A Timeless Journey (3 page)

Finally, I had learned how the wrist-held device was called and its main functions. It was a real shock to learn the world population was at hundred times more than in 2012, which explained the existence of countless strange thousand-storey skyscrapers.

Link explained to me the best way to get out of IEF in the shortest period of time possible, was not only to learn the ways how the society rules and regulations worked, but also to have a full understanding, respect and sub-consciously accept the actual way of life on this planet. In this new world, it was important to reason before saying anything or acting upon a situation. Each individual was unique and as such, no one had the right to judge and everyone was expected to respect such individuality, regardless if they agreed with it. In this future world, there was no such thing as a standard conformist behaviour and people around here expressed their emotions and lived their lives as freely as their mind would think.

With Link explaining the meaning of life in this reality from scratch, it felt like I was I child again and this was my first day at school. If this system seemed fair and easy to understand for people born here, for me it seemed unfair as I was worried that I would never be able to understand or learn the way of life in this reality. My only hope of a normal life was to convince whoever was in charge here to let me travel back to my old reality.

I stopped thinking while I took some time to observe the circular path we were following. All the surfaces of the hallway where we walked were made of a shiny white material and it felt like I was walking in a sterile laboratory. To my amazement everything changed in a blink of an eye. The pavement under my feet turned green projecting images of grass and it felt I was really walking on grass. The walls and the ceiling reflected the outside view making me feel I was walking on the roof.

Looking at the projection of the outside, I realised we were very high up, at least five hundred stories above the base of the building or perhaps even more, I wasn’t entirely sure. There was a light mist hovering around the base of the platform and being this high up it was impossible to have a clear view of the Earth’s surface.

The team escorting me came to a halt and a slice of the shiny wall to my right slid open upwards. I was invited inside what seemed to be my containment room. It resembled more to a luxury apartment when compared to the confined space of a cell in a standard correctional facility in my old reality. The interior of the apartment had the same shiny white material as the hallway and was unbelievably clean, spacious and comfortable. Once inside, I was given my own Link device to assist me with any difficulties I might encounter while using the objects around the apartment.

The team of two read to me my rights, what I was allowed to do and what I was not and then disappeared behind the sliding door which smoothly came down once they reached the hallway. I was then left alone to rest but, although I felt tired from a sleepless night, how could I?

Less than an hour ago, I was walking on a beach in the Dominican Republic in the year 2012 and now, I was probably at the same geographical point, without a clue as to when exactly in time.

5

After being left alone for the day, the excitement and the anxiety of finding myself in the future took over me. My brain was still getting used to the idea of travelling forward in time. It felt like I was stuck in some weird dream and soon, I was going to wake up, disappointed and afraid. I had this hunger to learn everything I could from this world and being inside a dream wasn’t an option. No matter if this reality was a fruit of my imagination or not, the information was too precious to miss.

Since I wasn’t aware of how everything worked in my new accommodation, I started to explore the surroundings. The apartment was entirely airtight. It had no windows just the white shiny walls, the same type of walls as in the hallway. I thought it would be a good idea to interact with Link and ask if it could turn the walls and the pavement in the apartment into the view outside, just as it did in the hallway earlier. Link read my thoughts and in that instance the walls turned invisible, at least that was what I thought. I found myself staring at the outside view as if I was standing on a flat platform high up in the sky.

I felt the dizziness effect in my brain. My legs turned to jelly, my chest trembled with fear and my skin started to cover with sweat, when I tried to look down. Link turned the walls back into foggy white when it realised I was afraid of heights. The fact this device was able to capture my fear of heights, made me realise that Link was able to do more than read my every thought. This device was able to capture what a person felt and act upon it. From that moment, I had a fair idea as to how this device worked.

The first thought was to find out in which year I had travelled. I thought of a television, but all I got back was an historical explanation from the device explaining the definition of the word, which of course, I knew very well. Thanks to the Link’s explanation, I learned that the concept of television and newspaper was a thing of the past. I was sure at some point I was going to learn what had replaced these means of media. Meanwhile, I was still desperate to know what year it was. As soon as I finished my thought, Link’s metallic voice sounded in my head.

“You have travelled in the year 2572 and the date is June 18
th
.”

