Earth – Universe 999, December 1, 2157
The smells of the canteen wiped away her train of thought, and she forgot all the questions for a moment, and her stomach growled again.
The colonel smiled, and led her to a table with an odd collection of chairs, mismatched, but all comfortable, surrounding a small table. “Shall we?”
A towering woman cam over to their table. “Colonel, green tea and a lager again today?” At the colonel’s nod, she turned and smiled at Shawna, “And you miss?” At that, Shawna froze, “Uh…..well, I guess whiskey’s out of the question.”
The colonel interjected, “Well, we Australians have a bit different perspective than Americans of your age did. May I?”
At Shawna’s nod, “Terrestia, why don’t you get her a mint julep and, just in case, a can of Coke from that supply run I made a week ago.”
“Sure thing, Colonel. And shall I start some food for you?”
“I’ll have the soup and and the works omellette. Shawna?”
“Hamburger and fries? And……I’d kill for a slice of pepperoni pizza.”
“You got it. Make sure you all save room for the desert…..I just finished a lovely mango merengue pie.” And with that, the woman headed back to the kitchen.
A couple of minutes later Terrestia brought out their drinks, pausing for a moment while Shawna tasted the mint julep. “That’s amazing…..Terrestia, right?” At the woman’s nod and shy smile, “Thank you.”
“You’re very welcome. It will be about ten minutes for the food.”
The colonel took a long drink of her beer, then a sip of the hot tea, “So, shall we get started?” At Shawna’s nod, she asked, “This is always a painful conversation with those we rescue, because its hard to know what any given person knows, so I will start with a question. How familiar are you with quantum mechanics, dimensional structure, theories of time travel and alternate time path dynamics?”
Shawna snorted, “I’m assuming all that’s in fucking English. How’s this for an answer? I was taking physics in high school when I joined the fucking Alliance. I know Artic Prince came from another world, as did Experion. Henri explained once that the part of her that formed Rook came from another……dimension I guess. Last but not least, Spectacular Gorilla spouted a whole bunch of wack shit when we worked on the machine to bring the Alliance to us. And to wrap it all up in a neat little sexy fucking bow, I’m twenty years old, been fighting a war for the last three plus years, and am not apparently knocked up because of two fucking god damn pleasurable nights in that whole shitty time.” The tears flowed down her cheeks. A calloused and rough hand reached out and lay gently upon hers.
“There is….I was about to say there is nothing to be ashamed of. And there isn’t. This is not an easy conversation. I said I was one hundred and thirty one years old. I was born in the year 2026. The Alliance…….was quite famous by then, so I know a bit about the person known as Gleam Shimmer…….on my world and in many times.’
“Ten years after…….wait, so the war with Experion was won?”
“Yes….and no. What your friend Spectacular Gorilla didn’t understand is this. You can’t really change the past. When you do, if you actually change something, it splits off another dimensional reality. A lot of times those splits fall back into line, merging, like creeks breaking off and then combining back into a river, or even dead ending. I’m sorry to say that the river that includes the world you last know is full of Experion’s race. There really is no coming back from a world that far gone.” It sounded harsh, but the Colonel said it quietly, and the obvious pain it caused her allowed Shawna to, not ignore it, but shelve it into a corner to grieve later.
“Sometimes though, you get a true break, a different path that exists alongside, somewhat parallel to the original. Even more rarely, you have one that goes haring off at a completely different path, and then it becomes its own river.”
“So then you end up with these “rivers” of time and dimension, where relatively minor things can change without major course changes, and then larger changes split off and form their own rivers. For simplicity’s sake, then, the further you get away from a river, the more difficult it is to move between them, takes lots of power or capabilities, and often all you can do is observe, not really change anything.”
“Finally, you have something like what happened on my world, where time, space and dimensional activity gets broken, and flows……differently than the rest of the rivers. In this case, faster.”
At that, Terrestria arrived with several plates of food. “Thank you so much Terrestria. Looks delicious as always.”
“Thank you Colonel. Enjoy your food. And you too, Ms. Gleam Shimmer.”
Shawna was far hungrier than she had imagined, devouring the hamburger, the fries, the pizza and even a piece of the mango pie, which had been simply awesome. She didn’t know the last time she had real food, not emergency snacks or food from scavenged supplies.
It felt……wrong, to be able to enjoy these simple pleasures, knowing that all of her friends had died in the final onslaught by Experion’s troops. And with that thought, came the shakes, starting with tremors in her hands until her whole body was shivering. She lost focus, the memories, the screams, the dying, and worse, those who became nothing but another cog in the electromechanical armies……She felt, more than saw, the embrace of the woman now kneeling beside her, heard the keening of a wounded animal, heard her screaming for all those she had lost.
