Temporal Incursion

by Neil A. Hogan

  A piece of its environment.

  The creature stopped. Overwhelmed as its memories came flooding back.

  There was a home, too.

  It had a home!

  Could it…

  Could it return home?

  Chapter 66

  "You are really lucky, aren't you!" said Petree, looking at the time hole that had flickered into existence in front of them, and the energy cloud that had stopped moving on the other side. “You’re probably acting like a lodestone, attracting this hole to you.”

  “Maybe the universe needs to reset itself and it can’t have you causing a temporal incursion,” said Tenant.

  The sphere of time showed a room much like the hexicle they were in, with a crèche. Cheree’s hexicle. Hexicle 18. Ready for a baby.

  They all knew that Heartness had been through a time hole before, so she could do it again. They had no idea whether the room would lead to the past or the future.

  "I don't have the strength to run back and jump through it," said Heartness. “And I’m not sure I’m even going to be able to survive it.”

  The winds from the hole were whipping Tenant and Petree's hair, and they began having trouble keeping their feet on the floor.

  Petree shook his head. "I think it's a reset hole. You went through, so you need to go back. You’ll probably end up near where you left."

  "I don't think parallel realities work that way," said Heartness, frowning.

  Tenant laughed. "Neither do we. But one of our jobs is to come up with random, instant theories, then research them, and that's as good a one as any." Then he looked at Petree and a message seemed to pass between them. An understanding.

  "Right," said Petree. "I'll take your shoulders and Darvo will take your legs."

  "Sorry?" said Heartness, not comprehending.

  "If there's another cloud waiting for you on the other side, you don't want to be diving through at high speed. It's a time hole, so perhaps we can slow your time down so the creature can't notice you. You know, momentum, gravity, energy release, that sort of thing."

  "You're going to lift me up and slowly push me through?" asked Heartness as both men lifted her and lined her up with the sphere.

  "Put your arms out," said Petree. "And hurry up about it. We don't know how long the time hole will last, or how long the cloud will stay."

  "Thank you," said Heartness, not knowing what to say next.

  "Hopefully we'll see you on the other side!" said Tenant. And with that, they grunted, and with all their strength, pushed her into the time hole. As soon as her hands touched the edges, Petree released her shoulders and then Tenant released her legs. Heartness became frozen, floating in the air, slowly sliding into the sphere.

  “The interface between the time hole and this reality must be weightless,” said Petree. “I should have thought of that.”

  “We should have let go at the same time. Now she’s going to turn inside the bubble. Hopefully she’ll make it out in one piece.”

  Tenant and Petree watched as Heartness’ continued moving into the sphere, marveling at the confused cloud on the other side. As her feet were about to reach the edge, they both looked at each other and nodded, quickly running out of the hexicle.

  "I think, with everyone being taken by this creature, and the last person being Utson in the lunch room, that there's going to be plenty of food for us!" Tenant said with a grin.

  "I hear you!" said Petree. “Eat, drink and be merry, for in a few hours we die.”

  They headed around to the lunch room.

  The creature spun, mesmerized by the time hole flickering in front of it, and feeling the faint energy of a part of itself disappearing inside it. Then the time hole disappeared.

  The cloud spun, looking for more energy, then crackled into the next hexicle.

  Chapter 67

  Kumar squinted as smoke billowed down the corridor, obscuring his view. He heard the ventilation systems begin sucking it through the ceiling, and along the edges of the floor, and then covered his head as sprinklers began dousing any remaining flames. He quickly activated his force suit and made his way through the remaining haze.

  In his hand, his oversized tablet showed his position and the blinking indicator of the micro time particle. It was stationary. If the particle really was organic, then it was probably trying to get its bearings.

  Kumar couldn’t fathom what it could be. Why did it travel millions of kilometers and then stop inside their ship? Was it because their ship was partly outside of space and time?

  As far as he could tell, from the readouts on the tablet, the particle had not been affected by the explosion. If anything, its energy seemed slightly stronger.

  He stepped over some ruptured tubing and entered a part of the corridor where a wall had a huge crack in it that was slowly repairing itself. Around him were strewn assorted pipes and coolant systems, now being reassembled by nanites. Clouds of the tiny insect-like robots were flying and scurrying around in swarms, rebuilding the area.

  Cuddly’s wastes were highly explosive, and so the sewerage system for his excrement had been located far away from any essential systems. And now Kumar was standing right inside it.

  Talk about putting him right in the shit.

  There weren’t that many areas on the Stellar Flash that were superfluous, but the explosion had actually destroyed one of the very few. The leisure room. With a huge window and many cupboards full of items from around the galaxies, you could be lost for weeks and come out completely changed.

  Kumar surveyed the devastation. No more reading ancient books and sipping tea, he thought.

  He could see a flickering light to his left and headed in that direction.

  Then he spotted it. Floating, with a strange glow around it as though it couldn’t quite connect with reality. The micro time particle looked like a bright star. Then he noticed as he got closer that it was more than that. It was full of stars, as though it was a piece of another reality. Was it a particle, or a hole?

  He clicked the communication link in his helmet. “Flash Team, the particle is stationary. I think the explosion or its proximity to our time crystal hull has confused it.”

