Negative Fold

1 Growing Old, Growing Bold

Bram was going through his morning wake up preparation. He was standing in front of the mirror shaving and thinking about the “Negative Fold Universe.” This was an accidental discovery made while he worked on what he now thought of as “The Positive Fold Universe” equation. He had been working on a way to move a Fold transport bubble in both the forward and reverse direction.

To go forward he had incremented time in each part of his Fold equation. He had done this by incrementing all the time components of the Fold equation in unison.

He discovered and had come to the realization that to go in reverse, he had to decrement time. This required one forward control program and a separate reverse control program.

Just as in an automobile both forward and reverse have different gearing. That was also true for the Fold equation. It took two separate programs that could not both be operating at the same time.

The oddity of the reverse equation was that once the Fold was back to its original start coordinate or zero start point, the equation kept going and operated on negative time. This is why he called it the Negative Fold Universe. He, however, had no understanding what the negative Fold equation represented.

The Earth that he had grown up on experienced time flowing from the point of the big bang that had created the universe out to infinity. He thought of it as flowing linearly from left to right.

He had not been able to determine how time was measured in the “Negative Fold Universe.” He had now lost three bubble scouts and had no idea on how to retrieve them.

He was lost at how to maintain control of the bubbles entering the negative Fold zone.

He had come to the conclusion that he would need to personally go into the negative Fold realm to learn what was going on. He knew it was a risky thing to do but he felt that he would be able to figure out what was going on and make the adjustments that were needed to the negative Fold equation.

He had to try, and he had to do it alone.

This morning, he was carefully shaving and thinking about how he would handle the negative Fold universe and how to keep it invisible to the general population for the foreseeable future.

He suddenly stopped and stroked his hair back and realized that he had a streak of grey hair along the right side. He muttered a silent curse. Growing old was one of the few things that had not crossed his mind. He wondered how, when he was doing multiple Folds, he could possible develop grey hair. The Fold process had been proven to transform a person from a most deformed state to a perfect body and it had let him get grey hair!

Pat entered and approached the second sink and saw Bram looking at his hair. She had meant to mention the grey to him but had been distracted by recent events and had forgotten. She reached up and let her fingers slide along the grey. She commented that it gave him the distinguished look of a wise man.

Bram smiled and thanked her and said that age unfortunately did not equate with wisdom.

He quietly finished shaving and let her know that he would be down getting a cup of coffee and then he was eager to get to work so he could tackle the conundrum of both wanting access to but wanting to keep everyone away from the negative Fold universe.

Pat spent a moment thinking up a ditty that the team could chant on the way into the work area compound. She smiled as she thought about the praise she had received about her ability to come up with good ditties, from Orlando, who was the master of coming up with ditties. He was the root of her current talent.

She thought for a few moments and thought she had a good one for this morning,

He’s got a Silver streak, no he’s not a freak

He’s growing old but growing bold

I’m not too sure, It’s what I am told

Silver streak, no he’s not a freak

Growing old but growing bold

Knows his way, through more than Fold

Silver streak, no he’s not a freak

Growing old but growing bold

Hi, Ho. Hi, Ho.

No not growing old, just growing bold.

Not too sure, it’s what I’m told.

She went to the kitchen for her coffee and enjoyed a slice of buttered toast with strawberry jam. She took a moment, jotted down the ditty, and handed it to Zoe letting her know that she should give it to Castor and Donna.

Zoe read the ditty and said she would be right back. She hustled down the stairs to the basement exit door and stepped out and handed Donna the ditty and said that they should use it this morning. She then returned to the kitchen just as Bram was rinsing out his cup.

Bram announced that it was time to go and led the way down the stairs to the basement exit.

When Castor and Donna said that they had a fresh ditty and took everyone through the first round, Bram smiled, he knew immediately who had written it. He looked at Pat and commented that she was getting as good as Orlando at writing ditties.

Zoe commented that Pat was better because she was closer and was able to ditty the most intimate occasions.

Pat laughed and said that she would limit her ditties to visually obvious things. The intimate parts were for her alone.

