Lieutenant Samara Higgs tightened the straps keeping her in the seat of the spherical craft. All around her there was a buzz of activity. Mission control was in overdrive prepping for her launch. The sphere she was in was perhaps 10 feet in diameter, the outside made of a nearly perfectly smooth surface of ground silicon, polished to a mirror finish. There was only one way in or out of the sphere, a small port on the very top, just big enough for a person to slide through. After Samara gave a thumbs up to a crewman looking down to her, he sealed the sphere.
Inside Samara was more or less cut off. For the moment she still had radio communication with Mission Control and had access to a video feed of the big reflective marble she was currently inside. She watched as a team armed with heavy hoses and cold weather gear began to douse the ship with liquid nitrogen. The display turned to white clouds as they froze the entire outside of her ship, causing it to contract and seal the port above her so tight that it was barely worth considering it an opening anymore.
“Activating the magnetic sheilding. Talk to you in ten minutes.” She smiled as she flicked a switch and the sphere began to rumble. A layer inside of the wall began to spin as it powered up. An electrical current running through it created an intense magnetic field. She could feel it, but couldn’t quite put into words how. The radio communication cut out, they wouldn’t be able to talk to her as long as the field was active. Without the field she would be unprotected as she crossed over. It was strong enough to block out any known kind of harmful radiation, but also isolated her. The time for launch was almost upon them. She would be the first person to visit another universe. Once there she would have five minutes to deactivate the field, open the sphere, take a few measurements and pictures, and get back in before it automatically resealed and took its return trip.
With less than a minute to go she checked and rechecked her environmental suit, and any system she could see. They were all fine, but she felt powerless just waiting. “Here we go” she whispered as she could feel herself pulled, as thought from inside and yet every direction. Everything went black and she felt immense pressure. It didn’t hurt her, it just held her in place, she couldn’t move a muscle, she could barely think. It was overwhelming, heavy, solid, and everywhere. And over with a flash of blinding green light. She was supposedly in another universe now, if it worked.
Nothing seemed different so far. She flicked the switch and deactivated the magnetic field, she unhooked the straps to her seat, and she ascended the little ladder to the exit port. It opened and light poured in. In the light pouring in was a strange figure already waiting for her waving suction cup tipped flaps of flesh as its skin glimmered. It intoned with a watery sounding voice “Ara Mas Eyb” Before she could react the three flaps reached down and the suction cups gripped her helmet, pulling her directly up with seeming ease and wrapping its apparent arms around her. Certainly, this mission was a mistake and this is how she died. She struggled to push it away and the large, it must have been at least 18 feet tall, being abruptly put her down and retreated backwards from her. Samara was unharmed after all that, but it would be hard to shake the memory of the huge purple and red beast from her mind. Right now she had to get back into her ship, she could wait out the last couple of minutes before jumping back in safety.
She turned around, surveying the world she was on. It was not terribly unlike her own Earth. Gravity was similar, there was sunlight, of a slightly different spectrum, but it clearly provided energy for the large swaying blue and orange fronds that towered above her in all directions. When she turned back to her sphere she realized a rather significant problem. It was perfectly smooth on the outside, and there was no way she would be able to get into it. She had just under four minutes to do so or it would automatically close and go back, leaving her behind. Unfortunately for her, at that particular moment another strange creature came charging towards her. The sounds it made were entirely foreign to her, even moreso than the huge purple people eater she had scared away already. It looked like a starfish, walking on the tips of its legs as it carthwheeled towards her screeching.
Samara didn’t know what it wanted, but it didn’t seem happy, and it didn’t seem like a good idea for her to wait to find out so she decided run. But it wouldn’t relent. Every turn she made it took just as easily, following her exactly as she kept looking over her shoulder to see where it was. The jungle of colors was confusing when she was standing still, running through it while being pursued was an altogether terrifying experience. While looking backwards, her foot went through what she thought was solid ground and she found herself tumbling down into some sort of burrow. The starbeast rolled past it and kept going. But she was out of time. The sphere would be sealing itself up now for its return trip. Going to stand, she found that she had broken her ankle in the fall and collapsed back down to the ground. She looked up through the foliage and saw a bright green flash of light ripple across the sky. That was it, that was the sphere going back to Earth. Without her. She lay out on the ground, wondering if they would send someone to look for her, or if they would determine it was too dangerous, or what.
