The Long Road to Gaia by Timothy Ellis Read Free Book Online

it.
    "Don’t," said Twelve.
    "Don’t what?"
    "You were about to kill him."
    "What if I was?"
    "Think about it. Killing isn’t
necessary."
    I thought about it. He was right.
    "So you think he should get away with
it?"
    "Let me rephrase myself. Killing right
now isn’t necessary."
    "Ah."
    I grinned at him. Karma was a bitch, and
the man oblivious to our presence was going to find this out.
    Twelve vanished again.
    I returned to the point where the bomb was
swapped in. This time I followed the bomb back to where it was made. The same
man carefully assembled the bomb into the module.
    I cast around looking for a reason why he
was doing this. It wasn’t until I followed him back several weeks, I discovered
who was really behind it. The group met in secret. I followed each of them back
six years, and finally came to the starting point.
    A woman and a man were watching television.
They were alone in what could only be called a mansion. Everything around them
simply dripped money.
    The news item declared an anomaly had been
discovered on the edge of the solar system, and was followed by several people
calling for a manned probe to be sent to investigate.
    "No," said the woman in a cold
hard voice.
    "No," said the man, in a high
emotional voice.
    The two looked at each other.
    "This cannot happen," she said.
"God will not allow it. Do what must be done."
    The man nodded, rose, and left.
    I followed them forward to the moment of
the explosion, and found them all in the same place it had started.
    I smiled.
     

Four
     
    Galactica launched without a hitch. Unknown
to the crew, at the exact moment the thrusters fired to move her out of the
construction platform, a bomb went off in a mansion they'd never heard of,
killing the owners, and a large group of people gathered to watch the launch on
television. Not only was the house completely destroyed, but the entire
property it was on was reduced to a hole in the ground. Local authorities wrote
it off to a gas leak.
    Galactica headed out into the solar system.
    The meeting room appeared around me, and I
took my chair, triggering the others to come. It was a full meeting.
    "I trust you learned something
Thirteen?" said One.
    "Learned? No, I don’t think so.
Underestimated human stupidity perhaps."
    "Same thing," said Five.
    "Really Thirteen," said Kali.
"Pay more attention to what's going on! Meddling with time after the event
can cause some serious anomalies, especially when you kill people."
    "What do we care about
anomalies?" I said.
    Time was time. So a few people with control
delusions had died a few years earlier than they should have. The world was a
better place without them, in my opinion.
    There was a serious thumping noise from the
other end of the table.
    All eyes turned to Ganesha. But he didn’t
say anything. The buckled table in front of him said it all.
    "Fine," I said.
    I looked them all in the eyes, and one by
one they nodded to me and vanished.
    I went back to Galactica. A year had
passed. The ship was parked nearby to the anomaly.
    A scout ship was just launching, and I
moved myself to the cockpit. James was piloting the small ship. Jon was in the
jump seat. Both of them were showing signs of major excitement.
    I stood behind them, and watched as history
unfolded.
    The scout moved to the edge of the anomaly.
    "Nothing different on sensors,"
said James, into coms.
    "You are go for moving closer,"
said Richard, from the coms.
    "This is it," said Jon.
    James goosed the thrusters slightly, moving
the ship inward.
    "Woah!" exclaimed James, as the
ship picked up speed faster than expected.
    Knowing what was coming, I decided I wanted
to see the reactions on the Bridge of Galactica first.
    I stood next to Richard, as the scout
picked up speed.
    And vanished.
    Exclamations of shock came from around the
Bridge, but Richard sat there with a big grin forming. His right hand came up
making a fist.
    "YES!" he said.
    They waited, the tension ramping up
steadily. Each person