Dr. Snip

The bartender brought over three glasses of beer and they sipped them as Wyatt did his best to charm Angel. She acted the Eastern Belle and with much fluttering of eyelids got the notorious Marshall to regale them with stories of cattlemen and gunfights.

Wyatt was in his element as like most men he loved to talk about himself to a beautiful woman. He explained that he had the gambling concession at this saloon, which gave him an incentive to keep the peace here as fights were bad for business.

As they chatted together another man joined them, Wyatt introduced him as Doc Holliday a friend of his and equally famous to Steve. Doc was a thin man with empty sad eyes; he was dying of consumption and knew it, which made him extremely dangerous, as he didn't really care if he died today or tomorrow.

Any cowhand foolish enough to offend him was challenged to a gunfight there and then, and Doc was still alive albeit barely. After promising to meet Wyatt tomorrow Angel and Steve left the bar and walking back through the alley jumped home to Steve's house.

'How do you feel?' she asked him. Steve admitted that he felt a bit guilty about promising Wyatt that they would see him again when they had no intention of doing so. Angel just laughed and told him that Wyatt was due to meet his soon to be third wife Josie on that very day. 'It's best that I got out of the picture before I messed things up,' she said.

'Apart from that I feel a lot better than I did, despite a few bruises' he admitted, 'I hadn't realised how a good fight can cheer a man up, thanks for shaking me out of my mood.' 'I haven't finished yet,' she smiled, and dragged him to the bedroom.

Testing ( The Moon )

It was a few days after his birthday and Angel decided to concentrate on Steve becoming more self sufficient with his QT. 'I want you to jump from here to the top of the giant pyramid at Giza in the year 8500 BC' She asked him after breakfast.

Steve considered this for a moment and came up with an objection, ' One problem with that idea Angel my love, it wasn't there in 8500 BC. Therefore I would materialise hundreds of feet in the air.'

'481 feet to be precise, this is where you have to learn to trust the QT, dear, it's very user friendly, it would never allow you to materialise inside a solid object. And if you really had to emerge hundreds of feet in the air you would have to circumvent complicated safety protocols in order to do so' she replied.

'What happened to the theory that it was built by Khufu in 2560 BC?' He asked. 'When you have a time machine, theories are the first thing you discard. The great pyramid was there long before Khufu, he just decided to use it as a tomb for himself, and got his priests to write that he built it. The Pharaohs made their history to suit themselves. Although to be fair to the Egyptians apart from the three at Giza and the Sphinx they built all the rest of them.'

Steve decided to trust her and was about to activate the QT when another niggling thought made him ask 'The top of this Pyramid isn't very big, if we materialise a few feet to the side of it wont we slide down the sides?'

She assured him that the World Brain via the QT was perfectly capable of positioning him within inches of any target on Earth; it even took into consideration Continental Drift.

Not wanting to look a Jessie Steve took a deep breath and pressed the button. He went from the interior of his house to the top of the Giant pyramid in the blink of an eye. 'Wow!' He exclaimed as he found himself standing on the top stone, he quickly sat down and gripped the edges of the block tightly.

Angel appeared beside him, and looked around unconcernedly, the sun beat down on them strongly, but up here there was a cooling breeze that made it almost pleasant. Steve asked why they were sitting on rough stone, where was the Electrum tip?

'That was scavenged a few hundred years ago, that's why I picked this particular time to visit otherwise we would definitely have slid down the sides.' Steve was amazed to see that from the base of the structure to the horizon, the land was green and fertile. Looking down he could see tiny figures of men going about their everyday business, rarely bothering to look up at the man made mountain that had been their companion since birth.

After they had seen their fill, Angel asked him to Spatially jump to the front of the Sphinx that they could see below them with its back to the Pyramid. 'It's a lot easier without any temporal component, just visualise where you want to land and the QT will do the rest.' Steve did as instructed, and appeared in front of the Sphinx looking straight at it.

He was puzzled to see that it wasn't the Sphinx at all but a giant carving of a lion, with it's eyes fixed on the horizon. 'What happened to this then?' he asked when she appeared. 'Typical pharaoh tactics, by their time water and sand erosion had whittled the Lion's head down to a featureless lump. Khufu had his stone masons alter it to show his head instead, that's why the head is smaller in proportion than the body.' Angel replied. 'So it was a Lion then.' 'Of course it was, what else could it have been, silly.'

