A Distant Visitor
                          by Jason Rodencal
 

Prologue:

     I like the darkness of my dreams... I'm alone or with anyone that I choose to be here with me.  The deep black of the void that surrounds me is full of the mysteries of my mind.  Sometimes out in the field, my dreams are all that I have to keep me company and fight off the daemons of loneliness.  Alone, to sleep, perchance to dream....

"Commander James Lutris, report to com stat...  Emergency code black."

Damn... or perchance to not dream.
 
 
 
 

     James blinked open his eyes to the sight of his tiny steel-gray room and just stared at the ceiling for a few moments.  A  soft, but stern voice from his side broke his chain of non-thought as he laid there.

"James, HQ is screaming bloody fits.  You NEED to get going stat."

James swung his feet off of his cot and onto the ground as he picked up what appeared to be a huge digital watch and strapped it on.  He then spoke directly to it.

"What's the problem AIRRS?"

AIRRS (Artificial Intelligence Research and Regulatory System) responded, "PARADOX is detecting the formation of a class 5 temporal paradox in the timeline.  The main temporal displacement shields have already been activated, but it's like nothing that anyone has ever seen before."

"There's no such thing as a class 5!"

"Well, there is now."

     James hurriedly threw on the uniform of the Temporal Police Department and ran down the living complex hallway to the closest elevator.  Other officers ran from room to room all around him as warning sirens blared.  Chaos ensued in every square inch of walking space.

"This is bigger than I thought, " James said to himself as he weaved around the living traffic jam, "Everyone's in a panic."

"James!!  Brace yourself against something right this moment!!  PARADOX has detected an incoming temporal ripple from the paradox and it's a big one!  I've already activated your personal temporal displacer!"  screamed AIRRS over the sound of chaos.

"Won't the main displacers take care of it??"

"By my calculations, no... but we're going to find out in about 5 seconds, though!"

James grabbed hold of a nearby water fountain as the world about him began to shimmer and shake.  He was brought to his knees as other fell and slid about before everything was peaceful again.

"What's going on, AIRRS??  Talk to me..." James asked worriedly as he pulled himself up off of the floor.

"PARADOX reports the main displacers are down to 78% operational capacity.  Your personal was able to suck up what got though, but at a price.  Personal is down to 98% and will only last now for 3 days, 18 hours on existing APU, down from 6-23."

The temporal displacers were specially designed shields that could effectively remove an object or a person from the fourth dimension, creating a small bubble of time that could be controlled however it was needed to be.  They were the main protection from the changes in a timeline a paradox creates, more commonly known as the ripple affect.  But if even the displacers were of little use against them...  James visibly shuttered at the implied meaning of such a fact.

     James slammed the up button on the elevator panel and waited impatiently for it to arrive.  As he stood there, he looked at some of the people running about.  Something seemed off to James, but it was subtle and he couldn't place a finger on it.  More specifically, something about the people was wrong, more than likely due to the ripple.  He didn't have time to pursue it farther as the elevator dinged and opened up it's doors.

     "PARADOX main computer room" was the floor James chose as he allowed his retina to be scanned.  As the elevator rose to it's destination, he took the time to talk to his AI partner.

"Talk to me, AIRRS...  I don' like it when you get silent like this.  It means you've had too much time to process information."

"I'm still trying to interpret the incoming damage reports.  Nothing seems to be damaged, but PARADOX has already determined that the ripple did cause some change to HQ.  PARADOX is still comparing the history logs to the unaltered master logs just retrieved from null space."

     The doors to the PARADOX control room opened in front of James and he stepped out, right into the waiting chaos of panic from the techs trying to make sense of what was happening.  He then walked right up to one particular man just standing there in the middle of the sea of trouble.  The man wore the stereotypical lab coat an glassed one would expect from a computer wizz, but James never thought twice of it.  What did make James think twice was a facial profile that had a slightly pulled outward nose and jawline and pointed ears on the man.

"Please tell me you've got some answers, Nick," he said as he patted the man on the shoulder.

Nick turned toward James with a deep worried look and a slightly upturned and blackened nose, "PARADOX just finished it's analysis...  Something or someone has caused a cataclysmic alteration in the human race and it's evolution.  Two guesses as to what those alterations are and the first one doesn't count," he said as he pointed to his nose, "We've pinpointed it to about the late 1990's, but all attempts to get a fix on where instead of when have failed.  We could possibly be looking at a global condition."

"That's not good...  Who's going back?" James just asked as he studied a monitor.

"Just you."

"What??  That's against several regulations!" James said with a surprised look.

"You're the only person equipped with the experimental personal displacer and an AI partner.  I see that AIRRS was able to get it functional in time for the ripple and it saved your butt."

"What are you babbling about, Nick?"

Nick passed his hand nearby James' face, never touching it.  James still felt something be moved by him, though.

"You escaped with just a couple of whiskers, unlike the rest of us.  Let's get you out of here before the next ripple hits and drains your shield even more."

"I quite agree," James said as he followed Nick into a second room, counting the number of bristly hairs on his face.

     Nick lead James into a huge warehouse-type room.  The only things in the room besides themselves was a large vehicle and a huge steel-gray ring that was the temporal rift system used to jump through spacetime.

"Because you will be working alone, the higher ups decided to give you that monstrous thing to drive.  It's from that time period, so it should easily be able to be refueled.  I think it's called an "Explorian" or something like that.  You'll notice the set of sensor and communications arrays on the roof along with the weapon rack.  I don't remember off hand what's all onboard, but AIRRS should be able to give you a rundown during transit," Nick said as he handed James the keys, "Do be a good boy and remember to call one in a while, ok?  If I know what's going on, then I may be able to do something from my end."

"Fine, fine... Is the usual change of clothes inside?"

"Way ahead of you.  You'll find a duffel bag in back along with a stash of other useful items.  Now get in and strap up.  AIRRS has already been transferred into the onboard computer system."

James sat in the driver's seat and buckled up as Nick enter a control room of to the side of the rift generator.  A ear grating whine filled the air as the generator powered up and literally ripped a tear in the fabric of spacetime.  James started the engine of the SUV and waited for an all clear sign from both Nick and AIRRS.

As he sat there, AIRRS suddenly piped up.

"James!  PARADOX has detected a second inbound ripple, even larger than the last!  Impact in 10 seconds!!"

"Oh, shit!!"  James screamed as he looked up toward the control room to see Nick franticly trying to get the rift position stable before the ripple hit.

The clear signal came just as the room began to shimmer and James slammed the gas.  The vehicle squealed in a cloud of burning rubber into the rip, but not before the main bulk of the ripple hit.  James gripped the steering wheel tightly for dear life as the rear wheels were picked up and thrown about like a rag doll by the ripple into the null space outside of spacetime.

     James never opened his eyes the entire journey through spacetime as null space swirled and danced about the outside of the truck. That was, until he felt the rough re-entry into normal space.  James fought to keep control of the truck as it was thrown out of the rift at an awkward angle.  The vehicle threatened to roll as the truck violently bounced about on one or two wheels at a time for several hundred feet.  Only when it came to a complete stop did he allow himself a much needed sigh of relief.

"Did we make it?" James asked AIRRS as he checked himself for any injuries.

"I believe we did...  Checking onboard systems....  Main displacers down to 86% and 2 days, 4 hours.  Activating internal scanners to check you and I'm also trying to patch the displacer into the primary APU's in this hulking piece of metal.  That will buy us some much needed time by hopefully strengthening it and extending the maximum time limit."

As AIRRS carried out his tasks, James looked around at where he landed.  It was in the middle of a residential street, surrounded by houses.  A look of extreme worry came over his face.

"Dammit!  Nick dropped us in the middle of a town!  I hope no one saw us landing or this whole mission could be in jeopardy already!"  James yelled as he spun about in his seat, trying to see if anyone was outside or looking at them, but only saw empty lawns and drawn curtains.  "AIRRS!  Activate the lifescanners, full circle scan.  Bring it up on the main HUD."

"Stopping internal scanners.  Activating externals," AIRRS said as the shape of a radar screen appeared on the truck windshield.  Numerous blips pinged as the scanner made it's pass.  "58 semi-human lifeforms detected in a two mile radius.  All of them seem to be in their homes and not moving.  Uh-oh..."

"What do you mean "Uh-oh?"  Computers are not suppose to go "Uh-oh!"

"The blips on the HUD were replaced by 6 large dots.  "I'm also detecting 6 unknown forms.  Nothing in my data libraries can even come close.  And to make things worse, two are beginning to head directly towards us."

"ETA?"

"About 4 minutes for one, 10 for the other."

"Log into the GPS network.  Try to find the fastest way out of this town."

