Child of Time (61 page)

“This is my last warning. Leave now or be destroyed.”
Tyler was called back to reality by Gregson’s threats. This man, as
Tyler concluded, had been given his position either in an honorary
capacity, through incompetence or simply to get rid of him. Looking
at the screen Tyler saw that most of the weapon fire was being
directed to or from five different ships from the defender’s fleet.
Hundreds of tiny black specs could be seen swarming around the
larger vessels. Tyler saw that the second fleet appeared to have
split into three groups but as of yet none of the defenders had
been defeated.

“Fire a deep space missile at the nearest ship. With
its obliteration, they will have to listen to us.” Gregson
arrogantly gave an order to a subordinate.

“Sir?” There was hesitation and fear in the man’s
eyes.

“DO it now and don’t ever question me again!” Tyler
finally figured out what the captain was talking about.

“You fool!” Tyler forgot himself and jumped up.
Gregson spun and crossed the intervening space with a couple rapid
footsteps and pulled back an arm for a punch. Tyler threw up his
arms but Gregson’s punch still made stars flash in Tyler’s head on
impact. Another set of stars flashed when Tyler bounced off the
wall behind him. When he was able to see again Tyler saw Gregson
standing over him with a look that warned of worse if Tyler or his
friends opened their mouths again.

With blurry vision Tyler watched the missile reach
escape velocity and move towards one of the larger ships. On one
screen was a map that showed blips where the estimated position of
the ships were and on the other could be seen the camera views.
Time seemed to stretch on forever as Tyler watched the one big ship
in the middle positively blaze with fire melting through a dark
cloud that closed in on it. The fact that these ships had their
back to earth further convinced him that they were defending earth.
Looking back at the other screen showed that the missile was only
creeping towards its target. Tyler’s head was buzzing and it felt
like his nose had been broke. There was also a distinct possibility
of a concussion. Finally after what felt like an age but was
probably only fifteen minutes the missile closed in on its target.
There was a bright flash and everything disappeared from in front
of the middle ship. Weapon fire could still be seen from the other
two groups but for the most part everything had calmed down. Tyler
watched the missile as a countdown showed only a few more seconds
before impact. He watched the other screen in horror waiting for
the explosion that would indicate impact. Instead he saw a few
flashes of light from the back side of the ship and the missile
went offline. No explosion followed. Silence filled the room until
Tyler was sure everyone could hear the buzzing in his head.

“We have another incursion.” The techie broke the
awkward silence. Some of the screens flickered and showed a bunch
more ships appearing. These resembled the second fleet in size and
numbers. The best that Tyler could figure out was that these new
ships were located nearly a quarter of the way around earth on the
other side, a moment later the screen with the map updated to
reflect the same thing. Tyler’s heart sank with the realization
that there was no way that ships anywhere near the size of the
defenders could ever intercept the new fleet. Hope flickered as the
giant ships sprang into unbelievable motion.

“It’s impossible.” Tyler caught himself speaking out
loud and looked over at Gregson who was simply standing and staring
at the images.

“Please elaborate. What part isn’t possible?” the
fact that Kyle could still have an ounce of sarcasm at this time
escaped Tyler.

“Anything in a ship that size accelerating at that
speed should be crushed to a few atoms thick.” Tyler whispered back
to Kyle.

“What do you think is going to happen when they stop
fighting?” Kyle asked Tyler in a few minutes after they had watched
the ships race toward each other on a collision course.

“I think that the big ships are defending earth from
the smaller ones.” Tyler kept an eye on Gregson who was still
frozen in the middle of the room. Tyler though he understood the
helpless feeling that Gregson must be suffering from but still to
have such an incompetent man given so much power scared Tyler.

