Chapter Seven: The True Final Frontier?

I was taken back to an INTERPOL office in Cairo where I was interrogated by police from three different countries in three different languages. English, Arabic, and Indonesian. It turns out some of the team made it out on the other submarine when the mummy attacked. They were in such a panic that they didn’t know how to explain to the authorities what had happened. The Indonesian officer questioned me in relation to the murder of Dr. Tambora.

After a while, a fourth agent arrived. He introduced himself as Mr. Tet. He was a tall, dark skinned man of middle eastern descent. He looked to be about age 50. He flashed his badge around a bit to the other officers present and told them he was with the INTERPOL Department of Special Cases and needed to take me to another site if I would cooperate. He requested to speak to me alone. So the other agents exited the room.

“I understand that you’ve seen some strange things Mr…Guy,” he said.

“Yeah, I’d say that’s accurate,” I retorted.

“I understand a lot of things about you. I’ve been observing you for quite some time. In fact, longer than you probably can imagine,” he said curiously.

“What do you mean?” I asked with a shaky voice.

He then took a stack of paperwork and slammed it on the table in front of me then said, “High profile international art theft, extortion, bribery, destruction of property in Italy, the murder of several French citizens in Paris, grand theft auto in the United States. And I know about your friends, the Mynakos. Hate to see that cute couple go down with you?”

“What do you want from me?” I prodded.

“I need your help Guy,” he replied, “someone like you, with the experiences you carry doesn’t come along often. If you agree to come with me and accomplish a series of assigned missions, I’ll see to it that all these links to you disappear as well as get the Russian Mob off your back.”

“Well, what do you want me to do?” I insisted.

“I’ll explain that on the way.”

Without explaining any more details, he took me out of the INTERPOL building on foot. We didn’t get into a car as I was expecting, which I thought was odd. We just walked into town down a series of alleys. The sun had recently gone down and I was confused as to why he would want to go this deep into the city at night. At one point he rolled back his sleeve revealing a metallic armband about five inches in length with buttons and some kind of display on it. Like something out of Star Trek. He poked around a few buttons which beeped. Eventually we reached an extremely dark corner of a back alley and he said, “Follow me.”

As we walked towards the darkness it surrounded us, eventually leaving any trace of Cairo behind. We were walking in a complete black abyss with no form to it whatsoever. Yet strangely, we were completely visible to each other. Even though there was no natural or even unnatural lighting to speak of. Within a certain range, it was as if we both illuminated light from our own bodies.

“What is this place?” I inquired.

“This is what’s known as a Dark Space, Guy. They are gaps in the fabric of reality that can be used to fast travel from one place to another. This device on my arm is called a Sequence Bracer. It’s an invention of mine, used to track and navigate Dark Spaces…among other uses. I took us to the Dark Space nearest to the INTERPOL office at the time. Dark Spaces dissipate from time to time. We’re coming up on our destination now”

“We are?” I asked, confused.

Just then, up ahead about a hundred feet I could see a large collection of desks and a dozen people working on advanced computers and looking at monitors with charts and equations on them. They weren’t in a room, just suspended right there in the dark space. It wasn’t until we got right up on them that I realized their little office was inside a cave.

“Welcome to the Central Command Dispatch Center, Guy. The home of operations for my organization.”

“Where are we?” I asked

Tet walked to the middle of the operations area where he received a report by hand from one of his staff members before returning to their desk. He looked it over briefly before replying to me.

“We’re deep in the Appalachian Mountains, on the eastern the side of the North American continent.”

“Appalachian Mountains!” I exclaimed, “We were in North East Africa just fifteen minutes ago!”

“Yes. I already told you that these Bracers allow one to move through space more quickly, via the Dark Spaces. Perhaps I didn’t emphasize how quickly and how far?” he replied condescendingly, “even still, you’ve not been shown near the scope of how far and how fast you can travel with one. But you will. We’ll be fitting you with your own Sequencer very soon.”

“My own? Why would you want to give me one?”

“Because I need you to have one in order to carry out the tasks that I recruited you for,” he turned his attention momentarily to an assistant, “Brittany, please fetch mister Guy’s Sequencer and set an origin coordinate for him.”

