by JK Stone
With a chuckle, Jason watched as she made it to the corner of the room and descended to level one. As soon as she was gone he looked at Jerren and Justin, who had their “Okay, what’s going on?” expressions plastered on their faces.
Jason smiled and said, “Oh, that. What can I say? She completes me.”
Jason had chairs arranged so they could be face to face for this discussion. He sat them down and could see they wanted details. He sighed and pushing past their curiosity, he proceeded to explain in detail what had happened, and what needed to be done.
Neither of the brothers was happy about being separated from him on an unknown planet but in the end, they all decided it would probably be for the best to have them stay with the rest of the family until Jason could resolve the problems facing them back on Earth.
The three of them stood up and Justin said, “It figures we would be separated today of all days.”
They each looked at one another, leaned in with their heads touching one another’s and a strange static arc seemed to pass through them.
Jason laughed. “A static charge and no carpet, go figure.”
The three of them let out a laugh and simultaneously said, “Happy Birthday.”
Justin pulled back, “That’s funny. Do you remember? That same thing happened on our ninth birthday.”
“I remember,” Jerren said. “Our imaginary friend also sang us happy birthday. She was the one who told us to put our heads together and at the end of the song we never saw her again.”
Jason said, “I forgot all about that and her. What was her name?” He paused a moment in thought. “Inola, wasn’t it? That was the last time I remember seeing her too.”
“We were silly kids with wild imaginations,” Jason said. “I’m surprised Father has any hair left after all the hell we put him through.”
“He did always say we put more gray on his head than time alone would’ve done,” Jerren said.
Justin looked at Jerren then back to Jason. “By the way, your appearance hasn’t gone unnoticed among the family. They feel uncomfortable broaching the topic with you but we have no qualms. What’s up?”
Jason sighed. He knew this moment was coming but he still didn’t feel right about telling them the whole of it yet. Which was an odd thing for him because they shared most of the events of their lives growing up. Something kept telling him to hold off, that it wasn’t the right time. In the end, he just told them it had something to do with the ship, which was correct in a way, and he would let them know more when he was able to.
*****
Alise had a surprise in store for Jason and his brothers. She knew it was their birthday and had decided to have a birthday party for them so they would have something to remember while they were separated.
When the triplets arrived on the second level, they were greeted by a round of Happy Birthday, followed by three cakes, each with its own numbered candles. Jerren and Justin had a thirty-four on their cakes while Jason’s had a thirty-five.
Justin and Jerren looked at Jason in apparent confusion for a second until Jason explained, “You both had been dead for a year when we went back to rescue you. The candles on the cakes are correct. I’m older than both of you…well even older than I used to be.” Jason lowered his voice and said, “Velois perut velnu, deseka magsugra mamuda.”
Nodding in apparent understanding Jerren and Justin bowed their heads and repeated in unison, “Velois perut velnu, deseka magsugra mamuda.”
Their father said, “There they go with their secret language again. Go on, make a wish and blow out your candles.”
Alise was stunned. She had personally never heard that language spoken aloud. No one had in almost four hundred thousand years, and she only vaguely recognized it from the memories of her first host commander Andel. She shook her head to clear her thoughts and noticed everyone staring at her. Alise figured most of them were thinking the stupid robot is defective, but Jason had concern etched on his face.
Jason came to her side and whispered, “Is everything okay?”
Alise looked up into Jason’s eyes in wonder. “Yes, it is okay. Just an old memory popping into my head. I will explain it to you later.”
Apparently mollified, Jason signaled it was time and explained to her that it was their tradition to let the youngest go first, and he gestured to Justin. Alise watched as Justin blew out his candles first, then Jerren blew out his. Jason looked into Alise’s eyes and mouthed thank you. Then she watched as Jason closed his eyes, made a wish then blew out the candles. Everyone clapped, and she figured it was time for her surprise.
Alise caused a blur of swirling lights to surround her body and she began spinning in midair, then she transformed into her humanoid form. With an astounded cry, she said, “Your wish came true, look Jason! I am a real girl now!” and she proceeded to laugh herself silly.
Everyone except Jason had stunned expressions plastered on their faces. A moment later Justin and Jerren’s shocked expressions changed to that of amusement as they cracked identical smiles. They walked over to her, each of them crouching to one of her ears and whispered at the same time, “Welcome to the family.”
Jerren and Justin each gave her a kiss on the cheek and were about to return to Jason’s side when Alise halted them and gave them their presents. They opened the boxes to reveal identical life monitors that looked like simple wristwatches one would find on Earth.
Alise forced a dire expression and said, “You are to wear those at all times. If you do not, I will know, and you will regret it.” After which she let out a sinister-sounding laugh.
Jason, Jerren and Justin laughed in return, apparently sensing the humor in her tone, but the rest of the family just stared at them as if they had all gone mad.
