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From: rickheit@ulowell.UUCP (Erich W Rickheit)
Newsgroups: net.physics,net.sci,net.philosophy,net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: A Sane Man Proposes A Time Travel Experiment
Message-ID: <646@ulowell.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 14-Aug-86 16:08:30 EDT
Article-I.D.: ulowell.646
Posted: Thu Aug 14 16:08:30 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 17-Aug-86 05:32:38 EDT
Reply-To: rickheit@ulowell.UUCP (Erich W Rickheit)
Distribution: net
Organization: University of Lowell
Lines: 40
Keywords: time travel, murder
Summary: A nast time-travel use
Xref: mnetor net.physics:2665 net.sci:1206 net.philosophy:2262 net.sf-lovers:7691

[Is that a line-eater? Hey, you are you a li<*>]

     I have a (half-wriiten) story along these lines. Some mad professor or
other develops a time machine that can go no further than a half-hour either
way (for mathematical reasons that our hero doesn't understand and so never
appear in the story--SF plot device #1233) Several days later, in the empty 
lab, there is the characteristic blue light of the time-traveller, and a
dark figure appears with a pistol in hand. He places it in a desk drawer,
and exits the lab. Some twenty minutes later, one of the lab assistants (a
lovely young lass) enters arguing with a familiar dark figure. Angrily, he
pulls the gun out of the drawer, and shoots her dead. He then goes to the
time machine, and transports himself back a half-hour. There is the
characteristic blue light of the time-traveller, and the dark figure
appears with the pistol in his hand. He places it in a desk drawer, and
exits the lab.

     An hour later, the police arrive on the scene, and find the body. There
are plenty of suspects (the girl was an obnoxious bith who made herself a
lot of enemies) but the murder weapon is untraceable. Our hero, a police
detective, must find the killer, and a murder weapon which does not
logically exist!

     I have plenty of holes to iron out, of course (such as, who loads the
pistol?) but that, avoid the character development, was the base of the
plot. The possibilities of a nonexistant item appearing within a time loop
though, are staggering. What else could you  do with this? Am I the only one
to have ever thought of such a thing?


-- 

			a lesser Power of Darkness

   This is indeed an opinion; whose fault it is, I don't know.

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		USnail: Erich Rickheit
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