Time travel isn't all it's cracked up to be. We all thought we knew so much about it. Our fake research and futuristic guesses were just that, and when we made the first jump, it hit us hard. Derek Carpenter, aged 37, was the first to use the machine. He picked a random date in the future, March 15, 2330. He disappeared in a flash of black and a scream of anguish and that was that. He never showed up again. There were tens of further unsuccessful attempts like this until finally, Stephanie Kenner, aged 26, went away from us and came back. She punched the date February 16, 2071. This trip wasn't exactly successful, but she was the first person that came back, and she came back with information.
Stephanie became violently ill upon her return. The rate that diseases had been evolving had meant that she got sent to a time where our antibiotics could not keep up. She would have to travel forward to seek medical care there. James Reed was a volunteer medical doctor who assisted her on her trip. When she returned alone we began to form our theories with a little more data but it took years before we felt sure about seriously traveling again, and even then it was usually deemed not worth it.
When James didn't return we started to wonder why. Stephanie told us he never showed up. She ended up alone when she arrived and only barely managed to seek treatment and get away. We did not necessarily have rules yet for time travel, but we generally tried not to interfere too much. It turns out there is no real way we could have interfered, and our caution was actually detrimental. James was an older doctor at 52, and the most popular theory that arose from this shared travel was this: you could not travel past the date of your death, or you would die. This was proved when Stephanie located James' obituary. January 6, 2058. Everyone who had been traveling so far had simply went past their death date.
The fear of sickness, the fear of death, and all the extensive and costly research made time travel forwards unfeasible and unfavorable. Reverse travel was generally unthought of. There was no fear of disease generation because you also could not travel to before your birth. There was a limited window of travel and it didn't grant as many advantages as the energy it consumed. So it sat unused, unwanted. A science fiction champion of limitless potential altered to a window into one's life. An interesting article for some, but non-financeable. Time travel was relegated to a parlor trick, more or less, for a long time. Until it wasn't.
Trevor Barrow, a visual effects artist and generally nice guy who was sometimes a piece of crap, became an unknown and undeserving pioneer. At 32, he was part of a team that made the first hard-light hologram prototype. This was due solely to the fact that he had used the life insurance from his father's death to take a trip into the future and steal the technology. Everyone credited Trevor with the discovery of the information, no one ever suspecting time travel. The furthest known date traveled into the future was 2115, and this technology did not exist then. That's because Trevor got this technology from a date much further than that into the future.
As usual, a scientific discovery was made by purely accidental means. When Trevor was making his maiden voyage he estimated his death year at 2078. When he arrived he decided to check up on himself, to see how much further he might have to go. Only he could not seem to locate himself whatsoever. There was no mention of him in the continental United States. He didn't know how to go about checking Europe or Asia and he also thought that would be a pipe dream anyway. So he took a chance. He traveled further. First to 2090. Still good. Then further still, 2115. He could not believe he still lived this long. The furthest any human had tried. Then, he went again. 2120. 2121. 2122. 2140. 2170. This can't be possible. How was he able to go this far? No obituary, no mention, no nothing. Trevor went on again. 2200. 2300. 2400. 3000. The year 3000 he stopped. He was having heart palpitations. He was dry heaving and spitting and shaking. Not from any effect, but from fear, or shock, or excitement, or some unearthly combination of all three. And in the year 3000, woefully unprepared and out of place, he took the knowledge for the hard-light systems, and brought it back.
Trevor thought this new found fame and glory and money would satisfy him. He thought it was what he wanted. But now there was a void in him. A question that could not be answered. How could he live? He went public in 2020 proper. Proof of the year 3000 was brought back, and the world was sent into a flurry. None of that mattered, really, because Trevor felt the strain and squeeze of society and he left again, for good. He was determined to get answers, to all of the hundreds of questions about what was happening.
Could he alter time lines? Were there even time lines? Time and space felt so foreign to everyone. Before, we had thoughts and ideas. Theorems and plans and situations and proofs. We were certain, without a doubt, that we knew what was happening. It turns out that Time is more complicated than the human essence can comprehend. Time is an element beyond wind or thought or touch or reason. But you didn't have to understand something to explore it. You just had to try. So Trevor left, and with him, took knowledge, and hope, and strife, and pain.
