User's Manual Part 4
60 61
However, altering history is a dangerous business so I had to be careful of its contents. I decided
to keep the message in numerical form. It would start with the numbers 17082012. This would
be meaningless to us at the time of the experiment, and so I was relying on Jan to have also kept a
copy of it in his notebook. I felt there was a good chance of this, as he was even more meticulous
and organized than I was.
I trusted that on hearing of my demise it would affect him strongly enough that he would be moved
to look over his record of our old experiment, and notice that those first numbers matched the date
I was reported dead. If he saw this, I was sure he would then scrutinize the rest of the output, and it
would not take him long to realize it was a simple
‘
letter-number
’
cipher!
You may be interested to see the rest of the message. Try decoding it!
100114 200805 06012005 1506 200805 2315181204 0801140719 0914 200805
02011201140305 19201516 251521 13211920 03151420010320 0318010404150311 0805
030114 08051216 251521 0221091204 0114 012120151301200903 17210114202113
2018011419030509220518 1915 2305 030114 0315131321140903012005 13151805
0506060503200922051225 19201516 09 0123010920 25152118 1805191615141905
011404 2018011419030509220518 01040418051919 19201516 01181801140705 2015
08012205 2008051905 162102120919080504 0914 200805 160518191514011219
19050320091514 1506 20080120 10152118140112 19201516 100114 200805 0609140112
12091405 1506 200805 0517210120091514 230119 2318151407 19201516 030801140705
200805 190503151404 26051815 2015 01 06152118 19201516 20080120 01182009031205
230119 0615182025 2505011819 152120 19201516 09 11141523 251521 030114 0415
20080919 19201516 25152118 061809051404 20180919200114 19201516
[Reads –
“
Jan the fate of the world hangs in the balance. You must contact Craddock he can help
you build an automatic quantum transceiver so we can communicate more effectively. I await your
response and transceiver address. Arrange to have these published in the personals section of that
journal. Jan the final line of the equation was wrong. Change the second zero to a four. That article
was forty years out. I know you can do this. Your friend Tristan.
”
]
In the meantime, we would check the interference patterns of our experiments, which would in
theory reveal by association the letters as they would be written in the article. The formula was
one of my greatest achievements. It was truly a thing of beauty, especially the line [REMOVED –
CLASSIFIED].
In practice, it was a total failure. The read-out was gibberish. Instead of letters all we got back was
a random assortment of numbers. I was crushed, while Jan seemed not to mind. Despite the failure,
we were both awarded merits for our endeavor.
I
’
d had complete faith in Jan
’
s assembly, and assumed that what we
’
d attempted was simply
impossible. My recent insight into quantum mechanics now gave me pause to reconsider this. The
formula involved was highly complex, and was possibly in error. Fortunately, for years I
’
d kept
detailed records of all my experiments on a pen drive that had survived the attack, and had been
brought with me to my cell. I hurriedly opened the files and reviewed my equations.
Sure enough, a simple mistake had thrown the results completely off. I recalculated, and
reorganized the output. Shockingly, this now produced a string of text that made perfect sense –
the experiment had worked! The story itself was from an online journal; the article recounting the
latest defeat in the war against Hades. It listed the casualties with the resigned tone of a civilization
on the brink of extinction. It dawned on me that this single incorrect digit had not only corrupted
the output, it had also altered the target date. We had been attempting to predict a story not one
week ahead, but forty years out!
The fact that the article had yet to be written meant there was still a chance I could contact my old
friend Jan, but how could I be sure I
’
d still be around to send the message, let alone carry on a two-
way conversation?
A plan began to form in my mind.
5. Message in a Bottle
I used the weapons I had available to me. Now that I had some knowledge of the future and could
make contact with the outside world, I persuaded the author of the article to agree that it would be
re-worded. In real life it would be meaningless, but our flawed original formula would now output a
readable message.
19-2. TRAVR