Chapter 3: Forward To Go Back

Alatem and Charles had been talking it over for over an hour. They were still no closer to a decision about what to do with Alatem’s sister. “As you know, she’s also a royal, meaning now you could have a double death penalty on your head. Though Father is starting to warm up to you, we still aren’t to the point that he’d suspend killing you for touching a royal,” Alatem was slightly pissed at her sister for following her, plus there was the fact that she was now privy to the biggest part of her plan.

Charles knew they had a major problem. He’d racked his brain for some type of solution to this problem. A few moments later, his wrist com chirped, “Charles, I’ve completed the search of all the research files; it appears you do have a concept to do what you require. I have no practical application as of yet, though with the help of Ally’s resources, we are progressing toward a resolution.”

“Thank you, Cici. Please bring up the tactical display of the plans I have so far,” Charles hoped he’d progressed far enough to begin a practical building of the device.

“Compliance,” Cici replied as the plans appeared before Charles.

Pouring over the plans, Charles reformed the design, working at an almost breakneck speed. Two hours later, Charles was testing the concepts as hard and fast as he could. Dammit! He needed to start updating his device plans as soon as possible. Had he done that earlier, they wouldn’t be having this trouble right now.

“So far, all tests confirm the device is working as you intended. All results show only a three-hour window, no adverse effects detected, but we still have 100 tests to run; it will barely be in time,” Cici replied. Charles noticed that Cici was slightly more emotional. Good, the brain cells were starting to integrate into its personality programs. Checking all the results so far, Charles could see that the device was working far better than he’d hoped.

With only 15 minutes to go, Charles explained to Alatem what he was about to do. Alatem wasn’t happy with what had to be done, but unfortunately, her sister had the biggest mouth on the planet. Walking back to her sister, she explained what was about to happen. The little girl’s eyes grew large, then she asked, “Will I be able to remember you later? Can you give the memories back?” Charles just shook his head yes before he activated the device.

“We have to get back to the palace as soon as possible. I’ve called our guards here, so hurry, my love,” Alatem was still afraid that Charles would be captured if the guards got close enough, even with his tech.

“Remember, you’ll have to supply believable answers to her questions, or it might not hold. Her mind is young, and young minds are far less concentrated, making it easier for them to break the memory block,” Alatem shook her head, placing her sister on a nearby couch, watching Charles slip out the back.

Within minutes, both sets of guards appeared at the doors. Hurrying in, they were concerned that Alatem’s sister was hurt. Explaining that she’d followed Alatem and fallen asleep not long after getting there only put half the guards’ fears to rest. “I suggest you find out how she is slipping past you and amend the fact that you can’t seem to keep her in the palace. Up till now, I have been tolerant, but this can’t continue,” not really wanting to have them dismissed or punished, Alatem knew she had to threaten them if they were going to continue to be her sister’s protectors. Trok could only smirk as he thought she ought to take her own advice. Though he knew how well she was trained, she could hold her own in a true fight, though an assassin was a different matter altogether.

Charles was hiding not too far away, looking at his wrist com. It was strange that after he’d stopped each attack, the history that Cici had of this time changed. He’d asked Cici and Ally about it, and as far as they could tell, because he’d used his own brain cells after he’d been irradiated, the living part of Cici was also outside of time. Therefore, as events changed here, the history changed, with Cici unaffected by it. With all his theoretical knowledge that he now possessed, it still gave him a headache when he tried to think about the possibilities with time travel. Looking at his com, he saw that though they had stopped two attempts to kill the royal family, the fall of the empire was still only 10 years from now. Shaking his head, he started to wonder just what the fuck he had to do to affect the timeline.

The next day, Alatem awoke to the sound of her father knocking on her door. “Ali? You awake?”

Moving out of bed, she was throwing her clothes from her excursion the night before in a hamper. “I’m just getting in the bath, Father,” she called back to him through the door.

“Alright, come see me as soon as you’re finished,” he replied. Sighing, he moved toward the throne room. They’d almost gotten the man last night; just a minute or two earlier and they’d have had him. The Emperor was starting to have deep-seated fears. Alatem had the time raider out for over two hours. As it had been explained to him, that would have been ample time to go forward or back in time. Hell, 10 minutes was more than enough. Sighing, he thought, Alatem, what are you into now? Have you brought someone back with you?

Alatem was extremely nervous. This attempt was the most dangerous that the assassins would try to date. She was praying that Charles and Ally were ready. One mistake and they all were dead; today was the day that history had her dying. Charles had been up most of the night trying to perfect his homing bullets. He was still having trouble with the lock-on for one of the assassins. Cursing, Charles knew that he’d have to risk the long-distance matter-through-matter transfer with the last one. After conferring with Ally, Charles synchronized Cici with Alatem’s AI. He’d have to get everything almost perfect. Alatem was placing her life in his hands, and he’d be damned if some sniveling little shit was going to take her life.

