Temporal Incursion...

DAY 47: We have successfully sent a number of in-animate objects to various time-streams in the past. Since the invention of the Time Window goes some way toward the temporal theory that made time-travel possible, it seemed only a natural progression that we should monitor the objects through the said Time Window. Due to the nature of our temporal incursion, it remains to be a one way door and frustratingly we have to wait the duration of the object’s linear time-stream, before we can examine them for the effects of time travel. 1

Okay, I know it’s a breakthrough and the consequences of our actions are yet to be seen. But I can’t help thinking that it’s a bit early for the ‘Tech boys’ to be towel-flicking each other’s arses over our success. But Hell, I’m not going to stop them, they’ve worked hard to get us this far ahead of schedule. I’m just a bit concerned, that the power build-ups and surges we’ve registered in the Quantum Field will have ramifications far beyond what we are seeing in the here and now. Responsibility huh?2

DAY 48: Today we sent three more objects through the Time-Portal and the power build-ups and surges in the Quantum Field have increased tenfold. We have monitored the said objects as they arrive at their temporal destinations. We have been careful to ensure that all objects sent have not been anachronistic to the time periods they arrive in. 3

Given that we have sent these various objects to temporal points in time throughout the last 200 million years, we have also been careful to ensure that nothing has occupied the designated spatial co-ordinates at the point of temporal convergence. As you can imagine, this could cause its own problems in that two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time. The resulting paradox would be catastrophic to the timelines from that point onwards. In theory, this timeline would cease to be. I don’t think I need to tell you, that it is imperative that all safety precautions are followed to the degree of security monitoring of all staff, myself included. Paranoid much?4

DAY 49: Today we experimented with short-term temporal relocation. At approximately 8:47AM, a time portal opened up here in the facility and delivered my own mobile phone to me from myself 14 hours hence. Attached was a note in my own handwriting that simply said ‘IT WORKED THEN’. 5

My mind reeled at the possibilities this held. What would happen if I sent the same note back? Would it cease to exist, given that I didn’t write it? Would it exist as a paradox in its own right? What would happen if I sent a different note back? Would my thoughts be any different to what they are now? Would I be different to what I am now? Am I even now changing the timeline by just receiving the note? What would happen if I now decided not to do the experiment? Would the mobile phone and note cease to exist? Would I have any memory of the events if this were the case? Yes, head-fuck. Like Ouroborus eating his own tail, these thoughts and many like them bounced around my head until it was time to write the note and send it back along with the mobile phone from my pocket as opposed to the one in the lab. We performed the experiment at 22:47PM. It was a strange day all in all, given that we were examining the results of a test we wouldn’t perform for another 14 hours. Crazy huh?6

DAY 50: We have ceased all time travel experiments as of 6:32AM this morning. A small temporal anomaly has formed in the spatial co-ordinates reserved for the objects we have sent back in time. On scanning the Time-Window, we see that this anomaly becomes larger, the further back in time we look. We can’t explain it. 7

According to the news, a pterodactyl was seen flying over Westminster and aircraft from World Wars 1 and 2 were seen flying over various other parts of the country. Coincidence, I think not. I can’t help but think we are responsible. Another scan of the Time-Window confirms my fears as I witness the disappearance of these objects from their natural time-streams. We seem to have opened up pockets of fragmented time throughout History, whereby they act as doorways from the past that seem to allow access to these interlopers of bygone ages. Sadly we have no idea how to rectify it. Scary huh?8

DAY 51: A fractured time pocket has opened up here at the facility. I saw myself from 20 years hence, warning me of some future power surge that will catapult me into the past to meet my younger self. The danger of which in essence respectively remains to be the Blinovitch Limitation Effect. That states that the meeting of two incarnations of the same entity from separate temporal time-streams would cancel each other out, total annihilation. Unless the power released is dissipated, then theoretically it would cancel out the time differential in the younger incarnation. Leaving the said younger self comatose until they reach the chronological age of the elder self at the time of temporal convergence. Confusing huh?9

I observed my older self keep a cautious distance for this very reason, before returning to his own time-stream.10

