Billy Mattock (c) 2011 Jeremy Gosnell

Billy Mattock
(c) Jeremy Gosnell 2011

One thing most of the world’s population is totally unaware of is the existence of time travel. Not only does this once fictional and questionable method of travel exist, it is used daily by many people from very different walks of life. Time travel, or as those in the scientific field call it, multi-flexural inter-dimensional shifting, has been around for over one hundred years. The president of the United States is unaware of it, most foreign nations know nothing about its existence, and ninety-nine percent of the world’s individuals are totally oblivious to its relationship with life.

Time travel as we know it today was invented in 1887 by a farmer named Robison Brunt. Mr. Brunt, who held no scientific degrees; was a simple man who raised his family and lived off the land. One day when the summer heat had thrown Robison into a tired and agitated state he decided to cool off in the comforting shade of his barn. He noticed there on that day; light sifting through his barn window, breaking into a prism, and finally segmenting into various forms of color. It looked as though a multi-stage rainbow had formed at the end of the prism and as Robison sat there nearly in a daze he watched the color wheel begin to spin. At first he thought his tired and weakened state was making him delusional until his young son Matthew came into the barn.

“What is it father?” he asked with eyes widened.

“I am not certain my boy, it’s some kind of prism, or rainbow or the like” Robison replied.

As the father and son watched in awe the wheel started spinning faster until finally it was moving with such velocity that the colors blurred together creating a giant blob.

“I’m afraid father” young Matthew yelled.

By this point the spinning color wheel was making a high pitched squeal – loud like a jet engine or rotating helicopter blades. Matthew had his hands over his ears though Robison sat in awe of what was taking place. His jaw was wide, eyes gaping; the wheels of his mind were spinning nearly as fast as the one before him.

Soon a small white portal just large enough for a man had opened. Through its shimmering visage Robison could see something.

“A city” he exclaimed.

In tears young Matthew had fled the barn. It was a city unlike any city Robison had ever seen. Buildings touched the sky, giant contraptions soared in the heavens and millions of people! Without any fear and not knowing what lied beyond the calm waving surface of the portal Robison stepped through. In a matter of one second Robison Brunt of Hampshire, New England went from 1887 all the way up to 2,087 in the time it would have taken Farmer Wolcott to open a stubborn peanut shell. Standing there in the midst of it all – in Hampshire, New England 2,087 Robison had unlocked the door to time.

Today we have a machine called the Giga Flexor that opens these flectural portals for us. Robinson had used a piece of glass he called Flexor Pane to create time portals and while this method was successful it needed a perfect ray or light on a perfectly clear day and a perfect spot in the stratosphere to function. The Giga Flexor only needed electrical power and someone to press the large red button on its top to function. It would spin several Flexor Panes around at high speed, blast them with a sudden ray of pure white light and boom – a Saperstein Portal to the future or past was created. The hell of time travel was this, you never knew where you were going, past or present, future or location. Every time a Saperstein portal opened, no matter where it opened from it took you someplace, sometime different. Even now in 2,014 and after traveling time in and out we cannot find a way to control where any Saperstein portal leads. We just hold our breath jump through and hope for the best. Even Robinson Brunt himself never knew where he was going or how he would find his way home.

Now there is some consolation in all this time jumping uncertainness. The Gala-po-tator! This device invented by Robert Saperstein (the man who discovered just what the Saperstein portal was) could warp any time traveler back to his original place and time – just two seconds before he left.

Now I don’t want to confuse anyone so I’m going to stop with all the technical talk right about now. I am sure most of you get the idea and I just want to get to the meat of the story. There is one international organization that governs everything that takes place within the realm of time travel. It is highly secretive and never spoken of but any person whom travels within times’ barriers is a proud member. The Time Traveler’s Guild is the name of such an organization and within it is everything from traveler’s logs to portal information all the way up to my department, (The International Time Continuum Policing Agency or ITCPA for short). Our mission, goal, and sole purpose is to make sure that no time traveler or guild member does anything that would burden or stress the course of time. Since our inception nearly eighty years ago we had a one hundred percent success rate! That was of course before the actions of one Billy Mattock.

Billy had seduced and slept with women from the Renaissance period, the dark ages, early America, and the future. He had smoked cigars with Thomas Edison, chatted with Benjamin Franklin, and ridden on the first railway train ever to cross the country. The worst part about all this was not only the fact that time was changing because of Billy; it was that he took delight in posting photographs of his exploits on the internet. Searching a message board proved to us at the ITCPA that some believe Billy’s photos were fake while others thought he was some kind of god.

