by Nina Croft
His head still hurt, though the pain was fading. He closed his eyes again. Maybe this was all a bad dream. Except he didn’t really believe that. He had a strange inkling of where he might be. Or rather, when he might be. He opened his eyes and glanced down at his arm, fastened to the chair with two silver bands across his forearm and below them, the black transponder device strapped to his wrist.
Freaking holy shit.
She’d somehow sent him to the future, and she’d had no fucking right.
“Mel!”
Where was she? Had she stayed behind? On purpose? Why would she? Was she stuck there? Or was she here and just fucking ignoring him? “Mel!” The questions were going to make his head explode.
He opened his mouth to shout again when it occurred to him that it wasn’t the brightest of moves, considering he had no clue where the hell he was or who was here with him. So, he clamped his lips closed. A beep sounded behind him and white lights flashed on. He blinked, but there wasn’t a lot more to see. At that moment, the wall opposite him slid apart and a man stepped into the room—a stranger in a black jumpsuit and black boots. He had pale skin and pale hair and eyes that were wide with panic.
He looked behind the man and there she was. The breath left him. He’d be furious in a moment, when he got over the almost overwhelming sense of relief. She was so goddamn beautiful in a skintight black jumpsuit that looked much better on her than it did on the strange guy. She was also carrying a weapon of some sort, which was aimed at the guy and was like nothing he had ever seen before. Yup. He was definitely not in Kansas anymore.
She prodded the man in the back and he stepped farther into the room, the walls sliding closed behind them. Her expression was wary. Did she think he was going to be pissed? Why wouldn’t she? “Hi,” she said.
His eyes narrowed. “You hit me over the goddamned head.”
“I had no choice.”
“Of course you had a fucking choice.”
“You wouldn’t have come.”
“Hell no, I wouldn’t have come. And you should have respected my decision.”
“You would have died.” She was starting to sound a little miffed herself now.
“That was my goddamned choice.” He made to push himself up and couldn’t because he was strapped down. He couldn’t even move his head more than an inch because it was held in place by a metal loop around his forehead. And he wanted to move. He wanted to… Hell, he had no clue what, but he was sure it would come to him. “Get me out of this thing.”
For a second, he thought she was going to leave him there. Then she nodded down toward his arm. “Press the blue button.”
He followed her gesture. There was a blue button right next to his fingers. He pressed it and the arm restraints sprang free. He reached up and tugged at the band around his forehead and it came away easily. He blew out his breath as he considered his next move.
He needed to find a way back to his own time and he needed to save the goddamn world.
He pushed himself to his feet, swayed and then crashed to his knees as nausea swamped him.
“It will pass in a minute,” Mel said. “It’s just a side effect of the time displacement. Just stay still.”
Yeah, like he was going to move anywhere. If he did, he was pretty sure he would spill his guts everywhere. But she was right, he could already feel the nausea fading. He remained on his hands and knees for maybe a minute, then he raised his head to look at her. She was gnawing on her pretty pink lips.
“We need to hurry,” she said when she saw she had his attention.
“You need to send me back.”
“I can’t.”
Did he believe her? He wasn’t sure.
“Not right now anyway,” she added, maybe to mollify him. “And if we get caught, we won’t be going anywhere.”
He thought for a moment. The fact was, he had little choice but to follow her lead. She knew this place. This time. He had no clue what he was dealing with. Until he did, she was calling the shots. He was still pissed, though. He got to his feet. At least, he was feeling better with every passing second. He might actually survive this. It was sinking in—he was actually in the future. And while he still had to go back, he presumed he could go to right after he’d left and still have time to warn his friends. Hell, he could go back even further. Maybe before Shanna died. He could save her, too. Save Sam.
Would that mean Jake would never kidnap Christa? They would never get together. Maybe he could tell Jake that the colonel’s daughter was the one for him.
Shit, his head was going to explode.
“Quinn?” Mel interrupted his daydream of a new and better past. “There’s something I need you to do.”
“There is?”
“Can you get into his head?” She waved her pistol at the man she had under guard. “I need to know who he’s working for.”
“Sure. I can try anyway. Unless he’s got an implant like you.”
“It’s unlikely.”
He reached out with his mind and slipped in easily. The man was trying to shut down his thoughts, but he picked up the link and followed it along. “He was approached by a man called Brent—I recognize him—the one I shot this morning. Hell, not this morning, whenever. Brent pays him. He knows no one else.”
“Damn. I was hoping to get something more.”
He reached again but found nothing of any interest. “Sorry. There’s nothing else in there.”
She blew out her breath, then shot the man in the chest. The action was so sudden that Quinn took an instinctive step back. Then he crouched down beside the man, put a finger to his throat and felt the slow steady pulse.
“I only stunned him,” Mel said. “Though he deserves more. He sent back the men who tried to kill us.” She shook her head, put her pistol in her pocket and waved a hand to somewhere behind him. Turning, he saw a door in the curved wall. “You need to detox. You’ll find clothes in there as well. Get changed and we’ll get out of here.”