As there were no natives within sight they sat in the shade of the Lion's paws as Steve asked more questions that had occurred to him. 'How far can you jump with a QT?' Angel thought for a few moments and answered,' Depends if you want to be alive when you reach your destination, I suppose.' She answered.

You could think of it like this, the QT can take you anywhere or when that the World Brain can compute the co-ordinates for. However it is like jumping from one fixed spot to a non fixed spot. Consequently the further you jump the more the room for error grows, until you miss your destination altogether. The great thing about using a Portal, is that both ends of your jump are fixed, and you cannot miss your destination no matter how far away it is, in theory anyway.'

'So what's the furthest distance that mankind has jumped to date? 'Mars'. 'Wow, although I shouldn't be that surprised, we were almost ready to go to Mars in my century.

'You did get to Mars in 2020 but events on earth put space exploration on the back burner for a long time. The main problem was that there is nothing on Mars worth the effort of getting there.' 'How about the Moon?'

'Oh no problem getting there, it's almost routine, and a very popular place for honeymooners.' She replied dismissively. 'Any chance of me going to the Moon?' he asked hopefully. 'If you really want to I suppose we could.'

'Of course I want to, are you nuts I've always wanted to since I was a boy, let's go,' he said excitedly. 'Whoa big boy, if you think for one second I'm going to use my QT to jump to the Moon you need your head read, it's a Portal job if ever there was one,' she protested.

'We cannot QT there then?' 'No, if you miss the Moon Station you end up in vacuum and explode like a blood ballon, no second chances.' Angel was shaken at the thought that Steve had even considered using his QT to jump to the Moon, it brought home to her how little he really knew about the realities of Jumping.

They jumped back to her apartment to prepare for his big trip. There was only one Portal dedicated to Moon travel and luckily it was in London, they arrived in plenty of time to give Steve a chance to soak up all the details of the experience.

Angel was wearing a silver cat suit, and made a striking contrast to Steve's habitual black clothing. When they arrived the Portal was already in use and he watched as a line of freight boxes were pushed into the ring to disappear from sight.

Angel explained that conventional spacecraft had taken the Lunar Portal to the Moon in pieces and it had been assembled at the moon base. The Moon orbits Earth at a fair clip, in an elliptical orbit, and the Earth itself wobbles about as it spins.

Only the fact that the Moon always presents the same face to the Earth was the only thing that made the calculations astronomical instead of impossible. She hoped that she had impressed upon Steve that he must never ever try to jump across space on his QT.

She need not have worried, he was still pretty nervous about jumping in the first place, let alone risking death in vacuum, he was convinced. The light changed subtly and Angel grasped Steve's hand in hers and walked firmly towards the waiting metal ring.

Steve whispered to her 'why are you holding my hand, you said there was nothing to be afraid of,' 'I lied.' They stepped together through the Portal.

The MOON.

The first thing he noticed was the Sixth Gee gravity, he couldn't help bouncing about, and as for what it did to Angel's anatomy. Was he the only man here who had difficulty averting his eyes from her breasts as they bounced about unrestrained.

'Shit, I should have worn a bra here, I'm nearly poking my own eyes out.' She moaned. Apart from the gravity there was little to show they had arrived on the Moon. They were in a metal walled room, with the Portal at one end and a door at the other.

They bounced towards the door, with Steve enjoying it more than Angel, 'Are we being met?' He asked. 'Yes,' she answered as the door hissed open onto a concourse that was full of tourists milling about and reading the multitude of warning signs that made the plain steel walls a colourful mosaic.

'There's John now, our B.T,O, representative' Angel said, 'can you see him?' Steve would have been hard pressed not to see him, John was fourth generation colonist and he was almost seven feet tall and very slender. He wore a plain loose coverall and didn't so much walk as glide across the floor.

'Thank Selene that your British' was the first thing he said, 'other races seem to want to shake hands all the time, and a Selenite's bones tend to be a bit brittle, we avoid physical contact with Earthers as much as possible.'

'I quite understand,' said Angel, and made the introductions. 'A Selenite?' Steve asked. 'Yes we have named Earth's moon Selene, the name Moon simply described a small body orbiting a larger one. It wasn't really a proper name at all, tourists always give themselves away by referring to Selene as The Moon.'

