As soon as Valeria saw Dr. Zachariah kneeling over her, she wrapped her arms around his neck and burst into tears. Pip came to her as well and she put an arm around her just the same. In Valeria’s eyes they were all dead until just a moment ago.
Cruz came to Bradigan and helped him off the floor. “What happened?” he asked.
“It’s a long story,” Bradigan replied.
“We’ll have to get you two debriefed as soon as possible,” Cruz suggested.
As more and more people funneled into the room, Bradigan turned to Cruz. “Give her some time, alright?”
Cruz could see the weariness in Bradigan’s eyes. He nodded.
It was three hours before Bradigan, Valeria, Cruz, Zachariah and Pip were gathered in the conference room to hear the story. Valeria did all the talking. As Bradigan listened, he noticed she left out the fact that Dr. Zachariah had caused a world ending Temporal Destabilization; undoubtedly she wanted to spare his feelings.
Cruz was recording and transcribing the meeting on his laptop. As the period button clicked he said, “Well there’s nothing we can do.”
“We could go back and warn them,” Valeria interjected.
“Miss Davis, if these people are as hands off as you say I doubt they’d even act on a warning.”
“They asked for our help,” Valeria pressed. “We owe it to them.”
“I understand your desire to assist, Valeria.” Zachariah began. “We have a date but we don’t know where on earth they’re launch facility was located.”
“Yes we do,” Valeria answered.
Bradigan looked at Valeria with not a little concern. He’d tried to find that information himself but it was locked behind the censors. He watched as Valeria wrote a pair of coordinates on a sheet of paper and passed it to Cruz. “How did you…?” Bradigan started to ask. She shot him a glance that told him to keep quiet.
Cruz input the coordinates into his laptop and cast the results on the large screen on the wall. The map zoomed in to a spot off the coast of the Danish peninsula. “Are you sure this is correct?” he asked.
“I’m sure.”
Cruz turned to Dr. Zachariah. “What do you make of this, Doctor?”
“It’s certainly plausible,” the doctor said, “Given almost 2,000,000 years of continental drift.”
Cruz stood up and looked at the screen closely, collecting his thoughts. “I still can’t sign off on this idea,” he said finally. “We still don’t have any real insight on how these A.S.R. people would react.”
“But…” Valeria began.
“I agree,” Zachariah said. “And from a technical standpoint to travel back that far would contain far too many variables. I’m not sure our computers could run all the necessary calculations.” He turned to Valeria, “I’m sorry, Miss Davis I just don’t think it’s safe.”
Valeria knew they were right so she reacted the same way she always did and left the room in a huff. Pip stood up to follow her but Bradigan stopped her. “Let me talk to her,” he said. He followed her and watched as she angrily pushed aside the door to her office and stepped in, letting it close behind her. Bradigan walked up and knocked. To his surprise, she quickly opened the door and dragged him in with her.
“You’ve got to be with me on this,” she said, almost threateningly. “You were there. You saw it all happen too.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, seeing the tears forming in her eyes. “I can’t agree to this either.”
She released her hold on him and turned away, leaning over her desk.
“Why does it mean so much to you?” he asked. “Those people knew the risks. They’d already given their lives away to live on that station.”
Her tears fell on the desk and she wiped her eyes with one hand. “Because it’s my fault.”
“Because of what you’ve done here? Because if you’d never had gotten into time-travel they never would have picked us up and, somehow, all those people would never have died?” He asked. “You can’t take responsibility for Locke’s actions or Thorne’s or Commander Hoban’s.”
They sat in silence for a while before she spoke again, “Don’t you want to know how I got the coordinates for the A.S.R. base?”
Bradigan had forgotten. “It crossed my mind.”
“I was able to bypass the lockouts on our guest access,” she answered. “It turns out Blue level wasn’t the lowest level. It’s actually the same level Major Thorne had. Only Commander Hoban’s clearance level was higher, White level.”
“I know you didn’t deactivate the security in the prison block.”
“No but…” she paused, “Locke tricked me, Bradigan.” She turned around to look at him. “Do you remember that name he dropped when we were talking in the canteen?”
Bradigan thought back. “Reeba?”
“That’s right. Turns out, that was where Locke’s cult had staged their last stand before the launch of the A.S. Guard; the city that was home to the A.S.R. complex.”
“What’s that got to do with you?”
“Locke fed me that name so I’d go digging for it. While I was, I think he or one of his cronies piggybacked onto my access to get to the security systems.”
Searching his mind for a way to refute her claim, Bradigan had a sudden flash of memory.
Tell Ms. Davis ‘Thank you’ for me when she wakes up.
The words Locke had said to him as he made his escape. He took those words and buried them deep in his memory, knowing that it would destroy her if she knew.
“Valeria,” he said.
She looked at him.
He took a step toward her. “It doesn’t change anything.”
Her eyes grew wide.
“It’s not your fault,” he said, taking another step. “It’s not your fault.” By now there were tears in his own eyes.
She saw his tears.
“It’s not your fault.” He offered himself to her and she accepted, holding him closely as they both cried silently.
Bradigan had no idea how long they’d stayed like that but a voice suddenly spoke through the intercom on Valeria’s desk. “Ms. Davis, there’s a problem.” It was Missy. “We need you back in the control room, now.”
Valeria released Bradigan and punched the button. “What’s wrong?”
“Ben says social media is lighting up with photo and video of the wreckage of a UFO on a crash course with earth.”
Bradigan and Valeria immediately flew to the control room where everyone was waiting watching the monitors.
“Is that your space station?” Cruz asked as they entered.
They looked up to see the A.S. Guard in low, decaying orbit. “That’s it.”
“The video was leaked by a NASA employee that felt it was his duty to get the word out,” Ben reported.
“Whatever device that hid it outside the timestream must have failed and it’s appeared here because of the calibrations used to send you back,” Doctor Zachariah postulated.
“What happens when it impacts?” Cruz asked.
“If the technology aboard that station is as powerful as we assume,” Zachariah said, “We may witness a complete temporal destabilization in person.”
“I’m showing temporal anomalies already manifesting in the atmosphere,” Ben said. “Look at this.” He pulled up another video of a cloud seemingly cut by a sharp blade; one half frozen in time for only a second or two and the other drifting along normally.
“Imagine what a time shear like that could do to a body,” Cruz said. “Part of you simply getting left behind in time.”
“Options?” Valeria demanded.
“Our only option now,” Zachariah said. “Is sending you back to warn the A.S.R.”
“Agreed,” Cruz said. “The variables have changed. If they were put into action to prevent this type of catastrophe they shouldn’t ignore us now.”
“We’ll prepare the calculations,” Missy said.
“I’ll get the pod ready,” Zachariah added.
Writer by Grace 