Chapter 1

March 23, 2643

0836

Pungent odors, and the look of a trashed apartment, were the first to hit Alison as she opened the door. “This guy lives like Garfield.” Alison noted, as she stepped gingerly through the apartment.

Alison had been ordered to bring the Katilian officer in she wasn’t told why, only that she had to. Now Alison was wishing she had brought something to kill the smell. As Alison moved through the apartment, Alison took note that there were a lot of modern devices except one that she wondered if he had at all, a clean unit to keep the place clean. Alison was starting to think that he didn’t.

Walking to the door of the bedroom, Alison took note of the sleeping form on the bed, he looked peaceful, but that could be a ruse. At this point now, Alison hated to wake him, but she knew she had to… too bad it was already out of her hands.

“What do you want?” A voice called out that sounded tired, but had a slight purr to it.

“How did you know I was here?” Alison asked.

“I smelled you sent the moment that you entered my apartment. I say again, what do you what?”

Alison still couldn’t believe that she was doing this. “Alex Connerly, I have been ordered to bring you in. Sir.” She added in after thought.

Alex moved his hands slightly to look at her; he knew that she couldn’t see his face at all. However with that one look, he not only knew who she was, he knew what rank she had and for whom she worked for. Alex knew that Alison worked for the same people he did, and that her rank was that of second historian, Alex figured that it might be some kind of joke, but deep down, he knew it wasn’t. “Explain.” Alex ordered. Alex knew he could gather to tell him what she knew, that is if she knew anything at all.

“I’m sorry, all I was told was to bring you in, I wasn’t told anything else, except…” Alison racked her mind trying to remember, when it came to her. “Ah, right…priority code Alpha One.” Alison finished.

Alex grumbled slightly, causing Alison to step back. That code was one he had learned to truly hate, even though it was next to never used, organization - planet side, or space side – had their version of the Alpha One priority code. It was a bane for Time Trackers, because it wasn’t that all higher level personnel were to report in to their primary H.Q., no matter where they were in the known galaxy. So even if one was clear on the other side of the galaxy, they came back period. It was the one time minute time travel was allowed to be used at a large, other wise unless one had orders, no one could use minute time travel at all.

Luckily for Alex, he lived on his primary H.Q.’s world, and rarely ever – if at all – left. The only time that he did leave, outside of Time Trackers business, was to go to his mother’s home world of Katilia, their feline home world. Alex stayed on his father’s home world because both of his parents lived on Earth. Since, at the age of 30 (in Earth years), he didn’t go any where because he didn’t need to. Alex didn’t have a social life, and there was no one special in his life, so why bother Alex figured.

Getting up, Alex walked out of the bedroom, and when into the bathroom. Alex didn’t give one bit damn about orders right then, personal needs had to be tended to first and foremost.

“Do you have a clean unit?” Alison called to Alex as she walked back into the living room. “I mean, if you don’t, you should get one.” Alison told him.

“No, I can’t and I won’t get one either. The scents are normal for me, plus they also help in case someone comes in that shouldn’t.” Alex told her as he got into the shower unit that was made for his race.

“Yeah about that, sorry had to use my badge and iDent card to get in since you weren’t answering your com unit.” Alison explained.

Alex came out and went back into the bedroom with out saying a word. After donning a clean uniform, Alex came out to her and went past her to the kitchen counter where several items were laying, badge and iDent card, which went into an inside coat pocket. A plasma stun gun in its holster, which he strapped to his right leg, and his uniform jacket that had another badge on it that displayed both rank and the department he worked in – which was that of lieutenant in the main policing force of the Time Trackers – which he didn’t have to like, but it had been like that since before he had been born. He put up with it, since he knew it wouldn’t change and time soon.

Once that was done, Alex headed for the door, with Alison following hastily. Alison led Alex to the transport unit that she had arrived in, the pilot still waiting for them. The transport was the standard Earth flight pod for short hops. The moment that both Alex and Alison were in, the pod’s door erased closed and the pod’s anti-grav unit kicked in, lifting the pod towards Time Tracker H/Q/ located just off the L.A. Island on New San Francisco Island.

