The Madman's Clock. Aaron Ph.D. Dov
is this investigation that serious?" I asked. "If they asked you to come all the way out here, how hot are things getting for us?"
He shook his head, gazing once more to his right. "I have no idea, Captain. That is not why I am here. If this was about the investigation into your squad's actions, I could follow all of that from my office on Europa Station. While I am enjoying not looking out of an office window and seeing Jupiter for once, Port 25 is pretty far out of my way for nothing but a battlefield misconduct investigation."
I nodded. "Sir, why are you here?"
Admiral Bishop smirked slightly. "Most senior officers would never dare ask me that, let alone a mere captain."
I took in a deep breath. "Most admirals wouldn't ask to see a mere captain, decide they couldn't wait ten minutes, and then track him down in a locker room."
Bishop inclined his head. "Fair enough." He paused for a moment, before continuing. "The truth is that I am no longer in command of Special Operations. I gave up that post almost a year ago."
I sat up a little straighter on my bench. "Sir?"
He waved off my surprise. "It was not publicized, though we tend not to make big announcements about Spec-Ops, anyway. Certainly, information like that does not get wide release, considering what I do now."
"And that is, sir?" I asked carefully, unsure if I really wanted the answer.
He reached into his pocket, and removed a small circular device. It reminded me of a woman's compact. He set it down on the bench, and tapped its top. It beeped twice. I recognized it as a jammer. It would keep listening or video devices from picking us up. That particular model was so effective, if someone nearby had artificial eyes or ears, they wouldn't work.
"I work in an advisory capacity for something called Project Pocket Watch," he said, quietly.
I shrugged. "I've never heard of that."
"Nor has anyone else outside of a very sequestered group of engineers and physicists, and of course some naval personnel" he said quietly, now guarding his voice.
"Some new bomb?" I guessed out loud.
He shook his head. "No, captain. Far from it. In fact, it is an exploration tool."
I waited silently for the admiral to continue. What did a legendary admiral from Special Operations need with a captain from Marine Recon, on a project involving exploration? There were marine units specially trained to accompany deep exploration ships, and though we had similar training, that wasn't what I or my guys signed up for. When the admiral didn't continue, I said all of this.
He nodded his understanding. "I get that, but once you hear the story, I think your involvement will become somewhat clearer."
He reached back into his pocket, and pulled out a small hand-pad. This one was small, and designed for security. It was no bigger than a pen. He tossed it to me. I unrolled it, the paper-thin screen unrolling like an ancient scroll. Once the hand-pad was fully unrolled and it clicked into place, stiffening, the screen turned on.
On the display was a picture of a ship in space dock. It was narrow and tall, almost flat, resembling nothing so much as a space carrier on its side. About midway along, the hull angled up thirty degrees, as if the ship builders hadn't built her straight. At its midpoint, right where the ship "bent," was a circular bulge. I had the thought in my head that it was some flat, mechanical snake swallowing an apple. At the front of the ship, one at the top and one at the bottom, the hull extended outward; two pylons, like fork prongs. It was a bizarre looking ship. Along the side, the name was painted. I zoomed in to read it. UES Saturnus.
"Interesting name, sir," I muttered, louder than I had intended.
"Oh?" the admiral replied with a smirk.
"Saturnus," I said, pointing to the picture screen. "Latin for Saturn. The Greeks called him Kronos." I shook my head. "Sorry, sir. Lieutenant Forres, whom you were talking to earlier, he's into that stuff. On a really long, boring flight a couple of years ago, he gave us the history of the universe according to the Greeks and Romans."
The admiral smirked again. "Go on," he said quietly.
"Um, well, Saturn was the father of Jupiter, or Zeus. Zeus became ruler of Olympus by overthrowing his father. He imprisoned Saturn and the rest of the Titans. Well, most of them, at least for a while, I think. I dunno. David's the guy to talk about this stuff, really."
"Keep going, captain," the admiral was watching my mind work, putting the pieces together. I tried to connect the name of the ship, Saturnus, with the name of the project to which it was obviously connected. Project Pocket-watch. It took me a minute.
I went on. "Zeus eventually released a few of the titans."
"Such as Saturnus," the admiral chimed in.
I nodded. "Yes, sir. He released Saturnus from his prison, and made him ruler of some island or another. Saturnus, Kronos in Greek, is where we get our word 'chronology' from. He was the master of time. Zeus released him because he ultimately understood that he couldn't control time himself, so he put Saturnus where he could keep an eye on him, and control time that way."
The admiral tapped his left forefinger to his temple. "And there you have it."
"Excuse me, sir?" I caught my breath, held it. "Wait, what? No way."
The admiral gestured to the hand-pad. "Scroll to the next image."
I did. The picture was replaced with a schematic of the ship. At its center, at that mid-ship bulge, was a bizarre contraption around which the entire ship was obviously designed. I was nowhere near good enough with anything so highly technical to really understand what I was looking at.
"Some sort of new jump drive?" I asked, already knowing that wasn't it. Still, it was better than what I had the feeling I was about to be told, which made no sense at all. Even my squeak-through pass of high school physics told me that much.
"A jump drive? No, that would hardly fit in with our little story about the gods," Bishop replied dryly. "Put bluntly, it is a time machine."
I can only imagine what the expression on my face was like. It was probably just as bizarre as what came out of my mouth, something one does not usually say to an admiral.
"What the fuck?"
CHAPTER 2
"Okay," I called out loudly, struggling to be heard over the laughter. "Quiet down, guys. We have to get through this. We're skids up in an hour."
David, Raj, and Kyle tried to stifle their laughter, though their smirks stuck around. They were as dismissive as I had been two hours earlier. Their grins were only half-seen in the dim light, but I knew they were there. The small officers mess was darkened, the holographic image of the Saturnus slowly turning through the air, hovering above the small palm-projector sitting on the polished metal dining table. Admiral Bishop stood across the table from us, his face flickering with the light of the holographic projection.
We sat in the comfy, leather-bound chairs that surrounded the table. Though I was permitted to eat here, I had never bothered. I never ate in the officers mess, no matter where I was stationed, except on formal occasions where my presence was required. Normally I ate with my team. Whatever we did, we did together. Since arriving here, we had chosen to eat in the main mess hall, and generally during off hours. Being here felt slightly odd. It was as though I were trespassing in enemy territory. I was used to that, but I wasn't weighed down with fifty pounds of combat gear. I felt naked without it.
When Raj and Kyle finally stopped chuckling, David clearing his throat to try and focus himself and his buddies, Admiral Bishop moved to continue. The silence in the room held for a moment, as Bishop examined us,