Time In between Time

It was never something that Terrance had wanted to do, not really. All his life he had wanted to be a civil servant, to aid, protect people because he genuinely craved connection and to feel as if he truly belonged somewhere. Only after he had spent years struggling to find himself and his meaning in life did he agree to join the scientific research team travelling to the north pole. It was stupid, he thought. Not the research team as a whole, but him being there. It didn't help that he was dealing with a terrible case of imposter syndrome in his daily life, but he knew he was only joining the crew because of his uncle browbeating him into being a part of the expedition. Even though Terrance was having a lot of internal doubts, he valued and respected the other members on the research team. Howard Menelaus, while not what one would call sociable was an incredibly intelligent man, and one hell of a cook. Terrance never knew how you could make simple canned foods taste so good. Elena Harding was incredibly funny, which helped make the expedition more palatable for everyone involved. Terrance only wished that he could return the favour and help her laugh the way she did for others. She also had a keen eye, and would make casual connections that the rest of the team missed. Last but not least were the siblings, Lenny and Georgia Sloan. Lenny and Georgia were the type of siblings that butted heads often, but always managed to be professional when it came down to what mattered most. It was nice that they could co-operate at least some of the time, because Terrance was getting sick of hearing them bicker about which movie in the Star Wars saga so many times before he completely snapped. Despite his annoyance at them, he couldn't deny their brilliance in the slightest, and whenever the team worked together, they always performed excellently.

"Terranceeeeee." A voice sang out behind Terrance and he didn't even have to look to know who it was. Elena loved to tease everybody, and Terrance was no exception. "Elena. How can I help you? Is Howard bugging you again with his body spray?" Terrance heard the sound of Elenas laugh and found himself smiling at the noise. "Why Mr. Beesburry, did you actually make a joke? I'm impressed." Again Terrance shook his head good-naturedly at Elena's antics and he turned to greet her properly. "Is there anything I can do for you? We still have an hour or so before we need to head to the lab for our test today." Elena simply shrugged and told him "Nope. Just bored right now. Wanna head out on deck with me? The sky looks fantastic, and seeing it alone would be soooo boring. Come on, don't be such a sad nancy. " Elena pouted playfully while Terrance looked rather exasperated but fond at her behaviour. "I think the phrase you're looking for is negative nelly, but... yeah, I'll meet you out there in a minute. Lemme grab my coat, O.K?"

It actually took Terrance three minutes and twenty five seconds to grab his coat. He knew because Elena wouldn't stop teasing him for not being punctual enough. It wasn't his fault. O.K. he did't hang up his jacket and left it buried under a pile of dirty clothes but that was only because the Ships laundry room had been busy the night before, so his room stayed messy. The two walked out onto the deck and looked up at the mesmerizing aurora borealis and Elena let out a breath, and looked up smiling. "This... this is something I could never get sick of. Just imagining little homes all around here, a town of people gathering to look at the northern lights. Doesn't that warm your heart Terrance?" Terrance simply looked down at the floor of the deck. He wasn't sure how to really respond. The main emotions he felt were of guilt- the feeling that he was seeing something that he didn't think he deserved to see at all. He worked hard to be here he supposed, but he was only really here because his uncle pulled strings and hounded him to be on the expedition. He also felt oddly pleased at the same time. Pleased to be seeing this wonderful view, and on this ship with brillant minds and those he could at the very least call valued acquaintances. "It warms my heart to see you enjoying this Elena. It warms my heart to see everyone working together well and accomplishing something. It... it warms my heart more than I ever thought." Terrance continued, missing the blush from Elena hearing he said he was happy she was enjoying being here.
"It's just... do you ever wonder about time? About seeing our lives branch out and seeing how we evolve? I think about that all the time. I can't help but wonder how I even got here." Terrances throat bobbed as he felt overwhelmed by everything, and stiffened as he felt Elena's hand grasp his and squeeze.

