Jack Morgan checked out of a seedy hotel in New Jersey early in the morning. He'd recently made arrangements with Shinobi to meet with Maximillian Powers. Jack fully intended to become part of Powers' organization, to be there when Powers gained control of time travel technology.

Jack didn't expect to enjoy his undercover role, but he'd done it before, and in worse company. Preserving the time stream was as much villainy as heroics. The rightful past contained much suffering and misery, and Jack had often found himself in the position of preventing others from righting those wrongs.

So Jack intended to become an indispensible part of Powers' organization, if possible.

Today, however, he had a much different sort of meeting.

This earlier in the morning, even the busiest halls of the U.N. building were abandoned.  Jack's marched behind a large, stone-faced man, their footfalls echoing hollowly.  Another tight-lipped mountain of muscles followed in cadence behind Jack. They were special agents, Jack knew without resorting to his recall bracelet. The jumpsuits they wore hugged their lethal-fighting- machine bodies, and other bulges indicated that they were armed with most likely the latest in state-of-the-art equipment.  Jack didn't need a rich imagination to summarize these guys; he knew their type all too well.

After all, he was very much like them.

The route they were taking was a literal maze of lead-lined subterranean corridors with access restricted to those with special levels of clearance. After picking their way through winding corridors for what seemed like an hour, Jack decided that this was some sort of campaign to confuse him, to disorient him, and for the most part it was working.

The agent in front finally stopped abruptly before an unmarked steel door.  "In there," he said, with almost ventriloquism.

The door opened by itself, and Jack stepped into a refurbished ampitheater. For the moment, it seemed like a great two-toned chamber: half the room was rich with wooden panneling, expensive draperies, and potted plants; the other half, behind an oak desk, was an institution-white section, with a flickering, crazy quilt of monitors stationed along its three walls and a grotesque assembly of consoles, control banks and power units along the dais.

A pale humanoid, his bare body swathed with astrological markings, floated in the center of the massive chamber.  "You must be Jack Morgan," the humanoid said in a neutered tone.

"If I must," Jack replied.  He didn't really enjoy working with the higher powered metas. Too apt to set themselves up as gods, in his experience.  In Zodiac's case, that would very nearly be true in the future.  Jack knew he should have been awed, sitting here with the man who would become the protector of the universe, but he couldn't muster up any awe.  He'd met Hannibal, too, and doubted Zodiac would have done a better job.

"You're currently standing in the Protectorate's Executive Wing," Zodiac in turn continued.

"I trust I passed the sensor analysis on the way in," Jack said.  He knew from records of the time that the Protectorate used an elaborate array of sensors to monitor visitors while they worked their way through the underground corridors to this room.  It had originally been a lecture and assembly hall for ambassadors, but had been taken over by the Protectorate.

Zodiac clasped his hands together, steepling his forefingers just under his chin.  Giving the nature of Jack Morgan's existence, the temporal police office posed a mystery to the acting chair of the Earth's most prominent super-team.  "I've had our functionaries leave while we discuss matters."

"Good idea," Jack agreed.  "We don't want just anyone knowing that policemen from the future are among them."  Jack sat, relaxing into a comfortable chair.  The Protectorate certainly didn't skimp on the furnishings.

"Let me give you a little background first," Jack started.  "You know I'm from the future.  My message which prompted this meeting told you that much.  I'm a policeman, charged with protecting history.  Unfortunately, someone has changed history to the extent that my original history doesn't exist anymore."  That much was true, Jack thought.  He wasn't sure what sort of sensors they had trained on him right now, so he was determined to tell the truth, or at least no more than half-truths.

"The pivotal point is a bit into your future, and involves the Royal Elite."  Jack paused for effect. The bait was excellent, given world events right now, but he needed to get access to the Monolith himself.  "Naturally, I'm limited in what I can tell you.  I don't want to change the future myself by telling you too much.  But I can tell you that in my history, the Royal Elite were stopped.  I want to help you make sure that happens."

