Sam and I

Part 3

22

Chapter 22

"So I have to go back in time?", I asked Maribel.

She unstrapped me from the medi-chair, "Yeah, it's the only possible way to fix this. I've tattooed the palm of your left hand with instructions in case you forget what to do."

I looked at my left palm and I didn't see anything except a tiny red dot. "Have Sam zoom that in for you and you'll see better".

I looked at my palm again and Sam zoomed in. It was a full page of single space text detailing everything that would need to happen in order to possibly stop the time-vacuum.

"You sure this will work?", I asked.

"You think I'm the only one that works here?", she asked extending her arms out with the palms up.

"Actually, I never really thought about it. I just come here and you fix me up and I leave", I said.

"Yeah and that's done for a reason," she said.

"And what reason is that,", I asked.

"That is on a need to know basis and you don't need to know and it honestly wouldn't help you anyways. My point is that we have some of the most intelligent people on the planet working on solutions for things like this and according to them, this should work".

I raised my left palm again and zoomed in. She was right about not liking what I had to do.

"Can your people actually see the probabilities of the alternate time-lines to determine that this has to happen in order to destroy the time-vacuum?", I asked.

"Look", Maribel said taking off her glasses, "Nothing is for sure when it comes to alternate time-lines. But no one else can make this trip. As you know, others like you can travel through time but they can only go a few years in the past or future. Due to some mutation in programming, your nanites are the only ones able to take you back to our time-line back to 1861. I've been able to do some repairs to the programming and we are now positive that you can make it back there without creating a second time-vacuum. After that, just follow the directions and everything should return back to normal including the damage done the first time you went back."

I said my goodbyes to Maribel and walked out. As before, I went for a walk first before I launched myself into the past. As always, the city was busy with various activities. Even at night you could see people walking to work or coming home from work. One person walked over to me and asked for something but I don't speak Tagalog, I waved him away. I walked over to Manila Harbor and just sat on a bench and watched the huge boats come in. After a while I just cried while the nanites swarmed through my darkest memories. I needed their help and they would trade total compliance to my total surrender to things I'd rather not think about.

1861

I was back. According to the instructions, my return to the past was more controlled and not likely to create another time-vacuum. At least that was the claim of the experts that sent me back.

"Sam?", I asked. "Can you detect the creation of a new time-vacuum?".

"No, no, no", she said.

"Well, then maybe this is working", I said. "Sam, you know where we have to go".

We flew to the large hill that I remembered from the first time I arrived here. Except this time I was about five minutes early. I pulled out my weapon and waited as I watched the stars above. When I was a kid I would go outside and lay on my back in the backyard and watch the stars. I had a star-chart that would show me what stars would be out at that particular day on that particular time. I was fascinated by their distance from the earth and by their unbelievable size. There were some stars that were as large as the distance from the earth to the sun. And the planets! Surely, I thought as a child, there had to be life on them. The air on the planet Venus is so thick that a man could flap his arms and actually fly, of course he would either burst into flames from the intense heat or be crushed by the intense atmosphere. Mars was always fascinating because there were so many stories about it. I remember one time looking at a hand drawn map of Mars and it had names of the canals. I figured that if there were names of canals then that was proof that there was life there. It was just stupid child-like logic, but even now I enjoyed looking up at the stars.

Sam pinged a countdown on my helmet screen and let up a light blue ball on the ground where I should stand and aim. I pulled my weapon up and watched the countdown: five...four...three...two...one. And he was there. Or rather I was there. The me from months ago before I changed American history beyond what the textbooks said. He looked up at the stars talking to himself. Probably talking to Sam. I fired before he or Sam was aware I was there. The missile struck him in the back knocking him unconscious as it also injected a substance into his blood stream. It would keep him down long enough for me to send him back. I quickly wrote him a note: Hello, I'm you from the future cleaning up your mess. Don't come back to 1861 unless Maribel tells you to. Thanks, Paul Meachum. I stuffed it into his pocket. His nanites would be unable to send him back to 2030 but...I attached a bracelet to his right wrist. I keyed in a code on the bracelet and just like that he was back in 2030. I knew he wouldn't be able to return to 1861 on his own and he had no idea that he was even here. Maribel would fix him up and depending on how things went he would stay there and return here to do this all over again...step by step...when Maribel said it was okay.

"Sam?", I asked, "What about now? Can you detect a time-vacuum?"

"Yes, yes, yes", Sam said.

So this time I just waited. I didn't make contact with anyone from the past. And I let the nanites swarm through memories to insure they did what I wanted them to do. I knew that Fort Sumter would be won. On April 15th, President Lincoln started a massive mobilization in reaction to the loss of Fort Sumter. The South would fight the Civil War without my help.

But I waited, in the past, to see if the time-vacuum would pull the Elementals from 2030. I spent days flying high overhead watching and listening for anything superhuman to occur and nothing did. Maybe the time-vacuum would just collapse upon itself. I was a fool to think that.

The Elementals appeared in Montgomery. I had kept myself hidden while I allowed the nanites their way with my memories. Now I was free to act. It was time to judge. I had the advantage because I knew the precise time they would arrive and this time I judged them to die.

I fired an ice canon at Fire just as he phased into this time-line. He stiffened as his flames fizzed out. His eyes followed me painfully as he watched me fire the ice canon a second time hitting him full in the chest. The other three Elementals were knocked to the ground as Fire exploded into several large pieces.

"What the...?", Air asked just before I hit her with a white noise cannon. She solidified until she looked almost human. I pulled a small pistol out of the holster on my hip and put it to her head.

"That was white noise hitting your brain just right so that you can't turn invisible and run away," I sneered. "Time to face my judgment: Death". I pulled the trigger and now had two elementals coming my way.

Earth swung a heavy earthen paw at me. I ducked it and rolled away...and into Water.

"Got you", she said. She started to force herself into my helmet. My helmet is pretty strong but given time, she would crack it. My guess was that she wanted to drown me. Not if I could help it.

"Sam," I said, "I'm going to need all the power you can give me". Sam complied. The armor around my body begin to hum as it charged up just enough to...

I was in a forest and it was very dark. I was no longer in Montgomery, Alabama.

"Sam," I said, "Where am I?".

"Unable to establish network connection", she said.

"Satellites?", I asked.

"Searching", she said.

