Love Lost in Time Relativity

By George G. Nyman

The night was clear and moonless. Paul was gazing out the window of the spacecraft, his work completed, and resigning himself to passenger mode for the next twenty-two minutes, allowing the 747 to carry Relativity 1 to the lower limits of the stratosphere, where it would be launched into space. Visibility was unrestricted and the stars were lit over the desert sky, almost teasing Relativity 1 to chase them. Paul felt the acceleration as the massive jumbo jet began to rumble down the runway, slowly at first, but picking up speed as the stars beckoned above.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Oct 28, 2013
• ISBN: 9781491834039

George G. Nyman

George G. Nyman has a Bachelor of Science Degree from the State University College at Buffalo. He has earned his living flying as a commuter and corporate pilot since 1980 and has logged over 10,000 hours of flight time primarily in various corporate jet aircraft. As a pilot who loves to fly, he has also yearned to fly into space and has been a huge science fiction fan since he was very young. Having read many of Ray Bradbury’s works at a young age, and remembering vividly the US and Soviet Union space race which climaxed when Neil Armstrong landed the Eagle in July of 1969 on the Lunar Surface, his yearning to someday fly into space still remains sanguine in his life. His interests include chess, ice skating, golf, hockey and reading and exploring about new technological discoveries that will advance mankind to a place that we can now only dream of. Mr. Nyman wishes he could be alive in 20,000 years from now so he could see firsthand the incredible technological advances that will be common place by then. He currently lives in Hickory, North Carolina and flies out of Charlotte Douglas Airport. He has two grown daughters who live in nearby Asheville, North Carolina.

Book preview

Chapter 1

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Atlanta Center told 37 Whiskey Bravo to contact Charlotte Approach on frequency 124.7.

Roger Atlanta, 124.7, so long, Whiskey Bravo.

‘I hope they give me 36 Right,’ Paul thought. This would reduce his taxi time significantly since Wilson Air Center, where the private planes parked, was right off runway 36 Right.

Charlotte Approach, 37 Whiskey Bravo at 1 Zero thousand with Uniform.

Roger Whiskey Bravo, expect runway 36 Right, information Uniform is current.

‘Yes!’ Paul thought. ‘Even though I’m 4 days late, I don’t have to taxi an extra 8 minutes.’

Roger, 36 Right, I have Uniform, Paul informed the controller again.

This had become standard procedure between pilots and controllers. It seemed that no matter how clear you were informing a controller on your initial contact that you had the current airport information, the controller would always repeat to the pilot what the information was. ‘Maybe they just don’t listen, or maybe they just want to make sure you have it.’ Paul thought.

Paul didn’t care. He had been doing this for almost thirty years. If it hadn’t changed in thirty years, why should it change now? Paul lined the Beech King Air 200 up on a seven mile final for runway 36 Right. A cold front had moved through Charlotte early that day and even though it was now 1:42 a.m., the wind was still blowing pretty hard from the northwest. Paul pushed on the right rudder to straighten the nose as he gently touched the left main wheel to the pavement, holding the right wheel off for just a second, compensating for the left to right crosswind.

As he taxied the airplane to the ramp, his passengers started to come back to life from their slumber. Following the commands of the lineman waving the lights, he closed the condition levers, which stopped the fuel flow to the engines, and brought the airplane to rest.

Great job! his boss yelled up to him from the back. Now Paul would have to put a smile on his face hiding his annoyance about being four days late and the fact that it was almost 2:00 a.m. and he still had another thirty minutes of work with his post flight and a one hour drive home.

Thanks Bill, he said. When are we heading back to Stuttgart? This was where they went most of the time during the winter months. His boss and friends liked to duck hunt in Arkansas during the winter. The problem was they liked it so much that three day trips turned into one week trips and lots of flying back and forth to bring more people out and back.

Don’t know, Bill said. I’ll let you know. Take care.

See yah, Paul said.

