Greetings:
My name is Dr. Aionas. I am writing from the year 2017. If you are reading this message before that year, possibly in the year 2001, the year to which this message was sent, then rest assured, you are reading from the future. The future you are reading from is an alternate one, which may or may not repeat itself. Indeed, I don't remember this message being sent by me during that time, so either I never heard about it, or my 2001 was different from yours (and I strongly suspect the latter).
Within the time capsule containing this letter is a video, in a classic DVD format (yes, DVD disks are still around, though there are advanced versions which stagger the mind; this video is in one the classic formats so that you, in your era, can view it), which I have sent to earth, so that you, on the earth, can see the future. I sure hope that someone willing and able to share it with the world finds it. I could only make one, since I only had one blank disk with me--why did I forget to bring more? Even Wallace remembered to get the crackers at the last minute before he went on his fantastic voyage with his pet dog to the moon.
I am a scientist and inventor. Among the many things I invented, one was a spaceship, one that was a little ahead of its time--one that could travel rapidly throughout the universe. No such thing has been made before. I made it alone, since everyone thought my concept of it was absurd. In fact, they said I was crazy. But I'm aboard it now, far from the earth, far out in the universe. The ship is not perfect, since one man can't think of everything. In some ways, I'm realizing, due to my shortcomings, it's downright primitive, and not quite ready for its mission. I've had some hazardous moments with it, and I'm lucky to be alive, I think. But in other ways, it performs marvelously.
The video is short. I didn't want to risk making a longer one from the vast collection I have in my digital video storage devices, because the longer it was, the more likely it would glitch somewhere, since I was using a classic DVD-burning protocol which, because of its dirth of current support, is somewhat unreliable. I decided that a few minutes was risky enough, and I did take the liberty of setting the video to a song I wrote for it, using music synthesizers I had with me (I am not only a scientist and inventor, but I compose music as well, and I hope you like my composition, though I have more, and I wish I could share them with you as well). I sent more video, by the way, on a 143 googlebyte storage device I thought I could expend with (that's what that strange plastic box is), but there is no guarantee that you will be able to view it, since it uses different hardware and software protocols than you are, in your era, familiar with. I wish I could tell you what they are, but I don't have much knowledge of them, except to say that the device's I/O has 1024 pins to handle the parallel throughput, which it handles at a somewhat modest seven gigahertz--which for you is probably a little fast--to give incredible, 1000-bit color. That's state of the art, and since the pins are microscopic, it will be incredibly difficult for you, with your state of technology, to access them. I recommend trying to bypass the the I/O with a more compatible method for your era, if you can figure out a way (these things just aren't my forte, so I can't tell you how, unfortunately).
One fine day, I left earth in my homemade spaceship. On my way, I made some video of the many things I saw, and put parts of it together for you to see. Let me explain it:
All the solar system planets had been visited by probes and people before, and I was determined to first go where no one had ever been--outside of the solar system. Since my ship could do that, I sailed on out first thing. Maybe I'm a little rash at times, because now that that I think about it, I could have spent a few moments checking out the solar system. Perhaps I'm so impetuous because I drink too much coffee.
Anyway, I beheld wonders which my video in the beginning allows you to see: planets of many various colors. However, I never found anything else alive. I eventually went back to the earth to resupply, and I was looking forward to seeing life again.
On return, I decided to stop by the moon and check it out. It was an awesome sight but, as everyone knows--even you in your era a few decades beyond when the first people walked on the moon--very lifeless. It made me all the more eager to see the earth again.
I then went towards the earth. While still in space, I beheld a horror--maybe it was a meteor, maybe it was a super-hydrogen weapon. I'll never know. Whatever it was, and you can see it with my video, the earth was engulfed by a fireball and eventually became a small cinder.
It seemed that no one survived the explosion at first, but one sign of hope I saw was a passing rocket ship, on course towards the moon. I tried to make contact, but never could. I sat in space near the moon because I was hoping to see more rocket ships go by. I watched my radar scope. After what I thought was adequate time, no more ever did. The passing rocket by then was off my rather primitive radar scope--one of the things that should have been made better, but I made it from spare radar parts of old combat jets from around the turn of the century, and such scopes weren't nearly good enough for long space voyages, or for finding the rocket ship after it had gone the distance it did when I started looking for it.
Anyway, the rocket's apparent trajectory made me think it was going around the moon for a gravity assist to Mars, where people eventually hoped to live someday, but weren't living yet. I went to Mars in pursuit, but I never did find the rocket or any other sign of humanity again. I'm sure the rocket was there somewhere, but, after some searching with my less-than-adequate searching equipment, I eventually gave up looking for it, realizing that the mission of that ship was probably a desperate one to save a few lives, a mission which would probably ultimately fail, since there was no way at the time to indefinitely sustain and perpetuate life beyond the earth. I saw that Mars was a lifeless, though beautiful, place too.
Not knowing what else to do, I decided to do one final thing--to go back out of the solar system to behold the wonders of the universe once more, and put together a video for you to see. I've been there since, and everything is beautiful, as you can see from the video, and I realize that I will now be spending eternity in heaven.
I know that the future looks bleak for you about now, but I believe the future can be changed. As you can see, the universe is beautiful, and I hope that you can find a way to venture out into it and live in it before disaster strikes, or that you can somehow avert the disaster.
I am just about at the end of my message. I wish I could write more, but I only have enough paper for a message of this length, and out here it's impossible to get more paper. However, if you can find a way to read the contents of the storage device mentioned earlier, you can read many more things I have written since being up here. I keep an incredibly detailed log of the mission, of which I made a copy for you, and put it on the storage device.
I cannot currently return alive with my video and message, since the crude time machine I invented shoots way too many gamma rays to allow living things to pass through still alive, though I wish I could. I have on the ship the one and only time machine ever built, by the way, and I planned on sharing it with the world when I got back, but it is too late for that. I don't think there are any others, since no one would listen to my theories on time travel, on which the time machine is predicated, and no one else, I'm pretty sure, knew how to make a time machine up to the point of the earth's demise. So, don't expect messages from anyone else in the future--unless I'm wrong. I would personally tell you much more if I could.
I'll be sending more things to your era soon, so some other goodies should already be nearby--mainly rocks and stuff from different parts of the universe. Where they are I cannot say for sure. Unfortunately my time machine works with the earth coordinate system only to an accuracy of one second, and things like temperature and density altitude can slightly vary by a significant amount where things sent actually reappear. To keep the time capsules from appearing inside anything, like people, homes, or the earth itself, I send the time capsules to the upper atmosphere, a place higher than even the ion aircraft fly, where there is a very remote chance of anything else there but the air, and I have the capsules float down with their attached parachute. Wherever they wind up once on the ground, I hope you find them, and I hope you like what they contain.
Perhaps someday, before I pass on, I can find a way to tweak the time machine so that I too can return.
Peace be with you, and may life go on througout the ages.
Cordially,
Dr. Aionas
Story written in 2001 by George Parashis