Fiona Clyde

"Come on... Come on..." mumbled the sniper. Not too far, wild applause and uproar filled the open stadium.

"...And so I present our beacon of hope, the stalwart of peace and the light of our futures and the future of communism, Kayne Obama!"

"I see you know bi-"

The sniper did not even get the chance to put his finger on the trigger.

"Sir, the target has been taken care of. Mission accomplished" spoke Shawn through the intercom. Not so far away, Martin, assuming the role of Overseer, had a sigh of relief.

"Good, now you have 30 seconds to get your ass back here before I kick it. You obviously did not read the manual." shouted Martin.

"Okay, okay, sheesh. I already told you if the manual hadn't been long..."

"Yada yada, just get your ass back here. We have to get back soon or else the chrono plane would become unstable and God knows what would happen to us."

Chrono-folding is not without flaws. By sending something or someone back in time, it creates a something out of nothing effect. Matter cannot be created nor completely destroyed; it can only be transformed into energy. As the famous equation of Einstein puts it, energy produced by transforming matter is equal to the mass of the matter in question multiplied by the square of the speed of light; the inverse had also been proven to be true. This means that at any point in time, there exists a finite and unchanging amount of energy and matter; disturbing this could lead to catastrophic circumstances.

The chrono plane tries to remain stable even after infractions on it have occurred. This is the reason why changing something in the past would not have very major consequences in the present, depending of course on the amount and time of infraction. If a significant amount of matter is introduced anytime where it shouldn't be, the chrono plane tries to adapt by converting matter into energy, an effect known as the Tristan's effect named after its discoverer, chronologist Marco Tristan. Energy doesn't take up space like matter does, and so causes the conversion.

This conversion though leads to more instability, and even more conversion; the longer the foreign matter remains displaced in time, the more matter is converted to energy in the chrono plane's desperate attempt to remain stable. By Einstein's equation, this conversion could result in cataclysmic explosions of energy, although often it's too far away in space to be felt in any degree. Cosmic phenomenon like supernovaes and black holes had been attributed to the Tristan effect, but nobody knows for sure.

"Yo Shawn, what happened to your mission? You got kicked in the ass again haven't you?" Jonathan sneered as he sat down beside Shawn.

"Fuck off assface" Shawn replied, stuffing a mouthful of burger into his mouth.

"No seriously man, you should be more responsible about your duties as part of Chronos. It's not everyday a man jumps back in time you know..."

"Eh, I know... It's just that, I dunno... I'm probably just tired of the constant drills..." said Shawn.

"Tell me about it. But you shouldn't be getting too much of those, I mean, it's not like there had been many missions recently, right?"

"Whatever... I still don't have the drive anymore... I don't know really..."

Shawn took another mouthful of burger, Jonathan sipped from his cup of sparkling water.

"Hey man, is this about Fiona?" Jonathan said, trying to comfort Shawn.

"What?!? Now where did you get that idea?" exclaimed Shawn, knocking Jonathan off his seat and spilling his food all over him.

Fiona Clyde was the youngest High Captain General in the entire military. She was also a favorite contender to the position of High General in Command, the highest position in the hierarchy of Chronos. She excels in everything she does, from History to Time and Space studies; she knows the ins and outs of chrono-folding and the principles and theories behind the chrono plane. Plus she's terribly good looking.

She's graduated from the same school as Shawn and was a year his senior. She was a year younger though, because she was accelerated twice, first in Lower Education Level 4 then in Higher Education Level 3 from the Unified Education System. She was 20 when she graduated Advanced Education; it has been 5 years now since she entered the Chronos Division. She flew her way through the ranks, getting promotion after promotion. And it wasn't over yet.

"Speaking of Fiona, any news about her?" asked Shawn, food in his mouth.

"First you knock me off the chair when I reminded you of her, now you ask me how she's doing?" complained Jonathan.

Shawn simply stared at him.

"Fine... The higher ups are formalizing her promotion. Won't be soon they say before she becomes GC. The election process they say is only a formality now..."

"I see... Wow... To think she entered the division only a year before us..."

"I don't really think about it. I'm just glad I became part of this division. Keeps bread on the table, and its kinda fun at times too."

Fiona Clyde was rumored to be backed by currently the strongest party in the United Congress, the Naturalists. Since they were given representation in the United Congress, they have slowly amassed power and wealth. It has been said that if you seek election into the United Government, whether as a lowly Regions Governor or as the Supreme Sovereign, all you need is backing from the Naturalists.

It wasn't unnatural though for people like Fiona to rise through the ranks quickly. In previous years, similar incidents have happened where people fresh from graduation acquire notable and powerful positions in the United Government. By the turn of the century, it wasn't too uncommon to see a 20 something High Senate Representative, or a 30 something Supreme Sovereign. There seems to be a clamor for younger, more blue-blooded individuals to take up powerful offices, probably in the hopes of ending corruption. It's still not the norm though, but Fiona certainly wasn't an exception.

"Hey man, I better go, still got 'missions' in the morning, if you know what I mean. You better take a rest too, and begin thinking about taking the division seriously" Jonathan reminded Shawn.

"Yeah, says the guy who has 'missions' in the morning" Shawn objected.

Jonathan and Shawn deposited their food trays into the conveyor and parted ways as they headed for their bunks.

Shawn plunked immediately on his bed and picked up his kinetic phone, spinning it a few times before dialing a familiar number. An answering machine picked up on the other side.

"Hello... This is Shawn, if ever you're there, please call me back."

He didn't hang up for a while, thinking of something else to say. Then unexpectedly, a female voice answered.

"Shawn, it's me. I'm sorry if I haven't been answering you back, it's complicated. Anyway, for your sake and for mine, I'm really sorry but please..."

There was a short pause.

"Please..."

"... Don't call me anymore."