* The DeLorian *
-----------------------------------
Captain's Log: Stardate 0000 0001
-----------------------------------
I began this morning thinking that my life has reached a dead end. Ever since I
was a youngling I dreamed of journeying among the stars and yesterday I tried to
follow that dream. I went to enlist my services to the space force of the
Federation's, but I was informed that I did not meet their standards and my
offer was declined. I had no idea what I would be doing now since I was banking
my whole future on being able to live my life out in space. After my enlistment
was rejected my love for the Federation was replaced with resentment and anger.
How DARE they destroy my dreams, to so easily discard my services just because
my current phsyique is not "up to par" with their quality of "standards"! I know
my around a starship better than any of those morons, and if they just gave me a
chance I could have been an invaluable asset! I wish I could show them, all I
would need is a ship. I don't need a crew, I could handle it all myself... But
what good would that do? I am just one person, and they are an entire fleet. How
could I do anything to something so much larger than myself all on my own?
So you can imagine my shock when I was approached by a shrouded, mysterious
figure that would only disclose themself as "The Elder" showed up offering me a
means to do exactly that. Their offer was simple:
I will be given the task of smuggling weapons and intelligence documents
past the Federation and to deliver them to their enemies. In payment, I would be
given a space craft and a device that it promised to give me an edge over any
adversarial force I may encounter if used properly. While I did not plan for my
life as a space captain to be working as a smuggler, it is the only option I
have left. And if I am being honest, I would really enjoy right now to help make
the lives of the Federation more difficult after what they did to me.
After taking a moment to consider this stranger's offer I accepted it. They
bestowed upon me three items: a fairly banged up coin, a leather bound book, and
an odd looking remote. Upon handing me these items I was told that inside the
book will hold the answers to all of my questions. On first inspection the
leather cover appeared to be quite worn out from what I can only assume to be
from years of age, but the papers inside looked to be brand new. The fact that I
was being given a book at all was quite strange since they have not been used in
years now that everything is digitized these days. Affixed to the outside of the
cover is a simple pencil and eraser which I assume is meant for writing in it.
When opening the book I found that the pages were removable and bound only by an
elastic band inside the book, which would suggest that one could add more pages
later as well as remove sections as well later on. The pencil made more since
after skimming over the first page since everything was hand written, but that
was also the only page with anything on it. Every following page was left blank.
Confused by this I looked up from the book to ask how that single page could
somehow answer all my questions, but only to find that my cryptic employer had
vanished.
Left only with my new, unusual gifts I decided to read through in full the notes
that were jotted upon the first and only inscribed page within the book. It
began explained the location of the craft I would using, where in the craft the
smuggled contents are, the coordinates of the rendezvous, who I would be meeting
there, and how much I will be selling it all for. It went on to entail that I
would be keeping the proceeds from the exchange and upon completion would be
assigned my next task. While I found all of this to be quite generous, I was far
more concerned with the everything else that followed from The Elder's notes.
According to what was written here, that bizarre remote I was given is
apparently a device that can manipulate the fabric of space and time in a very
specific way. The device has a screen in the middle, a dial beneath it, and a
button on either side. If I press the left button it will set a "checkpoint" of
sorts that gets stored to the memory of the device and I can search through
those checkpoints using the dial to cycle through them on the display as a
counter that goes up and down (coorsponding to the checkpoints in order of
creation). That is all fine, but what is baffling is the alleged function of the
right button. That, when pressed, it will send the user of the device back to
the exact position in time that the selected "checkpoint" was created. After
reading that section over a few times to make sure I was understanding it
correctly I decided I needed to prove that this device worked.
I started with a few simple experiments. First, I checked the time and set a
checkpoint followed by walking a few steps away and waiting. After a few minutes
passed I set the dial to my checkpoint and pressed the button that should
trigger the jump in space-time. Sure enough, I was standing in the same spot but
the time read the same time as when I set the checkpoint. Amazing! The potential
that this holds is beyond comprehension but I am going to try and do so anyways!
Which is what led to my second test, to determine once and for all how time
worked in our universe. This test is simple: I will create a checkpoint and then
after a few moments I will take a few steps back followed by flipping the coin I
was given. If it lands on heads, I go back and punch myself in the right eye;
and if it lands on tails, I go back and punch myself in the left eye. A bit
violent, but it is all in the name of science and gets the job done. With the
checkpoint set, I flipped the coin.
What followed next left me a bit confused. Instead of being punched in the face
by a future version of myself, I was approached by two versions of myself that
both punched me (one to my right eye and the other to my left eye). After given
it some thought, here is what I think happened: the unvierse we exist in obeys
the multiverse theory so after the coin was flipped there were two universes
created where one has the coin landing on heads and the other the coin lands on
tails. Since both occurred, the respective future versions both went back in
time and punched the eye they were supposed to punch. However, that now leaves
us in the awkward situation where there is now three of me. It looks like the
universe has no problems with us all being here, so I guess all those who
believed this would "violate the laws of space-time" were wrong since the
universe did not explode when they punched me in the face, but my eyes sure do
feel that way now. After the awkward moment passed the one who punched me in the
right eye suggested we read the rest of the book. It explained how part of my
employment will require detailed documentation of the series of the events that
unfold as a means to audit my work to trigger receiving my next assignment. I am
to do this using communications over QEC, but due to the nature of the work I am
to not use my real name nor the name of my craft. I am also meant to do so for
today, hence the reason I am right this message. For "The Elder" to identify my
messages I am to refer to myself as "The DeLorian" and for my craft I can call
it whatever I want here as long as it does not give away anything. Since I
cannot think of anything good right now I'll just pick a placeholder name and
come back to it later. So for now, I emback on my voyage into the unknown as a
smuggler to enact revenge against the empire that has forsaken me aboard my ship
Boaty McBoatface.
gemini://cosmic.voyage/The DeLorian/0000.txt