In an era where time travel is a mundane commute, an anonymous letter threatens to unravel one man's existence, flinging him into a spiraling journey of paradoxes and self-discovery.
The day began ordinarily for Alden, a Time Courier for the TTU - Temporal Transportation Union. He woke up, had his breakfast, and was about to step into his personal time pod to report for work in 2378 AD, when he noticed the envelope on his doorstep. It was made of real paper, a rarity in the 24th century, and bore no sender information. Intrigued, Alden opened it to find a single sentence that read: 'Alden, you are your own grandfather.'
He laughed it off as a prank, but the unsettling thought seeded itself in his mind.
Alden knew the rules of time travel - historical events were sacred, personal timelines were forbidden territories. The concept of a paradox was theoretical, an anomaly that was swiftly dealt with by the TTU's strict regulations. But the anonymous letter had sown the seed of doubt. His workday was a blur, his mind preoccupied with the absurd message.
He decided to dig into it, subtly inquiring about instances of paradoxes within the TTU. He discovered several cases had been quietly swept under the carpet, their files locked away in the TTU's forbidden vaults. His curiosity piqued, Alden used his clearance to access the restricted archives. He found a file labeled 'Project Paradox', detailing experiments conducted decades ago that aimed to create time loops, resulting in paradoxical situations.
The experiments were abruptly halted, and all data was sealed off due to the 'unforeseen complications' they had caused. Alden couldn't shake off the feeling that his anonymous letter was somehow linked to these experiments. He decided to delve deeper, risking his job and more importantly, his existence. He began tracing his ancestry, digging into the past, delving into centuries-old records, and violating countless TTU regulations.
His journey led him to the early 21st century, to a man named Alan, identical to Alden, and his wife, who bore an uncanny resemblance to Alden's grandmother from the archived family photos. The pieces of the puzzle seemed to fall into place, the absurdity of the anonymous letter morphed into a chilling possibility. Alden confronted the TTU with his findings, demanding answers. The council simply denied his claims, labeling them as ludicrous.
Alden, however, was not to be silenced. He decided to break the biggest rule of all - to travel to his personal timeline, to the 21st century. The 21st-century world was jarring, but Alden was on a mission. He found Alan, his supposed grandfather, and subtly befriended him.
He found out that Alan was sterile, a fact that was kept hidden from everyone, including his wife. This shattered Alden, but it also confirmed his suspicion - the paradox was real. Alden realized that the truth would dismantle the established time travel rules, possibly resetting the timeline, and erasing his existence. But he also knew that he had to expose this paradoxical existence, the thin veneer of lies the TTU had built.
In a world where time was a plaything, Alden's existence became the ultimate paradox, a testament to the infinite complexities of time travel. He was a living anomaly, a paradoxical man living in a paradoxical world, and with that realization, he stepped back into his time pod, ready to shatter the illusion.
