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for which they had trained seemed at odds with the current reality.
    Arriving on Earth in what on the humans’ calendar was the year 1944, Adlar and his fellow operatives had found no sign either of the Na’khul agents or their influence on the massive conflict that had been dubbed “the Second World War.” Rather than being dominated by the nation-states of Germany and Japan, the United States and its allies instead were on the offensive against both enemy powers, in keeping with the planet’s allegedly “correct” timeline.
    A massive invasion of the European continent had forced the German military toward ultimate defeat, followed mere months later by Japan’s unconditional surrender. The latter victory had come at a tremendous cost, with the Americans being the first in their world’s history to unleash the overwhelming fury of nuclear weapons on an enemy target.
    In the wake of the war, an unprecedented era of prosperity was taking hold, particularly here in the United States. Still, new enemies and tensions were making themselves known, with another powerful nation, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, asserting itself as the primary contender against American interests throughout the world. Scarcelythree years after the end of the war, and already it was apparent that tensions between the two factions likely would dominate the political discourse for years, or even decades, driving the military-industrial complex of both nations along with smaller powers across the planet to push for ever more advanced weapons and other technology.
    “The longer we remain here,” Gejalik said, “the more obvious it becomes that Earth’s proper timeline—or, most of it, at least—appears to have been restored. And, the longer we go without contact from our people, the more I think that events there are not the same as they once were, either. Is the war over?”
    Adlar shook his head as he bit into a piece of bacon from his plate. “We have no way of knowing,” he replied after swallowing.
    It was even possible that in this timeline, Earth no longer posed a threat to his people. With no means of contacting anyone off-world, it was not possible to learn whether the temporal conflict had ended, let alone what might have brought about its conclusion or its lasting impacts on the many affected planets and civilizations. Returning to Certoss Ajahlan without external assistance was not an option, at least so far as utilizing the time-displacement mechanisms that had engineered their transport to Earth. Faced with being marooned here for the foreseeable future, the operatives by consensus had decided that their first duty aside from avoiding discovery was to carry out their mission’s other objective: preventing humans from gaining the technology required to one day pose a threat to the Certoss people.
    From the information on Earth’s future history he and the others had been given, Adlar knew that the aviation advances currently being made—including yesterday’s firstsuccessful supersonic flight—soon would give way to the aerospace age as the United States and its most formidable competitor, the U.S.S.R., fought for supremacy beyond the confines of their small planet.
    It was this push for space that, if Adlar’s grasp of human history was correct, would provide the Certoss agents their best opportunity to accomplish their mission. It was the realization of that goal that was proving difficult, owing in large part to the fact that much of the technology that their group might purloin from humanity for their own uses had not yet been invented.
    “We cannot wait too long to regain contact with Jaecz,” Gejalik said. “Etlun will be here within the week, and after that we’ll be forced to make a decision.”
    Adlar nodded in agreement. He looked forward to Etlun’s return, as he had missed her presence during the past weeks. During their time on Earth, they had forged a personal bond on which he had come to