Whispers of Time

by Gwendolyn Ilimaris

  “Get out of here before someone sees you. We’ll finish this conversation later,” he snarled while he rubbed his fingers. She pushed off the floor and got back to her feet before making her way for the stairs. She stumbled a couple times since she was still disoriented from hitting the chair.

  “Hurry up!” Sara flinched at the tone of his voice and scurried out of the room. Once she made her way down the stairs, she started to cry. She had no idea what to do. He was going to lie and say that Jake hurt her. The more she thought about it the more panicked she was becoming. Nearing the point of hyperventilation, she ran into the cargo hold of the plane. She was frantic as she searched for a place to hide. When she noticed that the Blackhawk helicopter had been left open, she headed for it. She moved to climb inside but as soon as her hand touched the side the gauges and lights on it began to power up. Jerking her hands back she stared at them with wild eyes, as she scrambled backwards and bumped into the tank that was secured behind the helicopter. As soon as she made contact with it, it also began to power up. It tried to roll forward and broke one of the chains securing it. Sara barely had time to jump to the side as it lurched to the right and caused a massive shift in the weight of the plane. The sudden change caused the plane to lean to the right, and Sara, already off balance from the jump, fell and slid into the wall. She slammed into the side of the plane and touched it with both hands.

  “No! No,” she cried.

  “Calm down.” Sara heard the voice in her head again when the lights in the plane started to flicker like it was losing power.

  “What do I do?” Her voice was frantic as she cried out to the voice that was speaking to her.

  “Calm down, nothing can be fixed if you are not calm.” Sara tried her best to calm down but was even more panicked after hearing the voice again. She looked up and suddenly realized the pilot had been able to quickly correct the pitch of the plane, it was once again level. Sara jumped to her feet and ran, careful not to touch anything else, until she found a small alcove. She darted inside and just sat down where she was and focused on her breathing. When she was almost breathing normally again, she looked down at her hands and noticed that the electricity she had seen appeared to be gone. She put her head in her hand. What was happening to her?

  Seconds later she heard a loud commotion, and she peaked out of the alcove. There were several soldiers running around trying to secure the tank so that the plane would once again be stable. The loadmaster was yelling commands as they worked.

  “Fields! What in the hell is going on down here?” A man asked as he rapidly approached the loadmaster from somewhere in the front of the plane.

  “I’m not sure, Captain Anders. It’s the strangest thing. It appears the tank turned on somehow and snapped one of the cables securing it. We’re doubling them right now and should have the load secured momentarily.”

  “Turned on? That shouldn’t be possible if all procedures were followed to the letter sergeant,” Captain Anders snapped.

  Sergeant Fields nodded his head in acknowledgment. “Yes sir, I know, and I’ve already verified the check off sheets. Everything looks like it was done according to procedure.” He handed the paperwork to the captain.

  “Major Vollen will want to speak about this after we land. That was a huge shift in load and threatened the safety of this entire aircraft. This can’t happen again.”

  “Yes sir,” Fields answered with a grimace as he watched the captain head back toward the front of the plane. Shaking his head, he turned his attention back to the tank. When he saw the men were finished, he made his way around the tank to inspect all the lines before dismissing them. He followed them back toward their seats.

  Sara sat back into the alcove again after she watched them all walk away. She sighed when she realized Sergeant Fields was going to get in trouble because of her. She went to rest her head back on her hand when a sharp pain caused her to pull it back. Now that the adrenaline was leaving her system, she was becoming aware of the pain in her face, head, and hand. After sitting for a few minutes more she shook her head and stood to head back. She knew Paige and Jake would be wondering where she was after all this time. When she reached the base of the ladder, she pulled her long bangs forward to cover her face and adjusted the gauze over her burn. It had torn in a couple places when she fell. Once she pulled the hood of her sweatshirt up, she took a deep breath and started to climb. Upon reaching the top, she was careful to keep her head down as she walked toward her seat.

