Bad Behavior (The Last Time Traveler Book 3)

by Aaron J. Ethridge

  Finally, just moments after she had closed the door in his face, he gave up and made his way to his room. He gave his Shop at Karl's poster a good long stare before crawling into bed and falling almost instantly to sleep. Late the following morning, he wandered onto the bridge to find Robert on the comm with Sister.

  “You have a fan club?” she asked with a slight smile.

  “I do,” he nodded. “Why? Are you surprised?”

  “I guess not,” she laughed. “I mean; it does make a certain kind of sense. There are a lot of people who don't know you as well as I do.”

  “Exactly,” the traveler chuckled. “Either way, I'd appreciate it if you would find out everything you can about its members. Particularly Susan Montgomery. She's the president – or, at least she claimed to be.”

  “I'll find out what I can, Rob,” Sister nodded. “Is there anything else you need?”

  “I think you know what I need,” Robert smiled.

  “And, what is that?!” Cleo asked, having just come into the room.

  “I was referring to the details on our next mission,” the traveler lied.

  “That's a lie,” Morgan asserted.

  “Et tu, Morgan?” Robert replied.

  “You're right,” Morgan laughed, “that is funny.”

  “I'm not laughing,” Cleo pointed out.

  “If you want to know about your next mission,” Sister interjected, “call Brother.”

  “I certainly will, Sis,” the traveler nodded. “And, thanks!”

  “Cleo,” Morgan said, turning his eyes to the fair green maiden, “I hope you noticed that I didn't lie to you.”

  “I did,” she nodded. “But, I noticed that Rob did even more.”

  “I did not!” Robert claimed, as if there was any chance that she would believe him. “I was just teasing. There's a difference.”

  “Teasing who?” Cleo asked, tilting her head to the side.

  “Both of you.”

  “Both of who?”

  “You and Sister,” the traveler explained.

  “Well, I don't like being teased like that,” she replied, placing her hands on her hips, “I also don't like you teasing her like that.”

  “Alright,” he said, raising his hands, “I surrender. I spoke without thinking and I apologize. A man can't be expected to change the habits of numerous lifetimes over the span of a few hours. Now, in order to make up for my misdeed, I'll tell you an absolute truth: You, Cleo Zelbizarre, are the only girl I've ever cared for and the happiest moment in my life up to this point was when you agreed to become my wife. How's that for truth?”

  “It's a pretty good truth,” she smiled. “You're forgiven.”

  “Thank you!”

  “You're welcome. Just don't do it again.”

  “Obviously,” Robert nodded. “Now, if you'll let me get back to work, I'll find out what our next mission is so we can get started. Is that alright with you two?”

  It was. Brother was contacted and quickly sent the information on their next job to the ship. Robert wanted an hour or so to go over the details before they set out. Not wanting to just waste the time, Morgan headed to the gym. He wanted to see what they had in the way of marital arts equipment. Up to this point, he had lifted a good deal of weights, walked and peddled countless miles on the exercise bikes and treadmills, and (as per Doc's orders) spent a good deal of time laying in the tanning beds. He hadn't, however, done more than stroll through the dojo.

  The room itself wasn't particularly exciting, being nothing more than a big empty space with a padded floor and one wall covered in mirrors. These were meant to allow you to watch your form as you practiced, but Morgan was much more interested in the idea of watching Azure's. In one corner, a punching bag hung from the ceiling, which the young man felt compelled to approach and punch. He couldn't wait to show the girls, particularly Azure (obviously), his new mad skills. There was no point in having mad skills unless there was some female around to be impressed by them.

  As the young man stood flexing at the mirror covered wall, a wide smile covered his face. He was bigger than Robert, stronger than Robert, and would soon be throwing Robert around the dojo like a rag-doll. This thought caused the young man to sigh with contentment. Robert was undoubtedly his best friend but, he was the kind of best friend that made you want to rub his face on the floor from time to time. Now, Morgan would have the chance to do just that. Of course, Doc and Vox would probably end up rubbing his face in the mat occasionally as well but, that was a price he was more than willing to pay.

  He also considered the idea that he might be able to convince Azure that wrestling was a critical form of self-defense and that it would be a good idea for them to practice together in case she ever found herself grappled by some giant, slack-jawed oaf. If wrestling with Azure were his goal, Robert would just come up with some crazy lie to convince her to do it. Morgan couldn't do that, though. There were two good reasons for this: One, he was never going to lie to the girls again. Two, he couldn't think of a lie that would stand the slimmest chance of succeeding. He would have to come back to it later. For now, he had nothing.

  Rummaging through a number of lockers that were set against one of the other walls, the young man discovered a dobok that was just his size. A dobok is what a karate gi is called in tang soo do. In English, we would just call it a uniform, but that's not very cool, is it? He also found a black belt that would fit him. He took this as a sign and immediately went to his room to change. The moment he finished, Robert summoned the entire crew to the conference room.

  “Alright guys,” Robert began, pulling Cleo's chair out for her before catching sight of the young man. “What are you wearing, Morgan?”

