by Jones, D. F.
Monica paused at the door until Ruben secured Klock into his crate. She glared at the dog. “You better zip it, Skippy, or you’ll end up in cook’s soup.”
Monica had screwed Ruben’s brains out last night trying to extract information from his most recent meeting with the Lord Supreme. She was great in bed, but the damn woman had ice in her veins.
Ruben returned to his desk and swiveled the chair around to face Monica. “There’s something about you that Klock just doesn’t like. The dog is trained to kill the enemy.” With a raised brow, he said, “So, there’s a rumor going around you sold some Spinners on the black market to General Agriaous.”
Monica placed a hand on her hip and narrowed her eyes at Ruben. “Did Charlie tell you that?”
Pointing his finger, he said, “Ah, hah! I was right. I haven’t seen Charlie in a good decade, and you fell right into that one, Monica. The Lord Supreme is going to give you the ax when he finds out.”
She straightened her spine. “I didn’t sell anyone, and if I were you, I’d be very careful. You’re not expendable.” Ignoring Klock’s low rumbling growl, she asked, “Are you ready to travel?”
“You don’t scare me, and I’m not afraid to die. So, stop with the threats, and you know I’m always ready to travel.” Ruben stubbed out the smoldering cigarette in the ashtray.
“Why do you smoke? It’s a filthy habit.”
He stepped over, circled his arm around Monica’s waist, and pulled her off the floor. He leaned in close, and Monica parted her lips, but he released her, setting her on her feet. Beauty, brains, but cold-blooded. He decided never to sleep with her again.
Taking a step back, he said, “And why shouldn’t I smoke? It isn’t like the agency is going to allow one of their best Trackers to get lung cancer. Yeah, I found out. You guys altered my genome and took out any mutated genes.”
Ruben picked up the gel compact holding the information of his new life. “So, I’m heading to Burkett Falls.”
Monica shrugged and trailed her fingers along his desk. “I read the brief this morning. Why is this assignment so hush-hush? I’m the Commander of this unit, and I only received a four-sentence paragraph on the details.”
“That’s interesting.” He pushed her against the wall.
Monica wet her lips and said, “The Empyreal Palace made your arrangements, and I’m not privy to the information on your new assignment. That’s bullshit. So, you tell me, what’s up?”
With a raised brow and sly grin, he replied, “Interesting. Really. Interesting.”
The Lord Supreme had issued Ruben’s new assignment. Ms. Boatwright had entered an alternate reality in a parallel universe. It was Ruben’s job to find her and make sure no major paradoxes took place. He had to access her physical, mental, and emotional state and report to The Lord Supreme. His instructions had been somewhat vague, but the Lord Supreme didn’t want Ruben to impose any preconceived notions that would influence Julia Boatwright’s actions.
Monica trailed her hands up his arms. “Hey, Ruben, you have some pretty incredible silver-gray eyes. We have time for a quickie before your transport leaves.”
“Nah, last night will do me for a while.” He moved away from Monica and crossed his arms over his bare chest.
“Whatever.” Monica shrugged and said, “Look, if you know what’s good for you, you’ll keep me in the loop. I have a quick temper, as you may remember.”
Ruben laughed. “Aw, Nicky, you know I love the rough stuff.”
Monica looked at the red light on her name bracelet. “Don’t call me Nicky. Be serious. It’s time for you to go. Safe travels, Ruben.” She left the unit.
ATTRA’s Gateway had an intricate teleportation suite containing three walled panels with comprehensive project software that calibrated time travel specifically designed with the Tracker’s DNA. That way the Tracker arrived at the destination point intact and not as a puddle of matter mess. Before Ruben entered the program, Time Tracker trailblazers had learned the hard way. One tracker to a craft; otherwise splat on reentry. Klock was too small to have his DNA added to the sequence to mess with the equation, and so far, he’d arrived in the different time periods unharmed.
Ruben punched in the code for his new mission and approached his time machine. The Needle-Horn was an anti-matter craft powered by a positron reactor. The nuclear propulsion system combined with radiant energy made time travel possible.
