“Tend to your duties, Director, and I will lead the Empire. Unless you would rather I tap someone else for your position.”
Shock flashed across the woman’s face, followed by anger. “If you want to relieve me for stating the obvious, your Majesty, go right on ahead. I have not leaked any secrets. We have done everything you asked, including letting a Yugalyth loose to impersonate the Empress and your son. And that was because of this, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, it was. The Empress refused to leave Augustine once he was returned to her, and we couldn’t risk people seeing him until we were ready.”
“And when would you have been ready?” The woman stared at him out of the holo, her expression now one of disbelief. “You couldn’t hide it forever, unless you put one of your children away in isolation.”
“We were going to go with the story of his being in cryo, and then resurrected at a later date.”
“That might have worked, before this,” said Sergiov. “Now, no matter how much we deny it, some will refuse to believe what you say.”
“We’ll take care of it, somehow,” said Sean, thinking that this would all go away once they changed the timeline.
“Good luck. And you can have my resignation, if you desire.”
“No, dammit. But find that leak. I want them brought up on charges, whoever they are.” Sean checked the time on his implant. It was almost time to go, if he wanted to get to the Donut on schedule. He killed the com, then stared into blank space for some moments, the thoughts running through his head faster than he could process.
“Gather my detail,” he said into the com. “And get me Stumpfield.”
They would get this thing underway, and no one would ever know what they had done in the new timeline. It was a disaster that someone had to discover what they had already done, but the timing couldn’t have been better.
* * *
Ekaterina Sergiov was also staring at the space once occupied by a holo. She couldn’t believe what was happening. The man who was responsible for the safety of the Empire was playing with forces that could destroy it. And she wasn’t sure what to do about it.
“I need to speak with the Prime Minister,” she finally said into the air.
“The Prime Minister is in a meeting, not to be disturbed,” came back the message over the automated system.
“This is an emergency,” she shouted.
“The Prime Minister will be informed of the urgency of the situation after the meeting is over.”
“Shit.” Of course she wouldn’t be able to get through to the Prime Minister if she had cut herself off. Emergency coms were to go to the Emperor. No one else was in the loop for that purpose, which was a failure in planning as far as she was concerned.
“Meeting with my staff in ten minutes,” she said when nothing else came to her. She would be waking people up in the middle of the night, something she hated to do. But they had a looming disaster on their hands, and something needed to be done. Only she didn’t know what it was.
Chapter Seventeen
The most useful form of time travel would be to go back a year or two and rectify the mistakes we made. Matt Lucas
CAPITULUM. JUNE 12TH, 1003.
Samantha Ogden Lee was a cousin in the Imperial line, not in a direct path of succession. Several dozen people would have to die for her to ascend the throne, and that was not her wish or desire. Everyone knew that all of the close line had the gift to various degrees. Sean was said to have it to an extent unseen in generations. She had it as well, not to his level, but powerful enough, though she was careful to keep her ability hidden. She knew that many people thought the prophetic dreams were the visitation of demons, the more superstitious of them, and those would treat her as someone possessed.
There was nothing supernatural about the gift, at least not according to the scientists who had studied it through the ages. They still didn’t really understand it, only that the source came from the still spooky environs of quantum physics. All she knew about it was that she wished she didn’t have even a smidgeon of it.
She felt the dread within her sleep as her dream changed, taking on the familiar aspect. The unreal of the dream state took on a clarity that seemed all too real. A scene of people standing on the roof of a building. Around it stretched a city that showed the destruction of the strike the Cacas had visited upon it. She could tell it was Capitulum. And from the damage she could tell it was either in the recent past or the near future. From the scaffolding surrounding some of the buildings, and the work robots restoring the surfaces of damaged buildings that hadn’t fallen in the attack, she guessed the near future. Very near, in fact, since there was still so much work to be done.
Then her attention was captured by the people on the rooftop, which she recognized as the landing platform of the office building the Fleet was using as their headquarters for the time being, until the massive damage to the Hexagon could be repaired. Most of the people were in uniform, though there were civilians intermixed with the spacers, and everyone had their attention turned to the sky.
Samantha’s dream self looked up with them, to the bright disk of the G class primary that Jewel orbited. At first, she couldn’t tell what was going on. It took almost a minute to determine what was causing their attention to focus on the star. The disk of the star had visibly shrunk as she watched. It was a slow process, until she remembered how large it actually was, and how distant. Then the magnitude of the problem became apparent.
“It’s getting brighter,” yelled out one of the bystanders. It did seem to be, and that could only mean one thing. The star was compressing inward, and that was increasing the rate of fusion in the center. If it kept up?
The heavens flared, blindingly bright, and everyone cried out as they tried to cover their eyes, too late. All were permanently blinded, except for Samantha, who was not really there. Their burned-out eyes could eventually be restored, but they would not be given that time. Clothing and skin smoked, then flared into vapor. The entire city followed suit, buildings made of materials that should not have been flammable burning away in seconds.
Samantha’s view shifted out, to see the seas boiling, the exposed rocks left behind by the ashed forests glowing, then flowing.
