Historians Proper

by S David Acuff

  With the AutoNAV engaged, it gave Alex some time to think. Or maybe even a much needed power nap. What he wouldn’t give for just 10 minutes of shut eye. But every time he closed his eyes, Harris’ fat face was there leering at him. Harris was a backstabbing monster but he was also right that Sindy might not make it through another time-fold. Not unless she used the Fleischpar.

  The Fleischpar had been invented in Time-5 by Jörne Swenson, also a PyntaTuuk. He had to because so many Journeymen were dying in the time-shifts.

  The mysterious serum reacted within the time-fold causing old memories to be lost; completely replaced by the new ones. Normalization. Death of a Journeyman, birth of a Dalit. A commoner. A life which knows only the present. It wasn’t used widely because for most of the PyntaTuuk, living with such limited view on reality was a fate worse than death. But there were those who treasured life above knowledge, and they lived on… as Commoners.

  Was he just being selfish? Abandoning a dead-end life in Time-11 for the hopes of a better one for he and Valerie in Time-12? Odds were that she wouldn’t even know him in the next time stream. But she would exist. If he let her die now, her life’s force would slip into eternity, whatever that was. She didn’t stand a chance here. But, with Harris’ bloody CyberWar at hand, who did? They could easily take over the CyberScape, New Domain, and beyond. Harris had done it before.

  “Incoming call,” the computer informed him.

  Alex hit the comm button, “Alex here.”

  “Alex, Detective Gerald Levine,” a gravelly voice spoke. “It appears you might have some answers for us concerning a security breach at 0500 hours at Generex.”

  “Don’t know anything about that, Officer,” Alex lied.

  “Well, the transcoder logs at On-line and the trace patterns we were able to salvage from Generex say otherwise. Now your citizen records are in good standing so we’d like you to come down and—”

  Bam. Alex hit a scrambler button next to the comm switch cutting off the rest of the conversation.

  “Speelksta,” Alex swore at himself for being so careless. They had used the call to track him. Now that they knew his ride number and flight status, they’d have no problem finding him, unless he switched over to manual. Air traffic was a highly choreographed dance with intricate calculations tracking millions of variables in a nano-second. Everyone flew automatic.

  Alex switched to manual and angled down to city-level. All he could do is dive into empty space and hope that it stayed empty. New Domain’s air traffic central went into over-drive rerouting to accommodate for this new independent variable falling through the already dense commuter space.

  The stranger in ride number 42-1905E never knew what hit them. The collision sent Alex’s hover car careening out of control, spinning wildly toward the cityscape that jutted up at him. Lights flashed and warning buzzers sounded as Alex tried desperately to regain control. The shields were down and the lateral drives were shot.

  Alex muscled the steering wheel and rolled the vehicle upright. He angled the car so that the vertical thrust would slow his descent, but he had no visibility beneath him. The city engulfed him as the engines fought hard against gravity. A roof top rushed upwards toward the car and with the flat surface to push against, the hover car finally edged to a halt thirty feet off the deck.

  Most of his thrusters were offline except the verticals which held their equilibrium at full thrust. Alex exhaled and ran a quick systems check. There was nowhere to go but down, so he eased off the throttle and settled the car onto the roof top.

  “Incoming Message,” the voice announced. Alex punched it up.

  It read: “267b W. Holland, ND, 1345, mysheen raaven.”

  Signed only with the letter “S.” It was Sindy, all right. The words “extreme caution” at the end, he felt, were thoughtful but unnecessary. West Holland spoke for itself. It was a High-Tech think-tank that sat on the dark edge of science. Most of their discoveries were outlawed immediately. Generex had paid them handsomely to download humans into the Scape. Who knows how many lives were snuffed out from the time-stream while perfecting the WatchDAWG reintegration process. But they were well-funded so their collateral damage was overlooked and their research continued. Quite a résumé: cloning, mutations, biological weaponry, and now time-travel.

