THE ARTIFACT (Part 2)

–A serialized story–

1. Records

I sat in the living room, arranging papers. I gathered everything I judged even remotely relevant. There were loose sheets, a few sketches, and a notebook I had only skimmed, realizing it was Mathise’s diary.

I placed the artifact in the middle of the table so that I could keep it in sight even with my peripheral vision. And if it had to be so, let it keep me in its sight as well, I thought, my lips stretching into a nervous smile.

The idea was to see what Mathise had written about the artifact. After some time, I managed to arrange the papers into something resembling chronological order. I left the diary for last. I felt it would provide the final touch.

The parts mentioning the artifact were fragmented. Some sections were crossed out, then rewritten.

…one day I simply noticed this strange object in front of the entrance door…

…the warmth prickles my fingers, but it’s very pleasant to the touch…

…I touched it by accident, the light blinded me…

For several days now the object has been glowing with some strange light. I still can’t grasp its purpose. I have a few ideas, but I’m afraid of the realization. It makes me procrastinate. Tomorrow I must finally decide what to do with it. _{(I’m very sorry she didn’t specify the exact day she wrote this—just like on all the other papers).}

…I think that’s it. I activated some mechanism, by accident. I pressed everywhere, tapped it with my fingers, even spilled a bit of water on it. Nothing. Until it slipped from my hands by chance. It opened and revealed a display. There’s nothing written on it. I’ll leave it like this—I need courage to go further. Tomorrow…

I’ll start writing in the notebook. It will be clearer.

I moved on to the sketches. They were drawings of the artifact – first in its inactive state, then once it began to glow. The last few sketches explained its control mechanisms in detail.

Still, I had to read the notebook first. What I was seeing in those sketches wasn’t entirely clear to me.

2. Instructions

The first half of the diary consisted of Mathise’s calculations – research into the concept of time travel. I noticed a mild frustration, caused by constantly hitting a wall when it came to finding a solution. Understandable, given that no one had yet discovered a way to travel through time. It probably seemed to her that she was close, only for it to turn out to be a dead end every time.

The second half began from the moment the artifact appeared at her doorstep.

I singled out the most important observations:

Someone—or something—has limited this object’s full capacity. It shut it down…

I managed to turn it on completely by accident, pressing something… now, if I wanted to turn it on again, I wouldn’t know how…

The object glowed for several days. I tried everything—shaking it, pressing everywhere, tapping it with my fingers—nothing happened…

One morning, when I wanted to move it into one of the guest rooms, angry, I accidentally dropped it… It opened…

At first nothing appeared on the display, but I discovered the code to activate it… Two light finger taps and shake it twice… It took me a full two days to figure out that code…

I was so frightened when I realized the display read PAST and FUTURE that I panicked, put it in the guest room, and locked the door…

I gathered my courage… There’s a third button – LOCATION… I’m not sure, but it seems that under Location there are all existing planets, galaxies, every little stone arranged in the Universe…

There’s an option to choose the name or coordinates of the desired place. For time, there are no options other than past and future. That must mean the object throws you in the chosen direction but into a completely random moment in time…

Is it possible that after so many years of searching for a solution, one day an object appears that represents some kind of portal through time… If this isn’t a joke, of course…

I’ll need a few more days to gather courage…

After reviewing the sketches following the diary, I understood what she meant when she wrote that message in her room. Just rub it firmly and hold it tightly with both hands. That was the final step – after choosing the destination and the direction in time, it was necessary to shake the artefact and grip it firmly.

I didn’t even want to imagine what would happen if I failed to hold it tightly. An image flashed through my mind of my body splitting in half – one part staying here, the other traveling who knows where!

The artifact, as I called it, was in a pre-activation state when I found it – just glowing. I knew what I had to do. I picked it up and let it fall to the floor.

3. Location — Earth

A simple message appeared on the display (one Mathise hadn’t mentioned): Traveler, the time has come.

A few moments later, a field formed on the right side reading PAST, and then on the left, FUTURE. I rubbed my eyes, thinking that all the stress had finally driven me mad. I hadn’t seen it wrong. Normally, what comes earlier chronologically is on the left. Here, that wasn’t the case. After collecting myself, I let the third option appear as well – LOCATION.

I was definitely going into the future. At first, I wanted to follow Mathise—she had written in her message that she was going into the past. Deep down, I knew the chances were slim that the artifact would take me to the same time as her—unless it always sent travelers to the same moment along the timelines. Unlikely.

