Many days passed but they were not enough to make this argument a forgotten past. One night when Parker was studying, Mr. Elden slowly crept into his room and said, “I know you don’t believe that I have invented time machine and travelled in time too but I want to justify this truth by showing you and Venessa the time machine.” “Really?” asked Parker. “Yes!” answered Mr. Elden with a beaming face. Now it was Venessa’s turn “Really father?” asked Venessa with an innocent face. Mr. Elden’s answer was just the same.. “Yippee!!” squealed Parker and Venessa in chorus. “So, let’s go!!” said Mr. Elden with a smiling cheerfully.

Venessa and Parker followed Mr. Elden towards the back of their house.
While following her father Venessa spoke silently into Parker’s ears, “Do you think Dad has a secret lab or something where he has hidden his time machine?” said Venessa with a puzzled voice. “Don’t know!” shrugged Parker. Barely few seconds after this, Mr. Elden stopped in front of a room. He, followed by his kids stepped inside the room. The room consisted nothing but an old almirah and a couple of three legged chairs. Venessa and Parker were looking all around as if oblivious of the reason why their father had brought them into an old, dusty room. Mr. Elden grinned on seeing their face. “Ahem” Mr. Elden cleared his throat to gain attention. “Kids, you need to learn whatever I say or do now.” saying this Mr. Elden were in front of the old almirah, tapped it lightly three times and said “Hello Diana! THE CODE IS 3110, ‘THE FUTURE HAS BEEN DISCOVERED.’ On saying this, the almirah was no more an almirah, it transformed into a passage. The expressions on the face of both the kids were similar to the situation when a new born baby discovers the world. “Follow me!” commanded Mr. Elden. After walking for about a minute, they could see a gigantic object wrapped up with a cloth. Mr. Elden pulled out the cloth off the object and the time machine was revealed. Mr. Elden’s chest swelled with pride and he said, “Ladies and gentlemen, I present before you the time machine, Cronus.
 

Cronus: The monumental time machine
This is Cronus. Anyone who descries it, thinks that all that is needed to do is to enter the code, the year and the secret combination. Isn’t a duck soup. The secret combination has five complete words you need to think of when you have got the code. Only two chances. If you get it wrong, you have to go where Cronus takes you and you cannot return. Is it still an easy time travel? Let’s see!!
“Is it working, Father?” asked Parker after somehow managing to tear his eyes away from the time machine. “Sadly, no, the bloody apes ruptured it. I somehow managed to return to this world with it.” “Well..um..can’t you repair it, Father?” “Yes I can!, but I won’t because I don’t want to travel anymore. It’s too risky for anyone. I don’t want to risk your lives.” scowled Mr. Elden. By the look on his face, it could easily be judged that this time it would be difficult to persuade him. “Please Father!” cried Parker. “Just once, Father!” pleaded Venessa. The kids pleaded and cried and shouted but Mr. Elden seemed to be rooted to his decision. Suddenly, an idea struck Parker’s mind which made him smile cunningly. “Father!” “Yes” answered Mr. Elden. “You said we could ask anything for this year’s Halloween gift.” reminded Parker. “Yes, you are right.” replied Mr. Elden. “So, Venessa and me want this time machine to be repaired as a Halloween gift.” said Parker feeling proud of himself for outsmarting his scientific Dad. “What?” stared Mr. Elden, “No, I’m sorry. I can’t do that!” replied Mr. Elden disapprovingly. “But Father! You said we could ask anything.” said Parker innocently. “But..But..” Mr. Elden had no words. Somehow his son had managed to conquer him over his decision ‘again’. “Alright!” he said grudgingly. Venessa and Parker exchanged looks and shouted “Yippee!! We are going to see the past, present and the future!” On seeing the expressions of his kids, he couldn’t keep himself from smiling. “But will you help me?” “Yes!!” the kids shouted at once.

From that day, Mr. Elden, Venessa and Parker immersed themselves completely onto achieving their goal ‘To get Cronus working repaired at Halloween.’ They managed to achieve it. Fortunately, they had managed to repair Cronus just few days before Halloween. “Ah! At last your Halloween gift is ready!” said Mr. Elden who was now completely drenched with sweat. Parker and Venessa were like missiles of joy fueled with exhilaration. “This will be the best of the bestest gifts for Halloween, Father!” Venessa and Parker squealed with joy. “Kids!” exclaimed Mr. Elden, “We’ll be travelling in a few days’ time that is to be precise the Halloween day to the…um…um…” “World of Apes, father?”  “Alright! World of Apes it is!” said Mr. Elden smiling. “Now have some rest!” said Mr. Elden in a commanding tone. Venessa and Parker forthwith left the lab and went to have a sound sleep. Somehow, they managed to pass those ‘few days’ which felt more than thousand years! Eventually, the Halloween day came and all three were now oozing with excitement.

