Time Jumps. The Paradigm of Immortality

– In other words, if I want to join some quasi-people, then a million years is just right. Something like that, – Kalinkin summed up.

No matter what hemisphere of the brain he thought, the concept of a purposeful, meaningful jump through time has not yet developed. But soon his perseverance was rewarded: not having had time to be born inside his skull, the idea did not pull the rubber and manifested itself from the outside. Kalinkin’s thoughts were interrupted by the doorbell. Peter was wary – who did it bring? He got up from the table and sauntered over to the latched door:

– Natalia, are you?

– What the fuck is Natalia, come on, open up! – A hoarse male baritone sounded from the porch. – Open it, or I’ll kick the door down!

From the unexpected, boorish shout, Peter was thrown into a sweat, he instantly appreciated the danger and feverishly searched for an answer: who could it be? When several strong kicks followed a couple of seconds later, he realized:

– Darya’s husband, he’s back from prison! So let’s get acquainted…

The prospect did not fit into Kalinkin’s plans in any way, he had a hundred reasons not to communicate with an angry cuckold, and above all – for highly ethical reasons. It was all so disgusting, as if he had been caught doing something unworthy. Fate presented him with an unpaid bill for a happy adventure with Daria, and it seems that deferral of payment was not considered in principle: the deadline crept up unnoticed. In addition, Peter organically could not stand fights, bare fists and fencing on stakes.

– Don’t knock, I’ll open it now, – he shouted peaceably, trying to gain time. The blows stopped. Grabbing a chair that turned up, Peter put it on the floor and rested its legs against the front door, and the back against the wall of the corridor. Then he rushed to the barrel, pressed the red button and feverishly began to melt the necessary icons and execute commands:

– “Russian”, “Sit in a chair”, “Put on a hat”, “Choose the time”, “The future”.

The seconds seemed like years, his heart was pounding wildly. Powerful blows from outside resumed, but the door resisted thanks to the chair.

– Open! The bitch, I’ll kill you, – peaceful initiatives were heard outside. Kalinkin had no doubt: if the door opens, then so it will be.

– “Time” – Peter quickly typed the numbers at random: 12345, without even realizing how much it was…

At that moment, the sound of broken glass rang out, and a drunk man stumbled into the room through the window with strong curses. Looking around and not seeing his opponent, he quickly rushed into the corridor like an angry rhinoceros, sweeping away everything in his path.

– “Place” – Peter’s hand trembled, intuitively typing the familiar word “Paris”, as if there was his salvation in it. Perhaps, typing a word one letter more, he would have signed his death sentence, because the executioner was already standing next to him, and his glass-cut fingers, stained with blood, were already reaching for his throat. But at that moment something incomprehensible happened for the attacker: the victim suddenly disappeared…

– What the fuck… – the astonished opponent only managed to utter when the device, together with Peter, disappeared into another dimension, heading, fortunately, not to the address indicated by the former prisoner, who had already embarked on the right path according to the FSIN opinion. Having missed the lamb to the slaughter from under his nose, the jealous man did not philosophize for a long time, but, left alone, directed his emotions to practical rails: he tried a little, dropped a couple of chairs, threw the monitor to the floor, stamped his feet and launched a can of horseradish into the mirror… Then, satisfied with the result, he calmed down and found his little consolation in a bottle of Stolichnaya, thoughtfully bought by Kalinkin. Fiercely hating this bastard, he still did not disdain alcohol, because vodka is sacred, above human antipathies and prejudices. Subsequently, he often recalled this case in the company of loyal friends, when asked or when not asked, and certainly ended the narration with words, meaningfully looking at the puzzled faces of drunks:

– That’s the stuff in the tomato…

This colorful story did not pass by Natalia, unfairly deprived of fate from a local beauty salon. To begin with, as expected, she received bribes from Darya’s husband for involuntary complicity in this murky story, but then, as usual in decent companies, the pendulum of relations swung towards relaxation, good neighborliness and mutual attraction of the sexes under the influence of a fiery drink. So these two unwittingly helped each other and received both physical and moral compensation for the suffering and humiliation suffered from the unrighteous union of the insidious Peter and Daria, which once again confirms the well-known truth: virtue is always rewarded, vice is pleasant in itself.

