Andromeda

Ali tumbled through the cyan mass encircling the portal with Polaris in his arms, and Andromeda was about to scold him that this was no time for romance, until she saw the huge slit in the android's abdomen.

Panic almost overtook Andromeda at the sight of the smoke rising from the wires, almost a repeat of the incident on Infinity, until she remembered that she was purely mechanical and no amount of fear could sway her programming. There was no time to treat Polaris's wounds; they had to utilize whatever escape method Alistair had planned out, right now.

"Alistair," Andromeda breathed, "let's do this."

Ali delivered a brief nod and pulled what looked like handcuffs from out of his pocket. He attached one of the cuffs around his own wrist and the other around Polaris's. "I hope you don't mind, Andromeda. I'll come back for you."

She nodded. "Just go."

Ali bit his lip, swiped along the surface of the handcuffs to configure the settings, and pressed a button.

And then, it was like nothing Andromeda had ever seen before. It was as if the fabric of space-time was literally curving around Ali and Polaris; a dark opening split behind them, sucking them into it and warping their images at the same time, and Andromeda had to hold onto the bed to keep from falling into the hole with them. Just as the sucking feeling became unbearable and her fingers slipped from the edge of Ali's bed, the opening sealed again, and Andromeda stumbled to the floor. Even teleportation didn't have such an effect on the environment, but the only other possible explanations were dimension-jumping and time-traveling, both of which were quite impossible.

She stood up and dusted herself off, and found herself looking straight into Ali's bright eyes again. He clicked one of the cuffs onto her wrist and pressed the same button, and then she was falling, falling with him, holding onto his torso desperately--she couldn't breathe, but it wasn't an unpleasant feeling; she didn't require air anyway.

Andromeda had no idea how much time had passed--it didn't feel like time had stood still, but it certainly didn't feel like time was moving forward. As she shook her head to clear her thoughts and opened her eyes, feeling oddly refreshed, she realized that, indeed, time had not stood still at all.

It'd gone backwards.

Ali

Alistair looked around to confirm that it'd worked, and the sight of Polaris standing in front of him affirmed his lingering question. He'd set his time machine for one hundred years in the past, so that no matter how long they decided to stay, there was practically no way they'd end up conflicting with the 23rd-century timeline. And if they did, well, they'd be far too old to do any real damage, and nearing death anyway.

So it was...2117. Probably. If his invention had functioned perfectly. Every trip to the past was instantaneous in the present, so although Andromeda had experienced no passing time, in reality Ali had already taken around an hour to fix Polaris's system as well as he could.

"Okay," he sighed, throwing his head back to look at the faded blue sky. "We've gone back in time by 100 years. And after the trip I just took with Polaris, I tried to fix her. She should be functioning now. Mostly."

Andromeda nodded at him, understanding. He was glad that he didn't need to explain any further as he'd have had to do with almost any other person he knew.

Polaris

Andromeda was looking around with a bewildered expression on her face. It was the first time Polaris had ever seen her caught off-guard by the sheer reality of it all: they'd gone back in time.

"Stars, Polaris," Andromeda murmured, looking down to stare Polaris in her eyes. She almost flinched under Andromeda's piercing blue gaze. "Where are we?"

"You mean, when are we," Ali smirked. "We're in the year 2117. I set the time machine for a century in the past, so if we somehow end up interfering with the future—well, present—timeline, then we'll be over 100 years old anyway. Too old to do any damage."

Polaris swallowed and tried to stand up. Her abdomen was still throbbing, although Alistair had assured her that she was fine. Well, as fine as she'd get. Ali was no mechanic, after all, and 2117 hadn't a fraction of the technology that was prevalent everywhere in 2217.

There was something troubling her, even as she swayed on her feet and reached out to grab Andromeda's shoulder to steady herself. Polaris closed her eyes, trying to put her finger on it. Something off-setting, almost making her disoriented...

Oh. She couldn't remember anything that'd happened within the past hour.

"Ali, I can't remember anything," she blurted without thinking. Alistair glanced at her, a brief flutter of shock overtaking his face—so brief that Polaris couldn't even remember if it had been there.

"Oh, yeah. I had to shut you down while fixing you."

"But that's happened before, and—"

"It's fine, Polaris. Don't worry about it," Ali said, smiling at her. "You might experience some memory problems for a bit. Doesn't matter, you'll be back to your old self before you know it."

"All right, then," she murmured. Ali was the genius here. Ali and Andromeda.

Polaris felt that familiar crushing sensation that always came with feeling inferior. Even though they were her friends, and Ali certainly treated her as his equal (Polaris thought Andromeda might be getting a little closer), she couldn't help but worry.

She took a moment to take in her surroundings. They were standing in a park, with foliage blooming around them—all different shades of yellow-green, dotted with pale pink and purple flowers. Petals lay splayed across the sidewalk, and the sunlight sifting through the trees created the impression of light dancing across Andromeda's metallic skin, reflecting even more than normal.

"Extra-shiny," Polaris giggled.

