Mission to Save 50 Million People

By J Itchen

Henry has proven that time travel works, He now wants to go back to stop Hitler in whatever way he can and so to stop the Second World War. The question is whether it is possible to change history or whether the fact that Henry was there means that what he did is already part of the fabric of time. Can the implementation of free will change what happens?

The question is: how does a civilised modern man cope when he is thrown into the most vicious and deadly war of the twentieth century? This is the story of an ordinary person trying to change the course of history whilst also being forced along with it into places he did not want to go.

• Language: English
• Publisher: J Itchen
• Release date: Jul 9, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311883476

J Itchen

J is a graduate from Bristol University, England, who is married with four children. Currently lives in Southampton, England, although when young also lived in other parts of the world (Malaysia, Thailand, Yemen Arab Republic).J has been writing for several years mainly for magazines (more usually science rather than science fiction), for specialist books and recently a web site. Starting with science fiction (not fantasy), genres published have also covered the erotic, plus a combination of the two.

Book preview

Chapter 1 - Riches

As expected Henry won his lottery ticket in January, with its massive cash prize making him a multi-millionaire. He knew that he would from his time travels in the previous year. The Professor won the next week as well, although his winnings were not quite so high.

Henry went in with his wife Jane to see Professor Drummond the day after the Professor won, going to his college rooms in Cambridge. As usual, Bill, his post-graduate student was there. They were sitting in the Professor’s suite drinking tea, the old beaten up furniture completely in keeping with the old room that overlooked the ancient Quad. They looked no different from before, still the shabbily smart thin professor with his unfashionable well-worn tie and the equally thin but wild haired and casually dressed Bill. They sat in neighbouring high backed arm chairs like a wizard with his apprentice, either side of the wood fire that burned strongly.

Henry took this all in with Jane after he heard the ‘come in’ after his knock.

So we have the proof that time travel works, the Professor beamed. We know every winning ticket for this month. Bill here is to win next week, and then I do again, to fund the research, of course.

Will you go public? Henry asked as he settled himself down onto the brown patched sofa with Jane, moving some books onto the floor as he did so. The sofa had seen better days and Henry could feel the failed springs. The Professor would probably not bother to buy a new one with a tiny part of his massive winnings unless someone prompted him to do so.

Have some tea, Bill offered. But don’t complain about it, you may be old and weak yourself someday. Bill cackled to himself and the Professor grinned.

These two were definitely in a very jovial mood. Henry had some more serious things he wanted to bring up. He had already lived two whole extra lifetimes on time travel trips, he was now set up for life financially and he felt that he needed to give something back.

I have produced a paper, using our prediction of this month’s lottery numbers as evidence, the Professor said. I lodged it with the magazine before the lottery numbers were known, with strict instructions not to open the envelope until the end of this month so no-one else would take a punt on our numbers. However we know from your trip to the future, Henry, that they still think that time travel is impossible even then. That means that either that my research is nobbled by the secret services or it is not accepted. I expect the former to happen, with some of the latter to discredit the idea for most. I do not expect to get recognition and fame, but at least I now have a fortune. I am, of course, honour bound to use it for research, but having substantial amounts of cash does make things a lot easier. I will not hand the secrets over to the military or to any one group, but I will publish as publicly as possible.

They will rubbish your research, in that case, Henry observed. They will say that you cheated, did a trick with the numbers, or something like that. In a hundred years they still think that time travel is impossible. Maybe the Owners knew that it was possible, and that is why they knew about me, but certainly most people did not.

He does not intend that the money will change his lifestyle, Bill grinned. However I do. I am fed up of being penniless. I do not care about fame, just the fortune!

Henry was not that interested in how they were going to use their wealth. The greatest thing as far as he was concerned was the security it brought which enabled him to try other things.

I am a scientist, the Professor said, and I have a responsibility to mankind not to let my discoveries be taken over by any one group, especially the power hungry. I now have the personal wealth not to rely on others to fund me, so I can do what I think is right. Knickers to those who want to discredit my work for non-scientific reasons.

The Professor looked very determined. He had failed to notice that he had not offered Jane or Henry any tea. Maybe he expected them to help themselves from the pot on the coffee table and assumed that they would go and wash their own mugs from the dirty pile by the sink Henry knew always existed in the neighbouring kitchen.

I want to go back to 1930, Henry said bluntly.

Why? the Professor asked and looked quizzically at him.

I know that we think that we cannot change history, but I think that we should see if we can by trying to do so, Henry leant forward eagerly. He had discussed this extensively with Jane already. More than fifty million people died in the Second World War and it brutalised and destroyed so much of civilisation. However if one man was not there in the early 1930s the whole thing is unlikely to have happened. I think that I should go back and stop Hitler. I will assassinate him if necessary.

Professor Drummond looked up to the heavens in sudden exasperation. You do realise what the massive ramifications would be if you did succeed, he said. It would change the whole way that we exist now. We ourselves may not exist, or certainly not in the way that we are now. It is logically impossible that you would succeed anyway, for that very reason. It would be unlikely that we would be here, like this, if that fundamental a part of history was different.

