Forward to go back (The Mission 3)
Introduction:
Charles is hurt the plot thickens
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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 a concept to do what you require. I have no practical application as of yet, though with
the help of Ally’s resourses 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 the design working at an almost breakneck speed. 2 hours
later Charles was testing the concepts as hard and fast as he could, damnmit! 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 3 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 it’s
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 their 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 set 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 guard’s 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
all together.
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, as far as they
could tell, because he’d used his own brain cells after he’d been irradiated, that the living part of cici was
also outside of time. Therefore as events changed here, the history changed, 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 comp he saw that though they had stopped 2 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 effect the time line.
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 your 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, ah Alatem what were you into now, have you brought someone back with you?
Alatem was extremely nervous this attempt was the most dangerous that the assassians 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 assassians, 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 snibbling little shit was going to take her life.
Charles was nervous, he’d have to get way to close to the emperor, hell he might even have to touch him
then Charles knew all hell would break lose. 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 5 minutes all of them were there, Charles alerted Ally to prepare as he aimed at the emperor, shit it was
the only way. 30 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 man 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 was 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 supposed dead brother.
“YOU! I saw you killed on the battle field,” 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 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 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 mater through mater 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 this was alot 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 calling off the years then they were back, nearing the
station the defence 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 gasp 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 in order 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 it’s self was still moving. Finally the program was at 99% when
Charles passed out, cici just as quickly injected the nanomites monitering them as they rapidly moved through
the blood stream.
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, 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 unconsciousness, cici had detected the approaching
ships not long after they had docked, problem was Charles 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, that’d 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 ok for a few hours. Ally informed them that her weapons
were inoperatable, something to do with the extra strong time waves Charles body was emitting. Alatem’s mouth
hung open looking at the 10 rows of switches, buttons, and knobs she was at a loss what to do. Looking over the
long line she saw that the shields were at on 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 they opened fire.
Charles was clawing his way to the suface through what felt like miles of blackness. Slurring his words
he tried to order the weapons to fire, “cici weponz.”
“Charles, deploy weapons?” cici asked.
“Yeth,” Charles slurred back, Alatem watched which parts of the control panel lit up huh it was under the
shields.
“Fither,” still unable to speak clearly, the bullet had been dismantled and absorbed but the path it took was
still painful and still healing, the nanomites had deadened the pain but most of his other sences also. About
an hour later another 20 ships joined the first 10, Charles’s head was finally starting to clear his throat
though was still unable to get the words out right. Another hour passed another 20 bringing the total to 50
were now trying to pierce the shields. Charles decided to give them a chance before he destroyed the fleet
completely.”To the Kronos fleet, as you can see you can’t penetrate my shields this is your only chance to
witdraw, I will not wound or damage; you have 1 minute to comply or be obliterated,” there was a laughing from
the speakers.
Sighing Charles directed all weapons toward the Kronos fleet, looking over the readings Charles saw
that the energy signature was almost identical to that of the Mioan empire. Looking at the history Charles saw
that the empire lasted 20 years then fell to another empire. The only problem was the conquerors had tried to
move deeper and had been defeated. The empire split and a civil war started that wiped out the rest destroying
almost all evidence. Not wanting to start an intergalatic war, Charles fired a warning shot past the lead
Kronos ship. Again the speakers were filled with a gruntal laughter, “Big man! You are so powerful make big
threats yet you miss! You’re shileds can’t hold long, then we will enjoy taking everything you have!”
Shaking his head Charles was finally starting to feel better, what idiots he thought, they could see
that his power levels weren’t dropping, yet they still thought they were going to win. Reaching over Charles
flipped 2 switches up and waited, suddenly pressing a red button Alatem’s mouth hung open as the lead ship
flashed and was gone with no fan fare. The speakers were suddenly alive with shouting, “I warned you, I can
take out the rest of your fleet just as easily, leave now and I MIGHT let you live!” Charles yelled into the
mike.
“You bastrd! That was my brother! I will never rest till you’re dead!” With that the rest of the fleet turned
and withdrew. Shaking his head again Charles watched as the Kronos ships picked up speed then were gone,
suddenly a frightened Julie was on the line.
“Charles! Have you lost your mind? That was the eldest son of the Kronos empire’s ruler, you do realize
that they won’t stop till you’re dead or they are,” Julie was almost shouting, “hell and he was the nice one
his brother who was yelling at you is the most evil of the 20 sons. I hope you got alot of big guns, all of
them will be after you now.”
Charles just stared at Julie, in had been a few weeks since he’d seen her but as he suspected the failed
attempts in the past had slightly altered his time. Charles looked at Alatem wondering a moment, “Ally,” he
asked.
“Yes Charles, how may we help all of you?” The AI replied in a little too sexy voice.
“Are there any records of a person out of time, being able to recieve memories of the time they had been
removed from and then altered?”Charles asked an idea forming.
“I’m not following you,” Alatem said.
“It’s like getting the memories like I lived this time line, even though I didn’t,” charles replied.
“Searching memory, please give me a few minutes Charles,” Ally replied.
“Why did you ask that?” Alatem asked wondering what Charles was up to.
“It just dawned on me, something Ally said right after I was removed from time. She said that the reason it was
so painful, lasting so long, was because I was important to both times. I feel there is something in the
memories that would benefit both times especially after we alter this time again.” Charles was hoping he was
right but it was the only thing that made sence at this point.
5 minutes later Ally chimed in, “Search complete. it appears that after the stopped attempts new information
was added to the time line. Yes it appears that experiments were conducted on the conscious downloading of
memories that are not a part of a person out of time. Charles,” Ally was dead serious, “this procedure is far
more dangerous than the last, there was only a 60% estimated chance of surviving it, plus the research was
never completed.”
