by Karl Morgan
“Go ahead and ask any question,” Muncie replied. “We will answer as best as we can.”
Dave thought about the brief time he had known Charlie for a moment. He decided to start with simpler questions rather than jumping to the bright flash and hot wall. “Okay,” he began looking at Muncie, “you, Rence and Aria look so different from anyone I’ve ever seen. Where are you from?”
“Muncie smiled, “I’m from Iowa. I think Rence is from Pennsylvania.”
“And Aria is from Washington State, Spokane I believe,” Charlie chimed in. “Dave, that’s an easy one, but perhaps you didn’t state it quite right.”
Dave was getting confused, and it showed from the frustration on his face. “What do you mean, Charlie?” he asked.
Charlie turned to Muncie, and said, “When are you from, Muncie?”
Muncie stared directly at Dave, replying, “I was born in the year 3112. I’m not sure about the others, but we’re all about the same age. We met while we were in college at MIT. In case you are wondering, I’m seventy-four years old.”
Dave’s mind was overwhelmed now, and his jaw slackened, leaving his mouth open. He thought this must be some kind of joke. Charlie must be trying to write a new novel about time travel and driving normal people crazy. He cracked a weak smile, saying, “Well, you look damn good for seventy-four. Charlie’s a lot younger than you, and he looks like your father.”
“Dave, people in my time live much longer,” Muncie stated cold as fact. “A few hundred years ago, most people only lived to be forty, and now eighty is pretty commonplace. Time and science keep getting better, you know.” He turned to face Charlie. “You know, I’m beginning to think this wasn’t such a great idea,” he started. “This is a lot for a person to comprehend, especially just being dropped in his lap like this.”
“But, we need him, Muncie,” Charlie implored. “Dave is a key part of our project, and in order for him to help us, we need to let him know everything. Remember that Rence and Aria were the ones who insisted we add him to our group.”
“Rence and Aria insisted on me?” Dave was shocked. He had known these people for less than two weeks. “How or why did they insist on me?”
Muncie and Charlie told Dave the rest of the story. While science, technology and medicine had done marvelous things over the next eleven centuries, it was not a perfect world. Muncie called the period between 1800 and 2200 the Great Period of Integration. Racial and cultural boundaries disappeared. The globe was becoming one giant market and melting pot. That was why the trio from the thirty-second century looked so much alike. Black, Asian, Indian, Caucasian and all other races blended to create the one single race of their time. While a few ethnic enclaves still existed, even they bore little resemblance to their ancestors in 2012.
The Great Period of Integration was followed by two hundred years of warfare, as different governments and cultures fought to dominate the globe. That time was called simply The War, when hundreds of millions of people were killed. New empires formed spanning multiple continents, only to be wiped out by others in a few short years. Much of the scientific gains over the prior millennia were lost in the plumes of nuclear explosions.
The War only ended with the arrival of the first alien species in 2492. That was seen as a great omen, coming exactly one thousand years after Christopher Columbus discovered the New World. The Kalideans had seen the destruction raging for so long that their faith could no longer allow them to sit on the sidelines. Twenty massive battle cruisers came to orbit Earth. They demanded an immediate cessation of all conflict. After all of history, mankind learned for certain that they were not alone in the universe. They finally had a reason to stop hating each other for bits and pieces of land on this lonely rock in space.
Thankfully for the people of Earth, the Kalideans had no desire to be mankind’s masters. They began to teach men about the real universe with its countless cultures and civilizations. Their arrival began the greatest scientific and technological era that man had ever seen, and it was continuing in the thirty-second century. In that time, men from Earth had built colonies on five new planets. Earth had trading relationships with hundreds of other worlds. Mankind had grown up at last.
“Muncie,” Charlie began, “you look like you could use a beer. You’ve been talking for ages. Dave, do you have a couple cold beers for us?” Dave still had his coffee cup in his hand, but it was very cold. He smiled at the men and went to the kitchen to grab the beers. His eye caught the clock on the oven. It read 4:05 PM. He was shocked that so much time had gone by. The whole day had seemed like a dream. He took a beer for himself as well.
