by Karl Morgan
She leaned against him and replied, “Thank you Dave, but I am a simple girl. Flying and diving in the ocean are totally alien to me. Your friends are like giants to me and I’m not sure they are friendly.”
Fa-a-Di laughed. “Poor girl! Please don’t be frightened by my people. We mean you no harm. We are just the product of our environment. Except of course for my brother-in-law. He is a giant and scares me too sometimes!”
“I don’t think that’s helping matters, brother,” De-o-Nu scowled.
“Lini, these men are my best friends,” Dave said. “I trust them with my life. Not so long ago, I was living on my home world in ancient times. I had never seen anything like them or like you. But life is an adventure. I’m sure that’s what Ulook is trying to tell you. Just try to relax and enjoy the ride. Tomorrow, you’ll be home with your family. I promise.”
Jake flew over and landed on Lini’s lap. “Imagine all of this from my perspective, Lini. Even you are a giant compared to me. But Dave is right about the Galliceans. They are our friends and mean you no harm. I promise I’ll stay near you tonight. If you become too afraid, I’ll jump you home in less than a second. Here, let me show you.” Lini and Jake disappeared. Dave almost fell over as he had been leaning toward her. In a second, they reappeared. “See, you can be home in an instant, so don’t be afraid.”
She smiled at Jake and hugged him. “Thanks Jake. I do feel much better now. If I didn’t have this helmet on, I’d kiss you.” Everyone laughed.
Twenty eye-stalks appeared above the surface of the water. Dave recognized Ulook’s eyes and waved. Then he jumped into the water and swam over to her. “Here we are, Ulook, all prepared for the adventure.”
“Let’s go!” she said. Dave waved for the others to jump in, and in a minute they were swimming and surrounded by dozens of Zula. “Each of you should stay in contact with one or more of us so we can stay in communication. Don’t be afraid, we won’t lose any of you. Now grab on and come with us.”
The Zula dove downward, pulling the others with them. A group of three surrounded Lini, having sensed her fear. They held onto her tightly and Jake was clinging onto her chest. In the upper level of the ocean, thousands of fish could be seen all around them. Several schools spun around them and followed them downward. They all appeared to be gray or silver in the faint moonlight. Deeper and deeper they dove into the black water. After a few minutes, the moonlight had faded and they were in total darkness. Dave could see faint light coming from the eyes of the Zula, providing some view of what was ahead. At this depth, massive fish or whales swam near them, looking for plankton and other tiny organizations to ingest. Still they dove deeper. Dave looked at his heads-up display and noticed the crushing external pressure level. The internal readings were normal, so he ignored it and tried to enjoy the ride.
After twenty more minutes, they arrived at the sea floor and leveled off. Tiny crabs and other life were scurrying around on the ground looking for a quick meal. The ground was very flat with only a few rocks and boulders breaking the level surface. They continued along the surface for some time until a glimmer of light appeared ahead of them. The Zula quickened their pace and rushed forward. Soon an ocean bottom village appeared ahead of them. As they got closer, the apparent village became a massive city. The group moved into the city where towering buildings surrounded them, but they were unlike anything they had seen above the water. This was a Zula city. Tens of thousands of Zula were moving along the streets and going in and out of the buildings. The city was well lit and street signs marked each intersection. The writing was pictographic and in a language unlike any they had seen. Hundreds of Zula saw the strange creatures in pressure suits and began to follow them.
In the center of the city was a clear glass dome with several shorter buildings underneath. Ulook led them to a glass chamber that led into the dome. Once the group was inside, the door closed and the water drained quickly away. “Dave, check your external readings. You should be safe to remove your helmet,” Ulook said.
The readings showed normal, but Dave was still concerned. “I don’t understand, Ulook. What is this place and why is there a dome here?”
Ulook’s eyes frowned at him. “Dave, can’t you just trust me? This dome is for Beings like you. Don’t you think we have contact with other civilizations?”