She took the comfort and turned into a breast as Terrestria picked her up, as if she were but a child, carrying her back to the infirmary. She lost track of how long she cried, for all those she had lost, everyone, everything, until blackness took her.
Earth – Universe 999, December 2, 2157
Two women entered her room, and she watched as they came in, and stood at the foot of her bed. She very pointedly closed her eyes and rolled over on her side to face the wall and various monitors mounted upon it.
“Well, that’s certaintly fuckin’ childish as a dumpster bogan,” the captain said.
“Hush, ya annoying twit. No wonder I’m the doctor, ya sociopathic ground pounding ‘roo,” her twin sister replied.
The doctor walked around the bed, planting herself in front of Shawna’s eyes, in between the wall, the monitors and the bed. “We haven’t officially met. I’m Doctor Olivia Anne McDowell. My myrmidon sister over there is Captain Whitley Ham McDowell. Ya may have noticed that we’re twin sisters.”
With that, Shawna sighed loudly and angrily sat up, struggling to pull herself back against the pillows, snarling when the doctor helped slightly, but…..acquiescing. Looking pointedly at the ebony skinned uniformed officer, and then back at the extremely pale doctor. “Fucking hilarious.”
“Haha, like that’s the first time we ever experienced doubt,” the doctor said. “We really are twins, it runs in our family. And yea, I can fucking explain the whole thing sometime if you want, if ya want the medical science behind it, not like something as simply genetic as skin color should matter compared to interspatial time dimension travel.”
After a lengthy pouty glower, Shawna sighed. With the deep breath, the anger seemed to dissolve, leaving nothing but the exhaustion and haunted shadows in her eyes. “What do you want?”
Whitley answered, “For you to listen. For you to spend time with the colonel.” More quietly, “I know itss a shock, and you don’t know us. And we don’t know you, and we only have the vaguest idea of what happened in your world.”
Olivia took up the explanation, “In our world, though, in our world, you’re famous. We all know who you are, or were, I guess. For the colonel……for our grandmother,” and when Shawna’s eyes widened, she nodded, “For her, you’re a link to her past. She knew the other you. Frankly, she needs you for that, and we all need Gleam Shimmer. If you’ll help, if you’ll…..listen…..before you do anything, make any decisions, I’d be grateful. We both would.” Her sister simply nodded.
They looked at her with the same sad, devoted eyes. It was the eyes that made her consider, an odd coloring, yellow and purple, and yet somehow the same. Somewhere deep inside, the courage that kept her fighting Experion for over three years, the will that kept her alive in the portal….stirred.
“Get out of here while I get this sexy whale body dressed.”
“Enter,” the door did not appear to muffle the strong voice from within.
“Why do I feel like I’m headed to see the fucking principal?”
She reached for the knob, opened and walked in. The captain pulled the door shut behind her.
“Feeling better?” Time Shadow asked.
“No, but what does that really fucking matter at this point?”
“Well, I want to show you something, but…..didn’t know if you wanted to sit for a bit first?” she asked, seemingly oddly….anxious.
“Let’s get the show on the road…..got places to go, people to see,” she said bitterly.
With that, they left the room, and walked down a long hallway. Corridors branched out from this hallway every so often, going in both directions, but it seemed like they walked forever. The complex was far larger than she had suspected, but so far she hadn’t seen a single window, or the outside, and she was growing increasingly supsicious. She’d never been claustrophobic but where the fuck were they?
“We’re near Port Hedland, Australia,” Time Shadow replied. Shawna hadn’t realized she asked the question out loud.
“Sounds exciting.” The name didn’t ring any bells, and the colonel seemed oddly disappointed.
She opened a door, leading her into a small……gallery? Was that the right word? Museum? It wasn’t very big, a few enclosed cases scattered around the floor and then a number of large photographs and paintings on the wall.
The colonel glanced around the whole room……sadly? “I know its not some big fancy thing, but its a bit of a memorial to the Australian Alliance. I thought it might help to explain why everyone you’ve met seems to know who you are.”
“Me? I thought you said the Alliance was famous?”
“It was, and is to some degree, but its been a long time…..since, well, you know.” She walked over to stand in front of a massive photograph, obviously staged. “This is what I wanted to show you.”
