A Dream From The Past
The Time Thief

How many ways can you fall out of a shuttle? I mean really how many? I realize that it is from my own imagination—or at least it is supposed to be. So why do I keep coming up with new ways to torture my sub-conscience. I’m back on that plane, about to launch me in to space. The backrest is still irritatingly uncomfortable, my mouth is still unquenchably dry, and my nerves are still immeasurably frayed. The water still tastes like desert sand; the launch is earth shatteringly bumpy and the seat belts still dig into my shoulders like barbwire. I can still see every tiny detail, as if I’m still there. The flight attendant’s hair is pulled back into a bun, but she purposely lets a single lock fall just over her ear. There’s bead of sweat forming on the forehead of the older man sitting across the aisle from me. The plane hits the vertical track and rockets into the sky, and blackness. I feel the sensation of falling, yet I see nothing. I don’t even remember the plane even breaking up this time…but wait! The ground is definitely red.

Josh and his team arrived at the Oklahoma Tele Port for another jump. The simple process of stepping into their home teleporter did not and could not send them directly into the Time Port for security reasons. As was the process for every team, they first ported to Oklahoma, usually arriving on a random floor and then changing floors and stepping into another telepod—never the same telepod and never as a whole group. No member of the team had to worry about timing it perfectly with all the other members, as mentioned before, that was handled by the Time Port’s pods by only allowing the team to materialize when every team member had arrived. Still the team was required to get to the Teleport at a pre-designated time so as not to keep any earlier arriving members of the team in stasis for long periods of time—longer than five minutes anyway. Josh and Shivu—who usually enjoyed a high status—would sometimes arrive on the third floor, and since they were friends and partners they usually ended up on the same floor so they could quickly replace each other and pair off. This was usually the case with the techs and the backup stepper team as well.

Josh arrived first and caught Shivu inbound. He smiled at his friend and they fell into lock step as they walked to the stairs.

“Who’s on the agenda for today?” Josh asked. He Knew the answer already, but it was always a good conversation starter.

Shivu smiled and said, “Saty Bose.”

“Ha ha very funny, Shivu, you know he has to be approved.”

Shivu giggles but quickly sobered, “I know…Have you submitted him to the roster yet.”

“Hey! Do you think I’m a slacker? I submitted it the day you sent me his bio and retrieval purpose.”

“That’s good, because just in case he is approved I have already done a lot of research on him, but I did run into a snag—no relatives of yours could be found nearby at Saty’s time of death,” Shivu said sadly.

Josh said, “Well keep working on it. It’s a good possibility he will be approved. He’s quite brilliant and I think he would make a great addition to our research and development community.”

“I will,” Shivu said, “but it might have to be another stepper that brings him back.”

“That’s ok, there are plenty of us.” Josh said, “so who are we really here for today?”

“Nicola Tesla,” Shivu replied.

“Yep, I thought so.”

He was a special favor pick for Josh.

“Are you sure you want to go through with this one?” Shivu said, “according to my research the guy’s a jerk, and was possibly a paranoid schizophrenic.”

“It’s my opinion that Nicola was just misunderstood, and that he was a genius stuck in the wrong time,” Josh said.

”Ok,” Shivu replied, and for a time they walk in silence.

They reached the first floor, gave the tech their destination—it was bogus, of course, and the tech was clueless—but the system was designed to recognize them and send them to the Time Port. They stepped into their respective pods and were whisked away to one of the seven pods awaiting their arrival. Instantly materializing—well at least it seemed that way—into the Time Port.

Everyone stepped out of their pods and as their eyes adjusted to the soft lighting, Josh could see that Jackie, Randy and Sheyla were once again his tech team. For him, that was fantastic, because he really liked these guys.

“Ho HDL,” he called.

“Ho Josh, Shivu, Aden, Henry” they replied.

“Ho!” the others replied.

“Aden! Henry! How are you guys? What a surprise to see you again.”

“We’re good,” Henry replied, rather sheepishly and then added, “…well Aden happens to have a great great uncle, who seems to have been close to Mr. Tesla so we were apparently chosen for your back up.”

Aden lets out a nervous laugh, “yeah funny, huh?”

“That works,” Josh said. ”Well it looks like the team is back together again for a bold new mission. Shall we get started?”

