Chapter 7 - Arrival

Pummeling vertically into the blueish wormhole at breakneck speeds, Jacques was barely able to hold his stomach. The ship entering the wormhole was similar to a plane encountering turbulance, he closed his eyes tightly throughout the rocky ride. The cabin slowly stabled itself and Jacques felt it was safe to open his eyes again, he was pretty much ovewhelmed by the sight before his eyes. The ship was travelling through a tube in bright blue, its substance seemed semi-solid, reminiscent of the jello that he had earlier. As it approached the point of the hole, the bluish glow emmanated from the front right to the back of the ship and had its surrounding colour was completely changed into blinding blue momentarily before fading away.

Looking through the slightly rounded square window, Jacques was greeted by the contruction of several buildings and facilities on the planet Mars. The foundations of a square-shaped building had already been set up and other smaller dome-shaped buildings already had occupants inside, judging from a large signboard place outside the entrence of the building. Jacques blinked and saw other similar vehicles had passed by them, but heading in the other direction. The view then changed to a star-filled background for several minutes before a small, blue dot emerged from the glittering darkness. The same dot slowly began to enlarge itself, the blue seas and wispy white atmosphere were now visible. Through the clouds, very large areas of the Earth were scorched black and dead, the remaining green parts showed the hope of life still living, vast areas of the seas were still contaminated and political boundaries were now almost non-existant. The whole Earth had aged four hundred years since he last saw it.

Approaching using the same method as the previous descent during 1601 A.D., the city of Kharak now came into view. Jacques almost had his entire face crammed up the window pane in order to have a better look at the city.

The megacity was truly a great work of careful construction. The ship swerved to pass in between tall and huge buildings that reach out miles high into the air, all constructed of steel and glass, and cramped together, it was very similar to the superstructures back in Jacques' time, guess that some things doesn't really change much. Between the buildings of all shapes and sizes, were the networks of connecting roads. Cars and other vehicles cruised, or rather hovered along the well-maintainted roads. Here and there, were a few garden parks, created for recreation for those who needed a break from the bustling city life, all seperated from the roads by a safety barrier. The parks provided a small change of landscape, filled with green grass instead of the usual grey cement on the pavements.

There were several small ships flying alongside them in the air, mostly cargo ships which were supposed to enable efficient and quick transport of goods from the ports to the city. There were also a few advertising blimps floating around, each flying banners advertising household products or fast food restaurants. Advertising was still alive and kicking after all of this while, Jacques thought.

Near the outer edges of the city, were the numerous blocks of luxurious apartments and villas of the wealthy, high-classed citizens, who were rich enough to to afford a home that was not in the centre of all the noise and activity of the city. Most of these villas or homes had little gardens and swimming pools of their own and the area had more security compared to the inner city.

Approaching the city borders or limits, vast fields of lush brown grain and wheat filled the entire landscape, farmers were tending to their machinary and grain silos were plenty in the countryside. The stalks waved side to side gently in the wind, greeting the ship. A bit after the fields was the Kharak air force military base, just a few kilometres from the actual border.

The rough mix of light and dark green colours painted on the building reminded the personell of the history of the Earth, which had large amounts of forests and vegetation before the wars happened and also reminded them of the pledge of peace that they intended to keep for the Earth itself. Several large hangars housed military spaceship and aircraft and some of the aircrafts were brought outside for training and testing purposes. The shapes of the aircraft were close to the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber and were obviously descendants from the original aircraft. Some helicopters were parked at a corner of the area, they were still in use for Kharak's military, modified and evolved to become into one of the most lethal mechinary that Jacques had ever witnessed.

Flying deeper into the the military base, the ship headed towards a large landing pad which was painted in bright yellow. The boosters on the ship turned and with a slight bump, it landed vertically and safely on the ground. Once the dock had been opened, the occupants of the ship stepped out and returned on Kharakian soil again, escorting Jacques, his son Mark and a little box carried from his hands. Several other military personell emerged from the vehicles parked around the ship and took all three of them by the arms into the same vehicles.

Despite the closeness of the desert, with a little help from the nuclear winter sometime ago, the climate in the area had been changed from scorching hot to moderately cool, with the Kharakian themselves managing to stablise the temperature of the city to avoid getting freezed to death. Plantlife was quite abundant in every single corner of the city, and the inhabitants were encouraging the planting of trees in suitable areas.

The three entered the sleek black vehicle which was hovering several inches off the ground, and they were greeted by a general in a dark green uniform. The car took off once the doors were shut.

"Welcome to Kharak, I'm General Michinski of the Kharakian army, my only duty is to protect our citizens from any likelyhood of any danger. The Queen has requested for your service, which is generally a good news, as few have ever received a chance like this."

Jacques shook his hands and he took note at the number of decorations pinned on the general's heart.

"Thank you General. But why are we exactly here for?"

"I'm afraid that you can only get that answer from the Queen herself, we have not been inform of the exact reason or situation. We believe that you could have played a part in the construction of a certain kind of weapon, very dangerous if fallen into the wrong hands."

All of the memories flooded back to Jacques, the amount of time spent at the Canadian Military University as a researcher working on the construction of different kinds of top secret military weapons. Apart from some weapons and equipment that were eventually revealed to the general public, he never really talked about his work there to anyone else.

He received a letter from the University a week before the whole thing started. He was contemplating their requests to rejoin the group again but he never really reached a conclusion. After all, he thought he had all of the time in the world. He was wrong.

"I'm not working on any of these things anymore. I've already quit."

"But that was before you eventually gave into their requests."

"I did?"

"Yes."

Jacques contemplated at the eventual outsome of the situation. There was an slight opposition at the back of his mind. Turns out it won over time.

