I ran through every sensor scan I could, trying to get any information on the pulsing, transforming mass in front of us. It didn’t seem to be doing anything threatening, it just kind of floated, wriggling into mind-bending patterns while it drew us into it closer.

It was then that I noticed that along with everything else, the astrometric readings coming in indicated that we were more that 3,000 years off course, in the futurely direction.

Forward escape.

That’s what they taught us back in the Chrononaut Academy. It’s always much easier to go forward through time than to go backwards. We must have slipped ahead a few millenia when the ship malfunctioned. That would at least explain why Kayla was having so much trouble staying in sync with us. I said a silent prayer to whatever higher-dimensional being might listen that she would make it back safely to the ship, and soon.

As we glided slowly towards the alien ship-thing a message came in broad spectrum, displayed on my screen:

“We have seen you before.”