by Adair Hart
“Very observant, and you are correct. If it had translated it to fifty-nine tetritons, it would not make sense to you. Anything else?” said Evaran.
Dr. Snowden and Sanjay shook their heads no.
Evaran interacted with his ARI. Kri’tokhaar began speaking again. “Kri’tokhaar was able to guide the ship to the nearest planet, which seems to have primitive life. If the life pods can fire, there may be a chance of getting out of this. Kri’tokhaar is heading to the docking bay now.”
The sound of something hitting the door in the video startled Kri’tokhaar. Kri’tokhaar looked back at the door. “There isn’t much time. If you are hearing this and are on the ship, be careful. Kri’tokhaar out.” The video showed Kri’tokhaar reaching forward with two of his arms and touching the console screen. The video went blank after that.
“I wonder if he made it to the docking bay,” said Emily.
Evaran looked at the ground as if in thought. “Not likely. The ship reports all Krotovore life signs are gone, and none of the life pods were fired.” Evaran looked around at his ARI. “Nonetheless, it looks like the data retrieval is done. I also changed the ship’s trajectory, so we are no longer in danger of crashing into the planet. However, we need to get the main engine back online. I have downloaded the sequence needed to do so. We will need to head there, to the engine room, next.”
“What did you change the ship’s trajectory to?” asked Sanjay.
“To the sun. The ship will continue toward it, but under its current momentum it will be several weeks until it gets there. By turning on the main engines, we can shorten that time to seven hours,” said Evaran with taut lips. Evaran picked up his UIC and placed it back into his utility belt.
“You’re gonna kill everything on the ship?” asked Emily with wide eyes.
“That’s cold, man,” said Jay.
Evaran looked down with furrowed eyebrows before looking around at them. He sighed. “This was not an easy decision. I feel for the creatures on this ship, abducted without a choice in the matter. However, the planet below cannot be interrupted by this timeline-changing event. This ship is larger than the asteroid that hit your planet sixty-five million years ago. The primitive life on the planet would not stand a chance.”
“Okay, but why’re we speeding up the ship to the sun?” asked Dr. Snowden.
Evaran gestured with his right hand. “We are deep in Bilaxian space. They already have cruisers on their way here, and I am sure it has attracted the attention of others. This ship’s technology is far more advanced than that of any of the civilizations here. It would radically alter the timeline to have this advanced technology fall into any of their hands. That must not occur. They would arrive before this ship hit the sun with plenty of time to scour it.”
He gestured with his left hand. “Another thing. This ship causes timeline changes wherever it goes. It must be stopped. The very existence of these apex predators on this ship has already caused changes from wherever they are, just as your presence here has. If I had the time, I would capture every one of them and take them home. However, I do not know where they came from, save a few. I could try and guess, but that could make things worse. I had to make a choice, and I chose to save you four and direct the ship into the sun. I know where you came from and when.”
“What do you mean by timeline exactly?” asked Dr. Snowden.
Evaran drew his lips flat and tilted his head at them. “Your universe has many instances. Each instance has a defined chronological sequence of events, which is called a timeline. Let me give you an analogy. Let us say the Krotovore never abducted you and your life continued on as normal. A year after your brother’s funeral, you meet the woman of your dreams.”
“Hell yeah, Doc!” said Jay, nodding with a crooked smile.
Dr. Snowden cocked his head at Jay with wrinkled eyebrows. “Hey! It could happen.”
Evaran nodded. “Yes, it could. We will call that the default state of the timeline at that point. Now along comes the Krotovore, and they abduct you before you meet this woman. Your future has now changed. Since your future has changed, anyone or anything that had interacted with you also changes. This is how the timeline maintains referential integrity. Any change in the timeline causes an update toward the future. This is referred to as a cascading timeline update, or CTU. The point where you meet the woman of your dreams no longer happens now. She would go on about her life, never having met you.”
Dr. Snowden tilted his head. “That assumes there is a future that exists and can be updated, though.”
Evaran half grinned. “You are beginning to understand.”
