Nexus of Time

by Mark Riverstone

  Why didn't everyone else at the meeting, including Mr. Nix, see what Walter sees? They heard what was being said. The Greys can make mistakes, but they don't make them twice. Whatever covert advantage the Committee had destroying the deep-sea base disappeared when the Greys discovered the ships in bunkers under human control. Now is the moment for Mr. Nix to change direction and take extreme risks, not rely on a compromised hybrid spy program.

  The time loop which caused these events haunts Walter. The warning Seventeen left at the Roswell crash site ended up being Mr. Nix's mantra as he rose through the Committee ranks, causing him to never trust Greys, leading to launching a preemptive strike against the Greys, which sent Seventeen back to Roswell. Within twenty-four hours of Seventeen being sent back in time and creating a time loop, the temporal loop came to completion. Mr. Nix temporarily saw the advantage of time travel from the Grey artifacts in Committee bunkers, yet after the Grey's attack and destruction of those facilities, Mr. Nix returned to his old belief of not trusting time travel.

  Walter can't help thinking things are turning for the worse. Mr. Nix plans to continue with the hybrid program, but the Greys must realize humans could destroy the deep-sea colony, crash the escaping ships, and retrieve the wreckage before the Greys without inside information or influence. If the hybrid skin spawn implanted micro transmitters held or recorded any other data, and aren't just for identification and tracking, the Greys already know those chips were inactive for decades. Walter's gut is telling him the Greys ascertained the hybrids are their weakness, and we exploited it.

  But as much as he wants to tell Nix he thinks the hybrid program is no longer valid, he knows Nix is committed to it. So much so, he has two more candidates ready to go. The scientists here are focusing on it. Walter's gut feeling isn't enough reason to stop. If Walter doesn't offer a better idea for this Committee outpost to work toward, mentioning his concerns at the meeting would only sow seeds of doubt, lower morale, and call into question Nix's conviction to a program not backed by the Committee's head scientist. Even telling Burt can start a negative cascading effect. No, Walter knows better. The Committee is like any government organization. It can make amazing progress when it's on track, but being forced to change directions can cause it to derail. Walter has loved his lifetime with the Committee, but for the first time he is questioning whether the Committee can act fast enough and embrace solutions drastic enough to stand a chance against the Greys.

  After breaking the threshold, Walter closes the office door behind himself. He takes a seat at the desk and positions the keyboard to work on the computer. Calling up the command console, Walter initiates an operating system shutdown.

  A digital voice emanates from the computer.

  "Unauthorized operating system shutdown requested. Thirty seconds for vocal authorization code and voice identification before lockout."

  "Tomb Alpha Seven Zeta Five," says Walter.

  "Authorization accepted. Shutting down operating system. Do you wish to Reboot?"

  "Reboot instantiate operating system Blue Fedora Five Two," instructs Walter.

  "Operating System Blue Fedora located. Do not shut power during reboot."

  The computer goes black, then boots up with a different color and icon layout. He clicks through files, then starts a digital recording application.

  "It has been seven days or more since my last entry. So much has changed. I am at the Colorado Mountain Facility where I will be until the Committee decides otherwise. The Grey Valley Bunker was decimated by the Greys. Other than the digital files stored offsite, the equipment, artifacts and physical specimens are irretrievable. Fortunately, Burt has escaped to safety with me.

  "This last week, Mr. Nix required me to undergo a battery of health tests and examinations to ensure my fitness, tour this facility and personnel to make sure I am up on operations, and attended briefings to catch up with events I was not privy to while inside the Grey Valley Bunker. Changes to my routine the last few years have been minimal. Now, everything is changing radically. I must evolve radically as well.

  "I realize that I too ignored history and the nature of scientific discovery. Nix and other members of the Committee worked hard to put the time traveling genie back in its bottle, and I silently stood aside. But history and science has always proven that task impossible. Once a scientific discovery is made, even if unknown by the world, will become known because it exists.

  "My conscience drips with the blood shed trying to cover and prevent cloaking and time travel research. The universe played a trick on us and showed we can't undo what has been done. Our own agent Seventeen caused an accident that not only created an electromagnetic-gravitational rift that crossed folds in time, it began a temporal loop that directs back to myself and Nix, leading the Greys right to the Grey Valley Bunker less than a day after the temporal loop was completed.

  "We cannot prevent time travel. It may be time to embrace it. Time is no longer on our side. And I don't believe the Greys will be patient in their response. I must uncover a way for time to become our advantage again. Unfortunately, I don't think the Committee is the place to do it. I need every scientist and every resource working on my solutions, and the Committee isn't purely dedicated to science. It is a network, with spies, and acquisitions, and research that stems from and benefits that. The Committee hedges its bets, so Nix will always hold back something for a Plan B or C.

  "Burt, if you are listening to my entries, first, I am of sound mind and body, and will always be the more handsome of us two. Please, understand; I am not including you in my current endeavor, though I certainly could use your help. If I end up pursuing this outside of the Committee, I neither want to put you in a position to keep secret what I'm about to do, or make you party to my actions. And I don't even know if the direction I'm taking is right. The Committee will need one of our expertise in case I'm wrong and Nix is right. You're a good friend, Burt. Thank you.

