chapter 3

“I had the dream again last night, El.” She sat on the sofa with me. “I keep wondering if this is the right way to be doing it, you see.”

“You’ve told me before, and I can only reiterate what I’ve said over and again. You might have been wrong. If that was the only way of doing it, then this method wouldn’t work and we’ve had enough success with it to show it does work. Now come along, you’re keeping everyone waiting.” And with that she led me down to the lab.

I still couldn’t believe had quickly everything had happened. It was only some two years since that night at our house where I’d made the breakthrough. It hadn’t been easy to get Hubbard to agree to the conditions, of course. But I think El telling him about how it was like some kind of old fashioned gentleman’s agreement form a more chivalrous age that had won him over. Not many men could resist a charm offensive from El.

So he’d let us build the test rig, fully expecting it to fail and for her and my resignations to appear on his desk. But it didn’t, and he’d been forced to leave us to it. It all sort of built up its own momentum then. The money was easy to get at and the media flocked to see us making particles appear before wed even sent them, it was almost like a kind of modern version of the carnival side show. Of course I really hadn’t expected the scaling up to work, after all it went against all the principles that allowed the process to work in the first place. No to mention the fact that it went against everything Id told myself way back when.

But it had and wed ended up sending whole objects back up to a day. And then came the test animals, all of which had been killed until we realised that conscious thought was playing a role. So then we started hypnotizing them and everything built up to today. The day when I would be the first person to travel the ‘wrong way’ down the one-way street of time.

I strapped myself in. It was quite a comfy chair, really, and it got me thinking about the sofa and I recalled that night once again, the night I’ve dreamt of so many times since.

I was round a friends house at the end of a big party where wed all got thoroughly mashed and I was about to pass out on the sofa when someone sat down beside me. I looked round to ask the person to shift so that I could get some much needed sleep, when I saw who it was that was perched on the other end.

It was I.

A much older me (about the age I am now, give or take), but still me. I thought I must be hallucinating until the other me said “No, you’re not hallucinating, Jack, I am you. And I am the you of the future.” I laughed then, mostly at the corny dialogue, but partly as I felt my mind drift into hysteria.

“Its ok, Jack, I wont keep you awake long, I just need to explain how to build a time machine and how you will become the first temperonaut” At which point he grinned.

And then it came, the details, some events, some proof of his identity, but most notably a warning. “You see Jack, I know its gonna be hard for you, but there are certain things that must happen. The most important of these is that you build the sub-mesonic fractal inducer. Without, that things will go decidedly pair shaped.” With which he left.

I assumed it was a dream, the next morning, but as my life progressed I was amazed at how I kept doing the things that Id said I would, until eventually I decided it hadn’t been a dream and that I was going to build a time machine. And here I am, twenty-five years later, sat in the sodding thing … having not built the inducer.

They put me in the trance then, so I don’t actually know how it all went. I’ve seen it happen plenty of times before, though, so I imagine it was basically the same. Lots of noise and flashing lights, a disconcerting sense of stillness and then the subject appears several yards away (due to the movement of the earth). Then the original test subject distorts and shifts out of reality.

Maybe this happens with all of the subjects. Though all of the animals came back still in the trance, and I’m awake. Maybe they wake up and then go back under.

It seems to be taking a long time, though. Time is relative though, so maybe it’s not taking any time at all. I wonder if I should open my eyes?

Well it took me a while, but I have opened them and I’ve started to wonder if things have gone a little pear shaped. I mean it shouldn’t look like this, should it? Unreality I mean. If I ever do get back, the philosophers are going to have an absolute field day. I wonder, what does it mean exactly? I should perhaps explain:

Everything around me is blue, except for some huge white letters in what appears to be courier font, reading "Microsoft Universe OS 98 has encountered a temporal problem. Press any key to continue."