History Shattered

“That deep emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God.” – Albert Einstein

“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.” – John Muir

“Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people.” – Carl Sagan, American astronomer, cosmologist, astrophysicist and author

“The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.” – Carl Sagan

Pat’s team picked up on the increase in the strength of the anomaly. Their sensors had been witness to the steady and rapid dissipation of the wormhole and had predicted it would be gone within the hour. Suddenly, and quite inexplicably, it had intensified. The increase in power had been rapid but even, suggesting an orderly pattern they could not explain. The team had continued the feeding of high voltage power into 28, but nothing they were attempting could account for the dramatic reinvigoration the wormhole appeared to be experiencing. The team went from total pessimism to a positive outlook virtually immediately. The wormhole had gone from near death to virtually full strength in less than two minutes, and the step-up in power had been uniform.

It wasn’t the electricity they were pumping into 28 which was responsible for the change. Pat knew that much. In fact, he ordered his team to power down the voltage being fed into the station. They had been running the high voltage lines at full power, an unsustainable effort. He ordered a decrease down to seventy-five percent of capacity, a level which should be both supportive of the anomaly and which they could sustain indefinitely. Whatever was happening inside 28 seemed to suggest their efforts were superfluous, but Pat surmised the downside risk of continuing the power feed was minimal.

He called Jasmine and Colonel James together for a quick meeting regarding the shocking new developments. He explained to them what little he could about the seemingly impossible strengthening of the anomaly. They asked him for possible causes. Pat was normally quick with a theory. In this instance, he simply shrugged his shoulders. He couldn’t come up with a reasonable explanation for the sudden surge in energy. There was no source. There had been no such spike in the two prior wormhole dissipation occurrences. Colonel James asked him for a projection regarding the wormhole’s life expectancy in light of its renewed strength. Again, Pat was reluctant to offer an answer.

“Mike, I don’t know what to tell ya. The anomaly went from near total dissipation to total power in a couple of minutes. There’s nothing to latch onto which would explain that. Energy doesn’t behave this way. We aren’t feeding enough power into 28 to even affect the strength of the wormhole by a percent an hour, much less nearly a hundred percent in like two minutes. Theoretically, there shouldn’t be any power source at the Caffa end that could feed power to the anomaly. I’ve got nothin’.”

“Is there anything from the historical update that might explain this?”

Jasmine shook her head. “We’re still probably a minimum of four or five hundred years from the history reset reaching us. All we’ve reached so far is the front end of the Renaissance. Whatever this is, it doesn’t have anything to do with whatever historical changes Monica triggered, unless somehow she broke time or history itself. And if she did that, how would we know? Hell…, we wouldn’t even know what to look for. Besides, I doubt that’s it. So far, the pattern of the reset seems to be following pretty much exactly in the footsteps of how it worked last time.”

“So we’re looking at an energy behavior which neither of you can explain?”

Pat shook his head, agreeing with the Colonel’s statement. Jasmine answered.

“I sure as hell can’t.”

“OK, well I guess we’ll just hang loose and see what develops. At least it looks like the window for the Director’s return is gonna be open for a while longer.”

“Unless it reverses as quickly as it manifested. But I hope you’re right.”

“I guess we’ll know soon enough, one way or another.”