When Bram got to his office, Linda commented that for some reason he looked much more distinguished than she had previously noticed.

Bram smiled and shook his head and said she was looking much better than normal as well and wondered what make up she was wearing.

Linda smiled and said she declared a truce and asked if they should start with setting up his two-week work schedule.

Bram replied that he wanted fifteen minutes and then they could set up the next two weeks.

He went in and started the pot for hot water.

He was followed in by his two FBI bodyguards, Zoe, and Eric.

Zoe asked if he was going to have tea or coffee. She would get the coffee ready if that was his choice.

Bram thanked her and chose coffee.

He then went to the bookshelf and opened the little door leading to the two mice he had returned with from the desert where they had visited the rock where he had sat for more than a year during the development of his Fold equation.

He had gone there to visit Einstein his pet mouse, who had been his advisor during the development of the Fold equation and whom he had returned to the boulder a few months before.

On this visit Einstein had given him two of his offspring that he had brought back the day before.

Pat had helped him name the two. One was Isaac, named after a famous scientist and the other, Ada, was named after another famous scientist. They both came out and got into his hand. Bram carried them to his desk and put them down at the center of the picture of the milky way. This picture was the size of his desk and was under the class covering. It was the picture that had captured his imagination when he was a young boy, and it had drawn him into the field that he was now pursuing.

He quietly told the two mice that he was going to ask for their help to set up the way to handle the negative universe the way that their father had helped him set up the Fold equation.

He smiled and pointed to them and said that they had both agreed by shaking their heads in the affirmative.

Zoe brought over his coffee and petted each of the mice with her finger and then put down some cookie crumbs.

Bram smiled and asked if she were trying to take his job or replace his relationship with his new advisors.

Zoe shook her head and said that she did not want a silver streak in her hair and that she would stick with dodging bullets and taking on the bad guys and he could go grey thinking about the Fold world.

Bram responded that he thought maybe the grey streak was a result of worrying about her tweaking his nose while he was deep in thought.

He then looked down to Isaac and Ada and told them that they now saw the stress he was constantly in because of this one bodyguard.

Eric brought over two more small cookie crumbs. He asked if the cookie was all that they got to eat.

Bram took Isaac and Ada back to the little door and they scurried in. He then opened the two doors below the main bookshelf and showed Eric the automated food and water set up that supplied the two mice with what they needed.

Isaac and Ada could be seen on the open side of the feeder taking a few nibbles.

He commented that the two had a fairly extensive tube system that also went outside where they could catch the morning sun.

He commented that there was even a transport tube that went to the Viewing Room and that it had been installed when the room was Zuri’s office back when she needed the room for her wheelchair.

Eric said that he was impressed. He had wondered about Einstein and how he had lived while he was still with Bram.

Bram commented that he felt a little remorseful about having kept Einstein alone for so long. He said that Einstein had sent him a clear message by having him take two of his kids back with him.

He then smiled and said he hoped that the two were as smart as their father.

Zoe shook her head and said it was a little disconcerting to think that he was getting affirmation for his ideas from mice.

Bram smiled and said that he found the little creatures very critical to his thinking.

Linda knocked, entered, and said that his fifteen-minute reprieve was up, and it was time to work on his two-week work calendar.

Bram nodded and said that there was no escaping his responsibilities while she was around.

After spending almost an hour getting the next two weeks organized, Bram asked Linda to arrange for Marcus and Remi to meet with him. He suggested the ten o’clock open period on his calendar. He also asked her to see if Pat and Amy would be available for an afternoon trip to Mataia.

He asked Zoe and Eric if they needed to be with him on the Fold to Mataia.

Zoe commented that now that he had proven that he could get to the future it meant they could reach back into the past. This meant he needed more protection, not less.

Bram asked what she meant.

Zoe commented that unknown to any of them, he might have some enemy in the future that might take some sort of action against him. They should be ready for such an eventuality.

Bram nodded and then he smiled and said he agreed but he really felt that those in the future should love him and regard him as a scientific hero.

