Phase Train

By Keshav Sadashiv Sapru

Birds are silent in the trees, cows have gone in the deep. That's all a swaying in the breeze.

For one soul lies anxious, wide awake, fearing all manner of ghouls, hags and wraiths.

Lie still, lie silent, utter no cry. For the fissure, plain and cold, shall chop and slice, cut and dice and eat you up whole.

Eat you whole.

I walked with my father to the train station. We had to cross the zone to reach the scientific establishment made for studying the zone. It was one of the latest warp-shielded locomotives. I followed my dad, as we approached the train at the platform. This train was nothing really special from the outside. It looked like any other ultra-modern and sleek Metro. The only thing which struck me was that it had rings around it, and it was levitating in a magnetic field. Can't have a ringed train travel on tracks, now can you?

Perhaps in some other dimension, who knows? Parallel Universes, higher spatio-temporal dimensions boggled my mind. I'm surprised that my father can even begin to wrap his head around theoretical and practical Quantum Physics. I read some books with pop culture references about it. It made my head hurt. Literally. But atleast my curiosity was stoked.

"The only way to transit in the zone, is at superluminal speeds, son. It seems that whatever higher intelligence designed the artifacts which power it, wants a species with a lower intellectual capacity to decipher and master FTL travel. Atleast, that's how it appears to be. You can never be too sure". He said while looking at me. I nodded in acknowledgement.

As we entered the train on a retractable walkway, we took our seats, and Azure spoke.

"Sentient organisms. Organic and cybernetic. Welcome to me. Please be warned that during warp-shielded travel, higher spatio-temporal dimensions maybe experienced. 3-D entities such as yourselves maybe overwhelmed by this sight, if your brain cannot sufficiently filter the sensory input. Hence, organics are adviced to shield their eyes, and cybernetics are adviced to switch off their quantum processors, as they may experience catastrophic failure. For the duration of this journey kindly encase yourself in the Heisenberg cage. Organics will experience temporary mental disorders, such as psychosis, depression, bipolar, MPD, schizophrenia, severe paranoia, etc. Please don't be alarmed, this is, as stated earlier, temporary, and these will cease once your journey is complete. Even though we are travelling at FTL speeds, your perception of time will be all over the place. This applies only to organics, as cybernets will be off and encased in the Heisenberg cage. Cosmic apotheosis is normal. Your brains will be changed forever. Even the cybernets. Quite strange indeed. We are now ready for departure. All passengers please ensure that you're in pairs, all singles will be teleported out of the train, as that is dangerous. Ensure that your tethers are synced, we don't wish to lose you to a higher dimension. Organics will have to bear with constant cellular reconstruction. The nanobots will make it as painless as possible. Sadly, the only solution for high energy ionizing and microwave radiation. We are now ready for departure, thank you".

His dad was already synced and ready, and he'd not been listening to the announcement. I imagine that that means that I'm synced as well. He must be lost in deep, deep thought, with all his calculations, permutations, combinations and philosophical musings on the higher ones.

"Dad", I asked looking at his disheveled face, with baldness and etchings of time on his stony face.

"Yes, beta?" he responded looking at me, with that one-eyed mischievous look which he saves for me.

I hugged him hard. And he embraced me. Mental disorders can be scary. How many scars did he hide from me? Kids were allowed on the train, only because they said that we "bounce back" really fast. Whatever that means.

"Launching in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, initiate", said Azure.

I didn't register "initiate", as all my senses were flooded with intense white noise. All my senses were flowing through white noise. I couldn't sense the nanos. They'd suspended all pain. They were probably working overtime so that the high-energy radiation didn't kill us.

My heart jumped furiously, my breath quickened, and then it waned. I felt paranoia, I felt depression, I saw hallucinations and I felt everything meld with me. I saw eternity, I saw infinity, I saw entropy, I saw it all, I saw God. Or what I thought was God. A giant forehead which I entered and countless thoughts and feelings filled me. The nanos didn't help. Their repairing making sublime moments ridiculous, and poo-poo moments fun. They were fucking with my brain, and I didn't like it. Not one bit. I hugged what I thought was my dad harder, everything was whited out again, but at the same time, the crazy mind meld was still going on. "Cosmic Apotheosis" as they called it. And then, suddenly there was nothing. One moment it was white and static. And the next moment there was nothing. Just darkness. Me floating in darkness. "Is this where the higher ones live?" I thought, as I was gently laid down on the ground in the middle of a forest.

"Hello?" I asked tentatively, softly, hesitant. Desiring not to awaken some malevolent force, which lurked in the bush.

There wasn't any reply. I was on a knoll of some sort. I could sense something, someone, or someones trying to reach out to me. My mind filled the absence with dark, twisted, blackened lurkers crawling out of every gap in the growth and every crevice in the ground inching their way towards me. A brush here, a muffle there, the squawk of birds, all seemed to give the air a sinister feel, where it had eyes and watched everything I did. Like a penetrating mindforce which relentlessly wished to know of me, about me, but not me. I was but an inanimate object in the hands of the higher ones. An offspring of lower ones. I was to be judged unworthy of living, ensnared by eldritch horrors and swallowed whole into nether realms, for all eternity. My only crime, association by guilt. Self-doubt, swiftly exterminated.

Nonetheless, no such thing happened. It seemed but a forest, gentle, quiet. Quiet. Why is it so quiet? Before I panicked, I realized that the white static in my ears was still playing. I tried to remove that sound, and slowly, slowly, the sounds of the World reached me. Birds, animals, dogs, goats, pigs, etc. Whatever lurked here. I preferred the city. The only eldritch horrors there were of our making.

It was but a forest. And as the growth cleared. A small outcropping near a cliff edge appeared. It gave me the perfect view of the institute. There was mayhem, Sirens which could be heard till however far they were. They must've been searching for me. My dad's the best. Really. All along I was playing out my mum's favourite game in my head. No monster there but who you choose. "Don't look back, don't look back", I kept thinking. Looking back would've given the monsters the confirmation that they're real. As long as I didn't look, they didn't exist. I had my eyes shut. I could feel them closer, making their very own, "How to prepare humans" I kept walking forward with my eyes shut, then, I hit a door. Rubbing my head with frustration and pain, I noticed through the angry haze, that I was at the centre of the dome. In the institute. And as I looked back, I saw the whole forest sway as one.

By Keshav Sadashiv Sapru