Part IV

Epilogue

The time for his excursion into the past had inescapably arrived and Ben was having second thoughts. “Why me? Why must I be the one to save mankind? No one has yet taken a journey like this one. That contraption has never even been tested. It will probably explode! If not maybe I'll be lucky and it won't even get off the ground so I won't have to risk my life. Then again maybe all will go as smoothly as predicted; the theory is very convincing. But either way my current life will come to an end. What to do?”

Then he recalled the calming advice he gave Alan Frost in the space station and a faint smile crossed his lips. “Who else is going to do it? Who else could do it? If the theory is hogwash or this gizmo doesn't work and I die in vain I will have lost only a few weeks to spend with my precious Jenny. Besides, I may die in an accident tomorrow even if I don't do this. But could I live with myself plagued by the nagging doubt that the plan might have succeeded? Definitely not! My decision-making process clearly indicates the pros of proceeding greatly outweigh the cons.

“If I back out now I might be responsible for the apocalyptic termination of all human life rather than its Salvation. God told Jesus His sacrifice was necessary and He would be rewarded in the Afterlife. I have only the words of fallible human scientists to put my faith in. But if they are right I too will have an afterlife in a new universe, with Jenny's presence as my reward.”

Putting aside his misgivings he entered the machine. After a brief pause he closed the door with sweating palms, dutifully set the dials as instructed, took a deep breath to still his palpitating heart and pushed the start button.

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When Ben finished riffling through the manuscript that had apparently materialized out of thin air in his apartment yesterday morning he found its contents at least remotely plausible. Furthermore, many of the equations of time travel were so mathematically imposing they could only have been derived at a future time. Although he couldn't quite grasp them at least he could find no obvious errors. In any event, since the risk analysis could be of paramount importance Ben decided to give the manuscript to Professor Richardson, fully confident he would know the best way to proceed. On the way he stopped in to see Jenny.²⁸

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²⁸ The events of this paragraph as well as all events that happen on May 3, 2297 (all of Part I) occur only in the new universe; all other events happening after May 3, 2297 (all of Part II, III and the other paragraphs of Part IV) occur only in the old universe; all events happening before May 3, 2297, whether referred to in Part I, II, III or IV, occur in both universes.