Dave began to depressurize his suit and the Galliceans tried to stop him. Jake jumped over to his chest and grabbed his hands. “Dave, I don’t know if this is the right thing to do. There are thousands of feet of ocean over your head.”
Dave pried his hands free and pulled off the helmet. He breathed deeply and laughed. “Ulook, I don’t know how you did this, but the air is so fresh and clean down here.” Reluctantly, the others removed their helmets and all were shocked by the normal pressure and atmosphere. The inner door of the chamber opened and the group walked into the dome. The door closed behind them. “Ulook, but don’t you need water to breathe?”
Slowly the Zula began to twist and bulge. Their flippers morphed into feet and legs and they stood upright. Within a few seconds, they stood there, looking remarkably human, although nude. They walked over to a rack and pulled on robes and tied them together. “Is this better?” she said in a soft voice. “The transformation is not comfortable, but at least we can work together now.” Ulook was now a beautiful woman with black hair, but the same startling eyes. “Follow me please.”
Looking around, Dave could see thousands of Zula crowding around the glass dome watching the strange creatures walking inside. He wondered what they must think of the tiny maklans and the giant Galliceans in their city under the waves. Ulook led them into a small building and into a large conference room. Sitting at the table sipping a cup of coffee was Obu Neela, High Priest of the Mount Alila Temple. “It’s about time you folks got here,” he said as he rose to welcome the others. After everyone was introduced, they all sat together.
Chapter 28
Aria Watson and Alana Albright sat in Chief Engineer Lanz Lagerfeld’s office. They were there to make their report on the time eddies detected recently. Lanz sat across from them with his hands over his face. The lack of progress was frustrating to all members of the Temporal Command. “You know this report doesn’t tell us anything new,” he sighed.
“We know Lanz,” Aria responded. “We’ve never seen anything more contradictory than this before. It almost seems someone is trying to cover this up.”
“We have contacted the Hive on Tak-Makla, Lanz,” Alana interjected. “They’ve been sending agents into our past to find clues to help us, but without luck to date.”
Lanz rose from his desk and carried his coffee mug over to the system outlet and set the cup down. A fresh stream of coffee, milk and honey filled it rapidly. He picked up the cup and walked over to the window and looked out on the early morning in Washington. He sipped the coffee and said, “Yeah, I know we’ve been doing what we can, but it’s just not enough. I’m reluctant to send any more of our people back in time too. Any tiny change to the past could change the future forever. All sane people know that! What’s to be gained by changing the past when the changes could destroy the future?”
“Before he went on the Sojourn with Fa-a-Di, Dave mentioned Fola Untor, the Hive engineer from the Society of Humanity,” Aria said. “I don’t think anyone on our side trusts him. He is also rumored to be in this galaxy now. Perhaps we should find him and question him on this?”
Lanz returned to his chair and sat heavily. Then he propped his feet up on the desk top and leaned back. “We are supposed to find one man in the galaxy who may or may not even be here and question him about time eddies happening on Earth? Even if we could find him, this whole thing might blow up before we got our hands on him.”
“We could have the tekkans search for him too,” Aria suggested.
“No way! They need to focus on the time eddy situation here. If we start parsing their agents to focus on different things, our little progress would probably grind to
a halt,” Lanz argued. “There has to be something in the data that we missed. Please check it all again and get back to me before the end of the day.”
There was a knock at the door and Muncie Morgan walked into the room, shaking a handful of papers in the air. “Lanz, we think we’ve isolated something,” he said.
“Thank God for that!” Lanz blurted out. “What have you got?”
Muncie stood next to Lanz and laid out the documents on the desk. Aria and Alana stood to better see the information. “You see here,” Muncie began, “while we couldn’t find any backward trails from the eddies, we were able to measure most of them. Rence and I have been studying the concept of time eddies and have a theory there is a correlation between the dimensions of an eddy and its endpoint in time. It’s not much, but it may give us something.”
