Dimensional Research Station

Two copies of Francesca.

Below on this page is Chapter 5 of the science fiction story Time Portal, the events of which take place in 1922. Francesca and Aetha have completed their work on the electrical circuitry that embodies Francesca's mathematical model of the two temporal dimensions. However, Francesca remains skeptical that the circuits can make it possible for people to travel through time.

The completed Time Portal control circuits are ready to be taken to the field station which is close to the banks of the Swan river, at the place where Dr. Twissell opened a Time Portal in the year 2040 (see Chapter 1). 

After Twissell uses the time circuits and departs for 1814, R. Nyrtia meets with Frankie, Francesca and Aetha and hints at her plans to make a duplicate copy of Francesca who will be sent back through time to the 1500s where she will live out her life the past, becoming known as a mystical seer of the future.

Chapter 5 of Time Portal. (Chapter 1)(Chapter 2)(Chapter 3) (Chapter 4)

Late in the afternoon of the day after their wedding, Twissell and Frankie arrived at the workshop. Acting on Twissell's orders, workmen had taken out the frame of the door that connected from the workshop to the hallway.

Inside the workshop, Francesca was tutoring Aetha on the differential equations that describe the structures of the universe's two time dimensions. 

Francesca's time circuits.

The two women sat close together, their legs touching. Through the wonders of Nyrtia's invisible nanites, that physical contact allowed Aetha to maintain a telepathy-amplifying synapex link to Francesca, which greatly accelerated her ability to learn the mathematics that Francesca was explaining. 

The only problem with this system was that Francesca and Aetha were kept constantly aware of each-others beautiful bodies and they had to take occasional breaks during which they would slip into the supply closet where they could hope for privacy while they relieved each-others sparking sexual desires. Aetha had taken it upon herself to try to make Francesca forget about the dreary fact that her husband, Kevin, was going to Sydney by train and would not return home to Perth for two long weeks.

With her telepathic mind operating at high efficiency, when Twissell and Frankie came through the doorway, Aetha could telepathically sense the name "Twissell" in the mind of the man she knew as her advisor and mentor, Dr. Thompson. Aetha turned her head and saw Twissell. She jumped up and took him by the arm saying, "Dr. T- Thompson, come look at the completed circuit network!" 

Frankie and Francesca began discussing their pregnancies while Twissell carefully examined the alterations that had recently been made to time control circuits. Aetha whispered to him, "Is your name really Twissell?"

Twissell laughed and told Aetha, "It is a good thing I'll be leaving soon. I can't keep any secrets from you." Twissell had used a false name while living in his past. By doing so, he hoped to avoid the creation of temporal paradoxes.

Aetha had assumed that Dr. Thompson and Frankie would be going on a honeymoon, so she was surprised that the professor was there in the workshop. Now curious about what she had sensed in his mind, she asked, "Why did you change your name?"

portable time circuits in a box

Satisfied by the work that Francesca and Aetha had done on the time circuits, Twissell started to fold up the hinged wooden panels that the circuits had been built upon. Soon, the circuits were boxed up inside what looked like a large coffin. While he worked with Aetha's assistance, Twissell explained some of his personal history. As they finished their task, Twissell told Aetha, "So, when I came to Perth I wanted to disconnect myself from my previous life and I changed my name". No longer in physical contact with Francesca, Aetha could not at that moment see into Twissell's mind. Now, she was excited that the time had finally come to test the circuits and she dismissed from her thoughts the mystery of the professor's double identity.

Twissell went to the supply closet and brought back a long pipe which he slid into brackets on one side of the box. With a grin on his lips, he told Aetha, "There's a mysterious pink object in the closet."

Aetha, Francesca and Frankie were now excitedly discussing possible names for the two babies that were growing inside Francesca and Frankie. The three women paid little attention to Twissell's small mystery. Twissell went back into the closet to get the second pipe. He returned with both the pipe and a delicate pink bra which he tossed to Aetha. She caught the undergarment said, "Oh, I forgot to put that back on." She held the pink bra up in front of her chest. She'd been hoping for another steamy make-out session with Francesca inside the closet before the end of the day.