*****************

The clatter ouside slowly stirred Jacques from his bed, telephones were ringing and people were talking. He grudgingly opened his eyes to see the source of the noise. The door to his room was wide open, and a nurse strolled past by. It took him a moment before he realised he was in a hospital! He turned his head to the other side and saw a familiar face look at him, with a reluclant but glad kind of smile. His brother had come to visit him.

"Tim! Where's Elily? Where is she?" Jacques was flustering and attempted to get out from the bed but a terrible pain tore through his leg. He winced and looked down towards it, it was enveloped in a white coloured cast.

Tim held his brother by the shoulders and placed him back on the bed. "You've got to stop moving around. The doctors had just placed the cast on for you. Rest now."

"Tell me! Where is she!?" Jacques yelled worriedly.

There was no reply. Tim sat down and gazed towards his clasped hands. The noise was sliding quietly into the background. His hands were getting colder by the second. He drew a breath and opened his mouth slightly but no words came out. He didn't know what to say. He closed his eyes and sighed.

"No..." Jacques was shaking his head side to side.

"NOOOOO..." He dropped his head and his two hands found his face. He started to sob uncontrollably, tears streaked down his face, his body was trembling.

"The doctors couldn't save her in time, she had lost too much blood when she arrived at the hospital." Tim was finally able to explain. Every single word seemed to pierce Jacques, but the silence earlier was the first and deepest cut.

Chapter 6 - History

Kharak was an independent city, just like the other cities that were established after the nuclear war in 2320. The city was located in between the former city of San Jose in California and the boundary of Arizona, away from the fringes of the radiation left from the blasts. Its total territory was roughly 1000km² and encompasses the Salton Sea and a big stretch of the Colorado River. There were some outlying territories outside of the city which contained an important element, Boron. The element was frequently used to shield themselves from the harsh environment tainted by radioactivity.

The population of 25 million survivors mostly from America and Canada initially left their own cities and towns on a journey after the war and nuclear fallout to settle down in Kharak, as most of the soil in Northern America wasn't suitable for planting and they were facing the threat of starvation once their current food supply had run out.

Those who never joined the journey were recruited by the Resistance Movement, a group whose leaders had doubts of the intentions of Kharak's new mayor. Those who managed to survive the nuclear blasts regrouped to continue the fighting, they were convinced that the peace-seekers were traitors to the people and community, and had to be eliminated one way or another.

Public morale was generally high when the survivors reached the site and managed to grouped up with each other. Under the newly elected leadership of Mayor George Glenningham, who later became the first King of Kharak, they were able to start the construction of the new city, with some assistance from other independent cities.

After a stable government was established, the Kharaks occasionally sent teams beyond its city limits to other areas to check on survivors who didn't managed to make or complete the journey, at the request from the people's friends or relatives. Occasionally, there was a few communities scattered across towns in America who were able to fend themselves off from the influence of the Resistance Movement. They were a tightly-knit community who were almost isolated but the Kharak teams were able to convince them with news from relatives living in the city. It was later decided, with the inhabitants approval, that not-so-far-away towns would be annexed by the city while they would establish diplomatic relations with the other areas.

The economy of Kharak now depended mostly on both agriculture and technology, using desalinated and purified water from the Salton Sea and Colorado River to sustain the growing of crops and rearing cattle. The water had already been heavily polluted before the war, but since it was the few places to not have been contaminated with radioactivity, they were able to turn the sludge water into drinkable water.

The people there were mostly a happy bunch, contented with what they have left, for things could have been much worse if it was different. The new government was now a constitutional monarchy but the lower seats were elected by the inhabitants of the city. Kharak's relations with other independent cities were generally well and air and sea transport facilities between the cities were built to for trading and travelling purposes.

Once there was enough manpower available, there were plans to set up defence forces to keep the city and its territories safe from Resistance threats. It was initially successful at quashing gun and bomb attacks along the border but it quieted down soon to help them concentrate on accomplishing something concrete.

Now the Resistance Movement had been battling to establish a new government in the former United States, with the headquarters located in the untainted sections of the Caribbean Isles. Despite frequent attacks and incursions by members of the Resistance Movement, fatalities were far and few as advances in treatment and medicine after the war made sure that there was always hope for the wounded, no matter how serious the injury was. The problem was getting the injured to the hospitals in time.

*******************

The conflict in the Middle East was presumed to be main cause of the war. After another Arab invasion in the middle of June 2010 involving Israel, aided by the United States and the alliance forged between the Arab countries triggered the war. Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran had acquired modern attack jets and tanks from Russia and China to be used in the war. Egypt decided to remain neutral throughout the war but they were dragged down along by the other countries. Both civilian and military casualties were high on both sides from frequent bombing of cities.

Battle was raged on throughout the whole year as the Israeli defence position was weakening. Artillery teams shelled the oncoming tanks as they advanced towards the capital. They managed to hold back the onslaught for another week before succumbing to the overwhelming numbers of tanks and troops. In a last ditch attempt, remaining jets carrying nuclear warheads were sent to target the attacking countries, similar to the methods used by the United States in World War II to officially end the war. Unfortunately, most of the jets were shot down by anti-air missiles before they reached their respective targets, but one did manage to hit a city in Jordan, that wasn't enough to stop the war and instead the Arab states got hold of the nuclear weapons. It was hell after that.

Although two of the largest organisations, the United Nations and the OIC, didn't collapse after the war, they were as good as useless as the victorious states demanded more power in the United Nations Security Assembly and wielded their nuclear weapons as a threat towards the other states and countries.

Faced with having another several nuclear powers made the Western and European countries worry. Troops in Europe were mobilised straight after the Middle Eastern war and were ready to strip the Arab states of their weapons. The whole situation exploded when the former Allied powers, including United Kingdom, France and Germany attacked through Turkey and former Soviet Union countries while United States troops landed in the remaining sections of Israel.