As she searched, I walked around trying to get my bearings. I was fighting the Elementals during the day in Montgomery, but it was night here and it just didn't have a Alabama type feel too it. Alabama was much hotter but here, I noticed looking down, was snow. The area didn't seem to be mountain-like. It was fairly flat from what I could tell. I could hear a stream from nearby. I walked towards it and then noticed a light. I crouched down to avoid detection and waited for Sam.

"No satellites in orbit," Sam replied.

"Okay, then we'll need to take a look at the stars and get an idea of where and when we are", I said. "Take us up as quietly as you can".

I guess I should have asked Sam how she would get us up above the trees quietly but it was too late. Powerful springs in my boots tossed me high into the air and just before I started to fall she activated my helicopter pack.

"Thanks, Sam", I said.

"Searching star patterns", she replied.

I looked up at the sky and it was clear as could be. It was easy to see the night sky in 1861 and tonight was no different. Huge mega-cities with lights that dimmed the stars to the point that you couldn't even see them were the norm of 2030. As usual I tried to find the Big Dipper so I could orientate myself to the north. Not that it mattered where north was but it was just something to do while I waited for Sam. It's really easy to find, but I couldn't find it. In fact, none of the constellations looked familiar. Was I in the southern hemisphere? I looked for the Southern Cross. The Southern Cross is used in navigation in the same way the Big Dipper is except it can't be found in the Northern Hemisphere. But I couldn't find the Southern Cross either.

"Okay, Sam", I said, "this is getting a bit scary. I know the night sky like the back of my hand and I can't identify anything up there."

"Searching", Sam said.

"We aren't on Earth anymore, are we Sam?", I asked.

"I can agree with that much", she said.

"You already have the stars in memory, I'm sure. Take me down quietly while you work out our location", I said.

The helicopter blades stopped spinning and formed into a glider. I circled it around and down through the forest and then landed quietly on the ground. I wanted to take a look to see what that light was over near the stream.

"Sam, I need to be invisible", I said.

I faded until I was completely unseen. It's not easy walking invisible. There are several visual clues that you use as you walk and I didn't have any of them. But I managed well enough and slowly moved near the stream and then down the side of it until I could make out a camp.

I could see five people there. One was a beautiful woman in long dark robes with a slit up the side to reveal a well developed athletic leg. I could see that she was blond because she just slipped her hood back over her shoulders. She couldn't have been more than twenty years old. Next to her, tending to the fire was a very stout man wearing what appeared to be full leather armor. I noted two daggers, one on each side, that seemed to be about half his height. Another man, a very tall and slender man, who appeared elderly, lifted a small log and placed it on the fire. A large and plain looking woman with very short hair seemed to be getting together their evening meal. She had a shield slung over her back with a sword slung over that. The last man looked the most strange. He had large horns coming out the sides of his head and his eyes were a neon green that seemed to give off their own light.

"Sam", I said, "I think it's clear to say that we are not on Earth".

"I am unable to determine where we are", Sam said.

"Any chance of a Snap-Back?", I asked.

Before Sam could answer, I saw movement to my side. It was the small stout man with the daggers. He leaped up into the air towards a tree to my side and then briefly landed on it...sideways...and then pushed off like a rocket, straight at me with his daggers aimed at my chest.

23

Chapter 23

I tried to move out of his way but one of his daggers sank into my thigh. I felt my strength sap out of me and fell face first into the ground.

"Rogen!", I heard a woman say, "why did you attack him?"

"Because", Rogen said, "walking about unseen is my specialty...and this one was doing the same".

He saw me? "Sam?", I asked, "How is that possible?". I tried to stand. Sam wasn't answer me. A massive force stuck me in the back and held me down. I was starting to pass out.

"I'll hold him down. Ying? Can you get anything out of him?", I heard a woman say. I turned my head and could see it was the plain woman with the sword and shield holding me down. I struggled to get up but couldn't. What was wrong with me? The nanites should easily allow me to toss this barbarian off my back but I was weak. Too weak.

"Sam!", I cried.

"I'll look for the other one called 'Sam'", Rogen said. He suddenly vanished and I could hear him walking down the riverbank carefully.

The barbarian shoved me back into dirt, "Cease your movement before I remove your head with my blade".

I was too weak to say anything. I looked up to see the one that must be Ying. He was sitting there looking at me as if trying to decide what manner of creature I was. Suddenly the antlers on both sides of his head shrank back into his head and his shape seemed to melt into something smaller, but powerful. A muscular, purple panther with small antlers on the sides of his head stood where Ying had been. It padded over to me and sniffed.

I passed out. When I woke, it was still dark. I had been stripped of my clothes and now wore something that was a bit plain and possibly common for this area of the world. I tried to move and quickly found that I was tied standing up against a tree. I tried to break the ropes by moving my arms, but nothing. I no longer felt weak but the nanites should augment my movements to increase my strength. But nothing.

"Sam!", I said, "What the hell? Where are you?".

"Alright", Rogen said rolling out of tent. "I'll look for Sam again". He put on his small shoes, attached his daggers to his sides and vanished.

I could see the others stepping out of their tents as well except for Ying. He apparently was sleeping in the branches above...as a purple panther. He leaped out of the branches and landed in front of me. He barred his teeth and hissed at me. Suddenly his form changed into a tree twice my size. His branches came down and touched various points on my head.

"Sam", Ying said, "Where is he?"

I struggled against the branches but they only wrapped around my tighter. I could feel a presense in my mind. It wasn't Sam.

"You're not from here, are you", I heard Ying say inside my mind.

"No", I said, "I'm from San Antonio, Texas. I'm a Special Investigator for Villains".

"San Antonio, Texas?", Ying asked. "Is that across the Spectral Sea? Are you in search of the same villains that we seek?"

"I'm starting to think that not only am I not from this time-line but that I'm no longer on Earth", I told Ying. "What do you call this world?", I asked.

Ying released me and his shaped blured until he about a couple feet taller than me with antlers on the sides of his head and the same neon green eyes that he had as a panther and as a tree.

"What did you find out?", the beautiful blond asked.

"He's not from here. In fact I don't even thing that he's from this world", Ying said sitting down to warm his hands by the fire.

"Are you hurt?" the beautiful blond asked.

"Actually, yes", I said. "Usually Sam heals me but she doesn't seem to be around at the moment".

