A Forgotten Power

Chapter 08: Starting Over

Alexis and Jaz were forced to make three trips outside the city to collect enough bones for the time jump as the distance in years required an immense amount of power. Using the detailed information in the book, they learned how to chain the power of one bone into another.  It allowed the room next door, filled with a pile of skeletal remains marked with the appropriate symbols, to connect with those in the exam room, spread out upon the floor in a spiral pattern resembling a galaxy.

In the center of the main formation was a set of skulls. Arranged in a ring, the skulls faced outward and another skull had been placed on top of the first group. Each of the staring, grinning pieces had been carefully inscribed with the necessary symbols and geometric patterns essential for the process to work.

"Is everything ready?" Jaz asked as he hurried into the examination room and sealed the door behind him. He quickly typed on his computer, raising the building's primary defenses.

"Why?" Alexis questioned. "Is something wrong?"

"I think our repeated venturing outside the wall drew some unwanted attention," Jaz answered. "It would appear someone either knows what we're doing or is rather insistent on finding out."

The entire research station shook as an explosion went off against the energy shielding protecting the facility. Another followed almost immediately afterwards, and alerts began flashing as the stress being put on the protective energy field was proving to be too much; the field integrity was beginning to weaken and would collapse at any moment.

"Come with me," she told him. "We're leaving now."

The two of them stepped to the center of the spiral pattern, careful not to disturb the arrangement of the surrounding bones. Alexis took hold of the top skull of the central stack and turned it clockwise ninety degrees without lifting it from the others.

All of the etchings on the bones, both in the examination room and the piles in the storage room next door, began to illuminate in phosphorescent blue. The same light shone forth from the empty eye sockets of the skulls. A blinding flash occurred, the glowing energy fading immediately afterwards. The bones had turned black as their power was consumed in full.

The exam room tilted sharply sideways, forcing Alexis and Jaz to grab onto the work tables bolted to the floor to keep from being thrown against the wall. Almost as quickly as it had occurred, the room shifted back to level.

"What was that?" Jaz asked.

"Sorry about that," Alexis answered. "The time distortion encompassed the entire examination room, so when the jump occurred, the research facility where we were docked didn't come with us. We changed timeframes but not locations, so we were still up in the air but without the support of the tower. The lurch you felt was the room entering freefall before the automatic stabilizers engaged."

"Why didn't you warn me beforehand?" Jaz demanded.

"I would have if we hadn't been forced to jump early," Alexis countered. "We probably had sufficient energy to take the entire facility with us, but I didn't have time to make the adjustments to the temporal field before the attackers showed up. It's something we're going to have to prepare for."

"What do you mean?" Jaz prompted. "Do you think any of them came with us?"

"I doubt it," she denied. "The facility defense shields had yet to collapse, so they were outside when the time jump triggered. What I mean about preparing is we need to have a few bones set up in advance to pause or accelerate time. If we can move about while everyone else is frozen within the span of a single second, we'd be able to analyze the situation and formulate responses before the problem escalated."

"The power to never be forced to make a rushed decision," Jaz mused. "Interesting."

"It's more than that," Alexis continued. "It also gives the power to build and work on things at a speed undreamed of. Imagine if an enemy army were invading. We set off one of the time distortions, and before the enemy can attack, we have trained, equipped, and deployed an army of our own. Every move they make would be countered before the orders were even finished going out. If any sneak attacks happen, we simply reverse time and have them walk into our waiting hands."

"This level of power is dangerous," Jaz commented. "With such control over the world and its people, it would be very easy to abuse that power and become a tyrant."

"We'll be too busy for that to happen," Alexis assured him. "We have an entire world to build. It is no small task. To begin with, we're going to need food for ourselves. We have shelter in the examination room, but it'd be nice if we had someplace more comfortable to sleep. Eventually, we're going to have to contact the locals and establish some form of society. They'll need to be educated to follow rules and morality. Food production and distribution will need to be put in place along with writing laws, assigning territory, and exploring the world to see if there are any other beginning forms of civilization out there. We can't have any competitors."

"What are you going to do, go to war to eliminate any who don't wish to follow our guidance?" Jaz questioned. When she only stared at him, his jaw dropped slightly. "You can't be serious?"

"You saw what our world was like and how itended," Alexis reminded. "How many havedied throughout history in wars between nations? If the extermination of a few tribal villagescan prevent all the death to come, I'll consider it a bargain."