Van Atta

[tonym5]

May 22, 1963. 110W. Longitude 10N. Latitude Pan Am flight 1042D is struck by lightning during a horrific thunderstorm at 15,000 ft. altitude. Immediate decompression occurs and the flight crew in the cockpit put on their oxygen masks. Despite attempts to control the flight, hyrdraulic pressure weakens and the plane loses control gradually by degrees over the next fourteen minutes. The Boeing DC-6 hits the water nose first and cracks in the middle as it's nose folds in upon itself like an accordion. The night time crash in the Pacific Ocean would lead the search efforts to believe few survivors could have survived on the water for long and the area they searched was nearly five hundred miles away. Over 70 survivors were left out of nearly 100 passengers and 12 crew members. The survivors would wash ashore on an uncharted island that had been spotted by sailors over the past three hundred years but forgotten when it came to mapmakers. The name of the island was Van Atta and had been dubbed that by an Irish sailor on a Cutty Sark that had been on a course for China during the 1850s. The island was only 33 square miles in area and the volcano that had created it some forty thousand years before had gone dormant. Only a total of twenty some sailors had stepped ashore over the past three hundred some years. A small lake was on the island, giving it some fresh water that was continually refreshed by storms and an upwelling passage in the mantle of the earth that led to the middle of the South American continent. Forty-Four women and Thirty-Two men had survived the air crash and had the presence of mind to inflate the life rafts aboard the airliner. They would wait for rescue until finally giving up around 1969. They made a life on the Island and despite the advanced satellite technology throughout the sixties and seventies that were made, the companies that did record the island, had simply written it off as unimportant or neglected to inform any nation-state of it's existence. Few Naval Carriers had gone by the area over the next forty some years. Some marriages occured and babies were born on the island over the years. The first baby was a young male born on May 24, 1963 and he was named Tony.

This post has been edited by tonym5 on Sep 15 2006, 06:34 AM

[tonym5]

2232 AD. Valerian, the son of the famous Time-Traveler Varian, had decided to go back in time himself when he found an extra omni-disc. He went back to the year 197 AD where he settled in the Roman province of Syria, in the city of Palmyra. Beginning in 212 AD, Palmyra's trade diminished as the Sassanids occupied the mouth of the Tigris and the Euphrates. Septimius Odaenathus, a Prince of Palmyra, was appointed by Valerian as the governor of the province of Syria. After Valerian was captured and killed by the Sassanids, Odaenathus campaigned as far as Ctesiphon (near modern-day Baghdad) for revenge, invading the city twice. When Odaenathus was assassinated by his nephew Maconius, his wife Septimia Zenobia took power, ruling Palmyra on the behalf of her son, Vabalathus.

[tonym5]

September 15, 2006. Valerie Valkenos, the CEO of the Tadmor Corporation held a Press conference at 1PM Eastern Daylight Time, announcing the discovery of Van Atta and of the missing passengers of flight 1042D and their descendants. Tadmor is the name of Palmyra in modern Hebrew. The exact etymology of the name "Palmyra" in this case is unknown, although some scholars believe it was related to the palm trees in the area.

[tonym5]

Also announced during the Press Conference was the revelation of some surviving families of the famous eighteenth century english ship, Bounty, that had been forced off Pitcairn Island and removed to Van Atta Island during the Nineteenth Century. Aiden Krome stepped forward, announcing he was a living descendant of one of the crew members onboard the english naval ship, Bounty.

This post has been edited by tonym5 on Sep 17 2006, 05:48 AM

[tonym5]

Watching the Press conference on TV in his office in the turqoise NUMA office tower, Dirk Pitt sat back in his chair and decided to send a NUMA ship to the area near Van Atta Island on a hunch he had.

[tonym5]

September 19, 2006. Vandalia, Ohio. The once-bustling village of Tadmor willl be recognized for it's importance to Ohio and the nation at 10AM EDT when the Ohio Historical Society, in cooperation with Five Rivers Metroparks, unveils a newly completed Ohio Historic Marker at Taylorsville Metropark. In addition to Tadmor being an intersection for the National Road, the Miami-Erie Canal and Dayton-Michigan railroad also went through the town. Called the "Crossroads of America", Tadmor owed it's success - and it's ultimate demise - to it's location. The Great Miami River, the National Road, (U.S. 40), the Dayton Michigan railroad and the Miami-Erie canal all converged at this little hub on the outskirts of Vandalia. Even in it's heyday, Tadmor was never much of a town. Only a handful of structures were built there; a railway station, several farmhouses and the canal keeper's home that doubled as a post office and store. On a typical day in Tadmor, Vandalia residents caught a train, or picked up their mail. Farmers hauled produce to Tadmor and loaded it aboard a canal boat or railroad car. Families traveling along National Road stopped at this tiny way station to water their horses or stretch their legs. By 1850, rail transportation had begun to make the canal system obsolete. The 1913 flood sealed Tadmor's fate. The raging torrent of the Great Miami River washed it's few buildings downstream. After the floodwaters receded, the newly formed conservancy district rerouted National Road, and the railroad moved it's tracks to higher ground. Today, the canal is dried up. U.S. 40 bypasses Tadmor by several miles. The trains running nearby no longer have any reason to stop at this forgotten spot on the map. One side of the historical marker discusses the significance of Tadmor as a center of transportation, and the other emphasizes the contribution of the National Road to the settlement of the nation. Because 2006 is the 200th anniversary of the National road, Tadmor was selected as one of only three sites along the National Road to be awarded markers in 2006. While the final home of the marker will be at the former site of Tadmor in Taylorsville Metropark, 1.3 miles north of the dam along the Great Miami River Recreation Trail, the ceremony will be at Taylorsville at 2006 U.S. 40.