There was a brief pause.  "Error... I can't raise the GPS system or get a triangulation signal at all.  Attempting to raise the NASA TDRSS network," Another pause, "Weak signal established, planning route and downloading.  Got it."

"Blip ETA?"

"One minute, I've got visual on long range camera," AIRRS stated as it changed the HUD to a video input screen.

"This is not good," was all James could think to say as he watched the glowing cloud making it's way toward him.

     "AIRRS..." James trailed off as he put the truck into reverse and began to slowly back away from the cloud.

"Already three steps ahead of your brain.  As soon as he's in maximum range, I'll do a fast scan of the thing and we can get out of here."

The cloud still bared down on them, never wavering in the straightness of it's path.  Closer... Closer...

"AIRRS, how close does that damn thing have to be?!?"

An answer never came to James' question as the cloud seemed to slow it's approach about a hundred feet from the vehicle.  It was about that time an unknown voice floated into the cabin.

"You are using forbidden technology, human.  A crime worthy of forfeiture under our laws, " the voice said as James slowly reached to a panel next to him and armed the weapon rack.

"AIRRS, turn on the outside speakers...  Um, I suppose it's you that's doing the talking?"

The cloud seemed to pulse a few times before answering, "Yes.  Now, vacate that vehicle and I will not be force to pass the sentence of forfeiture upon you."

James did not move to turn off the engine, nor power down the rail gun who's trigger his finger was hovering over.
"And so it begins...." was all he said as the trigger was pulled.

     The sound of electromagnets hypercharging and discharging filled the air as slug after slug found it's mark in the cloud.  Only, they seemed to have no effect as they passed through with some resistance and imbedded deep into the street below.  James' face fell into a look of disbelief from the ineffectiveness of the rail gun.

"You now leave me no choice, human or should I say former human?" the cloud said with a strong tone of aggravation.

James didn't exactly want to wait about and find out what forfeiture meant.  "AIRRS, I'm sorry, but screw the scan!  We're getting out of here!" he said as he floored the accelerator.  "Let's see how well it reacts to a two ton projectile."

The cloud seemed to instantly realize James' intentions and tried to dodge out of the way, but it was just a bit too slow for James' reaction time as the front corner of the ramming grill slammed home... hard.  James let out a laugh of triumph as the cloud spun off of the side panel and hood.  He didn't let off of the gas just yet as he kept the accelerator all the way to the floorboard, wanting to put as much distance from the cloud as he could in the smallest amount of time.

     "All right, AIRRS, can you bring up a map of the route on the HUD?" A map of the town appeared in the windshield as a trail of streets and sidestreets were illuminated, all in the completely opposite direction than the one they were traveling in.  "Ok... scratch that idea.  Do you have any maps from this time period showing the local area?"

"Not exactly... but they should be close enough to plot a course.  Where're we going?"

"Anywhere but here for the moment.  I need you to raise all of the shields and dampening screens this thing's got onboard.  Hopefully that will buy us time and confuse any "tails" we might have picked up till we're out of the town.  That reminds me... where and when are we??"

"Screens raised.  That seemed to done something.  The lifescanners was showing four of the unidentified blips were in pursuit, but now they seemed to have lost us and are beginning a search pattern."

"In which direction?"

"To the southeast and northeast.  There are still two blips to the north, northwest, but no active pursuit seem to be forthcoming from them.  Now, as to your question on spacetime;  Like I said before, the GPS network is all out of alignment and sync, possibly the ground relay stations have been deactivated somehow.  What I could learn from TDRSS, though,  is that we're near Gatlinburg, Tenn and the smokey mountain chain.  But from how week the signal from TDRSS B was, I wouldn't give that network much time either."

"Ok, that's a start.  Which way's the chain?"

"To the northwest, right by a blip."

"We'll have to chance it.  If we can disappear into the mountains, I can think about what to do next without having to worry about uninvited guests.  Speaking of guests, did you get that scan done?"

"Just as you rammed into the cloud.  From what I could make out, it seemed to have been left dazed and confused from the impact, which suggest they are vulnerable.  When I get a chance to analyze the scan data, maybe more revelations will be brought out."

"Put that on the back burner for now, I need directions out of here and to a little used park entrance.  I don't care if it was meant for public use or not."

"I am not familiar with that phrase, but I understand the implied meaning... plotting new course.  Turn right, here."

James locked the breaks and slid around an intersection as the truck made it's fast journey out of harm's way and probably into the fire.

     James never said a word the entire drive out of the town.  The only form of expression that even crossed his face was of determination when he actually rammed through some poor person's backyard fence to shortcut around the last cloud between him and the road into the rocky mountains.  James never even looked back at the destruction he caused as the truck jumped a small runoff  stream that ran along the road and powered it's way up the opposite bank.

"James, you do realize that you just committed willful destruction of private property?  There could have been someone in the way," AIRRS finally said in the uncomfortable silence.

"But there wasn't, you know I wouldn't even had chanced it if someone had even been remotely nearby.  I'm a bit more interested in getting the hell out of dodge right this moment than to worry about a few pieces of wood, so let's just forget about it for now.  Have you found anything yet on a suitable park entrance?"

"There's a firefighter's route about seven miles away.  According to the maps in memory, it was shut down around 1994 due to several section being washed out beyond repair," AIRRS replied as he highlighted a path on the HUD.

"Good enough...  Any signs of trouble?"

"None that I can determine."

"AIRRS, back there in the town, what did you mean by semi-human when you lifescaned?"

"Just as I said, semi or partially human.  None of the lifeforms I picked up were totally human.  All of them were, as far as I could infer, both human and animal.  The percentage of human to animal seemed to also be fairly equal from person to person; About 48/52, against humanity."

James thought about what AIRRS had said for a few moments.  He then said, "AIRRS, replay our lovely encounter with that thing on the HUD.  There's more to it than I first realized."

     James listened to the conversation as he drove on.  "Former human," "forfeiture," and the data AIRRS had inadvertently gathered was all starting to come together and form the bigger picture in his mind.  He didn't like the only reasonable conclusion that matched all of the clues:  A systematic elimination of the human race from Earth.

"How much power's left to the displacer?" he asked as that thought crossed through his mind and brought a shiver to his spine.

"After rerouting the system into APU #3, I was able to extend the lifespan to 3 days, 5 hours and boost the strength to 91% operational capacity."

"How's that analysis of the scan coming?"

"Slowly... I estimate at least another hour till completion."

"Shields?"

"Doing just fine.  No problems in any of the systems."

"Mmm..." James hummed as he rammed the truck through a gate that had a national forestry service sign on the front.  "I'll believe that when the first wave of attacks are over and I'm still in one piece.  Activate the off roading systems on this thing, AIRRS.  It's time to disappear for a while."

     James drove the truck about a mile down the path when he ran into the first washout spot AIRRS had mentioned.

"Think we can make it?" he asked AIRRS.

"Not a chance.  Unstable ground conditions and soft spots are all over that patch of trail.  I would recommend this alternative route."

A topographical area map appeared on the HUD and pointed James to a break in the trees just behind the truck.  James backed up and rolled down his window to get a better view.  Just beyond the trees was a steep hillside dotted with sparatic rock formations that led down into a small valley.

"You sure this thing can even make it down that grade of a hill, letter all, make it back up?"

"If not under it's own power, then by the front winch.  The valley is also nearby a main visitor road and it can be driven to through the woods."

"Mmm...  that so?"

"There is also a natural cave in this valley.  It will provide us needed cover while the analysis is completed."

"Well, that synched it," James said as he pulled back a bit farther just to make sure there was enough room to turn.

     The SUV slowly made it's way down the valley's side as James fought the wheel for control on the slick, leaf-covered rocks.  He put the shift lever into first gear and used the engine as a break to try and keep the wheels from possibly locking up, sending the vehicle out of control.  James let out a long sigh of relief when the wheels finally touched the bottom.

"Which way to the cave?" he asked AIRRS.

"Turn right and go forward 100 feet."

James followed the instructions and was greeted by the sight of the cave entrance in only a few moments.

"Are you sure we can fit into that space?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"With 5" to spare over the main relay dish on top.  The high gain antenna will naturally bend to fit."

"I'm holding you to that statement, you know."

"If you wish..."

James wasn't sure, but he thought he heard a bit of sarcasm in AIRRS' voice at his doubts.

     James slowly pulled the vehicle backwards into the cave, keeping a close watch in his mirrors as he inched in.  When the nose was finally in a few feet away from the entrance, he shut off the motor and turned on the interior light.

"How deep does this thing go?" James asked as he looked out the rear window into the blackness beyond.

"Last survey in memory shows that the cave extends about one mine into the valley side before opening up into a domed chamber that has a spring pool at the far end.  The spring is fed by an underground stream that does not have a listed starting and ending point.  All previous attempts to located any above ground sections of the stream have ended in failure."

