The ship was unlike anything known to man. It seemed to have no defined shape, was made of an unknown material (perhaps it wasn’t material in the first place), and nothing on it looked recognizable. Those aware of it wouldn’t have been surprised if they learned it existed between the 4th and 5th dimension. Inside and out, if the ship could be said to have an inside and out, the whole thing was a bizarre construct of spirals feeding into bubbles and bubbles morphing into spirals.
And in the center was a single Being, busy using its long claw-like fingers to move shapes through the air.…
A flash of light within(?) the ship’s confines momentarily appeared before depositing a bloodied, disoriented soldier. The Being did not acknowledge this intrusion.
“Are you The Architect?” The soldier wheezed.
I am.
With great pain, the soldier stood to full height.
“I am General Raphael Mustard of the Earth Defense Force.” The authority in his voice was tempered with the respect he was told to maintain.
The Being said nothing. It simply continued moving its odd fingers.
The General waited. On the ends of the Being’s fingers he could almost see shapes taking form, but each time he blinked they seemed to disappear from reality.
The silence extended.
“Please, Architect, the war is horrible, and threatens the future of all humanity.”
More silence.
“I’ve come here to ask you, to beg you, please…Can you help us fight the Junotians?”
What is it you’d have me do?
“I understand you created the solar system. Is it possible for you to keep Juno from ever existing?”
The Architect’s long, metallic fingers changed direction. The General watched as spheres began to form; all orbiting a larger, brighter sphere.
There will be unintended consequences.
“Whatever it takes.” The General said.
In order to maintain a balanced system, Venus and Mars will need to switch locations. Venus will be the second planet, and Mars the fourth.
“That’s fine.”
This means that Mars will be far too cold to settle, and Venus far too hot. Mankind may never have a jumping-off point to escape the Earth and may never become an interstellar species. In your hate for the Junotians you would confine your people to a lonely star system for eternity?
General Mustard momentarily paused. He never expected there to be such dire consequences. Why would there be? Humans had been the first to recognize the Architect’s existence, they’d been the first to invent time travel, and had redirected much from the war effort in order to create safe passage for a person to reach the Architect as the proto-solar system was being designed. Hadn’t the journey been hard enough?
And now there was a sacrifice?
But images of the war were still fresh in the General’s mind. There had been too much bloodshed, too many historic cities had been leveled, and the population had been reduced to a quarter of what it had been…
He’d been sent to accomplish a goal, so he was going to see it through to the end.
“I think we’ll be fine. We’ll probably find a way to the heavens.” The General said at last. “Please…Make it so Juno is never created.”
The architect swiped a finger through the air. The miniature model of the solar system that had been floating on the cusp of visibility began to shift. Mars and Venus swapped places, and the fifth planet, Juno, spread and scattered until it was no more than a string of asteroids.
It is done.
But the General, his timeline, and the entire reality he’d come from had already disappeared.
The Architect continued silently wiling away.