Belated Precognition
Within the known reality of human beings, certain forces are considered absolute, garnering little explanation other than the inability to be altered or manipulated. Among these supposed authorities are thermodynamics, gravity, and, most universally prominent, time. Time, commonly defined as the indefinite continued progress of existence throughout events in the past, present, and future, has been deemed an immovable and unchangeable law of the universe since the dawn of mankind, and yet, many individual humans discover a fascination within themselves regarding the supposedly fictional concept of conquering this unvarying force. Hiram Ananta, a scientific researcher, had set out to conquer the aforementioned concept with the help of a collegiate peer, Emilia Aion. Through her and two other lab member’s support, Hiram formed Cyclica Lab with one clear objective: the development of a device with the ability to traverse time. Despite the hopeful aspirations and promising results, only one message managed to successfully travel through time, and it was sent as follows:
“This is a warning from the future. Do not begin the development of a time machine and prevent the formation of Cyclica Lab.”.
Hiram opens his eyes to the ceiling of his studio apartment and rolls over, wrapping himself in the warm blanket sprawled across his bed. He gazes upon the digital clock on his nightstand, reading the date and time: 22 FEB 2020 - 9:28 AM, and with a soft sigh, the unpunctual laze speaks to himself,
“I’m gonna be late again.”
Seemingly unbothered by this conclusion, Hiram rises from the heavenly confines of his mattress with a deep exhale and begins to prepare himself for the impending day. The morning begins as normally as any prior, other than a nagging feeling of unease welling within the researcher. Regardless, he takes hold of his bike, and walking beside the cycles, Hiram guides the method of transportation out of the complex and onto the street, beginning to pedal lackadaisically.
Upon arrival at Cyclica Lab, Hiram greets the cotenants to the rented property, wishing them a good morning with a fake smile. Once inside the lab, Hiram greets his coworkers, Emilia, Clause, and Mackenzie, wishing them a good morning without the fake smile. Emilia stands behind a monitor, reading over the compiled blueprint the group had slaved over for countless days. Her long brown hair, which is normally kept in a bun, falls loosely to the middle of her back, and her blue eyes reflect the neural oscillation graphs displayed on the screen with utmost clarity. Mackenzie lounges at the center desk and swipes through a social media app on her phone. She sits atop her left leg and has her right extended outward. Hiram unawarefully walks past her and, almost tripping over her right leg, notices a new pair of glasses resting on the pointed nose in front of her deep brown eyes.
“Well aren’t you just the epitome of punctuality and manners?” Emilia sarcastically asks the young man, who still appears half asleep.
“I apologize for my cataclysmic mishap. I know I’m late, but my alarm didn’t go off, so it’s not my fault,” Hiram lies as easily as he breathes.
“We all know you don’t set an alarm Hiram,” Emilia retorts in a perturbed voice. “No need to lie.”
Hiram ignores the comment from Emilia, hoping Clause and Mackenzie will too, as to avoid enforcement to set an alarm. He slowly walks towards Clause’s workshop and, peering over the plump scientist’s shoulder, gazes upon the nearly completed device Emilia, Mackenzie, and he had fully blueprinted a mere three days ago. It was the 109th model, and the team, quite thoroughly exhausted after years of theorizing and experimenting, hopes for the prevention of a 110th model.
“I really hope this one works,” Mackenzie cries out almost in desperation, twirling her golden hair. “I have double checked, triple checked, and quadruple checked for any errors in the design, but I can’t find any. That means it has to work, right?”
Emilia quickly and sadly retorts, “I’m sure something will go wrong. Always does.”
“But it has to work this time. I don’t think I can pull any more allnighters.”
“I admire your hopeful optimism,” the brunette offers in solace.
“It’s not hopeful, it’s based on research and research alone!”
Hiram rolls his eyes. Mackenzie had made similar claims for the past twenty models, and all three of her coworkers were beginning to grow tired of the baselessly optimistic pleas. After a few hours of intense boredom, during which Emilia defeats Hiram in three consecutive matches of chess, Clause places the final piece into the helmet-shaped device and proclaims,
“Behold, ladies and gentleman, the Consciousness Timeline Transferer: Model Number One-O-Nine!”
“Is it really finished?” Hiram seeks confirmation to Clause’s statement, filled with both anxiety and aspiration.
“‘Tis indeed, good sir.”
Clause hands Hiram the helmet to inspect, and holding it in his hands, the feeling of unease from earlier returns to the researcher filled with anticipation. Merely believing it to be a figment of his imagination, Hiram, as optimistically as possible, begins to speak,
“Then this is it! Our moment! I wholeheartedly believe in what we have accomplished here, and in light of my lateness this morning, I volunteer to test our time machine!”
