6 September 2025, Lydberg Auditorium, Oakford University, CA
12:44 p.m.
39 minutes before Cleansing.
A gentle hum trickled in from all directions. A vibration that felt pristine, as if it could wash the Earth of its sin, persisted.
A while went by. Then…
Sinuhe Kaori opened his eyes. As he let the environment around him slowly take shape like a jigsaw puzzle, he imagined a rope falling from the ceiling above his head, within his reach. He lifted his hands, one at a time to grasp hold of the imaginary rope and pulled himself up.
Just a little more… and…
A loud crackling sound erupted in his ears. Craaaaackkkk!
And then a —
Pop!!
Sinuhe had lifted himself out of his body and found himself floating in a space of warm light. He looked down. His material body serenely laid on the chair. Sinuhe had done this several times but every time he saw himself in third person, a strangeness crept over him. He shook it off along with any worry. He was still in the auditorium stage before the hall full of curious spectators, the attendees of his seminar, but in another dimension.
To the outside world, he laid asleep with his eyes fluttering as if in deep dreaming.
*******************************************************************
12:56 p.m.
27 minutes before Cleansing.
The Cradle picked up his brain signals and displayed the message —
[Subject accessed PLEXUS successfully.]
This alternate dimensional space was the PLEXUS. It is here, that he could conjure any place from the real world to manifest before him.
Terrifying for those who enter it during ordinary sleep—or worse, if one accidentally activates 'The Methyd' while resting. It was a skill closely comparable to summoning; but for locations. However, for our young researcher, it was like visiting his study room or entering his bedroom. Habitual. Familiar.
Levitating over the stage, Sinuhe felt the crispness of the air, it was cool and inviting. Being in the PLEXUS was a rejuvenating sensation. It's the same feeling as an addict experiencing withdrawal syndrome is given his choice of drug. Or, being offered sweet water to a thirsty traveller who lost all hope in a desert. He was breathing it all in with eyes closed and everything; feeling it in the very fibre of his being and then midway interrupted.
From the other side, Bai Jong Li prodded, "Sinuhe, please confirm if you hear my voice."
Ah…that snarky little—
He sneered, "I see you."
To outsiders, it was a just a normal reply, but to Bai Jong Li, it was a jab that Sinuhe knew he would feel intensely.
He was extremely content with his innocent payback. He recalled the scene he had witnessed some time back. It was New Year's Eve and Sinuhe's Team had gone out for dinner and drinks. After drinking way too much, Bai Jong Li tried flirting with a random dude mistaking him for his crush. And to top it off, he only managed to say cheesy lines. Among them the most cringeworthy one was, "I see you," while grabbing this confused person's hand and staring into his soul. What made it even more awkward was that, the random person reciprocated his feelings and followed him around professing his new found emotions for Bai. To this day, Sinuhe would tease him with these same words. So when he said it on stage, it would definitely catch Bai off guard!
Hahaha….poor Bai Jong Li. He must be red as a tomato by now!
*******************************************************************
13:02 p.m.
21 minutes before Cleansing.
This time, Sinuhe wanted to impress everyone with his expertise in accessing the PLEXUS. His goal was set. He needed to answer four majors questions — What exactly happens during the event? Is the event positive or catastrophic? And what is the Event Trigger?
He manifested the vision from his earlier prediction — 2045, The Completion Event.
In front of him, a vortex appeared out of nowhere, tearing the fabric of the PLEXUS to be at his service. A maelstrom of black and gold etheric matter fought for dominance over the other, making it look like it came straight out of a fantasy novel. The whirling mass of scintillating particles gaped a large rift. A portal. Sinuhe's eyes gleamed with golden anticipation. It always felt majestic, no matter how many times it had been done already.
Sinuhe extended his hand and examined the entrance of the portal. In it, he could see a huge city, with many tall skyscrapers and their flashy reflective walls glistening in the sun.
