“I love you too,” Jennifer replied. “Can you come to my hotel Saturday night?”
“Yes, I can! Can you please give me the address?”
“We will have the entire evening to talk and get to know each other better,” Jennifer said.
“I’m looking forward to it.”
Jennifer emailed Jenny the address and directions for the taxi driver. Jenny arrived early Saturday disguised as a Muslim woman with a veil and scarf known as the niqab, leaving only her eyes showing. When Jennifer arrived at the hotel she was on the bus with other students and professors. She did not recognize her twin sister until she spoke three words.
“I am Jenny!”
Jennifer hugged her and they walked into her room together.
“I did not recognize you as my twin,” Jennifer said. “Your disguise is ingenious.”
“I have the room adjoining yours,” Jenny revealed, as she peeled off the coverings. “That way we can connect our room internally without going outside.”
“Wonderful!”
“Let’s have dinner together.”
“Roger that.”
Room service brought a sumptuous feast to suit their similar tastes. They talked continually over dinner and until midnight, learning much more about each other’s life experiences. Jennifer gave Jenny a copy of her book from her iPad.
The twins spent the entire week together in the evenings, although Jennifer worked each day. Jennifer explained to Jean-Yves that she needed to take off Monday to visit with a friend.
That Friday, Jennifer and Jenny rented a car and traveled to the pier Teahupoo to pick up the Hatteras 60 named the Blue Hole, which Jennifer had purchased from Captain Bligh. It was a fine yacht and would make a great service boat for the Marine Lab.
While aboard the Blue Hole, the twins did some sport fishing near the Te Pari cliffs and caught five bigeye tuna and a small shark. After releasing the shark and cleaning the other fish, they sat at the controls on the stainless-steel flying bridge discussing the yacht’s cameras that Jennifer had added. With the cameras, one could see 360 degrees from a flagpole above the radar on the flying bridge. After an hour, the two put the vessel on autopilot headed south at thirty knots through winds of ten knots from the southeast. The two sisters entered the beautiful and comfortable main salon to get something to eat. The wood in the interior was all glossy teak with an attractive beige couch on the starboard side. Large windows gave it a spacious feel and lookout. The Hatteras 60 yacht had cream carpets with a separate galley and dining area farther forward where the view screen and controls were located. These forward screens and controls were special modification made by the Polynesian students as a part of their training.
The vessel was well stocked, with a large stainless refrigerator full of food that would keep. A bar counter of granite with built-in bar chairs stood near the lower level controls and wheel. Jennifer stood watch at the helm while Jenny rested below in the bedroom.
After they each had a short nap, Jennifer suggested, “We have a low temperature freezer below to keep all the fish fresh for months. Let’s have our fill of sashimi before we freeze the fish solid.”
“I’m really hungry,” Jenny replied.
“Jenny, did you fish much in the twenty-first century when you were growing up?”
“Yes, both my parents loved to fish for tuna, marlin, mahi-mahi, and other fish but they also liked trout fishing in Canada. We would go back every year for a fishing trip and to see family.”
“Evette and Martin?”
“Yes! I miss my cousins, Uncle Jacques and Aunt Renee.”
“Meeting them was strange, as they thought I was you. Then when their DNA tests proved I was you...” Jennifer shook her head.
“What attracted you to the twenty-first century?”
“I was an archeologist and a historian. It seemed natural to study the twenty-first century firsthand when I got the opportunity.”
“But why were you studying the twenty-first century in archeology?”
Jennifer thought back to her early college days. “I do not know for sure but I was attracted to this time.”
“It’s not a high probability that you’d study and travel to my time at random.”
“Are you saying I was drawn to your time because I am your twin?”
“Yes. I was attracted to come back to help Poe and Tika but something else was pulling me. I felt incomplete!” Jenny smiled at her.
“I felt similar feelings about being incomplete.”
Jenny shared, “I knew about you and that you were probably dead. But I still had hope of meeting you here in the depth of my mind.”
“Did you know we had built a time machine?”
“No, that was a secret kept very well. But I later learned Zexton Ho’s design was the blueprint for subsequent models of time travel machines. My father and his brothers funded Time-Travel Eleven in the thirty-second century and traveled back to the twenty-ninth century with it before you were born, and again to come to the twentieth century, where I was born.”
“We may have discovered a new type of communication between twins, which could be just starting to evolve in humans.”
“This communication can even be felt over time,” Jenny added. “I read your novel and I learned much about you. I wish I had something to give you to explain my childhood.”
“I have learned a great deal by speaking with people who knew you. I have seen your family home on Nuku Hiva and looked at your room and your collections of things. I’d be most interested to learn of your life after you disappeared from this time as a teenager.”
“We must plan to see each other regularly,” Jenny urged. “I don’t want to lose you now that I’ve found you.”
“Yes, I agree,” Jennifer said. “I feel very guilty and must go to rescue my colleagues in the twenty-seventh century. With your two-way time machine, I have the means to do that at last. But I plan to come back—my life is here now. So, after I come back, I will look you up.”
“No! I’ll go with you. I can help, as I’m now the expert on this time machine and submersible. You need me!”
