Consequences
By Snazzo
Chapter Two
Jimmy landed the TARDIS in the outskirts of Landsberg am Lech, Bavaria, Germany. "I'm glad the astrocar came with optional cloaking device." He pushed a button on the keychain and the car faded away. "That's so no one can steal the time machine and leave us stranded. Everyone remember where we parked!"
The gang wandered into the town. "Goddard, locate the Landsberg Prison." Goddard lifted his head up and a scanner appeared on his chest. After a moment directions came out. The gang followed the directions to a grim looking brick building in the west end of Landsberg am Lech.
"We're here to see the warden," Jimmy told one of the guards standing at the gate.
"Ich verstehe nicht," the guard responded. "Sprechen Sie Deutsches?"
"Goddard, generate a translation field." Goddard barked, an antenna came out of his back, and he began to hum. "Oh, and Goddard, better activate canine holograph program thirty-seven." Goddard shimmered and a holographic projection of a real dog replaced his appearance. "We're here to see the warden," Jimmy repeated.
"Is that so?" the guard asked. "Why on earth would Warden von Roon want to see you young ones?"
"Because we're from the future!" Sheen declared.
Jimmy put his hand over Sheen's mouth. "What he means to say, is we're from … France, not the future. And we're touring this beautiful city, and – er – we were hoping to get a tour of this beautiful prison."
The guard looked unimpressed.
"No, I'm sorry," Cindy said. "We can't lie to you. Our teacher is having us do a report on great figures in German history. And we think there is no one greater than Warden von Roon."
The guard grinned at that. "How excellent! Warden von Roon would love to talk to you, I'm sure. Walk this way please." The guard led them into the prison, down several corridor's, and into the warden's office. "Some children to see you, Warden von Roon," the guard said and departed.
Warden von Roon was a thin, balding man with glasses. He sat behind an immense desk with papers neatly stacked upon it. File cabinets and bookcases filled up the room, and on one wall was a painting of Chancellor Friedrich Ebert. "Good afternoon, children. What can I do for you? And what on earth brings you to a prison when you should be outside playing?"
"That's a good question," Sheen said.
"We're here to save the world," Carl added.
"Carl!" Jimmy said.
"You said so!" Carl protested.
"We need to talk to you about one of your inmates," Jimmy explained.
"Who?" Warden von Roon asked.
"Adolf Hitler," Jimmy answered.
"Ah, yes, that funny little man," Warden von Roon said. "He's our star inmate. Do you know he gets fan mail every day? He's writing a book as well. He apparently has great plans for Germany, and for himself."
"Its about those plans we must talk about," Jimmy said. "Hitler must not be let out of prison. Keep him here and the world will be a better place for it."
"Outrageous!" von Roon declared. "He's only got a five year sentence. And I think he may be pardoned soon, in any event."
"Who cares?" Libby said. "Just leave him in here!"
"Young lady," von Roon said. "That would be immoral and against the law."
"But you don't understand," Jimmy said desperately. "Adolf Hitler will go on to become one of the most horrible villains the world has ever seen. He will be responsible for the deaths of thousands if not millions of people!"
"Why on earth should I believe a little boy with such a huge head?" von Roon asked. "You're talking nonsense! I've read a little of that Hitler's book, and I've heard some of his speeches. Quite charismatic. He believes the German people have been wronged, and he's going to make that wrong right!"
Jimmy ground his teeth in frustration. Cindy suddenly said "Warden von Roon, if you can spare the time, we would love if you showed us around this fascinating prison of yours. A little tour maybe? And you can tell us all about your hard work in protecting us from these criminals, we'd love to hear about it."
"We would?" Sheen asked.
"We're writing a report for our teacher," Cindy continued, ignoring Sheen. "I don't think we've said that. Its all about the great men of Germany, such as yourself."
The warden beamed at Cindy and stood up.
"Cindy?" Jimmy asked her. "What are you doing?"
"If you want to do this thing, Jimmy, follow my lead," Cindy said in an undertone.
"Well, I really can't believe a bunch of children would like to see a dreary old prison," von Roon said, "But I'd be happy to give you a tour, my dear."
"Jimmy," Cindy whispered to Jimmy, "you once told me your watch generates holograms, right?"
"Yes," Jimmy told her. The warden came around from his desk and held open the door.
"Then make it project an image of you and me and have them go on the tour. We stay in the office," Cindy whispered again. "Look Warden!" Cindy exclaimed out loud, "A dinosaur!"
"What, where?" von Roon said, looking out into the hall.
"Now, Neutron!" Cindy said, grabbing Jimmy by the hand and pulling him behind the desk. Jimmy stabbed at his watch and a holographic Cindy and Jimmy appeared in the room.
"I don't see any dinosaur, young lady," von Roon said.
"My mistake, sir," the holographic Cindy said. "It was just a fat guard."
