Nano and the Twins

"Each day he lives on...our future dies. That's all you have to know." Professor Maynard Ingen said while adjusting the glowing red dials. "As we explained at briefing, our children and their children will suffer for this mistake and it simply must be corrected." He continued to make the final portal settings. "It's a sad thing but it's a thing we must do, nonetheless."

"But, he's the President." Demeron Clark replied. "If it didn't work the fist time, maybe it wasn't meant to be. I mean, the country really seemed to be improving back then. There was hope and it was also a time of...."

"I know." Ingen interrupted. "We didn't realize the full impact until...uh...today." "Well, what don't I know, then, Doc?"

There was enough of a hesitation in his answer to alarm the time traveler. "I'm sorry, Clark." Ingen replied. "The Alliance has forbidden me. You may not receive any more historical data until tis error has been rectified. It's for security purposes you understand. Now, get up there and lets finish this thing. You know what has to be done." As he had so many times before, Demeron instinctively turned and started walking toward the platform gantry, but suddenly stopped and looked over at the stressed, graying professor. He felt like he was missing something this time. That familiar "out of place" feeling had been nagging him since he remembered arriving at the launch area. His memory seemed overly clouded and jumbled. It was too uncomfortable and then there was that "been-there, done-that" feeling he hated. Something was off kilter. The usual pre-jump deja vu was also there and dominant. Normal just before a departure and Clark knew that. Yet, he also knew he had the upper hand this time and was the only one they could send. The risks involved with sending a "greenie" were geometrically insane on a repeat mission. "No, Doc." Clark stopped. "Not this time. I want the full package." he said stopping just short of the gantry stairs. He couldn't go this time without being fully briefed. The blank spots were too overwhelming. "All the data this time or it's a no go and I walk away. I have to know everything this time. It's only fair."

Professor Ingen stopped what he was doing and stood directly facing him. "You can't walk away this time, Clark." he said. His tone carried a sinister and somewhat frightening silkiness. Clark had never heard that tone before, or so he thought anyway. Deep inside, Demeron knew his life could be easily terminated with nothing more than a gesture from this little man in the white lab coat, but still his keen instincts told him that this time, something was very wrong. Ingen nervously glanced up at the control booth windows and the small bobbing heads that belonged to the center personnel. They were still busy at their respective jobs and he quickly reached over to disable the platform speaker. "Because you made your little, shall we say, judgement call? Mr. Clark," Ingen whispered. "The resulting time shift corruption gave birth to a problem we didn't anticipate. Take a look at this, quickly." He reached over and keyed up a monitor. Old black and white newsreel footage of the previously studied target and well familiar to Clark began to play, but this time there seemed to be some subtle differences. There was the long motorcade making it's final turn. The police motorcycles. The bystanders and well wishers. Each person in the crowd whose name and personal history he'd studied. Each known camera holder and their analyzed fields of view. Each physical landmark that had so many times marked the chronological steps of that fateful day were clearly visible.

But this time as the big black limousine reached the familiar freeway sign, nothing happened. The well wishers waved on and the long, slow motorcade simply continued unmolested through the crowded Plaza finally disappearing under the last famous overpass. No shots. No pandemonium. No murder. Professor Ingen just looked at Demeron Clark. "What the hell?" Clark murmured. "That just can't be." "Uh huh." Ingen said under his breath. He waved his hand over another dial. "Wait. Watch this now.." he said. The viewpoint on the monitor panned and changed. It zeroed in on a close-up of the famous third story window. It was closed. "Impossible!" Clark blurted out in astonishment. "I was there!" "And this..." Ingen said while time-forwarding the monitors data stream. It was another newsreel apparently taken three weeks later. Footage showing a nuclear disaster unfolding. Hydrogen and atomic bombs detonating at various places around the globe. Military from several countries mobilized and fully engaged. Great Naval battles underway. Cities had been annihilated. Disasters of epic proportion had engulfed the globe with great speed. "Near as we can tell," Ingen said. "All this started because one man somehow affected the Superpowers and created this disastrous "chain of events" that led them to believe we would soon be attacked by superweapons of mass destruction. A first strike scenario then played out. One thing led to another..."

"Jesus. I don't get it. What could have happened? I mean I made certain of..." Ingen's hand stopped him with a raised gesture. "Because he somehow didn't die for whatever complex reason, these terrible things came to pass. We'll just simply never know why at this point. But we're beyond that now. The big problem is that nuclear fallout now." he whispered nervously while pointing at the monitor. "It continued to circumnavigate the globe slowly killing off hundreds of generations of people over time. You know what that means. Why, some people in this very complex have actually vanished because their ancestor or genetic marker ceased to exist years after this one event horizon. Everyone's panicked up there. There's no way for us to compute the genealogy of destruction in a nuclear winter that spans so much time, Clark." Demeron thought for a moment. "But wait. I thought I fixed this issue on my first leap. How did it fail?" "We sent you back to try and stop this madness after your initial success and something went wrong." Ingen replied. "Something either intervened or was directly connected to the assassination. The plan failed."

