‘We keep in contact; we must join forces in a concerted effort to attack on all fronts. We are aware that our hardware, as humans, has been compromised. The good news, ladies and gentlemen, is that the aliens’ allies’ fire power is intact, non-negotiable,’ said Scott.
‘Then we need to get the message out to the world leaders. We need to meet with these alien allies of ours, preferably not at Camp David. It needs to be set up swiftly, this non-Vulcan alien is terrorising the country,’ said the president.
‘My thoughts precisely,’ agreed Scott.
‘Where are you based?’
‘Predictably, Antarctica,’ replied Scott. ‘Don’t know what it is but these aliens seem to like the snow.’
‘Let’s sign ‘em up for the next Winter Olympics,’ suggested Julian Argyle-Phillips, the Secretary of Defence.
‘It can be arranged,’ said Scott, now gaining overwhelming support amongst the room. Scott pondered that this was far more exhilarating and rewarding than any evangelical speech, the sad aspect being that his wife wasn’t there to witness his triumph.
The challenge was marrying up the human contingent with his alien buddies. Scott would have to work it out as he went along. For the moment, he revelled in his new role of ‘saviour of our planet’. ‘Has a ring to it’, thought Scott. “Saviour of my family’ less so’.
CHAPTER 25
2018 MEETS 2218
Klade was led to the time machines in the hangar, which had housed the ‘portal amplifier’. The intentions were unclear but obviously some action was intended.
‘Right, show us how this so-called time machine works, then,’ said the officer, dressed in full regalia. This was an army officer, not to be messed with.
‘What do you mean, how does this time machine work?’ retorted Klade. ‘This isn’t a machine to play around with.’
‘You said this was a time machine, it could be total garbage,’ said the officer. ‘We need proof.’
‘By all means, step inside,’ invited Klade. ‘I mean, it’s not as if we aren’t wasting precious time or anything whilst Robert Stave goes about the business of destroying your future.’
‘That’s precisely why we need you to prove your claim,’ said the officer.
‘Okay, that’s fine. Would you care to sit in one of these two capsules?’ Both of them had been transported from the interrogation room back to the hangar. ‘There is just one warning,’ said Klade.
‘We figured there would be a catch,’ said the officer.
‘Oh, there’s no catch,’ said Klade. ‘It’s just that these time machines have a habit of disintegrating, but hey, be my guest.’
The officer threw a suspicious glance tilting his head slightly, the puzzled look indicating his thought process.
‘Looks like you got here in one piece,’ said the officer observably.
‘Yeah, well, I didn’t have a choice. Orders! You know all about orders. Look, the only way to prove my case is for both of us to travel back to your future, my present, except there’s a slight problem due to a potential paradox. The machines are set up so as not to allow two machines to simultaneously travel to the same destination point within 24 hours of each other. That’s why I had to travel back before Robert Stave, only you guys screwed it up by rendering me unconscious for 36 hours.’
The officer looked at Klade as if he was speaking gibberish.
‘Let me explain further,’ said Klade. ‘One of us has to go back first while the other sets the second time machine to 24 hours later. I suggest the first person to return to 2218 is me.’
‘Yeah, I get it, you mess with the second machine, assuming of course this works and the second machine defaults and you’re gone in a puff of smoke. I’m going to look a real idiot trying to explain myself to the president,’ said the officer.
Klade shrugged his shoulders and exhaled frustratingly. ‘Okay, so let’s look at the other option. You go back first and hope that the military at the other end, in 2218, don’t put a bullet through that stupid head of yours. So, now you have just doubled your chance of not surviving. What do you prefer, Officer, burning alive or being shot through the head?’
Klade’s confidence made the officer dwell on that prospect. ‘Stay there and don’t move,’ said the officer who instructed the military police to keep a vigil whilst he sought advice. He left the hangar swiftly. Klade folded his arms, looked down at his shoes and shook his head.
The officer returned precisely 18 minutes later with Klade still admiring his shoes.
‘You guys in the future still understand the ‘hands up’ sign?’
‘Yeah, still signifies a surrender, an unarmed man,’ confirmed Klade.