“I suppose we will.”

~~~~o~~~~

After a couple of minutes, the interior of Station 28 was no longer visible from inside the anomaly. The energy field had intensified and thickened. Monica and Tyler could once again feel the dance of static electricity across the surface of their skin. They half-expected to begin seeing the soldiers from Caffa appearing inside 28, ready to resume their attack. Fortunately, that did not happen. Instead, two new time travelers appeared…, a man and a woman. They were dressed in quite futuristic garb and seemed very tall. Monica guessed the woman to be at least six feet in height and the man at least a half-foot taller still. Rather than being somehow flung into Station 28 in some unconscious state by the energy field, they had simply just appeared, standing upright as if they had already been in place and were just waiting to be revealed. Somewhat surprisingly, they spoke English…, perfect English. The woman spoke first.

“You have nothing to fear from us. Like you, we are time travelers. We are from what would be the year 2487 on your calendar. My name is Emelie. This is my husband, Patricio. Unlike you, our time travel is intentional. It is, in fact, our jobs. We have spent our entire working careers repairing time. It’s what we do. Without intending any offense, this is quite the mess you’ve managed to make.”

Tyler replied. “That was not our intent. We accidentally created a wormhole during a particle collision. I got trapped in that wormhole while I was sick. I spread a disease in the past which the world wasn’t ready for…, a disease which wouldn’t exist for another six centuries. It changed the path of history. We’ve just returned from a second trip back to try and fix the mess I made.”

Patricio spoke this time. “We know that, Tyler. Yes…, we know your name, and yours, too, Monica. We know what you’ve done, and we know why you’ve done it…, or at least everything you’ve outwardly communicated. We don’t have the ability to perceive your thoughts…, at least not yet. We understand your intentions have been honorable…, even the ethical debate was conducted in a most reasoned context. We were actually quite impressed by the quality of the debate. That’s one of the reasons why we’re here.”

Monica felt the need to join the conversation. “So how badly have we screwed things up this time, that you’ve felt it necessary to pay us this visit?”

“Well, you’ve gotten the earth’s population more or less back on track. Anything close enough to be within a few hundred million over seven centuries is statistically immaterial. If there’s one thing we’ve learned about time, it’s that there’s no such thing as precision. Time is a blunt instrument. There’s nothing exact about it. It is virtually impossible to change anything without it resulting in ripples that will eventually trigger something we’d deem a material alteration. Think of it like performing surgery with a machete instead of with a scalpel, although we’d now consider a scalpel about as crude an instrument as you would a machete.”

“What year are we coming back to?”

“2026…, again quite an acceptable margin of error, eight years over almost seven centuries. We honestly don’t know how much credit to give you. You’re either unusually talented or incredibly lucky.”

“You mentioned that our honorable intentions were one of the reasons you are here. I can’t help but note that you’re here inside Station 28 with the anomaly still in place, which would seem to imply that you wish to conceal your presence from our colleagues at PD. So what’s another reason why you’re here?”

“First, we have no intention of revealing ourselves to your colleagues. Even the knowledge of our existence can change behaviors enough to alter history. But to answer your question, your military has decided to push its agenda in terms of time travel. That’s a big mistake. They…, you… know far too little about how to harness the technology, and there are far too few safeguards in place to pursue such an agenda without catastrophic results.”

“I’m surprised to hear that. I’ve only been gone about six or seven hours, and nothing like that was decided when I left.”

“They waited an hour after you were gone. It was the willingness of your scientists to attempt a second repair mission which emboldened them. To be fair, they’re just doing their jobs.”

“Shit! So we were damned if we did and damned if we didn’t.”

“Since they made the decision to move forward without even waiting to determine if your mission was successful or a complete failure, then that would seem to be the case.”

“We need to try to stop them.”

“I’m curious. What would you propose to do?”

“Well, if we’re returning in 2026, then the actions they’re taking in 2031 haven’t happened yet. I haven’t thought this through, but there’s got to be a way to get a message through that triggers the abandonment of that strategy. Plus we could recommend things like moving Station 28 off center so it’s not at the exact opposite end of the particle ring from the collision point. We could order removal of the lead shielding around 28, so even if energy waves were accidentally triggered, we could have a way for the energy to quickly dissipate. Stuff like that.”

