Chapter One: Welcome to Monday

"Uh, Dad, we got a problem!"

Since 'Captain' Gary Goodspeed was already in a full-pitched battle with the controls of the Crimson Light, Little Cato's announcement was neither 1) surprising nor 2) welcome right now. Their wild and rather desperate search for the dimensional keys had been rudely interrupted when they had been swallowed by a Temporal Worm of epic proportions. They had appeared . . . god knew when in the midst of a cosmic storm or whirlpool or some sort of nasty trick of gravity. Whatever the cause, it was making a mess for navigation and definitely did not have their best interests in mind and turned piloting into a wrestling match.

"On a scale of one to ten, Spider Cat!"

"Uh, about a nine," ventured Little Cato, then weakly added, "plus."

"Tell it to take a number and get in line!" he shouted above the din of alarms and the crew's frantic attempts to get the ship under control. This mess definitely registered in the 9.4-9.5 range. Without Clarence on board there was one less pair of hands to help keep things working – not that he'd done much, but at moments like this, they could feel the loss. At least Fox had mostly recovered from having been shot by his adopted father and was back in action, albeit not exceeding second gear most of the time. "AVA, get the stabilizers back online stat!"

"Debris field ahead!" cried Nightfall. "Metal, plastic, and organics. Radiation and gravity readings are all over the map. Looks like there was a battle here. Ash, silence those alarms!"

"I'm trying!" Ash snapped, fighting to get a handle on damage control. "Every time I lock one down, something else goes wrong!"

"Forward shields to maximum!" ordered Gary. "Hold on!"

The Crimson Light shuddered as it plowed through a small magnetic eddy that had drawn in random bits of metal – and everything attached. The shields held, but not without protest, and Ash let out a little squeak as a few sparks escaped the damage control panel.

"Man, I hate Mondays," whined Fox, holding on for dear life.

Nightfall looked up from her screens in sudden terror. "Gary, pull up!"

"Craaaaaap!" he exclaimed, yanking the controls back as hard as he could, his voice rising in a strained crescendo as the Crimson Light sheered away from an irregular, twisted mass of metal and plastic that had once been a Sitronu minesweeper. The racing ship lost a few layers of red pigment against the debris, but shot past the wreck into a clear patch of space.

"Sweet pajamas, that was close. Anybody hurt?" called Gary, slumping over the controls. Like the rest of them, he was panting at the momentary reprieve.

"I am!" KVN announced dramatically.

"Anybody we care about hurt?" he amended, ignoring the robot and the sparks sputtering out from KVN's damaged arm. There were grunts and groans to the negative. Gary rested his head back a moment, collecting himself and the energy to tackle this unexpected situation.

"We're in a battlefield!" Little Cato stood on the chair at the navigator's station and pointed at the main screen. Against the backdrop of a gaseous ringed planet was a wedge-shaped ship dominating the horizon. Ion fires burned on its laser-scarred surface and glowing clouds of gas and debris filled the void around it, streaming out like the tail of a comet and making for a hellish scene. As they watched a small explosion erupted in the bow of the battleship, sending up more fragments. "I know that ship out there. The one that's burning. It's the Kalibar. It's my dad's first flagship right after he was appointed second in command of the empire."

"You're sure of that?" questioned Fox, breaking the surprised silence that followed this announcement.

Little Cato shot him a hard look. "I've been on it!"

"Holy crap. What year does that make it now?" asked Gary. "AVA? HUE?"

"We are ten years in the past," said the ship's AI.

HUE picked himself up off the floor and steadied himself on his stubby legs. "Little Cato is correct. That is the Tera Con dreadnought Kalibar, flagship of General Avocato and capital ship of the Lord Commander's deep space fleet. According to my records, it and its escorts were ambushed and destroyed on this date in what was ultimately ruled a successful engagement against the Sitronu fleet."

Little Cato was almost dancing with impatience. "There's a lot more to it than that," he insisted. "Gary, my dad was the only one from it to survive."

He frowned, twisting in his seat to look back at his crew in general and his son in particular. "How's that possible, kiddo? There must have been -" He broke off, having absolutely no idea of how many beings would serve aboard a ship so huge, but it must have been, "-a crapton of people on there. How'd he get off of it? What happened to the crew?"

Little Cato resumed his seat. "Dad never talked much about it. He said he was rescued, but I heard stuff, especially after . . . after," he repeated, looking down as some shocking realization hit. Gary could practically see his adopted son shove the memories aside for future processing. Swallowing, Little Cato took a deep breath and continued. "He destroyed the ship himself. He said he was really badly hurt, but by the time I saw him again back on Tera Con Prime, he'd mostly recovered. What was weird was he said that the Lord Commander was glad he blew up the ship."

There was a moment of absolute silence, and then Nightfall gasped and pointed, "That thing's about to blow up?"

"Oh, my crap," breathed Gary, turning back to the main screen. His eyes grew wide with realization, and a plan sprang to life, fully formed and ready to go. "If Avocato's on that thing, we've gotta get him off it now!"

"What?" breathed Nightfall. "Gary, that's insane! We know he'll survive!"

"Yeah – because we're the ones who are going to save him! AVA, scan that ship! How long has she got?"

"Scanning. Self-destruct has been initiated and critical meltdown will be achieved in approximately five minutes," she replied with a calm that was downright annoying.

"It's too dangerous!" insisted Nightfall.

He looked back at her. "It's Avocato."

She frowned, and there was a smoldering look in her eyes. "From ten years ago! He doesn't know you!"

Gary grinned as he gunned the Crimson Light forward. "Doesn't matter. I know him." Despite Nightfall's protests, Gary rose and ordered, "Take over. Get us as close as possible. Fox, you've got navigation. Ash, HUE, AVA, I need you to pinpoint any Ventrexian life readings. Spider Cat, with me."

"Scan for the battlebridge," ordered Little Cato, jumping to his feet. "It's centrally located and has super-heavy shielding. He'll be there."

"What should I do?" called KVN as the crew rushed about.

As the doors to the bridge slid closed behind him and Little Cato, Gary snapped, "Die horribly."