Chronocide 0: Snowblind

The meeting was soon adjourned , Soteria had been called  off by this ‘Knight’ person, one of her top military advisors, for a  briefing on the terrorist incident. She’d thanked them for their time  and even hugged them each before hurrying away, leaving Wrought in  charge showing them to the quarters where they would be staying.

Her  mother didn’t waste any time resting, despite urging. Instead, she took  the liberty of wishing Hazel luck before making her way down towards  the R&D department, familiar enough with the location that she  insisted she didn’t need to be reacquainted…

That  left Hazel and Simon in adjoining rooms, small, serviceable, without  being overly lavish. Each had a sleeping area and a small sitting area,  and a bathroom. It reminded Hazel not unwelcomely like an inexpensive  hotel.

There were shelving units for books in  the corner, a television for entertainment, and Wrought had mentioned  that they were allowed to decorate the rooms as they wished as long as  any major changes were addressed with the commissary, not unlike a  rental agreement.

With a promise that the tour would begin in  the morning, Wrought had left in what seemed like a hurry, leaving Simon  and Hazel in her room and sitting on the bed. 

Once they were left alone, Hazel slumped down, and rested her head on Simon’s shoulder. “What a day, huh?”

“Not exactly what I was expecting when I came over this morning, that’s for sure.”

He  shook his head, before leaning it against hers. “Time travel, alternate  universes. If I didn’t know any better I’d say I had a full on  breakdown and spiraled into some kind of intense delusion.” 

“That’s  what I’ve been thinking too,” she said, nodding against his shoulder.  “But you’re experiencing it too. Even what happened earlier.. At the  parade.”

Simon tensed against her with a nod. “You mean  that weird ‘time slip’?” he said quietly, shivering against her. “I  didn’t think it was real until I saw you act on it.” 

She slipped her arm around his shoulders. “Yeah. I still don’t think I exactly understand it.”

She put her free hand on her chest, where she couldn’t shake the memory of the shrapnel hitting her.

Simon  leaned into her, taking a deep breath. “Yeah. Me neither. One second I  was trying to grab you and getting peppered with shards of metal, and  the next..we were right back in the past.”

He frowned. “By the  laws of our world, it makes no sense…b-but… I suppose for Terra this is  old science, huh? Your mom seemed to understand it pretty well.” 

“Well,  she understood it enough to make some part of it work in our world  didn’t she?” Hazel mused. “In order to get us here at all.”

Simon  shifted to glance at Hazel’s face thoughtfully, “Yeah, I mean, from the  way she was talking she was one of the pioneers, right? All that  ‘chrononaut’ stuff… it’s no wonder she’d been working herself to the  bone in that lab for years.” 

“No wonder,” Hazel sighed. “It’s a lot, Simon. I don’t know what to think.”

Simon crossed his legs, ‘hmmm’ing softly to himself. His soft hair brushed her cheek as he shifted before he spoke again.

“Neither  do I. It’s all sudden, there were signs but not ones I could have ever  imagined anyone would be able to figure out with anything but hindsight.  It’s only natural to be at a loss.”

He glanced over at her.  “You’re in a new world, with new natural laws, surrounded by people who  seem to know you even if you don’t know them, and most of what you  thought was your life is no longer quite the case…and on top of that,  you’re offered your dream job. It’s natural to feel off balance and  unsure.” 

A small smile broke the consternation of her  face, and she nodded. “Thanks for the reassurance. You too, okay? Don’t  feel bad for being overwhelmed. If you are. Maybe you’re whelmed.”

She hoped the teasing came across despite her exhaustion.

“Oh  I’m totally whelmed. Just the perfect amount of it,” Simon said, waving  a hand in the air with an easy smile. “This is par for the course, just  like any other day for me.”

He winked “but if I was overwhelmed…I won’t beat myself up about it.” 

“Good.”  She chuckled tiredly. “Maybe it’ll all make sense tomorrow. Or maybe  we’ll wake back up to the same old same old, and this was all a dream?”

“Are we having shared dreams now?” Simon laughed “how…Jungian. Maybe we’re really just that linked.” ,

“Well,  maybe only one of us is dreaming, and the other is just part of the  dream?” she mused.”There’s no way to know until after we wake up.”

