THE WANDERER

RABBIT HOLE

"This is the thirteenth attempt and thirteenth consecutive failure, Dr. Norton. We believe you should give up this fruitless project and focus on other matters," said a female voice from a holographic projection.

"But we're making progress. Today, we saw a crack in the fabric of spacetime itself. Ending the project now will render years of research useless, give me more time and you'll get your results, I assure you."

"No Norton. We took a vote and the board has made its decision. Your project is nonsense, at most a fantasy," a male voice this time came from the hologram.

"What?" Norton angrily yelled. "You decided in my absence? Might I remind you how I built this company and brought it to the limelight? My ideas have never failed, just because you can't make a profit out of it yet, doesn't mean it's useless. I refuse to accept your decision. I seek an audience with the board, I must be heard."

Dr. Norton responded with a stern face.

"Very well, we'll schedule a meeting tomorrow. The time would be communicated to you."

"Thank you for seeing reason," Dr. Norton responded to another female voice from the hologram.

The hologram went off as he settled in his levitating chair to brood.

He hated these meetings with the board. He detested the fact that he had to painfully explain his ideas and the potential profit for him to get the board on board. Mr. Norton grew up as a science enthusiast and he hated the fact that scientists were at the mercy of government and petty politics. He was infuriated that his heroes, geniuses who built the modern world had to beg for their research to be funded. He believed that scientists should have access to all the toys they could get. He always mocked the individuals who protested against funding space travel and space research, not knowing that most of these space endeavors would contribute a lot to the advancement of the human race, a reality they're now living in.

He mostly blames the lack of science literacy on the inability of the scientific community to communicate what they do to the general public. He believes that the methods of science, the procedures, and the techniques involved should be well communicated along with the results to the general public, this way people will appreciate science more. If only the public knew how much was been spent on the military budget, perhaps they wouldn't have bothered space science research that much, imagine the progress that would've been made if space research received sufficient funding, mother nature would probably be a lot less mysterious now. But it's all in the past. These were some of the thoughts he entertained.

Dr. Norton, an orphan with PhDs in Physics, Computer science, Neuroscience, and Mathematics, worked in the academic world for some time before deciding to join the industry. Prometheus Enterprise is a fountain of innovation. Mr. Norton got the name from Greek mythology. Prometheus was a Titan whose intellect is emphasized by the apparent meaning of his name, Forethinker. He gave mortals fire, science, art, and the means of survival.

"How was the meeting?" Came to a voice tailing behind him.

"Those morons wouldn't see progress if it hit them in the face unless it's tied to a fat paycheck of course."

"They want to shut down the project?"

"Yes, Dr. Smith. That's what I'm going to explain to them......why it's a bad idea."

"But we've made so much progress," Dr. Smith said, now by his side as they walked.

"Again, that's what I'm going to explain to them.

Anyway, are you free later?"

"Uhm...yeah...I guess...I..mean let me check my schedule," Dr. Smith responded as she unconsciously fixed her dark hair behind one of her ears.

"You do that. I want you to come with me on a trip. I have to show you something."

"Ohh......Okay then. Where are we going?"

"Titan." Dr. Norton said as a glass door opened sideways and closed behind him.

Norton went back to his quarters in preparation for his journey back to Earth. He's been away for 19 years now, and given the political climate, a lot might have changed back home.

Earth wants to maintain control over Lunar City, seeing it as an extension of the Earth's government. Meanwhile, Lunar City seeks autonomy. They want to be a self-governing state, not just a tourist attraction site. Olympus is just an estate separate from the Lunar City, a research facility outside the whole drama. Lunar City wants to be a republic, it seeks to be recognized as a political body just like Mars. This lack of sovereignty has made Lunar City a refuse dump and a mine for resources being exploited by both Earth and Mars. They want to have control over their resources and territory. They're tired of being treated like shit. The Earth thinks this is absurd. The moon isn't terraformed like mars and hence can't sustain itself as a political unit, it's not feasible. The best the Lunar City can do is serve as a resort, a detour for refueling, or an outpost for scientific research. Lunar City disagreed with Earth's line of reasoning, stating that having a population of over two million people makes it more than a resort or a place just for leisure. The lunar City is more than that now and should be seen as such.

