The future man extended his hand, out towards the void, and bands of space started forming, like a bed sheet folding together, but it was the 3D that was bending, in on itself, a thousand times, at an alarming rate. The void looked much closer together now, galaxies on top of one another, but at different times. It was so weird to look at, I don't think my brain was processing it correctly.
"Woah!" was all I could say.
"Fancy right?"
"Are you bending space-time right now?!" I asked not sure if that was what he was doing.
"Indeed, one of my many powers, most of my people can do this though, easy peasy,"
"You mean 4D spirits?" I asked. He looked at me, his eyes squinting.
"Yeah - let's call them that for now," he was hiding something, but my brain was on overload, I don't think I could take any more information.
A blob showed up in front of us, it had thousands of eyes, but it passed through us as more time folded.
"What was that?!" I asked.
"Those are the Fades of Trenxal, that's one of their A.I. Powered probes. Made to explore the cosmos, gathering billions of Petabytes of information. It's bound to be conscious by now, with all the things it's seen,"
"Huh, that's interesting," I said
"Don't worry, you'll forget all this existential dread you're feeling right now, in like a moment or two," he said.
"I'll forget you too?"
"And the other two as well, it's for your safety," said the future man.
Then we just started moving forward.
"Here we go, you ready, this time for real," he said, he hadn't let go of my hand during this whole thing. He squeezed harder.
We didn't need space suits, I could breathe perfectly fine, I guess spirits don't need air.
Faster - and Faster. I felt the gravity hit my face, it was like we were experiencing a thousand G's but, they didn't hurt, in fact, they just tickled. We passed through the folds, one by one, it was like we were traveling billions of light years in the blink of an eye, we were our wormhole and our black hole all at the same time.
Yet I could speak as we traveled.
"So what's the deal with wormholes?" I asked, just out of curiosity.
"Well you need to create a black hole first, and then, alter its genetic event horizon," he said naturally.
"I thought they consumed everything in their path, even light,"
"In their neutral state, yes, but modify its genetic gravitational sequence, encoded within the soft hairs of its event horizon, and you can change the destination, otherwise it's null and absolves back into the void," said the future man with perfect precision.
"And how do you do that?" I asked.
"You simply throw something in, like an encrypted message, then the black hole deciphers and changes into," he said like it was the most natural thing in the world.
"So, black holes are alive?"
"You humans - you see life in a flower, but can't see life in the cosmos - so stolid," I looked at him like I didn't know what that word meant.
"Weak of mind, you're mind's eye all foggy. And you're obsession with consuming meat, doing alcohol and illicit drugs - I'll never understand how you violate your quantum energy like that, and by your own volition. What good does knowledge do you when you can see the truth hidden in plain sight?"
"Because we can't?" I asked.
"Because you're not willing," said the future man.
"The void is so large that it holds great mysteries in its path, some of them would make even the most intellectual man go insane, you're experiencing it first hand right now."
Planets and galaxies were still whizzing by.
Then we stopped, just above a blue planet, very much like Earth. Behind us space-time de-folded in the blink of a second, and what was once close, was now millions of light years far away.
"So where are we?"
"In the 3rd SWE 37- 82 - 59, third quadrant of the milky way."
"Are those coordinates in 3D space?"
"That's right, you're catching up pretty quick,"
The planet was blue, it had water and land, and it's Pangea was visible still visible. One supermassive continent all-round the planet,
"Is this planet still young?" I asked.
"Kinda, only 10 LK or so," said the future man.
In terms of the universe that was still young, like Earth, it still needed to split its continent apart.
Or maybe it will never do that and stay this way, who can tell?
"This planet still doesn't have a name, so you get to name it right now, whatever you decide would be ingrained in people's memories like it was always there,"
"Earth 2.0," I said almost a little proud.
"That would be confusing," said the future man. "And it would break higher accord 2.93. Can't you think of anything else?"
"Oh - Gliese, how about that?" I said quickly remembering, from somewhere, where had that name come from?
"Nope - that name's already taken, sorry."
"Oh - Okay - how about? Ganymede."
"That sounds fairy familiar, I don't think - "
"No, not Ganamyde, Ge - ani - mede,"
"How is that different?"
"Geanimede was the Greek hero who was flocked to the heavens because he was the most beautiful human to have ever existed, and was chosen as a hero to protect Zeus's cup, I'm just saying it kinda fits with my story right now."
"You mean Zeus's army,"
"Same thing…"
"Look, I'm just saying we could get in trouble with that name…" the future man was right. We could get in a lot of trouble for that name, and if all fiction is real, then Ganymede was a planet, that already existed.
I took a long pause, he never let go of my hand.
"Okay I got it," the future man looked at me with curiosity.
"How about Cronus?"
"Oh - that could work, what made you think of that name?"
"Well Cronus was the original name for Saturn in ancient Greek, and Saturn is the planet that reigns Aquarius, at least in the old Astrology handbook, and since I'm always trying to be different, I guess it just came naturally."
"And you know what, let's go even further and give this planet rings,"
"You can do that?!" With a swift motion of his hand, rings, very much like the one Saturn has, rotated and were placed around the planet, moving swiftly with its gravitational pull. Five small natural satellites came into view as they reflected on the rings.
"There, now it's perfect," said the future man. He snapped his finger and Cronus was ingrained in my memory like it had always been there. I wondered how this all looked from the bottom of the planet.
"My time's running out bud, I had a great time, too bad you'll forget everything," he let go of my hand, and the pull of the planet started pushing me down.
"Enjoy your new life," he said and blinked out of existence, not before he gave a final push with his hand and a shockwave of air hit me.
It pushed me down, further through the atmosphere of Cronus, I lost consciousness for a second but regained it rather quickly. I was free falling, my back towards the ground. I didn't fear the impact as I felt how my soul was being prepared for a new body. Twinkles of bright orange light shined through me and flickered up toward the sky.
I could feel the ground coming up now. I closed my eyes and just let it happen.
The movement was sudden, but I crashed into something, my new body bouncing upwards, it didn't hurt.
My body was squishy, I rolled through the dirt, and I saw trees and foliage. I was in a bright green forest.
Finally, I stopped bouncing. My whole skin was slimy. I shook it off.
I looked at my hands, they were completely blue and tiny, and my lower torso was practically non existent.
This body was going to take some time getting used too.
I was alive again, I could feel the sun hitting my skin, and I felt the wind blow with the leaves.
It felt so good to be alive again, my spirit form had created a sort of static within me, and I could feel that dissipating.
Then I noticed. I remember everything. They told me I would lose my memories, my time with them, but everything was still there. I remembered it all.
So that meant - I was a slime right now.
At that moment, the existential dread of my actions washed over me.