Ruben pressed his remote to open the Needle-Horn’s door. He checked the date on his wrist monitor with the time travel craft. They were synchronized. He locked Klock’s straps, then slipped inside the pilot cabin and backed into the chute standing up, and the automatic straps secured him into the harness. Ruben tapped the screen on his wristband to initiate the sequence. Three, two, one, the next stop, the Black Mountains, then onto Burkett Falls.
* * *
2017 Burkett Falls
Ruben spent the next year developing his identity at BFU, researching Phillip Clayborn and Julia Boatwright. He made an appearance in the past to guide Phillip without sabotaging his career with the agency. Klock stayed at his side getting clearance through the Dean with the explanation Ruben had multiple allergies that could kill him. Ruben stated Klock was a trained medical dog to warn him if he was in danger. Eh, it worked.
In fact, aliens walked among the humans, and they carried latent viruses and bacteria which could release airborne disease with the potential to wipe out the civilization. Most aliens went through a rigid screening before being allowed access to the planet. Klock was brilliant, far superior to any breed on Earth, and his nose was sensitive to alien scents. Klock was Ruben’s very own alert system.
Ruben genuinely liked Phillip, and he became close friends with his grandson, Andy. Hanging out with Andy reminded him of the days before he went off to WWI, before ATTRA recruited him. Ruben knew his days were numbered on the assignment, and the agency would send him on another case. But he intended to enjoy the time with his new friend, and the quaint town of Burkett Falls.
Ruben drove along the state highway before turning onto Country Park Lane. He glanced at Klock and grinned. Klock’s head stuck out the window with his tongue dangling out of his mouth. He loved Earth’s atmosphere.
Ruben had been expecting Andy’s call to meet Julia, aka, Kaye Bailey, when he was invited to dinner on the patio. He’d learned during his research that Kaye was Julia’s middle name, and Bailey was her mother’s maiden name. His pulse began to race. He was minutes from meeting Julia in the flesh.
Ruben pulled his Hummer to a stop behind Andy’s new Camaro SS. He reached over and grabbed his cooler filled with a variety of domestic and imported beers. Klock jumped out and ran to the bushes and peed.
Looking more like a student than a professor, Ruben wore a black Zeppelin T-shirt untucked over tight jeans rolled up at the hem, and black Crocs.
Walking around the back of the house, Ruben unlatched the gate, and Klock ran through the backyard and jumped into Julia’s lap, licking her face. Hmmm. Klock didn’t like anyone, except Charlie.
Julia sat in one of the teak Adirondack chairs. She threw her head back, laughing while she rubbed Klock’s ears. “Where did you come from, boy?”
Julia’s beauty made Ruben’s heart skip a beat, and he quickened his steps over to meet her. “Uh, I’m sorry. Klock never takes to anyone so quickly. Heel, Klock.” Klock peeked over his shoulder then placed his head in Julia’s arms.
She laughed again, and said, “Oh, he’s all right. I love his coloring. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a dog quite like him.”
Andy threw up one hand in greeting while flipping burgers with the other. “Hey, Ruben. Glad, you could make it.” He covered the grill, turned down the thermostat, and placed the spatula on the grill’s hook. “Hey, Kaye is the friend I was telling you about working on her thesis. I thought maybe you could give her a few suggestions and point her in the right direction on time travel. She’s staying with me this summer.”
&nbs
p; Ruben dipped down and placed a kiss on the back of her hand. Klock growled at him, and barked, “Back off, big boy, she’s mine.”
Ruben narrowed his eyes and said, “Dog, don’t bite the hand that feeds you.” He looked at Julia and said, “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Kaye.”
“It’s nice to meet you too. I’ve heard a great deal about you from Andy. His family and mine go way back.”
Ruben raised a brow and said, “Well, then, Andy’s a lucky man. I brought some beers. You want imported or domestic?”
She giggled and said, “I’m not picky. You choose for me.”
Ruben forgot how ladies used to allow men to make decisions for them. He smiled and said, “I want you to try Blue Moon.” He sat down the cooler, pulled out a beer and grabbed an orange slice, then squeezed the juice into the bottle.
Julia wrinkled her nose and said, “Orange juice in beer?”
