Battle for Time Read online

  “The lock is becoming more accurate the closer we get, Carn,” Anton replied.

  “As expected, Anton… When everything has stabilized, our Matrix will find you. And, we’ll need to know what you’ve adjusted,” Carn said, then turned his attention to Frank.

  “We also need to know how your brain has changed, Frank.”

  “If we meet again, Carn, then we’ll have succeeded,” Frank simply replied, not wanting to comment on the irritation still going on in his brain.

  “Of course, Frank. Just make sure Ronin makes itself scarce.”

  “Ronin’s happy with that.”

  “Then, good luck to you all… When we exit just before the event, we will be jumping straight to the Clan’s Temporal buffer. Nevertheless, when things have stabilized, we’ll be able to locate the Timeship regardless of where you are in Time.”

  “Good luck to you and the rest of the Clan,” Charlotte said while feeling disappointed that the Clan’s technology wouldn’t be continuing Downtime with them.

  With that, Carn’s holo image flickered then vanished.

  Frank rechecked the time and noted that there were just twelve minutes left.

  Time to get Ronin within transfer range, he thought to himself.

  Ronin. Prepare for transfer in one minute.

  Frank sensed Ronin’s acknowledgment and noted that the transmit-assembler unit had become active.

  Then, turning to face the others, Frank said, “If I don’t make it back in time, pardon the pun, continue on without me.”

  Susanna hugged him and kissed him tenderly on the lips. “You’ll make it, Frank… You always do.”

  “I hope you’re right, Sues.”

  Then, Frank kissed Charlotte and Cindy and shook hands with Gerry and Anton.

  “Good luck,” Frank said as he stepped onto the Transit disc.

  Then the scanner head moved swiftly down his body. Two seconds later, the data burst from the scanner reached Ronin’s assembler, and Frank vanished.

  Within minutes, Frank would know what it was like to be in the grasp of the Devil’s hand.

  Once Frank was gone, everyone silently waited for the Time ship’s exit into 2725. With all of them knowing that getting safely into the Time-shaft was going to be the most dangerous few minutes of the mission. Especially if Frank was right, and several Varon ships were waiting for them to become visible, at a time when they would be at their most vulnerable.

  Chapter 19

  Death Dive

  Event location. 2725.

  T- 8 minutes.

  Varon picket ship, Tavart.

  Captain Chatwoo studied the latest data coming through the Temporal link from 2300. It wasn’t one hundred percent accurate, but the temporal anchor-buoy in 2300 had clearly registered four Earth ships commencing their travel Uptime.

  He noted that the temporal anchor had indicated that one of the ships had to be the Time-ship, that they had been ordered to delay long enough for Seer Tatom’s group of destroyers to reach the ships.

  “Seer Tatom’s group are on a twenty-second standby,” Chatwoo’s comms officer informed.

  “H’m should be ten seconds,” Chatwoo muttered to himself.

  “Seer Tatom has plenty of time to intercept the ships, Captain,” Chatwoo’s science officer then stated. “These alien ships will be at our mercy for nearly four ship’s minutes.”

  “Still too tight,” Captain Chatwoo groaned.

  Although Chatwoo’s ship, the Tavart, was smaller than any of the others in Seer Tatom’s group, it still packed a punch. And, in normal circumstances, would have seen off many larger vessels, including the powerful Delta security ships that reluctantly tolerated its presence.

  “Ah… Our temporal anchor buoy has picked up four signatures… We’re ON,” the science officer jubilantly announced.

  “Four minutes to exit.”

  Captain Chatwoo glanced at his secondary tactical display and smiled on seeing their large gray-colored box-shaped Temporal Station further out. The station’s circular aerial array formed an anchor buoy that linked Downtime, to 2300.

  “Raise shields,” Captain Chatwoo ordered, and immediately sent a situation update to Seer Tatom’s group.

  The update ended with… Four Earth ships exiting. Come now.

  Frank stood in front of a large tactical sphere that Ronin had generated for him. And although there was nothing to see as yet, he nevertheless could feel, or sense, that the power of the Temporal event they were fast approaching, was continually increasing.

  “Three minutes-twenty seconds to shaft entry failure,” Ronin stated out loud, having remembered not to interrupt Frank mentally. Then Frank mentally brought up a count-down clock that sat on the edge of his vision.

  From Ronin’s newly established link with Anton, Frank knew that, with Anton using the continuously updating event information as they closed in on the Temporal event, it had become more evident to Anton that the event itself was a no-no.

  Therefore, slight changes to the sequence for entering the Time-shaft would have to be agreed upon and made.

  Once they reached the event, Frank hoped that Anton would take less than 30 seconds to move into position close to the Time-shaft.

  But nobody knew for sure how difficult or time-consuming it would be for the ‘primary Matrix’ to generate a large portal in the time-shaft, to gain access.

  If Carn were right, then there would be a maximum of four minutes when they could physically enter the shaft and move further Downtime, before the ‘Temporal event’ wiped them out again.

  It was those four minutes that concerned Frank.

  Frank noted that the countdown clock was now reading two minutes, twenty seconds and that he was starting to sweat in expectation of being fried alive if the Varons succeeded.