Just then, Dean Wilson entered the workshop and tried to ignore the fact that Aetha was holding her bra. He spoke to Twissell, "Dr. Thompson, now that you are married, you can't continue as the thesis advisor of Frances."

Aetha in the supply closet.

Twissell nodded and stepped into his office. Frankie suggested, "The equations that I'm studying for my thesis project were devised by Francesca, so she should direct my project."

Twissell returned from his office with the thick manuscript that Francesca had corrected. It was just back from the typist with a new title: "A Mathematical Model of Time" by Francesca Maurolico, Patty Bekom and Laban Thompson. Twissell handed the manuscript to the Dean and said, "This work qualifies Mrs. Maurolico for her Ph.D. She can supervise Frankie's thesis research."

Dean Wilson read the title page of the manuscript and then asked, "Who is Patty Bekom?"

 Twissell explained, "She is a student who played a small role in the development of Mrs. Maurolico's theory of Time."

Dean Wilson shook Francesca's hand and said, "Congratulations Dr. Maurolico. We are lucky that you arrived in Perth just when we needed you." He told Twissell, "I'll push the paper work to appoint Mrs. Maurolico as a professor in the Mathematics Department." Wilson turned and began to depart, but he stopped and pointed to the crate. The Dean asked, "Are you finally ready for the experiment?"

Twissell nodded and explained, "We are ready to begin the calibration tests that I told you about."

Wilson suggested, "I can send a photographer to the field station." The cost of constructing the field station had put the Dean's budget into the red. He was eager to have photographs of research activity taking place at the field station.

Twissell wanted no publicity. "Wait until we get the equipment set up. You don't want pictures of an empty room." Dean Wilson grunted stoically and strode out of the workshop. He would have been satisfied to have a picture of Thompson and his co-workers standing in front of the field station.

Dimensional Research Station

As soon as the Dean was gone, Frankie pointed at the bra that Aetha was holding and asked Francesca, "You've been playing with Aetha in the supply closet?"

Francesca nodded. "I suspect that she intentionally wore that cute bra just to attract my attention today. It worked. I'd never seen her wearing a bra before."

Frankie said, "With her perky little breasts she does not need a bra. I bought this one for her and got it with extra padding."

Aetha pointed at Frankie's big breasts and said, "I can't imagine how you haul Babs and Babette around all day without getting a sore back."

Frankie put an arm around her husband and said, "You can guess my strategy, I'm sure; I try to spend as many hours as possible each day on my back with a stiff penis inside me."

Twissell had now finished preparing the circuit box for transport and was waiting for Aetha and Frankie to complete their banter. He gestured towards the pipe he was holding. "I need your help, ladies." Aetha draped the bra over one of the pipes and then they each took one end of one of the two pipes and lifted the "coffin" off of the table. Working as a team, they carried the box out of the workshop; it just barely fit through the now frame-less doorway.

In the hallway, they set down the box with a loud thump. Dean Wilson looked out of a doorway that was thirty feet down the hallway. That door led to the office of the chemistry professor, Dr. Benson. Seeing that Thompson had the three women helping to move the crate, Wilson came down the hallway and asked, "Dr. Thompson, do you need help?"

Twissell shook his head, "I think we can handle it."

Dr. Benson called down the hallway, "What's going on, Laban?"

Aetha in the science building.

Twissell had not explained his plans to the chemist. He called back, "To avoid burning this building down, we're testing the analog computer circuits at a field station."

The Dean said, "Carry on! By the way, I got the first utility bills from the field station last week." Wilson asked, "Do you expect to use much power for these experiments?"

Twissell shook his head, "No, but in the future, with two pregnant women working there, you can expect that the water bills will certainly start to climb."

Dean Wilson had attended the wedding and the beach party. "Two?" He looked at Aetha and Francesca.

Francesca told the Dean, "I just found out that I'm also pregnant."

"Well! Congratulations, again." Wilson looked back at Aetha and said jokingly, "Careful, there must be something in the air." He turned and returned to Dr. Benson's office. Benson and Wilson stood there muttering and looking down the hall as Twissell, Frankie, Francesca and Aetha again picked up the box full of circuitry, went down the hallway and exited through the double doors at the front of the building. After hauling the crate down the sidewalk, they loaded the box onto the trailer that Twissell had hitched to his car.

