It was a Human male, leaning out of an open window off to one side of the statue. He was maybe fifty, maybe sixty- Aurelie didn’t see a lot of older Humans. He had skin so dark he almost blended with the shadows behind him, and hair so curly it sat on against his head like a close crop. He was ragged and unkempt, but the lopsided smile he threw her way as she stood and stared in shock seemed kind.
Seemed. Aurelie immediately had her guard up.
“Who are you and how do you know my name?” The man disappeared from the window and a few seconds later reappeared at the door.
“Won’t you please come in? I’ll explain everything inside.” Aurelie hesitated. His smile slipped and he sighed, running his hands along his hair as though trying to push it back. A nervous tic- a familiar one. “There’s nobody else left. There’s nothing else here for you to find. Please?”
Rallying against her better judgement she followed him inside.
They passed down a short corridor into a large room filled with machinery; at the centre of it all was a giant switch board, filled with dials, knobs and levers. The air was musty and stale, and everything was coated with a fine sheen of dust save for a table: perched upon it were two steaming mugs of what Aurelie instantly recognised as caffeinated beverage, and a plate of sweet disks. The man stopped and indicated the table, ducking his head nervously.
“Like I said, I’ve been expecting you.”
Once they were both seated and Aurelie had some delicious caffeine inside her (as well as several of the sweet disks: she still hadn’t eaten), she set her cup down and met his gaze. He blinked rapidly, his refreshments untouched. Nerves seemed to be getting the better of him.
“So, you seem to know who I am; who are you?” She asked. The man smiled, gulped, and smiled again.
“My name is Lucio Enfendore.” He half extended his hand for a handshake, but catching her expression apparently thought better of it. “Um… you may have heard of me. Possibly. I’m not entirely certain.”
“The Dr Lucio Enfendore? Holy- wait, so this is-“ Aurelie twisted in her chair to take another look around the room. “Is this the original Space-Time Machine?” His smile seemed rueful.
“Dubbed ‘The Dimension Hopper,’ although I appear to have bitten off rather more than I can chew with this project. It was an ego-stroking endeavour, started only to prove a point. Knowing now that I gained the notoriety I was hoping for… is not comforting to me. Indeed, the fact that it is not comforting to me is, perversely, comforting to me. I suppose it shows that I have grown somewhat as a person. Too little, too late perhaps.”
“Do you… know what happens in the next four hours?” asked Aurelie carefully.
“I know the book ends of it. I knew that you would come, because I have an incredibly important errand for you. And I know that at the end of these four hours, you will leave and I will die. I’ve known this for weeks: I’ve accepted it, and since then I’ve been planning for it. What happens in the hours between, however, is entirely up to us.” Finally, he took a drink of his caffeinated beverage. Aurelie sat and pondered this for a few moments, trying to decide where to start. There was a lot to unpack there.
“You… know you’re going to die?” He dunked the sweet disk into the caffeinated beverage and nodded with feigned nonchalance.
“I am curious, though, as to what you’ve been told happens. Would you be able to share?”
She delayed answering by copying the sweet disk dunking, trying to phrase her response in a way that wouldn’t alter all events after… though, everything after had already occurred. So perhaps it didn’t matter.
“You created a new universe called the Sequential-Chronological universe, and in doing so destabilised this one, causing it to implode. Or, you will, I suppose, in the next four hours sequentially, which chronologically happened long ago. At least… that’s what our textbooks said.”
Dr Enfendore’s expression didn’t change, save for a slight tightening around his eyes. He sighed, shook his head, and sighed again.
“Nothing more than I deserve, I suppose, but they taught you wrong. This universe was destabilised by the very creation of the Dimension Hopper. The experiments I did when tinkering with it created vast ripples that destabilised the very fabric of Space-Time, at least within… I believe it will be named Hominus G. Do you feel the ominous air that’s hanging over us? The sense of foreboding?” Aurelie nodded- even here, sat at this table with the sweet disks, she still felt on edge, as though something was very wrong. “That’s the feeling of a universe about to die.”
Knowing why it felt that way wasn’t reassuring- in fact, it was the opposite. The primal part of Aurelie’s brain, the part sculpted by millennia of evolution to be perfectly attuned to keeping her alive, was screaming at her to run, get out, get back to the Space-Time Machine and go join her friends. Only the desire for answers kept her seated.
