Chapter 34
RefPlane: 1 Apr 2045
"We close?" John whispered into his com.
"Just over the snow bank," Tye replied, "a hundred meters. The storm should cover our advance until we can get sight of Thule Station."
"Why don't we have any guns?" John asked.
"When we're closer to the main complex," she explained ignoring him, "I'll scan for our objective."
John felt his so-called security clearance improvement was little better than before. Tye was still withholding mission-critical information until necessary. He understood her motives and just focused on following her orange, thermal outline in his modified snow goggles as they came upon a building with generators rumbling inside.
Tye removed a glove and dug out a pad from his pack. After a few quick inputs, she pointed through the snow to the roof of the building in front of them. "Sniper," she said. "And guards on patrol," she indicated behind them.
"And there is our objective," she said pointing into the flurries, "just twenty or so meters ahead."
John could barely make out the tall structure rising out of splintered polar ice. It obviously was not part of Thule Station.
"What is that?" he asked.
"A submarine’s conning tower," Tye whispered into her com.
John was impressed Tye knew such details of Minus' history here in the Arctic as everything about their present situation screamed someone required lots of secrecy in the icy wasteland.
We can make transit from here," Tye said, "but we need to make sure it is clear." She re-scanned the station with the pad and then directed it at the partially submerged boat's conning tower. "Two readings as before. We're good. You ready?"
John nodded and then felt slightly warmer. His goggles were slow to readjust to the interior light level, so he pushed them atop his head after pulling his parka's hood back. A woman and young man stood before them, both dressed in dark grey cloaks, hoods covering most of their faces.
"Commander, we are friends," Tye said and quickly while still wearing the Amhrán. Her arctic gear lay in a neat piled next to her.
"Ah, hi," John added awkwardly.
"Intriguing," the older woman said in no-accent English.
"Indeed." The younger male agreed similarly. "Transporter technology is unknown at this time."
"We appear here by way of this intra-universal transference entity," Tye explained light touching the Amhrán. "The very existence of the multiverse is at stake, and we need your help. I am Tye Brasca. This is Dr. John Mackinac."
"You obviously know me," the older woman said. "This is my son and navigator," the commander said as she pushed her hood back.
"Aliens!" John gasped at their obviously unearthly facial features. They were humanoid, striking and tall.
"Vulcans," Tye corrected him.
"But first contact is not for almost another twenty years," John said remembering Minus historical accounts and noting their supposedly characteristic pinna were absent along with any indications of ears.
Tye gave him a stern look. "Believing history again?" she said tersely.
He realized information had just traveled downline.
The navigator stepped forward. "If what you say is true it is reasonable that we must ensure minimal details are shared between us. You speak of an emergency of the highest degree, but how shall we confirm such a statement," he said flatly.
Tye didn't have any answers.
"Their transport technology indicates merit in Tye Brasca's assertion," the commander said thoughtfully while studying the shimmering Amhrán. "We have forty-seven minutes before our captors scheduled return. I suggest you tell us what you require."
"My family thanks you," Tye said. "We need a plasma modulator from your ship to reverse a quantum tunneling event nearing its supercritical threshold."
"What you need is possible, but we must act quickly," the elder Vulcan said and then looked at her son.
"I yield to your judgment," her son told her, his eyes downcast.
"We should return to our ship just moments before we were rescued," she told Tye, "when the modulator is still accessible."
"Of course," Tye said.
The commander touched her son's shoulder. "I will attempt to return with the essence of those that do not remain."
The young navigator nodded his agreement.
"Dr. Mackinac will remain here," Tye said. "John, break out the breathers. And you, commander, it will be best if you disrobe."
He retrieved the pair of aquatic breathers from his pack, handed them to Tye and then turned to face the navigator as the commander undressed.
John was about to say something to him to alleviate the awkward situation when the navigator said, "It would be rational to assume minimal communication will best preserve the present timeline."
John ignored him. "I'd always hoped I'd see my first ETs honored by a New York ticker-tape parade," he said dejectedly as the Vulcan commander and Tye vanished.
"Time?" John asked.
"Eight minutes, 11.3 seconds until nutrition is provided," the Vulcan replied stoically to a third request for a point in time after his mother and Tye left.
