The Technological Advancement Detachment. Obviously this was where all the
scientists were kept, along with their scientific studies. It was impossible
for a disc world to exist in nature, despite what flat-earthers would tell
you. There were ways to accomplish the same thing using extravagant
engineering, but since these people were capable of manipulating time and
space, it was even easier for them. To avoid any annoyingly inconsistent
gravitational problems, they just created gravity on their own using
dimensional generators. To prevent from killing their inhabitants while in
faster-than-light motion, they used inertial dampeners on a scale most
couldn’t fathom. Why did they go through all this trouble for an unnecessary
celestial shape? Simply because they could. When you live in a universe of
endless possibilities, and nothing new to discover, most of your choices had
little to do with achieving something important, and more about killing
time.
The team used the same method to sneak onto the TAD as they did to get back
to the SWD, letting the AOC hitch a ride over the course of their interim
year, and then pilot fishing itself once the two giant objects were close
enough to each other. Summit said that he knew there was at least one time
machine here, and he had a good idea of where it was, but he didn’t know
much about it. Traveling backwards in time was illegal. Of course the Fifth
Division didn’t want anyone to be able to go back to a time period that
could erase them from history. Since it was difficult to regulate every
single corner of the vast supercluster, and beyond, it was easier to build a
time machine for themselves, and only break the proverbial glass in the case
of an emergency. Their machine was housed in a special section of the TAD,
which was protected inside of a paradox containment field. It would
theoretically survive the collapse of any given timeline, and push itself
into the next. Even if nothing else survived, including the disc world
itself, it would still be around, and a team would go back to undo whatever
change the rogue travelers made. To no one’s surprise, the machine was very
heavily guarded.
“But we have a way around that,” Marie said. “Our temporal technology is
incompatible with theirs.”
“Yeah, why is that?” Angela remembered. “Don’t we all source from the same
parent reality? Aren’t we all in the same universe?”
“I think it has more to do with how they developed the technology over
time,” Leona figured. “Pribadium Delgado is said to have invented time tech
of her own. Even though she had already been exposed to our variant, she was
able to figure out some other way. I think after having been so isolated
from us for so long, this reality drifted from us.”
“The Parallel didn’t seem to do the same,” Mateo pointed out, “and they are
arguably just as advanced and isolated.”
“We never really saw that come into play,” Leona reminded him. “I don’t
know, but it kind of brings up a good point. We can’t rely on our supposed
advantage for everything. We can’t assume we’ll be able to just teleport
into the time machine, enter our destination into the keypad, and disappear
without a hitch. Mr. Ebora, any intel you can give us about it would be
quite welcome.”
Summit seemed surprised to be called upon. “I don’t even know what you guys
are talking about? Parent realities? Incompatible time travel? Like, what?”
Leona shut her eyes and exhaled. She was about to kick him out of the group
when she thought better of it. He would surely just run off to warn someone
of their presence, and then their mission would be lost. “Do you know what
to do when you don’t have a plan?”
The group looked around at each other, each shaking their heads upon seeing
the others shaking their heads.
“You go in without a plan,” Leona answered herself. “The more time we spend
trying to worry about everything that could go wrong, the less time we have
to just get it done. So here’s what we’re gonna do, we’re gonna teleport in
there, and wing it. If we find an obstacle, we’ll overcome it. Elite squad
of assassins, massive military contingency, a giant space monster guarding
the entrance. We could go on with the list, and come up with a solution to
each, or just go. Raise your hands, are we ready to go?”
Everyone raised their hand, except for Summit, but his vote didn’t matter
anyway.
Leona nodded. “Here are the coordinates. Let’s use the empathy link Ramses
built us with to sync, and head out.”
They synced and jumped. Before them was an actual field of energy that they
could feel. It buzzed into their skin, causing tiny ripples throughout their
bodies. The closer they approached, the stronger it became, but it didn’t
hurt. The doors were left wide open, or maybe didn’t exist at all.
A woman was sitting on the other side of it, chin resting in her hand. She
unenthusiastically looked over at them as they tested out the energy
barrier. “Welcome to the time travel section,” she recited apathetically.
