Time Agency

by Aaron Frale

We reappeared seconds later in front of an abandoned warehouse. It was creepy, and just the sort of place spies would meet to exchange a prisoner. I guess if time travelers needed to meet somewhere, an abandoned warehouse would be better than a crowded bookstore. I’m sure the police back at the bookstore were sorting through stories of mass hysteria and baffled by what happened. The events would be explained away. The presence of a gun created a mass delusion or other such nonsense. I wonder how many unexplained phenomenon were time travelers and could be explained through future technology.

  Jerry tore the metal warehouse door from its hinges. It crumpled like tinfoil from his machines. He restored power to the lights, and the warehouse revealed its shadowy interior. It was an empty warehouse with large towering pillars at regular intervals. The place looked as if the years had worn the building. Broken glass and junk were scattered on the floor. Nanette was sprawled on the ground. She was still mutilated from the experiments with only some surface level healing. Jerry's other self was barely waking up when they entered the room. I sent my nanomachines to scan him. My Jerry looked as if he was concentrating.

  The future Jerry saw the intruders and threw up a defensive barrier. I felt my nanomachines hit the barrier and incinerate. The doppelganger smiled and pushed the barrier forward until it engulfed us. I rose off the ground against my will and was slammed back down.

  I fought back. Instead of directing a swarm of nanomachines, I directed a small and very direct pulse. The machines raced forward and swept Jerry’s double off of his feet. The double clearly wasn't expecting it. My Jerry must have anticipated a retaliatory strike and sent glass shards flying for a second strike. However, the doppelganger had heightened reflexes and speed. He was halfway across the warehouse as the glass shredded an empty wall. I dashed after him, and a wave of nanomachines pushed me back. I crashed through three pillars of pure concrete. It hurt. My body was damaged badly, and the nanomachines could barely keep up the repairs.

  My Jerry dashed forward with super speed and agility, but he fell limp when the doppelganger simply sent a wave of nanomachines to hack his operating system. He stood up like a puppet and his muscles moved him forward. I anticipated a hack after seeing what happened to my partner and adjusted my security with endless firewalls and loops. I felt our nanomachines tangle and fight as the doppelganger attempted to breach my security. It was only a matter of time before I would be hacked too. In addition to the firewall assault, the future Jerry sent a physical assault. The puppet Jerry dashed to me and landed a kick. His arms and legs flailed, and I blocked the onslaught of punches, kicks, and jabs. I sent my nanomachines out during the fight to take control of my Jerry. He must have known what I was trying to do because a backdoor into his systems presented itself fairly quickly. Jerry’s double was surprised when he lost control of his subject. I spun my Jerry around and sent him charging towards his future self.

  I used the distraction and my super speed to circle the future Jerry. I amped up my nanomachines in my hand that were responsible for disassembling atoms and rearranging them into other elements. While my assailant was distracted, I snuck behind him. I couldn't out tech my opponent, but I could cause physical damage—a lot of physical damage. I thrust my hand into the back of his skull. The smell of burning flesh filled the room as the machines stopped right before the brain.

  I wrapped my hand around the brain of the double and was about to squeeze when I decided to give the man a chance. My future self never showed mercy. I needed to prove to myself why I would be a better person than him. Even though this man was responsible for gruesome experiments, I needed to give him a chance.

  “Let us go, and you can live.”

  “I can’t. She needs to die.”

  I let the pressure up and said, “So why didn’t you just snatch her up and take her long ago?”

  “We needed to see how she would affect our younger selves. We know now, it made us weak, unable to make the decisions necessary. There is no room for love. We’ve come too far. The mystery is much deeper than you imagine. The chambers were here before we started using them. We didn't build the chambers. They were always there throughout history, and they are always linked to what we call the factory.”

  “So you aren’t the one responsible for the experiments?”

  “It runs itself. We can pull people off the line, but it will collect more. We don’t know who is collecting the data. Your little show of destroying the equipment was futile. We’ve tried to destroy it many times, but it’s always rebuilt.”

  I let him go and sent my machines to repair his skull. I gave him mercy. I was in control of my destiny. The future Jerry seemed to reflect a moment. Then he became very rigid and said. “Love is a powerful force. Perhaps I have made a mistake. I think it’s time to give emotional decision-making a try. The time loop has been the same every time, but this one is different. You are not making the same decisions. Perhaps they will lead to a different outcome.”

  The future Jerry’s eyes went blank. He calmed and swayed like he had injected euphoric drugs into his system. The life drained from his body. I attempted to prevent his suicide. We needed him. The task ahead of us was daunting. He blocked me. His nanomachines ate away at his body. He began to dissolve. The nanomachines converted all his matter into dust. What was left of the future Jerry floated away.

  Event 12 - N

  The maid came back with a box. The four-post bed curtains were drawn, and the coughing had not subsided. The maid set the box on her vanity. “I brought the box for you,” the maid politely said. “Do you wish me to draw the curtains?”

  “I'm quite capable of doing that on my own,” Nanette croaked from behind the curtains. The lady of the house was always performing tasks on her own. It was a wonder why she had any servants at all. She was fiercely independent, and all the servants knew to stay out of her way. Her independence still didn't prevent them from asking, to which they always received a trenchant response. It was best to stay out of the lady's way. The maid intended to do so now.