Under the photograph, a small plaque stated, “Australian Alliance, Founding Members – 2043.” Six people stood in the picture, relaxed, smiliing, although the smiles obviously reflected different emotions. In the center stood a beatiful, forty-something woman, purple and white hair hanging loosely down her shoulders. Behind her slightly, but with one hand on her shoulder was a picture of a man she’d never forget, and she absently slid her hand over her extended belly. She’d never forget Brett Anderson, she never had. To his right stood a young man, sandy hair, smile wickedly sharp. To the left of the woman stood…..she looked closely, shit, the colonel, but as teenage girl, wide smile dimpling her cheeks. To her left stood a small Asian woman in black and yellow. Finally, sitting cross legged and floating next to the younger man, a woman who looked a lot like Terestria calmly smiled a peaceful, or what Shawna imagined as peaceful, smile upon her face.
The colonel just stood there, expectantly…..so Shawna read the smaller plaque’s inscription out loud. “Banarang, Time Warp, Ghost Venom…….” and her eyes widened, and she stumbled……and skipped a name before continuing, “Time Shadow and Catspaw.” Then she took a step back, looking at the woman in the middle, confident, beautiful, poised, and said, “Team Leader: Gleam Shimmer.”
“If you want, I’ll show you something that explains the beginning of this team. Its…..not pleasant. The beginnings and its affect on this world.”
At Shawna’s nod, Time Shadow turned, saying, “This way then, we have to leave the compound.”
The colonel led her to an area near an airlock, one similar to the main door at the Paragon Base that she’d watched Brett and Bryce install before they had disappeared, all those years ago, back when, well it didn’t matter, when.
The captain, Whitley, turned at their approach, and Time Shadow calmly said, “Captain, get her in the suit.” With that, she started opening a previously concealed locker, reaching in for some sort of pistol, and what looked like some sort of breathing mask.
“Suit?” questioned Shawna.
The black captain walked over to her, carrying her what looked like a form fitting blue, black 
and silver body suit, and a matching helmet.
“Yes, Ma’am. This isn’t your world, well, technically its not your timeline. Generally people can survive a few days and then they start to adapt, but if you do adapt, it becomes very difficult to leave. Plus, this world isn’t…..exactly safe in the best of circumstances. Its why the Colonel will have the mask, and I’ll come with full body armor and helmet. Wouldn’t want anything to happen to you or your babies.”
“If it’s that dangerous, Captain, give me a sidearm too.”
“Yes, ma’am, the Colonel has one for you as soon as we get you all sealed up.”
Normally, she’d have told the captain to fuck off, but she was a lot more awkward than she used to be. Bigger belly, bigger breasts, bigger ass, frankly she was getting pissed putting on this suit. Pissed at both of those fucking idiots, pissed at herself because she’d been pretty sure she was going to die so certain precautions hadn’t really mattered anymore. God damn those fuckers. Then they went off and died. Anger turned to pain and grief, and she ate it down, letting it burn like always before in her slightly more than twenty years. All of a sudden she felt old.
As she stalked over to the Colonel, she handed her the pistol with a “It’s a Glock we found….”
“I know what a fucking Glock is. Let’s get this elephant fucking parade on the road,” as she thrust the pistol into the shoulder holster outside the fucking hippo sized suit.
As they left the airlock, the Colonel said, “Give it five minutes and then ask whatever questions you want.”
They walked in silence down a broad street, but no cars passed, no people walked on the streets, nobody in the stores. As they turned right onto another street, she could see a big stadium a couple blocks away.
The sun hung in the sky, but the air felt…..cool, cooler than she expected to feel through this suit, and with the sun that high in the sky. Yes, the sounds were…..eerily quiet. She didn’t hear any traffic, any people, fuck, for a city girl, she couldn’t even here any animals.
Finally, as they got up to the stadium, she stopped, looking at…..a ruined stadium, the damage to the gates and trash around it made it obvious. Finally, she saw a name as they stood, their, Bryce Anderson Memorial Motorcross.
“What the fuck? Where the fuck have you fucking brought me you bitch?”
The suit helmut muffled it to the outside world, but the officer heard it clearly, as she sighed. “I don’t really know how much you know.” In her weariness, a hint of an Australian accent layered over her words. Under her breath, “I see so many different timelines, it becomes hard to remember.” She signed deeply, “None of the people you know still live, at least in this world. This stadium is not a memorial to the Bryce you knew, or it wasn’t I mean. Bryce lived when this was built and named, but he was in the United States with you, or, fuck a duck on a cracker while a wallabie dies. There is no easy way to explain all of this. The people of Port Hedland, Australia thought he had died in the army.”
