3:30am Tuesday 19th October 2027

“What the hell Jonty?!” I yelled angrily as I took off my visor, sitting up and blinking to adjust my vision back into the brightly lit room. “You killed me again.”

I jumped off the bed and ripped the wires and sticky pads from my skin and threw them to the floor. Standing in a white singlet and grey sweatpants that I’d rolled up at the bottom for comfort, I folded my arms across my chest and glared at Jonty.

“I’m sorry, but that’s how it happened the hundreds of other times that we’ve done this. The scenario doesn’t change. I just can’t seem to change my aim.” Jonty replied, removing his visor and sitting up across from me, sighing and running his fingers through his black hair in frustration. He avoided my gaze and chose instead, to look at the wall to the side of me.

“It’s got to change, otherwise it’s all over. The Universe ends…I end, you end, everyone ends.” I said, my voice quivering with frustration.

“If we change anything about the past, the future changes too, you know that.” He said, still avoiding eye contact.

“But that’s exactly what we want, the future needs to change. The trajectory we’re on has to change.”

“There’s no way you can change the outcome, you’re unable to connect with your future self while you’re in the past - you have no idea what’s coming next so you can’t explain it to yourself.” He sighed.

“Maybe I could run sooner or try harder.” I talked over him pretending not to hear what he was saying. “I could tell myself that I just need to leave the gym with the others a few seconds later. Write a note to myself or something? There’s got to be a way, I know it, my gut knows it.”

“Well, my gut is telling me that I need to eat.” Jonty said, slowly taking off the wires and sticking pads attached to his skin, careful to avoid ripping the hairs on his arms.

The doors swished open and a large man in a Star Armada uniform walked in, by the way he walked I guessed we were in trouble. It was Admiral Jamison, the head of the Star Armada Command and the entire Command Fleet. At six feet tall he was an imposing figure as he stormed across the room, a frown cut deep into his forehead.

“What are you two doing here? This area is off limits to students, access is only permitted to Captains and above. You know that.” He boomed, his loud voice sending shivers up my spine.

Jonty jumped to his feet and saluted the Admiral. I stood to attention and saluted too, my mind still on how I could do things differently.

“Yes, sir.” We both answered in unison.

“Were you using the simulators?” He looked at the equipment we’d left on the beds then looked at us confused.

“Yes sir.” We replied.

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“How did you know how to operate them?”

“It wasn’t hard sir, we’ve been studying physics in our quantum mechanics class and just applied that knowledge… and a little bit more.” I replied, still standing at attention and staring straight ahead.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw the Admiral try to suppress a smile.

“It wasn’t hard?” He said, with a hint of amusement in his voice. “Our top scientists and tech engineers would disagree. They built it and they’re still trying to understand how to operate it properly and work out the kinks.”

I felt sweat start to bead on my forehead and I could feel Jonty’s discomfort beside me.

“I’ve been keeping my eye on the two of you and when Captain Erasmus came and told me that he’d seen you hooked up to the machines, I had to come and see for myself.”

“We thought we were being discreet.” Jonty said.

“Not discreet enough it would seem.” The Admiral said, his tone softening.

“It’s not Jonty’s fault Admiral. I talked him into it.” I turned my head to address him.

Jonty opened his mouth to argue but I kept speaking..

“I lost my brother in the great apocalypse from the before time, many moons ago and I have been trying to find him.” I explained, my eyes tearing up at thinking about Roderick.

“Have been? How many times have you used the simulators?” The Admiral asked quizzically.

“Counting this time? Over 500 times.” I sighed.

The Admiral looked shocked and pulled at his well manicured beard in thought.

“How the hell did you accomplish that? There are no missions logged or people who have seen you come in here?!” He asked.

“Apart from Captain Erasmus today, we got sloppy.” I replied, looking at my feet in shame and inwardly chastising myself for not being thorough enough.

“How did you do it? I need to know.” Admiral Jamison said as he walked right up to us, I could feel his breath on my cheek.

I looked up and looked into his eyes as I spoke.

“We come in once we know that everyone has gone to their quarters, usually late at night or in the early hours. We’d make changes to the algorithm and have a session, then change the code back once we were finished and wipe the log of the sessions from the system so it would appear that the simulators hadn’t even been touched.” I said in a clear and confident tone.

I didn’t tell him that the reason we knew everyone had left the lab was because we’d set up a camera in the corner to observe the area. That information might come in handy to us if we needed to get back in, so I didn’t want to give it away too. Although, it was probably going to be a lot harder to use the lab now that the Admiral knew what we were up to.

“So what I’m hearing is two of our students from our advanced class have now technically beaten the world's best scientists into developing a way to time travel?”

“Yes sir…” I tried to think of an answer which didn’t make us sound more cocky than we were, but I couldn’t under pressure. “I mean… yes sir.”

The Admiral ran his hand through his hair in astonishment.

“I want to see both of you in my office now. Follow me.” He said as he turned to leave.

Jonty and I looked at each other and we both gulped. We were in big trouble, we had used the simulator so many times sneakily that the laboratory where we were had become like a second home.

The Admiral reached the door and turned back to look at us.

“When I say now, I mean now!” He commanded and waited for the doors to swish open before walking out into the corridor.

Jonty and I jumped and quickly hurried after the Admiral.

A sense of dread filled my stomach, I couldn’t lose access to the only way of finding Roderick and Reese.

I had to think fast.