The Time Catalyst

Waterfront Park, Seattle; Wednesday morning…

Drogheda, Stefan, and Tage rendezvoused on Seattle’s waterfront area after they had split up on Tuesday and went off to steal more high-tech appliances after their encounter with Dr. McClain and Tadosh. They had a lot to make up for now.

Each man had a car for the endeavor. Like everything else with Drogheda and his men, the vehicles were stolen. Even the clothes they wore were apprehended from family discount stores! When they were each done with shoplifting the gadgets they set out for, they contacted one another on their communicators and decided to meet downtown. They parked their cars elsewhere and converged on the picturesque waterfront, with downtown Seattle’s skyline looming above in the background. They had stopped and got something to eat with the money they ripped off earlier that month then went for a walk on the waterfront as they talked things out.

“Have either of you noticed something,” Drogheda asked; his hand bandaged from the Miracles guard’s gunshot. Stefan and Tage merely looked on, waiting for the older man to continue. “Things on Earth are…different than I thought they would be.”

“Yes,” Stefan said with relief, “I did notice that. I thought it was just me!”

Tage was silently nodding to himself before he spoke.

“There’s some kind of war going on between the United States and Middle East nations…this generation still uses petroleum to fuel cars when, according to history, we know that they had pretty much switched to using alternative fuels by the year 2000…everyone around here seems to speak with a bit of a different accent that I haven’t heard before. I’ve been to Seattle of our century a few times, but I don’t ever remember its people sounding quite like they do here…”

“Well, we’ve gone 279 years into the past, Tage,” Stefan observed. “That’s far longer than the United State’s existence as a nation up to this year of 2008! There are some social changes to be expected.”

“Okay, I can buy that for their accents, but not historical events and things that we know were fixed! Like those other things I pointed out…even some city names are different. They call New Amsterdam New York City, for crying out loud!”

Stefan turned to Drogheda, whom was looking about the waterfront as the two younger ones talked.

“Drogheda, what do you think all this means?”

He shrugged before answering as they all continued to walk at a leisurely pace. “I think it all just confirms what our movement has always said about humanity…that we, humans, control our own destinies! We are not predestined to any particular fate or course in life. All this, Stefan and Tage, fits perfectly into our mission! In a sense, even better than what I had imagined.”

The two buffed young men glanced at one another, puzzled at Drogheda’s bubbly reaction to the news about changes in the time-lines of history. Drogheda explained further.

“You see, back in our original time, we neo-Anarchists worked to free ourselves of all those restrictive governments and religions. The only reason why we had to resort to force was because other people in governments and religions had insisted to coerce others like us into their way of life!

“With the discovery that humans can alter history and the future with Dr. McClain’s time catalyst, maybe we won’t have to go to war with the governments and religions of our time?”

He glanced at the younger ones for their reaction. Tage’s face had brightened with understanding. “Oh, I get it! Change things in the past so that we won’t have governments or religions to worry about in the first place!”

“Exactly,” Drogheda said with the pumping of one of his hands in the air. “We’ve lost so many of our fellow Anarchists in battles against the tyrannical governments and religious organizations of our own time, perhaps we could spare tens of thousands of our people’s lives by simply by-passing a need for war against our enemies?”

Tage and Stefan were both grinning and nodding their heads.

“Of course,” Stefan interjected, “if our improvising a new time catalyst with McClain’s SCR with all the equipment we rounded up works, then we won’t even need to bother with him anymore!”

“Exactly,” Drogheda said dryly. “That’s why it’s important that we get to work on this and pick up where we were before McClain and that Tadosh interrupted our progress!”