Chapter 2

Laura.

I sat in my office in the Science building, we had just finished the funeral services for the teacher, the whole town was in a state of mourning, across from me sat Shanor, Entoch, and Stephanie, Ben stood to my side. We where having a meeting to discuss Stephanie's new idea.

"So you see, we can train up a team of missionaries of sorts, we will give them supplies and horses, they will travel the world to spread education and our ways, we can establish satellite schools on all the continent's, we can give humanity a head start. We could cut back on the barbarism in the world, make sure people are educated, teach them to treat one another humanely"

She looked around expectantly, Shanor and Ben nodded in agreement, Entoch looked skeptical, He spoke first.

"I thought we wanted to gently guide humanity, not completely change the course of history."

Shanor spoke next.

"I know you and Laura are the cautious type, but remember this isn't the world she came from, we can't mess with the timeline because it doesn't exist here."

I looked at Stephanie who was nodding at that.

"That's my whole point, we have an opportunity to shape the world to come, we won't force anything on anyone we will continue using the policies we use here, just on a larger scale, we can send the road builders to any major locations we find, we could set up trade on a large scale too!"

I could see she was enthusiastic about the idea; I looked to Ben who nodded to me.

"I agree, besides the fact that we could use the roads strategically also, it would increase our resources and infrastructure."

I nodded to them, having just experienced the funeral for one of our own I was more willing to be open about changing the world we live in.

"I will authorize two teams at first, we will start small and see how it goes, Stephanie you will be in charge of organizing this. I want updates on the status of the teams on a regular basis, I also want anyone on the missionary teams to be out fitted with the latest batch of nanites, I want a group to be assigned to monitor their progress at all times."

I looked at Shanor.

"I want you to assign 2 of your best soldiers to each group, volunteer basis of course"

Entoch was shaking his head.

"I don't like this, we are not forcing our way of life on anyone, but its extremely hard to resist what we offer, we have to make sure we don't destroy the individual cultures we encounter."

I nodded to them.

"We will always show the upmost respect to the culture we encounter."

I could see Stephanie was excited at this new project, even after all this time she still showed the excitement of youth, she had not matured like Entoch and Shanor had, it was one of the reasons I was hesitant about letting her get the extra upgrades I had.

"I suppose Steph I will be losing my research assistant for my lab"

She looked crestfallen but I smiled at her.

"Don't worry Steph, I'll pick a student to assist me."

She smiled.

"I'll get you a list of the best ones!"

I nodded to everyone.

"Okay get to work guys."

The all left except for Ben, he stayed behind, he smiled at me, slipping into his southern accent, he had mostly lost it. He only did it when he was trying to get something from me, or make me feel better.

"You did a good thing honey, it will give Stephanie a pet project, and I am happy to see you relaxing your paranoia about changing human history, from what I remember it sucked anyway"

I shook my head at him, I wasn't in the mood to feel better right now.

"Don't you have guards to be training?"

He shook his head.

"Nope, I got someone to cover for me"

I raised an eyebrow at him.

"And why would you do that?"

He smiled.

"I wanted to spend some time with you."

I turned in my chair to face him.

"Really now?"

He nodded.

"Yup, and I wanted to discuss something of vital importance"

I looked at him.

"And what might that be?"

He leaned over to whisper in my ear.

"Babies, the pitter patter of little feet"

I shook my head rapidly no.

"I told you we aren't ready for that, we still have a lot of work!"

He smiled.

"Honey neither you nor I sleep, we have plenty of time to raise a child."

I shook my head again.

"This world is so primitive, there is so much violence and superstition, do you really want a child growing up in this world?!"

He frowned walking over to the door, I saw him trigger the lock.

"You know darn well we are making rapid advancements"

I still shook my head still.

"I don't know if I am ready for that."

He smiled walking toward me.

"It's been 89 years honey, WE are ready"

His grinned widened.

"And there is no reason we can't practice in the mean time."

And that was how I lost 3 hours out of an otherwise productive day.

90 Years previously.

The new targeting algorithm had worked, the director had managed to create a secondary wormhole branching off of the first, The lead scientist had been correct that the moons wormhole might be connected in a Y sort of shape to the main wormhole because of the original target of the first wormhole, he had theorized that they could turn it in to an X shape.

With the proper amount of energy they would be able to move the target to any location on earth. The director had manage to use the extra reactors on the moon to stabilize the worm hole, once the worm hole had opened she had set off one of the warheads that had been transferred to the moon, hoping the explosion would act as the first reactor had when it exploded. She had planed to place the 2nd exit to the wormhole in the most advantageous location she could find on earth, what she had not counted on was the extra energy causing the worm hole to engulf the moon base itself.

The director awoke to find the moon base spread across the Narmada Valley in Central India, she lay buried in the wreckage, she was impaled through her midsection with a chunk of the base, she pulled her self up, removing the metal. She watched amazed as the nanites went to work healing the hole in her midsection. She stumbled through the wreckage, she surveyed her surroundings, taking stock of what she saw, she was sure she could salvage equipment from the mess, it would take time, but she could establish a base here.

For several days she salvaged supplies, she had found several stores of nanites intact along with their programming computer, She found the reactors had remained intact, in fact the devastation to the base seemed to get worse as it radiated farther away from them. She supposed that it was a function of the energy produced from them that created stability for the transition through the worm hole.

She had found the armory scatter across the nearby river, she had wadded through collecting the weapons there, once she secured what she could she need to establish allies in this new world, perhaps she could find some primitive humans to use as a slave race for her new empire...

Laura.

It had taken two days for the dust to settle, I had contacted the Children and Ben to inform them of what had happen, the cave had been rocked from the shock waves. I told Stephanie to stay with the equipment while I went to see what had happen, the problem was I couldn't find anything, there was nothing to indicate anything had come through, I was getting all kinds of strange readings though from the worm hole, I could not determine what had happened, I searched for two days more finding nothing.

If anything this just underlined the need to shut the worm hole as fast as possible, I headed dejectedly back to the cave, I was stumped as to what happened, I was also glad that we had moved the village so far from the worm hole. Returning to the cave I had found Stephanie had followed my instructions and had made progress on the modified bomb.

"I have no idea what happened Steph, I couldn't find any trace of anything, there was some odd readings but that's it"

She nodded at me from her workstation, I looked over her shoulder at what she was working on, she was modifying the control circuits, she had added the gravitational field detector to it, she looked at me.

"The children said not to get yourself shot up again"

I shook my head.

"I am never going to live that down am I?"

She laughed.

"They just worry you will go on some damn fool quest on your own without seeking help."

I smiled.

"I think I learned my lesson."

She nodded.

"good"

I sat down at my workstation, I was modifying Ben's flight pack to take the bomb up to the worm hole, I saw Stephanie watching me, I looked up at her.

"What?"

She smiled.

"Ben was asking about you."

I shrugged.

"Okay, why didn't he just call me?"

She smiled.

"Because he was asking me about you"

I was confused.

"Huh?"

She continued to smile.

"He was asking what you liked; well he was asking what I liked, but his intentions where clear"

I frowned.

"So he was asking you what you liked? So how does that relate to me?"

She looked at me for a second.