Chaz Yang enjoys attracting attention to his muscular frame by wearing his all-black MMDI uniform and black boots. He stomps aggressively into the Time Travel Hall as both Ted Avila and Vincent Wauneka are arriving in giant blue hockey pucks number eight and nine respectfully. “Oh shit, look who just happened to drop in? What a nice surprise,” he says dramatically.
The general pounds both his clenched firsts down upon the small conference room table deliberately as a tactic to startle and annoy Ted Avila and Vincent Wauneka who are seated across from him still wearing their large blue robes after leaving the Time Travel Hall. The windowless off-white walls of the conference room vibrate in response to General Kang’s drumming on the table. His loud and angry voice booms, “You two boys look more than a little cold here wearing only those fucking blue robes.” Neither agent speaks nor makes eye contact with the general.
Since Ted Avila and Vincent Wauneka are not watching General Yang who is seated across from them at the conference room table, both agents only hear the general repeat the phrase “…wearing only those fucking blue robes.”
When they look up from the safety of their gazing exclusively at the surface of that small table, Ted Avila and Vincent Wauneka watch General Yang gesture with his right arm stabbing the air as he repeats, “…wearing only those fucking blue robes.”
Again they see the general stabs the air and says, “…wearing only those fucking blue robes.”
A fourth instance follows next. As before, the general’s right arm swings and stags the air as he repeats, “…wearing only those fucking blue robes.” Ted Avila and Vincent Wauneka can only watch what is happening right in front of them.
And again, the general’s upper body movements repeat identically as they have four times before. His words again are “…wearing only those fucking blue robes.”A loud and unmistakably attention-getting cycle of seven tones fills the conference room where General Yang is seated with Ted Avila and Vincent Wauneka. Red lights flash on and off from an unseen source over head. General Yang shouts out, “Will someone please shut off that goddamned alarm. Doctor Oswald, this means you!”
The voice of Doctor Oswald descends from somewhere overhead upon General Yang, Ted Avila and Vincent Wauneka in the conference room, “Acknowledged, General Yang. Alarm is shut off as you requested.”
In a surprisingly soft voice, General Yang says, “This has been happening now going on several weeks. You both were away on a mission together so you never saw it before now. Some sort of time loop. We here at this base keep getting trapped in it. Doctor Oswald figured out how to pull everyone out of the looping. But nothing we’ve done has identified why this is happening. We have concluded that this looping time definitely is not a naturally occurring thing. It is manufactured. We speculate it is deliberate interference with our time travel operations here at this base.”
Ted Avila and Vincent Wauneka make worried eye contact with each other in response.
“And this is where you two boys come in. You’re gonna save the day for this agency,” the general announces with excessive ceremony. “We think we have pinpointed where the solution might be and so we’re sending you both there on a mission.”
Ted Avila and Vincent Wauneka turn to make eye contact with General Yang. He says, “You’ll be sent to a top-secret laboratory operated on Earth in the year 2194. It is a facility owned and operated by MMDI. You will arrive nearly fifty years in the past. Well before any of the interference started here. I welcome a few questions from you boys.”
Ted Avila speaks up, “How would anyone fifty years ago have the capability to interfere with time travel operations here on the moon, general?”
“No, the interference did not start fifty years ago. We are sending you back nearly fifty years to give you a head start on the interference. The fact is we don’t know. We think the extraterrestrials are causing the interference. You two will check into that.”
Vincent Wauneka asks, “The Ezuoia are causing this interference from a top-secret facility on Earth owned and operated by MMDI?”
“We believe so, yes,” General Yang replies. “Well, maybe the facility on Earth has nothing to do with the interference. I am not a hundred percent certain. And just so you know, this is a dangerous mission. We have sent several other agents back in time from the present day at this base to 2194 to investigate. None of them returned. We have to assume all somehow are missing in action.”
Once again, Ted Avila and Vincent Wauneka turn to meet each others’ eyes.
“We lost a total of sixteen men. They simply vanished. We cannot retrieve them,” the general explains. “You two are the very best agents we’ve got. So this mystery is now yours to solve, boys. Those are your orders.”
Ted Avila asks, “How did this target location on Earth become known? Is there someone on Earth who is helping the Ezuoia interfere with time travel operations?”
