Sonic the Hedgehog "The Temporal Syndrome" by Shawn Wolski

The author will accept questions and comments via E-mail at the
following address: n5una@mail.utexas.edu

Sonic the Hedgehog and other associated characters are based on
the creations of Service and Games (Sega), Archie Comic
Publications, and the Sonic the Hedgehog cartoons (Saturday
morning issue) created by DIC and Sega of America.  Bookshire
Draftwood and Cmdr. Packbell are the exclusive creations of
David Pistone (rotor@primenet.com).

This work is protected under various copyright laws.  The author
grants his permission for free distribution, under the premise
that the work retains its original format.  No other utilization
of the following work, monetary or otherwise, is permitted.

Historian's Note:

The events on Mobius take place a short time before Robotnik
developed Project Doomsday.


500 million years ago, on the planet  Cassandra, a planet far
from Mobius....

	It was near dawn in Pandora City, capital of the continent
Vulpecula in Cassandra's NW hemisphere.  The light from the star
Arcania gradually rose above the horizon with a yellow-red
glare, casting it's color over the city like a thick blanket. 
For the fox citizens that lived in the city and the rest of the
continent, it nearly time to go inside, away from the light that
they would otherwise be enjoying.  They knew that darkness was
their sole sanctuary now, for the ozone layer over Cassandra had
nearly been depleted.  The continent Vulpecula and the other
continent in the NE hemisphere,  Vulpes Prime, had been at war
for over 30 years.
	Operation Merger, the unofficial name of the war, was one to
annihilate all prejudice between the Reds (red foxes on
Vulpecula) and the Grays (gray foxes on Vulpes Prime).  The
intended ultimate result was to end the prejudice by destroying
the other race.  The basic philosophy was:  no other race, no
hate-crimes.  Operation Merger started out in a rather primitive
fashion (compared to the technology that was available at the
time) with chemical weapons that wrecked havoc on the
atmosphere's ozone layer and caused global chaos.  Nearly all
the arable land on Cassandra was lost to Arcania's increased
radiation input to the planet's biosphere, leaving the people to
starve and the biologists mad at work to find ways to alter the
food crops for adaptation to the UV and IR rays.  About ten
years after the beginning of Operation Merger, the two
superpowers agreed to use only advanced technology in the war,
attempting to prevent any further losses.  But not even the
energy weapons could stop the chemical plague in the atmosphere.
Work had begun in the 12th year of the war to revitalize the
ozone layer, but to this day the procedures used had only been a
partial success.
	However, today was not only a day of retreat to the sheltered
coves.  It was also a day of hope and expectancy.  For this day
was one that would go down in history for the Reds and the
Grays.  The two superpowers agreed to end the war and start
working out their social differences in more peaceful ways. 
Prime Vixen Vala Andros of the Reds and Ambassador Falina Wren
of the Grays agreed to begin the major series of peace talks
after taking care of some unfinished business.
	The unfinished business in their minds was the removal of the
ultimate weapon and the technical data required to construct and
maintain it from Cassandra.  The device would then be sent by an
automatic probe into Arcania.  The Red and Gray superpowers
worked together to remove this devastating monster from
Cassandra:  the Reds supplied the weapon and technological data
(it was their design), and the Grays supplied the ion drive
system for the probe.  To insure that the probe arrived to the
star, an auxiliary dimensional warp drive was installed by the
Reds.  After the procedure was complete, the peace talks would
begin.
	Vala stood naked by the East Sector window, in her executive
habitation room of the Prime Lineage Home, located in the center
of Pandora City.  She scanned slowly over the visible areas that
she could see of Pandora City.  There wasn't much to see at this
hour of the day, since it was right before dawn and her windows
had the mandatory UV/IR filtering tint sheets on the window
interiors and exteriors, but the Prime Vixen saw enough to set
the mood for her day.  The eastern area of the city was nearly
halfway destroyed, since the major military technological
factories and bases were located there.  Reports indicated that
the attacks on those installations were conducted by a large
baryon particle weapons satellite from space.  It was a small
comfort that the weapons array was not aimed at any of the
civilian provinces.  So far.
	'This war has been such a waste for both of our peoples,' Vala
thought to herself.  'It will take decades, maybe centuries at
least, to rebuild what we have both lost.  But it will be done.'
She put more determination into that last thought than she ever
thought she had under the circumstances, but it didn't hurt to
be hopeful in these trying times.  She was startled from the
universe of her thoughts to those of the physical universe by a
soft whistle.  It was from one of her personal communications
panels on the wall.  She walked over to it, noticing the video
display showed her faithful Prime Family Aide, Marcus Devrom. 
Vala was about to press the "Return Access" key;  however, after
taking stock of the situation she was currently in, she pressed
the "Audio TX Only" key.  It wasn't exactly good form to present
yourself to your aides when you weren't arrayed with the proper
attire.
	"Yes, Marcus.  What is it?" Vala tried to say in a calm,
composed voice, but failed at the attempt.  She knew that Marcus
would understand the reason she decided not to acknowledge him
with a video transmission from her node;  it wasn't the first
time.
	Marcus, however, spoke with a calm voice and a straight face
that belied his humor in the situation.  "Prime Vixen Vala, I
have received a message from Ambassador Falina Wren's aide.  The
Ambassador wishes to speak to you about Operation Excommunicate
and about  the preliminary plans for the peace conference."
	"Very well, then.  Send a message to Ambassador Wren's aide
that I will be ready to discuss the matters in about fifteen
minutes."  Vala managed to regain her composure that time.
	"Yes, Your Honor."
	The video imager blacked out a second later.  Vala let out a
sigh of partial relief.  Trying to stay as confident and
commanding as possible isn't always easy under potentially
embarrassing conditions.  Not one to permanently harp on these
subject matters, Vala put the incident out of her mind and set
about making herself more acceptable for public view.  The
transmission would be broadcast on every conceivable
communications frequency available on Cassandra, both audio and
video.  Vala walked over to her wardrobe, searching for
something that would be "ambassadorial", giving her people and
the Grays a feeling of power and reassurance.  Let's see:  the
black, red, green, violet, or do I need new clothes?  Good,
found the right dress.  Blue brings out my eye color.  And,
ouch! is hair cantankerous at times like these when you really
have to look your best.  Where are those medals?  Under the bed,
yes.  Now for the.....did I forget anything?  No.  The fifteen
minutes past faster than Vala had anticipated, but she was
prepared to speak to all the Cassandrans a few seconds before
one of her communications panels gave the long-awaited signal.
	Marcus was visible again.  "Your Honor, Ambassador Falina Wren
is now waiting for your reply."
	Vala pressed the "Return Access" key and said in her best Prime
Vixen voice, "Reroute her transmission to this panel."
	Ambassador Falina Wren appeared on the video display about two
seconds later.  "Greetings, Prime Vixen Vala Andros."
	The Prime Vixen displayed her obligatory (but well-intended)
respect toward her counterpart.  "Greetings Ambassador Falina
Wren.  I look forward to initiating the main peace conference
with you."
	"As do I with you, Prime Vixen.  I have received a notice from
Operation Excommunicate Coordinate Operations Corps that the
weapon has been loaded onto the probe, and it's now in
geosynchronous orbit.  Are you prepared to commence your phase
of the operation?"  Falina looked at Vala expectantly.
	"I am prepared to do so," Vala decreed confidently.  "Begin
Phase Two of Operation Excommunicate."
	Phase Two involved the probe's ion drive prestart and ignition.
Both ambassadors and their constituents watched their vidscreens
with an intensity tangible enough to be cut with a phased
neutron beam.  About three seconds later, a brief discharge came
from the drive exhaust.  The ion propulsion system slowly
accumulated the required energy to displace itself from its
orbital position with Cassandra.  Five long minutes later, the
probe had sufficient thrust to exit orbital space and cross into
interplanetary space in order to arrive at its destination.  The
planetary and orbital support crews made exacting checks on the
heading of the probe, for the fate of Cassandra hinged on the
fate of the probe.  The crews were apparently in unanimous
agreement that the probe was on course, for it kept moving in
the same direction, unaltered by external command protocols.  A
collective sigh of relief spread throughout the Cassandran
population.  This was the first cooperative effort between the
Reds and Grays for over 30 years, and they have nearly
accomplished a common goal.
	"Well, Prime Vixen," said Falina, "up to now the operation has
been a success.  I think it's time to start considering what
terms we should discuss."
	"I agree," Vala voiced with determination.  "First of all, I
wish to-" Vala broke off her statement in midsentence, eyeing
the vidscreen with nervous and frightened intensity.
	And with good reason.  For on the video displays accross
Cassandra, the probe's ion drive disengaged without
authorization from the support crews.  Three seconds later, the
dimensional warp nacelles had a more intense field of blue light
around them.  They flashed for a millisecond.  The probe was off
course, heading out of the solar system as fast as its dimension
warp propulsion system could take it.  On Cassandra and its
artificial satellites, jaws dropped with shock as the event took
place.  Shock was soon replaced by anger from the Grays.
	Falina displayed her anger, as well as the collective anger of
her constituents, toward Vala.  "Vala!  Did you think that you
could insult my intelligence for so long?!  How would I know
that you were sending a long-range automatic probe to your
military space outposts?!  You have dishonored me, Vala!  Just
as you have dishonored yourself and your aristocratic people!"
	Vala tried to get a few words in, to soothe Falina and explain
how it was all a mistake.  However, the communications channel
closed before anything could be said.  Vala took a last look at
the city with a dreadful resolve.  For she knew what would take
place in the next few seconds, and no power in the universe
could prevent it.  The ultimate reprisal had begun.
	Vala could almost hear the military satellites repositioning
their weapons at major cities and other sites on Cassandra. 
Phased neutron beams flashed through the vacuum of space to the
biosphere of the planet.  All the molecules in the cities and
surrounding areas were broken, their bonding shattered from
exposure to the intense neutron bombardment.  There was no time
for any last words or thoughts;  only time for destruction
throughout Cassandra.  In the exchange, a satellite
malfunctioned, and increased its weapons power.  The phaser
plowed through the crust, mantle, and finally the core.  This
disrupted the core's stability, sending massive quakes through
the planet.  The instability increased until the core
fragmented, sending hot metallic shrapnel through the overlying
layers.  What was a planet became a collection of planetesimals.
Cassandra and its inhabitants were destroyed.
	Unknown to the Cassandrans, the accident on the probe was
caused by a disrupted power transfer from the ion drive system. 
Apparently, the construction crews underestimated the amount of
shielding required for the power transfer conduits.  One of the
ion drive conduits was too close to the warp drive power control
system.  When the conduit broke its shielding and arced, the
warp power system received an unintended power influx.  The
information came too late for the Cassandrans.  They were
extinct long before the cause was recovered from a place far
away, in both space and time.

* * *

Trials of time...

	Five-hundred million years later, the automatic probe remained
as the only surviving evidence that the Cassandrans ever
existed.  Ironically, the very act of the probe (however
accidental) saving itself from doom destroyed an entire race. 
If the probe had even a vestige of emotion for what its act had
done, it might consider itself lucky.  In a span of time that
organic lifeforms have great difficulty in comprehending, the
probe had left its home system and arrived at another place, far
from the planet of lifeforms that wished to destroy it and its
lethal cargo.  The probe had, in its own way, accomplished a
great deal, even if only for the sake of survival.
	However, survival didn't come without a cost.  Over time, major
systems that insured the proper operation and integrity of the
probe were disabled by decay or damage from the primal span of
space.  After about two years in warp space, the probe's
navigational shield generator lost the power connection to the
shield array.  What started at that point (and continued through
the operational lifespan of the probe) was an incessant barrage
orchestrated on the probe by the universe.  The once pristine
metaliceramic case became pitted by the bombardment of hydrogen
ions, dust, and other interstellar material.  The probe's
computer decreased the probe's velocity to sublight (.05 c), but
the pelting continued.
	The probe suffered other attacks besides dust.  About 250
million years into its journey to nowhere in particular, the
probe came a little too close to a supernova.  The shockwave
didn't rupture the hull, but it did commit severe damage to the
aft sensor array.  The probe engaged warp drive to escape from
the anticipated carnage that would ensue, but not without
becoming partially blind first.  Unknown to the probe, engaging
warp drive at this point would cause more damage than the
supernova itself would.  For the probe was still in the
proximity of the leading energy wave, and a warp engagement here
under any circumstances was hazardous.  The lead energy wave
intensified over the warp nacelles, to the point of rupturing
the field control inductors.  Plasma from the damaged nacelles
funneled back toward the matter/antimatter reactant core, then
back to the nacelles.  Energy cycled back and forth through the
plasma/energy transfer system.  The result:  an short-lived
isostatic energy state.  The probe shot away from the exploding
star with a newfound speed, staying in warp space for about two
days.  Resulting damage:  loss of maneuvering thrusters,
moderate damage to the computer core, and warp power conduit
coolant loss to space.
	After the probe's computers managed to regain control of the
probe, the warp core and all associated hardware were jettisoned
to prevent any unexpected warp engagement, leaving the probe
with an ion drive as its sole means of propulsion and power. 
The probe was safe, but not for very long.
	Five million years ago, the probe lost its forward sensor array
and the ion drive.  It drifted through space, blind and
powerless.  The probe became the playtoy of gravitational forces
that eventually aimed it toward an unassuming star system in an
unknown region of space.  The probe entered the system, being
tossed about repeatedly by the planets.  The probe apparently
thought that it should take out its frustrations on the unseen
offenders.  On the next gravitational pull, the probe twisted so
that it would be parallel to the enemy.  The probe fell straight
into the gravitational field, but this would be the last one to
torment it.