“I do not want to place you in danger.” Jennifer shook her head.
“We can go together. I’ll help you in the background. You’ll need someone who knows how to program the submersible, its robots, and navigate the seas.”
“We must stick together but this is not your problem—this is for me to resolve.”
“Then we go together and I’ll stay in the background to support the extraction. How will you communicate with your team?”
“We have a thirtieth century communicator that cannot be read in the twenty-seventh century. So we have a protocol that tells the other party it is safe to talk. We also have a backup silent communication system using something like Morse code on the watch phone.”
“Great, we can direct them to the coordinates and pick them up one group at a time.”
Jennifer admitted to herself that her sister spoke sense. She couldn’t do this alone. “We have a plan, but if I need for you to stay back on the submersible to manage the recovery, will you agree?”
“Aye-aye, Captain, you’re my leader.”
“I must call Marty and email Jean-Yves.”
Jennifer and Jenny headed for the Marine Lab in Papeete. They tied up the Blue Hole in the slip to plan their cover story. Jennifer could not find a reasonable cover that Marty would not check, but she would try the emergency family leave for the university.
* * *
That evening, Jennifer called Marty to establish a cover and say goodbye. “Hello, Marty my love, I must help some friends far away. It could take a month or two.”
“Where will you go?” Marty asked.
“Can you trust that I will explain when I return? It is an emergency.”
“I can trust you, just hurry back. I love you and the kids do too!”
“I love you and the kids. I will return after I complete a long overdue obligation
. Just call it emergency family leave at the university, my love. Au revoir.”
“Goodbye, my love. Please email me when you can.”
“Where I am going it may be extremely difficult, but I will try to send you a message now and then. I will miss you.” After programming her computer on the Blue Hole to send messages every few days, Jennifer packed her things in her backpack. She went to bed early to rest up for her mission.
* * *
“Good morning. Is everything ready?” Jenny asked after walking through the door connecting their hotel rooms.
“Everything is ready on the Blue Hole and it will station keep over our general location and look like it is fishing but with no hooks.”
“What did you tell Marty?”
“I told him to trust me and I would try to send messages every week.” Jennifer ordered with a smile, “Start the engines!”
“Aye-aye, Captain,” Jenny replied. Jennifer handled the lines as her sister backed out of the slip.
“Thank you, Jenny, that was a great job. Do you want to take the Blue Hole out to the ocean?”
“Roger that!” Jenny replied. “That will be fun for me.”
“We are off to rescue my team. Now I need to make a plan.”
CHAPTER 34
Extraction
They were getting close to their destination, one hundred miles south of Tahiti. The ocean was at sea state one. Jenny signaled Triton and it surfaced twenty yards astern. They made the transfer in the Zodiac.
“Conditions are near perfect and the ocean is so blue,” Jenny remarked.
“I will deflate the Zodiac. Where will I store it?” Jennifer asked.
“We have robots that do everything on this ship. Leave it to me.”
Jenny ordered, “Return to base!” and the Triton automatically followed her command.
After reaching the underwater base and the massive Trans-Time Eleven machine, Jenny and Jennifer talked for a short time about the differences from the Trans-Time One. Then they set up the controls and programmed their destination for the mission to recover the agents.
“The time is now set for four years after the initial arrival time of the forty-nine undercover agents,” Jenny confirmed.
“Roger that, engage!” Jennifer commanded.
In sixty light-blinding seconds, Jennifer and her twin made the transition to the twenty-seventh century.
“It was a fantastic experience like floating in the air,” Jennifer noted. “What do you think?”
“I like the feeling.”
“Let’s go to the submersible so I can send a message to Kylie.”
“Roger that, just follow me.”
The twins quickly walked through the connection hatch and boarded Triton.
“Systems check, ready to disembark,” Jenny said, moving her arms to the controls.
“Activate Triton!” Jennifer ordered. The Triton responded to her voice command, and it would follow orders from either of them. “Attain antenna launch depth and then activate z-band antenna. Let me know when we’re close enough to the surface to initiate z-band communication.”
“Roger that,” the Triton replied in French. “It will take about thirty minutes to get in position and deploy the z-band antenna.”
Time stood still for Jennifer as she waited the remaining time between her and her former team. The antenna was brought to the surface and Triton set up a communication system. Jennifer tapped code into her watch, relayed by Triton to the antenna, which sent out an enhanced signal worldwide by bouncing the z-band radiation off the ionosphere. The z-band signal carried a request for a status report.
After about two hours of agonizing waiting, Jennifer received a signal. Mission accomplished, Commander Brown responded.
Jennifer’s heart sang to know her friend was all right. Can we use voice mode now, Commander Brown? Jennifer tapped in code.
Kylie opened the voice channel. “Hello, Captain Hero! We thought you were lost.”
The suspicion in her voice pained Jennifer briefly; so much had changed between them since they last spoke. Yet she was pleased Kylie was being cautious.
“I was for a while but now I come with a means to take the entire team back to the thirtieth century. Casualty report,” Jennifer ordered as she put her hand to her head.
