by J. M. Preiss
Mason cursed and dove for the rifles that were lying on the ground near the rear hatchway as another bolt passed through where he had been previously standing.
"Taking fire," Mason shouted over the communication channel.
"Hold them off," Jacob said coolly.
"I thought I'd let them just shoot me and join you for tea," Mason said sarcastically as he tossed Jacob's rifle into the craft and shouldered his own.
Flipping through the image enhancements available to him, he settled on the thermal imaging. The ambient temperature was up, but he hoped that he would be able to make out the heat signature of a person.
He could barely make out a spot that might have been a person before another energy bolt pinged off of the floor near him.
"No time for being sure," he muttered under his breath as he aimed and pulled the trigger.
His own bolt of plasma leapt forth from the aperture of his rifle. It lanced through the air and impacted the heat signature square in the center. Mason saw sprites of heat cascade from the impact site, and the signature staggered back before diving behind cover.
Mason's jaw dropped. They had armor capable of stopping plasma weapons.
"Remember when I said I didn't like this, Lieutenant?" Mason grumbled.
"It comes to mind," Jacob responded as he flipped switches and checked the status of the craft from the cockpit.
"Consider it said again. These guys are stronger than we first anticipated."
"I'm not surprised," Jacob responded again. "It was a bit too easy getting the information that we wanted. Then we make it to this hangar facility unmolested. Yeah, they have some kind of plan that we weren't privy to."
"Could you not be so calm about it all?" Mason groaned. "It makes me feel uncomfortable. You can't tell me that this is just another day on the job for you."
Jacob was silent.
"So this is just another day on the job for you," Mason sighed. "Damn specters."
Jacob let a slight smile adorn his face at the impromptu title. The emotion startled him slightly, which startled him even more that it startled him.
Running through the checklist that Sara had displayed on his HUD, he ran his eyes over various readouts and displays. Everything read green except for the hull temperature. It was yellow.
Flipping a few more switches, Jacob brought primary power online and started spinning up the engines. Outside, a low rumble could be heard that got Mason's attention.
He turned and looked towards the direction of the sound. The hangar doors had started to slide open. The hot smoke billowed out as the cold mountain air seeped in to take its place. Daylight illuminated everything more and more as the doors gaped wider.
Looking back towards where his target had been, Mason saw nothing.
A bolt of searing, white energy zipped over Mason's head from his right. He rolled and repositioned himself closer to the hatchway into the craft. He couldn't make out his assailant in all the smoke, and the thermal imaging wasn't very helpful because of the fires in that direction.
Another bolt smacked into the side of the craft, pitting it where it impacted.
"We need to get out of here, Lieutenant," Mason rumbled. "I think we outstayed our welcome."
"Working on it, Mason," Jacob said as his hands continued to fly over the controls.
The engines were about ready to spring to life. Primary power was steady. Control systems reported full responsiveness. Avionics instrumentation was reporting green on all other fronts.
Jacob nodded to himself that everything was as it should be.
"Get inside, Captain," Jacob said. "We're ready to get out of this place."
"Gladly," Mason responded.
He slipped all the way into the rear hatch on the transport and depressed the button to close it. Multiple energy bolts impacted the side of the transport as the hatch sealed shut. The volume of fire slowly increased, and there started to be a harsh thumping noise as heavier shots rocked the craft.
"We need to go, now," Mason shouted as he made his way into the cockpit.
"Don't need to tell me twice," Jacob said.
Jacob pressed a button and the engines coughed before finally bursting to life. Pushing forward on the throttle and rotating the elevation setting, Jacob deftly lifted the craft into the air. It pitched forward as he pushed forward on the control yoke.
"Might want to hold on to something," Jacob said.
More impacts rang through the hull of the craft.
"Just do it already," Mason said with urgency in his voice.
Jacob shook his head as he slammed the throttle to the stops.
The craft leapt into action and rocketed out of the hangar, smoke and fire trying to keep its hold on the craft as it arced up into the clean atmosphere above.
Weapon fire lanced from beneath them, and electro-flak bursts peppered the sky around them.
"Seems like they don't want us to leave so easily," Mason grimaced as he picked himself up from the back of the cockpit.
"What gave you that idea," Chelsea said.
"Wait," Sara said with concern. "That's not all that is going on."
Mason situated himself in the co-pilot's chair.
"What do you mean?" he asked once he was strapped in.
"See for yourself," she said as she put up a sensor overlay in front of his part of the cockpit glass.
There was the interference from the weapon fire that was trying to box them in, but that wasn't what seemed to concern Sara. Off in the distance, there was a hard contact that was screaming through the atmosphere at supersonic speeds.
"Uh-oh," Mason said.
"What is it?" Jacob asked as he focused on evading the anti-aircraft fire.
"Interceptor missile? I don't know for sure," Mason said as he studied the sensor information, "but it is travelling fast and in our direction."
"No, it's not," Chelsea said.
"What do you mean," Sara asked.