* * *

Present day, 0600 hours at Robotropolis...

	Robotnik was on his command chair, facing away from the main
video/data display system in the Command & Control Center.  He
scanned over the data displayed on a data screen on an armrest
of his chair.  It was data of a sort he wasn't particularly fond
of.  Apparently Sonic had managed to narrowly escape yet again
from a well-laid trap, and Robotnik found out why.  SWATBot
reinforcements were not of sufficient amount in Sector 21B,
probably due to a misallocation in the SWATBot distribution. 
What angered Robotnik even more was the fact that Sector 21B was
(emphasis on was) the area where the Advanced Technology R&D
Laboratory had been.  The facility had been the mainstay of
Robotnik's war against the Mobius Freedom Fighters, churning out
more powerful laser emitters and generators, more efficient
engines for the Hover Units, new chemicals, and other methods of
dealing with the troublesome upstarts.  Now that facility was no
more, and Robotnik felt a little more vulnerable to whatever
cruel desires that the Freedom Fighters had.  Feeling vulnerable
wasn't an appropriate mindset for the Conqueror of Mobius.
	He drove that point home by thrusting his roboticised arm down
on the data display, hard.  Unfortunately, the device wasn't
constructed to withstand such treatment.  The screen shattered,
expelling electronic circuitry all over the floor.  Amazed for
an instant, the irony of the situation revealed itself to
Robotnik.  He didn't need Sonic and his subordinates to destroy
what technology he and Snively were able to create and utilize. 
He could destroy it all himself, and do a much better job of it
as well.  What was merely an embarrassing emotional outburst,
even if only to himself, only made the situation worse.  There
was one less useful video display in the room, testimony to the
futility of both the situation and the animalistic response.  He
sat in his command chair with a scowl that even he didn't know
he make until now.
	Robotnik wasn't the only person present to hear the cacophony
of hardware stressed beyond its designed physical limits. 
Snively was monitoring the power outputs from the main
hydroelectric plants when Robotnik temporarily lost his normally
calm, dark composure.  Snively stiffened with primal fear, as if
there would be another blow struck in the near future, meant for
him.  Slowly regaining his courage, Snively redirected his eyes
from the main command computer to his natural eye level, and
slowly rotated his body around to a point where he could see the
back of Robotnik's command chair.  Sweeping his eyes over the
floor around the chair, he noticed the end product of Robotnik's
brief display of emotional chaos.  Another small vidscreen
recycled, and for the fifth time this week.  If the Hedgehog
retained his record of successful attacks on them, pretty soon
Robotnik would start ripping Robotropolis apart in anger,
transistor by transistor, and wire by wire.  Snively didn't know
whether to speak at this point or not, and then decided it
wouldn't make a difference anyway.
	Robotnik amazed himself for the third time that day when his
scowl became even sharper by the sound of Snively's voice.
	"Sir?"  Snively ventured forth onto unknown territory, but his
curiosity had gotten the better of him.
	What happened next was totally unexpected.  Robotnik pressed a
key on the left chair command panel to rotate the chair around
to face Snively.  He slowly rose out of the chair, paced over to
Snively's position, and grabbed him by the collar.  Robotnik
gave Snively a very hard, irritated stare about six inches from
his face.
	"Yes, Mr. Snively?"  Robotnik gave him a rather dangerous
invitation.
	Snively could only reply with a nervous laugh and started
fingering his shirt collar.  Robotnik responded by darkening his
stare even further, and said with the model of an impatient
ruler, "Well, Snively?"  He nearly shrieked on that statement.
	Any courage that Snively ever had vanished at that point.  He
could only give Robotnik a stare, the pathetic stare similar to
a person that was about to be roboticised.  Robotnik gave
Snively a cringe of dismissal, drew the arm that he was holding
Snively with back, and threw him at the wall.  The resounding
impact of flesh on metal, plus seeing Snively knocked out cold,
calmed Robotnik down a degree.  A very small degree.  It seemed
that nothing would be accomplished today at this rate.  The loss
of the R&D facility, plus the success of Sonic for bypassing
security via a gap that never should have existed around a very
sensitive military area, were not encouraging.
	The situation was about to change.  Robotnik heard the sound of
three robots walking in cadence, two metallic, one not.  The
three robots walked into the C&C with what sounded almost like a
determined candor.  The two SWATBots stopped, and moved into
their guard positions by the doorway.  The other robot, actually
an android, continued to step forward.  The android then scanned
over the room with all the sensors available to it, looking over
the decimated vidscreen and Snively lying on the floor in a
rather uncomfortable position.  Taking stock of the situation,
it decided to keep a respectable distance from Robotnik.  You
never know when you might be the next advanced artificial
construct to visit Dr. Robotnik, but never go out again in
functional condition.
	Seeing his pride and joy, Cmdr. Packbell, Robotnik's anger
simmered down to nothing nearly immediately.  "Yes, Packbell,"
said Robotnik in a voice that would redeem a criminal, "what
news do you have to report?"
	"Sir," said Packbell in a calm monotone, to prevent the former
anger from erupting on him, "I have news of a spacecraft that
fell from space at about 0400 hours.  I was on patrol with the
Delta SWAT Team looking for the Wolf Pack Freedom Fighters
during that time."
	"Are you certain that it was from space, and not just one of
our spy satellites?" Robotnik questioned.
	"Yes, sir.  The mass, volume, and general configuration do not
match any of our surveillance or other equipment.  It also does
not match anything that we know that Knothole or any other
Freedom Fighter group has.  It is more than likely from another
planet."  Packbell tried to parse the information out as
completely as possible, still not completely convinced that
Robotnik was in a benign mood.
	Robotnik's interest was piqued.  "Where is this spacecraft now?"
	"About 200.7 kilometers south of here, located in Granite
Wastes of the Great Unknown, sir.  We have also found something
in it that you might find particularly interesting."
	"Is that so?  Show me the reconnaissance tapes."  Robotnik was
very interested now.
	Packbell strolled over to the main computer, and pressed the
appropriate controls to call up the requested video data.  A
second later, a still-graphic appeared with the piece of
equipment that Packbell anticipated might be of importance to
Robotnik.  Robotnik's eyes went wide when he looked over the
device.  From the looks of it, it could very well turn the tide
of the war toward Robotnik's favor.
	If there was any doubt in Packbell's mind that Robotnik's day
was about to be a good one, all of it disappeared.  "Very well,"
Robotnik said, all interest still focused on the image, "inform
the surveillance team that I want that weapon back here
immediately, as well as any information they can find about its
operation."
	A slight pause from Packbell.  Nearly insignificant, but enough
to speak of trouble.
	"Well, Packbell?  Are there any problems with those orders?" 
Robotnik's anger slowly reemerged, taking a new target in its
sights.
	It was Packbell's turn to begin worrying about his future
welfare.  One look at Snively reconfirmed just how far Robotnik
would tolerate such insubordination.  Packbell searched through
his positronic matrix to find any flaws that might have caused
him to withhold the information, possibly a connection that may
have decayed over time due to lack of use.  A small feeling of
horror built up in Packbell, after completing a full diagnostic,
and finding nothing.  One of the many other things to attribute
to his reaction by what limited emotional level he had;  not by
an electronic failure.
	He managed to regain his composure in time to save his
circuitry from the robot recycler.  "Yes, sir.  There is a
matter of difficulty involved in executing those commands.  In
order to return the weapon and the required operational data to
Robotropolis, there is a matter of being able to do the
requested operations in the first place."
	"How is that so?"  Robotnik's dark stare and gravely voice
slowly intensified, a sign that Packbell had not yet been
reprieved from uncertain physical damage.
	"The craft has many occurrences of hieroglyphics, for lack of a
better term, on the computers and the weapon's protective
housing.  I projected that they would have the required
information as to how the weapon's housing would be opened, and
the same may be true for the data download procedure."  A pause,
as if to consider what else needed to be said, and then he
continued.  "I instructed the SWATBots to attempt a brute-force
method of obtaining both;  however, the results were not
successful.  In short, a language translator is required to aid
in opening the protective housing and downloading the data."
	Robotnik calmed down, but not completely.  A hint of a
dangerous red glow from Robotnik's eyes still glared in
Packbell's face.  "Do you mean to tell me that you don't have
the facilities to get a translation?"
	"No, Dr. Robotnik.  I have no such program available to me, and
I could not download it from any data site from our position. 
That is why I returned without the weapon and the data.  I
required something or someone that could alleviate the problem
of translation."  Packbell managed to retain his composure, even
though he knew that he was standing near what could very well
turn into a mental version of an unstable nuclear reactor slowly
building toward meltdown condition.
	Surprisingly, Robotnik disengaged his stare, thought over the
change in the situation, and started his scheming mode.  He
paced the floor for a few minutes, Packbell remained in his
position by the main computer.  "Very well, then," Robotnik
finally said.  "Inform the service crews that I want my personal
Hover Unit ready in the next five minutes.  You and I will join
the reconnaissance group."
	As if suddenly remembering something, Packbell stuttered, "What
about......"  He pointed in Snively's general direction. 
Snively, for the moment, was still on vacation.
	"Never mind him.  He can catch up with us after he wakes up. 
Now, Packbell my boy, let's see about that weapon."
	Five minutes later, Robotnik and Packbell were cruising toward
the eastern outpost for the linguistics program archive, certain
that Snively would not take part in the mission anytime soon. 
However, there was someone unnoticed in the air ducts that saw
and missed nothing.  Charles Hedgehog ran back down the air
ducts, toward the location of his covert operations base.

0620 hours, in the Great Plains...