"That's a bit more than I cared to know, but at least there's a fresh water source nearby in an emergency.  Speaking of emergencies, how are the APU's doing?"

"#1 is at 95% power and fueling all shields and dampeners.  #2 is at 99% and I'm using it to help speed up the scan analysis.  #3 you know about and is holding stable.  The primary and secondary aux's are at full power and on standby for emergencies."

"Good, good...  Now, that spring...  Can the truck make it all the way back to it?"

"Checking.  Possible, except for one main spot that may be trouble.  A 'fat man's squeeze' if you please."

"Mmm... are the tunnel walls stable, AIRRS?"

"For what reason?"

"What if I used the particle cannon to cut away at the sides?  Will it collapse the cave?"

"Scanning...  Creating database...  Finished.  Tunnel composition show above average strength and stability.  Digging is a possible option if the composition runs the entire length."

"Well then..." James said with a smile.

     James pulled the truck back out of the cave and reentered it front first.  He turned on the headlights and began to slowly drive deeper into the darkness.  It wasn't long before he ran into the trouble spot.  Illuminated before him was a hedge maze of stalactites and stalagmites.

"Yea, that qualifies as a squeeze I'd say."

James reached over to the control panel and powered up the particle pulse cannon on the roof rack as a crosshair appeared on the windshield HUD.

"This should take care of things, though..." James said with a smile.

On the weapons rack, a sudden influx of energy appears, like a gathering of fireflies in front of the particle cannon to form one point of pure power.  Then, like a stream of water, the cannon fires at the walls and matter is disintegrated into their separate atoms with little effort.  It isn't long before the tunnel is wide enough to allow the truck to pass.

"Warning, cannon is beginning to go red line on the thermals.  Shutdown sequence in progress," AIRRS piped up.

With that, the cannon shut itself down and a stream of liquid nitrogen was injected into the barrel to cool it down from the thousands of degrees of heat even a short particle stream burst creates.  A sharp hiss and steam floated throughout the tunnel.  James looked at the rubble now occupying the floor and wondered if the truck could make it over without scraping the roof.

"Any idea of how to make it over, AIRRS?"

AIRRS didn't answer, but James felt the truck lower on it's shocks and the ramming grill extended out.

"Oh...  Gotcha'..." James just said.

James set the gear into first and slowly pushed the accelerator all the way to the floor.  The ramming grill plowed into rubble and slowly pushed it's way through as the engine screamed from the tachometer being dangerously close to redline.

"Come on.... Come on..." James growled as he gripped the steering wheel.

The truck finally pushed it's way through and James slammed on the breaks to keep the it from flying off into the dark.  James let out a small amused huff of a laugh before upshifting and continuing on.

     Nothing else inhibited the truck's travel as it delved deeper into the cave.  It wasn't long before the lights from the headlamps were refracted onto the walls of a huge dome in brilliant, dancing patterns.  James actually just stared at a far wall for a moment and watched the spectral ballet in awe.  It had been a long time since he had last seen a wonder of nature and James often wonder if he would ever see the next one.

"Are we there yet?" AIRRS suddenly chirped up.

"I don't know, why don't you ask for directions," James sarcasticly replied.

James dug about the rear of the truck and pulled a large duffel bag up to the front.  He then opened the door and stepped out.

"AIRRS,  I'm going out to take a look around and change out of this damn uniform.  Why don't you focus on getting that analysis finished?"

"Understood.  Now, don't go get yourself lost on me.  Don't forget that Nick will need to be informed of the findings."

"Mmm... one thing at a time," James replied as he pulled out a tee-shirt and a flashlight from the bag.  "One thing at a time."

     James quickly changed his shirt and pulled on a pair of sneakers from the bag.  He may have found a defendable spot, but he didn't care to take chances in the field.  In fact, the moment he finished changing, James began to look about the dome room.  The light from his flashlight weaved back and forth and didn't revealed anything worth noting.  That was, until it came upon a campsite near the spring and by a second tunnel heading deeper into the darkness.  James immediately went back and pulled his firearm from the bag before cautiously approaching the site.  He bent down by a fire pit and stirred the ashes about and deeply inhaled.  The ashes were fairly fresh and told him there was someone nearby.  That and there were sleeping bags and the remains of a recent meal.  No one could have gotten out through the main tunnel (the truck took up the entire width), which left the spring or the second tunnel as the only other possible hiding spots.

"This is not good..." he softly whispered to himself.

     James ran back to the truck and pulled out a set of nightvision goggles and put them on before turning off every light on himself and the truck.  Through lime-tinted glasses, he could see every detail about the dome room, except for who had been using the campsite.  James pushes a set of buttons on the goggles and the image was washed through several infrared filters until several blobs appeared.  He instantly knew them to be heat sources and most of them were roughly man-sized.

"Things are definitely not good..."

     James cautiously reached into the truck and felt about for the hand-held floodlight kept under the rear seats for emergencies as several spots in his visor began to move towards him.  He turned down the visor to minimum gain as he turned on the floodlight.

"Police, freeze!" James screamed as he pointed the gun at the figures covering their faces half out of the power of the light, half from fear of what was happening.  "Holy shit..." he stammered out when finally focused his eyes on them.

     Before James was a giant raccoon and skunk, covering their eyes from the powerful spotlight.  As he tried to wrap his brain around what he was seeing, James felt something suddenly circle his legs.  He let out a startled cry as he swept the ground with the light and gun.  The two creatures took that opportunity to rush James.  Big mistake.  James had no problem throwing the skunk with a hip toss into the truck and then using the momentum of the throw to swing his fists about in a shadowfist motion, striking the raccoon hard in the head and downing him.  James breathed hard as he covered the skunk with the gun and swept the light about looking for any other possible assailants.

"I told you two to freeze, but no... you had to go and rush me.  AIRRS! lights on!  Cover this guy with the rail gun," he said as he motioned to the raccoon.

The headlights and floodlights on the tuck turned on as the rail gun swung about and pointed downward

"Got you covered," came over the external speaker.

James ran back to the truck and opened the door.  "AIRRS, what are those things??"

"I'm afraid you'll won't like the answer."

"Just tell me!"

"They are more of those semi-humans that were scanned in the initial lifescan.  Approximately 43% animal."

"Oh my, God...  AIRRS, how far away is that data from the scan?"

"Ten minutes at most."

"I think it's a good time to call Nick...  Establish a channel home, things have gotten way too weird for me," James said as he sunk into the driver's seat and laid down with a worried/exhausted  look on his face.

     On the roof of the truck, a antenna dish rotated upward as a glowing circle appeared above it.

"Opening rift, establishing stable link to PARADOX.  Talk fast, this is going to eat up APU #2 like candy," AIRRS said as a small tear in spacetime formed and the dish focused into the center.

"Understood.  Put it on the forward HUD."

On the truck windshield, a test patter formed and was phased into a video picture of the PARADOX control room.  As James pulled himself up into as sitting position, the face of a huge rabbit walked into the picture.  That started James as he let out a "AAAA!"

"Happy to see you too," the rabbit said as he reached for something off-camera.

"Nick?!?" James said with his jaw dropped all the way to the floor.

"One and only.  Please tell me you have some news, possibly a solution?"

"You look cute with long ears.  Gray's definitely your color."

"Stow it, James.  What's going on out there??"

"You finished with that data, AIRRS?"

"Just finished."

James flipped a couple of switches, "You're all set for visual mode, AIRRS.  Upload the data to Nick while you tell us about those things we encountered."

The HUD picture was moved to one side as the other side reset and a picture of a morphic fox appeared next to a boxed picture of one of the clouds.

The fox shrugged it's shoulders as it said, "You can thank that last ripple for this little change in the visual programming."

James just raised an eyebrow.

Suddenly, the fox was sporting professor's uniform and a pointing stick.  "Now, from the scan data, several theories and conclusions could be drawn about these cloud entities:  One, they are composed of a complex and dense web of ionic particles.  That would suggest a possible weakness to electromagnetic disturbance and the impact of the truck also seemed to have caused damage, leading to the idea that they are vulnerable to collisions.  A retuning of the particle cannon into a pure proton stream may cause disruption of the ion web, but there is the possibility of overload and detonation of the cannon as well as it becoming the strongest lightning magnet in history.  The lack of features and appendages suggest the use of telekinesis and/or other higher mental capabilities."

"Well, that would explain how it could talk to us through the truck at that distance," James sarcasticly remarked.

AIRRS ignored him, "The conversation and other factors also points toward the fact that quite possibly they have taken over the local governments, possibly the world."

"But that still doesn't explain the shift in the timeline," Nick then said as he thought about AIRRS words for a few moments, "And why evolution's gone haywire."

