Dissolve

Ven watched as Kimberly led Eric into the time ship's cabin. He looked truly awful. His balance was still off and his movements were hesitant. She would have put the latter down to being unused to the lack of sight, except that he hadn't been hesitant before the tmazacol had fully struck. This was all kinds of wrong, and there was little Ven could do to fix it. And that fact grated.

"Over here," she indicated, pointing to the pair of seats she was standing beside.

Kimberly nodded and guided Eric over to the seats. Ven didn't miss the relief in Eric's expression when he was finally seated.

"Time travel can induce nausea," Ven continued, filling a hypospray. "Eric, I'm going to give you a mixed shot of sedative and anti-nausea drugs. It's going to be a tough journey..." She trailed off in surprise as Eric meekly nodded. Everything she'd ever been told about him suggested this was the sort of decision he argued about. Where was the fight? Where was the pride? She met Kimberly's gaze, but the other woman could only give a pained shrug. Ven sighed inwardly. Definitely all kinds of wrong.

~*~

Paul looked around and shook his head. Time for him to start making decisions.

There were still eight people -- Ben Johnson included -- missing who Paul had a responsibility towards.

But he also had a responsibility to the rescuers.

He beckoned Lane Aslett, the Guardian Angel commander over. "How're your guys holding out?"

Lane frowned for a few moments, presumably making the assessment. "We're good. I know your guys..."

"My guys are exhausted," Paul assessed frankly. "They need some rack time, badly."

Lane nodded. "It came at the end of your working day; we've been off because of this quarantine -- we were supposed to be reporting here tomorrow anyway."

"Sun comes up in six hours' time," Paul decided. "If you can cover the night, we'll be back at three am."

Lane nodded. "What about your CMO?"

"I'll stay," said Jackson, looming out of the dusk, "Provided John Myers can be back here to take over at three."

Paul tried not to let on how startled he actually was by Jackson's sudden appearance. "There's your answer," he said to Lane. "You've also got some help from SPD and the rest of the Silverhills emergency services, but..."

"They're understaffed," finished Lane wryly. "Gotcha."

Paul gave a nod. "See you in six hours."

~*~

Louis Kerin watched the bustle in the time ship bay and grimaced. Now that things had been laid out for him -- now that he had been shown all the evidence -- he felt a complete and utter fool. He had been thoroughly manipulated by someone and the net result was this: The prospective end of the world.

His fault.

"Whatever you're thinking," said Lucas, folding his arms, "the answer is no."

Kerin blinked. "I beg your pardon?"

"It is not your fault," Lucas stated. "Granted, I happen to think you're a first class asshole," Kerin winced, "but whoever The Master actually is, he is a first class manipulator. You've only got to look at the way he got Jackie Bennett demoted to know that."

"Your bedside manner requires work, Kendall," Kerin shot back. He sighed. "But you're quite wrong. It is my fault -- I have to accept some measure of responsibility for events. After all," he concluded wryly, "I was the one who went ahead in digging up data on something that occurred ten years ago."

Kerin waited to see if Lucas had any response to that. He didn't.

Then sparing either of them, Hawking joined them. "How do you want us to play this here?" he asked, looking to Lucas.

Lucas shrugged a little. "Keep it quiet, I guess. Not like it's going to do anyone any good if you release that we're all likely to go pouf in seven days."

"We're not going to go pouf, though," said Kerin. "Or is the reputation you and your department have forged -- of being miracle workers, particularly when your backs are against the wall -- completely false?"

Lucas lifted an eyebrow. "Miracle workers?"

"You've cleared Eric Myers of all charges," said Kerin. "And that was a water-tight case -- I should know, I put it together."

Lucas offered a shrug. "If you only have half the facts..." Kerin waved the objection off. "As for pulling this off -- this may well be a bridge too far. We don't know what we're facing." Lucas sighed. "Though the faith in us is a welcome change."

"Don't get too used to it, Kendall."

"Wouldn't dream of it." Lucas started towards the time ship himself, then stopped. "There is one thing you can do while we're gone."

"Which is?"

"See if you can track down the people who messed with Joshua Carmen's mind. If nothing else, you can have a nice little mental rape conviction against them."

~*~

Alice felt apprehensive, watching the final preparations for take off. What were they going to find in 2013? It was going to be bad, she knew that. But how bad was bad? Were John, Lexia and Jen going to be OK? Everyone else?