After bidding a warm goodbye to all the guests, Venessa and Parker followed their father into his lab. “Now kids! Buckle yourselves up as you are going to meet your ancestors! Hope you have a gala time!” “And..” continued Mr. Elden “Before you step into the pathway to past you need to know some rules.” “But why?” impeded Venessa. “In case of emergency, Venessa.” “Alright!” “Now, Ladies and gentlemen the rules are as I say. Remember them by heart.” “We will, Father. Please say FAST!! I can’t wait to get aboard Cronus.” chirped Venessa. “Alright! Alright! My lovely daughter.” said Mr. Elden with a hearty laugh. “I have jotted them down in a paper so have a quick and thorough glance over it.

CODE OF CRONUS

The code of CRONUS: Just a sheet of paper, huh? The code changes every day on its own. The only one who knows the code is Mr. Elden. But what if he isn’t around? Will you still take it casually? It is a numerical code through which you have to think of the secret 5 word combination which is necessary for the time travel.

“Now step onto Cronus and buckle yourselves up kiddos!”
Mr. Elden then noted the clock. A moment before, as it seemed, it had stood at a minute or so past eight-thirty; now it was nearly nine!
He drew a breath, set my teeth, gripped the starting lever with both hands, and went off with a thud. The laboratory got hazy and went dark. He pressed the lever over to its extreme position. The night came like the turning out of a lamp, and in another moment came to-morrow. The laboratory grew faint and hazy, then day again, night again, day again, faster and faster still. An eddying murmur filled my ears, and a strange, dumb confusedness descended on his mind. Then, in the intermittent darkness, he saw the moon spinning swiftly through its quarters from new to full, and had a faint glimpse of the circling stars.
The landscape was misty and vague. They were on a hill-side and saw trees growing and changing like puffs of vapour, now brown, now green; they grew, spread , shivered and passed away. They saw huge buildings rise up faint and fair, and pass like dreams. The whole surface of earth seemed changed, melting and flowing under my eyes. The little hands upon the dials that registered my speed raced round faster and faster.
“What strange developments of humanity, what wonderful advancements upon our rudimentary civilization” said Mr. Elden and the children just kept on watching the environment looking quite shocked. Then after a period of shocked looks on the children’s faces, Parker suddenly asked his time travelled father, “Are there any creatures at this place?” “When I came last, my fate met with quite a lot of apes who unfortunately ruptured my time machine.”
“APES” cried the astonished children in a voice that startled Mr. Elden. “Yes, the last time I came here, I had a HORRIFIC experience.” “Now, let’s don’t waste time and get going.” And so they went to explore the “WORLD OF APES”.
  They saw the towering apes coming towards them. One of these emerged in a pathway leading straight to the little lawn upon which we stood with their Time Machine. They started running back towards the time machine and reached it safely without any of the apes reaching near. But the danger wasn’t over yet, the year, in which the time machine was to be set in, wasn’t seemed to be clicking up at that point in Mr. Elden’s mind. Seeing one of the apes reaching nearer, he quickly typed an year and was about to press the start button when an ape jumped onto the machine and caught hold of Mr. Elden and jumped out of it, pressing some buttons. The time machine started to vibrate and ……….!             
 

Hubbub of people swarming like bees woke up Venessa. She was laid on the cushiony bed with a heavy head. “Oh! Where am I?” “O My Holy Ra! Come on in, Master! The Princess is awake.” said the sorceress sitting next to Venessa. “Excuse me! Who is the Princess here? And where under the sun am I?” “Holiness! You do not remember! You’re the princess of the Upper Egypt! You were abducted by Apophis!” “Jesus! I am no princess. I am Venes…” “You are Princess Nefertiti, the goddess and to-be crowned queen of the Upper Egypt.” Said the angry sorceress whose eyes seemed to turn red, either by anger or those may have been so because of the heat of the desert.” Venessa decided not to argue anymore. She lied back down on the bed. Gradually, she fell asleep.

