by Kord Stone
They kept tracking his movements. They went back another seventy-three years and saw him appear on the planet once again. He was surveying the victim of an accident. They continued backward until they found the point where he had originally transported to the surface, then advanced the probe to watch events play out. The cloaked commander of the TDS ship was transported into a very old truck. He was sitting beside the man they had seen dead a few seconds earlier. The cloaked man raised a weapon and with a jolt, the driver slumped over the steering wheel. The cloaked figure then steered the truck into oncoming traffic and with a brilliant flash, he was standing on the roadside watching as the collision occurred. The man from the truck flew out through the windshield and crumpled dead on the ground. After assessing the man’s condition, the other commander transported back to his ship.
Jason was puzzled. “Why did he kill that man?”
Alise was looking extremely pale as she fiddled with the probe. “That was your great-grandfather.”
Jason was stunned. “So we were not the first to die.”
“Apparently not.”
They resumed their tracking. This time the man went forward in time and passed them with a bump again. This time the other TDS ship stopped six months after the explosion during his funeral service, and watched as the commander transported to the planet’s surface and was surveying a grave site.
Alise got a panicked look on her face. “Oh no! This is not good…not good at all.”
Jason looked at her. “What?”
“That is Elgon’s grave.” She looked as if she was about to pass out.
“Why is he there?”
“If I were to make a guess, I would say collecting DNA to track down your family.”
Alise’s eyes began to fill with tears. “It is all my fault.”
“How could this be your fault? He’s the one killing people.”
She looked back at the screen. “I put his body there and that is how he was able to track your family.”
“You were doing what Elgon wanted. This is not your fault. Besides, couldn’t they just have used his eldest son’s DNA to do the tracking?”
Alise shook her head. “Actually Elgon’s eldest son was not a blood relative. His wife Mara was supposed to marry their neighboring clan chief’s son. She met Elgon and all bets were off.” She wiped her eyes and continued. “She declared she was going to marry Elgon instead and a few days later the chief’s son ambushed and raped her. He was about to kill Mara when Elgon came along. Elgon killed the chief’s son and they fled to safety.
“That attack resulted in Mara becoming pregnant. She wanted to get rid of the child but Elgon refused to hear of it. He convinced her that the child would be nothing like the father because they would raise him better than that. In the end she relented and to her dying day, she continually thanked him for his caring and acceptance.”
Alise’s concern was etched in her face as she stated, “We have to figure a way out of this and fast. Now that we know he is in command of a TDS ship and how he is tracking them, none of your family are going to be safe even on another planet. I hate to say it but they were actually better off on this ship.”
Jason thought about it. “Why didn’t it kill all of the family when my great-grandfather died in the past?”
Alise frowned a moment. “The paradox effect. None of your family is on this planet anymore. Until I put things in motion by transporting Elgon’s remains to rest, we were in another timeline. My actions changed events. When that commander puts the DNA into the tracker, he will find the closest genetic family member and kill them. With each generation, the DNA is altered a little, so your great-grandfather would have shown up first on that commander’s scan as being the strongest genetic match. After your grandfather died, the next best genetic match would have shown up. I did a test on the animal he killed before. After he killed your great-grandfather, she must have come upon the tracker. She is a distant genetic cousin of yours. Her name is Amber Anderson. The fur was just clothing that gave her the appearance of an animal.” She seemed to think it over a moment and continued. Our ships are in the same linear time as each other. We sent out these probes after I collected you and put Elgon in his grave, so the timeline has been altered by us as well.”
Jason was stunned at the news that another relative had been murdered. Even though he didn’t know her, he still felt somehow responsible for her survival, and that of his great-grandfather. “Can we do the same thing for them we did for the rest of the family?”
“Yes, but the bigger problem is it will not be a fix. The DNA tracker can work throughout the universe. These are the closest relatives to his location, so he is taking them out first. Once they are not the closest it will point to then next location which will eventually lead them to any planet with your family on it.”
Jason frowned. “How long will it take him to figure that out?”
Alise shook her head. “Not long, about twelve to thirteen hours.”
Alise looked down at her control panel. “The solstice!”
“What about it?” Jason asked nervously.
“Amber is killed on the solstice and as fate would have it she is near an ancient Imortum portal. If we can get it fixed, we can send her through before he arrives and kills her. It will save some time and we should be able to make it back to your family in time to save them as well.”
“How do we know we’re not too late already?”
Alise looked up at Jason. “Remember the bump we felt as he passed us?”
“Yes.”
“Well he has not passed us again so I think we are ahead of him in nonlinear time. That other TDS ship showed up at Elgon’s tomb six months after I put his body there, so we are probably still ahead of him. We will just have to play it fast. After your great-grandfather is saved, and we get to the rest of the family, they will need to be back on this ship to get them out of standard time.”
“Why are we not doing that for Amber as well?”
