Chapter 15

                Feeling exhausted, Lock looked for a barrier partition to transfer to his rest and relaxation area aboard the Probe.  He spotted one just to the side of the stairs that had led him down to the power matrix crystals.  As he passed through the barrier, Lock remembered that he could simply imagine what he wanted and the Probe would accommodate him, so he thought of an old west bunk house he had seen in a movie.  The room he entered was paneled in clear stained pine, comfortably warm and bright with light that seemed to be everywhere but come from nowhere.  His bed was built of rustic pine logs with a generous mattress and ample bedding.  He noticed the light in the room dim as he lay back against the large pillows and that would be the last thing he remembered for the several hours that he slept.

                Lock awoke to the sound of gentle chimes.   He stood and stretched, feeling very refreshed.  Using the barrier partition beside his bed, he passed through to visit the rest room and take a needed shower.  Donning the clean cloths he found hanging conspicuously in the dressing area, Lock was ready to continue with the training lessons required to satisfy the Probe’s programming.

I allowed you to sleep until your medical information, which is constantly being relayed to me through your Key, indicated that your body had rid itself of its substantial fatigue.  You should take in sustenance before we continue with the remaining basic instructions to function as Director.  There will be more for you to learn but nothing that you can’t pick up during regular operations.  Communications with Central Control have been shut down after first sending a brief status report when the last Director was lost.  His body is being preserved for the investigation that will be required on our return to our base of operations.

                Lock had already moved to the nearest barrier and was about to enter his version of a kitchen as the Probe began to update him.

                “I expected to speak with you sooner.” Lock said resolutely, “The sleep was just what the doctor ordered.  I had no idea that I was that whipped.  How are we going to justify the time lost while I was in R&R mode?”

One of the perks of being a time manipulating machine of sorts, is to take yourself out of the regular flow of time.  When you completed the repair to my power matrix you must have felt the shift that I advised would occur, to avoid the hunters about to discover us.

                “Yes and it was hard to miss leaving my stomach behind back there but I had no idea we weren’t advancing through time.  I thought we could just jump from one time and place to another.”

                Lock was thinking of the implications of moving through time while munching on toasted bread with jam, they were giving him a headache.

You are correct in your thinking as far as it goes but if you consider that moving from one time and place to another requires leaving that specific time, moving outside of its specific time line and then reentering a different time line at a specific point.  It should seem obvious that if you stop in this transit process you end up not moving through time at all.  This is exactly what our situation is at the moment. 

                “OK but what about the time that passes inside?  I wasn’t dreaming that I was sleeping.” Lock made a face when he realized how lame what he had just said, sounded. “No pun intended.”

Your question is a logical one. I see no humor in it at all but it does show me that I have picked an intelligent candidate that will understand what is happening with minimal training.  The time you are experiencing inside my perimeter is quite real and will be real to anyone else that may experience it with you.  Your personal time line will never be interrupted from your point of view, nor will your location relative to mine effect your personal observation of time passing.   Beings that you associate with outside my perimeter on the other hand, might think your appearance has changed.  For this reason and as an important point for you to remember, you will always be moving in time.  This movement entails forward and backward time placement, which can leave someone that has interacted with you before, remembering you as being younger or older depending on when your previous contact was made.  The point being that you will have to be constantly vigilant when you have multiple dealing with any one individual.  The automatic records kept of all our future missions will be available to you should you need a refresher on occasion.  They can be searched by using names, general content or dates.  This spontaneous conversation has been meaningful and has dealt conveniently with one of the points that were left as part of your remaining training.                  

                “How soon will we be traveling to this Central Control you have remarked on so often?  Is there any danger that what happened to the last Director might happen again?” Lock realized he was almost whispering.

My previous Director has been placed in suspended animation of a type.  I have the ability to create a space outside of time relative to ours.  This isolation means no hazards that may or may not be present from the body can in any way effect you.  I have also suspended any automatic programming actions that can possibly interfere with my current self preservation directive that I am now functioning under.  We will travel when I know you are ready and I will give you an opportunity to make any other arrangements in your home life so you are comfortable leaving for an undetermined time.  You have only a few things left to learn and to alleviate any anxiety, remember you can visit your place of origin when we have any breaks in our mission schedule.

                The reality of Lock’s situation was finally setting in.  Knowing that something was going to happen, was different than when it was about to happen at any moment.  He felt for the first time that he was earning the title, Director.