Tom Fleet was a bit of a misfit as the second son of a minor English noble in the 1880s. Once he finished his schooling he had little to do. His grandfathers had left him adequate finances for his needs and with his elder brother set to take the title, he gave in to his fascination with gadgets and began to tinker and invent. His goal was to create a sky craft to go to the moon. Surely if Jules Verne’s characters could go there and many other places, he could do as well.<br><br>Rowan Farrell followed in his Uncle Gordon’s footsteps, joining the UniFleet, but went a step farther and became an officer. Assigned to his first command level post, he takes a small patrol ship out to scout a region of interest to the Council and report if any signs of the enemy Angevirian Empire in the area. When one of his crew spots a strange, tiny craft, he decides to capture and study it. After all it could be an Angevirian Trojan horse. But the odd cylindrical vessel holds only one man, unconscious and suffering from hypothermia and lack of oxygen. When the man comes to, he claims to come from the earth ... five centuries in the past!

Tom Fleet’s Machine

From the remarks of both Doc and Rowan, he assumed he was aboard some kind of craft. What came next? He had no clue, but curiosity had begun to overcome his worries. At long last, he found himself in the midst of the adventure of his life. However it ended, he would have this forever. Even if he awoke to find it all a dream…


Rowan had gone back to the control room with some reluctance. When he considered the weird vessel and its passenger, pilot or whatever the guy was could be an Angevire distraction, he knew he needed to see what was going on. When he stepped through the door into the cabin, he found Jost at the controls. Everything appeared normal.


The engineer shook his head. “You’re the one who’s seen that. Empty as a dead asteroid out here.”


Chapter 8