The Technicolor Time Machine

“I don’t understand,” he mumbled to himself as he walked across the lot to sound stage B. Even the sight of the professor working on the vremeatron did not disturb his whirling thoughts. He stood on the time platform and tried to understand what had happened, or what was going to happen, but fatigue combined with the shock of talking to himself had temporarily disconnected his reasoning powers.

“The repairs are finished,” Professor Hewett said, wiping his hands on a rag. “We can return now to the year 1005.”

“Take it away,” Barney said, and reached for his wallet.

Even though it was a sunny day in Newfoundland it appeared dull after the California sunlight, and the air was certainly a good deal cooler.

“What time did we leave the studio just now?” Barney asked.

“1203 hours on Monday. And no complaints, if you please. That was very fast work I did on the repairs when you consider the damage done by that microcephalic musical oaf.”

“No complaints, Prof. I’m beginning to think we still stand a chance to get this picture in by the deadline. I met myself in the building, and I saw myself delivering cans of film labeled Viking Columbus.”

“Impossible!”

“Very easy to say, but maybe you have as big a shock coming as I had. I told me, or he told me or however the hell you say it, to give this to you. Can you figure it out?”

The professor took one glance at the paper and smiled broadly. “Of course,” he said. “How stupid of me. The facts were obvious, right under my nose all the time, so to speak, and I never saw them. How simple the problem is.”

“Could you bring yourself to explain it to me?” Barney said impatiently.

“The diagram represents two voyages through time, and the smaller arc on the right is the one that is of interest because it explains where the other ‘you’ came from with the cans of film. Yes, it is possible to still complete the film and deliver it before the specified deadline.”

“How?” Barney asked, squinting at the diagram, which conveyed exactly nothing to him.

“You will now complete the picture, and it is of no importance how much time you consume after the deadline. When the picture is complete you will be at point B on this diagram. Point A is the time the film is due, and you simply return to a time before A, deliver the picture, then return to B. How magnificently simple.”

Barney clutched the paper. “Let me get this straight. Are you telling me that I can make the film after the deadline, then return to a time before the deadline to deliver the film?”

“I am.”

“It sounds nuts.”

“Intelligence resembles insanity only to the stupid.”

“I’ll forget that remark—if you can answer me one thing. This piece of paper with the diagram”—he shook it under the professor’s nose—“who drew it.”

“I’m sure I do not know, having just seen it for the first time.”

“Then think. I was handed this paper on Monday morning in front of L.M.’s office. I show it to you now. Then I’m going to put it in my wallet and carry it around until the picture is finished. Then I’ll travel back in time to deliver the picture to L.M. I meet the old me in front of the office, take the diagram out of my wallet and hand it over to myself to be put back into the wallet and so forth. Now does that make sense to you?”

“Yes. I see nothing to get disturbed about.”

“You don’t. If that is the way it is going to happen, then no one ever drew this diagram. It just travels around in this wallet and I hand it to myself. Explain that one,” he added triumphantly.

“There is no need to, it explains itself. The piece of paper consists of a self-sufficient loop in time. No one ever drew it. It exists because it is, which is adequate explanation. If you wish to understand it I will give you an example. You know that all pieces of paper have two sides—but if you give one end of a strip of paper a 180-degree twist, then join the ends together, the paper becomes a Mobius strip that has only one side. It exists. Saying it doesn’t cannot alter the fact. The same thing is true of your diagram, it exists.”

“But—where did it come from?”

“If you must have a source, you may say that it came from the same place that the missing side of the Mobius strip has gone to.”

Barney’s thoughts tied themselves into a tight knot and the ends flapped loosely. He stared at the diagram until his eyes hurt. Someone had to have drawn it. And every piece of paper had to have two sides… With slightly palsied fingers he put the diagram into his wallet, slid the wallet into his pocket and hoped that he would be able to’ forget about it.

“Ready for the time jump whenever you give the word,” Dallas said.

“What time jump?” Barney asked, blinking at the stunt man, who was standing before him.

“The jump to next spring, 1006, that we were talking about half an hour ago. The food has been turned over to Ottar, and the company is all loaded up and ready to go when you say the word.” He pointed to the waiting rows of trucks and trailers.