Chapter 1
They sat on a bench, a man and his son. It was a bright
sunny day in the park. People were walking their dogs, dogs were chasing balls,
kids were flying kites and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Everyone looked
happy.
“It wasn’t like this in my day,” the man said taking out a
small silver case from his coat’s inner pocket.
“What?’ the young boy asked turning towards his father. He
had been watching a pair of kids who were feeding ducks by the pond.
“In my day there were fat people and thin people. People
who had everything and people who had nothing. His father said taking another
swig from the small metallic case.
“What do you mean, dad?” The kid asked with infinite
patience like someone who had \experience talking to people who did not make
sense at times.
“You wouldn’t understand. In my day there was something
called money. The greatest thing ever created. You either had it or you didn’t.
And once you had it, oh boy once you had it,” he took another swig, “there was
nothing that you couldn’t do.”
The boy looked at his dad for a while then got back to
watching the kids who were feeding the ducks. The three boys wore matching
clothes as if they had come from choir practice at the church. They had small
pieces of bread in their pockets which they threw into the water where the
ducks were. Each time a boy threw a piece of bread the 5 or so ducks would
scramble for the one piece. This seemed to amuse the boys who though they had
enough bread in their pockets, they chose to only throw to the ducks one piece
at a time.
The man’s implant informed him that someone was calling
him.
"Major Mwangi?" the voice at the other end of
the line asked.
"Yes?" the man answered.
"We have a situation..."
There was suddenly an awkward silence.
"Yes, continue" Major Mwangi said.
"I'm sorry. Sir but the colonel told me to ascertain
first whether you were sober." the voice said.
"Tell the goddamn colonel not to waste my time."
Mwangi answered vehemently if only to hide the fact that he was feeling a bit
tipsy.
After a brief silence the caller continued. "Sir,
we've lost contact with the SS Harbinger."
"What do you mean you've lost contact?"
"It was passing through sector 33 on its way to
answar when we experienced some interference and then... Then.."
"Then what captain?"
"You better come in and hear this for yourself
sir."
This was bad. There was a pretty big black hole smack in
the middle of sector 33. What the captain of the ship, his old friend Njogu,
had wanted there was a mystery to him. And as is always the case when things
went wrong they always called him.
"Great" he muttered touching behind his ear to
end the call.
"Come on son, let’s go".
Chapter 2
The center for space travel was located in Limuru on the
outskirts of Nairobi. It was a large blue building that had a blocky
appearance. While it only stood at two stories high, the bulk of the building
stretched 15 floors below.
Mwangi arrived at the massive gate in his old beat up
Peugeot. A military police lieutenant came to his window looked in then snapped
a salute recognizing him.
"Welcome sir" he said as he gestured to another
MP at the gatehouse. The barrier was dropped and major Mwangi drove through.
On his way in he noted colonel Odhiambo's black Citroen
and general Mathenge's blue Toyota parked at the front. This was bad. Very bad.
The famous inventor Dr. Mbogo started all this back in
2022 when he discovered hypertime. It was the discovery of a lifetime. It could
get a space ship practically anywhere in the universe almost at the snap of a
finger.
"Dad are we going to see the 'mwari' his son asked
excitedly. ”Are we?"
The mwari was the first ship in human history to fly
through hypertime. It was Dr. Mbogo's ship.
In 2024, on the mwari’s third mission the ship had disappeared without a
trace. It was still the mystery of the century almost 70 years later.
"No son. Not today. Daddy's got to work."
They entered into the reception area. The room was painted
green with a desk that divided the room in half. On the far end of the room
stood a bank of elevators. One would have wondered what a two story building
needed an elevator for. Behind the desk sat a female sergeant who looked up
momentarily when Mwangi and his son walked in. Mwangi walked past the sergeant
to the elevators and pressed a button to summon the elevators.
There was a row of seats facing directly to the reception
area. Three people sat in them. Two men and a woman all in black suits. They
seemed to be fixedly staring at spots. Each blankly staring at a different part
of the reception room. Mwangi shook his head. These people had the eye contacts
that acted as a little computer so that anything that they looked at could
literally be turned to a monitor.
The elevator arrived with a crisp military ding and he and
his son walked in. There was a row of numbers on the elevators wall from 1-22.
Mwangi pressed 13. This was the operation center where all communication with Kenyan
ships in space came in. The elevator stopped at level 6 and Annete walked in.
