“I don’t think that’s it,” said Ryan. “Anything is possible in this city, but I’m sure we came back to the same room. And this wouldn’t explain why the entrance to the city was missing.”
“The Teacher said that Mom will die from being hit by that generator if we don’t hurry up and stop it,” said Regan. “The Teacher used those exact words.”
Ryan nodded. Hearing things telepathically made them easier to remember.
“So what does it refer too?” said Regan. “She’ll die from being hit by the generator if we don’t stop it. Stop what? Stop her bleeding?”
Ryan shook his head. “No. You would think it would have to refer to the generator. This is the only way the sentence would make any sense. But that would mean the Teacher really was malfunctioning, because of course we can’t stop Mom from being hit by the generator. That has already happ—”
Ryan stopped in mid-sentence. The only way the Teacher’s words made any sense was if it had not already happened. If it was going to happen, but had not happened yet. But if that was the case then …
“We traveled in time!” whispered Ryan, his eyes wide.
“What?”
“That’s it! I’m sure of it,” continued Ryan. “We traveled in time. Why not? We went through a doorway and found ourselves on another planet. Why couldn’t we have gone through a doorway to another time?”
“Like the one we went through when we were leaving the soccer-ball shaped building,” said Regan excitedly. “Remember how those three doorways suddenly appeared when you knocked into that podium thing, and we went through the middle one.”
Ryan’s heart raced. What was she talking about? He remembered there being three doorways when he had expected only one, but he had no idea they had appeared suddenly from nowhere after he had hit the podium. He must have been too busy recovering from the impact to see this happen. But that would explain a lot. “The podium must have been some kind of control panel. I must have accidentally hit the controls to open a time doorway. When we ran through it, we traveled back in time. To a time just before Dad broke into the city.”
“That would explain why the entrance was gone!”
“Right. And also why the scientists and equipment and nano-robots were gone when we got back to the room. The Teacher said that Mom didn’t disappear, and I bet I know what it was about to say but didn’t finish. It was, ‘Your mom didn’t disappear—you did’. Nothing happened to them. Something happened to us. We disappeared—back in time.”
“So we can still stop the accident from happening!”
“Exactly. And the Teacher said we only had a few hours. So we’ve almost caught up to the time when this whole thing began. In two hours, the generator will fall on her.” He paused. “We traveled back in time a little over a day. When we first checked for the entrance to the city and it wasn’t there, we left. I’m guessing if we had just waited an hour or so we would have been there when Dad first broke in.”
“That would have freaked him out for sure,” quipped Regan.
Ryan laughed. “Can you imagine? He succeeds in breaking through an unbreakable force-field he’s battled for almost six weeks, and when he walks through, surprise, he find his kids already inside. At that point, if we just innocently said, ‘Hi Dad, welcome to the alien city’, I’ll bet he would have passed out.”
Regan grinned at the picture her brother had painted. “This situation really is incredible,” she said. “This means there are two versions of each of us right now. Our younger selves are probably talking in the woods right now, discussing plans to investigate Proact.”
“Very, very weird,” said Ryan.
“So I guess we do know exactly where to find Mom,” said Regan. “Back at the building we were in. She must be there now! All we have to do is go there and warn Mom about the generator before it falls. Then she’ll be saved!”
Instead of celebrating, Ryan was deep in concentration. “It might be that easy, but let’s think it through carefully,” he suggested. “Time travel is very tricky. So what happens if we warn the group about the falling generator and explain about the nano-robots so they aren’t afraid of them?”
“Ah … we save the day?” offered Regan.
“So what effect would that have?” asked Ryan, and then answering his own question said, “I guess it would change everything that happened next. The two of us won’t be running out of the building like we did before—the other versions of us won’t even be in the building yet. So the younger me won’t run into that podium in just the right way to activate the time doorway … ”
“So we’ll never get sent back to the past,” whispered Regan, catching on.
Ryan scratched his head. “So we—the versions that did go back in time—will never have existed.”
“But if we never existed,” complained Regan, “how did we save the day in the first place?”
“Good question,” said Ryan. “This is why Dad says that time travel is impossible, because it leads to impossible situations. For instance, what if you went back in time and killed your father when he was a boy—before you were born?”
“Then you would never be born.”
“But if you were never born, then how did you kill your father?” said Ryan. “And if you didn’t kill him, then you would be born, and then you could go back in time and kill him.”
“Did I mention that I still have a headache from being in contact with the Teacher,” quipped Regan.
Ryan smiled. “My point is that it gets pretty complicated and there are a lot more questions than answers.”
“To say the least.”
“But we do exist now,” Ryan pointed out. “So what happens if we change things so that we never did? What would happen to us?”
“I don’t know. I guess we would just vanish.”
Ryan frowned. “That’s my guess too. I was hoping you would come to some other conclusion.”
“If we vanish, what would happen to our other selves? Wouldn’t they continue on? No matter what happens to us, our other selves should be okay.”
