“For our children,” said Sarah.
“For all our children,” said Gowan. “Even those ones as yet unborn.”
“For the future of all humanity,” said the Professor.
“This is a big task,” said Jenny and shook her head. “You are telling me things I should never have needed to know in my lifetime and asking me to put faith in a project that will not fail or succeed until long after I am dead.”
“We can help you to live longer,” said Ramirez. “Dunfield and Sarah too.”
“Show me round your ship,” said Jenny suddenly.
“I’ll do it,” said Gowan. “You understand you can never talk about anything you see here – or our plans?”
“Yes, I understand.”
Gowan and Jenny stood up and Gowan started the tour underneath the control deck. Sarah joined them as Ogden stared at Stiers and sighed again. Lillishenger shook her head and sent her hair into freeflow around her shoulders. Stiers thought deeply for a moment then said, “I had no choice but to tell her. The girl isn’t a fool and if we can win her over to our side she will be a great asset.”
“And if we can’t, she can easily destroy us with a loose mouth,” said Ogden.
“Yes,” agreed the Captain. “I’ve played my cards and we’re in her hands now.”
“She’ll be fine,” said Dunfield. “This is a lot for the girl to take in.”
“There was no way to break it gently,” said Stiers. “What do you think, Ramirez?”
“She has an excellent bust and a splendid ass.”
“Any chance you can think about what we’re discussing?” asked the Captain.
“I wouldn’t think so,” said Lillishenger.
“Ramirez has a bizarre sexual fixation,” said Ogden.
“Hey, El Pauncho, sex isn’t bizarre – unless you’re the one doing it.”
“What do you mean?”
“You and the Prof are far too old for those athletics.”
“No way,” said the Professor.
“And you, Ogden, should be impotent at your age. An erection should just mean a gang of builders putting up a shoe store.”
“Believe me, Daniel possesses a splendid example of the male appendage,” said Lillishenger. “I doubt you have anything that will terrify any woman.”
“I’m very happy with what I have.”
“Whenever anybody gets into a conversation or discussion that involves Ramirez, it always goes off track,” said Stiers. “I was asking what he thinks about bringing Jenny into our group.”
“Great idea,” said Ramirez. “As you said from the beginning, we need somebody to look after our legal interests while we are travelling.”
“We’ll actually be in the time chamber,” said Ogden.
“No we won’t,” said the Professor. “We’ll always be in the future while travelling and the chamber will actually be quite empty, until we reach our ten year points.”
“What do you think, Professor?”
“You know my views. Either the Almighty is looking after us or that girl will screw us all.”
“She can screw me,” said Ramirez then thought better of it and shut up.
“Hugh?”
“I’m allowed a view?”
“Of course you are. We’re all part of a team here.”
“There is a lot of money involved. We need somebody to manage it well. We also need somebody to keep this place out of trouble and secure from the inquisitive. I’m with you, Captain Stiers.”
“Ogden?”
“We are stuck with the girl and I really want this to work. Trust me, I shall gain no satisfaction from having to say ‘I warned you’.”
“She won’t live for ever,” said Dunfield.
“You will all live a lot longer than you would have done,” said Stiers. “We’ll see to that – motorcycle accidents excepted.”
“You can give us a longer life.”
“I think we can add ten or twenty years to it,” said Ramirez. “Maybe a tad more.”
“You’ll make it a long way on our journey,” said Ogden, “but none of you will make it all the way.”
“We had better have kids then,” said Dunfield.
The girls exited the cleanliness of the drive room and Gowan led them into the private quarters. Ogden seemed deep in thought again and Stiers said, “Better fix her medication, Ramirez.”
“Sure, boss.”
“How long will it take?”
“I’ll make simple gelcaps – say about three minutes.”
“You can cure cancer in three minutes?” said Dunfield.
“No,” said Ramirez. “Three minutes to program and make the capsules – a week for the cure.”
“What we have to consider now that we’ve closed the chapter on Jenny for the time being is how we finalise plans for the raid on Porton Down,” said Stiers.
“Jenny is decided, is she?” pressed Ogden.
“Yes,” said the Captain.
“Fine, then we had better welcome her into the fold, as it were.”
“There won’t be much time for that,” said Stiers. “I want her to leave here, cure her father and get back into law school. She can come visit whenever we touch back here.”
“Every decade,” said Dunfield.
“Or longer,” said the Professor. “We’ll move a decade at a time until we think we are safe to make a longer jump.”
“Even is we get within twenty years of our departure time we can wait it out and still hit the aliens.”
“As long as the sarin survives,” said Lillishenger.
In the private quarters Jenny was looking quite astonished at what she was being shown. Sarah had already seen most of it but Gowan explained, “A lot of what you see is exclusive to the military, particularly to Fleet. These are not available commercially. It took the wisest and best heads from around the world to conceive this ship. It’s assembled from parts and materials from all over the globe.”
“Have we reached the stars yet?” asked Jenny.