It would be a good experiment, to test whether history can be changed at all, Henry said. I did not change anything that we are aware about when I went back to the English Civil War and fought with Cromwell. However I was not trying to change things then. This time I would.

This would be so massively risky that it is insane, Bill said.

All the risks would be that things change so much for the better. More than fifty million people would survive to contribute to the development of humanity, Henry insisted and started to wave his hands about. Ok maybe we would not exist as we do now, but someone would work out how to do time travel and perhaps even send a different me back to fulfil their alternative history.

An extra fifty million people, plus all their descendants, would have a massive effect on the world in environmental terms, Bill said. Maybe the outcome could be a lot worse, such as an ecosystem collapse.

So you would be happy for those fifty million to die in the horrible way so many of them did because it might cause an ecosystem collapse later, Henry said. Surely we must credit humanity with being able to foresee that and to be able to deal with it.

It does not look like we did very well about that based on what you saw when you went forward a hundred years, the Professor commented drily.

However we did keep going, all be it with massive flooding and other changes, Henry said. Humanity survived. We would survive with fifty million more souls not being murdered and the rest of society brutalised. I don’t think that we should reject this idea based on what the outcome may be, it has to be massively positive. The issue is whether adjusting history for the positive can be done. If it cannot then we need to prove that. If it can then surely we are honour bound to try!

Henry sat back. He had put his case.

What do you think, Jane? the Professor asked. Jane had been keeping quiet whist looking nervous throughout all this.

I would not go with him on this one either, Jane replied carefully. I had a bad enough time in the English Civil War and I think that this one could be even worse. My fear is that it could brutalise you, Henry. Henry is no assassin and it will not be easy to get to Hitler in order to do the deed.

We have spoken about this, and I am willing to face that possibility, Henry said. I was affected very deeply by fighting in the English Civil War and now I find daily life so trivial, even though I love Jane and our two sons very deeply. We now have enough money to live comfortably for the rest of our lives so I want to give back to humanity, and this seems the best way to do it.

You could very easily be killed trying to assassinate Hitler, Bill said.

Then my trip would be short and sharp, Henry replied shrugging his shoulders slightly. I would be back here without time to become brutalised. I was killed almost immediately on my first trip forward in time, if you remember. That was a shock, but I got over it.

I agree that it is a good idea to see if we can alter something that we know happened in the past, but this seems such a massive change, the Professor mused. I would like to do something relatively small.

Any change I do, even the smallest thing, is likely to have ripples through time that would affect us today, Henry said. It is the butterfly effect. So we would not know what I had done as that small bit of history would change very simply for us and we may not realise what changed. Or our history could be falsified by someone. However if we go for something big like this then either I succeed and there is a whole different, better, future and others may discover time travel, or I show that it is not possible to change history. When I come back at least I will know that Hitler was originally not assassinated in 1931.

This is just so ridiculously enormous, we cannot contemplate it, Bill said.

I don’t know, the Professor pressed his fingers against his lips, pushing the top lip up. I am coming around to the idea. Maybe we are morally bound to try to save fifty million people. And it would be so important for the application of this time travel technology. Maybe we could engineer the best outcomes for humanity. Even if our personal lives changed, it would still be worth it.

Henry glanced sideways at Jane and held her hand. She looked very unhappy about the idea but was not going to argue again about it. They waited whilst the Professor mused.

Let’s do it! the Professor finally said decisively. Henry will always know why you were sent back and so when you return we will have a definite answer to this issue.

Chapter 2 - Back in time

Henry sat in the now familiar seat surrounded by the equipment. This time he had a small fortune in gold Krugerrand coins to take back with him to fund his mission. He would have to cash these in as soon as possible as he knew from previous experience they would gradually deteriorate and lose atoms as they returned to the present day. So they would lose weight and lose value. The only reason he as a living being would not deteriorate is that his body would replenish the lost substances. The odd thing that no-one could explain as yet was why his memories of his extra lifetime would come with him when he returned to the present time a nanosecond after leaving.

He had dressed in what he thought were clothes in the 1930s style.

What will be in this room in 1930? Henry asked. I presume that this building is hundreds of years old.

The room they were in was extremely ordinary. It looked like a small lecture room with no windows, stone walls, a few seats in rows and then the time travel contraption wired up at the front.

Yes, more than five hundred years old, Bill agreed as he tinkered with the controls. We do not think that there will be anything significant there, but whatever there is in your transmitted space will be sent to the present time for the split second before you return after a lifetime in the past.

What happens if we transmit someone else forward in time by mistake, because they are in this physical space in 1930? Henry asked.

We are the master with the time controls, the Professor said. You would take their place in the past and live your lifetime there before returning to this time again exactly this time. We do not know what would happen with someone coming forward. We may find two of you suddenly here.

Very confusing, Henry said.

Remember that although we are targeting 1930 you could be adrift by some years, Bill said. Perhaps a maximum of five or six years either side.

Henry nodded, he knew this. To the people in the room it would look like he never left. However in the split second he was sent back in time he would have lived a lifetime before he returned in the split second later. The Professor still did not know why the memory of the extra lifetime survived n return as the rest of the body was back exactly as it was when it left.

