The Time War Ch. 39

Chapter 39: The Other Continuity Service

Something happened on the way back from Stockholm.

Calle was part of a team investigating the end of the war between Sweden and Uganda in the year 2284. Sarah had detected some anomalies but wasn't sure if tampering was involved. Major Castleman had led the team to the conference where the peace agreement was being negotiated. It seemed that Sweden was being awarded a slightly larger slice of Kenya than history once recorded, but it didn't seem to be active tampering. As more and more damage to the timeline was repaired less and less precisely, there were bound to be some minor variations in history as they knew it. This wasn't considered a major one; if there were a few more or a few less Swedes living in Africa to manage the Super Weed plantations, history would scarcely take note of it.

But on the way back, something happened. Calle felt a tightness in his ankle. He stumbled... and fell off the path.

Immediately, he told himself not to panic. Even though he could no longer see the path, he was at most two feet off of it. All he needed to do was turn around, and walk two feet backwards.

He did so.

There was no path.

Calle concentrated again. He reached out with all his senses. He took two more steps. Then two more. Then he reversed course and walked four steps.

He found himself back on the path.

He heaved a sigh of relief. Major Castleman and the rest of the team were no longer visible, but Calle scampered up the path as fast as his feet could take him.

When he emerged from the Binochi Corridor, he said, "Sarah, you would not believe-" and broke off in mid-sentence.

The control room looked... different. Not in a substantial way. But some consoles that were here were now there. And the control panel in the back looked totally different. And Sarah-

Sarah turned to face him. "What are you doing here?" she hissed, looking around. The control room was empty, except for the two of them. "I told you not to come back."

Calle stepped forward, confusion written all over his face. "Why not?"

"Why not?" Sarah hissed. "Because they suspect you. They think you know."

"Know what?" said Calle, walking closer.

"John, what's wrong with you?" said Sarah.

Suddenly, Calle's jaw dropped.

Sarah had breasts.

Big, perky breasts that stuck out.

He looked around. What was going on?

Suddenly, Daniel Acton entered the control room. "John! There you are! You're late for the meeting! Come on, you don't want to keep the General waiting!"

The General?

Sarah gave him a warning glance and mouthed 'no'.

Calle turned to Daniel and nodded. "Sure... don't want keep the General waiting."

He followed Daniel to the conference room.

"Ah, there you are," said Commander Strayker. "Thanks for keeping us waiting."

Calle blinked rapidly.

Commander Strayker's rough cut blonde hair was gone, and replaced by curly red hair. He looked totally different.

"Well?" said Strayker.

Calle quickly took a seat.

"What did you find out, Captain Collier?"

Captain Collier?

Calle looked around to see who Strayker was talking to.

"Well, Captain?"

Strayker was talking to him. Strayker thought he was John Collier.

John Collier, who had been Calle's predecessor at the Continuity Service.

At that moment, it hit him.

John Collier must have looked exactly like him.

"Uh, yes sir?" said Calle.

"Well... what do you have to report?" Strayker looked annoyed.

Calle had no idea, since he didn't know what John Collier's mission had been. "There's been no change, sir."

"No change," said Strayker, pacing back and forth. An Indian woman with long dark hair and very flat buttocks offered him atomic coffee, but he waved her away. "Can we presume from your pithy reply that the Chinese are still speaking English?"

The Chinese are still speaking English?

"Yes, sir," said Calle, taking a wild guess.

"That's a relief to hear," said Strayker. "We've certainly worked hard enough to keep it that way. I've been with the English Continuity Service for 12 years, and not six months have passed before one of the factions has tried to get the Chinese speaking in Chinese again."

What?

Strayker glared at someone else. "And what do you have to report, Major Reynolds?"

"Well, General, the Central and South Americans are speaking Spanish again," said another officer.

Calle looked at the man who spoke. He looked exactly like the Major Reynolds he knew, the Major Reynolds who had been sucked into the black hole... except this Major Reynolds was white.

Strayker was a general, Major Reynolds was white (and alive!), Sarah had perky breasts, and he apparently worked for something called the English Continuity Service. What was happening here?

"We have to nip this in the bud, or it will spread like the plague throughout North America," Strayker fumed. "Captain Collier, what is your contingency plan to get the Spanish people to speak English?"

Calle had no idea what to say. He stammered. "I'm, ah, still working on it, sir."

"Still?" Strayker said. "What was the result of your language density analysis?"

"Uh... I'd have to get back to you on that."

"Weren't you just in the language archives in Nebraska?" Strayker asked.

"No... I mean yes sir. I... I just need more time to get all the information together," said Calle.