"Too much animal protein, I bet." John said remembering Vulcans were supposedly vegetarian. "Given those in power, I can understand why you're in a holding cell on the bottom of the Earth," he added.
"Our nutritional needs have been met," he replied but ignoring John's political conjecture.
"If you need rescuing," John pressed, "I'm sure the Family will help."
"Given the extra-universal standing before me," he said, "the existing timeline is at risk. It is not logical to increase that peril."
John pondered if he had been insulted. He thought of Helen and her passion for classic science fiction; it was coming in useful and he felt a tinge of guilt for poking fun about it to her.
"I take it your visit is unintentional?" John asked again.
"An unfortunate series of malfunctions caused our scoutship to crash."
"A series of malfunctions," John said to indifference from the navigator. "Highly improbable I'd bet. Kind of a big coincidence, don't you think? The high improbability of you being here and us needing exactly what you have on your ship to save us all." John didn't know why he was speaking so candidly; perhaps he felt a kindred spirit in the Vulcan navigator where events beyond his control had ensnared him.
John's vague speculation ended prematurely as Tye and the commander reappeared before them soaking wet with the breathers still in their mouths.
The commander was holding a small container. "I have been successful and we have obtained the necessary component," she told her son after spitting out her breather, "but we must oversee its integration into their apparatus."
"Of course," he said flatly.
"John, grab the breathers and leave the sensor," Tye said as Amhrán appeared around her. "It will change color if anyone has entered this room while we are gone," she said passing the hemp robes to the Vulcans, "and you may wear these."
John produced a tiny light-green device from his pack as the Vulcans pulled on the robes. He placed it on a small table, beneath a delicate china teacup. He shook his head at a most mundane of Earthly objects to be in a room with aliens.
"An organic transportation…stimulating," the Vulcan navigator said as they appeared together next to the bench and transit monitor in the Pruchlais.
"I'm Jennifer," Jennifer said to the Vulcans.
Rodney appeared to be making the last adjustments on the energy conduit. "Rodney," he said without looking up.
"Please, Commander." Tye pointed at the transit monitor.
The Vulcan commander gently laid the container on the bench and then opened it to reveal a large crystal with multiple faces.
"Mother?" her son said seeing the core of their warp technology.
"The auxiliary crystal will go unnoticed even if our ship is recovered," she replied placing it gently in the conduits' cradle assembly.
John took a close look at the mineral specimen.
"An orthorhombic crystal structure consisting of a stable isotope of Lithium and Tellurium," the navigator explained noting John’s interest. "It has a unique characteristic of dually streaming matter and antimatter. However, I've never seen its application with dark energy."
"I'll work," Jennifer said. "It has to."
The Vulcan commander made a few adjustments to Rodney's set up. "Power up slowly, Rodney," she cautioned.
As the crystal began to glow bright blue, Jennifer activated the attached pads holo display. "Receiving data," she announced.
John caught something in her voice. She was worried.
"Yes," Rodney said, "the readings appear stable, howev—."
"Thank you," Tye said quickly to the Vulcan commander.
"Of course. We must return," she said acknowledging that their comprehension of current events needed to be minimal.
"Yes," Tye said taking their hands.
"Live long and prosper," John said to the navigator.
"And to you, Dr. Mackinac. Your observations may have merit. I will consider them further," he said and handed John their hemp robes.
John showed them his right palm as he separated his fingers in to two pairs, broken by a gap between the second and third as they disappeared.
Rodney and Jennifer looked at him quizzically.
"It's what you do to Vulcans," he said as Tye appeared next to him making him jump. "Damn," he yelped.
"They have returned undetected," she announced with an obvious sigh of relief.
Jennifer pulled her to the holo station. "Take a look at that," she said pointing to what looked like a miniature galaxy spinning in one corner of the display.
John struggled to understand the multi-dimensional graph axes. "Can someone explain what we're looking at?" he asked in frustration.
"It appears to be a wormhole," Rodney replied.
"Not your typical wormhole, more of a rip," Tye said as Jennifer adjusted the pad to sharpen the display.
"It originated at the time of Navis' destruction," Tye said studying the display and then, taking more time to decipher the various readouts, added, "but emerged here around 2020. Just a few of years before the Optimum nuked the US. The rate of instability follows a fractal-exponential curve."