Zoe nodded and said that was exactly how everyone in their current time period should feel but it seemed that some of those that did not love him were willing to try to kill him.

Bram commented that they would need to rethink their current protection procedure and make sure they thought about an attack from some group from the future. He commented that they should put this discussion on the calendar and get General Tilson and Lacy in on the conversation.

Zoe suggested they do it sooner and not later because she had a bad feeling about the future.

Linda announce the arrival of Marcus and Remi, who walked in and welcomed him back from his trip to Gabon. Remi asked if they had ended up with a friendly new member on the Oversight Committee.

Bram commented that he felt great about the trip and about having an Oversight Committee that would be supportive overall of the Fold effort.

He then let them know that what he wanted to do now was to make the negative Fold capability invisible to the world for the foreseeable future. He wanted them to visit Mataia and determine what they needed to do to establish a center where everything about negative Fold would be located.

He wanted to set up a work center that was harder to get in or out of than Fort Knox. He made the point that the negative Fold capability was worth more than all the wealth of their world and when that became known they would all be in danger.

He pointed out that it also was the ying and yang of the world of the good and the bad. He shared what Zoe had said about not everyone loving him. He did not understand why that was the case but as she had pointed out he was not allowed to go anywhere without someone attacking him. She had challenged him and asked him if he thought everyone in the future would love him.

Remi looked at Zoe and commented that he had seen her in action and that Bram should listen to her carefully.

Bram said that he had listened and was going to review all the protection systems and protocols that they had set up and add the threat from the future as a new complication.

He said that he would have Linda set up a session with General Tilson and Lacy for the following day. He said that they should all plan to attend and bring their attack from the future scenarios to share.

Marcus commented that he was going to ask his kids about an attack from the future and how it would be carried out. He said that he would make it a game and see what they would come up with.

Bram said that sounded like a great idea. He then added, “from the mouths of babes.”

He then took the two into the objective of the meeting and that focused on setting up the negative Fold work area on Mataia.

Marcus and Remi both agreed and threw in their ideas about the design of the work center.

When it came time for lunch, he called it quits, and they went to the cafeteria.

Amy and Pat were sitting together when they spotted Bram coming in for lunch. Pat commented that his protectors were all acting as if danger were close at hand. Amy looked around the sparsely populated cafeteria and said that she did not see any threats.

Pat knew that Zoe had commented that the threat level had risen, but she had not volunteered any information but had commented that she would soon have Bram working on better protection.

Bram walked over to Pat and said that he was looking forward to going to Mataia after lunch and was that something that could possibly be made to happen. He was about to go and get his lunch when Chef D’Carluca brought out a dish that he said he was perfecting that he called Swooshian Spaghetti di Mare and that he wanted to have Bram be the first to try it and give him feedback.

He looked around the table and asked if anyone else wanted to be a judge of his latest creation.

Everyone raised a hand.

He smiled. He commented that he had been counting on Bram making everyone hungry. He said that he would have the plates sent out.

Zoe commented that she was glad that she was on duty and that she would have hated to have missed out on one of the Chef’s latest creations.

She commented that one of the benefits of guarding Bram was that he had exciting fishing trips that always seemed to feature fireworks, exciting vacations that had missiles and semi’s trying to blow them up and a Chef that loved to try new dishes out on him.

Castor said that he had to fight off other Marines in order to keep his current assignment when they had found out he got to feast on Chef D’Carluca’s special dishes.

Bram laughed and said that other than dealing with explosions and dodging lead, their work was a piece of cake.

Chef D’Carluca’s Swooshian Spaghetti di Mare was a truly delicious spaghetti made with baby clams, mussels, squid, and shrimp in a thick dark blue sauce. He explained that the blue color came diluted from squid ink.

Everyone complimented him and said that once again he was pushing the limits of extremely great flavor.

After lunch Castor and Linda led the way to the hanger where the six-person Fold vehicle was waiting.

The Fold into the Mataia Arrival Terminal was uneventful.

