The Chronicles of Tanis: Chapter Two
Time traveling normally did not make a human feel unwell, dizzy, or sick, although there was a certain disorientation that occurred soon after entry into another time. It could be days—sometimes by weeks—before the mind could bend to a new time and an unbent consciousness left a displaced soul.
A trip of a few thousand years could leave the traveler in a state of time awe: where the traveler's surroundings are off balance; tuned out. Sound is either mute or unrecognizable, colors and shapes are dull and blurry and other conscious beings appear translucent or invisible to the new traveler.
The cat did not own dominion over the density of time as its consciousness was weak; traveling kept it in time awe for only a few minutes. It looked around for a short moment at the men that stood guarding the stationary time travel gate, who then took a few precautionary steps back from the cat.
The alpha’s mind jolted from the distasteful level of air quality and the lack of support from its two aspiring successors who decided not to follow the alpha into the gate.
Tanis had kept his eyes on the alpha, but since the time awe wore off faster for the cat than for him, it slowly disappeared from his vision as it melted into the new time before he did. Oh, thank God, he thought to himself.
Watching the cat disappear from his vision was the best thing he had seen for years. Now he just had to walk away and he was free from the beast’s terror.
Tanis rose, proud to have claimed victory over the cat; even if it was a victory of invisibility, it was still a victory. He smiled and looked at the city off in the distance and the green vegetation for as far as the eyes could see. Tanis wanted first and foremost to lay on the soft grass and sleep, the fields were so vast and beautiful. He almost did, but the images of the cat kept him wide awake. He wondered if the time gate had guards posted or not. Most of the time they didn't, even though this gate was stationary. *I can just walk away. Time awe will last a good week or so, that's long enough to get away from that bastard cat. *
As Tanis walked away from the time gate, a bluish light slithered lively over the ground towards him and wrapped itself around his legs. Oh come on! Tanis tried hopelessly to brush and pat it off; it only misted and grew larger.
The blue rope tightened and Tanis could not move his feet. Trying, he fell to his knees as the light surrounded his body entirely, forcing him to the ground. He landed hard, the jolt pressed his lungs tight, forced his hands from his chest to the ground. Even his hair pulled back. I guess the guards are here after all, he thought.
“Ok, I can't see you, but I understand you can see me . . . I—I just wanted to say good luck with that beast,” he said and began laughing uncontrollably as he became intoxicated by the tranquilizing effect of the blue-roped restraints.
In each time zone there were designated points of origin. Before time travel, the system dating was based upon each year after the birth of artificial intelligence (A.I.). Society at this time thought it to be the beginning of the singularity for the human species. They were wrong. The limitations built into the programming of A.I. limited its influence on society and it became nothing more than a source of data compilation and problem solving.
Point of origin 01 (1,354 years after A.I. Year 1) changed its calendars and created a new time reference system based upon the stars and galaxies in the universe, combined with time zones of Earth's past and present. The future was no longer an interest to the minds of point of origin 01, since everything done in the present created the future. Society of 01 looked behind them to the past, but kept their minds in the present.
Point of origin 01, through consistent maximizing of technology with the pure focus of enhancing human life (protecting the environment and resources), brought forth a new level of motivation, intellect and creativity. Currency and government faded into the past as law enforcement and the need for law became irrelevant to the growth and well-being of society. Virtues equaled value.
Due to time travel, point of origin 01 was forced to formulate a jury of representatives to hold regulations and judge upon the actions of travelers. The jury, comprised of representatives (from several time zones and point of origin 01) kept time travel to a source of knowledge, instead of being a source of time interruption. Some points of origin were even off-limits as the leaders of these ancient pasts deemed the meddling of men from the future as a threat to their existence and threatened death to all who passed through from another time, especially from the future. Some of the places in time possessed far greater power and technology than the futuristic point of origin 01. Luckily they kept to themselves for the most part.
The law worked well, mostly because of the beacon system, which safeguarded the lives of travelers who unfortunately died during travel. The system worked in places where beacons were available (which was almost in every time zone). If a traveler died on a mission the beacon would signal to point of origin 01 before the traveler embarked on the lethal journey. Point of origin 01 would inform the correct departure time zone and refuse the traveler's access to the time gate, ultimately stopping death in travel from happening.
Some claim that they were able to feel their death as their access for departure is denied by the beacon system. A sort of chill ran up their spine, they would explain.
The beacon system also recorded and sent all relevant data, imagery and video of the failed time traveler's missions so that the traveler, if in denial, or claiming error by machine, could see proof of their death by requesting permission to view archives in the Beacon Hall of Data. The beacon system, combined with a wise society, held time travel to its limits arranged by law.
