Chapter 7: The War to Change

Charles held Alatem close after she’d begun to thrash in her sleep, calling his name. She awoke with a start, grabbing him and holding him close and tight, as if their lives both depended on it. Sighing, she fell back to sleep after making Charles promise that he’d never leave her. Charles lay there awake for a while, thinking about his rescue of Allie—it had seemed too easy.

As quietly as he could, he turned to his wrist com. “Cici, analyze tonight’s exercise. Something is bothering me about the whole thing.”

“Compliance. Anything I should look for in particular?” Cici queried.

“Yes, check for transmissions on secure channels, withdrawal of guards, doors left open and unlocked that normally wouldn’t,” Charles commanded.

“Analyzing. Shall I awaken you when I have results?” Cici stated.

“Yes, then we can plan and go from there,” Charles said. Something was off, and all his combat training kicked in—it had almost been staged. All clones? Hmm, yes, something was definitely off.

A sharp tone jerked both Charles and Alatem awake. “Ah, god! Shut that damn noise off!” Allie complained.

“I apologize to you both, but I thought you both would want to hear the results of Charles’s inquiry,” Cici stated.

At this, Charles sat up quickly, getting out of bed without bothering to dress. Alatem sighed as she watched Charles’s naked body stride to the control room. Groaning, she got up to follow him, first stopping to pee.

Walking into the control room, Alatem groaned when she saw that Charles had put shorts on. She liked him naked.

“I did as you asked and analyzed everything from the rescue last night. It was as you feared—there were discrepancies. Also, you were seen when you both came back to the ship by a human,” Cici stated.

This quickly snapped up Alatem’s attention. “Ally,” she started, “can you tell from these readings who it was?”

“Analyzing data now. From the readings, it appears with 98.5% certainty to have been your uncle’s oldest son,” Ally said, a tinge of hatred in its voice.

Growling, Alatem looked at Charles. “I thought, no, I hoped that little prick was dead, especially after I saw him killed twice!”

Charles nodded, looking at the scanner. Suddenly, his eyes flew open wide. “I think I might have a solution!”

“Also,” Cici started, “from all the vids from last night, almost all the vats were empty as if they were expecting you.”

Alatem backed away from Charles as the look that crossed his face was one of almost pure hatred and rage. “Damn it! That’s the last time that will happen. Cici, pull all the plans for this scanner, the plans for the TKX1000, also the bio-med scanner. Analyze them and see if there is a way to integrate all 3 into one compatible system.”

“Printing all plans now. Charles, wouldn’t the post-mort scanner also help?” Cici prompted.

Thinking for a moment, Charles nodded. Why not? Hell, if he integrated the first 3, the last would surely help.

Charles spent the better part of the day testing his idea. At first, nothing seemed to meld at all, causing Alatem to start to worry. After 5 hours, Charles was almost at his wits’ end. What the hell had he missed? He knew that there was a way to integrate any piece of equipment he made. Another 5 hours passed, and he finally found the problem. Laughing, he couldn’t believe that he had missed something that simple. Another 2 hours and he drew up plans for Ally to start fabricating, though in the meantime, he had to put up with its advances.

Yawning, Charles looked over at Alatem asleep in a chair on the other side of the lab.

Walking over to her, he gently lifted her and carried her to the bed. Sighing, he looked at the new scanner in his hand. He needed to test it on a group of people to see if it really worked.

Damn it, he was tired. He’d been going for days with hardly any sleep. He wished it was over so he could just get a good rest.

Alatem awoke slowly, reaching over she only found empty space next to her. Snapping her eyes open, she began to frantically search the room for Charles. Sitting at a small table across the room, Charles was busy tweaking and adjusting a scanner that she had seen the day before. Looking up, Charles smiled when he saw that she was finally awake.

“Damn it, Charles! Have you been there all night? No wonder I am so cold,” Alatem said, only half-heartedly.

“Allie!” he started excitedly, “I think I finally found a way to determine what’s what!”

Alatem could only stare at him like he’d lost his mind. “Charles, what are you talking about?”

“The scanner I’ve been working on. I finished it, but I need to test it. To do that, I have to go back down there. If it works like it should, we could end this in a few short days or weeks!” Charles proclaimed.

