Time Jumps. The Paradigm of Immortality. Vladimir Baranchikov

the Sun will become a white dwarf. There will no longer be any thermonuclear reactions in it, so the luminary will gradually cool down. Ten billion years after the transformation of our star into a white dwarf, it will cool down so much that it will stop emitting light, although it will emit infrared radiation for a long time. Such is the future of the Sun, a certain oracle claimed.

      – What a prospect, – thought Peter, digesting what he had read. – I’ve come a long way. Let’s see what will happen in millions of years.

      – Of course, humanity is unlikely to find such sad events, – another seer reassured. – After all, the typical life span of a biological species is from one to ten million years. During this time, the species either dies out or evolves so much that it has to be considered a different species.

      – In other words, if I want to join some quasi-people, then a million years is just right. Something like that, – Kalinkin summed up.

      No matter what hemisphere of the brain he thought, the concept of a purposeful, meaningful jump through time has not yet developed. But soon his perseverance was rewarded: not having had time to be born inside his skull, the idea did not pull the rubber and manifested itself from the outside. Kalinkin’s thoughts were interrupted by the doorbell. Peter was wary – who did it bring? He got up from the table and sauntered over to the latched door:

      – Natalia, are you?

      – What the fuck is Natalia, come on, open up! – A hoarse male baritone sounded from the porch. – Open it, or I’ll kick the door down!

      From the unexpected, boorish shout, Peter was thrown into a sweat, he instantly appreciated the danger and feverishly searched for an answer: who could it be? When several strong kicks followed a couple of seconds later, he realized:

      – Darya’s husband, he’s back from prison! So let’s get acquainted…

      The prospect did not fit into Kalinkin’s plans in any way, he had a hundred reasons not to communicate with an angry cuckold, and above all – for highly ethical reasons. It was all so disgusting, as if he had been caught doing something unworthy. Fate presented him with an unpaid bill for a happy adventure with Daria, and it seems that deferral of payment was not considered in principle: the deadline crept up unnoticed. In addition, Peter organically could not stand fights, bare fists and fencing on stakes.

      – Don’t knock, I’ll open it now, – he shouted peaceably, trying to gain time. The blows stopped. Grabbing a chair that turned up, Peter put it on the floor and rested its legs against the front door, and the back against the wall of the corridor. Then he rushed to the barrel, pressed the red button and feverishly began to melt the necessary icons and execute commands:

      – “Russian”, “Sit in a chair”, “Put on a hat”, “Choose the time”, “The future”.

      The seconds seemed like years, his heart was pounding wildly. Powerful blows from outside resumed, but the door resisted thanks to the chair.

      – Open! The bitch, I’ll kill you, – peaceful initiatives were heard outside. Kalinkin had no doubt: if the door opens, then so it will be.

      – “Time” – Peter quickly typed the numbers at random: 12345, without even realizing how much it was…

      At that moment, the sound of broken glass rang out, and a drunk man stumbled into the room through the window with strong curses. Looking around and not seeing his opponent, he quickly rushed into the corridor like an angry rhinoceros, sweeping away everything in his path.

      – “Place” – Peter’s hand trembled, intuitively typing the familiar word “Paris”, as if there was his salvation in it. Perhaps, typing a word one letter more, he would have signed his death sentence, because the executioner was already standing next to him, and his glass-cut fingers, stained with blood, were already reaching for his throat. But at that moment something incomprehensible happened for the attacker: the victim suddenly disappeared…

      – What the fuck… – the astonished opponent only managed to utter when the device, together with Peter, disappeared into another dimension, heading, fortunately, not to the address indicated by the former prisoner, who had already embarked on the right path according to the FSIN opinion. Having missed the lamb to the slaughter from under his nose, the jealous man did not philosophize for a long time, but, left alone, directed his emotions to practical rails: he tried a little, dropped a couple of chairs, threw the monitor to the floor, stamped his feet and launched a can of horseradish into the mirror… Then, satisfied with the result, he calmed down and found his little consolation in a bottle of Stolichnaya, thoughtfully bought by Kalinkin. Fiercely hating this bastard, he still did not disdain alcohol, because vodka is sacred, above human antipathies and prejudices. Subsequently, he often recalled this case in the company of loyal friends, when asked or when not asked, and certainly ended the narration with words, meaningfully looking at the puzzled faces of drunks:

      – That’s the stuff in the tomato…

      This colorful story did not pass by Natalia, unfairly deprived of fate from a local beauty salon. To begin with, as expected, she received bribes from Darya’s husband for involuntary complicity in this murky story, but then, as usual in decent companies, the pendulum of relations swung towards relaxation, good neighborliness and mutual attraction of the sexes under the influence of a fiery drink. So these two unwittingly helped each other and received both physical and moral compensation for the suffering and humiliation suffered from the unrighteous union of the insidious Peter and Daria, which once again confirms the well-known truth: virtue is always rewarded, vice is pleasant in itself.

      CHAPTER 12. THE YELLOW PEBBLE

      – “And this coming will be sudden, as the flood suddenly occurred in the time of Noah. It is not your business to know the times or deadlines that the Father has put in his power… On that day, the heavens will disappear with a thunderclap, the heavenly bodies will collapse and burn, and the Earth with its deeds will be found guilty…”

      And IT happened, and it happened according to the established cycle, but, as always, unexpectedly, because enlightened and sanctified by all religions, naive humanity took wise words on faith, but did not take any practical steps to save itself. The civilized world has gone crazy, having lost the collective intelligence that counteracts self-destruction: bloody wars are the best confirmation of this. And the collective instinct of self – preservation has not been developed as a result of evolution either – apparently, an interstellar wars scenario is needed for this.

      On November 12, 2086, an overflowing Yellowstone erupted five thousand cubic kilometers of magma and covered most of North America with a blanket of ash half a meter thick, from Canada in the north to Mexico in the south, from the Pacific coast in the west to Chicago and Memphis in the east. Everything that was within a radius of three hundred kilometers from the volcano died immediately, without much agony. Many cities located further from the epicenter, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Denver, Houston and Kansas City, ceased to exist after a short agony. Chaos ensued. For a whole week, the products of the explosion hung in the air throughout the continent, causing breathing difficulties, enveloping plants and polluting water. Tiny particles of volcanic ash, so small that respirators are not able to prevent them from entering the lungs, penetrated into the body of living beings. Once in the body, the ashes began to harden and turn into stone. People living even thousands of kilometers away from the volcano were also exposed to deadly danger. In just three days, the number of victims reached ninety million people. Most of the northern continent has turned into a scorched desert. The states of the East Coast resisted, among them New York and the capital of the United States – Washington, Florida was the least affected.

      But