57. The Pastronaut.

Glen Mower was joined in the office he was starting to consider his own by the brilliant CEO of The History Maintenance Commission Professor Delphi. Everything about his presence oozed confidence both in manner as well as the unprecedented intellectual capacity he had at his disposal.

Although the tale of the tape recorded him at well over six feet, every inch impressively turned out in the most sophisticated of apparel and pampering products he didn’t look down upon his less distinguished, recently ensnared colleague. But rather as an equal. Even if that equal was two plus two making five. But for a mere mortal to be as close to the equivalent as just one unit astray was some honour by comparison.

‘Congrats, Prof,’ Mower said, extending his hand. ‘Your organisation has saved the world.’

‘Our organisation, my dear chap, if I may be excused for being pedantic,’ Delphi responded taking a firm grip of Glen’s mit. ‘You are, after all, very much a member now. Indeed, your future contributions will elevate you to possibly the most valuable asset in our mission.’

Mower prepared himself to be offered the top job at the Hologram Defense Program, possibly reigning in the designs of the hologram happy General Colman P Wilmington III.

‘I can see how the holograms saved us, but I can also acknowledge their potency to cause probs if not deployed with the utmost care,’ Glen assured the Professor in the preliminary to his acceptance speech for the important role about to be assigned to him.

‘Quite,’ came the learned one’s reply. ‘Which is where you come in.’ Mower stood up again and was about to thrust out his hand again to accept the role. ‘The holograms are a risky endeavour. Potentially damaging to the very fabric of the history we seek to maintain. It’s what the holograms are potentially capable of once their mission is complete that is the majot concern.’

‘This is where you are needed, Mower, old chap. We are going yo send you back in time regularly to clear up the potentially errant holograms, reign them in and wipe them. You, Glen Mower, will not only go back in history but also go down in history as the world’s first Pastronaut. The History Maintenance Commission’s Head Janitor.’

‘Eh?..What? I have been headhunted to return to the past in some sort of spaceship and round up loose holograms? Don’t I get to at least attempt to pit my wits against the great historical figures and put them back on course myself?’

‘From observations conducted upon you it was deemed you had a good sense of humour,’ Delphi chuckled. ‘But such sensitive missions it has been concluded will still be best undertaken by the greatest this world has served up in its various forms. But in hologram form. And you won’t be in a spaceship, my dear fellow. ‘You’ll be delving into the bowels of the past via a specially adapted portaloo.’