“Oh, but……they are all gone now? How?” Shawna whispered quietly. She only thought, especially Brett?
“Mostly……old age, frankly. A couple died in battle of course over the years, trying to save people. This is my original timeline. My world, my history.” She paused, lost in thought, “I was born ten years after the battle with Experion, and on my world, you never disappeared, the Alliance didn’t disappear, Experion was defeated the first time you all faced him, never to return. Improbable, I know, based on your experiences, but it did happen. I was born ten years later.””
“I told ya this would be complicated. Get in the cart….I will explain on the way.”
“To where?”
“To where the breaking of my world began.”
“This is some fucking wack bullshit.” But the young woman climbed cautiously into what appeared to be an oversized, and elongated, golf cart. The colonel got behind the wheel, and then waited for the captain to get in the back, facing the rear, weapon held at the ready.
“While we drive, I’ll try to explain a little bit about those who wash up on our shores, so to speak.”
“Like trash in the ocean, huh,” came a bitter response.
The officer grimaced, “I was more thinking of refugees, given another chance, but I guess its all about perspective.”
“If it helps, I’ve learned a little bit about time when we pulled the Alliance members from a few years after I thought they died. They had lived…..different lives. So had I. I still don’t know a lot, but obviously time travel can occur.”
“Kind of. Remember, the short answer, while not entirely accurate is that…..when you do, if you actually change something, it splits off another reality. A lot of times those splits fall back into line, merging, like creeks breaking off and then combining back into a river, or even dead ending.”
“Sometimes though, you get a true break, a different path that exists alongside, somewhat parallel to the original. Even more rarely, you have one that goes haring off at a completely different path, and then it becomes its own river.”
“So then you end up with these “rivers” of time and dimension, where relatively minor things can change without major course changes, and then larger changes split off and form their own rivers. For simplicity’s sake, then, the further you get away from a river, the more difficult it is to move between them, takes lots of power or capabilities, and often all you can do is observe, not really change anything.”
“Finally, you have something like what happened on my world, where time, space and dimensional activity gets broken, and flows……differently than the rest of the rivers. In this case, faster.”
“I suppose this is where I fucking ask what happened here and what the fuck it has to do with me?”
“We’re about there.”
“It looks like we’re in the middle of nowhere.”
“Pretty much. Outside of town anyway.”
“What for fucksaken town?”
“Port Hedland, Australian.”
“Oh, yea, you said that. And – where the fuck is that?”
“If you don’t know, then you’ll just have to see.”
The colonel pulled the electric cart to a stop in front of a farmhouse, a farmhouse that looked to be in nearly pristine condition, although all the other buildings appeared to be collapsing, and the trees, weeds, and bushes ran wild with growth.
“Do you recognize this?”
“Ha. I’ve never been to Australia. So that’d be a hard no.”
The colonel sighed. “I wasn’t sure. Ok, then in we go. This is one of the main foci of divergence. The other two are in town, but this was one I thought maybe you’d recognize.”
“Fine. Let me just waddle the around this lovely place. No irate farmhand’s going to take a shot at us?”
“No. Nobody lives here anymore.”
“Looks in good shape, well the house.”
A noticeably subdued Colonel nodded.
“Is there something wrong? This was your brilliant idea, you know.”
“No. And yes. Its not really going to make sense unless you see it.”
“Fine. Rolling hippo waddle it is. Let’s roll.”
The colonel walked up the steps, and the door opened silently at her touch, swinging wide.
“Abandoned, nobody lives here, but just wide open. I hope you aren’t shitting me here.”
“Nobody would bother this place. Nobody left to, really.”
Shawna stepped through the door after the older woman. Inside, entry foyer and stairs leading upstairs appeared to have been cleaned five minutes before they arrived, lamps and lights on in the room to her right. The colonel just stood there, so Shawna moved around her.
“So, somewhere in particular?”
“No, if you don’t mind, I’d like you to just…..explore.”
With a massive shrug visible even through the protective suit, Shawna turned right, heading into the room, a living room of some sort. First she turned to look out the big bay window, the curtains pulled back as if someone had been waiting for someone to arrive. She heard a boy’s laughter from behind, so she turned quickly. “Did you hear that?”
“I hear lots of things here. I was wondering if you would. What specifically did you hear?”
“You said there was nobody here.”
“There’s not. Not really. What did you hear?”
“Are you fucking with me? You really didn’t hear the boy laugh? Sounded like it might have been upstairs.”