“Not in person, no. But it was our messages broadcast by probes that brought the trouble upon us in the first place.”
“They are talking about me in there, aren’t they?” she said. “I understand why. This is all hard to believe yet I do believe it. Some of what I have seen is so far ahead. Our home computers run Windows DOS and there are very few of them.”
“Put your money in Windows then take it out about 2010 and put it in Google,” advised Gowan. “We’ll advise you on how to invest – and when.”
“You have to put a lot of trust in me, don’t you?”
“Don’t ponder this too deeply, Jenny, but the whole future of the world is on your shoulders to a great extent now. On your and Sarah and Hugh’s shoulders. We’ll be travelling and need you all to protect us.”
“I’ll stand guard if I have to.”
“Just get your dad better, go back to law school and protect our interests for the rest of your life and find somebody to replace you at some point further along.”
“It sounds both easy and impossible.”
“You will always be welcome here,” said Sarah. “Hugh’s accident left us well off so we hope money will never be a problem. The Professor plans to deed this place over to us and there will always be a home for you here.”
“That’s kind. I still can’t get my head round all of this,” said Jenny.
“Neither can I,” said Sarah.
“And from my point of view, I’m stuck a century back in time with the knowledge that if we are not successful Earth may well be destroyed. We are certainly outgunned in the future – and not by some alien race but as far as we can figure by some space pirates our to hornswoggle us.”
“They’ll maybe give us a medal,” said Sarah.
“Posthumously,” said Jenny. “Still, I made a bargain. If you can save my dad, I’ll keep it. Even if you can’t save him I will still do my best for you.”
“Ramirez is probably preparing his
medication right now,” said Gowan.
Which he was. Satisfied he put the medication into a combined foil pack with exact instructions for Jenny. Happy with his work he rejoined the other and sat down. “You were quick,” said Ogden.
“Compared with you, maybe. Anyway I was always a fast worker.”
“Except with women,” said Ogden. “We’ll have to start calling you Speedy Gonzales.”
“Look…”
“Or Racing Ramirez,” suggested Lillishenger.
“Look…”
“Rocket Ramirez,” said Dunfield.
“Look…”
“Or the Flying Doctor,” said Stiers.
“You guys are even worse than when Gowan is around,” said Ramirez.
“She’s coming back now,” said the Captain.
Gowan led Sarah and Jenny into the control cabin and they took seats. Ramirez slipped the small package over to Jenny. “Follow the instructions very carefully,” he said.
“What are the chances of it working on him?” she asked.
“A hundred percent.”
“Little room for worry then?”
“No room. This will cure him. You will need to leave here soon and come back whenever you like. Hugh and Sarah have control of the money and will fund law school for you when you need it,” said Stiers.
“I’m at law school. I just need to get back to study. I’ll do it as soon as dad is better. When does your return trip begin?”
“We have to steal sarin and complete our time room,” said Lillishenger. “Not for a few weeks perhaps.”
“That’s us,” said Ramirez. “Crooks from the future.”
“Criminals from the Black Desert,” said Gowan.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Jenny recovered from her initial shocks and left with their faith and trust to go back to her father by the restored Jeep. Stiers cautioned her to always drive safely as everything would depend upon her remaining safe and intact. She hugged them all and kissed Ramirez in gratitude for the work he had done on the cure for her father. They all exchanged telephone numbers, addresses and other important details and she left with reluctance and expectancy. Despite the pleasure of their company she urgently desired to get back and cure her Dad and get back to law school.
Their panels for the time room, as the Captain called it, began to arrive and they seemed to fall into a construction team comprising Ogden, Stiers, Ramirez, Gowan and Dunfield; and a cooking and housework team comprising Sarah; with Lillishenger mostly working on computations with occasional forays into the laundry room of the house where she seemed mystified by washing machines and tumble driers.
The first job they did was to construct half the framework for the panels, leaving enough space for the Challenger to exit so they still had free movement. Once the frame was complete they would be trapped – or rather the ship would. It would be useless except for travelling into the future. The frame alignment was the most difficult but Dunfield’s drawing had been precise and everything fitted with the smallest amount of juggling. It only needed two men to lift the Lexan panels or the specially fabricated exterior curved panels. Ramirez spent quite some time aligning and testing the internal buffers which would protect them during movements. Adapting the shields had been one idea but in the end they fabricated new ones so either or both could be used simultaneously. The generators would easily produce enough power. At least, that is what they hoped and early calculations tended to bear this out.
“It’s like Mythbusters,” said Ramirez.
“What’s that?” asked Dunfield.
“We still get old reruns. It’s a TV show about these Hollywood special effects guys who test out myths and are always building things to try out.”
“I don’t know that?”
“Oh, it probably hasn’t started yet. Look for it when it comes on – probably about the year 2000. It’s great,” said Ramirez. “I just had a thought. Maybe I should go to San Francisco and find Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman and give them the idea for the show. And that Kari Byron is super hot.”
