Qualified Eternity

Title: "Qualified Eternity"

FADE IN:

EXT. CITY SKYLINE - NIGHT
Neon lights flicker. A massive digital billboard reads: "THE STATE LOVES YOU." A flying police drone hums past, scanning pedestrians with cold precision.

INT. TEMPORAL LAW ENFORCEMENT HEADQUARTERS - BRIEFING ROOM
A wall-sized hologram projects the face of COMMISSIONER GALLIVAN, a jaded bureaucrat with cybernetic implants. Officers sit at long metal desks, half-listening.

COMMISSIONER GALLIVAN
(gesturing to the screen)
Alright, you time-lice, today’s mission is a Category 5 Causality Breach. Some anarchist physicist decided to "prevent" his own arrest last week by sending himself a warning yesterday. This is, of course, illegal under the Eternity Compliance Act.

OFFICER RUCKER, a cocky, trigger-happy enforcer, raises his hand while polishing his energy baton.

OFFICER RUCKER
So, technically, he hasn’t committed the crime yet, but he also already did?

COMMISSIONER GALLIVAN
Exactly. Which means we’re legally required to arrest him in the past, present, and future to make sure the violation never happens but also definitely does.

OFFICER DELANEY, a rookie with nervous energy, frowns.

OFFICER DELANEY
Uh, sir, doesn’t that, like, break some kind of...rights?

The entire room erupts into laughter.

COMMISSIONER GALLIVAN
Delaney, you sweet summer idiot. We have Qualified Eternity. We can’t be held accountable for anything across any timeline. Someone complains? We just go back and arrest their parents before they were born. It’s a beautiful system.

EXT. APARTMENT COMPLEX - NIGHT

The officers kick down the door. Inside, DR. BENSON, a mild-mannered scientist, jumps up from his desk, spilling coffee on an unfinished time machine.

DR. BENSON
What—who are you?!

OFFICER RUCKER
Temporal Law Enforcement! You’re under arrest for attempting to prevent your own arrest!

DR. BENSON
But I haven’t done that yet!

OFFICER RUCKER
Exactly!

Rucker TASES him with an energy baton. Benson convulses, then stops.

OFFICER DELANEY
So, uh, we got him. What now?

OFFICER RUCKER
Now we gotta make sure he doesn’t try this again. Check the files—what’s the earliest age he started thinking about physics?

OFFICER DELANEY
Uh… seven?

OFFICER RUCKER
Great. Let’s go get him.

INT. ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CLASSROOM - DAY
Young Benson, a nerdy child with glasses, is solving an advanced equation on a tiny chalkboard. The officers kick down the classroom door.

TEACHER
Oh, dear—

Rucker TASES the teacher out of instinct. Delaney flinches.

YOUNG BENSON
What’s happening?!

OFFICER RUCKER
No physics. Ever.

Rucker tears up the chalkboard while Delaney reluctantly places tiny handcuffs on Young Benson.

OFFICER DELANEY
I don’t feel great about this.

OFFICER RUCKER
That’s just the smell of justice, rookie.

EXT. COURTROOM - TIME-ADJACENT TRIBUNAL
A courtroom that exists outside conventional reality. Three JUDGES—floating, disembodied heads—hover behind a massive gavel.

JUDGE ONE
Defendant, you stand accused of violating causality.

DR. BENSON (ADULT, SHACKLED)
I literally haven’t done anything!

JUDGE TWO
Which, in itself, is a criminal act. Do you have any representation?

DR. BENSON
Uh, yes, I’d like a lawyer.

A pause. The judges glance at each other.

JUDGE THREE
We went back in time and arrested him as a child.

DR. BENSON
WHAT?!

JUDGE ONE
A reasonable precaution.

JUDGE TWO
Now, we have reviewed your case thoroughly. Unfortunately, we found you guilty before your birth and retroactively sentenced you to execution before conception.

DR. BENSON
That—THAT’S NOT HOW ANYTHING WORKS!

JUDGE THREE
It is now.

With a slam of the gavel, Benson BLINKS out of existence.

INT. TEMPORAL LAW ENFORCEMENT HEADQUARTERS - LATER
Rucker and Delaney return, sipping coffee.

OFFICER DELANEY
Do you ever think we might be the bad guys?

OFFICER RUCKER
Kid, as long as we’re legally untouchable, we’re the good guys.

They clink their coffee cups. Outside, a billboard flickers: "OBEY. COMPLY. DO NOT TIME CRIME." The city hums, endless and inescapable.

FADE TO BLACK.