CHAPTER 12. THE YELLOW PEBBLE

– “And this coming will be sudden, as the flood suddenly occurred in the time of Noah. It is not your business to know the times or deadlines that the Father has put in his power… On that day, the heavens will disappear with a thunderclap, the heavenly bodies will collapse and burn, and the Earth with its deeds will be found guilty…”

And IT happened, and it happened according to the established cycle, but, as always, unexpectedly, because enlightened and sanctified by all religions, naive humanity took wise words on faith, but did not take any practical steps to save itself. The civilized world has gone crazy, having lost the collective intelligence that counteracts self-destruction: bloody wars are the best confirmation of this. And the collective instinct of self – preservation has not been developed as a result of evolution either – apparently, an interstellar wars scenario is needed for this.

On November 12, 2086, an overflowing Yellowstone erupted five thousand cubic kilometers of magma and covered most of North America with a blanket of ash half a meter thick, from Canada in the north to Mexico in the south, from the Pacific coast in the west to Chicago and Memphis in the east. Everything that was within a radius of three hundred kilometers from the volcano died immediately, without much agony. Many cities located further from the epicenter, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Denver, Houston and Kansas City, ceased to exist after a short agony. Chaos ensued. For a whole week, the products of the explosion hung in the air throughout the continent, causing breathing difficulties, enveloping plants and polluting water. Tiny particles of volcanic ash, so small that respirators are not able to prevent them from entering the lungs, penetrated into the body of living beings. Once in the body, the ashes began to harden and turn into stone. People living even thousands of kilometers away from the volcano were also exposed to deadly danger. In just three days, the number of victims reached ninety million people. Most of the northern continent has turned into a scorched desert. The states of the East Coast resisted, among them New York and the capital of the United States – Washington, Florida was the least affected.

But this was only the beginning of the apocalypse. The explosion of Yellowstone caused the eruptions of hundreds of other volcanoes across the planet. Within a few days, all living things died from earthquakes, magma emissions and suffocation. The titanic explosion, comparable to the fall of a giant asteroid on the Yucatan Peninsula sixty-five million years ago, changed the chemical composition of the atmosphere of the entire planet for decades. Volcanic ash in the atmosphere blocked sunlight, and the world temperature dropped by twenty degrees. Cosmic darkness descended on the Earth. So a new ice age has come, replacing the era of the power of two superpowers states – the United States and China – for the period of the death of the civilization of the twenty-first century. Many areas and vast territories became victims of collapse, or were disunited and catastrophically weakened, the financial power of the richest and most influential clans on the planet instantly evaporated along with the institutions of global influence, military power and advanced industry. The world community, the international economy and politics in their classical sense, as well as the virtual world of the Internet, have ceased to exist for many years.

When Kalinkin regained consciousness after arriving at the designated point in space, he was stunned by the surrounding picture: as far as the eye could see, an icy desert stretched to the horizon. Three hundred and forty-fifth year of the thirteenth millennium! Suddenly Peter saw the world in its primeval state, as it existed before the emergence of man, and felt like a polar Adam, with the only difference that, alas, there was no standard set: Eve, apple and Snake, and you can’t walk naked here. Daria is not here either, and, of course, it could not have been, but the main thing he was not ready for was that he did not see the famous capital of the world. Around him is a snowy plain, ice hummocks – a typical Arctic, only cold and unbearable brilliance, and nothing more. Paris, the Mecca of culture and art, an amazing city, the pride of enlightened humanity, disappeared, disappeared without any trace. Whether it collapsed gradually or became a victim of instantaneous tectonic shifts is unknown. The Eiffel Tower, high Gothic cathedrals and mosques with minarets, the palaces of the Louvre and Versailles, gardens and hills, the Seine River were hidden by a reliable cold shell, a snow-white shroud, like the whole country called France, like the whole old Europe.

