Seren opened his eyes for the first time in the Mountain's medical facility since his ordeal with the prisoners. His induced coma and treatment had ended but his head still ached. He saw his aide waiting patiently at his bedside.
"Report," Seren commanded with a wince while attempting to sit upright. "How long have I been out?"
"Three days. Monitors indicate the temporal anomaly in your office during the attack remains dissipated."
"And the prisoners?"
"Absent. A methodical search of the complex and surrounding area has had no results."
"Initiate the complete erasure of any traces in the record of transfer tech and lock down all temporal devices," Seren ordered. "Full mind control is authorized as necessary even in the high echelons."
He pondered the recent inept attack. The Time Corps had been a thorn in his side for centuries. He was confident the Prophesy's data he brought with him from the Navis held the answer to purging the sector of the bastards forever. He would have to start literally at the beginning and had already developed most of a simple plan.
"Understood, general," the aide replied smartly.
"General?"
"You promotion was authorized after saving this fractime from the upline invasion."
Seren laughed so hard he had to lie back down to alleviate the throbbing pain in his head.
Ces placed Luca's vintage vessel, an original Macintosh, atop the bar.
"Greetings Micah," Luca said after her processor instantly booted.
"Hello Luca," Flint replied. "Long time, relatively that is."
A smiley face appeared on the Mac's display.
"I have run a simulation," Luca said, "based on a direct interface with Ces's memories of the event in question—"
"You can do that?" Sam interrupted.
"Don't worry Dad, it only tickled a little," Ces reassured him. "I have the spatial coordinates and temporal delta for Mom in space."
Prophet looked at Flint. "I have discovered a small discrepancy between the coordinates in Ces's memories and those of the Confederation surveillance satellite," he said.
"Which is correct?" John asked.
"Ces's obviously," Prophet stated with conviction.
Tye's comments about no duration regarding transits came to John's mind. "Why not go back and get the watch while still in Sam and Sara's possession or even before that?"
Flint stiffened. "Knowledge of the Greenstone-Burnstein's possession of the watch by the TC or enemy has been secret. It must be kept that way for the sake of even bigger issues within the timeline."
John wondered what could be bigger.
"Discovery from earlier interference would be highly improbable, but not impossible," Prophet added.
"I should retrieve the watch the instant Mom makes the translation into space," Ces said. "And just before I rescued her," she added.
Luca subtly cleared her electronic throat resulting in a not-so-subtle moan from Flint. "The mission is possible although a bit complicated.
The time difference, or delta," she explained, "back to 1984 will produce
significantly more inherent error than her relatively quick translation to rescue Sara."
"Quantum issues with a human brain," Prophet added.
"An accurate double jump in space is not the easiest thing to get perfect," Ces added to worried looks from her parents. "I always give myself a hefty spatial cushion," she added.
"The translation to retrieve the watch must be accurate and is possible if done in two stages," Prophet said. "The first must be close enough to negate the external influence from Earth's gravity well and Ces's inherent temporal error."
"I can then calculate the second translation's coordinates but it would take up to three minutes using this Mac's 68000," Luca said.
"You'll never survive in a vacuum for that long," Sara said to Ces, tears re-welling in her eyes.
"Can someone else use Flint's TR?" Sam asked.
Flint shook his head. "It would be possible for someone other than me to use it for the return translation, but I do not see how that helps."
"Then I'll go, too," John said. "I'm sure this is somehow my fault.
Flint's TR will be a backup."
John saw Sara start to say something but then looked away. The others were silent.
"Surviving up to three minutes in vacuum is still a problem," Jen said.
"Then it looks like we need to steal a spaceship, too," John quipped.
"Will a sauna do?" Sam asked with a nod to the sauna across the pool. "It's an old Navy decompression chamber."
"Is it still functional?" Jen asked looking at the New Years Eve party's paper lanterns still draped over it.
"Should last five minutes in vacuum," Ces said. "It was decommissioned still working. The Navy is now using a worse, newer version at ten times the price."
"I don't know," Sara said cautiously. "I hate that thing."
"It's still in good shape," Sam said tersely. "The next-best thing to a sweat lodge and I just had inside seats recovered."
"I have been practicing translating with additional mass," Ces said studying her parent's sauna.
"Risky," Prophet said solemnly.
"I can provide instructions for a thorough testing procedure," Luca said.
"The ice house down at the docks should have a compressor big enough for it," Sara added.
