Chapter Five: Salt
June 11, 12,367 A.D.
"I'm sorry, sir, we still have not detected any trace of the Time Flyer", the technician reported, hands clasped in front of her body.
Cedric G let out a sigh. "Keep trying", he said, a large hand over his mouth to hide a grimace. "I apologize for disturbing you."
The technician gave a nod and left the small office, closing the glass door behind her. With the technician gone, Cedric G allowed himself to let out a forlorn groan as he slumped into a nearby chair, his fingers massaging his temples. He glanced up through the glass front of his office out to the control room of the Temporal Exploration Guild's control room, the floor abuzz with activity as it had been for the last two days since the Time Flyer had disappeared from their screens.
Cedric G. shook his head as he remembered the events of that day. He remembered the last transmission Cassiopeia had sent, the first of the mission, and how she had abruptly ended the call. It was then that they had detected the Time Flyer entering the time vortex out of two hundred million years A.D. before suddenly disappearing. A stunned silence filled the control room as everyone starred at the screen where the red dot indicating the Time Flyer's location in the time-space continuum had once been before a buzz of confused voices filled the room.
Cedric had stood dumbfounded as he saw the last indication of his only daughter disappear. He barely heard the technicians ask him what their next course of action should be. At this Cedric snapped out of his trance, instructing that a transmission be sent on all temporal bandwidths and that every corner of the time-space continuum be searched. He even ordered historians to look over historical documents in the hopes of finding mention of anything remotely like the Time Flyer to try and pinpoint a possible location.
But now, after two days, there was still no word of the Time Flyer or Cassiopeia. Cedric turned away from the control room, adjusting the glass's opacity to block the room from his sight. Now isolated in his office, he turned to the window looking over the snow-covered cityscape before him. He let out a breath, leaving a circle of condensation as he did, and watched the windswept snow whip across the mountainous city, the lights of a thousand windows shining through the frosty haze like fireflies from the enclosed parkland in the city's center.
Despite himself, he found himself chuckling as he remembered a time when he and Cassiopeia had gone to the parkland one evening when she was six. For nearly the entire time she had tried futilely to catch the glowing insects in her hands, her brow furrowed with determination after each failed attempt. She had been thrilled when Cedric had managed to snag one in his hands, peeking into the cracks of his fingers to see the faint green glow as the insect flew about inside its new confines before Cedric let it go. He remembered sitting against a large oak tree with Cassiopeia in his arms, a warm breeze rustling the leaves as his daughter drifted off to sleep…
Cedric shook his head and was surprised to feel a stray tear rolling down his cheek before disappearing into his beard. Get a hold of yourself, dammit, he scolded himself. She's fine. Cassiopeia is fine.
It was then that his thoughts went to his wife. While he himself had never been a religious man, his wife had been a devotee to the Church of Soter, one of the many religious sects that had formed with the onset of the Freeze. He remembered her often kneeling at the small altar she had set up in their bedroom, praying for the safety of her family and other matters. Cedric had never prayed before, he had never been taught and never bothered to learn, but there in his office he uttered the best prayer he could.
"Please", he whispered to anyone who was listening. "Please, let her be safe."
It was then that a knocking at his door roused from his thoughts. Opening the door, he saw the technician from earlier standing there, an excited gleam in her eyes.
"Sir", she said. "I believe we found something."
. . . . .
October 15, 5,036,457 A.D.
"Emergency vortex exit", the computer announced as the Time Flyer emerged from the time vortex. The chaotic blue of the vortex gave way to cloudless cerulean skies with a flash as the timeship began to descend upon the ground below. The thrum of the engines began to die down as the Time Flyer settled down onto the flat ground, white dust swirling around the vessel as it settled with a thud.
At the helm Cassiopeia let out a sigh of relief. Despite her best efforts she had been unable to regain control of the Time Flyer, the console locked in the timeship's retreat protocol. It wasn't until the Time Flyer emerged from the time vortex that the helm's controls were unlocked, giving her the ability to land the vessel safely.
Cassiopeia swiveled her chair around to face her passengers. In chairs around the table in the middle of the room Ethan, Emily, and Luis were seated, unsure expressions on their faces.
"Is everyone alright?" Cassiopeia asked.
"Yeah, we're fine", Emily said, stroking the squibbon's mantle, the terrasquid chittering nervously.
"Where are we?" Luis asked, getting up from his seat.
"That is… a good question", Cassiopeia said as she rose from her seat and made her way to the center table. On a console at the table's end she pressed a button, causing the black dome at the center of the table to glow blue. "Computer, pinpoint geological and chronological position."
