TEMPORAL FLUX: Severed Dreams

June 1st, 2675, 9:00am - Moon

       "It's practically standing still now they've dropped ropes out of the nose of the ship; and (uh) they've been taken ahold of down on the field by a number of men. It's starting to rain again; it's.... the rain had, uh, slacked up a little bit. The back motors of the ship are just holding it, uh, just enough to keep it from....It's burst into flames! Get this, Charlie; get this, Charlie! It's fire... and it's crashing! It's crashing terrible! Oh, my! Get out of the way, please! It's burning and bursting into flames and the... and it's falling on the mooring mast. And all the folks agree that this is terrible; this is the worst of the worst catastrophes in the world. Oh it's... its flames... Crashing, oh!     
        Four- or five-hundred feet into the sky and it... it's a terrific crash, ladies and gentlemen. It's smoke, and it's in flames now; and the frame is crashing to the ground, not quite to the mooring mast. Oh, the humanity! And all the passengers screaming around here. I told you; it – I can't even talk to people, their friends are on there! Ah! It's... it... it's a... ah! I... I can't talk, ladies and gentlemen. Honest: it's just laying there, mass of smoking wreckage. Ah! And everybody can hardly breathe and talk and the screaming. I... I... I'm sorry. Honest: I... I can hardly breathe. I... I'm going to step inside, where I cannot see it. Charlie, that's terrible. Ah, ah... I can't. 
        Listen, folks; I... I'm gonna have to stop for a minute because I've lost my voice. This is the worst thing I've ever witnessed......"  
        The chime that went off overhead told him that the audio playback had concluded, the old clip having run it's course. "Wow." said Six in a low voice, as he leaned back in his chair behind his large desk, running a hand through his short blond hair. He had done much historical research in his time with the Temporal Enforcement Bureau, aside from his main job as a Temporal Agent, but none of the historical events he had studied contained such an emotional piece of audio that couldn't help but provoke thoughts and opinions in the way it did. Saddened by the tone of the man in the clip, Six wondered what it must have felt like to be at such an event. True, the death toll was low compared to other disasters of the twentieth century, but this one struck a chord with him, really making him think.

        "Enter." said the director from behind the desk in his office. 
        Talon was a taller man in his fifties with grey hair, and dark brown eyes. In charge of the TEB and it's daily operations, his no-nonsense attitude amd calm demeanour was respected around the Bureau. He watched intently as the doors slid sideways, revealing the younger Six, his top temporal agent, who was dressed in his black TEB tunic, complete with the proper insignia. Talon smiled and motioned to the empty chair opposite his. Six slid into the chair and waited for a moment before speaking. 
       "You asked to see me sir?" he queried, wondering what the boss had in store for him on this day. Talon nodded his acknlowledgement. 
       "I did." he began. "What do you know about the 'Hindenburg' disaster from the early twentieth century?" he asked of Six.
        The temporal agent raised an eyebrow at the question. "Funny you should ask sir." he started. "I was just doing some research on it in my office." he explained. "Just listened to an audio clip from the event as well." he finished, finding it interesting that Talon had summoned him over this very subject. The director pondered his agent for a moment, stroking his chin as he went over his thoughts before speaking again. 
        "Here's the deal." he started, reaching out an swiveling his desk's monitor around so that Six could see what was on the screen. 
        "Agent Red is on a historical mission in which he was to watch the event, and to verify the accuracy of the historical records on said event." explained Talon.
         "He was also responsible for cataloging the memorial that was established many years later, and that's when he found this...." he finished, pointing at the image at the centre of the screen. Six looked confusedly at the temporal image, the green shape that was highlighted escaping him at the moment. 
        "What is it?" he asked curiously. 
        Talon frowned. "Red's scans detected twenty-fifth century technology under the ground." he replied. "You tell me what's wrong with that." he said sternly. Six raised an eyebrow. He knew that futuristic technology shouldn't be found at a memorial for an early twentieth century flying machine. 
        "I'll shift as soon as I receive the coordinates." he said to the director. 
Talon nodded. "Get your gear. I'll have the information uploaded to your suit's computer." he responded, before Six turned and hurriedly left the director's office, eager to get started on this mission.

