by Varun Sayal
“Yes, yes, same. He said these black holes are the doors for time-demons to travel through time. How do I understand these concepts better? I am a total novice here.” Tej was a little embarrassed, but he knew that to become a better time-traveler, he needed to understand these theories. Calm, serene village life no longer held an allure to him. He wanted to travel to different worlds, spread across time slices, and learn about them.
“You will have a lot of time to learn this, Tej. In fact, you will pick and choose. Time-demons are one of the sharpest species alive on this planet because they have infinite life-spans, which they can use to keep studying. They study philosophy, technology, strategy, music, arts, and whatnot. For you to learn these disciplines, you need to use a concept called pre-dead brain-feeding.”
“Brain-feeding? That sounds zombie-isque.”
Manika laughed. “You understand Zombies? One trip to the future and you get all the knowledge of the world.”
“Ravi’s brain is all imprinted here.” Tej pressed his index finger on his forehead.
“Pre-dead brain feeding is exactly the same, like imprinting of information. When a person dies, their consciousness leaves their body. But their brain is active for some time before it completely stops functioning. Their thoughts, their learnings, their whole lives are stored there—a book waiting to be read. You can enter that brain only for a few microseconds. When you do so, you imprint that information onto your consciousness. And then you get out before the brain dies completely. That is the concept of pre-dead brain-feeding. You feed on information from a brain before it dies.”
“Oh—so I need to do this feeding on selective people so I can learn specific facts.”
“Yes. If you enter the brain of a chess player, you can learn to be a grandmaster. If you enter the brain of a quantum physicist, you can understand quantum physics. If you enter the brain of an astronomer who has studied black holes, then you will understand their functioning, too—although avoid some of the famous people throughout history.”
“Why avoid famous people? Wouldn’t they be the best?”
“They would be, and that is why the pre-dead brains of these famous people will be jam-packed. Many time-demons are entering and leaving the brains of these people all the time. Every time-demon wants to learn from the best. For example, most time-demons interested in learning theoretical physics will be entering and leaving Albert Einstein’s brain. Even if it’s for a micro-second, his brain would be like a chaotic train station.”
“Wait, you said other time-demons? How many time-demons exist?”
“Thousands. Maybe more. Some of us time-readers have attempted to document them. But some madcap time-demon usually comes and destroys those documents. Time-demons don’t want anyone documenting them and their movements. The most comprehensive documentation on time-demons was kept in a safe-box at Alakhnanda University in India, but time-demons destroyed it three times. The last destruction happened in 1193 AD. Another copy exists, but time-readers of the future have kept it buried inside the deep dark web, an electronic copy safe behind thousands of fire-walls and cryptic mazes.”
“Why not have several copies, Manika? Why only one?”
“Time-demons can use that information to attack each other, settle their old disputes. Whenever two time-demons are locked in a battle, there is a lot of collateral damage to human lives. Hence, we time-readers keep only that one copy. We can read it whenever we want, using our time visions.”
“If I go to the future, how can I find this copy?” Tej was curious to know more about time-demons.
“Sorry, Tej. As a time-reader protocol, I cannot tell this to a time-demon. I have already told you more than I should have.” Manika pressed her lips together. She had time-read Tej’s past, and she knew she could trust him. But this protocol had been put in place after great deliberation, and she did not want to break it.
Tej could understand the mistrust she was feeling for time-demons in general. She was deceived and tortured by one for days. He changed the topic.
“So the apocalyptic future, has it changed? The events of the year 2072, will they still happen? Now that Kumbh has been trapped inside his old vessel, the flow of the future should be different. Right?”
“To be honest, Tej, I don’t know. At times, very discreet paths to future somehow lead to the same outcome. I have attempted re-reading that vision multiple times in the past few days. But there is a problem.”
“What problem?”
“Whenever I attempt to read anything after November 18th, 2072, I only get blank visions. It’s as if an unknown force is preventing me from reading it.”
“Maybe you are facing this difficulty because you are still recovering and are not yet fit?”
“No. I can still see various other solid-reference time visions. I can view them perfectly.”
“Solid what?”
“Solid reference time visions. We time-readers usually have a sense of sure-shot events, events which are definitely untouched by any time-demons. One example is the original Big Bang of our universe, which happened billions of years in the past. The second one is the Big Crunch of the universe which will happen billions of years in the future. These events are colossal astronomical happenings. It’s impossible for time-demons to alter them.
“These two visions are intact for me, so my time-reading abilities have not been affected. An unknown power has prevented me from looking beyond that date. It’s an alien force and is disparate from anything I have ever experienced. I need to talk to other time-readers to find out if they’re also facing this vision blockade.”
“All right. I reckon that I need to do a pre-dead brain feeding of seasoned time-readers such as you. Then I will understand these complicated concepts with ease,” Tej joked, and Manika smiled.
