Tempus Machina

"Are you sure you want to do this?"

"The contract is already signed. I thought I couldn't back down?"

"Not really. We still need you to be completely ready and willing to do this," The lady sighs, "We don't want you to do something you don't want to. It's good for the company. You know how it is."

"Yeah..." I turn away from her, looking down the white hall. "I'm still willing to do this. You can't change my mind. I mean, if this works, then this will all be for the good of humanity and the advancement of technology."

"Of course you'd think that way," The woman chuckles as she murmurs under her breath. I chose not to ask what she meant by that.

She turns her body towards the end of the hall and starts walking. When I realized that she had started walking, I race after her.

"Are we going to the lab now?" I ask, wanting to calm my nerves by small talk.

She looks at me with a bored face, "You are."

What did she mean by that? Deciding that she did not want to talk anymore, I quiet down and keep my mouth shut.

"Here we go," The lady stops at a door as we get to the end of the hall. "This is where we part. If anything happens, I only want to say that you seemed nice." And with that, she takes off down the hall.

She looks nervous. Everybody I've met keeps dancing around the topic of the machine and the head scientist. Perhaps the head is like those mad scientists from the movies. This machine sounds like it's from a science fiction movie. Could I die from the device? What if I never see my family again?

I shake my head at the flow of thoughts as I place a hand on the door. I turn to look back down the empty, white halls as a light flickers above me. There aren't many other doors, and the hallway isn't that long. No one is in the hallway or at the end of it. Everything is too quiet for my liking. I turn back to the door and push on the handle. My senses are flooded with sound and light as I step into the room and look around. There are people and computers everywhere. The door shuts behind me as I step further into the lab. People bustle about, and devices are whirring. I stand in awe, looking around the large room.

"Ah! Hello," A new voice speaks up. I glance around for the new speaker. A man in the striking white lab coat offers me a smile. "You must be patient number five-four-two-six?"

"Uh, yeah, I guess so. No one told me I had a number, but I'm here for the machine." A try to give a shaky smile back while trying to push down my nervousness.

The man must have seen this and laughs, "It's alright, we're all friends here! No need to be anxious." A hand extends toward me. I take it, and we shake hands. "My name is Doctor Neil Harris, but you can call me Dr. Harris."

Dr. Harris is a tall, lanky man with glasses, brown eyes, and brown hair. He looks very average for a lead scientist. He then gestures to a reasonably sized glass cylinder in the center of the lab. "And this, my friend, is what our mission here is."

My jaw drops as my eyes found the towering object. "Is that the machine?"

"Yes! We call it Tempus Machina. That's Latin for "time machine!" The name is kind of corny, but it's the easiest for us during its first stages of testing."

"So, I'm going in there?"

"Yup!" He grins but then sees my uneasy expression. "Oh, but don't worry! It's perfectly safe for living organisms."

"But, you've tested on people already, right?"

"Nope! You're going to be the first. Isn't that exciting?"