The first week of summer, 2017, was an interesting one for me, I should know, I lived it long enough. I'd watched countless movies on what was happening to me, thought it was just stuff of fiction but there I was, living the same five days over and over again. Sounds fun right? It was the first few times, once I figured out it was happening I started to learn but getting through it was rough.
Being a test pilot was always high risk, I envied those guys a lot, I was just ground computer support though which meant keeping a close eye on the huge servers that ran the high tech experimental aircraft and drones my company developed. One they were working on was a near light speed drone that was to revolutionize space travel, one idiot decided to try it in the atmosphere though and ripped a hole in the space/time continuum, guess who fell through it.
"Baker, what do you mean 18,000 feet, that's still in our atmosphere." Said Fred Miller, one of the project leads.
"I thought it would save us money on launch costs so I gave it a try, it worked, it flew 50 miles in .04 seconds." He said happily.
Neither of them seen me in the room, frantically trying to prevent the overload cascade the drone sparked when it uploaded it's telemetry data. I knew there was nothing I could do, the servers were going critical.
"Sir, Mr Miller, please, you need to take a look at this." I said, handing him my tablet computer.
"Fuck, do you think you can salvage any drives?" He replied after looking at my alarms and handed me back my computer.
"I can try. Oh wait, Shit shit shit! Sir, hit the evac, my cooling system just overloaded, I've hit the data dump, I'll see if it's safe to get the drive but get these people out!" I said frantically.
I watched on my monitor as my fail safes were compromised then watched the redline spike all my meters. If I was quick enough I may have been able to pull the emergency drive that would salvage some of the fresh, non nightly backed up data but only if the server room wasn't already starting to catch fire. I ran at full speed, no sprinklers or halon had started yet so I was optimistic. The noise of the evacuation siren was deafening though and I ran past quite a few people already headed for the exits. As I got into my server room though, weird arcs of electricity started running up my server racks then a strange ball of light appeared in the middle of the room. I decided my life meant more than data and turned to leave, the door jammed though and right as I went to hit the emergency halon timer, everything got really bright then I blacked out.
At first I thought I was dead. My head was killing me and my vision was a little blurred but I woke up in my bed, my alarm beeping it's face off. I was a little confused, last thing I remembered was being in the server room looking at a ball of light. I didn't remember being rescued or being brought home. I looked at my phone after silencing my alarm, didn't notice the date at first and just got up to shower. The first thing I noticed out of place was my favorite shirt. The light blue shirt I figured was ruined when my co-worker squirted marinara sauce all over it ("You can eat calzone this way, watch!!") was hanging up in my closet, along with 4 other shirts I thought were in my laundry pile. With a quiet 'what the fuck' to myself I looked at my phone again, Monday June 5th. Monday. No No No, today was Friday, I had bought concert tickets on Wednesday that would be right there in my wallet. I looked and found them gone too. I called my adopted sister, she was always playing pranks on me and I hoped it was her and that I wasn't going insane.
"Hi Clara, this was a good one, did you get control of my phone again?" I said when she answered.
"What are you talking about bro, did you hit your head?" She replied.
"Where's my concert tickets for tonight, you're meeting me there, I told you they'd be safe with me."
"Dude, the concert is on Friday, today is Monday. Are you sure you're okay sweetie, you're starting to worry me."
"This is Friday, I know it is. I'll call you later and we can laugh." I said then hung up.
I made my coffee and turned on the news, Clara was good but good luck making BBC World News change the day.
'Today's headlines for Monday June 5th......'
I checked a few more channels. I checked the internet. Not a prank. I heard my front door open and my adopted sister Clara came in, a worried look on her face.
"You better not be kidding, you're scaring the shit out of me." She said as she hugged me. "What is going on?"
I explained the last thing I remembered, the accident at work.
"Are you sure you didn't drink too much tequila last night Alex, you were knocking them back." She said.
"No, I swear, I can prove it too, that blue shirt, was ruined today, jackass I'm sitting next to at lunch bites into his calzone and sprays pizza sauce all over me. I'm going to sit away from him and live stream my lunch, you'll see." I said.
"Well shit, what else do you remember from this week, lottery numbers maybe?" She asked.
"I work in a bubble remember, the outside world barely exists to me, I couldn't even tell you any headlines from the week." I replied.
"I'll be waiting for your call, if this is a prank I'm seriously going to kick your ass. I have to go, I should be on duty." She said, kissed me on the cheek then left.