“Go and tell her that,” said Gowan. “Try not to come back. She’s bound to fall for a smooth talker like you.”
“I’m depressed now,” said Ramirez. “Captain, I want to go to Frisco and meet them all. They’re alive for Heaven’s sake. So is Lee Remick and so are a load of other famous people. Shouldn’t we at least try to meet some of them before we leave to that point from which we cannot return?”
“You want to meet a heap of dudes no longer alive?”
“They’re alive here – in this time.”
“I hadn’t thought of that,” admitted the Captain. “However, our mission comes first then we’ll think about meeting a few people. It ain’t when we leave that’s important, it’s when we arrive back.”
The skeleton of the time room took shape as the ribs of curved metal were installed and secured in half the room. Lillishenger grabbed Stiers one day and took him through various options for recovery of the sarin.
“We’re here in California,” she said, “and the sarin is, we believe, in England. There is a time difference of eight hours and if we plan to perform this act of theft at night we need to plan carefully.”
“In what way?”
“Our choices are simple. We can leave here at night and hover in space for the best part of 16 hours or we can do it in one night but our operating time will be curtailed. For instance, we can leave here at 8pm and it will take but moments to arrive at Porton where the time will be 4am. It will be light there by 6am at this time of year so allowing a small safety margin we will have but a 90-minute slot for the operation.”
“That’s not very long.”
“The place is mostly unmanned at night – except for security. They needn’t bother us just yet. We have to obtain the sarin, make it safe and get it back on board Challenger. Not an easy task.
“But we can cloak the ship, surely?”
“Not when we set off the nuclear pulse. It will knock out everything including my cloaking device. The chameleon cells will be fine as they have nuclear shielding. I don’t think there is any way in a short time that I can protect the cloaking device. It may never work again.”
“This is bad news, Professor.”
“I know.”
“Then you and Ramirez look at this thing and see if you can figure out a way to shield it. I would rather be able to travel without time limits.”
“There will always be time limits, Captain. Porton isn’t an open facility where we can just stroll in unannounced.”
“I reckon not.”
At that point Ramirez joined them as if he had just heard his name mentioned. “What don’t you reckon?” he asked.
“Professor Lillishenger says her cloaking device will not be shielded against the nuclear pulse we intend to initiate at Porton.”
“Well if that is what Professor Tittyfeeler says, I think we can believe her,” said Ramirez.
“You know my name very well.”
“You won’t allow me to rag on Ogden, and Gowan gives as good as she gets. That just leaves you.”
“What about the Captain?”
“He’s the senior officer,” said Ramirez, feigning shock.
“Tell me,” said the Professor, “when you were growing up did you at first believe your forename was asshole? Because I am certain that is what everybody referred to you as.”
“No, Professor, and there are prepositions in the wrong place in that sentence.”
“Irritating little tit,” she muttered. “Even though he’s correct.”
“We can work on the cloaking device,” said Ramirez. “The possibility of shielding is remote but possible. Time is important.”
“Assume you have little,” said the Captain.
“Can I ask what the Prof has been working on as our plans seem complete.”
“I have been completing drawing of a water circulation plant which will capture and recycle liquid.”
“What f
or?” asked Ramirez. “The ship already does that.”
“And I keep calling you the smart one. Every time we go into the big town for a meal or supplies do you ever notice that place on the right I keep pointing out?”
“The Naval base? Why do they call it that? We’re nowhere near the ocean and the lake it’s built on is dry.”
“There are two bases very close. One is used for testing ship’s guns and the other for various naval activities – some of them secret.”
“So what? Why should that bother us?”
“Because we are ordering and having shipped to us some very unusual pieces which have to be custom fabricated. It’s likely the Men in Black will round to ask what we’re up to. Now none of us can bear close inspection so if they arrive we need to be able to show them what we are building. I have, therefore, drawn a structure like the one we are building but for a whole different purpose. We’ll look like wild-haired desert crackpots if they ever visit.”
“And we’ll just tell them it’s for recycling water.”
“It is more precious than gold in this part of the world.”
“But we have plenty of the stuff.”
“Yes – piped from thirty miles away. This will look real enough to not quite work. If they examine the plans and have experts cast an eye over them they will soon see that.”
“Very astute, Professor,” said Stiers and surprised her by using the word ‘astute’.
“We have to cover our tracks between now and when we leave.”
“When we leave?”
“Once we go, we’ll be in the future where we cannot be touched.”
“Unless the time room is destroyed.”
“In which case, at some point in the future, we’ll likely be destroyed along with it,” she said.
“How do you know?”
“I don’t know anything for certain. There are no exact physics on this operation yet. We’re sort of making it up as we go along. Technically, the structure has to hold until we arrive. If it is removed in our past we cannot use it. I would imagine that if it comes down in the future it will bring us down with it. The ship may not survive and neither may we.”
“Well, lady,” said Stiers. “Each and every blessed day somebody tried to give me a pocketful of bad news. I believe I’m become inured to hopelessness.”
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