The woman rocked back and forth, huddled in the corner. "Don't let them get me." she kept saying over and over again as the doctors looked onwards with sadness. She had been through far too much. After her ship mysteriously went missing and re-appeared in Coronado a few months later short of a crew, the council wanted answers. However, the ship was stolen and sold by a mercenary group in the system and the commander of the vessel, Julianne Gabriel, was in no shape to answer any questions of the sort.
The vessel's cruiser, the TZS-Arrow was also missing, but was recovered on the far end of Sirius, near Omega-5, nearly 15 lightyears away from the Tyche. Along with all the gunboats on board AND the crew of the ship. This baffled everyone, as the only sole survivor of the ship was the commander, who had been driven insane by whatever horrors they had seen or what had been done to them...it was apparent, however, that whatever it was, drove their commander to the brink of hell and back.
----
The Tyche was a mighty fine ship. It was equipped with the very first "subspace" drive, capable of traveling greater distances than simple FTL drives with ease. Also, it took less time to charge, and even less time to cool down, enabling the ship to make quick jumps to different systems with the help of subspace. The drive was experimental, however, and the crew and it's commander were let known the possibility of the drive failing somewhere and leaving them stranded in space somewhere for a very long time.
Julianne Gabriel wasn't one to take assignments such as this one, however she knew she had to get out of Sirius space. Her parents were nagging her to come visit and she was in no mood to deal with her father's preaching and her mothers nagging. That was when she decided to take this assignment. Commanding a Jinkusu, reminded her of the Audacity.
The Tyche was like any other Jinkusu, except for, of course, the experimental drive that took up most of the space underneath the ship. It wasn't like any other design of Jinkusu either, it was completely re-designed, this one with only two hydroponics bays each larger than the old ones. The armor of the ship was increased along with retractable defenses to shield the living bays if needed, and able to be retracted to power solar panels and allow the windows to be opened into space for the effect.
Julia was impressed at the quality of the ship, and even more impressed at the fact that the ship was docked so far out of the way in Omicron-74 to go to the expense of parking it inside a minefield.
"Commander Gabriel. Good to see you've made it." said the deckhand. "We have your quarters already setup along with all your belongings comfortably seated in the netting until we get underway."
"Thank you." Julia replied slowly to him as he walked away. Efficient bunch weren't they? Good. She didn't want any slackers on her watch.
She climbed the stairs up to the bridge and as she did so marveled at the redesigned bridge. It was enlarged further than the last one and completely redone. Much more sleek. The crew noticed her presence and nodded as she passed their command consoles. She smiled weakly and nodded in return, reaching the command chair.
"Are we ready?" she said.
"Yes Commander, we are ready to jump when you are"
"Very well then, notify the rest of the crew, Gabby and activate the drive and prepare to jump to subspace."
"Yes ma'am." Gabby made the preparations across the intercom and waited for the lights to all register green. "We're ready ma'am."
"Good. Power the drive and jump."
Within minutes, the space around the bridge warped and spun out of control, until it eventually vanished...
Nothing prepared Julianne for what she saw as soon as the ship came out of subspace. For when she saw it, she was as confused as anyone else. For when they came out the other end, they were still in Omicron-74...but something was very very wrong. There were no station orbiting the planet, no minefield around the nebulae...the system was barren of life, minus the Jumphole that stood silent and resolute in space in front of them.
"Gabby, report." Julia said.
"Reporting no contacts, ma'am...nothing's on sensors, no life, no movement...nothing at all..." Gabby replied.
"Check the star-charts, ensure that we didn't jump into a system much like Omicron-74 by mistake and we're just going a bit crazy..."
"Star-charts line up ma'am...this is Omicron-74...or rather, was."
"Say again?"
"If the star-charts are correct, Commander, the stars and planets have shifted in such a way that the computer system is saying that we are in the year...1563 B.C."
"Impossible. Check the computer again, run a diagnostic on everything..."
"I did ma'am, twice. It's still saying we're in 1563 B.C."
Julianne sat in the chair, staring off into space...had they literally jumped back in time using a subspace drive? She had read up on the possibility of time-travel, but it had never occurred to her that it might actually be possible. If they had indeed jumped back in time, while in Sirius space, this gave them a chance to see what the space looked like before colonization...before mankind had ever laid a hand on any planet.
