Time Flux: Welcome to the New World

Connecting the Dots

The slight swaying and rocking of the floor made her feel uneasy. It wasn't often that they would venture out to sea and even less likely that he would be with them. The last few months had been hectic to say the least. The job she had done for the best part of 5 years had always been exciting, extreme and even terrifying at times but she always had felt that they had complete control over the outcome. Clock, Hannah and the rest of that merry band had instilled a measure of doubt within her, doubt which she knew he could sense. She shoved that doubt deep within her, into the darkest reaches of her mind and strode across the steel floor of the boat to the starboard bow where he stood, leaning against the railing looking out at the obsidian sea gleaming frantically in the starlight of the night. He turned to meet her gaze, with a small hand rolled cigarette hanging from his crooked mouth.

"Three..." One said, meant as a shallow greeting.

"Superior. The crew are expecting us to reach our destination with the next 90 minutes" Three replied, her back stiff.

"Good, is everything in place for our arrival?" He flicked embers from his cigarette into the ocean below "I will be displeased if it is not."

"Yes, Superior. I have been assured that everything will be as it should." Three quivered.

One once again touched the cigarette to his thin, chapped lips and inhaled deeply before letting the smoke seep out from between his haggard teeth. He brow was creased into a slight frown and he had not taken his eyes from the horizon for some time. One was known within the organisation as someone who would think very quickly but today Three was witnessing him do something he never does, Second guess himself.

"Superior?" Three asked

"What is it?" One rumbled

"You said we were going to set a trap, but not for Clock, for Craft. I still don't understand"

"Hannah Craft in her time is the foremost leading scientific mind on Earth. Which means in this era her intellect basically amounts to superhuman ability. She is far more valuable to me than that damaged soldier." One took another long drag from his cigarette "... And we need her. I need her."

"You don't need anyone. Superior." Three said, with a slight blush.

"Hmmm..." One said as he dropped his cigarette into the ocean and turned to look at Three, dead in the eyes "You do truly believe that don't you"

Three found what he said confusing but also found strength in his gaze as she has many times before. Following One's orders always ended in the same result. Victory. She wasn't going to change a winning formula now.

"Three, it is important that you understand what we are about to do if you are going to help me to the best of your ability" One said.

"Superior. I would die for you... sir." Three replied.

"Well, hopefully that won't be necessary..." One said, pulling another cigarette from his inside jacket pocket "Does the name Titanic mean anything to you?"

"No Superior, should it?" Three questioned.

"I thought it should. That was until we interrogated Clock and his people" One leant on the railing again "You see the RMS Titanic is or was, depending on your perspective, a very famous cruise ship and its famous for one defining reason. It sank."

"Sir?"

"The only issue here is that in this timeline we currently find ourselves the Titanic did not set sail when it was supposed to, meaning it never met its destined end at the hands of a quite sizeable iceberg..."

"Sorry Superior, I'm obviously not as sharp as you are."

"Quite, When we interrogated Clock and the rest. We found that not only do they come from another timeline but also that when they saw the Titanic they were debating, whether seriously or not to help keep it from sinking. Which means in their timeline the only thing that was different was that they arrived before it struck the Iceberg, nothing more. But they did believe that without intervention it would still in fact sink." One pulled a small notebook from his inside pocket and palmed it tightly "Which means that they come from a slightly but distinctly different timeline to this one."

"That was helpful, Superior?"

"Extremely because you see, there is an error in both timelines..."

Three struggled to wrap her head around what was being said.

"You see Three, this is not how it happened in my timeline..." One said without flinching, seeing the shock creep across her face "... In my timeline, the Titanic in fact embarked on its journey 5 days earlier. Meaning that we can confidently say we now have 2 timelines one being mine and the other Clocks, ending up inside of this timeline, or yours for clarification."

"But, Superior. You are saying that you are a time traveller too?" Three asked, mouth gaping.

"I am, yes. Is that an issue Three?"

"Do the leaders know?"

"Don't be an idiot. You are there first soul I've told since I arrived in this time 22 years ago. But they have arrived in a different way, in a better way. They managed to arrive here without any adverse effects taking hold of them. Unlike myself" One said, holding his withered hand out in front of him.

"Sir, I was told you had a condition..."

"No that is just a cover I use to keep suspicion away from me within the organisation. It was only my implants that kept me from being ripped apart in the process of being sent here, however my biological parts took a big hit. I'm not the man I was before, the natural passage of time has not helped my case either. Inside of this book I have kept a record of everything I knew from my timeline and all of the slight changes within this one. Nothing has been out of the ordinary or could not be reasonably explained by the ripple effect of my presence within this timeline. That is until they arrived..."

Three now understood, her idol and in many ways her father figure was not the man she believed he was but he was in fact even more incredible.

"Superior, is that why you want Craft, to have her build a safe way for you to time travel again?" Three asked

"It did cross my mind, yes" One replied

"You have other plans now, Superior?"

"What this has proved is that our timelines are not as far apart as we might think. We are connected in a way we have not discovered yet and Hannah Craft is the only one who can connect those dots. The only person who can link all of our timelines together"

"Do you wish to return to your time?" She sadly gulped

"Absolutely not" One replied sharply "I want what I've always wanted"

"Superior?"

"To save our planet..."