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The Traveller vs. The Unseen Hand by Tony DeCarvalho
The Traveller arrived at the Dawn of Time. There was nothing but white light and mist. He was able to move by swimming through the mist. Suddenly, the Traveller spotted a long, cylindrical shape. At the end of that uneven cylinder was ... a hand. "I had a feeling you'd be here." The hand waved at the Traveller, and a voice rose from the mists. "You are wasting your time, quite literally, Traveller." "Help me return the timeline to the way it was." "I cannot undo mankind's mistakes. I have set you in motion -- I do not interfere." "Baloney! I feel your hand all the time, changing things unexpectedly, making things worse...." "Merely a byproduct of the universe I created. The world was meant to be tough ... and the further you progress, the harder it becomes." "But this is too much! The entire human race remembers the old timeline! We have to fix this!" "Unfortunately for you, the old timeline is gone -- never to be seen again. "And you have altered your current timeline once again. Behold what you have done." The Unseen Hand motioned, and a 3-dimensional projection appeared in the mists. "That's the Earth," said the Traveller. "Watch." The world began to convulse and vibrate. Within the blink of an eye, the oceans froze. In the next instant, the Earth was torn in two, cracked in the middle like an egg. The atmosphere evaporated, leaving behind a rocky husk. "No." "Yes," said the Hand, "your journey back in time destabilized the Earth's core before Man was ever born. Your race has ceased to exist." The Traveller fell to his knees. "No. Bring it back. Please, bring it back." "Let this be a lesson to you -- when you seek to save that which is forever lost, you may end up destroying more than you bargained for." The Unseen Hand disappeared, and the Traveller was left on his knees, crying out, "DAMN YOU, UNSEEN HAND! DAMN YOU TO HEEEEELLLLLL!" Then, the Traveller disappeared -- teleported forward into his time, right before the timeline was changed again....
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