undefined
Chris Carpenter, tall, blond, and smart, sat at the ships main control panel. His fingers dances over a keyboard as different graphs flashed across the screen in front of him. He studied each one briefly then moved on to the next one.
“What are you doing?” asked Harmony as she entered the cramped control room.
“Plotting another course.”
“You wanting to get some digitals of the new nebula?”
“How’d you guess?” he returned, rolling his eyes at Harmony. Carpenter was known for going out of his way to feed his starving hobby, sometimes millions of miles. None of the six crewmen minded though, his pictures were always stunning, and seemed more real than the actual subjects at the other end of his camera.
The Premier was the first of her kind. She was the first ship to ever reach beyond light speed and enter hyperspace. Einstein, that pioneer of mathematics, had been right, time did stop beyond the speed of light and it opened a whole new form of transportation and exploration for the citizens of Earth. New worlds and galaxies had opened up, and it had only taken four hundred years since the very first space walk to achieve this feat. The deepest reaches of space was now our playground, and so far, with a hundred years of space exploration behind us, the human race was still alone in the universe.
“I can’t wait to see ‘em,” she said. Harmony loved his pictures and she thought that Chris really had a talent for capturing images.
“Thanks, I really appreciate it.” He couldn’t look at her; his face was blushed from embarrassment from her praise.
“Where’s all the others?”
“In the rec room. Lucy’s running laps and the other’s are watching her bounce around the track.” This drew a snicker from Chris, who could just imagine the sight of the other crew members, jaw dropped and drooling over Lucy. She was well endowed and didn’t mind showing off.
Suddenly, the ship jerked beneath them, sending Harmony to the floor.
“What the…?” Carpenter’s hands danced over the keyboard as warning sirens echoed through the craft and emergency lights shattered the gloomy interior with splashes of reds and blues.
Harmony pushed herself off the floor and collapsed in the adjacent seat next to Carpenter. A trickle of blood ran from her hair and down the bridge of her nose.
“We’re loosing artificial gravity,” Harmony announced as she scanned some of the other dials and readouts. “Hull’s breached.”
“Where?” Chris asked. He had to shut the safety doors to those areas before they lost all oxygen.
“Bay 1, bay 2, bay 6, hanger’s 2, 5, and 6…Oh my God.”
“What? What is it?”
“The rec room. It’s been breached!” Harmony rose out of her chair and sprinted for the hatch leading to the main corridor, but Carpenter snatched her wrist before she could open it.
“No, Harmony. There’s nothing we can do for them right now. We have to get these rooms shut down first.” He was pointing at the monitor, which showed a graph of the entire ship, the areas with hull breaches were flashing red.
“You open that door and you could possibly kill us as well.” If the hallway was compromised as well and the door was opened, the oxygen would be sucked from the control room and the two of them would die instantly. “Let’s get these rooms locked off and make sure that it’s safe. Hopefully the others were able to get to the oxygen masks.” He knew the chances were slim though. Even if they had been able to reach the masks, the coldness of space would have infiltrated the room instantly, killing them instantly with in the vacuum of space.
Carpenter led her back to the chairs and they finished working with the ships safety features. Chris turned off the blaring alarms.
“Ok,” he said, grabbing a couple oxygen tanks and masks from the emergency supply closet. He helped her into the tank’s straps and adjusted the tightness around her shoulders and waist. The tank was so light that she really couldn’t tell that it was strapped to her back. “Let’s go.”
They opened the door and floated into the main hall. All the damaged areas were to the rear of the vessel and their first stop was the rec room. As they approached, they heard a hollow pounding echoing through the corridor. It was coming from the rec room door.
“Thank God,” Harmony said. “Somebody’s alive.” She reached for the door and Chris stopped here again. “What?” she asked.
“You’ll never get it open. We’ve got to equalize the pressure of the two rooms.”
“Hurry, Chris. It’s got to be freezing in there.”
Carpenter pushed off from the wall and grabbed one of the pipes that lined the ceiling. He pulled himself down the passage. There was a bank of computer consoles set up evenly along the entire length of the hallway, and he stopped at the first one. A couple of typed commands later and the air vents began to hiss as the pressure was equalized throughout the entire ship. He hurried back to the rec room.
“Ok,” he shouted to Harmony. “Open it.”
She hit the switch and the door hissed into the left wall. Harmony was hit by a ferocious blast of cold air that took her breath away. Lucy Adams and Professor Lee spilled out of the room and into her arms. They were freezing cold to the touch. They were both wearing oxygen supplies.
