Temporal Misstep

“Well, it’s a long story, but fixing this will take some time, so let’s get started. You must be wondering how this is possible, right?”

No, I wasn’t questioning that at all. Every thought in my mind at that moment was telling me this man was insane. There was no way someone who looked older than Inertia’s father could possibly be her twin brother.

“Well, I came from the future,” he continued. “Out of sheer curiosity, I made a mistake and ended up encountering the Zeit of 2025. And, as you know, two versions of the same person can’t coexist in the same timeline without creating temporal instability. To resolve that, the universe itself erased me.”

He paused, let out a long sigh, and then resumed his monologue, continuing to dismantle the phone.

“I believe the universe attempted mutual destruction. But... well, I have an Eterno, so that wasn’t entirely possible. I’m safe — for now.”

From what Dom and Alba had said, the Eterno had appeared at a time when life on Earth was on the brink of extinction. I couldn’t imagine that happening within the next hundred years.

He continued:

“Why go back to the past? As you might already know, my father dedicated his entire life to finding a way to bring Inertia back. He couldn’t move on after her coma from the accident.” He looked straight at me.

By then, I think he could already sense what my eyes were saying. I was overwhelmed by all these revelations.

“Oh, you didn’t know she was in a coma?”

I blinked twice, as if shaking my head.

“In 2020, Inertia was in a terrible accident. She was struck by a drunk driver while walking home from school. She was resuscitated on-site and rushed to the nearest hospital before being transferred to my father’s facility. When he found out, he took over her care. She had suffered severe cranial trauma and required surgery.

The procedure was a success, but she never woke up. True to her name, she remained in stasis for another fifty years. My father could never understand why, from a technical standpoint, her entire central nervous system was functioning perfectly. He spiraled into a paranoid obsession, desperate to uncover what was keeping her unconscious.”

Zeit finally managed to remove the back cover of the phone, delicately handling its internal components. He used specialized tools for small parts and wore a monocular loupe clipped to his glasses.

He opened a small case that held ten purple crystals. Carefully, he replaced the crystal inside the phone with a new one from the case.

“I loved my sister as much as my parents did — no, maybe even more. Losing her back then felt like losing part of myself. We shared a bond unlike anything else, perhaps because we were twins. That’s why I dedicated my life to medicine and became a neurosurgeon like my father, to help him, and to free him from his torment.”

He closed the case and began reassembling the phone.

“Well, I was ninety-five years old when the world stood on the verge of collapse. I had the honor of being among the first to receive an Eterno, granted to me because of my contributions to its early research. But for Inertia, it came too late.

Because of my standing in the medical field, I was privileged to live in Nowy until the year 6024. Thousands of years went by, and eventually, I grew restless. I began exploring the curvature of spacetime and its connection to the Eterno.

By chance, I discovered that the Eterno was composed of exotic matter, a substance that defies known physical laws and is essential for time travel.”

“I spent years building a device capable of forming a wormhole, a gateway to another moment in time. I had to choose carefully for my first test and decided on 2019, before the accident. But as you can see, I missed the mark. I landed in 2024, five years off.

Once I reproduced the same time-travel mechanism here in 2025, I found myself unable to return to 6025, most likely because the universe had erased me. 

Then I conceived the idea of using this exotic matter on Inertia to observe its effects. Since we share the same DNA, the Eterno’s compatibility with her was 100%.

It brings me great joy to know that Inertia is living the life that was stolen from her. That is all I ever wanted — for her to live. Rei, I don’t know if you’ll remember any of this, but please, pass this message to her: Live.”

Abruptly, a monitor alarm blared, and at that very moment, a surge of electricity shot through my body. It started at my toes and crawled up to my neck; by the time it reached my head, my consciousness began to slip away. Yet, just before the darkness consumed me, I heard Zeit’s voice one last time:

“Forgive me, Rei.”

…

That was the final memory I had before waking up in a park near my house.

The phone was still in my pocket, and on my very first try, I managed to reach all of you.

“So… I have a twin brother?” Inertia said, stunned. “This is so… Damn. I can’t help but feel guilty for not remembering anything.”

“It’s okay,” I reassured her. “He’s living well somewhere in 2025.”

“And… I’m really in a coma?” she asked.

“As for that… I don’t know,” I admitted. “He didn’t mention your current condition.”

“It’s like a certain friend of ours would say: ‘It’s fine, you’re living well somewhere in 6025,’” Dom quipped, trying to lighten the mood.

