StarGaze

Half-Breed

I wake up in…something. There is fog all around me and the temperature is low. I am naked and sitting on a slab made of the same stone as we encountered earlier. My head feels dizzy and my body is sweating despite the cold. I try to get up but my body pains like I have just been beaten to a pulp. A snarl gives me Goosebumps. I realize all of a sudden that I am not on earth. And if something knocked me out on Enceladus, it’s not human. I start to shiver and struggle to get up when I hear the snarl again. This time it’s closer to me. now my body is shaking violently to get up. The problem is not with my body, something is clinging me to that stone. I am near to a mental breakdown when the snarl comes from just three feet in front of me. My body is pouring sweat at a crazy rate.

“Please! We meant no harm. Our planet is dying, we need a haven.” I plead.

“No, your planet is living, your species is dying.” A familiar voice strikes my ears.

The fogs in front of me clear and I see a familiar face.

“Mandeep? Why the f**k are you acting so weird? Where are our clothes?” I shout in a cheered voice. I try to get up and do so with ease. I am about to go hug him, but at once I realize it’s not Mandeep. I clench my fists and pounce on him.

“SIT!” he says and lifts his finger. I fly backward in the air and collide with the stone. I try to get up but I’ve glued again.

“You can’t control me. I will slit your throat and look you in the eyes while you die. You hear me?” I say.

“We can control you. We have controlled humans for centuries, you are just one man.” Mandeep said.

“Who are you?” I ask in awe.

“That is the right query. We are your makers. We are the ones who were before you and will be after you. We are the ones who look after your planet and reset the clock from time to time.”

“What do you mean by resetting the clock?”

“Earth is like a watch which needs repairing from time to time or else it gets rusty. When the dinosaurs walked the planet for long enough, we were the ones who deviated from the course of the asteroid and set it on a collision course. Then an unexpected species evolved. They were smart, adaptive, and sufficiently strong. So we decided to see how they get along in the following time. We tested them in every hardship present in nature- from earthquakes to tsunamis. But they were stubborn and always shined through. They didn’t bend down in front of nature, they made nature bend down in front of them. Just like we did ten million years ago. They surprised us and pleased us. So we decided to help them acquire the knowledge necessary to be like us. Some of us were assigned the task to teach you.”

“Then why don’t we read about you in books? Why would we search the universe in hope of finding aliens when we have already met them?”

“Oh, you know us. You know us very well. We are the ones you call God. That is the other aspect of human beings. When we set out to enlighten you, we didn’t know that humans were not as brave as we thought they were. They were always slaves in their hearts. They preached and feared whatever they did not understand. So when we arrived on our ships, they worshipped us instead of befriending us. We were greatly disappointed with time as other darker sides of your nature emerged. You were ravagers and barbarians who never thought of anyone but themselves. We concluded that teaching you were a lost cause and we returned. One of us decided to stay and teach you some basic rules of living in harmony with the universe. But you beat him up and crucified him. After that, we decided to reset the earth again, but one of us argued that you were a self-destructive race. He suggested we enjoy the show. Some of us decided to live with you, disguised as humans. All major events in your history were our imagination. We were the ones who abducted and killed Romulus Augustulus. We killed the duke of Austria and started the great war. Mahatma Gandhi was one of us who decided to lead our world into peace. But we couldn’t let that happen. so we sent one of us to kill him. We were the ones behind the defeat of every great emperor, from Alexander to Hitler. Because if they came to power, they could find us and threaten our existence in time. We were behind every major incident in your history, including your existence. If we hadn’t brought the ice age by getting rid of the dinosaurs, you would have never existed.”

“But we figured out all major things like science by ourselves, so no thanks to you.”

“You are wrong, like always. You think the universe works the way you want it to work. Most of your science is based on assumptions. You make assumptions, test it a few times and if you succeed more than once, you declare it a fact. And if something in nature proves you wrong, you call it an exception or make another assumption to cover it. When we came here in the beginning to help you, we taught you the basic rules of quantifying the universe. Aryabhatta, the person who invented ‘zero’ was one of us. Most accurate inventions in mankind’s history were made when we resided among them as living gods in India, Egypt, and other places. Your self-righteousness is what led us away and that is the reason for your demise.”