Ruben sat down in the Adirondack chair beside Julia and handed her the beer. “Try it. If you don’t like it, I’ll drink it.”
Andy, Julia, and Ruben were eating dinner on the patio table when Julia began to ask him questions while Klock lay at Julia’s feet.
Julia pushed her plate aside and placed her forearms on the table. “I’ve studied Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. The groundbreaking work he and Tesla did with the Philadelphia Experiment was quite remarkable even with the naysayers. My research uncovered interviews with some of the family members of the victims from the project. From the data that I gathered, Einstein used his unified field theory. He and Tesla merged electromagnetism and gravity by placing Tesla’s coils around the ship.”
The more excited Julia became while she talked, the more exaggerated were her hand gestures. “They were trying to make the ship disappear from enemy radar. It’s rumored the entire ship vanished into thin air. Supposedly, eyewitnesses relayed part of the crew materialized into the steel of the ship on reentry. Do you think that time travel is possible?”
Ruben listened to Julia lay out her time travel synopsis. She was accurate on most accounts. He wasn’t ready to reveal who he was or the fact that she was never going home again. “Yes, I’ve read the reports on that. And yes, I believe time travel exists. The problem is developing reliable and documented proof. I don’t think the world super powers will ever admit time travel, and if it exists, they would never release the information. The thing is, you can’t change the past. It’s already happened. But hypothetically, a time traveler could influence the future if they went back in time.”
Ruben pushed his chair back and crossed his leg, so his left foot rested on his right knee. “Time warps or curves may allow portals to open coupled with high force-velocity which could propel a person or thing into the future. For the longest time, space was viewed as nothingness. But space is like a fluid piece of fabric, like spandex that stretches and bends. In the space-time continuum model, you can’t have one without the other.”
Julia cocked her head to the side and said, “What’s spandex?”
Andy reached over, pulled on the fabric of her legging and let it go. Chuckling, he said, “Your leggings are made of spandex. It’s a synthetic fiber that adds elasticity.”
Looking at Andy, Julia nodded and said, “Oh, I see. That makes sense. I’m beginning to understand what happened.” She turned to Ruben and asked, “Do you believe in portals? Do you think that a person can travel in a portal to another decade, hypothetically speaking of course?”
Ruben caught the look of surprise on Andy’s face.
Andy frowned at Julia and shook his head, but Julia didn’t flinch. She stared into Ruben’s eyes, and he couldn’t lie to her. Ruben replied, “Yes, I do.”
Julia jumped away from the table and danced a jig. “Thank the Lord!” she repeated several times, and Ruben watched her with a grin on his face. The woman didn’t seem to possess a pretentious bone in her body. Her honesty and levity were quite refreshing.
After dancing for a couple of minutes, she smiled at Ruben and Andy. “I’m glad you believe in portals. I do too. Now, I have to figure out how to find them.”
Seeing the tension building in Andy, Ruben stood and said, “Please excuse me, I have to visit the loo.” Inside the house, Ruben snuck into the sunroom to peek at them. Andy was talking a mile a minute, shaking his fist in the air and Julia listened but seemed untroubled.
Ruben returned to the patio table and sat down. Julia and Andy exchanged glances, and Andy gave her a quick nod.
Julia straightened her spine and placed one hand over the other one. She cleared her throat. “Ahem. Ruben, I want to share something with you that needs to remain between us three. I need your help, but I also need you to keep what we discuss in strict confidence. Will you agree?”
Ruben’s chest tightened, and it was hard to breathe. “I know you’re Julia Boatwright.”
Julia’s hand flew to her mouth. Her eyes widened, and she looked at Andy.
Throwing his hands up in the air, Andy said, “Don’t look at me. I didn’t tell him.”
Julia said, “How did you know?”
Ruben placed his hand over hers. “I would’ve known who you were if your hair was colored purple. I’ve studied your disappearance.” Ruben’s chest relaxed just a little. He didn’t rat out ATTRA. For some unfathomable reason, he couldn’t lie to Julia, but he couldn’t tell her the whole truth either.
Tears glazed over her eyes, and she looked away. Wiping her eyes with the heels of her hands, she turned back to Ruben. “Will you help me? I don’t belong here. I want to go home.”
