"It was the 56th time we've done this experiment… I don't know if we should keep doing this…" that lousy scientist told me, urging me to quit.
Deep down I knew he was probably right, an interdimensional gateway… What a joke, but this was the only shot I'd have to save Dmitri's life. I left him to die all those years ago, but a part of me held down the hope that he could still be there… and maybe still be alive.
"I need closure" I sharply responded to this man who was clearly lightyears smarter than me. He really had no obligation to still be here… well, aside from his 'duty' to his country. Though I doubt someone of his intellectual caliber hasn't figured out my sycophantic desires for this device… Hell… I just told him, didn't I…
"Mr. President… there's no way we're spending another 500 Billion dollars just for a chance for you to get closure…" He told me, clearly drenched in pity and demotivation.
"You're a man of science" I told him. "Is there really a cost to the future of humanity? Is there really a cost to the ability for instantaneous travel? Is there really a cost to the power to completely understand our universe by an increased rate in the trillions?!" I was frustrated and out of my mind… we've spent more than we make in a year on this project… if we scrap it there's going to be national outrage, constant conspiracy theories and most importantly… zero fruition to our efforts.
"It doesn't matter if we diverge the energy produced by every single power plant in the country to this. We are making it run! We are creating this gateway… You're not allowed to back out now. Do whatever you have to, and get this thing running!" I continued.
I saw the scientist tweak a couple settings on the control board, and he made the calls necessary to diverge the amount of power needed to start the gateway. I was way in over my head. I was a soldier turned politician… I didn't know a damn thing about all this fancy physics. In my eyes it was no different to magic.
"Mr. President… Are you ready?" The scientist asked me.
"Ready as I'll ever be at my age." I responded.
The machine began to whir. It was interesting seeing this mechanical monstrosity's gears clunk around as it glowed miscellaneous colours. Before the arch finally had a glowing purple orb form in the middle of it.
"Audiolog Project Aether, Trial 57. We've diverged more power to our gateway than we ever have. Photonic levels are normal. Gravitational Pull has increased by 1.96 times. Increased tachyon particles detected. W-wait. A gateway seems to be stabilizing!"
It did indeed look like a gateway was stabilizing. It was as though there was a window I was looking through to see a beautiful starry night, with gorgeous nebulas swirling around that formed shapes that to me almost looked like deities. I wanted to reach out but I refrained… but suddenly the purple borders of the gateway seemed to disappear…
"It appears that the gateway is destabilizing! Activate termination-"
Before any of us were ready, all of us there were engulfed with a bright purple light. My body felt as though it had been ignited by a thousand suns. I could hardly move my body… the last thing I saw were paramedics rushing in from outside and carrying me into an ambulance… but I laid there helpless for at least 10 minutes in that immense pain.
[Three Months Later]
"M-Mr. President! Y-You're awake?!" I heard someone say. I didn't recognize the voice, but when I got a clearer look of him it was clear that he was a doctor. I was in a hospital… I mean, of course I was. I was probably blasted with more radiation or whatever than would be needed to kill an elephant.
"Yea… I'm awake… Why is that surprising?" I asked the doctor. I'd assumed that maybe only a couple hours had passed, but then he told me…
"Sir… you've been in a coma… for the past 3 months… people at your age don't usually survive that… although, you are quite strange… I'm sure I'm not the first doctor to tell you this… but you're way healthier than a regular man your age should be…"
3 month coma… What a long time… I was thinking of everything that could've changed, especially with my administration, so I only haphazardly answered the doctor with little thought.
"Huh? Oh yea. I age slower than normal apparently. That's how I'm the leader of the free world at age 109…" I mean, it really wasn't anything that special. I'd been that way ever since the war. War hero, medical anomaly, president of the United States… I'd really lived it all… at least that's what I thought until I looked at my phone, and I saw millions of personal reports and public news articles about what had been happening.
It started with articles that seemed like tabloids, about people discovering powers all of a sudden, but then there was an absurd escalation…
Sri Lankan Government Overthrown
Largest Protest Held Ever in Beijing. Chinese Communist Party Over
Millions of Prison Escapes Sweep the Nation
Russia Overtaken by Superpowered Individual Claiming to be Tsar Nikolas Reborn
New Chinese Government wages war on Japan and South Korea
Vietnamese Technology sees Sudden Surge
Ireland Launches Orchestrated Superpowered Attack in an Attempt to Reclaim North Ireland
France Engulfed in Flames.
Italy wages war on the United Kingdom and France
United Kingdom goes under Martial Law
Myanmar Annexes Laos and Buhrma
Mexican Cartels Have New Products: People
…
Millions more reports like these filled my phone and my mind. What the fuck happened in the last three months. Until one finally caught my eye, and nothing else seemed to matter.
Large Circular Island Mass Previously Undetected found in the Pacific. Researchers are Bamboozled as to what it is.
Nobody else knew what that island was… but I did. I was on that island during that war… and that's where I lost him… I couldn't save him, and I left him for dead on that island… It's why I had to make that gateway… it seems unreal… after all these years… if nature didn't kill him, old age must've… but I had to know the truth myself.
I called my presidential escorts to get me out of the hospital as I dressed myself. The doctor discharged me as I seemed perfectly healthy. I had to rush to that island as soon as I could… So many years since I last saw him. I at least wanted to see a corpse, or even his dog tags…
I got on a boat, and got ready to set sail. Already locking on to those coordinates. I felt every single emotion I once had for him all at once. That fresh rivalry, that friendly love, that brutal competitiveness, that anger and annoyance only found between friends. Every single emotion you'd feel in a friendship… I'd experienced tenfold with him in those 3 months we were fighting together, and I was about to see him again… probably dead… but I'd at least have my closure… and finally be able to come to terms with what I did all those years ago… and maybe earn back a shred of my dignity… and a shred of inner peace. All this work had been done… I couldn't let the culmination of innovation go to waste like this. However, as I approached the island… I felt my heart sink more and more… I couldn't bear to see his corpse… let alone think that he was that way because of me… but I can't give up now… that sunk cost… it had to go somewhere… I can't even think straight… what am I even doing… I couldn't change the past even if I-
"Mr. President! The ship's docked!" I heard one of the marine officers escorting me say. I snapped out of that spiral… and now I had nothing to do but set foot on that island.
I took a deep breath, got up from my seat, and I started walking towards that familiar island we were once terrified of… that I left him to fend himself on.
When I entered the island, I felt that familiar frigid and humid breeze hit my neck. I was scared… not really of what was on the island, I was sure any weapon I had could protect me… but it was the memory. Those rabid animals, completely thought to be extinct, ran rampant across the island. Arrows that flew down from the sky like rain. Screams and yells from who knows what tribe of people… all I knew was that this island was practically hell on Earth, but I had to venture deeper, I had to find any trace of him left.
We went deeper into that treacherous tropical hellscape, and I looked around at all the fauna. Prehistoric. I wanted to go in deeper, try to hit the centre, or hit something stranger. Until I heard an eerily familiar voice call out my name.
"James! Is that you?"
It was strange, it'd been a while since people had called me something other than General MacKenzie, Senator MacKenzie, or in more recent years… President MacKenzie. Yet this man called it with such familiarity. It was like he was a close friend, one that had been through everything with me, and so I instinctively looked back…
"D-Dmitri?!"