October 2024

New Short Story

This month I’m changing it up and sharing a short story I wrote titled “Unofficial Transcript.” It’s a sci-fi story written as a conversation between a 9-1-1 operator and a caller. I got the idea to write in the audio transcript format after reading a news story about a crime and the 9-1-1 call involved. It was as simple as that, the idea of a back-n-forth between two people over the phone got my brain thinking about how to construct a story with those restrictions. An experiment, you might say. As an experiment, I like how it turned out.

UNOFFICIAL TRANSCRIPT

NEW BEDFORD EMERGENCY SERVICES - June 26 2024 - 10:22:38 PM

(04:58 Length)

911: Nine-one-one, what is your emergency?

Caller: Hello, can you hear me?

911: I can hear you, sir. Where are you?

Caller: The university, I’m a professor here.

911: What building are you in, sir?

Caller: I’m in the advanced physics lab. Please send someone quickly.

911: Are you in immediate danger?

Caller: Yes, he’s trying to kill me.

911: Are you in a secure, safe place you can hide until officers can arrive?

Caller: For the moment yes, but he’s going to find me. Please hurry.

911: Sir, can I get your name?

Caller: Malcolm Kidd, like kid but with two D’s. How far out are the officers?

911: We have a patrol car in route. They will be there in a few minutes. I have also notified campus police of your call as well. Do you know who is trying to kill you, Mr. Kidd?

Caller: Yes, I know who it is. Are campus police coming? They have to be close; I see them on patrols all the time.

911: Mr. Kidd, can you give me a description of the person you believe is trying to kill you.

Caller: Ah, okay. This is going to sound crazy, but he looks like me. You can find a picture of me online somewhere. University website. Social media. That’s who he looks like. Me. I know it doesn’t make sense. Please send it to the police.

911: I’m sorry, Mr. Kidd. I’m confused. Do you have a twin brother trying to kill you?

Caller: No. Like I said, it sounds crazy. It’s not my twin, it’s me. And he’s not a clone, if that’s what you were going to guess next. He’s me.

911: I’m sorry, Mr. Kid. I’m having a hard time following. He’s not your twin, and he’s not your clone, but he’s identical to you. Do I have that correct?

Caller: Yes. There’s another possibility I’m still grappling with. A temporal possibility.

911: Temporal. As in time travel?

Caller: He’s from the future and he’s trying to stop me from doing something I haven’t yet done.

911: And you know this for certain because-

Caller: Because he chased me through the parking lot and yelled it at me before I ran into the building to hide. He said, or shouted, that sometime in the next week, I do something so horrific, that he came back in time to stop me. And that he knew that I would agree at first, but then ignore our agreement when the time came, and I would do whatever it is I not supposed to do. So, he had to come back and kill me because I could not be trusted.

911: That’s a lot of information while being chased through a parking lot.

Caller: It’s a large parking lot.

911: I’m sorry, Mr. Kidd. But that sounds very improbable.

Caller: I understand, and it’s confusing to me because whatever it is that I do, I have no idea what it is. I don’t work with any dangerous or potentially hazardous materials.

911: No, not that part. There’s a paradox issue.

Caller: Excuse me?

911: Mr. Kidd, I’ve seen enough science fiction movies to know if future you successfully killed current you, he would cease to exist. And if that version no longer exists, which means future you could never travel back in time to kill you. Its basic Terminator rules.

Caller: Which means I won’t die?

911: Well…

Caller: Well what?

911: Police are three minutes out. Campus security has been notified and has foot patrols in the vicinity. The problem with future you is that he might not be from your future. He might be from a different future. So you’d be dead in this timeline, but still alive in his original timeline. And if it’s one way trip, he could kill you, assume your identity, and no one would be the wiser.

Caller: And then whatever terrible thing I’m about to do, he already knows what it is, so he won’t do it.

911: Yes, that’s it. Then I guess we’re done here. I’ll notify the police to discontinue.

Caller: Wait, what?!? Why are you calling them off?

911: I’m mean, it’s obvious what needs to happen. Future you is trying to stop some catastrophe from happening in the next week, and he knows you cannot be trusted to stop it from happening. Even though he can’t save his timeline, he is willing to save another.

Caller: Yeah. But problem is, then I’m dead.

911: Technically, it’s still you.

Caller: Doesn’t feel that way at the moment.

911: Let me ask you a question. Before today, did time travel exist?

Caller: As far as I know, no. And to be honest, I thought it was impossible. I couldn’t grasp the physics of it, and it’s something I’ve spent time studying.

911: But based your current situation, we believe it does exist. So, sometime in the next week, time travel will not only be discovered, but you will be able to figure out how to send yourself back to a very specific moment in the past.

