Code Name- Time Chariot

The Tale of Kaleidoscope City
A Science Fiction Short Story
(comprised of seven narrative poems)
by Joseph John Racano

Table of Contents:
Part I……………………….Kaleidoscope City
Part II………………………The Raft
Part III……………………..Moonshot
Part IV……………………..One Luna Prime
Part V………………………Dramatic Ascension
Part VI……………………..Primordial Earth
Part VII…………………….The Fall of Man
Featuring Justin Nicholas Thyme, the hero
created by Joseph John Racano and seen in
the sci fi novella, Chronopolis, as well as in
Chronomenae- sequel to Chronopolis.
Also starring:
*Special Time Agent Infinity Staires
*The Family from the Future and
*Their cybernetic son
With special thanks to futuristic artist:
Robert Lorek and others!

Artwork: Robert Lorek

(Code Name Time Chariot)

Part I

‘Kaleidoscope City’

We left the old Tesla parked out on the street
Now been afforded as part of the fleet
A new form departure from linear travel
We entered, strapped in and then watched time unravel

Chosen from many to pilot Time Chariot
My family and I felt like Judas Iscariot
Saviors of many or traitors, perhaps
Beating the buzzer of planetary collapse

Yesterday’s people, this afternoon’s light beams
Sizzling through chronons and tachyon light streams
Seeing the tears as they rolled up our cheeks
Snatching occasional time-portal peeks

Watching our timeline turn red and recede
Loosed from all boundaries and finally freed
Stars winking in and then soon winking out
Galaxies visibly spinning about

Shadowy nebulae, misty unveil
Turbulence crossing an asteroid tail
Lurching and pitching and passing a comet
Fumbling space-bag to use if you vomit

Now just as quick as the ride had begun
Slowly descending near one yellow sun
Into a billowy atmosphere cloud
Cotton-ball pillowy whole-planet shroud

Then came the clacking of metal on bricks
Monitor screening Time Chariot’s tricks
Came the sweet ringing of life-support bells
Pleasant assurance of no outside hells

‘Arrival complete’ spoke robotic commands
Now we stepped out of the hatch holding hands
Walking toward something so unrecognizable
Nothing we saw was remotely describable

Then from the chariot came a transmission
‘Earth has deceased, carry on with your mission’
It wasn’t familiar but yes it was pretty
And bravely we entered Kaleidoscope City

Joseph John Racano
©@JosephJohnRacano
Art: Robert Lorek

Code Name- Time Chariot

Kaleidoscope City, Part II

The Raft

We walked in together through a large portal gate
Where spherical violet sentries did wait
Crossing the floor from one tile to another
Each one a living cell inside a cover

Clatter of shoes echoed off giant walls
Made of some alloy for strength against falls
Etched in the metal complex hieroglyphics
Alien language precluding specifics

Everywhere sparkle-bots floated in air
Higher technology bright without glare
Somewhere our hosts understood our humanity
Fed us covertly with no need for vanity

Some kind of bubble with smoke in the center
Led us around to the hall we might enter
Some type of parlour gigantic in size
Colorful décor quite soft on the eyes

Soon we were contacted inside our minds
All of us smiled as we took seats and dined
Lost on a time-way these beings took pity
‘Welcome you are to Kaleidoscope City’

After regaining our bearings and strength
Knowledge poured in our cerebrums at length
Then we were floated up into a craft
‘The journey has started and this is your raft’

Joseph John Racano
©@JosephJohnRacano/1/3/2021
Artwork: Robert Lorek

Code Name- Time Chariot

Part III, Moonshot

Kaleidoscope City, we’ll never forget you
The fate of a world may have changed when we met you
We don’t even know if you’re man or machine
But we’ll go where you sent us, there’s more to be seen

Somehow, we knew how to work the new craft
Even got silly and named it The Raft
Maybe we needed a break from our sorrow
The only five people who had a tomorrow

We found ourselves tapped into some type of memory
Subconscious learning was scraped in like emery
How it was planted is still hard to say
Maybe hard-wired in our DNA

Now we were coasting, no longer the harrow
Sideswiping atmospheres, a bright flaming arrow
Then like an elevator, plummeted down
Landed The Raft on a good solid ground

Not far away was the Earth in her doom
Now it was obvious, this was the Moon!
Something to teach us, is what I received
We got on our knees toward The Mother and grieved

After a second or minute or hours
Here came the Perseid Meteor showers
Some of them whizzed by so close we were choking
Then a two-mile-high door lifted open

Flasher alarm warned us back in the vehicle
Rolled us inside of the Moon- unbelievable
Here there were people- not robots or drones
Some of them looked like the one’s from back home

