The Man Beyond Tomorrow

by Red Piper

A prehistoric hunter is thrust into a distant, high-tech future, where he must unravel a dangerous conspiracy to survive a world he cannot comprehend.

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18,000 BCEThe first thing Okari knew was fire. Fire meant warmth. Fire meant cooked meat. Fire meant the creatures that hunted in darkness usually remained beyond the mouth of the cave. In 18,000 BCE, there were no cities, countries, written languages, or machines. Okari and his people measured time by winters, moons, migrations, births, and deaths. Survival was not part of life. Survival was life. At twenty-seven winters old, Okari was one of the strongest hunters in his tribe. He stood nearly six and a half feet tall, with broad shoulders, powerful arms, and thick legs hardened by years of climbing rock and chasing animals across frozen valleys. His dark brown skin was marked by small scars from hunts, falls, and fights, while a deeper scar sliced through his left eyebrow—the reminder of a cave lion that had nearly killed him as a teenager. His long black hair hung in tangled ropes around a serious face dominated by deep-set brown eyes. Yet Okari was more than muscle. He was curious. Dangerously curious. While other hunters accepted the world as it appeared, Okari constantly wondered what existed beyond the mountains, why stars moved across the night, and whether there were people beyond the frozen lands. His younger sister Mira was perhaps the only person who understood him. Mira was nineteen, short and wiry, with thick black hair that fell nearly to her waist and large hazel-brown eyes that seemed to notice everything. She wasn't physically imposing like her brother, but she possessed an extraordinary memory. She could identify animals from partial footprints and remembered exactly where medicinal plants grew even after months had passed. That night, Mira returned to the cave carrying something neither sibling had ever seen. A black sphere. Perfectly round. Perfectly smooth. Silver symbols covered its surface. Okari turned it carefully between his hands. “Stone?” Mira shook her head. “Fell from sky.” Their tribe leader, Oruk, approached. Oruk was an enormous older hunter with a gray beard covering most of his chest and a crooked nose broken so many times that it leaned noticeably left. He didn't share Okari's curiosity. “Bad thing,” Oruk grunted. Okari ignored him. He pressed one of the silver markings. The sphere awakened. Blue light raced beneath its surface. Everyone scattered. “Okari!” Mira screamed. The sphere split apart. A column of brilliant white light filled the cave. Okari tried running, but something invisible seized him. His feet left the ground. Mira grabbed his arm. For several desperate seconds, brother and sister held onto each other. Then their fingers slipped. Okari vanished. The sphere vanished with him. And silence returned to the cave. 6127 CE Okari hit the floor hard. He rolled onto his back and immediately reached for a spear that was no longer there. Everything felt wrong. The air was warm. The ground was smooth. Light came from everywhere despite there being no fire. Okari slowly stood. He was inside a room with transparent walls. Beyond them waited something impossible. A city. But not any city Okari could have imagined. Buildings stretched miles toward the sky. Some were shaped like spirals, others like enormous glass trees. Bridges connected towers hundreds of feet above the ground. Vehicles flew silently between them. Artificial rivers traveled through transparent tubes suspended in the air. Thousands of people moved along glowing walkways while human-shaped machines walked among them. Okari backed away from the glass. “Where…” “Easy.” He spun around. A woman stood behind him. Her name was Mora. She was thirty-four, tall and slender, with deep brown skin and intelligent dark eyes. Thin braids were pulled into a knot behind her head, exposing silver technology wrapped around one ear. She wore a fitted white research uniform with glowing blue lines running down the sleeves. Okari grabbed a chair and raised it over his head. Mora froze. “Okay. Apparently chairs are weapons now.” Okari didn't understand her. Mora touched the device beside her ear. It emitted a pulse. She spoke again. This time her words somehow made sense. “My name is Mora.” Okari slowly lowered the chair. “Spirit?” “Scientist.” He stared blankly. Mora sighed. “This is going to take a while.” She walked toward the window. “Okari, you're on Earth.” He looked outside. “No.” “Yes.” “No.” “It has changed.” “How long?” Mora hesitated. “You came from approximately 18,000 BCE.” She pointed toward the city. “This is the year 6127.” Okari stared at her. He understood enough to recognize one fact. Everyone he had ever known had been dead for thousands of years. “Mira?” Mora's expression softened. “In your time, she's still alive.” Okari looked sharply toward her. “What?” “You didn't simply sleep until the future. You traveled through time.” Okari stared at the impossible city again. Then he said the only word that made sense. “Magic.” Mora smiled. “Technology.” “Magic.” “Technology.” Okari pointed outside at a flying vehicle. “Magic.” Mora