Seattle, Bushwell Plaza.
Spencer wondered why Carly, Sam and Freddie stayed upstairs so long, they had been there already two hours longer than usual. Then he went up with the elevator.
The elevator door opened. The studio didn't look different. As usual. The lights were still on. The camera lay on the floor, weird. Sam's remote lay on the car. On the floor in the middle of the room a little box Spencer had never seen was to be seen. Everything together made a very curious mix. Spencer took the box and opened it. It was empty.
But suddenly a red light emerged from nowhere surrounding Spencer, it surrounded and took him away.
Spencer suddenly sat in a plane. He wore a suit and held an briefcase on his knees. Then the "fasten your seatbelts" sign went on. Actually Spencer thought that it was the "fasten your seatbelts" sign, because it read "cupulae furcae ligate".
The plane landed on Odeseum International Airport. Spencer got out of the plane wondering what he came doing here. After he collected his baggage. Spencer wanted to go to a hotel but on his way to the exit he heard: "Mister Spencer Shay is asked at the InfoPoint. Mister Spencer Shay is asked at the InfoPoint, thank you." Spencer turned to the InfoPoint.
"Ah, mister Shay, I'm happy to see you. I'm Vincentius Helius, you may call me Vince and this is Frenzel Von der Furt." Spencer shook hands with both of the men. Vince was just like Spencer wearing a suit but Frenzel was wearing an uniform. Spencer noticed that Vince like to talk much. Vince talked about everything: the war with Omnistan, the politics… he even talked freely about a new series of tanks: the so called 'Julissana series'. But then Frenzel made him switch to another subject. Vince opened the door of a black limo and let Spencer in.
"So," Spencer started hesitating, "why did you need me?"
"We need you help, in a difficult case." Vince answered.
"Aha."
"And since you are one of the best lawyers of America, we thought that we could use your help."
"I see."
"And we have also a strong suspicion that your family, had 'd a connection with our case."
"This my come over weirdly but we think that one of your close relatives is connected with our Royal family," Frenzel said.
"Who then?" Spencer dared to ask.
"Your missing sister, Mister Shay," Frenzel said mysteriously.
"How do you two know that my sister is missing?"
The two looked at each other.
"She disappeared two years ago, the day we declared war at Omnistan," Vince said confused.
"You were the one who called in the help of all the governments of the world to find her."
"And because you are famous as diplomat and as lawyer, the most powerful governments of the world offered their help. But she wasn't found."
"We think, mister Shay, that we found her," Vince added.
"Were is she?"
"Lost in the past. Our past, mister Shay," Frenzel whispered as if it was something nobody should hear.
"How?"
Frenzel sat up again and said: "We don't know, but what we don't know we find out, that's how you win wars."
The car drove on a square which was dominated by high buildings. One of them was on of the largest building Spencer had ever seen. The building was in classic style, and basically always the same, but someone had 'd the idea to put some color in the windows which made the building far more interesting. On the square were lots of other buildings: a mosque was standing next to an Anglican church and Spencer spotted a synagogue on the other side of the square. A huge Gothic cathedral dominated the south of the square.
"There it is: the palace of liberty!" Frenzel said proud.
"Ironically enough it's from here we lead the war against Omnistan."
"Oh that's why there are SAM-rocket launchers on the square and on the roof," Spencer said.
"You are observant," Frenzel said not unkind, but he was displeased. Those rocket launchers were supposed to be invisible.
The limo drove into an underground. There were some soldiers who closed the doors immediately.
"You've got a nice place here," Spencer said.
The two men looked at each other.
"Yes, yes we have," Vince answered after a short while.
Spencer followed the two men. They ended up in a big hall, the hall was filled with shelves and books.
"This was supposed to be the great hall of the new Royal palace. But the revolution prevented that," Vince said.
"About my sister? Where is she?"
"Well it's time to undo us from our cover. I'm a historian, I studied the history and noticed a lapse, some mistakes too."
"How do you mean? Mistakes?
"We don't know exactly. But what we do know is this: There are at least two worlds, two we know of", Vince said, "this one, our world, and yours. The two worlds are somehow quite the same, but Odeseum and the surrounding countries don't exist in your world. Except for some other minor differences, equal. I found out that in 1700 a weirdo, a crazy science professor of the Royal University of Odeseum, invented this:" he took out of his pocket a little box and handed it over to Spencer," these boxes make the owner and if there are persons in the same room vanish and appear somewhere on American territory, but if you leave from there you appear somewhere on Odesean territory, but never on the same place nor in the same year. We don't know how it works but we do know that it is possible that when someone from the other world dies here it can cause a paradox destroying one of the worlds. Materializing in another world and time traveling are very dangerous, indeed. Those things aren't supposed to happen," Vince said.
