The Time Lord Empire.
The Paradox of humanity.
The theft of the Minbari Sharlin and the Centauri Vorchan, along with the Dilgar Sekhmet cruiser and the Vree saucer, improved human technology and science and awareness of antimatter, gravimetrics and the weapons the four races used. The introduction of the technologies the ships represented would have benefits and repercussions for years to come.
The black hole reactor technology of the Minbari and the Vree themselves would be taken as the next step in the evolution and the birth of the Time Lord race.
An Extract from The Early Years.
Captain John Sheridan was sitting in the office of the President of the Earth alliance, waiting for the President and the others to arrive. Sheridan felt very uncomfortable in the room, where the plan to take the human race away from their home galaxy, and the meeting that followed took place before the news of the temporal displacement had been made.
It had been a year since the raids made on Centauri and Minbari ships had been made, and Sheridan was delighted he had been able to help with that. He hadn't expected to be summoned here, but since it was in the presidents office then it must be important.
The President entered, followed by General Lefcourt and two others, one Sheridan recognised as Dr. Durrant, the scientist behind the temporal displacement that brought them here, and the other as a geneticist Sheridan couldn't place. He was a tall Indian scientist, and his dark skin was healthy even without genetic engineering. He was carrying a case.
The president introduced them, and Sheridan remembered the other scientists name as Professor Singh, the scientist behind the genetic augmentation of humanity. Not one to beat about the bush, Lefcourt asked, " John, what do you know about the origin of the human race?"
Sheridan blew out a breath, " I know we're descended from apes, that we inherited the Earth from the Dinosaurs, not much else. What's this all about?"
Singh smiled, " This is what its about, Captain." He placed the case on the table, and opened it and took out a sphere that fitted easily into the palm of his hand. It was a polished sphere of a silver metal. Singh opened it, revealing a golden egg. Very gently he took it out and held it up.
" We found this on an archaeological dig when a temporal scan a year ago of Earth revealed it. It was inside a temporal pocket, and our scans showed this little beauty contained DNA. Human DNA, that is."
Sheridan gaped, " Where did it come from?"
The president inserted a data crystal into a reader, and a recording appeared on the screen. It was the president herself. Sheridan's genetically enhanced eyes saw the time stamp. This message was due to be recorded in another week.
The recording said, " If you're seeing this recording then the paradox is closed. We have long since wondered about the origins of our species, and now we're sure. We created ourselves with time travel technology we've been pioneering." An image of the egg shaped device appeared. " This is a progenitor. Our past, and our future. I know I'm speaking to myself, and to the scientists and Captain Sheridan, who will carry out this mission, because I myself have seen it already happen. The progenitor is a storage medium, it contains pure human DNA, and it was - will be gathered in the year 2012, one of the years where our race will be at its highest population. The progenitor recovered in Africa is the Prime Progenitor. The mission must be to create 8 million of them, and to be dispersed through time and space when the time is right although through different settings, a progenitor can create millions of humans. Think of it. After the Earth-Minbari war, our race has been shattered, and our birth rate is slow at the moment. The progenitor can create millions of adult human beings, their minds full of our history and of our technology. We can rebuild our race faster this way. Contained on this crystal are the design plans for the progenitor, the Prime Progenitor which must be set above the earth, and purely Earth because the human race's future MUST be upheld. Also on the crystal is the plan for a genetic regenerator, which can create humans from the secondary progenitors, where you think its necessary for population growth. Another is the Progenation machine, a machine that remove genetic material from two humans, and creates a child with preprogrammed knowledge. This device can be programmed for scientists, engineers and temporal scientists.
The plan behind the progenitor will be to extract genetic material from the humans of the Earth in the year 2012, and placed inside a gene bath for insertion into progenitors. 8 million progenitors, including the Prime Progenitor, will be created, and the Prime progenitor will be sent back through time, and it will create a matter-energy net over the Earth. This will lace human DNA into the environment, and make it suit us.
This is a primary property of the progenitor. The Prime Progenitor must be sent first. Captain Sheridan will control the starship despatched into the future of 2012, and Professor Singh and Dr. Durrant will take care of the temporal and genetic sides of the mission. If this is not done, then past, present and future of humanity will cease to exist."
The president turned to face Sheridan. " That message and the plans have been authenticated, and the plans for the progenation machine have been removed, and tests indicate that the device works without any problem."
Sheridan was still blown away by the implications of what he had just seen. " I take it that you, Dr. Durrant, have confirmed this?"He asked Durrant.