Simon  nodded “or what is truly the dream. This, or that we thought was our  waking reality. It’s a classic philosophical question, as inside the  dream you have no way of knowing.”

He shook his head, before gently pinching her on the cheek “My bet, however, is that reality is simply stranger than fiction.” 

She pinched him back on the arm and smiled. “My bet too. I’m exhausted though. Want to find out with me?”

“Absolutely.”  Simon chuckled “I’m going to be honest, I don’t think after…” he winced  again “after everything, that I’ll be able to sleep alone tonight,  Haze. Maybe tomorrow, but tonight…” 

“I was going to ask  you if you’d mind staying with me tonight,” she said. “It’s not like we  haven’t had same-bed sleepovers before.”

“Pretty much since  middle school.” Simon chuckled, before stretching out. “Come on. Let’s  let tomorrow be tomorrow. Be it on Terra or Earth.” 

Hazel  nodded. She kicked off her shoes and socks, and took off the top layer  of her clothing, not worried about Simon seeing her. Underneath were her  usual tank top and boxer shorts– perfectly serviceable for sleeping in,  even if they weren't her usual pajamas. 

Simon was  soon, just as unworried, in his own form-fitting undershirt and boxer  briefs. As he stretched out with a yawn, he murmured. “I left my cute  pajamas in that overnight bag. We’ll have to send someone to that wreck  of a house for our stuff.” 

“Good idea,” Hazel agreed. “But a good idea for tomorrow morning.”

She  opened up the covers for him to get inside. She felt suddenly, and not  for the first or last time, overwhelmed with how much had changed in  such a short time. Who knew what they’d have to deal with tomorrow. “I’m  glad you’re here, Simon.”

Simon crawled into bed with her,  nodding slowly. “I’m glad too. You always supported me, so I’m always  gonna support you, Hazel.” 

“We’ll support each other,” she promised. “Like always.”

---

The  next morning, after a fitful night’s rest that had been entered far  from instantly, the two of them awoke in the same bed they had gone to  sleep in. It seemed there was no dream to wake from after all, just the  strange march of reality.

“Check me over, Simon,” Hazel joked as they woke up. “Am I a butterfly dreaming I’m a man?”

Simon  stretched out, looking at his hands as he raised them groggily before  his face. “The eternal question, isn’t it? I can’t see anything without  my glasses, so I’m just going to take my best guess and say ‘no’.” 

She chuckled. “Blindy. But no blind butterfly as far as I can tell. Guess we’re stuck with the reality in front of us, huh?”

He  chuckled dryly. “Looks like. And from the sound of it…With all its  weirdness. But hey, at least we don’t have to worry too much about the  job market, given the President wants us back on the payroll as soon as  possible.” 

“She seemed pretty eager, huh?”

As they were talking, there was a knock on the door.

“I’d sa…” Simon looked up “oh! Looks like we’re getting company.”

He stood , slipping out of bed and quickly changing back into his clothes from the night before.

“One moment!” Hazel called toward the door, hastily putting on her pants as well.

A  few seconds later, they opened the door to see Wrought Heron, now  dressed in a pair of military fatigues without the beret and Jacket. She  looked down at them with a firm nod of her head.

“Rise and shrine, Madame Soteria sent me to give you a tour.” 

---

A  few hasty moments of getting ready later, Hazel and Simon found  themselves ushered by Hazel’s doppelganger, Wrought, to breakfast in a  cafeteria.

The cafeteria was large, as was befitting  such a massive complex, with a selection of different foods to choose  from laid out in different sections along the back wall , each with  their own queues. Chairs and tables were set up, restaurant style,  around the area where people in military uniform and sharp suits sat and  spoke amongst themselves.

Wrought gestured towards the back wall  with a slight incline of her head “I recommend that line. There’s a  pretty decent breakfast platter they serve. Variable too, if any of you  have allergies or are vegetarian.” 

Hazel nodded. She  wondered if the food would be familiar or not. “Sounds good. You said  there’s a tour today. Can I ask what’s on it?”

“We’re  going to hit the major spots, “ she’d said. “The training facility,  quarters, labs, that sort of thing. Soteria trusts you, so you’ve got  the all access pass. Part of that’s your mom, I think.” 

“My mom, huh?” Hazel cocked her head.