Countries started to align themselves on different sides. The Nothern African countries sent troops through Egypt and managed to hold back the border while a partial truce was declared 6 months in the war. The South Asian countries tried to act as negotiators during the truce but this was proved useless as talks soon broke down and war quickly resumed.

At that time, most countries tried to remain neutral to avoid getting themselves involved in the conflict but they did sell weapons if they were requested The armies of surrounding countries were watching the conflict carefully as the Arab states managed to hold back most of their borders.

Eventually North Korea decided to join in the conflict, and it seemded to be the beginning of the end of civilisation.

When the nuclear warheads streaked across the mid-day skies, an enormous flash erupted and for one brief moment, time stopped.

World War III had started.

[Author's note: I do not hope for such a situation to actually happen in the Middle East, but the current volatile position of this issue does not rule out the possibility stated above. Good luck to the peace talks in the future!]

*******************

Captain DeMarco emerged from the cockpit and loudly announced that the engines have been already repaired, it was joy for Jacques!

"Get back in your seats, we'll be taking off in a few moments!"

Jacques placed the e-book back in its original place and quickly returned to his seat, he was the last person to do so, as the others had already been strapped in. He was able to do so without assistance after seeing it for the first time. While waiting for the lift-off, Jacques noted that Kharak's history was definitely interesting, he wondered what how would the place look like there.

"Lift-off in three... two... one... Lift-off initiated."

Captain DeMarco keyed in the time, date and year of the intended location personally even before they left the atmosphere.

One of the reasons time-travel had to be done in space was because of the Earth's position in the universe. You see, since the Earth revolves around the Sun throughout the year, if a time-machine sets off from a particular spot in the universe and arrives at the same spot in the past or future, the time-machine would not be on Earth anymore. And since advances in space travel shortened access to faraway spots in the Milky Way, time-travel in space was a brilliant idea to the researchers.

Only a selected number of government officials, researchers and scientists were involved in this time-travel project. When it was soon about to be completed, a scientist leaked out important information to the Resistance Movement and helped them in constructing their own time-machine. Unfortunately the scientist managed to escape to the side of the Resistance before he was caught. They had already started construction when the Kharak's were almost done with theirs.

As the ship prepared to undergo an exhausting Hyperspace Drive stage again, Jacques braced himself for the trip.

Chapter 5 - Journey

"He's now with them, and they had sent a large enough squad to guard him. We can't do much now except to wait for the others to regroup."

"And where are they?"

"On the way to the location. Our ship is ready for take-off."

*******************

"Countdown to take-off is ten minutes, sir," Andy reported from the cockpit.

"Got that," the Captain coolly replied. "Get onboard everyone!"

Jacques, still holding Kit, stared at the body of the spaceship from the moment the camouflage and forceshield was taken down to facilitate the entry of the troops. He was awed at seeing such an amazing vehicle in front of his eyes. This was a page taken straight out of a science-fiction book, he thought.

With a slight tug, he found the Captain standing right beside him.

"That's the USS Keo, it's basically just a smaller version of the cargo ships back home but this baby is equipped with time-travel technology. And if you don't get moving soon, this will be the last time you'll ever see it again."

"This is just... just amazing!"

"Yep. Now move soldier!"

"Yessir!" Jacques laughed and climbed up the metallic steps.

Inside the ship was a dashboard with a large array of electronics and a touch screen, some buttons were also vaguely labeled in English. He glanced to the back and passed through a corridor before reaching the cargo holding place. Along with the vans locked in place were some twenty seats in two rows facing each other. Jacques took a seat beside Mark, with Scott helping both strap on the seatbelts, which uses two straps to secure the seater in place, similar to military vehicles.


"ETA for lift-off is one minute. Docks secured, please take your seats, buckle up your seatbelts and return your trays in an upright position," The pilot announced.

Scott lightly elbowed Jacques, "It's a really old joke."

"Booster rockets ready, liff-off in three... two... one... Stealth mode enabled."

"Good, we're outta here."

The vehicle trembled slightly as it rose silently into the evening sky, clearing the troposphere, stratosphere, messosphere and thermosphere before reaching Earth's outer atmosphere.

Jacques was reasonably comfortable in his seat, still holding his cat in his arms, he started to Mark and started talking.

"I'm glad that you came along."

"Yeah, I still didn't knew what I was thinking."

"You weren't thinking at all. End of story." Jacques smiled.


"Sir, there's an unidentified craft quickly heading towards us. I'm guessing it's not the air force."

"Any communications with the unidentified craft, Andy?"

"None, sir."

"Full speed ahead and prepare for Hyperspace Drive, get us away as fast as you can from that craft."

"Yessir."

"Reaching location of Hyperspace Drive in exactly... one minute."

Jacques was looking into the window behind him when a powerful impact jolted him from his seat, the straps held him from falling onto the floor. Warning sirens began to rang throughout the whole ship, but everyone remained calm.

"Shit! Sir, they're firing on us!"

"Switch to evasive tactics at once!"

"Yessir."

The next minute was an horrible ride for Jacques, never before did he experience an almost ninety-degree turn and spins that would even make the most seasoned rollercoaster enthusiast vomit.

He handed the cat over to Mark and pulled Scott's strap tightly, "Where's the paper bag?"

Scott directed a finger to the bottom of Jacques' seat.

"Right, thanks!" Jacques replied before launching his face deep into the bag.


"We've arrived at the spot for launching Hyperspace Drive."

"Launch Hyperspace Drive, set year to 2407, same day when we arrived here."

"Yessir."

"Launching Hyperspace Drive in three... two..."

"Arh, we've been hit again!"

*******************

"Hyperspace Drive completed. Systems are sixty-five percent stable, defence shields and energy generator are not working. Other than that, everything else is fine."

"At least we made it."

"Yeah."

"Control, this is USS Keo. Mission accomplished. Permission to land on base."

Nothing but silence came out of the transmitter.

