The Children of Time (The Children of Time Trilogy Book 1) (2 page)

They began to meet every weekend and Sundays were always happy days.
They shared kisses, caresses and rode their bikes, enjoying every moment
together. After some weeks of relationship, Nicolas began to feel curious about
the woman who changed his life. She noticed it was the perfect moment to tell a
special secret that would change his view of the world.

“Nicolas, I have something to tell you. I’m not from here. I live in
a very distant place.”

“I was curious to know where you came from. You have a different
beauty, as if you lived in a Nordic country. Please, go on...”

“In fact, I came from a place much farther away than just a country.
I’m from a planet called Vida, in the Andromeda galaxy, many light-years away
from here. As you would say: I’m an astronaut! I would like you to meet some
people who travel with me. Would you like to join me?”

“
What is all this madness? Is the dream falling apart? She might
be mentally disturbed. This would explain everything. All that love can’t be
real, anyway,
the boy thought, devastated because he couldn’t believe in
what she was saying.

Nick didn’t understand why she was telling that. It was obviously
not true, but she seemed very smart and very secure to be crazy. Was everything
a kind of joke? A game? Maybe she only wanted to play a trick on him. Since
there wasn’t anybody around, he pretended to believe, and answered with an
ironic voice:

“Are they close?”

“Close your eyes.” She said smiling, holding his hands.

In an instant, they were in another place. They were inside a
hi-tech spaceship and no longer in that abandoned hut.

The boy was shocked! If that was really a ship, he was certainly
taken to the control room. The technology that could be seen was something
amazing, and he could observe a number of instruments which functions he could
barely imagine.

One of the walls was partly made of transparent glass, which allowed
the crew to observe the exterior. He came closer and saw that they were parked
next to a cloud, which was probably hiding the flying object. Looking from
above, everything seemed extremely small.

He couldn’t see, but the aircraft had a discoid shape, which favored
the aerodynamics of motion in outer space, making it easy to travel at high
speed.

Holographic screens lined the edges of the room, reflecting lights
of all colors and shades. It was all very intriguing.

Still feeling lost; he admired everything around him, inside the ship.
Perplexed, he recognized the Milky Way, slowly turning in a projected holograph.
This image highlighted a blue planet, which was located right in the Arm of
Orion. He could recognize this planet in any image. It was the Earth.
“The
most beautiful and perfect planet of the Universe.”
he thought while he
analyzed the image projected in three dimensions.

And he also recognized the Andromeda galaxy. A planet stood out in
this holography, as if it was being monitored. There was something special about
it and he was curious, however, he wasn’t comfortable to ask Zara, since he was
so lost within his thoughts.

He continued to observe the things around him. The glass walls and holographic
screens covered a lot of the space but he also noticed something made of
silver, a clear shade, which reflected light and spread it through the entire
place. Those surfaces were smooth and shiny.
“Is this some kind of
technology to save energy?”
He wondered.

The size of that control room was something that also intrigued
Nicolas; the room seemed to have more than a hundred square meters, and he soon
imagined the size of the whole ship. He couldn’t see any buttons or bars and apparently
the entire control was managed by haplographies.

He felt a scent of jasmine in the air, Zara’s perfume.
“What a
nice smell!”
he thought while breathing the pure air of the ship.

Nicolas was still amazed and took some time to believe in what he
was seeing. Everything was new, intriguing, and he couldn’t understand what was
around him, although he was trying to absorb it all.

Zara, noticing the young man’s insecurity, began to explain.

“Nicolas, calm down. I know it’s too much, but I’ll explain
everything to you.”

His was lost, just staring through the ship. He couldn’t believe that
what she said it wasn’t a joke, but the truth. There was more to know than he
ever imagined. He was still confused, without understanding exactly what was
going on, but he turned to Zara, waiting to hear the rest of the explanation.

“We’re here in a mission, and I needed to find you, for a very
special reason, that I’ll explain later. I joined the college where you study
as a student and it was easy to get transferred, because we can access the IT systems
of the Earth information. I did this with the purpose to get close to you. But
when I secured this human body, I had the same sensations and wishes you have!
It was inevitable to feel something for you; I surrendered myself with no
inhibitions and it was great. Keep calm, please. Our commandant Sivoc will
explain things better for you. Don’t be afraid.”

He couldn’t understand what she was saying, but there wasn’t much
time to think, because three men approached from a door he hadn’t noticed
before. Judging by the technology he could see in the ship, he deduced that
those beings weren’t from Earth either. And despite Zara’s words, that were
trying to calm him down, he began to sweat, and his heart began to race.

Nervous, he was considering a thousand possibilities,
“Will they
suck my mind or make any kind of experience? Will they take me into a trip
through the space? I’m going to wake up, I must be dreaming. I trust in Zara,
but now I know that I don’t really know her. What if this trust isn’t deserved?
And what if her, along with these three unknown men, want to harm me?”

There was no more time for his conclusions. Soon, one of them
approached and, judging by his attitude it was clear to understand that he was
the commandant.

“Greetings! My name is Sivoc; I’m the commandant of this ship. We
came from a planet located in a galaxy close to the Milky Way.”

The commandant had a human appearance. He was an Asian, very tall
and wore a navy blue uniform with a cloth that shone when touched by the light.
He had a serious semblance and he was concerned when he looked at the other
members of the ship, who stood behind him, in silence. Zara was also there,
only observing the scene that was happening.

