by Greg Logan
Sammy said from the alcove, “Maybe a ballgame is just what you need. Get your mind off of things for a while.”
Jeff shrugged. “Maybe.”
April looked to Scott and said, “Any word from the Boston people?”
Scott shook his head. Snake and Quentin were preparing to launch a rescue mission to free the metas captured by Kincaid in his raid. It had been six days.
Scott said, “No word, other than the Darkness is going to be joining them.”
April gave a visible shudder. “He creeps me out.”
Scott nodded. “I think he creeps everybody out.”
“This thing he has with that girl, Sondra, I can’t even begin to figure out.”
Jeff said, “I should be going.”
April looked back to him. Scott pulled his eyes away from the computer monitor and looked at him.
Jeff said it again. “I should be going. I should be going along with Snake and Quentin and the Darkness.”
“No,” Scott said. “I told Snake and Mother we were all needed here to figure out this invasion thing.”
Jeff held his hands out, perplexed. “And what do you need me to do? Pace around the hallways? Because that’s all I’m doing.”
“I don’t think your dad would want you going along. It could be dangerous.”
April said, “I think Scott’s right.”
Jeff said, “Dangerous? Like going back to 1880 and fighting an alien squid-thing and his robot girlfriend?”
Scott had turned back to his computer monitor, but now he pulled away from it again. “That fight with them was unplanned. If we had even the slightest indication that there would be trouble, it would have been your father going along with us.”
“Yeah,” Jeff said. “I’d like to see you use that stupid teleportation field of yours to get around that time storm.”
“Jeff,” April said.
Jeff sighed and let his gaze drop to the floor. “Sorry. I didn’t mean that to sound that way. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
“Tell you what,” Scott said, getting up from his lab stool and dropping a hand on Jeff’s shoulder. “Why don’t I hold off on criticizing you until a future version of me shows up and gets himself shot?”
Jeff looked up and cracked him a grin. Everything between them was all right.
Jeff said, “Maybe I’ll suit up and take a little flight. Maybe the mountain air will help me clear my head a little.”
Jeff put on his red battle suit and took to the skies above the facility. Since the facility was inside the top of a mountain his father had hollowed out, all Jeff saw below were rocky ledges and steep slopes. Ridges stretched down and away, covered with a canopy of pine.
The air was cold up here and too thin to breathe, but Jeff had powered-up enough so neither one was a problem.
One other thing bothering him but which he hadn’t told Scott and April about was Sara Reid. The girl he had met at Chloe’s party over the previous weekend. Long strawberry hair. Curves that made it hard to think straight. And unearthly green eyes.
They had talked into the night. He had walked her back to the dorm her sister Ashley shared with Chloe. She had given him a long hug, her head on his shoulder. Her hair had smelled so incredible. He could have just held onto her for hours.
And now she was all he could think about. She had given him her number. She lived in San Jose. He thought about just zipping over and visiting, but in the world of normals, you didn’t just zip over to places. Especially from Colorado to San Jose. Maybe he could just do what normals did and call her.
But then his thoughts went back to Dead Jeff. This brought back an unsettling feeling he got whenever he thought about him.
He tried to think of any situation that could bring Dead Jeff back from the future. He had no shirt, and just showed up under a bridge where a bunch of the Boston people were getting ready to settle in for the night. If Dead Jeff had been planning on some reconnaissance mission to his own past, he wouldn’t have come without a shirt.
Scott had theorized Dead Jeff might have come from an alternate reality, but Sammy had run a molecular scan and determined the quantum signature matched this universe. So, Dead Jeff was indeed Jeff, just an older version of him. And a dead one.
Dead Jeff was somewhere in his mid-thirties, they figured. Jeff wondered what Dead Jeff’s exact age was. He figured Sammy could probably tell, based on whatever tests Sammy had run. Molecular whatever, and all of that.
He tapped the communication button on his wrist band and an audio field formed around him. He said into it, “Sammy.”