This was typical, but then again, that was the life of a corporate pilot. No schedule, no certainty of when you were going to fly. Whenever the boss wanted to go, that’s when you went to work. ‘At least on this trip, I’ve made major progress toward my dream,’ Paul thought. Having completed his proposal for sub-light space travel, he had faxed the proposal to the president of Intersolar Space Excursions. At least the dream of traveling forward in time had actual substance. Unlike science fiction, time can be altered. All a person has to do in order to accomplish that is go really fast. Why no one had thought of this idea and taking it and turning it into reality was a mystery to Paul. ‘How could I be the first person on the planet to think of this? I’m just a fifty two year old corporate pilot,’ he thought. Every scientist and physicist and technical student in the country understands time relativity. The GPS system on board the King Air that had just navigated him to Charlotte Douglas Airport compensates the satellite clocks for Einstein’s theory. So it bewildered him to think that he would be the first person to come up with this idea. ‘Why was it esoteric?’ he wondered. And what was even more puzzling and disturbing to Paul was the fact that when he mentioned this to the average person, they would look at him like he was crazy. They didn’t believe it, and sometimes they refused to even listen to him when he tried to explain it to someone. They would just look at him like he was living in a fantasy world. But now his fantasy was on paper and heading to a man who could help make it a reality! ‘Ah, but what the hell, even if nothing happens, it was fun working on the concept,’ he thought.

Paul wondered what Mr. Rodding would think of his proposal when he read it? But more realistically, he wondered IF he would even read it or just toss it into the trash. ‘Oh well, I better button the airplane up and head home. It’s late and I’m tired.’

Paul finished securing the airplane, put his suitcase into the trunk of his 2000 Mitsubishi Galant and started the engine. While it was warming, he turned on his cell phone and waited to see if his favorite ‘Who’ song would sound off indicating that there were any messages. Having grown up listening to the rock band, ‘The Who,’ Paul had set his ring tone and message indicator to this Iconic Band. The song, ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’, resonated out of the phone, indicating he had messages, so he dialed voice mail. He had three messages, the first from his oldest daughter, one from his lady friend and the other from Mr. Rodding of Intersolar Space Excursions. Paul couldn’t believe it! His hand started to shake as he listened to the message from Mr. Rodding.

Mr. Nystrom, this is David Rodding of Intersolar Space Excursions, Incorporated. I read your proposal and we here at ISE are fascinated with it. Please call me at my office tomorrow morning so we can talk. The number is 213-514-4453. Looking forward to hearing from you, goodnight.

Just like that, a fleeting improbable dream was now a reality, or at least a partial reality. Paul listened to the message two more times before he hung up the phone, partly because of the excitement it stirred in him and partly so he could believe that it really happened. As he shifted the car into drive and began to proceed out of the airport, Paul had only one thought on his mind: ‘I can’t wait until tomorrow so I can talk with Mr. Rodding!’

Chapter 2

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Paul pulled into his garage, turned off the car, and pushed the garage-door-opener button to close the door. It was cold and it was 3:26 a.m. Although he was tired, he was also anxious. He just wanted it to be 12 o’clock today which would be 9:00 a.m. west coast time, the time he could call Mr. Rodding.

‘Time. What a concept,’ Paul thought. For years now, his flying, reading, studying, learning and even watching specials about the Universe on the Discovery Channel had brought him to this moment, to this very point in space time. If what he proposed could somehow become reality, his mundane life would become anything but. In fact, his life how he now lived it, would no longer be. And for that matter, mankind’s reality and relativity would ultimately change. All this would happen because of an idea from a fifty-two year old corporate pilot. ‘What is the definition of flying’ Paul thought. He had that one etched in his brain from years ago. ‘Flying is hours and hours of boredom interspersed with a few moments of sheer terror.’ Fortunately for him, like most pilots, he had survived his few moments of sheer terror. But now, more importantly, the hours of boredom in which he used to sometimes imagine himself accelerating into the future was on the precipice of reality.

And how that reality would change! ‘First and foremost, this would be the greatest achievement since, since—well, since what? The invention of the wheel? The discovery of fire? The first flight? Landing on the Moon? The revelation of E=MC2? My God, am I heading into that league?’ he wondered. ‘What’s going to happen here? What am I doing? How is this going to affect mankind? Am I doing the right thing? Maybe this is something humans shouldn’t mess with. Could there be something that could adversely affect mankind that I’m not seeing here? I don’t want to be responsible for that!’ he thought as he began to work himself into a slight panic.

