He spotted two more golden hairs on the front seat, the edges protruding out from behind Fil’s back and from under his legs, and, at the precipice of complete mental exhaustion, he slid a thin sheet of nanos over the entire surface, tinting them with the same hue as the seat fabric.
He finally allowed his mind back to the present, and offered his own theory on how they’d ended up here, agreed that Hope and Will had been here in hiding over the past many decades, and speculated that the “old Will” who’d overseen Hope and Fil’s escape from the fiery attacks into 2030 had manipulated the time machine coordinates to send them here, giving his children the chance to return in the future if needed.
Left unsaid was that, despite knowing where their parents were living, the Stark children weren’t likely to see them again until after young Will departed for the distant past. And if they did see them soon after?
It would likely be as part of initial plans for an assault on the Aliomenti, with the goal of destroying their grandfather and his powerful empire, probably killing the man in the process.
And on that cheerful thought, he corrected the time machine coordinates and activated the circuits for the last time, sending them back to the Alliance camp and a future that remained on course.
~~~57~~~
2219 A.D.
The controlled chaos of the Mechanic’s workshop shifted into focus as the time machine completed its final mission. Adam stared around for a moment. Seeing Fil and Angel, having Will and Smokey so nearby… that brought him back to the present. But this… seeing the Mechanic, seeing the myriad projects in various stages of completion, seeing the “older” man rushing to them, waving at them through the clearing cabin top… only now did it feel like he was home.
He opened the lid and they scrambled out. He did his best to push the thought of the sleeping woman in the back aside, celebrating with relief as they recounted the journey to the Mechanic, who listened in rapt attention. He doubted the exaggerated interest came from hearing the procedural details; the Mechanic had seen the memory videos so often that he often quipped he felt like he’d lived through it himself. He suspected that hearing about the sensations they couldn’t reproduce from the memories—the searing heat, the thick smoke Fil pierced searching for various items and creatures on the main level, the taste of fire and the spraying dirt they’d all unconsciously inhaled and hadn’t remembered until now—all of that added a new dimension for the man. The Mechanic embraced them all like the family they’d become, genuinely happy to see them all back in one piece.
The children cleaned Will while he built a new stash of nanos for himself, nanos he knew he’d eventually gift to their newest camp resident. He found the opening they’d left in the camp—the many viewings left them capable of building a detailed map of the layout—and used those extra nanos in the construction of a private residence for their leader. Angel and Fil rested their father carefully on a table constructed in the middle of the room and they left, letting the man sleep and heal.
It wasn’t long after that the Mechanic tracked him down. “Adam, I’m going to begin the destruction of the time machine. Can you help me?”
Adam masked the sudden panic he felt. He’d not gotten the chance to move Genevieve from the trunk; if they destroyed the machine, she’d die. While nobody else would know… he’d feel the burden of that guilt for the rest of his life. He’d need to hold off the destruction for a while… and the best way to do that was to go along with the Mechanic until he found a way to stop the destruction.
“You’ve seemed… distracted since your return.” The Mechanic’s voice, one he’d become so familiar with since their days as college friends and coworkers two centuries earlier, was a mixture of concern and… something else. Suspicion, perhaps.
Adam offered him a glance before returning his eyes to the route they walked, outside under the fading sunlight, moving between two nano-based residences. “Years ago, when I first learned about time travel and Will’s birth in the future, I was asked to oversee all of the planning efforts involved.” He laced his fingers behind his back. “I… refused.”
“Did you now?” The Mechanic sounded more curious than surprised. “Why?”
“A few reasons.” Adam was puzzled about the man’s tone. Did the Mechanic think it obvious that he’d refuse to help? “My father had served in that role before his death, and, like many sons, I didn’t consider myself his equal.”
“I think your father would say you are a far greater man than he,” the Mechanic mused.
Adam ignored the comment. “It was also a task of overwhelming size and complexity, and I wasn’t sure I had the skill required to complete the chore.” He shrugged. “And to be honest? I was told of time travel and protecting future Will’s birth and making sure his children were born… I heard all of this from people who’d been present at my father’s death, and who’d in many ways caused it.” He grimaced. “And they did nothing to stop it. It’s tough to say yes to a huge favor to someone who basically let your father die.”
The Mechanic’s face had gone briefly pale at the words, but he recovered quickly. “Oh.”
“I don’t blame them now, of course.” Adam shrugged. “But at the time… well, all of those factors, some more reasonable and rational than others… those factors pushed me to decline.”
“Why’d you change your mind?”
“A voice of reason set my thinking straight.”
“Eva?”
Adam nodded. “Eva.”
“Wise woman.”
“Indeed.”
The Mechanic turned to him. “So she talked you into taking on the job… but that doesn’t explain why you seem so distracted.”
“Just… mind running through everything that could have gone wrong, even after all the planning. And then we had that unexpected detour to Eden. Though the place is beautiful… I’d not expected it, and the shock of finding myself somewhere we’d never even thought about left me wondering if we’d somehow failed and all of history had changed.”
The Mechanic thought for a moment before nodding. “Understood.”
