Nexus of Time

by Mark Riverstone

  "The Greys thought it was sickness. Fungus, or bacteria, because of foreign growth on their flesh. The Grey landing colony on the Unseen Swarm's planet transmitted the data to all the Greys around the universe to come up with a solution. Then when the attacks on other distant colonies happened, which was blood seeping right through their skin and organs leaking fluid, they transmitted that information to Earth for a solution. However, the attacks destroyed the Greys so rapidly, they never came up with answers. It was just a cascading avalanche of calls for help from Greys as they were being destroyed. The Moon colony was going through the images and data from the destroyed colonies when they found the message from the Unseen Swarm that the microbial species tired of the war and left, leaving the Moon Greys alive as a show of mercy."

  "Are there details in there about how they defeated a species as powerful as the Greys?" asks Captain Nemolopolus.

  "The micro species saw the Greys as huge blobs of organic material, so the first attacks against the Greys on their homeworld consisted of depositing and cultivating vegetation on the skin of the Greys. It was quite ingenious. Their quick life cycle meant they could plant and grow a forest of vegetation on the Grey's skin within seconds. The Greys discovered globs of tiny plants growing on their arms and heads. Within a minute, a whole arm was coated. They tried to brush it off or remove it, but seconds later it grew right back. Within ten minutes, an entire Grey was covered head to foot in micro plants. Vegetation growing on their eyes, in their mouths, blocking their breathing. That's why they first thought it was a fungus or bacteria, because of the growth. Their calls for help were for naught. Within hours, every Grey on the giant planet were mounds of dead flesh feeding micro forests of vegetation."

  Nemo asks in disbelief, "So they farmed the Greys to death?"

  "Just the Greys on their homeworld. Their strategy changed with offworld attacks. The Greys later speculated it was because the micro species did not want to export their vegetation to other planets with the possibility of contaminating and destroying other ecosystems. Instead, the Unseen Swarm used their dust-sized space fighters to attacked Greys from within. The Greys could not see the ships or their attacks. The ships flew into the Grey nostril openings or mouths and attacked them from the inside. It was never determined the exact type or nature of the weapons the Unseen Swarm used to attack, but they punctured holes through the Greys. Holes in their circulatory system and in their respiratory system. Faster than Grey bodies could regenerate. As a result, the Greys lost blood, or their lungs would deflate. That is the death blow to regenerating species. Regenerative organisms rely heavily on fluids and gasses for rebuilding cells, so healing serious injury can cause a sort of dehydration and deoxygenation. The Grey body became so punctured that blood was dripping right through their skin, not knowing micro spacecraft were punching holes in their flesh. Oxygen seeped right through their chests and backs, causing lung collapse.

  "The Greys were helpless. How do you stop a fleet of dust specks attacking you? How do you burn or poison them if they are in spacecraft? Even Greys wearing protective suits as a last-minute desperate act were unaware that ships got inside their suits and bodies before they sealed them. The Greys bled out inside a protected suit. If the micro species didn't end the war, the Greys would be extinct."

  "Thank you, Ying. That was the confirmation I was looking for to beat the Greys," says Walter.

  "Which part?" asks Captain Nemolopolus.

  "The way to kill a regenerating organism is through loss of fluid and gasses. When I saw how the petroleum affected you, making it so your wounds could not close, loosing fluid in blood and pus, I thought it might be the allergic reaction killing you. But it was in fact losing fluids that inhibited complete regeneration."

  Ying concurs, "Yes, that is right. Dr. Black's medical procedure allowed my body's cells to draw together and connect despite the toxins, preventing fluid and oxygen loss, allowing the regenerative abilities to function."

  Walter adds, "I ordered scientist here to weaponize the toxin extract you made, Dr. Black, to use as a payload for the smart ammunition. Now, the nanobots will release the petroleum toxin under the skin, preventing the Grey's regeneration by draining their bodies before they can heal."

  "That could work," agrees Captain Nemolopolus. "It seems we figured out how to dock with the ship and how to kill the Greys."