"Well, that thing mentioned something about "forfeiture."  Could that possibly have something to do with it?  Actually, I'd first like to know what in the hell it is..."  James said as he tapped the dashboard with a finger.

"It's when one of those bastards takes a person straight to stage 6," a new voice said from beside the truck.

James' head immediately spun to the sound to see the raccoon standing next to the skunk.  That didn't worry him as much as the fact that the skunk was backwards, bent over, and had his tail straight upward.

"And now I believe it's our turn to bark out a few orders," the raccoon said with a slight grin.

     "AIRRS... I thought I told you to keep him covered??" James quietly said as he slowly reached his hand back for his firearm without tipping the raccoon off.

"I am," AIRRS replied.

"That's my brother you've got that cannon pointing at," the raccoon said as he motioned behind him.

James leaned to see past the raccoon to see a second one on the ground.  "Oh....  uh, AIRRS, would you please do a lifescan, full arc, and just see how many people are here????  And remind me later to work on your tracking and threat assessment program..."

A brief pause the answer came, "Tracking seven targets in main dome and secondary tunnels, various sizes and degrees of humanity."

"Shit....  Look, I don't suppose we could just sit down and talk things out?  I'm sure I don't want to experience skunk musk and I'm sure you don't want to see what it's like to get hit with a 30 mm shell."

"First, prove you're not working for the spooks," the raccoon demanded, "You've got five seconds."

"The who?" James thought, but he really didn't have the time to ponder the question as the raccoon began to countdown.  "AIRRS, take the gun to standby mode, active tracking off.  Go to passive tracking."

The rail gun swiveled about and the sound of electromagnets powering down could be heard.

"Now, leave your gun on the seat and step away from the truck," the raccoon said to James.

James mentally winced as his hand involuntarily jerked back from the gun.  Time to gamble... and pray it pays off.

"No dice, how do I know you're not working for them?"  James said as he clearly picked up the gun, holstered it, and gave the raccoon an ice-cold stare.

The raccoon obviously hadn't planned on any opposition by his lack of a reply and look of disbelief on his muzzle.

"I say we have a bit of a mexican standoff here," James said as he leaned against the truck, "Do we just stand here all night, or could we possibly get some questions answered?"  he then asked.

"Either you're insane or just plain suicidal...  this," The raccoon motioned to the rear end pointed at James, "can topple entire police forces in one fast swoop!"

"Um, can I choose 'C', all of the above?  And I have heavy artillery, so what's your point?  Look, if I was after you, we wouldn't be having this discussion;  You'd be toasted critters.  Is that enough proof for you, or do I have to strip naked and go running about claiming allegiance to the "United Species of America?"

The raccoon was about to say something and James immediately cut him off, "That was a rhetorical question!  Don't even think about asking!"

The raccoon simply pouted.

     "I believe it's safe to assume you all are on the run from those floaty cloud things?  Just what the hell are those things?"  James asked as the skunk stood up and slowly limped back the second tunnel entrance with the other raccoon that James had decked, as the brother remained to talk to him.

"Where have you been the past year???" the raccoon asked in shock, "How can you not know of the nacelites??"

"I claim the fifth on that...  Nacelites, eh?  AIRRS, log that name on to the data file."

"Who is that you keep talking too?  I can smell that you're alone."

"My computer, and I'd rather just leave it at that," James said in such a way that there was no mistaking the finite meaning of the statement.  "AIRRS, stand-down weapon systems.  Lockout all controls to my voice only.  I leave the dampeners to your judgement."

"Understood," drifted from inside of the truck.

"Now, where were we?  Ah, yes, the cloud thingies.  You mentioned something about stage 6, what is that?"

"You really don't know, do you?"

James shook his head no.

"Well, that does explain why you're still human.  The nacelites are some alien race that thinks it can save the planet by turning the entire populous into animal in a six step process.  Some, like us, managed to escape out of the cities, but most are caught and then taken straight to stage six as punishment and to be made an example of."

"Forfeiture?"

"Forfeiture.  There's a prime example at your feet," the raccoon said as he pointed downward.

James looked down to see a black-footed ferret staring up at him.  James raised an eyebrow in curiosity at the small mammal looking back at him with the same odd expression.

"AIRRS, get Nick back on the line asap!  This is too big for me to handle alone,"  James said as the magnitude of the revelations hit him with the force of a ton of bricks.

"I don't know if that is wise, James.  APU #2 is down to only 23% power and none of the other APU's can be spared to fuel the rift generator with out exposing us.  Just creating a stable rift with take, by my estimations, just over 22% power, leaving on two useable minutes for conversations and data transfer."

"DAMMIT!" James yelled as he slammed a fist on dashboard, "Is there any way to recharge the APU?"

"Running the engine is the fastest, but that will lead to CO poisoning in under 13 minutes in this cavern.  A natural recharge by the cells will take 8 hours minimum."

"DAMMIT <*slam*>, DAMMIT<*slam*>, DAMMIT<*slam, slam, slam*>!!!" James said as he proceeded to now ram his head on the dash, "What about taking this piece of junk outside?"

"Not recommended...  Lifescanners picking up two possible "Nacelite" forms only two miles away from cavern entrance.  Cave composition is making any possibility for specifics beyond that impossible."

"WHAT??  There's Nacelites nearby?!?" The raccoon screamed after hearing AIRRS' warning, "You've got to shut every electronic thing on this truck down, NOW!"

"Listen...  er, I never did catch a name here," James said as he turned toward the near-catatonic raccoon.

"Ted, but what does that matter right now???  Those things can sense electronics up to like a mile away, maybe even farther!"

"But not through a dampener especially designed to defeat sensors, Ted.  I already can vouch for that fact with my own life earlier today, but if it will make you feel better...  AIRRS, shut down all systems except for what's needed to cover up our tracks and some outside illumination.  I want to get a head start on checking into converting the PC into an ion cannon."

     AIRRS quickly printed out a hard copy of the conversion requirements before shutting down for the time being.  James sat down with the papers and pointed a small floodlight downward to read them.  He became so lost in the mathematical equations and technical schematics, James never even noticed that Ted was still standing about, with a confused look on his face.

"Just who in the hell are you??" the raccoon finally demanded.

"Hmm?" James asked as he looked up with a pencil in his mouth, "Oh, I'm sorry, never did tell you my name did I?  The names' James Lutris."

"Are you NSA, CIA?  You have to be some government branch to have equipment like that?  Are you with the resistance?"

"The No Such Agency?"  That's a new one, haven't been accused of being one of them before.  Listen, I'm not government, not a part of this "resistance," or any organization that you can think of.  All you need to know is that I'm here to access the situation with these "Nacelites" and figure out the best options of what to do next.  Don't take this as a threat, but getting too close to me is not a wise idea," James said as he turned his attention back to the papers.

Ted's muzzle hung open for a few moments as he stopped before even replying to James' statement.  His face then fell into a frown,   "Fine, but don't expect much help from us.  We barely have enough to survive on our own."

"Ok....," James replied with a raised eyebrow, "I have my own supplies and unless you have an electrical engineer with a strong background in charged particle theory, I don't want to risk getting anyone vaporized with what I'm about to attempt.  You may want to tell everyone to stay at least 20 feet away from me when I start working of that big cannon up there," he said as he pointed up toward the roof, "Getting hit by an electron stream is not a fun thing to experience."

     Ted turned about and left with a "whatever" type of expression on his face and James went back to figuring out the schematics.  As he sat there, He noticed movement out of the corner of his eyes.  James looked down to see the ferret on his hind legs, looking through the space between James' arm and body at the papers.

"Don't tell me you're an EE?" James asked the ferret.

The ferret looked up at James and shook his head 'yes.'  Had this been an anime picture, James was sure that a giant sweat drop would have form on his head.

"This is just getting too wacked out for me..." James said as he shook his head.

     As James sat there, dumbfounded, the ferret suddenly grabbed the pen from James' hand and with some initial difficulty, began to mark something out on the cave floor.

"What... are... the... plans... for?" James silently mouthed as he read the ferret's scratching in the dirt floor.

James thought for a few moments about if he should reveal that bit of information or not.  Things were in enough of a mess as they were, so what was a bit of future knowledge going to hurt he finally decided.

"Um, did you ever do a physics experiment where you created a stream of charged particles being pulled off a metal sample by high-powered magnets?" he asked the ferret.

"No... but... heard... of... it...," the ferret scribbled out.

"At least you know what I'm talking about.  Anyways, this cannon works off of that principle, only at a much greater power level.  These calculations should make the stream coming out a purely positively charged one.  A burst of positrons at one of those clouds should do some major damage since they're made up of an ionic web by disrupting that web at the base level."

"Sounds... like... fun..."

"Fun indeed, if I don't blow myself up in the process that is..." James said as he stood up and disengaged the particle cannon from it's power supply.