“Yep,” the tech team replied, and they moved to their places on the console.

“Any last minute instruction, Shivu?” Josh asked.

Shivu began his usual dissertation on the likes and dislikes of Josh’s host—at least what he could learn and moved on to some last minute instructions on the history he could pull from archives about the environment in what the Steppers affectionately called the theater, because all the real people of the time were playing their part in the written history as if it were a play.

“Ok, your host should be able to get in touch with Mr. Tesla by…” Shivu started to say.

“Just a moment!” the tech team said. “We have an incoming message.”

Shivu turned to the techs, “What…” and he was cut off again.

HDL, in their usual fashion, began to read the message with each reading one sentence and then passing the next sentence seamlessly on to the next tech.

“This encoded message has been verified and is authentic.” Randy.

“Effective immediately, the Time Port is to cease operation.” Sheyla

“It has been discovered that the recent disappearances are occurring due to someone from the future going back into a recent past and removing the people from then.” Jackie.

“Until such time as we can determine who is responsible for this action, the Time Port is a liability and cannot remain online.” Randy.

“It may need to be permanently shut down.” Sheyla.

“At this time you are asked to please lock down the console, step into the telepods, and exit the Time Port.” Jackie.

“End of message.” HDL concluded.

For a long time, no one moved. Instead they just stood glued to their spots just staring at each other, while thoughts raced through their heads.

Finally Aden broke the silence with a very quiet almost inaudible question—one that was obviously on everyone’s mind, “What the hell just happened?”

Again no one moved, and no one answered either. The tech’s wanted to answer, but since none of them could agree on what to say, they just stood there staring at each other—apparently in a deep conversation with their thoughts.

Josh finally filled the void with that ubiquitous answer for all questions into the unknown, “I don’t know,” he said, “Shutdowns have never happened like this before.”

“I certainly haven’t read about this in any history book,” Shivu chimed in.

“What do we do?” asked Henry.

“I guess we do as we’re told,” Josh answered, “We lock the console and leave.”

“There’s more, Josh,” the techs said.

“What is it?”

“We have to leave first, and perhaps we can talk about it over drinks” the techs replied.

This was an odd request. Something was clearly off with the tech team’s demeanor and Josh couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but they seemed nervous or possibly incredibly agitated—even though outwardly they tried to appear nonchalant.

So Josh took their cue, turned to Shivu and very pragmatically stated, “Alright then, I guess it’s time to go,” and then turned to the others, “you two want to go grab some drinks with us?”

Aden and Henry had no idea what to think, much less what to say, but Aden finally managed to eke out an ok. At that the techs locked down the console and immediately stepped into their telepods, entreating the others to follow quickly. Zap! They went in silence back to the outside world, into uncertainty and with no idea what they were going to do next.

Once back in the Tele Port Josh and Shivu immediately went to replace HDL, their tech team.

“It’s clear they know something, but why wouldn’t they tell us in the Time Port?” Shivu asked.

“I’m not sure. You would think that the Time Port would be the most private place to discuss any touchy subjects.” Josh answered.

“I couldn’t agree more,” Shivu said.

On their way down stairs they collected Aden and Henry on the second floor and then found HDL waiting for them at the exit.

“Where did you want to go to get those drinks?” Josh asked.

“We know a great place just down the street.” HDL replied.

“Ok,” Aden said, trying to feel in control, “but why not just go to the coffee shop over there?”

“Oh, that place is boring.” Randy said, and for the first time Josh noticed he sounded like he wasn’t part of the HDL link.

“Right, let’s go out and grab a transport.” Jackie said. She too didn’t sound right.

Sheyla said nothing; instead she just stood there and frowned. The group went outside and immediately Randy called for a transport. Josh started to say something, but it was Sheyla who just held up a finger to his lips. She then quickly smiled and made like she was wiping something off his face. Everyone else took the hint and just milled about in silence waiting for a transport.

After short wait, a transport dropped down to their spot and the door slid open. The group just somberly climbed in without a word and the door shut. Once again someone tried to ask a question and was surreptitiously coerced into silence. Randy began to talk about the weather and Jackie and Sheyla joined him in conversation.

“Supposed to rain tomorrow,” Randy said.

“That will be great for our flowers,” Jackie said.

“…and the spice garden,” Sheyla added.

