Chapter Two
Vitani was among the first to awaken in the royal family's domicile area. She walked out to the main hall, and was greeted by an unfamiliar smell. Simba was at the table enjoying his morning drink, and Nala was sitting next to him. Simba looked up and spotted Vitani, greeting her with,
"You're up early. Sleep well? Did your friend have any more nightmares?"
"None that I am aware of – what's with the smell?" Vitani asked.
Simba indicated the counter next to Vitani, where a mechanical brewing device sat, brewing this black drink. "Coffee," he explained. "Most humans like it, and I thought it'd be nice to have a pot for Tyber when he wakes up."
"Thoughtful, but we don't know if he'll drink it," Vitani stated.
"He will – I asked him, myself, just before he fell asleep last night," Simba assured her. The conversation was interrupted by a strange, brief shriek that came from Vitani's domicile. Simba, Nala and Vitani all rushed to the room where Tyber was, who was on the floor, rifle in hand, staring at a scorch mark that was now in the headboard.
"That was close..." he commented.
"Are you alright?" Vitani asked in concern.
"I'll let you know when I figure that out," Tyber responded. He scoffed, adding, "That's the last time I sleep with the disruptor armed..."
"Disruptor...?" Nala repeated.
"Yeah, energy weapon – disintegrates steel, wood, flesh, damn near anything. Powerful weapon," Tyber said. "Must've been a muscle spasm that triggered it."
"Why were you sleeping with a-" Simba started, but was cut off when Nala swatted him upside the head. She didn't speak it, but Simba got the message:
"He has his reasons; don't question them."
Tyber struggled to his feet, rebuffing Vitani when she tried to help. "Tyber, I'm not trying to hurt you, but your body won't easily recover from your ordeal if you insist on doing everything yourself."
"I've got this; I'll be fine," Tyber growled.
"No, you're not fine," Vitani snapped. "Not even close. Whatever you survived, it left you in a severely weakened state, and you'll stay in that weakened state if you keep trying to do everything yourself in this condition." An uncomfortable pause followed Vitani's statement. "There will be times you have to swallow that stubborn pride of yours and accept help that comes your way. I get that you are an independent-"
"No, I'm not," Tyber interrupted. "Until last night, I never was independent."
Comprehension struck like lightning to Vitani. Speaking softly, she told him, "I understand your desire to be independent. I really do. I don't know what denied you that, and I'm not trying to take it from you. But you are presently in no condition to be such. Whatever happened to you, it nearly killed you. Quite frankly, I'm surprised you're still alive, given how badly injured you were. But please believe that we want nothing more than to help you."
Tyber said nothing, just stared Vitani in the eyes, where she noticed his eyes change color from red to purple. He again tried getting to his feet, but when Vitani reached down to help him, he didn't rebuff her. She hefted one arm over her shoulders, then, holding that arm with her right hand, wrapped her left arm around Tyber's side. It was as she and Tyber got out to the main hall that Tyber made a different comment: "Why do I smell coffee?"
"Simba was brewing a pot for you," Nala said. "He wanted one ready for when you woke up."
"Oh... thank you, sir," Tyber said, gesturing with his free hand. As though by some invisible force, the mug that Simba had left out moved, the pot pouring coffee, then came two teaspoons of sugar, then a liquid creamer, the teaspoon stirred the drink, and the mug then floated to Tyber as Vitani gently sat him down.
"How... how did you do that?" Simba asked in complete bewilderment.
"I may not be allowed to do much physically, but you'll find I can still do a lot through the Force," Tyber said before taking a sip of his coffee. He winced, looked at the coffee, then asked, "Which brand did you use?"
"I'm not entirely sure – something called 'Gevalia'. Why, wrong brand?" Simba responded.
"On the contrary – I very much enjoy Gevalia, sir – if I have the taste right, you used the French Roast. I was a bit taken aback by it, that's all. If I may, where'd you get it?" Tyber inquired.
Simba smiled. "Your people and mine have what you call a Trade Agreement. We trade our goods with them, and they trade theirs with us. One of those goods was coffee – many here in the Pridelands have begun to enjoy it. Admittedly, I was considering it, myself."
"Well, if you do that, don't do what I did and drink it too much – your body will get addicted to it, and you go too long without it after that, you tend to get some bad side-effects. Personally, I get really bad migraines when I go too long without coffee," Tyber explained.
"I'll keep that in mind," Simba chuckled.
It was then that another voice made itself known. "So, you're the guy that Vitani rescued last night. Glad I got to finally meet you." Tyber's eyes shifted to red and he looked at Timon, who was approaching from the entrance to the royal family domicile area.
"Tyber, that's Timon," Simba said. "Timon, this is Tyber Drakona."
"Tyber, eh? Hnh... anyway, Simba, how much stuff did you buy for this guy?" Timon asked Simba. Simba frowned.
"Buy...? I didn't buy anything!" Simba said indignantly.
"Then who did?" Timon queried. "There's a bunch of stuff sitting just outside the entrance there, and it's all addressed to him!" Timon indicated Tyber. Tyber's brow furrowed in concern.
"I don't suppose you saw who left it there, did you?" he asked.
"Nope – all Pumba and I saw was a flash of light, and then, poof! There it all was!" Timon responded.
