Ellen McGuffin heaved a heavy sigh as she uncoupled the device from the battery and pocketed it in her lab coat. Wear a lab coat, it’ll make you look more professional and more people will buy into your story, she was told.

Fat lot of help that did, she thought to herself as she walked towards the exit of the garage. She turned her head to give the car one last look, switched off the lights and left the garage for the last time. It was a lovely evening – one worthy of stopping and taking in the sight. Ellen didn’t do that. Her mind was far too clouded by the incidents today. This was her sixteenth time in her attempt to raise funds for her invention, nay her sixteenth failure. She had succeded in closing a seed round a year ago, but tomorrow the burn chart comes to an end. There would be no more future for the device.

She retired to her bedroom – she had shared the house with the rest of her team. They had differing standards of tidiness, and she couldn’t stand the mess the boys had made in the living room, so she found herself more often than not cooped up in her bedroom. Ellen had been bracing this moment for some time now. For a couple months now she had been putting her resume out there, and attending interviews. She had always gotten the “we’ve decided to go with someone who is better suited than you” reply.

It wasn’t that she couldn’t fake her enthusiasm in her interviews. Oh she could do that, but underneath that veneer of confidence and enthusiasm, her interviewers always ferretted out that her interests laid elsewhere – her device. It had always confused her – she didn’t know what exactly the device would turn out to be, but always had this gut feeling that the McGuffin Device, as she had come to lovingly call it, was her true calling. She had many times in her life, gave up on the idea of inventing the device, and yet it always came back to haunt her, lingering at the back of her mind, taunting her for not inventing it.

Ellen played back the day’s event in her mind. She had welcomed the investors, explained how the device worked, and then showed them the working prototype. The response in her memory – one that she understands that is flawed at remembering things – were lukewarm at best. She racked her brain to see what she did wrong and couldn’t find any. Plus, even if she had did wrong, the device that she had invented should be impressive enough. It’d instantly reduce the carbon footprint of the world – given good enough marketing of course. She had even pitched the big picture ideas to the investors. Why couldn’t they see it?

She slouched back, her dead eyes starring at the poster above her desk. It said “A YEAR FROM NOW YOU MAY WISH YOU HAD STARTED TODAY” in an elegant typeface, – probably Gotham or Futura, her mind added. At this point, she really wished she had started earlier – technical and life management skills ranging from the algorithms that would be used in the control systems, to planning skills. Objectively however, she did learn those skills at a very young age. Her upper-middle class background ensured she had all the opportunities. Just as regret was setting in, her eyelids shut with the weight of her perceived failure, and she fell into deep somnolence.

“Ellen! Wake up!” She found herself shaken awake by her team mate. Groggily she sat up from her chair and looked around. Darren Checkhov came to view, looking concerned.

“You’ve got a guest. Wake up now”, Darren repeated.

“You ok? We were supposed to debrief after Deusex left. You just kinda stumbled into your room and fell asleep.”

“Yeah, I’m good. Who’s the guest?”, Ellen asked, rubbing her eyes.

“Dunno. Says he’s got an proposition for you.”

“Ugh, not tonight. Totally not in the mood for it.” Ellen stretched and exited the room and walked towards the living room. Her guest was seated on the sofa, talking – no, attempting to make small talk with the third member of the team, Simone. Simone wasn’t a good socializer, even though Ellen had pushed her to make some changes quite a few times. She noted that Simone was typing away on the keyboard while her guest, dressed in all black, was attempting a conversation, and made a mental note to address that to Simone later. Noticing Ellen approach, her guest rapidly stood up and extended a hand.

“Hi, Jim Plott” said her guest. Ellen took the hand and gave it a good firm handshake, a habit she had forced herself into a few years ago.

“Good to meet you Jim, what can I do for you?”

“Is there somewhere we can talk in private? I have got an interesting proposition for you, and – “, Jim paused and looked around. “the McGuffin Device” he continued after a visual scan found nothing.

“Oh, this?” Ellen removed the device from her lab coat pocket and held it up.

“Yeah. So, can we have a quick chat outside?”

“Sure, lemme check with the team to see if there are any outstanding work first. Simone’s working on the control and shading system for the LAMP stack, right? Darren?” She looked at Darren. He nodded at a oddly shaped plastic piece connected to some wires on the coffee table.