– And the people? What happened to them?

Yes, billions of people died. But the human tribe, unlike other biological species, is very tenacious. These elephants, steadily decreasing their numbers over the past hundred years and reducing their relatively small habitat under the influence of civilization, may become extinct, and only elephants on the dresser will remain. Representatives of Homo sapiens have settled on all continents for a hundred thousand years, with the exception of Antarctica, and have found something to feed themselves everywhere. Any global catastrophe, be it an asteroid impact, a nuclear war, a worldwide pandemic or something similar, can destroy many millions of human lives. But small populations of homo sapiens have been preserved all over the planet. Why? First of all, because of their location, isolation, perhaps because of skin color, wallet thickness or DNA features. And after hundreds or even thousands of years, they will once again enter the stable path of progress, only to find themselves again at our stage of development in the conditional two thousand twenty-second year. Only years, so, in five thousand, or ten. But, most likely, everything will then slide back to a global catastrophe, demonstrating the monstrous Foucault pendulum in the history of the planet. It was this hypothesis that dear Peter Kalinkin was able to test, moving in time and space to the point where he, without thinking, pointed his finger, under the influence of unfavorable everyday circumstances. Just think, a drunk cuckold man! However, the consequences of any rash act are often much more terrible than the reasons that caused it. But such is our human nature, a timid subconscious developed by millennia of natural selection. This is if according to Darwin. And if Darwin’s theory is not correct, then you don’t even know what to refer to.

Ten thousand years have passed since the triumph of Yellowstone, a hundred terrible centuries. Of the nine billion who inhabited the planet in the twenty-first century, few survived. In remote areas of the explosion – Australia, Malaysia, Africa – populations of intelligent man have been preserved, totaling no more than fifty million. The population of both North and South America and Eurasia could not withstand the prolonged effects of the cold, and these continents became empty. The descendants of the people of the twenty-first century adapted to live in new, harsh climatic conditions, but survival turned out to be exhausting and cruel. All efforts were made to preserve or regenerate the main natural factors of survival. The thick ice cover, low temperature and strong, cold winds dominating the sea and land had a great impact on the human condition. In the most favorable physical and geographical conditions, in areas of autonomous existence, a poor flora and fauna, water sources, power plants, industry and agriculture have been preserved. Mini-states were formed that were remote from each other: societies and local authorities, governments, the army and the police. Communications between individual islands of mind on the planet have been reduced to a minimum. The life of a particular individual in the conditions of such an existence largely depended on the state of his health, will, determination, ingenuity, concentration and endurance. The strongest survived, overcoming fear, loneliness, despondency, hunger, cold, thirst and physical pain. Being determined consciousness. And a significant role in this test was played by a new well – forgotten way of survival – tribal collectivism and shamanism. The thought of Cornelius Tacitus was brilliantly confirmed: once shaken souls are easily inclined to superstition.

The searing cold of the terrible catastrophe and the aching sense of loss penetrated Peter’s heart. He stood alone in this world of white silence, dressed in a warm black jumpsuit like a spacesuit, surveying the blinding surface with white rocks on the horizon, and at the same time not believing what he saw. The mind was not ready to accept the visible for reality. He turned out to be the only one alive today who knows the catastrophic consequences of the coming decades. The realization of the horror of the future of humanity brought tears to his eyes, which he could not even wipe off his face: his eyes were protected by dark ski-like glasses from the gusty wind and bright, blinding light. The hands kept warm in thick but flexible handles with a strange emblem – something like two crossed medieval swords. The same emblem was emblazoned on his chest. Apparently, the intertemporal atelier has started a new promotion of its products? But there was no one to appreciate his bitter humor. Even polar creatures, like polar bears, did not live here – it was very far from the cold seas. Kalinkin hesitantly took a few cautious steps; the snow creaking under his thick boots was so compressed under the influence of the sun and wind that only round holes from the spikes on the soles remained on the hard surface.

