Go time. There was no way that Danielle could make herself feel comfortable about what she was going to do today. The AI glasses had provided the downtown address for Danielle, just off of the Strip. Las Vegas traffic was always bad, even on Saturday, so her dad had suggested that they leave early, in order to be sure of making the 11:00 am arrival time. Two hours of preparation was required prior to her 1:00pm departure.

  Dad dropped her off fifteen minutes early and Danielle stepped into the conventional looking office building about eight stories high. Two security guards later, she was being scanned for admission into what appeared to be a secure door, which led to a reception area with a young man seated behind a desk. So far, no one was wearing glasses.

  "Danielle!" responded the young man. "You made it! Come with me please, I want you to meet the rest of the dispatch team."

  Through yet another impressive door and into a spartan room with a high ceiling, and as she rounded the corner she saw what had to be the time dispatch module. Three studious looking people in lab coats were examining the metal floor of the machine. All three turned their heads to see Danielle's entry into the room. Two women in their mid thirties, without glasses, and an older fellow in his sixties, who Danielle suddenly recognised as Agent John Teator!

  "Danielle! So nice to see you again. I put in a special request to be part of the crew for your first mission. You are probably a bit nervous, I imagine;"

  "More like off the charts nervous," replied Danielle.

  "Yes, I was like that as well the first time I stepped into one of these," explained Agent Teator, as he gestured toward the sophisticated equipment.

  The time dispatch module reminded Danielle of pictures that she had seen of MRI machines, but with this system you stood upright in the middle of the large rings. The time agent lessons had explained that these metal rings provided exact line up markers for the 2428 time machine engineers. A control desk was next to the rings, connected by black plastic coated cables to the base of the structure. She was transfixed with the thought of stepping into the middle of the metal rings and having the large metal door close behind her.

  "Try not to worry, Danielle. We are all here to support you. The transfer itself is instant, painless and straightforward. You will be standing inside and in zero perceived time you will find yourself standing in this same building, on Saturday, November 9th, 1994 at 11:00am. Make sure that you are mentally prepared for that. You will be standing in a storage room with no windows and no lights on. We will provide you with a period flashlight, so make sure that it is turned on. You will exit the room, no code necessary to exit, but to get back in you will need to type in your birthday, 280207. Walk down the hallway and exit the building. There will be a number of other people on the main floor and we do not expect any trouble but if anyone asks, you are a journalist from the Reno Gazette-Journal. Sarah will provide you the necessary identification, but the nineties weren't too bad for things like that. Most everyone will take you for your word when you say who you are. And you can pay cash for just about anything. That was pretty normal back then. Sarah has some period cash for you."

  Danielle was trying to take everything in.

  "At any time, day or night you can walk into the storage room ,stand on the marker and place your palm onto the lens of your glasses. That is the retrieve signal. It is your call as to when you come home, but don't leave it past Monday at midnight. If you haven't returned by then, I will come looking for you. Remember that for us, no time will have passed, at all. You step and close the door, and the next we know, you are back. Less than a second elapses." John explained. "We won't even know you are overdo unless the Arachnid AI tells us."

  "Will this be dangerous for me, John?" asked Danielle.

  "Oh no Danielle. I simply wouldn't let them send you out on a dangerous mission. Spending a couple of days in Vegas in 1994 is probably safer than if we sent you out the door right now. You are familiar with the city. It has changed since those days, but you will recognise most of the roads and some of the buildings. It sounds like you also might get out towards Pahrump, but you know your way around that place too. Just do your best. Honestly, this is a low priority, zero danger mission. Do your best, and that will be completely sufficient. Have some fun too! You're booked in at the Maxim Hotel, called the Westin these days, which is hosting the pageant. Just remember that your glasses won't be able to communicate with you back in 1994. They will record everything you see and hear, but no connection will be possible until you return to the present."

  Sarah and Doug set Danielle up with everything that she would need. Period clothes and a handbag, a wallet full of cash and IDs. She changed out of everything she was wearing in a change room, and tried on some of her new clothes. Danielle selected a short skirt and dress shirt, with a fitted jacket to go over top. Modestly high heels completed the look. She was going to a pageant, after all. It would probably pay dividends to look good. Two more outfits that caught her eye went into the suitcase that Sarah provided. There were even period makeup and toothbrush kits in the side pocket of the suitcase. Margaret, the other outfitter, also provided Danielle with an interesting machine for journalists, a Sony Pro 2 tape recorder. It took Danielle a few tries before she could make it work properly but Margaret walked her through it. "Every reporter, worth their salt had one of these back in '94."

  At 1:00, on the dot, Danielle was standing inside the metal rings of the time machine, suitcase in one hand, and flashlight in the other, wondering what on Earth had possessed her to take this job. When the transfer took place, it really was painless and immediate. The time machine literally ceased to exist around her, and was replaced instead by what looked like a janitors closet. She was standing on a black painted square about 24 inches across. Her exit mark.