“Yes, Mr. Tet,” said the young, dark-haired woman in a black pantsuit before shuffling off to retrieve it.

“Come here Guy, I need to show you some charts,” he said as he took me over to another assistant's workstation and had them pull up visual guides on how a Sequence Bracer operated.

“Dark Spaces are anomalies found all over the universe. The smaller ones dissipate after a short time and are destroyed immediately when exposed to sunlight. The larger ones, like the ones surrounding the inside of this mountain, last for years. It’s why this place was chosen as a base of operations for my team. We can use the Dark Spaces here frequently and easily to maneuver about to other locations of interest.”

He clicked through several charts to show me visual examples of Dark Spaces and their function for his needs.

“Although you don’t need a Sequencer to use a Dark Space, it is highly unrecommended to try and navigate one without it. You never know where, or…when it will take you. The Sequencer calculates navigation to other Dark Spaces and plots a course from A to B. If you are one of the unfortunate souls throughout history who has stumbled upon a Dark Space and not turned and gone the other way, you most likely have met an unfortunate demise.”

We were interrupted by Brittany, the assistant, who began placing a Sequencer Brace on my arm and set some passcodes.

“And you invented this? How and for what purpose?” I inquired.

Mr. Tet huffed, and then answered begrudgingly, “In my youth, I happened across the archives of a genius theoretical physics Dissertation on the Relativity of Time and Space and how one could use it to shorten the distance between people, places, and things. I also learned of the mysterious Dark Spaces, and realized their potential in being utilized by the proper technology. My life's work has brought me here to carry out the second phase of discovery. Data collection.”

“Data collection?” I asked mockingly.

“Yes. My team is on a top secret mission to collect data for the salvation of mankind.

Now I wish to recruit you in the collection of this data. But first, there is more you need to know.

Brittany, walk him through the Sequencing process.”

“The Quantum Temporal Spatial Sequence Bracer or Sequencer for short, is simple to operate. The number here on the display screen is your origin coordinate. It’s the time and place you most recently used the Sequencer and will allow you to return to that place,” she explained,

“always default to this if you get lost in a paradox…”

“Paradox?!” I interrupted aggressively, “What the hell are you people talking about?”

“Oh, did I forget to mention,” Mr. Tet chuckled, “I’m from over 250 years into the future and have made my way back to the year 1994 in order to conduct my research.”

My mouth was agape. Things had escalated very quickly in the last couple weeks. I had gone from being shot at from a hotel window, to fighting a supernatural being, and now being taken on a stroll through dimensional blackholes and was now being lectured by a time traveling Government agent. On the back of the Bracer, an inscription read, ‘QTSSB Model #2’.

“Brittany, please continue,” Tet instructed.

“Each Sequencer has an origin coordinate. They are unique to that Bracer and allow you to interact with other timelines but still return to your original. This is your Alpha timeline, or time lane. The natural order of your life. When you time travel, you create time splits. For instance, if you go ten years into the past, it won’t be within your Alpha lane, but an alternative Beta lane. So even if you were to interfere with your own future, it would only affect the future of yourself in the Beta lane. Once you return to your origin point, it will be unaffected by the changes made in the past. However, if you travel back down the time lane following the route of your last trip, you will discover a future affected by the changes made to the Beta past.”

This was clearly going to take a bit to process. I had questions, but I decided to let her continue.

“The coordinates for your Origin can be transferred to another Sequencer, so if your

Bracer gets damaged, it’s possible to extract the coordinate and still be able to return to the Alpha time lane. However, if you damage it one hundred million years ago battling dinosaurs, you’re probably going to be out of luck as there are no other Sequencers in that era.”

“So how exactly does this move me through time?” I asked.

“When entering a dark space, you can set the Sequencer to a date you would like to visit. The Bracer will emit a pink aura around you since it is fitted to your body. This will cause everything within the aura to sequence to the input time and move it through the Dark Space like a space fold, causing you to come out on the other side in the desired temporal location.

You will be able to carry appropriately sized objects with you and they will factor into the

Sequencer’s settings, however, you cannot bring people with you. Only one person per Sequencer will allow for travel. But two or more travelers with Sequencers of their own can set coordinates and arrive at the same location via the same time lane. Time lanes are traversed by the creation of time bands that act like a rubber band. When a destination is set, you are sprung from one end of the band to another. Returning back down the lane, you are sprung from the other end of the time band.”

