Endless silence of the post-heath death universe was suddenly disrupted. Strong source of exotic energy materialized in the void, and created a rupture in spacetime. After short while, there was a bright explosion, and a spaceship appeared.
It was a relativly simple spaceship, typical for the civilization of space explorers it came from. Good for quick interstellar travel. This spaceship had a crew of one person. She was a bit suprised seeing that the time travel device worked.
"I'm alive?" said the pilot. She checked her medical status. No injuries, nothing got displaced, everything was completly fine. She checked the spaceship. Nothing seemed out of order. She still had enough fuel for next jump. Pilot checked the status of storage. Antimatter cases and negative energy batteries were intact. All of the parts that she needed were intact. Nothing got damaged during the travel. Pilot smiled.
"Omega, you did it again. Everything went perfect." she said aloud to herself. She noticed that she missed one important detail. Current date.
00:00, 31 december, Infinity. Exacly when she was going to go. The end of the universe.
Omega looked at the window. She saw exacly nothing. She doubted there was a single particle left inside the cosmic event horizont at this point. It would make dealing with antimatter easier, but it still felt loney. Well, if everything goes according to the plan, I will meet others soon, she thought. She got an idea. If she managed to build a makeshift time machine and teleported herself to the end of spacetime, maybe she could find someone else who got similar idea. Omega turned on tachyonic sensors, to find anything within few light years.
Sensors were working for few minutes, while the pilot was again checking if everything is in order. Suddenly, a beeping sound announced that sensors have found something. Omega checked what it it. Some kind of small construct. Asteroids didn't exist anymore, so it must be a spaceship! Omega thought as she smiled. She checked if she had enough fuel to go there and still be able to jump in time. She had. Single thought appeared telling her to not get close to unidentified spaceship, but Omega didn't achieved everything she did by doing things the safe way. She took the seat, started the engines, and flew towards the fellow space travelers.
Omega flew for a short time. The construct was quite close. She finally stopped next to it. No radio signals were detected. Omega scanned the construct to check if it is still working. She found out that it was made from… wood and glass? Someone build a wooden spaceship. She heard about such things, but always thought they were just an old AGI tales. Omega turned on lights to see the strange construct. It didn't resemble spaceship at all. It was more like a building. It had wooden roof, wooden walls with glass windows, and glass door in front. Why there is a wooden building in an empty universe?, Omega thought. The fact it didn't decayed must mean it had something shielding it from entropy.
Omega went up from her seat and put on the exploration suit. This building was strange, and she would find out why it was here. Maybe it is a spaceship, and whoever uses it made it look like a wooden building? Commander might have told her once to not rush into every ruin she finds out, but she was now on her own and making her own choices. Just in case, she grabbed a plasma blaster. She opened the hatch, and slowly floated from her spaceship to the strange building.
The explorer reached the building. It didn't look like there was anyone inside. She carefully opened the door and turned on the flashlight. She floated inside and fell on the floor. It seems the building had an artifical gravity generator. It was strange, the scan didn't found any traces of it. Omega got back up and looked around. Everything was covered in dust and rust. There were old tables and barrels scattered around. It resembled a canteen on an old ship.
Omega noticed something at the other end of the room. There was a metal wall, and next to it, a wooden construction. Inside of it, there was a skeleton. Probably the crew of this ship. Omega hoped she would find someone alive, but it seems that no one was here. She decided to take a look at the skeleton to learn more about who it once was. She floated above the floor to avoid falling into holes and getting messed up by artifical gravity. Her leg started to hurting at the thought, but no, she was fine. She reached the skeleton. It didn't resemble any species she know.
Suddenly, the skeleton moved. It seemed to be looking at Omega. She instinctively drew her blaster to defend herself. Skeleton was only staring at her. Then, she heard a strange, distressing sounds inside of her head. She pointed her blaster at the skeleton.
"Stop whatever you are doing!" she shouted. Then she realized it wouldn't hear her throught the helmet and vaccum of space, if it even could hear anything.
"Excuse me. Welcome to the Krusty Krab. May I take your order?" Omega heard a voice inside her head. She keept looking at the skeleton with a dumbfounded expression.
"You can understand me? she asked
"Of course. Now, do you want anything?" replied the skeleton. Omega guessed it used some kind of psionic powers. She lowered her weapon. "What is this place?" she asked.
"Krusty Krab. If you don't want to order anything, stop wasting my time." it was clear that the skeleton didn't want to talk to her. It would be nice to eat something other than astronaut rations for a chage, she thought.
"What do you have on the menu?" Omega asked. Skeleton pointed at metal board hanging above. It was rusted, and there were some symbols on it. She guessed they were letters, but she didn't understood any of them. The door next to the skeleton opened. Another skeleton walked out. It was shorter and more rectangular than the one Omega was talking to. Probably a different species.
"May I suggest Krabby Patty? Local special and favourite?" said the rectangular skeleton
"Okay" replied Omega.
"Do you want fries and cola with it?" asked the taller one
"Yes"
"That would be three infinities of dollars."