"Assuming it passes," John said looking at Jen, "Ces and I will make translation as soon as possible."
"I'll get the chamber checked out this afternoon," Sam said, "but I need some help from the gang to get it down to the docks."
Ces grasped John's hand and squeezed it hard.
It was almost midnight before Sam and a handful of regulars from the Breeze returned with the sauna and a compressor. They positioned both next to the barbeque.
"Needs a new portal seal, but it held pressure for almost thirty minutes," Sam announced.
"This is crazy," Sara said from behind the bar, pouring a shot of Sam's Angostura and then downing it.
"The device exceeds minimal safety requirements for the short-duration flight," Luca said trying to reassure her.
"At most, five minutes is all we need," Ces told her mother.
Jen tied a plastic shopping bag with a water bottle and two nutty bars inside the chamber on a handhold. "Just in case you get thirsty or hungry," she said.
John smiled at Jen's simple gesture.
Sam showed them the inside pressure gauges and how the hatch mechanism worked from the inside assuming normalized pressure both inside and out.
Jen raised concerns about the possible sighting of the small chamber from other space-based surveillance platforms. Everyone just hoped it looked enough like space junk to avoid too much attention.
John noticed that Prophet was unusually silent on that topic.
"I guess it's time," Ces said pulling on a brightly colored, wooly hat and then hugging her folks.
"Remember, if things go wrong, you must activate the TR and think about this moment," Flint reminded them as he handed John the TR. He already covered the simple operation of his TR with both Ces and John several times during the day.
Jen kissed John passionately and then whispered in his ear, "Just so you don't forget the now."
Ces and John climbed into the chamber, both in numerous tee shirts and as many other clothes as practically possible. Ces positioned Luca in the cramped chamber and secured her with velcro straps on one of the two interior benches.
And as they took seats on the loud, vinyl jungle-print benches, Sam dogged the hatch from the outside then the compressor rattled, making their ears pop as the pressure increased.
"Internal pressure established. Ready," Luca reported.
"Just a sec," Ces said and gave everyone outside a thumb up through the portal.
John did likewise just before Ces translated the makeshift capsule into space.
John felt weightlessness, disorientation and growing nausea after the translation.
"Perfect Ces," Luca announced, "stage one complete."
A water bottle nudged John in the temple. He stowed it in the bag floating from the handhold as they both watched a three-minute countdown on Luca's screen and she preformed the necessary error correction for the next translation. When the timer ran out, coordinates appeared.
"Be back in a sec," Ces said as she disappeared only to reappear almost instantly on the other side of him with the Traveler's watch.
"Got it!" she said showing John the watch.
The watch was uncomplicated in its appearance with only a simple red swirl design inscribed into its silver lid.
She flipped the watches cover open to reveal four controls.
John assumed three were the temporal and spatial settings as well as an activator. The fourth was plainly marked 'Follow'.
He leaned forward to get a better look at a swirl pattern just as the portal filled the chamber with a brilliant flash of light followed by a strange, subtle vibration that blurred his vision. John's head banged hard against a handhold as his vision cleared enough to make out 'Mobius' and an Optimum eagle inscribed on the hull of a ship passing in front of the portal then the chamber began spinning fast enough to hold him tight against its curved hull.
"We are under attack," Luca reported calmly, centrifugal force also holding the Mac against the chamber. "Ces is currently unable to affect a return transit within allowable specifications. John, assume full control of Flint's TR."
He saw Ces pinned beneath one of the sauna's benches, not moving.
Just as he reached for the necessary control on the TR in his pocket,
another flash and the same weird vibration as before enveloped them. The pressure on his chest eased as the chamber's spin slowed. This attack appeared to counteract the first's imparted rotation on their makeshift spacecraft. He heard a subtle hiss of escaping air.
"This is not good," he yelled as the pressure gauge's needle was noticeably moving downward and his ears ached.
Quiet surrounded them as Luca floated nearby held loosely by a single strap.
"When are we?" Ces asked groggily, floating into the center of the chamber with her curly hair suspended in all directions. Her wooly hat floated nearby. She grabbed a floating nutty bar, tore it open and pressed it into the small crack that had formed around the portal; the gauge's needle subtly slowed its decline.
"Unknown," Luca replied. "But I believe we have been displaced temporally," she added.
"I can't jump without knowing approximately when we are," Ces said emphatically.
"That was an Optimum ship that attacked us," John said.