Sammy’s voice came to him, as clearly as if Sammy were only five feet away. “This is Sammy. What’s up, Jeff?”
“Hey, I was wondering. Were you able to compute the exact age of Dead Jeff?”
Sammy sighed. It was audible through the field. “Jeff, you really have to stop dwelling on Dead Jeff. It’s not good for you.”
Jeff knew Scott and Sammy both subscribed to a strong geek culture. And the core of that culture was often Star Trek. Jeff had seen most of the episodes, so he called on the memory of one now. “Remember that Trek episode—I forget what it was called. The one about Data’s head?”
Sammy sighed again. “All right. Even though Data’s head didn’t come from the future but from the past. But good point.”
“I guess I just want to know everything I can about Dead Jeff, to figure maybe what happened. Because, after all, since he wasn’t from an alternate reality, then he’s actually me. Whatever year he was escaping from when he came to our time is potentially my future. His destiny could very well be mine.”
“I wouldn’t presume to lecture you about time. But the general theory is time is fluid.”
“Not really. It’s more like a tapestry. A multi-dimensional one. There is such a thing as a domino effect. You pull one string on that tapestry and another string loosens. But we can talk about time later. How old was he, Sammy?”
“Thirty-four years, seven months, three days, seventeen hours, twelve seconds. That age is based not on his birth, but his conception date. Which, of course, was your conception date.”
“Imagine that, huh?” He was being sarcastic again.
“Jeff, try to relax. Just breathe the air. Then come on in and we can get ready for that ballgame. Your dad should be back soon.”
“Right. Okay. Jeff out.” He tapped the communication button and the sound field broke up and was gone.
It dawned on Jeff he had a tricorder in a small holster on his belt. Not really a tricorder, of course. That was Trek geek talk. It was a small hand-held computer about the size of a Blackberry. It could take readings and make recordings and do computations. Such as, based on the age of Dead Jeff and the number of days that had passed since he arrived from the future, when exactly did he depart? Assuming, of course, he came directly here from there, with no pit stops in between.
He pulled the tricorder and had it do the math. 16 June 2034. 20:36. 20:36 meant 10:36 PM in normal-person time.
Of course, there was no way to determine exactly where Dead Jeff had been when he left his future. Just because he had arrived in Boston didn’t mean he had departed from the future in Boston. It was possible to change location while you traveled through time. It involved slipping sideways through time, which for Jeff was as easy as stepping sideways across a floor.
Well, let’s find out, Jeff thought. There was absolutely no one to stop him. His dad wouldn’t want him to do this and Scott would try to talk him out of it. Even Chloe would, if he were to bounce this idea off of her. No, if he was going to do this, he had to just do it.
He wouldn’t aim to arrive in Dead Jeff’s world just after Dead Jeff departed. He would aim for a little earlier. Like, say, three days. Not that he intended to meet Dead Jeff. And yet he wouldn’t object to that idea, either.
He didn’t plan to stay long in Dead Jeff’s world. He just had to know if returning to 2017 when he was thirty-four years old and bei
ng shot in the head was his inevitable future. If so, it meant he had seventeen years left. He shouldn’t complain, he supposed. It was more than some people had. But somehow knowing his own expiration date added a feeling of temporariness to his life. No one likes to feel temporary. Even though, he supposed, we all are.
At the moment, Jeff was flying over a wooded ridge. The mountain was now a half mile away. He descended to the ridge and dropped into a pine forest. His feet alighted on the pine needle strewn earth. He then began to power-down. You can’t time travel when you’re powered-up.
Funny, he thought, how he could power-up so much faster than he could power-down. He could power-up to an almost cosmic level in under thirty seconds. But to power-down enough so his zeta energy wouldn’t disrupt tachyon energy took a couple of minutes.
The communication device on his wrist also monitored bio signs, he knew. This meant the fact that he was powering-down would be apparent to Sammy, who was on monitor duty.
