"Robert F. Young - Time Travel Inc" - читать интересную книгу автора (Young Robert F)

TIME TRAVEL INC.
by ROBERT F. YOUNG
illustrated by ORBAN


Reddinger and Held wanted to witness the Crucifixion. This could be arranged by
Time Travel Inc. But there were certain conditions — as well as certain dangers


THE TT official in charge of briefing was being anything but brief. Reddinger shifted irritably in his
seat, glanced sideways at Held. Held, judging from his expression, was impatient to get started too. Not
that a thousand dollars would break either man—far from it. But it wasn't the bet per se that mattered: it
was the nagging need to know whether you were right or wrong, whether your own particular credo was
based on fact or falsehood.
The TT official was very young—a factor that contributed considerably to his listener's attitude.
Middle-aged men of Reddinger's and Held's financial and social stature could hardly be expected to be
amenable to the pedagogic discoure of a downy-cheeked college boy.
"The only reason we are able to return to the past at all," he was saying, "is because the means for
doing so is—and always has been—an innate ability of the human mind. Time Travel, Inc., merely
discovered this latent quality and constructed the necessary equipment to take full advantage of it.
"However, this ability is severely limited by two basic laws, which can be stated as follows: (1)
Nothing that has not already happened, or that is not going to happen, can happen, and (2) all
time-identifications must be in character. The first law eliminates all paradoxes. The second
eliminates, for all practical purposes, wish-fulfillment: that is, none of us can return to the Napoleonic age,
for instance, and identify with Napoleon—unless his character is essentially the same as Napoleon's. In
other words, no matter what period we return to, we will become basically what we are now."



"But what if there's no one living in the particular year Held and I choose whose character fits either
of us?" Reddinger interrupted. "What happens then?"
"In that case, the transition would not occur. But such an eventuality is highly improbable—unless you
select a prehistoric date. According to our calculations, the thousand odd basic character types were
pretty well established by 4000 B.C., so if both of you name a temporal destination within the last 7,000
years, in a reasonably well-populated 1ocale, neither of you needs to worry much about finding a body."
"Let me get this straight now," Reddinger said. "About bodies, I mean. I'm a successful automobile
dealer, and Held here is a successful real estate man. So the chances are, if we choose to return, say, to
the year 1877 and retain our present location, inhabit the body of someone like me who's engaged in a
business similar to mine—maybe the carriage trade—and who's as well-fixed financially as I am. And the
same would hold true with Held. Is that what you're trying to tell us?"
The TT official looked embarrassed—and a little exasperated. "I'm afraid you're oversimplifying the
matter, Mr. Reddinger," he said. "A rich man, in this age, wouldn't necessarily have been a rich man in a
preceding age, even given the same character traits. The same holds true for a poor man, and, if you will,
to take the analogy one step further, a beggar man. So many factors enter into the situation that it's
impossible to say exactly what one's status would be."
"Just the same—" it was Held who interrupted this time— "the odds have it that our present
economic and social position is pretty likely to be duplicated, no matter what age we choose. You don't
deny that, do you?"
"No, I don't deny it," the TT official said. "But I must qualify it. You see, your character-counterparts
in a past age may not have had the same opportunities which you have had in this age. Then, too, we