“Wow, Muncie,” Dave started, “that’s unbelievable. Is this some kind of joke? Could any of this be real? I can’t believe I never asked about the bright flash and hot wall?”
“Now we’re getting to the meat of the story,” Charlie exclaimed. “Let me take it from here Muncie. By the way, you did a great job. Dave, now remember that you can’t tell Darlene or anyone else about this right now. You can tell them when the time is right, but not now. Okay?” Dave nodded and took a long drink of the cold beer.
Charlie reminded Dave that Muncie had told him that all things were not perfect in the thirty-second century. Certain diseases could not be eradicated. While people could easily live three or four hundred years, they would likely spend most of their last years wasting away in a hospital. Also, the majority of people were happy to focus on their academics, earning five or more doctorate degrees. Aria had six doctorates herself. Much of mankind’s drive to grow and do more had slipped away. Mencius the Kalidean was the representative of their culture on Earth. He served to help mankind reach its potential, and also as ambassador to Earth from Kalidus. He met regularly with the top academics from around the world. A major conference was held in Paris in August 3165 to discuss how to foster the expansion of humanity into the universe. Muncie, Rence and Aria were among the attendees.
Mencius told the group that Kalidus had the same problems five hundred Earth-years before. Their society too had become so homogenous and academic that their growth faltered and the economy almost collapsed. They had lost the spark to innovate and try new things. At the time, the Kalideans occupied fifty planets in their region of space. As growth slowed and society became more timid, five colonies failed, with billions of Kalideans forced to move to other planets. The great Kalidean leader of that time, Palidus, convened his best scientific and other leaders to find solutions. At that conference, a young scientist, Mencius, reminded Palidus the Righteous about the rapid growth of their culture when they harnessed dark matter and dark energy to enable time travel. Scientists from their time traveled back to when their culture was only a single planet. They met with the Kalideans who were now known to be their great adventurers, scientists and religious leaders. They mingled with ordinary folks to understand their motivation and what made them different from the Kalideans of Palidus’s time. They took the secrets they learned, and some ancient Kalideans back to their time, which then ushered in the Great Expansion, when the Kalidean culture grew from forty-five worlds to over ten thousand.
“So Dave,” Charlie finished. “That’s about it. That is why Muncie, Rence and Aria came here. Their world needs you, me and some others to help them reinvigorate their society. The bright flash was the time portal closing after Muncie and Rence left Starbucks and returned to their time to make a report. The hot wall was just the after effect of the closing portal. You were dizzy because you have never encountered anything like that before. To tell you the truth, the first five or six times I stepped through a portal, I lost my lunch!”
“More like the first ten times, Charlie,” Muncie interrupted. “Whenever Charlie leaps with us, those on the other side know to have a bucket waiting, just in case.”
Chapter 5
Dave would never forget his first experience traveling through a portal. Stepping through the event horizon was walking into absolute blackness. As his body gradually entered
, he felt his body stretched between the dark wormhole and the room he was leaving. Dave could still feel the air in the room on his right leg which had not yet crossed the horizon. The rest of his body was immersed in the absolute darkness, with no sensation of breeze, heat or cold, just black. He could feel the hair on the back of his neck standing up as though he had rubbed his feet on a carpet and was bracing for the zap of static electricity. As his back leg fully crossed the event horizon, Dave felt a momentary stillness and loneliness, as though he was the only person in the entire universe. A light appeared in front of him, growing stronger and larger as it rapidly approached. Dave was very apprehensive and wondered what he could do to avoid being overtaken by it, but he felt suspended in the black without walls or floor or ceiling and couldn’t move in any direction. The light resolved into a seven foot circle of light just in front of him. He had been told that this would be the other end of the portal, and he would have to step through it in order to reach his destination. He moved through it, and he felt the warm air and light touching his body and the portal stretching him as though trying to keep him in its sinister embrace. And then, he was out.
