Chronocide 0: Snowblind

The research director’s laboratory was a massive, singular  room, divided into sections mostly by clusters of equipment, and the  occasional medical curtain. Hazel barely recognized any of the equipment  by sight alone, and it seemed more advanced and intricate than even  what her mother had had in the basement laboratory at home. 

Of  equipment Hazel could identify, there were slide carousels and  centrifuges, what she was pretty certain were computers with large tubes  running from the back of them. Mostly there were lots of large, boxy  metal contraptions that she had no context for whatsoever, some of them  covered in blinking lights, and switches.

Hazel immediately understood that her mother had been missing this place for years.

“And  this here’s the head of R&D.” Georgia had said as she pushed the  door open. “Justine, Dr. Merriweather? Are you in, I’ve brought  company.”

Simon followed suit, looking casually around the room  with more than a little interest “...the computing power in those  computer banks must be massive.”

The sound of voices from far in  the back of the lab cut out, one of them instantly recognizable to  Hazel… it sounded like her mother was already there. 

The  sound of conversation broke as Georgia called out, and Hazel oriented  with curiosity on the two figures in the back of the lab.

One  of them was obviously her mother, the other was a woman in a labcoat  who looked about the same age, maybe a little younger. The woman, who  Hazel assumed to be Doctor Merriweather had a sharp, pinched face, and  pale brown hair pinned up on one side of her head.

Dr. Kovalenko turned with a barely perceptible smile on her face. “Ah, Hazel. Simon. I’d like you to meet someone.”

She  gestured for them to come into the lab, towards the strange machines in  the back. One of them was obviously older than the rest–another pod  like the one in her mother’s makeshift lab in the basement. It’s red  lamp blinked weakly , it was open to reveal a mostly gutted machine, a  single bullet hole through the thick metal of its door.

“This is Doctor Justine Merriweather. A very dear friend of mine, my colleague and protege.” 

Hazel’s  eyes fell first on the bullet hole, but she quickly changed trajectory  to nod to Doctor Merriweather. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, ma’am,” she  said. 

“The pleasure’s mine,” the woman said with a brisk voice. “Last time I saw you, you were a fetus.”

Simon let out a short laugh at that, covering his mouth. “Wow, it’s been a while then.”

Her  mother nodded “yes…Justine was there for most of the process. It’s a  genuine shame that you haven’t gotten the chance to meet until now. It  seems, however, that she’s been doing a remarkable job keeping watch  over this lab over the years. We were just discussing some of her  breakthroughs since my unfortunate exit.” 

“There’s been  some progress,” Merriweather nodded. “We’re getting closer to being  able to reliably predict chrono-signatures across timeframes, for  instance. I was about to show your mother.”

Simon perked up, leaning around from where he stood behind Hazel with a smile. “Oh that sounds interesting, can we watch??”

“I don’t see the harm. Soteria’s given you enough access to get here, so we have nothing to hide.” Her mother nodded.

“Please, stay and watch the demonstration. I admit I’m rather interested, myself.” 

Hazel  nodded.”Sure, as long as no one else minds, I’d love to see it.” She  doubted she’d really understand it, but she was absolutely interested,  nonetheless.

Merriweather nodded.”Right this way then,”  she said,bustling not too far away to another large, boxy machine. It  had a dark screen with green grid lines on it under a metallic hood, and  below the screen was a board with a number of buttons and switches on  it.

“Looks a little like a sonar machine,” Hazel commented. 

That or a video game.

Dr.  Davidson laughed, a short little huff that wasn’t much from anyone that  wasn’t her mother, “Not surprising, as its function is roughly  analogous, but on a far larger scale. Correct me if I’m wrong, Dr.  Merriweather.” 

“You’re completely correct, Doctor,”  Merriweather nodded. “Allow me to boot up the screen. It will warm up  while I get the settings initiated.”

She flipped one of  the switches, and the screen lit up– suddenly there was depth, and Hazel  could see inside the grid appear to transform into a cube.

“Once the machine is ‘hot’, we’ll have our fourth dimensional display,” Merriweather explained.

“My,  my.” her mother mused “I am happy with how far along these computation  devices have come since my absence. Remember the old PRC units,  Justine?”

She chuckled softly “that’s what I had been utilizing to chart the course back here.”