The building for Time Tracker H.Q. Earth looked nothing so much as a bullet from the days of Earth old from before the advent of energy weapons changed everything. The pod landed on the roof in a section for it. Alex got off as fast as he could, he only tolerated the flights to get things done, other wise he hated heights in the worst way. For him it was a good thing no one knew about it within the Time Trackers, he’d be desk bound quick if they found out.

Once inside, Alex headed right for the chief’s office, and didn’t bother to wait on ceremony either as he walked right in. “What the hell is up with sending a historian to give me an Alpha One priority code. You know that it’s either got to be a fellow officer of the same rank, or a team member, and last I knew for my division there is no other at my rank, and I’m not a part of any team.” Alex flared off as he paced the office. Several times Alison had tried to walk in, but Alex had stopped her with just a look.

“Well good morning to you too, and why don’t you come in.” The chief started off with. “And for your information, you are apart of a team now, and don’t blame me, this comes from above my head. Your team consists of a field historian…” The chief said as he pointed at Alison, who walked in. “A computer tech that is familiar with all computers from every time period, whom you’ll meet up with, and yourself, a police field officer. Luckily for you, police rank trumps the other two, so you’ll be in charge on the missions.” The chief finished. “As for the Alpha One, this is why.” Chief stated as he picked up a Reader Plate and hand it to Alex.

Alex took the Reader, which was a one centimeter thick clear plastic sheet that was the size of normal paper (the one thing that no longer existed any more). Information was displayed only on one side and couldn’t be seen from the other side (it was considered ideal for reading private items). Looking over the display, Alex noticed that everything was normal, none Alpha One, that is till he came across some information that made him go back over what he had just read.

“You can’t be serious. Alex stated as he continued reading through. If anything had been said by either the chief or Alison, Alex never heard a word, he would shut down his hearing to focus on what he was looking at. It was an ability that all full Katilians had, and only showed up in three of four hybrids. Only problems for hybrids was that unlike full Katilian children, the ability wasn’t there from birth, it wouldn’t come in till around the age of five or six in humans years (which is how they started to figure age and years, after first contact had been made with Earth).

What Alex had been reading and rereading on the Reader, he didn’t like at all now. Over the past twenty to forty minutes was that several locations in time were being his, and the first several appeared to be the same group of people. As Alex continued to look over the information, he noticed that it was in fact more than one group; several groups were acting in tandem all over the time line, both before and after first contact, and both before and after first contact, and both before and after time travel had become possible. Alex knew that there had be a key point, the one point in time that if they went to it, they could easily take out the first group, and wipe their part right off the time line. Only problem was that it left the rest of the groups alone, which meant that all of the key points had to be figured out. The last one on the Reader report seemed to be about twenty minutes ago.

Looking up at the chief, Alex asked the question that hadn’t been answered on the Reader. Have they figured out the key points yet?” Alex asked.

The chief shook his head. “No, all the points seemed to have appeared all at once, even when running the playback slow, it yielded nothing.” Chief told Alex. “Currently all of the events are not dramatically altering to the time line. I’m told it’s believed that this might in fact be a trial run for something bigger.”

Alex didn’t like that thought. He knew he needed to see the playback for himself; he needed to get down to the Time Core. At once he left and headed for the lifts with the Reader in hand and Alison and the chief right behind him.

“What exactly is going on?” Alison asked, as all three of them piled onto the lift.

“If I’m right, and I usually am, the guys down in the Core haven’t slowed the play back down enough. Usually if something is urgent has gone down, they do slow things down, but not enough and they often miss things. I keep telling them time is on our side, literally, and that we don’t need to rush things. However higher up usually like to get things moving faster and don’t like to wait, that mostly comes from having a military background, and they never seem to realize that they can slow things down here.” Alex explained.

