The Chrono Repairmen Origins

By Rito Chatterjee

On December 10th, 2100 an army Colonel, an engineer, a hacker, a history professor, a ship's captain, a doctor, a police detective and a college dropout drug addict all arrive at Antarctica after having strange nightmares for months that seem to actually be memories from another life in an alternate timeline. These dreams all featured a post apo

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ukiyoto Publishing
• Release date: Oct 9, 2023
• ISBN: 9789361726071

Book preview

The Chrono-Repairmen

Origins

Rito Chatterjee

Ukiyoto Publishing

All global publishing rights are held by

Ukiyoto Publishing

Published in 2022

Copyright © Rito Chatterjee

ISBN

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system, in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Rito Chatterjee asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated, without the publisher’s prior consent, in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published.

To all those who have inspired me to write this.

Contents

Dreams from Another Life

A Meeting in Antarctica

Meeting an Outsider

Zerf Xerex’s Story on Earth

A Mission in the Past

Detective Work

A Sinister Plan

Things go Awry

A Brainwave

Washington D.C., 1945

Air Mission

Unfreezing the City

Confronting Krenn Klore

Returning to Base

Earth-shattering Revelations

About the Author

Dreams from Another Life

K

wan Ji-Soon picked up a hunting rifle lying in the supplies room of the underground bunker. This week, it was her turn to go scavenging for supplies to sustain the life of all those who had sought shelter in the underground vault she and her parents were living in.

As she walked down the hallway, she observed her surroundings. First, she passed a couple of rooms that were barely enough to accommodate the 250 people that lived inside the self-sustaining behemoth – well, almost – of lead-lined concrete and steel. Then she passed the vault’s indoor farm that grew crops in laboratory conditions but were still grossly inadequate to feed its inhabitants. The last rooms in the corridor were the oxygen processing units and water retainer, which recycled almost 100 per cent of the air and water consumed and expelled by the vault residents.

She saw her parents standing at the exit; they both looked devastated. She approached them and gave them a quick, tight embrace.

A tear rolled down her mother’s cheek.

Her father gently placed his hand on her mother’s shoulder, trying to comfort her.

‘Do you really have to go?’ her mother asked, her voice breaking.

‘Yes Mother, we are running out of supplies. You know how things work here… we draw lots… and this time it’s my turn to go scavenging. Our food supplies are nearly over.’

‘No! You can’t go out there! It’s too dangerous…’ her mother’s voice shook as she protested shrilly. ‘I’ll talk to the Vault Council members… make them send somebody else.’

‘Now, now… don’t break down like this,’ her father replied. ‘We raised our daughter to be a strong and independent woman. She is capable of taking care of herself, aren’t you, darling?’

‘Of course, Papa,’ Ji-Soon reassured. ‘Don’t worry. I will only be searching the areas marked safe in the exclusion zone. I will report back to the base before dinner.’

‘That’s my girl!’ Her dad beamed with pride.

Ji-Soon said her goodbyes to her parents and started making the necessary preparations to enter the outside world.

The slim 24-year-old girl quickly changed into several layers of heavy winter clothing. She hung a machete from the right side of her belt and clipped on a walkie-talkie on the left. She put on a thick pair of goggles and wrapped a scarf around the lower half of her face.

She was ready to go and nodded at her parents, a hint of a smile on her lips.

With the hunting rifle slung around her shoulder, she approached the elevator and pressed the button marked ‘Surface: 500 metres’. After about 15 minutes, the elevator reached its destination. The three layers of metal doors opened in sequence revealing the outside world.

She stepped out into the open that was covered in ice and snow. A mild blizzard added to the eeriness of the desolate landscape before her. Ji-Soon looked towards the horizon, and despite the poor visibility, she recognized the hazy silhouette as the ruins of a modern city. The distance between her and the skyline was mostly barren; the dead trees and differently sized rocks were covered by a thin layer of snow. She spotted a few cottages in the distance, their roofs caked with fresh snow. Deciding to look for supplies there, she began the long walk to the cottages. She had walked some distance, when she came across a strange sight. A graveyard filled with the bones of various animals poking out of the snow. It even had a human skull in the mess. Shaking her head, she walked on and came upon a water tower. Severely crippled by rust, one of the pillars of the tripod-like structure had collapsed. The peak or ‘head’ of the tower was hanging like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, barely supported by its base, threatening to fall off any moment. What she saw next, was the most bizarre.

In a puddle of melted snow, lay a couple of yellow metal drums, bearing radiation symbols.

