The Time War Ch. 03&04

"Sarah, Naomi, this is our newest recruit, Captain John Calle."

Naomi was a slender brunette. Sarah was an even more slender blonde. Sarah Chambers had a beautiful face, but a very skinny body. "So you're John Calle," said Sarah, looking him up and down.

"That would be me," said Calle. Sarah had more than a dozen holoscreens in front of her. He wondered if Sarah had ever watched him on one of her little screens.

Sarah turned to Erica. "I'll take it from here."

Erica said, "I thought-"

"I said, I'll take it from here," said Sarah.

Erica shrugged and smiled and left.

"She outranks me, technically, but all that's needed is a firm tone of voice," said Sarah. She looked Calle up and down again. "So you're the new John Collier."

"Everyone tells me that," said Calle.

"Well, Naomi and I are the Scanalizers. I'm Chief Scanalizer, and Naomi is my deputy."

"Scanalizer?"

"We scan the timeline for incursions," said Sarah. "Hence the word, Scanalizer." She talked to him like he was a retarded person, and her face was cold, but Calle sensed there was something almost... playful... hiding behind it.

"How can you spot an incursion?" Calle asked.

Sarah shrugged. "Instinct. Common sense. If we see dinosaurs wandering through downtown Orlando, we might get the sense that something is wrong."

"You're joking, right?" He looked at her face searchingly.

Sarah's face was grave.

"Sarah is a Passive Observer," said Naomi.

"A Passive Observer?" said Calle.

"You're very good at that. Repeating other people's words. I wonder what other skills you have?" Sarah asked. "That's right, I'm a Passive Observer. That's why I was recruited. For my skill in noticing very small details, like subtle changes in the timeline. Naomi and I watch these screens day and night, looking for signs of incursions. We also operate the Time Shaft. And for all that, we have no rank. We're enlisted girls. Is that fair? No, don't answer that, of course it's not fair. But there it is. Sometimes I think we should go back in time and persuade Colonel Strayker to make us officers. Would you join us on such a mission, John Calle? Of course not, not yet. You're too new and eager and dedicated. But give it time, that will change."

Sarah spoke in a rapid-fire monotone fashion which took some getting used to.

"We will also be responsible for giving you your anti-time treatments. Every time you leave this facility other than through the Binochi Corridor, you must enter that booth there." Sarah pointed with a dainty finger to a series of booths set into the walls that were lit from above. "You'll get the standard thirty second dusting with anti-time particles. It will protect you if the timeline changes while you are outside this facility."

"For how long?"

Sarah shrugged. "Tested and verified... three days. But we theorize the treatment could last longer, perhaps as long as two weeks. Unfortunately, we don't have a good way to test the limits of that, for obvious reasons. Just don't try to test the limits of your protection if you don't want to risk being erased from existence when one of the other factions corrupts the timeline."

While Calle was trying to consider the implications of all that, Sarah continued to talk. "Do you have any questions? No, of course you don't. This is all so much for you that you feel overwhelmed. So I suppose now that you're totally overwhelmed, it's time to overwhelm you a bit further. What's another cup of water on your head when you're drowning, eh? So let's go together and take your time virginity."

"What?" said Calle, blinking rapidly.

"Your first trip through the Binochi Corridor," Naomi explained.

"I like it a lot better the way I say it," said Sarah, her eyes twinkling.

"I've actually travelled in time before," said Calle.

"To a pocket," said Sarah, dismissively, as if that didn't matter. "I saw it all."

Calle got the uncomfortable feeling that Sarah had been watching him, when he had been having sex with Eva Braun-

Sarah tapped her foot impatiently. "Are you ready to begin? The Binochi Corridor waits for no one."

********

Calle gripped the recall device in his hand nervously as he looked at the swirling mist ahead of him. Technically speaking, he had travelled in time twice before, but each time he hadn't been aware of the transition as he was now. As he stood at the edge of the active Binochi Corridor, he felt the heat of the energy from it. Would the swirling mists burn him?

"We're waiting, Captain," said Sarah, standing at the controls. "We're time travelers, not eternals. We don't have forever, you know."

Calle nodding, stepped through the gateway. Instantly, found himself on a well lit path, surrounded by swirling mists on either side of him. He felt the heat of the mists on his body. It was like being in a hot sauna. He saw the path of the light leading to... actually, he didn't know where it led. He looked at the mists to either side of him. If he walked off the path, Sarah said he would be lost... forever.