“Amber has another destiny. She will be safe as long as we get her into that portal.”
“What do you mean another destiny? How do you know that?”
“I can explain it in a second.” She turned to the console and set their ship in motion.
Alise took a deep breath and began to explain what she knew. “Okay, we are in the midst of some strange stuff here. I am feeling as if someone is playing a musical instrument and we are the fingers plucking the strings. The mission Elgon and I were on just before he died dealt directly with the portal your cousin is next to.
“Eighteen months in linear time after the day we saw Amber die, there was an explosion on the planet Antilles. The portal on that planet was connected to the portal here on Earth at the time, and the resulting explosion caused an event horizon to form between the two solar systems. The portal on Earth is not active at this point in time, and from what I can surmise you and I must have activated the portal here on Earth in the past to save Amber.
“Elgon was out of phase at the time of the explosion he was caught up in and we figured his suit must have caused the explosive to detonate early. We did not think much of it at the time but the explosion that resulted in Elgon’s death occurred thirty seconds before the original explosion that caused the event horizon. I am beginning to think it was no accident, but a targeted attack.”
Jason cut in. “If activating the portal sets this all in motion why not just rescue Amber and not fix the portal at all?”
“The people of Terraneu are dying out and Amber is quite literally the key to their survival.”
“Okay, so why don’t we just close the portal after she is through then?”
“Amber is not the only one needed for their survival. Over the next eighteen months, other women will travel to Antilles. That is the planet they have the other portal on. Those women will help build a new civilization. The blast occurs just after the final people arrive, so we will have to deactivate the portal just after they go through to st
op the chain reaction.”
Jason thought about it. “Won’t the blast on their end kill them anyway?”
“I just finished the analysis of the two blasts, and they were both time phased explosives. As I said we thought it was triggered by his suit, but now I can see it was a targeted attack. The only reason Elgon was not killed immediately by the explosion was that his suit and the TPE were not in the exact same phase. The explosion did the job in killing him, just not fast enough. The TPE explosion will probably cause quaking in the area for a while but the blast will be focused out of the women’s time phase so they will be all right as long as the portal on the Earth side is closed before the explosion occurs on the other planet.”
Jason shook his head and snorted. “I am amazed I was able to follow that.”
“There is no more time to chat. We are here and need to get moving, I will have to talk you through the repair of the portal while you are down there,” Alise said abruptly.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Amber was hiking in the Scottish Highlands, muttering something Jason couldn’t make out. It was an hour before the other commander would arrive to kill her, and she was making her way up the snow-covered hill. He had a time dilation suit on and had crept up on her, waiting for just the right place and time. Alise signaled him when it was time and he phased in a microsecond and gave her a little nudge. He watched her struggle to regain her footing. She finally slipped and down the hill she went. She came to rest on the portal he had just managed to reactivate, and the energy in the atmosphere during the solstice should be just enough to power it up once she came into contact with it.
Jason had argued that they should destroy or at least deactivate the portal after she left but Alise reminded him they would need it to be active for a little while longer and she insisted that Amber would be safe.
Jason was getting nervous. Amber had come to rest on the portal but nothing happened. He was just about to change the plan and transport her to the ship when she placed her hands on the portal to get up and with a brilliant blue flash of light she was gone.
Jason hadn’t realized he was holding his breath until she vanished. Once she did, he exhaled, and with a sigh of relief he was transported back to the ship. Not bad for a first away mission.
Alise agreed. “Okay now to save your great-grandfather.”
A few seconds later he exited the decon room and headed to the control room to join Alise. A wave of unease came over Jason and he asked, “Why can’t they just track Amber to the new planet she’s on now? You said the other family members weren’t safe on their planet. What’s the difference?”
Alise smiled. “Amber is about to be changed at a genetic level. She will be the same person but her genetics will not be enough to track. Your grandfather, on the other hand, will need to be rescued.”
“How do you know this?” he asked.
“Elgon and I were on a planet called Terraneu a little over two hundred years from now, and we met her. I did not draw the correlation until I found out her name and remembered their story. But needless to say she will be safe.” She ended with a knowing smile.
Jason looked back at her. “Two hundred years from now you say?”
She laughed at his bemused expression. “Well I did say she was changed at the genetic level. Some benefits come with that…some pitfalls as well but she was…is content with her lot in life.”
Jason could only imagine, knowing what had happened to him. He just hoped everyone else was going to be okay as well.
* * * * *
Jason and Alise had arrived to rescue his great-grandfather, their plan was set and timing was going to be everything. They had timed it so the cloned corpse would be swapped for his great-grandfather the moment after the other commander transported out of the cab of his truck.
Alise got a concentrated look and just before they were about to transport, they encountered a powerful push, almost like the repelling force between two massive magnets.
Falling out of his chair, Jason shouted, “What happened?” as they were hurled into space.