Or lieutenant Koki from the engineers corps.
“Hey Major!” Koki greeted him, “and who is this?” She said
in that cute way she talked. She bent down to smile broadly at his son.
“I'm captain Mbogo pilot of the mwari,” his son announced.
Mwangi smiled. His son never talked to anyone except those he liked.
“Wow,” Koki replied. She stood up and snapped a mock
salute and we all laughed.
The elevator dinged and showed that they had arrived at
sub level 13.
“Ok see you captain,” Koki said and smiled at major Mwangi
as she passed by him.
Chapter 3
Captain Njogu felt something move. Felt was a weak word.
He sensed something move, somewhere. This confused him a bit. If he felt it or
sensed it or whatever, it must mean that it touched his body somehow. But that
was not he felt. His mouth felt heavy and light at the same time. He tried to
talk.
“Obed,” he tried calling his first mate. No one answered.
But something strange was going on for when he had called out he had felt his
voice move across time and space.
The last thing he remembered was seeing something else flying
in hypertime with him. A light. This was scientifically impossible. The theory
of hypertime rested on the fact that time was an extra dimension. And once a
ship crossed over to this dimension or warping as it was popularly called an
observer on the ship couldn’t see any other thing other than the time flux
lines. There was nothing in the time dimension. But he had seen it right there,
bright as day.
He tried moving again. But as with before he felt strange. As if
he was everything all at once and nothing at all. Whatever it was that was
happening or wherever it is that he was, he knew one thing. That his friend
Major Mwangi would get him out of it. He was sure of it.
The operations center was in chaos. Everybody was talking
all at once. The analysts were trying to get their points across, the mid-level
staff were trying to make sense wile General Mathenge and the colonel looked as
if they were ready to run away from all of it. As Major Mwangi started walking
towards the front where a huge screen stood displaying sector 33 the room fell
gradually silent and everyone looked at him. He was the head of the emergency
operations center.
“Son,” He said. “Why don’t you go to daddy’s office and
wait there.” His son nodded and ran to his office. Major Mwangi turned to face
the room which by now was completely quiet and a look of relief had come over
general’s Mathenge’s face.
“Now, I don’t know what is going on here, but I will have
order.” Captain Haraka. Bring me up to speed.”
“Sir”, the Captain started. “About 16 hours ago the SS
Harbinger took off from the Mbogo Memorial Space port. Its destination was the
planet Jumbwa. The ship successfully went into hypertime at 1100 hours,” the
captain continued in crisp military tone. “”The ship maintained contact with
base station. At about 1600 hours we received………”
Major Mwangi tuned him out. It was funny how captain Haraka
looked. He had big eyes and a small nose with a mouth that looked slightly
feminine. He wore standard issue fatigues, desert special with the space ship
insignia on his shoulders. While delivering his speech he stood erect with his
hands clasped at the small of his back, his voice monotonous and well-articulated.
This reminded him of a mad man that he had once seen while
waiting for a bus one day. At the time he had asked himself why most mad men
congregated where normal folks were. Areas like bus stops, markets were full of
them. And why mad men were considered mad. On that thought he had looked more
closely at the madman. Firstly his dark brown trouser was dirty and his dark
blue shirt was torn. He had big eyes and a small nose and he had held an empty
water bottle in one hand and an old shirt in the other.
In most circumstances there was nothing wrong with this.
He could have been easily confused with someone coming from a job digging
trenches or something. But what was it that made this mad man mad? And because
Major Mwangi thought he was mad was it him or the Major who was mad? He had
then concluded that it was his actions that made him mad. In particular, he
greeted everyone he saw regardless of whether he knew them, and he would walk
around the same spot over and over again. His actions seemed to have no
purpose. Purpose. Purpose was what then differentiated mad men from sane men. For
sane men had a purpose for every action that they did. Didn’t they?
“Major Mwangi! Major!” the captain dragged him back from
his thoughts. Apparently he had finished summarizing the situation for him.
“Yes, okay, thank you captain.” He did not know what to
say next and the whole room seemed to be expecting something from him. So he
decided to be mad.
“Captain Haraka, you are now in charge. Keep attempting
communication and try gamma wave detection.”
“Yes Sir!”
“And prepare the SS Hamoud, I’ll be flying her out to
section 33 myself.”