  “Don’t get too close,” replied Hogart. “You might end up as a baby, or as old as Doctor Patel.”

  “Good point.” Kumar looked down on his panel and raised his eyebrows at the information. “You know, I think this is a tear between realities. So, it’s not really moving. It’s our universe moving around it. Or its universe rubbing against our own. A little bit more complicated than a wormhole.”

  “So, it’s not really a particle?” said Hogart’s voice. “More of a tear in space time? Then we can’t fire anything at it as it would probably tear further. Get us out of here, asap.”

  “Attempting extrication now.” Kumar called up a basic steering wheel on his tablet that represented the piloting system, and slowly turned it.

  He jumped back as the micro time particle shot towards him, hit the next wall, and dissolved it. Kumar hit the stop button, and the particle remained stationary.

  “This is going to be harder than I thought.”

  “Just shift the ship through the particle,” said Hogart. “It can repair itself. Just don’t send it through the center.”

  “Doing my best!” He activated the drive again, this time carefully directing their movement so that the particle headed for the edge of the Stellar Flash. He guided it through the doorway, down the corridor, and towards airlock three. Then, just as it was about to hit the airlock, Kumar slipped with his finger, and the particle veered to the right, taking out several walls on the way.

  Kumar grimaced.

  “Easy, Officer Kumar, you are almost there.” Spiney’s voice echoed through the system.

  The voice of such a respected alien encouraging him, beyond the usual banter he had with Captain Hogart, helped Kumar to focus, and he was able to pull the rest of the ship through the particle with minimal damage.


  Two more exploded walls, and a damaged external airlock forcefield later, the particle was stationary in space with the Stellar Flash alongside it.

  Then, as though knowing what it needed to do next, the particle shot away at light speed towards Proxibee.

  Kumar let out a sigh of relief, checked that the pressure was back to normal, and deactivated his suit. He stepped over the pools of nanite repair bots and headed back to corridor 1.

  “Danger over,” he said. “The micro time particle has headed to Proxibee.”

  “Well, for that particle, maybe!” said Hogart’s voice. “There might be others out here. Head back, and make sure your console is ready for if we hit another one. Josie is still unconscious.”

  “Right,” said Kumar. He made it back to the Center in record time.

  With these tears in space time randomly appearing more frequently, he hoped he didn’t have to do this too often.

  Still, if the next one appeared inside the flash columns, at least they’d all die quickly.

  Chapter 68

  Lin stared at the feed of the rest of the female coming through the time hole, and sighed. So, that’s what had happened to her. Heartness had somehow stumbled into a time sphere. Well, at least she didn’t melt into a greasy skeleton like Team One, or turn into fetuses like Team Four.

  The admiral tumbled slowly out into hexicle 18, and was caught by several boffs. They reported that she was unconscious, and unresponsive.

  “Boffs, please carry Admiral Victoria Heartness to the nearest airlock. Captain Anatjari, as soon as she is secure, get off the base as quickly as possible.

  “Yes, ma’am. We’ve just picked up Jevbis, Mila and Einar, so everyone is on board.”

  “Very good.”

  The boffs began carefully carrying her through the hexicles to exit 48. Their slow pace, and Heartness’ slow heart rate would hopefully keep the cloud unaware for a little longer. Then again, with everyone off the base, there wasn’t anything else for it to be attracted to.

  "As soon as Heartness is on board, I’m going to destroy the creature by blowing up the hive."

  “Ma’am, the cloud is on the move.” Braytel, a young blonde girl from the Sirius colonies had replaced Styert, but hadn’t quite got the hang of things yet.

  Lin turned to her. “More details please, officer Braytel.”

  “The cloud is not pursuing Admiral Heartness. It is heading for the center of the base, where we left the equipment. Is there something that might attract it there?”

  Lin flipped the screens and stared at the image of their makeshift room, now empty except for a few pieces of equipment that were too heavy to move quickly.

  And then she saw what might have got the creature’s attention. The hologram projector. And it was still on.

  “Team Three. Disable communications immediately. The energy creature is going to use the hologram signal to find us. Disconnect until I can get a flash message to you.”

  Captain Anatjari confirmed, and communication and cameras went dead.

  Lin stared at the blank screens in front of her. Now, she just had to wait.

  But, if the cloud could no longer detect their communication signals, and it only wanted living beings, had she just made the shuttle its next target?

  Chapter 69

  Patel looked about Watanabe’s makeshift construction room approvingly. Several aliens of various colors were assembling pieces, while Watanabe was printing the pieces with an industrial atomic recombination system.

  He strode over as Watanabe removed a piece from the machine, and placed an old fashioned looking foldable tablet next to him.

  “How long before you can get the device set up?”

  Watanabe raised an eyebrow. “You know, it’s only been about ten minutes since I got this assignment. Did you come from a faster time period?”

  Patel laughed. “The question still stands.”

  Watanabe frowned. “We should be testing within the hour, probably have a result within two.”

  Patel nodded. “Update. We still can’t get in contact with Commander Lin, and now we’ve lost contact with the Stellar Flash again.”

