A Twist in Time

by Frank J. Derfler

  Ted saw confusion and concern on the faces of his audience. He said, “Let me go a little further and then we’ll talk. Our mission today is to carefully absorb the intelligence material we have about Hasan and the other shooters, figure out how best to take out the two un-named civilian shooters, and then do it. “

  “How many of you have been in that facility at Ft. Hood?” Ted asked and almost all of the soldiers raised their hands.

  “It will help that you have some working knowledge of the facility and the town. We know where the two shooters spent the night; we have traffic camera and security camera footage of their movements in town and on the post. We need analysis, planning, and action.” Ted nodded toward the Operations Officer, “Mr. Pulliam, you look like you have a question?”

  “Yes, Sir. Thank you, Sir. When we talk about using our ability to change things in the past, we always come back to will we know what we did after we did it since it happened before we did it. So, if I have this right, when we take out these two shooters we won’t know we did it because if they weren’t there then we didn’t need to take them out, so we didn’t do it... even if we did.”

  Ted nodded and said, “Yup, you stated it pretty well.”

  A very tall female warrant officer asked, “What will happen after we’re done? Will you still be here? Did you come here at all?”

  Ted crossed both arms across his chest. He knew that was a defensive move, but it was instinctive. “We’ve done this together before, haven’t we? I’ve apparently been at the other end and many of you were at this end. As you know, apparently I was shot and might have even died, but then I wasn’t and I didn’t because of what you did here. The life-saving probe back into time came from this facility and this room. My wife claims she remembers seeing me being shot in the head with a revolver on video, but only like a dream. Our physics guys doubt it, but I don’t.”

  “My physics people tell me that Stephen Hawking formulated something called the Chronology Projection Conjecture. It’s an argument saying that the laws of nature prevent time travel. Note that he named it a conjecture. Certainly we could knock it down with fact. But, one thing that came out of the discussion is that the future has the ability to reach back into the past to repair itself. So, if we create an anomaly, so far, in our limited experience, it is repaired. It has to do with timeline entanglement. Some of the aspects are very spooky, but we are coming to understand them. So, to answer your question more directly, the time line forms a loop that cuts itself off and disappears. But, the hole in the timeline seals itself up in a way that makes everything congruent.”

  Ted had the attention of his audience, so he went on, “If we knew where these two shooters sat or slept five years ago, maybe we could go further up the time line and take them out. But, we only have information that shows their positions in any detail for a relatively short time before they start shooting. So, I don’t know what the impact of our actions will be on the events. And, by the way, another factor is that we want Major Hasan to act out in some way. There is a military-wide problem that must be rooted out.”

  He hefted the package of photos and diagrams. “I don’t know what will happen, but the photos and diagrams in this envelope are what we have to work with. On the one hand, we want to take these guys out as late as possible so Major Hasan isn’t spooked. On the other hand, we want to take them out as early as possible so that the Project isn’t somehow involved by the evidence of suspicious quartz spheres.”

  One thin Warrant Officer, looking a little out of place among his taller peers, spoke up and said, “What if we use a bullet instead of a glass ball?”

  Ted turned toward the Warrant Officer, he finally dredged up the name Howard from his memory, and said, “What about the weight and power equations? Are we close enough in time so we can throw a heavy lead slug?”

  Warrant Officer Craig Pulliam spoke up, “Let’s run the numbers and find out. I’ll check the weight of the bullets he used while you guys do the math. You know your team assignments and you know the job. Take the material the General’s got there and let’s trade some of their guys for some of our guys.”

  Ted spoke up, “You’ll see that he used a high powered pistol with a huge magazine. The rounds were 5.7 millimeter. The bullets are small, only about 30 grains as I recall from the report.”

  “That about the weight of a bullet in a .22 long rifle round. We can deform some of those and have plenty of power to make the shot. The lead won’t have exactly the same composition, but maybe they won’t check.”

  Just then the Assistant Duty Controller turned to Jose. Tapping a television monitor screen with his finger he said, “Ah, Major, Dr. Dunnan just pulled into the parking lot.

  Chapter 12: "Ready, Aim, Shoot"

  Friday, November 6, 2009 1200 Pacific

  TDA Detachment 1, Boulder City, Nevada

  Excerpt from the Personal Narrative of Mr. Jose Valenzuela

  Recorded May 2012

  CLASSIFIED SECRET /TA

  "I often thought about the ability of the time loop to allow us to experiment with behavior. Kind of like the movie “Ground Hog Day”. Unlike the movie character, we probably don’t learn from any action, but I’ve often thought it would be interesting to see if any subtle changes came through the time loop after it closes.”

  Ted Arthurs used the shower in the Detachment’s small locker room to clean up after his flight and get out of his flight suit and into a blue-shirt uniform. Then he went to Jose’s office and stretched out on his couch. Jose was either outside dealing with the NASA Astronaut or working with his planning team.