She started to sob, unable to wipe away the tears because she was inside of an environment suit and the glass visor over her face prevented her. It dawned on her, that she only had a few hours before the carbon dioxide scrubbers in her suit would expire. It wasn’t just a matter of waiting for rescue… it had taken months to prepare the first sphere for its trip. Could they send it back in only a few hours? Probably not. While she thought about the agony of how she was probably going to die in a different universe a small tripedal creature peered out at her. Big round eyes, and soft yellow fur with some sort of striping pattern. It couldn’t be much more than three feet tall. She stopped and looked at it, everything so far had attacked her, would this be any different? As it slowly approached she held her breath, she couldn’t get away, not with a broken ankle. But it seemed friendly. When it got near it stopped and looked at her. She sat up and it retreated a few steps.
In a whisper she called to it “Hey there, don’t be afraid… unless you want to eat me, then it’d be nice if you ran away” She smiled despite her situation.
It blinked and turned to look back where it had come and called out “I think its safe, it looks like it is hurt.” He looked back to her as a half dozen more little yellow beings emerged from behind rocks and came closer. “Hello” He looked right at her.
“You speak English?” It had to be, although she had a translation unit in her environmental suit, it would take days of hearing a language for it to be able to communicate it to her properly.
“No, you are speaking our language. You must be confused.” It stepped closer to her, but kept one of its three feet back, as though ready to sprint away. “You are hurt?”
She nodded. But that didn’t seem to mean anything to the yellow creature. “Yes, I fell. Can you help me?”
The small creatures surrounded her without any apparent menace. Another one spoke “It is new, I’ve never seen something new.” Others chimed in “It shouldn’t be possible to have new things, not like this” “What do we do with it?”
The first silenced them “We help it. And if we are wrong, we will kill it next time” The small furred creatures nodded in agreement. Somehow it didn’t comfort Samara. Still, she was at their mercy and if they were going to help her she would have to accept it.
Inside Samara was more or less cut off. For the moment she still had radio communication with Mission Control and had access to a video feed of the big reflective marble she was currently inside. She watched as a team armed with heavy hoses and cold weather gear began to douse the ship with liquid nitrogen. The display turned to white clouds as they froze the entire outside of her ship, causing it to contract and seal the port above her so tight that it was barely worth considering it an opening anymore.
“Activating the magnetic sheilding. Talk to you in ten minutes.” She smiled as she flicked a switch and the sphere began to rumble. A layer inside of the wall began to spin as it powered up. An electrical current running through it created an intense magnetic field. She could feel it, but couldn’t quite put into words how. The radio communication cut out, they wouldn’t be able to talk to her as long as the field was active. Without the field she would be unprotected as she crossed over. It was strong enough to block out any known kind of harmful radiation, but also isolated her. The time for launch was almost upon them. She would be the first person to visit another universe. Once there she would have five minutes to deactivate the field, open the sphere, take a few measurements and pictures, and get back in before it automatically resealed and took its return trip.
With less than a minute to go she checked and rechecked her environmental suit, and any system she could see. They were all fine, but she felt powerless just waiting. “Here we go” she whispered as she could feel herself pulled, as thought from inside and yet every direction. Everything went black and she felt immense pressure. It didn’t hurt her, it just held her in place, she couldn’t move a muscle, she could barely think. It was overwhelming, heavy, solid, and everywhere. And over with a flash of blinding green light. She was supposedly in another universe now, if it worked.
Nothing seemed different so far. She flicked the switch and deactivated the magnetic field, she unhooked the straps to her seat, and she ascended the little ladder to the exit port. It opened and light poured in. In the light pouring in was a strange figure already waiting for her waving suction cup tipped flaps of flesh as its skin glimmered. It intoned with a watery sounding voice “Ara Mas Eyb” Before she could react the three flaps reached down and the suction cups gripped her helmet, pulling her directly up with seeming ease and wrapping its apparent arms around her. Certainly, this mission was a mistake and this is how she died. She struggled to push it away and the large, it must have been at least 18 feet tall, being abruptly put her down and retreated backwards from her. Samara was unharmed after all that, but it would be hard to shake the memory of the huge purple and red beast from her mind. Right now she had to get back into her ship, she could wait out the last couple of minutes before jumping back in safety.
