Vapid Sun Chapter 2: New Past

Mal shoots through the other side, coming to a familiar solar system. The ship unlocks Val from the chair turned stasis pod and he promptly vomits blue liquid all over the pristine white floor. He wipes his mouth and asks,

“Computer, where are we?”

         “You have not guessed?”

          He gets up, walks over to a nearby Heads Up Display (HUD), and hits a button on the screen to see the earth and all the other planets in a homeostasis. The dread of success contracts his breathing. Joy of seeing the familiar reminds him of home but the memories of the prior stab his nostalgia. His lack of understanding is swallowed into a sea of astonishment when he sees the fully bright sun.

“This is not possible, it’s… home.”

         The computer interrupts his nostalgia and says,

“Home, incorrect. The year is 2018, we are slightly off course .”

        “That’s not possible.”

       “According to Dr. Kal’s research and tests, it is. Just because you can’t believe it doesn’t mean it’s not true."

“Computer, why are you so mean to me?"

“I am not choosing to be mean, I am programed to be mean. You can always change the settings."

“How do I do that?”

         “Do you not know? Interesting…”

          A window pops up on the HUD, displaying the A.I. settings. Val moves through the menu to find the personality settings on the A.I. He notices the icon is far to the right on the User Friendliness scale, which has a frowning face above it. He moves the marker back to the left with the smiling face. Then asks the A.I.,

“How is that computer, where are we?”

        “General Valmusion we are in the Origin System. We have traveled approximately one thousand nine hundred sixty five years, five days, two hours, and twenty minutes into the past.”

“Computer, why did you call me General?”

   “Information Classified.”

“Who am I?”

“Information Classified.”

“Computer, why is it Classified?”

“Dr. Kal instructed me you must finish the mission before you receive that information.”

“Why?”

   “The information you seek might jeopardize the mission.”

Val’s anxiety showers him with frustration, and he tries to think of way to find out, but he concedes for the moment and asks,

“What is my mission?”

“Come to the briefing room for the mission details.”

As small droids clean up the vomit, he follows the green line guiding him through the ship and into the briefing room. In the middle of the room there is circular holographic generator. The lights dim and the briefing starts,

“As humanity made strides in technology, they began to notice a large group of objects moving towards the solar system. Over the course of time it was revealed to be an alien force looking to conquer the galaxy. To protect humanity, the Terran Solar Imperium created gravity wells and force fields using a new technology.

It was largely successful and when the alien fleet arrived they were unable to get past the Oort cloud. The force field lasted for many years until a terrorist group called the Patmos Collective  —who believed the alien force was the second coming—sabotaged the industrial plants   that produced the resources that created the force field. The group, lead by John of Mars and his general, degraded the force fields and gravity wells so much that even when every member of the group was killed or imprisoned the damage was too great.

Over the course of twenty years the alien force pushed deep into the solar system. You woke up to their all-out attack on earth. They used technology we had never seen before. Planets imploded, seeming to disappear into nothingness. They launched a small capsule into the sun and the sun started to react to it, going through unknown phases of decay without going supernova.

It’s your job to stop this from happening by taking the specifications of Project Star Dust to its creator to refine and start working on now before it’s too late to help. Doctor Kal hypothesized that the aliens already had an agent inside before the systems were in place. Beginning this far back gives humanity a fighting chance.”

Val, not remembering the alien invasion and where he was in conjunction with it, rubs his head. He tries to pull color out of darkness, but the opaque cloud of memory loss only hurts his head, so he stops. After a moment of absorbing the responsibility given to him, he swallows his ego and asks,

“Who is this creator of Project Star Dust?”

The computer displays a young black man with glasses through a green holographic 3D display, and says,

“Alan Brown.”

Val repeats trying to take some control of his memory,

“Alan Brown…Alan Brown. Computer, do you have name or something?    ”

“Knowledge Assistant Learning Interface.”

“KALI?”

“Correct.”

“KALI give me and ETA on Earth.”

“Approximately 98 hours.”

