by Jeff Yee
Not amused, Kris asked, “Why were we shut down for illegal activity? Was there any attempt to transport human life?”
Shocked that his friend, and boss, would even ask the question, Ryan replied, “No! Of course not. We wouldn’t even be able to if we wanted to. Both machines are locked with the butterfly retry. Both forwards and backwards are locked.”
“That’s what I thought. Then why…”
Lieutenant Garcia cut their conversation short. As he walked into the lab, he exclaimed loud enough for everyone in the room to hear, “Ladies and Gentlemen, we need to send a message back in this time machine. We are aware that there is a backwards time travel test. A butterfly, right? Arrives yesterday? This letter needs to be sent back with the butterfly.” In his right hand, Lieutenant Garcia held a sealed envelope.
Kris was furious. “Is this what this is about? You want to send a note back in time?”
Lieutenant Garcia brushed off the argument. Still addressing all of the Tace employees, and not Kris specifically, he asked again, “Who will help me to send this letter? The sooner that we send this back in time, the sooner we can all get out of here. You’re all free to go once we’ve completed this task.”
“It’s locked,” said Kris. “It will not be available for nearly two days – not until Saturday morning. That’s when we put the butterfly into the machine. We know it works because the butterfly already arrived safely yesterday. But we cannot open the machine until Saturday, as scheduled.”
“That’s what I told them, but they wouldn’t listen,” said Ryan.
When no one in the room offered a shorter solution, Lieutenant Garcia believed that Ryan and Kris were telling the truth. As Ryan had explained to him earlier, it would remain locked until Saturday. The explanation was puzzling, and Garcia did not initially know if Ryan was telling the truth, or if he was making up a story with technicalities that were well beyond his understanding of science. Ryan had explained that the cocoons that were traveling forward into the future would need to arrive first on Friday. Then, at least one cocoon would need to turn into a butterfly so that it could be sent backwards in time, on schedule, when the time machine was unlocked on Saturday morning. It was locked and could not be opened for two days.
Without a word, Garcia stomped off like a kid without candy to another room. Kris was able to determine that the lieutenant was calling someone on his radio, but it was too far away to hear the conversation.
“Is everyone okay?” Kris asked his team, who were seated on the floor.
He received nods from the team, but no one had the courage to speak while under gunpoint.
“We’re going to get out of this,” said Kris continuing his untimely morale booster. “Don’t worry. You will all go home to your families very soon. There was nothing illegal going on here and this will all get cleared up very soon. Please be patient.” Kris stopped talking when he saw Lieutenant Garcia return.
Garcia looked at Kris and then towards the men and women sitting on the floor. “Boys and girls,” he said, “let’s get comfortable. We’re going to be here until Saturday. You may not leave nor communicate with anyone outside of this building. I will arrange to have food brought in. And if you need to use the facilities, you will ask one of my men, or women, to accompany you.”
The Tace employees were stunned. Growls of frustration rippled across the room. Held at gunpoint and sitting on an uncomfortable floor, it was not the news that they wanted to hear. Dejected, Kris caught a quick glance of his employees to see their reaction and then lowered his head in disbelief. He decided that he didn’t have any further words of encouragement for his team. Without the ability to communicate with the outside world, he didn’t know how to resolve the issue. It’s going to be a long two days, he thought.
Chapter 47
Agitated in her condo in Del Mar, Stacey watched her television in amazement and confirmed that she was seeing the breaking news alert. Alyssa had called her moments earlier to inform her of the military takeover at Tace Technologies. Shocked at what she was seeing, she called out to her husband in the other room. “Sean, come quick! Hurry!”
“I see it now,” Stacey whispered into her phone to Alyssa who was waiting on the other end for her mother to turn on her television. “Where’s Kris? Have you talked to him?”
“No. I tried calling, but no answer.”
“Hold on Aly…” said Stacey, before she turned to her husband who rushed into the room. Then, Stacey explained the unexpected turn of events at the laboratory.
Stacey and Sean watched as a CBS journalist reported the news event live from Tace Technologies’ Building Twelve. Sean recognized the building immediately, although its appearance was quite different with the backdrop of military vehicles and army personnel blanketing the entrance. The journalist, in dramatic fashion, disclosed that there had been illegal activity at Tace Technologies and that an executive order had been placed to shut down all time travel experiments.
“This can’t be true,” said Sean to his wife. Then he noticed that she was on the phone and asked, “Who are you talking to?”
“Alyssa.”
“What does she know?” asked Sean.
