timetrial

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“Lileth!” A voice outside the simulation called.  I gave the slightest groan.

“Pause.”  I spoke aloud, watching the pixels of my holographic opponent and the background fade to black.   Two vertical red bars appeared on the screen, indicating a pause rather than full stop. I pulled the headset off and tucked it under my arm.  “Yeah?” Roxy - one of my partners hopped onto the platform with me.

“Bri is back.  She has a new assignment for us.”  There was a hint of a smirk on her lips as she placed one hand on her hip, the other waving for me to follow her.  “You ready?” I dropped the headset - GENTLY - on the ground and scampered down the stairs and into the hall with her.  Then headed into Brianne - er, Agent Hope’s - office. Lucy, our third assignment partner, was already waiting.

“Well, well, look what the cat dragged in.”  She side-eyed us, I raised an eyebrow curiously.

“Which one of us is the cat?”  I asked, but she just shook her head at me. Roxy and I took a seat.  Hope was talking with Aspen, another supervisor, he noticed us first and gave her a nudge.  

“Ah! There you two are!”  I squirmed in my seat, eyes flitting around the dark room before landing on the briefing screen, then an excited jolt ran through my body.  An Artifact… I almost said out loud as I recognized the sculpture displayed.  My brain began to register a strange buzzing sound, I quickly realized that sound was Hope speaking.  

“-It’s going to be hard to get to-”  My hand shot up.

“Can you repeat the uhhhh… first part? Of the uh… everything?”  Lucy sighed but Agent Hope forced a smile, she gestured to the screen behind her.

“This is one of the artifacts in the line we’ve been archiving.  It seems to have some sort of energy barrier around it, perhaps to protect itself, perhaps put there by someone else.  Said barrier puts you through a ‘trial’ of sorts to see if you’re worthy to pass completely through, we assume. None of our scouts have been able to get through. Yet.”  She cleared her throat and gave me a meaningful look, just to be sure I was still paying attention. “SO, it’s going to be hard to get to. But that’s why we picked our best.”

“BEST?”  I gasped, flattered and unbelieving.

“Best?”  Lucy repeated, in a far more exasperated tone than me.  Aspen seemed to sense the contempt and stepped forward.

“You three are young, adaptable, and creative.  Two of you have faced near death experiences and lived to tell the tale, so, yes.  I’d say the best.” He crossed his arms and stepped back after speaking.

“So when do I get to face near death and live to tell my tale?”  Roxy joked. Lucy snorted.  Honestly I hoped she never had to - it really wasn’t that great - but I don't know how Lucy’s experience was.  

“Ha, ha.”  Agent Hope tapped her watch.  “Time is of the essence. We don’t know when - or if - the Artifact will disappear, and you’ll need to Timeshift to get to the right spot.  So fire up your Regulators and hop in one of the jets with the right equipment. Aspen will accompany you to the field, but only you three will go in.  Understood?”

“Yes ma’am!” We said in unison before exiting the room.  Aspen the expert pilot was right on our heels at first - then I heard his footsteps stop.

“Hey.  Keep an eye on Lileth. We need to know if -” my feet didn’t stop in time for me to eavesdrop the rest.  I took a few quiet steps back, taking my brain off of metaphorical autopilot to do so.

“Got it.”  From Aspen was all I heard, then it seemed to be over.  My heart quickened, I rushed to my partners before he could notice me.

We reached the hangar quickly, Roxy and Lucy chattering the whole way there.  Ah, childhood friends… at first I took a seat at the back of the jet, watching my assignment partners take the two in front of me - the middle seats of the jet.  Aspen climbed in, starting to the front, then stopped beside me.

“You sure you wanna sit in the back?  All alone?” I squirmed slightly, unsure if I should put myself up there like that… “I do need a co-pilot.”  He invited, smiling warmly for a moment, then walking forward. I jumped up after him, taking the shotgun seat and strapping in.  “Good to see you.” He winked before turning back and checking the equipment. I glanced back, seeing Roxy and Lucy safely strapped in helped ease some of my worrying.  

“Hang on tight.”  Aspen said,my stomach felt butterflies flying around as we lifted off into the sky, soon to the unknown.  “Timeshifting in…

1. …

2. …

3. … “

More butterflies entered my insides and brain as a bright splash of light filled my eyes.  I then shut them tight and waited for the shifting to end. The spinning feeling seemed to ebb away, but I couldn’t be one HUNDRED percent sure that we’d made it safely.  There was a long pause after the feeling ended, then Aspen cleared his throat.

“We’re heeeere.  You can open your eeeeyes now.”  He nudged me, I gave him an annoyed side-eye.  “OH GOOD you’re alive. Bri would KILL me if anything had happened to even one of you three.  He turned around to the other two.

“All good!”  Lucy informed.

“Eyup.”  Roxy held up a thumbs-up, then started fiddling with her straps.

“You know I don't like timeshifting out in space.”  I explained, giving my arm a wave to indicate the space part.  “Anything could go wrong-!” I cut myself off as Roxy appeared behind me and gripped my shoulder.  