Von Roon laughed at that. "Come, follow me." The gang left; Sheen looked dismal at the thought of a boring tour, and Libby and Carl looked confused, but the holographic Jimmy and Cindy looked alert and eager. Von Roon closed the door to his office and the real Jimmy and Cindy stood up.
"I'm the genius here, Cindy," Jimmy complained.
"Hey, I thought you long ago agreed I have valuable contributions to make to our relationship!"
"Relationship?" Jimmy asked, blushing.
Cindy blushed in return. "Friendship, I mean."
"What do we do now?" Jimmy asked.
"Use that big brain of yours Neutron," Cindy said. "Hitler's files must be in one of those file cabinets. We find it, give him a life sentence, and he's done with."
"Cindy!" Jimmy exclaimed. "That just might work! You're brilliant!"
Cindy blushed again. "Flattery will get you everywhere, Jimmy."
Jimmy and Cindy searched through the file cabinets and soon found Hitler's file. The cabinets were well organized. Jimmy thumbed through the file "That's strange, it says he's a model prisoner. And von Roon was right, he does get a lot of fan mail! Here I thought he was just a raving lunatic." Jimmy put the file down on the desk. He took out a Neutronic eraser and erased the ink of the sentence. "Here you go Cindy, you have better hand writing than I." He handed Cindy a pen off the desk. "But for goodness sakes, don't dot your eyes with little hearts."
Cindy wrote carefully. "Adolf Hitler. Life sentence with no possibility of parole." They put the file back where they found it.
"Think about Cindy," Jimmy said. "You just saved ten, maybe twenty million people."
"I hope so Jimmy," Cindy replied.
The two of them left the office and joined up with the gang in the very exciting prison laundry. Jimmy turned off the holograms. Poor Sheen looked like he was about to fall over with boredom.
"Thank you ever so much, Warden von Roon," Cindy said. "I know there's so much more to see but we've really got to be going now. You've been very helpful, I know our report will get an A."
"Its been a pleasure, my dear," von Roon said. He led them to the gate of the prison, they said farewell, and left the city. They found the spot where the TARDIS set, Jimmy clicked his remote, and the time machine decloaked.
"Guys, we've made history today," Jimmy said. "Let's go see what the future, from our perspective the present, has in store for us!"
The gang climbed into the TARDIS, it rose into the air, and disappeared.
At home, Jimmy was dismayed to see Retroville looked pretty much the same. There stood the Clubhouse and his home, completely unchanged.
"I don't understand, Jimmy," Sheen said. "I thought you said it could be a Newtopia."
"A utopia, Sheen." Jimmy said. "Wait, don't go out the door yet! Let me check something." Jimmy typed away at the TARDIS computer.
"Some minor anomalies and paradoxes have occurred," the TARDIS said. "Temporal flux field of passengers at 38.8. Recommend use of quantum stabilizers."
"What's that mean, Neutron?" Cindy asked.
"Well, I probably should have mentioned it earlier. There is a tiny, teeni-tiny, itty bitty chance – microscopic really – less that 1 of 1 …"
"Spit it out Neutron!" Cindy said.
"There's a chance we could erase our own existence," Jimmy said very fast.
"What?!" everyone else cried out.
"But not to worry! Here." Jimmy pulled small wristbands from the glove compartment. "Quantum stabilizers. They'll keep our atoms from collapsing into nothing if a paradox or anomaly occurred."
"How comforting," Cindy said, taking the wristband.
"So, until we check out the situation, don't take your wristband off," Jimmy said. "The effects could be – ah – unpleasant."
"Unpleasant how?" Carl asked.
"Um, well, either you slowly fade away like Marty in Back to the Future, or every atom in your body comes apart with the force of a low kiloton thermonuclear warhead."
"Wow, that would be unpleasant!" Sheen said.
"So help me, Neutron, if I blow up like an atomic bomb I'll smack you into next year," Cindy said "and I won't even need a time machine!"
So they all wore their wristbands. "They are stylish, like those Lance Armstrong things," Carl noted, trying to remain cheerful.
"Let's go down into the Lab," Jimmy said.
Goddard let out a sudden howl. They looked at him, and a great electrical charge was racing over him, and he was becoming transparent.
"I forgot Goddard!" Jimmy cried out, and rushed into the TARDIS for another quantum stabilizer.
"He's gonna blow like a low kiloton thermonuclear warhead, whatever that means," Sheen yelled and hid behind Carl. "Shield me buddy."
"I don't know Sheen," Carl said, "I think I'm allergic to thermonuclear warheads. They make me break out in a rash."
"Duck and cover!" Libby yelled.
"Jimmy!" Cindy called into the TARDIS, "If we're about to die there's something I have to tell you!"
Jimmy hurried out of the TARDIS and clasped a stabilizer on Goddard's paw. Goddard's transparent appearance turned solid, and he barked. "Whew, that was close!" He turned to Cindy. "What was that Cindy?"
