The night was dark, nights usually are, and there was an electrical storm, which is unusual for Seattle. The whole effect was a motivator to stay indoors and study with a trusty computer and a fast internet connection. Deborah Schwartz was doing just that, studying a commentary on the book of Daniel.
Deborah’s apartment was an austere place. Under a bunk bed was a desk and a swivel chair. Against one wall was a book shelf crowded with books on all kinds of topics. Off to one side was a small kitchen, off to the other side, a small bathroom. On the doorpost was a Mezusah. It was compact, but she could afford it and that was enough.
Daniel has two parts to it, the first part, which is relatively straightforward, and then a second part, which has some truly weird prophecies in it. Deborah was fascinated by the truly weird prophecies at the end of the book, from chapter 7 to chapter 10, where Daniel envisioned strange beasts convened by divine command. She wondered how much of the prophecy of Daniel was actually written later and then attributed to him.
There came a knock on the door.
“Who is it?”
“I am an old friend of yours who hasn’t seen you in 66 years. Please put down the book of Daniel and let’s talk”
“How do you know I am studying the book of Daniel? And 66 years? I’m only 22”
“I know a lot of things about you. But I would prefer to talk to you face to face instead of shouting through the door. I am an old woman, I will not harm you in any way. No, indeed.”
Despite all her years of indoctrination about opening locked doors to strangers, Deborah got up and opened the door. An old woman walked in.”
“Who are you?”
“I am a time traveler. Have you had any other visitors this evening?”
“No, I am alone. What do you mean, a time traveler?”
“I am a woman that has traveled in time. It has been a great adventure. I’d like to tell you about it, but not yet. You are going to have another visitor this evening”
“How do you know that?”
“When you travel in time, a lot of things that are in your future are in my past. May I have some mint tea, please?”
“I’ll put a pot on”
Deborah got up and went to the kitchen, put a tea kettle on the stove.
“I don’t believe I got your name”, she yelled.
“I’m Deborah bat Sarah, the prophetess and judge of Israel”
“That’s remarkable. My mother’s name is Sarah.”
“I know. You see, I am you, but 66 years later. I went back in time, got married, fought a war, had children, had grandchildren, went to the future, fought another war, and then I came back here to talk to you about it”
A chat window opened on her computer. It was from deborah@192.168.0.43. “Anybody you know?”, Deborah (the younger) asked.
“Answer it and see”, Deborah (the older) replied.
Are you busy?
Yes, I am. What do you want?
I want to talk with you.
What do you want to say?
Not online. In person.
Where are you?
In the parking lot of your apartment building.
I don’t trust you
I know the password for your wifi. It’s a very strong password, but easy to remember.
How do you know my password?
I know a great deal about you. I know that you broke up with Allen 9 days ago, that you are very conflicted about your motives for doing so. You want children, he doesn’t. I know that you are studying the book of Daniel. I know that you like the prophecies at the end of the book. I know that you have a scar on the sole of your left foot where you stepped on some broken glass while walking barefoot. Your mother gave you a terrible lecture on the dangers of walking barefoot, and now you wear sandals even in the shower. I know you like mint tea. Shall I go on?
How do you know all of these things?
Not online, in person.
I don’t trust you.
I understand. I want you to make a leap of faith. It’s important. Please.
Alright - come to the window of my apartment.
Okay. You will see an old woman.
A moment later came a knock on the door. Deborah (the younger), got up, threw the deadbolt, and opened the door. Sure enough, there was an old woman.
“Please come in out of the rain”, Deborah (the older) invited.
“Thank you. Who are you?”
“Why, I am you, but 22 years later”, Deborah (the eldest answered). “I know why you are here and now, and I have something important to tell both of you.
“Wait a second, wait a second. Who are you women? Why are you both here tonight?”, Deborah (the youngest) demanded.
“I’m here to send you on perhaps the greatest adventure anybody has ever gone on”, Deborah (the middle) said.
“I’m here to tell both of you that I accomplished the task, and that young Deborah here can continue on her own time-line without worrying about time travel”, Deborah (the oldest) said.
“If she doesn’t go, then who will fight the war with King Jabin?”, Deborah (the middle) asked.
