Winds of Fate

by Thomas H. Reed

  He stood up, took her hands in his and said, “Promise me?”

  “I…I promise that I will try,” Janna said.

  “Don’t merely try; you must live the life that you deserve. If not, then it will be a sadness greater than I can bear. When I am certain that you are happy, and then at least I can live content in that knowledge,” Jason replied.

  She almost agreed, then pushing his hands away she exclaimed, “No, I will not and cannot make that promise, and please don’t ask me again! Jason. If you discover a way for us to be together in the future then so be it, but please don’t hold me to the promise that I just made. Do you understand what I am saying? I will not try to find a life without you. Our lives have been predestined by some unknown force greater than ourselves, and I don’t have the desire to fight it. I could no more find happiness without you than a bird can fly without its wings. So create your miracle, Jason, and then come to me. I’ll be here throughout eternity if I must, but I will be waiting.”

  Jason held her in his arms and said confidently, “Then there are no alternatives, I will find a way.”

  Jason awoke with empty arms, yet the warmth of her body lingered. The very essence of all that was Janna would always be with him. His own promise still echoed in his ears, “I’ll find a way.”

  Jason had no time for fantasy, shortcuts, or impossible equations that might lead him down empty corridors. He had to avoid endless theories and speculations that could leave him groping for answers. It was imperative that he force his mind to think clearly and precisely at all times. Each action had to be clearly defined and accurate to an infinite degree and without wasted moments. Jason had forced himself to push his learning curve beyond all reasonable expectations—and he had succeeded.

  By his eighteenth birthday, Jason had examined every known scientific concept, theory and experiment ever conceived and tested by intelligent humankind, and had as quickly discarded them all. It soon became clear that he’d have to develop his own math and astronomical computations; his own gateway to the stars.

  He reasoned that if his dreams could transport him so clearly to the other side of the galaxy, then he could find a way to reach that planet in a tangible physical body. His dreams were fixed on the courage that pushed him onward toward that distant planet on the far side of the Milky Way where Janna waited for him.

  Jason’s prior revolutionary designs and astronomical inventions had made him a rich man at the age of twenty. He could have lived comfortably for the rest of his life without worry or need. Yet, his only true objective remained far beyond his reach. With that understood, he had completely abandoned his previous efforts and with heavy heart, he had begun anew. Jason’s astonishing, yet untried innovations, evolving from his overly stimulated brain, was far beyond normal human comprehension.

  Even the advanced minds of the most noted and renowned engineers of space technology believed him to be mad, most turned a deaf ear and a closed mind to his graphic illustrations, data charts and mathematical equations. Eventually, it was clear that no one would recognize or support the efforts of his thinking, and he found himself alone with his struggle to develop his momentous spacecraft.

  Financially Jason would have been set for life if he had chosen a normal lifestyle. He had the availability of many resources beyond those of the average man. In spite of the earth’s percentage of noted scientists and engineers that believed Jason’s mind had disintegrated, he was nonetheless a well-respected individual among his peers, and in some cases even feared.

  Ultimately, Jason found a dozen intelligent men and women who were knowledgeable about spacecraft design and devoted enough to follow to the letter his graphic charts and designs. He used his readily available wealth to begin the construction of his spacecraft. The completion of his spacecraft became a race against time because there were those that saw only folly in his efforts. Believing they were protecting one of their noted greats from public embarrassment and self-destruction, Jason’s cohorts began their counteractive procedures to save Jason from himself. Jason was convinced that if he were ever to complete his journey across the galaxy, then he must do it before his friendly associates found a way to stop him and have him committed to an asylum for the mentally deranged.

  After five long years and endless days of mind-boggling toil, teamed with an inscrutable determination, Jason had at last engineered a design for a spacecraft that allowed man to reach the edge of the solar system, not in months or days, but in a mere two hours. Still, even at such unbelievable speed, Jason knew that it was unlikely he’d reach his destiny in the universe, at least not until he had physically reached the edge of the solar system. At that point, he would insert a series of imperishable microchips into the memory bank of his spacecraft and wait for the ship’s brain to distribute the information to vital and strategic parts of the spacecrafts intricately complex system.

  Jason was in his twenty-fifth year when he found himself at the edge of the solar system while the nation’s influential, self-serving elite bore down upon him. He sat at the controls of his starship threading the last chips of vital data into the craft’s memory bank. Radios crackled in his ears while those he had helped to reach the stars now sought to stop him.

  Jason knew that there was no margin for errors or mistakes and he must not be rushed. Step by patient step, he carefully powered his ship with the vital information from the microchips, and while he waited for the information to be fed to all parts of the spacecraft’s elaborate system, he set the ADLS (Automatic Destination Locator and Stabilizer) and prepared himself to travel further than any man in the history of civilization had ever gone. Behind Jason, numerous ships sped toward him, intent on stopping him before he could begin the sequence that would send his ship across the galaxy. He needed time, and that was a commodity that he didn’t have. Those behind him would reach him long before he could launch.