“Alright, run this by me again please. If Mr.Tet is from the future, then his Alpha time lane is different from the future of the time lane we’re in right now. For me, this is my Alpha lane but for him, it’s a Beta?”

“Yes,” she smiled, ”You’ve got it down.”

“Well what happens if he affects something in the Beta lane, then returns to his Alpha, but later on travels down the Beta lane to an earlier point and prevents the changes he made to that time lane?”

“Then he would create a Gamma time lane and the coordinates would reflect in the Sequence Bracers archives.” she answered, “This is why we warned that if you ever got confused, lost, or swept up in paradoxes to always return to your Alpha origin coordinate. It will unwind the spool of chaos. The natural order of your life is always marching forward, so you will return to your origin point with the exact passage of time you spent time traveling. For example, if you left now and spent two weeks in the year 500 A.D. and then returned, you would return two weeks from this moment.”

“Okay, so what about physical dangers? Say I jump somewhere in time where the earth no longer exists or a volcano…or hell, how does it account for the earth moving?” I asked with prudence.

“The Sequencer calculates conditions in the destination ahead of sending you there. It wouldn't transport you to an inhospitable era. On the question of earth rotation, the Sequencer also calculates where the location you parted from will have been moved to. Keep in mind, you can only transport via the Dark Spaces and the conditions required for a Dark Space to manifest are very specific. We still don’t fully understand them despite Mr. Tet’s extensive research. It is also worthy of note that time travel is not possible beyond the creation of the Sequence Bracer. To attempt to would be total annihilation. Because of this, we do not recommend that you even travel near the time in which the Bracer was constructed. Mr. Tet developed the device some time after the year 2230, so that should be considered the hard stopping point for forward travel.

For safety, we’ve prevented the navigation on your device from reaching that year and beyond.”

“Alright,” I said, “this stuff isn’t nearly as over my head as I thought it would be, but I still like to know how I fit into all of this and what you want me to do?”

Mr. Tet chimed in, “I told you that I had studied you far more than you could imagine. When searching for excellent candidates for the mission, someone with your reputation could not be passed up. And fortunately for me, you had found yourself in a vulnerable position back at the Red Sea for me to render aid to you and make this offer of employment during a time when conditions were perfect to set up this base camp in the same year.”

“Okay, now what exactly is it you want me to do?” I asked again more sternly.

“Do you remember your history lessons from school very well, Guy?” Tet asked

“I suppose. Depends on what and how well I was paying attention.”

“Are you familiar with the South African King named Shaka Zulu?” he prodded.

I sighed, then rolled my eyes before replying, “Yeah, I suppose the name is familiar.”

“Well, what if I told you that he was a rogue agent of mine named Ken and that in your history, he traveled back, used his modern knowledge to wow the populace and took control of the kingdom?”

“So what? Didn’t somebody kill him back then? Besides, it’s literally history at this point.” I implied.

“Yes, or somebody killed a stand-in for him and he moved on to another time lane beforehand,” Tet corrected me, “he was charged with the task of going back to that time period for the purpose of data collection. Instead, he took it upon himself to rule a people and thus alter the history of this timeline. Now, in this current moment, we have tracked his point of origin to the time lane he was on. I would like you to go back and eliminate him before he moves on to another time lane and we can’t find him again.”

“What for? It’s not like he can do any more damage to this timeline than he already did? And we’re here alive now anyway. Besides, who care’s what he does if he’s off in some other time line fucking around?” I responded dully.

“First of all Guy, this organization is not in the business of splitting off and creating timelines just to subjugate the people living within them. For that alone he should be reprimanded for breach of trust. But most importantly, we don’t know that he’s not off in other time lanes gathering forces to return to our Alpha lane and control or destroy the future. He has a Sequencer and the coordinates for his origin point as well as this command center. Are you interested in waiting around to find out what he brings with him should he come back here?”

Mr. Tet made a lot of sense to me. When Brittany was explaining so nonchalantly how easy it was for me to correct paradoxes I was relieved and underestimated the potential dangers. But I now realize that she was talking about correcting things for me personally, not the greater threats that a bad actor could cause by doing whatever the hell Ken was up to.

