Page 132 of Rangers Last Promise

Doc doesn't speak for several seconds.

“You said Twenty-Three never existed.”

“It didn't.”

“Then how did we see it?”

“You saw what was left after someone erased it.”

“Who?”

“Fred Miller can tell you.”

“Where is he?”

A scraping sound comes through the transmitter.

Then a groan.

Miller.

“I'm here,” an older male voice says.

Doc goes silent.

“Captain?”

“Been a long time, Shaw.”

I hear something in Doc’s breathing.

Fifteen years disappears for him in an instant.

“Did you send us into that valley?”

Miller doesn't answer.

“Captain.”

“Yes.”

My stomach drops.

Wolf curses through the tactical channel.

Doc's voice remains frighteningly calm.

“Why?”

“Because I was ordered to.”

“By whom?”

Miller coughs.

“Hampton.”

Everything inside me stops.