"It definitely has the necessary potential energy to progress to an erasure threshold," Rodney said.
"And it must be associated with the Leadership's arrival," Jennifer said. "How else can we explain it?"
"Its energy balance is nearly super critical," Rodney said. "How could it exist for so long?"
"It has been here twenty-five years," Tye replied, "but who knows what temporal reference it actually has. It is clearly extra-universal from the dark energy flux."
"So, it looks like we've found the source of the fractime instability," Rodney said. "I'll see if I pin down the spatial location and estimate its exact conversion rate."
"Good idea," Tye said while deep in thought.
"But the Leadership would have escaped at least slightly before the Navis' warp containment failure," John said.
Tye nodded. "It is possible that from null space, the same bent laws of physics that allowed the Leadership the trans-universal Prophesy had delayed their transit long enough to coincide with the warp field implosion."
John asked, "Can temporal linearity reverse in null space?"
"More like stall or slow down," Tye said. "Depends on the reference frame."
It was more weird physics stuff. John found it fascinating before all the universe hopscotch began. Now, he just found it frustrating that he could not always trust his perceptions or logic to contain enough reality to rely on lately. He needed Jen.
Her young counterpart sat down on the stool next to him. "The projected threshold will be reached sometime in late 2055; plus or minus a few months," she announced calmly.
"Damn," Tye said, "talk about the middle of a shit storm."
"Yeah," Jennifer said, "the fuckin' middle of World War III."
"That really sucks," Rodney muttered as they all stared at the anomaly.
"Why would the Leadership start such a process?" Rodney asked.
Tye shook her head. "We also have the problem that if the Leadership escaped the Navis to Minus in 2020, then they are already intricately linked to Minus history."
"Maybe they are shitting themselves," John said. "Maybe they created this during their transit from null space and don't know how to deal to it or don't even know it's dangerous or don't even know it's here."
"Unusual hypotheses," Rodney said.
"I second that," Jennifer said shaking her head.
"Don't you see," John said. "We're still here and the Family is still here long into the future. We must have stopped it somehow without altering anything the Leadership command has done while here."
"That is paradoxical," Tye said worriedly, "and probably a further symptom of instability. We could all now be trapped in that loop and never know." She looked pensively at Rodney.
"But only if we destroy it and kill them in 2020," John said emphatically. "If we destroy it at the right time in the future, we use the paradox against them, but we'll have to let the Leadership go."
"But when precisely? That moment would be critical to best preserve the timeline," Jennifer said.
"Believe me," John said, "we don't want to over think this stuff."
"I tend to agree," Tye concurred.
"Are you sure?" Jennifer asked her.
"Yes. John's logic appears correct," Tye said thoughtfully. "We must seek out and destroy this trans-universal rip just before it destroys everything and every when. And if the Leadership hinders us, we will have no choice but to eliminate them as well and hope for the best."
"Wait; there are more anomalies," Rodney announced. "They show up only after filtering out the rip. Two in nine months time and disappear a few days later."
"That would be Jenny and me," John said, "although Prime recons only went back as far as the early fifties. Hey, what if—"
"Do not even consider it," Tye told him. "Besides the Time Accords, the resulting instability would accelerate the erasure threshold."
"There's also later activity," Rodney said.
John said, "That's probably Jenny and or me; then there were the Camp David meetings with Prime around that time as well as Prime's similarity recon missions."
"You get around, Doc," Jennifer said.
"There are still a few others, but they produced slightly different transit signatures and quite a few recently," Rodney said still studying the display.
Tye leaned over this shoulder to get a look at an individual datum. "Family transits and most during the recall. We can ignore them."
"Jennifer, can we tell where the rip is located?" Tye asked.
Jennifer adjusted the data stream and then tweaked the display. "Looks like somewhere in northern and western hemispheres about 1800 meters elevation." She looked to Rodney, who nodded agreement. "Come on," she scolded the monitor. "Getting close. There, its location is approximately 38 degrees, 44 seconds north, 104 degrees and 51 seconds west.
"Damn," Tye said turning from the group and looking up to the Pruchlais' roof.
"Where is that?" Rodney asked.
Tye turned her gaze back to the group. "Anyone want to guess?"
"Western US somewhere?" John ventured.
"The Mountain," she said.