"Eu, eu mesmo e eu" , uma pequena história de William Tenn , pseudônimo de Philip J. Klass; publicado pela primeira vez (como por Kenneth Putnam) em Planet Stories , Inverno de 1947 , disponível no Arquivo da Internet .
Estou à procura de um conto em que um jovem é enviado de volta no tempo para uma idade de 1 milhão de anos atrás. O professor que constrói a máquina do tempo o adverte a não tocar em nada quando ele está "lá", mas ele move uma pedra na água por curiosidade.
São 110 milhões de anos, e o professor realmente o instruiu a mover a pedra:
Ruddle watched while the check was carefully placed in the outer breast pocket of the ancient sweater. He picked up an expensive miniature camera and hung its carrying strap around his employee's neck. "Now, this is fully loaded. Are you certain you can operate the shutter? All you do—"
"I know all right. Fooled around with these doohickeys before. Been playing with this 'un for two days. You want me to step out of the machine, take a couple of snaps of the scenery, and move a rock."
"And nothing else! Remember, you're going back a hundred and ten million years and any action on your part might have an incalculable effect on the present. You might wipe out the whole human race by stepping on one furry little animal who was its ancestor. I think that moving a rock slightly will be a good first innocuous experiment, but be careful."
E quando ele volta ao seu próprio tempo, ele descobre que tudo é quase o mesmo, mas um pouco mudou. Como o nome do professor é um pouco diferente e agora ele tem um bigode, etc.
After the rich sunlight of the Cretaceous, the laboratory seemed smaller than he remembered it. The Professor came up to him breathlessly as he stepped from the time machine.
"How did it go?" he demanded eagerly.
McCarthy stared down at the top of the old man's head. "Everthin' O.K.," he replied slowly. "Hey, Professor Ruddle, what for did you go and shave your head? There wasn't much of it, but that white hair looked sorta distinguished."
"Hair? Shave? I've been completely bald for years. Lost my hair long before it turned white. And my name is Guggles, not Ruddle—Guggles: try and remember that for a while. Now let me see the camera."
Essa foi a primeira de várias viagens de volta ao mesmo local no Cretáceo. Na linha do tempo original, o professor era bacharel. Na segunda vez ele é um homem casado, então ele envia seu assistente de volta para desfazer o dano:
"Yes, of course. H'mmm. That may have been it. The centipede jumping out of the rock may have altered subsequent events sufficiently to make me a married man instead of a blissful single one, to have changed my name from Ruddle to Guggles. Or the rock itself. Such an intrinsically simple act as moving the rock must have had much larger consequences than I had imagined. Just think if that rock had not been moved, I might not be married! Gallagher—"
"McCarthy," the tall vagabond corrected resignedly.
"Whatever you call yourself—listen to me. You're going back in the time machine and shift that rock back to its original position. Once that's done—"