“Who are you?” and a stroke of water came on the face of Parker who was tied to the post. Parker woke up finding himself on the ship of the fierce and wild-looking pirates. “Who are you? Answer me!” asked a wild pirate who seemed to be the captain of the troop. “ I…am…I am Parker.” “Where am I? Who are you?” “Nobody dares to talk to me but I tell you. I am the king of the Nile. I like your bravery, so I tell you. I am Baniti ‘Roarif’ Habiru. I let you out. Now you work under me.” 

Venessa feels warmth all around her. She realizes that she is having hot bath by all the maid servants. “What am I doing here?” “We are sorry Princess but the sorceress ordered us to help you with the bath and be careful not to wake you up. But now that Holiness is awake, we must tell you that tonight your coronation of the Queen is taking place.” “What nation?”asked Venessa numbly “Coronation Holiness.. You will be on the royal ship, Horus’ Pride and visit your people.” “People!” “O Holy Princess! May the stars be with you. “Why” asked venessa in an awkward tone. “Your Holiness it is time for you to proceed for the coronation.” Venessa, who was now a bit scared by the last encounter of her with the sorceress, silently got up and proceeded with her.
“Now, here, meet the new group member, Parker!” “Ahoy, Parker!” Parker responded with awkwardness. “Parker, join them.” Parker joins the rest of the troop. “People, I got news about Queen’s coronation. We abduct her and get her to the islands of my dad’s precious treasure. “Aye, aye Captain! Yo Ho! Captain!”
Parker felt excited because he had read stories about pirates hunting down treasures but he wasn’t sure about them abducting the Queen of Egypt.
 

“Hail Queen Nefertiti! Hail your Holiness!” people shouted as Venessa were taken among the people on Horus’ Pride. “Thank you all for the love you have given me. ” Another round of hailing followed it. At a distance, the troop of Baniti was waiting at the shore of the Nile. “Now, listen to me ye all. Attack! Abduct! Threaten! Loot! Depart!!” “Aye, aye Captain!” shouted all.
As the queen’s procession got nearer, Parker got more excited. He couldn’t control himself. He just wanted to look at the Queen. To his astonishment, when he saw that the queen was none other than Venessa. He remembered all about their trip to the land of Apes and how Cronus was shaking to the core but he couldn’t figure out how did he reach them.
The Habirus attacked the Horus’ and abducted Venessa along with all the gold and booty they could. “Hurray!! We have got me key to treasure. Ye Park’r! ye will watch her as her guard wherever she goes but keep a check that she isn’t able to get down me Whydah.” “Whydah?” “Oh! Me ship, Whydah” “Aye,aye captain.”
Parker leaves in a jiffy. Venessa was still unconscious. Parker woke up Venessa. At first, Venessa got startled but when she saw Parker around her, she plunged herself on him. Parker calming her said, “Venessa! It’s alright! Keep yourself together. I am here now.” Eventually Venessa calmed down. “Parker, Who are these people? Why have they brought me in here?” “They are …well.. pirates of the Egypt.. and the queen of Egypt was a key to their treasure.” “ Treasure! But ..forget it. Where is Father?” “I am not sure. Haven’t you seen him?” “No, I thought he was with you.” “O Jesus! What are we gonna do?” “ I really don’t know at the moment. Let’s just do as these pirates say.” “ We don’t have much of our choice to do, do we?”
The next morning, both Parker and Venessa along with the pirates were taken to the mountain on the island of Baniti.
“You gotta take her to the bottom and um…search for the treasure.” said Baniti to Parker. “ You both come here and follow them and protect them with your life.” ordered Baniti.
 