“We are protected by a paradox containment field. Only those who are not
destined to disrupt the creation of the time machine on a quantum level are
free to enter. Whether you intend to harm the timeline according to the
doctrines set forth by the founders of the Fifth Division, or not, the field
will not let you pass unless you are fated to do no harm. Again, this is on
the quantum level, your macro decisions are irrelevant to the sanctity of
the timeline.” She blinked slowly a few times. “Good luck.”
“Okay.” Mateo unceremoniously crossed the threshold, finding no difficulty
in passing through the field.
The guard was shocked by this.
Olimpia followed, as did Angela, Ramses, Marie, and finally Leona. When
Summit tried, he found it impossible. The field just bounced him right back.
The harder he tried, the harder it resisted, and the more it hurt.
“Sorry, dude,” Mateo said, genuinely, but not too butthurt about it
personally.
“No!” Summit cried. “I’m not gonna disrupt the timeline. I’m gonna do
whatever you say! Why is it stopping me!”
“I don’t know,” Leona said. “But...how hard would it have been for you to
transfer to the TAD from where you were stationed?”
“Virtually impossible,” Summit answered.
“Great,” she said. “Now you’re here, so go find your glorious purpose.”
“It doesn’t have to be glorious,” Summit admitted.
“Even better. Thanks for leading us here. I’m sure you’ll be fine.”
Summit stared at them a moment. “Yeah, whatever.”
“I have never seen anyone make it through,” the guard said in awe. “I’ve
been working here for seventy years. Probably over a million have tried
since my shift began. It hasn’t happened once. You have to work here, and
vow to never use the machine except in an emergency. What business does a
small group of children have here?”
“The business of leaving,” Ramses explained. “We do not belong in your
world. Our quarks are different.”
“Are you...them? Are you the true Fifth Division? The founders?”
“God, no,” Angela said. “Are we free to use the machine?”
The guard pointed her hand down the hallway. “Evidently.”
Others who worked there watched them in wonderment as they walked towards
the machine. Nor had they ever seen anything like it. And like the guard,
they too were looking at them like they were gods. Of course Ramses and
Leona, and a little bit the others, knew that it was just because they were
part of a stable time loop. They were a part of the past, and it was time to
close the loop. They would leave the universe on the Transit, come back to
the main sequence, and never see this reality again. They weren’t special,
just on a track.
The technician was frightened, but determined to do his job. “Uhh,
umm...destination?” Olimpia handed him a small piece of e-paper. He looked
at it and nodded. “Of course, sir. Sirs. Your Honors...Highnesses. Uh...I
don’t know what to call you.”
“Call us...” Mateo began, trying to think of a good name for them. Team
Matic was always a weird placeholder that he didn’t care for. Even though
Leona was also a Matic now, it always felt very self-serving. There had to
be something better. Anyway, he wasn’t going to come up with it in the next
couple of seconds, so he just contrived a new placeholder. “The Fifth
Column.”
He nodded respectfully again, and motioned for them to enter the machine.
They did, and a minute later, they were back in the past, but not in the
machine. They were on a planet. No, the ground was curving up towards the
sky, so they were inside of a rotating habitat, which was unusual, because
they didn’t need centrifugal force to simulate gravity. It was unlikely that
a reality that always had time tech ever came up with the idea of
constructing rotating space habitats at all. Whatever, if this was where
they were meant to be—which Leona appeared to believe was the case after
consulting her watch—then this was where they would stay.
Olimpia looked at her notes. “That building there, that’s where he’ll be.”
“When?” Marie asked.
“In the next fifteen minutes, according to the logs.”
“We better go. We want to be ahead of him, not behind.”
They walked across the grass, and into the building, noting how eerie it was
that they didn’t see any sign of life. Though that was par for the course,
wasn’t it? These people engineered such large space objects that there was
too much room, and not enough people to fill it. It was ridiculous, really,
but if there was one thing they learned in this reality, it was that nobody
knew anything, or saw the big picture. Everyone just focused on their tiny
patch of paradise, and that was probably how it always would be, war or no
war.