"Control? I repeat again, this is USS Keo. Mission accomplished. Permission to land on base."

The Captain turned towards Andy, "Are the communications down?"

"No, sir. It's supposed to work fine."

"Set stealth mode again and head back to base. What in blazes happened?"

The ship yawned loudly towards as the speed gradually picked up and delved back into Earth's atmosphere. It glided eeriely across the skies, in search of the base where they were supposed to land.

They arrived in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and approached the Californian shoreline and headed West, towards the Salton Sea. When they reached the shot, there was nothing but a vast desert of sand all over the place. Captain DeMarco spotted the Salton Sea and Colorado River but there was nothing there. No buildings, no vehicles, not even a single soul. This was bad, terribly bad.

"Where, no... When are we, Andy?"

"But it's supposed to be twen... Oh..."

"What?"

"The time programmer malfunctioned when the second blast hit us just now. Instead of bringing us four hundred and three years to Kharak, it took us four hundred and three years back. We're currently in the year 1601 A.D."

Jacques emerged behind the cockpit door and saw the surface. It was mostly desolate and barren.

"Where are we?"

"1601 A.D."

"That's bad."

"Very bad."

"Find a suitable spot for landing, we need to get this ship repaired."

"Yessir."

*******************

Smoke bellowed out from the time programming engine when Andy managed to pull out the mangled piece of metal covering the section.

"This isn't good, but I sure as hell will try my best," Andy mumbled before disappearing into the underside of the ship.

"When do you think will the damaged be repaired?"

"I'm guessing a couple of a days... Say, do you know any mechanics around here?"

"Don't joke with me right now."

"Uh, okay."

Jacques wasn't impressed at the current situation, being stuck under the scorching sun and four hundred years away from civilization. He just hoped that he didn't have to die right in this place.

Wearing a cap, he covered his eyes from the harsh sunlight and scanned the surrounding err... sand and headed right back into the ship, there wasn't anything out there. Besides, America wasn't even close to starting development at that time, and no native people existed in that area. Only an insane person who would live in the middle of nowhere.

Jacques preferred the future more than the past, for living in the past might be memorable, almost there is to know about the past has already been known. The only exception would be somewhat obscure issues that never became popular and faded away into nothingness.

The future brought hope to Jacques and he had hoped he would be able to bring hope to the future. His eagerness of being in the future brought even more disappointment at the current situation.

The USS Keo's metallic exterior shined and shimmered under the midday sun, but the internal air conditioning system was still holding strong. Hot and dry winds carried nothing but sand into every nook and cranny imaginable. Jacques had dumped a shoe-full of sand before boarding back into the ship. There was a limited supply of food and water inside the ship but it wasn't enough for more than 2 days.

Kit had been placed into a mobile pet cage right after they had landed. Jacques found a cage lying in the corner of the ship, turns out that it was mostly used to transport wild animals, it served its purposes in keeping Kit contained too.

Mark had an opportunity to interact with the rest of the men, playing cards seemed like a good idea, if it wasn't for the differences in the rules, but they still had fun nonetheless.

Scott was tapped lightly on the shoulder. Turning around, he saw Jacques behind him.

"Is there anything to read here? I'm getting bored."

"Why don't you join us?"

"Nah, I don't like card games much. Didn't have much luck in them."

"All right, e-book is over in that corner, knock yourself out!"

"Thanks!" Jacques replied but he wasn't sure if he heard him, Scott seemed to place his concentration back on the game as soon as his back had been turned. He wasn't very lucky with cards either.

Jacques slipped the e-book from a drawer and turned the thing on. Encased in a black cover and very light, it was similar to the designs already created at that time. A small green LED flashed and an interactive touch-screen was enabled, giving him an option of selecting between a hundred different novels available. Some familiar names like Michael Crichton, Agatha Christie, Stephen King and even Danielle Boone were included in the e-book! Jacques took note of the unfamiliar names and went through the synopsis of each novel, book genres had been significantly evolved, even the science-fiction genre had way more outlandish themes and plots than the current ones that he knew.

Jacques then came across a book which explained about the city, Kharak.

He tapped on the little icon of a globe and the contents of the book unravelled before his eyes.

Chapter 4 - Preparation

Jacques opened his eyes to see a group of unfamiliar faces looking down at him. He wasn't sure if what he had been through earlier was a dream or not, but he was vaguely sure who the people around him were. But still, he was slightly confused.

"Where am I?" He sat up and rubbed his head, which was still slightly aching.

"In safe hands, of course!"

"Thunder Bay," he replied seriously, "at least that's what your people call this place. You had a blackout while driving just now and almost got shot by a..."

"...Resistance assassin?"

"Right. But... How did..."

"A woman, I think so, told me when I was out cold. Say, she also did mention that you were coming..."

"Ah, so you've met our Queen already. She's a wonderful person." The captain grinned at Jacques.

"Guess I haven't properly introduced myself yet, I'm Captain DeMarco, head of this mission. Second-in-command over here is Smithson. The rest of the team are Blake, Terry, Jack, Tim, Scott, David, Fang, Tek and our top pilot, Andy."

"Nice to meet you..." One by one Jacques shook their hands. "What are we doing here?"

"Well, there was a second plan that we intended to use in case you were targeted, which was to bring you back to Kharak. But since we're currently too far away from the best spot for initiating Hyperspace Drive, we have to wait for at least another six hours before launching."

Something buzzed lightly in his pocket, it took Jacques a while before he remembered what it was. He retrieved the cellphone and saw that Mark had called him. Without skipping a beat, he pushed the green button and place it up to his ear. "Mark?"

"How does Starbucks sounds?" The caller exhaled. "In an hour?"

"Sure!" He looked at his wristwatch, it said 12:34 p.m..

Jacques kept the cellphone back in his pocket and scrambled to stand up.

"Just where are you planning to go?"