  Ying adds, "But you still haven't decided what to do with the ship once taken."

  Captain Nemolopolus nods, "You are right, Ying, so maybe you can come up with a plan for that. I'm going to go find our target, so I must be on my way. Dr. Black, why don't you go to Walter's lab and help his people finish weaponizing the toxin. Walter, you go finalize the dimensional clamps and mount the ice block. Ying, thank you, and I need you to get into your computer setup...whatever this is here...and find out everything about the Fabricator ships. We need to know the internal layout, how many Greys might be on the ship, and how to keep it in the air after we take control. I'll call everyone together when I pick a target and then we will discuss when to begin the operation. Everyone has until then to complete your tasks."

  "Shouldn't we make a carefully laid plan first and not rush? If we attack before prepared, we could lose," asks Ying.

  Walter injects, "Ying, we cannot afford to delay. According to previous time loops, if we don't act fast enough and attack first, the Greys find us, attack the Barge, and defeat us. We might not figure out what to do with the ship until after we take it. It may be up to us in the next time loop to figure out what to do with the ship. Nothing is certain. We just have to go for it and hope we get lucky."

  "Ironically, that is what the Greys call us," adds Ying.

  "What do you mean?"

  "They refer to humans as the 'Lucky Ones' because we believe in chance and random occurrences, even rely on them to be fortunate or favorable to us. We acknowledge and credit luck through our days and lives. Our careers, our mates, our friends, where we live, even when we get caught in the rain, we accept both luck and chance as playing a part. Sometimes we call it divine intervention, sometimes destiny or fate, sometimes probability or possibility. No matter the name, it is still luck. But what fascinates Greys is not only that we do that, but we succeed based on that. Humans do things that make no sense, that should logistically or logically fail, and yet we somehow succeed. No other species in the universe that the Greys know of does that. It has always been a part of the experiments they perform on humans: to find the biological or scientific reason how we turn to luck and random occurrence into a solution and succeed based on it. They never found a biological reason, which is why they call us the Lucky Ones."

  Walter is unconvinced, "It may appear to the Greys we operate that way, but I think we use intelligence, not luck. Human brilliance created this time compression loop we are in and are using to battle the Greys. Each time through the loop, we are using intelligence to build on intelligence, and survive because of our will to fight."

  Ying asks, "If you are not relying on luck, then tell me what do you plan on doing with the Grey ship once we capture it? It will be damaged and beyond human abilities to use against them. We could steal components from the ship, though we are uncertain what components are on it or how to use them. You are so focused on fighting back and succeeding, you don't have any idea what to do when we win. Yet you move forward, because you hope that luck and chance will pay off. That it will change the tide and affect the Greys, though you have no logical reason to assume what we do will make any difference at all. You may not want to admit it, but we are exactly what the Greys think we are: Lucky Ones.

  "Maybe we should take pride in that, instead of denying it. It is the one thing that fascinates and worries the Greys. Because in their deductions and solutions, they cannot and do not calculate for luck. How lucky was it that Agent Seventeen was hurled back in time to Roswell, starting the time loop that warned us of the Greys attack?"

  "That information was classified. How did you find
out about Seventeen, Ying?" asks Nemolopolus.

  "Before I got too sick to function, before the Greys destroyed our power grid, I interfaced with the Barge computers, government computers, Committee systems and Black Op servers. At the time my brain and memory were growing exponentially, and I couldn't stop my craving to seek the answer for every question I had."

  "You are lucky no one found out, Ying. Had I known, I would have cut off your access." says Captain Nemolopolus.

  "I am lucky I didn't get caught. Even though I might get caught, I took the chance anyway, hoping I got lucky. Even though the Grey genetic structure is intertwined with my human genes, it was my human side that took the chance. Think about this temporal loop we are in. I saw your notations, Walter, on the temporal nexus, the nexus of time. How many times have we blindly gone through the loop and reached the nexus without a plan, no endgame? If we defeat the Greys, will it not be lucky we passed through the loop so many times without direction, and succeeded? Humanity wondered for ages if we were unique in the universe. Luckily, we are."

