TIME'S PAST (An Original Steemit novel - Episode 1)

I sat leaning forward in my captains chair. The scarlet temporal breach warning lights were blazing behind me.
"We have been left with no choice," I exclaimed. "The Dal'Orn have connected the wormhole between the past and the present. We must come after them and stop them." Suddenly, the bright, vicious blue emergency hull breach lights started blinking as well. "Abandon ship!" I cried, and I jumped out of my seat with the ferocity of a lion. Beads of sweat were coming down my forehead. This was not supposed to happen. We should have been able to stop the Dal'Orn from completing their job. But we didn't. We had 20 years to, beginning from 2340 when we first learned of their sinister plans, but we still didn't. I waited until the last of my crew was in the escape pods, before attempting to get into my own.

"Warning: Pod Damaged," the final escape pod's computer said. "It cannot be used. Please find a different pod to use". That was the last pod. I had no way to get off the ship. I was stuck here, all alone. With a breached hull, in a timeline that may now simply cease to exist. "Eject!" I shouted to everyone through the com system, and they did so. The escape pods launched successfully, and I could see their fluorescent green trails as they spiraled away into the relative safety of empty space. I knew what I had to do. I manned the captain's chair, and followed the Dal'Orn into the wormhole via manned piloting, my ship still losing the precious small amount of oxygen that it had due to the hull breach. The wormhole anomaly slowly became bigger, and bigger, until I was sure that I was actually inside it. I used all the thrust I could muster, and what seemed like minutes later I was out on the other end.

"Warning: Life support failing," the computer announced. I had to get off the ship. I attempted to diagnose the issue with the escape pod, but to no avail. I was now stuck, in the past, on a ship that was about to be destroyed. I felt the ship shake Dal'Orn fired their electron pulse lasers at the ship. There was only one thing I could do now. "Computer!" I shouted, knowing this would be my last chance at surviving. "Activate manual escape pod override!"

"Override accepted. Please proceed at your own risk," the computer replied. I got into the escape pod, and jammed the launch button as fast as I could. I saw the fluorescent green trail of my pod go as I was flying away from the ship. The Dal'Orn used the rest of their electron pulse laser banks in one final attempt to destroy the ship, and they succeeded. I saw my life's work explode before my eyes. I had no way of getting back to the present, and no idea where I was. "Computer, " I said nervously. "Estimate current time of the universe based on neutrino sensor."

"April 23rd, 2073" It replied. I was now stuck in the past, stuck without technology, and had to single handily stop the Kal'Orn from changing the timeline and affecting the present, or what I should now call the future. Only now did I notice the flashing red exclamation points above my head. "!!!Life support system damaged!!! !!!Long distance propulsion system damaged!!!" I had no way of going anywhere far away, and not much time. But there was one thing I knew for certain. The fate of the timeline that I had known, that I had grew up with was all in my hands.