The Ark Part 1
Foreword

Copyright© 2015 by REP

Author’s Note: I decided to include the historians discovery of the story files in Part 2 of the story. So if you’ve read this Foreword previously, then you may notice the changes regarding when the historians found the archived files in addition to a few additional changes, which are mostly cosmetic.


My Advisors and Bond Mates had been on my ass for close to thirty years to sit down and write the story of the Ark; actually, it is a series of stories that document the Ark’s history from 2026 Old Calendar until 0236 ATF (After the Fall). I’m two hundred and ninety-two years old now, give or take a few years, and I think they were afraid I would die of old age before I wrote it. I kept telling them there was nothing to worry about, but I finally got tired of being nagged and agreed to write the stories. The reason I knew I wouldn’t die before I wrote the stories is undoubtedly confusing to someone who is not aware of the stories’ history.

Before what we now call the Week of the Meteoroids, I told our IT gurus, who we now call Historians, to archive as much information as possible off of the Internet. They downloaded and archived an immense amount of data. After the Week of the Meteoroids our Internet connection failed and we were all very busy with other things. It was around that time that our historians started their search of our archived data for specific information.

I should mention for clarity that we felt the arrival of the meteoroids marked the fall of our civilization, and we decided to start a new calendar. We decided February 22, 2043 Old Calendar was the last day of our former civilization’s calendar, and the next day, February 23, 0001 ATF, was the first day of our new civilization’s calendar.

Back then, we didn’t have many historians, so they did not have a lot of time to review the old data. After the internet failed and as time permitted, our historians began a systematic review of all the data they had archived. Over time, a number of the younger generation became historians, which allowed all of them to dedicate more time to reviewing the archived data. It was shortly after lockdown and our return to the surface that our historians found the stories, and all hell broke loose.

The story’s files had been posted to the defunct Internet with the first story being posted in 2016 Old Calendar. I was fourteen years old at the time, and in the first story I was twenty-four years old. Yeah, I think you are starting to see why all hell broke loose.

Our historians notified me when they realized that they were reading a series of stories that provided a detailed history of the Ark that began in 2026 and ended in 0236. The realization they were reading historical stories that described their future scared them so bad that they stopped reading the stories and notified me. At least they said they stopped reading the stories and they claimed they had not opened the subsequent story files other than the last file, but I have my doubts.

When I skimmed through several of the story files, I realized that we had a copy of stories written by me that I had no recollection of ever writing and the stories contained information about our future. The files had already been transferred to the Administrative disk volume, so I had their former storage locations overwritten by alternating patterns of ones and zeros. I needed to think about this before I read all of the stories. To be truthful, the ramifications of knowing the future scared the shit out of me; perhaps the historians were being truthful about not reading the files. Anyway, all of the computer files were safe on Administrative disk volume. I convened an emergency meeting of my Advisory Council to discuss what we should do about the situation.

At that time, my Advisers and I decided the existence of stories written by me that I had not yet written must be caused by a time loop; that was the only explanation. That was also why I decided it would be impossible for me to die before I wrote the stories, which would not happen until sometime in my future. If I did die before I wrote the stories, our timeline would self-destruct and timelines don’t do that, or at least I don’t think they do.

Several Advisory Council members believed we should read the stories and use the knowledge to avoid making the poor decisions that we suspected we would make in the future. Most of the Council opposed this idea for if we did something different from what was written then it would change our future. They rightfully said that changing any of the future events described in the stories would create a different future for us, and that future may not be as advantageous as the one described in the stories. That of course assumes the stories’ contents accurately describe our future.

tbd

None of us wanted to even think about the paradox that would result by us reading the stories and using the knowledge to change our future. If we did that, I would still write the stories, but what I wrote would be different than what I will write in this timeline. I could visualize our deviating from what the stories said about our current timeline; there would be thousands of possible timelines all existing concurrently and thousands of different Ark History descriptions. I’ve had that nightmare more than once.

My Council may have been split on what to do with the stories, but we all agreed that the historical knowledge of the future was too dangerous to reveal to the members of our current society. Therefore, we agreed that the files should be removed from all of our computers and locked away, so only Clara or I could access them. Once that had been done, we could discuss what we should do about the stories.

