A Stable Loop In Time

Chapter 7

In Another Time…

It was dark, cold, and everything ached. That was pretty much it.

“Ugh…” Alexander Futran, who was not bored anymore, but instead annoyed, woke up slowly. His head hurt and his arms seemed to be stuck above his head. All he could think was, Man. I sure do hate getting attacked.

Once he got his eyes all the way open, he surveyed his shadowy surroundings. All he could really figure out, though, was that he was hanging from his wrists, which seemed to be handcuffed with some kind of soft, but strong material. He was right up against a wall, and the wall seemed to be even colder than the air. That was certainly annoying.

“Alan! Destiny!” He screamed out. “Can you hear me?”

His voice echoed many times before he yelled out again, “Where are you? Destiny! DESTI-“

She can’t hear you now.

The voice that Xan heard, a room-filling, ever-present voice that came from every direction at once, quite frankly, scared the living shit out of him. Figuratively. It made him stop talking. He couldn’t even tell if it was male or female. It was like he was being spoken to by the darkness itself.

After a few minutes of shuddering, Xan finally worked up the courage to speak. “W-who are you?”

I have no real name, at least not the same way you do.  When I am referred to, I am usually called The Scientist.

Again, the powerful, robotically calm voice made Xan want to scream in pure terror. It made him feel so incredibly, amazingly, depressingly insignificant, like The Scientist was a god and he was the mortal servant. “What are you?” He finally said.

I see no logical reason for me not to tell you, so I will tell you. I am many things. I am the inventor of time travel. I am very possibly the most powerful being you will ever come across in your short lifespan. I am the master of many, servant of none. I am also what you would call an ‘artificial intelligence.’ As I have stated, I am many things. But a human is certainly not one of them.

“Were you c-created by humans?”

No.

Xan paused for a second. “When were you created?” Xan asked, his voice shaking.

I cannot disclose the answer to that question.

Xan took a deep breath and steeled himself. “Okay… Then what do you want?” He asked as calmly as he could.

I do not ‘want’ anything. I simply carry out that which registers as Logical. My duty is to ‘correct all significant anomalies that which I detect.’

“Who gave you that order?”

A power incomprehensible to your human mind.

Xan wondered what the heck that meant. “Okay, then why am I trapped right now?”

The reason for that is part of the algorithm that I have generated for the purpose of reversing and destroying the time anomaly that occurred on December 31st, 2000 CE, as you would say it. On December 31st, 2000 CE, you and two other humans traveled several hundred million years backwards in time. That action itself should be impossible.

“Why should that action be impossible?”

Within this solar system, there is only one power source great enough to lend enough energy to warp time more than approximately one million years. The only known source of power great enough is the star that this planet orbits around. The star is currently unaffected, therefore the star is not the power source, therefore the power source was one that was unknown to myself until I detected it being used on the planet called Earth on December 31st, 2000 CE. It is also curious that a power source so powerful went completely undetected, even to myself, until that exact moment of travel.

“So in response, you sent a guy to kill us?” Xan questioned incredulously.

No. I sent Servant Eric Jackson for the purpose of bringing to me the previously mentioned device.

“Fair enough. But then why am I chained up?” Xan asked angrily.

Because I entrusted Servant Eric Jackson with the duty of retrieving the information regarding the origin of the device, should my methods fail. Retrieving that information is part of the algorithm. He decided to ‘chain you up.’

“So I’m guessing your methods failed,” Xan stated. “Still, you’re a superhuman intelligence. Why would you entrust a duty as important as that to an illogical human?

Sometimes my purely logical mind cannot see opportunities that rely on unpredictable human emotions. I believe this has something to do with my original programming. Servant Eric Jackson can see those opportunities easily. That makes him valuable.

“So where is this Eric Jackson? I want to talk to him, and I think my friends would, too,” Xan stated.

As you wish. He wishes to talk to you, too.

A thousand bright lights switched on suddenly, almost blinding Xan with the pure contrast. Xan shut his eyes tight. When he finally opened them, he saw that he was in a pure, white, large featureless room, which was possibly triangular and about 300 feet wide at the most. To his huge relief, he saw Destiny hanging on the wall to his left and Alan to the right.

“Hey, Destiny!” Over here!” He yelled.

Destiny opened her eyes and immediately shut them again because of the light. “Alexander? Is that really you?” She asked hopefully.

“Yes, it’s really me,” he shouted with joy. “I’m just glad it’s really you!”

Alan opened his eyes and saw his two friends. “Alexander? Why is she calling you Alexander!?” He yelled.

“Stuff kind of happened when you were having a seizure. But dude, I’m so glad you’re alive,” Xan yelled back.

“Yeah, It’s good to see you too, bro. But seriously, what kind of stuff?” Alan asked suggestively.

“Shut up,” Destiny yelled, irritated.

“Hey. Attention please, everybody.”

“Who said that?” Xan said, looking around.

“I did,” said the figure now standing on the floor of the white room. Completely covered by robes as always, it was impossible to see his emotions.

“Wait, you actually talk?” Alan asked.

“Of course. I’m not mute.”

“Who are you, jerkass?” Destiny yelled in anger as soon as she got her eyes fully opened.

“Whoa, let’s not be too angry here. Calm down,” the man said, making a gesture with his arms. “Besides, you’ve already talked to me, and I wasn’t yelling at you back then.”

“What? Ridiculous! I’ve never heard you speak in my life!” Destiny roared.

“Oh, really?” The man asked rhetorically.

And then he took off his hood-