‘Calm down,’ he said to himself, ‘one step at a time. If this happens, it’s going to be great. After all, this is science and science is you. Besides, if I don’t do this, someone else eventually will,’ Paul convinced himself. ‘And besides, there are some side benefits to this whole thing. I’m going to become rich, for one. That’s appealing, especially since I’ve been stuck in this middle class rat race for twenty eight years now. What middle class person hasn’t thought about becoming rich? Is that so wrong? No. It’s my idea so I should capitalize on it.’

However as quickly as Paul tried to rationalize the potential for this idea becoming a great milestone for humanity, his thoughts just as quickly regressed back to how this would affect humanity. And from there, his doubts returned. Could there be harm or hidden dangers in what he was about to embark on? Just because this can be done, should it be done?

Paul was really working himself up now, and being so tired and excited he was becoming quite pensive. ‘Traveling into the future shouldn’t make me sad or worried,’ he thought as he lay down onto the bed. He closed his eyes and started to drift off, his mind still racing and wandering. But even with all the excitement, all the conflicting thoughts, all the ‘what if’s’, he still, in the back of his mind, began to think of Tina. But how could this be? Here he was about to be a part of changing human history, and he was thinking of a woman! ‘I am a man and what man doesn’t think of a woman.’ Especially the woman who’s been the love of his life. Or was she the lust of his life? He didn’t know. In fact he didn’t even know if there was a difference. George Bernard Shaw once said, ‘The definition of love is overestimating the difference between one woman from another.’ ‘That may or may not be true,’ Paul thought, but what was true was his overwhelming desire for a woman who dumped him and would have no part of him anymore other than to play games with him and continually rip his heart out and stomp on it.

As Paul started to drift off to sleep, with his mind trying to extinguish these conflicting and tormenting thoughts, one thought stood out in his brain with such irony that he chuckled to himself. He couldn’t believe how strange it was that a discovery that would change human history by altering time would also bring the ultimate payback to the woman who broke his heart.

Chapter 3

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Paul opened his eyes, looked around the room and was overwhelmed with a surreal feeling. Was it a dream? He started to become more awake now, and his head started to clear. It was 8:48 a.m., 5:48 a.m. west coast time. He still had over three hours to wait before he could call Mr. Rodding. So it was not a dream. Now he was fully awake. ‘Ok, I’ll make some breakfast. I’m hungry,’ he thought. ‘Egg whites, pancakes, and orange juice, sounds like a plan.’

He went to the bathroom, relieved himself, put on his slippers and headed to the kitchen. This was the big day. The day he had been waiting for, for years now. All the dreaming and work he had put into time alteration was now going to get some sort of an answer today. At least he would find out if it was heading to the next level or if it would just end up in the dream heap for another human to toy with sometime in the future. ‘How ironic, someone else to mess with this idea in the future about traveling into the future. That’s an oxymoron,’ Paul thought. ‘Isn’t it?’

‘Ok, let’s focus now. What will Mr. Rodding say to me? What do I tell him if he needs more convincing that this is plausible? How do I keep his attention? Just tell him the facts. You’ve been pragmatic your whole life. No need to change your thinking now. This is black and white,’ Paul thought. ‘Just lay down the facts. But suppose he cuts me out at this point and just tells me that he wants to proceed without me. After all, he has the resources. Why would he need me anymore now that the idea has been presented to him?’ This thought to Paul was nothing short of horrific. ‘That couldn’t happen! And it won’t! Be optimistic,’ he said to himself. ‘After all, he called me back and sounded excited. Oh well, relax. There’s nothing you can do about it now and you’re going to find out in three hours.’