“Ah, well, probably.”
“What is it?”
“Ghosts.” Then the colonel smiled with a hint of sadness. “That’s what I call them anyway. Memories I guess. Rifts in time and space most likely, letting little sounds through. Movements.”
“Well, least this isn’t getting batshit crazy.” But her voice trailed off as she finally noticed the mantle above the fireplace, the flags, and more importantly the pictures. With a few steps she was in front of it, staring at one of the pictures.
“That’s Brett! And……” moving from the far left to the far right, “Bryce.” The one next to it, “I think this is their brother Bryan, he was with them when they come through the portal. Although Brett had sworn he had died. This must be Bridgette then,” she continued excitedly. “Wait…..” she picked up the picture of the young female officer, and turned to face the colonel, “are you? No, you can’t be…..you said you were born after….but if Bryan was alive, then maybe Bridgette was too. Is she your mother?”
The colonel smiled slightly, “No, Bridgette was not my mother. There are timelines that she lived in yes, that is true. And, Bryan’s real first name was Brant. Brantley Ryan Anderson.”
“I didn’t really know him.”
“I did, for awhile.”
“So…..this is where they grew up? And its now a point of…..whatchicallit….divergence? Which means……” she grew thoughtful……..”somehow you think this is important, so the divergence has to do with the Anderson family……..and so the Alliance.”
“Pretty good jumps of logic for someone who claims to know nothing about dimensional physics and quantom mechanics.”
She smiled, then said, “It doesn’t take a genius to realize that you aren’t showing this to me for a trip down memory lane, about some place I’ve never been. Just some people I know who used to live here.”
“I’ll settle for deductive thinking.”
“What?”
“Never mind.”
“Well, this has been super exciting, drama filled, and answered no burning questions.”
“How about we go upstairs?”
“Can’t wait. Ya want me to waddle up in front of you so you can check out my sexy ass?” Without waiting she walked towards the stairs they’d bypassed when they first came in.
She started up the stairs, but then she saw the pictures, and slowed, walking slowly, pausing. She realized as she looked at the pictures of Brett, his family, she hardly knew anything. She’d been friends with Bryce, and dreamed of Brett, but….he’d always been content, relaxed while he worked on the base with her in his presence, the occasional joke, the flick of a lighter for cigarettes, willing to drink at the drop of a hat. Bryce had talked far more about his childhood, but a lot of that had been anger that Brett hadn’t been there and much more about Bryan……or Brant or whatever. Motorcycles ad nauseum. Niether of them had talked much about Bridget.
She neared the top of the stairs……and the pictures changed, just the last two or three. Newer frames……the girl looked quite a bit like Bridget, but one of them had a blonde woman in it….. “Who is this?”
“You don’t know who that is?” the older woman asked, sounding…..surprised?
“Obviously, if I asked. She looks kind of like Bridgette, but there’s no other pictures of this blonde lady in here. Looks newer too.”
“Oh….I….shit. I thought you knew or else I’d have done this different. Guess things are different in lots of ways from our worlds. Uhm…..well…..then, that’s Brett’s daughter Olivia and her mum, Amelia.”
“Oh…….” and it hurt but…. what did she expect…..for him to be celibate after she disappeared. Her voice only seemed small…… “She’s one of the points of divergence.”
“Excellent. Yes, she is.”
The relief that flooded Shawna made her angry. “Well, I mean, makes sense that ya, know, Brett would move on.”
“Move on?” the colonel asked.
“Well, I mean he couldn’t exactly wait on me to magically reappear after a cross dimensional one night stand.”
“Oh…..uh…..yea, well, that’s not the divergence.”
Shawna turned towards the officer, standing three steps below here. There had been something odd in her voice.
“Olivia, and well, Amelia in a more minor way, are parts of the divergence, and the tragedy that destroyed most of my world, but…..see that picture of her on that motorcross bike? That’s her first win, in a youth girls division, at least based on the handwritten note on the back. I think she was 8 or 9. It was taken the year before the Alliance formed.”
“WHAT?”
She didn’t even remember pulling the pistol out of the holster. “I’ve fucking had it,” she snarled, the gun pointing down towards the officer standing below her, “Enough of this fucking mind game bullshit. Quit laying suprise on suprise and seeing if I’ll go crazy or something. Tell me the fucking truth.”
The woman looked…..pained. “I….apologize. I didn’t…..I never wanted to hurt you. I did this all wrong. Fuck a wombat,” she finally muttered.
