Or, and she shuddered at the thought, she might have jumped back to before everyone had been absorbed by the flesh tube.
Who were these people, and where had they come from? Best ingratiate herself quickly.
"Hi. I'm Admiral Victoria Heartness. I'm investigating these energy bubbles." If she had ended up back in time, she didn't want to say too much, panic everyone and cause a major change to reality. “I wasn’t quite expecting to end up in one.”
The Australian man grinned. Happy researchers, intent on their passion. “Great to hear. Glad you made it through safely. Vicky. I'm Darvo Tenant and this young lady here is Brace Cole. And that slightly costlier person is Jon Petree."
Petree gave a deep throated laugh. "I eat the same rations as everyone else. I'll probably be as thin as you by the time we finish."
"Pleased to meet you all," she said. "Just, one request, not Vicky! Victoria would be fine!”
Tenant nodded. “No worries, Victoria.”
Cole held up a device which looked like it had a two-pronged antennae. The prongs turned a little, then beeped. “Negative time? You’re from the future! 57 hours’ time!”
Heartness looked surprised, then quite disturbed. The secret was out, and it was what she feared. She could encounter the cloud when it was doing its initial absorbing, causing a change in the timeline. She couldn’t let that happen, but couldn’t let anyone know. As painful as it was, she had a responsibility to not cause any changes to time.
“Oh. So, this bubble leads to the past? That’s a surprise. I thought it might lead to the future. Things might get a bit awkward if I hang around, temporal paradoxes and all that. I need to find a way to get off the base. Can you help?"
"Well, technically, if you have shifted back in time, you’re in another almost identical parallel reality,” rumbled Petree. “Past and future are created from the present, so you don't really need to worry about your time catching up with you.”
"True, but I have enough information now for my research. So, I can go somewhere, get some more equipment, get some help from others, and arrive back here just after I disappeared. Also, I don't want to be here when I arrive. I'd prefer not to create too much of a different future!"
"Fair enough," said Tenant. "I haven’t seen you before. Have you been here long?
“Only just arrived, well, will arrive.” Heartness smiled winningly. “So, I’m not yet familiar with the base.”
Tenant nodded. “Alright. Take hexicle 13, go over the viewing bridge, and you’ll be able to get to door 4 of the Clarke. There’s a boff on duty there you can request a shuttle from. You can then take the Clarke up and the shuttle will meet you at the top. From there you can flash to another destination. You can’t use flash bands down here."
"Thank you!" said Heartness.
She wished them all the best, then headed to the bridge. As soon as she was far away from them, she relaxed her smile and rubbed her bruises, looking sadly back through the empty hexicles towards where she had left them.
There was nothing she could do for them, and the sooner that she got away from here, the better. No doubt her appearance, and the conversation, would have been recorded by internal security. Her face would have been scanned, her record checked, and the A.I. given her instant security access, thanks to her connection with Patel’s Secret Services. But questions would be raised, and she didn’t want to have to fill out a temporal incursion report.
She headed to the lift that would take her to the bridge area, and was glad to not need a boff to take her underground to get her back. On the other side of the bridge would be the lift that she had seen blown up in the future. It had to be working in the present.
The door opened, and she hit the up button. The lift car jerked quickly up one level and stopped, then opened onto the bridge area.
Heartness stared at the view in amazement.
It really was a bridge. An arch encompassed by a plasti-glass tube. Heartness could finally see the rocky world that she was on.
Curtains of green flashed and waved through the thin atmosphere as particles from the star excited the electromagnetic field of the planet. From here she could see the honeycomb of hexagon-shaped modules linked together and stretching off into the distance. Directly in front rose the spindly orbital elevator, connected to the bridge with a small conveyor belt for shipping stored luggage, and boxes of supplies. Beyond the base, ancient reddish lava flows stretched off into the distance, punctuated by cliffs of falling hydrogen and sheets of frozen gas. The reddish purple sky shone with bright curtains of excited particles, with thick wraith-like streamers of hydrogen clouds floating amongst them.
The view was breathtaking.
For a moment, Heartness was stunned. No wonder they had chosen this place for gravity and flash ship experiments. The view was gorgeous, and the strong magnetic field and plasma storms would go a long way to cutting any dangerous research off from the rest of the galaxy.
But, as Heartness returned her thoughts to her situation, she had to wonder. Where had that creature come from? Why time spheres and micro time particles? And if the fusion reactor never went online, what had caused all this? She had no idea, and really didn't know what to do next. But she was running out of time.
She tore herself away from the distracting view and headed to the other side of the bridge to take the lift down.
Just as she was about to take it she thought to look at Szuki’s wrist band. It was blank - no longer connected to the ship in the future. If that creature turned up now, or if a time particle appeared, she'd have no way of knowing.
But there was something she could check. She set it to scan for people, and the band showed her the location of everyone on the base, as well as other information.
More telling was the time. Heartness shuddered. Whatever was going to happen, would happen soon.
Then she did a quick count. There were 27 people. But, if the cloud had 27 when she and Szuki had arrived, and Sam-yel wasn't in it, where'd the other one come from?