And the knowledge that she still had 3 hours and 27 minutes left.
“It turns out universes are a form of energy in a very strange and convoluted way-I’m sure more knowledgeable aliens will be better suited to explain. But because of this they follow the second law of thermodynamics: they are neither created nor destroyed, only transformed from one form to another. If a universe were to implode… well, the energy release would be equivalent to splitting a universe sized atom. It would obliterate all other universes, destroying the multiverse entirely.”
“So you’re transforming it?”
“Exactly. I knew early on what would happen, and I know the act of doing so will kill me- as well as all other life in this universe. This is where you come in, Aurelie: I have unfinished business here that cannot be destroyed, but I also only have the one Dimension Hopper, and I need the final hour or so to prepare for the creation of this new universe: I can’t spend it running errands.”
“But how did you know about me? How did you know that I would come?”
Suddenly, a great shudder rippled through the room. Aurelie felt as though her heart was being pulled down to her toes, and her knees draped over her ears. Dr Enfendore seemed to stretch and warp before her very eyes, widening and narrowing like an accordion. Her blood turned solid, her bones fizzed to gas, and she felt her lungs flip and turn inside out.
Then as soon as it had started, it was over. Everything was back to normal. The caffeinated beverage wasn’t even spilt.
“What… what was that?” Aurelie finally managed to choke out, heart jackhammering blood through her recently reassembled vessels. Dr Enfendore had gone ashy, and when he spoke there was a distinct wobble to his voice.
“Gravitational wave, probably one of the milder ones we’ve had. The sign outside will have reset down to zero, I believe.”
That was mild? Aurelie could see why they’d chosen to evacuate, if something like that was happening every few days.
“Shall I continue, or do you need a moment to throw up?” She shook her head and gestured for him to proceed. “In my early days, when I was first experimenting with this and did not know what I had created, I stepped out of the multiverse a few times. I wanted to observe what had happened, what would happen, all of it- I wanted to know how my life, and the lives of my friends and family, would turn out. Obviously much of it hadn’t yet occurred chronologically, but I saw enough to know. I was foolish though- I believe my doing that was what destabilised this universe. I’ve recorded all the data- all the standard time units and all their locations- into a computer program that I plan on sending into my new universe. I hope by making this information available, it will deter possible explorers from making the same mistakes.”
Aurelie thought about how those at the office tasked with finding matches and STUS and the like were always complaining about the ‘ancient, unworkable software’ that they had to use. Ancient indeed. She nodded.
“In doing this, I saw you and your friends, talking through your plans to return you back. Get you here, to- I believe it was called displacement zero? I don’t know what that means, but I knew you would come: the fact that you’re here now shows that I was successful.”
“I don’t understand, then. Did my parents evacuate with the others? Was I… was I displaced through some kind of accident, some freak gravitational wave event?” She froze, eyes narrowing. “Did you kidnap me?”
“What? No?”
“Then how did I end up at that Displacement Home? Where are my parents? Why was I-“ She couldn’t finish that sentence. Why was I given up? Sent away? Why was I left alone?
Dr Enfendore looked horrified. He grabbed her arm as she pushed herself to her feet, but she wrenched it back. Pulling out the ray, Aurelie pointed it directly to his chest. She was furious now: furious and hurt and angry, and under it all so scared and so confused.
“Did my parents tell you to send me away? You said you’d discovered there were homes for juveniles who’d lost their original universe, and my parents got you to send me there? Or did you take it upon yourself to banish me, so that I could come back to run your errands?”
Dr Enfendore was shaking his head as she spoke, and a small part in the back of her mind was shocked to realise he was crying.
“No, it’s not like that at all!”
“Then what?!” she yelled, and that same part noted that she was crying too. Her face and neck burned, but whether the flush was anger, or shame, or something else, she didn’t know. “Why was I in that home? Why has everything- absolutely everything, except maybe the last two weeks, why has everything been such shit? Why wasn’t I allowed to have a normal life?” The tears were hot, burning her eyes, and she tried to brush them away but they were coming too fast. “Look at me!”
Dr Enfendore tore his gaze away from the ray in her hands, and opened his mouth to reply but was cut off.
