The Abortive Resolution - 2

Dr. Charles then took the Inspector to his lab. As they entered the Lab, suddenly they heard a whooshing sound and a flash of white light. Dr. Charles halted sensing danger. Cautiously, they both moved in the lab & checked around for any signs of breaking in.

His lab was a big array of machines, meters & cables kept scattered everywhere. They both went to the end lab, which contained some futuristic equipment & screens which the Inspector had never seen. Dr Charles then showed him some data graph readings which the Inspector couldn’t understand at all.

“Right now those people in the future are calculating their Permutations for the Time Travel. As per the CCTV, somehow you’ll be going back in time to stop them. Considering the fact that they already know you have travelled back in time, they’ll try to stop you on every possible route. So remember my advice, keep changing your route every time.” Looking at the confused Inspector, Dr. Charles elaborated.

“OK tell me, in the CCTV it is seen that you bounce on the terrace of the building. What will you do next?”

“I’ll run down the nearest staircase & try to attack the shooter…” Inspector answered immediately.

“Exactly…! This is what you must not do…! Don’t take the path or don’t go the way which is the most predicted. Since they are in the future, they’ll know about all of your moments in advance, so that they will try to always stop you…! The entire stadium is filled with CCTV cameras. They’ll easily know your location when they’ll observe the footage in the future and will surely come to stop you at exactly the same path...!” saying this, Dr. Charles pressed some buttons on the nearby keypad.

“This is the Time Server…” he said as he showed him a huge computer with an array of screens & keyboards attached to a series of horizontal racks.

“This is connected to the Main Time Machine, which manages the Time Travel. Every time zone has a separate Time Server. This Time Server will help us travel to a certain Time Location only. Since we will be travelling at different phases, we will require these time servers which are connected to the Main Time Machine…” he abruptly stopped & stared at the algorithmic readings on the screen.

“So the real Time Machine is in the future?” Inspector Ivor asked, thinking hard.

Neglecting his answer, Dr. Charles stared at the screen with his eyes wide open. Suddenly he got up from his seat & ran towards the equipment cabinet. He removed two things which looked like leather waist belts with different coloured buttons. Giving one to the inspector ,he said, “Listen… I don’t have time to explain… I just found out that the terrorists have detected we are located here. They are coming to destroy this Server. This server has a certain time which could only take you to almost 5 years back, when the time machine was being built.” He then pressed some keys on the keyboards. Confirming the readings, he told the Inspector, “I am now sending you to the time when the Machine planning was under execution. I am giving you a black coat to repel the white light charge. I’ll be in touch with you…” saying this he gave him a headset which looked like nothing of the modern day ones, with a small display panel for volume control, one part of which will go behind the ear, and the other smaller part, the size of a small button, to be attached on the cheek. He also gave him a syringe filled with a yellow coloured liquid. “Use this the moment you go to the desired time…! This is a headset through which I’ll keep in touch with you. I’ll explain you the plan once you get there…Now hurry up wear this around your waist & press the Green….”

His words were left halfway as there was suddenly a huge explosion. The main door collapsed , and something that looked like a droid drone with tank thread wheels entered in. The droid started firing with a head mounted gun on all sides. Another drone entered & started shooting fire on all sides.

“Press the green button fast…! The terrorists have sent droid robots to destroy this place..! If this place is destroyed, you won’t be able to travel to the desired location …!” Dr. Charles screamed amidst the chaos. Without wasting a moment, the Inspector pressed the green button.

He immediately felt himself being sucked down inside him.

In the next moment, a bright flash of light happened around him, & in the next instant, the inspector landed on the terrace of the stadium building. Looking around, he realised where he was. Remembering something, he removed his syringes and injected himself with the liquid.

And then he remembered about the CCTV on the neighbouring building. He looked there to see where exactly it was.

“Dr. Charles, where is the Machine planning going on…?”

“Inspector… a huge glitch has happened…” DR. Charles voice came on his headsets.

“I am checking the scenario from my current time. The droids destroyed the server before we could reach the desired time in the past. So now, you’ve landed in the default time zone. This is the zone when the first travel in time happened. Since our time server was destroyed, the main Time Machine bounced you back in the zone where the 1st time travel had happened i.e. on the roof of the stadium building…”

Inspector Ivor glanced around & knew he was on the same terrace building where he had seen the earlier terrorist bounce back. Instantly he remembered the current scenario as he heard chaos downstairs.

He sprinted towards the Terrace Door, & opening it, he ran downstairs from the passage. As the stairwell approached, without warning, he banged onto someone, but he neglected it & kept running. As he reached the end of the passage, he stopped & looked above.

He had banged on his past, & now his past was holding himself down, trying to gather strength.

“Why did my past collapse as I banged onto him…?” Inspector Ivor asked Dr. Charles on the comms.

“Because 2 same time entities can’t survive in the same time zone. When you banged on him, you are induced with steroids, which gave you energy, but your past is not…”

Inspector Ivor was not at all focusing on Dr. Charles. As he checked his watch, suddenly he realised his mistake.

“It’s 3:50 PM Dr Charles…!” Inspector Ivor screamed, “It means the shooting has already happened…! Remember, our plan was to stop the manufacturing of the time machine..! Since we failed to do it, at least we can nab the terrorists and stop the death of Dr. Johnny Williams…! For that…” he paused, trying to work out his plan, “ I need to travel further in past. I need to stop the shooter himself from shooting…!”