This piqued Alatem’s interest. “It would be a good thing, but Charles, remember they have had years to build up. The other night, all we really did was to destroy maybe a hundred. From the calculations Allie made, they have hundreds of thousands. Even with the weapon, I don’t think you’d be able to get them all, not unless you expanded the...”

The look of pain on Charles’s face was all she needed to see to know that this wasn’t an option.

A few hours later, outside a supposedly abandoned warehouse, there was a quick flash. Several of the guards went to investigate, but only two people returned. Charles calculated that they only had maybe twenty minutes before the guards would be missed. Walking in, Charles shot seemingly random shots till there were sparks from where the vid cameras were. Remembering the chain reaction he’d started at the last lab, Charles set charges at strategic spots.

Trok followed Charles deeper into the warehouse; they had contacted him saying they needed his expertise in defeating the enemy. They were almost to the center when Charles held up a hand; the voices they were hearing gave them pause.

Charles adjusted the atomizer and rushed forward. All the clones around the Emperor’s youngest nephew dissolved.

Screaming, he tried to flee, only to discover that his shoes had also dissolved to the ground where he stood.

“I don’t think so!” Charles said as he stunned the man then carried him out of the building. Firing at the first vat, Charles watched it ignite. The screaming started a moment later as each of the thousand vats started to burn.

Charles waited till it grew quiet and aimed at the building. Twenty minutes later, it was only smoldering ash.

Charles thanked Trok, as did Alatem. Trok said he couldn’t believe that the emperor’s brother had committed the crime of cloning. Alatem told him to keep this to himself as they didn’t know who to trust or who might be a clone. Trok started back for the Palace at a hurried pace. Stopping, he pulled a com from his pocket.

On board the Time Raider, Charles put the man in a stasis holder. “Ally, has he returned to the palace yet?”

“Almost. He made a transmission outside the walls,” Ally sadly said.

“Replay it, please, Ally,” Charles said.

“Yes, Charles. I am so sorry, Alatem,” Allie replied.

Tell him I have what he wants to know, Trok’s voice was heard saying.

They listened as Trok told them all he’d seen and heard. He also told them that the strange man was called Charles and he was from the future. He told them all he could remember. “Sire, they have your youngest son,” Trok finished up.

“It matters not,” Alatem’s uncle said. “The bastard was never good for much anyway. His being killed will give me even more right to take the throne,” he laughed evilly.

Alatem’s face twisted into a mask of rage. The coward was attacking them and claiming he was the rightful ruler? Charles had to hold her back when she tried to grab the atomizer and beam down to where her uncle was.

“It’s alright, Allie. I wanted them to know we had to do something to bring them out in the open,” Alatem looked at Charles strangely for a moment. She didn’t know why, but she trusted Charles more than she’d ever trusted anyone before.

“Charles, I trust you, but how can them knowing about you really help us? Won’t that make them hide even more?” Alatem asked. Try as she might, she couldn’t see how this was helping.

“Allie, does it really matter if they know? Think for a minute. Who’s really going to believe them?” Charles told her.

Alatem hadn’t thought of this. She could almost see her uncle shaking his head, thinking that Trok had lost his mind.

Charles started to outline the rest of the plan he’d thought up the night before while working on the scanner.

Charles had flashed near the port storehouse. He didn’t have room for error this time, so he had to do this as quickly as possible. Aiming as carefully as he could, he started to take out the vid cameras plus a few of the automated defenses. Quickly, he flashed out and reappeared at the back wall. Listening, he heard the commotion as there was a multitude of running feet toward the front of the building. A signal beeped on his com, spurring him into action. Taking out the wall, Charles pulled his stunner, firing rapidly he got both the human males who’d turned and were drawing weapons. Charles smirked, pulling both men together, he told Ally to bring them up. Next, Charles fired at the 4 closest tanks, igniting them; he heard the clones returning and started to take out as many as he could. Charles could see he was going to be overrun pretty quickly, as he backed out he destroyed the nearest support, causing that section to collapse. Allie flashed him to the front where he started that end on fire, again the screams started a minute later. Charles could feel the gut-wrenching pain start to spread even before he turned the atomizer on the building.

“Ally,” Charles gasped, “ALLY!, the microsecond the building is gone, get me on board and ARGH!” Charles fell to the pavement. The building was mostly gone, only a few parts of the foundation left. A man watched as Charles flashed out.