It’s the Future. Does it really matter when?
Time travel has been invented.
At least to the past, and then back home again.
Nothing else.
And it's more than a little complicated.
You CANNOT change the past. There are no “Grandfather Paradox” issues. No one really “knows” why. It’s assumed that the past has already happened and therefore you cannot change what has happened. Things always seem to work out so what you are trying to do ends up being what happened in that time.
Example; Should you stop Lee Harvey Oswald, it turns out there was someone on the grassy knoll.
That's just the backstory. The real fun is when you learn that a new kind of “extreme sport” has been developed. One that puts you in the front row to horror and shows you the face of death while still yanking you back just in time.
The technical term is Dilation of Neural Matter for the purpose of Vacation.
It’s known as TimeDiving.
Here's how it works. You go to the station (Time Station, real clever huh?) and after you’ve paid them a year's salary they send you to a time right before a calamity happens.
You might need a little more information real quick. When you go back, you leave a marker for your time and departure date. This is something that happens sort of on its own (more its a byproduct of the science it takes to have you leave this time) but it’s crucial to getting you back. You see, there's a possibility that you get stuck. A very small one yes, but as Lloyd Christmas pointed out, I’m sayin there’s a chance! Usually, you push the little button on the tablet like device they hand you and POP! You’re right back in the chair that threw your silly ass back to the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. That's where all the fun comes in.
See, there's no more drugs, or prostitution. Or skateboarding. Or skydiving. Or Social Media. Or Stand up comedy. Or video games. Or any fucking fun at all. Governments. Do I really need to explain why everything is illegal here? If it's not good for you, it's illegal.
So, what some single digit I.Q. patrons enjoy is circumnavigating laws and having a little thrill. Since there is nothing that makes people's heart pound artificially, they have to do it for real. Why jump out of a plane to stare at the grim reaper in his undies? You can just go to the day that Genghis Khan ran through southern China and stand there until a blade comes your way. Then you push the button right before some illiterate farmer with a pike turns your head to an olive ready for a martini (oh god, I miss booze).
My favorite?
Hiroshima.
They go back at 8:00a.m. and none can make it past 8:13.
That's when they can see the plane, or so I’m told.
That seems to freak people out. Once they can see the bomb, they don't want to risk it anymore. I guess 2 minutes away from complete vaporization is close enough, huh?
What I always get fascinated with is the stories people tell about other people. When Jumpers get back, they often can’t stop laughing. People are just so oblivious to what is about to happen.
They walk to work, or to the store. Some have pets. Some have children. None have any idea.
When the Jumpers get back, the sense of impending doom rushes out and leaves them in a state that looks like a mental break coupled with the funniest joke they’ve ever heard. They just cannot stop laughing sometimes. Then, always, the tears. First for themselves. That is clear as crystal and I hate myself for knowing it. Then, for the millions of lives that they know are already gone. The lives that only moments before they were a part of, if only for that brief moment the Jumper paid for.
Some make me sick, and I have to brace myself to not strike them. The ones who want to go to Columbine or The World Trade Center. They’re the worst. They aren’t Jumping to avoid death. No, these assholes go to watch. They love the look on peoples faces. Some like to sit in the South Tower gazing out over the water. They never make it more than 3 or 4 minutes beyond that. Well, some do. You don't want to know what our Whale Clients get into. That's some real NSFW content. Not safe for your psyche is more like it. You DO NOT want those stories on your harddrive, trust me.
Oh shit, Me. I apologize, I was just so wrapped up in what I’m doing that I forgot to tell you who the fuck I am.
I’m the shrink.
The Psychologist.
The one that has to check you before and after so we don't accidentally fry your brain and have another lawsuit (I’ll get there,relax).
Stuff happens to your brain when you Jump. Very Scientific stuff that I would love to explain, except this is a suicide note, not a textbook on the Anatomy and Physiology of Time Travel.
When I was a kid and I first mentioned to my papa (he hated grandfather and I don't know why, but I miss him) that I was interested in going to the past, he gave me a book that he read when he was a boy. A book called Timeline by Michael Crichton. In that book a man goes back in time and it causes micro fissures in his brain and those misaligned fissures cause him to go insane. A bit of a paraphrase, but close enough so that you can understand what I’m trying to get at. Sometimes during a Jump, your brain can have anomalies that may or may not travel back with you. If they do, that compounding time has an adverse affect and you, well, go fucking nuts. Sometimes it's obvious and sometimes it's so subtle that it will almost take down your multi-trillion dollar, multi-national company until you put that man at the base of Mt. Vesuvius and forget to give him his return ticket.
We call it catching the Pompeii express.
60 seconds, just long enough to think about what you did.
I wonder if I should give myself that long. If I want to think about all that I’ve done, I’ll need much longer.
I guess I’ll finally know what that last 2 minutes in Japan feels like.