The final gate has appeared. At long last the man that has achieved everything has achieved the final thing. He has created a the final gate, the one that once stepped through would grant him an audience with the creator, God. After spending millions and years of research he has finally created a gateway to heaven. He will finally achieve the final thing. His immortal life has allowed him to explore every facet this universe has had, but never has he met God. He knows his universe has little time left and that he approaches the end of all things. The machine whirls behind him, and the gate appears behind him. His assistants scramble around trying to make sure it stabilizes. Adan Laris has waited his entire life for this moment, the final achievement. Adan has opened many gates in his time, he has seen everything there has to be seen. When gates open they create a magnificent perfect circle and emanate cosmic energy. It is truly a terrifying experience the first few times you open a gate, but this time was different. Adan couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. He was approaching the platform of the lab where the gate would be created and opened, chaos was about in the lab. Everyone rushing around making sure the energies were stable. Suddenly as he approached everything went haywire. Adan was not surprised, after living for eons there was very little that surprised him anymore. But what followed was the most surprising. The lab broke out into chaos as the assistants and scientists tried to restabilize, the foundation was shaking as if to explode, and there stood Adan at the center of the universe calm as can be. He had no idea what would happen, but he felt he was ready for it. Suddenly as everyone was skirmishing about a fountain of light exploded from the center point of where the gate was to form. The lab started to catch fire, machine that’s had no ability to catch fire caught fire. Adan gawked in awe, the scientists rushed to put things out and right as they were about to put everything out it all stopped. Adan was still gawking, but everything stopped. Time was at a stand still for everything and everyone, except Adan. Everything began to fade to black and white, Adan turned to look for anything but to no avail. Light had stopped traveling as time had stopped moving. The only light there was came from Adan and his clothing, it glowed a brilliant soft blue around the edges. It illuminated only a small area around him, it dawned on Adan what was going on. His watch still ticked, light still poured out from him into the inky blackness. While time stood still, his time still ticked. It was marvelous. He had turned away from the platform to admire the spectacle. Behind him, where the light had explode from, a violent whoosh of air and sound echoed amongst the calmness. Before Adan could move a voice broke the silence.
“Approach, seeker. The door awaits.” A raspy voice from the inky void called out. Adan turned hesitant of what he would find. Instead of some sort of gate he was accustomed to, there was simply a rustic and bartered door that had a screen door on the front hanging in the space wherein the gate was supposed to be. It was surrounded with white and black fire, and this black door was covered in symbols Adan had never seen. Save for one. The center, glowing in brilliant orange was a Greek delta. Adan hesitantly walked toward the door, every step he took his life flashed before his eyes. He went on, but the images became faster and faster. He was almost overwhelmed, until his hand grasped the handle of the screen door. Then everything stopped flashing. He felt calm, a warmth inside him that he had never experienced before but felt like he had been yearning for all his life. He stepped through the doors and found himself in a room that he did not expect to see.
The room he had just stepped into was smaller than he had expected. It was darker, other than a few lights in the darkness that he couldn’t see. He wasn’t entirely sure of how big the room was and he couldn’t see very well until suddenly light poured from the center of the room. There at the center of the room sat a nice looking wooden desk, and the origin of the light in the room. An old fashioned green desk lamp has been turned on, it illuminated the desk and the rest of the room ever so slightly. Adan looked around the room and saw that it was only about 30 foot by 30 foot, it seemed to be a perfect square. The side walls were decorated with computers, machines, and screens that Adan had never seen the likes of. The back wall was lined with shelves that were filled with books, unknown objects, vials, trophies, and art. There was a couch back behind as well. Finally Adan searched for what or who had turned on the light. He had always thought God was a giant, or some inconceivable being that humans would never know or understand. Instead, what sat before him was a rather scruffy looking man, he wore sandals, a Hawaiian shirt that seemed to shift in both colors and content, cargo shorts, and a fisherman’s hat. The man had orange outlines of light to him, much like the delta on the door. He was both young and old, he seemed to be shifting between the two. Never quite one, but never quite the other. He sat at the desk, half moon glasses on. Cigarette in his mouth, clutching his beard with one hand. And with the other he held a pen and was writing on something. He looked deep in thought, he was whispering something to himself. Adan has no idea what to do. For once he was uncertain.
“Ah! Good!” the man behind the desk said quickly while looking up and smiling. Suddenly Adan was sitting in a chair at the desk. There hadn’t been a chair there before, Adan felt very disoriented. The man was no longer looking up at him, he was simply still writing on his paper with his pen and frowning. Adan leaned in a say that the man was both playing sudoku and writing in some incomprehensible language. He was still whispering to himself, was that Greek?
“I see you’ve finally made it. Welcome.” the man said while continuing his writing, seemingly unbothered by Adan’s expression.
“What- What do you mean I made it?” Adan started.
“You’ve made it to the end of course!”
“The end?”
“Yes, the end. Well, also the beginning, but mainly the end.”
“What?”
“In time dear boy. Right now, you’ve made it to the end!”
