Tethis sat glumly, slumped in her seat. In front of her, the glowing holographic panel displayed the location readout data from the sensors. Her craft, the Novodantis, had been scanning around the vicinity to find what she was looking for. But for some reason, despite the fact it was all within the capabilities of the ship, it returned nothing.

She had managed to find similar genetic makeup in very small quantities near a dwelling she’d found, but it had been unoccupied and locked. Her attempt at investigation had gotten nosy neighbours interested, so she made her excuses and left. And if she went back again, she might start arousing even more suspicion. This was supposed to be seamless. No mark left. Unseen, unheard. And most importantly, unremembered.

Tethis Lithi Arkwright, Chrononaut of the Third Age Unation; was possibly the best there was. She felt a certain pride in her task, even if it wasn’t going quite to plan. She was confident it would work out in the end. Time was like that.

The Novodantis was not a big ship, with just the two compartments in all. The front one was known as the hab. It had two reclining chairs, a Printer, a shower and various other personal items. The rear was called the lab. It contained the main interface for control where she sat, a sort of operating table in the middle and the entrance/exit hatch.

Food was created, stored and prepared by a machine in the corner of the hab. The ship’s self-repair nano droids in the lab gave them maintenance access to the entire craft from the comfort of a chair. And should they get bored, there was a Recreator; a device that allowed its user to custom design dreams, then put them to sleep whilst keeping their memory fully functional. The result was an endless virtual world of possibility to escape the cramped confines of the ship.

Tethis compared her supposedly tough ship lifestyle to that of 2.1.C, the century she was now in. Unlike her, they had to exercise to stay healthy; they had to drive their vehicles themselves; they had to work, had to wash and so on. By contrast, even on the tiny Novodantis, her lifestyle was pampered. It seemed like an unimaginable slog living in 2.1.C.

Returning her attention to her work, something about the problem bothered her deeply, on some instinctive level that she tended to forget she had. Although she was pretty sure that the dwelling she visited was the boy’s home, he wasn’t on the scope of her devices. And that meant he couldn’t be any nearer than the minimal range of five hundred kilometres. It was highly unlikely, in fact, that he was any closer than a thousand without being picked up.

Now, in her own era, it might be plausible that he was attending school elsewhere on the planet. But in 2.1.C people don’t travel a thousand kilometres away for an afternoon. Many never leave their counties or even towns, let alone their continent. It was still a possibility; she’d been reading all about it on the projection in front of her eye, while simultaneously trying to thrash all she could out of the Novodantis’ sensors and swooping across Stradleigh in a vain hope to identify him by light-visual.

According to her records, people of this time had the ability to move such distances, but the majority of them never had the opportunity. And if they did it was typically a rare occasion. Tethis cross-referenced the holiday and business statistics of early 2.1.C long distance travel (patchy records at best) with the average wealth of the area she had surveyed. She then requested the computer to calculate, by meta-probability laws, how likely the boy had flown out of range on an aeroplane. By the time she’d completed her sentence and drawn breath, the computer responded.

‘Probability calculated: one to fifty three by point zero four, index zeta.’ The computer replied coolly.

Tethis sighed. She was never able to really grasp meta-probability. Her mathematics tuition had claimed this was because the human brain isn’t actually capable of understanding meta-probability in the form of its developed 3.2.C naunces. But computers could grasp it to the degree where they were able to create enormous formula that could produce something vaguely human-readable.

‘What does that mean again, Novodantis?’

‘The first number signifies the-’

‘No, what I mean is, is he on holiday or not?’ Tethis interrupted impatiently.

‘One very much doubts it.’ The computer returned blandly. ‘But hard to tell. That’s the best way I can phrase it for you.’

Tethis buried her face in her palm. That wasn’t as useful as she’d hoped.

‘Tethis, have you checked the sensor integrity?’ The machine asked.

‘Yes.’ She replied, somewhat dejectedly. ‘Already had the nanos over them twice.’

The computer allowed a pause. ‘Suggest that you await his appearance in the following rotation.’

‘That’s a lame plan.’

‘No further course of action can be suggested.’

‘Fair enough then. You win, today.’ She glanced over at the hatch to the hab, as though she could see beyond the bulkhead. She decided she probably ought to get some sleep too. Not that she was particularly tired; but she could use a bit of entertainment.

---

Aaron turned over in his sleep, mumbling. The sound of wind and rain echoed gently just outside the window. Thunder wandered back and forth somewhere in the distance, like a grouchy old man looking for his glasses.

