Timelines

by Bob Blink

  They were only a few feet from the tunnel when Naiya felt the change. Both looked back to see the tunnel disappear. That shouldn’t have happened, she realized. They were still too close and the key should keep it open. Taking a step back towards the tunnel, she walked until she could touch the wall. That’s it then, she thought. They must have lost. The aliens had closed the tunnels. No one was coming for them.

  She couldn’t do anything about that right now. But she could avenge her friend. Naiya turned and set off in pursuit of the enemy that couldn’t be very far ahead.

  ------------------------------

  The fight had been fierce despite the short duration. Mike had seen several of his men fall, and knew it had been a close thing. More of the aliens had arrived than they had expected, causing him to delay the initial triggering of the explosives. As a result, several had escaped below. Jim had managed to kill the last one in the long hallway to the ‘airlock’ that for the moment ended the battle up here. If there were additional enemy waiting behind the door, they hadn’t shown themselves. That made him believe there weren’t anymore. Forewarned, with those protective shields, they could have ended it easily by attacking moments before. But what about the three aliens that had escaped down the ramp? Mike quickly slipped from behind his cover and made his way carefully down the ramp. He didn’t know if they waited below, but he needed reinforcements and needed to warn the others waiting in the caves just outside the entrance tunnel.

  As he made his way down the ramp, he was able to see that the battle down here had been lost. His men were down, and he was certain they were dead. Carol was also down – so she hadn’t made it out when he tried to hurry her out of the complex. Someone had at least taken one of the three aliens down. That must have been Carol, he thought. The others had had only the heavy rifles, which had shown themselves to be totally ineffective. No one else was present in the tunnel room. The two remaining alien visitors were missing as well – disappeared through one or more of the tunnels he guessed. Finding them wasn’t going to be easy. Hopefully the video would show which paths the enemy had taken.

  Without thinking, he reached down and picked up the alien’s weapon. Probably he wouldn’t be able to make it work, but why leave it there where one of the missing enemy could pick it up. If it did work, maybe it would be more effective than the rifles had been. If nothing else it made him a little less unarmed and exposed.

  He hurried across the floor of the tunnel room towards the exit to home, stopping only momentarily to check Carol’s pulse. He couldn’t feel anything under his fingertips. He knew that sensitivity in his extremities was poor just now, the result of fear and the fight, so his check wasn’t conclusive. But she looked dead. He stood quickly and continued toward his destination. Before he could reach it, a number of his men started pouring out the tunnel, with Doc hurrying along somewhere in the middle of the group. While the men gathered around him, Doc moved between the casualties of the previous encounter. There was no point manning the rifles. He sent half of the team downtime to gather more of the explosives. They had at least been effective although that might have been mostly due to surprise.

  “Mike?” one of the remaining men asked.

  Quickly he told them the status of the fight upstairs. They needed to do a sweep and make sure none of the aliens remained, but he warned them of the ineffectiveness of their weapons against the shields. He looked at the alien weapon he held in his left hand. It was surprisingly light given the power it carried. Not unlike a small rifle, somewhat reminiscent of the bullpup design, the only controls were a couple of buttons on the bottom side. The weapon felt awkward in his hands. It had been designed for a different configuration of fingers and appendages. He was able to hold it with a bit of experimentation, and most importantly reach the key controls. Of the two buttons, one was in a position that would be convenient as a trigger. He motioned the men to stand back, and took aim on the empty storage room. He needed to know if he could fire the weapon. With more than a little trepidation, he slowly pressed the stud. Typical of the alien devices, there was no apparent movement of the trigger stud, but suddenly the weapon fired. A bit of a push, and a blast of light smacked into the back wall of the little room.

  “Ok,” he said, “It works. Nick, you are to remain here against the possibility of their return.”

  Mike handed the alien weapon to Nick after showing him the button that would fire the device.

  “I don’t know if it will work on them, but it has a better chance than anything else we have. Scott, you stay here with him. Use one of the Barretts. I know it won’t stop them, but the blast will warn us upstairs that something is happening down here.”

  It was time to get back upstairs. He had only been gone a couple of minutes, and it remained quiet up there, but that might not last. Motioning the remaining three men to follow him, he started back up the ramp. He wanted to see what Doc had found, but that would have to wait. When he reached the top, he told Jim about Carol. The look on Jim’s face said everything.

  After making sure the laser was manned, he checked to be sure that Jeff was clear on the need to trigger the time delay on the explosive charges packed into the equipment should things turn sour. Then Mike and two of his men made their way down the hallway towards the bodies of the dead aliens. The first was a mess, the result of its weapon exploding as much as the blast from the laser. The others were dead as well and he and his men quickly retrieved the alien weapons. He still hadn’t had a chance to see if they would work against the aliens, especially if their shields were up. If Carol’s rifle worked against them, then he was betting the aliens own weapons would work as well. Of course, they may have built in some form of protection against them. If that was the case they had better not run into any more of them. Then he realized one of the aliens was still alive, but badly wounded and completely out of the fight. He needed to know for sure, sensibilities be damned. He pointed the alien weapon at the helpless creature and pressed the firing stud. The blast caused the shield to flare around the alien, but it was no protection from their own weapon. The alien jerked in response to the shot and died as Mike had hoped. Question answered.