“Interesting,” Lanz said. “But it’s only a theory, right?”
“I think we have to explore every possibility at this point, Lanz,” Aria said. “We really don’t have anything else.”
“Okay, I know you’re right,” Lanz replied. “What does your theory tells us about these eddies, Muncie?”
“What was confusing at first is the sheer number and variety of distortions that have occurred. Rence started to see a series of patterns. Three separate patterns that is,” Muncie began.
“Only three!” Lanz said excitedly. “That’s a very good sign. From what I’ve seen so far, the whole mess looked random. Finally some progress. Please continue Muncie!”
“The earliest eddies were very narrow and weak. According to our theory, those only brushed the surface of time distortion,” Muncie said. “That might imply they were more spatial distortions than temporal.”
“Like someone moving from location to location at the same instant?” Alana asked.
“Exactly,” Muncie acknowledged. “We can’t tell, but it’s as if someone came from another system to Earth instantaneously. There was a temporal distortion, but there was no forward or reverse time travel.”
“So, we have a trail that some unknown Beings came to Earth,” Lanz replied. “Can we tell where they came from?”
“No. Rence has been working nonstop to extend the theory to find a way to tell exactly that,” Muncie replied. “Who knows how long that will take or if it is even possible.”
“And the second pattern?” Aria asked.
“That was the biggest part of the mystery, Aria,” Muncie replied. “The first and third patterns were fairly clear. The second group was extremely diverse. After isolating those, the similarities within the second group began to appear. They were all quite weak, but a mixture of very broad to more narrow.”
“As if our culprit was searching in time for something, or someone?” Lanz surmised.
“Exactly!” Muncie confirmed. “It also seemed very clear that the searches were of the past only.”
“Shit! If someone went into the past, perhaps everything has already changed,” Lanz interjected. “If they did, we might never know. If they haven’t done it yet, we might all disappear from history at any time. What about the final pattern?”
“They were extremely narrow and quite strong,” Muncie said. “That could mean they were local to this planet but quite far in the past.”
Lanz rose and walked over to the window again. He could see hundreds of shuttles moving through the city around them. “It looks as though our culprit is searching for the ideal spot in time to change. Once he finds it, who knows what happens next?”
“How deep were the eddies, Muncie?” Aria asked. “Does that tell us anything? Can’t we compare previous legitimate jumps to estimate how far back this person is jumping?”
“It’s not precise, Aria,” Muncie sighed. “We don’t know what technology our friend is using. We did the comparison and the best we can come up with is around one thousand years.”
“Oh no!” Aria sighed as she sat down again. “This is starting to make sense.”
“What is your theory, Aria?” Lanz demanded. “We don’t have time to worry about the impact. We’ve got to do something!”
“I think our traveler is Fola Untor, the Hive Engineer,” she said. “Dave has mentioned to Charlie that he thinks Fola is tied to the Brotherhood. As you know, Dave and Fa-a-Di pretty much brought the High Council and Brotherhood to their knees. Both Dave and Charlie come from that far back. If Fola can stop them from coming here, all of our history will change and the Brotherhood will have never lost power.”
“Let’s say you’re exactly right, Aria,” Lanz began. “The good news is we’re still talking about Dave and Charlie, so Fola hasn’t completed his task yet. I need you, Muncie and Rence to go back in time to the first time any of you met either of them. Somehow, you are going to have to make sure nothing in the stream of time changes. This is a major task and our chances for success aren’t very good, but what else can we do?”
“I agree, Lanz,” Muncie said. “I’ve have Rence configure the portal. We should probably go to different times so it’s not so obvious. If we leave right away, perhaps there is time to save them.”
“Lanz, you don’t want me to go too?” Alana asked.
“No. I have another task for you,” he replied. “After the others leave, I’ll share it with you. It’s better than no one knows except you and me.”