considered it. “Fine. For today, magic.” Over the following weeks, Okari became the most unusual resident of New Eden. Scientists studied him while Mora taught him about the future. His mind adapted surprisingly quickly. The people of 6127 weren't more intelligent than Okari. They simply possessed thousands of years of accumulated knowledge. Once a translation implant allowed him to communicate naturally, his personality emerged. He hated elevators. The first time one shot upward eighty floors, he screamed, punched the wall and accused Mora of trapping him inside a flying cave. He loved showers. He discovered cheeseburgers and ate seven during his first meal. He thought household robots were servants until Mora explained that they were machines. Then he spent two days ordering one around simply because he found it entertaining. Music fascinated him most. Mora played recordings from different periods of history. Drums made Okari smile. Orchestras confused him. Rock music excited him. Hip-hop fascinated him. Electronic music made him ask whether machines had finally learned to sing. But beneath his fascination was sadness. Sometimes Mora caught him staring through the window at New Eden. “Thinking about home?” “Mira.” “You'll see her again.” Okari turned. “When?” Mora didn't answer. That was when he realized she was hiding something. The answer arrived with Lucius. Lucius was sixty-two but appeared no older than forty-five due to genetic treatments. He was tall and thin, with silver hair swept backward and a sharply defined face that rarely showed genuine emotion. His right eye was artificial. A small red light glowed where his pupil should have been. He entered Okari's laboratory surrounded by armored guards. Lucius studied him with uncomfortable fascination. “So this is him.” Okari looked at Mora. “Who?” Lucius smiled. “The reason we reached into the past.” Mora's face tightened. “Don't.” Okari immediately understood. “You brought me?” Lucius slowly approached. “The sphere wasn't an accident.” She couldn't meet his eyes. Lucius continued. “We selected your era because humanity possessed something then that most humans no longer possess now.” He tapped his temple. “A particular neurological resistance.” “To what?” Lucius smiled. “To me.” For decades, Lucius had controlled one of humanity's greatest inventions. Unity. Nearly ninety percent of Earth's population carried microscopic neural implants connecting their minds to a planetary network. People could communicate without speaking. Languages became almost unnecessary. Memories could be shared. Knowledge could be transmitted directly into the brain. But Lucius had secretly built another ability into Unity. Control. He could influence emotions. Suppress anger. Erase memories. Create obedience. His plan was terrifyingly simple. Human beings had nearly destroyed themselves countless times because of hatred, greed, religion, territory, jealousy and power. Lucius intended to remove humanity's ability to resist. No more war. No murder. No rebellion. No disagreement. One peaceful civilization controlled by one mind. His. There was only one problem. Some humans couldn't survive complete synchronization. Okari's ancient neurological structure contained the genetic trait Lucius needed to solve that problem. Mora had been ordered to study him. Eventually, Lucius planned to kill Okari and extract everything necessary from his brain. Okari stared at Mora. “You knew?” “Not everything.” “You brought me here.” “I helped build the machine. I didn't know Lucius intended to—” Okari lunged. Not at Mora. At Lucius. His fist struck Lucius's jaw with enough force to throw him through a glass partition. Guards attacked instantly. Okari moved like the hunter he was. One guard swung an electrical baton. Okari ducked. He slammed his shoulder into the man's chest and threw him into another guard. A third fired. Blue energy struck Okari. His entire body locked. He collapsed. Lucius slowly climbed from the shattered glass, blood running from his mouth. His red artificial eye brightened. “You see?” Lucius said. “Primitive. Violent. Emotional.” Okari struggled to move. Lucius crouched beside him. “And people wonder why humanity needs someone like me.” Okari awakened strapped to a table. Machines surrounded his head. Lucius stood nearby. Mora entered behind him. She held a weapon. “Release him.” Lucius sighed. “Mora.” “Now.” “You're throwing away everything we've built.” “You're planning to enslave twelve billion people.” “I am planning to save them.” Lucius raised his hand. Suddenly every scientist in the laboratory stopped moving. Their faces became expressionless. Then they turned toward Mora. The guards did the same. Lucius smiled. “Unity.” They attacked. Mora fired. Chaos erupted. Okari pulled against his restraints. One snapped. Then another. With a roar, he ripped himself free. Mora threw him an electrified staff. Okari caught it. “What this?” “Future spear!” That was enough. Okari swung. Electricity exploded through two guards. He struck another across the chest and sent him sliding across the floor. Mora ran toward the exit. “Okari!” They escaped. Behind them, Lucius wiped blood from his face. His artificial eye turned completely red. “Activate