19. Time-traveling hermits

Kenneth slowly became aware just how unprepared he had been for time travel. He had not really expected that it would work, despite what he had told himself. Now that he was nearly 330 years into the past, with lots of data to analyze from his trip, he realized that he might never be able to share it with anyone who would believe it or really benefit from it. He wondered if he might write a book, detailing how he had come to make the trip. Writing was one technology that had survived. But he had no money for paper or ink or pen. And he quickly realized that his food supply, packets of dehydrated camping food, would not last forever, especially now that he was feeding two.

Fortunately, Aidan proved to be a helpful second mouth to feed. He quickly learned to speak ‘modern’ English, and found folk ready to pay him for singing and telling stories. He helped Kenneth build a lath house a short distance from the Hyundai. Fortunately it had come to rest above any land that was used for farming, and before enclosures had begun. Kenneth they passed off as a scholarly hermit. Fortunately  hermits were not entirely unknown in Wales at that time.

And so they passed the winter, Kenneth telling stories of the future to Aidan as they lay together in their tiny cell, Aidan telling stories of the past to the folk gathered around the fires of taverns.


38

In the future, Marcus was not encouraged. He came more and more to think that time travel was possible, and that Kenneth had achieved it. But the data they were beginning to gather with their Merlin was like the discovery of some ancient (or future) library by some archaeologist, written in an unknown tongue. Rafael was more hopeful. He set his deep learning algorithms loose on the data and waited for them to find a new Rosetta Stone.