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  Hendrix wasn’t sure, but he thought he saw Captain Jerard’s ship five, flicker as the Varon weapons fire engulfed both ships.

  “Not good,” Brennon muttered.

  “Don’t I know it,” Hendrix painfully agreed, while his feeling of apprehension increased as they quickly approached the second Varon facility, and he could see that all hell was about to greet them.

  “Incoming,” the weapon’s AI warned, as the ship’s shield flared and crackled.

  The Timeship exited its micro-jump, four-hundred meters from the large planet’s surface.

  “Perfect, Anton,” Gerry said, congratulating him.

  “Can anyone feel the temporal distortion’s source,” Frank asked as the new temporal lobe in his forebrain went berserk.

  No one else could, even though the closest part of the wreck that Frank had initially seen in his mind when the temporal disturbance started, was sitting just two thousand meters away.

  “Let’s suit up and get out there,” Frank urged as he stood up.

  “Frank. Wait until the security and environmental scans are in,” Anton ordered as everyone else joined him in the cockpit area.

  A few moments later, atmospheric readouts appeared on Anton’s screen.

  “Low oxygen, but sufficient for survival if we take long and slow deep breaths,” he pointed out, then changed the view to look at the wreck that Frank had mentally seen.

  “Looks very old to me, Frank,” Susanna ventured.

  “What are we looking for, Frank?” Gerry asked.

  “Exactly what you see now,” he said, pointing at the wreck on the scans. It has to be an old Varon test ship,” Frank authoritatively stated. “And that red glowing object, in front of what must have been its jump ring, is what’s giving me a headache.”

  “There must be something still powering it, Frank. But I can’t see anything that could be dangerous to us,” Gerry advised as he studied the surrounding area on his secondary display.

  Cindy, looking over Gerry’s shoulder, pointed to something protruding out of the ground. It was small and relatively close to the wreck. “It looks like a skeleton’s head to me.”

  “You’re right, it does a bit. We’ll check it out as well,” Gerry assured her.

  “Can we suit-up and go now?” Frank almost pleaded.

  “Yes,” Anton agreed. “But just the five of you. I need to stay with the ship just in case anything unforeseen happens.”

  “Okay, Anton,” Frank impatiently said.

  Five minutes later, all five had put on their lightweight body armor, picked up their high-power beam weapons, and were waiting for Anton to open the airlock.

  “Alright, listen up. Use the two arrow-heads on your left sleeve to select Up and Down functions for the gravity lift,” Anton instructed them, as both the inner and outer air-lock doors opened, and they could see two gravity lift emitters, that had extended, a meter outward, directly above the outer door.

  “The gravity lift is working,” Anton informed them. “Just step out into the greenish mist. Touch the Down arrowhead, and you’ll slowly sink to the ground. To come back up, tap the Up arrow, and the anti-gravity function will lift you back up to the ship.”

  “Let’s go then,” Frank impatiently said as he stepped out into the green mist. Touched the Down arrow and sank slowly to the ground, almost four-hundred meters below. The other four followed him down.

  “We should check out the object that looks like a skeleton head, first. There it is, over there,” Charlotte said, pointing at it.

  “Hurry up then,” Frank muttered as they headed for the object.

  On reaching it, Frank pushed the skull-like object out of the sandy ground with his foot.

  “Varon,” he matter-of-factly stated.

  “I know you’re impatient to get to the wreck, Frank, but it’s important to check this properly,” Susanna chastised him.

  “OK…., this skeletal head is much larger than a human’s,” Susanna stated after examining it.

  “Yea and the size of its eye sockets and teeny mouth confirm it… Definitely, Varon,” Gerry added.

  “I told you so,” Frank pointed out, then turned and hurriedly headed for the wreck, the source of his mental discomfort. The others followed close behind him with weapons at the ready.

  All of a sudden, a bright star-like light in the sky caught their attention. The five stopped and watched the light grow in size, then it stabilized for a good ten seconds before slowly fading into nothing.

