Newsgroups: alt.ql.creative From: wgarmil@world.std.com (Wayne S Garmil) Subject: Paradox, part 5 Message-Id: Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1993 20:26:58 GMT [Folks, this one didn't turn out quite as planned. I'd like some feedback on what you think of this part, and how I can improve it. -Wayne] Paradox ------- Part 5: 1999 ------------ An hour later, Goshie finally gives up for a while. Going to the cafetiria, Goshies gets a long overdue lunch, and sits down at the same table as Tina. "Well," Goshie begins, his mouth already full of food, "I've found and sent the admiral a copy of WildCard's posting to that computer newsgroup. All Sam has to do is send it out before 5 PM his time and everything should go according to history." "And what if something goes wrong and he doesn't make the posting in time", Tina asks, concerned that if Sam messes up, both he and Al will be trapped in the past. "I figure if something goes wrong, we have a day's buffer, maybe even two. Mary won't see that posting for another two days, and his wife won't see it for almost a week. I just can't believe something so minor is going to have such an impact on his life." "And what is it that I do that's so minor yet so major?", WildCard asks as he stands behind Goshie. "And yes, I probably know what you're about to say: we can't tell you about your future." WildCard smiles as he sits down. Like Goshies, he's feeling tired and fustrated over this leap. If only someone would start asking him some questions, he may still be able to help! "Ah, you're right, WildCard. We can't tell you.", Tina replies while Goshie tries to not choke on his lunch. "However, I do have a question I want to ask you." {Here it is!}, thinks WildCard. "How can you have conflicting histories? Goshie says it has something to do with your time travel ability, but I don't understand." {Huh? That's *not* what I was expecting!} "Well, it's kind of hard to explain. I barely understand it myself, and I live it." "Try me.", Tina says. She wants this answer, and has a feeling she's not going to like it. "Okay... Uh, how much do you know about my time travel power?", WildCard asks. "Wayne, you're stalling.", Tina says in repsonce. She hopes using his real name will make him take this more seriously. "Okay, okay! But first answer me this: do you know who created my bracelets for me?" "For you? You mean you didn't create them yourself?", Goshie asks, suddenly concerned himself. "Nope. I can't even repair them if they break. However, if you don't know the answer to my question, then at least I know how to proceed from here." Taking a deep breath, WildCard begins his story. "As you've probably found out by now, I live two separate and conflicting lives. For some reason, I have two different time lines, and I can switch between them at will. Usually. Based on your answer, I now know which time line this future fits into: the mundane one. I'll bet you couldn't even find one reference to the Young Heroes when you looked up my history." Seeing Goshie's confused look is answer enough to that question. "Okay, I won't go into the details (especially since they obviously don't fit in here), but I should say this: I obviously don't belong here. Tell me: how many other time travellers do you people know about? I'm betting on none. In fact, I'm surprised you know about me." "Well, you did help up create this project, indirectly.", Goshie says, hesitantly. "How so?", WildCard asks, curious. {Another piece of my future! Finally!} "Sam used your bracelets's circuitry as the basis for the accelloration chamber. He had the theory down pat, but couldn't make the intellectual leap to making it a reality until you sent him your bracelets.", Goshie replies, then realizes what he just said. "I'm going to do what?! But I'm practially helpeless without them! You don't know how much of a strain it is on me to be sitting here without them and not find myself teleporting through time. They're as much an inhibitor as they are control devices for me. Well, for whatever reason I'm to do that, I hope I at least told you about the randomizer bug in them." "Randomizer? I don't remember seeing anything about that in your notes," Goshie says. "Are you saying there something inherent in the bracelet's circuitry that will cause a random time jump?" "Only a slight one. I can only be accurate to within about an hour's time and about an eighth of a mile's distance. The longer the jump, the less accuracy. But I don't Castle like Sam obviously does, so he must have fixed that bug!" "Castle?", Tina asks this time. She only hopes Ziggy is recording all this. It may turn out to be the break-through needed to fix the retrieval program once and for all. "When I teleport, I don't switch places with anyone. Sam does; that type of teleporting is called Castling where I come from. You need very good accuracy to Castle, much more than I'll ever have. If I want ot teleport someone else, I have to be in physical contact with them. Sam can apparently teleport others from a distance, even if it is just one person at a time. "But enough of that. You asked me a question, and I'm going off on a tangent. You