Punky Fu

In 2054, Tempus Fugit Scientific Industries finally found the missing steps to Einstein’s theory and discovered that time in fact was not a constant, but contingent upon your movement through space. Neither was space a constant, but dependent upon your movement through time. By varying these constants, people could literally bridge the ‘mystic veil’ and travel to anywhere and any-when in time and space.

While actually penetrating the veil of the past was impossible for the physical body, Tempus Fugit found they could use incorporeal projection. That is, an observer’s bodiless consciousness could be projected to any time or place in human history. Once there, the person would conduct naturalistic observation in real time as an immaterial entity, moving about freely, but unable to interact, and leaving only a spectral shimmer to someone who might observe them.

They would never be seen fully, but only perceived momentarily as a shadow or a shimmer. People of the various times and places would declare the Observers as spirits, or angels, or demons, or just a trick of the light from not enough sleep depending on the psyche of the observer. The Tempus Fugit Scientists could live with that.

Their first forays into history were to investigate all the classic lovers of history, the archetypes: Romeo and Juliet; Marc Anthony and Cleopatra; John and Yoko; Ernie and Bert, and so on. The initial results were very disappointing. Some of the “World’s greatest love affairs” were fictional only. For example, it turns out that while Bert and Ernie really loved each other, it was more a reflection of the hands that back-loaded them… 

Romeo and Juliet were also fictional, although Shakespeare’s infatuation with fourteen-year-olds was not. Scientists learned a lot about the formation of mythos and why those stories were so enduring. They identified numerous factors on the formation of love. Syndromes were named, like the Romeo and Juliet Syndrome, where adolescents’ amorous intentions grow in direct proportion to their parent’s disapproval. At times, the scientists learned more about what NOT to do than anything useful for prolonging relationships.

On the other hand, observation and examination of some love affairs were quite revealing. Looking at his many musical works of John Lennon inspired the scientists to try to unveil the iconoclastic and ultimately tragic love between Lennon and Yoko Ono. The “us against the world” factor, the finding of solace and protection in the other, the sheer need that they were together were all quite revealing. Awards were duly awarded. Decisions cast. Toiling passions wrought.

They would examine the writings of real lovers, looking for elements of selfless and passionate love. They would scour the old computerized social networks - blogs like HidingPlace and BlunderUpon, find and record the writings, and then travel back to observe those entities. Perhaps the most crucial time was to go back to the beginning of the end, just prior to the the last lovers, back to perhaps one of the strongest paired souls of such love.