  “It's called a dobok.”

  “Yeah, I know that,” the traveler nodded. “What I actually meant was: why are you wearing it?”

  “In case.”

  “In case of what?”

  “In case a bunch of ninjas just randomly pop into existence on the ship, intent on kidnapping the girls.”

  “You think that's likely, do you?” Robert chuckled.

  “Random elements,” Morgan replied with a knowing nod.

  “Well, your belt is tied wrong.”

  “How wrong?”

  “Completely wrong,” Azure asserted, stepping over to him to re-tie it. “This is how you do it.”

  “Thanks,” he smiled.

  “Rob, bro,” Vox interjected, “can we get on with it? I've got a lot planned this morning.”

  “Mmmm,” Robert replied, gazing at Vox and slowly nodding his head. “Yes, we can. Our current target is a man named James Morgan. He was a genius from a long line of geniuses who not only managed to vastly increase his family's fortune but, was also able to assemble a working time machine using documents he collected on the internet.”

  “There were time machine plans on the internet?” Morgan asked incredulously, having, by this time, learned what the word incredulous meant.

  “On his planet and at that time,” Robert replied, “sort of, yes, there were. Of course, they were so complex that almost no one could understand them and they were disjointed and incomplete, being composed of a number of different theories and experiment results. In any event, it was enough for a man of his intelligence to make a time machine with.

  He completed it late in life, and only ever used it to make one trip. He headed just twenty-five years into the future to see what his great-grandson, James Morgan the fourth, who had just been born, was doing with his life.”

  “I can certainly understand wanting to see that,” Celeste interjected. “Your children carry who you are into the future. One of the great tragedies of nature is that we don't get to see all our offspring bloom and grow.”

  “Yes and no,” Robert replied, rotating his hand back and forth. “In this case: no. James Morgan the fourth was a complete wastrel. By the time he was twenty, his parents and grandparents had all died. Free of any restraint they might have put on him, h
e squandered the family fortune and by the age of twenty-five, he was broke and the family estate was heavily mortgaged.”

  “His great-grandfather should have gone back even further and fixed the boy before he went wrong,” Celeste asserted.

  “No, he shouldn't have,” the traveler said, shaking his head. “You only get one chance to raise your kids right. After that...”

  “It's not always a matter of raising them right, Rob,” Celeste interjected. “Sometimes, with the best intentions, you say the wrong thing or do the wrong thing and the child doesn't understand or misses the point in spite of your best efforts.”

  “And sometimes your kids are just jerks,” Vox added.

  Celeste gave him a disapproving look.

  “Well... It's true, baby.”

  “Either way,” she continued, “if you had a chance to go back and correct...”

  “But, you don't,” Robert interrupted.

  “Not unless you have a time machine,” she retorted.

  “Look, I understand, mama. I mean, sis.”

  “No, you don't, Rob,” she replied, shaking her head. “You know what you've read or what you've been programmed with. You don't know what it's like to be a parent or a grand-parent.”

  “No, he doesn't,” Doc agreed. “However, there may be something we can all learn from this case.”

  “I suppose that's true,” Celeste sighed. “What happened next, Rob?”

  “Needless to say, James Morgan the fourth was stunned when his great-grandfather showed up,” the traveler said. “He might not have believed it was him if not for the striking family resemblance coupled with the fact that James Morgan the first just strolled out of his own lab, which had been sealed for years, while his great-grandson was in an adjacent room, looking for things to pawn.

  Once his grandfather had explained about the time machine, young James Morgan the fourth lied his head off. He told the first that everything was going great, asked him to spend a few days with him, and sneaked him into a spare bedroom, telling him that he wanted to introduce him to everyone else on the following morning.

  James the fourth was, in a very real way, a bum. However, much like his sires, he was also a genius. He managed to work out the controls on his grandfather's machine in a matter of minutes. This done, he grabbed up a few things of value he had been loath to part with up to this point, went back in time a few days and pawned them all.”

  “Why would he do that?” Morgan asked.

  “I'm explaining that.”

  “I mean,” the young man replied, “why would he go back a few days just to pawn stuff.”

  “Actually, I have no idea,” Robert admitted. “May I continue?”

  “Please do.”

  “He took the money he'd gotten,” the traveler continued, “went a few years back in time, and bought some stock he knew was going to skyrocket. He then went forward in time until the stock had peaked, went back a little further and sold it at top price. He took that money, got his stuff out of hock, and paid off all his mortgages.

  Realizing what kind of fortune he could make, he decided to do it again, and again, and again. This messed up the time lines all around him but, it did make him fabulously wealthy.”

  “And ruined that planet's economy,” Morgan suggested.

  “Actually, it didn't,” Robert replied, shaking his head. “It did change things for a lot of people but, it was a lot like in Office Space when they were taking fractions of a penny. By the time the dust settled, the economy was actually a little bit stronger than it had been originally.”

  “But the time-lines were scrambled,” Cleo suggested.

