by Frank Carey
"I'll be your lab rat, so don't screw up."
"What the hell is wrong with you? You're not a warrior! You're a damn scientist and our leader."
She put her face millimeters from his. "I have a chance to end Gabe Adon once and for all, and I need a stryker I can trust to get the job done. Unfortunately. They're all morons, so I need to become a stryker. Get it?"
"Zoe, what are you planning on doing?"
"You'll see. Everyone will see."
###
Taz handed the syringe to Zoe's personal physician, Dr. Celeste Megas. She connected it to an IV line inserted into Zoe’s right arm and pressed the plunger, sending millions of nanorobots into Zoe's bloodstream. "Looks good, Dr. Mykroft. They've begun transforming her." She looked at the young scientist. "You may go now."
"But..."
"You may go now," Celeste said before glancing at the two mercs guarding the door. They stepped over and took Taz by the arms. "We will let you know if we need further assistance." The mercs nearly dragged him out of the room and into the hallway before returning to their posts.
"Dammit, Zoe! What are you up to?" He thought for a moment, then returned to his office, sealing the door behind him. "Computer, security seal, this room."
"Working..." the computer replied in a woman's voice. "Room sealed. Orders?"
"This terminal, list of all research being conducted by Dr. Zoe Muntz. Authorization Mykroft C57D inclusive."
A moment passed, then two. Just as Taz was having second thoughts, a list appeared. With a deep breath, and even deeper trepidation, Taz read through the list. Most of the projects were ones he was familiar with, but one caught his eye--Kronos. "What the hell? I thought she and Silas gave up on that one." He pulled-up the file from the data banks and read through it. "By all that's holy, she can't be serious. Computer, status of Project Kronos? "
"Initial testing phase complete. Live material test complete. Sapient transport test complete. System standing by for final mission."
"Final mission? How many mission have there been?"
"No missions have been completed."
"Specify final mission."
"Return to Cube shortly after destruction of Destiny. Destroy Cube. Destroy Gabriel Adon. Destroy Priscilla Kitra."
"Wait... Computer, stop. Why kill Adon and Kitra if they are going to die... Dammit. Computer, is Zoe planning on returning to this time destination."
"Negative. Per note in file, she will return to these temporal coordinates via normal flow of time in new chronology."
"I'm getting a headache. Computer, probability of success?"
"Unknown."
"Expand search to include all known data sources."
"Working..." The computer played back the conversation Zoe had with Anne.
"Identify participants and location of conversation."
"General Marta McMurphy, Ms. Saffron Adon, Cyber Corps Agent Priscilla-Anne Kitra, breakroom six."
"Priscilla-Anne Kitra, the woman from the other universe?"
"Affirmative."
"I need to talk to her. Reassign all guards and clear that floor."
"Working... Floor clear."
After clearing any trace of his inquiry from the computer logs, Taz quickly made his way to the break room holding the three women. Reaching the door, he stopped and knocked before keying the door and stepping in.
"Who the hell are you?" an older human woman asked.
"Dr. Taz Mykroft. I work for Zoe. You must be Marta, and Saffron, and Priscilla-Anne. We need to talk."
"About what? "
"I heard the recording of your talk with Zoe. Is it true she'll destroy this time line?"
"Yep." Anne replied.
"Dammit, I should have seen this coming. She's lost it. General, can I have your word that she won't be killed if I hand her over to you?"
Marta shook her head. "Who the hell are you?"
"I'm the guy who resurrected your grandfather."
"I thought Zoe did that."
"She thinks she did, and I prefer to keep it that way. We have to stop her."
"Wait, you mean she's created a temporal gateway?" Anne asked.
"Computer, terminal, this room."
A wall opened to reveal a large screen terminal.
"Computer, display Kronos Project file."
"Working..." The screen lit up as the file was displayed. Anne walked over and stared at it for a moment. "Yep, we're all going to die."
"Taz, we need to get to a comm..."
"Warning! Perimeter intrusion sector eight..."
