Mark nervously sat in the vehicle next to his nephew-turned uncle. The experiment had started out as a fun entertainment for himself. He had every intention of letting Danny in on the Chronivac. Heck, he even had plans to possible let Jay back in on it once he had figured out the best way to do so. Now, however, things seemed to have gotten out of hand the and universe seemed to be conspiring how to make Mark regret his decisions the most.
The car ahead of them began moving forward again. Mark felt a sense of relief. Now he still had a chance to get home and fix the Chronivac's settings.
Then the car stopped again. Well, never mind, then. This really wasn't boding well.
Mark's hand strayed near his cell phone. He could call home. Simon had the highest awareness level of the remaining family. Presuming he was still home, he could easily stop the changes. However, it could possibly break whatever easy-going reverie Simon was in. He might make Mark a teenager again. Or, worse, he could completely undo ALL of Mark's changes, making separating him from the family, and making him a kindergartner. There was no way he was going back that far. Despite the tension that had built between them, Mark still liked being a part of their family.
Maybe he could wait. If the jam broke early, he wouldn't have to worry about the consequences of phoning Simon. Things still had time to work out. All was not lost.
Mark glanced over at Danny, who was now in his early fifties. His grey and white beard had grown longer than Mark's on beard. The fringe of grey and white hair on his head had begun to grow out as well, reaching down to his shoulders. He also seemed to have gained more weight, his stomach spilling into his lap. His clothing had transformed into a pair of denim overalls over a flannel shirt.
Mark sighed to himself. He couldn't wait anymore. He owed it to Danny, at least.
"I'm sorry, Dan," Mark said, reaching for his phone.
Danny turned to his nephew and tried again to smile reassuringly. "Sorry for what, Mark?"
"Sorry for getting you into this mess," said Mark. "And don't say you don't know what I'm talking about, because I know you do. It's written all over your face."
Danny just stared at his nephew, with a bewildered expression on his hairy face.
"The Chronivac," Mark said. "Remember? The device in Simon's room I told you about. I showed you. You didn't believe me, but you can see the evidence! Check your memories. I mean your real ones. Not the fake ones the Chronivac generates for you."
Danny tried hard to focus, but everything was just so... confusing.
"It's... It's just so hard!" Danny blubbered, frustrated.
Mark nodded, sympathetic. "I know, I know. I'm sorry. I must have missed a setting somewhere before I let you messed with it. It's alright. I'm going to give Simon a call and he's going to fix it."
Mark pulled his phone out and dialed in the home phone.
_____________________________
RING-RING! RING-RING!
"I've got it," Jay called to the rest of the house before picking up the phone. "Hello? Oh, hi Mark. What do you need? Leaving the gym already? How's Uncle Dan doing? A traffic jam? Yeah, well, Dad and I warned you about that highway. You should've taken the back roads, Grandad swears by them. What? Oh, alright."
Jay cupped one hand over the receiver and called out, "Dad! It's for you! It's Mark."
Simon promptly entered the room and took the receiver from his son. "Hey, Mark."
On the other side, Mark took a deep breath before continuing. "Hi, Dad. Uh, listen, we have a situation here. You see-"
Simon's eyes widened and his heart raced. "What happened?! Did you get in a wreck? Are you alright? Where's Danny? That highway's a disaster area, I told you."
Mark managed to interrupt his Simon's rapid fire session of jumping to conclusions. "No! No, Dad. We're both fine. We're just stuck in a traffic jam."
"Oh, I see. Then what's the problem?"
"Right. Listen. I need you to focus for a minute, Dad. This is fairly important. I need you to focus and remember the Chronivac."
Simon's brow furrowed in concentration. After a moment, he remembered the small device and software in his room attached to his computer. At the same time, he felt a wave of disorientation wash over him as his memories proceeded to completely and utterly contradict each other.
"Oh..." Simon, uttered.
"Yeah," said Mark. "Sorry. Now, I think there's been a mistake made in one of the Chronivac's settings. I, er, I may have been... experimenting."
Simon attempted to compare his memories to find out just what had been changing around him that he'd been overlooking, but it only make him feel nauseous.
"What do you mean by 'experimenting'?" Simon asked slowly.
"I, uh, may have been messing with... something. I set the system to age Danny 30 years over the course of a day."
"What?!"
"Well, he started out as a teenager at the time and he was only supposed to end up at 42. But something went wrong. Either somebody's tampered with something, or the system's glitching out, but now he's aging faster than he should be. He's... well, check your memories. You'll know."
Simon shook his head, not sure what to say. "Mark..."
"All I need you to do," Mark continued, "is to set the age acceleration back to its default. One day should equal one day. And hurry, if you could. He's beginning to enter his mid-fifties."
Simon sighed to himself. This immersion thing had never really been a great idea. "I'll see what I can do," said Simon. "However, when we get home, we're going to have words. All of us. This is a powerful device. You have to be-"
"Careful, yes, I know. Now please fix it. Thanks, bye." With that, Mark hung up.
Simon grumbled angrily to himself as he put the phone back into its cradle. These kids were going to be the death of him.
Jay came in, watching his father mumble. "Something the matter, Dad?" he asked.
Simon shook his head. "Nope. Everything's peachy."
Simon quickly made his way to his room and shut the door. He sat in front of his computer and booted up the Chronivac program. He viewed the familiar layout he hadn't seen in what felt like forever.
"Alright," Simon mumbled to himself. "Let's see what's the matter here."
He expected the layout to be confusing to navigate, given his age. But, just like times previous, it was surprisingly intuitive. Almost as if it wanted people to know how to use it. Simon shook the strange thought. No need to complicate things.
After a bit of looking he found Danny's stats. Indeed, his personal temporal acceleration was set extremely high at 1 year every 4.8 minutes, or 1 Day = 300 years. That seemed a might dangerous. Though, there was a safety tip mentioning the age acceleration features were unable to kill by default. Handy.
Simon lowered the setting to its default, 1 Day = 1 Day and initiated the change. The usual messages came up the the pulse went out from the device. Smooth and simple. Now he would just have to wait for the pair to get home. He would leave Danny at his current age for the moment to give Mark something to remind him of his actions for the ride home. He didn't plan to leave him that way permanently, of course. After all, it wasn't Danny's fault he was like this.
Deed accomplished, Simon was about to leave his computer when a strange thought occurred to him. Himself, Jay, and Bryan had been to only three to be immersed in this simulation. This entire world was an artificial universe invented by the Chronivac for the purpose of the simulation. That meant Mark was a simulation created by the Chronivac. Wasn't he? It stood to reason, anyway. But if Mark was making changes using the Chronivac... just what did that mean, anyway? Were these simulated people the the Chronivac created actually sentient? Or, were they just REALLY good fakes? This was a quandary all to itself. The thought gave Simon a headache.
Simon's eyes strayed to the Chronivac's intricate and impossibly complex workspace. He hadn't used it in what felt like so long. Navigating its screens again to stop Danny's aging felt good. Maybe, just maybe it wouldn't hurt if he did a little tinkering of his own. Simon was responsible. He'd be sure to track to consequences of his actions. After all, what was the point in having the device if he never used it. A grin alighted Simon's hairy face as he began clicking about the workspace.