Lines furrowed above the ridge of Zodiac's brow.  The alien-human hybrid scratched his chin, considering the likelihood of Jack's claims.  "I've got to say I'm in a difficult position, Jack.  I mean, far be it for me to preach metaphysics, but isn't your reason for being here to stop time-travelers from shaping the world to their fancies.  Wouldn't your help be some sort of conflict of interest?  And you mentioned that the Royal Elite was stopped according to your calendar, so why exactly does the Protectorate need your help?"

"I don't think you've quite grasped the situation," Jack said. "My intervention will put events back the way they were. You'll notice I said that the Royal Elite was stopped in my history. We are no longer in my history, so all bets are off, which is why my future no longer exists. My current projections show the Royal Elite still being stopped, but only after the complete destruction of Britain and France. Surely you would like to avoid that?"

For a brief moment Zodiac looked exasperated.  He hovered silently and pondered the dire consequences of fateful defeat of the Royal Elite, then he nodded.  "And you know of a way of stopping Autocrat and his battalion without zeopardizing a good part of Western Europe?"

"I know what happened in my original history, and I think I can figure out how to make that happen again."

Finally, Zodiac floated down and gently landed along the dais.  "What do you need from me to help you exactly?"

"Access to Monolith to try to track down the temporal criminals I'm chasing, and to determine a least damaging way of stopping the Royal Elite."

Jack knew the Monolith was huge -- he just didn't know firsthand how huge.  Until now.

The corridors of the enormous orbitting vessel stretched for miles, and were lined with circuits and strange equipment.  He didn't kid himself, he knew very little about the purpose behind most of the intricate hardware within the confines of the Protectorate's base, and he didn't even humor himself at guessing.  All he knew was that they had little relevance to his job at hand.

Jack spent quite some time working in the Monolith, or at least the parts of it that the Protectorate would allow him to access.  The Nerve Center, where the satellite's all-powerful mainframe was stored, was off-limits to Jack.  But the computers in the data archives library were advanced, even for Jack's time.

Jack sat at a console in a quadrant of the satellite called the Memory Cell, esconced in a boxy, electronic chair that seemed to grow from the equipment surrounding him.  He was careful not to let his computer interface with his recall bracelet.  Luckily the Monolith had quite sophisticated human interfaces, so Jack didn't need to brush up on his typing.

"Confirm secure access under ID Jack Morgan", Jack said.

"Confirmed.  Security level ensures privacy of inquiries," a synthesized voice replied.

Jack knew that his demand for discretion wouldn't hold if the Protectorate became suspicious of him, but for the moment he'd convinced them of the need to keep his knowledge of the future secret.

"Start query: Information on current whereabouts of Avatar.  Same query for Abbatoir."

Those queries were just for cover.  Jack knew that the Royal Elite had Avatar, and the Abbatoir would come out of the woodwork sooner or later.  Now for the important queries.

"Display information on anomaly sighted over Los Angeles."  Jack scanned the data as it appeared.  The information he'd stolen from NASA's computers hadn't told him enough about the anomaly to determine if it was time travel related or not.  The information on Monolith, however, was much more comprehensive.  The supercomputer had already analyzed the data and produced the conclusion that the anomaly was a meta in transit.

Jack shook his head.  All this trouble to get access to Monolith.  He'd best make it worth his while.

"Start query: Information about Maximillian Powers, cross-referenced with high-energy physicists."

While that information was processing, Jack started another query.

"Start query: gravitic fluxes. Known locations as follows." Jack gave the location of the explosion of Schreck's device, and the location of the strange echo he'd picked up later. The fluxes were almost certainly time travel related; he suspected the Architects to be conducting preliminary experiments, which meant the clock was ticking for finding them.

As Jack sat back from a long session in the Memory Cell, a door hissed open and Paragon stepped into the room.  The android stood as tall as Jack, his body a dull silver and hairless, with blotches of nanites around his black eyes and sharp jawline.  AIs were popular in Jack's time, but he was never a big fan of them.  Like many of the women he had dated back home, he found them high maintenance.

