Sentinel: The Race Against Dark Energy

by Andrew McIntyre

  “And so onto the main event. Today we will be taking a stroll back in time and looking at the history of the human race through the eyes of our ancestors, our culture and with the use of objects and artefacts. And finally, before we embark upon our epic journey, please make note that I possess no discrimination towards any students here today, not studying this wondrous subject and therefore availing themselves of the opportunity to hear me speak at length in any one of my spell-binding, captivating and much lauded lectures.” The group all gave a final laugh of resignation before filing into the Egyptian room behind the professor.

  As they reached their first exhibit and discussion point Saul glanced over his shoulder and spotted Nell staring right back at him with a half-smile. Saul’s eyes them immediately focused just past her upon Stephan, her boyfriend who was surreptitiously studying the unbuttoned blouse of the female student, stood next to him.

  Saul was thinking to himself ‘what a complete prick’ Stephan was, when Terror! Saul’s mobile began to ring in his pocket and loud enough to bring a hail of jeers and pats on the head from his comrades.

  “Ahh Mr. Ripley.” Interrupted the Professor obviously unimpressed “I wondered who it would be.” Saul produced the offending phone from his back pocket and embarrassingly held it aloft whilst cancelling the call. “Apologies professor, I’ll turn it off!” Then Saul muted the phone’s ringtone whilst noting that it was Moose calling him.

  “I think it would be a good time for all of us to check the status of our phones and ensure they’re turned off lest we offend the ancient civilisations we’re about to encounter.” The student collective all responded to the professor’s words and fumbled for their handsets whilst Saul felt his vibrating as a text came buzzing in. It was Moose again and based upon past experience, Saul immediately conjured all sorts of emergencies in his mind. What’s he done now! It could be anything from losing the money to being arrested, you really never could tell with Moose. He was once sent out with the kitty of money to purchase all the alcohol for a spectacular party and disappeared for a week, only to return with an elaborate story about his father being rushed to hospital. In fact his father had died when he was Ten years old and he’d actually been hotfooting it around Europe on budget airline tickets, with the cash.

  Saul backed away slowly and moved strategically to the back of the group where he was less easily spotted, as the professor continued his narration. He casually typed in on his keypad, ‘cant spk in mid flo - wassup’

  Saul took one last glance up at the professor still chatting away enthusiastically, then stepped back a pace behind a large golden-coloured rock. A relic of what appeared to be the ancient Egyptian period, commemorating ‘Ra’ the sun god and containing hieroglyphs etched into its surface. It stood some seven feet tall and provided just enough cover to obscure Saul sending his elicit communication. Saul quickly checked around and pressed ‘send’.

  As he did so, he became rigid all over his body and began trembling slightly as if being electrocuted. His arm and hand holding the phone were immovable. Try as he might, he couldn’t move his right arm from the shoulder down. The trembling continued, becoming more powerful and Saul became quite frightened. Was he having some sort of attack? He became quite disturbed at what was happening to him, fear gripping him and shortening his breathing.

  His awareness changed to that of his surroundings and his other hand. As he held it out to observe anything peculiar, it left a trail of motion-blurred, staggered images as if slowed by some exterior force. He was distracted for a second watching his moving limb like a child studying a sparkler on bonfire night, writing their name in light against the backdrop of darkness. Saul began to panic, his movements restricted, his whole surroundings now dimming and blurring slightly. He thought he was passing out, his senses dulling to any external stimulation. But he felt ok! He was quite alert, confused and disorientated maybe, but somehow alert and able to not just notice this strange phenomenon, but take in all its detail. Was he dying?

  He looked at his phone, glued to his right hand, the display going berserk like a fruit machine paying out a jackpot. Digits dancing about the screen, streaming, flashing and flickering. Numbers, letters, and mathematical symbols - some he’d never seen before. Then came a rumbling sound, slow at first but building and with the sensation of standing next to a bass speaker at a rock concert as the sound waves penetrate straight through your body. The rumble grew, as did the convulsions of his limbs as he looked around for someone to help. He cried out! His words were lost in the deafening roar that the rumble had now become. He tried to shout and attract help, but the sound he emitted was engulfed in the swirling roar going on around him. He could not move from his standing position and now he was freaking out!

  He closed his eyes, clenched his fists and threw his head back awaiting the pounding in his chest to burst from him like a scene from Alien. He opened his eyes and stared at his right hand trembling and it felt as if his phone was magnetised towards the relic next to him. He tried to move his hand away from the rock’s surface, but it was useless. He felt the ground beneath his feet quaking and frantically looked about expecting to see the floor crack open like in the movies. “What the Fu,...” His words were cut off in mid sentence, with everything reaching an abrupt halt. Then silence!

