William Gentry was born in the year 2113 in Atlanta. It was noticed early in his life that he had a gift for science. In 2124, at age eleven, he began reading old journals on the science of time travel, especially the early work by a brilliant physicist in the previous century.
In the late 21st Century, time travel became a serious science. But similar to cloning in the 20th Century, there were limitations put on how the science could be used. The United States Congress passed the Time Travel Restriction Act in 2098 that allowed time travel to only be used for medical exploration, seeing the value in learning from the future how certain diseases and illnesses could be prevented and cured. The time travel technology was the same that was developed by Jack (the brilliant physicist) a hundred years earlier but the technology had been improved to prevent the unwanted side effects of nausea and personality changes.
Jack’s technology had been discovered quite by accident. After the natural death of Jack’s former associate, Jasper, Jasper’s estate was sold which included several old documents. The documents were among those that Jasper had intended on destroying but he did not. Jasper had destroyed most of the research on time travel but these papers had been put into one of his obscure books on his bookshelf and so they were forgotten.
The book containing the research paperwork was bought by an elderly woman and her son inherited the book upon her death. He donated the book to the local university library. The paperwork on time travel was discovered by a student who took the paperwork to one of her professors. The professor called on his colleague at a larger, more influential university and Jack’s research was put into motion.
In the early part of the 22nd Century, elements of time travel technology began finding its way onto the black market. Most of these items did not work and others killed their attempted user outright before they could actually travel. Concerned with what would happen if insurgent nations were able to begin using the technology, time travel was banned by the United States – including for medical reasons – and all research labs were shut down.
This did not stop William, called Willie by his parents. By age twelve, he had begun translating articles from old medical journals on time travel into equations that would explain how time travel could occur. At age fifteen, in the year 2128, William developed a homemade device that accomplished time travel.
Unlike Jack’s technology that had to be embedded in the brain, William’s device was a circular shaped disc that was fitted behind the right ear. The disc employed the skin adhesion technology of the 22nd Century that was common with reading glasses and sunglasses. The disc emitted a pulse that interacted with the brain in the same way that Jack’s technology interfaced with the subconscious.
Soon after, unknown to his parents or anyone else (or so he thought), William began to travel through time.
He took a specific interest in the lives of United States Presidents. He was fascinated by the day-to-day life that they led. One of his favorite presidents was one who had once also lived in (and practiced law) in Atlanta – Woodrow Wilson. William traveled back and studied Wilson and was amazed at the similarities between the President and himself. Their personalities were eerily similar as was their appearance. William found a few pictures of Woodrow Wilson as a young man and if he hadn’t known they were taken over two hundred years prior, William would have sworn they were photos of him.
William went back and began visiting the campus of Davidson College in North Carolina in 1873 while Wilson was a student there. When he finally saw him, it was strange, and he couldn’t quite explain it but Wilson looked very similar to the photos that Williams had seen; but Wilson looked different.
William befriended Wilson and learned that Wilson had suffered from dyslexia and had not learned to read until he was eleven years old. William learned of Wilson’s life growing up in Augusta, Georgia and ascertained that his parents had moved to Columbia, South Carolina a few years prior. Wilson and he started to become good friends.
But then something happened in 1874 that William could not explain. Wilson became very ill and one day as William came by to check on him, Wilson did not answer when William knocked on his door. Concerned, William entered the room and there found Woodrow Wilson dead in his room.
William was confused. The future President of the United States had just died. Did I cause this by coming back here? he questioned himself. Not sure of what do to, William returned to the 22nd Century.
The week after William turned eighteen, he was watching the news and saw a story on a new technology that was being developed that would allow the human subconscious be altered, allowing memories to be changed. This was very controversial and the news reporter told the audience that the technology would be used for victims of extremely violent crimes to help them deal with what had happened by erasing those memories from their mind.
William turned off the television. He had a plan.
He traveled to the future, to a time when the technology described on the news had been tested fully and put into place. In the future, that technology had evolved as the developers realized the subconscious would reject the erasing of memories if there were no new memories to take their place. The later versions of the technology allowed new memories to be inserted.
William stole the technology and traveled back to 1874. He used the technology on Woodrow Wilson’s family, replacing memories of their son with memories of himself.
In 1874, William, as Woodrow Wilson, entered Princeton