"Look," she said. "The projections show it going somewhere else. Somewhere," she trailed off.
"Oh no," Sara gasped.
"What's wrong," Mason asked, puzzled.
"It's heading for the complex," Chelsea said quietly.
"That doesn't make any sense. Why would it?" Mason tried to ask before he was interrupted by the craft's computer.
"Radiological alarm. Radiological alarm."
"You might really want to hold on to something," Jacob said through a strained face as he opened the throttle past its safeties and went into a power climb.
“Why are you going up?” Mason shouted.
“We were close to our terminal point to engage the booster to get us out of atmo anyways. Do you want to risk going back down?” Jacob responded.
"Craft passing recommended safety margins," the computer toned coolly. "Radiological alarm. Radiological alarm. Airframe stress exceeding recommended safety margins."
"Shut that thing up," Mason managed through clenched teeth.
"Radiological-"
"Done," Chelsea said as she silenced the audible alarms.
That did nothing to stop the red flashing of the screen or the radiation symbol that was faintly visible on the windscreen, but it gave Mason a bit more peace of mind.
“I’d say you were still too low to engage what you did,” Mason said.
“No argument from me there,” Jacob replied. “But I don’t think they’ll bill me.”
"Impact in three," Sara counted down. "Two."
Mason watched as the sensor blip arced towards where they had left. The open hangar doors. The doors they had opened. They had made the facility vulnerable.
"One."
The flak fire was no longer boxing them in. Jacob was able to focus on flying straight up to escape the blast by breaking atmosphere. The sensors showed a heavy volume of fire trying to knock the incoming missile out of the sky, but it was all in vain.
"Impact."
The blip disappeared for a moment as the missile entered the
hangar.
Mason closed his eyes, but he was unable to get the sight out of his mind. The sight of innumerable lives being vaporized.
The sensor screen broke into static as the missile detonated. Sara flipped on a rear viewing camera so they could see what was happening.
Through the charred lens of the camera, damage done during their infiltration of the facility, Mason and Jacob could see the devastation. It was a high-yield thermonuclear device. The shockwave was quickly reaching up to make a grab for them. Debris, a collection of things Mason didn't even want to imagine, raced shortly behind the initial shock. The mountain was gone.
The shockwave hit and buffeted them, but they were far enough away that it did little to alter their flight path.
Mason closed his eyes to fight away the tears that were trying to burst forth. Innocent blood now cascaded off of his hands, and it made him feel sick.
Jacob looked forward calmly as he pulled the throttle back into the standard operational zone and eased the craft into a calmer ascent. Flipping a few switches, he input Einstein as his destination and activated autopilot. He felt nothing.
Chapter XVI
Adam shuddered. He had felt the recoil of the sudden loss of computing power, but he was unable to determine where it happened. It was there a moment, and then it was gone.
"There has been an incident near Origin," the lilting voice said. "We are still unclear on the information at this time, but it would appear that our opponent is on the move."
Closing his eyes and sighing, Adam leaned further back into his chair.
"What are we looking at on completion of a solution?"
"It will take some time to recalculate," the voice responded. "The lost facility was tied into the Paradox Manipulator. We are shuffling resources from solution calculation; however, the paradox has managed to shift forward at a startling rate."
"You talk of it as if it is a living thing," the deep voice boomed. "It is no more a living thing than the physical processes that govern this universe. Is a star alive? I think not."
"We don't have time for philosophical debates," Adam waved dismissively.
"Agreed," the lilting voice responded. "New projections should be completed within the hour. We have already transferred the necessary resources to the Manipulator. Stability has been regained."
Adam flipped through the reports in the virtual space before him. Things were not good.
"How much time did we lose?" he asked.
"Unknown," the deep voice responded. "We are of the agreement that we can still achieve the solution, but we will not know more until we have run the calculations."
"Get it completed," Adam said. "We need to know if we have to send back another."
Adam busied himself with looking through more reports as they came through his internal server. They were primarily concerning power demands and how they were being filled. The infrastructure that he was relying on was failing. There had been a power interruption at the facility in New York. The death toll was coming in, but it looked grim. A 30% loss in chamber integrity with a near 100% fatality rate for those affected. The numbers themselves didn't concern Adam so much, but resources were starting to run thin. There was nothing difficult about replacing damaged chambers, but it was nearly impossible to replace the occupants of the chambers.
He lost himself in the reports for what seemed like ages.
"We've completed the initial assessment, Adam," the lilting voice said. There was a hint of sorrow that crept in.
"The damage that was inflicted is greater than we initially believed," the deep voice stated in a metered tone. "A total loss from a facility has been experienced, and it is now confirmed that it occurred not long after Origin. This information has allowed us to narrow down the timeframe for Bishop, but we are still unable to get an exact fix on his position."
"Her position," the lilting voice offered.
"Nonsense," the deep voice boomed. "Surely these are the actions of a man. A female would not be so callus."