Bram described that he was looking to house the negative Fold effort as well as to house the vehicle or vehicles that would be limited to use in the negative Fold realm. He shared that he was planning on having a special vehicle that would hold ten with ten beds and a supply of food that would hold them for a month. He made the point that he was not planning any long forays into the negative Fold realm, but he was going to be prepared for any unplanned problem.

Pat looked at Amy and said that the empty hangar capable of holding Wheel One had plenty of space. She pointed out that a multilevel work center could be added. She said that the first level would be the Launch-Return site. They could equip that level with Sterile holding areas that would be isolated. The floor above it could hold a large lab. The third floor could be a large work center.

Amy commented that if the structure was located at the far end and the top two levels had windows to the external three sides they could make it feel very much like the work floor in the main Mataia Fold work building.

Bram asked Amy to walk off the area she was thinking about. After she had done this Bram asked to walk around the exterior of the hangar. He wanted to get a feel for the view, but he was also interested on how protection could be integrated into the building.

Once he had made the walk he asked Pat and Amy to join in on the meeting of Zoe, the General and Lacy to discuss how to make what they built as secure as his current office.

Amy thanked him and commented that she would take what she learned into consideration and have his office in the main Mataian building modified to have the same level of protection. She commented that protection had been overlooked when they built Einstein City and that she and Pat would take a cut at making sure they reviewed all the structures that Bram would frequent.

Bram thanked her and commented that every home and building should have a saferoom and they would need to experiment to see if they could set up a system that would prevent anyone from Folding into the safe rooms. He commented that making a Fold proof save room was going to be a challenge.

The next day during the meeting that focused on reviewing the safety protocol, Marcus said that his kids had come up with a variety of ideas that he would never have thought about.

One of their suggestions was to set up a laser screen around the perimeter of the room and test to see if Folding in was possible. They suggested that the laser screen should be similar to the screen on the porch screen door.

The second suggestion was to have a laser weapon that would sweep the room on a multilevel that was strong enough to cut someone into pieces.

He said another suggestion was to have a system that shot spikes up from the floor that were only inches apart.

The General laughed and asked what Marcus was feeding his kids.

Marcus said that he was always surprised by what his kids could come up with and that they were eating healthy meals.

Bram said that he would investigate each of their suggestions but the laser to cut people into pieces and shooting up spikes from the floor seemed to be out on the edge of what he had in mind.

He asked he General if he had any other better suggestions.

The General said, “touche” and then went on and suggested that they set up an armed bubble protection system on Mataia. He said he had two Marine’s that needed to be promoted and who he did not want to lose. He could promote them and assign them to operate the protection bubble system on Mataia. They would still be housed on Earth, but they would always activate the bubble system on Mataia ahead of Bram and make sure the area was clear before his arrival.

Bram complemented the General and said that he thought that his suggestion should be implemented as soon as possible. He said that he would immediately begin to work on the laser screen suggestion that Marcus’s children had made. He was thinking the screen should be a laser screen that as it sliced an object up would send each piece to separate random distances in negative space.

The General looked at Pat and asked what she was feeding Bram.

She smiled and said that Bram had the talent to take a simple idea and make it into a horror movie scene.

She then added that it was not what she was feeding him, but he was just seeing the side of Bram that she feared the most.

Amy joined in and commented that had she known about the Bram dark side she would have left him in the desert.

Bram stood up and bowed and said that he was ending the meeting on that note and planned to walk home slowly and absorb the painful feedback he had just received.

The General laughed and said he now knew how to quickly end meetings with him.

2 Future Surprise

Bram began a head on attack to figure out how to gain control of the negative Fold universe. He knew that he needed to take an aggressive approach, and he needed to do it quickly before the Fold technology became known in his time. He read through several diverse fields dealing with the universe and reviewed competing theories. This led him to believe that the interaction of black matter, gravity, light, distance, and the expansion speed of the universe were all involved in creating the phenomena of a universe where time flowed both in a linear fashion from the big bang to infinity as well as the same universe where distance seemed to dictate the size of a rhombicosidodecahedron (RCID) where time was not measurable but inferred by the node sequence of the RCID. He was convinced that the greater the initial Fold distance the farther back in time the traveler would find themselves.

