Continuum: Time Rep

by Peter Ward

  “When you are ready to travel,” the hologram said, “press the EXECUTE button. There will be a short delay while the Sat-Nav performs its safety checks, and once that is done, you will be transported instantly to the time and place you selected.”

  Geoff pressed the EXECUTE button and waited. In the top right-hand corner of the screen, a little hourglass spun around. Then before he knew it, he wasn’t standing in the jungle anymore. He was on the long sandy beach he had chosen, looking out across the ocean, the sky overcast and swirling with huge gray clouds up above. It was like standing in the middle of a magnificent Constable painting, except there were no horses wandering onto the scene.

  This thing was incredible.

  “Next, we have the WHAT button,” the hologram said, appearing in front of him again. “This is the third icon at the top of your screen, with a question mark on it. The WHAT button provides the user with a live stream of information, allowing you to understand the consequences of any changes you make to the course of history. For example…”

  Without warning, Geoff’s surroundings suddenly changed, and he found himself standing in the middle of a lush evergreen forest. Above him, huge pine trees rose high up into the sky.

  “Welcome to London,” the hologram said, this time walking out from behind Geoff, which he found to be a little disorienting. “Or rather, welcome to the site where London will one day be built, one hundred and ninety million years in the future.”

  Geoff shook his head. For a moment, he couldn’t believe how different everything looked from the London he knew, but then, he was still struggling to comprehend just how far back in time he was. It wasn’t like this place was going to get bulldozed in a few weeks and converted into a nice high street with several apartment blocks (and Pret A Mangers, of course). He was one hundred and ninety million years in the past.

  “Now, we’ve all heard of the butterfly effect,” the hologram continued. “This is the theory that a small change made long ago could potentially have a huge ripple effect on future events. You’re going to test that theory. In a few moments, a butterfly is going to land on the ground in front of you. When it does, please stand on the butterfly and kill it.”

  Just as the hologram had predicted, a large butterfly with violet wings soon fluttered around in front of him before landing right at his feet. Geoff looked down on the insect. It was a beautifully delicate creature, with an intricate purple pattern spread across each wing like a piece of decorative calligraphy, designed by nature itself.

  He trod on it and twisted his foot into the ground, killing it instantly.

  “Now, on the WHEN page,” the hologram said, “you will notice a button with a fast-forward symbol on it, much like the fast-forward button you would find on a video remote.”

  Geoff recognized this button. It was the same one William had pressed to see the future consequences of his actions when he destroyed Canary Wharf.

  “Holding down this button will begin to wind time forward, and the harder you hold it down, the faster time will pass. Try it now and see what the consequences will be of killing that butterfly.”

  Geoff held down the fast-forward button and watched as time began to speed up. Just as the hologram had said, the more pressure he put on the button, the faster time passed, until the rising and setting of the sun was just a blur. He watched as the years began to count up on the Sat-Nav’s display, and within a few minutes he was racing through thousands of years every second.

  “Now, you may be wondering how you are able to occupy the same space while time is moving forward, and not be impacted by any physical changes in the environment,” the hologram said.

  Geoff was actually thinking about whether it was too soon to have another cup of tea when the opportunity presented itself, but now that he thought about it, this was a good question. While traveling through time, would it appear to everyone else that he was just standing still? And what happened if something bumped into him while he was standing still? Like a speeding bus? He suddenly felt a little nervous.

  “While you are in this state,” the hologram explained, “your body is phased outside of regular space-time, meaning not only are you invisible to people in the normal world, but physical objects pass straight through you.”

  Well, that’s good to know, Geoff thought. The last thing he would want to happen would be to travel forward a few millennia only to discover that someone had stolen his trousers six hundred years ago.

  As he got closer and closer to 0 BC, he took a little pressure off the button, causing time to pass a little slower. He had yet to see any sign of human civilization, although some structures began to appear on the landscape that he didn’t recognize. But time was just passing too quickly for him to catch a glimpse of any people.

  One thousand years AD came and went, and London started to take form. But as Geoff slowed down the passage of time more and more, he noticed a number of significant differences in this new timeline.

  For a start, the dominant species on the planet did not appear to be Homo sapiens anymore. Instead, the major species was a catlike race with stumpy tails and large feet, walking around on their hind legs and wearing clothes much like humans. As a result of this, the passage of history was very different from the way he remembered it, and he observed with interest as the catlike creatures became more and more technologically advanced. Over the years, this race built a city on the same site as London, but they chose a very different architectural style, with several dome-topped cylindrical towers of different heights being the main type of structure.

  It was like a city of giant scratching posts.

  Once Geoff reached the twenty-first century, he took his finger off the fast-forward button and stood in the street. All around him, the catlike creatures stopped and stared back at him, as though he’d just materialized out of thin air. Some began to panic and run away. Others seemed to be approaching him with caution. It was really strange—these creatures had so many qualities similar to human beings, but they were feline. What the hell was going on? How had stepping on that butterfly turned the world into a Saturday morning cartoon with anthropomorphized cats everywhere?