Omega was confused "I don't have infinite money with me. Why does it cost so much?"
"Krabs wanted me to adjust prices for inflation."
"Just add it to the tab" said the smaller skeleton
"Okay. I need your name and adress"
"Omega Night. Pioneer Street 12B/21. New Glenn, UC"
Tall skeleton pretended to write this on a note, then gave this imaginary note to the small skeleton.
"On my way. You may take a seat, I will bring your order soon." said the small skeleton and went back throught the door. Taller skeleton sat back in a chair and put his hands forwards, as if it was reading newspaper.
"What are you doing?" asked Omega. She still wanted to learn more about why there was a restaurant at the end of eternity.
"I am reading fashion magazine. Take your seat."
"But there is no… nevermind." Omega decided to leave the skeleton. She found the least damaged barrel and sat down. She checked the clock. First, she would eat her breakfast and then will go to work. She already spent too much time on exploring, and couldn't afford to waste more. Her leg hurt, but she ignored it.
The shorter skeleton opened the door again, and walked towards her. It was carrying a plate with the meal. "One Krabby Patty with fries and cola" said the skeleton.
"Thank you" replied Omega. She checked the air pressure. Despite them being in a vaccum, cola was still in the cup. Krabby Patty and fries looked normal, and after scanning, Omega confirmed that they were edible.
"Would you like to use the teleporter?" said the skeleton
"What teleporter?" asked Omega. The skeleton put a small device on the table. "Just point one end at the Krabby Patty and the other at your helmet. It will be teleported so you can eat it easier. It was made by my old friend."
Omega turned on the teleporter. The burger appeared inside her helmet. She took a bite. During her travels, she ate lots of strange meals, but the Krabby Patty was the best thing she ate in her entire live. "It's delicious", she said to the skeleton.
"Thank you." he answered.
Omega ate the Krabby Patty quickly. It was so long since she ate normal food. She looked at the skeleton "It's great. But I wonder why do you serve it here, or now? And who are you?"
"I'm Spongebob Squarepants, and I'm the cook here at the Krusty Krab. At the cash there is my friend, Squidward. We aren't getting as many customers as we once did, but from time to time someone manages to find us."
"So, you work here? Who is the owner of this restaurant?"
"Mr. Krabs. Haven't seen him in a long time, but he will come back soon, I hope."
"How long were you working here?"
Spongebob thought for a moment and counted on fingers "That would be four kalpas and fourteen aeons, give or take few eras."
Interkalpic entity that's actually nice? Interesting, thought Omega. She meet some of them before, but they didn't look anything like Spongebob. They also weren't exacly the talktive types. There was also that one jerk in that pyramid…
"And you, who are you?" asked Spongebob
Commander did warn her about trusting random strangers, but Spongebob seemed nice. Maybe he could help her. She decided to take the risk and tell him the truth "Call me Omega. I'm an explorer and researcher."
"Cool. What do you research?"
"Currently, I'm traveling to a new universe." Omega said with a smile.
"Really? You can do that?"
"I made a prototype of a machine that would allow me to travel in time to another universe. I traveled here to get as close to the edge as possible, to save up on energy."
Spongebob looked at his wist, as if he had a clock "Won't it be easier to just wait? I think the next big boom is just around the corner."
Omega expected that Spongebob knew that the universe was ending. If he was indeed few kalpas old, he must have a way to outlast them. Considering what she found out about the future, she didn't think his method would work anymore. "I can't really do this. I can't travel forward anymore, and time travel to the past is impossible…"
"It is possible. I did it a few times."
Omega was suprised. She didn't belive him. "Do you have any proof?"
"No, Squidward destroyed the time machine long ago."
Omega was dissapointed. Backwards time travel would fix everything, but she knew it was impossible. Yet, she still had a plan. "Since I can't travel backward, and can't travel forward, I will go downward!"
Spongebob looked slightly confused. "How are you going to travel downward in time?"
Omega didn't know if she was allowed to share all her findings, and doubted Spongebob knew extradimensional engineering, so she decided to go for simple example "I suppose you don't have a ribbon or paper here?" To her suprise, Spongebob gave her one.
Omega started explaining "Imagine that the three-dimensional space that we currently are in is a single point. As you probably know, there are more spatial dimesions, that separate different regions of three-dimensional space. Time however is one-dimensional, going always forward. Therefore we might draw an universe in single given point of time as a line. Time moves in one direction, so an universe viewed in every point of its time at once would look like rectangle. Once an universe ends, another one begins. I have found proof that the entire collection of universes in every single point of time, would look like this" she put one end of the strip to other one, in a way that it made a half-turn "I plan to go from here" she pointed at one side of the ribbon "to there." She pointed at the opposite side.
Spongebob didn't seem to understand this "And how would this help you?"
"I will trick the universe into thinking I went forwards, while actually going backwards, bypassing the blockade and teleporting myself very far into the past of the multiverse." Omega said. At least I hope so.
"Interesting. How might I help you?" asked the skeleton.
