The Time Machine, a Velma Adventure

Part One

We find the gang driving down a desert mountain road in the west. The windows of the Mystery Machine are rolled up tight and the air conditioning is on high due to the one hundred degrees plus heat. "I'm thirsty", Shaggy says. "Re Roo!", Scooby adds. Velma turns around to look at the two of them in the back seat. "We'll be there in less than twenty minutes! I'm sure you'll survive!" Freddy gazes around as he drives down the road. "This area probably hasn't changed in over three hundred years!" Daphne chuckles, "Yea, except for those little housing developments with their green lawns we see every few miles!" Velma nods. "Makes you kind of wonder, people move out here because they love the rugged land, and then build houses that are anything but! I wonder what it was like to live out here a hundred years ago.." Daphne gets a romantic look in her eyes and sighs, "It must have been so wonderful! A big strong cowboy as your husband! No noise... No pollution.." Shaggy laughs "No nail polish, no outlet to plug your hair dryer in!" "He heee hee hee he", Scooby laughs, "Ro Rast Food!" Shaggy gets a sad look in his eyes. "No fast food? Boy, I'm glad we weren't around back then!" Freddy breaks up the banter. "So what kind of research does you uncle Henry do, Velma? And why does he need your help?" Velma turns to face Freddy. "Well, it's kind of complicated. He works for the government, but it's his own lab. I worked with him a bit when I was working for NASA. They classified his work as Alternative Physics, but to tell you the truth, his theories were way out there!" Freddy looked puzzled. "So, why does he want your help?" Velma shook her head. "I don't know. All I know is that he invited us all out here for vacation, and after the lousy winter we had, hot sun sounded fun. He's got a real nice spread out at the lab. Big pool..... And Shaggy, he loves to cook!" Shaggy and Scooby look at each other. "Yummmm!" Velma continues. "I used to listen to his theories and he would bounce ideas off of me. I know his coworkers thought he was a little wacky, and I guess he knew I would not laugh."

At the base of the hill there is a gatehouse. The guard comes out and inspects the van. He finishes up and waves the van through. Freddy drives up the steep, twisting road that leads to the top of the hill. "Alternative physics... What exactly does that mean? Why did you say his ideas were wacky?" Velma glances over at the temperature gauge as it climbs due to the strain on the van. "Well, his work was with sub-atomic particles. Specifically, those that travel faster than the speed of light." Daphne looks puzzled. "I thought nothing traveled faster than the speed of light?" Shaggy gives a nervous laugh, "Yea, light's suppose to be the fastest, right?" Velma turns toward Shaggy. "Well, it has long been the belief that nothing went faster, but there are some new theories about particles that travel many times the speed of light, and actually cease to exist when they slow down to the speed of light. That's where his work comes in." Shaggy looks excited that he actually said something right about such an advanced subject. "So, they have him working on something like a super fast rocket engine like on Star Trek?" Velma shakes her head no. "Actually, his work is more in the temporal field." Shaggy looks lost. Once again she was saying words he didn't know.

As the van crested the top of the hill, a large white building loomed in front of them. There was a courtyard in front of it. In the courtyard was a large swimming pool and next to the pool was a man cooking at a grill. As the van door opened, they could smell the extent of the barbecue. Shaggy and Scooby had a contest to see who's tongue could hang out the farthest. The man looked like a cowboy, Dressed in rawhide, and wore a holster that was covered with barbecuing tools. "Howdy Velma!", he shouted out. Velma ran over and gave him a hug. Freddy turned to Daphne. "Not the image I had in mind for old uncle Henry, is it?" Daphne glanced back and said, "You got that right! I was expecting someone in a lab coat!" Soon the gang found themselves at a large picnic table, covered in what looked like an endless supply of food. Scooby and Shaggy were chowing down as fast as some of those sub-atomic particles! As Velma helped herself to a large cheeseburger, she turned to he uncle. "So, what made-ya call us out here?" Again, Freddy and Daphne look at each other. Daphne says it first. "Is Velma talking with a western accent?" Freddy shook his head in disbelief. "I reckon she is!"

With the whole gang bloated with food, all gather around the pool. Shaggy and Scooby are too full to talk. Freddy and Daphne are to amazed to talk, but Uncle Henry and Velma are talking up a storm! "So, remember those equations you were working on with regard to temporal disturbance verses tacion speed and rotation?" Velma nodded her head. "But containing the field effect was the problem. That and the fact that there was no way to get a tacion field to rotate and predict it's speed above the seed of light made the whole topic just a dream." Uncle Henry smiled. "But I did it!"

The cool evening air was starting to knock down the heat of the day. Daphne was reclining next to the pool. Freddy was on the chair next to her. Both tried listening to Velma's conversation, but had long since lost touch with the conversation that had been growing more and more technical as time dragged on. Scooby and Shaggy were asleep on the grass. Freddy turned to look at Daphne. "This really may turn out to be a nice vacation. This place has an unbelievable view of the valley, and it looks like the morning and evening aren't hot like the day." Daphne nodded her head. "Unless those two talk each other to death and we have to run them to the hospital!" Freddy laughed. He moved the chair towards her a bit, and motioned for her to look in the one direction. "Over there. Look at all those lights from the nearby town." Daphne looked. She squinted here eyes. Freddy looked at her. "What's the matter?" She continued to squint. "Nothing. I was just imagining what the town must have looked like one hundred years ago."

