Slipstream
I killed 5.8 billion people. No small feat to be sure, and the guilt plays hell on your psyche. Then I was given the opportunity to save them, and I took it. I was from the future, until I made the choice to travel back in time. My name is, was, Levi Deveron, but most folks now simply know me as Slipstream. This is my story.
In the year 1992, I was a budding college graduate mastering in bio-chemistry, particularly the effects of accelerated healing and cell regeneration. I was quickly recruited by and began assisting a government funded research team working on the Lazarus Project. This covert team of scientists was attempting to develop ways to insure fitter, healthier and more resilient soldiers on the battlefield, both pre- and post-physical trauma. My particular brain trust was studying ways to alter the genetic makeup to enhance cell regeneration after damage was already sustained.
I was wildly successful, but unfortunately, none of the abhorrent cases manifested in any of the numerous trials, and I still haven’t ruled out the possibility of an unknown, external catalyst. Little that it matters now.
I succeeded in raising the dead. The effects of hypo-mutagen, Lazar-7, when injected into a critically injured patient were life saving, though clinical findings had begun to suggest indications of a high rate of aberrant development in the test subjects. We had no long term data on the use of Lazar-7, but the government wasn’t all that concerned. We were at war. Ever since the destruction of most of the southern half of Florida at the hands of a terrorist nuclear warhead, the Middle East had become one giant battlefield. Field implementation of Lazar-7 occurred during the summer of 2001, and the plague which ensued became pandemic only a few short weeks later.
Even the tremendous healing effects of Lazar-7 could not prevent some soldiers from succumbing to injuries sustained. Death always sees to have the final say, no matter how medically advanced mankind became. Until now. Until my creation reanimated the cells of the dead and brought them back to life.
Zombies. They stumbled right out of science fiction and into the ranks of America’s finest. The unsolved hypothesis which so desperately needed a solution was why the undead became contagious. The easiest theory is that transmission of Lazar-7 from the host via fluid transfer was potent enough to reanimate the victim after they had been killed. We could not confirm this theory due to the rapid spread of the zombie plague across the globe however. In a matter of weeks, civilization was in flesh eating ruin.
But I digress. The zombie plague is alternate history. The spread of the disease has been prevented thanks to the action of a few remaining scientific cells amidst a sea of undead chaos. During the early spring of 2002, I volunteered to attempt a temporal translocation back into the past. There really was no other viable solution for ending the destruction at hand, and this possibility carried with it the opportunity to reverse the damage that had been done. A small division of temporal research had developed when cloaking technology created for the war showed time altering side effects. Fortunately, the research cell survived the destructions of the zombies long enough to offer me a ride into the past. With little fanfare, I was subjected to a radical, super-saturated tachyon field that was to slip my temporal imprint backward into the time stream. It worked. But they warned me that the assignment of a target arrival date was theoretically flexible. So instead of arriving circa 1992, I found myself regaining consciousness in 1976. Groovy.
Two complications cropped up right away. First, my past self was only five years old. A little young to try and explain the consequences of actions that would happen 25 years in the future and result in the destruction of mankind. Second, the trip back in time changed me. I seem to exist outside the standard temporal continuum and began manifesting certain unusual abilities almost immediately.
Fortunately I was afforded the luxury of nearly two decades of time to both grasp a better understanding of my current condition and to formulate a means with which to prevent myself, that is, myself in this reality, from providing the critical insight into creating the plague inducing Lazar-7.
So I became a superhero. I fought crime and strived to make the future better for everyone. Or so I hoped. Having significant foreknowledge of the next three decades gave me a distinct edge, though I always had worries about altering the timeline too much. Still. There were some instances I simply couldn’t let pass.
In the fall of 1998 I prevented the release of a corrosive nerve toxin which was the first major attack preempting the war to come and which would kill several hundred people and render Ellis Island completely uninhabitable. Near the turn of the millennium, I intercepted the cruise liner carrying the nuclear warhead which would eventually have eradicated and corrupted much of Florida. I’m sorry, but you can’t destroy Disney World.
The attack on the World Trade Center was an event that did not occur in my original reality, and I was unable to prevent the disaster. The war in the Middle East commenced, albeit with a great deal less fervor than the one from my nuclear future. My sources indicated that the Lazarus Project was still in the works, so I took the final step necessary to insure the safety of mankind. I had a nice sit down with myself.
Honestly, I expected it to be more difficult than it was. I guess a decade and a half of fighting hardened criminals will do that to you. The present Levi Deveron was a little reticent to believe me at first, until I shared some intimate details of his life known only to the two of us. Once we were on the same page, my explanation seemed horrifyingly convincing. His sub-cellular fascination was subtly redirected toward botany, and his major in college changed accordingly.
That was over seventeen years ago, and Dr. Deveron is currently working in the private sector, researching ways to grow healthier, heartier fruits and vegetables to feed both the needy and the world’s growing population. The funding for the Lazarus Project was cut yet again and rests on the brink of being retired permanently. In 2002, I went back in time to stop the world from being destroyed, and it looks like I’ve averted that particular catastrophe.
The year is now 2006, and I’ve lost my edge of knowing what tomorrow has in store, but honestly, I think I like it better that way. Dr. Deveron is married with three children and has his little slice of the American dream. Me? I’ve come to like the hero known as Slipstream, so for as long as time permits, I’ll do what I can to keep mankind synchronized. The future is looking up.