“I fought, and won, the war with King Jabin”, Deborah (the oldest) said. “Let’s see if I can recreate the events. First of all, we’re time travelers. We were sent into the past, in the time of the book of Judges, to take on the role of Deborah. Deborah, as you might remember, helped lead a battle against the army of King Jabin of Hazor, a pagan nation-state. This version of us” - she indicated Deborah the middle - “was the instigator of our going back in time to fight the war”. She tried to find the right moment in history, and failed. So she came back to tonight, where she is going to recruit you to try again. You do. You succeed. However, history records that after the war, you judged for 40 years, so I stayed in the land of Canaan for 40 years as effectively the head of state. In that time, I married, had children, watched them grow up, have grandchildren, watched them grow up, buried my husband, watched the children die, and eventually came back here, to this spot, to this moment, to tell her and you that you don’t have to go. Mission accomplished”.
“How old are you?”, Deborah (the youngest) asked.
“I am 66”, Deborah (the middle) answered.
“I am 88”, Deborah (the oldest) answered.
“I tried to find the right moment in history, and I failed to do so. However, I left detailed notes on what I did”, Deborah (the middle) said.
“And had you not done that, I would probably have wasted time doing things you had already done”, Deborah (the oldest) said.
“This is a pretty weird discussion”, Deborah (the youngest) commented.
“Time travel does that”, Deborah (the middle) noted.
“It pretty much destroys causality. Were it not for our intervention 3358 years ago, you wouldn’t be here having this conversation. Our intervention in history caused this discussion. However, you two had this discussion and that caused the intervention in history. We’re conditioned to think that time is linear. We’re born, we grow up, we marry, we have children, we have grandchildren, we die, our children die, our grandchildren have children, our grandchildren die - it’s a line that always moves forward. Time travel makes it circular.” Deborah (the oldest) explained.
“But now we are faced with a paradox: you and I represent two timelines with very different outcomes, and we have to give young Deborah here a chance to make a decision about which timeline she is going to take”, Deborah (the middle) said.
“Well, it will be her own time line, because I think I ought to tell her what I did and how I did it, so that she won’t have to improvise and subject herself to so much risk. I am concerned that there are only three of us here - it may be that she goes back and she dies in the past”, Deborah (the oldest) said.
“Maybe she goes back in time, figures out that I was right, and then bypasses this discussion in her future”, Deborah (the middle) said. “We can’t make an inference from that observation, because there are at least two possibilities.”
“Well, I believe that I set history on the right path, because the chronopolice didn’t come looking for you. Do you have a chronobeacon?”, Deborah (the oldest) asked.
“Yes, as a matter of fact, I do. Do you want me to activate it?”, Deborah (the middle) challenged.
“Wait a second, wait a second. Chronopolice? Chronobeacon?”, Deborah the younger tried to interject.
“NO! DON’T TOUCH IT”, Deborah (the oldest) shouted.
“Okay. I won’t touch it”
“I am having a great deal of difficulty thinking about this”, Deborah (the youngest) said.
“Me too”
“Me three”
“Why are you two having troubles with this - you instigated it!”, Deborah (the youngest) pouted.
“What I find remarkable is that we never met before tonight”, Deborah the oldest said. “After all, I was famous. Surely you would have heard of me and sought me out. I was there for 15 years, gone for 6 years, and then back for another 40 years”.
“What do you mean, you were gone for 6 years”, Deborah the middle asked.
“I fought two battles with a man named Unrar - have you heard of him?”
“No”
“That’s very odd. There is a lot about time travel that I don’t understand”.
“Who is Unrar?”, Deborah (the youngest) asked.
“He and I fought a battle in space in 1119 BCE, and another battle in space in 2456 CE. With the first battle, Unrar marooned me and Walter in orbit around Europa. In the second battle, you sent me a beam that blocks the strong force”
“I didn’t do that”, Deborah (the middle) objected.
“Don’t look at me”, Deborah (the youngest) said.
“Interesting. There must be at least a fourth timeline”, Deborah the eldest said.
“By the way, did you put a thesaurus of quotations in my training curriculum?”, Deborah (the eldest) asked.
“Why, yes, as a matter of fact, I did. Famous quotations from Scientists, Engineers, and Futurists”, edited by Ellison Alberts. Copyright 2189. Why do you ask?”, Deborah (the middle) replied.
