Zeta Disconnect: Leap (chapter 9)

12 September 2016, 2021 GMT / Los Angeles, USA

Jonathan felt strange using himself as a guinea-pig, like this, but he was the only person he trusted to do it right, without messing anything up. Interaction with a past-self needed to be attempted, for academic sake. It was the only way to prove that travel though the time-line could actually introduce change. Everything else had been worked out over the past two years of experimentation, and now they needed to know: Can the timeline be changed, and how does the traveler react to the change?

The only thing Jonathan really had to worry about was the possibility of changing too much. There was a very real possibility of throwing his whole life off course. He would have to remain stranger to himself, and count on the lack of influence of strangers. Doctor Richards had argued that Jonathan was the worst person to do the experiment.

“If you do something to throw your life off track, you could keep yourself from doing the work that makes it possible for you to go back there in the first place.” He had said, “It would be a paradox. It’s too dangerous.”

“Don’t you see?” Jonathan had rebutted, “That that’s exactly why I am the only one who can do it. According to your own favorite theories, paradox cannot exist. I’m the only person in the world who is theoretically incapable of altering his own life in any drastic way.”

Craig eventually, reluctantly gave into Jonathan’s reasoning. So, here he was almost twenty years in the past, watching his past-self walk into a shopping center with his young mother. He didn’t remember being that person. He didn’t remember ever looking in the mirror and seeing that face. But he recognized the boy from the photo albums that his mother kept under the end-table in her living room.

He followed the pair into the store, though he knew just where they were going: the clothing section of his mother’s favorite department store. Looking at the store was nostalgic for him. He hadn’t seen one in over a decade. He wondered to himself what might happen if he walked up to the offices on the top floor of the store, and warned them of the decisions that their CEO was going to make in the 20’s. He smiled, but dismissed the idea as far too drastic of an experiment. The simpler one that he already had chosen was far more precise, and far more subtle.

He watched as his mother pulled several items from their racks, and headed toward the dressing rooms with his past-self in tow. She placed the boy on a wooden bench, and headed into the dressing rooms after sternly warning her son not to wander off again.

Jonathon looked quickly around and spotted a slim, red-haired woman heading alone to the dressing rooms with only one item. Perfect. He headed toward her and followed closely until she got to the benches, where he lagged behind her and sat down next to his past-self. For a few moments, he nonchalantly looked after the red-haired woman, then, casually, he leaned toward the boy, “Waiting for women to try on clothing is boring, isn’t it?” The boy didn’t look up from his feet, he just nodded, his wavy black hair falling over his face, so that he had to reach up, and put it back out of his eyes. Jonathan leaned in again, “Sometimes I wish I could sneak away and watch the new holos in the TV department.”

The boy looked up this time, his dark eyes sparkling, “Me too!” he said. Then more slowly, “but, whenever I do I get yelled at.”

“Yeah, me too,” Jonathan said sympathetically. He then held out his hand to his past-self, “I’m Jonathan,”

The boy took his hand weakly, “I’m Jonnie,” he said.

“Well that’s a remarkable coincidence,” Jonathan said.

“Not really,” Jonnie shrugged, “I know a bunch of guys named Jonnie.”

Jonathan shrugged in agreement, and went back to looking at the dressing room door, pretending to wait for his red-haired girlfriend. After a glance at his watch, he looked over at Jonnie as if stuck by a sudden thought. “Hey, Jonnie,” he started, “Do you like bugs?”

“Only some bugs,” he said without looking up.

“Do you like Dragonflies”

Jonnie looked up again, “Yeah! I like how they dart around when they fly, and how some of them are real shiny!”

“Well, you’d probably think this is pretty cool, then,” Jonathan reached into his pocket and pulled out a translucent, orange stone. He handed it to Jonnie, who held it out to look at it.

“Is that a real dragonfly?”

“It is.”

“What happened to it?”

“It got itself caught in some tree sap thousands of years ago, then the sap hardened and eventually turned to stone, preserving the dragonfly inside.”

“That’s really neat!” Jonnie held the amber up to the light and looked through it. After a moment, he handed it back to Jonathan, saying again how much he liked it.

Jonathan went to put it back in his pocket, but at the last second seemed to change his mind. “Tell you what,” he said, “you obviously appreciate it. Why don’t you hang on to it?” He handed the stone back to the boy.

Jonnie took it, wide-eyed, “Really?” he asked incredulous, “I can have it?”

“Sure” Jonathan said, “It creeps out my girlfriend, so I can’t put it up anywhere. It might as well go to someone who can put it on display in his room.”

“Wow! Thanks!”

Just then, the red-haired woman walked out of the dressing room, and Jonathan stood up, as if to join her.

“I’ve got to go,” he said over his shoulder, “Take care, Jonnie”

“Bye!”

Jonathan quickly followed the woman around a corner then slowed to let her get away from him.

While he was thinking about the experiment, and trying to see if it already affected his memory, he absently stopped at a display of men’s accessories. He picked up a wide, black wallet. It was nice, soft leather, and it was only thirty-five dollars. He was about to pick it up to take to a register, but he remembered then that he wouldn’t be able to take it home with him. He also didn’t have any currency that the cashier would recognize. Both were issues that they would have to find a solution for on subsequent trips into the past.

Suddenly, Jonathan felt lightly nauseous. He realized that there was a decoration in his office: A dragonfly trapped in amber. A stranger had given it to him as a child, and now it was on the edge of a bookshelf in his office at the university. It had always been there. He suddenly remembered having seen it, and even talked to people about it on many occasions. Every day when he walked into his office, it was one of the first things he saw. Contradictorily, he also remembered his office without it, and he remembered a time only days ago, when he had never seen the dragonfly before. He remembered buying it at a specialty store, and that was the first time he had ever seen it.

It was too much. Jonathan’s head reeled, and he grabbed at the belt rack for support, almost toppling it. The inside of his head was on fire, and felt like he was going to throw-up that ration bar he had so recently wished he wasn’t required to eat.

He had to force himself not to concentrate on the memory of the dragonfly. If he didn’t allow himself to analyze the memory, he was fine. He had to get back to Australia. He walked quickly for the store’s exit, and when he got to his rental car, headed immediately toward the airport. This was a problem. If a mission this small effected him this badly, what would happen if he needed to make a major change somewhere in the timeline, would it even be possible? Craig and the others needed to hear about the results.

Look for the next chapter of Zeta Disconnet: Part 2 next week on Short-Media. In the meantime, comment on this chapter in our forums.