Short Story: "Space and Time"

(Word count: 3,055. Genres: Science fiction, religious, Christian. Copyright 2013 by Shawn C. Please do not distribute without permission.)

Michael heard the whistling bomb plummeting toward the ground beneath it. He had just started running out of one shelter, trying to reach where his family was waiting out the bombings. The last one hit on the other side of the city; he didn't feel like this one was going to be so far away. His heart beat hard enough he thought it would fly out of his chest.

As he turned a corner there was a crater wider than the street itself. Part of the buildings next to it had been blown off in the impact. This was unusual – the shells which had been dropping on the country for the past few weeks did a lot more damage than that. In the center was a white, cubical object. Michael quickly glanced and saw there was a door. The whistling of the bomb drew closer. There was no other place for him to go. He hopped into the crater and jumped into the object.

The explosion deafened him for a moment. Almost immediately the shockwave arrived; it rattled the strange object with Michael in it. He jolted on his side and hit what he assumed was some kind of control panel. He heard it beep. The panel flickered into life, a black background upon which touchscreen buttons of various colors blinked into existence.

“No!” Michael shouted with terror. The door slid shut, sealing him into whatever the thing was. He looked down as something underfoot began making a deep hum. He felt upward movement; somehow he was in the air. There was a single seat in the cube where one could control all the functions. Michael sat in it and tried to figure out what to do.

Fumbling with the controls he desperately tried to see something that made sense. None of it did – it was written in some kind of language he had never seen before. Whatever it was doing, he couldn't stop it.

On the console in front of him, a graphic appeared. It was a rectangle, tall and skinny, with the bottom third of it colored red. Next to it was a blue triangle facing the first shape, slowly rising. It passed the red part and moved into the black. The humming underneath Michael's feet silenced.

“Where am I going?” he questioned audibly.

The cube, evidently some kind of shuttle, didn't respond to him. It just keep doing whatever it was doing – he couldn't tell.

He stayed seated in the chair, fearing for his life. Was this some kind of secret government project? Did he just get captured by the enemy?

A few minutes of tense silence later the triangle was two-third of the way up the triangle. A green dot by the door started blinking. The humming returned, this time happening in spurts of various lengths. Michael had no idea what to expect, he just hoped he would come out alive.

The green dot turned blue. He heard a clank outside the pod, then some sporadic beeping. Finally, the door opened.

For a moment he was afraid of exiting. From his limited perspective he was in some kind of hangar bay. The lights were slightly dimmer than he was used to, with a minor blue tinge. It was completely quiet.

Getting his composure, Michael put his left foot out on the solid floor of the hangar. He gripped the sides of the door with his hands and stuck his head out of the cube. At the sides of the large room were steely gray, apparently floating, robots. Except they didn't look human – rather they had a sort of spherical main part and four limbs holding various tools. They stayed where they were, showing no signs of being active.

He stepped completely out of the pod and made a few tentative steps into the hangar. There were a few other strange things in there, but otherwise the place seemed bare. He saw a door to exit several yards away.

“This isn't human,” he muttered to himself in stark realization. He walked cautiously to the exit, with nothing to hurt him. A sigh of relief came from his mouth when the door slid open for him and he entered a long hallway.

“Where am I?” he asked himself again.

This time, a computerized voice said something in response. Startled, he looked around to see if there was a person making the voice, but found nobody.

“Hello?” he asked again.

The computerized voice responded once more, still in what sounded like another language.

Michael walked down the hall and came upon what seemed to be an elevator. It opened for him. Knowing nothing else to do he stepped in. The doors slid closed and he waited to see where it would take him.

“Working language,” the robotic voice declared. “Expect working knowledge in two minutes.”

For the first time, awe replaced fear. It was learning how to speak to him! “Where am I going?” he asked it.

“Main control room.”

A few seconds later the door slipped open to reveal a ruddy, circular room. Most of the circumference had displays and control panels which were rounded at the corners, almost elegantly designed. In the center was a control panel wider and thicker than the others. There was a chair for the user, which he sat in.

“Where am I?”

“Main control room.”

“No, where is this?” He wanted to see where in the world he had been taken.

“Orbiting Earth.”

He froze up, startled by the answer. This can't be right, maybe it's still trying to learn English. A few seconds later he queried again. “Where is this?”

“Orbiting Earth.”

He waited quietly until the voice said it had completed analyzing his language. “Where is this?”

“Orbiting Earth.”

Michael tried to collect his thoughts. Apparently, he mused to himself, he was in space. It was too unreal. He needed proof. “Show me.”