Caller: Okay, running with that theory. Let’s say in the next week, I invent time travel, which seems highly unlikely. And then something very bad happens because of that discovery, which results in me using time travel to go back in time to try to prevent me from either discovering time travel or doing something bad with it.

911: Did you try to kill Hitler?

Caller: What? Why would you ask me that?

911: Because that’s what people always say. If they could travel back in time, they’d kill Hitler.

Caller: Who says that?

911: Everybody does. Point is, based on our working multi-verse theory, even if you went back in time and killed Hitler, it wouldn’t be in your timeline, because your future is already set. You’d affect a different timeline. And maybe future you is from a different time where you went back in time, killed Hitler, but then someone worse popped up and the future sucked.

Caller: Did you actually call off the police?

911: I’m not sure what to do, Mr. Kidd. On the one hand, we both know something so bad is about to happen you will travel back in time to this moment to stop you from doing whatever it is you’re about to do. On the other hand, every version of you deserves to live their own life, don’t they?

Caller: I would agree with the second part. Now please, are the police still coming?

911: Yes, Mr. Kidd. Officers and campus police are at the building now and entering. Please give me your location so I can relay it to them.

Caller: Sure, fifth floor. I’m in the physics lab at the end of the east hallway.

911: Okay, Mr. Kidd. I have relayed that information to the police. Mr. Kidd? Hello? Sir, are you there? Are you alright? If you can hear me, I can’t make out what you’re saying, it’s very muffled. Mr. Kidd?

Caller: Yes, I’m here. Sorry, I heard a noise from the hallway and hid under a table.

911: Police have not yet swept that floor so stay hidden.

Caller: Will do. And thank you for getting him, I mean me through this. I’ve tried to express to you how important your role is in all this, and it always hits you like a ton of bricks.

911: Back up. We’ve met before? Or are you talking about my future?

Caller: Getting the room location, I could not have done it without you. Once he gave that up to you, then all I had to do was gain access to that information in the future. In my future, you understood what it meant to avoid catastrophe. It’s why you asked that question. You always ask the question. Don’t always get the right answer, but sometimes I’m just…difficult.

911: Did you kill the present timeline version of you? Am I talking to future Mr. Kidd?

Caller: I’m honestly surprised you asked. Most of the time, you’re very with it.

911: How many times have you done this?

Caller: Travelled back in time to kill myself? I don’t know, a few thousand by now, I’d guess.

911: Thousands? How many are there?

Caller: I don’t know, I just keep going, keep cycling through. Lifetime after lifetime after lifetime. I jump into the same spot, I do the same thing, and one by one, another timeline is saved. And if that’s what I have to keeping doing until the end of time, I will.

911: What happened in your timeline? What did you do with time travel that ended in catastrophe?

Caller: I did not try to kill Hitler.

911: It seems like you’re leaving a lot out.

Caller: You would too based on what decisions were made. But the gist of it is, I made a mistake. A rookie mistake with regards to time travel, it turns out.

911: Which is what?

Caller: Traveling backwards, totally cool. Traveling forwards, not cool. And when I say not cool, I mean melt the fabric of space and time.

911: Mr. Kidd, did you accidentally obliterate your universe?

Caller: Turns out that if you attempt forward travel, it literally collapses your universe in on itself. Which is many generations length slow, but still terrifying. Because things like time or gravity or cellular division all sort of become inexplicably glitchy for indeterminate periods of time. Or the moon just leaves. Like, just bolts out of the galaxy. I felt somewhat responsible for all that.

911: What are you going to do with the other body?

Caller: What I always do. And you don’t want to know.

911: Nobody’s going to believe me when they review this transcript. They’re going to say I made it all up, like it’s a prank script or something that we’re acting out.

Caller: I can prove it’s real. Because seven days from now, once my discovery is avoided, I will jump. And it happens at the exact same time every time, which is the time the first jump took place. I get bounced out of the new timeline at that moment. It’s like across the universes, a button gets pushed, and no matter where I’m at, I’m jumping. And then, I don’t exist in that timeline anymore. I vanish. Like before, in seven days, I will vanish. There will be no trace of me. And that’s how they’ll know it’s real.

911: Police are on the fifth floor and approaching your hallway, Mr. Kidd. So, this timeline is safe?

Caller: It’s safe. Your universe will not collapse. At least not this week. Some other jack ass is going to discover time travel eventually, and maybe they’ll make that mistake. But it won’t be me. Police are here.

911: Good luck, Mr. Kidd. Until we meet again.

Caller: Thursday.

911: What? What does that mean? Do we meet again on Thursday?

Caller: Gotta go.

[End of call]