by PN Burrows
‘Training? For what? What are you talking about?’
‘You’ll be happy to know he doesn’t hold a grudge by the way. Quite the opposite, he thinks you have potential. Hell, previously you managed to kick him in the jewels when you should have still been in a drugged stupor. Breaking his knee showed a controlled non-lethal use of force to incapacitate an aggressor. Let’s say you passed that test. Staff Sergeant Timon was a little upset, as he was under duress to participate in the charade to begin with. He doesn’t think humans are adroit enough to be of any use, and I don’t suppose the lads leaving him in the cell for an hour or so to cool down, helped his mood.’ He chuckled to himself.
‘What about the drums and the radiation suits?’
‘Oh, they’re real. But not what you think. We have to live on your planet, because of areas such as this. You humans are deplorable, you will pollute, destroy and desecrate anything if there is profit to be made. We are intercepting toxic waste that was bound for illegal disposal and disposing of it safely. That is what I was going to show in the mountain. That’s what this was ultimately leading to.’
‘So, you are dumping stuff in the mines, then?’
‘No, we have a unique method of dealing with it. It’s at the centre of this area, the reason for its creation and why we guarding this place. You will have to trust me and wait until you see it, before you judge us.’
‘So, you police us?’
‘No. We would like nothing more than to remove or cull your criminal fraternity. However, as it was decreed a long time ago that your planet is segregated from the rest of the universe, we are here solely to protect and prevent access to areas such as this, from you and outsiders. We do hamper them a little though. We frequently move money from crime lords to prevent them from becoming too powerful. We normally divert the money to good causes, and we tip off your authorities.’
Three Toyota Land Cruisers arrived; men armed with machine pistols disembarked and took up strategic positions around the cottage. Three proceeded to check the house for further intruders, a fourth with a steel case walked over to Reb and following the nod of his head, proceeded to examine the hand. ‘You haven’t left me much to work with, Erebos,’ he said, looking at Reb indifferently. ‘Where’s the rest?’
‘ECE.’
The man picked up the arm and looked at the bloodied hand and ragged stump, looking enquiringly at Reb.
‘Had to shoot it off!’
‘Ok, well I can’t tell you much more than you know already until I get it back to the lab. Career criminal, mostly minor judging by penal triptych. He only had one-sixth left. Ergo he will be in the system. He was a eunuch and if he wasn’t in prison, which obviously he wasn’t, it should have been impossible for him to leave his home planet.’ He moved the arm around and studied the fingers, moving them in the morning sun to catch the rays and finally sniffing at them. He seemed oblivious that blood was dripping onto his jacket and boots. Looking across the ground to the ashes, ‘The rifle probably won’t tell us much, but I’ll get the usual test run on it.’
‘There are three darts in Sam’s coat over the wall, they might have dissolved by now,’ Reb said
‘There’s three in the ground by my coat, you can just about see where they went in,’ Sam interjected.
The tech nodded to one of his men, who walked to the wall to look over.
‘Do we know how he got here yet?’
‘No, I checked the area an hour before Sam arrived. He was not here then and I would have heard him if he walked across the courtyard,’ he replied, looking down at the loose stones and gravel that littered the cobbled courtyard. ‘But that’s beside the point – he couldn’t be here! It’s impossible.’
‘Erm, give me a minute, I need some equipment from my car.’ He ran off to the middle car, opened the back door and rummaged around in a larger silver case. He returned within a few minutes with an odd-looking gadget, strewn with antennas and with a small screen showing various wave forms. Removing his own watch, he said, ‘Give me your watch, Reb’
Reb looked at him and held up a bare wrist. ‘I’d lose it every time I travel,’ he said, as if the explanation made sense. The tech looked at Sam’s wrist and snorted derisively. Walking to the wall he spoke to the tech who was dealing with Sam’s jacket.
Upon his return he held two similar military issue analogue watches on leather straps.
‘What are you up to, Nik?’ Reb enquired.
‘Bear with me.’ He started the stop watches simultaneously. Handing one to Reb, he walked off to the cottage, studying the glowing screen on his equipment.
Watching Nik walk away, Sam turned to Reb. ‘Erebos?’
‘From what you would call Ancient Greek, or I should say Ancient Latinised Greek. Your ancient Greek and Latin are our original native languages. We are given our life names after we qualify for our careers. Life names can change, as do the paths of life, birth names are private and a constant. Erebos means primordial darkness, as that is where I am sent, to blend, conquer and destroy.’
‘That was a bit more than I expected. Look I’m confused, I’m trying to take this in, but...’ He paused, not knowing where to start. ‘What’s this penal triptych?’ Sam asked.
Reb turned the arm over to show the penal branding on the forearm. ‘The triptych is made up of three sides, in six parts, a triangle. A criminal is awarded sixths depending on the severity of a crime along with some form of penal punishment. If you fill one side you lose the ability to procreate – you are sterilised. Let’s face it, society does not want to support a criminal’s future family and nor do they make good parents. If you fill up two sides you lose your genitalia and the ability to copulate. It’s amazing how that threat can incentivise and keep you on the straight and narrow. The third side means you are removed from society forever. Similar to America’s “three strikes and you’re out” policy.’
