Worm Holes By Pete Donald
The thing about time travel is that there are so many problems attached to it.
There is of course the whole paradox pickle, you stand on a butterfly and your grandmother turns out to be left handed. Then there is the meeting yourself and two same things occupying the same space, which is impossible. I mean you can’t be in the exact same place as you, can you? Surely you would bounce off yourself. At the end of the day, the next day begins. There is no such thing as time travel.
Wrong! So very wrong!
My story is one of an average rabbit who was going about his business when he stumbled across time travel, and it all has to do with worm holes. Not those imaginary space corridors, but actual worm holes, the ones in the ground, made by worms. And yes I did say I am a rabbit.
If this story gets confusing at times then you are not alone. I lived through this whole mess and even I struggle to remember how things happened, but for ease of following I will start from when I woke up this morning with a stinking hangover. The sort of hangover you get from too many carrots or mixing your vegetables. It was so bad that I couldn’t even remember where I had been to get that way.
I decided to clear my head with a hop across the meadow to check out the local news. I met with a bunch of guys just milling around a fresh dandelion patch. There was a buzz amongst them because last night there had been a spectacular meteorite shower. They kept going on about how the ‘colours of the rainbow had filled the sky’ and that only a fool would have missed this ‘once in a lifetime experience’.
They insisted on repeating the last bit so much that I took the huff and stomped off.
Muttering and moaning to myself and not watching where I was going I stubbed my paw against something in the long grass. Giving out a yelp I grabbed my foot, hopping around in pain. But as no one can tell the difference between a general rabbit hop, and a rabbit hopping about in agony, nobody took any notice. Once I had calmed down I inspected my paw and then I inspected the ground. Parting the grass I revealed a stone, not any common or garden stone, but one that was perfectly round and big enough to fit in the palm of my paw.
Oh and it was green and it glowed.
Gingerly I picked it up and stood staring at the strange piece of rock, from suddenly, out of no-where when I heard a ‘psst’.
I looked around but couldn’t see anyone.
Then again, and again ‘Pssst’, ‘Psssssssssst’.
Looking down I saw a worm. He was beckoning me to come closer. I shuffled down on all fours until I had a worms eye view.
“Great, you have found the meteorite” said the worm.
“What meteorite? Is this a meteorite? How do you know it’s a meteorite? Wait a minute have you been watching me?”
“That’s a lot of questions and to get the answers you will have to come with me.”
I didn’t even get the chance to discuss the matter when the worm sped off. It was driving some form of motorised cart but how a creature with no arms steered or operated the thing was beyond me. I had to scramble to keep up but then halted when the worm navigated its way down a large hole. Being a rabbit I didn’t have any problems with holes but hesitated, there was something familiar about this hole in the ground. I know you would think all holes looked the same, but the shape, the slope, even the darkness...................I had seen this hole before and had a bad feeling.
I could hear the engine of the worm’s cart getting quieter and realising I wasn’t following, it turned around, the noise increasing until the worm driven cart stopped at the hole entrance.
“Don’t be shy. You are expected.” The worm motioned me onwards, and against my better judgement I followed.
Further into the hole there was a hive of worm activity. I had never seen so many worms, all working together, with some complex looking machinery the focal point of their endeavours. Just how did these limbless animals build a thing like that and what on earth was it for?
My worm guide slithered off its cart and slide across to another worm, one that looked like no other worm I had ever seen before. This worm had a mop of white hair that made him look like an animated cotton bud.
“Ah we meet again”
“I think I would have remembered if I had seen someone like you.”
“Ah yes the disruptive memory. That would be one of the side effects we talked about, along with the headache and nausea. But enough small talk, you have the meteorite?”
“What meteorite? Who told you I had a meteorite?”
“Well you did of course. You told us the exact time and date, that was why we were waiting for you.”
I looked straight at the worm to see if there was any hint of a smile that would indicate it was joking. Then I remembered worms don’t smile.
In my closed paw I could feel the stone. It was pulsing as if it was alive. The eerie green glow escaped between my claws
“Yes, you do have it.” The worm appeared to be overjoyed but it was difficult to be sure. “Please, please,” it beckoned me over towards one of the flashing machines, one that appeared to have a small tray exactly the same shape as the thing in my paw.