“Time demons have many powers, Tej. You have only realized one. Do you know you can even be present at more than one location in different time-slices at the same time? You can be in the year 5176 BC and the year 4042 AD at the same time.”
“What? How?”
“By traveling through time at a rapid pace you can spend only a micro-second in one host. And then travel to another host in another time-slice. And then back. By being missing for a micro-second from a host, you won’t lose the continuity of that time-slice.”
“So two places at once? That’s very convoluted.”
“It only requires practice, Tej. One of the ancient time-demons, Monothiaz, was the master of multi-hosting. She once fought simultaneous wars in seventeen different time-slices!”
“Every time I talk to you, Manika, I get to learn a few new concepts. But some of those concepts are too baffling for me, like this one. Even if I could do this multi-hosting, why would I want to be in two places?”
“If your nemesis time-demon is fighting you in more than one place, you need to be present in all those time-slices to counter him or her.”
“I need not learn this then. I don’t have any nemesis.” Tej smiled.
“You took down Kumbh. You had your revenge. But who freed him from the time-prison in the first place? That could not have happened without the involvement of another time-demon. So Kumbh was not acting alone. And when you choose one side, the other side automatically becomes the adversary.”
“Then it’s good that we chose the righteous side.”
“Did we, though? We sided with Rigasur. Had you not identified his true nature, we would almost have helped him become a merciless despot. And even if we saved billions of lives, our actions are still stained with blood. How many soldiers lost their lives trying to infiltrate that castle and capture Kumbh, and how many died while protecting him? Let’s not kid ourselves, Tej. This was a war, and in a war, there is nothing right or wrong, nothing righteous or immoral. It’s two sides fighting for victory. That’s it.”
Tej was speechless. Manika was rig
ht. She had been Rigasur’s disciple for several years. His dark deception had left indelible marks on her persona and self-confidence.
“I’m sorry for the outburst, Tej. I did not mean to be harsh to you.” Manika calmed herself. She realized that Tej was not the right subject for the anger and bitterness she was harboring for Rigu.
“No, it’s all right. Whatever you said is a bitter truth we have to endure for the rest of our lives. You should take a rest, Manika. I am irritating you more by bombarding you with my silly questions. Tomorrow morning, I will travel to my village. I’ll meet my wife, my daughter, and my foster parents. It’s been only a few days, but it seems like ages.”
“Your wife and daughter? But you are not married.”
“What are you saying, Manika? I am married and I have a daughter. Her name is Kaalpriya. Did I not show you the small bangle which she gave me before I left my village? I misplaced it somewhere in the ashram.” Tej looked at Manika with a hope that she would remember. He thought perhaps her memory was shaky because of the past few days of atrocities she had endured. But she nodded her head in negation.
“No, Tej. I am sure you haven’t mentioned your daughter and wife to me. In fact, Guru Rigu had me read your whole life before he brought you to the ashram. I read most of the major incidents of your life at that time. You were not married. Village elders arranged for your marriage with a girl. But right on the day of your marriage, your mother left for the heavenly abode. As a result, you broke off the marriage. I remember that vision.”
“No, Manika, that’s not the case. My mother expired three years ago, not five. And I got married to Damayanti five years ago. Our daughter Kaalpriya is four now. Is it possible that the events of the past few days have jarred your memory?” Tej smiled.
Manika did not flinch. Tej thought that she was messing with him for a moment, but her expression was dead-serious. She looked at him for a couple of seconds, then closed her eyes. Her eyelids were shut but Tej could observe her eyeballs moving.
“Manika, are you all right?”
After a few moments, she opened her eyes. “I went through a few events from your life, going five years in the past. It’s the same as before. Your mother died five years ago, right on the day of your wedding. When that happened you refused to go ahead with the marriage. The girl’s name was Damayanti. She later married another man named Vilom. That’s the same vision I had earlier. I also read the present—you have no daughter.”
“How is that possible? I remember spending time with them. I remember kissing my wife, hugging her. Playing with my daughter. Those are not false memories. Tell me what’s happening, Manika. Give me some answers!” Tej was about to cry.
Manika controlled her tears, but her throat was heavy. She realized that Tej’s actions had led to a re-balance of events. Attempting to change the future, he’d inadvertently changed the past too.
Time travel to the future caused significant changes to the entropies of the events of the future, causing more disorder. This disorder often reverberated back to the past and caused imbalances in the entropies of the events of the past, thereby altering them too. For power-hungry time-demons, such changes were of no consequence. But Tej felt deceived. A loved one being dead was different. One could make peace with such a tragic event. But a loved one who never existed, it was beyond Tej’s comprehension.
Manika did her best to explain this phenomenon to Tej, but he couldn’t understand it. He was devastated. His throat was heavy with emotion, and his eyes were wet. He sat thinking through the events of these past few days. His quest for revenge ended with an overwhelming cost to him. He remembered what he said to Rudrakshini. “If there’s a price attached to your help, I will gladly pay it. Whatever it is.”
