Seventh 2 Survive (WAYHAUGHT)

4-1724

The discovery of time travel was completely by accident. A clever scientist, looking for ways to address the serious situation they faced in the 22nd century, stumbled across it while researching magnetic fields. Initial journeys had been disastrous, time travellers, weavers as they were known, dying within hours of their return, that is if they even managed to make it back, their bodies unable to cope with the effects of travelling, and exposure to pollutants and diseases.

It begged the question, why travel at all? Decades of greed by corrupt corporations, and the peddling of crazy conspiracy theories by politicians, their lies swallowed whole by the gullible, had resulted in vast swathes of the planet becoming uninhabitable in Haught's future. Without a clear way forward, with the planet gasping its last breaths, the decision to go backwards, to ever-so-slightly adjust the path to the future, was not taken lightly. Waverly was right, it shouldn't be possible to alter an event in the past. It fell to that clever scientist to explain why small adjustments, positive adjustments such as keeping Waverly alive, were permissible, without completely fucking up the future any more than it already was, or scientific words to that effect.

...

Haught put away her gadget. "Don't tell them who I am, or I'll have to blank you too."

Waverly choked in a laugh. "Be right back."

Waverly left the room muttering to herself, Haught not sure letting her go was a good idea, considering Waverly had made a run for it once already. Given she was the one supposed to be in charge of this mission, Haught was fast realising she would have her work cut out handling this Waverly Earp. She hung by the door, listening to the muffled conversation the other side, half expecting Waverly to reveal everything about the situation. Her hand reached inside her satchel, ready for an ambush.

She nearly knocked Haught over on her return. "Answer me this," Waverly began, having reconsidered Haught's proposed course of action. "Why exactly do I need to go to Scotland? Can't I stay here and you stop whatever happens from happening?"

"I'm not equipped," Haught replied. "There's a remote monastery run by a group of time travellers up there. They're tasked with protecting those whose timeline needs reweaving."

"Right, of course. Time monks...because, why not? Okay, but seriously, I can't just leave, I have my course."

"I wish I could tell you more," Haught offered. "All I can say is, none of that will matter in the future, although you will matter greatly. Your work here will not be forgotten. In fact, your work here will set others free, its importance, your importance..."

Haught trailed off, knowing if she explained Waverly's significance in the future it would freak her out beyond having already freaked her out.

"Okay," Waverly continued, "let's say I go with you to Scotland and I stay with these time travelling monks, then what? What happens after that?"

"We come back. You'll be gone no more than a week, enough time to shift the course of history ever so slightly. My job will be done, and you carry on as if nothing happened."

"Like nothing happened. I'm talking to someone who claims to be from the future, who wants to whisk me off on vacation to save me from dying in a few days' time, who drinks pink water, and has a floating tattoo. But sure, like nothing happened."

"You know, you're not how I imagined you would be."

"Oh really. And you're not how I imagined a time traveller would be, so we're even."

Haught let out a laugh. "I'm so glad I get to be the one with you."

Waverly's hands went to her hips. "Look, I appreciate you wanting to save me. But, whoever you are, whatever you're doing here...I can't. I'm sure you have this all figured out. My life, the lives of everyone you're trying to save. But, I can't."