The plain powerfully built woman with the shield and sword bounded over to me, "You have a healer with you?"

"You could say that", I said.

The barbarian woman looked over at the beautiful blond and then back at me, "Are you stupid or something? Not only 'could' I say that, but I did". She back handed me swiftly. For a moment I didn't know I was struck...but the pain came quickly enough.

"Wall!", the beautiful blond said, "His healer obviously isn't here or Rogen would have found her by now".

She came over to me and placed her hands on me, "My name is Anni by the way and I'm the healer of this group". A golden light glowed around her hands and the pain went away.

"Where am I?", I asked.

"Well", the tall elderly man said, "Lets see if we can determine where you came from and then maybe we can tell you where you are. Are you a mage?"

"Mage?", I asked. "Magic-user? No, not at all. I come from the year 2030 and in my time, the science would have seemed magical to you".

"2030?", the elderly man asked, "You two thousand years into the future? It's the year 4065 now".

"4065?", I asked. I thought about that a moment and then asked, "Is this Earth?".

"I've found no sign of this other person called 'Sam'", Rogen said suddenly appearing in the middle of the camp.

Wall was suddenly in front of me and back handed me with her shield, "Where is she?".

Anni brushed Wall aside and healed me again, "Wall! We know not if he is friend or enemy!". Wall returned her shield to her back and spun a way grunting to herself.

"Please excuse Wall", Anni told me, "She's not one for talking much and when she does it's usually with her shield or sword or both".

"Okay, look, I'll talk but it's obvious that I'm no threat to you people and I'm not going to run off. Would you untie me?".

They all looked at each other. Rogen shrugged, "You went down quick enough. Don't try anything or I'll take you down again".

I nodded and Rogen cut me loose. "Let me see", Anni said taking my hands. Her hands glowed again and the wounds from the ropes vanished from my hands and ankles.

"How do you do that?", I asked.

She looked at me strangely, "You said you have a healer and you don't understand the healing magic?".

They all seemed to think that was funny except for the elderly gentleman. "You didn't answer my question," he said. "Did you travel from the past two thousand years into the present?".

"I'm not sure how to answer that...", I started.

"ANSWER!", Wall said sliding into me and backhanding me with her shield again. She pulled her sword out as she rammed me again knocking me on my back. She sat on my chest and placed the blade at my throat.

"Wall", the old man shouted. "AWAY!", he flung out his hands and Wall was tossed out of my view. I heard a solid thud hit the ground. I got the impression that she landed feet first because even though she was about a hundred feet away, I could hear her quickly move back towards me.

"Wall, STAY!", I heard the old man say as he clenched his fist. I sat up and looked over in Wall's direction. She wasn't moving but she looked absolutely enraged. The old man turned to me, "By the way, my name is Lanree, Elf Mage of this group".

"Elf?" I asked. "I didn't know they existed".

The group, except for the frozen Wall, started laughing again.

"Indeed", Lanree said, "My kind not only exist but I'm presently keeping you safe from our Wall. You better answer my questions before Wall finds a way around my spells".

"Okay," I said, "What I was trying to say is that since we don't have a common reference point, I'm not sure how to explain. But, my best guess is that I'm not from this world and I'm not from this time. Or maybe I am from this time but on a different world. I really don't know."

"Do we have anything to fear from your friend...this Sam as you call her?", he asked.

"Sam, no. No more so than your fear for me", I said. I could hear Wall grunt in protest to my comment. Did she just move? I looked at her a moment and I couldn't tell.

"Is she a rogue?", Rogen asked. "I hate to admit it but she seems to be better with stealth than I am. I looked everywhere and I can't find her." Rogen looked away as the others seemed shocked by his statement. I could have sworn I heard Wall spit, but I looked at her again. She still wasn't moving.

"That's really hard to explain. But on my world, in my time we have micro-computers and micro-robots..."

"I have a better way", Ying said walking over to me. He shifted shape again and he became a large purple unicorn. He swung his giant horn over to my forehead touching it with the horn.

"Think of your world", Ying said in my mind.

"Just follow Ying's lead", Lanree said as he placed his left hand into Yings flowing purple mane. He stretched his right hand out to the flames of the camp fire and it roared up larger. The light from the flame sparkled into various shapes and colors.

"Think of your world", Ying said again.

I did as he asked and the flames reveled my thoughts. I could see the city of San Antonio, Texas with the various air planes, flying cars and jet packs moving through the sky. The group seemed stunned as they watched the traffic on the roads speed by at three hundred miles an hour. I showed them Sam, my sister, in her youth and they watched as I went to nursing school. I showed them the news video that showed the drunk driver that almost killed my sister and then I showed them as I injected her with what she needed when she asked me to help her die. The image shifted to my day in court and then my time on death row. Maribel Gomez walked into my life and then I was injected with nanites that could have killed me. They watched as I protected the citizens of San Antonio from various powerful villains and then my accidental misadventure into the Civil War and my horrible decisions while there. The fire image showed my accidental return to the future and then my last trip back into the past to fix the time stream I damaged to possible reverse the time-vacuum from destroying the multiple time-lines.

Ying backed up and shifted back to his "normal" shape. Lanree removed his hand from Ying's hair. The image in the fire fell back into the fire and the fire itself fizzed out.

Wall was back on my side. I thought she was going to hit me again, but she just spit again and went to sit down next to Anni.

"I think I understand a little better," Lanree said, "but at the same time, I feel there is a lot that I don't understand. Sam is your sister and inside you...in these little creatures that Maribel Gomez put in you?".

"Yeah, those are the nanites. They are very small, very fast super-robots. Together they form a database that takes the form of their will. In my case, that form is my sister, Samantha. Most people die because the human brain can only accept one will and the nanites don't have the experience in running a human mind by themselves. Despite themselves, they still aren't as advanced as the human mind. They are very curious of human emotion and by trading my darkest memories with them they do as I ask."

"And where are these little creatures now?", Lanree asked.

"I'm not sure. She was with me when I arrived here but after Rogen stabbed me, she was gone. She managed to repair the damage to my leg but that was it".

"So these little creatures are mechanical in nature...that makes more sense now", Lanree said.

"What do you mean?", I asked.

"Rogen?", Lanree said looking over at the little man, "Care to explain to Paul what kind of poison you have there on your blades?".

