"Pardon?"
When I just heard the meaning of his words, he jumped back to his driver's seat, as if what he just said was not said at all and completely ignored what he just mentioned. What do you mean I'm going to be deleted? to be erased?!
He didn't give time for explanations as Chronos began to arrange to move between all the hologram displays. Even his robot started aiming here and there. I immediately try to jump on Chronos:
"What do you mean I will be erased from existence?!"
While I put my hands on him to distract him from what he just stated, the spaceship started making noises and starting the engines, causing me to fly away from him and crash into the wall. I suffered a slight shock before he turned back to me and began to explain:
"I'm afraid it's not easy to explain the situation you're in right now" he sighed as he held the handle sticking out of the hologram and tried to incite the spaceship away from the wall. I felt a jolt as the robot also began to play between the interface and help him.
"Do you remember chaos theory?" Chronos asked me, I answered him in the affirmative. This is a theory that everyone in school knows about - everything that moves our universe, cannot be predicted. Even with all the technological tools we have (or had), it is not possible to get an accurate result.
"But how does 'being erased from reality' relate to chaos theory here?" I asked him as the spaceship began to right itself and fly towards the metropolis back, behind the structure I had just recently been in, fighting for my life.
"What Chronos is trying to explain is that what you are seeing now is only one possibility out of a sequence of unpredictable possibilities" the robot answered me and moved to take control of the interface that Chronos had only moments ago. It freed its hands and turned to me:
"Everything you see now, this is the true meaning of T.H.E - the entire timeline united to one point. But as you understand: time is not linear. It branches and chooses one point to move to and repeats itself at each point. But what happens is that time does not can move and repeats itself."
I didn't understand what he meant. He was in between and began to rethink his words:
"You belong to this time. Time is not fixed and cannot be stuck. This place, whoever created this law-breaking abomination, you belong to this place, and this time is going to be replaced by another - and you with it. I don't know how and why, but the place this one was doomed from the start. In short - you're going to be wiped out with this place, not to exist, I don't know if it's death or worse."
I just started digesting his words, and even though they are not 100% understandable, I understood the gravity of the situation - I am going to die, not exist. Everything I've done so far - nothing? Would it be better to be eaten by those Rexs if I was known to be dead anyway? What does all this mean? Quickly with thoughts and questions, I entered into an existential crisis: how am I going to die? Are there other people like me who are going to experience this? What will happen next?
"And do you know how to save me? Or are you going to let me die?" I asked Chronos with trepidation.
He pondered for a few moments before he replied to me:
"Are you wish to die? Do you want to stay here? I can do that easily!"
"No no no, don't leave me here!" I begged him, as my emotions and instincts that had accompanied me from when I found out about what happened to now being told to survive, took over. Chronos does not remain liable:
"So it's settled. We're going to get out of here with you!" He walked over to the interface as the robot began calibrating all the systems, showing maps and markings on all the displays.
"Calculation done. Heading towards the exit point" the robot answered and the spaceship began to accelerate. I went towards the window to take a look and see what was happening outside - as we passed through the poor city, I could see how the same creatures that just before you I was standing close to, look like small dots walking in a maze of crumbling buildings. This soon gave way to the deciduous forest and quickly to the ridge that I had just descended from a while ago. It feels like I'm seeing the journey I went through from a bird's eye view. But I felt one strange thing:
"Why don't we climb?"
I didn't hear a word from any of them. Chronos looked at me with a slightly stupid look, as if something terrible was going to happen. The robot began to speak:
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"The conditions that the Earth is experiencing right now do not exactly allow us to leave the atmosphere as it should be. The space-time here remains at the same point, stuck and compressed so that no matter where we leave, we will return to the same place"
"That's right" Chronos burst out and continued to speak: "This is one of the reasons why no other spaceship except mine was able to land here. The other reason is probably the fact that I may have caused this situation in the first place, but it doesn't matter that much. We need to get out of that place where we got in here. It's the safest way we can escape, and also the fastest. We don't have much time."
