Fear.
After suiting up in an all-black uniform, he waited at the docking bay doors with his heart pounding against his sternum, his throat dry and his fingers trembling.
The doors slid open.
A diminutive woman dressed in loose folds of black and white greeted him with a warm, dimpled smile. Her sleek, raven-black hair was bobbed to near razor sharpness, and her face was perfectly contoured, highlighted by nude and silver enhancements. It was impossible to guess her nationality.
“Hello, Dr. Rosen. My name is Maria. It is an unexpected pleasure to make your acquaintance. I’m sure you have many questions. If you will follow me, I will escort you to the Central Sol, where Deis can explain everything to you.”
“Who is Deis?”
“The commander of this station.”
“Don’t I have to be placed in decontamination? There’s no telling what I might be carrying, what viruses I may have—”
“That won’t be necessary, Dr. Rosen. Your ship has kept detailed logs on your health, and you’ve been screened for entry. This way, please.”
She gestured before leading the way to an awaiting shuttle. The sleek machine hovered over the gleaming floors and silently propelled down the brightly lit, tubular hallway. Rectangular windows lined the walls, allowing a view of the other spokes as the ship rotated in the darkness of space. Earth was a cerulean jewel, tantalizing in the distance.
He was struck by a startling sense of déjà vu. It was as if he walked in the shadows of his own footsteps, trailed by their ghostly echoes.
He was greeted by color. Trees and shrubs, veritable forests lined the hall, imparting a damp freshness to the air. They passed rooms where transparent tubing vast aquariums, swarming with swaying sea fans, darting fish, stealthy gliding sharks, and a thousand other species. An entire ecosystem intertwined with the cold titanium bones of the station, a hybrid of biological and synthetic engineering.
They stopped at a conveyor affixed with lines of cushioned, orbicular chairs. When they sat down, lap belts automatically encircled their waists, adjusting for height and width. A domed visor slid over them, completing the sphere.
Maria turned to him with a reassuring smile. “Take a deep breath, Dr. Rosen.”
“Excuse me?”
“If you please.”
He took a deep breath.
The surroundings distorted; whirs of black and white flashed by.
“Here we are.”
Albert tried to rise as the visor whirred up and the lap belt unfastened. His muscles felt like putty, and the result was an awkward spill from the chair to the floor while dots blurred his vision and his chest heaved. He felt Maria’s arms guide him to a sitting position. Her small frame belied impressive strength as she made the action appear effortless.
“I’m sorry, Dr. Rosen. We normally wouldn’t have used the shuttle in such a manner, but Deis insisted on seeing you as soon as possible. Are you capable of standing, or do you require more time?”
“I think I’m all right.” He accepted her offered hand and stood on trembling legs. He felt geriatric when he leaned on her for support as they approached the massive central sphere that only a few seconds ago had appeared to be miles away. It dwarfed anything Albert had seen before. A long time ago he had marveled at the Ericsson Globe in Stockholm, Sweden. It was a marvel of architectural design, and had been the largest hemispherical building on Earth at the time.
The Central Sol was more than fifty times larger.
The silvery surface was overlain with dimensional hexagon formations, creating the illusion of ridged imperfection. But Albert was almost certain were it to be measured, it would be flawlessly spherical. It gleamed as the darkness of space contested with the winking lights of the station across its multifaceted surface.
Albert was again struck by the familiarity of the moment. He had been there before. In a slightly altered fashion, but still so similar.
A door slid open upon their approach. Maria stopped just shy of the entrance.
“This is where I leave you, Dr. Rosen. The elevator will take you to the central hub.”
“Thank you, Maria. May I ask you a question?”
“You may.”
He gestured to the stretch of empty passageway. “Where is everyone?”
Her cheerful smile never slipped. “Deis will answer all of your questions in time, Dr. Rosen. And you will answer all of his.”
The elevator doors shut, and Albert was rocketed upward. As he rose, he took in a bird’s eye view of Maria walking down the cylindrical passage, the only sign of human movement in the entire massive structure.
Brilliance.
The elevator door opened to a view of frosted white.
Albert was reminded of a gargantuan igloo, with the interior absent of any right angles and the contours, skylights, and spare furnishings all rounded. The floor appeared to be slick tiles, but the pressure under his feet was soft, as if walking on flattened clouds. His boots made no sound as he cautiously stepped forward. He halted as a soft, masculine voice spoke.
“One moment, please.”
A tangle of thick black cables descended from an aperture in the ceiling. Moving as though sentient, they formed together in a humanoid shape. Thin, glimmering wires intertwined as well, electrical veins for a cybernetic nervous system. Plates of flexible white alloyed material rose from the floor, attaching to the cables and wires to form a sleek exoskeletal covering for the android that strode toward Albert and extended a welcoming hand.
After a brief hesitation, Albert took it. The mechanical fingers that clasped his own were warm, the shell covering softer than he expected. He felt a slight galvanic quiver from the artificial being that greeted him with a gaze decidedly human in manner. Its face was molded from the same supple material as its shell, allowing it facial expression while still remaining an obvious automaton.
“Welcome, Dr. Rosen. As you have no doubt guessed, I am Deis.”
“You’re a robot.”
Deis laughed.
It was eerie, hearing an android laugh as though it knew what laughter was. Deis gestured to their brightly illuminated surroundings. “I am a system, Dr. Rosen. The system that oversees this entire station. The physical form you see is simply a construct to make our communication more comfortable, especially in view of your situation.”
“My situation?”
“Yes. I am quite sure you are disoriented by your travels. You departed from Earth on June 6, 2016, entering a wormhole bridged between your time and a distant point in the future, possibly thousands of years. You then took a secondary trip that brought you here, July 20, 2374. Which would make it the past from which you departed, yet still the future of your original point of time.”
Albert had guessed as much, but it was still staggering to hear the feat related in such a casual manner. “How do you know that?”
“Your ship. It is technologically more advanced than any we currently possess, but still familiar enough to communicate with our systems. What does that tell you?”
Albert reflected for a moment. “It means the future I visited was our own. The Denizens, as they called themselves… were human. They were us.”
“You sound surprised.”
“They didn’t appear human. They were… taller. And their shapes and appearance were completely different. Alien. Almost insectoid.”
“I’m certain there is a valid reason for their appearance, Dr. Rosen. Please have a seat.” Deis indicated a pair of gleaming white semicircles with luxurious padding. “Hibernation is exhausting, and your muscles still have to adjust to the exertion of continued movement.”