	The sun was just barely above the horizon, its light creating
an array of complex and beautiful patterns of colors across the
sky.  To any observer, it would be so distracting that they
would forget that Mobius ever was at war with Robotnik, and that
their day to be alive as an organic lifeform would be their
last.  Compared to the overly-familiar background of the somber
and depressing pollution cloud that wrapped over Robotropolis
like a Terran boa constrictor, this scene was heaven.  The air
was pure with the smell of clean air;  not the choking, lethal
atmosphere that Robotnik called his home.  Yes, a spectator
would almost forget everything that took place in the past
eleven years.  Almost.
	From this particular vantage point, located somewhere in the
Great Plains, the observer could see Robotropolis' microcosm, a
reminder of reality.  The atmosphere had a reality of its own: 
a benign and malignant side.  There were areas where they alone
were present and the dominant form, and others where they
intermixed, as if even Mobius' biosphere was fighting a war of
it's own to keep the evil clouds at bay.  It wasn't entirely
clear as to what side had the advantage and would eventually
become victorious, so it seemed to be a stalemate.  So far.
	The significance of the atmospheric battle that had been going
on for about eleven years had not been lost on Princess Sally. 
She had trouble sleeping the past night, due to the work
involved with being the first defense front against Robotnik. 
So she decided to suspend the war, at least in her mind, for a
little while so she could relax.  Belatedly realizing the error
in choosing this location to view the sunrise only made her mood
worse.  For that battle between the two areas of Mobius'
biosphere had a symbolic connection to what the current
situation with the war against Robotnik was.  There was no win
or lose;  there was only an isostatic balance between the
offensive acts of the armies.
	'We give what seems to be the final blow to Robotnik's plans,
and he's able to turn around and do the same to us!' Sally
screamed with near-despair in her mind.  'No matter what we do,
both sides end up equal.  Only while Robotnik loses SWATBots, we
lose good-hearted people!'  Sally considered the situation,
almost thought it futile.  'No!  I-we can't let that come
between us and the safety of Mobius, as well as our families. 
We will stop Robotnik some day in the future!'
	At this point, Sally started crying.  The tears and the intent,
however, were of brazen determination;  not sadness.  Amazing
how the war had progressed on for so long, and yet people still
had the tenacity to face it with the same drive they had so many
years ago.  One point in the Freedom Fighters' favor.
	She looked up at the sky again, and saw an imaginary blue
speck.  She rubbed her eyes to remove it from her field of
vision.  The speck remained visible, and it was moving at a high
velocity toward the east.  Fearing the worst, Sally reached into
her backpack and pulled out an IR/binocular unit.  She saw that
her suspicions were correct.  It was difficult to know what
operation was underway, but it's generally a sign of trouble for
the Freedom Fighters when Robotnik is personally going to an
area to inspect the process of his schemes.  She turned to run
back to Knothole.

	When she was near the Great Plains/Great Forest border, she
heard the trilling hoot of the messenger bird.  It was high
above, and apparently did not see her.  Sally cupped a fist
around her mouth and called to the bird.  He responded by
swooping down, and executing an expertly-placed landing on
Sally's outstretched arm.  She the top off the cylindrical
container and pulled out a paper with a message inscribed on it.
 It read:

NEW SITUATION DEVELOPING:

ROBOTNIK HAS THE LOCATION OF AN ALIEN PROBE THAT HAS
CRASH-LANDED IN THE GREAT UNKNOWN.  CONTAINS WEAPON OF UNKNOWN
TYPE.  SEND A TEAM TO THESE COORDINATES TO INVESTIGATE:

20N 30W

	Included with the message was a small data disk.  She took a
quick look over the video data, and considered the potential of
what this craft had to offer.  Needless to say, it did not bode
well.  Sally quickened her pace to twice as fast as before,
given the severity of the events that might unfold if actions
were not taken to prevent whatever Robotnik had in mind.

* * *

	Immediately after returning to Knothole, Sally assembled a
small investigatory team for the mission at her hut.  It
consisted of:  Sonic as field commander, Dulcy as transporter,
and herself as computer expert.  Sally had called Bookshire in
to assist with making modifications to Nicole, in the hopes that
Nicole would be able to translate the alien language seen on
many of the craft's computers and other hardware.  This turned
into an extensive technical conversation that Sonic was not
privy to the finer details of.  This went on for about 20
minutes, and then he couldn't withstand the technical jargon
that seemed to permeate the hut.  He made his level of technical
knowledge abundantly clear to the rest of the investigatory
party.
	"Now wait a Sonic Second!" the hedgehog interrupted, a
testimony to frustration.  "If you do what, you'll be able to do
who?!  What on Mobius is that?!"  He threw his arms up in a
gesture of surrender.
	Sally was about to give Sonic a message of her own on no
uncertain terms in frustration herself, but Bookshire saved them
both from engaging in a battle of wits which there would be no
definable successor.  Speaking very patiently to Sonic, while
giving Sally a look that convinced her to refrain from dictating
any ascorbic comments, he said, "What we're trying to do is
this, Sonic,"  A pause, and then he continued.  "If we can
interconnect Nicole's language system, that is, the knowledge of
the languages that she already can translate, to the new dynamic
predictive logic circuit that I installed, we might have a
better chance of having Nicole translating the alien's language."
	Sonic gave Bookshire a look that explained that he wasn't
exactly impressed, but he got the message.  "Well, OK," he
finally said.  "But what about all that other stuff that you
were saying about putting in Nicole?"
	Bookshire spoke again as the emotional mediator.  "Those other
circuits are for her sensor array.  There's no telling what
Robotnik found out there, and I had a few new circuits I wanted
to test out."
	Apparently satisfied by the explanations, Sonic walked over to
a chair and sat down with his hands on his forehead, muttering
to himself in a voice so low that noone could comprehend what
was happening in his unique hedgehog mind.  Dulcy looked on the
entire confrontation of techspeak versus the not-so-inclined
hedgehog with a small degree of amusement.  Of course, she had
about as much understanding of the situation as Sonic, but she
was content to wait and try to sort out everything when she
could get a better understanding of technology in general. 
Right now, there was no hope of getting an introductory course
in computer science, so she, like Sonic, had to consign herself
to being lost in the technobabble.  The only distinction was
that Dulcy had considerably more patience, something that made a
difference, even if it was only Sally's nerves that were at
stake.
	The technical conversation resumed, and continued for about
five minutes.  Satisfied with the upgrades to Nicole, Sally
secured Nicole's case together.  "OK team", she said, observing
her comrades, "this is what we need to do."
	What ensued after that point was another technical
conversation, but it was one of tactical nature, something that
Sonic readily understood without question.

* * *

	After all the talk and preparation, the investigation force was
ready to depart for the crash site at about 0900 hours. 
Bookshire stood by Dulcy, explaining to Sally one final time how
to operate the new hardware installed in Nicole.  Sonic, as
usual, looked around with the air of someone lost in a very
boring conversation;  Dulcy just grinned, equally clueless but
not inclined to make the matter a public issue.
	"Now remember, Sally," Bookshire was admonishing, "try to
prevent any excessive motion with Nicole.  It would skew the
alignment on the circuits.  But if anything does happen, press
this key to reset the circuits.  It should reinitialize them and
correct the problem."
	"All right, Bookshire," said Sally.  "Thanks for helping me
with the upgrades."
	"No problem at all, Sally.  Anything to help out a friend in
need of technical assistance.  Ever since Rotor caught that flu,
I've been filling in for him in the past few days."  He paused
to think, and then began speaking in a more severe tone.  "But
you kids have something more important to to than listen me babble off.
Get going to that crash site!"
	Bookshire then paced away as fast as his injured leg would
permit.  The three friends watched him in mutual amazement.
	Suddenly remembering what task they had prepared for, Sally
spoke for the three of them.  "He's right, you know.  Dulcy, you
heard the man.  Let's go!" Sally said decisively.
	"Crack-the-whip time, Sally.  Hang on!" Dulcy warned.
	There was a flutter of wings against air, a feeling of
levitation, and suddenly, a strong propulsive force directed
upward as Dulcy snapped her tail.  A few seconds later, they
were one with the midmorning sky, heading toward uncertain
danger.

* * *

	It had been about one hour and 45 minutes after Robotnik and
Packbell arrived at the probe's crash site at 0800 hours, and
Robotnik had still been no closer to understanding what the
hieroglyphics meant than what he knew a few hours before. 
Pacing around the dead probe, he kept his eyes on the WorkerBots
and the weapon, with more emphasis on the weapon.  The
hieroglyphics made no sense whatsoever, and it was becoming more
than obvious that the translation program wasn't about to
retrieve the linguistics base anytime soon, if ever.  It was
clear that the device was SOME kind of weapon, but WHAT?  He
considered the point over and over in his mind, knowing that the
time that he spent thinking about the weapon's use gave Sonic
and his companions time to learn that something was amuck, and
they would come to investigate and/or prevent the process from
obtaining completion.  He was about to slip into that mood he
felt earlier in the day, when he learned that the lab had been
destroyed.  Today was about to be another one of those days...
	Apparently Packbell had noticed the general futility of the
situation, for he voiced it for both of them.  "Dr. Robotnik, it
is entirely possible that Sonic may become wise to the
situation.  We must leave soon before he arrives."
	Robotnik cringed in disbelief when he heard that, but he knew
that Packbell was right.  Further waiting on his part would only
serve to jeopardize the mission.  The only option left was to
scrap both the mission and the probe's cargo.  Unless...
	Robotnik considered the unfinished thought further.  'No,
pouring over the language program by ourselves won't be enough,'
he thought.  'However, maybe we can get the Freedom Fighters to
do it for us, and then WE take the weapon!  Yes, that's good,
very good indeed.'
	He then made a turn to Packbell.  "Packbell, notify the
WorkerBots and SWATBots to cancel the retrieval project."
	Packbell could only stand in his position in front of Robotnik,
mouth agape with surprise and possibly mild shock.  "Doctor," he
said, "are you certain about this?"
	Robotnik's anger nearly flared, surprised at Packbell's
ignorance to the opportunity that leaving the probe would give
them.  "Yes, Packbell my boy.  Leave the probe.  This would give
us the opportunity for the Freedom Fighters to do the work for
us."  He managed to keep his anger under control, at least on
the outside.
	Packbell's shocked glare converted to one of elated
understanding as the hexadecimal codes in his positronic matrix
resolved the procedure of this new tactic.  His only response
was to radio the message to the other robots present.  The
robots suddenly stopped working and began converging on their
transport units.  Robotnik and Packbell followed suit.  A few
minutes later, there was no sign of Robotnik or anything else
native to Mobius in the probe's area.  Except for a few stealthy
devices that Robotnik left behind to provide a visual link to
Robotnik's personal Hover Unit.  This precaution was for the
arrival of a certain blue hedgehog that Robotnik knew and
loved...to roboticise.

* * *

	The midday sun blazed in all its fury down on Dulcy, and she
didn't know how much more heat she could withstand.  "How much
further, Sally?" she questioned, unable to hide the evidence of
heat exhaustion from her voice.  "I gotta stop for a water break
soon.  It's hot out here!"
	Sonic and Sally weren't much better off than Dulcy.  Sonic was
sweating so much that he felt like the raging one km-high
waterfall in Bolder Bay.  Sally was feeling a little lightheaded
from the extended thermal exposure.  One point was clear to all
three:  find a shaded area and drink copious amounts of water.
	Sally scanned over the barren landscape for a suitable area
with her IR/binocular unit, then pointed the location out to
Dulcy.  It was a cliff outcrop located in a valley that had
enough shade for the three of them, plus some space to stretch
out and relax for a while.  "Right down there looks fine,
Dulcy," said Sally in a tone similar to Dulcy's.
	"Music to my ears!  Going down!" Dulcy said, ecstatic about the
prospect of being able to get out of the sun's heat for a while.
 With strength that she didn't even know she still had, she
snapped her tail to accelerate down to the new-found haven. 
Acceleration which Sonic and Sally weren't exactly prepared for,
or even able to tolerate.
	"Yo, Dulce!  Not so fast!  I'm gonna hurl if this keeps up!"
Sonic exclaimed, his face becoming a blue-gray tint in response
to the sudden downward thrust.
	It was too late for any deceleration to take place.  Dulcy was
already well into her dive-bomb orientation, about 30 degrees
relative to the ground.  Two seconds later, she angled her upper
body high to facilitate landing, but she did so slightly too
fast.  With her aerodynamics sufficiently disrupted, she and her
friends hung in midair about two meters above the ground.  For a
painfully long time (it was actually about a second), Dulcy
looked over to her companions as if to give an apologetic
"Oops", and then dropped like a massive bomb to the hard rock
below them.  Short screams came from the comrades as the air
forcefully discharged them from its stronghold.
	"Ooohh, I'm home, Ma," Dulcy babbled in mild shock.  After
shaking the disorienting feeling out of her head,  Dulcy took
stock of her situation.  Her posterior was the ultimate tribute
to discomfort, but the pain would pass.  She also felt two furry
bodies gripping her back with unprecedented strength.   Dulcy
looked over her shoulder to Sonic and Sally.  "Are you two OK?"
she inquired, concerned about their facial expressions.
	Sonic looked as if he was ready to expel his breakfast with
extreme prejudice, and Sally wasn't too far behind in completing
a similar act herself.  After having a detailed view of Dulcy's
worried face, they managed to expedite a small degree of control
over their digestive systems.  "Not if you count my stomach,"
the two said in unison, with a hint of the resonance forced by
the impact still in their voices.  Temporarily not in their best
condition, but otherwise functional.  They slid slowly down
Dulcy's back, in order to prevent a relapse of that unpleasant
feeling in their abdominal area.  Dulcy then assisted them in
the short travel to the shade.

