All Things I've Done To Save You

Love Will Find Away

Herman sighed in relief knowing that every problem in this era was solved easily and instantly. It was a simple, good life everyone dreamt of, so why should it end? You could blame the supernova for that.

Finally, Herman went away from the bike showroom with a lighter heart. And now he wanted to find another district in the city where he could get a good internet relay network signal. As he reached one, he activated Thoth Biometric Search Engine and hoped to get results this time.

When he just logged in and ran the search, Herman shouted, “Bingo!” He just saw a message notification on the touch screen. He didn’t expect so quick a response and hoped that was about Amanda’s whereabouts. He then clicked the glowing hieroglyphic icon. Suddenly, by his side stood the girl long sought by himself and her loved ones from her time.

“Amanda!” Herman shouted excitedly, turning to embrace the love of his life. But sadly, the Amanda he saw was just a virtual holographic image.

Adding to his embarrassment, Herman saw the passerby's staring at him. He felt as though he has acted very moronically. He then got a hold of himself again and acted calm, glancing at the hologram again.

He wanted to know what he needed to do to communicate with Amanda’s display in front of him. The hologram was on a platform of stone and metal, with an inscription on it, “Gaong by Thoth”. This must be the holographic video call or messaging platform – literally –, a part of the recharge and free wi-fi center he was at. It was to get the best signal quality from the relay antenna above the skyscraper.

Before long, Herman found the control panel on the holographic screen that popped out right in front of Amanda’s hologram. As soon as he touched the biggest button there, the holographic image of Amanda began to move.

“Herman,” said Amanda, her face showing that she too missed Herman’s presence. “I left this message here because I’m sure you will come here and search for me. Yes, I was there on the spot you are standing right now, and I’m all right. I am currently in Atut Baton. I went there because I was found by an Osirian with the information that there is a time machine somewhere here. It turned out he was right and he too has arranged for me to come to Atut Baton. We must talk directly tomorrow at ten o’clock in the morning, as I need to confirm something first here. Use a Gaong like this, okay!” That was the end of the message as Amanda’s hologram disappeared.

Herman knew what to do now. Gaong was a holographic video call system provided by Gaong for people who didn’t have a telephone number or anything of the recipient, or the recipient’s phone didn’t have Gaong installed as a feature and application in Thoth operating system. So, he took a rest for the day in the nearby inn and went to find the platform again the next morning.

The digital clock on Herman’s smartphone showed 9:30 AM.

“Ah, it’s thirty minutes away,” said Herman.

And then he leaned back to think of what he could do to fill the time. Now he decided to have breakfast at the nearby food court. There was another Gaong platform within the food court area. He scanned the hieroglyphic code and logged in. At least he could meet Amanda indirectly through a long-distance call. The two lovers then poured out words, looks, and gestures from their hearts, expressing their longings for each other.

And then they began to engage in a long conversation.

“When I set foot in this Osirian Era for the first time, the whole team was busy with their businesses,” said Amanda, describing the reason she was lost. “While the others were observing and collecting neutrino samples, I was fascinated by the skyscrapers and everything I saw, because that was the first time I time traveled for real! Not like the fake ChronoTours thingy!

When I got back, the time machine and the people who came with me were gone. Of course, I panicked! I waited very long at the arrival spot, but the time machine never showed up again! I was scared, even as night came. At last, I realized they would never come back. I don’t know why, but that was very cruel!” The disappointment was clearly shown on her pretty face.

“It’s not like that!” Herman interjected. “When they realized that you didn’t come back in time with them, they immediately sent more teams to find you. However, the process can’t be very immediate, because when the time machine was too overheated, it must bring the team – especially you – back to InterTime. After it’s cooled down for maybe three days or so, they can heat it again to send another party. But why can’t they find you?”

Amanda fell silent, but Herman already guessed that it was a long story and it involved his girlfriend’s impatient and curious nature. So he didn’t press it any longer and instead told her how he joined one of the teams to search for her. And then he decided to leave the team to do a solo search.

Herman then asked, “How can I go to you, to the Giza Pyramids or Atut Baton?” Now he knew that Atut Baton was the center of Itong Ahuan City.

“Just take a closer look at Earth's geography of this age,” Amanda suggested. Then a world map was displayed on the holographic monitor popping up in front of her hologram. “On the world map of this age, the land mass is one continent Pangaea. And it is located in the Northern hemisphere only. The entire Southern Hemisphere is an ocean, and now you are in the southernmost part of the Pangaea, which will become Indonesia in the future. And now I am in Itong Ahuan, the capital of Medensidor at 80 degrees near the north pole, which – you probably won’t believe it – will be Egypt in our time.”

Herman frowned a bit just now, but Amanda already expected that.

