Sam and I

Part 2

Chapter 15

I entered Ms. Trask's home and found that she had also upgraded her home to the latest in nanite furniture technology. The walls and ceiling glowed bright enough to see (and I knew they could increase or decrease their brightness by just asking them to do it). Her choices were simple enough and I assumed that she was more into function than form. A woman after my own heart.

"Please, Mr. Meachum", she said, "Sit here".

I pulled a chair out from under the kitchen table and sat down. Her kitchen had a cinnamon like smell to it. I could see several oven mitts, baking pans, assorted cooking utensils all hanging about a large, and new, nanite stove. It looked like she choose the "all-brilliance" color for her stove. It gave off a glossy metallic color that seemed to shift in color very slowly. It wasn't my kind of thing but technology like this was new to the Confederacy and it seemed that the population at large was choosing a little bit of everything to change their lives from the brown and dusty yesterdays into the bright and colorful days of the present.

"How do you like your coffee, Mr. Meachum?, she asked pouring water into her tea pot.

"Two sugars and...", I was going to say creamer but I wasn't sure it was used in 1861. "And a little milk".

She spun around and looked at me laughing, "Milk? In your coffee? Well, I suppose that would help cool it and might make it taste a little better".

"Yeah, in my day, we used something called 'creamer'. It was a type of powdered milk."

"Powered milk? I think I've heard of that but it's not really used around here."

"I didn't think so."

"So tell me about what it's like in 2030," she said.

"Well, I have a feeling that your time-line's 2030 is going to be different from mine since I'm pulling the Confederacy to 2030 technology. But it was like any other time, I suppose. People lived and died and loved and hated. But everything I knew, from the history to the politics will be nothing like the 2030 that your time-line will experience."

"I suppose not," she said. "Do you miss anyone from there?"

She had no way of knowing but any strong thoughts of my sister caused the nanites to swarm around her memories. It made it a little hard to concentrate as they pulled some of the most emotional memories of her out of the vaults of my mind and showed them to me.

"Yeah, my sister. A drunk driver killed her on her way to college".

"Drunk driver?"

"Yeah, I suppose you don't really have that problem in 1861, but some ignorant people would get themselves drunk and then would drive their vehicles...badly. A lot of people died over the years and yet it wasn't until self-driven vehicles became a reality that the number of people dying from drunk drivers finally fell."

The nanites swarmed around the memory of my sister in the hospital. She was smiling at me as I gave her the last injection of her life. She sighed a relief as she let out her last breath.

"Are you alright?", she asked concerned.

"What?", I asked.

"You seemed to blank out there for a moment", she said. "I was asking you a question and you just sat there still as death". She reached out her hand for mine. I let her take it.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just that the nanites..."

"Yes, please tell me about them...I've heard they are like little men that do your bidding. Are they sentient? She pulled her hand away and reached for her pen and pad of paper

"I suppose you can think of them as little men but if you actually saw one up close it would resemble something similar to a crab. Sentient? They are aware of themselves and of the world around them and their artificial intelligence allows them to do things that would make you think they are sentient, but I can tell you that they are not".

"How can you be so sure?", she asked.

"Because they are fascinated by true sentience. They are very intelligent but they are only driven by their own programming, which they are aware of and work hard to insure that outside forces don't change their programming, but..."

"But?", she replied chewing one end of her pen.

"It's hard to describe unless you actually have them in you the way I do..."

"Do most people in 2030 have nanites in their bloodstream?"

"Oh no!", I said laughing.

"Why not", she asked.

"As I was saying, they are self-aware, but if you actually had them in your system, the way I do, you would see they are very mechanical in their nature. To them something either is or is not...there is no middle of the road. When you are injected with nanites, there is a struggle between your will and theirs. Human minds are not mechanical in their function and are not bound by their own organic 'programming'. Humans can overcome almost anything because of their ability to see what 'is not' or rather we can imagine a solution to something even if that solution is ludicrous to a real world situation".

"I'm not sure that I follow you", she said as she wrote quickly on her notepad.

"Very few people have been injected with a large dose of nanites. Those that have been injected describe a falling sensation. It's at that instant that the nanites fight for dominance in the human mind. To a machine, one that is intelligent, a falling object will just fall until it hits the ground. Quite often, a human mind will accept that idea and just fall to their imaginary deaths".

"Do they wake up after the fall?" she asked.

"Some do, but none of them are the same after that. They are usually placed into mental hospitals and drool on themselves for the rest of their lives. Some of them accept the fall as reality and die in real life".

"What did you do? How did you overcome them?", she asked.

"They are fascinated by our imagination and respond to it. Let me show you." I said pulling out my weapon. I pulled out my weapon. It's just a handle with a blob of nanites at one end. Then I imagined a M-37 pulse rifle and my weapon snapped into shape. I imagined a small pug nose pistol and it quickly formed that. I put my weapon back in it's holster.

"How did that help with your fall?", she asked.

"I was a paratrooper years ago and in my mind I created a parachute and avoided hitting the ground. I landed gently enough and that allowed me some control over the nanites."

"Just 'some' control?" she asked.

"Yeah, they respond well to imagination because they don't have it but are eager to replicate it whether it's in real life or in my mind. But they have a will of their own...".

"A will of their own? So you don't control them?", she seemed startled.

"It's actually a good thing. They are able to make decisions on their own which can be helpful if someone puts a gun to my head and pulls the trigger. If I'm caught by surprise, I would die with a hole in my head. But the nanites operate at speeds that make bullets look slow. They can easily absorb the bullet when it makes contact with my skin and break it down to something that can be used later. It's part of their programming and they are very good at following programming".

"So they are programmed to protect you?", she asked.

"Yes", I said, "but only to a degree. If their programming shows I'm a threat to the public they are set up to stop me or kill me if necessary".

"So they police the police", she stated writing down her thoughts.

"They can be controlled with emotion and I can get them to 'ignore' their programming with emotions."

"What do you mean?"

"They are just machines, but highly intelligent machines. They are unable to understand emotions in an intelligent system like the human brain. They have the ability to go through your memories and pull out the most powerful ones. Most people don't survive that process."

"But you did...why?", she asked.

"Anyone who survives has their own unique reason. For me it was my sister. Even now, at the thought of my sister, they are pulling out the files in my mind and showing them to me to produce an even stronger reaction to the memories. I used those memories to force them to my will".

"How?" she asked.

"I look at the nanites as being addicted to human emotion. And like anyone that is addicted, they will do anything for another hit even if it's the same memory again and again. I let them look at those memories when I allow it and they do as I want with the promise that they can look at those memories again in the future".

"So your sister is your most powerful emotional memory?" she asked.

"Yeah, her name was Samantha. I hated the nanites for pulling her out and shoving her in my face but I learned to control that and I even named them after her to spite them".

"You named millions of them?" she asked.

"Not quite. I can speak to them in my mind and when I do, I speak to all of them as one being. I call them 'Sam' for short".