“I hope you are right. Those bigger ships beat the
crap out of the little ones. I hope they can do it again.” Kyle
sounded almost optimistic. Suddenly it looked like a wave flashed
out from the five bigger ships. The wave was invisible but for the
fact that it warped the light behind it. The strange wave coalesced
on a single point in front of the third approaching fleet. Behind
this point the fleet simply looked like it disappeared. Nothing
looked like it happened until a severe earthquake shook the
building. It was probably less than a 3.0 but for the watchers it
was sudden and severely surprising. The quake continued for a
couple minutes without causing any real damage.

“Captain, There are tectonic disturbances worldwide
and also flooding along most of the west coast caused by sudden
rising ocean levels. It looks like whatever that thing is, it has a
massive gravitational influence.” An officer reported to Gregson
who returned a blank stare. The officer repeated himself before
Gregson appeared to understand.

“What am I supposed to do about any of that?” Gregson
sounded helpless. If Tyler hadn’t know it was impossible he would
have thought that he was looking at a black hole suddenly formed in
the solar system.

A couple minutes passed before a bright flash
enveloped the black hole and the earthquakes stopped. Several
minutes passed before Gregson was able to collect himself enough to
make another transmission offering peaceful negotiations. Tyler
rolled his eyes then grimaced at the stabbing pain caused by the
action. He got the impression Gregson only offered peace because he
felt that he had no other option. It was a last ditch attempt to
salvage an already lost position. Several minutes passed before a
reply came. All the screens switched over while the techies
muttered and yelled about losing control of their computers.

“Greeting earth peoples.” The image of what looked
like a human appeared on all the screens. No one said anything
before Gregson recovered enough to respond.

“Greetings unknown alien. We wish open peaceful
negotiations with you.” Gregson waited impatiently for the
response.

“Unknown human. I am known as Prometheus. Peaceful
negotiations have already been opened.” Prometheus scowled as he
appeared to look at something on his screen.

“I am called Captain Gregson. I have been appointed
the diplomat to deal with relations with extraterrestrial races.
From now on any communications with earth will be through me.”

“No.” Prometheus was still scowling.

“What?” Gregson looked like he had swallowed his
tongue and looked at the screens aghast.

“I said no. I don’t want to deal with you. There is
someone else in the room you are in that I want to talk to.”
Prometheus relaxed his scowl.

“We don’t have time to argue over who talks here. I
speak for earth.” Gregson tried to brush aside Prometheus’s
decision. “I think a mutual trade agreement would benefit both our
races. “

“Personally I don’t see how such a trade agreement
might benefit me but I want to talk to the injured human.”
Prometheus waited with an impatient expression.

Gregson looked around the room without seeing any
obviously injured people finally his eyes rested on Tyler with his
blood streaked face. “There aren’t any injured humans here.”
Gregson looked confused.

“My scans tell me he is standing in the north western
corner of the room. He possibly has a broken nose.” Prometheus
closed his eyes and rubbed the spot between them. “I want him to be
my contact.” Tyler was shocked when he realized that it was himself
being referred to. He was the only person with a broken nose in the
room. He slowly stood up as everyone in the room stared at him. He
tentatively took a step towards the middle of the room.

“Aha, yes you.” Prometheus smiled. Tyler looked at
the image and pondered the remarkable similitude to humans that
Prometheus had. “What happened to your face?”

Tyler reached up and carefully touched his nose and
grimaced. “I walked into a door.” Tyler felt Gregson glowering
behind him.

“Just say what I tell you to and everything
will.....” Tyler turned when Gregson suddenly went silent. The
Captain was encased in a rippling force field.

“You are a poor lied. The security camera footage
that I downloaded clearly shows Gregson punching you in the face.
He will be fine but silent for the time being.” Prometheus waited
for a reply from Tyler.

“Why did you want me?” Tyler had to know.

The truth is that from the footage that I saw, you
were the only one to figure out that the protectorate fleet's
intentions were not hostile towards earth. Besides I don't
negotiate well with people that have already tried to kill me.
Another thing is that I don't like dealing with diplomats and find
it refreshing when I can negotiate with an honest person. Frankly
we just saved earth plus I'm the one with the fleet of space ships
so I get to call most of the shots.”