  Then Frank started to feel uneasy as he realized that the irritation caused by his brain-cells recent activity, had lessened.

  Worst still, Frank felt as if he was beginning to see double. Well, one eye was misty and seemed to be viewing a different place than he was looking at.

  Or could it be that the misty eye was seeing a minute or so into the future? Yes, that must be it. He was sure now that it was just like Seer Tarker must have been able to do, and Frank sighed with relief.

  Then, Frank noted that the countdown clock now read one minute-thirty, as it continued its relentless downward counting to zero.

  Frank continued to try to separate the two views he could see in his eyes, but it took up valuable time. Then he found that he was gradually able to identify the images he saw in the misty eye.

  And, as they became a bit clearer, he saw Ronin exiting close to a Varon ship, and a ball of fire, while another large and almost transparent object, further away, seemed to be heavily fortified. H’m that must be extremely important to the Varons, Frank decided.

  “Ronin,” he almost yelled. “Priority One... One Varon ship. Left, two kilometers, grid seven…. Second target, sub-space linked, six kilometers, grid two…. Destroy at all cost.”

  Frank immediately felt Ronin setting the ship’s weapons predictive targeting to his instructions. And even though Frank was expecting Ronin to make a comment on the validity of his attack on an unseen foe, none came.

  Frank suddenly realized that the countdown clock was down to single digits, and he mentally started counting down the last few seconds.

  “We are time locking,” Ronin warned as their group of four ships moved slowly towards a fixed point in time, and the following info came up in Frank’s holo sphere.

  Event location. 2725.

  Current location. Four minutes below the initial Temporal event’s time quake.

  Then, all four Earth ships were suddenly visible and vulnerable to the Varons.

  Immediately, Ronin’s weaponry locked onto both Varon targets simultaneously. Then fired.

  Chapter 20

  Into my arms

  Captain Chatwoo’s ship, Tavart, shuddered as it tried to abso
rb and reflect Ronin’s weapons fire.

  “Shields collapsing,” Captain Chatwoo’s science officer yelled.

  Chatwoo’s eyes were locked onto his tactical screen, and watching the 2300 Temporal link station, vaporize. His heart sank as the second volley from Ronin overloaded the Tavart’s protection shield, then its field emitters, that were spread out across the hull, started popping like candy.

  The shield collapsed next, causing a ball of fire that swept through the ship, ripping her apart in a series of violent explosions. Small sections burst outward like a shower of meteorites, leaving trails of fire feeding on the released atmosphere.

  Then the remnants of the now dark and lifeless Tavart drifted slowly away from Ronin.

  Anton cursed for the first time as the primary matrix struggled to match the existing Time-shaft’s frequency.

  “Come on, come on,” he impatiently growled at the green colored and pulsating primary matrix unit.

  “Carn’s jumped clear,” Charlotte stated, having seen the two Clan ships that had been showing on Anton’s secondary display, jump.

  Gerry, who was sitting next to Anton, couldn’t help getting impatient. “Anton, time’s running out,” he yelled out.

  “I’m bloody aware of that,” Anton snapped.

  Then Gerry, acknowledging it wasn’t Anton’s fault, muttered. “Sorry,” in a sort of apologetic way.

  Gerry felt there was nothing he could do to help Anton even though more than a minute had passed, and the Time-ship was still struggling to create a portal.

  “I wish we could see the Shaft’s boundary,” Cindy, said knowing full well that there was no actual physical element to the Time-Shaft.

  As the shaft entry failure count-down clock above Anton passed the two minutes thirty-second point, a contact warning sounded.

  Anton quickly muted the alarm and continued making micro-adjustments to the matrix calibration input, while grumbling to himself about the din.

  Susanna pointed to several white patches forming on the secondary display, with their associated range indicated beside each patch.

  Gerry adjusted the sensor grid’s magnification, and they finally identified the white patches as Varon ships, as they exited their wormholes and came into view.

  “Damn… The ships will be on us in… eighteen seconds,” Anton exclaimed.

  “Gerry… Where’s Ronin?” Anton asked.

  “I don’t know… The ship’s not showing up on the grid.”

  Susanna tried to contact Frank, mentally, to no avail. Then she decided she didn’t like the scenario that popped into her head.

  Seer Tatom’s group of five Varon ships came to a halt sixty kilometers out from the Time ship and immediately swept the area for any contacts.

  Tatom studied the sensor grid’s sweep of the area.

  “Why only one ship, Voss,” Tatom queried.

  Voss, Tatom’s science officer, double-checked the sweep results.

  “There is nothing else, Sire… Our picket ship and the temporal-link station have been destroyed. There’s only one ship holding station…But, it’s not doing anything as far as I can tell. Nevertheless, my sensors confirm it’s the Earth ship that we’ve been instructed to destroy.”

  “Where are the other three Earth ships, Voss? Could it be a trap, to keep us here long enough for Delta’s security ships to investigate us?”

  “I don’t know. But if so, then we should destroy that ship now and leave, Sire.”

  “Agreed… Weapons, all ships, melt that ship. Fire,” Seer Tatom ordered.