"Calculating", the computer replied, a holographic map of the world materializing above the table. "Location: Mediterranean salt flats, five million years A.D."
"Salt flats?" Ethan said. "I may be no geography whiz, but I'm pretty sure the Mediterranean is an ocean."
"Maybe once", Cassiopeia said as the hologram faded away. "But a lot of time has passed since then."
"Right", Ethan said, nodding his head absentmindedly. "Now, would you mind telling us what exactly happened back there?"
"Well", Cassiopeia said. "I assume that the Time Flyer projected that it was in an era before time travel was invented, along with it's external sensors detecting the authorities approaching, and made an emergency time jump in an attempt to prevent discovery."
"And we came along for the ride", Luis added.
"Yes", Cassiopeia said, clutching her arm. "But, not to worry, I believe that I can now return you back to your own time now that I have regained control of the Time Flyer."
"Alright, cool", Luis said as Cassiopeia walked over to the helm.
Cassiopeia returned to the helm and waved her hands over the console. However, instead of the piloting interface, several yellow boxes with the words 'WARNING. ENGINE TEMPERATURE CRITICAL' followed by a steady beeping.
"Uh oh", Cassiopeia said, waving her hands again only to be met with more beeping.
"What do you mean 'uh oh?'" Luis asked walking closer to the helm.
"Um", Cassiopeia said pulling up a diagnostic screen of the Time Flyer's engines. An image of the Time Flyer's engines colored red displayed, a temperature bar flashing red. Cassiopeia gulped. "Well… computer, status on the engines."
"Engine temperature critical", the computer replied. "Guidance system offline. Please standby."
"Ah", Cassiopeia said, a nervous chuckle escaping her lips. "It would seem as if we are stuck."
"Stuck?" Luis asked, an alarmed tone in his voice. "Stuck, as in unable to move?"
"That's the general meaning of stuck, buddy", Ethan said, now joining Luis by the helm, Emily following behind, the squibbon in her arms.
Luis shot an annoyed look towards Ethan as he turned back to Cassiopeia, who was scanning over several holographic displays. "But, Cassiopeia, you mean to tell us that we are stuck here, no moving?"
"Well", Cassiopeia said, desperately looking over the console for anything that would help. However, finding none, she watched as the displays faded and the console went blank save for a large yellow exclamation point in the center of the glass console. She let out a defeated sigh before turning to Luis. "In short, yes."
"Is that a problem?" Emily asked.
"Oh, no. No problem", Cassiopeia replied, taking to her feet, a forced smile on her face. "All we have to do is wait for the engines to cool down and the computer to recalibrate itself. That should only take… Um, computer?"
"Estimated time: thirty-six hours", the computer replied.
"Thirty-six hours", Cassiopeia said. "After that everything should be fine." As Cassiopeia said those words, she could feel her heart pounding as her mind raced with the implications of what had just transpired. She had crashed a state-of-the-art timeship into the distant past, displaced three humans from that era, possibly contaminating the timeline, and had now managed to strand them in the middle of a salt flat five million years in the future. While she could return her unintended passengers to their own time as well as the squibbon, there was the matter of her mission, and with her robot crew disabled along with her current situation, she would have a difficult time explaining this to the Guild. No, the Guild and her father.
"Um, Cassiopeia, are you alright?" the voice of Luis asked.
Cassiopeia blinked as she snapped out of her thoughts. She looked to see the three primitives staring at her with concern in their eyes. It was then that she realized that she had begun to sweat and that her breath was coming quicker. "Oh, yes", Cassiopeia said hastily, uttering a nervous chuckle. "I'm fine, just fine. The finest I have ever been. I just need to, um, figure things out. Excuse me." With that Cassiopeia hastily exited the bridge, leaving Ethan, Luis, and Emily alone.
"Do you think we should follow her", Luis asked, looking to his friends.
"I think she needs a little time to herself right now, dude", Ethan replied, having sensed the future girl's apprehension.
"Ethan's right", Emily said. "She's obviously going through a lot right now, so it would be best to give her some space."
Luis and Ethan nodded at this while the squibbon warbled in agreement. It was then that the three heard a long cry coming from outside the Time Flyer. They moved over to the helm and looked out the spherical windows to see Cassiopeia pacing back and forth in front of the Time Flyer, kicking at the white ground and clutching her auburn hair.
"On second thought", Emily said as she watched the display. "Maybe we should give her a lot of time."
. . . . .
