THE TIMEGATE

Back before I was born the general view of time travelers went something like this: “If there are time travelers why haven’t we met any that have come back from the future?” The idea was valid. They were mostly correct. The only problem was that they failed to understand the theory of time travel as we’ve come to understand it. You cannot go back in time unless there is somewhere to go back to, or more specifically, you can only go back in time through the timegate if another instance of the timegate is waiting for you on the other side.

When timegate theory was first dreamed up the scientific community chalked it up to be exactly that, a dream. The basic function of the timegate is to accelerates particles faster than the speed of light. Going faster than the speed of light causes the particles to go backwards in time. When the travelling particles reach their destination the timegate slows the travelling particles down. To send them forward in time the timegate does the opposite. The timegate freezes the particles movements completely in the buffer until they reach the year they seek and then the particles are sped back up. In other words without the timegate the speedup and slowdown processes would be virtually impossible. Without the timegate those going back would continue going back in time indefinitely and those going forward in time would stay frozen forever.

Thus when the first actual timegate was finished we shouldn’t have been so shocked. After the champagne was popped all the lead engineer of the project had the honorific task of turning on the power. As soon as he flipped the switch, the towering arches of the timegate whirred to life and two men walked out. Everyone in the room was in shock. The two men wore different clothing, but their faces were the same. If you had taken shots of the same person during different times of his life and lined them up side by side you would have gotten close to the same image. The younger version saw the older instance of himself and turned back to the timegate, punched in some numbers on the interface, and stepped back through. The older version of the man had a gray beard and flowing gray hair. He wore black robes and turned to all of the scientists and engineers who had done nothing but work on the timegate for the last six years of their lives and said in his old and wizened tone “Congratulations, you have taken the first step in the creation of a glorious future.”

One hundred interns and two hundred of the elites on the project were summoned and the old man who had come through the timegate began to teach us the laws of the timegate. I hadn’t been part of the project for long, but my interest in the timegate spurred me to make the choices I did to get here. When an internship was available I applied and miraculously got in. Miraculously isn’t a word I should use any more, it was so is much more appropriate.

The man pulled from his flowing robes a chip that expanded into a huge screen with a console that he could write on.

“Of the many original theories of time travel, we have only judged one to be accurate.” The old man began while drawing a picture of the timegate on the screen “Anything a time traveler does has always been done and always will be done.”

A friend of mine named Heur raised his hand and intelligently asked “What?”

The old man seemed to expect this response and nodded his aged head in recognition before drawing a picture “There were two strong theories to begin with. The first one dictated that if a man were to travel back in time and kill his grandfather before his father was born the man would create a time paradox in which he should not exist, but was allowed to anyway.”

I thought that made sense but the man continued “What we have found to be the case, however, is that for a man to go back and kill his grandfather is impossible. Anything a time traveler does has already been done: If a person exists than no one ever killed that person’s grandfather before the father was born. Of the many tests that have been conducted we have found that at each moment in time everything remains consistent.
The second rule of the timegate deals with instances. If you noticed when I came through the timegate earlier there was a younger version of myself. Although it is possible to travel through time it is not possible for a person who travels through the timegate to grow younger. Only one instance of a person at any moment can ever exist, regardless of time travel. It is impossible for the same instance of a person to exist in two different times. Thus it is impossible for me to exist exactly as I am now at any other moment in time.”

People were nodding their heads around me in comprehension. I think I understand it too, basically you can’t do something you haven’t done and you can only be in one place at a time.

The man had drawn two stick figures on the board with a large X through them. “Now” he continued, “Before you start using the timegate I have one last thing to discuss. You understand the rules, but you must understand their application and comprehend what that means. From these rules we can devise two things: First, at each moment in time anything that can be done has already been done. If that is the case then recording history is vital. For instance, it has already been recorded in the future that me and the younger version of myself appear right after the timegate’s completion. That’s the way it’s always been and always will be. There is no possibility of a time traveler travelling further back in time than myself. Further application of this law tells us that anything I tell you about your future up to the present time I know will happen without doubt.”