DAY 52: We have worked around the clock to find out the cause of the temporal anomaly. The correct scientific term for what we are now witnessing is a ‘Multi-phasic temporal convergence in the space/time continuum’. In layman’s terms it is an eruption of anti-time. This is a relatively new concept in theoretical Quantum Mechanics. And states that the relationship between normal time and anti-time is analogous to the relationship between normal matter and anti-matter. If they were to collide, they would annihilate one another, causing a rupture in space. And this I feel is what we are witnessing now. 11

It is interesting to note that various by-products of the anomaly have manifested themselves in the wake of the temporal rupture. For example the fragmented time pockets continue to bring visitors from the past. Luckily for us, they remain high above the anomaly and only air-born creatures and aircraft are able to breach our time period. If the fractured time pockets were more localised then theoretically we could be facing long dead plagues, knights in armour and even legions of Roman soldiers that have walked this land. 12

Another by product we have witnessed is temporal reversion, whereby people within a 5-mile radius of the anomaly have noticed old wounds healing and amputees have even seen limbs previously removed begin to grow back. Weird huh?13

DAY 53: Our worst fears have been confirmed, the timelines have become polluted and one moment does not necessarily follow another any more. Having scanned the time window, I find myself witness to myself several days ago, doing things that I have no memory of. Time is no longer linear in nature and when this collision of time and anti-time reaches its climax, I fear it will mean the end of everything. What have we done? 14

You see, the nature of the time travel equipment is temporal time displacement. Basically a worm-hole is created in the Einstein-Rosenberg Bridge, whereby a temporal time portal is formed and sustained in a state of temporal grace that allows us to move an object from one time zone to another. But in order for this to work, a tachyon field must be stabilised and directed to the point where the portal will form. We’ve got to fix this, all life on earth depends on it. No pressure, there then?15

DAY 54: We have realised our mistake. Each time we have sent an object back to a different time period, we have been sending them back to the same spatial co-ordinates. Obviously these objects are not present when other objects arrive, as we first feared to be the problem. No, the problem appears to be the tachyon fields themselves. Given the temporal nature of tachyons, I surmise that each time we opened a time-portal at the same spatial co-ordinates, the tachyon fields from each portal converged across time. The resulting temporal power surges we recorded ruptured the very fabric of the space/time continuum. It is possible that the convergence of numerous tachyon fields have ruptured the sub-space barrier and created an anti-time reaction. 16

Given that anti-time operates opposite to the way normal time does, the effects would travel backwards through the space/time continuum. Which explains why the temporal anomaly is larger in the past, it grows as it travels backward in time. How did we miss this in the calculations, we must have been blind. Now knowing the cause and effect of the problem, it is only a matter of time before we find a solution. Although time is something we are short of, it is also something we have in abundance. Temporal paradox’s huh?17

DAY 55: Another by product of the temporal anomaly has manifested itself. A temporal wake has formed around the anomaly, creating pockets of accelerated time. Although similar in nature to the fractured time pockets, their effect has proven to be much more devastating. Earlier we witnessed one of the Tech boys inadvertently walk into one and drastically age to death before our eyes. If my arse had been square, I’d have shat a brick. But it didn’t stop there, no sooner had we finished reeling from that little revelation, before the accelerated time pocket changed direction. We then witnessed his resurrection and consequent regression from old man to embryo in under 3 minutes before he was no more than a puddle of goop on the lab floor. I was physically sick in my lap, I don’t know what was worse, aged to death or uncreated. Worse still I don’t know how this will effect the time-line with our colleague no longer in it. We are desperately working on a solution to the crisis. The shit has hit the fan and we’re stood right in front of it. Depressing huh?18

DAY 56: A time-portal has opened up here at the facility, myself from 20 years in the future has arrived again. It turns out they have been monitoring our situation from their vantage point. They had a visit from a time traveller 300 years from their time zone. He is feeling the effects of our experiments as future time-lines are cascading and collapsing. When he left, he knew he wouldn’t have a time-line to return to, this was further confirmed as he ceased to exist before the eyes of my future self and his colleagues. Fortunately, with him he has brought what could potentially be the key to our salvation. In essence, it looks like a large Faberge egg. It’s what they call a temporal static shell. I’m afraid the technology is beyond my understanding but the basic premise is that when activated it acts like a sponge that absorbs the temporal energy, dissipates it and cancels out the anti-time reaction. The only draw back is that 3 of the devices must be activated in 3 different time periods by 3 incarnations of the same person at the centre of the temporal anomaly. At this point, they make contact and the resulting power blast of the Blinovitch limitation effect activates the temporal static shells. Now given that my future self is here now, and I am destined by his memories to be catapulted back in time to meet my younger self, it would seem that the responsibility of humanities existence lies firmly on my shoulders. BUGGER!!! No stress here.19