  Voss was taken by surprise at Seer Tatom’s order to fire without moving closer to engage the enemy. But it was too late to object.

  It wasn’t the fact that the beam would take only 0.0003 of a second to reach its target, that Voss objected to, it was the 40 percent beam dispersion over such a long distance that concerned him.

  All five Varon vessel’s particle beam weapons, responded immediately and their four short, thick rods started to glow and crackle, culminating in five Particle beams simultaneously speeding towards the Timeship.

  The shaft entry limit count-down clock above Anton now read, fifty seconds to zero.

  Gerry was still watching the magnified image of the five Varon ships sixty kilometers away when he saw their familiar weapons pre-fire buildup.

  “Anton, particle beams inbound. Now,” Gerry yelled.

  “Twenty seconds,” Anton said as the matrix found the right sequence, and a portal started to open in the time-shaft.

  A flash six kilometers out, blinded the Timeship’s sensors for a moment as the Varon’s Particle beam assault hit the stealthed Ronin’s protective shield.

  But the sensor grid quickly came back online, and Gerry saw a silhouette of Ronin, with energy swirling around its protective screen.

  Then Ronin vanished and reappeared close to the Time-ship.

  “Six seconds,” Anton called out, feeling relieved that they were about to enter the time-shaft.

  A beep came from the far end of Ronin’s assembler unit, as it received a data burst. Susanna watched the scanner head swiftly move up from the transit disc, to the top of the unit. Then a misty blue glow filled the gap between the top of the unit and the Transit disc.

  Susanna continued watching as the blue mist morphed into a human form. The mist hung for a moment then vanished, leaving a somewhat dazed Frank, standing on the transit disc.

  Frank shakily stepped off the Transit disc, straight into Susanna’s welcoming arms.

  Just then. Anton exclaimed, “We’re in the shaft and moving downtime,” then slumped back in his seat. And everyone sighed a sigh of relief.

  “That was brilliant, Frank,” Gerry congratulated. How did you know where to position Ronin?”

  Frank had unglued himself from Susanna’s embrace by now and turned to Gerry.

  “Seer Tarker’s brain could probably see around six-ship minutes into his future. While my brain cells have only managed to look one minute into my future. But it was long enough to see the path of the Varon’s weapons fire. then position Ronin to block the beams.”

  “Yea, that’s a real battle changer,” Anton commented.

  “What about Ronin, Frank?” Charlotte asked.

  “The ship’s jumped far away… But, if it’s still in this Time-period, then it’ll be within reach when we come back to this time.”

  “What you actually mean, Frank is that Ronin will be within reach if our timeline corrections don’t rub him out,” Cindy added.

  “No. Ronin has a cloned disc of mine. So, we should all be buffered from any changes we make, as long as we keep the Varon discs with us,” Frank asserted.

  “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m exhausted and hungry, can we have a break, and eat now,” Susanna asked, feeling the stress of the past couple of hours set in.

  “Good idea. We’ve got sixteen free ship-hours before we reach 2324 and try to find the Searcher,” Cindy agreed.

  With that, they all went off to get some food.

  Chapter 21

  The Searcher, and a Dumbbell.

  Stardate 2324.

  Sixteen hours later, and with everyone showered, dressed, and fed, the Timeship finally arrived Downtime at 2324.

  After Anton set the time-shaft exit location as ‘Earth Temporal Gateway 2324,’ the Timeship solidified, out of sight of the still ‘pre-temporal event’s’ military presence.

  Then, because of the risk of the ship being spotted, Anton set the Timeship to automatically phase if another vessel came too close.

  Once done, the secondary matrix, which was already programmed by Anton and Gerry with the basic knowledge that had already been gathered, started an in-depth search for any clues about the Searcher’s remit, and for its communication channels with Earth’s Intelligence Center.

  Nearly an hour passed before the secondary Matrix managed to locate the Searcher’s handling station inside Earth’s intelligence center and bypassed its security system
.

  On seeing the mass of data, the Matrix had collected as it started scrolling down the main screen, Gerry couldn’t help excitedly calling out from the pilot’s section, where he and Anton were seated.

  “We have all the data we need to find Searcher.”

  “Yes, and it seems we weren’t far out… The search matrix has retrieved Searcher’s mission plan and the precise date and time of departure, plus the distances between each jump,” Anton added, after a closer examination of the data.

  “I thought you could generate a Time-spur to get us there quicker,” Frank queried.

  “I tried, Frank. But there’s something stopping us,” Anton answered.

  “Okay, but we can follow the Searcher’s thread, anyway,” Charlotte stated.

  “Agreed, I vote we get going,” Cindy added.

  “Same here. So, what are we waiting for?” Frank asked, voicing what everyone was thinking.

  “Not so fast, Frank. We know that Searcher’s main warp-drive comprised of three Solveron drives working in unison, which meant that she could jump three hundred light-years at a time,” Gerry pointed out.

  “Yes. And, we’ve got Searcher’s mission plan, and the distances between each jump, to prove it,” Susanna said, interrupting him.

  “True, but the Time ship only has two warp drives,” Anton reminded them.

  “Are you saying that we’ll take a lot longer than Searcher, then?” Frank asked.