A MIND OUT OF TIME

Bryce sat in his studio, his mind reeling.

He was going to be a father! Here he was, sixteen, not even dating anyone. And somehow his best friend Theora was going to have his baby.

He decided to have a look at Dr. Duncan's computer. Maybe there was an error in the machine itself.

"There is no error," a slightly familiar face said from his vu-phone screen.

"Faer is it?" Bryce asked, an eyebrow quirked

"You know very well who I am," Lance Corporal Bryce Lynch replied.

"Indeed," Bryce replied. "And I know that you can't reveal the future to me. But can you tell me why I ended picking Theora as the mother of my child?"

"She's a strong woman," Lance Corporal Bryce Lynch explained. "And she's trustworthy."

"Those are good reasons."

"I only came here to tell you that. I have to return to my own time now." Lance Corporal Bryce Lynch disconnected the call, just as the door swung open behind Bryce.

"You know this is really unfair to me," Bryce said to Theora, who was now standing behind him. "From everyone else's point of view, I got you pregnant two months ago. But I have to wait ten years until I actually become involved in the situation."

"I can't change that," Theora told him. "I'm sorry."

"I don't want you to change it," Bryce admitted. "I don't want to ruin our friendship."

"Thank you, Bryce," Theora said with a warm smile.

#

Lance Corporals Bryce Lynch and Roland Clary sat up in their bunks. Neither man could sleep. There was too much adrenaline in them for the day ahead.

They had been over the battle plan twice together and probably dozens of times in their heads.

"You could hit the enemy's database from outside," Clary suggested.

"No," Bryce said. "They probably have a dummy set up in case of such attacks. The only way to be absolutely sure of hitting the real one is to hit it as it's source. You'll lead the others in a diversionary attack and I'll infiltrate their tech bunker. Once inside I'll alter the files in the database. If this works as I believe it will, Belgium's suppliers will think that the Belgian army has been saying a few nasty things about them."

"So they'll stop supplying them with weapons," Roland surmised. "I hope you're right. If we can cut off their weapons supply, it'll shorten the war."

"Given that we've already destroyed six of their munitions dumps we should see an end of the war as early as next June if we can pull this off."

"But won't Belgium's allies still be able to acquire weapons?"

"I plan to make the snubbing look like direct conversations between Belgium and it's allies," Bryce explained. "None of them will look good to their current suppliers."

There was silence for several minutes. Finally, Roland spoke again.

"Bryce?"

"Yes?"

"You're going back again, aren't you?"

"Back where?" Lance Corporal Bryce Lynch asked, feigning ignorance.

"I saw you go back in time," Roland told him. "I was in the group that raided the lab. Don't worry, I didn't tell anyone I saw you. Why did you go?"

"I've been twice already," Bryce confessed. "Once to father a child with a woman I knew in my teens. And once to explain her paternity to my younger self."

"If you survive this mission, will you go back again? Will you stay and be a father to your child?"

"Wouldn't that be dangerous?" Bryce asked. "I mean, temporal paradoxes aside for the moment, if the army knew a soldier from the future was there who knew the outcome of the war..."

"You wouldn't know the final outcome. Only that of the battles you'd been in. Just don't tell them. That's all. You'd just have to get back to the lab and activate the time machine."

"No need for that," Bryce admitted. "I have it with me."

"What?" Roland asked.

"The Time Ring," Bryce explained.

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