Holding the edges of the rift, he leaned over. The portal had formed several hundred meters above ground. Meaning, if he were to enter it, he would be free falling from a height even taller than those buildings. He gulped, then with a light step leapt over.
The change of environment was snappy, instantaneous and would probably frighten anyone to be flung into a completely different location and time.
He fell from the rift in the sky with his limbs flailing beside him like ribbons tied to a kite. Surprising even himself, Sinuhe landed smoothly atop a tall building. In front of him was a long road, that bifurcated behind him. He could clearly see a row of buildings on either side of it; cars driving by, people pacing up and down, going about their day completely oblivious of his presence.
Right…I have to figure out which city this is. That shouldn't be too hard.
He turned his head around to see more clues as to where this place was. The streets were wide, buildings tall like any urban landscape.
At first look, he thought — New York? Not quite…although it is similar.
Sinuhe was found and brought up by his adoptive guardians in Los Dineros, California and had always lived there. He visited New York once when he was 8 with his uncle. So, it was hard for him to recognize the place just by memory alone. And this place was also from the future. Twenty years to be exact. A lot can change in two decades. But the longer he wondered around, the more he noticed some details that made it impossible to mistake it for New York.
There were red streetcars attached to cables above that ran on rail tracks paved into the streets. He clearly remembered, New York had brought back the Brooklyn-Queens streetcars. He clearly remembers the sleek design and the distinct blue. Blue, not red. It was trending on social media for a while.
Maybe they changed it…
With his right foot forward, he stepped off the edge of the building. His motion was swift, his jacket fluttering behind him. He drifted above the street like a spectre, not a man; passing through walls and people alike.
As he soared, names on buildings caught his eye: Little Eataly. Yorkville Avenue. Wellesley Station. TTC. Royal Ontario Museum.
Ontario? He was in Canada.
Sinuhe lifted himself up to a high-rise tower, the tallest one. The sky looked impossibly blue. The weather's nice, he thought. It must be summer.
But... where's the disturbance I saw last time? It was at the intersection of two wide roads…
He flew around a bit looking for the familiar setting from his previous sessions. Eventually, he halted in front of a street sign. There! Found it.
It read: Yonge St., Town of North Toronto.
He landed at the intersection, his feet touched ground again.
Without skipping a breath, he gave a verbal command:
"Instantiate."
A flash of light sparked in the middle of the intersection. The light source several feet above the ground danced with flares of ignited friction. Strings of photographs unfurled from the core of the light like a holographic bloom. Page by page, images appeared, radiating outward in all directions. Each string was a Timeline and each still photograph, an event in time. These captured the past, the present, and possible futures. The images closest to the core showed the present, appeared red. Radiating outward—potential futures branched, violet blue. At the very centre was the glimmering white core—the past.
A celestial halo within the city. A sight worth seeing! He thought.
Determining an event in the near future; this, Sinuhe knew clearly. He had always done it this way. He would examine the images one by one to figure out the story. And it worked more or less every time. It was like reading a manhua chapter, panel by panel without the dialogue boxes.
Sinuhe, looked over the images, confused. As if spoiled by too many choices.
Tsk… this will be tricky. He massaged his eyebrows out of helplessness.
Sinuhe, a person who detested surprises, meticulously planned the next day the night before. His excitement for his grand seminar led him to meticulously consider every aspect, from his attire to the seating arrangement, lighting setup, and snacks for the break.
Like everyone, he had a flaw. The more he planned, the more susceptible he became to overlooking other details. For instance, during this crucial mission, he forgot to plan how he would retrieve all the information from the PLEXUS. It was a terrible oversight.
To find the event trigger of an event from the future that hasn't happened yet….
Dak said, 'The past is definitive, the present happening, and the future unstable.'
But since my starting point for the instantiation is already in the future, even the past would be an unstable timeline. So, there is a chance that what I see here will never even happen!
What do I do?
Wait….
Phooo!… deep breaths.