Henry couldn’t help but bring himself into the conversation, “You have a spice garden? Really?”

“Oh yes, we love it!” Sheyla answered proudly.

“Sheyla tends to it mostly; I like to grow the flowers,” Jackie said.

“What do you use it for?” Henry asked, “…the spices, I mean.”

“We make our own drinks and sometimes we even grow food plants. Just for fun,” Randy said.

“Why aren’t we talking about the issue at the Time P…?” Aden tried to ask, but Sheyla cut across him.

“Who cares about the Time Port? I consider this a day off with pay, myself. I love to have fresh spearmint in my tea, that’s why I grow it in my spice garden in our apartment. Jackie’s flowers grow just outside our window and add a fresh scent to the stuffy air where we live.”

“…and where do you live?” Josh asked.

“Here,” Randy replied.

At that moment the transport began its decent, and Josh realized for the first time during the whole trip that he hadn’t even asked where they were going. Not only that, he was so caught up in the moment that he forgot that he was flying, but the realization finally did catch up with him and he had to pause and take some deep breaths. Shivu took the opportunity to fill in the blanks.

“So we are going to your place for drinks?” he asked.

“Yep,” Randy answered.

“Sheyla can make the best drinks. Better than any restaurant or coffee shop can,” Jackie added.

“Thank you, Jackie, I do want I can.” Sheyla said modestly, and the light conversation went on cheerfully until the transport landed.

Everyone disembarked and the techs headed immediately for their apartment with only a glance back at everyone to tell them to follow. When they reached their door, they opened it and beckoned everyone to step in. Once everyone was inside and the door closed, HDL was back.

“Everyone please grab a seat at the table. Sheyla will fix us some drinks,” Randy said expressionlessly.

As they all moved to the middle of the room where a small three seated table dominated the landscape, it transformed into a conference table with seven seats, as walls and other furniture moved out of the way to accommodate the changes. Sheyla disappeared into what could best be described as a closet, even though Jackie had referred to it as the kitchen. Suspiciously HDL remained mostly quiet as Jackie sat at the table making small talk with Henry about the spice garden and Randy went around the apartment systematically checking wall hangings, every potted plant, and even the ceiling. Not very long after they sat down, a pleasant smell—a mix of coffee and tea and a very enticing spicy aroma—drifted its way out of the ‘kitchen’. Just then a purple streak zips from the kitchen under the table and disappears out into the balcony garden. After a while Randy came back to sit down at the table, and at the same time the purple streak comes back in and nestles up against Jackie’s leg. It was the size and shape of a Persian cat, but with purple fur.

“Ok, what is going on with all this secrecy? And what’s the cat’s name?” Shivu had to ask.

“I was going to ask the same thing...well, except the cat’s name; it’s Pixels. I knew that.” Josh added.

Randy quickly glanced at Jackie and the two of them began to speak—one then the other.

“We’re very sorry, but we had to be sure we wouldn’t be overheard.”

“Right I checked our apartment for listening devices and fortunately I found none.”

“Josh, you must know that back at the Time Port after receiving the message to shut it down we attempted to talk to you, and deliver the additional information we had received.”

Sheyla stepped into the room at that moment with a tray and seven mugs and while she placed each mug in front of her guests she seamlessly continued the conversation.

“We were jacked, our neural link was tapped and we were forced to shut it down.”

“Who would do that?” Shivu had to ask—flabbergasted.

HDL continued: Randy started this time.

“We were faced with the same question and without our link we couldn’t really explore the answers until we got back here.”

“So you keep a full time residence in Haven? Why here?” Aden asked.

“Yes,” Jackie answered, “we were given this apartment along with all the other tech teams who keep residence in this building.”

“We think it was to keep tabs on us, and we suspected this from the beginning and set up something a little different from what the bosses may have intended.”

Sheyla finished serving and sat down with her own cup.

“…and in this apartment we can shut out the world with our own special firewall.”

“The plants aren’t just for show; they cover up our equipment to block surveillance. Pixels, of course, is our eyes and ears while we’re gone.” Jackie said; as she reached down to scratch him behind his ears.

“We weren’t sure we were being watched, and it’s quite possible we actually weren’t.”

“…but we didn’t want to take the chance.”

“So what was it you were trying to tell me?” Josh asked, getting a little frustrated with all this cloak and dagger talk.