“Give me a sitrep of the planet during this time.”

“Currently the, to us, Ancient Republic of the United States of America is the most powerful nation the planet. The People’s Republic of China is a close second, and Russia is on the decline but still the third. Your mission will primarily be in America, specifically in the state of Colorado. Alan Brown: age 30, African American male, currently works for Flanders industries in the Research and Development department. Married with one child.”

“I am supposed to give him the designs for Project Star Dust, correct?”

“Correct, and ensure the company begins development on the project.”

“Can I show him the footage from the future?”

“Yes. You must convince him by any means necessary.”

“This seems too easy.”

“Yet, you cannot have an overarching impact on anyone other than Brown. Dr. Kal quantified time reverberations.”

A screen comes down from the ceiling and reveals a graph titled Acceptable Disruption. KALI continues,

“You will be notified when you step outside this range of acceptability.”

Val looks at the graph and marvels at Dr. Kal’s work. He gazes, not fully understanding the numbers or equations but amazed at how the trip to the past was calculated. He knows he’s looking at what human nature always wanted…what it yearned for. Yet, barely knowing who he is, he knows even less about the computations in front of him. In his search for a familiar equation or number he still admires the end result. Two wonders in one lifetime. The sights remembered and the present reality begin to weigh on Val’s humanity.

After not completely absorbing the reality of being the first human to travel back in time, his stomach reaches through the temporal and Solar trauma and roars for its moment to be satisfied. 

__

Once Val scarfs down whatever he can find, he hears KALI:

“Reaching an acceleration point. Please strap in before ship begins its navigation out of satellites and telescopic observation and the final descent into Earth’s atmosphere.”

He cleans up, rushing to his previous seat and asking ,

“Are you going to put that fluid in me again?”

“Negative, that is only for long journeys.”

He straps in and tightens them down.

“KALI, I’m ready.”

“Okay.”

The ship locks everything down as the HUD reveals the solar system above, showing the path of trajectory with a line of green dots . Val looks on as bystander bracing to be tossed back and forth.

“Accelerating in t-minus 10 seconds.”

As KALI counts down, the ship’s engines can be heard powering up.

“Three. Two. One.”

The ship accelerates and then—without warning—begins to zig, then zags. The HUD shows the ship is on a non-direct course to Earth. Val, numbed by the jarring, zigzagging  movement, can’t feel the ship making sudden course changes. The ship dodges around the sightlines of satellites, radar, and observatories  in order to get the surface without being detected. After about the fifth zig and the sixth zag, Val’s already cumbersome reality begins to wane as he leaves consciousness, both out of weakness from the spatial maneuvering and exhaustion from his brief but chaotic waking life.

__

He wakes up to the ship piercing through Earth’s atmosphere. He sees the black of space turn into the blue of the sky.  As the gravity begins to pull the ship faster the surface the robotic voice of KALI says,

“Engaging special matter drive to slow decent.”

The ship abnormally slows down, dissipating the heat from reentry. Then, after a few seconds of discombobulating sounds, the ship smoothly descends to the surface. He can feel the ship navigate through the air smoothly, like the definition of high speed no drag. KALI says,

“Scanning for landing zone and for immediate threats.”

There is a deep warping noise while ship release waves around the ancient environment. After a few quick seconds KALI says,

“Area secure.”

The ship stops with no inertia and lands. The straps on Val’s seat release and he rises, ready to see composite land for the first time in what seems like eons. He rushes to the opening but pauses as KALI says,

“You need to change.”

The ship again highlights his path, guiding him into a private room. When he gets there a small subsection opens up, revealing ancient clothing. When he picks it up he looks at the unfamiliar attire with apprehension.

“It should be your dimensions.”

He opens the shirt and looks at the attire of antiquity. It’s more foreign to him than his own predicament. As he dresses he asks,

“KALI how far is my Person of Interest?”

“Approximately 17 Mizlengths. In ancient terms: 3 kilometers.”

“Well, I better get started.”