That day at lunch I waited until jackass (Mike Jones) sat down then sat on the corner of the same table. I put my phone in my pocket with my earpiece in, it's camera stuck out the top so was perfect to let Clara see, she spoke to me, telling me about a woman she'd arrested as she watched my feed, I told people I was catching up on a training podcast. I did feel a little bad for my friend Kim who sat where I should have been but her lab coat caught most of the sauce when right on schedule, a big spray of marinara hit her in the chest.
"No fucking way, go somewhere you can talk to me, I'm turning off the video." Said Clara in my ear.
"That was me, I always wear this shirt on Mondays, is the shirt mom got me when I got promoted so is my favorite. The dry cleaner said she did her best but the stain won't come out, I was so mad." I said to Clara once I was in the lobby.
"Did anything else happen before the accident, focus now, try and remember." She said.
"Nothing significant, I need to bolster my firewall cascade defense grid though, I may be able to prevent the overload." I replied.
"Ooh, that was computer talk, all I heard was nerd nerd nerd." She said laughing.
"If you weren't a Cop I'd kick your ass you know." I replied.
"Oh please, I'll take this uniform off and you still couldn't take me."
"Such a tease big sister, you know I'd be distracted by your boobs and wouldn't be able to fight."
"Such a perv, I'll come see you later okay, make sure you're still alive."
Later that day I took my proposal for my upgrade to my manager, he looked them over and handed my tablet back to me.
"This is too much like overkill Alex, I can't approve this. Jane already went nuts about my emergency data dump drive, said my IT budget is killing her. Fucking accountants right? I'll try and get approved for next quarter, I just need to make her lasagna a few more times this month and she'll soften up." Said Fred with a smile, Jane was his wife.
"Okay, I'll try make do with what I have." I replied.
"Hey, are you okay, I've not seen you this on edge before." He said.
"Just a feeling I have Mr Miller, can't seem to shake it. I'll be okay, thank you." I replied then left.
I was very overly optimistic that I'd be able to bolster my grid without extra parts and time and wasn't surprised, despite the expensive network I already had, I couldn't do any more to stop what was going to happen. That night I went over in my head everything that led up to the accident, I figured the catalyst was Baker's launch and upload but there were safeguards in place that he should have followed so that couldn't have been it. Due to not having top secret clearance I wasn't allowed in Launch Control but these were professionals.
"Well thanks for explaining in layman's terms, I tease but I really don't understand half of what you do. Are you positive his launch started it." Said Clara.
"Yes, as soon as the drone docked my systems went nuts." I replied, I had explained my theories to Clara.
"We've both watched our time travel and loop movies to death, what if you change something that makes it worse." She replied.
"That's just it, I still don't know exactly what happened or what the aftermath is. All I know is I've been sent back 5 days. I tried to bolster my grid but my boss said no, I can try pulling key parts but I don't know. What if I pull the one part that makes it take out the whole building without warning, this is giving me a headache." I said.
"So just relax and drink your beer, I need these snuggles, I had a rough shift." Said Clara.
My adopted sister had been single for a while. Mom had adopted her when I was 9, we became really good friends and stayed close as adults. She was tall, blonde with green eyes and great boobs, beautiful with an amazing personality but the fact she was a Police Officer put a lot of guys off and most were afraid of her. Bad days she would bring us beer and we'd chat while she snuggled into me, really bad days she'd bring vodka and drink more with me. I remembered something from one of the days I'd already lived.
"Hey sis, tomorrow when you get the call about the domestic violence with a knife, he's behind the dumpster and still has his knife. Be careful okay." I said.
She sat up and looked at me.
"Do I get hurt? Don't sugar coat Alex, tell me." She said, a serious look on her face.
"You are fine but your partner gets cut pretty bad, you told me he was high on drugs and charged as soon as you turned your head to look behind a fence. Your partner needed a lot of stitches and may lose her sight in one eye. You took it pretty hard." I said.
With her face still serious Clara put an alarm in her smartwatch then kissed me on the cheek.
"Thank you for telling me. If this helps me stop it I'll cook you a big steak dinner. Love you bro, I gotta go." She said then left.
I remember my Tuesday that week being pretty boring, the drone pilots and test teams were all checking calculations for an upcoming launch so my servers were busy but was a pretty nondescript day. After lunch I got a text from Clara to meet her out front, she was in her patrol car, when I approached her partner got out, I'd met her a few times, her fiance had taken me fishing.
"Hey Alex, you sister told me you warned her about the DV call today. I was skeptical but I followed her lead. She told me what would have happened if you didn't tell her and I just want to say thank you." Said Laura who then grabbed me in a big hug.
"What happened, did you shoot him?" I asked.
