Nexus Point

Afterword – History Is Bunk

One of the most challenging things about time travel stories is the fact that they are all about change—about cause and effect, and the outcomes that derive from alterations in the flow of that causality. History, as we know it, is the slow, sedate flow of those events, as written down or dug up by a handful of writers, scholars and archeologists. But history, said Henry Ford, is bunk—it is really only a point of view, and a very limited one at that.

Take the history of the world as seen through the eyes of any given culture, and it will read quite differently. Each culture has its own moral and social systems, its own religious beliefs and creed, and a set of imperatives that drive it forward into the future. Inevitably, these cultures come into contact with one another, and conflict ensues. For us in the West, our history has been, in fact, a succession of these encounters and conflicts, leading at last, (as we like to think) to the supremacy of the modern Western cultures that make up our “First World.”

Yet we should not jump to too many conclusions about the surety of Western values and their eventual domination of the earth. The great cultures and peoples of the world have been grinding against one another for millennia, and the whole of U.S. history, for example, would not even span the length of the T’ang Dynasty, one of ten or more ruling dynasties that rose to supremacy in China over the centuries. While the West holds out its values as “inalienable rights” granted by God to a sea of equal men, it can be said that this claim bears as much weight, in history’s eyes, as that of the Pharos of Egypt, who thought themselves divine.

To be certain, there is gold in the ideas that have come from the West: democracy, freedom of expression, rights of privacy, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. They have been echoed in documents and ideas since the time of the Greeks, through the Magna Carta and shouted on the voices of the French and American revolutions. (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity!)

I finished the first draft of Nexus Point over the 2003 July 4^th weekend here in the United States, listening to the pop and sizzle of fireworks exploding in the night sky. I smiled to think that they were a symbol of rockets and bombs exploding during moments of great crisis in our own brief history, with the hope that our flag, symbol of our union and freedom, would still be there when the show ended.

As I write this our nation has seen two quick wars in recent years, ostensibly fought to deliver those freedoms to an oppressed people—though I have my doubts about that. The invasion of Afghanistan and then Iraq can be seen as just the latest chapters in an age old conflict between the “West” and the Muslim world.

It could be that we are seeing the values we hold dearest slowly eroding with the weight of corruptions like commercialism, profit motive, loss of privacy, and the erosion of our civil liberties at home, with a foreign policy that borders on imperialism and forced hegemony abroad—quite the opposite of what our founding fathers intended. History will tell, at least in this Meridian.

Parallels between the time of the Crusades and our era come to mind easily. Meridian, written just after the 9-11 attack, begins with a devastating plot by radical Islamic terrorists, which is eventually foiled, ironically enough, at a moment in the time of the Arab uprising of 1917—the first modern expression of their desire for freedom from Western Colonization by the British and Turks. In Nexus Point, the cult of Assassins Paul stumbles on at Castle Massiaf is based on a real group that infested the highlands of Syria, holding out in fortresses and secret redoubts. They were led by a mysterious figure called the “Old Man of the Mountain” – Sinan.

The characters in the story draw the obvious parallels to modern figures like Osama bin Ladin. Even the English word “Assassin” comes from this group, and one derivative touches on the Arab word for “foundation.” This immediately brought Al Qaeda (the base or the foundation) to mind. In this book the machinations of Sinan and his lieutenants are all documented in the history. Sinan did indeed have a kind of clairvoyance, answering unopened letters in a Johnny Carson Karnak like fashion, and seeming to know the course of events as if he was privy to secret information about the future. Was he?

As for the Sami’s devious little plots, the scene where he inducts initiates and then later uses the trick of the severed head to convince them to do his bidding is all documented in the Ismaili research from this time. (Note: today the Ismailis have nothing whatsoever to do with their forefathers, and the Aga Khan Foundation is renowned for its philanthropic contributions to education and other social causes in the world—just as certain Christian groups like the Templars evolved into contemporary church affiliated social and fraternal organizations.)

Yet, the notion that future time warriors are venturing back into history to set up operations at crucial nodes on the Meridian is a fascinating one. One of the key elements required to prosecute such a war would be a safe and certain record of the history. Otherwise, how would you know if your changes were successful? In Nexus Point, the computer chops and insight of Kelly Ramer create a kind of living memory bank that is always on to store the existing record of history. Then, as soon as his screensaver Golems detect any variation as they troll the amazing body of knowledge on the Internet, they activate the Arch to protect the data in a Nexus Point and alert the research team.

As clever as it is, the system is fraught with potential vulnerabilities. Keeping the RAM bank alive and running is a chore of its own—especially in the earthquake prone Berkeley Hills region. While it is said many times in the book that nothing is written, and history is not chiseled in stone… in one sense a low tech solution to the RAM bank presents itself. The scroll Nordhausen finds in Rasil’s pack is a clue that leads directly to the next book in the series entitled Touchstone.

It will begin with another of the Professor’s secret little capers, a trip to old London about the time of the Sherlock Holmes milieu to follow his hunch about Rasil’s scroll and check on some old Egyptian carvings. When he visits the British Museum to see the now famous “Rosetta Stone,” he discovers that the stone has been chipped and damaged! The portion of the vast black basalt that once held the Egyptian hieroglyphics is gone! As a consequence, no one ever made the connection this touchstone is famous for, and the Egyptian hieroglyphs remain a mystery… except to Nordhausen. He returns to the present at Berkeley Labs and discovers that he, and he alone, can read and understand the cryptic Egyptian hieroglyphics.

Beset with remorse, Nordhausen confesses his caper to Paul. He is afraid that he’s done something to change the Time Meridian, but cannot imagine what. When someone tampers with the memorial site protecting Kelly’s place in this Meridian, however, Paul becomes suspicious. Remembering the phone call Nordhausen makes to Kelly on Rasil’ s phone, he believes that their adversaries are trying to foil the work of the project team by striking at their one weak link—Kelly. Yet Time is a steadfast ally. Kelly is in a strange coma, but sustained by some means in the current Meridian, protected in something Nordhausen calls a Schroedinger’s Box. In the words of Nordhausen’s favorite literary sleuth Sherlock Holmes, “something is afoot!” Now the professor, Paul and the other team members must labor to discover who has tampered with the time line, and why.

Lots of fun ahead for Meridian fans!

Please visit www.dharma6.com or www.writingshop.ws for information on the sequels to this novel, and other work by the author.