Nik could be seen wandering in the outhouses, waving his gadget out in front of him. Eventually he headed back to Sam and Reb.
‘The results are not what you want to hear, Reb.’ He held his stop watch next to the one in Reb’s hand; they no longer matched.
‘We have a big problem,’ he said, holding the severed arm and pushing the fingers towards Reb for him to see. ‘You can just about see the early stages of temporal displacement degeneration at the ends of the fingers. It starts in the extremities. This is its very onset, an hour, two tops.’ Reb and Sam leaned in closer to examine the fingers, they were finger-like to Sam. Nails had been bitten down and the bloke should have used a moisturiser, besides this they were just dead man’s fingers.
‘So what are you saying, Nik?’ Reb enquired.
‘You didn’t see him because he wasn’t there when you arrived. He stepped through and not just through, he had no receiver at this end and he stepped backwards in time. He was a dying man the second his foot touched the outhouse floor. HE is not going to like this!’ He looked at Reb, there was the certainness of impending doom in his face. ‘It also means we have a leak. At some point now or in the future someone talks out about this place, about Sam.’ He looked bewildered at Sam then continued. ‘It will have to be an insider, that rifle couldn’t have come through. He,’ morbidly pointing the dead hand at Sam, ‘must do something. Something big that a major player wants undone. We only covered this briefly and only in theory at the academy, Reb. This is beyond my level. You’re gonna have to get Bob to get more information released from the council and get us clearance. They sealed of all the files into this eons ago and outlawed any further research. The only other thing I can remember is that it takes so much energy they said it wasn’t doable.’
‘Are you hearing this, Bob?’ Reb had his finger in his ear again. ‘Ok, we will head back with Nik, see what you can do.’
CHAPTER SIX
Nik carefully inserted the hand and forearm into a long plastic evidenc
e bag and dropped it in his case. ‘I’ll have a full set of tests done. We know there’s degradation and someone went to a lot of trouble to try and dispose of the evidence,’ he said as he opened the car door.
Sam and Reb sat in the back. Reb rightly concluded that Sam would have more questions to ask before they got to the village.
Sam’s head was spinning with questions and the implausibility of what he had seen. ‘How can this place exist and no one knows about it? I searched the aerial photos on Google Maps and there was only a quarry cliff behind the warehouse.’
Reb smiled, ‘Spatial distortions of this magnitude are hard to fathom at first, Sam. I will explain it as best as I can, but please remember I am not a scientist.’ He looked across to Sam who just nodded in acquiescence for him to proceed. ‘Certain events in the Earth’s history caused ginormous distortions to the fabric of space. Think of Einstein’s gravity wells and how space is like a rubber sheet. Your scientists have used this model for a long time. Let us pretend that the Earth is a balloon and our finger is gravitational disturbance, push it into the balloon. The balloon is still the same shape, only now the part where your finger is has stretched the outer fabric. You have more surface area and a small hole at the top. Now imagine that instead of a finger, it’s a very very small object. You still have the spatial distortion, only the hole at the top is minuscule. That’s what this place is, there is a spatial distortion in the mountain. The sun is paler and cooler because the light enters from a small area and is distributed; it gets bent into the hole. Don’t ask me why we don’t get crushed, slide to the bottom or even why the earth doesn’t shatter, because I don’t know.’
‘And you live in these planetal depressions?’
‘We prevent access to the area but we are here primarily to prevent access to the distortion at the centre. Your planet has 14 such areas.’
‘You have villages and farms in all them? Like this? And no one has noticed?’
‘We have settlements in thirteen of these. The fourteenth, we have never been able to find the aperture. We know it’s there as we can measure the disturbance, but so far it has eluded us.’
‘So whereabouts is that one?’
‘It’s in the North Atlantic and I mean in the North Atlantic, it’s under the ocean somewhere.’
The journey to the village took less than ten minutes. Sam was a little reluctant to exit as the heat was blowing into the vehicle from the vents and making Sam more than a little tired. It had been a long twenty-four hours. The village was larger than he had expected, with straight streets of uniformed stone buildings radiating out from the centre hub like spokes on a wheel.
Reb had been talking to Bob in a hushed murmur. As he finished Sam asked. ‘Surely you have a better system than having to put your finger in your ear?’
‘It’s not necessary in truth. Bob listens and monitors my actions constantly. Pressing the micro button allows him know that I am speaking directly to him and also prevents people around me from getting confused.’
‘Speaking to yourself with your finger in your ear prevents confusion? Ok, sorry, so you have privacy then. You two must be close!’
‘Bob, or that’s what I call him, is my off-planet partner. He was assigned to me when I took up the uniform and we have worked together ever since. I will be honest and admit that I have no idea what he looks like as we have never met. For security reasons I don’t even know what race he is or where he is stationed. His guidance has saved my life on so many occasions that I no longer ask, I just accept it.’