“Excellent question, Mr. Avila. The location is has everything to do with the discovery that there is intelligent life not of Earth origins. Humans have always anticipated that if there were intelligent life from other planets at all, and should that life ever present itself to humanity, it certainly was expected to arrive at planet Earth using some kind of vehicle. A flying saucer, perhaps. Or, a faster-than-light starship, as another popular alternative. That kind of thing. People on Earth were focused upon looking to the cosmos expecting that life from some other planet would be discovered out there and approach Earth from the skies.”
Vincent Wauneka says, “But the discovery in 2192 by Chinese lunar explorers of what we now call the Colossus of Clavius proved those concepts about alien life we all wrong.”
“That is correct, Mr. Wauneka. Nobody expected this to start on the moon. Men on Earth are arrogantly preoccupied with considerations of size when thinking about alien invasions of Earth. Power is defined by size. The phallic metaphor that men embrace is so obvious that I need not go into further discussion here. Nothing small is ever considered to be powerful. Men just were blind to this kind of thing entirely. Men missed the obvious. Until recently.”
Ted Avila asks, “What changed? Who changed the misperceptions about alien life?”
“A female, of course. A scientist,” general Yang explains. “Born in Hawaii. Her name is Lana Onakea. She was working nearly fifty years ago in that top-secret MMDI facility in Switzerland. Although she did not mention the name, Doctor Onakea was the one who proved conclusively to MMDI that the Ezuoia were the ones who buried the colossus deep in lunar work waiting to be discovered in 2192 by Chinese lunar explorers. She was doing further research to learn more. Then we lost contact with her. It is like she suddenly vanished. Immediately these time loops started happening here on the moon. We have not been able to send or retrieve any agents following the start of that time looping.”
“Wait? That’s not right. Vincent and I were retrieved successfully back to base just a little while ago, general. You yourself came to meet us in the Time Travel Hall.”
“We do not know why, Mr. Avila. But it seems that the Ezuoia permitted the two of you to be retrieved safely to base following the mission you were on. I happen to think that means the Ezuoia would not make you two vanish in Geneva like all those sixteen other men did. I am betting on your ingenuity, boys. Don’t let me down. That’s an order.”
ΔΔ
Together Ted Avila and Vincent Wauneka walk into a large reception hall inside an immense international museum in Geneva in the year 2194. Their eyes are drawn immediately to the very large marble statue prominently positioned on a shallow pedestal in one corner of the hall. Do the confidently outstretched arms convey a welcome or a warning? The morning sun is filtered by a crystal glass ceiling so that an eerie blue light bathes the statue of a naked man who is twice the size of an ordinary man.
A Hawaiian woman in her forties enters the hall. She is dressed all in white in what appears to be a medical uniform. Ted Avila and Vincent Wauneka notice her in their peripheral vision but cannot stop staring at the compelling statue on display there.
“Impressive isn’t he?” she says as she approached the two time-travel agents who are studying the statue. “Commissioned this statue and mural to be on display here at MMDI. I pulled some strings. The artist is a man who was born and raised in the Azores Islands. His respect for the male form is quite obvious in his work, don’t you agree?”
“A metaphor,” Ted Avila says to her without taking his eyes off the statue.
“Yes,” she replies. “Artistic irony. The aliens that buried the colossus beneath Clavius. They have no mass. They are not visible to humans. This imagery, an artistic statement in a statue, seemed essential. I asked the artist to exaggerate the size of the statue to make it suggest a threat. A metaphor, exactly as you say. Very perceptive.”
When the two men are downstairs countless levels below the museum, they are surrounded by advanced technology and several computer monitors without keyboards. This room is filled with other futuristic technology artifacts that neither man has ever seen.
“You were briefed before you came here. I am Doctor Lana Onakea,” says the Hawaiian woman after hearing her two visitors introduce themselves. “I want to welcome both of you as fellow employees of MMDI to the Swiss Confederation and to my laboratory.”
“Thank you, Doctor Onakea,” Ted Avila says. “You won’t mind if Vincent goes to shoot some pictures of that blue statue while you and I talk.”
Vincent Wauneka nods and quickly leaves Ted Avila alone with Doctor Onakea in her office.
Doctor Onakea responds, “Please watch the monitors and follow along in my debrief.” As she talks to Ted Avila there are videos that appear on her monitors showing him details to explain what she is telling him.
