Science fiction. The skyless world

 

Science fiction. The skyless world

“It could only be Siopi the Silent and nobody else!”

This was the feeling I encountered the moment I crossed him in the market where they traded time. Yes, they traded time! Because in a civilisation as advanced as ours, time can be stored and traded. That then gets utilised by the person who buys these new moments of time from him. Siopi the Silent.

And nobody dares to cross Siopi the Silent, the way I did today. It was an accident and I didn't mean to cause him any disrespect, but he felt immensely disrespected and peeked at me as if he were a wild brown bear desperate to have his last meal before he entered his den to hibernate. And I was his promised last meal.

The moment I crossed him, I felt surrounded by eternity. As if time had travelled to the farthest ends of the universe, and when it returned, it settled around Siopi the Silent. When someone came too close to him, his/her own moments of time disappeared in these moments of eternity fusing around him. It was an extremely strange feeling, and I felt as if I existed, but at the same time I did not exist as well. Because my moments of time were drowning in this eternity-like flow of time. 

He did not seem spiteful, nor did his moments of time seem invasive. But given the eternity-like flow of moments of time commanded by him, it definitely felt like contemporary and fresh moments of time flowing into an obsolescent river of time. And when these two different feelings of time fused together, for Siopi the Silent, differentiating present from past, and both present and past from the future was not a feasible mental exercise. This is one reason he always preferred silence. 

And when a stranger like me, with limited resources of time crossed him, and happened to rub against him accidentally. This person lost his/her own personality. Because as thinking beings we are endless combinations of memories stacked into three layers i.e. Past, Present and Future. Without them we shall be reduced to nothing. 

And today when I crossed him, he kept silent and continued walking while I became frozen in time; and my moments of time were finding it difficult to somehow re-associate with my flow of time and re-establish my personality as it had always been. 

However, right now, no matter how hard I tried it seemed impossible. Although, Siopi the Silent had left, his river of eternal moments of time was continuously draining my moments of time; and as they were being drawn into it, they were erasing my past and my present as well. And in their absence, I knew my future would be rendered meaningless. 

I understood this, but I could not do anything to prevent it. I tried everything, almost everything; but nothing seemed to stop this incessant pouring of my moments of time into his endless river of time. I was slowly losing the entirety of my time and memories in the his river of time’s eternity! 

And my fear was that if all my moments of time got washed away into his eternal river of time, he would know everything about me and I would be trapped in his river of time like a finite river of time. Where many such individual and finite rivers of time already existed, and each finite river of time represented an individual and his/her personality.

Poor fellows! Their all moments of time had somehow flown into his eternal river of time. And he being the master of the infinite river of time, he now was the master of these people as well. Because he had total control over their memories and through them he had absolute control over these people as well. 

And these people did not realise it because they lived in a twin time lapse, where their reality based experiences were now replaced by synthetic time perception based experiences. It was an act of expediency but its perpetrator was never revealed, because the victims never realised the masquerading moments of reality that they were dealing with. 

Nevertheless, I was trying very hard, extremely hard not to lose my pool of moments and my memories to this river bearing endless moments of time . Yet, I was losing my own moments of time to this eternal river of time managed and controlled by Siopi the Silent. 

And at times it felt as if my moments of time were seeking a reason for their own existence, in this river of infinite moments of time. Because Siopi the Silent’s river of time had drained 50% of my memories. Since all memories are interconnected, my memories flowing in his river, lost their experience based impressions, because a part of those impressions were still draining out from me. Moreover, when my memories interacted with foreign waves of memories that belonged to other people, it created a complex mix of memories where identifying the right set of memories that would complete an impression experienced by my mind, seemed impossible.

Imagine it this way. A vast field of poppy flowers, and somewhere in the middle of this vast field of poppy flowers, there is a lonely sunflower. Trying to find a relevance in this vastness of similarities, which to the sunflower is a field with infinite dissimilarity. 

It is complex right? Anyway, you will understand it as you read further.

While I helplessly looked at my moments of time falling into this river, and being carried away, far away from me into the future, where only Siopi the Silent could go, and none of us could. Because he possessed our present and past as well.

This is what made a terrible feeling, it felt like my girlfriend was romancing someone else and they stood in front of me in a very tight embrace of erotic love. And as their embrace got tighter, I felt I was being squeezed dry of all Feelings, emotions; eventually to be thrown out to deal with the unpredictabilities of life, as a lifeless being.

( Only those who realised it felt this way initially. And so far I am the only one I guess. The sunflower who dared to be the sunflower in the vast field of red poppy flowers. )

I did not know what to do and what was happening to me was not an offence in our civilisation, because people like Siopi the Silent, loaned time to governments, corporates; and they knew, in order to draw their moments of time from him, they should allow him to drain out moments of time from other people. 