  Nanette climbed out of bed. She was past the age of being unidentifiable as young or old. She was wrinkled and worn. The illness and life had sapped her existence. She could barely walk to the vanity. She was weak and unable to move. Her bones ached, and her body was failing. She didn't have a lot of time. It would not be long before age took her. She was looking forward to death. She had lived so long that she felt as if she had experienced everything. The one experience she never had was death.

  Death would not be taking her today. “Is the door locked?” she asked the maid.

  “Yes, lady but...” The maid double checked the lock.

  “Remember when I swore you to secrecy?”

  “Yes, lady.”

  “You have done admirably. You will need to be silent again. You will be tempted to attribute what you are about to see as the work of God or the devil, but I assure you that it is very much the work of humans. You may not understand, and may never understand it. But it's imperative that you tell no one.”

  “I will tell no one. But if I may ask...why?”

  “The survival of the human species depends on it.”

  The maid looked at the lady with incredulous eyes. Her disbelief will be short-lived. Nanette creaked open the dusty box. It had been buried for years. It was quantum locked to her DNA, so the maid or anyone who might have found it would never know what was in it. Inside the box were her suit and a syringe. She stripped her nightgown off, and the maid helped her put on the suit. Nanette at least learned to get help dressing when she was too weak to do it on her own. The maid was obviously very shocked by the manliness of the clothing, smoothness of the fabric, and the fashion differences.

  Whatever opinion the maid had on the clothing, she smartly kept it to herself. It was simply a matter of accepting that her employer was peculiar. And these clothes were just one facet of a peculiar personality. The maid had seen much when Nanette first arrived. She saw Nanette using her nanomachines to cure a lam
e horse. The maid witnessed two time agents appearing from the future, who somehow tracked the use of nanotechnology out of the proper time period. The maid watched in fear at what looked like a battle of mystical and magical powers. Technology looked like magic for those that didn't understand the science. Her maid must have thought Nanette was a sorceress. It was a myth Nanette didn't attempt to dispute.

  After she was fully dressed, Nanette looked at herself in the mirror. She had lost so much weight from the illness. The suit hung on her. If she had her nanomachines, they would adjust the fabric to be a perfect fit. Unlike in the past, people only had a few sets of clothing from Nanette’s time. Nanomachines could change the very fabric and nature of the clothes. A shirt could be a jacket with pure thought. People also didn't grow old or get sick. So an old lady with a draping suit was a sight.

  She reached into the box once more and pulled out the syringe. It was full of nanomachines. She had realized after curing the horse that the conspiracy from the future could track nanomachine use during any era. She would not be safe so long as she still had nanomachines, so she took them out and put them into this syringe. Her clothes and a couple of pocket items were the only things from her time left. She buried the artifacts as deep as she could. Only Nanette and the maid knew the location. Once the withdrawal symptoms kicked in, her maid nursed Nanette back to health.

  She buried everything because she knew there would be more time agents, and she needed to disappear completely. When time agents arrived, they scanned the area and even scanned her, but without nanomachines in her body, she was indistinguishable from a normal nanomachineless human. If the conspirators bothered to pass around a photograph rather than her quantum signature from the nanomachines, they would have spotted her, so she lived out a normal life to hide from them. After years of looking, the time agency must have concluded that she was no longer in this time period. She was tempted just to live out her life, but she knew humanity needed saving. Hiding time was over. It was time for action. Maybe she could grow old again when she finished her task. She would make fewer mistakes the second time around. She injected the syringe into her neck.

  The maid gasped as Nanette's body began to change. It was small at first as the nanomachines had to replicate themselves. Her skin cleared the liver spots, and it began to tighten on her bones. Her breasts began to rise. The color returned to her hair. The atrophied muscles filled out. She was getting younger before the maid's eyes. The maid stumbled backward.

  Within a matter of minutes, Nanette was restored to her ageless self. She was neither young nor old again. While her mind still maintained the memory of growing old, her body had no trace of it. Her body grew into the draping suit and filled the suit to where it was a perfect fit. She was completely restored to youth. She understood why people would never turn off their machines and usually incinerated themselves if they wanted to die. Growing old sucked. She felt better than she could remember. The shock on the maid's face could not be contained. The maid began to sign the cross when Nanette stopped her.

  “This is the work of humans. Not of God. There will be some men and women coming by to look for me. For your own safety, tell them nothing.”

  The maid could do nothing but nod. The transformation was too much. To top it off, Roman and Jerry appeared in the room. Jerry was back in his agency suit. He was well-dressed and pretty sexy. She would have to take advantage of his youth later.

  “My lord...” the maid said shocked.

  “Yes, it's me. Are you ready my dear?” Jerry said.

  “We will only get one shot at this,” Roman added.

  “Mr. Bingley?” The maid curtsied toward Roman out of habit.

  “Remember, not a word,” Nanette told her maid. “And why did you pick such a stupid name?”

  “What? It's funny,” Roman said.

  “We should go,” Jerry said urgently.

  “Then shall we?” Nanette proffered her arm to both of her boys. They accepted her offer and locked their arms around her. Within a split second, they were gone. There was no trace of anyone in the room except a shocked maid.

  Thank you for reading.

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