  “That looks like Hendrix’s work, hopefully,” Gerry said.

  Just then, they heard Anton’s voice over their comms system.

  “One of the Varon facilities has been destroyed, but I can’t tell if any of Hendrix ships survived,” Anton said, updating them.

  “Keep us informed, Anton. Especially if anything’s coming our way,” Frank returned.

  “Of course. So, can you see anything ahead, Frank?”

  “No, this continuous temporal distortion is worse the closer we get to the wreck, and it’s preventing me from seeing further into my future. But I’ll keep trying.”

  “Okay, but be as quick as you can,” Anton urged Frank, ending his update.

  It took another four minutes for them to reach the closest part of the Varon wreck, and a further minute of fast walking to get to the evil reddish looking Lens that was such a threat to Frank, and which perhaps held the final key to how Tamar had been able to survive the temporal event.

  Now, a solution to end Tamar’s goal of being the dominant race in 2300 was forming in Frank’s mind, but he knew it was going to be dangerous.

  Yes, he alone had been given the tools that would enable him to try to find a way to stop Tamar and save humanity.

  Chapter 29

  Carnage

  Hendrix knew his ship was in trouble, as the defensive fire from the Varon's second facility swirled around his protective screen, and the hull coolers struggled to keep the hull from melting.

  “Shield’s at forty-five percent, Captain,” science officer Brennon cautioned.

  “Field emitter starting to overload,” weapons officer Carter warned.

  Hendrix felt as if his ship was becoming unstable. Then, he saw droplets of molten metal flare, as one by one, they slowly dripped onto the floor of the bridge. Which, for the first time ever, made him think that his life might well end here.

  “Are we close enough,” Hendrix hurriedly yelled at Manta, his tactical AI.

  “Ten seconds, Captain.”

  “Geeze. This is going to be too damn close for comfort,” he muttered.

  Group Captain Hendrix mentally counted the seconds, then breathed a huge sigh of relief as the Solar missile left his ship.

  “Detonation in twelve seconds,” AI Manta informed. “I would really like to leave now, Captain.”

  “Jump, for AP1,” Hendrix tensely ordered, while admiring the AI’s human-like request.

  “Wormhole forming,” Brennon stated.

  Fearing the worst, Hendrix wondered if they had left it too late to survive Entry as his surroundings started to elongate.

  The temporal distortion around the Varon wreck was playing havoc with the new temporal lobe in Frank’s forebrain. So much so that he kept having to fight the urge to be sick.

  On reaching the section where the reddish colored lens, was protruding through the Varon wreck’s hull, Frank noted that the lens seemed to be fluctuating, between stable and phased states.

  But although Frank felt as if he was somehow linked to whatever the Lens was. Nevertheless, the lens itself felt wrong to him.

  Then Frank’s mind suddenly cleared, and he was able to think without hindrance. It was clear to him, now, that the Lens seemed to be waiting for someone or something else.

  Then he got it, the Lens wasn’t waiting for him, but a Varon Seer.

  Now, Frank was convinced that the Lens, and whoever was controlling it, had to be destroyed. Nevertheless, he felt that the source was capable of p
rotecting itself by using erratic Temporal swings to ensure its own survival.

  Frank opened his mind to the others to ensure that they understood the importance of destroying the Lens and was pleased to sense that they felt and supported his reasoning.

  “Set our HP weapons to maximum, and let’s destroy this damn thing,” Gerry urged, knowing that they had to, at the very least, physically try to destroy it.

  They all set their high-power weapons to maximum. Including Frank, who thought that it might be worth a try.

  All five HP beam weapons fired in unison at the Lens, but the Lens and its mount, just moved itself a minute Uptime, and the beams appeared to pass harmlessly through the hull.

  “Damn thing’s not going to let us destroy it this way,” Charlotte muttered despairingly.

