Hit And Kismet
01/11/2002 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 

A time travel chestnut from the pen of our own dear editor. But can you really send people into the past without upsetting the present? Read on for some shocking short fiction …

Hit And Kismet
a story by: GF Willmetts

'From one perspective, the experiment is a great success,' Hennessey proclaimed in his best lecture voice.'We've proven we can send people into the past without upsetting our present.'

'At least not in ways that we can remember. But surely that has much to do with becoming part of the past? Our travellers don't remember anything when they return,' Maxwell chirped in. 'The only real difference is a lifetime of talent development. It's the only thing that survives the transit to the present. We're left guessing as to just what they were doing in our past to become so skilled. We haven't got their personal experiences to help us. For all we know, our people are making the necessary contributions to what we regard as important turning points in our past...'

'The point you're making, Maxwell? The experiment is still a success.'

'When do we know when to stop? Will we be jeopardising our present should we stop sending travellers back into the past?'

There was applause from the auditorium. There was only a couple handfuls of people here but the emptiness rebounded the noise. Just as long as it was none of the auditors who were getting appalled at the cost of housing the returning time travellers on top of the travelling costs.

Hennessey studied his inform-pad until everyone quietened down. There wasn't long to go now.

'I'm sure when sufficient time travellers have been sent we will find it impossible to send any more people into the past. Kismet will have been fulfilled. Time and the universe will prevent us from messing up our own history. Evidence suggests that we are fulfilling a purpose to our own past. To do otherwise would suggest that everyone in the past would have been a time traveller. That would be absurd. It would be a natural occurrence and not need any current technological device. The number of time travellers can only be a small number...'

'Or until the budget runs out.' Another voice called out.

Hennessey looked up but couldn't figure who was speaking this time. Was there an auditor here? The President's assurance that there would be no problem didn't mean that no one from the auditing branch was here watching. If not them then no doubt one of the cynical New Age fraternity in the establishment.

The more the experiment went on the more the discerning voices spoke out, even in this restricted establishment. At least speculation had been kept down to a minimum. Was it an indication that time and the universe was using this as a means to stop the experiments than just a natural cut-off?

'...and within that small number we must learn more about what their exact contribution is,' Hennessey continued, 'before kismet is fulfilled.'

'The results on those who've returned haven't always been favourable', Maxwell added his own interruption. 'Look at Albert...'

Albert has been their second time traveller. One of the world's most ablest genius scientists. Between the hour sending and returning from the past, Albert had lived a lifetime. He was also quite dead when returned. Someone or thing had removed his brain. They had all prayed that it had been after he'd died of natural causes.

'The problem has always been in calibrating just how far into the past we are sending our people', Hennessey continued. 'We discovered rather late that we don't have any control of the temporal displacement where our travellers arrive. It was unfortunate but out of our hands as to what befell Albert. From what we've seen with Lennie's artistic endeavours and Will's writing skills after transit, talent and skills are the strongest reminder of the effects in the past. Albert might have been too smart.'

'They're probably the accumulation of a lifetime's skills with nothing much better to do in the past. With no recollections of the present, all they had were their talents to keep themselves occupied and interpret the world. The ultimate renaissance people.'

There was a consensus of opinion about this. Being part of the past might have been interesting to historians but unless one was in the middle of something pertinent, every day living got pretty boring if you had to live somewhere for a lifetime.

Certainly, no historian had volunteered for a trip where they had no idea where they were going or without some preparation. It didn't help matters much that the returning time travellers, other than a remarkable development in hobby skills couldn't recall much about their time in the past.

The historians had balked at this but had conceded that they could only watch. Fortunately, professional etiquette prevented them speculating too much in the media.

They were far happier going back to archaeological digs and real physical evidence. The time travellers returned with even greater obsession with their talents. Will had even written a sonnet on the subject.

It appeared that time and the universe would not allow such means to give disclosure to the past.

'Adolph's painting skills didn't preventing him blowing his brains out though before returning either. He wasn't even that talented other than being a good party mime. Talent in one thing doesn't mean it'll be used for that purpose in the past.' Another voice in the crowd.

Adolph was the second dead traveller to arrive back. Unlike Albert, this time it was obviously self-inflicted in middle age. An obvious suicide. What had he realised as he was being drawn to the present? What was so traumatic that he could start to remember that the others hadn't? Were they remembering in transit?

Anyone would think the travellers had had idyllic life styles. Adolph was a second attempt at temporal placement to a definitive time that had failed. He was supposed to have joined the Marx Brothers troop once everyone realised that travellers become part of and maybe someone significant in the past. Someone who couldn't cause any deliberate harm but who might have been recognised on film.

A harmless role. Whatever part he played in the past certainly didn't look anything like a comedy. A tragedy really.

'Adolph was also an experiment in minimal talent. He was the only successful traveller so far under that criteria. Lesser talented people with no obvious ability never left the pad. It wasn't their time in the past. A kismet factor. Call it what you will.'