Now we could finally see it was true
The Moon was a satellite, replete with a crew
With all we had seen, none of us were surprised
We had been told many lies, I surmised

We were approached by an admiral in uniform
Gave me a chart of Kaleidoscope cuneiform
‘Take this in case you go back to the city
That’s some handsome craft, and their language is pretty’

Forgive me- I’m Justin Nicholas Thyme
I welcome your family to One-Luna-Prime
Your quarters are ready and dinner’s at eight
That is of course, Moon time, you won’t have to wait’

So this was the famed Justin Nicholas Thyme
A dime on a dollar, the Moon has no crime
I thought to myself as I stepped back inside
We needed some sleep, it had been a long ride

After a shower and eating like pigs
We lay in our newly bestowed-upon digs
It felt good to be near the place of our birth
But we had to avoid looking up at the Earth

Joseph John Racano
©@JosephJohnRacano/1/3/2021

Code Name- Time Chariot

Part IV, One Luna Prime

(Featuring the action hero Justin Nicholas Thyme, from 'Chronopolis')

Good morning and welcome to One Luna Prime
This is Infinity, I’m Justin Thyme
I trust you have rested and broken your fast
We hope you’ll indulge us, we’ve questions to ask

Indeed Mr. Thyme, reputation precedes you
If you’re on the Moon I’m sure that it needs you
We’re happy to answer what questions you have
In our current state it may work as a salve

Thank you, said Justin, the question I’m seeing
Is who and what were they, did you see a being?
I’m afraid not, Mr. Thyme, not a one
All I remember is they took our son

When they returned him he was a changed boy
That didn’t matter, he still is our joy
Came back cybernetic part boy and machine
He merely thinks and it’s up on the screen

Just then the little boy chuckled and smiled
Quite reassuring the laugh of a child
Sure enough there were his thoughts on the monitor
One Luna Prime screen stretched one square kilometer

All of the workers stared up at the screen
Giant equations as ne’er before seen
Justin plugged in the computers for help
These were the building block atoms for kelp

Set to record, Justin gave the command
Then a thumbs up from his massive right hand
Up on the screen the equations had spread
Science for bringing back life to the dead

Kaleidoscope City had turned out to be
The cambium layer of the Universe Tree
And with these equations could be a rebirth
Of all precious species we lost back on Earth

Then the poor child fell in Justin’s arms
Now he must rest so to come to no harms
All of the science was new to the team
Sent from the future by way of timestream

With all due respect, we were promised a tour
Justin then ordered, Moonshuttle for four!’
One Luna Prime tours took more than a day
Leaving some time for the child to play

Joseph John Racano
©@JosephJohnRacano/1/4.2021

Code Name- Time Chariot

Part V, Dramatic Ascension

Leaving the crew to decipher equations
Justin proposed they take working vacations
Time travel might help us, said the explorer
Reconstitute the Earth’s fauna and flora

No sooner said than the Raft began glowing
An obvious link with the future was flowing
Uplink to data computers held steady
As Justin, Infinity and family got ready

Countdown began and was broadcast aloud
Time portal waited in nebulous cloud
First they would travel in linear fashion
Then through the Timeway, Infinity’s passion

Godspeed, they heard as the Raft energized
The craft so advanced it had Justin surprised
Steeped in blue lights, the design grandiose
Then off with a streak like the chariot of Helios

Linear travel the worst of it all
Suffering bodies pressed hard to the wall
It feels like my eyeballs are both being squeezed
Commented Justin as his vocal chords wheezed

In no time at all they arrived at the portal
Where time travel makes one an instant immortal
Then all the cosmos became two dimensional
So did the craft, Justin thought this intentional

White turned to black and the black turned to white
Cosmic inversion of forever night
Inside The Raft new reality made
Luminous light-pulsing diode cascade

Even from here in a morphing machine
Words from their son splashed across the ship screen
Wherever you are and wherever you go
We’re always in reach via energy flow

Now came the change they had wanted to see
Outside the chamber the stars were set free
They landed with all back in proper dimension
The world outside proof of dramatic ascension

Joseph John Racano
©@JosephJohnRacano/1/4/2021

Code Name- Time Chariot

Part VI, Primordial Earth

The timeway led everywhere once you were in it
Crossing the universe took but a minute
Just where and when they were at was a mystery
Infinite choices could mean anywhere in history

Justin suspected they stopped here for fuel
Propulsion was needed no matter the tool
He ruled out reactors, starlight and plutonium
The ship came to find and then mine pure chrononium

This was a system completely advanced
They stared at the view-screen where strange symbols danced
As per translation they came here to mine
They came for the chronons- the ship ran on time!