All in all this made a real problem for my department. One of our most important missions was to make certain that the general population was unaware of time travel’s existence. Now, suddenly Billy Mattock was posting pictures of Giga Flexors on the internet and young people were inquiring about where they could find them. All types of bollix was going on with the space time continuum. In Florida they had discovered some new species of giant crocodilian. It wasn’t a new species of giant crocodile it was a very old species, one that had gone extinct millions of years ago. Billy had gone back to the Cretaceous Period and played “Peta-Pro” doing what he could to save those reptiles from extinction. In the ITCPA’s mind it was just a matter of time till Billy ruined the whole world.

On October the 4th ITCPA’s lead chief Robertson Leland stormed into my office.

“You know Peter” he shouted, “We have to do something about that Billy Mattock. He thinks he is god you know, just today on that website he maintains he had posted that he had the powers of god. Right next to those words was a picture of Mattock next to Abraham Lincoln. Who does he think he is kidding?” Leland shouted.

“Hum sir” I replied, Where does the agency think Mattock is now” I asked.

“You won’t believe this Peter we think he is going to assassinate the president by killing him just after he is born!” Leland exclaimed.

“What do you want me to do with Mattock if I find him sir?” I asked.

“I don’t know Peter think of something, we can’t make a show of this that is for sure. It’s the agencies purpose to treat these matters with discrepancy but something must be done, Mattock is losing control.”

“Yes most certainly” I replied.

“Frankly Peter I think you’re the man to do it. Your quick, smart, cunning and witty – I want you to go back in time and find Mattock and stop him.”

“Of course” I conceded.

“We think Mattock is working in the year 1959, planning on waiting for President Cloddy to be born and then planning on killing him as a child. We are sending you back under the guise of a foreign diplomat friend of Cloddy’s father – Jefferson Cloddy.”

“Sounds interesting sir” I ended.

The sad truth was we really didn’t have any official power to do much of anything. Since we were such a secret entity of an already secret Traveler’s Guild it was to our benefit to remain as silent as possible. Over our eighty year existence the ITCPA had no reason to do anything extravagant. Most time travelers were so pleased to be able to use such a unique form of transportation that they hardly ever broke the Traveler’s Code. Billy Mattock was a unique case and frankly our agency knew nothing of who Mattock was, where he came from, and how he had become what the ITCPA called a “Time Terrorist.” We knew of course what Mattock looked liked from his photos on the internet though even his appearance changed with startling speed. In all honesty that day in October I had no idea how I was going to locate Billy Mattock or what I was going to do with him once I found him.

The ITCPA had devised a unique color code that determined just how high Mattock’s threat level was on any given day. For the past several weeks the threat level indicator had been at red, meaning severe threat expected. So like any good ITCPA field officer I put on my gear (blue jeans, t-shirt, and baseball cap) grabbed my Gala-po-tator and headed to the Flexural Portal center.

As always Dr. Simons was working and ran me through the usual briefing that any field agent gets before traveling into time.

“We don’t know where your going” Simons warned, We don’t know how we are going to get you back, and all we ask is that you complete your mission in the most discreet manner possible.”

With that Simons asked me to enter the Giga Flexor, which I did and with that he smiled.

“Who you after” he asked.

“Well you know Doc’ that information is private, but since you asked – Billy Mattock.” The doctor chuckled, “Good Luck.”

With that I found myself caught in a whirl wind of flexor panes and light with a sudden swoosh that lifted me off my feet and dropped me down in 1959. Looking around I realized I was in Quiet Cove, Connecticut two days before the birth of President Cloddy. Now I am certain most of you are wondering just how I was able to gauge where I was going and so on and so forth. The truth of the matter as with anything time travel related is simple – I wasn’t able to gauge where I was going, in fact I had no clue where I was headed, just in this instance I got damn lucky.

Ill be the first to admit I am not much of investigator, field agent, or professional of any type. That’s why I liked working for the ITCPA, I didn’t have to do much. I made neat charts and graphs that explained how in eighty years we had been one hundred percent successful and why. The why was easy, not very many people traveled through time and those who did weren’t interested in causing each other problems. Suffice to say I didn’t have a clue how to find Billy Mattock and better yet I didn’t know where to begin looking. Other than his appearance we had no idea what Mattock was up to in 1959.

Then came another shocker – I hadn’t actually arrived in 1959 like I initially thought. It was actually 1979, this was bad because if Mattock had decided to kill President Cloddy right after his birth the deed was done and my work had failed. The good news was he hadn’t. The reason I knew this is I caught the tail end of a broadcast were Jefferson Cloddy was campaigning for the senate on television with his young son in tow. Assuming I could relax until I found a guild member who could lead me to a Giga Flexor I rented a hotel room and decided to enjoy my stay in the era.

The receptionist at the Fowlers’ Inn was a cute hippy with long blonde hair and a genuine smile.