‘Then it’s me first,’ said the officer. No theatricals, no conversation − decision made.
‘Assuming you get to the other side,’ Klade said under his breath.
Klade set up the time capsule. Destination: Time Capsule Centre, New Manhattan. The override ensured that it would arrive back at the original time and date pre-set – a time prior to the meeting with Croyolis Valentrek of the Council of the Light. Klade decided not to divulge too much about the time capsule’s settings, he needed to ensure that the officer would be at the precise destination once he arrived 24 hours later.
‘I’ve set the time and date for you in 2218. It is a date I know will not cause too much alarm at the other side. You will arrive at a place known as the Time Capsule Centre in New Manhattan. I believe you understand that place to be New York City.’
The look on the officer’s face demonstrated his terror. ‘This thing gonna burn up?’
‘Well, you take your chance,’ said Klade, feeling little sympathy for the occupant. ‘Hope you’ve worked out how you are going to convince my comrades that you’re kosher and you haven’t disposed of the expected occupant – me!’
‘I can handle the situation. Unless of course this is all bullshit and in the next couple of minutes I arrive back and see your ugly mug staring right back at me,’ replied the officer.
‘You’re in for a hell of a ride. Once you’ve disappeared from 2018 and there’s no question that I’m telling the truth, perhaps I’ll get some help to capture the real threat, Robert Stave.’
Klade’s voice activated the time capsule to initiate a countdown of 45 seconds, ensuring those in the hangar could be well clear. The doors, opened by Klade’s voice instruction only a few minutes earlier, closed slowly, the two halves sealing perfectly. The small window, almost menacingly revealing the current surroundings, would also reveal the truth to the occupant in a matter of seconds that he had travelled to 2218. The officer’s sweat obvious, the concern very real, the torturous possibility of being burned alive evident, Klade knew that look – it replicated his before his arrival back in 2018.
Klade instructed all personnel to stand well back, moreover not to look directly at the time capsule. Back at the Time Capsule Centre, time travel only occurred under strict laboratory conditions; the lowering of the steel blinds acted as both a safety precaution in case the capsule ignited, as well as protecting the technicians from the blinding light − a by-product of transporting a physical object to another time dimension.
Klade and the others looked away. The entrance door to the hangar with its small square glass section about a foot square, was enough to see the reflection of the time capsule’s departure. A blue lightning flash, followed by a blinding white light, indicated that the capsule had activated. A strange sound, unlike anything Klade had ever heard, accompanied the blinding light − a sound you might imagine an aircraft make, landing without wheels.
In a few seconds the capsule disappeared, the occupant thankfully saved from a horrific death.
Klade turned around and the others in the hangar turned in an almost choreographed movement. The time capsule appeared to have indeed catapulted to another time and place. No one spoke for a few moments.
‘Right, that’s my part of the bargain completed,’ said Klade. ‘I’ve got 24 ho
urs to try to locate Robert Stave before I too return to the future. Let’s not waste any more time than we need.’
The military police looked at each other, full in the knowledge that this prisoner would not be leaving the base any time soon, despite his insistence. Within a few seconds, Klade was being escorted out of the hangar. He thought he was on his way to fulfil his mission, yet in reality he was now army property and going nowhere.
********************************
A blinding flash of light, a crunching noise, metal on concrete; the officer, Jacob Adams, had arrived. The date − 25th February 2218. The time − 12pm noon. Senator Lace Adams, his future great-great-grandson, unbeknown to Klade, would be the occupant’s ticket to safety.
The room was designated to both send and receive time capsules, set up to anticipate an incoming machine, initiated the lowering of the shutters. Engineers kept a vigil − two were present when Jacob Adams arrived. Protection visors were always at the ready, particularly with incoming time travel. They were there to ensure protection against the blinding light in case the shutters were not fully closed, an instinctive act as they were already secured on the engineer’s heads.
Jacob Adams, eyes half shut, fully expecting the time capsule to have ignited, slowly focused. The room was not the hangar at Area 51 but a small room with shutters surrounding his time capsule.
