[Time Travel Adventures of the 1800 Club 04] • Book IV

The 1800 Club was a haven created to serve people seeking a brief escape from the frantic pace of life in New York City during the 2000s. For a yearly fee, a club member could dress in the styles of clothing their ancestors wore in the 1800s, eat the same food prepared the way it was then and read periodicals containing news of that particular date in 1865. The 1800 Club had only one hard-and-fast rule: while inside clubrooms, each member must “not speak out of club time.” In other words, members were to speak only of items that existed and events that had occurred up to that date in 1865.

However, members were typically not privy to a powerful secret: The club had been started by people from the future. The only current-generation person knowing the secret was Bill Scott, the 1800 Club's president. As briefed by the outgoing club president, Prescott Stevens, key people from the future routinely sent probes back in time to ensure certain historical figures performed exactly as the history books subsequently recorded. These guardians-of-the-future discovered that, at times, historical figures strayed from the tasks, decisions and actions history had assigned to them.

In these cases, the future "Time Watchers" found it necessary to return to a past age and nudge historical figures back on track, but without the figures knowing their actions were being guided and influenced. However, in the decades after 2011, the Earth’s environment had been very effectively cleansed, and future-dwellers could not tolerate breathing the polluted air of the past. Breathing, for citizens of the future, was extremely laborious, overtaxing their cardiopulmonary systems. Consequently, they established The 1800 Club to attract potential time travelers, who would not be unduly inconvenienced by poor air and water quality, and could function well in a long-gone age.

As a regular member of the club, Bill Scott was eventually selected for a critical visit to the past. He briefly served as President Abraham Lincoln’s substitute, and completed his mission successfully by giving the Gettysburg Address. As a result, he was offered the club's presidency. Prescott Stevens retired to 1863, where he had originated, and Bill assumed responsibility for "fixing" unacceptable past disruptions as the Time Watchers discovered them. He also identified club members who might be called upon to assist him on missions that required specific knowledge and skills.

Each of the book's ten chapters tackles a glitch in time identified by a time probe deployed by the "Time Watchers. In turn, Bill Scott, the 1800 Club president, is given specific missions to the past. Scott scrutinizes club members' bios and resumes to determine whom he might send back in time to nudge history back on track. In this book, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, top U.S. Ace of WW1, is shot down and killed leaving a huge hole in the aviation industry for years to come and world famous aviatrix Amelia Earhart completes the around the world trip that history says she died on. Her return creates havoc in the time stream and the club must go back and fix it without killing her.