He knew he wouldn't get answers, at least comprehensible ones, from any earthly being who had not had the same experience as him, so he went far. Very far. Scarily far. The first place he jumped on his departure was the year 25157. Earth was still here, but unpopulated. Already he knew the questions would keep piling up. It was livable, but barren. Desolate and small. Crumpled. Shrunken. He decided to keep going. No use exploring this plane when he could get answers further. Bigger answers. More encompassing. Or so he hoped. So he went again. Doubled, tripled his jumps. 158767. 31456382. 1482679440. And beyond. Further and further.
At this point he was only surrounded in ink. A thick black encapsulated his time chamber, and in the distance, an unhindered view. Millions of twinkling bright lights. He kept going and going. Sure if his fear overwhelmed him he could go back, but unsure he would be able to go on peaceably after this without finding something. Anything. It was in a frenzy of button presses he stumbled into his first road block ever. The machine whirred and beeped and nothing happened when he pressed the activator. So he dialed it back a little and tried again. Nothing still. Is it out of power? Is it out of order? He sat still in the chair for a while and decided to rest. He took a short nap. Or a long one. Time was confusing to him now. No longer fleeting. No longer anything.
He awoke with a start to find himself in a glowing chamber. Soft blue light pressed against his eyes. It was a dull blue, and it made him feel at home. It shone pleasantly and not too bright. There were no visible walls or doors, simply a blue cube. He could not tell if he were an inch away from the wall or a mile. The light played tricks on his vision, for how pleasant it was. He stood up and looked around and took a step. The first step sent him into a corridor of metal and stone. That was a guess. The texture and shape and color of these things were so different to him he was having trouble believing he was awake. The end of the corridor came to a bridge over a white lake, though he was still inside and under roof. At the end of the bridge was what seemed to be a brick door. He pushed it open and walked into an octagonal chamber. There were 3 men and 4 women seated at chairs in a staggered position, looking at him expectantly. He took the seat facing them and just looked. None of them spoke, so he did.
He told them who he was and what he was experiencing. He told them how far he'd gone and what he was feeling. He talked for a day and a night and drank some water when they gave it to him. They all listened intently, some even sitting reverse on their chairs after a while, heads propped up on hands and staring into his eyes longingly, as if the words drooling from his tongue were gospel. He finally stopped his rambling rant and sat still. They spoke back to him after this. In turn and sounding very familiar and cordial, and not at all alien or perfunctory.
These people told him they had been here a while and they had constructed two solutions. You go with them, and go on, and continue to proceed, or you go back, for good. He answered before he had a chance to think. Being out of time will do that to you. He wanted to go back.
They nodded and smiled. The woman in front of him handed him a small wooden ring. It was impossibly smooth and fit his finger. Maybe you'll find the others, they said. We'll see you again, traveler. Then he got up and walked to the door on the left. He looked back at them as he left, and they were waving as if saying goodbye to a married couple. He walked through backwards.
Trevor woke up on his bed, exactly the day before he first traveled. He retained everything he had seen and heard up to this point. There was no time travel. There was no machine. He reached into his pocket absent-mindedly and felt something. He pulled out the wooden ring. It slid onto his finger and he closed his hand around it. He was as scared as ever. The clock read 7:38 and he realized he'd probably be late for work unless he left right now. Numbers slowly danced in his head as he counted the seconds it took to tie his shoes, put on his jacket, and latch his helmet. 362. 363. 364. Not that many. He kept counting as he climbed onto his bike and started to ride. 1210. 1211. 1212. 1213. There was so much of it. 2120. 2121. 2122. He had it all. 2200. 2300. 2400. 3000. Time was fleeting still, but that's fine. Trevor was loving every second. And he cherished each one. And he smiled as he worked diligently at his desk, and smiled as he ate his dinner alone, and he smiled day in and day out. He got his pilot's license on his 40th birthday. On his 50th he flew to Thailand on his very own plane.
He spent a few weeks there, exploring caves and camping by rivers. He wanted to do some extended exploration, so he hired a tour guide. She was a short, fit, girl in her 40s. They discussed some background and ideas and agreed on a plan. He felt a strange klink when he shook her hand. They both looked down and saw their identical rings touching. Wow, she said, simply, yet definitively. She looked up astonished. He looked up and smiled, saying through his teeth, shall we get started then? No time like the present.