‘Hell, I really must have travelled in time’, thought Jacob. Instinctively, he checked himself down. He was real, he was alive − no signs of burns. The room was white and the shutters an almost dirty grey, he couldn’t comprehend. ‘Focus, think’, thought Jacob. ‘What did that Klade fella tell me? That’s it − ‘voice activated’’.
‘Open,’ said Jacob. The time capsule responded, just as Klade had predicted. A noise − similar to bus doors opening − the two sections of the capsule released. Instinctively, Jacob raised his hands − ‘Klade had said it was a recognised truce action’. The shutters were raised and slowly the adjoining engineers’ room was revealed and people stared back at him, Jacob Adams, with a look of utter terror.
In the engineers’ room was Samuel.
‘Who the hell is that?’ asked Samuel aloud with a sixth sense, in realising that the time capsules meant trouble and now, confusion, as people they didn’t know were appearing.
‘Don’t know, but I sure ain’t going in there!’ said one of the other two engineers accompanying Samuel.
‘His hands are raised. Can’t see a weapon,’ said Samuel. ‘Call the military anyway, let them handle it.’
An engineer carried out the instruction. Less than a minute later, several highly armed military entered the room barking instructions at Jacob.
‘Keep your hands where we can see them. Don’t make any sudden movements!’ shouted a military operative.
‘Nothing has changed in 2218’, thought Jacob, knowing that any movement out of the ordinary might instantly curtail his trip. ‘Steady, I’m unarmed,’ assured Jacob.
One of the soldiers, clearly of higher rank, waved his firearm towards the door, simultaneously moving his head sideways to indicate that the captive individual should move towards the door.
Samuel had put in a call, Dr Laderman answered.
‘We’ve got a visitor,’ said Samuel.
‘Who, Klade?’ asked Dr Laderman.
‘No, it’s an unknown individual. Looks human, in some kind of military attire, but looks vaguely familiar. Don’t quite know what to make of it,’ said Samuel.
‘Needs apprehending and interrogating. Call for the military police.’
‘Already sorted, he is being escorted to a holding room. He isn’t a threat, at least for the moment.’
‘Just what is going on? Klade, Robert Stave and Senator Adams, all missing and an unknown turns up. We had better find out what’s going on and quick,’ said Dr Kladerman stating the obvious.
Twenty minutes later, Kladerman and Samuel sat opposite their new arrival. The questions were prepared and the interrogation began.
‘My name is Dr Kladerman and this is Samuel.’ With the formalities now out of the way: ‘This might seem a ridiculous question, but what persuasion are you?’
‘I’m American, Sir,’ replied Jacob, not quite sure in what context the question had been raised.
‘I meant alien or human,’ said Kladerman.
‘Shit, do I look like an alien?’ replied Jacob.
‘Believe it or not, aliens look just like us. This apparently is the known form for all intelligent life throughout our universe,’ said Kladerman. ‘I’m assuming that you are from the year 2018?’
‘Goddam right!’
‘We mean you no harm. You have travelled here in our time capsule. You are clearly none of the three individuals who have used the time capsule recently, so we have a problem. You can see that, can’t you?’
‘Nowhere near the problem I have at the moment,’ replied Jacob.
‘Would you mind telling us your full name, your rank, as we can clearly see that you are military? And a brief on how you managed to acquire the time capsule,’ asked Samuel.
‘I am Colonel Jacob Andrew Adams, based at Area 51, Nevada, the US of A, Sir! We believe you sent a soldier back to our time, I only know him as Klade. He said his mission was to capture and return Robert Stave and that our future depended on it. You can see how sceptical we were in the year 2018, time travel is mere science fiction and so we needed proof. I’m here to obtain that proof, Sir,’ said Jacob.
‘We understand. Tell me, what happened to Klade?’ asked Dr Laderman.
‘He’s on his way back here in the time capsule Robert Stave used. He said something about a 24-hour time delay between two capsules that are sent to the same destination.’
‘Yeah, that’s correct, it is the paradox phenomenon,’ confirmed Samuel.