Are you ready? the Professor asked.

Henry blew a kiss to Jane who stood by the Professor and Bill looking even more worried than ever.

Yes, Henry said.

Before he finished the word he felt the gyration and disorientation that he knew was the time travel process. He shut his eyes to maintain some sort of control. As things settled down he opened them.

The room was dark and full of old fashioned wooden upright chairs. There were two or three near him that were cut in half and were still wobbling about where they had fallen on the floor. Henry stood up. There was no reception committee for him, thank goodness, although why should there be in the past? He felt fine after the travel, but still waited for a couple of moments to be sure.

He walked to the door, opened it and went out into the corridor. He knew the way out as the layout was more or less exactly as it was in his time. No-one bothered him although there were a few people walking about. Henry went out of the doors at the front, no longer the automatic ones but old heavy wooden ones. It was obviously daytime. He looked about. People were willing around like they did in every time. They wore hats and coats, it was cold. One thing Henry had not brought was a coat so he would have to buy one, and to do that he would have to cash in a Krugerrand or two. He knew where a bank would be as he had looked it up on the internet before he left and there was one nearby.

Henry broke into a run. He was too cold to walk without a coat so he arrived breathless at the bank. It was open. It seemed to be around noon in a working day although he still had no idea of the date, or indeed the year.

Henry subbed his hands together to keep warm as he handed over two Krugerrand.

Can I exchange these for cash, please? Henry asked the middle aged man behind the counter. The whole place seemed more like a corner shop in its casual approach rather than a bank.

The man looked at them. I will have to check them out first, he said. Are you a refugee?

Sort of, Henry said. That may be a reasonable cover for him, he thought.

The man went to the back where Henry heard someone, who was presumably his wife, say quietly, A refugee, the poor devil! Give him a decent rate.

I will give him the standard rate, as always, her husband replied gruffly. I need to check these out first. You have to be careful with some of these Jews.

They ca be desperate.

Henry was a bit disturbed by this. It sounded like the Jews were already fleeing Germany.

Eventually the man came back. These check out. I will work out the cash based on these tables and this weighing machine.

The man was clearly seeking to show that he was being meticulously fair and honest. Henry could have kissed him for his good old fashioned notion of ‘fair play’ that the man clearly lived by.

As he counted out the cash, Henry said, Do you get many refugees here now, then?

More and more, the man said. But in Cambridge they are generally the better class of refugee as they often come here for the University. They are mostly intellectuals and the like. Are you here for the University?

No, just passing through, Henry said. Do you know where the best place is to get a good coat and also a newspaper?

As the man explained his wife appeared with something wrapped in a bundle.

Here, take this, she offered him the bundle. It is a little extra to thank you for your custom.

Henry thanked her and looked inside. It was a piece of cake and an apple. She obviously thought that being a refugee he might be hungry. It was her bit of charity, despite the fact that he clearly had some money as he had Krugerrand.

Thank you, you are most kind. Henry said, tears welling up for her humanity to someone she saw as suffering. The fact that he had come in on a cold day without a coat sent a certain message. It was not the case, but it was heart-warming to see that she meant so well.

Do you think that war will come? the man asked.

I very much hope not, Henry replied.

We all hope not too, his wife said. But Mr Churchill is talking in King’s College this evening about the need to re-arm. I hope that he is wrong.

I would love to hear him, Henry said. He is a very great man.

Henry left the bank, his heart warmed by his reception, and his body soon warmed by the heavy coat he purchased. He picked up The Times. He was not too concerned about the details, but he saw that it was October 1935. This was much later than he had intended to arrive. Hitler was already in power in Germany so would be harder to reach. It also explained why a few refugees had started to come to England. Henry determined to try to speak to Churchill either before or after his speech.

Chapter 3 - Churchill

Henry arrived very early at King’s College. He had had a warming meal opposite Kings College Chapel at what would become a coffee house later on, but in 1935 was a traditional café. He went to see if he could find Churchill.

He went up the stairs, ostensibly to get into the Hall, but then looked around at the various doors. He walked along, listening. At ne there was a buzz f talk coming from inside. He cautiously opened the door. There were a bunch of people with drinks. Henry was about to apologise and withdraw when he saw the big frame of the future Prime Minister.

Henry walked forward and a waiter offered him a drink from a tray. No-one seemed to bat an eyelid that he had come in, there was zero security, and it seemed anyone who came in was welcome.

There were a couple of people talking to Churchill and Henry could see that he could have trouble butting in and anyway here was very public.

Excuse me, Mr Churchill, Henry leant forward, can I please have an urgent word with you.

As Churchill turned, Henry added to the two men with Churchill, You will excuse us please, but I need to speak confidentially with Mr Churchill for a few minutes.

Henry led Churchill away out of the room and into a neighbouring room that was empty. They both sat down in chairs facing each other.

Do I know you? Churchill asked. He had been happy to be led away but was clearly perplexed.

No, you do not, Henry said, "but I know you very well and I know the