up and initiate the skills required to pivot without ending up in something. That is one of the reasons luck would be involved in learning to use an implant without the training.”

Amanda White said, “I suspected they had stumbled upon a cache of implant syringes.  Other than Melissa Hickson, whose cache we recovered, we had five rouges who could have left caches in various places.  I was inclined to think, at first, it was one of the rogues.  I located all five of them and they were benign. Then . . .”

Captain Batan interrupted, “What do you mean benign?”

“They no longer had implants and were living in a time periods where they could not get any,” replied Amanda White. “As I was about to say, then when I experience Thomas Aldrich Edison’s fixed time travel device, I realized that there must be more than our way of time travel.  It could be the Seams brothers stumbled on to an alternative way to move in time and space than using our implant method.” She paused for a moment, and then put up two photographs on the blank space on the current incident board and said, “These two men are our only lead as to where your bodies came from and the source of the contraband I was trying to locate.”

Captain Batan said, “It is a hell of a coincidence, but they both bear a strong resemblance to Andy Kellog, the driver of the cab in which the first body materialized.”

Detective Philipson said, “Cousins, perhaps?”