Her gaze fell on Eric, who was already firmly strapped into his seat. He was completely out of it. Alice knew that was mostly down to the sedative Ven had given him, but even he was fully awake she knew he wouldn't have looked alert. There was something about this -- about what had happened to him -- that seemed to have taken away something vital from him; something beyond the loss of his sight. She shivered. Between yesterday morning and yesterday evening, he'd changed into a complete stranger. Maybe getting back to our time will help. But something told her that would probably be a hope in vain.

"OK?" Rick whispered, giving her hand a squeeze.

Alice smiled faintly. At least this was one thing that was going right. Whatever happened, Rick was with her and he understood. "I will be."

At that moment, Lucas entered the time ship. After a quick look around the cabin, he asked, "Are we ready?"

"Just waiting for you, Lucas," Trip answered. "The autopilot's programmed and ready -- just need your order and we're off."

"OK -- let's get this started. Before anyone's sanity kicks in."

Alice returned Rick's hand squeeze as the time ship's turbines started. Here we go...

~*~

An incessant beeping slowly wormed its way into JJ's consciousness and started the slow return to wakefulness. It puzzled him. His alarm clock didn't bleep -- it turned the radio on -- and he didn't own a digital watch. So what the heck was making that noise?

As he gained a little more consciousness, the day's events came back to him -- and so did the fact that he had two houseguests. With Jen in hospital, Lexia hadn't wanted to go home to an empty house, so JJ had offered her a place to crash until they reported back to SGHQ. Then both he and she had been nabbed by Dr Jackson and coerced into force-marching John off for some proper rest, and the easiest option was for John to also crash at his apartment.

So Lexia had taken the bedroom, John the couch while JJ himself had been sprawled spark-out on the living room floor. As he reached this point in his thoughts, he remembered that both John and Lexia possessed devices that were made to look like watches and actually did rather more than that. He was willing to bet that one of those was the source of the noise -- and given it was loud enough to wake him, it was probably John's.

JJ rolled over and sat up. Amazingly, John was still completely fast asleep. Bet he could sleep through a rock concert... JJ crawled across to the couch. "John -- wake up." No response. JJ hadn't really expected there to be one. With a grimace, he crawled over to the coffee table, which had been moved so that he could actually lie on the floor, and picked up the noisy device. Can't be too hard to figure this out...

After a moment of squinting, he managed to make out the words 'comm. call' on the screen. Another moment's worth of squinting and he found a 'receive' button. With a shrug, JJ pushed it.

"Jeez! John -- take your time, why don't you!" The voice was tinny, male and unfamiliar, although its owner obviously knew John.

Rick, I guess... Vaguely wondering if this was going to work, JJ answered, "It's not actually John -- he's asleep."

The speaker made a squeak. "Who'm I speaking to?"

"JJ Haynes..."

"JJ?" That voice had to belong to Alice. JJ could recognise the confidence in it -- even if the tiny speakers made it sound barely female. "What's going on?"

JJ sighed. "What isn't. Does this mean you guys are back?"

"Yeah -- there's a whole gang of us at the cove; we need a ride into town, but we couldn't raise SGHQ on the radio net."

"Long story, Alice. How many is a gang?"

"Thirteen -- though Rick and I can get into town another way."

JJ frowned for a second. He had an SUV parked outside -- it was a perk of being one of the registered drivers -- but there was no way he could get eleven people into it. And it did cross his mind to wonder exactly who else had come with Rick and Alice beyond Wes, Kimberly and Eric. "I'm going to have to contact Paul Miller." He sighed. "There's a lot of stuff gone on that you guys need to know about...he's the best person to tell you."

"What about mom?" Rick asked. "What's happened?"

JJ winced. He'd momentarily forgotten Jen's situation. "She's OK -- but...Paul's got the latest news. Lemme talk to him -- and lemme get John awake. We'll be out to the cove within an hour, OK?"

There was a lengthy pause, then Alice said, "OK. Get John to comm. us to let us know you're on the way."

"Will do."

A hand tapped JJ on the shoulder. He jumped and uttered a sort of half yelp.

"JJ?" Alice enquired. "You OK?"

JJ looked round and realised that at some stage during the conversation with Alice, John had finally woken up. "Yeah -- your brother's just scared the living daylights out of me is all."

Alice snorted.

"Tell you what, how 'bout you and he catch up -- I'll go call Paul," JJ added.

"Sounds like a plan."

Disconcertingly, JJ got the phrase from both John and Alice. Shaking his head, he turned the morpher over to its owner and headed out of the living room. He wasn't entirely surprised to see Lexia appearing from the bedroom, blinking owlishly.