“Hey.  It’s okay.  We all made it.”  She assured me gently.  I smiled, but her gaze suddenly hardened as she fixed her eyes on something beyond me.  I turned towards the main window, looking out at the sparkly black void we were in - only a glowing vaguely milky yellow orb stuck out like a sore thumb.  I couldn’t gauge its size from here, but it looked like the anomaly we were supposed to investigate. “Now let's get out there.” In the back room we put our space-and-time suits - or SATsuits -  on, then headed for the airlock.

“See you on the other side.”  Roxy said to Agent Aspen, checking her oxygen monitor. I quickly did the same. Everything was proceeding perfectly normally.  The first set of doors closed behind us, I took in a deep breath, feeling excitement mixed with anxiety in every fiber of my being.  I knew I’d be able to loosen up soon. As soon as the second set opened, we launched out the door. I checked my jetpack and boots, the propellants were clearly working.

“What kind of … trial … do you think we’ll be facing?”  Lucy asked once we were clear of the jet, flying ourselves out in the deep blue, freckled with stars.  Plus one huge glowing orb.

“Well, we’re about to find out.”  Roxy responded with a hint of humor as we flew to the bright light in front of us.  I might compare it as flying right up to a star - but stars are far larger, and I’ve never actually flown into one.  But this had to be close enough.  I squinted my eyes as we approached the edge of the glowing circle surrounding the Artifact.  All three of us paused, admiring the yellow, bright sphere. I steered myself up and over it - relative to the starting position - until I had made a full circle.  It wasn’t as large as I had thought when I first saw it, it didn’t take more than a few minutes to get around it.

“Are we waiting for something?”  I called over the radio to the other two.  

“I guess not.”  Lucy responded, going forward an inch or two, then back hesitantly.  “Who wants to go first?”

“I will.”  Roxy started to say. I jetted closer, quickly, nearly running into her.  

“Wait - lets go at the same time.”   I held out a hand to her, she took it then offered her own to Lucy.  

“Alright. Ready?”

“Ready!”  Lucy and I echoed our unofficial captain’s question.  Roxy started forward slowly, we followed her lead until we were closer to the edge.  Roxy squeezed my hand, perhaps Lucy’s as well. Then, we burst through the barrier. It was like the timeshift in the jet earlier.  Bright, then darkness. But this time I hadn’t remembered closing my eyes.  And yet… I had to open them.

I was alone in a void, similar to space, or the simulation before it loads.  I opened and closed my hands. Empty. Panic started to jump in my chest. The communicator built into the helmet was off, nobody could even hear me.  The same moment that the panic appeared, a form flickered into existence.  At first it was a shiny yellow blur - like the crust we broke through. But then I recognized it with a sickening jolt.

“Face me.  Face yourself.”  The image said in my voice.  I clenched my fists, getting into position to prepare for a fight - but the vision of myself staring back at me just smirked.   “No. Face who we - who you are.” Before I could register the movement, she disappeared and reappeared in a flash of light over me, scattering slowflake like glitter.  She struck me, I cried out and lashed back, but my fist went right through her. She had me pinned bizarrely, she could hurt me, but I couldn’t even touch her.  

“Say it.”  She hissed, the voice still sounded slightly like mine, but far more distorted.  

“Say what?”  

“Who.  Are. You.”  I squeezed my eyes tight, memories flooding back of my first assignment, the threat we were sent to destroy, the familiar shaking combined with the timeshifting thing… that threat had been me.  And nobody else had known it was me, or known that I had survived - and failed - my own first assignment. I opened my eyes, stealing my gaze at the eyes that looked just like mine.

“I am dangerous.”  I said back, finally.  She smiled, so sinister, at me and began to back away.

“Yes.  You are.”  She disappeared in another yellow flash, this time so bright I had to cover my face with my arm.  In the moment that I closed my eyes… suddenly I was somewhere new. In front of me was a pedestal, not quite looking like it was made of anything solid.  And on top of it, the sculpture. I saw my friends on either side. Lucy had a haunted look on her face, but Roxy was determined. Beyond them the void of space had returned.  I turned to look over my shoulder, there was Aspen watching with serious eyes from the jet.

“Alright.  Let’s take ‘er home.”  Roxy said, brushing her hand through the pedestal to confirm it was an illusion.  She removed the artifact, I felt a ripple of energy run through me, but I wasn’t sure what it meant.  She was already moving off towards our ride home, I went to follow, but Lucy seemed frozen beside the slowly dissipating pedestal.  

“Earth to Luuuuuucy…” I called.  She snapped to attention.

“Coming.”  She replied.  Shortly, coldly.  I shivered at the response.

The whole way back to HQ, I played over the last mission then this one in my mind.  It wasn’t until Agent Hope thanked us for our retrieval that I felt present again. I started to walk out of the room, trying to tune into Lucy and Roxy’s conversation… Something about other worlds.  A low voice speaking suddenly - that I probably should have ignored - made me pause.

“So?”  It was Agent Hope.

“I monitored her headset.  Whatever she was in didn’t allow it to broadcast to the other two, but I was still able to tap in myself.  I heard her say.  I am dangerous.”  There was a tense silence. I hurried quietly forward, afraid to hear the rest.  The same shiver of energy went through me again.

“They’re right.”  the hissing almost-me voice spoke in my mind.  “You are.” I turned around in a circle, no-one was to be seen.  “You are one step closer to fulfilling what you were made for.”