John escorted them to their room and gave them the standard warnings about not opening any windows etc. Angel giggled and told Steve that it was a joke, as they were now almost half a mile underground there were no windows to open. John just smiled to himself and showed them how to operate the various devices in their room. He arranged to meet them in an hour for lunch in the Viewing room and left them to settle in.

'Wow he could be a very prickly person if you got on his bad side I think' opinioned Steve as they unpacked the little they had brought with them. Angel believed that all colonists throughout history became very proud of their achievements and sometimes saw criticisms where none were intended.

'Why are we sharing a room?' he felt he should ask. 'Room is still at a premium here, every room has to be cut out of solid rock so people usually have to share.'

There wasn't much to do, and the travelling hadn't tired them so they sat and looked through the base computers tourist information together. Angel showed him how to download it onto his implant so he couldn't get lost on the base.

'Why did you hold my hand back there?' He persisted. 'Sorry about that, but I feel in control with my QT, using a Portal takes that control away and I tend to feel vulnerable.' 'To be honest,' he said lying like a gentleman, 'I was glad of your hand as I was pretty scared back there.' She looked at him speculatively for a few seconds but said nothing.

They made their way to the Viewing room and found John was already arranging a table for them. They sat down next to the main window; it was three feet high and an astonishing twenty feet long.

It took up one entire wall of the room and as they looked through the menu they witnessed the gradual rising of the Earth over Selene's horizon. Steve and Angel both sat entranced at the spectacle until the Earth had reached its zenith in the velvet black sky.

'Sorry John,' apologised Steve 'but that was memorable, I suppose your used to it by now.' 'It holds no interest for Selenites, although the sight of all that water out in the open, does make us a bit envious.' 'Wouldn't you like to visit it?' Angel asked. 'No, I would weigh six times more than I do normally and my bones couldn't take it.'

'Don't you have anti-gravity yet?' Steve asked Angel. John looked very puzzled at this remark, so Angel felt she had to explain that Steve wasn't only a tourist from Earth he was a Twentieth century man as well.

John's attitude changed remarkably at hearing this and a welcoming smile spread over his elfin features. 'A time traveller, what do you think of what we've done to your 'Moon' then?'

Steve told him quite honestly that he was extremely impressed by all that he had seen so far, and they were soon deep in conversation. Angel took the opportunity to look around the Viewing room, tourists took every table and they were all staring avidly at the scene outside.

One nervous tourist asked what would happen if a Comet smashed the window, she was assured that there was no chance whatsoever of a Comet smashing the window, as they were made up of snow. Angel smiled as she listened to armchair spacemen airing their knowledge of things cosmological.

She knew that there was no chance of anything smashing the window, because it wasn't a window at all, but just a gigantic viewscreen. The Moon base had been built over three hundred years ago, it had been cut out of solid rock for protection against solar radiation and the vicious temperature changes that occurred on the surface.

They were half a mile below ground, and the Viewing room was there purely for tourists. Eventually the men ran out of conversation and food that had been served and eaten during their mutual admiration session. John had things to do and saw them back to their room before saying his goodbyes.

There were two beds in the room and Angel chose the one nearest the view screen, she decided to shower and go to bed. Steve was too excited to think of sleeping so he said he would go for a walk and explore for a bit.

He walked down the corridor and using his implant made his way to a certain location, known to millions of twentieth century space fans. It had been turned into a tourist attraction of course but that didn't tarnish its importance to Steve. The Base had been built on Mare Tranquillitatis, The Sea of Tranquillity.

Steve was on the surface of the Moon, and he was looking at the lunar Lander that had brought Neil Armstrong and his crew to the moon for the very first time on July 20th 1969. The area was protected from the vacuum of space by a transparent hemispherical dome.

It could obviously be polarised to protect tourists from the naked sun, and he assumed it had a high lead content to shield them from radiation. His eyes however were all for the actual Apollo 11 Lander itself and the historic footprint that was still there beside it. Fortunately the blast from the lunar escape module had not swept it away and it had now been sprayed with a transparent material to protect it forever.

As he stood lost in thought, Steve felt a strong breeze on the back of his neck, he turned around to check if he had left the door to the exhibit open, but it was shut tight, and to his horror he saw a red light flashing over it.

