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Micro-fiction 094 – Time Now (Echoes series)

Release Date: 09/21/2021

Podcasts | These Fantastic Worlds

The tenth of Ten Norse Myths. Ragnarok, the Twilight of the Gods, the destruction of the worlds, the dramatic death duel of light and dark... Ragnarok. The end of the world had been prophesied from its beginning, and everyone across the world knew what to expect when Ragnarok fell upon them. For Ragnarok was the twilight of the gods, an end to the golden years of Asgard, an end to the palaces of delight, an end to the timeless world where nothing could interfere. It was the death of Balder that set the stage for the end of the world, and it was Loki’s crimes which laid in place the main...

109 - Norse Myths 09 - The Death of Baldur

Podcasts | These Fantastic Worlds

The ninth Norse Myth of ten, brings us to the death of Baldur, one of the most famous laments of Viking legend... The Death of Baldur. To Odin and Frigga were born twin sons as dissimilar in character and physical appearance as it was possible for two children to be. Hodur, god of darkness, was sombre, taciturn, and blind, like the obscurity of sin, which he was supposed to symbolise, while his brother Baldur, the beautiful, was worshipped as the pure and radiant god of innocence and light. From his snowy brow and golden locks seemed to radiate beams of sunshine which gladdened the hearts...

108 - Norse Myths 08 - The Story of the Volsungs

Podcasts | These Fantastic Worlds

This eighth Norse Myth of ten, tells of the dynasty of the Volsungs, the heroes of the North, the family of Sigurd, Sigmund and Sigi, born of Odin... The Heroes of the Volsungs. The story of the Volsungs begins with Sigi, a son of Odin, a powerful man, and generally respected, until he killed another man out of jealousy, the latter having slain more game when they were out hunting together. In consequence of this crime, Sigi was driven from his own land and declared an outlaw. But it seems that he had not entirely forfeited Odin’s favour, for the god now provided him with a well-equipped...

107 - Norse Myths 07 - The Sword of Tyr

Podcasts | These Fantastic Worlds

In this, the seventh Norse Myth of ten, the mighty sword of the Viking God Tyr grants victory and death in equal measure across great empires... Tyr’s Sword Carves Destiny and Victory. Tyr, Tiu, or Ziu was the son of Odin, and, according to different storytellers, his mother was Frigga, queen of the gods, or a beautiful giantess whose name is unknown, but who was a personification of the raging sea. He is the god of martial honour, and one of the twelve principal deities of Asgard. Although he appears to have had no special dwelling there, he was always welcome to Vingolf or Valhalla,...

106 - Norse Myths 06 - Heimdall

Podcasts | These Fantastic Worlds

This sixth Norse Myth is the tale of Heimdall, the Guardian of the Rainbow Bridge, his adventures with the people of Midgard, and his battle with Loki... Heimdall in Midgard. Heimdall was called the watchman of the gods, and he was distinguished by his role at the Bifrost bridge, which he had constructed from fire, air and water, which glowed as a rainbow in the sky. The Bifrost bridge was also called the Rainbow bridge, and it connected heaven with earth, ending just under the great tree Yggdrasill. *** The golden age of Asgard was one of such happiness that there was never any threat to...

105 - Norse Myths 05 - Loki

Podcasts | These Fantastic Worlds

This fifth Norse Myth is the last tale of Loki, not the charming, trickster of the Marvel Universe, but the dark God of the Vikings Age... The Legends of Loki. Besides the hideous giant Utgard-Loki, the personification of mischief and evil, whom Thor and his companions visited in Jötunheim, the ancient Northern nations had another type of sin, whom they called Loki also. In the beginning, Loki was merely the epitome of the hearth fire and of the spirit of life. At first a god, he gradually becomes “god and devil combined,” and ends in being held in general detestation as an exact...

104 - Norse Myths 04 - Thor

Podcasts | These Fantastic Worlds

The fourth of ten Norse myths tells of the story of the Thor and how he gained his hammer through the wicked machinations of the mischievous Loki. The Legend of Thor. Thor was one of the twelve principal deities of Asgard, and he lived in the splendid realm of Thrudvang, where he built a palace called Bilskirnir. Here he lived as god of thunder, and his name was invoked more than any other in the age of the Vikings. For Thor was the protector of the land, a fine figure of a man with glowing eyes, firm muscles, and a red beard that made him instantly recognizable. He became known across the...