Simon nodded, sizing up the breakfast queue thoughtfully. “it’s true that the President did seem rather taken with her.”

“They’re  old friends.” Wrought said “I heard a lot about how they used to work  together way back in the day…and not only that, but your mother was the  head of Research and Development for ages until she vanished.” 

“Huh. Well, I’m excited to see it, so we’ll eat fast, alright?”

Simon nodded with a smile, “so let’s see what kind of weird space food they serve here, huh?” 

Hazel nodded, and followed him into the line.

Despite  Simon’s jokes, the food was far from ‘weird space food’. It was a  fairly standard quick service breakfast setup. Eggs, breakfast meats,  veggies in omelets and fried up in hashbrowns. Nothing Sci-fi about it,  though they did have a few waffle makers, and a rather good selection of  pancakes. They even had egg substitutes.

“Guess mom didn’t have  to worry about adjusting to the food when she came to earth,” Hazel  mused as she wolfed down her breakfast. It meant that she wouldn’t have  to make an adjustment either. Which was good to know. The more things  that she could use to ground and stabilize herself in this new  situation, the better.

She bolted down a cup of hot tea, her and Simon both eating their meals quickly. 

Soon  enough, they were following Wrought out of the cafeteria, and onto the  tour. As they approached an elevator, Hazel spoke up.

“I’m curious about this tour, admittedly. What even is the name of this place?”

“They  call it the Lotus.” Georgia said, “because of its structure. A complex  of petal-like ‘zones’ of different branches of the Pax government.  Military and training areas, R&D, infrastructure, sleeping quarters,  the parliament, and the seat of the President and her immediate crew in  the center.”

She shook her head, “it’s official name is the Pax  Republic Center for Peace. PRCP. A highly secure and fortified complex  that serves as the hub of the continent.” 

“The Lotus. Huh.” Hazel nodded, then glanced at Simon. “Like the Pentagon at home.”

Simon  nodded his head. After all the chaos and meeting adjourned, he took a  brief moment to tie his hair back in a loose braid after brushing it  out. He toyed thoughtfully with the end of it. “A lot like it, yeah.”

He chuckled “you guys ever have someone try to levitate the Lotus?”

“Not  that I recall,” Wrought said with a shake of her head. “most high level  psychics are working within the system, so I don’t think any of them  would risk the repercussions of a stunt like that.” 

Hazel  chuckled politely and then paused. Given what she’d learned in the last  hour, maybe she had better ask for clarification. “Wait… do you have  actual psychics?”

Simon looked at Wrought with an incredulous stare as the elevator opened for them, “I really should stop being surprised.”

“In  a fashion.” Georgia chuckled, gesturing between them. “They’re like us,  afflicted with the same kind of Chrono-radiation poisoning and the  mutations it brings. It’s technically temporal and spacial manipulation,  if you want to listen to the eggheads in R&D.” 

“Ah.  Okay.” That at least made sense with the facts that she’d already  learned. It seemed that whatever this chrono radiation was, its effects  must be unpredictable at best. “I make it a practice to listen to  eggheads first, and decide if it’s relevant later.”

“You and me,  both, sister,” she said with a nod, before folding her hands behind her  back. “So. Any preference? Your quarters won’t be ready for a while, so  I’m thinking we hit those last. I could show you where you’ll be  training…probably under my watch.”

“I’d love to see the  training ground,” Hazel said earnestly.”I’m not sure I’m fit for a  workout this moment, but I’d like to see the facility. And I’m curious  about these labs.”

“That’s where Dr. Kovalenko ran off to, I’d imagine. The Doc’s going to be real pleased to see her, I imagine.”

Georgia  hit the first floor button, and waited as the elevator descended. “From  what I understand, Steel Heron, in the next few days you’ll be put  through the paces at the training grounds. I’ll likely be assigned as  your drill instructor. I’ve played the part for a number of other high  profile espionage agents in the past, including the commander of the  Alloy Unit. “

She glanced sidelong at her, “though, I can only  imagine how strange it’ll be to train my own…” she shook her head, “you,  Steel Heron. But I promise I won’t go easy on you, I know you can  handle it.”

Simon raised his eyebrow “I’ve been meaning to ask about that, actually. What exactly is Hazel to you?”