  “Move back. I think I know what it wants,” Frank said, as he sensed a desire from the Lens to link with Frank’s new forebrain temporal lobe.

  Frank’s body jerked as the presence behind the Varon Lens touched his lobe, and his enhanced brain cells flocked to it. Not to make contact, but to destroy it.

  Then Frank entered the invading mind while warding off a mentally vicious attack. In return, receiving a flood of information about the Varons, and on how to nullify this particular part of the puzzle. Seconds passed before Frank finally neutralized the presence.

  Now Frank knew what the two reddish colored temporal lenses that had been protruding from the wall on Tamar’s ship had really been doing. And, that this gave him the final key for his risky plan to end Tamar’s goal of being the dominant race in 2300.

  Now everything he needed to do to try to thwart Tamar’s end goal was firmly in his mind.

  Frank’s head still hurt like hell from the vicious mental attack, and even though the temporal distortion had gone away, he collapsed on the ground, oblivious to the flash in the sky and to Anton’s voice bursting out over the comms.

  “Looks like Hendrix has destroyed the second Varon facility,” Anton excitedly informed them. But I still can’t pick up any of Hendrix ships,” he worriedly added.

  “As soon as Frank’s recovered, we’ll be on our way back,” Susanna assured Anton while feeling concerned that she couldn’t mentally link to Frank’s brain.

  Chapter 30

  Just Maybe

  Frank quickly regained consciousness and realized that his head was once again clear of any temporal disturbances.

  “Thank god you’re alright, Frank,” Susanna said, sounding relieved as she helped him up.

  “Thanks, er… all of you,” he muttered.

  “What now, Frank,” Gerry asked, deliberately keeping out of Frank’s mind.

  “We need to get back to our time-shaft exit location… and stop Charlotte from getting Andromeda to replicate the enhanced brain cells and injectors,” he said, looking directly at Charlotte.

  “Okay, I know. I’m the villain in all this,” she quietly agreed as they all started back to the Timeship.

  “Yes, you are,” Frank stated.

  “Especially as I’ve seen exactly what we must do to thwart Tamar. But we’ll go through it once we’re on our way back to Earth,” Frank finished.

  A few minutes later, they followed one another into the green mistiness of the gravity lift and quickly rose the four-hundred meters up to the Timeship’s open airlock.

  Once everyone was inside, Anton closed the lock and set the secondary matrix to stop and pick-up the drone they’d left to record Hendrix ships in action. Then, he set the time ship to move Downtime eleven days, the same number of days that they had come Uptime to see Hendrix arrive.

  Once the Timeship reached the point in time they had initially arrived at, then they would be able to jump to Earth’s Temporal Gateway 2324.

  No one spoke until the Timeship reached the Drone’s retrieval point. Where they could see the remains of the two Varon starship construction facilities. Together with several Varon starships that had been within the Solar missile’s blast range, and had been badly damaged by the massive detonations.

  “Hendrix ships did a good job,” Cindy stated as the ship’s optics swung slowly around to evaluate the carnage.

  “No sign of Hendrix ships, though. Let’s hope they got away safely,” Gerry added.

  Just then, Frank’s precognitive double-vision suddenly came back, and he saw several Varon ships crisscrossing space, only two minutes into his future.

  “We’d better get going, Anton,” Frank urged. “Varon ships will be swarming around us in two minutes.”

  “Seats,” Anton ordered as he initiated the Timeship’s eleven-day time reversion, then set the number of Jumps needed to return to Earth’s Gateway 2324.

  Group Captain Hendrix’s regroup assembly location, AP1.

  The fourth ship from Hendrix attack group joined the other three waiting just five light-years out from the location of their attack on the Varon installations.

  Group Captain Hendrix knew they had escaped by the skin of their teeth as he studied ship four’s latest recording of the damage inflicted on the Varons.

  “We’ve heard nothing from Captain Jerard’s ship, Captain,” science officer Brennon quietly reported, feeling sure that Jerard’s ship was gone.

