Kepic
Your friendly neighbourhood Alien Abductor
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2000
- Posts
- 1,163
-- T I M E - J U M P E R S --
The year: 2172 AD. A terrible genetic virus decimates the male population of Earth and the few established habitat stations in orbit. By 2230 AD, no man is left alive. Although a cure was eventually found, it was too late.
But mankind, or at least, womankind, will continue. While genetic cloning technology proved unreliable, advances in temporal physics have made time travel now viable. In 2242 AD, The Temporal Jump Project is begun - select women will travel back in time, to find suitable mates, returning to the future again to have their children, allowing procreation to endure. These Temporal Agents, more commonly known as 'Jumpers', are the best hope for the survival of the human race.
An explosion caused by temporal terrorists (or tee-tee's) some time in the past has caused a temporal distortion wave to begin to alter the timeline. An attempt to prevent the explosion cannot be made - the time gate the terrorist's used was sabotaged afterwards and with it the precise spatial co-ordinates necessary to send a team back to stop them.
But there may yet be a way to salvage something from the damage.
A few Jumper's are sent back to extract male's whose existence in the timeline will be completely wiped out by the temporal wave - select men who would not be missed from the new timeline, according to the calculations on the descendants of those the tee-tee's had killed in the explosion. Males who could advance the Procreation Program by decades.
But what surprises will the new timeline hold when the Jumper's return with their prizes?
* * *
"Good luck" said Doctor Helena Venbright, shaking the hand of the next Jumper about to go through the Timegate. That was the third. How many would they be able to send back before the temporal wave hit 'her' present? She looked at her watch, the digital display glowing beneath the skin of her left hand. They had calculated when it would overtake them in this present to the last second. Eight minutes, thirty-two seconds left. Two, maybe three more Jumpers would be able to pass through.
Then everything would change... and she herself would be gone. It was one of her ancestor's the terrorists had targetted, but he wasn't the only one who had died in that explosion. Dr Venbright shivered. If it wasn't for the agent that was placed in the tee-tee's organisation... the Temporal Jump Project Agency wouldn't have even been able to try and salvage anything from this catastrophe.
Another Jumper passed through the gate, with her blessings.
She had done so much good work, and now it was as if for nothing. She remembered how she had turned many bright young women to the cause of the Temporal Jump Project with her speeches throughout her years. Now the tee-tee's were changing the fabric of history again, and this time they could not prevent it, merely hope to stem some of the damage done with these temporal extractions.
While out of the timeline, travelling between two points in time, a Jumper would be uneffected by the temporal wave that was sweeping forwards in history. So too would those targets the Jumper's had been sent back to collect.
The idea was that they would extract the selected males, before the temporal wave hit the point in the timeline where they were being taken from, and then return to the future, the wave overtaking them on the way. At least, that was the theory. A temporal wave of this proportion was unrecorded - and its effects had not been as precisely predicted as the wave's progress through history. The Jumpers that were being sent back knew the world they would return to would not be the same. They might even have duplicates in the new timeline who followed a completely different life. Or they might have never existed at all...
"Helena?"
Dr Venbright turned to face the next Jumper. She sighed, and shook her hand.
"Good luck Kristia" she said. Kristia had been a long-time friend.
"I'm not going, Helena. You are" she replied.
"I don't have the training, Helena..."
"But you have the knowledge. There isn't a single temporal physicist with your talents" Kristia replied, thrusting a package into Helena's hands, "your loss to the Temporal Jump Project will be too damaging..."
Dr Venbright looked at the package. A standard Temporal Agent's field kit, containing a number of high-tech devices. Many of which she had helped design, or even provided the concept for.
"But..."
"No but's, Helena. This has already been cleared with the Director. She signed the Temporal Jump permit herself..."
Dr Venbright looked round to the control room. Kristia was already walking away again. She saw the Director give a nod, and the technicians at the control consoles working fervently. The temporal gate crackled with energy as it opened once again, casting its ruddy green glow across the chamber.
"Go..." said Kristia, "we're almost out of time... there's a holopad in there too with the targets data... good luck Helena!"
Dr Venbright glanced at her left hand again. Twelve seconds... eleven... ten...