“Well, when we got the message to cease and desist, we wanted additional information.”

“We traced the source message, hacked into the code and got a lot more than we bargained for.”

“We quickly realized that the information was classified and meant to remain so.”

“…and were nearly caught as we backed out of the system.”

“I was nearly caught, it was my fault,” Sheyla said with remorse.

Randy and Jackie both looked at her and spoke at once, “we’ve already had this conversation, honey. It was our fault; we all knew what we were doing, and we could have taken better precautions.”

“I think this is the first time I’ve heard you three have a disagreement,” Josh said a bit amused.

They all replied at once this time, “We disagree almost all the time, we just don’t usually let anyone else hear it.”

“Please continue,” Josh said.

Sheyla began, “We learned about headquarters tracking Josh’s mental condition and they labeled it a potential instability.”

All heads turn to Josh.

Aden’s eyed widened, “This is news! What is this mental instability they’re talking about?”

“I have slight acrophobia; it’s a fear of heights.” Josh stated deadpan in an attempt to play it down.

“Mental instabilities can get you kicked out of the program.” Henry added.

“He’s the most successful stepper, so they have let it slide.” Jackie said. “According to the reports it has played a role in some of his successes,” Randy finished.

Sheyla sipped her cup and went on, “From the data the bosses have gathered, they figure these point to Josh.”

“Based on three factors: mental instability, the people disappearing from time and…” Randy paused; the news he had to deliver got stuck in his throat.

“He must know Randy,” Jackie prodded on.

“I know, I know, I’m getting to it—it’s just hard to put in to words.”

“What is going on HDL? What do I need to know?” Josh interjected, “It’s safe in here from the bogyman out there,” he finished, half joking.

HDL spoke at once, “Josh sit down.”

“I am sitting” Josh said, but in truth he was half standing up from his chair, “Ok, I will sit,” and he released the tension in his legs and sat comfortably in the chair.

With that Randy tried to clear his throat again, “Josh, we just then learned that Marina disappeared.”

Calmly Sheyla started to say, “Naturally we wanted to dig and get more information…”

She couldn’t finish and as for the first time Josh comes completely unglued. “WHAT! DID YOU! Just say?!”

He stood up and in one swift motion his hands clasped around the table and pulled the corner away with a clank and shatter of broken glass. Then without even realizing it he dropped the pieces to the floor and slammed his hands back down on the broken table. Everyone was frozen, all eyes glued to Josh.

After a long pause, Shivu breaks the silence, “Josh! Your hands!”

All eyes including Josh’s then turned to see the open gashes in his hands, now beginning to bleed down the table, onto his pants and the floor. Josh’s only response was to collapse back into his chair and stare blankly at the table, and that’s the position he stayed in for the next hour or so, while everyone else seemingly moved like busy bees and buzzed around him. Jackie and Sheyla cleaned up, sealed and bandaged his hands while Randy cleaned the table, his clothes and the floor.

“I can’t believe he broke the polymorphic glass,” Randy commented.

“I didn’t even know it was possible,” Henry said.

“It’s very tricky and you have to know the right codes,” Jackie said.

“I sure wish he would say something. He’s freaking me out,” Aden said.

Josh is back in the seat of the space plane. Once again it’s preparing for takeoff, and the cup of water spills on his tray, his clothes, and onto the floor. The flight attendants are busily cleaning up the mess he made. His throat is hoarse but it isn’t as dry this time, now there’s an announcement from the captain about the flight but he can’t make it out. The tray is locked, cup disposed of, everyone is buckled in and the plane is rocketing down the runway. It hits the curve and suddenly there’s no plane. He is hurled out into space by himself without the protection that the several tons metal, the space plane was supposed to offer, no space suit either.

The only thing he has is the clothes on his back, and…

“WAIT! I think I know where they are!” Josh exclaimed.

“Ahhhh!” Aden jumped and threw his cup in the air, “Oh my God! I take it back! I liked it better when he was quiet.” Aden exclaimed as he spilled his hot tea all over himself.

Henry and Shivu sitting on either side of Aden managed to get their fair share of his tea too.

“What the...” was all Henry managed to get out.

Shivu could only eke out a modest, “OW!”

“Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry…” Aden kept saying over and over again as he grabbed the towel Randy had been using to clean up the table and tried to dab the hot sticky goo from his friend.