“Okay, I understand, and I’m game,” I told him and then asked, “When do you want me to go after him?”

“Excellent. Glad to have you on board,” he said enthusiastically, “Rest first. You’ve had a rough week. Then we’ll send you on your way.”

“Rest where? Right here? This place isn’t exactly giving off relaxation vibes.”

“Brittany, take Agent Guy to a prefab shelter and give him a regen-soak.” “Yes, Mr. Tet.” she obliged.

“A regen-soak?” I asked, as I followed Brittany away from the busyness of the command center and towards the outer darkness of the caves.

“Short for regeneration soak. It’s a synthetic mitochondria bath that accelerates cellular regeneration. It replicates branched-chain amino acids in a safe way that encourages growth and recovery. Soaking in it for ten or fifteen minutes followed by a normal night's rest will do wonders for you.”

She showed me to a little corridor deep in the caves that had many doors leading to prefabricated shelters for agents and staff to rest in. Before going into one, she had me enter the chamber for regen-soaking. I walked into the little steel closet and from above, a slippery gel substance rained down on me. It wasn’t quite like a shower, because the liquid didn’t bead off of me like water, but rather slid and expanded over my skin. It didn’t burn my eyes, or taste bad. While in there, I started to feel a soothing sensation permeate around my wounds.

Once finished, there was no need to dry off, because the gel that didn’t absorb into my body simply fell away. I got dressed and went outside the chamber where Brittany assigned me a room.

“That should do the trick,” she noted, “I understand you’ve been sent through the ringer the past few weeks. You should recover easily now that you’ve had a soak.”

Inside the sleeping quarters, I finally got a chance to rest and relax. I feel like I’d been on the move and under threat every moment since Svetlana tried to kill me. Each passing moment since entering the regen-soaking chamber, my injuries seemed to melt away further. Before drifting off to sleep, I already felt a hundred times better. I could get used to Tet’s way of doing things.

After resting at the prefab shelter inside the mountain, away from the noise of the control center, I freshened up and prepared myself mentally for the next phase of my journey…time travel. Anything was better than being hunted by the Russian mob or being in custody. This time I would be the hunter. But what could I expect from Ken? He must’ve been a decent fighter in order to form his own army back in the past. And to have Tet send me after him knowing what I was capable of. I’d find out soon enough at any rate.

Down at the command center there was a light celebration to christen my joining of the team. I was fitted with some new clothes and given a final briefing on the Sequence Bracer by Brittany.

“Okay, you understand how to set coordinates and get back here when the time comes right?” she asked.

“Yes, I think i got it”

“Okay, when you return, we’ll deposit any data you collect on your Bracer into the central computer. Godspeed Mr. guy,” she said as she saluted me and showed me off towards the outer Dark Spaces of the base camp.

I set off walking away from the dimly lit tables and computer monitors of the dispatch center and into the darkness. I clicked the display on the Sequencer and set it for the time and location Brittany had given me for Ken’s location. South Africa in the year 1816.

Now that I had fully rested after the regen-soak, I felt one hundred percent recovered. It was as if my confrontations with Svetlana and the mummy were another lifetime ago. The performance enhancing properties in that gel meant that I could take bigger risks and recover faster from them. I felt like I could take on anyone.

As I walked into the darkness, I lost sight of the command center behind me. The Sequencer started to go off making a beeping noise followed by a light squeal. A pink aura started to envelope my body. It felt warm but not hot. Maybe even a little jelly-like feeling on my skin. Then suddenly, I felt myself warp through time and space. Within a moment, the aura and sensations I had felt dissipated, and I was once again just walking in the dark. I walked further, realizing that I was coming to the mouth of a cave. The sun was just starting to rise it seemed. I heard the sound of beating drums and chanting going on in the distance but not too far away from the cave. As I emerged it was clear that I wasn't in the Appalachians or the streets of Cairo. I was in the jungle.

