The Hacker's Encyclopedia 1998/hackers_encyclopedia.iso/pc/softdox/martians.txt

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-- Time Travel (Use of the Orb of the Moons --
-- by Dr. Johann Spector (and the Fox) --

= Forward =
= December, 1895 =

     The story of my trip to Mars began many years in the
Future - nearly 100 years from now. At the time, i was (will be?)
deeply involved in writing an account of my exploits in Eodon,
the alternate dimension dubbed "The Savage Empire" by that young
reporter, Jimmy Malone. As i struggled to convey the might and
the majesty of the place and its denizens, I received a telegram
from the adventurer who calls himself the Avatar.
"Come Quickly," it said.
     Arriving at his home, I was surprised to learn that he had
not. in fact, contacted me at all. Here was a mystery! As we
discussed the origin of the mysterious telegram, an odd-looking
woman rapped on the door and delivered a package. When we turned
to examine the contents, the woman slipped away; her last words a
warning that we held the fate of her people in our hands. The
mystery deepened!
     The contents of the package did little to enlighten us.
Inside we found a map showing the location of a laboratory in the
mountains of Colorado, an old photograph, a letter signed "Nikola
Telsa" and a book, ostensibly written by me entitled "Time
Travel: Use of  the Orb of the Moons." The book was, needless to
say, the very work i find myself writing now. The photograph was
of myself, the Avatar, Nikola Tesla, Sigmund Freud, and several
other historical figures!
     Though neither the Avatar nor I had any recollection of
having travelled through time , we agreed that we would be

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remise if we didn't investigate. After all, it isn't every day
one receives a package from someone long dead! With the
mysterious map to guide our way, we soon found ourselves in a
long abandoned lab - the map was genuine! Thus encouraged, we
placed the Orb of the Moons eight feet in front of us at a
heading of 37 degrees, and a timegate appeared. The orb (acquired
in an earlier venture to the fabled realm of Britannia) was a
capable of taking us to the distant past as to fantastic, other-
dimensional worlds!
     Upon stepping through the gate, we found ourselves in 1895,
where we were greeted by none other than Nikola Tesla. History
books make no mention of the events Telsa went on to describe. He
informed us that the astronomer Percival Lowell had discovered an
explosive substance called Phlogistonite capable of propelling a
train-sized bullet through space. The power of

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this substance was, in his own words, beyond description.
Unfortunately, its nature has been lost to the ages. In any
event, Lowell had no trouble finding a backer for the
construction of a space cannon - William Randolph Hearst, noted
newspaper publisher, supplied the funds in exchange for exclusive
rights to the story.
     Discretion dictates that I not reveal the details of
Lowell's voyage or the course of events after we would-be
rescuers arrived on the Red Planet - one must, after all, reserve
some things for lucrative autobiographies! (Even scientist-
adventurers must pay the rent.) Suffice to say that the Avatar
and I returned safely to Earth. In a very short while, we will
return to our own time, but not before I turn this book over to
Dr. Tesla, so he may ensure that it is delivered into our hands a
hundred years from now.
     NOTE: I must be sure to implore Tesla not to read this
journal. Though the details of our journey through time will be
revealed in another forum at another time, I feel the need to
record my thoughts about the historical figures with whom I
shared this, the grandest of my adventures to date. I intend to
record here not only biographical information through the years
1895, but also the events of the years that followed. Were this
information to be revealed to the natives of the 19th century,
all of history could be changed forever.
     Needless to say, our goal in this era our own past was not
to alter history, but to preserve it - to ensure that everything
that had already come to pass in our reality would, in fact,
happen. I hesitate even to consider the consequences of a
temporal anomaly, however slight.

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= Companions in Adventure =

Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of our adventure was the
company we kept. for among our fellow space travellers were
several notable historical figures. I will endeavour to describe
them both as they are remembered by historians (at least insofar
as I remember my history!) and as I came to know them in the
flesh.
     It is difficult to express the thrill of meeting some of
history's most famous men and women face tot face! Freud,
Roosevelt, Edison - these legendary figures are more than just
names in history books. They are real, flesh and blood people,
people whom the Avatar and I, alone among modern men, have had
the opportunity to know.

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= Rescue Mission =

Nellie Bly
(1867-1922)

               This investigative reporter for Joseph Pulitzer's New York
World has always fascinated me. Here was a liberated, modern,
career woman in an era when such were few and far between. At a
time when women hardly considered careers in journalism, Nellie
Bly checked herself in a New York insane asylum to report on
patient abuse, went to prison to write about the treatment of
inmates, and investigated crooked employment agencies that preyed
upon young women. But her greatest claim to fame came in 1889
when she embarked on a round-the-world trip to beat the 80 day
"record" set in Jules Verne's novel, Around the World in Eighty
Days. (She made the trip in 72 days, six hours, eleven minutes,
and zero seconds.) Miss Bly journeyed to Mars to chronicle the
rescue expedition's adventures for her employer (who, by the way
funded the rescue expedition in an attempt to upstage his
archival, William Randolph Hearst). I am happy to report that
Neille was everything I'd hoped she would be - resourceful,
brave, strong-willed, capable...all in all, a most remarkable
person.

