Tunnel Vision
By Captainkodak1
"Com'n, Ron! Dad's going to show us the new project that he's been working on."
Kim yanked on her boyfriend's hand as they ran down the hall to one of Dr. Possible's labs.
"Are you sure it's not one of his Black Hole thingees?" Ron whimpered. "I mean, he wasn't real happy after he walked in your room the other day."
Kim growled slightly in remembrance of the event. The two teens had just come off of a one week grounding, the result of her dad having walked into her room at what she came to think of as a furiously bad time. Hands had moved quickly and clothing had been rearranged. It was not what they were doing was bad. There was just a lot more skin showing than James Possible was comfortable with. Kim had never seen her father's face that red.
"So not the Drama, Ron. He grounded us for getting a little carried away. Our time is up. We're free. Besides, he stopped work on the Black Hole experiment to work on this one."
Kim and Ron stopped at the door of the lab. They each pulled a card from their pocket and swiped it through a reader. They then placed their palms on the screen on the wall.
"Possible, Kimberly. Clearance granted. Stoppable, Ronald. Clearance granted."
The door to the lab slid open.
"Kimmie cub! Ronald! Glad you could come! We're not quite ready for you, so you can just look around. I hope school went well today. Now that the grounding is over, what are your plans for the evening?"
Kim crossed her arms and glared at Ron.
"Well, it would have been a better evening if someone had not procrastinated on his history project. Now it looks like Potential Boy here will have to work most of the evening to finish it."
Ron nervously rubbed the back of his neck. "He-he…yeah, uh… Mr. P., is there a computer I can borrow while we wait?"
"Sure, Ronald. There's one on a rolling station over there. Just make sure it's not plugged into the network and you'll be fine."
Ron walked over to the computer. He made sure to disconnect the network cable from the wall jack, pulled his flash drive out of his pocket, removed the cap and plugged it into the USB port. Kim pulled up a seat next to him.
"Have you got the list of times in history that you thought might be interesting?"
Ron started the word processor and downloaded the list file from his flash drive.
"Yeah, KP I just picked a few. I thought we could narrow down the list while we wait. Then, when we get back to your house tonight, I'll write a paragraph or so about each one."
Kim leaned over to read the dates and events on the list.
"Hmmm, Valley Forge, the Titanic, the Declaration of Independence, Pearl Harbor, these in the Civil War, and these."
Kim took the mouse and deleted most of the list, leaving a short list of periods in history.
"We can go back to the house and get to work on these. If you work hard I think there might be a little reward in it for you."
Ron turned to see the warm eyes of his girlfriend looking into his.
Kim whispered softly, "Maybe something that could get us grounded again if we're caught."
Ron swallowed hard and then smiled. "I'm all about getting grounded."
"Kim. Ron. We're ready for you now", called Dr. Possible.
Ron saved his revised list to his flash drive, capped it and put it in his pocket. He reached around the rear of the cart and plugged the network cable back into the wall jack.
The lights flickered in the room. Kim took his hand and they walked over to where Mr. Possible stood. On the computer screen the list of dates remained visible.
Dr. Possible led Kim and Ron into a large room. There a large tunnel had been built. The tunnel entrance was painted with black and white concentric stripes. Kim noticed that the tunnel became smaller and smaller until it closed several feet beyond where the tunnel started.
"Super cool, Mr. Dr. P! Uhhhh… what is it?"
"Ron, that's easy to see!" Kim poked Ron in the arm. "It's ….it's…. uh, Dad...uh…what is it?"
"Well, Kimmie, our experiences with the Black Hole testing showed us some interesting things." Dr. Possible paused and looked straight at Ron. Ron turned slightly pale until Kim took his hand. Kim swallowed slightly.
"And just what did it show you, Dad?" she asked.
"You can think of the shape of a black hole as similar to an old-fashioned ice cream cone. It's large at the top and tapers into a point, called a singularity. At the singularity, the laws of physics cease to exist and all matter is crushed beyond recognition. This kind of non-rotating black hole is called a Schwarzschild black hole, named after the German astronomer Karl Schwarzschild."
Ron started to scratch his head. Kim gave him a slight kick in the shin. Dr. Possible smiled and continued.
"Another type of black hole, called a Kerr hole, is also theoretically possible. Kerr holes are rotating black holes that could be used as portals for time travel or travel to parallel universes. In 1963, New Zealand mathematician Roy Kerr proposed the first realistic theory for a rotating black hole. In his theory, dying stars would collapse into a rotating ring of neutrons that would produce sufficient centrifugal force to prevent the formation of a singularity. Since the black hole would not have a singularity, Kerr believed it would be safe to enter it without being crushed by the infinite gravitational force at its center."
"If Kerr holes do exist, it might be possible to pass through them and exit out of a "white"
hole. A white hole would have the reverse action of a black hole. So, instead of pulling
everything into its gravitational force, it would use some sort of exotic matter with negative energy to push everything out and away from it. These white holes would be our way to enter other times or other worlds."
Kim's mouth opened when she realized what her father was saying.
"You mean?"
"Yes. We started to experiment in time travel", Dr. Possible said.
"THIS IS A TIME MACHINE!" Ron exclaimed. "Badical!"
"Well, Ronald, we aren't sure what it will do. If it works like we think it will, yes, then it could act as a time machine. We'll enter a date into the targeting computer, start the program and send something through." Dr. Possible signaled an associate and she brought him an apple.
"We have done some simple experiments. For example, we have set the time an hour ahead, the target for here and tossed the apple into the tunnel. The apple disappears. An hour later, the apple comes rolling back out."
Dr. Possible set the apple down on a table and continued.
