The Last Time Traveler

by Aaron J. Ethridge

  “Like what?”

  “Like what what?”

  “I mean,” Morgan said, “what can't we change?”

  “Alright,” the traveler replied. “That's a fair question. And I have the perfect example. One of the first time travelers, the third actually, felt that mankind wasn't emotionally prepared for a number of things that happened in the twenty-second and twenty-third centuries. She wanted to help prepare the mind of man for what it was about to encounter. So, she took a bunch of history books, reworked them as fiction, and introduced them subconsciously into the imaginations of a number of writers throughout portions of human history. Didn't it ever strike you as odd that a guy wrote a book called The Time Machine years before the first airplane ever flew, or that a book about electric powered submarines was published in 1869?”

  “Whoa!” Morgan said, leaning back in his seat and gazing at the traveler. “Whoa! So, like some of our fiction is history?”

  “Some of it is based on...”

  “Whoa!” the young man interjected. “Whoa! Are you trying to tell me that: A long time ago in a galaxy...”

  “I'm not saying that, Morgan,” Robert chuckled. “I'm just saying...”

  “So, seriously!” Morgan said leaping to his feet. “Is Captain Kirk real?”

  “Morgan,” the traveler said, raising his hands, “I'm not going to tell you...”

  “Oh! My! Goodness!” he exclaimed. “They brought Spock back from the dead! That is crazy!”

  “I'm not saying...”

  “One thing!”

  “Morgan...”

  “One thing!”

  “Try to focus, bro.”

  “One thing!”

  “Oh alright!” the traveler exclaimed. “What?!?!”

  “Green women,” Morgan said with a wide smile. “Are there any green women?”

  “What difference does it...”

  “Just answer the question!”

  “Yes! As amazing as it may seem, the universe is rather replete with green women!”

  At this Morgan bit the first knuckle of his index finger and bounced around the room on one foot for several seconds.

  “I knew it!” he exclaimed. “I mean I knew it! That's why I never had a girlfriend. Fate was saving me for this!”

  “Mmmm,” the traveler hummed slowly, nodding his head and staring at his companion through squinting eyes. “I'm not sure that's exactly what it was there, Morgan. It could have more to do with the neck beard and the fact that you're wearing socks and sandals, in spite of the fact that it's October...”

  “Whatever!” Morgan said, dropping back into his seat. “You just get me to the green women and stand back, bro.”

  “Mmmm,” Robert replied, nodding once again. “I get the feeling this is going to be an interesting trip...”

  “Where to first?” Morgan asked, spinning around to gaze at the controls in front of him.

  “Good question!” the traveler said, turning his own seat. “First we've got some prep work to do. We got to get the universe ready for you, Hos.”

  “Well I'm ready!” the young man said excitedly. “We gonna to start by saving Abraham Lincoln or something?”

  “No!” the traveler said, turning his seat once again toward his companion. “And before we go any further I need to explain about that.”

  “About what?”

  “I never,” Robert began, “and I mean never allow anyone to touch any history they know anything about.”

  “And why is that?” Morgan asked.

  “OK,” the traveler said. “That's a fair question. Here's the answer: have you ever heard of Hiroshima?”

  “Of course,” Morgan replied rolling his eyes. “Everyone has.”

  “Right,” Robert nodded. “Well, what if I told you that the bomb was dropped because of the changes a time traveler made. Would you be willing to help me undo those changes and stop the bomb?”

  “Absolutely!” the young man nodded. “I mean, think how many lives...”

  “Right!” the traveler said, nodding his head slowly. “Now suppose I told you that the bomb that hit Hiroshima didn't go off because of changes a traveler made. Would you help me undo them?”

  “Undo them?” Morgan asked. “As in: we change things so the bomb does go off.”

  “Exactly!”

  “We couldn't...”

  “Exactly, Morgan!” the traveler said, staring into the eyes of his companion. “That's what I'm telling you. I haven't come to save lives, or to rescue men, women, and children. I'm here for one reason: It's my job to save the future. I fix history, I don't judge it.”