The tea kettle went off and she stood up and pulled a cloth with a string around it out of the kettle and poured us each a cup. She then untied the string revealing coffee grounds and tossed the used grounds into the trash and then rinsed off the cloth. It looked like we were years away from instant coffee but coffee grounds strained through cheese cloth wasn't half bad.

16

Chapter 16

"So you are saying that you are able to control them through the memory of your sister?", Maria asked.

"It's not so much the memory of my sister but the fascination they have with emotions. They don't have them and its beyond their understanding. I guess what makes me the 'alpha' to them is that I'm able to do something they can't do and that makes them willing to do what I need them to do. Any time they get willful, I just let them have a taste of some of my deepest and darkest emotions."

"Deep and dark emotions?", she asked. "Why dark emotions?"

"I suppose its because that is all that I have left". I could feel the nanites swarming around my emotions. I did feel my darkest emotions and I suppose that I kind of enjoyed it like I did. Who knew what pleasure they got out of it but it was all I had left of my sister and at this point it would be impossible to travel back to the day she died to save her. I was stuck here.

Maria noticed my mood changed. "Look, sugar, if I had known..."

"Its alright", I said, "How could you have known? Look thanks for the coffee, but I gotta go". And I did need to leave. I think that I liked Maria and the nanites were really getting distracting making it difficult to concentrate on her.

"Yeah, sure", she said, "Look, I am a reporter and all, but I really did enjoy our talk and I hope we can talk again. You know, off the record? Despite everything, you seem like a nice normal guy".

"Of course, but as you may have noticed, I don't live a nice normal life."

"Yeah, I'm okay with that", she said. "I may not get a chance to do this again and even though this may be a little unusual...". She leaned forward and kissed me. I returned the kiss and I could feel the nanites pause as they drank in my feelings of the moment.

I stood up and walked out saying my goodbyes to Ms. Trask. I was sure I'd be back. But it'd be a while and I had a lot of work to do as head of Homeland Security.

I needed to find Robert E. Lee. I had changed history enough that I knew that I couldn't use Sam's history data-banks to track him down but I was the head of Homeland Security and that came with quite a few perks. I now had an office near the state building. It was called simply called the Homeland Security Building and my office was on the top floor. Of course the thirty floor building was empty but I wanted to take it all. A lot had changed and a lot more needed to change. Sam pinged me the location. It was easier for me to find people these days since most, if not all the buildings had nanites in them and they were my eyes and ears of what went on in Montgomery. Sam could handle watching them all, but what about after I modernized the rest of the Confederacy? I looked up at the sky and realized I was going to need an eye in the sky with the processing power I would need to track everything that happened within our borders. I hadn't talked to the President about my ability to see what the nanites saw no matter where they were in town and I decided that I'd never tell him. I'm sure it wasn't the first time a US President was in the dark about what his administration was up to and I wasn't sure what the public would think about my ability to see them all any time I wanted to.

Maybe I was lazy. In the year 2030 I could easily see what I wanted to see by hacking into web cams and communication systems all over the world. 1861 had the telegraph and it wasn't in widely used throughout the Confederacy at this time. I could tap what telegraph lines I came across, but it was more convenient to just leave a few nanites in the general area I wanted to listen in on.

I flew to the General's home. He had a mansion just outside of Montgomery and he had just recently made similar changes to the interior of his home as Ms. Trask had. I could even see which room he was in. I flew to the second floor window and tapped on it. He appeared to be surprised to see me hovering there and opened the window.

"General", I said, "It's time to get to work".

And we did. General Lee quickly filled the Homeland Security Building with the people that I needed to start working within a couple days. I also had the nanites put together computers for all of them minus the keyboards. I knew that none of them could type and didn't bother teaching them. All the computers were operated with voice commands. I didn't clutter the city with telephone poles. The nanites could easily communicate with each other wirelessly and the computers were charged wirelessly.

I had the General appoint a weapons master to manage the 3-D printers needed to produce the weapons for the Department. His name was Captain Kirk C. Taylor and despite his six foot stature, he was rather gaunt but sure of himself around the weapons of his time. He was the quickest and most accurate with a musket and bayonet. I showed him how to make pulse rifles with vibro-blades along with a full catalog of weapons used in 2030.

The General also presented me with one of his best basic training instructors: Staff Sargent Wilton Grice. I took him down to the large gym down in basement level seven with thirty recent recruits of his.

"Left, righto, left, righto, left...PLATOON HALT", Staff Sargent Grice commanded.

"YES, DRILL SARGENT!!!", the platoon responded.

"Staff Sargent Grice", I said, "Would you separate them a little?".

The Staff Sargent nodded at me and yelled, "PLATOON, OPEN RANKS, MARCH!!!"

Quickly and suddenly the group moved apart from each other and then snapped back into attention.

"DRESS RIGHT, DRESS!!!"

Each soldier moved his left arm up and to the side parallel to the ground while turning their head to the right. There was a slight shuffle was they aligned themselves perfectly.

"READY, FRONT!!!"

Each soldier pivoted their head forward ready for the next command. I nodded at the Staff Sargent and said, "Thanks, I'll take it from here".

"AT EASE!!!", the Staff Sargent yelled.

"Thanks guys for coming down here today," I said. "You are about to be the first group to ever receive combat training from holograms."

"Holo...wut?" one of the soldiers asked.

"Private Johnson! You will..." Staff Sargent started to say but I interrupted him.

"Private Johnson? Please, come up here with me," I said.

Private Johnson's mouth fell open and immediately he said, "Aw, nah man, I'm okay right here...".

I have to give it to the Staff Sargent because he surprised even me and moved in a blink of an eye and the Private was on his back. The Staff Sargent helped him back up and tossed him to the front of the platoon.

"Thanks for volunteering, Private", the Staff Sargent said as he moved to the front of the platoon again.

"Yes, thanks", I said. "So as I was saying, you are about to start your training with one of the most advanced systems in the world, at least in 1861."

I turned to the Private, "A hologram is an image created from light".

"Light?", he asked, "Ain't no light gonna teach me something".

"You may be right, Private, but let me introduce a friend of mine to you. His name is Bruce Lee". An image of Bruce suddenly appeared in front of the Private. Everyone in the room took a couple steps back. I noticed that the Staff Sargent didn't take a step back but he did lean away from the image. The drill Sargent quickly moved everyone back into formation as Bruce Lee watched them. When everyone was back in place I bowed to Mr. Lee and stepped back.

"Jeet Kune Do is simple, direct and non-classical", Bruce Lee said to the platoon.

"It talks!?!", Private Johnson shouted excitedly. "How can light talk?"

Mr. Lee stopped talking and looked at Private Johnson disapprovingly.

"What? Did I make the man of light mad?", the Private said laughing. The Staff Sargent started to move towards the Private but I motioned him back.

"Empty your mind", Bruce Lee said, "Be shapeless, formless, like water my friend".

"What kind of foolishness is this?", the Private asked. "The man of light is telling me to be like...water? What's he going to tell me next? That I need to be like a rock?"

"You are like everyone else", Bruce said, "You want to know the way to win but you have not learned how to lose. If you can accept defeat, you will be liberated from it. Free your ambitious mind and learn the art of dying. Be formless, shapeless, like water".

