Skip to main content

A Very Timely Transcript - A Short Story

time travel








Once upon a time there was, well, time. You see, time is a very complicated thing, kind of like humans, and, just like them it wants to exist. This, of course, is very irritating, especially when you are a time traveler.

The main principles of time travel, as outlined by hundreds of guidebook writers and science fiction authors are that you must not interfere. You can not change the course of history, you know killing Hitler and the likes, and you definitely can not go back and meet yourself. You don't want to end up being your own grandfather, or something equally weird. That is the popular story anyway.

What these textbooks fail to mention is, as you would expect, the truth. Time doesn't like changes because he is stubborn. And when he has spent what is, in very plain terms, Eternity, planning out how everything should work out, you can't just go ahead and mess things up. He will be mad. More than that. He'll be furious! And then, terrible things will happen. To you. Time will eventually get you. He'll have his revenge.

That's what time travel writers don't say. If they did, they wouldn't sell any books. I presume I will face the consequences for writing this too. Truth is never easy, but someone has to do it. Even if I'm erased from history, I hope this text will remain.

Sincerely,

-----

The writing at this point becomes unintelligible, ladies and gentlemen. We believe the author was erased from history, just as he feared. However, the discovery of this text has been fuelling our research in Time Travel for the past fifty years and it is our great pleasure to finally announce we've made a breakthrough. Time is no longer a straight line.

In exactly 5 minutes we will press this button and transport this room and everyone in it fifty years in the future. As our ancestors said centuries ago, one small step for a man one giant leap for humanity. It's time to make history!

------

End of transcript. We may never find out what the people in that room did and where, or better yet, when they found themselves after pressing that button. We recovered this recording from an obsolete archive at the far corner of the universe as part of our Institute's archaeology program. Said planet has been long forgotten and abandoned, the inhabitants either migrated to different solar systems or dies out when the natural resources were finally consumed.

Time travel seems to have fascinated our species since the beginning of time. The science, the possibilities, the power. It can corrupt people. Numb their senses. Of course we all know that time travel has been banned for thousands of years and all reality alteration experiments take place in alternative universes, where we have managed to suppress any attempts of technological advancement. While many believe this is immoral and we shouldn't feel ourselves as superior to our other versions, it is our mutual agreement that this is all for the greater good.

Now, if you go through these doors, refreshments will be served in the next room and we can continue with a short Q&A session in the second half of our conference.
Labels:
Location: London, UK

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wake Up Call! - A poem about change

You think you are so smart Empty Is your mind and your heart Broken Your future and your life Wasted Is all you'll ever be  Nothing Unless you change it up WAKE UP!
Post a Comment
Read more

For The Sephora Kids And Their Parents - A poem about growing up

When we were young we wore pound shop blue eyeshadow shared peel off nail polish in the playground and sucked red lollipops to stain our lips. When we were young our value was measured in Diesel and Longchamp and you could not join the cool kids if you did not share their body type. When we were young we had to return expensive gifts  to make the money go further; my mother said "I don't deserve designer clothes" and I carried the wound for decades. Now that we're old  we take our kids for shopping sprees we give them all their mind dreams fulfil not theirs, but our old needs. When they get old will they be filled with gratitude, or are we, in turn, getting it wrong and raising broken kids with attitude?
Post a Comment
Read more

Career Advice - Spoken Word Poetry

You know when you're in university in a new city and you’re worried about your electricity   bill   so there’s no time to sit still because you’re left will no will to live.  Then you work like a bee without getting the honey you don’t make any money but you have to explain the quotation   use annotation have some thought exploration.   No that’s not exploitation   even with no remuneration.   Do you wonder what it’s all for? If your ideas are not worth more than someone else’s beliefs because he’s been published before? No, there is no light in the tunnel in a system that runs like a funnel towards unemployment   and zero enjoyment. It’s a pain with no ointment to get a job that you hate People will tell you it’s fate you should find someone to mate to continue the species and pay the price, which is to forget all your wishes So why are you doing this in the first place? You dress your words in fine lace   get in the right head space   ...
Post a Comment
Read more