Dr. Albert Churchill St. Claire was a brilliant scientist. He was an Englishman, by descent only. He was born in the United States, but his parents made sure he would maintain his British heritage and accent by engraining it in him each day. Suffice it to say, Albert’s parents wanted to conquer the former colonies from within. Of course, after September eleventh, that plan was undone, not that it was ever Albert’s intent.

            Albert had joined the military in 1947, once he was eighteen, and received a very unusual posting at a facility in the Nevada desert. The facility had no name, no markings like that of any other base. It appeared to be an Air Force base, but wasn’t set up that way. The facility housed every branch of the military, so it was anyone’s guess who was actually in charge. One thing was for certain, this base was unique.

            Albert reflected back, now the ripe age of 83 years young, to the day that changed his life forever. It all started that day with his simple, but all important cup of Earl Grey tea.

            “Private St. Claire?” a voice yelled.

            Albert was about to take a sip of his overly hot cup of tea, when his commanding officer spoke and interrupted him. He jumped to his feet, startled from the yelling, spilling the intensely hot beverage down the front of the flight suit he was wearing.

            “Oh my God, that is hot!” Albert yelled, doubling over a bit from the pain.

            “Are you all right?” asked his commanding officer.

            Albert was taking deep breaths repeatedly, almost to the point of beginning to hyperventilate.

            “I’m fine sir.”

            “Good, then come with me.”

            “But sir, I have tea all…”

            “This can’t wait, follow me now.”

            Reluctantly, Albert followed, looking as if he had just wet himself. He followed the commanding officer down the corridors of the facility. The walls were gray and dull. The floor was spotted like what you would have seen in a hospital at the time. In fact, that seemed to be where the commanding officer was taking Albert, to the facility infirmary. However, compared with modern day hospitals in a local community, this place seemed years more advanced. A penchant the United States government had, for keeping advanced technologies a secret. That’s what won World War II after all.

            Albert was lead into a ward that had been closed off, curtains draping the room and making whatever was within obscured. He saw the silhouettes of people behind the curtain and what looked like a medical bed and a patient upon it. All sorts of tubes and bottles were visible as well, behind and in front of the curtain. A man stepped out as the commanding officer approached him, stopping both men before they reached the curtain.

            The man was clad in all black, a black fedora with a silver lining around it sat atop his head. He looked carved and beaten in the face. The wear and tear of life seeming to be tough on him. He reached in his jacket pocket for a pack of cigarettes and some matches. The man’s hands were trembling, however. He could hardly light the cigarette. Albert looked at this very curiously.

            “Is this the guy?” asked the man in black.

            “Yes, it is” replied the commanding officer.

            What, no sir? Who is this guy? thought Albert.

            The man finally lit his cigarette and took a huge, deep breath in. He consumed half the cigarette in just a few seconds, exhaling a plume of smoke that would have made a smoke stack jealous.

            “You can take him back then” stated the man in black.

            The commanding officer motioned for Albert to come with him, behind the curtain. Albert moved, looking on at the man in black. The man was deep in thought and glanced over at Albert as he moved by. Neither spoke to the other, they just stared. Albert was about to see what made the man so nervous and timid at best.

            The commanding officer stepped in first, followed by Albert. What Albert saw took his breath away instantly. There were other agents to the left of the bed, dressed much like the man in black. Nurses were to the right as well as a doctor. What was lying in bed was what disturbed Albert the most, however.

            Lying before him was something, something he had never seen before. It did not appear to be human. There was evidence of burned flesh, or whatever it might have been. The eyes were bulging and dark. The head was swollen, burned and hairless. The face was also burned and flushed. The parts of the arms that were visible appeared burned and two of the fingers to either hand were missing, giving this thing only three fingers. Albert had never seen anything like it before, but assumed to some degree it had to be human.

            “Private, would you please approach the being?” asked one of the black clad men.

            Albert was rather hesitant.

            “That’s an order private” chimed in his commanding officer.

            Albert walked around to the side the nurses and doctor were on. The being in bed attempted to tilt its head to follow Albert’s movement.

            “Whatever you do, private, do not touch him” stated one of the black clad men.

            No problem! thought Albert. He hadn’t planned on touching whatever it was.

            The beings head was tilted to the left as Albert looked down at him. The being mustard what appeared to be a smile to Albert. He could see no teeth, no nothing. What is this thing?

            Suddenly, as quickly as the being smiled, it turned its head back straight and went limp. The heart monitor strip paper came out, showing a flat line on the page. Whatever this being had been, it was now dead. With that, Albert, his commanding officer and the other black clad gentlemen left the side of the bed so the doctor and nurses could tend to the body. Albert was utterly bewildered.

            “Did you see anything you recognized, private?” asked a man in black.

            “I don’t even recognize what is going on here, much less that bloody thing. What was that?”

            The man in black did not speak.

            “That, Private St. Claire was a human being” stated the fedora man in black.

            “I do not believe so” replied Albert.