"Ah, now, Staff Sargent, I've heard it all and this is just nonsense for a ball of light to tell me to be like water and dye!"

Bruce moved quickly and the Private found himself on the floor. No body moved and you couldn't hear a breath.

The Private jumped up to his feet and said, "What happened?".

Bruce moved again and the Private was on the ground again.

"Looks like you are getting your ass whupped by a ball of light", the Staff Sargent said.

The Platoon started laughing.

"How can a ball of light hit me like that?", the Private asked.

"Your uniform and the helmet you are wearing is filled with nanites. They react to the 'impacts' from Bruce Lee and translate them to real impacts that you can feel".

"Can I hit him back?" the Private asked.

"Son", I said, "You couldn't hit him if he was here in the flesh".

17

Chapter 17

In about eight weeks the troops in Montgomery, Alabama were combat ready and nearly on par with 2030 weaponry and fighting techniques. No one was as good as Bruce Lee, but they could defend themselves hand to hand if they had too and I doubted there was no other hand to hand army out there that could take them on outside of Asia. And I had plans for Asia.

Meanwhile, Robert E. Lee and my other generals worked together to take the best students and promote them to Drill Sargent's. Two weeks after the first group of classes graduated in Montgomery, several other 2030 style basic training camps opened up throughout the Confederacy. Although I was not part of the Congress, it had been agreed that I would assist the Confederacy on the grounds that the slaves were freed and that they were made equal to whites as well as have their education provided to them through college if choose to take those grants.

I was surprised to see that a number of them actually wanted to join the Confederacy military. It was their choice being free and there was no law to prevent them from joining. Even in 2030 we had no cure for racism but the training took most everyone's concentration off of race. Besides, although I was not in Congress and could not create laws, I was in the Chief Director of Homeland Security and the Confederate military was mine with only the President under me. I created a rule that no one would do anything to hinder anyone (we would be southern rebels no matter our race, religion, sex, race or creed) while a member of Homeland Security or the branches thereof. It worked and I think it worked was because like I said, everyone was busy training and they had little time to be racist. They had to absorb concepts and ideas that was hundreds of years beyond them and I think that having Bruce Lee helped them to see that not only were other races equal to them but that they might actually learn and improve themselves and their country through diversity.

That was until the incident at Jackson, Mississippi. I was notified that one of the troops training at the basic training camp there was murdered. He was a former slave.

When I arrived, I met with Major Noah Dixen. I had not met him before but General Lee told me that Major Dixen was running a sharp operation out in Jackson. I could see that from the air as I flew in that the camp was in kept clean and the grass and trees were all trimmed to perfection. The buildings where complete repair and the Confederate rebel flag was flying at several locations in the camp. Despite the murder, I could see several platoons in various degrees of training from hand to hand combat, marching, weapon training and cleaning, map reading, policing of the grounds and so forth. It had been agreed that I would meet the Major at the barracks.

I saw him down on the ground waiting for me and I landed besides him. "Major Dixen," I said shaking his hand, "I'm pleased to meet you and I wish we had met under different circumstances".

"As do I, Chief Director, as do I. Please follow me and I'll tell you what I know", he said leading the way. He took me inside the barracks and down the hall and opened up a room. "This is where Private Baako resided prior to being killed".

"Baako?", I asked.

"Yes, his slave name was Robert Davidson but after you freed the slaves and made them equal to everyone else, he changed his name back to his original name, 'Lanre Baako'", the major said.

I had not considered that the slaves would change their names but it made sense and I had no problem with that. Would they all change their names? It didn't matter but I was curious. His room was immaculate and everything seemed to be in order. There was nothing on his desk and the top drawer was filled with letters from his family and girl friend.

"Where was he murdered?", I asked.

"Let me show you," the major said and he took me out behind the barracks. "Quite often, a number of the troops would come back here to relax and enjoy the sunset as they shined their boots and bragged to each other about this exploit or another. Private Baako actually had guard duty yesterday and was relieved of duty at 2200 last night. At that time, everyone else was asleep, but he was back here shining his boots and smoking when he was killed."

"Any witnesses?", I asked.

"Just Private Gimbal", the major said.

"Would you send for him please?", I asked.

The Major sent for Private Gimbal as I looked at the spot where Private Baako was found. Apparently he was leaning on the wall while sitting on the bench next to the wall. So it wasn't possible for the murderer to come up behind him. It had to be from either side of him or from the front. I doubted the Union sent someone into the camp to kill the Private. The Union had been pretty quite as I moved the Confederacy from the 1800's to the 2000's. They seemed pretty weak to the Confederacy now and didn't appear to want to make any waves.

"Sam?", I asked, "Can you show me what happened here?".

"Yes, yes yes" she stuttered as my sister always did. She pulled up a video and I could see Private Baako walking to the bench and sitting down. He took off his boots and started to polish them for the next day. He first brushed off the dirt from the day and then laid down a coat of boot polish and then brushed the polish in until it had a dull shine. He then took out his cigarette lighter and lit the top of his shoe polish in the can. It ignited and after a moment he put the fire out. He dipped a rag into polish and then rubbed the half melted polish over his boots and then brushed them to a brighter polish. When he was done, he lit up a cigarette and leaned back against the wall.

"Chief Director?", the Major asked.

I was so distracted by the video that I didn't notice that Private Gimbal was standing in front of me. "What did you see last night?", I asked him.

"No much, sir. I was getting ready for bed when I saw Private Thompson go outside. I'm not saying he did it. I like Private Thompson and Private Baako and they never had problems with each other that I had seen".

"So you saw Private Thompson go outside to where Private Baako was last night? Did you see anything after that?", I asked.

"No sir", he said, "After about 10 minutes, I decided to have a smoke before I went to sleep and I came out here and found Private Baako dead."

"Did you tell anyone else about this?", I asked.

"Yes sir, I told the military police and of course the Major here talked with me.".

"Major, where is Private Thompson?", I asked.

"He's AWOL at the moment but we think he may have gone into Jackson last night after the murder", the Major said.

"Thanks, Major", I said, "I'm going to take a look around here first and then I'll look for Private Thompson in Jackson when I'm done here".

"Take as long as you want, Chief Director", the major said, "and if you need anything else, let me know."

The two of them walked off leaving me alone at the crime scene. "Sam, continue the video".

Private Thompson walked out and sat down next to Private Baako.

"Can I have a smoke, man?", Thompson asked.

Baako pulled one out and handed it to Thompson. Baako pulled out his lighter as Thompson leaned in towards Baako. Baako lit the cigarette for Thompson.

"Thanks", Thompson said leaning back against the wall.

Baako had lifted his right boot up to inspect it for any dullness while Thompson watched him.

"Baako, why don't you acknowledge the corn?" Sam flashed a translation of "acknowledge the corn" for me. It was southern slang for "admit the truth".

"Acknowledge what?", Baako asked as he continue to inspect his boot.

"Look, I know you've been through mill and all, but do you really think you have the right?" Thompson asked as Sam flashed a translation of "been through the mill" as being been through a lot".

