Chapter 8 - Purpose

   Joe came to look at this curious situation in different ways. One of those ways, was definitely that his relationship with Adelaide was "fixed". That first night, after the bar. When he had his first conversation with the voice in his dream. That he discounted, until the prediction came true right on cue and he had been god-smacked. That, had been the beginning although he didn't realize it until later.

   When people are scared and things seem to be spinning out of control? There's an urgent need to connect with your fellow human being.

   Under the best of times? Human beings can show some of their worst characteristics. Things are in plenty, and people will show greed and selfishness. I need to get more while the getting is good. They will smile in each others faces, while they plan and wheedle to maneuver themselves to their best advantage.

   Oddly though, under the positively worst of times? Human beings can then show some of their best characteristics. There's an almost instant connection, with complete and total strangers. Men in dire combat experience this. You're getting on the boat, to go storm Normandy. You know almost all of you won't come back. You can grab just about anyone. Here, the name and address are on it. You're a guard on a boat? You'll most likely make it back. I want my wife and kid to have these two letters. Here's my dad's ring. Its for my boy.

   You lock eyes, you share a firm handshake. You both nod. You're giving the ring and the two letters? You just know its going to get there. You get the ring and letters? You just know deep down in your guts, you wouldn't dream of keeping this gold ring, and those letters? Are more precious than gold to the recipients. Some people will stand up, and basically give their life freely? So others, even complete strangers? Have that chance to get away. They look at the others, they smile warm. Go. One life, in exchange for many.

   So when Joe was initially terrified. Of faced with a choice of either knowing full well that he was quickly and fully going stark raving mad? Or, equally scary, what the alternative was. He turned to Adelaide, his Ada. Stay with me, I'm scared. She just nodded and hugged him. Of course I will. Because she had been as terrified as he was when the prediction came true. Like the ring and the letters handed over? They had their moment. Two human beings showing the best characteristics humans can show, under dire circumstances. Don't worry. You don't have to go through this alone.

   And in this way? This strange situation bound Ada to him. In a way that had been previously unreachable. When things were fine and in plenty? She came and went. Now though, things looked scary. Don't worry, I'm here for you.

   Joe found it odd, though nice. He hadn't met a space traveler, he was what though. Something. A space-talker, he decided. Under the fear and the excitement, they had become bound. They had been like weights on a string. Together, but loose. Sometimes landing together, sometimes landing apart for a time, though still connected. It was all in the toss. They were close now. Some... stranger, some alien far away had given this to him, without even knowing? How strange was that, though wonderful.

   Chasing Ada hadn't worked. Ignoring the situation hadn't worked. No solution set to this equation. The answer? Was undefined. There was one, though. And this was it. What was happening? Impossible. And the impossible? Had solved what couldn't be solved. The square root of negative one, the impossible? Had solved the unsolvable equation of Joe + Ada.

   Under this new order of things, he had suddenly and quite organically shared with her that he indeed did love her. He was fairly sure of it. It was just frustrating, her comings and goings. Always unplanned, either one. And she had shared back. The constant gentle pressure on women these days. Be independent, have a career. Put it first. Ah, you get married later. If at all. She would be with him for a time? And feel the pull. Then? She was tidal tugged back again, and it felt good each and every time. She decided? That was unconditional love. You leave, you come back? No questions, no punishment, no guilt. Its great when you're here, and when you're not? I just named my bedside computer after you, and I talk to it. Like a goddamn teddy bear.

   They both shared what they were embarrassed to share, and had thought that sharing would hurt the other. Then, they each found the things endearing. They both liked what were called "retro movies". Women laughed at the old comedies. The hell was this. Women, staying at home. Cooking and cleaning, like slaves. The men sort of owned the women, and the women? They liked being owned? The hell even was that.

   Adelaide felt it now though. It wasn't slavery. It was closeness. It used to be the common custom for a lot of young girls to get married and have children young. Many of them used to not work, and cared for the house, the children, and their man.

