TRANSCRIPT OF MONOLOGUE BY JF SMITH. Edited for view by the general public.

Start:

"Well here we are," I said, "Moon at last."

"Yep," said my non-talkative friend.

"With plenty of time to explore as well," said I.

"Yep," he said again.

"So let’s go." And we suited up and left the capsule. "You go that-a-way 'n' I'll go this away."

"'K," said my contemporary. And off we went. We were looking for good places to get good samples of rock and moon dust to determine how much was of extra-Luna origin. We were out about 30 minutes and I was keeping up a constant stream of chatter of the radio, when I saw what looked like a piece of metal sticking out of the dust ahead of me. I called out to my partner and started to dig. What was amazing about my find was that there were no recorded landings or crashes within 100 km of were we had landed, and I had travelled no more then 50m in a straight line from there. By the time ------ [blanked by censor] had arrived, I had dug up the item.

“Look at this,” I said. “It has a lever. I wonder what it does.” Reaching for it.

“Noo,” my over protective partner said. And I pulled the lever. However, nothing happened, not at first anyway. Then I realised that I could not hear my esteemed colleague’s breathing. At this, I looked up and realised that he was gone.

“What the?...” I said, left speechless for the first time in years. As I looked around I saw other slight differences, like the fact the hole I had dug looked much more worn than what it was [as a result of comet activity most likely], and one major difference. There was a great excavation about 10m from where I was standing. “What the?...” I said again. Then I think that I must have panicked. I started broadcasting on all channels and running around. I then got my mind back and thought to go look at the capsule.

[“What happened to the device?” “I don’t know I must have dropped it.”].

However when I topped the hill, (crater I suppose), it was gone.

What was in its place was a dome. Look, I’ll draw it for you.

[Copy of drawing.]

[End drawing.]

I down went into the crater, and to what looked like an air-lock. It opened as I approached. This was new to me. Then I thought to look at my time piece. Only about 15 minutes since I had pulled the lever. However, apparently it was 400 years in the future! "What the?..." That would explain the absences of my great friend. You must realise that I had calmed down a lot by then. I entered and the outer door closed. Air entered and other things happened. You all know how air locks work. When pressure had equalised, the inner door opened and I went in. I was greeted by what could only be described as a humanoid robot. It said in a musical tone, "You can take your helmet off. The atmosphere is quite safe." At least I think the tone was coming from it. I mean its mouth was moving but the sound was coming over my radio. I switched bands but the sound kept coming.

"What the hell are you? What is this place? When is this?"

"It will all be explained if you take your helmet off and come with me."

"I'll come with you, but I don't trust you," I said. And I followed it.

The ‘thing’, (I shall call it that for want of a better word), lead me through another door into a room, bare save for a desk opposite the door, a hologram of the moon behind it, and sitting in a chair, in front of the picture but behind the desk, a man. The ‘thing’ talked to the man (at least I think it talked as I still had my helmet on). The man talked back, and then addressing me over the radio, the ‘thing’ said, “It is quite safe to take off your helmet. Please do.”

Looking at the man, I reached to undo the clasps. The man nodded. I hesitated then let my arm drop. “No,” I said. “I still don’t have any idea of what is going on. Talk over the radio or not at all.” This last addressed to the man, as I assumed that he was the boss. The ‘thing’ replied in its musical voice

“Sorry, but it I not possible for ------ [blanked by censor] to talk to you via radio.” ------ by the way was probably the man’s name. “As only I,” it continued, “am still equipped to converse with this outdated technology.”

I could see that I was getting nowhere so I took off my helmet. The air was musty and stale but still marginally better then what I had been breathing for the last 2 hours. “Thank you,” said the man, in a surprisingly soprano voice.

“Hey, what’s all this then? Where’s my capsule and my partner?”

“Let me start from the beginning,” the man said.

“Say before you start, what's with the voice?” As I was saying this I was moving forward.

“If you must know, I am a hologram my self. Rather the body you view is. My real body is on the planet Earth. However this voice is my own. I am a female, I use this hologram so that you will not feel that you are dealing with a female. Most records from your time portray astronauts as sexist.”

“Don’t worry about that,” said I. “I’m not.”

“Back to the story then. After you pressed the lever on the device that you had found, your partner looked all around for you. He called up Earth and he was soon shipped to a psychiatric hospital. Nevertheless, the story he told sparked a wide search of the surrounding area. This search found many other pieces of scrap metal and artifacts, none of which were of Earthly origin or even made by humans. They all so ‘unmooned’ many documents that took many years to decipher. The occupants of the ship, (as that was what it was), were from a planet of the sun Mira. They had invented a time machine, [the thing I had found no doubt], and had fled to this solar system to prevent it falling into the hands of the government of the day. They landed on the moon and then according to the articles and I quote ‘..moved forward in time. Hopefully then we can go back to our home.’ Any way they seem to have moved forward too far, and materialised in solid rock. Any way after finding all this, the authorities realised that you had probably used the time machine and gone forward in time. They set up this dome to receive you and left this here,” pointing at the ‘thing’, “to console you and to alert us when/if you arrived. So there is the story.”

“So are you trying to tell me that all my friends relatives etc are dead?”

“Yes, sorry. But, however there is another way. It is untested as yet, doesn’t even work properly on paper and probably will kill you, but it is still there if you want.”

“What’s that?”

“Another time machine. It will send you back to your time.”

“I’ll take it.”

Therefore, after many weeks of fixing things and me touring Earth of the 2400s, here I am. In my own time, but not in my own universe.

This was originally written for a grade 10 English 'Negotiated Study' on the subject of 'Time Travel'. During this project, I also examined other the scientific possibility of time travel and presented other stuff. I'm not particularly proud of this piece, and I'm not sure why it's up here. Well, whatever.