  “Like an egg in an omelet,” Robert agreed. “On top of which, James the fourth didn't know the time machine could run out of fuel; which it did.”

  “What happened to his great-grandfather?” Azure asked.

  “I'm coming to that,” the traveler said with a smile. “The next day, after the fourth had run off through time, the housekeeper stumbled on granddaddy. She didn't buy his I'm James Morgan the first! story. She called the police, he was arrested, and ended up dying of old age in an insane asylum. When the fourth realized he was out of fuel, he tried to find out what had happened to the first. By that time, though, he was already dead. However, as the fourth was insanely wealthy already, it didn't seem to bother him all that much.”

  “Like I said,” Vox replied, shaking his head, “some kids are just jerks.”

  “To make things even worse,” Robert continued, “since great-granddaddy never got back to his own time-line, his son, James Morgan Junior, built a second time machine in order to go look for his father.”

  “That's not good,” Cleo asserted.

  “True. But, it could have been far worse than it was,” the traveler said. “Nothing major happened, although it did cause even more time-line-scrambling. And, obviously, he never managed to track his father down. Which is hardly surprising, considering he had no idea where he had planned to go. Junior didn't even know about the machine until after the first went missing. Finally, he gave up, destroyed the machine and all his father's plans, and never spoke about it again.”

  “So,” Morgan sighed, “I supposed we have to start by going back to undo all the fourth’s trips one by one?”

  “I don't think so,” Robert replied. “None of his trips had any paradoxical side effects (like I said, the guy was a genius) and even the sum total of all his changes had minimum effects.”

  “Then, what do we do?” the young man asked.

  “First, we refuel his time machine,” Robert asserted. “That is to say: Vox and Cleo rig up a secondary power system that we can turn on from Never Never Land.”

  “Can I help?” Azure interjected.

  “Sure,” the traveler nodded. “If you think you can.”

  “I do,” she assure him.

  “Great!” he said with smile. “Once it's complete, we break into the house and install it on his machine. That done, we head to Never Never Land and fire it up after he's run out of fuel. That will give him what he needs to return the machine before granddad ends up arrested. As a result, the first will be able to get back home and Junior won't go looking for him. After the time-lines settle, we can send him a message not to go see his great-grandson in the first place. All things considered, it'll be a piece of cake.”

  “Uhhh,” Vox said, shaking his head. “I really wish you hadn't said that.”

  “Why? It will be,” Robert assured him. “You just wait and see.”

  “I hope you're right.”

  “Don't worry, I am,” the traveler replied confidently. “However, that's not to say we don't have anything to worry about because we certainly do.”

  “And what is that?” Azure asked.

  “The fact that someone is working against us,” Robert replied.

  “Yeah,” Morgan chuckled, “someone.”

  “It's not Sturm,” the traveler insisted. “Just yesterday, he gave a speech - a far too wordy speech - in our honor. Well, sort of.”

  “That's what's called a ruse, Rob,” Morgan replied. “It's something villains use to fool the simple minded.”

  “Very funny, but, you're wrong.”

  “Alright, fifty bucks,” Morgan replied, shaking his head. “Funny money or not, I raise the bet to fifty bucks.”

  “I never said it was counterfeit,” Robert pointed out, “but, you're on.”

  “I'm in, too,” Vox said.

  “Me, too,” Cleo nodded.

  “Same here,” Azure added.

  “That's high enough stakes to get me interested,” Doc said, rubbing his chin. “I'll take that bet.”

  “You think Morgan's right?” the traveler asked, his eyes locked on Doc.

  “Do I?” he chuckled. “Yes, I do.”

  “Well, get your money ready, then,” Robert smiled. “Either way, we all need to keep our eyes open. If anything strange happens, no matter how minor it seems, we need to take note of it. And, we have
to be on the lookout for clues. Whoever tried to stop us before may try to stop us again. If they do try again, we need to find out more about who they are. Now, if you're all ready, we can get this bird in the sky.”

  Chapter 2: Auxiliary Power

  “I never noticed it before,” Morgan said, strolling along behind Robert as they made their way back to the bridge, “but, the floor is kind of cold.”

  “I suppose it is a little,” the traveler replied. “At least, it is when you're not wearing any shoes.”

  “You don't wear shoes when you're sparring,” Morgan pointed out.

  “You're not sparring,” Robert counter-pointed-out.

  “I will be in a minute. The floor in my room isn't this cold.”

  “No, you won't be. And, the floors in our rooms are heated.”

  “That makes sense, I guess,” Morgan replied with a nod. “Why won't I be sparring?”

  “It does make sense,” Robert asserted, slipping down into his seat before launching the ship into non-space. “There are two good reasons you won't be sparring in the next few minutes. First, Cleo and Azure are going to be working on the backup power unit. I assume you don't want to do it without them.”

  “Correct.”

  “Second, you're not ready for actual sparring yet.”

  “Well, you're wrong about point two there, bro,” Morgan replied, shaking his head. “I had Sister program me. I'm like a grand master martial artist now.”

  “I know Sister programmed you but, you're not a grand master at anything.”