  “That’s correct,” Marta confirmed. “If Jerard’s ship had been damaged in the attack, then she wouldn’t have survived the Solar missile detonation.”

  “I know… Ok, repair time for my ship?”

  “My droids inform me that they’ll need another eighteen minutes, Captain.”

  “Okay,” Hendrix acknowledged. Then he checked the repair status of the other ships for himself. Tim Seymore’s S3 repairs were virtually completed… Jack Harper’s S4 would be ready in eighteen minutes... While Elisha Parker’s S2 would take another twenty-two minutes.

  Hendrix pondered the situation. Then selected the all-ships comms link, and the faces of the other three Captains appeared on the link’s monitor.

  “It’s pretty sure that we’ve lost Captain Jerard’s ship. But we have satisfied the mission’s aim, with the complete destruction of the two Varon starship construction facilities and several of their starships, according to the last transmission from our two surveillance drones.

  Unfortunately, the drones are no longer transmitting,” Hendrix informed them, paused a moment, then continued.

  “I propose that one of our ships jumps back to the area, to see if we can locate Jerard’s ship. And while it’s there, take another recording of what’s left.”

  “We’ve suffered the least damage, Captain, So, it makes sense for us to do it,” Captain Tim Seymore offered.

  “Go now then, Tim… We’ll stay here for thirty minutes. After that, we’ll have to jump for Earth.”

  “I get it, Captain… Don’t worry, if we’re late we’ll follow on.”

  With that, ship S4 warped space and was gone.

  Eleven minutes later, and Hendrix was relieved to see S4 return.

  “What have we got, Tim?”

  “You’re right. Captain Jerard’s ship has been destroyed,” Tim sadly reported.”

  “I was afraid of that, Tim,” Hendrix acknowledged as an image of the carnage that had been inflicted on the Varons appeared on his main screen, and a damage assessment scrolled down one side.

  “So, even though today has been sad for us, we’ve put in a good day’s work,” Hendrix said, trying to sound upbeat.

  “Prepare to jump for Earth,” he then ordered.

  Twenty-six days later, after numerous hours spent going over the basics of Frank’s plan. And looking for some way to get to Garoden in 2313, by bypassing the time shaft route between Earth 2324 and 2313. While, in the end, failing to do this. The Timeship exited warp close to Earth’s designated Gateway in 2324, instead.

  “Not bad, Anton. Your tweaks knocked off three days' travel time,” Gerry remarked.

  “Maybe so, but It was still a long trip… Stay seated, everyone, we’re going straight Downtime,” Anton cautioned.<
br />
  Anton quickly reconfigured the search matrix to 2313. And set it to automatically search for the location of Andromeda’s unique ‘ping.’ Then, to find the exact point in Andromeda’s own timeline where she had just finished replicating four BEC Cryopreservation injectors for Charlotte.

  But, at a point in time when Charlotte hadn’t yet retrieved them. As it was vital to make sure Charlotte didn’t leave with the injector that she’d partially used to enhance Frank’s brain cells during her rescue mission on Garoden.

  However, to keep the balance between Charlotte and Frank’s children, even, it was essential to ensure that only four more doses could be replicated, which would provide two each for Frank’s daughters, Carina and Helen. His son Alex was older, so he had already had three.

  “We’re off,” Anton said, as their Timeship entered the time-shaft, and they commenced their journey Downtime to 2313.

  Chapter 31

  To Andromeda

  Twelve hours later, after everyone had eaten and rested, they successfully exited the Time shaft in 2313, and the time ship immediately auto designated the time shaft exit point, as Earth 2313. Then, the Timeship’s secondary matrix started to search for the location of Andromeda’s unique ping.

  “Stay seated. We’ll wait until we get Downtime to Andromeda, before worrying about moving Up or Downtime to locate the point in time when we need to act,” Anton ordered, as he quickly moved the Timeship out of sight behind the Earth’s moon.