“Not much more than what’s on TV, right Aly?” said Stacey. Then, explaining to Sean, she provided more detail. “The Tace PR team needs to get a counter out immediately. Alyssa is being asked to help get out the word.”
“What word?” asked Sean. “That a law has not been broken?”
“Yes.”
Sean knew that Tace was following all applicable laws, but it was reassuring to hear that the Tace public relations team was ready to set the record straight. It gave him the confidence that no laws had been broken, despite what the news was saying. Turning away from the television and back towards his wife, he asked, “Where’s Kris?”
“Alyssa’s been trying to call him,” said Stacey. “No answer.”
Sean was worried about his son and his business. In a flash, he quickly came to a decision. “Okay, I’m going down there,” he told Stacey.
Sean grabbed his wallet, keys and coat and was out the door before Stacey could say goodbye. Within minutes he was on the freeway, speeding south in his car towards the Tace campus. The drive was quick. It was late in the day and it was near rush hour time, but he was driving against the direction of the heavy traffic. By the time that he got to Tace, swarms of curious bystanders and desperate journalists had already gathered outside of Building Twelve to observe and report on the shocking news events as they unfolded. Sean parked his car in a nearby parking lot and pushed his way through the crowds to get to the main entrance of the building.
A reporter was finishing her interview as Sean approached the boundary that was created to maintain distance between civilians and the military. The reporter was on one side, her interviewee on the other. “This is Kate Jenkins from Channel Five. We’d like to thank Colonel Dan Montoya for his time. Back to you, Marie.”
Overhearing the last part of the conversation, Sean assumed the man who had just been interviewed was the best starting point to ask questions. Shouting to get his attention, he yelled, “Colonel! Over here. I’d like to ask you a few questions.”
Sean was ignored and the colonel began to walk away.
Without being able to cross the makeshift boundary, Sean attempted to pull rank. “Colonel, I’m Sean Harrison. I worked closely with General Bill Bradshaw a couple of weeks ago on the Tace mission in North Korea.”
The man stopped in his tracks, turned around and walked back to Sean. Offering his hand to Sean for a handshake, he said, “I’m a big fan of yours, Mr. Harrison. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“What’s going on here?” asked Sean, expecting to get an answer he already knew.
“Under an executive order, we’ve locked down the lab.”
“Yeah, so I’ve heard,” said Sean. “So tell me, if your order is to lock down the lab to prevent time travel, then why are you holding the people?”
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bsp; Colonel Montoya answered, “I’m also under order to hold everyone in the building until an investigation can be completed. It is my understanding that the FBI is sending someone who will be conducting an investigation.”
“Colonel, can you at least release the people in the building that were not involved with time travel? At least let some of the people go.”
“Sorry, my orders are to detain everyone that was present in the building upon our arrival.”
Sean knew that he wasn’t getting anywhere. He would have to escalate. The colonel did not have the authority to change the executive order. Disgusted, Sean began to walk away, but turned to the man with one more question, “I haven’t been able to get in touch with my son. Kris Harrison. Can you at least tell me if he is one of the Tace personnel being held by your crew?”
“Yes, he’s inside. And he’s fine. Don’t worry about your son.”
Being respectful, Sean thanked the man and made his way back through the crowd to a private space near the corner of the adjacent building. Taking out his mobile phone, he dialed the one person he trusted in the government, Lisa deVeas.
“This is Lisa,” said the CIA Director on the first ring.
“Lisa, it’s Sean Harrison.”
“I know why you’re calling,” she said. “I’ve heard the news. Where are you now?”
“At Tace. I just talked to the person in charge but didn’t get anywhere.”
“You’re not going to make any progress there. The decisions are made back here in Washington.”
Sean looked back at the mob gathered around Building Twelve. “Lisa, what can you tell me about this executive order? Who does it come from?”
“The President signed off on it. Unfortunately, this one goes all the way to the top. I don’t know why he signed the order or where he got his information.”
“Lisa, the timing is rather coincidental, don’t you think?” said Sean, referring to the arrest of David Kim earlier in the day.
“Yes. I already suspected it long before you called.”
“So, what can we do?”
“Sit back and wait. Let me see what I can do on my side. I need to find out where the President got his information. Can I call you back shortly?”
It was not the response that Sean wanted to hear, but he had no other option. Unwillingly, he agreed. After completing the call with Lisa deVeas, he walked back to Building Twelve and stood helpless amongst the crowd. Sean tried calling his son another time. No answer. Just voicemail. Although the building was within shouting distance, the Army had shut off all communication into the lab. His son and the dedicated team at Tace Technologies were cut off and Sean had no way to prove or disprove the claim that a federal law had been broken.
