Welcome to the Galaxy

Space Trip

As they travel through space, Helga reconfigured the ship. The communication transmitter and weapons systems were shifted to the outside on top and bottom of the ship. The machines used to craft the ship were dismantled and placed into the transmutation chambers to create new batches of useable materials.

Helion would make some blasters from this batch. If the ships cloaking device was damaged in the shift, Helga might need them. The escape capsule was another section of the ship he would upgrade with the new materials. The hull would be reinforced and engines would be fashioned to give it mobility.

Everything that could be recycled and repurposed in space was. Helion had built in the space for these upgrades when he built the ship. The next batch would be used to upgrade the ships engines. The first batch of upgrades were completed and their trip had gone smoothly.

The ship’s computer jumped to life. “Proximity alert, unknown ship approaching scanning range.”

Helga rushed to the comm station. The ship was on a viewing screen. It wasn’t one Helion remember have seen before. It was egg shaped and made of a material that was unfamiliar in appearance. Helion had not been interested in interstellar history in school. Right now, he was regretting that. This ship could be a friend of a foe. If his ship’s computer wasn’t just one he built to run this ship, it would’ve have all the information of his race. The computer only was as good as he could make it.

“Looks like we will need to jump early.” Helion said to Helga.

There was no replied the two fueled the system to jump one thousand years ahead. Then hit the button to activate the temporal shifter. The ship’s hull seemed to shift in and out of existence. It was similar to the flashing of lights but it seemed more focused around the travelers. The shift this time wasn’t focused on them but on the ship around them. They were also in space not on a planet.

The shifting walls ceased and the viewer had become empty once more. Helion checked his galactic timepiece. They had shifted twelve hundred years not one thousand. It was an unexpected result. Helion ran his calculations again. With the known variables, they had not stopped moving when they initiated the shift and they were in space. The end results would mean they didn’t need as much fuel to reach their destination. The unplanned shift had given them data that indicated if they had used all the fuel for the one time jump, they would’ve overshot by about a thousand years.

Helion checked the structural components of the temporal shifter. The larger rods seemed to fair better. He only noticed minor scoring on the rods. They would still need to be replaced at some point but should easily make the trip home. Helion had already decided he would dismantle the core of the device when he got home. This technology had proven both useful and dangerous.

The ship’s computer went off again two days later. “Debris field ahead. Command input required slow to intercept or detour around?”

“Show on screen.” Helion opted for a different course.

The screen showed chunks of up to three different ships. A battle had taken place in the area. A couple remains were floating in the debris field. Helion recognized the species as Garmons. They were very distinct in appearance. Their flash was gemlike and had a blue hue. In his time they were allies of his people. He was still lifetimes away from his time, they might not be friendly now. 

Helion had some free space inside the ship but had not built this ship with salvage functions. He wanted to gather some of these materials but decided against it for two reasons. The first being the obvious one, he couldn’t collect it without making modifications to his ship. He second reason was, taking these materials might change the timeline. Someone else may come along and find them and they could be important to their timeline. He had to think that way until he got home.

That thought hit him hard. He had never considered Helga may have been an important part of human history. He had only been concerned with get himself home. There was nothing he could do to correct that now. It wasn’t like he should’ve been there to begin with. The most he could’ve done was taken a back seat and watched her life unfold. Then hope he would be reborn somewhere else. Nothing he had ever learned had prepared him for actually being reborn. Sure he knew it happened but the consequences were never talked about. He never heard of someone doing what he had, traveling through time to return to his body. Some had been reborn a thousand years later and were able to claim their former property. There was not one case of someone being reborn before hey were born.

“Detour around the debris field.” Helion commanded.

The ship complied and they passed the field a minute later. One thing had been made clear this area of space was active. It wasn’t all together friendly either. It could be space pirates or interplanetary wars. There was no way he could be sure which.

The second month was coming to an end. They had passed a few other ships but the cloaking device kept them hidden for these ones. It made the initial encounter seem more strange to Helion. That ship had to have technology more advanced than his thousands of years before. How he never heard of them in his sector surprised him. This would be a topic he planned to research after he returned to his place in time.

The planet of his rival had not yet been colonized in this time. It was a good thing, if some issue arose no one would be killed. The ship came to a stop on the backside of the planet away from his own. Helion recalculated he amount of fuel to make the jump. Then he heard the warning “Ship approaching scanning range. Ship on viewer.”

“Take an image of the ship.” Helion ordered. He waited two seconds and pressed the button to activate the temporal shifter once more.

The walls shimmered and shifted as expected. Then solidified once more. “Tractor beam locked onto hull.” The ship’s computer stated.

Helion looked at his galactic timepiece. He had made it home. He was exactly when he should be. “s**t! Show on screen.” Helion ordered.

The image on the viewer was of the egg shaped ship. This wasn’t expected. “Show the image of the last contact.” Helion ordered.

The screen showed another photograph of the egg shaped ship. “Has it been following me?” Helion thought to himself.