Read Online The Great Altruist by Z. D. Robinson - Free Book Online Page B

of grass and threw pieces of it into the water as she said: “Have you ever considered doing what I suggested? Preventing the war?”
     
                “No I never have,” Genesis said, “until yesterday. I know what I said about using my powers responsibly, but after learning how many people died from that one horrible thing, the responsible thing is to prevent it.”
     
                “What should we do?” Jadzia asked.
     
                Genesis leapt off the rock and began hovering back and forth across the clearing as though pacing. “Preventing something as complex as a world war isn’t going to be easy. I don’t even know if it can be done.”
     
                “Why not?”
     
                “A war isn’t started by just one event or person; it’s a composite of grudges, disagreements, even old wars left unsettled that set the stage for the next one.”
     
                “Then we need to find out how and where the war started.”
     
                Genesis shrugged her shoulders and snorted. “Hah!” she said. “That could take ages.” The she said: “I have it! I’ll be right back.” She disappeared suddenly, and just as quickly, returned out of breath.
     
                “Where did you go?” Jadzia asked.
     
                “The future. Everything we need to know is in the history books.”
     
                “How far did you go?”
     
                “As far as I could. The stream gets muddy the further I travel and travelling far into the future - at least in the vicinity of Earth - is near impossible. Still, I found out all we need to know.”
     
                Jadzia smiled with delight. “So all we have to do is go back to the very beginning and stop whatever started it, right?”
     
                Genesis caught her breath and sat on the boulder near the creek. “No, it’s not that simple, I’m afraid. You see, the further we go back, the riskier everything gets for you .”
     
                “Why?” Jadzia said. Her excitement waned.
     
                “Watch this,” she said. She hovered over the creek and watched the fish swim about. “Remember how I told you the stream is like a river?” Suddenly, the creek divided. As though an invisible barrier was put in place, all of the water on one side of the creek merged to the other side. It all happened so quickly that many of the fish couldn’t swim to the other side of the creek. The fish gasped for air when she released the barrier and water flooded both sides again. “If we change something in the past, it will divert the stream of time and change your future.
     
                “So, if we went back to the moment Germany invaded your country, we could prevent the start of the war, or we could just stall it. In either case, a change like that could preserve your parents, and possibly millions more. But consider if we prevented the Hitler from seizing power: that occurred before you were born. Anything prior to that point may decide whether you will even exist. Remember, your existence depends on your parent’s conceiving you at the exact moment they did. If we prolonged that by even the smallest unit of time, you might never be - or you may be a boy. If we go back to a point during the first war, it may interfere with your parents ever marrying. Or your parents may still marry and conceive you, but some innocuous event in the stream may mean the death of your father when you are five, or they may both die and you’ll end up an orphan. More than likely, though, you will never be conceived in the first place. And when we returned to the present, you would exist in a world where you never existed. The paradox that would create might be disastrous. It may not even be possible to bring you back. You would be stuck in the past.”
     
                Jadzia