Journey to Year 1,000,000,000 Ch. 14

No, mustn't think of that.

There was an empty chair for Suki, Suki, who had given her life to save them. He had thought that she was an immature ensign, but ultimately, she had proven more capable than most of the crew. And she had loved him. And he had rejected her.

And now she was gone too.

It was all too much. He abruptly got up and went into his office. A few moments later Victor, who was also on the bridge, followed him.

"Are you all right, Michael?"

Taylor sat away from him, facing the empty blackness outside his window. "No, Victor, I'm not all right."

"All you Survey Service Captains are so alike," said Victor.

"Have you known many?" Taylor asked.

"A few," said Victor, sitting down in a chair. "You are all wedded to duty and honor. Which is a good thing, I suppose. Without it there would be fewer of us alive."

"I was just thinking of the crews we left behind. From the Judicator. And the Devonshire."

"Michael, the Judicator's crew were dead long before we arrived," said Victor. "All that was left was their disembodied consciousnesses. There was nothing we could do for them."

"And what of my crew, Victor? I left a dozen of them behind on Corta."

Victor shook his head. "Michael, you didn't leave anyone behind. They were taken from you. We encountered a species a half billion years more technically advanced than we were. We didn't stand a chance. But somehow, when all the other Survey Service Captains failed, you managed to save some of us. I think you're a hero."

"I don't feel like one," said Taylor.

"Of course!" Victor said, raising his voice. "Heroes seldom do."

Taylor turned his chair abruptly to face Victor, who was smiling at him. "All right, so what do we do now?"

"We go forward."

"We've been going forward for four days," said Taylor.

"The first time we jumped, it took four days to travel eight million years in time," said Victor. "The second time, it took another four days to travel 14 million years beyond that. And the third time, it took only two days to go another 486,000,000 years. It seems empirically that the amount of time we spend in the time tunnel has no linear correlation to how far forward we go in time."

"How can that be?" Taylor asked.

Victor shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine. Perhaps the time tunnel has different temporal velocities in different segments."

"Or perhaps the time tunnel has no end," said Taylor. "Victor, the time tunnel was created in the year 500,000,000. It should have ended there. Instead, that was just a stop along the way. It doesn't make any sense."

Victor said, "I don't know, Michael. We simply don't have enough information to even speculate."

********

Taylor and Elizabeth made love.

It was the kind of love done for mutual reassurance. As Taylor thrust inside of Elizabeth, he tried to use her inner softness to rid himself of all his anxiety and frustration, pressing against her unkempt hairy muff as he poled in and out of her.

Elizabeth took solace from Taylor's organ, moving deep inside of her, the hardness, the thickness of it in her, the feeling of being taken, to try to reduce her own unease.

They needed climaxes now, both of them, because they could no longer sleep without it. When they climaxed, their orgasms relaxed their muscles and enabled them to sleep, if only for a brief period.

Tensions were high. It had been now been eight days since they had reentered the Black Box. Eight long days. They had never been inside this long before. So far they had not seen a single exit window. The crew was beginning to think that the tunnel went on forever.

"What do you think?" Elizabeth asked one day, as they lay together. She felt Michael's hairy chest pressed against her breasts. It was comforting, but not enough.

"I don't know," said Taylor simply. His hand absentmindedly played with her bun. For some reason, he was starting to find fingering it to be erotic. He couldn't explain why,

Elizabeth felt him manipulating her bun with his fingers. "Do you think the time tunnel could go on forever?"

"What is forever?" Taylor asked. He saw the look of impatience in her face. "We have enough supplies to last us for two years."

"Two years," said Elizabeth. "Together," she said, wrapping her hand in his.

Taylor looked up at the ceiling. He still didn't love her. And yet, he kept finding his way to her bed. It was hard not to take the solace that one could find....

When he slept, he slept badly. He no longer dreamed of Pam. He was convinced that the dream he had had of her had been the result of stress, when they were prisoners of the United.

Part of Taylor wanted to give up. But he was a Survey Service Captain. Survey Service Captains didn't give up. Not ever.

Taylor made Ensign Collins his first officer. Besides himself and Collins, there was only one regular Survey Service officer left in the crew, Ensign Daniel Wood, the second engineering mate. Ensign Wood he made Chief Engineer.

He had had fewer crew than this when he had been stranded on PR-52981. But in some ways, that had been easier. At least they had landed on a planet. Here they were lost in space, apparently, forever.