   She was curious. She wanted to see what it was like. To pretend. Like a young toddler girl playing house. She had complained before, when he had idly asked her that if she's grabbing a drink, to grab him one too. She had been taught women weren't servants. Women were equal to men. He had made glib jokes. Why wasn't it a problem when he got her a drink after asking. Hey, I'm getting a coffee, maybe a sandwich. You want one, too? Why was it only okay in that direction, never back.

   For fun? She did. She got herself a cold can of soft drink out of the refrigerator at his apartment. She casually asked if he wanted one over her shoulder on the way over. She handed him one, and smiled. He looked at her funny. Was this some trick, some trap? He took it gingerly. She smiled and sat up against him afterwards. It had felt good. Natural.

   When she did the same thing with a sandwich and a coffee another time not long after? They shared. Silently, but they shared. She smiled, he smiled back. Their hands grazed as she handed the mug and saucer with the sandwich on it. Wow, she decided. This wasn't bad, like she had been taught. This felt... natural. Good. Why were girls taught to fight this again? Reminded her a lot of parents preaching against smoking and beer. Both were bad. Poison. Yet...

   She found it odd. Why did some... alien from across the universe end up being the way this happened. Why couldn't this have happened all on its own.

   Summer break was coming. This was well into 2048 now, having all started in late 2047. Joe was deciding about the summer. He was at the top of the hierarchy of students at the university. Undergraduates? Dorm room or shared apartment if you could afford it. School was expensive. Loans and grants and books and fees were expensive extras you needed to come up with. "Books" was just the retro term that never fell out of fashion, but they still charged out the ass for those free downloads every semester to your device, didn't they.

   No, Joe knew he was at the top of one hierarchy, and at the very bottom of the other. Odd.

   Undergraduates were the least of the students. But graduate students? A cut above. School was now free. No tuition. You just came up with books and fees. You either taught classes and got a low salary or ran some small office, with all the undergraduate student workers under you. Free room and board, a tiny apartment and meal plan too. Then? Doctoral candidacy students sat at the top of the hierarchy. They typically taught classes but if they ran something? It was a bigger office, and had undergraduates aplenty and even graduate students they managed running the tiny offices under that.

   Free tuition, no more fees or books. The salary was a little higher, and a few benefits thrown in. After their first couple semesters teaching, they were junior professors in all but name. The last rung up the ladder, for Joe? Was getting that doctoral thesis approved and completing it. His free apartment was a lot nicer at this station, his parking plan was better and he even had his own spot. His meal plan? He could eat at the professor's lounges, and in many locations around the huge campus. A wave of his ID. The leap from doctoral candidate to full doctor and joining staff? Would hold little for him. A bigger paycheck and benefits, about it.

   He didn't have to teach classes for the summer. The only incentive? A paycheck bump. Not like he got kicked out of his little apartment or lost any meal plans, parking, or any of the things like going to the gym or the library or labs on campus, either.

   Summer break was coming soon.

   Joe fell asleep, well used to his sleep talking by now. The voice though? Had a surprise for him.

   "Joe. I want to show you something."

   "I get to see it?"

   "I mean, that I explain it. This comes sooner or later. I'm hoping that... its time. I told you, you're the only one who would understand. I need you. I'm... hoping you trust me. I told you many times. I'm not here to hurt anyone. I'm here to help."

   "Is it... good, or bad."

   "Both. Neither. But... don't get scared. We started early. Time? Is the one thing we have plenty of. Are you ready? I'll try."

   "Go ahead."

   "I want you to imagine the big bang. You're above it, you're looking down. On that ball of energy, that explodes. That's not hard to see, is it?"

   "Not at all."

   "Yes. And? Its easy, particularly for you, to imagine all that matter, slowly coming to rest. The stone you throw? Comes to rest when the energy runs out. Remember. You're up above, looking down. Easy to see it, imagining it."

   "Yes."

