The Globe

Within a dark abandoned warehouse filled with various junk and trinkets long past, lay a brown paper box. The contents of this box was anyone’s guess, but a man and his wife were about to find out.

Jerzy, a man of great stature and wealth, but not in terms of financial wealth, nor popularity, had just indebted himself to the bank. He stood at a door with his wife Jessica fumbling for his keys. “This is going to be great!” Jessica stood unimpressed. “Just think what we can do with all this space, this place is huge!”

“You better be right about this.”

“This is going to be huge for us. A few materials and we can convert this space into a closer apartment to work. We can build a number of apartments out of the money we get from selling our old place.” Jerzy said as he found his keys and unlocked the almost ancient locks that barred entry to intruders. He opened the door with a creak, it required some force to open. It seemed the door hadn’t been opened in some time.

“Well, you do have most of the skills, but we’ve only seen pictures of the outside of the building.”

“We got it for a steal. It doesn’t matter what state it’s in as long as the brickwork is good. We can tell that from the outside. Sandstone, right near the waterfront. Prime realestate baby,” Jerzy said confident he’d made the right choice.

“It won’t have any infrastructure,” Jessica said. As they turned on the torchlight on their phones to get a better look at what they forked out for. “Damn! What a mess. We’re going to have to get a dumpster, well multiple dumpsters.”

“On the bright side, this stuff doesn’t look too heavy. The shelving’s made of wood it seems,” Jerzy took a look around as he stepped over mound upon mound of junk. “Look she’s wired for electricity. He said as he pulled a switch. The lights lit up the warehouse providing light, until, with a violent burst of sound, a few of the light globes smashed shattering glass upon them. “Ah… Do we leave them on?”

“Might as well. I think the others would have smashed by now.” Jessica said in contemplation. “This stuff is old, really old. There might be something valuable here. Most of this furniture must be antique. We should inventory this stuff. Take pictures.”

Over time they photographed numerous items, mostly junk, but there were many who like to restore such antiques. Eventually, Jerzy came across a curious brown paper box which was covered with dust. “Jessica! I think we might have found something special over here.” Jerzy blew the dust off. One word could be plainly seen. “Fragile.”

“What?”

“It says fragile.”

“Wait until I get over there.”

She almost ran to his location almost repetitively tripping on different pieces of junk scattered along the floor, but she made it unscathed. “Are you ready,” Jerzy said in anticipation.

“Open it.”

Jerzy took his Swiss army knife from his pocket and cut the seams. They both looked inside and found… “A snow globe. Great.” Jessica said.

“If it’s an antique it’s got to be worth a lot.”

“Meh… I’m going back to cataloguing this stuff. We’ll take that with us when we finish up,” Jessica said as she turned to leave.

Jerzy took the dusty globe from the box and sat it on the shelf to clean it up. After wiping the dust off, he looked closely. Within the globe lay a world lit by sunlight, somehow this globe turned, had clouds and lightning. He noticed the words… “INTRA MUNDI.”

“You trying to learn Latin or something?” Jessica asked.

“You know what that means? Anyway, I think this is some new sort of technology. Couldn’t be an antique, but still might be worth a few hundred or so. Must have turned it on when I opened it.”

Jessica returned to take a better look. “I love this. I’m keeping it. Enter the world.”

“What? That’s the translation. Enter the world. Intra mundi. I wonder what this button does.” She instantly pressed it, to which a flash of light erupted. Within a fraction of a second, Jessica had disappeared.

Jessica found herself in the wilderness where a city within a valley could be seen. She could make out people, cars and a train yard. “What the hell! I’m going to beat up whoever drugged me and left me here. Although, what was that light?”

Jerzy was instantly alarmed. He had no idea what had just happened. As a superstitious man he thought it to be some sort of magic. He knew what he had to do. He had to follow his wife. Hesitantly he pressed the button and much like before he found himself a few feet from his wife.

“Jessica, thank god I’ve found you!” Jerzy said as he was extremely thankful that they were still alive.

“Where did you come from. I swear, if you drugged me, I’ll kill you.”

“No! You disappeared after a flash of light. I followed you. I thought you might be dead.” At that moment he noticed something, another snow globe. He leaned over to pick it up and looked closely. Within the globe there was a dark scene of a warehouse. Redire was written on the base. “What does redire mean?”

“Ah, to return, I think. Looks like we have a way back.”

“Great, let’s go home.”

“No, let’s check this place out. We might be able to acquire something valuable. At the verry least we could do some sightseeing.”

“We should test our return.”

“I wouldn’t that thing seems really old. We don’t know how many uses the globe has.”

“OK, but we’re taking that thing with us.”

“Yeah, might be a good idea,” Jessica said as she took in her surroundings.