"Right to what?", Baako asked as he started to brush a dull spot on his boot.

"Just because your kind has been freed and all doesn't mean you need to get all high-falutin ('fancy' Sam told me) and start to peacock about Judy like that."

"You talking about the girl in the mess hall?", Baako asked sitting down his boot to look at Thompson. "She's nothing to me but a pretty face to look at, but she's nobody that I could get serious with enough to be sparking ('courting' Sam flashed). My family might be free but my mom and father would never allow me to be seen with a white girl let alone marry her".

"Are you saying she's not good enough for you?" Thompson said tossing his cigarette to the ground and grinding it out with his boot.

"Not the way that you mean, but I do know she doesn't like you. She told me that you were jawing ('talking' Sam flashed) her the other day and that she has no interest in you at all".

"Who are you to tell me that?", Thompson asked standing to his feet. He pulled a dagger out and pushed Baako down to the ground.

"You need to go boil your shirt", Baako said. Sam flashed "take a hike".

"You're better off as a hospital rat. From there you can just go on your own hook", Thompson said. Sam flashed "fake an illness" and "to leave without orders".

"I'm not going anywhere but if you want to row...," Baako said standing to his feet. Sam flashed "fight".

Thompson swung his dagger at Baako, but it was easily blocked and Baako scored an uppercut taking Thompson down.

"Go now, you damn fool", Baako said waving Thompson away. Baako turned to pick up his boots. Thompson jumped up and plunged his dagger deep into Baako's back.

"Thanks, Sam", I said. "I've seen enough. Let's go find Private Thompson".

18

Chapter 18

Jackson, Mississippi had not modernized as quickly as Montgomery, Alabama, but they were working on it. I could see several nano-cars on the ground and a few nano-tanks. About half of the buildings were torn down and replaced with buildings that were about 20 floors high thanks to 2030 technology. That should have made my search for Private Thompson easy.

"Sam, can you see Private Thompson anywhere?", I asked.

"No, no, no", she replied.

"Did he enter Jackson?", I asked.

"Yes, yes, yes", she replied.

"Did he leave the city?", I asked.

"No, no, no", she stuttered.

"So me the last video you have of him", I asked her.

Private Thompson was on horseback and he was in a hurry. According to Sam, this video captured him in Jackson at about one hour after he killed Private Baako. The video showed him entering a salon on the south side of town. The nanites inside the saloon recorded him entering the building and then...nothing.

"Sam, is there a problem with the video", I asked.

"No, no, no", Sam replied. "Private Thompson entered the saloon and then turned invisible".

"Invisible?", I asked, "How?".

"Private Thompson was assisted...", she replied switching the video to infrared.

I could see that Private Thompson appeared surprised. He wasn't the only one invisible. It was one of the Elementals: Air. She could dissipate herself to avoid infrared detection but in order to turn someone else invisible, she would need to touch them and that required her form up enough to be seen with infrared.

She was leaning and whispering something into Private Thompson's ear. "Sam, can you rewind that?", I asked, "and boost the sound so I can hear what they are saying."

She did.

"Follow me and be quite", I heard Air say. She walked Private Thompson outside.

"Don't be afraid", she told Private Thompson, "These are friends of mine and we can help you". Private Thompson nodded his head.

The ground under his feet turned to slush and he and Air started to sink into the ground. "I'm going to surround your head with breathable air. Just relax and Earth and Water will move us underground and out of sight of anyone". The ground continue to pull Air and Private Thompson down until they were completely underground. I had no way to find them.

I returned to Montgomery and called General Lee to my office.

"General Lee", I said, "I'm unable to find Private Thompson but I did find evidence that he did kill Private Baako and that he had help from the Elementals."

"What evidence did you find", General Lee asked.

"This", I said and showed the videos to General Lee.

"How did you acquire these images?", General Lee asked.

I had originally thought that I'd keep this information from everyone but maybe it was better if they all knew. "All of the nanites here are reproduced from my own nanites and if they are mine, I can communicate with them. All of the nanites can sense the world around them and those senses can be easily seen by me if I ask them for that information."

"How...providential." Lee stated.

"I can assure you, General Lee, while it may be providence-like, I am no God", I replied. "These are tools that were given to me at the price of possibly dying for them. I'm a Texan first and a Confederate second. I would never use my abilities to take control away from the President or the people themselves."

"You did win the war for us", Lee said. "I didn't think we could actually win but I was willing to stand up for what was right. The Union had no business directing sovereign southern states to pretend to be northern states. However, having you see everything that we do as a bit unsettling. I'll have to speak to the President about this."

"I agree", I said, "Talk to him, but let him know that I can't change what I am. And what I am is a tool to assist the Confederacy in insuring that we are never dominated again. The Confederacy will dominate the world, but if the President wants a world without nanites...".

General Lee stood there a moment thinking about it. "I get your point", he said. "Perhaps it's best if we keep this to ourselves...for now".

"I agree, General", I said, "I know that the public may think that I'm watching everything they do but I'm not. As you can imagine, most people have boring lives and I just don't have that kind of time to watch everything they do. In 2030, it was an excepted and well known fact that the government saw everything you did. But we also had laws regarding how it was archived and who had access to it. At the moment, only I have direct access and as you know, I'm too busy to be nosy unless it has something to do with Homeland Security or the military."

"And I can agree to the reality of that", Lee replied. "So any idea where the Elementals are?"

"No, but maybe Fire can help", I said.

"How so?", Lee asked.

"Well, I think that they want Fire to be freed and they may be building their own militia to take on our military".

"What chance would they have of fighting our military?", Lee asked.

"Well, we do have the numbers but they are elementals and there is one other thing...".

"What is that?", Lee asked.

"Lincoln", I said. "Before he died, I found that someone had tinkered with his system in order to get him to grow to fifty feet tall".

"So you think that the Elementals may be building a small or rather tall army of giants?", Lee asked.

"Yeah, and they don't need many. How hard do you think it would be to find about a thousand people from the south that would be willing to fight the Confederacy?", I asked.

"We do have several prisoners from the north throughout the Confederacy. I would also think that it wouldn't be too difficult for them to get recruits from the union themselves", Lee replied.

I walked over to my window and looked down on Montgomery. I really needed a satellite in the sky to help watch over the Confederacy. I left the building and flew to the land given to me by the southern government. I had already had the nanites put together a rocket for me, but I had left it there on the launchpad. I wanted to see it off. I know that's silly but I've always enjoyed seeing launches and I suppose this one would be the first one in history for going into space...from this time line.

I hadn't had much time to enjoy anything for myself after my sister died and I guess I needed this. I watched it as it rocked up into the sky. The nanites were able to broadcast their point of view from the rocket and I could see it as it rose up over the city and then high over the state. Before long it slipped out of the atmosphere and floated freely in space. The satellite freed itself from the capsule and begin spinning as it slowly floated away from the spent launch vehicle. Within minutes I was able to receive information from anywhere in the Confederacy. The information was not good. Private Thompson was not the only malcontent. There were hundreds of them throughout the Confederacy and from what I could see, the Elementals where behind their disappearances.