Who was the other person?
She had a sneaking suspicion she knew, and wanted to make sure she didn't end up in the fleshtube this time around.
She got the lift down to hexicle 4 and went to go through to the Clarke, but a boff stopped her.
"Admiral Victoria Heartness," said the boff. "Welcome to our base. I trust your time journey was a pleasant one."
"Yes, thank you, boff. I need to jump to another system. Can you book a ship for me?"
"I'm sorry, Admiral, but all flash jumps are currently prohibited in the area due to a number of planned cross frequency communication experiments. Flash ships will be able to approach again when the experiments are over. Also, there is a star storm brewing, so interplanetary craft have been grounded until further notice. The dwarf star’s plasma storms can be quite volatile."
Heartness opened her mouth and closed it. Was it serious? Calmly, she asked, "How long will the storm be?"
"We estimate about three hours. As soon as the bureau is sure, we will check with the pilots in orbit on the other side of the planet, and schedule a time for you. You are most welcome to wait here. I have prepared a hexicle for you."
The boff raised a rectangular plastic arm and pointed to hexicle 15.
"Thank you, boff," said Heartness, not feeling thankful at all.
She couldn't leave.
She could not leave.
Was she really going to end up as part of the fleshtube? Is that why the fleshtube didn't attack her when she first arrived? It already knew she was part of it? Her mind reeled at the inevitability of the future, and she knew she was now just hours away from a death trap. 27 people. A foregone conclusion.
She was going to rainbow, and there was nothing she could do.
The boff guided her to hexicle 15, and extended an arm out at the softer chairs. A waiting area with seats, and a relaxing lavender scent. The boff left, and Heartness sat down, surprised at how tired she was. Had it really only been a
few hours? It seemed like days.
There was nothing she could do for the next three hours, besides rest. But she had to stay awake. There was every chance the creature could appear soon. Perhaps its first appearance and its reappearance were linked by the time sphere. Perhaps the star storms had something to do with it. Perhaps…”
The seat was soft, her body ached from the fall through the sphere, and despite herself, she quickly fell into a deep sleep.
Chapter 46
The boff checked on Heartness, and reported back to the center that all was well. The center head, Rudge Bekar, a balding man with deep worry lines, hanging jowls, and folds of chin, checked her on the monitor.
"What will we tell her when the three hours are up?" asked one of his assistants behind him.
"Oh, just say that Proxima Centauri is pretty unpredictable and the ships have been delayed again," he replied. "Keep doing that until she works it out. Then we'll find another way to keep her here."
Another administrator came over. "What questions do you want us to ask of her?"
"Well, she's from an alternate future, so all bets are off. According to the news reports from a few weeks ago, Admiral Heartness was lost somewhere in the Andromeda Galaxy. For all we know she might have come directly from there. This girl currently has no legal protection. And I’m not about to download any flash news updates in case it affects the future, and my resolve."
"You can't be serious."
"Oh, but I am," said Bekar. "I’m a businessman, and I must look at this from a profit perspective. This is our best chance to find out about some specific future events and profit from it, as well as change our timeline for the better. I've been looking for this kind of opportunity for a very long time." He swiped his hand across the screen in front of him, and replayed Heartness throwing herself through the time sphere. "Look at it. Beautiful. I want one of those. Do you think we created one in the future?" Then he looked at the image again. That flickering light behind her. What was it?
"A.I. Pause last second of time sphere recording. Zoom and enhance image at center. Remove spherical distortion."
The image zoomed in and showed a strange energy field. Like a torus. It had been flickering behind the woman as she ran.
"Interesting," said Bekar. "A.I. Play the image very slowly forward until the time hole disappears."
The image continued slowly, and then vanished.
Bekar stared at the screen in shock.
Whatever that energy ball was, it had been chasing her.
Chapter 47
There was a whooshing sound, and the door to Heartness’ hexicle opened. "Don't you know to knock?" said Heartness, groggily.
"It's a waiting room," said a tall, balding man.
"Right," she said. "You're right. I'm sorry. I'm half-awake."
"Well, Admiral. I was going to pretend to keep you here with some fake story about star winds, plasma storms, and an angry dwarf, but now I have a legitimate reason to hold you."
"What?" asked Heartness, suddenly awake.
Bekar flicked his finger on the viewfilm and the cloud appeared. "This.” He indicated the image.
"Well, it's an energy cloud that wants to absorb people. That's all I know.” Heartness quickly understood she was in a lot more trouble than she had thought. What did Szuki say about the administration leader? She didn’t like him? She was beginning to agree.
"Admiral, I'm not one of the research scientists here with their pursuit of knowledge, leftist ideologies, and their simple trust in everyone. I'm a highly trained capitalist scientist here to make labor credits. Nothing more, and nothing personal."
And with that, he leant over and attached a device to Heartness' lobe storage, instantly copying all her recent memories.
She was so shocked by this invasion of privacy that it took her a full two seconds to react. By then, the device had already downloaded several terabytes. "What are you doing?" she yelled, pulling off the device and leaping at him. But after her roll on the floor in the lunch room, and too long on the lounge, she didn't have the strength to fight. The older man simply pushed her shoulders and she fell back into her seat.