“When exactly are we?” he asked as he headed for the door.
“4012.”
“Hell.”
The door slid open as he approached. Quinn stepped into a smaller chamber and the door shut behind him. As he pulled off his clothes, a second door slid open opposite him. He stepped through. A red light glowed above him, bathing him in warmth—some sort of radiation, at a guess. It lasted for a couple of minutes and then was replaced by a white light. A drawer slid out of the wall. In it was a jumpsuit like the one Mel wore—they were going to be matching, how cute was that?—and a pair of black boots. The clothes fit perfectly—maybe there was some sort of measuring device. He was examining the walls looking for clues, when the door slid open and Mel stood there. She tossed him a small rectangular object.
“Protein bar,” she said. And he realized he was starving. Hell, he hadn’t eaten for two thousand years, of course he was hungry.
He pulled off the wrapper and took a bite. It was bland and tasteless. He must have pulled a face because she smiled.
“It’s not ice cream.”
“No.” He swallowed the rest. “What are we going to do? How are we going to get back and stop whatever it is happening?”
“We’re not. But I warned your friend,” she said. “Jake. I told him about the explosion. Told him to get his people as far away as he can. Australia. There’s a good chance they’ll survive. It was the best I could do.”
“And what about everyone else?”
“We can’t change the past, Quinn. Not something that big. It could have huge repercussions, sending ripples out that could destroy far more than the Earth.”
He had to admit, that didn’t sound good, but there had to be something they could do. “So what? We just stay here and live happily ever after?” For a moment, he actually thought about that. Living here with Mel. Maybe he could get a job with this Bureau, be one of the good guys. But the thought only lasted a moment. He couldn’t live with himself if he did nothing. Just let e
veryone he knew die. Because he was quite sure that Kane wouldn’t just abandon his precious mission and go hide on the other side of the world. And that Jake wouldn’t leave him to do whatever he needed to do alone.
“No. We have to find the traitors in the Bureau.”
“Aren’t they dead? Or at least one of them. What happened to the other—the one who did the emergency thing?”
“I changed the settings. He’ll arrive back in a couple of days. Hopefully after we’ve done whatever we need to do.”
“So where do we start?”
“We’re going to talk to the Krellians.”
“Why are we going to talk to them?”
“Because they invented time travel.”
…
He’d actually taken it quite well. She’d been prepared for much worse, including the possibility that he might hate her. But while he did seem a little pissed, he was going along with what she asked without argument. Which was good—they didn’t have a lot of time.
He looked great in the jumpsuit, the material skintight, showing off his long, lean frame and broad shoulders. She wanted to ask him to turn around, so she could see the full effect, but they really did have to move. She raised her gaze to his face and found him watching her, amusement in his eyes. “I think the outfit suits you better than me.”
She cleared her throat. “No, you look good.”
“You think so.” He took a step closer, cupped her face with his big hand and warmth ran through her. “I don’t agree with what you did, but I understand why. Just don’t do it again.” He lowered his head and pressed his lips to hers and she took an instinctive step toward him, her hands coming up to rest on his shoulders, feeling the heat of his skin through the thin material of his jumpsuit, and kissed him back, parting her lips, and his tongue thrust inside, filling her. Her nipples tightened, a pulse throbbed between her thighs, and she pressed herself against him. He was hard. He wanted her and the last of her fear eased away. She’d done what she had to, but she’d been so afraid he would never forgive her.
When he raised his head, his expression was rueful. “I guess we don’t have time for this.”
She swallowed, and for a second, her hands tightened on his shoulders, then she forced herself to loosen her grip and take a step back. “No. We need to move.”
“To go see these Krellians. Where are they exactly?”
“On Earth.”
He’d been heading toward the door and now he paused and turned to look at her. “You make that sound as though we’re not on Earth. Where the hell are we?”
“Come on and I’ll show you.”
She led the way out of the decontamination room, through the time displacement chamber, past the unconscious body of the technician. She wished she could hide him, but there was nowhere she could think of. At least there were no time shifts booked for the rest of the day, so chances were, they might get away with it. While Quinn was decontaminating, she’d dragged the technician into the chair, fastened the restraints and shot out the release mechanism. Then added a gag.
The door slid open and they left the room and entered the corridor which led from the pod, where the chambers were situated, to the main central section of the space station. No one was around, which was good. Quinn might look more the part now with his change of clothing, but the population of the space station was small, and a stranger would likely evoke at least a question or two.
She halted by one of the huge curved windows that looked out into space. At the moment, they were facing Earth, looking down on the not so distant planet. Quinn had stopped beside her, and she glanced at his face. His mouth was open.
“We’re in space.”
“Not really in space. We’re on a station orbiting the moon.”
“We’re in goddamn fucking space,” he said. A grin spread across his face. “Okay, I forgive you. We still have to go back, but I forgive you for hitting me over the head. I always wanted to be an astronaut and go to the moon. And fuck me, but here I am.”