“Brett used to say that,” Shawna commented.
“Yes,” the colonel replied quietly.
Something in her tone….and realization struck, “You’re his daughter. Brett’s……”
The colonel sighed, “Yes…..perhaps we should sit down.”
“What’s you’re real fucking name?”
The colonel took a deep breath, “I suppose it won’t hurt at this point, its Henri Bridgette Anderson. Satisfied?”
“Brett named you after Henri? Kind of cool I guess. I bet she through one hell of a party at that news and bought the whole fucking gift list, plus San Diego Super Chargers fan gear.”
The colonle didn’t say much, before asking, “You ok?”
“Yea, I’m good. So, this Olive…
“Olivia.”
“Olivia, whatever, is your, I guess, older sister.” The old woman, and she seemed to have aged during the conversation, just nodded. “Then, this Amelia is your Mom? Brett came back to her after I disappeared?”
“No, she’s not…….are you sure you wouldn’t rather go to the other locations, sit a bit to talk about this?”
“No fucking way. So…..then Brett found someone else then……I mean, makes sense I guess.”
“Fine, no, he did not. I told you this world was different. You never disappeared, or I should say the Alliance never disappeared. You guys defeated Experion, completely, the very first time.”
“Oh, ok, so.,….I guess, huh, that would have been a big divergence……but why show me this. Unless…..wait a second, if……are you telling me………what the fuck are you telling me? Wait a second, that Brett and I never got together? You said this Olivia was born before I even met Brett…….? What the fuck is going on?”
“Why don’t we just go on upstairs, the first bedroom on the right? You can sit down. And you can keep pointing the gun at me if you want,” the colonel responded.
The colonel had politely entered first. Shawna knew she’d made a mistake when she let her in close, she had no idea of the Colonel’s capabilities and she’d learned that guns were pointless in close. So she holstered the damn gun, and felt even more ashamed as the colonel stacked the pillows from the bed so she could recline somewhat. Fucking damn it….hard to keep hating the pillow fluffer.
After she settled in, Time Shadow turned the old wooden chair next to a small study desk around and sat, so stiffly that it was hard to know if it was from pain, or the way Brett used to sit when he didn’t think about relaxing. The long habits of an old soldier.
Impatiently, Shawna whined, and hated it, “Well, get the fuck on with it.”
“Trying to figure out how to explain this one,” Time Shadow paused, before continuing. “There are many things that can cause a divergence, or a major divergence, forming its own river of time. Some dimensions are so massive, so immovable, its like slowly changing the Mississippi River in the United States. It can be done, but its no easy feat. Then there are smaller rivers, like the Smokey, or the Murray here in Australia or the Rhine in Europe. Still difficult, but easier. Then smaller and smaller to where most just circle back and join the main river of time. There’s maybe a thousand major dimensions that we’ve been able to track, but only about a hundred that center on events with HomeCon Earths.”
Shawna fought really hard to keep her eyes from glazing, and the fact that she had to pee horribly both helped and caused her to fidget, but she nodded in what she considered a sagely Henri nod, before waving in an equally imperious Henri manner to continue.
The colonel acknowledged and spoke, “The Alliance or various members of the Alliance, at least as it was formed in the late 2010s and early 2020s contribute to at least sixty of those major divergences, so far as we have been able to track. We have limited personnel and capabilites to perform wider variances, so perhaps there are others, and obviously time path dimensional branching could be even greater in the future, or perhaps narrower. We cannot see more than a couple of years past the present, and that’s foggy at best.”
“The core Anderson family of Brett, Bryce, Brant, and Bridgette, along with their parents, and where relevant, their children, are responsible for thirty-two of those major divergences. While its not particularly relevant now, I know of three where Gleam Shimmer is the cause, Rook has five, Brujeria seven, Titan another half dozen, and Arctic Prince the remainder. The Alliance has a significant presence in the history of humanity, at least as far into the future as my dimension has progressed.”
Noting the Shawna’s fidgeting, the colonel rose, stepped forward, and offered her hand, “I don’t mean to pry, but I know what that means. The bathroom is down the hall, second on the left. It’s fully functional. I’ll go get us a Coke and some water.”
After Shawna walked out the door, the colonel walked down the stairs, before engaging her communication device, “Any status change, Captain?”
“No, Ma’am!” came the quick reply. “No incursion activity at this time.”
“Very well, this is going to take a while. Signal base to send an escort team.”
“Acknowledged, Colonel.”
To Be Continued……Lost in Time Part III
Last Dreams 