Except it wasn't forever.

Elizabeth had the watch when it happened. She called Taylor to the bridge. "What is it?" he asked over the comm.

"We're coming out of the time tunnel!"

By the time Taylor got to the bridge, it had already happened.

They were in normal space.

"What happened? Did you exit through a window in the time tunnel?"

"There was no window," said Elizabeth. "We've come out. This is the end of the time tunnel!"

Taylor checked the viewscreen.

There was no sign of the Black Box. It was gone.

"What year is this?"

"I... I'm not sure," said Crewman Rappaport.

"Collins!" said Taylor.

Ensign Collins, who had just arrived on the bridge, went to a vacant post and started making the star comparisons.

"Look at that, Michael," said Victor, pointing to the sun.

It was smaller than the sun they knew.

And it was fiery red.

"This can't be right," said Ensign Collins. "It... it just can't be."

"Collins?" Taylor said.

"Sir, according to the star fixes... we can't be precisely accurate, given the amount of time that has passed-"

"Collins!"

"We're roughly a billion years out, sir. A billion years ahead of our own time," said Collins.

"A billion years?" said Elizabeth. Her jaw dropped. "Is that even possible?"

"Look at the sun, Elizabeth," said Wade Tanner, the astrophysicist. "It's become a red dwarf. Our scientists calculated it would happen in around... a billion years."

They stared at the red sun.

"Collins," said Taylor. "Scan for the Earth."

"....got it, sir."

"Put it on screen."

The Earth appeared on the viewscreen. But it was not the Earth they knew.

The oceans were gone. Completely. In the year 500,000,000, the United had flooded the entire planet and submerged the continents to cope with the rising heat put out by the sun. By the year one billion, the oceans had evaporated entirely. The entire planet was... dry. It was one big land mass, of varying heights.

"Lifesigns," said Taylor.

Collins scanned a moment longer. "Not that I can detect, sir."

"I wonder if humanity survived," said Taylor.

"Even in the year 8,000,000, we were told that they had moved on to the stars. They must have," said Victor.

"But in what form? In the year 500,000,000, they were giant shape changing squids. Who knows what humanity will have become in another half billion years," said Taylor. He shook his head. "No signs of life. Why, then, would the time tunnel end here? It makes no sense."

"Captain, there is... something ahead of us," said Ensign Collins.

"Identify," said Taylor. There was a fuzzy, blurry smudge on the viewscreen. And it was getting bigger.

"I can't," said Collins. "I am only getting the faintest of readings."

What were they even looking at? Taylor wasn't sure. He saw they were closing on it rapidly. "Adjust course to-"

But it was too late. The Judicator entered the phenomenon. They felt some kind of electrical charge pass through them that made their hair stand on end. Suddenly, the hull of the Judicator became transparent. The crew became weightless. They began to float through the hull of the ship.

"Try to grab onto something!" Taylor shouted, as his body started to float towards the ceiling. He clutched at the armrest of his chair. It had some density to it, but was rapidly fading.

He watched helplessly as Ensign Collins floated through the roof of the ship, screaming as he vanished.

"Wade!" Elizabeth cried, barely hanging onto a chair by her fingertips.

Doctor Wade Tanner screamed as he floated through the viewscreen. Seconds later they could see his body, doing summersaults, on the other side of the viewscreen.

Taylor lost his grip on his armrest. Elizabeth lost hers on her chair. They both began to float to the ceiling. For a moment, their eyes met. One final time-

And then they felt that electrical charge again, and their bodies slammed to the floor.

The solid floor.

Taylor got up with a groan. He saw Elizabeth, and Victor... and no one else.

Ensign Collins, Wade Tanner, and Crewman Rappaport were gone.

"All hands, report!" said Taylor, activating the comm.

"Oh my God," said Elizabeth.

She was looking at the viewscreen. They could see the spinning bodies of members of the crew. Floating in space.

"Everyone still aboard, sound off!" Taylor yelled again.

"McCrae, in sickbay," said Doctor McCrae.

"Vincent Roman, science section," came a second voice.

"Anyone else? Is there anyone else aboard?" Taylor asked.

A moment later, there was one more. "Ensign Wood. Engineering."

And that was it.

Sixteen crewmembers had been lost.

There were only six of them left.