Alise regained control of their ship and said, “We were too close in time. The other TDS ship must have arrived in the same time and location as we did. The pushback effect knocked us out of range. We cannot occupy that same space again… I am sorry Jason. There is nothing we can do to help him now.”
Jason saw the pained look cross Alise’s face and hurried to comfort her. “It’s not your fault. We did our best to help.”
Alise said, “It is only a matter of time before that other commander gets a genetic lock on the rest of the family. We need to get to Gloran as fast as possible and transport them back aboard this ship. Once they are onboard, the tracking should not work because we will not be in the same phase.”
Jason asked, “How are we able to track that commander then? Won’t they be able to track my family the same way we’re tracking them?”
“When I saw he was in a TDS ship, I opened the phase range of our probe and began scanning. When he took off, he changed phase. That is why we lost contact with him a moment. Once I found which phase he jumped to, I began tracking him.
“Once we have everyone aboard this ship, I will program our ship to randomly change phase out of a probe’s range every few hours, so he will be unable to get a lock on them. I will keep my probe on him, but without being able to adjust manually, we will lose our DNA lock on him if he phases beyond our probe’s range.”
Jason sighed and took Alise in his arms and hugged her tightly. “You are the best.” He sealed his statement with a kiss.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Jason and Alise had traveled as fast as their ship would allow to make sure they had enough time to collect the family safely. Jason was feeling increasing trepidation with every new discovery. Were they going to be on the run forever? He openly hoped the family would be close together so they could get them all onboard fast.
Alise explained that they would be transporting the family onboard about one minute after they had originally left them on the planet. Any closer and they might experience the same effects as before and be knocked off course. She also reminded him that when they left the family, there was that now familiar bump. “So we were more than likely the ones who caused the anomaly as we passed ourselves in space time.” A few minutes later they felt the push back and Alise smiled. “I told you so.”
Jason smiled at her and said, “Smartass.” Then he leaned over to give her a kiss.
* * * * *
Jason transported back to the family. He had left only a minute earlier by their reckoning, and he startled them with his presence. He called them all together. As they crowded around he told Alise, “NOW!” A moment later they were all back onboard the ship and the ever so familiar blurring washed over them once again, and Jason let out a great sigh of relief.
“What the hell is going on?” said his father. “We just got onto the planet and now we’re back here?”
The ship rocked, accompanied by an explosion, followed immediately by a second even more intense explosion.
Jason’s heart began racing, and he shouted, “Stay here. I’ll be back and explain everything as soon as I can.” He heard the yelling fade as he exited decon and ran to the control room.
Upon entering he looked to Alise. “What’s going on?”
“The Toralins just appeared. They began their attack with the TPEs and it looks like they have the help of their consortium now. Our engine is destabilizing and we are going to lose power. I cannot find a way to stop it.”
Jason looked at the monitor. “Give me a visual on the ships.”
Alise did as he requested and he looked at the ships and thought, This is getting ridiculous. They were surrounded by well over a hundred ships, all of which were now firing their weapons. Jason growled with disgust and said, “I’ve had enough of these guys.” He moved to the weapons console and began targeting and firing on every ship in range. He had destroyed forty-three shi
ps and thought he saw more arriving, and with one more jarring explosion their power failed.
Jason started to panic but almost immediately felt a sense of calm blanket him. He felt as though he were relegated to a back seat in his own mind once again. He closed his eyes, took several deep, cleansing breaths and instead of fighting the suppression this time he allowed it in.
Jason felt his body extend an energy field to surround his ship, and could feel the energy field come into contact with the vessels surrounding them.
The ship’s weapons were offline. He did not know why but he had a feeling he was not going to need them. He felt power building up within his body, and his arms began moving of their own accord. One by one he seemed to wrap an imaginary hand around each of the ships and with a mental squeeze, he could feel the ships’ hulls depressurize. More than three-quarters of the attacking ships were in ruins. The energy field surrounding them blocked the incoming weapons and seemed to give him strength with every strike.
Seeing they were unsuccessful in their attempts to destroy his ship, the remaining Toralin and consortium ships scattered in all directions. Now there were only two ships left, the two pyramid ships. Jason managed to push the calm that had been suppressing him out. In his anger he reached out and could sense the other TDS ship. They seemed to be just out of phase from his ship. He figured this might be the best and only chance he would have to stop the attacks on his family, so he focused as hard as he could and reached out to crush the ship as he had the drone, only to feel a large energy spike rebound back on him. When it hit him, he fell back, and the other ship disappeared.
Jason stood up and looking around in the near darkness, he called out for Alise. He found her unresponsive body on the floor beside the console. He touched her face and realized her consciousness was not projected into the body any longer. Not being able to speak with her, he figured the ship’s systems must be failing. There were still a few flickering lights from the console but those appeared to be fading fast as well. He tried to perform a reboot but the ship was unresponsive.