'People who have something to offer to the past.' Maxwell added. 'Weren't we just lucky with our first attempts? Imagine after sending the apple back if we'd tried sending a semi-skilled labourer back instead of the multi-talented Lennie Vincent. Artist and designer and all he wanted was to visit a Motorhead concert for inspiration.'

'Quite,' Hennessey said, at last thinking that Maxwell was at least on his side in the latest experiment. 'The problem is still remembering the past. To this end, our current talented traveller was transported pregnant. Giving birth in the past to a hopefully talented person who will be retrieved later with memories intact simply because they wouldn't have been erased in the original journey.'

'Won't this be the same problem as being unable to send an unskilled back into the past?' another face asked. 'What if he's a moron or talentless?'

Hennessey paused again as if in consideration. In truth, he was wondering why there were so many people asking sensible questions today than just letting him get on with his job of explaining what was happening.

'As I said, the child will be a prodigy from talented stock. The chances of having no talent are fairly remote. Our time traveller arriving pregnant, ingrains herself to the local community wherever she arrived, marry someone if appropriate to customs, give birth and raise the child.

All standard maternity practice that won't be affected by lack of memory of our present.' Hennessey paused.

There! That had them. The best plans were always the simplest. 'Child-rearing, too, is a basic skill unlikely to be forgotten. Even if it is, there should be sufficient women around to assist if she's forgotten the most innate skill.

Mary should remember enough to give her child some reasonable skills to live in the time she lives in before we retrieve her...and later him after living a life there. With memories intact, we would then have an intact recollection of the past.

'How can you be sure this individual will be able to come back to the present?' another face asked. 'Won't he be more part of the past than our present?'

'The child's basic DNA is from our time. It wouldn't belong there. It should act like an elastic band, bringing him back to the right place in time.'

'What about the time differential? An hour in the past is practically a lifetime there for our travellers if their advanced skills are anything to go by. How will you know when the time is right?'

'We just do.' Hennessey almost gave an audible sigh. He thought it had been too good to be true. Hadn't some of these idiots read their reports? They're just asking questions for the sake of it now. Time was nearly up anyway. The only person on the ball appeared to be Maxwell and he was too smart by half.

'As I understand it, the retrieval is out of our hands,' Maxwell interjected. 'Our travellers can only be lost from the present for an hour before recall. It'll still be guesswork when the child or assuming it grows to adulthood and survives gets back. He'll probably appear a few moments after his mother. Time is relative here after all.'

'Do you think we shouldn't attempt such experiments, Dr. Maxwell?' another voice asked. 'Won't it upset the past in some way when the child returns? What if he hasn't fulfilled his role in the past?'

'On the contrary. If a traveller couldn't be sent into the past then it wouldn't be expected to happen. Zero kismet pro tem. We're at a point in our history where the time traveller is expected to fulfil our past. As long as we allow everything that is expected of us then we also fulfil our present as well. We can't help but fulfil our past.'

A light flashed on a console near Hennessey. A flick of a switch and the base of the auditorium became transparent and slid silently back to allow the audience to look down at the travel pad. In itself, the pad was no more than a platform. The nuclear power source was below in the bowls of the earth, as was much of the technology. It wasn't important to have it all showing.

Maxwell was quite right, Hennessey thought, as everyone quietened down as they now waited. We still have no idea how the travellers got back any more than just where they went in the past. The apparatus only worked because it was deemed necessary at this time.

No one knew for sure why it worked anyway. It just did. The hour might easily be divided into the transition periods between getting there and back with only a few seconds of the present missing. It was impossible to determine that either.

There was no fancy lightshow or noises. One moment she was not there. The next Mary was standing there, dressed in a simple robe. She appeared a few years older but would shed the differential as her body collected contemporary matter. It was only the addition of energy to the generators that indicated that time travel was functional.

Everything was restored to the way it was. Traveller and energy used to transfer. Lavoisier would have been proud. The first law of thermodynamics - the conservation of energy/matter - still upheld. Energy was only lost to the present for a short time.
Technicians quickly moved to take Mary from the pad.

She looked briefly in Hennessey's direction. Her look was slightly bewildered as if the forgotten trip had happened so quickly. She gave a slight smile as a doctor checked and called up through the transmitter system.

'Mary is no longer pregnant. I have to do a more thorough examination, Dr. Hennessey. She might have aborted. Any of a number of things...'

Hennessey studied his instruments. 'We're getting a second surge. Get her off the pad. It looks like Mary's offspring is about to appear.'

Unlike Mary's appearance, this time the pad was positively pulsating with energy. Hennessey immediately ordered the travel pit to be evacuated of people. There was no sense in risking radiation or people being struck by lightning.

'Christ!' Maxwell uttered. 'It looks like the Second Coming!'
Mary's adult offspring looked around for a few moments before disappearing.

'Stability factors are off. Have we lost him?'

The traveller appeared for a second time. This time without any temporal lightshow.

Like Mary, he wore a loose robe. Bearded and with dark curly hair.

He looked around rather intently before asking, 'Am I in my father's house?'

GF Willmetts

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