Ruben dragged his fingers over his mouth. He wasn’t sure why, but he knew this woman was unlike any he’d ever met. Her very presence pulled at something so deep inside him that he found himself wanting to help her, no matter what the rules were. “I’ll do what I can to help you. But you must understand, time travel poses significant risks. Individuals can die during travel, or they may lose limbs. It could scramble your brain. One more thing, there’s no theory on how time portals work but I’m pretty sure navigation is your biggest hurdle.”
Julia placed her hand on her forehead. “I agree. The portal I was in felt like a tunnel spinning around me so fast while I stayed suspended in air, and then the next thing I knew Andy was dragging me out of the water of the Falls. I had no control.”
Ruben said, “You need to think about your next step. You are alive, and you seem healthy. Take some time to consider the risks. If you still want my help, Andy has my contact information. Come, Klock.” Klock looked at Julia and Ruben then went to his master. Ruben grabbed his cooler. “I have a meeting in the morning. Andy, thanks for dinner, and, Julia, it’s been an honor to meet you tonight.” Turning, he and Klock left through the backyard gate.
Inside the Hummer, Ruben’s hands trembled. He narrowed his eyes at Klock. “So, you think she’s pretty too?”
Klock barked, “Hot as hell, brother.”
Ruben hadn’t compromised the agency, but he had offered his help, and it could get him killed. Was it loss of control over a gorgeous woman? Or was he actually standing up for what was right despite his orders? He had to be very careful how he handled ATTRA and Julia.
Ruben liked Julia, and it wasn’t her fault she fell into a naturally-occurring time portal. The Needle-Horn was designed for only one traveler. Truth be told, there was no way to take her home. To his knowledge, all the natural time portals went forward in time, not backward. “What am I supposed to do?”
“One day at a time. We’ll figure it out,” Klock said.
“How do you know that?”
Klock turned in a circle twice before lying in the seat. “We always do.”
Ruben cranked the ignition, backed out of the driveway, and pulled onto the street. He had an idea. Phillip was an incredible physicist. Ruben would hack into ATTRA’s system for the Needle-Horn’s design and deliver it to Phillip. Maybe he could find a way to alter the craft for more than one person. “Do you think I’d travel down this slippery slo
pe if Julia wasn’t so damn good-looking, and a damsel in distress to boot?”
Klock barked again and rested his chin on Ruben’s forearm. He shook his head and said, “Probably not.”
Chapter 7
1950 Burkett Falls University
Phillip wrote frantically to capture every word Dr. Ruben Callaway spoke regarding the possibility of time travel. He signed up three weeks ago, after spotting a poster for The Time Travel Symposium in Madison Hall in the main wing of the science department. Dr. Callaway had worked beside the greats like Einstein and Tesla.
The tiered arc seating filled McPherson Lecture Hall to capacity with a mixture of cologne, coffee, and body odor. The wooden chairs and desks butted up against each other giving very little room to write. Phillip, being left-handed, used every inch of space with his journal and kept several sharpened pencils in his shirt pocket.
Julia had disappeared nearly two years ago, and listening to Dr. Callaway confirmed some of Phillip’s suspicions about time travel. Just maybe, Julia was still alive somewhere in time.
Dr. Callaway wrote several formulas on the massive chalkboard and turned to the crowd. “I worked on an experiment in the Philadelphia Naval Yard during World War II. We used Tesla’s coils to create large quantities of plasma, then placed them around the hull of the ship. Our primary objective was to design a weapon that would make ships undetectable by radar, but instead, the ship disappeared entirely.” Gasps went throughout the lecture hall. He paused for effect and emphasis, Phillip guessed.
Dr. Callaway said, “Of course, you won’t read about what actually happened that day. When the ship reappeared, several of the sailors working in the hull were melted to the steel.” Another wave of gasps and muttered whispering filtered among the crowd.
One of the students raised his hand, and with a nod, Dr. Callaway gave him permission to address the room. “Scientists around the globe debunked the Philadelphia Experiment. Tesla believes in aliens, for god’s sake.” A few chuckles spread throughout the crowd.