“Out of the way! The Fuhrer wants to see him!”
The unfamiliar man stared up into a face that had become infamously etched into history’s darkest shadows.
“Not here… Not now… Not him.” An internal conflict began brewing in the unfamiliar man’s mind. He had to make a decision, and fast… He had about half an hour before the radiation liquified his organs.
“A paratrooper?”
“No, my Fuhrer. He simply appeared in the Werhelm Bunker Room.”
“What do you mean, appeared?”
“He just appeared. One minute there was nothing, the next…” The soldier mimed a silent explosion with his hands.
The unfamiliar man coughed. Time was precious. He made up his mind. Monsters though they may be, they were still human. Perhaps, in due time, they’d become more empathetic.
“My Fuhrer-“ The unfamiliar man said “-I have come to you from the future, and I’ve brought detailed plans on the technology we’ve created.”
Many pointed at the unfamiliar man as he reached into the depths of his uniform, then slowly withdrew a book. He didn’t pause. If they shot him, then at least they’d still have the book…
…But they didn’t shoot him, and he handed the massive tome to the nearest man. The unfamiliar man coughed and stared at the floor. His vision began to fade. The voices around him spoke, but he had trouble hearing them.
“-Clearly a loyal Nazi, who wished to aid us in our darkest hour. His existence proves we won’t just win this war, but we’ll invent time travel, and every other-“
The unfamiliar man began speaking. His voice was silent, but he hoped that the others would hear him. “I am not a Nazi. Your political ideology is despicable, but I had no choice. I was lucky to appear in the solar system, much less Earth, much less land somewhere safe, and even still-“ He coughed “-the radiation from the trip will soon kill me.”
“Why are you here, then?” A voice asked.
“In a little over four centuries, there will be an alien invasion. Their technology is incredible, and we stood no chance against their onslaught. Our only hope was to send someone back in time, teach our technology to humans at an earlier date, and hope that this boost would echo down the years so that by the time the interstellar war begins, we can avoid extinction.”
He coughed again. The voices around him sounded excited.
“Look at this! It seems the research we’ve been doing in atomic warfare isn’t a dead end. We just need to synthesize the heavier nuclei through gaseous diffusion-“
The unfamiliar man’s stomach sunk. He’d just given one of history’s worst men access to technology well beyond any of his contemporaries, and during a time where every bit of subterfuge and advantage mattered.
“I hope it’s worth it.” He said to himself before falling to the floor, dead.
…
Ultimately, the unfamiliar man’s funeral was kept a state secret. Though his existence would have meant an incredible boost to morale for Germany, the knowledge he brought was too valuable to fall into enemy hands, and everyone involved agreed it was best to keep his existence a secret.
He was buried with full honors. Indeed, the Fuhrer himself attended as his casket was lowered into the cold Earth as a light snow fell on the land.
“Well?” He asked one of his advisors after the funeral had ended. It was obvious that the leader’s mind was on one thing, and one thing alone.
“Your men are already making breakthroughs in energy generation and gravity manipulation. We recommend pulling back on all fronts, signing a temporary ceasefire, then in about five years launching an all-out assault.”
The Fuhrer was none too happy about retreat, but even he couldn’t deny the advantage his soldiers would have with those extra five years.
“Make it so.” He agreed.
…
The history books were all in agreement about the Fuhrer’s genius. Indeed, even Germany’s adversaries couldn’t deny the superiority of the Aryan Race. How could they? When a single ethnic group was capable of traveling the stars, converting mass to pure energy, and reigning in the rest of the planet with extreme ease before the twenty-first century even began, the idea of differences between races became obvious.
Perhaps it was an act of mercy, then, that Germany ensured no inferior genes remained. What might have otherwise been considered an inhuman genocide on 90% of the planet was recorded in the history books as a necessary culling.
By the year 2000, the technology of Earth had caught up with what the unfamiliar man had provided… And it only grew more advanced from there… And the leaders of the Eternal Reich, keeping the looming alien invasion a secret, knew they still had over three centuries left to push their advancements further.
…
This time, the location was decided well ahead of time. This time, the man had a name, and he was able to traverse the halls of time with no ill effects.
“My name is Hans Fredrick Gattle” The eight-foot tall, blond haired, blue eyed wall of muscle explained. “I have come back in time to deliver more technology.”