June 1st, 1987, 9:25am - Earth

        Blue skies greeted him when he reappeared from the time shift, immediately activating his suit's shrouding ability that rendered him completely invisible to anyone that may be watching. It only took a few seconds for his suit's computer to pick up Agent Red, also shrouded and going about his business. Six walked up to his colleague, who was knelt down next to a bright yellow chain that surrounded some stones, shaped like an elongated diamond with a couple extra sides. 
       "Red. What do you have?" he asked of his colleague, who lowered his arm scanner long enough to glance up at the arrival of his fellow agent. 
       "Trouble." he replied, before going into a little more detail. "Here I was, minding my own business on this historical research mission, when bam! I detect an unusual energy signature." he explained, pounding the nearest chain link with his left fist. Six nodded and looked around at the flat field and surrounding area, before turning his full attention back to Red. 
       "Indeed. Talon said you found twenty fifth century technology here." he mentioned, referring to his conversation with the director before he left to come here. 
       Red nodded. "Yeah, and now we gotta find out how it got here." he said, before standing up straight and facing Six. "I think it's a piece of the airship's superstructure. We should probably shift to when this thing was first under construction." he explained. "Might help us find out how the tech made it's way to the past." finished Red.
       Six nodded, his helmet luckily concealing a confused look on his face. 'This is already very perplexing.' he thought to himself. 
      "I guess there's nothing left to do here. Do you have the coordinates for our shift?" he asked of the other agent. Red nodded, his helmet concealing a wry grin. 
      "But of course." he said, sending the needed information to Six's onboard computer. Six checked the data on the small screen attached to his right forearm. 
      "Looks good." he started. "Let's go check it out, and hopefully figure out what the deal is with this whole thing." he finished. Red nodded, before both men tapped a few controls and commenced a time shift, disappearing in a flash of light, and leaving nothing behind but the blue skies and crisp morning in which they had arrived to.

       Darkness greeted the duo as they reappeared in normal time from their temporal shift, the lighting quite low in the immediate area. 
      "Let's sync our chronometers." said Six. "Date and time?" he queried his partner. Red looked down at the arm mounted computer screen. 
      "Yeah. June Fifth, Nineteen thirty-two." he replied, tapping a few controls in the process. Six looked at his own screen and nodded. 
      "Yup. We're good." he remarked, before looking around at his surroundings. There were massive hangars and manufacturing centres around him, and he could hear noises coming from inside one of the structures, as well as beyond. Six motioned to Red to follow him, before making their way around the large buildings and to an open area of what looked like tarmac.
        Up ahead, he saw what looked to be ancient flying machines. 
        "Computer, identify vehicle type and display." he said, his onboard computer picking up the voice activation. A few seconds later, his screen brightened to show a schematic. "Ah yes, airplanes." he muttered, looking over the information. 
         Red raised an eyebrow in his helmet. "Would you two like to be alone?" he asked, chuckling over the comm. Six grinned, and motioned towards the largest structure. 
        "Har har. Let's go see what's inside." he suggested, leading them over to the massive building. It was a massive rectangular building with what looked to be a massive curved roof. Red walked up to the nearest door, and saw that it was locked. 
        "Best we go around the front." he mentioned, as they headed off.
        Taking a few minutes to make their way around, they were surprised to see the front of the hangar wide open, the cavernous interior holding a partial skeleton of the very airship that would go on to make history, albeit for the wrong reason. 
        "Well, we're in the right place. Let's look around." said Six, cautiously wandering inside, setting his personal sensors to full. Metallic trusses and beams were arranged in certain areas of the floor space, ready to be added to the frame that was starting to be constructed. Six scanned some of the pieces, but detected nothing unusual from them. Red was walking up the other side of the hangar, doing the same thing, but yielding no results either. Just as he was about to say something over the comm, the sound of many vehicles could be heard, the hangar's interior beginning to be flooded with light. Six and Red backed up against their respective walls and waited, deciding to observe the incoming arrivals.