"I would need a lot of energy and some help with testing." answered the traveler.
Omega went back to her spaceship. She started setting up the machine. Multiple pieces of technology, most of she had only a slight clue of how they worked, filled the space next to Krusty Krab. She slowly and carefully put them into their place. Spongebob was helping, placing some of the machines at the roof. He was unable to leave the building, but could stand on top of it, despite the lack of gravity there. The two were talking about their adventures.
"…and that's how I almost got stuck on the Moon." – finished Spongebob
"I wish I could meet Sandy, she seems like an interesting person." replied Omega.
"You two would become friends for sure."
Omega helped Spongebob in connecting Krusty Krab's generators to the time machine. She connected her spaceship to it.
"I will have to use a special capsule to safely travel outside universe. I will leave my spaceship here. As a payment for the Krabby Patty."
"Okay" – replied Spongebob
Omega checked if everything was in place. Time machine was almost complete. Only thing left was the antimatter capsule. She took a special device and carefully opened the antimatter cases. Pieces of antimatter floated out of them. After putting all the pieces in place, the spherical capsule was completed. She checked on her computer if it worked, and sure, the weird alien technology was working. Capsule was floating in the centre of a ring, and was sending data.
"It works!" she shouted. Only some tests remained, and she would be ready to go. She looked at Spongebob. "Thank you for helping me."
"No problem. You remind me of my other friend. He was a very weird human" said Spongebob "or maybe he was a cat? I don't remember."
"I wonder if I find these cats in the new universe." replied Omega "Are you sure you don't want to come with me?"
"No, Mr. Krabs asked me to work here forever, so I will stay here."
Omega was quite sad that she had to leave her new friend there. She will try to find a way to go back to him. She looked at the clock. Midnight approached. She was ready to travel.
"Thank you for your help." she said to Spongebob
"No problem."
"I will be going. I hope we will meet again." Omega didn't knew if she could do this, but she would try. "Goodbye"
"Bye, friend", said Spongebob
Omega left Krusty Krab, and went back to her spaceship. She turned on the time machine. It went on without any problems. Everyting was in order. Omega took off her helmet, and connected her mind to the spaceship computer. She didn't liked connecting herself to machine, but she needed to do it in order to get fast enough reaction time.
It was time to transfer to the capsule. Omega was a bit afaird of pressing the button. It was an untested technology. She pressed the button. Brief flash of light, and she was teleported to the capsule. It worked! She looked out of small window, and saw Spongebob waving to her. Even Squidward decided to watch the start.
Matter-Antimatter shift wasn't as weird as she thought it would be. She checked the connection to main computer and to other systems of machine. Everything was working as intended. After some more testing, Omega was ready. She put on her new suit. She found it strange that it fit her so good, given that it was made by aliens aeons ago, but she won't complain. She send a flashlight sygnal to Spongebob. He switched some levels on a contraption they build together to connect Krusty Krab's energy generators to the time machine. Lights flicked, and power was successflully redirected. Omega activated power generator of old spaceship. Energy levels were more than enough to successfully teleport her to another universe.
Omega smiled. All the work, and it was complete. She wondered what she would find in the new universe. She just hoped that she was right and the universe will be made out of antimatter. She also hoped she won't get trapped inside of a star. Well, she was officially the luckiest person in existence, at least according to her former commander. She will be fine.
Her leg hurted a bit. It was getting annoying. She would need to find a doctor. Maybe that one with the red… no, the chance of pattern repeating over such a large timescale is almost non-existant. She sighed.
Countdown started. It was 23:59. One minute to start, one minute left for this universe. Omega looked at Spongebob and waved to him. He waved back. She hoped he will be fine. If he survived for so long, he probably would be.
Omega activated the Time Slowing Program. It didn't actually slow time, but for her it looked like it did. She saw seconds getting longer, then she saw milliseconds as if they were seconds. Time continued to slow down. Omega saw the nanosecond countdown slowing down. She couldn't move anymore, but she could command the capsule and the time machine with a thought, so it wasn't a problem. Finally, time slowed down to maximum. She saw planck units counting down as if they were seconds.
Activate the Tick Countdown Program, Omega thought when the countdown shown 10 plancks to midnight. Virtual screen activated inside her field of vision, and she saw 100 thousand ticks to midnight. And they thought I was talking nonsense when I told them, she thought, recalling the reaction back home when she brought this tech for research.
Ticks were counting down. Time-slowing program managed to still run. Omega looked at the virtual screen. At this point, she could see changes in quantum status in slow motion. Thinking was difficult. Finally, the countdown showed 10 ticks to midnight.
9. Everything went perfect so far, Omega thought
8. Time to move to new universe
7. I wonder how it would look like
6. I hope Spongebob and Squidward will be fine
5. I will try to meet them again
4. Here I go
3. START! – she shouted mentally
2. The machine send an energy pulse
1. In a bright flash, the capsule was successfully teleported to another universe.
0. Eternity was over. Spongebob and Squidward were free at last.