Until Tanis came along and deranged the system.
The feeling of being dragged off by an invisible force struck Tanis as hilarious and picturing himself from the aspect of the guards hauling him off was even funnier.
“Why do you think the blue-cuffs make him react like that?” one of the guards said.
“No idea,” the other replied, “they automatically calibrate for weight and anatomy. I can only guess that he's not from point of origin 01—actually, not even close to 01.”
“That would seem highly—” said the guard loudly as he was interrupted by the howl of laughter, “—unlikely. I have never heard of anyone traveling who did not belong to an origin at or around 01.”
Unable to kick his feet or wiggle his body, laughing seemed to be misrepresented in Tanis' thoughts and he was being pulled around.
“If you killed that cat, stop dragging me for a moment, then start again. Please, I really need to know what happened to that cat,” Tanis asked.
The dragging paused a moment, then continued, confirming that they had killed the alpha cat.
“Poor bastard . . .” Tanis said, feeling remorse for the alpha. The cat had tried so hard and traveled now so far only to meet his death in an unfair fight with guards armed with several inhumane means of destroying life. He wondered if it was projectile, perhaps disintegration or maybe high frequency laser had terminated the big feline.
The dragging seemed to go on for hours and Tanis eventually fell asleep from the tranquilizing effects of the blue-roped restraints.
The time gate guards felt it necessary to show off the fact that they had captured someone by dragging Tanis effortlessly with blue-roped restraints chains in their hands. Instead of taking the more direct route of loading Tanis into a personal vehicle, or shifting, they took him on the anti-gravity transit train that circled the city, which unloaded and loaded sections of the train to designated stations without deceleration.
The transit was almost the only thing that had not changed in the city over hundreds of years. It still had the white color to it, the futuristic design of the 24th century and stood out in comparison to the rest of the city, home to an explosion of creativity by the engineers.
The engineers of 01 were admired as being artists and rightfully so. After the introduction of nanotechnology engineers needed only to imagine and design something visually in their minds. The nanotechnology took care of the rest and the structure they had imagined magically constructed itself. If they were not pleased with the result, they would imagine it differently and it would change. Their skill was design and each artist wanted to express himself differently. Each home, factory, building, school and university held a certain representation of its artist's soul; some buildings expressed a rainbow of colors and others a diverse structure of patterns and seemingly impossible floating objects.
“What do you have there, guard?” asked a man on the train.
“We have here an unlawful time traveler,” the guard said, boastfully.
“Is he knocked out? Why isn't he awake?” asked the man. “I would love to ask him questions about where he is from, what he is doing.”
“We think he is sleeping,” the guard said. “No point in attempting a conversation with this outlaw, he is still in time awe and cannot see you or hear you—at all.”
“What a shame. I've never seen an outlaw before. What do you suppose will happen with him?” he asked.
“We suspect he will be held for questioning and then sent to primordial Earth Time for judgment by the Representatives and then most likely he will be executed.”
“Executed! That seems extreme, don't you think?”
“Very extreme, but we're dealing with the whole of all society and civilizations spanning all of Earth's history. Many of these past civilizations used—or, I guess, still use—the death penalty.”
“I guess we would too, if it were deemed necessary. Ours is a time of peace and prosperity,” said the man. “I will inform the philosophers of his arrival.”
The blood drained from the guards faces. “A—Time Ghost?” the guard asked.
“Yes. The Time Ghosts. You know, they prefer to be called philosophers,” said the man.
Time Ghosts were odd figures, only a few of them made themselves present. Supposedly belonging to the point of origin 01, they were strangely visible, wispy shaped and slightly translucent in appearance. They spoke slowly and acted as if everything around them was insignificant, unimportant and nonessential. Sometimes people could find them standing solo, or in groups, observing while lost in thought for hours on end. Hence the popular nickname; Time Ghosts. They were said to be the evolution of wisdom. The popular folklore, superstition and fear of ghosts from the distant past must have embedded itself into the genes of the human species since most of the populace of point of origin 01 were inherently afraid of them.
Not even a curious child, pet or animal found itself willingly approaching them.
The guards looked at one another. Scared, they decided their show of Tanis was over and suddenly found urgency in their mission. They decided to shift with Tanis to his prison cell.
Though the technology for teletransportation, shifting, was available to all persons, it was highly unpopular and people preferred the motion of distance, the traveling in space by means of foot, vehicle and aircraft over the burning effect shifting had on the body.
Tanis woke to echoing whispers and found himself in a perfectly clean white room. Jail; probably the only cell in all the city. The cell was large and consisted of a rectangular box for a bed and what appeared to be a doorway, translucent upon observation, solid to the touch.