  "Sometimes it takes a little shake-up to get the intellectual juices flowing, and everything that has happened in the last couple days has caused me to rethink the nature of time travel. There is the issue of matter from another time being introduced into a closed system, so I theorized that when sending mass into the electromagnetic-gravitational rift, the matter disperses and only the data, everything from memories to information on physical construction, passes through. It is then possible under quantum theory that the matter reconstitutes upon arrival in the exit universe from stray fermion and boson particles.

  "I am embracing Shannon's Information Theory and the indestructible nature of information and data. I conjecture that though matter and energy are closed systems in the universe that create complications when sending matter through time, no such limits or restrictions apply to information or data. Sending data through a dimensional rift into another time should succeed and have no repercussions to the spacetime continuum.

  "I propose sending future data and research into the past to myself is the only way we can get an advantage against the Greys. I must define 'me in the past' as me in the present, since I cannot receive information from my future self before I am aware information will come from the future, that being now. Since an exact equation and method to send data through time to a specific date and moment doesn't exist yet, the first data stream I send back to myself, me in the present, must arrive a hundred or a thousand years early, ensuring the marker will exist and be readable by a present me. Since cosmic background radiation from the universe's formation still exists, and I believe it contains data from billions of years ago, radiation is the best medium to transmit initial information into the past and guarantee it will be there when I look. If successful, I will create a way to compress future time, sending future research and technology back to myself, eliminating the years of research and development.

  "My theory is that once I receive data in the form of radiation from myself, I will know where to build a temporal receiver to collect data transmissions from my future self.
The receiver will capture lasers coming through the rift in the form of electromagnetic radiation that will strike crystals creating 5D optical data storage. Future me will send back finished research or inventions, or inform that a specific research path is a dead end, allowing present me to build on that research or try new research not attempted by the future me. Theoretically, this time compression loop is equivalent to me in the present coming up with ideas and then immediately having the completed results. The only question that lingers in my mind is if I am the first me to think of this, or am I currently within a loop coming up with the idea again, and a future me has already placed a radiation marker somewhere for me to retrieve and continue the loop? While I create a means of sending data through time, I need to figure out where I will leave or have left a marker for myself. Recon needs to be sent out to a location where I think future me will leave a transmission for present me to verify if such a marker exists. If no marker exists, then I am the first and must come up with a temporal device capable of sending a marker into the past so that successive time loops can further any research I develop in this timeline.

  "The only way I can do this, though, is with the resources and scientists on the Barge. I will reach out to Captain Nemolopolus in the next day, after I create the concept for a receiver, a transmitter and a transmission medium. To get him on board, I must allow my research to become his and leave the Committee to join the Barge. I hope I can convince Nemo. This is our only shot to develop a technology that can combat the Greys. I may be at an age where I can accept my death, but I don't want my death to be a surrender.

  "Others at that meeting this morning could feel the change. It was a room full of individuals who, before the meeting, were full of resolve and purpose. After the meeting, everyone was lost. We are in a war, no doubt. The moment Seventeen appeared in Roswell and left us a warning, the war began."

  Walter turns off recording stops and thinks. He starts the recording again, saying "end of entry," then stops and closes the recording program.

  Friends And Frenemies

  Chapter 10

  Twenty Years Ago, Laboratory Observation Room, Grey Valley Bunker, California.

  A younger Walter sits in a low-lit observation room with consoles and displays. One wall is glass, with its view covered by a closed metal blast door on the other side. He is having a video conference with a middle-aged dark-haired Mr. Nix.

  "Nemolopolus hasn't shown up yet. You sure giving him the Grey craft is a good idea?" asks Walter.

  "I understand your concerns. You researched on it yourself for years, and we keep three others stored in bunkers. We can afford to part with one for what we are getting."

  "What did you trade for it?"

  "His people mapped the genome of the skin spawn human hybrid. We'll be able to compare it to human DNA and see where the two differ and see where we can create medical compatibility. Though I admit, we don't have a surgeon with the skills or brilliance to get done what we need, I can't pass up this chance to obtain the research from Nemo."

  "I've pointed you toward the best and most capable medical scientists out there. Until we find the right person, can your doctors get the results you need?"

  "Not yet. I'm hoping this genetic information will help. Our scientists determined the spawn organs contain enhanced abilities: eyes with a wider sight range including UV and infrared, ears that possess a greater range of frequency reception, and vocal cords that can project a pitch above human hearing. I'm hoping my surgeons can determine if those organs are compatible with a human host; if a human brain can interpret these abilities if transplanted, or if the hybrid brains are the reason for those abilities. Comparing the DNA of a human to the skin spawn hybrid DNA map from Nemolopolus might give us answers."

  "Are you planning to put hybrid eyes and ears into a human's head?"