"Nothing. Nevermind."
Down in the Lab Jimmy sat in front of Vox while the gang crowded around. "Vox, access the Internet and the Encyclopedia. Give me a synopsis of major events of World War II, if there are any files on file."
"Yes Jimmy," Vox said. "Searching. There are 45,561,303 articles concerning World War II. Formating synopsis."
"I don't think we stopped World War II Jimmy," Carl said.
Jimmy read the synopsis. "That's odd, it doesn't look like we stopped World War II. We just delayed it. According to this, he served more time in jail. He was appointed Chancellor in 1936, instead of 1933. And Fuhrer in 1938, not 1934. Hm." Jimmy read some more. "So the war in Europe didn't even start until July 1st, 1941, when Germany invaded Poland. Britain and France declared war on Germany a few days later, July 4th. World War on Independence Day?! The Soviets invaded the other side of Poland on July 18th. Uh-oh."
"What do you mean 'Uh-oh!' " Cindy asked.
Jimmy looked nervous. "The war appears to have lasted a lot longer. I can only assume because Germany was more prepared this time. The casualties of D-Day were twice what they used to be. The Battle of the Bulge was a massacre, I mean moreso than before. The Allies were almost thrown from the continent." Jimmy gasped, looking at the screen. "Germany didn't surrender until America dropped an atomic bomb on Berlin, killing Hitler and many of the Nazis, then four days later a second atomic bomb on Dresden."
"Uh, gee Jimmy," Carl said, "If I remember what Miss Fowl told us in class, didn't we use the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasushi?"
"Nagasaki, Carl," Jimmy corrected. "Um, I'm afraid not any more. After conquering Germany finally, America didn't have any more bombs to spare for Japan. We invaded the Japanese mainland in June of 1946, it was even bigger than the invasion of France. The Soviet Union invaded too. One of these articles puts the American dead at one million for the Japanese invasion alone. We did eventually build more atomic bombs, and nuked Osaka, Kyoto, Tokyo, and Sendal. Finally the Japanese surrendered and World War Two was over on October 8th, 1948."
The gang was silent.
"Uh, Neutron," Cindy said, "I think the world was a little better off before you decided to stick your nose into history."
"Yeah Jimmy!" Libby said. "More people died than ever before! And six cities nuked instead of two, that can't be good for the environment!"
"I don't understand it," Jimmy told them. "I had Vox running scenarios and probabilties for weeks before I decided this would work."
"Well what do we do now? Go back and stop us from meddling in the first place?" Sheen asked.
"I know you're a genius and all but it was kinda lame, Jimmy," Libby said. "To think you could change history with a little piece of paper."
"I'll have you know, Libby, that little pieces of paper have changed history countless times," Jimmy declared. "But I'm not sure what to do next. Maybe we should sleep on it. Let's call it a night guys, we'll try again tomorrow. Give me a call if you notice anything unusual in this timeline."
So everybody went home.
Judy came out of the house as Jimmy was saying goodbye to Cindy. "Jimmy! Dinner's about to be put on the table.
"Okay, Mom, I'll be in a second," Jimmy said. "Thanks for your help today Cindy, that was a good idea."
"Thanks, Jimmy, but it didn't work worth beans."
"Don't worry. I'm sure with some minor adjustments we can figure out went wrong."
"Well I hope you're right Jimmy." Cindy began to walk around the side of the house to her home.
"Cindy, where are you going?" Judy asked.
"Home, Mrs. Neutron."
"Mrs. Neutron?!" Judy gasped. "Cindy, are you feeling all right?"
"Sure why?"
Judy walked to Cindy's side and put her hand on Cindy's forehead. "Hm, you don't seem to be running a temp."
Cindy's father, Richard Vortex, came out of the house. "Hey, gang, what's the hold up? I'm starving and the spaghetti looks great."
"Dad?" Cindy asked. "What are you doing at Jimmy's house?"
Richard laughed. "Jimmy's house? Last time I checked I'm the one making the house payments."
"Honey," Judy said to Richard, "I'm worried about Cindy. She's acting peculiar."
Jimmy was staring at them as well. "Mom, where the heck is dad?" he finally asked.
"You're looking at him, Jimmy," Richard said. "Son, did one of your experiments go horribly wrong again?"
Cindy and Jimmy looked at each other in horror.
"Now wait a minute," Cindy said, "Are you trying to tell me … you two are married?"
"You're going straight to bed with some aspirin, young lady, right after dinner," Judy said.
Richard Vortex came up and put his arm around Judy. "Of course we're married, Cindy," he said.
Jimmy goggled at the two of them. "But – But – But – if you're married … that means Cindy and I are … are …"
"You're brother and sister, Jimmy," Judy said with a smile.
Cindy and Jimmy fell over on their backs.