Puppy moved his massive head up and down, his legs creaking with the effort. “Good to see you too, Dev. Still getting up to some mischief?”
Dev grinned. “Going straight. Sponsored by a corp back on Earth. Simple gigs. What’s your poison?”
“Your latest dark growler!”
“It would be my pleasure.” Dev walked along the almost organic-looking bar featuring multiple liquid receptacles, and then reached down behind it and pulled up a large bottle full of a dark liquid. He quickly fitted a nozzle that would allow Puppy to drink from it, and dragged it along the floor towards him. “Will you be alright with that?” asked Dev, indicating the heavy bottle. “It’s just that, it’s a bit heavy for me to lift up to you.”
Puppy lifted two of his hairy legs in a massive shrug, then in one brief moment, he threw a leg over, grabbed the growler from the floor, planted its nozzle against the upper part of his tongue, and swallowed the lot.
Dev just laughed. “It never fails to amaze me how much you can put away.”
Puppy dropped his long, red tongue out again. “That was delicious. What do you call it?”
“It’s an old one but it’s come back into fashion recently. Humans call it Coconut Porter.”
“Thank you very much. A great start to my day.”
“When’s your next mission?” asked Dev, genuinely interested.
“Well. I’m not entirely sure. All the crew are on leave while the Stellar Flash is being repaired. But, we expected it to be finished by today. Any idea of the hold up?”
“You haven’t heard?” Dev leaned over to him, with surprise on his face, and whispered into one of Puppy’s legs. “Admiral Heartness was kidnapped by a robot, there are micro time particles affecting the Proxibee outpost, and a major forced upgrade has disabled much of the systems in the Stellar Flash.”
Puppy clacked his legs together in surprise, then settled back down again. “It looks like I’m not going anywhere for a while. Thanks for the intel. I knew there was a reason I liked you, Dev. Put another on my tab.”
“Right you are, Puppy!” As Dev turned away to grab another growler, his expression changed from friendly to calculated. Then he briefly touched the arm of the blue-skinned, four-armed girl entertaining some aliens on the other end of the bar.
“Did you do it, Ange?” he whispered.
“He won’t know what hit him,” she whispered back, looking in Puppy’s direction.
Chapter 17
Hogart stood in the mess of what used to be Josie Tonderai’s old room, in the crew quarters area of the Stellar Flash. He’d only known that version of her briefly and still felt the loss, even though she was back with them again in a different form.
Josie had been a half-plant, half human hybrid created by the Secret Services. She had died on their recent mission to 2.5 million years ago, then reincarnated again as an experimental clone grown from Hogart’s DNA.
After that, things got complicated.
Hogart smiled ruefully. Technically, she was now a female shape-shifting copy of himself, with a default dinosauroid expression. In that sense, he’d suddenly gained a sister.
With no mission, and no space in her old room, he’d recommended that Tonderai take a few days leave while they fixed the ship and tidied everything up. He had had no idea it would take longer than a few days. Kumar had been having a lot of trouble dissolving many of the doors, as the airlight systems seemed to have been somehow reinforced over the past million years.
For all he knew Tonderai was probably already at Space Station X-1a waiting to come aboard.
He looked down at the piles of iridium stones swept haphazardly into various corners, and the alien and human temps cleaning and generally attempting to make the room more presentable. He was sure they would be able to restore everything to how it was, but felt the new Tonderai would probably prefer something different.
Kumar stood on the right of the room, and waved at him to get his attention, pointing to something beyond a half privacy wall, out of the line of sight.
“More technology?” Hogart began striding towards him.
“Not exactly.” Then, as though he’d just remembered something, “One thing I’ve been meaning to ask. You’re into girls, right?”
Hogart stopped and raised his eyebrows, then looked at towards him quizzically. “Er, Officer Kumar, I’m not sure where this conversation is heading but, yes, I do prefer the feminine energy, if you must know.”
“I did some research. Always learn about your superiors. Though, I hadn’t expected to find out that you’ve had quite a few alien girlfriends, too. And that purple girl with six arms from…”
Hogart looked uncomfortable. “Yes, well, that’s all behind me. My previous work took me around the galaxy. I got to, ahem, meet quite a few ambassadors.”
“Just wondering.” Raj pointed behind the partition again.
Hogart walked around it, then leapt back despite himself, almost jumping into Kumar in the process.
A tentacled, purple and green, plant-like creature, looking like a cross between a snake plant and a nautilus, reached out for him, seemingly beckoning him to come closer.
“Isn’t she beautiful?” asked Kumar. Then he winked at him. “You know, I think she might be lonely.”
Hogart grimaced, then realized Kumar had tried to set him up for that joke. “Ah! I think your humor needs a bit of work.”
Kumar shrugged. “Worth a try.”
Hogart went closer to the plant. “What is it?”
“She’s a baby of the plant-planets in the Stellar Flash reports. According to the records, Hogart-C found her hibernating in space, and didn’t want to kill her. Too young to split, too old to not become a plant-planet if he planted her somewhere, and too small to access the controlling consciousness from the Andromeda Galaxy. He decided to bring her out of her centuries of hibernation and take care of her. Brought her some iridium every now and then, and generally made her feel happy. She’s looking pretty amazing for a million years old, don’t you think?”
