Somewhere in the tiberium-laden borders of the United States stood a once prosperous city. As was the case with many such places in these times, it had become home only to tiberium mutants. The "shiners" however were unaware of some uninvited guests.

"Preparing blast. All personnel behind barriers." The warning had the Nod light infantry in efficient movement. Moments later, a thundering explosion decimated the upper levels of a towering building.

"Good," Anton Slavik said, "Now it shouldn't collapse under its own weight. Move in." Slavik watched as the recon team moved to search the structure. Perhaps they would actually find something. Of course, considering their failure rate so far, it was incredibly unlikely. Some time had passed and he was about to call them back when muffled curses and shouts of surprise drifted out from within. A lone soldier emerged. "Report."

"Sir, we found something."

"What is it?"

The man paused. "We have no idea. We've never seen anything like it."

Slavik followed him in, wondering what the discovery was. He wasn't at all expecting what he saw; a massive hemispherical structure half-buried in the building's foundation. It was humming with power.

* * *

The Protectorate cruiser Davis temporarily rested deep in Confederate space. Besides the obvious, Alex knew something was wrong. Still being relatively young-the youngest on the ship, in fact-he never quite knew why he got such distinct hunches, or why they were usually right. He'd discussed it once with his parents and some friends. His shaken father ordered him never to mention it to anyone else. Ever.

Knock, knock.

He glanced at the door to his quarters. "Who is it?"

"Alexander? This is Lieutenant Marks."

"Just a moment, sir." Alex got up and saluted as he opened the door.

The lieutenant returned the salute. "At ease. The captain wanted me to relay his acknowledgements of your exceptional service, and his thanks."

"Thank you, sir." The lieutenant left and Alex sat back on his bunk. Well that was a surprise.

Yeah, wasn't it?

"What the-?" Alex felt the blow across his face just before he blacked out. The figure standing next to the bed seemed to appear out of the air, his masked features looking down at Alex.

The captain walked in followed by a Confederate official. "You can have him for your blasted program, but if he's ever used in Protectorate space-or any of your freaks for that matter-I will personally take it out of your hide."

The official merely smiled pleasantly. "Don't worry, Captain. We rarely use our ghosts outside of Confederate space. Besides, with the recent…turbulence in the outlying colonies, most of our eyes will be turned inward for a while."

The captain didn't like it, but he couldn't disobey orders.

* * *

After digging out the fairly massive construct, Slavik had ordered it airlifted to Nod's most secure installation. He'd immediately set their best engineers and technicians to work on it. As the lights flickered again, he recalled the one thing they'd learned almost immediately; it used insane amounts of power.

Several days later, Slavik sat in his personal control room as the chief tech approached.

"Report."

"Sir, we think we know what it does. We discovered a recording that seemed to explain what it is and how it got where it was. It's really amazing."

"Well, what is it?"

"It is a sort of spatial/temporal transport device. It's called a Chronosphere."

"You're sure?"

"Yes. We've transmitted the recording to you."

On command, the screen in front of him came to life. He saw a fairly young scientist type, clearly frightened.

"This is Chrono Outpost A-3, Germany. We've come under heavy Soviet attack. They're after the Chronosphere! We can't hold them off much longer, so we're going to take a risk. We're going to try to randomly chronoshift the device itself. We don't know if it will work, and if it does, I have no idea where it will end up. We've also removed the return programming. Wherever it's going, it's there to stay."

As the recording ended, Slavik leaned back, trying to take in the implications. Alternate timelines…instant travel through space and time…endless possibilities. A smile crept onto his face. Eliminate GDI before it exists, spread tiberium to other worlds, other times, other universes! Endless possibilities…