He personally had experienced that effect.

The way back from such a “time distance” was to jump from one RCID node to the next node in a given sequence for thousands, or perhaps millions of nodes. This in the linear universe he lived in would take an unmeasurable amount of time. He figured that most likely there was a way to choose what the next point on the RCID would be but currently he had no clue how to accomplish this.

As he reviewed the various papers that had been published on the measurement of distance across the universe and of the changing knowledge of how fast the universe was expanding the more convinced he was that the negative Fold environment was the result of the interactions happening similar to the interaction in his current time on the subatomic particle level. At that level, in the positive Fold world, it appeared that time did not exist. The negative Fold universe was a macro example of the same phenomena. Time did not exist in the negative Fold realm.

This was a concept that Bram found perplexing, but he figured that he would slowly work his way through until he understood the negative Fold universe. He likened it to the slow pace at which he had learned the Swooshian language.

He was convinced that what he had experienced in his first venture into the negative Fold universe was that distance had a similar attribute to time in his universe and he wondered if the measure of distance was linear from the big bang and followed the expansion speed of the universe.

The only thing that had saved him was the light that Pat had sent out with the old-fashioned Morse code that gave him a visual shortcut back to the time that he had entered the negative Fold realm. This meant that light was linear in the negative Fold realm and acted independently to both distance and time.

As he continued his studies it became apparent to him that the expansion of the Universe, the effects of gravity on light, the effects of gravity on matter and the fact that time did not exist, all interacted to produce a realm where reality was not the simple solid touch something and you knew it was real that was true in the positive Fold universe where time began with the big bang and existed as a constantly moving event.

He used the Bayesian inference statistical method and used all the elements he thought were pertinent to create a model of how nonexistent time affected where a negative Fold vehicle would end up. Once he had the model, he created a computer control program for one of the negative Fold bubbles.

He then needed to test how his Fold bubble moved in the negative Fold universe.

He engaged Marcus and together they began a series of trials and after several Fold trips they were able to recognize that the resulting location was based on the initial time settings in the Fold vessels control computer.

The time in the control settings seemed to interact with gravity and the black matter through which the Fold vessel traveled. Using his model, he reconstructed the gravity of the Universe throughout cosmic history in a computer model based on all the parameters including the positive Fold sections.

Bram realized that they were developing an equation that they could learn to manipulate not by brilliantly thinking through the model but by using plain old-fashioned trial and error experimentation. Each trial resulted in another increment of learning that allowed him to try yet another tweak of the model. This meant that he would be able to use his statistical model to continue tweaking the Fold equation and exploring the limits of traveling in the negative Fold realm.

Marcus commented that they were slow learners on how to handle how far the send journey would be and it was the light beacon that Pat had set up that allowed them to always retrieve the negative Fold vessel successfully.

Bram agreed and said that Pat had provided the practical tool that was going to allow them to slowly map the Negative Fold realm.

Both of them had been doing their work from their workspace in the new lab on Mataia as they waited for their new work area in the Mataia hangar to be built. Bram’s bodyguards were with them at all times. Bram had made it a point that each day they Fold back to Earth for lunch.

It was Zoe that noticed that Bram’s grey streak had disappeared, and she commented that she had figured out why Bram had suggested Folding back for lunch.

Bram chuckled because he had not noticed the change until Zoe joked about it. He put it down to the positive side effect of Folding. His team all had a list of ailments that they no longer suffered. He knew that his first mouse, Einstein, was living much longer than any mouse he knew about.

He speculated that somewhere in the future a huckster would be selling Fold trips with the claim that it would heal any ailment. As he thought about it he knew that more experimentation on that side effects of Folding was needed.

Pat had taken the lead in the ultimate transformation that took Zuri from her wheelchair through a phenomenal body transformation. Zuri was currently nearing the end of her time attending Oxford. She had moved universities from the one that accepted her in her wheelchair and had gone to Oxford where no one knew she had been wheelchair bound for all her life. She was a Fold miracle.

