[Nate keeps a casual expression but listens carefully to what really does sound like it came from a bad sci-fi movie.]

Yep, sounds like bullshit all right.

[Except the guy doesn't seem like he's lying. And they're both here — yanked to another reality or whatever through magic or theoretical physics, who knows. So he can't dismiss it out of hand.]

Bullshit or not, though, I don't think your time machine had anything to do with this. I don't think this place fits with Earth history at all. Unless we got shunted way too far into a really weird future, I guess.