“Oh it’s ok, just get off!” Henry retorted and he got up, sauntered over and simply stepped through the Juve in the corner.

Shivu followed right behind him and Aden pulled up the rear. The whole scene was rife with comedic satire and could easily have been a rerun from a sitcom of last century. Josh; however, remained entirely deadpan serious and still very distant.

Randy closed in on Josh to check on his condition and stated, “You should probably hit the Juve too, Josh, to get those hands fixed.”

Josh pulled his focus back and looked up at Randy as if he just now realized Randy was standing there.

“Thank you Randy! I think I will.” he said, and got up, walked across the room, then turned just before he reached the Juve, and said, “I’ll be back later.”

He walked through the Juve and disappeared, leaving everyone else behind, stunned and confused.

“I know I’ve already said this, but that guy freaks me out,” Aden admonished.

“I have to say, I agree,” Henry added.

“Oh! You two, he just lost his wife—what would you do?” Shivu said in his defense.

“So what do we do now?” Sheyla asked, to no one in particular.

“Clean up, I guess,” Randy answered.

“I’m on it,” Jackie said.

“I suppose I will go home,” Shivu said.

“Me too,” Aden adds.

“Me three,” Henry quips.

With that the three of them got up and went to their respective homes—using the Juve of course.

Josh didn’t go home, as he didn’t want to face his mother-in-law. He knew she would have questions that he did not want to answer. Instead he went to his office at Berkeley and over the next several days, he worked with a fever non-stop day and night trying to replace the answer to this riddle. He hadn’t even taken the time to contact his children. No one had formally informed him—technically he wasn’t even supposed to know Marina was missing, so there was no point getting the children involved and worried until he had a better understanding of what was going on. When he was tired or hungry he just stepped through his Juve and went back to his computer. While it happens a lot with scientists and business types, it’s not a good idea to use the Juve to go without sleep. The biological mind still needs the mental refresher that only sleep affords, and under normal circumstances Josh knew this and always made it a point to slip in a full 3 hours a day; these weren’t normal circumstances.

Finally around 8:20 at night on the fifth day, the rejuvenator no longer had an effect. After he dragged himself through the arch for what seemed like the thousandth time, he still felt as tired as he did before he stepped through. The pot of coffee was empty again, and it was just too much trouble to walk down the hall to the cafeteria to get some more. So he just sat back down at his desk and went back to work correlating the holo-images in front of him. His eyes drooped, his hands shook, his head sagged, and finally sleep crept up on him.

Back in the dream again, with the space plane, and flight attendants and the other passengers, but this time they’re laughing at him. Why are you laughing?! What is this all about? Why am I here, AGAIN?!! Wait a minute; I know what I’m missing.

Josh woke up abruptly and without missing a beat he made the one adjustment to his holo-image, and sure enough all the lines intersected at that point.

Immediately he tapped his comm, “Ho HDL!”

“Ho Josh?” answers the rough sounding voice of Jackie.

“Call back the old crew, we need to have another party at your place—that was…fun,” Josh said.

He hoped the very astute HDL team would pick up on his sarcasm, realize that he was being cryptic, and make the calls to Henry, Aden and Shivu for him. As he was sure his comms were being watched.

“We’re glad you had a good time, Josh. You must be bored with all this free time on your hands,” Randy answered—he sounded awake, but his hair was frizzed and matted to one side.

“I can whip up some drinks in a jiffy, if you want to pop on over,” Sheyla added—she tried to sound perky, but wasn’t wholly successful.

There was a brief pause in the conversation and Josh could just see the clock on the wall of the tech’s apartment; it was 4:30 in the morning for the techs which meant it was 2:30 for him. Wow! Had he really slept that long? Time was wasting and it could very well be running out for those who had gone missing—he couldn’t know for sure—still Marina, his love, was on that short list, and he was ready to move the heavens and the Earth to replace her. After a moment Jackie came back into view, refreshed, dressed and sounding like her old self again.

“The gang is on their way. We’re ready for you, if you want to come, hang out for a bit and wait for the others to show up,” she said trying to sound nonchalant.

“Sure, that sounds like fun,” Josh replied, trying to sound equally nonchalant.