Charlie had stepped into the portal just before Dave and was waiting in the room with Muncie and Rence. He smiled broadly, but held a bucket out to him in case his stomach had not made it through yet. “Dave, see, I told you it was easy. By the way, welcome to 3186.”
“You know, I lost all perspective on distance and time in that thing,” Dave replied. How long did that take?”
“You took one step in, and one step out. How long does that take? One second perhaps?” Charlie said. “The wormhole doesn’t exist in the universe. It’s just a tunnel between two locations in space and time. Since you were momentarily out of the space-time reality, there was no time to be measured. Pretty cool, though? Come on, let’s take a look around.
“Where is this place, Muncie?” Dave asked. “Did we travel to another planet or anything like that?”
“Sorry, Dave, we’re still in San Diego,” Muncie apologized. “We’re downtown at City Hall. We’re introducing you to some important folks today. I hope you’re ready.” They exited the room and entered a long hallway. Along one side were windows looking out on the city. The city seemed not that different after eleven hundred years. The buildings were taller, and vehicles seemed to be zipping along both on the streets and in the air above. But it was not like a science fiction movie. Dave was still amazed at how similar all of the people looked. The men all seemed very handsome and the women beautiful, but too similar. They were all quite tall as well. Rence, who was about six feet tall, seemed to be fairly short by their standards. Dave was at least glad to be an inch or two taller than Charlie. The group turned right into a short hall, at the end of which was a sign that read “Office of the Mayor.” They opened the door and entered.
The mayor’s assistant rose and asked them to sit down while she checked if the group was ready for them. Her name was Lia, and she looked much like the others of this time, except she oddly had blue eyes. She pressed a contact on her headset and waited. Then she stepped to the door and opened it for them. “You may go in now,” she said. Charlie walked in just ahead of Dave. Dave thought he heard Lia say “Hi, Dad” to Charlie as he passed. He would have to ask him about that later.
The mayor’s conference room was massive. Twenty chairs sat around a thick glass table. One wall was a large window and offered a perfect view of San Diego Bay. On the opposite wall were portraits of previous mayors of the city. Five individuals stood and walked up to them and were introduced to Dave. The first was his host, Mayor Vitek Volomon of San Diego, who warmly shook his hand and welcomed Dave to the future. Next, was Chief Engineer Lanz Lagerfeld, who was responsible for time and space travel. Admiral Arrin Adamsen welcomed him as well. He was charged with the expansion of space exploration and colonization. The final human to be introduced was Bishop Itzak Ibrahim. The Bishop was on the High Council for Humanity which provided leadership for the entire civilization. He would lead the meeting. The last one to be introduced was not human, but not that different either. He was only four and one-half feet tall with bright blue skin. His eyes were black as coal and twice the size of human eyes. His flat nose seemed almost to disappear between those blinking eyes. He wore a long cloak of shimmery, silver fabric.
“Hello Dave, I am Mencius the Kalidean,” he began with a low rumble of a voice. “I am very glad that our mutual friend Charlie convinced you to be with us today. It’s not that often that we meet our ancestors, or even people from other planets, like me. I can imagine that this is quite a shock.”
“Yes, sir,” Dave stuttered, “it is an honor to meet all of you.”
“Just call me Mencius, Dave,” he said and motioned for all to take their places at the table. “We have no need for formalities here. Those are all remnants of the past.”
“Mencius,” Mayor Vitek broke in. “I will leave you to your guests. I know I am not needed for the meeting. If you require anything, please let Lia know, she is at your disposal.” He came up to Dave again and offered his hand. Dave stood and shook it firmly. “Dave, please enjoy your visit to our time. If you are free later, I would love to hear more about this great city in your time.” The mayor smiled again and left.
As they sat, Lia and a couple others came in and filled water glasses and placed plates of fruit and cookies around the table. They slipped out as quickly as they had come in.
“Let’s cut to the chase then,” Admiral Arrin began, “Muncie, why do you need Dave? I mean, he seems like a nice guy, but what does he offer that a general or war hero wouldn’t?” He glanced at Dave, saying “No offense to you Dave.”
