I awoke strapped to a chair. The room was dark, but there was a bright light overhead. Apparently, I was the focus of the light. There were other chairs surrounding me. Shadowy figures came and took their places on the chairs. Their heads were covered with the hoods of their robes. It looked all too medieval for my tastes.
“Are you sure this is the one?”
“Yes.”
“He is too young.”
“Ask him. He must tell you.”
“Who are you?”
“Roger Born”
“Of what timeline?”
“He doesn’t know how to answer that.”
“How do we know where he is from?”
“There were two of him in his timeline.”
“We’ve taken care of the other one. This is the one we want.”
“Erase him. Now.”
One of them began to write in a notebook. They all were looking at me. One shook his head. Another began to write. A short pause. Then another was writing.
“Why is he still here?”
“We don’t know. This isn’t working.”
“If we don’t know the timeline he is from, how can we write him out?”
“He is still here. What is wrong?”
“Where are you from? Who was the first man on the moon?”
“Sully Braxton.”
They conferred among themselves. I could not hear what they were saying.
“There is no such timeline.”
“That’s your problem, not mine.”
“How long have you been time traveling?”
“Since I was a kid.”
“This is not right. He should be much older.”
“How old are you?”
“Thirty-two.”
“That is half of the age he should be. He should be sixty-four, like the other one.”
“They don’t know about the Nanocytes!” I thought to myself. “Do they know of Stevo or Mary?”
“How do you travel through time?”
“With the collector.”
“This one?” The speaker held up my collector. “We have examined it. It is of conventional design and function.”
“Do they know about my other one, implanted in my hand?” I thought. I flexed my wrist, but nothing happened. I was still here. Perhaps they discovered it and removed it. I was not about to ask them about that.
“He had no other equipment?”
“Nothing. No Identification, nothing.”
“You did have one other thing. A locator. We had your friend implant one on you. Which is how we tracked you through time. It took weeks to find you, each time you fled. But when we found you, it was a small matter to go to the time and place where you were. But that is all finished. Now you are ours.”
“Who are you? What right do you have to mess with me, and with everyone else?”
“We are the gods of this world. Your young race has no business changing the timelines. Only we may do that.”
“By what right?”
“By the right that we have the capability and you do not. We run this world as we see fit. Besides, it is for your own good. We like things quiet and in order. You bring chaos to everything you touch.”
“If we cannot erase him, we must kill him ourselves.”
“How?”
“I don’t care. Use a hatchet or a weapon. Terminate him. Now.”
One of them came toward me, carrying something heavy. I heard someone whisper in my ear, very close to my head, “Close your eyes, quickly!”
I shut my eyes. There was a bright light and loud noises. When I opened my eyes, the beings were all on the floor. Mary was standing in front of me, grim-faced. “For some reason, they are all dead!”
“Isn’t that the point? They should be. They were dangerous to us all.”
“No. We used flash bombs and stun grenades. They should not have died from that. No one does.”
“Mary, thanks for rescuing me, by the way. But these beings were very old. You said so yourself. They were the last of their race, from a planet that no longer exists. Perhaps they were too frail to stand the shock. But it is over. Why do you weep?”
“Because I have caused the death of another. We had plans to take them somewhere, where they could not hurt anyone. We meant no harm to them.”
“They should not have taken control of our world, Mary. They died as a result of their own actions, and neither you nor I had any control over how this ended. You meant no harm, but now they are gone. I am satisfied. We can continue with the plans for the future, as it should play out.”
Mary was thoughtful. “Are we any different than them, seeing we have plans for our respective futures?”
“Their plans were for their own purposes, and not for our good. Our plans are for the greater good for both of our races. How else can the future be? If our races are relegated to this world alone, what will the outcome be? Not a good one, certainly.”
“I wonder. Your Roger, the other one from your timeline, thought that time travel was not a good thing. He took the steps necessary to remove all of that as a possibility.”
“But he wrote about you, and all the rest. The Ringship, and the fifty planets. The alternate means of stellar travel. Your race and the Nanocytes. How would Mankind have all of that if his stories do not continue?”
Mary smiled. “Those things will occur in our world, regardless, don’t you think? How can they not, seeing there is but one world, and one world only?”
“How can that be, seeing there are infinite timelines?”
“There are not infinite timelines. Every person has his own. There are a finite number of people. But they all play out on the same planet, don’t you see?”
I thought about it. “No. I don’t see. It makes not sense that everyone has their own history.”
“It has to do with their respective world-views, not just their histories. People exist on this world but they have little to do with each other’s people-groups. The world is big enough for all of them. Individual histories make no difference. There is a common convergence in the future.”
“I don’t understand.”
“That is as it should be.” Mary paused, looking at me. “You have to go, you know.”
“Where? When? Why?”
“Your Roger Born has died. You have a widow to console.”
I was shocked. It showed on my face. “Mary, what is the date?”
“May 15th. The year is 1996. Why?”
“Does my implanted collector work?”
“Yes. It should now. We had it turned off, so you would not leave too soon. Their capture of you was how we found them.”
“I’ll be seeing you again, Mary. Give my regards to Stevo. I need to go!”
Running to a wall, I opened a portal and fled. I didn’t have much time.
(to be continued)
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