The Dark Arrow of Time

by Massimo Villata

  Helias let himself take a breath for a moment, while she came out of the shower and disappeared into the part of the bathroom he couldn’t see. After a few minutes she reappeared with a new pair of panties and sat on the edge of the round bed. She sat there for a while, plucking at her lower lip, her elbows resting on her thighs. Then she laid down and turned off the light.

  Helias, shaken, stretched out on the grass to look at the stars.

  With his elbows on the desk and head between his hands, the professor said, “Are you sure he’s up to it? It’s not a trivial thing, you know?”

  “We’re almost certain. In any case, we’ve got to take the risk, we don’t have much time.”

  After pronouncing these words, Mattheus walked up to the window, which looked out on the inner courtyard where Nasymil cast its frigid light, contrasting with the orange lamps.

  “How do you propose to convince him?”

  “We’ll play the cards we’ve been dealt. Though it shouldn’t be necessary.”

  The next morning, Helias went down to the lake. There appeared to be no sign of Kathia.

  To the right, the lakeshore was perfectly flat, but she wasn’t there, at least among the people nearest to him. At the left, the shore was rocky, it was easy to image that there were hidden beaches and coves.

  He walked up to last night’s crest, to have a better view.

  Among the rocks a bit further down, he thought he caught a glimpse of a blonde head.

  He came closer. It was she. Half reclining on a rock, enjoying the warm morning sun, wearing a bikini bottom and a loose short top with shoulder straps. He continued to approach, in silence.

  “Come on, I was waiting for you.”

  Maybe she had seen him coming out of the corner of her eye, through the dark glasses.

  “How did you manage to hear me? I didn’t make any noise.”

  “I can feel you, when you’re near.”

  “What do you mean?”

  She had sat up in the meantime, knees bent and arms around them, eyes forward.

  “I feel your presence, not because I can hear you or because you have a particular smell. Sometimes I even know what you’re thinking…. That’s the way we are.”

  “We? Who? You and Mattheus?”

  “Not only.”

  He had sat down next to her, fully concentrating on her words.

  “Explain yourself better.”

  “It’s a very long story.”

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  “It does matter, though. Because I’m all sweaty and this is the best time of day for a nice swim. Why don’t you come too?”

  “But isn’t the water cold?”

  “No, it should be wonderful now.”

  Helias kicked off his loafers and dipped his foot in the water.

  “But it’s freezing!”

  “Don’t be silly, it’s great.”

  She was already in the water, which reached halfway up her thighs. A few more steps and then she glided under the water, already deep here.

  “But where’s she from, that one, the North Pole?” mused Helias.

  She surfaced.

  “I’m Swedish, remember?”

  “Rubbish. You don’t have a Swedish accent.”

  “Touché!”

  And then back under water. Cavorting, splashing and doing somersaults, occasionally coming up, head and shoulders out of the water, and then plunging back down.

  Helias watched her, enchanted and a bit envious.

  Then she emerged from the water, dripping all over, her thin top almost transparent now and clinging to her breasts.

  “How do you manage to see? Are you wearing the contact lenses?”

  She shook her head.

  “I’ll explain later. I haven’t finished yet.”

  She clambered up a rock overhanging the deep water.

  Understanding her intentions, Helias pulled out his camera. He filmed the dive and the subsequent exit from the water, mirroring all the colors of the surrounding rocks, in a beautiful glancing light. And a strange reflection in her eyes.

  “Ah, the famous camera.”

  “If it bothers you, I can delete the whole thing.”

  “Of course not, why would you want to do that?”

  “Well, you know, privacy….”

  “That’s nothing compared to violating the privacy of your thoughts.”

  “Why did you say ‘the famous camera’? Did you ‘feel’ me last night?”

  “Yes.”

  “I was about to tell you. And apologize. Or at least ask permission.”

  “You’re lying.”

  She was right. She dried her face with the towel and put her glasses back on.

  Then she propped herself on her elbows to dry off in the sun, breathing a little heavily and, in her semitransparent top, visibly chilled.

  It was too much. Helias, sitting next to her, had to look away.

  “Are you angry?”

  “Not at all. But, please, don’t lie again.”

  “You’d have every right to be angry. I took advantage of your inexperience with the windows.”

  “Go ahead, say I’m just hopeless. I thought I had fixed it so people couldn’t see in. I realized almost immediately, though, when I ‘felt’ you.”

  “Why didn’t you darken it?”

  “I was afraid I’d mess things up even more.”

  They laughed.

  “You could have pulled the curtains, the real ones.”

  “Actually, I didn’t want to disappoint you.”

  She said it in an undertone, as if she were talking to herself.

  She stood up, took the towel and handed it to him.

  “Would you hold it for me, please?”

  He looked at her questioningly.

  “Like this.” she said, spreading out her arms and moving toward the rock.

  He held out the towel. She took off her top, still wet, and hung it on the taut edge of the towel. Then the bikini bottom. Same manoeuvre.