  “Oh, my goodness Sara,” Paige exclaimed. “Where have you been? I thought you got lost.”

  “Sorry,” she mumbled with a shrug. After she sat down, she carefully glanced at Paige through her bangs. She also noticed that Jake was nowhere to be seen.

  “What’s wrong?” Paige demanded.

  “Nothing.”

  Paige stomped over until she was right in front of her, “You know better than to hide something from me. Now tell me what’s up.” She put her hands on her hips which caused Sara to sigh before she pulled her bangs back and lifted her head. “What happened to you? That looks terrible.” Paige’s voice filled with concern when she saw her friend’s face.

  “Colonel Ravencraf--.”

  “He did this?” Paige asked as her eyebrows shot up with an incredulous look. Sara only nodded, and she started to fume. “Oh, he is going to rue the day he messed with you. I’m going to take care of that jerk!” Sara grabbed Paige’s arm before she could walk away.

  “No, you can’t,” she said, her voice urgent. “He’s trying to get Jake into trouble. He wants me to say that Jake did this.”

  Paige’s mouth dropped open as she gaped at her, “He is threatening to mess with my brother? What could that possibly gain him?” Her tone became more and more angry as she spoke.

  “He said something about ruin the son, ruin the father. I think he wants your dad’s rank and job.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Paige snapped, she trembled with rage. “There is no way that jerk would ever be smart enough to take on my brother. He had to stoop so low as to attack you.”

  “Who’s not smart enough?” A voice interjected cutting off Paige’s rant. Both girls looked over to see that Jake had returned. Paige pointed at Sara as soon as she saw her brother.

  “Come and look at what that jerk did to Sara,” she spat. “And, he’s going to try and blame it on you.”

  Jake walked over to them with cautious steps. He knew he was still missing part of the information in the conversation.

  “Who did what?”

  “That jerk colonel. Look at her face, Jake.” Paige pointed at Sara again. This time he saw what she was pointing at. He knelt in front of Sara’s chair and reached up to move her hair out of the way. She had a large bruise over the temple and cheekbone on the left side, and on the other side, there was a large red handprint that was starting to bruise on her cheek. Jake exhaled hard as he clenched the hand he had resting on his knee into a fist.

  “How did this happen?” He asked, his voice taking on a flat almost hollow tone. He was falling back on his training to maintain a calm facade. Sara shifted in her seat. Her head was bothering her, and she did not want to relive anything right now. Jake noticed her hesitation, “You need to tell us what happened. This involves more than just you now.” His tone did not change, and Sara was a bit taken aback. It seemed like he did not care and only wanted information. Her eyes narrowed in irritation before she started to speak. She relayed the events that had taken place with the colonel but was careful to leave out everything about the electrical anomaly. When she was finished, she noticed that Jake was pacing back and forth across the room, and Paige was just watching him.

  “Jak—.” He raised his hand to keep Paige from talking. He appeared to be struggling to keep his frustration in check. After a few moments, he turned to face Sara.

  “I just want to make sure I have all of this straight,” he said, his voice cold. “Ravencraft wants my dad’s job so bad he’s
willing to try and ruin my career by claiming that I assaulted you. And, this is all to damage my dad’s reputation?” By the time he was finished his voice was beginning to rise and Sara only nodded. She had never seen Jake angry and it was making her uncomfortable.

  Without another word, he turned and headed for the ladder, but Paige rushed forward and grabbed his arm.

  “What’re you doing?” She asked. “You can’t go do anything to the colonel as much as he deserves it.”

  Jake pulled his arm out of her grasp. “If he’s going to try to court-martial me over something, then it sure as hell is going to be over something I actually did,” he snapped.

  “No,” she yelled. “You’re better than this. You can’t let that colonel ruin everything you’ve worked so hard for.” She paused, and a look of determination flashed across her face. “I’ll take care of a little revenge.”

  “What?!?” Jake exclaimed, completely losing what calm facade he had left. “You don’t think for a second that I’m going to let you anywhere near that man? That I’d let there be a chance he’d hurt you?”