This mission proved to be unlike anything he faced before. In his defence, reality seldom splits into more than a handful of timelines per event. But here, this event was radiating timelines as if they were the countless rays of the sun. Sinuhe's first encounter with an anomaly.
Until now, he was working with a single timeline; a single direction of definitive events. Now he was dealing with a future event which hadn't happened yet. Future events were unstable because it might never come to pass. Here, he would be dealing with multiple timelines that could lead to the event and many more future timelines that could emerge from it. Timeline Entanglements.
In the ocean of events, Sinuhe would have to pinpoint a timeline where the event had passed successfully. And from there, trail back to the beginning of the timeline in the past; like tracing a line of fallen dominos. In simple terms, he was trying to find the correct thread in a pile of knotted yarns.
He knitted his eyebrows deep in thought. He uttered to himself, "There's always a way. I just need to find it!"
What if I… umm yes.
A smile trickled across his face as he was mesmerized by his new idea that he would soon come to regret.
That could yield new information!
Sinuhe impulsively took the unexpected path. In his opinion, the faster path. Instead of studying the future events as usual, he took to the unstable past.
He stepped in front of the core, his eyes squinted to block the light. His teeth gritting.
I am just a spectre in an imaginary dream world. What could go wrong?
His nails peeled back a few layers from the core to reveal the hidden past. The light was too strong, his eyes hurt. From the two tiny slits between his eyelids he could make out the rough shape of a still photograph of something familiar. His hand instinctively reached for the still.
I can't make out.. what am I seeing?
He peered in to take a closer look at the event. But suddenly, his consciousness was pulled inward.
*******************************************************************
13:13 p.m.
10 minutes before Cleansing.
Sinuhe stood now in a dimensional pocket of the street's space-time. The surroundings did not look anything like before, it was empty with only the core and him, staring at each other from a distance. Diffused light scattered in the space. A faint and tranquil frequency reverberated throughout.
He paced towards the core. His footsteps resounded as it struck the floor. Clack…Clack…Clack.
As he neared, new stills radiated outward from the core, surrounding both of them at the centre. Remarkable! Sinuhe was enamoured by his new discovery.
Then, something new occurred— The images sped towards him. He didn't even have time to duck or cover himself with his arms; they entered his head at light speed.
Ugh….aaaaaaahhh…..
A wave of panic rose in his stomach.
Ughhh….. what is happening to me?
He shook his head, tried blocking the flying barrage of events with his arms but failed. Nothing he did could stop them.
His mind went blank after struggling. He hung in mid air while the images entered his mind, leaving impressions. Moments passed, he got the hang of it. To him, it felt like he was frozen in time, while his mind lived through lifetimes.
Gradually he figured he could understand the events now.
Ah! So this is the core!
As the images entered him, the scenario played out his in mind. He combed through irrepressible number of instances and with every still that pierced his psyche, he felt an electrifying vibration resonating through his whole being.
It wasn't painful per say. Nonetheless, it was overwhelming, but also perversely intoxicating. Like becoming a supercomputer, processing millions of binary codes in a blink, distilling them into something comprehensible.
Gradually he realized. These are past events I was looking for! I can see them happening.. haha.. what! Unbelievable!
He tried sending this influx of data to the Cradle to be decrypted and displayed in front of the hall full of audience back in the real world. To do that, he had to focus hard—filtering vital insights while staying aware of current events flowing into his consciousness.
Within seconds, his mind had pinpointed the time and place of their arrival—the Cat People.
The sky churned with white turbulence above the intersection. Water poured mercilessly onto the wide streets in the middle of the city. It looked like a cloudburst collapsed onto the road, that would flood the area. But it didn't. The water seemed to pass through the ground... yet didn't enter the soil. It vanished. Strange.
Then they descended—through the column of cloudburst. The Cats. Regal. Lion-like. Dressed in noble garb. They looked like kings walking their lands. Majestic. And horrifying.