He pushed the powering-down as far as it could go, as fast as it could go.
He was never completely powered-down, of course. Zeta energy seemed to be what his body ran on. Just like Dad’s. According to Scott, there was always at least a minuscule reading of it from Scott and his father. But not enough to disrupt a field of tachyon energy. Even in the old days, when Scott’s zeta dampening device had been in his head, there had always been a tiny bit of zeta energy within him. At least according to Scott.
Almost there, he thought. Almost there.
A sound field began opening around him. Sammy’s voice. “Jeff, your readings show you’re powering-down rapidly. Is everything all right?”
“Everything’s fine, Sammy. I touched down on a ridge. I just want to walk and relax a little.”
This gave Sammy something to think about for a moment. He knew Jeff and his father didn’t need to power-down to relax. In fact, just the opposite. Zeta energy was exhilarating and healing. If they were tired, powering-up a little could be energizing.
“Jeff..,” Sammy said, about to say Jeff’s statement made no sense.
But Jeff was now powered-down enough. He parted the strands of time, and was gone. But this time, not going back. Or stepping sideways through time like he did when he zipped to LA to visit Chloe, or to Boston to visit the folks there. This time, he stepped forward.
THREE
2034
It was dark when Jeff stepped out of the time stream. He was on the same ridge in Colorado. The air smelled about the same. Really fresh air with a touch of balsam. It was a little cooler, because it was night.
He touched the communication button on his wristband and an audio field formed. He said, “Sammy.”
There was no answer.
“Jake.”
Still no answer.
“Scott.”
Nope.
Enough of this. He said, “Computer, tie into the central computer.”
The computer voice said, “The central computer is not online.”
He had to think a moment. He began pacing. Here he was, in 2034. He had no idea what to expect. Other than it couldn’t be good here, or Dead Jeff wouldn’t have gone fleeing back to the past sans his shirt.
Jeff didn’t really know how to use a tricorder all that well. Scott and Sammy could tap commands into one by bringing up a virtual keyboard on the screen. Jeff could probably bring up the keyboard, but he had no idea which commands to type in. Everything Scott and Sammy did on these things was either in binary, or in Greek symbols. However, the tricorder could take verbal commands.
“Computer,” he said, “scan for zeta energy. Except for mine.”
After a moment, it said, “Small emanations of zeta energy detected in Boston.”
His father, he figured. Or, since he had three days before Dead Jeff departed for 2017, it could be Dead Jeff himself.
Hmm. He had to think. He couldn’t scan for the Darkness because Scott had yet to figure out what dark energy even was, let alone how to scan for it.
He decided maybe he should check out the facility. After all, it was only a half mile away. And yet, the central computer was off line. Scott never had it off line. He wondered if this meant something had gone wrong.
Since he knew its location, all he had to do was step through time sideways. All right, he thought. Here goes nothing. He stepped through...
...and arrived in Scott’s lab. Except it was all dark. It was cold and he could smell fresh air. He could also catch damp, earthen smells.
He had a small flashlight on his belt. He returned the tricorder to its holster and pulled out the light for a look around.
He found steel girders lying crossways along the floor, along with pieces of broken stone and concrete debris. Scott had four lab tables, and all of them were crushed. Jeff looked upward and saw pieces of rock hanging, as though they were about to fall. There was one open area and he could see stars through it. The night sky.
The ceiling had collapsed, he realized. Considering how his father had reinforced it, he wondered what could have possibly brought it down.
He aimed his flashlight toward the walls. Cracks ran from top to bottom. There were burn marks along the concrete, and in one corner he saw a compartment in the wall had opened and a laser cannon was visible.
Laser cannons were placed throughout the complex as part of defensive measures. They were hidden from view behind wall panels, but if the complex should ever come under attack, they could be activated.