“Wait so that means that you could slow the play back down enough to see the key point, what ever that is.” Alison stated. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“The key point is the point in time that is the first hit on the time line for the start of the change. However in this case, there are multiple points because none of them are really that changing to the time line.” The chief explained to her. “And when it comes to the playback, yes he can. Alex here has a computer rating of C-2. It’s the highest that anyone’s ever gotten outside of the computer techs. The highest is Peter whose been assigned to your team and has the C-1 rating.” He finished.

Alex still didn’t like the thought of being apart of a team, however, he decided it wasn’t worth continuing to argue since he knew he had no choice in the matter. He preferred to go out into the field alone, for some reason that option had just been taken from him, and he didn’t know why nor could he find out why either. Alex knew that at some point, he would find out what happened and deal with it, in the mean time, he had a mission to carry out. That is once he dealt with the key point.

Arriving on the level, the lift door opened up and the Time Core was right there. The Time Core took up the entire floor, with a central holographic view of all of time, with present time at the top. Each trouble spot appeared on the lines that surrounded it, and in the center showed not only a map location of where in the world the event took place, it also showed real time footage of the event(s) taking place. One of the other reasons for the large area was for the multiple events that took place often these days. Not only was time travel possible on Earth, through out the galaxy it was happening too, that was one of the main reasons why the Time Trackers had been created in the first place.

The last time policing setup, the Time Enforcement Commission (or T.E.C.), fell apart to corruption and dishonesty. They had been disbanded well before the Time Trackers had been created, plus there was one major advantage the Time Trackers had that the T.E.C. didn’t, the Time Trackers could travel to different planets, and had a greater organization structure too.

As all three moved towards the holo-display, the chief got an updated Reader. “All right, what have we got?” He called out.

“We’ve got three more sets of rapid points that have appeared back to back at least a minute apart of each other.” A tech called out.

“Give me the play back from the first set.” Alex ordered.

Instantly the entire outer ring of the holo-display cleared, suddenly the trouble points appeared, and it did look like they showed up all at once. Alex knew that this was not the case at all.

“Slow it down and I mean way down.” Alex ordered.

The viewers slowed, and yet again the points did the same thing. “We can’t slow it down any further.” Another tech called out.

“As you humans used to say, bull. Slow it down to the point a snail can beat it.” Alex ordered.

The techs started shaking their heads. “The reason we can’t is because the speed below this is locked out, only the higher ups have access control to it.” The first tech explained.

The chief didn’t like that at all. “I’m giving authorization for the over ride, I’ll be the one to take the heat on this, do as Alex says and slow to below snails pace.” The chief ordered.

The techs all looked reluctant, but finally gave in; one went over to the chief with a Reader and got his signature. Once that was entered, the screen was then slowed down again, this time things were different. For at least fifteen minutes nothing appeared, then one light very slowly started to brighten on the line, and Alex knew they had the key point right in front of them, and that they could stop them.

“I want all the information on this key point yesterday, as in right now.”Alex called out startling every one.

Where a moment before there had been dead silence, suddenly there was a flurry of activity, people – humans and alien alike – going all over the place. Information flashing on screens and being projected through different holographic displays. Reader plates going all over the place, as information was downloaded for different inspection.

Alex was handed a Reader with information dealing with the key point on it. “Give me a visual in the center.” He ordered.

A second later, the center of the holo-display for the time stream was showing what was going on in that key point in time. It turned out to be a bank job, the one major difference with it, they were using tech that came from another time, namely their own present time. The thing that Alex started to wonder, was when it took place, the last thing he wanted to do was to be changed to looking human.

“Is that period green?” The chief asked as if reading Alex’s mind. “Because if it is, it’ll solve a lot of problems.” He stated.

Alex knew that if it was green, then not only could he go normal, they knew about time travel and it was after first contact. Any time period that was green, Alex could travel to with out having to change his appearance, any time period before a green one, he had to change for. The exception to that is for some off world planets.

“The time period is green sir.” Another tech called out.

