The Faulty Time Travel Machine

‘I’ve done it!’ Nick cried, ‘I’ve created the first time travel machine ever!’ He collapsed into his lab chair right next to the time travel machine. Nick glanced around his office. His desk was covered in diagrams and so were his walls. ‘My name will go down in history, I will be famous,’ he said to himself. He got out a piece of paper from his third drawer and rummaged around until he found a pen. He started to write:

‘Dear Mr Prime Minister,

I, Nick Carter, scientist/inventor have created the first ever time travel machine. I would like you to be the first person to try my amazing time travel machine out. You can go to whatever time you want – from the beginning of time to the end of it!

Sincerely,

Nick Carter.'                                                                                                                             

Nick found an envelope, a stamp and wrote the Parliament House’s address on the front. He put the letter in and sealed the envelope. He hoped the Prime Minister would agree and like the time travel machine. Nick had a sudden thought – ‘I invented the time travel machine, I should be the first to try it!’ Nick got up and set the dials to ‘past’ and ‘1,500 years’. He grabbed the handle and pressed go. For a scary moment nothing happened, then the room started spinning and Nick was swallowed by darkness.

‘Alfred,’ Helen yelled to her pet Apatosaurus, ‘can you get that Pandarede from the top of this tree?’ Alfred stretched his long neck up, carefully got the Pandarede and passed it down to Helen. She put it in her bag and said thanks. ‘Could you please get that Baffled from that tree?’ she asked. Alfred reached up and got the Baffled and passed it down to Helen who was collecting leaves. She put it in her shoulder bag and said ‘I’m going home, meet you there soon.’ Alfred made a sound that meant yes as Helen walked off.    

As she was walking Helen remembered how she found Alfred as a baby and raised him. Just after she got stuck in the time of the dinosaurs she had come across a big egg lying down in a ditch. She had had a look around but couldn’t find a mother or father. So she had took the egg and when it hatched, raised the baby Apatosaurus that had been inside it. Alfred had been her only companion for three years and she loved him but still craved for the company of another human being.

Helen went back to her cave, where she hoped Alfred would be waiting. She made it back just in time, because just as she walked inside a stampede of frightened dinosaurs rushed past her cave.

Helen went looking for what had frightened the dinosaurs. She quickly found it – a man in jeans and a t-shirt standing next to a strange looking machine. ‘Hi’, the man grinned and then the strange machine exploded.

Nick’s face was burnt, his hair singed and he smelt like smoke. He looked at the woman standing over him and passed out.

When Nick next woke up he was in a cave. He tried to move but when he did it felt like someone was stabbing knives into him.

‘Don’t move,’ a woman’s voice came from the shadows.

‘W-who are you?’ Nick croaked.

‘My name is Helen,’ she replied, ‘and if you don’t lay still you’ll injure yourself even more.’ Helen walked over to him and started rubbing something onto his burns. She walked off back into the shadows and came back with two bottles filled with clear liquid.

‘Drink these’, she ordered and handed him a bottle. Helen helped him sit up and he quickly gulped down the whole bottom. The liquid was cool and soothed his throat. Helen took the empty bottle from him and handed him a hard thing that looked strangely like a coconut. It was filled with a horrible looking green liquid. Nick was revolted but still drank it.

‘Now rest,’ Helen ordered once again. Nick tried to protest but he could feel the darkness closing in. His eyelids were heavy and before he knew it he fell into a deep sleep.

When Nick awoke again the first thing he saw was a very long neck. He yelped with surprise and an Apatosaurus head looked at him. A smile formed at the dinosaur’s mouth and all of a sudden it started licking him.

‘Alfred, heel!’ Helen’s voice boomed from the shadows.

‘Alfred?’

‘Yeah, Alfred is my pet dinosaur.’

Alfred grumbled.

‘And my best friend’.

Alfred grumbled again.

‘And my protection from the carnivores.’

Alfred smiled and licked Helen.

Nick was grinning at the two of them when a sudden thought struck him.

‘Hey, where’s my Time Travel Machine?’ He asked.

‘I went back to where it exploded and got all the bits I could find.’ Helen told him. ‘Is that everything?’

Nick counted all of the bits. ‘I’m missing two pieces, and egg shaped part and the electronic voice box.’

‘Can you build the Time Travel Machine without them?’ Helen inquired. ‘Unfortunately no, they are vital pieces.’ Nick told her. ‘Is there any chance that you can help me find them?

‘Sure.’ She told Nick and called Alfred over. ‘Can we get a lift?’ she asked the dinosaur.

Alfred pulled his head out of the cave and put it on the ground. Helen pulled Nick along with her out of the cave and they climbed up onto the bottom of Alfred’s neck and they were off.

They had been searching for hours and had had no luck. They had stopped a few times so they could ask other dinosaurs if they had seen or heard anything. A couple of dinosaurs said that they had seen a Pterodactyl fly over to her nest carrying a weird, colourful thing. Another couple of dinosaurs said that they had heard a weird sound coming from the belly of another dinosaur. They decided to tackle the easiest problem first and were heading to the Pterodactyl’s nest.

When they got there Helen planned to ask the Pterodactyl for the egg. If the Pterodactyl refused to hand it over Helen was going to throw it down to Nick, who would hide.

They finally reached the nest just before noon and Helen started climbing. Luckily, they didn’t have to resort to plan B, in fact the mother Pterodactyl was more than happy to get rid of the egg. It was frightening her children. She happily handed the egg over to them.

The real the problem came when they discovered that the Electronic Voice Box had been

‘I’m never going to fix the Time Travel Machine!’ he wailed.

‘Yes you will, just you wait!’ Helen said determined.

Helen went over to Alfred and said something to him. Alfred went away. She found an old egg shell, a few leaves and went off. She came back a few moments later with a bit of meat from an old carcass.

‘We’ve got to move quickly, before he smells it.’ She told Nick.

Alfred came back and Helen set to work. Soon, a horrible looking mixture was poured into an opening in the piece of meat. She set it down and they hid in the bushes. Sure enough, the Tyrannosaurus-Rex came along and ate the meat. It turned green and threw up. Bones, meat and the Electronic Voice Box came out. While the Tyrannosaurus-Rex was throwing up, quick as a flash, Helen got the Electronic Voice Box. Alfred came over, picked them up and they headed back to the cave.

Days later, after hours and hours of work, the Time Travel Machine was fixed.

Nick turned to Helen.

‘Come with me?’ He asked her.

‘No, sorry, I can’t.’ Helen replied. ‘I’ve got to stay here, Alfred needs me.’

‘Oh, that’s okay. I’ll come back and visit you sometime!’ Nick grinned.

Helen smiled.

‘Okay, but make sure that your Time Travel Machine isn’t faulty next time!’

Nick grinned, pressed the ‘GO’ button, and with a flash of bright light, he was gone, back to his own time.