The field station was at the site where Twissell's laboratory would be located, more than a hundred years in the future. When Twissell had requested a field station for potentially dangerous electrical experiments, the University was already into the process of making plans for expansion into the Swan River site. Unpaved roads were already in place along with an electrical distribution system and telephone poles. The Dimensional Research Station became the first structure hooked into the newly-built power grid. 

The city inspector had insisted that any university building have a water supply. Twissell had argued that the field station was not actually a building, but in the end a shallow well had been dug, a pump installed and there was running water and a toilet for the field station and even a telephone line.

Nyrtia at the field station.

The second "floor" of the field station was a platform on hydraulic lifts. After opening up the box of circuits, Twissell, Frankie and Aetha had ridden the platform up into working position. Francesca had remained on the ground floor to use the toilet. When she emerged from the small restroom, there was a knock at the door of the station. Francesca opened the door and saw a woman who asked, "Is this Dr. Thompson's research station?"

The woman was quite similar in appearance to Frankie, but much taller. Francesca sensed something familiar about the woman, but she asked, "Who are you?"

Twissell's voice called from above, "Who is down there?"

The woman said, "I'm Joan Sharkey, reporter for the West Australian. Dean Wilson told me that there is some sort of experiment being done out here today."

Francesca said, "Follow me." She led the way up a ladder to the second floor and told Twissell, "Some news reporter... sent out by Wilson."

Twissell shook his head in dismay. "Just what we don't need."

Jean looked at the circuitry and asked, "What's this all about?"

Twissell looked back and forth between the reporter and Frankie. He tried to remember the appearance of his wife, who he had not seen for four years, then realizing that Jean was well over six feet tall, he gave his head a quick shake and then replied, "We are about to do our first test. It is going to be a long process of trail and error to get everything correctly configured." Twissell was none too certain where the Time Portal actually was. The circuit board was now on a movable surface that could slide left and right. The whole platform they were standing on could move up and down. Twissell watched the reporter as she walked around the circumference of the table, the heals of her boots popping against the oak floor boards. Twissell thought there was something oddly familiar about her. "There's no point in you wasting your time here."

Angelique Fermi's atomic clock.

With a storm of strange thoughts flitting through her mind, Aetha said, "Oh, come on, Dr. Thompson! Tell her about the time circuits. This is your chance to get publicity and funding."

Twissell was quite annoyed that Aetha had spoken out and mentioned Time.

Joan was actually Nyrtia in disguise. She was there to make sure that Twissell went through with the experiment. It was growing dark outside and in the future that Nyrtia had Viewed, Twissell had retired for the night without even activating the circuits. Joan said, "Time circuits? This is some kind of clock, like Professor Fermi's microwave device?"

Twissell replied, "No. Angelique Fermi's ammonia clock uses a high-voltage microwave source. Everything here is low voltage and low power. What you see on the table is an analog computer."

Joan asked, "What are you trying to accomplish?"

Twissell decided to lie and try to get rid of the reporter. "Our computer circuit is low power and sensitive to stray signals, even from Earth's weak magnetic field. We'll begin by tuning the circuit to the local environment. In essence, we have to tune the circuitry of this computer to the local electrical and magnetic fields so that they will not interfere with calculations done by the computer. It is going to be slow, careful, boring work. So, you can leave and let us get on with our task."

Joan laughed. "Are you trying to get rid of me, Dr. Thompson?" She approached Aetha and ran a hand over the girl's red hair where it cascaded over her shoulder. "Introduce me to your co-workers. Who is this lovely young lady?"

Aetha, completion of Masters
degree thesis project, 1926.

Aetha had felt a strange sort of disequilibrium upon seeing the reporter. Aetha could not explain to herself why she had blurted out mention of time circuits. And now, in physical contact with Joan, a series of images from the future flashed through Aetha's mind.

Francesca's mental apparatus was also effected by Joan. Now, with Joan there in the room, Francesca was "seeing" what appeared to be a faintly glowing ball of mist, three feet over the central dodecahedron, hovering above the middle of the circuitry that was there on the table. Francesca had followed Joan around the table and she noticed that the glowing ball of sparkling mist was not directly over the dodecahedron, but was actually off-set, about two feet too far to the southeast.