“Daddy? What’s going on?”
***
I’d fight the war, I’d fight the world,
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I’d cut through flesh and bone.
I’d die for you, my little one, but then you’d be alone.
‘Lullaby for an Unhatched Egg’, The Complete Collection of Aredbyne Folk Tales
***
Stood in the corner was a little girl, bleary eyed and dressed in a pink nightgown. She rubbed her eyes with one tiny fist and padded towards them, barefoot and completely oblivious to the tension of the situation- oblivious, or perhaps used to it, living in such an ominous universe. Her fat little arms waved to be picked up, and Dr Enfendore did so, his panicked eyes never leaving Aurelie- or the ray that was still pointing directly at him. Aurelie dropped it with a clatter and collapsed back into the chair, burying her face in her hands.
All she wanted right now was to ignore the implications of what was happening.
Dr Enfendore, however, clearly had other plans. He cradled the little girl close, pushing her hair back from her face and rocking her.
“Don’t worry darling, I’m just having coffee with my friend. Would you like a cookie? Ah, yes, I thought you would. This is Daddy’s new friend- her name is Aurelie too.” Aurelie slowly lifted her gaze, and made eye contact with the toddler.
Her three year old self mashed a sweet disk into her face with one hand and waved a pudgy hand ‘hello’ with the other. The adult Aurelie forced a smile, squashing down the existential crisis that threatened to engulf her. For a few minutes they sat, watching the toddler steadily clear the plate of sweet disks. Then, as though someone had flicked a switch, she slumped like a lead doll in Dr Enfendore’s arms, fast asleep.
“I sent you away to save you from the end of this universe,” he said, voice gentle. “I never wanted to lose you. I love you so very much. And I would do it myself, but I’ve had to make modifications to the Dimension Hopper in order to fulfil its final task, and they made it impossible. And, selfishly… I wanted to see you. One last time. See you as an adult and reassure myself that you’re okay.” He swallowed hard, and when he spoke again his voice was shaky. “This is your errand. This is what you had to come back for. The only one who can save you is yourself.”
Aurelie nodded. The tears were slower now, but steady, dripping off her chin into the caffeinated beverage below.
“I understand.”
His relief was overwhelming, and she had to turn away. She couldn’t bear it. A moment later, though, she felt his hand wrap around hers.
“I’m so, so proud of you. I’m so proud of the woman you’ve become, and the strength that you’ve shown. It’s made it all worth it. You’re my universe, Aurelie- the only one that matters. I’m doing this all for you.”
She nodded again, and let out a shaky breath. He squeezed her hand, and she squeezed it back, because on some level she knew that that was what you were meant to do.
“I’ve always wondered what it would be like to get home.” She gave a watery laugh. “I could never have imagined this. But where’s my mother?” Dr Enfendore’s face crumpled.
“I’m so sorry, Aurelie. She passed away a few months after you were born. Complications from a heart defect we didn’t catch until too late. It’s why I was let go from the university, and why I… why I spiralled the way I did.”
“No. No, that can’t be right. I remember her, I remember her talking to me. Did you remarry? Do I have a stepmother, or do you have a close female friend…” She trailed off as he shook his head. “I don’t understand. I remember her. I remember her.”
“I always tell you stories about her. Her name was Malia Jane; I thought I would give you the surname Jane in case Enfendore came with a reputation. But you were far too young to have any true memories of her.” Aurelie nodded, only half listening. Her thoughts were whirling- was her mind playing tricks on her? Had she simply made up the memory to give her something to cling to, when the grief for what she’d lost had threatened to overwhelm her as a child?
Staring at the sleeping toddler in Dr Enfendore’s- her father's- arms, she felt such an overwhelming sadness for what the little girl would face. She’d always struggled to be kind to herself, to forgive herself for when things went wrong, or to let herself fail. It was completely different, though, when she was confronted with herself as a child. She realised this was how her friends saw her- not something to be tolerated despite her eccentricities, and ridiculous Humanness, but someone you could care for and want the best for and want to protect. The same way she saw them.
“I suppose I must have imagined it,” she said finally, realising the silence had stretched too long. “Or be misremembering. It just felt so real.”