The big screen at the front of the room lit up. It was a view of the Earth's northern hemisphere. For a moment, the beauty of it took his breath away. Both the sun and the moon were peeking from behind it, while clouds swirled over the deep blue seas. Sure he had seen pictures of the Earth from space before but seeing it for the first time in person was... incredible.

“Am I on a spaceship?”

“Affirmative.”

“Tell me about this... spaceship.”

“The Aeon is a class 18 space and time cruiser capable of traveling ten lightyears and fifteen million years per second.”

“Wait, this is a time machine?”

“Affirmative.”

He rose to his feet, shocked to have stumbled upon something like this. Of all the things that could be happening right now, he was on a time machine! “Where was this ship built?”

“Tarnok Six Shipyards.”

“How... how long ago?”

“Ship time: 45 years. Relative time: 3,500 years in the past.”

Somehow Michael was able to mentally brush off the implication that there were aliens in the universe. “How far away is the nearest inhabited planet?”

“Approximately 16.5 lightyears away.”

“Time to test this,” he stated. “Take me to it. 500 years in the past.”

The main screen displayed a star map between the solar system and the other planet's star system. It would take a couple minutes for the ship to get there. Michael got into a more comfortable position in the chair and waited for the Aeon to arrive at the planet.

“Arrived at destination,” the ship informed. “Three optimal landing sites available.”

“Landing? This ship can land?”

“The Aeon is capable of hiding itself in a space bubble making it invisible and undetectable by any technology. When landing, all except the Exit Chamber is in this bubble. The Exit Chamber can be walked out of normally.”

This only made a little sense. “Land the ship at the point with the smallest population.” He didn't want to risk being seen by too many.

“Landing.” The front screen showed the landing process, representing the ship with a red silhouette and the planet as a spherical grid. It touched down on the outskirt of a settlement. “Proceed to deck 2, room 3.”

Michael went into the elevator and descended a level. Room 3 was easy enough to find. It was a relatively small chamber with some displays on the sides. Next to the door was a place where apparently he was meant to place his hand. Upon doing so he felt a small but sharp pinch.

“Ow,” he complained. “What was that?”

“You have been injected with nanobots which the ship uses to create a holographic image around you. You will appear to be of the same species as the inhabitants of this world until you return to the ship.”

The thick door separating him from the outside opened. He read upon where he was going via a screen in the room. Yaru-Selam had a population of about 25,000 and was the only city for many miles. It seemed to have been surrounded by farmland on all directions, so the otherwise rural population mostly flocked to it for whatever they needed.

Michael followed the clean, white road toward the city. It took about fifteen minutes of walking before it came into view. He was expecting something out of the Medieval Ages; what he got was definitely not medieval.

The buildings looked almost crystalline. At the top they had pointed spires, while the sides were flat with rounded corners. Vehicles floated a few feet above the gray streets, some of which didn't seem to have any occupants. There were some aliens walking on the sidewalks.

Michael was informed by the ship that the aliens were called Eridanians. They were pretty human-like with some major exceptions. First off they were reptilian in appearance. Instead of skin they had green scales on their bodies. Instead of five skinny fingers there were four thicker ones, including an opposable thumb. They were born from eggs and there would be up to five in one birth, and they grew to adulthood much faster.

He walked around for a bit, looking at the architecture and assorted buildings. While passing one slightly smaller building, Michael heard something very familiar. He stopped and listened for a moment. It sounded like someone playing an organ, and a group of people singing a hymn! It reminded him of the hymns that were sometimes sung at the Baptist church his family went to each Sunday. The front doors were opened so he stepped in.

Inside, the layout was surprisingly similar to the church he went to. There were pews filled with other Eridanians, while at the front one stood in a flowing white tunic and a red band around his neck. A hymn had ended and the people stood for something.

The nanobots in Michael's bloodstream allowed him to understand the leader: “May the Creator bless and keep you. May the Creator look upon you and comfort you. May the Creator turn his eyes upon you and let you dwell in peace.”

It was bizarrely similar to the closing statements Michael had often heard at his church. It intrigued him. He resolved to find out more about this. He stood to the side as people exited, until there was only the leader – apparently a priest of some kind – remaining.

The priest had seen him standing there and once the others had left, he approached Michael. “Hello sir. What can I do for you?”

“What is this place? Is it some kind of church?”

“Yes. This is the Church of Mesaniah.”

“So... it's a religious place, then?”

The priest nodded, an oddly human gesture. “Indeed. It's one of the larger churches in the province.”

“I see. What is this religion like? What do you guys believe?”