Simon  watched the device curiously as it warmed up, curiosity turning to  concern when there was a sudden spark from the damaged PRC unit in the  corner.

“Does it…usually do that during a boot up sequence?” He asked cautiously.

“Does  it wh–” Merriweather’s head jerked up from what she was doing, to look  over at the damaged unit. “That hasn’t been active for forty years.”

Hazel tried to formulate a reply as she realized her mouth tasted of copper, and her vision was blurring.

“Is  it reacting to the start up sequence, or…” her mother’s voice grow  distant in her ears. “Dammit, the PRC always were unpredictable.  Justine, help me shut it down!”

Hazel’s vision blurred and  pulsed, as she felt more than saw Simon falling against her. As the lab  around her faded to black…she once more saw the pinpricks of infinite  light stretch out before her, spiraling past her as the entire world  faded into the star-speckled void. 

The last thing Hazel did was reach out for Simon.

Not again…

As  the world faded into the growing light at the end of the void, Hazel  felt something warm and wet dripping over her lips, and the sudden  realization that she could feel again.

A realization that came  with the feeling that she was sore and collapsed on the cold, hard  ground, with a light weight pinning her underneath it. 

Hazel groaned, and checked on her limbs to make sure could feel each of them as she slowly opened her eyes.

Her  vision swam as she attempted to focus, light dancing against her  pupils. From what she could make out, she saw a concrete floor, and a  sliver of light from a cracked door.

As she shifted, moving her  hands to check her body, she heard a familiar grunt and murmur from on  top of her. Simon was groggily groaning as he attempted to sit up on her  back. 

“Simon,” she breathed, relieved. “Can you see?”

“I’m  seeing stars, if that’s what you mean,” Simon murmured, as he rolled to  the side and fell off of her. “And a floor. So that’s a good sign.” 

“Means  we’re not dead yet,” she agreed. She tried to blink away her own  blurred vision. “Step two is figuring out where or when we’re not dead.”  

“Maybe we’ve been hurled 10,000 years in the future. Do you see  any crystal towers?” Simon asked, as he rubbed his eye,s “...it looks  like an unfinished room.”

He was right, as her eyes cleared. It  was a room clearly under construction, with lab equipment half installed  among sawhorses and discarded tool boxes. 

“Huh. I’m gonna go with ‘no’ on the crystal tower. But….” Hazel was already starting to have a dark suspicion.

She recognized some of the equipment…including the PRC unit in the corner, curiously sans bullet hole.

“....I have a bad feeling, Hazel.” Simon murmured to her as he sat up and adjusted his glasses. 

“Yeah me too,” she murmured back. “Lets sit up.”

She waited until he was fully off of her, and then she started to push herself up.

Simon  bent over, using his hands to push himself up and onto his shaking  legs. “Do you think we’ll ever have a day again where we don’t jolt  randomly through time? Because I’m starting to worry this is a trend.” 

“Me  too,” she admitted, pushing herself into a crouch. She looked around  the room with the worrying certainty she would find the contours of it  to match the room they had been in a moment ago.

It was exactly  as she was concerned–the room was the same. Minus the many active  experiments and the medical dividers, it was the same shape and size,  with some of the same machines only partially installed. 

“Damn it,” she hissed. “Yeah, this is the past.”

Hazel  tried to clear her emotions as anger rose up inside her. She hadn’t had  enough time. Hadn’t had enough time to learn all the things to know  about what was supposed to happen while she was here.

“Great,” Simon’s voice was an echo of her frustration “That’s perfect.”

The  room was quiet, whoever was working on it currently absent…which may  have been entirely sensible, given they had no idea ‘when’ this even  was, aside from ‘the past’.

“Haze…I’m going to guess this is the loop we’ve been hearing all about.” 

“That’s my guess too,” Hazel nodded slowly. “Damn. I wish I’d had more time…. We’ll just have to proceed as we can.”

She stretched, and took a breath, trying to center herself.

“Well,”  Simon chuckled ruefully, “they were saying the Goddess of Time can  be like that. So I guess I’m not surprised we didn’t get more time when  we wished for it, huh?”

He leaned on a sawhorse. “We’ll proceed  best we can. First step, try to not get shot for being what’s got to be  deep inside a federal building with no ID or known identity.” 