Dr. Snowden furrowed his eyebrows. He had heard some of these terms before but wasn’t sure how they could be verified. “So when we go back to Earth, the timeline will reset back to the default state, right?”
Evaran narrowed his eyebrows. “Not quite. You all are changed now, both physically and mentally, and your lives may be different because of this event. Back to the analogy. Say the woman was a doctor, and you originally met her at a checkup. However, now that you are back, you can no longer go to the doctor since it would expose your nanobots. You would never meet her. It goes a lot deeper than that, however, and would require extensive learning on your part to fully understand.”
Dr. Snowden shook his head. It sounded crazy to him. “So … do these CTUs cross over to other timelines?”
Evaran furrowed his eyebrows. “They do not. The timeline is one entity, and updates are localized to it. There are other timelines parallel to the one you are in as I mentioned. They do not intersect with each other. The timeline changes the Krotovore caused were isolated to this timeline.”
“In these other timelines, is there a copy of us?” asked Sanjay.
Evaran half smiled. “There is in some, and they would refer to you as the copy. However, your timeline is one of the rare ones where your species evolved to dominate Earth. In the last one I visited, Earth was dominated by a species you commonly refer to as Neanderthal.”
Dr. Snowden jerked his head back. What would a modern-day Neanderthal society look like? He raised his finger as if to ask but was interrupted by Evaran turning toward the main screen.
Evaran scrutinized the main screen and interacted with his ARI. “My ship’s external sensors have been activated. I am transferring the visual to the main screen. It appears we already have visitors.”
They turned to the main screen. It showed several heavily armed men walking around, poking at an invisible shield.
One of the men walked up to another one with ragged hair. “Jerzan, whadda ya want to do with this?”
“Hell if I know. This shield seems impenetrable. I bet their crew is somewhere on board, though … ,” said Jerzan. He snapped his fingers. “Gather round, assholes.” The men gathered around him. “We might have a crew loose on board. Standard rules apply. No killing, capture only, and, Hulldar,” said Jerzan, pointing to one of the men, “no sampling their entertainment value before they get to the ship. I hate sloppy seconds.”
The men laughed.
Evaran interacted with his ARI, and the screen went blank.
Emily swallowed hard. “Who were they?”
Evaran rubbed his chin. “Jerzan … hmm.”
“Analysis. Jerzan Graduul. Leader of the Bloodbore mercenary group. Wanted in five systems. Thirty-four counts of—” said V.
“V, that will be enough,” said Evaran, raising his hand. “I know Jerzan. He has hurt some of my friends. We will need to avoid him and his group. Once I get you to my ship, I will deal with Jerzan personally.”
“How does V know who that is?” asked Dr. Snowden.
“I have traveled in this region before and have information from this time period,” said Evaran.
Jay snorted and shook his head. “Great. Now we gotta deal with these assholes on top of everything else. Where can we score some weapons?”
Evaran narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips. “The handheld weapons on th
is ship are designed to only work for the Krotovore. I will deal with them if we run into them. We should head to the engine room now.”
Jay flattened his lips and cocked his head. “Awesome, man. No weapons. Mercenaries with weapons. Dangerous creatures. Yeah, this’ll go well.”
Dr. Snowden slapped Jay on the back. “C’mon.”
They followed Evaran as he exited the main bridge entrance. They walked the length of the main bridge concourse over the next hour without any issue.
Dr. Snowden observed the security drones throughout the main bridge concourse. They milled about, but kept their distance. He noticed they were spraying a gel of some type on the dead draug. The gel converted anything it touched into a gelatinous substance. The drones then shot a vaporizing beam at the substance. It seemed to be an efficient cleanup process.
There were other dead non-Krotovore aliens lying about. He had seen them earlier but didn’t have time to investigate them closely due to being chased. He wondered what they were doing there and what relationship they had with the Krotovore. Maybe they were researchers from other civilizations. He planned to ask Evaran about it later. He noticed it seemed a bit brighter, but that may have been due to the mist not being as heavy. The stench was bad before, but it was much worse now. The smell of raw flesh wafted through the air. He jumped a few times at the random noises that filtered into the area. His pace quickened as they approached the entrance.