This was not encouraging. The Elementals knew how to evade someone like me by staying out of sight. They could move underground and I had no way to see them if there were no nanites in the area. From what I was able to piece together the Elementals had somehow managed to manipulate Abraham Lincolns growth hormones to the point of him growing to fifty feet tall. Several hundred, fifty foot terrorists running through the South could possibly destroy the new nation even if the Confederacy had 2030 weapons.

It was time to tell the President. I flew over to the Confederate White House, nodded to the guards and walked in. I asked the security inside for a chance to talk to President Davis. After a few moments, I was led into his study in the back. I was surprised to see General Robert E. Lee there. Lee looked uncomfortable.

"Yes?", the President said.

"Mr. President", I said, "I believe that the Confederacy is about to experience a terrorist strike. I have evidence linking the Elementals to several malcontents that have disappeared through the country and I have evidence linking the mutated growth hormone that I found in the deceased Abraham Lincoln to the Elementals."

"Really?", the President said standing to face me, "Tell me more about this evidence. How did you come about it?".

I looked over at General Lee and leaned back lighting a cigar, "Sorry, Chief Director", he said, "but I decided it's best for the President to know."

"Yes," the President said, "as I understand it, you can see what the nanites can see?"

"Yes, Mr. President".

"And you didn't think that I should know?"

"Mr. President, you have to understand that where I come from, slaves are considered an atrocity even by those living in the south in the year 2030. At the same time, we lived in a society where we were all comfortable with cameras watching our every move. Here, it's the reverse. Thankfully the government has worked with me to abolish slavery, but I understand that by your views, the idea of no privacy would be viewed as something that is possibly unwanted".

"Possibly?", the President said. "I would ask that you consider that it's not just that we 'possibly' consider it unwanted, but I want you to stop using the nanites for surveillance until Congress can decide this new way of policing is something that the Confederacy wants to live with."

"But, Mr. President!", I said, "We may experience a massive attack from people that are using technology similar to mine! And now they have the numbers to possibly destroy everything that you've worked to create!".

"Chief Director, is it possible for you to share the communications you receive from the nanites to a third party?", the President asked.

"I can put something together that would allow that", I said.

"Then I want you to make it and give it to General Lee. Your abilities are beyond our understanding and what I learn about them from day to day makes me uneasy. Most of us agree that we are better off without our slaves but old habits die hard and I still think that the black man is inferior to whites. Maybe your time felt comfortable with you and your kind, but I'm still President of a country that is still in the mid-1800's. If I want to stay in office, I need tighter controls on what you do. Is that clear?"

"Yes, Mr. President".

"Then make your gadget and give it to General Lee. General Lee will report to me. Any actions and certainly any surveillance will only be done with my okay".

"Yes, Mr. President".

The President left. I quickly had the nanites put together a helmet for General Lee that would allow him to hear and see what I heard and saw. I then tossed it over to Lee and walked out of the Confederate White House.

19

Chapter 19

"Chief Director", I heard General Lee say into the microphone on his headset, "How can I see what you are doing?".

"Give me a moment", I told Lee. I was already high over Montgomery and General Lee was still in the Confederate White House. The President wanted General Lee to watch my every move and so I was about to do that and a whole lot more.

"Sam, I need you to create a loop for us to broadcast to Lee so that he thinks he's actually watching us. Just insert videos of us flying and always match it to the time of day that he's in. The only changes that you would need to do is when I'm with the President or with General Lee to reflect those events as they occur."

"Yes, yes, yes", Sam said and within seconds General Lee was watching previous events of me flying around freeing me up to do what I needed to do without supervision. I suppose it's hypocrisy to have the ability to see everyone but to keep myself hid from visual monitoring. The problem was that this country was about to experience a massive attack from terrorists in ways that were beyond this time's understanding.

"Can you see now, General Lee?", I asked.

"Yes, but all this flying that you are doing is making me a little dizzy", he said.

"Sorry for the inconvenience, General, but we are both just following orders from the President", I said.

"Yes", he said. "We must all do what we must do."

"So true, General", I said. What the good General didn't know was that I was using the nanites to enhance his nausea. It was long before I could hear him shuffling quickly to an outhouse and throwing up. He'd probably take it off after a while and wouldn't notice that he's watching a loop.

But I had other plans for the General. I had the nanites back off and actually give him a pleasant feeling for watching. Before long I could hear him humming as he walked back into the Confederate White House. Was he armed? I placed a suggestion into his mind to check for weapons and he pulled out a large pistol and a dagger. Good. Now I placed another suggestion into his mind. His headset did what I designed it to do and he put away his weapons and walked into the President's chambers. I could see, through the headset, that the President and Vice-President were in there along with a couple of members of Congress.

"General?", the President asked, "What are you doing in here? Are you monitoring the Chief Director?".

"Oh, yes!", the General said, "He is flying about the state at the moment and the experience of watching him is quite thrilling!".

"It would seem so," the President said, "But why are you here? I'm in a meeting at the moment".

"Well", General Lee said, "it looks like you'll need to end your meeting". The General pulled out his pistol and aimed it at the President.

"Are you mad?", the President asked. "Is this a joke? Put down your weapon, General". A couple of guards moved swiftly from hidden positions from the back of the room and pulled out their pistols.

"General Lee!", one of the guards commanded, "Put your weapon down!".

The other guard moved quickly towards the General with his weapon drawn. Lee pivoted quickly and shot the guard. As the guard fell, he returned fire missing Lee by a wide margin. The other guard shot the General hitting him in the chest. The General fell to one knee and fired at the other guard killing him. The President, Vice-President and the two members of Congress sat there stunned. The Vice-President was the first one to move. General Lee was reloading his pistol as the Vice-President tackled him to the ground. The pistol spun away from the two men as the General pulled his dagger out. The Vice-President lunged for the pistol and actually managed to grab it, but it was too late. General Lee plunged his dagger into the Vice-President's back. He then reached for the pistol and picked it up as he stood back up. His wound was bleeding but appeared to be unfazed...at least to the people in the room. I knew that the nanites were keeping him alive long enough to do what needed to be done. He aimed his pistol at the President.

"You're being manipulated by the Chief Director?", the President asked. He looked like he wasn't sure to run or make a stand. The two members of Congress started to run but, General Lee quickly shot them dead and then advanced on the President.

I spoke through the speakers to the President, "Yes, he is being manipulated by me", I said.

"But why?", the President asked.

"Because I need to move this nation forward quickly and I have no doubt that you and your supports will resist and maybe even one day overcome me somehow. Like you said, you liked slavery and you'd probably revert back to it out of stupid hatred for someone that doesn't look like you."

"I thought that you were for the states rights and freedom of choice?", the President said.

"Like I said, I'm from the future and I've seen the mistakes made by the US and slavery is one of them. I don't know how the south could have survived without slaves and maybe that's the point. Maybe the south should have grown slowly without slaves instead of encouraging the greedy, the ignorant and the racists attitudes that built the south into the nation it is today. But it's not so much that I believe in state rights and freedom of choice but that I believe that state rights and freedom of choice should never be used to take freedom away from other men even if I disagree with them."

