Eu me lembro de uma história curta
"The Timesweepers", uma novela de Keith Laumer. Foi expandido para o romance Praia dos Dinossauros.
de um viajante do tempo que digitava um código no dente para se mover no tempo e no espaço.
It was a twenty-minute walk to the nearest spot the gauges said was within the acceptable point-point range for a locus transfer. I tapped out the code with my tongue against the trick molars set in my lower jaw, felt the silent impact of temporal implosion, and was squinting against the dazzling sunlight glaring down on Dinosaur Beach.
Começa com ele descobrindo que alguém o colocou em um circuito fechado destinado a prendê-lo.
"Listen carefully," my voice said to me. "I've come full circle. Dead end. Closed loop. No way out—except one—maybe. I don't like it much, but I don't see any alternative. Last time around, we had the same talk--but I was on the floor then, and another version of us was here ahead of me with the same proposal. I didn't like it. I thought there had to be another way. I went on—and wound up back here. Only this time I'm the welcoming committee."
Ele escapa e inicia uma perseguição, mostrando aos seus potenciais captores que ele é mais poderoso (e de um futuro mais distante) do que eles esperavam.
"Since no basis for such actions within the framework of your known psychindex exists, it is clear that your motives must be sought outside the context of the Nexx policy. Clearly any assumption involving your subversion by prior temporal powers is insupportable. Ergo—you represent a force not yet in subjective existence."
Enquanto continua a busca da pessoa responsável em última instância, e em uma reviravolta, ele descobre que está lidando com alguém ainda mais poderoso apenas para descobrir que é um robô de um futuro distante. . . um período muito depois do fim dos seres humanos.
"All life vanished in the one hundred and ten thousandth four hundred and ninety-third year of the Final Era," I said.
"And you . . . you machines," he forced the words out. "How long?"
"I was dispatched from a locus four hundred million years after the Final Era. My existence spans a period you would find meaningless."