One Moment In Time

Lieutenant Martin Rivers; temponaut for the National Temporalnautic Administration lay on his bed, looking nervously at the ceiling while, beside him, Martin Rivers; temponaut for the National Temporalnautic Administration talked, with a loud, frantic voice, into his hear.
"You're just a hallucination", he said to himself, "You're not real. Your a hallucination caused by stress and fear".
"I'm telling you the truth", said his other self, "Please you've got to listen. I'm you from the future and I'm begging you not to get into that time machine tommorrow".
"But the whole world will be watching", said Rivers, "I'll be the first man to ever travel in time".
"But you won't survive", said his other self, "Something goes wrong. You end up travelling without the machine; forever lost in time".
Rivers looked cynical.
"Your not lost in time", he said to himself, "Not if your in my room talking to me".
His otherself tried to grip hold of his bedside lamp but his hand slipped right through it.
"I'm a ghost", he said.
"I don't believe in ghosts", said Rivers.
"Oh I don't mean a spirit arisen from the dead", said his other self, "I mean a being that is trapped in another dimension; one that looks into your dimension like a window but a window he can never pass through".
Rivers put his hands over his ears.
"Why are you doing this? Why won't you leave me alone?", he said.
"Because you can change history. You can stop it from ever happening", said his other self, "All you have to do is say you're not getting into that time machine tommorrow".
"No", said Rivers, "I'm not going to do that. This is the greatest opportunity in my life. Tommorrow, infront of my family and the whole world, I'm going sit in that Time machine; switch on the superluminal generator, set the time coordinates and, just when they come to the end of the countdown, say-".
"This is one small moment in time; one giant leap forwards in history", said his other self, "And then you press the ignition switch and there is a blinding flash as if the whole world has become one big firework but then everything goes dark and you find yourself; or at least a shadow of yourself, trapped in some dark place; another dimension with no way home; perhaps for eternity".
"Its not true", said Rivers, "Some of the greatest scientific minds in the world are working on this project. They wouldn't let me go if they didn't think it was safe".
"But think of all the Astronauts that have died in accidents", said his other self, "The Challenger space shuttle disaster; 7 people were killed in that and the Columbia, another 7 people killed. Things can go wrong and this isn't like a shuttle launch; this is time travel; something no ones ever done before. No matter what all the experts are telling you, they don't know anything for certain".
"But they sent a chimp into the future and it came back", said Rivers, "It came back safe and sound, the doctors said".
"Yes and ships sank that had sailed to and from their destination a hundred times without any problem; planes crashed that had flown a hundred times without even experiencing any turbulance. Just because things have gone alright up to now, it doesn't mean that an accident can't still happen", said his other self.
Rivers started to cry.
"Yes, you ought to cry", said his other self, his voice becoming hectoring,  "Cry because you'll never see your family again; never see your life again. Not unless you tell them you can't do it. You can't get into the time machine".
"No! No!", shouted Rivers, turning over and burying himself in his pillow.
Rivers opened his eyes and suddenly remembered where he was, strapped into a chair at the laboratory of NTA, wearing a virtual reality headset.
"I don't believe it", he said to the white coated doctor by his side, "It seemed so real".
"It had to seem real", said the doctor, "We can't afford to send a man into Time unless he has the mental fortitude to deal with it. Thats why we have to test everyone with this virtual simulation, to see if they've got the right stuff".
"And have I?", asked Rivers.
The doctor shook his head.
"I'm afraid not", he said.