	After an hour of lounging in the shaded refuge and having
liberal amounts of water applied both internally and externally,
the three were prepared to continue the mission.  Now all that
remained to be accomplished was to arrive at the intended
destination and prevent Robotnik from taking action on whatever
plan he had for the innovative wartoy.  The only problem was: 
where was the probe relative to their location?
	"Nicole," Sally commanded, "show our location relative to the
location of the alien probe."
	"Unable to comply, Sally," Nicole responded politely, almost
apologetically.  "The present location is an area that has
unusually high concentration of refractory minerals which are
preventing any fix of a reliable bearing."
	Not having the required background in basic geology, Sonic gave
a disdainful look to Sally and Nicole, with emphasis on Nicole. 
He said nothing, for his face revealed all.
	Nicole didn't understand the expression on the hedgehog's face,
but Sally did.  "She means, Sonic," Sally explained, "that there
are rocks in this valley that are affecting her sensors.  We
need to get out of this valley to find the probe's location
again."
	"I don't know about that, Sal," Sonic said thoughtfully. 
"Besides, take a look at that."  To emphasize his point, he
pointed toward the sky.
	Little did they realize during their reprieve from the heat,
the sky had been turning darker and darker during the time that
they spent hiding from the sun.  Darkness meant heavy cloud
cover.  Heavy cloud cover meant rain.  And rain in the desert
meant floods, for the rain came down in a torrential downpour. 
With further consideration, they realized that they were in the
worst possible area to get away from the sun and a flood.  There
was a roar in the distance from the south end of the valley.  A
roar that signified the relentless advance of a solid wall of
water.
	There was no time for words;  only actions would serve their
purpose here.  Sonic and Sally took their positions on Dulcy's
back, and gripped her scales with all the strength they had. 
Dulcy leaped into the air, and shot off like a torpedo with all
the might she could manage to give.  Two seconds later, the wall
of water screamed by them, inundating their resting place that
would have become their permanent residence had they not acted
hastily.
	"Well, so much for getting out of there," Dulcy observed.  "Can
you get a fix on the probe now, Sally?"
	"Sorry, Dulcy," Sally replied.  "Too much interference from the
storm.  I can't even tell what direction we're going."  Nicole's
sensors had been enhanced, but Bookshire and Sally didn't
account for a scenario of this nature where enhanced (but
unshielded) sensors would be at best, only disoriented.  The
worst case wasn't very appealing, and would require the long and
tedious construction of a new computer unit.  This was time that
they didn't have the luxury to spend.  Unless...
	Sally tried to remember everything that Bookshire had installed
in Nicole.  EVERYTHING.  Then, something in her mind finally
connected.
	"Nicole," she said, "decrease the search radius and buffer the
sensor inputs."
	"Sal, what's that going to do?" Sonic said with familiar
confusion.
	"This should help Nicole get a better chance find the probe
again," Sally replied.  "Besides, we can't be too far away from
the probe that we can't just use a short range sensor scan.  It
would take a load off the long-range scanners and be much more
effective."
	Apparently content with the parsed data, Sonic said nothing
further.  The only sounds now were the sounds of the storm,
Dulcy's wings, and Nicole making a scan with the reconfigured
sensors.  A few moments later, an acknowledgment sound came from
Nicole.  The three friends waited in anticipation for the
bearing.
	Sally read the data display, and translated it for Dulcy. 
"Dulcy," she said, "turn right and keep going straight.  That
way is to the probe."
	"All right, Sally," said the dragon.  "Oh, and by the way,"
Dulcy said jokingly, "does anyone want to stay here?  Nice
river-front property available;  wouldn't want to see it go to
waste."
	Helpless guffaws from all three ensued.  Their spirits lifted
again, they flew off to attend to some more serious matters.

* * *

	They came to a stop at an area five km away from the probe's
crash site, dry and none the worse for wear...so far.  Due to
the prearranged mission plans, Dulcy would stay behind and
monitor from a remote location.  Robotnik has been out looking
for dragons again recently, and now wasn't exactly a good time
for a dragon to be visible to his sensors.  He had ways of
capturing dragons that weren't exactly pleasant, plus there was
a chance that Robotnik had that technology with him.  In this
case, stealth was the best defense.
	"Remember, Dulce," Sonic admonished, "you stay here an keep an
eye out for Chrome Dome and his pals.  If we get into trouble,
jam back to Knothole, pronto.  Sal and I will take care of
things at our end."  A pause, and then he continued.  "Any
questions?"
	The dragon could only shake her head in the gesture of "no". 
Dulcy was far too knowledgeable about Freedom Fighter tactics,
and the confrontation with Robotnik was always met with the same
basis of one of the tactical codes:  risk as few people as
possible, while still allowing for successful completion of the
mission.  However, that didn't mean that she was required to
like the orders she had been given.  Dulcy had a concerned look
on her face to that effect.
	Sonic sensed this sign of dissension, and decided to be
diplomatic about it.  "Look, Dulcy," the hedgehog said kindly,
"I know you want to help us kick old Buttnik's tail.  But this
is for your protection as well as ours."  He thought for a few
seconds, tapping his foot, and produced an innovative plan to
appeal to Dulcy.  His eyes lit up with the glee.  "Tell ya
what," he continued, "sometime soon I'm probably going after one
of Robotnik's wartoys in Robotown.  I want you on my lookout
team, only this time, you'll be able to do more."
	Dulcy looked at Sonic in shocked disbelief, but said nothing. 
Sonic nodded with an honest smile on his face to confirm her
suspicions that she hadn't misread his proposal.  She thought it
over, and decided that it was a fair trade.  "Good luck you
two," she finally said.  "I'll be watching to see that you two
kids don't cause any trouble."
	A few seconds of laughter later, and everyone's nerves had been
settled.  Dulcy usually was one to look at the brighter side of
just about everything, and had more than once made that point
apparent, however humorous it was.  Then again, it could have
been because of the humor that people might see in it.  Whatever
the reason, Dulcy got the message, and made it clear in her own
way that she would stolidly stand by her promise.
	Satisfied that his message had completed its intended service,
Sonic said to Sally, "Come on, Sal!  My sneaks are just itching
to hit the old road!"
	"Ready Sonic," was the reply from Sally, analyzing Nicole's
diagnostics.  "Just had check Nicole's sensors.  They're fine."
	"Cool.  So let's get outta here."
	Sonic picked up Sally, and held her horizontally across his
arms.  His feet accelerated in place, and his legs soon became a
circular blur of motion.
	"Warp time!" Sonic exclaimed as his velocity rose to critical.
	There was a sonic boom, and a blue blur where Sonic and Sally
had been.  A few seconds later, they were nearly halfway to the
crashed probe and the mystery weapon it carried.

	On their way to the probe, Sonic thought he saw something very
familiar.  He decelerated to a stop to get a more detailed look
at what this object was.
	"What's wrong, Sonic?" Sally inquired, concerned.
	"I don't get it, Sal," Sonic replied, baffled.  "I think I just
saw US around here somewhere."
	"What are you talking about, Sonic?"
	Sonic had no answer to that question.  He quickly scanned over
the immediate vicinity with his eyes, and found the familiar
objects again.  His suspicions were confirmed.  "Over there,
Sal!  Look!" Sonic blurted, pointing out the location behind the
exposed old granite intrusion.
	Sally looked toward the specified area.  She was just as
shocked by what she saw as Sonic.
	There was another Sonic and Sally present.  The two pairs of
Knothole Freedom Fighters stared at each other for an
indeterminate amount of time, due to the shock of seeing
themselves.
	The "other" Sonic was the one to break the spell.  "Sal, we've
seen ourselves!  We came back too late!" he yelled, the pinnacle
of failure present in his voice.  He picked up the "other" Sally
and sped off to an area unknown.
	Sonic and Sally looked at each other, mouths completely open
with shock again after seeing this totally unexpected spectacle
take place.  Neither knew what to say, until Sonic asked the
obvious question about the authenticity of the "other" Sonic and
Sally.
	Sonic was nearly at a loss for words.  "Sal," he muttered, as
if he didn't trust his mouth to emit coherent speech, "was THAT
us?"
	"It looked like us, but I'm not sure if it was or not," was all
that Sally could contribute to their minuscule library of
knowledge on the subject.
	Sonic considered the matter over again in his mind, thought
about the possibilities, and decided not to progress any further
on the matter.  They had more important ways to occupy their
time, such as finding out what the hieroglyphs in the probe
meant.
	He made the point clear to Sally.  "Well, whether it was or
not," he said with a hint of responsibility in his voice, "we
have more important things to worry about:  Robuttnik and that
probe."
	Sally was still somewhat disoriented, but understood Sonic well
enough to voice her opinion as well.  "I agree.  Let's go!"
	Sonic's legs became a circular blur of motion again, and his
former location exploded in a thunderclap-like sound.  In about
two seconds, he and Sally were at the crash site.
	After their arrival, Sonic performed a quick countersurveilance
procedure, to insure that Robotnik wouldn't be watching them
from a remote location.  Finding no evidence of any equipment,
Sonic gave Sally the "go ahead" gesture.  Sally walked over to a
computer terminal and began work on the hieroglyphics with
Nicole.  Little did they know that Robotnik was watching them,
and in a way they hadn't anticipated.  The new
StealthSurveilance Orbs were performing admirably.  Now all
Robotnik had to do was watch the audio/video downlink, and take
action at the proper time.

	One hour later, Sonic was becoming restless.  Belated thoughts
of danger and warnings passed through his mind.  This was the
time that the "what ifs" started a mental reign of terror.  What
if Sonic had missed something in his antisurveillance pass? 
What if Robotnik really was watching them?  What if...the
thought was too unsettling to finish in the privacy of his own
mind.
	"Uh, Sal," Sonic began, nervously, "are we going to get the
results anytime this century?"
	"I'm no closer to finishing than the last time you asked - five
seconds ago," Sally retorted.  "I don't even know if this
translation program will work, so I'm trying to give Nicole as
much data as possible to increase the language base she has to
work with.  Besides that, I've had to get Nicole to supply
partial power to the computers here just to get them to work. 
It hasn't been easy."
	Still somewhat nervous, and yet unwilling to interrupt Sally
any further, Sonic walked over what remained of the "top" of the
probe.  He quickly looked over the landscape with his
binoculars.  He looked out about five km, and saw no sign of
anything, organic or otherwise, besides Dulcy.  He directed his
IR/binocular unit visual sensor toward Dulcy.  She waved to him
to signal that they were still in her sights;  Sonic waved back
to acknowledge the signal.  Having nothing else to occupy his
time besides keeping watch, Sonic didn't know how much more
suspense he could take.
	Fortunately for Sonic, he wouldn't have to wait any longer. 
Sally had just finished scanning over the last bits of data they
could find for the translation program to use.  Nicole said the
key phrases that both of them had been waiting for: 
"Transcription complete.  Data currently saved to permanent
storage.  Executing language compiler."  The wait after then was
minute compared to the transcription phase, but it still
irritated Sonic's nerves.  "Translation complete.  Data prepared
for display purposes."
	"Display data," Sally commanded, relieved that the process was
over.
	The preliminary data that the probe had concerning the point of
origin and other location points were visible via the
holographic projection.  As Sally scrolled the data page down,
relief immediately converted to horror.  Noticing this sudden
change on Sally's face, Sonic jumped down from his guard
position to investigate the affair in detail.
	Sonic looked over to his close friend of eleven years, and
queried Sally on the sudden change of situation.  "What's up,
Sal?" he asked.
	Sally said nothing.  She looked as if she couldn't even trust
herself to speak.  When this only continued to provoke a
concerned response from Sonic, she handed Nicole to Sonic for
his personal investigation.  Most of the text and other video
was nothing more than useless technobabble to him, but he
understood enough to see why Sally had become so afraid of being
around the probe and its cargo.  A similar look spread over his
face, and he even began to feel a bit sick at the prospect.
	"You're telling me, Nicole," Sonic questioned, seeking
verification, "that this is a TIME MACHINE?"
	"In the crudest sense, the device is a time machine.  According
to the available data, the weapon was used to-"
	She was hastily interrupted by Sonic.  "Yes, yes, I got the
picture, Nicole," was the hedgehog's only response to the
halting the continuation of the more graphic contributions the
general utilization file had.  Toying with the space/time
continuum was something that gave him a headache, in more ways
than one.
	The Cassandrans had been wise to rid themselves of this weapon;
 only the probe was supposed to be destroyed in their star
system, not to crash-land on an alien planet where it was
possible for someone like Robotnik to get his hands on.  The
survival of the probe had destroyed their planet, so the probe
was the final connection to the Cassandrans' existence.  A
legacy that had to be destroyed before anything detrimental
could happen to other planets.  It was far too late for
Cassandra, but not so for Mobius, if Sonic and Sally acted fast.
	Finding her courage again, Sally managed to speak.  "Sonic,
this thing needs to be destroyed."
	"Gotcha, Sal.  So how?" the hedgehog ventured.
	"Well, first we need to get that protective cover off."  To
Nicole, she said, "Nicole, access data regarding the unloading
procedure."
	"Searching for required index," Nicole dictated.  After a
second of scanning over the permanent data storage unit, Nicole
found the requested file.  "Reading file, Sally."  A holographic
display appeared about two meters in front of Sally.
	"All right, Sonic," Sally said, "let's get to work.  First
locate the code latches along the base."
	They dove into the procedure, as per instructions translated by
Nicole.  They were that much closer to destroying the weapon.