  “I won’t be anywhere near him. I have a plan in mind.” She looked up at him with a look of complete confidence.

  Jake appeared to momentarily be at a loss for words as he opened and closed his mouth several times before he responded.

  “Are you out of your mind?” He snapped. “Do you know what could happen if you were caught? I forbid you to do anything!”

  Paige glared at her brother, “You aren’t my dad! You can’t keep me from doing anything!”

  A momentary look of pain flashed across Jake’s face before it was quickly replaced by a blank stare.

  “No, I’m not,” he said in a short-controlled voice. “But I have to look after you and I take that job seriously.”

  The anger fled from Paige as soon as she heard her brother’s response, “I’m sorry. That wasn’t fair of me to say.”

  Jake raised an eyebrow before he nodded. He seemed a little suspicious of the sudden change. Paige gave her brother a quick hug before she walked over to sit back down. She glanced over at Sara and noticed she was sitting in the chair holding her head.

  “Don’t you think you should check on Sara? She could have a concussion or something, right?” Paige asked in an innocent voice while she rummaged through her bag. “I think I have some pain killers in here if she can have it.”

  Jake’s full attention shifted to Sara and his face fell when he saw her holding her head. He walked over and sat down in the seat beside her.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, his voice quiet. “I don’t know what I was thinking. Are you all right?”

  “I have a headache,” Sara replied when she could hear the concern in his voice.

  “That is to be expected,” he said, his medical training taking over. “Do you feel nauseous or have any vision changes?” When Sara shook her head no to both questions, he pulled a penlight from one of his pockets. “I’m going to check for pupil reactivity just as a precaution.” He held the light up and quickly flashed the light into each of her eyes. Satisfied with what he saw he put the light away.

  “You’ll probably have a headache for the next couple of days but otherwise everything looks okay. Let me know if you feel nauseous or have any vision changes?” After Sara nodded again, he continued. “Paige said she had some pain reliever if you want some. I think you should take some and try to rest. I’ll be checking on you every little bit for a while.”

  “I think I would like some please,” she whispered.

  Jake turned around to talk to his sister but found she was not in the room. He leapt from his chair and hurried over to the ladder. When he saw that she was not there either he turned around shaking his head.

  “She is going to get herself in so much trouble. She has no clue what she is doing.” He moved over to his sister’s bag. Once he found the pain reliever, he gave some to Sara before he sat down and waited on his sister to return. He did not have to wait long when he heard noise on the ladder, and he got up out of the chair.

  Paige crept back into the room and surprise crossed her face when she saw her brother was no longer helping Sara. She glanced up and found herself facing a very angry older brother. He stood with his arms folded over his chest just watching her.

  “Jake, I… uh… just had to use the bathroom,” she stammered. “I didn’t want to bother you while you were helping Sara.” She looked up at him with the most innocent look she could manage. He continued to regard her silently, and she started to shift under his gaze. “Come on Jake --.”

  “I have nothing to say to you right now,” Jake said when he raised his hand to stop her from talking. “I don’t want to know so if anyone asks me later, I can truthfully say I have no idea what you were doing. Just go sit down, Paige.” She opened her mouth to argue but he pointed at the chair. “Go, Paige!” His voice rose this time and she gave him a dirty look before stomping over to her chair. Jake sighed before returning to his own seat. He hoped this long day was almost over.

  Almost half an hour later a loud commotion could be heard coming from the bottom of the ladder. Sara glanced at Paige who shrugged her shoulders. They both turned to watch Colonel Ravencraft hobble off the ladder with a wad of plastic wrap in his hand. Behind him, two other men followed. Sara pulled her knees up to her chest and shook her hair forward to cover her face as she glanced over at Jake. He was already standing and watching the colonel with a stone-faced expression.

  “I want this man arrested!” The colonel demanded as he threw the wad of plastic wrap at Jake’s feet. “He has assaulted a superior officer. Sergeant Fields, take him into custody.”