“At  least we know we probably won’t get shot, but let's proceed as if we  don’t know tha,” she said. “Let's try to find somebody to talk to.”

She glanced toward the exit of the room.

The  door was open a crack, the sound of voices somewhat nearby. They were  indistinct, clearly attempting to keep the volume down. The door itself  lay mostly closed, only allowing a sliver of light through its  cracked-open position.

Simon put his fingers to his lips, sneaking towards the door. 

Hazel quietly moved with him, slipping in front of him casually as she did, and giving him a nod.

The  voices resolved as she leaned towards the crack in the door. There were  hushed whispers, some of them in a language she recognized as mostly  similar to Russian, a language her mother had taught her and spoken  numerous times as she was growing up.

“So you know the plan, yes?” a feminine voice purred from the hall

“Of course.” a low voice responded. “You disabled the security from the communications room, right?” 

Hazel  smothered a hiss, and put her fingers to her lips to Simon, giving him a  ‘stay back’ gesture. She took another step toward the door.

What was it president Soteria had said? That Hazel had saved her life from some kind of Uldovian attack?

She tried to get a look outside the door without being seen.

She  saw a woman with short black hair in a flapper-like curl twisting the  muzzle onto a piecemeal single shot pistol. She was dressed like any  other office worker, in a white blouse with the peace-sign starburst on  the lapel and a pencil skirt over hose and high heels.

The other  figure was harder to make out…but she caught a glimpse of a handsome  mustache and graying hair as he shifted behind her silhouette.

“I’ll  have a window of 15 minutes while they recognize and undo the damage,”  the woman was saying “I need you to have your fellows in the army to  give me an opening. A break in the security on the left side is all I  need to line up a shot from my position in the secretarial pool.” 

Hazel’s eyes went to the pistol briefly, considering it as she processed what they were saying.

Obviously an assassination attempt.

Was the other man armed? That would obviously change her approach.

The woman slipped it into a hidden holster, pulling on a suit jacket to cover it. “For our comrades in the food riots.”

She snapped a salute at the other man “For Comrade Gagarin, don’t fail me.”

The man saluted, and from around the woman Hazel could see he had a standard issue pistol on his military uniform.

“For Comrade Gagarin.” he said grimly “You’ll have your window.” 

Alright.  They were both armed. No sudden moves then. But she would not let the  woman out of her sight if she could help it. She waited to see what they  would do.

They broke up, the man walking quickly towards the  offshoot in the hall to the right, through one of the doorways, and the  woman continuing forward and towards what Hazel could recognize as the  same path to the main walkway of the ‘petal’, even if it’s decoration  was a bit different than she’d remembered.

Simon hissed through his teeth. “Fuck” he whispered.

Hazel  kept her eyes on the woman, and said quickly, and quietly, to Simon.  “Find someone, and tell them there’s an assassination planned from the  secretarial pool. I’m going after her.”

She counted to three, and moved to exit the room.

“Got it. I also remember the man’s face.”

She  slipped out into the otherwise empty hall…it seemed that it was in the  process of renovation, giving her an opening to move without the danger  of being intercepted just yet.

Simon slipped out after her, and put his finger to his lips, before he took off down the offshoot the man had vanished down. 

Hazel tracked the woman from behind and carefully started to follow her, making sure neither to catch up nor lose sight of her.

She  saw her walking with clipped steps just ahead, her heels clacking on  the floor as she passed unfinished paneling, and sealed off hallways.  The whole wing was under construction and renovation, it looked like.

Keeping her steps in time with the woman’s, she didn’t alert her to her presence.

As  the woman rounded the corner, Hazel heard her exchange a few words with  someone. Pleasantries and office gossip. ‘hello, how’s your day, did  you hear there’s a presidential inspection today? Yes? Wonderful’. 

Presidential  inspection. That must be where the assassination was going to happen.  She stayed out of the woman’s line of sight, making as sure as she could  to look busy and not catch anyone’s attention. Not unless she saw  Soteria herself.

The other person rounded the corner, a brown  haired man in office attire with the Pax Republic pin on his lapel as he  carried a load of papers down the hall on hurried steps. He stopped to  give her a brief glance before continuing on as the woman stepped around  the corner and down the hall towards the central hub.