********

"Victor, what was that thing we flew through?" Taylor asked.

"Michael, I'm a sociologist, not an astronomer," said Victor. "I have no idea."

"Wade was our last astrophysicist," said Elizabeth.

"What about Vincent?"

"Anthropology," said Elizabeth, making a face at the mention of his name.

Suddenly, the image on the viewscreen changed.

It was white.

The universe outside had turned completely white.

"What?" said Taylor. "What do scanners report?" he asked automatically.

There was no one left to answer. Only Elizabeth and Victor were with him on the bridge.

Taylor activated the comm. "McCrae, Vincent, Wood. All of you, get up to the bridge."

They appeared a few moments later. They stared at the viewscreen, as perplexed as he was.

The universe had turned white.

"I'll entertain any theories, any at all, even if you're not an expert in the field," said Taylor, trying not to sound desperate.

"I don't think any of us could be an expert in this field," said Victor. "It's almost as if... we've moved into a different dimension."

And then, suddenly, ahead of them, a pyramid appeared. A white one. At the top of the pyramid, they saw a conduit of energy pouring down.

"That wasn't there a moment ago," said Victor.

"An invitation?" said Elizabeth.

"Possibly," said Taylor. He checked the atmosphere outside. There was none. Who was qualified to make an EVA? The answer was obvious.

"I'll go," said Taylor.

"No," said Elizabeth, automatically. She grabbed his arm protectively.

"Elizabeth, we have to find out what's happening to us," said Taylor.

"We'll all go," said Elizabeth.

"No. It's too dangerous," said Taylor.

Elizabeth actually laughed. "Michael, 16 of us just got blown into space. We're lost in the year one billion. I don't think there's any place that qualifies as safe at the moment."

Taylor was about to argue when Victor took his arm. "Michael. There are only six of us left. We should all go."

Taylor paused for a moment, then nodded. "All right. Let's get suited up."

********

When the airlock door opened, the outside environment was unreal. It was all white. It was hard to see. It was very misty and cloudy.

"What are we looking at?" Elizabeth asked over her suit radio. "It looks unreal."

"I know," said Taylor. He cautiously took a step out of the airlock. Although it looked like his foot was stepping on white nothingness, it held. He took another step, and another. "It seems to be able to hold our weight.

The others followed.

The pyramid wasn't far. They could see the blazing energy bolt coming down onto the very top.

"So this is what the year one billion looks like," said Victor. "I'll have to be sure to get back home to tell everyone."

"And I'll take you there, if I can figure out a way," said Taylor.

As they walked they saw... odd shapes. Blurry, glowing things. They were hard to even see. If one looked directly at them, they became almost totally transparent. Out of the corner of the eye, they looked like glowing shapes, of different colors.

"I wonder what this is," said Victor, looking at a green multisided shape.

"Victor, don't touch anything."

Victor drew back from it.

"Stay close. We're going to the pyramid," said Taylor.

They soon got close to it. There were steps leading to the top, steps apparently made of white marble.

"This is it, Michael," said Elizabeth.

Taylor nodded. "I don't suppose it would do any good to ask you to stay behind?"

"No, it wouldn't," said Elizabeth. "We go up together."

They started climbing.

"I never thought it would end this way," said Elizabeth. "At the end of time, climbing a white pyramid."

"Oh, I think it's a bit premature to call this the end," said Victor.

"You're the eternal optimist, Victor," said Taylor.

"I have to be! I'm still around, aren't I?" Victor said.

As they climbed, a ball of yellow light suddenly moved towards them.

"Watch out!" said Taylor. But in their slow moving suits they couldn't evade it.

The light hovered in front of Ensign Wood. "It's... it's blinding me!"

There was a flash, and Ensign Wood was gone.

"Wood!" Taylor cried.

"He's gone!" said Elizabeth.

Taylor looked up. They were almost halfway to the top. "Keep climbing!"

They slowly resumed the climb. But then the light returned again. This time it hovered over Doctor McCrae. "Captain, I-" his voice cut off.

"McCrae? McCrae?" Taylor turned his head to where he thought McCrae was. He was gone. "Everyone, keep climbing as fast as you can."

But they were slow and lumbering in their spacesuits. Vincent was the next to go. After him went Victor.

Taylor looked up. They were almost at the top. He and Elizabeth were the only ones left. "Elizabeth, I see a door!"