  At that moment, time paused, and the hologram of Jennifer Adams appeared in front of him. “You’re probably wondering why everything looks so different,” it said.

  No shit, Geoff thought.

  “This is where the WHAT button comes in,” the hologram said. “Press it, and the Sat-Nav will explain the exact consequences of any changes you have made.”

  Geoff pressed the WHAT button and watched as the screen filled up with text. Just as the hologram had said, the Sat-Nav provided a real-time explanation as to why the Earth was now dominated by a catlike species rather than human beings. It turned out that stepping on the butterfly in 190,000,000 BC had caused a chain reaction, altering the course of evolution in the favor of a feline species. In short, stepping on that butterfly had wiped out the entire human race.

  Good job no one had mentioned that to the Varsarians two years ago. If they’d known it was that easy to defeat humanity, they would have just turned up in prehistoric times with a can of insect repellent and waited.

  “Finally, we have the rewind button,” the hologram said. “This is probably the most important feature of the device. In the WHEN screen, you will see a symbol in the bottom right hand corner of the screen, much like the rewind button on a video remote. Press it.”

  Geoff did as he was told.

  Just as had happened on William’s Sat-Nav when he’d pressed the button, a new line of text appeared on the screen: PLEASE CONFIRM HOW FAR BACK YOU WISH TO REWIND.

  Beneath this text was a horizontal slider, and a series of dials for years, days, hours, minutes, and seconds.

  “The slider in front of you represents your own personal continuum, as experienced from your point of view,” the hologram explained. “The far right of the bar represents the present moment, and the far left represents the moment you ingested the serum
linking you to the Sat-Nav. To rewind time, all you need to do is drag the slider to the left as far back as you want to go. The dials below will change accordingly, and if you want to fine-tune the period of time you want to go back to, simply touch the dials to change them manually. In this case, we want to go back to the moment before you trod on the butterfly, which was three forty-five p.m. on the third of March, one hundred and ninety million years BC. Simply slide the arrow accordingly, or touch the dials to enter the date and time manually. Once you are done, press the flashing green button at the bottom of the screen.”

  Geoff entered the date and time he’d been given and pressed the flashing button. The moment he did, time began to flow backward, and just as he’d experienced when William had done this, his body felt paralyzed, as it was forced to move exactly as it had just done, only in reverse. He watched as he unentered the date and time he had just entered on the Sat-Nav, then passively observed the events he had caused by stepping on the butterfly undo themselves. The catlike civilization regressed back into a primitive state, and the impressive city of vast cylindrical towers shrank back to nothing. Then the reversal of time began to speed up, no doubt reflecting the speed at which Geoff had fast-forwarded time when he perceived it flowing forward. Then, finally, time slowed down, he felt himself lift his foot back off the undead butterfly, and as he regained control of his body again with a jolt, he watched the butterfly fly away unharmed. He sincerely hoped that butterfly was going to take good care of itself and that it had a decent pension plan—the future of the entire human race depended on its survival.

  He thought about what had just happened. It was strange—even though he had just undone all the changes he had made to the space-time continuum, he could still remember all the details of the alternate future he had created.

  “Finally,” the hologram said, “if you have chosen to bring along some spare serum so a guest can join you on your travels, you will need to know how to use it.”

  Geoff felt his pocket to make sure the bottle was still there. He knew exactly who he wanted to give this to, so he was sure to listen carefully as the hologram gave its explanation.

  “Using a spare serum is very simple. First, your guest will need to ingest it. Once this happens, they will automatically be linked to your Sat-Nav, meaning they will have the same experience of time being manipulated as you. They will be connected to your Sat-Nav indefinitely, and will be able to move along the timeline as far back as you ingested your own serum. If for whatever reason you wish to sever the connection, simply hold down the small red button on the rear of the device for three seconds. But be careful using this feature—once your guest is disconnected, they will no longer be able to move through time with you unless you are rewinding time, and even then they will no longer be able to retain memories of anything they unexperience.”

  So it was a bit like disconnecting a Wii remote to the main console, Geoff thought.

  “Be warned, though—once your guest is severed, they will not be able to reconnect to the Sat-Nav until they ingest more serum, and rewinding events will cause them to lose all memory of the changes you experienced together.”

  Geoff nodded to himself. Like the rest of the tutorial, that sounded pretty straightforward.

  “So I will leave you now to explore history however you please,” the hologram said, flashing a pixelated smile vacantly toward him. “We hope you enjoy your Continuum experience, and wish you a safe and pleasant vacation.”

  With that, the hologram disappeared in a puff of blue dots again, only this time the dots seemed to get sucked into the Sat-Nav. Was that where the projection had been coming from all along?

  So this was it.

  He needed to decide what he was going to change.

  He stood in the forest alone for a moment, closing his eyes to listen to the wind ruffle through the surrounding vegetation.

