The mountain, the money and the mission

My breath quickened with each fumbling step among the jagged boulders. Each satisfying crunch underneath the soles of my boots urged me on further. After an afternoon’s worth of perseverance, I had finally reached the pinnacle of the mountain, and my goodness was the sight in front of me a treat!

The view of the forest, a vibrant carpet of trees beneath me as far as my eyes could see. Specks of marigold and tangerine woven between chartreuse and emerald. Mountains standing proud and tall, graced by the effervescent glow of the sun. A tapestry of azure behind this, with tufts of porcelain white clouds here and there. Birdsong surrounding me, chittering among the trees, nature’s Fur Elise.

I inhaled the sharp autumn air, feeling it making its way down to my lungs, and eventually, spreading a cool tingle down my body, my shoulders shuddered a little. Arms outstretched and moving forward to get a better view, I wavered among the foggy air for stability.

All too quickly, my foot slid against a sloped surface of rock glistening with condensation, sending me hurling down painfully sharp clusters of more rock. I winced in pain as I adjusted to the fall. I clenched my sore knee that had hit a rock on its sharp edge. My hands were stinging from fresh grazes. At that moment, I thought of my family at the holiday lodge. I closed my eyes as I leaned my head against a boulder behind me.

Exhaling a sigh of frustration, I became aware of an unfamiliar stench growing stronger with each passing moment. The smell was growing into a sensation, like a jolt of electricity was lingering in the air. Like I could ‘feel’ the crackle of electricity surrounding me, but it couldn't be seen. The edges of my nostrils began to sting and the scent seemed to resemble a smell of burning coupled with something sour. I could have sworn I could taste salt on my tongue or... perhaps lime? Maybe both?. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion and as I grimaced I looked around me. I was definitely among boulders and moss and shards of rock. Albeit a little further down the top of the mountain, what with the tumble that had befallen me.

I shrugged it off and turned to my side, stretching out and pushing weight onto my arms so I could slowly stand up. I let out a yelp and adjusted the backpack straps that were dangling from my shoulders and checked that the clasp around my waist was still intact. And that's when I saw it. The mountains ahead of me seemed to flicker with a faint amber glow. I squinted my eyes but the effect reversed, as though I hadn’t witnessed it at all! I know what I had just seen. Or did I? I humoured myself. I hadn’t fallen and hit my head at all, I hurt my legs and my hands, so why am I imagining things and questioning my sanity? Weird.

I decided instead to focus my attention on the clouds that had now turned a pavestone grey. Light drops of rain began sprinkling down. Within minutes, the sprinkle turned into a shower.

The rain became a fierce motivator, urging me to push past the pain of the fall that I was still reeling from. I made my way down the peak of the mountain, feeling a little ambivalent spending little time at the top than I had originally foreseen. I reassured myself. I had spent the better part of my day aiming to climb this mountain, so I shouldn’t have any reason to feel sombre.

Sunset broke among the grey clouds, sending the rain away with it. The kaleidoscope sky, flashing fuchsia and violet, loomed overhead as I reached the end of my arduous journey. I walked along further as my family’s cabin for autumn break came into view.

---

As I approached the wooden veranda steps that led to the front door, an enticing smell of a stew had escaped from the front window, making its way to my nose. The delicious, savoury aroma smelled like pure comfort and stole away the experience of the past hour that I kept replaying in my mind. Key turning in the lock, I opened the front door of our rented lodge to a greeting of friendly teasing from my older sister who insisted she hadn’t missed me at all. I was faced with told-you-so’s from my younger sister, who found no qualms in rubbing in that the newest season of Riverdale was a real treat, and that she was glad to have spent time indoors, according to her, nature was overrated. We spoke about our day’s accomplishments as I readied myself for dinner. We helped my grandmother prepare the table in the dining room and soon we relished our heart-warming beef stroganoff among bubbling chatter.

---

Time ticked by and I finally found myself curled in the warmth and plush comfort of my bedding. I couldn’t tell when I had drifted off into the dull darkness of deep slumber. Sleep seemed to wash over me within moments of closing my eyes.

---

A blinding beacon of light broke among the inky black of my mind’s eye. All of a sudden, I felt the sensation of cold air and nothing more. I could feel nothing else. I seemed to be in a blank space, a vortex. Perhaps a vacuum built by my imagination.

“Hello.” A gentle voice, perhaps female, spoke from the source light

My blood ran cold. I could almost feel every neuron in my body electrified with alarm.

. A figure came forward and light emanated from behind every curve of the torso.

“I’d like to start by apologising if I have startled you. I haven't quite mastered communications with those of your era as we’re only in phase one of project Earth X twenty one.”