“Still working on the triggering mechanism” he said.

“OK. Let’s step outside for a bit then Jim,” Ellen motioned towards the door. Jim Plott followed.

Once outside, Jim reached deep into his jacket pocket and removed a spherical object. It appears to be made of a number of segments and at what Ellen assumed to be the pole of the sphere was a button glowing white. It reminded her of a pumpkin bomb that the Green Goblin of the Spiderman series used as a weapon. That sparked a sense of dread and fear.

“Wait – ”

Jim pushed the button before Ellen could even finish uttering her protestations. A white light emanated from the spherical device and engulfed both Jim and Ellen. She opened her mouth to scream –

And woke up sitting on her bed. It was dark. She reached for her laptop on her bedside table and turned it on. Then she realized something wasn’t quite right. It wasn’t a Macbook Pro. Instead it was the no-brand netbook she had used prior to acquiring the Macbook Pro almost a year ago. She remembered acquiring a second hand Macbook Pro after she had secured her seed round of funding and her netbook died. Very soon however, her experiences had normalized into reality and she dismissed her prior experience as merely a dream.

The next morning, Ellen walked out to her daily team meeting. She was struck with an idea on how to make improvements to the current iteration of the McGuffin device. After some lengthy discussion, they agreed with the new ideas on how the device could be improved, though Ellen couldn’t shake the feeling that she had worked on this improvement before.

*\* One Year Later **

Ellen McGuffin heaved a heavy sigh as she uncoupled the device from the battery and pocketed it in her satchel. Don’t dress up. It’ll make you come across as genuine, and that you know your stuff, she was adviced.

Fat lot of help that did, she thought to herself as she walked towards the exit of the garage. She turned her head to give the car one last look, switched off the lights and left the garage for the last time. It was a lovely evening – one worthy of stopping and taking in the sight. Ellen didn’t do that. Her mind was far too clouded by the incidents today. This was her sixteenth time in her attempt to raise funds for her invention, nay her sixteenth failure. She had succeded in closing a seed round a year ago, but tomorrow the burn chart comes to an end. There would be no more future for the device.

She retired to her bedroom and played back the events of the day. She had welcomed the investors, explained how the device worked, and then showed them the working prototype. The response from her memory, were lukewarm at best. She racked her brain to see what she did wrong and couldn’t find any. Plus, even if she had did wrong, the device that she had invented should be impressive enough. Through several stroke-of-genius ideas, she had pretty much managed to squeeze at least three years worth of R&D into the device within the last year alone. Her effort, she knew, was impressive. Her invention was at least three years ahead of the cutting edge. But the investors were blind to it. Why couldn’t they see it?

She slouched back, her dead eyes starring at the poster above her desk. It said “A YEAR FROM NOW YOU MAY WISH YOU HAD STARTED TODAY” in an elegant typeface, – probably Gotham or Futura, her mind added. At this point, she really wished she had started earlier, but now was not the time for regrets. She needed to relax a little. She reached out into a hidden drawer in her desk and pulled out a small black pen-like device and shook it.

Good, she thought. It was still loaded. She pressed on the tapered top of the device and the plus-sign logo on the device lit up a blue-purple that reminded her of the special blue flowers that her ex-boyfriend Ross used to give her – they had broken up a few months ago because Ellen was quote too busy with her invention unquote. Fiddling with it, the logo turned green and she raised the device to her mouth and took a deep breath from it. She repeated this a few times, and soon enough, her eyelids were heavy, and her thoughts drifted. She fell asleep.

“Ellen! Wake up!” She found herself shaken awake by her team mate. Groggily she sat up from her chair and looked around. Darren Checkhov came to view, looking concerned. He was holding a cylinder of some sort – she recognized it as the firing pin that Checkhov was working on.

“You’ve got a guest. Wake up now”, Darren repeated.

“You ok? We were supposed to debrief after Deusex left. You just kinda stumbled into your room and fell asleep.”

“Yeah, I’m good. Who’s the guest?”, Ellen asked, rubbing her eyes.

“Dunno. Says she’s got an proposition for you.”

“Ugh, not tonight. Totally not in the mood for it.” Ellen stretched, pocketed the vaporizer and quickly exited the room and walked towards the living room. Her guest was seated on the sofa, talking – no, attempting to make small talk with the third member of the team, Simone. Simone was awkward with her conversation, and Ellen could see that she was racking her brains for common topics. Noticing Ellen approach, her guest rapidly stood up and extended a hand.