“Chris, help me! We’ve got to get them to medical.”
They pulled them to medical and strapped them down to a couple examination tables. Harmony grabbed a couple warming blankets and plugged them in to the power outlet as Carpenter draped them over the two shivering bodies. Professor Lee had lost consciousness.
“What happened?” Lucy asked, her voice muffled by the oxygen mask. Harmony could hear her teeth chattering.
“Something hit us. Space trash or something.” Carpenter put a temperature strip on Lee’s forehead and moved over to Lucy’s table. “Haven’t had time to do any research on it yet.”
The alarms began to blare again and Harmony and Chris exchanged glances. ‘Not again?!’ their faces said.
“Go, Chris. I can take care of them now. They should be ok in a few minutes anyway.”
Carpenter left the room and rushed back to the control deck. He strapped himself into the chair so he wouldn’t float away. He checked the instruments and saw that everything was just as it was when they had left. ‘Then what had triggered the alarm?’
He glanced at the radar and saw a large blip moving toward the Premier. Carpenter hit the intercom button and shouted, “Harmony? Get those two taken care of and get up here. We’ve got company coming.”
“Company?” she asked. “What company?”
“Just get your butt up here.”
Harmony looked at Lucy and asked if she would be all right.
“Yah, I think so.” Lee was beginning to stir over on the other table as well.
“Keep an eye on him, will you?”
“Sure,” Lucy said, but Harmony was already out of the room and floating down the hallway.
“What’s up?” Harmony asked as she entered the flight deck. Chris just pointed at the radar screen. “What is that?” she asked. “Asteroid.”
“No, it’s got a heat signature.”
“A comet then?”
Carpenter shook his head. “I don’t think so. It’s slowing down. The computer is trying to enhance an image for me.”
A minute passed by and finally, an image came through the main screen. It was another space ship.
“What the…?” Chris began, but couldn’t continue his question. The image on the screen was larger than any ship he had ever seen or imagined. It was a long, rectangular ship, with smooth rounded corners and straight sides. The back end glowed emerald green from the engine’s exhaust.
“It’s turning,” Harmony said, watching the radar.
“What’s going on?” said a voice from behind them. Lucy entered the flight deck with Professor Lee close behind. They had removed their oxygen masks, which reminded Chris and Harmony that they were still wearing theirs.
“Another space craft,” Carpenter said, pulling off his oxygen mask. “They’re coming right for us.”
“Are they aggressive?” asked the Professor, his accent hanging heavy in the air.
Then Harmony asked the question that she’d been avoiding since finding Lucy and Professor Lee alone in the rec room. “Where’s Johnny and Ellie?”
“We thought maybe they were with you,” said the Professor. “They left just before the impact.”
“Impact’s,” Chris corrected. “There were at least eight objects that breached our hull. They passed right through the ship.”
Lee leaned over Harmony, examining the on screen damage report. “Good to see they missed the engine room. Can we get away from the other ship?”
“No way. We’d have to have twenty minutes for the computer to plot us a course for hyperspace, and that ship will be on top of us within ten.” Carpenter danced his fingers across the keyboard in front of him. “I’m going ahead and setting a course, but I don’t think we’ll get it in time. Besides, I don’t think we should even try a jump if we have hull damage. There’s no telling what a jump through hyperspace will do to the Premier.”
“How are you two feeling?” Harmony asked Lucy and the Professor.
“Better,” they said in unison.
“Why don’t you go try and find John and Ellie? We may need them. And stop at the armory on your way back and grab us some M-489’s. Who knows if we’ll need them or not, but I think it’s better to be prepared.”
The other couple left, floating out of the compartment and closing the door behind them.
“So?” Harmony asked. “What do you think?”
“I don’t know. In a way I’m scared to death. Then on the other hand I’m excited too. Do you realize that this could be human kinds first contact with an alien race?
“That’s just what I was thinking,” Harmony said, her own fingers flying across the control panel. She was trying to use the Premier’s scanners to get whatever knowledge they could on the approaching craft. But so far, the other ship was impervious to her scans. The Premier may as well have been blind.
The intercom sparked to life and Lucy’s voice, panicked and rushed, erupted from the speaker hidden below the console. “Chris?”
“Yah, I’m here Harmony. Did you find them?”
“What’s left of them, yah. Looks like they were doing some maintenance in one of the storage bays.” There was a slight pause, then, “Bay 2. My God, Chris. Whatever hit us must have hit the two of them. There are pieces of them floating all over the place.”
