Prophet laid in a translation that took the Monitor back to Trua Outpost just hours after their departure three days ago, convincing Captain Nysas the Warp drive already had a thorough shakedown. But John felt something was bothering the Calma as he watched Rodney examine Mac and Zuni's project in one of the outpost's laboratories.
"I don’t know," Rodney said while shaking his head as Luca and Prophet looked on. "The results are not what we were expecting."
"Are they still valid?" Mac asked on tiptoe, peering over the edge of the table holding the experiment.
"And was data capture long enough?" Zuni asked.
John saw Jen smile at her children as only a mother could.
"Back to school you two," she said. "Shows over. Uncle Rodney and Luca will fill you in later."
"Aw Mom," they said together.
"I wouldn’t make her tell you twice." John said with a wink. He watched the twin's dejectedly turn to walk away but then sprint for the lab's doorway. He could still hear them arguing about who got through it first as Rodney replaced the dilithium crystal within the experiment.
"The renewed dark-energy modulated stream should give us some clarity as to the meaning of the results," Luca said as Rodney activated the device.
Prophet reached into the experiment to touch a component with a probe fitted to his main appendage.
Rodney held a tricorder over the experiment and just as the crystal began to glow a bright blue. He switched off the experiment and set the tricorder on the table.
"It is as I feared" the prophet said.
John observed Luca appear unusually lost in thought.
"Is it bad?" Jen asked.
Rodney just looked at her, his eyes teary.
"The machines are interfering with natural cycle of this fractime,"
Luca said.
"What natural cycle?" Jen asked.
John looked at her. "The big bang, inflation, expansion, then whatever, all just an instant within the cosmic perpetual cycle," John said a bit too whimsically and received a scowl from Jen.
Rodney nodded. "After inflation," he explained, "a fractime will expand indefinitely or even begin contracting again if gravity eventually takes over. That all depends on the initial quantum state. But regardless, the mass field is always slowly decaying. The decay is not universal; it's irregular like the background cosmic radiation. So at some point in space-time, unless gravity has already reunited everything, the equilibrium tips into an unstable state. At that physical location, the laws of physics break down and an unstoppable quantum bubble forms, expanding at the speed of light that will eventually destroy the entire fractime."
"The twin's experiment was meant to confirm the known rate of this decay, but with added precision by recording above the galactic plane,"
Luca added.
"Entropy has been accelerated at the signal's location to a degree approaching our fractime's stability threshold," Prophet said.
John and Jen looked at each other.
"The signal must be stopped at its source," Luca said, "so the space surrounding anomaly can heal before it's too late."
"We can narrow down the possibilities at the end of the curvilinear arc of the machine's transmitters that extends just past the Perseus Arm,"
Prophet said. "But there may be no time to initiate such an intensive search both spatially and temporally."
"Given the anomaly is occurring in the Holocene around 6,050 BC
and 2.632 kiloparsecs distant," Luca said, "we can deduce that it has not yet become unstable."
"Or the quantum bubble would have smacked us already," John said.
"How much time is there?" Jen asked.
"Without continued monitoring at the signal's location, that will be very hard to determine," Rodney said, "but given Luca's logic—"
"On the downside?" John asked taking Jen's hand.
"Anytime now," Prophet said and Luca nodded agreement.
"What?" Jen said straining to keep calm.
"You've got to be joking," John said looking at the Calma.
"I wish I was," he said dejectedly.
"The range of possibilities is exceedingly large," Luca said optimistically.
"How can the whole fucking universe be ending again?" Jen asked emphatically.
"We need to find Flint," John said.
The others looked at him.
"I just feel it," he said and then took a deep breath. "I know that finding him won't guarantee stopping the signal, but if it gets us to the machines, that's got to give us a chance."
"I agree," Luca said.
"The signal's message does raise intriguing questions," Rodney said.
"Like how C3M knew early third-millennium English?" Prophet said.
"Or why the ends of the arc containing the signal's transmitters points to both the Alpha quadrant and the Library ship," Rodney said.
"Flint must have been captured as hoped," Jen said.
"Along with his tricorder and translation device," Luca added solemnly.
"That would explain why the machines headed straight for us," John said.
"The fairly regular transmitter spacing, assuming simultaneous maximum temporal displacements, would fit with the ability of Flint's rather unique translation device," Luca said.
John sighed. He struggled to piece together how all this would help find Flint much less stop the machines as Tye entered the lab.