"To meet my son of course. I've been waiting for this chance in a million years"

"Uh, you do know that you're in danger, don't you?"

"Right, you guys can tag along, right?"

"I suppose so..."

"Do I really have to follow you all to Kharak?"

"Yes."

"And what if I don't want to?"

"Oh you definitely will."

"All right then. Another question: Is there enough room for another person? And a cat?"

"Err... I'll have to check that with the pilot. Wait a minute, did you say a cat?"

"I'm not leaving him behind if I have to go there."

*******************

He failed. Miserably. He wished that he could put the gun to his head and pull the trigger before anyone got word about it. But his objectives were not accomplished yet, he could not return to the Headquarters yet until Jacques was killed.

The Resistance will continue.

*******************

Mark never forgot that fateful day ten years ago. He was a young kid at that time, crossing the fringes of being a child into a teenager when the horrible accident happened. It shattered his life forever.

He remembering standing at the porch and waving goodbye to his parents, who had planned to dined at a fine restaurant to celebrate their thirteenth anniversary together. Little did he know that it was the last time he saw his mother alive again.

He clutched the coffee mug in his hands harder than usual.

Although ten years have passed, he never got over the pain of losing his mother and in so, he initially blamed his father for not protecting her enough, but he now reconsidered his actions, which was perhaps or maybe overboard. He was actually glad that his father called him earlier.

The tinkling bell at the door indicated that someone had come in, Mark spun around to see his father pushing the door and peeking into the shop. Once he spotted Mark, he stepped inside the shop, which was reeking with fine coffee.

Jacques took his seat at the table without a sound, both of them avoided eye contact and the silence lasted for another painful minute. Mark was the first one to speak up.

"So, was the thing that you mentioned on the phone earlier?"

"Mark, first of all, I just had to tell that I am VERY sorry at what had happened on that day of the accident. Yes it was an accident and there was no excuses for that. I missed her as much as you do.

Mark looked down in silence, still fiddling with his thumb.

"The thing is, your mother never got a chance to tell you that she was diagnosed with advanced brain tumour a month before the accident. She was naturally sad and depressed when she received the news but she avoided showing that emotion when you were around. She didn't want to upset you along with herself. She wanted you to lead a full life without her."

Mark's face was twisted in surprise after hearing it. He dropped his head to his hands and started to sob quietly.

Jacques got up to sit beside his son, he placed an arm over his shoulder and patted in sympathy.

"I know the feeling."

Jacques waited for him to calm down before telling him about his next plan.

"Son, I have to leave here soon, and I won't be back in a long time, possibly never. Someone is after my life, I'm scared that they might target you or hold you hostage if they can't find me, so I have to ask you this question: can you come along with me?"

"What? Is this a joke?"

"See those four men at the table over there? They're here to escort us to the place."

True enough, all four men turned to face Mark and Captain DeMarco nodded at him once.

"Holy shit, you're serious about this."

"So, yes or no?"

*******************

As soon as they left the café they were quickly bundled inside by the four men behind them. Before they returned to the ship, Jacques asked the driver, Jack to make a detour back to his house.

After a quick scan of the place again, Jacques retrieved a sleeping Kit from the sofa, snagged a bag of kitty treats from the kitchen, just in case he'd starve. He was about to declare "target retrieved" when he spotted the same photo album on the table. Jacques stood there for a few moments, looking at the same face he never wanted to forget.

"Are ya done yet? We're due to set off in less than an hour!"

What the heck, he took out the photo in a hurry with one hand and stuffed it into his jacket. He also shut down the main power switch, he didn't want the entire place to be reduced to a smouldering pile of ashes when he wasn't around.

"I'm done, let's go."

Chapter 3 - Explanations

He was already half-awake but the rush of the wind brought him to an alert state. He was still falling at a great speed, adrenaline pumped inside of him, but it never seemed to end. He looked up but there was no opening at the top, nothing below and neither at the sides.

Am I dreaming? Where is this place?

Jacques fall in the darkness seemed eternal when everything turned a blinding white in the blink of an eye, and he found himself on solid ground. This seemed awfully reminiscent of his dreams.

"Jacques..." A disembodied voice came from both nowhere and everywhere.

"Who are you? Where am I? What am I doing here?"

"Jacques, Jacques, Jacques, you ask too far many questions than you need to know..." The feminine voice continued.

"B... But..." Jacques stammered.

A blue mist floated out quietly from the floor, it swirled around his legs and circled around him. The bluish mist started to form into a loose shape right in front of him. Jacques was taken by surprise, but he stood frozen on the floor, unable to move.

"Three hundred years in the future, the human race was in total shambles. Our progress in technology has brought power to everyone, and in turn made everyone corrupt. The United Nations crumbled and countless wars erupted in the past century on almost every single territory on Earth. After a while it turned into a full-out nuclear war.

"In total, five billion humans were killed from the war, three billion from the nuclear explosions alone, two billion from fighting and a billion from the nuclear fallout."

It was noticeable that voice came from the mist, which now had emanated a slight glow.

"After the nuclear winter was over, only two billion were willing to group with each other and start anew. Three cities were built from the ground up in southern China, two in central Africa and my great-grandfather led the only city in nothern America. We couldn't resettle in the old cities..."

"...because of the radiation." Jacques stepped in.

A female figure slowly formed from the mist. It was solid and complete, but he couldn't see anything beyond the shape, only a silhouette.

"Yes. All of the new cities had dedicated themselves to the reconstruction of the human race and pledged for peace. But there were resistance groups who spat at the idea of peace. To them, the war has not ended yet.

"Jacques, You have an important duty. A duty on behalf of the human race. But right now your life is in danger, I have dispatched a team to protect you from the resistance groups, who have sent members to assassinate you. Time is running out for all of us, all you need to know now is to stay alive. I'll be contacting you in the future."