Alatem spoke up at this point, “It’s not worth it Charles We’ve just started to correct all that was
wrong in my time, I can’t lose you to this insanity.”
“Alatem, I have to do this it’s the only way I can know for sure, besides with me, Ally and cici working on it
I am sure we can increase the percentage,” Charles replied seeing the look of terror on her face.
“Computations already started,” broke in Ally, “I’m already finding errors in the math and the energy
regulation, correcting survival rate now at 67 1/2 %. Charles that Julie person is calling again.”
“I’ll take it in the com room,” Charles replied.
“Charles, I need to bring the supplies aboard and find out what you want me to tell command,” Julie stated.
“Alright dock at 6,” Charles replied as he headed to the dock. “Ally call me when you have any further
progress.”
Julie’s ship was just docking when he appeared outside the hatch. Julie came though it fuming, “what
the hell was that? Are you trying to start a war with the Kronos empire? You do realise that they are going to
be screaming for your head to command right?”
“As if I care!” Charles shouted for some reason he felt this was the way he’d answer in this alternate time.
“Yeah, I realise that but not all of us have the tech you do, enough firepower to vaporize a planet. I think
that’s why they left, I think they’re afraid you just might try to do that to their home world. Hell not many
would be upset, I know my crew wouldn’t, they’re just a bunch of thugs.” Julie was eyeing Charles and his
crotch again Charles felt nothing for her but liked the attention anyway.
“Look, just have command tell the kronos bunch that I am a rouge, that they didn’t even know I was there, hell
that’s believable enough,” Damn Charles thought, where is this all coming from, it was almost as if the
memories were bleeding into his mind. He had just enough to convince Julie, who finally left smirking after she
rubbed his crotch and told him the invitation was still open.
Ally reported that she had it to 75% but couldn’t find any more mistakesto increase it more. Charles
sat down looking over the energy used the time of exposure the circumstances involved everything. After 12
hours straight Charles stumbled upon something he’d passed up 4 times. “Ally what is this reading here? he
asked.
“That’s interaction time with others of the time you’re in, the waves of energy the are producing and….
I am begning to see what you are talking about Charles, brilliant.” Ally sighed.
“Is there anyway to increase this? Possibly to accelerate the influx of memories?” Charles asked.
“Checking figures now, confirming with cici,” Ally said
“Confirmation, assessing, you would need exposure to at least 6 different people, 20 minutes to each singular,
5 minutes all together. From the data provided these memories would be more like a dream and wouldn’t supersede
the memories that were there first.” cici droned out.
Charles was glad to hear he wouldn’t lose memories, but 20 minutes with 6 people alone? Hell why not go
into a crowd and walk with them. Charles walked back to where Julie was directing her men, walking in he
watched not saying a word, soon the memories were flooding to him, shit there still wasn’t anything that wo…?
Hmmm that was interesting, a memory erase adjust and reload unit, handy. Contacting Ally and cici they were
soon downloading the plans, shit but the computer security was tighter in this time line. Julie told him she’d
relay the message he’d given her to command. As soon as her ship was out of sight Ally chimed in, “Activating
Time slip please be seated,” with that the ship left the station within 5 minutes they were heading back.
Thanks to cici and Charles they now had a way to stay conscious almost the whole time, well at least Alatem, he
didn’t pass out anymore.
They’d talked before they’d set out for Alatem’s time, since the emporer had seen Charles, there was no
place that would be safe now on the planet. They decided that he’d stay on the ship till he had the device
perfected, that of course would leave Alatem to deal with her father till then. Sighing Alatem nodded she’d run
interference before though not this long but she was confident she could hold him off. Alatem answered the
hails finding that they’d only been gone 2 minutes, so she knew that it would be fresh in her father’s mind.
The rest of the day even after Alatem had left, Charles labored on the device, he had to have it almost perfect
if this plan was to work. Unlike the device he’d used on Alatem’s sister this could go back as far as you
wanted and was a lot harder to regain memories.
Alatem had avoided her father almost all day, she dreaded when he caught up to her, there were
questions that he’d ask that she wasn’t prepared to answer. She was heading away from her father when she
realised that she’d left the wrist com Charles had made for her in her room. Without it she’d never know when
Charles was ready, damnit! She’d just walked in her room when he walked in behind her unexpected, startled she
didn’t see the signal Charles sent to signify he was ready. Closing and locking her door her father thought he
had her now, Charles flashed in behind him witin seconds of this, realising he had to act fast, he stunned the
emperor. Alatem could only stare opened mouth almost believing that Charles had killed her father. Charles
walked to the man now unconscious as Alatem moved to intercept him, “He’s not dead Alatem just stunned, I have
to erase and put in there that he hasn’t seen me yet. I’ll do this as a reload ok?” Charles could see that she
was shaking, she and her father might not agree at all but it was evident she loved him fiercely.
Charles knelt to start the prodedure when Ally chimed in that the subject had to be awake. Cursing
Charles knew that the emperor would be out at least another hour, sighing he pulled a small injection from the
pouch at his side. Looking at Alatem he told her to be prepared for almost anything, the emperor jerked awake
wondering what the hell had happened. Looking around he saw he was on the floor next to Alatem he turned his
head the other way and met the eyes of the man who’d saved his family 3 time in 4 days, plus revealed that his
traitorous brother was behind all the assassination attempts.
“I don’t know who you are but you are a great hero to the empire, what would you like for your reward?” The
emperor asked.
“Can you make him a royal?” Alatem asked?
“You know that isn’t possible without certain criteria,” he replied.
“Dad, cut the shit, we both know you can do it!” Alatem yelled.
“You know I can’t, not yet,” he said. Alatem shook her head at Charles as he started the M.E.A.R (memory erase
adjust reload) device.
TO BE CONTINUED
