Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2002 15:01:09 -0800
From: Michael Andre-Driussi 
Subject: Re: (urth) FLF: The planes

Roy wrote:
>There are some problems with both the _High Country_ and the B-17 that I
>can't resolve. At the end of the book Free tells the four boarders that
>there are two ways to leave the _High Country_, either the gizmo or the
>B-17. Use of the gizmo entails time-travel; the B-17 doesn't. There is no
>doubt that when the four were put aboard the B-17 it was January 1983. Free
>also makes reference to the fact that the year on board the _High Country_
>is the same as the year on the ground, or 1983. There is also no doubt that
>the B-17 came from the W.W. II era, as did the crew. The crew's lack of
>contemporary knowledge, their clothing, and their artifacts (guns,
>cigarettes) all point to the 1940s. Okay, but the problem is, how did the
>B-17 get from 1942 to 1982?
>
>Judging from the backdoor of Free's house, use of a gizmo involves passage
>through some sort of field in order for the person/object to be transported
>through time. In other words, when the gizmo on _High Country_ was used,
>neither the plane itself nor the other persons/objects on it were
>transported. The _High Country_ got to 1982 the hard way, by flying
>continuously for forty years. When the B-17 appeared in November 1982, how
>did it get there?

When Buck Whitten brought his team from August 20, 1942 to November 5,
1982, they came in the B-17.

Presumably the gizmo on High Country can be set to project outside of the
High Country as well as in a doorway (in the High Country or in Free's
house).  The B-17 then flies through the sky-door and into 1982.

"On the other hand, if _High Country_ or some successor . . . was still
flying and we wanted to take something big home [to 1942], we could do that
in the plane" (ch. 59, 392).

Thus the HC gizmo can make a plane-size door, the little gizmo can make a
man-size door.

I hope this resolves your initial problem so we can move onto the next:
what is the perspective from the flight-crew of the B-17?  That is, those
two guys (one Army, one Navy) seem to have had some experience in flying
through time, and yet they have not lived in the 1980s, or if they have
they have not known it.  If they are the original crew who flew in with
Buck, then maybe they flew back to 1942 . . . otherwise they have been
living in 1982 for a couple of months (November 5 to January 22), under
wraps by Buck & Co. (so they would not know they were in the 80s), but
during which time they would use up their Camel cigarettes and matches.

That is (and maybe this is just a refinement of your original problem): the
B-17 seems to have come directly from 1942 specifically for this one
mission, and to have gone back to 1942 right after.  But this is not a
problem if the 1982 High Country gizmo is set to "outdoor" sky-door mode
and the target year of 1942.

The reason this one plane and crew must be used for =all= traffic to and
from High Country is plain.

I note that the plane left after it dropped off the four.  It might have
gone back to 1942 (lessen the chance of time-contamination) or it might
have landed back in 1982 for simple refueling prior to going up again to
get Ozzie Barnes, the one of the four who did not go through the indoor
gizmo portal.

Also note: the three who went through the gizmo on High Country did not
teleport to Free's house--instead they would have found themselves in the
abandoned High Country of whatever year the gizmo is set to, and have to be
ferried down to the surface via B-17.

=mantis=



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