Durrant nodded, " A temporal observatory detected the temporal field of the Prime Progenitor appear above Earth, lacing the matter-energy field into the Earth itself. Just like it did with dozens of other worlds scattered through the cosmos. Some of the progenitors will be kept by us, some will be stored in temporal pockets throughout time and space, and others will be activated on our worlds we're still colonising. This combined with the progenation machines and the birth rate will send our population soaring through the roof. The news of the paradox has also been checked, and its as confirmed as the projection of possibly averting the Earth-Minbari war by killing Michael Janowski. If we did then there's a chance the war will begin anyway, though the rationale would be because of a perceived attack and not a panicky captain. The paradox in this case is also true. We would never exist and the paradox would break down."
Sheridan did not like hearing about the Janowski problem. There had been talk amongst the population about killing the man before he actually made that disastrous contact with the Minbari, but the scientists had always made some reason for it. This time was different, it had never occurred to Sheridan that killing Janowski may make things worse. The thought of a different reason behind the war made Sheridan wonder what other reasons could there be.
The President sighed, " Captain, you will take a specially prepared ship through time to the 21st century, and there you will collect the genetic material. You're not to leave anything behind whatsoever. You understand?"
Sheridan nodded, " Perfectly."
Sheridan found he was the only member of the crew responsible for controlling the time ship. Durrant and Singh controlled the temporal and genetic side of the mission. Below the ship, protected by the cloaking device that rendered radar useless was Earth, but not Sheridan's Earth. It would be centuries before Earth reached the point in time Sheridan and the others were in.
This was the 21st century, the age of innocence where aliens had still not been discovered, but constantly debated about. Durrant's voice came over the intercom, " Captain, we're preparing to start collecting the genetic material."
Sheridan nodded, " The phase cloak is still online. Just be mindful of the power level."
Once again Sheridan was delighted by the ingenuity behind the cloaking device. Unlike previous models, this cloak pushed the ship out of phase of space/time and partially into hyperspace, but it wasn't as power intensive. It made his job easier since the transmats took a lot of energy.
In the laboratory where the progenitor construction was being carried out, Singh watched as the gene bath became full with the genetic material from the humans on the planet. Durrant was standing by with the space/time disperser. A small quantity of the progenitor devices would be dispersed through space/time, but the majority would be kept for further use. The progenitors were too valuable, and they didn't want to make another trip to this point in time to pick up more material. Besides, some of the material would be put through the progenation machines when they got back.
The Prime Progenitor was finished very quickly. That would be sent first.
Sheridan came down to the lab to see how they were going. Durrant turned to face him, " Can we help you, captain?"
" I just wanted to see how you're doing." Sheridan asked before seeing the new version of the Prime Progenitor with the genetic material being inserted into it. Next to it were two metal tubes. One of them had a golden band on it and the other had a silver band on it.
Sheridan pointed at them, " What're they?"
Singh looked over to what the captain was pointing at, " There're retroviruses, containing genetic programming. The virus with the gold band contains all our knowledge on time travel and all our present knowledge of the higher dimensions, but the silver band contains a want to become something more. The silver virus will be inserted into all of them, including the Prime Progenitor. The gold one will also be placed into all the progenitors, and a limited version will be placed into the Prime as well, but not as much as the others. The idea behind this plan is to create a number of human races with the desire to be more than anyother race in creation."
Sheridan understood, " When are they ready?"
" They all are. The Prime Progenitor will be the first one launched, the others will either be kept by us in safe places, or they will be dispersed through the universe. They contain the same matter-energy system as the Prime Progenitor, but they will be sent back further into time or in some ways forwards than the Prime Progenitor. No matter what, our species will never become extinct. Even with the others gone, ours will still live on. Our inbuilt survival instincts will still exist."
Durrant interrupted, " The Prime Progenitor is ready."
" Excuse me, Captain," Singh asked, lifting the Prime Progenitor and taking it to the temporal disperser. " Co-ordinates are laid in." Durrant said.
" Good," Singh replied, carefully placing the Prime Progenitor into the disperser. With a flash of light, the Progenitor disappeared.
High above the Earth of the past, where the life hadn't yet evolved, the Prime Progenitor materialised above the world. It hovered there for an hour before it started to glow brightly and then it exploded, covering the planet with light until the light moulded itself into a next above the planet. The matter-energy net started siphoning the genetic material from the gene material storage unit. The planet started accepting a new genetic material that was becoming rapidly assimilated into the gene pool of the planet. This was a major development in the technology behind the progenitor, allowing the evolving creatures to survive the atmosphere of the planets. The creatures evolved slowly over millenia, aeons, and they had the benefit of surviving each step of the way.
Unlike other lifeforms in the galaxy, the humans born on new worlds were more or less able to learn new sciences easily and develop. The Prime Progenitors work took over six hours, and when it finished it just dropped like a stone, sending out a blast of radiation large enough to kick start the process of life on the planet's surface, but not before activating the temporal anchor to the planet in preparation for the temporal displacement into the Andromeda galaxy before it activated the temporal pocket built into its technology to protect it for millions of years.
The paradox was completed, and the future would unfold accordingly.