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Dr. C.L. Blood
(Unknown)

     Dr. Blood was something of a mystery to me. Though Tesla,
Freud and other would be rescuers seems well-familiar with him
and his accomplishments, I had never heard of him before our
arrival in 1895. Apparently, Dr. Blood was reviled by the medical
establishment of the 1870s for espousing the curative powers of
his: "Oxygenized Air" The general public cared little about the
disdain of Blood's peers - thousands claimed to have recovered
from illness and infirmity after undergoing oxygenized air
treatment. Despite his somewhat checkered past and lack of esteem
among the leading lights of the medical community, Blood proved
to a conversed and able doctor, well able to handle the rescue
expedition's medical needs.

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Sigmund Freud
(1856-1939)

Until I learned about the mysterious Martian artifacts dubbed
"dream machines" by the members of the 1893 expedition, I
wondered what role Dr. Freud would play among the rescuers. The
father of modern psychoanalysis, Freud dream analysis, free
association, and sexual basis of neuroses revolutionized a field
that had depended upon hypnosis and electroshock therapy in the
treatment of patients. It was shortly after the first reports
reached Earth concerning the dream machines that communication
from Mars stopped. Freud's expertise allowed him to explain the
strange visions produced in those who used these Martian
artifacts.

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Nikola Tesla
(1856-1943)

     An unsung genius and unparalleled eccentric, Tesla was on of
the late 19th and early 20th centuries most innovating electrical
engineers and invertor. His greatest achievement was the
invention of the AC induction motor, which led to the virtual
replacement of the DC current in everyday life. Despite being
responsible for this major technological advance, Telsa is
usually remembered more for his failed efforts to broadcast
electrical power through the air, like radio waves. His
technological expertise made the rescue expedition possible and
proved invaluable in the understanding and repairing numerous
Martian machines. And of it was his time spanning message that
brought us to this place and time.

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= The 1893 Expedition =

     The members of the stranded expedition were no less
fascinating than their would-be rescuers. Those aboard Lowells'
craft when it blasted off from the World' Columbian Exposition
represents a veritable Who's Who of the Victorian era.
     The year was 1893 and all the world had turned its attention
to Chicago, the site of the Exposition. There, ornate edifices
housed displays of mankinds greatest achievements. A Ferris wheel
264 feet in diameter and capable of carrying over 2,000 people at
a time towered over the fair. The worlds nations sent emissaries
to show off the lifestyles and accomplishments of their people.
     Perhaps the most remarkable attraction stood near the
Manufacturers and Liberal Arts Building. There, spectators
marvelled at Percival Lowell's Space Cannon, designed to take
mankind to Mars. A crew was gathered, a launch date set. A day
before the scheduled launch, Lowell gave a tour of his cannon to
a select group of fair attendees and workers. Suddenly the cannon
discharged. Some at the scene claimed the explosion had destroyed
the bullet within, killing all aboard. Some thought the whole
event was a colossal hoax. In fact, the bullet rocketed towards
Mars with many of the Victorian era's leading lights aboard.
     I can't imagine the world without the crucial contributions
these people made to the advancement of science, the arts and
government. You will, no doubt, understand what i mean when you
read the list of the missing.

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Sarah Bernhardt
(1844-1923)
This French actress was the most renowned performer of her day.
Her international tours sold out on every continent of the
globe.Her appearances in Queen Elizabeth (1912), one of the
earliest feature-length motion pictures, lent credibility to the
fledgling art form. Her theatre background proved surprisingly
useful in our adventure on Mars.

William F."Buffalo Bill" Cody
(1846-1917)

Western scout and hunter. Folk legends have it that he single-
handedly killed more than 4000 buffalo - an heroic feat at the
time. With the taming of the West, he turned to show business,
leading a troupe of cowboys and Indians in a series of
phenomenally successful Wild West shows. He took up with fellow
westerner Calamity Jane on Mars

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Calamity Jane
(1852-1903)

A frontier woman who eschewed dresses and petticoats for "manly"
clothes. Calamity Jane, born Martha Jane Burke, served as an army
scout, a pony express rider, and as aide to George Armstrong
Custer. Calamity is reputed to have been a prostitute and Wild
Bill Hickok's mistress, but she refused to discuss this with me.
On Mars, she quickly tired of the Martian cites and took to
wandering the plains with Buffalo Bill. Together, they supplied
Oxium and other survival items to the city dwellers and planetary
explorers.