DAY 57: As you can imagine, I didn’t sleep well at all last night. I didn’t so much toss and turn as toss and toss. Sorry, like I said ‘I didn’t sleep well’. I started to have second thoughts about my role in the forthcoming events. The thing that turned me back round was when one of my colleagues threw a pen to me and it froze in the air between us. It’s getting worse. At 16:22 this afternoon, I took 2 temporal static shells in hand and waited for the alleged temporal power surge that would catapult me back in time. At 16:38pm, all Hell broke loose. I saw my older self run into the anomaly with his temporal static shell as equipment exploded around him. Temporal energy surged out of the anomaly like tendril lightening fingers gripping everything in sight until it reached me and blasted me through a fragmented time-pocket. What a rush! I screamed like a little girl all the way through, we’re talking pigtails and sandals. I lost consciousness somewhere along the way and didn’t come too until what felt like the next day in the past. Despite the desperation of the situation, I couldn’t help but feel a moment of pride at being the first human time-traveller in linear history. Ah smug mode…20

DAY 58: I can’t believe it, I’m in the past, 17 years in the past to be precise. I’ve continued this journal according to my own personal time-line, to avoid confusion in my own mind should I survive to recall the events of my actions here. It seems bizarre to me to be walking around, out of my time, looking for my younger self. It certainly adds new meaning to the term ‘trying to find yourself’, doesn’t it?21

The Temporal anomaly was ten times bigger here, nobody knew what was going on and the media was telling everyone outside its radius to stay indoors. Everyone within its radius had either ceased to exist, aged to death, regressed to goop or been evacuated. In fact it took quite a while for me to get out of the radius zone. I think I have become time sensitive as a result of both, my proximity to the time experiments and my traversing a fractured time pocket. I find I am able to sense the by products of the anomaly and avoid them, which is quite handy really. I’ll have to contemplate the why’s and how’s later when I’ve got more time. It took most of the day to navigate my way out of the radius zone. Once I did, I passed out again. It felt like I slept for the rest of the day, linear time is no longer an accurate way to measure its passing.22

DAY 59: It niggled me slightly to find my mobile phone didn’t work here. As I remember, mobile phones are a reasonably new concept in this time period, and roughly the size of a house brick. It makes me realise how far we have come in the next 15-20 years. I mean video recorders are all the rage and there’s not a Blockbuster store in sight. DVD is a few years off yet, in fact it is probably just a concept on the drawing board. It also amuses me to see the kids walking around with big headphones attached to bulky cassette players on their hips. Yes, the I-pod is also a long way off. But enough of this self indulgence, I’m here to do a job.23

