Carefully, Ronin adjusted the stone tracks and counted their tick marks. He had been taught the craft when he was a boy. As a member of the Watchers, it was his responsibility to know how to use the device and to protect its secrets. Made entirely of a smooth glass-like obsidian stone, none of the Watchers knew where the device came from, just that it had been on the earth for thousands of years.

“Click”, the configuration almost complete, Ronin took a deep breath and wiped the sweat from his face. It was time to focus. Only the Watchers had ever experienced this. Instructions were handed down generation to generation, nothing ever written. He climbed in crouched like a ball and adjusted a plate to shut the door. By tradition, Ronin knew nothing about where he was going,except it would be on earth, and at the time he configured into the device.

Ronin waited for the final adjustment to be made for the device to engage. As his body suddenly heated up there was a flash and it was done. The year: 1937.