Fractime Legend (Part 4)

by Steve Hertig

Chapter 35

  RefPlane: 4 Apr 2045

  It took three agonizingly long days for the team to prepare for the mission, much of which involved analysis and reanalysis of the transit monitor data by Tye and Jennifer. Rodney constructed a devise, also using the Vulcan's crystal, which should heal the rip.

  In the Pruchlais, one hour was not much different from the next. The cave did dim during nighttime hours, but it didn't seem to help John get much sleep. As a result, he spent most of any spare time exploring.

  The Pruchlais is on one level, more or less, as some of the corridor's adjoining rooms were steeply sloped. Living quarters, ample enough for dozens of Family, were spacious by military standards. In a mess, meals are available by a replicator of top chef standard. John was relieved it also dispensed a reasonable Guinness; it even preformed the traditional two pours. Next to the mess, a small medical unit with two autodocs units waited, empty. There were several laboratories, besides the one designated for the transit monitor, filled with equipment from past and future centuries whose function was mostly obscure. The largest two rooms held stores of more laboratory apparatus, clothing, a vast array of weapons, and spare parts for everything.

  John was in his favorite place- the large recreation area that doubled as a firing range with targets fitted down the end of several long tunnels.

  He grumbled adjusting in a holo-scoped, phased pistol he had chosen for the upcoming mission. The holographic scope could follow his eye movement compensating for new firing solutions or multiple targets automatically. The pistol's safety settings in auto fire mode allowed the weapon to track and fire autonomously, but it still vaporized holos of the team.

  "Old grudge?" Jennifer said behind him as an image of her vaporized at the far end of the target tunnel.

  "Very funny," John said. "I'm trying to get it to discriminate our team from bad guys on autonomous fire."

  "Good choice on the weapon but it knows they're holo targets. You want to have a try with the real thing?" she said pulling the gun's barrel under her chin with a smirk.

  "No thanks," John said thinking she just might be serious with her offer.

  "The analyses are finished, as far as we could take them, and we're ready," she said releasing the weapons barrel. "How about you?" she asked.

  He holstered the pistol. "Yup. I just have to get my gear."

  "It's all in the lab," she said then quickly looked past him down the gun range.

  "See something?" he asked.

  "Tye hasn't mentioned anything?" she asked, looking embarrassed.

  "About what?"

  "Me and the Pruchlais."

  "No, but care to explain?"

  "Sometimes I get glimpses of someone down here, a woman. Micah says it the isolation but there's also the dreams."

  He looked at her with concern. Jennifer had been a mixed bag of responses to him since he had arrived. Mostly stoic and insincere but there were flashes of humor and kindness that were pure Jen and Jenny.

  "They are impossible to remember," she said. "Like something is holding them far away." She offered no further explanation as they walked in silence to join the others.

  Jennifer stopped and turned to John just before the lab's entrance. "I know we have a connection of sorts," she said.

  "Kind of, I guess."

  "I've seen you look at me and see Jen."

  "You haven't even met her yet," John said and now conscious he was not looking into her eyes.

  "Tye says I will meet her and Jenny," she said. "I believe I am the same person deep down. But it's been tough here so say the least."

  "I can tell." John hoped she was not going somewhere uncomfortable with all this.

  "Just want you to know I have your back."

  "Never doubted it. Same here, kid," he said with relief as they entered the lab.

  Tye and Rodney were waiting for them next to the pile of monitoring equipment and other gear. Rodney was naked and Tye wore Amhrán.

  "John," Tye said, "you will have to carry our gear across during translation. The temporal instability has further drained Amhrán's capabilities."

  John looked at the pile of five packs, including his. "Uh—"

  "We'll help," Jennifer said already undressed.

  John tried not to look at her as they hefted his pack onto his back. She draped two others over his shoulders and then Tye held the last in position, so he could get a firm grip on it with his left hand.