  Saul dropped to his knees, still clutching his phone in one of his clenched fists. He was sweating and weakened, but his clarity was undiminished immediately noticing that all noise had ceased as quickly as it had arrived. He was still, no trembling, just the after affects. Everything had stopped. His mind raced with both the adrenaline kicking in and a myriad of possible explanations as to what he’d been through. Was that what a heart attack felt like? Maybe a seizure or an embolism? Was it an earthquake in London?

  When he regained control of his thoughts, his analytical trait went straight into overdrive. But as he knelt looking around panting and desperately trying to regain his composure, he went from a feeling of being startled, to being shocked and finally became nothing less than terrified. As he glanced around at the people in the room, he realised that they were motionless. Nothing moved, nobody spoke. He was in fact shrouded in total silence. In a world of constant noise and background clatter he was for the first time in his life in total and absolute stillness. The people filling the room were frozen in their positions. Yet Saul could move. He looked down at his own body and once again held his arms out to inspect himself. As he did so, his movement was sluggish and laboured. His heavy limbs still leaving a blurred trail like a tail of a comet. “Shit! I’m definitely dead!” he said to himself quietly.

  The reply came loudly and abruptly, “You are very much alive Saul!”.

  Saul jumped to his feet rigid with Shock! As he looked around to see who was speaking, he took in the full weirdness of scene. Nothing moved. Total stillness, people still frozen like mannequins. The people and things in the foreground were perfectly clear, but everything and everyone beyond, now had a peculiar lack of definition. A blurred, smudged look about them. As Saul grasped at what might be going on in his mind he began to move forward. He stepped carefully towards his friends, reaching out to touch them. But again his movements were slowed, sluggish and although he tried with increased effort to move, he could do no more than glide in slow motion just like astronauts and their exaggerated bouncing around on the lunar surface. With each movement his limbs still left a trail of images as if he was watching streaming video on a low-bandwidth laptop. It reminded him of a retro music video, but this was horrifically real and it was happening to him now.

  Saul’s focus darted about the room, looking for the mystery person and beginning to doubt his own hearing. His thoughts were now racing at speed. “Did I actually hear that voice? Where am I? Was it God? Am I dead, is this the after-life?” Then it returned, loud and deep.

  “Yes! You did hear my voice! You are in the British Museum. I am not the God you imagine although I am as close to it as you’ll get,...and no this is
not the after-life, you are not deceased, simply held in a state of suspended animation.”

  Saul span around as quickly as he could, considering his restricted movement, but nothing. Still nobody moved. “Who are you? What do you want? Where are you?” Saul asked in a slightly panicked voice.

  “So many questions! The eternal characteristic of human beings, throughout your brief history. Questions that sometimes lead to great achievements but questions can also lead to paranoia and destructive tendencies which have long dogged your species.” The voice was calm. Calm and authoritative, sounding like one of Saul’s professor-tutors back at Uni. “Where are you, what do you want with me, why are you doing this?” Saul shouted at the invisible tormentor.

  “I am everywhere.” Said the voice deepening slightly. “I am holding you in this moment of suspension to communicate with you. I have a message for you. But first Saul Ripley, you must become calm. You must become balanced both mentally and physically to fully appreciate what I must communicate to you.” “You’re joking me!” Saul fired back, terrified but becoming more angry than afraid. “Who the hell are you and where are you? Why don’t you come out from wherever you’re hiding? How do you expect me to be calm in the midst of all this?”

  There was silence. Saul’s chest was pumping, his heart thumping and adrenaline coursing. Fight or flight. But fleeing didn’t seem a likely option so fighting was the only alternative. He began to tense. Muscles constricting, mouth drying. I can handle myself he bluffed, trying to reassure himself. Where’s Moose when you need him he thought, desperately going through the odds and permutations in his mind.

  “Violence will not be required.” Said the voice darkly. “I am not here to hurt you. And I am not hiding from you!”

  Saul froze. “I didn’t say violence was required” he said defensively.

  “But you thought it” replied the voice. Saul freaked. “Whooaaah,..hang on a minute. I’m not thinking about violence, I’m not looking for trouble, just come out and lets talk about this.”

  The voice became firm, as if irritated. “Saul Ripley, your last statement was a lie. Your previous thought was whether you could defeat me in combat and you wished for your friend Moose to be here to help you because he is physically superior to you and has demonstrated this in previous conflicts with other violent human beings. You have been processing a number of thoughts as to what your brain can accept as real. You are what you consider to be twenty earth years of age and you have an extraordinary future. You are an intelligent specimen of the human race and yet you have not listened to one piece of information I have provided for you. I repeat, I am not here to hurt you, I am not hiding from you, I do need to communicate a specific message to you and your thoughts are open to me as we have been communicating via thought for the duration of our interaction so far.”

  Saul stood motionless, feeling inferior and somewhat afraid.

  The ensuing silence lasted for just twenty seconds or so, but in that time Saul processed about a thousand options, most of which terrified him. “OK.” He finally relented. “OK just let me get my head around this please.”

  “Take your time.” Said the voice quietly. “As you can see time is irrelevant anyway.”

