TALES OF THE FLUX CAPACITOR
A collection of BTTF short stories
These ficlets have been revised, mostly because the original ones were written too long ago and were starting to embarrass me. You don't have to read through them again though, as most of the changes are not that major, except maybe for Star Wars and Teacher's Kid, which underwent the most rewriting.
The fourth and sixth fic in this collection are… different from the rest. Basically, they're just plain stupid, so if you don't mind pointless and senseless humour fics go ahead and read them. They are stories told from the point of view of a pizza and a lump of manure respectively, so… Some reviewers find them the worst in the series, but there are several weird others who think otherwise.
Disclaimer: All stories are based off characters created by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale. In other words, I don't own Back to the Future.
STAR WARS
Late May 1977
Hill Valley, California
The movie had finally started. As the Star Wars theme song struck up in the background, the cinema had become noticeably quieter than it had a few minutes before; anyone who deigned to make the slightest noise was hurriedly hushed by everyone else. The majestic John Williams music continued to accompany the soon-to-be-famous yellow words moving gradually up the screen to vanish into infinity, the only other sound in the cinema that of viewers munching popcorn.
Somewhere near the back, eight-and-a-half-year-old Marty McFly was sitting totally engrossed in what was going on in the big screen as he struggled to read the words before they became too small for him to do so. His two older siblings, on the other hand, found the popcorn much more interesting. Having deemed the words on the screen to be of little or no importance, David and Linda had started instead a competition to see who could finish their popcorn first. Their father, George McFly, looked at his youngest and smiled.
"He'll be a Star Wars fan one day," he thought, seeing his son's eyes glued to the screen. On the latter, the last of the yellow words disappeared as the camera panned down across the black background to reveal a bright planet and several spaceships zooming past towards it.
George settled down in his chair and turned his attention back to the movie.
Minutes passed… and then he heard it.
Darth Vader.
George started, his heart suddenly beating at twice its usual pace.
Darth Vader. The name carried along with it a sense of vague familiarity and terror, and George knew that it was not just the brilliant work of the movie producers. He had heard that name before… not only the name, in fact, but that mechanized voice and that breathing.
Where and when, he could not exactly tell. And yet, common sense told him he could not have. It was a brand new movie, and he was watching it for the first time.
"It must have been an advert or something," he told himself, but was still unable to shake off that nagging feeling throughout the whole show. He KNEW that he had heard the name before somewhere… he knew… where?
Walking out of the cinema amidst the cries of Dave McFly begging his younger brother to "pass over the popcorn", George suddenly got it. He remembered that strange creature which had appeared in front of his bed during the wee hours of the morning on the eighth of November 1955. The creature that claimed to be Darth Vader from the planet Vulcan. Who threatened to melt his brain if he didn't go to the dance with Lorraine and… wait a minute. Vulcan? Wasn't that from Star Trek?
Marty stuck out his tongue at Dave, holding his box of popcorn safely out of the latter's reach.
George blinked, confused. Star Trek hadn't existed in 1955 either. But he remembered it now, all so clearly, the words that had driven into him true terror of the kind he had never known existed before them. An alien. In his room. With some horrible alien device over his ears that emitted sounds not born of this planet.
Dave lunged towards his brother, who ran safely out of the way. Marty turned and grinned. "Get away from me, earthling! My name is Darth Vader! I'm an extraterrestrial from the planet Vulcan, and you can't have my popcorn!"
But at the same time, George knew that it just couldn't have been possible. The mere idea of an actual alien doing what the so-called Darth Vader had done was simply ridiculous.
Dave called to his sister for help, and seconds later the two were chasing Marty for the coveted popcorn. Marty yelled as he tripped and fell, the popcorn box flying out of his hand. "DAAAAAAD!"
George didn't hear. He was too busy thinking, his mind finally reaching the obvious solution to his problem. Star Wars and Star Trek had both not been around that morning in 1955. Therefore, he reasoned that the fact he had known of both before their creation meant that it must have been a dream. Which could only mean one thing…
"Cool," George thought, a small grin spreading out over his face, "I can predict the future."