Battle for Time

by Gerry A Saunders

  At the furthest point on each bulbous section, there was a special airlock capable of generating a force-field coupling transfer tube, which was used when boarding other ships during a timeline correction operation.

  Frank found several handheld particle beam weapons, two bigger beam weapons, and some stealth suits. Plus, two stealth drones, and a unique phasing-drone that could pass from one ship to another without material constraints. Frank also found a variety of items that he couldn’t identify and decided to ask Anton about them, later.

  In the meantime, Gerry and Anton had maneuvered the floating Time-crystal into its predetermined place in the time ship and connected it to a newly modified predictor’s interface. Once done, Anton set the crystal’s support base control to standby mode.

  While Charlotte, Cindy, and Susanna had been busy setting up the sleeping arrangements for everyone in the vacant cabins at the rear of the center section of the ship.

  These cabins had clearly been used by the Predictors and had ISO showers that could also be used as wet showers. The wet mode used purified recycled water produced by the molecular manipulator units that bonded oxygen and hydrogen to create an abundance of water.

  The largest cabin extended slightly into one of the bulbous shaped ends of the time ship and had adequate seating, two food replicators, and an extensive material replicator along with a holographic entertainment area. So, they decided to use it as their communal and recreation lounge.

  Anton and Gerry rejoined the others after doing all they could until the ship’s power packs were fully charged.

  “The power packs are taking longer to charge than I thought,” Anton informed everyone. “Nevertheless, we will be space worthy by morning.”

  “Space worthy? I thought we could only move the ship locally,” Cindy said.

  “It’s a Time ship, Cindy. We just create a time bubble to hold us stationary, time-wise. Then, as the Earth moves on, in its orbit around the sun, we simply collapse the time bubble, and we are in space.”

  “Wow, as easy as that!” Frank exclaimed.

  “Yes, Frank… But timing is important.”

  “Yea, and Earth has to be going away from us, otherwise, splat,” Gerry matter-of-factly stated.

  “Depressing. Now we have to spend the rest of our lives in space. Not funny…Charlotte said.

  “Uhh, can we eat, please?” Charlotte asked, trying to urge them on.

  Within minutes, they’d all dialed up substantial meals from the now working food replicator. With each meal floating out of the replicator on an unbreakable glass-like plate, complete with utensils.

  “Charlotte sniffed the food on her plate. “Smells divine,” she declared as she sat down to eat with everyone.

  It didn’t take long for everyone to clear their plates.

  “Well, now I’m full up,” Charlotte moaned as she slid her empty plate and utensils into the replicator’s lower receptacle, where they would be sterilized, ready for the next food request.

  “Yea, me too,” Cindy agreed.

  Once the meal was over and they were all relaxed, Frank instigated a tedious, but necessary discussion, aimed at getting everyone’s views, and ideas on what to do next.

  “Okay,” Frank started. “With Delta gone, and these Varon discs programmed for this time-period. What happens if we manage to establish a time-shaft?” he asked, then went on before anyone could answer.

  “It seems to me that, if the crystal and time-ship form the Temporal anchor, then we won’t be able to generate a usable spur.”

  Both Anton and Gerry looked at each other for a moment, then Anton replied

  “Gerry and I put that problem on the back burner because we were tied-up on thinking how to establish the time shaft.”

  “More like you forgot about it,” Cindy jokingly put in.

  “Maybe,” Anton grudgingly replied.

  “Come on, Anton, Frank’s asked a valid question that needs answering right now,” Susanna added, albeit smiling slightly.

  “Okay, well, we can’t separate the ship and crystal right now,” Anton said, thinking about it.

  “However, I don’t know if it’s possible, but we might be able to generate a Spur, then use a stealth drone to carry out whatever tasks are needed.”

  “That’s unlikely to work with the two drones that Frank found,” Gerry said. “No, we’ve got to find another way.”

  “If there is one,” Susanna pessimistically stated.

  Charlotte checked the local time on her wrist pad. “Can we stop now, It’s nearly midnight local time, and I’m damn tired.”

  Everyone agreed.

  “Come on then, Charlotte,” Anton said. “I’ve set all pads to vibrate at seven-thirty in the morning. Don’t forget, we must leave at ten. Otherwise we’ll have to wait another day, with all the risks that would entail.”

  With that, they all went off to their cabins for a well-earned sleep.

  By nine-fifteen the next day, everyone had showered, dressed, and eaten a hearty breakfast. Then they got on with the processes needed to activate the time ship.

  Anton sat down in the pilot’s seat with Gerry sitting next to him. The others stood behind them both and quietly watched the start-up procedure.

  “Power Packs at fifty-five percent… Powering up the primary reactor,” Anton informed as he initiated the ship’s dormant reactor. Several displays at the predictor’s stations became active as the whole ship became alive again. And various lights flicked from red to green, followed by a local contact alarm sounding.

  “We’re up and running,” Anton finally stated. “A five-minute count down will commence once we’re set to go.”

  Susanna joined Frank as he set the contact alarm’s display to search mode.