* * *

	While the unloading process was going on at the probe's
location, Robotnik made the decision to move in.  He made a call
to his field commander, with a smile of accomplishment on his
face.  "Packbell!  Notify the other Hover Units.  We attack NOW!"
	Packbell acknowledged the message, and relayed it to all the
Hover Units.  Five seconds later, the fleet screamed toward the
probe with all available power.

* * *

	Right before Robotnik's arrival, Sonic and Sally were trying to
find the autodestruct key on the time machine.  They were unable
to commit themselves to any further searching, for Robotnik,
Packbell, and the entire Delta SWATBot Group were practically
face-to-face with them.  Before the two Freedom Fighters could
snap out of shock from Robotnik's sudden appearance, they were
apprehended by two SWATBots and bound together  back-to-back by
a security shackle.  Sonic and Sally struggled to escape, but
the electromagnetic field was too powerful to permit any hope of
departure.  Robotnik laughed his evil laugh of glee when he saw
the two attempt to escape.
	"It's no use, Hedgehog.  Your speed won't get you out of this
one very easily."  Robotnik was definitely enjoying this.  He
continued in his best poetic tone to Sally, "And you, Princess. 
Why do you struggle so?  It would only serve to bruise your
beautiful body, not to mention leave me with noone to be my
consort."
	Sally cringed visibly and spoke in her best acidic voice, "In
your dreams, Doctor!  I'll be your consort when you get a life!"
	"Oh, what a pity.  I thought that I might actually be able to
trust you two.  'Later', I thought," Robotnik said only in a
slightly derisive tone.  "Oh, and I almost forgot.  Thank you
for providing me with the information I need to the Key to
Mobius," he said, bowing in his most gracious bow.
	It was Sonic's turn to add a rebuttal.  "Yeah, we'll give you
the Key to Mobius, Robuttnik," Sonic replied with a sneer on his
face.  "We'll shove it down your throat after we use it to lock
you up in prison for good!"
	Slightly, but only slightly, taken aback by Sonic's comment,
Robotnik thought over what his next action should be.  Stroking
his mustache, he quickly thought of another way to deal with the
two brash young  Freedom Fighters.  Finding one, an evil smile
crept over his face, making it more than apparent to Sonic and
Sally that their fate would not be favorable to their survival.
	"Very well, then," he finally said to them.  "How about we make
a deal?"
	Sally spoke for herself and Sonic.  "We don't make deals with
criminals, Robotnik."
	"Wait until you hear the proposal, Princess," he said to Sally.
 After a thoughtful pause, he continued on.  "I challenge you to
determine your fate on your own.  If you, Hedgehog, are as fast
as you believe yourself to be-"
	An interruption by Sonic.  "Faster than you'll ever know,
Robotnik."
	"As I was saying," he continued, unflagged by Sonic's remark,
"if you're fast enough to escape from me, I'll make certain that
you are allowed to return to Knothole and warn your friends
about this weapon.  If not, well, let's just say you never will."
	Mutual shock emanated from Sonic and Sally.  It had to be a
trap, but what if Sonic was able to dash away from Robotnik's
Delta Group and safely return to Knothole.  The prospect stung
in Sonic's side, since it seemed to me more a question of pride
than anything else.  This was as Robotnik intended.
	"Sal, I gotta do it," Sonic whispered to his companion.
	"Right, Sonic," she answered back.  "You know as well as I do
that this could be a trick."
	Sonic resonated his voice to sound suave, and said, "Come on,
Sal.  I can outrun anything that Robuttnik has.  Trust me."
	"Oh, I hate it when you say that," was her only response.  She
consented to the challenge, however.
	"Excellent," said Robotnik in a voice that sounded like the cat
that was about to catch the canary.  "Now that we are in mutual
agreement, I shall let you perform your part of the bargain." 
To the SWATBots, he ordered, "Set them free."
	One second later, the EM field disengaged and the metal bar was
lifted from the prisoners.  Now free of the bonds, Sally quickly
jumped into Sonic's arms.  The hedgehog accelerated in place for
about a second, and then was somewhere else.
	Robotnik, however, wasn't about to let them escape so easily. 
He signaled to Packbell to engage the weapon.
	A yellow beam flashed between the temporal displacement final
emitter and Sonic's position.  In the distance, Robotnik could
hear the screams of the two, possibly the initial effects of the
time transport.  A few seconds later, they were present no more.
	From the point of view of the two Knothole Freedom Fighters,
the temporal displacement effects were unpleasant and moderately
painful.  It was as if the temporal transport beam was stripping
them apart, atom by atom.  They felt their DNA split into its
component strands and recombine a billion times per second, as
though their DNA was struggling with great difficulty to
maintain contact with the current time period.  The very essence
of their bodies valiantly attempting to combat the effects of
the beam, but the beam eventually became the victor.  After the
transport initialization phase was complete, Sonic and Sally
felt themselves literally thrown into an unknown future time.
There was a flash of intense red light, and then the two found
themselves lost in the Great Unknown, but this place was far
more alien to them than the Great Unknown of their time.  It was
the Great Unknown of the distant future.

* * *

	In the present, Robotnik was thoroughly enjoying his latest
victory over his worst adversaries.  After eleven years of
contending with a teenage hedgehog and his friends, and losing
in the process, this event was one to be celebrated.  Now that
the foundation of the Knothole Freedom Fighters had been razed
from existence (at least in this time period), the rest the
infrastructure should fall eventually.  With the fall of the
Knothole Freedom Fighter front, Mobius would be in his hands, to
have and control.
	"Yes!" Robotnik exclaimed with excitement and accomplishment.
"Now, to celebrate."  An evil chuckle from Robotnik came forth,
lasting for about two minutes.  When he managed to regain his
composure, he turned to face Packbell and said, "Very good shot,
Packbell.  If you weren't already at your position in the chain
of command, I would promote you.  However, since I cannot do so,
I will merely congratulate you."
	Thank you, Doctor Robotnik," Packbell responded, also gratified
to see Sonic and Sally vanish from the current timeline,
although appended with a more insidious motive.  He had been
waiting for the perfect time to terminate Robotnik's reign to
begin his own, and the "death" of the hedgehog seemed to be the
most auspicious opportunity to do so.  Yes, Robotnik might be
somewhat more readily caught off guard this time.  In fact....
	An unusual sight caught Packbell's eye.  He hurriedly directed
his sensors over the control panel of the temporal displacement
device.  There was a graphical bar that steadily lengthened
toward an area shaded in red.  Although Packbell couldn't even
begin to translate the Cassandran language and understand the
control labels, a feeling of dread increased within him in
synchronization with the bar.  What he saw, he instinctively
didn't believe was productive to his future survival.  As if the
machine wished to acknowledge that hypothesis, an audio signal
steadily increased in volume in coordination with the
lengthening bar.  It was unnoticeable at first, then it became
apparent to both Packbell and Robotnik.
	After Robotnik first became aware of the unusual noise, he
stepped over to the control panel.  Observing that Packbell was
shocked with fear, or otherwise in a positronic-lockup due to a
problem he couldn't resolve, Robotnik looked over the control
panel to obtain an understanding of what would strike such an
unsettling response in Packbell.  He noticed that a graphical
bar was stretching uncomfortably close to a shaded red area.
Robotnik froze in place, for he knew in the back of his mind
what was happening, and felt foolish for assuming that the power
cells in the device would be stable enough to safely retain
their charge without facing the risk of an unrecoverable power
feedback loop.  The last thing Robotnik saw was a flash of
lethal radiation, and then nothing more.
	Just as on Cassandra, the fate of Mobius depended on the fate
of an ultimate weapon.  The difference in the comparison was
that the weapon itself would be responsible for destroying the
planet that its lifeforms knew and loved.  In its own sort of
way, the weapon seemed to wish to atone for the crime of its
survival, so its only solution was to destroy itself.  The
morals of its use made no difference;  preventing any further
utilization was all that mattered.
	There was no place on Mobius for anyone or anything to avoid
the global carnage that would reform the planet just as the
format command reinitializes a hard drive.  An explosion
occurred at ground zero of the probe's crash site, ejecting
gigatons of dust into the atmosphere.  The explosion was also
powerful enough to create resonance in the crust and mantle
throughout the planet.  Shockwaves transmitted through the
mantle caused the crust to restructure into waves, and finally
into fragments of mixed granodiorite/basalt material when the
stress was too great for the crust to withstand.  Continents and
oceans alike steamed with fury in the catastrophe.  The
fragments and dust slowly sank into the exposed mantle, leaving
nothing to go to waste.  In a matter of minutes, the planet that
was Mobius to its inhabitants became a hot radioactive sphere of
undifferentiated molten rock.  The new world had an opportunity
to become a biological storehouse, but at the cost of losing
everything its predecessor had.  It would be a long wait before
the genesis of new life would occur in the body of a very simple
and unassuming lifeform, and much longer before two certain
displaced lifeforms from the previous world would appear.

* * *

Dawn of an new eon...

	The reformation of the planet was remarkably similar to
Earth's, with differences in the formation of the key elements
as far as time was concerned.  Asteroids fell into the magma
ocean, though not the swarms that existed in Mobius' initial
formation about 4.6 billion years ago.  With the decreased
introduction of new material into the planet's microcosm, the
global magma ocean cooled considerably faster at the surface
than it had the first time.  In about 100 million years, the
first piece of basaltic crust formed and remained floating on
the magma.  Having a base to expand on, more basalt formed and
cooled until the planet was covered with a primordial basaltic
crust.  Occasionally breaks formed in the crust, caused either
by limited input from asteroids or differential stress in the
mantle.  From these fractured areas came the vapors that would
form the first reducing atmosphere.
	For about 300 million years, the atmosphere remained relatively
stable.  That was until the introduced water content became high
enough to permanently change all that.  Storms of lightning
emerged, and with storms came torrential rains to cool the crust
and form a global ocean.  The ocean remained dominant for about
a few million years, but the crust was not content to remain
under the ocean's rule.  Continents started forming, encroaching
on the ocean's territory.
	At about this time in the history of the new world, the basic
building blocks of life started forming in the ocean and pools
of water found on the infant continents.  These amino acids
eventually began forming chains, and these chains found others
of their kind to combine with.  Nearly two billion years after
the global catastrophe that Robotnik had caused, life had
reinstated its hold on Mobius.  One progression followed
another, and the series continued until many forms of diverse
life literally exploded into existence (similar to the event
that took place at the Precambrian/Cambrian time boundary).
	For about 200 million years, life remained in its birthplace,
the ocean.  Due to reasons unknown, some simple forms of plant
life began to see the logic of exploiting the virgin environment
of the upper world, so they made the first advancement toward
the open spaces of exposed igneous and sedimentary rock.  The
rogue plant life didn't survive for very long out of the water,
but life evolved, and soon (in geologic terms) plants extended
complicated root systems into the remains of their pioneering
ancestors. It is at this point where Sonic and Sally reappeared
in Mobius' geologic time record.