"How do you like the station, Jack?"

"Not bad, if you like dated technology."  Jack smiled.  In truth, much of what the station had would have been remarkable even in his time.

"Did you find anything in the memory archives that pertain to the temporal criminals you seek?"

Jack shook his head.  "No, but I think I've figured out an angle for the Protectorate to take to set things right.  There are two key players you need to contact.  One is Harbinger, the other is Abbatoir.  Bring those two together, and we may just be able to stop the Royal Elite."

"Yes, surveillence files from a recent jailbreak at Purgatory Prime indicate that Harbinger was in fact behind the freeing of Abattoir.  However, a police report by Old Glory claims that Abattoir has been dispatched proceeding his escape, during a confrontation at Canada's Tombstone Mountian and due to an unexpected avalanche."

"I can promise you that Abbatoir is not dead," Jack replied. "Historical records show Abbatoir's presence after this time, and he and Harbinger are the keys to stopping Autocrat."

Paragon cocked his head slightly.  "How exactly will they help us stop the Royal Elite?"

"I can't say right now.  But I can tell you this, the Royal Elite will not stop with Ireland, and your only hope of stopping them lies with those two. Unless you want to see the whole of Europe a blasted cinder, find them!"

Paragon nodded. "We will start searching."

Jack sat back into the shuttle's acceleration couch.  The couch wasn't strictly necessary, since he and Lioness were transferring from Monolith orbit to Moon orbit, but he never passed up a chance to relax.

"So, Jack", Lioness said, "tell me again why we're going to the Moon."

"Do you like to hear me talk that much?"

"Well, your voice isn't quite as grating as my claws on a chalkboard," Lioness said with a wry smile, a smile that revealed her pronounced incisors.  "I think I can handle it."

"It started," Jack said, "with a couple of gravitic anomalies I've tracked over the past few months.  I think they're tied to the temporal criminals I'm tracking.  Turns out, the Monolith tracked the same anomalies, with much more sensitive instrumentation than mine."  Jack glanced at Lioness, and the pupils of her cat's eyes narrowed into vertical slits.  "The Monolith would be the perfect surveillance station, you know."

Lioness grimaced. "Yeah, we get people complaining about that all the time. They claim we're doing everything from selling their secrets to publishing videos of them watering their lawn on the Internet."

"Are you?"

Lioness almost laughed.

"Odd thing, though," Jack continued, "is that the Monolith's records of the anomolies were hidden by a virus."

Lioness nodded.  "The Royal Elite managed to get a virus aboard recently.  Probably just chose files at random to hide, to try and mess with our operations."

"Maybe."  Jack thought for a moment.  "Anyway, what was in those files gave me a lead on the source of the anomalies.  The anomalies I detected were resonating with something on the Moon, smack dab in the middle of the Sea of Tranquility.  Thus, we are going to investigate."

"You know," Lioness said, "it doesn't sound any better the second time around.  And why are we taking the shuttle?"

"Because I don't trust your antiquated technology to transmit me to the Moon."

Jack stepped gingerly in the Moon's lower gravity.  A Protectorate furnished force-field kept the vacuum out and a fresh air supply in, but did nothing for the feeling that his legs were made of springs. Low-G training was not on the list of classes at the temporal academy.

Coordinates reached, Jack's recall bracelet told him.

"Here," Jack called to Lioness.  She came over to join him in examining their find.

Hidden in the wall of the crater, a glint of metal caught the beam of Jack's light.  Difficult to tell how big the structure was, but if it wasn't any larger than the visible portion, it would be about the size of a small cottage on Earth.  A couple of rooms, maybe.  Luckily, there was a door clearly visible.

"Should we help ourseles in?" Lioness asked.  Jack nodded his head.

"Always the social one."  He stepped up to the door and pushed the only button available.  After a brief moment, the door slid open, revealing a small airlock.  He glanced at Lioness.

