The Travels Of Dr. Hartdegen

Summary:Just because the machine is gone, doesn't mean adventure has ended. Hartdegen embarks on an Odyssey of sorts, time travel style. Not a soppy Alex/Mara or Alex whining over Emma fic that you see too much of. This is an adventure story. It also isn't so long in minor scenes. It's fast-pace and gets to the point.

Rating T: For violence, peril, cursing, brutal fights and child beating

A/N: Please review in your honest opinion. However, if you flame, you will get flame back!


Chapter 1: The beginning.

It began one day, the account that was yet to come, when Alexander was walking through the lush bamboo overgrowth near the Eloi Monuments. It was a casual walk, and his mind was thinking like always. Suddenly he was met by a rustle in the bush and to his surprise it was Mara who met him.

"Mara, what brings you here?" he asked smiling.

"I was worried." she replied.

"Worried? Nonsense."

"What are you doing out here?" she asked.

"Just walking I suppose." he mused. "Why don't you join me? I could use the company."

She agreed eagerly and they continued on, though it was little time at all after that when Kalen found them. As the three wandered, picking flowers and admiring strange birds in the trees, they heard a strange sound. To Alex, it sounded like the stopping of some strange machine, and suddenly there was a rumble seeping through the earth. Mara and Kalen, who were very terrified, clung to Alex who kept them close. At last the rambling noise came to a much welcomed end.

"What was that?" Alex pondered in his mutter.

"It is the same thing that happened when you arrived." said Kalen.

"What?!" he questioned and the boy nodded in his honesty.

"Who's there?'' a sudden voice demanded, frantically.

Alex readied himself for anything he could conjure in his mind at the moment. He hesitated as the voice demanded again, apparently it heard them.

"Professor Hartdegen." he said at length.

"Professor Hartdegen?" the voice came to a calm, and in the tone of the stranger there seemed to be some form of misbelief. At last a figure tumbled clumsily before them.

"My God!" Alex said, quickly trying to help the blond woman to her feet who pushed him away in an attempt to re-stand herself.

"I-I," she studied him in utter amazement as she brushed the dirt and leaves off from her clothes. "I- I cannot believe this." there seemed to be a small grin easing onto her lips.

"Wait," Alex said, "I know you...don't I?"

"Not personally Cappuccino Maker." she said, reaching out to shake his hand. Mara and Kalen were overly confused. "The first inventor of the time machine."

"I don't understand," said Alex, taking his hand away.

"I found your plans, about a year after I first saw you. I had no idea at the time that your machine was in fact what it was. Then I found that you were Dr. Alexander Hartdegen...1869 to 1903. I knew your theories were practical applications. I had studied the fourth dimension for years as I too am a scientist."

After everything was explained and they had nurtured the tired woman back to substantial strength, she showed them her machine. Instead of a shiny brass, it was a type of silvery metal. Not nearly as many pipes and gages as Alexander's version. But instead very sleek and modern. Kind of like a porshe suv compared to a model t ford. After studying it, she showed Alex that unlike his old device where he simply pulled a lever, her machine had a computer, a device that one could easily type in one's destination of time. But something was different, this machine could travel in every dimension. It could go through worm holes, she explained. And travel to any point in the universe. Except only the Earth could really be traveled through like this. Because only it had been calculated on the machine.

Alex was taken away in his astonishment. He was at a loss of words and though his expressions of how impressed he was were simple in his stuttering, the blond woman knew how he felt and she was pleased.

"This is by far the most amazing...I just, I cannot believe it." he exclaimed.

"Wait." Mara halted them, her eyes supicious of the stranger. "Who are you?"

"Oh forgive me." the woman replied. "I'm Dr. Terri Ackner. But you can call me Terri."

"These are my friends, Mara and her brother Kalen. When I landed here, albeit accidentally, they took me in."

"Really?" Terri mused.

"Yes." said Kalen. "We are Eloi."

"Eloi?"

"It is what they call their tribe." said Alex. "Come on, we can further explain ourselves on the way back to the colony."

Terri stayed amongst them for many days, and to Alexander's surprise, the Eloi (namingly Toren) took to her much better than they did he. Perhaps it was Terri's outgoing nature and her exciting stories on the time lines she had traveled to. She also explained to Alex that she left a few years before the moon catastrophe. She also told him and the others the many things she had seen transversing back and forth through time.

"I've seen the great wall of china constructed by traveling back and moving my machine through the worm holes I mentioned, and I've seen the first moon eclipse of the earth. I watched the dinosaurs come and go and I sat in my machine, watching through the time shield as the meteor came and wiped the poor beasts out. I've seen Rome constructed from the beginning, face great battles and then crumble to mere ruins."

"Have you seen what happens to the Eloi?" asked Alex.

"Im afraid this is the furthest in time I've been so far, going forward that is." replied Terri.

"Oh, I see." said Alex.

"Why?" asked Terri.

"Well, you see, I was hoping for a brighter future for them...after I destroyed the Morlocks and all."

"Why not see?" she suggested.

"What?"

"You, me, Kalen and Mara. Let's go into the future and see what becomes of the Eloi."

At first they were apprehensive, but adventure could not be denied, so Alex agreed with Kalen being as enthusiastic as he. Mara though, was a little nervous.

Next day, they packed. Terri told them not to bother with food as she had several MRIs left, but Mara refused to eat anything so strange to her so she packed some fruit for her and Kalen. Secretly Alex was glad. The MRIs looked and tasted strange to him too.

To be continued.