“Please place it on the tray.”
I stood with the stone in the palm of my paw and pondered. What was going on here? I needed a moment to think. I thought about washing my ears but there is a time and place even for that.
“Come come this is no time to have the cold rabbit’s feet.”
“Just hold on a moment. No hairy worm is giving me orders. I want some answers first.” I closed my paw tightly around the rock making a fist like I was ready for a fight.
About a dozen worms motioned towards me and I took a step back.
“No, leave him be” ordered the old worm. “First let me introduce myself, again. I am professor Vormstrum and we, yes you and me, discovered time travel.”
It said this as if commenting on the weather.
“Pah, pull the other one” I replied “what sort of mug do you take me for?”
“But it is true, for do you not have the evidence right there in your paw. That my dear friend is a rare alien mineral, which focuses the rays from the spectrum, splitting light into its fastest and slowest components. We worms have built a series of concentric tunnels that enables light to enter from the surface through a number of worm holes, to be concentrated into a precise ray of light. After some complicated equations, courtesy of me, we use the fastest light in conjunction with your wonderful devise to transport a thing or a person to any point in space and time. The rest is easy. But enough of the science, you are the proof it works. You told us we needed someone with fur to dampen the effects of time travel. Unfortunately we are not blessed with fur.”
“You seem to have a full head of hair” I pointed out to the professors flowing locks.
“This thing is a wig. It lends me some importance and people say it reminds them of other famous scientists.”
“Oh! So how come I don’t remember meeting you before?”
“Because one of the side-effects of time travel is that some of your memories are disrupted when you go through a time stream. I just told you that five minutes ago.”
“Oh yeah you did. So why time travel?” I asked, my head spinning with words that I was frantically trying to arrange into sentences.
“Why do some creatures migrate thousands of miles, or live at the bottom of the ocean, why come to the surface when a seagull dances? I have no reason other than I can and do, call it instinct. But think of the possibilities for wormkind oh and of course rabbitkind too”
I didn’t like the way the conversation was going. There and then I decided I would make a stand. “You know what; I like my life as it” I announced.
Professor Vormstrum became annoyed, “unfortunately you have to go back in time to wake up with the bad head, so you decide to go for the stroll, so you stumble across the meteorite that you possess now or else it will not have happened!”
“That doesn’t make sense. I have the thing in my hand here!”
“Yes and we must use it to send you back to retrieve it.”
“But If I don’t go back then none of this will have happened.”
“However we know you do use the machine again, because we met you five years ago when you provided us with the plans how to build this thing. You told us to not make contact you until today and that we should give you this letter.”
I opened the sealed envelope. It contained a note in my hand writing. It read “Leave now.”
“What does it say?”
I quickly popped the piece of paper in my mouth and swallowed it. “That’s between me and err me. I’ve had enough of this, I’m out of here.”
“You fool you don’t know what you are doing. We have tampered with nature and you can’t walk away.”
“Just watch me. I’m sure I can sell this piece of space rock for some green stuff. I don’t need to get mixed up with a bunch of nutters like you lot.”
I turned my back on the whole bizarre scene happy to close this weird chapter. The main problem was going to find someone was who would take this strange stone in exchange for a bit cabbage.
As I made my way out the hole the sun was high in the sky and I had to shield my eyes from the glare. I suddenly saw a shadowy figure appear in front of me. I blinked and tried to focus, it looked like a rabbit. “You’re never going to believe what I have seen down there” I said.
“Oh but I do believe it,” came the reply, “I shouldn’t have left the note, but I’m not going to let me spend the next 6 months trying to offload that thing when it actually does work.”
As my eyes became accustomed to the light I found I was standing in front of myself, but as I had used a mirror before it didn’t freak me out like it should have done.
I put an arm around my shoulder and smiled at me.
“It eventually dawned on me that if we were able to design a time machine” I said to me, “then we must, eventually, be pretty smart, so just think what two of us could accomplish.”
I nodded to myself and the two of me turned around and hopped back down the tunnel.