Andrew Carnegie
(1835-1919)

Railroad tycoon and steel magnate who felt that the duty of the
rich was to distribute surplus wealth to those who needed it.
Toward the end, he set up many charitable and educational
institutions and foundations. I was quite surprised at Carnegie's
first-hand knowledge of steel and manufacturing. Carnegie was
charged with constructing a space cannon on Mars, make it return
flight possible. If only more modern executives were as familiar
with the nuts and bolts operations of their companies.

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George Washington Carver
(c1860-1943)

Born to slave parents, Carver fought the odds and turned a
lifelong affinity for plants into a career. In 1896, he became
head of agricultural research for the Normal and Industrial
Institute for Negroes at Tuskee, Alabama. There, he pioneered
multi-crop farming and crop rotation, and synthesized over 400
substance from peanuts and sweet potatoes (including dyes, milk,
linoleum, glue, soap, flour, oil, paint, ink, butter, coffee, and
even synthetic rubber). Thomas Edison once offered Carver a
salary of $100,000 to join him at his lab in New Jersey, but
Carver turned him down, saying he was needed at Tuskegee.
Remarkable, remarkable man.

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Marie Curie
(1867-1934)

This Polish-born French physicist discovered the radioactive
properties of radium and polonium. In 1903 she was rewarded with
the Nobel Prize for physics, followed by one for chemistry in
1911. She dies of leukaemia, no doubt caused by her pioneering
research into the nature of radioactivity. Some of the Martian
artifacts discovered by Lowell and others were powered by
radioactive substances, making her expertise invaluable.

Wyatt Earp
(1848-1929)

Earp, a genuine American folk hero, was a noted frontier lawman,
serving as a policeman in Wichita, Kansas and later as assistant
marshal in Dodge City. Moving to Tombstone, Arizona, Wyatt, his
brother Virgil, Morgan, and James, and Doc Holiday found
themselves feuding with the Clanto and McLaury brothers
(cattlemen who augmented their earnings by rustling). The feud
escalated into all-out war on October 26, 1881, when the Earp and
Doc Holiday gunned down Billy and Frank Clanton and Tom McLaury
in what came to be known as the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Earp
was acquitted by the courts. My experience with Mr. Earp was
limited (and, from what I know of him, I must say that doesn't
displease me).

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Thomas Edison
(1847-1931)

America's most prolific inventor, and the first entrepreneurial
scientist, Edison was issued over 1,000 patents in his lifetime.
He is popularly credited with inventing such history-making
devices as electric lights, the phonograph, and the motion
picture. I was quite taken aback by the animosity between Edison
and Dr. Tesla. Friendly competitors they more assuredly were not.
I can only assume Edison saw in Tesla's alternating current motor
the demise of direct current, of which he was a leading
proponent. One can only wonder what these two geniuses could have
accomplished had they been working together. Still and all,
Edison's engineering expertise proved invaluable in our attempts
to understand and repair a variety of Martian machines.

Emma Goldman
(1869-1940)

Anarchist and proponent of birth control and draft obstruction,
Emma Goldman was born in Lithuania and raised in Russia. At 17
she moved to the US, where she soon became involved with
anarchists. Arrested several times for inciting riots, she was
convicted of interfering with the US preparations for World War I
and sent to prison. Deported in 1919, she went to Russia but
disapproved of the Soviet regime and moved on to England and
later Canada. Late in life, she took an active role in the
Spanish Civil War. Her role in events on Mars is clouded in
mystery.

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William Randoplh Hearst
(1863-1951)

Hearst, a renowned American newspaper publisher and pioneer of
"yellow journalism" was the financial sponsor of the ill fated
1893 Mars expedition. Hearst papers were cheap, sensational, and
provocative, appealing to the common man in a way no news paper
had before. He and his bitter rival, Joseph Pulitzer, competed
for the minds - and pennies - of the public. By the end of the
20th century, he was probably best-known for his California home,
the bizarre San Simeon. It will come as no surprise to those
familiar with San Simeon that Hearst became a collector and
trader of Martian artifacts (perhaps junk would be a better word)
during his stay on the red planet.

