by E W Barnes
As the realization they had been abandoned set in, they surrendered, first one at a time, and then in droves. Agent Berg’s teams collected the weapons and coordinated detention of the prisoners while TPC staff tended to the wounded. Agent Diogo and Caelen emerged from the temporal nexus room. Miranda smiled when she saw Caelen.
“Welcome back Agent Winters. Where did they send you?” she asked.
“They sent me to 2337, Director Noon,” he answered. “It was… unpleasant.”
“How did you get back?”
“He returned because Agent Gorse and Agent Kern were successful,” Agent Diogo answered.
“How do you know?” Caelen asked her.
Agent Diogo shrugged. “Because you’re here. Because Agent Berg is here. And because they are here,” she added, nodding over his shoulder.
Sharon and Richard were carefully finding their way through the clumps of prisoners and wounded. They both looked exhausted and Caelen was sure Sharon had been crying. Miranda heaved a sigh.
“Our family is finally home,” she murmured.
“Not everyone,” Agent MacGregor said grimly.
Miranda took his hands in hers. “True. And we will take the time to grieve, soon.”
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The memorial service for Director Veta, the agent killed by the virus in the temporal mainframe, and TPC staff lost during the battle, was held two days later. All those who were ambulatory attended, and the observance was broadcast into the medical facility for the injured and their caregivers. Caelen stood next to Sharon, with Richard standing on her other side, as Miranda and others lauded the sacrifices of the fallen. Agent Berg, Director Constantine, and the TPC agents from 2126 attended as well.
Many TPC staff members were joined at the memorial service by their friends and loved ones from the surface. Like the battle in the CERN facility, the battle for the planet ended without warning when the Chestnut Covin withdrew.
Worldwide, invading regiments of soldiers from the parallel earth disappeared back across the rift when Anna activated the retreat devices. The ones left behind were quickly overwhelmed and taken captive. The World Government hoped that interrogation of the prisoners and examination of their military equipment would reveal a means of protecting against future invasions.
The debriefing of Sharon and Richard was scheduled for the day after the memorial. Sharon let Richard do most of the talking to Miranda, Agent MacGregor, Caelen, Agent Diogo, and Director Constantine and Agent Berg from 2126.
Richard told them everything, from the sabotaged temporal amplifier that caused his temporal aberration disorder, to kidnapping Sharon to the future, to crossing the rift between worlds, and finally about Natalie Johnson’s attempt to destroy the 20th and 21st centuries with stolen nuclear weapons, which allowed them to use the patch that eradicated the virus in the temporal mainframe.
“You say you experienced a time loop?” Agent MacGregor asked Richard. “But the temporal amplifier has safeguards to prevent time loops and we can find no record of it in the temporal mainframe.”
“The virus could have damaged the record of the time loop,” Agent Diogo volunteered.
Richard shook his head.
“I understand your skepticism, Agent MacGregor. And the record wasn’t lost through damage to the temporal mainframe by the virus,” he added to Agent Diogo. “We initiated the time loop from the parallel earth via the Roman Ring, not by our temporal nexus.”
“Explain,” Miranda said, folding her hands on the table in front of her.
“It was Petrone,” Richard said, glancing at Sharon, but she did not acknowledge him. “He was my contact on the parallel earth, the one who helped me develop the patch, program the Roman Ring, and reset the loop until the mission succeeded.”
“But how would he know if you were successful or not if time was repeating?” Agent Diogo asked.
“He would know the mission was successful if Caelen Winters returned to the parallel earth,” Richard answered.
“What?” Agent MacGregor coughed.
“Excuse me?” Caelen asked in surprise.
“I mean the Caelen Winters of that world, of course,” Richard clarified with a smile. “He was one of Petrone’s agents, working undercover. Once he returned across the rift and reported the mission’s success, Petrone was to cancel the loop command.”
“Why would someone from the parallel earth care?” Agent MacGregor asked.
“Because our success is their success,” Richard answered. “While I was on the parallel earth, I infected their version of the temporal mainframe with a similar virus to that which infected ours. But it could only be initiated once their Caelen Winters returned with the proper code, which I left for him to find. Once activated, the virus will render the Roman Ring useless and the dissidents will have a chance to succeed.”