  She drew a deep breath, stepped towards the exit door, turning the knob. There was a hallway with a couple of young men chatting, and another woman walking away from her at the other end of the hallway. Danielle noticed an exit sign and walked towards it. She passed by another sign reading: Health Path Clinic, open 7 days per week. New patients welcome. A few more steps and she was through the main exit door and out onto the streets of Las Vegas. It took one glance to realise that she was indeed in 1994 Las Vegas. 'I am a fucking time traveller,' thought Danielle Wilson to her very satisfied self.

  Her confidence building, Danielle flagged down the first empty taxi cab she saw, and asked the driver to take her to the Maxim Hotel. As they arrived Danielle noticed that, from the outside, not too much was different in the 1994 version of the building. She pulled out her wallet and paid the driver in cash, adding a 25% tip to the fare that was showing on the meter. The guy seemed pleased and eagerly helped her with her suitcase.

  A hotel bellboy also seemed enthusiastic when he offered to carry the luggage into the lobby. Maybe the skirt and heels were already paying off. Danielle dropped another tip in his hand, and registered at the front desk. No ID check, no credit card scan, no deposit required. People in the nineties sure had faith in one another. All she had to do was fill out a form with her name, address and phone number. Danielle was Elanor Ingman of Reno Nevada, journalist ,and had the fake ID to prove it. She had memorised a Reno address and phone number. Everything went well and she was handed her key. A real metal key! How weird was that?

  A quick visit to her third floor hotel room to drop off her suitcase, and on to the main exhibition hall to check out the pageant, cassette recorder over her shoulder.

  Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  The pageant was a doozy. Swim suit competition. Evening gown competition. Coordinated dance routines where all the contestants performed together. Definitely not the sort of event that would ever normally attract Danielle's attention. Did these sorts of pageants still exist in 2026? She didn't really even know the answer to that question.

  A few times Danielle was able to pick out Linda in the competition, and she was a pretty good looking young woman.

  The final segment of the pageant was the talent part of the competition. The talents varied from singing, 'In the Arms of an Angel,' to performing CPR on a mannequin. One young woman showed off some dresses she had sewn and another performed a weird skit about Soylent Green, whatever that was.

  Linda Moulton Howe really stood out. She explained to the judges that she was studying journalism at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She sat down at a microphone and delivered a 5 minute report on the UFO crash at Roswell, New Mexico, including details that Danielle had never heard before, not even from Uncle Lou. Apparently, the day after the incident, the Air Force itself announced to the local paper that they had captured a crashed flying saucer. She sounded really professional, and even though some of the crowd giggled a bit, or seemed confused, the ovation at the end of the performance was loud and enthusiastic.

  The judges conferred and added up points on their sheets of paper. They seemed to be having some trouble agreeing on the winner. One of the judges name plate read: George Knapp, which rang a bell in Danielle's 2026 mind. Was that the same guy she saw on evening news casts sometimes? She wasn't certain. If it was him, he looked a lot younger now! Knapp was going to bat for Linda Moulton Howe. Danielle was sure of it.

  Eventually the order of finish was secretly compiled, and the remaining competing girls were marched out on to the stage, one more time. Miss Congeniality, tenth place, ninth etc., right up to the point where there were just two competitors left without a placing. Predictably, Linda won and all the other girls ran out to hug and congratulate her on her victory.

  Once the show ended, it was time for Danielle to go to work and try to interview Linda Moulton Howe. That was going to be easier said than done. At the winners news conference, after the show, Danielle never even managed to have her hand recognised to ask Linda a question. What should she do? Surely this woman had to eat something? Danielle cruised around, with her tape recorder over her shoulder, to the many restaurants and cafes, and even checked the casino floor. No luck. Three hours later, suffering from sore feet and severe hunger, Danielle had just about resigned herself to failure on this night, and was starting to consider other options for the following day.

  That is when her big break happened. Every new journalist needs a big break, and Danielle's came in the form of an elevator trip. She had noticed a cosy little restaurant on the second floor, Jason's, was sparsely populated and looked kind of nice. She stepped into the elevator that would take her there and looked inside to see Linda Mouton Howe, in the flesh. She had changed into her street clothes, but there was no doubt about her identity. This was it. Danielle had less than two minutes to make her sales pitch.

  "Linda Moulton Howe! Congratulations on your big win! Well deserved! I absolutely loved your talent presentation. Your report on the Roswell Incident was so interesting. I absolutely was left wanting to hear more of what you had to say!" began Danielle.

  "Why thank you. I was a bit nervous about how it would be received," responded the pageant winner with a smile.

  So far, so good, so she continued, "I am a reporter for the Gazette-Journal and I would love to hear more of what you have to say. I'm grabbing a bite to eat at Jason's cafe on the second floor. Care to join me? I'm buying." It was almost like asking her out on a date which felt exceedingly strange to Danielle.