“Why did you bring me here then? You want me to be grateful for everything you have done for us?”

“No, you have a different story altogether. You were brought here because you are special.”

“Believe me, I am a lot of things but special is not one of them. There’s been a mistake.”

“We do not make mistakes.”

“Well, how am I special then?”

“You are one of us.”

“What? I…I don’t understand. If I was one of you, I would remember this place. Or I would have shape-shifting powers like you.”

“You are not exactly one of us. You are a bridge between us and humans. You are the last one left of your kind. We call you ‘Namiha’ and people on earth call them ‘Avatars’. You are born when one of your parents is of our kind, living on the earth in disguise. Only one in a billion survives this match. They are looked after by us. In your case, Rishabh was your protector assigned by us.”

“You still didn’t answer why I am here.”

“Because you have a choice to make.”

“What choice?”

“You can either stay with us and live for thousands of years. You will watch civilizations rise and fall and play your part. You will learn the higher truths about the universe which you had not even dreamt of, travel to far sides of the galaxy, and learn to shapeshift.”

“And what is the alternative?”

“Usually in situations like these, Namihas are brought together. They discuss the matter and make a decision. If they don’t agree, voting is done.”

“WHAT is my alternative?”

“You can go back to the date one month before we reset the clock. You will have the chance to stop the destruction.”

“Wait, seriously? Are we talking about a time machine here?”

“There is no such thing as a time machine. Time is merely a physical dimension for us. It has cracks and pathways which, if not used properly, can end the universe as we know it. no machine is needed to travel in time. Every situation has infinite alternate endings. If you go back and stop us from spreading the virus, time will open up an alternate timeline right then and you will live as if nothing happened. As a result, we will delay the reset for another one million years.

But if you cannot stop us from exposing that virus, you will be erased from the timeline. You will simply vanish in thin air and the world will continue in a different timeline without you. Are you prepared to take that risk?”

This was the decision of my life. If I stayed, I would be virtually immortal. But what good is immortality if you don’t have your friends to share it with? As far as I knew myself, I wasn’t meant to be the one who wants to live forever, in hiding.

“Has this situation ever presented it before?” I ask.

“Yes. The Namihas from Mars decided to take a trip in the past and the planet was torched.”

“Okay. Let me think.”

I have trouble deciding for a while but then the moment comes.  Have you ever felt that you are having trouble making a decision and after a while, there comes a moment when your mind becomes absolutely clear and you know exactly what you have to do?

“Show me your true body,” I demand.

“Very well. Here we go.” He says and closes his eyes.

The fog grows a little denser as he starts to growl with pain. After some seconds, blood starts flowing from his mouth, nose, and eyes. I watch senselessly as Mandeep’s face becomes pulpy and then sinks into himself. His body turns thinner and the color of his skin changes to white with brown patches all over. His skin changes color like a chameleon. After some time, the outcome is a ten-foot-tall white…thing. It is slim and has no mouth. Everything in his body is sealed except for the eyes. He is not like the aliens people used to see in movies, it is definitely more human than them (except the sealed holes and the white texture). After examining the creature perfectly, I refuse his offer and decide to take a trip back to the golden days.

“Very well. If that is what you want, that is what you should get.” He says after getting back in Mandeep’s skin.

“But how can you manipulate time? Wasn’t changing the past impossible?” I asked, thinking this may be a trick.

“Time travel was merely fiction and fantasy to humans. To us, it’s an engineering problem. Changing the past does not affect the future you came from. It opens a different timeline. This earth would still be destroyed, but you have the chance to live in an alternate universe. It took us centuries to figure out that you cannot manipulate time, you can merely add branches to it. It has no limit. Every situation, every moment that passes opens infinite branches in time. It is up to us to find the branch we need.”

“So you're going to send me one month before you release the virus and reset the clock?”

“Yes.”

“Very well.”

I always wondered, if time travel is possible, then where are the tourists from the future? Now I knew, and it was devastating.