The Beginning of the End

Before he could gather his wits about him, the dusty regolith and murky red skies disappeared and gave way once again to the endless foggy nothingness.

“Had enough?” asked the familiar and imminent voice of Michael.

Josh groped around for something to grab on to—there was nothing.

“Why are you still trying to fight this?” Michael asked.

Realizing there was a question he needed answered, Josh replied, “Because I don’t believe you.”

“What do you mean?” Michael said.

“You say there is no death, no pain, no war here, but my men died, I feel pain, and we are at w…”—war, Josh started to say but Michael cut him off.

“The pain and those men weren’t real; you imagined it all,” Michael proclaimed, “and as for the war; it doesn’t have to be like this.”

“What makes you think there won’t be others who will want to fight you?”

“They will come around; they will have to.”

It worked and Michael went on talking about the true utopia he planned to make, when Josh felt a new presence. It felt warm and comforting—Marina! With her presence he began to gain strength; then he felt many more and their voices touched his mind, you must find a way to go on. With that thought, he was able to stand again and face Michael, his eyes focused and confident. Michael looked dumbstruck, and allowed the brief expression of fear to cross his face, but then he regained his composure and stuck out both his hands. Once again lightning bolts of energy poured out of his hands, but this time Josh reached out and caught them. Instead of sapping his energy this time, it seemed as though he was gaining energy.

Michael screamed in terror, “NO! YOU CAN’T!”

Josh lost his concentration for moment and it caused him to lose ground as he could feel his energy drain. This brought a brief smile to Michael’s face. The thought came to him, Concentrate Josh, you must concentrate we are with you. Josh focused all his attention on those beams of energy—it was working. Michael fell; he could not seem to let go of the beams now. Josh felt more and more energized.

Again Michael screamed, “STOP!”

The beams of energy began to weaken, and Josh could see Michael was beginning to fade away. Josh stopped concentrating and instantly the bolts of lightning ceased. Michael just lay there too weak to move.

Josh walked over to him, and Michael looked up, “You will ruin everything. Don’t do this.”

“It seems the others feel as I do, Michael.”

Even though he knew Michael would stand his ground, Josh was compelled to ask, “Come back with me Michael.”

Michael’s fleeting response was simply, “I cannot, I will not.”

Josh knelt down beside Michael, concerned now for Michael’s life, “Please Michael? Come back! Come back with me! We have to return; you will not survive in here if I shut down the time pods. The others want to come back.”

“Go then, I shall remain here!” Michael said his voice weak and raspy.

Josh knew he could not persuade Michael to come; he could not drag him back either, for you cannot force an essence against his will, and this was his will that he stay behind. Josh stood up reluctantly, and slowly moved toward the pods, upon reaching them, he stopped, looked back one more time at Michael with pleading eyes, and since there was no change in Michael’s expression, he stepped through.

It was strange, but when Josh returned to the Time Port there was no one else there. Where did everyone go? He thought. He would deal with that issue later; however, he had something more pressing to do. He walked over to the control panel and systematically began shutting down the generators to the Port, and then he shut down the power collectors to the time pods. The time pods went dark. At last he shut down all the telepods but one, this one would be timed to shut down once he went through. Now it was time to face the music, he was uncertain what would happen once he stepped through the telepod. Would he be arrested? Had the others been arrested? Was this the end of the Time Port and his illustrious career as a Stepper? What would become of him? He did not know, but he stepped onto the pad of the telepod anyway and vanished.

The room began to glow with a strange blue light and it filled the Time Port; everyone was stunned. A puzzled Shivu, Aden and Henry looked over to the three techs as they looked back, shrugged and responded in unison,

“It isn’t us.”

The blue light began to focus just two paces from the time pods towards the center of the room.

After a short while it began to look human and Shivu’s eyes widened,”It’s Josh!” he shouted.

Josh shimmered into view, but he still looked translucent and glowed blue.

“Where did you guys come from?” asked Josh sounding as if he was speaking from behind a glass wall, “…and why am I back in the Time Port?”