Harmony and Carpenter choked back tears. They’d spent years in this ship together and the loss of Johnny and Ellie hit them hard. Chris, looking for something to do, bent over the radar screen to check the progress of the other vessel.
“Hey, guys? Get up here now. Their right on top of us.”
“Be right there, Chris.”
Carpenter leaned back over the radar image again. “Looks like they’re coming around in front of us.”
The Premier began to vibrate then, as the other craft passed over them, it’s engines caused a loud hum that rattled the loose objects lying around the compartment.
The spacecraft was huge compared to the Premier. Carpenter wondered how many people it would carry. It spun gracefully around to face them and stopped its engines. The Premier stopped rattling.
A large door opened in front of them. A bright light issued from the opening. When Carpenter and Harmony’s eyes adjusted, they saw what looked like a hangar. Small ships and other small vehicles crisscrossed each other in a chaos of motion.
“Captain of the Premier,” came a booming voice over their intercom. “Please use thrusters only and set your ship down in landing zone A. We’ll be expecting your cooperation.”
Just as suddenly as the announcement came, the voice was gone, cut off from the Premier’s intercom with distinct click.
“Who was that?” Lee asked as he entered into the control room. Carpenter didn’t have to say a word, he just pointed out the front window. “It’s huge!” The professor leaned forward for a better view. The craft was so massive that it filled the entire window. He couldn’t see the top or bottom of it.
“So, what do we do?” Lucy asked.
“I don’t think we have a choice. At least we know their human.”
“What? How do you know that?”
Carpenter looked back at Lee. ‘Some professor,’ he thought. Then aloud, “They called our ship by name. There’s no markings outside, so they must already know who we are.”
Carpenter pressed a few buttons and they began to move forward. “Here we go,” Harmony said, sitting back into her seat as she watched the metal maw of the larger ship swallow her and the Premier.
Carpenter set the ship down on landing zone A and set the Premier to power down. “Let’s go greet our guests.”
“I think we’re the guests here.” Lee floated out the door and the others followed close behind. They left the guns behind.
As they glided down the main corridor, they heard the loud grinding of the main outer door shutting. The voice came back on over the Premier’s speaker system, announcing that artificial gravity would be instated in five seconds. They all positioned themselves into standing positions onto the floor, waiting for gravity to set in. When their feet were firmly planted on the ground they took a few tentative steps. It was hard to adjust from complete weightlessness, and took a few minutes to get their footing back.
“Ready?” Chris asked.
“Let’s go,” the others said, almost in unison. There was no use in delaying the inevitable.
They took the elevator down to the bottom floor. The exit consisted of a retracting ladder that hung down from the bottom of the Premier. It was accessible from the bottom floor through a large, round hatch. The four of them descended to the hangar floor where there were a hundred or more men and women standing at attention. They were all in uniform with the letters M.E. stitched over the pockets of they dress shirts.
“Captain Carpenter?” asked a tall man with thick wire rimmed glasses and gold braids through the epaulets of his uniform. He wore a hat where the others did not.
“Yes, sir.” Chris said, stepping forward.
“Would you and your crew please follow me?”
“Who are you?” Lucy asked.
“All your questions will be shortly. This way please.” He stepped back and the others parted, making a human tunnel for them to pass. The tall man led them out of the hangar and into a series of corridors.
The four Premier crew members saw sights and technologies that couldn’t possibly exist with present day Earth. Most of what they saw looked to be years in advance of anything on their ship.
“Here we are,” said the tall man, opening a door for them. They had twisted and turned through so many different passages that Carpenter was sure that he would never be able to find his way back to the Premier.
“General Hamlin?” said the tall man as he closed the door behind the Carpenter and the others. He saluted another man who was seated at the end of a long banquet table.
“Sergeant Brooks? Please show our guest to their seats.”
“Yes, sir.” He led Carpenter and Lee to the right of Hamlin and pulled their chairs for them, then escorted Lucy and Harmony to the opposite side of the table where they sat down, opposite the men.
The general nodded to each of them in turn as Brooks left the room. “Captain Carpenter?” he said, then turned to Lucy. “Ms. Adams? Navigator Harmony Johnson?” Then he turned to Lee. “And Professor Chin Lee.” The general reached out his hand and shook the Professor’s. “It’s an honor, and I must tell you, I’ve read all your books. And if you’d be so kind, I’d love to have your autograph before we return you to Earth.”
The Professor looked dumbfounded. “But I haven’t written any books.”
“Of course you haven’t,” Hamlin said. “But you will.” The Professor tried to say something else but Hamlin held up his hand. “I want each of you to prepare yourselves for a shock. I’m about to explain some things for you that you’re going to find unbelievable. But I want to assure you that I am speaking the truth. For proof, if you feel the need, I have detailed records on laser disk for you to peruse.”
