A Gulf in Time

by Chris Kennedy

  “That’s it!” Calvin exclaimed, snapping his fingers. “Master Chief, you’re a genius.”

  “Of course I am; that’s why they made me a master chief…it’s the years of experience helping officers figure out all the stuff they couldn’t do on their own.”

  Calvin made a quick call with his implants, then got up and headed for the door. “C’mon, Master Chief,” he said, “we need to go see Lieutenant Bradford and then go talk to the Skipper.” Part of the team that combed through the databases of alien replicators looking for technology that could be adapted to human use, Bradford was the Vella Gulf’s expert on xeno-technology.

  “Sure thing,” Master Chief replied. “By the way, what did I say?”

  * * *

  Bridge, TSS Vella Gulf, Gliese 667C System

  “I’ve got it!” Calvin exclaimed as he strode onto the bridge.

  “We’re kind of busy at the moment,” Captain Sheppard said. “You know, jumping back to our universe, trying to avoid the Enemy, and escape? Those sorts of things?”

  “Yes sir, I know, but we really don’t have much of a plan after that, other than to keep running. I think I’ve come up with Steropes’ oblique approach.”

  “If that’s the case,” Captain Sheppard said, “we’ve still got a couple of minutes. Wow me.”

  “You know the effect the Shaitans’ missiles create?” Calvin asked. “Where it forms a bubble, and whatever’s in the area of effect goes back in time?” Seeing agreement, he continued, talking quickly, “We just need to figure out a way to make it move us a lot farther back than anything we’ve ever seen the weapons do before. Oh, yeah, and we need the field to be as big as the Vella Gulf, which means expanding it substantially.”

  Captain Sheppard shook his head. “What? Comms officer, please call medical. Lieutenant Commander Hobbs must have hit his head earlier; he seems to have lost his mind.”

  “No, sir,” Calvin said. “I’m fine.”

  “Then what the hell are you talking about?”

  “Well, sir, it’s all got to do with the paradox of time,” Calvin said. “We don’t have enough of it…and yet, we have all of the time in the universe at our disposal.”

  “You’re still not making any sense,” Captain Sheppard noted, “and we don’t have time for this. What are you talking about?”

  “I’m talking about the fact that we can’t beat the Enemy in the here and now…but we don’t have to. Remember the Shaitans’ weapons? They caused a time-based effect. We need to figure out how to harness that effect and go back in time to an era when we can beat them.”

  “Got any ideas on how exactly you’re going to make that work?”

  “No, sir, but I stopped by to see Lieutenant Bradford on the way here and got him thinking about it,” Calvin said. “We’d need to capture some of the Shaitan weapons so we could figure out what makes them tick.”

  “Not only tick,” Master Chief added helpfully, “but also what makes the time-based distortion.”

  “Yeah, that too,” Calvin said. “Once we knew that, we’d just have to figure out where to go and how far back to travel.”

  “And how exactly do you propose to do that?” Captain Sheppard asked.

  “I had a thought…but you’re going to have to take some of this on faith.”

  “As if jumping back in time like you’re suggesting is something that happens every day?”

  Calvin smiled at the understatement. “Noted. If you’re willing to suspend disbelief on that, then hear me out on the rest. Remember the first time we had people cross into the Jinn Universe? Two of our fighters got caught in the jump field when the Shaitan destroyer they were fighting crossed back to their universe. Once there, they got too far away from the ship to jump back with it and were trapped there. While they were in the Jinn Universe, one of the weapons systems officers met and fought on the same side as a dragon. I talked with the WSO, Lieutenant Dan Knaus, and he said the dragon was clairalient.”

  “Clairalient?” Master Chief asked.

  “It’s a psychic sense the dragon had. Apparently, it’s like being clairvoyant, but with your sense of smell. She could use her sense of smell to find things from the past or to learn things about creatures she had never met. The dragon said all her race had psychic abilities; not only were there some who were clairalient, but others who had a wide range of psychic abilities, including some who were clairvoyant. These dragons can see into the future as well as into the past. I was thinking that if we were able to get a few of them together, maybe they could give us some guidance on where and when we ought to go.”

  “I’m still not sold on the idea of traveling through time,” Captain Sheppard said, “much less trying to do it based on some group of psychic dragons’ senses. We don’t even know if Lieutenant Bradford will figure out how to do it in the first place.”

  “That’s true,” said Calvin, “but I’m counting on Lieutenant Bradford to get it working. If he can, we only have three choices for picking a destination. We could guess, we could ask the dragons for help, or we could go back and ask Einstein. Even if we made it back to Einstein without getting killed, we already know he’s been subverted by the Enemy; asking him would be my last choice.”

  “You do hear yourself, right?” Captain Sheppard asked. “You know you’re asking me to go find psychic dragons and ask them to give me directions to a place and time they’ve never been, so we can use an experimental procedure we don’t understand to throw us tens of thousands of years into the past. You do know how ludicrous that sounds, right?”

  “Well, yes sir, I do. That was why I said you’d have to have a little faith.”

  “It would take an ocean of faith, not just a little bit,” Captain Sheppard said. He paused and then added, “However, you’re in luck; I don’t have a better idea at the moment, and that’s the only plan we currently have going. Let’s make it happen!”