     The ferret wanted to see every detail of the conversion and James grudgingly obliged by lifting the ferret along with himself on the roof of the truck.

"I can't assure you of your safety while I do this, are you sure you want to be up here?" James asked the ferret.

The ferret nodded yes.

"Do you realize how silly I feel having a conversation with a ferret?"

Again, yes.

"The conversation maybe one-sided, but at least it's getting somewhere...." James mumbled as he stuck his head over the side and into the truck cabin, "AIRRS, is the cannon fully charged down?"

"Checking... it's safe to work on now.  Power levels are near zero, except in capacitor #3 where it's still bleeding off through the system.  It should be finished in about two minutes."

"Then let's get started...."

     James laid out the plans on the roof and pulled out a small pocket flashlight.

“Can you hold this while I do the work?” he asked the ferret as he laid down the light on the roof.

The ferret nodded ‘yes.’

“Cool beans…” James said before hopping down from the roof, “Now for the tools.”

James opened the SUV’s trunk and rummaged about for the toolbox.  He found hidden underneath the ammo box for the rail gun and wedge between two APU’s and the nitrous oxide tank.

“Brilliant place, Nick…” he grumbled as he lifted the box onto the roof and climbed back up himself, “Now, where were we?”

     As the ferret held the light, James worked feverishly on the cannon.  It had taken him over half an hour just to get the outer protection cover off and inside was a rat’s nest of wires, tubes, and electronics.  His hand had already once contacted the liquid nitrogen injectors by accident and several times been cut on sharp edges hidden deep inside the cannon.  Every five minutes, a new stream of four-letter words would echo about.

     James lost all track of time as he focused on the schematics and engineering notes.  The poor ferret was becoming awfully tired of holding the light and had already several time let it dip downward off of the plans.  James finally noticed it while reading over the cautions about the stream containment magnets as the light slowly listed off to one side.  James looked over at the ferret to see him half-asleep and struggling to hold the light up.

“You look like you could use a break,” James said as he took the flashlight from the ferret, “So can I.”

The ferret just laid down on the roof with his tongue lagging out.  James just raised and eyebrow at the sight and let out a little huff of a laugh.

     James hopped down and looked at his watch.  According to it, he had been working at that cannon for over five hours.

“No wonder the little guy was tuckered out, trying to hold that light for five hours straight…” he thought to himself as he stretched out a kink in his back.

That was when he noticed he had company.

     Life for the refugee was going on as normal at the far end up the dome, but nearby was several people sitting about and watching James.

James finished stretching before asking, “Can I help you?”

No answer.  James just shrugged his shoulders and pulled out a first-aid kit for his hand.  After tending to it, he then pulled out a bag of rations and dug about it for a few moments before deciding on a brown box and a can of soda.  Just then he also remembered the ferret and dug about again and pulled out small orange pouch.  James opened both the box and the pouch and pored the contents into some bowls he fished out of the truck.

“Just add hot water…” he read in the instructions,  “ I got water, but no hot…”

James dug about the truck’s contents and found a metal container that he filled with water.  He then got a pocket acetylene torch from the toolbox, lit it and used it as a micro stove.  Within a matter of minutes, the rations were ready to eat.

     James got back up on the roof and set down a bowl in front of the ferret.

“The bag says it’s beef stew,” James said as an ominous little bubble gurgled in the center of the food, “Somehow I doubt that…  Especially when this is supposed to be fettuccini alfredo….  ”

James just stared at his plate of artificially white noodles, not sure if he wanted to even attempt eating them or not.  The ferret was a whole other affaire as he wolfed the stew down in gulps.

“Oi… I take it you haven’t eaten in a while…”

The ferret just hiccuped in response.

      James put down his plate and looked over at the people huddled around a fire with no expressions on his face.  There didn’t appear to be much in the way of food cooking on the fire, in fact one tiny pot sat in the fire.  James knew there was no way on Earth that pot could or would feed all the people in the cave.  He felt kind of bad when some of the people sniffed the air and began looking directly at him with the hunger they felt evident even at that distance.

“That guy wasn’t kidding around about barely surviving…  AIRRS, what the story on those APUs?”

“Full recharge in two hours and 15 minutes.”

“Mmm… should probably finish up on that cannon…” James said to no one in particular as he felt unsure about what to do with those noodles.

It seemed so wrong to eat them in front of those people, but even worse if he would try to hide them.  A culinary catch-22.

     James looked over the plans as he half-heartedly nibbled on his noodles.  By his estimations, he was nearly done, just some minor focusing adjustments for the particle steam containers and to realign the nitrogen injectors after bumping them out of position.  Of course, that didn’t take into account the cover being put back on…

As James attached the power supply, he called down to AIRRS, “Power back up the cannon and bring the alignment sights online.”

“Understood.”

The sounds of capacitors recharging and electronics coming to life echoed in the dome as some of the people looked up at the truck in wonder.  Two red L-shaped figures appeared on the dome wall in front of the cannon as James tightened down the nitrogen injectors.  He then looked up at the figures and scratched his head.

“How are those things supposed to work, I can’t find any mention in the notes about alignment,” James asked AIRRS.

“That’s because typically the internal CPU takes care of alignments, but with the total shutdown and all the work done to the system, it’s reverting to manual input.  Find the adjustment screws A6 and A7 on chipboard CB2. Those control the containers.  Turn them until the shapes on the wall for a crosshair,” AIRRS answered.

“Sounds simple enough,” James said as he scanned the plans for the mentioned parts.

Half an hour later…

     “Of course they would be in the tightest possible spot,” James grumbled as shined the flashlight into the two-inch gap deep inside the cannon leading to the screws.

James felt a tug on the back of his shirt and looked down to see the ferret trying to gesture something to him.  The ferret was making screwdriver motions with his paws and then wiggled them up and down.

“You want to try and fit in there?”  James guessed.

The ferret nodded ‘yes.’

“Something tells me that I shouldn’t do this…” James said to himself as he picked up the ferret.

     “Up, no too far…  Tad bit more down.  Now to the left, no not to the right! Left!  Bit farther, stop!” James called out as held onto the rear half of the ferret dangling inside the cannon.

James looked at the little cross sitting on the wall and was pleased at the ferret’s results.

“AIRRS, can you double check the alignment?”

“It checks out, if that’s the answer you’re looking for,” the AI replied.

“Leave it to someone that’s all back,” James said as he pulled out the ferret, “To fit in the most impossible spots.”

James could have sworn he saw a grin on the little mustelid’s face.

“Just wipe that grin off your face, we still have to see if you got it right,” James said as he pointed a finger at the ferret.

The ferret tried to mock nip his finger as a reply.

     “AIRRS, auto tracking on.  Time to see if this thing works,” James said as he locked down the outer cover.

“Systems ready, awaiting something to blow up.”

James looked about for a suitable object.  Lying there was the bowl from the stew and he picked it up.

“A small flying dish coming at ‘ya,” James called out as he jogged a safe distance from the truck with the ferret under on arm and the bowl in the other hand.

“Locked on,” AIRRS said as the cannon powered up and twisted to aim at the bowl in James’ hand.

“Geeze, at least wail until it’s away from my body!”

“Throw it already…”

     James put down the ferret and then held the bowl up like a frisbee.  With all of his arm strength, he sent the dish sailing out in front of the truck.  The gun followed suit and a roar filled the dome as a beam of pure white light shot out of the cannon.  The bowl disintegrated in an instant as carry-over from the beam melted a small hole in the dome wall.

“I’d say that’s working…” James said as he tried to stop his ears from ringing, “What’s the verdict?”

“Slight overheat in containment magnet two, nothing to worry about.  Slight magnetizing of the outer casing, but that is dissipating as well.  Overall, the operation appears to be a success, doctor.”

“Look out aliens, the bad man’s got himself a gun…” James said to himself as a big grin spread across his face and the rest of the people collectively gasped in awe.

     “I want some answers now!” Ted screamed into James’ face, “Who the hell are you?!?”

“You’ve already forgotten my name?”  James asked with a slight grin.

“Don’t play games with me!  We can get some answers the easy way or the hard way.”

James noticed that some of the men began to circle about him, “I wouldn’t advise that, unless you guys are trained in several forms of martial arts.  I won’t shoot, but I have no regrets about protecting myself either.”

James could see the anger building on the raccoon’s face as part of his muzzle began to pull back into a snarl.

“Look, it’s not that I don’t want to tell you ‘who’ and ‘what,’ it’s because that I can’t without jeopardizing me and my entire organization.  Let’s just put it this way, I’m part of a specialized police force and right now I’m just trying to gather the facts on what’s going on. “

“No police force or any military force, to put this correctly, has firepower like that!  Laser cannons are supposed to be science fiction!”