“You are- you were…” Dr Enfendore trailed off, then laughed and ducked his head. “This could get confusing quite quickly. This you,” he nodded at the toddler, “is still only young. It makes sense that the memories would be confused.” He checked his timepiece and bit his lip. “We only have about an hour; I don’t mind answering all your questions, but please- I have so many for you too.”
“No, we have more than three hours left.” Aurelie checked her own timepiece, but he shook his head.
“I need to prepare. What I’m going to do- there’s so many things that can go wrong, and it’s so incredibly sensitive. I need you, and… yourself-“ he laughed again, but he also looked as though he may start crying again too. “I need you both gone before I start, in case anything happens. I know it’s upsetting but please. Can you do that for me?” She nodded. “But before then, tell me all about your life.”
She explained the SC to him, and her job at the Bureau, talked about education modules and basic training and detailing all the different races she had encountered in her time- “well, ‘alien’ is actually an incredibly derogatory word, no one uses that”- and as she spoke she found herself circling back time and time again to Alvedo and DesUas. Dr Enfendore’s hand never left hers, and as she slowly ran out of things to talk about she realised he was smiling.
“They sound like wonderful friends, these colleagues of yours. And I’m so, so glad you have a plan in place for after you leave here. Truly.” Aurelie smiled back.
“Yeah, they are pretty great. I’m… I’m lucky to have them.”
“And what’s this bit of tech that you’re wearing? This headband piece that you’ve got on?” Aurelie stilled, various implications of his question hitting her. She slid the translation headset off, and put it on the table between them.
“Could you ask that question again, please?” He blinked, confused but complied. She nodded. “I just had to check. It’s a translation headset, for when you’re speaking to people with a different language to your own. Dr Enfendore- Dad?” She’d never said the word out loud before. It felt strange, but so right in her mouth. “What language do I speak?”
“Swalego. It’s a pidgin of several ancient language, including ones called English, Swahili and Chinese. Why?”
“Because I didn’t know,” she said. Before she could elaborate, though, his timepiece beeped. Her heart dropped, and from the expression on his face his did too. They both stayed silent for a long moment, then he sighed and got to his feet. The toddler in his arms stirred, blinking blearily as he gently set her down and took out a note. Aurelie’s breath caught: she didn’t understand the script, but as he pinned it to the little girl’s dress she knew what it said: My name is Aurelie Jane and I turn 3 today.
“I’ll walk you out,” he said, scooping the little girl back up and hugging her close. His face was agony; she shook her head, unable to look at him.
“I can’t leave you. Please, don’t make me go. I can’t lose you again. We can figure something out, find another way…”
“I’ve been researching and wracking my brain for months, Aurelie. I’m out of time- it has to be done.”
“No, no it doesn’t. We can go stream hopping, get you further back in the chronological, buy you some more time.”
“And if we fail? Then this universe implodes, and destroys everything. This is it; this is your only chance, the multiverse’s only chance- this is my only chance to save you. If I don’t do this, you will die. This little girl, this little Aurelie, will die. Nothing is worth that. If it was the other way around, and I had to sacrifice the multiverse to save you, I would; my life is small in comparison, particularly since this is my fault.”
He was right. She knew, in her heart, he was right: no matter what they did, he would die today. It didn’t make it any easier, but she nodded. The tears had started to flow again, and she made no move to wipe them away.
“Do you… do you have a photo at least? Of you and mum? Anything to remember you by?” He smiled and grabbed a small box from a nearby work surface; inside were cards, and letters, and a small bound book entitled ‘The family history.’
“I’ve been making this for you. To help you learn about your past… and to remember us by. It’s important to know where you come from, who you are.” Despite herself, Aurelie chuckled.
“Of course. We’re Humans- we’re obsessed with narrative.”
They walked back to the Space-Time Machine, which now seemed incredibly modern and new compared to Dr Enfendore’s Space Hopper. He passed over the toddler, and a sheet of paper with the Space-Time coordinates for the Displacement Home, and then hesitated in the doorway.
“I’m sorry it had to be this way. But I love you so very much, and I’ve seen what comes next- you’re going to have a wonderful life.” She shrugged, her defensive humour warring with an unfamiliar desire for sincerity.