Paul made his eggs and pancakes and opened a fresh bottle of real maple syrup. It was expensive at six bucks a bottle but that artificial sugary Aunt Jemima syrup was crap and he wasn’t going to put that on his pancakes. He sat down to eat and turned on CNBC, the money channel, to see what was happening with the stock market. ‘Hmmm,’ he thought. ‘If this becomes reality, I’m going to become the ultimate long term investor, even more long term than the greatest investor of all, Warren Buffet. I’ll show him what long term is really all about,’ Paul thought with a chuckle.

Paul finished eating, put the plate to his face and licked the syrup. ‘Boy is that good,’ he thought ‘and one advantage of not having a wife. She would be screaming, don’t lick the plate like a dog! That’s disgusting! More specifically, he could hear Tina echoing those very words. In fact, his mind started to drift in that direction, thinking of Tina.

Paul had met Tina eight years ago. While sitting at his desk one day and playing chess on the computer, he had just finished a game and decided to take a break. He clicked on the Yahoo! Personal’s and started perusing profiles of women in his geographical area and age range. He clicked on Tina’s, read the profile and responded with an email. She said she was thirty nine years old, five feet and five inches tall, weighed 125 pounds and lived about twenty miles away. She claimed the usual likes and dislikes in her profile. Likes to dine out. Likes movies. Likes to go to the beach. What woman didn’t say that? But what was unusual about Tina’s profile was that she didn’t post a picture. Most profiles had pictures and if they didn’t, Paul would just skip past them. But for some reason, he didn’t skip past hers. He responded. This was unusual because like most men, Paul was a visual type of guy. If a picture wasn’t attached to the profile he was reading, he would just assume that there would be no attraction, or she was hiding something and he would just go on to the next one. So again, this was unusual for him to contact a woman who didn’t post a picture, but he did anyway.

And the very next day he got a response. They emailed a few times before exchanging phone numbers. Paul remembered the first time he called her. What a voice! It was somewhat soft spoken and reserved, but it had a very sexy tone to it. There was nothing out of the ordinary about her vernacular other than her slight southern accent. This made her voice even more appealing. They decided to meet that coming weekend at a local bar called the Granite Tavern. At this point, Paul still didn’t know what Tina looked like, but he just had a gut feeling that she was beautiful. This made no sense to him. After all, he was a logical guy. Why would he go out and meet a woman that he had never seen? But instinct told him to do it, so they decided Saturday night at 8 p.m. they would meet.

Paul remembered that Saturday night like it was yesterday. It started off on a bad note. For some reason he thought the Granite Tavern was in the downtown area of Granite Falls, NC. But it wasn’t. He ended up at the wrong tavern on the wrong side of town. But what was worse, he still wasn’t quite sure where the Granite Tavern was. He pulled into the police station to get directions and headed over to the other side of town. It was now fifteen minutes past eight and this bothered him because he was a punctual person. He started to worry that Tina would figure he was a ‘no-show’ and leave. All the while this was going on his gut feeling was telling him that there was going to be sparks and chemistry when they met. Now he was just hoping that would happen.

Finally, Paul pulled into the parking lot of the Tavern, brushed his hair real quick and headed for the door. He walked in, looked around and immediately saw three people sitting at the bar, two women and a man. He looked hard at the brunette closest to him. She looked intently at him. Paul was thrilled as he immediately noticed that she was a beauty queen! Her hair was medium length. She was wearing a black blouse with some kind of a furry collar. She appeared somewhat diminutive but maybe that was because of the lighting in the bar and the fact that she was wearing black. Her face was soft and round. There was almost a glow around her. Paul knew immediately this was Tina.

Paul was basically an introvert until he got to know someone but his legs forced him to bolt towards the bar. As he got closer, Tina’s image became sharper and she was even more beautiful than she first appeared! In fact, Paul couldn’t remember when he had seen a more beautiful woman in his life, certainly not one that he was going to have an opportunity to go out with. He sat down, looked into her eyes and before he could say anything he noticed the joy on her face indicating the attraction was mutual!

Hi, he said. You must be Tina, nice to meet you.

She looked at him and said, yes, and you must be Paul, pleased to meet you. After that she became taciturn, so Paul did all the talking but Tina kept smiling the whole time.