She gave Kristia a wave, and jumped through the gate... knowing if they ever met again, Kristia would be a stranger.
The year: 2172 AD. A terrible genetic virus decimates the male population of Earth and the few established habitat stations in orbit. By 2230 AD, no man is left alive. Although a cure was eventually found, it was too late.
But mankind, or at least, womankind, will continue. While genetic cloning technology proved unreliable, advances in temporal physics have made time travel now viable. In 2242 AD, The Temporal Jump Project is begun - select women will travel back in time, to find suitable mates, returning to the future again to have their children, allowing procreation to endure. These Temporal Agents, more commonly known as 'Jumpers', are the best hope for the survival of the human race.
An explosion caused by temporal terrorists (or tee-tee's) some time in the past has caused a temporal distortion wave to begin to alter the timeline. An attempt to prevent the explosion cannot be made - the time gate the terrorist's used was sabotaged afterwards and with it the precise spatial co-ordinates necessary to send a team back to stop them.
But there may yet be a way to salvage something from the damage.
A few Jumper's are sent back to extract male's whose existence in the timeline will be completely wiped out by the temporal wave - select men who would not be missed from the new timeline, according to the calculations on the descendants of those the tee-tee's had killed in the explosion. Males who could advance the Procreation Program by decades.
But what surprises will the new timeline hold when the Jumper's return with their prizes?
* * *
"Good luck" said Doctor Helena Venbright, shaking the hand of the next Jumper about to go through the Timegate. That was the third. How many would they be able to send back before the temporal wave hit 'her' present? She looked at her watch, the digital display glowing beneath the skin of her left hand. They had calculated when it would overtake them in this present to the last second. Eight minutes, thirty-two seconds left. Two, maybe three more Jumpers would be able to pass through.
Then everything would change... and she herself would be gone. It was one of her ancestor's the terrorists had targetted, but he wasn't the only one who had died in that explosion. Dr Venbright shivered. If it wasn't for the agent that was placed in the tee-tee's organisation... the Temporal Jump Project Agency wouldn't have even been able to try and salvage anything from this catastrophe.
Another Jumper passed through the gate, with her blessings.
She had done so much good work, and now it was as if for nothing. She remembered how she had turned many bright young women to the cause of the Temporal Jump Project with her speeches throughout her years. Now the tee-tee's were changing the fabric of history again, and this time they could not prevent it, merely hope to stem some of the damage done with these temporal extractions.
While out of the timeline, travelling between two points in time, a Jumper would be uneffected by the temporal wave that was sweeping forwards in history. So too would those targets the Jumper's had been sent back to collect.
The idea was that they would extract the selected males, before the temporal wave hit the point in the timeline where they were being taken from, and then return to the future, the wave overtaking them on the way. At least, that was the theory. A temporal wave of this proportion was unrecorded - and its effects had not been as precisely predicted as the wave's progress through history. The Jumpers that were being sent back knew the world they would return to would not be the same. They might even have duplicates in the new timeline who followed a completely different life. Or they might have never existed at all...
"Helena?"
Dr Venbright turned to face the next Jumper. She sighed, and shook her hand.
"Good luck Kristia" she said. Kristia had been a long-time friend.
"I'm not going, Helena. You are" she replied.
"I don't have the training, Helena..."
"But you have the knowledge. There isn't a single temporal physicist with your talents" Kristia replied, thrusting a package into Helena's hands, "your loss to the Temporal Jump Project will be too damaging..."
Dr Venbright looked at the package. A standard Temporal Agent's field kit, containing a number of high-tech devices. Many of which she had helped design, or even provided the concept for.
"But..."
"No but's, Helena. This has already been cleared with the Director. She signed the Temporal Jump permit herself..."
Dr Venbright looked round to the control room. Kristia was already walking away again. She saw the Director give a nod, and the technicians at the control consoles working fervently. The temporal gate crackled with energy as it opened once again, casting its ruddy green glow across the chamber.
"Go..." said Kristia, "we're almost out of time... there's a holopad in there too with the targets data... good luck Helena!"
Dr Venbright glanced at her left hand again. Twelve seconds... eleven... ten...
She gave Kristia a wave, and jumped through the gate... knowing if they ever met again, Kristia would be a stranger.
