Time Jumpers Episode 6: First Light Corridor

By Philip Bosshardt

Just returned from an unexpected trip to 22nd Century Urth, First Time Displacement Battery finds themselves smack in the middle of an existential threat to Time Guard. For decades, the Coethi have been ‘doping’ K-World’s sun, Sturdivant 2180, with swarms of bots to bank its fusion process and shut down the star, making the whole system unlivable, pushing Umans out of this sector completely. A joint operation is pulled together to fight this threat and, after some initial setbacks, the Coethi are eliminated.
But Time Guard Intelligence (T2) has now developed intel on an even greater threat. Commandstar orders 1st TD to undertake a mission unlike any Time Guard has ever undertaken—traveling down a protected time stream to the earliest formative time of the Universe, a time known as First Light. T2 believes the Coethi are attempting to alter the small-scale evolution of the Universe in its earliest moments, developing new stars, seeding the early universe with their own type of life, maybe even preventing their own birth star from going supernova, billions of years later. If successful, the Coethi could eliminate any chance of Umans ever appearing in the first place.
Now the battle is joined, fought across one of the strangest battlefields ever encountered by human beings...a time and cosmic region near the beginning of Time itself, a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. There are no landmarks, no stars, no galaxies, just elemental photon soup and extremely high temperatures.
New tactics, new techniques, and new equipment have to be quickly developed. 1st TD’s mission: recon the Coethi (if they can be found) and interdict any attempts to interfere with the primordial time stream. The time jumpers leapfrog across eons, always a few steps behind the Bugs, until they finally seem to have them trapped in a time when the first stars are turning on. But before the trap can be sprung, the time jumpers will have to contend with a menace greater than either of them...a Universe just beginning to flex itself.
Sixth episode in the Time Jumpers serial.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Philip Bosshardt
• Release date: Jun 28, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463028100

Philip Bosshardt

Philip Bosshardt is a native of Atlanta, Georgia. He works for a large company that makes products everyone uses...just check out the drinks aisle at your grocery store. He’s been happily married for over 20 years. He’s also a Georgia Tech graduate in Industrial Engineering. He loves water sports in any form and swims 3-4 miles a week in anything resembling water. He and his wife have no children. They do, however, have one terribly spoiled Keeshond dog named Kelsey.For details on his series Tales of the Quantum Corps, visit his blog at qcorpstimes.blogspot.com or his website at http://philbosshardt.wix.com/philip-bosshardt.

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Time Jumpers

Episode 6: First Light Corridor

Published by Philip Bosshardt at Smashwords

Copyright 2019 Philip Bosshardt

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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A few words about this series….

Time Jumpersis a series of 20,000-30,000-word episodes detailing the adventures of Ultrarch-Jump Captain Monthan Dringoth and his crew and their experiences as time jumpers with the Time Guard.

Each episode will be about 40-60 pages, approximately 25,000 words in length.

A new episode will be available and uploaded every 4 weeks.

There will be 12 episodes. The story will be completely serialized in about 12 months.

Each episode is a stand-alone story but will advance the greater theme and plot of the story arc.

The main plotline: Time Guard must defeat the enemy Coethi and stop their efforts to disrupt or eliminate Uman settlements in the Galactic Inner Spiral and Lower Halo sectors of Uman space.

Uploads will be made towww.smashwords.comon approximately the schedule below:

Episode # Title Approximate Upload Date

‘Marooned in Voidtime’ February 1, 2019

‘Keaton’s World’ March 1, 2019

‘A Small Navigation Error’ April 15, 2019

‘Cygnus Rift’ May 3, 2019

‘The Time Guard’ May 31, 2019

‘First Light Corridor June 28, 2019

‘Hapsh’m and the First Coethi Encounter’ August 2, 2019

‘OperationGalactic Hammer’August 30, 2019

‘Byrd’s Draconis’ September 27, 2019

‘First Jump Squadron’ November 1, 2019

‘Planck Time’ November 29, 2019

‘The Time Twister’ January 3, 2020

Chapter 1: Icarus and Scooter

"In the beginning, the Universe was created. This made a lot of people very angry and was widely regarded as a bad move."

Douglas Adams

Keaton’s World

Gibbons’ Grotto

Time Guard Base Minkowski

Time Stream: T-001

T-date: T-08-02-2815 CE

Thanks to Wolfus Linx and his cobbled-together singularity drive, Trivandrum eventually made it back to T-001 and the Sturdivant system. But it was Evelyn M’Bela who found they had also carried along a stowaway from the past, none other than Dr. Linx himself, wedged into a tiny locker on F deck.

What the hell are you doing here, Doc? Come on…come on out of there.

Linx squeezed out and immediately wished he hadn’t for Trivandrum was in micro-grav at the moment, docked at Gateway Station and orbiting around Keaton’s World. His face turned a sickly pale green. M’Bela helped steady him, then guided him gently up the gangway to the ship’s crew’s mess on B deck. They met Golich and Acth:On’e coming down.

