you must be mindful of theomens. One in particular. above all others. I have but a dim perception of it.You will know it when that which was concealed shall stand revealed.”
Lucan released Caesar’s hand. “I can tell you no more. Onlythat when you recognize that omen, you must hearken to its counsel.”
“And that is all that you can tell me?” Caesar asked.
“That is all. And now. General. I must beg leave to retire. ‘Thesight has wearied me.-
“My men shall escort you from the camp,” said Caesar. “Ithank you, Lucan, for your prophecy.” Caesar picked up several gold coins andgave them to the oracle. “Septimus, see to it that he is safely conducted fromthe camp.”
His mind in a turmoil. Travers went with the soldiers toescort Lucan through the gates. Outside, it was dark and the oracle looked ghostlyas he walked silently toward the gates with the hood over his head.
“How did you know those things?” asked Travers.
“I have the sight.”
“But you named names, you gave an exact date!
“It was what I saw.”
“But you told Caesar that it was possible for him to changehis fate.” said Travers. “How? How can any man alter his own destiny?”
“A man’s destiny is but the result of his actions in thepresent and the past,” said Lucan. “Those actions set his feet upon a path thatwill lead him to his destiny. When I look into a man’s future. my sight travelsalong the path that man has chosen by his actions. If that man were to choose adifferent path, it would lead him to a different destiny. however, it is myexperience that most men never change.”
There is no future. Travers thought. his mind racing. Thereis only an infinite number of possible futures. What Lucan had just told himwas an almost perfect paraphrase of the Principle of Temporal Inertia.
“Can you look into my future asked Travers.
“No,” said Lucan.
“Why not?”
“Because the sight has wearied me. I need time to recover.”
“Perhaps later. then’?”
“I fear not. I am leaving upon a long journey in themorning. And your general shall take you with him upon his.”
They had reached the gates.
“I doubt that we shall meet again. Praetor Septimus.” said Lucan.“But perhaps that is for the best. Believe me, most men are better off notknowing what their future holds in store for them. Good fortune to you.”
He passed through the gate.
The oracle is right,” said the centurion.-If it is my fateto die tomorrow, or soon thereafter. I would prefer not to know of it tonight.”He clasped the hilt of his sword. “And I would sooner trust my fate to thisthan to the prophecies of oracles and soothsayers. Good night to you, PraetorSeptimus.”
He turned and went hack toward the tents with his soldiers.
Travers turned to the guard at the gate. “I must Speakfurther with that man. Let me through.”
They passed him through the gates and Travers hurried afterLucan. but after running no more than a few steps. he stopped. The slope of thehill fell away from the camp, leading to a meadow. The open country was gentlyilluminated by the moonlight.
There was no sign of the oracle. It was as if he had simplydisappeared.
1
The penthouse of the headquarters building of the TemporalArmy Command had originally been the personal quarters of the Pendleton Basecommander, but since General Moses Forrester had assumed that post, as well asthe directorship of the Temporal Intelligence Agency, it was hardly ever usedForrester. a bull of a man, completely bald with a face like a pugnaciousbulldog and a powerful, bodybuilder’s physique that belied his advanced age,lived on the floor immediately beneath it. where his offices were located. Theywere the same quarters he had resided in when he was the commander of the eliteFirst Division, better known as the Time Commandos.
Forrester had spent his entire life in the service, whichhad entailed, as life in the service always had, a great deal of moving around.Now that he had reached a point in his career where he didn’t have to move, hebloody well wasn’t going to. not even if it was just upstairs. He had grownaccustomed to his quarters. and even if they were not as spacious and luxuriousas the penthouse. they suited his needs. He merely had to step outside his doorto reach his suite of offices, the heart of TAC-HQ), and he had his secret roomthere, concealed behind a wall, a small private sanctum that only a few peopleknew about where he kept his prized and highly unauthorized mementos of thepast. Occasionally. he had used the penthouse to hold parties or house visitingdignitaries, but it was now a highly restricted area.
Aside from Forrester himself, only three people were authorizedaccess to it. Those three were Capt. Finn Delaney, Lt Andre Cross. and Col.Creed Steiger of the Temporal Intelligence Agency. And one other man, who hadno official authorization, because he did not need one. Dr. Robert Darkness,the man who was faster than light.
The sole tenant of the penthouse was the reason for the maximumsecurity. He was Col. Lucas Priest, whose name was listed on the Wall of Honorin the lobby of the building. along with the names of all the other members ofthe First Division. now merged with Temporal Intelligence, who had been killedin action in Minus Time. Lucas Priest was, with the possible exceptions of Lazarusand Christ. the only man in history to have come back from the dead.
He had died saving the life of Winston Churchill: but theenigmatic Dr. Darkness had interceded with his fate. The story was as complexas it was baffling. It pivoted around the mysterious, brilliant, and eccentricscientist and the nature of what he had become.
Darkness had once been an obscure research scientist workingin the field of temporal physics. In the course of his work, which was centeredon temporal translocation, he had invented the most devastating weapon everdevised by man-the warp grenade, a combination nuclear device and time machine.It was small enough to be carried in one hand and its built-in chronocircuitryallowed for pinpoint adjustment of its nuclear explosion. It could be “fine-tuned”to use all or any part of the tremendous energy that was released. The surplusenergy was then clocked through an Einstein-Rosen Bridge. a-wormhole in thefabric of space and time, to explode harmlessly in the farthest reaches of thecosmos. Or so it was believed.
No one knew exactly what had happened. The prevailing theorywas that such incredible amounts of energy clocked through Einstein-RosenBridges, perhaps combined with the strain already placed upon the timestream bythe actions of the Time Wars. had somehow shifted the chronophysical alignmentof the universe. The result was that a parallel timeline, a mirror-imageuniverse, had been brought into congruence with our own. Each time a warpgrenade was detonated, the parallel universe was nuked. Space colonies thatthey had established were utterly destroyed, with catastrophic loss of life.And now the two parallel timelines were at war.
It was a “limited-war, but it was still the most dangerouswar humanity had ever fought. Both sides refrained from the use of strategicweapons. because each of their time streams had become perilously unstable.Both timelines were “rippling, — intertwining like a double helix. The result wasthe “confluence phenomenon.” At various points in space and time, the twotimelines intersected and the parallel universes met. At those points, it waspossible to cross over from one universe into the other. The resultingpotential for the disruption of either timestream was staggering.
People simply disappeared. A man could be walking down thestreet. turn a corner, and suddenly find himself in another universe. And theseconfluence points did not necessarily correspond in space and time. That sameman might turn a corner and suddenly find himself not only in another universe,but in another country, in a different time period. If he kept his head abouthim and was able to retrace his steps exactly. there was a chance he could getback