  At that moment Jose was indeed dealing with his Astronaut. “Rae,” he was saying lamely, “Major General Arthurs showed up and kicked off a classified exercise. I’m sorry, but I can’t let you in.”

  Her blue eyes turned grey and Rae Dunnan stared him in the face. “Okay, but this is the second time, Jose. Your security fetish is wearing thin.”

  “Um,” he said, looking for a distraction, “how did the UNLV interview go?”

  Rae paused, she knew what he was trying to do, but she didn’t want to force a confrontation, “It went fine. I’ll be teaching a course on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. It should be fun. It pays a pittance, but it will let me keep my hand in.”

  “That’s great… super.”

  “Well, I’d better go and let you fight your war or whatever.”

  Jose was struck by what he sometimes called a “Fighter Pilot moment.” After all of the discussions in the operations room, the thought was playing in his mind that all of this would be erased. The time line would be reset. He played a card, reached out for Rae Dunnan, pulled her close and kissed her hard.”

  She kissed back, but then she pulled away.

  “Jose… what?”

  “Rae, I just want you to know that I love you deeply I think about you constantly, and I want you to have my children.”

  “Wha…?” was her only reply.

  “Now, I’ve got to get back to my team.” He said softly. He turned and swiped his forearm against the door’s keypad in order to unlock the door. Jose Valenzuela left Rae Dunnan standing at the door with his expression of passion and love ringing in her ears.

  It didn’t seem to Ted that he was horizontal on the small couch for very long before Jose came to get him.

  “We’re ready to brief you, General.”

  “Already?” Ted replied as his feet hit the floor.

  “We worked up most of the geometry and timing yesterday and earlier this morning. It wasn’t difficult to plug in the exact locations since we’ve got it all setup. My guys have been drilling for attacks against asteroids. They’re good and they’re pumped.”

  “Did you take care of your astronaut?” Ted asked.

  “Indeed. I’d say she is taken care of for the time being.”

  Warrant Officer Pulliam led the mission briefing. “We can use twenty-two caliber bullets. Because of their weight we’ll be on the high end of t
he power requirements. The short period of time displacement is on our side, but the power requirement curve goes up with every second. Here is our plan, General.”

  “Just before the shooting the two civilians came in with Major Hasan and went to the back of the big room up against the wall and about fifteen feet apart. Hasan went to a table in the middle of the room. He sat there for a few seconds like he was praying and then he jumped on a desk shouting “Allahu Akbar” and shooting. The other two guys took that as their cue and they caught dozens of our soldiers in the crossfire. Because of the number of rounds fired, there were dozens of deaths. Each kill was an execution. While Hasan was sitting at the table, his buddies were standing still against the wall. We have them in a static position and in a known location. That’s when we want to hit them.”

  “So they’ll be found against the wall with small lead slugs in them?” Ted asked.

  “Yes, Sir. Maybe it will look like Major Hasan hit them by mistake. Our rounds will be melted and deformed. No ballistics.”

  “How does this sound to you, Major?” Ted realized it was a stupid question. Jose wouldn’t have brought him in for the briefing if he didn’t approve of the plan, but Ted was running it all through his mind.

  “If we hit the other two guys earlier, like when they were at the traffic light, we might spook Hasan. Your orders were to let Hasan act out, so this is the best solution.”

  Ted paused for another few seconds, “Do it.”

  At the mission console, the Duty Controller said, “Laser capacitor at 100%. Vacuum is holding. Cryogenics are optimal. Checklist complete. Permission to fire?”

  Jose looked at Ted and Ted nodded.

  “Fire and keep firing until we have 100% probability of kill on both targets.” Jose ordered. Across the room, Warrant Officer Pulliam turned a key in a switch mounted on the wall. The Duty Controller turned an identical key on her console.

  “Three rounds each gives us a probability of kill of a hundred and nine percent.” Pulliam said just as an explosive bang signaled the Laser firing.

  Ted added, “Mr. Pulliam, see if you can put a couple around Hasan’s head too. Maybe spoil his aim or spook him a little.”

  Chapter 13: "Look Back"

  Friday, November 6, 2009 0630 Eastern

  The Quarters of Major Gen and Mrs. Ted Arthurs, Homestead, FL

  Excerpt from the Personal Narrative of Mr. Ted Arthurs, PhD

  Recorded May 2014

  CLASSIFIED TOP SECRET/TA

  "Sometimes you do something even when you know you haven’t. That is the really scary part. You would think you’d get used to it, but you don’t. That’s probably a good thing.”

  When Ted’s alarm went off, he wasn’t asleep. Both he and Sally had tossed and turned all night. Sally returned to the Project the previous afternoon after signing both of their kids out of school. The kids waited in his office until the Force Protection level dropped and Sally took them home. The evening was quiet and now neither of them was sleeping well knowing the details of the Ft. Hood shootings. They both wondered why The Project wasn’t allowed to save the lives of the servicemen in the Ft. Hood Soldier Readiness Center.

