A Stitch in Time

"Davis!" Professor Glade shouted as he ran down the corridors of the University of Sydney's science building. "Davis!" The 29 year old man repeated, searching for his friend and colleague. "Where the hell is he?"

"Quit your shouting, it's 2:30 in the morning for Christ's sake," the reply wafted from down the hall. Glade made haste toward the source of his voice. "What do you want?"

"I did it!" Glade shouted enthusiastically as he barged into the door of the lab and the automated glass door slid open with a pneumatic hiss.

"Did what?" Davis asked, rubbing his sleep deprived eyes. "What did you do this time?"

"Well, technically, I didn't do anything yet, but I know how to." He began. "Ok, so you know of course it's been six years since I made a discovery, yes?" Davis gave a curt nod, though he had no clue as to where this was going. Glade continued, "Okay, and the last thing I actually succeeded with was the nanotechnology that allowed for breakthrough's in medical technology back in 2007, yes?"

Davis cut in before he could get much more off topic, "What is this, a history lesson, get on with it."

"Ok, I think I know how to achieve temporal manipulation." The words hung in the air for a few moments.

"Temporal manipulation. As in, time travel?" Davis wasn't sure but this talk of time travel had managed to pique his interest. "What are we talking about here, police box, De Lorean?" A hint of sarcasm rising in his usually serious tone.

"No, nothing so refined. No, I'm talking about a real temporal manipulation device." With the seriousness of Glades expression, Davis leaned back in his chair and listened. "I've figured that since we can manipulate the first 3 dimensions as we know them, there should obviously be a way to manipulate the 4th, correct?" The man had a habit of asking whether or not his listener understood as he talked.

"How?" Davis asked quizzically.

The professor proceeded to explain how his "time manipulation device" or T.M.D worked. Essentially, the device worked on the principle that super accelerated photons in a localised field could destabilise the basic laws of physics in the space-time of that localised field and thus, time could be manipulated.

"How are you going to super accelerate photons?" Davis asked sceptically. "In order for that to work, the photons would need to reach higher-than-light-speed velocities, which as I'm sure you know, Einstein said is physically impossible in this space-time."

"Exactly, in this space-time." Glade, leaned over his desk on the opposite side of the lab. "All we need is a way to defy that law, if we can do it once, and destabilise the laws of physics in that field, we could do it from there on in with little to no difficulty." Glade began tapping on the keys of his laptop as he lifted his chin and gave a quiet, authoritative huff.

"Is that wise, screwing with the laws of physics is dangerous." Davis objected. "If your seriously considering doing this, I'll help you, but the first sign of danger or risk, the whole things scrubbed." Glade didn't look up from the keys as he gave a small grunt and continued with his work. "And besides professor, if you can't present any credible evidence that this will work, the university isn't going to fund a project like this. It could cost billions by the time it's done." Glade gave yet another dismissive grunt and stood from his desk.

"I'm going to sleep on it, besides I've got an astrophysics class to take tomorrow, I'm filling in for Nellsworth." Glade griped as he left the lab.

Upon pulling up out the front of his small apartment on Sydney Harbour, he took a moment to look out upon the harbour and marvel at it's mid-winter beauty, the night was cold and so it didn't take long for the sight to become less significant than his warm bed. He stepped through the heavy walnut front door, into the crowded front hallway that housed his many degrees in physics and boxes of papers he had not the care to sort. He walked through the house to the small bedroom. Once in bed it took little more than a few moments for his eyes to drop and to fall asleep.

"You have your orders Macey." The young woman listened intently to the small black device strapped to her wrist. "You know the importance of this." The voice was worn and old and unmistakably belonged to a woman.

"Yes, I do." She replied to the device before quickly hiding it under her long sleeved shirt. She couldn't help her excitement, she'd always wanted to visit Sydney. But she had a job to get done, and she was not going to screw this up, the future depended on it. She took a brief look at the University of Sydney campus slowly taking shape in the early morning light. "Ok, everything should be set up all I have to do is show up for class." She thought as she retreated to a nearby park to wait until opening hours.

At around 8:00 that morning as she sat by a water fountain she noticed a young, late 20's guy in a white coat rushing in to the campus. She discretely removed a small tablet like device from the inside of her jacket. Upon touching a few prompts the tablet displayed a detailed image of this man. The woman stood, satisfied she had located her target, flicked the tablet off and placed it neatly back in her jacket pocket before smoothly stepping off. She had a mission to complete.

Glade looked at the group of undergraduates in the lecture hall and couldn't help but notice a young, possibly mid 20's woman with dark brown hair sitting towards the front. She had her hair laid tidily down her back and for reasons that escaped him, kept staring and smiling at him. Although he found this a little creepy, he couldn't help but marvel at this woman's beauty, in the same way he did with Sydney Harbour. He shook his head and announced over the loud speaker that class was starting. Sure enough, in that university way, all the students immediately went quiet and listened to the lesson. When the lesson was complete he dismissed the students, informing them that Dr. Nellsworth will have returned by their next lecture.

"Now," Macey thought as she took a step towards the confident young professor. "Hello, professor..." She fained uncertainty to avoid it seeming as though she knew every detail about him, which of course, she did. "Glade, is it?"

"Yes, how did you find the class?" She could tell the professor was a little embarrassed by the way he tried to get down to business and the way he had dipped his head and avoided her gaze. She also noticed he was blushing a little.

"It was great, thanks." She said simply. By now she could see an obvious little pool of sweat forming under his armpits. "Yes, there's a chance then," she thought as she took a confident step towards the man. "Hey, I'm not entirely sure what the socially accepted behaviour between a teacher and his students is but where I'm from it is well within acceptability for a teacher to have lunch with a student. Would you like to go get something to eat, talk for a while?"

"Sorry," the man apologised, seemingly a little more confident now that he was talking. "I've got some work to do, a friend and I have just begun work on a really important project." He explained as he hastily packed his presentation gear. "Perhaps tomorrow, how about a coffee at 10?"

"That sounds good," Macey shouted over the din being created by the last of the students exiting the lecture hall.

When she was the last person left in the large room she ducked outside the room, avoiding unnecessary contact with anyone and slipped into a payphone booth. She swiftly pulled her shirt sleeve up and keyed the black wrist device she'd used earlier. After tapping a small ovular blue button the device crackled to life.

"What is it, Macey? Have you made contact yet?" The elderly woman's voice from earlier crackled through the device.

"Yes, you said I'd have months, weeks at least before he began the experiments." She reported. "At this rate it's looking like he's already begun to start the opening phase of the experiment."

"Macey, I'm sorry but it was difficult to calibrate where you needed to go for this one. As is, the destabilisation of the space-time has already reached critical levels. You need to succeed with this. As it is we are losing our ability to go much further than a few years, and that will only get worse. You've probably got..." She paused, perhaps asking someone for a figure. "3 days and you will no longer be able to contact us, 6 days and the distortion will be irreversible and you'll not only be stuck there but travel across all planes of time will be ceased, and you know of the worst case scenario?" Macey sighed. Of course, if the space-time distortion were allowed to continue there is a good chance the fabric of space could be destroyed.

"Macey?" A new voice, this time that of an old man, Macey's real 'boss'. "Just continue with the current plan, but you do understand the consequences, yes?"

"Yes sir, I'll get it done." She shut off the device and exited the booth. This was going to have to be done far quicker than she had originally thought, for her sake and that of the future.