Convergent Realms

IV

"General, we're on track to land soon," the commanding officer of the control center delivered to Robert. The man seemed almost scared as if he didn't know what Robert would say. "Very well," he spoke, then shooed him off to somewhere else. He took a sip of his coffee as he stared at the light blue screen, mapping out where they were going.

The ship itself was a beauty-megatons upon megatons of mighty steel all converged into one vessel, meant to carry humanity's one hope. Or, at least, that's what he'd been told formally. Informally, there were hundreds of thousands of ships colonizing other times at this very moment, all thinking that they were humanity's sole hope. Egos ran wild among ship captains, but not Robert.

He couldn't call himself a humble man, because he certainly wasn't, but he listened to others when they talked. Still, people feared him. They were meant to. How could you get anywhere in the military without having people fear you? That's practically impossible. No man who has ever gotten anywhere was a welcoming man. CEOs wouldn't welcome you into their office and offer you a cup of tea-even the thought of something like that was outrageous. But that didn't mean he had to truly be someone to be feared. As long as he established who was in control of who early on, he could practically do whatever he wanted.

That was how he got control of this ship. The Wormhole. Not a very imaginative name, considering how they get to different times, but it's even less imaginative when you realize that there are probably billions of other Wormholes out there. More specifically, the ship Robert controlled was The Wormhole 86753091765394527. Such a long string of numbers seemed ridiculous at first, but then you realized that it was peak efficiency. Everything in life was. And then it became more usual to your mind.

Robert was legally required to be awake for the whole trip (which was about a week or so), or at least when he was on duty, which really wasn't much, but he obliged. He thought it would probably be inconvenient to be asleep half the trip and repeatedly woken up, so here he was, sipping coffee, not sleeping for a week.

It was sort of nice being one of the dozen or so people awake on board, along with the essential and authorized crewmembers, but it got lonely a lot. He found ways to pass the time, telling himself he was looking through travel pamphlets from worlds in the future to find out what the world would be like, although he'd already been briefed about it, and when he checked to see what other info there was, it was blank. That could only mean that either there was no technology where they were going, or no scouts had been sent there yet. He'd been told it was the latter.

It upset him, but he thought about it as more of a vacation. Just a vacation where you're slaughtering possibly billions of innocent people. (Most worlds he'd visited had about ten billion people, give or take a couple hundred million.) He was glad to leave Earth though. That place never really worked out. Thinking back from a place in time where he was between existences, Earth was really quite a horrible place to live. It was much too hot to go outside for more than an hour at a time, and those who did wore suits to protect themselves. As a result, cancer was much more common, which was really just an inconvenience, but he hoped there would be less sun wherever they were going.

He got tired of staying in the same, slightly spacious living quarters, so he went out for a meal. The hallways were somewhat bleak, with bulkheads on every door, and there were no windows. That was, of course, on purpose, as it'd been proven that seeing the place where they were traveling, a place that simply does not exist in the regular flow of existence, could be mentally taxing, They used AI navigation, which was more accurate than a human could ever be, yet not foolproof, so they could travel through time relatively fast. Robert hadn't been on the first Wormhole, but he'd heard it was a nightmare, as all first tests were. Anyone who survived came back babbling idiots due to the abundant number of windows, which shareholders thought looked appealing.

His footsteps could be easily heard from anywhere on the ship, due to the metal they used as a building material. He arrived at the ship's mess hall and quickly grabbed a burger. It tasted like the best thing he'd ever had, and it made him think about how long it'd been since he'd eaten. It had to be at least a week, right? He wasn't doing much physical work, so he didn't burn calories that easily.

As soon as he finished, he started to roam the halls. He knew the ship's design well-he'd been on so many that he could probably build one himself, but each one had small, human details. To his left there was a scuff mark where someone had tripped, and to his right the small dent their head made. He imagined the situation playing out, someone probably fooling around, running as fast as they can through the long, narrow halls, and then they come across a choice, They can go straight or to the right. Inventive, they decide to take the path less traveled. Then a thunk is heard echoing throughout the ship as he writhes in pain for a moment. People are pretty dim all around.

Eventually, he wandered his way over to the control center of the ship, the only place where people continued their life business as usual. "Oh hello General." said the captain, the quaver in his voice just barely audible. Robert ignored the quavering and barely answered, then he strolled around the control room, silently inspecting the crew's work. They did a fine job, so he had nothing to talk about. He eventually got bored enough that he decided to announce something over the intercom. H thought for a minute before he placed the microphone on his neck which unfolded (nanobots) and projected his voice throughout the ship. His speech went a little something like this:

Hello, valued soldiers. I know that morale may be running a bit low now that we've spent a day between worlds, and still have a week to go, but there is no time to fret! We must plan, we have to muster up all the courage we can to Purge this next world quickly and efficiently, because, and I think you all know this is true when I say it, we will all be dutifully rewarded for the service we provide that is to the liking of the Companies. But there is one thing we must all have, and that is bravery. *Pause* What do you mean? Well, re-correct it! Oh come on, you're trained for this! Blathering idiot... Oh, I'm still on. I'm going to have to pick up this little speech later, We're having some technical difficulties, but I want to assure everyo-

Before Robert could finish his sentence, the ship hit something solid. Which meant they were no longer in a space between times. And in the wrong time.