I made a hard copy of the stories, without reading what I printed. I then observed as our network specialists moved the stories’ electronic files from the Administrative disk volume where they had been stored to a removable hard disk that was given to me. I later made a package of the hard copy of the stories and the hard drive and gave it to Bob. He and Sharna stored the package where no one could access the stories; he told me they stored it on the moon.

I directed two of our network specialists to permanently delete the story files from all of our disk volumes and to search the data we downloaded for any additional copies of the stories that may have been downloaded. If they found any, they were to overwrite the file locations with a pattern of alternating ones and zeros, so no one could retrieve the files’ contents. Of course, I made sure that the network specialists doing this work were part of the group that believed that reading the stories might lead us to our destruction. They seemed very diligent in their efforts to remove the stories from our downloaded data and my computer.

During our next Advisory Council meeting, we discussed the stories. My advisors were worried about our timeline if we failed to close the time loop. I suggested that we make an electronic copy of the stories and send it back in time to close the time loop. That suggestion set off several heated discussions.

The first issue raised was: How we could send stories into the past when time travel is impossible? Someone asked the obvious follow-up question: Do we know that time travel is not possible? The obvious answer to those questions was we have stories from the past that accurately describe events that occurred after the stories were posted. The only way that could happen was if the stories were written in the future and sent back to the past for posting. Therefore, it is only logical that someone in our future will invent a means of time travel. Now that I think of it, I don’t recall us discussing how those stories would get posted.

The second issue raised was: Would sending a COPY of the stories back in the past create a time anomaly? Everyone agreed that a copy wasn’t adequate. It had to be written by someone. So, since I had written the stories, I would have to write them.

Back then, I was not a writer and had no desire to become one. So I bowed to the inevitable and said, “Okay, I’ll do it.” I knew that it would be a losing battle to refuse to write the stories. Besides, by the time my amateur time loop experts were finished, I had become somewhat concerned over what might happen if I didn’t write them.

I had confirmed the last event in the stories occurred in 0236 before I gave the package to Bob. So, I told my Advisors I would wait until after 0236 and use the current stories to retype the stories into new computer files. That way by creating the files, I will have written the stories.

At that point, our somewhat calm discussion became an intense argument. The council was split almost fifty-fifty on that idea. The group that I came to think of as the Purists took the position that retyping it was no different than copying the stories. The stories had to be created, not copied. My group, the group I thought of as the Practicalists, believed that as long as I typed the words there would be no problem. The dividing line was so clear and the arguments so angry sounding that we had to end the meeting before we came to blows.

The argument continued for several weeks. What finally ended the argument was a conversation I had with Bob over our mental link.

“Jon, this argument is silly. Why don’t you just write the stories? Sharna and I will help you.”

“You don’t understand, Bob. I haven’t read the stories and don’t know what they say. Therefore, I can’t recreate them by just sitting down and writing whatever comes into my mind. What will happen to our timeline when the two sets of stories are compared, and they are different?”

“You are worrying about nothing, Jon.”

“What do you mean! Worrying about NOTHING?”

“You currently have the stories’ files. Right?”

“Yes, you stored them on the moon.”

“The first story file was put on the Internet back in 2016. Right?”

“Yes.”

“Where did the person who put the files on the Internet get them?

“Well, I suppose they are the files we sent them.”

“That’s right, Jon, and those files are the ones that you will write. Right?”

“Well yes, but what if I make a mistake in what I write?”

“If you write something different than our actual history, then the two sets of stories will contain the same errors because it is what you will write. You need to keep in mind that the stories do not control our future. The only problem will be the teasing you will get for making a mistake. Besides, by the time you write the stories, you will have lived the story and know what happened.”

“That sounds okay, Bob, but I want to think about it some more. My gut feeling is that I am missing something.”

“Hey, no problem, Jon. You have almost two hundred and forty years to go before you finish living the history that you will put in the stories.”

At the next council meeting, I agreed to write the stories without referring to the stories we had locked away. Despite Bob’s assurances, the idea of having to write the stories disturbed me. I was afraid of what might happen to our timeline if the stories I wrote did not match the stories we had locked away.

During the next two hundred or so years, I agonized over writing those stories. The first seventy years weren’t too bad for I was busy guiding the Ark’s people, so we would survive our environment. I knew there was no deadline, so I had plenty of time to write the damn stories. However, during the last thirty years, my Bond Mates and all of those self-styled time loop experts were a pain in the ass with them telling me that I should at least start the stories by writing the part that occurred before the Week of the Meteoroids. I had too much to do, so I kept procrastinating until I retired, which was late in 0240.

