Devil's Paradise

21: Outcomes: Debate

I found a set of clothes in the main lab, and got them on. As I was dressing, a series of whistling calls got my attention. It wasn't unusual to have Gertrude greeting me when I came into the lab. What was unusual was to have two Gertrudes.

There were two identical guinea pigs. One was in her normal enclosure. The other was just outside it. They were looking at each other.

Without thinking about it, I scooped up the outside one, and put her in with the other pig. She immediately went to the water bottle. After a few seconds, she let go of that and touched noses with the other Gertrude.

"Louis, did they just touch each other?"

"They did, Merlin."

"That confirms my hypothesis."

I blinked, as it registered what I had just done. I shivered. I went over to pour myself a glass of whiskey. "You mean, that the universe didn't end?"

"Yes."

Maybe I'd better start thinking things through. I looked at the two pigs. They seemed perfectly content, and not at all disturbed that one was a duplicate of the other. "Merlin, do you think the two Gertrudes know they are the same pig?"

"That question is indeterminate, Louis, but it seems very unlikely. I do not think Gertrude knows what she looks like."

I shook my head, swallowed a slug, and grimaced. "Okay. What did you learn tonight?"

"I learned that time travel is possible but involves a significant shock to the human nervous system, and that it cannot exceed the limits of the machine."

"It's that last part I want to talk about," I said. "How sure can you be that time travel cannot go back to before last night?"

"I cannot be sure of that."

"What? What do you mean? It's possible? That sounds like a contradiction."

"Not at all, Louis. My theory of time travel is the only one that has merit at present, and it has just been proven effective. There is no provision in that theory for traveling back before the device containing the time field existed.

"That does not mean, however, that there is not another valid theory that has merit, that will allow you to travel to any time at all."

My mouth dropped open. "Merlin, is there such a theory?"

"Not that I've ever heard of, Louis, but that does not mean one will not be postulated in the future."

"In the future." I turned and looked at the machine. "Merlin, the machine can send me forward in time, right?"

"Theoretically, Louis, but it would be very dangerous."

"Why?"

"First, when did you make the jump back to last night?"

I thought about it. "I think it was a little before one in the afternoon, today. Delilah was coming in just then to stop me."

"Do you remember what time you came in here?"

"I think it was a little after twelve."

"Then we have time to evaluate."

"Is the machine charged?"

"Yes."

"Why would traveling forward be dangerous?"

"It is a complete unknown. You could jump into a radioactive desert, the midst of a war, or a plague zone. For that matter, the experiment of last night suggested that you would travel as long as the machine remained charged. There is not enough information to tell, but you should travel as far forward as the field maintains integrity. That could be a short period, or it could be a very long time."

"Would I be able to get back?"

"No. Because the time field is an end-to-end transit, it would be disrupted at the far end, so you could not get back into that time field again. You'd be stuck there, unless some completely different method of traveling to the past was found."

"Oh."

"Not only that, Louis, the disruption of the time field on the far end may mean that something significant and possibly dangerous will happen just at the moment you come out of the machine. If you react as you did last night, you will be at the mercy of whatever may have caused the disruption."

That was disturbing. I had never been a risk-taker, and yet, daring the limits was how I had made my greatest breakthroughs.

Were I to go forward in time, it would be at great personal risk. "Merlin, can you tell me the odds of finding a time travel solution in the future?"

"No, Louis. The question is impossible to determine."

What would Alicia be willing to do to save my life?

I realized I was looking into the corner of the lab, in the direction where Delilah was asleep in my bed, in the next lab. You could do worse, a part of me whispered, and I recoiled in guilt from the idea. It was too fresh, too raw.

I shook myself, my head spinning from the whiskey and the loss of blood. No. Delilah had used me, and I would never forgive her for that.

I tossed off the rest of the whiskey, and chuckled, as I realized I had just enjoyed the same whiskey for the second time. Then I turned around to Merlin's case. "Merlin, what do I need to do to maximize my chances in the future? I'm going!"

If you like what you read, please click the star!