CHAPTER 1

2237

Titan II Space Station

Earth’s Orbit

A man in a loose, light gray uniform leaned back in a swivel chair, sturdy black boots crossed on the desk in front of him, surrounded by several computer screens. His mouth was hanging open as drops of saliva sprayed from his lips with every loud snore he produced. His glasses were askew over his partly opened eyes. Every few minutes, his brows twitched in such a way that it could have been mistaken for him being conscious. In reality, he was far from awake. Behind him stood a woman wearing the same uniform with thick, skin-like fabric, long sleeves with gray from the right arm to the neck and back, and white from the other arm to the front part of the suit. Short, curly black hair stopped just short of her shoulders. Unlike the man, she was wide awake, staring at a rusty, pocket-size journal in her hand. She looked at it with disdain, as though something was compelling her to look at it. Each time she moved to a new page, she adjusted the one-eyed red visor she was wearing and scribbled a note in the tablet on the desk in front of her. The room was dimly lit, barely bright enough to see anything with the naked eye. She could still read with the assistance of her V-Glass. She was so engrossed in her journal that she appeared oblivious to her surroundings.

The door to the room hissed open. A humanoid, bipedal robot, with a letter ‘E’ printed boldly on its chest, whirred as it made its way in. It stopped in the doorway and scanned the room. It would have been difficult for anything other than a robot to see either of the people; apart from their light uniforms, they blended almost completely into the dark room. The robot moved toward them. When it was near enough, it stopped and turned to the woman. She didn’t take her eyes off the journal in front of her.

“Beat it, Evans!” she said sharply before the robot had a chance to speak.

Evans looked left, right, then left again, attempting to formulate a response. Eventually, it turned to the sleeping man and stared at him for a few seconds. It then gently nudged him on the shoulder, just hard enough to wake him. The man leaped

from his seat and immediately assumed a combat stance. He blurted out some garbled words as Evans assessed his pose.

“Sir,” Evans began, “I do not believe your response is appropriate for the current situation. If there was a need for combat at this moment, I must inform you that you have the worst combat posture I have ever seen. I estimate you would last approximately three seconds before becoming incapacitated.”

The woman smirked but didn’t look back.

The man looked down at his feet.

“It is nothing to be ashamed of, sir,” Evans continued. “You are a scientist. No one expects you to possess combat abilities sufficient to influence the outcome of a given situation.”

The man stared at Evans and opened his mouth to speak. He sighed and closed his mouth, thinking better of it. He adjusted his glasses and sat back in his chair before brushing his fingers through his hair. He removed his glasses and rubbed the bags under his eyes, which were too big for someone in his late forties. He placed his glasses back on and turned to face Evans.

“What do you want, Evans?” he asked, irritated.

“Sir, as you are already aware, it is mandatory for every exploratory resident of the station to record a daily audio log of-”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know,” the man interrupted and fumbled around on his desk. “Where did I put that thing?” Struggling to find what he was looking for, he turned to Evans again. “Can’t you just run your facial recognition program?”

“Of course, sir. As you are already aware, the chief of the station instructed that I must only use my facial recognition to identify residents during situations that could be considered major crises, which might result in residents misplacing or damaging their identification chips.”

“Christ, Evans. Can you just scan me, please? My card is somewhere around here but I can’t find it right now.”

Evans took a step back with a whir. “Sir, please confirm that your identification card is lost or damaged.”

The man sighed. “Yes.”

Evans’ head was round with a cone that extended to the back. The front of his head, which everyone referred to as his face, was a black screen that glowed different colors, depending on the robot’s function during a particular moment. The display sometimes showed simple faces to reflect Evans’ emotions. In his base mode, Evans’

face glowed dim green but, for the task he was about to perform, his face glowed red. A flash of crimson light ran across the man’s face and down to his chest.

“Resident scientist Isaac Clarke. Clearance level three.” Evans’ face returned to green. “Are you prepared to record your daily log, sir?”

Isaac yawned and nodded with a frown. He wiped his face, then sat upright in his chair. “Why do we have to do this every day? We’ve been reporting the same thing for years. If there was anything new to report, people would know about it.”

Evans continued staring at Isaac.

“Fine,” Isaac conceded. He turned to his computer and struck the keypad loudly.

“I am ready whenever you are, sir,” said Evans.

After a few moments, Isaac turned to the robot. He cleared his throat and raised a thumb at Evans.

“Audio log number… 9851. Today is September 20th, 2237. My name is Dr. Isaac Clarke, a resident scientist aboard the scientific and military vessel, Titan II. This is, as far as we’re aware, the only surviving space station of Titan Corporation, or orbiting Earth in general. It’s been... twenty-seven years and eighteen days since our world ended in a global catastrophe. It was caused by an overwhelming emergence of lifeforms from beneath the ocean, codenamed ‘Dormiens Vilis’. Our current situation remains the same as it has for decades. Worldwide military: collapsed. Global defense systems: destroyed. Our capital cities: in ruins. Ground Reconnaissance: eradicated. Mission status: total failure. A conservative estimate of twenty-one billion casualties. The network space station ‘Arania Telam’ ceased its operations under mysterious circumstances almost ten years ago, preventing Titan II from communicating with other space stations and any resistance that might remain on the surface. We have no way of knowing if we’re all that’s left of humanity. From up here, all we can see is a world covered in darkness. All that we can-”

A thud came from behind Isaac. He looked over his shoulder at his female colleague, who had slammed her fists on her desk.

