Prohibition

Everything about Nathaniel’s new spaceship is super comfortable. The brightness, noise, gravity, humidity, and temperature adjust with his moods. The bed is amazing. He peeks between the covers to watch the sun rise. Finally, he gets up and puts on his shoes. His Gruezhling crew wakes too, feeding off his play-energy.

This is the day that they travel through time back to the ten years of prohibition on planet Ninosa, which ended long before Nathaniel was born. In those days, the adults decided that salsa was too spicy, candy was too tempting, and that straws and dancing were too dangerous – dancing with straws even more so. Fortunately, guns and scissors were still allowed. Nathaniel plans on helping the boys of the planet by sneaking in supplies of salsa, candy, soda, and straws. He watches the countdown to arrival on the time machine.

Pop! The cross-shaped ship appears on top of a dune in the Ninosan desert. Nathaniel and his crew step outside and look around. There are no adults in sight. There are footprints going right up to the side of the ship, though. “Jasit! Not so fast.” Two boys run around the side of the dune and stop when they see the ship. “Wow.”

“Hi, I am Captain Nathaniel. I’m from the future and I brought candy.”

“We’re not allowed to eat candy,” the first boy says.

“That’s why I brought it,” Nathaniel says.

The local boys are very happy to accept Nathaniel’s gifts. They throw a secret party for him. Almost one hundred Ninos and Stuffians cram into their fort. Some dance. Some drink soda (with straws). Nathaniel stands and talks with Kash and Mars, the two boys he met first. “Tell us more about the future,” Kash prods.

“Well, after prohibition ends, and the girls and adults are destroyed, the boys turn on each other. Ninos, Hammer-Faces, Humans, and Meekons fight with Dinosaurs, Snarugi, Blentites, and Zleesnits and Nops, but I stick with the Ninos. They eventually win,” Nathaniel says.

“Then what happens?” Mars asks.

“Several years after that, a mad scientist drops mutagenic slime on over a dozen planets, but I outsmart and kill him,” Nathaniel says.

“I wish Jasit was here to hear about this. Has anybody found him yet?” Kash comments.

“No, we looked everywhere,” the fort leader, Jish, says. Nathaniel starts to have a bad feeling about those footprints he saw.

Over the next three days, Nathaniel attends parties in three towns and is surprised to find no shortage of candy. “Just because something is illegal, doesn’t mean we don’t do it,” Kash explains.

“The history book never mentioned that,” Nathaniel says.

Only once do adults make a surprise raid and the boys are able to hide their candy in secret compartments with incredible speed and efficiency. Nathaniel is also surprised to learn how much boys and girls cooperate during this time, by buying, selling, and trading candy with each other and by sharing supply chains. Nathaniel and Haticat accompany Kash, Mars, and Jish on a trip to one of their dealers, a girl named Jalley.

“We have new, fancy-shmancy cupcakes for only three credits while supplies last,” she says.

“No, just give us the sugared,” Jish responds.

The exchange is made quickly and the boys leave, not wanting to spend any more time with girls than they have to. A minute later, they notice an adult following them. “Into the alley!” Jish yells.

It is a dead end. There are no trash cans to hide the cupcakes in. “Hold still!” Mars orders, grabbing Haticat without warning. He stabs him in the back with a knife.

“Ow!” Haticat screams.

Nathaniel pulls his gun. “Hey, what’s going on?”

“Calm down,” Jish says, holding his palm against Nathaniel’s gun while Kash shoves the cupcakes into Haticat’s back and sews him shut with a high-speed, hand-held sewing machine.

The adult rounds the corner. “I heard a scream. Is somebody hurt?”

“No, we’re all fine,” Jish says.

“What are you doing back here? Are you fighting?” the adult asks. Nathaniel puts away his gun and Mars puts away his knife.

“No,” Nathaniel.

“Fighting is against the rules,” the adult says.

“Yes, we know,” Jish says.

“Okay then,” the adult says, and walks away.

Nathaniel learns that Gruezhlings are often used to transport contraband during this time. “None of this was in the history book,” he says.