“By the way stop holding that thing in your paw, it leaves a nasty mark”
Copyright Pete Donald 2011
http://www.feedbooks.com/userbook/23603/worm-holes for free download to iPhone / Kindle etc
There is of course the whole paradox pickle, you stand on a butterfly and your grandmother turns out to be left handed. Then there is the meeting yourself and two same things occupying the same space, which is impossible. I mean you can’t be in the exact same place as you, can you? Surely you would bounce off yourself. At the end of the day, the next day begins. There is no such thing as time travel.
Wrong! So very wrong!
My story is one of an average rabbit who was going about his business when he stumbled across time travel, and it all has to do with worm holes. Not those imaginary space corridors, but actual worm holes, the ones in the ground, made by worms. And yes I did say I am a rabbit.
If this story gets confusing at times then you are not alone. I lived through this whole mess and even I struggle to remember how things happened, but for ease of following I will start from when I woke up this morning with a stinking hangover. The sort of hangover you get from too many carrots or mixing your vegetables. It was so bad that I couldn’t even remember where I had been to get that way.
I decided to clear my head with a hop across the meadow to check out the local news. I met with a bunch of guys just milling around a fresh dandelion patch. There was a buzz amongst them because last night there had been a spectacular meteorite shower. They kept going on about how the ‘colours of the rainbow had filled the sky’ and that only a fool would have missed this ‘once in a lifetime experience’.
They insisted on repeating the last bit so much that I took the huff and stomped off.
Muttering and moaning to myself and not watching where I was going I stubbed my paw against something in the long grass. Giving out a yelp I grabbed my foot, hopping around in pain. But as no one can tell the difference between a general rabbit hop, and a rabbit hopping about in agony, nobody took any notice. Once I had calmed down I inspected my paw and then I inspected the ground. Parting the grass I revealed a stone, not any common or garden stone, but one that was perfectly round and big enough to fit in the palm of my paw.
Oh and it was green and it glowed.
Gingerly I picked it up and stood staring at the strange piece of rock, from suddenly, out of no-where when I heard a ‘psst’.
I looked around but couldn’t see anyone.
Then again, and again ‘Pssst’, ‘Psssssssssst’.
Looking down I saw a worm. He was beckoning me to come closer. I shuffled down on all fours until I had a worms eye view.
“Great, you have found the meteorite” said the worm.
“What meteorite? Is this a meteorite? How do you know it’s a meteorite? Wait a minute have you been watching me?”
“That’s a lot of questions and to get the answers you will have to come with me.”
I didn’t even get the chance to discuss the matter when the worm sped off. It was driving some form of motorised cart but how a creature with no arms steered or operated the thing was beyond me. I had to scramble to keep up but then halted when the worm navigated its way down a large hole. Being a rabbit I didn’t have any problems with holes but hesitated, there was something familiar about this hole in the ground. I know you would think all holes looked the same, but the shape, the slope, even the darkness...................I had seen this hole before and had a bad feeling.
I could hear the engine of the worm’s cart getting quieter and realising I wasn’t following, it turned around, the noise increasing until the worm driven cart stopped at the hole entrance.
“Don’t be shy. You are expected.” The worm motioned me onwards, and against my better judgement I followed.
Further into the hole there was a hive of worm activity. I had never seen so many worms, all working together, with some complex looking machinery the focal point of their endeavours. Just how did these limbless animals build a thing like that and what on earth was it for?
My worm guide slithered off its cart and slide across to another worm, one that looked like no other worm I had ever seen before. This worm had a mop of white hair that made him look like an animated cotton bud.
“Ah we meet again”
“I think I would have remembered if I had seen someone like you.”
“Ah yes the disruptive memory. That would be one of the side effects we talked about, along with the headache and nausea. But enough small talk, you have the meteorite?”
“What meteorite? Who told you I had a meteorite?”
“Well you did of course. You told us the exact time and date, that was why we were waiting for you.”
I looked straight at the worm to see if there was any hint of a smile that would indicate it was joking. Then I remembered worms don’t smile.
In my closed paw I could feel the stone. It was pulsing as if it was alive. The eerie green glow escaped between my claws
“Yes, you do have it.” The worm appeared to be overjoyed but it was difficult to be sure. “Please, please,” it beckoned me over towards one of the flashing machines, one that appeared to have a small tray exactly the same shape as the thing in my paw.
