27 Nobody Understands Me Better Than Myself (1/2)
Mortimus Lupin sat on the commander's chair in the Poseidon's bridge as if it was natural. Surrounding him were Ivan, Mazur, Iris, Valeria, several hunters, and the scientists working under Mazur. Several other hunters were just outside, keeping Major Harold and Captain Argentear hostage out of earshot so they couldn't eavesdrop.
”Explain yourself,” Ivan commanded. ”It should be impossible for there to be two of me. So who exactly are you, and why come after me?”
”I am indeed you, and vice versa. My name is Ivan Storme,” Prime Minister Mortimus said with a smile. ”Mortimus Lupin is a false name. After all, the Prime Minister sharing the name of a criminal, and looking similar, is pretty bad for publicity.”
”How can there be two Ivan's?” Mazur squinted his eyes and inspected the Prime Minister for flaws. If it wasn't for Ivan being absolutely positive they were the same person, he would never believe it.
”It is long and complicated, and I can only say so much. The be exact, while we are the same person, we aren't. I am Ivan Storme from the future. As for the specific date, I cannot say.”
Ivan looked at the Prime Minister, the supposed himself from the future, and chose to ask, ”Even under the assumption that is true, I still can't understand the motive. Nobody understands me better than myself, and for me to do that, it's incomprehensible.”
”What if I told you I did it to save the human race?” Mortimus(Ivan) jokingly asked.
”Bullshit,” Ivan immediately replied.
”Well, you are right, nobody understands me better than myself, right?”
Mortimus' expression suddenly became stern and serious.
”The reason I came back, why I gave up everything, was for none other than myself. I truly do intend to save the human race, but for selfish purposes. I also intended to help you, who is me, in building Celestial Trade Incorporated.”
Mortimus' words, containing information that was impossible for an outsider to know, shocked everyone in the room. The entire time travel theory was preposterous at first, but it rapidly became less of a joke, and more of a reality.
”Allow me to recount my story first, what I hope to change. I started building the company in subspace with a thousand employees. Every year, for several years, in accordance with the planet's orbit, we would return to the planet for vacation, during which time I, Valeria and Mazur woud raid pirate bases to increase the number of stasis pods we had.”
”We accumulated a total of ten thousand by the end increasing the rate of transforming Vulpes into Celestials. Birth also slowly began to happen within subspace, the first fourth-dimensional babies. The company began to grow and take shape, four-dimensional technology advancing rapidly once the methods of harnessing energy were discovered.”
”Methods? You mean there's more than one way to use it?” Mazur and several other scientists caught onto the keyword used, but Mortimus(Ivan) simply shook his head and continued on.
”Alas, I didn't realize that the growth I was originally so proud of, was simply too slow.”
Silence reigned in the bridge as Mortimus(Ivan) looked into blank space with despair.
”What I didn't realize at the time of starting the company, was that our galaxy was under attack by the Scalians, a race from the cluster next to ours. It started off as skirmishes at first, and none of the people in the federation took it seriously at the time.”
”Coming from the next cluster over takes an enormous amount of energy, and as such, humanity held a massive home ground advantage. Even though humanity lost more ships than them due to a technological disadvantage, the calculated energy loss was more severe on their side. What they didn't realize was that the Scalians were a war-like race who didn't care. Their population exceeded humanity by a factor of ten thousand. They were more than happy to throw soldiers at the human race, as it would ease the strain of their overpopulated cluster.”
”The attacks became fiercer and fiercer, until the point humanity could no longer resist. By the time I had grown my company enough to release our services and products across the galaxy, humanity had already fallen.”
”The Scalians had already defeated humankind and populated its galaxies. They didn't take prisoners and slaves, merely killed them all to allow their population to become less crowded. While we were Celestials, we were still recognized as humans by the Scalians, and none would trade or employ our services.”
Ivan frowned in consternation. It was a lot of information to take in, but he still found an inconsistency. ”I would have retreated into subspace then, not gone back in time.”
”That is exactly what I did. But without humans to transform from the third dimension, the rate of birth and proliferation of Celestials was exceedingly slow. A longer lifespan due to a stronger, higher form of body drops fertility by an equal amount. The race was growing, but incredibly slowly.”
”We weren't alone in subspace though. We came under attack. We were technologically superior, but at the same time at a major numerical disadvantage which our technology couldn't compensate for.”