I awoke to the blinding lights and a sore back. SR was floating quietly and he noticed I was awake.
“Good morning Dr. Eden. Did you rest well?”
“Not exactly. This sleeping bag I found last night wasn’t very comfortable on this gravel, but at least I was covered, the temperature seems to have dropped throughout the night.”
“Yes, it seems it did, Dr. Eden. While you were sleeping I went through the entire known history of the human species.”
“SR, you must have been pretty bored. I’m going to find something to eat and then I need to check the remaining hallways.”
“Okay Doctor.”
I made my way to the kitchen and had some cold condensed soup for breakfast. It was rather tasteless, but it helped my hunger. Shortly after finishing the soup, I headed straight for the largest hallway behind the staircase. This hallway was considerably wider than the other ones which led me to believe that something more important was down here.
As I turned the corner to follow the wideness of the hallway, I saw that there was a room with open double doors. There was a light on inside of it, and I could see it was probably a lab. I approached the room cautiously, but once inside I could see that it was clearly a lab.
There was a work table, with scraps still in place. The lab floor had several scorched tiles, probably the failed attempts with the laser that was attached to the ceiling. It was funny really, here was this lonely scientist, playing with lasers, and he probably had no idea about the tragedy going on back on Earth. It baffled me that such a selfish person would ever have built this place and had not decorated it lushly. They obviously had the resources to build this place and he kept it a secret, he left his family behind, to die.
I looked to the left of the laser and I was immediately surprised. There was a large grey machine that had smoke coming from the back of it. It couldn’t be… A time machine. I could only imagine the possibilities of this, if it worked. The machine was magnificent. A close friend of mine back on Earth had been researching the plans for a time machine, although he had never succeeded. I thought I would never see the day that time travel would be possible. And yet, there I was standing in front of the machine that could fix all of my burdens, and it is broken. I do not possess the skills remotely possible to fix it, either.
I pulled the disk from the rubble and put it in front of the work table. Once I placed it on the floor, I backed away. I was surprised to see that it wasn’t an SR, but a hologram.
It materialized quickly, into a yellow hologram of an older man. He was already smiling at me.
Immediately I recognized him. He was my AP Physics professor from when I was in college.
“Doctor Matthew?”
“Noomi Eden, how pleasant to see you, my I haven’t seen you since you were my most gifted student in class.”
“Doctor Matthew, it was you that built this place?”
“Yes, you’d be correct in saying that... mostly.”
“What do you mean mostly?”
“I had help.”
“I have so many questions Dr. Matthew; I don’t even know where to start.”
“Well, unfortunately, this hologram only has a limited time to run, I’ve been dead for 7 years and the batteries don’t exactly last that long.”
“I’ll start with what is this place?”
“It is a facility I built with the help of a kind alien race. They called this planet ‘The Garden of Menoetius’, and ‘Meno’ for short. I never found out why. They only visited every 10 or so years. I suppose they were due for a visit this year.”
“Do you think they were here two days ago?”
“Very well could have been them. Or it could have been the… others.”
“Others?”
“…Another species of those friendly aliens that have a vendetta against the humans. They murdered me here.”
“They must have made that statue.”
“I haven’t seen any statues, so yes I would assume they did.”
“Yes I did, but there was nothing I could do… I’m afraid my battery is just about done. I leave you with this; go into that closet next to my time machine, there is something in there that can help you figure everything out.”
“No! Doctor! Please, I have so many questions!”
He disappeared so quickly, I barely had time to step toward him.
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