“Come again Sir”, Captain Haraka shakily said.
“Do I have to repeat myself captain?”
“No sir!”
And with that Major Mwangi walked out much to the dismay
of everyone.
Chapter 4
Captain Njogu came to again. He groggily looked around wondering for the
umpteenth time where he was. But something was different this time and what he
saw surprised him to his core. There it was: Earth in all its blue
magnificence. He was passing over it like an astronaut stranded in space. How
was he doing this with no space suit on?
He looked on forlornly. Somewhere down there was his family. How he
missed home. His wife and his son somewhere there may be looking up, wondering
where he was. He wished so much that he was with them on the ground.
The something happened. All of a sudden he was whizzing past
clouds and air and birds heading towards the ground at frightening speed. ”Oh
god” he thought. I can’t survive re-entry without a parachute! He started
panicking. Then he saw where he was headed; right towards the roof of his
house! And then just as suddenly as he had started he stopped and landed
upright in front of his house. His wife who was at their kitchen garden,
wearing her floral green dress that she liked to wear when digging, turned
around as if she had heard something. She turned around slowly until she was
completely facing him. Wide eyed, she raised her hand to her mouth and caught
her breath.
“Njogu?”
The bay doors opened smoothly as Major Mwangi walked in to
the space ship hangar. Then he stopped.
“Bloody hell!” he exclaimed as he turned around. He had
almost forgotten that he had a son who was in his office at that moment. He
turned around and almost smacked into a captain.
“Sir!” The captain saluted.
“At ease.” Major Mwangi replied. What is your name son?
“Samson Sir.” Well Samson is the SS Hamoud ready?
“Yes Sir.”
“Ok. I’ll be right back.”
Major Mwangi started walking towards his office. His son’s
mother had died during childbirth. Njeri was a beautiful courageous lady. And
he had been a better man then. They had met at a church that he had frequented
in his early years. Back then he had been a young lieutenant straight out of
military school and she was a student at a nearby university. You could say
that it was love at first song for the first time he had seen her she was
standing at the front of the church singing. They had exchanged numbers a while
later.
Afterwards he had been transferred to a different area but
they had kept in touch.
He reached his office. His son looked up with those bright
eyes of his and asked
“Where are we going?”
“Sector 33.” He replied.
“Isn’t there a black hole there?”
“Yes.” He said continuing to walk back to the hangar, his
son behind him.
“Dad!”
“Yes?” He said looking around.
“What about school on Monday?”
“We’ll be back by then.” He said turning around only to
smack right into Koki.
“Where are we going?” She asked.
“To sector 33.”
“Why?”
“Captain Njogu is stuck there.”
“Yes I had heard about that. Isn’t there a pretty big
black hole around there?”
“Yes.”
“Ok.” She started following them.
Major Mwangi turned around and asked, “Where are you
going?”
“With you,” she answered.
“No you’re not Lieutenant.”
“Ok then. I’ll just go back to General Mathenge and ask if
minors are allowed on ships going near black holes.”
Major Mwangi looked at her for a while and then said. “Ok.
Let’s go.”
The three of them walked back to the hangars in silence. When they
arrived the captain stepped out of a brand new SC-43 and said: “She’s all ready
for you sir.”
“Is it really you Njogu?” His wife asked removing her
gardening gloves.
Njogu couldn’t believe it either. Minutes ago he had been
in outer space and now here he was home at last.
“Yes it is me.” He answered.
“Ho-how, they told me that you got lost in space?”
“I don’t know either my dear.”
His wife rushed over to hug him, tears of joy streaming
down her face. But as she brought her arms around him they went through him as
though he was made of air.
“What” she said. “Why can’t I hug you?” She looked grief
stricken and afraid all at the same time.
“I-I don’t know, Njogu said trying to inspect himself.” He
looked at his wife. She looked white as ash. He tried moving towards her, his
arms out trying to comfort her but she took a step backward, scared.
“Jackie...” he called to her grief stricken.
“no, no” she said tearfully. “What is happening to me?”
Tears started streaming down her face and she said. “Get away from me ghost!”
and she run back to the house.
How could he do this to the woman he loved? Njogu asked
himself. I wish I could talk to my friend Major Mwangi. Suddenly he found
himself flying out of earth at break neck speed. Ahead of him he saw an SC-43
flying away from earth. “No, not again!” he thought to himself. “I can't leave
my family again.”
