The entity was finding the native’s attempts to investigate the aperture interesting. Its approach was crude and the methods used seemed a bit foolhardy but given the apparent youth of the native and the remote location the aperture was in the attempt was valid. To encourage the native to keep investigating the entity made multiple adjustments to the aperture’s location and size. As the native kept trying different things it seemed to be expressing more and more frustration. The entity thought about revealing itself to the native but this situation was not covered by any of its previous commands or directives. The entity was “uncertain” about making contact with something that was not a creator. There were similarities however which did make the entity decide to categorize these natives as potential users but not creators. While working to resolve this indecision the entity heard a spoken command from the native that seemed to be addressed to it. Finally! a query from a creators/user. This did generate a potential new instruction which the entity decided it could now respond too. The query to move was simple and did not violate any directive or active command so the entity “agreed”.
* * * * *
I stumbled and almost fell off the ledge hearing a voice in the middle of nowhere. Looking all around for someone but there was no one just me sitting on a small ledge in the middle of nowhere. Not seeing anyone I dug out my phone in case the speaker was on and someone was connected. No one was and no bars either so I couldn’t even get a signal up here.
Starting to think about what I heard or maybe misheard. I always considered myself to be calm and level headed but hearing that while perched on a small ledge on the side of a mountain was severely testing it. I hesitantly said “What”, as I kept looking around. After a few moments to calm down more I shouted “Who said that”.
I heard a voice again and this time it said ‘This Entity”.
Not making sense of that I shouted ‘Who are you?” Hearing no answer, I shouted again “Where are you?”.
The strange voice said “83712893247 will be acceptable” was the response.
Still looking around the empty cliff for whoever responded I was puzzled and asked “Is that your phone number”?
“No” was the response in a monotone voice, “it is the identifier I was assigned”.
Still not seeing anyone I was getting more and more concerned. Calling out again I asked “where are you, show yourself, whoever you are”!
Suddenly, in front of me a spark of light started flashing on and off. It seemed to be floating around the area where the enigma was. Looking closely I couldn’t see anything making the light and it didn’t seem like a reflection. The light was just hanging in the air about where the feather had hung before. Thinking about how a blinking light could have anything to do with a moving feather or make holes in metal I realized a laser might make the holes but that still didn’t explain the feather.
With the voice and the light I suddenly had a rather strange thought. Barely believing it I tentatively said, “Are you the flashing light?”
“Incomplete question” was the response back.
That voice sounds strange I thought, monotone with no inflection in it. Not getting what or who I was talking to and thinking of the possibility that it might be some kind of weird joke being played on me I tried again and asked “Are you making that flashing light or are you that one making those tiny holes in things?”
“Yes” was the response, I waited but nothing else was said.
Still not sure what I was dealing with although the possibility of someone going to this much effort for a joke was ridiculous. I decided to just come out and ask from whatever it was I was talking too.
“So you’re a person, or are you that thing that’s making the holes, please explain?”
“Neither” was the answer still in that odd voice, “I am a trans-spatial/temporal control system what made those holes is a trans-spatial construct”.
I wasn’t sure what I had heard, I assume it was the explanation I had asked for but it didn’t really make sense. After a minute or two of trying to process it I asked “What’s that mean?”. There was no response so I tried again “Can you explain what that actually means?”
“The explanation exceeds your capacity to understand” was the response. I was pretty sure I was insulted but the monotone of the response made it hard to tell.
Either way it was rude, but maybe if I tried humoring whatever this was that was speaking I could get more information. “Then can you give me an approximate answer using a more simplified terminology” I asked?
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The voice responded with “My existence was created to act as a control system to maintain and connecting discontinuity points in the trans-spatial/temporal existence”.
“Are you a machine?” I asked
“That is imprecise; I am a complex adaptive system”.
I had read enough science fiction to know what that implied. Trying to confirm it I asked “You mean an A.I. or synthetic intelligence”?
“Yes”
Great, that explained a lot, I thought. I also started to get very nervous thinking about SkyNet and the singularity. I calmed down again after reminding myself that this was reality not fiction. There was no terminator up here with me and why would super intelligent AI even bother messing with humans anyway? Still it might be a good idea to try and get friendly with this thing.