June 1st, 2675, 11:45am - Moon

       "Any word from either of the agents as of yet?" asked Talon of one of his command centre staff as he strode down the few steps from his office and into the nerve centre of the Temporal Enforcement Bureau. The red-haired woman seated at one of the master consoles looked up and responded. 
       "No sir." she said calmly. "Shall I attempt to get a hold of them?" she asked. Talon shook his head. 
        "No, that's okay. Thank you." he replied, before heading over to another master console and checking over several things. Records showed that the two men had performed a temporal shift to about five years before the event in question. "Wonder if they've found anything." he mumbled to himself, before returning his attention back to the controls in front of him.
        Talon decided to check through some of the files to see if there were any other open issues he could look at while he waited for word from the two field agents. After about fifteen minutes scrutizing some of the case files, one stood out in particular. One of the files read '2490 Time Shuttle' and had been marked unsolved by whoever had done the initial investigation. 
       "Computer, query." he said aloud. "Online." responded the computer's voice interface. "Case marked twenty-four ninety time shuttle. Please display explanation." he requested. Within a matter of seconds, the secondary screen on the console brightened, showing the text of the case file and it's explanation. He read it aloud to himself.
      "Experimental time shuttle disappears on it's second full test, and is never heard from again." he finished, also looking at the graphics. 
      "Computer, who's case was this?" he asked of the machine.
      "Unknown." came the response, much to his disappointment. 
"Great, just great." he muttered, before leaving the console and heading back towards his office, making a brief stop at the communications console again. "Please alert me the moment we get word from Six or Red." he said to the red-haired staffer. 
      "Aye sir, will do." she replied with a smile. 
Talon smiled back. "I'll be in my office for the time being, if anyone needs me." he explained, walking off after the woman had nodded her acknowledgement. Swiftly walking back up the few stairs, he strode into the room after the doors had slid apart, taking a seat behind his desk and activating his desk monitor. 
      "Computer, find all information pertaining to the twenty-four ninety time shuttle disappearance." he said aloud.

       The scan finished, Red walked up to Six, frowning inside his helmet. "The computer has confirmed the presence of reinforced duranium." he explained to his colleague. Six shook his head. 
       "Not good." he replied. "Not good at all." he finished. The convoy of vehicles had dropped off two loads of materials that had contained the duranium, but remained idle as if they were waiting for something before heading back out. 
      "Well, one thing's for sure." started Red. "We're not going to find any more answers here. These people with the vehicles seem to be bringing the duranium, so we'll have to - what did they call it in this time - hitch a ride?" he asked rhetorically. Six grinned inside his helmet. 
      "Indeed. Let's get to it." he suggested, as they both walked up to the stopped convoy.
A bigger vehicle suddenly joined up in the middle, a large vehicle with some sort of trailer, covered at one end. 
      "That'll do nicely." said Six, as both of the agents climbed aboard and made their way into the covered section, which contained benches and boxes of equipment. Taking a seat on the bench, they had barely sat down when the vehicle lurched forward, the convoy underway again. 
       "Let's hope this isn't a very long trip." started Red, before the truck hit a bump and almost sent him sideways. "These ancient ground vehicles left much to be desired." he pointed out. Six chuckled inside his helmet. 
       "And you call yourself a history buff?" he chided, the bumpy ride not bothering him one bit.
        Red shrugged. "Being a history buff is one thing, but taking part in it.....this isn't really what I had in mind." he replied. It was his love of history that helped him become a Temporal Agent, but when he travelled back for research purposes, he was never one to get involved in any part of it, much less ride in a piece of obsolete transporation. 
      "What I wouldn't give for an aeroshuttle right now...." he mumbled, voice trailing off into the noise of the truck's power plant. Six continued to chuckle. 
       "The problem with people like us is, we're spoiled." he said. "Technology takes care of too much nowadays. But this-" he continued, pointing to the floor of the trailer. "This is great!" he exclaimed, once and a while enjoying a primitive mode of transportation, experiencing the past first hand.