"Irrelevant," Adam said. "Are we able to compensate?"
"We managed to transfer resources to Paradox shortly after we felt the loss," the lilting voice began, "and we are now confident that we achieved stability within time to avoid disaster."
"Time lost?"
"Five seconds," the deep voice boomed.
Five seconds. A simple number. In five seconds, a human could go through a breathing cycle, inhale and exhale. Life could be sustained in five seconds. A biological organism could reproduce in five seconds. An entire universe could be born in five seconds. An entire universe could be destroyed in five seconds.
"Too long," Adam said. "We cannot suffer any further setbacks. I'm giving authorization to bring all of the reserves online and apply them to finding the solution."
"The power expenditure will be great," a smooth voice intoned. "The infrastructure might not be able to handle it."
"Then do it carefully. We cannot afford to be so cautious anymore," Adam chided. "We lost five seconds because we were cautious. We lost five seconds because I was foolish enough to trust those two humans that managed to break through the paradox."
He slammed his hands on his desk.
"Do we have any information concerning their outcome?"
"Nothing as of yet," the deep voice said. "I believe that they are the ones that are near Origin, but there is no evidence to support that conjecture."
"Find out when they are," Adam growled. "And prepare another team to send back."
"That won't work," the smooth voice cooed. "You, more than the rest of us, know that we are unable to send anybody back through the Paradox. Each attempt only manages to hasten obliteration at its hands."
There was stark silence.
"For whatever reason," the lilting voice picked up, "those two are the only ones that have managed to successfully traverse across time."
Adam knew the reason.
Chapter XVII
"How many people, Chelsea?" Mason asked quietly.
"The number is unimportant," she responded meekly.
"How many!"
"Mason," Jacob said with a calm voice. "Don't let it go, but don't make it any harder on yourself than it already is. We didn't know that this would happen."
"We didn't?" Mason asked with fire. "We knew that they wanted the place destroyed!"
Mason slammed his armor fist into his leg. Sparks from the shield interaction lit up the cabin.
"Your anger is warranted," Sara began, "but it isn't going to serve us. It will only manage to make things harder."
"Harder," Mason half laughed. Had his helmet been off, a wild look would glint in his eyes. "We're already facing the damn impossible. How can that become any harder?"
Jacob looked over the controls and readouts for their transport. Everything seemed to be in working order.
"There's nothing we can do about it," he finally said. He was able to deal with what should have been the emotions inside himself, but he had no idea how to help his friend.
"Well, maybe we should've just let ourselves die then," Mason said angrily.
"And what exactly would that solve? There is no guarantee that would've avoided this bloodshed," Jacob said.
Mason grumbled under his breath.
"Ever since we launched," Sara began, "I've been trying to get in touch with the computers at Einstein. I'm not having much luck."
"What seems to be the problem?" Jacob asked as he looked sideways at Mason.
"It's hard to say. It's almost as if they have been taken off of the global network. I can see where the servers all point to, but there are no responses coming out of that area."
"So they just have a strict firewall thrown up," Jacob offered.
"That could explain it, but even their outward accessible stuff has been firewalled then. All public portals have been closed."
Jacob closed his eyes and laid his head back.
"It's no use to fret over it before we get there. We've go
t a flight that is going to take us a few hours. Might as well get some rest."
Mason grunted but said nothing.
"I'm going to set an alert for the transport to wake us up when we get pinged by ATC," Jacob said as he put in a few commands before resting back against the seat again.
"I don't get how you are able to be so calm right now," Mason quietly spoke.
"Being otherwise doesn't do us any good, Mason. Maybe I am no more than a robot after my training, but it does get results."
Mason simply shook his head without responding, the fire finally drained from him.
"Anyways," Jacob was saying as Mason came out from his thoughts, "get some sleep. It'll help clear your thoughts."
Mason mumbled something that Jacob didn't understand, but he thought he knew the gist of it. Shutting off his external speaker and his communication system, he spoke to himself.
"Any theories as to why that complex was attacked like that?"
"I have a few," Sara said as she coalesced an avatar on his HUD.
"Hit me with them."
"The biggest theory is that they posed some kind of threat to-"
She caught herself before she said a name, but Jacob had an idea of who she was talking about, the man that had sent them there.
"I doubt that a bunch of civilians would be working for Adam," Jacob said. "Besides, I don't think that we would be having any issues entering a facility that is controlled by him."
"Adam is in the future, yes?" Sara asked.
"He is, oh."
"That is not to say that he has some kind of influence here in what is his past, but what kind of influence would he have?"
"That's true. His influence would be limited to any agents he sends back to this time period, namely us," Jacob agreed. "What purpose do you think was served by destroying the complex?"
"I'm unsure," Sara said meekly. "Our mission was to disable the power systems in it, but I don't know what kind of impact that would've had. I don't understand the escalation directly to weapons of mass destruction."
"You got a good look at those stasis chambers," Jacob said. "What would disabling the power have done to them?"