Young Writers Society

Malik Kahliel woke up in a hospital bed, an iv in his arm. He pushed himself up onto his

elbows and looked around. There was a screen up near the ceiling which showed the

news. Some one in an expensive suit was saying that Eas Quo was taken and the

remaining forces have fled to some starbase.

Malik tried to get up, but a nurse pushed him down again and told him not to

move. Malik sighed and started when the door opened suddenly. A few of his friends

came in and sat down on chairs beside his bed. Malik waved to them and looked around

the room again.

“ Hey, man, what was it like up there?”

It was a friend of his from high school, Tyrik.

“ Hey. It was terrifying.”

“ Dude. Nkemire has a really cool idea. I wan’t you to help us.”

Nkemire was smart. She usually thought of stuff before anybody else, and she

would have joined the aerospace corps, except for the fact that she wasn’t eighteen and

her parents hadn’t allowed her.

“ What is this wonderful idea?”

“ Well,” Nkemire said, “ If we can sneak into one of those secret time travel

things the government has been working on, we could stop this whole thing from ever

happening. Right now, would be a perfect time, because the war has thrown the

government into pandemonium.”

“ Wait. Why would time travel stop this war?”

“ Think. I hacked the government computer programs and found out that the

people who attacked us are human. Remember in the history books when they said that

some humans stayed on earth and went underground?”

Malik nodded slowly.

“ They’re the ones attacking us. If we go back in time to before those things

destroyed the surface of Earth, we can stop this thing from ever happening.”

Malik pondered for several minutes, then said slowly, “ OK, but are you sure it’ll

work.”

“ We have it all planned out. Don’t worry about a thing.”

“ OK, I’ll probably get out tomorrow. By the way, did you hear from my parents

at all?”

“ Yeah, they got off planet before the battle started and are going to one of the

star bases.”

The next morning, Malik was signed out of the hospital and his friends picked

him up. They arrived at one of the secret compounds, Malik didn’t know how Nkemire

knew where they were, but she directed them to it and she seemed perfectly comfortable

about breaking into a top secret government compound. Malik on the other hand was

scared out of his mind. They walked up to the gate and found that the guardhouse was

deserted and that the gate was hanging open. They walked cautiously inside and ran up to

the front doors. Those were also open and Malik was become very anxious. The building

was deserted and there were papers and scientific equipment all over the laboratories. The

finally came upon a room which had stenciled across it, Time Studies Do Not Enter.

Nkemire pushed the door open and they stepped into the most advanced room any

of them had ever seen. There were all sorts of laboratory equipment lined along the walls

and the coils of cords were winding there way throughout the room. There was a large

globe in the center of the room with a hatch on one side. Nkemire and Tyrik walked up to

the globe and pulled the hatch open. It was dark inside and Malik was beginning to wish

that he’d remained in the hospital. there was a blinking console near the globe and Malik

walked over to it. It was a control panel for the globe. He pushed a button and the screen

on the console flicked to life.

A far off bomb blast sent dust falling onto Malik’s shoulders.

“ It looks like it has to be controlled from here,” He yelled to the others.

They turned from inspecting the globe and Nkemire said, “ Some one is going to

have to stay behind.”

“ I’ll do it,” Malik said quickly. I’ve decided that I really don’t want to go back in

time. I’ll send you back.”

Nkemire and Tyrik stepped into the globe and sealed the door shut behind them.

Malik turned back to the screen on the console and began entering in the dates and

the place where he wanted Nkemire and Tyrik to go. Once every question had been

answered, Malik pushed a large green button. There was a brilliant flash of light from

inside the globe, then a thud. The button turned from green to red, then back to green.

Malik rushed over to the globe and opened the hatch. There was nothing inside and he

hoped to god that he’d sent them to the proper place. He’d never know, but he hoped that

they’d succeed and prevent this whole fiasco from ever happening.

Malik was about to turn and leave, but soldiers came rushing into the room, their

lasers up and ready to fire at his chest. Malik raised his hands, but one of the soldiers

fired his laser and Malik collapsed. He was dead before he hit the floor.

The end of the Uluhor was swift and bloody. Their government collapsed and the

humans from Earth who had attacked them, took all their citizens and lands for

themselves.

Nkemire and Tyrik materialized in a back alley in New York. It was just beginning to get light, casting a gray haze over the city. They crept through the streets and made it into the rich commercial sector of the city. Here, there were policemen driving past in cars. Nkemire and Tyrik stayed away from the main roads. Their clothing would have cast suspicion on them, and that was something they couldn’t have.

The sun was high in the sky, when they reached the United States Thermological Research Center. There was a guard outside the gate, a clipboard in his hands. He walked out of the lkittle guardhouse and held his hands up.

“Does Korey Cochran work here?” Nkemire asked.

“Yes, why?”

“We need to see him,” Tyrik replied impatiently.

“Do you have an appointment?” The guard asked in exasperation.

“Uh… yeah, we do,” Nkemire answered quikly.

The guard looked at her, her clothes and Tyrik, “Get out of here, kids. I don’t have time for this.”

Tyrik, with lightening speed, ran forward and punched the guard in the chest. He bean to let out a protest as he fell backwards, but Nkemire kicked him in the head. He slumped against the wall.

Tyrik crouched down and took the guard’s gun from his holster, “Let’s go.”

They climbed up over the gate, and began to make their way back down. They heard a gunshot, and Tyrik let out a shout as he let go of the fence. He fell the last eight feet to the pavement. Nkemire jumped down beside him as another gunshot whizzed overhead.

“Tyrik, are you ok?” She asked. She could see that he wasn’t.

“Here,” he shoved the pistol into her hands, “I can’t do it. You’ll have to.”

Another bullet whistled above Nkemire’s head. She knelt beside Tyrik for a moment, her hand on his shoulder. Then, she sprang to her feet and raced for the double doors of the research center. There were three guards kneeling in front of the door, firing constantly. She fired several times at them, as she ran. She hit one in the shoulder, and the others got out of her way. She shoved the doors open and ran inside, stepping over the wounded guard. She began running up the stairs, the gun held awkwardly in her hands. At every room she came to, she looked in. She could here guards behind her, pounding up the stairs, one flight below her. There was no sign of Korey Cochran.

Finally, after running up every flight of stairs in the building, she made it to the top floor. There, she found Korey and the rest of the scientists. They were watching the breakthrough.

Once she got inside, she closed and locked the doors, just as the guards saw her.

She turned and pointed her gun from one person to the next.

“Which one of you is Korey Cochran,” she asked, her gun moving slowly around the room.

No one answered. She fired a round into the ceiling. Finally, one man stepped forward.

“I am,” he said, his eyes never leaving the gun.

She raised the gun slightly and her hand began to squeeze the trigger. The door was kicked open, causing her to lose her balance. The shot went wide, hitting one of the plasma screens. Nkemire rolled onto her back, the gun aiming for the door.

Standing and kneeling in the doorway were four guards. They all fired at once as Nkemire scrambled backwards as several rounds hit her. She died instantly.

Korey Cochran continued his studies, and that was, as they say, history.