“I regret to report two dead and five imprisoned for security violations.”
While Jennifer had expected the chance of casualties, being confronted with numbers added to her guilt at the time spent on holiday before arriving here to assist her team.
“Roger that. I need details and a plan to extract them from prison so please work on that. In the meantime, I want to meet you individually before I meet with the rest of the team. Can you make it to the coast? Triton has over a one hundred-person capacity submersible.”
“Roger that. I’m in Sydney and can rent a small sailboat or an inflatable. We have adapted and have jobs so the weekend is the best time.”
“Commander Brown, we are currently near Tahiti,” Jennifer said. “So it will be about a week to ten days in transit before we can be in the area.” Jennifer felt some trepidation as she lied to her old friend.
“Can you give me coordinates and a time?”
“Roger that. I will send that information in code in three days.”
“Aye-aye, Captain!”
Jennifer needed to make sure her clandestine operatives had not been compromised. She would surprise Kylie. She had her coordinates.
Jennifer developed a disguise as an aboriginal woman. She planned her excursion into Sydney Harbor, the busiest harbor in the world in this century. Jennifer and Jenny worked hard to prepare appropriate papers for her cover using the vessel’s robotic technology. Meanwhile Triton cruised at its top stealth speed of one hundred knots toward Sydney.
Jennifer planned to catch fish and, after that, come into the harbor to sell the fish. Jenny rigged the fifty-nine-foot inflatable vessel for trolling and netting. After two days, the vessel and papers were ready. Jennifer was released at the surface in the inflatable fishing vessel.
After a couple of hours of search, Jennifer located a school of tuna and caught a net full of small ones. Next, she tried to troll for marlin as she knew they were nearby from the advanced fish-finder technology. She caught three big marlins after many hard-fought hours. She lay down for a short rest and woke up to a majestic sunrise. After eating packaged nutrients and drinking water, she headed for Sydney at full speed. As she reached the harbor docks she slowed to harbor speed of ten knots. She spotted a large seafood restaurant and docked her vessel in one of the guest slips. She asked the front person if they bought fresh fish directly and they sent her to the kitchen. The cook came to look at her catch. He offered her a price and she haggled before accepting. The cook’s assistant came to get the fish using special containers with liquid nitrogen.
“G’day, mates,” Jennifer said.
“G’day,” said the assistant.
He wrote her a check for over five thousand dollars.
“Thank you, mate,” Jennifer said. “May I tie up at your guest dock for a spell? I need to get provisions.”
“Yes, you may tie up for the day but overnight will cost you eighty dollars,” he told her.
“That is fine, I want to relax and eat lunch at your restaurant.”
He gave her a pass.
Jennifer ate and paid with the communicator before taking the vac-tube to Kylie’s apartment building. She needed to observe the other woman before approaching. Long years as an undercover operative had proven that vigilance was never misplaced. Her caution was as much to protect Kylie as herself and Jenny. She placed a few pieces of video and audio monitoring equipment near Kylie’s windows.
* * *
After observing Kylie for a few days, her suspicions were allayed. Jennifer met Kylie as she was leaving her office for lunch and blocked her path.
“G’day, mate!” Jennifer said.
“G’day,” Kylie nodded polite
ly and moved to walk past.
Jennifer hugged Kylie, gripping the surprised woman to plant a nanotech listening device on her as an added measure of security.
“Have you seen the kangaroo name Joey in the movie?” Jennifer asked.
Kylie tensed but kept her voice at normal conversational tone to respond, “I have seen a kangaroo named Zexton!” She leaned back and scanned Jennifer’s face with wide eyes.
“Can you come fishing with me Friday?” Jennifer asked.
“Of course,” Kylie said, recovering her composure. Jennifer saw the recognition in her friend’s eyes and was proud of her professionalism for not giving it away. They separated and continued the direction they had each been walking.
Jennifer contacted her sister as soon as she was sure it was safe. They discussed the progress and the need to be sure that these agents had not been compromised in any way.
The next morning Jennifer purchased breakfast for Kylie and greeted her with a big hug as she recovered the listening device.
“Can I see your vessel?” Kylie asked.
“Let’s walk together and we’ll be there in about thirty minutes.”
Jennifer and Kylie walked until they were in front of a park bench.
“The vessel is below in slip seven,” Jennifer said.
“I see it!”
“We are about two hundred meters from the eighteen-meter inflatable vessel,” Jennifer told her. “We will take this vessel and go fishing as our cover on Friday so we need bait and provisions for three days. Here is my ecard. Can you purchase and load the vessel while I check weather and other factors?”
“Yes, of course!” Kylie said. Her smile and slight lean forward betrayed her eagerness to reconnect with her captain and dear friend, but prudence dictated continued caution and disguise.
Jennifer reviewed the recordings while Kylie was shopping and she learned Kylie was a good leader and hadn’t announced the rescue. Jennifer checked the weather and other factors on her communicator. She next headed to the marine supply store to help carry the provisions.
Kylie returned to work the next day, Thursday, and signed the computer for emergency family leave the next week.
30th Century: Escape (30th Century Trilogy Book 1) Page 37