He stepped back from his seat and grabbed control of the steering wheel while the robot moved to another location and started turning on something that resembled a calculator and started calculating. All I could do was look out the window and see a familiar landscape from a different angle: the same line between the desert with the sand monsters that swim there and the fertile vegetation that fills the abandoned metropolis and all the creatures living in it. All I thought about in particular seeing the view was what was going to happen to me if he didn't manage to escape from there. But then a thought popped into my head:
"If you said that all the timelines are united into one point, does that mean that everything I have seen so far is united? Every plant, creature of my life, tools, and the old car I found, united into one entity or another?"
"You are correct in this thought" the robot replied and continued to speak: "As time united, everyone who was on this timeline also united, causing what you encountered with them"
"Does that include these human bats?"
"Positive, these are humans from one timeline who merged with other animals from other timelines. According to recent research, we've done here, we don't know if they're aware that they were or not - if they remember their past or if they can call themselves humans ."
"We've only been here a few days, we don't know if it's right and I don't exactly want to think about it now" Chronos replied to the robot, in a tone of guilt. Soon the conversation changed to an understanding of what he had told me so far. I went back to looking out the window to see that we were passing the metropolis into something that resembled a wide canyon with a large river running through it. The spacecraft began to lower and move between the walls of the canyon and all I could do was just look at the view. In a short moment, I saw the canyon swallowed up into a valley with a large hill in the center. The spaceship moves quickly towards the hill. At first, I didn't notice but as we got closer, I noticed a building on the top. His form began to become more and more understandable and then the token fell:
"Isn't this the old structure for spaceship communication?"
"That's right. This structure is the first thing I saw when we landed. You know - I would always go with my mother to this place, look up at the stars and try to see the moon on this hill. Who knew that I would eventually see this place again? And this is the place We're going to get out of here" he started moving to the interface and started adjusting several knobs and monitors everywhere while the robot continued to look at the computer. The excitement began to fill me, along with apprehension and fear. I'm going to run away from here! But what will happen if he doesn't succeed? I also thought about Rosalina - did she manage to get away from here or was she trapped in this tangle, stuck in time forever on this cursed place? And what about the assistant who at the moment can be said to be 'broken' - without her, I wouldn't have thought I would have been able to survive.
"More luck than common sense" I said my thoughts out loud
"You said that right" Chronos replied with a smile in front of me before he turned back to the interface. He signaled his robot to start powering up, but it didn't respond. He moved towards it to try to see the problem. In a short time, he looked back at me:
"Can you come over for a minute?"
I advanced towards him, to see what he was talking about. I saw the computer showing a lot of calculations and symbols - some were classic mathematical numbers, some were symbols, and some were familiar to him, but what caught my heart were the dim symbols - the same one that was on a message that Rosalina showed randomly several times. I looked over to Chronos and saw him trying to think as he also started to move some things. He started backing up and took me to see from the outside.
At first, I didn't see anything unusual as the spaceship hovered near the old structure. Chronos turned my face to the distant landscape, I focused on what he directed me to - a high mountain range covered the rest, but to my amazement and quickly I noticed that the mountains were slowly engulfed in a white color before they disappeared completely. I was frightened along with Chronos:
"Our time is going to run out very soon, but now we have a big problem and we need your decision"
"I don't like what you say" I answered him. He replied in the affirmative and continued to speak:
"I know, that's why I'll tell you briefly what our computer calculated - how to get you out of here. It discovered in the light of the data a very big risk - you understand that you belong to this timeline. The fact that you woke up here means this. Admittedly, there is a risk in what we're going to do - There is a chance of... how much chance is that?"
"98.92 percent it won't work and you will evaporate as soon as we leave the place" the robot replied
"I think you know what I'm striving for" Chronos continued, it is known that I am aware of the weight of the meaning of these words.
The apprehension and fear that had accumulated in me began to turn into rage. But before I started to take out the nerves that had just accumulated, they continued to talk:
"Wait with your rage. There is another way" the robot replied before Chronos continued his words:
"Dangerous I'd say because we haven't tried this before, or anyone else in human history in this way, but this is the best way you're going to get out of here. But I'm not sure you'll like it."
The rage began to subside as I heard these words:
"What's your idea?" I asked them, and the robot replied:
"I know it sounds absurd, but how about we implant your ego in an android?"