Appendages sprouted from the sides of the fuselage
Neatly concealed to prevent wear and sabotage
Fully extended the ends pointed down
Sinking pinwheel apparatus in ground

Up on the screen audio-visual narration
Offered them insight on the delicate operation
Organic tubes at the subatomic level
Shaving off chronons with special time-bevel

Then processed by use of molecular changer
And stored in a super-cooled anti matter chamber
After the chambers were cool and complete
The Raft was engaged and it lifted its feet

Now they were once again streaking through time
Cloaking device wiped the hull clean of slime
Kaleidoscope City provided the spores
That powered the cloak using chromatophores

Very soon after they touched down again
They didn’t know where and they didn’t know when
But this time the screen gave a stunning tutorial;
This was the Earth when it still was primordial

Joseph John Racano
©@JosephJohnRacano/1/5/2021

Code Name- Time Chariot

Part VII, The Fall of Man

Here we were on Planet Earth
Reveling in mankind’s dearth
The crew got out and right to work
Ah, the smell of pristine dirt

We planted seeds of education
Among the still sparse population
We had a plan that went like this;
Prevent the great apocalypse

Compose a message, store in ground
In such a way as would be found
It sounded easy but it wasn’t
Ways to fail we found a dozen

Stored it first inside a hollow
Earthquake caused the ground to swallow
Then inside a smoking hill
Huge eruption, magma spill

Then amid the esoterica
Found success in South America
Our laser-carved and future messages
Were placed in pointed Mayan vestiges

And none among the native people
Stopped us as we climbed their steeple
And later found against all odds
We wound up being revered as gods

We shot The Raft into the timeway
Hopeful we averted doomsday
While far below they danced and chanted
But would our message be recanted?

The spinning craft engulfed in time
Our son watched from One Luna Prime
And we'll keep doing all we can
To override the fall of man

Joseph John Racano

The End

The Halls of Kaleidoscope City

Lovely she walked through the halls of time
Princess Mangoria wholly sublime
Awaiting some word coming down from committee
Of her lovers return to Kaleidoscope City

Events through millennia flashed on the walls
Unusual even in these hallowed halls
The Nightship, a Time Chariot, speeding through space
Lost in a cloud at a nebulous pace

And she in a moment of weakness took stumble
True love even a Princess could humble
Holding her gown in one delicate hand
She cried to the strains of a far-away band

But for a moment for duty did call
Circumstance pomp and a high gala ball
And so once again did her footsteps give echo
As Princess did enter the corridor threshold

After the gala and supping was done
Much later as robots cleaned up on the run
The Princess dismissed all her helpful A I
Returning to her royal chamber to cry

‘Come back’ pleaded her barely audible voice
Then back to her solitude given no choice
Inside forlorn, on the outside so pretty
Walking the halls of Kaleidoscope City

Joseph John Racano

---

                                 Another Bold Adventure

---

---

Another Bold Adventure

Chariot this is Mother Base, please tell me if you read
We’ve got a bold adventure and your skills are now in need
A foray into time and space, through cosmic hail and storm
A solar system just blacked out and such is not the norm

All eyes fixed on quadrant four and data in from Hubble
Suggests a radiation shower here to give us trouble
Synchronize chronometers and strap into your seats
You’re loaded up with water and nutritious science eats

Chariot to Mother Base, we’re counting down for launch to space
Systems checklist shows full power, setting course for cosmic shower
Roger that you’re cleared to go, enjoy the real-time meteor show
Send us samples retro-drive, bring your whole crew back alive

Mother Base we roger that, and tell my wife to feed the cat
Switching now from space to time, setting course for octa-prime
Back on Earth the people cheered, watching on big screen
The Chariot soaring out of phase, gave off a brilliant sheen

Another Bold Adventure Part II

Across space borders the craft received orders
Search the galactic perimeter by quarters
This being done revealed a new sun
And the meteors arrived iron snowballs by the ton

Systems downrange found conditions very strange
Entire spiral arms lost to cosmic mange
Mother Base this is Chariot, we’ve deployed a laser-lariot
Wrapping it around a giant meteor to carry it

Roger Time Chariot, what a handful you’ve got
Energize to factor ten and use it as a sling shot
Meteors are known to rust, so catapult the cosmic dust
A chain reaction by such action should reduce further impaction

Mother Base we got it done, the slingshot worked like a gatling gun
Get a message to my son, the silicates are on the run
Roger that, you’re not alone your wife is holding on the phone
All light has returned to brighter tone- your task is done, now come on home

And so the craft returned through time
The stuff of cosmic nursery rhyme
And by the by do watch the sky
Perhaps to see Time Chariot fly!

Joseph John Racano
Code Name- Time Chariot