The Last Century

“Haha! I’ve done it!” the triumphant scream echoed in Hans’s basement. He stepped back to admire his greatest creation and smiled to himself. “All these years of lonely work have been worth it for you!”

Hans opened the doors to let sunlight in, but realized it was night already. It didn’t matter, his wonderous machine was even more glorious in the moonlight. He caressed the hull lovingly as he made his way towards the pilot seat.

The engine hummed to life smoothly and Hans drove it out of his workshop into the cool alpine air. He flipped a switch and the wings slid down, locking into place with a satisfying clank. He sat in his machine for a moment, stressing over the details of his plan. It took him years to get to this point, and he recalculated every detail one last time before putting it all into motion.

His mind cleared and headed to his makeshift runway. His plane’s engine, the greatest of his creations, didn’t struggle at all to reach the speed he needed to lift off the ground.

Now high enough, he engaged the auto pilot to follow a pre-set course that would take him around the globe repeatedly. He waited a moment for the plane to adjust itself, then he looked at the console with the big red button. He smiled at his inscription, ‘No going back!’ printed around the button as he slammed his hand down eagerly upon it. “Goodbye twenty-first century! You weren’t that good anyways! Now to fix where this entire century went wrong…”

The engine whirred and buzzed as the plane gathered more speed, until lightning shot out of the engine and lights stretched to infinity. Seasons changed in the world below, but now winter turned into fall and then into summer.

Within minutes, the engine slowed back down, and the world below came into focus once again. The same world Hans had just left behind, but younger, more naïve.

Hans looked down and recognized the city just below him from old pictures. He laughed heartily to himself once more. His calculations had been correct, looking at the controls he confirmed what he already knew to be true: he was just above Sarajevo, in the year nineteen fourteen.

Hans brought his plane down in an abandoned field and hid it behind some shrubs. He walked towards the city, to the first place he had to visit. He found the building he was looking for, an old rundown apartment complex, and went inside.

It took mere minutes to find who he was looking for; a young man waiting by a window with a rifle leaning against the wall. Hans stalked up behind him slowly and before the man could react, Hans swiped the rifle off the wall and struck him unconscious with the butt of the weapon. Hans removed the bullets from the rifle, made sure the man didn’t have any others on him, then left.

He left the building and walked briskly, he had to get to the street corner before the motorcade. A crowd was already gathered to watch the archduke pass by. Hans pushed his way through the crowd, trying to find the next man on the list.

Just as people were cheering at the approaching cars, he saw someone open their jacket and pull something out as they were walking towards the street. Hans pushed his way through the crowd and collided with the man just as the object left his hand.

Hans’s heart tightened and he feared he had been too late. He scurried to his feet before anyone could see what had just happened, using the ensuing chaos of the crowd to help him disappear. The object hit the archduke’s car, but its trajectory was off enough that it so it bounced off the first car’s hood and back under the following vehicle. The deafening blast of the bomb sent everyone running and the archduke’s car sped off.

Hans felt a weight sluff off his shoulders. He had succeeded in his mission; the archduke was safe. The course of the twentieth century would be altered now, and one could only hope it would be for the better. That was the risk he was willing to take

Hans left the area and found himself a nice café to sit at and ponder the possibilities of this new world he had created. He knew he wouldn’t be able to witness most of these events, as his machine only travelled one way in time, but he would at least get to live through some of it. He chuckled to himself thinking of all the nay-sayers, everyone that said, you can’t change history. Well, he did it. He showed them!

He was lost in thought, musing over the success of his life’s work, unaware of the car that had just pulled up to the café, unaware of archduke Ferdinand stepping out of his car and seating himself only two tables away from him. Hans only became aware of his presence a few seconds after the shots rang out next to him.