The Time Travel Chronicles

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Authors: Samuel Peralta,Robert J. Sawyer,Rysa Walker,Lucas Bale,Anthony Vicino,Ernie Lindsey,Carol Davis,Stefan Bolz,Ann Christy,Tracy Banghart,Michael Holden,Daniel Arthur Smith,Ernie Luis,Erik Wecks

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The Time Travel

Chronicles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WINDRIFT BOOKS

 

 

 

Subscribe to
The Future Chronicles
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http://smarturl.it/chronicles-news

 

 

THE TIME TRAVEL CHRONICLES

 

No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system without the proper written permission of the appropriate copyright holder listed below, unless such copying is expressly permitted by federal and international copyright law. Permission must be obtained from the individual copyright owners as identified herein.

 

The stories in this book are fiction. Any resemblance to any person, place, or event—whether occurring in the past, present or future—is entirely coincidental.

 

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

 

The Time Travel Chronicles
copyright © 2015 Samuel Peralta and Windrift Books.

 

Foreword copyright © 2015 by Samuel Peralta. Used by permission of the author.

 

“Extant” by Anthony Vicino, copyright © 2015 Anthony Vicino. Used by permission of the author.

 

“Gambit” by Rysa Walker, copyright © 2015 Rysa Walker. Used by permission of the author.

 

“Beasts of the Earth” by Ernie Lindsey, copyright © 2015 Ernie Lindsey. Used by permission of the author.

 

“Excess Baggage” by Carol Davis, copyright © 2015 Carol Davis. Used by permission of the author.

 

“The Traveler” by Stefan Bolz, copyright © 2015 Stefan Bolz. Used by permission of the author.

 

“Eighty-Three” by Erik Wecks, copyright © 2015 Erik Wecks. Used by permission of the author.

             

“Life/Time in the New World” by Ann Christy, copyright © 2015 Ann Christy. Used by permission of the author.

 

“Just Like Old Times” by Robert J. Sawyer, copyright © 1993 Robert J. Sawyer. First published in
Dinosaur Fantastic
, edited by Mike Resnick and Martin H. Greenberg. Used by permission of the author.

 

“Shades” by Lucas Bale, copyright © 2015 Lucas Bale. Used by permission of the author.

 

“The Nothing Gate” by Tracy Banghart, copyright © 2015 Tracy Banghart. Used by permission of the author.

 

“Meddler” by Ernie Luis, copyright © 2015 Ernie Luis. Used by permission of the author.

 

“The Diatomic Quantum Flop” by Daniel Arthur Smith, copyright © 2015 Daniel Arthur Smith. Used by permission of the author.

 

“Red Mustang” by Michael Holden, copyright © 2015 Michael Holden. Used by permission of the author.

 

“Hereafter” by Samuel Peralta, copyright © 2014 Samuel Peralta. First published in a slightly different form in
Synchronic
, edited by David Gatewood. Used by permission of the author.

“The Time Traveller’s Sonnet” by Samuel Peralta, from
How More Beautiful You Are
, copyright © 2012 Samuel Peralta. Used by permission of the author.

 

All other text copyright © 2015 by Samuel Peralta.

 

Edited by Crystal Watanabe (
www.pikkoshouse.com

 

Cover art and design by Adam Hall (
www.aroundthepages.com
).

 

Print and ebook formatting by Therin Knite (
www.knitedaydesign.com/
)

 

The Time Travel Chronicles
is part of
The
Future Chronicles
series produced by Samuel Peralta (
www.samuelperalta.com
).

 

 

 

978-0-9939832-6-9

 

 

 

 

THE TIME TRAVEL CHRONICLES

 

 

 

STORY SYNOPSES

 

 

 

Extant
(
Anthony Vicino
)

Manipulating time always comes at a cost. For Special Agent Kaelyn Kwon, Blinking means living with one foot in the past and one foot in the present. Torn between memories of what was and what could have been, she must use her power to decide what is yet to be.

 

Gambit
(
Rysa Walker
)

Saul Rand is one of a select group of genetically-engineered CHRONOS historians who study the past firsthand.  Convinced that he can create a better future than random chance and human blunder, Saul’s main challenge is circumventing the system’s safeguards—and he thinks he’s found the perfect opening move.

 

Beasts of the Earth
(
Ernie Lindsey
)

For expert oncologist Dutton Quinn and his wife, Jess, the chill of a wintery morning matches the gray blanket of sadness draped over their hearts. After a devastating loss, it seems as if nothing can save their marriage, except for a mystical gateway through time.