“Everything all right, Bethany?” he asked.

Bethany tensed up and turned her chair until she was facing Isaac. “Am I wasting my time here?” she asked but immediately raised her hand to prevent him from answering. “Don’t say it.”

Isaac rubbed his forehead as he turned back to Evans. “End of report.”

“Report logged,” Evans stated. He whirred for a moment, then made his way toward the exit.

“Evans,” Bethany called after him. “Come here for a minute.”

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Bethany got out of her chair as Evans approached. “You knew Riley Karlsson. He was your friend.”

“That is correct,” replied Evans.

“Would you consider it fair to call him crazy?”

Evans went quiet and his face dimmed as he processed the question. Every question required him to access data and compare it with his memory logs. It took longer than usual. Bethany and Isaac exchanged glances and her eyes narrowed as she stepped closer to Evans. Evans’ face lit up with a smiley face.

“There is no record of Riley Karlsson displaying any signs of mental instability.”

Bethany was disappointed. For a moment, she thought she might have learned something useful. “I’m not asking what’s contained in his file. I’m asking for your assessment of him, what you think.”

Isaac placed a hand on Bethany’s shoulder. “He’s an assistant unit, Beth. He isn’t capable of the type of thought you’re asking for. He can’t answer.”

Bethany cursed under her breath. She pulled her shoulder away from Isaac and returned to her chair. Evans asked if they had any further questions and Isaac shook his head. Evans turned and whirred out of the lab.

“Beth, you’ve had that journal for twenty-seven years. You probably know every word of it by heart. If there was anything to find in there, you would have already figured it out.”

She held up the journal and flipped through it. “This isn’t the work of a madman. As outlandish as it all seems, it’s too… comprehensive; the theories, time travel via controlled time breaches, mind-controlled nanites armors that can fit into a jewelry box. Some of it checks out.”

Isaac sat on the edge of Bethany’s desk. “I know you believe Riley’s journal could be the key to undoing all of this. I hope it is too, that there’s a way for us to go back and change things, but we can’t pin everything on that. The only thing we can do is move forward, Beth, and the only thing you need to do right now is getting some sleep.”

The lab door slid open. A middle-eastern man with a large scar down his forehead, across his nose, and onto his right cheek, entered the room. His expression was half-scowl and half-grin. His brawny arms held a mop and a bucket that would have seemed large in the hands of a smaller man. He looked at Bethany and scoffed at the sight of her holding the old journal.

“Are you two allergic to light?” he asked as he moved into a corner of the lab. He brightened the room using a terminal on the wall. He set the bucket on the floor, dipped the mop head into it, squeezed out the excess water, and started mopping. “At some point, you two nutcases need to just burn that book and put the Riley theories to rest.”

“Keep your opinions to yourself, Sayeed,” Isaac replied. “I’m not overly concerned with the assessments of a runaway pilot.”

Sayeed shook his head and smiled. “Is that so? From where I’m standing, I’m not the one who managed to fall from being a scientific prodigy into a glorified data entry specialist.”

Isaac gritted his teeth. It wasn’t the first time he and Sayeed had exchanged harsh words. It happened more often than either of them liked to admit and it was becoming increasingly frequent. The door opened again, and another man entered the substation. He stood perfectly upright and had an intense, military gaze. The metallic badge on his reinforced leather jacket showed an engraving: ‘Ethan Ramirez - Field Team Leader’.

“When you two are done flirting, find a room and get it over with,” said Ethan. He turned to Bethany. “Status report!”

Bethany was sitting at her desk, staring down at the floor. Her mind was clearly elsewhere.

“Bethany!”

She snapped back to reality, sighed, and got up from her station. Her expression was blank. “Nothing to report, sir. There was nothing yesterday, the day before that, nor all the weeks and months before. I doubt there’ll be anything to report tomorrow, either.”

Ethan glared at her, his brows squeezing together. His mouth twisted angrily but he closed his eyes and took a slow breath. Ethan’s attention was grabbed by the sound of Sayeed quietly snickering. He quickly turned to look at Sayeed but the pilot ignored him and kept his head down, mopping, and humming quietly to himself.

“Is something funny?” Ethan demanded. “Your lack of discipline is starting to piss me off! I am in charge of this station’s military, and when you address me, you will do so with the appropriate level of respect.”

Sayeed let out a much louder snicker. Ethan clenched his fists and moved toward Sayeed when an alarm sounded. The lights turned yellow and began blinking. Everyone in the room stopped and looked at each other, wondering what could be happening.