"But all those things already happened, so we have to check out your library," Spencer said enthusiastically.
"There are two problems, mister Shay, not everything has been written. And not everything has been conserved."
"And about searching the library, mister Shay. All these books you see around you, all two million of them, are about the short period 1706-1710."
"But wait, history has already happened, so, there wasn't a paradox, she… they haven't been killed!" Spenser nearly shouted.
"You forget, mister Shay, nothing lasts forever, not even history. You know what they say about that here in Odeseum?" Vince said.
"No."
"Futura aeterna, historia arcana, future is eternal, history is secret."
"Let's go on with this, I want to have this finished before it's too late," Frenzel said.
"What do you mean?" Spencer asked.
"It was quite a shock to us to notice that our history still has to happen," Vince went on, "When I discovered the Senate wouldn't believe me, but I succeeded to convince them."
"Or else we take the risk never to finish this war," Frenzel added.
"You want me to help you save my sister in the past, so you could go on killing thousands of innocent people?"
"If you let your sister die there, you are a six billion time murderer, you know that expression: if you kill one person you kill the world," Vince said.
"Anyway, beside that what would you do if someone attacks your best friend?" Frenzel asked.
"Help him," Spencer said immediately.
"So don't blame us, you would have done the same, we only work on a larger scale."
Spencer turned his back to Frenzel and asked Vince: "How will we save her?"
"She will have to find the way out herself, it's to risky to send someone she knows."
"Why?
"It's annoying that you know nothing, no offence. Were shall I start?"
"Start by my great, great grandfather," Frenzel said.
"Ludwig Von der Furt saw the Odesean Empire weaken, but then he saw hope: the king, Frans-Jozef IV was a just and good ruler, he made the Empire strong again. But he got cancer, Ludwig Von der Furt knew that and lost hope. But then a few days before the king died, he got a perfect plan for a coup. We never knew who made the plan, but recently I've found this in the archive of the Sea-Legions: it's an order to transfer five ships, to a new squad, but what is interesting is that the name of the squad leader is: Papperman…"
"Nevel?!" Spencer shouted .
"You know him?"
"Yes, he is not my best friend," Spencer said.
"I can believe that, he got that for some vital information and spy information, the vital information could be the plan, but the spy information was perhaps very disturbing to someone, because the SSED never made a report of them."
"Is this a lapse like you were talking about?"
"On a lapse is when they report some events and the next year nobody talks about it again. These lapses are only to be found in sealed archives, most sealed archives are those of the Odesean military and other governmental institutions. Those places have two archives, on different places, in case of fire they still have an archive. Those sealed archives are never to be touched because they are back-ups. So if there are changes in the open archives they don't do the same in the sealed. If you compare those archives, you'll notice some differences, some events deleted in the one who are to be found in the other."
"But what if someone added those events?"
"I know what you mean, but there are to many of them dispersed over hundreds of years. The last one was about ten years ago. We need you now to know how your sister will act, so we know where we can drop some clues," Vince said.
"Something different, why I couldn't go there myself?"
"Oh year, where were we?"
"Nevel."
Yeah thanks, Frenzel. So we know that Nevel left four days later. He firstly followed the coast of Africa but then he turned and followed the course of the Royal ship, why he did that, we don't know. Anyway, he actually was to late to intercept the Royal ship it had arrived in Colonia Lunae, were we send our rockets into space, and had left for Colonia Laura Nova. According to a diary that I dug up out of one of those sealed archives they picked up a boy called FB he adds that he didn't want to write down any names because he feared that his diary could be used against the prince. This paragraph is very interesting, I'll translate to English: When FB was picked up the prince and the lady-on-board (CS), came to see him. CS seemed to recognise him. They had a little chat and then he recognised her. They went down to eat something. CS could be your sister. You'll have to know that while the prince was on his way back the king died and Ludwig Von der Furt started his 'coup d'état'. The prince and his ship disappeared in the waves except the writer and five others they escaped an reached the Harena Keys. There was no town or nothing, so they had to burn the trees to get picked up. The only thing is that everything could be different."
Some mystery solved, more created. I hope you guys like it. Hope everyone understand it, otherwise PM me and I'll give explanations.
By the way what do you think of the modern Odeseum?
Cupulae furcae ligate translates as fasten the belts of the seats.
-Rhady