A/N This is a prequel to my other FanFic, 'The Other TimeRider'. You should probably read that first for everything to make more sense, if you haven't already. Forgive me that my story doesn't always stick to the facts of the books (TR5 & 6), but I'd already written 'The Other TimeRider', and I enjoyed writing about them all so….this long a/n is over. Enjoy!

Tômas locked his bedroom door behind him. He could still hear them laughing downstairs, Mia, Kylie and Sophie; his genius older sisters. He was a genius too, of course. They'd been mocking him. He'd got the math equation they were working on wrong. They always had to be better, it made his blood boil. Maybe he wasn't quite as good at maths as they were, but he was better at ICT. He had to be better than them, at least at something.

…

"Tom!" Alistair did a double take as he noticed the tall-ish fifteen year old casually hanging about outside the reactor cylinder. "What are you doing? You haven't got your coat or goggles on! Who let you in? What are you up to?" Tom smiled reassuringly and waved a hand casually.
"It's OK. I just wanted to ask your scientists some questions, for my science assessment."
"Tom, you're only year ten. What goes on here is the kind of science you get in a physics degree. I'd at least save this kind of thing for your A levels"
"No way. I have to know, now. I have to! Don't you get it? Mia, Sophie and Kylie are finishing their A levels, if they don't already know this stuff they will soon. I can't let them get too far ahead!" Alistair shook his head.
"You're way too paranoid Tom" Alistair observed, shaking his head. Tom ignored his comment.
"Can I go on through?" He asked impatiently.
"Go on. But get some goggles and a lab coat first. And I need to check that nothing important is going on. They experiment with EMP's in there you know. All you need is one extra strong blast to kill you" Alistair gave Tom one last despairing look and went off to check all was clear. As soon as he turned a corner, Tom looked to the number combination code; too simple. The numbers '2' 5' '1' and '9' were all a tad faded and sticky with sweat.
The lab was located in a small town. Mostly because it was somewhere no one would miss if the experiments accidentally blew it up. Tom used to live in Oxford but he'd been forced to move a year or so ago. The place was small enough for him to know that the manager at the science lab had a daughter, born on the 5th of October, 2012, which fit those numbers. Tom keyed in the birth date, and after a warning sign flashed for a moment or two, it let him in.
The room was how he expected. Empty, other than the CCTV in the corner which would let Alistair know any second he'd broken in. In the middle was the pulse generator. The orange light was showing which Tom presumed meant it was charging for the next experiment. Footsteps made him turn around on his heels.
"Alistair? Sorry, but I-" Tom stopped. It wasn't the new science graduate, but an old man with white hair and a long face.
"Who're-"
"Who am I?" The man finished. Tom nodded, annoyed. "My name is Amado" Tom frowned a little.
"Not a common name. And it's my dad's. I haven't seen you around before, do you-" Amado raised a hand to silence Tom, much to his frustration.
"Sorry, we haven't got much time. Take my hand, and you can live. In two minutes Sasha Whitley will press the go ahead for the EMP generator without checking the CCTV. It isn't a little wave, this is serious stuff. You'll be locked in and killed, the electric pulse will kill your cells and there won't be much, if anything, left of you. No one knows that you're in here. Poor Alistair will never even consider that you might have broken in, unless you take my hand right now. I'll take you elsewhere, it'll be a half-life, but-" This time Tom cut him off.
"Elsewhere? Without my sisters? Take my hand! Grab hold of it! Get me out of here!" The old man gave a withering look and obliged, as Tom fell down and down into forever.