‘Yeah, whatever,’ said Jacob. ‘I can see now that Klade was telling the truth. What exactly is this Robert Stave up to? Is it dangerous to our future back in 2018?’
‘It might be. We sent Klade back to prevent Stave doing something stupid, but we are not altogether sure what he is up to. He seems to be trying to rid our planet of the alien races.’
‘Alien races? What damn alien races?’ asked Jacob.
‘It’s a long story. I’m not quite sure he’s ready for this just at the moment,’ said Dr Laderman addressing Samuel.
Samuel keyed Jacob’s details into the computer. A look of shock. ‘You might want to look at this,’ said Samuel. Dr Laderman looked at his screen − a clear screen formatted to Dr Laderman’s thumb print; a screen only visible to the authorised recipient.
‘This puts a different perspective on matters, especially as his great-great-grandfather is missing,’ said Dr Laderman.
‘You guys mind telling me what exactly is going on?’ asked Jacob, now becoming more than a little concerned.
‘Jacob, this is getting more confusing by the minute. It appears that your great-great-grandson is Senator Lace Adams. He is a key member of the research division here at the Time Capsule Centre, the very building we are in at the moment. Jacob, we are going to need some time alone to try to evaluate the situation,’ said Dr Laderman.
‘Hell, first aliens, now my great-great-grandson,’ exclaimed Jacob, shaking his head.
‘The truth is, we are not too sure how messing with events of the past or future might work out. It seems more than a coincidence that you are a long-standing relative of someone who has also travelled back in time.’
‘I’m confused. I thought it was just Robert Stave and this Klade character who had used the time capsule?’ asked Jacob.
Dr Kladerman looked in Samuel’s direction. Samuel shrugged his shoulders, indifferent as to what was the next move. Both screens clearly showed the images of both Senator Lace Adams and that of Jacob, the resemblance, even taking into account the many years, there for all to see.
‘We have three time capsules in total, Jacob. You see, the Earth is in a perilous position right
now. Your descendent, Senator Lace Adams, has also travelled back in time,’ said Dr Kladerman.
‘Well, we never picked him up at the base,’ said Jacob.
‘I’m afraid it’s a time before Area 51 was even the remotest of an idea. It’s a time before our civilisation, Jacob. At the moment though, our only concern is for the return of Klade in the second capsule and a plan to prevent Robert Stave from succeeding in his mission,’ said Samuel. ‘We’re gonna need your help, Jacob.’
‘A history lesson might not go amiss,’ said Jacob, ‘if only to convince the guys back at the base that this crazy time traveller is kosher.’
‘We’ve got all of 24 hours to kill. What do you say we kick off with the Drayzaks?’ suggested Dr Laderman addressing Samuel.
‘No, let’s keep it simple. Drayzaks might sound just a little too far-fetched,’ replied Samuel.
‘Drayzaks, what the hell are Drayzaks?’ asked Jacob predictably.
‘In time, in time,’ replied Samuel, ‘pardon the pun.’
CHAPTER 26
THE REBEL REVOLT
Zak Lancelot returned to the Hologram Arena once Samuel and Maxius had vacated their hideout. He and his two rebel comrades took their seats. The arena was in full flow, the cubed screen depicted the odds in real time and a bloody encounter had seen a Zaagan beheaded. The crowd lusting for more blood whipped into a frenzied chanting, eagerly anticipating the next game. Zak and his comrades had not been missed.
Sat next to Zak was a rebel Zaagan called Xaan Kroit, his headset suggesting that he was expecting Zak to return.
‘Thanks for the tip-off,’ said Zak.
‘The guards are pretty clued-up. The two humans raised concerns, not on the radar so to speak,’ replied Xaan.
‘Yeah, good move to exit and see if they followed. Your judgment is spot on.’
‘Are we still on?’ asked the Zaagan.
‘Slight complication,’ replied Zak. ‘My human counterparts have more time machines. They’re gonna screw up.’
‘Look, we had a deal,’ said Xaan. ‘We’re funding your operation and keeping you informed of the Olympianas’ movements. We’ve saved your skin on so many occasions.’
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