Chapter 4 - Ancestral Days
The sun rose into a thick blanket of dark and foreboding rain clouds. The city below began to move sluggishly as creatures headed of on their excursions, dampened down by the heavy rainfall. Streak stepped into the entry hall of a large building. Chaos reined around him. Creatures walked here and there, shouting to each other , shaking hands, greeting and meeting. The walls were gleaming white, and the highly polished floors caused the footsteps of the creatures bustling around him to echo, mingling with their conversations.
It's been a few years since I had been in here. But I'll always remember it. The place was packed to the brim with the leading scientists in chronology and Continutecnology. I new many of the people that passed me as I headed for the reception desk.
"Streak! Haven't seen you since the time line began, how are you?
"Good good, not looking bad yourself, ever get rid of that meddlesome binary factor?"
"Don't mention it!"
"Professor Tamals! How is everything with you old one?"
"Be off wid you Streak, young whippersnapper!"
"Doctor Jake now? Heh, getting along nicely I see....Ah Tera!
I had made it to the desk. The young receptionist behind the it smiled and waved . "Hi Streak, what can I do for you today?"
I returned the smile to the pretty squirrel, " Can I have the number for professor J B Henson's office please?" I leaned close to her ear as she searched for the number, "how's Kemal doing?" She blushed deeply but ignored the question.
"His lab is number 211, 8th level, sector 3"
"Thank you Tera...Ah! Kemal, haven't seen your bushy tail in awhile, keeping young Tera busy?"
The big squirrel shoved me playfully, "get out Streak! I could say a few things about you and J myself."
"Don't even think..."
"I do though..."
"Anyway, I've got to be off, important stuff, G14 classified." I winked at him and dodged away to the elevator and took it up to level 8. The atmosphere was drastically different compared to the entry hall. It had a quiet and serious feel to it, almost revering the powerful knowledge that was being stored here. The occasional pair walked by, dressed in regulation lab coats, and conversing over charts and clipboards. I walked along the hallway, peering into windows at the odd devices and contraptions that whirred and blinked in the darkened laboratories. I enjoyed the peaceful atmosphere, knowing it wouldn't last long.
As I rounded a corner, a faint pulsing met my ears, and from beneath a door at the far end of the hall, a colored light occasionally flashed against the wall. I walked up to it, my whole body vibrating with the deep beat and read the words that had been printed on the rattling multi-plex window. Lab 211, Professor J B Henson. (Continutecnology and Dimentionology). I grinned, Henson was a good friend of mine. He was the greatest scientific mind in the century, but he didn't look it. He was a bit, out of the ordinary, but it didn't slow him down. In fact, it usually made things better for him. I pressed the furiously rattling button and opened the door.
A sudden and powerful sonic wave of music nearly blew me backwards . Colored disco lights flashed everywhere, bouncing off mirrors and lighting up the walls in a huge room that resembled a warehouse. A gigantic sound system reared off the ground 100 feet to the ceiling, and a bright spotlight landed on the floor, illuminating a creature. He spun, flipped and danced, singing into an imaginary microphone, as colors flashed around on the floor beneath him.
" Ti-ime!!, time to go save another day-ay!
Obstructions!!, travel through dimensions on your way-ay!
Continuum is going on, and I cant see what I do wrong,
so help me!!, i can see the stars are spinning rou-ound
Defend me!! Protector of the ultimatum sou-ound! Hey! Ey!"
Doublestop began moon walking across the floor with the chorus when I turned off the music. Walking over to him, I grinned. He was a Red panda , somewhat short, but his build made up for it. Over his dark red fur he wore a pair of baggy jeans and a white tank top. The silver rims of his shades matched a gleaming chain around his neck that suspended a silver circle in which was inscribed the mathematical sign for Pi.
"What was that for eh? Man, you cant just walk in here an'- Streak!"
He jumped up and slapped my back causing me to wince. "Streak my man! Should'a told me you were here and I would have killed the music!"
"I like watchin' you sing, especially when you make up the words as you go."
