Alatem and Charles had been talking it over for over an hour, they were still no closer to a decision about what to do with Alatem's sister. "As you know she's also a royal, meaning now you could have a double death penalty on your head. Though father is starting to warm up to you, we still aren't to the point that he'd suspend killing you for touching a royal." Alatem was slightly pissed at her sister for following her, plus there was the fact that she was now privy to the biggest part of her plan.
Charles knew they had a major problem, he'd racked his brain for some type of solution to this problem. A few moments later his wrist com. chirped. "Charles, I've completed the search of all the research files; it appears you do have a concept to do what you require. I have no practical application as of yet, though with the help of Ally's resources we are progressing toward a resolution."
"Thank you Cici, please bring up the tactical display of the plans I have so far," Charles hoped he'd progressed far enough to begin a practical building of the device.
"Compliance," Cici replied as the plans appeared before Charles.
Pouring over the plans, Charles reformed the design working at an almost breakneck speed. two hours later Charles was testing the concepts as hard and fast as he could, Dammit! He needed to start updating his device plans as soon as possible, had he done that earlier they wouldn't be having this trouble right now.
"So far all tests confirm the device is working as you intended. All results show only a three hour window, no adverse effects detected but we still have one hundred tests to run. It will barely be in time," Cici replied. Charles noticed that Cici was slightly more emotional, good the brain cells were starting to integrate into its personality programs. Checking all the results so far Charles could see that the device was working far better than he'd hoped.
With only fifteen minutes to go Charles explained to Alatem what he was about to do. Alatem wasn't happy with what had to be done. Unfortunately, her sister had the biggest mouth on the planet. Walking back to her sister she explained what was about to happen, the little girl's eyes grew large then she asked. "Will I be able to remember you later, can you give the memories back?" Charles just shook his head yes before he activated the device.
"We have to get back to the palace as soon as possible, I've called our guards here, so hurry my love." Alatem was still afraid that Charles would be captured if the guards got close enough, even with his tech.
"Remember, you'll have to supply believable answers to her questions or it might not hold. Her mind is young and their minds are far less concentrated, making it easier for them to break the memory block." Alatem shook her head placing her sister on a nearby couch, watching Charles slip out the back.
Within minutes both set of guards appeared at the doors hurrying in they were concerned that Alatem's sister was hurt. Explaining that she'd followed Alatem and fallen asleep not long after getting there, only put half the guard's fears to rest. "I suggest you find out how she is slipping past you and amend the fact that you can't seem to keep her in the palace. Up till now I have been tolerant but this can't continue."
Not really wanting to have them dismissed or punished Alatem knew she had to threaten them if they were going to continue to be her sister's protectors. Trok could only smirk as he thought she ought to take her own advice. Though he knew how well she was trained she could hold her own in a true fight; an assassin was a different matter all together.
Charles was hiding not too far away, looking at his wrist com it was strange that after he'd stopped each attack, the history that Cici had of this time changed. He'd asked Cici and Ally about it, as far as they could tell, because he'd used his own brain cells after he'd been irradiated, that the living part of Cici was also outside of time. Therefore as events changed here, the history changed, Cici unaffected by it.
With all his theoretical knowledge that he now possessed, it still gave him a headache when he tried to think about the possibilities with time travel. Looking at his comp he saw that though they had stopped two attempts to kill the royal family, the fall of the empire was still only ten years from now. Shaking his head he started to wonder just what the fuck he had to do to affect the time line.
The next day Alatem awoke to the sound of her father knocking on her door, "Ali? You awake?"
Moving out of bed she was throwing her clothes from her excursion the night before in a hamper. "I'm just getting in the bath father," she called back to him through the door.
"Alright, come see me as soon as your finished," he replied, sighing he moved toward the throne room. They'd almost gotten the man last night, just a minute or two earlier and they'd have had him. The emperor was starting to have deep seated fears, Alatem had the time raider out for over two hours. It had been explained to him that would have been ample time to go forward or back in time, hell ten minutes was more than enough. Sighing he thought, ah Alatem what were you into now, have you brought someone back with you?
Alatem was extremely nervous this attempt was the most dangerous that the assassins would try to date. She was praying that Charles and Ally were ready, one mistake and they all were dead; today was the day that history had her dying. Charles had been up most of the night trying to perfect his homing bullets. He was still having trouble with the lock on for one of the assassins. Cursing Charles knew that he'd have to risk the long distance matter through matter transfer with the last one. After conferring with Ally, Charles synchronized Cici with Alatem's AI, he'd have to get everything almost perfect, Alatem was placing her life in his hands and he'd be damned if some sniveling little shit was going to take her life.
