Lia woke to the soft glow of her wrist unit pulsing in the darkness. For a moment, she lay still, the familiar rhythm of the base's quiet hum a comfort in the background. She'd fallen asleep at her desk again, something that had become disturbingly common since she'd reopened the old case. Groggily, she rubbed her eyes, the blurred display coming into focus.
Alert: Priority Access Granted to Restricted Files.
Case: 13-482 (Reopened) – Temporal Anomalies Identified.
Pattern Analysis: 14% correlation across minor disturbance cases from 86 BCE to present.
She sat up, her fatigue vanishing as adrenaline took over. She hadn’t expected her inquiry into the case to trigger a priority alert, much less access to restricted files. Had her search stirred something? Lia tapped on the display, bringing up a more detailed report. Her fingers moved quickly over the console, accessing the list of correlated anomalies. The patterns were more extensive than she had realized—Rome, Falmouth, and dozens of others she hadn’t yet discovered.
Flowers blooming out of season, slight shifts in weather, minuscule deviations in historical records—each disturbance by itself was insignificant. Together, however, they formed a series of threads that wove through time, all linked by the same barely perceptible changes. And the Echoes, if they were truly behind it, had been at this far longer than anyone had guessed.
A shiver ran down Lia’s spine.
The disturbance rate was increasing. More importantly, it seemed to be converging on the present.
Before she could process the implications, her door slid open, and Kellan walked in, his posture relaxed but his face serious. “I hope I’m not too late,” he said, flashing a crooked smile. “I grabbed breakfast on the way. Figured you wouldn’t have eaten.”
Lia raised an eyebrow at him as he dropped a container of food on her desk, though her attention was still on the screen. “What time is it?”
“Barely morning,” Kellan replied, leaning against the wall. “What did you find?”
Instead of answering immediately, Lia gestured to the holographic display. Kellan moved closer, studying the data with a sharp gaze. “The disturbances are connected,” she said, her voice steady despite the unease gnawing at her. “More than I thought. There are dozens of cases—minor, barely noticeable—but all linked by the same pattern. The timeline has been tampered with repeatedly, and I think it’s escalating.”
Kellan let out a low whistle. “That’s… a lot more than I expected. Any leads on where the changes are leading?”
Lia nodded, her fingers moving across the display again. “I ran a projection based on the rate of anomalies. They’re increasing, focusing on specific points in history that seem to spiral inward, closer to our present time. The disturbances are subtle, but they’re gaining momentum. If we don’t stop it soon, the consequences could start to multiply exponentially.”
Kellan’s brow furrowed as he processed the information. “So, we’re looking at more than just a few rogue travelers messing with flowers. This could be a prelude to something bigger.”
“Exactly,” Lia said, pulling up a timeline chart with red markers showing the incidents of disturbance over the past several centuries. “Look at this. The anomalies are converging on a specific point—our present, or close to it. It’s like someone’s weaving a web through time, and all the strands are coming together here.”
Kellan stared at the chart for a long moment before shaking his head. “This isn’t random. If the Echoes are behind this, they’re orchestrating something. But we’re missing the why.”
“That’s what worries me,” Lia muttered, her gaze fixed on the projection. “Whatever they’re doing, they’ve been laying the groundwork for centuries. Maybe longer.”
Kellan crossed his arms, his expression grim. “Command needs to know.”
“They won’t act,” Lia said flatly. “Not without more proof. They’ll just say it’s minor disturbances again, nothing that warrants investigation. We’re on our own.”
“Great,” Kellan said sarcastically. “Just how I like it.”
Lia gave him a wry smile, but the tension in her stomach didn’t ease. They were chasing a shadow, and time wasn’t on their side. If they couldn’t find concrete evidence soon, the entire timeline could unravel, and no one would see it coming until it was too late.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
“We need to go back,” Lia said abruptly, turning off the holographic display. “The disturbances are connected to past events, but we need to understand how. I think the answer is buried somewhere in history itself. And the best place to start is with the first recorded anomaly.”
Kellan raised an eyebrow. “Rome, right?”
Lia nodded. “Rome, 98 AD. That’s where the first known anomaly occurred. But we need to go deeper, follow the thread to wherever it leads.”
Kellan’s smile returned, this time with a hint of excitement. “You had me at ‘we need to go back.’ Let’s grab the gear and head out.”
