Acme Time Travel Incorporated - Volume 2

Outside the Sunny Vale Care Home

“I wish that I hadn’t upset John,” Gabriel said.

“When he said about the giving advice thing, I thought that maybe he was getting confused,” Ginny said.

“I think that it will take a little time for him to develop dementia,” said Vicky.

“How long, do you think?” Gabriel said.

“Without my support, I would suggest a few weeks,” Vicky replied. “I have held it at bay for a long time now, but ...”

Gabriel looked at Ginny, who was looking horrified at the prospect of John’s fate.

“I think that John has chosen his own future,” Vicky continued, “and it is not for us to try to change it.”

“But what about his past?” Gabriel asked.

“What?” said Ginny.

“Well. What if we could help John by preventing Mary from getting dementia?” Gabriel said.

“Could you really do that, Vicky?” Ginny asked.

Gabriel suddenly looked troubled that he had over-estimated what Vicky could do with such medical conditions.

“Certainly, I could have helped Mary,” said Vicky. “I could have significantly improved her condition. Even to the point where it could have lain dormant until her natural death.”

“But could you go back to a point in time before Mary became ill?” continued Ginny. “Could you do that, and prevent her from getting dementia?”

“To do that,” said Vicky, “we would firstly need to get to the ACME facilities ... to find out if they had fixed the teleport problem. Then, if they had, we would need to teleport back to the time before Mary became ill, and provide her with a STU, which would keep her healthy.”

Ginny looked excitedly at Gabriel, who was looking unsure as to where this was all going.

“But,” Gabriel said, “if we managed to get to ACME, we would have to convince them to give us a STU to give to Mary. You have said before, Vicky, that ACME INC is not the sort of company who would give away an expensive device for free. I don’t see how we could ...”

“At least we could try,” said Ginny. “After all, if we can’t help John now, maybe we could help him by stopping him losing the love of his life ... or at least we could give them more years together.”

“But does time work like that?” asked Gabriel. “What if we went back into John’s past and stopped Mary from getting dementia. Wouldn’t it affect what is happening now? Wouldn’t it mean that John might not have given you to me? Might it not mean that I never would have met Ginny?”

“It is possible, Gabriel,” said Vicky. “ACME INC does take pains to avoid changing the past, but not because of any clearly stated scientific reason. It is more that ACME INC fears litigation. There have been no clear studies on the effect of historical changes impacting the present, though it is known that changes do carry through time. Simple changes can be seen to impact immediately on all future times. The future seems to mould itself automatically around historic changes. It is as though it strives to level out anomalies.”

“So, if we made a change, then one result might be that we never meet?” said Ginny, holding Gabriel’s hand tightly.

“But you would never know that,” explained Vicky. Your current time personae would simply have no memory or recollection of meeting.”

Ginny looked scared at the prospect.

“But that isn’t to say that you wouldn’t ever meet,” continued Vicky. “It might just mean that you don’t meet in the same way that you just have.”

“Let’s walk into town,” said Gabriel. “I think I need the support of a strong coffee.”

He looked over at Ginny, who nodded in agreement.

“Vicky,” Gabriel said. “Would you mind going offline for a little while, please?”

“Off course, Gabriel. I will be here when you want me,” Vicky said.

Ginny put her arm around Gabriel’s waist and they set off slowly back into town.