by Brad Raylend
“If you guys could go anywhere in time … where would it be?” Todd asked, trying to change the mood.
“Italy … during the Renaissance period,” one girl said excitedly.
“United States, during the ‘50s!” said an older male student who was quickly accompanied with mutual nods from his buddies.
“England, 900 AD timeframe!”
“Early Roman Empire.”
Todd smiled as the students continued listing off key historical places and times that fascinated them. One student would blurt something out, and they would argue whether or not the individual was foolish in wanting to visit such a time.
“Eighteenth century Paris!” shouted one student.
“Are you insane?” an older female laughed. “You idiot, you’d be tossed on a guillotine as soon as you arrived.”
The students laughed and teased each other. Todd smiled; it brought him joy to see the students in high spirits. He looked over at Kevin, who was the oldest of all the males and sat in silence.
“What about you, Kev?”
Kevin looked up at the ceiling, his eyes squinting as he scratched his beard. “Hmm … let me think,” he muttered. “I’d really have to think about that one. What about you, Amber?” he said.
“India, 1949. The year the greatest constitution in the world was passed,” she said with a smile.
“That’s questionable,” Kevin chuckled.
Amber gave him a friendly slap on the arm. Kevin laughed and pushed her away. Todd sat in silence, his thoughts returning to the mission at hand. Knowing York, he would no doubt have already obtained a vehicle last night and would now be cruising across the country towards Florida. Todd took ease in the fact he had a huge head start on York, as Odin would be over Florida in a matter of hours. He also was fairly certain that he had more intelligence on his father than York and that gave him a crucial advantage. Of course, York had spent five years at the facility and had most likely done a fair amount of research on their father during the many hours he spent in between missions.
Just then, D walked into the lounge and a few of the students greeted him; Todd turned in his chair to see the tall pilot.
“Todd! Good to see ya man,” he said, holding out his hand.
Todd stood and shook it, then sat back down at the table with the others. D pulled up a chair and squeezed in between Kevin and Amber.
“Shouldn’t you be flying the plane that we are currently sitting in?” Amber asked jokingly.
“It’s called auto pilot, babe! Besides, my co-pilot has flown this thing for multiple ops in the past five years.”
Todd leaned close to the center of the table, looking at D closely. “I need to go over some insert planning with you when you get the chance.”
“Well, we need to do it quick. We will be over Florida in a couple of hours, and you will have to insert tonight.” D shook his head. “We will be bingo on fuel by early morning tomorrow, so we will have to head back to Santa’s workshop as soon as possible.”
Kevin canted his head in confusion, then looked over at Todd. “So, I heard we are in 1986 right now; is this true?”
The students all went silent, and everyone in the room stared at him with curious eyes. Todd exhaled loudly, then nodded. “Yes, we are in ‘86 right now.”
“Why?” Kevin asked.
“Albrecht is a smart man. He didn’t want to return to the future until he knew what had happened down there. In doing so, he most likely saved my life.”
“How so?” asked Amber.
“Because the moment you return to the future … whatever York is planning on doing will have already happened. And the consequences of his actions will be instantaneous.”
Kevin blinked, his lips puckered as he thought. “So … If he kills your father that will mean that Todd York was never born?”
Todd nodded.
“But hold on a second,” Kevin said. “You and York have separated yourselves from the timeline. In essence, you two can’t be affected by whatever is altered, right?” he asked, looking around the table at the concerned faces of the others.
“It’s possible,” Amber said somberly. “However, both Todd and York were born on the exact same day, the exact same time and from the exact same parents. That has never been altered, and neither of them have been back in time to that year making them present for their own birth. Now, you both have been to a time which was before you were born, which ‘could’ further prove Kevin’s theory as you two are no longer a natural part of the timeline. And by killing your father, he may only prevent the birth of the third Todd York.”
“But …” Todd said, his eyebrows raised.
“Well … I just don’t know,” she said, shaking her head.
“Either way,” D said patting Todd on the shoulder, “you need to get down there and stop him.”
Todd nodded in agreement. He and D left shortly thereafter and made their way to the cockpit where D pulled up a 3D hologram on a table. It displayed the city of Miami, as well as the flight pattern for Odin.
“So, since we are indeed flying in a plane that doesn’t exist yet, I’ll have to drop you outside the city limits. The plane can’t be picked up on radar, but we can’t risk crossing into commercial skies.” He scrolled over the hologram towards the edge of the city. “Here!” he said, pointing at Highway 41 just west of Miami. The road cut straight through the Everglades towards the city. Todd could freefall from out over the open swamps and land on the road. From there he would have to acquire transportation and get into the city.
“I could drop you at a little over thirty thousand feet over the 41; from there, you could glide east on an azimuth of ninety degrees towards the city and land on the road itself.”
“Landing on a highway isn’t exactly subtle,” Todd said impatiently.
“Well, landing in the alligator-infested Everglades isn’t exactly the proffered course of action either, my friend,” D said with a grin.
“Fair enough.”
“Okay,” D said, clapping his hands together. “So, we will stick with the first plan. We will plan for insert to be in three hours. Hopefully that road won’t be too busy and you will be able to hitch a ride into town … keeping a low profile in the process.”