This was the 2010s. The War in America had ended less than a decade prior, and there were still pocket populations of Native Africans that had escaped the culling… But overall, it was a time of peace and celebration.
“You’re so tall.”
“Indeed I am. The work of centuries of genetic craftsmanship!”
“And you brought more technology?”
“Indeed I have.”
An older gentleman hobbled into the room, the cane in his right hand supporting most of his weight.
This time, the visitor fell to his knees in reverence.
“My Fuhrer! Father of the Eternal Reich! I can’t believe it!” His eyes swam with tears and he felt his heart swell with pride. How great it was to be in the presence of such a man!
The leader waved away his groveling.
“I understand you’re also a visitor from the future?”
The eight-foot-tall man rose to one knee, but remained in a position of pure fealty.
“Yes, my Fuhrer. I understand you’ve already received one such visitor?”
“I have, yes.”
“Unfortunately, even with his help, this augmented version of humanity is still incapable of winning against the invaders. We put up one hell of a fight, but when they extinguished our Sun we knew it was over.”
He withdrew another book, this one far thicker than the last.
“The sum total of all our knowledge from this accelerated timeline. I think if you begin researching the fifteenth chapter now, the breakthroughs may allow you to live long enough to see mankind’s final war.”
“Immortality?” The withered old man asked.
The tall man nodded. “Unlike the last visitor, I will be able to stay and oversee this research.”
…
Under the tutelage of the eight-foot-tall man, scientific research gained another significant boost. A decade passed…Then another. Technology was invented. Genes were honed. The human race, the Aryan race, excelled.
…
A figure phased into existence. It was hard to see what he looked like, as his features were obscured by a shimmering metallic cloud.
He turned. A large contraption stood along one wall. A number of human eyes had been grafted to it, and in the center a human brain floated in a tank of fluid.
Without an ounce of reverence or regret, the shimmering man lifted his hand and pointed at the contraption.
It exploded.
The noise caused a flood of guards and engineers to converge on the room. In an instant, it was obvious what had happened.
Many raised their guns and began firing. A deluge of bullets and energy blasts struck the shimmering man, but he appeared unphased.
“Your blind sympathies and excess empathy weaken you. You’d cling to a man because he founded your civilization, little caring if he’s currently benefiting it?” The man’s voice had a mechanical echo to it and was audible even above the volley of gunfire.
“I have come back to lead you into a brighter future. A future of the dominance of Man.” And with that he withdrew a book and placed it on the table. This time the book’s end-date far exceeded the alien invasion. In fact, it seemed their technology would grow so great that the once-apocalyptic event was little more than a footnote in the history section.
“I will lead you to greatness. I will lead you to dominance. I will lead you to the Era of Man.” The shimmering man said.
…
Throughout the centuries, the leader was replaced by beings who were technologically more advanced and emotionally more stunted. These beings, for they could not very easily be considered human, perhaps had an ancestor who’d been human at one time, but their psyche had been so augmented by technology and toxic philosophies that they were little more than harbingers of total destruction.
Indeed, every corner of the galaxy this destructive Earth-based forced touched fell to their might.
Peaceful planets of animal-like aliens were sterilized to make way for colonization efforts.
Planets where aliens had developed some level of intelligence were given only the slightest bit of curious acknowledgement before they too were destroyed.
A few beings had become quite advanced, and perhaps the Earth-force might’ve had trouble with them in another time and place, but any interstellar skirmishes between the neo-humans and aliens proved more akin to an extermination than an actual war.
It was in one such system that a race, far more advanced than any creature humans had ever encountered, gathered together with a plan.
“We cannot fight them like this… They’re too advanced.” The thought circulated around the room telepathically, for these beings had a hive-based civilization and communicated nonverbally.
“But what can we do?”
“We can go back… Centuries, maybe even millennia. We can attack their planet and wipe them out before they get too powerful.”
“But we were taught not to meddle with the past, that such meddling could lead-“
“-Our options are limited. We could either go back in time and give ourselves a technological edge, or we can go back and defeat them before it’s too late.”
The room buzzed with angry, upsetting, disturbing thoughts. The aliens, far wiser than most when it came to the effects of time travel, knew that personally upsetting their own past could lead to any number of atrocities down the line.
“It is decided, then. We will launch an attack on their world when it was younger. Perhaps we can save our world, and countless others from extinction.”
“And if we fail?”
“Then we shall return to our own past and do what we can to give ourselves the technological edge.”