Looking about, he realized what must have happened. Someone attacked the complex and the defensive protocols were engaged. There had been a fire fight.
Down below was the massive room where the central computer was housed. The thing was huge. Almost the size of a basketball court. He decided to go down and take a look.
He stepped sideways through time again and down a little bit, and came out in the computer room. And to his surprise, he found the entire room empty.
He stared in disbelief. Cobwebs hung from the ceiling, but otherwise the room was totally empty. Someone had somehow moved the entire central computer out of here.
But why? He couldn’t imagine the reason. Unless maybe Scott and his dad had abandoned this place and set up shop elsewhere.
He decided to head to Boston. See if he could find any of the meta society there. Mother was maybe not quite immortal, but he doubted she would have changed much in just seventeen years, since she was close to a hundred and fifty in his own time and looked fiftyish. And the Darkness should be around. Jeff knew of nothing that could stop him.
Within seconds, he was stepping out of the time stream into Boston. He was near Fenway Park. The streets were empty. Deep cracks ran along the pavement, and in a couple places the pavement was totally torn up, as though it had been hit by a bomb. Buildings were empty and in many cases partially demolished. Looked like a war zone, Jeff thought.
Then he realized with a sickening jolt of awareness that his thought might not be that far off. The squid-like alien in 1880 had been preparing for an alien invasion. The android woman had said there was going to be one. She had been unable to tell them when the alien fleet would get here, but he began to wonder if it was to arrive sometime between his own time and this future of 2034?
He pulled out his tricorder and scanned for life. He found three life signs on a rooftop toward the central part of the city. One of them was glowing with zeta energy. Either Dead Jeff, or an older version of their father.
The tricorder found more signs of life out toward the edge of the city. Logan airport. Jeff decided to zip over there.
He arrived on the sidewalk. The place was dark and looked like it was deserted. Apparently the entire city was mostly empty. He glanced about with his flashlight and saw an old, discolored sign announcing he was standing outside the building housing the AirTran gate.
His tricorder announced three life signs from within. One was human. Two were more like the alien squid guy from the past.
He decided to check i
t out. But he began powering up, first.
He found the door unlocked. He stepped in and began climbing a flight of stairs. As he did so, he heard a woman screaming. He began to run.
Sara Reid was on the floor, twisting and writhing. She let out a wailing scream that continued until her lungs were empty. She twitched and shook. Then she sucked in air and began the scream again.
“Someone might hear her,” the man with the Controller said.
The Controller shook his head. “Unlikely. These walls are thick, and the humans are off in one of the other buildings.”
The man then caught a sound. “Someone’s coming.”
But then Jeff was there, emerging at the top of the dead escalator.
The Controller wasn’t sure who he was, but he said, “Cut him down.”
The man fired his ion rifle at Jeff. The blast hit him, but powered-up as he was, it did no damage. It did no damage at all to his battle suit, either.
Jeff then flashed a bolt of white light from his eyes, and the man screamed and was reduced to a pile of ashes.
“Boom, baby,” Jeff said.
The man raised his pistol to fire, but Jeff was suddenly standing before him. Powered-up as he was, he could move almost blink-of-an-eye fast. He pulled the man’s pistol from his grip and then with one quick punch sent him flying backward to crash into a concrete wall twenty feet away. He wouldn’t be getting back up.
Jeff realized the room was lighted, and he saw a strange cube on the floor. Maybe a foot high. It was emitting a bluish light.
On the floor nearby was the source of the screaming. And he was startled when he recognized who it was.
“Sara?” He ran to her side.
She was huffing for breath. Blood was oozing from her nose and ears.
He knelt and cradled her head.
“Sara?” he said again.
She glanced about wildly. The look in her eyes made him think of a caged animal.
She didn’t look much different than she had in his own time. At Chloe’s party she had given her age as seventeen, which meant she must be thirty-four now. And she was a hot thirty-four, or she would have been if she hadn’t been in the process of being tortured.