  “Oh no,” Frank groaned as he saw the boy, and what must be his father, some four-hundred meters away, cautiously approaching the ship on foot.

  “We didn’t do very well, did we Frank,” Susanna grumbled.

  “Anton. How long before we can move?”

  “Forty minutes max, Frank… I need to quickly show the girls how to lock onto a target before we attempt to leave Earth.”

  “Attempt?”

  “Well, I haven’t actually done a stationary time-freeze take-off from a planet before,” Anton pointed out.

  “Geeze,” Frank muttered as Susanna left and joined Charlotte and Cindy at the Predictors consoles.

  Frank continued to watch the man and boy outside while at the same time turning from time to time to see and listen to Anton, demonstrating how the ship could accurately lock-on to a target and stretch time to board the target if necessary.

  “Six predictors would normally be needed to pinpoint where your quarry would be at a particular moment in time,” Anton said as he selected the temporal search pattern.

  “However, we only have three operators. Nevertheless,” he started to say, when five red-colored discs, with a sixth and smaller white disc in the center of them, appeared on all of the virtual displays.

  Frank turned back to look at the two people outside once more and was surprised to see that they were about one hundred meters away from the ship but were now facing the way they’d come. Then Frank watched both of them start backing off to his right.

  “What are they up to now?” He wondered as he tapped to zoom.

  Anton still carried on showing Charlotte Cindy and Susanna how to move all five red discs, by using his hands to hover above them.

  “See, when you get used to it, you’ll be able to move the discs about and keep them behind the stationary white disc. Once the five discs have centered behind the white disc, we’ll have the coordinates for our target point.”

  “It seems easy,” Charlotte said.

  “OK, so, keep trying to centralize the white disc while Gerry and I prepare for departure,” Anton ordered. “If we go to action stations, you’d better assume the three of you will be sitting in the same seats as now,” Anton added, then checked the ship’s count
down chronometer.

  Just then, everyone heard a sort of high-pitched screaming noise. And what appeared to be a low flying military fighter jet passed low overhead, banked, then vanished in the distance.

  Everyone looked worriedly at each other.

  The ship’s Power-packs hadn’t reached full charge, so there was no way of Phasing the Time-ship while it was still on the ground. And they knew the ship wouldn’t survive any unwanted military action while it remained visible.

  Seconds later, the military jet returned. But this time, it flew much slower across the Time-ship. Then it banked and accelerated upward, and in seconds was gone.

  “It’ll be back,” Frank said, his attention now on the job. With all of them aware that the Jet might be old technology, but it could still damage their ship.

  Ten minutes passed before Anton and Gerry confirmed the time ship was ready to leave Earth.

  “Prepare to leave. We might have to create the time-bubble earlier than we’d like,” Anton warned.

  Just then, a series of powerful sounding thuds reverberated throughout the ship.

  “That military jet’s back, and it’s damn well firing at us,” Anton yelled, with panic sounding in his voice. “If the Jet’s cannon fire pierces our hull and damages the exciters, we’ll be stuck here forever,” he warned them.

  Frank tried to find the military jet pilot’s brain, mentally. But he quickly realized that the pilot’s mind was focused on his determination to attack them, and Frank was fast running out of time.

  “Inertia seats now,” Anton ordered.

  But Frank grabbed one of the two bigger particle beam weapons he’d found earlier, instead. Hit the Open-Airlock tab and prayed that the airlock door close to him would open fast enough for him to fire at and hit the jet before it was too late.

  “He’s coming in again, Frank,” Gerry yelled as his mind visualized everyone being splattered across the countryside.

  With the lock only half-open, Frank could see the inbound Jet coming head-on. He swung his weapon up into position in one smooth movement, while his special brain cells instantly calculated and guided his finger to fire the beam weapon at the correct point, and at precisely the right time.

  Frank saw several flashes as the incoming Jet started to fire on them, but Frank’s high-power particle beam weapon vaporized the incoming cannon fire then hit the front of the Jet.

  The Jet’s front section turned to vapor, and as the damaged jet passed overhead, it was already curving and slowly dropping in height. By the time it came back into view, Frank could see that it was just a ball of fire as it hit the ground some four miles away, towards the Montana Homes settlement area.

  Then Frank quickly closed the airlock and placed his weapon safely in a holder. While everyone issued a sigh of relief.

  They all knew that the inertia-damping seats had been provided for warp jumps. But, since this was the first time a ‘stationary time-freeze’ take-off from a planet had been attempted, it made sense to take precautions and sit in them.

  “Frank, get seated. We’re going now,” Anton reminded him.

  Frank quickly sat down, then looked out of the window again. “No-no,” he uttered as he saw the boy and man come back into view, then the two large grizzly bears could be seen as they caught up with them, and Frank felt a sharp stab of anguish as the bears attacked the man and boy. They didn’t stand a chance as the bears ripped the flesh off their bodies. Frank could see them screaming, but no sound came from the monitor.

  Just then, an automatic warning sounded as the time-ship prepared to create a time-bubble.