June 6th, 1932, 02:55am - Earth

         The bumpy vehicle trip had taken just under an hour, the small convoy stopping in what seemed to be a remote field, it's once tall grass beaten down by truck and foot travel. Guards in grey and black uniforms stood watch on the site, armed with machine guns.
        "Can those ancient weapons hurt us?" asked Red over the comm in his helmet, unsure over the capability of the pieces. 
         Six chuckled. "No." he replied. "Those are projectile-based weapons. The 'bullets' they use would bounce harmlessly off our armour." he explained, knowing a lot more about this time period than his counterpart. Red nodded his acknowledgement as they walked right past the soldiers, the shroud function of their suits rendering completely invisible to everyone else.
         Artificial lights were positioned around something up ahead, and once they got close enough to see it, both men looked on in astonishment. 
       "That is definitely NOT supposed to be here!" he exclaimed, his gaze fixated on what looked to be an early time travel pod, the size of a shuttlecraft. Several men in plain grey jumpsuits were busy taking pieces of it apart, while more troops with heavy weapons watched them intently. 
       "Six," started Red, disturbed by what he saw. "We can't let them continue taking the shuttle apart. It would constitute a temporal paradox, and we'll never know where else the components went either." he mentioned, walking closer to the shuttle and beginning some scans. The computer started to analyse the data as he turned again to face his partner.
       "Problem is," began Six in response. "....that if we erase this from time right now, we create another paradox, which may very well cause even greater reprocussions." he explained. "It's too risky at this point. We'll have to contact Talon back at headquarters and get his take on this." he finished, also continuing to survey the work being done on the site. "Besides," he added. "It would take several PSG caps to subdue all of the troops, before we could even use our cylinders, which in turn would create an even bigger mess. We don't need the hassle." he mentioned. 
       Red nodded in his helmet. "Agreed." he acknowledged. Six walked off towards a grove of trees, and prepared to contact headquarters, hoping to find an easy solution to this problem of theirs.

       "You found WHAT?!" yelled Talon over the comm, visibly angered by the news from Six over the comm. "Dammit! I had been researching that case for the last couple of hours or so! I found the unsolved case file in the main computer, and was trying to figure it out. Now you tell me it's sitting in 20th century Earth being ripped apart? Great, just great!" he finished, shaking his head out of frustration. Talon knew that this could already be a predestination-type paradox in time, and if he ordered his agents to make the craft disappear from where they now stood, it could create a whole new set of paradoxes that wouldn't be easy to undo. He got up out of his chair and paced his office a few times, brainstorming as best he could, hoping for an idea.
         After a few moments, something came to him. Talon quickly went back to his desk and looked to the monitor. Six was still there, waiting on him. 
        "I believe I have an idea." said Talon, going over it again in his head as he spoke. "Can you two time shift to the exact moment the shuttle crashed?" he asked. 
        Six nixed the plan right away. "No can do." he said. "We have no idea when this crashed here. If this is indeed an active paradox, it would be near impossible to nail that down." he finished. 
       Talon frowned, but then thought of something else. "Can you determine how long it's been there?" he queried, thinking up another plan of action. 
      "A moment, sir." replied Six. "Let me talk to Red." he suggested, before the comm channel went silent for a minute or two, Talon getting a little impatient as time passed.
       Finally, Six responded. "Red believes the shuttle has been here in the neighbourhood of around three days, max. Give or take an hour or two." he responded. 
       Talon nodded. "Good. Shift three days into the past from your current time location, and intercept the shuttle." he ordered. Six replied quickly. 
      "Affirmative. Once it crashes, we'll set the auto-destruct. It's the only way the ship can be taken care of without screwing up the time line any worse than it already is." he finished. 
      Talon stood up from behind his desk again. "Let me know when you've completed this mission. Headquarters out." he said, before closing the comm channel. Striding out from his desk, he made his way back to the command area and spoke to the red-haired officer at the master console. "Lock temporal scanners on Six's position. I want to know if there's any change in the time line." he ordered.