Rogen pulled out both blades, "This one is coated with a poison to make you sleepy", he said. "And this one", he said, "this one is designed to turn mechanical creatures to dust".

24

Chapter 24

I had to sit down. Sam was dead? I had spent years with her in my head and now it was like she died a second time. I knew the nanites were not my sister, but when they spoke to me they spoke to me in her voice. They even stuttered like she did and when ever Sam appeared to me it was in my sister's image. We fed off each other in order for me to do my job. Now she was dead. I just sat there and cried. She was dead.

"I'm sorry", Anni said resting her hand on my shoulder, "You were connected in some way to these little machines?"

"Yeah", I said, "They helped me do my job back home, but it was more than that. They were the last connection I had to my sister".

They were all quite. Even Wall looked a little sad but when she saw me looking at her she spit on the ground again.

"Rogen?", I asked, "Why would you need a blade that destroys mechanical devices?".

"Eh? It's hard to imagine that you know nothing of us, but after that...", he waved at the spent flame, "it's easy to understand that you know nothing about the creatures that came here from..." he waved his little hands upwards, "up there".

"Are you saying they aren't from your world?," I asked.

"My people have ruled this world for thousands of years," Ying said, "until we were invaded, last year, but the Kith. They are a very intelligent, mechanical species bent on killing anything that is not a mechanical. We don't know where they came from or why they kill. They simply are".

Were the Kith brought here as a result of the time-vacuum? I remembered the computer simulation that Maribel Gomez showed me and I didn't think so. And least I hoped not. From what I remembered, the time-vacuum would only pull people from 2030 into 1861 but it couldn't pull one species from one planet to another. Even if I didn't reverse the time-vacuum on my last trip back it would just implode in upon itself possibly sucking that universe into itself until it blinked out of existence. Of course that would create other time-wormholes that would cause other neighborhood universes to blink out of existence but the multi-verse is huge and would take an unimaginable amount of time to destroy them all.

"Are you napping?", Rogen asked tapping me on the knee. "You didn't answer my question and you know that Wall doesn't like it when questions aren't answered".

I looked over at Wall and she was spitting again. "I'm sorry, could you repeat your question? As you can imagine, I'm a little distracted at the moment".

"I asked if you wanted to join us," Rogen asked, "You're likely to get yourself hurt out here and I feel a little responsible for you after I did away with your little constructs".

The others nodded. I would be welcome with them. Why not? The group gathered together their supplies for breakfast. Anni cooked and then we all ate.

"So, why don't you tell me about yourselves?", I asked.

"It would help if you understood more about this world and us", Ying said. "My race, the Green Elves, is the oldest species of this world. We were and are users of the green magic. We use it to turn into animals or plants and we can use those abilities to heal, defend and/or attack. While we aren't as good as Rogen when it comes to stealth, even Rogen would be hard pressed to locate a Green Elf if he didn't want to be found. In fact, most of our cities and even our largest cites are hidden from the world known only to Green Elves and our friends. Our largest city, Belmar, is just to the south of here but even if you spent the rest of your life looking for it...you wouldn't."

"Do other species use green magic and are you able to use any other kind of magic?", I asked.

The group started laughing again, "You really don't understand", Ying said. Green magic is only in tune with Green Elves. I couldn't teach you how to use green magic, it's just a part of Green Elves."

"And other magic? Would Green Elves learn any other kind of magic?", I asked.

"Actually, yes", Ying said, "It's just that Green Magic is native and natural to us and it the first kind of magic that is learned by any of us from a very young age."

"I think I understand what you mean," I said. "Where I come from we speak English where I was born but there are many languages in our world. We can learn them but we are born with English first".

Ying nodded in agreement, "Very much so", he said.

"Wait," I wondered, "How can I speak to you? How do you know English?".

The group looked at each other and Anni said, "We have never heard of a language called, English".

"But, how do we understand each other?", I asked.

"Ah, I see", Ying said, "We don't think about it because we are so use to being able to understand each other but Green Magic permeates this world and one of the benefits is that it allows all living creatures to speak with one another. It may take you some practice to understand what an animal or plant tells you but you can easily understand elfs, dwarfs and other humans".

"How?", I asked.

"Magic isn't a good enough answer?", Ying asked. "Good! Because it's not as simple as just claiming it to be magic. Green Magic sinks it's roots into all living beings creating a connection that all can understand. It's as the roots of Green Magic sinks into every living creature creating a connection that all can understand if they try."

"So even though I'm not from your world," I said, "I can easily talk to you because I believe I can?".

Ying nodded again, "Yes, and because you are linked to every living thing on this world."

"So if the Green Elves are the oldest race here, where did the other Elves and Dwarfs and Humans come from?", I asked.

"Well, each has their own story", he said motioning to the others, "but no one really knows".

Lanree laughed at that, "It's best to say that we all have our own beliefs. My people are known as the Wild Elves. Our magic can be chaotic and unpredictable but very powerful."

"The Wild Elves actually were at war with the Green Elves for about 400 years," Ying said, "when the Wild Elves destroyed a few of our cities with their chaos magic".

"Which we apologized for", Lanree said. "Besides, if you didn't insist on having invisible cities..."

"You people had no right to randomly blast away at sections of the forests..."

"Chaos magic requires a large area to...hmmm...practice in", Lanree said, "and we did apologize about the whole thing after the war and made it up to the Green Elves once the war ended".

Ying nodded, but he was clearly upset. I could sympathize with Ying's feelings. I hated the Chinese when they nuked Los Angeles even though it allowed Texas to break away from the Union. I couldn't imagine Texas and China getting alone any time soon. At least not soon after 2030...on my own time line. I guess even though I was on a alien world far, far from home, strife was strife no matter what world you were in.

"Anyways", Lanree said, "according to our record keepers, Wild Elves came from the other side of the world. How? No one knows, but the religion of my people claim that a small group of Wild Elves were placed there from beings from another world. Which world? We don't know. There isn't any record after that of any contact with other worlds. At least not until the Kith, who came here last year, and now you."

"And the dwarfs?", I asked.

"We've been called the Mountain Dwarfs by the other races and the name stuck. Why not? Our history was born in the debts of this planet. It has several layers and it wasn't until a few hundred years ago that we broke through to this level and that was mainly a mistake involving a volcano..."