  “Well I...”

  “Everybody dies, Morgan,” Robert explained. “You'd been dead for thousands of years before we ever met. But people can die the way they were meant to or the way we make them. I'm here to make sure that things happen the way they must, not the way we want them to. That's the golden rule, Morgan. It's the one absolute. We do what has to be done because we have to. That's the only way it can be.”

  “I see where you're coming from,” Morgan replied.

  “Good!” the traveler said. “Either way, that's why we're not going to be messing with Earth history much. It's also why we work with missing persons. Your fate from now on has very little to do with the time-line. Oh, and I might have been a little overly assertive... There are points in history where you can safely save all the men, women, and children. And if we run into one of those we'll do our best.”

  “Sounds good,” the young man smiled. “Well, if we can't go see Abe, where are we headed?”

  “Like I said, we need to prep you up,” Robert replied. “And to do that we need to go see Sister.”

  “Sister?” Morgan asked.

  “Yep,” the traveler nodded. “And you might want to hit the bathroom and, you know, shave off that neck beard.”

  “Nah, man,” Morgan replied, shaking his head. “I'm cool.”

  “Suit yourself,” Robert replied. “But I've got a feeling you're going to regret that decision before the day is over. Either way, let's get going.”

  As he said this he punched a number of buttons in rapid succession. The entire front of the ship became transparent as it rose slowly into the air. There, below them on the ground, Morgan could see the bear and his clone. He quickly looked away, but it was too late; that image was burned into his memory. For the rest of his life it would flash before his eyes every time he saw a bear. As a result he never enjoyed going to the zoo as much as he once had.

  The ship rose quickly and in a matter of moments it was sitting in space.

  “Shouldn't we be floating around?” Morgan asked.

  “Gravity generator,” the traveler replied. “As much sci-fi as you watched, you should know that.”

  “I actually figured,” Morgan said with a nod. “Just wanted to make sure. So, how does this thing work? Are we just going to disappear here and reappear there?”

  “Nope,” Robert said, shaking his head. “We're actually going to jump into hyper-space, engage our warp engines, and head for the nearest wormhole.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Nope,” the traveler smiled. “I'm a time traveler, Morgan, not an engineer. I push the buttons and the ship goes. Now, the truth is that I do know a lot more about it than that, but I certainly can't explain it to you. And this is going to take a few minutes. You may want to at least put on some other clothes. I've got a bunch of stuff in your size from several different periods in history.”

  “Nah, man,” Morgan replied, shaking his head. “I'm cool.”

  “Wow,” Robert replied. “Just going to go with the: I hate it when my schwartz gets twisted T-shirt then? Alrighty.”

  “It's what's on the inside that counts,” Morgan said with a knowing grin.

  “Yeah,” the traveler chuckled. “You keep telling yourself that. Anyway, let's see here... North Star... Second to the right... Go time!”

  Suddenly the cockpit once again became opaque as the s
hip jerked into motion. The view outside the windows turned jet-black and Morgan sat, gazing into the apparent nothingness ahead.

  “Where did everything go?” he asked.

  “Oh, it's still there,” the traveler explained. “It's just that we're not. We're in what you might consider non-space or the space between space.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Who knows?” Robert asked. “Does it matter? We're going where we're going and we are where we are. Call it whatever you want.”

  “Alright,” the young man nodded. “That's cool.”

  “You know, Morgan,” the traveler said glancing at his companion, “you're actually handling this pretty well. Not everyone can go from walking around in the woods alone to being on a time machine with a guy they've never met before over the course of like twenty minutes without puking their guts up. Well done, man!”

  “Yeah,” Morgan nodded. “Well, I've already worked it all out.”

  “I...” Robert began. “No, actually... I don't... You've got what worked out?”

  “Oh,” he replied. “All this. You see, one time I was at this frat party and I noticed some guys smoking... I guess it could have been hand rolled cigarettes, but I'm thinking now that it was probably weed...”