She turned around, surveying the world she was on. It was not terribly unlike her own Earth. Gravity was similar, there was sunlight, of a slightly different spectrum, but it clearly provided energy for the large swaying blue and orange fronds that towered above her in all directions. When she turned back to her sphere she realized a rather significant problem. It was perfectly smooth on the outside, and there was no way she would be able to get into it. She had just under four minutes to do so or it would automatically close and go back, leaving her behind. Unfortunately for her, at that particular moment another strange creature came charging towards her. The sounds it made were entirely foreign to her, even moreso than the huge purple people eater she had scared away already. It looked like a starfish, walking on the tips of its legs as it carthwheeled towards her screeching.
Samara didn’t know what it wanted, but it didn’t seem happy, and it didn’t seem like a good idea for her to wait to find out so she decided run. But it wouldn’t relent. Every turn she made it took just as easily, following her exactly as she kept looking over her shoulder to see where it was. The jungle of colors was confusing when she was standing still, running through it while being pursued was an altogether terrifying experience. While looking backwards, her foot went through what she thought was solid ground and she found herself tumbling down into some sort of burrow. The starbeast rolled past it and kept going. But she was out of time. The sphere would be sealing itself up now for its return trip. Going to stand, she found that she had broken her ankle in the fall and collapsed back down to the ground. She looked up through the foliage and saw a bright green flash of light ripple across the sky. That was it, that was the sphere going back to Earth. Without her. She lay out on the ground, wondering if they would send someone to look for her, or if they would determine it was too dangerous, or what.
She started to sob, unable to wipe away the tears because she was inside of an environment suit and the glass visor over her face prevented her. It dawned on her, that she only had a few hours before the carbon dioxide scrubbers in her suit would expire. It wasn’t just a matter of waiting for rescue… it had taken months to prepare the first sphere for its trip. Could they send it back in only a few hours? Probably not. While she thought about the agony of how she was probably going to die in a different universe a small tripedal creature peered out at her. Big round eyes, and soft yellow fur with some sort of striping pattern. It couldn’t be much more than three feet tall. She stopped and looked at it, everything so far had attacked her, would this be any different? As it slowly approached she held her breath, she couldn’t get away, not with a broken ankle. But it seemed friendly. When it got near it stopped and looked at her. She sat up and it retreated a few steps.
In a whisper she called to it “Hey there, don’t be afraid… unless you want to eat me, then it’d be nice if you ran away” She smiled despite her situation.
It blinked and turned to look back where it had come and called out “I think its safe, it looks like it is hurt.” He looked back to her as a half dozen more little yellow beings emerged from behind rocks and came closer. “Hello” He looked right at her.
“You speak English?” It had to be, although she had a translation unit in her environmental suit, it would take days of hearing a language for it to be able to communicate it to her properly.
“No, you are speaking our language. You must be confused.” It stepped closer to her, but kept one of its three feet back, as though ready to sprint away. “You are hurt?”
She nodded. But that didn’t seem to mean anything to the yellow creature. “Yes, I fell. Can you help me?”
The small creatures surrounded her without any apparent menace. Another one spoke “It is new, I’ve never seen something new.” Others chimed in “It shouldn’t be possible to have new things, not like this” “What do we do with it?”
The first silenced them “We help it. And if we are wrong, we will kill it next time” The small furred creatures nodded in agreement. Somehow it didn’t comfort Samara. Still, she was at their mercy and if they were going to help her she would have to accept it.
With their help she was able to make it to one of their rather primitive settlements where they laid her down and elevated her ankle. They couldn’t do much for her without taking off her environmental suit, and that would likely kill her. She explained to them that she was from another universe, that the green flashes in the sky had been because of her, and that she only had a few scant hours to be rescued or she would die.
“I don’t understand what makes you so worried Samara. Maybe next time you will do a better job.” The one who had approached her first, who she learned was called Nan, seemed genuinely unable to grasp what worried her.
“What do you mean next time? If I die I am gone! This isn’t some sort of game with extra lives or something” Samara snapped back.
“During your next cistemporal phase.”
“My what?”
“The next time you are going forward with the flow of time?” He offered the answer much like one would to a child, a simple statement of the obvious.
