A Mistaken Sign

Acclaimed scientist, researcher, and self-proclaimed mad genius, Professor Arthur von Turr was delivering his Noble Prize acceptance speech in his head when he made the most influential mistake in the history of mankind. If he had been focused on what he was doing, he would never have made such a simple, yet fatal error. He was so absorbed in his fantasy, that the three times he revised his work, he noticed nothing out of place. If there had been someone else that day, they might have said something. But no one knew where he was, or what he was working on.

The Khronos Project was the world leaders’ ultimate secret, the result of years of research and joined resources, all in the name of science, progress, and power. After almost a decade, it was ready, and Arthur would become the first human to travel through time. As the brains behind the project, he had insisted, to no one’s surprise, on having the honor of making the first trip himself. A small jump, obviously, only 5 years into the future. Professor von Turr had quickly deduced that traveling to the past would be much more difficult, if not impossible, and would have more complex consequences. Arthur knew there were risks, but his need to be remembered and to have his genius recognized by the world were much more important to him.

At 11:42 pm, Arthur pressed a single button on the control board of his secret bunker, deep underground. His laboratory had been built as close to the Earth’s core as possible, beneath an island hidden from the rest of the world. It was a little excessive, in Arthur’s opinion, but he quietly enjoyed the dramatism. He took a deep breath, mumbled a few grand words, and let go of the button.

When he woke up, everything was a whirlwind of lights and sounds. In the background, an alarm was sounding a message. The bunker was flooded with blue light. His head thumped and felt heavy. Slowly, his vision returned to normal, and shortly after he could make sense of the words buzzing in a loop.

“Code 22B,” said a neutral, monotonous voice. “Code 22B. Security systems disabled.” The message was repeated several times before Arthur’s mind processed its meaning. “Code 22B,” the voice confirmed to the professor’s fears. “Code 22B. All systems unavailable.”

He forced his mind to clear, and his body ached with every movement. All blue codes were relatively minor threats, but by his calculations and predictions, his body should never have been this disoriented. It doesn’t matter, he thought, I did it. It had worked, and anytime now a medical team would help him to the surface, and he would be received as a hero and genius.

He looked at the screen and froze. There were six numbers in the center of the display, but one of them was wrong: 12.12.2029.

“No. No, no.” said the mad genius. “That’s not…” The sentence hung in the air as he finally remembered. Code 22B: Time mapping not convergent. Suddenly there was a loud explosion behind him, and the force of the blast sent him flying over the control board. A group of armed silhouettes stormed into the room. They all wore masks and heavy, dark protection uniforms. One of them started barking orders, and the rest carried them out like a hive.

Arthur felt one of them pick him up and bend him over a table. He started to scream something to him. Maybe it had been a question. But his ears were ringing and he didn’t understand. Some more orders were yelled, they cuffed the time traveler, and carried him out of the bunker and up to the surface. Just as the exterior steel doors were opened, and Arthur von Turr braced himself for an entrance he had never expected, one of the soldiers put a bag over his head. Before he could protest, he felt a sharp pain at the base of his head, and everything went black.

Out of the many, many scenarios Arthur had imagined through the long years of the Khronos Project, he had never expected to find himself in a cell. Greeting all-important world leaders, sure. Signing a multi-billion-dollar contract with the United Nations, maybe. He might have imagined himself, even if he would never admit it, receiving an entire country as a gift for saving mankind. But never did he dare imagine he would be in his current situation.

In a matter of hours, he had gone from shaking hands with a president to being cuffed, shoved, kicked, hit, and dragged around to a dark cell somewhere. He had expected a grand welcome, but no one had addressed him as anything but “traitor”.

The door to his cell opened, and a tall, well-dressed man walked through. He stood there for a minute in silence. When Arthur made no sign to humor him with demands or questions, he turned his back and signaled him to follow. He did.

After a short walk through a corridor, the man entered another room and held the door open for him. Inside, there was just a table with two chairs, in the middle of a circular room. Arthur entered, and took the one facing the door. The well-dressed man took the other one.

“Professor Arthur von Turr,” said the man. “It is an honor to meet you.”

“Where am I?” demanded Arthur.

“Well, the real question…”

“NO! Don’t you dare say that damn cliché. I know perfectly well when we are. Where am I and why am I being kept here?”

The man in front of him frowned. He clearly had been looking forward to making that pun. “No sense of humor. I see the stories were accurate. Fine, you are in the Central Security Division Building of New Capital, in Neutral Land,” said the man in front of the time traveler, with a wide, terrible smile.