“Ever since this mission began, I’ve been spouting off strange quotations about science, math, engineering, and science fiction at the most unlikely moments, complete with bibliographic details”, the eldest Deborah observed,
“For example?”, the youngest Deborah asked.
“I was negotiating a case about virginity, and I asked the husband to try the marriage for a year. He wanted to know why so long, and I quoted Frederick Brooks from The Mythical Man-month: ‘No matter how many women you apply to the task, it still takes nine months to have a baby’.”
“Why did Frederick Brooks say that?”
“Because in a construction project, you can speed up the project completion by adding more man power. However, in a software engineering project, if you add more people, you just make the project later, because now people are getting taken away from doing useful work and teaching the new people how to do their jobs. Brooks was trying to explain that some tasks cannot be parallelized”, Deborah the eldest explained.
“How did she sneak something into your curriculum without you knowing about it?”, Deborah (the youngest) asked.
“If you elect to go on this mission, you will spend 2 years in a learning machine. The learning machine interfaces directly with your brain and creates new memories, very quickly”, Deborah (the middle) explained.
“Except that rate at which memories are created is constrained by the speed of the neurons in your brain, which is about 50 meters/second”. Deborah the eldest noted.
“Is that about 150 feet/second?. Could you guys use the English system? I’m an American.”
“You’ll find it a lot easier if you just use metric units for everything and not try to convert. How many inches in a mile?”.
“I don’t know”
“Me neither. How many centimeters in a kilometer?”
“There are 100 centimeters in a meter and a thousand meters in a kilometer, so 100,000?”
“Correct. Give up the english system and your life becomes much simpler”
“So the nerves don’t go at the speed of light?”, Deborah (the youngest) asked.
“Oh no. Nerves transmit information by an exchange of ions across a cell wall, which propagates along the length of the nerve. You can measure the nerve conduction velocity electronically, and you can create the memories electronically, but you can’t make the nerves go any faster”, Deborah (the middle) explained.
“Could you load me up with information about the Book of Daniel?”, Deborah the youngest was excited, now.
“I can do that”, Deborah (the middle) said.
“I got it”, Deborah (the eldest) said. “In fact, I wrote a commentary on the Book of Daniel somewhere around the orbit of Mars”.
“I made a fundamental mistake”, Deborah (the middle) said. “I was focussed on finding Lapidot first, and so I never started judging anybody”.
“I was going to do the same thing, but I was thrust into a judicial role and events went on from there. So I became Deborah the Judge and de facto head of state”
“How did you find Lapidot?”
“Remember I mentioned the virginity case? The couple had a son, and they named him Lapidot, so I married him”
“Wait a second - I get married 3100 years ago? To a baby?”, Deborah the youngest piped up.
“Not exactly. I waited 15 years for him to grow up. Then I married him in 1119 BCE. I was 40”
“That makes you quite the cougar”, Deborah the youngest grinned.
“We were married for 29 years. He was a good man. He tried very hard to understand that I was going to be a female head of state. It must have been very challenging. In that time and place, women were not in positions of authority. I was not a very good wife, always dealing with matters of state, making judgements”.
“Wait a second. You’re 88 now. You were married for 29 years. He got married when he was 15. What happened?”, Deborah the middle asked.
“He died in 1092 BCE at the age of 44, of old age”
“You were in the same environment. How did you survive for so long?”, Deborah the youngest asked. “In fact, you really don’t look 88 years old. In fact, you don’t look 66 years old. You both look like you are in your late 40s”.
“We have access to 24th century health care. My life is barely half over at 66”, Deborah (the middle) said.
There was the sound of a key entering the lock on the door.
The three women stared at it.
“Well, you might as well open the door, I can’t see how the night can get any stranger”, Deborah (the youngest) said.
The door was opened, and yet another Deborah walked in.
“What are you all doing here?”, she asked.
“I live here”, Deborah (the youngest) said.
“I haven’t convinced her to leave yet”, Deborah (the next youngest) said.
“I haven’t convinced her that she doesn’t have to leave yet”, Deborah (the oldest) said.
“Well, I’m here to contact the chronopolice and tell them what has happened”.
“Don’t you think that they will execute you, or us?”