global synchronization.” New Eden stopped. Millions of people froze where they stood. Then billions across Earth did the same. Eyes became blank. Minds became connected. Lucius spoke through every one of them. Find Okari. Suddenly the entire city became the enemy. Okari and Mora ran. Controlled civilians chased them through glowing streets. Police drones descended from the sky. Flying vehicles blocked intersections. Mora led Okari toward a small aircraft. He stopped. “No.” “Get in!” “No flying metal.” “Okari, several million people are trying to kill us!” He looked behind him. A massive crowd was approaching. Okari climbed aboard. “Fly slow.” Mora launched vertically. Okari screamed. Their destination was the Spire, the three-mile-high tower containing Unity's primary transmitter. Destroy it and Lucius would lose control. They landed near the summit. Lucius was waiting. Except he was no longer completely human. Mechanical armor surrounded his body. Black metal covered his arms and chest. Cables extended from his spine into the Unity network. His red eye burned brightly. “You disappoint me, Okari.” Okari stepped forward. “You talk too much.” Lucius attacked. He moved with mechanical speed. His fist slammed into Okari's stomach. Okari flew backward. Lucius grabbed him and threw him across the chamber. For the first time in his life, Okari faced something physically stronger than himself. He couldn't overpower Lucius. So he stopped trying. He became a hunter. Okari watched. Waited. Studied. Every time Lucius attacked, the cables connecting him to Unity tightened. Okari deliberately backed toward them. Lucius charged. Okari rolled aside. Lucius smashed through a control panel. Okari grabbed one cable. Lucius turned. Too late. Okari wrapped it around his arm and pulled. The cable snapped. Lucius screamed. Mora rushed toward the transmitter controls. Lucius grabbed Okari by the throat. “You're nothing!” he shouted. Okari struggled for air. “You're an animal dragged from a cave!” Okari reached beneath the animal-hide belt he still wore. His fingers closed around something. A sharpened stone. He had carried it from home. Lucius laughed. “A rock?” Okari slammed it into his artificial eye. Lucius screamed. Okari tore himself free. He grabbed the remaining cables and ripped them from Lucius's back. “NOW!” Mora activated the shutdown. The Spire erupted with light. A shockwave traveled across New Eden. Unity collapsed. Across Earth, billions of people suddenly regained control of themselves. Lucius fell to his knees. His mechanical armor went dead. Okari stood over him. Lucius looked up. “You've returned humanity to violence. Greed. War. Chaos.” Okari considered his words. Then he looked through the enormous windows at the city humanity had built. “You think people weak because they fight.” Lucius stared at him. Okari shook his head. “People strong because they choose.” For once, Lucius had nothing to say. Three weeks later, Mora brought Okari back to the Temporal Research Institute. The sphere had been repaired. A portal opened. On the other side was his cave. The fire still burned. Mira was reaching toward the place where her brother had disappeared. Only seconds had passed in 18,000 BCE. “You could stay here,” she said. He looked toward New Eden. He had seen wonders his people wouldn't dream about for thousands of years. Cities in the sky. Humans living on other planets. Machines that could think. Food appearing from walls. Music from civilizations that hadn't been born yet. Part of him wanted to remain. But then he saw Mira. Okari smiled. “My time.” Mora handed him a small silver device. He pressed the button. A flame appeared. Okari's eyes widened. “Fire?” “Fire.” “No sticks?” “No sticks.” Okari smiled broadly. “Maybe future not so bad.” He stepped through. Mira grabbed him. “Okari!” She touched his face as though making sure he was real. Oruk and the others surrounded them. To them, Okari had vanished for only moments. Oruk pointed toward the place where the portal had disappeared. “Where go?” Okari turned toward the cave entrance. Snow fell outside. Mammoths moved across the distant valley. The ancient world suddenly seemed smaller. He knew what waited beyond it now. Oceans would be crossed. Cities would rise. Civilizations would fall. Human beings would reach the moon, Mars and worlds beyond. And somehow, through thousands of years of mistakes, wars, discoveries and impossible dreams, humanity would survive. Mira tugged his arm. “Where go, Okari?” Okari looked at his sister. Then he smiled. “Tomorrow.” More than twenty thousand years later, deep beneath the ruins of the Unity laboratory, emergency power suddenly returned to a forgotten computer. A screen flickered. One red dot appeared. Then another. Then thousands. A voice emerged from the darkness. Weak. Distorted. But unmistakable. Lucius. “Temporal coordinates located.” Ancient Earth appeared on the screen. Lucius had lost control of the future. So he had chosen another solution. He would conquer humanity before civilization ever began. And this time, Okari wouldn't have to travel to the future to face him. The future was coming to Okari.

The Man Beyond Tomorrow

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