“What about the rift? Will the virus in the Roman Ring stop the rift from being opened again?” Caelen asked.
Richard shook his head. “No.”
“Ok,” Miranda sighed. “Let’s move on to other things. Director Constantine, Agent Berg, thank you again for your assistance and for joining us today.”
“Of course,” Director Constantine responded.
“It’s good to see you again, Agent Winters, Agent Gorse,” Agent Berg said to Caelen and Sharon.
“You too,” Caelen responded as Sharon nodded with a tight smile.
“We are grateful for your help in repelling the takeover of the TPC,” Miranda began.
“But how did you know we needed help?” Agent MacGregor finished.
“We received a message,” Director Constantine started. “It warned us of the dangers of the virus in the temporal mainframe and informed us of the patch correction to eradicate it.”
“Then we found the point of conflict in the future and came to defend the TPC,” Agent Berg said.
“But… you traveled to the future,” Agent Diogo said almost in a whisper. “How did the temporal mainframe calculate that?”
“I included the temporal coordinates in the message,” Richard said.
“Oh,” Agent Diogo said. It was clear her mind was whirring with more questions about their travel into the future, but she kept her questions to herself.
“Very well. Does anyone have questions before we finish?” Miranda asked.
Up to this point, Sharon had volunteered no information and only answered questions asked of her directly. But now she raised her hand.
“What happened to Yorga Zintel?”
“We have her in custody,” Agent MacGregor said.
“Which one?” Sharon asked.
Miranda and Agent MacGregor exchanged looks.
“We don’t know,” Miranda said. “She’s not talking. We don’t know if she’s the Yorga from the ‘Email Timeline’ or the one who shifted from her office in our timeline.”
“Where’s the other one?”
“Unknown,” Agent MacGregor said. “We don’t know if she fled across the rift with the others or if she’s still on this earth. But we’ll find her,” he added with certainty.
With that the meeting ended. Director Constantine and Agent Berg shook everyone’s hand and accepted their thanks once more before shifting back to their time. Miranda watched Sharon leave the meeting room, her eyes full of sympathy. Caelen watched her, too, frowning.
“Give her time,” Miranda suggested.
A knock on her door an hour later interrupted Sharon’s pacing.
“Come in,” she said as she sat on the edge of the cot that had turned an office into a make-shift bedroom, giving her a private space until TPC headquarters was declared safe for their return. It was not unlike the room they had assigned her in 2337.
Caelen entered, followed by Richard.
“Are you ok?” Caelen asked.
“I’m fine,” she answered.
“No, you’re not,” Richard said. “But you will be.”
“How can you say that?” she asked him, a flash of
heat returning to her voice.
Caelen and Richard exchanged helpless glances. They were not sure what to do to get her out of her funk.
“It’s not just what I did to my mother,” she admitted.
“What is it?” Caelen said gently.
“It’s Jonas, for one thing,” she answered. “He helped us, saved us, and then he was taken to that terrible world. I’m worried about him and afraid we’ll never see him again.”
“Yeah,” Caelen said, not knowing what else to say.
“And I’m worried about Natalie Johnson and her cache of nuclear weapons. They haven’t been found, have they?” she asked Richard.
“No, but they’re still looking,” he replied. “Nuclear missiles are enormous, you know. She would have to keep them in silos near a temporal device to launch them, which means they shouldn’t be hard to find.”
“Nuclear missiles in a secret base,” Sharon said with a mirthless laugh. “How super-villain cliché.”
“I wonder what she used for a temporal device,” Caelen said. “All the TPC temporal amplifiers are accounted for.”
“The De Kooning painting,” Sharon said dully. “I used it to get back to my time from 1933, remember? We don’t know what happened to it after that.”
“Natalie Johnson is on the parallel earth with a non-functioning Roman Ring. Even if she took it with her, she can’t use it there. We are safe from her,” Richard said firmly.
“Are we? Yorga said she wanted to kill me,” Sharon said. “Why didn’t she execute me when she had the chance?”
“You’re worried she still wants you dead,” Richard nodded in understanding. “But you need not worry about that anymore.”
