At The Edge Of Time
Once there lived a modest and mild-mannered scientist, Professor Albert Hartley, in the blooming city of New York. He was known for his deep fascination with time and its mysteries, not your typical scientist who abided by the rulebook. He was a wild thinker and a passionate dreamer, obsessed much with the idea of manipulating what was always considered a one-way journey – time.
In the glittering summer of 1885, an expedition set off to find an ancient artifact, the Kairosect, said to have unprecedented powers over time. It was during this expedition that Hartley would make an extraordinary discovery that would change his life forever. It wasn't the Kairosect that he found, but instead, a detailed, cryptic scroll which centuries later would be recognised as 'The Scrolls of Baraka'.
The Scrolls of Baraka were written in an unknown dialect, yet Professor Hartley discerned the riddles and understood the depth of the message it conveyed. It was a revelation regarding the very fabric of time, a blueprint that could enable time manipulation. For years, Hartley dedicated himself to deciphering the scroll and to his efforts, he devised a mechanism, a machine, that could supposedly transport a person through time.
Years had passed since that discovery, and the world had now stepped into the 20th century. One winter evening, inside his dusty and dim-lit laboratory, Hartley ignited the machine with a hopeful heart. As the cogs whirred into life, the room filled with a humming energy. The machine, designed as a grand clock with ostentatious gears and an ornate chair in the centre, began to emit a strange pale blue light. On that day, Professor Hartley became the first man to leap through time.
Hartley took an initial leap to the future, where he beheld the world teeming with incredible technology. But soon he realised the rampant corruption, inequality, and man's detachment from his fellow beings. The future he had once dreamt of was failing before his eyes.
He decided to travel back in time, in a desperate attempt to change the course of unhappy events he had witnessed in the future. However, each attempt brought its set of consequences disrupting the natural stream of occurrences. It was as if time was fighting back. The most heartbreaking of his attempts was when his alterations cause the untimely death of his wife, Clara, in an accident she was never fated to have.
Horrified by the unforeseen consequences of his actions, Hartley was dispirited and disillusioned. He realised his attempts to change the course of time were not only futile but destructive. It hit him that time must remain untampered, its flow undisturbed. Regardless of the remarkable potential his discovery had, he concluded that mankind was not ready for such colossal power and might never be.
In a moment of disrupt and determination, he destroyed his machine, his dream, reducing it to nothing more than a bunch of charred cogs and gears, marking the end of his journey. From then onwards, he devoted his life to teaching, imparting knowledge, and wisdom he gained through his adventures in time. He spent rest of his life in tranquility, imparting the wisdom and lessons he obtained from his journey across time.
His story served as a beacon lighting the path of future generations, educating them about the very essence of time - time is linear, and any attempt to manipulate it can lead to catastrophic consequences. Professor Hartley's story is not a tale of failure but a testament to man's ambition, and a reminder of his boundaries.
Such was the journey of Professor Albert Hartley, who reached for the insurmountable, touched it, and knew better to let it be. A man who stood at the edge of time, had the courage to step back, and acknowledge the beauty of life's progression as it is supposed to be.