"I'm so tired of these naysayers. I wonder if humankind will ever progress ..." Daryl wrote in his journal.
Government officials, private industry executives, and the media scoffed at his work, calling it hocus-pocus, a fraud, and unprovable. His time machine could step forward into the future, but not the past. And despite the time machine never reappearing when he demonstrated it, seconds or minutes ahead, he postulated it jumped into a future multiverse.
Daryl Jones, a retired electrical engineer, tinkerer, and inventor, built his time machine after decades of research and experimentation.
He fired up the time machine and set it for 1000 years into the future—a kaleidoscope of sights and sounds surrounded him, merged into a bright light, and then total darkness until the world reemerged.
His machine landed in the center of a plaza, where he saw aliens everywhere around him. Humanoid, but with multiple arms and legs—chatting, laughing, playing, or riding hovercraft, seemingly unsurprised by his presence.
"There's one. Grab him!" shouted a human voice, somewhere.
Daryl felt a prick in his neck. He became numb and disoriented, and his vision blurred—meanwhile, he heard a propulsion and mumbling voices, and then he fainted.
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
"Wake up, Daryl," said a familiar voice.
"How do you know who I ... ?" Daryl opened his eyes, seeing duplicates of himself.
"How do we know who you are?" asked a duplicate.
Daryl nodded.
"We're you, Daryl. We had to rescue you so that we can save ourselves."
"That makes no sense."
"Sure it does, Daryl, if you take into account the multiverse. The officials on your world didn't believe you either, did they?"
"No. They didn't." Daryl frowned. "So, what happened here?"
"I knew you'd ask that question." The duplicate smiled. "During 'your' passage into the future, centuries ago, a warlike alien species devastated this world with bioweapons. The aliens also used powerful EMPs to destroy all of the human-developed technology."
"And what about the people?" Daryl raised an eyebrow.
"I knew you'd ask that, too. The humans of this world soon went extinct and, after a while, became long forgotten. For no known reason, the nameless warlike aliens abandoned this Earth. But other aliens colonized here, and they're much more peaceful."
"So ... why did you take me hostage?"
"You're not a hostage, Daryl. We've all made a pact—if one doesn't save another duplicate, or if one kills another, it'll be a recipe for a massacre. We agreed to rescue others, but be prepared for any that might try to kill us all."
"And you all are?" Daryl pointed at the crowd of duplicates.
"Just like you, Daryl, we arrived out of the multiverse into this world's future. Perhaps countless of other Daryls landed in their own or other universes. Not always at the same moment—offset by days, weeks, or possibly years, much like us. You just happened to arrive at this one. We've calculated, at the current rate of arrivals, this Earth's population will restore itself to billions of us, eventually."
"So ... that means ..." Daryl's eyes widened.
"Yes, Daryl, we're all time travelers too. You finally have your proof."