Timesong

To his right, a young, dirt covered French woman cowered in the trench, her arms wrapped tightly around her infant son, who appeared to be about three years old. He pointed desperately to the heavy metal box near her, which contained another ammunition belt.

"Please bring that to me!" He said, trying his best to explain with gestures. Finally, reluctantly, she released her grip on her son, grabbed the handle of the box, and crouching low, dragged it over to him. He opened it, dragged out the ammo belt, and loaded it into the feeding mechanism. He heard a sharp cry from the woman. The toddler had clambered over the top of the trench and was walking towards the building.

"Stephan!" She shouted, and started over the top after him. There was a sharp cracking sound, and she fell back into the trench in a sitting position, staring blankly at the rapidly spreading red stain above her heart. Eric stared, horrified, and swung back to see the boy as another crack rang out, tossing the boy back several feet. He was dead before he hit the ground. The flash of the last shot betrayed the sniper’s position.

"No!" Eric screamed, as he poured hundreds of rounds into the sniper’s position. A rifle fell out of the ruined window, followed by an arm dangling over the side. Eric leapt to the woman’s side. Her face was gray as the life blood flowed out of her. Recognition brought him to startled awareness.

"Maya!" He yelled, grabbed her hand, and urged "Think back to our last destination!" He squeezed his eyes shut in panicky concentration.

And opened them in the holosuite, where their mysterious host still sat. The chair rapidly transformed into a recliner to accommodate the now supine Maya. He rushed to her side.

"Is she all right?" He worriedly asked their host.

"I was about to answer her questions, when she suddenly slumped in her chair," he replied. "No doubt it was a stressful timeshift."

"You have no idea," Eric replied. Medical equipment had rapidly extruded from the floor and was diagnosing Maya’s condition.

"She will revive very shortly," the medical program announced. "She has suffered shock from perceived trauma, but has sustained no permanent damage."

Maya came to groggily. "Now I know how it feels to take a bullet in the heart. God, I’m beginning to see the down sides of this experience." Then she remembered, and tears began to come to her eyes.

"My son... I had a son.... and I lost him," she whispered brokenly, and began to weep.

"The loss of a loved one in a timeshift can be very traumatic," their host said.

"You will be well again very soon." While Eric comforted her, he continued his discourse.

"To answer your questions in the order they were asked, firstly, the aliens, though highly advanced, cannot for some reason travel the time continuum without a material host, but more of that later. Nothing happens to the human souls of the bodies they inhabit --- all that happens is that those particular souls will no longer be subjected to as many involuntary time shifts --- their points in the continuum will be ‘covered,’ so to speak, by the alien entity in their place. And when their human body dies, they take the normal path of transmigration of the soul to the next point. Most, though not all of them usually forget their alien capabilities and roots, but do not seem to mind this loss in exchange for ongoing existence.