Hazel  ignored the people around her for now, keeping an eye out in case there  was a moment to use the growing crowd to her advantage. She turned the  corner after the woman and centered her in her sights again.

The  closer they got to the central hub, the more crowded the hall became.  The center of Pax government was in high activity due to the  presidential inspection, it seemed. She was jostled by a woman with a  short bob-cut, in a white and brown striped blazer and skirt as she  nudged past with a murmured ‘excuse me’.

Her quarry seemed to  know the halls, and how to use the crowd to her advantage as she weaved  her way in and out of the others ahead of her.

It  was becoming more difficult to follow her, and Hazel was becoming more  and more concerned that she’d lose her in the crowd. Something had to be  done, and now.

She picked up the pace, and tried to get as near to the woman as possible before she was noticed.

The  woman stepped out from the checkpoint, and passed the central hub of  the Lotus. Milling around the great circular chamber were hundreds of  workers heading to their different departments, all passing past a great  central statue.

It wasn’t the same as the one in the research  wing…nor was it one she recognized from the future. It was a statue of  Soteria Costa, and another woman reaching towards the sky and holding  aloft the peace-symbol insignia of their country in gold. The other  woman was tall, with flowing hair in a ponytail and a severe if muted  expression as she held a working clock face up towards the symbol of  peace above.

Her quarry briefly stopped to look at the statue, checking the time on the timepiece. 

It was the best shot that Hazel thought she was going to get. 

She hurled herself bodily at the woman in an attempt to tackle her to the ground without warning.

Her  body collided with the woman’s, the handle of the gun jutting sharply  into her stomach as she tackled her forward and into the statue’s base.

There  was a crack, maybe it was the woman’s arm as she cried out in shock and  fury under her, as the two of them collided into the ground with a  thump.

Gasps, sharp murmurs of confusion, and eventually a few  screams broke out in the crowd around them as people scattered backwards  in the confusion of the moment.

“Freeze!” yelled one of the  guards from the periphery, and Hazel could feel the hair on the back of  her neck standing up….he must have been aiming a gun at her.

Hazel  stayed exactly as she was, against the woman and the statue, keeping  her pinned as tightly as she could despite the danger.

“Sir! This woman has a gun!” she explained sharply and concisely. She’d elaborate when needed.

The  guard hissed as he stepped cautiously towards her. He was a young man  with sandy blonde hair clad in a neatly pressed military uniform.

He bent down, shifting the focus of the gun towards the woman under her “where’s the gun?”

“Heh.” Hazel’s quarry suddenly spit in the man’s face before her leg shot out to try and kick Hazel off of her.

From  one of the other wings, there was the sound of shock and surprise,  hushed whispers as someone came running into the room with an entourage  of soldiers. It was Soteria Costa, flanked by a man with dark black hair  and a severe frown on his face and a dozen soldiers who formed a  perimeter around her.

One of which, Hazel recognized as the  mustached man that Simon had been tailing. He shifted aside, giving a  bit of an opening towards Soteria herself…which was quickly closed by  Simon running into the formation and spreading his arms wide.

“President Soteria!” he called out “Please get down!”

Soteria  herself looked in shock, her eyes flicking between the chaos around  Hazel and the redheaded boy blocking her from harm with his own body  “what in the world is going on here…?” 

“Assassins!”  Hazel snapped by way of explanation. The kick was at an awkward angle,  but it still surprised her. Her grip on the woman loosened, but she used  the change in position to make a grab at the gun she was carrying,  trying to wrench it from her possession and aim it at the other hostile.

Simon,  suddenly grabbed by the throat by the mustached assassin, gasped as he  was slammed against his assailant’s chest as a makeshift human shield as  Hazel’s fingers snatched the gun away from the other assassin’s  reaching fingers.

Hazel could see him tensing, his feet shifting for a kick as she aimed down the sight of her stolen gun.

“Pax dogs,” the woman under her hissed. “this is for the food riots, long live the Collectivists! Long LIve Gaga—”

There  was a shot, and Hazel felt her face splattered with hot blood as a  bullet pierced the woman’s shoulder below her. As screams erupted from  the sudden discharge of a firearm, Simon took advantage of the confusion  to swing his leg back between his assailant’s legs, dropping into a  crouch as he was pushed away and springing back up to kick up into the  man’s throat with the heel of his boot.