They jumped into the deep and silent hole in the mountain. Parker and Venessa both prayed that they would be able to unite with their father as soon as possible if they would get out of this mess alive.
The whole journey from the mountain top to the salted surface, they couldn’t feel anything. They were stunned that they didn’t had even a single bone broken after such a ‘beautiful’ excursion from the mountain top. Instead they felt as if it were heaven. “Woah! What is this?” said Parker who was too surprised. “Well, it’s a whole new world down here, isn’t it par..” she stopped realizing that the two pirates were watching it. “What on the treasure chests is this place?” “Anyhow, we must keep walking.” said Parker. The four commenced walking. “How long do we have to walk?” said a tired Venessa. “Hold on! I see a small dot of fire over there.” shouted Parker. They ran towards the source of light.
Suddenly, a shout by Parker made them glued to the place they stood. “Be careful! There are a lot of stones with the hieroglyphics letters over each.” said Parker. “O my Captain! So this is the Ultimate Knowledge myth they all Ra followers talk about!” talked the pirates among themselves.
“Well….I really don’t know what these two jokers are talking about but it really makes me think that the treasure hunt stories of Egypt and pirates were true.” whispers Parker into Venessa’s ear. “But how do we get across this stone puzzle? Hold on..I remember seeing such stone puzzles in the Indiana Jones movies.” said Venessa. “Oh yeah! How could I forget about that?” said Parker remembering the movies. “Well we know that Captain asked me and he to save ye both but who on the Whydah is Indiana Jones?” asked the bewildered pirates.
Parker being commanding said “Well! You don’t need to know. Just look for some riddle in hieroglyphics around this place.” “Hey, look at it! It is beautiful than any Egyptian writing me has seen.” said one of the pirates.” “It’s all in hieroglyphics. What do we do now?” said Parker with a frustrated tone. “Move over! Let me see it!” impeded Venessa “Ha! It’s nothing! It’s simply written that- ‘you say it at the time of work when you are lazy, and when you do not want to do it at the time.’” said Venessa very confidently. The jaws dropped of the three self centered men.
“How did you read it, Venessa?” asked Parker. “I have some information of hieroglyphics. Anyways, let’s think what it is.” said an excited Venessa. Parker and Venessa kept on thinking, trying various guesses and suggestions. “Let’s do this tomorrow! I have done enough for now!” cried Venessa. Parker squealed with joy “You really are a Queen, Venessa. That’s the answer! The answer is ‘tomorrow’.” “What?” asked Venessa. “Now, everybody,  We got the answer and it’s ‘tomorrow’. Now, follow Venessa I mean the Queen.” The pirates silently followed Parker who was following Venessa. “Everybody step only on those stones on which I do and no other.” commanded Venessa. Venessa carefully reading the hieroglyphic letters on the stones jumped on the stones which made the word ‘tomorrow’. Unfortunately, one of the pirate showed up his true colours and ran after gold and treasure and just as always he paid the price in exchange of his life.

The next day, when they woke up they saw that a huge army of red ants was all around them about to kill them and eat them up. They for goodness sake had Venessa who impersonated the Queen, so the ants ran away.
Now, they knew that it wasn’t easy as they thought it to be. They had to be careful at each step. “ That was close!” sighed them all. They moved forward. They had just took a few steps when they had another obstacle waiting for them. They had to jump across a trench which was a 100 feet wide and 2000 m deep. They really couldn’t think of how to cross it. Then on in disappointment, the pirate threw a nearby stone into the trench. But to his astonishment, it felt as if the stone never went down. “How is this possible?” and threw more and and pebbles at the same place. They got to know that there was something hidden which would help them cross the trench.  Well, Well, Well what do we have here! A bucket full of honey! What use could it be for us?” “Let’s eat it up, Parker!” “ Hey! Hold on. We can use it to cross the trench. I think there is some kind of a bridge or stone pathway. Would you please pour it down, Parker.” Parker poured the honey down. They saw that there was a gap through which honey was falling down. Parker gaped and said “Watch out people. We got a lot of long jumping to do.”
As parker moved forward, Venessa looked down and her reaction was “Parker! O my God! The floor is LAVA!” “stop messing around, Venessa!” “I am in no mood to do so. Just don’t look down and walk straight.” But it was useless as the pirate saw the lava uprising, he felt attracted to it and to Parker’s astonishment jumped into the molten hot as furnace lava. Venessa pushed parker towards the end and jumped as long as she could to cross it over.
They couldn’t believe that they were all alone as they could see it. They had to keep on moving forward. They didn’t notice that they were walking around in circles. “ Don’t you think we have crossed this place for like 5 or more times?” “Well yeah! Wait! How could I be so stupid? It’s a maze!” “Well, how are we going to pass through it? I don’t want to live forever in here” “I DON’T KNOW!!” “Then I will have some of my oranges from the boat. Want to have some?”                         
“ Oranges….Why didn’t you tell me? How many do you have?” “  There are more than a hundred in this magical pocket of the sorceress I stole. I had to teach her a lesson.” “Excellent! Give me those. Eat as many as you can! And give the pips to me and keep following me!” “Pips are all yours. Enjoy!”
Parker ignoring the sassy and sarcastic statements of Venessa kept on walking while throwing away the pips marking the way which only led to the end of the maze. They had argued the whole way. But were silenced by the amazing shimmer and shine of the golden treasure and above that the wonderful but damaged time machine – Cronus!
 