I found a telephone box, well I say found; they’re pretty much on every corner here. The first obstacle to hold me up was currency; the only coins not to have changed in the oncoming 20 years are the penny and the 2 pence. There is not even a 20 pence or pound coin. Luckily, I had 37 pence in ones and twos and the calls are only 10 pence each. Also you don’t have to put the money in until after the other person has answered, I miss that in the future phone boxes. So with fingers crossed I rang the house I was living in at this time. I was momentarily relieved to hear me answer until I realised it was a trick answer message that had amused me at this time. ‘Hello… fooled you, you’re talking to a machine, please leave your name and number and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can’. Bollocks! I was just about to put down the receiver, when I heard a click and a female voice answered. “Hello, sorry about that. Is there anyone there?” My girlfriend at this time. I quickly put loads of pennies into the coin slot. “Hello?” I asked. “Richie? Is that you?”. “Yeah, how’s it going?” “It can’t be you; I’ve just left you to pick up the phone”. “Brilliant, could you do me a favour and go and get me please?” “You wanker, is this your way of telling me you’ve blown all our money on a mobile phone” “No, just call me to the phone, I need to speak to me”. Stupid thing to say I know, but what do you say in situation like that. The receiver clicked, to be followed by the dialling tone. Shit! She thinks my younger self is messing about and is about to give him the biggest bollocking ever. He will understandably and quite rightly protest his innocence, huge row ensues. I haven’t got time for this. I quickly redialled the number in the hope of salvaging the situation before it got out of control. It rang 3 times, before it was picked up. My irate Ex answered. “Hello”, “Hello, it’s me again. Please don’t hang up?” Everything went quiet for a moment. Then I heard her talking away from the phone. “How are you doing this? It’s not funny”. I then heard me. “It’s not me, honestly. How could it be? Ask who it is.” “Who is this?” she asked suddenly loud again. “Who do you think it is? It’s me, Richie.” “You can’t be, he’s right here.” “Well would you be so kind as to put him on the phone, please? It’s very important.” I heard her pass the phone over. “Hello?” I heard myself say. I explained about the time experiments and the anomaly to the best of my ability without trying to sound too crazy. I confirmed who I was with a few personal facts that only I would know. I think my younger self believed me, or at the very least I’d peaked his interest. I then arranged to call over, fully warning him of the dangers of the Blinovitch Limitation Effect. My Ex-girlfriend would act as an intermediary between us, passing the temporal static shell on and explaining how it works.24

That part of the plan went without a hitch, the next part was not so easy. Somehow, we’ve both got to walk into the anomaly from different time periods, meet up with my older self from my time period and activate the temporal static shells and hope for the best. Piece of piss, you may think. No such luck. I had to navigate the radius of the anomaly with my younger self keeping a discrete distance, but trying to follow my footsteps. Nightmare! We lost another day getting back to the anomaly or maybe time is slowing the closer we get to it, I really can’t tell.25

DAY 60: Upon reaching the anomaly, I sent my younger self into it with his temporal static shell, despite his protests. I think eventually he realised that as his older self, I may actually know what I’m talking about and knew it was the right thing to do. I mean, I can totally relate to his reluctance to go through with it because I felt exactly the same when my older self asked me to do the same thing. As he went through, temporal energy surged out of the anomaly and blasted me through another fractured time pocket. I think maybe the anomaly is some how recognising that 2 incarnations of the same entity are in close proximity of it. And thus forcing me out of that time-line and into another. It’s like the ultimate rush. I can’t help but think the journey was longer this time but I still passed out.26

DAY 61: I awoke dazed and confused to find myself being poked with a stick. As I opened my eyes, several blurry figures jumped back with a surprise grunt. A sudden deafening roar filled the air and the figures ran in all directions. I came too, with sudden clarity, pre-historic ape-men running around, a sabre-tooth tiger preparing to leap into the air. It leapt. I closed my eyes as if in someway to deny the killing blow. Then silence. I opened one eye, to test the waters. The sabre-tooth tiger was frozen in mid air and some of the ape-men were caught in accelerated time pockets. I opened my other eye and got to my feet, dusting myself down. I looked behind me to see the anomaly filled most of the sky. I guessed it was now or never. And so I ran into the anomaly, temporal static shell in hand and passed into the sub-space barrier. As I arrived at the centre of the anomaly I saw my 2 other selves arrive from their respective time zones. As one, we each activated our temporal static shells as we joined hands in a circle around them. The noise was deafening, the pain was excruciating and heat was blinding. For one brief moment, we shared all memories and were one entity. We looked around and saw the anomaly starting to fold in on itself, as we were ripped apart by the time winds.27

DAY 62: Why I have retained these memories when time reset itself, I have no idea. Maybe time wants the lesson to be learned. Maybe, because I stopped it, I alone must make sure it doesn’t happen again. Maybe because I was time sensitive, I retained the memory. Whatever the reason, I consider it to be a blessing that I can stop this happening again. After all, whether people know it or not, everyone has a second chance. Everyone has a chance to make a difference. Everyone has the chance to learn from the past. What will you do?28

Additional: With this journal I have successfully managed to get all time travel experiments closed down before they begin and all equipment has been dismantled and all data has been destroyed. I think I will find another line of work to become involved in, writing maybe. I guess we’ll have to wait and see. After all, life is much more fun when time is linear. You never know what’s coming next.29