"Movement, 15 kilometers off the starboard bow."
"Put it on the screen."
The screen on board the bridge lit up, showing a rather large vessel shimmering in and out of phase, as if trying to cloak. It was moving slowly towards the Tyche, but didn't appear hostile.
"Sensors?" Julia asked.
"They can't register anything of any value, only it's size and shape. It isn't detecting any weapons, no shields, nothing. However, it's clear it's moving towards us, and it's using--"
The Tyche rocked violently as the ship fired one round of weapons at the shields. Julia gripped the command chair, the ship didn't open fire anymore.
"It's testing us...testing the water."
"How to we reply?" Gabby replied.
"We don't. Take us to the Jumphole nice and slow. We make it to Theta and decide what to do from there. Shut off the subspace drive and begin scans on it. See what we can find out about maybe getting back to our own time...IF we are really in the past."
"Deploy armor!" Julia screamed over the alarms aboard the bridge. Through the windows at the ceiling of the bridge, was a light so intense that it burned her eyes even opening them. Slowly, however, the sound of armor plating sliding over the hull could be heard throughout the ship. "Computer, how long will that give us to get away from the sun?"
"Appoximately 32 minutes, commander."
"Roger that, Gabby, get us as far away from the sun as possible, what happened?"
"Ma'am, it appears at the time we're in, the sun was larger than it is back in our time. Must be a part of it's development."
"It would appear that way, keep the armor deployed until we are within safe limits of that bloody sun. Did you pick up any nebulae fields while we were there?"
"Negative ma'am, only a single planet on the distance of the system and the sun. That's it...the planet seemed to be capable of supporting life..."
"Well, that's new." Julia commented.
"What's even more strange than that ma'am...I picked up several ships, all on a intercept course...for us."
"Negative ma'am, they're moving faster than anything on record. The computer system can't compute the data that it's being given. It's almost like the system is having a fit."
"Bring up Z.O.E."
Z.O.E. (Zoner Operational Entity) was an AI placed on the advanced ship in it's early stages. The AI helped coordinate the creation of many of the systems aboard the ship and even helped the designers create many of the systems now on board the ship. However, while the AI assisted the creators of the vessel, it could not take control of the Helm, weapons systems, or anything else that could put the humans on the ship in any harm. This term was loosely coined "Shackled AI"
The image of a woman appeared on the deck of the bridge and looked to the commander. She nodded her head in acknowledgement.
"Zoe, how long until they're on us?"
"Not long, five minutes at most." Zoe said in the synthesized voice.
"Status?"
"Armor at 100%. Shields at 100%. Weapons at 100%. Engines at 100%. We are prepared to engage or run if needed. I recommend that we bring weapons offline to appear as non-threatening as possible, Commander. We can bring them back online quickly if needed."
"Refrences to this time period?"
"According to the time period, it has been believed this was when the first Harvesters were created."
"You're saying that--"
"The creators may very well still exist in this time period."
Julia paled very quickly at the news that Zoe gave. If the creators did indeed exist in this time period and they met the human vessel from thousands of years later, it could severely alter the time line in ways that she didn't even want to imagine.
"Suggestions, Zoe."
"I suggest we remain as non-hostile as possible. Do not run, do not have any hostile actions, simply sit here."
"...and if this ship is a creator vessel?"
"Then we do what we can to preserve the time line, Commander."
"Right, power down weapons, drop shields and leave the armor online. Kill the engines and we sit here. Give them our largest side of our ship for them to target to look unthreatening."
"Ma'am?!" said one of the security officers.
"Do it!"
The Jinkusu turned on its side and powered down its weapons, the shells of the turrets folding in and being covered by the armor. As the ship came within range, Julia and the crew immediately noticed that it was of a similar vessel as before from the previous system, but larger...a lot larger, easily dwarfing the Tyche. At first, the ship only scanned the large Jinkusu ship that was completely covered in armor.
"Are we far enough away from the sun to drop armor?"
"Yes, Commander." Zoe said.
"Drop armor, Zoe."