The light illuminated a sign warning of a vacuum leak and the Base's safety protocols had sealed the door to protect the base from explosive decompression. Shit, thought Steve I'm on the wrong side of the door, he heard a shrill whistling sound as the air in the dome screamed out into the vacuum of space.

He was hammering at the door in panic when he remembered Merlin.

'Merlin help me' he screamed. HOW CAN I HELP STEVE?

'Get me out of here for God's sake I'm suffocating' WHERE DO YOU WANT TO GO?

'Who gives a fuck; take me home, now.'

Steve was standing in front of his kettle in his kitchen. I THOUGHT A CUP OF TEA MAY PROVE BENEFICIAL. HOWEVER EVEN THOUGH I HAVE A BRAIN THE SIZE OF A PLANET I CANNOT ACTUALLY MAKE YOU ONE. STILL YOU WOULD NOT WANT TO BECOME TOO DEPENDENT ON ME. WOULD YOU?

Steve just stood there taking deep breaths until he calmed down enough to thank Merlin for saving his life. He then put the kettle on and sat down at his breakfast table to sip his tea and talk to his saviour.

'Thank you again, I panicked badly there.' WHEN SOMEONE IS TRYING TO KILL YOU, PANIC IS SOMETIMES A GOOD REACTION.

'How do you mean, kill me, I thought it was a micrometeorite strike.' DO YOU WANT ME TO COMPUTE THE ODDS AGAINST THAT HAPPENING JUST AS YOU GOT THERE?

'No, but no one could have known that I would be there at that time. Even I didn't know I was going there until I was in the corridor, I saw it on the Tourist menu and suddenly decided to visit it.' ERROR, THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN A RECORD OF YOUR VISIT ON THE BASE COMPUTER.

'Yes but to have advance notice you would have to see those records and then...' GO BACK IN TIME TO SET UP THE AMBUSH?

'Oh my God, another time traveller is trying to kill me, why?' CANNOT SAY DEAR BOY.

'Can't or won't? WON'T

'Surely you must know.' NO ANSWER WAS THE SAD REPLY.

'Do you know where people with Implants are at all times?' YES

'You know where all the Time Agents are at all times.' YES

'You must have known where Agent Red was all the time.' YES

'Why didn't you tell Angel?' YOU NEEDED TIME WITH THE QUANTUM TUNNELER.

'I thought I was working for the good guys.' YOU ARE.

'Then the people trying to kill me are the bad guys, right?' I CANNOT SAY

'Who is your enemy?' I HAVE NO ENEMIES.

'Well I obviously have, so I had better get prepared for their next attempt, can you take me to Rockie's weapon's shop in New York at three am, I need to do some shopping.' DONE.

He arrived in a deserted shop in New York, Steve had only been there once before when on a holiday just after he joined the Paras. and he could still remember it clearly. The place was full of weapons, and they were all for sale.

Being young and full of himself as a Para he was crushed to learn that although trusted by the British government to bear arms for his country, he wasn't allowed to buy any of the weapons on show.

On his return to Britain, he had on occasions purchased a few non-lethal items from Rockie's via the Internet, the shock baton being one of them. Steve picked out a Shock Baton to replace the one that Angel had snapped in half, and a Kevlar jacket that gave the same projectile protection as a flak jacket, without the bulkiness, with matching pants.

He then chose a short barrelled S&W Revolver capable of taking 38 Special or 357 Magnum cartridges. A shoulder holster and both types of cartridges completed his order. He worked out the price and left sufficient cash in the till to cover it.

Steve looked in the mirror and decided he looked like a version of the terminator.

'Merlin can you get me back to Angel about fifteen minutes after I left her?' YES.

'Please do so.' DONE.

Steve arrived outside their door and quietly let himself in, the lights were out so he got undressed and slipped into the bed nearest the door. He was pulling the covers over himself when his elbow knocked against something warm and soft.

He froze, it was Angel, she must have got into the wrong bed, he tried to slip out of bed without disturbing her but she turned over in her sleep and her arm fell across his hip. Again he froze hoping she would turn back over, but her hand slipped down between his legs until it found something to cling to.

A voice whispered in his ear, 'either a gorilla has just sneaked into my bed or it's you Steve.' Her hand gave him a squeeze, 'is that your shock baton, or are you planning to take advantage of a sleeping woman?'