As for the location, I hesitated briefly: Virteleon or Earth. My father had spoken to me often about Earth when I was a child—the first time he discovered life at a remarkable intellectual level. His fascination with it, and his horror at what he found while exploring it.

Later, when I grew up, I studied the entire documentation. I believed I knew enough to visit that planet. I knew most of the languages, the accessible history, how the most important systems functioned—both human and natural. I was fascinated by the fact that, aside from a few not-so-great differences, we were quite similar. On Virteleon, we don’t eat food as they do. That concept is unknown to us, because it’s unnecessary. That would be a major difference.

Another major difference is their concept of body hair. Virteleonians have none—on any part of the body, except hair on the head.

And a third major difference—their lifespan is incomparably shorter than ours. Their year is half as long as a Virteleonian cycle. Their lifespan ranges between seventy and eighty years. Ours is ten to fifteen times longer.

There are also certain differences in reproduction, but they aren’t of great importance. So, considering all of the above, I could relatively easily blend in and stay on that planet without major issues.

The decision was made. Firmly resolved, I clicked on FUTURE, then selected EARTH. At first, I just stared at the display in confusion, forgetting that I had skipped the final step.

I rubbed the artifact with both hands, then grabbed it tightly. I closed my eyes in anticipation. At first, I felt a powerful current surge through my body. Shortly after, the air began to swirl, as if I were in the midst of violent windstorms.

As the noise wrapped around me, growing louder and louder, and my heart pounded far harder than recommended, I imagined a beautiful, peaceful place where I wished to arrive.

4. The Old Man

I missed my father. Three Virteleonian cycles had passed since his disappearance. No message, no warning—nothing. Just disappearance and emptiness. My mother still believes he was kidnapped and that he’ll simply reappear one day. I didn’t share her belief. I don’t think he’s alive anymore. If he were, after all the searches, I would have found some trace of him by now. All I know is that one night he went to bed. The next morning, he was gone.

Secretly, as I surrendered to the artifact’s will, I hoped it would throw me to the same place and time where he had been.

I opened my eyes, unsure of what to expect. A vast sandy expanse. Turning around, I saw the desert surrounding me on all sides. The Sun – as they called the Burning Sphere – was just rising on the horizon. A translucent blue sky, without a single cloud, greeted the newcomer. A space bound by silence.

The heat of their Sun forced beads of sweat to dance across my face. I removed my suit, remaining only in a thin, one-piece garment. I wasn’t worried about Earth’s atmosphere. The climatic and atmospheric conditions matched Virteleon’s with an eighty-eight percent overlap – more than enough for me to be fine. The air was slightly thinner than at home. And this heat. The only two discomforts.

I headed toward the Sun as it rose ever more proudly on the horizon. I have no sense of how long I walked before finally seeing, in the distance, first a dark spot, then an increasingly green one. The spot became a small patch of land enriched with grass. And in the middle of that modest patch stood a tree. Equally green, it radiated life and defiance amid this endless sandy beast.

And at the base of the tree, seated on the grass, was a man. Long gray hair, an even longer beard. Bare to the waist. He wore only short pants—yes, that’s the term Earthlings use—white in color.

He didn’t notice me until I approached within a meter, nearly touching him to check if he was alive. Startled from his doze and seeing my face so close to his, he sprang to his feet, grabbing the staff that lay beside him.

“Not a millimeter closer!” – he shouted, stepping back.
^{I don’t know which language he spoke, but I understood him perfectly – my study of the planet through millions of documents from my father’s expedition helped.}

I raised my hands—their sign that I wasn’t a threat.

“Who are you, spea—”
A wide smile cut the sentence short.

With a wave of his hand, he signaled me to say nothing. He sat back down on the grass and closed his eyes. As if nothing had happened. I waited. Until I lost patience.

“Hey, you do realize I’m still here?” – I asked, somewhat irritably.

The old man opened his eyes, frowning, with a slightly disappointed expression on his face.

“Ahm, I had just begun to think I’d gone mad—or that I was dreaming. I wasn’t that lucky.”

I sensed melancholy in his voice.

“They spoke to me about you. They said the day would come when you’d meet a traveler of somewhat strange appearance. Just be patient and wait. Bring him so we may host him properly.” – he finished with a loud sigh.

“Who spoke, whe—”

I didn’t manage to finish the sentence. With a swift motion, he struck my left leg with his staff. A powerful pain shot through my entire being. Then helplessness.

I lost consciousness before I hit the ground.

-End of Part 2-