  * * *

  Bridge, TSS Vella Gulf, Gliese 667C System

  “Standing by to make the jump back to our universe in two minutes,” Solomon said.

  “Understood,” Captain Sheppard replied. He shook his head once; he still hadn’t totally come to terms with the fact that the AI had more control over the ship than he’d been aware—and had been running it, behind the scenes, for as long as they’d been on it. “How long will we be in our universe?”

  “If my calculations are correct, just over 15 seconds.”

  “And you’re comfortable with that length of time? You can resist them that long?”

  “I am not sure I can resist a determined attack for that long, no,” Solomon replied. “However, I have rebuilt my failsafe, and if I lose integrity, the worst that will happen is we’ll end up back in this system. I do not believe the Enemy can destroy the ship in that length of time, unless it is waiting near the stargate. Also, I do not feel…comfortable…doing it for less. I need that long for my systems to stabilize in our universe again so I can analyze our position and ensure we properly enter the stargate. Not entering the stargate properly—”

  “I know,” Captain Sheppard replied. “It’s bad.” He’d seen a ship hit the stargate sideways—the edge of the stargate had cut the ship in half like a monofilament knife. “Fifteen seconds will be fine.”

  The final seconds counted down, then everything flashed, and a wave of nausea hit as the ship re-established itself in their home universe.

  The front view screen snapped on with a picture of the devil. “Yes, yes,” he said with a laugh. “Scamper off! Run! Run back to your system. You have two months. If you aren’t ready when we arrive, your system will be the first example we make.”

  “Our system?” Captain Sheppard asked.

  “Yes, your system. The avatar on the planet scanned your ship’s memory banks on a previous visit to this system. We are well aware of your Terra, and where it is loc—”

  The blackness engulfed them, and the stars stretched to infinity. There was a vermillion flash, and they were back
in normal space.

  “The equipment is stabilizing…” the helmsman said. “Working on a position…”

  “We’re back in the Solar System,” Solomon said.

  “Confirmed, sir,” the communications officer reported. “Skywatch is calling us.”

  “Well, let them know we’re back, and see if they can pass on a word to the president. We’re going to need a word with her and the Security Council.” He sighed and looked at Calvin. “Which is not going to be fun.”

  “On the positive side,” Steropes said, “I believe the fact they let us go indicates the Enemy can be destroyed.”

  “What?” Captain Sheppard asked. “Why do you think that?”

  “My line of thinking is this—they wanted us to do something, and we declined, so they decided to destroy us. After that, we disappeared, revealing we had a capability they didn’t know about. When faced with this new development, they had the choice to either fight us or let us go. If they’d wanted to bring us to battle and potentially learn more about our capabilities, they could either have destroyed the stargate, forcing us to stay and fight, or they could have blocked our path, also bringing us to battle. Instead, they let us go.”

  “Why do you think they did that?” Captain Sheppard asked.

  Steropes shrugged. “I suspect they probably wanted to learn more about our capabilities. Something changed with us—first we were an easy target to destroy, and then we weren’t—and they might have wanted additional information on what changed before they attacked us again.”

  “That makes sense,” Solomon noted. “To their systems, we just disappeared. They may have been trying to determine whether we went somewhere else, or if we had a new system of shields that let us go invisible.”

  Steropes nodded. “And if they had any indication we went somewhere else, they might also have wanted more information on where we went, and might have let us go, hoping to obtain that information from us at a later date. They may be looking for more star systems to cull.”

  Captain Sheppard shook his head. “The bottom line, though, is they let us go, and we aren’t really sure why.” He thought for a second, then said, “I will say, however, that letting us go after we demonstrated a new capability may indicate caution on their part, and that they may fear for their lives. You’re right; if they weren’t worried about being destroyed, they could easily have made us fight them.”

  “I do not know if that is a valid assumption,” Solomon said.

  “Why do you say that?” Captain Sheppard asked.

  “Because I am not entirely sure there was a living being on their bridge.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “When we were interacting with the Enemy, the Enemy’s ship responded to our actions faster than anything I’ve ever seen before.”

  “Maybe they just have fast reflexes,” Captain Sheppard said. “Maybe fast reflexes are a racial characteristic of the Enemy.”

  “I’m not talking about a race with fast reflexes,” Solomon replied. “I’m talking about reflexes as fast, if not faster, than mine. That is not possible. Also, I present this to you.”

  The main screen lit up with a still image of the Enemy’s bridge. “This is an image of the first time the Enemy spoke to us. In addition to the being speaking to us, there are three other individuals who can be seen.” Rings appeared around the three crewmembers. “Watch them.”

  The Enemy began speaking.

  “I don’t see them doing anything strange,” the DSO said.

  “No,” Calvin said, catching on, “not only aren’t they doing anything strange, they aren’t doing anything. They haven’t moved—they haven’t even twitched—the entire time.”

  “That is correct,” Solomon said. “Only the being delivering the message even gives the appearance of reality; the others are all very obviously just there to give the appearance of normalcy. If I superimpose the second message overtop this one—the one they sent us when we exited the system—you would see the same beings haven’t moved from the positions they were in earlier.”