  “Okay,” the traveler nodded.

  “Yeah,” Morgan continued, “so as I was walking through the room some of that smoke, some of that second hand smoke, got in my lungs, right?”

  “Sure...”

  “Well, I don't know why, but something out in the woods must have activated it. So now I'm having a major flashback.

  “Mmmm,” Robert nodded. “I do see some problems with your theory there, man. For one thing you have to have a flash before you can actually have a flashback.”

  “Well of course you'd say that,” the young man laughed.

  “And why is that?”

  “Well,” Morgan explained. “You're part of the hallucination, so you have to try to convince me that it's real. It's all part of your survivor instinct.”

  “Mmmm,” the traveler said again. “But do flashbacks have survivor instincts?”

  “Yeah... Actually, that is a fair point...”

  “And how did you end up at a frat party?” Robert asked.

  “It was a giant order,” Morgan replied. “Like three-hundred tacos or something.”

  “Yeah... that makes sense. You get to drive?”

  “Nah,” the young man said shaking his head. “The assistant manager drove.”

  “Yeah... that makes sense.” the traveler replied. “This is gonna take an hour or so. You hungry?”

  “I could eat. You got like a replicator on here or something.”

  “No, but I stopped at Wendy's before I picked you up. You like cheeseburgers right?”

  “Oh yea,” Morgan nodded. “No ketchup?”

  “Crap!” Robert said shaking his head. “I forgot about that. Sorry, man. You want mine? I got a chicken sandwich.”

  “Nah, it's cool. I can just wipe it off. Hand me a napkin. Did ya get some sodas?”

  “Dude, I gotta a soda fountain on this bird!” the traveler smiled.

  “Awesome! You got Baja Blast?” Morgan asked hopefully.

  “Man!” Robert replied. “You've got a gift... I ain't got that. You want a coke?”

  “Sure.”

  Morgan still had a fair amount of confidence in his flashback theory as he watched the traveler step from the room only to return a moment later with their drinks. After all, Robert certainly seemed more like something from a trip than a time traveler. At least, he did to Morgan... Of course, Morgan had never actually been on a trip, so he wouldn't have known...

  Either way, Morgan was fairly certain that none of this was happening. For one thing the traveler was shorter than him. Like, a lot shorter. Morgan was six-foot one, so a lot of people were shorter than him, but Robert couldn't have been more than five-foot six. People that saved the universe were usually tall in his experience; and not so common... the traveler had plain brown hair just like Morgan, he didn't even appear to have a five-hundred dollar haircut or anything.

  Also he was way too young. He couldn't have been over twenty-five by any stretch of the imagination. Unless, of course, he was one of those ancient young guys... But who could tell? And even though he was well-enough-dressed, sneakers, blue jeans, and a Lynyrd Skynyrd T-shirt weren't likely to get him on the cover of GQ. He just didn't have the fashion sense of a super hero. All things considered, he seemed a very unlikely guy to be charged with saving all of everything.

  For close to an hour they sat at the controls discussing music, movies, and television. Morgan would have asked more questions, but as none of it was happening anyway there didn't seem to be much point. Finally Robert glanced up at one of the monitors before pressing another series of buttons.

  The ship quickly dropped back into normal space.

  “Well, Morgan,” the traveler said, smiling over at his companion, “welcome to Never Never Land.”

  The view that met the young man's eyes was an odd one to behold. Directly ahead of them was a massive star ship, or so Morgan supposed, floating above what appeared to be a section of ocean adrift in space. In the middle of this ocean was a large tropical island. A small sun hovered over the scene, flooding it with light, while a number of smaller craft seemed to be making their way to and from the star ship as well as the island.

  “So, where is this?” Morgan asked after a brief silence.

  “Nowhere, Morgan,” the traveler replied. “Nowhere, no time. To the best of my knowledge it's the only place like it in the universe.”

  “If there's no time how is anything happening?”