Breathing heavily, Ji-Soon approached the cottages. There were three of them, perpendicular to each other, all looking like they had been abandoned for decades. She approached the first one and pushed open the rickety door. The interior was filled with cobwebs that she had to repeatedly brush out of her way as she explored the house. She noticed a storage cupboard, barely recognizable under years of dust accumulation. Wiping away the dust, she opened the cupboard to see it stocked to the brim with tins of various types of canned food.

Perfect, she thought. There must be more around here.

A sudden loud noise startled her, sending a shiver down her spine. Immediately, she stood up, alert, her back straight against a wall, standing guard with her rifle pointing forward.

A few moments later, she heard a menacing, animal-like growling.

Oh no, not again! she thought, as realization hit her.

She was having the same dream! Again!

As the growling and snarling continued, she gingerly stepped outside the cottage to investigate, her heart beating fast, as fear quickly consumed her.

What she saw outside made her go pale with fright.

It was a gigantic wolf, about the size of a large, adult horse. It was almost 2 feet taller than her, with white fur streaked with grey patterns. It seemed to have some kind of a glow around it – like an aura – that stood out even in the reflective white snow. The creature stared at her with its red eyes, and as it snarled, Ji-Soon saw dozens of razor-sharp teeth and thick strings of saliva dribbling out of its mouth.

As the wolf leapt to attack her, she shot at it but missed. She was knocked backwards and hit the wall of the cottage; the rifle flew out of her hand. She felt a sharp, stinging pain on her shoulder. Glancing at it, she saw that she had been bitten, a patch of blood spreading across her jacket.

She shut her eyes and put her hands in front of her in a defensive position as the wolf readied itself to attack her again.

Please, no! she thought, it’s not real! IT’S NOT REAL! 

Bang! Bang! Suddenly, a sound rang out…

Ji-Soon opened her eyes.

The wolf lay motionless on the ground, two gaping wounds on its side, from which blood was gushing out.

She looked up and what she saw left her stunned. A strange-looking person or rather, a humanoid-like creature was reaching out to her, offering its hand. Fully clothed in winter gear just like her, it was bald with yellow eyes and sharp facial features. It had an army-green skin that was rough and scaly, like a crocodile’s. From the palms of its bony hands protruded seven fingers. One hand held a gun that had a bright red-and-yellow design on it. It had extended its free hand to her.

‘Come with me,’ the creature urged. ‘It’s not safe here.’

Suddenly everything turned pitch black and a new image flashed in Ji-Soon’s head.

A landscape of pure ice with a view of an ocean. There was a helipad, and superimposed on the sky was the following text in large black letters:

Antarctica; 10 December 2100; 15:30 Local Time; 82° 28' 35.1768'' S 85° 20' 40.4916'' E.

Ji-Soon woke up in a cold sweat, breathing heavily. She had been having this dream continuously for the last six months. The very nature of the dream had haunted her.

Except, it didn’t seem like a dream at all. All of it seemed very real. As though she had actually been there and experienced all of this. It seemed as if these were actually memories from a previous life.

‘No way!’ she muttered to herself. ‘That’s rubbish. This is just a silly nightmare. It doesn’t mean a thing. Maybe I should go to a therapist to sort this out.’

She sat up and started thinking. It just couldn’t be that any of this was actually real. The year was 2100 CE and the world had drastically transformed since the groundbreaking historical resolution of 2050. That was the year the UN – United Nations – had held an emergency meeting in its attempt to save the world from the catastrophic state it was in. The UN-formulated resolution received a surprising and unnatural 100 per cent unanimous vote from the head of state of every country. The document was called the ‘Human Unification Protocol’ and was poised to be more revolutionary than the Magna Carta or the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. According to this new system, the nations of the world would have their borders removed and be part of an amalgamation process where they would be unified into a single unit – ‘The Nation of Earth’. The world’s countries would act as states making up a single nation under the UN. With the removal of borders, all border restrictions and the concept of ‘nationalism’ would be abolished. Countries would ensure an unbiased and even distribution of the world’s resources. People would have complete freedom of movement with the centuries-old draconian policies towards immigrants and refugees dissolved. Countries, however, would still enjoy a status of semi-sovereignty, having the freedom to practice their religions, traditions and cultural customs at the local level.

This new system would be called ‘Global Unitarism’, with its motto as ‘The world is its own nation’. World leaders claimed that classified information and ‘a dystopian prediction of the future to pinpoint accuracy’ made by scientists was the cause of this radical and world-changing decision.

The manifesto for the new system read: ‘In the epitome of crisis that poses an alarming threat to all humankind, with the future likely being one of possible human extinction, the removal of artificial borders that have caused conflict and division throughout history and continue to tear us apart even now is necessary for our survival.

‘Henceforth, we will begin to count ourselves as one. One planet, one race and one nation, The Nation of Earth. These are the principles which make up Global Unitarism.’