Wasting no time or energy, I made my way toward the beating drums. In no time at all, I was noticed by several African warriors armed with spears but looking in utter shock at my presence. I ignored them and walked on. I passed even more warriors before finding the main group making all the noise. Must have been thirty or more men all in a circle. In front of them was their leader, sitting atop a wicker throne. The beating drums stopped and several guards with spears drawn approached me. Before any conflict could arise, the King shouted, and they all backed away. He shouted again and they all dispersed from the area.

“You must be Tet’s man,” he said, “I’ve been waiting for you to track me down. I knew that jumping to a Gamma lane would probably only buy me time. Come with me.”

He led me up a ridge, to a large stone basin. He said, “This looks like a good place for us to do battle.”

As he removed his ceremonial garb, I could see his Sequence Bracer on his forearm.

“I know I probably can’t convince you, because you’ve probably had a lot of convincing done recently already. But you should know that you cannot trust Tet.”

“Why not? He’s done a lot for me,” I suggested.

“That’s how he always starts. Then he gets you out on his little data gathering missions. What did he tell you I was doing here?” he asked.

“He said you were a rogue agent that abandoned your mission and were in business for yourself to establish your own atemporal Kingdom. That you were a danger to your own Alpha lane.”

“Ha! That’s a pretty good one considering the facts,” he scoffed, “perhaps I just didn’t want to be his errand boy any more. Perhaps I wanted an end game for myself. Do you really think I’m the only one to travel back in time and set myself up for a good life? Your history books are littered with colleagues of mine who had the same idea. I was even in your shoes once, hunting them down for the greater good of the time continuum.”

He tossed me a spear and grabbed one of his own and said, “but I’m sure you can’t be convinced of anything else right now. Afterall, Tet probably saved you from something you deem worse than me.”

He lunged at me with two hands on the spear in a downward strike. I blocked with the spear in my hand. The two of us circled one another making strike after strike, but each time the other was able to block and repel. Neither of us had made a hit. Strike, strike, block, block. This continued for a few minutes, until an opening came up and I removed one hand from my spear and made a closed fist strike to his chest.

“White Lightning!”

The impact knocked him back a bit but didn’t floor him. He braced himself up with his spear and said, “Ah, excellent. Tet was able to find more warriors with control over their chi.”

Ken yelled, “Klondike Breath!” causing a cloud of white mist to blast from his mouth and splatter a thin layer of frost across my forearms as I tried to deflect.

I shook it off as he said to me, “You think you’re the only one in the cosmos to learn a technique like that? You don’t even know what you’re up against if you even do manage to defeat me.”

He struck out again with his spear, but I parried. Again, he blew out his icy breath. It froze my leg from the calf down to the ground, but I was able to burst out from it before another strike was made.

“Klondike Breath!!!” he shouted, as he froze a crescent shaped barrier between the two of us, then lowered his guard.

“It’s clear that this battle will not be decided by skill or endurance but most likely by luck and sheer force. Let’s say we end this quickly.”

He reared back, prepped his spear and tore off running towards the icy path between us. Just before stepping on it, he leapt into the air, aiming his spear in a down striking motion. Like a rabbit jumping over the moon, he flew towards me, streaming his cold breath in my direction. Time felt like it was in slow motion as I braced from the ice raining down around me and the inevitably of his spear strike.

Blocking as much of the frost ray with one arm as I could as it showered me, I coiled back my other arm and charged up a ‘White Lightning’ punch that would’ve sent Master Chen flying across the monastery. And just like that, the fight was over as it impacted Ken and destroyed the vital organs inside his ribcage and midsection.

As he lay there dying, he was only able to mutter a few more words to me before I removed his Bracer to take back to Tet.

He said, “Don’t let him finish his research. Smash the central computer and backup drives.”

I didn’t hang around to see what would happen if the Zulu warriors found out I killed the king. So I gathered the Bracer, and typed in the coordinates on my own to find a Dark Space and return to central command.

The Sequencer led me to another cave not far from where I first arrived at the location from. I set the device to my Alpha coordinates and in no time at all, pun intended, I found myself walking back through the Dark Space back towards the command center. It was no more than a half an hour after I had left in this time lane. I was greeted by Brittany and a few other aides of Mr. Tet. They clapped and congratulated me on my first successful return. Brittany took Ken’s Sequence Bracer from me and said she was going to plug it into a terminal right away and extract the data that he had collected.

