When I Met Myself

The Mission

"Life. Billions of years of progress, and we still haven't been able to crack this ancient mystery. Where did it come from? How was it created? Why does it have to end? Who was responsible for it? When did it first come into existence? There's just something superbly fascinating about a lot of flesh and bone coming together to form an actual CONSCIOUSNESS. Well, I've digressed enough. You all must be wondering what my point here is, right? I'll get to that now. My point is, you are one of the few lucky pieces of matter in existence which have a consciousness of their own, a mind of their own. I know some of you may believe it's just your physical strength that counts", Lord Tafos looked at me as he said this, "but in truth, it's far more important to have cunning than it is to have brawn. With that in mind, I will now explain the mission to you."

I mentally scoffed. Cunning was good whilst one was indoors, but on the battlefield, during a mission, your cunning wouldn't protect you from an incoming bomb. Only your speed and reflexes would.

"The mission is simple. You need to prevent a few solar flares from forming in Procul," (you'd know it as GN-z11) "by taking Target out of the equation. You will find the required information in your bag, under Heading A, Section A. Thank you." said Lord Tafos.

Now, in case you don't know what a light cone is (which you really should already, it was proposed in the later centuries of the 2nd Millennium), I'll give a brief and simple explanation. An event in time occurs. Now, it has two light cones. One in the past, which consists of all the events that can affect it directly. The other in the future, which it can affect directly. Every once in a while, a supernova threatens to occur, which may create a future light cone that affects Earth directly. Our job is to then take the star out of the equation in a way that its absence doesn't create another light cone which is just as dangerous. 

"Hey, I remember this! Back at home, my father made a homegrown model of the Cone-Detector. He even tinkered with it so that it would detect the slightest anomaly. But then.." Xotik squeaked, but then trailed off, pouting. 

"What happened?" I and Morfus asked in unison. We grinned at each other.

"It picked up so many anomalies that the dratted thing exploded, and his ears became pointier than mine. They weren't supposed to be pointier than mine." he sulked.

The three of us silently sniggered, and Lord Tafos cleared his throat.

"If you could PAY ATTENTION, Cadets, and be serious. Please open your files!" he barked.

"Okay, man. You need to loosen up." I muttered under my breath, as I opened the files.

"Uh, it's blank" said Morfus, who was already rifling through the pages.

Lord Tafos sighed, and said, "That is not the file, Mr.Evgenomorfus. That is toilet paper, for emergencies."

Morfus dropped his file with a clatter, and stared at Tafos.

I got a cylinder out, and said, "Aren't these the latest models? The L-579?"

"Indeed, Mr.Pascal. Are you interested in gadgets of these sort?"

"Well, yes, they intrigue me. I enjoy taking them apart in my spare time to figure their workings out."

"This should be easy for you to handle, then."

"I guess so!"

I tapped it nimbly with my long, slender fingers, and an image was projected into my mind, and a voice pervaded my consciousness. It was the image of a dwarf star, dazzlingly yellow, the kind that you humans definitely wouldn't have ever seen. It was beautiful. 

The voice said, "This is Target, a comparatively young star which has begun sending solar flares at random into space. Your job is to ensure that this stops."

I grinned. This was so easy. I saw Morfus and Xotik grinning, and I winked at them. They winked back.

"If you all have gone through your files, you may go back to your room and discuss the best way to solve it. The spirit of Aiofeus is with you. Shigran!"

"So is it with all of us, indeed. Shigran!" said Morfus.

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I will connect all of us with a mental link so that it's easier to discuss our ideas completely, transmitted Blemat

Ok, I thought.

Now, solar flares. Ancient phenomenon, how do we go about solving it?

How about an Atmos? (An Atmos is a man-made shield that is capable of doing multiple things, from acting like the roof of a sun room, or the roof of a car, or- in this case- blocking solar flares) 

Ok, I transmitted your solution to the rest of them, they agree. 

Excellent! Two pods will take one side, two pods the other, and the Atmos should be found with Tafos and the rest, so let's go!

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Soon, we got the materials necessary and created the Atmos around the star which absorbed all its solar flares and returned to the present. I have refrained from giving you any details because every step in the process made use of a certain type of technology which I simply cannot explain without the equations, and to explain those equations, you'd need a Runner, not a Time Warrior like me. Anyway, that's how my first and rather unexceptional mission ended. 

Oh, if only I'd known how significant that "unexceptional" mission would prove to be.....