“I find it very interesting that my recollection of this moment is very different from this moment. Perhaps we should describe our recollections of this moment.”, Deborah (the eldest) said.
“My recollection of this moment is that there was just one of me here, that she was 66 years old, and the she convinced me to go on this mission to save the world. I went on the mission, spent 32 years in the past, and failed, so I came back to this moment to convince young Deborah here, to go try again.”, Deborah (the second youngest) said.
“My recollection of this moment is that after I convinced young Deborah to go on this mission, we went to Lagrange 2 and spent a couple of weeks there giving her minimal training on how to fly the timeship, then I had her drop me off here and now and she has flown to 2372 for refurbishing, refueling, and training.”, said Deborah (the second eldest)
“My recollection of this moment is that I was recruited by a 66 year old Deborah to go on this mission to the past to save the world. I went to the period of the Judges, became a Judge, married Lapidot, fought the battle, remained in the past for 40 years, and now here I am”, Deborah (the eldest) said.
“I may be a little bit early”, said Deborah (the second eldest). “I located this spot through my best recollection of what time it when I left with young Deborah. I wanted to arrive after they left, and I may have misjudged the moment”
“That means that you and I are on the same timeline, with just the little wrinkle that you got here a little early and I haven’t left yet”, Deborah (the second youngest) said.
“That means that young Deborah and I are on the same timeline, too. Perhaps I am wrong, and young Deborah does have to go into the past to fight the war”, Deborah (the eldest) said.
“Can you tell her what to do so she won’t have to guess so much?”, Deborah (the second youngest) asked.
“I have to think about this a little bit”, Deborah (the eldest) said. “Once you contact the chronopolice, then you have to transmit plans to me for a beam that suppresses the strong force”.
“What’s the strong force?”, Deborah (the youngest) asked.
“Later”, the three older women replied in unison.
“How does that beam work? Where do I get the plans from?”, Deborah (the second oldest) asked.
“I could give them to you - I have them on board my timeship”, Deborah (the oldest) replied.
“Could I transmit them to you now? How do you know that I transmitted the plans after contacting the chronopolice?”, Deborah (the second oldest) asked.
“Because you said ‘You are in grave danger. I am sending you plans for a new weapon, a beam that suppresses the strong force. Build it and deploy it immediately. Unfortunately, I am not allowed to give you any further details’. I remember it distinctly, you said ‘allowed to’. ”, Deborah (the oldest) answered. “‘’allowed to’ by whom? Certainly, if you want to send the plans now, you certainly could. None of us would stop you.”
“Well, you could give the plans to young Deborah here, and she could build the weapon while she is in training at L2”. Deborah (the second oldest) suggested.
“And blow up Unrar when she first met him. That would create another timeline. The next time we meet, there will be 5 of us”
“My apartment isn’t big enough for that”, Deborah (the youngest) pointed out.
“If you uncomfortable, we can retire to one of our timeships. There are either two or three at L2”.
“L2?”, Deborah (the youngest) asked.
“In orbit on the far side of the moon”, Deborah (the eldest) replied.
“I’m surprised we didn’t detect one another”, Deborah (the second youngest) said.
“I detected you. That’s why my first question to young Deborah here was if she had had any other visitors tonight”, Deborah (the eldest) replied.
“You might have tried to contact me”, Deborah (the second eldest) said.
“I did. Adelle told me that you were here, so I figured I come down and talk to you in person”, Deborah (the eldest) said.
“May I have some more mint tea, please?”, Deborah (the second youngest) requested.
“I’m all out. I wasn’t expecting company”, Deborah (the youngest) responded.
The three eldest Deborahs reached for their medallions at the same time, then looked at one another, and giggled.
“What’s so funny?”, Deborah (the youngest) demanded.
“Adelle”, Deborah (the eldest) said.
“yes”
“Please beam down 3 kilos of dried mint tea, in teabags”
“Understood”
“Now, watch this”, Deborah (the second youngest said).
On the floor, there appeared a box.
“Open the box”, Deborah (the eldest) commanded.
So Deborah (the youngest) opened the box and discovered bags and bags of mint tea.
“What the hell?”