“One little detail I forgot to mention,” Todd said, biting his lip trying to hold back a smile.
“Oh God, what?”
“I’m gonna have a passenger with me.”
D gave him a bewildered look. “A passenger? Who the hell is going with you?”
“Kara.”
D’s eyes widened and his head lurched back. He stared at him for a moment. Then a smile began to creep over his face. “Oka y … so a tactical, HALO, intimate, tandem jump it is.”
Todd nodded, rolling his eyes.
“You know … this is like some real 007 shit, Todd. Christ! Nobody jumps tandem at thirty thousand feet!”
“Well I don’t have much of a choice. I’m tandem qualified, so this won’t be anything new to me. We will just have to ensure that she is dressed appropriately for the freezing temperatures and that she has an O2 system in order to prevent her from going hypoxic.” Todd scratched the stubble on his chin. “She will no doubt be scared to death and will be breathing heavily, so we will have to ensure she has a suitable amount of oxygen, just in case.”
D shook his head, grinning. “Man, you Yorks are nuts. But Goddamnit if you ain’t the coolest sons of bitches I’ve ever met.”
FALLING
The sun was beginning to set, filling the plane with a soft orange glow that lit the dark cargo area of the plane. All the gear he would need for the insertion, including Kara’s suit, helmet, and harness were laid out on the cool steel floor. They had kept a few more suits on board in case of malfunctions during inserts and Todd would now be taking advantage of this.
His new suit looked brand new, as its black skin lacked any scars or tears in the plates or joint sections. He plugged in the MTX and the cables lit up with a
brief magnificent flare. He pulled the leather journal from his pocket and wrote down everything he was taking to ensure he would not lose track of anything.
Soft footsteps approached him from the open door to the adjacent room. He turned to see Kara walking towards him. She looked down at all the equipment with an overwhelmed expression, exhaled loudly, and ran her fingers through her hair.
“It’s not too late to change your mind, you know,” Todd said.
She shook her head. “I would be lying if I told you I wasn’t scared. But I believe it is the right thing to do.”
“Look, Kara,” he said, placing the journal back in his pocket. He stepped towards her, placing his hands on his hips. “I’m not going to lie to you either. Where we’re going … the people who we’re going to encounter and go through to get to him … it’s not going to be pretty. I want you to be absolutely sure before we go.”
“Todd, you asked me if there was something between us … well, I do love him. Which is why I need to do this. I know there is good in him, I know it’s that ‘good’ in him that makes him feel responsible for what he has been through. I don’t want him to die because of it.”
Todd felt a sudden feeling of disappointment, or maybe it was jealousy, gnawing in his stomach. He nodded, looking at her with hard eyes and firm lips. “ … Okay,” he said. He turned and knelt down, arranging the equipment. He began filling her in on the basics of high altitude parachuting and covered the nomenclature of the gear itself.
“At thirty thousand feet, the freezing temperatures accompanied with the wind chill, added with the lack of oxygen and the fact that we will be falling over one hundred and twenty miles per hour towards the earth, makes this an extremely dangerous method of insertion.”
His voice was firm, emotionless. He spoke as if he were teaching a student, someone who he had no emotional attachment too. This troubled her. She was already frightened of what they were about to do, and his grim demeanor was not easing her nerves.
“Our O2 canisters will give us about forty-five minutes’ worth of air, so … if we deploy around fifteen thousand feet, we will be fine to glide the rest of the way under canopy.” He thought for a moment, then wrote something down in the journal. He looked back up at Kara to see her daydreaming.
“Are you paying attention?” he asked. “It’s extremely important that you understand the risks of what we are about to do.”
She looked down at him, her eyes sharp and unwavering. “Yes, I understand.” She stepped towards him, breathing out. “Is something troubling you?” She stood over him as he knelt down, manipulating the parachute rig. “What did he do to you?” she asked.
“He didn’t do anything to me,” he said angrily.
“Then wh—”
He stood up, interrupting her. “It was my fault! Because of me, I put innocent lives in danger; lives of good people who trusted me.” He stared at her, breathing heavily. “He took advantage of my complacency. I won’t let it happen again.”
She stepped back, frightened by the resemblance she was witnessing. It sounded too familiar. He sounded like York.
He froze, no doubt hearing himself and recognizing the familiarity of his words. He knelt down, clipping the straps together on his web gear and checking for serviceability. She walked over to the red netting bench and sat down, crossing her legs and folding her hands on her lap. He continued working impatiently, his hands fumbling as he picked different things up. She could tell something was troubling him, but what was it? Was it something she had said?
“Todd, I …”
He breathed out through his nose, looking up at her. “You better start getting dressed. We don’t have much time.”
Her heart began to thump in her chest and she looked out the window. The sun had disappeared, leaving only a thin sliver of purple light on the flat horizon. She stood up, grabbing her suit, and walked out of the cargo bay. Todd shook his head. Anger and confusion, assisted with his fidgeting, made him perspire. He sat back, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand. Was it the thought of York or his actions that were stressing him? Or was it what Kara had said? How could she love him after what he had become? He was almost forty years old. What could she see in him? He stood up and began undressing.