After another hour of birthday reminiscing, Alise got the family’s attention. “We have arrived at the planet Gloran and I have contacted its leaders to request asylum for you. They have agreed and you are all scheduled for a meeting with their refugee minister in less than an hour.”
The family looked relieved to be getting off the ship. The preacher, on the other hand, looked very nervous but did not say anything. In the end, the family said their goodbyes to Alise with what seemed to be forced politeness and were transported to the surface.
*****
Jason accompanied his family to the planet they had chosen. It was a lot more advanced than Earth, they had flying personal vehicles, advanced medical technology, and the people were very friendly toward refugees. His family was told that all citizens had to contribute for the betterment of the society and that they would be expected to find jobs and fit in. There was no monetary system on this planet and everyone looked out for one another.
These statements didn’t seem to go over very well with Jason’s half-brother Tim, but Jason felt the family would be okay here, At least until he could figure out who was after them on Earth. He informed them he had to be on his way but would be back to see them after they had settled in.
Jason signaled for Alise to transport him back to the ship and a second later he was standing in the decontamination room, followed suddenly by the blurring that indicated the time displacement field had engaged and a moment later the ship took off for Earth.
The decon scan was completed and Jason made his way to Alise’s side. He had just wrapped his arms around her when he felt a bit of a bump. Jason looked at Alise. “What was that?” he asked.
Alise shrugged. “It happens from time to time. I have no idea what it is though. The computer only ever shows them as a temporal anomaly.”
Satisfied with her explanation, Jason looked deep into Alise’s eyes, then proceeded to kiss her soundly. When he broke the kiss a while later, he asked, “Okay, what was with the watches?”
“It is sort of an insurance policy. Those are life monitors. If anything happens to them, their monitors will activate a beacon and send a signal to us so we can rectify it. If Elgon had given them to you before, we would have known
something was up earlier, but he didn’t want anyone to recognize the monitors and possibly figure out that one of your family was his potential replacement.”
Jason gave Alise a firm hug and said, “I can’t thank you enough for all you’ve done. I’ll have to think of a suitable reward.” He eyed her from head to toe and said, “As a matter of fact I think I know right where to start.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Jason went down to the second floor and peering into each of the bedrooms he was surprised to see that all the items created for his family were still present. It had been almost three days since he and Alise had dropped the family off and set off to investigate who was out to destroy his family. He thought the ship would have reset the room as it had for him when he arrived. He asked Alise in mind, Why are all the items made for my family still in their rooms? I would have expected them to reset once they were gone.
Alise replied, Sorry, I just have not gotten around to it, we have been a little busy, have we not? She ended with amusement in her voice.
With a brilliant flash, all of the furnishings and walls disappeared and Jason looked in awe at the large empty room.
Chuckling at the memory of how they passed the last days he said, Oh, I thought it was an automatic function. You didn’t have to bother. For future reference though, how do I do it? Jason asked.
Just tell the computer to send the items to void storage.
Jason shook his head in amazement and thanked her, then he thought to himself, I wonder what happens to all the stuff when it vanishes.
As the thought entered his mind, a new archway appeared on the far wall. Jason walked over and looked inside but he couldn’t see well through the darkness. He stepped further in and felt nauseated as a blurring similar to the one he associated with time displacement occurred. Once the effect passed he stared in awe and thought There is no way this is possible.
Jason looked around to find a cavern large enough to fit several football stadiums in. He took another few steps in to investigate and found furniture, clothing, knickknacks and quite a few other items that he had no clue how to describe. And that was just within the first ten feet.
“Alise, you’ve got to see this!” Jason called out.
There was no response and Jason tried again. “Alise, can you hear me?”
Still nothing. The non-response made Jason a little nervous so he turned around and headed back toward the archway. He was dumbfounded to find a smooth blank wall where he’d just entered.
Jason mumbled to himself, “Great now how do I get back to my ship?” A second later, the archway reappeared and he let out a sigh.
Once again Jason stepped through experiencing a shimmering blur. Upon reentering the ship, he said with relief, “That was easy.”
Alise replied, Yes, it is. A lot of the functions on the ship are the same way.
Confused at Alise’s response Jason said, No, I meant about reentering the ship.
What are you talking about? Alise asked.
Jason just realized Alise didn’t know he was gone and said, Oh, I just opened the archway into a massive room and it was full of all sorts of things. It was strange. I went in to have a look and when I tried to talk to you there was no response.
That is odd. I should have still been able to communicate with you anywhere on the ship. Let me check something really fast.
Jason just looked back and saw that the archway had disappeared.
This is strange, she said a moment later. The sensors show you were not onboard the ship for almost one second and I could not find telemetry on your bio-signs either. How long were you away and what did this room look like?
Jason explained, Well, I’d say I was only there a few minutes at most, and it looked like a massive cavern with an arched ceiling. It was well lit but I couldn’t see any lights and when I went in, I got that blurring sensation like the time displacement field was activated. When I stepped back on the ship the blurring happened again.
