People say that time travel will never be invented. They say that it cannot ever have been invented in the future. They say that they know this for a fact. The reason they know is that, if time travel has been invented in the future, then why have we never encountered any person from there? Since we haven’t, it couldn’t have been invented. People say all of this and smile, thinking that they are really smart.
But they are all wrong.
Time travel has actually been invented quite a couple of times. Many times quite independently of each other. Sure, some were more successful than others and, sure, some were more accurate than others. But many of these Travellers, as they are known to a select few, befell the same fate at the hands of the one who calls himself the All Clock.
Few facts are known amongst us Travellers about the All Clock, but we do know that no one has survived a direct encounter with him. We do not know how he locates us or hunts us, but we do know that he does this across certain timelines that exist on fractious moments in the human history: the Crusades, the Assassination of Julius Caesar, the Cuban Missile Crisis, all three World Wars, the Andromeda Space Accident, and so on.
The problem is that these sort of moments are like honey to a fly for Travellers. These are the magical moments when the human race could go one way or the other, with major implications on the future of the world. While many Travellers begin travelling for their own reasons, these moments are almost always the reason why we keep travelling.
And so he preys on us moving through those moments.
But why does he prey on us?
The short answer is that no one knows. The long answer is cloaked in rumours and conjecture. Some believe he was the first of us to invent time travel and that he is slowly travelling through time killing those that stole his invention. Some believe he is, in fact, eliminating parallel outcomes on the timeline and preventing disasters before they happen. Some believe that he did not invent time travel, but is from the distant future where Travelling is regulated and he is travelling back in time to punish those that abuse it. Some even believe that he has invented the All Clock.
In theory, time is just a dimension, much like the breadth, width and depth that make up space. Now time is a dimension that space moves along, and Travellers move across time by keeping space constant and changing its position on time. The fact is that time is always happening and the universe is both being birthed and ending along the same timeline while we are both alive and dead.
It all gets very confusing, but for the reason that all events along a timeline are happening simultaneously, there is the fact that they cannot be changed. To change one thing in the past would change everything in the future, but you are not there to change it and, therefore you cannot change it in the past.
Many a Traveller has gone crazy trying to change the past or fix his future. Those of us who survive are the ones that accept that these things cannot be changed. They have already happened and will always happen. We are merely tourists across the timeline, not gods.
But the All Clock is said to be able to recalibrate timelines. It is said that with the All Clock, you don’t travel through time, but over it. You sidestep the space-time continuum with the ability to reach into the timeline and change it.
But, you know, rumours are rumours and who knows? We have no facts and I am, personally, happy about that. If I had some facts, it would mean that I had met him and that would probably mean that I was dead. And, well, you know, I quite like being alive. Why am I telling you this? Well, I obviously always have and always will, so who knows? It’s all predestined anyway. No, I don’t have the All Clock!
So, why don’t we just relax and watch the procession? I have a feeling that it will be quite memorable. I do love the smell of Dallas in 1963! I think that we’ll be able to get a good view from the grassy knoll back there, don’t you think? Great, let’s go check it out…
One comment