– When did this happen? – Peter was looking for a point of report on the death of the habitual world and directed his question to the Almighty Mind, if such still exists in the Universe. Who else would be able to give any answer? Ten seconds later, his doubts turned out to be extremely inappropriate and even blasphemous. Something inexplicable and unthinkable has happened. Suddenly, a violet ray, coming from nowhere, cut through the blue of the sky, drew a straight line, dividing the firmament in half, and then fell on the earth’s surface somewhere near the elusive horizon and drew gigantic signs on a huge icy rock:

– 2086, Yellowstone.

Kalinkin was speechless and silently gazed at the rock with the titanic epitaph on the dazzling white tomb monument of human civilization.

But the demonstration of power did not end there. In confirmation of the authenticity of the message, the higher powers, with the hand of an invisible artist, depicted right there, on a rock, the figure of a young slender woman in a dress of snow brocade, skirt and bodice, with ribbons and lace. Her gorgeous costume shimmered with snowflakes, buttons and silks. On his head is a huge wig, falling from his head to his chest like a frozen waterfall, and spreading abundantly on his shoulders. But the most amazing thing was waiting for Peter ahead. After a few seconds, the motionless drawing came to life… with a leisurely, graceful gait, the lady easily glided across the invisible parquet, elegantly turning her head in his direction and smiling mysteriously. Looking at her classic, chiseled face and huge transparent eyes with icicles instead of black pupils, he almost fainted from what he saw, how unexpected, recognizable and at the same time completely impossible it was. The memory of her pierced him like lightning, and Peter remained in place, as if nailed, unable to move.

– That’s how they go crazy… – Peter thought distantly, as if about someone else.

The Countess de Burlemont, his Daria, looked at him through the millennia.

CHAPTER 13. RESIDENCE. RF

– Hello, Mr. President! – Kalinkin was courteous and emphatically calm. He was comfortably seated in an armchair at the side table, facing the incoming person. A spacious room of yellow-olive shades, with two banners and the coat of arms of the Russian Federation on the wall. On the left, ten meters away, there is a huge monitor. Behind his back is a metal barrel on legs, the only new object in the setting, not counting the guest himself.

– Who are you? How did you end up here? – The Supreme Commander-in-Chief was seriously alarmed, if not surprised, to see a man in his office, protected from the outside world by all available means, from the construction of the labyrinth of the building itself, technical means of protection, to bodyguards and several sanitary cordons. Lost in his thoughts, he started in surprise. Despite the Chekist tempering and endurance gained thanks to considerable managerial experience, he did not expect to see anyone here.

– A normal human reaction … – thought Peter.

To the alarm button placed under the black tabletop with a computer screen, and you need to take five more steps, but for some reason president’s legs refused to obey and grew into the light yellow parquet.

– A terrorist attack? – involuntarily, the most obvious explanation flashed through the brain for a person on the first line of fire, whose motorcade increased annually and this year reached seventy special vehicles, not counting helicopters, snipers and FSO operatives in the form of traffic police officers along the entire route. He fixed his imperious gaze on the newcomer, hoping to paralyze his will, as he brilliantly managed to do in a conversation at his favorite table with all sorts of governors there. Some government officials sweated mercilessly and were afraid to accidentally empty their bladder out of fear. But today the situation was reversed. However, the stranger has not yet made any sudden movements, no weapons were there were, and the president pulled himself together with an effort of will.

Five minutes ago, Peter Kalinkin flew over from ice France and woke up sitting in a time machine chair, on the monitor screen on July 12, 2024, Moscow time – 16 hours 15 minutes. He turned off the unit by pressing the red button and waited. A smart machine moved him to the right point when the owner of the residence was already in public service – to Novo-Ogarevo, or maybe to the Crimea, because the offices were identical, and the exact location of the first person of the state was a secret just in case, but in this particular case it did not work.

