I have been employed in European Council for Nuclear Research or CERN for almost two decades already. 20 years of undying service as the lead engineer of Team Alpha has placed me in a distinct position revered and envied by most scientist here at CERN. I am Jeremy Von Dutch, one of the few bright bachelors who keep on wasting efforts on making the impossible things, possible. Although, the society’s view of a Nuclear Engineer is a nerd, forever alone, and an introvert I believe that it’s not always the case. I have always been filled with charm, my blue eyes never failed to take a lady for a date. Without even bragging, I am as fit as a ramp model because CERN literally provides my crib with everything that I need, I request, or I just want to have.
Life in CERN is an intellectual paradise. We are housed underground, with our own city, filled with fellow intellectuals proving and disproving things and making efforts unknown to man. The team that I have been working with has successfully disproved Albert Einstein’s theory that Light travels the fastest. Through using the Large Hadron Collider we have proven that the Neutrinos travel the fastest and not light or anything similar to it.
CERN has been my home since I was a child. I was adopted by an astrophysicist who found me on the steps of his house. Since that time on, I never lived a normal life. I lived a life of an adult rather than a child. My playmates were books; my playgrounds were the library and the laboratory of my father. I spent many good years with him until one night; a burglar broke into our simple home. It was the summer of 1993 when my father was seen dead on the couch, while holding his cup of tea without spilling it. He had several wounds and concussions on his head but the real mystery was that everything was in order. Nothing was stolen from us except for the life of my father.
I have been tormented by the sight of the death of my father. His balding head roams around me in my subconscious thoughts. I could see him, sitting there on the couch, watching, speaking to me as if he was alive despite all the wounds. I couldn’t understand any word that he was telling, except for one single word: Sorry. I don’t know. Quite frankly stated, I do not understand why he was telling sorry. Then, everything was a blur. Smoke of blue would spin around me then suddenly there was a tree with a weird inscription. I could feel the heat of the sun. I can feel my sweat dripping down on my nose. The tree had something metallic near it, though I could only infer that the setting was a tropical island, I could not possibly deduce why a technologically advanced object would be serving any purpose on an abandoned and probably a useless island. Time and time again, I would wake up from that dream feeling waves of curiosity and doubt in my body until a research project dawned on my desk the evening of celebration of Christmas. A gift.
It was a proposal for the harboring of the strength of the Neutrinos to create a time lapse. Coined as “Neutrino Time Lapse Movement Project 1.3”, I cannot possibly take away the fascination that by using the neutrinos one can make a breech in time and location. I took the gift and had my own research for the first meeting on the first of January.
The big day came, I was surrounded by different researchers from all over the world. Italians, Portuguese, British and some few Americans were part of the proponents of the project. I brought along with me my Team Alpha who were the founders of Neutrinos in the physical world. Being the team leader, and the co-chairman of the NTLMP proposal, I am amazed by the probability of the study. Whopping 100% probabilities of creating a time lapse was exhilarating, a wormhole that can let you travel in a different dimension with its revolving strength. It was a like creating a time machine but with the sophistication of Europeans.
The project entails the use of the Large Hadron Collider, a quad-cell space of Neutrinos and at least 740 billion Pounds for all the expenses. I didn’t care about the logistics but on the second week of March, the money didn’t matter. The CERN gave us permission to use the LHC and so, the proposal was on its first step. We did every possible thing to make the Neutrinos revolve in the LHC, used their revolving capacity, concentrate that capacity into a smaller collider and transfer the concentrated power into a 5 meter mechanical wormhole. The bluish light emitted by the Neutrinos made its way to the Large Hadron Collider without even giving us the hard time. The scientist maintaining the revolving capacity accelerators are calculating everything as I wait for the last step, taking the mechanical wormhole to the beam gun loaded with Neutrinos. Everything was smoothly perfect.
A bluish spinning light emerges from the artificial wormhole. It seems to be like a clear water but without end. I couldn’t possibly believe how amazing things are with science. I took a step closer to see the time lapse movement of the Neutrinos when a sudden electrical surge made everything explode.
Shards of broken glass was ever where. There were blood spilled. Bodies on the floor. The laboratory suddenly became a warzone but without a returning fire. It was a massacre. I needed to save my life. It would take me 30-45 seconds to run to the exit door or a split second to gamble my life and jump into the wormhole.
I decided to gamble.
Oxygen was thin and I could feel the pain of the glasses that stabbed me. I couldn’t stand straight. I was lying in the nothingness and stumbling into the blue light without any gravitational pull. I can’t see anything. Everything was blue and misty. I couldn’t breathe. I needed air. I needed. I. . .
The sun was hot and it was burning through my eyelids. I could taste saltwater and hear waves crashing on the shore. Birds chirped everywhere. I couldn’t believe what I could hear. I didn’t dare to open my eyes. I was afraid of the beauty that surrounded me; afraid that the wormhole had placed me somewhere only my subconscious was telling me or if I was not only dreaming but prophesying something diabolically amazing.
Soon cold hands were wiping my face and my wounds were as if healing itself rapidly. I listened to her faint English; I was surprised that they could speak what I could speak. “Years and years ago, a traveler like you came here and promised to return with force and power. He was angered with the beauty of this paradise that he wanted it for himself. He promised ten long years of preparation for his coming and not a single islander could save us from the wrath of his intellect. But, now, a human is in my hands. A human whose resembles a savior is here.” I shivered. I didn’t want to wake up with a very big responsibility.