"We can both fit, if you don't mind being friendly," he said as he entered.

"Hah!" Lioness followed him into the airlock. "You just try being friendly in these force-fields."

Another button cycled the airlock, closing the outer door and opening the inner door.  Jack stepped through the door into a room filled with banks of computers.  All the displays were dark.  A ladder along one wall led downward.  Jack lowered himself along the ladder, only to come up short as he reached the bottom.

"I'll be damned," he said softly.

The equipment in the bottom level of the installation could be a duplicate of the space-time warping gyroscope Schreck had created.  Clearly, Schreck's ideas were nothing new.

In one corner lay the readout for the power supply.  Everything was dead, but there was a hookup for a power cell.

"I think we can scrounge up something to match," Lioness said, contacting the Monolith.  Half a minute later, a power cell materialized on the floor of the installation.  Jack picked it up and plugged it into the panel.  Immediately lights started blinking and the power supply meter read a full charge.  The device in the center of the room stayed immobile.

"Let's see what we can dig out of the computers," Jack said as he moved back to the upper level.  He moved close enough for his recall bracelet to connect, and waiting.

Security systems activated... attempting to bypass.  For a moment, everything went dark, except for a single line of text across one display, that read:

Security systems bypassed.  The displays lit up again, and the message disappeared.  Security systems tried to send message out of installation, but message was blocked successfully.

"Whew."  Jack had no wish to tangle directly with Autocrat.  "Okay, let's see what we have." Jack spent some time with Trinity going through the computer files.

"You know, Jack.  If I was somwone else, I might start to get paranoid in here."  Lioness pointed to a list of dates on the screen.  "There's an entry in here for every major war in history, going all the way back to 2300 B.C. and earlier."

"Hmm... the installation's been offline for fifty years," Jack said.  "Its fusion generator ran out of fuel and shutdown gracefully.  It may have been around for all those wars."

"Can you make anything of this," Lioness asked.  Jack moved to look at the schematics on her screen.  They clearly described the gyroscopic device in the lower level.  It resembled a time travel device, but had some odd permutations on it that Jack couldn't understand.  He wished he'd paid more attention in the temporal engineering courses at the academy.

"Well," he said, "it goes somewhere or somewhen."  He looked at Lioness and grinned. "Care for a quick peek?"

As the gyroscope processed, spinning wildly, swirling the very fabric of reality, the contraption disappared into a hole in space.  Lioness looked at the mini blackhole with pause.

"Are you sure this is wise, Jack?"

Jack shook his head.  "No, but I need to see where this goes before too many people know about it."

That said, Jack casually walked to the edge of the hole and stepped inside.  There was a mild tingling, and he stepped out into a similar installation.  The hole in space was behind him, and the room was much larger.  Lioness appeared after a moment.

"Well, this isn't so bad," she said.

Jack put his recall bracelet to work on the computers in the room, and before too long he and Lioness were looking through more files.

"Well," Jack said after some time, "I can tell you when and where we are."  He flipped a switch and activated a viewscreen on one wall.  An image of Earth appeared, but not the comforting blue-green image they'd just left.  This Earth was pockmarked with craters the size of Ohio.  The surface looked barren, the atmosphere had been burned away, leaving the world free to be ravaged by cosmic debris.

"Dates are pretty meaningless right now, but I think we're about six thousand years into the future."

"Is there anything alive?" Lioness asked.

Jack shook his head.  "Hard to tell. I'm getting some readings, so there might be subsurface shelters.  The good news, this isn't our Earth.  The gateway took us into a parallel dimension at the same time as we travelled into the future."  Jack scanned some more files.  "The bad news is, I think this is what's in store for Earth unless something is done.  Look at this."

Jack pointed to a list of dates, of wars again, reaching back many thousands of years.  It all added up to a program of conquest and subjugation that laid this Earth to waste.

"And," Jack said, "I think it's already started on our Earth."
 
 

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