* * *
Kara looked at herself in the mirror. The suit did not hide her gifted figure, yet this did not even cross her mind. Fear of the unknown continued to rush through her like a frigid wind that left a consistent uneasiness. She had spent the last six years of her life in one place. A place she had come accustomed to and had eventually accepted as her home. She had grown attached to the facility, not only in its security and isolation, but because it had become part of her. In one brief conversation, she had agreed to leave behind everything she knew to venture out into an unpredictable world on a quest to find someone whom she feared to care about. Yet something inside her made her stay true to her word. Something inside her told her that this was the moment she had been waiting for so long. A chance to experience something new, a chance to maybe live.
There was a knock on the door, and she quickly grabbed her coat from her bed and threw it on over the revealing suit. “Who is it?” she called out softly.
“It’s me,” said Albrecht, who peeked in. He stepped in, closing the door quietly behind him. “How are you doing?” he said, sitting down on the bed.
“I don’t know,” Kara replied, shaking her head and sitting down beside him. “I’m scared, yet part me feels like I have to do this … like I don’t have a choice.”
Albrecht breathed out softly. “You always have a choice, Kara. It’s up to you to decide the outcome of your life.”
“It’s just …”
“What?” he asked, wrapping a fatherly arm around her.
“I’ve never been so scared.” She looked out at the full moon.
He held her tight and spoke softly. “Life can be scary, Kara. It can be the most terrifying thing … making you freeze, causing you to hesitate. It’s those moments of hesitation that are the most crucial. Because that’s when you are being tested, that is when you must decide whether or not you are going to overcome your fear and find what is on the other side of the unknown, or succumb to it and live the rest of your life wondering whether or not you made the right decision.” He swallowed, rubbing his hand on her arm. “You remember when the first attacks came?”
She nodded, resting her head on his shoulder.
“I had never been so scared in my life,” he said. “I remember I was so scared that I didn’t want to move. Yet it was at that moment that I knew I had to decide. I had to decide whether or not I was going to keep your father’s promise and use the technology we had created to save you and the others. I didn’t know if it was going to work; I had no idea.” He looked around the dark room. “Yet here we are, many years later, in the same machine that had saved us. My biggest regret is that I couldn’t give you a better life. And now I must make the hardest decision of all. Do I let you go? Not knowing what might happen to the person I love most in this world, do I take a chance with the unknown, with the possibility of a better life for you on the other side? Or do I give in to my own fears and remain motionless? Keeping you here with me, not ever letting you have the possibility of something better?”
He pulled away, looking her in the eyes. “Life rarely presents us with choices with clear outcomes. But I can tell you that the easy answer is rarely the correct one.”
She looked down and a single tear ran down her cheek. He placed his hand under her chin, gently lifting her head so he could look into her beautiful eyes.
“You speak as if I’m never coming back.”
“Perhaps you won’t want to. But I want you to know that I will always love you.”
She hugged him tightly, her head on his chest. He kissed the top of her head, gently patting her on the shoulder.
* * *
Almost the entire population on Odin was crammed into the cargo bay. Students took turns
saying their farewells to Todd. He stood there in his suit, shaking hands and giving hugs. Amber approached him, once again with tears in her eyes, but this time a smile present. She extended her arms and hugged him around the neck, making him lean down slightly.
“Good luck, bestie!” she said.
Todd chuckled. “Thank you, Amber.” She let go, stepping back. Kevin approached. He held out his large hand and Todd took it, shaking it firmly.
“Sure you don’t want any hardware, my friend? You know I’ll be more than happy to fetch something for ya!” Kevin said, patting him on the shoulder.
“I’m sure, Kev. I can’t risk it again.” He placed his hand on Kevin’s shoulder, pulling him in close. “You take care of all these kids, okay. They look up to you and Albrecht.”
Kevin nodded, his smile fading. “I will.”
The students began rustle and murmur, and everyone in the cargo bay area turned to see Albrecht and Kara approach. They parted down the center, making way for her. They stopped, and Albrecht held her hands, kissing her on the forehead. She smiled, then turned and walked up to Todd and stopped in front of him. The two were both in their suits; the dark visors of the helmets were up, revealing the only human aspect of their appearance. Her perfect figure made it hard for Todd to not stare. Her visor slid shut, and Todd looked at himself in his dark reflection.
“You ready?” he asked.
Her voice came in through his helmet via the internal radio. “Let’s find out.”
His visor slid shut, and the two black figures stared at each other for a moment. From the student’s perspective, it appeared as though the two were talking to each other over the radio. However in reality nothing was said.
“Comm check!” said D’s high-pitched voice into Todd’s ear.
“I read ya loud and clear,” Todd replied.
“We are ten minutes out, pal. Better get ready.”
“Roger,” Todd replied, looking down at his harness and ensuring the buckles were tightly fastened.
“Since we are already in 1980-whatever, there is no need for you to activate the time travel on your suit. Just sit back and enjoy the ride,” D said with a sarcastic tone.