"What's up?" she asked.

"They're back," said JJ succinctly, heading towards his telephone.

"They?" Lexia echoed. "As in..."

JJ nodded. "Yup -- Alice, Rick and John are in there chatting." He was even less surprised to see Lexia rapidly head into the living room, presumably to join the conversation. He sighed. The sooner he called Paul, the better...

~*~

Paul yawned as he pulled his SUV in to the side of the road at the head of the cove beach. He really had hoped to avoid this duty, but JJ could hardly be expected to do it and there was no-one else. That didn't mean it was filling him with any enthusiasm.

Out of the roadside bushes, Alice and Rick appeared. It looked as if they'd been watching for the SUV's arrival.

"Commander Miller," Alice called as Paul climbed out of his SUV.

"Not at half past one in the morning," Paul objected. "It's Paul." He glanced over his shoulder as he heard JJ's SUV arrive. "And here's JJ." A moment later and JJ himself had joined them. "So where're we going?"

"Down onto the beach," said Rick. "It's where the time ship landed."

"Lead the way, then," said Paul.

"How're we going to do this?" JJ asked.

"There's thirteen of us in total," said Alice. "But Rick and I can 'port to wherever we're going."


"So can Namir," Rick added.

"Namir?" echoed JJ. "Who's Namir?"

"Long story," said Alice. "That leaves ten."

"Five each, then," said Paul. "That works nicely." He looked at JJ. "Back to your place?"

"Lexia and John were gonna put coffee on," said JJ nodding.

"Why not SGHQ?" Rick asked. "Surely there'd be more room."

"I'll tell you in a second," Paul promised. This is not gonna be fun.

Rick didn't look entirely satisfied by that, but he left it for now, particularly seeing as they rounded a corner and finally arrived on the beach. There was the time ship -- at least, Paul presumed that was what it was.

"OK, JJ -- can you explain to everyone else?" Paul asked. "I'll talk to Rick and Wes."

"What about Eric?"

"Eric's not in a position to hear anything right now," said Alice quietly. Paul winced at that. "He's...not in great shape," Paul could hear the understatement in Alice's words, "and the journey here was rough."

Paul sighed. "OK -- we can explain to Eric later. JJ?"

"Got it. Alice..."

Paul watched for a second as JJ and Alice disappeared into the ship. A moment or two later and Wes appeared, in the lighted doorway. Paul waved him over.

"Paul -- good to see you," Wes greeted, smiling.

"And you," Paul answered, but he couldn't match the smile. Not with what he had to tell Wes.

Wes' smile faded. "What's going on?"

Paul took a deep breath. "At approximately four-fifteen this afternoon, there was an explosion at SGHQ. Too soon, really, to say what it was -- though I think everyone realises it was almost certainly a bomb. It ripped through the whole front of the building, turning reception and the offices above into nothing more than a pile of rubble and doing a lot of damage elsewhere." Paul paused a moment, hunting for the right words for the next piece. "There were people in both reception and the offices."

"Jen..." Wes whispered, his face taking on an almost grey tone in the moonlight.

"Jen is going to be fine," Paul answered, glad he had this particular piece of news. "A little banged up," that was an understatement, "but she's going to be absolutely fine, and so is the baby." He could see the tension bleeding from Wes' shoulders at the news as both Wes and Rick looked understandably relieved.

"Who else..." Rick began.

"Is Gina OK?" Wes asked, cutting his son off.

Paul did manage a smile at that. "For a wonder, she was actually in her office at the back of the building so apart from some bruises from being thrown off her feet, she's OK."

Wes nodded. "Good." There was a pause. "Who else was caught in the blast?"

Paul felt his smile evaporate. "We still don't know the full extent," he said. "But there are two more definite casualties from SGHQ beyond the unfortunates who happened to be passing the place when the bomb went off." Wes gave an impatient nod, presumably guessing that Paul was stalling. "Taylor Earhardt is in ICU with assorted internal injuries. She...has lost her baby."

Wes swore softly. "Does Ben know?"

Paul shook his head. "We haven't found Ben yet."

Wes swore again. "So who is the other person you've found?"

Paul swallowed. "It was your father...I...I'm so sorry, Wes."

There was a long, long moment of silence. Paul could practically see the blood draining from Wes' face. "You..." Wes swallowed, hard. "He's dead. Isn't he?"

Paul nodded. "I'm afraid so. I'm sorry." Two of the weakest, most ineffective words in the English language, they were all Paul had.

TO BE CONTINUED...