  Saul looked around at the gathered motionless mass of friends. “What have you done to them?” He whispered.

  “I have done nothing to them.” Said the voice calmly. “Merely stopped time.”

  “How Do you,…?” Saul’s exasperated question is interrupted abruptly.

  “Saul!” the voice interjects. “I need you to focus upon the task at hand!”

  “What task, why is this happening?

  The voice never breaks into emotion, just answers calmly each time. “You have been chosen. You have been selected to protect your fellow planet-dwellers. The whole planet is in danger. Actually the whole Universe is in danger. I need you to calm yourself and listen to my instructions. You must come with me to a different location. Where I will impart all of your instructions and explain everything to you. Are you ready to leave?”

  “A different location?” Saul was afraid. “Are you kidnapping me?”

  “Not at all. You have free will as a human being and you can exercise this at any time, I have no power over you in that sense. I have power over natural elements, but the problems humankind are facing are real and you are the key to solving them.” The voice explained.

  “I,. I don’t know.” Stammered Saul, reluctantly. “I’m hoping Moose slipped me some shit and this is just a bad trip!”

  “You are not drugged.” Said the voice plainly. “Are you ready to leave?”

  “It looks like I don’t have much choice,” Saul snapped abruptly.

  “Then relax and maybe close your eyes, you may feel a physical reaction to transportation.” Said the voice.

  “Hang on, just a moment! – Where are you taking me?” Saul became agitated once again.

  “The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics” The voice replied in its monotone fashion.

  “But,.. But that’s in Germany.” Stammered Saul.

  “Yes of course” Came the curt response.

  “Okaayyy,.. So you and I are going to be transported to the Kaiser Wilheml Institute in Germany?”

  “Yes!”

  “Now? Right now?” Enquired Saul.

  “Yes! We are going to meet someone who will explain in terms you can accept, what is happening, why and how you can help. And be careful not to touch that relic again as it will be transported with you.” Warned the voice. “ Can I proceed now?”

  “SHIT!” Said Saul aloud “Here goes nothing!” He shook his head slowly still held in the grip of the suspended animation limits and he thought – wait until Moose gets a load of this. As Saul was succumbing to his better judgement he looked across at Nell and raised one eyebrow. He stepped forward as urgently as he could but in his restricted capacity, reaching out his free hand. Once again his immediate environment began altering, melting into movement as the image of people and objects around him began slowly disintegrating into molecules from their edges.

  Saul pushed harder and stretched his arm out as far as it would reach towards Nell, desperately grasping towards her hand. The tip of his index finger gently brushing onto the back of her exposed forearm. As his finger tentatively made the lightest of contact his whole world immediately exploded into a chaotic swirl of what looked like molecules spinning around him at immense high speed. Bright colours. The people around him, breaking up into Billions of pieces, along with the surrounding furniture, fittings, artifacts and the whole structure of the building, melting into one huge, psychedelic fairground-ride.

  Again the noise that accompanied the phenomenon, became unbearable to Saul’s ears. Like a cross between standing next to Niagra Falls and a Slipknot concert. Saul was panicking and wanted it to stop, wanted to change his mind and just get back to the relative safety of Moose’s Jeep, (His driving now feeling tame). But he knew he was powerless to stop this. This was something out of control, like a storm of nature demonstrating brutal unearthly force. So he kept his gaze fixed firmly upon the still motionless Nell and his fingertip linked to her by less than the width of one of her long dark hairs.

  Chapter 3: E=Mc2

  The phenomenon Saul was in the midst of had begun slowly, building into a tumultuous and very frightening, not to say disorientating trip down the wormhole of hell! But it stopped with such immediacy, that he fell forwards into Nell, as his previous efforts to reach her were now re-engaged. He bowled into her knocking her to the ground and landing unceremoniously bedside her.

  Nell’s face was a cross between pain from the unexpected landing and dazed confusion, as if waking. She glared at Saul. “What the hell?” She winced in pain as she blurted out her exclamation. “What the hell, are you doing you idiot!”

  “Sorry! Sorry Nell,.. I,.. I didn’t mean to,… Are you ok?” Saul was equally shaken and not prepared with an answer that would suffice.

  “Do I l
ook OK?” Nell screamed at him.

  Saul began patting her down instinctively to see if she was hurt anywhere.

  “Get the fuck off me! – What are you doing you crazy,…….” As she shouted her disgust and disapproval and being manhandled, she stopped abruptly. Gazing around the room she was now in. A laboratory to be exact.

  The lab was filled with all manner of instruments, Bunsen burners, glass specimen jars, stainless steel frames containing further glass beakers and jars, some with funnels. The whole room was crammed with equipment ranging from small petri jars and centrifuge tubes, to larger cabinets bursting with books and reference material. It was clearly a space used by very serious scientific minds, but the overwhelming feeling generated by the myriad of visual clues, was that this room was old. Very old.