“I’m... My name is Nicolas. I live here in Los Angeles.” He
answered, quivering.

The commandant smiled, trying to make him feel more comfortable.

“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you in person, Nicolas. We already
know a lot about you, but let me introduce you the rest of the crew. This is
Drako, the responsible for the trip’s control instruments and he is also our information
engineer. The other one is Tibor, chief of security. The only female crewmember
is Zara, the doctor of the mission and the genetic engineer, and you already meet
her.”

Nicolas looked at each one while they were being introduced. They
all looked like humans, like Zara and Sivoc. Drako used hair cut close to the
scalp; he was also very tall. He barely showed any reaction when Nick greeted
him and he quickly went back to the navigation system, from where he could
control everything with just his fingertips on the holographic panels of the
ship. The last member, Tibor, was the tallest and had a very serious semblance;
his skin was clear and framed by muscled that showed a lot of strength.

“We come from the planet Vida, which is three millions years distant
from your planet. I am talking about the light speed, of course.” Added Sivoc.

Nicolas observed his hosts with attention, and there would be
things, to be revealed later, which would leave him much more surprised than
that vision, but at that moment he didn’t know about it yet. He continued
observing the ship’s equipments, which were still so impressive, but it looks
like the navigator could control all the tasks by the power of his mind,
telepathically.

“Drako, get us out of here, immediately.” Said Sivoc, trying to not
get too much attention.

He turned to Nicolas and explained his request:

“Although the space technology from the Earth government is somewhat
outdated for our standards, they have special radar that can detect us. And it
important to no reveal our presence and we need to get out of here with some
urgency. You can be assured, however, that we’ll not do you any harm.”

The vehicle began to takeoff at high speed and rose into the sky.
Nicolas was looking at the Moon through the window and saw that it was getting
closer. In a matter of seconds, it began to grow and became more beautiful.
Soon, he was looking at its craters, and they were huge and gray, like a big
and sandy desert, without water and no life at all.

Suddenly, the ship stopped. After traveling to the exosphere, he
felt his body and soul relaxing a little, noticing that his dream had finally
became reality, and it was much better than he had seen in books and movies.
For the first time in his life, he was capable to observe closely the
grandiosity of the cosmos: the sun and its brightness, the planets in our Solar
System, the stars so distant. It was magnificent.

The Moon was clear, illuminated by the sun, with rays of light shining
around. It was a wonderful image; raters of different shapes and sizes were
visible from inside the ship.

The boy already liked to admire the natural satellite in the days of
full moon, even by distance, but it was even so much better to look closely. On
the right he could see the blue planet he called home, the giant home of
billions of human beings. He felt like an astronaut, and then he thought about
how euphoric they must have felt when they saw our planet and satellite, for
the first time.

After that, he left his admiration aside and began to think again in
the reason of this contact. “
What could those beings from outer space want
with a person like me, an ordinary student who has no connections with
scientific or technological researches
?”

For an instant, he observed Zara and remembered the kisses and the
embraces they shared. She looked him in the eyes as she always did since they
met and sweetly smiled, as if she understood his thoughts. Nicolas answered
with a smile, but deep inside he was scared.

Sivoc, as if he knew what Nicolas was thinking, soon approached and
began to explain what the purpose of the mission was.

“Nicolas, I know it sounds very weird the way we’ve approached you and
especially the fact that we brought you inside the ship with no further
explanations. The truth is that we need you to help us to solve a serious
problem in our planet.”

The human didn’t understand anything. All that mystery had no connection
to him. He always dreamed about knowing the universe; but he never intended to
travel to other planets, especially with people he barely knew. Regarding Zara,
he didn’t even know if she was the woman he imagined.

“
How can I be useful to these beings that have so much technology
?”
he reflected.

“Many of our ancestors had landed here on Earth.” Drako joined the
conversation. “We have information that the government of your planet tried to
capture us to obtain information about our technology and knowledge. We’re here
in a mission, and you can help us to protect our planet.”

That was when Nicolas became more confused.
“How can I succeed in
protect their planet? As I can see, they could be much more useful to help my
planet, showing a way to preserve human life, especially regarding the
population and consumption growth and to shortage of food and water. They have
much more technology and knowledge. More than I have, obviously
.” He
thought. Zara approached him and said:

“The truth is that we are actually humans, just like you but from the
future.”

He became astonished with that revelation.

Those instants inside the ship seemed like hours, it was as if time
had stopped. Nicolas was more comfortable. Maybe it was an effect of the pure
oxygen he was breathing, which made him feel as if nothing around him mattered.

That was definitely a unique experience, he couldn’t understand what
was happening, but he was paying attention to the information.

After knowing about something so tremendous, he needed to know more,
and Zara continued:

“According to you time calendar, live on the Century 641. We managed
to travel in time due to the technological advances of our people. We
discovered gaps in space-time, what the physicists of your planet call
warm-holes
.
We travel these long distances between our planets very quickly.”

Sivoc interrupted the conversation.

“Zara, we’d better be honest with Nicolas. He need to trust us, and
the truth about our mission will show him that our intentions are the best
possible and that we come in good faith. First tell him our main purpose, and
then reveal the whole story from the beginning, so our visitor will understand
better why we are here and our connection with his planet. Besides, we know he
is in danger. The other ship from our planet is looking for him and they won’t
have the same compassion for Nicolas.”