A Pocket of Time

A Pocket of Time

Hannah kept the ancient trinket close and checked it regularly, a habit developed over years on a starliner. Plenty of schedules to keep, after all. The pocket-watch was surprising accurate, even with the chipped glass, and time was as much a tool for her as she was its victim.

Nine thousand four hundred and ninety days old, age twenty six from her perspective, though millennia had passed before her eyes…a complication of her profession. Sure, she’d worked for just over five years, but traveling so often at lightspeed accelerated the rest of reality around her. She remembered her first day on the job in 2236. It was 6427 now.

Unconsciously, she checked her watch again even though she was almost done, every form digitally mapped. “So what will you do now?” the stout alien attendant asked as Hannah pressed her thumb into the reader. “You’re probably the last.”

“See what the future holds, I guess.” Her old life was long gone, the heavy price for a marvelous adventure, and she’d seen breathtaking wonders never dreamed of in her time. Now, she was stuck, a victim of outdated technology. Warp-gates, they called them, allowing instant interplanetary travel in the blink of an eye. Starships were obsolete now and she was out of a job. “Well, time marches on.”

“Hannah Nelson?” a synthesized voiced asked from behind her.

“Yes?” She turned to face a slender android.

“Are you interested in something new?” the automaton wondered.

“I suppose I have time to kill,” she noted, ironically.

The robot grinned. “Time is relative, Ms. Nelson, especially in our division, and your millennia of experience makes you very valuable.”

“Which division,” she wondered.

“Time travel,” the machine replied. “I’m sure you’re ready to see your home again.”

“More than ever,” she replied anxiously.


299 words