"Whadja say?" Quickly he ran over to an odd contraption and put two bowls with coils attached to them over his ears and hit a switch. The was a faint pop, and he took them off. Ahh that's better, so, what's with you? I haven seen you for ages! What can I do for you?"
"You hear about mission HTg14 01?"
He suddenly became very serious "Of course, im in it up to my neck."
"Listen, I gotta ask a favor of you Doublestop..."
"Anything! You gonna do this mission?"
"Yea"
"Tergor will bust his boots"
"Hells gates to Tergor! You have the Continuum mapped and graphed in your holo-drive?
"Of course, every second of it.
"Great, gotta do some research."
He led me around the back of his sound system to his computer lab, naming the various objects as he passed. "That's an XTV extreme terrain vehicle. Good for going anywhere... this here is a poly-neutron combustor, an this-" We stopped at a circular rink that resembled an area, it was about 28 feet in diameter and on either side, two strange coils were pointed at slight angles towards the ceiling. "- this is my latest project, and I've almost got it to work, watch." Doublestop walked over to a control panel and rotated a dial. Golden strands of electricity began arcing back and fourth between the two coils, and then eventually spiraling up towards the ceiling. Looking up I gaped open-mouthed as he explained: " I've constructed myself a micro-continuum, what you see here is 5 seconds in time. Its made out of mater, im using iron, going so fast that it becomes energy. Anyways, I've managed to create a device that can tune into a continuum and bend it, making time jumping a simple process, watch!" Doublestop picked up a small box that resembled a remote control and typed in something, then very slowly he began rotating a dial. The glittering strands at the top of the spiral began bending down through the center of the swirling energy. Doublestop quickly rotated a second dial and the energy swerved to the left, connecting to another area of the strand with a loud bang and a flash. The continuum quickly reverted to its normal form. Doublestop smiled as he watched the stunned look on my face. "But this is only the first part. I've managed to decode our own continuum after many hours of research. I've tried transferring small living materials on my 5 second continuum and it worked, but I've never tried this with our strand yet. Anyway, ill show you more later." He led me over to a wall with a long consol running along it beneath a large screen. 8 creatures were seated along the control board at intervals, conversing, typing and figuring. "This is where we are continuously mapping the time line. The display you see here shows the past five years. That top line shows any ruptures, breaks, or weak spots in the strand, this line shows major recorded events, this line is the overall atom build and so on. So, what do you need to know?"
I glanced along the display. "Can you bring up the year when Redwall was destroyed?"
Doublestop turned and called out to a ferret who was seated at a raised semi circular desk behind us"Kammie, bring up year 1203."
The display flickered and a new time line appeared. The top line caught my eye.
"My god!"
Doublestop looked over at me. "Amazing eh?"
"Its crazy! The disturbance line dips on the exact second the sword of Martin was destroyed."
Doublestop pointed to the atom line. "Not only that, look what it does to the atmosphere."
"What caused all this?"
"You know how that sword was destroyed?"
"Yea sure, lighting bolt. Everyone knows that."
"HA! Lightning bolt?" Doublestop fell to the floor laughing "Ha- lighting bolt, hehe-destroy the haha- Dibotronic stone?! Your kidding!."
"What?"
"The pommel of Martins sword-"
"- is the Dibotronic stone?" I finished the sentence for him.
He nodded gravely."Yep"
"Then how could it be destroyed?"
"That 'lightening bolt' was the result of a dimensional rupture, so powerful, it caused the atmosphere to discharge."
"Dimensional Lightening?"
"Exactly."
I gazed up at the ceiling, thinking. Recently a scientist managed to make Contact With a parallel dimension to ours. The Dominant race called themselves the Humans. Because we were on a parallel, they had the same Common language and technologies, which to my eyes was a problem, especially when they found out the Dibotronic stone was in our dimension. Mission HTg14 01 is to retrieve that stone from the past, and hand it over to the humans. I had done a mission like this once before. But I needed someone's help. "We need J over here."