"I heard rumors there was a skunk works in operation on the outpost," she said. "You guys did not waste…."
John saw her pause as she saw Rodney's face.
"What wrong?" she asked him.
Rodney just shook his head.
"The universe is ending," Jen said. "Again!"
"What?" Tye asked as Rodney pulled her aside to explain the situation.
"Call me if you need me," Jen said to John before kissing him passionately. "One of us needs to be with the twins."
John watched her stride out of the lab, hoping she would turn around. She did not.
"There may be a way to find Flint that does not involve a physical search of space-time," Tye said. "The Amhrán and Turas Luath could do it."
"Could?" Prophet asked.
"As Flint's TR contained a ringlet from Amhrán," Tye explained,
"the entities could translate to it together without any previous knowledge of ringlet's spatial or temporal location."
Rubbing his chin, Rodney whispered slowly, "Entanglement."
"But I assume there's a problem," John said, reading Tye's face.
She nodded. "The Amhrán is not at the capacity needed to find its ringlet along with the Turas Luath."
Rodney shook his head.
"The Amhrán has lost three ringlets," Tye explained. "The first, Flint incorporated into his TR. Another was in the EMP device outside Calgary and destroyed."
"And the third?" John asked.
"It is under the Mountain in Prime," Tye said. "And it has since been used to create Chronos' TRs. We need at least one of these ringlets."
"Can we replace the Chronos' ringlet within its containment with a temporal vacuity?" Rodney asked.
"Theoretically possible," Prophet said.
John looked at Tye hoping for clarification.
"The first Chronos transit had a complex history," she said. "I had no other choice but use a ringlet at the time as I was entrenched until mission recall."
"What about Flint's ringlet," Rodney asked.
"It would be far too dangerous to meddle with his timeline," Tye said with a subtle shudder.
Tye looked at Rodney. "Of course!" she said suddenly. "The Chronos ringlet can be replaced and still preserve the timeline."
John shook his head refusing to consider in the possible consequences of changing Prime's timeline way back in the 2060s.
"I will need to find Jennifer," Tye said thoughtfully as the Amhrán appeared around her.
And as the Turas Luath appeared unexpectedly around John, Tye slid the nearby tricorder onto his belt and told him, "Do not move. I should be right back."
Prime: 12 Mar 2060
Tye and Jennifer translated from the Pruchlais into Tye's old quarters in the Mountain just before noon.
"Are you sure this will work?" Jennifer asked.
Tye could come up with no other course of action but inform Jennifer of the horrifying event unfolding upline. She would not know if their plan was successful for another 474 years and Tye now knew it would weigh exceedingly heavily on her into the future.
"It's a complicated plan; lots of details to possibly get wrong." Tye looked over her friend in a Chronos CDU. "I need to see what the colonel's uniform de jour is," she said with a thin smile.
She reappeared instantly holding another CDU and boots.
"These should be a better match. Plus, they are hemp replicated so translations will not be an issue." Tye said. "I wish I could get a look at the mission vid, but it is highly classified. And you need to put your hair in a ponytail; it looks about the right length and color," she added only partially satisfied that Jennifer's age and looks would ensure her plan would work.
"So what's the plan?" Jennifer asked sitting down on Tye's bunk as Tye powered up her workstation. "And are you sure Mick is involved?"
"Kind of a big coincidence he ordered me to Nevada to monitor over flights at 51 for the weekend," Tye said.
"But would he know?"
Tye shrugged her shoulders. She suspected her uncle considered the Time Accords had a degree of flexibility she did not share but in this case, it was hard to argue her own viewpoint.
"Getting back to the plan," Tye said. "By now I would have already placed the Amhrán's ringlet in Rodney's containment device that he hopes will soon to hold the temporal vacuity his dark-energy collider is supposed to produce."
"But it doesn't?" Jennifer asked.
"Not even a chance," Tye said with a tinge of sadness. "The ringlet will be the driver for all future TRs. We need to replace—"
"But you just said the collider doesn't or didn't work."
"That's where we come in," Tye said. "We need to exchange the ringlet with our own vacuity. I brought a specimen from the remains of the Laith's containment sphere."
Tye pulled a set of TRs from her mission pack before retrieving a small crystal orb and giving it to Jennifer.
"Those are antiques," Jennifer said referring to the TRs and then held the orb close to observe the tiny spark dancing within it.
"These are fakes," Tye said tossing TRs on her bunk.
"So why don't we just make the switch now?" Jennifer asked.