M’Bela secured Linx at a table and gave him some water and an anti-nausea pill. Presently, his color began to return, though his white hair and beard made him look like an escapee from an institution.

I just wanted to see how my drive worked, he explained, sipping the water gratefully. And learn more about what life is like in your time. What time is it, anyway? He looked hopefully, from Golich to Acth:On’e to M’Bela.

Golich was furious. "Doc, you can’t stay here. You can’t even be here. You’ve probably already messed up the worldline. These things are tricky."

Plus it’s against all regs, M’Bela added. She stood next to the table, hands on her hips.

You showed up in my time.

Golich said, That was a mistake. We shouldn’t have been there. His face softened a bit. And we do thank you for your drive. It basically got us home.

So where’s home?

Golich looked at M’Bela and Acth:On’e. They both shrugged, as if to say, well, it won’t matter now.

To you, this would be around the year 2815. We keep time a little differently these days. You’re at Gateway Station, orbiting a world called Keaton’s World. Home of the Uman Alliance. That sun you see out the porthole is Sturdivant 2180. From where you were, it would be a small reddish star in the constellation Cygnus. You know: The Swan.

Linx’s eyes were wide and he rubbed them. Mother of God, I never dreamed—

That’s when Time Guard Security showed up.

Dr. Wolfus Linx was taken into custody and escorted offship, riding the Security shuttle down to K-World’s biggest village, Gibbstown. Golich nodded as the doctor was hustled aft down the gangway to Trivandrum’s lockout. He knew their unexpected visitor would be facing many hours, probably days, of interrogation.

M’Bela actually felt sorry for him. He did make it possible to get home, Commander. Maybe they’ll go easy on the guy.

Golich headed up the gangway. I don’t know. Stowing away on a Time Guard ship, even a freighter…the JAGs will have a field day with that. I hope they get him a good lawyer.

I’m for heading down to the Zanz, Commander. You could buy us all a round of Smoking Craters.

You’re on, Queenie. Captain said he’d meet us there at 2200 hours. You up for a tilt, Acth?

The Telitorian said he was.

The Zanzibar Grill was Base Minkowski’s canteen, done up to resemble a pirate’s lair, complete with disparate nautical items scattered around the space: a rusty old anchor, stretches of canvas hanging down from the ceiling, brass fittings along rails and miniature clove trees some bio had cultured in the lab two floors down. Only the icy cliffs of Gibbons’ Grotto outside the portholes and the black vacuum of space clashed with the theme, and one wag had seen fit to hang wicker and rattan baskets from the portholes, all bulging with seashells and assorted seagoing flotsam.

The three time jumpers were heartened by the sight of their 1st TD crewmates, already bent over a polished oaken bar, nursing their drinks. Captain Dringoth was there, as was Alicia Yang, even URME had shown up, taking time off from his maintenance duties aboard Cygnus.

There were hugs, backslaps and handshakes all around and an assembly line of fresh, steaming Smoking Craters soon appeared on deck, courtesy of the autobar.

Dringoth toasted the return of their wayward crewmates. "To Cygnus…if she ever gets the hell out of Refit and jumps time again—"

Yang squawked. No family should ever be broken up like this again…it ain’t right. She jabbed at M’Bela’s waist. See what sightseeing does to you…look at this flab. Queenie’ll have to be confined to the gym for a month.

Dringoth added, Trying to skate through the Rift like that…what the hell were you thinking, Commander?

Golich smiled ruefully. Only of getting back here to this eyesore and swilling this aractyl piss. He chugged a good portion of the Crater and his eyes and tongue burned with satisfaction.

M’Bela had noticed other ships parked at Gateway overhead, orbiting around the Grotto. Who’s our company upstairs, Captain?

Several vid screens spotted about the Grill had live views of the refit and repair work going on around Gateway.

Dringoth watched the scene for a moment. Gateway could handle five jumpships at a time and her bots and dockhands scurried around the docked ships like so many worker bees serving the nest. "Virgo and Scorpio are in in for refit, same as us. In fact, I just came from a meeting with Gateway’s Chief Engineer, going over ripout and installation timing on our collapser. URME’s got all the details in that big robotic brain of his."

URME, 1st TD’s Unit Reserve Memory Entity, was a para-human swarm, which brightened noticeably when attention shifted to him. His voice sounded like it was coming out of a barrel. Collapser refit should be done in two days. Refit Activity’s giving us all new chronotron banks, new targeting arrays, and a better converger, the latest design out of the Labs. She’ll still have to be tested in shakedown, but the early reports are encouraging.

Golich smirked. Just what URME needs, a new whizbang toy to play with.

"Yeah, one that gives Cygnus one hell of a sting, for Bugs and other nasties."

Captain, asked M’Bela, what’s on the boards for 1st TD now?

Dringoth fingered some Crater ‘dust’ from the rim of his mug. His face turned serious,