  Alex slid a dash panel to the side and pulled out his Auger .413 Special. It was very accurate and had a terrible bite. And if you fired up the bottom barrel, too, things got really messy. He attached the chest holster under his left jacket flap and parked the gun inside. West Holland was a good stretch away, but with some public transport, he could make the appointment.

  CHAPTER 6

  Alex watched the Airbus move away from the docking platform. Above, the clouds had gotten pretty dark. The landing pad intersected the West Holland building at the 264th floor, Alex guesstimated, looking over the handrail to the city depths far below. Alex checked the time. 1320, not bad. Sindy hadn’t told him where to meet, so he walked right in the front door. On the outside, West Holland looked like any other stratoscraper in the New Domain.

  The inside of the superstructure, made up of large, blackish, dimly lit corridors, was formed by some semi-organic substance, no doubt from a previous outlawed experiment. It gave the impression that this building was grown, not built. If that were true, the root system alone would take up…

  “State your business,” a raspy voice called out from nowhere.

  Alex looked around to pinpoint it and answered in no particular direction, “I’m Alex Caldwyn, with On-Line Securities. I have reason to believe your top secret time-travel experiment is in jeopardy by a terrorist faction known as the Journeymen.”

  A series of bright lights flashed all around him in a random pattern, but as quickly as he brought up his hand to shield from the strobes, it was over.

  “Your records are correct, Alex Caldwyn. Permission granted to retain your weapon. Proceed to the turbolift.”

  Alex blinked away the spots in his eyes as they readjusted to the low light. Where there was an empty hall before, a large beastly man stood with arms folded in front of him. The darkness hid most of his features, which was probably a good thing. He turned and walked away. Alex followed, looking for signs of where he had come from. There were none.

  Eventually, the stranger walked past a rift in the wall, stopped, and turned around again. A light came on from inside the rift and Alex got a good look at the… thing before him. Could it even be a man?

  Alex recognized no less than five different animals in the face of this one. But the luminescent eyes told him he was a hybrid of machine and animal. The man-cat-robot-thing gestured and Alex quickly stepped into the turbo-lift. He was relieved when the chamber began to move downward and the creature stayed behind. The smooth descent seemed to take a long time. Alex took out his gun, clipped off the safety, powered up barrel one, and replaced it. Whatever else happened, at least it was active.

  It was much brighter when the door opened and there were three man-cat-robot things blocking his way. A thin, bespectacled man with slicked back hair stepped around them and greeted Alex formally. He then turned and indicated the security team.

  “You must excuse the Cronin. Safety measures. We take no chances.”

  “No offense, but I preferred upstairs security to this,” Alex grimaced at the hideous aberrations.

  “Ahem, yes,” the man said, “but you forced our hand when you activated your weapon. So, it’s your choice.”

  Alex patted his jacket.

  “This is my insurance policy. I’d like to get outta here alive. Especially since your security’s a bear.”

  “Not all bear of course,” the man continued with a wry smile. “We added lion, hawk, rhino and viper as well. Quite a force to have on our side.”

  “Yeah, now I can cancel my trip to the zoo,” he muttered under his breath.

  The man led the entourage into a massive noisy chamber filled with machine pods submerged in saline coo
lant. Steam hissed from a cluster of pipes and dozens of workers buzzed about checking their math and making final adjustments. It smelled dank like the rest of the building, but the air was even cooler here.

  They followed the high railed walkway around the perimeter above the huge experiment below. The man directed Alex’s attention to several key components of the time machine like the Contessa Coils. Alex surprised him by asking some very educated questions about power supplies, space-time theory and other master-level physics.

  “For a classified project you sure do know quite a bit,” the Doctor admitted.

  “Unfortunately for you,” Alex continued to take mental notes of the layout, “the saboteurs will know even more than I do.”

  It paid to have studied six others in previous time-streams. This one was most similar to the Time-7 version, only larger, not quite as energy efficient. But it would do nicely. The man led them into a chamber off to the side that was divided from the main room by a wall of shielded glass. Some sort of audience box. It sort of resembled Alex’s office at On-Line. Some of the workers in there were real, some were holo-projections conferencing in for the demo.