103 - Norse Myths 03 - Tale of the Valkyrie

Podcasts | These Fantastic Worlds

The third of ten Norse myths tells of the story of the Valkyrie, Odin's shield maidens who bring the fallen heroes of battle to the everlasting rewards of Valhalla. The Valkyrs. Odin’s special attendants, the Valkyrs, or battle maidens, were either his daughters, like Brunhild, or the offspring of mortal kings, maidens who were privileged to remain immortal and invulnerable as long as they implicitly obeyed the god and remained virgins. They and their steeds were the personification of the clouds, their glittering weapons being the lightning flashes. The ancients imagined that they swept...

102 - Norse Myths 02 - Odin and Frigga

Podcasts | These Fantastic Worlds

The second of ten Norse myths tells of Odin and Frigga in Valhalla in Asgard, and their sons Thor, Balder and the first gods of the Vikings... Odin and Frigga in Asgard. Odin was the son of Bor, and the brother of Vili and Ve. He was the most supreme god of the Northern races and he brought great wisdom to his place at the helm of all gods. He was called Allfather, for all gods were said to have descended from him, and his esteemed seat was Asgard itself. He held a throne there, one in an exalted and prestigious position, and it served as a fine watchtower from which he could look over men...

101 - Norse Myths 01 - Creation

Podcasts | These Fantastic Worlds

The first of ten Norse myths that cover Odin, Loki, Thor and more, we begin, fittingly, with the creation of the universe as seen through the eyes of the Vikings... The Creation of the Universe. In the beginning, before there was anything at all, there was a nothingness that stretched as far as there was space. There was no sand, nor sea, no waves nor earth nor heavens. And that space was a void that called to be filled, for its emptiness echoed with a deep and frozen silence. So it was that a land sprung up within that silence, and it took the place of half the universe. It was a land...

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Welcome to a tale that plays with relativity, quantum probability and our experience of Time: a moment, a special event when everything changes.

Time Now.

The time is now. And everything is about to change. As it always does, every moment, every place, every event in time and space, for the observer and the participant, the internal and the external viewer of the event. But in this ‘now’, perhaps something greater will change, perhaps the theoretical discoveries of the Future Institute can finally be tested by machines sophisticated enough to do so.

The helicopter flies in from the West, chasing the sunset towards the tallest skyscraper in Hong Kong, the International Commerce Centre, the ICC, where a platform awaits the arrival of scientists, journalists and politicians from around the world for the presentation of ‘Time Now’.

“We’re lucky to run late,” The pilot shouted through the noise in the small cabin, nodding to her two passengers, squeezed behind her, “I don’t think we’ll have to wait for long.”

“Why are there so many ‘copters floating around the building?” Nala, a researcher from the New York Times and an eager recent physics graduate, held her computer close to her chest.

“They’re all waiting for a quick pick up later, that’s what we’ve all been told to do.” The pilot looked at Nala and slowed her approach to the tower.

“Unusual?” The other passenger, an older man, Pieter, no less enthusiastic than his companion, swept at the hair flapping around his eyes.

“Yes. Maybe it’s a very short presentation, but that’s hundreds of thousand of dollars in fuel and airtime being eaten up.”

Pieter looked at his flight companion, crushed against his side in the noisy cabin, “Do you know much about what we’re going to see?”

“I know what they’ve told us, like you?”

“Oh, yes, I just don’t understand it, I’m filling in for a colleague who had to go to another conference at the last minute, I’ve no idea about all this quantum and Time stuff really.”

“Oh, but it’s not just about that, if what they imply is true, then it means humanity really does have a significant place in the universe.”

“Really, you and me, and our good pilot here?”

“No, I don’t mean that, the universe doesn’t care what we do as individuals, but it is affected by our actions as a species.”

“I can’t imagine, if the universe has feelings at all, it thinks any more about us than the rock that tower is built on.”

“No, that’s not right, humans are made of elements, so are rocks, and gases, and we’re all derived form the same sources, billions of years ago.”

“That’s way over my head.” Pieter shifted uncomfortably.

“Just think about it, we’re made up of atoms, same as everything else. If you ignore consciousness, the physical matter of us is just a variation on all other physical objects.”

“Why do you take consciousness out of the equation, surely its the one big thing that distinguishes us?”

“Well, we don’t really know what it is, we haven’t developed the language or the capability to describe it, but whatever consciousness is it resides within an object, the body, so it’s subject to the same forces as everything else in the universe.”

“So how does that help us with whatever we’re going to see at the ICC?”