In a puff, the female figure turned back into the blue mist earlier and Jacques felt that he was being sucked up into the air, it became dark again.

*******************

He grabbed his tracker and took note at the current location of Jacques' car. He was too far away to see it by himself but he noticed that the green spot wasn't going anywhere. This would have made him a sitting duck, if it wasn't for the heavy traffic.

*******************

The team medic examined Jacques. "Pulse one hundred and fifty beats per minute, his heartbeat is above average. Other than that, he's okay. He just blacked out."

"That's a relief." No sooner than the captain uttered those words did an ear-piercing blast hit the spot to him, just barely missing him.

"We're under fire! Bring him back to the vehicle!" The captain yelled loudly to the men.

Blake, Jack and the captain took out their weapons in haste and returned fire at the shooter, who had now ducked behind his own car. Meanwhile Terry and Scott took advantage of the lapse in shooting to carry Jacques back into their van. All three managed to cover Jacques' and the other two men's backs and retreated along with them.

"Team B, return to landing site ASAP, we need backup! We've encountered a Resistance assassin a while ago, there might be more of them." He turned to the men and asked, "Anyone wounded?"

"No sir."

"That's good."

*******************

Everything was going smoothly before dinner, Jacques surprised his wife when a violinist appeared beside them playing Strauss waltzes, while he presented her with a bouquet of roses at the table.

"To my dear wife, who has lighted up the darkest corners of my life for the past twelve years, and to our everlasting love." With the clink of a glass, both of them smiled and drank the wine.

A slight drizzle appeared outside the restaurant while the couple were inside. They spent the last hour rekindling the past twelve years that they spent together and found some humourous bits.

"I still can't believe that you'd go through all of that effort to propose to me."

"At least I could say that no single person in the world has ever done it before."

"True, but that awful paint smell stuck to you for DAYS after that, even after bathing. I think I still could catch a wiff of it once in a while."

Jacques laughed and turned his gaze to the glass window outside. Roughly thirteen years ago, he proposed to his wife in the most unique way. He organised an elaborate plan which involved some of his closest friends and a whole lot of paint, in the end it backfired but nevertheless Elily accepted his proposal. He was ecstatic for days after that.

When the dinner was over they planned to return home, Jacques and Elily was travelling on the winding road when the drizzle turn into a downpour. He was getting increasingly worried since the vision ahead had been shorten greatly. The force of the raindrops pounded the windscreen and threaten to smash it.

"Slow down Jacques!"

"I'm trying my best Elily, I can't see the road..."

Jacques wasn't able to finish the sentence as at that moment a loud horn was blasted and they found themselves caught in the headlights of a semi-trailer. Their screams were cut short when the semi-trailer collided into the car, sending it dragging along the road for fifty metres.

The driver of the semi-trailer sat frozen in his seat, shocked. He didn't know what to do. Taking a few deep breaths, he reached out a trembling hand to his shortwave radio and requested for help. Since assistance was on the way, he jumped out of his semi-trailer and found the couple in their seats battered and bleeding, God, what had he done to them?

He was awake shortly after the crash, rain continueously splashed on his face, a sharp pain stabbed his left leg, unable to move. He tried to pull himself out of the wreckage but he was heavily pinned under the twisted piece of metal. He turned towards Elily and cried, she had been bleeding profusely from the head and barely breathing. Jacques struggled to stop the bleeding with his shirt by using both hands. He needed to call for help and mustered every ounce of his strength left to shout to anyone nearby.

"Please don't leave me Elily, stay awake, please!" He desperately called out to her. "Help is coming now, be strong!"

He only breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the sirens arrive at the scene twenty minutes after the accident. In those twenty minutes Jacques was stuck there, it was equivalent of him spending an eternity in hell.

Several firemen swarmed to the scene and switched on the Jaws of Life. The piece of machinery roared and snapped off a large chunk of Jacques' door and it was now quickly placed beside his feet. The piece of metal pinning his feet whined loudly as it shifted, making enough space for him to slip free. He turned towards Elily again and saw an oxygen mask covering her mouth, she was struggling to breathe.

Jacques was stretchered off into a waiting ambulance, he never got to saw how Elily was freed from the wreckage.

Chapter 2 - Setting up

At the edge of the forest, ten men exited the ship carrying bags of equipment for the mission, two multi-purpose vehicles vaguely looking like vans were constructed just especially for the mission, as they were considered very obsolete there. The pilot remained on board the ship on standby in case there was a need to escape immediately. Camouflage systems were enabled so that the ship would look literally blended into the background while the security forcefield was enabled so that no authorised persons could come in contact with the ship.

Though it was nighttime, there were plenty of activiy in the forest even before the ship landed, sounds of crickets chirping and frogs from the pond nearby croaking filled the forest as the men stood in a neat line at the side of the ship. The sound continued for a while until a firm and commanding voice finally broke the sounds.

"Men, may I remind you that we are currently on an undercover surveillance and security mission, and we are not to interfere with the lives of the locals here, the subject must not know of our existence yet, as it is not the time yet. Fall out and start moving!"

"Yessir!"

"Configure the map coordinates, let's head onto Toronto. We'd better get our asses there before that skank does."

*******************

The first rays of sunlight were piercing to the eyes and it managed to hit Jacques as he slept in the sofa. He stood up, yawned, stretched and suddenly realised that Kit wasn't on his lap anymore. Time to prepare for work.

Fragments of the dreams were flashing through his mind one by one as he brushed his teeth in the bathroom. He could see it almost every time he closed his eyes, they were always the same. First he was enveloped in an overwhelming darkness, moments later it was a blinding white light, he always grimaced at the sharp change in lighting and held up his hand against his eyes to cover it. After that it was all surreal, segments of his life, both good and bad were all assembled and strangely deformed before his eyes. He would usually wake up when it became too intense for him to bare.

Spit and rinse.

