Author's note --
This is a work of pure fiction. There is no connection to any real people or places. Any resemblance to real life people, events, or someone else's writings is coincidental. It is for entertainment only and is not to be reproduced without written consent.
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My name is Egan (25), and my great, great, great grandmother helped save the future of planet Earth. I have been tasked to write this story to document the events that would lead up to preventing a world war. Part of this story is documented facts, part of it is family oral history, and part of it is first hand knowledge.
It is the year 2169. It was just 45 years ago that my father discovered how to make it possible to have a cold fusion reactor small enough to power everything from small cars to large ships. It even replaced the polluting oil fired power stations and radioactive risky nuclear power plants of the day. Doing so averted a global war over the last remaining oil reserves. My mother told me all that would probably not have been possible had it been for a twist of fate that happened a few months before my great, great, great grandmother's intended wedding day. From what I have been able to piece together, there is a crucial pivotal point 160 years ago that had a major impact in my family's history. Before my trip back in time, I researched all my relatives & spouses all the way out to 3rd cousins. It never hurts to be prepared.
As a testament to my father's scientific genes, I have invented a device to time travel, and I intend to go back to that crucial period in time to get an accurate account of what happened. My first version of a time machine was the size of a small closet. My most recent version is one I can hold in my hand. This is the one I will use to make my trip back.
Dialing in a date in the Spring of 2009, I pushed the Transport button and in a blur, my high-rise apartment vanished and I was standing in the front yard of my great, great, great grandmother's parent's house. As luck would have it, my arrival time was perfect. Julie (22), my great, great, great grandmother, was just pulling in the driveway after shopping for wedding things, accompanied by her sister Riana. I introduced myself as one of the 3rd cousins, from the West Coast. With a puzzled look on her face, I explained that originally I had said I wasn't going to attend, but since the company I worked for put me on a 6 month work assignment, I might as well come to the wedding. The only problem, I didn't have a place to stay. Seeing my predicament, she offered to let me stay at her parent's house; they had an extra bedroom that wasn't being used. So it was that I would be able to closely observe ALL the relatives up to and including the wedding day.
Full of pre-wedding excitement, Julie clued me in on all the wedding plans, without too much prodding from me. As Julie rattled off the details of the rings, church, reception, wedding colors, cake, photographer, musicians, etc., I felt like I was trying to keep up with an old style auctioneer. Just as she was telling me that her future husband, and sister's future husband would be there soon, in walks two handsome 25 year old men. Right away, she introduced me to Brian and James, her future husband and her dad.
Then it hit me, something wasn't right. Julie's dad's name was correct but her future husband's name was not what I knew from the family history. And her engagement ring; that wasn't the ring that had been passed down through the generations. My surprised look that things were not right, was taken as a 'first meeting surprise' look.
With Julie and Riana by Brian's presence, I was able to slip away into one of the bathrooms, where I lock the door and pulled out the PDA I stored all the family history details. Sure enough, Julie married a guy named Rick. Brian was nowhere to be found in the family history. According to the notes in my PDA, something happened about 2 months before the wedding that changed everything. I just had to figure out what that was.
When I came out of the bathroom, I heard Julie talking to her father in the kitchen. I also heard the voices of Brian and Riana in a closed-door bedroom. I couldn't make out much of the conversation in the bedroom, except for "not now, she's in the kitchen" and "oh God, it's so big, how are you going to explain that to Julie". When I heard their voices get closer to the bedroom door I ducked back into the bathroom and acted like I was just coming out. There was obviously something going on between Brian and Riana. I would need to keep close tabs on them to see what was going on.