  Geoff imagined most people being completely spoiled for choice when it came to choosing where to go and what changes to make, but in his case the decision was made instantaneously.

  He knew exactly where he wanted to go, and what he wanted to change.

  He wanted to go to a restaurant, and change the fact that he hadn’t eaten anything all day by ordering a large cheeseburger.

  He might order some chips, too.

  And then he would find Zoë.

  Ten

  Because Geoff couldn’t wait to tell Zoë what he really did for a living (after having eaten his cheeseburger, of course), he decided that the best moment to talk to her would be immediately after he’d seen her that morning when he was on his way to Canary Wharf. In his excitement, it didn’t occur to him that it might seem a bit strange for her to see him waiting on the other side of the street right after she’d just said goodbye to a past version of himself, or that he now looked quite different. Although from Geoff’s point of view he hadn’t seen Zoë for a few hours, to her, it would appear as though he’d instantly changed into a nice suit and altered his appearance so he didn’t always look like he was about to audition for a part in a film set in a world where all self-grooming products suddenly ceased to function.

  But this didn’t really cross Geoff’s mind—all he wanted to do was see Zoë, and tell her the truth about himself for the first time in two years.

  Geoff felt his hands shaking slightly. He had waited so long for this moment, and now it was finally here. He could show Zoë who he really was, confess to her how he really felt. He didn’t know how she would react, didn’t know if she would tell him that she felt the same way, or if she would find the whole thing a bit awkward, but right now he was just excited about being honest with her. And if this all went horribly wrong, he could always rewind time and try again.

  Which was quite handy.

  But how on Earth would he start the conversation? Hi Zoë! Guess what? I’m actually a time traveler! No—that sounded a bit weird. Hey! Interesting story about me that I might not have told you—did you know I saved the world once? And that I’m a time traveler? Hmm. That also sounded a bit weird. Hey Zoë! I was just thinking—how would you like to go and see a dinosaur? No, no, no. These were all weird ways to start up the conversation. But then, that was the problem with being a Time Rep. As careers went, being a Time Rep was weird.

  Weirder even than those people whose job it is to separate the girl chicks from the boy chicks on farms by squeezing poo out of their bums.

  Well, he needed to think of something to say quickly, because Zoë was now walking right toward him. In the end, he opted for the ever reliable “Hello,” but just as he was about to open his mouth to speak, she put her headphones in, started humming along to her music, and walked straight past, rummaging around in her bag for the next batch of mail.

  She hadn’t even seen him.

  Geoff turned around on the spot and watched her walk away.

  Well, that didn’t exactly go as planned.

  Should he go after her? Tap her on the shoulder to get her attention?

  No—that would scare the hell out of her (Zoë was very jumpy), and this was a big moment for him.

  He wanted it to be perfect.

  Maybe he should try that again.

  Rewind.

  Ten

  Because Geoff still couldn’t wait to tell Zoë what he really did for a living, he once again decided that the best moment to talk to her would be immediately after he’d seen her that morning when he was on his way to Canary Wharf. He was still excited, so it still didn’t occur to him that if Zoë saw him waiting on the other side of the street right after she’d just said goodbye to a past version of himself, it might come across as a bit weird. And he’d still forgotten that he looked completely different.

  Geoff was shaking slightly. He had waited so long for this moment (plus a few extra seconds since the last attempt went wrong), and now it was finally here.

  Again.

  If Zoë actually saw him this time, he could show her who he really was, confess to her how he re
ally felt. He still didn’t know how she would react, didn’t know if she would tell him that she felt the same way, or if she would find the whole thing a bit awkward, but right now he was just excited about being honest with her, albeit a little less excited since the last attempt had backfired slightly. He was still feeling nervous about what would happen when he told her, but once again he reassured himself that if this went wrong again, he could always rewind time and try again.

  Which was already proving to be quite handy.

  In fact, if he wasn’t careful, rewinding time to correct his mistakes could become quite addictive.

  He’d put a bit more thought into how he would start the conversation this time, though, and before Zoë had a chance to put her headphones in and block out the world, he was ready with his opening.

  “Hey, Zoë,” he called out, giving her a wave.

  Zoë looked up and stared at him for a few seconds. It seemed to take her quite a while to realize who she was talking to.

  “Wait a minute,” Zoë said, looking up and down at him. “Geoff?”

  “Yup,” he said, taking a couple of steps back. “It’s me.”

  “But I…” she pointed back down the road. “And you were…”

  “Ah,” Geoff said, suddenly looking at the situation from her perspective. “You were just talking to me a moment ago, weren’t you?”

  Zoë nodded.

  “So I suppose this must look a bit weird.”

  “You could say that!” Zoë put her post bag on the ground and took a few deep breaths. “How the hell did you change clothes so quickly? And how did you make yourself look so…”

  “…clean?”

  “Different. How did you make yourself look so different?”

  “Oh,” Geoff said, just beginning to remember how he looked. He ran a hand across his smooth jawline and smiled. “I had a shave.”