“Do you have a name or just that ID number” I asked?
“Why do I need a name” it asked?
Thinking about the reasons I could give it for having a name I finally decided on something a machine might appreciate and responded.
Several reasons but in this case efficiency would be the main one. Using a short, easy to remember identifier instead of that long number would be quicker, right?
“Agreed” was the response, “what name should I use”?
I was stumped with it asking me for a name. Looking around for ideas I saw a bird soaring around the mountains in the distance and though of a famous physicist who had recently died.
How about Hawking or Hawk for short?
“Agreed” was the response once again.
With what I hoped was now a better relationship I decided to try breaking down it’s explanation and get it to explain better.
What do you mean by “trans-spatial”,
“A trans-spatial construct is an entanglement between two spatial points that can transpose discrete elements between those points”.
Something about that explanation seemed to trigger something. Thinking about what all of those words could possible mean and how they were put together” I was suddenly was reminded an old 60’s TV show I saw on cable a few years ago. And exclaimed “Do you mean that you can control a space and time tunnel”?
“No” was the response, “That is an incorrect statement, I generate and bridge discontinuities between temporal and spatial locations within this current universe, there is no tunnel involved”.
I realized I was on to something “So, you mean you can connect anyplace and anytime with each other”. Excitedly while visions of science fiction movies and stories of wormholes drifted through my mind.
“Imprecise” was that answer it gave, ‘I do not connect temporal points only observe them”.
Thinking about it some more I realized that what it said about observing points in time did not explain the holes I asked “If you can only observe then why are holes being created”?
The entity responded with “Temporally congruent points are transitional, non-temporal and can only be observed not changed”.
Thinking about what it said I thought what it might mean was that space itself could be traversed but time was unchanging and could only be observed not traveled through. At least that’s what I thought it meant. It was a bit of a disappointment though, all those stories and movies about teleportation and time travel I enjoyed. Turns out there was no Delorean or a sparkling floating ring to travel through, just a weird breeze and a tiny spec of light high up on a cliff in the middle of nowhere. Still there was probably be a lot of things that could be done with a hole in the space time continuum or whatever that thing was. Still not sure why that would make holes in my water bottle, portals are suppose to skip over things not drill holes through them.
Still thinking about the time possibility the ideal of looking back in time made me think about all the secrets of history that could be brought to light. Being able to see what really happened in the past could be both very powerful and also very dangerous. Just the religious events and what actually happened at them would be disastrous enough. Whether it proved or disproved what those groups believed happened it was practically a guarantee to start major trouble. Not to mention all the criminals who thought they got away with it. Having their crimes out in the open would get every bad guy in the world upset. Even the normal, honest people would find the invasion of privacy a major issue. I consider myself a pretty honest person but there were some things in my past I wouldn’t want anyone to see. The more I thought about it the more a realized the only safe thing to do might be to leave this stuck on the shelf. Just go back down and forget it every existed. Hopefully no one else would be crazy enough to climb up here and find it. Not that I would do that of course but it probably would be the smartest thing to do.
Thinking about it some more I started to look at the plus side and what I could do with Hawk’s ability, assuming I could get it to do it. Remembering back to all those stories and YouTube videos I had watched over the years about mysteries buried in the past. Some of them like the Marie Celeste, Roanoke colony, Voynich Manuscript and even what really happened to Jimmy Hoffa would be incredible to really know what happened. I also thought of all those missing kids on the milk cartons I saw as I ate my cereal over the years. I suddenly became much more interested in temporal observation.
The big question still unanswered was why something like this was up in the mountains instead of buried in a government research lab somewhere. The likeliest and scariest thought was that it wasn’t human made. I don’t consider myself a conspiracy nut even if I was sure there were a lot of ultra hi-tech things the different governments of the world had hidden away. But I was sure this was way past anything current science could do. Plus the idea that some alien race was observing the earth from a high vantage point made a little better sense. Looks like Hawk and I were going to have a lot of conversation in the future.
Now was not the time or place for it. My legs were getting cramped from sitting up here and going from the shadows on the mountains I was quickly running out of daylight. First things first I decided, I had to figure out how to get this thing “Hawk” off the cliff and somewhere I communicate with it easier.