Arthur was speechless. If there was one thing he could not stand, it was being made fun of. “What? Who the hell do you think you are?” he asked. “I just made the impossible happen. I created a machine that can travel forward in time! I should be in the middle of a worldwide celebration. And instead, I have to listen to some…”

He never finished his sentence. At some point during his rambling, the walls of the room had cleared and were now transparent. Beyond was a city, like one he had never seen. All around rose skyscrapers and vehicles flew through different levels in the city. It was night, but there was so much light he could see perfectly. It looked like paradise. Only then did he notice that the view was unobstructed. They were no longer in a building but rather suspended in the middle of the city.

“Maybe I should have said we were in the Central Security Division Building. Right now we are on our way to the Rodemann Corporation’s main building. And I,” said the mysterious man, standing up and walking to his side. “I am Michael Rodemann.” The professor was stunned by the view.

“I didn’t think the world would change so much in just a few years. It was just…” he stopped talking, but it was too late. He had taken the bait.

“But it was more than you planned, wasn’t it? 4 years more,” said Rodemann.

“A small miscalculation. There was probably a fluctuation in the solar…”

“You made a mistake,” interrupted Rodemann. “A small one, true. But a really dumb one too. You misplaced a sign in your equation.” He laughed, and Arthur felt anger inside him. He is lying. I don’t make mistakes. He won’t get inside my head, he thought.

“4 years don’t make a difference. A small price to pay for what I created, for what it will do for humankind.”

Rodemann laughed again. “On that, we agree. But not for the reasons you think. You must be thinking I have been lying, but everything I have said has been the truth.”

Arthur did not believe that. But Rodemann was undoubtedly brilliant, even if he was playing with him. He had to figure out what was going on.

They let silence sink around them, as they both admired the view. Arthur wanted the view to be some sort of simulation or some sort of movie. But deep down he knew it was too real, too erratic, and detailed. He decided that he should play along until he had a plan.

“What happened?” he asked. “I was supposed to be received…” he hesitated, thinking his word carefully, “very differently.”

“With a ceremony, you mean. With fireworks, and speeches, and handshakes form world leaders. Maybe even an award. Yes, I know what you expected.”

“Not many people knew of my project. The location and purpose of…”

“It was classified, I know.” interrupted the businessman.

The professor was now annoyed. How dare he interrupt him? Even worse, he was right. But this man was not supposed to know this much. “I will not ask again,” he said, not bothering to hide his anger.

“I thought you were supposed to be a genius,” he answered. “The world changed much very quickly. You were supposed to arrive on December 12th of the year 2025. Five years after activating the Khronos Project. Yes, yes, I know,” he added when he saw the professor’s surprise, “it was all top secret. But here is the thing, there was a ceremony. There was a welcoming party. Every president, prime minister, king, queen, and religious leader was present. It was an event like the world had never seen. They didn’t know exactly why, but they understood it would change the world.” He made a pause, making sure he had van Turr’s full attention. He did. “You killed them all.”

Arthur laughed. Now he had gone too far. “This is ridiculous. Who came up with this sick joke? Take me back to my laboratory immediately!”

Rodemann was facing him, not avoiding the professor’s vicious stare.

“You. Killed. Them. All.” He spoke every word harshly. His voice was severe, but not reproaching. “That is the truth. As I said before, you made a mistake. Everyone had gathered on the surface of that secretive island of yours, and just when you were supposed to return, well… everyone was disintegrated. And not just them. There were random replicas all over the world.”

“To you, it was just a matter of arriving four years later than planned, but to everyone else, it was apocalyptic. Humanity was left leaderless overnight, and that chaos, in turn, brought changes.”

“In a way, I must thank you,” he continued, deaf to the other’s confused mumbling. “It was then that the big corporations and companies took over from local governments. Now, only four years after that tragedy, the world is better than ever. We have constructed a utopia for everyone… thanks to you, professor. You wanted to save humanity. And so you did, but there are consequences to every action, and yours left a wave of destruction and death that cannot be ignored.”

The door opened behind them. A group of soldiers entered the room and surrounded Arthur. He couldn’t escape.

“We are the saviors of this new world, professor van Turr. We are the ones that picked up the pieces and made something better.” His tone had changed, and his voice was louder. Arthur realized he was not talking to him, but rather to the others present and whoever else might be hearing. “Your ambition and ego led us to the darkest moment in human history. But you will not run from justice any further. Your legacy of madness and death ends here. Take him away.”

Arthur screamed, cursed, kicked, and fought. But in the end, he was dragged out of the room, and into a long hallway and out of a building. Outside was a packed crowd of people, all of them angry. In front of the building were three heavy, black vehicles, with more soldiers around them. He knew they were here for him. In the distance, he saw his face projected into several of the giant screens on the side of the city’s buildings. Even in the distance, he could read the headline: MAD SCIENTIST CAUGHT.