Having A Preordained Time : a story by: GF Willmetts
Tourist spots in the past get over-subscribed. You would think people would want to see Christ do some of his miracles, which the Bible says there were many, and yet most people want to see him crucified more than come back from the dead. A good thing to, or the Edicule would have been overrun by time travellers. If anything, we have created our own history. There are more people watching then the population of Calgary but, luckily, people history missed that fact. Even so, we can’t have any more people visiting there.
We can’t offer too many places for the Prophet Muhammed neither. Some key points he was clearly alone. Joining his migration, battles or sermons, then you clearly have to be of the Islamic faith. We can not take any liability by you or your family if you die in the past. If you do, ‘Qué Será, Será’ as they say. What will be, will be. You just become an unmarked historical burial in the past, assuming you get buried. We can’t even guarantee your families in the present can even find your grave.
The digital booklet does explain a lot about liabilities. Although stepping on a butterfly probably won’t affect the future as its probably preordained, equally, the same if a giant predator bites your head off before eating the rest. Early time travellers learnt the hard truths with their own trips before opening trips for tourists. The past is pre-ordained, including travellers in it. We just can’t see the effects because we don’t really recognise a tourist from a local inhabitant. Until it happens, we don’t even recognise it was you. We’re very careful to ensure nothing too advanced from the present day gets into the past after making sense of the Antikythera Mechanism. There’s probably other junk like that in the past but it has no bearing on the present and probably trashed.
You won’t be stranded in the past if we can help it. No matter how much you pay, you’ll still be given six nexus points that will allow a pick-up point to return you back to the present. If you miss any of these, we will send another team, at extra cost, to locate you. We even leave a spot where you can leave a message where you expect to be so we can go directly there which reduces the cost. Don’t stay with the message or regularly updating it. It’ll take centuries for the message to reach us and you would be in relative time. Try to blend in. Make some money so you can feed yourself but not near the message. It can take centuries to reach us even if it might seem like tomorrow when we find you. Watching evolution takes longer.
Some slots have been prepaid by expensive clients for a long time. They just need time in their schedule to visit them in. They’ll get there at the right time. You would be better to choose something significant, if that is your preference, but less likely to have too many time travellers. Say seeing Archimedes running through the street buck naked shouting eureka when he discovered water displacement. There’s a few slots there and he was one of the first unknown streakers.
There’s an additional problem we have to consider as a holiday trip. Time travel isn’t just now, but also happening in the future to the past. We have to be careful not to over-subscribe any particular destination. How did we know that? A long story cut short. One of our travellers met a future traveller and warned us off. It’s now a famous story. Surely you’ve read the book release? It’s used to an example of why we have to diversity our choices. Chances are we’ve come across over time travellers from the future without knowing it. The only reason we haven’t stopped is because of that preordained rule. It’s already happened. Whatever we do will have happened. That doesn’t mean we want to take unnecessary chances. We only give these warnings because we feel we have to and probably pre-ordained in how you pick your choices of where to go. In some respects, it would probably have been better off not knowing but I’m sure the man from the future knew he was destined to tell us.
We have had travellers who have attempted to change the past but it doesn’t work. Even in a productive way, like giving Einstein his formulas early. Its not preordained so isn’t likely to happen, no matter how you try. There is also the possibility of arrest and imprisonment in the past and delays in coming back. It does take immense time to check prison records to locate you and you might still have to complete your sentence before we can get you out. We can’t have too many escapees. Sentences in some time periods risk enforced migration and even death which we cannot retrieve you from. We do provide a list of regulations for whichever time period you go to. You are advised to learn them before you go. We cannot be held responsible for any you do not obey.
We also have to consider when you want to go. You know, of course, that the Gregorian calendar started in 1582. Anything before that for specific event has to be calculated. We have computers to do such things but don’t expect events to match dates. We’re not that clever, hence you might feel five days in the past is long enough, bearing in mind conditions, especially latrine use, but the event you wish to see generally falls into that time period.
Any questions from the floor?
‘How much local currency are we given?’
As little as possible. Yes, we have an idea what would be used but if when its dated and you have something beyond that, there will be a need to get rid of it as quickly as possible or be arrested for fraud. You do not want to spend your time there in a prison cell, sent to the colonies or other such sentences. Justice is served very quickly. The same with precious metals or jewels. You might well be considered a thief and share similar sentences without proof of ownership.
‘What about eating local foods? I would like to try the local cuisine.’
I’m also sure you would also like to experience dysentery and various reactions to local microbes your guts aren’t used to as well. Think dining in other countries only much worse. You’ll be given food supplies that resemble local foods. Stay with them for your own health. Any violation of that, short of an emergency, will violate your insurance. You’re tourist time travellers. You’re not there to choose a sunbed but we also have to ensure your safe return as much as possible. We also would rather you not bring back any microbes or infections that could infect our present time, although there will be a quarantine and inspection when you return.
‘And toilets?’
The same. Many places in the past don’t have toilet paper. Fortunately, we do transport a mini-loo with toilet paper and we advise you to use it. As with above, we don’t want us leaving anything not pre-ordained in the past. Our researchers are still looking at ancient pandemics and whether we caused them in the first place. If we haven’t done so yet, then we will feel obliged to do so or let it happen in our future. We tend to believe that this was a result of an accident than deliberate attacks in the past.
As to language, say as little as possible. It is unlikely if you know any of the local colloquiums, swear words or blasphemies that would make you stand out or offend. You’re there as observers not interferers. We have a limited lingual device you can wear in your ear for minimal translation so you can at least nod correctly. You will also heed the guide who is with you for your behaviour. It is only recently that we have been able to open the time travel device for scientists and tourists.
‘Are there any nexus portals here?’
That’s not a normal question. What do you mean by here?
‘You said there were nexus points to get back to the present from the past. I assumed there had to be some here as well.’
They aren’t portals. Just places that we know are stationary that we can home in on to bring you back. They’re stationary points we can lock in on. Mostly buildings. You can’t guarantee a tree will last that long to be that well known.
‘Yet you’ve never found any nexus portals here in the present?’
‘Why would we need them in the present? We won’t know what they would look like in the future.’
‘For people from the future wanting to get home?’
They would have been given their own set of nexus portals. They would know what would last to their time.
‘But none you could identify?’
We can’t travel into the future.
‘But someone from the future can in going into the past?’
‘But not to our present or we would have spotted them.’
‘And stop them being demolished or being moved elsewhere?’
Let’s hope you never encounter that problem.
end
© GF Willmetts 2026
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