"Computer, silence all alarms. Identify intruders."
"Members of EMEF, EarthSec, R-Sec, OffSec, and local authorities. One stryker is present."
"Dad!" Saffron blurted out.
"General, I place myself in your custody."
"Why the hell would you do that?"
"Your grandfather may remember me."
"Fine. We need him in here, NOW."
"Computer, locate Stella Muntz and direct her to this location."
"Working. ETA two-minutes."
"Muntz?" Marta asked. "I didn't know they had relatives. "
"A few. There is no love lost between Zoe and Stella, though." A knock signaled the arrival of Stella. Taz opened the door and herded the young woman inside.
"Hey Taz, what's up?"
"Zoe's has gone on the ultimate tear, and I need your help to stop her."
"Sure, what do you need?"
He walked over to a wall and placed his palm against it. A panel opened to reveal an arsenal. He reached inside and took two items which he handed to the young woman. "This is a personal stealth generator and that is a geolocator. Computer, program geolocator with coordinates of stryker unit in sector eight."
"Working. Task complete."
"Use this to find the stryker. His name is Gabe Adon. Tell him that Zoe's gone off the deep end. She's planning on changing the past to destroy the future. Bring him back here ASAP."
"What's in it for me?"
"Survival?" a flabbergasted Saffron blurted out.
"Eh, but I like your chrono."
"Here, take it," Saffron said while handing her the timepiece. "And take the ring as well. That's real elfstone."
"Damn, thanks," the young woman said while admiring the jewelry.
Taz hustled her to the door. "Activate the stealth generator, but remember to turn it off when you find Gabe."
"And if I don't deactivate it? He can't see me..."
"The others can't, but he can. Don't mess with him. He once took an exploding star and used it to jump start a universe. Now, get!"
Stella activated the field as Taz closed the door behind her. He saw the look of shock on the other's faces. "I'm positive it's a genetic trait. "
"Taz, why do you continue to work with the psychopath?" Marta asked.
"I'm deeply, madly, and totally in love with her. Please, don't kill her."
"Oh, they won't," Anne said, "at least not until I'm through with her."
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Gabe, Rista, and Stella, made their way to an entrance blocked from view by a pile of boulders, all the while hidden by Gabe's and Stella's overlapping stealth fields. "Never been in one of these before," Rista whispered. "How can you see anything?"
"Scanners," Gabe replied while Stella tapped a pair of glasses she donned.
"Scanner readouts."
They made it to the rocks undetected. Stella pointed to a metal hatch which Gabe carefully opened. Once inside, Gabe reached up and gently touched a camera. The green indicator light flashed for a moment before returning to solid green. "I've scrammed the system. It'll be back up in about twenty minutes. Which way, Stella?" he asked while shutting down his cloak.
"This way," she said while collapsing hers. They soon found themselves standing in front of the break room door. She quietly knocked. "Taz! It's Stella. I've brought friends."
Gabe scanned the area and found the floor completely empty. The do
or opened and a familiar face looked at him. "Don't kill me," Taz asked nicely.
He let the girls go in first before joining them. Once inside, he went human, then hugged his daughter and granddaughter before turning to Taz. "I take it you're Taz since I don't recognize you. Taz, what the hell is going on?"
"Zoe plans on going back in time to kill you and Pris while destroying the Cube. She's not planning on coming back through the portal. This is a suicide mission."
"I guess I've been a bigger pain in her backside than I thought. OK, how does she plan on performing this impossible feat? "
"Using shards of refined neltorite crystals retrieved from Orta, she and Dr. Silas Nize built a temporal gateway generator using Erdexi portal technology."
"Where is this generator?"
"Two floors down near the center of the complex."
The lights in the room dimmed as alarms went off around them. "Taz, what do those alarms mean?" Marta demanded.
"Evacuation!" Stella said as she ran for the door. "I am out of here!"
Taz bent over the terminal and typed commands. "Chronon flux is increasing. Non-essential systems are shutting down all over the complex as energy is being rerouted to the temporal portal generator. Zoe must have woken up early. A temporal incursion is in process."
