Page 38 of Reversal of Fate

“It’s not working,” she said.

“It’s genetically coded. It only works on its owner, or when it’s connected to a master cradle, like when it needs to be upgraded, or if maintenance needs to be performed.” He reached for her wrist again and took the device from it, then placed it back on his own wrist, and tapped it again.

Just like before, a hologram appeared and hovered over his arm.

“Are you with me so far?” he asked and looked into her eyes.

She had to admit that the technology was compelling and seemed to support his claims. “So far, yes. But time travel? I don’t know.” It seemed too fantastical. Could technology really have advanced that far in sixty years that time travel was possible?

“I know it’s a hard concept to grasp, but you know yourself that ever since Albert Einstein published his theory of relativity in 1905, scientists have played with the idea that time could be bent.”

“True, but nobody has gotten very far to create any practical applications from this theory,” she replied.

He smiled. “Again, not by 2025. But our scientists made it possible. And that brings me to why I’m here. Why I came to find you.”

She waited with bated breath, her pulse racing.

“In 2025, a virus is spreading around the world. It comes from the South American continent. The first Americans have already been infected. Their cruise ship already docked in Long Beach.”

Julie let out a tiny breath. She remembered what Belle had mentioned. “The cruise ship. But I thought that was just the usual outbreaks they get on cruise ships, you know, like the Norovirus, when everybody pukes their guts out.”

Carter shook his head. “I’m afraid it wasn’t the Norovirus. It’s something nobody has seen before. The virus will kill millions all over the world, and those who survive it will count themselves lucky. But without them knowing, the virus embedded itself in human DNA, mutating many times over. The mutation remained undetected for decades, but it caused more and more women to become infertile, while having no effect on men. By the time our scientists figured out the problem, the number of women capable of conceiving and giving birth to a child dwindled to less than one percent worldwide.” He cast a sad look past her as if thinking of personal loss. “In 2085, the year I come from, humanity is going extinct. My two sisters will never have children.”

Julie swallowed hard. “If what you’re saying is true… then I don’t understand… I mean, if your scientists figured out time travel, surely they can figure out how to eradicate the gene mutation that causes infertility.”

“They tried. They developed a vaccine which works in theory, but only on the few remaining people without the mutation. Besides, with the virus evolving constantly, the vaccine has to change constantly too. It’s a constant race against time. And unfortunately, the scientists have been unable to create a treatment. The virus has gotten smarter than our scientists. There’s only one thing that will save our world from extinction: to go back to before the virus spread. To go back to 2025.”

“To do what?” she asked, though she had a vague idea of what his answer might be. Carter had come to eradicate the virus with their vaccine. Where Julie fit into this, was unclear.

“To bring back women before they get infected with the virus.” He looked straight at her. “Women like you. You’ll be contracting the virus by October 2nd and fall into a coma on October 6th. You’ll never wake up from it.”

Julie felt as if somebody had taken all the air from her lungs. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, couldn’t move. “No.” She felt a sob work its way up her throat. “That can’t be. You must be wrong.”

Carter moved his arm to bring the holocom closer, then scrolled so fast her eyes could barely follow, until he pulled up several files.

“This is your hospital record. UCLA Medical Center.”

Her eyes flew over the document, confirming what he’d said. “They could be false. Anybody can forge documents these days.”

He scrolled to the next document, an obituary from the newspaper in her home town. There was her photo, together with her date of birth and death, and a short text about her life.

She kept shaking her head. “No. No.”

Carter put his hand on hers and squeezed it. “Please believe me. I’m not here to hurt you. I’m here to bring you back to the future with me. So you can have a full life. And help us repopulate the world.”

“But, but…” Too many things were swirling around in her head. Did she believe him? She still wasn’t sure. Too many questions remained unanswered. “But can’t you just let us have the vaccine, and then this won’t happen?”

“That’s not an option.”

“But then this virus won’t have a chance, and your world is saved too.”

“We can’t do that. If we change something in 2025, the 2085 I’ll be returning to won’t be the same. We’re not allowed to change the past, because it will change the future. That’s why you’re one of the women who were selected. Your death means that you wouldn’t have had a chance to contribute something that may have altered the future had you lived. No children, no professional achievement, no inventions that you could have made. Taking you to 2085 will have the same effect as your death by the virus.”

Her death. She couldn’t get past those words. They were so final, so inevitable. But were they true?

“I want to believe you, I do, but I don’t understand all this. I can’t…” She remembered something. “If all this is true, if you know so much about me, then why did you have to break into my room and search it? That doesn’t make sense.” She motioned to the holocom. “This thing, if it’s real, should have told you everything you needed to know.”

There was a regretful look on his face. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do it, but I had no choice. Something went wrong during my time jump. I should have arrived six months ago so I would have had time to get to know you, before springing all this on you. But I arrived only a few days ago and had to act fast. I’d studied the records of where you were six months ago. But all that information was useless. You’d moved, and it took me a day to find you. And then you weren’t here. I needed to make contact, so I broke in and searched your room in the hope of finding a clue about where you went. I saw your social media post about going to a party. That’s why I showed up there.”

It made sense the way he was explaining it. But one thing was missing. “My social media post never mentioned which party I was going to. Do you know how many fraternity parties there are on any given Friday night? You couldn’t have found me by looking at my social media.”

Carter remained silent, but something was going on in his head. She could see it. She could see his mind working. He was keeping something from her.

“Tell me the truth! How did you find me?” she urged him.

“I wish you wouldn’t ask me that.”

“Why? Because you haven’t come up with a good answer yet?” She shook her head. “If you can’t answer this then I have to assume that everything you told me is a lie.”

Carter blinked his eyes shut and filled his lungs with air. Then he looked at her again. “I didn’t want to show you this. But…” He let the sentence hang there, then scrolled to another document.

Julie leaned closer to read it. It was a police report dated… today? She read on. With every line, her mouth turned drier, and her pulse began to race. She gasped and slammed her hand over her mouth. And there on the last line was her signature. She was the person who’d filed a police report this morning to report a rape that had occurred at the fraternity party the night before. The perpetrator’s name was Todd Stirling.

Carter collapsed the holocom. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want you to have to see this. When I didn’t find anything that gave me a hint about which fraternity the party was at, I looked at all the information I was given about you. I found the report. That’s how I knew where you were. That’s why I knew that Todd had tried to drug you.”

He put his arm around her, and at the contact, Julie couldn’t hold the tears back any longer. She let them flow freely, while Carter drew her into an embrace, and gently stroked his hand over her head as if consoling a child.

She didn’t need any more proof now. After being attacked by Todd and his friend, she knew what they were capable of. What her fate would have been. And who had saved her from it. Twice. Carter. He’d earned her full trust.