“This laboratory is owned and operated by MMDI. It has for several years existed in secrecy here far underground beneath the city of Geneva,” she says. “Top-secret, of course.”
Ted Avila says, “Of course. And you work here solo assisted by a shitload of automation, is that right?”
She looks uncomfortable at the way he described her situation. “Shitload?” she asks. “Must be new slang I haven’t picked up on yet.”
“Well, you also live here alone inside this laboratory, Doctor Onakea?”
“Yes, for security reasons. But me being here alone never has been a problem for anyone. Are you saying General Yang thinks that is a problem now?”
“He doesn’t really share his thinking with me at all. Mostly he pounds the table to draw attention to himself,” Ted Avila explains. “But I ask you to tell me about the invisible aliens.”
She smiles nervously as she replies, “My findings and conclusions are that the aliens live beyond our three dimensions. We are stuck, as it were, in the comparative limits of physical space—height, width, and depth. But the aliens know more than these dimensions. Many more. They can be on Mars and also on the moon at the same time if that’s what they want.”
“Why do you think the aliens went to the moon? What purpose was there in going there?” Ted Avila asks.
“My findings do not explain that. Maybe they got lost during their travels and landed on the moon in an emergency,” she replies.
“No, not possible,” Ted Avila says. “They don’t travel. They can be in multiple dimensions simultaneously. You just said that. But none of this is new information to me. At Clavius base we already knew many things about them including their multi-dimensional nature and the fact that they have zero mass.”
“Can you share the name of your expert on the aliens? I have tried to explain things to General Yang,” she says. “He is unwilling to reciprocate and share anything with me. He does not seem interested in interacting with me for some reason.”
“I guess if there is anyone who can be called the expert on the aliens, I am that guy,” Ted Avila says.
“So you must be aware, Mr. Avila, that the aliens send what can only be called a very fast transmission or signal. That unusual signal points in a direction toward a location in deep space outside our galaxy. Where exactly that signal terminates is not yet known. It is too far away. The signal moves at speeds that the laws of physics say are not possible. And we are unable to see any galaxy out there in the relative area where we know the signal goes. I speculate that the signal goes to the home planet of the aliens or maybe to some station in deep space used by them. There is at least two-way communication with wherever that terminus may be located outside our galaxy.”
“Yeah, I’m aware, Doctor Onakea,” Ted Avila replies without hiding his irritation at her. “That signal is crucial to the aliens. It connects all us men who are stationed at Clavius base to the aliens across impossible distances of space. It is a full-time, permanent connection which is precisely what enabled human time travel.”
“For what purpose would alien life want humans to have the capability of time travel?” she asks.
“I am still working on that, Doctor Onakea, and I will let you know once I figure that one out. But General Yang doesn’t care about the signal. I know that much is true. That alien signal is not a priority of his by any stretch of the imagination. The very subject of that signal bores General Yang. In fact, I’ve watched him doze off during briefings whenever that subject is raised.”
“Well, that’s not right. I just want to be taken seriously by General Yang,” she says with frustration. “I have so much I can contribute. I asked him to transfer me to Clavius base so I could work there, but he rejected my request. He only wants things his way. Only men are stationed there. You know that and I know that. General Yang won’t listen to what I have to contribute.”
“What I believe has happened, Doctor Onakea, is your frustrations build steadily,” Ted Avila says. “Over time, you will become so fixated on not being taken seriously, and the primary basis for your opinion on this is because Clavius base is only staffed by men and you are a woman. That fixation builds and deepens in you for several years.”
“Several years? What are you talking about? We only just met here today, Mr. Avila.”
“Well, from your vantage point that is true, yes,” Ted Avila explains. “But what you don’t know is that I come from about fifty years in the future compared to right now. Difficult to accept for you, I know. But your growing frustration is not the point. You start using what you know about the aliens to cause interference with the regular time travel operations at Clavius base. You are a traitor to humanity, Doctor Onakea.”
“Who the fuck are you to talk to me like that? Oh, shit. You traveled in time here to Geneva to erase me from this timeline,” she says as tears form in her eyes.
That is the precise moment Vincent Wauneka returns to Doctor Wauneka’s office holding a small camera in his left hand. “Got some great shots of that blue statue. The cock size on him was worth my taking hundreds of images. I just wish we were not in such a hurry to get out of Geneva today.”
