“Do we dare?”

The Princess Anrianna looked at Rex with shock at his suggestion.

Rex had an impertinent smile on his lips and his eyes sparkled.

“Of course we dare! I know how it ends.”

The pair had escaped the Sultan’s planet in the fastest ship they could steal from his extensive collection. They rocket back to base with all the power they could draw from the engines. Rex had been uneasy. They were fast approaching the time of his most recent memory and they didn’t know what might happen to Rex when his time came full circle.

On approaching the base, Rex had sent his security code ahead to initiate landing protocols and was baffled when they were rejected. He wondered for a second if this was what it felt like to not exist.

Before he could worry further, his comm-board lit up and he heard his own voice through the ship.

“Unidentified ship, this is a private communications channel. Please identify yourself.”

Rex was gob-smacked, and a glance at the Princess told him she was gob-smacked too.

“I thought you were dead,” she said, shock overcoming tact.

“I mustn’t be,” he replied, shock overcoming eloquence.

They conferred, ignoring the insistent summons of the comm. It was decided that The Professor must have discovered the secret behind the anomaly and reversed the paradox. It helped that as the comm chimed and bleeped and past Rex left increasingly desperate pleas for a response, Rex remembered being on the other end.

“I thought it might be you,” he said to Anrianna, “When I returned from… wherever I was… The Professor and I couldn’t piece together where you were. Our hail to me today became the seed of my worry for you.”

“But it turns out I’m safe with you after all.”

The memories of the next three months started to make sense and he realised they had some time to kill between now and the next anomaly. He remembered he had missed the Princess terribly, but also remembered how much more he’d loved her when he’d found her safe in the past.

He loved her.

“Let’s blow this joint and see the universe. Just you and me. Neither of us are due back for three months.”

Anrianna looked at Rex. Her look said she thought he was mad.

It also said she loved him back.

The fool!

The Ortrix was gone, slipped further out of his grasp. That idiot Mondex had botched the operation from the outset.

Jones sneered. He should have known not to trust someone who had failed so many times before. But desperate times take desperate means. It had taken six months, and half his fortune to track down the device he’d given Mondex and the imbecile had lost it, killed some time in the past.

When Rex had returned from the casino planet without the Ortrix it took every ounce of composure Jones could muster not to scream at him, or push him out a window. Then to insult him further the oaf couldn’t remember what he’d done with it!

He would have suspected treachery except he knew Havoc was an idiot without a treacherous bone in his body.

So he’d sent Mondex back to collect his prize before Rex could lose it and the moron had failed him. Likely gotten himself killed by a hover-bus. Now he was down a time travel belt, and one all-powerful superweapon.

To make matters worse, he had known of another time-travel belt - secreted away in The bumbling Professor’s lab. To assure his success, he’d blown up the lab and duplicate belt with it, just to ensure no one could stop him. He’d also spent another small fortune on that blasted memory device he’d used on The Professor. Six months wasted. He’d gladly give his fortune over again for the Ortrix, but to come full circle and be no closer to his goal irked him to no small measure.

Some days it just wasn’t worth plotting doom.

Vworp

The Professor popped out of the time vortex with an ignominious crash. Dusting himself off, he lamented his lack of finesse compared to his colleague and vowed - not for the first time - to start working out when he got back.

As his eyes adjusted to the dim light, he tried to get his bearings. He could make out the faint outlines of the retorts and stands of his chemistry bench, and the flashing green glow in the corner that told him his terminal was ready to log on.

Making his way there, he checked the date on the terminal screen and chuckled to himself. He was only four minutes out from the time he’d been aiming for. Not bad with only the data he’d gathered from the anomaly to work with.

Now to get to work.