  Pushing the communication button on the console, he spoke to the lead ship. The captain’s voice was a familiar one. “Jason, please stop! You cannot continue with this madness. Why are you so determined to defy all that is sane and reasonable?”

  “Because I have to, Paul!” Jason told him with conviction. “I have no other choice. It has been obvious for quite some time now that you, and my other associates, believe that I am insane. I know your wish is to save me from a fate worse than death. However, in truth, you are perhaps causing my death. Or, at the very least, you are making every effort to prevent me from living.”

  There was a pause, and then Paul said softly, “I think you are confused and mentally exhausted, Jason. And due to your fatigued mind you are about to make a mistake that will end your life.”

  “And if my life ends,” Jason said. “It is after all, my life.”

  Being even more concerned now, the captain replied. “You are far too valuable to this world for any of us who understand its importance to allow things to end like this, Jason.”

  Jason smiled sadly, and then said, “Again, Paul, if my life should end, it’s my life. Neither you nor anyone else has the right, or a justifiable reason to prevent me from continuing my planned journey, a journey of which I have put a good many years of preparation. I have already given the world more technology than any one single person in history has. What more do you require of me?”

  Again, there was a long silence. Then Paul said resignedly. “Jason I can’t speak for the others, but my only concern is for your life. You’ve given so much to our world, it would be impossible for me to sit by nonchalantly and allow you to destroy all that you are, and all that you have been. Personally, I find it very difficult to bear the thought of you being out there alone, possibly drifting forever toward a solar system that you’ll never reach. Or worse, having your ship destroyed, or badly crippled by any of a thousand unknown factors that you are likely to encounter.

  Have you considered the fact that you might drift in space until you freeze to death or that your ship could be sucked into a marauding star and you wou
ld die a horribly painful death?”

  “Paul, I’m grateful for all that you’ve done for me in the past, and I truly appreciate your concerns for my future. However, I can’t allow you or anyone else to dissuade me from continuing with my journey. That is, not if there’s any way short of killing you that I can prevent your intervention. Whether or not you believe me, I do know what I’m doing. And if you knew me half as well as you think you do, you’d know that I’m neither deranged nor psychotic.”

  Jason paused for a moment then asked, “Paul is this a secured channel?”

  There was another short pause, and then Paul replied, “It is now.”

  “Okay, Paul. I am going to tell you something that I’ve never told anyone. I am going to explain the reason that I’m sitting in a spacecraft on the outer edge of the solar system preparing to blast off into a previously uncharted unknown. It’s also the reason you were able to pursue me in sophisticated spacecraft that’s never been possible before now.”

  Then Jason proceeded to explain to Paul about his recurring dream, and a promise that he’d made to a girl years ago. He told how he had stayed focused on one objective that required him to push his thinking beyond the comprehension of intelligent humankind. As Jason’s story unraveled, it only served to spur Paul into faster flight. His fear for his brilliant friend was overwhelming. He had to stop him from pushing such an obvious self- destruct button.

  Jason then said something that mentally stopped Paul cold in his tracks, “Paul, you are traveling at speeds and distances that were heretofore unthinkable. And you are able do that with safety and reliability that until I came along was impossible. Now, I ask you, how many lives have been lost attributed to my inventions or designs?”

  When Paul remained silent Jason continued’ “That’s right, Paul. None! Do you ever wonder why that I placed so many safety checks and devices within my designs? Or why I was so preoccupied with success? I might be crazy by the measurement or standards of those who don’t understand my particular situation. Nevertheless, I’m not crazy enough to allow myself to be killed, because it isn’t only my life that would be hanging in the balance, but Janna’s also. If it were simply my life at risk then I might have taken a short cut, or skipped over something vitally important in my haste to reach her.

  But if I fail, then Janna will give up on living and flicker out like a candle, and I cannot allow that to happen.” “Paul, I know how much you love you wife, what if you were in my place, what would you do? If you only realized how little space travel meant to me before I made my promise to Janna, then you would also be able to understand why I have put myself into this precarious situation. All of my efforts have been for one reason only. I couldn’t have cared less about space technology or space travel for its own sake. Space to me is only an obstacle that has kept me separated from Janna, an obstacle that I must overcome.”

  He paused for a minute, and then said, “I am going to send you everything that I have on my designs for this spacecraft, Paul, the entirety of what I have learned since the age of twelve is yours. There is nothing complicated about what I am doing or what I have done, only the approach is different, that’s the reason that people have been confused. Take the plans and study them, then you’ll understand what I am telling you. That should also clear up the notion that I’m a lunatic operating on less than a full charge.”

  Paul didn’t answer for a long while. Then he asked, “And if you’re wrong?”

