Aside from Forrester himself, only three people were authorizedaccess to it. Those three were Capt. Finn Delaney, Lt Andre Cross. and Col.Creed Steiger of the Temporal Intelligence Agency. And one other man, who hadno official authorization, because he did not need one. Dr. Robert Darkness,the man who was faster than light.
The sole tenant of the penthouse was the reason for the maximumsecurity. He was Col. Lucas Priest, whose name was listed on the Wall of Honorin the lobby of the building. along with the names of all the other members ofthe First Division. now merged with Temporal Intelligence, who had been killedin action in Minus Time. Lucas Priest was, with the possible exceptions of Lazarusand Christ. the only man in history to have come back from the dead.
He had died saving the life of Winston Churchilclass="underline" but theenigmatic Dr. Darkness had interceded with his fate. The story was as complexas it was baffling. It pivoted around the mysterious, brilliant, and eccentricscientist and the nature of what he had become.
Darkness had once been an obscure research scientist workingin the field of temporal physics. In the course of his work, which was centeredon temporal translocation, he had invented the most devastating weapon everdevised by man-the warp grenade, a combination nuclear device and time machine.It was small enough to be carried in one hand and its built-in chronocircuitryallowed for pinpoint adjustment of its nuclear explosion. It could be “fine-tuned”to use all or any part of the tremendous energy that was released. The surplusenergy was then clocked through an Einstein-Rosen Bridge. a-wormhole in thefabric of space and time, to explode harmlessly in the farthest reaches of thecosmos. Or so it was believed.
No one knew exactly what had happened. The prevailing theorywas that such incredible amounts of energy clocked through Einstein-RosenBridges, perhaps combined with the strain already placed upon the timestream bythe actions of the Time Wars. had somehow shifted the chronophysical alignmentof the universe. The result was that a parallel timeline, a mirror-imageuniverse, had been brought into congruence with our own. Each time a warpgrenade was detonated, the parallel universe was nuked. Space colonies thatthey had established were utterly destroyed, with catastrophic loss of life.And now the two parallel timelines were at war.
It was a “limited-war, but it was still the most dangerouswar humanity had ever fought. Both sides refrained from the use of strategicweapons. because each of their time streams had become perilously unstable.Both timelines were “rippling, — intertwining like a double helix. The result wasthe “confluence phenomenon.” At various points in space and time, the twotimelines intersected and the parallel universes met. At those points, it waspossible to cross over from one universe into the other. The resultingpotential for the disruption of either timestream was staggering.
People simply disappeared. A man could be walking down thestreet. turn a corner, and suddenly find himself in another universe. And theseconfluence points did not necessarily correspond in space and time. That sameman might turn a corner and suddenly find himself not only in another universe,but in another country, in a different time period. If he kept his head abouthim and was able to retrace his steps exactly. there was a chance he could getback to his own time and universe, assuming he was lucky. Confluence pointswere invisible. Their focal points varied in size and they were incrediblyunstable. There was no telling how long they would last. The time streams wouldripple and a confluence point would come into existence, a ‘window” intoanother time and another universe. The ripple effect would move on and theconfluence point would disappear. It could last for hours. days. weeks, or onlyseconds. It could lead to a point in the middle of an ocean or a desert in theother universe, or even to deep space. in which case death was instantaneousand horrible.
In the face of such a threat, international conflicts hadbecome utterly meaningless. The Time Wars as they had once been fought hadceased, escalating into a far more frightening conflict. Each universe was nowthreatened by the very existence of the other. Each was now faced with threeprime necessities.
The first was to map as many confluence points as possible.If a confluence point could be located, it could be used to cross over from oneuniverse into another, to stage temporal disruptions in the opposite timeline.Ranger Pathfinder units whose job was to map confluences and the territory onthe other side had the most hazardous duty in the entire Temporal Corps. Theyhad no idea what they might find on the other end of the confluence and theycould never be sure that they would be able to get back. If the scouts did comeback, with detailed accounts of what they had encountered in the paralleluniverse. further action could be contemplated. If they did not return, theworst was assumed and no one else was sent through that confluence point. Ineither case, the confluence was secured for its duration, to make sure no oneblundered into it and that no one or nothing came through from the other side.In some cases, it was to no avail. Occasionally, something could come throughthat nobody could stop, as had happened at Tanguska. in Siberia. where a meteorcame through a confluence point and caused incredible destruction.
The second imperative both universes were confronted withwas the Time War that they waged between themselves. Each attempted to locatesafe confluence points that the other had not yet managed to discover, so they couldsend agents through to disrupt the continuity of the opposing timeline.
Apparently, temporal physicists in the parallel universe believedthat a temporal disruption of a magnitude sufficient to bring about atimestream split in the opposing universe would work to overwhelm theconfluence effect and separate the two timelines once and for all.Consequently, they were sending across agents and temporal strike teams fromtheir Special Operations Group to gather intelligence and stage temporaldisruptions in an attempt to split the timestream. There was a chance thattheir thinking was scientifically sound, however, temporal physics-or Zenphysics, as it was often called-was a nebulous and elusive area of science. Itwas where scientific logic merged with metaphysics. Temporal relativity wasnever absolute. There was also a chance that a timestream split in eitheruniverse, aside from the potentially devastating consequences in the universein which it would occur, could result in the creation of yet another timelinethat would compound the confluence effect and make it even worse, with threetimelines intersecting. Or, worse still, it could set off a chain reaction,with the creation of another timeline disrupting the temporal continuity of theother two, creating further timestream splits and the creation of still moretimelines. with no end in sight. It could end in ultimate entropy. No one knewfor sure. Yet both universes continued to wage their Time Wars, on theprinciple that the more the opposing universe was occupied in trying tocompensate for disruptions in its own timestream, the less time, energy, andmanpower it could expend in trying to disrupt the timestream of the other.
The third problem faced by each universe was safeguardingthe temporal continuity of their respective timelines. The confluencephenomenon dramatically increased the chances of temporal disruption. It wasnecessary to clock as many Observers as possible into the past. so that historycould be preserved. In order to facilitate this seemingly impossible task. themajority of the temporal forces of all nations had been converted to TemporalObserver status, with the best and brightest assigned as L.T.O.’s, to keepwatch on figures of historical significance. C.T.O.’s. or Chief TemporalObservers, functioned as field commanders. supervising the T.O. units in theirrespective sectors. Any sign of a disruption was immediately reported toTAC-HQ. so that a team of temporal Intelligence agents could be dispatched toMinus Time to deal with it. Yet, this task was akin to bailing a rapidlysinking rowboat with a thimble. No matter how many Observers were dispatchedinto the past-and thousands upon thousands were-they could not possibly coverall of human history. And the increased presence of people from the future inthe past served by itself to increase the odds of temporal disruption.