One Shot: The Prophet

I am the One. I saw the end of the of the universe. The end of all things. I saw how the sun burned out and died. And with it everything died. Only I know the magnitude of the events to come. Only I can prevent them.

You may think I was a lab rat. Only used to test and test. And yes you are right. These where my humble beginnings. This was my purpose in this group. But let me tell you how I became so much more.

It was not long after we arrived on this cursed island, that our Leader started the creation of our kingdom to come. With him occupied, unrest settled in our midst. The Tinkerer felt pressured to fit into the new leading position while the rest of the lab rats were busy with whatever wizardry they had specialized in. There were few who I felt connected with. One was the Fusionist. He seemed sane in comparison to the big brains.

“You see the sun up above?”, he asked one day, “the light it emits is the product of nuclear fusion. On it’s surface the heavy isotopes of Hydrogen Deuterium and Tritium are fused to Helium-gas producing massive energy. Helium gets fused to Beryllium and Beryllium and Helium fuse to Carbon. Carbon and Helium fuse again resulting in Oxygen. Hydrogen- and Helium-Atoms are the fuel cells driving our sun. Rarely heavier elements are made; there is no endless chain reaction. One day there will be no more Hydrogen to fuse. That is the day our sun will die. Our time is limited by this.”

I didn’t understand a word from his scientific gibberish, but I understood, what he was trying to say. We had only a limited amount of time – so we needed to use it wisely or create more of it. He had described, what I had seen. He seemed to understand

He and I worked closely together as our brothers and sisters were eager to discover this Island. We created Buildings, Powerplants and even whole Villages. We took what we thought was ours. As months passed this bare island became our new home. Filled with everything we had brought from the old world. It was somehow fulfilling to see this city created from nothing.

But I had my doubts. We were strip mining the resources of this island to recreate our old world as true as possible. We had come here to leave all this behind, but my brothers and sisters didn’t seem to understand it.

One evening I was out in at the edge of town watching the beautiful nature. A vivid green meadow was laying before me. Some cow-sized lizard was grazing. The creatures of this island were different from our home, because the ecosystem had been untouched by man for more than one millennia. But yet I saw a lot of beauty in it. The sun was slowly setting casting a golden ray upon this meadow making it look even more like paradise. This was what made life worth living.

“Enjoy the view, while it lasts.”, I heard the Tinkerer call to me as he came from behind to lay his hand on my shoulder, “Our readings show that beneath this are laying truly valuable ores most of them containing rare-earth metals. And we are in dire need of more neodymium for the magnetic field of our power plants.”

I turned slowly to him and looked deep into his neon green eyes. Disbelieve kept creeping up in my heart, while anger and rage seemed to increase in my chest.

“Why do we need to rage a constant war with nature?”, my word were dripping with my frustration, while my face hardened nonetheless.

He took a step back.

“It is all in the sake of progess.”

“Progess…”, this word came like a whisper form my lips. My eyes pierced the Tinkerers. He was unsure what to make of my reaction. But I was sure what consequences they would have. I thought about the vision I had experienced in the old world. I thought of the deep dark secret that was burned into my memory. We had come here to start all over again and don’t make the same mistakes our people had made in the old world. And yet here I stood before my so called brother, who presented me, that he wanted to bleed to earth for some Neodymium and Lutetium or whatever Lanthanides he would find there.

I caught a last glimpse of the setting sun, then I turned away from him. I needed a plan to stop this madness.

+++

“What do you want to do my friend?”

The Fusionist was running some calculation on his Cyclotron, while I was working on some nuts and bolts so the machine would run properly again. My hands were worn and my forehead was dripping from sweat, but my mind was clear.

“I need to teach them some reason.“

Deep down I was sure, that some of the others would listen. Some would listen to my story and understand that our time was finite and that we needed to take care of the planet. But also I was sure that the Tinkerer and the others would be hard to find reason.

“You know that if you call for the tribunal there is no going back. They might expel you for heresy.”

“Now what other choice do I have?”, his words had awakened fear and anger in me, “There will be no tomorrow if we don’t act soon enough. I threw away the screwdriver.

My friend had finished his calculations and were looking up at me. He saw the fire in my eyes burning. I knew he feared my ambition. He also knew, that there would soon be no way back.

+++

I had called for a tribunal. I had pledged my case to the others, but no one had seemed to listen. The Tinkerer was sure that the new World we would create wouldn’t make the same mistakes. The others were so eager on their projects to continue, that the couldn’t see beyond them. I was furious. I was in complete disbelieve. I only saw one opportunity.

”We are the Apex of Evolution. We have conquered time. It is time we seize it.”

With these words I said farewell to my friend and colleague. I needed to taste the forbidden fruit. Deep at night I broke into our Leaders Cabin. He had hidden it in his vault. But there was no lock that would keep me out. Thermite melted it clear. As I opened the box of pandora I saw the shimmering, glowing substance materialize before me. I reached for it. Without gloves, without protection. Like a living entity it reached for my arm and engulfed him soon enough. Like an ooze eating me up it crawled up my arm.

Behind me He entered. He saw the extradimensional ooze eating me up. His mouth gasped for air as he realized what I had done.

“Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to man…”, he mumbled. I realized what old legend he was referring to. He never wanted this secret to get out into the world. With one swift motion his blade was drawn and he slized up my chest. I hardly felt the pain. Only his foot hitting my chest throwing me in the chest behind me. I was submerged by this gleaming substance. Around my body it formed a strong and flexible armor. I assumed that this was my end, but now I realize it was only the beginning. Had I felt the pain in my chest shortly before now it was only a scratch. The cut on my chest was nothing – it seemed to vanish. My Vision blurred as all my other senses were exaggerated. Every fiber of my body was now engulfed by the exotic matter as it had entered my body through the cut.

Soon a new sense came into my awareness. I knew not only where I lay in space, but I also felt where I was in time. As if I could grasp the future and past at once, I could see through it. Multiple strings of time flew past me, and I could see them all. But with this power came a not negotiable hunger for more of the forbidden nectar. It felt like my flesh was only conserved by it coursing through my veins. Deep down in the oceans of time I smelled the finest remnant of it. And so I took the plunge. I removed my self from this time and ventured into the unknown.

There in the deepest darkest place of space time I felt the answer. I saw hundreds and thousands of solutions. I felt it in my body, that now I had the power to change history. I could move through time effortlessly, but it felt flawed. Something was missing. I still felt the end of the world looming over me. I could not outrun this destiny. I tasted the power of the forbidden nectar. But I was incomplete. The matter we had extracted to create the masks was missing. I felt it deep in me. To save all that was dear to me I needed the masks.

In the depths of time I picked up their scent. It was his task to hunt them down no matter what. In the back of his head he heard voices telling him about the end of the world. He saw visions of his brothers destroying the island, destroying the planet and causing death of millions. It was upon him to prevent it. Did he need to kill them? No, there was no peaceful solution for this. They had started this war. And now it was upon him to end it. I had not only been the prophet to foretell the end, no I was now also the chosen one, who was destined to save them all. Whatever it cost.