EPIC
A Stitch in Time Incorporated
“If you don’t mind, could you please keep that to yourself!?”
Jesper Verros, client prospecter of SiTI, refrained from letting loose the bubbling indignation he felt welling inside him when met by yet more bumbling by his juniors. His graying mustache ruffled as he dragged on his meerschaum, a near permanent fixture of his visage. He exhaled, his usual method of letting off inner steam.
“The customer NEVER needs to know that and if I EVER hear you mention that again you’re gone!”
It was a trade secret, being in the time shift business, that certain things didn’t always work out the way you wanted them to. Shifting someone back in time at great expense to avert disaster before it struck was useful and saved many lives. However within 24 to 48 hours another disaster usually supplanted the first. A car wreck, saved, turned into a plane crash. An accidental poisoning, prevented, became acute disease. Death by gun shot, deterred, becomes an accidental death by a falling bookshelf or freak explosion. It soon became clear to those in the know that SiTI could not truly halt disaster, you could only forestall it. It was a closely guarded secret, one that could easily ruin all business. Despite it being an actuality time and time again without fail, it never actually had an explanation. Was it fate? Was it destiny? Or was man doomed from the start? No one knew.
A falsetto voice came from the threshold of the office. “But I just wanted to warn them to be careful. What’s wrong with that?”
“NO! No warning them, no advising them, no hints, NOTHING! Do you hear me!? If this gets out we will lose all our business. I’ll have to pay you with food stamps. Got it!? Now GET OUT!”
The blaring admonishment was followed by a period of silence as Jesper exhaled another puff which did little to calm his nerves. Surveying the lavish interior of his office he tried to take his mind of the most recent victim, a drowning. His brass chimpanzees seemed to return his gaze in their reflection. He opened the drawer to get at his inhalator when a sharp voice punctured through the silence.
“Mr. Verros sir, you have a guest.” came from the intercom.
Jesper slid his hand over the output audio, “Oh? I didn’t have any appointments, who is it?”
“Don’t know sir. Looks like a new client, should I send him in?”
“Send him in.”
Moments later a man in a casual dress shirt and sunglasses entered. Not the usual affluent impression Jesper liked to begin with. His clientele was normally quite wealthy indeed. Time shifting didn’t come cheap that’s for sure. Incredibly, and seemingly without a care in the world, the stranger walked right up and plopped himself in the chair and hung his feet right up on the desk.
Jesper peered over at his sneakers a little perturbed.
“Umm, do you mind?”
The stranger seemed to hold back a smile. “Yes I do actually. This is quite a comfortable office you have here I must say. You’ve done good work again my friend.”
Jesper shifted uneasily, “Do you I know you sir?”
This time he couldn’t withhold himself and his mirth overtook him, “Well you do and you don’t. But you probably are more interested in why I’m here aren’t you?”
“You probably want to travel back in time to save yourself from being such an uncouth jerk barging right into my office without any manners whatsoever, is that right?”
Again the man laughed a bellowing sort of laugh, his free flowing demeanor was really starting to grind Jespers nerves. “No. No, hardly, but I do need to travel back in time to keep something from happening, that is correct.”
“And so what do you need me to fix, did you accidentally let the toilet overflow?”
“HAhahahaha, no no. Far more serious, in fact I could tell you but you probably wouldn’t believe me.”
Jesper sighed. “Look sir, do you have any idea how much it will cost you to travel back in time even just two days? Are you just wasting my time?”
“Oh I’m quite aware of the costs. Yes indeed. If I’m right I would imagine the going rate is about $10,000 per shifted hour is that correct?”
“No it’s more than that, the operating costs to keep…”
“Oh spare me about the operating costs, I know all about your operation my friend. Money is not an issue,” he peered over at a gold plated Grandfather clock resting on the corner of a vintage Persian rug, “that is clear.” The stranger sighed.
Jesper’s tolerance was about to hit a boiling point. “Listen this is getting a little ridiculous. Let’s just get to the point. You obviously have money to be here and you must’ve filled out the preliminary paperwork so let me just pull that up and get this over with…”
Jesper’s fingers danced across his computer terminal keyboard to pull up the information. He stalled, and then searched again, ”What’s this? You just arrived here didn’t you? What is your name? Wait, how did you get past the secretary without filling in the forms!?” he looked over at the stranger incredulously.
“Oh I’ve known her for quite some time. I just told her exactly what she needed to hear. It’s not a problem.” said the stranger offhandedly waving a hand in the air.
Once again a considerably large and quite unsatisfying puff of smoke exuded from Jesper’s face. “Listen I can’t take much more of this. Do you have the money to pay or don’t you?” Jesper said with finality.
“Oh I’m sorry I actually don’t have the money to pay you. But..”
“THAT”S IT! GET OUT!” Jesper slammed a his hand on a hidden call button under the desk and within moments a series of loud footsteps drummed their way to the door. A pair of brawny strongmen blasted their way inside and quickly eyed their target. Without hesitation they charged towards the stranger.
“Wait! You’re making a mistake Jesper Verros. Without me this world will not survive!”