"What?" Andromeda said, raising her eyebrows.

"Nothing. Never mind."

Ali wrinkled his nose and looked up at the leaves above him. "Okay, quick history lesson. I didn't want to take us too far back in time, for fear of changing the present timeline too much, but 2117 happens to be, uh, kind of in the middle of a war."

Andromeda inhaled forcefully. "I can see why you're the genius of the college," she said, gritting her teeth.

"Shut up. Okay, so, continuing the history lesson. Lots of nuclear weapons. Luckily, they never used an atomic bomb in California, so we're safe," Ali said, grinning sheepishly at them. "I mean, we're protected from radiation. Mostly. We've just got to worry about the normal bombs..."

"You absolute idiot!" Andromeda yelled, throwing her arms in the air. "Why would you bring us into the middle of a nuclear war?"

Ali winced and looked at his shoes. "2117 was the year—is the year—when the ISA is founded. I thought...I thought we might be able to figure out something about the mass android killing. Or prevent it, somehow."

Andromeda looked like she was torn between choking him and hugging him to death.

"Okay," Polaris piped up. "That just means we have to find a safe place. Somewhere to stay—we can say we're homeless or something—"

Both Ali and Andromeda were looking at her as if she'd just suggested they only eat barbecued slug brains for the rest of their lives. Andromeda recovered first.

"First of all, Polaris, I am not going to spend the rest of my artificial life rotting away in a homeless shelter. Second, we can't even eat. I mean, I can't eat; I don't know about you Serfdroids." Polaris shook her head. She was also physically unable to eat food. "Okay, yeah, do you know how out-of-place we'll look? And thirdly, most importantly, we need to go to Caltech."

It was so obvious, Polaris couldn't believe that she'd suggested being homeless.

"Oh," she laughed. "Right. Of course."

"Okay, let's go, then," Ali grinned. "And hope that we don't die on the way!"

"Not funny, Alistair," Andromeda sighed, but Polaris noticed that she was fighting a smile.

Ali

He was so, so glad that Polaris wasn't Andromeda.

There was no way Andromeda would have accepted his half-hearted explanation for her memory loss. She'd have drilled him until his story completely fell through, and he'd have no choice but to admit the major loophole. It was also a good thing that Andromeda hadn't been paying attention when Polaris asked Alistair about her malfunctioning memory.

He stepped over an animatronic frog spinning around on the ground.

"What choice did you have?" he whispered to himself, trying to stop the onslaught of tears. Jesus Christ. If Ali was going to do this, at least his hormonal urges could do him a favor and shut the hell up.

He kicked a twig lying on the pavement. "Feisty," Polaris murmured from behind him, and Ali laughed, despite himself, and despite that being the unfunniest thing he'd ever heard.

Andromeda

When they reached Caltech, Andromeda sighed in disappointment.

She'd expected some kind of old-timey, totally underdeveloped building that was drastically different from the 23rd-century version. But it looked virtually the same, albeit a bit smaller.

"Where are we going?" Andromeda asked as Ali leaped up the stairs, three at a time.

"The dorms," he said, smiling over his shoulder at her. "Obviously."

***

The co-ed dormitories of California Institute of Technology impressed Andromeda. A lot. According to Alistair, the students used to reside in "houses" and "fraternities" and whatnot.

Ali hacked through the security system like it was nothing. The ten-story building had only a few vacancies, but he managed to find a rather spacious one for them. "Someone might be moving in soon," he explained, "and that's when we move out." Andromeda disapproved greatly, but the Andromeda 100 years later had stolen a car and crashed a spacecraft without blinking an eye, so she supposed she couldn't be too prissy about this.

They were staying in Room 7502 (seventh floor, fifth wing, second room). The moment Ali successfully opened the door, Polaris squealed in pure glee and rushed inside to crash on the bed. (It was a magnetically-supported bunk bed, one mattress hanging precariously above the other.)

"This is paradise!" she nearly screamed, bouncing up and down on the lower mattress.

"It's literally a room," Andromeda said dryly. She had to admit, though, it was a pretty damn nice room.

An array of books packed the shelves above the two desks that sat opposite each other, colored dark ash grey in stark contrast to the white-washed walls. The floorboards were smooth wood, and the room even boasted a large kitchen. A fridge, pots and pans, and a stove were already provided.

"Do you have money, Ali?" Polaris asked, her eyes lighting up.

"Uh, I have a dollarChip, but I don't know if it'll work on these iBanks...I mean, my account technically doesn't exist yet..."

Polaris sighed. "Do you have anything we can sell? I mean, come on. We need food."

"You technically don't—" Andromeda started, but Polaris cut her off.

"I need more than one set of clothes. Is that too much to ask?"

Ali shrugged. "It's okay, Polaris. We'll find money eventually. And, until then, we're just playing the role properly; college kids are traditionally broke."

Polaris closed her eyes and flopped down on the top bunk. "I love you guys," she said.

"Kinda random for a robot who's just travelled 100 years back in time and is now trapped in the greatest crisis of her life," Andromeda muttered.