Disclaimer - I don't own the Time Machine.
Please let me know what you think.
The Changing World.
It was funny, but truthfully the Time Traveller knew very little about how the world had changed between the early 20th century and the time of the Eloi and the Morlocks. When he constructed and tested the Time Machine and travelled to the Year 802,701 when he encountered Weena, the Eloi and the Morlocks, the Time Traveller had missed a perfect opportunity to see the world as it changed.
He might have some theories as to how both the Eloi and the Morlocks had become the way they were, especially as he had spent 4 years fighting in the so-called Great War, but the Time Traveller realised now his rush to visit the future and see whether his ideas about the future of his race had unfolded, but now he'd had time to think the Time Traveller had come up with two plans at the same time; he would return to the Year 802, 701 AD and try to save Weena, at the same time he would see the future unfold. He had seen too many things in the future and he hadn't known how to deal with it.
The Time Traveller did not plan on making the same mistake again, this time he planned to return to the future and save Weena with a greater idea of what to expect. But at the same time, a part of him wondered if his current strategy of travelling 2 to 5 years into the future and learning about the intervening periods was a good idea. After living through 1914 and dealing with the Great War against Germany, the Time Traveller had been lucky to survive it, but now all he wanted to do was travel as far from the early 1900s as he could so he could escape the sounds and the visions he'd been forced to endure of so many people dying in the putrid trenches.
As the Time Machine arrived in the year 1940, the Time Traveller yelped when the Machine suddenly lurched from side to side while he stared at the chronometric gauges as he tried to work out what was happening. The console seemed alright, barring the scuff marks but they'd been there ever since the Morlocks had taken the Machine so he ignored them, and he turned and twisted in his seat - he was relieved to have found a more decent chair that he could install into the Time Machine, it was more comfortable than the old bicycle saddle than anything else - and he started examining the other components.
Had one of them worn out without him knowing about it until now? God, he hoped not since it would be hard for him to find replacements that would work. A flash of light outside caught his eye, and the Time Traveller twisted around. The sky was bright with the glow of explosions - the Time Traveller guessed that whatever was causing them was quite a way off for them to be that bright - and the Time Traveller was cursing himself for not noticing it before. In the sky were some kind of spindle-shaped objects like hot air balloons floating in the sky, but his curiosity rose when he noticed the long lines tethering the weird balloon which hovered in the air like an airborne whale, but what caught his attention the most were the small things flying around them.
Oh no, the Time Traveller thought to himself with dread, remembering the planes he had seen being used to terrible effect in the later years of the Great War. Both the Germans and the British had come out with aircraft as a weapon, which he considered logical considering the obvious advantages an army would have for an aircraft. But an attack now? The Time Traveller grimaced as he slowed the Time Machine down so he could get a better perception from real-time, but he kept his hands on the lever for controlling the forward movement into the future - if he got any indication of a bomb or a hail of bullets coming towards him, he would throw the lever forwards - and he looked into the air.
He could barely see the planes in the sky, but he could see them when a flash of an explosion picked out their shadows as they swarmed through the air like wasps, but the Time Traveller stared into the air in surprise. The last time he had stopped was in 1918, but he had travelled forwards in time just to escape from that horrible point in history, but now he realised that might have been a mistake. If he had done what he had before, then he might have had a better idea of what was going on.
A new war.
So, the Great War, the so-called 'War to End all Wars' is not the only war being waged in this century.
One of his friends back home had come up with a theory, as technology, science and reasoning evolved so too would the human race. Which meant the world would become a utopia, where things like war would never happen again. The Time Traveller had often mused about the theory of that belief during his own time as a soldier.
He had seen some incredible pieces of technology and science as the years had passed - one of the most fascinating examples of that had been during his visit to 1914, and he had enough time to see the electrically powered trains running through tunnels underneath London - but during his time in the trenches, the Time Traveller had come to the conclusion that the theory was false.
Mankind would never change.
There would always be wars, there was nothing that they could do to avoid that.
But it was still depressing, and now it looked like a new war had appeared to twist the increasingly more advanced technology to rain death literally onto the city of London.
The Time Traveller grimaced angrily as he looked down at the glowing chronometric gauges that glowed with the Time Machine's mineral powering and the energy of the strange time holes he had discovered thanks to the mineral. What had set this one-off? The Time Traveller ran a hand through his sparse hair as he considered the reason for this one?
He looked up in the air again, before he glanced down at the levers. He pushed the forward lever forward, very gently but he didn't travel forward very far. He was not going to get involved, although he might nip back here and take a quick look, he decided to travel forwards into time and see the outcome.