A safe way to call

I woke up in my bed. My bed. Relief washed over me as I realized I wasn’t in a hospital bed—those things were stiff and painfully uncomfortable.
"I really saved humanity," I muttered to myself, staring up at the familiar ceiling. The victory felt hollow, though. No one else would know what I had done.
The memory of that moment—when all those unfamiliar memories flooded my mind—haunted me. Was it a side effect of my brain switching through timelines?
I raised my sleeve to check my arm. The tattoo still read 2410002. Same timeline. The small change I’d triggered hadn’t affected the number.
But that small change might have tipped the scales in favor of the AI.
"If the AI wins..." I whispered, dread tightening in my chest. It wouldn’t just be the present or the future at risk—it could rewrite the past. Did the AI already know about my discovery? Or did they learn of it after the city-wide blackout?
"Hey, son. You awake?" My father’s voice called from the other side of the door.
"Yeah," I replied.
He stepped into the room and sat on the edge of my bed, his expression serious.
"Are you doing drugs?" he asked, his tone betraying a hint of suspicion.
"What? Drugs don’t exist anymore."
"Technically, drugs still exist," he countered. "You just can’t get high off them or die from them anymore."
"You sound suicidal."
He laughed, breaking his serious demeanor. "I’m just messing with you!" He gave me a hearty pat on the back. "So, what happened? Why’d you pass out like that?"
"I..." I hesitated. Could I tell him? Would he even believe me? My mom was the better one to handle this kind of conversation. "Where’s Mom?"
"What, your dad’s not good enough to help with your problems?"
"It’s not that!" I quickly defended. "You’re great, but this is... more of a science thing. Mom would get it better."
"I see..." he said, nodding. "Well, she’s not gonna be home for three days. You’ll have to wait."
"Three days? Why?"
"Just work stuff. Don’t worry about it."
"Oh... Is my body okay, though?"
"For the most part, yeah," he replied. "But you’ve got some nasty marks on your neck, like someone strangled you."
"Marks?" I reached up, feeling at my neck.
"Yeah. At first, I thought maybe you got kidnapped or something, but with your perfect control over nanobots, I figured that couldn’t happen. Seriously, though, how do you manage them? Most people can’t even come close to controlling them like you do."
"I guess it’s tied to mental stability," I said, shrugging. "It’s not something you can teach, so don’t even ask."
"Ha, you know me too well. But you could totally be on drugs, and I wouldn’t even know."
"Basic manipulation." I stood up. "I’m heading to the lab."
"Shouldn’t you rest?"
"I’ve got a theory. I need to confirm it."
"Alright. Stay safe."
As I left the room, a thought struck me. If I still had strangulation marks on my neck, it meant my entire body had traveled through time, replacing my past self rather than just my consciousness shifting timelines.
Which meant the tattoo on my arm might be wrong.
Once I reached the lab, I immediately began searching for the worldline sensor, a device designed to track the timeline we were currently in. Its purpose was simple: to help time travelers identify their location in the multiverse and avoid unnecessary struggles.
I scanned the room, my eyes darting over the equipment. Finally, I saw it hanging on the wall.
Wait. That wasn’t there before.
I approached cautiously, and my stomach dropped when I saw the numbers displayed on its screen: 0601008.
I wasn’t in the same timeline anymore.
"I’m in a different timeline..." I whispered, the realization hitting me like a punch to the gut.
But it wasn’t so bad. Everyone was alive. The city was intact.
I smirked to myself. In this timeline, I hadn’t made the colossal mistake of leaving the machines running. The thought of that robot’s reaction—grappling empty air as I vanished from its grasp—made me chuckle.
But now that everything was mostly normal, I had a new priority.
Gaku.
I needed to find a way to contact him safely. And after that... I owed him an apology.
My mind raced as I thought about quantum space, my grand theory. By accelerating an electron to light speed, I could send messages back in time. That part was simple enough in theory.
But if I connected the particle accelerator with a quantum machine...
It could work.
The message would still send, but the feedback could potentially rip apart space itself. It was a dangerous gamble, but if I wanted to prevent future disasters, it was one I had to take.
I walked out of the lab, my thoughts still buzzing with calculations and risks.
“Hey, Dad!” I called out, heading toward him. He turned to me, raising an eyebrow. “I need your help,” I said, trying to keep my tone casual, even though my heart was pounding with the weight of my plan.

***

“Turn on the lab!” my father commanded.
With a hum, all the lights flickered on, illuminating the massive space. We had driven all the way to my parents’ main lab to test my theory. Unlike my small lab, this one had enough room for... well, potentially catastrophic experiments.
“Why is the lab off?” I asked, glancing around. “Shouldn’t Mom be working here?”
“She’s probably in her office,” Dad replied. “You can say hi if you want.”
“Looks like I’m saying hi first.”
I nearly jumped out of my skin as my mother’s voice came from behind us. She had appeared out of nowhere, a habit of hers that always made my nerves stand on edge.
“What are you boys doing here?” she asked, her tone brisk.
“Testing out the, uh, ‘safe’ way to contact the past,” I said, trying to sound nonchalant.
“Do you have a theory paper?” she asked, holding out her hand.
“Here you go!” I said, quickly handing over a document filled with pages of calculations and explanations.
She skimmed it for a moment before letting out a long sigh. “I have too much work to go over this in detail. Just don’t blow up the lab.”
With that, she turned and walked away, leaving us in the silence of her lingering authority.
“Your mom is scary, isn’t she?” Dad said, breaking the tension.
“You’re scared of her?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
“You’re not?” he shot back, his expression dead serious.

***

“You know this quantum machine is just a prototype, right?” my father asked, his tone somewhere between serious and amused. “It could blow up.”
“Come on,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Thanks to your genius invention, my phone can already connect to the past.”
“Oh, you flatter me,” he replied, smirking.
“Don’t say it like that. It’s creepy.”
“Anyway,” he continued, turning his attention to the machines, “they’re both connected now. The particle accelerator and the quantum prototype machine are synced perfectly.”
He stepped back, admiring his work like an artist gazing at their masterpiece. “Your mom is going to kill us for blowing up the lab.”
“Don’t worry,” I said, trying to sound confident. “Everything will go according to plan—at least, on paper.”
I ran over to the control station where I could connect my phone to the accelerator. The moment of truth was upon us.
“If you can, stay quiet,” I told my dad as I prepared the setup. “I need full concentration.”
Taking a deep breath, I connected my phone to the machine, entered Gaku’s number, and waited. The ringing tone filled the lab. My heart pounded in sync with every ring, my fingers gripping the console tightly. Then, it happened.
“Hello?” Gaku’s voice came through the line, clear and unmistakable.
“Part one, done,” I muttered to myself, a mix of awe and disbelief. “Gaku, disconnect.”
“Okay,” Gaku said simply before hanging up.
I braced myself, fully expecting everything to glitch out and fry my brain. But...
Nothing happened.
“I contacted the past... without hurting myself...?” I whispered. “YEEEEEAAAAHHH!!!” The triumphant cry echoed through the lab as I pumped my fists in the air.

To be continued...