September Stories

Others

Time travelers...

The words echoed in my head again and again. I'm not alone... There're others! The emotions hit me harder than I expected. This meant more than I could ever imagine. That's not just people who have had the same experience as you, who can understand what you've been through. They can actually be with you. Whenever you go. No limits. No more isolation! I couldn't believe this yet I did the moment doctor Ryder said that, never doubting she was saying the truth.

I turned to look at me. She had a smile frozen on my face. But the eyes. They were terrified. The way me looked at the doctor. Unforgivable.

It took me a few seconds to catch up with myself. She and her people must be doing the same thing to the others! Capturing them, erasing their memories! I was sure now that she is the cause I have no recollection of whatever happens here. Me and I have to find a way to avoid it.

"Don't make those big surprised eyes of yours, think. Strain your memory." Doctor Ryder stopped looking closely at myself and me, studying us.

I knew that and I forgot. How many times have I revealed this to myself already? How many more will I? The madness made me forget myself, I just wanted to get out of here and never see her again! But she must be punished. And for her to be punished I need to learn more. I need to find out what she's up to. This woman will not be able to justify her actions being it for the greater good – or whatever! I've already seen enough of her to know the type. Ambitious, yes, but cunning. Ruthless. Unscrupulous. She's going to regret involving me in her affairs.

"You understand, don't you? The more you try to struggle, the more time it will take to tell you everything you know already. Almost no time to crack with something new."

"Untie us and let's have a normal conversation." Me was looking at the doctor with an overt suspicion.

"Not yet." Her voice was breaking just a little bit, as if she was about to laugh. But her face was stone cold. 

"Where're the others?" Maybe they're close, maybe they can help us now.

"Oh, I'm afraid no one is around these days. You see, the problem with you paradox folk is, you're unstable. Never know when you might pop out of the blue or run away. That's why we study you. That's why we make sure you're less... random."

"How many have you met those like me?"

"Not too many. Far from what we would like. Eight might be about right. But then, we take great pride in being able to capture that many at all."

"Wait." Me jerked in her bed. Belts were still holding. "Capture. Like animals? Have you lost your decency completely? You could just ask, we're not in living in barbaric times nowadays!"

Doctor Ryder chuckled still leaving her face as emotionless as it was before. 

"I already said, most paradoxes are not as smart as you. They'd run and hide. They could hurt themselves with their emotional outbursts. It's unhealthy for paradoxes. You know better than me that the balance lies in great effort. Timetables, rules, concentration – never letting go. You told me this yourself. You're the reason we're so many steps closer to understanding the paradoxes. But still, there's much more lying ahead."

I despised myself for sharing all of that with this woman. I don't want to help her understand time travel. What could that knowledge bring in the wrong hands? And hers weren't particularly trustworthy.

"What use is there in them for you if they're so unstable?"

"Well, you can still find ways of extracting information from people, even if they don't want to collaborate."

Please, no. I didn't want to hear this. She could just stop talking now, shut up right now.

"The experiments that we carried out did not always require consent. Besides, your genetic material is invaluable. Who could've thought we could find something that looks and feels so much like human but is completely different right here, on Earth, not anywhere in deep space."

"This doesn't make any sense!" I was following everything she said up until this moment. "I'm human. Me is human. We were born from our mother and father. We are human."

Doctor Ryder gave me a long look before she said anything. She was weighing her options. She had to continue for me to start talking. I had a gut feeling, even though me and myself were tied up, we were of far greater importance than simple prisoners, hostages or lab rats – call it whatever you like. But what was that we had? Was it as simple as collaboration? I don't believe that.

"Well, you got lucky, you were born. Not every paradox is like that. Sometimes they just appear. They don't have  to be born. They just pop into existence, like time travelling. By the will of whatever power you posess – or that possesses you."

Could she be lying?

"Thousands of med tests were run on me." Said me. "Blood, tissue, X-ray – you name it. I am human. You can't argue with the DNA."

"Oh, my dear M's. What do you know about DNA?" Doctor Ryder did not expect an answer to this question. "Yes, you might seem human. Maybe you even are human. But there's still more to you, there wasn't the right test yet. How would you explain then that you aren't aging right now?"

"What?" We asked simultaneously, then turned to look at each other. We looked slightly different, me and I. The age gap was too little to say much. But I've aged all this time, I was a child back in the days!

"Not both of you, only the older one." Doctor Ryder explained. "She is out of her time stream. Out of sync, you can say. Paradox's body doesn't age when they're moving asynchronously with their own time. You only haven't noticed this yet because of your rules. All paradoxes should look up to you, really. They would be able to make so much more out of their short unpredictable lives if only they were as organized."

I tried to remember if I ever noticed this, not aging. I was certain I have not. After all, I always had a fairly obvious indicator of being alive and living – my heart and pulse. I could hear the med tech that was surveying both of us had two heartbeats. Not just mine, both of us.

"My heart is still beating." Me said, having arrived to the same conclusion. "You can't agrue with that, ask the med assistant if you don't believe me."

"I'm not saying your body isn't functioning." Doctor Ryder approached me and moved the screens closer to me's face. She was standing her back to me and blocking the view. "It's your cells. They're just frozen. You could go on like this forever. Try going somewhere for a year or two, you'll see for yourself." 

She moved the screens back and returned to her stand, looking at us both. I looked at me. Me didn't have to say anything. I could see, me saw the proof. It was true.

"That's yet one more reason why paradoxes are dangerous to themselves. Tempting, to live a never ending life, isn't it? But people notice. I can't imagine how many of you were executed back in the days."

One more reason never to travel earlier than the 20th century then, maybe even cut back to the beginning of the 21st. I never wanted to be immortal. And even if I could – even though I can – what difference does it make? It won't bring Zoe back, the one person I could spend eternity with.

"Still feeling dizzy?" The question caught me off guard.

"A little bit." I admitted, me nodded.

"This can stay for a few more hours. A side effect, don't pay attention to it." Said doctor Ryder.

Funny, she isn't taking any notes. For now she hasn't learned anything new, but she doesn't even have anywhere to type something down. And I saw videos before. Someone's definitely filming us.

I made a mental note. I'm going to use it all for my advantage. And they will pay for what they've done to me, and for their experiments on other paradoxes. I will not let go. Not this time.