  “And what do you propose I do about that?”

  Patel pointed at the old tablet. “Call signs, wavelengths and other communication software in that. Can you reconfigure the system to pick up any kind of flash or quantum entangled signal from the Proxima Centauri system?”

  Watanabe’s mouth dropped open and closed again. “I’m a professor, not a miracle worker.”

  Patel raised an eyebrow.

  Watanabe grinned. “Alright, sometimes I’m a miracle worker. I’ll see what I can do.”

  Patel nodded, then left as Watanabe opened the tablet, then looked surprised.

  Patel had sat the tablet in exactly the right place for a perfect reflection of Saturn to show up on the screen.

  Watanabe looked up to see Patel grinning at him from the corridor. He shook his head at him. “Always time to make me the butt of one of your jokes.”

  “But you do it so well! And besides, you’re the only one that will get them!” Patel left, and Watanabe slid the tablet around so that only the room and the blackness of space reflected behind him. He took out a pair of glasses and patched the monitor directly into the lens.

  The room disappeared to show two large screens of information.

  “Ah, much better.”

  Chapter 70

  Five boffs carrying Heartness quickly made it through to hexicle 48, safely navigating around various yellow dots and not attracting the attention of the energy cloud. They opened the airlock, and entered the connection pipe.

  As they entered, and the airlock closed behind them, Captain Anatjari pointed at an area on the other side. “Put her on the bedding.”

  The boffs carefully laid her down across a makeshift support bed near the view port, and Anatjari indicated to the pilot that it was alright to lift off. Then he turned to the boffs. “You can power down and recharge next to her.”

  The tube retracted, the landing stands rose up, and the EM pulses activated. Moments later, the shuttle rose into the air and headed quickly to the command and patrol ship in orbit.

  Heartness remained unconscious, flanked by two boffs. Three other boffs stood at attention along the wall.

  Almost imperceptibly, one of the boff’s heads turned, and it looked at its hands. Then it looked around the shuttle.

  The other boffs stared impassively, their jobs complete.

  “Hey, boff,” said Jevbis. “No work. Power down and wait for instructions.”

  For a moment, the boff paused, then swiveled its head slowly, its eyes flickering. Then it straightened and stood in the same position as its brethren. “Confirmed,” it said, before its lights powered down again.

  “I never want to have one of those,” said Jacques. “Imagine if you got one to massage you, and at that moment they decided to rise up. I’d hate to have my arm torn off.”

  “Oh, you’ll be right,” said one of the other soldiers. “You’d still have three left.”

  The other soldiers laughed, not noticing that one of the boff’s eyes had flickered redly, and was watching them closely.

  Chapter 71

  Lin turned around to see Team Three, as well as other soldiers, scientists and doctors, not to mention boffs, coming from the patrol ship hangar. She pointed at a bed that had been prepared near the entrance, and the boffs laid Heartness on it.

  Lin nodded at another officer who brought out his medscanner. Doctor Kapoor would know if Heartness had survived her trip or whether they simply had an animated corpse on their hands. She turned to the crew. “Can someone confirm that no one has been left behind?”

  “Confirmed,” said Braytek. “No evidence of anyone else on the base.”

  “Leave orbit immediately. A dark matter beam should disperse the atoms in the hive, destroying the creature utterly. Activate weapons.”

  "Ma'am," called the weapons officer, a muscular
girl by the name of Quintun. "The creature is following."

  "What?" Lin zoomed the screen. The energy cloud had rematerialized above the base, and was now slowly, but inexorably floating towards their new coordinates in orbit, flickering strangely.

  "Get ready to target that cloud," said Lin.

  "Ma'am,” said Quintun. “Our systems are detecting time fissures, micro time particles and time spheres emanating from the planet's surface and all around us. They’re heading in our direction, too."

  “Ma’am,” added Buritan. “Million-kilometer-wide time sphere has now enveloped this area of space and is contracting. Analysis indicates we’re close to the epicenter of the engulfing chaos.”

  Lin rubbed her face. She couldn't believe this. They had no defense. Perhaps the energy cloud was creating all these time spots, or maybe it was something more. She should have paid more attention to the time experiments they used to do at school. "A.I. Analyze the positions of micro time particles. Calculate the safest coordinates for us and send us there."

  "Confirmed," the A.I. said in a deep voice. "New coordinates sent."

  The ships shot to a point in space not far from the base and stopped.

  Lin looked at their position in surprise. "A.I. We are still close to danger. Why have we stopped here?"

  "Patrol ship is in proximity to the epicenter of the time disruption," said the A.I. "Time particles are coming towards us spherically. The only safe position is near the center."

  "Interesting," said a voice.

  Heartness had awoken.

  “Ma’am,” said Kapoor, “Admiral Heartness, apart from a few bruises, is in good health.”

  "Smart move jumping through a slow hole," said Lin. "But you've only delayed the inevitable. We're stuck in a rapidly shrinking ball of micro time particles and about to be absorbed by an energy creature. I doubt we could be in any worse situation than this."

  "Ma'am, another energy creature has just appeared directly in front of us. Energy fluctuations suggest it is from a reversed time reality."