“Oh, another world saver eh? We’ve had plenty of those. Just dump him on the front porch boys, I’ll alert the authorities. Be glad to get rid of him.”
The stranger tried to jerk in Jespers direction to say one final thing before the door was slammed. “The particle accelerator maxes out at 4.5 nanoseconds, not 4.8, and ONLY when housed in a prisbane Tritium chassis…” just as the door slammed.
“Wait what?”
Jesper stared, paused and then ran after them, “Hold it gentlemen. Stop.” He looked again at the stranger, “What did you say?”
“I SAID! Your particle accelerator maxes out at…”
“I know what you said. But how did you know that? No one knows that.”
The stranger seemed to wring out his arms, trying to get some feeling back into them. After catching his breath he forced out, “When you first began this business two years ago, do you remember your old partner in development, a man named Keveler?” his breath was now settling to a light wheeze as he continued ,”He was farming much of his data from an outside source if you recall, a source which lead him to certain conclusions and successes. That source is me. I had to make sure you could complete a successful rudimentary time shift before making an approach. You see Jesper Allen Verros…” the man adjusted his jaw, “I’m from the future.”
* * *
One moment a complete outcast, the next moment a guest of honor, the stranger sat back in his leather mahogany embroidered chaise lounge enjoying a cup of rooibostee tea. He thought the autonomous peafowls gently fanning them was a nice touch. Jesper now stared attentively at the stranger in fascination.
“But how did you even get here?”
“Yes yes yes, always the same questions. How did I get here, what is my name and what is my mission, right? You know you are very predictable Mr. Verros. We have had this conversation many times.” The stranger sighed, “I do grow quite tired of it I have to
say.” He settled his cup onto the porcelain tray, “But you never had me accosted before, I have to say I’m quite disappointed. I liked you better when you were Reginald.”
Jesper riveted his eyes on the man, “You mean we’ve met before!?”
“No. Not before. No.”
“You mean we… WILL meet?”
“Yes, that is more correct. You will meet me 5 times in the future, each time within a separate cycle. For me I have therefore met you in my personal past 5 times.”
Jesper tried to regain his equilibrium, “But I have so many questions! Just how…? From WHEN are you?”
“Well understand that many of the data I have for will out of your current gradient of understanding and you will not believe me, but I will tell you anyways, as usual”, he paused a moment to arrange his thoughts, “Let’s see where to start… my last jump to the current time stream was exactly from 103,514, 4 months and 17 days into the future. It has to be a very exact figure.”
“That’s impossible!”
Again the stranger sighed,”Yes I know, you say that every time.” He took another sip from his tea,”Just bear with me for a moment ok? I tell you, you won’t believe me every time and every time you don’t believe me that you won’t believe me. But just… try this time ok? Just… for my sakes, please.”, he went on, “I come from an exact point in the future. What you are using here is a very rudimentary form of time travel using a tritium housing for the particle accelator to supersaturate the flux chamber just before you achieve critical mass and the shift takes place. What you don’t know, and with good reason, is that if the chamber itself is also fitted with a tritium alloy, more precisely an exact, yet more unstable isotope of tritium you can create a progressively greater temporal displacement. There are other additional factors to this such as a more intense stream of particles from multiple directions, with less diffusion, which need to harmonize with the point in time you want to reach in order to…” the stranger saw that he was starting to lose him.
“Look it doesn’t really matter. All you really need to know is that I can build it and it will work ok?”
“Ok.”
“Good. The reason you don’t know about it is because, for a time shift of that magnitude to occur, you need a vast amount of highly unstable material and once critical mass is attained, the resultant time displacement will level the countryside. It has to be done in a remote location and away from civilization. It’s not something you can really experiment on hoping it will work someday, you will die either by accident or exposure or both before your technology advances that far. Therefore the next jump has to be done EXACTLY with PRECISION PERFECTION the first time. It can’t have the slightest flaw in it. There is no room for experimentation. …Yes, now you’re going to ask me what even is the point of time travel if anything changed in the past always happens again later in another form anyways correct? The future inevitability, or as we call it the “Destiny Factor”.
Jesper gawked. “Wow! Yes you read my mind! Are people telepathic in the future?”
“No. You just ask me the same questions every time. You are very predictable Mr. Verros. It’s quite boring I assure you. Again just believe what I am about to tell you ok? You will have noticed the past can only be changed momentarily, and a disaster averted will just happen again but only in another, perhaps far worse, form. Yes, this is very true. We cannot truly change the past. But you see I am not trying to change the past, I am trying to change the future. We have to in fact. We actually have no choice.”
The stranger then voiced Jesper’s next question in harmony as they both spoke in perfect unison, “Why?”
“Exactly why I’m afraid I cannot tell you, but suffice it to say that far far into the future there is going to be an event. 604,114 years from now a great catastrophe is going to occur, something far beyond your imagination and if I don’t stop it everything you know, everything you ever WILL know, everyone… EVERYTHING will be gone! And I have to stop it, I am the only who can.”