June 3th, 1932, 04:00am - Earth

          "I think I know what caused the crash of that primitive airship." said Red, breaking the silence of the early morning darkness, as both men waited for the arrival of the shuttlecraft. Six looked to his partner and raised an eyebrow in his helmet. 
        "I'm listening." he replied.
        Red pointed at his arm computer terminal. "I looked over the initial scans I took of the shuttle when we first arrived on the scene." he explained. "The hover converter had already been removed from the wrecked ship. I think some time from now, in the paradoxed time line, the engineers working on the airship somehow managed to plug it into their ancient technology, and it ended up failing." he finished, parlaying his idea. Six thought about it for a moment, before his eyes widened a little.
        "I see what you're onto." he started. "Not knowing enough about the converter, they wired it into their own power source, and it probably overloaded after enough improper use, the sparking from it igniting that obsolete gas that the ship is filled with!" he exclaimed, the pieces fitting together quite nicely. 
        Red smiled. "Yup. Exactly what I was thinking." he said. "They have no idea what they're doing." he finished. Six was about to respond, when the night sky started to light up in one place. Both agents looked up to see a blue flash deposit a sleek spacecraft, which was descending to the ground near their position. 
       "The shuttle!" exclaimed Red, watching as the small craft plummeted to the ground, impacting the grassy field with a shake of the ground and a slight boom.
         Making their way over to it, they emerged from the longer grass to see the sleek shuttlecraft, it's silver exterior almost flawless, except for the damage it took on impact. Red walked around the ship, steam and smoke rising from it, and made his way to the rear hatch, which had been knocked loose from the crash. 
         "Do it." said Six, standing nearby. Red nodded and disappeared inside the craft, reappearing a couple of fast minutes later, pointing away from it. 
         "Let's get some distance." he suggested. "I've set it for fifty-nine seconds. Once they were clear from the wreck, they watched as the time ran out. The silver shuttle exploded in a controlled burst that incinerated the ship, reducing it to nothing more than atoms. Grass burned all around it, and smoke rose into the air. 
         "Time for us to be going." mentioned Six, as both men disappeared into the darkness.

                                                    *          *          *         *

          History had recorded the crash of the Hindenburg airship on May 6th, 1937, and even though he and Red had stopped the use of future technology that would cause the crash, had to make sure that the event would still happen. After Red had time shifted back to the future to give Talon his report, Six had stayed behind to make sure history went as per normal. He himself had time shifted forward to oversee some of the airship's construction, noting that the engineers were unaware of some of the design flaws they had unwittingly built into it. Six knew the sirship was doomed, and had to let history sort itself out, knowing that if he altered it in any way, there would be huge reprocussions. Part of his job was watch history unfold, unable to help people avoid certain death in some instances.
          "Such is the way of things." he remarked to himself, walking over to where the ancient radio broadcast was being made. The Hindenburg was now nearing the tower, and Six knew what was to follow. He kept his gaze on the zeppelin, but listened intently to the reporter to his right, who was giving a play-by-play of the ship's arrival:
                                                    
          "It's practically standing still now they've dropped ropes out of the nose of the ship; and (uh) they've been taken ahold of down on the field by a number of men. It's starting to rain again; it's.... the rain had, uh, slacked up a little bit. The back motors of the ship are just holding it, uh, just enough to keep it from....It's burst into flames! Get this, Charlie; get this, Charlie! It's fire... and it's crashing! It's crashing terrible! Oh, my! Get out of the way, please! It's burning and bursting into flames and the... and it's falling on the mooring mast. And all the folks agree that this is terrible; this is the worst of the worst catastrophes in the world. Oh it's... its flames... Crashing, oh!     
          Four- or five-hundred feet into the sky and it... it's a terrific crash, ladies and gentlemen. It's smoke, and it's in flames now; and the frame is crashing to the ground, not quite to the mooring mast. Oh, the humanity......"

          The visual of being on the ground near the legendary airship was more thought-provoking and awesome than watching the old vids and audio clips like he did before this mission. The zeppelin burned, chunks of flaming wreckage falling from it as people ran for their lives. Some passengers of th ship jumped to their doom, rather than being burned alive. Pandemonium was off the scale, and there was little he could do. The time line had been saved, and now it was time for him to leave. Six took one last glance at the chaos, before punching in a set of coordinates into his computer, and vashing in a flash of blue light. It was time to let history sort itself out, no matter how bleak it was for the moment.

                                                            THE END