  “Could you hold them for me, please?”

  “I’d like to oblige, but, believe me, I’ve only got two hands.”

  They laughed again. And looked at each other over the top of the towel.

  She spread the two garments on the rock, took the towel and wrapped it around her.

  “Shall we go?” she asked.

  “And the explanations?”

  “You’re right. But not yet. First I have to show you something. Coming?”

  Maybe she was teasing him again. But he had no choice. And they started back toward the castle together.

  “What is it?”

  “You’ll see.”

  In silence they climbed the stairs and passed through the corridors, reaching her room, where whatever she wanted to show him probably was.

  “Wait a second.”

  She went in and, pushing the door behind her, walked toward the bathroom.

  The door did not swing completely shut, staying open by considerably more than a crack.

  She clearly was going to have a shower. He saw the towel drop to the floor. He moved away from the door and leaned on the wall. Another shower might be fatal for him. In any case, and fortunately for him, the opening didn’t provide a view of the bathroom.

  He waited a few minutes, while wave after wave of questions came to mind.

  All of a sudden, he heard her voice saying, “Come here.”

  He approached the door, but the crack had gone dark. Then the door flew open and a hand grabbed his and pulled him in, forcefully. The door closed behind him.

  In the dark, his hand was dragged behind her back, covered in a thin bathrobe. Before he knew what was happening, their bodies were in close contact, with an intense shiver. And she kissed him, deeply.

  Then a hand snaked around his body. And he had the feeling that he wouldn’t have forgotten that contact, even in a thousand years.

  As it happened, he had already forgotten it after two hours. Two hours
spent all over her round bed and its immediate surroundings. Exploring all the points of the compass and the four quarters of the heavens. In reality, that first fleeting contact was submerged by a lengthy sequence of soft, warm embraces. Now gentle, now fierce. Along the bastions and the turrets, in the echoing halls and the narrow passageways, through to the most secret chambers in the vanquishable strongholds.

  © Springer International Publishing AG 2017

  Massimo VillataThe Dark Arrow of TimeScience and Fictionhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67486-5_4

  4. Why Did You Do that?

  Massimo Villata1

  (1)Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino, INAF, Pino Torinese (TO), Italy

  Massimo Villata

  Email: villata@oato.inaf.it

  “Why did you do that?”

  They were the first words that Helias pronounced, in the semi-darkened room, returning from that dizzying excursion.

  “Shouldn’t I have? Are you sorry I did?”

  “No. I didn’t mean that. You’re wonderful. It was one of the greatest things that ever happened to me, at least lately. I was just wondering how it happened, seeing that we’ve known each other for so little time. I don’t know anything about you.”

  “You’re right. It’s just me that knows you well.”

  “Yes, I know you ‘hear’ me, that you read what’s going on in my mind. But only for the last few days. How can you say you know me well?”

  Kathia, lying alongside him, took his hand and was quiet for a while.

  “Not only for a few days. Almost three months by now. I think I know you better than anyone else, more than a wife knows her husband after a life spent together.”

  “You mean you already knew me, and ‘felt’ me on Earth, three months ago?”

  “Yes.”

  “I don’t remember you. True, your face is familiar, but I can’t place you in any clear memory. That’s why I thought I had already seen you before.”

  “I was around. At the university dorm I had the room above yours, and I listened to you there. When we happened to cross paths I made sure you didn’t notice me. I would sometimes sit behind you in the dining hall, but there was too much ‘interference’ and I couldn’t feel you very well.”

  “But why? Why this sort of mental stalking?”

  “I, or we, rather, needed to get to know all about you.”

  “You and Mattheus?”

  “Yes. Not only.”

  “Why did you need to know all about me? What am I for you?”

  “It’s a long story. We need you, Helias.”

  Disoriented and irritated, Helias moved to get up, it was all so ridiculous.

  But she squeezed his hand again, and bent forward, seeking his lips.

  And once again he felt the soft breast brush against him, and press against his chest. And a warm inviting hand.

  “I want you to know that what happened today has nothing to do with all the rest of it. I looked inside you, Helias, and I saw so many beautiful things, better than in so many other people. And I wanted you to know me too, to come inside me. I think I love you. And that should answer your first question. Other answers will follow. Later.”

  An Alkenian shower together was a temptation they were unable to resist.

  He was enthusiastic. Even too enthusiastic. So much so that she decided to put a stop to it with a cold water rinse. Otherwise they would have started all over again.

  Lunch took place mostly in silence. Too many ears in the vicinity. He formulated questions in his mind. She thought the answers.

  “I noticed your accent has improved a lot lately. The vocabulary too.”

  “Since you brought it to my attention, I’ve practiced a lot. On Earth, I practically only talked to Mattheus and I didn’t know I was so bad.”

  “How long had you been on Earth?”

  “A little more than three months.”

  “Just the time needed to….”

  “Just the time needed.”