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The Temporal Operations gear room was a stark contrast to the sterile, tech-heavy environment of the rest of the base. Rows of shelves lined the walls, each stocked with everything from time-stabilizing tools to basic survival kits for different historical periods. Lia moved through the shelves with practiced efficiency, pulling items off and securing them in her satchel.
Kellan, already suited up in his standard mission attire, watched her with arms crossed. “You know,” he said, “I’ve always wondered if we’ve ever actually altered history without realizing it.”
Lia paused mid-grab and gave him a sideways glance. “You mean, like us? The agents?”
“Yeah. What if, in one of our missions, we accidentally changed something? Maybe we didn’t follow the rules exactly, and something small shifted, but we didn’t notice.”
Lia finished packing her bag and turned to face him. “That’s the point of all the protocols. We track and monitor everything. If something changes, the timeline algorithms pick it up.”
Kellan shrugged, but his face was serious. “Maybe. But what if those algorithms aren’t perfect? What if there are subtle changes that the system misses? What if that’s what’s been happening here?”
Lia didn’t have an answer to that. She knew the system was far from flawless, despite what Command liked to pretend. And if someone had figured out how to exploit its weaknesses, then the implications were chilling.
“We’ll find out,” she said, securing the last of the gear. “Rome is our first stop. We’ll retrace the steps from the original anomaly.”
Kellan nodded, and together they made their way to the timejump chamber, a massive circular room at the heart of the base. The chamber’s walls were lined with panels that pulsed with light, syncing with the temporal coordinates set by the control system. Lia could feel the faint charge in the air as the chamber powered up, preparing for their journey back nearly two thousand years.
She took a deep breath as they stepped onto the jump pad, the familiar buzz of the temporal energy field humming through her skin. Time travel had always felt strange, a disorienting mix of exhilaration and nausea that came with being ripped from one era and deposited into another. But after years of missions, it had become routine.
The control panel lit up, and the technician overseeing the jump gave them a nod. “Coordinates locked. Ready for transport.”
Lia glanced at Kellan. “You ready?”
He grinned. “Always.”
With a final nod, Lia activated the sequence. The chamber filled with a blinding light, and the familiar pull of the temporal shift wrapped around them like a vortex. For a brief, disorienting moment, time itself seemed to stretch and twist, reality blurring into a kaleidoscope of colors and sensations.
Then, just as suddenly, it snapped back into place.
Lia blinked against the sudden shift in light and temperature, her senses adjusting to their new surroundings. The soft hum of the chamber was gone, replaced by the distant chatter of voices and the faint scent of smoke and incense in the air. When her vision cleared, she found herself standing in the middle of a bustling Roman forum.
The sun was high in the sky, casting long shadows across the stone-paved square. Citizens of ancient Rome moved around them, going about their daily lives—merchants shouting their wares, senators in flowing robes walking with purpose, and the ever-present sound of animals and carts clattering over the stones. It was a snapshot of history, alive and breathing before their eyes.
Kellan adjusted his tunic, the period-appropriate clothing they had donned blending seamlessly with the crowd. “I’ll never get used to this,” he muttered, glancing around.
Lia couldn’t help but agree. No matter how many times she traveled back, there was something surreal about stepping into a world so far removed from her own.
They moved through the forum, keeping a low profile as they made their way toward the outskirts of the city. The records had indicated that the first anomaly had occurred in the countryside, near a small farming village. The volcanic activity reported at the time had caused some local disruptions, but Lia wasn’t convinced it had been natural. There was something else buried in the timeline, something that had triggered the disturbance.
As they walked, Lia felt the weight of time pressing down on them. Every step they took in the past felt fragile, as if the world around them was delicate, like glass. One wrong move, one minor change, and everything could shatter. The Echoes had been working in the shadows for years, making small, subtle changes. Now it was up to her to find out why—and to stop them before those changes became irreversible.
As they approached the village, Lia’s wrist unit pinged softly. She glanced down at it, her heart skipping a beat.
Anomaly Detected.
Disturbance Level: Low, but increasing.
Lia looked up at Kellan, her pulse quickening. “We’re close.”
Kellan’s expression hardened, his playful demeanor fading. “Let’s find out what they’ve done.”
Together, they pushed forward, moving deeper into the past—and closer to the heart of the mystery.