They exited the main bridge concourse back onto the walkway in the large cylindrical area. V flew out and then down into the open area. As they approached the elevator, V flew back up from outside the railing and toward them. V hovered by Evaran and then projected a display before them. “Observation. Life-form detected on level 283.”
The projection showed a large canine-looking creature. Black chitin-like armor punctuated the creature’s silver fur. It had a large head and jaw. The head was mostly mouth, with a set of four eyes. The ears stood up on each side of its head. Dr. Snowden thought it looked like a large hyena with black plate armor. The creature’s body was very muscular. It looked up curiously with a tilted head when V scanned it.
Evaran looked at the display, deep in thought. He then interacted with his ARI. “Interesting. It appears we have a krall on board. That would qualify as a dangerous creature. That may be the quadruped the Krotovore was referring to.”
“You’ve seen this before?” asked Emily.
“Yes. This one is a little different, but a krall nonetheless. Krall are sentient creatures. They are not quite as intelligent as your species, at least from the time period this one is from. The Grimlyn Empire used them in the front lines, and sometimes used them for entertainment in pit fighting. Their descendants are still around in this time period, unlike the draug. They have a sizable population spread out across the Andromeda galaxy. This is not something the Krotovore should have probably picked up either. The krall would see them as a threat. Come, we need to head to level 285 and go down a major hallway and then up a few levels in another central area like this one,” said Evaran.
Evaran placed the UIC on the wall console and interacted with his ARI. The doors opened, and they all boarded the elevator. Evaran grabbed the UIC off the wall console as they got on. The elevator doors closed, and it began to move. When it stopped, the doors receded back into the wall, revealing dead bodies strewn about. Dr. Snowden noticed that they were not all Krotovore, similar to the main bridge concourse. He did recognize the white robes with dots on some of the bodies, though. But the stench was different here. It smelled like burnt flesh.
“Looks like a fight happened down here. Are these other aliens with the white robes some of the specimens?” asked Dr. Snowden.
“Most likely. That is a specimen-specific robe. Some were other alien species who were traveling with the Krotovore it would appear,” said Evaran. He approached one of the corpses and scanned it with his ring. “Interesting. These were killed by energy weapons.” He looked around.
“The mercenaries?” asked Dr. Snowden.
Evaran nodded. “Possibly. We are exposed here. Come on.”
They followed Evaran down the walkway. A noise behind Dr. Snowden caught his attention, and he turned around. He did not see anything but was sure that if he heard it, then Evaran would have heard it. “Evaran, do you hear something?”
“Yes. A group of small creatures is following us. It is not the krall. One of the specimens I am sure, although I am unfamiliar with the scent. They have decided not to show themselves. I think if they were aggressive, they would have made a move by now. They have been following us since we got off the elevator,” said Evaran.
“They prolly saw all them aliens get blasted and bailed,” said Jay.
“Maybe,” said Dr. Snowden, shrugging. Apparently, Evaran was not too worried about it, so he did not give it a second thought. Emily had skipped ahead of him to walk with Evaran. Apparently, she did not want to be the last in line.
Emily studied the bodies as they walked around them. “Evaran, why aren’t there more humanoids ?”
Evaran stopped and glanced at the bodies Emily was standing by. “The humanoid form is actually common among the stars. What you see here is but a tiny fraction of the advanced races in their time period and region. These just happen to be mainly nonhumanoid. Unlike your galaxy, theirs has very few humanoid species.”
Dr. Snowden glanced at Emily and then paused for a moment to reflect on Evaran’s words. He tilted his head at Evaran. “I thought the chance of a species arising with the humanoid form and our level of intelligence or greater would be rare.”
“I read that too,” said Sanjay, glancing at Dr. Snowden.
“You are correct,” said Evaran with a half smile. He turned back around and continuing to walk toward a large hallway entrance.