Sounds of footsteps and shouting were audible outside the room. Ethan rushed out. Sayeed dropped his mop and stared at Isaac, then held his hand out at him. He then ran out of the room after Ethan. Bethany and Isaac glanced at each other, then she started moving toward the door. Isaac grabbed her wrist and tried to pull her back, but she wouldn’t stop. When he realized she wouldn’t be deterred, he followed her instead. They emerged into the hallway. People, mostly civilians, were running up and down the hallway. A few soldiers were also present and Isaac grabbed one of them by the shoulder.

“What triggered the alarm?” asked Isaac. “What’s happening?”

“We don’t know yet,” said the soldier. “Remain in your quarters.”

The soldier turned to run away down the hallway. Bethany stepped in front of him and he bumped into her. She fell hard onto the floor. The soldier helped her up and apologized, then continued on his way. Bethany waited for the soldier to leave, then slid his access card into her back pocket. She began walking in the opposite direction from the soldier.

“Where are you going?” asked Isaac, wide-eyed.

“There’s something I need to do,” replied Bethany. “Find Lily. Make sure she’s safe.”

Bethany ran away and Isaac watched as she disappeared around the bend. He scratched his head with his mouth hanging open. He turned in the other direction and ran to find Lily.

Bethany ran to the elevator and hit the button to summon it. The wait was agonizing before the elevator door eventually opened. She hurried inside and pressed the ‘DC’ button repeatedly. The door finally closed. She rested her back against the elevator wall, panting for breath. She closed her eyes tightly and held her head. She was breathing erratically, taking deep breaths through her mouth. Her entire body trembled. The elevator stopped moving and she opened her eyes as she heard the door sliding open. Bethany stuck her head out and quickly looked up and down the hallway. There was nobody else there. She ventured out of the elevator and made her way down the hallway to her left. The layout was the same as the floors above; the hallways were circular and, if you went in either direction, you would eventually arrive back where you started. Bethany continued along the hallway, alternating between running and jogging. She frequently looked back over her shoulder. The closer she moved to her destination, the harder her chest beat, and the more her body trembled. After a few more minutes, she saw a red door ahead of her, the door she had been looking for. She stopped in front of the glass door. Through it, she could see the array of servers inside. Bethany took the soldier’s access card from her back pocket and whispered a prayer. She wasn’t sure that the card would even grant her access. She shut her eyes and prepared to find out. She swiped the card over the scanner and

the door immediately hissed open. Footsteps were coming along the hallway. She hurried inside and hid behind the wall. The door closed before the soldiers reached it and they continued on their way.

Bethany turned her attention to the servers. There was something strange about the room. The air felt icy. It was normal for the server room to be cold, to cool the electronics, but this felt far colder than usual. Server rooms were usually maintained at about ten degrees. It wasn’t the only unusual thing about the room. There was a breeze too, growing stronger by the moment. Bethany had been worried about entering the room for fear of being caught but now she was more concerned about freezing to death. She ran to the far wall of the server room and glanced back over her shoulder again. Once she was far enough from the entrance, she stopped and pulled out a server terminal. She opened a search and typed in ‘Riley Karlsson’ before hitting enter. Several pages of results appeared. Bethany glanced around, then looked back at the screen and squinted. There were so many results that it was absurd. Riley had only been with them for about two years. She remembered when he joined Titan Corps. How could there be this much information on him? The breeze continued growing stronger, and the alarm was still blaring. She opened one of the files. A red notification appeared on the screen.

‘Enter Authorization Code.’

Bethany made several attempts, but she was denied access each time. She tried five more times but the screen turned red and became distorted. Frustrated, she moved away from the server and pulled up another terminal. All of the screens had gone dead. Bethany bit her lip and punched the server. She winced and looked at her hand; her knuckles were red. She shoved the terminal back into place and started walking toward the door. As she approached the exit, the wind pushed her back. Bethany turned to look back into the server room and furrowed her brows. Holding the servers for support, she realized that she was not being pushed but pulled and she carefully moved toward the source. Something on the other side of the room was causing the vortex, and whatever it was, was glowing brightly. She continued moving closer until she saw something on the wall: it was a live temporal breach. Bethany gasped and her blood ran cold. She had never been so close to a breach before.

“Oh my god!” she exclaimed.

The vortex was increasingly powerful and began pulling loose objects toward it. Bethany felt her feet leaving the ground. She screamed and desperately held onto the nearest server. The door to the room opened and armed soldiers in exo-suits poured in. Bethany was losing her grip and screamed. One hand came free, and she felt the server shifting as though it was about to fall. Bethany’s other hand lost its grip and she fell toward the breach. A soldier in an exo-suit grabbed her hand and pulled her to safety. Another soldier stepped up with an enormous weapon that Bethany had never seen before. The soldier pressed buttons on the gun and it activated. He dropped to

one knee, placed the gun over his left shoulder, then fired an energy projectile into the breach. The energy encompassed the breach, and it immediately destabilized. After pulsing and discharging for a few moments, the breach imploded. Before it closed completely, Bethany saw something on the other side. It was difficult to see through the bright light, but she immediately recognized the mechanized armor. It was the Vindex armor, and she had only ever known one man to wear it.

“Riley?”