Free Earth Has Been Found by D. F. Jones

plain fact remains they existed out of time for three months.”
    “Yes … ” Freedman sat quite still, his expression revealing nothing. “Okay,” he said at last, speaking quickly, “I’ll act for you — with one proviso; my patients’ interests come first. If, in my opinion, there is a clash of interests, they take precedence.”
    “The Hippocratic oath, eh?” Malin smiled. “We wouldn’t want it any other way.” He looked at his watch. “Naturally we will count on your discretion, professionally and otherwise. Here’s my card. If you’ve got anything to say, call one of these numbers. If it’s urgent, call the number I’ve underlined. Ask for me and give your name — that’ll get you through the barricades. Failing that, ask for the Special Operations Room — they’ll know about you.”
    He got up and they shook hands. “It’s been a pleasure meeting you, doctor. Don’t get me wrong, but I hope we don’t have to meet again.”
    *
    If the travelers had hailed from New York City, their return from the dead would have had a considerable impact, even on what is the loneliest city in the world. The Event paralyzed Abdera Hollow.
    With all preparations made that they could think of, the FBI lifted the Denver telephone ban at 10 A.M. the next day and chaos began. Within minutes of the first call to Abdera, a stringer rang the local paper in Binghamton. Other calls convinced the editor that something mighty strange was afoot in Abdera, something worth checking out. Two hours later, his excited reporter called and the whole press and TV bandwagon started to roll, avid for the news break of the century. A TV team flew in by helicopter from New York, arriving at Albany County Airport just as the travelers were moving from plane to bus. Every news agency cluttered the lines to Washington. All government PR men had been warned to expect this. They stonewalled: A statement would be “issued shortly” by the Pentagon.
    It was difficult to believe that all the commotion centered on a single busload of elderly folk, winding its way up the old road from Interstate 87. They sat amazed at the familiar yet fantastic sight of snow, dramatic evidence that they had indeed lost three months of their lifespan.
    Bewildered and apprehensive, they were unaware of the inquisition which awaited them, the accidental fame which would briefly be theirs.
    But for the unthinking — the bulk of humanity — the news did surprisingly little, particularly abroad, where many equated the matter with flying saucers. In any case it had occurred in America, where weird things happened all the time. No, the time travelers were less than a nine days’ wonder. Men on the moon, UFO’s, life on Mars — what would they think of next?
    For many U.S. citizens, the Pentagon’s announcement of the “accidental entrapment of a civilian plane in a classified experiment in chrono-spatial relationships” put the affair in a vaguely understandable context: The Defense Department was fooling around again. Once it had been the Manhattan Project — which, admittedly, hastened the end of a war a long way back, but went on to produce the most expensive, deadly, and unusable firecracker in history. Then there was Fort Detrick with its equally deadly biological weapons, also rated unusable. And what good came of the space program, nonstick frying pans excepted?
    So thought most people over thirty-five, and the older they were the more they thought that way. Twentieth century man, raised on crises and horrors, miracles and marvels, has been practically immunized against anything that fails to touch him personally.
    Among the young, whose brains tend to be less ossified, there was intense interest. Campus protests erupted across the country, demanding that “the security wraps be taken off research of such fundamental importance and fantastic implications” — but for once the media were not deaf to presidential pleas, and the young people received