The Chronobird Project

Science reaches beyond the realm of imagination when a time sphere is invented in a secret research facility. The reader is made privy to the progress and the development of the time machine, called the Chronobird, through the interaction of the PR Director, Brad Iverson, and the Chief Researcher, Andy Richards. Unfortunately, a former member of the housekeeping staff, as a tourist in Germany, leaks enough information about the project to pique the interest of the neo-Nazis. The neo-Nazis send a small team to steal the secret of time travel. The team consists of a money-hungry scientist, Rudolph Oberhelman, who is the team captain, and two neo-Nazi soldiers, Lieutenant Eric Braun and Sergeant Karl Hoffman. At this point in the story, the love interest is the developing relationship between Brad Iverson and Angie Costello, one of the mathematicians. After becoming cognizant of a successful test of the time machine, the neo-Nazis start to implement their plan to steal Andy Richard's research notes. In the course of the theft Eric Braun and Brad Iverson find their destiny entwined when they both enter the time machine and are accidentally sent back in time to mid-nineteenth century America. Eric Braun seizes on this as an opportunity to fulfill an ambition to remain in America, desert the Nazi party, and to become a farmer. He strikes off on his own to find, what would be then, a very primitive and rural Omaha. Brad desperately wants to return to his own time in history. However, through a turn of events, including a snake bite, Brad finds himself on a wagon train of Mormon pioneers on their way to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake. A beautiful young widow, Rachel Brown, nurses Brad back to health. It is not difficult for Brad to recognize how closely Rachel's physical appearance resembles that of Angie's. Brad falls in love with the widow and they eventually marry. Rachel has one son from her first marriage, Tommy, about twelve years old. A thread that weaves itself through the story is the life and literary works of James Freeman, an author of science fiction. Freeman ostensibly lived and worked in Salt Lake City during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Brad, a science fiction buff, is eager to meet Freeman and checks out all incoming wagon trains to greet Freeman when he arrives in Salt Lake City. He never does arrive. Perplexed, Brad makes a handwritten copy of Freeman's first novel, the text of which he remembers vividly from having read the novel dozens of times as a child. Brad sends the manuscript and a letter to Freeman's publisher in New York City. The letter inquires where Freeman lives. The manuscript arrives, but the letter is lost. A few weeks later Brad receives a check with information that the manuscript will shortly be published under his penname, James Freeman. Brad then realizes that he, Brad Iverson, is also James Freeman, and that he, Brad Iverson, has written all the books attributed to Freeman. Rachel, Brad's beloved wife, dies of pneumonia just ten years after their marriage. Brad is devastated. It is at this point when Brad's path again crosses that of Eric Braun. Eric's stay in Omaha was brief. He fell in love with a young Mormon girl who converts him to her church. They marry, join a wagon train, and immigrate to Salt Lake City.With the death of Rachel there is now no reason for Brad to remain in the nineteenth century. A fluke in the time machine brings Brad back to his own time. Eric remains in the mid-nineteenth century, as is his wish. Since Eric remains in the nineteenth century, the secret of time travel is never delivered to the neo-Nazis. Karl Hoffman, who has fallen in love, decides he wants to stay in America. He changes his identity by having phony ID's printed up, and he deserts the neo-Nazi party. Oberhelman is forced to return alone to face the wrath of the neo-Nazi commanders. Now back in his own time, Brad picks up the love interest with Angie that was interrupted