“So to apologize for being late, you offer to do the same thing you do with all of our prototypes? You really are a disappointment in all senses of the term, Hiram,” Emilia chides, unable to suppress her smug laughter.
“Well…without me, where are you going to find a willing test subject? Hm Emilia? Please, enlighten me,” Hiram rebukes, equally as pompous.
“Shut up and put the damn helmet on,” Emilia finally insists, unwilling to continue the swelling argument.
Following the instruction by his own will, not by the woman in front of him, Hiram places the Consciousness Timeline Transferer upon his head and gives Clause an affirmative “thumbs up”. The machine begins to make a loud mechanical sound, as one of the screws drops to the floor and bounces three times. At the ring of the third, Hiram is consumed by an immense pain in the front of his skull and begins to scream in agony. As he yells, he notices no sound emanate from his throat and opens his eyes. Surrounding him is the vast expanse of space, illuminated by thousands of stars unknowable lightyears away. He uncontrollably speeds through the magnificent scene, holistically mesmerized and unable to formulate any form of reaction or response. After an immeasurable passage of time, Hiram blinks and the mirage vanishes, returning him to Earth instantaneously.
The scientist attempts to open his eyes but feels the return of intense anguish in both his chest and head. The pain is beyond anything he has felt previously in his life, and he finds himself unable to gather any sensory information other than agony. Hiram continues blankly in this state until he notices someone tap his shoulder to ask,
“Are you alright sir?”
Finally able to visualize his surroundings, the scientist finds himself surrounded by numerous people eating lunch within the market building downtown. Dazed and confused, he looks around, attempting to understand what has occured moments prior. Finally, after fully returning to reality, realizing the question he was posed over a minute ago now, and noticing the concerned expression of the man in front of him, Hiram replies,
“Y-yeah, I’m okay. Just a little tired is all.”
The man reaffirms Hiram’s condition three times before finally leaving him; at which point, still confused in regard to the odd change of scenery, the researcher resumes the surveilance of his surroundings. While scanning the area, Hiram notices a tall, burly man staring at him intently, while standing in line next to his companion, an equally tall and burly man, who is pretending to read the menu of one of the restaurants in the building. Despite the pique in his curiosity, the immense pain, which had never ceased, begins to intensify, causing Hiram to keel over himself in an attempt to smother the aching peremeating his body. He quickly stands from the seat, instincively grabs the bag at his feet, and rushes towards the bathroom with the hope of gaining some amount of privacy and security. Walking towards the sink to wash his face, Hiram finally realizes what has occured. He stares, almost blankly, into a reflection that is not his own. Instead of his usual long and curly black hair and deep green eyes, Hiram gazes into a pale face with a receding hairline and bloodshot brown eyes. The mirror reflects the face of a complete stranger, and summarily gathering his thoughts, Hiram deduces that a very serious error has occurred during the test of model 109. He quickly reaches for the phone in his pocket to check the date: February 20th. The phone he held and clothing adorned upon him are only vaguely recognizable due to hazy memories, of which he struggles to recall. In spite of this, remembering the technology he implemented in the suspected cause of this fiasco, Hiram further deduces that his memories have been accidentally implanted into the mind of a random person.
The main design of the Consciousness Timeline Transferer was thought up by Emilia and involved, as the name implies, the transfer of memories to the past. Instead of attempting to build a form of vehicle to travel through the fabric of space and time, as occurs in many fictional works involving the process of time travel, Emilia realized a workaround by converting memories into data and delivering them through time via the event horizon in a controlled miniature blackhole. The process of perfecting this method of time travel and stabilizing the Kerr black hole was the cause of the over 100 experimental models and thousands of hours of dedicated work from each of Cyclica Lab’s scientists.
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Upon reaching the conclusion that he had traveled two days into the past, Hiram begins to laugh hysterically for the success of both his peers and himself. He grips the unknown face the mirror reflected to him by the cheeks, as a foreign feeling of lightheadedness consumes the person that is not his own.
I’ve possessed another human being, he thinks to himself.
Hiram fails to understand the nuanced scientific mechanics behind the process but fully realizes the implications of what Cyclica Lab has achieved. The ability to completely override a separate and cognitive existence by simply uploading converted data from one frontal lobe to the other amazes and appalls Hiram simultaneously. The first time traveller continues to hold the sides of a face he has no recollection of and sinks to the floor, continuing to cackle nonsensically. Questions regarding reality, consciousness, and the truth behind existence itself begin to flood the scientist’s mind.
“What have we done?” he fearfully interrogates himself under his breath.