"Was it an instant flash, or did the light flare for a few seconds before it vanished?" Tyber asked.
"It flared for about five, six seconds... wait, do you know what that was?" Timon asked back.
"Admittedly, I was going to ask the same thing, Tyber," Simba agreed. "You seem to know about this kind of anomaly."
"The light, what color was it?" Tyber queried.
"It was a light green color, why?" Timon responded. Tyber sat back, the expression on his face portraying grave concern.
"Tyber... what was it?" Vitani asked.
"... Transporter beam," Tyber finally said. "A Force-Invention I had been working on. Nearly had it finished, too. It would teleport anything – or anyone – I wanted from one location to another." He mumbled something to himself, then asked, "Who had access to my transporters, and what did they send me...?"
"Could it be that whoever rescued you from... the incident... and brought you here, could have sent you what belongings of yours they could recover?" Vitani suggested. Tyber turned his head to look her in the eyes. His eyes went from purple to blue, and he closed them briefly, then opened them again.
"A distinct possibility, but that would beg the question of who rescued me and why they're trying to help me," he answered.
"If they're trying to help you, that's gotta be a good thing," Nala said.
"Good thing, maybe," Tyber stated, "But I find it very disturbing – no one has ever shown any real desire to aid me – least of all like this – and I'm wondering why they're helping from the shadows."
"What do you think it is?" Simba asked.
"This smells very clandestine to me – whoever is doing this doesn't want to be seen helping me," Tyber speculated.
"Why would they want that?" Nala asked.
"There could be a variety of reasons," Tyber said. "Not wanting to tip off any enemies, fear of being caught by said enemies or any local law enforcement, not being ready to reveal who they are... take your pick." He paused, blinked twice, and made a face of dawning comprehension.
"You look like you have an idea," Simba commented.
"Indeed," Tyber affirmed. "One of my Force-Inventions was a Tricorder."
"Tricorder?" Vitani queried.
"I've heard of them," Kovu responded. "It's a hand-held scanning device."
"If my Tricorder is among the items brought here, I might be able to scan the vicinity where the transport occurred – that might give me an idea of who used it," Tyber suggested.
"Well, as Vitani told you, you're in no condition to go anywhere," Nala said sternly. After a pause, she added, "But we can help you retrieve your Tricorder and keep you upright so you can run the scan. Good enough?"
"Works for me," Tyber agreed. Vitani helped Tyber to his feet, and Timon led the group outside where the crates were. Tyber held up a hand, eyes closed, and remained that way for a full five seconds. Then, one of the boxes opened, and a small hand-held device floated up, then into Tyber's hand. Vitani released his other hand, and held onto him as he opened and activated the Tricorder. He waved it in the air around the crates, and made a concerned hum as the device beeped in rapid tones.
"Well?" Simba asked. "Can you get any info?"
"Indeed," Tyber responded. "And that's the scary part."
"Why? What's scary about it?" Nala inquired. Tyber looked to her with an expression of worry.
"It's the same transporter signature as the transporter I developed – signature is identical," Tyber explained. "What's even scarier, is, it's laced with chronometric particles – which I find-" The Tricorder beeped in those same rapid tones, and Tyber lifted the device up, running it in the space around Nala, then Simba, stopping at him.
"What is it?" Simba queried.
"Sir... you are covered in chronometric particles," Tyber told him.
"What are chronometric particles?" Nala asked.
"They're typically present in areas where temporal anomalies occurred," Tyber answered.
"Temporal anomalies?" Simba repeated.
"... Time travel," clarified the voice of the aged Rafiki, who was now approaching the situation. "Chronometric Particles are a clear indicator of time travel, or some form of temporal event."
"So why am I covered in chronometric particles?" Simba asked in complete confusion. "I haven't been traveling through time; I have no reason to."
"Not in this timeline, no," Tyber suggested, "But, at least a possibility, would be that you are somehow involved in this anomaly, a creation of another timeline."
"How?" Simba asked.
"He's right, Simba," Rafiki stated. "You in this timeline may not have been traveling through time or tampering with the timeline... but you in another timeline may be trying to alter that timeline."
"But why-?" Simba started, stopping on looking back at Tyber from Rafiki. "Can you scan yourself?" Tyber shrugged, scanning himself with his own Tricorder, and frowned at the results.
"So you aren't the only one covered in chronometric particles – I've got them, too," he said. He gave a concerned hum. "This is going into very dangerous territory – tampering with the timeline is a dangerous thing. Even I cannot begin to speculate what may now happen. All I can say is... whatever happened to you and I in whatever timeline is being altered, it must have been very dire for either of us to even consider dabbling in such things."
"In that case, I wonder what happened," Nala commented.
"Why don't we move this stuff inside?" Kovu suggested. Nary a word was said, but Vitani returned Tyber to the table to drink his coffee, then helped the others get Tyber's effects to "his" room. Still, this new revelation of a temporal involvement only worried the family, making them wonder – what was it that Tyber and Simba's alternate-timeline counterparts were trying to prevent? Just what happened that made them dive so deep into the dangerous territory of temporal mechanics?
And what effects will it have on the timeline they are in?
(More will follow.)