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The Most Valuable Thing

My humble entry to the Time Traveler Contest

By Robert CardwellPublished about a year ago 10 min read
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“Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend.”

-Theophrastus

Why would anyone risk creating a paradox using time travel? Why attempt the seemingly impossible feat of traveling back in time rather than forward? Felicity pondered these questions as she strained with her wrench. Many would go for the obvious answer and attempt to murder a twentieth-century Austrian painter-turned-dictator of Germany in the cradle. Others wanted to relive a childhood fantasy and see dinosaurs firsthand. Armchair historians obsessed over obscure past events and hoped to diverge from the current timeline.

For Felicity, time travel allowed her to obtain something more important. Hot tears blurred her vision as she twisted the last screw into place. Ancient devices whirred around her in the lab. She was the latest addition to a long line of sorcerers, mechanics, and scientists dedicated to the invention of time travel.

She wiped her face. Well, not so many scientists anymore. It turned out - given sapient beings' current scientific knowledge - traveling to the past was impossible. Even most of the magic was a mystery to her, but those who came before left behind enough information to piece together what she needed. That inconvenient truth didn't stop the Order from persisting. Felicity imagined all their labor wasted and shuddered at the thought. She can't give up now, not after every sacrifice she and her forebears endured. They were ridiculed in the street, shunned like medieval lepers, denied funding, and relied on scraps to survive. It's never going to work, some claimed. Just because someone can do something, they were told, doesn't mean they should. Almost everyone else was skeptical or terrified of the idea, but not her. And the many who were willing to believe in their ideas either didn't make the cut or gave up soon afterward.

She tossed the wrench aside, and it clattered on the floor. Given her circumstances and how common they were, it surprised her that more people didn't gamble with time travel. Having already lost so much, the idea of being obliterated no longer scared her as much. Her favorite cloth rested on a nearby table. She grabbed it and wiped the sweat from her brow.

Finally, she thought, it's done.

Felicity stepped back and admired her work. Standing ten feet tall and resembling a twenty-first-century car, it was the culmination of thousands of years of work in the endeavors of hundreds of people.

Now to test the thing.

She needed to be careful, as there was no way of knowing if the device worked until activating it. The irrational part of her brain hoped it worked. It needed to. Her rational self tried to dismiss the mounting fear inside her. She swung the door open and stepped inside. Two hundred and one prototypes failed before this one, often with explosive results. Statistically speaking, she had a much greater chance of a horrific death than surviving. She reclined on the supple leather seat and took a deep breath. Even though the machine worked as intended, there was always the chance of being dropped off at the wrong time. If the machine broke, she'd be stuck wherever she ended up without the parts needed for repair. She knew the risks were significant, but they were worth it.

In, two, three through the nostrils out to three through the mouth, she said in her mind over and over. There's no turning back, not after all the work you put in.

Peering at the monitor, she had one date in mind. February 2nd, 2023, the day of the accident, when everything changed. Losing her family was bad enough, but Felicity also suffered the misfortune of being teleported to a time and place I was utterly alien to hers. What on Earth? she asked after she woke from her coma, but she was no longer on Earth. How could that be? It was after that she realized she was in a place called the City, inhabited by beings from across the universe. No, her caregivers explained, not a universe, but universes. Several mind-blowing revelations later, here she was. Krolqods showed her the ropes before he worked himself to death. At least he left behind many holograms and texts before collapsing next to the machine.

Felicity pressed the button and held her breath. The time machine shuddered. For a moment, she braced for everything to go horribly wrong. She cursed Krolqods and his four-legged self for not giving her enough information to complete the project. To her relief, the machine hummed to life, its motherboard twinkling with numerous colors. She breathed a sigh of relief and regretted the previous thoughts about her mentor. He'd never get to save his home planet, but she'd have the chance to save her parents and sister from death.

It turned on without exploding, so that's something.

She entered the date and place she was to visit and pulled the switch before rolling her eyes. The carved wood was Krolqods’ idea. He was one of the most intelligent beings Felicity had the dubious pleasure of knowing, with an eccentricity to match.

The journey seemed to last both forever and an instant. Images formed in Felicity's mind as clear as the reality before her. The pop music her father hated blaring from the speakers that he played for her and Dawn. Her mother laughing at a witty remake her father said. And her sister arguing over something stupid. Tears flowed down her face, and memories poured forth. Her father had turned and screamed at them to be quiet.

"The road's slippery," her father had shouted at the two of them.

Her father had turned off the radio. The driver of the car chose at that moment to run the red light about fifty ft ahead from where their car sped over an ice patch. Dawn had screamed as they swerved into the other lane into the path of the oncoming car. The two vehicles crashed. The last thing Felicity remembered before blacking out was glass shattering, metal crunching, and her body jerking forward. She came to a strange-smelling pile of garbage where discovered Krolqods and took her home as a novelty. How she got there, she had no idea and had given up trying to figure out the logic behind the situation. Krolqods believed in tough love and cruel humor, denigrating her for having fewer appendages. Felicity also despised his specie's cuisine, but he provided her a home and introduced her to his line of work.

