Oblivion (Part 2: Going Back)

- No. It’s impossible!

- Read it again, please. Try to read between the lines. It’s small, its surface is reflective, and it has not been detected by the telescopes until it was too close, but too fast to be followed by the cameras in the satellites… Look at the picture. Don’t you think it is…?

- Stop it. That can’t be anything from an alien planet…

- But it can be from our planet, in another era, ahead of this time, can’t it?

- You’re trying to confuse me.

- I’m just trying to find a way, a theory, a response, a way out…

- You know I’m not a scientist. How many times do I need to remind you of this?

- You’re made of the best genetic material there was… there is… there will be… Oh, man... How can I put it right?

- Just don’t.

- Think with me. Try to think as a scientist, please. You’ve survived because you’re one of the most skilled and prepared beings. Just use your brain in a practical way.

- I survived because I was sent back in time a few seconds before the explosion… And I was not the only one, as you know.

- Think! Please?

That man with very pale skin looked very seriously at the young men in front of him and spoke his heart.

- In the era where I came from there were no such types of transports. We used to travel using time-transport terminals, which were a lot more efficient. The only vehicle I was introduced to was the one that brought me here when the planet exploded and that was absolutely outdated, but still efficient for the purpose. The man who destroyed the planed used it so not to be detected by the system which monitored the terminals. The capsule was sent to the past through a slit deliberately opened in time, by him, at the moment of the explosion. That would never have the format of your ‘Oumuamua’ thing. It might have come from the past, not the future and it’s been probably travelling for many hundred, maybe thousands of years…

- Then you agree that it is from another planet.

- I don’t agree or disagree with anything. We have very little information about it to conclude anything with a good accuracy. All we have are theories. What I said was that it did not come from the same place and time I came from...

 

The pale man looked to the two young soldiers. His eyes were showing a kind of deep sadness when he completed the sentence.

- …And to where and when I will never come back again. The only way to get in touch with the future is if someone in the future wants to get in contact with us, here in the past. There is no other way. And we know that is not possible anymore. That future is not there, anymore, anyway…

***

- I told you to stop this nonsense.

- I know. But there was a chance, anyway. And now, what?

- Now we go back to our normal lives, as usual. Let the past stay where it belongs to.

- Perhaps there is another way…

- Don’t start with this again.

The two young men looked at each other’s faces. The one wearing glasses had a distant expression and a funny grin decorating his young face.

***

- What? Didn’t you have enough of this yet? Why do you want to go back there?

- I have to. I would like you to come with me, if you don’t mind.

- I do mind, of course, but I will. That area is still forbidden, you know. Hope we don’t get in trouble.

- Nobody will ever know we’d been there.

- Anyway, we better take care. I’m sure that site is still being monitored somehow.

- We will be OK.

- Yeah. Right.

***

The young soldier wearing glasses seemed to be so far away, in the middle of the immense desolation field that their childhood village turned into, after the explosion. His eyes were filled with tears of sadness and homesickness.

The other soldier looked around in silence. He was not as distracted as his friend, but was also filled with childhood memories, when they used to play from there to the river or when they climbed the mountain and camped up there, on their summer holidays.

It was weird to be there, in the middle of what used to be their homes, watching the empty desert that land had become. The mountain was just a hill now and there was an immense crater, where the nuclear base used to be. The base disappeared completely underneath the dry and sterile soil. The desolation of the place was an evidence that it still kept radioactive activity, which kept any and every thing from growing healthy from that earth. The soldiers had taken precautions, but they knew they could not stay in that place for long, for obvious reasons.

- We’ve got to go now. There is nothing else in here that we can still see. As expected, all’s gone.

- OK. Let’s go. Could we go to the mountain before we leave for good?

- What for?

- It was over there where it all happened. I think I need to go there and resolve the situation in my head. Not all’s gone yet, you know.

- I don’t really like this, but it’s OK. We need to be quick, however.

They drove the Jeep up to the mountain through the old road to the base. Almost at the summit, they had to stop where the earth split open as a large crack, impeding them to go any further. They’d hopped off the vehicle and walked along the side of the crevice, trying to find a place where they could cross over to the other side. The opening was deep and large. They would have to jump over, if they could find a place where the distance was short enough for them to do so.

They finally got to a spot, south-eastern of the main base, where the two sides of the crack seemed to be closer to each other and decided that would be the right place to try and jump over to the other side. The young man wearing glasses ran and crossed over the open mouth of the mountain. His friend followed him. They’d climbed up to the border of the crater, which was deep and about eighty meters in diameter. The nuclear base was totally buried in the dry ground. There was no sign of what was before, for the ones who did not know the place, but not for them.

- There is nothing here anymore, as you can see. Funny how different this is now. Everything is dead buried underneath this sterile soil, just like the past now. We really have to go now. It’s too risky to be here for long.

The young man wearing glasses looked around, took a deep breath and sighed.

- Yeah.

The two friends got back their way down to the place where they could cross back again to where the Jeep was. The first one jumped over to the other side. When he hit the ground, he felt the earth quailed underneath his feet. He turned around and saw the horror on his friend’s face.

- Quick! Jump over here!

The soldier wearing glasses did as he was told to, but the earth quaked again and the crack started opening more apart. He lost his balance and fell slowly into the slit. He tried to hold on to something on the way but the earth was very dry and loose and he could not avoid sliding down.

- Oh, no! Not again!

- Hold on. Try to find something to hold on to while I get the hook and the rope we have in the Jeep.

The young man wearing glasses did not respond. He just looked down and tried to find anything that would make him stop sliding down, but that crack seemed to be hungry with its open mouth ready to slowly swallow him down its throat.

He did not shout. He just tried to stop the descending by using his fingers and feet, but all he got was more than just some scratches. He saw a kind of a metal tube hanging from the side of the wall and tried to move his body towards it. He turned around, lost his grip from the collapsing ground and jumped over the tube, which got off free from the wall and fell down with him into the deep and dark void.

***