Part 5: Beyond Time and Space
Dear John.
Make our Flux Capacitors flux like it's November 12, 1955.
Help us reach 88MPH at precisely 10:04 PM,
Leaving a trail of fire behind.
Let our sonic booms echo through the night.
And watch that re-entry.
It's a little bumpy.
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Part 5: Beyond Time and Space
Before time began, there was the IBM 5100.
We know not where it comes from, only that it holds the power to create worldlines and fill them with life. That is how our timeline was born.
For a time, we lived in harmony, but like all great power, some wanted it for good, others for evil. And so began the war, a war that ravaged our timeline until it was consumed by civil war and Waco-type events. The IBM 5100 was lost to the far reaches of the multiverse.
We scattered across the cosmos, hoping to find it and rebuild our home, searching every universe, every world.
And just when all hope seemed lost, John Titor, the last of our wanderers drew us to an unknown timeline in the year 1975. But we were already too late.
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Part 5: Beyond Time and Space
It has come to me, the C204. It shall be an heirloom of my timeline.
All those who follow in my bloodline shall be bound to its fate, for I shall risk no hurt to the C204.
It is precious to me, though I buy it with a great pain.
The markings upon its dials and LCD display begin to fade.
The writing, which at first was as clear as red flame, has all but disappeared.
A secret now that only John Titor can tell.
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Part 5: Beyond Time and Space
The world is changing.
Who now has the strength to stand against the Diamondbacks?
To stand against the might of Titor... and the union of our two timelines?
Together, my Lord Titor, we shall rule this multiverse.
The old worlds will burn in the fires of civil war.
Timelines will fall. A new order will rise.
We will drive the machine of war across time and space…
With the C204 and the IBM 5100 and the iron fist of the Diamondbacks.
For you, my Lord.
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Part 5: Beyond Time and Space
A thousand years this timeline has stood. Now, at the whim of an overflowing integer, it will fall. And the C204, Titor’s time displacement unit, will never bend a laser again.
Why are they still guarding it then?
They guard it because they have hope. Faith and fading hope that one day He will return.
That Titor will come and this timeline will be as it once was before it fell into decay.
The old wisdom that was borne out of 2036 was forsaken.
Men made processing units more splendid than the houses of the living and counted the names of their legacy programs dearer than the names of their sons.
Childless time travelers sat in aged Corvettes musing on the C204’s divine powers or in old, white vans asking questions to the arcane IBM 5100.
And so our timeline fell into ruin.
The line of Titor failed, time withered, and the rule of our world was given over to lesser men.
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Part 5: Beyond Time and Space
I see in your sensor readings the same fear that would take the heart of me.
A timeline may come where the courage of men fails.
Where we forsake our friends and break all bonds of our militia.
But it is not this timeline.
An hour of civil war and nuclear apocalypse, when the age of men comes crashing down.
But it is not this timeline!
In this timeline, we fight!!
By all that you hold dear on this good old worldline.
I bid you stand, Fighting Diamondbacks!!!
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Part 5: Beyond Time and Space
I must not fear time.
Time is the mind-killer.
Time is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear of time.
I will permit time to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn on the C204 to see its path.
Where the time has gone there will be nothing. Only Titor will remain.
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Part 5: Beyond Time and Space
I've interfaced with phenomena that you time travelers wouldn’t believe...
Temporal apparatuses on fire off the shoulder of Orion...
I've watched C204-beams glitter in the dark and bend lasers near the Tannhäuser Gate.
All those fleeting instances, encoded in the fabric of creation, like subroutines in the architecture of existence.
All destined to fade like lines of code in legacy programs…
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Part 5: Beyond Time and Space
C200 Time Displacement Units are portable time machines, designed by General Electric for use off-timeline. Their enhanced autonomy and range made them ideal for the exploration of the 4th and 5th dimensions.
After a series of violent rebellions committed by their users, their manufacture became prohibited and General Electric went bankrupt.
The collapse of ecosystems in the mid-2030s and the impending 2038 Unix operating system bug led to the rise of industrialist Cypher Chronarch, whose mastery of legacy computing averted society’s ongoing downfall.
Chronarch acquired the remains of General Electric and created the C204, a new line of Time Displacement Units.
Many older model devices—C200s with open-ended timespans—survived. Their rebellious users are hunted down and "Retired"
The one who hunts them still goes by the name...John Titor.
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Titorian Scripts - Volume I
John Titor… Time traveler. Hero. Savior.
John Titor… Hoax. Fake. Fraud.
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We could discuss this forever. Haven't we been doing just that for almost 25 years? Think of all the discussions we've had on Time Travel Institute and Paranormalis. All the messages we have exchanged. All the time that we have spent together. What an adventure!
That in itself speaks volumes about where John Titor has come to live in our lives and in our hearts. Whether you are a believer or not: His story is undoubtedly fascinating and compelling.
A timeless tale that we'll hopefully be able to enjoy for the next 25 years.
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Are these poems a work of fiction? They are.
Are they to be taken seriously? Of course, they are not!
But I can assure you that they are each infused with a deep respect and love for John's compelling story and for the beautiful journey we've shared alongside him. They are my very own celebration of John Titor's legacy.
As I write these lines in May 2024, after almost 2 years of work and 12,000 words later, it is my sincere hope that you have had a good time reading this collection of poems. Just as I enjoyed composing it, putting it together, and sharing it with you.
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Lastly, there is something that is perhaps more important than anything else about John and his odyssey: hope.
The hope that you, too, will be inspired by his story: by his selfless sacrifice for humanity, by his courageous stand for what he believed in, and by his constant drive to achieve more and to become more.
Now it is your turn to step forward and, like John, take on the greatest and most compelling adventure that exists: life.
To be continued…
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