Time Slip - a story about greed
February 19th 2007 08:16
This is a short story I wrote tonight after watching a tv doco about the Battle for Berlin in 1945 and as I watched it, I asked myself the question 'What if?' What if the Germans knew in advance what was going to happen, so wrote a quick story about that.
I would say thats how I write most of my stuff by asking the question 'What if'.
H. Ling 2007 copyright www.kiwiauthor.com
Time-Slip
A short story of what could have been?
19 February 2018
Mark Davies enjoyed his work as a researcher at the Time Inc experimental laboratory, for he had always been fascinated by theoretical physics and especially the theory behind time travel. He had scored top honors in his final year and had been approached straight away to join the team that was being assembled under the newly formed privately funded Time Inc.
When he had first arrived at the secure compound located at the recently purchased nuclear reactor at Windscale, Cumbria, UK.
He was astonished at the level of talent that had been assigned to the project, as many of the scientists that he looked up to and admired were part of the team.
The first couple of days had consisted of a tour of the impressive facilities and he was also impressed by the level of security that surrounded the site and even though most of the staff were based on site with very few being allowed off the base. He didn’t mind too much as each scientist had an individual well furnished room and the recreation facilities were top notch, with games room, very well stocked library, great canteen and staff areas.
Working days were long but phenomenal breakthroughs had been made and progress was moving along at a rapid pace. Already they had sent items back in time, a day, a week, two weeks and the military were already showing much interest at the possibilities that time displacement devices could achieve.
For in the ultra secure gold sector, he had heard rumors of time weapons being developed and tested, time grenades that aged you 80 years in 8 seconds. He had heard of a device that some prisoners had been exposed to. Non parole lifers had been experimented on in the time accelerator in which 10years of their sentence passed in 10 seconds, so they became old men in the time it took to count to 5.
Other weapons he had heard of were too terrible to be believed but what Mark was really interested in was how he could use the possibility of time travel to make himself rich.
He had started by doing some experiments such as setting up a tv on the lab set to the sports results channel, then he left the tv on and sent an activated mini cam recorder a week into the future within the lab.
When the mini cam returned, 10 mintues later, he had the sporting results to some of the big events of the year and the resulting internet betting wins pocketed him thousands.
But then greed knows no limits as Mark’s thoughts turned to how he could improve on this? It was as he was pondering this idea that the thought came to him, he would send a book back to his granddad with clear instructions as what to do with the information, then a family dynasty could be built.
Everyone who had ever studied in this field had read about the time paradox where in theory if you went back in time and stopped your parents from meeting, you would cease to exist. But Mark didn’t believe it for his thoughts were purely about money and how to get more of it and sending information on events and discoveries back to his grandfather seemed the best way of achieving it.
He decided that the best book to send would be a chronicle of the 20th century, so on the pretence of working a late night experiment he managed to not only send it back in time but also to where his grandfather was living as a teenager in Paris at the time.
Satisfied at the result, Mark shut down the lab and went to his quarters to sleep. The next morning he woke feeling refreshed and pretty pleased with him self. But it was as he opened the curtains and saw the swastika flags flying everywhere and armed guards patrolling below that beads of sweat started to appear on his forehead.
‘What the hell?’ he thought switching on his tv, only to step back in horror at the images he saw there.
And then he remembered not only where he had sent the book but the date January 1939.
Just then his door came crashing down as armed storm troopers burst through followed by the all too familiar uniform of an SS officer but what was more telling was the blood stained book he carrying under his arm.
The same book he had sent through time not 24 hrs before.
‘Herr Davies, on behalf of the Greater German Reich, I thank you for your assistance in our victory but this is a secret that must be kept, so I sentence you to death’ he said pulling his luger pistol from it’s holster.
Mark started to say it’s all been a mistake as the officer fired and the last thing he felt was the impact of the bullet before darkness claimed him.
I would say thats how I write most of my stuff by asking the question 'What if'.
H. Ling 2007 copyright www.kiwiauthor.com
Time-Slip
A short story of what could have been?
19 February 2018
Mark Davies enjoyed his work as a researcher at the Time Inc experimental laboratory, for he had always been fascinated by theoretical physics and especially the theory behind time travel. He had scored top honors in his final year and had been approached straight away to join the team that was being assembled under the newly formed privately funded Time Inc.
When he had first arrived at the secure compound located at the recently purchased nuclear reactor at Windscale, Cumbria, UK.
He was astonished at the level of talent that had been assigned to the project, as many of the scientists that he looked up to and admired were part of the team.
The first couple of days had consisted of a tour of the impressive facilities and he was also impressed by the level of security that surrounded the site and even though most of the staff were based on site with very few being allowed off the base. He didn’t mind too much as each scientist had an individual well furnished room and the recreation facilities were top notch, with games room, very well stocked library, great canteen and staff areas.
Working days were long but phenomenal breakthroughs had been made and progress was moving along at a rapid pace. Already they had sent items back in time, a day, a week, two weeks and the military were already showing much interest at the possibilities that time displacement devices could achieve.
For in the ultra secure gold sector, he had heard rumors of time weapons being developed and tested, time grenades that aged you 80 years in 8 seconds. He had heard of a device that some prisoners had been exposed to. Non parole lifers had been experimented on in the time accelerator in which 10years of their sentence passed in 10 seconds, so they became old men in the time it took to count to 5.
Other weapons he had heard of were too terrible to be believed but what Mark was really interested in was how he could use the possibility of time travel to make himself rich.
He had started by doing some experiments such as setting up a tv on the lab set to the sports results channel, then he left the tv on and sent an activated mini cam recorder a week into the future within the lab.
When the mini cam returned, 10 mintues later, he had the sporting results to some of the big events of the year and the resulting internet betting wins pocketed him thousands.
But then greed knows no limits as Mark’s thoughts turned to how he could improve on this? It was as he was pondering this idea that the thought came to him, he would send a book back to his granddad with clear instructions as what to do with the information, then a family dynasty could be built.
Everyone who had ever studied in this field had read about the time paradox where in theory if you went back in time and stopped your parents from meeting, you would cease to exist. But Mark didn’t believe it for his thoughts were purely about money and how to get more of it and sending information on events and discoveries back to his grandfather seemed the best way of achieving it.
He decided that the best book to send would be a chronicle of the 20th century, so on the pretence of working a late night experiment he managed to not only send it back in time but also to where his grandfather was living as a teenager in Paris at the time.
Satisfied at the result, Mark shut down the lab and went to his quarters to sleep. The next morning he woke feeling refreshed and pretty pleased with him self. But it was as he opened the curtains and saw the swastika flags flying everywhere and armed guards patrolling below that beads of sweat started to appear on his forehead.
‘What the hell?’ he thought switching on his tv, only to step back in horror at the images he saw there.
And then he remembered not only where he had sent the book but the date January 1939.
Just then his door came crashing down as armed storm troopers burst through followed by the all too familiar uniform of an SS officer but what was more telling was the blood stained book he carrying under his arm.
The same book he had sent through time not 24 hrs before.
‘Herr Davies, on behalf of the Greater German Reich, I thank you for your assistance in our victory but this is a secret that must be kept, so I sentence you to death’ he said pulling his luger pistol from it’s holster.
Mark started to say it’s all been a mistake as the officer fired and the last thing he felt was the impact of the bullet before darkness claimed him.
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