A Place Beyond Time
by Ivan Martinez
Part IV: Running Out of Time
Urien hung his head, he couldn’t believe Hugo had let the man who killed Charlie run away. Everything was falling apart right before his eyes, Elena had barely managed to figure out the time stopping machine before he was too far away to catch and now he was simply waiting for her to return with the killer. Urien simply sat in silence at their meeting table, he replayed the day's events over and over in his head until they began to blend into each other. The dull hum of the ship echoing in his ears, until eventually the door to the meeting opened. Urien snapped to attention as Hugo limped into the room, his long messy hair reaching the newly dressed wound on his thigh, Elena entered the room after him, stirring a cup of freshly brewed tea as she did. The two of them sat down not saying anything to Urien. Hugo put his feet on the table, leaning his chair back as he did. Urien wasn’t worried for him, he knew Hugo was made of tough stuff. Elena just kept stirring her tea, staring deeply into it as she did.
“So?”
Urien’s question was left unanswered for a time until Elena took a long sip of her tea. Once she put it down she explained the situation frankly.
“I couldn’t find him.”
“?”
“He was gone, ran somewhere into the desert. I couldn’t tell exactly how far but it was definitely farther than he should’ve been able to with the time he had.”
“Ugh, first Alex escaped and our mystery shooter disappeared… Why didn’t you take one of the speeders?”
She nodded her head towards Hugo who was playing with his hair.
“Someone had to patch him up.”
Urien decided not to continue this conversation any more, he got up and walked toward one of the ship’s windows near the back of the room, he looked down from the ship and took in the sight of all the graves in the cemetery.
“Once you left I took the liberty of burying Nash in a place where he wouldn’t be picked up by the ship.”
Elena took another sip of her tea, Hugo couldn’t be bothered.
“As I was…searching his body, I found that his time dilator was missing. Hugo, I can’t imagine you being the one to take it from his body.”
Hugo didn’t turn to Urien as he spoke up for the first time.
“You have one of these right? There’s no other way for you to not be affected without one.”
For the first time, Nash relaxed a bit and took out the object he got from the man he killed. The mysterious man jumped up and looked at it.
“Woah woah woah, t-this is Charlie’s, what did you do to him?”
He looked Nash straight in the eyes, Nash couldn’t help but look away.
“W-W-Wait a sec”
He jumped around to look Nash in the face again.
“What’d you say your name was?”
“A-Abel… Sheriff Abel Nash, do you know those guys in the white suits?”
The man’s eyes widened, he left out a half chuckle before he fell to his knees. He put his hands on his face and took a moment to himself and began muttering.
“I knew this mission was cursed from the beginning. This would be funny if it wasn’t such a cruel joke. Those 'people in white suits' are here from the future.”
The man looked up at Nash.
“That man you killed, his name is Charles Nash. You killed your great great great great grandson.”
Nash’s jaw dropped, he couldn’t believe it.
“I guess he must’ve known what was going on when you killed him, or else he wouldn’t have given you that before he passed. He always was too much of a nice guy…”
“W-What have I done?”
“Well it's too late now, you’ve made your grave and now you have to lie in it.”
The man turned around and began to walk back and forth between Nash and the rock.
“So that's the reason why they activated the device, I didn’t even know Elena could work the darn thing. Right now the entire world has stopped, time no longer moves here and these devices let us move as if nothing’s changed.”
The man turned and kicked sand in Nash’s direction, snapping him out of his shock. He stammered before recollecting his thoughts.
“You sure do know a lot about this stuff.”
“Well of course I know, I built the damn thing after all.”
The man looked almost proud when he said that.
“You built it? So I guess you’re with them huh? I-I don’t even care anymore just take me back to them already.”
The man grabbed Nash by the shoulders and began to shake him violently.
“You can’t talk like that! Charlie gave you that thing for a reason, if he didn’t care about you, he would’ve just kept it to himself. Did he tell you something before he passed? He must've, right?”
Nash looked down at his boots as tried to recall Charlie’s last words.
“Give’em hell…”
Nash looked up at the other man, his eyes widened as he heard this and cackled.
“Wow he really gave one crazy final mission.”
“Wait but why would he ask me to do that, they’re his teammates aren’t they?”
“Well, let's just say they aren’t exactly a united front. Some of them want the mission to succeed, others aren’t exactly keen on feeding into the pockets of billionaires.”
Nash looked visibly confused, as the other man looked on.
“Oh! Well they’re here for one thing. Oil.”
“Wait, like the stuff I use to grease my gun…and the hinges on doors?”
“Kinda! In about… let's just say 200 years, oil will become the single most sought after item in the world by major powers and after decades of using it like no tomorrow… we started to run out. Countless wars broke out all to take oil from others and the demand became so insane eventually there was no more left.”
“O-Ok… But then why were they harvesting human bodies from the cemetery?”
The man sighed deeply and provided a wry smile. He put his goggles back on his face as he resumed talking.
“That… is an undesired side effect from the hubris of man. When we ran out, people scrambled to scientists and eventually a device was made that allows the process of turning fossils to oil to be expedited to the nth degree, what usually takes hundreds of millions of years becomes a process that from start to end is about 10 hours. Through an…unfortunate amount of testing, it was found that human bodies turn into a kind of high quality oil that is unmatched by other kinds but the process of unearthing human remains and turning them into oil for their still living relatives to use was a bit too morbid for certain…people. Around the same time, in my abject brilliance, I had a breakthrough and ended up creating the technology that allowed for travel through time.”
“So I’m guessing, instead of digging up dead bodies in your time, they decided to use your tech to dig up bodies from the past to use.”
“Bingo. I didn’t make this tech so that they could use it to desecrate the dead! I wanted to help people! I wanted to bring humanity to the next stage! But because they paid me to make them, the equations aren’t mine anymore! No! They’re theirs to use as they see fit! Used so that they can sell the oil to the highest bidder!”
“Wait, so if you made the tech, why are you here? Why are not in a lab somewhere in the future making more time…stuff?”
“I made too much of a stink for them in the media so officially…I came with the team to 'make sure the technology doesn’t malfunction' but they really just needed an excuse to kick me out of the picture but when Elena and Urien were down there tending to you. I took the liberty of freeing myself from the room they locked me in.”
“What, that easily?”
“I figured out how to manipulate the fourth dimension at 27, an electric lock is nothing.”
“So what now? I can’t imagine you want to just go back to them.”
“Ha, well even if I did their orders were to kill me if I did anything out of line.”
“So why did you run?”
“I don’t want my machines to be used for this…I want to put a stop to what they’re doing and I banked that as soon as they found out I fled I’d be able to sabotage them somewhat but now I have you! I mean since Charlie called you out that way, there’s no way you’ll just lie down and let them do whatever to you right?”
Nash took a deep breath and looked up at the sun. It hadn’t moved an inch in the time that Nash had run from the cemetery.
“Alright, I’m in.”
The man outstretched his hand and smiled at Nash.
“The name’s Alex”
Nash took his hand.
“Alright then, what’s the plan?”
“No idea!”