A time for war (Chapter 1)

Colonel Laverick looked at the control console once more, then stood up and headed for the door and towards her quarters.

The MSR facility is a self contained, secret, underground facility that houses research labs, a canteen and onsite living quarters for its personnel to use while onsite. Colonel Laverick's was in the Senior Officers section a mile from the test lab her team were using. She had little time to get back to her quarters and get changed ready for the briefing of the senior Military officials that would be descending on the base in less than an hour, but knew she would have to get into her dreaded dress uniform. She did not join the Army to wear a skirt and hated when she had to. But it was times like this that called for her to don her dress uniform and even though she wasn't comfy in it make it look like she was.

Luckily there were golf cart's to ferry staff around driven by robotic personnel and there was one waiting for the colonel as she left the lab's control room to take her back to her quarters. She jumped on the back and it took her straight to her quarters.

Placing her hand on a panel in the wall next to the door she watched the door open. Entering her quarters she stripped off her fatigues and entered her insta-shower and dry cubical, which she helped invent.

Stepping out of the ISD just a few minutes later she took her dress uniform from one of her favorite inventions, her insta-dry and iron wardrobe and got dressed. One quick of her watch two see how much time she had left before the breifing before checking her self in the mirror. 'Well at least its on even if I hate it.' She thought to herself before turning towards the door and leaving.

Jumping back on to the robot driven golf cart that had waited for her she headed back towards the lab's control room to do some final checks before the briefing.

Colonel Laverick swiped her id card through the card reader next to the door, then placed her hand on the fingerprint scanner and her eye against the retinal scanner.

'Personnel identification complete. Colonel Laverick you are cleared to enter.' Came the disembodied voice of the computer as the door to the control room slid open.

'Colonel Laverick, General Franks and the other officials have arrived.' said a voice in the Colonels head. She still hadn't got used to the radio implant and had to shake her head to get rid of the feeling she was going mad.

'Send them to briefing room one and tell them I'll be with them shortly.'

'OK Colonel, over and out.'

Colonel Laverick placed her right hand on the arm of her glasses and an image of the security gate came into view in her lenses. She watched as three men in full dress uniform, walked into the compound and climbed into one of the waiting Jeeps.

Placing her hand on the arm of her glasses once again the control room came back into view.

'The General and other officials are just entering the compound.' The colonel said to Sgt. Green who was still sat at the control console checking over the warm up test readings. 'Are we ready to go?'

'Yes Ma'am. Everything checks out OK. We will be ready for the full run through when they get here.' Came the reply from the Sgt. who was now focusing is attention on the Colonel. 'If everything goes according to plan then the General and other officials will be in for a great display. The biggest question is, are you ready Ma'am?.'

'As ready as I'll ever be. It's been a long time coming, but now's my chance to change the course of history and save the lives of service man and innocent bystanders.' Pressing the arm of her glasses again Colonel Laverick cycled through the security cameras until she saw golf carts carrying the General and other officials heading down the corridor towards the briefing room on the floor above . Pressing on the arm of her glasses again the room came back into focus. Looking round the Colonel spotted her briefing files on the table next to the control console. Picking them up she headed up the spiral staircase in the corner and into the briefing room.

Placing the files at the head of the table so her back would be against the window that overlooked the lab, she took one quick look at the device then closed the shutter so it could not be seen until she was ready to reveal it. Sitting down at the table she waited for the General and the others to arrive.

The door to the briefing room slid open and Colonel Laverick stood to attention as the men entered.

'At ease, Colonel.' said General Franks a he came to a halt at the chair to Colonel Laverick's right.

Relaxing she handed out the briefing files and the three men sat down. Opening her own file at the front page Colonel Laverick started talking. 'Ten years ago to this very day I was called home from active duty in Afghanistan. I was given instruction to come to a remote location where I would be briefed on my new assignment. That location turned out to be this research facility, that even now only a small number of people outside of it know about. When I arrived I was taken to the Commanding Officer, General Dunham's office where I was handed a copy of the letter at the front of the file I've just handed you.'

The three men read the letter.

'I was told that it was written in the 1940's, sometime during the Second World War.'

'You expect us to believe that it was a future you traveling back in time that allowed us to win World war II. You could have made up this letter yourself. How do we know it's real?'

'When I first saw the letter I asked the same question. It was easy for the General to persuade me especially when I saw the signature on the bottom of it.You see I had never seen the letter before that day yet it was my signature at the bottom of it. The only way for that to have happened was if someone had forged it or my future self had written it after visiting the past. I was skeptical at first but time travel has always been a subject that fascinated me so I had no trouble accepting the assignment I was being given. So to answer your question I cannot prove to you that the letter is genuine, but I hope that the demonstration I have planned for you will persuade you that it is.' The Colonel finished speaking as she pressed the button to lift the shutter covering the window. 'Please come to the window.' She said gesturing for her guests to look into the lab below.

The three men watched ad the shutter finished opening to reveal the device in the lab bellow. The gyro like center of which had started to spin slowly and a cloud like object had formed at its center.

As they watched the cloud faded away to reveal a black spot in its place.

'Is that a.....?' The General stumbled trying to finish the question.

'If you mean Black Hole then yes.'

'B-but won't it suck us all through?' one of the other's asked

'It is to small to be of any danger to us. The radius of its event horizon is smaller than the radius of the gyro-spear.'

The other two men looked at Colonel Laverick as if she was talking gibberish, which to them she was. But the General smiled.

'I take it you understand Sir.' The Colonel asked, aiming the question at General Franks.

'I do Colonel, thanks to my son who is interested in physics, especially theoretical physics. But if he ever tried to persuade me he could time travel I'd think he was nuts.'

'So you think I'm nuts Sir?'

''Thats not what I said. But aren't most scientists who deal with this type of thing?'

'You could call me a Mad Scientist, but no I'm not nut's.'

'That's not what your military record says.' Replied the General

'What do you mean?'

'Running through a fire fight to the aid of a wounded colleague with no personal protection equipment, I'd call that nut's.'

Placing her hand on her right shoulder her memory of that day came back vividly. She saw her colleague get thrown about 100 meters in front of her as explosions and gunfire rang out all around. She remembered running as fast as she could dodging the bullets and explosions then just as she reached her colleague the ground exploded and she was knocked off her feet, her shoulder smashing into a rock. 'Wouldn't you have done the same Sir?' She asked when the memory faded.

'Probably. In situations like that you don't think of the consequences, you just seem to go into auto pilot and do what you think is right at the time and you did save his life.'

'Well can we get back to the matter at hand Sir?' Colonel Laverick asked, trying to stear the meeting back in the right direction and shake off the memories of events passed.

'Yes Colonel please do.' replied the General.

'OK where was I? Ah yes the Black Hole. Well for those of you who don't know about black holes here is a quick lesson. If you turn to page three of your briefing file you will see a illustrated guide to one. A Black Hole usually forms when a star runs out of fuel and collapses in on itself due to gravitational forces. The gravitational force of a Black Hole is so strong that nothing including light can escape its grasp once it reaches the event horizon. Most theories state that if you entered a Black Hole you would be crushed instantly. Then there are those like me who believe that under the right conditions a Wormhole would form at the Black Holes center. It is this Wormhole that could be used as a means of time travel.'

All but the General seemed to be lost by all this.

'I see I've lost you with all this science. Well I'll just get on with the demonstration shall I. It might help you understand where I'm going with this.' Please watch from the window, I'll be back in a few moments' Colonel Laverick said before heading back down the spiral staircase and into the control room.