“Jess Plott, pleased to meet you”

“Good to meet you Jess too, what brings you here?”

“Is there somewhere we can talk in private? I have got an interesting proposition for you, and – “, Jess paused and looked around. “the McGuffin Device” she continued after a visual scan found nothing.

“What about it?” Ellen secretly hoped someone would make an offer and take the terrible invention that had caused her sleepless nights away.

“I represent a group that is interested in you and your device. Can we chat somewhere more private?”

Ellen looked at her team. They responded with quizzical looks.

“Look, we work as a team. What does your group want with the device?”

“Well, it concerns you privately”

“Ellen, we’re good here. I’ve got work to do on the barrell and Simone’s working on the magazine article” Darren piped in.

“OK. Let’s step outside for a bit then Jess,” Ellen motioned towards the door. Jess Plott followed.

Once outside, Jess reached deep into her jacket pocket and removed a spherical object. It appears to be made of a number of segments and at what Ellen assumed to be the pole of the sphere was a button glowing white. It reminded her of a pumpkin bomb that the Green Goblin of the Spiderman series used as a weapon. That sparked a sense of dread and fear.

“Wait – ”

Jess pushed the button before Ellen could even finish uttering her protestations. A white light emanated from the spherical device and engulfed both Jess and Ellen. She opened her mouth and screamed.

The white light blurred Ellen’s vision. But soon it became clear that the white light was merely her eyes adjusting to the extremely bright location she was in. She couldn’t really tell where she was. It was as if the room – if it was a room – went on forever. The walls, floor and ceiling – if they were indeed those things – were all bright white. In front of her was a figure. It was however flckering. Amongst the flickers she caught sight of a familiar face – that of Jess Plott.

“Wh-where am I?” Ellen asked.

“Am I dead? Is this a consciousness continuum?” she asked again. The flickering figure in front of her was silent.

It was then she noticed that her body did not move according to the reflexive movements she had expected from her usual experience. She tried moving her arm, but despite her willing, she couldn’t even move her neck to look at her arm, and her arm definitely wasn’t raising to her face level as she had willed it to.

Stuck, a panic began to set in.

“What have you done to me!” Ellen screamed. It was a weird sensation, as her mouth hadn’t moved. But she could hear herself scream.

“You are in the Plott Device” said a voice that sounded like Jess Plott’s. Somewhere in the deepest parts of her memories, something began to stir. She began to remember the voices of Jim Plott. Then she remembered that the voice sounded like Jace Plott’s. And Jade Plott’s. And Jen Plott’s. And Jake Plott’s. And…

As the tidal waves of memory began crashing upon the shores of her mind, she began to be aware that she had be in fact in this situation before.

“Elevated levels of tetrahydrocannabinol detected in subject’s brain,” a disembodied voice boomed overhead. Instinctively Ellen tried to look up, but again her head wouldn’t move.

“She will remember now,” said the figure in front of her, with the combined voices of her memory.

“This does not bode well,” argued the figure in front of her.

“She has to know now”, retorted the figure.

“Begin InfoDump Protocol E-X-P-O, ” boomed the rather mechanical voice overhead.

“Ellen, you are in the Plott Device. It functions to move your life forward towards a goal”, said the figure.

“Forward? What goal? My life is in complete shambles. There is no returning from that!” Ellen yelled. Her frustration had been pent up over the number of years she had been working on her invention.

“You have a goal in life. The McGuffin Device.”

“Is this… a time machine?” Ellen asked.

“I’ve experienced this before, haven’t I?” she asked again.

“Yes. And you will experience it an infinite number of times. Until the day that your invention, the McGuffin, is widely accepted by the general population, you will experience this an infinite times more. The Plott Device ensures that you develop the McGuffin”

“Why me?”

“The McGuffin will be your legacy upon the world. It is through the McGuffin that the Plott Device can be built. Can be powered. You have changed the world. That you here indicates that you will achieve your goal. The Plott Device simply keeps you on track. In your less enlightened times, you call it your destiny”

“I can’t do this any more. It’s tearing me apart from inside. I feel my brain burning up.”

