The drive to the local diner took far longer than Michael had ever remembered it to. His new passenger, a girl who seemed more like a cosplayer than anything else. But she claimed to be from the future, and so far he had no reason to doubt that.
Divona sat across the passengers seat beside him, looking out the side window, watching the passing terrain like a fascinated child. It made him wonder exactly what was going on through her mind He was sure she was just as full of questions as he was, but she sure didn’t seem to show it.
There were so many questions he absolutely had to ask, but after their first two minutes of conversation, it felt more like an interview, and so be backed off. She didn’t talk, and The next half an hour between them fell completely silent, until Divona addressed him from out of the blue.
“It feels good to have a friend right now. Thank you.” She said.
“Yeah, well, I really do want to help you Divona.”
“I know.”
“I don't know why but I trust you completely, even though you're from a different dimension or timeline or whatever."
He smiled at her and she at him.
“You are a brave man, Michael. From your perspective, you had no information whether I was friend or foe, and yet you decided to assist me, taking great risk to yourself.” Divona said.
“You’re not going to bite me or something? right?” Michael said.
Divona tilted her head in confusion, which made him instantly feel like an idiot.
“That was a joke…A lame one I know. Look, I’m not very good at speaking to girls, especially ones from the future, my jokes are too corny and so bear with me.” Michael said.
Divona half smiled. He wasn’t sure whether it was out of sympathy or not. She didn’t seem upset in any way, but did have a rather blank expression across her, not that that was unusual.
“I have never used my vocal chords before, so please, bear with me." She said.
Michael was a little startled by what she said, it really put things into perspective. All this time he was afraid of her but he never realised that perhaps it was more like the other way around.
I am sorry Michael, I am running very low on energy. Vocal communication is inefficient and I need to save all the energy I possess.”
“Alright…Just a few more minutes, hang on. There's a place here. On the left."
A few minutes later they arrived at the local diner, which was always open until midnight. There was a giant sign outside that said so. People tended to get hungry late at night in this place for a reason and that was something Michael did not fully understand. It was almost eleven at night and there was no cars or trucks in the allocated parking spots.
Michael parked the pickup closet to the entrance to the diner. He had never eaten here before but the place seemed nice enough enough.
"I wonder what's on the menu? Would you like anything in particular? Let me guess, everyone in the future is vegan?"
"Vegan? I am not familiar with that term. I am currently disconnected to my neural lace so I cannot access the definition of it.”
"So even in the distant future you still haven't solved that problem aye? I totally get it. If I didn't have my phone to google things from time to time, check my emails or browse Wikipedia, I'd be totally lost."
"Do not talk to me about Google."
"Not a fan huh? You have it in your time?"
"No. Corporations do not exist.”
“Right…”
"So what is a vegan?" Divona said.
"Oh right, I think it's when you don't eat meat or any animal products. Pretty sure that’s what it is…”
"Animal products? This time is so different I may as well be in another universe.”
They sat across one of the tables. A tired waitress approached them holding a notebook in her hands and a cigarette in her mouth.
"What's ya order?" She said.
Michael was about to speak, but Divona spoke first.
"Anything with the most joules." Divona said.
"I had a cousin, Jules, and she's a complete bitch. Don't you go on reminding me of her now. Do you know what time it is?” The waitress said rudely.
Michael interjected. "We just want to eat, please.”
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“Mhm”
“I’d like the house special. One for each, thanks."
"Hamburgers it is. Chef won't do anything else. He wants to go home too.”
The waitress left to retrieve their order and it was the two of them alone, sitting on opposite sides of a small table. She was so damn beautiful he wondered if all this was in fact a dream, and if it was his mind that simply manifested all this. He had never had a lucid dream before, but he was certain this was no dream. He didn't drink tonight and did not touch his roommates secret stash of 'medications'.
The burgers came out pretty quickly, and as soon as they did Divona quickly grabbed it off the waitress and ate the whole burger in mere seconds. She really was hungry. The waitress rolled her eyes.
Michael wasn't really that hungry and offered his burger to Divona suspecting she wanted it, and there was no protest from her. She ate is equally as quickly, barely chewing at all and just basically stuffing it down her mouth somehow.