No one answered, although he was sure they could hear him. They just stood there with an expression of awe that reminded Josh of a crowd watching a fireworks display. Something was wrong with these people, or perhaps it was him; Josh looked down at himself, and realized that he wasn’t looking very solid and he didn’t feel much different from when he was in that realm locked away in space and time.

They could see him, couldn’t they? “Hello? Can you hear me?” Josh asked.

Shivu finally composed himself and answered rather sheepishly, “Uh…duh…um yes. Yes Josh we can hear you.”

Josh now knew what needed to be done; he glanced back to the time pods and then over at the techs, “Jackie, Randy, Sheila!”

“Ye…Yes Josh?” they all responded.

“Could you be so kind as to bring my body back?” Josh asked almost like he was just simply naked, and was requesting a set of clothes.

A quick flash of white light behind him told him that he had a body waiting there, so he turned around and walked to the time pod where his lifeless body waited, and then stepped inside it just like you would expect a spirit to possess a body. The blue light vanished and the body lurched forward a little as Josh took a deep breath, and opened his eyes.

“Wow! What a trip!” Josh exclaimed as he stepped down from the pod.

“W…What happened?” Shivu had to ask; the look of utter amazement still hadn’t faded from his face.

“It was Michael Martin…” Josh answered.

“What about Michael?” Shivu inquired.

“He was responsible for the altered timeline and the disappearances.” Josh answered, figuring everyone would simply go, “Ah! Ok.”

“Disappearances? Altered timeline? What are you talking about? Your mission wasn’t to retrieve Michael Martin, your mission was to retrieve Albert Einstein and there he is—you were successful.” Shivu stated, still totally confused by Josh’s response.

“Einstein?” Josh turned back to the time pods and gasped, “I must have fixed it!”

“Fixed what?” Shivu asked, still puzzled.

“First answer me this. What happened to Michael Martin?” Josh asked—he had to know.

“Michael Martin died twenty years ago in a time pod accident, when the Time Port tragically lost power. Several attempts were made to bring him back, but they all failed. Why?”

Josh’s eyes fell, “That was when he was supposed to have retrieved me, and I shut him down.”

“Are you ok Josh?”

Josh began to make sense of it all now and decided to come clean, “The timeline was altered by Michael Martin twenty years ago. I just put things straight, so I am little disoriented. You will need to fill me in on a few events that may or may not have occurred since then. You may also need to clue me in on today’s date.”

“Today is Saturday July 18th 2082 and it’s 12:29 in the afternoon. You were gone for two minutes, nineteen seconds on your last jump. Is that what’s supposed to happen when you fix an altered timeline?” Shivu said, referring to Josh’s dramatic entrance.

“I dunno,” Josh shrugged, and then he clued in to what he supposed to say next. “How’s he doin’…” asked Josh, his voice trailing off, as he spun around to the right pod to find a young man in his early thirty’s with dark brown slightly wild hair, wearing a faded collar shirt, slightly worn dress slacks and an old pair of brown dress shoes—no socks. “…And why did you pick those clothes?”

“We thought he would feel more comfortable,” HDL recited in unison, and they looked at each other and chuckled.

“Well he can’t be seen in public like that. Be sure to send some new clothes to his haven. I’ll be over there shortly to pick him up.” Josh stated matter-of-factly.

“You’re going to what?” asked Shivu.

“Aren’t you going to wait for his liaison to arrive, she shouldn’t be more than a day?” Aden Chimed in.

“… and isn’t that against protocol?” finished Henry, Aden’s personal assistant.

“I knew you would say that. Hey! He knows me, and I want to take him out to dinner.” Josh defended, feeling a little amused this time around.

“Don’t you mean lunch? It’s only 12:30. You’re buying right?” Shivu said, wearing a big toothy grin.

Josh smiled back at Shivu then satirically said, “Shivu you cheapskate, when are you ever going to buy me dinner?”

“Hey! You make more money than I do!” said Shivu, trying to sound hurt.

“Ok, let’s pack it up.” Josh ordered glancing over to HDL and with that the technicians punched a few buttons and Albert’s unconscious body de-materialized.

Then the whole team put their thumbs on the console to sign off, and they all filed into an open telepod. Just before they all de-materialized, Josh quickly had to add,

“That’s because I work harder than you do.”