Back at the Nexus, the air was charged. The immense complex, hidden in the deep folds of time itself, served as a central hub for all chrononauts, researchers, and temporal strategists. The sterile white walls and glowing, holographic displays hummed with the steady flow of data from every corner of history. On this day, however, the base felt like one large storm cloud was settled over the entire operation.
Then, ahead of him, Sam was a commanding presence tramping up the corridors with her head in a whirl after having met Jackson. The image of his haunted expression and terrified warning kept playing in her mind like a recorded tape. She needed answers. She needed to figure out what or who this all was.
He had met her in the central command room. Holotimes for timelines floated there in midair, just like delicate threads of history that people connected to hang from, displaying the ages passed since. He faced up from the console, his brow furrowed in a worried expression.
"Samantha," he said, "I've been running scans across the rift you just closed. The energy signature was off the charts. Whatever Jackson got pulled into isn't a normal anomaly in time."
Sam folded her arms. She was already ahead of herself mentally. "He said something-or someone-is coming. Something huge. We have any leads?"
Finn hesitated. "I've been cross-referencing our data with historical records, but there's nothing concrete. It's almost as if. whatever this is, it exists outside of our known timeline. A shadow, maybe, something that's been manipulating events from the fringes of history."
Sam's eyes narrowed. "A temporal manipulator?"
Finn nodded. "If Jackson's right, then we could be facing something -- or someone -- who's been pulling the strings from behind the curtains for centuries. Maybe more."
That gave Sam a shiver. She had always known time was fragile, but this? This was something else. "We have to find Jackson," she said firmly. "If he is still alive, then he might be the only one who knows what we're really up against."
"I've already begun monitoring temporal disruptions," Finn said. "If he's out there, I'll find him."
Sam nodded, but her brain was racing ahead to the next step. "What about the other tears? Are there more?"
"Dozens," Finn said grimly. "But they're all across different timelines. We're doing our best to monitor and contain them, but it's like playing temporal whack-a-mole. For every tear we seal, two more open elsewhere."
Sam clenched her fists. One rogue rift had turned into an entire context of anomalies-one's so big that something inside the whole timeline was destabilising itself at a rate they couldn't keep up.
Suddenly an alarm began blaring, the shrill sound reverberating through the command room. Finn's console lit up showing this new anomaly. "We've got another one," he said with his fingers flying across the holographic display. "This one's. in the future. The year 2285."
The future was always the most dangerous place to intervene—unpredictable and unstable. But they had no choice. If they didn't stop this, there might not be a future left to save.
"I'm going in," Sam said, already preparing her gear.
Finn looked up at her, his face etched with worry. "Be careful, Sam. We don't know what's causing this yet."
Sam stood firm, his eyes unyielding. "We're going to find out. And we're going to stop it."
As she started to set the chronometer and walk through the portal, Sam couldn't shake the feeling that whatever was waiting for her in 2285 it wasn't just another anomaly.
It was something much worse.