Time machine

By David Liu, age 13
David is a writer that writes adventure/fantasy short stories. He prefers along the lines of fan-fictions, and enjoys reading Harry Potter (over and over again) and a few other series.

“The Time Gear was the physical part of time and space. In the past, there were documented recordings of the Time Gear. The physical part of it was harnessable, but there were reasons why it was hidden.”

The time machine’s engine came to a shuddering halt. I was stranded in … in about 15 minutes ago. There were five of me back then. I think I overused my time machine. OH, wait, duh! Of course I overused it. You weren’t supposed to go back to a time you were alive. You were especially not supposed to come in contact with them. That would mess up the whole time-space continuum. Now, I’m going to go 20 minutes into the future.

IT WAS HORRIBLE.

Someone (not me) ripped a hole in the time-thingy. Since I am the first person to do this, I will elaborate on how this happens. You have the “time gear” the all-holy powerful time manipulator, and you rip it up for your own benefit. And all that good stuff from the old civilizations have come over to my present, your future.

You know, this is the reason why King Tut died at the age of 19. I saw him come out of the time hole and he couldn’t breathe the air so he died in about 1.5 seconds. The air in our society is too advanced actually. People would guess that the air is polluted but actually we altered it to provide more oxygen. I’m guessing someone sent him back.

Some of the other great people from the past came to the future. Did you ever wonder why Da Vinci first made the painting Mona Lisa? He saw a copy from our future about Mona Lisa and got the idea. At least HE survived long enough to get out.

Even though we live in such a high-tech society, we have our flaws. We managed to find the “Time Gear.” The Time Gear was the physical part of time and space. In the past, there were documented recordings of the Time Gear. The physical part of it was harnessable, but there were reasons why it was hidden. The first time people moved through it, they thought that it was their time. It was always hidden in some deserted part of the world. Eventually, it was discovered at the end. There was some weird pattern that happened every millennia or so.  I could go on forever about what civilizations came through and were influenced by what we had. Some greek guy came through and found statues of the Greek Gods, which is how that all happened.

Okay, back to the topic. Yea… 20 minutes into the future wasn’t looking so bright. I use my Google Glasses and calculate that it will take approximately 13 minutes and 23 seconds before I cease to exist. In that exact moment, someone had killed my future self. It was probably the Sphinx crashing down and killing me with thousands of other people.

The reason why we’re in this whole dilemma is because I had decided to take a particle out of the Time Gear. The Time Gear looks like a gear, obviously, but once I took part of it out from its source, it began to eat itself. The Time Gear first starts with the beginning of time and space. It eats the Time Gear from that exact nanosecond. When the Time Gear from that time is destroyed, then everything ceases to exist for that exact moment. The thing is, if it reaches a point in time where someone crossed it, that person ceases to exist. So, for example, when James Otis came across. He invented the elevator. When the Time Gear from that nanosecond disappears, he disappears, and we lose elevators. Simple as that.

Okay, so my dad is the one who FOUND the Time Gear, so my family is rich and we have access to the Time Gear. I just went in and took a piece. I wanted to have time itself. With it, I could go back and control ancient civilizations (not really, but I wanted to travel time, it sounds cooler).

 

Chapter 1(the only chapter):

Well, I can tell you firsthand what death feels like. Easier than falling asleep. I can’t tell you which religion is correct about the afterlife. I never went there. I was in limbo. Using the stolen piece of the ”time gear,” I went back to 40 minutes before I died. That was a mistake that saved the world.

 

40 minutes before death:

 

Actually doing quite fine. Recorded 39 minutes and 23.354 seconds before death. Well, “quite fine,” right now throughout time, is ancient artifacts falling down and crushing everyone to death. “Not fine,” is ceasing to exist. Using the time gear, I teleport into the lab. All the scientists are panicking. I can see it in their faces. Well, also the way they act.

A few spot me when I teleport, but that’s hardly the weirdest thing that they’ve seen all day. “Everyone! TAKE A PIECE OF THE TIME GEAR AND TELEPORT TO A TIME AND BRING BACK A FAMOUS PERSON. WE NEED TO SAVE THEM.” Naturally there are a lot of questions such as, “How do we do that? Can we separate the gear? Will that make time break even faster?” But one stands out to me. “Are you from the future? You look like the splitting image of Dr. ____.”

I don’t want to mention my father’s name in this recording. It may put you in danger. The thing is, I don’t know WHY none of them recognize me. I’ve talked to them multiple times. Is it because I’ve essentially died? I go along with what they say. “YES I AM FROM THE FUTURE, NOW DO AS I COMMAND.”

In a few short minutes, everyone is equipped with a tiny piece of the time gear. I’ve given them all lists of people they need to bring to the future and also equip them with an Apple Scuba device. (I made this device 20 minutes ago to allow people to breathe our more polluted air.)

After asking all the scientists to grab someone from the past, I went to do my job. I went back in time to the exact second when I decided to take a piece of time gear. I put my piece back into it and stepped back…. Nothing happened.

I sighed and went to when the scientists brought back the people. When I went back it was chaos. Well, not really. They didn’t bring anyone back. I yelled, “WHAT THE ****??? WHY DID NO ONE BRING ANYONE BACK?!?!?!”

They mumbled and I heard, “ … didn’t know how … too hard … not our specialty … ” I sighed. Scientists who could even make clones could not ask to be sent to a time and bring back a person to the future. How hard could that be? I walked out and said, “Get ready to all die.”

The darkness soon came to my time. The scientists shouted out, “Help us!”

Using the full time gear, I transported  to a “dead” time. It’s like being in limbo. Harnessing the power if the time gear, I thought about everything that was in this time. With every thought imagined, things started to pop back. The time gear had started to spit back the things that it had taken.

The trees returned, the grass returned, oceans formed … all but the people. The people were harder. Intelligent life forms think differently from each other, so you have to think like them. Slowly and slowly, people started to form, I thought about more complex things, such as trigonometry. More people started to slowly come back.

I repeated this process with every single moment in time. It took me 146 days to do it. I became more skilled as I went along. Cavemen were easy. All they think about is food and animals.

 

Chapter 2: Redemption

After 146 days, 12 minutes, 15 seconds, I was done. Finally, everything was back to normal, well, almost everything. Some animal species went extinct, the ones I had no clue about.

I stood before the court. I had been charged for destroying the world. The best jurors from every time were called to partake in the trial.

“Motion to start the trial: ____” said a juror.

None opposed.

Another juror said, “_____ charged for destroying the time space continuum, the extinction of multiple species, and the destruction of elevators.”

“All who vote in favor of punishment please stand.” said the main juror.  About half of them stood up.

“Juror ___, you have the floor.” This went on for two hours. They changed the court to Congress, where they debated the topic at hand.

In the end, the vote were even. “WHAT?!?! THERE ARE 301 OF US? WHO DID NOT VOTE?” said the main juror. Yes. He’s loud.

One juror stood up. “I do not believe this is for us to decide,” he said. “JUST VOTE!” said the juror.

He votes in favor for me.

I was saved.