“When wouldn’t I be going with the flow of time?” The lieutenant was getting impatient, not only because she had less than two hours before her air ran out and the technology here was certainly not going to be capable of helping with that.
“During your transtemporal phase.” Nan offered, the obvious answer of course. “You do have a progression of time in your universe don’t you? A cycle of cause and effect and cause?”
“I don’t understand what makes you so worried Samara. Maybe next time you will do a better job.” The one who had approached her first, who she learned was called Nan, seemed genuinely unable to grasp what worried her.
“What do you mean next time? If I die I am gone! This isn’t some sort of game with extra lives or something” Samara snapped back.
“During your next cistemporal phase.”
“My what?”
“The next time you are going forward with the flow of time?” He offered the answer much like one would to a child, a simple statement of the obvious.
“When wouldn’t I be going with the flow of time?” The lieutenant was getting impatient, not only because she had less than two hours before her air ran out and the technology here was certainly not going to be capable of helping with that.
“During your transtemporal phase.” Nan offered, the obvious answer of course. “You do have a progression of time in your universe don’t you? A cycle of cause and effect and cause?”
“We have cause and effect… but its not a cycle.”
Nan’s eyes went wide. “What? Impossible. If it weren’t a cycle how could you correct mistakes?”
“You can’t, you just keep going.” Now Samara gave the obvious answer.
While Nan tried to cope with the thought of a world where your mistakes are permanent a huge creature slowly lumbered backwards towards Samara, she recognized its purple and red shape right away.
“Nan! Its that thing that attacked me! We have to get out of here, how did it find me?” She tried to stand up in a panic, hurting her ankle more as it slammed down onto the ground. Nan ran to her side to push her leg back where it was.
“Stop, thats not a thing, thats Otto. He lives lives here with us. He just gets overly excited sometimes.” Nan moved out of the way as Otto backed up and curled around Samara “Oh and he liked you!” He walked back “That is a very good sign.”
The huge slick bodied giant of a creature curled around Samara not unlike a puppy it let out a sound “Thgir Seh.” She started to stroke its back from head towards his tail, it seemed like the right thing to do. Its tensed muscles relaxed
Nan whispered to her “Pet him the other way, he doesn’t like that”
“But he is relaxing I can feel it” Samara was certain the big beast was happier now that she started petting him.
“He is in his transtemporal phase. Didn’t you see how he walked in?” Nan began to pet Otto towards his head, guiding Samara who followed suit.
“You said that before, transtemporal phase, I really don’t know what you are talking about.” It was awkward to pet something so huge in the way she was, but she continued. “You can only go one direction through time, forward, just like everything else.”
“When you are going forward with time, thats cistemporal, when you are going the opposite direction as time thats transtemporal. Pretty simple really.” He could see that he was confusing Samara and scooped up some water with a leaf. “So… when we are cistemporal if I were to drop turn this leaf over all the water would splash to the ground right?” The water indeed splashed to the ground as he spoke.
“Of course”
“Well, when we are transtemporal that water will come back into the leaf. I am sure you have seen that plenty of times before. What do you call it?”
She blinked. That was ridiculous. “I have never seen something like that before. Thats the effect coming before the cause thats impossible.”
“Where you are from that doesn’t happen? You said mistakes cannot be undone… do you really life in a universe with unidirectional time?” Nan almost had pity in his eyes at the thought.
“Yes, of course I do.” Samara took a moment. “But you don’t? Here time does not always go in the same direction?”
“Here it reaches an end, then reverses, then reaches the other end and reverses again. But some of us live forward through it, some of us backward. Then we switch. You are living it forward, with us. Otto is living it backwards.” Nan hopped up onto Otto and gave him a big backwards rub. “Thats why it is a good sign that he liked you, because he liked something about you that you haven’t done yet.”
The reality was slowly dawning on Samara. This universe must yo-yo through time backwards and forwards. Which meant, Nan was right, she could save herself on the next go through. Just a question of how long it would be until time would reverse. She relaxed a bit realizing she would have a chance to go home. She relaxed against Otto and continued to pet him. He didn’t seem so scary while he was laying nuzzled against her.
Her last hour of oxygen was somehow calm. She spent almost the whole time with Otto who refused to let her up. He seemed to know she was going to go soon. Otto rarely got the kind of attention that she gave him, both of them were extremely interested in the other, new things were so rare in this world. But Samara started to get worried. When would time reverse?
