The blast shield fell from the impact of the last barrage. Destrius shifted in his seat, frantically configuring the TTC with new time-space coordinates. Time was beginning to run short. The moans of the sentient ship approaching him grew louder and louder. Metallic particles and space debris clambering into the ionization cannon ricocheted off the walls of the collection tube, the sound a shrill infant’s cry that pierced the soundless domain of space. He felt the wave of pure destructive energy locking on to his coordinates.
Destrius deeply inhaled, feeling the pressure of another near-death experience weighing him down. Dozens of times over, he found himself meaningfully close to reaching his objective only to be conquered by unidentified forces. Memories of parallels seventeen and one-thirty-six reminded him of the cost of laxity. He was allowed no moment of relaxation; Destrius instead concentrated all of his energies on the grid ahead of him. Complex number sequences coupled with intergalactic terminology: a system of safety precautions to circumvent accidental tears in time-space; but this tear was completely necessary.
The TTC was capable of splitting one time-space into two diverging outcomes. The theory of two opposite histories occurring in parallel had been a topic of great study hundreds of years ago, but now it was a reality, and that reality had brought him into a chain of events that might have no recognizable end.
By splitting time-spaces (formerly known as parallel universes), humanity was able to vastly accelerate their growth. With careful preplanning, the rate of success was nearly one hundred percent. While in one time-space, an influential political figure may be murdered, he survives in another. Though millions died from a controversial cancer vaccine in the original time-space, that vaccine thrust the disease into the realms of history in another.
But man’s newfound power knew no restraint. Those far reaches man sought for so long should never have been examined. Wars unlike any others, massacres leaving only minutes traces of survivors, and the endless dread surrounding anticipation for the next strike. Those were the results of meeting intelligent life forms throughout the ever-expanding universe. Now Destrius was plagued with a difficult task. The only way he knew to put an end to endless suffering was the discovery of a time-space where humans never dared to explore the unknown reaches of the galaxies.
But he knew that his time in the current time-space was dwindling. The magnetic force of the ionization cannon began slowing the movement of his ship. Before being pulled too far into nothingness, the code was completed. The TTC control panel began to flash with multicolored light. This was not the time-space in which he would develop a device that would allow him to accomplish his goal. He’d have to leave that responsibility in the hands of himself from the future – as he’d done so many times before. That count far exceeded his age, but that was all he knew of it as well as the last thought that ran through his mind before time and space were cleft in two and the process began anew.