The bed was surprisingly comfortable even though it appeared to be of stone. He pressed down on it, leaving an imprint of his hand and fingerprints which faded moments later.
Tanis was still exhausted, thirsty and hungry. His memories of the past few days made his stomach turn and he began to lose hope in rescuing Reta. It had been years for him. He became more and more terrified that the images in his mind of her face were beginning to fade from his memory. I left her terrified, screaming and crying. If he was lucky, maybe just days or weeks would have passed for her. If only he could get there.
A tear fell from his eye and just before it hit on the ground, it disintegrated into vapor, dissipating like smoke .
Food . . . water, he thought as a white table with a tall glass of water and bowl of porridge appeared in front of him. Nanotech, excellent, he thought.
Tanis ate the porridge which tasted terrible and drank what he could of the water. Now it was time to see if he could mentally program the Nanotech to aid him in escaping.
Tanis closed his eyes and visualized a hole in the wall. Nothing.
Testing the doorway’s containment field, he threw his bowl at it. It made a soft buzzing sound and bounced off field.
Nano, dismantle . . . Break apart . . . Remove . . . he thought. Nothing was working.
He pressed his eyes tightly shut and kneeled on the floor, visualizing bowls of porridge formulating, accelerating and striking the containment field at fast speeds hoping to derail the energy source that kept the containment field running.
With great focus and meditation he hurled several hundred bowls a minute. The bowls appeared about a foot away, accelerated and crashed into the containment field.
Unaware of observers, Tanis continued.
“You know . . . he's quite good at this. I have seen artists work and their best work requires deep meditation. The fact that the objects are moving so quickly and so many objects are emerging so fast, shows an extreme level of concentration only obtained in the highest states of consciousness,” said Master Garlen, the man from the transit train to the Time Ghost also present in the cell. “Just look at how fast it’s going—it’s going even faster! He's using the only option possible that the nano-tech will give him. I just don't understand how he got around the programming to make the food strike and accelerate into the containment field like that.” Master Garlen said.
The whole spectacle was proving to be quite a messy show. Master Garlen and the Time Ghost took a few steps back towards the corner of the cell room to avoid splatter of porridge and broken shards from the bowls.
“You have no idea, Master Garlen,” said the Time Ghost softly as if speaking to himself.
“What point of origin is this man from?” Master Garlen asked while he checked his clothes for splashed food. His garment came from several centuries back, passed down by his family. It could not self clean but it made an amazing statement of brilliance: colors of blue and green floated like ripples in a pond upon the top of a black background at his every movement. A few hundred years back when the engineers became artists, it was quite popular to show off ones conscious power with extravagant clothing and garments.
Tanis began to circulate tall glasses of water in his assault on the containment field. Then spoons. The assault went from a crashing and smashing to a high pitched hum as each object went supersonic and broke the sound barrier. Master Garlen's garment mirrored the barrage accordingly.
“He belongs to no point of origin, Garlen. That is why he is important,” the Time Ghost said, utterly unfazed by the extreme sound and high vibrations.
Bleeding ears and burns is what made Tanis stop, not a fatigued mind. If not for the healing ability of nanotechnology, Tanis would have surely died of the force he created. Why hasn't anyone come to see what is going on? he thought to himself. He looked around in the cell room, trying to spot any alterations in color and shapes.
“I am no artist, but I was starting to worry he might break the containment field,” Master Garlen said.
“He is suspicions that we are here,” the Time Ghost said.
“Do you think he can see us?”
“No, not possible. He is still adjusting.”
Tanis closed his eyes again. Nano . . . mirror the objects and shapes in this room.
Two figures appeared, more clear than anything else he could see. “Good evening,” Tanis said, trying to give the impression that he was not interested in them or afraid of them.
“Impressive. Are you Tanis?” Master Garlen asked.
“I am.”
“Good. I am Master Garlen. I hold true to wisdom and knowledge. I am a man of philosophy,” he said, holding himself high and trying to be considerate.
“Nice to meet you—I guess,” Tanis rubbed his ears; the blood began to dry and his burns were healed.
“I am merely here to introduce you as my duties of apprenticeship, to a priest of philosophy,” Garlen said, gesturing to the Time Ghost. Garlen bowed and walked past Tanis through the containment field and departed.
Tanis tried to follow through the containment field. The attempt to escape was so sincere that he broke his nose upon running into the containment field and failed horribly in holding any honor whatsoever. His face was firmly planted between the containment field and floor, with his back-end lifted high and his hands awkwardly placed to his sides, palms up.
The Time Ghost stood watching Tanis for hours as he lay, comically unconscious in front of the containment field.