He turned his attention on Chris. “Mr. Carpenter, what is today’s date?”
“Universal Star Date 3416.028.635. The date is correct, but that’s the time I entered into the log book this morning. I didn’t wear my watch.”
The General had his. “It’s 12:45. It’s just after lunch,” he looked around the room, “which should be arriving shortly. Anyway. So your saying, Mr. Carpenter, that it is USD 3416.128.1245? Is this correct?”
“I guess so. Where’s all this going, sir?”
“Just humor me a moment, please.”
A door opened behind Hamlin. Several servants entered carrying trays of food and large pitchers of spiced tea and water.
“Professor Lee? When did the Premier first launch?”
Lee rubbed a handkerchief across his bald, sweaty head. “USD 3414.111.700. I believe that was the correct date?” He looked at Carpenter for confirmation.
“Yes, that’s right,” Chris said.
“When are you going to tell us what’s going on?” Harmony asked, getting fed up with Hamlin’s elusive behavior.
“Ok, Ok,” the general said, standing up and removing a cover off one of the dishes. “Please, everyone help yourselves and I’ll explain.” A delicious aroma filled the room and the Premier crew realized that they were famished.
“You’re all probably wondering why I’m asking about dates. You believe that the year is 3416, when actually it’s 31266.”
Chris, Harmony, Lucy, and Professor Lee all looked at Hamlin with unbelief.
Harmony was the first to speak. “What are you trying to pull over on us?”
“Why, nothing. I’m telling you the truth. Earth scientists and the M.E. have been searching for you for almost 28,000 years.”
“How can that be,” Carpenter asked, doubting every word he was hearing.
Hamlin put his fork down and looked at each of them in turn, taking his time to study each of their faces before he continued. He sighed and continued. “As you know, on USD 3414.028.700, the Premier, a hyperspace prototype, and six crew members were sent on a five year mission to search the farthest reaches of the universe. Does any of this sound familiar? Of course it does.
“To make a long story short, five years passed and there was no sign of the Premier. Not long after you launched, work began on another spacecraft. It was a duplicate of the Premier, called the Premier II. They decided to test it with a short-range jump to Pluto. They used two ships. One of which was the Premier II and the other was a standard bulk cruiser, the Nemesis, which was already in orbit around Pluto. The Premier II was scheduled to make a three and a half second jump which would roughly equal a billion miles for a total of three and a half billion miles, the estimated distance of Pluto from Earth.
“Scientist thought all this up, and there was no basis for the technology. I don’t care what they told you when you were enlisted for this trip, but you and your ship should have never left the solar system without a test like the one performed with the Premier II.
“On USD 3419.112.700, exactly five years and one day from your own departure, the Premier II entered hyperspace. The space center on Earth was in communication with the Nemesis via a fifty-minute audio delay, so they wouldn’t know of the Premier II’s arrival until almost an hour after the jump.
“One hour and ten minutes after the Premier II jumped into hyperspace, the word came from the Nemesis that there was no sign of the Premier II.
“Within the next twenty years of the Premier II’s disappearance, trade routes were set up among the many colonies on each of the nine major planets of our solar system. The Nemesis had long since been dismantled and other, faster ships sped supplies between the planets.
“On USD 3454.112.700, exactly thirty five years after the Premier II entered hyperspace, it appeared in a blinding flash of light on the outskirts of the solar system. The Premier II also had a six person crew and when they arrived in Pluto’s orbit and there was no Pluto, they began to emit a distress signal.”
“Where was Pluto?” Lucy asked.
“By the time the Premier II arrived, Pluto’s orbit had taken it to the far side of the solar system. The crew of the Premier II was rescued and shipped back to Earth, along with all sensors and digitals from the ship. For the crew of the Premier II, the jump to Pluto only took 3.5 seconds. Time stood still for them for thirty-five while the rest of mankind caught up with them.”
“How many jumps have you logged, Captain Carpenter?”
Chris couldn’t think. Could all this be true? The General said that he had records, but could they be falsely recorded and this just be a big joke?
Harmony spoke up, “Around 300 sir. Most of them around five to ten second’s each.”
Hamlin spoke a few quiet words into a wristband and then placed a finger to his ear as he listened to some unseen voice. “I’ve got a man looking over the jump records now. You’ve spent just over forty-five minutes in hyperspace, roughly 2785 seconds. For each second you spent in hyperspace, about ten years had gone by, and if my calculations are right, then you’ve been alive for almost 28,000 years. How does it feel to be the oldest humans in existence?”