Strayker gave him a hard glance. "You do that, Captain Collier. But first, I want you to see Doctor Vladek."

"About what, sir?"

"About five minutes from now," said Strayker, giving him a stare that made Calle more and more uncomfortable. In fact, everyone seemed to be staring at him, even Erica Green, who seemed to be doing quite well, considering Calle had last seen her sucked into a black hole.

********

"How are you doing, John?" Vladek smiled at him.

At least this version of Doctor Vladek was unchanged, down to the big bags under his eyes.

"Fine," said Calle.

"The General said you seemed a bit stressed," said Vladek. "Are you still uncomfortable about your missions?"

"Uncomfortable? Why would I be?"

Vladek gave him an odd glance. "At times you seemed to have some... lack of enthusiasm about our prime directive. To protect the planet as an English speaking place."

"No, no, I love English," said Calle. "I really do!"

"That's good, really good," said Vladek. "As you know, for years now we have been battling, first the Russians who invented their own silly made up language, then the Chinese, the Germans, the French, and now the Spanish. All the factions want each country to have their own language. It would be total chaos, of course, which is why we protect the timeline, to keep everyone speaking English, as it was always meant to be."

"That sounds very reasonable to me," said Calle.

"Does it?" said Vladek. He didn't look convinced that Calle was convinced. Or perhaps that was just the way it seemed to Calle.

"Tell me, Captain Collier, do you still have questions about your predecessor, John Calle?" Vladek asked.

"John Calle? No, why would I?" Calle asked.

"I have heard you asking various ECS members about him. Some of them suggested that perhaps you thought something sinister befell him."

"No, why would I think that?" Calle asked.

"Different people have told me that you kept asking about him, even after you were told that he retired some years ago."

"He was my predecessor. I was naturally curious about him," said Calle.

"Hm," said Vladek. He paused. "On your recent mission to World Government Headquarters, how did your meeting with the ministers go?"

Calle felt he was being tested. He had no idea what had happened on that mission, since he wasn't John Collier. "About as well as expected."

"About as well as expected," Vladek repeated.

Calle didn't know if his answer satisfied Vladek or not.

"And the conclusions, in you report. Do you have anything to add or amend?"

He is testing me.

The best defense was a strong offense, Calle realized. He leaned forward, "Listen Doctor, it's obvious that there's something you're unhappy about regarding my last mission. If so, tell me directly what the problem is, and I'll respond to it. Or call in the General, and we'll talk about it right now." He glared at Vladek.

Vladek just stared at him, with those big baggy eyes, like a block of stone. Then he lurched slightly, as if remembering he was still alive. "No, I don't think that will be necessary. I think we're done here for now. Thank you, Captain Collier."

********

Somehow, he had found himself in another Continuity Service. A different Continuity Service. Could this simply be another faction?

No. This faction had the same people he knew, the same people... but slightly different. It was almost as if....

He were in a parallel universe.

He had fallen off the path, and then found it again. Or so he thought.

Maybe the Binochi Corridor didn't just allow one to travel through time, and space. Maybe it allowed one to travel through parallel universes.

If so, then he had fallen out of his own, with no way of getting back.

Calle found himself wandering into the Control Room. Sarah saw him immediately and gestured to him.

He went over to her. He still couldn't get used to the fact that she had breasts. Big ones.

"How are you doing, Captain Collier?" Sarah asked.

"Fine, Sarah," said Calle.

"I'm about to go off duty," said Sarah.

"I... I think I'm off duty as well," said Calle, not really sure.

"I was about to go home," said Sarah.

"Me too," said Calle.

"Would you like to have sex?" said Sarah

"Why not?" said Calle.

********

Having sex with a version of Sarah who had breasts was a very unusual experience. It felt odd not to see her boyish flat chest as he made love to her. It was like he was making love to a completely different woman. Sarah's breasts bounced up and down as he pounded her real good.

"Oh... oh... Oohhhhhh!" Sarah cried out. She seemed totally overwhelmed as she climaxed around his raging tool. A moment later, Calle gripped her tightly as he pulsed into her, filling her with his semen.

"That was good," Sarah said afterwards, as they lay together.

"Yes, it was," said Calle, glad to have been distracted from his worries, even momentarily.

Sarah sat up on one elbow. "And now, can you please tell me who you are?"

Calle's eyebrows lifted, and he was instantly on alert.

"John Collier."

Sarah shook her head and smiled. "Whoever you are, you're not John Collier."

"Why not?"

Sarah looked into his eyes. "I've been flirting outrageously with John Collier since the day he arrived here. I've asked him for sex more times than I can count. And his answer has always been the same. 'Maybe another time', with that sly smile of his."