The present future...

	Their time travel was completed in a matter of seconds relative
to them, yet Sonic and Sally's journey spanned an
incomprehensible span of time in realspace.  The Mobius they
knew was an ancient, dead world without any sign in the new
world that its predecessor had ever existed.  They were aliens,
potentially pieces of future evolution on the new world (or not
if life would eventually evolve differently this time around).
In any case, they didn't belong in this time period.
	The pair were cast out from the temporal displacement
singularity, as if it were a predator that didn't like the taste
of its quarry after the kill.  After a two meter drop, Sonic and
Sally lied on the ground, still paralyzed by the initialization
phase.  As their DNA returned to normal, they both gained more
interactive contact with their new environment.
	Sonic was the first to gradually regain consciousness.  He
found himself lying flat, with his frontal region in full
contact with a shallow carbonate mud pool.  Fortunately, his
head was on a more solid, but still relatively soft carbonate
mud mound.  If that were not the case, he would have drowned in
twenty centimeters of mud.  Not blind to the irony of the
situation, he briefly thought about how he could confront
Robotnik and all his robots, only to be forced into time travel
and nearly meet his demise in a pungent mud pool.  Not exactly
the main event of his life.
	Another thing that Sonic noticed was something all too familiar
about the mud itself.  Of course the color was sufficient enough
to tell the hedgehog otherwise, and the mud was full of calcium
carbonate material and not an intricate mixture of quicksand,
petroleum, and clay mud, but he could swear that it felt like
MegaMuck.  He tested his extremities to confirm this.  His
fingers didn't flex very well, and it was a battle just to
slightly bend his arms and legs.  All too familiar a reminder of
the old world.
	As he felt himself coming further out from the shocked state
induced by the time travel, Sonic noticed that there was
something warm and furry resting on the left side his back.
Rotating his head to the general direction of the contact area,
he saw Sally's head there.  Sonic breathed a sigh of relief.  He
wasn't the only one to explore the intricacies of their mutual
ironical situation.  He shook around a bit, gently, to wake
Sally.  She remained in a dazed state, not reacting to his
motion.
	The hedgehog decided to test another tactic. He rotated his
body so that his front would be in contact with Sally's head,
and positioned her head on his upper abdominal area.  This time,
he tried shaking her a little more forcefully and whispering
into her ear.
	"Sally, Sally, it's me.  Remember, your best bud, Sonic?" he
said softly, and waited for a few seconds.  The results were not
very encouraging.  She seemed like she was coming out of her
dream world, but she needed just a little more encouragement.
	'OK, Hedgehog.  What now?' Sonic thought to himself.  In
response, his brain produced a plan to give Sally the perfect
wake-up call.  He rose slowly, taking precautions not to let her
head become one with the mud pool.  He slowly pulled her over to
the mud mound, and carefully placed her head on it.  No further
response from that, but Sonic wasn't finished yet.  After he put
her head on the mud mound, he tried to locate Nicole.  After
about a minute of feeling around Sally's legs and feet, he found
Nicole still attached to one of her boots.  Picking Nicole off
her boot and out of the mud, Sonic observed the small computer's
condition.  She was, expectedly, drenched with the products of
broken shells and organic excretions of calcium carbonate, but
would she still work?  He tried brushing her off, but belatedly
realized that using his hands to remove the mud from Nicole was
about as useful as drying a wet floor with water.  The hedgehog
then decided to test which hypothesis was correct.
	"Yo, Nicole," he commanded to the small computer.  Nicole
trilled in response.
	THAT woke Sally up, and with an energetic efficiency.  A
powerful force swelled through her body, providing an intensity
similar to moving through air, as if the restrictive carbonate
mud didn't exist.  She leaped out of the mud as fast as she
could, and slowly paced over to Sonic like someone with murder
on her mind.  She stared into his eyes with an intense, and
borderline dangerous regard for his future welfare.  Which, in
this case, didn't hold much in favor for Sonic.  If Sonic had
the mind-set to see the humor in the situation, he would have
noticed that Sally looked as if she tried to get a little too
much mud out of her mud pack.  All the normally jovial hedgehog
could see now were Sally's eyes, vicious and full of primordial
anger.
	"What...are...you...doing...to...NICOLE?!" she demanded, like a
mother crocodile accosting an unfortunate predator intent on
feasting on her young.
	Sonic slowly backed off, his own eyes pleading for mercy.
"Whoa, Sal.  Chill a minute!" he ventured, his voice a little
slurred with the surprise that one of his closest friends would
ever attack him like this.  Suddenly regaining his generally
frolicsome mood, but only halfway, he said half-jokingly and
half-seriously, "Man, you redheads sure are cranky when you wake
up in the morning.  Definitely not cool, Sal."
	The last comment from Sonic tamed Sally's precarious mood.  She
stopped strutting toward him, and a smile gradually crept across
her face as she seemed to consider exactly what danger Sonic
could be to Nicole's electronics.  She sat down, looked at
herself and the hedgehog, noticing that they were both covered
up to the neck with mud.  She laughed hysterically at the sight
for about a minute, as she thought about how an oversized mud
pack and a hedgehog would look together.  Sonic was about as
anyone could get to that level of contact, and so was she.  The
hedgehog could only stare at her, unsettled by the response.  It
wasn't exactly the one he wanted, but it would have to do for
now.
	As if realizing the effect she had on her friend, Sally stopped
laughing, but her face softened to a considerate grin instead of
a more serious regard.  She stood up, and walked slowly over to
Sonic.  Anyone else would say that her strut, her facial
expression, and of course being covered in mud made her seem
like she was attempting to be seductive.  But Sonic knew Sally
better than that.  She enveloped him in a caressing embrace.
	"Sonic," she said softly while stroking his upper torso,
"didn't I tell you to be more careful when you try out those mud
packs?  What do you do with them anyway?"
	Not intent on spoiling the humor, Sonic was quick to respond.
"Sal," he said in a voice as soft as what Sally used, "even
hedgehogs need a little beauty work done every once in a while.
Besides, I think I got a hold of Dulcy's by mistake."
	"Yes, but don't you think it was time you-"  She stopped
herself, as if remembering something.  Her face hardened to a
serious and thoughtful one.
	Sonic, realizing what significance one particular word in her
sentence had, followed suit.  They both disengaged their embrace
simultaneously, and slowly descended.  They sat and stared at
each other, both thinking of the ramifications of their
situation.
	The hedgehog asked the obvious, but necessary, question.
"Sal," he queried, "where are we?"  Slightly off the mark.
	Sally corrected him.  "It's not a question of WHERE, Sonic.
It's more like WHEN.  From the looks of things, we could've been
transported forward or back in time."
	"How do we find out when, Sal?"
	She thought the matter over.  Then she remembered something
about one of the new sensors Bookshire had told her about.  She
relayed the data to Sonic.
	"If I'm not mistaken, Bookshire installed a temporal
displacement sensor in Nicole.  She might be able to tell us
where in time we are."  She added privately in her thoughts, 'I
hope.'
	Sonic handed Nicole over to Sally.  She retrieved her little
computer, and quickly analyzed the condition of its
functionality.  Aside from the test that Sonic had done, she
checked Nicole via her diagnostics programs.  The results were
favorable:  covered in mud, but otherwise capable of running
programs and displaying data via her screen or holographic
projector. Nicole had been constructed well, and was meant to be
more than an aesthetic ornament.  The aesthetics could wait, for
the two Freedom Fighters had more important concerns.
	"Nicole," Sally directed, "calculate the total time
differential between the time period right before the transport
phase and now."
	"Working," the computer responded, "connection has been
established with temporal singularity."  After a second of
processing pieces of complex data, Nicole resolved them into
understandable temporal dynamics graphs.  "Approximate time of
transport:  3.8 billion years delta-t positive relative to our
time period."
	After hearing about how long they have been lost in limbo
between the two time periods (relative to realspace), both
dropped their jaws with shock.  A million years was
incomprehensible enough, but the time that had spanned since the
fateful day of their temporal displacement defied every level of
understanding.  Many geologic events (major and minor) can
potentially take place in a decade, in some cases even a year.
3.8 billion years leaves many opportunities for anything to
happen.
	Of course, with this span of displacement in time travel,
everything that they once had was gone a long time ago and
decomposed to dust.  All the familiar sights, sounds, personal
relations, and other things that were generally taken for
granted no longer existed.  In this time period, they were the
aliens, and Nature generally had ways with dispatching of
organic components that weren't part of the whole.  If they
stayed in this time period, there was a likelihood that they
wouldn't find the food they needed to survive, or shelter for
their exclusive use.  Staying here would be a death sentence;
returning to their time period was imperative.  That was
assuming that doing so was possible in the first place;  there
was no guarantee to the process even existing in the first place.
	Sally started crying when she finally considered the immensity
of their dilemma, and how everyone else wasn't present to keep
them company.  She thought of Tails, Bunny, Dulcy, Rotor,
Bookshire, Charles Hedgehog, and even Antoine.  The opportunity
to meet other Freedom Fighters was also out of the question.  It
was as if time was against them, and that statement was no
further from the truth than now.  Sonic noticed the unrest that
was present in his companion, so he went over to embrace her.
She said nothing, but she returned the embrace.  They both
understood what they were feeling, for they were both in the
same situation.  Both tried to think of ways to comfort the
other, but they also understood that words had no ultimate value
here.  They were alone for now, and nothing in the universe
could change that.
	Fighting back tears of his own, Sonic said to Sally in a gentle
voice, "Sal, how 'bout we go find someplace else to go?  I don't
really like the idea of sleeping in a mud pit."
	Sally struggled to speak, and succeeded.  "You're right," she
said, sniffling with extreme grief.  "Yes, it would be a good
idea to find shelter."  She added slightly jokingly, "Besides,
we already had our mud bath for the day."
	They both managed to find humor in that statement, and reacted
accordingly.  With a new immediate purpose to meet, they set
about finding an area that was somewhat more solid, not to
mention less offensive to the olfactory nerves.  Before they
began their trek for a provisional residence, Sally left a
remote multipurpose sensor/transponder, in order to monitor the
temporal singularity.  With a little help from Nicole, they
located solid ground about six km due north.  Given the fact
that the mud was about half as viscous as MegaMuck, Sonic had
some difficulty trying to get through, but he could manage.

* * *

	It was near dusk when they found a site that would serve as a
suitable shelter for the duration of their stay, however long it
would be.  It was a cavern located about fifty km inland from
the carbonate mud pit.  It had a few of the amenities of modern
life:  a bath (subterranean lake), water from the stream that
fed the lake, and beds (unusual calcium carbonate cave
formations that were actually soft enough to sleep on).  All
that remained was one problem:  food.  There was nothing
available besides the native plants, and they were officially
declared unfit for consumption by Nicole.  They did have ration
packs, but those were nearly completely consumed before the
incident in the canyon.  All they could do at this point is
conserve their energy.
	In the endeavor to keep them distracted from their gastronomic
requirements, Sonic and Sally took a bath to rinse the mud off,
and talked about anything in general for a while.  They also
reviewed the data regarding the temporal displacement device and
the other hardware in the probe.  Sonic tried to be as
accommodating as possible, trying not to interrupt when a new
piece of technobabble surfaced.  Sally appreciated this act
forwarded by the normally impatient and disinclined hedgehog.
In return, she tried putting in a little more explanation into
the more difficult concepts so that she and Sonic would
understand them.  Whether Sonic acted this way out of kindness
or for another motive wasn't clear.  What was clear was that
they were both in the same situation, and teamwork would be
their only savior.