“I’m curious too,” Hazel said. “At first I assumed you were the ‘me’ from this universe, but that doesn’t seem to be correct.”

“I’m  afraid not,” Georgia said as she waved for them to follow into the wide  lobby of the Lotus complex’s main floor, leading them towards the back,  into one of the sprawling wings. “The ‘you’ from this universe is  walking right behind me, presumably.”

She smiled thinly “Guess you could put it a few ways. Easiest is to say that in a way, I’m a bit like your little sister.” 

“I’m  really pleased to meet you then, sister,” she said, simply. She didn’t  want to be rude, and dig too deep. She assumed that either Georgia would  tell her more, or, if she felt uncomfortable, just leave it at that.  She could always ask someone else another time.

Simon had fallen into step right next to Hazel, humming thoughtfully “I…think I understand now, actually.”

“Sharp kid.” Georgia chuckled, glancing over her shoulder at him. “Go on, take a stab at it. I’m listening.”

WIth  a twirl of the end of his braid, Simon nodded. “You said made earlier,  in relation to yourself. ‘That was before I was made’. My guess is  you’re either a cloned entity, or some sort of advanced android, or  temporal duplicate. In a world like this, I’d believe anything.”

“Right  on the first try.” Georgia said dryly, as she waved to a man dressed in  a deep green uniform embroidered with the peace sigil on his lapels.  The guard saluted her, and pushed a button, allowing the armored doors  to slide open to reveal one of the inner chambers of the Lotus.

A  large and sprawling military training ground. From here, Hazel could  see an obstacle course, a life fire range, and even a runway for air  combat exercises and deployment. In the far corner, was what looked like  a mock-up of a military outpost behind a bunch of chain fences.

“A  clone, but not a perfect one. I don’t have Steel’s mastery of the  ‘reset’ ability, and my aging didn’t halt until my mid to late 20’s.” 

“Your  aging stopped,” Hazel mused.”Huh.So. After I– or whatever me was there–  vanished from the past, they cloned me. Is that right?”

She  looked curiously around the training ground as they entered. There was  so much to it. It made her eager to get started, especially with the  look of the mock up outpost.

Simon whistled under his breath “hot  damn.” He said, glancing around in curiosity “if this is what their  military training facility looks like, I can’t wait to see their  communications hub. I bet they’ve got high tech radios installed.”

Still, he continued listening to Georgia as they walked out into the dusty air, towards one of the training courses.

“It  does for most of the afflicted.” Georgia laughed “you wouldn’t guess  from looking at Soteria, but she was born back in the 1920’s. There  aren’t too many of us, but the clock seems to halt at some point or  another after the mutations kick in. For me, somewhere around 28. For  others…earlier or later. It’s all part of the roulette wheel of fate.”

She  shook her head. “But you’re right. After you vanished, there was an  initiative to try and bring you back through the art of cloning. Never  quite worked, but the products of the experiments wound up here.”

She  chuckled “I’m your little sister, your clone, Hazel. I’m Soteria’s  personal bodyguard and drill instructor now that the need for espionage  isn’t as strong.”

Nodding towards the mock up structures, she  smiled “and on that note, I’m looking forward to seeing you go through  your first mock infiltration.” 

“I’m looking forward to  going through it,” she said, following her gaze. “I hope I won’t  disappoint. And also that you don’t mind that it’s a bit hard for me to  relate to you as a ‘little’ sister at the moment.”

“Yeah, you  don’t look so big to me right now.” Georgia laughed, crossing her arms  “but you’re still the agent I looked up to the most. So I’ll just have  to reconcile that.”

She smiled thinly, nodding once. “I’m sure you won’t. Maybe we’ll do a trial run after the tour, eh?”

Simon  playfully nudged Hazel “You’ll do great, I’ll be cheering you on,  Haze…from the safety of the comm room, so I don’t get convinced to run  that course myself.”

“What, you don’t want to give it a try?” Hazel asked.

“Hell no,” Simon held up his hands, “even after a full night’s sleep, I think that thing would BREAK me.”

Despite  his protests, he likely would have been fine. While he was small and  innocuous looking, Hazel knew for a fact that Simon wasn’t as weak as he  liked to joke. In no small part because she’d trained alongside him in  various martial arts over the years.