“Well, we’ll soo find out won’t we, but Carl Sagan said humans function as the universe’s experiment, a way to measure the rest of itself.”

“Just humans, or all living things?”

“Ah, that’s the point, all livings things that we’ve encountered do not try to control their environment consciously like humans. On this planet anyway.”

“Whereas humans have both developed and destroyed.”

“Something like that. Some call it inevitable progress, or a manifestation of Will, the innate desire to move in order to grow.”

“In order to grow though the universe has to expand too?”

“Ah, what we don’t know if that’s the same thing. If the events of the Big Bang created the big expansion and irregular waveforms and dust clouds that caused clusters of matter which ultimately became stars then the human desire to progress is part of the same pattern.”

“Assuming our perception of time is correct.”

“Ah, yes, the passage of time at least. There’s another theory which I think is rolled into today’s event which suggests that if there are other species of conscious living beings in the universe, their perceptions of the passage of time might be different.”

“But you just said that the human perception of time is effectively in sync with the universe, so surely any other similar species must be too.

“Hm, we simply don’t know. It’s likely that our perception is limited by our understanding, and our ability to describe what we observe. Some of the images coming back from NASA’s new telescope will seek far out into the past, but it’s possible we won’t understand what we’ll see until we unlock the maths to spell it out.”

“Dark matter and all that?”

“And all that, yeah.” Nala saw the pilot look around.

“Just a few minutes to landing. You’ll need to hurry. I’ll wait, as you see.” The helicopter threaded through the twenty or so others that hung like bugs around the top of the ICC tower.

“It’s all about time really.” Nala mused.

“Sorry?” Pieter looked at Nala.

“The event today, look, see that huge dome close to the landing pad,” They peered down as the helicopter descended, “that’s where we need to run to.”

“I think my running days are over,” Pieter laughed.

The helicopter approached the pad, fighting its tail for a moment, then landed with a jolt.

“Ok, go, go!” The pilot remotely opened the doors, helped the passengers leave quickly, then lifted away.

“Whoooh! What was that you were saying about running?”

“Wait and see.” They hurried over to the Dome, and were ushered in to the presentation. The last to arrive, they sat discreetly at the back.

In front of them, several rows of people were lined up, on the one side, with an equal block of empty chairs on the right. And in front of them all a large machine, the size of a square bus, sat pulsing it’s blue and yellow lights.

Two voice emerged. They spoke alternately in soothing tones.

“The Past is fixed. It has been lived.”

“The Future is not yet fixed.”

“So the Now is a rolling state of fixing the future.”

“The Future, ultimately has one path, but we do not know it yet.”

“The Past has one path, which we do know.”

“So the Now has many potential paths.”

“Our recent observations of the distant in the stars have revealed new ways of observing the universe.”

“Of observing time, particularly the Present, the Now.”

“The Now which has many potential paths.”

“What if we could hold the “Now” in our theoretical hands?”

“What if we could stop the Now from resolving into a fixed future?”

“What if we could maintain a Now of many potential paths for long enough to understand the universe better?”

“What if by installing perpetual probability, replacing certainty, we could detect other thinking species in the universe, that live and grow alongside us, but only in the stillness of the present?

“The Now becomes the future.

“Let’s stop the forward motion of time.”

“So let’s see what happens.”

***

The huge pulsing machine stirred, then turned slowly, before spinning relentlessly for what seemed both like an age, and an instant.

The audience of scientists, politicians and journalists became scared as the machine spun ever faster, some stood up and left their seats, others closed their eyes, but as if in a single moment, they all burst across the aisle to the empty seats, and looked back. They saw themselves, their physical selves, watching, they looked at each other and saw those standing next to them were sitting on the other side. And all around there were creatures, standing too, some humanoid, others, not, but all of them nodding, as if in welcome, clustered around the dome, as though they had always been there, observing us, and finally we had found a way to see beyond our fragile forms.

Nala looked at Pieter, who looked shocked and asked, “Did you know?”

“No.” She smiled, “but I hoped.”

[End]

Part of a new series of micro-fiction stories, released as These Fantastic Worlds SF & Fantasy Fiction Podcast on iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, Vurbl and Stitcher and more. Also on this blog, These Fantastic Worlds.

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There are many other great stories in this series, including:

And a carousel of 10 audio stories from the podcast with information about submissions.

Here's a related post, 5 Steps to the SF and Fantasy Podcasts.

Time Now.

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