  Jennifer then pushed two rolled piles of clothes under each arm. "That should do it," she said.

  Rodney could not help but laugh as they disappeared.

  RefPlane: 7 Jun 2055

  His nude teammates relieved him of his burden and started dressing as John checked a new sat-chron he got from the Pruchlais stores.

  "Summer." He confirmed with relief and discarded the winter coat from his pack. He was thankful Amhrán made translation as predicted.

  On his advice, their target was the timber lease Jenny's uncle had owned southwest of the Mountain in Prime. They had hoped to use the nearby cabin to set up the monitor closer in space and time to see if any further details of the rip had surfaced. But as they emerged into the clearing, only overgrown burnt timbers and planks gave any evidence to the existence of a cabin in Minus.

  "The cabin was here in '46," John said picking up an empty, charred coffee can and showing it to Tye.

  She just nodded gravely.

  "I'll get temporary shelter set up for the monitor over there in those trees," Rodney said studying the clouds overhead.

  "I'll help," Jennifer said as she pulled a camo canopy from her pack.

  Tye walked around the vestiges of the cabin meeting John the remnants of a woodpile. "I feel my life," she said pausing to nudge a small log with her foot, "and my ancestor's lives are converging on this moment in history."

  John nodded. "You believe in destiny?" he asked.

  "Never before. Now, I can almost taste it," she said. "It is probably just the instability," she added hastily looking up at the Rockys surrounding them.

  "Are they ready?" John asked her not knowing what else to say as Rodney and Jennifer argued over which canopy poles went where. "They're awfully young."

  "You sure you are not just awfully old?" Tye quipped.

  "You can be talking," he said.

  "Ouch," she said and then they both laughed.

  It was good to hear the same laugh that he had heard dozens of times in the Chronos lab coming from behind Tye's workstation. "We'll be fine," he assured her, "assuming we can destroy the rip with Rodney's dark-energy, feedback gizmo. We'll probably get just one chance."

  "Agreed," Tye said solemnly.

  Rodney was waving to them from under the canopy where Jennifer was adjusting the monitor atop a large log stood on end.

  "Anything?" Tye said as she stooped to view the holo display.

  "We are just running the data interrogation routines Rodney devised," Jennifer said.

  "Now that's unexpected," Rodney said. "We couldn't get the physical size of the rip before."

  "What's it looking like," Jennifer said straining to see the display at a good angle.

  "Just over five angstroms," he replied.

  John had just assumed it would be very macroscopic. How could they ever find it? They would need to comb the Mountain with a microscope.

  "Damn," Tye said.

  "It's okay," Rodney reassured the team. "I've fitted the dark energy device with a photon projector powered by the rip itself. You should see the rip after a couple of seconds once you activate it. It can also act as a homing device; the closer it gets to the rip, the larger the feedback flux noted on its display. The yellow indicator's intensity will direct you to it, and a red indicator will light when it's within range to activate the crystal."

  "How long do you figure it'll take to destroy it," John asked.

  "It'll take longer the longer it takes us to find it, but today, about twenty seconds give or take a minute or two," Rod
ney said.

  "Perfect," Jennifer added sarcastically.

  "But we do have better spatial coordinates," Rodney added hastily. "The rip is within the Mountain complex, above the level of the main entrance about twenty meters.

  Tye leaned in again to get a better look at the new data projection. "That would be the CO's quarters in Prime," she said.

  "A coincidence?" John asked.

  "They must have known the spatial coordinates prior to infiltration," Jennifer added. "Fucking spies."

  "Weber," John said. "Kate Weber. She easily could have given the Leadership the internal plan for the Mountain in Prime. And given the anomaly is located in the CO's quarters, I'd say the rest of the complex might just be close to Prime's configuration."

  "That would be helpful," Tye said.

  Tye and Jennifer retrieved their specific mission gear from their packs and handed it all to John. Rodney would stay at the burned out cabin.