  “What does that mean?” Captain Sheppard asked.

  “That is unknown,” Solomon replied. “We need more information to make a determination. However, if the other beings are fakes, it is possible the Enemy who spoke to us was fake, as well. If there is no Enemy on that ship—for example, if that is a robotic ship—then it is dangerous to make assumptions about anything. Their reason for letting us go could be nearly anything.”

  * * * * *

  Chapter Three

  President’s Conference Room, Terran Government Headquarters, Lake Pedam, Nigeria, Earth

  “And when we went through the stargate, we ended up back here in this system,” Calvin said, addressing the packed conference room.

  The president’s conference room was one of a kind, and it was designed almost like a mini-stadium. At the center of the room was an enormous table that could easily accommodate 20 people on a side. The floor around it was flat for about 10 feet, then it sloped upward on all sides, with 10 rows of seating that looked down upon the central table. Large screens were scattered throughout the facility so everyone could see whatever was being shown to the principles at the center table.

  The president sat at the end of the table closest to Calvin, with the leaders of the Terran Government arrayed around her. The vice president, the secretary of state, and the Speakers from both houses of Parliament filled the chairs closest to her, while the other seats held the members of the Terran Republic’s Security Council. Their staffs and other interested representatives filled the audience seats, the aisles, and most of the doorways. The discussion was also being transmitted to two other rooms that held the overflow. It was a zoo, and it was even worse than the last time Calvin had been here.

  All the people at the table, and most of the people in the stands, had brain implants that translated any Terran language. For those who didn’t, every seat also had jacks that allowed users to plug in and get a running translation of the conversation provided by the two AIs which had been replicated for that purpose. They also kept notes and logs of all the conversations within the room, unless specifically told not to.

  “We’re reasonably sure the Enemy set the stargate to return us here, although their motives for doing so are unknown,” Calvin continued. “It might have been so we’d have more time to complete the task they gave us, as having to return home the normal way would’ve taken longer than we had to accomplish it.” That realization had come as a surprise—the crew of the Vella Gulf hadn’t thought about it when they were trying to escape, but they couldn’t have made it home and back in the time they were given to prepare the people of Earth for the cull.

  The obvious motive—which he didn’t want to bring up in front of everyone—was the Enemy wanted it to be plainly obvious they knew where the humans came from and they could come to the system whenever they wanted.

  “That completes my presentation,” he said, dreading what came next, even with that omission. “Are there any questions?”

  The room broke into chaos as everyone tried to speak at once. A forest of hands were held up, their owners looking to be recognized, while the members also yelled at one another or screamed their questions at Calvin. He pointed to the president, Katrina Nehru, who also had her hand up, but then couldn’t hear her when she spoke. She held up a finger to pause Calvin, then said something into her microphone. Immediately, a piercing squeal of feedback went through all the room’s speakers simultaneously at a volume level which could only have been labeled “ear-splitting.” It stopped after a couple of seconds, and silence filled the room as the various attendees looked at their neighbors guiltily.

  “Decorum, ladies and gentlemen,” the Indian woman admonished. “I will have decorum in these chambers.” She looked around the room, but no one, including the other people at the table, would meet her eyes.

  “Now,” she said, having sufficiently cowed the audience, “this is not the first time things h
ave looked bad for us. When the Drakuls came through our stargate, things looked grim. When the Efreeti destroyed Tashkent as a sign of what they could do to us, things looked horrific. And yet, we found a way to overcome them. This man here,” she indicated Calvin with a wave of her hand, “along with the other members of our military, have found a way to prevail when all seemed lost on a number of occasions.” She looked pointedly at Captain Sheppard, sitting in the front row. “I doubt these men and women would have come here today simply to frighten us or tell us that we need to begin a cull. Please, Captain Sheppard, tell us how we’re going to rise to this occasion, too?”

  The captain indicated Calvin with a nod. “I’m going to let Lieutenant Commander Hobbs explain, ma’am, as it’s his plan.”

  Calvin took a deep breath and let it out slowly as his CO spoke. Here goes nothing. “Madam President, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Terran Government, I want you to think back just a few years ago, before China attacked the United States. At that time, we were unaware that creatures like the Drakuls existed. We had but the most rudimentary idea of space travel and were ignorant of the star nations like the Mrowry that surrounded us.” He nodded to Lieutenant Rrower in the front row, who was an envoy and near-permanent member of the Vella Gulf.

  “We certainly had no idea that, in just a few years, we’d actually have colonies and allies among the stars.” He nodded to the Kuji representative from the planet of Domus, whose society had joined the Terran Republic the year before. Their world was home to two races. One of these was humanoid in appearance, while the other, the Kuji, looked like 6-foot-tall Tyrannosaurus Rexes. The Kuji princess was obvious as the only non-humanoid at the table. She nodded back in recognition. “Similarly, we also had no idea that enemies existed, and that they would strike from universes that are parallel but very different from ours. Sure, scientists had theorized about their existence, and science fiction writers had penned stories about alternate universes, but there was no general belief they existed, much less any hope of our ever going to one.