Timeshock - I Want My Life Back by Timothy Michael Lewis Read Free Book Online

attach it to the palm of his hand.   It stuck like a piece of plasticine and Nigel wondered what it did.

    Zac told Nigel to hold up his hand and just think about shooting a nearby tree.   Nigel did this and an energy beam blasted from him, obliterating the tree.   The locals of Previum nearby were not amused by this.   Nigel apologised but Zac just laughed.

    Another boon for Nigel was a diamond-shaped device that Zac gave Nigel. Its function was fantastically simple and massively useful.   It could compress an object inside its small size and then re-materialise it at will.   No more heavy time machine to lug around!

    Finally Zac, with no little resistance, got Nigel to allow him to insert a device in his brain to allow the automatic translation of thousands of languages.   Apparently almost everyone in Previum had one, as did Zac, so they could talk to Nigel and Nigel to them. However in the real world most people didn’t have the implant so unless Nigel got the same implant only Zac would understand him.

    After a few more days, Nigel and Zac were ready to leave. They both morphed out of Previum using the dimension cutter and into a new reality in the future.

Chapter 11
    Zac and Nigel re-materialised in a wasteland full of screaming people. The people were running away from what appeared to be spacecraft strafing them.   Zac shouted for Nigel to get down and they both dived to the ground.
    Nigel was in a panic. “What is going on?”  
    “It’s a Bilozian raid.   They do this every week or so - to keep the population down.”   Zac pointed at one of the ships.   “This is exactly what we need,” he said.
    “What?!?” exclaimed Nigel.
    Zac pulled out a strange looking cone-shaped device.   “You remember how to use your palm blaster?” asked Zac.  
    “Yes”
    “Good.” With that Zac hit a button on the cone-shaped device and he and Nigel teleported inside one of the Bilozian spacecraft.   There wasn’t much space left between Nigel, Zac and two Bilozians.   Nigel was surprised how attractive they looked - they had multi-coloured skins with cat-like eyes, no noses and permanently smiling mouths.   Zac blasted one of them with his palm blaster, blasting it out of existence.  

    Nigel was just in awe of the beauty of the Bilozian - it just looked so cute.   He could hear Zac shouting at him but he was transfixed.   He saw the Bilozian raise its hand.
    Seeing the danger, Zac barely managed to vaporise it before it fried Nigel.

    “What were you doing?!?   You almost got yourself killed!” shouted Zac.
    “I’m sorry - I’ve never seen a Bilozian before.   They are really cute.   Next time I won’t hesitate.”
    “It’s funny you say that,” mused Zac.
    “Why?” asked Nigel.
    “The first humans to meet the Bilozians were so taken with them because they were so beautiful.   We went to war with the Mindoans because they looked hideous even though they are actually very nice when you get to know them.”
    “OK.   I’m sorry. Where are we anyway?”
    “Just outside Proxima Five.   It’s the nearest human world to the hub.   With this ship we can get a lot closer to the hub than we would otherwise.”

    When Zac said “much closer”, Nigel discovered he was speaking in relative terms.   It took almost three months to reach the hub.   Zac said that it would have taken five years from Earth.
    In the months it took to reach the hub, Zac explained the history of mankind and the Bilozians.   For the first hundred or so years relations were very good.   Bilozians were famed for being very empathic and peace-loving.   Then in a matter of a few years they went from being peaceful to wildly aggressive and uncaring.

    Mankind was caught completely off-guard.   All but a few outposts were taken.   Earth fell and all hope seemed lost.   Those who survived were forced to flee all over the universe looking for havens until they discovered the time rift Nigel had created and built