The armor slid back off the hull and the alien vessel backed up quickly from the vessel, still scanning it furiously as the armor slid off the tops of the bio-domes and the rest of the hull. Blinding sunlight flowed into the rest of the ship as the ship remained sitting there. The huge alien ship flew around the Tyche for a while longer, scanning, it, prodding it, but it never opened fire as its smaller relative did in the previous system. Within a few moments of this, the comm. frequency flashed that there was an incoming transmission. Julia breathed. The creators wanted to talk with her. Sweat beaded off her brow.
"Zoe?"
"I am replying with our status. It seems they are curious as to our existence here. They are analyzing me as I speak to them in our language and am attempting to translate their own language...they wish to speak with you, ma'am."
Zoe winked out of existence replaced with a large creature in what appeared to be some kind massive of hazard suit. The suit looked rather large. Complex lighting systems appeared to be all over it. Julia was awestruck. She was staring at one of the legendary creators of the Harvesters and Nomads...she was staring down the very creature that mankind had been marveled with for centuries in Sirius.
"Good...evening, is it?" the holographic representation of the creator said. "How are you doing, Commander?"
"W-we're in a bit of a complex situation..." Julia replied.
"Indeed you are. We have scanned your ship...the particles are not in proper phase with our time." Julia's eyes grew wide but the creature laughed. "Worry not young one, we knew this day was coming for many years. The rift in A47B-22 system anticipated your arrival. We have been waiting for you to come for some time, yes. Time travel is a...confusing business."
"This is my first time here." Julia said confused. "We have never met...how is it that you know our language?"
"I have already told you, Commander Julianne Gabriel, time travel is a confusing business...
A day ago, if you would have told me that I would've been standing in front of one of the legendary creators of the Harvesters and Nomads, I would have told you to get a life...hell, I'd have probably shot you. But now, the docking clams to the side of the ship were unhinging and as the door swung open, I did indeed stand in front of one of the creators.
The suit wasn't as big as I would have thought from the images, they were a little larger than a human, but not by much. They were bulkier, more defined, and their faces were masked by a tinted glass that covered their entire faces. Each suit was grey with red lines defining, from what Julia could tell, was their history.
"We meet again, Miss Gabriel." the one at the front said turning its head to the side and smiling. "I trust your ship docked adequately to the side of our own vessel?"
"Unusually so...I don't believe we've met, though." Julia replied, obviously flustered. The creator laughed.
"Indeed, we have Julianne Gabriel, while we have already met you, you have yet to meet us. As I said before, time travel is a confusing business, something that we don't normally deal with...until you came back to our time almost a thousand years ago when I was but a young captain. You taught us your language with the help of your, AI, was it? We learned to communicate with you, and in time became, good friends. However, the war with who we call the Menace shattered that completely. You were helping us fend off one of the first attacks and the ship you were piloting was forced to activated it's jump drives into a sun...we believe you spanned across time when you did...we knew you would come back, as you told us that you would, and here you are."
"I'm from a time from before I met you...in a time where you met me for the first time." Julia said confused.
"Yes, remember. Time travel--"
"Is a confusing business, yes I understand...So what now? How do we get home and out of this time period?"
The creator laughed heartily.
"You can't leave here...not yet. Your subspace drive was completely fried from the jump to this time. It is the result of jumping out of the system you call "Omicron-74" during a major celestial event in the entirety of what you call the "Sirius Sector". You see, the system you jumped out of hit the galactic center and the sun experienced a major solar flare just as you jumped, rupturing sub-space and flinging you into the past."
"So, we can't go home."
"Not yet, Julianne Gabriel. You have to help us to help you."
"What could we possibly help you with? You're the legendary creators of the Harvesters and--" Julia stopped herself mid sentence. "You can do anything!"
The creator looked down at the floor; Julia could only assume he was smiling kindly, knowing more information than he let on.
"The 'Nomads' as your kind later comes to know them by are in stasis around Sirius. They will not awaken until your kind arrives in Sirius as history intends. No Julianne Gabriel, you are right, we can do almost anything, but not everything.
"What we need from you is to help us escape 'Sirius' and the 'Milky Way' all together. Just as your kind did with Sol."
