How to build a time machine. (From Chapter 2 of my Novel - 1938 Typhoon time)

“First of all I would like to thank you for coming here. Soon you will learn why I need your expertise. Do you see this?” asked Eric, showing the device in his hands.
“Two hours ago, we have successfully finished the testing of a new technology, one that can change history. And when I say change history - I meant exactly that. We have discovered a way to send a capsule back in time.”
“That’s theoretically impossible” jumped Jerry without letting Eric complete his lecture.
Vera said, “Do you truly believe we should risk all our lives coming here if it wasn’t for real? Hear Eric out, and then we’ll accept feedback and answer questions.”
“I studied modern physics. I know it's not possible” Jerry exclaimed. “Unless you fly faster than the speed of light, which is of course not possible for a normal object consists of normal atoms. Or unless you can find some kind of a rip in the universe structure such as a black hole! Or …”
“Patience young one, patience.” replied Eric cutting Jerry in mid sentence. “Maybe Vera is right, and you should listen first to what I have to say. I don’t have a PhD in quantum physics, but let me assure you that the best minds in that field are working for me to complete this task.”
“Are you telling me you managed to build a time machine?” ask Jerry, “I don’t believe that to be true. It’s physically impossible. If I may quote Stephen Hawking who once said regarding time travel ‘Why haven’t we been overrun by tourists from the future?’”
Darryl laughed. “Indeed Eric, that’s an interesting question, why haven’t we?”
Eric, who did not possess a recognized academic background in modern physics, was not intimidated by the question.
“Time travel is theoretically possible. Young Jerry, will you agree that traveling into the future is feasible?” he asked, still holding the weird blinking object.
“Sure, according Einstein’s theory of relativity, if an astronaut is traveling close to the speed of light, time will slow down for him when comparing to the time that passes here on Earth.”
“That's correct. If he will go from here to Alpha Centauri, 4.2 light-years away, and back, near the speed of light, people at Houston will be aged by 8.4 years, yet, our Astronaut, along with his watch, will barely be aged. The faster he travels, the less he will age,” replied Eric
Jerry continued to question “First of all we don’t have anything bigger than an atom or an ion in a particle accelerator that can fly near the speed of light. The fastest man made spaceship, in today’s technology, can’t travel even remotely close to the speed of light, which is 300,000km per second. Humanity’s fastest spaceship, the Horizon spacecraft on route to Pluto, is traveling at the speed of 20km per second. However that’s beside the point. You are not talking about traveling to the future, are you? You said you’ve managed to send a device back in time. You are talking about traveling to the past.”
Eric nodded, “sending an object to the past is more complex than going to the future, I agree, yet not impossible. By looking at other stars, you are actually looking into the past. It takes the light 4.2 years to travel from Alpha Centauri to earth, which means that by looking at Alpha Centauri, you are actually looking at the past, at the Alpha Centauri of four point two years ago. This morning, when you woke up and looked at the sun, you actually looked at how the sun was eight minutes earlier to that moment. It took the light photons eight minutes to travel from the sun to your eyes.”
“Yes, that is correct,” replied Jerry. “Nevertheless, you are talking about a distant star, far far away, not about sending an object to Earth's past.”
“First of all I can show you a way to look into the past right here on earth” said Eric. “If for example we had a huge mirror half a light year from earth and if we had a strong enough telescope available, then by looking at that mirror – you will see what was happening on earth one year into the past. If you would have placed a large clock on the ground, it will take the light reflected from this clock six month to arrive to that mirror, and another six month to travel all the way back to your telescope. Of course, today we don't posses the technology to deploy such a mirror, or build a strong enough telescope with such resolution.”
At that point Darryl put his hand in his wet jacket. “Fascinating subject. I’m sure everyone here is dying to learn more about modern physics. I, for myself, am dead bored.” He dug out a pack of cigarettes, and casually put one between his lips. He then took out a lighter, trying to light it, unsuccessfully.
“The damn thing is soaked with water. Does anyone have a lighter?”
Vera carefully examined him with angry eyes “Will you shut up and let Eric finish? Some of us want to know what is happening.”
“OK, Whatever…” replied Darryl.
Jerry thought a little more about Eric’s explanation. Everything seemed to be in line with Einstein theory of general relativity.
Eric looked at Darryl, who still hadn’t lit up his cigarette “Thank you so much for allowing me to continue.” He then looked at Jerry and said “I will answer your question Jerry.”
“Which one?”
“The one asked by Stephen Hawking, regarding why we don’t see time travelers from the future.”
“Who said we don’t?” asked Darryl.
Vera asked him “Be serious, have you ever met a tourist from the future? I never did, and I never heard about anyone who did.”
Darryl didn’t reply, and Eric continued.
“Jerry, have you ever heard about the concept of ‘Cauchy horizon’?”
“I can’t say that I have.”
“That concept defined the area of time, when time travel is possible. That mean, that if you had a time machine, you will not be able to travel beyond the Cauchy horizon of that machine.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I’ll give you an example: Let us say that someone will manage to build a time machine in the year 3,000. That will enable someone else, from the year 3,100 to travel back in time to 3,005 or even to 3,000, but not earlier than 3,000, the year when the time machine was first built. The Cauchy horizon of that time machine will be 3,000AD. People from that year on, will see many time travelers. Therefore people before the Cauchy horizon – will not see any time traveler.”
“Are you saying that you managed to build such a time machine?”
“Me? No. That would be too complex. To build such a machine would probably need a super civilization, and the resources of a whole galaxy.”
Jerry asked, “Can you give a theoretical example on how such a galactic empire can build a time machine?”
“I’m not sure I’m the best person for the job, but I’ll try,” answered Eric. “We already established that wormholes are something that connects two points in spacetime. Also, we already know that time is affected by speed, especially when traveling near the speed of light.”