“It’s not a laser, just a really powerful example of what Einstein’s E=Mc^2 equation can achieve and based off a really standard physics experiment.  So what does it matter?  I’m here to work on this nacelite problem, not play tour guide with my equipment.”

“Then why are you in here and not out there?!?”

“Because I needed to work on my equipment and get some info from home where I *though* it would be private.  Look, it’s obvious we’re all on edge from those things, Lord knows I had my own run-in earlier today that I don’t care to repeat without something having a chance of working against those clouds.  I didn’t mean to barge in like this, but I have my own problems to think about, like trying to save the world.”

“You?  Save the world??  HA!”

“Someone’s got to try.  I’m sure everyone here’s got family and friends to worry about, I’ve only got me.  All the better for getting in harm’s way.  I’ll be out of your way after getting some final instructions from HQ.  That’s when I’ve got the power to call in, though.”

“You do that…” Ted said as he stormed off in a huff.

     James sat down in the truck’s seat and sighed, “Man, what a grouch…  I guess he’s got a reason, though, looking like a walking fur coat and not much else to look forward to.”

He looked over at the fire to see Ted arguing with who looked to be his brother. James couldn’t make out the conversation, but he had a pretty good hunch of who the subject was.  He could feel the tension and despair in the are, like a heavy blanket, these people had no power to change the situation they faced and it ate away at their hope like candy.  Hell, even himself didn’t know if the actions he took now and in the future would be enough to stop the nacelites.

“AIRRS, what’s the APU at?”

“82% power and charging.”

“Screw the full charge, establish a link home.  I’ve got the feeling we’ve overstayed our welcome here,” James said as he looked one last time at the fire to see Ted still ranting.

“As you wish,” AIRRS said as it powered back up the truck and created a rift.

     The HUD picture became a static mess as AIRRS tried to stabilize the link.  What sounded like and explosion came through the speaker as the picture wavered about and the steadied back into the static mess.

“Nick!  Can you hear me!  Anyone, come in!” James yelled into the screen.

Nick’s furry head came into the picture just as it wavered again for a split-second, “James!  Th~ (muffled by an explosion).  Someone sabotaged the displacers.  We think someone working for those “nacleites” got into the generators and set them to overlo~ (more explosions) I don’t know if we can repair~”

And then the picture went black…

“AIRRS, what happened?  Get him back!”

“Loss of signal.  I’m sorry, James, but I won’t be able to get Nick back on the line.  No one will be able to any longer as I fear the Temporal Police no longer exist.”

“My, God…  Are we safe?” James asked with a deep tone or worry to his voice.

“I don’t know…  There exists the possibility of a temporal backlash affecting us since were of that same timeline…  I don’t have the power to make such a computation of how strong the backlash would be, if any did occur.”

James felt his stomach fall out, as AIRRS had never failed him before.  And now, they both were looking at what could be the end of everything.

     “Can you make any kind of guess of how long we might have before a backlash could occur?” James asked as he hurriedly threw everything in the truck, including himself.

“I can not say, possibly at most an hour, as little as one minute.  I don’t have the power or equations to make any sort of guess.”

“Then we’ve got to get out of here.  I don’t want to get these people caught up in a temporal disturbance.  If it even comes…” James said as he started the truck and spun tire for the exit tunnel.

     He drove the through the tunnel at a dangerous rate of speed and actually went airborne for a split second as he exited out of the cave entrance.

“Give me some directions, AIRRS,” James said as he skidded to a stop.

“Where to?”

“Anywhere right this moment.  Preferably someplace out of the way.”

“Working…  found “someplace.”

“Let’s get a move on then!”

As AIRRS dictated the directions to James, the truck punched through the woods like a knife as it tore through underbrush and bounced over rocks and small boulders.  James found himself gaining altitude with every second that passed.  He didn’t have a clue as to where his destination lied, but he didn’t care either at that moment in time.  In a few minutes’ time, he found himself to be high on a small plateau overlooking a small waterfall.  James spared himself only a moment to look at the view before returning to the problem at hand:  Their survival.

     “AIRRS, shut down every thing on this hunk of iron that isn’t necessary and reroute every ounce of power into the shield and displacer,” James said as he flipped numerous switches and shut down every program in the onboard systems that wasn’t critically vital.

“Communications:  Offline.  Weapons:  Offline.  Subproccessor and backup systems: Offline.  Adjusting shields to minimum power.  All APU’s, auxiliaries, and rerouted power now going to the displacers.  Tapping the engine alternator for extra power.  Displacer has been strengthen by a final total of 48%.  I only hope it’s enough…”

“A computer hoping is not a good sign, you know…”

“Tell me about it,” AIRRS replied.

     As James was taking off his shoulder holster, he noticed a bumping on top of the roof.

“What the hell??” he said as he opened the door, gun drawn, “Who’s there?!?”

“Don’t shoot!  I’m not armed!” came from on top of the truck.

A couple of furry hands raised up from the roof racks, followed by a couple of tiny paws.  Belonging to them was the ferret and a raccoon, Ted’s brother.

“Oh, no!  What are you two doing up there??!?  Get down right this moment!!”  James screamed.

“I wanted to talk to you, but you took off like a mad man before I got the chance.”

“And you decided to hitch a ride??  You don’t know how much danger you’re in!  Get down!”

“It was his idea,” the raccoon said as he handed the ferret down to James before slowly climbing down himself.

About half way down, a low rumble echoed in the air as the sky darkened.

“JAMES!  THE BACKLASH IS FORMING!”  AIRRS called out of the external speakers.

“What’s that?” the raccoon asked as he hopped down on the ground.

James looked up to see a hole in oblivion itself rip open in the sky.

“GET BACK!” he screamed as he slingshot threw the raccoon as far as he could and toe kicked the ferret away from him.

The split-second the raccoon’s arm left James’ hand, lightning shot out of the hole and stuck multiple points on the truck.  In a blink of an eye, that same lightning arced off of the truck onto James.  He screamed in absolute pain as his body was stripped of its strength and he dropped to the ground.  The raccoon and ferret watched in horror as the lightning consumed the truck and James, their very images beginning to blur from sight.  Violent winds whipped across the plateau as the sound of screeching tires filled the air.  The hole was actually beginning to suck the truck into itself as AIRRS overdid the controls and went to full accelerator to fight the pull.  James had no such means of protection as his unconscious body was being lifted from the ground.  Against his better judgement, the raccoon leaped at James and grabbed hold of his hand.  Unbelievable pain shot up the raccoon’s arm as some of the lightning arced onto him.  He then dug every claw he had free into the ground as the wind began to push him towards the hole as well.  The sound of exploding glass came from the truck as the engine went silent.  The raccoon could only watch in awe as the front wheels actually began to slowly pick up.  And then as suddenly as it started, the hole collapsed upon itself and the winds died down.  James and the truck were dropped to the ground as gravity reclaimed their masses and the raccoon fell forward as James’ weight pulled him down.  The only sound that could be heard was the rapid beating of the raccoon’s heart as slowly looked up to the sky, only to see nothing.  He then began to laugh as it dawned upon him that it was over…

     Smoke drifted off of scorched paint on the truck and the charred back of James’ jacket as he laid on the ground, facedown and unconscious.  The raccoon wiped broken glass from off of the ground next to the truck and leaned James against the side of it.   The raccoon gasped as he got a good look at James’ head for the first time.  Upon it was a shortened version of an otter’s muzzle and the rounded ears on top.  That didn’t startle the raccoon as much as the fact that they completely lacked any fur, save a few whiskers where there normally would be some.  He listened closely to James’ chest and heard a heartbeat and breath being drawn in and out.  Unbelievably, he was somehow still alive.

     As he sat there, the raccoon suddenly remember that the ferret was nowhere in sight.

“Hey, Brownfeet!  Where are you!?” he called out.

A short chirp came out of some dense weed as good distance away and the raccoon followed the sound to find a slightly dazed ferret in-between several rocks.

“You ok?” the raccoon asked as he knelt down next to the ferret.

The ferret shook his head clear before giving a paw’s equivalent to thumbs up.  The raccoon then picked him up before returning to the truck to find James recovering from his own shock.

     “If I’m dead… why do I hurt so much…” James forced out of his mouth, which seemed to not want to cooperate with his brain.

“You’re still in one piece, that’s why.  Take it easy for a few minutes.  Just what was that thing?” the raccoon asked as he knelt down beside James and put a hand on his shoulder.

“Temporal backlash… The superpowered displacers must have worked or we wouldn’t be having this conversation…”

“Temp~awhata?  Speak english, man.”

“It doesn’t matter…  Better you don’t know.”