  Jennifer held the feedback weapon as Rodney gently transferred the dilithium crystal from the monitor into the feedback device's circuit. "We ready?" she said impatiently giving the device to John and then grasping his hand tightly in preparation for translation.

  "Rodney," Tye said with welling tears.

  "If things go wrong. It won't matter," he said and quickly kissed her cheek. "Just kick ass and come back."

  John noticed a large combat knife strapped to Jennifer's leg just before Tye grasped their hands.

  They translated into a storage room close to the barbershop in Prime's Mountain for ingress, near the CO's quarters and one level above the main command center.

  "Order's Captain," Tye said.

  She had insisted John lead the mission; he tried to argue based on the fact he had only a basic comprehension of the tactics employed by using Amhrán in a close-quarter combat situation. Tye was adamant that in close proximity to the rip, Amhrán probably would not be a factor.

  Jennifer was in favor of a fast, direct assault on the rip, but he had insisted they approach the rip cautiously on foot rather than translate directly in the CO's quarters.

  "What we got on the scan?" he asked, anxious its activation could draw attention to the team.

  Jennifer flipped the clumsy switch on the side of the jury-rigged device and swung it in a gentle arc. Stopping quickly she said, "Still at the same coordinates."

  The plan was simple. Tye would translate to the Systems Center to cause a diversion. First, they had to confirm the Mountain here was sufficiently similar to Prime's version. John reckoned if the CO's quarters, storage room and barbershop were here, then the rest would be close enough. Otherwise, they would all try to make it to the rip as covertly as possible and if discovered earlier, Tye alone would try a quick translation to the rip's location to destroy it.

  "I'll check the barbershop next door," John said in a whisper.

  Jennifer cracked the storage room door just wide enough to get a view down the corridor. Besides the knife strapped to her leg, Jennifer held a silenced Glock 18.

  "Clear," she whispered and then John slid past her into the open corridor. The Mountains corridors were unusually wide, nearly five meters and the one where the barbershop was located was no different. The Air Force had constructed the service buildings under the Mountain as if they were topside, like a small main street town hidden in the massive cavern.

  John walked up to the door and peered under a 'closed' sign through its window. He saw four barber chairs and then swallowed hard as he saw a large cat running towards him from the back of the dark shop. He quickly pulled away from the window and then chanced another look; it was gone.

  "No cuts today Major?" a voice asked behind him.

  Quickly turning around, a sergeant in a black uniform saluted him.

  He returned the salute, but was keenly aware the sergeant was studying him and his basic black uniform. John hoped it was similar enough the lack of insignias would go unnoticed.

  "So I see," John said.

  "Shall I call the barber on call?"

  "Not necessary, carry on Sergeant."

  "Yes, sir," he replied. He walked past the storage room where Tye and Jennifer were hiding and then disappeared round a corner.

  John walked cautiously back the storage room. Knocking twice, Jennifer cracked the door. After staring down her Glock silencer, he quickly closed the door behind him.

  "That was weird," he told them. "The barbershop's exactly like back home."

  "The barbershop being there was weird?" Tye asked.

  "No," John said, "I thought I saw a cat in the barbershop, but it disappeared."

  Tye looked worried. "The rip is changing perceptions. We must move quickly."

  "A sergeant stopped me," John continued. "He thought I was a major but I don't have any uniform insignias."

  "What?" Jennifer said shaking her head. "We need to move now. Translate directly to the rip."

  "We stay on plan," John said sternly.

  "I agree," Tye said, "It is still too risky."

  "This is not open for debate," John said looking from one to the other.

  Tye looked at Jennifer, who nodded agreement.

  Looking to Tye, John asked, "Okay, how's Amhrán?"

  "Weak and barely functioning," she replied.

  "We'll meet you at the rips coordinates in ten mikes," John told Tye just before she translated into the Systems Center.

  "Status?" John asked Jennifer.

  She switched on the feedback device. "No change," she reported just before the door exploded.