  They were almost whispering, but then they realized that it made things look even more suspicious. They fell silent, and didn’t speak again until they left the room.

  “Mattheus doesn’t have your accent.”

  “He’s traveled a lot.”

  “Were you born on Earth or Alkenia?”

  “Neither.”

  It seemed that surprises would never end.

  “But there aren’t any other planets that…. Except for Murya, but that’s over on the other side, more than fifteen parsecs from here.”

  “As far as you know.”

  “That are known about. Certainly. In fact, it seems that down on Earth nothing at all is known. Fault of the distance, partly. Certainly.”

  They arrived at the lakeshore. To avoid the swarm of people on the beach, they walked toward the rocky area, where they had met a few hours before. They took a broad path that started where the artificial crest flattened out near the lake, and appeared to wind through the rocks on the north shore.

  They crossed a stream that flowed into the lake, ten or fifteen meters further down. Kathia took off her shoes so as not to wet them. Helias tried to balance on the stones that rose above the water, but slipped and ended up soaking his beach loafers, promising himself to wear more appropriate shoes next time.

  They walked for a while in a nearby meadow to dry their feet, and then went back to the path.

  “My people left Earth almost a century and a half ago, when the transmission technique didn’t exist yet, except in theory. There were seventy of them, almost all of them hibernated, bound for Alkenia. Halfway there they hit a space-time warp caused by a little black hole that wasn’t marked on the charts. They were thrown back by nearly five centuries, as the astronomers on board were able to calculate when they woke up. And a few parsecs out of their original route. They thus discovered a solar system that nobody had known about, but with a planet that was decidedly hospitable, better than Alkenia. They had no reason not to stay there, especially since it was impossible to regain contact with Earth. They were supposed to have been the first explorers of Alkenia, which at that time was known only through the fly-by probes.”

  She paused, while Helias put his loafers back on, though they were still damp.

  “Go on, please.”

  “We settled on that planet and, over the centuries, developed our science and our technology, as well as our philosophy, five hundred years ahead of Earth. We could have gone back to Earth and thumbed our noses at our ancestors. But we decided, then and for ever, that we would never interfere with the past, as one of our civilization’s first ethical rules.”

  “How could you have gone back to Earth, if there’s no trace of your return in Earth’s past?”

  “In fact we didn’t go back.”

  “But suppose you had decided to, knowing full well that there is no record.”

  “Basically there are two theories. The first maintains simply that the return took place but didn’t end up in the history books. This theory thus denies that the course of events could be changed, or rather, states that the course of events changed exactly the way it happened. So no parallel futures, or anything like that. The second theory, on the other hand, leaves all possibilities open. A time traveler could destroy half the world with a bomb or something, or interrupt his own bloodline and so prevent his own future birth, none of it matters, it will result in a history that’s different from the one he knows, while the latter will continue unimpeded elsewhere. In this case, as you can see, if one of us had gone back and messed things up, it would have ‘opened’ a parallel future that has nothing to do with us.”

  “So according to this theory, the history of the Earth as we know it didn’t receive visits from the future, at least not evident ones. I’ve also heard about a theory of probability waves….”

  “Yes, but it’s not very popular with us anymore.”

  “I interrupted you. Please, go on.”

  Kathia had sat on a rock jutting out over
the lake and was looking down, lost in thought.

  “You’re not thinking of diving from here?”

  “Why not? It’s a bit high, but it can be done. Too bad I don’t have my swimming things.”

  “I think you’re out of your mind. Don’t even think about it.”

  “It’s a temptation. I could go skinny-dipping, there’s nobody around, and then dry off in the sun.”

  “Don’t, please.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I don’t want to have to scrape you up with a spoon. And then….”

  “And then what?”

  “And then I didn’t even bring my camera. I wouldn’t want to miss something like that for anything in the world.”

  “Something like what? You scraping me up with a spoon?”

  They laughed, and looked at each other for long time. Then Kathia took off his glasses.

  “I think I love you, Helias.”

  “Me too.”

  And in the pink dusk he took off her glasses and sought her lips.

  Smiling, he put her glasses back on her smiling face. Smiling, she did the same for him.

  “I have to show you something, Helias.”

  “Again? In your room, mean?”

  “No, here.”

  She took off her glasses again and turned away. He saw her rummaging in her pockets and pull out a little case. She bent her head forward until her eyes almost touched the open case.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Just a second.”

  First one eye and then the other. She closed the container and put it away.

  “I took off my contact lenses.”

  “You were wearing your lenses? With the glasses?”

  “No, not the lenses they gave me here. I don’t wear them, they bother me, as I told you. I took off my own, the ones I wear all the time, or almost.”

  “Are you nearsighted? Back on Earth, people have an operation for that, usually.”

  “No, I see fine. We’ve eliminated all eye defects genetically.”

  “I don’t understand then. Why do you wear contacts?”

  “So as not to show my real eyes.”

  Helias waited, in silence.