"There was nobody manning it. Nobody will die when we destroy it, as it was fired by remote control from within the subterranean city. However, they will be surprised."

"It will give the appearance of our having displaced marginally, rather than travelling in time."

"Yes. They'll think we just moved a bit. They won't realise that we spent ages in this future time and then arrived back minutes later from their perspective.  That's marvelous. We could let them think that there must be a fault in their machine. They would really be discouraged by that. They'd see no point in building a new machine, after we destroy that one, if they're led to think that the machine doesn't work properly" said Ann.

"I will comply with your intended deception. Shall I operate the time travel controls now, Miss O’Malley?"
"Yes. Operate them. We have a long backwards journey through the time path. Have Wildstar's laser ready to fire at their weapon the moment we have materialized in the new position back in 1953. Will it function well underwater?"

"Yes Miss O’Malley."
"Here we go. There's that weird time path again. I wish I had a camera."

*          *          *          *

"Now that we're slowing down, I can see a shaky picture of the underwater city. Can they see us?"

"To the subterraneans, we would look like an optical illusion or a disturbance in the water. We would not be solid. They will only see us for a brief instant, if they do at all."

"There we are fading away," said Ann, seeing the past version of Wildstar being struck by the time ray, "Go forward a bit in time.... That's it. Stop!"

"Firing laser, Miss O’Malley."

The laser beam totally obliterated the time travel device. Within moments their radio receiver provided Ann with another message from the subterraneans.

"Impossible! You dwellers of the upper continents have even defied the laws of time and space. If you can teleport out of our time ray, then we have no hope of defeating you, or even of removing you. We will have to abandon our plans to conquer your race."
"I'm glad of that. So what happens next?" said Ann.

"Oh dwellers of the upper continents, please listen to our problem. We have not always lived under your ocean. We were once descended from a small party on a world in another galaxy. Our world was completely covered by water, and we would breathe water as you earthlings breathe oxygen. Our ancestors had to flee our own world because of political problems on our own world. They fled the planet in a small water filled spaceship and landed on a planet rich in oceans, your own earth. They bred and multiplied and built this hidden city, but we are anxious to return to our own world. The small spacecraft that brought our ancestors here is no longer functioning. Neither is it large enough to take our increased population back to our home world. Is there any way that we could obtain some water filled rocket ships from your upper continental friends?"

"I don't think so. Do you mean that you only wanted to capture some of our rocket bases and fill some rocket ships with enough water to take you home?" asked Ann.

"Yes that was our intention."

"Well it would never have worked anyway. Our rockets could not function properly in water as your equipment has been designed to do."

"But your own vessel does so even now" said a subterranean voice.

"It's a special craft, not of this earth either" said Ann.

"It is too small for our purposes. It seems that all hope is lost for us" said the subterranean leader.

"Maybe not. Your people would never have seen it, but there's a planet in our solar system called Saturn. It has gaseous rings around it. On Saturn there is the headquarters of a team called Space Force. They may be able to communicate with your home world and arrange for a larger water filled collection of ships to come to earth and collect you. In fact, I'll make the trip myself in Wildstar and ask your new leader, whoever he is, to help us get you back to your own world."

*          *          *          *

After further discussions, the subterraneans agreed, and supplied Butler One with the information needed to locate their world.
"Jeradd charted it once, but he never landed on that world, because of the water on the surface of the planet," said Butler One, as he piloted Wildstar through the hidden doorway. Wildstar began to surface, and would soon after be airborne.

“That sure beats the ice cream bucket on your shelf, Ann,” said Wendell.