Twin Earth

Thankfully no-one else was inside the room behind the boulder, but what was inside took my breath away. Gone was the rocky, cave-like exterior that had greeting us thus far. Instead was something far more futuristic.

“What is this place?” I breathed, walking around and draping my hands just above the smooth metallic surface of the walls that ran in a perfect circle around us. Thousands of diagrams were embedded deep into the walls, which shimmered as if made from silver, and in the centre of the room lay a platform, like the one I had seen in the room where Apo had been arguing, or not arguing. I was still confused on that point, but this time it was covered in the same silver etchings, detailing in great detail what I assumed to be instructions on how to use the ellipse.

“This is incredible,” Rachel remarked, also in awe of the drawings. “Is this explaining how to use the ellipse?” Rachel asked, pointing to one particular drawing.

“Don’t touch it,” Adom replied, hurriedly walking over.

“I... I wasn’t planning to,” Rachel stuttered, yanking her hand back in surprise.

“It’s just, these diagrams are active. They control the ellipse, as well as other things.”

“Oh,” Rachel replied, sheepishly.

Sarcastically tutting in amusement, I grinned at Rachel’s faux pas, which immediately caused her to frown in my direction.

“So where is the ellipse?” I asked, turning to look at Adom. “Has it been stolen?”

“You cannot just steal an ellipse,” Adom muttered as he fiddled with the drawings on the walls causing them to light up and fade into multiple colours.

“But you said the underdeveloped stole them, so I assumed...”

“You would have to take the whole room apart, piece by piece. It would take days. If the walls are here, the ellipse is here,” Adom interrupted.

“I see,” I mumbled, feeling a little disappointed. “So, where is it then?”

Ignoring me, Adom continued to play with the drawings on the wall and then he turned, waving his hands towards the platform in the centre of the room.

“What is he doing?” I whispered to Rachel as we both waited to see what would happen. “Do you seriously trust this guy to know what he’s doing?”

“This again?” Rachel frowned, looking at me.

“Fine,” I backtracked, lifting my hands up in defeat.

“Can’t you for once, just take this seriously,” Rachel replied.

“Hey, I’ve done nothing but take this whole trip seriously. Do you have any idea what I’ve been through since waking up in this place?”

Sighing, Rachel looked away to watch Adom playing with the walls again. Whatever he was doing, he looked to be struggling as he had a very confused expression on his face. Not that I dared to bring that up with Rachel.

“Look, I’m sorry okay, for being such an arse to you earlier,” I mumbled to Rachel.

“At what point exactly?”

“Okay, I may have deserved that. I meant before, in my room. I never meant to make you feel inferior somehow. I seriously do respect you as a scientist and as...”

“A woman?” Rachel interrupted, turning to look at me again.

“Yes, as a woman,” I replied defiantly.

Hearing her sigh, I could see I had finally broken her defensive barrier.

“Fine, I’m sorry too. I know you’ve had a rough time with your ex-wife and losing your job. I know how much you have to prove.”

Raising my eyebrows, she had me there. I couldn’t deny it. I did have something to prove and it was probably why I was feeling so miserable because so far nothing had been going to plan. I couldn’t even enjoy discovering this amazing new planet because it came with so many problems, least of all the fact it was tearing our own planet apart.

“What did you see back in the complex?” Rachel asked, squinting her eyes and looking at me. “Adom refused to tell me.”

“It wasn’t real Rachel. Just forget it. I have.”

“But he said it was the future. If that’s so then don’t you think we should take it a bit more seriously?”

“If you really want to know, it was a huge tsunami coming towards the complex. I mean huge, like no matter where you hide, you’re going to die huge.”

“Oh,”

“Exactly, but that’s not a future I wish to experience for real, do you?”

“Well no, of course not,” Rachel whispered quietly. I could see I had shaken her, but if she wanted to be treated like a scientist then she deserved to know the truth.

“So Adom, why the frowning? What’s the problem?” I asked, leaving Rachel to her thoughts and walking over.

“I am sorry it is taking me so long. I’m not sure why this isn’t working. It’s as if someone has tampered with the controls.”

“Let me have a look.”

“Really?” Rachel muttered under her breath, joining us.

“So how does this thing work?” I asked, casting a look over whatever he was looking at. To be honest I didn’t have a clue what I was looking at, but then something caught my eye. “This symbol, it means infinity.”

“Yes, the infinity zero-time dilation. It is related to the ellipse itself. This part is describing the intense mass that is held in suspension, which creates the infinity zero-time within it.”

“Yeah, I vaguely remember you mentioning that and something about negative energy to hold it open?”

“That’s correct. I am glad you remember.”

“Thank you,” I replied, surprised at how happy I was at Adom’s approval and then immediately regretting my response. “So, what’s the problem? You said you mined this negative energy from the void?”

“Not for this ellipse as the exotic matter is already contained within these walls. Due to the distant location of where the ellipse goes, it feeds directly off the void, but someone has deleted it.”

“Deleted it?” Rachel asked confused, joining us. “You make it sound like code.”

“It is in a way. It uses encoded mathematics to connect to the void to harvest it, but someone has deleted it or moved it around. I’m not experienced enough to know how to fix it.”

“And there’s me thinking it was some kind of glorified coal. How wrong was I,” I mumbled, trying to get my head around the data that was now scrolling endlessly underneath Adom’s fingers.

“Call me crazy, but can’t you just undo whatever has been done?” I asked.

“Seriously Tom? You’re telling him to switch it on and off again?”

“No, that is extremely clever Rachel. Thank you Tom,” Adom replied, hurrying over to another part of the wall.

“Ah see,” I muttered in Rachel’s direction, but she was just shaking her head in disbelief.

“There,” Adom declared, running over to the platform and waving his hands again.

We both turned to look at the empty space in the centre of the room and waited.

“You’re saying that actually worked?” Rachel whispered to no-one in particular, but then she quickly hushed her voice as we both stared in horror at a huge, bubble-like black void that appeared in front of us, reaching way above our heads and then dropping, like a teardrop of black tar, eventually settling on top of the platform, vibrating gently and morphing into various cylindrical shapes as if it was alive. It was much taller than me, maybe eight feet or so and about three-foot-wide at the very bottom and a strange pulling sensation ripped at our bodies, forcing us to retreat backwards.

“You want me to go into that?” I mumbled in horror.

“It’s so black,” Rachel whispered. “I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s just so... black.”

“I don’t understand,” Adom replied, flustered once again and running back to the wall.

“Please tell me it’s not supposed to be black?” I replied.

“No, it’s not. The ellipse is similar to a black hole as it is tightly compressed of many solar masses, but we should see the destination appear within it, not... this,” Adom replied, running his hands over the walls once again and staring intently at the code.

“That’s good to hear, I guess, but... can I just ask one thing Adom?” I replied with urgency in my voice. “Why is it getting bigger?”