  “Wow!” Robert smiled. “Another great question. Time generators, my friend. They work just like the gravity generators. Well... no they don't, but I'm not going to be able to explain either of those to you.”

  “How did time generators get here?”

  “This is our base, Morgan,” the traveler explained. “We built this place very near the end. We could see it coming, but we couldn't stop it. So, we built Never Never Land so we could survive until everything could be fixed.”

  “So... Is this the real Never Never Land?”

  “It's the only Never Never Land,” Robert replied. “Anyways, I'm requesting permission to go straight to induction. We don't have time to play around and I don't want to end up in a thousand conversations.”

  “Why would you end up in a thousand conversations?” Morgan asked.

  “I'm not surprised you don't know,” the traveler nodded. “You see, Morgan, I'm popular, like super popular. Hardly shocking, what with me being the potential savior of the universe and all. Don't worry though, if we manage to succeed, some of my popularity may just rub off on you. Who knows? You might even get a date. I mean after you lose the sock-sandals, obviously. Either way, we've got clearance.”

  “What's induction?”

  “It's where we take new missing persons who are about to go into active rotation,” Robert replied. “Like I said, we've got to get you prepped. Oh, and last chance: I'll give you ten minutes to shave and change clothes.”

  “Nah, man,” Morgan replied, shaking his head. “I'm cool.”

  “Suit yourself.”

  Minutes later Robert docked his ship in the small landing bay used by induction. The pair stepped down the gangway before heading directly toward the nearest door. Everything looked very much like Morgan had expected. The place was remarkably well lit, immaculately clean, and simply brimming over with science. As soon as the door opened the young man's eyes fell on an unexpected sight.

  Standing in the middle of the room was perhaps the most beautiful woman Morgan had ever seen. She was completely green, with bright blue eyes and lips. Raven black hair ran down her back almost reaching the floor and her figure made the young man's heart skip several beats. She looked to be somewhere between thirty and forty and if Morgan had thought that he had any chance at all he
would have asked her to marry him right then and there.

  The traveler said something to her in and unknown language, and she responded in kind, turning a wide smile to him as she spoke. Morgan started to pass out, but bit down on his index knuckle until the pain kept him conscious.

  “I believe!” he exclaimed, his voice filled with passion. “This is all real! It's all happening! And she's green!”

  “She also speaks archaic English Mr. Sock-sandals,” the woman replied, shooting a glance at the young man.

  “I warned you,” the traveler whispered before stepping boldly up to the woman. “You can't blame the kid, Sister. You know the effect you green woman have on all us mere mortal males.”

  “Not all,” she laughed.

  “On me,” he said with a wink.

  “Liar.”

  “Sometimes, love, but never to you.”

  “Liar.”

  “True.”

  “What do you want Rob?”

  “Oh, I think you know what I want,” he grinned.

  “Rob...”

  “Right, right,” he sighed. “I need Morgan here programmed for Common.”

  “Anything else?” she asked, gazing at the young man as she spoke.

  “Nope,” the traveler replied. “Not at the moment.”

  “You know best, I guess,” she smiled. “Hook him up, if you would.”

  “Sure thing,” Robert replied. “Morgan, take a seat in that chair.”

  The young man obeyed and the traveler pulled a metal ring down from above him and slipped it around his head. He then took what appeared to be a pair of glass lenses held in a thin wire frame and lined them up perfectly with Morgan's eyes.

  “Let's see what we have here,” Sister said, punching a few buttons on a nearby panel. “Hmmm... That's a mistake. Hold still sock-sandals...”

  “My name's Morgan.”

  “Alright,” she replied with a smile. “Then hold still, Morgan.”

  Again she pressed a series of buttons.

  “Something's wrong, Rob,” she said. “We're going to have to recalibrate this machine.”

  “Nah,” the traveler said shaking his head. “It's fine.”

  “What is it?” Morgan asked, leaning forward and attempting to see the screen they were looking at.