ΔΔ
From an overhead source a soft and peaceful set of chimes fills the conference room where General Yang is seated with Ted Avila and Vincent Wauneka. A male voice announces, “General Yang, the photographs you requested are ready for you now.” The general types a short string of characters on the conference room table using an invisible keyboard.
The voice of Doctor Oswald descends from somewhere overhead upon General Yang, Ted Avila and Vincent Wauneka in the conference room, “General Yang, I am obligated to inform you: A change in the timeline associated with the MMDI Geneva laboratory has triggered an alarm.”
The general pounds both his clenched firsts down upon the small conference room table deliberately as a tactic to startle and annoy Ted Avila and Vincent Wauneka who are seated across from him still wearing their large blue robes. The windowless off-white walls of the conference room vibrate in response to General Kang’s drumming on the table. His loud and angry voice booms, “You two boys look more than a little cold here wearing only those fucking blue robes.” Neither agent speaks nor makes eye contact with the general.
A dozen full-color photographs of the Geneva statue are projected upon the wall of the conference behind General Yang. He stops drumming the table and gestures upward with both arms. Both agents look at the photographs but remain silent. “You boys took a camera on your mission. It was in your carry-on. No problem them. That is routine on some missions. But these photographs apparently from your mission were in that camera when you arrived at the Time Travel Hall. What is not routine is that some of the photographs were downloaded from the camera before our security team got to it. I have ordered all photographs to be locked away under tight security so nobody else will see them. I will have to evaluate if there is any problem with some of the men here getting their hands on some of the photographs. Meanwhile, you’ve got some explaining to do here.”
Vincent Wauneka makes direct eye contact with General Yang and tells him, “I brought the camera in my carry-on, sir. I am the one who took those photographs of the statue. I was in Geneva on a mission when I chose to shoot those photographs. It was just a statue. The figure of the man was naked. But I did not evaluate any security issues would result if photographs got out among the men stationed here. One of the men in the Time Travel Hall who grabbed the camera downloaded some of the photographs. I am convinced he meant no harm.”
Ted Avila speaks up quickly and says, “General Yang, Vincent and I were sent on a mission to Geneva to the year 2194. He took those photographs because we both felt the Geneva statue was unusual for its apparent connection to the Ezuoia. The Geneva statue was commissioned by an artist who was instructed to create a representation of a naked man that would symbolically connote a very large and powerful extraterrestrial lifeform. While there in Switzerland, I spoke at length with the only person I found at the Geneva laboratory. I feel certain that the alarm Doctor Oswald just mentioned was triggered because of changes Vincent and I made to the timeline so we could complete our Geneva mission before we were retrieved here to base.”
General Yang says in a normal, relaxed speaking voice, “Agents make changes to a timeline in the past. That is what the agents are supposed to do, Mr. Avila. Taking photographs is also routine on missions. But you should understand that I personally do not keep track of all the agents on their missions and whether they take photographs or what exactly were their changes made to timelines in the past. That tracking is handled downstairs in the super-computer.”
“General, does the MMDI super-computer provide briefings to you or to Doctor Oswald regarding timeline changes of special significance?” asks Ted Avila.
“Yes, Mr. Avila,” the general replies. “And that is exactly why you heard Doctor Oswald announce a triggered alarm. It was a timeline change associated with the MMDI Geneva laboratory.”
“General, the MMDI laboratory in Geneva had that statue, yes. And photographs now exist of the statue which some of the men may see. What was significant in Geneva was not the statue, sir. There was only one person who was present at the laboratory and who also lived there full-time without contact with anyone from the outside to work in complete secrecy.”
The general scratches his head and replies, “But I have to admit, Mr. Avila, I have no memories of sending you two on any mission to Geneva. When you made whatever changes you two made to that timeline, all knowledge about the MMDI Geneva laboratory was changed for all of us from that point in time forward to today. The ripple effect. You two changed the past and the changes rippled forward affecting everyone’s knowledge up through today. I cannot explain how you two retain your memories about the timeline from before your mission made changes. Only the MMDI super-computer keeps track of what does on in timelines before and after agents make changes.”
“So does this mean that we were successful on the Geneva mission?” asks Vincent Wauneka. “You, general, had told Ted and me that there was interference with the normal time travel operations here at base presumably were connected to the MMDI Geneva laboratory. Sixteen MMDI agents were lost and presumed dead after being sent back on missions to the year 2194 and the MMDI Geneva laboratory to correct the timeline and stop the interference. Ted and I were sent there to figure out what was going on, sir.”