“Frankly Arrin,” Muncie began, “we cheated. We know it is against policy, but Rence and Aria jumped ahead a few hundred years and see what happened.”
Bishop Itzak jumped to his feet, “This is outrageous! Everyone knows that the future is not set. Any of a trillion minor events now or tomorrow could change it forever. Not only has your team broken every law in the book, but there is no guarantee that what they saw will really happen.” Now he stared angrily at Muncie, “How could you let something like this happen?”
“Calm down everyone,” Lanz interjected. “It was my idea to jump forward, and I convinced Rence and Aria to do it without telling Muncie until after it was over.” Everyone sat again. “We have to remember what made humanity great in the first place. We can’t always follow the rules. Sometimes the rules need to be ignored in order for great progress to be made. I sent them separately, and several weeks apart. The results were almost identical in both trips. Sure, some details changed, as the Bishop rightly notes must happen in a living universe. But in my mind, the results were too similar to blame on a minor wrinkle in space-time.” He grabbed a cookie and munched at it eagerly.
Charlie had his hand on Dave’s shoulder. Dave seemed to be at a tennis match with his head snapping from side to side as the people argued about him. “Okay, I’m game,” Charlie said, motioning to Lanz, “what were those results?” There were multiple nodding heads from others to hear the story.
“Rence went first, about two months ago,” he began. “He jumped five hundred years and stayed there for about two weeks. He found that humanity has expanded to two thousand planets. There were a number of historical references to David the Conqueror and Brewster the Magnificent. The photographic evidence shows conclusively that Dave here is our man.”
“Excuse me,” Dave asked, “Are you telling me that I’m some kind of warlord or something? I’m a laid-off accountant from San Diego. Maybe you have the wrong man?”
“Let Lanz finish Dave,” Mencius said. “I know this is all very hard to believe, even for me. But let us hear the evidence and we can make a mutual decision on how to proceed.” He smiled warmly at Dave, who felt some relief from the call for reason.
“I sent Aria one month later, on two different jumps,” said Lanz. “On the first one, I had her arrive two weeks befo
re Rence did on his jump. That was to test if his jump had affected the history he saw. She only stayed two days and focused on history books and videos. She saw the same things Rence would see when he arrived. Then I sent her again for two weeks to a time 800 years ahead of us. Not much had changed about the story. At that time, humanity exists on seven thousand worlds. There was no mention of Dave the Conqueror. The history at that time speaks of David the Wise and Dave the Founder of a Thousand Worlds.”
“And the video evidence, Lanz?” Mencius asked. “May we see some of it?”
Lanz pressed a button on the communicator and asked Lia to start the presentation. The window wall turned opaque and a screen opened on one of the smaller walls. Having been advised by his assistant, Mayor Vitek rejoined the meeting to see the presentation. After a couple of slides specifying the security of the records, it began.
A booming voice filled the room, “In the late 3100s, Mencius the Kalidean helped mankind rekindle the spirit of adventure and exploration. After centuries of stagnation, mankind sought out the best from their past and called Dave the Conqueror, Charlie the Wise and many others to join them and spread humanity throughout the cosmos.” A picture of a group of people, along with Mencius, standing on a large balcony came into view. “In this picture we see Dave the Conqueror meeting with the High Council of Humanity to accept the position of High Explorer and Founder of Worlds in 3186.” The scene dissolved to a close-up of Dave with Mencius and Itzak on that balcony.
Now Dave really did need that bucket that Charlie had held for him. This had to be a dream. None of this could be true. He wished he was unemployed at home. At least Darlene would be there to hold his hand.
“That video was produced in 3702,” Lanz added. The video cards in front of you show the rest of the data we gathered. “Charlie and Dave, our engineers have written the same things onto a DVD that you can look at back home. Please don’t let anyone else see this yet. I’m sure you have been advised not to talk about any of this until an appropriate time.”