  At the edge of the airlock, he peered into the area beyond. He could see a single large room, with a number of adjustable seats set around the edges. There were at least a dozen seats, which wasn’t a good sign. At the far end were banks of controls, with two large view screens set above the panels. Mike couldn’t see anything through the screen from this vantage point, but he could see the two aliens collapsed in their seats just behind the controls. The bombs they had launched into the room had obviously caught these two by surprise. Scanning for other still living enemy, Mike slipped quickly into the room taking cover behind a bulkhead wall along the edge of the room. Signaling his men, they followed him in, spreading out and taking cover as available.

  It didn’t take long to verify the room was empty except for the two dead aliens. The bomb blast had scattered debris around the room, but had done surprisingly little serious damage to the hardware itself. The two aliens in the reclining seats had no weapons. So, they had intended on remaining here. There wasn’t time for too much investigation, but Mike chanced a quick glance out the view panels. That answers one question, he thought. It was pretty obvious they were in space. He could see the dark background sprinkled with thousands of pin-points of light. Stars! The real giveaway, however, was the blue green planet that was visible far below them. He didn’t know much about orbits, but the planet looked a lot further away than the pictures he was used to from shuttle launches. He suspected they were in a much higher orbit.

  Mitch was signaling him. He had found a passageway. Mike moved quickly and looked in the direction Mitch had pointed. The circular opening penetrated the outer edge of the room wall, with a short flat area just inside which merged into a ramp curling downwards. There was at least one more level. Before entering the doorway, Mike waited until a complete scan of the room was performed. His men
shook their heads at the unasked question. Despite their headset communications, talking wasn’t appropriate just now. This level was secure, and there were no other entrances. If anyone remained on board, they would be down this one passageway.

  Heart racing at the expectation of discovery, he led the way down the ramp. Mitch followed immediately after him, while Thomas remained far enough back to be clear of an initial attack. He would provide backup, and if needed get a warning out to the others. Their caution wasn’t necessary. Nothing made a run at them. The lower level was as quiet as the upper one. It took only a few minutes to check the four compartments that divided up the space on this level. It was obvious that there were no additional levels to be searched. No doors or ramps other than the one they had used led from this level. Only the one passageway linked the upper and lower floors. The bottom floor appeared to have a common room for eating and entertainment, a bunkroom, what appeared to be an engineering or propulsion room, and an equipment storage room. The equipment room held four more of the alien weapons. Having verified the area was secure, Mike handed the four additional weapons to Thomas and sent him back to the barricade in the control center. He wanted all of the weapons deployed in the hands of his men.

  The two men made their way back upstairs, noting once again the similarity of the equipment to that of the control center. It was obvious the two shared a common design approach. This ship clearly belonged to the builders of the time matrix. He would have liked to spend time to explore the interior in more detail. Mike suspected a lot of questions would be answered as they studied the ship carefully. Hopefully they would be able to access the computers, perhaps providing more insight to the origin of the aliens, and why they were here. That would come later. For now, they still had the problem of two missing aliens to deal with.

  As Mike made his way through the airlock door, he told Mitch to take a guard position at the door. As he turned and started back down the hallway he noted Jim headed his way. He assumed that Jim had heard that the remaining aliens were all dead. He started to tell him what they had found. Then he saw the look on Jim’s face.

  Chapter 38

  Time Complex

  Friday, 29 September 2006

  I realized that Mike had a number of additional men with him as he came hurrying up the ramp from the tunnel room. Peripherally I wondered where they had come from all of a sudden, but my mind was primarily occupied with the words he had just spoken and couldn’t be bothered with thinking about their unexplained presence. Carol! We had just lost a number of men, all of them people I had known for years. Their loss was going to bother me for years as I second guessed our decisions and defensive preparations. It wasn’t the same. Carol was family. Other than Naiya there was no person in my life that mattered so much. As I rose and headed for the ramp I looked around. It had been a close thing. We were lucky to have prevailed. Actually, I was being premature. There could be another battle waiting for us down the hall. But I didn’t think so. If there had been more of the aliens alive, they would have come already. Mike and his team would have to see to that. I needed to check on Carol.

  As I made my way down the ramp, I had to make way for the last of Mike’s men as they headed upwards to the site of the battle I had just left. Below I could see another battle had been fought. The two defenders Mike had assigned below were both down, and towards the back, next to one of the downed men lay Carol. Doc was already at her side. At the bottom of the ramp I had to step over another casualty, realizing as I did so that it was one of the aliens. This one was dead, but not damaged or bleeding in any way. There was only one possible answer. Carol had nailed this one with that rifle of hers. She had told me earlier that the rifle held one full charge and change. She had made her shot count. I wondered now where the other two had gone. Out the tunnels somewhere I was certain. That was something we would have to sort out, and soon. I also realized something else was different, but wasn’t able to put my finger on the change. First things first.

  As I headed to where Doc knelt over the prostrate Carol, I noticed that two of Mike’s men were on guard. One was carrying one of the alien weapons. Probably from the dead alien at the base of the ramp. I wondered if it worked. The other held one of the 25 pound Barrett rifles. That wasn’t going to be of much help if the aliens returned.