They disembarked from the Land Cruiser and walked towards a drab four-storey round building, with a sturdy but functional look that was typical of most governing bodies. As they entered, Sam was reminded of all of the barracks and army buildings he had ever entered; he felt oddly at home. As a familiar but authoritative figure in uniform came forward to meet them, Nik excused himself as he wished to process the arm as soon as possible. The old man greeted Reb like a trusted friend and ushered them into a side office.
The office was functional, containing a large wooden round table that was surrounded by eight chairs. The furnishings showed signs of long-term use. It was all worn but extremely solid-looking furniture. On the table was a green folder with a large paperclip securing a photograph. The last time Sam had seen that face it was peering over a wall at him. Next to it was a thicker blue file with Sam’s photo.
The man said, gesturing with his arm, ‘Please sit down.’ Nodding towards Sam he said, ‘Nice to see you again Sam, I am glad you made it to the party.’ Returning his gaze to Reb, ‘The details on the perpetrator have come through as you requested Reb, there is also a ‘Classified’ file waiting on the system. You will have to go to the comms room to access it later.’
‘Sam, this is Captain Sophus, I believe you two met in the hamlet garden. He’s in overall command here. His duty is to protect this area and to maintain food production for other non-terrain locations.’
The captain stretched over and offered his hand to Sam.
‘Hus, you already know this is Sam and I take it that you have read his file.’
‘My file?’ He reached across to retrieve the blue file.
‘Sorry, Sam, we had to do a deep background check on you when you reappeared the second time. It was only then you piqued Reb’s interest. Lucky for you that he was here and noticed your tenacity and intelligence. Your military records hint that you might be what we are looking for. We need a native on the team.’
‘You have my military records. All of my military records!’ It wasn’t as much of a question as a fact.
‘We have everything, Sam,’ Captain Sophus said. ‘Your governments have made our research easier now everything is networked. Your best encryption is on par with a child hiding his favourite toy under the bed. We have your military files, police files, dental records, copy of your birth certificate, your social profiles, bank details and your purchase history. Interestingly your own government has recently done a background check on you – did you know Matt Johnson’s company is a front for MI5? He has some very influential clients, you know.’
Sam looked hard at the old man, returning his gaze back to the file to find the corroborate evidence to this claim.
Reb reached for and opened the green file, pulling two printed sheets of A4 and a collection of photographs. ‘Urser Moorc, A Gleesheatcian, multi-gas breather. Currently alive and well, serving time for drug running and assault. He was awarded fifteen native or eight ISPAW years for his recent activities and as usual his assets were also confiscated.’ Looking at Sam enquiring gaze, ‘To pay for the penal system fees and it earned him a whole triptych side. Which consequently also qualified him to lose his genitalia. Current photo as of two hours ago shows him alive and well.’ He passed a black-and-white video still across to Sam. Urser could clearly be seen in ankle chains working some industrial machine. ‘They have to work hard if they wish to obtain extra food, heat, clothing and even communal time to converse with others. The motto Penal is not a Picnic holds true.’
Sam pushed the picture back. ‘Nik mentioned a temporal thing before, are you saying this man, in the future, comes back to kill me?’
‘The DNA scan and data embedded in the triptych that Nik sent through earlier matches the file.’
‘Urser isn’t the problem, Sam, he was tool for a larger player, if not him then some other patsy. You don’t comprehend the enormity of the situation. Time travel isn’t normal, even for us.’ Reb looked Sam in the eyes as he spoke. ‘You heard what Nikomedes said, all temporal research of any kind is prohibited. Bob confirmed that it’s an instant death penalty for anyone involved in research. Again, as Nik said, we personally know very little about the theory and what to look for.’ He left the statement hanging.
‘There must have been other instances in the past?’ Sam asked, giving a questioning look to both Captain Sophus and Reb.
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‘If there were they would have been classified. What we are allowed to know will be in the file waiting for Reb,’ Captain Sophus said wearily. ‘My concern is why you and why such a drastic action to remove you? If you do enlist with us, and if you wish to survive I suggest you do, they will get plenty of opportunities to take you out in the years ahead. Unless they have tried, failed and lost valuable resources. Then as a last resort at some indiscernible point in the future, they risk tipping their hand to the size and scale of their operation as they attempted a temporal assassination.’
Reb stood up. ‘Well, gentlemen, I think we need to see what’s in the other file. For better or worse, you might as well join me as you are both involved.’
The communications room was a bit of a let-down in Sam’s eyes. He had imagined huge arrays of data banks and complicated encryption equipment. It consisted of an array of iMacs, printers and a few headsets scattered along a large C shaped work area. Sam was expecting a scene from Star Trek and said so.
‘When we go native, we go native! We use your so-called technology as much as possible, that way when we are outside the perimeter we are familiar with the tools that are readily available.’ The captain was a little put out as he described the situation to Sam. ‘We don’t like taking our tech outside. Take Reb’s side arm for example, he can have any number of energy blasters or projectile weapons off-world, but here he chooses a modified Heckler and Koch 45. To the naked eye it’s a vanilla HK piece, but we borrowed the blueprints, increased the accuracy, range, reduced the recoil with better compensators and upgraded the munitions.’
‘I didn’t hear it go off at the house?’