This post has been edited by tonym5 on Oct 12 2006, 06:22 AM

[tonym5]

At one point in the 1960s, a small company was spun off from WaldenCorp, the large Defense Contractor. Trevor Valkenos had been part of WaldenCorp's project Blue Book and it's Electronic Warfare & Detection unit. Trevor had gone to Malachi Wolters and gave a presentation on satellite technology. Malachi Wolters liked the idea but said that it was not the right time or place for WaldenCorp's attention but did give Trevor a loan to start up his Tadmor company. Trevor went back to Dayton, Ohio and established Tadmor Corporation in a suburb of Dayton, Ohio. Vandalia was Trevor's hometown, where he had grown up and had gone on to College and started working in the Defense companies that were near Wright-Patterson Air Force Base before moving on to WaldenCorp in Virginia. Malachi had asked Trevor to sign a non-disclosure contract before he was given the loan, stating that he would never talk about his involvement in the cold war technology of Project Blue Book. Trevor willingly signed it, despite his conscience bothering him about causing natural and man-made disasters that Electronic Warfare & Detection had been involved in. One of the many storms that occured over land or water included the one in the Pacific Ocean that caused Pan Am flight 1042D to crash into the ocean. When Trevor had read about that, he knew he could no longer stomach the secret cold war project and decided to leave WaldenCorp. Once he had Tadmor Corporation up and running, he made lots of advances in satellite technology. It was in late 1972 when he and a special team of technologists working for him discovered the existence of Van Atta Island and began to devise a special project that would involve the island. It was at a scientific convention where he heard the story about Fridjtof Von Battenkill's Equation and it's possible implications. Fridjtof Von Battenkill's studies had been commissioned by the United Nations back in 1961. Trevor and his special team began to develop programs for computer and satellite technolgy. Also embedded in the programs were Trevor's experience in Project Blue Book at WaldenCorp.

[tonym5]

Valerie Valkenos had been born to Trevor and Ilse Valkenos in November of 1976 at the Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, Ohio. After graduating at Vandalia-Butler High School in 1994, she had gone on to Miami University in Oxford, Ohio where she got her MBA. Starting at a minor job at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Valerie came into contact with some local defense companies and was hired by one of them. After rising to Senior Vice President, Valerie went on to a small career as a lobbyist in Columbus, Ohio. After three years in that job she had gotten some attention from a major Defense Industry corporation just outside of Washington, D.C. When her father Trevor learned of this he offered Valerie a better job at Tadmor Corporation. Valerie moved back to Ohio and felt comfortable working in her father's company.

[tonym5]

October 16, 2239. Victor Valkenos was offered the job as Fellow Traveler from the Time Council and it's leader, Nigel London. Succeeding Frederick Vanover, who had been the third man to hold the position of Fellow Traveler for 37 years, was a daunting challenge but Victor felt confident, having been well trained. Victor Valkenos will be the fourth Fellow Traveler of the Time Council, succeeding Varian, Alexander Vestrel, Frederick Vanover.

[tonym5]

Trevor Guinaugh, a direct descendant of the Irish sailor who discovered Van Atta Island sat at his desk looking at a replica of the journal written by his great-great grandfather, Caleb Guinaugh, on the computer. Trevor had heard about the press conference on TV and after listening to an historian on a talk show discussing how his great-great grandfather had spotted the island. Trevor did some research and found the journal online. "Janine" Trevor calls out. His wife, Janine stepped out of the kitchen and he shows the journal written by his great-great grandfather, Caleb to her. "That's very interesting dear, I will have dinner ready in five minutes" she replies and kisses him before returning to the kitchen. Trevor is so excited he decides to call one of his friends but after some thought he realized his second cousin, Harrison Forrester would be more interested.

[tonym5]

The Islanders were stunned at being back in the regular world. The young kids and few teenagers took to it quickly. The Tadmor Corporation was nervous about the citizens talking about the strange happenings on the island over the past 40 years. But it had been decided to remove the people off the island so that they can be monitored for any special effects of the Marten Initiative on them and the island. Valerie and her father had constructed a small community over the past two and a half years for the survivors to live in while being watched surreptitiously. The community had been placed strategically so that it would look like any other suburban community.

[tonym5]

Joachim Marten was proud of his work that he had been conducting on the survivors of the downed airliner for 40 years and was now watching his subjects acclimate back into the general populace in the suburban community of Benchwood Heights, a suburban community especially built for the survivors by Tadmor Corporation. Benchwood Heights lay on the outskirts of San Antonio, Texas. Watching the bank of video monitors that occupied the three walls of the surveillance room, Joachim was watching each household as the people were rapidly getting accustomed to the advances in technology over the past four decades that they had missed out on.