Alex loved hearing that, and from what the feed showed, he was going to need to bring out the big guns. Walking over to a consol, Alex brought up a list of the shuttle that was available for use. Slowly, one by one, Alex looked over the inventory of each shuttle. The sixth one had everything he needed, because if he was going to be a part of a team – even for a short time – he had to consider them as well.

The chief was looking for Alex’s shoulder at what Alex was looking at. “I take it that’s the shuttle you’re going to be needing?” The chief asked Alex.

Alex nodded. “Yes, have the last member of the party meet me at its launching gate.” Alex said as he was handed a Reader with information on the other key points. Now he knew that he was going to be out for a while. “I’m going to need constant up dates sent to me in the field. Also check other worlds for similar events as well; I doubt that this is going to be strictly on Earth.” Alex finished as he headed for the lift with Alison right behind him.

As Alex had the lift head right for the roof, Alison looked at him. “Why aren’t you going for the energy transports?” She asked.

Alex didn’t look at her, just kept looking at the lift door as he replied to her question. “The energy transport is meant only for Earth bound traffic. When the Time Matrix was placed into the shuttles, the first person that tried to go up after the tunnel field had died went through the field still. Even though the body still arrived on the station in tact, the insides had been mutated faster that was normal. Turned out that the person had traveled through a still intact energy field left over from the tunnel, and even though the outside looked the same, the inside showed the next stage of human evolution. It wasn’t pretty at all.” Alex finished explaining to Alison as they arrived on the roof, and headed for the waiting shuttle.

“What happened to the person that had changed?” Alison asked, as Alex and her walked onto the shuttle and sat down.

The shuttle lifted off as Alex told her. “D.O.A. The moment the transport was completely finished, the body dropped to the floor dead. They didn’t know why till an autopsy had been done and that’s when everything had been discovered. Once everything was finished being examined, that was when they had their answers. It had not been as expected at all.”Alex explained looking out the shuttles forward windows. “There’s the place.” Alex stated as he got more eager to get off the shuttle.

The space station looked small at a distance, but the sixe was deceptive, since the station could take in a ship inside of it, several ships at once in fact. The outside of the station had a look to it that came from the old mushroom cloud effect from the old wars. The station may have had the look, but there was nothing deadly about the place, only ships and different races came here before going on to either Earth planet side or to a different world altogether. The Time Trackers shuttles were also stationed here too, the shuttles were used to for time travel and going to the surface only.

The moment that the shuttle docked, and the bay had been pressurized, Alex was off and heading for the door to the bay, Alison was right on his heel as they left.

Alex headed down the hall heading for a lift that he knew would take him to the right level. If it hadn’t been for the uniform, Alison might’ve lost him among the many alien races that were on that level, she didn’t and she got onto the lift as well. Once she was on the lift, Alex ordered a lift override for Time Tracker priority, which meant that if anyone else tried to call for the lift, it would send a different car instead.

When they arrived on the right level, Peter was already there waiting for them. “The shuttle is prepped and ready to go.” Peter told them as Alex and Alison stepped off the lift. “I’ve been briefed in by the chief as to where we’re going, but the only thing I don’t understand is why you need us on this mission too?” Peter asked in wondering.

“That’s the same thing I’ve been asking as well, but it seems that the answer will come from the higher ups only.” Alex told Peter. “So till I find out the answer to that question, we’ve been placed together and for any mission I’m the ranking officer here while in the field, which is where we’re going right now. I’ve read over the information on the Reader, Peter I’m going to need you to access the computer system of that period, and make sure that you leave no trace at all.” Alex said as they entered the bay the shuttle was in. “Alison, as we go there, check the Reader for the period and look up information on it. I want to know what we’re heading into, and I don’t want to go in blind.” Alex told her.

Both Alison and Peter nodded in understanding in their tasks. Once inside the shuttle, Alex sat in the pilots’ seat and powered up the shuttle to start the pre-launch sequence. Once the shuttle was sealed closed, and the bay was depressurized, Alex now through with the pre-flight, lifted the shuttle off the deck and pointed it towards the launch tunnel that was at the current time closed.