Zoe observed Bram thinking and figured he had come up with yet another project. She had learned to read the moments when Bram hit on a new thought. She had never told him that he would close his eyes and when he opened them, smile, and nod to himself.

Bram realized that his protection team was waiting for him to disembark the Fold vehicle. He had been lost in envisioning how therapeutic Folds should be managed. He would ask Pat to take the lead and organize that area.

Pat sat at the table with Amy. They were both looking forward to the usual team lunch. They had just completed the entire structure that would be the Negative Fold work building on Mataia. The entire structure had been built on a slab next to the Fruit Barn Production area on Earth. It would be Folded into location by the end of the week. They needed to work with Marcus so they could Fold it into the precise location at the end of the hangar.

She and Amy had already removed the section of the hanger on Mataia that would be filled by the new section they had just finished. The final finishing touches would be done by the workers that were currently finishing the interior of the building. She was pleased with the openness of the building’s negative Fold work area. She knew that Bram would spend a great deal of time there and she wanted it to be a comfortable place with an outstanding view.

She was aware that Bram had developed a very sophisticated laser barrier system based on the suggestion of Mylan and Marcus Jr.

The grid to prevent any unsolicited Folds into the building would be implemented immediately after the building was moved into place. The shield was an amazing laser grid that would wrap around the entire building. Anything passing through it would be sliced into tiny pieces that were then randomly Folded into negative space. She knew that Bram had worked independently on the program and planned to locate the transmitter in a location only he knew about. It was his way of making it almost impossible for the future to interfere with the past.

She had the feeling that the transmitter would not be on Mataia but some undisclosed location and would have its own power system and would not need any attention.

She was aware that Bram had a Fold vehicle built that he was outfitting on his own. He let her know that no one would be allowed to see what was in it or to know where it was located. He said that it would also hold all the current knowledge of the Negative and the Positive Fold realms. He said that should he die, the information would be released a few centuries later.

She knew that he was trying to protect the entire human species as well as their Water World intelligent beings.

As Bram walked into the cafeteria, he looked over at where Pat and Amy were sitting and knew by their smiles that they had good news. He had been following the work they had been doing to get the Fold work center on Mataia built and knew they were close to completion.

He had purposely stayed away from the area where they were having it built. Instead, he had focused his efforts on setting up the anti-intruder laser grid.

He had recruited Erica to obtain a series of laser transmitters that could be set up to create a fly screen pattern around the entire work center. The power required to operated it was substantial and he worked with Remi to build a Fold vessel that would be able to generate the power needed and be able to keep the shield activated from a remote location.

He sat down and took a few bites of the slice of rare top loin roast that he was dipping in a sauce that Chef D'Carluca had insisted he try. The sliced fried green tomatoes were his effort at making sure he had a vegetable on his plate.

He looked at Amy and asked if she had crashed one of the Hilos.

She shook her head and asked why he would ask such a question.

He smiled and said that he observed that she was fidgeting and closely watching him eat.

Pat said that the two of them were excited to be able to announce that the negative Fold structure would be Folded into place on the following day and then they would have the structure activated three days later. He would then be able to activate his anti-intruder laser grid.

Bram complimented them at the speed at which they were setting up the structure and getting it into place. He said that he had focused on a much simpler effort and was lagging behind the timing they were achieving. He said that he would have to put the shield grid back on the front burner so that he could immediately activate it when they had the building in place

He added that he wanted to prevent the future from putting in any monitoring or spying devices. He wanted a clean work area.

Pat commented that she figured that he would be far ahead of any action the future might take.

Bram shook his head and replied that he was hoping that speed would at least keep him in the lead.

Zoe felt a shiver run down her back. She spoke softly to Eric and said that they should be prepared. Eric knew immediately that Zoe had experienced one of her intuitive moments and was now in an activated high adrenaline state. It was the same when they were getting on the car ferry on the trip through Norway.