  Doc looked up as I approached. I was having trouble forming the words. His eyes were sad, but he nodded to me as I knelt down.

  “She’s alive,” he said quietly. The crushing weight in my chest lessened as I waited for more. “Heart stopped for a few moments, and all the muscles were locked up. I gave her a shot that seems to have helped. Actually, I think she would have come out of it on her own. I’ll need to run some tests, and she is going to be sore as hell, but I think she’s going to be fine. The blast was aimed at Roger over there. She only caught the edge of it.”

  I looked over at Roger. Doc saw the direction of my gaze and shook his head. “They got Tim as well.” So another two men lost, I thought.

  A couple of Doc’s people were waiting with a stretcher. “Where should we take her?” he asked.

  I thought it odd he was asking me, then realized what he meant. “We appear to have prevailed for now,” I replied. “I think the facilities at the base would be best.”

  He nodded and the men carefully lifted her onto the stretcher and headed to the downtime tunnel. I reached over and picked up her rifle still lying on the ground next to where she had been a minute before.

  “There’s a couple more upstairs that need your help,” I told him. “Also a couple more casualties.”

  “I expected as much. I better get up there and have a look. I sent a couple of medics up with Mike’s re-enforcements when Naiya sent word that we were needed.”

  My blood froze. Naiya! I had been assuming she was still outside the complex in the cave area, having never come inside. I had been surprised to see Doc here already, but hadn’t pieced together that if he was here, Naiya should be as well. My mind had been on Carol. Now Doc was saying Naiya had sent for him. That meant she had to have been inside during the fighting. Where the hell was she?

  Just to be sure I asked. “Doc, did you say Naiya sent for you?”

  “Yes. She went in ahead of me after we got things set up outside. She wanted to talk with you about something. She, and Dix, and Ted. A minute later Ted came running back saying the aliens had returned, that Carol and the two men were down, and that Mike needed the rest of his team immediately.” He looked at me oddly. “Where is Naiya? I was surprised she wasn’t here with Carol when I came in.”

  Where was Naiya? That was certainly the question right now. And Dix? I hadn’t seen him either. I knew they hadn’t come upstairs. No one came up the ramp during the battle. I hadn’t passed her on my way down. She wasn’t here. I looked around the tunnel room. Besides Doc and myself, there were a couple of people removing the bodies of the two men that had been killed. Everyone else was upstairs. That meant she must have taken one of the tunnels. Which one? Had she gone to the base, or back outside where people had been camped?

  I needed to find her. I wasn’t going to be much good for anything else until I did. Doc headed for the ramp to go upstairs while I headed over to the tunnel that would take me home. On the other side I found a deserted camp. Tents had been set up in the cave where people could rest and eat between shifts. Now they were all deserted. People had gone back into the center, or shifted back to downtime base. With the battle over for now, there was no reason not to get into the better equipped facility. It would be easier to care for the wounded there as well. I told myself Naiya had to have gone to the base. I turned and walked back through into the tunnel room.

  The bodies had been removed, even that of the alien. People were moving into and out of the tunnel that lead to the base. I hurried across the room to the downtime tunnel, and emerged into the cave area that led to the base. No one I talked with had seen her since before she had entered the complex a while back. I searched
the whole of the base, moving between the areas quickly. Most were still deserted. I found where they had Carol and the other wounded. She was already looking better, but was still out. They had given her something that would speed the mending and would keep her out until this evening. Two of the men were much worse, and had been injected with the rebuilding medicines that had saved me so long ago.

  But no Naiya. It didn’t take very long to know she hadn’t been here. The dread was beginning to build. I knew that two of the aliens were missing. So were Naiya and Dix. I was beginning to believe there was a connection.

  I hurried back to the tunnel, emerging once again in the tunnel room. One man was stationed at the foot of the ramp carrying one of the alien weapons. So, we were able to make the strange rifles work. I wondered if they would be effective against the alien shields. It was the best option we had available that was portable.

  I walked across to the ramp and was about to start upstairs when my mind finally registered what it couldn’t be bothered with earlier. Shocked, I walked over to the wall of the room, and placed my hand on the dimpled surface where a tunnel had been just a short time before. Not just a tunnel, but a very important one. This was where the tunnel that had led uptime to the period the aliens had shown interest in. What had happened? How had the tunnel been closed? The aliens had never had access to the control area to shut it down. So how. . . ? The fear in me grew exponentially. I knew in my heart where Naiya was and why I couldn’t find her. She was on the other side of that tunnel. Everything we knew said you couldn’t reopen a tunnel to the same time once it was closed. Even if you could, we didn’t know how, and it would take weeks based on the recent tunnels we had watched develop.

  Dreading what I would find, I hurried upstairs hoping against the odds that I was wrong and she would be there helping with the wounded. I could see that two men were providing cover against anything coming up the ramp. Each had one of the alien mini rifles. Two more men were positioned behind barricades with a field of fire down the long hallway, backing up the laser that I had used to kill one of the aliens earlier. I noted they also carried the alien weapons. How many of those did we have?