The Time Machine

"Ahh! Are those dead bodies? INSIDE A GLASS TUBE!" I was terrorised to death when I saw those cryogenic tubes with dead bodies inside freezed. Now I started to understand why this part of sub-levels 2 is off limits to anyone else. There was a room with a fingerprint reader guarding it. I pressed the device and one man in the tube

was lying down with the glass shattered. I tried taking his fingerprint on a glass piece and then switched back to the present. I put the glass on the reader, and VOILA! I was inside the sub-level 2A(ii). There were only file cabinets there and a man ahead I thought I would never see now, time 8:25, the same time I was called by Mr. Reeves.

"Frank? What are you doing here? I thought you quit!" "...Ah, Joe! Yeah...I did quit. I was just, you know packing up some stuff". "They told me you already quit. Did...you forgot something?" "...Y-yes! I did. Look, Joe I'm actually a little disturbed right now, so we'll talk about all of this some time later while drinking some beer" and he went back to packing the stuffs and some files from the cabinet. I also gave him the time he needed and went back to lab 2B when I heard from the outside...those same words. "Your present self? What do you mean?" I quickly understood who itwas in the other room. I quickly called the security down here and went inside. Frank was gone from there. There was a chemical lab in front of me so I went inside, meeting Dr. Standford reading a prescription of some type. "There you are! Why the hell you haven't done anything about the leak yet?" I think he confused me with Frank at that time. "The leak...?" "Oh, common I am talking about the leak in the cryogenic labs. Do something about it or I'll have the HR sign your resignation!" I stared at him in visible confusion. "Ok... I'm sorry I'm getting agitated. Look the matter is that I'm on my third pot lf coffee right now and I could really have something to eat. I'm on a fruit diet so the matter is you find me a fruit...maybe - an apple. Yes, an apple that's THE TICKET! I'll go find an apple, you take care of the lab and he went outside. There was a concentrated glass beaker of hydrofluoride acid, the perfect thing to destroy any computer. As I made it out to lab 2B again, I saw the other past Joe taken away by the security guys. I quickly made my way towards the lab 2A(i) where I found Dr. Lambert earlier. There it was in front of me...the time machine's working prototype and the supercomputer - The Polaris 9 Lodestar, the root cause of all of the problems. In front of me was an empty room where Dr. Lambert died earlier while giving me the device. I went inside and saw his body in a corner lying there all tired and motionless.

"Poor Dr. Lambert..." "Keep your voice down" he squeaked in a low voice maybe because of pain. "You... You're alive? "Well, *cough* for a little long at least. I *cough* needed, to fake *cough* my death. You detailed this exact scenario to me forty years ago, remember? *cough* Of course you do. To you it was a mere day ago. The earlier version of *cough* you had to see me die so as to *cough* not alter the course of action that brought you to my doorstep in the first place..." "So... that means you're not dying?" "Oh... *cough* I'm dying, all right. Despite my better judgement I attempted to... circumvent getting shot by taking a different route to the labs than originally planned. I foolishly believed I would *cough* bend the rules and laws of cause and effect..." Before he could even finish his sentence, we felt the room shaking and a loud sound. I ran outside and saw that prototype missing. "No. No-no-NO! The time machine is gone! This wasn't supposed to happen! What are you gonna do now, Joe? Think... Think... Think!" "What happened, Joe *cough*?" "Its...gone! Everything's over, sir..." "Calm down! Destroy the dataprocessor, the research data of the time machine. You can still make things right *coughs*!"

I poured the entire acid on the 'Polaris 9 Lodestar' and the machine started to melt.

"Did you destroy the research data, as I *coughs* asked?" The computer? Yes, sir. Yes, I did". "Thank god! Now there's just one last matter to attend to. I need you to stop the last time-pilot. He is our last point of trouble because if he returns and spreads the virus, everything will go waste!" Give me that device and read me the numbers in the Polaris from outside".

"4-2-9-5-4-1-7-2-5" "...Are... Are you sure that's correct?" "I'm sure!" "Ok...I have set the device and reconfigured it to send you to the destination the time machine went. Here, take the device *coughs*. Go end all of this Joseph. One last thing... *coughs*

You can never... nev..." "Doctor Lambert... Sir? Are you..." I stopped midway. He was not breathing. There's only one thing to do now, and it all comes down to this. That green light was pulsating even more now and as soon as I pressed the button, the machine buzzed hard and the pulsating in it stopped... It stopped for ever!