Luna tried to stifle a laugh but ended up glancing at Inertia with concern.

“Yeah, you’re right. In the end… that’s why I’m here, isn’t it? But it seems the universe won’t let us exist in the same timeline. I wonder why,” Inertia said, still visibly shaken.

***

Well… what can I do? At least I’m alive and well… all thanks to my brother. This is kind of crazy, isn’t it? I was unlucky to miss the chance to live in 2025, but lucky enough to have my family’s support and to keep on living in another time.

It felt as though Rei had chosen the travel itself as the perfect moment to tell me about my brother, because no sooner had he finished than we arrived at our destination.

“We’re here,” Dom announced.

The car gradually slowed until it leveled out at a steady 30 km/h.

We turned onto a side street hemmed in by vegetation I couldn’t even be sure was real, and drove to the end, where a gate barred the way.

When the car came to a stop, I spotted an old, weathered sign that read: Jardim Botânico de São Paulo.

São Paulo? That’s in Brazil, isn’t it?

The car was cleared to enter, and shortly after we passed through the gate, I realized the vegetation looked different from what we’d seen before. This time, it had natural movement and colors — it was real.

We drove straight ahead, massive palm trees rising on both sides of the road.

A little farther on, we turned right and crossed a narrow bridge, with a small river flowing beneath it.

Is this the secret place they were talking about?

Dom brought the car to a stop. “We’ve arrived, safe and sound. Welcome to the Jardim!”

The doors lifted upward automatically, and we stepped out.

“Show her around. I’ll catch up with you in a bit. Innie, if you don’t like your room, let me know and I’ll make some changes,” Luna said as she headed off, carrying all her bags.

“Okay, thank you,” I replied.

“All right, follow me,” Dom said, slipping into the role of tour guide. “This warehouse on our left is where we keep the mini-cars used to get around the area. Come on, we’ll need one.”

We climbed into the mini-car, which had four seats, was open, and floated just above the ground. We followed a path that sloped uphill and then curved to the left. At the end, a cluster of small houses came into view, gathered together like a little housing complex.

“Here are the dormitories. One of these will be yours,” Alba said, pointing to the row of small houses set close together with narrow spaces between them. “From now on, we’ll be living right next to you too.”

“Yours is the one in the middle. Let’s go,” Dom added after we got out, motioning for me to go ahead and be the first to step inside.

It was the first time I had ever seen a door like this. Towering twice my height, it was made of transparent glass and had no doorknob. So I just stood there, waiting for it to open on its own. But it didn’t.

“How does it open?” I asked, still standing in front of it.

“Ah! Hahaha, sorry. You just have to walk through. It recognizes the Eterno and grants entry only to you,” Dom explained.

“All right.” I hesitated for a moment, then took my first steps and walked through. “Incredible!”

“Now you need to unlock our passage from the inside,” Alba said. “Just place your hand on the door and it will open.”

“What happens if you try to go through?” I asked, curious about how this technology worked.

“It repels anyone who isn’t authorized,” Alba replied. “Come on, Dom, show her.” She added with a mischievous smile.

“Me?! I’m not going anywhere near that door,” he said, folding his arms and puffing out his chest.

It only took a single look from Alba for him to change his tone.

“Alba, you know that hurts,” he said in his defense.

“How is Innie supposed to feel safe here on her own? She needs to know how this works,” she added.

Dom stared at her for a few seconds.

I could tell he was silently saying ‘Then you do it’ with his eyes, but he wasn’t crazy enough to let the words slip out.

Then he stepped up to the door, slipped one arm through, gathered his courage, and tried to push the rest of his body in. The moment even half of him crossed, the door identified the Eterno, flashed red in warning, and hurled him back. It was as if a high-voltage magnet had thrown him off with a violent burst.

Dom’s body froze for a few seconds, twitching as though a current was surging through him.

“Dom?! Are you okay?” I called out from inside the house, worried.

“He’ll be fine. That’s just how the security system works,” Alba replied calmly, while Dom lay on the ground, his body still contracted, as if frying where he fell.

“Wait, I’ll release you!” I said, pressing my palm against the door.

I stepped outside to check on Dom, and it looked like his body had already returned to normal.

“I’m fine,” he said, still lying on the ground and catching his breath, even though he was an android.

“Sorry, and thank you,” I murmured as I bent over him. Well, I had to know how it worked.

With my help, Dom got back on his feet, and together we all stepped into the new dormitory.

End of Report 26