"That destroyed one of our cities", Ying said.

"Yeah, well, you guys have those things all over the place and their invisible. You're bound to lose a few to a volcano or two over the centuries", Rogen said.

Ying didn't seem pleased by that, but Rogen continued, "We don't have the magic that the elves do but we're good at crafting metals, weapons, armor, you name it. If you come across professional soldiers...such as ourselves...you'll notice that each weapon or piece of armor was created by dwarfs. Unlike the other races, we know where the best ore is and we can craft legendary pieces...for a legendary price".

"Is that why you wear leather?", I asked. "Because the price is too high?".

Rogen looked at me shocked, and then said, "No, it's because if I was wearing, even the best metal armor, I couldn't do this..." He suddenly vanished and before I could say or do anything...he was behind me. With his blade pressed between my shoulder blades. He pushed slightly so I got the point he was back there and then he suddenly reappeared in front of me.

"If I wore any kind of metallic armor, I would lose my ability to move invisibly", he said.

"Can all dwarfs turn invisible?", I asked.

"Yes, and it's also why we all wear leather. We can move quicker than any other race and leather allows us to be invisible".

I turned and looked at Wall. She just looked at me and spit on the ground. "Wall isn't the talkative type", Anni said, "She and I are both human, like you. But until today we didn't know that there were humans that lived on other worlds".

"Likewise", I said. "Where I come from, we believed that there was the possibility of other beings that might live on other worlds, but our technology had not been able to come close to breaking the light speed barrier let alone travel faster than light".

"Light speed barrier?", Ying asked.

"Yeah, Sam could give you the details on that except I can no longer access her. But if I remember the basics of it...it seemed that the faster you went, the move energy you would need. So approaching the speed of light would mean that you would need more energy than would be practical."

"Unless you could use magic", Ying said.

"Einstein didn't have access to magic but I suppose if you could have an endless supply of energy and beyond then you could break the light barrier", I said.

"Do you know how to build a ship to travel to other worlds?", Ying asked.

"Naw, again, you would need to ask Sam that and well...", I motioned at Rogen, "we'll never know the answer to that question".

"Maybe the Kith could restore Sam too you", Rogen offered.

"Really?", I asked

"They have the means to repair themselves and they seem to be more advanced that your year 2030", Anni said.

I paused a moment while I thought of that. The nanites were always dragging my worst memories out so I could see them. They drank in my emotions like little mechanical emotion eating vampires. But despite that, they did allow me to see and hear and even talk to Samantha. Maybe it wasn't the real Samantha, but it was all I had left.

25

Chapter 25

I needed to find out if the time-vacuum had been destroyed or not. I'm not sure how it was created but I felt responsible and I was one of the few that was aware it even existed. An astounding number of lives would be obliterated if I did nothing. I was a guardian of innocents in my time and just because I was lost on a magical world on some other end of the universe (or possibly even in a different universe), I had to get Sam back.

The six of us left early in the morning. It seemed we were in a forest called the Qrohs Forest. From what my new friends told me it was one of the largest in the world and we happened to be near the Claols Tops Mountains. Apparently it was not possible to climb over the Claols Tops Mountains because they were too steep and too rocky to climb. It was possible to fly over them with a dragon, but dragons where hard to come by and only royalty could fly them as per an agreement between the dragons and everyone else. The royalty that did make it over the mountains claimed that the other side of the mountains were desolate, unlivable and not worth the effort to try and conquer them. I had my doubts about that, but according to the group I was with, royalty loved to expand their territories and no king even made a claim to whatever was on the other side of the Claols Tops Mountains.

We followed the river called Emerald Beck. Ting told me it was called that because when the world was young, there were water beings living in the river that could form themselves into nude women and they would beckon men into the river and kill them. Ting assured me that his kind had killed most of them hundreds of years ago. Every so often there was a report of a man killed or of and emerald water being but the last report was from over a hundred years ago. Supposedly, the river was mostly safe. Mostly. At least we didn't come across anything dangerous on the river itself.

"Anni", I asked, "Can you tell me a little about yourself? Where are you from and how did you come to learn how to heal people by touching them".

The group thought that was funny but Anni seemed to be okay with the question. "I'm from one of the few human cities in the world called Kostin. It's the capital for humans and it's where I was born and raised. The healing power of the clerics comes from the only God above, Gablena. Our powers mainly heal but a few of them can be used for defense and offense".

"So you are a cleric?", I asked.

"Yes, only clerics heal although some Green Magic and some Wild Magic has the ability either speed up the normal healing process or reverse time to the point prior to the wound," she mentioned.

"Reverse time?", I asked.

"Yes", Ying said, "Green magic has the ability to speed up the healing process but the spell is very tiring and requires my total attention for several minutes. All in all it's not the best way to heal but it works."

"And", Lanree added, "Wild magic can reverse time so that the individual never has the wound or illness, but Wild magic is...wild. The outcomes can be random and sometimes even fatal".

"Lanree?", I asked, "anyway possible that you could heal my nanites with a reverse time spell?".

"Nope", he said.

"Why not?", I asked.

"Well, wild magic is a bit 'wilder' with humans...if it works. And most of the time...it doesn't work and the negative outcomes are far worse and more likely than a positive outcome", he replied.

"Why does wild magic have more negative results when used on humans?", I asked.

"Because you're human", he said as the rest of the group laughed. He continued, "Humans are probably the youngest race on this world we call, Zenerth. It's believed they arrived here in a way similar to the way you arrived...from an alternate universe."

"That is true", Anni confided. "A few hundred years ago, a group of humans arrived here and formed Kostin. No one knows where they came from and the historical records they brought with them were annihilated during their first war with the Ogres who originally lived where Kostin is now."

"Anni", I replied, "if humans are the youngest race here...how did humans come to be the only ones to receive healing powers from...what did you call your God?"

"Gablena?", Anni responded. "From what we've been able to gather, humans came into contact with her shortly after arriving here. Since the records have been destroyed...we just don't know how only humans came to gain her support and guidance into the healing magic we have now. There is talk that the head healer of Kostin knows or knows a little about why Gablena lends her support of clerics, but if he does...he doesn't share that information with anyone."

"And what about Wall?", I asked. Wall ignored me leading the rest of us down Emerald Beck.

"What would you like to know about her?", Anni asked.