There was a light tap, like a water drop on glass. Aaron opened his eyes slowly and rolled to face away from the wall. He looked around the unlit room with his eyes barely open at all, toying with the idea of getting up and occupying his mind until he felt he could get some decent sleep. Something was keeping him awake, although he was unsure what.

A distant flash lit the room silently, sending a stretched shape of light from the window across it. It was a square patch, criss-crossed by the shadows of the pane dividers. In the middle it was blotted out by a large oval shadow, from a big tree in the garden. Aaron let his eyes slowly fall shut again, considering the possibility that perhaps some kind of schoolwork might be useful to-

Suddenly his eyes flicked open. It had just occurred to him there was no big tree in the garden. He was half asleep, not putting things together properly.

Maybe some random object, blown about, stuck on the window? Not likely. Or a collection of different objects outside, conspiring to make disturbing shadows together. There was nothing Aaron could think of at all like that shape, other than a big egg-shaped balloon. He assumed it was something he hadn’t thought of.

Aaron didn’t dare move to find out. A few seconds had passed and the distant thunder finally caught up with its light-based companion and slowly churned its way around him. Aaron blinked. He wasn’t going to sleep until he knew. It had to be done. As slowly as he could manage, he turned his head to look up at the window. There was nothing there but black panes.

He stared for a few moments. Just panes of glass. Nothing there. It was just one of those things.

Then came another flash of lightning.

In the window, for an instant, was a large, illuminated humanoid face, about the size of a large watermelon and of pallid grey skin, with huge black lemon-shaped eyes and tiny nostrils.

And it had been staring directly at him. Through him.

Aaron felt his heart leapt up into his throat. He wanted to scream out but nothing came. The image of the face burned into his eye’s memory like it was still there, two black pits staring at him, making his skin crawl. And though the light had only been a flash, he knew it was still out there, staring in at him. He shut his eyes, buried himself in his pillow and tried to wake himself from whatever cheese-pizza induced nightmare this was.

He remained motionless, eyes shut tight, for what felt like hours. It wasn’t until he dared a glance at his alarm clock that he realised a mere ten minutes had passed.

He felt strange. He was positive he’d been awake, but then dreams often run into reality like wet paint. Or perhaps, he reasoned, he’d seen some kind of fake: a practical joke in bad taste. Nothing made much sense. Fear slowly migrated to irritation, then anger. He rolled over onto his back. The rain had almost entirely stopped; a total of eight rolls of thunder and thirty three minutes of windy drizzle making it a pretty big storm for England.

He looked at the window, to check. His eyes had become accustomed to the light and indeed the face wasn’t there, leaving behind only the near-black night sky beyond the glass. Aaron recalled just how much of a stereotypically alien face it had been. It had to be a joke, or a nightmare. He felt like an idiot, but he was also annoyed that someone would do that to him. Still it did seem a little over-elaborate that someone would pull that kind of prank.

At least it was over.

He sat up, trying to distance himself from the experience. Getting up off the bed, he nervously stepped up to the window as casual as he could, fearing something else was lying in wait to startle him.

Nothing. The garden outside was void of anything noteworthy. A small basket for clothes sat next to the washing line and was half full of rainwater. There was a hose pipe that looked a little like a coiled snake, and four garden chairs, one of which was broken. The purple-tinted sky above was beginning to consider dawn, and sure enough Aaron’s alarm clock confirmed it was almost 6 am. He reluctantly returned to his bed.

He lay for twenty minutes hoping to catch more sleep. The alarm blinked 6:22 when he next looked at it, so he decided it would be easier just to get up. Turning his bedside lamp on, he slung on his dressing gown and sat down at his messy desk. His homework from the night before, an essay on the Japanese Shinkansen, sat ready in a transparent plastic sheet-protector. Aaron felt a certain sense of pride that he’d actually managed to complete a piece of homework without rush. Seeing it prepared on his desk was supremely satisfying. The fact he was kind of interested in it made him feel almost as though he’d cheated.

The strange face troubled him. He knew that it was either a waking vision or a joke, but something deeper inside haunted his feelings. It was instinct, primal, a troubling aura that hung in the air.

Playing video games for the following hour didn’t help. As he saved and quitted the game to get up properly and eat breakfast, the nightmare encounter came back in his daydreaming. Only this time, the face at the window was of Gorgon The Destroyer, from his game: ‘Termite Invasion from Mars’. The angular, hostile face of the giant Termite King roared mockingly at his window; scoffing at his genetically-modified super Earth ants and foolish attempts at resource management.

