Chronicle of Nautilus

Chapter 36: A Visit to The Other Side

The echoes of the scientists talking got weaker and weaker.  Tim felt he could resist, he could hold on to the world that was slipping out of his grasp, but he did not. He just let go, there was nothing he wanted to cling to anyways.

His physical senses got weaker and weaker. He slowly drifted away from the physical world into the void. And there, for a long moment he was free of everything. He was floating alone in an empty space, feeling his memories leaving him.

A long moment paused and Tim was filled with an uncomfortable pressure. The pressure rapidly increased and when it became almost unbearable he was catapulted. He was not breathing, yet he felt as if he was holding his breath. The speed he was traveling at was impossible to measure as there was nothing to use as a reference point, but Tim felt that it was fast.

During the whole length of the trip he felt presence of things, creatures that were alive. Each ‘thing’ that perceived him acted differently. There were those who only looked at him passing by, there were those whose ‘stares’ Tim could feel pressuring him and there were those who radiated an intent to harm him.  But Tim felt safe, he traveled fast, he was comfortable that there was no way anything would be able to touch him.

The further he got the harder time he had remembering things. With each passing second, days of his memories disappeared, it did not take much time before he forgot who he was. Where was he going? What was he doing in here? Time ceased to exist. With each moment a large part of him was left behind.

At some instant of time he stopped moving. He found himself in a safe, calm place. This was the place he belonged in, he had been here many times, yet he had never remembered visiting it.

Little by little his lagging identity and memories caught on to his astral projection and he remembered who he was and why he had come to this mysterious place.

Tim focused. He wanted this place to make sense. He wanted to perceive it. He dug out the memories of his physical self. He focused harder and a vision flashed in front of his eyes – he was looking at his hand in a white space.  After a few moments he gathered his concentration and tried again.

And there he was in a body, created in the image of the one in the physical world.  He opened his eyes, inspected his childish hands, turned around and found himself standing in an endless white space.  He took a few steps and stopped, his all memories had returned, he felt whole again.

So I came here to do things. He looked at his hand. A world beyond our own, I wonder if…

The boy bent his knees and jumped up lightly. He moved upwards at constant speed never slowing down. Only when he thought it was about time to land, he landed.

The ground, Tim thought, I wish it had would look different. He looked down and the ground color changed to grey.

What an interesting place this is, he perceived.

Since nothing in here existed, nothing restricted him of creating things out of thin air using his imagination. This was the world with no initial set of rules - a perfect world.

He looked up and a blue sky with clouds appeared above. He attempted to imagine a thing he had seen in in a movie long time ago. And there in front of him a screen appeared, showing his past on fast backwards, as if watching a movie he began pausing it and speeding it up, trying to get to an image he wanted to dig out. After a quick search the image was in front of him – an old castle made of bricks – with a man riding a horse besides it. The image was from a movie about ancient times. He didn’t know why but he admired those ancient people and always dreamed of having a house like that.

He lifted his right arm and a castle arose from the ground, identical to the one in the image.

One more thing and I can go to work, Tim thought. He lifted his both arms and trees came out of the ground, birds were chirping and flying in the blue sky.

 “Not so lonely now,” he said silently.

Tim closed his eyes and remembered the ‘objects’ he perceived on the path to this place. He was never the cleverest kid back in the orphanage, but here he felt as if he was enlightened, everything was crystal clear, he connected all dots and came to conclusion quickly. Those things, he thought, one of them must be the creature we have on the ship.

The looked up to the sky and attempted to feel the objects existing outside of his imaginary world, and there they were – just beyond the walls of his world. He sensed a calm creature close to him and imagined being in one place together with it.

Instantly, the sky shifted. Another world intersected with his, a sphere of empty darkness with a shadow sleeping in the center of it appeared above him.

“Hey!” Timmy shouted.

The shadow opened his black eyes, looked at Tim, bent his head to the side and sent out a menacing growl. The creature flashed and disappeared together with its world. Only a small cloud remained in its place.

How ‘bout we try another one, Tim thought and kept looking up.

Only this time he was interrupted. The ground beneath his feet disappeared, his physical image went away, and once again he felt the pressure, the catapult. He was a bullet shot to its destination, backtracking strings the strings he left behind.  Everything went much faster this time – the memory loss, the dark space, his eyes opening up, his memories returning to him.

Tim opened his eyes and saw Julian with Xin looking worryingly at him.

“What’s with the serious face doc?” Tim attempted to lighten up the mood of the scientists, but failed. He looked down at his small sweaty chest. He looked to the right at his hand and saw red marks on his wrists imprinted by the belt. He moved his left hand and put it in front of his eyes it - was bleeding slightly.

Tim’s eyes got wide open after he understood what must have been happening in this place while he was ‘away’.

“I’m fine, help me get up,” Tim said.

Julian and Xin came closer, the grabbed him gently by the shoulders and helped him to sit down.  After getting up Tim looked at Scarlet She was trying to calm down and steady her breath, her forehead all wet.

Tim jumped down from the bulk, and got dressed up. No one said a word to him.

“What’s wrong? I am fine can’t you see?”

“Yes you are.” Julian paused. “But it’s not because of us.”

Tim glanced at Julian. “Because of whom, then?”

“We have no idea. Something dragged you out before it was too late.”

“I see…” Tim jumped back on the bunk and looked down. “When do we do this again?”

“Never!” Scarlett shouted.

“The day after tomorrow,” Julian contradicted.

“You must be joking!” The young woman replied and stood up. “He won’t survive the next time.”

“He will we just have to adjust reduce the dosage and add a little more adrenaline.”

Scarlett did not say a word she left the room, slamming the door as hard as she could.

“I’m sorry Tim,” Julian said. “But that’s the risk we need to accept, we have no other choice. We will be more careful next time, I promise,” he added sadly.

“It’s fine. It’s fine. How long have I been out there?”

“One hour.”

“Put me for four, next time. There many things I want to experiment on that place.”

“How far did you go?” Julian asked.

“To the white place.”

“Huh?” Julian looked surprised. “Could you tell us everything from the beginning?”

“Sure. At first…”

Tim told the scientists everything. They were listening and Geel was mashing his keyboard, taking notes.