  “The two people outside are being attacked,” Frank shouted as he stood up again.

  “Sit down, Frank,” Anton ordered, after switching views on his own monitor. “They’re dead now.”

  Frank knew Anton was right. So, he quickly sat down with the others as ordered.

  Then the time-bubble formed around the Time-ship, and they all felt nauseous.

  Chapter 4

  Goodbye Earth

  The time-bubble remained stationary long enough for the Earth to have moved on four thousand kilometers in its orbit around the sun. Then the time-bubble collapsed, and the Time ship followed on in Earth’s wake, precisely four thousand kilometers behind.

  “We’re in space,” Anton couldn’t help excitedly shouting out, as his feeling of sickness receded, and he saw that Earth now filled the Time ship’s main display.

  “And we have gravity,” Gerry said, sounding surprised. But then thought, ‘Why not, nearly 400 years further up the evolutionary ladder they have things we didn’t have.’

  Having noted that the external contact warning was still flashing, Frank decided to take a look at the contact alarm’s display again and eased himself out of his inertia-damping seat. Then yelled out as he saw the two grizzly bears drifting along just outside the ship. But there was no sign of the two humans.

  “What’s the matter?” Anton asked.

  “The bears that attacked the man and boy are floating outside.”

  “They must have been on the edge of our Time bubble when it formed,” Anton surmised.

  “At least they’ve got their comeuppance,” Frank said.

  “When we leave, they’ll stay behind, anyway,” Anton assured Frank, then turned his attention back to adding a series of micro-jump commands into the ship’s massive warp engine control systems.

  Frank tapped the external contact warning to the Off position. Then, not having anything to do, decided to follow Susanna, Charlotte, and Cindy over to the predictor’s stations, and watch what they were going to do.

  Gerry was sat in front of the 27th-century computers and going from one to the other, as he wrote a string of search algorithms in readiness to search for the old Timeline in the hope that it was still in existence. No one knew if it was, or even if it would be accessible.

  “Inertia Seats, now,” Anton ordered, on seeing five missiles rising up from Earth, and heading their way.

  Everyone quickly went back and sat down in the inertia-damping seats.

  “Where are we going?” Charlotte asked.

  “Well away from them,” Anton said, pointing at the five specks that were clearly heading towards the Time ship and growing larger by the second.

  “Six seconds,” Anton warned.

  Suddenly, the Time ship warped space, created its wormhole then surged forward. They felt the familiar sensations of being stretched and pulled apart, then it was over, as the Time ship traveled on through her wormhole and towards Anton’s micro-jump destination.

  Almost as soon as their bodies had recovered from the effects of entering into the wormhole, the Time-ship exited warp.

  “Geeze,” Frank exclaimed as they all felt the crushing sensation of exit.

  The Time ship was now stationary, 745 million miles from Earth, and close to Saturn, which was at its nearest point to Earth in her elliptical orbit.

  “A beautiful sight,” Susanna remarked as the majestic view of Saturn filled the Time ship’s main screen.

  Anton glanced at it then turned his attention to a brief disturbance way out past Neptune.

  “What was it, Anton?” Gerry queried, seeing the look of concern on Anton’s face.

  “Not sure, Gerry. But our sensors registered something that looked like a warp signature, or similar.”

  “Nothing is showing now,” Gerry stated.

  “Agreed.”

  “Can’t we just jump to Delta Pavonis. After all, DPav5 is our best bet,” Susanna put forward.

  Then they all sensed it, as space started to twist all around them.

  “Wormhole,” Gerry cursed as it formed.

  “Stations,” Anton yelled.

  Then, a silver-colored cylindrical Varon ship slid out of a wormhole just four kilometers away. It immediately rotated and aligned its forward weapon with the Time-ship.

  Now its four short and thick rods were facing the Timeship, and almost immediately, the rods start
ed to glow.

  “Anton, particle beam. Now,” Gerry yelled.

  “I see them. Shifting now. Jump in five seconds.”

  The Varon particle beams appeared to pass straight through the Time ship, as it moved 30 minutes Uptime, then made a micro-jump.

  The Time ship emerged from the micro-jump, six million kilometers past Saturn.

  “That was too close for comfort,” Gerry exclaimed.

  “How the hell did they find us so easily,” Charlotte asked.

  “Probably, tracked the very same discs they gave us,” Anton ventured.

  “Maybe we’re assuming that the Varons are capable of time travel, now. Whereas, they may have been here already simply because they are the dominant species,” Frank offered.

  “If the discs are the problem, then that means the Varons can find us every time we move. But we definitely can’t dump the Varon discs. So, either way, we need to move fast,” Anton said.

  No one spoke for a moment.

  “Then, we must take the fight to them,” Cindy finally urged.

  “You’re right, Cindy,” Anton agreed, understanding her meaning and method. He knew Cindy had already experienced something similar when slowing Time down to board a Garoden vessel with Pilot Acron and Predictor Platos.

  “We need to lock onto their ship and take it over before they can do the same to us. Does anyone know how many Varons are usually onboard one of their ships?” Anton asked.