Charles was nervous, he'd have to get way to close to the emperor, hell he might even have to touch him then Charles knew all hell would break lose. The minutes ticked off, Charles checking his watch almost time, then the first appeared. Charles knew that all four had to be out in the open before he could do anything. Within only five minutes all of them were there, Charles alerted Ally to prepare as he aimed at the emperor, shit it was the only way.
Thirty seconds later the first three moved forward to strike. On the other side of the hall there was a rapid popping noise the emperor recognized from the day before. Diving to the floor the emperor and his family watched as three man fell on three sides of them. There was a brief flash next to the family, the emperor a little confused saw that Charles had pulled a pistol shooting the fourth man in the leg, the guards had already started to rush forward, one had managed to get a shot off just before Charles was flashed out.
The emperor had finally gotten a good look at the mystery man. Though he was plain looking, the battle hardened look in his eyes convinced the emperor that the man was obviously a soldier or was at one time. The guards had finally reached the screaming man yanking him up they held him while the emperor advanced on him. Removing the skin mask the emperor could see he was obviously wearing, everyone in the hall gasped when it was revealed that the lone man left alive was in fact the emperor's supposed dead brother.
"YOU! I saw you killed on the battle field," the emperor shouted.
Laughing the man spat in the emperor's face, "You weak minded fool! As if you could tell anything! I despise you and everything you stand for! You son of a whore! Kill me and you'll never have a day's peace I have had years to build my army."
"I thought it was your sons the whole time, pity you'll never see the light of day again. One would think that after the deaths of your two sons you'd have left this insane idea behind," the emperor spat back at his brother.
In all the confusion, Alatem had left the room contacting Ally, her fears were confirmed. Charles had been struck by stop shot, running up the stairs she ordered Ally to warm up the time slip device. As her room door closed there was a flash and moments later the time raider jumped from orbit. All attempts to hail it were ignored then the ship shimmered and vanished, Cursing, the emperor now knew that his daughter knew who the mystery man was.
Only the royal family had knowledge of the long distance mater through mater transfer system Alatem was the only one who had a working model. Charles was starting to shake the stop shot was trying to burrow deeper into his shoulder. It was a much simpler form of his homing bullets but this was a lot more random. Ally and Cici had managed to almost completely halt the progress of the bullet but he needed his equipment on the station back in his time. Ally was calling off the years then they were back, nearing the station the defence shields were lowered. Moving into position Cici took control and locked the station onto the hull.
Gasping from the pain Charles gave Ally the position of the lab, there was a flash and both he and Alatem were there. Moving as fast as he could through the pain, Charles pulled two vials from a secure panel in the wall. Injecting the first Cici chimed in, "Charles I advise taking the second set of nanomites."
"I can't Cici, you know it takes a lot longer to program them to repair damage, than you've had to set them up," Charles gasp back.
"I have them at seventy five percesnt it is more than sufficient to repair the damage," Cici droned back at him.
"No! We have to have them as far as you can get them, I won't have these facilities back there in order to make more. All that there are will have to be from me along with the program. Proceed with the programming if I pass out before it's complete then inject them," Charles could feel the bullet trying to turn toward his heart moving an inch every half hour. The first set had reached the bullet and already had the explosive charge disarmed but the bullet it's self was still moving. Finally the program was at ninety nine percent when Charles passed out. Cici just as quickly injected the nanomites monitoring them as they rapidly moved through the blood stream.
Julie had been trying to contact the station for an hour after that strange ship with Charles on it had vanished. Julie could see on her readings that the ship was back, problem was the station was at the edge of the Kronos clan's territory. Julie moved her ship as close as she could, pushing a stray tress of her brown hair from her face. She executed a ship roll hoping that Charles could correct the station's position before the clan came hunting.
Charles was drifting in and out of unconsciousness, Cici had detected the approaching ships not long after they had docked, problem was Charles the only one who could bring the full shields up. The ships were getting closer but all Cici had, was the basic shield for navigation, that'd be gone in five to ten minutes. Charles could hear Cici telling Alatem and Ally what he was detecting but couldn't respond.
Reaching out he barely hit the shield generator button before he passed out again, Cici alerted Alatem that they now had almost one hundred percent shields and should be ok for a few hours. Ally informed them that her weapons were inoperable, something to do with the extra strong time waves Charles body was emitting. Alatem's mouth hung open looking at the ten rows of switches, buttons, and knobs she was at a loss what to do. Looking over the long line she saw that the shields were at on end, but she wasn't sure where the weapons were. Half an hour later the Kronos clan reached the station, not even giving a warning they opened fire.