Her view shifted further out, until she was looking down on the world, and the far disks of New Terra and Ariel, both glowing from the brilliant reflected light of the exploding star. Moments later the shock wave hit, and all three worlds flared even brighter, then turned into exploding fragments of rocks, some the size of continents. Those huge structures came apart in seconds, until the three worlds were gone, their glowing particles propelled outward from the explosion.
What the hell happened? thought Samantha. She knew what had happened. The star, a G class that couldn’t possibly supernova, had just done so. She just didn’t know why it had happened. An instant later she was sitting up in bed, sweat falling off her face, soaking her bedclothes, her breath coming in gasps.
The enormity of the dream struck her, some of the images fading away, others etched within her mind. The star had gone supernova, against all the laws of physics. A moment later the legends were assaulting her mind. How the ancients had messed with the time stream, and had brought disaster to living systems.
Sean needs to know about this, she thought. Someone was going to do something in the Empire that would lead to a disaster that would dwarf anything the Cacas had done. And Sean needed to know. At that moment she wished again that she was the regent, a position no longer needed now that Jennifer was functioning fully as the empress. But with the loss of the position, she had also lost her access to top levels of Imperial secrets. She had been happy to be relieved of those duties, and had hoped that she might take up a position in Fleet intelligence. Now she wished she still had her access so she could see what might be going on.
“Get me the Emperor,” she said to the apartment com system. “Utmost urgency.”
She waited impatiently as the com syste
m queried the Imperial government net for a minute. It normally didn’t take that long, and she wondered if Sean was engaged in private business, maybe with the Empress. He would be pissed, because if he was in range of the com net, her code words would get her through to him. Well, he could go ahead and be pissed. This was too damned important. Whatever was going to happen might not occur for weeks to months, or it might happen this day. She had a feeling it was going to be a lot sooner than a week.
“The Emperor is not available at this time,” said the voice of the com system.
“Shit.”
“I did not understand that reference,” replied the literal system.
“Get the Empress. Utmost urgency.”
“What is it, Sam?” answered the voice of Jennifer, her voice heavy with sleep, almost sounding drugged.
“I’m sorry to bother you, Jennifer. But I had a dream. One of the kind that haunts our family.”
“I didn’t know you got those, too.”
“Unfortunately, yes. Or maybe fortunately in this case. Something really bad is going to happen, and soon. I need to talk to Sean.”
“Sean is out at the Donut, Sam. Something to do with hitting the Cacas before they hit us.”
“You mean before their next attack comes at us,” said the confused Samantha. The Cacas were already in the middle of an offensive against the Empire, one that was not going all their own way.
“No. The attack they pulled on us several months ago. The one that almost killed my child.”
By the Gods, no, screamed the thoughts in Samantha’s head. “He must not do that. Don’t you see. That’s what triggers the supernovas.”
“What supernovas?”
“We need to get through to Sean. Right now. If we wait it will be too late.”
* * *
“Welcome aboard the Donut, your Majesty,” said Lucille Yu, bowing as the monarch walked out of the wormhole portal. The portion of the security detail that preceded him from the gate set up around the room, with more coming out behind him. They stepped away from the portal, and Sean reached out a hand to shake that of his wormhole production facility director.
“What is he doing here?” she blurted out as Kenji Guatarrez stepped out of the portal behind the Emperor, some other people she didn’t recognize with him.
“We will be docking a wormhole with one of the missile preacceleration units, Director,” said Sean. “We need to be ready to fire in one hour.”
“Fire at what?” asked Lucille, her eyes widening.
“We’re going to turn back the clock on the Caca attack on Jewel,” said one of the men with Guatarrez.
“You have to be kidding me,” cried Lucille. She looked over at the Emperor, a look of horror on her face. “Your Majesty. You cannot tamper with the time line. Everything in the legends tells us that leads to disaster.”
“Legends,” scoffed the tall man who stuck close to Guatarrez. “Nothing but fairy tales, your Majesty. Today we change history, and for the better.”
“We will be going to the control center, Director,” said Sean in a tone that brooked no discussion.
“We must be ready to take the shot on time, your Majesty,” said the tall man. “If we miss it, we will have to send another wormhole back.”
“Does the Empress know you are doing this?” asked Lucille, grasping at straws to stop the madness.
“Not that I have to ask Jennifer’s approval, but yes, she agreed with me. We have to stop the Cacas from hurting us so badly. Those who died deserve this effort, that they might live again.”
“And if this works, we should be able to go back even farther into the past and set more wrongs to rights.” The tall man had a strange look in his eyes. Lucille would have called it madness if she had any experience in medicine.
“You’re going to destroy us,” said Lucille, moving toward the Emperor, her hands out to grasp his jacket. Secret service agents were on her before she could touch the Imperial presence, pulling her away, locking her hands behind her back. “You’re crazy. All of you are crazy. You can’t tamper with the timeline.”
“I think the Director is unwell, your Majesty. Once we have proven our theories, I’m sure she will see the light.”