They had a few drinks and after a while, Paul started to notice that Tina became a little reserved. It was like she was hiding her excitement, like she didn’t want to appear to overeager. But Paul didn’t care. He made it very clear that he was extremely interested in her and didn’t hide it. Paul knew how hard this middle-aged dating thing was. It was very hard to find mutual sparks and chemistry. In fact, the mathematical side of him always kicked in when he was about to meet someone. He thought there are only four possibilities when you meet someone: I like her, she doesn’t like me; she likes me, I don’t like her; neither one of us like each other; or the best possibility, there’s mutual desire. This was the best possibility and to have it with a woman as beautiful as Tina was a dream come true! Or so Paul thought at the time.

Chapter 4

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The alarm rang, waking Belinda with a startle. She groaned as she rolled over to turn off the annoying sound and yelled to her husband, David, I told you to turn this thing off if you were already up. You know how much this bothers me. David didn’t pay attention to his wife’s displeasure. He had a big day in front of him. He was already showered and was finishing shaving.

Sorry honey, he said in an apologetic tone. ‘What a pain in the ass,’ he thought to himself. ‘This woman doesn’t have a clue what it’s like to make a living.’ Then again, Belinda didn’t ever have to worry about that. She was David’s fourth wife. Twenty-four years his junior, they both knew why they were together. David was filthy rich, and Belinda was a trophy wife. In fact, this was her third time around in this career: Being a trophy wife. But this time she hit it big. Her two previous husbands were rich, but nothing like David.

David Rodding was a billionaire. But this was not surprising. From the time he was born, he was a type A personality. Always hustling a buck, instead of working normal part time jobs in high school, he started his own companies and worked like a dog to make them succeed. One of his most successful companies during that time was a detailing car wash business that catered to rich people and the fancy cars they drove. At seventeen, while in high school, he had fifteen employees working for him. Most were illegal Mexicans so he didn’t have to file taxes for them. He would pay them in cash and they’d be more than happy to take the money. He worked his employees hard but he was always fair with them and helped them as best he could. One time, one of his illegals got his girlfriend pregnant and she was having a hard time with the pregnancy. She was afraid to go to the public clinic for help because she feared they would deport her and the baby wouldn’t be born in America. David paid to have a physician take care of the girl during the pregnancy and through the delivery. He also helped set them up in an apartment and would visit them during the ordeal. For a tough businessman, he also had a heart. He knew how hard his employees worked for him. If they didn’t, they were gone. The bottom line was, he was going to make money off of you, but he would also give back.

After high school, he sold his car wash business for 150,000.00 dollars. Not bad for an eighteen year old kid. His next logical move was to start selling the expensive cars that he had washed. So he got a job with a Mercedes dealership, and with his hustle and gregarious personality, he quickly became top salesman. From there he bought a dealership and soon after that, he started to acquire more dealerships. It was the late 1960’s and southern California was really starting to boom. Before long David Rodding was the biggest car dealer in southern California. He started to plow his money into real estate and his timing couldn’t have been better. By the time he was in his early ‘30s, the money was pouring in.

However, with all of David’s success in business, by traditional standards, he failed miserably in his personal life. This was mainly because he had an eye for women. He loved them and they loved him. With his money and good looks, he had all he wanted. And, he wanted them all. Like in business, enough was never enough. But now at age sixty-one and four marriages later, the emotional effects of the fast life were beginning to catch up with him. He still had good health and a zest for life, especially business. But the fast life of women and trophy wives was becoming a drag. Now, his only thought was how to get rid of Belinda. At least his second wife had given him his son Kevin and daughter Stephanie, who he loved more than anything in the world. After their births and the divorce from their mother, David did one of the smartest things in his life: He got a vasectomy. This assured him of never having to pay a king’s ransom in child support again, but more importantly, it allowed him to focus all his attention on the two most important things in his life, his two kids.

Shit, David said as he nicked himself with the razor.

Are you okay? Belinda inquired as she heard her husband’s profanity echo from the bathroom.