The old man stopped his lecture and let his words sink in. At first I thought what he said was pretty obvious, but after I really thought about it I realized that meant all of my actions were pre-determined. He could tell me everything I would do after leaving this lecture hall today. He could even tell me that he was going to tell me. I was about to start wondering about free-will, but the old man chose to speak again as voices started to rise in quiet chatter from the audience.

“This does not mean that free will does not exist. It simply means that you will freely choose to make the choices you make and that results in the future I know of.”

The on site ethics overseer dressed in his traditional brown frock stood up with his chin pointed to the heavens. His deep tone rumbled out authority as no one dared question the ethics overseer for fear of being thrown in jail.

“It cannot be freewill if we can only make one choice.” He stated.

The old man looked pityingly at the overseer “My dear ethicist. I can tell you the choices you will make, but that doesn’t mean you couldn’t have made other choices.”

The overseer huffed and guffawed and made a huge racket all to satisfy his position as the overseer, but eventually we escaped the question of free will with the old man having convinced most of us of the application of the first law of time travel.

The old man continued with his lecture “The last application applies to the second law and might be rather obvious, but is pointed out for demystifying purposes only. No amount of time travel will prevent you from aging. No amount of time travel will make you younger. You can meet a younger version of yourself, but eventually no matter how clever you are, you will grow old and you will die.”

My friend Heur voiced the question we were all wondering “Can’t you travel far enough into the future to find a cure for mortality?”

The old man smiled “That is a fantastic question, as expected of you Heur.” My friend tried his best to look modest.

“The truth of the matter is, even two hundred fifty-three years from now we still do not know all of the secrets of the timegate. You may wonder why no one came back from further ahead in time to explain all of the secrets; this is a paradox we cannot explain, you see for I have always come back. The truth is we know nothing after fifty years from my time. Any time traveler sent beyond that point never comes back, and no time traveler has ever come back claiming to have come from later than that date. We can only assume that in fifty years, excuse me, three hundred three years from the current time, the timegate will be destroyed.”

Someone shouted “Who will?” from the audience.

“We do not know.” The old man replied.

“Why is it destroyed?” shouted someone else.

The old man shook his head sadly “Again, this is a mystery even to us.”

Than I raised my voice for the first time “What do we do now?”

The old man smiled “That is a question I can answer. Gideon Chronus, Aravis Trans, Heur Istic, and Kagami Clock will all be coming with me back to my time. The rest of you will contact the authorities of your nation and wait for other time travelers to come back and assist you in the preparations for the war with the European Union and the Russians?”

My name was Gideon Chronus and I was startled that my name was called and that he mentioned war, but a girl in the audience with short blonde hair spoke

first “But we’re not at war with the European Union or the Russians.”

The old man looked sad. “Both countries will feel threatened by the creation of the timegate and the implications it means. Fearing that the coalition of Japan, China, and the United States who created and control the timegate will jump leaps and bounds in technology brought back from the future they will declare war to take control of the timegate. Do not worry; the coalition wins the war and occupies both countries in large part due to the technological advances from the future.
Now I know you have many more questions and they will be answered by the time travelers to come. Will the four people I called earlier come with me to the timegate please?”

We were all caught up in his gate. He had such an authority we all just unconsciously did as he commanded. Even those rebelling against his commands did exactly as he predicted by calling the authorities and those higher in the chain of command. It wouldn’t be long before the leader of the coalition and the subsequent party leaders would all be here to listen to the time travelers yet to come. I on the other hand followed the old man with the flowing black robe beside the girl with the short blond hair who had asked the question earlier, another girl with long black hair who looked like she was from the Japanese area of the coalition, and my friend Heur who was a Chinese intern. As the old man was pressing in numbers on the terminal which read 2633 I blurted out in sudden recognition of the amazing thing I was about to do.

“Why us?” I spat out, and the old man only looked back and smiled in his all knowing way.

“If you had listened before, it’s because you have always come with me back to my time.”

I, realizing I had phrased my question wrong, asked “What are we going to do in your time?”

The old man looked thoughtful than said “That is something even I do not know.”

The timegate whirred to life behind him and he stepped through the arches just big enough to fit a tank if need be. The last thing we saw was his hand beckoning. The four of us all stood dumb for a second than, almost at the same time, stepped into the pitch black of the timegate together, because as we all knew time waits for no one.