You might want to avoid that room for now. I have never encountered that room before, and I did not even know you were off the ship. This is disconcerting.
Jason looked back at the wall then said, The archway just appeared when I was wondering what happened to the stuff on the second floor, and when I thought about how I was going to get back to the ship, the archway reappeared. Apparently, the void storage is not a virtual location after all, and it seems as if I can control it.
Whether you can control it or not, I would still feel better if we are extra cautious for the time being.
Jason could tell Alise was concerned and decided not to pursue the matter any further but added, Okay, I think I’ll want to explore it at some time in the future though. There was a lot of stuff in there. It would be fascinating to poke around.
Deciding to change the subject Jason asked, Where are we on the probes we have out?
Alise replied, The one I sent out to discover what happened to your brothers is still in place. We should be in range to control it again in a few minutes. The data from the second probe will only take another minute.
Okay, I’ll be right down. With his curiosity set aside, for now at least, Jason set off to join Alise in the control room.
*****
“Do we know who he is yet?” Jason asked when he sat down in his seat.
“This is the man inside the church about an hour before the services,” Alise explained.
“What’s he doing?”
“It looks as if he is setting up the explosive. We need to get a DNA tracker on him so we can backtrack his movements and with any luck, we can see who is giving him his orders.
Jason had asked, “Why didn’t we put a tracker on him before? Damn…I’m having the oddest feeling of déjà vu.”
Alise looked at him peculiarly then said, “This is odd. I had the same feeling, strange… I have experienced that sensation quite a lot over the time I have been activated. It is probably just remnants of old memories.”
Alise turned her focus back to her task and said, “We need to move our ship out of here before our earlier selves get here to rescue the family and come back to save your brothers.”
“Why is that?” Jason asked
“It is a simple matter of physics; the same matter cannot occupy the same space,” Alise explained.
Jason nodded. “Ah okay, well let’s tag him and get moving.”
“One more second…there! Okay, we are out of here. I will take our ship back in time to a point before your brothers were attacked. We can do our tracking safely from there.”
“Okay, how do we track him to see what he’s doing?”
“Watch this,” Alise said with a grin.
Alise fiddled with her control panel, and a second later Jason saw the person phase out and back into a ship identical to theirs. Alise drew in a quick breath and began adjusting something on her console. The man faded a moment then came back into view and they proceeded to track him. Alise paled and began adjusting her console. They experienced a minor shimmering bump as he passed by them in time.
Alise looked at Jason and nervously said, “Now we know what that feeling was. It would happen on rare occasions but we could never figure out why. When that ship got close to us in time and location, we reacted like a magnetic field and caused a little push-back effect. “It would appear we were wrong in thinking it was your government or that DARPA who was responsible for the cloaking.
“That blurred figure must actually be a person in a time displacement suit. My best guess would be unless you’re in the exact same time phase as him, you’ll only see a blur. Most people wouldn’t be able to see him at all, but in the past, my commanders have said people appeared to see him in their peripheral vision but the people attributed the visions to ghosts or figments of their imaginations.
“Haven’t you seen this in the past before?” Jason asked.
“No I have never seen this effect before, this may be due to the displacement suits being in the same phase as t
heir ships, and I have never been this close before to scan another TDS ship or its commander. I didn’t even think it was possible to get this close.”
Alise and Justin had followed the commander of the other TDS ship for a few months into the past when they saw him standing over a dead animal in the snow. It looked like an extra furry ape of sorts. Time crept backward and the ape was back to standing as the man’s hand moved away from its head. Walking backward, they separated and a few seconds later the man vanished back into his ship.
Alise kept tracking his movements. They went back another seventy-three years and saw him appear on the planet once again. He was surveying the victim of an accident. They continued backward until they found the point where he had originally transported to the surface, then advanced the probe to watch events play out.
The cloaked commander of the TDS ship was transported into a very old truck. He was sitting beside the man they had seen dead a few seconds earlier. The cloaked man raised a weapon and with a jolt, the driver slumped over the steering wheel. The cloaked figure then steered the truck into oncoming traffic and with a brilliant flash, he was standing on the roadside watching as the collision occurred.
The driver of the truck flew out through the windshield and crumpled dead on the ground. After assessing the man’s condition, the other commander transported back to his ship.
Jason was puzzled. “Why did he kill that man?”
Alise was looking extremely pale as she fiddled with the probe. “That was your great-grandfather Baelin Stone.”
Jason was stunned. “So, we were not the first to die?” He asked.
“Apparently not.”
Alise resumed her tracking. This time the man went forward in time and passed them with a bump again and the other TDS ship stopped six months after the explosion during his funeral service and watched as the commander transported to the planet’s surface and was surveying a grave site.
Alise got a panicked look on her face. “Oh no! This is not good…not good at all.”