Charles was nervous. He’d have to get way too close to the Emperor. Hell, he might even have to touch him. Then Charles knew all hell would break loose. The minutes ticked off, Charles checking his watch. Almost time. The first appeared, but Charles knew that all four had to be out in the open before he could do anything. Within only five minutes, all of them were there. Charles alerted Ally to prepare as he aimed at the Emperor. Shit, it was the only way. Thirty seconds later, the first three moved forward to strike. On the other side of the hall, there was a rapid popping noise the Emperor recognized from the day before. Diving to the floor, the Emperor and his family watched as three men fell on three sides of them. There was a brief flash next to the family. The Emperor, a little confused, saw that Charles had pulled a pistol, shooting the fourth man in the leg. The guards had already started to rush forward; one had managed to get a shot off just before Charles was flashed out.

The Emperor had finally gotten a good look at the mystery man. Though he was plain looking, the battle-hardened look in his eyes convinced the Emperor that the man was obviously a soldier or had been at one time. The guards had finally reached the screaming man. Yanking him up, they held him while the Emperor advanced on him. Removing the skin mask the Emperor could see he was obviously wearing, everyone in the hall gasped when it was revealed that the lone man left alive was, in fact, the Emperor’s supposedly dead brother.

“YOU! I saw you killed on the battlefield,” the Emperor shouted.

Laughing, the man spat in the Emperor’s face, “You weak-minded fool! As if you could tell anything! I despise you and everything you stand for! You son of a whore! Kill me, and you’ll never have a day’s peace. I have had years to build my army.”

“I thought it was your sons the whole time. Pity you’ll never see the light of day again. One would think that after the deaths of your two sons, you’d have left this insane idea behind,” the Emperor spat back at his brother.

In all the confusion, Alatem had left the room, contacting Ally. Her fears were confirmed: Charles had been struck by a stop shot. Running up the stairs, she ordered Ally to warm up the time slip device. As her room door closed, there was a flash, and moments later, the time raider jumped from orbit. All attempts to hail it were ignored. Then the ship shimmered and vanished. Cursing, the Emperor now knew that his daughter knew who the mystery man was. Only the royal family had knowledge of the long-distance matter-through-matter transfer system. Alatem was the only one who had a working model.

Charles was starting to shake; the stop shot was trying to burrow deeper into his shoulder. It was a much simpler form of his homing bullets but a lot more random. Ally and Cici had managed to almost completely halt the progress of the bullet, but he needed his equipment on the station back in his time. Ally was counting off the years, then they were back. Nearing the station, the defense shields were lowered. Moving into position, Cici took control and locked the station onto the hull.

Gasping from the pain, Charles gave Ally the position of the lab. There was a flash, and both he and Alatem were there. Moving as fast as he could through the pain, Charles pulled two vials from a secure panel in the wall. Injecting the first, Cici chimed in, “Charles, I advise taking the second set of nanomites.”

“I can’t, Cici. You know it takes a lot longer to program them to repair damage than you’ve had to set them up,” Charles gasped back.

“I have them at 75%. It is more than sufficient to repair the damage,” Cici droned back at him.

“No! We have to have them as far as you can get them. I won’t have these facilities back there to make more. Therefore, all that there are will have to be from me, along with the program. Proceed with the programming. If I pass out before it’s complete, then inject them,” Charles could feel the bullet trying to turn toward his heart, moving an inch every half hour. The first set had reached the bullet and already had the explosive charge disarmed, but the bullet itself was still moving. Finally, the program was at 99% when Charles passed out. Cici just as quickly injected the nanomites, monitoring them as they rapidly moved through the bloodstream.

Julie had been trying to contact the station for an hour after that strange ship with Charles on it had vanished. Julie could see on her readings that the ship was back. The problem was the station was at the edge of the Kronos clan’s territory. Julie moved her ship as close as she could, pushing a stray tress of her brown hair from her face. She executed a ship roll, hoping that Charles could correct the station’s position before the clan came hunting. Charles was drifting in and out of consciousness. Cici had detected the approaching ships not long after they had docked. The problem was that Charles was the only one who could bring the full shields up. The ships were getting closer, but all Cici had was the basic shield for navigation, and that would be gone in 5 to 10 minutes. Charles could hear Cici telling Alatem and Ally what he was detecting but couldn’t respond.

Reaching out, he barely hit the shield generator button before he passed out again. Cici alerted Alatem that they now had almost 100% shields and should be okay for a few hours. Ally informed them that her weapons were inoperable, something to do with the extra strong time waves Charles’s body was emitting. Alatem’s mouth hung open, looking at the 10 rows of switches, buttons, and knobs; she was at a loss as to what to do. Looking over the long line, she saw that the shields were at one end, but she wasn’t sure where the weapons were. Half an hour later, the Kronos clan reached the station, not even giving a warning before they opened fire.