Toward the end of that thirty-year period, I started thinking about the existence of stories in our past that would not be created until sometime in our future. That has to be some form of time anomaly other than it being a simple time loop. The perspective I would use to present the anomaly to my time loop experts was, these stories exist, but they have not been created. Will that anomaly have any effect on us before I create the stories, and if so, how will the anomaly affect our current society?

My self-styled time loop experts, who have annoyed me for years about closing this time loop, may not have considered that; it has nothing to do with time loop theory or at least I don’t think it does. They need a good problem to worry about other than me writing the stories, so if I phrase it right, they will be tearing their hair out for at least a good ten to twenty years trying to determine what the anomaly means and how it may affect our timeline. Payback can be a real pleasure!

Why did I finally give in and start writing the stories, well the simplest answer is my Bond Mates; all one hundred and eighty-one of them were adamant that I do it. I wanted some peace and quiet, and if you have ever been nagged by a hundred and eighty-one women, then you know the real reason why I gave in.

It has taken me over ten years to write all of the stories. I was two hundred and eighty-one years old when I started writing the stories, and today’s date is November 21, 0250. If I recall correctly, I was twenty-four years old when my part in the story began. My memory of everything that occurred since I joined the Army is vague in many areas. The only reason I was able to produce an accurate account is that Bob and Sharna have total recall of everything that has ever happened to them.

However, the entire time I was writing the stories, I was bothered by one question: Why did the stories need to exist?

No, I wasn’t thinking about my creating the stories to close the time loop. What I mean is someone or something determined that the existence of the stories was necessary for some reason. It seems to me that someone is using me as a puppet for a reason that I cannot determine. Obviously, someone created the open-ended time loop to force me into writing the stories. I can think of no other reason for the stories’ existence. Since the stories are of no importance to the past, the existence of the stories and time loop suggests that it is important for the future. So I asked myself, why are stories describing the history of the Ark for a period of two hundred and fifty-three years important? I find it extremely disturbing to be trying to find an answer to a question that should not even exist. Namely, why was the time loop created and what does the answer mean for my future, the future of my family, and the future of humanity?

Well, all of my reminiscing and this philosophical bullshit is getting me nowhere. For what it is worth, I hope that you will enjoy the stories of what will occur during your future, even if you don’t believe the events I described will actually happen. If you believe the events will happen, then you have my condolences for the fears and emotions that you will undoubtedly experience in the coming years.

Oh well, like many good stories, there are several places I could begin this tale. I have chosen to start it with a brief description of Bob and Sharna’s arrival in our solar system to include their purpose for remaining on Earth and then continue it with my learning of them in the year 2026 Old Calendar.

Jonathon Reppa

P.S.

All one hundred and eighty two of my Bond Mates are impatiently waiting for me to finish this Introduction to the stories, so we can send them back into our past. When I agreed to start writing the stories, I told them they would not be allowed to read them. Some may say that was cruel of me, but in my opinion, thirty years of nagging is also cruel. That explains their impatience; they want Bob and Sharna to recover the stories from the moon, so they can read the stories I locked up so many years ago, but there is one final thing I need to say before I give the stories’ electronic files to our Time Travel technicians.

Early in my life with Clara, who is my first Bond Mate, I believed that the larger our Bond Group became the more difficult it would be for she and Sharna to find new Bond Mates who were satisfactory to all of us in the Bond Group. Needless to say, things didn’t work out as I thought they would. Sharna and Clara are still finding and adding new Bond Mates to our relationship. I keep telling them that I have all the Bond Mates that I will ever need, but they just ignore me and continue looking for and finding us more Bond Mates.

Since I started writing these stories, they have only added one new Bond Mate to our Bond Group. I guess they felt I was too busy writing to give her enough attention. If that is true, I think I need to become a writer. If I stay busy writing, perhaps they will stop adding more Bond Mates to our Bond Group.

One other thing that just occurred to me is this tale is about the Ark, not me and my Bond Mates. I do mention us and our kids in the stories from time-to-time, but as a general rule, I only described my Bond Group’s home life when it is necessary to provide background to the Ark’s history.

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