"I noticed back when Lanree used a spell on her that he mentioned that he wouldn't be able to hold her back for very long. Why not?", I asked.

"Some of our warriors separated from us shortly after we arrived. After several years they returned with various abilities they didn't have before and all of it centered around a warriors rage. Even the best mage can only hold a warrior so long before a warriors rage builds up to overcome any binding spell", she said.

"Do the warriors have their own magic?", I asked.

"Why don't you ask Wall?", Annie said.

I decided to try. What was she going to do that she hadn't already done? I rubbed my jaw and ran to catch up with her.

"Say, Wall, I was curious about your...", I tried to say. She backhanded me with her shield and I almost slid past Ying who reached down and grabbed my ankle.

"Wall is as Wall does", Ying said. "Human warriors like Wall don't talk much especially when it's possible that we may come across the enemy at any time...like now".

"So they warriors do have magic?", I asked.

"They are a power themselves, it seems", Ying said. "They can be unstoppable even in the face of terrifying magic. They have ways of shielding themselves or buffering themselves and of overcoming the most that the enemy has to throw at them. But it's not easy. They have to concentrate and focus their rage in order to reach those abilities."

That sounded a lot like my abilities with the nanites. If I wanted to maintain control over them I had to focus on my most painful moments. Did the warriors have their own nanites or their own version of them? I'm sure Wall wasn't likely to tell me about it.

So we walked. I wasn't quite sure what we would do when we found the Kith. According to the group I was with, the Kith arrived here last year and was hell-bent on killing all living things and populating this world with mechanical versions of the Kith. I was about to ask Ying what they looked like when Wall suddenly motioned for us to be quite. Then she motioned for us to move into the bushes and hide.

That's when I saw my first Kith. It was about twelve feet tall and walked on two legs and had what I'll call arms but they looked more like attachments that worked as arms. The arms were probably swapped out with whatever attachment was deemed necessary at the time. The earth shook slightly with each step it took. Was it really that heavy? That dense. The trees near it shook their leaves with each step. It walked past Wall's hidden spot.

Wall suddenly leaped out of her hiding position and slid into the back of the Kith as she roared in anger slamming her shield into the rear of the Kith. The Kith fell face forward and caught itself with it's arms. While it was on all fours, Wall swung her sword at the Kith's upper thigh. Before the blade could make contact the Kith pushed with it's legs and swung it's torso up so now it was holding itself up on it's arms. The arms and legs apparently were able to move in an omni-direction manner. It's leg (now being used as an arm) swung down to strike Wall but she quickly moved her shield up taking the full impact in the center of the shield. The impact drove her to one knee...but only for a moment. She roared back to both feet and spun to strike the Kith in it's torso.

"Enough gawking, let's get that Kith down!", Ying said shifting into a bear. Ying bellowed loudly as he charged at the Kith's back. Rogen, standing besides me, suddenly vanished and then reappeared behind the Kith stabbing it's back. Lanree begin a silent chant as he weaved his hands in the air. Anni pulled me back as the air around Lanree began to grow hot.

"Systems online", Sam said.

"Sam?", I stammered, "Is that really you?".

"Yes, yes, yes", Sam replied.

"Then let's get to work", I said. Sam pulled me up into the air and I pulled out my weapon and fired a plasma bolt at the Kith's back just as Lanree released a fireball. Wall jumped in front of Ying and Rogen protecting them with her shield as the Kith exploded from the double wammy from Lanree and myself.

"Unable to sustain flight," Sam said and I fell out of the sky. Considering how high I was, I knew this was going to hurt. I tried to make the best of the landing when, still several feet up in the air, Wall roared into view, caught me and shielded us as we hit the ground. It was actually a soft landing. Wall then backhanded me off her and stood up.

"Sam is back?", Wall growled pointing at me.

"Yeah, she seems to be". I said.

"Why did you fall?", Anni asked.

"Let me find out", I said. "Sam?"

"Yes, yes yes", Sam said.

"What happened?", I asked. "Where have you been?".

"We were damaged by poison that entered our system when we arrived here. We have been able to repair many of the nanites but we have a ways to go before we are fully repaired."

"Sam says she's feeling better but it's going to be a little while before she's fully repaired", I told the group.

"Does that mean that you'll be leaving us?", Anni asked as she healed Wall's wounds.

"I don't know", I said. "At this point, I'm not even sure Sam could help me to find our way back home."

"Why not", Rogen asked. "Can't you go back the way you came here?".

"Maybe, but the only problem is I'm not sure how I got here. If I manage to leave here, it'll probably be as random of an action that brought me here."

"Are you using wild magic", Lanree asked.

"It may as well be", I told Lanree, "but it's not. Just technology from 2030 that is so complicated that even the experts from that time wasn't sure what was causing my nanites to malfunction. And at this point, I may never know what's really wrong with them."

"But if they can return you home...are you going to go?", Anni asked.

"I suppose", I said. "I mean there really isn't anything for me here. I still have responsibilities back home and I'm still not sure if the time-vacuum is sealed or not."

"You could join us," Anni said.

Rogen snickered, "Why, I took him down in like half a second!".

"True", Lanree said, "But he's not from this world and wasn't expecting your type of attack, I'm sure of it".

"Besides", Ying said, "You don't know for sure if you can get back and it could be that the people and the places you knew before are so far in the past...or future...that you'll never make it back with any degree of accuracy."

"I know", I said, "but I need to sort things out first to see if it's even worth it to make the journey home."

"Well, you are welcome to stay with us as long as you like", Anni said.

"Give me a moment", I said. "I need to check on something before we go much further".

They all nodded and proceeded to set up camp.

"Sam?", I said.

"Yes, yes, yes", Sam said.

"Can you take me up as high as you can so we can try to recharge your batteries?", I asked.

"Yes, yes, yes", Sam said.

Sam rocked us up and away from the group. I looked down to see Anni waving good bye to me. I waved back. I'd be back, but first I needed to see if I could find any evidence of the time-vacuum. The helmet visor slid into place as the booster rockets kicked in pushing us even higher and faster until finally the rockets stopped and I was floating on the edge of space.

I reached into my belt and pulled out the tether tucked away there and attached it to my weapon. I aimed it away from me and shot it higher into space. The weapon kicked me downwards to Zenerth, but I was able to push myself back up into space and then fired rockets that would put me in a very low orbit about the world. The tether begin to glow as it was drug across the magnetic field.

