What is left of the crew assembles for a morning briefing in the holo-bay. The Berg Implants haven’t been active since leaving the dome area in Tribon. Of course everyone has questions… both SIS and Yovas have been up all night analyzing the data streams and reports collected by Bronz and Tassadar.

Yovas steps up on a short dias and turns toward the middle of the holo-bay as images of data taken from various sources are projected. “Analysis, I’ve filled in the gaps to make this more of a pictorial representation of our current theories. Some data has been regressed or projected to fill in missing segments.” He continues as the images start to appear, “As best as we can tell, the team met expectations until some unexpected events occurred.” Images of the crazed Cykotic appear, as the story of Alaaxis and Timogen are reviewed, ending with Sethyk’s store. “Correlations. The team’s first contact with the Gardhyi appears to be unremarkable. The Gardhyi seem to have been active for some time in this region of space… each to their own purpose – on Lison that seems to be sure that the Rhodium flows. There isn’t enough data to determine who was directly responsible for Alaaxis’ capture. We are sure the use of mental powers in that incident, and others are detectable to some Gardhyi Priests of the Kri’yth. More on that latter.”

The scenes on the holographic projection shift as he continues the cool analysis, “Data shows, that Sethyk was a hired hand of Tryce’s – and something of a skilled cyber-surgeon. The sample entry in his data pad notes that the insectoid carapace was found on the surface. Not a minor consideration for Lison. Alaaxis was at his shop and was moved - likely by Timogen himself - to Tryce’s nexus. Sethyk was killed by an implant that Tryce uses on most of his operatives. This is where is gets really interesting.” Said only in a way the Mechalus could pull of under the circumstances.

“What you have to understand is, that we always knew the Kri-yth Gardhyi - a priest clan inside the External Forces - could cause a rift in temporal space, but we didn’t have any idea ‘how’ this was done until now.” Yovas voice lifts, as he gets excited about the new information, “It turns out that these Kri-yth formed some kind of relationship with, or perhaps over-willed Tryce. The results are that the cyborgs functioned as part of a bio-mechanical temporal device. They were probably going to use it like they have in the past, to change events to effect the future to their benefit. Good news for us is, they do not understand the nature of time. The bad news is, that doesn’t keep them from accidentally causing our reality to blink away into nothingness.”

As the scene from last battle on the dome plays from video captured from Tryce’s own monitors, Yovas stops the play on the purple streaks on the Gardhyi's face. “There!” You can’t help but look away as the freeze-frame also catches Rubix and Bronx engulfed in purple flames. The dark priest smiles as they burn. Yovas continues, “Somehow this dark looking fellow directs the energy that the device literally drains from the mental and biological matter around it. That is why only a few of the cyborgs were released at any one time. And also why, when the battle turned bad for them, that is was used to perhaps ‘change’ a past event so you didn’t ever get ‘to’ the dome. Well, perhaps. That last piece is just an example. We don’t know for sure what they tried to change, but it is likely that anything they tried, didn’t work.” He pauses, and then continues,  “It is known that they did, in this case do what we fear the most. Cause damage to a Jimbar event.”

“We use natural rifts, monitoring equipment, and the Al Karam’s unique understanding of super-space to detect and repair null events if and when they occur.” Some voice from the crew asks, “What is a “Jimbar” again?”

SIS answers, “This is a tangential view of "time theory." Seemingly unrelated events, actually can be related. A butterfly flapping its wings on one world/tangent, could be the cause a war on another world/tangent.  The converse view is just as, if not more, important to understand. In the temporal-tangential sense, seemingly related events in fact probably are not related at all. When you go back in temporal-tangential space and kill your father before you are conceived, you probably are still born. “ 

“When a JimBar event (sometimes called a 'pivotal event') is disturbed by temporal-tangential travelers, it could cause a Null Event.  The area outside of Super-space can be referred to as Null Space. It is a construct that represents that the laws of the cosmos outside of Super-space are so far way from our own baseline universe that to us it might as well not exist - or that it really is the bounds of the multiverse.”

“The result of disturbing a JimBar event, continuing with the last example - i.e. Killing the butterfly before it flaps the wings that caused the War in another tangent - could cause a Null Event. The tangential thread pulls away from its current cluster and unravels in such a way as to fall into Null Space. This is not a pleasant experience of course, if you have no way to leave before the Null Event occurs!” Yovas looks around at all the 'furled' faces, and then continues.

“Most of the missions of our team in the multiverse are attempts to repair damaged JimBar Events before Null Events occur or have time to complete destroying our baseline universe.” SIS’s image disappears from the holo-bay, and is replaced by a view of deep space… and then in a blur of stars, rushing by in imaginable speeds. A white speck appears.  The star field stops, and this time it is the white speck that grows… larger, and larger until it moves past the virtual view at incredible speeds, leaving a white ‘nothingness’ all around. The holo-bay deactivates, as streams of data are reflected in Yovas’ face from the podium he uses. He looks up. “Conclusion. The null event is coming. The Al Karam are searching for the nexus that might allow a repair mission. It appears that we will need to act quickly or the null event will be irreversible, then we, gentle people, will be without a home.”

Bronz Koveski: Yovas, let me get this straight. That "orb" was the JimBar event - that has now been disturbed "by temporal-tangential travelers" as in Rubiks and Kevlarn!? So they are not dead, rather they are somewhere else "in time"? What would have happened if we had all gone through?

“Reply:” Yovas takes a deep breath, “No, our analysis shows that what you called the “orb” back there was an artificial nexus or portal to an alternate temporal-tangential space, created by the Kri’yth Priest. He used the portal to escape, and somehow did something on the ‘other side’ that resulted in a Jimbar Event.’ He pauses and looks around, “Unless we do something to correct the damage all that we know will cease to exist. But, you make a good point, it is possible that it was our two missing team members who disturbed the Jimbar Event.” Looking up, “Sis, we need to be sure to add that to our scenarios so we don’t miss that possibility again.” With added admiration Yovas looks back to Broz, “If it was our team that cuased the event it would be a first. This is the ‘first’ time we have ever had a team accidentally transported through super-space. I apologize for missing that possibility in our analysis.”
 

Yovas, “Did that answer your question?”

The room falls silent. "Conclusion, Briefing Over.