Alex opened a channel back to the station. “Shuttle Eternity to control, we are ready and waiting to launch, sending temporal flight plans to you now.” Alex stated as he waiting for the authorization needed to leave.

It didn’t take long. “Temporal flight plans received, happy hunting.” The voice finished as the launch tunnel started to open.

Alex hit the thrusters and pushed the shuttle into the tunnel. “I hate it when they say that.” Alex stated.

Once into the tunnel, the magnetic coils in the tunnel stated to push the shuttle out, which because of the magnetic coils, started to gain speed. The tunnel suddenly ended and the shuttle was now in open space and in free float. Alex engaged the engine and brought it up to the proper place. “Bringing the Matrix on-line.” Alex said as a display screen lit up that had a small picture of the Temporal Matrix Core in the upper right hand side of it. Punching in the time and location, a blue line going straight across, slid down the white time line displayed turning red. Once the line stopped, the time line to that point stayed red. Once the line stopped, the time line to that point stayed red till yet another blue line – similar to the first one – turning the red line now green. “We have a lock; all is green, opening the vortex tunnel.” Alex stated as a blue vortex of energy spiraled out to form a tunnel for the shuttle to enter.

Activating the thruster again, Alex pushed the shuttle into the vortex. Once past the clear event horizon, the shuttles engines came on full and launched it further into the tunnel. Alex pushed the engines up to full power and looked at the screen for an E.T.A. to their mission time. “Well we’ve got five minutes till we arrive, during which time we’ll be completely out of contact with H.Q. So whatever information you were able to get before we entered the time stream, review it now. Once we exit, we’ll have a two minute delay in getting information.” Alex told Alison and Peter.

Peter only continued to look at his screen as he spoke. “Well I’ve already reviewed the very limited data that is available on the computer systems of that time period, and I’ve got to say that I’m honestly surprised of how primitive their systems are.” Peter stated.

Alex got up and walked over to where Peter had set up and looked at the screen. Alex couldn’t make heads or tails out of what was there at all. “So I take it that you’re going to be able to hack in and leave with out anyone ever knowing?” Alex asked Peter.

Peter looked up at Alex. “Are you kidding me, I could stay in their system for years and they’d never know it at all. So leaving no trace is beyond easy.” Peter stated.

Alex nodded. “Good, as long as you can do it.” Turning to Alison. “What can you tell me about the period?” Alex asked.

Alison sighed. Lifting up the Reader, Alison looked at it, consulting some side notes she had written. “Well, before the data stream was cut off, what I had been able to find out, actually is all very interesting. It’s a post world war three period, and post first contact as well, but surprisingly the technology and culture for the period seems to still be some what pre on both.” Alison explained. “This means two things. One, there are still some anti-alien groups out there, and two; the government is still mostly holding the people back technology wise. Which as well all know is what led to the Tech Riots of 2264, and that’s about three years away from us. The Time Trackers are known, but for the most part only by local law enforcement, since they’ve got a directive to pull back upon out arrival. Question is will the officers in the field actually do as the directive says, a lot of them not only are territorial, but also at the same time, some are also anti-alien too.” Alison explained.

Alex thought it over, he already knew that he well out ranked anyone in the field, including local law, The question then became, would he need to push incase he ran into the anti-alien creeps, Alex hoped that he really wouldn’t have to.

Before Alex could say what was on his mind about the subject, a signal started going off at the pilot consol, returning to the pilot’s seat, Alex looked at the board. “Prepare to exit and return to normal time.” Alex told Alison and Peter.

The scene outside the shuttle was one of the time tunnel as the shuttle flew down, and the orange walls slightly aglow. A bluish white light was at the dead center of each end of the tunnel, the shuttle was heading towards one now. When the signal in the shuttle had gone off, the light started to grow bigger.

Outside in space, and orange energy vortex spiraled open for the shuttle to exit. Once the shuttle cleared the vortex, Alex powered up the secondary engine and set course for Earth planet side.