It was when her oxygen reached a critical low level and the silenced the alarm that it dawned on her. Her translator could understand Nan’s language. That would take days of hearing it regularly. She had only been here for a few scant hours. The translator somehow remembered what it would learn, after her death. She was afraid. She was going to die before time snapped back the other way. She held onto Otto and sobbed against him. He wrapped a limb around her and held her as she slowly drifted into unconsciousness when her oxygen was too thin. And she ultimately expired.
The last thing she heard was Otto rumbling “Oll Eh” Then nothing.
“Hello” came a rumbling voice as Samara woke up and looked to see the purple and red giant holding her. She felt like she was falling backward, she couldn’t control what she did, as she slowly undid everything. She rested with Otto who seemed normal now, moving forward instead of backwards. Nan and his people on the other hand were just the opposite. Soon she way wrapped in a nuzzling Otto and she pet him.
Nan interrupted her saying “Taht Ekil Tn Seod Eh Yaw Rehto Eht Mih Tep” and she began to pet him backwards, she could feel Otto getting less and less comfortable until he ultimately got up and walked away letting out a “He’s right”
It was strange to be pulled back into the burrow and carried backwards by a half dozen of Nan’s people, every conversation they had playing in reverse. They eventually let her down and retreated, leaving her in excruciating pain as she was particularly aware of her broken ankle. She stared up to the sky for a few moments before a flash of green light rippled against it.
Now she was worried, what if she somehow did this wrong, took the wrong way or otherwise broke from backing up properly. But she didn’t have much time to think about it before she felt herself lifting up off the ground, her ankle snapping back together and she was running backwards, looking over her shoulder at a strange starbeast. Only now, she was chasing it, following it back through a whir of color in the alien jungle. She didn’t remember these twists and turns, but the starbeast unerringly led her back to the gleaming reflective giant marble she had come in. But as she stood there, she realized, she again had the problem she had when she arrived. How was she supposed to get inside of it? It was ten feet up of smooth silicon, she was as trapped as ever.
Suddenly a rumble between the huge swaying fronds and the familiar red and purple giant of Otto came crashing out to her, wrapping its slimy arms around her and lifting her up. She struggled awkwardly until Otto’s suction cupped flaps held her helmet and slowly dropped her back inside of the open sphere until she grabbed hold of the ladder herself.
“Bye Samara” The giant gently waved down to her as the port closed. Her finger automatically unflipping the switch to turn the magnetic field back on. In a few more moments she was back home in a flash of green light.
She had arrived in the same instant she had left. It would take a lot of explaining to convince the higher ups that the project had not simply failed. And unfortunately, she wouldn’t get a do over for that.
Nan’s eyes went wide. “What? Impossible. If it weren’t a cycle how could you correct mistakes?”
“You can’t, you just keep going.” Now Samara gave the obvious answer.
While Nan tried to cope with the thought of a world where your mistakes are permanent a huge creature slowly lumbered backwards towards Samara, she recognized its purple and red shape right away.
“Nan! Its that thing that attacked me! We have to get out of here, how did it find me?” She tried to stand up in a panic, hurting her ankle more as it slammed down onto the ground. Nan ran to her side to push her leg back where it was.
“Stop, thats not a thing, thats Otto. He lives lives here with us. He just gets overly excited sometimes.” Nan moved out of the way as Otto backed up and curled around Samara “Oh and he liked you!” He walked back “That is a very good sign.”
The huge slick bodied giant of a creature curled around Samara not unlike a puppy it let out a sound “Thgir Seh.” She started to stroke its back from head towards his tail, it seemed like the right thing to do. Its tensed muscles relaxed
Nan whispered to her “Pet him the other way, he doesn’t like that”
“But he is relaxing I can feel it” Samara was certain the big beast was happier now that she started petting him.
“He is in his transtemporal phase. Didn’t you see how he walked in?” Nan began to pet Otto towards his head, guiding Samara who followed suit.
“You said that before, transtemporal phase, I really don’t know what you are talking about.” It was awkward to pet something so huge in the way she was, but she continued. “You can only go one direction through time, forward, just like everything else.”
