Plan 'Don't Fuck Up The Universe'
Is In Effect
"So this will make changing time… Impossible."
"Well… Sort of."
Red Queen is patiently waiting a short distance away while Time Trapper makes the final alterations to the tuning fork. Angelika's staying back a little, clearly not entirely sure that this is something we should be doing but willing to let my judgement stand.
"You could go back and change time, but all that would do is create a new future separate to the one you knew. You could just go and live in that new future and from your point of view it would be exactly as if you'd changed your own history. And no one else would know anything had happened apart from you disappearing."
"But there'd be two of you."
"You say that after being strapped to a giant tuning fork with two hundred of us." He floats back, lowering the tool he was using. "Most of the time it wouldn't be a problem. It doesn't take much to prevent a person being born. It's only-."
"People from parallel universes. Like us."
"I was on our Earth for over a year before I found out about the temporal change. I just thought I was on an Elseworld or something."
"So… What is different?"
"Most things. Somehow…" He glances at Red Queen. "Jade got born, but our history was changed over two thousand years ago. America was mostly colonised from Asia, we're firmly in the space age… Well, were and will be again."
I nod.
John Stewart's eyes glow as he looks over Time Trapper's work.
"And you're sure this will just change your parallel?"
"As sure as I can be. Having that many alternate versions of myself let me eliminate them as variables. There isn't anything else I can think to do that will increase my chances." He floats back a little more. "So if you're planning on forcing me to stop, let's have this out now."
John ignores the challenge. "I can't tell exactly what this thing will do, but it isn't going to affect any other parallel universes. I'll give you as much help as I can."
"Thank you." He nods. "Thank you."
"What do we do?"
"Not a lot, really. If everything works as it should, the worst you'll see is me evaporating."
"What?"
"Hm? Oh, no, it won't kill me. 'Time Trapper' is a chronal aberration, and what we're doing should reintegrate me within my own timeline with my memories intact at the point where Vandal Savage originally left in yours. I'm not planning on recreating something I can't enjoy myself."
"If you're gone, how do I get home?"
"You might just snap back when I do, but…" He waves his right hand at the tuning fork. "Just in case, it's set to open a portal to the point where you left."
"What do you want me to do?"
"Oh, nothing. Just being here to give the tuning fork your temporal variance is enough." He claps his hands together. "Right. Starting it now. If you feel anything off, then… Either you're wrong or it's too late."
I… Do try to feel anything, but aside from a slight glow coming from the tuning fork I'm not getting… No, there's… Something, but-. A weak-. No, not weak, just… Small.
My favourite book is Small Gods by Terry Pratchett, and there's a scene where Lu-Tze asks Brutha to hold his bonsai mountain. Brutha describes it as weighing thousands of very small tonnes. That's the best comparison I can think of to the desires I'm feeling. I suppose… I mean, I don't have any special abilities related to time or the Bleed. It-.
Time Trapper holds out his hands, and…
My word.
A… Shape, filled with lights, and… Desires, appears in front of him. The outer edge of it looks… Frayed, as if something was wearing it away. I look at him with an interrogative frown.
"My timeline. Or.. rather, a moment of it. All I was able to preserve. But now…"
He holds out his hands, the… Time… Moment.. thing, floating upwards until it sits between the tuning fork's tines. Then it expands, spreading out, rippling and finally vanishing.
Oh.
Oh.
"We met before. Brainiac Five brought me to the future after that mess with the Eliminations Inc people. And then it…"
"Never happened." He nods. "A moment erased by the functioning of time, now returned by the function's alteration. It always existed, it was just…" He looks at his hands as they begin to fade. "Wasn't… Connected. And now… I can't thank you enough for making-."
…
For a moment I frown, trying to remember who I was talking t-. Time Trapper. Who was me, who now… Presumably is when he was supposed to be. Good for him, I suppose.
The tuning fork dims, and a new portal swirls into being between the tines.
"Angelika, I think this is us."
She nods, coming closer. "This has been a strange… But productive day."
"Red Queen? What are your plans?"
"I'm keeping Vanishing Point. And the tuning fork. Since I'm the only one who understands how it works."
John nods. "This is a capacity we don't want anyone to use, but that we want to keep our hands on just in case."
I nod. "Sensible." I take a last look around. It's fascinating that these places exist, but… There isn't really anything here for me. I focus on returning to Jade and accelerate towards the portal, Angelika close behind me.
2nd April 2012
09:12 GMT -5, yet again
And… Back in the mountain. In front of the giant hole Angelika made in the wall between the corridor and the emergency exit staircase.
"Ah." … "Oops."
I hold out my left hand and call my rings. They arrive a few seconds later, a visibly confused Ghia'ta hurrying along behind them. I toss her her ring as I don my own, then raise my hand and repair the wall.
Ghia'ta stares at us both. "What just happened?"
I complete the wall, blocking us from her sight.
"I do so like being able to wave my problems away."
Angelika smiles. "I think that I will spend the rest of the day with Raquel. I'm sure that she has many things she could tell me about the achievements of the negro people."
"If she asks-" Wall… Good as new. Now I'm going to write up a report for Hinon and another for Batman, then… I'm going back to bed. "-that wasn't my idea."
