Urth Net
FLF: The 3 Whittens of 1983 (again)
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Roy wrote:
The crew does know when they are; they say so, and this is after they have de-coupled from HC and are gliding down to earth.
One of them (Bob, the Army pilot?) asks where they are in time. The other one (the Naval pilot) says they are in the 1980s, "Pretty far up." Presumably this is from their briefing in 1942, or possibly they have figured it out from various clues at the airport and from the passengers. Strong suggestion that they have not been idling for months at the airport in the 1980s.
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The hypothetical projected
field of the gizmo must not have been turned on.
I can't see how we could tell either way. If it is on and they have just flown through it, it would be as undetectable to them as walking through a doorway is to a person on the ground. Passing through it would not erase their memory, I don't think, nor would it give them a new date stamp in their minds so they would know what year they were in.
They talk about ferrying diplomats, politicians, and millionaires. Because of the initial 1942-1952 project, their shuttle work was presumably almost entirely in this ten year period. That is, from 1942 to years 1943-1952. But they also took Whitten & Co. to 1982.
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And who gave the orders?
It would have to be the Whitten the four interview in HC.
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Ignoring that, given that HC is abandoned, how
would the three have contacted the shuttle crew of whatever year they went to?
They don't have to contact anyone: Whitten knows where in time the door leads. Whitten calls their taxi B-17 for them so that it takes off in 1942 and arrives just in time.
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They had to go to the past (HC couldn't keep aloft much longer; it was aging badly), in order for them to merge with their earlier selves. They couldn't go too far back; the women were only in their twenties.
I agree.
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But the bigger problem is Whitten's second disappearance. According to Wolfe's timeline, Whitten vanished on Friday, January 14, 1983, when Free made his last return to his house. Free was murdered on the following Friday, the 21st, and Whitten reappeared after a week's absence. Kip reported to Whitten after killing Free. Both she and Whitten were present at the airfield later that night, after each of the boarders had undergone their 'trials'. The four talked to Whitten; he was there when they went aboard the B-17. The shuttle reached HC about midnight. In the early-morning hours of Saturday, the 22nd of January, 1983, they spoke to 60-70-year-old Free in the cockpit of HC. He was already there, waiting for them. That's the problem--how did he get there?
Since there can't be two versions of the same person at the same time, for Free to have been present on HC on the 22nd, Whitten had to have vanished a second time after the B-17 took off. The timeline states that he did vanish, but doesn't explain how Free came to be aboard HC when the B-17 got there. How could Free be both on HC and on the ground as Whitten? The obvious answer is that Free reached HC from another time, another shuttle flight, and arrived on HC only after the B-17 left the airfield with the four boarders. He couldn't have been on HC while the four talked to Whitten on the ground. And I don't think he got there after the four arrived; not enough time had passed since the four arrived for the shuttle to land and return to HC with another passenger. Besides, if Whitten had vanished again so soon, there would have been pandemonium on the ground. The trouble with the obvious answer is Free's age.
When Whitten deserted on the 24th, he was necessarily less than 60 years old. He was always clean-shaven. Free, according to Dr. Makee, sometimes was clean-shaven, sometimes had a beard. After he deserted the OSS, Whitten no longer had free access to the gizmo on HC, or the cooperation of the organization. After spending so many years on the frontier, he had aged too much to ever go back to the OSS and resume his role as the general. That's part of what he meant about it being too late for him to use his "ticket" back to the HC. So, how did a bearded, 60-70-year-old Free ever get aboard a shuttle in another time to get up to the HC to meet the four boarders?
On December 3, I wrote a tentative section of timeline:
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1983 -- Whitten (age 53?) deserts, becomes Ben Free. [Jan 24]
1807-1818 -- Ben Free lives in the frontier (ageing 7 years in 11 years?), with vacations in 1979-1982.
1983 -- Ben Free/Whitten interviewed in High Country by the four?
1803 -- Ben Free "aged 60 but looks younger" joins the Lewis & Clark expedition (1804-1806).
1806 -- At the end of the expedition (all in realtime, so age = age+3), Free travels to 1819.
1819 -- Free gathers up his treasures and leaves for 1983.
1983 -- Free arrives/Whitten disappears (another alloying for Free?) [Jan 14]
I have also described two time-travel circuits: the one on the ground for 1803-1983 (using the portable gizmo, sometimes in the house) and the one in the air for 1942-1983.
Let's say that biological-age 60 Whitten wants to go to the interview. He strolls from 1818 to any year he choses to set on the portable gizmo: why not December 1942 (implosion-free zone)? He enters the world of 1942 at the same location he had in 1818 and then makes his way to the (an) airport. Phones in the command to shuttle an old guy up to HC. Gets on the B-17, rides up to HC. At HC he sets the gizmo for 1983. Walks through and enters HC in 1983.
I'm not sure where the text supports your claim that:
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After he deserted the OSS, Whitten no
longer had free access to the gizmo on HC, or the cooperation of the organization.
It is tricky to block a guy for deserting when he has gone back through time. If Kip and Robin are in on it, they wouldn't pass any information to deny Whitten access. (I don't think we have any clue as to where in time Kip and Robin and the other members of the team end up.)
Whitten age 53 knew that some unauthorized time-tripping was going on and feared mischief or sabotage within the organization: the principal suspect became the mysterious Ben Free. Whitten then learned he would/will become Ben Free, with the further implication that he would be doing all the shady time-tripping.
=mantis=