Futures

January 15th 2022

Mark looked down curiously at the package that was sat squarely on his doormat. It was a small parcel wrapped in newspaper. He wasn’t sure what it was, but something seemed peculiar about the paper it was wrapped in. He bent over and gingerly picked up the package, studying it carefully as he turned it over in his hands, he read some of the words in one of the articles as he stood up towards the light. ‘If we allow this to happen, it will be the end of everything we know’

Suddenly Mark’s phone rang loudly from his pocket, startling is attention away from the intriguing newspaper wrapping. It was his mother. He quickly answered. Pinching the phone between his ear and his shoulder so he could use both hands, he tore the paper away from the package as he made his way across the room to his little writing desk in the corner.

“Hey mum, I was planning on calling you today. Sorry it’s been so long. How are you?”

He screwed up the wrapping and dropped it in the bin beside the desk and looked down in puzzlement at the little black notebook. The edges were frayed and the book showed heavy signs of wear and tear, which was strange considering it appeared to be this year’s diary. There was a tail of black ribbon protruding from the bottom of the books pages that allowed the book to fall open at a specific page in Mark’s hands as he listened to his mother, who was now weeping on the other end of the phone.

“Uncle Peter passed away last night.”

“What?” Marks attention was snapped back to the call as he tossed the diary onto his desk and took the phone firmly in his hand. “What? Umm, oh no… How? How did it happen?” He stuttered, caught off guard as a whole range of emotions bubbled up inside him.

“I went around there this morning to drop off his groceries. There was no reply at his door so I let myself in with the spare key. I found him at the bottom of the stairs. Oh God! Mark, it was awful. He looked awful! I just screamed and ran out. I had to phone your father. He called the ambulance and the police. They think he must have had a heart attack at the top of the stairs and fallen down.”

Her voice faded in to the background as Mark took in the words he read in the open pages of the diary laid before him. The ribbon marker had turned the pages to today’s date. There, written it what looked very much like his own handwriting, scrawled in blunt pencil as he would, were the words ‘Perter died. Heart attack.’ Then, a few lines down, as if it were a jest full afterthought from the author, ‘My condolences.’

“I’m sorry Mark. I know you and Peter had your differences but I thought I had best tell you first, before you heard it from your father.”

“Yeah, of course Mum. No, that’s terrible news. I don’t really know what to say. Are you ok? Is there anything I can do?” he replied, still staring down at the little black notebook in front of him.

As Mark hung up the phone, he read the words again. So familiar was the writing in its haphazard scrawl, that he could almost picture himself writing them. There was more writing below too. This was smaller and neater, written in block capitals, in the exact manor Mark would do himself when he wanted to be absolutely sure someone would clearly be able to read it. ‘INVEST THE £20,000 IN TIMETECH’. He read it again. It made no sense to him. He thumbed through the rest of the diary. There were various notes referring to ‘TimeTech’ but mostly the little black notebook was full of what appeared to be a lot of mathematical equations, scrawled on various pages and references to various companies share prices.

February 1st 2022

Mark hesitated. The curser hovered over the ‘confirm’ button on the screen. It was madness. He had looked in to it. TimeTech was a small company in the US set up by a young Physicist named Robert Tamworth. Mark knew nothing else about the company. He surmised no one else did either. If he went through with this, he would become their largest shareholder and probably their only investor. He looked at the little black notebook sat next to him on the desk. £20,000 was a lot of money. No one would have seen it coming. No one else knew about their past. His Uncle had left it all to him in the will. Maybe it was guilt on Peters behalf, a way to try and make amends for what happened all those years ago. Either way the coincidence was too much to ignore. The diary had predicted the controversial inheritance. Now he had to decide whether or not to take the next step.

Mark didn’t want the money anyway. He felt it was dirty, he had put the past behind him. “Fuck it!” He said out loud as he clicked ‘confirm’ and leaned heavily back into his chair. Staring out of the window, he put his hands on his head and tried to forget his past and he pondered on his future.

November 7th 2057

“This is bullshit, Robert! Five years ago, they called it humanities greatest scientific breakthrough when we teleported a single atom ten feet across the lab. Now we are on the brink of achieving the impossible and the press are calling us reckless and demanding we be shut down!” Mark looked back down at the newspaper in his hand. ‘TimeTech loses funding amid apocalypse fears.’ The headline made his blood boil. He was so close to achieving his life’s work and it was all about to be pulled out from under him, all because some jealous scientists were too scared to push the boundaries. It was completely unfounded. No one had proved anything. How could they? There was only one way to prove it, and that was to carry on and actually complete the experiment. Mark stopped pacing and took a deep breath, sighing deeply as he let it out. He turned to the video phone mounted on his wall. “Robert” he enquired, in the calmest manner he could muster.

“Yes, I’m still here Mark” replied the man on the screen.

“We have been working on this together from the start. What is your honest opinion?”

“There is a problem with the maths that suggests an anomaly may occur”

“An anomaly!” Blurted mark. “An anomaly! Are we talking a burnt-out circuit board or a big fucking blackhole hole opening up and ending time and space as we know it, because that is what some of these jokers are actually suggesting!”

“Mark, these jokers you refer to are some of the world’s leading physicists!” retorted Robert, defensively.

“They may be, but to be able to imagine something like that, they are just clutching at straws, I mean we have done it before!”

“I hate to say this Mark, it’s a real possibility, all be it a small one. What we did before was teleport a single atom. The fact that it appeared at its destination two milliseconds before we actually sent it was an incredible occurrence that may just have been dumb luck! What we are about to do is different. You want to transport a group of atoms, an object. There are theories that this can only happen through a wormhole. The larger the object, the larger the wormhole created. A large wormhole could snowball into something catastrophic.” Robert explained, putting emphasis on the word ‘could’. “We will just have to start with something small.”

“Start with something small! They are taking the lab away from us on Monday! Don’t you get it Robert, it’s over! They are shutting us down!”

“It’s Saturday, Mark.” Robert replied quietly with a wry smile.

Mark grinned back. “Yes Robert! This is why I invested in you all those years ago! I can be in the lab in half an hour.”

“I’ll see you there.” Roberts head bobed infront of the screen as he leanded in to end the call.

Mark hustled over to the safe in the corner of the office and punched in the passcode 15, 01, 22. The door swung open with a satisfying electronic clunk and Mark reached for his key card. He paused as something caught his eye. There it was, on the bottom shelf. It had been so long he had almost forgotten about it. He ran his fingertips over its worn black cover. As everything fell together in his mind, he smiled and a sense of re-insurance swelled within him. He scooped up the little black note book. Tucking it under his arm along with the newspaper, he grabbed his key card and slammed the safe shut. Spinning on his heals he headed for the door. Mark could be sure of one thing. Whatever happened today, it wasn’t going to be the end, it was just the beginning.