"Had your fill?" Michael said.
“The singularity within me did. Thanks to you, it will no longer escape its containment field and destroy the earth." Divona said.
"Wait what?"."
"A singularity is a point at which..."
Michael panicked. “Hold on… You mean a black hole? You have a black hole as in inside you?”
“Yes. More specifically a negative black hole. My primary energy source. I keep it contained in a different dimension but the barriers designed to keep it there appear to be failing.”
“You said, negative? What is that??”
“You and I are made of positive mass. We have a net weight and feel the effects of gravity from other positive mass. Negative mass is similar except all properties are reversed. A negative black hole weights infinitely less than nothing, and so you can imagine it is a very unstable object. Difficult to store. It can cause major problems if the containment field fails entirely."
“What kind of problem?” Michael said curiously.
“A negative black hole will accelerate all mass, including the entire earth away from the center at near the speed of light.”
Michael couldn't believe what he was hearing. He had a feeling she wasn't joking. He had often feared a situation where the earth could be swallowed up by a rogue black hole. An object so ridiculously massive it was beyond comprehension.
“So, you're telling me that the burgers you just ate may have saved the earth?”
Divona seemed rather chill about it all.
“Yes, although, barely,” Divona said “It is very dangerous when a singularity reaches critical mass. Those ‘burgers’ are helping to keep a delicate balance.”
“Well you did have a decent chunk of joules as you like to say, that’s for sure....”
“Normally I can convert matter into energy, but in my current state all I can do is harness chemical energy from the food, just like your biological body does, which is really quite minuscule in comparison .”
“It’s not about the nourishment, you gotta enjoy the taste. I love food, i’d eat even if i didn't have to. I can live off Lasagna and goulash.”
Divona stared at him blankly. She said nothing.
“You wouldn’t?”
“I understand. But I am not doing this for enjoyment. I am trying to save my life. I mean the earth.” Divona said.
“All this is too much, I’m dreaming? I feel like I’m going to wake up at any moment and forget all about you. I really don’t want that, though the black hole thing really creeps me out.”
“I do not want that either, Michael, it freaks me out too.”
“Hey, if the earth is about to end, I may as well act like a millionaire, right. I’ll get you more food.”
“I will repay you.”
Michael dismissed her with a wave. “Please, I really feel like I have to do this.”
Michael ordered half a dozen more burgers which Divona devoured at record speed. He still couldn’t get over it. He asked for the tab and left all his money. Leaving just $2 for the rude waitress. and they returned to his car, and back on to the long road home.
“How did you stuff those monsters down?. Six large burgers. Man, That black hole better stay stable now…”
She looked at him stoically. “I fear the inter-dimensional barriers that contain it may be failing. I require much greater levels of energy to make use of my higher functions, including activating my repair sub-directives to fix that amongst other things.”
“I’m guessing you need more than a few more burgers.“
“Michael, I require Kinetic energy. Nuclear, electromagnetic, thermal, anything like that.”
“What about electric? We got a power grid.”
“That’s a good start. I need to use it.”
“Uh Sure…I just need to find a way to get you access to it...”
Divona looked at him in a tender manner, and it was him that blushed.
“I love you Michael.” Divona said.
His mind wondered from the road in that moment and it was the reason why he was late to notice something on the road. he slammed the breaks hard and swerved to the side of the road to avoid hitting the dog or whatever it was. The car went well off the road and almost hit a tree.
Michael released a sigh of relief when the car came to a halt. He noticed Divona reacted perfectly calm, not even flinching the whole time and staying steady in her seat.
“This isn’t good.” Divona said.
“What was that? Did you see it?”
“It’s a drone from the future. It must have come with me as I travelled across the timeline.”
“Is it gonna attack us?”
“That is likely. Whatever deleted my memory also likely sent this thing to kill me.”
Divona opened the door to the car, exited and then leant inwards to address him. He was a nervous wreck, but she was as cool as ice.
“Michael, please stay in the safety of this vehicle. You will be safe inside.”
Divona closed the door as soon as she said that, leaving him unsure what to do. Michael cursed himself for being so cowardly, for not helping her. There was something about this girl from the future and he needed to find out what.