“There you go sir where are you traveling from?” she asked.

“Uhh, just put down, uhh Era, Era Georgia ma’m” I replied with a sheepish grin.

So I went to my newly rented room, enjoyed a cold beer and decided to get some rest and set out early the next day in hopes of locating a Time Travelers Guild lay over. Finding a layover, even for a member of the guild was not easy. Nowhere were these travelers’ stops broadcasted and they could only be identified by the guild seal that would appear on their doorway. It appeared like Quiet Cove was a small area and finding a guild could prove easier than in a metropolitan zone. So as night approached I started resting my eyes when suddenly a knock at the room door startled me. My initial assumption was that it was morning and the cleaning service wanted into the room. I glanced at the wall clock, “2 a.m.”

I jumped up, ran to the peep hole only to find no one there. After looking around I decided to attempt to fall back to sleep although just as I reached the sheets another knock came. This time I ran to the door and swung it open. There not but several inches from me was Billy Mattock. Under his arm, totally naked and rubbing his back was the sweet, cute hippie girl from the counter. Her hair was so long and toiled around that it hung over her breasts nearly to her stomach. She was smiling a somewhat delicate sneer and blew me a kiss as I glanced her way.

“Go get some rest Sarah” Billy said, “Peter and I have something to discuss.”

“How do you know my name Mattock” I demanded.

“I know everything about you Peter, I am Billy Mattock, I was even there the day you were delivered into this world” Mattock replied.

With that Sarah snuck from under his arm and dashed down the hall giggling.

“Beautiful isn’t she?” Mattock asked. “Earlier while you were downstairs you wanted to kiss her” he said, “if you would like that and more it can be arranged” he gestured down the hall.

“Arranged” I asked, “what kind of business are you in?”

Mattock laughed, “Don’t worry I’m not pawning off the women of the ages or something like that, I was just being friendly.” Sarah isn’t even real.” he continued.

“Not real” I muttered.

“No, not real, or at least not a real human being, she is a Lapser, a sex robot from 3,400 a.d. – looks real, feels real, but all in all she is just a machine” Mattock said.

“Th-that’s it Mattock” I yelled, “by, by order of the International Time Consortium Police you are under arrest for, for, fooling with the realm of time.”

Mattock turned and laughed – “really.” Well if that is how it must be than I am yours” Mattock said.

As I got up, attempting to take Mattock under my grasp a force, stronger than any man but silent and hidden kept pulling me away.

“It’s a thorn warp halo field” Mattock said. “Invented in the year 4,000 a.d. by beings from the planet Alfaro.” Let me explain something to you Peter he continued. I have seen all the ages of the Earth, I have seen its birth, its life and its conclusion. I have seen its earliest people, the life of this planet and watched it decay into madness and self destruction. I want nothing Peter, I have experienced all and want nothing. I just want to open the door.”

I was confused, “Open the door” I asked.

“Its like this Peter either we all get to play or no one gets to play, I have something very powerful in my possession something I invented to give me leverage over the Time Traveler’s Guild, leverage over the ITCPA and leverage over you.”

“What is it” I asked.

“I call it a ‘Flux Portal Regulator’ it’s a device that allows me to dial in the location that any given Saperstein Portal will open. It is the device that allowed me to deliver you here, to 1979 and this exact location. The best feature of the device; it will, after pressing the top button deliver you back to your original destination just four seconds before you left. Without a doubt it’s more powerful than anything the Time Traveler’s Guild has ever created.”

“Your right, without a doubt” I replied.

“So your guild can either open the doors to time traveling for everyone, equal opportunity, free of charge or Ill travel back to Hampshire, New England 1887 and invite Robinson Brunt over for lemonade thus eliminating the possibility of him seeing a flectural portal break open through his barn’s glass. I pondered the possibility and if this Flux Portal Regulator could do what Billy claimed nothing other than sheer brute force could stop him.

“Well, umm of course I would have to discuss this with the guild” I said.

“Sorry Peter” Billy said standing up, Oddly enough my time for discussions ended long ago.”

“Well I can’t answer you without asking the guild first” I demanded.

“I wasn’t asking the guild to help me with this matter Peter, I was asking you – man to man – to help me. If you can’t decide for yourself than I know what I must do.”

With that Billy Mattock disappeared.

_________________ 2011 present day…

“Peter, Mr. Wilcott please wake up” Dr. Mattson called.

“Your hypnosis for today is complete sir” she said smiling.

“Anything valuable today Doc’” I asked.

“Afraid not Peter mostly delusions, you talked about traveling through time and chasing Time Terrorists” she laughed. A Convincing and well thought out story though, but mainly just delusions.”