James noticed that his nose was beginning to feel oddly cold and starting to itch.  He reached up to scratch it, but he couldn’t seem to make it come all the way to his face.  No, it was touching something, he could feel the sensation.  James stared cross-eyed at his nose only to see more of it that there should have been ending in a dark tip.  He then noticed his hand and the webbing of skin between the fingers and short claws at the tips.  That was all his mind could take as James began to scream bloody murder.

     “Calm down, so you’re missing some fur.  That’s no real bother,” the raccoon said as he tried to bring James back from the grip on insanity.

“No bother?!?  I can handle a lack of fur!  Lack of fur is good!  It’s what I do have that’s bothering me!”  James said as he looked at both of his webbed hands, “ AIRRS, what happened to the backlash and more importantly, to me?!?”

No answer came from the AI.

“AIRRS?”  James asked with growing concern as he tried to pull himself into a standing position.

The smell of burnt paint wafted in the air as broken glass cracked and popped beneath his shoes. James wobbly leaned against the truck’s door when a slight case of vertigo came over him.  The truck’s paintjob was well on the far side to oblivion, the body’s metal showing through in quite a few places.  A huge crack went from one corner to the other in the windshield.  The side and rear windows didn’t fare all to well themselves, as most were either spiderwebbed or shattered.  James opened the door and quickly reset all of the breakers and fuses as he tried to get any idea if the systems had survived such a powerful overload in the dead truck.  On what was left of the windshield HUD, a startup boot script appeared.  Over half of the systems the computer tried to reinitialize failed and when it finally got to AIRRS’ core program, there was a long period of inactivity as he heard the harddrives knock about with a sick sounding pinging noise.

“Please still be there…” James pleaded as he wiped away beads of sweat from his forehead, “Don’t leave me alone in this mess…”

“*bzzt*  Artificial Intelligence Research and *snap, crackle, pop* tem online.  Warning:  Severe damages to all sys*bzzt*  Attempting auto rep*ftzzzzt* and rerouti*pop* of power and memory,” suddenly crackled over the truck’s speakers just a James was about to give up all hope.

James’ head hung down as he shook it side to side in amazement.

     James happened to catch a glimpse of himself in the rearview mirror as he wearily sat down in the driver’s seat of the truck.  He reached up and grabbed it with a hand before slowly turned it towards his face.  The sight it showed was not a pretty one in James’ mind.

“I look like a Chernobyl fur-farm reject…” he said to no one in particular as he rubbed the bare skin of his muzzle.

“No argument here,” the raccoon said as he leaned on the open door.

“If I had know this was going to happen, maybe I wouldn’t have bothered with all those precautions…  I’m sure getting blown out of the timeline can’t be worse than this,” James said as he pulled off his shoes, which were really beginning to hurt his feet.

James immediately saw the reason why as claws stuck out of the tips of his socks.  Those same socks were also stretched into an unusual rounded shape towards the toes that expanded outward even farther the moment they cleared the top of his shoes.  James felt like hitting something, but just settled for chunking his shoes as far as he could.

“You’ll be going alone…  I can help you from this end…  SOME HELP, NICK, AND NOW I’M STUCK WITH NOWHERE TO GO AND A HALF-MELTED AI!” he screamed into the forrest.

Venting his rage into the air helped James begin to calm down as he kicked a pile of glass for no other reason than that it was there.

“Correction, one-quarter-melted AI.  I was able to patch over some of the damaged components for approximately 75% operational capacity,” drifted from inside the truck.

“Doesn’t help things much when everything else is fried,” James said as he slammed a fist on the hood of the truck.

“You don’t know that.  I’m working on damage control right this moment to see what’s salvageable.  So, why don’t you talk to your friend while I work on this?”

“Whatever,” James angrily muttered.

     James and the raccoon sat down in a relatively shrapnel-free patch of grass that overlooked the waterfall.

“So, tell me again why you were on top of my truck,” James said as he picked a small wildflower and idly sniffed it.

“We wanted to talk to you, but you were taking off the moment we started walking over to you.  When you got to the tunnel and slowed down, Brownfeet jumped on the back bumper and, well, I kinda’ did the same.”

“You leap on the back of a moving vehicle, just like that??  What was so important that you’ll do such a scattered-brained stunt??  And who is this Brownfeet?”

“You spent most of today with him,” the raccoon said as he pointed down at the ferret, “We just kind of gave him that nickname since no one knew his real one and he couldn’t tell us. “

“I should have guessed…”

     “You wanted to talk, well you’ve got my attention since I have nowhere to really go, Mr.?” James said as he tossed the flower off of the plateau and watched it drift down into the pool at the bottom of the waterfall.

“Tyson, Robert Tyson.  Yours I already know from the way Ted ranted on.  Tell me, it wasn’t because of my brother that you left?”

“No, you saw the reason a little too close…  Imagine if I had let that form inside the dome what kind of damage could have been done.  I knew the backlash was coming and I had to get away from everyone quickly.”

“I though so,” Robert motioned to his ears, “It’s amazing what I can pick up with these oversized satellite dishes.  The way you yelled for that “Nick” person and how he was yelling about nacelite sabotage before you picked up and took off, I knew something had to be up.  And now you keep mentioning temporal this and temporal that. You’re some kind of timecop, aren’t you?”

The way James looked up wide-eyed at Robert confirmed his suspicions.

“Ah-ha, just as I though!”

James could have slapped himself for falling to such and easy trick.

      “Are there any more of you guys out there?” Robert asked.

“Not anymore… The nacelites saw to that.  That backlash was because my timeline was erased from existence and that little package was trying to get me as well.  To get a spy in, those things must have know about us somehow and knew we’d investigate the moment history was changed.”

“So the world getting stage-6’d isn’t what’s supposed to happen?”

“Not according to the last history book I read…  But how could they have know about our organization, we’re a better kept secret than the third man on the second hill near the second man on the grassy knoll.  Aw crap… did I just say that out loud…?”

Robert only raised a furry eyebrow at that statement.

“I’d better get back and see what AIRRS is up to,” James said as he tried to change the subject.

     “What’s going on with the truck, AIRRS?”

“APU one and two are fried, three is down to 15% and keeping me alive.  The auxiliaries are wasted.  The systems for the shields and dampeners are beyond help, but considering you survived the backlash, the dampeners are no longer of concern.  The rail gun and particle cannon were both ravaged pretty badly, but there’s the possibility that scrapping one for parts will fix the other if these readings are correct.  The engine electronics are shot.  I will have to run that system if you wish to go anywhere.  There may just be enough of a charge in the batter to crank the engine.  Communications… what communications?  Shall I continue?”

James only groaned in reply.

     “Sounds like there isn’t a whole lot going on with your truck,” Robert said as he picked up a shard of glass.

“There’s an understatement,” James said as he controlled the urge to put a fist through what was left of the driver’s side window, “Almost everything’s now dead weight or scrap metal.  I really hate to ask, but could I borrow you for a little while, at least until I have some form of working transportation?”

“Sure.  Not much else to do, except sit in the dark at that cave,” Robert said with enough cynicism to cut metal.

“I take it you don’t like being down there?” James asked as he pulled out the toolbox from the wreckage that was the trunk.

 “Personally, I’m tired of hiding in the dark like a leper colony.  It’s only a matter of time before someone finds us and the enforcers move in.  You’re the first person I’ve met who’s interested in stopping those bastards and I… I want to join you.”

James just stopped cold as a wrench fell from his hand.

“You want to WHAT?!?”

“I want to help you stop the nacelites, not sit around in the dark and wait for forfeiture anymore like a frightened animal.”

“You have no idea what you’re saying!  Look at my equipment, I don’t even know if I could stop a flee, letter for all one of those clouds!  My mission may be over right here and now, especially if that ion cannon no longer is operable.”

“That’s just it, you don’t know.  I’m willing to help and by the looks of that paintjob, you need all the help you can get.”

James let out a sigh as he knew Robert was right, he needed help more than anything.  Here he is, on his own with no way to return home, wanted by aliens, and turned into a furless animal thing.

“So, what’s our first move, boss?”  Robert asked.

“Don’t push your luck…”

     James and Robert worked long and hard to strip the truck of all the dead equipment, inside and out.  A huge pile of plastics and metal grew beside the truck as APU’s, antennas, equipment racks, and other miscellaneous items were removed and scrapped.   All that remained were a couple of fuel tanks, the last working APU and the two guns on top.

“That’s the last of it,” James said as he removed the ammo drum and feeder for the rail gun and dumped it on top of the pile, “Except for the gun.”

“It’s a shame that all this stuff is salvageable.  Some of it looks pretty cool,” Robert said as he picked up the remains of a tension spring.

“Have a couple hundred lightning bolts go through you and see how well you fare,” James said as he climbed up onto the roof.

“I see your point.”

     “AIRRS, can you hear me?” James called from the roof.

“Just fine.”