  After a quick shave and shower, Ted briefly debated going to the gym or heading right to the office. With a sigh, he put on his workout clothes and gathered a uniform on a hangar. He threw low quarter shoes, socks, and underwear into his gym bag, grabbed his computer bag, and headed down to see how he could help get the kids out the door.

  During breakfast they heard the latest radio reports of the Ft. Hood shooting. A single shooter had killed thirteen and wounded thirty. No one was sure why he had exited the facility and run into the guns of the responding civilian police officers. It was almost as if something had frightened him into leaving the building.

  Ted frowned, went back to the bedroom, took off his gym clothes, exchanged them for his shoes, socks, and underwear in his bag, and put on his uniform.

  When he went back out to the kitchen, Sally said, “No gym?”

  “I’ll run this afternoon. I want to go in and check on something.”

  Sally shot him a glance and he nodded briefly. They didn’t discuss mission business in front of the kids, but she sensed he had an idea.

  “Did Fred Landry say if he was coming in today?” Ted asked.

  “He didn’t say when he called in, but it’s evening on his body clock. I doubt that he’s been asleep much.”

  “I’ll call him on the way in. Maybe I can keep him awake for a few hours.”

  “Okay,” she said, “I’ll be in shortly. Maybe there’s some good news.”

  Ted punched up Fred Landry’s cell phone number from his list of favorites, but the call immediately went to voice mail. Playing a hunch, he called the Duty Controller, “Is General Landry in the building by any chance?”

  “Yes Sir, he was here when I came in. The midnight crew said he came in about two AM. “

  “Thanks, would you tell him I’ll be in shortly? Is the coffee any good?”

  “It will be by the time you get here, Sir.”

  Fred Landry had on a blue button down collar shirt, khaki pants, and boat shoes with no socks. His face was tired, but he looked upbeat. He was sitting on Ted’s couch when Ted walked in. He had a cup of coffee in each hand. “Here you go,” he said, waving a cup.

  Ted didn’t say anything except “thanks” as he took the coffee. It was obviously Fred’s show.

  “As you know, it takes weeks of data collection and a full day of processing to be able to tell if a time displacement event took place anywhere on the globe.”

  Ted nodded and sipped his coffee. Fred was as much a PhD college professor as he was an Air Force general and fighter pilot. He wasn’t going to be hurried.

  “But,” Fred continued, “If you know what you’re looking for, it doesn’t take as much collection or processing. After I heard about the Fort Hood attack, I was curious, so I came in and started some analysis. I don’t know if this is good news or horrible news. I’m certain that yesterday afternoon our alternate site sent eight items to a location on Fort Hood and back in time about twenty-four hours.”

  “So,” Ted said, “the problem is that we don’t know if they did it on their own or if they were authorized?”

  “Exactly,” Fred replied. “Have the Warrant Officers gone on their own rampage or were they under orders?”

  “Obviously, we have no way of proving anything ever, right?”

  “No, no evidence, only logic.”

  “Okay,” Ted said, “can you keep this close hold until we can get the rest of the team in here?”

  “I’ve already erased files and covered up as best I can.” Fred said.

  The team Ted had referenced was Sally, Fred Landry, Bill Wirtz and his new wife Janet. Within an hour they were all gathered in Ted’s office. Landry was in an armchair, Ted moved his desk chair out from behind the desk, and the other three sat crowded on the small couch.

  “Thinking it over,” Bill was saying, “I’m virtually certain they were ordered to do it.” Bill took the silence as a sign to go on. “They let Hasan live. He’s the one they would take out if they were out for revenge. I’m betting that the two “unknown civilians” in the back of the room were shooters too. We have no way of knowing how many people the three of them could kill working together.”

  “Okay,” Landry said, “I’ll be the devil’s advocate, why let Major Hasan live and allow thirteen soldiers to die?”

  Bill Wirtz replied directly to Landry, “First, thirteen deaths might be a fraction of what happened before we acted. But primarily, you can see the big problem that exists. The Army and arguably the whole government has a problem with political correctness. The SecDef and everyone else can say this wasn’t a terrorist attack and that Hasan is just deranged, but that’s tissue-thin BS. It would be just like the Chairman to leave Hasan alive as a stinking kettle of fish for the services to clean up.”

  “And,” Janet added, “it would
be just like this Justice Department to push the presence of any other shooters under the rug, to lose it in the huge pile of forensic evidence, in order to keep alive the story of no terrorism.”

  Their analysis was greeted with grim nods around the room. “I agree with you,” Ted said. But, I still think we need to go out to the Detachment and check into the atmosphere in Jose’s command. I think we can tell pretty quickly if the troops are out of control and might do something like this on their own. They are smart enough to know that we can’t prove anything either way. Fred, are you up to flying tomorrow?”