Rebound.(Kevin Hughes) Harold looked at the pictures from the JWT, one more time. His Team, some of the best minds ever to sit in the same room at the same time, in the entire History of Humanity- sat quietly. That’s not quite true. The quiet was intense. They all knew the numbers. Just none of them were brave enough to articulate the answer. Harold was.

“It is time to make some calls." (The room let out their collective breath. Finally, some steps they could take to lighten the burden of real knowledge.) Everyone left to call the designated folks on their lists. Harold picked up his special phone. It only called one Person. The President of the United States. It rang …once.”

“Harold?”

“Mr. President.”

“And?”

“It is what we thought.”

The silence was long. The President wasn’t a stupid man. A Doctorate in Electrical Engineering to go along with his Medical Degree - proved that. But he was speaking with a man whose intellect needed no validation from an institution. If that man, and his Team, came to the same conclusion. Then it was the answer.
Not the answer anyone wanted. Even if it did prove to be right.

The President spoke:

“Rebound is real?”

The President could feel Harold nodding at the other end of the line.

“Yes. The Future is now racing towards us faster than the speed of light. Our estimation is that the Universe has shrunk by half already.”

“When will the Future hit us?”

Harold didn’t hesitate. He had the numbers. They had run them so many times…hoping for an error. There was none.

“We have less than a few minutes.”

“A few minutes? Then what happens?”

Harold puffed out a laugh.

“We get caught in the Universe’s first ever reverse Time Storm.”

“And...?”

“ We get a glimpse of the Future. Maybe even meet our progeny. If Humanity still existed thirteen billion years in the Future.”

“For how long?”

Harold laughed again. What else could you do? The Speed of the Universe bouncing back to its origins is the same speed it expanded in the first place. A speed incomprehensible to our limited senses.

“Not even long enough to say: “Hello.”

“So this is how it ends?”

“Yep. By the time…well… Time... shrinks along with Space…and the Universe stampedes back to its roots, the only warning we will get, will never reach our brains. “

“So, it will be quick?”

Harold spoke the last word anyone would ever hear:

“Ye….”

All was gone. No. That’s not true. Everything was still here. Only atoms, matter, and Classical Physics.. were gone. Oh, and all Life too.

The plasma heated up. SpaceTime lost its meaning. The rebound complete, expansion began again.

In a small town in Iowa.

Harold was born.

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