“We keep it secret. Those who write the history books probably didn’t know,” Mars comments.

“Or else they wanted to keep it secret, too,” Kash adds.

“There’s so much to learn,” Nathaniel says.

Eventually, Nathaniel and Haticat reunite with Fred and Doctor Bill and bring Mars and Kash onto their ship. They show them the massage chairs with heating and cooling systems. They show them how the time machine works. “I don’t get it,” Kash complains.

“I’ll show you,” Nathaniel says. He types in a destination of five minutes in the future. The crystals rotate into place and the apparatus zips along the rail around the ship behind a wall of glass. Faster and faster it goes until they hear a pop. Pop!

The boys all exit the ship. “Now if you return to town and check the clocks, you’ll see your watch is five minutes behind,” Nathaniel says.

“Where have you been?” a boy yells.

“Jasit! Where have you been?” Kash asks.

“I’ve been looking for you for five minutes!” Jasit says.

“You’ve been gone for four days!” Kash says.

“Don’t be stupid! You were right behind me!” Jasit says.

“I think I figured out what happened,” Nathaniel announces. The others look at him quizzically. “I think I landed on top of him.”

“Huh? Wouldn’t he be squished?” Mars asks.

“No, not like that. I landed on him in the fourth dimension,” Nathaniel says.

“I don’t get it,” Kash complains.

“I’ll explain. I believe my ship’s spacetime interval endpoint displaced an asimultaneous time frame, so a second displacement just now was able to reverse it. I’ll have to be more careful in the future and only use the time engine in empty space. I’m still learning how to use it,” Nathaniel says.

“I don’t get it,” Kash complains.

“I don’t get it, either,” Mars complains.

Nathaniel rambles on, lost in thought: “I just realized that the displacement offers a way to time travel instantaneously. One could program a drone ship to knock themselves out of time, hold position for the duration of the trip, and then exit the timestream, bringing them back into existence having experienced no time. Hey, I wonder what filled the vacuum the first time we launched. Maybe it was whatever we will displace on our very last trip.”

“What are you talking about?” Jasit asks in exasperation. Nathaniel is finding that the more he learns, the less others understand him.

Just then, a laser reflects off the side of Nathaniel’s ship. A group of three boys approach, guns drawn. Haticat, Fred, and Doctor Bill, reach for their weapons, but then think better of it when they realize they are covered. Kash turns to face the newcomers. “Mega, what do you want?”

“What do I want? I want the time ship, loser,” Mega says.

“The ship belongs to Nathaniel,” Mars says.

“Then Nathaniel is going to give it to me,” Mega says, lowering his gun to point it directly at Nathaniel.

Nathaniel remains calm and asks slowly, “Do you even know how to use it?”

“You’re going to teach me,” Mega says. A hundred scenarios flash through Nathaniel’s mind as he stares at Mega’s trigger finger. Lasers are faster than bullets; lasers are too fast to dodge. He will need a distraction. “Open the door!”

Moving slowly, Nathaniel opens the door. He waits until Mega gets closer and then steps inside ahead of him. “Hold it!”

It is too late. Nathaniel has slipped into superspeed, run the hallway around the perimeter of the ship, and come around the other side. He disarms both Mega’s accomplices before they can even get a shot off, but in that time, Mega has turned to face him. They shoot each other. Mega’s laser grazes Nathaniel’s ear, bursting his eardrum and burning off the skin. Nathaniel’s two laser shots hit Mega in the chest, killing him instantly.

Mega’s body is dragged outside and his accomplices are captured by Jasit, Kash, and Mars. “How many people did you tell about the time machine?” Doctor Bill asks.

“Everybody. We told Jish and Mega. We even mentioned it to Jalley,” Kash says.

“Oh, no,” Haticat says.

“I seem to have made a mistake. The last thing the galaxy needs is a girl with a time machine,” Nathaniel says.

“We should leave,” Fred says.

“I agree,” Nathaniel says. In a few moments, they say goodbye to their new friends and then are gone. Pop!

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