"Boss Lady Actual this is Stryker-1. Zoe's attempting time travel and someone just popped off an evacuation alarm. Do you copy? Over."
"Copy, Stryker-1, we've got people pouring out of doorways all over the complex. Gloria reports a sudden increase in chronon flux from the center of the complex. You need to get out of there."
"Negative, Boss Lady Actual, Zoe's taking a trip, and I need to stop her. Keep this line open. Stryker-1 on the move and out. Marta, get Saffron and Anne out of here..."
No one moved. Gabe saw the looks on their faces and hung his head in defeat. "Fine. You can come." He transformed into his stryker form. "Lead on, Dr. Mykroft. We'll be right behind you."
###
Zoe found Doc Nize, Mark, and his best Lieutenant, Brick, waiting for her. "Do you have the trigger?" she asked .
"Yes, ma'am," Mark said while holding out a cylinder festooned with radiation warning stickers. "It's disguised as a nuclear detonator."
"Good. Even if they get it away from you and eject it from the station thinking it's a bomb, its field will detonate the Cube's antimatter storage units. The fools will destroy their own station while thinking they're saving it."
The three transformed into strykers before stepping up onto the portal platform. "Initiate, Dr. Nize."
Nize pressed several controls. The room filled with light as the three assassins disappeared from the stage. Suddenly, the door burst open as two strykers and several people rushed in. "Who the hell are you?" Nize demanded as he pulled a gun from underneath the console only to have it shot away by Rista. Gabe walked over, picked up Nize by the front of his lab coat and threw him into a nearby wall where he held him.
"Anne, can you and Taz bring them back?"
Anne's hands flew across the console. "No, but I can slow them down. You and Rista are going to have to go after them and initiate manual call-backs."
"How?"
"Silas?"
"You'll get nothing from me."
"This is the part of the job I hate," Anne said. She walked over and placed a non-armored hand against the scientist's temple. Silas screamed, then went limp.
Gabe lowered him to the ground, then ran a palm scanner over him. "He's dead. What the hell did you do to him?"
"I read his mind, releasing his soul in the process." She went back to the console and opened a storage drawer. Inside were several devices.
"You just can't kill someone..." Rista said.
"Yes, I can when I determine it’s for the greater good." She held up a small disk, which she then placed on the back of Rista's and Gabe's left hands. "These are recall transmitters. Zoe and her crew will have similar one. Press it and I will pull back whatever it's attached to." She then handed them small devices, each the size of a pack of gum. "Temporal stress meters. You must return before it goes red. Got it?"
"Yes, ma'am," Rista said.
"Gabe?"
"Lady, you and I are going to have words when I get back."
"I look forward to it. Now, get on the platform. You don't have much time."
They mounted the platform. Moments later, they disappeared in a flash of light.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Gabe and Rista materialized in a corridor as alarms went off around them while personnel evacuated the area. "I would guess Zoe and her people are here," Gabe said. "Scanning... Two strykers heading toward the core. They're carrying something my scanners identify as an antimatter trigger."
They headed off down the corridor.
"I heard about those things during training. It can suppress an antimatter containment field from twenty clicks away."
"So, we can't eject it into space. I've got Zoe. She's full-on stryker, and she's heading to the Med Bay."
"Dad, I'll take care of Zoe while you take care of the strykers and the bomb," Rista said.
"Yeah, like we have a choice. Be careful. And remember, this is before you were born. Your mom won't know who the hell you are, so try not to say anything that might disrupt the time stream thingy."
"Got it. Good luck."
"You too. See you in a few minutes."
They came to a corridor where Rista went left while Gabe went right. He prayed he’d see her and the rest of his family after everything was said and done.