She walked on quickly. They needed to get to the docking bay. She’d logged in a trip to Earth yesterday, so there should be no problem, but she would be happier once they were away from here. Her father had still not returned, but as soon as he did, she was guessing he would sense something was amiss. He had a nose for trouble.
They reached the central area, and she turned left, heading for the elevators which would take them down to the docking bay. The doors opened, and they entered.
“So why in space?” he asked as the elevator lowered.
“There’s less chance of ripple effects. Something to do with the gravitational pull of a planet. They get destabilized much easier.”
“And is this the only one. Or does your Bureau of Time Management have…offices elsewhere?”
“You mean other planets?”
“I guess.”
“This is the only station capable of time travel. It was thought best to limit the active machines—easier to control that way. But we have monitoring stations on other planets.”
“And have you been to any?”
“I spent my childhood on various planets, all far away, wherever my father was stationed.”
The doors opened at that moment and she led the way out.
“Holy shit.”
He’d stopped just outside the elevator and was staring across the docking bay. There were eight space shuttles parked up, and he walked slowly toward the nearest one, resting a hand on the silver metal of the exterior. He appeared almost dazed. It was a lot to take in, and she was glad that something positive would come out of all this. Quinn was going to get to ride in a spaceship.
“Come on,” she said. “I might even let you drive if you’re a good boy.”
He hurried after her as she searched the area for the shuttle assigned to her. It was a small, two-man craft but plenty big enough for what they needed. She climbed the ramp, Quinn close behind her. Holding her breath, she punched in the code, half expecting an alarm to go off, but there was no sound, just the whoosh as the door slid open. Inside was a single room about ten feet by ten feet with two seats facing the console and the front viewing screen.
She sat down in the pilot’s seat and waved Quinn to the chair next to her. After fastening her harness, she glanced sideways. He’d watched her and now fastened his own correctly.
Time to go.
She swiped her hand over the console and the ship shuddered to life beneath her. She loved flying almost as much as she loved shifting time—maybe that was why she had found it so hard being a passenger back on Earth. She took the controls and the ship lifted, floating easily above the docking bay floors. She maneuvered it into the corridor that led to the airlock, peering in the rear viewer as the primary airlock doors closed behind them. Up ahead, the docking bay doors opened and a few seconds later, they were out into space and heading away from the space station.
She released the controls—their destination was locked in and there was actually no more flying to do—and spun her chair to face Quinn. He was staring out of the front viewer which showed the Earth.
“Wow.” He gave a little shake of his head. “How long will it take?”
She glanced at the console. “Just under an hour.”
He grinned. “More wow. Jake will be so pissed he missed this.” The thought seemed to sober him, and the smile slid from his face. No doubt he was remembering that Jake was dead, and had likely been dead for two thousand years. “So,” he said. “Tell me what’s going on. I take it you have a plan.”
She winced a little at that. “Not a fully formed plan, no.”
“How formed?”
“Not formed at all. But this was all I could think of, and I’m sure there’s a link.”
“Go on.”
She took a breath and thought about where to start, what he needed to know for this to make any sense at all. “Time travel was invented about two hundred years ago by the Krellians.”
“The blue guys i
n the war with the other blue guys?”
“Yes. They’re a race who originate from a system light-years away. Their planet was destroyed a few thousand years before that by the Bhaxians. The two have been at war forever. The Krellians are scientists. The Bhaxians, warriors.”
“You sound as if you don’t like them.”
“No. Not a lot. I was stationed on their planet for a while.” She shrugged. “The Krellians got a rough deal. And they’ve done a lot for the Earth after the Cataclysm.”
“How come they were even in the vicinity?”
“They became wanderers after their home planet was destroyed. They were apparently passing close to the Earth when the Cataclysm happened. The planet was toxic for most races, but the Krellians are immune to this particular radiation. They went down, checked for survivors and they’ve been working down there ever since. They have immunity from attack, which pisses off the Bhaxians, who’d like to destroy the rest of them.”
“They’re around as well.”
“Oh yes. Anyway, as I said, the Krellians are scientists and invented time travel.”
“Why?”
She frowned. “I don’t know why. Just because.”
“You think maybe they wanted to go back and save their planet?”
It was weird, but she didn’t think anyone had ever asked that question. Why did they invent time travel? “They claimed they stumbled upon the technology while researching a new, faster interstellar travel.” But how did anyone stumble on time travel? She pressed her finger to her forehead, trying to get her thoughts in order. “They’re the good guys. I think. And they cooperated when time travel was banned. They agreed to destroy their own machines and hand over the technology to the Bureau. In exchange, they got immunity from the Bhaxians.”
“Did they have a choice?”
She felt her frown deepening. “No, I suppose not. What are you getting at?”
“I have no clue. But I’ve done the whole ‘they’re the good guys’ thing. It didn’t turn out well, and since then, I don’t presume just because someone looks like they’re the good guys, and acts like the good guys, that they are.”
“Fair enough.”
“So why are we talking to them?”
