It was her second week in the department when Andrea was called into one of the back rooms. She knew of the two hallways leading out of the timeline observation room, but had been so engulfed in her learning that she had not explored them. A call for assistance from a Supervisor sounded on the internal messaging system. Having no idea what type of assistance she was meant to provide, she walked down one of the back hallways to the chamber she had been directed toward. The oversized door slid up and away, assaulting her with color and humidity.
Inside was a jungle. The ground was covered in hard-packed, wet dirt and decomposing wood chips. The light had a grey-blue quality about it that was very different from the regular yellow brightness of natural sunlight. The plants were large, tall, and dark green. The male Supervisor's voice spoke out of thin air above Andrea.
"I need you to run straight ahead. There is a rock formation. I am inside."
Andrea was puzzled, but complied nonetheless. She ran across the constructed environment heading toward the rock, but before she arrived, something stopped her.
There was a creature standing outside the entrance to the gaping mouth of a cave.
It turned and stared at her, seven feet tall and standing on two legs like a human, except it wore no coverings and had a short nub of a tail. The creature glared at her with golden marble eyes and moved one arm in a circle.
It took Andrea a moment to realize it was motioning her forward. Unsure of what to do, she took a slow step forward.
"Intern! I need you now!"
The prompting to move and the presence of the lizard-man were in contradiction with her instincts. After a few moments of standing in place, her perception widened. There were more of the creatures standing about. A sudden jolt from deep inside herself made Andrea move. She ran into the cave, which was lit and had some modern conveniences. She went deeper into the cave, searching for the source of the call, head swinging in every direction, including behind her. She was not being followed, but the sense of it was strong. She went past several alcoves in the fake rock. In one, she saw clothes rack full of suits, like some sort of dressing room. Finally, she came upon the source of the call.
"That took you long enough! What happened?" The man in the Supervisors uniform asked. She had seen this Supervisor once before in passing, but knew his name only because she memorized the work roster for the department as part of her familiarization. He was young and had brown short hair over light brown skin.
Supervisor Max Caisoni was on his knees, wearing a disposable gown and had his hands full. The sight of another of the lizard-men lying on its back, about to give birth was even more startling than seeing the first standing near the mouth of the cave.
"It's a lizard-woman," Andrea said, correcting herself.
"Gown up and bring me the E-stim," he said, turning back to the creature. "Tell me this is not the first time you have seen a Garlon?"
"A what?" Andrea said pulling on the sleeves of the gown. She glanced at the instruments in the case on the wall and started searching for the device. Luckily, every thing was labeled and she found the device the Supervisor asked for. The E-stim appeared to be a pair of screwdriver handles stuck side by side, the terminating ends wrapped in glass.
"Alright, next step...” Caisoni said more to himself than to her. He took the E-stim from Andrea and set it aside without a look.
Andrea knelt and watched with wide eyes as the Supervisor massaged the belly and the Lizard-baby began to push out.
"Pull that basin over here!" the Supervisor snapped.
Andrea couldn't tell if he was a snappy person or it was just the stress of what was happening. She took a moment to look around and found several other Garlons standing at the entrance of this cavern, sneaking a peak at the action. One of the creatures at the opening mewed like a cat, and it got the Supervisor's attention.
"It's fine!" he shouted over his shoulder. "Here it comes!"
The baby pushed out, with a flood of black fluids, into Caisoni's waiting arms. He set the new creature down on the straw-covered ground and snatched up the E-stim. Pressing it to the neonate’s thorax, the sound of a cameras flash shocked the little lizard. The beast went limp and the Caisoni poured water over its face from the basin.
"What are you doing to it?" Andrea asked, but the Supervisor ignored her.
After the quick rinse, he drew a metal scalpel from a pocket under his gown. Before Andrea could protest, he slit along the newborn's mouth line, cutting through a thin membrane that appeared to have grown over the mouth. Next, he picked up a circular breathing mask that lay nearby and pressed it over the recently opened mouth. A quick sucking sound and a blast of air shot into the tiny creature, filling it back to life. The baby lizard tensed up and attempted to roll back into a ball.
"You are fine little fella, let me just open your nostrils..." Caisoni spoke as he once again worked with his scalpel. "There, all fixed."
The mother Garlon had gotten up as soon as the child was out and watched in fascination, squatting over the humans as they worked. Once the infant's airway was totally open, its chirping cries became stronger and the mother snatched it away. As fast as Andrea had arrived and watched the birth, the mother disappeared from the cavern with her new brood. With the excitement evaporated, the two humans were left in the cave with the otherworldly birth mess.
"You have been an Intern for how long? And you haven't seen a Garlon?"
"Two weeks. Was I supposed to have seen them before?" Andrea replied. They were sitting on a patio in the side of the small rock mountain, drinking bulbs of an unfamiliar juice after cleaning up from the infant's arrival.
"Most Keepers have heard about them, one time or another. I just figured that you would have been briefed. It is our department that deals with their kind exclusively," the Supervisor said.
"I still don't quite understand... what are they, exactly?"
"Garlon are trained and used as Enforcers. They are utilized in place of humans as muscle when we need to go back and stop an event from occurring. We have found the psychological impact of their appearance to be quite effective against select targets," he said.
"Yeah, plus the fact that humans have continued to shun physical violence over the past hundred years," Andrea said. "Where do they come from? Were they genetically produced? "
"I don't know the particulars of their origin, but I have heard tales. One goes that they were a product of the first timeline repair. Another part of it is that the Mistress made a decision to bring them back to the present when the timeline was fixed."
"So they are a paradox themselves?" The young Intern asked her superior.
"That's the story. But, even if it is true, they do serve a key role within the organization," Caisoni said.
"How intelligent are they? Why did you have to help that female give birth?" Andrea asked, troubled by the prospect of the existence of another species, which were a result of a paradox. Working for the department that prevented such violations of logic confused her. The use of these methods felt so contradictory to what she knew of the Keepers.
"Oh, they are smart. Maybe that is why the Mistress couldn't let them get erased from existence. The males we use as Enforcers have the mental capacity of an average twelve-year-old and the discipline of a 17th century samurai. But every once and awhile, one of them comes out needing their airway opened. It's a genetic variant that we can't bread out." He paused, drew in a breath, then continued. "Did you see how I shocked the little guy? They really don't do well with electricity. They get a shock and their brain's reset. It takes about five seconds and doesn't really hurt them. So giving the newborn a small jolt allowed me a few more moments to slice through the membrane that grew over his mouth, without it fighting me. Because I will tell you for sure, they are strong."
"Lizards giving live birth..." Andrea marveled.
"Yes. Our Enforcers are pretty incredible. They understand us just fine but have no larynx to make human sounds. The time devices
they use are usually pre programmed, but do have a few special commands they can give."
"You let them use travel devices un-supervised?"
"Like I said," Caisoni reiterated, standing to go, "They are disciplined and are well taken care of, as you can see. That's not to say we don't have transmitters implanted under their scales so that we can track them, should something go wrong. But I'll tell you; I have never heard of an Enforcer ever causing a single problem in the timeline or making a serious mistake, which is more than I can say for our kind."
The Supervisor left, leaving Andrea alone to meditate on the existence of a paradoxical, intelligent species that had been right under her nose. Osorio was right; the timeline preservation department did have a grey hue to its morals. Preservation of the arrow of time was undeniably critical, but at what cost? Down, she felt herself drifting deeper. How far down would working in this department take her?
CHAPTER 11