They reached the building constructed as a type of prison for the Assassin, the only living creature still inside the time machine as far as most knew, and walked inside. Adam glanced at the Mechanic. “How do you want to do this?”
The Mechanic rubbed his chin. “I’ve changed my mind, actually. I don’t think we should destroy the craft at all.”
Adam channeled his relief into a visible expression of surprise. “Really? Why not?”
“Two reasons, really. First, our goal is to prevent additional time travel, other than Will’s to the distant past. Secondly, I’m now recalling that the Mechanic flew the time machine to the new campsite during the upcoming Aliomenti attack.” He smiled. “Being the Mechanic, I’d like to keep the craft available for that purpose.”
Adam laughed. “That makes sense.”
“And I’d like to compare the time circuitry in this craft to the new circuits I’m creating for Will’s nano-based craft.”
Adam frowned. “Why build a new set? Why not just pull it out of the current machine and put it into the new one?”
“Well, that would be ideal, yes. Difficult enough to pack in enough nanos to generate the wall thickness required to withstand the pressures of time travel, so the time savings—no pun intended—would be helpful. But...”
Adam shook his head, understanding. “But the entire time machine, including the circuits, must be constructed of nanos. The full craft disintegrates. The current circuits aren’t formed of nanos. Which means…”
“Which means I still have to rebuild them.” The Mechanic sighed. “Though I’d preferred my version and the time savings it offered, I admit I’m glad I know it’s not an option now, rather than a couple of days before departure.”
They moved to the front of the craft and opened the lid, revealing the circuitry Adam had used so extensively over the past month of his time. The Mechanic
eyed the internals with curiosity. “Looks like most everything has suffered from some kind of energy leak. The navi computer, the batteries, the flight engines… all of them have significant scarring from overuse. I’m not sure I could reuse anything here, and I probably need to clean and patch things before I fly the machine away again.” He shook his head. “One more thing you could have worried about after the fact, Adam: component failure. But you’re all safe here now.”
The Mechanic thought for a moment and then reached in and detached several wires. He pulled the time circuitry out and examined it from every angle. Adam watched him, curious. “Why’d you decide to take it out?”
“Our guest will wake up at some point. I’d prefer he not figure out what this machine can do and give it a go.”
Adam laughed.
The Mechanic set the time circuits on the ground, a mass of metal and wires and computer processing chips, and looked upon it with fondness. “Well, I suppose we could keep it for a bit, track down the instant the changes were made to the return destination…”
Adam blinked. “It… tracks all of the coordinate changes?”
“Oh, sure. I gave it enough memory to log all changes, along with a system date and time of those changes, as well as battery capacity before and after.”
Adam tried to control his rising level of panic. “We’d be able to tell exactly when that change happened? So we could go back to the memory films and map out exactly when the detour coordinates were plugged in? That would be interesting.” He hoped the Mechanic would just stop there, or see all the other coordinates as noise, or… something.
“Yes. Interesting.” The Mechanic’s face drifted a bit, and then he blinked three times. “I guess that doesn’t really tell us much of use, does it? It happened. It doesn’t really matter when. And given the condition of the time circuits, I’m not going to get much from them that I can’t get from my notes. Let’s just eliminate this part and be done with it. Agreed?”
“Agreed.” He hoped he hadn’t spoken too quickly. He held up his hands, summoning Energy to his palms and fingertips, feeling the burning heat as he did so. “Count of three?”
The Mechanic nodded and set the time circuitry on the ground. “One. Two. Three.”
They shot controlled blasts of Energy at the circuits, and when they’d finished, nothing remained. Not even a pile of dust.
After staring at the empty space a moment, they turned and left the prison room. “I’m quite relieved that’s done,” the Mechanic told him as they reached the fresh outdoor air. “Can you imagine what someone might do with unfettered access to a time machine?”
“No,” Adam said. “I can’t imagine at all.”
It took all of his strength of will to avoid laughing.
~~~58~~~
2219 A.D.
They completed the debriefing the next morning, once everyone had gotten a good night’s sleep. The Mechanic walked through a checklist.
“Adam, did you set the firebomb?”
“Confirmed.”
“Did you set the timer?”
“Yes.”
“Did it go off?”
“I didn’t stick around to find out. What do the news archives say?”
“I’m going to mark that down as a yes. Fil, did you get the Assassin?”
“Yes.”
“Did you get Smokey?”
“Yes.”
“Did you get Will?”
“Oh, I knew I forgot something! We left him back in the burning house and Adam’s firebomb took him out!”
“Fil?”
“Yes, I got him.”
With that bureaucratic detail completed, they began the daily routines of their new life, routines that would prepare Will Stark for his journey back in time.
Adam had set up a temporary room for the time machine the day before, as the Mechanic wanted it out of the way so he’d have space for working on the new nano-based version. They now went back and made a few changes. Adam gifted the nanos to the Mechanic, who would need to collapse the room before flying off in the wake of the Aliomenti air attack they’d suffer in a few weeks. The Mechanic set up the security to ensure the Assassin couldn’t leave, nor could he send or receive Energy through the walls. That would keep the man well-contained until his eventual release near the end of Will’s stay here.