Hogart was taken aback. From the stories Tonderai and Heartness had told him, not to mention the early access records he’d reviewed, this creature was deadly. It could take control of the entire galaxy. But it did explain why his clone hadn’t got rid of all the stones. It would be much easier to feed your pet if you could scoop the food off the floor on your way.
“Female,” said Kumar, pointedly.
Hogart frowned at the writhing tentacle-like leaves. “I like my females to be a bit more anthropomorphic.”
Just then, a voice sounded in his head. “You are different.”
“What?” Hogart rubbed his temple. “You can speak?”
Kumar cupped a hand over his mouth in surprise, quickly understanding that Hogart had begun a mental conversation with the plant.
“I can,” the plant replied. “Your clone and I were close friends. I hope we can be friends, too.”
Instantly, Hogart began imagining white noise, thinking random thoughts, and saying the alphabet backwards. The last thing he wanted was an all-pervading plant taking over his consciousness. “I…I’ll see what I can do!”
He turned on his heels and left the room, with Kumar pursuing behind him. “You spoke with her?”
“Yes. We need to get it off the ship!”
“She hasn’t done anything but sit there and chat to your clone. Records indicate she’s never done anything in many millennia.”
“It…she hasn’t done anything, yet. Let’s find a way to get her out of here.”
Kumar took a breath. “Well, we’ll have to deal with that later. There’s another problem. Unrelated.”
Hogart frowned. “I’m not sure I want to hear it.”
“I…well.” Kumar took a breath. “With all my deactivating of doors, there are now no doors that actually work normally. I had no idea I’d been interrupting updates. It means if anyone activates an airlight door, they’ll need me to dissolve it again for them.”
“Which means either we tell everyone to leave all doors off, or the Stellar Flash now has a porter.”
Chapter 18
The top of the lift doors stood up for a moment before equilibrium was lost and, with a screeching sound, fell diagonally into the wall that Heartness and Szuki were now huddled against, missing them by centimeters.
Heartness released the air she hadn’t realized she had been holding, and stared at the scorched door resting not far from her face. “That was close.”
"I'm sorry," said Szuki. "It must have just arrived." She held up her flashband. On it, a yellow spot was flashing directly above them in the bridge corridor.
Heartness knew there was no way they could move them. "Pity they’re not airlight doors. I guess our route to the fleshtube is blocked both ways."
Szuki nodded. “Airlights here would have been so much easier, but the type of power required would have interfered with the experiments.”
They climbed down through the lift ceiling then headed back into the room, and were shocked to see a boff standing in front of them pointing a weapon.
"What?" asked Heartness, momentarily confused.
"Intruders," said the boff. "Possible terrorists. You are under arrest."
"NO!" yelled Szuki, reacting quickly, her hair turning a blazing red. "I am Doctor Vilanna Szuki, this is Admiral Victoria Heartness. We are here to investigate temporal anomalies. Check facial recognition, your current time, and analyze."
The boff paused and considered the information. His blocky head rotated back and forth as he waited for further downloads.
He lowered the weapon.
"Information retrieved. Welcome Doctor Szuki, Admiral Heartness. I am missing three days of memory. I'm unable to gain access to my backups. My apologies. How may I be of service?"
Heartness checked behind the desk. No boff remains. Time had reversed for him. They had been lucky, standing between the sudden appearance of two micro time particles. The dust from the food packet had also reverted. The stocks were complete again, and looking new.
“Why snacks, when most places have atomic recombination systems?” asked Heartness.
“A lot of experiments might be affected by those units,” answered Szuki. “Not to mention the quantity of elements needing to be stored for the system to work. Better that they’re in the floor of a space ship, than in storage under a base. Though, it does mean weekly food deliveries and increased waste removal.”
Heartness moved over to the viewfilm and looked closely at the map, then stumbled as another quake rocked the room. “Like walking around in Tokyo.” She indicated hexicle 13 on the map to the boff. “We need to get to this section. Do you know of any other way of getting there other than using the hexicles?"
"Strictly prohibited due to safety concerns," said the boff.
"All personnel are missing, presumed dead," said Szuki. "We need to prevent more accidents. Disable your safety requirements."
"Acknowledged.” A faint whirring sound came from it, then it said "Robot service hatches. Low oxygen levels. High speed gravity conduits under the base."
Szuki tapped her band, sending a signal to her ship. The map on the screen expanded showing areas of the base that were not entirely safe for human life. Directly underneath was a service hatch for collecting waste, recycling water, a power transmission unit...and a fusion generator.
"What?" said Szuki. "There's nothing in our reports of a fusion generator, and I didn't give permission for it. Explain."
"Accessing. EM energy usage interfered with some experiments. Fusion was approved by Doctor Rudge Bekar with the support of the Secret Services."