Still, he shook his head “If  you even try, I’ll flee to the nice, cool safety of whatever command  room they’ve got picked out for me.” 

Hazel laughed. “I thought you loved playing tag with me when we were younger?”

Hazel had taken tag very, very seriously as a child. If you had asked Simon, maybe a little TOO seriously.

Maybe  it was the fact she’d set up ambush points for him around the trees of  the neighborhood park, maybe it was the fact that she’d literally  tackled him from the underbrush.

Maybe it was when she started using tips from that Marine Training Manual she’d taken from her mother’s library.

Either  way, it fostered an ongoing war of creativity in their games of tag, as  Simon adapted to her and she adapted right back to him.

“It was  a real wartime training exercise, that’s for sure. I think I got more  training in tag than this place could give me in a month. Pass.” Simon  drawled.

Hazel grinned widely– the biggest smile she’d  had on her face since they’d gotten shaken up the day before. “Well, if  you insist. But it’s gotten me all nostalgic.”

He laughed, a soft  and tittering giggle, before his face split into a wide smile. “Maybe  after we see where the medical station is, alright? It’s got me a bit  nostalgic too, but I wanna know where I can reset my arm after you pop  it out…again.”

Georgia chuckled softly to herself “you two got a lot of history, don’t you?”

She leaned against the wall, looking out at the training facility and the mock outpost in the distance. 

“Sorry  to interrupt the tour with our nonsense, ma’am,” Hazel gave a lazy  salute, still smiling.”Simon and I have known each other since we were  little.”

“Yeah,” Simon laughed, shaking his head with an amused grin. “Hazel’s a bit like the jock twin I never had.”

Out  in the distance, trainees fired at targets, and ran like distant ants  through courses peppered with wires, ropes and mounds.

Georgia’s smile was somewhat wistful, “Don’t worry about it, we’re not in a rush.”

The older woman chuckled softly, shaking her head. “It’s almost nostalgic, really.” 

“Nostalgic, huh?” she cocked her head, curious what the older woman meant.

She  waved her hand. “Just thinking about my days running this course with  someone. Wasn’t too different from you two and your game of tag, sounds  like.” 

“Makes me even more excited to run it,” Hazel said. “Maybe we should move on the tour before I get it in my head to do it now.”

Georgia smirked, “yeah, at the very least, I can show you the medical facilities.”

“Oh thank hell,” Simon sighed with relief.

She  waved for them to follow, and lead them back into the facility.  “There’s some areas that while you have authorization to go, it’s  probably best if we skip.” she said “simply to avoid distracting anyone,  it’s a busy day because of yesterday’s…issue.Mostly the bureaucratic  wing.”

“I can imagine,” Hazel nodded. She broached a  thought that had been eating her.”I imagine I might be a little  distracting for people to see. I mean, I’m assuming, given that I saw my  face in a parade and everyone thinks I’m dead…”

“You  hit the nail on the head,” she said, as they passed through the hall.  In fact, as they did, several people turned and looked at their tour  group with stunned expressions. Whispers followed them like ripples in a  stream as they made their way through one of the curving halls towards  another ‘petal’ of the building.

“It’s going to be quite a stir for the first few weeks. Not often a dead hero comes back to life.”

Simon followed close to Hazel, sticking right by her left arm as he looked back at some of the whispering men and women.

“It’s  not exactly a common occurrence where we’re from, either,” Simon  murmured “but then again, neither is having a mom from another  dimension.” 

Hazel gave the group an awkward wave as  they passed them, and tried to concentrate on the tour. He was right, it  wasn’t common. It certainly wasn’t anything she had expected to happen  to her.

“I’ll try to do it as little as possible, so that people don’t think it's some kind of habit,” Hazel joked.

“We  appreciate it.” Georgia chuckled. “Alright, in the R&D wing is  where you’ll also find the medical facilities. It’s sort of a spot for  the general sciences, with security getting tighter the more towards the  center you get.”

She gestured towards the arching doors, once  more in that postmodern style. While the technology of the building was  up to date and even ahead of what Hazel remembered of Earth, the style  of the building seemed stuck in the 1970’s, painted in blocks of bright  colors and unusual shapes. 

“Is this an old building?”  Hazel asked curiously as she took it all in. “The decor’s very  interesting to me, in comparison to where we were living.”

