THE THEORY OF LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT
by Nobo13
Copyright 2015 Nobo13
*****
The Theory of Love at First Sight
If you’ve received this, I hope you understand. We didn’t mean for it to become this way. I didn’t want it to turn out like this. We lost sight of everything. Even love. Even now, to keep ourselves safe, we weaponised it. This is the theory of love at first sight.
*****
The population of Earth: 100 people. The average age: undefined. The youngest: a few centuries.
The population of low earth orbit: 5 people. The population of the moon: 25 people. And I. One of seven in the medium earth orbit population.
Travel between these populations was rare, so I wasn’t pleased when I was summoned back to Earth. My job was observation, in particular, of the Earth’s environmental stabilisers. Several climate disasters occurred in the past I’ve been told. My job was to oversee the health and welfare of the planet itself. I had thought my summons was to do with the recent solar flares, and my plans to prevent a mass extinct of the plant life.
I met with the oldest of us humans left. If she had a name, she had lost it long ago. We knew her as ‘Master.’
‘I have arrived, Master’ I bowed before her. She stood before the backdrop of Eurofrica. I’ve heard this was where the first humans appeared.
‘Chi, I have called you today to tell you something’
‘Thank you, Master’
‘We have been long at war, do you know who with?’
‘Yes, Master. The other ‘times’ I’ve been told’
‘Very good. Since we have stopped aging, and stabilised the population, we all live in perfect harmony. The Earth thrives as it once did before humans, and we in turn live like gods. But we are not alone. There are parallel time lines out there. Ones that wish to exist. While we are around, that cannot be. Chi, do you know how war is done with other times?’
‘No, Master, I do not’
‘Let me tell you’
I was briefed about the world’s history of time travel. While it was impossible for us to go back in back, it was possible to send back a message. A command. The use of tachyonic neutrinos to send commands to ensure our future is made.
The theory of love at first sight. The use of a command sent back in time to make two people fall in love with each other.
Our enemies were doing the same. Changing the future by making sure some people were not born. Apparently, I was a target. My direct ancestors were at risk of never making my timeline.
‘Chi, do you understand what this means, right?’
‘Of course, I will see it, Master’
‘Very good, I will leave it to you’
She teleported away to her private chambers as I was left alone. Alone again.
I was once told she was my mother. I wondered what that meant as I asked my monitor. The AI responded with words I didn’t understand. I asked again. ‘What was love?’ The monitor answered and still I did not understand.
Long ago, I tried to implement an act of love. As a child, I reached out to her hand and held it. I couldn’t forget the look she gave me. A look of a person who had forgotten her own name. And of her son.
I rose up the ranks quickly, and forgot about love. I was busy with duties fit for my life. I must have spent thousands of years living like that. Never once did I think to look at the stars or the sunset.
A meeting between others rarely happens, maybe every few hundred years, but I once met someone. They were born only a century ago. Perhaps someone decided to give birth? I was curious and asked. Who was it that decided to die?
‘My father,’ she replied, ‘He was Epsilon. I am Five’
‘My name is Chi’
Was it because she was young that I travelled with her? Was it the centuries of loneliness that made me scared to lose sight of her? What was it?
Compared to me, she was free. Her duties were overseeing the environmental stabilisers, but she did nothing of the sort. Instead, she took me to see the sunset in a million settings. She showed me the weathers of each season. We tracked animals and grew forests with seeds we picked up on our journeys. We created our own island to call home and made an ecosystem. We walked everywhere, and left our footprints on every itch of the world. And all the time, I held her hand.
After a millennia I was summoned by Master.
‘Chi, you have been neglecting your duties as Earth’s ambassador. You’ve not spoken to any of the populations outside Earth, or even those who do live here. Just her’
‘Her name is Five’
‘Do not talk back to me. She too has done nothing but damage to Earth. And you indulge her by allowing such actions. You made an island that should not exist on the heritage globe. You’ve made a mockery of our planet’
‘Why? Is it not more madness to keep the Earth locked as it was back then?’
‘Silence! Destroy the island’
‘No, it is our home’
‘Very well, you leave me no choice’
I was banished to medium earth orbit, where I lived with her. We spent our time watching the Earth, and thinking about our future. We travelled to Mars and tried to terraform the surface. It was a long struggle but we managed to start off the plant life. It would need some time to grow.
And it was that time when Five became pregnant. Again, I found myself before Master.
‘The population must be stabilised’ she spoke, ‘Choose, this mongrel or one of your lives’
‘I will go’ I spoke
Five looked at me and I eyed her briefly. With an exchange of looks, we agreed. I will go to allow my child a life.
To welcome our new life, I had to leave. Whether to die, or leave the solar system, I didn’t care. I asked Five about her father, Epsilon. She never spoke about him. Apparently he chose death.
On the scheduled day, I arrived before Master. It shocked me to see her holding my child.
‘Chi, you are not allowed to die. Five has taken your place. Your child, Epsilon, will be taken into the nursery and educated. You have been made the observer for Earth’
I did not listen to the rest. I felt I finally understood what love was. I had lost it, and a hole was left in its place.
My son was taken away from me, and raised like we all were. It wasn’t long until I saw him again. I met him when he was twelve. He had his mother’s eyes.
‘Hello, Sir. I’ve come to report the solar activity for the previous decade’
‘Sit down, son. I’ve made dinner’
‘I cannot, sir. I’ve got to return to my station’
I saw nothing but my own mother in him. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t help him find his heart. I couldn’t get him to love me.
Master told me to send a command back in time. To send a command so that my ancestors, her ancestors will fall in love and breed. A command that ensures we will be born, and our timeline is chosen.
The theory of love at first sight. It was nothing but the battles of a war far into your future. I stared at the dial, and readied my command.
A smile came over me as I sent it back into the past. All around me, I felt the tear of space and time. I pictured the Master, my mother screaming in fear. All around me, my world was disappearing.
Everything slowly faded away from my sight, as I too slowly disappeared from time, from existence. But just before I could fall into oblivion, I saw the new timeline I created.
I saw our home, our island. A timeline where it existed. I never forced two people to fall in love. But I did force someone to draw a map. And there, it would carry our love into the future. I whispered goodbye as I caught sight of a father
, a mother, and their son walking past. Their faces happy with love.
‘Did you hear that, Kai?’
‘Hear what?’
‘…No, nothing’
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About the author
“Thank you for reading. I hoped you enjoyed the theory of love at first sight. It was an interesting one I wanted to write for a while now.
I’ve never grown to love someone over time, it has always been love at first sight for me. So it was interesting to write about this phenomena in a new light.”
For those who are tragically obsessed, Nobo13 was born 1987 in Cambridgeshire. He spent four years doing a Physics degree but spend most of the time doodling and writing. Currently he is somewhat of a teacher.
Nobo13’s pen name is derived from using his surname, just look above! His more unusual hobbies are collecting headphones, yoyos, staring aimlessly out the window (which consumes much of his time) and messing about with musical instruments- at the moment these are ocarinas and ukuleles.
Please check out my website and my other works, thanks for reading!
More from this author
Please check out the following links:
The Man in the Desert:
Lost in the Painting
Fixing Broken Promises
The Empty Necklace
Time left over
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