Dr. Charles was silent for a long time. Finally he understood the plan.

“OK..let’s do it. Just press the Red button on your belt. You’ll bounce back in my lab from where you started, just a little earlier before we entered the Lab. I’ll explain the rest things once you reach there..”

Inspector Ivor then pressed the Red button, & in an instant felt himself sucking inside him. In the next instant, with a huge flash of light, he was present back in the lab.

“Now adjust the time calculator to the day of the incident. From the geographical location, plot the latitudes & longitude’s to the incident location..” Dr. Charles gave commands on the headset.

Inspector Ivor adjusted the locations as per the commands on the Launch Module. Suddenly he heard someone approaching. He then remembered his past was just entering the Lab.

“Hurry up…press the green button before we see each other..! Your all set to travel…!”

Just as about himself & Dr. Charles in the past were about to enter the lab, Inspector Ivor pressed the green button.

In the next instant with a flash of light, he landed back on the roof of the stadium. The watch displayed 2:52 PM. The time travelling started draining his energy & this time with no steroids available, the Inspector sat down for some time, feeling weak. Somehow gathering his strength, he proceeded to the location of the shooting.

“I am reaching at exactly the same location where the shooter was present…!” he spoke on his headset to Dr. Charles.

He crossed the upper level staircase & went to the terrace where he had seen the shooter shoot the scientist. He waited till 3:05 PM.

Instantly he saw a bright flash of light on the terrace from where he had come. Realising the shooter has arrived, the Inspector took his position behind the entry door of the terrace. Sensing the shooter in the passage, as he was about to storm & grab him, suddenly someone fired at him. He looked ahead & instantly realised the matter.

A drone, flying almost 200m from his location, was firing at him. It was supposedly sent back in time by the terrorists.

As Inspector Ivor stared at it, planning his next move, the Drone fired again, this time missing him just by an inch. The Inspector, then stormed on the other side of the terrace, trying to avoid the shots fired. However, the Drone kept firing. Inspector Ivor ran to take cover on the terrace. He hid behind a cooling tower & saw a person in white lab coat enter inside.

The shooter then adjusted his sniper rifle, a. 32 caliber with a silencer. The inspector glanced ahead at the drone. It was still searching the inspector moving up and down in the air. Inspector Ivor could not shoot it directly, as it had pin point accuracy and it can backfire immediately. He checked the time : 2:59 PM. He waited for the right moment.

By this time the shooter had finished assembling his gun. He mounted it on terrace parapet wall. Adjusting the scoop, he was waiting for something.

Why is he not firing..? Inspector Ivor thought.

And then he realised it.

The road accident was not an accident; it was purposely created by these terrorists so that they can easily achieve the motive of shooting the scientist, by causing the mishap which will ultimately lead to distraction. Inspector Ivor now understood their plan. Now he had to tackle two things: stop the accident as well as the shooting.

Suddenly he heard chaos downstairs. He realised the accident has already happened. Peeping out, he saw the shooter almost ready to fire.

"Inspector, hurry up and stop the shooter...! The terrorists from the future have already send Droid robots to stop you....! The travel chart in front of me is clearly indicating that..! Remember, if you stop the shooter, the future will be as it is that will happen...! In the future, The TISC satellite will be functional and will track all the terrorists... This will subsequently detain all the terrorist movements...! So no droids will attack you right now, since no terrorists group will be active in the future....! So act fast...! "Dr. Charles screamed in the headset.

Inspector Ivor heard all of it. He was just waiting for the right moment. Outside at the entrance, he heard the tank wheels of the Droid, which indicated they were already advancing towards the terrace.

As the shooter was about to shoot, inspector Ivor suddenly jumped out of his hiding place and sprinted towards him. The drone above started shooting, however, the inspector kept running. Just as the shooter was about to press the trigger, the inspector removed his weapon from his jacket, aimed at the left leg of the shooter, and fired.

The resultant impact was a sudden shock to the shooter, and he missed the shot and fell sideways. As he fell, he fired the gun which now flung out of his hands. The bullet straightaway hit the drone above, which instantly exploded. All of this happened within 3 seconds. Inspector Ivor first looked in the stands where Dr. Johnny Williams was seated. He was safe, which meant that the future was retained. Inspector ran inside in the passage to check the droids. They had totally vanished.

Inspector Ivor then proceeded to catch the guy in white coat.

However, as he was about to hold the guy, he just vanished into thin air.

"I knew that inspector, this was ought to happen." Dr. Charles spoke on the radio, "since Dr. Johnny Williams was never killed, the TISC satellite was successfully launched 1 week after this incident. That means all the terrorists were easily tracked down & no group remained quite active in the future…which clearly means no attack happened on you…!” as Dr. Charles explained the phenomenon, the Inspector saw Dr. Johnny Williams alive & intact, enjoying the race. The accident actually never happened, all the events were clearly restored back as no terrorists travelled back in time to create problem in the car mechanisms.

By the time the Inspector came back in his time,he even forgot all the past events. All the events were restored back & everything happened just the way it was supposed to be, with the TISC satellite functioning perfectly nice which ultimately helped to eradicate all the terrorism in the world.

THE END

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