“Any message couldn’t mention us or the future.”

“It wouldn’t have to.”

“OK, I’m intrigued. But there’s also another reason we decided to pay you a visit while you’re still inside the anomaly.”

“Now I’m the one who’s intrigued.”

“We’d like to recruit you…, both of you, to work with us.”

“You mean like in the future?”

“In a way. We’d be utilizing you mostly to deal with missions in the 20th and 21st centuries, the era you represent. We’d heal Tyler’s injuries and restore his health. We’d correct the age differential between the two of you that’s been created by your recent travels. You’d be reset to your 2018 age. Tyler wouldn’t require an adjustment in that regard. You would both retain full memory of what’s transpired.”

“So while that sounds like a really nice offer, who do you guys work for? Are you governmental…? Or part of some scientific initiative? What would we be walking into?”

“I can’t tell you much. The less you actually know about that end of things, the better off we’ll all be. I’m sure despite your curiosity you can appreciate that. You’d still be based in the here and now. We’d want you stationed right here at PD as a base. It’s the only potential time travel threat until the early 22nd century. If all you did was keep it offline in terms of time travel, that’d be a major accomplishment. You would both still be in position to pursue all the other agendas PD was created for.”

“So you’d basically reset to 2018, and then what? We’d be expected to prevent the wormhole from being created? And after that, what? We’d just do our thing in the present and wait to hear from you?”

“Pretty much. But let me get back to your earlier supposition. You were suggesting you’d attempt to argue against any militarization of time travel. If we can reset you to 2018 before the first particle collision, then that wouldn’t be necessary. As long as you’re able to stay out in front of it, then there wouldn’t need to be any battle over that issue. It would never come up.”

“We’d be in a preventative mode…, playing defense rather than needing to try to play offense.”

“I’m sorry, Tyler. I’m not entirely comfortable with what I perceive is an early twenty-first century sports reference, but I think I agree with what you just said.”

“What about all the documentation we’ve been gathering regarding the alternative histories?”

“None of that was in place until after Tyler’s initial accidental trip to the past. All of that documenting started in the year 2043, but it was triggered by that first trip in 2018. If that first trip never happens, then nobody outside of you two will have any awareness of any of this. It was also being…, I think your colleague Jasmine referred to it as cocooned… inside Station 28. We can erase that historical record while the anomaly is still in place. Right now your colleagues have no idea why the anomaly has strengthened. You can claim you found a way to shield the energy breach internally, and the wormhole simply recaptured or reabsorbed the energy it was previously bleeding. They’ll buy that explanation for long enough until history once again resets. Then they won’t remember any of this. Only the two of you will.”

“So it’s really that simple, huh?”

“If you two are agreeable, it is. Think about it. You’ll be in a better position to protect history than either of you could possibly hope for. We reset your ages, heal you up, return you to the time in which you belong and ask you to defend an intellectual position you both already agree with. You live your lives like you would’ve prior to the last few weeks happening. We’ll still be watching. We’ll utilize your services when and if we need to, and we’ll show up to support you if anything happens at PD that is more than you can handle. So what do you think?”

“Give us a minute.”

Monica went over and sat down next to Tyler. They talked in whispered tones for a couple of minutes. At the conclusion of their dialogue, they kissed, and they held hands as they faced the visitors from the future.

“OK, we’re in.”

“Excellent! We’re thrilled with your decision. Tyler, Patricio is going to take you to get your wounds treated and to give you a rather advanced treatment to restore your immune system and eradicate any remnants of the flu and plague. You didn’t have those wounds or any scars in 2018. We’ve got the ability to repair your wounds through advanced cell cloning techniques that will return your shoulder and thigh to their 2018 condition. Nobody will be able to tell anything happened. Monica, you and I are gonna take a different trip which will return you to your 2018 age. Neither of you need to have any other concerns. Your trips will seem incredibly short, and you’ll be away from each other for what will seem like the briefest of moments. Both of you will remain conscious, and you’ll retain total memory of everything that’s happened. Are you ready?”

“This’ll happen so fast that nobody here will have an awareness it’s happening?”

“Correct. It’ll seem like just a couple of minutes here.”

“Then let’s do it.”