"Terrance. You fully deserve to be here. We all do, because we put in so much time and effort into our lives. Sure, countless others have too. It's normal to feel like an imposter man. But just because there could be others in your place doesn't mean you should feel sad that you're here and they aren't. And... I'm glad you're here too. Howard, Lenny, and Georgia are cool, and I love being here with them. With you though... I feel more calm. Like I can count on you. Like when you helped me with that paper last week. You didn't have to, but you chose to be kind. You chose to connect with somebody. That's important you know." Terrance looked away bashfully, but made eye contact with Elena once more and gave an awkward smile. "You should have been a professional speaker or something, you do pretty great speeches." The two laughed together for a moment, holding hands and basking in the lights above them. Terrance whispered his thanks to her, which she accepted fully. Then after a while, the pair went back inside and walked down to the lab, waiting for the others to join them. The Sloan siblings came first, talking about a video game that Terrance wasn't aware of. Then came Howard, who carried a bowl of nachos, which he offered to everyone, who took them gratefully. The last person who arrived was the ships engineer, named Baxter.

"Thank you all for joining me today. A few days ago we uncovered some crystallized samples in the ice. Today we'd like you to use some of these machines here to run some tests here. Thank you." Terrance looked around at the others before making eye contact with Elena, smiling at her. She smiled back at him, and everyone began to work at their stations. After about an hour and a half, the siblings were confused. "What the hell is this crystal even made of? I've never seen anything like this in my life." "Georgia give it some time. This could be the discovery of the damn century. It'll take more than a couple of hours to figure it out. Let's take it over to the omnifizer. The omnifizer was a new scientific device- experimental really, but it used a variety of lasers and scans to dissect an objects entire composition. Everybody gathered around as Lenny carefully inserted the crystal in. Roughly two minutes into the device scanning it, the crystal began to glow. Terrance moved quickly, turning the omnifizer off before putting on his protective gear and yanking the sample away. Before he could dispose of it safely, a huge flash of white blinded everybody, and he heard a voice shout out his name before everything went dark. It was a couple of seconds before Terrance realized he wasn't blind. The sky was completely pitch black, but the floor now consisted of a glowing road- very small. It began exactly where Terrances foot stood. Looking around, Terrance wasn't sure what to do. He thought he might have been teleported to outer space, but that couldn't be or else he would be suffocating right now. He took a deep breath, and then stepped forward. As he did he heard a babys cry. It stopped him in his tracks. Just what the hell happened to him?

Every step Terrance took noises became louder and clearer. He was seeing flashes of his life play out with everystep he took. He gasped in shock. He currently theorized that the crystal didn't explode and teleported him. He thought perhaps the crystal was merely activated, and served as some sort of time displacer that allowed its user to see the exact pathway of their entire life. It was jarring, but gave Terrance more perspective. He viewed memories he had forgotten long ago, some made him cry, some made him laugh. Eventually he got to the memories of his most recent self. He viewed Elena fondly, and realized that he had begun to gain feelings for her. He took a few steps further and saw a warbled vision. He was off the ship, but sat in his apartment alone. He walked further and still saw himself alone. He walked back and saw the last time he had any sort of positive emotion was when he was on the ship with his colleagues. With her. Terrance made his decision. He needed to get out of this displacement somehow. He didn't see any way out, but looked down. He closed his eyes... and jumped.

The next time Terrance opened his eyes he was back in the room with everybody else. He talked excitedly about what he had seen, about his theory of what the crystal was and how it worked. When everyone was leaving, he stopped Elena. He mentioned that he had seen himself alone in his future visions. He wasn't sure if it showed an absolute future, but his brightest memories had been with her. He stuttered a lot trying to ask her out, but eventually he did. She simply smiled and joked- "Took you long enough." This wasn't exactly what Terrance wanted to do. But he took a chance, and that was enough. And He and Elena spent the rest of their lives together, taking chances and living freely.