  Jennifer, thrown back into the rear wall, rebounded with knife in hand. She slashed the throat of the first through the door then rolled to one side in one smooth motion, crouching low and ready to kill the next person through. This gave John time to draw his weapon that immediately fired four beams in succession through the doorway. Men screamed in the corridor just before another Optimum soldier rushed the doorway. Jennifer plunged her knife under his ear then into his chest in quick succession, dropping him quickly. John's pistol fired twice more into the corridor as a small, red canister rolled past them.

  John's head throbbed as he struggled to see and move. He had been unconscious at least three times he could remember. He still tried to pull his phaser's trigger as he became aware of his restraints as well as a hood over his head again.

  "Ah good. You're awake," John heard from behind him. He had instantly disliked the faceless voice when he first heard their captor speak. Now, he detested it.

  "We'll have that long talk now, eh? Your friend here is not much of a conversationalist."

  "Jennifer!" John screamed inside the hood, testing his restraints and realizing he was still naked.

  "Now, now," the voice said. "Both your blood tests reveal a nano contamination among other things so maybe that explains her resistance. Where exactly are you from?"

  "Fuck you," John said slowly tasting blood in his mouth.

  "I guessed this was not going to be straight forward," the voice said as John's hood disappeared over his head.

  John squinted as his eyes adjusted to light and then stared at a dull green sun tattooed above the man's left wrist as he held the bloody hood.

  "I do personally like to see the resolve of someone during interrogation before going to the more conventional mind-control methods available here," the voice said.

  Jennifer, unconscious and naked, sat fully restrained in a chair a meter front of him, a horrifying implant protruding from her right temple. Their captor remained out of sight behind him.

  "Fuck you," John yelled.

  "Better. And I'm glad I finally have your attention. Now where are you from?"

  "Michigan," John said defiantly as his captor forced his head back.

  Seeing his captor for the first time, albeit it upside down, John muttered, "You've got to be joking."

  The man leaned close enough for John to smell his disgusting breath.

  "The major, I presume," John said looking at a scared, thin
version of his own face.

  "Yes. I'm Major Seren. And here, I didn't think you were that intelligent. You know what I meant before brother. Now, one more time- where are you from?" Seren asked as he released John's head, so he could see Jennifer again. The implant glowed red, then sparks erupted from it and swarmed around her head as she began convulsing, pulling at her bonds so tight John heard cracks as bones broke. She slumped in her restraints, her left hand at a gruesome angle to her wrist, as Seren moved behind him again.

  John took a deep breath and quickly surveyed his surroundings. A bunk and small side table were to one side across the room. He and Jennifer were in front of a desk. An empty chair sat in a near corner. He concluded the room's door must be behind him. He scanned the desk starting from the left- a clear, half-full water jug and glass, a net center, and then he caught sight of a large, brass-colored, metallic crystal with pentagonal faces. It was a specimen of pyrite and a single, perfect dodecahedron surpassing museum quality and suspended somehow a few centimeters over Seren's desk. Behind the desk, a large red flag adorned the wall with a stylized eagle clutching the Earth in its talons.

  Seren walked back into John's field of view carrying the feedback device. He flipped it on and pointed it at Jennifer's head then with his other hand, placed her knife under her chin.

  "Let's try another question. What's your name?"

  "It's Mack-in-awe, John." John replied. "Captain, United States Army."

  "The name means nothing. But the face, now that must mean something." He chuckled as he lightly the dragged Jennifer's knife across the top of her smooth head producing an oozing blood trail.

  If John had an edge, it was he knew his captor, at least on some level. But despite the pyrite specimen, Seren just seemed to be a megalomaniac; John struggled to come up with an escape plan.

  "And what's this." Seren hefted Rodney's device. "By your reaction when I pointed at your pretty friend's head, it's not a weapon. Some kind of Time Corps trickery perhaps?"