I’m fine honey, he answered to his half-asleep wife. ‘Like you really give a shit,’ David thought to himself. ‘I wish she’d take more sleeping pills at night so I wouldn’t have to deal with her in the morning. Ahhh, the hell with it. I’ve got more important things to deal with. I need to get to the office.’ David quickly dressed himself, gave his wife a peck on the cheek and headed out the door to the most exciting company he had created in years, the company that was keeping him young. The company that gave him the energy to fire himself out of bed in the morning just like when he was a young man, Intersolar Space Excursions, Inc.

David pulled his BMW into his assigned parking space. Traffic hadn’t been that bad this morning. It only took him twenty four minutes to get to work. Intersolar Space Excursions was, of course, the brain child of David Rodding. After making his fortune many times over, he had decided he could create something that, for once, didn’t have to make money. And if David knew anything, it was that anything having to do with flying would NOT make money, at least for a long time. But he didn’t care. David was and had been an aviation buff for many years now. He had a flight department consisting of two aircraft, a Falcon 20 and Gulfstream 4, and a Bell helicopter. For short trips he would use the Falcon 20. This was a medium-sized jet that carried eight passengers and two crew members. Sometimes he would have a flight attendant on board. It depended on the trip and whether he felt like mixing his own drinks. For the longer trips and to really impress people, he would use his pride and joy, the Gulfstream 4. This baby was almost the size of a small commercial airliner and was as plush as Buckingham Palace. Having these planes cost a small fortune, but David didn’t care. At sixty-one he was determined to have the best time with his life he possibly could from now until he died and no, it wouldn’t just be with women. That’s why he decided to start his baby, Intersolar Space Excursions.

As usual, it was David’s brain child. For decades, space travel had been limited to governments and the astronauts they chose to fly in space. Finally, Sir Richard Branson had come along a few years ago and started designing aircraft for commercial space flight that would carry paying passengers for the thrill of going into space. But these aircraft and fights would be very limited when and if they finally commenced. They would allow the people on them short flights into low Earth orbit only. The passengers would get to experience weightlessness for ten minutes or so and see the Earth from space and that would be it. The flights would be thirty minutes or less. David, being the entrepreneur that he was, knew he could do better. He would design and build spacecraft that would put paying passengers into Earth’s orbit circling the Earth and eventually take them out of orbit. His first major goal would be to get them to the Moon and back, though not to actually walk on the Moon, but circle it like Apollo 8 had done so many years ago. And who knows? With technology and money, maybe someday Intersolar Space Excursions would be selling trips to Mars. David never thought he would live to see this but with the proposal he had received from that corporate pilot, Paul Nystrom, now he just might.

David walked into his building and received the usual hellos from his employees. They were a smart, energetic group of people who were thrilled with their jobs and focused one hundred percent on the goal they were trying to accomplish. More importantly, they believed that they could put paying passengers into space and they believed in David.

Good morning Mr. Rodding, Ashley said to her boss as he walked toward his office. Your wife called and asked me to tell you to turn on your cell phone and call her when you got in. And Paul Nystrom called.

David, being old school, rarely carried his cell phone, and when he did, it was usually on silent mode so he would not be interrupted by constant calls from people just wanting to waste his time. And he also didn’t want to be bothered by his wife, whoever that may be at the current moment in his life.

Thank you Ashley. Get Paul Nystrom on the phone for me in my office as soon as you can, David said.

What about your wife? She said it was very important.

Not now. Just get me Mr. Nystrom on the phone. I’ll be in my office.

Okay

‘Now where is that proposal?’ David thought. ‘Ahhh, here it is.’ David started to read it again while he was waiting for Ashley to make the call. He had already read the proposal ten times or more and knew it by heart, so he just waited for Ashley to buzz him to pick up the line. While he was waiting, he couldn’t help think of what a nice ass Ashley had. She was fairly new at the company. Young, smart and absolutely beautiful, she quickly moved up in the company and became David’s personal secretary. Sometimes he would use her as a flight attendant on his corporate jets. This was to impress his clients, but it was also so he could look at her ass. ‘Only problem now is: am I going to keep looking at it, or am I going to start enjoying it?’

Mr. Rodding, I have Mr. Nystrom on line one, Ashley’s sexy voice resonated out of the intercom.