“James Wilson… Jim.

Jim, I need you to listen to this recording and I need you need to pay very close attention to it. Approximately three weeks from now, you’re going to have a breakthrough on your research, and within the year have a working prototype for your machine ready. I know this because, well, you can probably guess from the sound of my voice, can’t you? Our voice, I should say.

But I don’t have time to be having casual conversation with myself right now. Whatever you do, you can NOT TURN THE MACHINE ON. What comes out of the portal…well, there was no way we could have known they even existed, so no one could blame us when they came through. No fossil evidence; not a single relic or artifact: an entire prehistoric race of sentient creatures perfectly hidden in the shadows of time itself. I often wonder if this was my doing, as well… no signs of extinction because they never really went extinct, they just… came here…
They’re looking for me now. They’ve been systematically wiping out us humans for long enough that it’s clear we’re not going to win this war. My only hope is to turn our machine on one last time and send this warning back to you, so that I might be able to stop this trouble before it ever starts.
Please, Jim. Just listen.”


The tape ended there. I glanced to my left to see my research partner, the guy who found the disc, was just as shaken as I was. Slowly, I asked him the question that was haunting us both:

“You don’t know a Dr. James Wilson either, do you?”