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The Traveler

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    "There's something wrong!

    "Something very wrong is happening!"
   The reply came quickly, on the other side the quiet and calm voice gave him the much needed confidence at that moment.
   "Yes, we know, rest assured, you are not in danger. We also realized what is happening, there is no danger. We are controlling all the possibilities there.
(Off) “How are his vital signs?”
"Normal, taking into account the situation, any change will appear on your graph immediately. We advise him to self-stabilize his brainwaves."
    "We continue with all channels open, our contact remains unchanged. Our team think that it would be advisable for you to self-stabilize your brainwaves…"
    "Ahhh great... Thank you, that's exactly what I was thinking…"

Only then did he realize that was the commander herself who had taken over the communication.

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   Luckily for Helena it was a calm afternoon, she had just arrived at the porch when she saw the young man standing in the middle of the garden trying to get his bearings, he seemed lost, looking in all directions, with an expression that he wasn't understand anything.
    "Good afternoon, may I help you?"
   “Yes ma'am, I'm sorry…” he was searching for the right words carefully, “I don't know how I ended up here…”
   “This is my backyard. Do you want anything?”
  “Yes, yes, I see that it's the garden of your house… by the way, very beautiful and well-kept. (He immediately started looking for information about the plants around it, but there were so many kind flowers, he was in no condition to think about it.) 
   “I am lost, can you help me please?”
   “Sure, where do you want to go?”
   “Well… it’s just… see… I don’t even know how to explain it, can we talk for a bit?…”
   “Of course, go head…”
   He had to translate or replace, so to speak, her time colloquial terms to follow the course of the conversation, in this case “go head”, meant “say it”.
    He understood that most of the communication resources of his time and which he was used to wasn't working there. In order to understand what she was saying, he had to translate her colloquial language into terms that suited his, and by dealing with, he began to feel more at ease.

   On the other hand, it was clear to her that the he wanted to talk about something very special.
   “Mam… I am travelling, or rather... I am a traveler…
   “I come from afar, from another time…”
   She immediately went in to state of alert, this was outside any normal parameters, even though he seemed mentally stable, but we never know… She chose to be condescending towards him.
    “How so, my son?”
   “Ahh thank you for listening to me”, he found convenient to show his good intentions, bowing in reverence just like the Asian people still did on his time.
   “Are you Asian?”
   “No, ma'am… I mean, yes, from my father's side”
  “And what are you doing here?”
   “Researching on…” 
   Yet another warning light appeared in her mind, and instead of waiting for him to finish answering she asked another question.
   "How old are you?
   "Ahh… we don't count time with the Gregorian calendar anymore, because of the light years, you know? But it would be more or less the equivalent of a chronological age of about 34 years… I'm 34 years old ("in our time however it would be the equivalent of having at least 150 more years of life ahead", he thought it better not to add that information.)
   "And what did you came here for?"
   "We’re doing a research on singularity.”
   "We are?! Are there others here?!, her voice rose two notches and her heart raced.
   "No. I’m sorry… I'm still getting used to this kind of communication. 
   "I came alone, but our research involves more people. From a distance, in our own time."
   "Ahh, I see!…" She took several deep breaths to calm down.

    A reminder came from the control room:

    "Remember that they have the custom of introducing themselves to each other."

    "Yes, thank you for the hint, will do it right away."

     "I almost forgot to introduce myself. Nice to meet you, my name is Andō."

     "Andō?"

    After a while of waiting in vain for her to introduce herself, he decided to tell her the story of his name.

    "Yes, my mother was majoring in History of Arts and Sciences when I was born. To celebrate it, she and my father chose the name of one of their favorites painters. Andō is a Japanese name." (Actually for the sake of privacy he would avoid disclosing that his parents met at an exhibition of Andō Hiroshige prints.)

  "By the way, there must have been some serious glitch in the system… The rare displacements in time became possible for us only in a non-physical way, we are not visible or even detectable, we cannot touch anything.

   "I don't have any kind of access to the physical world in your time, much less can I interact with you... like now!

   "We are currently looking for the best way to solve this situation. I mean, the fact that I’m here physically talking to you…

   (It would cost us a lot to cancel the experiment, it is more likely that two or three more people will have to come in to solve this issue.)"

   "You were talking about different types of communication, what kind of communication are you referring to? Some sort of telepathy?
  "Not exactly. We cannot read other people’s thoughts. But when someone speaks the interlocutor or interlocutors understand exactly the meaning of what is being said.

  "A few centuries ago this was called “unit of consciousness”, and even in our time that's what we use to describe our conversations."
   "Ahhh, that is remarkable, a breakthrough!"
   "Yes, and it happened spontaneously, during the singularity that is happening in your time, which you are going through right now…" 

PART TWO

   “With so many years of life, does that mean that you don't have any diseases?”
   “Yes, we do, but not serious illness.”
   “And how are the relationships”?
   “Varied as now, some last, some don't, but the general tendency is to be more stable.
   “Mam, I know you must have many questions and because of this exceptional situation the protocol is to answer them all. Without going into details that could be compromising.”
   “Very convenient answer. So you mean that this system failure was foreseen?”
   “No, it was not foreseen, it is considered as one of the last possibilities.”
   “Are you going to mitigate all your answers?”
   “Not all, not even most of them.”
   “What do we have in common in terms of lack of knowledge?”
   “Philosophical questions, dreams, imponderable situations like love between two people.”
   “How do you study?”
  “In various ways, from academic, analog, digital, holographic, to implants, others with downloads, and more recently we are seeking to learn by Direct Knowledge.”
   “Have the means of transportation evolved proportionally to the communication?”
  “On a personal level, like physically, as you can see, they are improving. We have we advanced greatly through AI, robotics and other systems.”
   “Interstellar?”
   “Ahh… We are on our way to the stars, for now we are interplanetary... – he smiled with joy at her interest in the advances and history of humanity, “And who knows one day intergalactic."
   "Do you mean that the man, the woman, the human person of a thousand years has already been born?”
  “Not yet, but it is likely to be soon.”
  “Contacts with extraterrestrials?”
 “I'm sorry, I'm not allowed to answer certain questions for reasons that you surely understand.”
   “But do they exist? Is there intelligent life outside of our planet?”
   “I can't answer that question either.”
   “Are there still wars?”
   “That question…"
   “Ahh you can't answer, too convenient…"
   “I can’t, I'm sorry, ma’am..."
   “Not a problem… I understand. – she held out her hand to him and added:

    “Nice to meet you, Andō, my name is Helena.”
    “The ice or any remaining tension was broken.”

   For the first time she paused for a long time, smiling at him and at the garden around them as she said:
   “And how can I help you?”
   Then he understood that maybe there was no flaw in the system, he was in front of a person with a long time difference from his civilization, which meant that she was at a clear disadvantage in terms of development, knowledge, culture, technology, scientific and medical advances, quality of life and even social structure. And yet she was offering help.
    So was she in fact, like perhaps some of her ancestors and contemporaries, beings who were beyond the measures of progress? Extemporaneous? A new paradox? 
   “Mrs. Helena, if we were both from the same time we could talk exchanging what we call impulses, brain waves, states of consciousness, synapses.”
   She understood everything, one could see she had not only a high level of culture and intelligence, but also what you would call acceptance of the other's point of view. She didn't seem to judge or feel offended by his answers and condition.  
   “Andō, thank you for bringing me up to date about our future evolution. And most of all I am very happy to know that we are living the singularity!”
   He repeated her question smiling, at the same time surprised and amazed to have found a certain degree of affinity with her.
   “How can you help us?”


     (To be continued)
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