They entered the building, and spread out to look around. Their empathy link
would keep them connected to each other, and their teleportation abilities
would allow them to jump into protective action should any one for them come
up against a problem. Unlike in the movies, they didn’t see any reason to
stick together in the physical sense.
“Holy shit, wait!” Angela spoke into her communicator. “We left the AOC
behind.”
“We were always going to have to do that,” Leona said sadly. “Sure, it would
fit in the Transit, but how would we get it into this building? No, the
historical records would have said something about it. We probably have a
matter of seconds to hop on before the building blows up, it was never gonna
happen. Sadly, you can’t just pack up a spaceship, and bring it with you
wherever you go.”
“You can’t?” Ramses asked.
“Ramses, what did you do?” Leona asked.
“Guys, I found something,” Marie interrupted. “Come here.”
They transported to her location. She was standing before a human-sized
metal machine. They couldn’t say for sure what it was, but there was a timer
on the front of it, and to everyone, it screamed bomb. “I guess we know how
it blows up,” Olimpia said.
“There’s nothing else here, though,” Ramses said. “Why does what’s-his-toes
come in here in the first place?”
“I came here to rescue you.” They turned around to find a man in the
doorway.
“Medavorken Alon?” Olimpia asked, excited and hopeful.
“I am,” he said. “What’s a bunch of children doing in here? This place is
about to explode.”
“Wait, you know?” Olimpia pressed.
“Why do you think there’s no one else here?” Medavorken questioned.
Just then, a horn blared, but it didn’t sound like the one they could
remember hearing during the few times the Transit showed up. “What was
that?”
“That was the siren,” Medavorken began, “reminding everyone that the
cylinder is about to explode, and they need to evacuate. It’s been going off
every ten minutes.”
“Oh, shit,” Mateo said.
“No,” Olimpia said sadly.
“Shit,” Mateo repeated, more earnestly this time.
No, this wasn’t right. It could not have all just been a mistake. There had
to be something here. Olimpia looked so embarrassed and ashamed. Seeing
this, Ramses took her into a hug. It was going to be all right. They would
find another way. Together.
“You should go,” Angela told the apparently unremarkable man.
“Not without you,” Medavorken promised. “Come on, we have just enough time
to clear the blast zone.”
“We’ll be fine,” Mateo assured him. “We can teleport.”
“The records,” Olimpia lamented. “They didn’t say anything about people
knowing there would be an explosion. They just said it exploded. There was a
horn, and it exploded!”
Ramses tightened his grip around her. “I know.”
Leona placed a hand on her shoulder. “Maybe it’s still coming. We can wait
until the last second, and then jump to the nearest vessel. These substrates
have that feature, right, Ramses?”
“Yes, they’ll default to the nearest safety zone if you jump blindly. You
can’t just kill yourself by jumping into outer space, or something.”
“Why is this here?” Olimpia complained.
“We’re in a war,” Medavorken explained. “It’s a vacuum bomb. We can’t
disable, and we can’t jettison it. All we could do was get everybody out.
You’re the last of the survivors.”
Mateo stepped forward and smiled at him, darting his eyes over one last time
to check the clock. Thirty seconds. “You’re a brave man, coming in here
alone. You deserve to be in the Transit Army.”
“O...kay?”
Mateo wrapped his arms around him. “Don’t hold your breath.” He programmed
his body to jump at the very last second, in case something magically showed
up to stop time and saved them, be it the Transit, or something else.
Something might have, because while he did begin to teleport, and it felt
like it had since they transferred themselves to their new bodies, there was
something different about it too. Some force was pulling them away from
where they were trying to go. It lasted a lot longer too. The point of
teleportation was to be instantaneous. Otherwise, a teleporter could just
walk. But they spent minutes in a blinding void of technicolors, unable to
move or speak. They could still feel each other’s emotions, so they knew
that they were all at least together.
Finally they landed, but their vision was a bit blurry. Before them were
three men struggling in front of what looked like an airlock. Two of them
were together, while the third was alone, opposite them. “Hello. I’m Captain
Leona Matic.”
“I know who you are, young one,” one of the men said. “It’s me, Lucius.”
“Ahh, perfect,” Mateo said. “A friend. It’s about time.”
No comments :
Post a Comment