And just as suddenly he found himself flying back to earth
towards his home again.
Chapter 5
Three days into their flight the captain announced that
they were near where captain Njogu's last transmission came from. Throughout
their journey his son had oohed and ahed at everything. From the way the flux
lines looked at hypertime to the beautiful colorful shapes that dust
aggregations made. They had even seen a blue star once when they had dropped
out of hypertime to inspect an anomaly with one of the drive compressors. Koki
mostly kept to herself although once she had come to his quarters to borrow
something, he couldn't remember what.
Major Mwangi took a swig from his little metallic bottle
just as the ship came out of hyperdrive.
“We are here.” The captain announced.
All around them was darkness. This was deep space. The
middle of nowhere. Although he couldn't tell this to anyone, space scared him.
But his son seemed to be in his element.
“Anything on the scanners?” Major Mwangi asked
“No sir.”
Get one of the shuttle pods ready, I'm going out there.”
“Yes sir.”
“Please dad, can I come with you?”
“No son, stay in the ship.”
The shuttle was made ready and he flew out of the ship
from bay door 2. Out there was complete darkness. He looked at his controls. He
was now 300 meters from the ship. He accelerated and the ship moved faster. He
looked again at the controls and he was now 1 km away from the ship. All the
while he continued peering uselessly into the darkness as if he could have
spotted anything. Suddenly he did spot something. A light. Off in the distance.
He silently shuddered. He could have sworn that the light stared back at him.
He turned the shuttle and headed towards it.
Closer and closer he got. He checked the controls again.
He was now 20 kilometers from the ship and he was going at normal speed. This
surprised him for he seemed to be getting closer to the light at a faster rate.
Unless... “No” he thought to himself. The light couldn't possibly be moving
towards him. But then again, you never know. He activated the scanners. There
was still nothing being detected. Something was wrong.
He stopped the shuttle. The light was still heading towards
him. He quickly turned the shuttle around and accelerated towards his ship.
“Captain” He shouted into his communication apparatus”
“Captain!”
“Yes sir'” The captain replied.
“I'm coming in hot. Get ready to go into hypertime immediately”
“Yes sir, standing by.”
Major Mwangi couldn't see behind him so he was hoping that
the light wasn’t gaining on him. After a minute or so he saw the ship, bay door
two open. He aimed his shuttle towards it and no sooner had he entered than the
bay doors closed and the ship went into hypertime. He let out a sigh of relief.
Later, up on the bridge the captain asked him what he had
seen. As he was about to tell him, all the warning lights and alarms that the
ship had went off. He felt himself flung against the outer bridge door. The
last thing that he saw before everything went black was a bright light.
Maj0r Mwangi came to with a start. He was disoriented. His
vision was first to come before all other senses. He looked for his coat and
started patting it down looking for his bottle.
He didn’t find it. It must have fallen, he thought and he started
looking round for it. It was then that he noticed that he wasn’t alone. A
person sat at the corner of the room. The room was approximately 4 feet across
by 5 feet wide. It was painted a kind of old grey that was used in the early
2000s. There were various equipment here and there with a clear plastic tubing
coming from his arm.
The man who sat in the corner had a thoughtful look to
him. And he seemed kind of familiar.
“My-my son…” His mouth felt heavy as he said this. “Where
is my son?”
“Your son is fine.” The man said. “He’s in the next room.
I’ll go call him in a minute. But first I have to talk to you.”
“Where is my bottle? A little metallic flask about this
big.” Major Mwangi said showing the man the size using his hands.
The man stood up and handed him his flask. And Major
Mwangi took a swig.
“What’s your name?”
“Major Albert Mwangi. Kenya Air force, space division.” He
said.
“What year is it?”
“What do you mean what year it is?”
“We have to ask this to make sure that you are not
disoriented.”
“Its 2118, October 13.”
The man looked at him steadily. Major Mwangi was sure that
he had seen him somewhere. Or may be a picture of him.
“Let me be honest with you.” The man said. “My name is Dr.
Mbogo and the year is 2017. October the 13th. You and three other
people suddenly appeared out of thin air. They called me…”
“Holy cow!” Major Mwangi interrupted him. “Your him aren’t
you? The famous scientist Dr. Muturi Mbogo?”