She searched for the bucket of salt resting next to her chair. Lips curling into a bitter smile, she tapped the plastic lid. Sodium chloride - used throughout the multiverse as a flavoring agent and preservative - was the tool of her family's salvation. While the white crystals were cheaper than dirt in the city, they were more valuable than any other substance on her mission. Double-checking shifted the correct time, she donned the coat she procured for the occasion.

"Zerkonian fur from Gniknope," Krolqods had said, "the most insulating for in the system of the same name."

"Where's the Gniknope system?" Felicity had asked him.

"Not just where," Krolqods had replied, "but where and when. I don't know in either case."

Felicity had rolled her eyes at the time, but she had soon realized both questions shared equal importance when it came to time travel. The air nipped at Felicity's face as she stepped out of the time machine. Peering around, she shut the door. Luckily for her, the time machine secreted itself in the cluster of trees, one of many dotting the countryside where she spent her childhood. The sun was not far from setting, so not much light remained to examine her surroundings. Tree species, tree species, and tree species. She was home as far as she could discern. Salt bucket straining her fingers, Felicity slipped through the fragmented wood. Snow-encrusted leaves crunched beneath her boots.

A five-minute walk across a fellow field later, she reached the road where her family met their pointless end. She watched a white pickup truck race by, followed by a blue minivan, eyeing them like they were out of place. She had toiled for five earth years under Krolqods’ watchful tutelage. Her reaction surprised her. After bearing witness to curiosities from across time and space, she was taken aback by Earth cars? That didn't make sense.

The accident took place at about 7:55 p.m., Felicity recalled. Visibility was poor now. At least tonight is clear. She had little time to waste. She plopped a bucket down next to her and yanked off the lid. Salt filled the container almost to the brim. Felicity shoved both hands into the bucket and filled her hands with the rough crystals. She stepped onto the shoulder, looking both ways for traffic. Once she knew it was safe, she tossed the salt. It skittered across the ice-coated asphalt. Another car raced past, and she jumped back in surprise.

"Slow down," she growled.

She grabbed two more handfuls and tossed one left and the other to the right. In a few minutes of frantic tosses, she spread salt across an entire twenty feet or so long section of the road.

Would this work? She couldn't help but worry. What if it wasn't enough? What if I can't save them? What if I fail them twice?

She stopped herself. There was nothing she could have done the first time. This time was different, she had the power to travel back and forth through time, and all she brought was salt when there was so much more she could have done. She could have discovered more about the driver and what happened that night. She could have done something to prevent him from taking to the road in the first place or to make the conditions more favorable. What in the multiverse was she supposed to do now? She could go back, true, but then they'd die again. They probably died an infinite number of times, one of her more open-minded colleagues would have told her, why worry about this one? Because it was her family, her Earth, her universe.

What was almost worse was what was to happen if she succeeded. If it weren't for the accident, she never would have been transported to the city, would have never been found by Krolqods, and never would have taken up the endeavor of inventing time travel. What would happen to her then? Would she disappear or destroy this timeline and create another one due to her presence? She considered these questions long before she stepped into the machine but never found a satisfactory answer. It didn't matter to her now. What mattered was saving those who mattered most to her. She finished salting the road. There was nothing to do but wait. She stepped back and sat in the field. The ground was uncomfortably hard, and she shifted herself in a vain attempt to get comfortable. She shivered at the cold seeping through her pants. None of that was relevant, but the outcome she sacrificed so much for was.

Felicity spotted her family's white sedan, and her heart skipped a beat. All the trauma of the experience flooded back. Was she about to witness them die again? She could have done more. Why didn't you do more? She cursed herself for not bringing more back with her from the city. She clenched her fists and watched with horrified anticipation. Nothing she could do now. The family car reached the ice patch and she held her breath. The salt melted the snow enough for them to slide but not swerve. The oncoming car ran the red light as she predicted and continued on its likely fatal path. Felicity's eyes widened as the white sedan slipped along the road and into the other lane. For a second, she thought she heard her sister scream. Her insides twisted.

No, I failed.

At the last moment, the white sedan returned to the right lane and avoided collision. The other car fishtailed but managed to regain control and sped off. The white vehicle turned onto the shoulder before slowing to a stop. Felicity smiled. She had done it.

Her heartbeat thumped in her ears and she felt like a great weight had been lifted off her shoulders. Most of her young adult life was dedicated to this singular purpose, which she had finally fulfilled. The family car's engine roared back to life and continued down the road. Felicity followed it with her eyes.

She initially didn't notice her physical form dissipating, but she embraced it all the same. Her grin widened.

I am content, was her last thought.

Sci Fi
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