 

Excess Baggage
(
Carol Davis
)

14-year-old Toby Cobb is living an ordinary life… until he’s hit by a wall. It’s a tornado, he thinks, or maybe a nuclear attack.  But neither of those things explains how he’s suddenly ended up in the cellar of a very old house that seems to be nowhere near his home in Pennsylvania.  His only companion is a strange, frazzled guy in glow-in-the-dark coveralls – someone who says Toby has ruined everything by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, by being in the path of something called “the ribbon.” Something that’s swept the two of them far from suburban Pennsylvania… and into the past.

 

The Traveler
(
Stefan Bolz
)

Devastated by the death of her father, a twelve-year-old girl discovers a notebook hidden away in a drawer of her dad's blacksmith workshop. In it, she finds detailed instructions to build a time machine.

 

Eighty-Three
(
Erik Wecks
)

Noah Wilson struggles to maintain his sense of sanity while grappling with intense hallucinations and voices that take over his body. He comes to suspect that he’s traveling in time only after he has witnessed his future divorce from a mysterious woman who haunts his visions. When the woman turns out to be real, he must find the courage to agree that a mental illness has caused his delusions or be forced to believe his life is welded to a disastrous future he cannot change.

 

Life/Time in the New World
(
Ann Christy
)

Most people want to live forever—probably everyone at some point or another. Aside from just living, we often yearn to see what the future will bring, convinced that something amazing will happen just after we’re no longer here to see (or benefit) from it. In this way, both the rich and the poor are in the same boat. Death and time…they wait for no one. But what if that weren’t true? What if finding a way to skip into the future came around, secretly available only to the very rich? For Darren, such a trade has been offered and accepted. Will the bright future be as bright as he thinks?

 

Just Like Old Times
(
Robert J. Sawyer
)

Rudolph Cohen is a serial killer, responsible for the deaths of dozens of victims. In the year 2042, he is sentenced to death, but his lawyer manages to convince the judge that the sentence be carried out by a program of euthanasia by chronotransference, where Cohen’s consciousness will be transferred into the past, into the body of one about to die.

 

Shades
(
Lucas Bale
)

Will McIntyre is different. He has no friends. No family. No past, and an uncertain future. Every five years, since his birth, Will has been ripped from the universe he has tried to make his home, only to be tossed into another - a decade in the future. Universes where no one knows him; where he has not previously existed. Yet he is not alone. There is always someone watching. Someone who, like him, doesn't really belong.

 

The Nothing Gate
(
Tracy Banghart
)

What if the only way to ensure a future for Earth was to change the past? Juniper Young has known since she was a child that the Earth would die in her lifetime. When her father uses his powerful friends to secure their escape, Juniper has no idea the extent to which the world’s survival will depend on her.

 

Meddler
(
Ernie Luis
)

Miller, a dealer and addict of drugs from the future, must decide between stopping one of his clients from killing someone in the future, or letting the timeline play out so he can maintain his addiction and his employment.

 

The Diatomic Quantum Flop
(
Daniel Arthur Smith
)

Sure, the experience of the trip is euphoric, but what if you actually broke through the doors of perception?  When four college friends are promised a psychedelic adventure that mirrors the Tibetan Kalachakra Time Travel Tantra, they discover the transcendental cost of tapping the wheel of time.

 

Red Mustang
(
Michael Holden
)

Jimmy is a sixty-four-year-old handyman and habitual thief, identified as having fenced stolen items from his current employer. But the old lady Grace declines to press charges on one condition, that Jimmy do her one more chore—drive her, take her somewhere she needs to go, today, in a beautiful red Mustang convertible.

 

Hereafter
(
Samuel Peralta
)

Cpl. Caitlyn McAdams returns home from war, back to her family and the life she knew--but she doesn't return whole. How can she forget the man she left behind--a man she'd met only once before--a casualty of a roadside bomb, dying in front of her? And then, one day, he comes back.

 

 

 

 

CONTENTS

 

Foreword
(Samuel Peralta)

Extant
(Anthony Vicino)

Gambit
(Rysa Walker)

Beasts of the Earth
(Ernie Lindsey)

Excess Baggage
(Carol Davis)

The Traveler
(Stefan Bolz)

Eighty-Three
(Erik Wecks)

Life/Time in the New World
(Ann Christy)

Just Like Old Times
(Robert J. Sawyer)

Shades
(Lucas Bale)

The Nothing Gate
(Tracy Banghart)

Meddler
(Ernie Luis)

The Diatomic Quantum Flop
(Daniel Arthur Smith)

Red Mustang
(Michael Holden)

Hereafter
(Samuel Peralta)

A Note to Readers

 

 

Foreword

Time Machine

by Samuel Peralta

 

 

 

 

“We all have our time machines…Those that take us back are memories.”

                                                                                                                                            – H.G. Wells

 

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