  "I don't know what you're talking about," John said baiting him. He noted the device's indicator was red.

  "Oh, but you must. You're too old for my stupid double here. You're certainly extra-universal."

  John figured he had nothing to lose by going onto the offensive. "You got me. I'm just a geologist from the future looking for rocks. Nice piece of fool's gold you got there." John nodded at the specimen on Seren's desk. "Fitting," he added curtly.

  "It's very old," Seren said as he rubbed a shiny crystal face. "The last remaining from the collection," he added soberly. "Now explain this device," Seren, now back in the present, demanded.

  John remained silent as he saw the contrivance in the side of Jennifer's head activate again. This time, she woke, violently struggling against her restraints. Seeing John opposite her, she calmed.

  John gave her a quick nod hoping Seren didn't see the subtle communication.

  Seren looked at them both and then said, "Bring the other one in. I believe it's time."

  John saw the terrified look on Jennifer's face as he heard the door behind him open. She began to struggle against her restraints again then gave up, red faced.

  "So, we do bring a third to the party," Seren said with a chuckle as the sergeant John recognized from outside the barbershop dragged a bound, beaten and unconscious Rodney into the empty chair. "Things just get stranger," Seren said as John heard the door close behind him.

  Jennifer quickly blinked both eyes once. John guessed it was a signal that just Seren remained.

  Seren walked over to Rodney and pulled his head up by his matted red braids. "He also had strange equipment, but it was non functional. Components appear missing." He let Rodney's head go. His neck cracked as it fell forward.

  Jennifer tried to speak through her gag.

  Seren pulled it off with a jerk. "You have a comment?"

  "Don't hurt him anymore. Please," she pleaded and then began to sob uncontrollably.

  "So why don't you tell me what you're doing here," he said while looking at her with loathing.

  She continued to sob.

  Seren shook his head in disgust and then punched the side her face; a tooth rattled across the floor as blood streamed down her chin and on to her chest.

  He turned to look at John.

  "Fuck you," John screamed, daring to believe Jennifer had a plan.

  Seren delivered two more blows to Jennifer's face in quick succession. Her left wrist cracked again, as her small frame continued to weaken against her restraints. She appeared unconscious as Seren turned his attention back to John.

  "Wait," she said meekly, her jaw seemed at an unnatural angle. "It's just an EM scanner," she slurred with her head hung down, blood still dripping on the floor.

  "Shut up," John shouted at her, hoping for a miracle.

  Seren smiled a sadistic smile. "A scanner," he said as he flipped the device on again and pointed around the room. You know this mountain is quite secure. I'd really be surprised if there were any espionage devices here." He placed the device on his desk, walked over to Rodney, pulled his head up by his hair, and placed Jennifer's knife against his throat. "Unfortunately, for your friend here, I don't believe you," he said.

  "Wait. Wait," Jennifer pleaded. "It's only a scanner," she said through blood dripping from her mouth.

  Seren withdrew the knife from Rodney's throat and took at the device off his desk, pointed it at John's head, but pulled the trigger this time.

  John looked up at him. "Fucker."

  Seren pointed the device around the room while he repeatedly pulled the trigger. "Nice try," he said.

  Jennifer spat more blood on the floor. "Hold the activator," she struggled to say.

  Seren swung the device again, stopping while pointing to the corner over his bunk. "And here I didn't believe you." He released the trigger and pointed the device at the floor.

  "Okay, what was that," he said tapping the back of John's head with the device.

  "Did it look all bright and fuzzy about a couple of centimeters across?" John managed asked sarcastically. "Don't have a clue," he added.

  Seren brought the butt of the scanner down hard on the back of his head causing painful sparks to fill his vision.

  John guessed he was only out for a few seconds as Jennifer still had the same terrified expression on her bloody face.

  "It's a transit beacon," Jennifer said weakly. "We've captured the Navis and now you're about to be up to your asshole in a temporal shit storm."

