“So you see that there is a symmetry here, when we look at the dilation of time from each inertial frame of reference. You understand?”

The old man raked his fingers through white, unkept hair and smiled. I nodded, and shook his hand warmly in farewell. I’d been here three days, and it was past time to leave.

They say it is a gift. A blessing. I’m not so sure. If not for my gift, I might have had some chance at a normal life.

Instead they send us back with our perfect memories, again and again. To the 1940s, to learn from Einstein at the peak of his brilliance. I was tutored in philosophy by Aristotle, and Plato. I’ve stepped through thousands of years in mere days, devouring knowledge from Tesla, Sophocles, Bach, Leibniz. Every day spent with a different genius in their field.

They tell us that we must absorb as much human knowledge and culture as quickly as we can, for there is so little time left. Soon I’ll depart, an ambassador from a dying species, flung out into the void in a desperate cry for help.