The Twentieth Century
Tuesday 4th April
Sydney, New South Wales
Australia
"You might as well know now. My daughter Sally and I are... from the future, the twenty-fourth century."
"Right," Rachel said disbelievingly, "and I suppose you came to ask my father for help to stop an invasion
by people from a parallel dimension who have found a way to come here and take over."
"Well, yes that just it. How did you know?"
"I guess I have some sort of detailed telepathic ability, maybe."
"You don't believe us, do you?"
"Dr. Ranon," Daniel interrupted, "it's just hard for us to comprehend strange things like that. It's only
fictional for us."
"In that case, I'll give you proof." He produced a small machine, which none of them had seen before.
"Computer," he said, "bring up all records of Rachel Campbell, up to and including this date. Note
difference in time warp."
After a moment, the machine displayed a long list of words. Dr. Ranon handed it to Rachel. She read it. The
screen showed all official information about her, as well as some things in further depth, presumably taken
from her actions in the future. Rachel looked up.
"I see your point," she said.
Just then there came a sound from outside, the sound of the front door opening.
"They're back," James declared.
Daniel went to the front door. Dr. Ranon and Sally followed.
James turned to Rachel.
"How did you know all that, about why they were here?"
"Simple," Rachel replied. "I read it from his pad when he put his things on the table." She smiled.
James resisted an urge to burst out laughing, even though it wasn't all that funny. "Come on," he said, "let's
go."
He went out the door, followed by his sister.
Later on, Dr. Ranon, Dr. Campbell, Mrs. Campbell, Rachel, James and Daniel were sitting around a table,
discussing the details of the attack on the Saturn, and the time warp. Jenny was off playing with Sally
somewhere.
"... and so," Dr. Ranon concluded, "I decided that the best thing to do was to use the experimental time warp
mechanism to find help. And you, Dr. Campbell -"
"Please," Dr. Campbell interrupted, "call me Nathan."
"Of course. You, Nathan, have become, or rather will become, quite an historical figure in scientific
discoveries. But let's not get into that.
"The point is, by our theories, there was an eruption in the space-time continuum, as several have been - or
will be - reported in other places. This caused an opening between this universe and another dimension,
probably where antimatter is, in which things are virtually the opposite to here. As a result, those people have
decided to come through, possibly to invade this universe, for reasons we may never comprehend. What we
must do is try to find a way to stop the invaders and close the opening before things get out of control."
"Do you know how to do this?" Dr. Campbell asked.
"Not yet, but I'm working on it. Some key events in the history of Earth created eruptions of photoneutrons,
amounting in a distortion between this dimension and the antimatter one. Now what we have to do is identify
these events and stop the eruptions, somehow."
"That might take a long time," Dr. Campbell said. "We'll need a faster way."
"We'll work that out in due time, as well. In the meantime, the next eruption is in ten days, so that may be
the easiest time to stop this."
"Okay."
"In the meantime," Mrs. Campbell said, "we'd better do something about your accommodations here."
"Oh no, Christine, that's -" began Dr. Ranon, but Christine cut him off.
"Now, now, while you're here from the future you may as well experience some of the 20th century. No
need to waste this."
"Thank you," Dr. Ranon said. "Sally, come over here." Then he added, "Oh, and Nathan, I have something
to show you tomorrow."
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