Breaking Time
Breaking time is not easy, but Harlston had done it decades back. Actually, he wasn't sure when he'd done it. It was all a blur. In essence, it all came down to years of hard work of a theoretical physicist and that one moment which gave him the impetus to be practical.
He had seen things differently. It was his home schooling and a mother who taught him to question everything, even the very supposition of time.
Time is absolute, not relative. It is governed by other dimensions. The world had made movies on the gravitational-time dilation but Harlston had made a time machine.
He had used blockchain technology to divide time into blocks, placing himself and the world at different positions in space so he could be in a place where the gravity caused time to go slower. He wasn't a crackpot scientist with dreams of a hot tub time machine.
All this had been done in stealth with grants from private investors who believed in his cause. His theory however spread like wildfire when it was leaked by a boasting investor. He had walked into his day job at the university to find several scientists smiling inanely and trying to strike up conversations. The looks of avarice, alerted him to the danger. They started following him soon after.
So, he took flight with his untested project.
But how far back in time had he gone?
He picked up a newspaper and saw 2005. It was the year he'd graduated, more importantly the year he'd met Jenny. Oh God! Had he done it on purpose? Time might heal all wounds but going back in it rubs salt in them.
She waved at him, "Harl I thought you were in the library." He wondered if he could kick his younger self.
"I just wanted to see you," he said, quite truthfully.
They talked for hours. He remembered he hadn't had the courage to ask her out till later that year. So, he did the unthinkable. But they would have a few months more, if he asked her in that moment. He thought of the rules he’d made for himself, the primary being not to mess with time. Even a small moment in a block could change everything. But my God! He wanted a few more months, a few more memories with the woman he loved.
They were walking towards the pizzeria when he saw himself coming.
Panicking, he murmured an excuse and went back to his coordinates. He promised himself he won't go back.
The second time he went back, Jenny gave him a frosty glare. Perhaps she thought he'd been cold towards her. But that wasn't him.
He took a deep breath and told her everything while she walked purposefully to her dorm.
"Let's go somewhere more private." she said.
We went to the old lab. I told her all about my research, the world in 2018, the reactions of my peers and hiding the truth.
Her brows puckered "Why do you come back in time to this place? Surely there are more important years? You can always talk to me in the present," she said smiling, but her smile wavered
The awful truth.
"No, I can't."
He'd said too much and needed to go. But not before he heard her plea "Save me!"
He did go back but nowhere near her. Just watched her from a distance.
He had set rules about not messing with time. His own code of ethics. But he had wandered centuries, with nobody to tell the wondrous, beautiful things he'd seen.
Going back to her again and again broke him so he did the impossible. Brought a dead person back to life.
He went back to Dec 2007, to a shady pub in east London.
A wild looking haggard man walked in. He sat at the bar and ordered an entire bottle of whiskey.
Harlston walked up to him and ordered a drink himself. He engaged him in a casual chat.
"A whole bottle, what's up man?"
"Wife left me."
"You're going to go back piss drunk and blow your chances? Talk to her, get her some flowers and chocolates, find out what's wrong." Harlston said desperately.
He seemed to mull over it and decided to leave.
There was no drunk driver on the street a few blocks down and Jenny safely crossed it.
He went back home to her. A little later he used the technology once to see the consequences of his actions.
It was an apocalypse. In the year 2034, his technology was the basis of time. But there were five thousand people left. There were no children running around. Green was an alien colour in the soot covered broken down concrete ruins. There was single rose growing in the asphalt. The smell of gunpowder disguising it's scent.
War and destruction had left their mark. He couldn't make sense of it but there was fear in the pit of his stomach. Had he done this?
He went to his sanctuary, a library that hadn't been burnt down. He read about the new world order.
Each five minutes constituted a block. He saw an entire section devoted to a missing block from Dec 2007. How much damage was his fault?
Matthew Bailey had come back with flowers and chocolate to reconcile with his wife. She had been with her lover, a Xurassian diplomat. In a fit of rage, Matthew had killed them. The ties between the two countries weakened and a war was declared. It was the beginning of the end.