Calle shuddered, and started walking down the Binochi Corridor, careful to stay on the path. As he walked, he thought he could hear things... like the sounds of whispering, but whispering that was too low for him to understand. He looked in the mist around him. Could there be other beings here? Could Doctor Voidovich be trapped, somewhere in this corridor, for all eternity?

He kept walking. The doorway ahead got brighter and brighter. He stepped out into it, and then, and then....

He was back in the control room.

Calle looked confused. Could he have made a round trip? And then he noticed something different. Naomi was gone. And Sarah was wearing a different color shirt.

Sarah looked up. "Oh. It's you. That's right, you were sent to today, weren't you? I had almost forgotten."

"What... when is this?" Calle asked.

"Not a good question to ask if you were sent to the past," said Sarah sternly. "It could disrupt the timeline." She smiled as she watched Calle squirm. And then she broke out into a wicked smile. "As your luck would have it, this is two weeks into your future. I'm pleased to report that you're still alive."

"Didn't you just alter the timeline by telling me that?"

Sarah shrugged and popped a piece of popcorn into her mouth. "I find rules are best for others. By the way, I want to thank you for last night."

"Last night?"

"Oh dear, I'm afraid I may be breaking one of those pesky rules again," said Sarah, with mock wide eyes. "Are you sure you want to know, about you... and me, John?"

Now it was Calle's turn to look surprised, but this time it was for real. "You and me?"

"We become lovers," said Sarah. "You become totally infatuated with my body. You can't get enough of it." She looked down at her own skinny body. "Yes, you notice I have no breasts. Well, you'll get past that soon enough. I have other attractions."

Calle's eyes narrowed. Was Sarah telling him the truth?

"Now that you've had a thoroughly unauthorized taste of your future, you'd better scurry home and report," said Sarah.

"Everything?" Calle was incredulous.

"Well, everything except what I just told you, of course." She looked at him scornfully. "Activate your recall device."

Calle pressed the button on the device in his hand. Instantly, a gateway appeared before him.

Calle stared into it uncertainly.

"You actually have to step into it. It doesn't come to you," said Sarah sweetly.

Calle took a deep breath, and prepared himself.

"Goodbye, lover," Sarah said, winking at him just before he stepped into it.

********

Calle emerged in the lab yet again. Sarah was there, but Naomi was still gone. Calle's eyebrows furled when he noticed Naomi's absence.

"Relax," said Sarah, noticing his look. "This is only five minutes after you left. I sent Naomi on a little errand so we could talk... privately. How was your trip?"

"Enlightening," said Calle. He really didn't know what to say.

Sarah smiled at him. "So, are you ready?"

Calle's eyebrows furled a second time. "Ready for what?"

"I thought my future self made that quite clear to you. To have sex."

"With you?"

"No, with this console," said Sarah, making a face. She pointed to her panel. "There's a hole right here on my control panel that your penis will fit just perfectly into... of course I mean me!" She paused, staring at his face. "Did my future self tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

"Did she tell you that we were lovers, and then tell you not to tell me?" Sarah asked. "It sounds like something she would do. It will do you no good to deny it, I know her like the back of my hand."

"You would... seeing as it's you," said Calle.

There was silence in the room for a long moment, as Sarah still seemed to be waiting for something.

"So, are you ready?" Sarah asked.

"For what?"

"Are you retarded?" Sarah asked. "No, wait, don't answer that, it could be a really big disappointment." She turned and wrote rapidly on her Pad, then held it up. It read "Will you have sex with me?" in big letters.

"Sarah... I just met you," said Calle.

"Twice, actually," said Sarah. "Which is your way of saying no. Except that's usually the way a girl says no to a man. Do you feel emasculated, using the girl's way out? You should, I think."

"Do you ask all men for sex when they first join the Continuity Service?"

"Yes," said Sarah unabashedly.

Calle's jaw dropped open. It wasn't the answer he expected. "Why?"

"It's the tension, the stress," said Sarah. "For me, it's to cope with burnout."

"Burnout?"

"I spend twelve hours a day staring at 24 holoscreens," said Sarah, waving to them dismissively. "Can you imagine doing this seven days a week, 365 days a year, for the past two years?"

"No, I can't," said Calle. "Can't you take a vacation?"