Peter gallantly invited the president to take his rightful place and put his hands on the table. He himself remained sitting, turning to the right, to the interlocutor, and immediately got down to business.

– First of all, I do not pose any threat to you, but do not give any signs or commands, I am elusive. And listen, – he asked rather hastily. Then he paused a little and began to speak more slowly, trying to be as convincing as possible. – My name is Peter Kalinkin, from St. Petersburg, your hometown. I’ll be brief. By the will of fate, I am rewarded with an extraordinary ability to move through time and space as I please. I found myself here, and this, I think, is the best proof of the truthfulness of my words.

The president nodded slightly, without taking his eyes off him, habitually assessing the personality and mental state of the interlocutor, a man of about thirty, professionally studied his face, the expression of blue eyes and the movement of lips during conversation.

– Nothing betrays a mental patient in him, except the essence of his speeches, – he thought.

The uninvited visitor was talking some nonsense, really nonsense, but the situation demanded: you need to listen, even express some interest, and then… After all, these…, there, behind the door, at the displays, must sooner or later figure out and take action. Therefore, it is necessary to wait and pretend that you are listening…

– I am invisible to tracking devices, – Peter said firmly, sensing the interlocutor’s concern.

– And this construction next to you is a time machine? – with undisguised irony, the president supported the conversation for the first time and turned his eyes to a nondescript iron barrel with hoops on short metal legs, and thought: – Of course, he is paranoid. But how did he get here?

– I have no barriers, but the place was chosen by the time machine according to the cause-and-effect relationship. – Peter didn’t know how to read thoughts, but he caught this one.

Hearing the legal terms, the president smiled and really relaxed. The anxiety suddenly disappeared somewhere, and he again felt as usual, the master of the situation.

– What do you see the connection in? – he asked politely. It was really curious: what would this decently dressed citizen in a black suit from Keaton answer? By a mocking coincidence, the owner of the office was wearing exactly the same, even speckled ties, even a wristwatch of the same brand, only on the other, right hand. The mirror image, similar to a challenge, was alarming and at the same time distressing.

– I think the importance of the information that I am simply obliged to convey to you, taking into account your unlimited powers in Russia and your influence in the world. This is without flattery.

The president’s face remained impenetrable.

– What kind of information?

– The world, the whole planet is in terrible danger, a catastrophe. I have just come from there and saw everything with my own eyes: there is no Paris, there is reason to believe that the whole of France and even Europe perished under a layer of ice!

The president thought for a while, and then, as if for the record, said:

– The Russian leadership pays great attention to climate problems together with the leading world powers and international organizations. Recently I had to express my point of view on these issues in my interview, including global warming and permafrost in Siberia.

Having finished the sentence, he made a meaningful pause and looked at his counterpart, as if looking for his support and a proper assessment of his words. And he thought irritably:

– It’s already been fifteen minutes, how much longer do I have to act here? Burdocks!

– That is why I am addressing you, Mr. President!

– And what is the source of the danger? – the guarantor asked in a completely businesslike way.

– Yellowstone supervolcano. Located in Wyoming, USA. It will explode in 2086, hundreds of millions will die, the climate will change irreversibly on the planet, dust will eclipse the atmosphere from the sun’s rays, a long cold snap will come, ice will erase the civilization of the twenty-first century, chaos will come.

In every phrase, in every word of Kalinkin, genuine anxiety sounded. The President listened without interrupting and continued to analyze what he had heard:

– Let’s assume for a moment that this is true. The terrible truth. But there is no proof! Am I referring to this subject as a source!? And how relevant is it now, in the period of integration of the country after reconciliation, because sixty years are ahead… And then, it directly concerns America – our business partners, friends of our enemies, and those who have property and investments there. Even if I inform the US president about this, it will not bring any dividends to either Russia or its leadership. But the Western media will easily laugh at me, my image will suffer, and the trust rating will undoubtedly fall…