“I already have. This is the end of the chronological time sequence- everything has already happened. There’s nothing left.” Dr Enfendore looked stern- some might go so far as to say paternal.
“That’s not true: you’re 25, you have decades left to experience, if not a whole century. Use it well.”
“Those decades have passed already.”
“Have you experienced them yet?”
“It doesn’t mean they haven’t happened. In the same way that I’ve already grown up in the Displacement Home, even if this me hasn’t experienced it yet.” To her surprise, he burst out laughing.
“Blast it, Aurelie, you are your mother’s daughter. Very well, I will acquiesce- this is the end of many things; Space-Time being one of them, I’ll grant you that. But can you agree that it’s also the beginning of something else?”
“Yeah, I can agree to that.” There was a long pause, then she surprised herself by pulling him in for a hug. “Thanks, Dad. For everything.”
Shutting the door, she gently put down the toddler before entering the coordinates he’d given into the control panel. As the machine hummed to life, she gave Dr Enfendore one last wave through the window. He waved back, tears streaming down his face. Then, the world outside disappeared.
Little Aurelie began to grizzle, then cry, and the adult Aurelie began to panic. She had no idea how to deal with a small Human, having never interacted with one in her life until this point. Scrabbling through the box, she searched for something that might soothe the child, and pulled out a photo.
It was Dr Enfendore, holding a tiny brown blob that Aurelie guessed was herself as an infant. Stood next to him was a woman, with cropped blonde hair and green eyes, head tilted at an insouciant angle. Her mother, Malia Jane. Aurelie stared at the picture, understanding dawning on her.
She hadn’t been confused, or making things up.
Things moved quickly after that; with the wailing toddler in one arm, Aurelie got out and set up the atmospheric suit, which could grow and shrink as needed for any body size or shape- even DesUas after feeding. Pointing toward the entrance to the Displacement Home, Aurelie put the child down, put on a suit and then dressed her younger self, before depressurising the Space-Time Machine.
“I need you to walk over there and knock on that panel, ok? Can you do that for me?” The little girl nodded, red faced and still crying. “Ok, good; in that case… there’s one more thing.” Kneeling down, she looked her three year old self in the eye, putting a hand on her shoulder- it was a gesture that Humans find comforting, and the child paused in her tears.
“Aurelie, can you promise me something?” The girl nodded. “Promise promise?”
“Yes,” she mumbled back, voice barely audible.
“No…” Older Aurelie paused, her voice cracking. “No matter what, never forget that you are loved.” Then she pulled the little girl in for a tight hug, fighting to push down the lump in her throat. “Ok. Off you go now.”
The figure seemed very small as it made its way across the flat stone surface of the planet. Aurelie sat at the doorway of the Space-Time Machine and watched her younger self wobble towards what would be 15 years of near-hell. It was so hard to accept that this was the right thing to do. A few times, the little girl paused and craned back to look at her, but Aurelie gestured that she should keep on. Finally, her younger self reached the aforementioned panel, and banged on it. A face appeared on the other side, eyes widening in shock.
It was time for Aurelie to leave.
She climbed back into the space time machine and checked her timepiece- 45 minutes left to go. Rather than depart, however, Aurelie put the machine in camouflage mode. She watched as her younger self was bundled inside, and then sat and imagined what was going on out of sight- the matrons trying to figure out what Humans need, how to procure pasta, checking to make sure she was healthy. The whispers that were probably already running through the halls- there’s a Human arrived. Perhaps toddler Aurelie was screaming for her daddy. Perhaps she’d fallen asleep again. Perhaps, if adult Aurelie hoped hard enough, things would turn out different this time.
There was five minutes left in this standard time unit. As Aurelie plugged in the coordinates for Ignios, she wondered what Dr Enfendore was doing right that moment in the chronological sequence. He’d already died, she knew, chronologically- his death had created the SC, which was hundreds of thousands of years old. But right then, right that moment, he was probably so scared. Scared, and alone, and staring down the barrel of certain death.
The last standard time unit of the chronological timeline. Everything that was ever going to happen had already happened. When the Space-Time Machine arrived at Ignios, Aurelie waited inside and watched the last few seconds tick down from her timepiece. If this were a movie, the credits would be starting. If this were a book, the readers would be turning to the final page. It would be the end.
The End.