Chapter One

The Twentieth Century
Tuesday 4th April

Sydney, New South Wales
Australia


Daniel Stanton observed his position. He was in a critical position. He was being attacked from all around, his defences weakening. His own forces were not in good positioning. He had few options left. He had a great disadvantage against him. There was no way...
And then he saw it. The way out. The way to victory, provided he could pull it off. It was risky, but there was not much left to do.
He picked up his bishop, and moved it diagonally forward and to the left two squares.
"Check."
James didn't see Daniel's plan. He saw the attacking bishop, but he could easily take it with his rook. It seemed too easy. But he couldn't see what could be done as a result. Doubtfully, he moved his rook to take the opposing piece.
Daniel re-examined the board. It had all gone according to plan. He moved his queen across the board four squares.
"Check."
At that, James suddenly realised what Daniel was doing, but couldn't do much about it. He moved his knight to block the attack, but in doing so exposed his king on the other side. He could only hope that Daniel hadn't seen the opportunity.
But he had. Smiling, he moved his remaining bishop away so that the rook behind it was no longer blocked. It was now in a position to strike the king.
"Checkmate." Daniel stood up. "You almost had me."
"Interesting strategy. I might try that sometime."
Daniel looked puzzled for a moment, but then smiled. "Actually," he said, "that wasn't a strategy. I was really in trouble back there." He smiled again, and left the room.
James' sister, Rachel, came in.
"He's good, isn't he?"
James stared at her for a moment. "Well, yes, I suppose."
Rachel looked towards where Daniel had gone out. "He's better than good."
"Are we talking about the same thing here?" James asked.
Rachel didn't answer for a while. Then she came to her senses. "Oh, yeah, right. What were you saying?"
But James smiled. "You like him, don't you?"
"Well, sure. Why not?"
"Have you told him?"
"No, but..."
James realised what his sister was getting at. "I'll see what I can do. But as long as this doesn't turn out like last time."
Rachel started to protest, but then realised that he was right. "Thanks."
James went out to find Daniel. At first he hesitated in what he was trying to explain, but eventually he decided that the best way was to get straight to the point.
"She likes you, very much."
"Well, I have to say, she's not bad herself. I'll... get on with it then." Daniel then went back to talk to Rachel.
James watched him go, and smiled. He thought of what the future held, for all of them. He looked out the window at all the sleeping houses.
And then, he saw a flash outside, in the sky.
That's strange, he thought, there's no storm anywhere near here, so it can't be lightning.
He went to tell Daniel and Rachel. However, he found them extremely busy, so he decided not to disturb them. Just then the doorbell rang.
Dad, Mum and Jenny aren't supposed to be back yet, James thought, so who could that be?
He soon found out.
"Hello, My name is Dr. Thomas Ranon. Is this the residence of Dr. Nathan Campbell?"

"You might as well know now. My daughter Sally and I are... from the future, the twenty-fourth century."
"Right," Rachel said disbelievingly, "and I suppose you came to ask my father for help to stop an invasion by people from a parallel dimension who have found a way to come here and take over."
"Well, yes that just it. How did you know?"
"I guess I have some sort of detailed telepathic ability, maybe."
"You don't believe us, do you?"
"Dr. Ranon," Daniel interrupted, "it's just hard for us to comprehend strange things like that. It's only fictional for us."
"In that case, I'll give you proof." He produced a small machine, which none of them had seen before.
"Computer," he said, "bring up all records of Rachel Campbell, up to and including this date. Note difference in time warp."
After a moment, the machine displayed a long list of words. Dr. Ranon handed it to Rachel. She read it. The screen showed all official information about her, as well as some things in further depth, presumably taken from her actions in the future. Rachel looked up.
"I see your point," she said.
Just then there came a sound from outside, the sound of the front door opening.
"They're back," James declared.
Daniel went to the front door. Dr. Ranon and Sally followed.
James turned to Rachel.
"How did you know all that, about why they were here?"
"Simple," Rachel replied. "I read it from his pad when he put his things on the table." She smiled.
James resisted an urge to burst out laughing, even though it wasn't all that funny. "Come on," he said, "let's go."
He went out the door, followed by his sister.

Later on, Dr. Ranon, Dr. Campbell, Mrs. Campbell, Rachel, James and Daniel were sitting around a table, discussing the details of the attack on the Saturn, and the time warp. Jenny was off playing with Sally somewhere.
"... and so," Dr. Ranon concluded, "I decided that the best thing to do was to use the experimental time warp mechanism to find help. And you, Dr. Campbell -"
"Please," Dr. Campbell interrupted, "call me Nathan."
"Of course. You, Nathan, have become, or rather will become, quite an historical figure in scientific discoveries. But let's not get into that.
"The point is, by our theories, there was an eruption in the space-time continuum, as several have been - or will be - reported in other places. This caused an opening between this universe and another dimension, probably where antimatter is, in which things are virtually the opposite to here. As a result, those people have decided to come through, possibly to invade this universe, for reasons we may never comprehend. What we must do is try to find a way to stop the invaders and close the opening before things get out of control."
"Do you know how to do this?" Dr. Campbell asked.
"Not yet, but I'm working on it. Some key events in the history of Earth created eruptions of photoneutrons, amounting in a distortion between this dimension and the antimatter one. Now what we have to do is identify these events and stop the eruptions, somehow."
"That might take a long time," Dr. Campbell said. "We'll need a faster way."
"We'll work that out in due time, as well. In the meantime, the next eruption is in ten days, so that may be the easiest time to stop this."
"Okay."
"In the meantime," Mrs. Campbell said, "we'd better do something about your accommodations here."
"Oh no, Christine, that's -" began Dr. Ranon, but Christine cut him off.
"Now, now, while you're here from the future you may as well experience some of the 20th century. No need to waste this."
"Thank you," Dr. Ranon said. "Sally, come over here." Then he added, "Oh, and Nathan, I have something to show you tomorrow."

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