“Wait a minute! How can the humanoid form be common, yet the chance of it arising be rare?” asked Dr. Snowden, walking briskly to keep up with Evaran.
Evaran raised his finger up and out and shook it. “That is the right question to ask, and something I would like to know myself. I have encountered far too many humanoid species, including yours, for it to be merely coincidence. Tracking it all down takes time, but is on my list of things to find out.”
Dr. Snowden nodded at Evaran. It was oddly assuring to him that Evaran, despite his apparent knowledge, did not know everything. On the other hand, he did wish that he could have answered that. It must be greatly satisfying to travel through time and space and resolve mysteries like this one. After a few minutes, they reached the large hallway entrance. It was arched, like the main bridge concourse, but a lot smaller. Unlike the main bridge concourse, this entrance looked heavily guarded. Turrets protruded on every other segmented block.
“Some pretty interesting stuff, huh?” said Sanjay, turning toward Dr. Snowden.
“Yeah. I’d love to research all this,” said Dr. Snowden.
Jay caught up to them and turned to Sanjay. “Hey, man, about back there …”
Sanjay raised his hand. “It’s okay. I deserved it. I just panicked. I was thinking of myself instead of the group. I won’t—”
Zzzt! A beam hit the back of Sanjay’s head, punching a perfect hole through it. His face shot out, hitting Emily in the back. She stumbled and turned around. She screamed as she swung her arms wildly to scrape off the bits and pieces of Sanjay’s face. Sanjay’s body fell forward. Blood oozed out onto the ground. Dr. Snowden and Jay dropped to the floor. Evaran ran past them while raising his left arm. Emily began hyperventilating and knelt down with her hands over her head.
“Oh, shit!” said Jay.
“Go!” said Evaran, pointing to the hall.
Dr. Snowden scrambled to his feet with Jay in tow. They reached Emily. He grabbed her, dragging her to her feet. They ran in the direction Evaran had pointed. He looked back and saw a beam connect with Evaran. The beam hit an invisible shield on Evaran’s left arm. The impact was hard enough to send him sprawling. Evaran motioned at V.
V flew toward them but stopped just inside the entrance. Evaran got up and ran past V. He caught up to them.
“V is going to lead them away. We need to get to the other central area and up to the engine room!” said Evaran.
“Sanjay … he’s … ,” said Dr. Snowden with his lips turned down.
“He is no longer with us,” said Evaran with creased eyebrows.
They got to the end of the hallway and ran to one of the elevators. Evaran placed the UIC on the wall console and interacted with his ARI. The elevator doors opened, and they rushed in. Evaran grabbed his UIC, and the elevator doors closed. When the doors opened again, they ran after Evaran as he rushed down the walkway. After a few minutes, they reached an entrance similar to the main bridge concourse.
They rushed through the entrance. Dr. Snowden’s eyes adjusted to the dimly lit hallway he found himself in. He rubbed the goosebumps on his arm as an eerie sound permeated the air. They reached a main chamber. It was the largest room he had seen so far outside of the main cylindrical area. The room was spherical. In the center was a black orb surrounded by a mass of metal rings that stood still. There were three curved metal pillars evenly distributed around it, shooting a red beam at the rings. There was a corridor at the opposite end of the room, and one on each side of the room. They stopped to the right of the chamber entrance.
Evaran raised his hand. “They are following V’s projection of us down a different path away from here. V will be back shortly. Let us rest for a moment.”
Jay rubbed his forehead and squinted hard while grimacing. He walked over and put both hands on the wall, then leaned against it.
Dr. Snowden could hear Jay’s short, anger-filled breaths. His heart pumped furiously as he walked over to Emily. Tears ran down her face as she sat slumped with her back against the wall. He sat down next to her and put his head in his hands. She leaned against him. He couldn’t believe Sanjay was dead. It happened so fast. One moment there, the next, not. A tidal wave of anger swept through him. Sanjay didn’t deserve this. He just wanted to go home like the rest of them. Why did they target Sanjay? He was really beginning to like him.