The Temporal Wars

5

"We have to warn them." I said.

"It will be difficult to convince humanity of something that hasn't happened yet." The computer said.

I started running through the building past confused employees eyeing me, "I have to try."

I skipped past the elevators and instead ran up 3 flights of stairs. I busted through the door on the third floor and ran towards what I recognized as my parents laboratory.

"Mom! Dad!" I exclaimed.

I should've cared that there were 10 people in that room with Dr.Burges among them, staring at me as if I was insane, but in the moment I didn't.

"Revlis takes over 7 days from now." I said bluntly causing confused disruption across the room," I don't have time to explain, but we need to figure out how to stop him."

"Amarith." My mother said.

"Should we call security?" Someone muttered.

"Excuse me but," A man began, "Revlis has weekly system checks ran by my department and there's been no signs of corruption. He remains fully functional under his original algorithms. So I'm not quite sure what you're alluding to."

"Check them again." I said sternly, "Because I'm telling you that Revlis is bypassing all of your security checks and you don't even know it yet. Because 7 days from now he takes over the entire world."

"How would you know what happens 7 days from now? A women asked.

"Dr.Burges." I said.

Everyone in the room immediately looked towards him, as he quickly displayed a frazzled look across his face.

Dr. Burges said, "What did I do?!"

"You've been working on a time travel research project for the past decade called Project Ariadne. Correct?"

His eyes grew wide, "T-that's classified. How d-did you-?"

"Because you told me. You tell all of us 7 days from now after Revlis takes over."

"Are you from the future?"

"I've seen the outcomes of multiple futures where Revlis wins." I said, "And we have a chance to stop it here before he does."

"Why should we believe you?" Someone scoffed, " For all we know you could be a spy trying to take down our technological advancements? Or maybe you're just high on drugs!"

I shook my head, "I have no reason to lie. But if you don't believe me... talk to a future version of me."

"And how would we do that?"

"Dr. Burges is capable of building time travel technology. He did it with the suit that I'm wearing." I gestured to my outfit, "If he's capable of that, then he's capable of using that same technology to create a time rift communication with someone from the future. Right, Dr.Burges?" I looked over at him.

He gulped, "I mean theoretically-"

"We don't have time for theories." I said, "Please. Dr. Burges. I need everyone to see this."

Dr. Burges was hesitant, but agreed. Thankfully, it only took him an hour to use the functions of my suit to create a communication pathway to the future.

I walked over to Dr. Burges who had been working on the suit at the front of the room. He had a small toolbox near him as he clipped and adjusted a few more wires.

"You know." I said walking towards him, " I never asked you, but...why is it called project Ariadne?"

He spoke yet his eyes still focused forward on his task, "Ariadane was a princess in Greek mythology."

"So you named a highly scientific research project over a made-up Greek goddess? Interesting." I said.

"In the Greek stories," he continued, "Ariadne was known for her involvement with mazes and labyrinths. Now... when me and my coworkers discovered time travel; It's nuances, it's possibilities....its nightmares." he paused for a second, "We realized time was like a maze. Like an endless, merciless labyrinth so we named it after her."

He finished adjusting a few more things before he closed his toolbox and then looked over at me.

I grinned and nodded at him with amazement.

"She's all yours." He pointed to the suit, "Contact who you need to contact."

I inhaled shakily, feeling nervousness creep and crawl across my skin. I knew that this was it. This was my one and only chance to convince these brilliant minds who were sitting in this same room as me. That Revlis was going to take over and that we needed to act fast.

So I held on tight to what I felt was right, and punched in a date, location, and name into the console Dr.Burges had created within the suit.

The room became quiet, and I could feel several pairs of eyes on me as they were standing only inches from behind me. The pressure felt enormous.

Finally, after what felt like hours had passed by the image of the person I wanted to speak to came up on the helmet display for everyone to see.

I wasted no time, as there was none to spare.

"In all your travels did you ever encounter an AI named Revlis?" I asked, as I stared at a future version of myself through a screen.