The sun beat down on the desolate white landscape as Luis made his way across the salt flat. He wiped a sheen of sweat from his brow as he stopped to rest, his breath heavy in a mixture of fatigue and heat. He glanced back over his shoulder to the flat expanse he had just come from, the insectoid form of the Time Flyer a small metallic blue speck on the horizon. He let out a sigh as he straightened himself up to continue.
"Why am I the one being sent out in the sweltering sun to find the girl?" Luis asked aloud, the sound of crunching salt beneath his feet. "Because you're the reason we're here", he replied, doing his best mocking Ethan impression. "If it hadn't been for your stupid rocket, we wouldn't be in this mess."
Luis sighed. While he hated to admit it, Ethan was right. Were it not for his insistence on having Ethan and Emily help launch his rocket they wouldn't be stuck here to begin with. Perhaps they should've gone bowling like normal people instead.
After Cassiopeia had left the bridge, Luis and the others watched as the girl paced around the vessel for several minutes, her fingers intertwined in her auburn hair. After a while they watched as she suddenly began to walk away from the Time Flyer, her blue clad form turning into a small speck on the horizon before disappearing completely. While Luis had suggested following the girl, Emily insisted that they let her be. With that, the three began the wait for their host to return from her desert outing.
Two hours passed, and Cassiopeia still had not returned. During this time Luis had studied the two robots that lay sprawled on the floor of the bridge, the green and blue cased machines like the one they had helped Cassiopeia retrieve, while Ethan and Emily explored the interior of the Time Flyer. During this time Emily had stumbled across several gadgets in what they had assumed was the living quarters, which further occupied Luis a he tried to figure out what the small bits of tech were, while also preventing the squibbon from running of with them. Emily had also stumbled across a collection of thin books of glossy paper, only to be disappointed that the contents were written in runes she could not read and settled to looking over the few illustrations scattered between the pages.
Eventually, Ethan commented on how long Cassiopeia had been gone. Emily admitted that the girl had been gone for longer than she had expected she would and suggested that someone go out to look for her.
"I volunteer Luis", Ethan had said.
"What?" Luis exclaimed. "Why me?"
"Because", Ethan said, crossing his arms. "If it weren't for you and your rocket we wouldn't be in this mess."
Luis cast a look towards Emily, the redhead seated in a booth with the squibbon in her lap. "I have to go with Ethan on this, Luis", she said, the terrasquid in her lap warbling in agreement.
Luis scoffed. While he found the two's reasoning to be flawed, he was not in a mood to argue. He also wanted to get home as soon as possible and having the only one who knew how to fly the Time Flyer lost in the middle of a giant salt flat would not help. So, with a sigh, Luis made his way down into the cargo bay of the Time Flyer and opened the hatch to the outside world.
A blinding white light filled the room as the hatch opened, causing Luis to shield his eyes with his arms. As his eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness, he looked out to see a landscape of flat land stretching out for miles, a white layer of salt covering the parched ground, contrasting heavily with the cloudless sky above. Taking a breath, Luis stepped out onto the gangplank and onto the parched earth, the crunch of salt filling the silent air. Cautiously he walked further out onto the land and out of the shadow of the Time Flyer, wincing as the sun beat down onto his skin. Ignoring his discomfort, he made his way to the front of the large vessel where he had last seen Cassiopeia. On the ground he could see what appeared to be footprints in the previously pristine salt later leading in the direction he judged to be north-east. Taking his bearings, Luis began to follow the trail of footprints out into the desert of salt.
Luis wiped his brow again, looking ruefully as the glistening liquid on his arm. After walking for what felt like at least fifteen minutes, the trail of footprints still went deeper into the salt flat. Luis wondered how far Cassiopeia had gone and what she was even doing out here. Granted he had noticed that something was bothering her but going out into the middle of a desert in the distant future was hardly a way to cope with your problems. But then again maybe people thought differently in the future.
It was then that Luis began to take stock of his surroundings. While at first he had only seen the landscape as a simple expanse of white salty ground, if the Time Flyer's computer was right he was standing on the ancient seafloor of the Mediterranean sea. Every grain of salt on the flat ground had once been diluted in the blue waters of the sea that had been the center of trade for powerful empires. Looking around he noticed that the land, desolate as it was, was beautiful in a strange sort of way. In the distance Luis could make out what appeared to be hills in the distance, possibly the remains of undersea mountains if not the beginnings of a continental shelf. Looking closer, Luis noticed something in the distance, a blue spot against the white ground. Luis blinked and looked again and saw that the blue spot was a person wearing a blue jumpsuit.