Szuki ground her teeth. “I never trusted Bekar. Classic psychopathic tendencies. But daddy wanted him here, and he got results.”
"Let's check it out,” said Heartness. “Perhaps something in the fusion generator caused these time fluctuations. We won't know until we have a closer look.”
"And if a micro time particle hits the fusion reactor while we're here?"
Heartness sighed. "I've enjoyed the past half century. Let's just do our best."
The boff understood that to be the end of the discussion and pointed at the floor. A square silver panel slid away, and a pungent odor of oil, dust, metal and methane poured out of a dark square hole.
Szuki looked at Heartness with a grimace. "I've had the oxygen backup implant. What about you?"
"Compulsory for space travelers thirty years ago. Still got mine."
"Let's do it."
The boff had no trouble simply jumping down the two meters to the basement floor. The women couldn’t do that, even in the slightly lighter gravity. Besides the fall, there was every chance they’d hit the edges going in. The boff extended its arms and carefully brought them down.
As soon as her feet touched the ground, Heartness felt her lung filter implant start up - a mild humming around her trachea. It would increase oxygen absorption from the rarer atmosphere. Even so, slower breathing was needed.
After the bright lights of the hexicles, Heartness had to blink a few times before her lens adjusted. The dark corridor stretched in front of them, tiny green lights dotting the edge of the path the only indication there was anything in front of them. Heartness shuddered. Knowing that there was a tube made of human body parts sitting not far away above meant that these corridors might not be as empty as a barren planet might suggest. “Any yellow spots in front of us?”
“Not directly in front. A couple above and to the side. Plus one particularly large one in 40 just a bit further away. We should be fine for now.”
“Please activate your force suits,” said the boff. “It may help protect your organs from the travel system.”
Both slapped their bands to activate their force suits. A faint green flicker around them was the only sign they were protected. Heartness was pleased to see that the faint glow illuminated their faces. At least they won’t lose each other in the dark.
“Confirm readiness,” said the boff.
Both Szuki and Heartness nodded.
The boff extended his soft arms around them and said, 'travel forward.'
The gravity tube started immediately, and both women yelped as they suddenly fell forward, the floor instantly becoming a cliff.
The gravity tube was a simple system that turned gravity horizontal. It wasn’t suitable for humans, as travelling in them felt like jumping out of a plane. The boff held them tight as they fell along the path, protecting them from the roughness of the dirty printed concrete around them.
Gravity slow-down was almost as quick, and they both stumbled against the boff as everything became vertical again.
Technically, thought Heartness, it wasn’t really gravity that was being manipulated. It just felt like that. It was a repelling energy system. If she hadn’t had the force suit on, she might have ended up with a severe hangover as the energy tried to push her body around. Definitely not for an unprotected human.
"We are here," the boff said. It pointed upwards, and the ceiling panel slowly ground open.
To reveal the underside of the fleshtube.
"Our route is blocked," said the boff. "Sensors indicate twenty-seven beings are temporally frozen above us."
"You can't see the mass of flesh?" asked Szuki.
"His sensors make sense of things," said Heartness. "It's probably detected the matter wavelengths and reinterpreted the data."
"Explain," said the boff.
"Different question. Can you detect anything strange about the people?"
"It is hard to distinguish them. Facial recognition is not functional."
"Is there anything we can do to unstick them from time?"
"I'm sorry, but this is not part of my programming."
"Different question. How can we get past them?"
"Service hatch, 12J," said the boff, and he slid the panel shut.
"Wait," sa
id Heartness. "I'm guessing it isn't far. Let's walk it."
The boff lead them a bit further, following more of the green lights, and around past the bulky travel generators. They stopped under another panel and the boff pointed up. It slid it open and, apart from some dust falling, it looked like a way back up.
“Boff,” began Szuki, “Would you be so good as to…"
Before she could finish her sentence, the boff had extended his arms around them and lifted them one by one up through the panel. "Stand back please," it said, and then it jumped up through the floor panel, landing with a thud a few meters from the entrance.
It remotely slid the panel closed and turned around.
"Thank you," said Szuki.
"You are welcome. Current mission complete. Power low. What other services do you require?”
“That is it, for now. Please engage recharging mode.”
“Powering down."
The boff hibernated, and Heartness and Szuki looked about the room. Hexicle 12 seemed to be empty. They couldn't tell whether this was due to micro time particles erasing things, or just because it hadn’t yet been used. The only thing in the room was the wall screen showing Szuki's map. No bright yellow flashes nearby.
Heartness turned off her force field, and Szuki followed suit. “I guess we should save the power as well. We don’t know how long we’ll be here.”
They went over to the door to hexicle 3. Inside they should find the frozen man.
But, they had no idea what they could do once they got to him.
Chapter 19
The blurred image of the grid ceiling of Hangar 16 came into focus, and Watanabe carefully reached a hand to his head. “What?” he groaned, rubbing his temple. He blinked again and found himself staring up at Zhou’s concerned face. When she realized he would be okay, she smiled, and handed his helmet back to him. “Taking an afternoon nap?”
Temporal Incursion Page 7