The General laughed at his own joke, but the other four were obviously not humored at all.
“So what was this about reading my books, when I know I haven’t written any books yet?” the Professor asked, obviously trying to throw a kink in General Hamlin’s story.
“Very simple really, Professor Lee. The same technology found in your ship, the Premier, was used for this ship. Only we’ve had almost thirty thousand years to perfect it, and the same physics that took you forward in time can also take this ship backward in time. There are no limits to space travel.” Hamlin sat back, smiling, obviously proud of his speech.
“What damaged our ship and killed two of my friends?” Lucy asked. The memory of finding the ruined bodies was still fresh on her mind.
“I’m really sorry about that,” said the General. We were dumping our trash before our jump. Standard procedure you see. We compact our trash into one-meter spheres and add a transmitter, then shoot them off into space. Our trash then becomes a satellite, transmitting different information about planets and solar systems to us as they fall into orbit around whatever system we launched them in. You had just exited hyperspace when you were hit, isn’t that right?”
“Yes,” Carpenter said, remembering the event of the morning.
“You just happened to enter real space in the direct path of our trash. It was a one in a billion encounter, but it happened. Once again, I’m sorry, but we were to far away to send out a warning.”
“So now what? I’d like to review your records,” said the Professor, “but what’s in store for us now? Where are you taking us?”
“We’re taking you back to the year 3419, five years after your launch. You’re going to arrive back at Earth right on schedule and your going to delay the launch of the Premier II. You’re going to insist on additional testing, thorough testing on the technology they’ve created. With your insistence, Professor Lee, you’re going to explain to them that hyperspace travel is dangerous and your going to find some facts to back up your story. You must delay any more jumps.”
“But why?” Carpenter asked.
“Because time travel is dangerous. Because of this ship.” He gestured to the ceiling above his head. “With each jump we make through time, we create another paradox, another alternate reality that could be devastating to the human race. Hyperspace travel is possible without the dangers of time warp, but you must find the way to achieve it before it’s know that time travel exists. I just can’t express the dangers of time travel in the short amount of time we’ll be together. We should already be entering the jump back to Earth. It will take about an hour so, if you’d like, please finish your meal and feel free to go over the digitals of the Premier and the Premier II.”
Hamlin pressed a button hidden under the table and four digital monitors rose up out of the table. All the dishes had been placed so as not to cover any of the monitors. The video started automatically and they watched as half an hour of images and audio flashed across the screen, documenting the events of their departure and the launch of the Premier II. A scrolling date bar changed with every image. Everything looked to be legitimate. Whether or not Chris, Lucy, and Harmony were convinced, Lee was, and he met with General Hamlin in private, just before they exited hyperspace to discuss the best possible way to keep the Premier and the Premier II from launching.
“I’ve pretty much already taken care of the hyperdrive engines, Professor. Your main goal is to stop the Premier II.”
“What’d you do?”
“We put another hole through the hull of the ship and into the engine room. It will look as if the Premier was hit with the same objects that struck the rest of the craft.”
“But how do I explain being able to jump into hyperspace if the engines were damaged before the jump?”
“Tell them they were destroyed during the jump. The engines are only used to enter hyperspace, not to get out. Be convincing, they’ll believe you.” Hamlin patted the Professor on the back as they entered the hangar bay. The other three crew members were already there waiting.
While they were still out of earshot of the others, Lee asked, “Our meeting you and getting hit with your trash wasn’t an accident, was it?”
The General smiled and said, “There are no accidents in time travel, that’s why you must do everything in your power to stop the Premier II from launching.”
“General Hamlin?” Harmony asked. “What does the M.E. stitched on your uniforms mean?
“Military Earth,” Hamlin said, not bothering to give any further explanation.
“What does that mean? Is the Earth at war 30,000 years from now?”
For the first time since their arrival, the General looked sad. “Yes,” he said. “We’re at war with several different galaxies. These wars are the direct result of time travel. Other races have captured our spacecraft and stolen the hyperdrive engines, duplicating our technology and using it against us. This is the main reason for stopping the Premier II and destroying all record of those hyperdrives.”
Another officer approached and nodded at the General. “Ok, we’re here,” Hamlin said, escorting the four of them to the ladder leading up to underbelly of the Premier.
Lucy scrambled up the ladder, followed by Harmony and Lee, but Carpenter paused. Turning to the General he asked, “If the hyperdrive technology is what caused all these problems, what about this ship? What happens when you return?”