After all this time he still could not figure out what the dreams meant, except that it was definitely very stressful. He felt that rather than going to an expensive shrink and waste his money sitting on a couch, rambling about his life and taking more and more pills, at least he was knowledgeable enough to analyse his condition and make a rough guess what's wrong with his life. The chilly cold water splash hard on his face.

Grabbing a towel, Jacques wiped his face and went through the possible causes, the first being his working lifestyle. He immediately settled on that explanation, but then he would have to take a break from work, could he do that? But then again, if things did work out better with his son, this could actually work! A little grin creeped up in his face and for the first time today, Jacques actually went to work with a smile.

*******************

Both vehicles pulled to a stop 300 metres from the subject's house. The windows were heavily tinted, so strangers peering in wasn't a big concern for them. As head of Team A and his right-hand man was head of Team B, the captain held the transmitter to his mouth and barked orders to his men.

"Listen here, Team A, set up your surveillance post northwest from the subject's house. Team B, you set up your surveillance post southeast from the subject's house. We'll be able to cover all sides that way. Arm yourselves ONLY with light weapons for defensive purposes, this is a non-combat mission. And oh, by the way, don't ever address me as sir in public from now onwards, use the codenames provided."

"Yessir!"

Using a subtronic amplifier and binoculars that they brought, both teams settled down into their respective locations after a while and the area was secured. The crowd scanner was activated as the Resistance members would be registered differently from normal humans on the screen. It was now a matter of time.

He was sure that they would come for him, one-hundred percent sure.


"Sir--"

"Didn't I tell you not..."

"No, sir, the subject's about to leave."

"Oh, follow him and keep your distance. Just don't let him out of our sights." The captain then spoke into the transmitter again. "Team B, keep a close watch on the subject's premise, we're about to trail the subject."

*******************

He felt the tingling of the cool, morning air on his skin as he stepped out from his home. Clutching his workbag and a thick coat in his arms, Jacques walked to his car leisurely, which was parked somewhere down the street.

There were birds somewhere in the neighbourhood, their chirps audible from the park nearby. Children had started to fill the playground since it was the holiday season. Jacques turned back his attention to the car.

"Morning Mrs. Walker!"

"Good morning, Jacques!" The reply came from the sweet old lady 2 houses next door.

It wasn't very far from his house, and Jacques felt that there were very little parking space in this area. Getting crowded already, eh?

There it was, sitting in the parking lot, his old Toyota, looking plain as ever, how in the world did he get stuck with a boring job, boring life and heck, even such a boring car?

Jacques forked out his car keys from his pockets with quite a bit of struggle and managed to start the ageing car. It started with a meek roar, thankfully it didn't coughed and died like the previous time. He headed to his workplace without realising the white van behind him, which was just as well.

*******************

"Roger that," Smithson replied. He then turned towards his men, "Now that the subject's away, keep an eye for the Resistance, they might pass by here." All of them nodded silently.

*******************

His tracker started beeping wildly before he reached the the street. He took a closer look at the alert and growled.

Shit, they were already there.

The sensors in his tracker indicated that the signal of a scanner was in the vicinity of the area. He would get caught if he continued to approach the house.

He quickly slipped back into the alley behind the shophouses, no one was there except for a homeless bum. He had to quickly revise his plans. After all, time waits for no man.

He did an infrared scan of the house from afar, nobody was at home. He'd better be at work then, or at least on his way there.

*******************

At the half-way mark, Jacques saw stopped the car at the traffic lights of an intersection. While waiting for it to turn green, he turned on the radio and the morning news was currently on air.

News reports never seem to bring in good news, first it was earthquakes, typhoons, flash floods, droughts, all natural disasters, mostly out of man's control, so it was understandable. Perhaps it was God's will to control the human population, but he never reached an actual conclusion.

But then what about human-induced disasters? Wars, poverty, ethnic cleansing, everybody thought the worst was all over 60 years ago at the end of World War II, but that never happened.

Green light. The car moved and turned right, into a less busier street.

He focued on the road, and partly on the car driving in front of him when his vision started to become cloudy.

"Wh... What?" He blinked his eyes forcefully but all that he could see was just a blur. It did no use. What was happenning to him?

Jacques was losing control of the car as the Toyota started to swerve dangerously from side to side. The fewer cars on that particular stretch of road might've helped him avoid crashing into oncoming traffic.

"Oh God..." To make things even difficult for him, his head was starting to throb painfully, it seemed to be worse than a migrane and he felt as if his head was about to explode. He clutched his hard with an arm as he deperately tried to keep the other arm on the steering wheel.

"Pull over, pull over, pull over..." His brain was yelling at him loudly but his body couldn't respond. The last thing Jacques heard before blacking out in his seat was the jarring sound of a car horn, as for the second time in his life, he was certain that he'd never make out of this alive.

*******************

"What the heck is he doing? I don't think that's the correct way to drive." The captain questioned Jack.

"I have no idea either. He's swerving like crazy, suppose he's drunk?"

No sooner than Jack had finished that sentence, Jacques' Toyota veered off into the wrong lane at the wrong time, and clipped the front of the car coming into the opposite lane at high speeds, sending Jacques' car into a dramatic flip. Following the screeching sound of metal against asphalt, the car ended up upsidedown and on the grass beside the road.

"He just flipped his car! Stop in front of his car!"

"Yessir." Jack responded.

The white van pulled over few metres in front of the car and the whole team, with the exception of the driver, poured out from the van to remove their target from the overturned vehicle.

On finding that the car doors were pretty much stuck and almost impossible to open, Scott smashed the partly broken window on the back passenger side, struggled to cut open the seatbelts holding him in place and dragged him out of the car carefully, avoiding the broken bits of glasses.

They were working frantically to get him out, this is one subject they couldn't afford to lose.

