Time Machine

"Damn! This is it. I cannot believe this, God. Goodness!! I have it with me.", exclaimed aloud the ecstatic scientist sitting in his lab with his very own time machine. It had worked. He had been working on it since 20 years. It was the year 2146 now and he was extremely elated to have developed the first practical time machine for humans. 

Not that he was able to travel some few hundred years back in time with his invention. While he experimented, he was able to travel an entire day back in time and it was such a significant achievement. He was extremely proud of himself and he had all the obvious reasons to be so.

"Wait a second. I also need to confirm the future time travel. Else, it would still stay the same old theoretical.", he thought aloud. 

He went through the required setting on his time machine and buckled up himself for a journey to the future. After, what seemed to be the most miniscule of the seconds, he found himself in some unknown place, his machine by his side. 

'How come I was just able to travel by a single day in the past and here, for the future, I have landed up in some foreign appearing area. Nothing seems familiar at all.', he thought to himself, a little perplexed by the happenings. 

'I am really getting an eerie feeling out of this entire scenario. I had some doubts, but practically no fear getting this far, but now, I am seriously concerned. Nothing at all seems alright here. I must return back.', thinking so, he went ahead to enter the required settings on the time machine.

"Ahh, ahh, not so fast buddy. Not so fast.", he heard an eerily similar voice behind him. It was his voice and he was completely sure of that. 

He turned around to see him standing in front of him. His doppelgänger. 

"Y..you..h..how?", he stuttered with the basic words. How in the world did he find his doppelgänger here? And was it even possible to have a doppelgänger, he had only heard of it. Moreover, what was his doppelgänger doing here in the future? The only difference between the two was an evil smirk on the face of the other guy and the ocean blue eyes in stark contrast to his brown ones.

"Intelligent little human, I must say. I am impressed. You actually managed to do this. Woah! Must be a major glitch in the code I have written.", the doppelgänger spoke with a menacing voice.

"Wh..who are you? And code? What are you speaking about?", he was now absolutely petrified.

"Ah yes. How shall you know? You know what? I will answer all of your questions, but I really need to do something first.", the doppelgänger went besides the scientist and with a single flick of his wrist, massive robotic arms appeared out of nowhere and broke the time machine. It was crumpled to the last bits in a matter of a few microseconds. 

"What did you do? I had developed it. Why?", the scientist was now absolutely furious, scared to the last fiber and entirely perplexed. 

"Now now, little human. Keep you voice in check. Do not you know how to speak with someone from a higher hierarchy? Well, to answer you, we are the ones who govern your precious dear Earth. You live in the simulation which our species has built. And, you must be very thankful to me. After all, I have created you along with millions of others. Although, not all live in the same simulation as yours. Which is why, I brought you here. I had designed you just to be a scientist, to research some silly stuff, but you fool, you ended up making this time machine. Although, this is an illusion, there's nothing like time, but still, you defied my creation, albeit the glitch and so, I have brought you here."

The scientist chuckled heartily at this. "Haa haa, do you take me for a fool huh? Simulation, as if.", he mocked at the doppelgänger.

"Now, whoever you are, drop this prank immediately and let me go. I have had enough of foolishness for today.", he uttered in a dismissive tone.

Hearing his nonchalant tone, the doppelgänger clenched his jaw with fury and muttered, "Once I show you what we have here, it will bring you to your senses, you foolish human. Just you wait."

He grabbed the scientist's arm and carried him away forcefully to what seemed like a lab of some sorts. There was a massive screen with a partition. A code was running along one side and the other had some running images. 

The doppelgänger entered a digit and suddenly, he could see his colleague on the screen. 

"He's working on multi-dimensions, isn't he? Now, lets see him writing some archaeological stuff of the ancient Romans.", he whispered. 

With another entry of a digit, he could see his scientist of a colleague writing a research paper on ancient Romans. Flabbergasted, he looked at the doppelgänger only to find him already looking at him with an evil glint in his eyes. He was now absolutely sure of something, actually a lot of things not being alright. 

By that time, the doppelgänger had already changed the screen layout and had in front of him another set of a similar code and images. 

"See this. It's the so called planet supposedly 120 light years away from you guys."

With a smirk, he added, "Another one of our simulations. Now see a tsunami occurring here." With a single click, he could see thousands of humans on this planet or rather simulation being wiped away by the tsunami. 

"Now are you convinced? If you are not, let me bring in an earthquake somewhere. Don't worry. I won't damage your earth as of now.", the doppelgänger offered, with an innocent pretense on his face.

"No, that's okay. I...what should I do? Please let me go away from here. Enter that digit and I will work on something else. I won't even tell anyone a thing. Please let me go.", the scientist pleaded earnestly, tears prickling his eyes.

"Oh no, I am so not letting you go. You are the first ever glitch in my code. The only glitch I have ever encountered in my massive experience. I need to experiment on you. I need to know. So, my dear little human, you are here to stay.", he explained in a calm voice, but the scientist noticed the dark undertone to his words. 

The doppelgänger or should he now say, the simulator flicked his wrist again, the same robotic arms appeared again and the scientist was taken away.

'If only I had not ever studied this stupid idea.', were his last thoughts before vanishing into an obscurity, into an unknown future or should he say present, for there was nothing like time, right?