“So what time are you leaving?” Mary asked, not bothering to move from her spot on the couch as her roommate scurried back and forth across the apartment, making extra sure that she didn’t leave anything behind that she might need. The petite brunette pulled all of her bags into the living room and silently poured over her checklist one final time. She had her clothes, a camera, her vacation ticket and most importantly, she had her modified nav card. Finally her ultimate dream was on the verge of realization and she didn’t want to risk making a single mistake. Kayla was snapped out of her mental preparations by the soft chime coming from the front door.
“That’s my ride!” She exclaimed, excitedly grabbing her things and rushing towards the door. She made a quick stop at the couch to lean down and give her friend a quick hug before waving goodbye and dragging her bags out to the vehicle that was idling outside of their apartment. Mary chuckled as she heard the door slam. She hadn’t seen Kayla this excited about anything in a crazy long time. A vacation trip to Minos 5, not exactly what Mary would consider a good time, with the disturbing lack of sunshine and beaches. But then again, Kayla wasn’t really the tropical, binge drinking marathon sort of girl. Mary shifted around on the couch, attempting to get extra comfortable now that she was alone for the week. As she began browsing the Internet, a familiar itch on her foot began to distract her from her erotic findings. Peeling off her sock with her toes, Mary furrowed her brow as she saw a couple of tiny green mites come crawling off of her foot.
“Goddamnit.” She said aloud, as she looked up the exterminator’s number once again.
Kayla pulled her bags from the trunk and turned to stride towards the massive building in front of which she had been dropped off. Her gaze pointed upwards, marveling at the tremendous metallic structure that defied all attempts to describe it. The hectic display of lights erupting from the metallic rods and shooting out into the atmosphere told Kayla that the Bureau was as busy as ever. As the young woman approached the large entryway to the building, her heart began to race. She had been planning this little caper for as long as she cared to remember. Countless calculations, endless searching for rare and obscure parts, and saving up for years to be able to afford to plot her own vacation destination. It all culminated right here, right now. The timid engineer walked into the large open chamber where a single desk was prominently featured as the focal point of the room.
“Kayla Burnett, please approach.” A loud voice called out, seemingly from several places in the room. Kayla approached the desk, eyeing the massive creature seated behind the heavy metal table. No matter how many times she had come face to face with an Arbiter, their distinct lack of features always made her feel uneasy. These creatures had been saved by the Arc from absolute extinction, similar to the way that humankind had been restored. And their unique ability to exist across separate instances of time and space made them critically important for the various civilizations that the Arc had placed across the universe. At this exact moment, this particular was likely serving hundreds of travelers, who were all standing in this exact same room, at the exact same time, existing across a multitude of dimensional instances.
As Kayla looked up into it’s blank, yet somehow attentive face she heard it’s voice once again echo through her mind. “Welcome Ms. Burnett.” The creature’s head tilted to the side as it stretched out one of its long, jagged arms to present a hand towards Kayla. “Please place your hand in my palm.”
With a deep breath to calm her nerves, the short brunette reached out and placed her hand into the Arbiter’s outstretched palm. The dark skin on the creature’s palm began to glow faintly in reaction to her touch, before quickly returning to normal a few moments later. The young woman felt the intrusive sensation of the Arbiter reaching inside of her mind swell and recede, as it looked into her memories. Kayla’s heart was now pounding inside of her chest. This was her final hurdle.
Several tense moments of silence passed and Kayla could do nothing but stare into the large, empty face that peered down at her. With each second that ticked away, the nervous human waited for some sort of alarm to ring, calling the authorities to come and haul her away for questioning. But the alarm never came. Instead, the creature returned its large hand to its desk before a section of the wall behind it began to shift, creating an opening. “Enjoy your vacation Ms. Burnett.” The voice called out, as the Arbiter’s head turned away from the young woman, and resumed the same posture that it had when she had first entered the room.
A wave of relief washed over her as Kayla quickly got up from her chair and grabbed her bags. She walked quietly out of the room, towards the newly opened doorway that revealed a long corridor. As she walked down the hall, she continued to look from side to side, making sure that she wasn’t being watched or followed, still not entirely convinced that she was home free. Eventually the hallway opened up into another room, in the middle of which was a large metallic sphere. Kayla approached the large device and threw open the heavy door, revealing an odd looking chair inside. Kneeling down to dig through her bag, she quickly retrieved the small piece of tech that she had constructed for this trip. She then stepped inside the sphere and took a seat in the only chair inside. Once she was comfortable, Kayla hooked her device into the back of the monitor that was attached to the chair.
Moments later, the Bureau logo that was on the screen was replaced by the barebones interface that Kayla had designed. The young woman waited for the device to input the preloaded coordinates into the travel system, before a large “Initiate” button appeared on screen. Kayla crossed her fingers and held her breath as she pressed the button. She looked out the window of the sphere, her vision of the room outside becoming obscured by a bright light shining in. The young woman felt her grip grow tighter on the armrests of her chair. While she was confident in her calculations, she couldn’t help but be a bit nervous about her very first attempt at traveling back through time.