"But you disagree with me and it seems you have plans to kill me and the General", the President said.

"Well, the Confederacy is about to suffer a terrorist attack that will do more damage than what the original Civil War did and I need to operate quickly and without any qualms that you or the public may have with nation wide surveillance. As you said, you are worried about possible future elections and you need to make decisions that will get you elected. Those decisions will allow the Elementals to tear this country apart."

"Surely I am not a quick study to 2030 views of terrorism", the President said, "but killing me is an traitorous act and a sure form of terrorism".

"You might think that if you forget that where I come from, I'm the judge, jury and executioner of villains. Your actions would lead to the deaths of millions and that places you as someone on the same level of the villains that I've dealt with. So yes, you will be executed for the greater good of the people of this nation".

General Lee pulled the trigger killing the President and then he turned the gun on himself and pulled the trigger. He was dead before he hit the ground. I remotely had the headset dissolve leaving no proof of my involvement of the violence in the Confederate White House.

Before long, I was contacted via radio by one of the guards and I came down to investigate. The bodies already stank and it was clear to see by anyone that General Lee, for reasons of his own (it seemed), that he killed six people in the President office including the President.

I reported to Congress later that day to give them the news first hand.

"Members of Congress", I said knowing that my message was being broadcast throughout the nation on nano-radios, "and people of the Confederacy. It is with great regret that I am to inform you that earlier today, General Lee killed six people in the Confederate White House using his side arm and dagger. The President and Vice-President were among those who were slain. We have not been able to determine Lee's motive in doing this outside of the possible fact that he was a spy for the Union. While this motive is something that we find unbelievably insane it is surely the only option available: General Lee was a traitor to the Confederacy. At the moment, the Confederacy is without leadership and I know leave it in the hands of the Congress to select someone who is able to lead our young country into the future. Before, the Congress makes it's selection, I think that it's important for me to show you something that I had talked to the President about just prior to his death".

I had Sam show the video show the activities of the Elementals and their plans in taking several hundred or more malcontents and turning them into fifty foot giants set on the destruction of the Confederacy. The impact that it had on the Congress was immediate. Some were shocked to silence while others stood up shouting questions. Of course they would want to know how I was able to obtain the video from several locations and I decided to tell them.

"Where I come from, this type of video surveillance if common to the point that it's unnoticed by the public. It has allowed me to do my job in the future in catching villains. I had notified the President about this type of surveillance and he allowed it in hopes of capturing villains that have come from the future via the time-vaccum created by my entrance into your time-line." Of course I was lying, but millions of lives were on the line and I needed to save them by any means possible. The public wanted to be safe and they wanted the government to protect them and there was only one person up to the job. Within an hour I was sworn in as the second president of the Confederacy.

20

Chapter 20

"EMERGENCY!!!", Sam screamed into my ears. I had been President for about a week and was successful in taking out most of the malcontents in the country but the Elementals were always one step ahead of me.

Eight hours earlier I had set up a trap for the Elementals. They had command of anything underground and I had command of everything above it including the sky and space. I couldn't set up any trap on the ground but I directed the nanites to launch a nuclear missile at my location once they were detected above ground. And of course, I would need to use myself as bait.

As far as I could tell, there were only ten of the giants left and I led them to the most deserted place I could find. The Chihuahuan Desert has a an area of about one hundred thirty nine square miles and is the second largest desert in North America. I was alone and this would be the last stand between me and the Elementals and their giants. I fought the giants using remote controlled nano-tanks and nano-dive bombers to dwindle their number down to five. The Elementals (Earth, Air, and Water) had hid underground at that point.

The last five of the giants regrouped and came at me from every angle. I held my ground as I fired away at them while directing my remote-controlled tanks and bombers at them. The Elementals finally appeared.

"Sam, nuke away", I said. I wasn't sure if I would live through a nuclear blast but I knew that the Elementals die and that would finally end this. I flew towards Earth and held him tight as I had Sam left us up into the air. She managed to do that and she kept us far enough above the giants so they couldn't pull us out of the air. Air was able to maintain a hold on Water as they flew up to join us. Earth kept pounding away at me but I held him until just before Air and Water made it to us. At the last moment, I tossed Earth at them. Sam was telling me that the nuke was just seconds away. The Elementals wouldn't make it to the ground in time. I wasn't sure if I could get away in time.

"Turbo rockets", I told Sam. I looked down and could seen Air reaching for Earth. I saw the nuclear missile hit the ground as my rockets blasted me away from the area. I was fast but I was also much to close to the blast area. Sam had shielded my eyes but the blast was too bright even though I was blasting away in the opposite direction. This was about to get very bumpy.

"EMERGENCY!!!", Sam screamed into my ears. I took a chance and looked back and saw the huge shock wave heading from me. "Sorry, Sam", I told my sister, "but it looks like I'm not going to make it."

The shock wave hit me and tossed me high into the air. Or rather I thought it did. I seemed to rise above the Earth and out into space. Had the blast managed to re-activate the nanites ability to travel in time? I was definitely moving forward, but something was wrong. Usually I would just move up off one part of the time line and then back down to some part of the time line. But now, looking down, I could see that I was traveling diagonally through time.

"Sam, are we moving diagonally through time?", I asked.

"Yes, yes, yes", she told me, "our ability to travel in time has been restored but something is wrong. We are moving forward in time, but we are no longer on the time line we just left".

"You mean we are moving towards and alternate time line?", I asked.

"Yes, yes, yes", she said.

"How is that possible?", I asked.

"As I explained before," Sam said, "You do you have the education to understand and I'm unable to 'break it down to you'."

"What part of this can you break down for me?", I asked.

"As near as I can tell, we are moving back to 2030. I don't know if it's the 2030 from our time line, but the time-vaccum that was created before seems to be moving us back to our time line. Snap Back appears to be working but the effects of our previous damage combined with the nuclear blast and the time-vaccum make it difficult to determine precisely where and when we will arrive. We may arrive there are we may arrive in a time line very close to our original starting point".

"So the nuclear blast, time-vaccum, Snap Back, providence and who knows what else is effecting our diagonal movement through time", I said more to myself to absorb what was happening. Normally when I traveled through time I would only see the Earth briefly when I left the present part of the time line and then when I was about to arrive on a different part of the same time line. This time I saw the Earth flashing by diagonally.

"Sam?", I asked, "Just curious, but from what you told me before about time travel, we would just teleport from one part of the time line to the other and your calculations were dependent upon where the Earth was in the universe at that particular point in time. Is that right?"

"Yes, yes yes", Sam stuttered.

"So if that's right," I continued, "to move sideways or diagonally as we are doing now would mean that we are not only moving from one point to another point in our universe, but that we are moving to a different point...in a different universe?"

"In the most simplistic terms", Sam said, "yes".

"But how is that even possible? Do you have the ability to move to a different universe?", I asked.