"Sam?," I asked, "How are you doing?".

"We'll only need a few minutes to fully charge", Sam said.

"Sam," I said, "We seem to be dropping a bit".

"The trade off from gathering electrical energy this way is that the trade off is in kinetic energy", Sam said.

"Can you reverse that?", I asked.

"Yes, yes, yes", Sam said, "Reverse polarity would actually pull us up but we won't need to charge long. Charging".

And so I floated there above this new world of mine. Maybe I would spend the rest of my time here. I thought of Anni and decided that it wouldn't be such a bad place to spend the rest of my life. I looked around and noticed that Zenerth had two moons. One of the moons had a ring around it. I looked out to the Sun and wondered which star was that. Could I see it from the Earth? Could I see the Earth from here? I looked over at the tether and it was glowing brightly from the interaction between it and the magnetic field.

"Charge complete", Sam said.

I reeled the tether back in and tucked it back into my belt.

"Sam", I said, "Can you detect the time-vacuum from here".

"Please wait", Sam said, "Working".

26

Chapter 26

"No, no, no", Sam said, "Unable to detect".

"So are you saying", I asked, "that it is gone?"

"We are not sure how it was originally created, but it did coincide with your first trip to the Civil War. Our second trip back to the Civil War seems to have corrected it but the side effect is that we are now trapped on this world with no way of knowing how to return to Earth, nor do we even know what year it is".

So that was that. I was an unknown distance from anything that mattered in my life and now I was on a world that I knew little about. It did seem interesting but it wasn't my world. I had no way to program my nanites so it was impossible to have them just let me die by trying to kill myself. Unless something highly unusual happened, I could live hundreds or even thousands of years as the nanites just recreated my body out of materials they came across. They would not allow the aging process to take place and I would always be seen as a young man.

I reversed the polarity on the tether allowing it to pull me higher into space. Of course it cost me a little electrical power to do it, but I didn't mind and I had the time. I looked out at the moons. One seemed to be about the size of the one I knew back on Earth and the other one was just huge with a beautiful ring around it like Saturn. If I had to guess it was about five times the size of the other one.

"Sam", I inquired, "Is there any life on either of those moons?".

"Searching", Sam said.

I reversed the polarity of the tether and hung there for a moment. It would be a few minutes before the tether started to slow us down as we charged Sams batteries. There was something that stuck in my mind: Gablena.

Anni claimed that Gablena was a God that granted healing powers. How? And why only healing abilities? Also, Anni claimed that Gablena was the only God of Zenerth and yet there was also Green Magic and Wild Magic from the Elves. Where there other unseen Gods that were granting them abilities or was it truly magic? What was magic anyways? I knew that my own abilities from the nanites would make me seem godlike to someone from Earth's past. Was all magic simply science not yet understood? Or from Gods? Or maybe magic simply was with no explanation at all.

"Search complete", Sam said.

"So what did you find", I asked.

"The larger moon has abundant life while the smaller moon is desolate", Sam said.

"Do we have the power to fly to either moon?", I asked.

"Yes, yes, yes", Sam stuttered.

So what do I do now? I had to think about that and decided to go with what I knew. What I knew was that the people of this world were under attack from an alien mechanical race. I was meant to be a protector more so than an explorer.

I reeled the tether in and started my descent down to the planet.

"Sam", I said, "Can you guide us down to our group?".

"Yes, yes, yes", Sam said firing the rockets on my boots and hands.

The descent was routine. Sam took us in at an angle to avoid heating up too much on descent. Once we were low enough, Sam angled us toward the last location for Anni and the others. Sam brought me down at the riverbank location that I had last seen them. I could see the dead Kith there. Could you call it dead? I walked over to it can could see nothing that resembled something living. It was just all parts and bits of mechanical trash that had been blasted apart by green and wild magic and a plasma rifle. I could see huge areas on the torso that had been bashed in by Wall. How could she be that strong?

"Sam?", I asked, "Can you track them?".

"Yes, yes, yes", Sam said.

After a few moments, Sam started to provide visual directions. But something occurred to me.

"Sam?", I asked, "Is it possible that someone in the group has at least one nanite on them? I mean, we had a lot of physical contact and I bled a couple of times on probably all of them". It wasn't as gross as it sounded. Wall had hit me a number of times briefly creating wounds in which blood was splatter several times.

"Yes, yes, yes", Sam said.

"Ah, good", I said, "Would you put a video up showing what they are doing from their point of view?"

"Yes, yes, yes", Sam replied.

Sam pulled a video up on my helmet and I could see everything as if I was actually there. They were all walking. Probably looking for the best place or places to strike against the Kith. I couldn't tell where they were but I could find them by just following Sam's lead when I was ready. I wanted to listen in on them first.

"Do you think he'll come back", Anni asked.

"Who cares?", Wall said, "We don't need him".

"It isn't so much that we need him but...well, maybe we do", Anni said.

Wall just waved Anni away as then outpaced Anni further on through the forest. Anni looked back to see Rogen in the back. The dwarfs could be fast when they wanted to be but tended to walk slowly most of the time. Rogen's legs were short and he did have trouble keeping up.

Anni took slower steps allowing Rogen to catch up. "So what do you think", Anni asked, "Should we go back and wait for Paul?".

"I don't know, Anni", Rogen said, "He didn't see like much help until that Sam of his finally arrived and I'm not sure I really understand his abilities. It's almost as if he's some sort of mechanical wizard. Maybe he would be helpful for us but I really don't know".

"I liked him," I heard Ying say. Anni looked up ahead and saw Ying there plodding along in his bear shape. She ran to catch up to him.

"What was it about Paul that you liked," Anni asked.

"Well, he seemed to be a very honest person and honesty goes a long way in this world. He didn't tell us too much about his world but I got the impression that not many people were as honest as he was. He's a rare person. I also liked the fact that he was a protector of others even though a random person killed the one person in his life that he loved. Don't you find it ironic that he used his hate, anger, rage, sadness and loneliness to overcome the small creatures, that he called nanites, in order to use them to protect random people that he came across as a protector?".