Dr. Norton finds it troubling that technology is evolving faster than the ability of humans to properly make use of them. He thinks of humans as hairless monkeys playing with what they barely understand, the majority of them at least. In his mind, they are no different from their ancestors struggling to survive on the plains of Africa thousands of years ago. A lot has changed in the conditions but the thought processes remained the same. It doesn't matter how many cool toys they get or the sophisticated lifestyles they adopt, they are still subject to delusions, stupidity, and the poisons that have plagued the human mind for centuries. Perhaps, this is what it means to be human. Dr. Norton never liked this rhetoric. He thinks it's an excuse used by humans to avoid becoming more or transcending their primitive nature.

Most of Dr. Norton's philosophy has been influenced by Hindu texts. He isn't religious, he considers the notion of God unnecessary whether one exists or not. In his opinion, the existence or non-existence of god isn't a matter to be taken seriously. He considers metaphysical speculation useful if it has any practical value for human life. He noticed that Hindu texts had such value when he began studying them in the library at the orphanage. It was an orphanage for the gifted. A place where young children with extraordinary minds are nurtured to do great things. The Hindus thousands of years ago recognized the deception of the physical world.

They pointed out that humans can't perceive reality for what it is given that the perceived information had to go through the filter of our limited biological sensors and also the filter of our preconceived notions and biases. They theorized that humans can't know reality as it truly is without becoming something more than human -a god. According to the texts, physical reality is unreal as much as a dream is unreal after waking up of course. The dream seems real no matter how absurd it is, the illusion is broken when one wakes up, and so too for physical reality. They also mentioned problems that affect humans in their daily lives. They listed mind poisons that prevented us from seeing the truth or perhaps the false nature of perceived reality. These mind poisons, the basic ones being ignorance, fear, ego, aversion, and attachments. The most important ones are ignorance and fear, with fear being a product of ignorance. Dr. Norton subscribes to the same thoughts as the ancient sages.

"Where to, Dr. Norton?"

His assistant, an Artificial Intelligence inquired.

"Set a pathway to Earth LUCY."

The disk came on with blue light churning for a few seconds then became steady like clear water. He walked through the disk and came out to the other end of his home on Earth.

Levitating cars zipping about at incredible speeds, Teleways swallowing up and vomiting passengers out, giant electronic billboards advertising products, and tourists going for space elevators. So far, nothing has changed. He went into the company building and stepped into a beam of light. The beam took him up like a weightless object suspended by an invisible rope. He got a bird's eye view of the city as he was ascending to the top floor. It was a beautiful sight to behold. The beam left him in the hallway from where he advanced to the conference room.

"You're late. I guess we shouldn't be surprised."

"It's nice to see you too Evelyn," they exchanged pleasantries.

"What's in the backpack?" one of the board members asked as Dr. Norton dropped the bag on the table.

"A message from the future. An email that traveled through time," He replied.

"Stop fooling around Norton. We don't have time for your games," One of the board members responded.

"I assure you," Dr. Norton said as he takes a cube from the bag and places it on the conference table. "This isn't a game, it's the real deal."

"What is that?" Another board member inquired with confusion on her face as reflected by the rest.

"I already told you, it's a message from the future. It will be better if you see it yourselves."

Saying this, he made a waving gesture over the cube causing a hologram to appear. The hologram was a video of Dr. Norton with some of the other scientists and also one of the board members sending a backpack through a stable wormhole. This is the same backpack he wore to the meeting.

"What is the meaning of this?"

"I think it's pretty obvious, we cracked time travel in the future and sent our past selves -which is us- instructions on how to do it." He had a deja vu after saying this.

"How do we know this isn't a video you cooked up just to keep your little project?"

