A/N: Thanks for all the great reviews for this. I really hope it doesn't get too confusing in the next few chapters (yes, this one will have more chapters than the other ones, but the chapters may be a bit shorter). Help yourselves to cookies. This chapter is also quite short for me, but it seems to fit in the space, so... I hope you like it. thanks again.

Chapter 12

Connor stared at the screen in front of him. This was ridiculous, he thought, like something out of Dune. The display showed him snippets of information, like newspaper cuttings without the newspaper. Every one of those snippets told him something else about the world he was not living in and its turbulent history. He wasn't sure what had shocked him more: Helen's explanation or the factual documentation of his own place in the history books of this world.

The machine he was supposed to recreate seemed impossible, but then so had the anomalies. According to Helen, it was a machine that he himself had invented. It would allow them to pinpoint a time in space and a space in time. It would allow them control over all four dimensions. Although, he was becoming less and less sure that there were so few dimensions to control as just four.

He scanned the clippings, as he had decided to think of them. Helen had performed a simple search for any historical items that included his name. Some of the information that had been found by the search was proving difficult to ignore. It was disconcerting to look up and see ones own obituary staring out of the computer screen.

Eventually, he found what he was looking for: a report detailing the unveiling of Professor Connor Temple's latest invention in the fight to protect the world from the increasing occurrence of anomalies. Apparently his previous inventions had included monitoring, exploring, opening and closing exiting anomalies that occurred naturally, as well as a way of half-closing, or locking, an anomaly. This 'new' invention claimed to be able to create anomalies. Fully man-made ones. Wherever and whenever one wished. Connor shuddered at the implications of such powerful technology, still reluctant to believe that he himself had invented it, even less that he had allowed it to be publicised like this.

There were enough details in the historical information for Connor to work out the basics of the contraption. After that it would have to be trial and error. He added a few more notes to the pad of paper in front of him and got up to leave. Helen, who had been watching him from the other side of the room, raised an eyebrow suspiciously.

"Only four and a half hours to solve a riddle that's been puzzling the future's brightest for millennia? You must be good," she drawled.

"Not solve, not entirely," Connor corrected her. "I won't know I've got it right until we test it, and there's a lot to do yet."

"What do you need?" Helen asked, pushing herself up off the wall.

"I'll need my team for a start," Connor replied. "There's no way I can do this alone."

XXXX

Becker and Kate cast a glance at each other. There it was: the anomaly. But was it a blessing or a curse?

"I'll go first," Becker said, taking charge as the rest of their group came to a halt beside them.

"How will you know what era it is? I should go," Kate argued, placing her hands on her hips and glaring at him stubbornly.

"Fine, we'll both go," Becker shrugged.

Without waiting for Kate to reply, he turned and strode through the anomaly, only looking round once the blinding glare had cleared. Part of him rejoiced to see that she had indeed walked through by his side, the rest of him kicked himself for letting her walk into possible danger like this. He looked around, taking in the canopy of trees above him and the carpet of leaves below his feet.

"Well, where are we? You're the expert," he muttered, keeping an eye on the trees for hidden danger.

"All things considered," Kate began. "I'd say we were probably somewhere in the middle ages."

"Really? How can you be so sure?"

"There's a Knight Templar sitting under that tree over there."

XXXX

Cutter fidgeted with his earphones. Even in the future, or some weird alternate reality, he thought, hospital radio is still rubbish. Giving up on the earphones he began prodding at the panels by the bed. He had never had much patience with patients.

The curtain shielding his bed slid open slightly and Cutter jumped like a guilty schoolboy caught smoking behind the bike sheds. The sound of voices from Abby's side of the room drifted across and he looked to the anonymous nurse, or perhaps she was a doctor, he couldn't tell, strapping the monitor onto him.

"How's Abby?" Cutter asked, keeping his voice low and unthreatening.

"She is stable at present, but her condition is still critical," the nurse or doctor replied. "We need to take some of your blood, though. You have immunity to the virus, but your white blood cells will still be producing antibodies to fight it. It's the simple fact that they are able to produce those antibodies that gives you immunity. Abby's blood cells cannot produce them. That is why she is dying. We need to isolate the antibodies in your blood and inject them into Abby's. This should save her life. Do I have your consent to take your blood?"

Cutter nodded mutely. Of course: he should have thought of that. Once again, nature held the key to life and death. He looked up as the nurse-doctor finished drawing blood and sealed the needle wound in his arm with a spray that turned his arm slightly brown.

"What's that?" Cutter asked.

"Antiseptic, fibrin, platelets, iodine and nanodes," the nurse-doctor replied without blinking.

"Nanodes?" Cutter queried, feeling utterly lost and helpless.

"Harmless, minuscule electronic devices that stimulate the healing process by applying multiple small electric shocks to the affected area. You may feel a tingling sensation. It is nothing to worry about. Perfectly normal."

"Oh good," said Cutter, finding the medic's cold, scientific nature less than reassuring. He decided to try a different tack. "Tell me," he began, "where and when exactly are we?"

The medic turned to look at him directly for once before answering.

"You are in the Anomaly Research Centre medical facility," she said. "Today is Thursday, the 18th September, 3046."