i made certain calibrations to my suit, the adjustments would offer me an glimpse out of the time stream at some events from the past. they say that empires fall over a few years but the cities of the west fell in a matter of milliseconds, no one even had time to register the event, say goodbye or make an escape plan, it was a beautiful aesthetic, blink and you missed it, eyes wide open and you wouldn't have seen it coming.
the suit had a tachyon inhibitor field generator, a sort of temporal force field, with some added tweaks one of which was the camera systems and recording devices. these allowed a good panoramic mega high resolution, synchronised with the eyes anything i saw would be up for the lab people to enhance, i record as much as i can close to the epicentre, they look for the anomaly. they could zoom in to any zone of the event, microscopic resolution, so if i didn't get a visual on the saboteurs, some of the lab geeks would.
as i suited up i watched the rest of the team running around the lab, huge monitors and panels checked my life support systems, there were teams of personnel for each of my senses, but the one person who stood out from everyone was the sexy redhead elenor gaye, the clinical physiologist who had prepped me for the event.
i watched her going about her business, leaning over at people hunched over monitors speaking in some techno babble code, making certain everything was safe. it was easy not to like her, she was smart and clinical, had nice natural features, no bullshit.
when she came over i looked down as i was still strapped into the suit and hoisted up on a kind of metal structure that supported the suit until i went virtual.
'how you feeling mission?'
'i feel fine up here, it's like being on a crucifix in some weird science fiction future.'
'mmm, interesting analogy, do you think you are being crucified?'
'i forgive you all, i hope you know what you're doing.'
'it's not a joking matter, how do you feel?'
'i'm as ready as i can be. how long?'
'we will start countdown as soon as i get the confirmation, i'd say under 5 mins.'
'time for a kiss then?'
'when you get back, now... be professional.'
i smile and try to return to a theta state of relaxation somewhere i hear the faint countdown....
the sound is like a muffled 'whump' and suddenly i'm over the city of new baal, instantly recognisable from the archaeologist museum, i can make out the sandstone brickwork, the twisting turrets and towers, that dmt type architecture, the domed rooftops of mosques and temples and the layer of heat that hangs over the city like a thick blanket. i see hordes of people, mostly walking under shaded canopies and through the market ways, small narrow streets, a few cars but mostly pedestrians and robed holy people, a few police and military folk, uniforms stand out dramatically and when my display lights up running a list of figures and statistics, i scan around looking for a place to move into.
i'm on the street now, the smell of food assaults me, cooking sizzling flesh fumes makes me feel sick, the strange aromatic herbs are enticing, there's a whiff of salt in the air and then there's a scream and then everything goes white. i'm blind for a moment only it's not dark, its light, to much light.
i'm back, people fuss over me, disconnecting me from the suit, someones taking of my boots and i feel like i am slowly being peeled free, i fall into peoples hands and for a short time they carry me to a chair where some one is shining a penlight in my eyes and another inspects my gums, 'alright, alright, i'm fine, leave me alone for a moment, i just need some space.'
enola comes towards me, she kisses me on my lips, 'welcome back'

after getting cleaned up i walk into the video labs and watch the huge screen where my visual feed is displayed. it's amazing, cinema sized film of all my video lines, being played out before me. a small team operates the controls, they are looking for the source of the explosion.
it takes a few white screens before we see an event, the screamer. she's a young woman around 20 years old, nothing remarkable about her excepts she screams and points, we track along, following the direction of her finger while the frame is frozen and there it is, hovering in the air another suited figure like me.
enola and i are running some tests, she's checking out my emotional state and the results are not good. 
'you're different, somethings happened to you.'
'i'm the same elona, it's me, i'm just a little shocked i guess.'
'mmm..' elona is unconvinced.
the geeks in the lab call us inside, they reckon they have pin pointed another event, this time the other suited guy seems to be holding some sort of trigger device. they zoom in and we can see it's a triggered pad, obviously activating something. i suggest its a device that sends him home, much like the one in the control room here. 'whomever sent him or her must have wanted their asset returned before the explosion.'
'maybe that was the explosion trigger, a suicide mission.'
later elona calls me back to her offices, 'sit down mission,' she says.
i look around at the photo's on the walls, pictures of her achievements, meeting famous scientists, military men and some world leaders, quite a highly regarded doctor.
'what's up doc?'
she holds up two cardiograph charts, 'see these?'
'yeah, heart monitors, they mine?'
'yes, both are yours, one taken before and one after.'
i nod.
'problem is they are different.'
she goes on to explain the discrepancy, something about one chart having an arrhythmic difference to the other. 
'so what are you saying doc?'
'these are two different hearts.'
'could one be a result of the trip?'
'no, these are two different hearts.'
'how is that possible?'
'the only suggestion is your another captain mission. the other figure we saw on camera, from another time line, sent back at exactly the same moment from that timelines future and we pulled back the wrong captain.
'but it's me, i know you, you know me.'
'yes it would seem that way but there are slight differences, the other captain mission was slightly different than you, i couldn't put my finger on it at first but you did feel different, you are the same but different.'
'i do feel slightly out of whack but to suggest im a completely different individual from a different time is extreme. where is the other captain mission?
'he must have been pulled back to your time line, or else he died in the explosion.'
'what about the trigger device, what was that all about?'
'two time lines send both their captain missions back to a catastrophic event to record the event. one captain mission has a trigger device to return to his time line, the other is controlled by his team who are not displaced in time. the other captain, you, activate the trigger device but it returns you to the wrong timeline. when we simultaneously activate our trigger our captain mission returns to your original time line.
'but why? what would have caused that to happen?
the boffins think it just transgresses the laws of causality. the two captains should not exist in the same timeline, even if it was not your own, the fact you both got within proximity may have even caused the cataclysm that we sent you to record and the result to you is a cross wires effect, but with time not telephone lines.'
'fuck, enola, that's a fucking guilt trip and a half to lay on me.'
'it's not yours to take personally, we all did this, both timelines destroyed a third timeline.'
'are you certain this is the only explanation.'
'it's the only one that makes any sense.'
'then i have to make it right, you have to, we all do.'
'i don't think we can, how?
'by sending me back, i can warn the other captain mission, perhaps if we are there for just a moment it won't cause a glitch,' then as an afterthought, 'maybe filming another timeline and then taking that time line out of it's line effects the causality of the time line it is returned to?'
'yes, there's so many variables, it's far to risky.'
'i have to do something, let's try it.'
their lab is almost identical, the people all the same only i am different, a man out of his time. 
i clamber up the steps and hook myself into the suit, wait for the team to run the diagnostics and make whatever calibrations were necessary.
i hear the countdown start from 100, elona runs up to me and wishes me good luck, the helmet lock is activated and i can now only hear my own breathing, 'whompph...' the sound makes as we pass through the temporal shift and suddenly i'm over new baal.
i look to my left and see him out of the corner of my eyes, he pops into existence but almost immediately is followed by another, and another, and another...soon the whole sky is filled with versions of me all sent by other timelines, i'm everywhere, just hundreds of me in my temporal suit filling up the sky, one by one, until the sky becomes filled with various versions of me. 
my brain can't process it, it's to much, like a strange horror film where the end is the big twist you never saw coming, i see the skies darken with figures, and we all scream.