While Twissell methodically introduced Frankie, Francesca and Aetha to Joan and told the reporter about their backgrounds, Francesca placed her hand on Aetha's cute bottom. Suddenly, Aetha was telepathically linked to Francesca with the linkage amplified by developing minds of both Sarah and Anny. Aetha was distracted by the swirl of flashing images from her future, but while seeing what was in Francesca's mind, Aetha could tell that the dodecahedron was out of position. With her thoughts focused on the time circuits, she went to the table position controls, a set of hand cranks, and started adjusting the table top towards the side.

Twissell asked Aetha, "What are you doing?"

Aetha replied, "Getting the circuits lined up. The table has to go up some more, also."

"Lined up with what?" Twissell had never told Aetha about the Time Portal and his uncertainty about its exact position.

But Aetha could now see into Francesca's thoughts. Aetha put a hand to her forehead and closed her eyes. Even with her eyes closed she knew the position of the Time Portal. She replied, "The Time Portal." Aetha pointed at the location of the Portal. She asked Twissell, "How far above the dodecahedron do you want the center of the Portal?"

Twissell demanded, "What's going on?"

Francesca now had both of her hands on Aetha and now she muttered, "I didn't believe all that Time Portal nonsense, but..." After a pause, she continued, "The Time Portal must a source of senquons. I can sense them..." She also closed her eyes. The glowing sphere floating there above the table was not effecting her eyes. "And Aetha can look into my mind... she must be seeing what I'm seeing. Err, not seeing, but sensing somehow... I see it in my mind!"

Frankie asked Twissell, "What are they talking about?"

Twissell put his arms around Frankie and told her, "I expected it would take weeks to find the exact location of the Time Portal, but maybe not..."

Frankie asked, "Time Portal?"

"Listen, dear, I'm from the future, the next century." Twissell gave Frankie one last hug, then he moved to place a hand on Aetha and one on Francesca. Now partially linked into their telepathic mind network, his mind filled with a new memory: of what he knew was his destination, the wilderness where Perth would be founded in the early 1800s.

Francesca repeated, "I never believed it. I thought he was delusional." Francesca laughed. "But now... " She waved a hand towards the center of the Portal. "I think we are all inside some sort of powerful senquon field. The source of the senquons is right there, above the table."

Twissell told Aetha, "I want to position myself close to the core of the Portal... I think that will improve the accuracy of my trajectory through time. When I used the Portal in 2040, the center of my body was about two or three feet above the center of the dodecahedron."

Abigail Longfellow 1815

Aetha went to the hydraulics controls and raised the floor about a foot and half. She asked Twissell, "This time you plan to be seated on the rotating platform, right?"

Twissell replied, "Exactly." Turning the hand crank wheels, Aetha made one more small adjustment to the lateral position of the circuits on the table and then she nodded to Twissell. Now, Twissell hoped that the circuits were correctly positioned. He gave Frankie a long wet kiss then pulled himself away from her and looked up. A small rotatable platform was there, hanging from an over-head beam. He connected up to the power cord to the overhead winch and then stepped backwards into the corner while looking at the arrangement of the time circuits. He turned around and opened a small cabinet that was there in the corner. Inside was an antique suit of clothes that he had obtained by placing a want-ad in the newspaper asking for old clothing from the 1800s. He started changing his clothes.

Looking up at the rotating platform, Francesca giggled and said, "I've never seen a sillier contraption." She asked, "How can spinning in circles control travel through time?"

Twissell was having uncomfortable memories of the first time he had traveled through time. He still had no understanding of how time travel was possible. In 2024, Patty had been wildly enthusiastic about using the Time Portal. In contrast, there in 1922, the idea of Francesca seeing senquons was making Twissell feel nervous and there was no way he wanted a story about himself in the newspaper. However, what else could he do but go ahead with the experiment?

Now, dressed in the old clothes from the previous century, Twissell took a Navy surplus life preserver down from a hook on the wall and strapped it on. This time, Twissell hoped to avoid broken ribs when he was tossed into the past. Next, he pulled a step ladder away from the wall. He climbed up the step ladder and seated himself, cross-legged, on the rotating platform. Aetha used the winch control to lower him a short distance.

