Speaker 1: Two Timer by Frederick Brown. One experiment the first time machine.
Speaker 1: Gentleman Professor Johnson proudly informed his two colleagues. True, it
Speaker 1: is a small scale experimental model. It will operate only
Speaker 1: on objects weighing less than three pounds five ounces and
Speaker 1: for distances into the past and future of twelve minutes
Speaker 1: or less. But it works. The small scale model looked
Speaker 1: like a small scale, a postage scale, except for two dials.
Speaker 1: In the part under the platform. Professor Johnson held up
Speaker 1: a small metal cube. Our experimental object, he said, is
Speaker 1: a brass cube weighing one pound two point three ounces. First,
Speaker 1: I shall send it five minutes into the future. He
Speaker 1: leaned forward and set one of the dials on the
Speaker 1: time machine. Look at your watches, he said. They looked
Speaker 1: at their watches. Professor Johnson placed the cue ube gently
Speaker 1: on the machine's platform. It vanished five minutes later to
Speaker 1: the second it reappeared. Professor Johnson picked it up. Now
Speaker 1: five minutes into the past. He set the other dial.
Speaker 1: Holding the cube in his hand, he looked at his watch.
Speaker 1: It is six minutes before three o'clock. I shall now
Speaker 1: activate the mechanism by placing the cube on the platform.
Speaker 1: At exactly three o'clock. Therefore, the cube should, at five
Speaker 1: minutes before three vanish from my hand and appear on
Speaker 1: the platform five minutes before I place it there. How
Speaker 1: can you place it there, then asked one of his colleagues.
Speaker 1: It will, as my hand approaches, vanish from the platform
Speaker 1: and appear in my hand to be placed there three o'clock. Notice, please,
Speaker 1: The cube vanished from his hand. It appeared on the
Speaker 1: platform of the time machine. See five minutes before I
Speaker 1: shall place it there? It is there. His other colleague
Speaker 1: frowned at the cube, but he said, what if, now
Speaker 1: that it has already appeared five minutes before you place
Speaker 1: it there, you should change your mind about doing so
Speaker 1: and not place it there at three o'clock. Wouldn't there
Speaker 1: be a paradox of some sort involved an interesting idea?
Speaker 1: Professor Johnson said, I had not thought of it, and
Speaker 1: it will be interesting to try. Very well. I shall not.
Speaker 1: There was no paradox at all. The cube remained, but
Speaker 1: the entire rest of the universe, professors and all vanished.
Speaker 1: Two sentry. He was wet and muddy, and hungry and cold,
Speaker 1: and he was fifty thousand light years from home. A
Speaker 1: strange blue sun gave light, and the gravity twice what
Speaker 1: he was used to, made every movement difficult. But in
Speaker 1: tens of thousands of years, this part of war hadn't changed.
Speaker 1: The Flyboys were fine with their sleek spaceships and their
Speaker 1: fancied weapons. When the chips are down, though, it was
Speaker 1: still the foot soldier, the infantry that had to take
Speaker 1: the ground and hold it foot by bloody foot, like
Speaker 1: this damned planet of a star. He'd never heard of
Speaker 1: until they'd landed him here, and now it was sacred
Speaker 1: ground because the Aliens were there too. The Aliens the
Speaker 1: only other intelligent race in the galaxy, cruel, hideous and
Speaker 1: repulsive monsters. Contact had been made with them near the
Speaker 1: center of the galaxy after the slow but difficult colonization
Speaker 1: of a dozen thousand planets, and it had been war
Speaker 1: at sight. They'd shot without even trying to negotiate or
Speaker 1: to make peace. Now, planet by bitter planet, it was
Speaker 1: being fought out. He was wet and muddy and hungry
Speaker 1: and cold, and the day was raw, with a high
Speaker 1: wind that hurt his eyes. But the Aliens were trying
Speaker 1: to infiltrate, and every sentry post was vital He stayed alert,
Speaker 1: gun ready, fifty thousand light years from home, fighting on
Speaker 1: a strange world, and wondering if he'd ever lived to
Speaker 1: see home again. And then he saw one of them
Speaker 1: crawling toward him. He drew a bead and fired. The
Speaker 1: alien made that strange, horrible sound they all make, then
Speaker 1: it lay still. He shuddered at the sound in sight
Speaker 1: of the alien lying there. One ought to be able
Speaker 1: to get used to them after a while, but he'd
Speaker 1: never been able to such repulsive creatures. They were with
Speaker 1: only two arms and two legs, ghastly white skins and
Speaker 1: no scales, and of two timer by Frederick Brown