He picked up the device from the floor and looked at it. "Full? How is that possible?"
Heartness looked at him angrily. "You don’t know who you’re dealing with."
"Oh, no matter," sneered Bekar. "Our A.I. will do the search." He turned and released the door. "Wait here.” He left and locked the door behind him.
Heartness paced the room angrily. She was not only angry with him but angry with herself for falling for it. How could she have been so stupid? Years of training, decades of cultural experience, and still able to fall for a simple trick. Was she getting old, or was this just what being human was all about? No matter how smart you thought you were, there was always someone else who could outsmart you in a moment of weakness.
She punched the lounge in frustration. What could she do? All the panels were locked. Then she remembered. Styert had been able to open a door from her wristband.
While the micro time particle app wouldn’t work, other functions continued to operate. She wasn’t going to consider the possible temporal ramifications of the same wristband accessing datapackets from two different locations millions of miles apart. No doubt the A.I. would assume it was a glitch and compensate.
She flipped back through the history action menu and found the command that Styert had used. It was showing a door in another part of the base. Could she use it to find this one?
The hexicle she was in had two connecting doors, hexicles 4 and 5 which would get her to the elevator. With flash travel banned in the area, they wouldn't be able to get here quick enough. She could grab a shuttle and escape.
She confirmed that the system was connected to the network, and flipped the map across to find 5. She tapped on it, and the door next to her made an almost inaudible click. She pulled it open, rushed through the next hexicle, thanking her luck that no one was there, and hit the release on door 5 of the elevator.
Before the door had slid open far enough, she was already squeezing herself through.
The elevator cabin wasn’t there.
Episode 7
Trapped
Chapter 48
Zhou’s image appeared on the surround screen, with Saturn slowly turning in space on the other screens. “Patel still needs you to go, in case there’s anything we can do for them. Also, there is still some hope as Commander Lin confirmed that no one saw Victoria die. Only her life signs have disappeared from their instruments. It’s possible she is simply being shielded somewhere, or even just frozen in time.”
“Well, that’s some hope, at least,” said Hogart. “Admiral. My immediate concern is that I now do not have a Security Officer. Also, Raj Kumar has finished his duties here and…”
Just then, the obvious thought came to mind and he quickly tried to head it off. “No, I mean, those two things are completely unrelated!”
Zhou grinned. “Doctor Patel says minus one plus one equals solved. I guess he knew you’d ask that question.”
“But, I can’t make Raj my security officer! He’s a hacker, and more importantly, he’s annoying.” He winked at Kumar.
“Gee, thanks,” said Kumar.
Zhou grew serious. “Jonathan. Would you like me to make it an order?”
Hogart lowered his eyebrows. Obviously, it wasn’t a time for joking. He looked at Kumar. “Congratulations Security Officer Kumar. Welcome aboard.”
“Pleasure to be here, sir.”
Then Hogart, with a wink, said “Just…don’t cock it up.”
“Well,” said Kumar, also with a wink. “I’ll do my best.”
Geo flipped open a pinkish teardrop flap on his spherical skin to reveal two eyes surrounded by thick, dog-like hair. He looked directly at Tonderai. “Is this usual behavior between humans?”
Tonderai laughed. “Just male humans. Too much ego.”
Hogart looked back at the large ima
ge of Zhou above them. “Admiral, Raj is now our security officer until Puppy recovers. We’ll be leaving in about a minute. Anything else I should know?”
“A couple of things,” added Zhou. “Minor updates are sent randomly from various flash way stations around the galaxy. But there is some time before they get integrated and broadcast. You’re about to enter a region of space where the updates are broadcast from, which means that if there are any that you haven’t installed, they’ll begin installing the moment you’re in their vicinity.”
“Sorry to interrupt, Admiral,” said Kumar. “But I have overridden the automatic updates. I’m sure that the Stellar Flash won’t be affected by these little update bombs anytime soon!”
“Thank you, Raj. The other thing is that we suspect we haven’t heard the last of the latest robot uprisings. Be on your guard.”
“Right!” said Hogart. “I’ll engage my roboticism for a little while, and apologize to the Robot Rights Center later.”
Then Zhou looked at each of the team members in turn. “Just be alert, not insensitive. Not every robot will be uprising.” Then she took a breath as though to stop herself from showing her true feelings. “Team. Rescue Victoria for us.”
Her image disappeared, and Hogart looked at his crew, ushering Kumar over to the far side to take over Puppy’s station. “Alright, is everyone ready?”
Everyone confirmed that they were ready.
“Officer Tonderai, Flash to Proxibee.”
“Flash drive beginning transfer process,” said Tonderai, as a white ball of light began to appear between the glass encased cylindrical top and bottom columns.
“Finally,” whispered Hogart, as the sphere rushed through them.
Outside the Stellar Flash, a spherical energy field formed around it, isolating it from the rest of the universe. In a flash, the ship disappeared, the bright light briefly reflecting off the icy parts of Saturn’s rings before fading away.
Temporal Incursion Page 14