Clearly, all I had to do was think and the Link acted upon my every thought. This fact scared me for what I was going to think next. Although, a moment later, my biggest concern became the confirmation that indeed, I had travelled far into the future. It was in this moment when the truth hit hard my perception of reality as I used to know it. I found it impossible to perceive the certainty of time travel, especially when I never went searching for such an experience. I barely had some general ideas from what a person randomly reads about the subject, but to experience it first-hand, was a different thing entirely.

My lungs barely held the air and my vocal cords were about to release the biggest scream ever produced, but somehow I managed to control my feelings and kept quiet. I am born on 12
th
of July 1986, which meant I was going to be 26 years old in a month, reasonably young for my old reality. The idea of being technically 586 years old, a fossil from a faraway past without a clue about the reality I had landed in, petrified me. Not only had I a lot to learn about this faraway future, but I was facing the real prospect of not being able to return to my old time again.

I sat for a while on this U-shaped sofa, as I tried to wrap my brain around the idea of living in the future. I had to pull myself together and get used to this new world. I figured I would have plenty of time later on, to think about returning home. For the time being, I had to start leaning everything I could about this immaculate place.

My desire to have another peek of the outside view returned, although with reserves. Link, being aware of my fear of heights, it limited the projection of outside only to the top half of the walls and I was able to look down as if I was standing on a balcony. The view was breath-taking and I wondered if I had no choice to go back home, would I ever be able to live a normal life like everyone else born into this reality?

The outside view was impossible to describe in details to someone born in the 21
st
century, unless you are there in person to witness it. Even for me being there and seeing it all before my very eyes, it felt like a weird dream and impossible to comprehend. I kept staring at the skyline from my apartment, and the view of round tall buildings and the flying vehicles between them appeared unreal and yet, there it was in front of me screaming loudly its existence.

There was no food in the apartment and since my brain thought of eating, the Link explained to me the way people fed in this world. Link instructed me to take one of each colour as the main meal, which apparently was the way they fed here. All the minerals and vitamins the human body needed to survive were concentrated and available at the right amount in those pills.

A square box appeared from the floor in one of the corners and Link instructed me to push anywhere on the vertical surface. The side surface slid open sideways. Inside it was a shelf full of different coloured pills and nothing else. The pills were of a considerable size and chewable. Each colour had a different taste, but unfortunately tasted nothing like the real food.

Drinks, mostly flavoured water, came from another smaller box that aroused from the pavement next to the feeding box and it had a virtual touch screen that showed different flavours I could choose from. I noticed there were no fizzy drinks available and some of these drinks were unknown to me.

Not only this entire experience was new to me, but it aroused a sad feeling inside as well. I believed, if I had to stay in this reality for the rest of my life, I had to say goodbye to all the nice meals and drinks I was used to consume in my old reality. I chewed all the seven pills with some peach flavoured water, which was unusually light, fragrant and very tasty. A few minutes later, the feeling of hunger had gone and I didn’t feel the need to eat again despite my stomach feeling empty. It was really weird how those pills affected my body’s need to be fed, without being able to feel my stomach full.

I placed the Link device on my wrist and started to study the screen in more detail to find out what else it was able to do. The sound of Link in my head started to explain the purpose of the device and what it was capable of. I heard again, this time in more details, how this device functioned as a planetary register of all humans, both living and dead, since the system was first brought to life. It had the capability of interfering with human thoughts and acting upon them. Link was also a crime prevention device by reporting thoughts of a dangerous and criminal nature to the main system.

This device worked as an ID, as a wireless remote control to change the surroundings and more of the sort, to interact with other devices, as a bank card storing all personal financial data, it opened any door and operated everything available to man as long as the device was connected and synchronized to a personal bio microchip.

As Link explained the bio microchip or, the PBM as they called it, things got weird. Every human in this reality, as soon as they are born, had to register into the main system by some tiny bio microchip which was implanted at the back of the new-born’s neck where the spine connects with the skull. As the individual grew up, the microchip would naturally connect with the brain and the nervous system and become a permanent feature of the human body. The bio microchip was built to interact with the Link device from the start and was able to monitor not only your thoughts and feelings, but build a map of your character and behaviour patterns to determine the right place in the society.

For all of us living in 21
st
century, this would be at the top of the invasion of our privacy and probably punishable by law. However, in the 26th century, it was a necessity of life if you needed to keep law and order for over eight hundred billion people. There were many laws and regulations in this future which contradicts the way we live in the 21
st
century. Surprisingly, the laws in the future had managed to create a better and honest society.