‘Morning honey.’ Aaron’s mother strode into the kitchen.

‘Hey mum.’

He sat chewing his cereal, trying to forget about the laughing face of the Termite King.

‘Sweetie, could you give me a hand setting up my new telly later?’ She asked him. ‘When you get home from school.’

‘Uh- mum… It’s not hard to do.’ Aaron tried to explain in a way that was assuring rather than patronising. ‘All you’ve gotta do is plug the aerial in the back and it tunes itself really.’

‘Well I did what the manual told me to, but the stupid thing won’t work. It’s just that white fuzz, like. You didn’t drop it yesterday did you?’

‘No.’ Aaron frowned. ‘Don’t worry. Probably some setting needs changing; I’ll take a look later.’

‘Thanks hun. Anyway, I’ve got to get ready…’ She looked at her watch. ‘Hey, you’re up pretty early. It’s barely half-seven.’

‘Yeah. Guess I am.’ Aaron said. He wasn’t even going to try explaining it.

---

Moley rode up to the corner meeting spot to see Aaron standing expectantly, one foot on the pedal of his bike. Moley stopped beside him with a puzzled expression.

‘You’re here before me. That’s got to be a first.’

‘I didn’t sleep so good.’

‘What happened?’

Aaron glanced briefly at Moley in case he might catch a glimpse of guilt or amusement that would give him away. ‘Some idiot, probably Liam, played a prank on me.’

‘When?’ Moley looked even more confused.

‘Last night, at my window. About five in the morning.’

‘Get bent. Liam wouldn’t get up that early if Vanessa Leystone crept into his bedroom offering favours.’

‘Well somebody did. I’m damn sure I didn’t dream it.’

‘What did you see?’

Aaron explained every detail he could remember about his nocturnal encounter, trying to keep to what he saw and leaving out what he thought of it. Moley, despite being skeptical, wasn’t the kind of person to mock the unusual simply on freaky grounds, because in his own words: ‘Life is full of unusual things’. Aaron often cited Moley’s family as one of them. Regardless, Moley was a razor sharp critic and Aaron generally preferred to play his cards after he saw Moley’s.

‘I’ll tell you what that sounds like to me…’

‘Yeah?’

‘You’re slightly nuts.’

Aaron’s face contorted. ‘I did consider that one.’

Moley laughed. ‘Seriously, no matter what it was, it can’t be that important. I dunno, unless it happens a lot I guess.’

‘Well surely if,’ Aaron paused as his thoughts articulated, ‘let’s say for argument’s sake, it was an alien that had come to invade Earth. Would that not be important?’

‘And what could you do about it?’ Moley raised an eyebrow.

Aaron grunted. He had to concede that Moley had a point. All he really knew was that it was a weird face and it had been in his garden.

‘You know what’s also weird?’ Moley kicked his bike up into motion and Aaron followed. ‘Apparently there’s a lot of radio interference lately.’

‘Radio interference?’ Aaron recalled his mother’s trouble with the television.

‘Yeah, read about it this morning. Supposed to be down to cosmic activity or something, y’know. Making a hell of a mess on tellies and radios, some people can barely get a signal at all.’

Aaron nodded distantly. It was all weird. Much like the conversation with Mrs. Pittock; he could do little but keep all these strange occurrences bouncing around his brain until something made sense. If they even made sense. He was positive that life wasn’t usually this weird.

‘Tell ya something else…’ Moley said, weaving through the entry bars of a bike path. ‘Somebody actually did nick that Fiat in the end.’

‘The one outside the warehouse?’

‘No, the one in my pants. Yes, the warehouse.’

Aaron sniffed. ‘Can’t see why. It was a piece of shit.’

‘Yeah, too right.’

---

‘This is the best plan ever. I’m a genius.’

~‘Let’s not go that far, mother.’

Tethis snorted. ‘Oh come, on. It’s only a matter of time before he turns up at his dwelling, and with this photo ID from the chronolocal medical database I will be able to recognise him if I go there.’ She waved the picture in her hand as she walked, even though her daughter was some kilometre or two away inside the Novodantis.

~‘That’s if we’ve got the right house, and the right name. In any case, why do I have to stay in the ship all the time while you get to go out?’

‘Because I’m the boss, that’s why. ‘Mother knows best’. Did you know that’s a popular saying in 2.1.C?’