Hiram, having collected his thoughts to a manageable degree, realizes he is unaware of the mental or physical state of the man he has possessed nor the stability of his consciousness within the individual. Searching the bag he instinctively brought with him, he discovers a half empty bottle of whiskey and a small bag of marijuana. Further confirming the alcohol and drug addiction of the man he enthralled by scouring the hazy memories, Hiram pieces together that he is currently intoxicated to a certain magnitude. Struggling to focus on a singular task, the first time traveller decides his best course of action will be to return to the lab and attempt to explain the debacle of a scenario to Emilia: the genius behind the successful failure of model 109.
Hiram quickly walks out of the bathroom, leaving the bag he had brought with him and departs from the City Market Building. During his journey to the lab, he attempts to infer what has failed in the experimental device through his general understanding of neurology. Unable to reach a logical or scientific conclusion and still possessing a throbbing headache, Hiram decides to leave the troubleshooting to Emilia, while he focuses on reaching the lab without collapsing. Turning the street corner with the lab now in sight, the pain in both his stomach and head intensifies further, as the dizziness from the possessed man’s substance abuse begins to wear off. Hiram struggles through the doors, passing the cotenants he remembered greeting two days from now and enters the lab he had founded with Emilia eight years ago. Upon entry, the possessed addict receives irked, confused, and intrigued faces from Mackenzie, Emilia, and the past version of himself respectively. The time traveller, caught in a state of awe upon seeing his past self, fails to say anything after abruptly entering the lab, which only contributed to the already uncomfortably awkward situation.
“Hello?” Mackenzie finally utters, breaking the silence.
“Who are you?” Emilia follows.
“I...uhh...Emilia,” Hiram finally states. “I need your help.”
“How do you know my name?” The brunette skeptically demands.
“It’s...a long story. Can we talk in private?”
“No?” Emilia responds as if offended. “I don’t know who you are or what you’re doing here, and you expect me to just drop what I’m doing to talk to you? If you have something to say, then say it.”
Hiram finds himself at a loss for words a second time and attempts to formulate a method by which he can quickly inform and convince Emilia of his story and it’s authenticity. The pain in his head begins to sharpen more intensely, and Hiram lets out a wail of pain, gripping his forehead.
“Hey are you alright?” Emilia inquires, sounding more concerned than annoyed following Hiram’s display of agony.
The scientist falls to the ground, still clutching his frontal lobe. His eyes are squeezed shut, and his mouth remains agap, emitting no sound. Within Hiram’s mind, memories from the man he has been possessing for over an hour flash in and out of his focus, each being ingrained within his persona. Every memory implantation brings about increase after increase of agony, and Hiram begins to feel his consciousness fade out of the body he inhabits. The moment before he completely vanishes into the void of nothingness, he feels a hand upon his back, causing the pain to immediately alleviate. He looks up, opening his eyes for the first time in what felt like years, and sees Emilia’s blue eyes surveying his face conscientiously.
“Hey?” she exclaims. “What the hell happened to you?”
Hiram, having regained consciousness, returns to rummaging through his mind for a solution to the debacle. Navigating the seemingly endless library of memories within his brain, the first time traveller recollects one of his earliest and most genuine memories with Emilia from college.
“Emilia,” Hiram confidently states through gasped breath. “Your Dad died from cancer fifteen years ago, and the reason you agreed to build a time machine with me was to go back and save him before the tumor developed and turned malignant.”
Hiram feels the hand resting on his back quickly retract away from him and looks up to see Emilia’s face, aghast.
“H-how do you...but I only...who the hell are you?” she vexedly questions the man still laying on the floor.
Hiram, finally able to speak with Emilia unaccompanied by Mackenzie and his past self in Emilia’s office, starts to thoroughly explain the situation in hopes of gaining his friend’s trust. He describes the completion of model 109, his testing of it, and the subsequent results. Emilia’s face remains unperturbed until Hiram finishes his description of the future success of the lab.
“So...you’re telling me that you’re Hiram from two days in the future, and we successfully sent you to the past, but you possessed this random druggy instead of yourself?”
“Yes.”
“And now you’re starting to feel pain in your frontal lobe and think you’re gonna somehow fade out of existence?”
“Also yes.”
“Well...that’s definitely the craziest story I have ever heard, but Hiram is the only person I told about my plans with the finished time machine, so I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt for now.”
“Thank you Emilia,” Hiram spoke with a sigh of relief. “You have no idea how much that means to me right now.”
“W-well it’s not like I fully believe you,” Emilia said, averting her eyes after appearing flustered. “Anyway, the only reason you would have possessed this guy instead of yourself would be because he was under some type of influence, putting his consciousness’s connection to his body in a weak state.”