As the sun went down, the hot day was replaced by a night that was downright cold! Everyone moved inside. Velma and Uncle Henry were still talking at an unbelievable rate. As they collected in the massive living room, Shaggy interrupted them. "So, like, tell us what you guys are talking about, in, like English?" Velma looked over at him. "Hummm... Well.. There's been a theory around for years that if you can get something to move faster than the speed of light, you could create a temporal displacement." Shaggy shook his head. "Woo Wooo.. English! You lost me at that temporal thing!" Daphne and Freddy were looking at her as well, waiting for the translation. Velma rubbed her chin for a few seconds, then spoke. "My uncle may have built a time machine..." Freddy laughed. "You mean like H.G. Wells?" Velma shook her head. "No... well... Maybe...... He built a prototype, but it disappeared." Shaggy looked puzzled. "Where did it go?" Uncle Henry started to talk, but Velma cut him off. "Shaggy, the question should be when did it go, not where." Shaggy scratched his head. "Huhh?" Velma continued. "If this theory my uncle has, works, then so does his time machine. The one he built would now be somewhere in the past or the future. Thus when, not where." Freddy and Daphne now look very interested. "So, is he going to build another?", Freddy asks. Velma chuckles. "He already has!" Daphne looks shocked. "Can we see it?" Velma looks over to her uncle. He nods, and all get up and follow him.

They walk through a long hallway that is lined with glass cases. "I collect antiquities. This area is rich in history, and next to science, history is my favorite subject. Much of this stuff is from the old western city that was here before the modern town that is in the valley now." He leads them to an elevator and the whole gang climbs aboard. The elevator descends into the mountaintop. "Why the underground lab?", Freddy asks. "He needed a cave", Velma answers, "a place that hasn't changed in thousands of years and is not likely to change in the future." "Why", Shaggy asks. This time uncle Henry answers. "It can move through time, but it's location remains the same. If there used to be a tree there, or a wall, it would get destroyed as it passed through that time. Kind of like driving blind. A cave is a lot safer."

The elevator stopped. As the gang got out, it became apparent they were in a cave that had been turned into a high tech laboratory. There were lights in the cave, but Daphne could see there was an entrance about one hundred feet away. It looked like the entrance was quite a ways up. She could see the town she had seen earlier in the day, off in the distance. "It's the face of a cliff. Would be very hard to get in and out that way!", Henry said. The rest of the gang were looking in the other direction. Daphne turned to see what they were staring at. "Oh my!", she said.

It was about the size of the Mystery Machine, but shiny gold instead. "Is that thing made out of real gold?", Daphne asked. "Yep", said Henry, "Only thing that will contain the effect. Otherwise, you could create a temporal vortex." Daphne shook her head. "And that is?", she asked. "Bad!", replied Henry. All six of them climbed in and Henry started explaining the controls and equipment to Velma. "What's that?", asked Shaggy as he pointed to what looked like a gear shift. "That's the rotation direction and amplitude actuator", said Henry. Shaggy looked dumbfounded. Velma looked over. "Makes it go forward and backward through time!" Shaggy laughed, "Thanks Velma! Hey, I guess it really is a gear shift, so to speak!" Freddy was looking at it as well. "How come there are no markings on it?" Henry looked over at him. "Er, that's a bit of a problem. Nothing in this world we can calibrate it to!"

Henry gets out and heads over to one of the computers to look something up. Velma is busy checking out the controls and reading the indicators. "Wow.. This thing really takes a lot of power..." Freddy is looking at the sliding door they stepped through. He slides it on it's track and it shuts. "Kind of like on the van", he says. All the controls in front of Velma light up. "Hey Freddy, open the door. When it's closed, this thing powers up!" Freddy is pulling hard on the handle. "It's stuck!", he says. "Zoinks!" shrieks Shaggy. He climbs past Daphne and she falls.... Right on the shift lever! There is a high pitched whine, then a bright flash!

With a slightly sick feeling in all their stomachs, each one looks at the other one. Velma looks down at the controls. "It has a lot less energy now....", she says, with her voice trailing off. Freddy tries the handle again, and the door opens. All breath a sigh of relief. Freddy speaks first. "Lets get to bed! We can learn more about this in the morning." He steps out of the machine followed by Daphne, Shaggy, Scooby, and Velma. Something is wrong. The cave is darker. All of the equipment is gone. Daphne walks toward the cave entrance and stops. The full moon illuminates the town below, but it is not the town she remembered being there earlier. Gone are the rows of houses and streetlights. They have been replaced by several dozen crude wooden structures lit only by the occasional bomb fire.

To be continued!

Onward to Part Two!!