  For the first time, Seren looked anxious. "So, my resignation as First Officer was aptly timed. Rest assured, no one will ever know of the other universes. I'll personally see to that. Now, how many more of these beacons are there?"

  "We only need the one," Jennifer said head down just as his office lights blinked twice then stayed off and then red emergency lighting flooded the office.

  Seren looked at John and then went back to Rodney. "Tell me how to destroy it," he said to them both, knife in hand. "Now!"

  John felt a glimmer of hope that Jennifer might pull this off.

  Jennifer spat a mouthful of blood at Seren landing mostly on his Optimum shoulder patch.

  Seren reared back and plunged the knife deep into Rodney's chest.

  John winced feeling his chest tighten in synesthetic reflex.

  "Mother fucker," Jennifer screamed, convulsing in her constraints and nearly toppling her chair.

  Seren then pulled John's head back by his hair and pressed the bloody knife against his throat. Feeling Rodney's blood run down his neck, he could not repress a gulp.

  "One more time," Seren said calmly to Jennifer. "Tell me how to deactivate it."

  She looked up at John, tears streaming down her cheeks. "If the indicator is red, just hold the fucking trigger dumbass."

  Seren slowly pulled the knife away John's throat. Picking up the device then pointing it at the corner above the bunk, he depressed the trigger.

  John craned his neck just enough to
see the anomaly glowing brightly and enlarging.

  "How long?" Seren demanded.

  "Until it is gone dipshit," Jennifer said weakly.

  The anomaly began to fill the corner of the room.

  "Fuck this," Seren said lowering the device again.

  Jennifer screamed at Seren to fuck himself.

  John felt sick; he watched the pool of his blood slowly expand to join that of Jennifer's. He struggled to keep conscious; the horrid scene around him began to collapse into darkness as sudden warmth enveloped him, emanating from a familiar softness against his naked legs.

  John struggled to raise his head to see Seren's eyes dilated and opened wide as a violent tremor shook his body. His face contorted in slow agony as he fell to the floor; his knuckles white as he spastically gripped the device's trigger, involuntarily continuing to activate it.

  John saw Tye appear next to Rodney's body.

  "Kill him," he said nodding to Seren convulsing on the floor. He felt Tye's pain as their eyes met, violet tears streaking her cheeks.

  Tye touched Rodney's face gently, and then they disappeared.

  John closed his eyes trying to steady himself for whatever was about to happen. The room filled with brightness even his closed eyes could sense and then- nothingness.

  RefPlane: 4 Apr 2045

  A jolt brought John back to reality; he thought the chair had collapsed under him, but he soon recognized the sandstone floor of Pruchlais lab through the blood spatter around and beneath him. The dark-energy device was nearby, and Jennifer, covered with blood, lay naked on her side next to him. He crawled to her and cradled her in his arms.

  "Brave girl," he said tearfully and then kissed her on the top of her bloody head.

  "Higgs," she managed to say.

  John looked up to see Tye, covered with blood, tears still streaming down her cheeks, shake her head from the entrance to the lab.

  "John, the legend. They told me," Jennifer rasped then fell unconscious as Tye knelt beside her.

  "You're safe," John whispered to Jennifer.

  "I need to get her to the med center at Trua Outpost," Tye told him tearfully just before Jennifer and she vanished.

  Tye immediately returned with a portable med kit to attend to John. She explained she was terrified after translating back from the Systems Center only to find the signs of a firefight in the storage room, and the area filled with Optimum troops. Amhrán needed time to recover causing her to miss their rendezvous. But as soon as the entity was functional, she translated outside the CO's quarters where she immobilized the sergeant on guard. She had to wait again for Amhrán to recover before translating inside and seeing Seren immobilized. She then left with Rodney's body, placing him into one of the Pruchlais' auto doc units, but the knife wound had proven fatal.

  She returned for John and Jennifer just as Seren destroyed the rip. She left him alive but still in agony.