"What would I do, go fishing?" She looked at him pityingly. "It's enough to drive a girl crazy."

"Does it drive Naomi crazy?"

"She's not smart enough to know what crazy is," Sarah confided. "But you do," she said, her face brightening.

"I won't have to stare at those screens like you do... will I?"

"No. But you'll have to go on missions which will compromise those precious moral values I'm sure you have. It will keep you tossing and turning at night, and wear you down emotionally. That's when you'll come to me. That's when you'll need me. So, I say, why wait for the inevitable? So, have I convinced you? Will you have sex with me now?"

"I haven't been worn down yet," Calle pointed out. "And I don't even know if we're...."

"We're what?" Sarah asked, her arms akimbo. On her skinny frame it accentuated her flat chestedness. She looked like a petulant boy with long golden locks of hair.

"If we're compatible," said Calle, trying not to hurt her feelings.

"It never hurts to try," said Sarah. "That's one thing I've learned from the Continuity Service. Perhaps the only thing I've learned from the Continuity Service. Actually, I'm lying, it can hurt to try, quite a bit. In fact, trying, in its various forms, can easily wipe out the entire human race. But back to the main subject. So you don't want to have sex with me. Why is that? You have noticed that I have no breasts, obviously." She thrust out her chest. She was indeed as flat as a boy.

"No, it's not that," said Calle, lying very convincingly, so he thought.

"Of course it is. I got a good look at your woman," said Sarah.

"Marion?" said Calle, his jaw dropping. "You saw Marion on one of these screens?"

"Of course. The Service has been monitoring you for some time. Where was I? Ah, yes, your woman. The one with the big titties."

"Her name was Marion," said Calle, grinding his teeth.

"Marion, with the big titties, I stand corrected," said Sarah. "Or do you prefer Big Titties Thomas?"

"How... how did you know that?" Calle's mouth dropped open.

"Maybe you are retarded. Haven't I told you that we've been watching you? But getting back to the subject at hand. Her breasts. Your eyes were glued to them all the time. I saw. I know. You're a titties man, don't even bother wasting your breath trying to deny it. But I have other skills. I have a highly efficient vagina. Don't wince, that's important to you too, you know it, don't even think of trying to deny it. I hate intellectually dishonest men. I don't want to start hating you. Back to my vagina. My highly efficient vagina, as I've said. Once you try it, you'll never be able to get enough of it. You may say no today, you may say no tomorrow, but remember what my future self told you. You'll be in the sack with me, sooner or later."

"I doubt it," said Calle, a little more harshly than he intended.

"Well then, we'll just have to see who knows you better, you..." and she waved a hand to her holographic screens, "...or me."

********

"Are you ready for your first mission?" Colonel Strayker asked. His cold blue eyes bore into Calle.

"I believe so... sir," said Calle.

"Is he?" Strayker asked Erica Green, who stood by his side.

"He's had all the requisite training, sir," she said carefully.

"Which is a fancy way of saying that you don't know," Strayker sighed. "Well, I suppose we'll have to let the bird go out of the nest and see if it flies... or if it falls on its head." He glared at Calle. "John, have you ever heard of Amelia Earhart?"

"Of course," said Calle. "The naval aviator. I believed she disappeared in the early 20th century."

"Her fate was never known. She simply... disappeared. John, I want you and Erica to find out what happened to her."

"Why?" said Calle. "I thought our job was to fight temporal incursions."

"It is, but part of that job is figuring out historical situations. Think of this as... a training mission. We're going to put you on a small island called Kiribati in the year 1939. It is believed that Earhart disappeared somewhere around there. See if you can find out what happened to her."

Calle slowly nodded. "Very well, sir." He got up to go.

"And Calle?"

"Yes sir?"

"I'm sending you to a tiny island. It will be very hard for you to interfere with the timeline from there... but not impossible. When you come back, I'd like my wife and home to still be here, all right?" Strayker looked at Calle expectantly.

"I'll... I'll do my best, sir," said Calle.

********

Calle and Erica stood at the entrance to the Binochi Corridor. They were dressed in tropical outfits. Erica had just handed him a compression pistol. She already had one of her own.

"Are we going to need compression pistols on a tropical island in 1939?" Calle asked.

"You never known," said Erica as she firmly holstered her own.

Naomi handed each of them a recall device. "Don't lose it, it's your only lifeline back to our time," she said, looking him in the eyes.