“I told you, I was going to send you on an adventure, the likes of which nobody has ever done before. You will routinely use technology that is beyond the understanding of 21st Century physics. Not only that, but you will understand that technology well enough to build and repair devices that use it. Now, go make the tea while we discuss matters”, Deborah (the second youngest) said.
Deborah (the youngest) got up, and went into the kitchen to put another pot of water on the stove. Fortunately, she owned 4 mugs and 4 spoons. She listened to the elder women talking amongst themselves.
“We have to think about this very carefully. You were thinking about going to the Chronopolice because of a single word in a message you received. But there are other possible meanings of the message”
“Yes, if we agreed that, to minimize the disruption to the timelines, I was to send a minimalist message to you, then that would not create a new timeline.”
“If we want to minimize the disruption to the timelines, then perhaps we should stick with the original plan of you taking young Deborah with you to L2 and then have her drop you off here and now when she is ready. That will fuze your timeline and your timeline, and leave us with just two timelines to merge.”
Deborah (the youngest) came back into the room with four mugs of tea. “Do I get any input to this decision?”
“Actually, it’s your decision to make. We can’t force you to do anything against your will. We can try to convince you to take a course of action. We can provide you with information. But once you embark on your path, there can be no going back”, Deborah (the eldest) said.
“The problem is that we have yet to come up with a recommendation for you and us to follow”, Deborah (the second eldest) said.
“In fact, we haven’t come up with a plan for us to follow”, Deborah (the second youngest) said.
“Well, it’s late, and I have a headache. Could we reconvene tomorrow morning? Say, 9 AM?”, Deborah (the youngest) pleaded.
“That’s about 10 hours from now. Are you going to run in the morning?”, Deborah (the eldest) asked.
“I was planning on it”, Deborah (the youngest) replied.
“May I join you?”, Deborah (the oldest) asked.
“Us, too”, Deborah (the second oldest and the second youngest) asked at the same time.
“Sure”
“8 AM”?
“Sure”
“How many timeships are at L2?”
“Just two”, Deborah (the eldest) stated.
“Okay, then I need a place to sleep tonight”, Deborah (the second eldest) said.
“Let us retire to my timeship, and we can continue this discussion”, Deborah (the eldest) suggested.
“Sounds good to me. Let’s take the mugs and spoons, so that young Deborah doesn’t have to do any dishes”, Deborah (the second youngest) said.
The three elder Deborahs picked up their mugs and spoons. Deborah the eldest pulled out her medallion.
“Wait!”, Deborah (the second youngest) commanded. “I have something for young Deborah.”. She pulled out a Medallion out of her pocket, laid it on the desk. “This is a communications device. Once we are gone, then put it around your neck. If you need to get in touch with us, the push the red button. If we need to get in touch with you, then the medallion will vibrate. If you don’t push the red button within 1 minute, the medallion will beep at you. Do you have any questions?”
“No”.
“Alright. Now we can beam up”
“Adelle”, Deborah (the eldest) said.
“yes”
“How many people with medallions are you detecting?”
“Three”
“Okay, beam all three of them”
And they were gone.
Deborah just stared at where the women had been standing. Then she put on the medallion, brushed her teeth, flossed, and went to bed.
The alarm clock sounded at 7:30. Deborah woke up, turned off the alarm clock, and sat and looked around the apartment. She climbed out of her bunk, and look around carefully. There was nobody there except her. Did last night’s meeting really happen, or was it a just bad dream? She went to the bathroom. She wandered into the kitchen to make herself some breakfast. That’s odd - there are no mugs and no spoons. How am I supposed to eat breakfast without a spoon? She didn’t own a toaster, so she put a couple of slices of bread in the oven and turned it on. Wait a second. One of the things that one of the women said last night was “Let’s take the mugs and spoons so that young Deborah doesn’t have to do any dishes”. They took my mugs and spoons so I wouldn’t have to wash them. It was real! They’re going to be here at 9 AM to confer with me!
The bread looked sufficiently golden brown, so she turned off the oven and pulled out the slices. A little peach jelly, and breakfast with no spoons.
She dressed in blue running shorts, short socks, running shoes (an off brand), a University of Washington T-shirt, and a University of Washington sweat shirt. She did her pre-run stretching exercises. She strapped on her MP3 player, inserted earbuds, and opened the door. There was one of the elder Deborahs, standing there with a grin, running shorts, running shoes, tube socks, and a sweat shirt that read “Europa”.
