The Memoirs of Lincoln Peterson

Journal

13/6/2036: I’ve finally done it! I invented the time machine. It uses a miniature wormhole to send yourself back in time. You must have a specially designed suit that dissolves as you get sent back in time to protect you from the elements and edges of the wormhole. If you touch one of the sides you will get sucked through and get ripped apart from the inside. It is almost flawless but I think it is worth the risk to test on myself. One of the 2 teeny tiny flaws is that it is I have no way back. My partner will continue to work on the time machine after I am sent, trying to find a way back (I’m going because we drew straws and I gat the short one. Not the greatest but well worth the risk. I am launching myself tomorrow back exactly 970 years, a little before the Battle of Hastings. I would perfect it before testing, but 970 years is the limit I can send myself back, and I have been researching the year 1066 for the last 2 years in my free time and breaks from working on the time machine. I should also mention the other flaw before I go. One is that it hurts like heck. I sent an animal (a monkey) back a week and the pain readings were about the same as a muscle shot, not too bad but it increases the farther you send yourself back. So if you send yourself back 970 years, that’s the same as fifty and a half thousand muscle shots in one place, this is happening all over your body. That is why I also invented an extremely powerful painkiller, and I mean extremely. It makes getting shot feel like you simply skinned your knee. This should still be very painful. The painkiller may be powerful but one dose only lasts 6.6 seconds. It takes one second per hundred years, so I will feel it for 3 seconds. If I took more than one dose it would kill me; so I’m stuck having fifty and a half thousand-muscle shots shoved into me for three seconds.) I am using my think wave technology. Whatever I think my partner will see on our computer so he can keep track of me.

14/6/2036: Today is the day! I am going to be sent back 970 years. I’m so exited I had to take some pills to calm me down. I’m also so nervous what if it does not work? What If we don’t have enough power and the machine shuts down half way; so I get half-left here and half in the year 1066? What if the wormhole grows too much? I could be anywhere and anytime… what if I hit a side? What if I’m a baby when I arrive? What if I accidentally change the course of history? What if there is a person standing in the exact time and place I arrive in? My particles would reject his and I would spontaneously combust. O.k. I have had a little time to calm down and I think I’m ready. A dozen cold metal sensors the size of a quarter are pressed against my chest and stomach. A ripple of anxiety pulses through me. Eleven more sensors were placed on my back; my entire spinal column was covered by twenty-three, six more on each leg, five on each shoulder, eight on each arm and twenty on various places on my head. One hundred and four in total, each one costing seven thousand each. The other equipment costs a total of thirty four million nine hundred and forty two thousand six hundred and ninety one dollars and forty-six cents, that is $35,670,691 in total, (I do math when I am nervous). My partner gave me the painkiller shot; it stings a little more than expected. The machine is spinning around me faster and faster. All I see is the machines’ giant arm rotating around me. I saw a flash of bright light, so bright I had to look away. Then a strange sensation, of nothingness. Suddenly a red-hot burning sensation filled my whole body. Like being shot several times over. I tried to scream, but the pain trapped my voice in my throat. I looked at my partner; his face showed disgust as I screamed silently. The seconds felt like hours. One… two… three…four…five…six. The pain hit me without warning. It made everything previous feel like nothing. Like having 5cm drill bits drilled in all over my body…times only a thousand times worse. The worst part is for some reason I stayed awake for the ordeal. Not aware of my surroundings only the fire that burned in my flesh and brain. The edges of my sight went red. Each second taking several eternities. I feel so helpless I can’t do anything but what for the pain to subside; or die…

14/6/1066: There I lay panting in cold mud. I waited several minutes before I had the strength to even open my eyes. I blinked several times before my vision was restored. Then another few before they focused. My other senses came later. First the smell of fertilizer and livestock. Then the sound of cows and people yelling. Then my whole body started aching terribly. I curled up into a ball, and waited for another couple of minuets before I could sit up. Finally when I sat up I spat/coughed, out blood. Then I surveyed myself. I was not recognizable. My clothes were torn and tattered, my hair was a frizzled mess; but worst of all was the blood. I did not comprehend it was blood until I felt it warm trickling down my legs. I looked down, my legs was raw and bloody. I reached down to feel them but my arms hurt far too much to move. They were also stripped of skin. I realized that if I was not to change the course of history but still witness the Battle of Hastings I had to A) heal B) find a job C) blend in. The job I am going to take is a blacksmith. I am fairly strong and have always had a gift with my hands (after they heal of course). All of a sudden, a wave of pain washed over me. I knew I was going to pass out. I knew it because blackness was already eating at the edges of my sight. I heard a famer yell, and I felt a wet cloth pressed against my head.

17/6/1066: What do you think went through my head when I awoke? The correct answer is UGHHH!!! My it feels like ten thousand hammers are pounding inside of me. I have been unconscious for 3 days and I still can’t walk. I have to start looking for a job as soon as I heal. I have bandages all over my body. I have to go back to sleep, or the healer will get mad but I will leave soon.

18/6/1066: I have to get a job but the healer will not let me. She says she won’t let me go for another 4 days. She also says that I am healing at an incredible rate. I can’t wait that long. I’ll go mad.