“From here we’ll jump directly to Earth circa USD 31266.028.1355 and evacuate. By tomorrow, this ship will be blown up into a thousand tiny pieces.
“Now, you must go, before we are detected.”
Carpenter still didn’t believe all of what he’d heard from the General’s mouth, but Hamlin had been so sincere and kind to them that he couldn’t help but to stick out his hand and shake the hand of the General. “It’s been a pleasure.” Carpenter climbed the ladder and closed himself into the Premier, but just before he closed the hatch, he saw something that was completely out of character for the General that had been so kind and nice to the crew of the Premier. In that spit second of time before the door clanged shut, Chris saw that the General’s smile was gone. It was replaced by a hard line of hate. Hamlin turned and began barking orders like a madman. Carpenter, in that split second, could feel the tension from the officers fill the room like a plague. Then the hatch shut. Carpenter was left with the feeling that something wasn’t quite right, and he was glad to be leaving the company of General Hamlin.
It didn’t take Carpenter and Harmony to prep the ship and to maneuver the Premier out of the docking bay. Then, in a blinding flash of light, General Hamlin and his ship was gone (though not into hyperspace).
“Send out a distress call,” Harmony said. Lucy moved to the radio and began to record a message. The call was answered almost immediately by a tug that was bringing parts and supplies to Lunar I, the moons international space station. The tug met with them and pulled them back to Earth, where they docked with the orbital space station, Mirr II.
As they approached, they saw another ship. It was familiar to them in every way and it could only be the Premier II.
“Well,” Harmony said, “General Hamlin wasn’t lying about another Premier.”
The ship shuddered underneath them as they docked with the space station. They powered down the Premier and as they rose to leave, Chris asked, “Where’s the Professor?”
“He was here a little while ago.” Lucy stuck her head out the door. “He’s not in the main corridor.”
“We’ve got to find him.” Carpenter rushed out into the hall, followed closely by the two women.
“What’s wrong,” Harmony asked him.
“Everything. I think the General and our Professor spent too much time together alone. When the General was telling us all that stuff about time traveling, did any of you believe him?
The girls answered no in unison.
“I didn’t either, but I think the General hit a soft spot with Lee. I have a feeling that the Professor took the story to heart and is trying to stop the launch tomorrow. And if my feelings about Hamlin are correct, I believe the Premier II will have an explosive end. Did any of you notice anything different about the Professor when we got back on board?”
“No, I didn’t notice anything,” Lucy said.
Harmony knew what Chris was getting at. “He had a large backpack on. I don’t think he had it with him when we got off the Premier.”
“Yes, he did. Now, what do you think was in it?”
“You don’t think the General gave him explosives do you?”
Chris paused for a second, then said, “I’m willing to bet my eyes on it.”
For a photographer, that was a big bet.
Professor Lee opened the outer door that let to the main docking hatch of the space station, but he didn’t go out. He hid in one of the storage closets off the main corridor and waited for the other three to leave. It wasn’t long before they ran by and out of the Premier. He was alone now, and had a lot of work to do. The toughest job was to sneak aboard the Premier II, but right now he had to deal with this ship first.
He slung the backpack off of his shoulder and knelt beside it on the ground. There were enough plastic explosives in there to take out both ships and the space station if need be, but the explosives weren’t the object of his attention. He pulled out a thick book that was wrapped in yellowing plastic. The examined the cover and smiled. Hyperspace, by Professor Chin Lee. He wanted so much to open it and see the brilliance of his writing ability, the genius of his pen. But he had promised that he would accomplish his mission before he reaped the rewards of his effort. He would destroy both Premiers, then he’d find a quiet corner, sit down, and read his masterpiece.
But first, his task. He rose, stuffed the book back into the backpack, and headed for the engine room.
“Sir, I guarantee you, no one has come through this door who wasn’t authorized to do so.”
Suddenly, alarms began to blare throughout the station, and Carpenter and the girls turned away from the guard that blocked the door to the Premier II.
“Congratulations on your return, Captain Carpenter,” said several people Chris recognized, but didn’t take the time to greet. They’d been stopped and congratulated what seemed like hundreds of times as they tried to get to the Premier II, and more and more people crowded the hallways, waiting to hear the wonderful stories that the crew of the Premier had.
But now, as the wailing sirens blared through the station, people ran to their posts, all but forgetting the crew of the Premier. Which was fine with them, they had to find the Professor.
A flight officer ran past them and Chris matched pace with the man, asking him what was going on.
