Jessie Stern and the Time Shifters

by Kim Merrill

  13th Entry

  After we had been traveling for a few hours, and I had seen all I wanted to see of the ship and thought all I could about my dream and the strange young Priestess I went back to the helm. I settled down in the soft chair by the controls. Jake and Daniel had been fooling around with the computer. When I came over they stopped talking and stared tuned their focus to the window that reveled the universe stretching in front of us.

  It’s about 12 hours from Pluto to the safety point where Quantum Tunneling (QT) can be engaged. I read once there was a time when people were sure it was impossible to travel faster than the speed of light. But then scientist experimented with QT. Very shortly it was refined now ships can engage QT and ZAP- they’re light years away in seconds; faster than anyone could ever travel before. Although I baby-sat a two year old once that could almost move that fast.

  During the early part of those hours we talked, and watched the stars. When evening would have come to Earth Jake lowered the ships lights to soft twilight. In space, when darkness closes in and the stars all around you shine constant and bright, it draws you close to the people you’re with. It also brings out the mystical tales. The stories that seem so full of truth in the dark, but always seem to wither in the light of day. That’s how it was with us anyway. Jake told us some space pilots legends. You know, monsters and heroes type of things. Then Daniel and I started talking about how Aunt Mini was afraid for us on this trip because of the Pirates and Time Shifters.

  “Well, the Time Shifters are just a myth,” dad chimed in. He looked at me expecting agreement but I just couldn’t agree this time. So my dad just went on.

  “The whole idea is too strange,” he huffed. “They’re a myth. And everyone knows they’re a myth.”

  “How does everyone know that?” Jake asked. While Jake spoke I heard my Aunt Molly’s words – “Everyone is not always the best source of information.”

  “Jake,” my dad turned his name into a warning not to tell another tall tale, but Jake just winked and stated in.

  “Well, many people have said they are a myth. But other say there are those who have gone to great lengths to hide information about the Time Shifters. Some people even say a few of the Time Shifters that aren’t mercenaries have given us more than just information. They have given us miniature time portals, all now hidden away in some deep dark vault.” Daniel shot me a glance; he was thinking what I was. What we saw in the library could have been a portal. That’s why the librarian was so upset. That’s why the food and everything seemed real. So not only was it a message, it was real. We had gone to another time!

  Jake could tell we were riveted, I don’t think he had any idea why. He continued on, “Try as they might to cover things up, things leak out. I’ve heard lots of stories - only one I believe.”

  Jake drew a deep breath and began his story, “Two great nations, the Etour and the Dants had been warring since anyone could remember. They agreed to meet on a lifeless planet at the edge of their galaxy to arrange a peace agreement. The meeting did not go well; there were threats of violence and acts of violence. Both sides said the other one started it. Both sides left despising each other even more than before. In vengeance or retribution, the Etour hired the Time Shifters to kill all members of the Dant’s race. What they didn’t know was the Dants had also hired the Time Shifters to kill the Etours. The Time Shifters pride themselves in honoring all mercenary contracts, so they killed both races, just as they were asked, just as they were paid.”

  “If they killed everyone from dad asked.

  “Sometimes there isn’t enough science research work to go around, so I hire out as a transport vehicle. And it seems sometimes the Time Shifters need a transport vehicle. In fact one of them needed transportation just before I took on this job. Of course he didn’t say he was a Time Shifter.”

  “And he told you that story?” Dad said, his voice thick with disbelief.

  Jake leaned in slowly to him saying, “Well, I never said they actually told me.”

  “Oh” my Dad said to prodding him to go on. Then they started talking like they forgot we were there.

  “Yea, it seems like the only contract the Time Shifters honor are the Merc contracts. He tried to stiff me on his fare.”

  “Really”

  “But, you know, that old saying is true, what goes around comes around. The guy that tried to stiff me lost his PC. It was a shame. He searched and searched but he never found it.”

  “I imagine he was a little upset about that.”

  “Frantic, actually. But that’s just not the kind of problem that you share with you’re co-workers. Embarrassing I guess.”

  “I can imagine. If he was a Time Shifter and he could travel through time, why didn’t he just go back in time and get his computer?”

  Jake scrunched his face, he knew, my dad knew and even I knew, Time Shifters never went back in time to change things, only observe. Some say they can’t, other say they’re afraid of changing their own timeline, changing it to a timeline where they can’t shape moments to their will. But all Jake said was, “Temporal laws I guess.”

  From under a hidden compartment beneath his chair he pulled out some star charts. Underneath those was a computer. Jake tapped at it with the charts, I guess to make sure my dad saw it, then slowly closed it.

 

  He looked up slyly at my dad, “It’s surprising the kind of information people leave lying around on their computer. All kinds of stuff that you just know they wouldn’t want other people to find out about. In fact we should talk about that sometime. Talk about,...” Jake glanced at us like he just remembered we were there. “Talk about computer safeguards.”

  Dad nodded anxiously in agreement. Maybe he was re-assessing his view too. Daniel and I looked at each other shaking our heads. That exchange was suppose to keep Daniel and me from knowing that Jake stole the Time Shifters PC. I don’t think that they actually believed we were too brainless to figure it out. That’s just the way adults talk sometimes around kids. Subtle, they like to call it.

  We talked some more and then I wrote. Finally I slept. I dreamt, I think, of the Time Shifters. I’m awake now, but suddenly, it feels like I’m still dreaming. I know this time, though, it’s not a dream.

  Chapter 7- 14th Entry – Meet the Time Shifters