“I agree,” said Ryan. “They’ll be us exactly as we were a day or so ago, but once we change things they’ll live a totally different future than we lived. They won’t remember anything we’ve experienced.”
They paused to ponder the implications of the situation they were in. The prospect of vanishing from existence was quite scary, even knowing their earlier selves would be just fine. But both quickly came to the same, inescapable conclusion.
“We don’t have a choice, do we?” said Regan softly.
Ryan took a deep breath and shook his head. “No. We don’t. Not if we want to save Mom. When we do, our earlier selves won’t go back in time and won’t become us. There is no way around it.” Ryan’s expression turned to one of steely resolve. “But it doesn’t matter what happens to us.”
Regan knew her brother was right. All that mattered was saving their Mom. Yes, their other selves would live a different future, but it would be a far better future. A future in which their other selves had a mother, alive and well. “We’re wasting time, Ryan,” she said firmly, her eyes now glowing with a fiery intensity. “Let’s go save Mom.”
Ryan nodded, his newfound respect for his sister growing even further. “After we save her we should help the Prometheus team as much as we can before we disappear. Hopefully we’ll stick around long enough to report everything we’ve learned about this city.”
They started walking in the direction of the building their parents were in. Five minutes later Ryan stopped in his tracks and said, “Wait a minute! I just thought of something. When we find the team, we’re going to have to explain ourselves before they’ll believe anything we tell them. Just like before, they’ll insist on knowing how we got in here.”
Regan shrugged her shoulders. “So?”
“So we’ll have to tell them—how we got past the fence and lasers, how we solved the passwords, how we tricked Carl, how we got sent back in time—
everything. Then, when we save the day and vanish, they’ll have plenty of time to make sure we—meaning our earlier selves—never discover the city in the first place. They’ll know to look for the younger versions of us outside of the fence. We’ll change our past so that our earlier selves are stopped before they even get close to the Proact facility. Do we want that to happen?”
Regan frowned. “No we don’t. This city is fantastic. Good point, Ryan.”
“Yeah, we owe it to ourselves—well, our other selves—to still discover the city. But we have to save Mom.”
“I have an idea,” said Regan. “What if we go back outside and find our earlier selves and tell them everything we know. Then they can enter the city and save Mom. We’ll vanish, but they’ll already be in the city.”
Ryan thought about this for a moment. “Good thinking,” he said.
They reversed direction and began heading back to where they were now confident the entrance would be waiting for them. This was really going to be something, thought Ryan. How would it feel to talk to himself? Would the old him believe the new him?
The old him was in for the surprise of his life. He wondered where that Ryan was now. Still planning with Regan? Maybe hanging down from a tree expecting to be caught at any moment by security.
And with that thought he had one of the most startling realizations of his life. He stopped in his tracks, stunned.
“What is it?” prompted Regan.
“It’s not going to work,” he said with certainty. “We’ll never make contact with our other selves and the generator will still fall on Mom.”
“What?” said Regan. “Why do you say that?”
“Because it didn’t work the last time we tried it,” responded Ryan simply.
Chapter 23
A Race Against Time
“What in the world are you talking about?” said Regan.
“They were us,” insisted Ryan. “The kids were us.”
“What kids?”
“The kids the guards were chasing. The kids who ran out of Prometheus Alpha. The kids who gave me the break I needed when I was about to get caught. They were us. It all happened before. Mom got hit by the generator, the nano-robots swarmed, we went back in time, we figured everything out and we tried to tell our earlier selves so they could warn Mom. Just like we’re about to do now. But it didn’t work. Remember when I was hanging in that tree? A guard saw two kids coming out of Prometheus Alpha. Who else could they have been? Our later selves must have been trying to warn us about the generator accident. But they failed. The guards chased them away from us. So we relived their history. Everything happened all over again.
“And we were just about to repeat history for the third time,” continued Ryan. “But now we can change things. The versions of us that failed the last time have at least given us the clue we need to change our plan this time. This time we won’t try to find ourselves before we’ve entered Prometheus Alpha to warn ourselves about the generator. This time we’ll go directly to the building Mom is in. We’ll just hide out nearby until we’re certain that our other selves are already in the city.”
“But if we do that, Ryan, won’t the other you be caught by that guard? The guard won’t have any reason to run off when you’re about to drop from the tree.”
“You’re right,” said Ryan. “You’re absolutely right. We still have to create that diversion for our earlier selves.”
“Wait a minute,” said Regan. “How did we get in the city the very first time this whole crazy time-loop began? The first time there weren’t any time-traveling versions of us to create a diversion. You would have been caught by the guard.”
“That’s a good point, too,” said Ryan. “I don’t know. I guess we’ll never know. All I do know is that we don’t have much time. Regan, we need to split up. You go and create a diversion for our other selves outside. Lead the guards on a wild goose chase away from where we entered the grounds.” He paused. “I’ll go and warn Mom.”