Angel and Fil had their first conversations with their father—Adam joked that Fil’s surliness seemed quite natural, and Fil’s scowl left them all laughing—and they activated the full strength of the healing nanos before retiring for the day. Will would wake up feeling no pain from the brutal injuries he’d suffered, and then they’d move on to getting him through the Purge and the beginning of Energy training, which Adam would oversee.
Those activities kept him busy, and they also left him little time to complete the next step in his private projects.
He slipped out of his personal quarters at dusk, chatting amiably with the handful of Alliance members who’d joined up for the chance to see the legendary Will Stark in his Energy infancy. Many had never seen the man, for Will had vanished from sight two centuries earlier, and many wondered if he was just some mythical figure created by the older Alliance.
Those living here would soon know that Will Stark was very much a real man.
He didn’t rush, didn’t cut off any conversations, but he did keep moving toward the Assassin’s prison, noting as he neared it that he was going in because he thought he’d left something behind. Once there, he did a subtle check for eyes on him and Energy near him, and then moved through the wall and into the room.
He moved quickly to the trunk and propped it open. The Assassin remained there, his face lined with scars representing each human life he claimed, carved into his face post-murder with his own knife. The soulless, malevolent red eyes remained hidden, and because the man remained unconscious, Adam didn’t experience the Assassin’s greatest gift: the ability to project crippling fear into his intended victims.
He gripped the Assassin with a slew of nanos and floated the killer out of the way, clearing a path to remove a sleeping Genevieve from the ship and settle her into safer quarters for the duration of her stay here.
“What are you doing?”
Adam jumped, startled. He glanced over his shoulder and shook his head. “David, how do you do that? I’m not exactly an Energy novice and yet you still move around without any type of emotional or Energy warning.”
The Mechanic laughed. “The Aeterni taught me a few of their tricks.” He nodded at the Assassin, now lying on the floor. “Thinking of joining Fil and getting a few kicks in?”
Adam looked down at the Assassin, lying sprawled upon the ground. He shrugged. “Tempting. But… no. I thought I put the remote in my backpack to keep it out of the way, but I haven’t seen it in the bag. I’m wondering if it fell out at some point, or slid around under the seats in the main cabin and back here.”
The Mechanic arched an eyebrow. “That seems unlikely. Wouldn’t the remote stay in the main cabin, even if it fell out?”
“I thought so as well, but I didn’t notice anything when we climbed out earlier. So, it’s either under one of the seats or in the trunk.” He gestured at the rear compartment. “Not seeing anything at the moment.”
The Mechanic nodded. “Need a hand?”
“If you can check under the seats in the front, that would help. I looked, but maybe you’ll see what I missed.” As he spoke, Adam rolled additional nanos into the trunk, wrapping them tightly around Genevieve’s unconscious form, rendering her invisible, and then floated her out of the trunk, allowing the false wall of nanos to turn invisible and cling to her invisible exoskeleton, pushing her up near the ceiling.
“Find anything, David?”
“No. You?”
“Nothing. Maybe it fell out somewhere?”
“Hope not.” He floated the Assassin back into the trunk and slammed the lid closed. “Just out of curiosity, David: if the remote did fall off the mac
hine, is there a way to see where it is?”
“You mean like a GPS system? Possibly. We’d have to look up the signal code it uses to communicate with its ship and trace that back. The signal would be weak, but I guess it could be done. Want to try that out in the next week or so?”
“Might as well; I’d hate to think somebody from the Aliomenti picked it up.”
“Yeah, no kidding.”
“So what will happen to this ship?” Adam tapped on the trunk lid. “Once we’re done with it and get it to the new camp?”
The Mechanic shrugged. “I guess we can repurpose it. It’s a fully functioning ship, just less structurally flexible than the all-nano versions we use now.”
Adam nodded, patting the ship, the only home he’d known during his journey to the past. “That’s good. It’s an important part of our history. It would be such a shame to destroy it, don’t you think?”
“I agree.” The Mechanic yawned. “Guess that means this old man needs his beauty sleep.”
“As do I, David. You might have heard, but I start training a new student tomorrow morning.”
“He’ll be a righteous terror, I’m sure,” the Mechanic murmured. “Shattering furniture one day, drawing Aliomenti battle craft to our location the next.” He glanced up, as if waking from a dream, and offered a faint smile. “I blame his teacher.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.” Adam nodded, indicating his intent to depart, and the Mechanic offered his own in return.
He headed out into the darkening skies, his thoughts, oddly, on the Mechanic’s words. It wasn’t anything specific the man had said. But he seemed just distracted enough during their conversation that Adam couldn’t help but wonder if he wasn’t the only one with alternative motives for sneaking around the Assassin’s prison.
He supposed that they all had their secrets.
He reached his personal quarters and slid inside. His nano swarm followed, carrying along the silent, sleeping form of Genevieve. He didn’t have time or energy now to deal with the reaction he’d get when she woke, the questions, the demands to see Hope. It would be easier to let her sleep a while longer.
Adam's Journey (The Aliomenti Saga - Book 8) Page 28