Right about then, Mr. Tet emerged and said, “Excellent work Guy. I had no doubt that you would’ve been successful.”

I refrained from telling him what Ken had said about me being wrong about the whole situation. At that point I wasn’t sure who or what to believe. All I knew is that Tet had been good to me thus far and Ken was hostile right from the start.

“It would’ve been nice to know that I was up against another chi harnesser. But I got the job done,” I noted.

“Hahaha, yes, I figured you’d have had a run with the product of his little ice cream bar affliction. But I knew it would be the ultimate test of your abilities. After all, I’m diverting your timeline from the future you would’ve lived had I not become involved, so there's no telling how much of a hindrance it would have on your progression. Good to have a little obstacle for you at least.”

I didn’t like what Tet implied, so I asked him, “Any other surprises? You got some secret attack too?”

“Me? Why of course not. I’m a scientist not a fighter,” he implored, “Besides, don’t you think I would’ve gone back to defeat Ken myself rather than hire you?”

That answer satisfied me. I decided to then inquire about what my next task would be. Tet told me that I was in no rush at that point and that I should use the Sequencer for a little vacation before taking on the next task. He suggested I visit a certain Polynesian brothel on a pacific island paradise. In my own timeline of course, so as not to mess up another era accidentally. He said the fresh air and volcanic ash would do my body good.

“My research has shown great promise in the effects of hot springs and volcanic ash on the replication of healthy cells,” said Tet.

I took a stab without being too direct, “And what exactly is your research?”

“Unfortunately, Guy, the end goal of this project is top secret, but I can assure you it is for the greater good of humanity and the planet,” he deflected, “Now go on. Recharge your batteries.”

I didn’t inquire further, but I did take him up on his suggestion. After a little stint in the Pacific, I warped myself back to the command center in the Appalachian Mountains. Brittany greeted me and said that Tet was away on a mission of his own but would be back in a few minutes. So, I waited for a bit and sure enough, from the darkness Tet arrived.

He came into the command center with a tall woman with light mocha skin and long black hair. She wore a black suit with a white dress shirt that revealed ample cleavage. The two of them stopped before proceeding and Tet said something to her as she eyeballed me from across the room. I sat there in an office chair, intrigued. This wasn’t an agent I had seen around here before. When Tet finished talking to her, she turned to leave as he continued toward me. Before exiting the command center into the darkness from whence they came, she turned back and gave me one last glance.

“Ah, welcome back Guy,'' greeted Tet, “Well rested I trust?”

“Yeah,” I said, “I’m not one to stay still for long as I’m sure you’re aware. I’m ready for my next mission.”

“Very good,” he spurted, “we've been collecting large gemstones for study and have noticed that the bigger they are the more extensive our findings about them become. In Sri Lanka, in the year 2021, the largest Blue Sapphire ever known, called, ‘The Queen of Asia’, will be discovered while digging a well. I want you to accompany another one of my agents there the day of the discovery and retrieve it.”

I paused for a moment and looked around at the small group facing me. After a moment,

I uttered in displeasure, “Are you kidding me? You want me to go pick up a giant rock for you?”

“It’s a very simple task, Guy. You won’t be going alone either. The danger is so minimal it is non-existent,” Tet assured.

“That’s the problem! You think I’m out here in the world to do menial tasks? I had plenty of that in my old life. The first mission you sent me on had a formidable foe waiting for me. I’m not interested in being an errand boy. The Russians would give me better jobs!” I shouted.

“Please Guy, be reasonable. There will be more interesting jobs,”

“Then fetch me when they come up. Why can’t you send someone else?” I asked.

“All of my agents are busy at the moment. You arrived just after I learned we needed to obtain the gemstone,” Tet explained.

“Why can’t you send Brittany?”

“I need Brittany here! She’s an office manager. Not a field agent,” he retorted.

I was beginning to understand the foundations of Ken's frustrations. Tet thought he could order his people around for the simplest of tasks. He’d send me out to get a refreshment from the Boston Tea party if he felt like it, just for the fact that I worked for him and had a time machine. This pissed me off. I told him I was gonna need some more time to think about the future of our working relationship before I did any more jobs for him. He asked me how much time I needed, and I gave him the only answer he needed to know.

“All the time I need.”