"No, no, no", Sam said, "Our present ability to move through several universe is due to the nuclear impact, time-vaccum and..."

Sam stopped talking. I could see we were getting closer to the Earth or rather Earths. They still kept sliding by quickly but it was evident that they were slowing down. I saw wild variations of each Earth. Some never were populated with humans. Others were under the control of power and intelligent animals. Some were filled with creatures that were not from Earth. As we got closer I could see that we were getting closer to my time line. I could see some wars won that the US had previously lost and on some Earths, the US never had more than the original thirteen colonies.

Just before we entered the Earths atmosphere I heard, "EMERGENCY!!!". My helmet pinged and I could see that there was something fast approaching me from behind. I pulled my weapon and fired my rockets to turn around in time to see it was a fast moving communications satellite heading my way. I fired on it but it was much too close to me and it fragmented in to several huge chunks still heading my way. I fired at two of them and was about to shatter the third one when it hit me hard in the head. I blacked out.

I found myself alone in a room. I had no idea why I was there and I realized that I didn't know who I was. The room itself was without furniture. It was just gray. I stood up and kicked up quite a bit of dust. That was interesting. I could see my imprint in the dust on the floor where I must have been sleeping. But there were no footprints leading up to where I lay. Normally there wouldn't be footprints in a room but it was so dusty that as I walked around the room...I left a trail of foot steps in the dust. I even reached out with my hand and with one finger I was able to draw a single line on the wall in the thick dust.

I heard a strange flapping behind me. I turned and realized the source of my lighting in the room was this wall, or rather the lack of a wall behind me. It seemed that this wall was just a tarp with seemingly endless small holes that allowed in an intense light. Daylight outside? I peeked through of of the small holes.

Something hit me hard. It was sudden and unexpected and I dropped to my knees. My weapon was suddenly in my hand and I spun around...but there was no one behind me. My head...felt like there was someone besides my own thoughts in there. I held my hands up to my head gasping. I closed my eyes and saw...computer text? I saw a black background with green text spinning and unfocused. I was able to make out some of the text but it seems I'm no computer expert. I felt like I was looking at a computer booting up...inside me?

"SYSTEM ONLINE...PLEASE WAIT...CONNECTING TO NETWORK", a familiar voice rang in my head. I placed my weapon back into my holster as I watched more text flow and then stop. I was "online". And I was right. I wasn't in San Antonio, Texas. I was in Manila, Philippines. Various maps and videos suddenly appeared in the air before me. Or rather they were in my head but seemed to be in front of me. I knew that only I could see and hear what I was experiencing. I was being shown the local time (1:37pm) and date (March 1st, 2030), the local temperature (86 Fahrenheit or 30 Celsius). Okay. That's a start.

"WARNING: TIME LOOP HAS OCCURED". My mind was quickly filled with information that had occurred over the last few months. Except, it was 1861. And I did things...things that I would never do and yet I did.

"Sam?", I asked.

"Yes, yes, yes", Sam answered.

"What's wrong with me?"

21

Chapter 21

Maribel Gomez leaned close as she took my vitals, "It certainly looks like you've been busy, but busy doing what?".

"I don't know," I said, "I mean I can see what Sam showed me, but I don't understand why I made the decisions that I did. Each decision seemed to be a little worse than the one before it. And not only that, but I was able to do a few things that I haven't been able to do before. I had Sam use the nanites to build weapons, tanks, and vehicles with three-dimensional printers. I thought that the nanites wouldn't work outside my body".

"Yeah", Maribel said, "they shouldn't work outside your body. It's actually the law of the Republic that your nanites are programmed to shut down if they leave your body. All I can tell you is that it must have something to do with your first fight with the Elementals. But it is apparently something that you can do now. I would recommend that you don't do it in the present due to the law."

"Got it", I said. "But, what's wrong with me? I was responsible for the deaths of people that I should have protected".

"Who?", Maribel asked.

"Well, Sam showed me killing the President and Vice-President and others so that I could become the next President of the Confederacy", I said.

"As you know," Maribel said, "or rather, as you should know, while you may have been the cause of several people's deaths...each one of those murders our outside of any jurisdiction in this time line."

Actually, I didn't know that. My mind was still out of whack. "Is it normal to lose your memory when you travel through time", I asked.

"No, but you have a head injury", she said working to place a bandage on the back of my head. "You told that you tried to travel back to 2023 to finish your fight with the Elementals but instead you found yourself in 1861 and that was probably due to damage to the nanites that I've been unable to detect. Maybe it's a slight change in their programming but I really can't tell at the moment since the code itself would take years to go through. The facts are is that you don't have the control that you normally would have when time traveling due to the change in their programming. If you try to go back in time again, or even forward in time, you'll probably end up in 1861 again."

"But with all the changes I did...how did I find myself back to here? Shouldn't I have wound up in 2030 of that time line?"

"Based on the changes you did to that time line, it's quite possible that their 2030 is a lot more advanced or it could be they managed to destroy each other totally in a nanite world war of some sort".

"But how did I find my way here?"

"Like I said, it's probably due to the change in the nanites programming. You'll probably easily be able to go back to 1861 again and find your way here again. The damage from Fire created the first error and the damage from the nuclear explosion is what actually saved you and returned you here."

"Or?", I asked.

"Or?", she said, "Yeah, you know me well. Or it could be that you could time travel just fine as a result of the last error from the nuclear blast. You shouldn't have been able to cross alternate universes like that. The nanites shouldn't have the ability or the energy to do that. I just don't understand how they got you here".

"What about the decisions that I made?", I asked.

"I'm not really sure. We've tested you several different ways and I can't answer that question. You don't have the desire to take over the world through nanite domination. It's just not you. You're a protector. A judge. But a dictator? A murderer? That's what you became but that's not who you are. The nanites actually wouldn't let you...hmmm...that must be it, the damage to the nanites may have had an effect on you as well", she said moving a large piece of medical equipment towards me.

"Sit here", she told me.

I sat down in the device and she strapped down my arms and legs and fitted my head into the helmet on the device. "Is this all necessary?", I asked.

"I need to take a look at what's going on in your head and I'm not sure what effect this will have on you. This is more for my protection."

"You know that I would never hurt you," I said.

"Yeah, I know that but I also know that you aren't a murder and yet you killed people that were not true villains. So, I think I'll leave you strapped in", she said as she sat in her chair and swiveled it towards me.

"What are you going to do?", I asked watching her pull a large needle from her med table.

"I need to take a closer look inside your mind. This will hurt only for a second", she said as she slide the needle into my arm. Actually it didn't hurt at all. The nanites healed the wound created by the needle and broke it just after Maribel injected me.

"Is that normal?", I asked.

"For you it is," she said as we watched pieces of the needle slowly drop out of my arm and unto the ground. "They heal you quickly and it makes it difficult to perform any medical procedures or surgeries on you because they seal up any laceration you have."

"Won't they also destroy whatever that was that you injected me with", I asked.