“I think your involvement has been seen by half our
planet so some sort of relations are going to have to be opened.”
Tyler reflected on the chaos and unrest that would erupt across the
planet if an alien race appeared, defeated another alien race over
planet earth and then suddenly disappeared.

“You are absolutely right. I had hope to postpone
letting earth know about us but that can't be avoided unless we
erase everyone's memories but that would take too much work.”
Prometheus appeared to ponder the idea to Tyler's horror. “Here is
how it stands right now. Earth is under our protection and has been
for many years. The black hole that we had to construct to protect
earth did far less damage than we had anticipated. It looks like
some of our agents on earth have built gravity dampers that
protected the planet from most of the effects. Your orbit is still
unchanged but we will have to replace the moon. Your tides will be
off for a day or two until then. Otherwise we will clean up the
debris from that battle and a few annual meteor showers will be the
worst effects left over from today. Oh one other thing. The gravity
dampening effect didn't extend to your satellites so you might have
to replace a few.”

“Why are you protecting us and why do you look so
human?” Tyler didn't see what else could be negotiated. The idea of
agents working on earth either planning for this battle in exact
detail or time travelers bothered Tyler but when he thought about
it the idea of these aliens being time travelers answered both his
questions.

“That is a long story.” Prometheus smiled
slightly.

Chapter Twenty-two: The Well Laid Plans

This time Kiyan knew that what he was experiencing
was not a dream. The realm of shadows surrounded him on all sides.
Theo had told him that it was dream walking but he liked to call it
shadow walking. The thing that Kiyan did not know was where he was.
Most times the visions were of a single place. Finite in the reach
of his senses. This time it felt like he could reach infinity if he
tried. The lack of boundaries was frightening. It had the distinct
feeling that if he slipped he could traverse untold distances in an
instant.

Like the normal shadow walks, there were no specific
details that could be discerned. Everything consisted of shadows of
varying shades. There was the sense of vast emptiness and of black
spheres suspended by invisible forces. These objects were collected
in clusters and orbited more spheres that were pale and immense by
comparison. It was then that Kiyan realized what was wrong about
the universe. There was none of the shadows that he knew as life
forms. Focusing his consciousness on one of the worlds, Kiyan
examined it. There was movement on the surface but it was almost
indistinguishable from the planet itself. There was no life on the
planet.

Kiyan pulled back in shock as an image flickered
through his head. He saw the mechanical drakken fleet. He saw
shadow version of the fleet and saw the same flickers of movement.
The enormity of the scene before his mind’s eye shocked Kiyan. The
vision began to spin and reel. Vast stretches of the universe and
not a single life. Fear gripped Kiyan when he couldn’t remember how
to get back home. The lifeless shadows were spinning out of control
now. Kiyan forgot his fear for a moment when he sensed a life. The
swirling universe no longer troubled him as he tried to figure out
the mystery of a single life. It felt oddly familiar, like he had
sensed it before. Kiyan puzzled over this fact. There was no life
in this universe so how could he have sensed it before?

The fear came flooding back with a whisper of a
memory, a name.
Terra.
There was a universe with life. It
was Kiyan’s universe, not this one. Kiyan tried to find the source
of the familiar life in the hope that whoever it was knew how to
get home. There was nothing left of the shadow universe accept for
grey and black streaks. The single glow of life drew Kiyan on like
a beacon. No matter how fast he tried to move it still stayed just
out of reach.

Kiyan’s eyes flashed open and he sucked air into his
lungs like he had been holding his breath for hours. The lights in
his room slowly came on as he sat up. In the dim light Kiyan could
see the frost that covered his bed. Finally able to control his
breathing, Kiyan tried to push down the fear that gripped his mind.
He understood that he had been walking a razor thin line. Either
side of the line and he could have been lost in the lifeless shadow
universe.