Three minutes later, Tyler was back inside Station 28 standing beside Patricio. He had a fully functioning right shoulder and left thigh. Any trace of injury was gone. He felt healthier than he could ever remember feeling. Moments later, Monica and Emelie appeared. Monica was once again the beautiful thirty-three year old facility director he had woken up next two on that fateful morning of the first particle collision. It seemed inconceivable that it had only been ten days ago. He reached out and took her hand, squeezing it lovingly. Monica looked up at Emelie.

“I’ve gotta ask. Are you two just unusually tall or is everyone in the future that tall?”

Emelie pointed to Tyler. “He’s been there. He can answer your question.”

“They’re all tall, Mon. Evolution is alive and well in the future. The human race has continued to evolve, and the average height has continued to get taller. I’d say these two are about average height in the late 25th century. As much as it hurts me to say this, I’m afraid Michael Jordan is probably no longer the greatest basketball player of all time.”

“Wow…, I know how much it hurt you to say that about MJ.”

“Inch for inch and pound for pound, he’s still the best. That’s what I’m goin’ with.”

Everyone laughed. Monica looked up at the visitors again.

“So what’s next? Is it time to go back to 2018 now?”

“Well, there’s one additional reason we felt compelled to pay you a visit. It’s going to require one more bit of time travel before we hit that 2018 reset button. We need you to go back to 1346 Caffa with us one more time. We need you to help us identify everyone either of you came in contact with.”

“Why is that? I thought you said we did a pretty good job of fixing what we broke, and that we were statistically insignificant in terms of our error rate. You said time was a blunt, imprecise instrument.”

“You did do a good job, and what we said about the imprecision of attempting to affect history is also true. But we still need to go back and fix everything you did.”

“And why is that? I’m really confused…”

“That’s totally understandable. You’re operating under the assumption that to properly restore history, you need to make sure the plague leaves Caffa in the spring of 1347 and turns into The Black Death pandemic which ravages Europe. That’s the history Tyler believes. Unfortunately, that history isn’t the right one. You see, we make mistakes, too. We were attempting to tweak a few moments in history and that critical juncture is one we got wrong.

The Mongols…, the Golden Horde…, they were supposed to never launch their attack on Caffa. They were supposed to march on Caffa while riddled with the plague and get trapped in the mountains east of Caffa before they could attack. They were supposed to die in the mountains in that brutal winter and that particular epidemic of the plague was supposed to die in the mountains with them. That particular episode of biological warfare launched against the settlement of Caffa should’ve never taken place. That was our fault. There was never supposed to be a plague pandemic in Europe. The Black Death was never supposed to occur…., at least not in Europe. The few survivors among the Golden Horde Army headed back in an easterly direction, taking the plague with them. There was a Black Death pandemic which occurred, but it happened almost exclusively in China, not in Europe. In your proper current reality, China is no longer the most populous country in the world. There was no way for either of you to know that. You were trying to fix a problem which never really occurred.”

Tyler’s jaw dropped. “You’ve gotta be fuckin’ kiddin’ me.”

“I wish we were, but we aren’t. And now we need your help in resetting what happened inside Caffa itself. Consider this your first mission.”

“Wait a minute…, I gotta ask. If we hadn’t touched the plague epidemic in Caffa…?”

“Then we wouldn’t be here, and you wouldn’t know what you now know. But given what both of you have done, and the threat level PD presents to time, it made sense for us to reach out to you in this discreet environment. You’re being given a glimpse into a future nobody else knows exists. It’s quite a gift and at the same time a tremendous responsibility.”

“Yeah…, I guess it is.”

“So are you ready to pay Caffa another visit? I promise you won’t get shot with an arrow or branded as a heretic this time.”

“Well, with those guarantees, how can we say no? Let’s do it.”

“There’s one more thing. When we leave Caffa, we’ll be returning to our time, and the two of you will be returning to 2018. I honestly can’t tell you whether our paths will cross again or not. That particular matter will be left to the vagaries of time. Good luck to you both, and know that we’ll be watching.”

“We understand…, mostly. You’re right. It’s a major responsibility and an awesome gift. We are in a very real sense guardians of time.”

Emelie nodded her head. “You’re absolutely right, Monica. And that reminds me…, Tyler, there’s one more favor we need to ask of you when you get back to 2018.”

“What’s that?”

“This time around, please get a flu shot.”

“You can count on it. I’ll never miss one again. Now let’s get to fourteenth century Crimea. I’m startin’ to miss that place.”