“The Premier just docked, and now its been cut loose from the docking harness, it’s floating away!” The officer rushed down a different hall and disappeared around the far corner.
“Now, what do we do?” Lucy asked.
“Well, we know that the Professor isn’t on the Premier, not if he has to take care of the Premier II as well.”
Carpenter stopped. “Your right. He’s probably trying to get on the Premier II as we speak.”
They turned and ran back the way they had come.
Someone finally turned off the blaring alarms.
They made a wrong turn somewhere and had to backtrack a little, then finally found the hatch leading to the Premier II. The guard that had blocked the door earlier was now lying on the floor. Blood oozed from a not on the back of his head. He was out cold, and the door beyond stood halfway open.
Carpenter and Lucy stepped into the main corridor of the Premier II but Harmony didn’t join them. Chris poked his head back out to see her bending over the unconscious man. She stood back up, the guard’s pistol was in her hand and she stuffed it in her waistband. “We may need this,” she said, stepping across the threshold. Chris locked the door behind her.
Suddenly, there was a violent explosion and the ship rocked beneath them, throwing them against each other and then to the floor.
“What was that?” Harmony asked, trying to stand as another concussion wave struck them.
“I think our ship just exploded.” Carpenter looked to make sure the other two were all right. Lucy had a small trickle of blood running down her left cheek. Harmony was crying, from being thrown around by the shock wave or hurt from the loss of her temporary home, Carpenter didn’t know…probably a little of both. Even Chris felt a twinge of loss at the death of the Premier. What am I thinking? I don’t even know what blew up and I’m jumping to conclusions. But of course, what else could it have been?
“Come on ladies, we’ve got to stop him. He doesn’t know what he’s doing.”
They sprinted the remaining distance to the engine room and as they burst through the door, there was Professor Lee, wiring a large block of plastic explosives to one of the hyperdrive engines.
“Professor! What are you doing?” Lucy tried to approach him, but he pulled a gun from his waistband and pointed it at the others. It was like no gun they had never seen before. It was sleek and tiny, like something from some futuristic movie; and that was exactly what it was. This gun was 30,000 years before its time.
“What did the General do to you?” Carpenter asked. “Did it ever occur to you that whatever he told you could be a lie?”
The Professor scrounged around in the backpack that lay at his feet and pulled out a large volume, plastic sealed book. His name was written across the top in large, bold letters. “He didn’t lie about my book.” He held it up for the three of them to see.
“Can I see that?” Chris stepped forward, but Lee thrust the gun at him, making him stop.
“You just stay right there. And don’t move. He slid the book across the floor to Chris. “Take a look for yourself.”
Carpenter reached down and picked up the heavy book. Against Lee’s wishes, Carpenter ripped the plastic safety wrap from the book and opened it. Harmony looked over his shoulder and gasped when she saw the pages within the book.
“What? What is it?” Lee asked, rising to his feet.
“I think the General wasn’t as nice as you thought he was, Professor.”
“What?” he repeated crossing to Carpenter and reaching for the book. He’d completely forgotten about the gun. Lucy reached slowly for the firearm and took it from Lee’s grip. He didn’t resist. He was completely dumbfounded by the book as he turned page after page after page.
“What is it?” Lucy asked, tucking Lee’s weapon into the small of her back.
“Nothing! There’s absolutely nothing in here!” Lee went into a rage, ripping a handful of pages from the book and throwing them into the air.
Every page was blank.
“Freeze!” They all spun toward the door as half a dozen men in black uniforms stormed into the room, all with weapons trained on the former crew of the Premier. Another man, dressed in gray, followed them in and walked forward, stopping just in front of the Premier quartet.
“I think we have a lot to talk about, don’t we?”
One of the officers took the weapon from Lucy, and what remained of the plastic explosives was gathered up off of the floor. The four of them were escorted to a small bare room with five chairs. Four of the chairs lined the far wall while the fifth sat by itself in the center of the room. The four of them sat down in the four chairs as the man in gray took the fifth. Two officers in black stood to either side of the door.
“Now, what seems to be the problem that you dock on my space station, release your ship, destroy it, and then try to destroy my other ship? Is there something here that I’m missing here of are you all certifiably crazy after you trip?” The little man in gray wasn’t happy, and his face was red with exertion.
“I’m sorry sir,” Lee said. “It’s entirely my fault,” and the four of them proceeded to tell the little fellow about the events of the last few hours.
“That’s a very interesting story,” His name was Hunter. Sergeant Hunter, and he listened with an open ear, but the way he said this statement sounded condescending. Carpenter believed that their day was about to get even worse. “I don’t buy a word of it.”
