“Don’t you get you are the catalyst? This one event in your life caused the end of our civilization!” “Now wait one minute! That’s not possible! All I wanted was a faster way to travel.”

Dr. Morton pushed the button and the replay of history ran again. The first thing was faster travel. That led to faster life, which soon lead to a quicker desire for pleasure. In turn it lead to higher levels of pleasure, which led to death.

“There’s no mistake Miles. This one event causes the death of 100 Trillion lives. It only took 20 years hence now 50 million people on over 100 hundred thousand planets across 10 galaxies. Only a few scattered worlds out of those still have intergalactic travel.”

The Doctor checked some other stuff on computer system. Then he looked up at Miles and smiled. Then he told Miles that it was his wealth that allowed for his research to be developed and only stopping the events of 21 years ago could fix the problem.

“It should be noted that you have already tried 10 times at least to stop yourself as I spotted ten maybe more time signatures in the time line.”

That whole day they went over the possible scenarios that they might have tried. It was all done while Miles sat in a special chair that grabbed on to each time line. It all played out in Miles mind what would happen for each attempt. Finally the Doctor ran 4 different last runs and in each case it ended with Miles death but the 100 trillion lived.

“You have to alter your life much earlier. Let’s say you decide to marry Shalondra instead of leaving her at the alter?”

Miles looked at Doctor Morton further.

“Can’t use a time portal?”

“What? Well you’re at least coming with me?”

“Instead a time slide will be safer. We will use our bodies in the past. I not sure I want to run into myself. I was just getting over the death of my wife. I might make me think I over stressed. Who knows what my younger self might do.”

Within an hour the Doc had everything ready.

“Alright all I have to do is push this button and…”

It happens so quick that soon it was over. Dr. Morton showed up 3 days before the wedding. He spotted miles on the beach and showed Miles a strange box.

“I brought this baby back from the future. It has four things in it. A memory pill, a special weapon I recently invented, a safety watch and a list of companies to buy stock in.” Doctor Morton didn’t say a word other than “surprise” as he pulled out a strange looking knife and plunged deep into Mile chest. “I sorry Miles. I faked the last three scenarios. Only one with you dieing before your wedding worked. Only if it was three years before your invented the teleporter and three days before the wedding to be exact would it play out right.”

“Your death had to appear as an accident or a heart attack so no thought to your death would be given; plus you couldn’t know it was going to happen. If you knew and anyone suspected something funny going on the whole thing would unravel. Then your research would be looked over for motives and 2 years later a research team would develop your pleasure sensory device. I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t see to it that things worked out right.”

“Don’t let it trouble you. I was prepared to die. You had told me I was going to die shortly after my second son was born. That 3 years from now.”

“I’m sorry to say that he still would have invent the same stuff by following your notes left behind.”

“Then I guess you did right Doc.”

Miles was fading fast. But he had a look of curiosity on his face as he now laid on his back on the sandy beach.

“Doc can you tell me what the memory pill and the safety watch are for?”

“I plan on remembering everything that happen to me in the last 21 years.” Dr. Morton put on the watch. “Then won’t you invent my gadget?”

“No. I never knew how they worked. The science is very strange and not my style. I prefer a memory recorder. It’s much safer. Old memories don’t cause the death of any one they just get boring. Until the next life Miles.”

“Yes until the next. My knowledge will die with me.”

Dr. Morton pointed to his wrist where the safety watch now sat. “This baby will give me up to 5 minutes of protection in the time line after you’re dead. That will be just enough time for the memory pill to work.

Miles smiled and then took a deep breath that was his last. His eyes shut and a look of agony spread across his face. A moment later the Doctor had swallowed the pill and yelled for help for miles. The weapon had broken up into extremely small parts none large enough to see and then only if you knew what to look for. As the minutes ticked away the watch beeped and vanished off of his wrist.

Help arrived too late to save Miles and as the Doctor looked down at Miles; he still knew the future he had come from. With the new found knowledge he did indeed made plenty of money. He also knew that the universe was safe for now. Miles death was notated on the death certificate as a heart attack and forgotten. All of Miles research was erased a few weeks later by some unseen method and it all went on unnoticed.

Final note: Dr. Morton did invent the teleporter and the immortality pill. He also invented some other strange things, some which caused trouble in the universe. But that’s another story…