Aetha 1922

Twissell tossed one end of a rope down to Aetha. She pulled the rope and the platform moved out over the circuits until Twissell's body was positioned directly at the central core of the Time Portal, above the central dodecahedron of the circuits. Aetha asked Francesca, "Is he centered?"

Francesca replied, "He's very close to the center of the senquon field."

Twissell told Aetha, "Start the rotation. Set it to 23 rotations per minute, clockwise."

Aetha activated the rotation motor and Twissell began to spin. He asked, "Who wants activate the time circuits?"

Frankie cried out, "You're going?"

Francesca was mesmerized by the sparkling cloud of mist that now surrounded Twissell. She still had her eyes closed.

Joan stood there with a sly grin on her face.

Aetha went to the control pad for the circuits and flicked on the power switch. All of the other settings had been adjusted by Twissell long ago and needed no further attention. Now the smell of burning insulation filled the room and the indicator lamp of the rotation counter turned green as Twissell reached the desired rotation rate. Aetha said, "Good luck!" And she pressed the final button that allowed electric current to accumulate on a set of eleven large capacitors, one at each of the exposed faces of the dodecahedron. 

 Twissell kept spinning for a minute, but nothing happened. Finally he told Aetha, "Turn off the motor."

 Five minutes later, Twissell was recovered from his dizziness and he had taken off the life preserver and changed back into his regular clothing. Joan had already departed with Aetha and Francesca, offering them a ride back to town. Frankie put her arms around Twissell and she said, "I'm glad it did not work."

___________

Later, after making love to Frankie, Twissell waited for her to fall asleep. Then he got dressed, slipped out of the dark and quiet cottage and drove back to the field station. Frankie heard the car engine as he drove off. She muttered to herself, "I still hope it does not work." Unable to sleep, she turned on a light and started reading a magazine. 

After a few minutes, the telephone rang. Frankie went to the telephone and lifted the receiver and asked, "Who is this? It's late."

Aetha said, "Francesca and Joan are bouncing around on my bed like two bunnies. I'm horny and feeling left out... can Babs and Babette come over and keep me company?"

Frankie tried to imagine Francesca making love to the tall, sexy reporter, Joan. Frankie heard a cry of ecstasy in the background. She giggled and said, "I'll call a cab and bring Babs and Babette over at once."

___________

When Twissell arrived back at the field station, he climbed up to the second floor and fed power into the time circuits. This time, he flipped the secret cut-off switch that he had installed on the bottom of the table, directly under the dodecahedron. Now the time circuits were fully functional. He got back on the rotating platform and positioned himself above the dodecahedron. As he spun, suddenly, there was a strange rustling sound and Twissell blinked out of existence. The ends of three ropes now hung down, no longer attached to the rotating platform that had also vanished. 

_________

Mysteries of the tryp'At.

Back at Aetha's apartment, by the time that Frankie arrived, Francesca was trying to catch her breath and recover from an intense orgasm. Now Francesca was watching the sexually insatiable Joan who was licking Aetha's erect clitoris. Francesca tried to warn Aetha, "She can make her tongue vibrate like a motor!" Arriving in the bedroom, Frankie was startled to find that Joan seemed to have two vaginas. She pushed some fingers into each of Joan's hot wet vaginas and said to Francesca, "Oh, my! Did you see this?" 

Joan pulled her mouth off of Aetha and said, "Give me just a moment and then I'll explain." Nyrtia held her hand against Aetha's crotch and used her nanites and direct brain stimulation to give the girl a dazzling orgasm. Joan told Frankie, "It's me, Nyrtia."

Nyrtia had also sent nanites into the brains of Francesca and Frankie, allowing them to begin remembering their past conversations with Nyrtia. She showed Francesca her allzaurish and said, "I enjoy using the body form of a tryp'At. I even have a penis, which is going to come in handy during the coming year." After showing the three women her penis, Nyrtia said, "If the three of you will behave for a few minutes, I'll explain my plans for the next year and then we can get back to making orgasms." Frankie and Aetha both had a hand on Nyrtia's hot erection.

Francesca found it hard to take her eyes off of Nyrtia's pretty penis, but she told Nyrtia, "I'm quite satisfied with Kevin's penis. His is significantly larger than yours."