The personal bio microchip synchronises with the Link device and prevents people from lying or committing crimes. The PBM also keeps a full record of your life’s history and uses it to find the perfect job. It also records personal medical data, thanks to the holographic scanner. PBM in connection with the Link is the only mean to store and use personal financial credit.

Understandably, here in the 21
st
century we are not able to comprehend the way in which the finances are organized in the future. However, as a way of explanation later in the story, everyone will hopefully have a clearer idea and be able to understand this is not a bad system either.

As I observed the objects around the room, I came across a small box with a blue dot on top, similar to the one I had seen inside the Emze. The Link explained the box and the blue light was a wireless holographic internet and communications unit and in that moment I realised I was staring at a modern computer. Indeed, a single blue dot on a small box, which in the future is simply called Holo, was a computer unit and much more than that as I found out later. It acted as a search engine, a television, a virtual newspaper and also it operated machinery and gadgets wherever you went, as long as you had the Link with you. Astonishingly, it became a shopping mall, the house doctor and other intriguing functions which I intend to explain in more detail later in the story.

As I was going to be locked in this apartment until the next morning, when I was told my official first day in IEF started, I thought the only way to spend the afternoon was to explore media in the year 2572 via the Holo device. As soon as I thought of using Holo, a whole wall transformed into a giant screen and the surrounding surfaces turned darker. This wall technology was an amazing invention and from what I gathered, as much as I could understand it anyway, every inch of the wall, pavement and ceiling surface was covered by this shiny material which was equivalent to our current pixel technology. Only in this case, thanks to Link, instead of touch screen technology, it was mind control technology. At first it wasn’t easy to adapt to this kind of change. Last time I had to use a computer, there was a mouse and a keyboard and now, all I had to do was sit down and think.

Before going into detail on what I saw on Holo, I want to stop for a little while and describe my new living space. The apartment was divided into four separate spaces. There were two sleeping spaces, one personal needs room (or bathroom and toilet as we in this reality call it) and a living space which indeed matched and exceeded its name. There were only a few items in the living room, the ones I could see anyway. There was an L-shaped sofa, a long rectangle table and two long egg-shaped chairs or body rests as they were called. The chairs had the ability to rotate 360degrees and even float, as I found out after sitting in one. Thanks to the Holo technology, the room could turn in whatever you wanted it to be, a dark space, a 3D cinema, a travelling pad were I was able to virtually travel to different places just by changing the view on the walls around and many more modes, some of which I already mentioned above. It even turned into a personal nightclub thanks to the party mode.

As soon as I sat in one of the egg-shaped chairs, the same effect as during my Emze ride occurred again and once again, my muscles felt like they blended or melted with the chair’s shape. Once the Link explained how the chair worked, for me it was a completely relaxed feeling, very hard to explain in words.

At first, for someone like me who didn’t have any knowledge on how to use the chair and hopelessly struggled to get free, it felt like being trapped against my will. However, after listening to the instructions given by Link, I relaxed and tried to focus on the screen in front of me. I found out I could move inside the chair more easily when I didn’t struggle to get free and managed to adjust my body to the position I wanted. It was a pleasant whole body experience, defying the gravity and at the same time applying extra gravity to your muscles. It created the best sensation of a muscle massage I have ever had.

Once my body was wrapped up from head to toe like a cocoon inside the egg-shaped chair and I was safely secured, the chair moved backwards into a forty-five degree angle and placed me in front of the screen I intended to watch. This was a gravity defying chair and it would rotate in any position I would think. After playing for a while, just as a little happy child plays with his new toys, I focused on the Holo. The way in which it operated as a media broadcaster, was really mind-blowing. Some program would choose the main news feed of the day from the local area and from around the world. There was no speaker or news reader, just the live feed and Link’s metallic voice in my head explaining anything I was unable to understand.

The events were chosen by a specific computer program and classified according to importance and relevance. It ensured there were no news readers or one sided comments that could influence certain individuals or groups of the society. Everyone was free to have their own opinions without the need of a journalist manipulating their thoughts towards a specific direction. It was the fairest way to inform the public without confusing them with the rights and wrongs. This was the wisest way not to influence different groups of society towards a specific political stream, especially considering the size of the population in the future. If the media in this reality would have been managed with the mentality of 21
st
century, it would have already had dire consequences for the 26
th
century society.