Part I: Prelude

“This is a model of a Cycax Olman.” Victor held up the plant in his hand. It had a fuzzy brown stem that stuck halfway up and down the plant with thick green leaves extruding upwards from the center like an upside down palm tree. The men and women in the room analyzed it, taking in every detail of it. 

“It went excitement over 40,000 years ago, and we believe it is the only plant to contain the substance we need to cure this new virus.” Victor continued. He put the plant down on a long white table and moved to the other side of it. “As I’m sure you’re all aware, you’ve been called here today because we believe we finally got the time machine to work.” 

A hand shot up in the air. “Yes, Dr. Conners?” said Victor. 

A tall woman with tight blond hair lowered her hand to grab her pen. “The Cycax Olman is incredibly fragile before it's been crystallized, and once that happens it’ll loose its healing agents. What is your plan for transporting it safely not only after plucking it, and how will the flower adjust to the vastly different climate of the 22nd century?”

Victor clasped his hands together, protruding a smile he tried to make seem sincere. “Excellent question Dr. Conners. As you know, a brilliant scientist created an incubator that would recreate the climate of any era. With that we’ll not only be able to keep it safe in modern day, but as long as it stays in the incubator it will remain intact. And since I can gather what your real question is— yes, as that scientist you will be allowed to embark on our journey with us.” 

Dr. Conners tried to hide her enthusiastic smile, but her joy was hard to conceal. 

“Now, traveling back in time is dangerous.” Victor paced the room. “There are a number of threats we’re going to face once we’re there. To talk more on this, I’d like to introduce our team’s paleontologist Andrew Stenton and our historian Nathan Sanders.” 

The room applauded as two men stood up and moved to the front of the room. Victor took a seat in the far back of the room. 

“Cycax Olamn excited for a very brief time.” Andrew started. “Of all the fossils found in the region we now know as West Africa, there's only about a 1,000 year period in which this flower blossomed. This puts us right in the Paletholic period, aka the caveman period.”

A projector turned on that flipped through several pictures of the flower’s fossils and reenactments of people in caves. It finally settled on a picture of a map somewhere in Africa. Nathan, the team’s historian, moved up and pointed to a red dot placed on the map. 

“This is our destination,” explained Nathan. “The fossils found here predate to have bloomed at around 11,000 BC. based on the history of the area, would be the ideal place to travel back to. The tribe living in the cave here were attacked by an opposing group and pillaged. If we land here, we wouldn’t have to worry about running into any prehistoric cave people.”

“But that doesn’t eliminate all the danger.” Andrew pointed out. 

“It certainly doesn’t,” continued Nathan, his chest prodding. “We have to worry about the extreme prehistoric heat as well as prehistoric bugs. We predict that the critters wouldn’t attack people, but one bite and we could be bringing back diseases that haven’t existed for millennia.”

“This is all fine and dandy,” a fat man said from the middle of the room. “But I don’t see how we’re going to find this flower thingy.” 

“That’s what everyone else here is for.” Victor picked his head up. “We know the rough area of where the flower was before continent shifting and erosion. We have a team of 15 extra people who will help us search and dig and navigate the caves.”

Victor stood up and took his place back at the front of the room. “15 people here to help with the search. You’re all experts in your own respects; florists, landscapers, etc. Then there’s one historian, one paleontologist, an expert environmentalist with a PHD in environments through different time periods, one very generous investor who’d like to make sure his money went to good use, and the lead inventor of the time machine— me.” 

The 20 people in the room all looked at each other. They were all about to embark on a historical mission. 

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10 minutes before the time machine was fully charged, everybody was receiving their last minute booster shots. It would protect them from diseases that existed back then, but they’d all have to be screened upon coming back to make sure they weren’t caring anything. 

Luckily, if they were carrying something, it wouldn’t matter as long as they had the Cycax. A single Cycax could heal over 400 people from any ailment. The time machine was the invention that was going to allow the world to cure any disease. 

“Excuse me, Victor?” 

Victor spun around, his fingers still emerged in his long beard. “Oh, hello Dr. Conners. What can I do for you?”

“Please, call me Stacy,” she said, placing a large incubator on a table. “I just wanted to thank you again for allowing me to come on this trip. I’ve been studying this kind of environment for so long, I can’t believe I’m actually going to get to experience it.” 

Victor raised a hand. “Don’t mention it. Your work speaks for itself, I wouldn’t want anybody else on this team.” 

Stacy flushed, grinning her teeth. “I’ll see you when it's time for departure.”

Victor nodded and Stacy picked her incubator up and walked away. Not long after, the fat man from earlier approached Victor next. “Are you sure this is going to work? Are all 20 of us going to make it through?” 

“Of course, Maximus.” Victor gazed at his time machine. Sparks were flying out of the insides of the metal rim. Pretty soon those sparks would all connect, opening a rip right through time. “We’ll go in, and once we leave my people will open up another portal in the same spot but 24 hours later.” 

“So what you’re saying is that we’ll have to spend an entire day there?” asked Maximus.

“Of course.” answered Victor. “It's kind of comforting. We’ll be living a similar experience to our ancestors for a day.”

Maximus scuffed. “You better hope this works, Victor. I can’t keep putting money into this project, not when I can be funding more realistic methods of curing this ailment.”

“Don’t worry, you’ve funded us enough. I promise when we bring this flower back, your daughter will be the first person we give the cure to.”

“Sir!” A voice yelled from across the room. “It’s almost ready.” 

“Everybody gather up.” Victor shouted, approaching the time machine as the sparks exploded into a wormhole. “It’s beautiful.” 

A crowd of 19 people gathered behind Victor. “You should be the first in there, sir.” Andrew said into his year. 

“Is it ready?” Victor asked.

“Yes, sir.” A man said. “It’s clear for entry.” 

“Then enter I go.” Victor stepped forward, and before he knew it he was sucked into the wormhorm.