“When you are going forward with time, thats cistemporal, when you are going the opposite direction as time thats transtemporal. Pretty simple really.” He could see that he was confusing Samara and scooped up some water with a leaf. “So… when we are cistemporal if I were to drop turn this leaf over all the water would splash to the ground right?” The water indeed splashed to the ground as he spoke.
“Of course”
“Well, when we are transtemporal that water will come back into the leaf. I am sure you have seen that plenty of times before. What do you call it?”
She blinked. That was ridiculous. “I have never seen something like that before. Thats the effect coming before the cause thats impossible.”
“Where you are from that doesn’t happen? You said mistakes cannot be undone… do you really life in a universe with unidirectional time?” Nan almost had pity in his eyes at the thought.
“Yes, of course I do.” Samara took a moment. “But you don’t? Here time does not always go in the same direction?”
“Here it reaches an end, then reverses, then reaches the other end and reverses again. But some of us live forward through it, some of us backward. Then we switch. You are living it forward, with us. Otto is living it backwards.” Nan hopped up onto Otto and gave him a big backwards rub. “Thats why it is a good sign that he liked you, because he liked something about you that you haven’t done yet.”
The reality was slowly dawning on Samara. This universe must yo-yo through time backwards and forwards. Which meant, Nan was right, she could save herself on the next go through. Just a question of how long it would be until time would reverse. She relaxed a bit realizing she would have a chance to go home. She relaxed against Otto and continued to pet him. He didn’t seem so scary while he was laying nuzzled against her.
Her last hour of oxygen was somehow calm. She spent almost the whole time with Otto who refused to let her up. He seemed to know she was going to go soon. Otto rarely got the kind of attention that she gave him, both of them were extremely interested in the other, new things were so rare in this world. But Samara started to get worried. When would time reverse?
It was when her oxygen reached a critical low level and the silenced the alarm that it dawned on her. Her translator could understand Nan’s language. That would take days of hearing it regularly. She had only been here for a few scant hours. The translator somehow remembered what it would learn, after her death. She was afraid. She was going to die before time snapped back the other way. She held onto Otto and sobbed against him. He wrapped a limb around her and held her as she slowly drifted into unconsciousness when her oxygen was too thin. And she ultimately expired.
The last thing she heard was Otto rumbling “Oll Eh” Then nothing.
“Hello” came a rumbling voice as Samara woke up and looked to see the purple and red giant holding her. She felt like she was falling backward, she couldn’t control what she did, as she slowly undid everything. She rested with Otto who seemed normal now, moving forward instead of backwards. Nan and his people on the other hand were just the opposite. Soon she way wrapped in a nuzzling Otto and she pet him.
Nan interrupted her saying “Taht Ekil Tn Seod Eh Yaw Rehto Eht Mih Tep” and she began to pet him backwards, she could feel Otto getting less and less comfortable until he ultimately got up and walked away letting out a “He’s right”
It was strange to be pulled back into the burrow and carried backwards by a half dozen of Nan’s people, every conversation they had playing in reverse. They eventually let her down and retreated, leaving her in excruciating pain as she was particularly aware of her broken ankle. She stared up to the sky for a few moments before a flash of green light rippled against it.
Now she was worried, what if she somehow did this wrong, took the wrong way or otherwise broke from backing up properly. But she didn’t have much time to think about it before she felt herself lifting up off the ground, her ankle snapping back together and she was running backwards, looking over her shoulder at a strange starbeast. Only now, she was chasing it, following it back through a whir of color in the alien jungle. She didn’t remember these twists and turns, but the starbeast unerringly led her back to the gleaming reflective giant marble she had come in. But as she stood there, she realized, she again had the problem she had when she arrived. How was she supposed to get inside of it? It was ten feet up of smooth silicon, she was as trapped as ever.
Suddenly a rumble between the huge swaying fronds and the familiar red and purple giant of Otto came crashing out to her, wrapping its slimy arms around her and lifting her up. She struggled awkwardly until Otto’s suction cupped flaps held her helmet and slowly dropped her back inside of the open sphere until she grabbed hold of the ladder herself.
“Bye Samara” The giant gently waved down to her as the port closed. Her finger automatically unflipping the switch to turn the magnetic field back on. In a few more moments she was back home in a flash of green light.
She had arrived in the same instant she had left. It would take a lot of explaining to convince the higher ups that the project had not simply failed. And unfortunately, she wouldn’t get a do over for that.
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