“True”
“A different matter which is missing from the equation is gravity…, which, as you may know, has the same effect on time as velocity.”
“Go on” said Jerry.
Eric continued. “If we go to a place where gravity is very high, where the escape velocity is nearing the speed of light, then time will pass lowlier.”
“Ok, I agree.”
“So if the Supper civilization decides to build a time machine in a specific year. They will create a wormhole, which as you may know have two entry points. Then they can take one of the entrances and bring it to a Neutron star. Since time flow slowly at the surface of the gravity well of a Neutron – that side of the wormhole will be in the past, when comparing to the other side. Then they will take that entrance back to their plane. That civilization will now have a working time machine. By crossing the wormhole, it will be possible to go back in time.”
“Yet, you can’t go back, to a date before the younger side of the wormhole was put on the neutron star.”
Jerry said “That’s sweet. It’s all nice in theory. It just proves we can’t build a time machine with our planetary resources. Even if we did, if we want to go to a specific time in the past, then that time machine should have been built before our target year. So tell me Eric, why are we here?”
“Nature built one.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Nature built a time machine. One that has a Cauchy horizon that stretches from 1938 till today.”
Eric looked at his watch, “The bad news is that this natural time machine Cauchy horizon will end half an hour from now, which is the reason Gentleman, why I acted so hastily in rerouting you.”
Silence, as the audience tried to comprehend what was just explained to them.
After a long moment Martin asked “So people who will know how to operate that ‘natural’ time machine – will be able to travel in time, anywhere between 1938 and today?”
“Exactly!”
“What kind of time machine is it?”
“Do you know what wormholes are and how they work?”
“We spoke about them earlier” said Jerry. “It's a tunnel that connects two different points in space through a different dimension. If you travel through it, theoretically, you can go between these two points faster than the speed of light, at least according to an external observer.”
“Correct, except for the fact that wormholes do not connect two points of space, it is a tunnel between two points of timespace” answered Eric.
“Are you saying that you found a wormhole here on earth? Where is the other side? Alpha Centauri?”
Eric smiled again “No, It’s a loop. Both sides of the wormhole are here on earth.”
“It seems that this piece of real estate property, called by some people as the Bermuda Triangle, has some interesting prospects. I found out what caused at least some of the mysterious ships and plans disappearance. It has an unstable wormhole. Furthermore, my employed physicists have managed to calculate when and where it will open next. The scientists who work for me have developed the technology to make it stable for a short time, just enough to send a capsule back in time.”
“What kind of technology.”
“In order to stabilize the entrance of a wormhole – we need negative energy.”
“Negative energy? Wormholes? Timespace? Beam me up Scotty. Come on, I feel like being in a science fiction movie. Stop wasting my time. No one can generate negative energy” snapped Jerry. “I’m not sure if science can even describe what negative energy is.”
“Negative energy my ass,” exploded Daryl, “I don’t even know what negative energy is.”
“Negative energy is only a theoretical concept, one that was proven only by mathematics. Eric, we can’t generate negative energy!”
Eric smiled again. “Sure we can. All we need is a negative energy generator, and I happened to have one.” Jerry looked at Eric in disbelief. “Negative energy generator, any kid can buy one in RadioShack” said Jerry in a somewhat sarcastic voice.
“Ho, that’s a good idea. I never tried Best Buy. Maybe they had Casimir plates on stock. I could have saved a lot of money had I bought one from the shelves.”
“Casimir plates?”
“Did you swallow an old record? To generate negative energy, enough to stabilize the Bermuda triangle wormhole – you will need Giga watts of energy discharged into two electrics charged Casimir plates. That will create Casimir effect – a.k.a negative energy.”
“Two hours ago, we managed to stabilize a time-rift opening, long enough to send something we call Chrono-Beacon back to 1945. The small capsule contains an atomic clock, and a radio beacon that draw energy from a radio-active micro-reactor. An hour later we collected the Chrono-beacon, and it showed the accurate time, since we turned it on.”
Eric moved aside and revealed a small, algae covered, black tube, with a red timer that was counting since December 5th, 1945.
The audience stayed silent.
Eventually, Martin asked “And what are your plans? What are you intending to do with this discovery?”
“I plan to change history. You see, according to our calculations, in a few minutes a second rift will open exactly at this point. The forming storm will enhance and destabilize the wormhole’s entrance. It will occur right when the eye of the hurricane will pass over its sensitive point. All we’ll have to do is just give it our little Casimir effect, and our end will be opened.
“What does the hurricane have to do with the wormhole?” asked Jerry.
“Well, your question, you got it all wrong. You should actually ask - What does the wormhole have to do with hurricane.”
“I'll start from the beginning. Our reactor can't just generate enough negative energy, with enough juice for the Casimir effect that suits us. To open a spacetime rift large enough for our needs, at the time of our choice will require trillions of quadrillions of joules. We simply don't have that. No one has. However, the wormhole has its own rhythm. Like clockwork pulse that we found out how to calculate. Whenever it became unstable, it affected the surrounding weather. Alexis, the storm, is the product of the volatility in the wormhole. All we have to do now is to wait for the proper timing, when the current pulse will be at its peak, which will happen in a few minutes. At that point, the Casimir plates will only be needed to generate sufficient negative energy to control the size and duration of the opening.”
“So the only time we could unlock the wormhole, is now?” ask Jerry.
“That's correct, we have one chance. After that the wormhole will disappear, and we'll be out of its Cauchy horizon.”
Martin said “What are we expected to see on the other side.”
“We computed the time on other side of the wormhole. It will be sometime in mid 1938, and the space will be a few hundred yards from our current location. My plan is to send a second capsule back in time and change history. I plan to prevent the Holocaust” announced Eric.