As they got closer to the city, they noticed the people were not as they seemed. These beings were not human. More neanderthal in facial features, but not quite. It was like they were a mixture of human and some ancient race.

When they walked through the city, many things looked out of place. There were holographic displays in the windows. Cars that acted as both wheeled vehicles and aircraft. Jessica was surprised she hadn’t noticed these vehicles taking off and landing from a distance, but most where white and blended into the sky like birds or clouds. The people wore holographic watches that they seemed to use as phones. Jessica and Jerzy became quite the curiosity to the residence of the city.

They were approached by three of the beings which spoke in Latin. “alium se orbem terrarum ex animalium receperint.”

“What did they say?” Jerzy asked.

“It’s been a while, but I think they’re welcoming us.” Two of the beings handed Jessica and Jerzy a small device they removed from their temple. When the beings pointed to their heads, Jerzy got an aha moment. He placed the device on his temple, Jessica did the same.

“I am Gerlock. What brings you to our world.” Gerlock said.

“An accident, but we’re happy to be here,” Jessica answered.

“Amazing! Does it have other uses,” Jerzy said now understanding everything the being said.

“Yes, it has many uses, but there is no time to speak of such things. A storm is coming; we must enter the shelters. The buildings are mostly impenetrable, but on the odd occasion a twister is formed,” said Gerlock as the others looked on without the means to understand half the conversation. Regardless, they seemed entertained by the situation as others hurried towards open doors within the streets. The cars seemed to drive without occupants into garages.

With haste they made their way towards a shelter as the wind blew. Within an instant the winds had turned gale forced. Rain pelted down as they stood at the base of the stairs which quickly turned to golf sized hail then larger. Within moments the top part of a tree was headed straight for them. The door automatically sealed with speed. A large thump could be heard.

“What on earth is going on?” Jerzy said.

“Do you not have storms on your planet?” Gerlock said.

“No, well sometimes, but it’s rare,” Jessica said.

“It is the effect of the warming. You are lucky, I assume you are not under such conditions,” Gerlock said.

“What is the warming?” Jerzy said.

“When vast amounts of what you call carbon dioxide or monoxide are released into the air, or methane, the planet warms. We did not believe in time. We are going to create a change in the atmosphere that will block out the sun and produce an ice age. It is here we can collect frozen methane and make use of it to power our civilization until such a time as we can warm the planet again.”

“No… They’re talking about global warming. We’re in the same trouble,” Jessica said.

“I don’t believe in global warming,” Jerzy said.

“Do you not believe in your own science? Do you not believe you own eyes?” Gerlock asked.

“We are not as advanced as you,” Jessica said.

“We have gone through your minds. You are a capable species. You still have much time, much resources. You fight yourselves for your very lives. You cannot tell me a global civilization such as yourselves cannot dedicate the needed resources to find a scientific solution to your problem. We waited too long. For you it’s not too late,” Gerlock said.

“Tell us how you, a civilisation as advanced as yourselves couldn’t prevent it?” Jessica asked, while Jerzy was in a huff.

“We once used fossil fuels as every civilisation does. Initially we powered our whole race by such means. We grew to vast numbers, we ate meat as we still do, but now far less. We already have far fewer numbers. The planet couldn’t support our vast population in the way we chose to live. By a certain point it was already too late, or so our scientist thought so. It was only for the lack of scientific knowledge that we couldn’t live within the planet’s tolerable limits. We know now that with added research into technology, to both repair the atmosphere and live with the means of co-existing with our planet, we could have prevented this ice age.”

“How did you get to this point in terms of your technology?” Jessica asked. Jerzy was beginning to think he had been drugged and was simply dreaming. That or something had fallen on his head. He remained quiet.

“We eventually put our resources into developing both hydrogen engines and batteries of many different varieties to hold more and last longer. We used the generation from the sun, tides and wind to create hydrogen and electricity to power our cities and vehicles. We developed a means to capture emissions, but it’s too late for us. It would seem it is not too late for you,” Gerlock said with concern.

“Enough of this bull,” Jerzy said as Gerlock looked puzzled, “I’m dreaming and I want to wake up.” Jessica slapped him hard across the face.

“Does that feel like a dream,” Jessica said.

“Well, no-

“Wake up, we’re here. I don’t care if you don’t believe in global warming. This speaks for itself. Science speaks for itself.” Jessica turned to Gerlock and said, “I’m sorry about that. Please, is there anything you can give us to prove we’ve been here.”

“You may keep one of the translators,” Gerlock said.

“Thank you,” Jessica said.

“Go now, or you may not survive,” Gerlock said.

With a press of a button, they both found themselves in their warehouse.

“Did that just happen?” Jerzy said.

“Do you remember the city and its people?”

“Yes.”

“Then it happened,” Jessica said.

“Do you think we can convince them?”

“I don’t know. At least we have this.”