Altered Metabolic Rates

Tag Area: Time-Related Situation
Short Story

The New Accelerator


The narrator and Professor Gibberne test the professor’s potion that will speed up their metabolisms by a factor of a thousand or more. —Michael Main
I sat down. “Give me the potion,” I said. “If the worst comes to the worst it will save having my hair cut, and that I think is one of the most hateful duties of a civilized man. How do you take the mixture?”
Black-and-white drawing of two middle-aged Englishmen in a sparse laboratory
                discussing a vial of liquid.
  • Science Fiction
  • Time Phenomena
Short Story

The Thief of Time


The brilliant Dr. Bird might well give Sherlock Holmes a run for his money when solving cases that involved modern science as does the case of the money that disappeared from a teller’s cage right before his eyes. Alas, the solution involved no time travel, but it did involve a time-related phenomenon made famous in a story by an author whose notoriety in sf circles exceeds even that of Holmes’s creator. —Michael Main
“But someone must have taken it,” said the bewildered cashier. “Money doesn’t just walk off of its own accord or vanish into thin air—"
Black-and-white drawing of a group of suited men sitting in a bank office.
  • Science Fiction
  • Mystery and Crime
  • Time Phenomena
Novelette

The End of Time


It would seem that the only people on Earth whose perception of time hasn’t ground to a stop are the three—Dr. Manthis, his golden-haired daughter June, and radio engineer Jack Baron—who took Manthis’s hashish injection. But how are they to bring the rest of humanity back to speed? —Michael Main
Think a minute. If the watch seems running double speed that would indicate that your perception of its movements had slowed down fifty per cent.
No image currently available.
  • Undetermined
  • Time Phenomena
Novelette

Race through Time 1

A Race through Time


Evil Daniel kidnaps Ellen and takes her to the year 1,000,000 A.D. via metabolic speed-up! Not to worry. Good and compassionate Webster follows via relativistic time dilation! —Michael Main
What I’ve done is to build a time-space traveler, working by atomic energy. Even as long ago as 1913, you know, Rutherford succeeded in partly breaking down the hydrogen atom. By 1933, others succeeded in partially breaking down atoms with high voltages of electricity. But they used up far more energy than they got back, or released. I’ve simply perfected the method to a point where, with an initial bombardment of fifty volts, I can break down one atom and get back thousands of times the energy I put in. There’s nothing strange or wonderful or miraculous about it. I don’t create energy of power from nothing. I simply liberate energy that already exists. Part of the power I use to break down another atom, and so on, while the rest is diverted to propel the torpedo by discharging through tubes—like a rocket. I’ve made one short experimental trip.
No image currently available.
  • Science Fiction
  • Time Phenomena
Short Story

Man of Ages


A super athelete who goes by various names—including Smith!—volunteers for a medical experiment and tells the story of his long life through the centuries. —Michael Main
Physically, I am thirty-three years of age. But, counting years of terrestrial chronology, I am three hundred and eighteen years old.
No image currently available.
  • Science Fiction
  • Time Phenomena
Novelette

The Six Fingers of Time


The story does not involve time travel, but it does have speeded-up time as in “The New Accelerator” by H. G. Wells. —Fred Galvin
I awoke this morning to some very puzzling incidents. It seemed that time itself had stopped, or that the whole world had gone into super-slow motion.
Pen-and-ink drawing of streaks of wind blowing by the head of an older,
                smirking man.
  • Fantasy
  • Time Phenomena
Short Story

The River of Time


Daniel Brand, a science fiction writer, walks us through the new world where he lives that started when a large number of people seemingly froze in place. —Michael Main
Physicians listened to heartbeats that dragged on, lonely and deep, for over a minute per. They worried over eyes that refused to blink, yet remained somehow moist. They despaired over encephalograms whose spikes could be counted in single neuron flashes, adding up to a complex pattern that was . . . normal!
Black-and-white drawing of a group of slowly moving people, a group of quick
                people, and a billboard asking Vanishers to "contact us".
  • Science Fiction
  • Time Phenomena
Novel

Clockstoppers


According to the book’s preface, the novel was written by brothers Rob and Andy Hedden based on an idea from Rob’s son Ryan. The story was turned into a movie of the same name in 2002, and the book appear at roughly the same time. We’re listing the book as a novelization of the movie (rather than the movie being an adaptation of the novel) because that’s how it’s described on the book’s cover. —Michael Main
The large clock appeared to be broken, its second hand stopped at thirteen seconds past the hour.
Garikayi Mutambirwa (as Meeker), Jesse Bradford (as Zak Gibbs), and Paula
                Garcés (as Francesca) pose in front of a giant, yellow and orange watch dial.
  • Science Fiction
  • Comedy
  • Audience: YA and Up
  • Definite Time Travel
Feature Film

Clockstoppers


Teenager Zak Gibbs and his pals must protect a metabolism-speeding device from falling into the wrong hands and rescue Zak’s dad as well. —based on Wikipedia
Zak: My dad consults on these super-secret projects, and I think this is one of them.
Francesca: So your watch stops time?
Garikayi Mutambirwa (as Meeker), Jesse Bradford (as Zak Gibbs), and Paula
                Garcés (as Francesca) pose in front of a giant, neon-green watch dial.
  • Science Fiction
  • Comedy
  • Audience: YA and Up
  • Time Phenomena
Feature Film

Captain Nova


Captain Nova Kester travels back from a devastated future to warn an energy mogel about the impending climate cataclysm, but only young Nas takes her seriously. That happens when time travel causes you to revert to 12 years old. —Michael Main
Luister, jongedame: De mensen denken al eeuwen dat ze leven in het einde der tijden. Het zou handig ziln als je jezelf ietsje minderbelangrijk maakt.
translate Listen, young lady: People have thought for centuries that the end of time is drawing near. It would help everyone if you showed just a little less . . . self-importance.
Kika van de Vijver (as young Nova Kester) and three costars pose in front of a
                merged background of 2025 and the future.
  • Science Fiction
  • Audience: YA and Up
  • Definite Time Travel
Short Story

Timekeepers’ Symphony


Sometime after the era of mass migrations off Earth, the author ponders time and celestial clockworks across the galaxy. —Michael Main
The smaller the flickers in our perception, the more details we notice and the longer time seems to last.
No image currently available.
  • Science Fiction
  • Experimental
  • Time Phenomena