###
Gabe ran down the corridor leading to the core. He passed several med teams attending to injured security personnel. He quickly reached the core access hatch, but before running in, he formed a handful of suppressor balls in the hope they still worked against Zoe's strykers. Steeling himself, he burst into the room and saw two strykers heading toward the antimatter storage units. He ran after them. Quickly catching up with them, he took out one with the suppressors, stunning him as he went human. This left the other who was holding the trigger.
"Identify yourself."
"Hey, Gabe. You're looking fine." Mark said
"Hey, Mark, right back at you. How about we stop this unpleasantness and go have a drink? I know a great bar about two levels above us."
"Damn, that sounds tempting, but I already have a date with destiny."
"I understand. Zoey has that effect on people." He leapt, knocking the trigger from Mark's grasp. It rolled up against a containment unit while the two strykers fought hand to hand, trading blows which would have taken out a battle tank. Finally, Mark somehow got Gabe on the floor and held him there while forming a katana sword. Gabe scanned it and saw its blade was adamantine, the only material that could breach his armor.
"Any last words, Stryker-1?"
"You know what Sensei's first rule was?"
"Who the hell is Sensei?"
"Never gloat before the battle is over," Gabe said as he reached over, ripped a power conduit from the wall and plunged it into the side of Mark's head, vaporizing it while throwing his body over where the other stryker lay. Gabe grabbed the trigger and disarmed it before placing it on the two bodies. Satisfied, he pressed their recall buttons, sending them and the trigger back to their point of origin. He ran out of the room, then headed to Med Bay to help his daughter save him and his wife.
###
Gabe burst into the hospital room to find Rista and a much younger Pris drawing down on Zoe wearing stryker armor with her helmet retracted. ". Don't you just love do-overs? "
"Actually, no, I don't" he said as he grabbed her by her armored throat and threw her into a wall. "You heard Officer Adon. On your knees!"
"Not today, human. Not today!" She tapped a spot on the back of her gauntleted hand and disappeared.
"Damn her. She's as slippery as an eel," he said as he turned to face the two women. "Stress reading?"
Rista checked the stress meter on her wrist. "Moving to ora
nge. We've got to go."
"Don't move!" Pris said. Her gun was moving between the two intruders. "Who the hell are you?" She looked at Rista and her eyes went wide. Then she looked at Gabe and stopped. "Gabe?" She whispered.
He wrapped an arm around Rista, then pressed a button on his wrist to send the recall signal. They disappeared. then reappeared on the platform they had just left. Pris was waiting for them while members of a medical team tended to the surviving stryker and Mark's body. Meanwhile, several members of the bomb squad were placing the trigger in a temporal stasis container. There was no sign of Zoe or Anne. "What happened? Where's Zoe and Anne?" he asked while going human.
Pris ran up and kissed him then hugged her daughter. "Anne did something to the console, causing it to form a portal. She jumped through it right before you two returned."
"We found them," Saffron said from the console where she and Taz were examining readouts. "She returned them both to her universe."
"Can we go after them?" Pris asked as she walked up and took her husband by his arm. He looked down and smiled at her.
"You haven't changed one iota in all these years."
"Sorry, Mom, but there's something blocking us. I can't get a portal to form. "
"You can do that?" Rista asked her sister.
"Yeah. The system is fairly automated."
"But, still," Rista replied while staring at her little sister with increased admiration.
An engineering team from Precinct One hurried in and began scanning the console and portal generator. "Rista, I want you to keep an eye on Taz. I want him and Saffron to help the techs figure this thing out. Under no circumstance is anyone to form any kind of gate or portal. If Taz or anyone else tries, shoot them."
"Yes, sir! You're not going to arrest him?"
"Not at this moment. Keep this between us, but I kinda owe him my life. Anyway, as DCI on scene, what I say goes, right Commissioner."
"Them's the rules."
Gabe saw SWAT Commander Gantz talking to her people on her earcomm. He motioned to her to join them. "Sir?" she said as she strode over.
"Sitrep."
"We've rounded up everyone who escaped the facility. I've got techs locking down the computer and communications systems. Sir, this place is like a plarking hive. What the hell was Muntz doing here?"
