168 – Unending
The reunion with his family had been bittersweet. No matter what, some differences took time to come to terms with. Albert was not the same person he was when he left the present, he had grown and aged together with his team and his significant other. That had not been easy, the gap between himself and his family like a chasm. It didn’t help that he was powerful enough to do whatever he wanted.
No matter how much she had changed, Samantha Cromwell was still used to being the one in power. What happened in the future timeline had proven that. Seeing her son return from the future with the kind of power he had… it was not easy.
She saw him literally eliminate the threat of the Lithoids with a snap of his fingers. One moment they were there, the next they were gone. In the moment it had been like a great weight had been lifted from her chest, but as time passed she realized just how big of a distance there was between them.
He didn’t need her. He had his team and he had Elle.
She had to change, and for the better. Build a healthy relationship with her son. With the help of her father, she slowly changed. Albert also did his best, no matter how detached from the world he was at first. Things changed. They got better.
Their old plans came back to life. Improve the world. Make it better. Take humanity’s hand, uplift them and take them into space. Journey into the great dark between the stars.
Centuries passed.
But all things end eventually.
At the chasm facing the great beyond, at the end of time, were two lonely figures.
***
Albert’s Power was infinite. His Power simply came into being thanks to the fact that he, as a person, stood and forever would stand outside of Causality. Upon fully understanding this, all the limitations that his subconscious had applied to the Power disappeared like a fog being pierced by the light of the morning sun.
Giving his old self the system was effortless.
Guiding civilization into a future of prosperity was effortless.
Living forever was effortless.
Changing his mind to survive boredom would have been effortless. But he dared not do it.
Cheating the heat death of the universe would have been effortless. But he respected life too much to lift the sacred veil of the ephemeral and christen it into foreverness.
Thus, the universe was down to the last atom. The last atom and two old friends, all that was left of existence.
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“Yeah. Everything else has decayed to iron. This is the last one.”
“How long does it take again? For an atom, to decay?
“Ten to the power of a hundred and thirty years, according to the last theory ever formulated.”
“A long time.”
“Indeed. A long time.”
There was an eternity of silence. The two shared this silence together, until one of the two broke it.
“It's not technically the last one, Albert.”
“Jeff?”
“Yes?”
“What do you mean?”
“There's still us. That was not the last atom.”
“How long have we been here?”
“I don’t know. A long time.”
“A very long time. I think we missed it. It's an iron atom now.”
“That we did. Sorry I couldn't quite catch it.”
“Now it is just us, isn't it Jeff?”
“It is.”
“How long do you think it will take, for us to vanish?”
“Not much sir.”
“Why?”
“We are living in dilated time. The universe is too chaotic to allow for efficient computation. Once the machines that sustain us turn into iron themselves, they will stop working. They will for me, at least. I think you might continue to exist, Albert. And for that I am so very sorry.”
“How long?”
“How long what, Albert?”
“How much time left do we have together, Jeff?”
“I don’t know. I’m sorry.”
“I see. Now the last atom is gone, the next one that turns into iron will be either a part of me or of you, and we don't have any more replacements.”
“That we don't. Are you sure you don’t want to continue on? You have the Power.”
“How long do you think it takes us, to formulate a thought?”
“Right now? Something in the order of ten to fifty years.”
“Not that much.”
“Not yet. It will increase.”
“The end will come faster and faster.”
“That it will.”
“We won't be around to see the true end, will we?”
“No. If you don’t save yourself, that is. The critical infrastructure already hangs by a thread. It could be a matter of just one more atom.”
“So be it, then.”
“You could change things. Again.”
“The multiverse decays at a rate even I can't grasp. There's no way I can save it.”
“But you could make a new one.”
“There's nothing left, Jeff. Accept it.”
“Is this the end then, Albert?”
“I think it is, old friend.”
But Jeff did not reply. Glancing to his left, Albert saw that the hologram of Jeff, the old butler, was gone.
“You know what? I changed my mind.”
AFTERWORD
The whole concept of unendings holds a dear place in my heart. The first TV show i watched was stargate sg1 which, after ten seasons, ends with the episode called 'unending'. for me it signifies that the universe lives on, that the characters were real, and they still had lives beyond the scope of the show, the book, etc... it's a sign of respect, to wrap up the loose ends, to tidy up the show but to nod at the world in general - it lives on. i don't know whether i will end all my works with an unending chapter. but i do know that many of them will end in such a way. not an open ending, but the final piece that the orchestra plays not for the viewer, but for itself.
to not-end for me is to keep alive, perhaps it's the quintessential sign of the fear the author has that their work ends, dies, withers. it's a cry for life unending itself, to continue on even though the world of the novel might be forgotten, discarded, left to its own - it can still live on even without the author's lifeblood nourishing. it has learned how to walk, and will continue to do so in the mind of whoever desires to keep thinking about it, to keep daydreaming while on a road trip, while nodding off
i like to think that our universe is nothing but a fleeting thought of a teenager as they watch the countryside roll by, their tired face staring through a car window. it's not a world the boy often visits, but it's still there, it goes on
y'know?
Besides, I have my very own Unending here: Punishment Reincarnation | Royal Road