“Please place it on the tray.”
I stood with the stone in the palm of my paw and pondered. What was going on here? I needed a moment to think. I thought about washing my ears but there is a time and place even for that.
“Come come this is no time to have the cold rabbit’s feet.”
“Just hold on a moment. No hairy worm is giving me orders. I want some answers first.” I closed my paw tightly around the rock making a fist like I was ready for a fight.
About a dozen worms motioned towards me and I took a step back.
“No, leave him be” ordered the old worm. “First let me introduce myself, again. I am professor Vormstrum and we, yes you and me, discovered time travel.”
It said this as if commenting on the weather.
“Pah, pull the other one” I replied “what sort of mug do you take me for?”
“But it is true, for do you not have the evidence right there in your paw. That my dear friend is a rare alien mineral, which focuses the rays from the spectrum, splitting light into its fastest and slowest components. We worms have built a series of concentric tunnels that enables light to enter from the surface through a number of worm holes, to be concentrated into a precise ray of light. After some complicated equations, courtesy of me, we use the fastest light in conjunction with your wonderful devise to transport a thing or a person to any point in space and time. The rest is easy. But enough of the science, you are the proof it works. You told us we needed someone with fur to dampen the effects of time travel. Unfortunately we are not blessed with fur.”
“You seem to have a full head of hair” I pointed out to the professors flowing locks.
“This thing is a wig. It lends me some importance and people say it reminds them of other famous scientists.”
“Oh! So how come I don’t remember meeting you before?”
“Because one of the side-effects of time travel is that some of your memories are disrupted when you go through a time stream. I just told you that five minutes ago.”
“Oh yeah you did. So why time travel?” I asked, my head spinning with words that I was frantically trying to arrange into sentences.
“Why do some creatures migrate thousands of miles, or live at the bottom of the ocean, why come to the surface when a seagull dances? I have no reason other than I can and do, call it instinct. But think of the possibilities for wormkind oh and of course rabbitkind too”
I didn’t like the way the conversation was going. There and then I decided I would make a stand. “You know what; I like my life as it” I announced.
Professor Vormstrum became annoyed, “unfortunately you have to go back in time to wake up with the bad head, so you decide to go for the stroll, so you stumble across the meteorite that you possess now or else it will not have happened!”
“That doesn’t make sense. I have the thing in my hand here!”
“Yes and we must use it to send you back to retrieve it.”
“But If I don’t go back then none of this will have happened.”
“However we know you do use the machine again, because we met you five years ago when you provided us with the plans how to build this thing. You told us to not make contact you until today and that we should give you this letter.”
I opened the sealed envelope. It contained a note in my hand writing. It read “Leave now.”
“What does it say?”
I quickly popped the piece of paper in my mouth and swallowed it. “That’s between me and err me. I’ve had enough of this, I’m out of here.”
“You fool you don’t know what you are doing. We have tampered with nature and you can’t walk away.”
“Just watch me. I’m sure I can sell this piece of space rock for some green stuff. I don’t need to get mixed up with a bunch of nutters like you lot.”
I turned my back on the whole bizarre scene happy to close this weird chapter. The main problem was going to find someone was who would take this strange stone in exchange for a bit cabbage.
As I made my way out the hole the sun was high in the sky and I had to shield my eyes from the glare. I suddenly saw a shadowy figure appear in front of me. I blinked and tried to focus, it looked like a rabbit. “You’re never going to believe what I have seen down there” I said.
“Oh but I do believe it,” came the reply, “I shouldn’t have left the note, but I’m not going to let me spend the next 6 months trying to offload that thing when it actually does work.”
As my eyes became accustomed to the light I found I was standing in front of myself, but as I had used a mirror before it didn’t freak me out like it should have done.
I put an arm around my shoulder and smiled at me.
“It eventually dawned on me that if we were able to design a time machine” I said to me, “then we must, eventually, be pretty smart, so just think what two of us could accomplish.”
I nodded to myself and the two of me turned around and hopped back down the tunnel.
“By the way stop holding that thing in your paw, it leaves a nasty mark”
Copyright Pete Donald 2011
http://www.feedbooks.com/userbook/23603/worm-holes for free download to iPhone / Kindle etc