“Why not?” Caelen asked.
“Jonas made her believe that if she killed you, she would change her own history, that she would cease to exist,” Richard snorted. “She’ll not endanger you, now.”
Sharon held her head in her hands.
“I owe Jonas my life and can’t do anything to save him.”
“Like I could do nothing to save Director Veta,” Richard said. Sharon reached out and squeezed his hand. The numbness within her began to recede a little.
“Maybe Natalie will just dump me into that fold space place instead,” she said with a small laugh. “It wasn’t all bad. I got to see my friends.”
“That only happened because we were in the time loop,” Richard warned.
“What happened?” Caelen asked.
“When we landed in the fold space, I was unconscious, but I wasn’t. It was like I was a ghost, seeing my friends at different points in time all at once. I watched Miranda, Agent MacGregor…”
“And me?” Caelen asked.
“Well, yes,” Sharon admitted, a hint of color flushing her cheeks.
“If you’ll excuse me, I’m meeting the Empress for croquet this afternoon and I must polish my mallet,” Richard said as he stood.
Sharon eyed him, unable to tell if he were drifting into hallucinations again or making a joke, and he smiled as he jauntily left the room. Then she sighed.
“I guess there’s no more Chestnut Covin for me to be the expert on,” Sharon said as the door closed. “What will I do now?”
“Anything you want,” Caelen answered.
“I’m not sure I want to time travel anymore,” she said almost in a whisper. “Too many things can go wrong. People can get hurt. People get duplicated—two Yorgas, two yous. Never knowing who to trust. I don’t know if I can do it anymore.”
“You can trust me. I promise you that. And it’s our job to make sure things don’t go wrong,” he said. “Besides,” he added. “A lot of things can go right, too.” He took her hand. “Are you ready to go on that dinner date we’d planned?”
“I may not be good company,” she said.
“That’s ok, I can do the talking,” he answered with a laugh. “But there is one thing I’d like to know.”
“What’s that?”
“I want to hear about what happened between us in that timeline that I can’t remember.”
Sharon’s face blushed pink, and she inhaled sharply. For a moment Caelen was afraid she would refuse. She gazed at him steadily, warmth coming back into her eyes. Perhaps it was time to trust her instincts again.
“All right, I’ll tell you.”
THE END
END NOTES
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Author Notes
At the end of “Borrowed Time - The Force Majeure” I left Sharon disappearing into the future against her will, and I knew things were only going to get worse for her from there. The story had to complete the loop that was started in the first book, “Biding Time – The Chestnut Covin” and it wasn’t going to be an easy journey for our intrepid heroine.
Little did I know, it wasn’t going to be easy for me, either. As I stood ready to run Sharon through the proverbial wringer, detailed plot prepared and ready to go, negligible medical annoyances turned into moderate inconveniences. After weeks of self-medicating with Advil and napping, I admitted to myself that I needed professional assistance. Some minor surgery later with a couple of weeks recovery time, and I was raring to go again. Sorry Sharon.
Sometimes we just have to admit we need help, and I couldn’t get Sharon out of the fire and into the frying pan without people like my eagle-eyed typo-finders Diane L. Barnes and Bill Hansen; or fellow author and critique partner Geoff Le Pard (geofflepard.com) who, when I asked him how I could thank him for his invaluable feedback, said “I dunno… bigger font?” So here it is, my friend: Bigger Font.
Love the cover? Me too, and all the kudos and thanks go to my amazing cover artist, Tony Lazio who, when I told him what I had in mind said: “Wow, this is dark.” Yep. Thanks for going with it!
Most importantly and eternally deep thanks go to my family, who continue to be unwavering in their enthusiasm and encouragement. Thank you especially to my spouse, who serves as my muse—I tell him where I’m stuck and within moments have a solution— and my offspring, who serves as my ongoing scientific advisor when faced with handwavium technical details.
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About the Author
The Temporal Protection Corps series is the debut series of novels by E. W. Barnes, an adult human with a family and a hyper dog, nicknamed “Princess” for all the reasons you can imagine. They live together in relative harmony in the Range of Light.
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