  "If possible, and if we can find a surgeon capable of such a procedure. We have the best in the US, but Nemolopolus always gets the very best in the world."

  "He has the world to choose from. No laws, no rules, no moral or ethical limitations, and is as rich as a country. It's why the government supported the Barge's creation, and why we turn to them for exotic research."

  "Yeah, I wish the Barge was ours. With their research and knowledge, we'd be so much further ahead."

  "And if the Committee ran the Barge, ethical limitations would stifle research, superiors would tell scientists what to research, scientists would need approval from superiors, and they would confiscate projects and discoveries the same way I'm losing a Grey craft in today's trade. The reason the Barge is unmatched is that it exists for scientific advancement only, has no other motivations or goals other than discovery, governs itself, and its scientists don't need permission."

  Mr. Nix changes the subject.

  "Speaking of superior approval, I am reminding you the DOD's head of Dark Projects is coming by to observe the Zeus Box demonstration that you are presenting to Nemolopolus. Please show him respect."

  "Dammit, I wish they weren't. The Department of Defense will object to the Barge getting the Grey craft, and all they get are spectator seats." Walter rubs his brow, feeling a DOD headache coming.

  "I had to invite them to the demonstration. They built the Grey bunkers for the Committee and managed the recovery and transports from the crash sites. We don't want to alienate our strongest ally in the military. We are doing this for Captain Nemolopolus, but we want the DOD to feel respected and included."

  Walter sighs in agreement, "You're right. I just don't trust the new head of the DOD Dark Projects. He is so bitter and out to prove that the DOD is the leader of progress and gadgets of destruction. Once he sees the cuboid, he'll want to take it."

  Mr. Nix tries to reassure Walter.

  "Your bunker is not his jurisdiction. Our agreement with the DOD gives him access to our research, not our artifacts."

  "Don't let him forget that, Nix. He comes across as the type of guy who'd rather apologize later than ask before."

  "Contact me tomorrow and debrief me on the demonstration and exchange. Good luck, Professor Tomb."

  "We'll talk later, Mr. Nix."

  The video conference disconnects. A cheesy UFO screen saver takes over the screen.

  In the hallway outside the observation room, a younger Burt walks next to a stone-faced General Douchette from the Department of Defense.

  "We are very happy you took the time to join us for this demonstration," expresses Burt with plastic enthusiasm.

  The General's expressionless face matches his monotone voice, "Professor Stone, these are the kinds of information exchanges that should be expected and mandatory between the Committee and the DOD, not a polite kiss-ass meet-and-greet your folks are playing this out to be."

  "You are right, General Douchette. And I apologized for kissing your ass. The Committee employs a Human Resources section that you can make a sexual harassment claim with if your ass has been inappropriately kissed in any way."

  "Stone, you are downright insubordinate and if you were under my command, you'd beg for a court martial in place of the punishment I would put you through."

  "Are you trying to recruit me, General? You make the DOD sound tempting. Tell you what, if I ever tire of the overwhelming respect and support the Committee gives me, I'll call you." Burt stops at the door to the observation room where Walter sits and announces, "Professor Tomb is through this door waiting for you. I have to get to the observation lab for the demonstration. If you will excuse me, General."

  The general enters the observation room while Burt turns around and goes back through the hallway. General Douchette removes his hat as he approaches Walter, who respectfully stands up from his chair.

  "General, glad you could make it," says Walter as he holds out his hand.

  "Professor Tomb, why does everyone here greet me with false cordiality? My participation should neither be glad nor disappointing, merely expected."

  "But I am glad, General Douchette. I hear
d you got Congress to double Dark Project's research budget. Maybe our demonstration today will give you inspiration or an idea to put into application."

  "I plan to apply what I gain here today. You are aware none of that money is for the Committee. However, Professor Tomb, if you imbue such great respect for me, you could give us the artifact you are putting on display. I guarantee you I will reverse engineer and duplicate it, unlike the limited success your scientists had here. Hell, I promise I'll give you a demonstration when we finish."

  "That sounds very generous and promising, but I think for now I'll keep control of the artifact and continue my research. Besides, the DOD lacks a physicist of my caliber."

  "Your invite said the material was 'unknown'. Someone of your caliber should have been able to identify the material composing the artifact."

  "This isn't just an unknown material. We aren't even sure if it was synthesized or found. I won't give away any more. Got to save something for the demo."

  "I think you underestimate what I know."

  "I am sure when it come to this device, you overestimate your understanding, and underestimate mine."

  "Enough posturing. When does the actual show begin?"

  "There is one more guest coming, General. I hope you will be patient. I'll check with our technicians see where our other attendee is. If you will excuse me."

  Walter leaves. General sits in the room alone. He pulls out a mobile communicator.

  "Major Hargus, you picking up this signal?"

  The general gets a broken response. It's a harsh woman's voice.

  "Ye...Gen..ral, receivi...you."

  "Get two, I repeat, two of our team outside the demonstration door where I am located. I want this done quick without disruption. Is that affirmative?"