“Agreed,” said Sean, looking over at the two agents who held the director. “Take Director Yu to a secure location.” He stepped to Lucille and put a hand on her shoulder. “You will understand, Director. This is something I must do.”
“You don’t understand, your Majesty. If you try to change the timeline you will precipitate a disaster. You know the legends. How the stars that couldn’t possibly go supernova did. How the empire of the Ancients ended.”
“Legends,” scoffed the tall man. “Fairy tales made up to frighten the childlike races around us. But humankind is better than they are. We will be the masters of time and space.”
“Take her to her quarters, but be gentle with her,” said Sean. He looked over at one of the other Donut personnel. “Take us to the central control room. We will set everything into motion there.”
Lucille let the agents march her along to the lift that would take them to her quarters. She didn’t even try to struggle against the man and woman who were augmented, with many times the strength of a normal human. They let go of her after they pushed her through the door of her quarters.
“You will be locked in here, Director, until his Majesty calls for you. We have cut off all outgoing communications, so don’t bother trying to call out. We will be outside the door if you need anything.”
The door closed with a final click. A frustrated director stared at it for a moment, then flung herself onto her couch. She couldn’t believe what was happening. The Emperor’s new friends couldn’t be right about the lack of consequences for tampering with the timeline. They just couldn’t.
“Override com block,” she said. “Code word singularity.”
The com system unlocked on her command with the code that Jimmy had installed for her. As soon as it connected she said the next code word. “Jimmy.”
“What’s happening, Lucille?” asked Jimmy, the director of Donut security and Lucille’s lover. “Why did you have to contact me through the secure network we set up?”
“The Emperor has lost it, Jimmy. That quack Guatarrez has convinced him that changing the time line is a good idea.”
“How in the hell is he going to go back in time? That’s just crazy, Lucille.”
“There was a paper I read once about a possible dimension in which time runs the reverse of here. Something out of the Other Universe Project. It didn’t say what the time correspondence would be. One to one, ten to one. I just don’t know. But those crazy fools have talked Sean into doing it.”
“You saw the news, didn’t you, Lucille? They brought back the heir? Nothing disastrous seemed to come from that.”
Lucille had seen the news, and had talked with Sergiov about it was well. The evidence of the escape pod was inconclusive, but some thought the damage to the armored sphere had been done by particle beams that had not been fired from Caca fighters. It looked like a setup, and the return of the heir had not altered the remains of the sphere in any manner.
“I think the heir would have been found anyway, if they hadn’t have interfered. Now they’re trying to change the timelines for hundreds of millions. Maybe billions. And that could spell disaster. We need to move on this, Jimmy. Right now.”
“You don’t really think the legends are true? About the Universe acting to protect the timeline? That’s insane.”
Lucille had to stop and think about that for a moment. She was a scientist. She really didn’t believe in the mystical concept of a conscious universe. But she also recalled some of the dimensions they had opened at The Other Universe Project. One especially, which had scared the hell out of everyone. That space had been alive, and hungry. If that wasn’t proof that some things were beyond their understanding, she didn’t know what else was.
“I don’t know, Jimmy. Maybe
there is a purely physical explanation for multiple dwarf stars going supernova within years of each other, if not months. But either way, something happened back then, in the same time period that the Ancients disappeared. It might be coincidence, but I’m not willing to take that chance.”
“I don’t know what we can do, Lucille. This is the Emperor. What he says goes. Anything we do to stop him will be considered treason. We could go to prison, or possibly even face the death penalty. Are you sure you want to try to stop him?”
“Jimmy, I would risk my life to save this station. Why wouldn’t I risk it to save the human species. If he does this, and the consequences are as I fear, the strength of the empire will be gone, and the Cacas will roll over us without a problem. So please, lover. Please. This is something we have to do, no matter the cost.”
The floor underneath her shook a bit. Lucille wasn’t sure what would cause that, since the alarms weren’t going off to indicate an attack. She tapped into the station system. “That was a damned gravity pulse from the black hole.”
“It hasn’t done that before, has it?”
“No, Jimmy. It has not. As far as I can tell from the readings, this is a new phenomenon. And what do you think might have caused it?”
“I be right up. This might get messy. I won’t kill any people from the Agency, and we can’t use force on the Emperor. Which means you better have a damned good speech in mind.”
The com went dead, and the station shook again with another slight tremor. Lucille thought that they would be getting stronger as the locus for the time strike approached. How strong? Maybe strong enough to destroy the station, and send a couple score stars into supernova.
* * *
“The nexus is approaching,” said one of the Ancients, sitting at one of the multi-configurable bridge stations. “It will arrive in less than an hour, and this appears to be the heart of it.”
The holo zoomed in on a large object in space. Large, in that it was several thousand kilometers in length, if only one in width. Jackson recognized it as one of the missile preacceleration tubes that were used to build the velocity of offensive weapons up to near light speed before sending them to another location through the wormhole. But compared to the station itself it was miniscule. Still a large target, and one that Jackson hoped would be beyond the capabilities of this one ship to take out. But since they had come here planning to destroy the station, he was sure they would be able to destroy the launch tube.
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