Chapter 1 - Troubled dreams

"Okay, Hyperspace Drive has been completed. Where is our current location?"

"We are currently in Section Five, Captain. Approximately 250 lits from planet Earth and counting. All systems are stable and functional."

"Approach Earth, enable stealth-mode and watch out for the satellites."

"Yessir!"

*******************

Jacques woke up startled, warm sweat drenched his neck and body. He raised out his hand and scratched his left eyebrows. God, he was thirsty. He reluctantly got up, slipped into his shoes and walked towards the kitchen, carefully avoiding the junk on the floor, which was left piling up for the past few months.

He was quietly going broke and had to dismiss the housekeeper, who used to arrive at Jacques' door every Tuesday morning with a light smile on her face. He fumbled at the light switch on the wall, but he managed to hit the correct one. The fluorescent light then flicked twice and lighted the entire kitchen area. The sight of his kitchen reminded him of the last time he saw it being actually clean, which also was the time when he moved into the house.

The glass mug clinked cheerfully as he picked it up, placing it under the tap, he twisted the handle and clear water gushed into the mug. He turned off the tap and glanced at the clock. 4:10 a.m.. It was horribly late but he never did managed to sleep after having one of those dreams. It used to occur once in a blue moon but they were very frequent now, almost every single awful night.

He pulled out the wooden chair and sat down. His hands were placed on the table, he sat quietly, almost motionless for a while as he stared at the mug, as if expecting for something wonderful or magical to happen to the mug of water. It never did, so he took a large gulp of the water and placed the heavy mug down.

He had gone through the whole day before he slept: work, work, work, break, work, work, work. It was going like this for the past 5 years, and he was amazed at himself for being able to handle the stress from his job. Except for his job, he had no life. He had few friends, his wife was long gone from this world, several arguments with his son created a rift in between them and all of these made Jacques a lonelier person more than ever.

Jacques jolted as he felt something brush against his leg, he peered under the table to see his brown tabby staring right back in his face. Right. How could anyone forget the cat? The light from the kitchen had attracted his attention and he had come to see who was there. He picked up his cat and held him up.

"At least you won't abandon me, won't you?" Jacques jokingly asked the striped tabby. He meowed in reply. Jacques raised an eyebrow and pondered for a moment that maybe his cat had understood him, but then he remembered that this cat always had meows for replies since he kept him. Besides, a cat capable of understanding humans? Yeah right.

Kit was found as a stray who had crossed paths with Jacques, his odd behaviours, unlike other normal cats made Jacques interested in keeping this lost kitty. He had a long history with various animals including fishes, lizards, cats and dogs ever since his childhood days but he never really had a permanent animal partner. It wasn't uncommon for him to touch any animals that could be touched. He loved animals as much as he loved his family.

A dark brown photo album was laid open at the other side of the table, all of the photos there showed happy memories frozen in time, but quickly faded away in reality. Kit had curled up in his lap as Jacques silently flipped through the album. Each grainy photo brought back different memories. How he wished things were different for him. He flipped another page and saw Elily, smiling gracefully towards the camera, with little baby Mark in her arms. He knew that Elily was smiling at him, as he was the person who took that particular shot. Jacques lightly touched her cheek on the photo and a tear rolled down from a corner of his eye.

Jacques flipped open his cellphone and planned to give Mark a call, or at least a leave him a message. He knew he had not contacted his son for a long time already, even he himself had forgotten exactly how long it was. Mark stormed out during their last encounter, still furious and claiming that Jacques had indirectly caused his mother's death.

"Hello Mark, this is Dad calling, how about we have a cup of coffee sometime, have a nice chat, start things afresh? There still are some things about your mother that you haven't knowed yet, I hope to discuss this with you soon. Call me when you receive this message, okay? Bye."

*******************

"Coordinates of landing location?"

"Based on the database information at hand, we're supposed to land in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. Coordinates are: latitude 48 degrees, 22 minutes north, longitude 89 degrees, 19 minutes west. ETA is 12 minutes, 43 seconds. Local time is currently 5:17 a.m., sun isn't due to rise in another hour."

"Excellent, we're right on schedule. Continue with caution."

*******************

Jacques placed Kit back on the kitchen floor and headed towards his computer. The LCD screen dimly illuminated the room as he checked the progress of the program. Kit silently followed his owner into the room.

"Bah, still another 5 hours to go," Jacques was starting to get irritated with the computer. It was already a year old, but still faithful to its owner, if you overlook several minor problems. He then checked his e-mails but found nothing, so he proceeded to the living room and slump into the single-seat sofa. Before he dozed away, Kit jumped into his lap to accompany him into slumberland.

*******************

"Turn off all external lights and prepare for landing."

"Yessir! Landing in... three... two... one... Dock opened, camouflage enabled, security forcefield enabled."

"Good work! Men, switch to civilian attire and carry all equipment needed outside."

"Yessir!"

Prologue

"What's that?"

Little Mark pointed at the night sky, his eyes were focused on a group of sparking stars in space, now oblivious to the little blue planet he stood on, called Earth.

Mark resembled his mother, Elily in a number of ways, his mop of curly black hair, ocean blue eyes and soft, round facial features. In short, he was essentially a part of her mother and he reminded Jacques of her whenever he saw him.

"You see, son, that is the Big Dipper, see those 4 stars in a rectangle? If you connect the line of stars with the rectangle, it's in the shape of a big dipper!" Jacques answered excitedly.

"Ah!" Mark flashed a toothy grin, knowing that his bedtime was close approaching, Jacques scooped Mark with an arm and pinched his nose cheekily, his son smiling back at him. Jacques carried his son, turned around and saw his mother calling out to him. Taking a last look at the night sky, the two of them went back into the family's little summer lodge.

Deep down inside, Jacque was a happy and blissful person, for he had a wonderful family but even deeper inside of him, he knew that things won't stay the same forever.