Charles was clawing his way to the surface through what felt like miles of blackness. Slurring his words he tried to order the weapons to fire, "Cici weponz."
"Charles, deploy weapons?" Cici asked.
"Yeth," Charles slurred back, Alatem watched which parts of the control panel lit up huh it was under the shields.
"Fither," still unable to speak clearly, the bullet had been dismantled and absorbed but the path it took was still painful and still healing. The nanomites had deadened the pain but most of his other senses also. About an hour later another twenty ships joined the first ten, Charles's head was finally starting to clear his throat though was still unable to get the words out right.
Another hour passed, another twenty bringing the total to fifty were now trying to pierce the shields. Charles decided to give them a chance before he destroyed the fleet completely. "To the Kronos fleet, as you can see you can't penetrate my shields this is your only chance to withdraw. I will not wound or damage; you have one minute to comply or be obliterated." There was a laughing from the speakers.
Sighing Charles directed all weapons toward the Kronos fleet, looking over the readings Charles saw that the energy signature was almost identical to that of the Mioan Empire. Looking at the history Charles saw that the empire lasted twenty years then fell to another empire. The only problem was the conquerors had tried to move deeper and had been defeated. The empire split and a civil war started that wiped out the rest destroying almost all evidence. Not wanting to start an intergalactic war, Charles fired a warning shot past the lead Kronos ship. Again the speakers were filled with a gruntal laughter, "Big man! You are so powerful make big threats yet you miss! You're shields can't hold long, then we will enjoy taking everything you have!"
Shaking his head Charles was finally starting to feel better, what idiots he thought, they could see that his power levels weren't dropping, yet they still thought they were going to win. Reaching over Charles flipped two switches up and waited, suddenly pressing a red button Alatem's mouth hung open as the lead ship flashed and was gone with no fan fare. The speakers were suddenly alive with shouting, " I warned you, I can take out the rest of your fleet just as easily, leave now and I MIGHT let you live!" Charles yelled into the mike.
"You bastard! That was my brother! I will never rest till you're dead!" With that the rest of the fleet turned and withdrew. Shaking his head again Charles watched as the Kronos ships picked up speed then were gone; suddenly a frightened Julie was on the line.
"Charles! Have you lost your mind? That was the eldest son of the Kronos empire's ruler, you do realize that they won't stop till you're dead or they are." Julie was almost shouting, "hell and he was the nice one his brother who was yelling at you is the most evil of the twenty sons. I hope you got a lot of big guns, all of them will be after you now."
Charles just stared at Julie, in had been a few weeks since he'd seen her but as he suspected the failed attempts in the past had slightly altered his time. Charles looked at Alatem wondering a moment, "Ally," he asked.
"Yes Charles, how may we help all of you?" The AI replied in a little too sexy voice.
"Are there any records of a person out of time, being able to receive memories of the time they had been removed from and then altered?" Charles asked an idea forming.
"I'm not following you," Alatem said.
"It's like getting the memories like I lived this time line, even though I didn't," Charles replied.
"Searching memory, please give me a few minutes Charles," Ally replied.
"Why did you ask that?" Alatem asked wondering what Charles was up to.
"It just dawned on me, something Ally said right after I was removed from time. She said that the reason it was so painful, lasting so long, was because I was important to both times. I feel there is something in the memories that would benefit both times especially after we alter this time again." Charles was hoping he was right but it was the only thing that made sense at this point.
Five minutes later Ally chimed in, "Search complete. It appears that after the stopped attempts new information was added to the time line. Yes, it appears that experiments were conducted on the conscious downloading of memories that are not a part of a person out of time. Charles," Ally was dead serious, "this procedure is far more dangerous than the last. There was only a sixty percent estimated chance of surviving it, plus the research was never completed."
Alatem spoke up at this point, "It's not worth it Charles. We've just started to correct all that was wrong in my time; I can't lose you to this insanity."
"Alatem, I have to do this it's the only way I can know for sure. Besides with me, Ally and Cici working on it I am sure we can increase the percentage." Charles replied seeing the look of terror on her face.
"Computations already started," broke in Ally, "I'm already finding errors in the math and the energy regulation. Correcting survival rate now at sixty seven and one half percent. Charles that Julie person is calling again."
"I'll take it in the com room," Charles replied.
"Charles, I need to bring the supplies aboard and find out what you want me to tell command," Julie stated.
"Alright dock at 6," Charles replied as he headed to the dock. "Ally call me when you have any further progress."
Julie's ship was just docking when he appeared outside the hatch. Julie came though it fuming, "What the hell was that? Are you trying to start a war with the Kronos Empire? You do realise that they are going to be screaming for your head to command right?"