            “Well, believe it, because it was. He was in a horrible accident.”

            “This much is true ” stated Albert.

            “What you do not realize, private…” the fedora man in black paused for a second.

            Albert stood there, wondering just what the man was going to respond with.

            “…he was you private.”

            “Excuse me?”

            “That being on the bed that just died, was you.”

            Albert chuckled and looked at his commanding officer. The man was not smiling. Albert laughed out loud now, looking back at the black clad gentlemen. None of them were smiling either. This didn’t appear to be a joke, to any of them.

            “What do you mean, it was me?” asked Albert.

            “I mean, he crashed landed here in a space craft near Roswell, New Mexico yesterday. We brought him here as quickly as we could to sustain him from his injuries. We knew he would not have much time to live. After we got him awake, he gave us a list of fifty-one things that were to come in our future. One of the most immediate things was to have you come and see him before he died then to run a blood test to prove that his identity matched with yours. Upon confirmation, it would prove the other fifty things to be true events that will happen in our future” stated the fedora man in black.

            Albert looked stunned, “You’re joking?”

            “We wouldn’t joke about this, private. One of the things he wrote is highly important and classified now. Let’s just say, proving this blood test accurately might just save your life one day” said another one of the black clad men.

            Albert looked down at the floor, deep in thought. How in the bloody hell could this thing be me? That’s not possible! Is it?

            “I’m sure you have questions, private. I’m sure you don’t understand everything we just said. But, I assure you, these events are real. Everything you have just experienced is deemed classified. You will be given unrestricted access and promoted immediately to corporal to attain this access. You will be based here, at this area that is yet unnamed. For the time being, we’re calling it Area 51.

            “This Roswell incident will be covered up. If this being is proven to have been you, then that suggests something alarming for our future. He claims to have come from the year 2012. If that is correct, he would have been 83 years old when he died, after traveling back in time” stated the fedora man in black.

            “Traveled, back in time?” asked Albert.

            “We believe he and his ship had a mode of time travel in the future, roughly sixty-five years from now. They appeared to have come back for some type of warning, hence the list” stated the fedora man in black.

            “A warning of what?” asked Albert.

            “As I said, for now, that is classified.”

            “I thought you were changing my rank so I could know?”

            “Private, we really have no more time to discuss this. Let’s go and run the test so we can prove that thing is going to be your future self” stated the fedora man in black.

            All three men, Albert’s commanding officer and Albert himself left the ward. Albert was utterly confused. Time travel? Warnings of the future? How on Earth?

            Albert submitted to the testing, giving a sample of blood, urine, cerebrospinal fluid, feces and semen. Any fluid in his body was tested to see whether or not he was truly the same person as the Andromeda man.

            That was the name for the being from the future. Every time something that applied to the events of the Roswell Incident or anything there after that mentioned aliens was a total cover up of the truth. The truth was a man from the future crashed landed on Earth in the past to warn them of an impending doom in the year 2012. The information he provided was essential to helping save and sustain life on Earth. For that reason, proving this man’s predictions were paramount and immediate.

            Albert waited patiently for the tests to show what the truth was. A few weeks went by and Albert was settling back into his role as a corporal and beginning to study the unknown possibilities of existence. Finally he got the word he was looking for. The tests were conclusive. The Andromeda man and Corporal Albert St. Claire were one in the same. A perfect match.

            Years rolled by and Albert was once again at Area 51, apparently the name stuck. He reflected on those days, weeks he waited to see if what he had witnessed were true . Even sixty years later he still could not believe that any of that had happened. Such a fleeting moment in time, but one of the most important ever to have been realized. In just a few short years, Albert would be the age that he died, but not in 2012. He would die in 1947. However, the tests were what Albert reflected on the most.

            He had given so many bodily fluids; he thought he might die right then. All they really needed was one. It was the most obvious and easy to read. His urine specimen was riddled with it.

            As Albert and his time team waited out the inevitable fate of the Earth in 2012, Albert reflected on that moment again, when he did the tests. The fates were in the Earth’s favor now, the forewarning having helped to prevent a future disaster in the year 2012. Now, Albert could finally breathe a sigh of relief knowing that what he had done had changed everything. His future self had died so that he might live.

            Albert remembered the urine specimen list and read it to himself the day the time paradox was averted that had wiped out the Earth previously. He unfolded the page, now a light brown with torn edges and starting to crumble a bit. It showed the urine specimen reports. There were traces of caffeine and traces of another substance known only as bergaptene. Caffeine was highly prevalent in Earl Grey tea. Bergaptene was a by product of the breakdown of bergamot orange. This was a flavoring used in Earl Grey.

            The urine specimen was all Albert ever needed to know that the Andromeda man was in fact his future self. Albert had been drinking Earl Grey since he was a child, brought up by his parents at tea time each day. He had been taking that tea time everyday for eighty years of his life. It was his favorite drink and always would be. After all, how many people can honestly say that their lives were saved by a piping hot cup of tea.