At that moment, the buzzer to enter the lab rings. Immediately, the premonition from before the leap through time revitalizes within Hiram, and a pit wells in his stomach. He is unable to explain the dismay that has permeated through his body but knows to trust the fear. Emilia begins to walk out of her office towards the door, but before she can, Hiram grabs her arm, preventing her from reaching the door.
“Do not open that door,” Hiram commands in a terrified and worried voice.
Emilia sees Hiram’s distraught expression and herself grows slightly frightened. Mackenzie, still in the center room by the door, welcomes and greets two men, blissfully unaware of her coworkers’ fear. Hiram, looking out of Emilia’s office window, realizes the visitors are the same men he caught glaring at him in the Market Building, and his unease resolves into pure and unbridled terror.
“Is this Cyclica Lab?” one of the men asks.
“That it is. Can I help you?” Mackenzie politely answers.
“Yes, we are looking for Hiram Khronose, Emilia Aion, and Clause Kala.”
“Well all three of them are in this building. Whaddy’a need with em?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
The men trample past Mackenzie, entering the main room of the lab and noticing Emilia and Hiram’s frightened faces, begin to assess the situation. The one that had been staring at Hiram earlier looks at the terror filled drug addict hiding behind Emilia and portrays a demonized smirk.
“So that’s what happened,” the man proclaims presumptuously. “I suppose the first successful jump would have had some type of error.”
“What do you want?” Emilia defensively inquires.
“Yeah what the hell! You can’t just come barging in here!” Mackenzie exclaims, recovering from being pushed out of the way.
“You aren’t needed.” The other man plainly states before reaching into the pocket of his jacket.
The man pulls a small firearm and quickly releases the trigger, creating a hole in Mackenzie’s temple. Her body collapses to the floor instantly, emanating a heavy thud. Emilia screams in horror, the past Hiram puts his hands in the air, terrified, and the future Hiram begins to sprint towards Clause’s workshop, clutching Emilia by the arm. He quickly shuts and locks the door, but not before the man fires the weapon again, piercing the time traveller in the stomach. The past Hiram then bolts towards Mackenzie, beginning to scream in anguish and terror, as he holds her lifeless body in his arms. The two men start to throw themselves against the door in an attempt to break the lock. The pounding continues relentlessly, as Hiram collapses to the ground and begins to bleed out. Emilia falls to the ground next to him, holding her friend during his last moments of life.
“Hiram!? Don’t close your eyes!” she shouts, tears streaming down her face. “You can’t die, please!”
“We have need for you three’s particular skills,” one of the men allots a menially belated exposition to their actions. “You will develop the first time machine in two days, and we are here to ensure it is done for our sake! You should be honored to have been chosen by the organization!”
Clause, having realized what was occuring, rushes over to the bleeding man Emilia is crying atop of.
“Emilia,” he panickedly speaks. “We have to do something, NOW. The prototypes are all still here, and despite a few kinks, I think we could manage to send a text message to the past rather than memories”
“We could...” she begins to restate with tears and snot still running down her face but cuts herself off realizing what Clause insinuated.
“Prevent this...from...happening,” Hiram barely manages to speak. “Prevent this...future. Please...Clause. Emilia...”
Hiram returns to the painful confines of his mind from before, as he begins to feel his consciousness slip away again. Emilia and Clause begin to write a message for the machine to send to the past, as the pounding on the door continues. Hiram endures the expanse of space entirely enveloping him; the vast empty area illuminated by countless stars from far off galaxies. Hiram’s migraine subtly subsides as he stares into the crowded nothingness of space, and the scientist attains peace of mind for the first time in eternity. Emilia reads over the message one last time and confidently presses the button Clause instructs her to. The pounding on the door continues. The machine starts to whir vociferously and one of the many screws fall and bounce on the floor three consecutive times. Upon the third, Hiram revokes his consciousness from the boundless darkness.
Hiram Ananta opens his eyes and gazes upon a desktop inside his dorm room with data and statistics from example neural oscillation graphs. Confused for a brief moment, the young university student realizes nothing is remiss, and he is simply performing his daily academic routine. Hiram, seeking a short break from the homework before him, gazes upon his smartphone to visualize an estranged and corrupted message from his friend, Emilia Aion.
“This is a warnY6$ from G#@HJO(V. Do not begin D^#NF(JIO time machine and B$OF(7 the formation of Cyclica Lab.”.
Emilia really has an odd sense of humor, he thinks to himself, as he returns his focus to his monitor and prepares to resume diligently working. Cyclica Lab, huh? I wonder if she intends to use that in the future?