“Don’t think that the North Pole is as cold as in our own time. Here, the climate is warm and the sun shines throughout the year. Here, I met Alaksolan, an Osirian who cares and knows that I’m not from this time. When I browsed the internet – the Gaong, they say – there was plenty of information about the time machine. But it was hard to find out where they are.

In this age, time machines are not interesting to the Osirians because they think they’ll bring more harm than good. It’s heavenly here, why must I take a risk to go somewhere else? Even if I have time, I want to use my infinite credits to join the travel package to Saturn – in our words – I saw on the brochure. Its two rings are so beautiful at night.”

“Count me in,” Hernan asked childishly. Amanda shook her head to tease her boyfriend. And then she returned to the topic at hand.

“I followed Alaksolan’s advice to come here. But when I arrived, it turned out that the time machine couldn’t e operated because it was missing a time setter. Because of that, the time machine in this age is nothing but junk, a relic or decoration in a museum.”

“Don’t worry,” said Herman. “I have the Tempus Fugit, the time setter here.” Amanda’s hologram shouted with joy to see the gadget Herman waved around overhead.

“I can’t go back to the south now, because all flights are full and they are all going to the north. People from all over the world make a pilgrimage once a year to Atut Baton for the Sunbath Festival. It’s the millennium turn this year, so this festival becomes more important than all others. So, I’m waiting for you here,” Amanda sent that important message, including the day, date, and location of the festival to Herman’s e-mail.

“By the way, unless you can make a Thoth account and hack it so you get infinite ankh credits, just stow away a free flight in a military plane, okay? Because your money, either cash, digital or cryptic is no good here. Everything is ankh credit here, a cryptic currency with Thoth Digital Payment,” Amanda teased as she disconnected the transmission, her holographic image dissolved into small square light particles and disappeared.

“Hey, that’s not funny!” Herman protested. “I taught you all the ropes and everything you know, including the binary hacking method!”

                                              ==oOo==

After logging out, Herman wasted no time and rushed toward the airport. Being quite well versed with the Osirian language now, he bought a sophisticated Osirian smartphone and copied his Thoth account there. He then used Gaong Maps, a tool like G****e Maps to find out the location of the airport, which was just a few blocks away from his current location.

Luckily, there was no restriction for his hoverbike to reach the airport, as long as he kept using the roads, not the fast lane on the highway.

Dusk was about to break when he reached the airport. The LED-like lights start to glow along the roadside. Across the road, Herman saw a vast building, the vastest, yet also the shortest among all others. On the top of that building, planes of all shapes and sizes were docked, taking off, or landing vertically. Strangely, none of those planes have wings.

Herman was sure it was an airport. After saying goodbye to his hoverbike in the parking lot, he went downstairs through an underpass and selected a shuttle train that went towards the departure and arrival main hall.

He guessed right. The shuttle train took him towards a fully windowed hall several times wider than the halls of international airports in his time. From the transparent shuttle train compartment, he could see several “airplanes” – more like flying saucers – hovering or leaning on the edge of the escalator where passengers came in and out.

From here Herman saw clearly how the wingless planes landed or took off vertically so they didn’t need runways. The exterior design of the hover planes – perhaps a name best describing them – were very exotic and beautiful, just like the Naboo spacecraft in Star Wars movies, with eye-catching very high-tech impressions. Too bad Herman didn’t have much time to just watch the show of these magnificent, massive, and mind-blowing aircraft.

The young man wondered how to organize these gravity-defying hover plane flights. Every hover plane had its platform just outside the dome-like transparent building, connected with very flexible, tube-like elevators. In this dome hall too he saw an extremely, extraordinarily massive commotion of thousands. Everyone walked while holding on to his or her bags and luggage. In another place, a crowd of people was waiting near a conveyor belt to take their pieces of luggage from the plane.

Herman changed his mind to come out of the shuttle when he saw that commotion. This is the commercial flight hall, he guessed. I almost forgot, I’m neither an Osirian, nor a citizen in this… whatever country this is, so I can’t take a commercial flight. Better go somewhere else.

The shuttle train moved on. In another terminal, Herman saw another kind of hover plane that was very different than the commercial ones. The hover planes looked even rounder, simpler, and streamlined. They looked more like flying saucers or even balls used in American football or rugby games.

The ambiance in this hangar-like terminal seemed darker and monotonous, without much ventilation and absolutely no decoration at all. Several forklifts and the like moved the cargo into the cargo bay on the hover cargo planes.

I think this suits me just fine, Herman thought. But how can I sneak into and be a stowaway in one of those?

While finding a way, Herman went out of the shuttle train and walked slowly and silently. But, he still needed to focus and be more careful, because the robotic forklifts and vehicles wouldn’t tolerate anyone or anything that stood in their way. He was afraid they might bump into him.