"With this fractime, timing is everything," Tye replied raising her eyebrows.
"Afternoon Major," Tye said to Higgs bent over into the large collection of equipment that he called the DEC.
"Hi Tye," he said bumping his head as he extracted himself from the apparatus. "I thought you were going to Nevada to warm up a bit from all the snow."
"Are you preparing for another test?" she asked ignoring him while trying to sound surprised.
He looked up from his work, holding her gaze momentarily and then sighed. "You'll have to ask Jenny," he said uneasily.
She knew they had their second fatality less than a month ago and that weight heavily on Jenny as well as Higgs. However, the DOD was putting pressure on them in light of the persistent rumors on the net concerning terrorists with time travel capabilities, and Jenny had insisted the testing program continued covertly.
"I can help," she said as Jenny entered the lab.
"Hi Tye," Jenny said. "Aren’t you on leave?"
"I missed my ride to Death Valley from Peterson," Tye replied. "So I thought I would just check the containment unit's parameters before I leave in the morning."
"Nice civvies," Jenny said looking at Tye's kaki hemp trousers, brightly colored tee, and shoes.
"Another test?" Tye asked her commander.
"Obviously," she replied with a sigh. "And you are on leave."
"Hey," Tye said, "as far as everybody will know, I am in Death Valley."
"How's it looking, Rodney?" Jenny asked shaking her head subtly.
"I have cycled the DEC and transferred the void into the containment unit," he said. "We'll need to replicate the void into the temporal resonators just before transit, so we can start the count anytime."
Jenny looked up at the large clock on the wall next to the lab's door.
"Two hours then," she said.
"Is the subject ready?" Rodney asked.
"I'm going," Jenny said sternly.
"Impossible," Rodney said in disbelief.
"It is far too dangerous," Tye added quickly.
"I'm not subjecting another thing to oblivion," Jenny said. "That's final. This is our last chance before the NIA pulls our funding. We need a home run, not a yappy beagle that can't tell us what she's experienced."
"Location?" Tye asked already knowing the selected safe destination was paramount to Jenny's successful transit.
"We've got a Venom waiting at Peterson," Jenny said. "And it’s just us, just in case."
Tye also knew Jenny had a full account of deniability ready to protect Higgs and the rest of Chronos if the mission outcome was another disaster.
Higgs said, "I don’t like flying to Mesa Verde to transit to another fractime without a support team."
Jenny looked at Tye. "You checked out on the vidcorder?"
"Yes, Ma'am," Tye replied with a wink.
"Then we're set," Jenny said and then looked at Higgs shaking his head. "That's what this is all about, Major. Testing to see if terrorists could use this technology in the field with minimal support, and I intend to do just that."
The Venom dropped them off next to cliff face into which the Anasazi had built several dwellings in southwestern Colorado. They were miles from the main cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde but still Jenny had insisted the Venom's pilot make several passes to ensure no off-season hikers were close by.
"I don’t know," Higgs said worriedly as they scrambled up Cretaceous age sandstone to the sandy shale beds in which the Anasazi built their dwellings.
"I've spent a lot of time with the Pueblo elders, and they approve,"
Jenny said ignoring his real concerns as they entered one of the ancient stone houses. "Tye, set up the temporal resonators and get the vid going please," she requested.
Tye set up a cam on a tripod to document the mission and made sure it was set to its lowest resolution. Rodney prepared several other devices that were critical to monitor the quantum envelope forming during transit as well as the containment unit used to transfer the temporal vacuity to the TRs.
Tye then erected a pair of TRs. She measured and marked the stone floor for their precise placement to the side of Rodney's equipment, giving Jenny a clear path through them.
While Higgs finished his preparations by attaching a thin conduit to one of the TRs, Jenny stepped in front of the cam. She nodded to Tye to start recording.
"I am Colonel Jenny Scott along with Chronos' physicist Major Rodney Higgs. Twelve March 2060, 1435 hours. I will transit from this Anasazi cliff dwelling in an attempt to ensure a safe arrival zone in the
adjacent fractal universe. I am taking this to record my findings." She held a pad's vid clock to the cam's display showing it in sync. "I will return after fifteen seconds has elapsed on the mission clock."
"Are we ready, Major Higgs?" she asked.
Rodney gave a thumb up. "Replicating dark-energy void to the temporal resonator," he said as Tye panned the cam towards him.
"Initializing temporal resonators," he said making an adjustment on a TR.
"Subject ready?" he asked.