It has been happening for 5 decades now, and so far nobody has ever been able to prevent their moments of time from falling into his eternal river of time, because nobody understood it or felt it until all their precious moments of time had been stolen by him. And when the drain out was complete, these men and women led lives of walking dead, because with no past, their present became meaningless, and with no present, for them the future held no purpose at all. And then to them nothing mattered, because what mattered, was no more a matter their minds could deal with- They had no memories of their past and present as well. Thus to them all that mattered, was now! 

But Siopi the Silent had made a major mistake, he had not considered one fact. That our world is a sky less world, there is no sky! 

Our species was born when the universe began, and we are one of the most primitive life forms, but we are exceptionally intelligent and super advanced when it comes to science and technology. And it is due to our one major evolution. Our ancestors had witnessed the formation of all 7 realms, and having witnessed the formation of all 7 realms, they knew the exact composition of all 7 realms.  

For example:

In one of the lowest realms of the universe, exists a galaxy called the Milky Way. It hosts a beautiful planet called Earth. And the Earth and other worlds that exist in this galaxy comprise of following major gases:

• Nitrogen

• Hydrogen

• Carbon dioxide

• Oxygen

• And other gases

• Along with trace gases as well

It can happen that a few worlds have suspended particles in them as well e.g. iron, copper, nickel, led etc. etc.

That is it! 

Also, this realm will always host planets and star systems with varying concentrations of these gases. 

Very important : Exotic gases are formed when two or more gases combine together. Those kinds of worlds too exist. 

With so many gases, it is possible that there would exist planets where you may come across planets with atmosphere or layers of gases which may be highly exotic to thinking beings living on Earth. Because their known universe may not contain these gases because it does not provide the environment that would support reactions between two or more gases. Possible in other worlds or planets.

But if you run a well defined, algorithm based simulation to derive all these possible combinations of gases, you would know exactly the number of gases that can exist in a realm. Because every combination of new gas or gases needs a particular environment, and each realm supports finite environments. 

And that is the main key to becoming truly intergalactic.

Now, this is a lengthy topic and I do not wish to get into its details at this moment.

So, our ancestors offered us a genetic gift. We can survive in all realms without any artificial support to sustain our organic bodies. But we have made many sacrifices to achieve this level of evolution. We are sunflowers that can bloom even without the sun. Please do not laugh, it is possible. There is a yellow flower that looks like a sunflower but it grows in shady places, if you retain all traits of sunflower except one trait i.e. its need to be exposed to sunshine, and embed the gene of the yellow flower that grows in shady places. You will have a sunflower that grows without the need for too much sunshine. And it might happen that the sunflower seeds will not ripen well or form well under less exposure to sunshine. But that too can be overcome. You see, the universe is like an endless maze, but to master any maze, there is always a unique combination. And when our ancestors added these hybrid genes to us, they first worked on identifying all the possible combinations to successfully cross master the maze. Amazing right!

And that is why, we can even survive in a world where there is no sky. And I live in this sky less world and so does Siopi the Silent. Luckily for me, I realised something very special. In our realm gravity spreads in uneven patterns, and this causes time to flow not as it would in a world where gravity is evenly distributed. It warps, because the space around it warps due to gravitational variations.

And when Siopi the Silent travels across the realm in his super fast spaceship, he happens to enter time waves of uneven flows. And in zones where gravity is intense, his eternal river of time, self initiates a momentary pause, in receiving the flow of new moments of time from new subjects whose personalities are being drained into it. 

Siopi the Silent has adopted this method because the time zone he is in cannot accept the flow of new time zones. As the space around it is so compressed that it has to struggle to maintain its own identity. 

But as he enters a new time zone where the compression is lesser, the new and still incomplete moments of time that lie in the super compressed zones in paused state, are retrieved by the relevant and incomplete time wave that always lies with Siopi the Silent. 

And as it completes the cycle of draining all time associated moments of a subject ( a person like me ) It then weaves them around him in super compressed packets of time.

It is at this point, when the Pause Identifiers initiate retrieval of new and relevant time waves still in queue in the compressed time zone. That the person whose time is being drained out of him/her, feels a relapsing like memory effect. And in this intervening moment if you can upload a new memory, a fresh one. It intersects the wave of time, because the half or part of the new wave which stands locked in a super compressed timezone and still connected with its source. ( the person whose time is being drained out ) With the addition of this fresh moment of time, is not recognised by the Pause Identifier moment of time, that always travels with Siopi the Silent as a unique signature of the subject.

And that is where the main trick lies. With the upload of a new and fresh memory/ies ( moment/s of time ) , it alters the sequence of moments travelling in the time wave dedicated to a particular subject. And the time wave trapped inside the super compressed time zone, when latched on to by the part of time wave that Siopi the Silent carries as a signature time wave identifier of the subject, begins to contract and flows back to its original owner. 