She had the premonition then and her swift actions had saved them. The two of them had discussed these feelings she got and how they had always been accurate.

He had no idea what had caused her to feel that way, but he had come to know that she was correct one hundred percent of the time.

Eric excused himself and said he would return shortly. He left and went to a locker outside of Bram’s office where they kept their Kevlar jackets and high-power weapons. He took all the weapons and protective equipment for all four of them out to the Fold craft. He laid the gear out for each of them and then returned to the cafeteria. He got there as Bram was getting ready to return to Mataia.

As he and Zoe got ready to take the lead back to the Fold vehicle, he let Thomas and Bob know that he had moved all their gear to the Fold craft, and they needed to be ready for action.

He then let Castor and Donna know they should be ready for action and did they need to stop anywhere to get their gear.

Castor shook his head, patted his backpack, and said they never went anywhere without their tools. He said that they were at full readiness.

Bram sensed that the atmosphere had changed. He likened it to the dip in atmospheric pressure just before a storm. He observed that his bodyguards were silent. When they got to the craft to get in each of his FBI bodyguards put on their Kevlar jackets and positioned their weapons at their seats.

Zoe handed him his vest and asked him to put it on. He did as she asked. He had his own weapon under his seat. He took it out, placed it and the extra ammo clip within reach as he sat down in the Fold vessel. He asked Zoe what was up.

He was not surprised that she simply replied, “premonition.” This was the same as her reply to Matt when he had asked how she knew the truck in the tunnel was a trap and a bomb.

Remi and Marcus were both with him and it was clear to him that they had not picked up on the change in atmosphere. They were talking about the huge difficulty of figuring out the coordinates to place a building on a planet going through space and how Marcus had worked with Pat and Amy to place it exactly plus or minus one half inch within the rectangle represented by those coordinates.

Bram asked them to remain to the back of the team when they got to Mataia.

Their arrival to the Mataian Arrival-Departure Terminal was normal. Amy insisted on checking the terminal before allowing the rest of the team to disembark.

Their walk from the terminal up to Remi’s lab was a little slower and Bram was surrounded by his bodyguards but otherwise it was uneventful.

Bram wondered if Zoe’s intuition was off.

When they got to the lab door, Zoe put her open hand up and her finger of her other hand to her pursed lips. She then started a loud conversation with herself as she approached the door. She opened it fast and dove in toward the left and Eric followed and dove to the right. Castor and Linda dove straight in and slid on their stomachs with their back packs in front of them.

At first the silence made Bram think that Zoe had overreacted but then the continuous roar coming through the door seemed to be that of several large gatling guns firing simultaneously, and the area sounded like a full war zone. Thomas and Bob had pushed him to the wall and were trying to shielding him.

He pushed past them with his gun drawn and entered, turned to the right, and immediately shot two armed persons who were attacking his bodyguards from the side. The bodyguards had their attention toward their front and had not seen the attackers.

Bram continued along the wall firing at the attacking fighters. Then he took down two more when he was able to shoot behind the shields they were holding. He ran toward the other side of the room as he changed to a new bullet clip. He then fired from the side and shot the remaining fighters.

Once the shields fell, the barrage from Zoe, Eric, Castor, and Donna took down the wounded fighters.

He was glad that he had supported Zoe’s anticipation of trouble and had put on his Kevlar vest because he had felt the hits as he crossed the room during the fight. He had been hit several times and was sure he would later feel the pain but at the moment his adrenaline was serving its purpose.

He watched as Zoe walked up to two wounded attackers and shot them. The grim look on her face warned him not to say a word. She checked to make sure the other attackers were dead. She commented that only dead assassins would be sent back to the future.

He noted that Eric had gathered the attackers’ weapons and was putting then into one of the steel chests. He wondered why and was about to ask when a loud explosion caused the chest to lose its shape and look more like a stainless-steel sausage.

He asked Eric how he had known that the weapons would blow up.

Eric replied that he hadn’t known but that he and Zoe had discussed what to expect if the future came back to attack them. They had agreed that the weapons would most likely self-destruct, so that the past could not gain knowledge about the future weapons technology.

