Time Travel for Dummies

Observation Room- Gordian Knot-Earth Date July 13th, 2014

Sam entered the room and dropped the book on the table. The thud sounded more like a gunshot. The book was thick and as heavy as it looked.

“So are you going to tell me what’s going on?” I asked.

Sam tugged at his earring and chuckled dryly. “I assumed you were as confused as you appeared.”

I seated myself at the table. “You could say that.”

Sam seated himself across from me. “I guess I should start from the beginning.” He opened the book and started fingering through the pages. “This is Kell’s journal. Anything anyone ever wanted to know about time travel, wormholes and the universe in general is contained in this book.”

“How did you get it?” I asked with a hint of suspicion. “Did you just happen to find it at the local library?”

Sam smiled. “I am beginning to pick up your skepticism.”

“Good because I was trying to lay it on pretty thick,” I replied.

Sam laughed. “To answer your question I will have to revisit our time in that cave in New Mexico. Your life wasn’t the only one that changed that day.”

“What do you mean?”

Sam ran his hand over his face and sighed deeply. It only took one look at his weary face to understand that his story would be a long one. “After the rope went slack I became concerned,” he explained. “Of course, like an idiot, I ran into the cave without a flashlight, expecting the rope to guide me to you. I smashed my head on a low hanging rock, knocking myself out.”

I knew the story. Satou explained it to me shortly, not long after I was abducted from New Mexico. I remember laughing about it at the time, but judging by the serious look on Sam’s face, I decided to bite my tongue for now.

“I don’t remember how long I was out. What I do remember was waking up outside the cave,” he continued. “I ran home and called the police. My mother was pissed because I was supposed to have been home three hours prior.” He looked at me and smiled. “Don’t worry, when I told her something bad happened to you she forgot about our scheduled grocery store trip, so she wasn’t so angry in the end.”

“Gee, that makes my heart all aflutter,” I quipped.

Sam ignored my verbal jab. “Anyway, the police investigation determined you had died in a cave collapse.”

“What?” I cried. “That’s ridiculous!”

Sam held up his hand. “It’s not so ridiculous when you analyze the facts. The cops found your end of the rope buried underneath a collapsed wall.”

“But that’s impossible,” I interrupted. “There was a doorway in the wall. Didn’t they see it?”

Sam fixed me with a stern look. “Are you going to let me finish or are you going to keep interrupting?” When he saw I wouldn’t offer a retort he nodded. “Good. I didn’t buy their conclusion for two reasons. Number one was the fact that the rope went slack but when they found your end of the rope it was located in the center of the collapse as tight as can be. Number two: Someone dragged me out of that cave. I certainly didn’t walk out of there in an unconscious daze.”

“You’re right,” I agreed.

Sam looked confused. “You knew, didn’t you?”

I looked at the floor and nodded. “His name was Madoc. He was the Explorer’s League Medical Officer. He told me the story not long after they took me aboard their ship.”

“I went back to the cave the next day, hoping to find something that the police didn’t.” Sam closed the book and tapped the cover with his index finger, deep in thought. “Every day I went back until school started.” He stood up and walked to the window. With his back to me, he continued. “I had no idea what I expected to find. Perhaps I expected to find you crawling out of the cave, coughing up dirt balls and begging for water. Maybe I expected your ghost to spring from the cave and tell me how terrible I was at jungling in League of Legends.” He lowered his head. “I made it a point to visit the cave every chance I got but of course nothing changed. No Nathan phantoms floated from the caves. Hell not one stone in the collapse was out of place. It was like the place had been frozen in time ever since that day.”

“I’m sorry Sam,” I offered weakly.

He held up his hand and waved it dismissively without even bothering to turn around. “Don’t apologize for my ADHD because eventually it panned out. About six months after you had been declared dead, I took a stroll down to the cave after school. I was chipping away at the collapsed wall with nothing more than a flashlight and a thick wood walking stick, thinking about how badly you wanted to break through. You had a rock hammer, I had a walking stick. I figured it would take me twenty years to bust through the wall, but I didn’t care. The cave was the only thing tying me to your memory.”

“But something happened,” I interjected.

Sam nodded and turned his head. He stared at me from the corner of his eye with a smile on his face. “You could say that.” He turned and looked at me. He ran his hand through his goatee before continuing. “This trip to the cave was different. One of the stones in the wall looked as if it had been tampered with. I chipped at it with my stick and it broke off, causing a book to fall from the hole.” He cast a glance at the book on the table before continuing. “When I opened it a note fell out.”

“A note?” I asked.

Sam approached the table and pulled a piece of paper from his pocket. He placed it on the table and slid it across to me. It had yellowed with age and was torn at the corners. I unfolded it and read its contents.

Sam,

I have been keeping my eye on you since Nathan’s disappearance. Your relentless poking of the security barrier is quite literally the most maddening thing I have seen in a long time. I have left clues for you all over the place but you seemed focused on a rock wall for some ungodly reason. I am not sure what you hope to accomplish. Perhaps you think you can beat the wall to death with a stick? It is because of your maddening behavior that I hid my journal in the wall. I am personally running short on time and if I waited for you we would experience another Big Bang before you discovered it. The Explorer’s League has forced my hand. You must follow my instructions to the letter, Sam Wells. The fate of the universe may depend on it. Several years from now, the Earth will face a war unlike any it has experienced before. We must stop it at all costs. Grillick is on his way. He will meet you at this very spot in two weeks. Bring the book. All will be explained.

-Kell

I folded the note and passed it back. “Kell was a big ray of sunshine, huh?”

Sam chuckled. “At the time I happened to agree with you. Until I met him, that is.”

My eyes widened. “You met Kell?”

“Several years later but that’s another story for another time.” He took the note and slipped it in his pocket. “To make a long story short I went back to the cave two weeks later.”

“And Grillick was there?” I was so engrossed in the tale that I didn’t realize I spoke out loud. It wasn’t until Sam frowned that I knew I had interrupted him again. I tossed him an apologetic smile.

“Yes and no,” he responded. When a confused look crossed my face he clarified his remark. “When I showed up there was a mailbox staked in the ground in front of the cave with a sign that read: ‘Please deposit any journals in here’. So I did what the sign said and deposited the book.”

“Yeah that sounds like Grillick,” I grumbled. “What happened next?”

“Well that’s the thing,” Sam explained. “I didn’t know what to do next so I waited.” When I looked at him like he sprouted a second head he held up his hands. “What else was I supposed to do? The note said ‘all will be explained’. A mysterious mailbox erected in a remote cave didn’t explain a damn thing.”

“Good point,” I conceded.

“I was there about fifteen minutes before a voice came from the cave. I followed it to the collapsed wall. Waiting there for me was a…” he paused and looked at me. “Well I guess I don’t have to explain what Grillick looks like. Anyway, he was sitting on a rock tapping his foot impatiently. After scolding me for standing outside waiting like an idiot instead of entering the cave, he finally explained things.”

After several minutes passed without clarification I held up my hands. “And what were these ‘things’ he explained? Don’t keep me in suspense like that!”

He turned to the window and drew in a deep breath before letting it out slowly. “Prepare to have your mind blown.”