"Ready," Jenny replied as Tye panned back to her.
"Transit in 3, 2, 1, go," he said nervously, while staring at the mission clock.
As Jenny's form blurred slightly as she walked through the TRs, Tye instantly translated to retrieve the fake TRs and orb from her quarters in the Mountain and then back.
After slightly loosening the conduit line on the containment unit and replacing the Amhrán's ringlet with the vacuity from the orb, she carefully placed the TRs on the marks on the stone floor. She then translated Jennifer between them and herself back behind the cam.
She could only hope Higgs, sufficiently absorbed in the experiment, would not notice any slight shift in her position behind the cam.
Jennifer strode through the TRs and then turned and looked at Rodney. "Damn it," she said dejectedly.
Higgs ignored her and rushed over to check the TR control. "I need to check the containment unit and ensure the void has been duplicated and transferred."
Jennifer walked around the fake TRs keeping an eye on the mission clock that was now showing the mission's duration.
"Void has been duplicated," Higgs said. "I'll just check the conduit's connection to the containment unit."
Tye nodded to Jennifer.
"It was a bit loose, damn," Rodney said. "We were lucky as that could have produced some unusual results."
"I'm going back through," Jennifer said quickly walking between the TRs just as the mission clock read fourteen seconds.
Higgs tried to say something, but it was too late.
Tye translated both Jennifer and the false TRs back to her quarters only to return behind the cam just as Jenny was reappearing along with the functional TRs.
As Jenny turned around, she was all smiles.
"Why did you do that?" Higgs shouted at her. "You could have been killed!"
"What? I'm fine," she said puzzled by Higgs' reaction.
"The loose conduit could have produced any multitude of results,"
he said visibly shaken. "The containment would have been way out of spec."
"Rodney, I did it!" she said. "Look," she added initializing the pad's record of Chronos' first transit.
Tye could not help but giggle at the look on Higgs face.
RefPlane: Stardate 211562.98
"I've obtained the ringlet and reset it back into the Amhrán," she told everyone back at the Trua Outpost's lab and then looked at John.
"We will need to stop over at the Pruchlais before attempting the long-range translation with the entities," she said taking his hand.
Shocked her hand felt extremely hot, he saw Tye give Rodney an obvious look good-bye just before they translated.
They appeared at the same location as John's first translation into the Pruchlais, and as they strode past the numerous wall carvings, Tye said,
"We just need to get a few weapons."
"Good idea," John said with dread at the idea of confronting mechs again as they turned into the passage leading to the Pruchlais' weapon stockpile.
"Any suggestion as to what we might need?" he said knowing the vast assortment of weaponry waiting for them ahead.
"Something that can take out mechs," she replied thoughtfully,
"probably an entropy personal defense weapon with as many of power cells as one can carry as loads for any kinetic system will be too impractical. And I think we have a few suits of lightweight, variable-modulation fluid armor."
As they entered the room containing the weaponry, John noticed the inventory had changed dramatically. It was significantly more modern and well organized. He assumed Jennifer was responsible.
"Take three of those and the packs," Tye said pointing to a rack holding five strange weapons next to a shelf holding bulging backpacks.
John assumed the packs contained the entropy rifles' power cells. "I thought the Family banned alien stuff," he quipped.
Tye pointed to a Confederation seal embossed on the side of one of the weapons before standing on tiptoe to reach another pack on a shelf.
John reckoned the rifles had to be from far upline, and their possession had to break or at least bend several accords.
"A few of these might come in handy," Tye said. "Light-matter charges," she added for his benefit passing a pack down to him.
"What?"
"Light-matter, dark-antimatter; it is the same thing. And it is instant annihilation for a radius of a least hundred meters in normal space. But in fact, they are kind of heavy," she added hefting them before releasing the pack's handle to John.
"Now where is the varibile-modulation fluid armor?" she asked wondering off down a side row of crates. "Found them," she said quickly, returning and then handing him three smaller containers marked VFA.
"I am not entirely sure if the entities can find the Amhrán's ringlet,"
Tye said as she secured the various straps of all the materiel slung over his shoulders. She checked the tricorder was still in its place on his belt,
"but brother, I am thankful that you are with me to do this."
He nodded as he grasped her forearm firmly so the temporal entities could touch. The Amhrán's kelly green grew more vibrant as its silver tinges mixed with golden hues of the now resplendent bottle-green Turas Luath.
"Let's roll, my sister," John said looking her in the eye. "Time's fuckin' wastin'."