The Lost Libraries Archive (The Erik Midgard Case Files Volume 2)

Chapter 1

I

In an era when spacecraft were plentiful, and teleportation was cheap and easy, no one walked any great distances anymore.

On the surface of the moon, a boot stamped into the thick, dark grey dust that carpeted the seabed of the Ocean of Storms. It was worn by a tall man in an armoured military spacesuit, designed to protect its wearer from the most hostile environments in the Solar System and to do it while the enemy was shooting at him. The suit was triple-layered, reinforced and coloured dark grey, only a shade lighter than the dust at the man's feet. His helmet visor was tinted black. Five more figures, wearing identical spacesuits, followed him. A small warehouse robot, carrying a large open-topped crate on its caterpillar tracks, brought up the rear.

The Ocean of Storms was a vast open lake of the dark grey dust, reflecting less light than the rest of the lunar surface. A small mountain range rose on the curving horizon behind the figures, with the blue and white sphere of Earth rising above it, casting long shadows from the peaks out over the seabed. Around it, far out in space, the stars shone more brightly than they ever could on the surface of the planet with the atmosphere diffusing their light. But the figures didn't look back to admire the view. Their target was ahead of them on the opposite horizon.

It stood on a long, curving platform of rock that reached out into the Ocean of Storms like a peninsular. It was a collection of square and rectangular nine-storey buildings, made of dark grey ultracrete, with long windows glowing with the interior lights. There were no airlocks at ground level and the exterior walls were two metres thick. If anyone did happen to be looking out of the windows in the right direction, the six figures would be hidden against the shadows the mountains.

The lead figure paused beside a small rocky outcrop, the remains of some ancient meteorite strike, and checked his Unirifle one last time. The computerised sights were zeroed, so he could aim accurately through the curve of his visor, and the power cell was fully charged. The other figures did the same, then indicated with hand signals that they were ready. The leader nodded, then turned forwards and led the way towards ChronOps HQ.

_ _ _ _ _

Inside Chronological Operations Agency Headquarters, it was lunchtime. Mirabi and I were sitting at one of the long tables in the main canteen, waiting for the afternoon duty shift to start.

"I'm completely serious," said Jake Helios, who was sitting opposite Mirabi. "Is it possible or not?"

"Of course it isn't, you moron," said Jake's partner, Deborah Shiva, who was sitting next to him. Jake was my height, with blue-green eyes and short dark hair, while Deborah was shorter, with straight red hair that hung down to her jaw and light grey eyes. "We can't change the past. Ergo, we can't change the future. Same reason."

"Exactly the same reason," said Mirabi, eating another mouthful. My partner was slightly shorter than I was, with long black hair in a braid that hung all the way down her back. She was over-eating as usual, but still looked fit and athletic because she'd recently taken up low-gravity Taekwondo again. "If you want to change the past, you have to go back even further into the past - before the event you want to change - to do it. So effectively, you're trying to change the future. That won't work and there's no reason why it should if you do it from the present."

"It's never been tried," said Jake, pointing a half-chewed bread roll at her.

"Of course not. The only people who want a repeat of Mercury are the cultist nut jobs, the deluded and the stupid," said Deborah.

"That still doesn't mean we know for sure," said Jake. His main passions in life, aside from his ChronOps career, were 3D poker and sunboard-surfing, but he was thoughtful about the logic and consequences of time travel past the point that gave most people headaches. "The future's meant to be the Fan of Open Paths. Our choices in the present determine which one we go down. So why can't we look at the future, choose which choices to make and which path we go down? If we can't, that means there's actually only one path."