  Alex checked his watch again.

  “Don’t worry,” the Doctor observed, “our team of specialists will be here momentarily. They’ve been sent down from headquarters to administer the test personally.”

  “Headquarters?” Alex asked.

  “Generex Prime.”

  The man snapped his fingers and Alex’s arms were bound by two of the beasts flanking him. Alex struggled but their phenomenal strength made movement very painful. Another guard pulled the gun from his holster and stood off to the side.

  “Yes, Mr. Caldwyn,” the Doctor chided, removing his glasses, “we know all about the saboteur. We know all about your plans to wreck our time-travel experiment. But, we allowed you down here so you could witness mankind’s greatest triumph since you won’t be reading about it in tomorrow’s headlines like the rest of the world.”

  “What are you talking about? I’m not the saboteur…”

  A booming voice startled him.“Give up the charade, Alex-kyr,” Harris spoke, materializing in front of them. Half of his face had a hideous fresh scar. The energy field from the time-machine disrupted his holo-projection as he spoke. “We’ve been watching you for a long time. Matter of fact, I told the good Doctor to be expecting you. Mysheen raaven, right Alex?”

  Alex’s face turned red as the blood rushed into it.

  “Where’s Sindy?”

  “She’s been taken care of,” Harris smiled.

  “Ga slavyl, Harris, yn blythen cayn spyrrhdo flynckshe…”

  A firmly placed fist to his stomach stopped his Lahktani tirade and doubled him over. The creature that had administered the blow at Harris’ nod stood at attention again. The side door whisked open and in strolled twelve operatives in blue body suits with Class-3 shielding and head gear with opaque safety visors that hid their faces.

  “Ah, the specialists,” the Doctor beamed.

  “Yes,” Harris responded, “punctual as promised. You may begin the testing, Doctor.”

  The Doctor spoke through an intercom and the workers on the floor scrambled free of the machinery. The area was quickly cleared and the Specialists made their way down to ground zero. They spread out and began final preparations on the time machine. Alex watched closely, trying to block out the fire in his belly. Harris hummed proudly, rocking back and forth from heel to toe. The Doctor stepped up beside him.

  “I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time,” the Doctor gushed.

  “As have I,” Harris replied evenly and nodded to a guard.

  The thing leveled Alex’s .413 and fired a point-blank shot into the Doctor’s back. The impact made a mess of the good Doctor, but the particles never even reached the window as they dissolved into a thousand glowing subatomic embers. The Doctor didn’t even have time to scream. Alex watched horrified.

  Harris moved to the intercom. “Phase One is complete, all Specialists finish your tasks and report back immediately. I will charge up the power grid in 30 seconds.”

  Harris turned back to Alex.

  “Don’t look so glum, Alex. This is what the PyntaTuuk swore by in Time-5 remember? To destroy those who would tamper with time, to preserve a life stream at all costs, I mean stop me if I’m wrong.”

  “I intend to,” Alex swore evenly, “even if I have to rebuild this whole damn thing myself.”

  He broke off as the Specialists began to return one by one. Harris waved aside the comment and swiped in a code at the console. On the floor, giant cylinders rolled into position and blue lights from the time capsule illuminated the whole area.

  Harris looked up, again.

  “Have we got everyone here?” He frowned as he noticed only seven of the twelve were present. “Where are the others?” He growled.

  The Specialist who came in last took off the protective helmet. “I took care of them,” Sindy answered coolly. “And I did a better job than your bleemaahns did for me!”

  Before anyone could respond, she whipped out a snub-nosed Daggen-5 and made a mess of the guard closest to her. Only her blaster didn’t clean up as nicely. The guards on either side of Alex growled and crouched low into attack positions. They sprang at the six Specialists and Alex took the opportunity to hammer the third guard, the one who had gut-punched him earlier. Palming his Auger, he rolled to his feet and let go both barrels at the beasts springing toward Sindy. She turned in time to see hundreds of lucent powder grains disintegrate past her.