~‘This is coming from an era that considers watching people stuck in a house for 24 hours a day as national entertainment.’

Tethis shrugged. ‘Well besides that fact, I’m also in command of this mission. So you’ll do as you’re told.’

~‘Yes, mother… I suppose you are the ‘responsible’ one.’

‘Watch that tongue, young lady!’ Tethis snapped. ‘Don’t think I can’t tell when you’re pronouncing quotation marks-’

She abruptly stopped talking to her uplink as she came face to face with two boys on bikes. One of them, the slightly taller, had brown curly hair and a self-assured expression. The other looked just like the young man in the picture she held in her hand. It was unmistakable. Unruly dark hair, pale complexion, the naïve azure eyes, a slim face—perhaps a little pretty for a boy but handsome in a way. He was a little older than her picture, but most definitely Aaron Sellafield.

As she made eye contact with him, he stopped and looked back at her. It was as though he recognised her, although that was of course impossible. She opened her mouth to speak, at first unsure what to say.

‘Fancy a bite to eat?’ she asked.

---

Moley looked at her oddly. ‘Excuse me?’

Aaron was inspecting the woman, a tall blonde in her mid-twenties wearing what looked like a racing suit. Maybe the woman Mrs. Pittock was talking about? ‘Do I know you?’ he asked eventually.

‘Oh yeah! That’s right, you don’t,’ the woman replied absently, looking around as if she was supposed to be carrying some sort of proof. She eventually thrust a photo in Aaron’s direction; one of his old school pictures from several years ago.

‘This is you, Aaron Sellafield? Am I right?’ Her accent was a little odd. He had no idea where it might be from.

‘Uh… yes?’ Aaron answered. ‘Where did you get that?’

‘Who are you?’ Moley said.

‘Whoa.’ She said. ‘That’ll take a bit of explaining.’

‘Are you from the government?’ Aaron said.

‘Or MI6?’ Moley chipped in.

‘Um, we didn’t do anything with that warehouse.’

‘Dude, shut up!’

She looked at them both and then grinned. ‘Ooooh, right. Nope, not government.’ She narrowed her eyes, looking away, then added: ‘Not as such.’

Moley sighed. ‘Well can you hurry up and tell us, because we’re gonna be late for school otherwise.’

The woman seemed to pause for a moment’s thought. ‘I’m here to interview you.’

‘What… now?’ Aaron asked. ‘I’m on my way to school.’

‘Yes, I know that.’ She said, smiling like they’d shared a joke. ‘But I had trouble, uh… finding you. I’m from National Archives. And they asked me to interview you on your recent data. Very interesting! Uh-huh.’ She beamed a childlike grin. Aaron and Moley exchanged confused glances.

‘Can you tell me your name?’ Aaron asked.

‘My name’s Tethis,’ she replied enthusiastically.

‘Teh…thiss…’ Moley rolled the two syllables together a few times. ‘Like the moon of Saturn? That’s an unusual name.’

Tethis froze. ‘Uh…’

~*Chronolocal Database check*~

‘…my parents were hippies.’

‘Oh.’ Aaron seemed satisfied. ‘Well, anyway. I’m Aaron. This here’s Mo- I mean, David.’

‘Pleased to obtain acquaintance!’ she said brightly. ‘So is it okay to interview you?’

‘Um, I don’t see why not.’ Aaron shrugged. ‘When?’

‘As soon as is convenient,’ she said.

‘This evening?’

‘That would be great! Meet me at that park over there.’ Tethis pointed to the nearby green.

‘Really? Ooh… ‘kay, I guess,’ Aaron said, looking at where she was pointing. Seemed pretty arbitrary.

‘Don’t try any funny business,’ Moley narrowed his eyes.

‘I’m not a comedian. I’m a scientist,’ she said earnestly.

Aaron ignored the digression. ‘Okay. See you this afternoon… at five?’

Tethis looked confused a moment, then recognition lit up. ‘Oh, right, seventeen?’

‘Seventeen what?’ Aaron asked.

‘I think she means seventeen hundred, mate,’ Moley said.

‘See you then!’ She winked. Aaron found the gesture somehow overblown and corny. She then abruptly skipped off down the road without another word, although in the distance he could hear her talking to herself.

‘She was strange,’ he reflected.

‘Damn whacko if y’ask me,’ Moley said.

They resumed a slow biking pace. ‘Although,’ Moley added, ‘she was well hot…’

‘Why did you say ‘Don’t try any funny business’?’ Aaron looked at his friend oddly.

