Funny thing, Time.

“…main engines…check!”

“I’m done with this already. How much more to go?”

“You need to do 3 more rounds of checking. You do realise, right?”

“I have done 5 rounds of careful checks and this is the 6th time! The probability of this ship not blowing up is already 0.7! Theoretically, I am very much safe up here!”

“Practically, your luck might choose the remaining 0.3 of that probability. So, why don’t you sit your ass for a while and begin round 7?”

“Ah! Alright, alright. Don’t snap at me like that.”

Yet, after one more round of his hourly spaceship check, Sam took off his helmet and drank some special drink made for astronauts. It was the 13th expedition program to ‘The Sink’. The Sink was in fact, a wormhole formed somewhere in the asteroid belt. It was a mere 30 years after the discovery of life on Saturn's moon, the Enceladus. The aliens discovered on Enceladus were not massive creatures but they were microorganisms which could breathe methane.

But the human race had come to the pinnacle of discoveries when they found out the existence of the wormhole. Many expeditions were made to the wormhole, each approaching the wormhole closer than the previous mission.

The wormhole was an eye-opener for scientists and even more shocking for flat earthers. It not only proved that space is more than 3 dimensions but also showed humans how little they know for all the knowledge they have.

“Okay Sam, we are ready here. Give us a signal when you are. Move to the alpha position in t minus 5 minutes beginning…now!”

“I’m making my way towards the Sink at a steady velocity. System stats are stable. Waiting for your command to stop at the alpha position.”

“You are approaching position alpha at a slow, but acceptable rate. Do not increase the speed. I repeat, do not accelerate.”

“Roger that.”

The Sink expedition mission was a one-man space travel mission, as the government did not want to risk more lives for repeated expeditions. Each mission for 1 month of research, excluding the travel time. 12 of the previous explorers had succeeded in their missions. Sam was a military commander before joining the space agency, willing to travel in space.

He had spent 5 months going to Jupiter with all formal training. He had enough oxygen, food and water to survive for 2 years in space. He was moving to position alpha which was the closest approach to the wormhole.

“Okay guys, I think I am approaching alpha. Notify me.

“…”

“Guys? Do you copy? I said I am approaching the Sink.”

“…”

“Can you hear me? Should I stop?”

“Sam, your speed has increased abruptly. You are way too close to the wormhole!”

“What? How did that happen? I thought that I was moving steadily!”

“We don’t know what happened. Dr Julian is suggesting that the space-time bends more as you move closer, pulling you faster towards the Sink. Signals aren’t transferred properly.”

“Okay, I’m moving back. How far am I from the alpha position?”

“You are almost near it but are slightly moving ahead. Move back now!”

Without his knowledge, he was being pulled towards the Sink faster and faster every second. Realising this, he panicked and started firing the thrusters back.

“I’M TRYING! THE FORCE IS TOO STRONG! I DON’T KNOW HOW TO MAKE IT BACK!”

“SAM! DON’T PANIC! … ….”

“I HAVE A PLAN. I AM GONNA USE MY FUEL TO DEVIATE FROM THE HOLE. I CAN’T GO AGAINST THE PULL.”

Saying this, Sam started changing the thrust towards the hole but on the left side of it, to escape from falling into it. He almost went to the event horizon, just missing it and started orbiting the hole, expecting help on the other side. When he approached the other side, he used full thrusters to move away from the hole towards the earth. He saw the shining sun and started his forward thrust towards the sun. As soon as he left the gravitational influence of the hole, he sensed a change in the environment. He saw the Sun was covered with a Dyson Sphere. He saw different spaceships surrounding him. He realised he was running out of oxygen and before he realised, he had fainted.

Had he entered the Sink?

___________________________________________________________________________________

Sam woke up in a white room, surrounded by long pipe-like structures pointing at him. He saw aliens for the first time ever and his heart started beating faster. He raised his hands, showing that he meant no harm.

The creatures were still and observed him deeply. They were at least 7 feet tall, had a pair of arms and legs like humans and had plane shiny glasses instead of eyes. He tried conversing with them but it was pointless as they didn’t understand the language. They were lean and hairless. Their feet were flat and did not have toes. They had 4 fingers on each of their hand and were weirdly dressed up. They somehow seemed to be similar to humans on Earth.

He then tried to tell he was hungry. He showed his belly and said he wanted to eat. They made loud noises and gave him a plate of capsules which was awkward. He pushed the plate away telling that he doesn’t eat it.

Then, knowing that he meant no harm, one of the aliens said something which sounded like bellow and grunt. They showed him holograms of humans. He suddenly smiled and nodded his head. They understood that he was a human being.

After a few minutes, a new alien entered the room and had a small robot following it. It entered the room where Sam was sleeping on his bed. As soon as he saw the alien approaching him, he started to get out of the bed but he suddenly felt like he was pulled back and tied up. He couldn’t move an inch and he wasn’t even tied up. The alien sat beside his bed and took a blood sample and inserted the sample into the robot. The robot projected a hologram which showed some symbols.

“Their language…”

Then the aliens started leaving one by one and soon, he was left with the ‘doctor’ (he assumed). After a while, the doctor started speaking to him in their language which he couldn’t understand. After the alien stopped talking, the robot suddenly began speaking English! He was so delighted that he could now make conversations and not really play dumb. The robot (in a mechanical tone) said –

“Hello, a creature of Homo sapiens. This is Earth. You are in the year 3010. We are the evolved form of our ancestors, Homo sapiens, you.”

“What? What happened? How can this be Earth? How can it be 1000 years ahead of my calendar? Who are you?”

“We are called neo sapiens. We are the evolved species of the ancient Homo sapiens. You are the only known living evidence which shows proof that our ancestors looked like you."

“I still don’t understand. Why did I come here? How did I travel in time? Is this all a dream?”

“No sir. You are in a very real world. This situation was a result of time slippage. According to reports, there seemed to be a wormhole in the place where you were found which faded away in the year 2243. You, however, were recovered by our spaceships a few hours back. Funny thing, time.”

“Funny. Very much.”

Sam broke down realising that he was lost in the fabric of time. His family, his species, his environment, everything was taken away by time. He didn’t find any purpose in life. He officially was the longest person to live, of course, with respect to the timeline of Earth. 1000s of years of evolution. The thumb was no longer useful for humans so nature had removed it. Hair was not necessary. Humans were grown genetically and not bred. And here he was, a fossil from the past, a test of time, surrounded by ample life yet alone. His last human contact was a few days ago for him but thousands of years ago for the universe.

Funny thing, time.

- Sameer V Devipur