Looking
up from his computer Duncan motioned Anne to take a seat. “What have you found?”
She
handed him a picture. “This is a picture of the woodworking shop taken by Ryan
with his 3D imager.” The picture showed a well-cared-for building surrounded by
a manicured lawn. She handed him another picture along with a couple of
newspaper articles. “I found this picture in the archives, taken around the
same time as Ryan’s.
Duncan
stared at the picture, not believing his eyes. This picture of the woodworking
shop showed a smiling Ethan and Ryan with their arms around each other. The
sign above the door read ‘Evans-Edwards Woodworking.’ The newspaper articles
talked about Ethan Evans taking on a partner, both in his personal life and in
his business. This person was a new person in town named Ryan Edwards.
At
a loss for words, Duncan could only respond with “Okay” as he was handed yet
another picture and newspaper article. This time, the picture showed the shop
boarded up, grass and weeds overgrown, sign reading Evans Woodworking. The
newspaper article this time cited the disappearance of Ethan, Chris, Troy, Troy’s
family and Alicia. No explanation was given as to the disappearance. The Evans’
were never found.
“This
was found in a different archive, also from the same time frame. The question
is; which of these archive pictures shows the correct history?”
“If
I could turn back time, I’d find out which was the correct history, but with a
temporal causality loop in play, there’s no way to be certain. We could make
things worse if we go back to the wrong history. There’s actually no way to
determine the correct time coordinates,” Duncan mumbled to himself as he looked
over the three pictures.
“What
are you babbling about?” Anne wanted to know.
“I
was just thinking out loud. We have to figure out which is the right history
somehow. If we go back to the wrong history to fix the timeline alteration, it
could have serious repercussions. There are times I wish that those damned
travellators were never invented, and this is one of those times,” Duncan said,
exasperated.
Anne
rose from her chair. “I’m sure you will figure it out. After all, we have all
the time we need. I’ll do some more digging and see if I can find out more
information that will help you. Wait a minute. I just thought of something. Is
there any way Liam can run simulations on the different scenarios to see what
happens with the timeline? Maybe that’ll help.”
Duncan’s
face lit up with a huge smile as he said, “Anne, that’s a great idea. If it
works, you are so getting a bonus. Perhaps even a promotion if I can talk the
head honchos into it. This is the most serious and problematic timeline
alteration we’ve ever experienced. Everyone is giving it there all. Well almost
everybody.” His voice trailed off.
“I
take it Ryan isn’t doing so well?”
Duncan
took in a deep breath and let it out slowly as he responded, “He’s been on countless
missions, all successful, but I’ve never seen one affect him like this one has.
He’s dealing with some shit and I don’t know how to help him.”
“Have
you talked with him?”
“Many
times. I understand his problem. I just don’t know how to help him with it. He’s
head-over-heals in love with a guy in the past, and from what I understand, the
feeling is mutual.”
“Ouch!
No wonder he’s so down. Isn’t there anything we can to do help him?” Anne asked
with hope in her voice.
“I
don’t know,” Duncan admitted reluctantly.
₪₪₪₪₪
It
was late at night when Ryan snuck into the control room. Using his access code,
he overrode the security alarms, set the travellator temporal and geographic
coordinates then, looking around to make sure no one saw him; he stepped into
the travellator and dematerialized. Almost instantaneously, he rematerialized
in familiar surroundings. Knocking on the door in front of him, he held his
breath hoping a familiar face would open it. He was not disappointed.
“Ryan?
What are you doing here? I thought it was dangerous for us to see each other?”
Ryan
swept Ethan up into his arms, kissing him soundly, a kiss that was returned
reluctantly at first, then with increasing passion. “Danger be damned! I needed
to see you.”
Breathless
from the kiss, Ethan asked, “What about your boss? Aren’t you breaking some
kind of temporal prime directive or something?”
“I
don’t care. I love you. I need you.”
Looking
deep into Ryan’s eyes, Ethan said softly, “I need you too.” Taking Ryan by the
hand, he closed the door and led him up to his bedroom.
₪₪₪₪₪
The
next morning Liam burst into Duncan’s office. “We have a problem! Ryan’s gone
back into the past,” he said, worriedly.
“What
the hell? Where and when has he gone? How did he leave without setting off the
alarms?” Duncan demanded.
“He
used his access code to bypass the alarms, and I’ll give you one guess where
and when he went.”
“Ethan’s,”
he said.
Liam
nodded. “He set the temporal coordinates to approximately a half-hour after
Ethan and Chris returned. The only reason I know he left is because the
travellator was still active. The automatic shutdown sequence was never
activated.”
“Get
Connor in here ASAP. I want him to follow Ryan and bring that fool back. God
only knows what he’s done to the timeline with this stunt.”
“That’s
the curious thing about all this. There has been a partial timeline…
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