"Corruption of Time"

Author's Note: This takes place two years after Sins of Time, but beware where 'time' is involved who can tell if it will stay in the same frame. ^_^

I threw my engines in reverse avoiding another of Constance's well placed shots.  I was damaged and nearly unable to escape this fight, but Dues' planet was my responsibility and if my destruction was the price then so be it.  I fired my particle cannons striking Constance along his bow and cutting a hole into his control center.  It was a small victory for a Living Ship doesn't necessarily need the Control Center to operate, as long as the human at the heart of the ship remained alive the ship would continue until he retreated or I destroyed him.  I gasped suddenly as Constance's Photon Cannon bore opened and started glowing with charging energy.

"Shit, Janice!  He's charging his Photon Cannon," I cried to my second who monitored the repairs and damages from the Engineering Control Bridge.

"What," she cried in chagrin.  "Josie, how's that shield generator coming?"

Josie was at my bowels tinkering with a new technology from the Free Worlds.  I had been concerned because the device was thrown together so quickly that it could hurt someone if they weren't careful.  "I've got the thing hooked up now!  Alis you need to check it before activating it."

"Good going," Janice cried happily, "Now go help Lillith and Lara with that Star Drive engine malfunction."

"I almost wish that I had kept the Hyperspace engines, they were at least reliable," I griped as I started to turn away.  With the propulsion and steering systems severely damaged my once quick maneuverability was reduced to terribly slow.  I'll be lucky if I can escape the Photon Beam.

"Star Drive maybe experimental, but you were its designer.  Everything else you designed and made was a great success," Janice replied with a smile as she ran her fingers along the repair consoles.  I sent my questions to the shield generator and received my answers that I wish I hadn't gotten.  It was so pathetically slow and uncertain.  "Well I wish I had designed this thing.  Activating Shield Systems, starting with Phalanx format."

"Got you.  Shield Generator starting," Janice reported not that I needed it but it made her feel better.  "Power drain at one percent.  That's within specs."

An energy field began to form around me enveloping me in a protective weak light.  I gave a happy cry and started to push myself further away from Constance.  Then I detected it, the rip in the space/time fabric, it was dead ahead just a mile or so from the planet's atmosphere.  My last meeting with that anomaly wasn't a happy one.  But why did it appear now, after two years the rip was back?  I needed speed!

"Janice!  The Star Drive coils are losing their charge, it's like something is draining them," Lillith cried from the engine room.

"Alis?"

"The rip is back," I shouted noticing that behind me Constance was done charging and now was reacquiring aim.  Like a sixth sense I pushed power into my engines only to watch that power disappear.  I felt the pull of a new gravity field suddenly and gasped as the rip began to pull me into it.  Constance fired and the beam smashed into my shield pushing me forward with powerful force.  I cried out in fear and pain as the generator that produced the shield exploded in a ball of fire.  My lower decks were destroyed and the field snapped out of existence letting the Photon Beam shred into my skin.  I was flung across space and thrown into the rip.  It was like diving into water and I sliced into it like a clumsy diver.  I felt my reactor shutdown and the engines fall totally off-line as I spun heavily into a starless night. I fell into the same off-line status, my link to the ship knocking me unconscious as well. I hadn't even heard the confused cries of my crew as I tumbled out of control.

The Capital City of the Mighty Zeboim Empire was ignoring the fate that was ready to descend on them.  With the steady decrease in the birth rate and the war that raged on, even now no one really wanted to be reminded of life's bitterness.  A party was raging in the heart of the city and the lights that shined bright in the night sky.  Dancing and songs were easily heard echoing across miles of the enormous city.  From one of those buildings a young man stepped out into the noisy streets a grim look on his face.  Unlike the others he was terribly unhappy. The experiments with the Time/Space engine was once again spreading terrible amounts of tachyon particles. Not a happy thing considering that there wasn't any explanation to the lack of children and babies. Already the government had tried to stop his experiments but they had failed in that when he told them that if they did Zeboim was doomed.

He looked up at the night sky and sighed with longing. He wanted so bad to leave this world and find one that he could be happy in, a place where wars had been abolished and people lived in peace and harmony. His dreaming was cut short and he gasped as something came streaking towards the tall spire that was Babel. A fireball it looked like or perhaps an asteroid, now that would be ironic, he laughed to himself. An asteroid could end everything as quickly as the war could.

"Elly!"

He turned toward the voice noticing that Kim was calling his young wife. Elly was also looking skyward her eyes intent on the falling object as she slowly approached.

"What is it Daroon," Elly cried as the two moved closer towards him. Daroon shook his head trying hard to hide his mixed emotions.

"I think it is an asteroid."

"An asteroid," Kim asked embracing Elly tight. "Looks like it's going to strike Babel Tower. What do you think."

Daroon shook his head as the read ball curved slightly heading towards the edges of the city. "West Sector," he replied looking at the two. "There will be considerable damage to the city." He looked back up and gasped.

"What! What is it," Elly demanded angrily.

Daroon shook his head as it turned at a ninety degree angle down and vanished over the horizon. "Did you just see that! That was no asteroid." Could it be, Daroon asked himself, Alien life from a different planet?

"Well whatever it was it is no threat to us now. Come Elly, Emeralda is waiting for us."

"Sure," she replied looking away from the now non eventful sky. Daroon just shook his head and started away from the two heading to his hidden lab. Today, it had to happen today, the success of his new device had to become real. He walked slowly not sure if wanted to meet defeat tonight or not. Eventually he reached his lab's gate and gasped as light was pulsing from the windows of the house. Those colleagues that were helping him stood milling about the lawn their eyes intent on the building and their mouths moving at the speed of sound. He ran up to his closest friend and pulled from his group.

"What happened," Daroon shouted angrily.

"We don't know, the device just started to glow impressively. Cellia approached the light and vanished when it touched her."

Daroon release the other his eyes wide with surprise. "The Phase Shift?" That was his expected theoretical result of a successful first test. Was it possible that they had achieved the basics of Time Travel? Daroon started into the building and stopped when the light stopped. A disappointed sigh echoed in the lawn but Daroon continued rushing to the basement where the device was housed. As he mounted the stairs he noticed that everything in the house which had been old and near to breaking down save for the equipment necessary for the experiment was now looking new. A side effect of the Phase Shift? He descend the stairs and stopped as Cellia stepped out in front of him.

"It works Daroon! It works," the young woman cried excitedly.

Daroon pushed past her walking towards the device they had been working on. He would now see what the future held for him. He turned to the bewildered Cellia and smiled reassuringly. "Start it up again." Tonight he would find out where the future was going to lead the people of Zeboim.