Read Dr. Futurity (1960) for Free Online

was for a routine examination." He paused. "Why didn't you dye your body all over? Why just in parts?"
    Parsons said, "No time."
    "You've just been here briefly." Stenog glanced over the written material on his clipboard. "I see that you claim no knowledge of how you got from your time segment to ours. Interesting."
    If it was all there, there was no point in him saying anything. He remained silent. Past Stenog he could see the city, and he began to take an interest in it. The spires . . .
    "What bothers me," Stenog said, "is that we dropped experimentation with time travel something like eight years ago. The government, I mean. A principle was put forth, showing that time travel was a limited application of perpetual motion and hence a contradiction of its own working laws. That is, if you wanted to invent a time machine, all you'd have to do was swear or prophesy that when you got it working, the first use you'd put it to would be to go back into time, to the point at which you got interested in the idea." He smiled. "And give your earlier self the functioning, finished piece of equipment. This has never happened; evidently there can be no time travel. By definition, time travel is a discovery that, if it could be made, would already have been made. Perhaps I oversimplified the proof, but substantially--"
    Parsons interrupted, "That assumes that if the discovery had already been made, it would be publicly known. Recognized. But nobody saw me leave my own world." He gestured. "And do you think they realize now what's happened? All they know is that I disappeared, with no trace. Would they infer that I was carried into time?" He thought of his wife. "They don't know," he said. "There was no warning." Now he told Stenog the details; the younger man listened attentively.
    "A force field," Stenog said presently. With a sudden shudder of anger he said, "We shouldn't have given up experimentation; we had a good deal of basic research done, hardware constructed." Now, he pondered. "That hardware--God knows what became of it. The research never was kept secret. Presumably the hardware was sold off; a lot of valuable components were involved. That was last year or so. We had it so clearly in mind that time travel would show up in some vast historic way, interfere with the collapse of the Greek City States, assist the success of Napoleon's European plan and thereby obviate the following wars. But you're implying a secret , limited time travel. For some personal reasons. Not official, not for social aims." His boyish face drew into a troubled scowl.
    "If you recognize that I'm from another time," Parsons said, "From another culture, how can you convict me for what I did?"
    To that, Stenog nodded. "You had no knowledge, of course. But our law has no clause about 'persons from another culture.' There is no other culture, no diversity whatever. Ignorant or not, you have to stand trial for sentence. There's a historic concept: Ignorance of the law is no excuse. And isn't that what you're claiming?"
    The patent injustice of it staggered Parsons. Yet he could not tell from Stenog's tone just how serious the man was; the faintly detached, ironical quality could not be interpreted. Was Stenog mocking himself?
    Parsons said stiffly, "Can't you use your reason?"
    Chewing his lip, Stenog said, "You have to abide by the laws of the community in which you live. Whether you came voluntarily or not. But"--He now appeared to be genuinely concerned; the irony had gone--"possibly some suspension can be worked out. The motions could be gone through."
    Going from the room, he left Parsons alone for a time. When he returned he carried a polished oak box with a lock on it. Seating himself, he produced a key from his robe and unlocked the box. Out of it he lifted a massive white wig. With solemnity, he placed the wig on his head; at once, with his dark hair concealed, and the heavy rolls of the wig outlining his face, he lost the appearance of youth. A