Adan didn’t know how to feel right about now, the man spoke cryptically but soothingly. He spoke to Adan like he was a child.
“Why do you speak to me like I am some child! I have lived for eons and eons, I demand you respect that!” Adan didn’t know why he was so frustrated but he was. The man just chuckled and took a drag off his cigarette.
“Well go on then! Explain! Your being cryptic, I was expecting to meet God and here you are. A waste of time!” Adan said hastily in frustration. The man stopped writing for a second, he chuckled once more before he began speaking.
“Well, we can’t really waste time right now, now can we?” He chuckled and went back to writing. Adan had had it at this point. He was getting increasingly annoyed. He snatched the pen out of the mans hands and threw it across the room. The man did nothing, he sat there staring at Adan.
“Explain! Stop your writing and explain! What is going on?” Adan said exacerbated. They sat in silence for a minute, before the man spoke, staring at one another.
“Well, young man, aren’t you supposed to be the grand seeker? Aren’t you supposed to ask the questions? Go on then! Ask! If you do not ask I will continue to toy with you. I thought you of all people in the universe would be curious enough to ask rather than throw your temper tantrum.” The man retorted flatly, before suddenly he had a pen in his hands again. Where he got it, Adan could not say. Adan just sat there stunned. Clearly the man knew who he was. Clearly Adan was supposed to be here asking questions, and clearly the man was only going to respond if Adan asked things rather than demanded things.
“Ah! See now you’ve started to get it!”
“What?” Adan asked, those thoughts had not been spoken.
“You have figured out that you must ask, I will only be polite to those who are polite to me, and I will only tell when you ask not demand. We have etiquette here after all.” the man said. Adan had many questions now.
“We? Who is we?” Adan asked.
“Well we is me. And you I suppose. But mostly me.”
“Are there multiple of you?”
“On occasion yes.”
“Ok, that doesn’t explain a lot. Where exactly are we?”
“The end, we’ve already said this. Please try to keep up my dear Adan.” Adan was shocked. The man had sass, but was polite and knew his name. Adan had yet to learn of who this man was or wasn’t.
“I am sorry for my start. I’ve had issues with being polite. Please forgive me.”
“Ah! An apology! Why thank you my dear boy!” The man said, he was pleased with this response.
“So, you said we were at the end. The end of what exactly?”
“The end of everything; the end of time. The end of the universe in fact.”
“The end of time? I thought time was infinite.”
“Well it is, sort of. Really we are at the end of the ticker tap of sorts. Time sometimes has some down time. That was a funny sentence, ‘time sometimes has some down time’” the man said chuckling there at the end.
“You refer to time as some sort of ticker tape, and being at the end. So does that mean it restarts when you add more tape?”
“Ah! Bingo my dear boy! Right on the nose! Yes, time stops at a certain point. But only briefly. Then it restarts again, we add more tape and boom more time!”
“Ok. Still not fully getting it, but I have other questions.”
“It is alright, takes a few times to get used to it dear boy.” Adan felt like he was learning something and that this was going to be a very lengthy conversation. He liked that the man was now answering him but disliked that there were more questions to ask.
“So, if we are at the end of time, what is this right now? Is this like a blank space on the tape?”
“So right now we are in limbo, currently everything we are doing is happening in ‘borrowed time’. When we go back and put time back on again this conversation will essentially have happened in an instant.” The man said while drawing a diagram for it which he showed to Adan. Adan took great interest in it.
“Interesting. So when time starts everything happening right now be basically a fraction of a second. Ok, so now I have a follow up question. You said we were at the end, but like where in reality are we? Like what is the physically location of where we are?” The man thought for a moment then spoke.
“We are simultaneously everywhere and nowhere. This room we are in, its existences is outside the universe you previously inhabited. I can’t really say we are anywhere in particular.”
“So we are in a place that exists outside of the universe? Then what is the purpose of this place?”
“You are basically sitting in the control both for the universe right now my dear boy.” The man said while taking another drag from his cigarette and tapping the ashes off.
“The control both? So like, everything in the universe is controlled from right here?”
“Yes.”
“Wait wait wait, so when you say ticker tape. Do you actually mean a ticker tape?”
“Yes.”
Adan gawked at the man. He didn’t know how to feel right now, he was being told that time in his universe was literally a ticker tape that ran as an analog function outside of his universe in some sort of machine.
“It’s right over there Adan, see my dear boy how its off the rails right now!” The man pointed to it. And sure enough on the way of machines, and old style tape recorder looking machine sat with the spindle dragging against the floor gently as the wheel kept spinning.
“Holy shit. The wheel of time is actually a wheel?”
“Yes.” The man said flatly and then burst into laughter. Adan just starred at him. He whipped a tea from his eyes. “Oh the look on your face my dear boy, its priceless!”
“You said the universe was ending, what’s happening right now then? Why are we doing this charade?” Adan asked, the man went silent and solemn. The man stood up leaving Adan sitting there at the desk, he walked to the bookshelf and was admiring the things there on the shelf. These shelves were lined with thousands of objects, if not countless. The man turned to him and spoke again.
