Time Dome

So he sent Robert letters, telling him as the years went by what was going on in his life, his interests, and other things. But like he said… he wasn’t able to talk to Steven. He never sent a reply to any of the letters. He never even called him on the phone. When Steven tried calling him, all he ever got was an answer machine. But what could be so important that would keep 4 years of contact from Robert? Steven at one point got worried, that maybe his life was in danger, or maybe he was dead! But then he always blew those thoughts away, coming back to what Robert had said: he wouldn’t be able to talk to him.

But… it still made him wonder.

"Rob… is… is that you?" Steven asked, in a terrified voice. He always called him Rob. "Why… why didn’t you ever respond? I haven’t heard from you in 4 years! Where have you been? What have you been doing all this time?!"

"Steven," Rob said, "I’m sorry, I’m really sorry, really I am. It’s just I’ve been incredibly busy with this government project, I would have talked to you, I really would have, but as you will soon discover, I had good reasons for being soo busy."

"I hope so! You don’t know how worried I’ve been! I thought you could’ve been dead or something!"

"No, no. I haven’t been in any kind of danger, just a very secret project. Very secret indeed. Something that before, I couldn’t tell anyone… including you. But now, Steven, I can tell you. I know it might sound truly impossible, truly unbelievable, but please Steven, please listen to what I’m going to say. You must believe me, please, you must, because everything I’m about to say is all very true."

"Okay, okay. I’m listening, go ahead."

"Alright. For the past 2 years, I have been involved with a grand and secretive government experiment, and I am telling you, it’s incredible! What we have done is something not even Area 51 could accomplish. We have been the first group of people ever to create the first safe and working… time-machine."

There was a silence.

"Uh… what?! Rob, what did you say?! Christ, you must be joking, I mean I sure in hell hope so!"

"No joke. I’m dead serious, we have created a real life, working time-machine," Rob said, very seriously.

Steven then cleared his throat, and then said, "Christ, you sound serious. I… I don’t know what to say! I mean… it seems like something that could happen… I mean people have tried to build time-machines before, but I guess they didn’t quite get it right ‘till now. You should consider yourself lucky for being involved."

"I wasn’t just involved… I designed the time-machine."

"Whoa! Really! Figures… since you’re a brainiac and all. I guess I believe you, you’ve never lied to me about anything before, why would you now? But why did you call me at this time, of all times."

"Well you see, we’ve got a situation on our hands. The government officials, including the president, wants us to conduct an official time-travel experiment and collect samples from 4 different time periods of the past. If the experiment is successful, they will allow us to continue our research, and our time-machine usage. But the only problem with the government’s experiment request is one thing: who will we send back in time? There was no one involved with the time-machine project who seemed to really know about the past, and what exactly to look for as a sample.