I wanted to respond but all I knew was my voice in my mind. My mind’s eyes were still fixated on what I could see ahead of me.

I saw the ball of light approaching closer. From behind it emerged a seemingly young woman with fiery auburn hair cut to the shoulders. Clear aviator glasses were perched on the bridge of her nose, with a luminescent red glow that seemed to flicker around the edges of the frames. She looked to be in her early twenties, not far from my own age. She was clothed in a royal blue jumpsuit, not the conventional synthetic cotton kind that I was used to, but a tough-looking sort of material, form-fitting with a glossy silken sheen. I’d never seen a material like it ever before.

She took a further step closer and that is when I noticed her clutching onto a slim silver device between her elbow and her arm. A minute seemed to have passed as I made observations until the silence was broken by the young woman’s voice once more.

“Hi Hope. My name is EE9904. You might have a lot of questions, so... let me start by addressing your confusion first. What’s happening right now will last no longer than 90 minutes. This is equivalent to the stages of your REM sleep cycles. You see, you’re still on Earth in the year 2021 and I’m talking to you inside a chasm of the tenth dimension. Am I clear so far?”

All I could muster were responses within my mind, as though my mouth had suddenly become redundant. No, you’re not making any sense. And why does your name contain numbers? More importantly, where am i?

The figure who referred to themself as EE9904 let out a laugh that could not be better timed with my thoughts.

“That’s it! You seem to be getting to grips with how this works! I hear you, everything you’ve said and although we’re in a dimension, something you might assume is a dream, I promise you, our communication is very real.”

“We’re speaking in real time and I’m located in the year 4021. You seemed to have tripped a time loop from your hike in the mountains earlier and this sent a distress call to our Andromeda SpaceX three thousand vessel. The time loop you triggered was sent from the year 3021 on Earth.”

“When you saw a flicker of an amber glow earlier, you had absorbed a miniscule amount of Xylonoximaldihyde or XMD for short which is a substance present in the future. The distress call we received identified the burst of XMD in the year 2021 and traced it to you. I was able to pull you through the tenth dimension with the help of XMD. Ok. Still with me?”

She paused for a brief moment and I felt as though I could feel her dark brown, almost inky-black eyes stare into my very soul.

Yup, still with you, I replied in my mind. I was beginning to grow accustomed to our strange communication method.

She looked down at the silver object in her arms for a moment and her face folded into an expression of worry.

“I don’t mean to alarm you Hope, but I’ll need to get through this next bit faster. Your XMD levels are depleting rapidly, I may not be able to stretch this meeting to the full 90 minutes. I digress.”

“I’m going to have to paint you a picture. The year 3021 is a terrible year for Earth, XMD mining is at an all time high having been discovered just over a hundred years before around the year 2897. Solid XMD is being brought to the surface from underneath the Earth’s mantle, later to be converted into subatomic particles that shroud the very air of the planet. When the active particles, similar to the sensation of electricity, are absorbed by Earth inhabitants, mutations are formed, giving rise to obtaining a power of accessing all dimensions. The bigger concern however, is the threat of an intergalactic catastrophe stemming from the core of the Earth if the mantle starts being mined. Still with me Hope?”

Yes, just processing, I think to myself. Or think out loud? I’m not sure what is more fitting to say.

“Now, close to the year 3021, a group of concerned scientists, developed a time loop with their new found powers of dimensions, to warn past inhabitants to change the course of the future by preventing XMD mining and perhaps even the discovery of XMD itself. They even managed to contact myself and my comrades in Andromeda SpaceX three thousand.”

“We exist in the year 4021. We are the first generation to live the furthest among the galaxy, descendants of Earth inhabitants who were expatriates on Mars. Our mission is to prevent the intergalactic catastrophe of the beautiful planet Earth and we’re helping to connect other inhabitants in the year 2021, who, just like yourself, will have tripped a time loop. This is truly an inter-millennia effort and a mission of magnanimous proportions.”

My thoughts were now scrambled. I was completely astonished. I couldn’t even think of what words to string together to express myself this time.

“Hope! You now only have a small percentage of XMD remaining. I can use this to craft a guide and payment in the form of the 2021 currency as a reward for your efforts. And use the amounts of a small store of XMD I have, to transport you back.”

Suddenly the beacon of light vanished and I felt myself falling through a vortex once more. I was drawing in blank space.

I suddenly sat up in my bed. My body was trembling from my vivid, dream-like encounter. I seemed to feel a cold surface underneath my right hand and as I raised it, I saw a large glossy back notebook titled ‘Mission EarthX21’ in red. The cover was askew and as I lifted it, I discovered a bulge of dollar notes, encapsulated in a money clip labelled $20,000.