“Oh, Lord,” Lucy said, shaking her head. “You weren’t there. You don’t know what happened to us. Why don’t you check our computer, there should be something…” She stopped, remembering that the Premier was no more. There was no computer records, no evidence that the encounter with a ship from the future ever happened.
Hunter rose and the two men at the door tensed up. “I’ll be back in a little while, don’t leave this room.” Then the Sergeant was gone, and so were his goons. They locked the door behind them.
“He knows we’re telling the truth, at least, he knows some of it is true.” Carpenter rose, testing the lock on the door.
“How do you know that?” Lee asked, pacing back and forth across the room.
“The gun.”
“That’s right! The gun that Hamlin gave you, Professor. They have it. That’s their proof,” Harmony said, jumping up from her seat. “Why are they still holding us here like we’re criminals?”
“Because I blew up the Premier,” said Lee.
A heavy silence hung in the room.
“We’ve got to get out of here.” Carpenter leaned over the door know again, examining the key slot. It was an electronic lock and impossible to pick. He examined the door, rapping his knuckles across its surface. It was hollow. Funny how there would be such an expensive, high tech lock on such a flimsy door.
“What do we do?” Lucy asked.
“I’m going through this door,” Chris said, lowering his shoulder and backing a couple feet away. He lunged and the door splintered, but didn’t open.
“What if there are more guards on the other side?”
“We’ll deal with them when we have to. Right now, we just need to get out of this room.” Chris hit the door again. The lock popped through the door jam and he found himself falling into the hallway. They were free and there was no one in sight.
“Now what?” asked Lee. “We’re trapped here, there’s nowhere to hide where they won’t find us with just a little time and effort.”
“We’re not staying here,” Carpenter said, rushing down the hallway, oblivious of everyone they passed.
“Oh, my God,” Lucy said. “You’re going to steal the Premier II.”
Carpenter didn’t say anything, so Harmony asked, “Are you?”
“I don’t see any other way, do you?” he asked over his shoulder. They were almost to the Premier II when the alarms began to sound again. “We’ve got to move faster, guys. Come on.” He poured on the speed, darting in and out of other rushing people. Somebody reached out to grab him, shouting stop, but he tore away from the reaching hand.
Then they were at the hatch leading to the Premier II. Chris rushed the others inside. Luckily, there wasn’t another guard posted at the door.
“Go prep the ship and get us away from the station.” Harmony rushed up the hall while Carpenter locked the hatch from the inside. There was a small porthole in the door and he saw a swarm of black uniforms converge onto the hatch.
The ship came to life then as Harmony and the others got the engines running. A gentle vibration echoed through the ship as Harmony unlocked the docking clamps and the Premier II drifted away from the space station. Chris rushed to the control deck.
“Have you set us a jump course yet?” he asked as he entered and fell into his seat.
“Yes,” Lucy said, checking the computer’s progress.
“Oh, no,” Harmony said, checking the radar.
“What is it?” Chris asked.
“They’ve dispatched fighters.”
“You don’t think they’d fire at us, do you?” Lee asked, putting on his seat belt.
“They won’t have time to,” Lucy said. “Five seconds to jump. We’ll be gone before they make it to us.”
The Premier II’s computer began to beep as the fighters approached, but then fell quiet as the craft leapt into hyperspace.
Sergeant Hunter entered a large, spacious room with huge windows that faced a spectacular view of the Earth below. A lone figure occupied a billowy chair by the glass. He didn’t turn to look as Hunter entered the room, but kept his eyes trained on the point where the Premier II had entered hyperspace.
“They escaped,” Hunter said, stopping about five feet from the back of the other man’s chair.
The seated man saw no reason to waist his breath with commenting on the obvious.
“We’ve found them before, we’ll find them again.” His voice was cold and as hard as steel. He turned slightly, and a splash of light fell over his features. General Hamlin smiled. In his hand was the gun that he had given the Professor. Yes, he thought, we’ll find them again. He couldn’t believe that his plans to overthrow Earth had once again been ruined.
His smile stretched further across his face as he dismissed Hunter. He was 30,000 years out of his time and there was no going back now. The escape of the Premier II had suddenly thrust him into an alternate reality, and his future, so clear before, was now a clouded sky of mystery. He turned back to the view of Earth, knowing that one day it would be his.
But first he would have to take care of the Premier II, and this time, he would no better than to rely on someone else to do the job for him. His plan was totally dependent on destroying Earth’s knowledge of hyperspace, and of their as yet unrealized ability to travel through time…