"You've... never had sex with him.... Ever?"

"No," said Sarah. "In fact, I still haven't. Now, who are you?"

Calle took a deep breath. "My name is John Calle."

"No. You can't be." Sarah looked like she was looking at a ghost. "John Calle is dead."

"He's not. I'm not." Calle explained what had happened, how he had fallen off the path in the Binochi Corridor and found it again.

"That's not possible," said Sarah. She pushed his clothes to him. "Get dressed."

"Why?"

"Hurry."

As she drove him back to the English Continuity Service Headquarters, she explained. General Strayker had suspected for some time that John Collier, who he was impersonating, was not devoted to the Plan. Strayker even suspected that John Collier had found out what had happened to John Calle.

"What happened to John Calle?" Calle asked.

"There's no time to explain," said Sarah."You've got to go back through the Corridor. You need to go back where you came from."

"But I don't know how!"

"You'll find a way," said Sarah. "If you're anything like my John, you'll find a way."

********

Sarah had just activated the Corridor, and Calle felt the heat and light of it in front of him, when Doctor Vladek and two armed guards entered the control room.

"Stop that man!" Vladek cried.

Calle looked helplessly at Sarah. She blew him a kiss and mouthed 'go'.

Calle went.

********

Calle didn't know where he was going. He didn't even know where Sarah had programmed the Corridor to take him. If anywhere. But if he went to the end of it, he would be stranded in this alternate dimension. He didn't even have a recall device.

And so Calle, to his own horror, stepped off the path. He gritted his teeth tightly as he took one step, then two, then three.

And then he looked back. The path was gone.

********

Calle was hyperventilating. He had to be calm.

He was lost. Completely lost. And what would happen when Doctor Vladek made Sarah shut down the Corridor? No one really knew for sure. Would he cease to exist in an instant? Or would he merely be trapped in the Corridor, forever?

Take deep, easy breaths. There, that's one. That's another.

Calle forced himself to be calm, or at least as calm as he could be.

He looked at the swirling mists around him, and stretched out with his senses.

Those glowing orange eyes.

The face of the Bioman.

The sensation, the special feeling was coming back to him.

Calle reached out with his senses, and started walking in a direction with his eyes closed. He walked for an indeterminate period of time, blinded, in the mists. Then he felt something, and opened his eyes.

He was almost on the path.

He saw it, bright and shining in front of him.

No, there were two paths.

Calle blinked.

No, there were four.

Each time Calle looked, there were more and more. Four. Eight. Twenty. A hundred. Two hundred. Thousands.

Thousands of paths, all running parallel to each other. All leading... somewhere.

Which one was the right one?

Calle had never seen anything like it, had never imagined the Corridor could do anything like this. Suddenly, he sensed he had found the doorway to hundreds of Earths. Maybe thousands.

And then suddenly, something floated down from above, right in front of him.

The Bioman.

Calle watched as the Bioman floated downwards, until he was right in front of Calle, mere inches from his face.

The Bioman stared at Calle for a long moment. Calle watched as air bubbles seem to escape from his mouth mask. What was going on behind those thick goggles, in those bright, shiny eyes? What kind of creature or life form was this?

As Calle stared at the Bioman, he no longer felt fear. He felt... familiarity. Somehow, he knew the Bioman, and the Bioman knew him. He felt a connection he could not explain.

And then the Bioman turned slightly, and pointed with a finger. A finger which Calle could see down to the bone.

The finger pointed to the maze of parallel paths. He could have been pointing to any of 50 of them. But somehow Calle knew, he knew, which one the Bioman meant.

Calle nodded, and he opened his mouth to say something, perhaps to thank the Bioman, or to ask him a question, but then the Bioman simply... vanished.

Calle looked back at the thousands of Corridors. Taking a deep breath filled with resolve, he stepped forward.

********

Calle stepped out of a temporary gateway into the control room. The gateway instantly disappeared behind him.

"John!" Sarah cried, reaching up to give him a hug. He hugged her back, but quickly pushed her away.

"What?" Said Sarah.

Calle looked down. Sarah's chest was as flat as a ten year old boy.

Calle sighed with relief. Sarah had no breasts!

"What is the name of our service?" Calle asked.

"What?"

"The name!" Calle shook her.

"The... The Continuity Service."

"What rank is our commander?"

"Colonel."

"What color is or was Major Reynolds' skin?"

"Black," said Sarah. "Black like chocolate. Maybe milk chocolate, no... more like dark chocolate.... But he's dead now. John, what's going on?"

Calle could have kissed her. Actually, he did.