The priest collected his thoughts for a moment to try and explain it to someone who may not have heard of the faith before. “We are Mesanians. Our basic belief is in one god who we call the Creator. The Creator reveals himself as three individuals with one essence: the Father, the Son, and the Breath. We as Eridanians are unable to make ourselves right with the Creator because of our unrighteousness. The Son, who we call Mesaniah, has come into our form to die for our unrighteousness, so that by putting our faith in him and turning away from our vile acts, we can be in right standing with the Creator and see him face-to-face after we die.”

Michael's mouth opened in awe a little bit. That sounded almost exactly like the things his pastor would say to newcomers! “I see. Thank you for your time,” he said shortly. With that he left the building and returned to the Aeon.

Resting in the command chair in the main control room, he sat there awestruck. For a minute there wasn't much of anything he could say or think. That the religion of a planet so far away would be so similar to the religion of his home world was incredible. It suddenly gave it more credibility, but he wasn't sure he wanted it to be true. He started pacing around the room, thinking of ways he might disprove it.

After a few minutes he had a realization. “Does this ship know when the universe ends?”

“Affirmative,” replied the computer.

“Show me on the main screen.”

The numbers loaded for a moment, then appeared. His already missing breath was taken further away. The year that displayed on the screen... he nearly fell to the ground in a mix of fright and shock. It was within his own life time!

“What... what can you say about how the universe ends?”

“Information is limited but it seems the elements of the universe incinerate, centering around the planet Earth.”

“Take me there,” he commanded plainly.”

“Caution,” the ship said, “Traveling to the beginning or end of time can have severe psychological and physical affects.”

“I don't care, take me there!”

The screen switched, displaying the ending year of all reality. The destination: Earth. He sat in the chair, apprehensive about what he was going to see.

It took a few more minutes since it was traveling millions of miles and many centuries into the future. When the ship stopped its movement he immediately stood up. “Show me on the main screen.”

Earth was still there, but clearly more desolate. He was on the night side of the planet. There were almost no lights on it, just in pockets around coastal cities. A thin layer of dust polluted the atmosphere, and there was more snow on the planet than he'd ever seen.

The sky had changed to a fiery ruddy orange. No stars were visible. Michael's mouth stood open, unable to comprehend what he was seeing.

“What's happening?”

“The universe is rapidly burning out of existence, shrinking as it does so.”

He noticed that the orange was getting closer and brighter. The dark side of the Earth started lighting up. The universe was shrinking – fast.

The ship began to shake. Doomsday itself was blazing straight toward them. It was paralyzing! As much as he wanted to scream for the ship to veer off into the distant past for safety, somehow the inferno that was reality mesmerized him to the core. The heat of the incoming blazes were so strong that the clouds and snow on Earth began to fade away, being heated by this new source of warmth.

Michael's heart raced faster as the burning end of time drew closer and for a moment he thought it would take him and the ship with it. Mars was off behind the Earth, its surface superheated and glowing with molten rock. The planet evaporated before the fire could reach it. As the edge of space and time approached this now unoccupied orbit, the computer activated.

“Beginning emergency time travel,” it stated. The screen went white and Michael exhaled the breath he didn't realize he was holding. He practically stumbled to the chair, distraught by what he had just witnessed.

“Where are we going?” he asked the ship.

“To the point in time when you first arrived on the ship,” it responded emotionlessly.

A few more on-ship minutes passed and it stopped in orbit around the Earth, with its much greater population.”

He remained silent in the room for several minutes, recapturing his breath. It was disheartening enough to see the end of reality. Now he was back at the time where Earth itself might die. Despondently he asked the computer, “What is the condition of Earth at this time?”

“Currently experiencing a wide-spread nuclear war.”

“How much longer until the war ends?”

“Peace is declared approximately six months from now.”

This managed to bring a smile to his face. Whatever chaos was going on down below, he would probably live to see the end of it. He was also eager to land on the surface. “Take me down to -”

Michael was interrupted by screen suddenly changing. There was a misty form with glowing eyes on it now. “Unknown human, this is the commander of the Eternity. You have stolen a timeship belonging to us. Surrender it now, or prepare to be destroyed.”

“Yes! Take it!” he replied without hesitation. “I don't want it. I just found it. I'll give it back, just let me go back to my planet.”

Despite the hours that passed for Michael, he made it home just minutes after he was first brought up to the ship. After a few weeks passed, the attacks on his part of the world ended. He and his family, having faced death, decided to go to church.

The pastor preached on the part of the New Testament talking about the end of the universe and the Day of Judgment. The passage described it as the elements themselves burning up. Exactly what Michael saw. It shook him to the core, as he realized a freak accident involving time travel may have been the most religious experience he ever had.