  "That sounds like fun," replied Linda, and just then the elevator bell sounded to announce their arrival at the second floor.

  Danielle set her Pro 2 recorder onto the table, and the pair took their seats. A waiter immediately brought menus. Meals ordered and Danielle began with, "Do you mind if I record our conversation? I want to make sure that I get all of the details right in my story for the paper. Is that okay with you?"

  "Sure!" replied Linda.

  "Tell me how you became interested in UFO phenomenon Linda? I am very curious about that. It's not such a common interest, especially in beauty pageant contestants."

  "I suppose that is true. For me the interest presented itself from my first working assignment between semesters at the UNLV. I helped out producing a documentary about organic farming northwest of Bakersfield, and I ran into some ranchers who had some stories to tell about mutilated cattle. They were seeing lights in the sky that they couldn't explain, and then next morning they would go out into their fields to find that their cattle were missing, or that they had died overnight and seemed to have been surgically altered. It got me thinking, and I've been interested in the subject ever since. Maybe, some day, I will write a book.

  "Do you listen to Art Bell?" asked Danielle, crossing her fingers that the answer would be yes.

  "Yes! Yes! That guy is so interesting! Every night that I can stay awake that long, I turn him on at 10:00pm. The best radio program on the air today. " explained Linda.

  At that moment another break took place for Danielle and her mission. George Knapp walked into Josh's cafe. The question was: Would this be a good break or a bad break. Danielle decided to roll the dice.

  Waving her hands towards the journalist that she had viewed hundreds of times on television, years into the future, she waved in his direction and beckoned him to join the two of them, at their table. "It's the judge who fought for you to win, Linda. Let's invite him to sit with us."

  Danielle didn't even wait for Linda to answer, saying, "George Knapp, what a pleasant surprise! Would you like to join us? I was just discussing with Linda how impressed I was with her talent presentation." Her chips were all in. Would Danielle's bet pay off? She was pretty sure that she had assessed the situation correctly. Knapp often referred to unexplained phenomena, in the programs Danielle had seen as a teenager. Surely he was already into that stuff at this point in his career?

  "I would love to speak with Linda in person! I hope that I am not interrupting anything," he commented, glancing at the Pro 2 tape recorder.

  "Oh not at all sir, I am just recording so as not to forget any of the details for my story. Elanor Ingman, Reno Gazette-Journal. I am an apprentice. This is my first assignment." Danielle tried her best to turn on some charm. Would it work?

  "I completely understand. Go ahead and leave the recorder running." Then turning towards Linda he added, "Congratulations, in person for your win. I am sure that you will be a fine Miss Nevada USA. I was also moved by your Roswell report."

  George and Linda hit it off. Like two peas in a pod, they covered all the bases of the UFO phenomenon. Danielle was really just along for the ride through most of the conversation, but when an opportunity presented itself, she introduced the subject of Art Bell and his radio program into the mix. That produced another meeting of minds, and George mentioned that he had met with Art Bell on several occasions. Linda added that she would love to meet Art Bell in person.

  Danielle responded positively and stated, "Art Bell is the second interview requested by my paper. I am supposed to track him down for an interview tomorrow, but I hardly know where to start. He seems like a difficult guy to get a hold of."

  "I'll give him a call for you two. Why not? The old geezer would definitely get a kick out of a visit from the likes of you two!" George Knapp pulled a cell phone out of his jacket pocket. That really surprised Danielle since she had learned they were quite uncommon in the year 1994. This one was black, and had a Nokia brand above the basic screen. "It should work, I just charged it in my room."

  "It's ringing," said George, looking at his watch which read 9:45. He'll be getting ready to go on the air but he should take my call."

  "Hello George. Make it a quick one! I'm gonna be on the air in fifteen god damn minutes!" The phone speaker made Mr. Bell's words easy to make out for both Linda and Danielle.

  " I'm sitting with Miss Nevada and she wants to meet you. Can I send her up to your place?"

  "Is this a fucking prank, George?" spat out Art.

  "No prank Art. She's a big fan and an even bigger UFO expert. Not shitting you! Can I send her up? We are here, at the Maxim."

  "If she can get here at 4:00am I will make some time for her. Right after I go off the air."

  Art was agreeing to the interview! 'Well, sort of' thought Danielle.'

  "I'm sending a reporter with her," George Knapp waved in her direction.

  "Elanor," whispered Danielle.

  "Elanor, from the Gazette-Journal. She'll be there too."

  "Fine, send 'em both. Gotta go George, theme music is playing," and Danielle heard a loud click on the receiver.

  "You're in, and don't blow it. Art doesn't see many reporters. Not many at all. And leave the tape recorder at home. Art hates being recorded by someone else."