How Tomorrow Stole The Future

He didn’t know why he flipped the switch, but he was sure it had something to do with the fact he was in an acausal world. If time still existed, Sam Spivack might have said, “It was my job. I had to do something. Didn’t I?”

Sam had a unique privilege; he held the one master of four infinitely powerful devices that gave him the ability, and the permission, to view any moment in time from the past, the present, or the future. It was his job to ensure the integrity of the timeline, at any cost; even from himself.

“The time raiders are disrupting the past. History is vanishing and we are the only ones seeing it happen,” he had screamed into the monitor at his future-self. “I must stop them!”

“I can’t let you do that,” said future-Sam, his arm reaching off-screen, audibly pushing buttons. “I gave them the device. I’m creating the anticausal timeline. The future will win.”

As claxons began wailing, Sam said, “No, you won’t.”

Without further thought, he turned off Time.

_____

This story was originally posted on Ficly.com as part the “Fill In The Blanks First Sentence” challenge.  Link to the original post:

http://ficly.com/stories/27329

Playing with time is an intriguing fictive device I am very interested in exploring.  I might expand this one into a longer story on Protagonize, or perhaps for submission to an online zine.

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