“What are you doing here?”, young Deborah asked her.
“I thought I would join you for your run”
“How old are you?”
“I’m 88, but I think I can keep up with you”
“Well, you’re welcome to try. I’m planning on running 20 minutes out and 20 minutes back”
“Fine, I’ll just follow you”
Deborah (the youngest) set off, and Deborah (the eldest) set off after her. They ran through the streets of the University District single file, and didn’t say a word. Then, they got to the University of Washington campus proper, and the elder Deborah ran alongside the younger Deborah, and pulled out her ear buds.
“Hey”!
“I want to talk to you”
“The other women aren’t with us”
“I know. I have been doing some thinking. I think there are just two timelines here. I think that you are I are on one timeline and the other two Deborahs are on a different timeline”.
“Does that mean that they are not me, or not us?”
“No, they’re us alright, but something happened in the past that caused the timelines to fork.”
“I know what that was - one of the Deborahs said that she had created a list of places she went, and was unsuccessful”
“That’s right, and I used that list to avoid going to places and times which she had already checked out.”
“So, if I understand how all this time travel stuff works, you want to make as few forks as possible”
“Correct”
“So you should send me back in time with just the same information you had, so I can do the same things and make the same mistakes that you made”
“Correct”
“And the future of the world is at stake”
“Correct”
“What happens to the other two Deborahs?”
“One of them goes with you to L2 to start your training, which takes a couple of weeks. Then you bring her back to last night, and then you disappear to the year 2372, and then I take care of her, because she has no timeship.”
“When we get together the other two Deborahs, you should discuss this with them, and see if they agree with you”
“Fair enough”
The two Deborahs ran back to the apartment. They took turns showering and changing into regular clothes. In the case of the elder Deborah, that was a blue jumpsuit. In the case of the young Deborah, that was blue jeans and a T-shirt. The other two Deborahs arrived promptly at 9 am. One of them had 4 mugs and 4 spoons in a bag, while the other had a large tea pot.
“I suggest you put some water on the stove, I think this will be a long conference”, Deborah (the second youngest - or was she the second eldest? - Deborah the youngest couldn’t be sure).
“Actually, I was thinking about that, and I decided that we ought to meet in the conference room of the timeship, which is less crowded than this apartment and more comfortable.”, Deborah (the eldest) said.
The other women agreed. Deborah (the eldest) pressed the button on her Medallion.
“Adelle”
“yes”
“Four to beam up”
Deborah (the youngest) was astonished. She felt funny, and then she realized that she was in a low gravity environment. She jumped and hit her head on the ceiling.
“The low gravity takes some getting used to. In the meantime, avoid sudden movements. Follow us, please”.
The three Deborahs walked out the door and into the corridor.
“How long is the corridor?”, Deborah (the youngest) asked.
“A little more than a kilometer. Here we are”
The four women walked into a thoroughly conventional conference room. There were a dozen comfortable green chairs situated around a long table made of (what looked like) real wood. The chairs had seat belts. The walls were also wood. At the ends of the tables, the walls were a milky white color. Elsewhere, there walls were wood. There was a water dispenser that had three options: hot, ambient, or chilled.
“I assume we all want mint tea?”, one of the elder Deborahs asked. Everybody nodded in agreement. So cups were brought out, hot water was poured, and teabags were plunged.
Deborah (the eldest) got up to speak.
“I think I know most of the sequence of events. We are on two timelines. Young Deborah is on a common timeline, before the split. She goes back in time, and that is where the split occurs. She breaks up a fight, and becomes a judge first, and then gets married and fights Sisera. She lives in the past for a total of 61 years. That’s me. However, she also goes back in time, and spends her time looking for Lapidot, never becomes a judge, and never fights Sisera. She returns to 2013 with valuable data. That’s the two of you.”, indicating the two middle Deborahs. “Now, the question that faces us is what to do. I think to preserve the timeline, one of you has to take young Deborah to Lagrange 2 and train her to fly the timeship to its appointment in 2372. Then, Deborah drops her off here to become the other of you, and then she goes to the future and begins her adventure. That leaves the question of what to do with you.”
What to do with you?