  Sergeant Fields shifted under the colonel’s glare but made no move toward Jake.

  “Now colonel sir, I think we need to ascertain a few facts before we arrest anyone,” the third man said with a thick southern drawl and a light chuckle.

  “Major Vollen, I don’t see what the issue is. The plastic wrap that caused me to fall down the stairs did not appear by chance,” Ravencraft snapped at the major.

  Vollen looked down at the colonel. He stood an easy six three with dark bronze skin, brown eyes, and was built like a football linebacker. He could be quite intimidating but most of the time had a refreshingly calm demeanor.

  “I’m sure it didn’t sir,” he replied. “Sergeant Fields, you were present with the colonel when he took his unfortunate tumble, were you not?”

  “Yes sir, I was present.”

  “Did you see anyone else in the vicinity when the colonel fell?” Vollen asked.

  “I didn’t see anyone else.”

  “Very good sergeant,” Vollen said as he faced the colonel again.

  “What difference does that make?” The colonel snapped with a scowl. “Someone had to put it there.”

  “Well sir, since none of these lovely people appear to have plastic wrap in their hands, I’d say we’re missing the needed evidence to make an arrest at this time.”

  The colonel glared at the major as his face began to turn red, “Fine, I won’t pursue the assault on myself, but I won’t let the assault of the young lady go unpunished.” A triumphant gleam flashed in the colonel’s eyes.

  Sara pulled her knees tighter to her chest when three sets of eyes shifted to her. She looked down at her hands.

  “That’s her,” the colonel continued with a smug smile.

  “It wasn’t Jake.” Her voice was quiet but firm. She would not allow this man to blame Jake even if she was afraid of him. Her gaze flicked to Jake from behind her bangs. He was watching her and gave her a barely perceptible reassuring nod before she garnered enough courage to look back at the colonel.

  Major Vollen noticed the subtle interaction, “What did happen to you, young lady? I can see you’ve got a nice shiner there.” She peeked up at him before taking a deep breath. She was trembling with nerves.

  “I fell,” she whispered before looking back at her hands. Vollen nodded as a frown crossed his
face. He already figured out who really was at fault by watching her reactions to Ravencraft.

  “Do you need medical attention?” He asked, his voice gentle.

  “No,” she whispered before she glanced at Jake again. Once she responded to him, Vollen looked over at Jake.

  “It sounds like we have all this figured ou--.”

  “What?” The colonel exclaimed. “You can’t leave it at this! He’s getting away with everything.”

  Vollen spun in place and moved closer to the colonel so he was forced to crane his neck to look up at him.

  “Sir, as far as I can tell, without definite confirmation from the young lady, you would be the only one in trouble if we continued with this. The young lady wishes for it to end now and you should thank your lucky stars,” the major snapped, his eyes flashing with anger. The colonel just stared up at him in stunned silence. “As of now, with everything that has happened with this flight, from the load shift and the instrumentation failure, no one is going anywhere without an escort.”

  “You can’t confine me,” the colonel snapped.

  “As long as you are on my plane, sir, yes I can. I don’t care if you have to take a leak, it will be accompanied by one of my crew.” Vollen looked over at Fields. “Sergeant, escort the colonel back to his seat.”

  Fields gestured to the ladder, “This way please, sir.” The colonel gave Vollen one last furious glare before limping down the ladder. Once the colonel was gone, the major turned to look at Jake with a grin.

  “Oh, my my, you sure know how to make some enemies my friend,” he said with a laugh as he slapped Jake on the back.

  Jake gave a weak smile in return as he let out a huge sigh, “I’m so lucky this happened now, and I had you to help me out.”

  “Darn right!” The major laughed again. Paige and Sara were both watching the interaction with curiosity and Jake noticed the looks.

  “Major Vollen is a buddy of mine,” he said. Vollen nodded at Jake’s statement.

  “Ever since he saved me from getting in huge trouble by sewing up a… well… we’ll just say a party injury,” the major said with a grin.