"Absolutamente Inflexível" por Robert Silverberg , publicado pela primeira vez em Fantástico Universo , julho de 1956 ; a reimpressão em New Worlds Science Fiction # 72, junho de 1958 está disponível no Arquivo da Internet . Aqui está um resumo do enredo de Majipoor.com :
It's a nifty little time-travel paradox story. In the 28th Century, the Earth has been rid of disease, so germ-ridden time travelers from the past are quarantined at a prison on the moon where they can't infect the world's unprotected population.
Ocorre em um futuro onde todas as doenças e enfermidades foram eliminadas, deixando pessoas com sistemas imunológicos fracos. O personagem principal está encarregado de enviar todos os funis do passado para uma colônia lunar para evitar a propagação de doenças.
"But can't I live on Earth and stay in this space suit?" the time-jumper asked, panicky now that he saw his interview with Mahler was coming to an end. "That way I'd be sealed off from contact at all times."
"Please don't make this any harder for me," Mahler said. "I've explained to you why we must be absolutely inflexible about this. There cannot—must not—be any exceptions. It's two centuries since last there was any occurrence of disease on Earth. In all this time we've lost most of the resistance acquired over the previous countless generations of disease. I'm risking my life coming so close to you, even with the space suit sealing you off."
A viagem no tempo é supostamente impossível quando um funil de tempo que afirma ter um dispositivo bidirecional é capturado.
"Took this away from our latest customer," Fournet said. "He told the medic who examined him that it was a two-way rig, and I thought I'd bring it to show you."
Mahler came to full attention quickly. A two-way rig? Unlikely, he thought. But it would mean the end of the dreary jumper prison on the Moon if it were true. Only how could a two-way rig exist?
Este funil do tempo parece muito com o personagem principal, mas é enviado para a colônia da lua de qualquer maneira.
The guards brought the jumper into Mahler's office. He was fairly tall, Mahler saw, and young. It was difficult to see his face clearly through the dim plate of the protective space suit all jumpers were compelled to wear, but Mahler could tell that the young time-jumper's face had much of the lean, hard look of Mahler's own. It seemed that the jumper's eyes widened in surprise as he entered the office, but Mahler was not sure.
O personagem principal mexer com o seu dispositivo, salta para trás no tempo,
He picked up the time-jumper's rig and examined it. A two-way rig would be the solution, of course. As soon as the jumper arrives, turn him around and send him back. They'd get the idea soon enough. Mahler found himself wishing it were so; he often wondered what the jumpers stranded on the Moon must think of him.
[. . .]
He touched his left hand gingerly to the indicated place. There was a little crackle of electricity. He let go, quickly, and started to replace the time-rig on his desk when the desk abruptly faded out from under him.
tenta voltar ao seu tempo e é confrontado com uma cópia de si mesmo e é enviado para a colônia da lua, apesar de declarar que ele possui um dispositivo bidirecional.
Suddenly Mahler saw the insane circle complete. He recalled the jumper, the firm, deep-voiced, unafraid time jumper who had arrived claiming to have a two-way rig and who had marched off to the Moon without arguing. Now Mahler knew who that jumper was.
But how did the cycle start? Where did the two-way rig come from in the first place? He had gone to the past to bring it to the present to take it to the past to—
His head swam. There was no way out. He looked at the man behind the desk and began to walk toward him, feeling a wall of circumstance growing around him, while he, in frustration, tried impotently to beat his way out.
It was utterly pointless to argue. Now with Absolutely Inflexible Mahler. It would just be a waste of breath. The wheel had come full circle, and he was as good as on the Moon. He looked at the man behind the desk with a new, strange light in his eyes.