“Ok, can you give me any specifics as to what’s screwed up on the cannon?”

“Working…  This is just amazing, all that shielding the cannon requires actually did some good for once.  Most of the electronics were spared except for the outer board.  That can be bypassed, as it’s only the control CPU.  I can take over those systems myself.  The main problems are the containment magnets.  Most of them were depolarized by the backlash.”

“Can’t I just take out the working magnets from the rail gun?”

“Nice ides, but no.  The rail gun works off of electromagnet, not permanents.  What will have to be done is to install the electromagnets and then jury-rig a control system into the cannon.”

“I have absolutely no clue on how to do that,”

“I have some limited knowledge on electronic engineering, but I think we do have a second avenue to explore."

“What?”

“Our little four-footed friend over there, which I do recall claimed to be an EE.”

James looked down at the ferret (who happened to be grinning like a fool) before saying, “You have got to be kidding me.  How low the mighty have fallen…” as he put his head in his hands.

     James proceeded to gut the rail gun for as many of the magnets and controllers as he could before kicking it off the side.  Robert then lifted Brownfeet up onto the roof as James opened up the cannon and readied the thing for it’s major overhaul.  As AIRRS explained what needed to be done and what the parts were, the ferret became a blur of motion as he worked at a dizzying pace.  With James’ help to move the heavier parts and soldering, the magnets were completed in little over an hour.  James then ripped out the dead magnets in the cannon and replaced them with the new ones as Brownfeet climbed into it to get a better look at the boards.

     The ferret pointed to spots that needed soldering as he also switched about wires and jumper settings.  James worked hard to keep up with the inhuman pace Brownfeet moved at, but his efforts were well rewarded at the ferret finally hopped out and gave his version of  “thumbs up.”

“Alright, AIRRS, give it a once over,” James called down.

“Working…  By Jove, I think he’s done it.  Registering all magnets as operational and polarized.  This gun is good to go!”

James, Robert, and Brownfeet simultaneously let out a cry of joy at that piece of news.

     “Well, now what do we do?” Robert asked James as he hopped down from the roof.

“Ted mentioned something about a resistance.  I was thinking of tracking them down an seeing what that was all about.”

“Sounds like a plan, but where?  I’ve only heard rumors about a resistance, nothing factual.”

“Atlanta sounds like a good starting point.  I can also get some replacement parts for the computers and AIRRS while passing through.”

“Is that such a good idea to head into a major metro?  This place is crawling with spooks and we’re just a little tourist trap, can you imagine what a city the size of Atlanta must have??”

“I need some pretty specialized stuff, besides, I think we can handle a little danger.  Hey, I went through temporal backlash and survived.  What’s the worse a cloud can throw at me?” James said with a little smile.

“Shall we find out?” A new voice asked.

James and Robert spun about to see a nacelite rise over the edge of the plateau, followed by a figure James instantly recognized as a Temporal Police officer.

     James instantly drew his firearm, only to find that the webbing between his fingers made it hard to hold onto.  It didn’t really matter as the gun instantly became like a hundred-pound weight and pulled from out of his grasp.

“We’ll be having none of that,” the cloud said in an aggravated tone.

James knew that voice.  I took a little trying, but he finally placed it belonging to the first nacelite he met, and then ran over.  Inside, James mentally went into full panic mode.

As the second officer finished climbing up, the cloud asked him, “Is this the one?”

The officer stared long and hard as James before answering, “It’s a bit hard to tell with all that extra face, but there’s no mistaking that hunk of metal anywhere.  That’s definitely him, Commander James Lutris.  The only person those stupid cops sent back thinking that he could do it all alone.  Boy weren’t they surprised when the displacers failed and they all started changing into little animals,” and then broke out laughing.

“You, son of a… I’m going to kill you with my bare hands!” James angrily spat out.

“Listen, you side-show freak, when Mr. Colon here get through with you, you’ll be wishing for hands!”

Robert had to restrain James from just rushing the cloud and the officer.

“Thank you for you services, Mr. Ian.  Without your help, the threat of the Temporal Police couldn’t have been eliminated and now for you reward,” the cloud said as it began to pulse in a odd manor.

The officer made a choking sound as his body began to warp and twist before everyone’s eyes.  Within the span of seconds, the officer was changed into a very stunned brown weasel.

“Poetic justice you might say.  Now, James is it?  I do remember quite well being rammed by that vehicle of yours.  Normally, assault of an enforcer is forfeiture, but in your case, I think a special exception is warranted.  I can’t help but notice that lack of fur on your body.  I think it suit you quite well enough to stay with you all the way to stage 6.”

There was an evil chuckle from the cloud as James envisioned himself as a naked otter.  It wasn’t a pretty picture that came to his mind.

“AIRRS, now would be a good time to do something!” James said as he started to backtrack.

“I’m trying, James!  I’ve only got one battery to work with here!” came from inside the truck.

Robert and Brownfeet had already disapeared as James looked for a way out.

“At least they’ll get away,” he though as the cloud began to pulse again.

Absolute pain came over his body as it felt like two invisible hands began to pull and mold every atom.  James could feel his spine stretching and compressing at the same times and he wanted to scream, but couldn’t force open is mouth as he felt his pants give way for the tail forming in them.  Suddenly a whine filled the air and the hand disappeared as the nacelite suddenly stopped pulsing.

“More of your little toys?” the cloud asked as the ion cannon turned towards it.

“No, something worse,” Robert said as he pulled the trigger from inside the truck.

The cannon roared as the ion stream blasted through the nacelite.  The cloud gave off a terrifying scream that pierced the ears as it’s own ionic web was torn apart particle by particle.  Suddenly, the cloud exploded in a ball of light as a wave of heat dissipated over the plateau.  Robert let go of the trigger and rushed to James’ side as the cannon powered down.

     James shook his head clear and fought to get to his feet.  As dizzy as he was, there was nothing that could blur the anger he felt right that moment for the former officer still lying on the ground.  Robert could instantly tell what was about to happen as he tried to restrain James.

“Don’t do it, man!”

James pushed Robert away and grabbed his gun before stomping in front of the weasel.  He let out a surprised squeak as James angrily grabbed him by the scruff of his neckfur and hoisted him up.

“Who’s laughing now?!” James said as he shoved his gun into the weasel’s face, “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t!”

“Don’t do this, James.  It’s for the courts to decide!” AIRRS cried out in desperation to stop James.

“Those courts don’t exist anymore thanks to him!  I’m all that’s left to judge him!”

The weasel could see the fire burning in James’ eyes and the hate in the pulled back muzzle.

“I’ll tell you what.  I’m going to give you a sporting chance,” James said as he holster his gun and walked to the edge of the plateau, “Aim for the water and you might survive.”

The weasel squirmed and cried out in pure fear as James held him over the edge near the waterfall.  James paid no attention as he reared back his arm and prepared to through the weasel to his fate.  Just then something gripped his wrist and yanked it hard.  Out of the pain, James dropped the weasel and was twisted around to see Robert holding him.

“No, James…  That isn’t justice, just retribution.  A hollow victory from blind rage, nothing more…”

The weasel saw his opportunity to skip out and was about to take off as Robert grab the gun from James’ holster and fired.  The shot impacted right next to the weasel, who froze like a cube of ice.

“Did anyone say you could go?” Robert asked as he picked up the weasel by the scruff and threw him in the trunk of the truck, “So, where do we go from here?” he then asked James.

“I-I don’t know anymore…” James said as he began to breakdown.

     James sat with his head in his hands for well past nightfall.  Robert couldn’t coax a single word out of him and Robert was beginning to worry about James’ state of mind.  Occasionally, there would be the odd twitch of the furless tail sticking out of James’ pants, but other than that, he didn’t move a muscle.

“Come on, snap out of it.  You were rightly justified to be angry, but that wasn’t the way.”

“I know….” came out muffled from between James’ finger, “But, I just can’t let go that easily.  He destroyed so much and so many lives…”

“He got what he deserves from that nacelite.  Now you should concentrate on making *them* pay for the part they played in destroying *all* of our lives.  I’m still willing to help if you are.”

James looked up to see Robert offering a hand to him.  James took that hand and was lifted up off of the ground in more ways than one.

     “Alright, AIRRS, let’s see if you can start that engine,” James said as he turned the ignition key.

The engine sputtered and choked for several seconds before turning over and coming to a rough idle.  James looked back at his passengers, willing and unwilling, for a split second before putting the truck in gear and starting off for the main road.

“We still heading for Atlanta?” Robert asked.

“We can be there by morning.  Always wanted to see the High museum of art there, but I couldn’t find the time since I would be such a long distance visitor.”

“In more ways than one now,” Robert added in.

James only smiled at the comment as he adjusted his tail for a more comfortable position and took off into the distant unknown of the world around them.