Anticipating the next few moments, the stranger moved his legs aside, knowing that Jesper would have to take a break now and go for a walk and some fresh air. Realizing all his attention had been completely captivated for the last while Jesper sat sedentary behind his desk, his bones creaked as he got up. He had thought about telling the stranger that he really needed to take a walk and some fresh air, but he presumed he would already know that, and he was right. The stranger moved out of the way.
“Listen, I know it’s a lot to take in my friend. Take a walk and come back when you’re ready. We have more to go over. I will need your help. But take solace in the fact that I know what is ruining your life and that I will fix it for you before I go.” The stranger gave a soothing smile as he reached for his next brew of exotic teas. He knew Jesper would be back in half an hour.
* * *
The foreordained footsteps made their way into the office again and the stranger settled himself back into the chaise, watching Jesper reenter.
“Look just do me one favour OK?” Jesper said with a tinge of anxiety in his voice, “Just please stop answering me before I talk. It just really gets on my nerves. Just let me talk.”
“OK.”
Jesper made his way around to his mahogany desk and sat down. He reviewed his current scene and reach over to relight his Meerschaum. He took a drag and after a few moments more, looked again upon the stranger, as if now prepared for more.
Tentatively, the stranger began in again, this time at a slower more deliberate pace,”Look, I’m afraid I have some bad news I have to tell you. But I will try to cheer you up with some good news right after that OK? That’s seems to be the correct sequence so far in working with you. Are you prepared for me to give you some very bad news?”
Jesper exhaled another plume of smoke, as if his pipe may somehow in some way drown out the inexorable doom that was about to befall him, ”Might as well. What is it?”
“OK just know that I am going to give you very good news right after OK? Is that a deal?”
Jesper nodded faintly.
“All right my friend. Please understand, that this will shock you. I am here on the 2nd cycle, from 6 cycles into the future. You see civilization is cyclical. Typically, all man moves through the ages along a certain pattern, with some variation. Generally speaking, we travel through the Prehistoric, or Barbaric Age, this period of time is by far the longest period of time, then man evolves on through to the Bronze Age, then Iron Age, then gradually to the Machine, or Industrial Age, then the Information Age, this is typically a very brief period of time, then the Atomic Age and finally Space Age, barring interruption by an outside extraterrestrial race”
“I think I know where this is going.” said Jesper.
“Yes but hear me out my friend, I know this is hard. Before I continue, I do want to mention that there are variations to the Ages, man will have a Dark Ages if the wrong man comes to power or if the technology of education gets suppressed or plague ravages man, he will also have a Renaissance if a great artist is allowed his freedom to influence the culture unhindered which can inspire an entire generations. These periods of time will intersperse throughout man’s development.”
“Unfortunately for man, the Atomic Age is an extremely perilous and brittle period of time for planets with limited atmospheres, such as ours. If the Atomic age is not crossed quickly enough into the Space Age, then eventual nuclear holocaust is the result and all man is relegated back into a Barbarism, an Age which will last for a long long period of time, usually somewhere in the area of 95,000 years before rising up again to the Bronze Age. Although the cycles have been shortening the closer we move to what would be considered my present time in about 600,000 years from now. As of yet, I don’t know why that is.”
“Now what you need to know, and this is data which you cannot pass on to others as it would cause a panic, is that your cycle is about to end. In five years from now, on the Continent of Asgaria and the Continent of Sumeria,
nuclear weapons, hydrogen bombs to be exact, will detonate, along with some neutron bombs. All mankind will be wiped out for a time and while the atmosphere recovers and you will be thrown into the Barbaric Age once again.”
Jesper threw in,”But here has to be some way to stop it! Can’t you stop it!? Please.”
The stranger looked at the floor, what was normally certainty and insouciance, was now replaced by apathy, “No, there is no way to stop it my friend. I’m sorry. We could potentially assassinate those who would bring about the disaster in the first place, but I think you know all too well what would happen within the 24 to 48 hours that followed. We would only temporarily postpone the inevitable. I’m afraid that there is no way to stop it. Not even I could stop it.”
Jesper was pleading now, “But! There has to be a way…”
The man only shook his head in response.
“But then… all is pointless, why even try? What is the point? What is the point in anything then? Why should I help you?”
“Well, that is the bad news. I told you there would be good news yes?”
“Oh please, what could possibly matter now? I don’t even care any more. Everything will be destroyed and we can’t do a thing about it. I don’t want to hear about your good news.” Jesper said with indignantion bordering on desperation.
“No, just listen. Look you always do this. Just listen OK? Hear me out.”, the stranger paused a moment and breathed, “First of all I am going to leave an information packet, it will be encased in a safe of imploded derivative carbon fibre alloy, it will be completely impervious to nuclear blast from any distance. Inside the packet will be step by step instructions on how to evolve a language, create a bronze age, straight on through to information age, step by step as well as how to broadly disseminate this material. It will be up to you and three others to once again build man from the ashes. You can do it, but you will need a deep understanding of how to deal with radiation poisoning, I will go over all of that with you. But that is not my good news.”
Epic Page 1
