Initial Arrival 22

Day 3
30 September 1956
Yakutsk, Siberia, USSR

Jennifer eventually started to talk again. “I don't know what to tell them … about how I came here and what happened.”

“Why don't you tell them the truth?”

“Because the truth isn't believable. Besides, it is too dangerous. Nobody can know.”

“I don't understand. Are you in trouble?”

“If the date you told me is correct, then I am from the future. Before I came to the clearing it was June 2013.”

The man paused for a little to think about this. He asked, “Do you have anything which could prove this?”

“What! No. And it doesn't matter anyway. I can't be from the future. They can't know this. That it the point.” Jennifer turned away and closed her eyes as she thought about something which occurred to her. “Hmm, well maybe. If you had access to what I had. I had my passport. My passport isn't the new version with a transponder, but it does have a lot of modern security features. Holograms, no foil, I think. Something difficult to forge.”

“Holograms?”

“An image which looks different from different angles. I think it is supposed to mean a three dimensional image encoded on a two dimensional surface. In science fiction, it is a 3D image projected into real space, but in reality they are just flat images designed to look 3D. Or a foil image used to make documents difficult to forge. Other tricks are watermarks – faint images which show up when copied … electronically copied, micro print – very small text, and images which appear under ultraviolet light. I don't know when these were developed.” Jennifer turned back to face the man after explaining.

“What about a transponder?”

“... I am sorry, I can't talk about that.”

“Did you have anything else?”

“I guess my clothes would have been a mix of cotton and spandex. Cotton is old and plant-based, but spandex is synthetic. It is stretchy and makes the clothes slightly stretchy. I think I left everything else in the car. Hopefully that didn't go through time as well.”

“What about what you know of future events.”

“I can't talk about that. Besides, it won't prove anything until it happens. It doesn't matter anyway. You don't need to believe this.”

“Are you afraid of changing the future?”

“This doesn't matter. They can't know I am from the future. Knowledge is power and … it isn't my right to intervene. This doesn't belong to any of us.”

“Fine. Let's assume this is true. How did you get here?”

“I don't know.”

“You don't have a time machine?”

“No. I just was there, then we got lost … now I am here.”