  "Ying, that is interesting, but I doubt Greys find any validity in luck. And with the time loops, I credit our will for the success over luck," surmises Walter.

  "I should tell you the Greys don't mess with temporal travel because a high probability exists the loop may never end. There is no conclusive way to determine how many times we have been through this temporal loop or how many more times we will continue it. And that is extremely dangerous," warns Ying.

  "I agree, there is a danger we could create an unexpected outcome," says Walter.

  Ying shakes his head, "That is not an outcome that prevents the Greys from entering time loops. It is compounding the fifth dimension's unification of gravity and electromagnetism. That facet of the dimension is so powerful, it causes tesseract shapes to exist. In the fifth dimension, an object bends into and outside itself, the past and future touch, and distant galaxies can connect by folded space. All from the unification of gravity and electromagnetism becoming an additional dimension.

  "Every timeline exists simultaneously in the fifth dimension. Earth's gravitational and electromagnetic path from the planet's beginning to its end exist as a tubular spiral and can be traveled, just as you conjectured. However, Walter, you have not considered the addition of a dimensional rift, and what effect that causes. Each rift creates a powerful electro-gravitational anomaly that exists in both our dimension and the fifth dimension, at a specific point along Earth's tubular path. Every time you first turn on the dimensional message receiver and get that initial message from the future, you create an electro-gravitational anomaly in that time at that location on a specific point along Earth's gravitational path. Each loop we create not only adds another timeline but adds another electro-gravitational anomaly emanating from the same position, location and time.

  "Since all time and timelines exist simultaneously in the fifth dimension, and all the timeline's receivers conjure a rift, you have multiple rifts creating tremendous pull concurrently in the fifth dimension. So, if we have five temporal loops where we activate a rift at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean on the same date at the same time, it is equivalent to activating five rifts at once in the fifth dimension, creating five times the unified force. One rift is powerful enough to create a bubble in our dimension. What is the result of five, or ten at once?

  "Too many time loops with synchronous rifts will generate a localized pull so strong, a specific location in spacetime will collapse in on itself. In the fifth dimension, it becomes a super entangled tesseract knot binding multiple timelines and multiple universes inextricably together. In our dimension, in all timelines, it emanates as a black hole. If we continue to make the same time loop over and over, we will create a black hole at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean with Walter's receiver, destroying Earth and our solar system, and wiping this section of the galaxy out of existence, in every timeline, from the first to the current. There will be no version of us that can escape it, avoid it, or prevent it.

  "That is why the Greys do not mess with time travel. Even with their perfect calculations, they could create multiple temporal loops and wipe themselves out with a black hole. A chance we are unknowingly taking. A chance the Greys won't take. You could say the Greys don't feel lucky enough to try."

  Concern glosses over the faces of everyone listening to Ying.

  Captain Nemolopolus turns to Walter, "Is this true? Could we end up destroying everything?"

  "I...I don't know, I mean...what Ying says is possible...I never considered, or even calculated that. It is foolish to doubt the Greys if they thought it was possible."

  "What do we do now? Is there any way to calculate how many loops cause such an anomaly?"

  Ying answers, "Even the Greys have no way of knowing or determining all the forces and factors at work in a higher dimension. That is why they never did it."

  "We should stop creating these loops, Walter. Our idea of success is not worth destroying Earth. How do we stop them?"

  Walter rubs his furrowed brow, "Well, there are two ways. We either send in our next final message that the next loop should not send any more messages because these loops will cause a black hole, or we don't send a final message which makes this loop the last. Any version of this time will repeat, with us making the exact same decisions, creating no further variations."

  "If we don't succeed in this loop, we fail?" retorts Dr. Black.

  Captain Nemolopolus thinks, "I need to weigh this using intuition, since there is no empirical data to weigh a decision. Until then, prepare for both. This may be our last loop. But if we fail again and go for one more try, Dr. Black and Walter, you must include in your final message back to ourselves they will be the last loop or risk destroying humanity in a black hole."