	As time slowly progressed on for the two surviving Freedom
Fighters, they learned a great deal of information about the
temporal displacement device.  However, none of the data was
actually useful in the field combat sense.  More data had to be
searched through to find something they could utilize. That was
until an hour before midnight, when something caught Sally's eye.
	"Sonic," Sally said, "I think I've found something that might
get us back to our time period."
	The hedgehog replied patiently, "As I say to Bunny, 'I'm all
ears.'"
	Sally then continued with the description.  "According to this,
we can return to our own time period by applying an inverse
temporal entry vector utilizing the same level of power that was
used by the device to send us here."
	Sonic thought that statement over.  He stood up, apparently
tired of sitting while contemplating the issue.  "Let me get
this straight, Sal," he hazarded.  "If we go back through that
time hole with the same amount of juice that got us here, we get
back to our time?"
	"Exactly, Sonic," Sally confirmed.  "I'm already working on
calculating what power level the device used to bring us here."
To Nicole, she asked, "Nicole, what is the absolute time
differential from previous readings?"
	"Calculating, Sally," Nicole answered.  "Absolute temporal
displacement:  three billion, 800 million, 200 thousand, 906
years, two months, five days, ten hours, five minutes, thirty
seconds.  Readings based on prescaled data."
	The hedgehog wasn't exactly aware as to why that level of
accuracy was required.  He made his point audible.
	"In order to get back to our time," Sally explained, "we need
to know exactly when it was we were transported here.  If the
wrong level of power is given on the return trip, we may find
ourselves before or after the time we want to go back to."
	"How does power on the return relate to the power the time
machine used?" Sonic asked thoughtfully.
	"According to the data, the power response is linear.  That is,
the power differential relative to what the device used would
send us before or after the event took place."
	"So that means if I give it more juice than the device used, we
could go back in time to before we were sent here?"
	"Right," Sally said.  She was about to continue, but she
paused, thinking about what observation Sonic had made.
Slightly surprised by his proposal, she said, "Sonic, you want
to go back to the time before we were sent to this time period?"
	"Correctomundo, Sal," he confirmed.
	"But why?"  Sally was somewhat puzzled by the hedgehog's choice
of tactics.
	It was Sonic's turn to explain his rationale.  "Let me put it
this way, Sal," he began, pacing as he spoke, like a professor
teaching a class.  He amplified his voice, speaking to the
cavern at large, to give his statements an ominous sound to
them.  The cavern's acoustics provided the perfect response.
"There's still too much we don't know about that time machine
that even the info Nicole got can't tell us.  We don't know if
it was an experimental wartoy or otherwise, and billions of
other things that might affect how well it works.  Another is
that thing's old beyond belief.  We don't have a clue to how it
reacted after 'Buttnik fired it, and this hedgehog ain't willing
to bet on something being stable for that long."
	Sally thought the point over, and concluded that Sonic could be
right about the temporal displacement device.  Considering the
matter further, if they did go back in time to the right hour or
even minute, there might be enough of an opportunity to destroy
the machine before Robotnik had the chance to use it himself.
The key was to find the right time, and go back to it so that
they could perform the necessary destructive acts.  One thing
remained burning away in her mind, though.
	"There's just one thing though," Sally stated, "if we go back
in time to a point before we were sent here, we wouldn't exist
after a while."
	"Say what?!" exclaimed the confused hedgehog.
	"Sorry, Sonic.  I didn't mean that the way it sounded," she
apologized.  "What I meant was that WE, the you and I here,
would cease to exist at the time when Robotnik engaged that
device.  The 'other' us, the Sonic and Sally in sync with time
back in the past will live.  They, I mean we, just won't
remember what happened.  If we're successful this time around,
it would be to our other selves like the entire incident never
happened.  You and I would have destroyed the device, so the
other us would never be sent to the future.  Do you still want
to go back before Robotnik used it against us?"
	"It's a chance we'll have to take, Sal.  If we go back to when
Robotnik sent us here, we'd just end up in that beam again.  And
if we go after, that thing might blow up in our face."
	"You're right, Sonic," she finally said after scheming over the
proposed plan.  "Going back before Robotnik got his hands on it
and used it against us would be the best idea I heard all day."
	"Yo, Sal.  Remember this:  the Hedgehog is always right."  He
dictated this teasingly.
	Sally retorted in kind.  "Since when?"
	Sonic responded with a glare, but they both knew it to be
mocking only;  not a real threat.  Sally responded with her own
glare toward Sonic.  Mutually disarmed, they surrendered to
laughter and embraced each other for a while.
	Realizing that the technical discussion of time and space had
purged more energy out of them than expected, they went to
sleep.  The next morning would be the day of the great escape
from this future time period, in the hopes of creating a better
one in the past.

* * *

	The next morning, the two companions in time went back to the
temporal singularity for the final preparations on their return
trip.  Along the way, they discussed and decided when to return
to, and what power level was needed.  While walking through the
mud pool, they both tripped over rocks hidden under the opaque
layer of shell and other carbonate excretion products.  This
eventually covered them in mud from their head to their feet,
making the journey even more difficult since they were partially
blinded by the mud caked over their eyes.  But they managed to
trek on.  Within about two hours, they managed to arrive at the
temporal singularity site.
	"Where's it at, Sal?" Sonic inquired, quickly scanning for
their passage to home.  "I can't see it out there anywhere."
	Sally handed a pair of multispectrum goggles to him and
responded, "Here, try these on, Sonic.  I've modified them to
detect temporal distortions."
	Sonic retrieved the goggles, put them on his face, and searched
the area again.  "Got it," the hedgehog said to his comrade when
he located the singularity thirty meters ahead of them.  "Cool.
You got the juicing limit set, Sal?  That might've been the
mistake we made the last time we tried this," he said not
without some concern.
	Technically, Sonic was incorrect in his last statement.  From
the viewpoint of Mobius' past, this would be the first time that
they executed this plan.  However, now wasn't the time to argue
the finer points of temporal physics.
	"Yep, already done.  Twelve megawatts exactly," Sally verified.
"Just remember this," she admonished, "we need to go DIRECTLY
into the temporal singularity.  Otherwise..." she trailed off,
not inclined to think of the consequences.
	There wasn't any need for further discussion on this particular
subject.  It had been covered before.  They both knew that if
Sonic didn't enter the singularity perpendicular to its event
horizon, the best that could happen is that they could be
transported anywhere in time, without their discretion.  The
worst case, they could be trapped in the singularity for all
eternity.  No margin for error existed here, and everything
depended on Sonic's concentration and undeviating stability to a
path.
	With nothing further to review or to prepare for, they began
Phase 1:  powering for time transport.  Sonic reprogrammed the
goggles to display only the areas of the strongest temporal
displacement potential and added a target sight centerlined for
him, for that indicated the correct path to vector into.  Sally
got behind him, gripping his back with all the strength she had.
She pulled the power ring out of his backpack, and he assumed
his stance to engage the power transfer.  An energy field formed
around the hedgehog,  gradually becoming more powerful and
displacing the mud around his feet as he concentrated on
generating the required energy to travel over 3.8 billion years
into the past.  Nothing else existed in his mind;  only the
power ring field mattered now.
	Nicole was programmed to emit an audible signal when the
detected power field reached the preset energy level.  No
indication tone came from the little computer.  Sonic was
straining to his limit to generate the power field, but he
needed a little more encouragement.
	Sally noticed the hedgehog's predicament, and tried to motivate
him on further.  "Sonic, you can do it.  I know you can.
Concentrate harder."
	His only response was to strengthen the energy level in the
power field.  About five seconds later, Nicole gave the signal
they were waiting for.  He halted his energy demands from the
power ring, but maintained the power field surrounding him and
Sally.  Sonic then lowered his field of vision and centered his
target sight on the strongest area of temporal displacement.
After obtaining the desired target, he maintained his aim, and
fired.
	Phase 2 had begun.  Sonic covered the thirty meter distance to
the temporal singularity in a microsecond, his velocity warping
the volume of air around the energy field into an intense shock
wave cone.  Sonic entered the temporal singularity perfectly,
and remained on course back to the other opening in time and
space.  All that remained now was to traverse the
incomprehensible span of time back to the device and the person
responsible for their troubles.

* * *

Return from the future, to the present at 0800 hours...