Moley shrugged a little. ‘I dunno. I’ve always wanted to say that. Gangster movies, n’all.’

Aaron laughed. ‘Maybe you should sit this one out.’

‘Waitamminit!’ Moley stopped his bike, leading Aaron to do the same. ‘You’re not actually going to meet her are you?’

‘Well of course I am,’ Aaron replied. ‘Wouldn’t you?’

‘No, of course not! She’s a loony. I reckon… she’s one of them government psychic spies. Y’know, from China, like in that song. She’s come to steal our data,’ Moley whispered conspiratorially. ‘Or maybe our minds? Dunno, it was something like that.’

‘She seems a bit too bubbly to be a spy. Maybe she’s just a nice but eccentric person?’

Moley’s eyes lit up. ‘She’s like those Bond girls, or one of them genetically engineered soldiers that are professionals from birth.’

‘You’re enjoying this way too much,’ Aaron started to look impatient.

Moley didn’t bother to continue his charade, reverting to himself again. ‘Maybe so, but in all seriousness I don’t know what to think of her.’ He looked in the direction she’d last gone off in. ‘She just isn’t right. I’d expect someone who works at National Archives to be… well, more mature. Know what I mean?’

Aaron nodded. ‘Mmm, yeah I guess. She was pretty weird.’

‘Anyone could have found out about our experiment and be taking the piss, don’t forget.’

‘True. But I wanna find out what she’s got to say. I’ve got nothing to lose, as I see it. Seems to be just another part of the strange things going on in my life.’

Moley smiled. ‘The thing about hanging out with you, man, is that life is rarely dull.’ He pushed his bike back up to speed as they accelerated off toward the school.

---

The side of the Novodantis shimmered as the optical camouflage was disturbed and a small hatchway slid open. Tethis poked her head from the opening and glanced around to be sure nobody was looking. Satisfied, she swung out of the portal in a single, supple motion to land softly on the grass with barely a sound. As she stood, the intelligent fabric of her suit adjusted its thickness to match correct temperature retention for the cold of the early evening.

~‘So I guess it’s another few hours of keeping the ship out of the way of dog-walkers and birds?’

Tethis looked around as her daughter talked; then clicked her fingers, causing the hatchway to shut and the Novodantis disappeared entirely. ‘That’s right,’ she muttered.

~‘I’ll be at about 6 meters. Tree line seems to be the easiest place to hang around without something wanting to get in the way.

Tethis began to walk away from the craft in the direction of the town.

~What makes you think this is Aaron Sellafield if he’s still not on the sensors?’

‘Oh, I’m pretty sure it’s him,’ Tethis replied. ‘Maybe the scanners were looking up the wrong Imprint.’ Her eyes picked up a sudden motion, but a second look revealed it was merely the wind sifting through the bushes, so she continued to walk. ‘Maybe you might want to check the sensors a few more times, I still think they’re faulty. It’s… remotely possible that the Printers didn’t put them back together properly.’

~‘Okay, I guess.’

‘Good girl.’ Tethis smiled. ‘Keep an ear on me, I might need you, ‘kay?’

~‘Yes, mother.’

---

As the strange white-jumpsuit woman walked away from the shimmering hidden spaceship, 10-year-old Daniel Driver tried to contain his excitement from his hiding place in the bushes. This was just too cool! He watched the woman walk away for as long as he could wait, and then crept out to see if he could find the hidden spaceship he’d seen light up for the briefest of moments.

He wandered out into the clearing, looking up and around him. For a split second he thought he could hear a buzzing; the whine sound you get when the TV’s broke or you’ve been listening to loud music for too long. But it seemed to disappear as he moved or looked in one direction or another.

‘This is Captain ‘Daredevil’ Danny,’ he said in a mock-radio voice to his curled fist. ‘The alien spaceship has used its cloaking device! I’m taking a team to investigate!’ He began stalking around the clearing, miming a scanning device in his hand and making bleeping noises.

Daniel stopped, deciding the ship was no longer around, and looked up into the sky. It must have gone back to space. He lifted his hand to his eye line, making the shape of a gun with his fingers.

‘BANG!’

Then he giggled and ran back into the bushes, leaping through the gate at the back of his garden.

Little did he realise, just a few meters above—from behind a sophisticated layer of thirty-second-century optical masks—his movements were followed by worried eyes.

Next Chapter: 03 - The Correct Term is "Chrononaut"