Initially, this was proposed as an experiment for 20 years, and should the new system turn out to be overwhelmingly unpopular and an out-and-out disaster, it would be scrapped.

With barriers of migration revoked, and the even and unbiased distribution of resources throughout the world, considerable progress began to happen but slowly. Nations began cutting their military spending; discouraged unnecessary industrialization; and diverted money, research and resources towards reversing climate change and ensuring food security. Religious leaders convinced people to gradually accept the new changes by propagating it as ‘God’s plan to save humanity’.

Initially, the world’s population was shaken at the radical changes but eventually decided to break traditions and accept it as a new way of life as every major political and religious leader in the world was onboard with it. Furthermore, the drastic effects of severe climate change, food shortages and continuous armed conflict had tired out populations and communities in general, and they accepted the change out of desperation, hoping it would somehow miraculously improve their living conditions.

The first five years witnessed massive riots and protests that demanded the world’s order be restored to its previous state. Alongside, for the first time in history, incidents of prejudice, hate crimes, communal violence and xenophobia experienced a 95 per cent sharp decline due to the unrestricted flow of people across previously established artificial borders. Likewise, crime and poverty hit a record low in human history because of the new system’s unbiased and unrestricted sharing of all aid and resources. Further, the human race identified itself as one entity rather than classify themselves on artificially established barriers. Gradually, the riots began to fade. In 2070, a landslide victory in favour of a unified country-less world by the majority of people permanently established the system of Global Unitarism as the new world order.

Ji-Soon felt tears roll down her cheeks as she reached for a photograph of her parents on the nightstand near her bed. All the events that had changed the world had happened before she was born in 2076, and despite all the positive changes it had introduced for a hopeful future, it had done nothing to prevent her parents from being murdered by Nationalist militants.

Despite the world being almost free of armed conflict in 2100, only one major terrorist threat remained. ‘The Nationalists’, a militant extremist group, had never accepted the new system the world chose and demanded the full restoration of the previously national identity-based world. They consisted of three main factions, namely, The Europe Group, The Arab World and The Asian–South East Asian Alliance. 

Nationalist gunmen belonging to the Asian–South East Asian Alliance from her locality in Northern Korea (formerly North Korea) had come to their house when she was 7 years old. From the corner of their kitchen window, her parents had caught sight of the men heading towards their house while they were still at a distance. Her parents’ alarm was palpable. As government scientists, they knew they were targets of interest for the terrorists. They told her to hide inside a cupboard. The terrified 7-year-old peeped through the keyhole from where she was hiding. The armed men tried to persuade her parents to join and support their cause but they refused out of loyalty to their government. To Ji-Soon’s horror, the terrorists shot both her parents in cold blood and left.

Tears streamed down her eyes as she recalled old memories. Soon after the event that had orphaned her, she was rescued by the authorities, attended counselling sessions and was adopted by two human rights workers who loved her unconditionally and raised her in an environment of security, love and peace. An intelligent and bright child, she excelled academically, getting a master’s degree in engineering from MIT, USA. However, old scars still hadn’t healed and seeing her parents alive and well in the recent series of dreams didn’t help either.

Her mind was abuzz with questions that left her in a dilemma.

Why was she having these recurrent dreams? What did they mean?

What was that dystopian scenario she kept seeing?

Who was that humanoid creature that reached out to her? Why did it all seem so real, so familiar?

And what was that message in the end, the coordinates, trying to convey?

There was only one thing to do about this. She had to find out…

*************

Twenty-two-year-old Private Arun Rajveer saluted his senior officer as he received his orders on the evacuation process. He looked at the city in the distance and then to the airfield that was filling up with people lining up to board the several massive cargo aircraft and helicopters in the landing zone.

Guided by soldiers and UN workers, these evacuees were entering the large landing zone through the small main gate. Once they were through, they were branching out and occupying the space like a colony of swarming ants. They were carrying whatever possessions they had managed to gather during the mass clearing. Many of them had tear-streaked faces.

‘Private Rajveer, we have almost evacuated the city. But there are 522 civilians who still have to be carried out of the danger zone and transported to at least a safe distance from the blast radius. Our intel has confirmed a nuclear strike on this city in less than an hour – 47 minutes 23 seconds to be exact. It’s now or never! You have your orders,’ his senior commander, wearing a blue UN helmet, informed him.

Private Rajveer saluted his commander. ‘Yes sir! Understood!’

The young soldier briskly strode towards the refugees and began aiding the staff in getting all the people into the cargo planes and transporting them out, alive and safe.

He noticed an old woman stubbornly resisting the soldiers’ attempts