The group chuckled at that. I hadn't thought of that myself. I guess it was ironic that I would help others even though I owed them nothing. It wasn't so much that I owed anyone anything except that I owed it to my sister to be the hero that she always believed me to be. Even though it wasn't my fault that she was hit by a drunk driver, I felt guilty for her death. She was going to nursing school because she wanted to be like her big brother. What if I wanted to be a pharmacist or a secretary or even a customer service representative taking phone calls all day? She might have taken a different path that day if I had taken a different path years before she died.

"I take it that you like this Paul", I heard Lanree say. I had looked away from the screen deep in my thoughts. I now looked back at it and watched Anni catch up to Lanree.

"Of course, I do", Anni said, "I've already said that earlier".

"No", Lanree said, "I mean that you really like him."

I couldn't see Anni because the nanite seemed to be somewhere just under her neck. But just then, after Lanree said that, she pulled her head down to her chest as if she was trying to hide her face from Lanree. I could see her cheeks turn red.

"See, young one?", Lanree asked, "You do like him more than any of us. That's alright, but just be careful with him if he comes back".

"What do you mean," Anni asked. Yes, I wondered the same thing. What does Lanree mean by that comment?

"What I mean is this", Lanree said as he bent towards Anni's chest. His right eye came into view as it scanned the area under Anni's chest. She pulled back in surprise but he hushed her and then brought up finger near my nanite. There was a brief and bright light and then I saw nothing.

"Sam?", I asked, "What happened?".

"Nanite destroyed", Sam said.

"Did Lanree know I was spying on them?", I asked.

"Unknown", Sam said.

"Alright, lead me to them again", I said.

Sam pointed the way through my heads up display in my helmet and I flew to the group. Before long I found them. I circled over them and landed in front of them.

"Sorry, guys", I said, "I just needed a break to figure out what I wanted to do for the rest of my life".

"Suddenly?", Anni asked, "just like that?".

"Yeah", I said. "Just like that. I'm new here. You have to understand that. I've spent my life going in on direction and now I'm here. I had always hoped that somehow and someway that I would find a way to go back in time and save my sister. Now that I'm here...I feel guilty for not even trying".

Ying placed his hand on my shoulder and asked, "Why would you feel guilty? Didn't you say you could only control you travel in time by a few years?".

"Yeah", I said. "Fifteen years tops in either direction but we tended to only travel backwards in time. But the thing about it was that I should have at least tried. If I had only tried I could have saved her. Now that I'm stuck here, there will be no way for me to bring her back to life."

"You were hero...where you come from?", Wall asked.

"I saved people's lives, so yeah, you could call me a hero", I said. "And each time I saved them I thought about my sister. But each time I just moved on to the next case and did nothing to reach her back in time".

Lanree stepped forward, "Did you ever consider why you didn't go after her but went on to the next case instead?".

"Just stupid I guess", I said sitting down on a stump. The rest of the group sat down with me by the river.

"Really?", Lanree said, "Maybe you are stupid, but something tells me that there was more to it than that. Is it possible that if you tried to force your travel in time by more than fifteen years that it would kill you?".

"Yes", I said, "In fact, the nanites are programmed to protect me from making stupid decisions that would get me killed like that. Chances are that even if I tried, they would have prevented me from going back in time".

"So you can only do what the nanites allow you to do?", Anni asked.

"No", I said, "I have gotten them to override their programming to do what I wanted them to do. I just never did it for my sister's sake".

"No", Wall said, "I understand you now. You are a warrior like me. Not as good as me but a warrior who believes in protecting others before you think of what you need for yourself. You would die for others even if it was the one that killed your sister in his drunken stupidity".

I looked at Wall and thought about that. Wall wasn't one to speak because she wasn't able to maintain her rage while doing it. But she was right.

"If I had gone back to save my sister", I said, "I could have died".

"And you wouldn't have been able to save all those people that you did save", Anni said.

"I know," I said, "I know. It's just that I wish there was a way to do both. But I always believed in duty and if I had the power and ability to do what I was given to do then that had to come first before my sister".

Ying reacted first to the ambush. While I was talking he suddenly shifted into a large black panther and leaped over my head. Rogen had been standing in front of me but he suddenly went stiff and turned invisible. Lanree stood shooting a large fireball over my head and Wall backhanded me out of her way as she ran after Ying. Anni and I turned around to see what the rest of the group was reacting to: five Kith coming our way.

Wall took on two of them by herself. She flipped her shield from one side to the other to block each energy blast that came her way. Her shield looked liked wood but reflected energy blasts as if it had been coated with something. Magic perhaps? She deflected one of the blasts into the legs of one of the Kith bringing that Kith down to it's knees. She leaped over that Kith and into the other one slicing her sword into it.

Ying shifted to bear shape and rolled into one Kith knocking it on it's back. Ying shifted into gorilla form and started pounding heavily into the Kith as it's arms and legs jerked erratically with each hit.

Rogen had reappeared behind his Kith and slid his blades in between the armor of the Kith and then twisted his blades up as he stood on his toes. Sparks exploded out the back of the Kith as it arched it's back in mechanical pain.

Lanree's fireball exploded into his Kith melting it's arm pivot joint. It swiveled it's other at Lanree and aimed.

"Lanree", I shouted, "Get down, man!". The Kith fired his weapon at Lanree.

Everything happened in slow motion at that point. Lanree was not moving. Wall had already dispensed with her Kith and now her powerful legs pushed off the ground shooting her forward towards the energy blast. She raised her shield to block it but I could see that the warrior would not be fast enough to block the Kith's. Ying shifted to cheetah form and ran as fast as his powerful legs would take him. He wasn't going to be fast enough. Rogen noticed the action and vanished from sight. I was the only one that could possible get to Lanree quick enough.

"Rockets!", I told Sam. Sam exploded me forward and in front of the group heading to Lanree. I reached for Wall's shield and took it from her in mid-flight and then raised it to block the blast from Lanree and myself. At the last second, Rogen appeared in front of me accidentally bumping the shield away. His blades slipped and sliced into my chest as the blast from the Kith finally reached a target.

I fell to the ground unable to breath. I looked down and I had a hole where my lungs were a moment ago. I tried to ask Sam something but I sputtered up some blood. Sam was gone. I could feel it. It was getting dark quickly. I saw Anni come to my side crying. It was dark now and I couldn't see a thing. I heard Anni saying something from a million miles away. She touched me with her hands and I knew they were glowing brightly.