  An electronic shockwave lit up the room momentarily throwing everyone on the ground except Harris. He walked among the stunned bodies and collected the weapons. Alex came to first and shook it off, groggy. He scanned the room to gather his bearings.

  “A valiant effort, Alex-kyr,” Harris said.

  Alex spat, “Why don’t you get on with it.”

  “All in good time. First, we have to wait until the power grid is at full capacity, then I spill the nitroplasma into the conduits. If the Journeymen have tampered correctly, then by tomorrow morning this whole enterprise will be nothing more than a line item on our insurance claim. Kaboom.”

  Harris frisked the Journeyman closest to him and pulled out the electronic fob that he plugged into the console. Alex still couldn’t feel his legs. Off to his side, Sindy began to stir. He helped her to a sitting position.

  “Ah, Sindy,” Harris smiled at her, “glad you could join us for the funeral. Yours of course.”

  Harris checked a few more gauges and then announced, “Is everyone ready? To quote the good Doctor, ‘I’ve been looking forward to this day for a long time.’”

  Harris smiled evilly and threw the switch. To his surprise, his holo-image began to flicker out of sight. He tried to grab the switch again, but his energy had lost mass and his touch was gone. He opened his mouth but no words came out as he finally disappeared.

  A new, familiar holo-image materialized in its place.

  “DeeGØ!” Alex exclaimed. “What happened?”

  “I inverted his transmitter with a phase disrupter that blah blah blah I’m boring myself! How are you doing, buddy?”

  “Better now,” he pulled himself up and hobbled over to check the readouts.

  “Finish the time-fold, Alex,” Sindy said. “All you have to do is reverse the nitro plasma bypass and punch the red button under the safety lever. I’d do it myself but I can’t seem to move.”

  “What about you? Are you going to make it through another time-shift,” Alex asked.

  “I’ll take my chances,” she shrugged.

  “I thought you’d say that,” Alex responded, pulling up a Fleischpar and pressing it to her neck. With a hiss, Sindy’s fate was sealed.

  “Ne plyshev, Alex! What have you done?”

  Alex rested her gently against the wall. “Now we’re even.”

  “How do you figure that?”

  “Easy, you saved my life, now I’
m saving yours.”

  Sindy closed her eyes and mumbled something in Lahktani as the elixir filtered through her mind. Alex kissed her on the forehead.

  “Sindy, don’t be a stubborn mytspaa. As long as I am alive, you will be a PyntaTuuk, because you will know the truth. I will find you in Time-12. I swear it.”

  Tears rolled down Sindy’s face.

  “To have eyes, but not see, now I am a Dilat.”

  “Now, you will be rid of the curse.”

  Alex pulled himself over to the console, flipped up the safety latch and pressed the button. Sliding back beside Sindy, he pulled her close to him, as the turbines surged.

  “Verquosheth, Alex-kyr,” she whispered.

  “Verquosheth-tura, Sindy-kyr,” he answered.

  “See you on the other side, boss,” Dee said.

  “I’m not so sure that’s how this works,” Alex said.

  “We’ll see,” DeeGØ winked.

  Alex fished a coin out of his pocket and set in on the floor beside them. It was the holo-projector. Whatever else happened, Valerie would live. He activated the image and said softly, “Verquosheth-tura, Valerie-kyr.”

  A distant rumbling could be felt all across the New Domain and around the world. To the Journeymen, a familiar rumble. The future, like a white wall, stretched out across the horizon, advancing steadily forward.

  At the moment of impact there was a split second when the two realities were fused together and Alex’s mind was filled with a new life. A new world. New memories alongside old ones. The fate of the PyntaTuuk.

  The room’s atoms stretched out before his eyes and then everything collapsed inward and disappeared as time folded up on itself and Time-12 began.

  THE END

  EPILOGUE

  Imagine your worst migraine headache, the severest heart attack, the most debilitating stroke and the clearest déjà vu all crammed into one thirty second attack.