"Take a look for yourself, Alfred, you're in the video. And also, here's a receipt for the backpack," he said putting a piece of paper on the conference table. The contents were displayed on a bigger screen behind him.

"But how is this possible?" Alfred asked bewildered.

"Oh, the instructions are in the message." He made another gesture with his hand and images of blueprints diagrams, formulas, and charts were displayed on the hologram.

"How did you get the video of the backpack if the backpack was the object delivered to you?" Another member asked.

"There were two different deliveries. The backpack came first while being filmed, the cube came later carrying the videos and other instructions.

It's really obvious."

"How did you find them?"

"Saw them in the lab two months ago."

"Two months? You've had this for two months and you're just telling us now?"

Evelyn yelled pointing at Dr. Norton.

"I don't think you guys understand what's truly going on here," Dr. Norton retorted.

"This video shows that the future already exists. Whatever we're doing now, we've already done before, we're acting out a script whether we like it or not."

"What if we act differently, make different choices and it doesn't happen? Are you saying we're just puppets, what about free will?" Alfred asked further, with trembling in his voice.

"I'm not saying anything, the universe is the one speaking here," Dr. Norton responded.

"I don't think we can change anything, any decision we make will always end the same way, we will keep sending this information back to ourselves so that we can again send it back to ourselves. We can't change anything, it's a closed loop," Dr. Norton said as he showed them the dialogue from the cube which is exactly everything they've been saying in the exact order.

"Who's writing this down?" Evelyn asked.

"Why do you ask?" Dr. Norton inquired.

"How can you have a record of our dialogue in the future if no one is keeping a record of what we're doing now? I think a video would make more sense if they wanted to convince us."

"There's a video here. I thought LUCY kept official records of everything?"

"You're correct Dr. Norton, I always keep a record of every meeting," The AI responded to Dr. Norton's question.

"Oh my God! What's happening", one of the members lamented.

"So, what does it matter if we cracked time travel? Does it have any benefits besides existential crisis and paradoxical loops? What good does it do, is it useful? What happens after we send this message back? How does this contribute to the company?"

Alfred asked with anger in his voice.

"I thought you'd never ask." Mr. Norton made another gesture, causing the cube to project a series of stock exchange prices and a statistical graph. There was nothing left to say. He won. The project stays on.

Titan, Saturn's largest moon, had no civilians. The only humans here were scientists, mostly biologists. It had domes just like the Earth's moon but with fewer occupants. The scientists enjoyed their little adventures in the methane-rich lakes of Titan while wearing protective suits. Methane is to Titan as water is to Earth. Titan is another world like Earth with its geological activities, weather, climate, atmosphere, rains, rivers, lakes, mountains, and thick clouds.

These features make Titan a viable candidate for terraforming, which would have happened if only the Teleway disks were sent earlier. Mars was being terraformed while the moon served as a fuel station at that time. Earth decided to focus its resources on both celestial bodies, especially Mars. Improvement in the Teleway disks led to a mission on Titan. Given the technological growth, terraforming Titan would be easier and faster.

"Dr. Smith, come take a look at this", Dr. Norton called out to Dr. Smith as he guided her with his hand around her waist.

"The project is still on right?" She asked, resting her head on his chest as he pulled her close.

"Of course," he said in a soothing voice softly rubbing his chin against her head.

"I can't believe they bought it."

"I was skeptical at first, but after showing them the stock price forecast, convincing them was no longer difficult. LUCY was helpful in the execution."

"What then happens if your projections are not accurate?" She asked, feeling slightly troubled.

"They don't have to be accurate, just precise enough," Dr. Norton felt a deja vu at this moment. "Besides we ran millions of simulations, it'll be fine Katy, don't worry."

He comforted her as they both observed a giant structure that looked like a ball rotating within a disk, a giant Teleway disk was at the far front sending huge streams of energy from a distant star into the disk-ball structure.

"It won't be long now," Katy said as she pulled Eric close and planted a passionate kiss on his lips. Eric reciprocated by slightly parting his lips to receive her tongue.