A Paradox in Retrograde by John Faherty Read Free Book Online

together what he could carry, he returned to the beach
where his capsule had landed, tired and a bit hungry.
    Having return to the spot upon the beach from where he started
he sat down to ponder his current situation. Though it was not
yet clear to him how long he would need to stay on this island, he
knew that it could not long serve his needs. For the time being
though he would need then for now to forage for a living.
    Within the capsule there among a number items he found was a
note book. He found the pages blank and he thought this telling
of his future without a past. He thought it might prove prudent to
make a record of some sort. As he sat upon the beach with the
setting sun before him he began to document his first day. There
he described the scene thusly, "Day one: The tumuli of our internment are lost as I have awoken alone upon sea. I can assume
that I may be forever cut off from my kin as I am lost in both time
and space. I shall endeavor in my remaining time to tie together
what threads of this story may be remaining. As for myself I have
fared well. By sheer providence I find myself high and dry upon a
deserted atoll that appears to be part of a chain of islands. The
weather is fair and the water warm. There appears to be abundant
fresh water, plants and animals of all description. Some the likes
of which I have never before seen. When night falls I will attempt
to calculate by the stars if visible, not only my location but the
duration of my slumber." He closed the book and began preparing
for the evening."
    At dusk he fought off his weariness, preparing for his night sky
observations by gathering firewood and some familiar shell fish.
He ate these with relish by the fireside. With primitive tools that
might seem familiar to mariners of any age, he watched as the
first stars and planets appeared on the horizon. As darkness fell
he was startled to see the degree to which he could visualize the
universe. The great swath of the Milky Way divided the sky in
two, as he had never seen it before. He paused there a moment
staring into those dark spaces. For a fleeting second he thought
there ought to be something there that wasn't. He put this
thought quickly out of his mind and returned to charting in his
notebook the relative locations of the planets and constellations.
Using the note book he wrote these findings. Again and again he
checked the numbers for something did not quite add up. It
would seem none of his calculations seemed to make any sense,
this he found troubling. His results based on the current positions of the stars showed that his location relative to them put
him thousands of kilometers from his last known position. He
realized if he made the assumption that his current position had
not radically changed from his previous one, the positions of the
stars would then indicate he had been adrift in time for more
than twelve thousand years. This realization of the implausible
left him stunned. How could it be possible that against all odds
or by some strange twist of fate he had survived? Sitting alone
on the beach bathed in the starlight and the ocean breeze he
checked and double-checked his findings. He was forced then
to accept against his will, the facts as they presented themselves.
He questioned himself, "however would I make it alone in a
strange world of which I know nothing?" And of his family,
what had become of them? They were surely all gone now. How
would he communicate with the survivors and in what primitive
state would their culture be in? The world from which he came
was one of turmoil and strife, devastated by the powers of a
seething Earth and beset by missiles from space. There were only several thousand left of the once thriving human race when he
began his journey. He had long ago missed the rendezvous and
now he wondered what could be left.
    Staring into a fire he had built from the sea drifting wood, he
watched mesmerized as the pillar of smoke welled high up into
the night sky.