"We haven't attempted anything bigger than that. Sometimes the apple doesn't come back. Other times it will come back as applesauce, cooked applesauce, and even applesauce like Kimmie would make in the kitchen. Would you like to see it work?"
Kim and Ron nodded.
"YEAH!"
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"All systems ready."
"Power steady and all capacitors fully charged."
"Targeting computer down!"
Dr. Possible turned to his assistant.
"Go get the backup computer."
The assistant left the room and returned with a computer on a rolling station. The computer was connected into the network and the countdown restarted.
"Kim, would you and Ron care to do the honors?"
Dr. Possible gave the two teens each an apple.
"Stand at the entrance of the tunnel. When I yell "Now!", toss the apples into the tunnel. Then we will wait for them to come back out in an hour."
Kim and Ron each took the apple they had been given and stood at the tunnel.
The air seemed charged with electricity as the tunnel powered up. The concentric lines seemed to waver and spin. Kim turned to look at her dad.
"That's the Kerr hole effect inside the tunnel. The time warp is starting. Get ready to….."
"KAPOW!"
There was a small explosion on one of the power exchange panels. A power surge flew through all of the equipment. Sparks flew. Smoke spewed forth and filled the room. The tunnel started to glow bright blue. Kim and Ron felt something tugging on them, drawing them toward the tunnel. Kim grabbed Ron's hand.
Dr. Possible's lab assistant checked her monitor.
"Dr. Possible, the power spike hit the tunnel. The targeting computer has locked in on some date that was in the computer. It's …"
There was another power spike. Kim and Ron screamed as they were pulled off their feet. Kim drew her grappling gun and fired, embedding the spikes into the far wall. The two teens held onto each other as they floated in air near the entrance of the tunnel.
Dr. Eng yelled.
"Dr. Possible, the spike has created a gravity well! It is pulling everything into the tunnel!"
"Emergency shut down!" yelled Dr. Possible.
As Dr. Eng moved to the shut down switch there was a final power spike. Bolts of pure blue energy came from the tunnel, enveloping Kim and Ron.
"Kimmie!" Dr. Possible screamed.
The cable of the grapple snapped as the lights went out. Everything was quiet. Then the lights slowly came back on. Mr. Possible started looking for his daughter and her boyfriend.
"Kim? Ron? Are you two okay?"
There was little sound except for the snapping and popping of burnt circuits and the humming of the equipment.
Dr. Eng faced his colleague. "They were sucked into the tunnel!"
"What? Where? When?"
Dr. Eng typed on the computer and the screen on the wall displayed a date and location.
"Oh, no!" Dr. Possible exclaimed.
"Is there any way we can call them back?"
Dr. Eng shook his head.
"No. The computer has set itself to fire every two days. On the second day, it will select a date from the target list and fire. Wherever they are in time or the world, they will be sent to the new time period and place. If we try and reset the computer, we will lose all tracking on them and they will be stuck in whatever time period they are in."
"Is there anything we can do?" Dr. Possible stood in front of the tunnel.
Dr. End shook his head again.
"No. All we can do is let the computer continue to send them from place to place until it has no more places to send them. If the computer had no more targets, it will recall them to the present date."
Mr. Possible whirled and raised his finger.
His colleague shook his head.
"I have already tried to erase the list of target dates and places. The computer has locked the file. Our only hope is the tracking signal. Maybe their friend Wade can piggyback a signal onto the tracking signal and contact them on Kim's Kimmunicator. That way, we might be able to at least help them, but only on a limited basis. The carrier wave cannot handle a lot of traffic. If we use it too much, we risk losing the signal and…"
Dr. Possible finished his colleague's sentence. "…they would be stuck."
Dr. Eng nodded.
"Okay, use all our resources to maintain a strong signal. Then get a list of each of the dates on the target list. I want the best expert for that time in history on-call to help with anything Kim and Ron might need. Right now, I've got a few of calls to make."
Dr. Eng raised his eyebrow. "Ann?"
Dr. Possible rubbed the back of his neck much as Ron did earlier.
"Yeah…right before I call Dr. Director and Wade."
Dr. Possible pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and pressed the speed-dial for his wife.
"Honey, you will never believe what just happened. Are you sitting down? I think you'd better."
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Kim and Ron felt like they had been tossed into a washing machine on spin dry. Then they fell onto something hard.
"Oooff!"
Kim rubbed her shoulder where she had landed. They appeared to be on the deck of a ship. It was night and very cold. Ron tried to sit up and bumped his head on the bottom of a lifeboat that they had landed under.
"Well, well, well. What do we have here? I believe a couple of stowaways."
Kim and Ron turned to see a man in an officer's uniform standing over them, staring at them. He reached down, grabbed them by their shirt collars and pulled them out from under the lifeboat.
"I think you two had better come with me."
"Oh, boy…", they said together.
In black lettering on the lifeboat they read: "TITANIC"
Kim groaned. "This is so not good."
Greetings. Welcome to the newest storyline by Captainkodak1. Kim and Ron are in for the ride of their lives. They are lost in time. They have some adventures ahead of them as they travel from time period to time period.
I grew up watching a show called "Time Tunnel". Two men were sucked into this thing and they were sent from time period to time period. They had to deal with getting through what was happening.
As you probably know the list that Ron put in the computer is the list locked into the targeting computer. So they will have an idea of where they might end up. I have several times in history that they will be traveling to so sit back and enjoy the ride. I am not so sure Kim and Ron will.
I hope you like this little adventure. Leave a review in your time.
Next up will be my chapter of "Darkness Within", then another chapter of My Muppet Show fic.