"They must have been using a temporal disruptor," Luca said as the chamber groaned and creaked horribly. "Probably thought we were the TC."
"We don't have much time," Ces said with a shiver watching ice crystals forming on the pressure gauge.
"Flint's TR's can still affect the translation as I can provide it the necessary space-time coordinates," Luca announced. "But the reference temporal frame is now uncertain. To assume it's still the same as before could be catastrophic, but some variation is acceptable. I'm afraid we have no other choice."
"How much variation?" Ces managed to ask shivering severely.
"Plus or minus two, maybe three million years," Luca replied.
"Seems like a good margin of error to me," John said as he stared out the portal. "Wait," he said taking his finger of the TR's activator. "It's not 1984 or 3 million years ago. Look at the continents." He pointed out the portal at the Earth's only vaguely familiar landmasses.
"Fascinating we are roughly in the same orbital altitude. It definitely must have been a temporal disruptor," Luca said. "Unfortunately, without a temporal reference, we're adrift in space-time."
Ces tapped the gauge's glass. "The pressure is still falling," she managed to say through clenched teeth.
Luca was silent.
The cold quickly got worse than John had ever experienced. "You said drift." He stuttered through his chattering teeth. "The plates." He pointed to the Earth out of the portal. "South America is just starting to drift away from Africa, and I see an early Gulf of Mexico. Pangea is breaking apart!"
He tried to concentrate against the cold. He strained to remember basic plate-tectonic history. "There were two stages to the Pangea break up. The first started about 300 million years ago," he said rubbing his arms. "No, that was when it formed, dumbass," he cursed. "The Tethys Ocean formed first in the Permian or Jurassic," he mumbled through chattering teeth. "Then...then the South Atlantic formed," he stuttered, "at the…at the beginning of the Cretaceous, about one hundred…one hundred forty-five million years ago."
The Mac's speaker rattled at full volume, "Translate. Now!"
John looked at Ces curled in fetal position; she appeared unconscious, trembling in a slow pirouette in the middle of the chamber.
He recalled the warmth of Jen's kiss as he depressed the TR's activator.
John fell to the top of the chamber with a thud. Ces was on top of him then hot air suddenly hit his cheeks as the hatch opened and his friends pulled them into the warmth of the Florida sun next to the Breeze's pool.
"I'm okay," he heard Ces stammer through hugs from her parents.
Jen was cradling him against his shivering, rubbing his arms.
"Burr. That was cold," he managed to say. "How's Luca," he asked looking at the dented Mac's cracked display next to the Traveler's watch.
"Thank you John. I am operational," she replied still in the chamber.
Flint stood over them. "You were supposed to arrive back within milliseconds. It's been over ten hours," he said with concern.
"A slight miscalculation in the temporal delta," Luca replied. "But thankfully, the spatial delta calculation attained the necessary accuracy."
John looked up at Flint silhouetted against the morning sky. He shook his head in déjà vu, remembering Tye almost in the same pose just days ago. "An Optimum ship had other plans," John said teeth still chattering.
"The Optimum!" Prophet exclaimed. "Their presence in Prime is dire. We must leave as soon as possible."
"Luca and I will make the necessary adjustments to the device,"
Flint said retrieving both machines from the chamber. He looked at John and Prophet. "We'll leave for the Lár within the hour."
John sensed Jen stiffen. "Don't worry," he said then instantly regretted it.
"Don't worry," she repeated him. "I'm coming. We are not getting separated again."
"Essential personnel only on this mission, general," Flint said calmly just before Barney let loose a loud squawk.
"Hen Cuming!" the parrot screeched as something hit the pool with enough force to splash them all.
John recognized the baldhead as soon as it surfaced.
"Fuck," Jennifer said spitting out water.
Flint gave her a hand out of the pool and Sara quickly handed her a towel from a nearby pool float.
Jennifer covered her eyes against the sun to scan the pool. "Shit.
That was close," she said.
Jen rushed to embrace her and as they parted she said, "You're so young, I hate that."
Jennifer laughed. "It's not all that's it cracked up to be."
"So why didn't you remember me when you're older?" Jen asked holding Jennifer's face tenderly and looking into her eyes.
"Regulations," Jennifer replied.
"I thought you were at Trua Outpost," Flint said interrupting them.
"As soon as I escaped Dr. Fanau's clutches and got back to the Pruchlais, all the temporal monitors were going crazy," she replied. "I'm afraid I panicked a little. Micah, I saw the woman again, just for an instant, but this time I'm sure she looked liked one of the statues."