Luis let out a sigh of relief at the sight of Cassiopeia. Quickening his pace, Luis made his way towards the girl. As he got closer, he heard something floating over the wind, something that sounded somewhat like a flute. He also noticed that Cassiopeia was moving her arms in slow motions, her leg occasionally rising and settling back into position.
Finally, Luis reached Cassiopeia. Now only a few feet behind, Luis could see that Cassiopeia was standing on a stone, her auburn hair, once pulled back in a ponytail, was unkept and darkened with sweat. Her slow movements reminded Luis of some manner of tai chi he had seen a group of seniors doing in the park on summer, the music, a tranquil melody of flutes and drums, emanated from a wristband on her right arm. Over the soft music, Luis could hear the girl uttering something in a strange language before saying something in a reverent tone.
"Though walk in lands unknown, though I am far from the sight of my people, you remain at my side. My path is laid out by your hand, the way is set, and I shall not fear. Soter'kai", Cassiopeia said, her hands clasped to her chest. Her forehead shined with sweat, her cheeks reddened by the sun.
"Um, excuse me", Luis said, clearing his parched throat.
Cassiopeia gasped at the intrusion. She turned on her heels towards the source of the intrusion to see Luis standing a few feet away from her.
"Oh", Cassiopeia said, hopping off the rock. "It's you. I did not expect to see you out here."
I didn't expect to find myself out here either, Luis thought, wiping yet another sheen of sweat from his brow, grains of salt sprinkling his arm. He then said, "So… any particular reason you're…kof… out in the middle of nowhere?"
"Ah, that. I…" Cassiopeia replied, brushing a few sweat drenched strands of hair from her forehead. "I just required some time to think. I apologize for my sudden departure."
"S'okay", Luis said. "We were all just concerned for you after you're little, ahem, episode outside."
Cassiopeia grimaced as a blush shone through her slight sunburn. "You saw that then?"
"Hard to miss it", Luis raplied. "What with that bloodcurdling scream of yours." Luis chuckled, "You all got an extra set of lungs in the future?"
Cassiopeia looked over at Luis quizzingly. "You do not possess auxiliary lungs in your time?" she asked.
Luis blinked. "Wait, you're serious?" he asked.
"Indeed", Cassiopeia replied. "You did not think that human physiology would remain the same after ten thousand years, did you?"
Luis considered. "I figured there would be some changes, but not as radical as a second pair of lungs."
"Well, not exactly a pair of lungs, per say", Cassiopeia said. "I suppose they are more akin to extra alveoli in the back of the primary lungs. But I suppose you would prefer discussing anatomy on the way back to the Time Flyer."
"And get out of this sun, gladly", Luis said. With that he and Cassiopeia began to make their way back to the Time Flyer.
A few minutes passed without either saying a word. The only sound shared between them was the sound of salt crunching under their feet and the wind blowing across the salt flat. "So, that thing you were doing on the rock, what do you call that?" Luis asked, breaking the silence.
"Kander'tantz", Cassiopeia replied. "A sort of meditation that helped me relax at the academy."
Kander'tantz, Luis mused, letting the strange words run through his mind. Language sure has changed over the centuries. "We have something like that in my time, tai chi we call it. It's suppose to have some health benefits, but I don't see it."
"Maybe you should try it when you return to your era", Cassiopeia suggested.
"Perhaps", Luis said. "Also, that thing you were muttering on that rock, mind telling me what that was?"
Cassiopeia raised an eyebrow towards Luis.
"Just out of curiosity", Luis said, raising his hands defensively.
Cassiopeia sighed. "Promise not to laugh."
"Scout's honor", Luis said, crossing his heart.
"It was a prayer my mother taught me as a child", Cassiopeia said. "Something to help me when I am feeling lost."
"Are you?" Luis asked.
Cassiopeia was silent for a few moments. "Yes", she replied. "You could say I am in a bit of a predicament that I am unsure of how to alleviate."
"Want to talk about it?" Luis asked. Cassiopeia shot him an unsure look. "I find talking about a problem helps me to find an answer. A little trick I learned in study class."
Cassiopeia considered. Perhaps explaining her situation would help her reach a conclusion. But then there was the matter of contaminating the timeline, telling these primitives anything could have unseen consequences. But then again, anything she told them couldn't possibly have any more effect than what they have seen already, especially about events that would not take place until long after their bloodlines had thinned to nothing.
"I believe I would like that", Cassiopeia said. "But what I have to say also concerns the others, so I hope you won't mind waiting until we return to the Time Flyer."
"Fair enough", Luis said, wiping another sheen of sweat from his brow. "In the meantime, tell me more about these extra lungs of yours."