Those words echoed inside of him, and he burst into a bitter cry. Manika, too, had tears in her eyes. She knew any words of consolation would be futile. It was too big a loss for Tej. It was as if the universe helped him get his revenge, but it had extracted a heavy price in return.
Epilogue
Rigasur’s body was kept in the chamber of time travel on a similar cement block, next to the bodies of Kumbh and Vetri. Like them, he was also bound in heavy metal chains. One week had passed since Tej imprisoned him.
It was an hour past midnight, and a light mist had engulfed the ashram. Two guards were stationed outside the chamber where the time-demons were kept.
They were half-asleep when three women attacked them. The assailants wore long, dark robes. Their faces were covered with hollow-eyed demonic masks. They pressed anesthetic-dipped cloths over the noses of the guards and subdued them within a matter of seconds.
After hiding the bodies of those guards in bushes nearby, the attackers opened the lock on chamber’s door. They sneaked into the room without making much noise.
One woman walked in the front like a leader, and the other two followed her. They strode to the center of the room, surrounded Rigasur’s body, and stood there for a few seconds. Rigasur had been tranquilized and showed no movement at all. His breathing was feeble, his pulse was low as if his body was frozen.
The leader bowed down and whispered in Rigasur’s left ear. “I kept my promise, my friend. I came here in person to commend you for getting rid of Kumbh. You executed the hardest part of the plan with finesse. I feel sad that you underestimated the kid and in the process martyred yourself. We will miss you in the refurbished seventies. But don’t worry, we’ll get what we want—with or without you. Happy sleeping, mate!” The leader smirked and sauntered out of the room, followed by the other two women.
Rigasur lay there unconscious, unaware of the surroundings. For a moment, the index finger of his right hand flickered a little.
THE END
About the Author
Varun Sayal is a science fiction author who has built considerable repute in the writing world within a short span of time. His début work ‘Time Crawlers’ has been a phenomenal hit on Amazon. It has also been very well received by the Goodreads Reader community. Testimony to that fact is over three hundred positive reviews on GoodReads, Amazon and other platforms, within just six months of publishing that book.
Connect with the author here: Website | Instagram | Twitter | Author Page
Do you wish to receive free books, sample chapters, early drafts and other such goodies from the author? Please sign up here: Newsletter
Liked this book?
Read more from the Author
Time Crawlers
Alien Invasion, Dark Artificial-Intelligence, Time-Travel, High-Tech Hindu Mythology, Djinn Folklore, Telekinetics, and life-consuming cosmic entities are some major themes in this book. Author has woven these themes into six tightly-knit, fast-paced Sci-Fi stories.
A brief introduction to the stories:
Nark-Astra, The Hell Weapon: The weapons he possesses make him the destroyer of worlds, and he burns for revenge. A high-tech take on ancient Indian mythology.
Death by Crowd: The dark desires of the masses; darknet websites fueled by a crypto-currency. What lurks in the background - an advanced artificial intelligence?
Genie: He rubbed a lamp alright, but what he got was the shock of his life. A sci-fi take on the djinn myth.
Time Crawlers: There are individuals who exist in multiple time periods at once, and there are those who know about them....
Eclipse: No attacks, no blood-shed, yet there was an invasion and a conquest. Who are these shapeshifter aliens being hounded by an eclipse?
The Cave: The fate of an advanced imperial race hangs in balance as a dark celestial entity meets a legendary protector.
Reader Reviews:
“Time Crawlers is a highly imaginative, gutsy and spellbinding book of 6 stories that take us on a morally challenging ride through high-tech worlds and encounters that shock, terrify and enthrall us.”
~ Peter
~ Cheryle
“I wasn’t sure if I would like this book going in because I usually don’t read hardcore science fiction. .. However, this set of short stories was very interesting and kept me reading. I would recommend it to anybody that likes sci-fi or futuristic stories. “
~ Cailin
“Quick and super-enjoyable! Kind of like a collection of X-files + moral philosophy + AI + dark web + plot twist mash-up super bonanza! One of the stories in particular, Death By Crowd really stood out to me. It dominates that super-creepy-cause-it-could-be-true vibe.”
~ Mara
“Time Crawlers is a gripping and fun read. Varun Sayal’s writing is incredibly imaginative and original. I enjoyed every second of reading this short compilation of out of this world stories. If you are a fan of science fiction you should definitely pick up this book.”
~ Lauren
“This book has definitely sparked my love for Sci-Fi book to the next level. Absolutely amazing concept.”
~ Katherine
“Time Crawlers was my favorite. I know... that’s the short story that gave the book it’s name. But seriously the concept of that story made me think about life, past, present and future and I just loved that.”
~ Jessica
“Time and tested subjects of invasion, conquest, AI taking over coupled with Djinns and powerful missile-like weapons from Hindu folklore, make for an engaging and diverse cocktail in this book. Must buy, an engaging read.”
~ Ankita