They had also discussed the fact that in a conflict the future would expect to win and would come in a group they felt would be sufficient to quickly overcome their adversaries.

Bram suggested they search for a Fold vessel.

Zoe commented that it was not in their time but would potentially Fold in to pick up the attackers. She asked that they all stay close to the wall while she walked around and checked out the lab. She got down and glanced along the floor and on top of the larger worktables.

She pointed to the four chairs at each of the four tables and said that the attackers had sat on the stools with their weapons at the ready and shields besides them. She went to the largest open lab area and said that the Fold craft from the future had sat down, and the attackers had all gotten out, then the craft had Folded away.

She squatted down and pointed to one of the tiles that had some scuff marks on it and commented when they had the time, they would be able to match the scuff mark material to some of the boots on the attackers.

Bram asked Castor if he had any grenades with him. The lab was silent for a moment.

Then both Linda and Castor commented that they always carried several grenades with them.

Bram asked if they knew how to booby trap the bodies so that the future would receive a reply to their attack that they were probably not expecting.

He said that they as a team should not say another word about the attack so that the future would not know about the surprise they were about to get.

Zoe smiled and commented that how to behave was getting more complicated by the moment. She asked for everyone to help her get the bodies ready to take a trip to the future.

Bram watched as Castor placed his four grenades on four bodies and Donna did the same. It was clear to him that Castor had done it before in actual battle conditions and that Donna was watching Castor, so she placed and handled her grenades that same way.

Castor said that he would wire all of them together once they got them into their Fold vehicle. He would then attach the wire to the door. He explained the grenades would explode the moment the door was opened. He was not sure about the strength of the Fold vessel, but the open doorway would provide a way that he could launch a cloud of shrapnel. He looked around and asked if they had shrapnel that they could use.

Bram asked Remi what he had in the lab that they could gather to fill a container with, to put in the doorway.

Remi and Marcus went around opening drawers and cabinets and filling a trash can with a variety of metal lab tools and threw in glassware that broke. They carried back a large plastic trashcan full of the mix of glass and a variety of lab tools that included a set of knives and some tools that looked as if they belonged in a horror movie.

Zoe got everyone to stand against the wall while they waited for the Fold vessel from the future to appear.

Bram smiled when it Folded in. The vessel was still the same basic u-tube design that they were currently using. It made him wonder how close in the future his attackers were. He figured it might be close to his hundred-year Fold time capsule.

He watched as the team loaded the bodies and Castor and Linda worked together to wire all the grenades together.

He took a quick walk through the craft. He looked into the various packs and found several computer-looking devices. He did not recognize the brands but knew that the future was close enough that the technology was still recognizable. He handed the computers to Marcus and said they were souvenirs that he could study.

Marcus had been silent for the whole time, he said that he would love to fire them up and see what they would learn. He suggested that they should first figure out how to copy the memory. He said that they would most likely spend some time using the supercomputer to get past any passwords or whatever the lock to the computer would be.

Bram nodded and said they would all participate in breaking into the computers from the future.

Bram pointed to the forward single seat and said that it seemed to be the control or pilots seat. He noted what he took as the Fold button and suggested they put a weight over it that they could cause to fall and initiate the Fold back to the future.

Castor took a heavy piece of metal and put a set of folded paper matches to hold it up over the button. He said that they would have about thirty seconds after he lit the matches before the heavy piece of metal fell on the button.

Everyone got out and stood against the wall.

Castor lit the matches, closed the Fold craft’s door got against the wall and when his count got to the word “thirty” the craft disappeared.

He said he would love to be able to see if their return gift caused the damage, he was hoping it would.

Bram commented that it might just be possible, but he still had some complicated analysis and experimenting that he would need to do. He let the team know that if it ever became possible to travel to the future, he would see about arranging such a Fold for all of them. He commented that until he was able to block the future, they should all standby for the attacks from the future versus the attacks during fishing.

Bram had overlooked that the attacks on the lake could just as well come from the future as well as from the current time.