The general looks seriously deep in concentration as he says, “Well, I can only surmise you two were successful on your mission to the MMDI Geneva laboratory with regard to changing the timeline. However, from my vantage point here as the one in charge of MMDI time travel operations at this base, there never were any interferences at any time that prevented any of our time travel operations. And certainly MMDI never lost sixteen agents who were sent on missions to Geneva and were presumed killed in action.”
Ted Avila and Vincent Wauneka turn to make worried eye contact with each other.
“What about comparing what Vincent and I are reporting to you, sir, regarding what is in the MMDI super-computer downstairs about that timeline?”
“Smart man, Mr. Avila, yes,” the general replies. “But, I cannot allow the two of you to interact with any of the men stationed here at this base until we figure out what happened. We have contingency plans set up for this outcome,” the general says as he lowers his voice as if to conceal what he is saying. “The two of you have knowledge of—and actual experience on the ground in—a past timeline where you observed actions, behaviors and objects. You took photographs. I don’t know what you observed because I was not there with you on your mission. I see the statue in the photographs. But the changes you made on your mission to Geneva in that timeline triggered alarms.”
“Why is there cause for concern, sir?” Ted Avila asks.
“The MMDI super-computer is not human. It is a highly sophisticated machine containing artificial intelligence—meaning the intelligence in the super-computer is not human. This fact means there are no emotional components involved in the analysis of what changes you two made to that timeline. You and Mr. Wauneka can only respond using your minds but your minds include your emotions. You clearly have feelings about the Geneva mission. The super-computer has a strictly pure, unemotional viewpoint and therefore can easily provide a better analysis than any human could possibly provide.”
“How long will this take, general?” Vincent Wauneka asks.
The general replies, “I have no way to evaluate that in advance, come on now. We are here in 2241. You went back in time to 2194 and made changes to the timeline. I cannot allow whatever changes you made to affect the men or this base. All I know right now is the timeline changes you made create a potentially serious risk here at this base. It is necessary for me to sequester the two of you immediately until such time as the super-computer can make a final report about what happened. This means you will live in the Medical Section of Clavius base designed specifically for sequestration. You will not be permitted to interact with any of your fellow agents at this base. You will have everything you need—food, water, sleep quarters, toilet and shower. Doctor Oswald will continue to interact with you to evaluate your physical and mental well-being. You also will be given access to interact with the MMDI super-computer. But as I already mentioned, you will not be permitted interaction with men who are stationed here at base. All other agents will assume the two of you are on missions continuously when they don’t see you in the dining facilities or the crew showers. This is not up for negotiation or discussion, gentlemen.”
“This does not seem right, general,” Ted Avila says. “Our work going on missions is valuable to MMDI. Can’t you at least provide us with an estimate of how long we have to be sequestered?”
The general says, “I need to just go straight into what must be said. Both of you are time travel agents. The work you do is very risky. You do not enjoy the kind of safe and non-threatening work that someone who works in an office somewhere interacting with a screen every day enjoys. But, the line of work you both do—travel back in time and then get retrieved to your present day—makes it illogical to try and apply the measurement of the flow of time here. How much time it may take to get a full report on the timeline changes is unknown and will remain unknown.”
“General, with respect,” Ted Avila says, “What about telling the men here about how time travel is only possible because of the Ezuoia? What about telling the men here about being connected permanently by a link to the Ezuoia across the many miles of space?”
“No, Mr. Avila. The men here do not have a need to know either of those facts,” the general says angrily. “I am expressly forbidding you, Mr. Avila, and you, Mr. Wauneka, from at any time discussing this classified top-secret information with anyone. I will not repeat that warning, so you better take seriously what I am telling you here. Agents do not need to know how the time travel devices work in order to do their jobs on missions to the past. Agent do not need to know the Chinese discovered the Colossus of Clavius on the moon which proves that extraterrestrial life exists in order to succeed on missions. And no agent ever needs to know that he is connected permanently across countless miles of the known universe to do the work MMDI requires to be done in our time travel operations here. And with that explanation, gentlemen, the two of you are beginning your sequestration in the Medical Section effective immediately.”