As they made their way through the frozen outpost, Marcus couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched. The motionless figures around them seemed to stare with unseeing eyes, their faces caught in expressions of surprise, fear, or determination.
"Do you think they can see us?"
"No clue," Nigel said. "I would rather not think about it too hard."
"Over there," Chelsea called out, pointing towards a large building at the center of the complex. "That looks like the command center."
The team approached cautiously, weapons at the ready. The doors of the command center stood open, as if inviting them in.
Inside, they found a scene of controlled chaos. Officers and technicians were frozen in place, some reaching for weapons, others hunched over consoles. At the center of it all stood a tall, imposing figure – clearly the base commander, his face a mask of grim determination as he pointed towards a large holographic display.
Nigel moved to examine the display, his fingers flying over the controls. "I think I can get this working," he muttered. "Just need to bypass the temporal stasis field."
"The what?" Lucas asked.
"Stasis field," Nigel said. "Bases like this operate with a funny sense of time because of the planet."
"Sounds sketchy to me."
Nigel shrugged. "Pretty much all science is sketchy until you understand it. And even then, yeah, much of it is still sketchy."
With a flicker and a hum, the hologram sprang to life. A swirling vortex of energy appeared, surrounded by complex equations and diagrams.
"It's some kind of portal," Nigel said, his voice filled with excitement and trepidation. "They were trying to create a stable wormhole, a gateway to other parts of the galaxy."
"But something went wrong," Marcus finished, the pieces falling into place. "The experiment backfired, creating the barrier around the system and... what? Throwing them into the future?"
Rylee shook her head. "Not the future. Look at the date on that display."
Marcus's eyes widened as he saw what she was pointing at. The timestamp on the hologram showed a date nearly fifty years in the past.
"They haven't traveled to the future," Chelsea said, her voice barely above a whisper. "We've been thrown into the past."
The implications of her words hung heavy in the air.
"What does that mean?" Lucas asked.
"It means," Nigel said, "That this version of reality doesn't exist. We just stumbled into a reality that's been broken."
"Broken?"
"Basically, once this stasis field breaks down, we stop existing."
"And how long will that be?"
Before anyone could respond, a low hum began to fill the air. The frozen figures around them began to twitch and blur, as if reality itself was struggling to reassert itself.
"Oh no," Chelsea whispered.
"The stasis field is breaking down," Nigel shouted over the growing noise. "We need to make a decision, fast!"
Rylee's eyes darted between the holographic display and her team, her mind racing. "If we interfere..."
"We could make things even worse," Lucas finished grimly. "We need to prune this reality."
The hum grew to a deafening roar. Cracks began to appear in the air around them, reality fracturing under the strain of the failing stasis field.
"I have the math, I just need to know if we try it?"
Rylee stared at him, opening her mouth with a look of panic on her face.
Marcus felt a surge of determination. They had come too far, seen too much to give up now. "We have to try," he shouted. "Nigel, do something!"
Rylee nodded, her jaw set. "Nigel, can you stabilize that portal?"
Nigel's fingers flew over the controls. "I think so, but I don't know how long it will hold. I'll redirect the energy to try and reverse it."
"Alright," Rylee said grimly. "Do it."
Nigel sucked in a deep breath of air and closed his eyes, pressing the button.
Marcus had never known such pain.