  "One more loop many be one too many," states Ying.

  "Maybe. It might once again come to how lucky we are. Let's get working. Ying, keep doing what you are doing. Dismissed," orders Captain Nemolopolus.

  They part and exit except Ying, who sits and goes back to his keyboard and virtual glove, interacting with the Zeus Box.

  A Shot Too Many

  Chapter 47

  Street, Out Front Secret Service Headquarters, Washington DC.

  Cooing with a casual serenity, a small flock of pole-sitting pigeons overlook Agent Strong and Mr. Nix standing on a curb outside a one-hundred-and-fifty-year-old small two-story white stone building. Constructed as an extension to the old building is a huge long contemporary building behind it, adorned with the sleek simplicity of modern architecture and design. Adjacent and to the left of the old white building is a younger red brick building looking very secure with its windows sealed or bricked over. Barricades block every entrance to the three buildings. The whole building complex takes up the entire city block.

  Agent Strong rotates in a complete circle, cautious, scanning with her shotgun ensuring they are alone. With the relief of reaching trail's end, Mr. Nix lowers his shotgun and looks at the buildings with nostalgia.

  "Here we are. The Secret Service headquarters. Until now, I thought of it as just a heavily secured office building where I took care of business. The last couple of weeks, I began to miss it. Before I met up with you, Agent Strong, I questioned making it back."

  "I never got the sense from you we couldn't make it," says Agent Strong.

  "That's my leader mindset. As long as I have someone to lead, I can keep pushing forward knowing a person is depending on me. On my own, I second guess my decisions."

  "The place sure looks secure."

  "It is. Those windows, they can stop a fifty caliber rounds. The doors, including this old one, are ballistic proof. The walls can withstand a cannon or battering ram. It is very secure."

  "Reassuring if we were on the inside, but we are out here. How do we get inside? Is someone inside going to let us in? Do we ring a buzzer or knock on the door?

  Nix laughs, "No buzzer. I'm sure someone is in there. The backup supplies in
the sub basements are enough to hold out for six months. When that building enacts a state-of-emergency lockdown, those doors won't open for anyone coming or going."

  Agent Strong is exasperated, "Why you think that's funny? I didn't come with you all this way to stand outside the building like sightseeing tourists. I hear you saying we can't break in and no one will open for us."

  "But I didn't say we can't enter."

  "How do we do that?"

  "We go have a drink," says Mr. Nix with an unexpected sense of whimsy.

  Mr. Nix turns his back on the Secret Service building and crosses the street, heading to a bar restaurant whose doors collapsed inward, the tables and chairs lay overturned, and the liquor shelves are bare.

  Agent Strong follows. The empty streets put her on edge. Despite the city appearing abandoned on the surface, the lifeless buildings, vacant vehicles and sidewalk hiding spots has Strong's senses on overload. Mr. Nix repeated on the way into DC that people, armed people, are hiding hunkered in many of these buildings. The only soldiers they saw were Black Ops that Mr. Nix had them hide from. They spotted one civilian not scurrying from one hiding hole to another, and he was a crazy enraged politician trying to break into a building, angry enough to confront Strong and Nix with nothing more than a pole, and put down like a dog for ignoring the orders of the Black Ops. It is very clear to Agent Strong that if they must be careful of those in DC who protect this nation, then they should be fearful of those in this city who do not.

  Loud rumbling echoes roll down the streets and through the sky, sounding out the collapse of walls and grinding stone. A half mile away on 10th street, Agent Strong spots a massive Deconstructor crunch crumbling the Smithsonian building. Memory flashes from her childhood recall a field trip to the Smithsonian Museum. She was awestruck at the multitude of artifacts, art and world treasures inside a building so large even her youthful energy didn't have the strength to walk every exhibit. Now, it and everything within is being churned into nothing. The view she has makes her think of a triptych painting, where the first part is an architecturally beautiful building, the second part a massive sleek seamless machine dwarfing the building in the first painting, and the third painting showing nothing but sky and dirt left by the machine's passage.