He stood up, placed his thumb on the desk to download the holo-images to his watch and erase all traces of them from his desk, then he walked one more time through the arch, disappearing from his office and reappearing in the tech’s apartment. The trio of techs hit him up the moment he arrived.

“So what’s up Josh? You have gone missing for almost a week.” Randy asked.

“I’ve been working out where our time thief has been hiding,” Josh answered.

“We’ve learned much too.” Sheyla said.

“We’re surprised the authorities haven’t tracked you down and placed you under arrest,” Jackie continued.

“So they suspect I’m the time thief, do they?” Josh quipped.

“Indeed, but...” Randy answered.

“It only goes so far as the committee in charge of the time port,” Sheyla went on.

“Apparently they have not tipped off the authorities,” Jackie finished.

“I decided to hide out in my office at Berkeley; it was more like hiding in plain sight. They know I usually bury myself in my research when I’m stressed, so that’s what I made out like I was doing,” Josh said.

“So what did you replace out?” Randy asked.

“Pull up your computer and we’ll get set up so I can explain when everyone gets here,” Josh replied.

“Ok,” Sheyla said, “I will get us some drinks.”

“ETA, for Shivu is five minutes, Henry and Aden should follow shortly thereafter,” Jackie said.

Randy began setting up their room, by clearing out the bed, pushing the closet aside, setting up the table with seven chairs and then turned on the computer’s holo projector in the middle of the table. That took all of four minutes, and Josh quickly sat down in the first chair and placed his thumb on the table to begin his download. Just as the images of the solar system started to load the arch lit up and Shivu stepped out, right on schedule.

Josh smiled and exclaimed, “Shivu!” He stood up and walked over and gave his friend a hug.

“It’s good to see you too, Josh,” responded a very puzzled Shivu, and he hugged back.

Josh went back to sit down and beckoned Shivu to sit beside him. Shivu simply complied without question. Right behind him the arch lit up again and Henry, then Aden, stepped out.

“Excellent!” Josh proclaimed, “Welcome back. Please sit down gentlemen, we don’t have much time.”

Randy and Jackie took a seat as did Henry and Aden all without saying a word. Sheyla came in with a drink for everyone, handed them out and she too sat down. All eyes were drawn to the holo images.

Without pretense Josh began, “I can’t tell you just how excited I am at this moment, first at figuring out this puzzle and second at the realization that I am not crazy, but we will get…”

“I never thought you were crazy, Josh,” Shivu interjected.

“It’s alright, Shivu. We will get to that later,” Josh continued, “Anyway, the authorities that be, have been asking; where has my wife and all those other people gone? They haven’t really gone anywhere. The real question is when have they gone? Rather they seem to be removed from time itself.”

“Ok, how did that happen?” Aden asked.

“It would have to happen from a Time Port, but who could have done this? Or is doing this, or will do this?” Henry said, “I’m so confused. If someone is doing this with the help of a Time Port they could be using it from anywhere in time.”

“Are they taking the people from the past and bringing them into the future?” Aden asked.

“That would make perfect since,” Shivu said, “but that’s not what I make of these images in front of us. Josh, these look like nodes in the teleport services, and those lines…”

“…are the links from the teleports that each missing person passed through on their way to their destination,” Josh finished.

“They look completely random. I d…don’t see a pattern…” Henry stammered.

“…except that they all stop short of reaching the next node in succession,” Shivu interrupted.

“Right, they just stop at these completely random nodes in the solar system,” Aden added.

“What are these blue lines?” Henry asked.

“Ah! That was my biggest challenge,” Josh answered, “The blue lines run from the last node each person actually reached to the next node that they were supposed to be transferred to, and I believe they are all stuck…”

“Where?” Aden asked.

“Here,” Josh says and points to a spot.

“But there’s nothing there,” Aden said, “That’s just a void in space and none of the nodes or their paths cross that spot.”

“You are thinking in only three dimensions, but there are four dimensions at work here. Watch, as I take this stellar map backwards in time,” Josh said and he set the images in motion.

Planets and asteroids began to orbit backwards, comets came and went retracing their paths back through time, nodes, space stations and satellites all moved, as the blue lines stretched and twisted around each other until they all converged and crossed at one point in space. Josh’s finger stayed at the spot and when he pulled it back they could all see the node parked right at that spot.

“This is where and when they are,” Josh stated,