"As if I care!" Charles shouted for some reason he felt this was the way he'd answer in this alternate time.
"Yeah, I realize that but not all of us have the tech you do, enough firepower to vaporize a planet. I think that's why they left; I think they're afraid you just might try to do that to their home world. Hell not many would be upset, I know my crew wouldn't, they're just a bunch of thugs." Julie was eyeing Charles and his crotch again, Charles felt nothing for her but liked the attention anyway.
"Look, just have command tell the Kronos bunch that I am a rogue, that they didn't even know I was there. Hell that's believable enough," Damn Charles thought, where is this all coming from. It was almost as if the memories were bleeding into his mind. He had just enough to convince Julie, who finally left smirking after she rubbed his crotch and told him the invitation was still open.
Ally reported that she had it to seventy five percent but couldn't find any more mistakes to increase it more. Charles sat down looking over the energy used, the time of exposure, the circumstances involved, everything. After twelve hours straight Charles stumbled upon something he'd passed up four times. "Ally what is this reading here?" he asked.
"That's interaction time with others of the time you're in, the waves of energy they are producing and... I am beginning to see what you are talking about Charles, brilliant." Ally sighed.
"Is there any way to increase this? Possibly to accelerate the influx of memories?" Charles asked.
"Checking figures now, confirming with Cici," Ally said "Confirmation, assessing, you would need exposure to at least six different people, twenty minutes to each singular, five minutes all together. From the data provided these memories would be more like a dream and wouldn't supersede the memories that were there first." Cici droned out.
Charles was glad to hear he wouldn't lose memories, but twenty minutes with six people alone? Hell, why not go into a crowd and walk with them. Charles walked back to where Julie was directing her men, walking in he watched not saying a word. Soon the memories were flooding to him, shit there still wasn't anything that wo... ? Hmmm that was interesting, a memory erase adjust and reload unit, handy.
Contacting Ally and Cici they were soon downloading the plans, shit but the computer security was tighter in this time line. Julie told him she'd relay the message he'd given her to command. As soon as her ship was out of sight Ally chimed in, "Activating Time slip please be seated," with that the ship left the station within five minutes they were heading back. Thanks to Cici and Charles they now had a way to stay conscious almost the whole time, well at least Alatem, he didn't pass out anymore.
They'd talked before they'd set out for Alatem's time, since the Emperor had seen Charles, there was no place that would be safe now on the planet. They decided that he'd stay on the ship till he had the device perfected. That of course would leave Alatem to deal with her father till then. Sighing Alatem nodded she'd run interference before though not this long. She was confident she could hold him off. Alatem answered the hails finding that they'd only been gone two minutes, so she knew that it would be fresh in her father's mind.
The rest of the day even after Alatem had left, Charles labored on the device. He had to have it almost perfect if this plan was to work. Unlike the device he'd used on Alatem's sister, this could go back as far as you wanted and was a lot harder to regain memories.
Alatem had avoided her father almost all day, she dreaded when he caught up to her. There were questions that he'd ask that she wasn't prepared to answer. She was heading away from her father when she realized that she'd left the wrist com Charles had made for her in her room. Without it she'd never know when Charles was ready, "Dammit!" She'd just walked in her room when he walked in behind her unexpected, startled she didn't see the signal Charles sent to signify he was ready.
Closing and locking her door her father thought he had her now, Charles flashed in behind him within seconds of this, realizing he had to act fast, he stunned the emperor. Alatem could only stare opened mouth almost believing that Charles had killed her father. Charles walked to the man now unconscious as Alatem moved to intercept him. "He's not dead Alatem just stunned, I have to erase and put in there that he hasn't seen me yet. I'll do this as a reload ok?" Charles could see that she was shaking, she and her father might not agree at all but it was evident she loved him fiercely.
Charles knelt to start the procedure when Ally chimed in that the subject had to be awake. Cursing Charles knew that the emperor would be out at least another hour, sighing he pulled a small injection from the pouch at his side. Looking at Alatem he told her to be prepared for almost anything, the emperor jerked awake wondering what the hell had happened. Looking around he saw he was on the floor next to Alatem. He turned his head the other way and met the eyes of the man who'd saved his family three times in four days. That plus revealed that his traitorous brother was behind all the assassination attempts.
"I don't know who you are but you are a great hero to the empire, what would you like for your reward?" The emperor asked.
"Can you make him a royal?" Alatem asked?
"You know that isn't possible without certain criteria," he replied.
"Dad, cut the shit, we both know you can do it!" Alatem yelled.
"You know I can't, not yet," he said. Alatem shook her head at Charles as he started the M.E.A.R (memory erase adjust reload) device.