I Know

[Erich Jaenke 0]

I Know

 

"I love you..."

 

Darkness flooded his senses. The universe grew colder. He laid in sickbay no longer. He was everywhere, and nowhere. Silence, a total absence of sound. Cold was the only sensation left, and that too was fleeting. Time stopped and lost all meaning. Death had finally come to rest on his shoulders.

 

The air was warm, but no wind blew. His eyes were already opened. He was standing, but where? A window. A window with sunlight passing through it's panes onto a table. One this table lay tools for the hands. Tools for working with delicately tiny objects. More windows lined the walls, walls littered with tools of another sort. They all looked quite different, but taken as a whole looked quite the same. Timepieces, wall clocks, watches, and chronographs. Some hung on walls, some sat on tables, others fitted on bands for appendages. He looked all around. More walls, more tables, and more tools. After a moment he realized where he was, his father's shop on Betazed. Yes, but the feeling was just not right.

 

Nothing was moving. Neither the mechanical timepieces nor the over-engineered clocks counted the passage of time. Could all of the clocks cease operation at the same time? There must be another explanation. He examined various clocks for any pattern. There was one, the time. Each clock stopped at 6:43 pm, local Betazed time. This accounts for the lowness and position of the sun at his ship. The front wall faces west, but just what was going on?

 

"About time you visited home." Erich jumped out of his skin if he was sure he had any left. He recognized the voice.

 

"Father, what am I doing here? What's wrong with the clocks?"

 

His father, bent over working on a delicate timepiece, smiled out of view. "You were always one with the questions, and never just one question either. Just one minute." He continued to work. As Erich approached he recognized was he was working one. A wristwatch he had stolen and subsequently broken that day.

 

"I remember that watch, but that was a long time ago. Why is it here now?"

 

He laughed. "I said wait a minute, and I think you know what is happening. First," he stopped working and placed his eye-mounted microscope on his head. "I don't rightly know what you are doing here. It was not me that brought you. As for the clocks, they are all working fine, well, except the ones I'm working on. The ones you see on the walls are all in working order, just like you remember. Sadly the need for them has vanished."

 

"What do you mean? Time is very important."

 

He cleared his throat. "Yes it is, but as you can see it is eternally six and forty-three hours. It will remain that way for, well, I don't rightly know that either." He brought a pocket watch to his hand and gave it to Erich. "So, if that watch I gave you is not broken, but stuck at 6:43 pm, what does that mean?"

 

Erich thought for a moment, as funny as that seemed. "Time. Time is not passing."

 

"Right, but not right. Time is indeed passing, just not for you."

 

Erich stepped back. "How can that be? I'm breathing...talking to you. How, if time is not passing can I be doing these things?"

 

His father wiped off his dusty hands on a cloth then placed it on the table. He looked his son right in the eye. "Are you really breathing? Is this really air coursing through your lungs? Wave your hands. Do you feel the air over your skin?"

 

"Of course I...," and he did wave his arms, and he did not feel anything over them. "I don't feel anything." He felt like panicking, but could not. "How did you know?"

 

"I did not. You did." He looked upon his son then settled on a slight smile. "Erich, why are you here?"

 

"What do you mean? I'm asking you."

 

"Okay, what is the last thing you remember before arriving here?"

 

"I-," then suddenly he gripped his chest. "I...Aaaahh!." Erich doubled over in pain beyond belief. As he dropped to one knee he pleaded for help. "Father!"

 

"I'm sorry Erich, but I can't help you." He remained perfectly calm. "I know you are in pain, but you need to answer my question. Why are you here? You should not be, no normal person should."

 

"I d-don't know. Ah!"

 

His father reached out to him, laying a hand on his shoulder. "You are nearly dead my son, you are quite literally running out of time. Why are you not dead yet?"

 

"How would I know?" He clutched his chest in an effort to stop the pain. His father continued his questioning.

 

"You must have something to live for that's keeping you here. Think of what that is. I ask again, why are you here?" The sun shining through the window flicked as if it was a common bulb, as if it was angry. The pain started to overwhelm. He could not answer. Erich reached up with a hand. He was confused.

 

"Think! What brings you here? None of this should be here, just the void of death. What keeps you here?"

 

"Keb?" Erich softly answered through the grit of his teeth.

 

"What? I can't hear you."

 

"I said Keb. I'm here because of Keb!"

 

"Who is she? Why is she so important?" Now the pain was so extreme Erich flinched uncontrollably on his back. His father tried to hold him still.,

 

"I, Ah.. I lo- Argh! I can feel her mi- AH!" Erich continued to struggle through the pain.

 

"Please...I love you."

 

The clocks in his father's shop started ticking and tocking once more. They all flipped over to 6:44. Erich's vision started to go blurry along with even more chest pain.

 

"Go, before it's too late!" Then his father was gone, along with everything else.

Edited October 17, 2014 by Erich Jaenke