Chapter 29
“Obu, I was so worried about you!” Dave said. “I heard that the Brotherhood attacked Lagamar Ulu and the Mount Alila temple specifically. What happened?”
Obu smiled and patted Dave’s hand. “As you can see, I am quite well. The attack on my home world was quite vicious, with many factories and cities heavily damaged. The explosions and fires rapidly increased the smog level all over the planet. My priests and I sat praying in the temple as the clouds and smoke rose and completely enveloped the mountain range and our temple. I feel confident the Source was helping us that day. The directional systems on some Brotherhood ships were also affected and they blasted away at a nearby mountain, destroying only rock and snow, until our defending fleet could force them to flee.”
“I am glad to hear that,” Fa-a-Di said, “although I will pray tonight for the loss of life on your planet.”
“Thank you general,” Obu smiled. “You should know your own troops were very brave during the attack on Lagamar Boley. I have seen those who rejoined the Source and can report they are at peace.”
“But none of this is why we are here,” Ulook interrupted. “There is very little time, Obu.”
“Yes, of course you are right,” Obu apologized. “I do appreciate your help in this difficult time.”
“What has happened will eventually ripple through time even here, regardless of our actions,” Ulook frowned. She stood to address the group. “My friends, the past has been changed by a bandit moving through time. We Zula have some control over these things, but before long the change will move through here as well.”
“What change?” Odo asked. “Why wasn’t I informed?”
“There is nothing you or Obu could have done, blessed Odo,” Ulook said. “I’m afraid this change will also affect you.”
“What has happened?” Dave asked. “I don’t understand.”
“After this change reaches us, none of you will be here any longer. I fear some of you may already be dead,” Ulook said. “An evil force has changed history by distorting the past in a heinous way. While we can delay its impact, we cannot control time forever. Shortly everything you know will change and this meeting will have never taken place. We have been praying for intervention from the Source, but unfortunately, that cannot succeed. The Source knows only its perfect self. When Beings die, they simple return to it, however, the physical universe can change terribly.”
“But there are others,” Odo replied. “Do you think there is a chance they might intercede?”
“Who can know that?” Ulook questioned. “Only time will tell.”
“What change?” Dave shouted. “You are all being very cryptic.
Just tell us.”
“That’s impossible to know, Dave,” Ulook said as she stood behind him and put her hands on his shoulders. “We Zula can sense a temporal wave surging through the universe, but its full contents cannot be known. I can tell you that I will likely be dead after the wave arrives. I can feel it in my bones. I have no regrets and have faith that all will be well.”
Dave stood and put his arms around her. She nestled her head into his shoulder, and he could feel her tears on his uniform. She kissed him on the cheek and walked over to De-o-Nu and put her arms around him. “Thank you for rescuing me from Lagamar Vol. I fear that now may never have occurred.”
“This is insanity!” Fa-a-Di shouted. “There has to be something we can do.”
“We are trying our best, general,” Ulook sighed. “If we had seen the eddies in time, perhaps action could have been taken. Unfortunately, the culprit has masked his activity very well. I doubt there is time to do anything other than accept it.”
“I wish we never had this meeting,” Fa-a-Di said. “Now I am scared to death. If you never told us, then we would just be part of the new reality.”
“There is one thing we can do, my friends,” Ulook replied. “Everything that has happened from the moment of the change will be forever saved into your memories. While they may seem like only dreams, you will remember all of us and this moment forever. We can only hope one of you can find a way to restore the past.”
“That’s why we are here,” Obu said. “It will be up to those of you who survive the change to fix the damage. If that happens, we may all return here and continue the lives we were meant to lead.”
“How much time do we have?” De-o-Nu asked.
“Only a few minutes now,” Ulook said. “The ripple in time is moving very fast now. Just remember each other and dream of the truth. God willing, all will turn out for the best.”
“I’ll remember everything,” Dave promised. “I’ll do everything I can to get us back here together.”