“O MY GOD! I cannot believe that Cronus is here.” “ But  it’s damaged and we need to repair it.”
Parker and Venessa both knew how to do it. Helping their father had helped them learn a lot about the time machine. But as they were repairing the time machine, they thought of their father, Mr. Elden and all the good times they spent together.
“Finally, it’s done! Let’s take a look at our machine.” “Well, it’s alright and working but how to find out where is Dad?” “ Well, GOOD QUESTION! Where are you, father?” “ Dad said the passcode was ‘3110. Future has been discovered.”  “well that’s true. But I feel something’s fishy!” “Well he wouldn’t code it as 6824 as the first letters of the code of Cronus, would it be Cronus?”  Well do you know Venessa that was such a pretty thought of yours!” “Well it always is!” “Yippee! Cronus is working. Hop in! We are going to the year 6824!” “Oh! Ye both are not going anywhere!” came the voice of the fiery pirate king Baniti.
The Cronus was now almost translucent. And in a few seconds, it disappeared.
 

They could now hear robotic hands and arms working all around. Parker opened his eyes to look at a bunch of humanoids working in a place which was overall unknown to both of them.
Now the look on parker’s face was as bright as the moon in the night sky. He gawped and hopped when he suddenly heard about some rumours spreading all around. “What is this gathering all about?” asked Venessa unable to look into the core of the gathering. “Well it is about a human who has the secret of time travelling.” Answered parker with his eyes glued to the core of the gathering as he could see it.
“Well, it might not be good for that human to be amongst these humanoids.” giggled Venessa. “Shut up Venessa! It is DAD!” Venessa jumped and crawled through the crowd to look at her dad. He smirked when he saw Venessa in the crowd followed by Parker.
Parker understood what his father had to say. He quietly joined the procession along with Venessa. As they proceeded, they had to guard the control room of the master. They were not so sure about who would be controlling these humanoids but knew he or she was no good doing person.
He asked two humanoids to take their place as he lied that they were called in the control room. “Well this is cool!”parker said being amused “You are here to save DAD or just be amused to look at this place and tell me how cool it is?” “Well both. Now I am good at robotics at school so I will definitely crack open this system. Just keep a check that no one breaks in.” “Aye Aye captain!” Venessa was watching over the gate of the room when it suddenly opened. Both Parker and Venessa jumped onto the controlling board. Venessa was so scared that she started throwing whatever she could grab. First came a screwdriver across the room over the humanoid, followed by another screwdriver by Parker. Gradually as overcoming fear brings on victory, Venessa’s shot of the last screwdriver drove the humanoid out of his computer programming with it lying down on the floor in two parts. “Well done!” exclaimed Parker with a heavy breath.
 

After an hour of trying and hitting and heated debates between the long living brother and sister, finally they hacked the system. “Now look at this, Venessa!” and with a click of a button all the humanoids grew wild and went wild over each other. “Please rescue father! Parker! That one is going to attack him!” “Well, he cannot.”
      HUMANOID                   

        EVIL MASTER
There came a cold voice like that of a monster. “Two freshly packaged humans for me?” It was the evil master. Now came the moment. They had to vanquish the evil master and get back home. Suddenly there was a detonation in the weaponry panel. A humanoid had gone mad and was destroying everything. And there it came he pressed a huge red button which was built to destruct the place where all of them were presently. Using his presence of mind, Mr. Elden held hands of his kids and ran towards the time machine. “NO!!!! YOU CANT RUN AWAY! You….” and BOOM…..

the whole place was engulfed in the explosion. Till then, Mr. Elden entered the year in which they had to go and pressed the start button. This fortuitous event saved their lives.
There by came Mr. Elden with his eyes filled with tears and proudness of both of his children. It was finally the family gathering they had been waiting for like ages. “O Jesus! Thank you! I cannot tell you how worried sick I have been about you both. I thought I would never meet you both ever again.” “We would never let you go Dad” said both the children in chorus. They went back home in their world in their time. It was still the Halloween night. Both the kids excitedly dressed as the apes went to each house and got back with their treats.
The wide smile on their faces was priceless as Mr.Elden could feel. Everything was perfect.
They fell asleep swiftly as they had been to such an adventure never ever seen or experienced before. There was a sudden flash of light. The trio woke up and went to the secret lab and…..as  they went into the lab, Earth began to shake and…
THE END