  “Then nothing will happen, the ship will become immobile where it hangs in space. I have designed so many safety checks within, that if it does not or cannot follow a specific path it will simply not move. You will catch up to me and I’ll be escorted back to earth. But I need time, Paul! If I don’t follow a very strict protocol then this ship will not function.

  I’m asking as a friend and as a fellow human being, please give me that time! Let me do what I set out to do thirteen years ago.”

  Another long pause, “How can I do that, Jason? I have my orders. I have to stop you if I can.”

  “I have less than fifteen minutes before I can jump. You will reach me in ten. Give me that five minutes, please!”

  “Five minutes?”

  “Yes Paul. That’s all that I’m asking, five minutes.”

  There was no response from Paul after that. The pursuing ship simply slowed down by a fraction of its prior speed, just enough to give Jason his extra five minutes.

  Jason finished the remainder of his calculations, and then he pushed a series of buttons and watched as the panel in front of him turned completely green. He hit the send button that would transmit all the information, data and graphic design of his starship to the approaching ship behind him. He waited for the feed to end and then he reached out and touched the initiate pad on the console.

  To those in pursuit it was as if the ship in their view screen had simply vanished. The second officer asked, “Where did it go?” Paul looked down at the download information and studied it for a moment then said. “Somewhere on the other side of the galaxy, I believe.”

  “I thought that was impossible!” the second officer said, the disbelief was clear in his voice.

  “Thirteen years ago it would have been impossible to reach the edge of our solar system in only two hours, but here we are! And the reason we are here just departed our solar system.”

  Then he laughed and said, “Elvis has just left the building!”

  “Who is Elvis?” The second officer asked.

  Paul shook his head, grinning. He pushed a button that held in protective custody the information he had just received from Jason, and then said to himself, “Who is Elvis? Unbelievable! Youth creates its own history then destroys it, and most don’t know, or care, when or how it happened.”

  Even at the incredible speeds that Jason was traveling, it took two years for Jason’s starship to reach its destination. The path had little to do with distance or time, but rather in avenues in time, folds in space, quantum peculiarities, distortions in the fabric of space, and the alignment of dimensional realities.

  Yet, twelve years after he had made a promise to the girl of his dreams, Jason’s starship floated two hundred miles above a planet that circled a sun, a planet much like his own. Jason looked down upon the planet below and recognized every detail of its landscape; the globe’s surface was as familiar to him as the face of his own world. His heart soared as he prepared the landing vehicle in the launch bay; he had to restrain his own eagerness as his fingers fumbled at the controls that released the docking clamps. Finally, he was free of his ship and guided his landing craft above the familiar terrain to the mountain range where the trees were three times the size of the largest Redwoods on planet Earth.

  He effortlessly found the valley where her village was located and landed in a clearing that he knew as well as his own back yard. Once the craft was on the ground he quickly exited, following the winding pathway that led into the mountains and to her home. Off to his right and below him was the water wheel that supplied power to the village, and up ahead just around the next bend he would find the stone bridge where he had made his promise those many years ago.

  Rounding the bend, he stopped suddenly. His joy at finally reaching his destination and finding the love of his life turned into instant despair. His happiness was painfully wrenched away. The lively village he had expected to find lay lifeless before him. Time’s harsh hand had wreaked ruin upon its face. His mind fought what his eyes were witnessing, refusing to accept the disintegration and emptiness of the village. His heart sank at the sight of the bridge that was eroding and falling away. The beautiful stone and masonry buildings were all empty, doors hanging askew on broken and missing hinges. Porches sagged and weeds grew through the cobblestone streets. The fountain in the Village Square was dry and vine choked.

  The only sound was the sighing of tall pine trees as the wind whispered mournfully through their branches. A solitary bird called out in flight, its blue and gold feathers shi
ning in the sun that filtered through the openings among the tall trees.

  “How can this be?” Jason wondered to himself. He had done everything right. He had defeated the laws of physics and fates in the universe, he had done it! Now he was here.

  “Where was Janna? She must be here! She has to be here!” He repeated over and over, yet the ruin and decay of the forest village refused to change, or return to what it was supposed to be. “No, no, no! This can’t be right!” His stomach felt as if he was once more in a free fall, his mind reeled and the specter of her smiling face and bright green eyes would not leave his vision. How could he have been so wrong? He couldn’t possibly have made such a mistake. Could he? Had he made some colossal error that had brought him forward in time? No! It doesn’t work that way, it couldn’t work that way. The one thing that he knew for sure, time was fixed, going backwards or forward in time was impossible. Time travel existed in the imaginations of science fiction writers and playwrights and nowhere else.

  So, what had happened here? He had to think, but his mind was spinning confused thoughts as it searched desperately for an answer that made sense, an answer that would give his love back to him. In the end, it was the cold, calculating part of his brain that spoke the words his heart refused to accept. You are too late, perhaps years or centuries too late! This is reality, the result of an overlooked calculation no matter how small; the oversight had to have pushed my spacecraft into a time warp.