Nyrtia said, "Kevin has Asterothrope gene patterns that make for a large penis, but you'll be pleased with the way I can make mine vibrate." Nyrtia reached out and placed a hand on Francesca's shoulder. "Sorry to break bad news, but Kevin is going to be caught up in an emergency draft and in less than a month he will go to Palestine as part of an international peace-keeping force."

With trepidation, Frankie asked, "And what about Laban?"

History of the allzaurish.

Speaking with ruthless bluntness, Nyrtia explained, "He's already gone."

Now realizing that the Time Portal had been successfully used by Twissell, Aetha said, "It worked! I really worked!" Now being allowed to think about what she had telepathically seen into his mind, she had adopted Twissell's belief that the time circuits could control the movement of a person through the Time Portal. She remained puzzled by his failure to slip into the Portal earlier that evening.

In one of many undesirable futures that Nyrtia had Viewed, Nyrtia had sent Twissell off to 1814 while the three women watched. For mysterious reasons that were not clear to Nyrtia, the shape of the next Reality was much more favorable in a timeline where Twissell's departure into the past was not witnessed by Aetha and Frankie.

Frankie asked Nyrtia, "Where did he go? Did he return to his home in 2040?"

Francesca shook her head and told Frankie, "I don't think so. He talked to me about the 1500s. I think he went further back in time."

Nyrtia giggled. Frankie reached out and touched Nyrtia's two lower breasts and wondered what she had meant by "tryp'At"... Frankie looked into Nyrtia's eyes and asked, "What's so funny?" Then Frankie shouted at Nyrtia, "I just lost my husband!"

Nyrtia shifted her appearance to the form she had used the previous day on the beach, the bodily form of the adult Anny, as she would appear in the future as a young woman. Using infites, Nyrtia allowed Frankie to experience a sub-conscious recognition of her daughter. Having distracted Frankie, Nyrtia proclaimed, "Good work, ladies... now we can turn our attention to the future..."

Frankie asked Nyrtia, "He really is gone... into the past?"

Nyrtia nodded, "Yes. Your husband completed his work here." Nyrtia placed a hand on Frankie's abdomen. "Your daughter Anny will carry his genes into the future. Now he has to do the same sort of 'work' in 1814 with another young woman named Abigail."

Francesca asked, "So he did not go to the 1500s?"

Nyrtia shook her head. "No, that will be your time travel mission, Francesca. You have to go back and be the Francesca Maurolico who lived in that century. It will be your 'predictions' about the future that will attract the attention of Abigail, inspiring her to write her version of the story Time Portal. But, we are getting ahead of ourselves. For the next year, the three of you need to devote your attention and efforts towards constructing the minds of Sarah and Anny. That will involve synapex linkages and lots of orgasms... the four of us will have a lot of fun working together on that project!" 

Having outlined the future for them, Nyrtia proceeded to provide Francesca, Aetha and Frankie with demonstrations of the special features of her tryp'At penis. Then, having completed that sexual orientation process to the complete satisfaction of the three woman, Nyrtia teleported herself out of the apartment.

Nyrtia as a tryp'At.

After Nyrtia's departure, for a few seconds, Francesca, Frankie and Aetha looked at each other and then they slumped and sprawled across the bed and passed out of normal consciousness. When they awoke in the morning, they found that they were experiencing the effects of an infite-generated memory lock imposed on their minds by Nyrtia and they could not talk to anyone else, including Dean Wilson, about Dr. Thompson having traveled into the past. Aetha invited Frankie to stay in her apartment, but soon they moved into Twissell's more comfortable cottage at the edge of town. 

Twissell's disappearance from 1922 was never officially explained. Dr. Thompson had departed from the twentieth century as mysteriously as he had arrived. Dean Wilson offered Francesca the opportunity to take over use the office and workshop of Dr. Thompson. Francesca began a long series of experiments that were conducted at the Dimensional Research Station with the Time Portal, eventually resulting in her discovery of the calibration curve that related distance traveled into the past to the rotational speed of the time traveler. After the birth of her daughter, Francesca was ready for her own journey through the Time Portal.

Coming Soon: Chapter 6 of Time Portal.

Next: illustrating the adventures of Lato Johns. See Lato Johns: Exobiologist.

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