“Adan. The universe is at its end, this means that the current universe will collapse upon itself. When it does, it’ll collapse into a singular point. That singular point will then explode into the next universe.” The man said solemnly, Adan took a minute to process what he had just said.
“Is this a regular occurrence? The universe ending and restarting? Why are you so solemn?” Adan asked. The man turned and sat back down. He took a puff again and cleaned his classes with his shirt.
“Yes Adan, this is a regular thing. Something you must get accustomed to. Universes have cycles, the begin and end constantly. The universal cycle is the most beautiful and heartbreaking thing. I’ve watched countless universes go by, I’m only ever allowed to keep one thing from each one. I use it to decorate my shelves. Life is most beautiful thing Adan, so seeing it all snuffed out makes me sad. But I know that it is alright, because there will be more that comes after it.” The man said after finally putting his glasses back on. They sat in silence for what felt like an eternity.
“Who are you?”
“I am the administrator.”
“Are you God?”
“No.”
“Are you a god?”
“Yes! Not the God, but a god.”
“There’s a difference?”
“HAHAHA! Of course there is!” The man chuckled
“So what is your purpose?”
“My purpose? Well I administer the universe! Well, just this universe.”
“So there are multiple universes?”
“Yes my dear boy, there are multiple universes. Your theories when you we younger were correct.” Adan sat there stunned, this man knew about his life? He knew about his secret multiverse theory that he had never told anyone?
“Yes boy, I know lots of things. Mainly just the happenings of my universe and everything in it. I can’t see other universes sadly. I know they exist but I have no idea where or how.” Ok, that complicates things Adan thought.
“Ok. So your the administrator of this universe, are you like a the project manager for this universe?”
“Yeah that’s pretty much it.”
“So you get an office, a universe to take care of, is there anything else?”
“Oh an extra dimension, but that’s nothing much.”
“An extra dimension? So like I am a three dimensional being and your a four dimensional being?”
“Yeah!” The administrator said playfully.
“Then how am I here?”
“Oh that’s simple, I brought you here!”
“Ok why though? Not trying to be rude, just like why am I here? How am I here?” The administrator chuckled as Adan asked.
“Oh humanity, god I love you humans. You know you guys are my favorite, right? So where to begin, lets start with how. How did you get here? Well at the end of a universe I am allowed to save only one thing. Just one, nothing less nothing more. So I chose you as my ‘one thing’. The why you are here is rather funny because humans have been asking why they have been anywhere or existed since well forever. The why of why you are here is simple, I have been at this post for an unfathomable amount of time. I want to retire as you humans would say it. I want to go live in peace. But as to do such, God says I need to train a protege to take my place.” the administrator said simply. Adan had a lot to process, he was following though. It seemed like he was basically being offered a job which was really kinda funny to him. Adan chuckled, things were starting to make sense.
“There you are my dear boy! The gears are turning more and more now aren’t they!”
“So your telling me that everything I knew will be gone, that you want to train me to maintain the universal cycle and I that I will stand here at the helm watching as eternities go by?”
“Yes.”
“Will I die of old age? Or will I continue looking like me?”
“More the less you will look the same. As endless time passes you my begin to look slightly like me, older or younger depending on the angle you look at yourself.”
“So, you’ll teach me everything? How long will it take?”
“I will teach you for a time.” the man said smirking. Adan blinked. And they both burst into laughter. A golden tear left the mans eye and he whipped it away.
“Oh that joke never gets old.” The administrator said. “Actually, to be really honest I have no idea how long it will take. I simply will teach you until you can operate everything without my guidance. Much how I learned. Then at some point you will be bored of the cycle as you have maintained it for so long and you will want to retire. Don’t sweat it, you’ll always be able to call and say hello and ask something if you encounter something way out of the ordinary. You’re not supposed to, but things do happen sometimes.”
Adan sat thinking for a minute. Everything he had ever knew was basically just thrown out the window. But this was an opportunity for a lifetime, nay an eternity! He felt conflicted but at the same time, he felt resolve. Then a final question popped into his head.
“Was-Was the situation I was in at the end of the universe a coincidence, or did you make it happen?” Adan finally asked. The administrator smiled dryly.
“My dear boy, you have much to learn. I did not force anything to happen, I simply wished that when your universe was created that it would birth a being for right at the end that I could call a successor. I had hoped it would work, it simply took a few try’s before it did. The universal cycle has many intricate details, all of these things are things we can cover later on. But in short, no I did not plan you exactly. I did not make you happen; I hoped you would happen.” The man said smiling intently, clearly pleased with himself. Adan was pleasantly surprised by this, he was a mere coincidence that was the dream of a godlike entity. His existence was random and he sat here at the helm waiting to be taught how to orchestrate worlds, entire cultures, and time. He realized it could have been anyone sitting in that chair listening to the administrator babble on.
“Well, when do we begin?”