"It is the contention of this researcher that, although still impossible at this time, future scientific developments could possibly lead to the development of temporal displacement technologies that could revolutionize science and society."

"Dr. Bright is going to flip over that", he thought. "I can just hear him now - 'Time travel is a physical impossibility, and anyone who thinks otherwise is a moron!" Dr. Bright, his research supervisor, was the type of person who is never open to ideas other than his own, and more than once, Jared had paid the price for daring to suggest other possibilities. In fact, his PhD thesis was still being delayed by Dr. Bright, who wanted to double-check any changes and revisions in order to be sure that Jared didn't slip any new or controversial ideas in under his nose.

As Jared clicked SAVE, he started to stand up. Too much time at the computer this evening had let him get a bit stiff, so he grunted faintly as he stood up. Jared wasn't in bad shape - but he was never much of an athlete. He wasn't that coordinated, so most sports were not for him. He was more of a loner - cycling, weight training, running, and other solitary sports were more his cup of tea. Some people envied him for his lean, fairly hard physique - but he wanted more. Even as a child, he had stuffed his pyjamas with stuffed toys in order to get the big, bulging, muscular look of the heroes in the comic books. Now he made all the motions - training at the gym, eating like a horse, using all the legal training aids he could get, nothing mattered. He still wasn't big. He had event considered using steroids - but their controlled status could wreak havoc with his scholastic aspirations should he ever get caught - so he had never gone that far. Strolling over to his test bench, he thought to himself "One more run tonight - it won't make any difference anyway" He switched on the power supplies - and the experiment began. He was using an oscillating e-m field to try and quantum jump a particular photon through time - make it leave the test chamber, where it was being suspended in a tuned laser beam, and have it reappear in another chamber a specific number of seconds later. So far no luck - but he kept hoping. As the system powered up, the resonance chamber hummed to life, and the system signalled ready. Jared placed his finger on the trigger switch to activate the e-m field generators. Unbeknownst to Jared, outside events were about to shape his future. A drunk driver returning home swerved out his lane and crashed into a telephone pole. The pole and its attached 25 KVA line fell over and shorted out onto the main power line to the physics building with a shower of blue-white sparks.

Inside, Jared hit the button, and all hell broke loose. The field generator came on line - but instead of the usual 120 V, 15 A current expected, the immense power surge from the short outside the building poured into the system. Protective breakers and circuits couldn't react fast enough, so before going up a cloud of cooked electronics, the system managed to generate a short, but incredibly intense field. Jared hit the ground as the field generator blew - unhurt, but terrified.

"Great - there goes 6 months of work."

Just then, Jared head a chime from the sensor module control computer. This system had to be incredibly stable and time-synchronized, so ran off of an independent UPS fed from another department. The computer was registering a photon arrival of the correct wavelength at the exact time that the experiment was designed to trigger. "It worked! It worked!", shouted Jared. "The field strength wasn't high enough!"

As Jared practically bounded around the room, a tang of ozone filled the air - then Jared's hair stood on end. He whirled about, hearing a crackling noise from behind him. An approximately rectangular area was glowing blue-white on the wall at the back of the lab. Jared squinted at the wall, blinded by the light, as a figure stood framed in the rectangle, staring into the smoke-filled lab. "Jared Benson?" the young man asked.

"Yes?"

"It's you! It's really you! It worked!"

"Excuse me, what worked?"

"I'm sorry - give me a second"

The figure stepped forward, and the rectangle faded away. As the figure stepped forward, Jared could see that the person was built. Not in-shape built, near professional body-builder built. Jared began to get a little envious, not be mention a little erect.

"My name is Alex Rodrigo Benson - and you would be my great-great-grandfather!"

"What?" The physicist in Jared thought quickly. " The photon time-jump - it must have sent ripples through space-time. Ripples that could be detected in the future - where they can time travel - I was right!"

"Yup! I've wanted to come and see you for several years now - the problem is tracking - do you know how hard it is to synchronize with someone's space-time location without a good reference point?" Alex paused. "Actually, I don't suppose you do. Anyway, on my 16th birthday I got I finally found a mention of the explosion in your lab - and the first reported time jump. This information was discredited by another researcher, a.."

"Doctor Bright, no doubt.", interrupted Jared.

"Yes, I thought you'd know that. So I set the system to track to the time ripples of that event - and here I am."

Jared's mind caught up - "Did you say your 16th birthday? You don't look 16!"

Alex looked down at himself, then laughed. "That's true, in your time, I suppose I don't. I expect that most 16-year olds here are not 6 foot 1, 300 lbs"

Jared definitely got hard then - "300 lbs - you weigh 120 lbs more than me?"

"Sure - it's easy now", Alex paused in confusion, "Or, will be easy now, or is it then? English still doesn't have good verb constructions for time travel. Do you want to come for a short visit - I think that I have some information you might want. You see, I've read all the information in the infonet on you - some of it would have been your private files at the time, but are now publicly available. I know that you've wanted to be more muscular - I think I can help you get what you want."

"Won't this cause a paradox?" Ever the scientist, Jared wanted to keep this simple.

"I don't believe so. The information I have shows that your research suddenly progressed much faster after the explosion. So much so, in fact, people have always wondered where you suddenly got the answers from." Alex grinned "It would appear to have been me." Alex waved back at the wall, which lit up again. "Coming?"

Jared looked at Alex, especially Alex's body. He could continue his research, and get the body he wanted. All it took was trusting his future great-great grandson who came from the future. He shook his head, who would ever believe this, even if he told them. "Sure, why not? Let's see what the future will bring!"

Jared and his muscular descendant stepped through the portal. •