“Which is why memory of the Plott Device is suppressed every time it happens. This time it is different. The cannabinoid levels in your brain is interfering with the memory capabilities of the Plott Device. You will remember, Ellen.”

“What is stopping me from stopping work on the McGuffin device? I really cannot handle this!”

“Nothing. Time can be rewritten. We shall simply disappear. The planet you know and love will simply burn.” the figure said in a rather matter-of-fact way.

“If you subscribe to the multi-universe theory, indeed, in some variations, you do stop working on the McGuffin. And in those scenarios, the world ends with you.”

The gravity of the words hit Ellen like a sack of bricks.

“You’re from the future, right? Why don’t you just give me the McGuffin?”

“Have you heard of the Bootstrap Paradox? The temporal continuum doesn’t allow it to happen. It does allow for leakages of ideas to happen, which is why you were able to perform several years’ worth of R&D into the last year”

“Search your memories. You will also recall ideas being placed throughout your entire life. Every living night of your life, you seem to have no dreams. You now know why.”

“Give me a hint then! If this is Groundhog Year for me, then tell me what will need to change in order to get the device invented”

“The McGuffin will not be invented for a long time more. Where you are in life when you were picked up, you will have a long time to go. You have a lot of personal flaws to clean up too. Your ego, your various complexes. Your insistence on being right. All these need to change.”

“However, Checkhov’s particle gun will play a very important role in the device in the future. As will the machinations of Deusex Ventures.”

“So we’ll get funding from Deusex?”

“No. Time is in flux and can be rewritten. Nothing is set in stone. It is your effort that matters”

“So is this a weed induced hallucination? You are telling me contradictory things”

“Cannabis does not work like this. You are in the Plott Device. Every time you enter the Plott Devices, the times and circumstances change. Which is why you’ve already met an infinite numbers of agents of Plott Device, who are all different versions of the same agent.”

The figure in front of Ellen suddenly stopped flickering and took the form of Jim Plott.

“One version of events happens like this. In ten years you completed development of the McGuffin through the repeat use of the Plott Device. You used the Plott Device to gain rapid market share by retroactively introducing features that your competitors are unable to add, keeping you ahead of the game. You also used the Plott Device to perform secret acceptance tests, so in ten years time you would have had over 60 years worth of trials and test to prove that it is not hazardous.”

“Oh cool”

“That version will likely not come to pass”, said the voice of Jess Plott. The figure now took her form.

“One version of events happens like this. You are removed from the Plott Device, and are later committed to the hospital for various mental health related issues, such as depression and schizophrenia. The McGuffin was never created by you, and the development is stalled for over fifty years.”

“That version will likely not come to pass”, said another voice, which Ellen recognized as Jeff Plott’s.

“One version of evens happens like this -”

“STOP! I WANT OUT! NOW! DOLPHIN! DOLPHIN!” Ellen shouted. All the information was getting to her head and she could feel her brain heat up.

The scenery changed. The white room immediately faded away. Ellen’s eyes quickly adjusted to the dim lights. She could hear music playing in the background, and the soft warm lighting of the room. Despite her vision still being blurry, she recognized it immediately.

She heard a click. And a weight was lifted off from her neck and wrists. Rose, her girlfriend helped her out of the wooden pillory and stocks which held her legs hands and neck in place.

“Are you okay? You safeworded out of a sudden. We’ve barely started.” Ross had a very worried look on her face.

“Sorry. Had a panic attack of sorts – ” Ellen’s memory was fuzzy. Didn’t she have a boyfriend? She knew that this had happened in her past, sorta – but the context of what is past and present no longer made sense to her – which eventually led to the argument and then to them breaking up a few days later. Then the wave hit. She remembered everything from every participation in the Plott Device ever. Things had changed. Ross as an agent in Ellen’s life had been replaced with Rose. Dizzy, she stood up, and put some clothings on.

“Wait, Ellen, where are you going?” Rose asked, tailing Ellen.

Ellen’s head began to clear up as she walked towards the exit of Rose (or was it Ross?)’s house. Along the way she picked up her satchel, and felt a spherical device in it. Peeking inside, she saw the Plott Device. She closed the satchel and opened the door.

Sunlight hit her face as a gentle breeze blew inwards. It gave her a sudden boost of confidence. Ellen reached for Rose’s hand and pulled Rose towards her.

“I’m going to the future, Rose. And you’re coming with me this time”.

END//