“It  was built back in the 50’s, though it was renovated pretty heavily in  the 1970’s, after some internal shake ups.” Georgia was waved past  another guard, who opened the door into a large lobby featuring a silver  statue of hands reaching up towards a winged woman with open arms, the  peace sign in a starburst shining in gold upon her breast.

“But it’s still a pretty common style, especially now that it’s swung back around in fashion.”

Simon  raised his eyebrow at the statue. “Very interesting…where we live the  postmodern style kind of died off in favor of more streamlined designs.”

He paused and gestured to the large statue. “is that…” he tapped his chin “the Goddess of Time?” 

“The 70s. Huh.” Hazel paused to gaze at the face of the statue with curiosity.

The face was indistinct, surrounded by a halo of silver hair , with a face like a mirror that reflected those below.

Georgia  shook her head. “Ah, no.” She glanced up at the shadow of the statue.  “Chronia, the Goddess of Time is a member of the pantheon, but…she isn’t  very publicly worshiped. Time’s a dangerous thing to tangle with, so  most people only praise her on certain holidays.”

She brushed  her hand through her hair with a quiet huff of breath, and Hazel could  tell the subject made her a bit uncomfortable. “That’s the Goddess of  Peace, Pax. They say she founded the republic ages ago by divine decree,  with the demand that it exists to uphold peace and prosperity for all  people.”

She shrugged. “Most folks adhere to her teachings around these parts.”

“An  entirely different religious structure, too. Polytheistic rather than  monotheistic,” Simon was murmuring to himself. “Makes sense given the  things Dr. Kovalenko had said before..” 

Hazel nodded,  thinking it over. “Makes a lot of sense. So, the goddess Pax is the  spiritual force at the heart of the Pax Republic. A goddess, and a  nation of peace. Thanks for filling us in”

 For a moment  she studied the goddess’ features, as beautiful as any greek goddess  from back home. Then she stepped forward down the hall.

This area  was a bit more open, even in the hallway, than the central hub. Earthy  tones gave way to lighter white and pale colors , around large circular  doors. Georgia pointed to different doors as they passed.

“Entrance  to the medical wing, it’s all very standard. We’ve got skilled  specialists on staff for a number of different afflictions, including  chrono-radiation poisoning. All the latest equipment, and even some  experimental treatments. It’s as safe as any hospital.”

She had gestured to one door down a curved offshoot, before gesturing to another, “that way to bioscience and virology.”

Simon  put his fingers to his chin thoughtfully. “A built in hospital would  mean heads of state wouldn’t have to risk a transfer in a crisis  situation if injured or ill. Clever.” 

“Expensive to  maintain, though,” Hazel pointed out. “Who’s typically treated here? Or  is it primarily a research hospital that treats when required?”

She  followed them down the wide halls, taking it all in with fascination.  This was all clearly deep in Pax Republic’s government. And here she was  waltzing around practically like she owned it.

“The second one.”  Georgia explained. “Primarily it’s used for research and development.  Vaccine research, medical techniques and the like. But when it’s needed  it’s used to treat our agents in the field upon return, as well as  working as a place to train field medics and young researchers.”

Simon  nodded slowly. “I suppose that would make sure it pulled its own  weight, for certain.” he agreed. “If it’s mostly used for training and  research.”

They passed a small group of scientists as they  discussed, Hazel catching snippets of a hushed conversation. Something  about ‘a lockup in the leg mechanism’ and ‘faulty launching  mechanisms’. 

She tilted her head as she overheard, not  slowly her walk, but curious nonetheless. She didn’t know what they were  talking about, but what she heard made her think of the photo of that  mechanical monstrosity she’d seen.

Georgia looked over her shoulder with a half grin. “So. How good are you with the physical and theoretical sciences?”

“I’m theoretically good at them, myself,” Simon said playfully “as in, I got an A+ in pretty much all my science classes.” 

“I’ve listened to my mom talk a lot about them,” Hazel said. “That counts, right?”

“About  as much as it does for me,” she chuckled. “I'll take you right to what  you probably want to see the most then. The R&D Directors lab.  Justine and your mom should be catching up there right about now.” 

Hazel’s smile widened. “That sounds great.”a