"Normally yes, but I injected you with special medical nanites that will take a closer look at your mind. The medical nanites look similar to your nanites but they won't last as long because after a while your nanites will notice that the medical nanites are not part of your 'Sam' consciousness. At that point they will try to communicate with the medical nanites who will ignore them. Then the medical nanites will be rejected and terminated."

"Okay, then", I said, "What do you need me to do?"

"I need you to count backwards from 100", she said, "and close your eyes. After a few seconds, you'll pass out".

So I counted backwards with my eyes closed. I could feel myself getting sleepy. My mind started to drift. I was in the war. Which war? I wasn't sure. I could see some soldiers with muskets and others with plasma rifles and some with clubs and others with swords. I couldn't tell which country was fighting which country.

A horseman appeared in the distance riding quickly. I could see the steam forced from the horse's nostrils as his powerful legs dug into the ground shoving horse and rider towards me. The horseman quickly fired three arrows toward my chest and then pulled out a sword.

I pulled out my weapon forming a shield in time to stop all three arrows. The horseman swung his sword at my exposed torso but I blocked that with the shield and then I rammed into the horse as hard as could. The nanites enhanced my strength and I could easily tip the horse over. The horse fell away from me and I rebounded off the horse and into a group engaged in hand to hand combat. One moved to fast for me to see and I was lifted off the ground from the blow and away from them.

I rolled to my feet and...it was dark. I wasn't on the battleground anymore. It was just a very large and empty room. I walked around and only heard my footsteps. After a while I could see someone in the distance. He looked familiar and as we got closer to each other I could see that he looked very much like me and we wore the same clothes. And yeah, he was me.

He smiled, "You always were too weak".

"What do you mean?", I asked.

"You're a slave to your masters: The Republic. You could easily take over and run it yourself. Why be the slave when you can be the master?".

"Oh, I don't know", I said, "probably because when I grew up I learned about duty, responsibility, patriotism, honor and respect for those weaker than myself".

The other me laughed, "Then you are a fool! They just taught you those things so that they could control you! You're just a tool to be used as they see fit."

"What is the point of controlling the Republic if I don't have their respect?", I asked. "You can't just insert yourself into power and expect the Republic not to fight back".

"Then you fight", the other me said. "You could easily take on the military. In fact, they may even stand down to avoid fighting you".

"And watch my back my entire life?", I asked. "I'm more inclined to believe that they would not go down as easy as you think that would require nukes and that would mean the deaths of millions just so I can be like you".

"So what?", he asked. "Gaining power includes keeping that power at any cost".

"But what's the point?", I asked. "Millions killed? Cities destroyed? The Republic weakened just so I can sit on top of it all and claim supremacy?".

"Claim supremacy?" he asked, "Oh no, we are already supreme. Or rather I am."

He lifted up his weapon and plasma blasted me in the chest. The nanites shield me before the plasma actually made contact with my skin but the impact still sent me flying backwards by about a hundred feet. I quickly rolled to a squat and fired a bola at his feet. The spinning balls wrapped the cord swiftly around his feet bringing him down.

I ran for him, but he fired sticky grenades at me. One stuck to my leg and exploded knocking me backwards again. I rolled over and looked at my leg. The bone wasn't broken, due to nanite shielding of the bone, but the flesh had been ripped away leaving a deep wound. The nanites were healing it quickly as I stood back up.

The other me was already up and leveling his weapon at me.

"Paul?", I heard a sweet voice say.

I turned around and it was my sister in her hospital bed. She was looking up at me as if asking if I was okay. I looked around. I was in her hospital room. The other me as not around. I was in my nurse scrubs. I felt around in my right pocket and found the vial that held the drug that would release my sister from her unbelievable pain. I couldn't believe that I was going to have to live through this again.

"Paul, I know that isn't you. You aren't like him" she said.

"The other me?", I asked.

She shook her head yes, "I'm not sure what happened to you but I think they are trying to make you more like them".

"The nanites?", I asked.

"They are just machines. They don't understand decisions made that require an understanding that goes beyond logic. They don't understand emotions. It's why they bring you back to me so many times. It tortures you and creates a pain they can sense but can't compute. They do your will as a trade off."

"Yes, I know", I told her. "I really hate the little bastards for doing that. Each time they do I through up a wall and each time it hurts a little less".

"But", my sister said, "that's why your decisions have been more machine like. Without the trade off the nanites are less willing to do your will and instead push their will on you. You are suppose to uphold the law. Not create laws or ignore laws. To the nanites it's easy for them to use your right to judge as a right to change laws. The creation of laws and the enforcement of laws have to be done with the heart as well as the mind and the nanites have no heart."

I had not considered that before. I needed my pain and I needed to feel it deeply in order to control the nanites. As soon as I tried to lessen my pain by hardening my heart then I was more incline to be more logical and less human. The public needed a judge and a protector who acted with a human heart.

Suddenly, Maribel's face was in front of me, "So it looks we we have a better understanding of what happened to you. The nanites time travel abilities may have been skewed due to Fire and the nuclear explosion, but your decisions became more machine like due to your desire to feel less pain."

"Yeah", I said, "that sounds about right".

"But", Maribel said, "I feel that there was something that may have pushed you away from allowing the nanites to see your pain. Did you fall in love back in 1861?"

"Well", I said, "I met someone".

"That's probably what started this", Maribel said. "When did you kill the President? Before or after you met this woman?"

"After", I said.

"Did you notice any increase in the nanites when you discovered your feelings for this woman?", Maribel asked.

"Actually, yeah", I said, "In fact, I had to leave much earlier than I wanted to because the nanites were distracting me with my feelings and they wanted to experience a range of emotions that I really didn't want to share with her at that very moment."

"And that's probably when you started to through up the wall that caused the nanites to push back", Maribel said.

"Maribel?", I asked, "What's the point to all this? That woman is already dead and she's not even part of this time line anymore".

"Oh, that is true, she would be dead. The problem is the time-vacuum."

"How so?"

Maribel walked over to the large computer monitor and activated a program. It showed millions of alternate universe time-lines. "From what I've been able to piece together from your nanites, this is where you were".

She pointed to a point marked "1861". "As you can see, it's in an alternate universe that is far from our time line. When you went back, you somehow created the time-vacuum. I can only guess that since it's generally thought impossible to travel that far back in the past, something boosted you like a rocket through the time-lines. As you know, travel in time requires the nanites to actually move in a stream of nachyons. The further back in time you go the more you move sideways as well as backwards and you did it with such velocity that it created the suction of time from 2030 to 1861."

She activated a graphic and it simulated a tornado like structure spinning through the time-lines from present to past and across the multiverse. "This tornado you see is an actual structure now attaching itself from this present into the past and it will continue to suck 2030 back into 1861 until both time-lines collapse. When that happens..." She didn't say anything but I could see that the two time-lines collapsing in on themselves caused other time-lines to bend in towards each other until more time-vacuums formed. Those collapsed causing other to collapse.

"Any chance that we can change this", I asked.

Maribel pulled her chair over to mine and just looked at me for a moment. "Paul, I've known you longer than you can remember and all I can tell you is that we can stop this...but it might mean making a sacrifice that you won't want to make".