asked me why I have conflicting histories. Well, the simple answer is: I goofed. And so did Troy it appears." Sighing, Goshie asks, "Troy? Okay, who's he?" "Gadgeteer. The man who recreated my bracelets when they were destroyed. I guess I'll have to go into some details about that other time line, like it or not. "You ever wonder what it would be like, living in a world where superheroes were real? Well, I have, for a while at least. When I first time travelled, all I could do were random, uncontrolled jumps. One of these jumps was longer than I ever jumped before, too long for my body to handle as a matter of fact. I must have passed out as soon as I landed, but I woke up being cared for by another time traveller." "And who is that?", Tina asks, curious. Maybe WildCard isn't to blame for Sam's "accident", like she's starting to think. "Uh, no one you would have heard of. Anyways, he determined that I would not able to control my time jumps within this time line without some outside help. Help he couldn't give me alone. So, after many tries, he finally was able to get me to a time line where he could get me help. He and Gadge created the first bracelets I used; they gave me total control over power activation and almost total control on where and when I landed (to within a minute and a meter, to be exact). Better accuracy would come with experience, or so they said. "Anyways, at this point, the other time traveller left. That's when I discoverred I was trapped in this other timeline (he had thought I could back on my own). I was now in a world where super heroes were real. I wound up in a group called the Young Heroes, which Gadgeteer belonged to. It was fun, for a while that is. Then some of us died in fight; I was almost killed when my bracelets were destroyed. That was in December of 1983." WildCard notes the look Goshie gives Tina over the date. "Anyways, Gadgeteer was able to recreate my bracelets, but the new ones were flawed. I had lost some accuracy, and discoverred that every time I teleported, I created a ripple in my personal history that was in some way reflected in a second time line. This time line, the one I orgianlly come from. Apparently when I was enterred that other time line, the 'me' from there took my place 'here' in order to avoid a paradox. When I found that out, I desided to return here. I was tired of adventuring, of seeing my friends die. When I returned 'here', I found out that my 'other self' had joined the Navy because he couldn't handle college. He even had a girlfriend. Somehow when we merged, our personal histories merged. So long as I don't try to be in two places at once in this time line, I'm safe." "And what happens if you do try that?", Tina asks, already knowing the answer. "The version of me that's time travelling gets stuck as an immaterial phantom until I return to my starting point. Yes, I know what you're going to ask. I found out the probelm with time travelling while within this time line when I tried to save my girlfriend from getting run over by that drunk driver. It hurt, badly, to know I couldn't help her. "After that, I hid out in the other time line for a while. I took out my fustrations on people who I could attack that could take it. Eventually, I got over my hurt and came back to this time line. I even desided to start college again, since it had been years since I did any serious studying. Oh, I had a degree in that other time line, but I never learned anything there. I decided to not make that mistake here." Taking another deep breath, WildCard sighs. "Sorry about that. Didn't mean to dump all my troubles on you like that. Anyways, the short answer is: I have two histories because I tried to run away from my troubles, and screwed even that up. I'm sorry, but I'm going to head out to my room. I'm no longer hungry". With that, WildCard gets up from the table and leaves the cafateria. "That is one troubled young man!", Goshie says as he finishes the last bite of his lunch. "Do you believe everything he told us?" "No, but I feel he beleives it. Myself, I think he screwed up somewhere, found a way to leap into his own line like Sam tried to, and ended up messing up his personal history. How he can travel through time is still a mystery to me, but I won't pry any more unless it's needed for rescueing Sam and Al. Come on, Goshie. We still have to figure out why Sam is in this life at this time." ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Author's note: As you can see, WildCard has a lot of history behind him. I've tried to touch on the major details in this part, but if something is still confusing, please let me know! I promise to concentrate on Sam and Al over the next few parts. This part was not ment to be a WildCard coredump; it just turned into one while it wrote itself :) If anyone has any suggestions on how I can improve this part, please write me. This part was the hardest to write in the whole story, and I want it to make sence to people other than me. -- _ __ _ __ Remember: The WildCard always stacks ' ) / // / / ) / the deck in his favor. Anyone care / / / o // __/ / __. __ __/ for a game of strip poker? My deal. (_(_/ <_