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Nikolai Lenin
(1870-1924)

Lenin, born Vladirmir Ilyich Ulyanov, was the most influential
Communist thinker of his day. The Russian revolutionary, and
rounder of the Bolshevik party, first studied the teachings of
Karl Marx in 1889, while a university student. In 1907, two years
after the failure of the first Russian revolution, Lenin left the
country, but continued the struggle to bring Marxism to his
homeland from abroad. In 1917, he returned to lead a successful
revolution which left him in charge of a new Soviet government.
He led the USSR until his death in 1924. Lenin's dream of a world
in which all members of society shared ownership of property and
in which wealth was distributed equitably found curious
expression during his experience on Mars.

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Percival Lowell
(1855-1916)

Lowell, an American astronomer and leader of the 1893 expedition
to Mars, was born to one of America's oldest and wealthiest
families. After graduating from Harvard University, he managed
his family's cotton mills and utility companies. For a time, he
served as a diplomat, notably in the Far East. Upon learning of
the controversy over the Martian canals, he turned a life-long
interest in astronomy into a career. Using his inherited wealth,
he built an observatory in Arizona, specifically for the
observation of Mars. He mapped 184 canals, each so regular that
no natural phenomenon could explain their existence - clear
evidence, he thought, that some intelligent lifeform was
responsible. Dark patches on either side of the canals were
clearly vegetation, growing close to the only apparent source of
water and shifting with the seasons. The canals, he hypothesized,
ended in 63 oases - collection and transfer stations 120-150
miles wide. In later years, he predicted the existence of a ninth
planet in the solar system. Though Lowell never saw Pluto, his
pioneering work led to a successful search for it.

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Georges Melies
(1861-1938)

A French magician, theatrical producer, and actor, Melies
achieved worldwide fame at the turn of the century as the most
innovative and adventurous of the early motion picture makers.
His 1902 film, A trip to the Moon, was remarkably similar in some
ways to our own real-life adventure on Mars. One has to wonder
whether he was inspired by the events of 1893-1895. Melies
expertise in the area of things photographic proved invaluable on
Mars.

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Robert E. Peary
(1856-1920)

Peary, an American explorer, is best known for his trek to the
North Pole. He entered the US Navy in 1881, first travelled into
the interior of Greenland in 1886, and reached the North Pole in
1909. Shortly after being stranded on the red planet, Peary
embarked on an expedition to it north polar region. His
discoveries there marked a turning point in events on Mars.

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Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin
(1871-1916)

At the time of our Martian adventure, Rasputin, Russia's "Mad
Monk" was a wandering holy man and mystic yet to make his mark on
the world. He is said to have possessed mystical power of
persuasion, particulary over women. Alexandra, wife of Tsar
Nicholas II, fell under his spell and, through her, Rasputin
influenced  the tsar himself. Often blamed for the conditions
which led to the Russian Revolution, he was ultimately
assassinated by conservative forces in Russia. The story of his
execution is a strange one - legend has it that he was poisoned,
stabbed, shot and then thrown into a hole in an ice-covered
river, where he finally drowned. Tales of his psychic powers take
on greater, more frightening, significance in light of events on
Mars. There may be more truth to the tales than modern men care
to admit...

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Theodore Roosevelt
(1858-1919)

Teddy Roosevelt, or "TR" as he was known, served in the New York
State Assembly; spent two years as a rancher in the Dakota
territories; became Police Commissioner of New York City; acted
as Assistant Secretary of the Navy; organized the Rough Riders
cavalry troop in the Spanish-American War; and served as New
York's governor. In 1900 he was the vice-presidential candidate
on a ticket with William McKinley, and when McKinley fell to an
assassin's bullet, ascended to the presidency, serving from 1901
to 1909. Roosevelt's police experience and familiarity with the
latest developments in forensic technique proved invaluable
during the Martian adventure.

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Louis Confort Tiffany
(1848-1933)

Louis Tiffany, son of renowned jeweller Charles L. Tiffany, began
as a painter in oil and water colours, but eventually found his
true calling in the design of decorative objects made of
iridescent "favrile" or Tiffany glass. He also worked extensively
as an interior designer, co-founding one of the leading design
consortia in the United States. Among his noteworthy interiors
were the White House and the home of Samuel Clemens (see Mark
Twain, pg. 23)

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Mark Twain
(1835-1910)

Pen name of American writer Samuel Longhorn Clemens. After years
as a printer's apprentice, a riverboard pilot, and a journalist,
Clemens turned to fiction. Writing under the name Mark Twain, he
penned such enduring classics as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
(1876), The Prince of the Pauper (1882), Huck Finn (1884), and A
Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889).

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H.G. Wells
(1866-1946)

Renowned British writer whose work included such seminal science
fiction tales as The Time Machine (1895) and The War of the
Worlds (1898), the latter almost certainly inspired by his
experiences on Mars. He also penned such popular non-fiction
works as The Outline of History, which encompassed all of Earth's
history from the dawn of time.


---

               Transcripted by The Fox