“I am Andromere. You are at my place, human. In here, everything that you want to do with time will follow your bidding. You can go back to autumn or winter. You can control and predict the weather. You can move about anywhere at any time. You can go back to your life.”
Back to my life?
I woke up after long hours of sleep and found myself in an empty house. There, sitting beside the fireplace, was a woman whose back was turned to me. Her long blonde hair has reached the floor. It was not that perfect type of hair that somebody would see from the T.V. commercials.
“I want to travel in time, go look for that man, go back to my life and go back to the place where I belong.” I stood up and told her. She looked at me. She had the eyes of a cat and whiskers. She was beautiful despite her inhuman appearance.
“I am Andromere. The Queen of Time Isle and you are in my Paradise. I am the one and the only living here. I am preparing for the battle given ten years ago. Now, I will do as your bidding is but assure me that you will be the killer of my assailant three days from now.”
Three long days passed and I prepared myself to kill. I don’t know what made it so easy for me to do what Andromere has said. For the entire three days, I was given food, medicine and different types of swords and mallets I could use to kill that assailant. I was so desperate to see my father again and to see how I became an orphan. Day in and day out I would train myself in stealth, offense and killing. I was not afraid because I know that Andromere would be there to help me and I could just jump through dimensions if I want to.
The mission then started for me. At first, I didn’t know how I would be travelling until Andromere came close to me. She held my hand and placed them in her hips. She moved her face closely to mine. I don’t know what I was going to do. I closed my eyes and I felt her soft whiskers brush against my face. I opened it and we were kissing however, I can’t feel her lips. Blue clouds enveloped us as flashes of my recent memories passed through us. On and on we traveled backwards while our lips were intertwined to each other. I could feel her shiver. I could sense that something was wrong with her but before I could react, there we were on a street filled with people I do not know.
Everything was pitch black. Everyone was busy. I didn’t know if they could see us but rest assured they were passing us like we were bystanders. I turned towards my companion and I was amazed by her dazzling beauty. Her eyes were almond shaped with a dark, long and flowing hair. She stands smaller than me, still. Her skin is as normal as other Europeans. She was amazingly beautiful with a very interesting accent. At that moment, I felt something. I was nervous as I looked at her. I touched my lips and thought back on the kiss that had occurred awhile ago. For a moment, I forgot what I was supposed to do: to look for the infant me and how I became an orphan. All I thought about is her. All I knew is her. All I care for is her. Then suddenly the people were screaming.
“Whatever you do, do not alter what I tell you not to alter. Do only what I tell you to do. Speak only when I tell so.” Andromere had the knack of keeping her sentences short, simple and firm which made me feel like she was a teacher and I was a pupil under her care.
Everybody was panicking. I didn’t know what was happening so I looked to the left and saw nothing but more people. I looked to the right and still, the same. Finally, Andromere pointed towards south and saw what was happening. A building was burning and many people were trapped. Finally, I saw someone eerily familiar. He looked the same as me. He wears the same glasses. He walks very similar to mine. His hair color, his eyes, his hands, his mustache . . . everything. Then, it dawned on me. He was my father.
He was walking casually towards the fire and then in a split second he was running and shouting about his newborn child. He screamed so loud that he was almost in par with the sirens of the old fire trucks. He was running fast and he was able to enter the burning building. Blue smoke rose again from Andromere, she was touching my hands. Then, in an instant, I saw how I was abandoned. My mother and father died from the fire on that day. They threw me out of the window and I was caught by the firemen. Things went faster and I saw my surrogate father going out from his old house and there I was, wrapped in blue and red cloth. I don’t know why they decided to give me to him but rest assured when I saw his face I was about to cry.
But I was not the only one who had deep emotions on the sight of my father. Andromere was shaking, I didn’t know why exactly so I shrugged it off.
Faster now, time flew and I saw my father and me enjoying our lives. I couldn’t help but cry. We enjoyed times together, playing together, eating together and growing up with each other. Until, his fatal day came. Again, I saw my father, bloody and dead. But, I didn’t know what happened to him. I walked towards my father when Andromere shouted. She raged and I flew backwards. Suddenly, I was back into Andromere’s Paradise.
“You have seen enough, human! Now, do my bidding as I have fulfilled your wish!”
She kissed me again. I was in a white office. I don’t know the place. When suddenly, an old man was sitting calmly in front of me, his back turned away as he was sipping tea. It was a summer night. I knew the weather well because of the training. Andromere was beside me.
“Kill him and be done with it. His death shall set you free. You shall have control over time with your wormhole as you can visit me frequently.”
I closed my eyes and raised my hands. I was shaking. My heartbeat was racing. I was near at killing him. He was old. Frail. Weak. He couldn’t possibly survive anything as hard as my blow. I struck him once. He didn’t flinch. Twice. Thrice. No movement. Then, I opened my eyes. Alas, the consequences. I killed my own father. It turned out that my father survived through travelling in Time Isle, but he remained there, and he was not welcome to remain. He destroyed time continuum and I had to fix it, for his life—but was it worth it?