	Robotnik and Packbell arrived at the crash site in Robotnik's
personal Hover Unit.  They had retrieved not only the
linguistics program, they also selected WorkerBots for a small
squad.  WorkerBots were much more adept at performing the
required delicate work on the probe and its cargo than the
SWATBots were constructed and programmed to exercise.  Packbell
personally took responsibility for dispatching the WorkerBots
and assigning them to their required duties.  Robotnik remained
in his command chair, watching them disperse to their positions.
 He reveled in the absolute beauty in the weapon, even though he
had no knowledge of what specific function it had.  He didn't
concern himself with what the weapon was utilized for, as long
as it would aid him in turning the tide of the war in his favor.
 Today could very well become a rather productive day after all.
	Without any provocation that was visible to Robotnik, an
explosion occurred somewhere outside to the west of his personal
Hover Unit.  It was very loud, and somewhat familiar, but he was
unable to identify who or what could generate that level of
thundering out of nowhere.  The answer struck him when the
windshield shattered about a second later from the massive wind
shear.  There was no other explanation;  it had to be a certain
blue spiny Freedom Fighter that Robotnik had learned to despise
and fear in the past eleven years.
	It was Sonic, and more specifically, the shock wave generated
by him that gave Robotnik the first and final warning.  After
departing from the temporal displacement singularity, Sonic
sustained his entry velocity, due to the fact that his inertia
was too high for him to decelerate immediately.  To allow
himself to do so, Sonic circled the probe's position at a radius
of three km.  Even from that distance, the hedgehog could view
the evidence that his warped air cone was wrecking havoc all
over the probe site.  Hover Units were under take-off condition,
and then spun around erratically during and after the wave
impacted with their hulls.  Some SWATBots were vacuumed into the
air, eventually bashing into other SWATBots or Hover Units.
Windows shattered, and electrical explosions emitted from
over-stressed hardware.  Fortunately, WorkerBots weren't present
in the metallic storm.  Decelerating to a sufficient pace, he
moved in for the fatal strike, like a Terran lion on the final
assault for disoriented prey.
	Sonic darted toward his general target area, and reached the
outer rim of Hover Units in about five seconds.  Sally had
managed to retain her life-grip on Sonic, using every bit of
energy she had available in her body to prevent her from
becoming an abandoned piece of debris in the hedgehog's warped
air cone.  Sonic located and halted in front of Robotnik's Hover
Unit.
	"Yo, Robuttnik," he said observantly, "nice looking windshield.
 Must be part of your latest stealth technology."  Looking past
the remains of the windshield, he said, "Ooohhh, mando cool look
on the insides.  Are fried control boards and circuits in?"  To
Sally, he ordered in a whisper, "You can get off now, Sal.
Hedgehog Express has stopped."  She released her grip and moved
to stand by him.
	Robotnik could only stare at the two Freedom Fighters with an
expression full of anger, bafflement, and fear simultaneously
displayed.  Observing their condition after a few seconds,
Robotnik regained a small degree of his own macabre humor at the
sight of something that looked like it was a costume for a mud
monster movie.  His evil grin came out of his shocked face, but
only a little.
	"Well, Hedgehog," he dictated in a voice that attempted to
sound authoritative and failed, "been playing in the mud have
you?  I thought that was below you;  I guess I was mistaken.
Where have you been?"
	The hedgehog retaliated with a confident strike, "Oh, just
tromping across a mud pit that doesn't exist yet."  He chuckled
at the thought, knowing that Robotnik would have no such memory
of the incident.  In the technicalities of temporal physics, it
had not occurred yet in this time period.
	Robotnik nearly resumed his multispectrum stare, but caught
himself before he became victim to his shock.  He sank into his
dark and devious regard that notoriously struck instant fear
into Freedom Fighters.  "Never mind that," his voice all gravel
and almost unnoticeable.  He amplified his voice, maintaining
the same tone, to say, "SWATBots!  Get that hedgehog!"
	All the remaining SWATBots came out of their stealthy positions
and moved toward Sonic and Sally.  Sonic quickly scanned the
immediate area, not exactly pleased with the odds.  Robotnik
transformed his dangerous frown into a lethal grin as the
SWATBots gradually decreased the distance to their quarry.
Sonic and Sally huddled, backs together, looking for an opening
in the circle of SWATBots.  They found no such escape route.
	"Doesn't look good, Sal," the hedgehog observed.
	"You're right about that.  Got any ideas?" Sally queried.
	He quickly searched his memory regarding how to handle the
situation.  He snapped his fingers, with what little snapping he
could do due to the mud on his fingers.  "As a matter of fact,"
he confirmed, "I do.  Hold tight, these 'bots are gonna be
hittin' the rocks."
	Within a second, Sonic created a twenty-meter high blue tornado
around Sally, providing refuge for her.  Everything outside the
eye of this storm however, was not so fortunate.  Sonic finished
off the rest of the SWATBots and Hover Units, turning them into
scrap metal and plastics, while leaving the probe and Robotnik's
Hover Unit undamaged.  Satisfied with his work, he revectered
himself in the opposite direction to quiet the whirlwind that he
formed.
	After returning to his position by Sally, Sonic directed an
evil grin at Robotnik and said, "Need any more convincing,
Robotnik?  Or do I need to really get serious?"
	Robotnik wasn't taking the hedgehog seriously, however.
"You're going to have to do better than that, Hedgehog," he
sneered with all the intensity he could provide.
	To Sally, he said with a note of derision and superiority
directed to Robotnik, "Doesn't he ever get tired?"  Sally could
only smile and shrug with an "I don't know" motion.  "Well, I
do," he continued, "and if this doesn't convince him, I don't
know what will."
	With that said, he generated another vortex, only this time
directed toward the WorkerBots and Packbell located in the
probe.  After finding a suitable opening in the probe, Sonic
vacuumed up and transferred the robots from the probe to
Robotnik's personal Hover Unit.  With that done, his disengaged
his artificial vortex and returned to his position by Sally for
a second time.  He crossed his arms defiantly, glared at
Robotnik, and waited for a response.
	No further verbal exchange or demonstration of will was
necessary between the two adversaries.  Sonic was clearly the
victor in this case, and Robotnik had no way to regain control.
He had lost yet again to the teenage blue hedgehog.  His Hover
Unit promptly made an unfashionable retreat, with all available
power utilized for propulsion, should the hedgehog decide to
make his unspoken threat a reality.
	After Robotnik's departure, Sonic felt all his energy supplied
from the adrenaline pour out of him like water from a waterfall.
 Without any power to even support his balance, Sonic tilted and
fell like a freshly cut tree.  Sally saw his travel to the
ground and managed to catch him before he impacted with the
solid granite.  She looked into his eyes, her face filled with
concern.
	Sonic opened his eyes, and saw his friend's worried mask
through the mud that covered it.  "I'm OK, Sal," he said weakly,
"Going after old 'Buttnik like that wore me out more than I
thought."
	Not totally convinced, she helped him regain his standing
position, still providing as much physical and psychological
support as possible.  She was surprised that he had been able to
expend that much power for so long.  Anyone else would have more
than likely dropped dead with the extreme exhaustion.  Then
again, Sonic wasn't an average hedgehog.
	"Sonic, you've got to stop and rest for a while," she advised
him.  "You haven't eaten anything for a long time.  I'll see if
I can dig something up out of my ration pack.  There has to be
something in there somewhere."
	No bravado response from the hedgehog for that statement.
Sonic was the prime example of someone serious, and wasn't
inclined to engage in his usual cavorting attitude.  This meant
that something was REALLY wrong with her friend.
	"No time," he responded, with the sobriety of voice and mind as
stable as hydrogen gas at absolute zero.  "We've got to destroy
that machine, now."
	Sonic gradually regained a small degree of strength, then
gently pushed Sally away, making his intentions clear with his
body language that his words and judgment were the end of any
further argument over delaying the mission plans.  He had every
intention to destroy the temporal displacement device, even if
the effort killed him.  Mobius would be saved, no matter what
condition Sonic was in.
	He slowly advanced toward the device that was (or in this case
of time, would be) the cause of all their problems.  Sally
walked beside him, keeping her pace equal to his in case he
should fall again.  He maintained his balance the entire ten
meters to the probe, and the remaining five meters to the
weapon's protective shield control panel.  The hedgehog was
beleaguered, but not out yet.
	"Sally," he said finally, with an infinitely tired but
determined voice, "does Nicole understand the circuits under
this control panel?"  After receiving an affirmative nod from
his friend, he carefully retrieved Nicole from her and focused
all his attention on the little computer.  "Nicole," he
commanded, getting some of his more jovial voice back, "pull
that shield off."
	"Accessing circuit pathways," Nicole replied.  She emitted a
tone afterwards, and said, "Circuits inoperative.  Power
required to engage the necessary hardware and software."
	Sonic's face did not alter its form with that statement.  He
searched his mind for what he knew about power supplies.  'So
that's it,' he thought, 'Robotnik must have had some portable
power cells around while he was using the computers.  The
probe's power supply must be down.'  He searched the immediate
area for a clue, and found a suspiciously large conduit along
the left (relative to his position) wall.  The conduit connected
to a metallic sphere.
	"What's this, Nicole?" he asked the small computer.
	"It is an impulse power unit, utilized for the probe's
propulsion or for auxiliary power." she responded.
	"How do we get it working again?" queried the serious and
interested hedgehog.
	"The impulse power unit requires matter/antimatter reactants as
a power source."
	Sonic's heart sank with that statement.  To come all this way,
only to be beaten by advanced and specialized hardware!
	"However," Nicole continued, "the unit may be able to utilize a
power ring if the level input is controlled and monitored."
	Having no words of his own to contribute, Sonic opened the
impulse power unit and inserted his power ring.  He kept his
hands in contact with the power ring, to provide input
regulation and avoid destroying the hardware from uncontrolled
levels of energy.
	"Sally," Sonic called to his friend, "take it from here.  I'm
going to take care of the power supply."
	Sally ran over to Nicole, picked her up, and returned to the
control panel.  After taking her position, she gave her friend a
"go ahead" signal.  The hedgehog confirmed his by concentrating
on the power ring.  The energy input began as a minuscule spark
at first, and then gradually gained strength with every passing
second.
	Sally remotely monitored the energy input into the computers.
When the power reached the required minimum level, she called to
her comrade, "Keep it there, Sonic."  She noticed that Sonic was
straining to keep the power level stable, but he contributed no
complaints in regard to his welfare.  To Nicole, she said,
"Nicole, remove the shield."
	"Accessing, Sally," Nicole replied.  "Circuit pathways
connected."
	With that confirmation came the nearly quiet action of
electromagnetic repulsors slowly removing the protective shield
from the temporal displacement device's haven.  Once the shield
had retracted completely, the computers disengaged the power
supplied to the subunits controlling the shield placement
system.  The device was now exposed for its atrocity, and would
return payment with its destruction.
	Sonic disabled his power transfer and slowly trudged over to
Sally's position.  He glared at the large object ahead of him
with malignance, and said to her, "This thing goes down, today."
	"Wait a minute, Sonic," as she checked over the device's
ambient power levels.  "We have to discharge the energy cells
that power the particle controls.  If we destroy it now, the
explosion could do the same to Mobius."
	"Where's the energy cells?"
	Sally checked the schematics for them.  "They're under the
case, located in the center of the top circuit board."
	"Can I cut through that metal, Sally?" the hedgehog asked, for
he noticed that the metal was unlike anything he had ever seen
before.
	She analyzed the case's composition, and confirmed his request.
 "No problem, Sonic.  Are you sure you want to do this?"
	He replied with a question of his own.  "Is there another way?"
	She checked for anything that might assist in opening the
protective case, for repair points, places for hardware
upgrades, and other possible openings.  Finding none, she shook
her head as if to say "no".
	With that confirmation, Sonic raised his power ring and
concentrated on transferring its energy to his body.  At his low
organic power state, the power ring and what he wanted to
destroy became the only existing objects besides him in his
personal universe.  The power ring now supplied nearly all of
Sonic's energy;  without it, he would be little more than a
vegetable.  He rolled into a ball, and let his spiny back
perform the task for him.  With part of the case shredded off,
he leaped to the center of the top circuit board, where the
energy cells were located.
	A faint, familiar voice called out to him from the darkness.
"Look for the two largest wires in front of you.  Short them
together."
	Sonic found a black and red wire.  He pulled them with what
strength he had left from their sockets.  Finding the bare,
uninsulated copper, he shorted the connections.  The energy
cells responded with a hum, which steadily increased in volume
with every second.  Not the desired effect.
	The familiar voice called to him again, now screaming.  "It's
going to explode!  Get away from there, Sonic!"
	Sonic's mind raced, thinking of ways to avert the imminent
explosion that would take place.  One solution came to mind.
The only alternative to the destruction of Mobius.  He raised
his power ring above him, positioning it perpendicular to the
ground.  He concentrated once again on the power ring as his
other hand wrapped around the improvised shorted connection he
made a few seconds before.
	A blinding flash of light emanated from the power ring.  Sally
shielded her eyes as she attempted to see what act the hedgehog
was performing.  He was using himself and the power ring as a
power transfer point, venting all the energy from the energy
cells to space.  The immense power that surged through him and
the strain to dissipate that energy nearly threw him away from
the circuits, as if the temporal displacement device wanted to
live.  Sonic maintained a firm hold on the wires, not allowing
himself to be subdued by the power that would otherwise advance
toward a catastrophic explosion.  The power ring provided some
protection, but it didn't provide immunity to the device's
retaliation.
	When all the power was drained from the energy cells, Sonic
began the next phase of the operation.  Still clinging to his
power ring, the hedgehog reached his other hand into his
backpack, and it produced three timed-explosive charges.  There
would be more than enough energy unleashed to destroy the device
and the probe, if they were positioned correctly.  He activated
them all simultaneously, then dropped to the floor of the probe
and placed them where they would insure the total fragmentation
of the machine that would have caused so much trouble for
Mobius.  After retrieving Sally for the escape from the
near-future blast radius, he raised his power ring for the last
time, then dashed away into the distance.  Five seconds later,
the probe and its cargo no longer existed on Mobius.
	The two Knothole Freedom Fighters saw the explosion from about
three km away from ground zero.  Mobius was safe again, for at
least one more day.  It had been the first assault from space,
and it was successfully deterred.
	However, there was one war that day which would claim a life.
Sonic was near death, his power ring almost dimmed from the
extensive energy demands that the hedgehog made from it.  He was
surprised that it had lasted for so long, but Charles Hedgehog
had designed them well.  Their life was also his life;  just as
their death was also a mutual demise.  He took one last look at
the carnage that destroyed their ultimate adversary of the day.
	Sally noticed that the power ring was dimming, synchronous with
Sonic's life force which was slowly slipping away.  She knew
what was happening, and was unable to ease her friend's pain or
prevent the shadow of death receiving final payment.  She held
him, looked into his eyes, and kissed him passionately.  They
both knew that this was the last time in this universe that this
particular pair of Freedom Fighters would have the opportunity
to be together.  Their counterparts, the Sonic and Sally
synchronous with time, would never know what happened.  The
mission was a success, but a price had to be paid.
	And the payment was extracted, with no concern for emotion.
Sonic's payment came a few seconds after their last
demonstration of affection.  Sally felt his body turn cold, and
saw his eyes permanently close.  Sally gently lowered Sonic to
the ground, weeping for both of them.  Sonic had met his death,
but he went down fighting every step of the way.
	She buried the savior of Mobius in the best way she knew how,
with the limited materials available in the Great Unknown.  She
regarded his grave, knowing that with time, she too would cease
to exist in this universe.

* * *

	After Sonic's talk with Dulcy, and receiving a demonstration of
her unflagging humor, he and Sally rushed off to the probe's
crash site.  The arrived without incident, but noticed that
something was not there to greet their eyes.  The only evidence
that the probe and the cargo it carried existed was a large
black circular mark on the rock where it landed.  There was no
evidence that Robotnik had ever been there, since the remains of
the SWATBots and Hover Units had been vaporized in the blast
zone.
	"What d'ya suppose happened, Sal?" queried the totally baffled
hedgehog.
	"Hard to say, Sonic," was her only reply, for she was as much
at a loss for words as Sonic.
	"Well, so much for another wartoy that old 'Buttnik could've
used.  Sure would've liked to know what it was though," Sonic
said, trying to solve the mystery of the day and failing.
	"So would have I," said Sally.  "But I guess some things are
better left in the past."
	Sonic signaled to Dulcy for a retrieval.  The pair would never
know how much truth there was to Sally's last philosophical
statement.


HISTORY FILE:  TERMINATED