Regan nodded her agreement.
Ryan put a hand on his sister’s shoulder. “Regan. I sometimes give you a hard time and I’ve never admitted it before now, but I think you’re pretty amazing in a lot of ways. You have more courage and more brains than most kids far older than you. I’m lucky to have you as a sister.” With that Ryan gave her a bear hug, surprising her nearly to death.
“Thanks, Ryan. I can’t believe you just told me that.”
“Well, I knew this was a great time to be completely honest with you.”
“Because we’ve been through so much together?”
Ryan smiled thinly. “Well that . . . and the fact that in a few hours we’ll vanish, and your other self will never know I said any of this.” His expression turned sincere once more. “But I want you to know that I mean every word of it.” He paused. “Good luck, Regs,” he said.
“You too, Ry,” she replied. She turned and began walking toward the entrance to the city.
Ryan was a pretty great brother himself, and she would tell him this one day, but she wanted to be certain when she did that he actually would remember it.
Ryan turned in the direction of the building his mother was in and focused all of his concentration on the task in front of him. He was starving, his throat was parched from lack of water, and his brain still hurt from the connection with the Teacher. But none of that mattered. All that mattered was saving his mom!
But as he walked on he began to become alarmed. Nothing looked familiar. Was he going in the right direction? Thirty minutes later his stomach was tied in knots and he was forced to admit the terrible truth to himself.
He was lost. Totally and hopelessly lost.
It couldn’t be! After everything that had happened, after everything they had been through, it just wasn’t fair! He should have paid more attention to where he was going as he searched through the city.
He began to run in panic, searching frantically for something he recognized. But still there was nothing.
And he was running out of time.
In just a little while history would repeat itself. Carl, the head of security, would lead the other Ryan and Regan to their parents. They would learn about the Prometheus Project. And then they would try to convince Dr. Harris to let them be part of the team.
And finally, his other self would be forced to watch what he had watched; a generator coming loose from a pole and plunging down to fatally injure his mother.
“Nooooo!” he screamed in frustration at the top of his lungs to the uncaring city. He had better find his bearings, he thought, and he had better find them soon. If not, he would surely fail to save his mother’s life— again.
Chapter 24
History Repeats Itself
“This is truly a horrible situation with no easy answers,” said Carl. “This does not involve criminals, spies from other nations, saboteurs, or terrorists. That would be easy. No, this involves innocent kids who are the children of two of our key scientists. Not to mention that Ben here just made an incalculable contribution to this project. Yet the importance of keeping this project absolutely secret could not be greater.”
“We won’t tell anyone,” insisted Regan. “We swear.” In the corner of her eye she saw Ryan nod in agreement beside her.
During the last hour they had breached a razor-wire fence, solved passwords, tricked guards and found the greatest secret in the world. It had been the most exhilarating hour of her life. But now that Carl was deciding what to do about this security breach, exhilaration had quickly become nervousness. Her mom gave her a reassuring look but Regan sensed she was equally nervous.
Carl had been thinking silently for some time. “Although I believe it is a great risk,” he said at last, “it may very well be that trusting you to keep this absolutely secret is the best option we have.”
Regan brightened. Had she heard right? She had feared far worse than this.
“But kids are terrible at keeping secrets—even if their intentions are go
od,” said a plump woman with glasses.
Stay out of this, thought Regan crossly.
“We don’t have a choice,” said Carl. “Not a real one, anyway.” He sighed and turned toward the two siblings, his expression deadly serious. “Listen very closely,” he said. “I need for you to understand just what is at stake here.”
Regan listened carefully as Carl laid out just how important this particular secret was. She gulped hard. There could be devastating consequences if they failed to keep the secret.
But they would not fail—of that she was sure. Minutes later it was all settled. Everything had worked out.
But how could you know about something this fantastic, this important, without wanting to be a part of it? Without having to be a part of it. She knew the chances of Dr. Harris letting them help were near zero, but she had to try. She was willing to beg if she had to. She opened her mouth to speak only to find that her brother had beaten her to the punch.
“Now that this is settled,” stammered her brother, “can we … well, can we help you explore the city?”
Dr. Harris shook his head. “What? Are you kidding?”
“Ah … no,” said Ryan. “Why not? It’s a huge city and you have a very small team. We would stay out of your way and I know that we could help.”
Good going Ryan, thought Regan. “Ryan’s right,” she said quickly. “We could help. You could think of us as assistants. We could do whatever you told us to do.”
“We promise not to cause any trouble,” insisted Ryan.
The discussion continued. Some of the scientists actually thought it was a good idea. Perhaps they had a chance!
She held her breath as Dr. Harris said, “I’ve already acknowledged that these kids are very impress—”
“Mom, move!” came a frantic shriek from across the room, interrupting Dr. Harris.
Amanda Resnick looked up in shock. It was Ryan! Sweating and gasping for breath. She recognized her son instantly. But Ryan was standing in front of her. How could that be?
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