"Michael-" she began. And then there was a flash, and she was gone.

Gone.

Taylor looked around. There was no one else behind him.

He was the last survivor of his expedition. He felt the rising edge of panic, but he pushed past it, moving up to the door. He was almost at the top.

The door was inlaid with some exotic pattern. As he got close to it, the door opened.

Michael stepped inside.

He was on the top of the pyramid.

But, suddenly, he was also in his bedroom, back home. The bedroom he had grown up in as a child. The only difference is that this bedroom was all white, it had no roof, and there was a giant beam of power flooding down from the heavens, not ten feet from his bed.

Taylor looked at the beam of light. What did it all mean?

As he looked, he suddenly realized that his helmet was gone.

And then his spacesuit.

He took a cautious breath, and then another. He felt a heaviness in his head.

And then he found himself lying in bed. His bed, but not his bed.

Suddenly, he felt very tired. The heavy feeling in his head intensified.

A shape appeared in the beam of light. Slowly, it solidified. A form came out of it.

A woman.

The love of his life.

Pam.

********

"Pam." His voice was a harsh, guttural croak. What was happening to him? He was getting more and more tired.

She came over to his bedside. "Michael," she said.

That one word excited him more than anything.

"Pam... how....?" he noticed she was wearing her special white dress. The same dress she had worn in his dream.

"Shhhh!" she said. "You must rest, and let it happen."

Taylor was getting weaker and weaker. He could barely raise his head. "Pam...." he said.

The last thing he saw was her face, looking down on him with apparent concern, and then it all went out of focus.

And then, nothing.

*********

Or, something.

Colors.

Shapes.

Sides.

Sizes.

Michael Taylor passed through a universe of universes. He could not begin to comprehend what he was seeing. Each image was rapidly replaced by another. It was as if he were rapidly traveling across galaxies. Or perhaps galaxies were rapidly traveling across him. Space and time and other things he didn't even have a name for had no bounds.

He was everything, and he was nothing.

********

And then, once again, he was Michael Taylor.

A Lieutenant Commander in the United Survey Service.

Michael sat up in bed. His bed.

But now the environment was different.

The blazing tube of light was gone. And everything was clear. There was no fuzziness. There were no mists.

And the heaviness in his head was gone.

Michael looked out from the top of the pyramid. Now it was clear, and he could see for miles and miles. It was as if a fog had cleared up.

"It's all changed," he said, his own voice sounding odd to his ears.

"Nothing has been changed. Except for you."

Michael wheeled around, and saw the love of his life.

"Pam!" he cried.

She was still wearing That Dress.

The dress from their fuck-cation.

********

They had decided to call it their fuck-cation.

Taylor had been away from Earth for more than two months, and Pam missed him terribly. He only had a week of shore leave, but they decided to make the most of it.

There was a resort in Sydney, right on the beach, a top rated five star hotel. They would go out, enjoy the beach, go dancing in the evening, and make love every night.

As promised, Pam made hot, spicy love to Taylor every evening. She couldn't get enough of him. They would make love for hours, first with Taylor on top, and then Pam.

"I just can't get enough of you," she would say, looking at him with half-lidded eyes as she rode up and down on his shaft.

And then there was the dress. At first Taylor thought it was a bathing suit. It looked like a long white curtain, in the shape of a "V", with each arm coming down over a shoulder to cover one breast, and then meeting at the joining of her legs before sliding underneath. The material was incredibly sheer, leaving little to the imagination. Pamela's nipples stuck out, and he could almost (almost!) see her pubic hair through the bottom part, and sometimes even more than that, if the light was right.

Taylor's jaw had dropped the first time he had seen it. "What kind of dress is that?" he asked.

"The kind designed to keep a man interested," said Pam, pressing her body against his, and giving him a strong kiss. He reciprocated eagerly.

"Ummm," said Taylor. "With that dress on, I'll always be interested."

"I'll have to wear it every evening, then," said Pam.

And she did! And Taylor never got tired of it, seeing the outlines of her large breasts, or the teasing of the joining between her legs. And so Pam's spectacular white dress became known as the official resortwear for the remainder of their "fuck-cation".

*********

And Pam was wearing that same dress now. The woman in the dress looked exactly like her. Except in the eyes. Her eyes were green, like Pam's, but they were... somehow lacking.

"Who... who are you?" Taylor asked. His voice now sounded normal again.