Happy the Dragon and the Shape of Time: Back to the Past

Part 1.The Discovery | Part 2.Into the Future | Part 3. Back to the Past

 Happy settled into life in the future.

At first, everything fascinated him. Dragons lived among the moons. Machines could think. Rockets crossed distances that had once seemed impossible.

But something was missing.

His friends.

His family.

Dr Ash.

They had all lived centuries ago.

For the first time since beginning his adventure, Happy did not want to discover what came next.

He wanted to go back.

Happy began asking scientists across Drakonis whether anyone had found a way to travel into the past. Most gave him the same answer.

“Impossible.”

Then, one day, Happy heard about a small team of scientists researching time travel. Their work had begun with some very familiar names.

Dr Ash and Happy the Dragon.

Happy could hardly believe it.

The notes and discoveries he and Dr Ash had left behind centuries earlier had survived. Generations of scientists had continued their work.

Happy immediately went to meet them.

Deep inside their laboratory, the scientists showed him something extraordinary.

“Tachyons,” one of them said.

Happy stared at the strange readings on the screen.

Tachyons were hypothetical particles unlike ordinary matter. They could never slow down to the speed of light because they already existed beyond it. From some perspectives, they could even appear to move backwards through time.

There was another strange idea called the switching principle. What appeared to one observer as a tachyon travelling backwards in time could be interpreted by another observer in a way that kept the laws of physics consistent.

Happy’s eyes widened.

“So these things can travel into the past?”

“In theory,” replied the scientist.

Those two words worried Happy.

Together, Happy and the scientists began designing a machine.

Their idea was to create a rapidly spinning cocoon of tachyons using an experimental containment field. If they could place ordinary matter inside this cocoon, perhaps the tachyons could carry it backwards through time.

After months of work, the machine was finally ready.

Nobody was foolish enough to put a dragon inside it.

Not yet.

They started with a piece of paper.

Before placing it inside the chamber, Happy picked up a pen and wrote:

“Dear Past, please return this. We only have one sheet left.”

The scientists laughed.

They placed the paper inside the chamber and programmed the machine to send it exactly one second into the past.

Everyone stepped back.

“Ready?”

Happy nodded.

The scientist pressed the button.

The paper vanished.

Everyone turned towards the machine designed to receive objects from the past.

Nothing.

One second passed.

Then five.

Then ten.

The room fell silent.

Had they destroyed it?

Then one of the scientists noticed something.

The paper had not arrived in the receiving machine.

It was lying underneath the table.

“How did that get there?”

They checked the laboratory recordings.

And everyone froze.

The paper had appeared beneath the table one second before they had pressed the button.

 Happy stared at it.

For his entire life, cause had come before effect.

Now he had seen an effect happen before its cause.

The machine worked.

But nobody was going to put a dragon inside it after one successful experiment.

For the next few months, the scientists tested everything they could think of. They sent simple objects first, then clocks and electronic devices. They increased the journey from seconds to minutes, then hours and days. They carefully checked each object before and after every experiment.

Eventually, they began testing living subjects, starting with tiny organisms and gradually moving to more complex life. The scientists monitored every heartbeat, movement and biological change.

Test after test succeeded.

Only when they were satisfied that living things could pass through unharmed did they finally prepare for the experiment the entire project had been leading towards.

There was only one test left.

Happy.

He packed his belongings and stood beside the tachyon chamber.

For a moment, he hesitated.

The future had become his home too. These scientists had become his friends. If the machine worked, he might never see any of them again.

Happy said farewell to his fellow dragons of science and stepped inside.

The tachyon cocoon began spinning around him.

Faster.

And faster.

Happy entered the date.

His own time.

The laboratory alarms sounded.

“Happy!” shouted one of the scientists. “The readings are unstable!”

Happy looked at the controls.

He could stop.

He thought about Dr Ash.

His friends.

His family.

Then he pressed GO.

The world disappeared.

The sensation was unlike anything Happy had ever felt.

His wings felt stronger.

His body became lighter.

His scales felt younger.

Years seemed to peel away from him.

Then everything stopped.

Happy opened his eyes.

He knew this place.

He knew this day.

He knew this exact moment.

But something was wrong.

There should have been another Happy here.

The younger Happy who had never travelled into the future.

There wasn’t.

He had not vanished violently or suddenly. He had simply ceased to exist as a separate path.

Two histories had become one.

Happy looked down at himself.

His old body was gone too.

He was young again.

But he remembered everything.

The black hole.

Dragon Musk.

Fire Ball.

The wormhole.

The future.

The tachyons.

All of it.

And there, in front of him, were two curved pieces of glass.

Happy picked them up.

He stacked one in front of the other.

The universe seemed to swell.

Happy looked towards the stars.

And smiled a smile that had been waiting inside him for centuries.

He knew exactly what he would find.

The loop was complete.

The End.