22/6/1066: The healer let me go. I am almost fully healed. I have to go to another more important town to find a smithy. I brought a fair amount of gold back with me to get started. I can buy a small shop, some materials, a furnace and some tools with it. Then I hope I will find some buyers for my weapons and amour otherwise I will surly starve.
I found a map of England and Winchelsea is in the bottom right near Hastings so I can travel when it is time to battle. It is a small shop and not much space to work with but it will do. I am lucky I found anything at all. There is a storage room in my back were I store my goods until there is a market for them because I am guessing there is going to be a little “dispute” over the crown. I have decided to back Harold Godwinsin on this battle, because the best view I am guessing is going to be high up on a hill. Harold’s army is on a hill. I am producing my goods slowly but I am sure I will get faster.

26/6/1066: My head hurts. I mean more than usual. It is just a headache but it is worth mentioning. I have to keep a watch on it. Producing is still slow.

27/6/1066: Being a blacksmith is hard work. My storage room is filling very slowly; and the materials are not cheap. Times here are hard on most people.

10/9/1066: I am using my gold sparingly; only to buy wood for my furnace, metal to make goods with, and food for my table. My headache is slowly increasing every time I make sudden movements and is beginning to become worrying. The Vikings are coming in 10 days. So I have to produce faster than ever.

20/9/1066: My gold is nearly replenished; in fact I have hired some help to get supplies, so I can create more goods. I have nearly perfected the art of making, maces, axes, swords, and spears. I am also getting pretty good at making chain mail, helmets and the occasional plate amour.

25/9/1066: Finally the English killed the Vikings, which were lead by Harold Hadrada king of Norway. I thought the day would never come. It did not help that I thought that I some how altered the course of history. My head throbs when I think or concentrate too hard and I am beginning to get very worried. It is a sad day. The farmer that originally found me went into war. He was in the front lines and got killed by Vikings. There is plenty of food on my table now, because people are buying lots of my goods.

29/9/1066: William the duke of Normandy has arrived; I can’t seem to make enough goods for Harold’s ever-expanding army. I wish I could see Williams’s fleet as it arrives but, alas I could not get close to them with out being shot with an arrow. The fleet was epic. It consisted of approximately 700 ships. Stretching farther than the eye could see.

13/10/1066: Harold tried to negotiate with William today. It did not too go well. King Harold rejected all of William’s requests. Predictable, considering William asked Harold to either hive up the throne to him or fight him in single combat; winner becomes the king of England. I almost wish that is what Harold did; because if he did, a lot of innocent blood would not be spilt. I have traveled to Senlac Hill today (it is were the Battle of Hastings really took place and is approximately six miles northwest of Hastings). I am so exited; tomorrow I am going to get to see on of the greatest battles in history!

14/10/1066: I’m on Senlac Hill. I see both armies from the spot I picked. I just hope I do not get hit by a miss-aimed arrow. The Normans have arranged themselves in a tactical pattern; foot solders first, then archers used to soften up the English before the foot soldiers get there the; finally as a last resort, their knights on horse back taking up the rear. In the army I estimated about 8,400 and consisted of approximately 2,200 , 4,500 and 1,700 archers.The English were very smart. They placed themselves on a hill so it was harder to reach them. Forest surrounded their back and sides so the Normans could not flank them. They put fosse (ditches) and fences up to slow down and kill many of the Normans. The English had no horsemen and they only had about 7,500 men in their army. It consisted entirely of ; of this infantry most of them were spearmen. They had horses, but once at the appointed place they dismounted to fight on foot. The English made up the difference of numbers by standing in close ranks. Normans lead and attacked. As they charged up the hill, the English threw down whatever they could find; stones, , and . Several hours I just sat there taking all this in the sound of clashing metal, the smell of sweat and blood. It was great. At the start of the battle, William's had fired directly into the English force, but the arrows were ineffective because of their shields. William then ordered his archers to fire over the shield wall, so their arrows landed in English army. The archers did this, with great success; taking several peoples’ eyes out. When I saw this I was disgusted. You would to if you saw peoples’ eyes falling out of their sockets and arrows sticking out in their place. When I saw Harold’s eye go in this manner; I bent over and through up. After several seconds I uncurled and continued watching. The English did not lose any ground at all through out the whole battle; and they defended extremely well. Several more minutes passed. I was passionate about this battle. I read so many articles and books on it and saw so many movies and so many documentaries. The Normans got even smarter. They deceived the English and retreated. Then when the English were pursuing out of ranks, the Norman knights charged and killed a majority of the English. I cried out but my attempts to stop him were futile. I just watched as the Normans slaughtered the English. The ground ran thick with blood. Bodies scattered everywhere. One could not move without stepping on a body. King Harold was injured but some how survived the charge. The Normans took him and killed him and mutilated his body. That is how William Duke of Normandy became William king of England. That day he also got a nickname William the Conqueror. This entire battle took place between 9 am – 3 pm. Is it not amazing that so many people can die in six hours? I am simply in shock that I experienced it; but at the same time the disturbing images still burn in my mind.

15/10/1066: Today is a grim day. The English had lost the Battle of Hastings; and everybody buries the dead. Not a small feat ether with so many people to burry it took all day. There about were 5,000 English and 3,000 Normans were to bury. Many of the English that died had nobody to bury them and were left to rot where they lay. Even though I knew that would happen, it was still a shock to see how real it was. I also figured out what caused my headache my DNA had slightly shifted in the wormhole. This means I would be pulled back to the year 2036 in two days.

17/10/20036: What I did in my last two days in the year 1066 is a secret I cannot reveal; but I must say it is good to be back I the 21st century. The year 1066 is so gray and gloomy. It is interesting, but depressing. I do not think I will be going back any time soon.


The Memoirs of
Lincoln Peterson