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<\/a> <\/a> Print This Post<\/a>\nI punch the coordinates into my watch: Long Island, 2035. <\/em>I wince, anticipating that god-awful moment before the jump where my spirit and body become two lousy dance partners, all awkward and out of sync. Thank fuck this is the last chronojump I\u2019ll ever have to do. If I don\u2019t screw it up, it\u2019ll be the last anyone <\/em>has to.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a flash, then the world goes fuzzy.<\/p>\n I rematerialize in the drab, rain-soaked streets of 21st Century New York, populated by miserable morons who don\u2019t realize how good they have it. Their world\u2019s still not fucked enough to need guys like me. Fixers, hired by the Bureau to break stuff: hearts, promises, necks\u2014whatever it takes to keep the timeline stable.<\/p>\n The coordinates have jumped me right outside Dr. Yamamoto\u2019s apartment building. Judging by the scuffed bricks and chipped paint, you\u2019d think my target\u2019s a second-rate insurance salesman, not the genius who\u2019s about to invent time travel. I ring the intercom and a middle-aged man with greasy hair stretched across a balding head appears on the screen.<\/p>\n \u201cWho are you?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s… complicated. I just need a few minutes of your time, Doctor. Maybe we can\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n The lock clicks open.<\/p>\n Upstairs, Yamamoto\u2019s door is ajar. I\u2019m greeted by piles of takeaway boxes and walls lined with mechanical sketches. Dr. Yamamoto sits in his underwear, with a Magnum pointed in my direction.<\/p>\n I smile. \u201cYou can put that down, Doctor. I only want to talk.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThen start talking.\u201d Yamamoto places the gun on the table.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m Jonas Stolz from the Chronosecurity Bureau. I\u2019ve been sent back to ensure you abandon your time travel research.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSounds like a crock of shit to me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt won\u2019t in sixty years\u2019 time.\u201d I press a button and a hologram beams from my watch.<\/p>\n \u201cYour discovery will change the world. It will also royally fuck it. In my era, chronojumping has created so many holes that spacetime looks like goddamn Swiss cheese. The universe is hanging by a thread, Doctor, and your discovery\u2019s to blame.\u201d I tap the plasma pistol on my belt. \u201cI\u2019m sorry, but today\u2019s either the end of your lifework or the end of your life.\u201d<\/p>\n He snorts. \u201cNothing to worry about on that front. I\u2019ve all but thrown in the towel. It\u2019s impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n Yamamoto points to the wastepaper bin overflowing with scrunched up scraps. I unfold one to reveal a page of intricate equations crossed out with angry pencil strokes. At the bottom in large letters: NO C.I.= NO FUCKING CHANCE.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s C.I.?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cChronological Instigator. Need something to power the machine. Something, for example, like that little fusion reactor on your wrist…\u201d<\/p>\n Before I can even look up from the paper, the Magnum shot rings out.<\/p>\n I\u2019m lying in a blood-soaked puddle staring at the ceiling. Yamamoto leans over me, peeling the watch off my arm.<\/p>\n \u201cIt seems you weren\u2019t sent here to stop my research, Mr. Stolz. You were brought here to complete it.\u201d<\/p>\n ==========<\/p>\n AUTHOR BIO:<\/p>\n Ben Daggers is a short story writer who loves exploring the dark edges of fiction, then slowly backing away before things get a bit too<\/em> dark.<\/p>\n When not writing, procrastinating, or feeling guilty for procrastinating instead of writing, Ben spends his time doting over an emotionally needy Italian greyhound.<\/p>\n ==========<\/p>\n WHY WE CHOSE TO PUBLISH \u201cClosing the Loop\u201d:<\/p>\n We used to say that we publish very little flash fiction, but lately a number of excellent pieces have crossed our desk. While we still prefer longer, meatier stories, a good story is still a good story, regardless of its length.<\/p>\n Author Ben Daggers delivered a piece of flash fiction that is tight and unexpected, the elements we look for in any good story.<\/p>\n Because time travel stories abound in speculative fiction, we\u2019re especially picky when it comes to them. It\u2019s difficult to come up with something clever enough to pass muster with us.<\/p>\n Many time-travel stories (and a number of sci-fi movies) deal with trying to fix the past to prevent some future disaster. This story could easily be expanded into one that deals with those future consequences and attempts at more fixes. What made this flash successful for us was that the author chose to leave the rest of the consequences to the reader\u2019s imagination while still crafting a satisfying story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I punch the coordinates into my watch: Long Island, 2035.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2104,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"issuem_issue":[347],"issuem_issue_categories":[],"issuem_issue_tags":[348],"class_list":["post-2112","article","type-article","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","issuem_issue-issue-51-october-2025","issuem_issue_tags-ben-daggers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fabulaargentea.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/2112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fabulaargentea.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fabulaargentea.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fabulaargentea.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fabulaargentea.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2112"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fabulaargentea.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/2112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2113,"href":"https:\/\/fabulaargentea.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/2112\/revisions\/2113"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fabulaargentea.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fabulaargentea.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fabulaargentea.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue?post=2112"},{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fabulaargentea.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue_categories?post=2112"},{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fabulaargentea.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue_tags?post=2112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}