I realised it when I had a memory relapse and I suddenly recalled my physics lesson- Where I had read about Time Warping that takes place in our world. I am waiting for it to happen again, and then I will try the accuracy of my theory.

I am hoping I am right, because if I am not. I will be part of the river in which I never wanted to swim.

The time drain started the moment I crossed him in the market and unfortunately I happened to rub against him. And now I have been experiencing this for more than a year. But patience pays off eventually. And I believe in it. Although I also believe that being exceptionally good at heart, yet unlucky, is the greatest tragedy of all. 

But as long as we are willing to strive, we are willing to put up a fight until the last breath, people like us shall manage to paint a layer of shame on people like Siopi the Silent. Who, to feed their affairs with extravagance can resort to anything and go to any extent. Because they believe if pigeons fly with falcons they will become falcons too. But it is impossible! Because a falcon is born with an instinct that a pigeon can never master. The instinct of limitless fearlessness. 

In our sky less world, there is a species of birds that flies above us and with our spaceships, we call them falcons from the heavens. Whereas pigeons bear flight in the skies of the Earth not here where there is no sky. Only falcons rule here and we rule over them.

And, suddenly while I was dealing with these thoughts, a falcon swooped past me, and it lost one of its feathers, which kept drifting in front of me; and then the falcon began playing with it. As I was experiencing this, I developed a new memory, and in another moment, as if by some interference from the providence. I experienced a memory relapse, and suddenly I felt I remembered what I had wanted to remember from the past. I felt a freshness in my mind with no straggling moments of time anymore, the pouring of my moments of time into this river of eternal time had stopped. Because I had managed to embed the memory of the feather and the falcon into my time wave. And when this happened, the signature of my time wave that was the prisoner of Siopi the Silent, lost its validation. Since it could not authenticate the time wave still connected to me and placed in pause mode, inside the super compressed zone, it travelled back into me. And I regained my personality. Because when wrong authentication takes place, the signature of time held as captive by Siopi the Silent, also gets extracted by the original time wave still connected with the subject. 

And this proved my theory was valid!

The river of time controlled by Siopi the Silent continued flowing, and I was glad I could now direct the flow of my river of time. And create in it waves of my memories, my past, my present and a future that I have always contemplated. 

Siopi the Silent, still visits the market, and now I purposefully dash against him, but his river of eternal time now feels too finite before my sea of endless time. Because in my moments of time, there are many moments of love and deep emotions, that are mine and mine alone. Whereas in his river of eternal time, all these moments of time are his prisoners, and he has experienced none of them. Therefore, the river of time commanded by him flows unto him, but my time flows through me and unto me as well. And that is the major difference. And only few of us realise this difference. Very few, or maybe just I do. And that is when his river of eternal time becomes insignificant, because he has nothing to offer us. 

That is why he is called, Siopi the Silent. Because with so many waves of time, it is impossible for him to express his own feelings, his own thoughts and emotions, and that is why he prefers to stay silent. If he speaks, it might take him an eternity to speak one word. Because that one word, will have infinite feelings, memories and experiences tied to it, via the infinite moments of time that he stole from others- The word would translate into different feelings,memories and experiences at individual level.  

And that is his tragedy, a tragedy greater than Midas touch. Where he owns eternity, but he feels nothing- A hollowness within an everlasting emptiness, rolled up in mysterious feelings. Mysterious because they are not his own. None of them.

I think he is a raging bull with tin horns. That is what I will call Siopi the Silent. And maybe only I can help him, because only I know how to swim to the other end of the river, that we know as the river of eternal time. And only I have the time gifted memories that always retract to me and I know the secret about how not to let the chick of albatross feel lonely and disowned. Because I have led a life of an albatross chick that was not raised by an albatross couple, but by the raging waves of time, and ruthlessness of fate, harshness of the world where no sky exists, and yet you are expected to fly. Yes, you are expected to fly!

Somehow, I managed to fly and I can help Siopi the Silent, to be who is supposed to be, in the ocean of time that is controlled by the universe and the highest realm that exists in the universe. And Siopi the Silent has to realise that in the end all rivers, no matter how endless they might be, end up in the ocean of time.

And if you want to know how worthless it feels to be a bull with tin horns, then you must read the science fiction novel They Loved in 2075. Because in this scifi novel there too is a Siopi the Silent, and he is trying to steal the moments of love from two lovers, he is trying to steal their worlds from them. And they both have waged a war of epic proportions. 

To be a part of this war where love is seeking victory over despicable Siopi the Silent like morons, please read the scifi novel, They Loved in 2075!