   "Now. You know that eventually, gravity takes over. Now stronger than the big bang energy that ran out."

   "Of course. Its... my whole research proposal."

   "All right. Now. Here's the harder part, but I'm sure you can imagine it. You're above it. Go higher up, looking down. Speed it up, imagining it. Big bang, expansion. Comes to rest, then contraction. Another big bang. Can you see it?"

   "Yes."

   "Imagine, speeding it up. Bang, rest, contraction... bang, rest, contraction."

    "Like, watching a machine. I see it."

   "You know. I've heard you say it. Matter and energy can neither be created nor destroyed. They can only change forms. There's nothing lost in this system. Even the heat left over from the big bang, goes back into that collapse. When those last two super massive black holes circle and orbit each other, then finally collide and join? There's so much gravity now, that every, last, beam of light from the first star ever? Gets sucked back in. Nothing escapes."

   "I understand."

   "Okay. You're high up, you're watching this, happen fast. Bang, rest, collapse. Bang, rest, collapse. You see it, as a machine working."

   "I do."

   "Okay, Joe. This is the last thing. Keep watching that big machine, and go up a little higher. There's nothing but empty space around that universe, right? So far away from the big bang, that the first rays of light or waves of energy don't even make it that far. You're high enough up, you can look down and see it. Bang, rest, collapse. Bang, rest, collapse. Its small now, you're that high up. All black around that little universe you can see, banging and contracting away."

   "Sure."

   "The last thing, Joe. If you were high enough up? Your universe is a bright dot flashing, down there. Its tiny now."

   "All right."

   "From there? Your universe. A tiny dot of blinking light. Like... a twinkling star now."

   "Okay."

   "Joe? There are other stars. They're very far apart? But... each of those blinking stars? Is its own universe. Its the same thing. For you, this is easy to imagine this. Do you see this?"

   "I grasp it. They're... all very far apart."

   "Joe? You do realize. Any life that forms, in a few places in that galaxy that makes it to become intelligent life? Its destroyed when the collapse comes. Nothing makes it, every last beam of light and particle of energy is sucked back. Nothing, escapes."

   "Yes."

   "Joe? Life is rare. Few planets have it. Fewer still are lucky to have it long enough, with conditions that it flourishes and you get intelligent life. Like you, like me. Life? Is rare."

   "Why are you telling me this."

   "I'm in the next universe over, so to speak. The closest... twinkling star, you're looking down on."

   "Wow. No wonder you would never answer me, where you were in my universe."

   "Joe? You understand enough now. I'm going to tell you. Why I need you."

   "Okay."

   "When your universe... begins to collapse? It will happen quicker than you imagine. Now don't get scared. It will happen long after you, are quite dead. But... maybe not as long after your death? As you might have imagined."

   "What do you want, then."

   "I told you. I'm here to help. Life is so rare? We want to save your race, from the collapse when it comes. We escaped our collapse, a very, very long time ago. We're in the next universe over now. Its a much younger universe. Now, yours? Is the next one closest. But Joe. Your universe? Is old. Older than you realize."

   "But... I don't understand. What... can I even do. I'm just one man. This happens... long after my bones are dust."

   "Its why we're talking now, Joe. I told you. Time? Is the one thing, we have plenty of."

   "Again. So what do you want. What do you need. How can I even help."

   "You have to start early, to be ready when the time comes. The sooner your race starts? The sooner it gets to where we're at. I'm here to help, I keep telling you that. You, understanding this first? You really are only one man. But? That's where it begins. We got the same help, a long time ago. Its how we came to get a new universe, a young one. We pass it on. To you. In time? Your race will do it for another."

   "What do I have to do."

   "Just answer this question. If you had a chance to save your race, from the collapse after your death. Would you do it?"

   "I'm scared, but... I guess I would have to."

   "You don't need to be scared. Take some time. Think about it. When you decide? You simply tell me. Then? We can begin. Time? Is the one thing, that we have plenty of."