"Maybe you should give John a second one, just in case," said Sarah, her voice dripping with condescension. She smiled and winked at him as he glared at her. "Oh, John, John!"

"What?"

"Your zipper," said Sarah, with mock concern.

Calle looked down. "It's closed."

"Yes, it is," said Sarah, smiling at him.

"Are you two done?" Erica said, making a face.

"Even before we started," said Calle, glaring at Sarah as she threw him a kiss.

"All right, Naomi, crank it up!" said Sarah.

Suddenly, the Binochi Corridor burst forth with brilliant light and energy. They could see the swirling mists inside. Calle half-imagined that he could hear whispering sounds. Could there be some creature inside of there?

"Are you going?" Sarah inquired. "Or would you like to stay here and suck a candy?"

"She likes you," Erica stage-whispered.

"I think everyone knows that by now," said Calle. He steeled himself, and stepped into the Corridor.

He felt the same hot air around him as the last time. To his left and right were swirling mists, which blew on his skin. The light got fainter and fainter the farther he looked off the path. He kept going straight, following the light. He sensed Erica close behind him. As he walked, he got a glimpse, just for a moment, of something. It was a bearded white man, wearing a grass skirt. Calle blinked, and it was gone.

The lighted entryway got larger and larger as he walked towards it. And then... he was through.

Suddenly, he and Erica found themselves on a sandy beach in the South Pacific.

"Are you all right?" Erica asked. She knew it was only his second trip through the Corridor.

"Yes," said Calle slowly. "When I was in the corridor, I... I thought I saw something."

"Visions," said Erica. "Sometimes you see things, from the past, from the future, from where you're going or where you're coming, or simply something else entirely. What did you see?"

"I saw a man in a grass skirt."

"Well, that makes sense, that's what they wear here in Kiribati."

"No," said Calle. "He wasn't a native. He was a white person, an American or European."

Erica frowned. "Perhaps they have a missionary here."

"He didn't look like a missionary," said Calle, thinking of the half naked man's big belly.

"Well, perhaps it will make sense later," said Erica. "So... where do we go?"

"How would I know?" Calle asked.

"You're in charge, Captain."

This was his test. Calle looked around. They were on the beach. The water was behind them. There was jungle to their left, and jungle to their right.

"Left, I guess," Calle sighed.

********

They walked for several hours. Calle wasn't even sure what they were looking for. Amelia Earhart? Her plane? Some sign of wreckage? All he saw was jungle.

Erica was careful not to offer any suggestions. They were testing what they called his "Special Talent". The Continuity Service seemed to feel he had an ability to find important elements that could change the history of time. Calle was far from certain. It was true, in hindsight, that what he had done with Eva Braun to manipulate Adolph Hitler had been nothing short of extraordinary; but perhaps it had simply been a coincidence, or luck.

On the other hand, his supervisor Charlie Byler had always told him that he had a sixth sense when it came to knowing which parts would fail in a design flaw test of experimental engine models. So maybe he did have some talent.

They walked as they talked. Erica had been with the Continuity Service for nearly two years. She had participated on 23 separate missions.

"Tell me about Commander Strayker. You call him Colonel. Is he ex-military?"

"I don't know," said Erica. "None of us know very much about Commander Strayker. All I know is that he took over when William Bright retired."

"William Bright was the senior assistant to Carl Voidovich, who created the Time Shaft, right?"

"That's right," said Erica.

"Do you believe that Carl Voidovich simply disappeared in the Binochi Corridor?"

Erica shrugged. "It's possible. You've seen the Binochi Corridor. If you accidently fall off the path, you could be lost forever."

Calle considered that. "And what about Sarah?"

"What about her?"

"Is she for real?"

"You mean, in her desire to have sex with you? Yes. Sarah has had sex with all the men on the base."

Calle was dismayed. "All of them? Even the married ones?"

Erica smiled. "Especially the married ones. She considers it a challenge."

"Even Colonel Strayker?"

"I'm not sure about that," said Erica. "Gina, his wife, would probably object, if she knew about it." She paused. "You have to understand, John, she's a Passive Observer, and she spends every free minute staring at those screens. It's enough to drive anyone crazy. It's an enormously tense job. In fact, all our jobs are very stressful. It's not uncommon for people to take... liberties with one another." She gave him a look that was suggestive of one such possibility.