2003 Locus Award for Best Novella (nominee)
College friends acquire a time machine. An exceptionally powerful time machine. The trouble is that any voyage into the past will change history, making it impossible for them to return to their familiar earth. So what would rich, entitled young adults do with a time machine and the urge to make something from their lives?
"Lucian was wearing baggy shorts and a baggy shirt with its sleeves cut away. A hat was perched on that thick black hair. Our school mascot sat above the brim, and the hat was tilted back at the usual cocky angle. I had walked in Lucian's shadow for months, and I knew him better than I knew my own brother; but at that moment, he was wearing a strange wide smile that I didn't recognize -- a crazed, spellbound expression drained of all humor.
"I said, 'What?'
"He said to me, 'Nothing.'
"'Then quit staring at me,' I begged.
"'Was I staring?' he replied. Then he closed The Aeneid and threw his legs off the bed and stretched his back. 'Didn't mean to bug you,' he promised. 'I was just thinking.'
"'Thinking what?' I asked.
"'What we should do,' he began. 'Not tomorrow or next week. But eventually. What we should do is gather up a group of people, and train them, and then travel back in time and conquer the Roman Empire.'
"Those were his exact words.
"I just sat there. And then he asked me, 'What do you think?'
"'Fine,' I said. 'Why not?' Then I shrugged my shoulders and turned back to my book, a tiny voice inside me shouting:
"'Son-of-a-bitch! He means it!'"
Robert Reed is the author of several hundred published science fiction stories. One of his novellas -- "A Billion Eves" -- won the Hugo Award in 2007. "Veritas" belongs to a series of time travel adventures, along with "Truth" and the recently released, "The Esteemed."
Genre: Science Fiction
"Lucian was wearing baggy shorts and a baggy shirt with its sleeves cut away. A hat was perched on that thick black hair. Our school mascot sat above the brim, and the hat was tilted back at the usual cocky angle. I had walked in Lucian's shadow for months, and I knew him better than I knew my own brother; but at that moment, he was wearing a strange wide smile that I didn't recognize -- a crazed, spellbound expression drained of all humor.
"I said, 'What?'
"He said to me, 'Nothing.'
"'Then quit staring at me,' I begged.
"'Was I staring?' he replied. Then he closed The Aeneid and threw his legs off the bed and stretched his back. 'Didn't mean to bug you,' he promised. 'I was just thinking.'
"'Thinking what?' I asked.
"'What we should do,' he began. 'Not tomorrow or next week. But eventually. What we should do is gather up a group of people, and train them, and then travel back in time and conquer the Roman Empire.'
"Those were his exact words.
"I just sat there. And then he asked me, 'What do you think?'
"'Fine,' I said. 'Why not?' Then I shrugged my shoulders and turned back to my book, a tiny voice inside me shouting:
"'Son-of-a-bitch! He means it!'"
Robert Reed is the author of several hundred published science fiction stories. One of his novellas -- "A Billion Eves" -- won the Hugo Award in 2007. "Veritas" belongs to a series of time travel adventures, along with "Truth" and the recently released, "The Esteemed."
Genre: Science Fiction
Used availability for Robert Reed's Veritas