Flint gave her a concerned look.
"It was Zuinall," she blurted, "and then I received a com from Mick with orders to bug out."
John noted several scars and bruises not as well healed as his. He was not sure how long their ordeal with Seren had actually lasted. "You okay?" he asked her as he peeled off several tee shirts.
She hugged him but did not answer. "I'm glad you're okay," she said as Prophet joined them.
"This is Prophet," John said. "The 8th Prophet of Possibility of the Calma."
"An honor to meet another soldier," the Calma told her.
"Same here," she said, unfazed by the alien.
"I'm Jennifer," she said turning to Sam and Sara. Sara gave her a hug and Sam kissed her cheek.
"How many Scotts are there?" Sam asked.
"Ces, good to see you again," Jennifer said after a wink to Sam and as Ces removed her last coat. "Why were you both so over dressed?"
Jennifer asked John and Ces.
"Jennifer," Luca said, "please let Jen or John to explain. Flint and I have much work to do and little time."
"Luca, is that you?" Jennifer asked.
Flint gave Jennifer a concerned glance over his shoulder as he carried Luca and the watch to the nearest poolside table to start preparation for the journey to the Lár. The prophet followed him.
"I'll explain," Jen told her fractime twin.
"Coffees all around!" Wigwag announced and then headed for the Machine before anyone could respond.
"That's Wigwag, an O'jit," John told Jennifer.
"That coffee smells great," she replied as Sara handed her a wrap to replace the damp towel. "What is that?" she asked looking at the upside-down former space capsule.
"Like I said, I can explain," Jen said. "Let's let Flint, Prophet and Luca do their thing," she added ushering Jennifer and John to another nearby table to which Sara was already adding extra chairs.
Wigwag brought coffees for all. Jen told Jennifer of John's genetics and the inferred links to Seren, the Navis, and the library ship found near the center of the galaxy.
"The legend?" Jennifer asked. "I should have guessed."
John just shook his head and stared into his coffee as Jen just shrugged her shoulders.
"Doc Fanau said you have a language add," Jennifer said to Jen. "Do you understand written Ogham?"
"Yes. I think so."
"Wigwag, a writing instrument, please," Jennifer requested.
He returned a moment later with a Sharpie.
On the glass tabletop, Jennifer drew close to a dozen lines. All the vertical lines were at slightly different angles. She then sketched a horizontal line near the bottoms of the most of vertical lines, but intersecting several of the longer ones.
"I think this is close," Jennifer said.
Jen studied the cryptic symbols for a moment. "They could say
'Knowledge'," she said cautiously.
"Could?" Jennifer asked.
Jen paused and took a deep breath. "There is another possibility."
"And?" John asked finally looking up from his coffee.
Jen looked at him then Jennifer. "Library."
"Highly improbable!" Prophet shouted to them from the nearby table, not looking up from his work on the Traveler's watch.
"Wow," Ces said slowly. Her parents were silent.
"I must go with you to the Lár," Jennifer said looking at John.
"Fuck," Jen mumbled.
John looked over to Prophet and Flint, both whom had obviously been listening. Flint looked over his shoulder at John and nodded his approval.
"We'll be ready momentarily," Flint told the group.
John thought he saw Prophet disappear for an instant only to reappear again next to Flint.
"At least she'll look after you," Jen said pulling John's face around to look into his eyes.
"I'll see if Luca needs any help with her damaged screen and all,"
Ces said going to join the effort to modify the watch.
"We had better get the sauna refitted for the return of the watch,"
Sam said. "Definitely going to need another portal seal," he added with a worried look to Sara, and then they both left to inspect the chamber.
"I have something for you, Sis," Jen told Jennifer. "Be right back,"
she said and left in the direction of Trudy's cottage.
John looked at the scar remaining on Jennifer's head that Seren had cut. She was so young to have gone through all this.
"I hope we find the answers you're looking for at the Lár," Jennifer told him.
"Thanks," he muttered not knowing what to say and just finished the last of his coffee as Jen returned.
"I want you to have this." She handed Jennifer a sheath with an exposed ornate hilt. "It's Narian. John said you also have the taste for a good blade. Not that that's surprising."
Jennifer partially withdrew the knife just enough to expose the dull glow of the blue blade then pushed it back in the sheath with obvious satisfaction. "I've heard of entropy weapons," she said in awe.
Prophet called to them, "It's almost time."