"Then, let's just focus on stopping the war machine event. Not the man this time. There was good that could have come of his Presidency. This much we knew, didn't we?" Clark said. "Just send me in to the critical moments before the war making decisions instead and I'll change it." Ingen moved closer and glared directly into his eyes. "We did that." he whispered while throwing a quick glance up toward the control booth. "You actually went back a third time." "What? Not possible. I don't recall that." "We know. Somehow, your trying to interdict the war machine later affected the outcome of the original assassination. Something to do with the military powers in control then. That's all we know. The fatal shot you were responsible for ensuring never hit its mark. It seems the other shooter might have been somehow connected to the war mongers of the day. We stopped the killing the first time and the end result was horrendous. When you jumped back to intervene with that action and allow the killing, it changed the military plan. A military coup took place and they took over.."

"They were behind the whole thing in the first place?" Clark asked. "Yes. It would seem so." "So what happened next?" "We sent you back to do what you just now asked for, once again. But it didn't quite work out the way you thought it would. Does any of this sound familiar? We've been through this same conversation a couple of times before." Demeron Clark stood with a blank look. "I don't get it, doc. What happened and why don't I remember something like that. I've only made the one jump." Ingen looked down at the panel and started another newsreel. "Not quite. The first time we tried to intervene with your third jump, you apparently underestimated the Secret Service who didn't like your particular brand of intervention." "Geeze...c'mon, doc." Clark said nervously laughing. "Is this some sort of pre-leap lab joke? Okay then, I'll play along. Let's say I believe you, so what are you telling me happened?"

"They killed you."

"What?"

"You died in a hail of gunfire mistaken for some nut killer, Clark. You died trying to fix an earlier mistake let's just say." The newsreel footage rolled as Ingen's serious expression left Clark inwardly paralyzed and trembling. It was combined footage of a "failed attempt" on the life of the President and picturing Clark as some unidentified foreign assailant killed by the Secret Service people. "You changed your plan back there for some reason we still can't figure out. We think there might even be another portal out there working against us in this. Every time we go, known outcomes or events are interdicted and changed by another force. So we altered our time jump parameters and started over by building another jump portal to temporarily deceive the continuum and get you back. We've been swapping your life's time periods between the two portals trying to fix this ever since. This look-alike inner complex around you is only a temporary device. A mirage if you will. To be honest, it's not really even here in the true sense of the word because this will all vanish once you succeed."

"This is all fake?"

"Not at all. We basically built this one to fool time and snag you just moments before we sent you back in the real portal." Ingen replied.

"So, I'm dead? I don't feel dead."

"Not at the moment."

"Well, what moment am I not dead in now then?"

"The dead one." Professor Ingen held his hands out in front of his chest and slowly opened and closed them trying to illustrate. "At this very second, your slightly ahead of, and also being held in, the nanosecond before you originally left. But technically, your also just a nanosecond behind the most recent moment you last died."

"What the hell. The last moment I died? How many last moments have I had? And by the way, If I actually died on the second trip, then technically you wouldn't have been able to use me in the third place, right? Now even I'm confused." "Demeron, let me try and explain...again. We're stuck in an ever shortening time window of opportunity. Like a shrinking circle." Ingen said. "Until you can help you beat yourself back to the point just before the moment you die and prevent it, it will never warp you to the next correctable event and end right."

"End right, eh?" What does ending right really mean here anyway?"

"You've got to complete your original mission. But to do that now, you have to change your two new "after-histories" lets call 'em. The nanosecond you don't die, you will be instantaneously jumped to your previous event until your back to square one. Once completed, time will be normalized for you and this will all be over. But there's still a little problem."

"Problem? and that would be?"

"Well, ironically enough, we're running out of the very thing we're trying to manipulate. We're running out of time to do this." Ingen said. "We're slowly running out of the precious seconds needed to place you back in front of each of your deaths. With every leap, that jumpable opportunity window of useable time narrows or closes, and so does your life span." "How many more can I do if, say, something goes wrong today?" Clark asked. "None. This is the last one. Lets just say you have to go back again and not die so we can grab you in time for re-travel to just before the moment you died previously. It will all happen quickly as the machine is well programmed. Just be prepared to be in the same place in the same time with a different course of action to follow."

"Then what happens when I work my way back to the beginning?"

""You complete the original mission and finish this mess. He must die, and you must not interdict the war machine. If you don't succeed, this entire center vanishes and we are all lost forever."

"Jesus. I should have been a friggin techie. Not sure I can remember all of this through each transition. What if I forget each time periods corrective plan?" Clark said as he started up the gantry and positioned himself on the platform. "You won't." Ingen grabbed the lever and slammed it forward. Their eyes met just as the sequence began. Before he vanished Clark looked over and yelled. "Hey Doc! What time is it, anyway?" Ingen's face seemed to almost crack as he broke a nervous smile and sent his traveler into the void. As the machines humming settled, the sound of heeled footsteps could be heard getting closer.

Out of the dark passageway the twin figure of Professor Maynard Ingen emerged. The lab coated man and his exact duplicate now stood side by side as the machine finally wound down. With a handshake, both men stared into the eyes of his exact twin counterpart. "You handled that well. If he succeeds, one of us will be dead soon and Demeron Clark will finally be gone. This time forever."

"Yes. Poor fellow." the first Ingen replied. "Did you jump the other?"

"Right after you jumped yours. It is done."

"it will be interesting watching who history decides to kill this time, if I'm the chosen version of us still around to see it." he said. The duplicate Professor Ingen looked over and smiled. "I'll let you know when I shave tomorrow morning. You'll be looking right at me."

He smiled, then turned and walked back into the dark passageway toward the other portal. As his twin disappeared from view and the hard footsteps faded, Professor Maynard Ingen sighed, sat down in the empty control chair and looked at his watch.