Sinuhe who was inside the core floating with the echoes of the timelines, now floated beside them, face to face. Still invisible.
He noticed that those alien creatures entered the atmosphere of the street in a different time through a portal much like Sinuhe's. But unlike his, which was a rift in space-time, theirs was a rift in space, time and matter. Sinuhe travelled through time and space in soul. The Cats travelled through Time, Space and Matter in form. Anything beneath them—flesh, bone, soul—was disintegrated.
Terrifying. That can't be good!
They carried magic staffs with purple orbs — like the mages of fantasy stories. Inside one of the orbs, was a black ominous eye. It looked around a lot; taunting everyone that nothing could escape its gaze.
Except me! Sinuhe thought, thankfully.
They conversed among themselves. All words were unintelligible. Their voices rang in his ears.
Am I really witnessing a future Alien invasion? Hard to believe this is actually happening… It's a little disappointing. I was expecting spaceships.
He was deep in thought, still linked to the cradle. Everything he saw, it saw too. Everything he heard, the Cradle tried to decode it or display it as best as it could.
From his peripheral vision, Sinuhe saw—one of the Cats was acting unusual. It stopped as if it noticed something. It batted a paw toward Sinuhe.
He flinched away. His heart raced in his chest as he locked eyes with the Cat.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
The cat was not looking at him but somewhere beyond.
Did it sense me then? Is it because… they are just that powerful?
Could I handle a face to face encounter with them?
He mumbled to himself .
Should I try talking to them?
Am I going to be the first human to communicate with aliens? Ah… He grinned sheepishly.
No… who am I kidding? They don't look friendly at all!
But…I have to know what they are here for? This is my Earth. My planet, for God's sake!
Sinuhe was silently contemplating the consequences of an interaction, then —
Shit!
One of them thwacked him with its staff. Sinuhe was caught unprepared.
Huh?! Nani?
Black lightning had struck him. This time, the sensation was incomparable to the one inside the core - where images pierced his mind. This time he was struck by magic lightning!
His eyes burned and felt hollowed out by the current crackling inward, burning a passage as it entered his brain, then percolated painfully down his spine. His whole body shook uncontrollably. Nothing left his mouth. No words. No scream. Not even drool.
Am I done for?! But… I haven't even…
Just then, he heard someone's voice; reaching out from the other side. The auditorium, appeared in a separate corner of his vision as usual. But he couldn't see it. He tried to listen but the words spoken from the other side were lost in the chaos. So, he gave up. Instead he continually allowed information to pass through him.
Sinuhe somehow managed to send a message roughly translating to — "My vision is compromised but I can still hear them talk… I am sorry…"
Sinuhe had no time for cleverness. No dramatic lines. No charm. He had to convey everything to the people in the real world. This is important. We can't face them.
And returned to transmitting all the data he could gather. This can help them get ready. Even if I disappear…
No one knew the price he was paying. Not just his life but also his soul.
The lightning overtook his brain. Suddenly, he could hear a thousand voices from across time. From all corners of the Universe's history. Languages he didn't speak flowed through him—and he understood them all. At least at that moment, it felt like he did.
The cradle received it all.
The Cats' attack overwhelmed his body and soul, but not his will. More information passed through him. He even managed to transmit their motive... and what the completion event was.
But—at what cost?
*******************************************************************
13:17 p.m.
6 minutes before cleansing.
Back in the auditorium, on stage lying in the reclined chair, his flesh body convulsed.
No one noticed. His chest heaved for breath. His nerves screamed. Pain flooded his physical form and brought his consciousness back and forth. His awareness switched between the real world and the PLEXUS. Here, he felt every tendon tearing. In the PLEXUS, he felt the voltage ripping his soul.
What have I done to deserve this?
His presence was fleeting.
Tears begged to fall, but his dry eyes betrayed him.
He longed to escape.
I'm exhausted. If I could just die…