The man let out a  strangled cry, and fell backwards into the grabbing arms of the soldier  surrounding Soteria, restraining him and calling for handcuffs.

Soteria  placed her hand on her chest with a sharp intake of breath. “you saved  my life.” she whispered, before speaking up “you both saved my life.  Thank you.”

Hazel, ears ringing, and heart  thundering with the gunshot so close to her assessed the situation. She  held the gun tightly in one hand, and checked the woman she’d been  fighting– was she alive, dead? Were there any other assailants?

The  woman was breathing, ragged and shaking as she stared up at Hazel in  shock. Blood poured from a wound in her shoulder as she twitched gently  below the weight of her hips.

Off to the side, behind a smoking  barrel was a tall woman with jet black hair dressed in a body hugging  black dress. Sharp cheekbones and piercing eyes stared down at her as  she lowered the semiautomatic in her hand, and stepped on the woman’s  arm with the point of her high-heeled shoe.

“So this is the  Uldovian assassin in our ranks. Well spotted, stranger.” She said, the  trace of a familiar accent in her voice. Russian? Or perhaps Uldovian in  this case.

Hazel stood, grabbing the injured woman by  the collar and holding her tightly. “We overheard them plotting, ma’am,  and saw the weapons. Something about a 15 minute window and a shot from  the secretary pool. Simon– madam Soteria, you’re alright?”

She studied the woman closely, and curiously. She hadn’t seen her before.

She  stared down at Hazel with an impassive expression, gauging her as she  hooked her pistol in her belt. “Of course. During the inspection. It  would have been the perfect shot.”

She snapped her fingers, and a  couple of guards came over , one of which holding medical supplies.  “Take our would be assassin to the brig. We’ll have one of the  intelligence operatives find out what she knows.”

She reached down to help Hazel up “I am Agent Stiletto.” she purred “I work with the Pax Republic Department of Security.”

Simon  was dusting himself off, though his throat looked a little red from  where he was roughly grabbed. As he staggered, Soteria gently took him  by the shoulders and eased him towards Hazel.

“There, there, young man…” 

“Agent  Stilletto,” Hazel nodded. “I’m Hazel Kovolenko.I’ll be happy to share  more about myself in a secure debriefing. I’m afraid it's quite a  story.”

Stiletto nodded firmly. “Absolutely, i can only imagine…especially since you’re far from a familiar face.”

Soteria and her guards approached Hazel, with the president’s hands still gently on Simon’s shoulders.

“Hello, I want to thank you personally for saving me. You and your friend are quite brave for what you did…”

She  hesitated and glanced off to the side towards the man beside her, who  gave Hazel a long and critical stare. “I don’t know if it’s strictly  safe, Madame Soteria, given these two are clearly not employees of the  Lotus facility.”

“Hush, Knight.” Soteria whispered, her voice  warm and grandmotherly as it was in the far future. “I’d like for you  two to join me in a meeting room to discuss what happened…if it’s not  too much trouble?” 

Hazel nodded. “Of course, madam Soteria. We’re at your disposal.”

She glanced at Knight. It was going to be a long day.

Knight  pressed his hand to his face, before sighing softly. “Alright. But we  will be posting a guard within the room during the meeting. So I expect  no funny business.”

Simon bowed his head to Soteria “I promise,  we’re here with nothing but good intentions. Please. We’ve got a lot to  talk to you about.”

Stiletto had vanished into the crowd, easing  the people and urging them to return to work now that the chaos was  over, and the perpetrators were being dragged off to the brig by a  detachment of Soteria’s personal guard. 

“Could someone please take this gun from me?” Hazel asked. “I don’t like to stand around holding on to evidence.”

Maybe that would endear her to Knight. But if what she'd heard in the future was right, she doubted it.

Knight  walked forward, and in gloved hands, delicately picked up the gun and  held it out to a waiting security officer, who put it into a baggie with  a nod. “Thank you, now, if you’ll come along with me…”

He gestured. “The president has requested your company.”

Soteria  laughed into her hand, musically. “Don’t mind Knight. He’s just a bit  overprotective…which is fair, given the circumstances…”

She turned, and her procession moved with her, urging Hazel and Simon to follow.