Chapter 48
It was ten o’clock in the morning on a Friday when three cocoons arrived as scheduled at the Tace Technologies laboratory. Ryan Graves, micro-managed by the military at gunpoint, removed three cocoons from the time travel machine. For many of the soldiers looking over Ryan’s shoulder, it was the first opportunity to witness time travel.
“Amazing!” shouted Lieutenant Armando Garcia as he watched Ryan pull the soon-to-be butterflies from the machine.
Not fond of being held by gunpoint in his own lab, Ryan said nothing. He was tired. The previous evening, he had slept on an uncomfortable lab floor along with twenty-one of his colleagues. A red-eyed Ryan Graves turned to his associate Krishna and handed him the cocoons. “Can you put them in the box?” he asked.
The three cocoons had been selected for the experiment because they were nearly ready to blossom into beautiful butterflies. The Tace team needed just one of the cocoons to become a butterfly, and they had twenty-four hours before the butterfly was to be returned as scheduled at exactly ten o’clock in the morning on Saturday. Since a butterfly had already been transported in time back to the previous Wednesday, the team already knew that the mission would be a success. It was the odd thing about time travel. They already knew with certainty that one of the cocoons would become a butterfly in the next day. It would have to complete its transformation if it would be successfully transported back in time.
Krishna, doing as his boss had requested of him, set all three cocoons inside a cardboard box the size of a shoebox. Holes had already been poked into its sides to allow air to circulate throughout the box.
Lieutenant Garcia laughed when he saw the makeshift dwelling for the cocoons. “You spend billions on research here and your home for your test subjects is a little box you recycled from the trash?”
Although he was hoping to get a response, Lieutenant Garcia was once again ignored. Ryan and Krishna went about their work without answering any of his questions or comments, like they’d done all morning. Krishna, Ryan, Kris and two Tace technicians assisting with the experiment were considerably outnumbered by the military. Twenty soldiers from the United States Army stood watch in Lab Murray to watch the cocoons get pulled out of time travel. Only five members of Tace were allowed to participate. The remaining employees were held in Lab Nelson, where the butterfly would be returned after one of the cocoons had successfully completed its transformation to become a butterfly.
“Now we wait,” said Lieutenant Garcia, not expecting to get a reply. “We only have twenty-four hours now until all of you can go home.”
“Are you really going to free my team once the experiment is complete?” asked Kris Harrison, wanting the comfort of knowing that there was not anything more on the military’s agenda.
“Yes, I’ve told you before. Colonel Montoya and I have orders to send this letter back with the butterfly. Once our mission is complete, you are free to go.” Lieutenant Garcia pulled a note from his coat pocket, showing nothing more than a corner of the envelope, to make his point.
Kris sighed, unsure if he could trust the lieutenant. Then, he turned to his team and said, “This phase is complete. Let’s go back and join the others.”
Krishna grabbed the box of cocoons and followed Kris and the others into the nearby lab where the remaining hostages were being held. Lab coats were crumpled and used as pillows by those that were resting on the floor of the lab. The room had a raunchy stench of pepperoni and cheese pizza, left over from the previous evening’s dinner. All of the employees had remained locked in the lab, despite Kris’ efforts to convince the military to free a subset of the team.
Upon returning to the second lab, Kris knew that his team would be curious to hear the results of the second phase of the experiment. Calmly and without enthusiasm, he reported the status. “Our efforts were successful. As expected, we have three healthy cocoons and by tomorrow we should have our butterfly.” It was all that he said. After disclosing the results, Kris quietly assumed his spot on the floor next to his employees and waited for Saturday to arrive.
Hours passed while the team sat uncomfortably on the lab floor. Their only chance to stand and move around was under military escort when they needed to use the facilities. The smell of Chinese food, brought in for Friday’s lunch, now blended with the disgusting odor of day-old pizza. It also didn’t help the room’s aroma that the twenty-two Tace employees being held hostage had not showered in a day. Patiently, they all huddled in the room and waited to return the butterfly to the past. Kris looked at his watch and realized that they still had another nineteen hours until the final phase of the butterfly experiment.
Then, unexpectedly, a voice came across Lieutenant Garcia’s radio. It was his colonel, reporting from the command center outside the building. “Garcia, we have orders to stand down. Marines are relieving us. Stand down. Over.”
Lieutenant Garcia picked up his radio and began to respond for clarification. However, before he had a chance to confirm his orders, he heard the stampede in the hallway.
“Stand down! Stand down!” echoed through the hall and into Lab Nelson as dozens of armed men in dark green fatigues stormed into the lab. Sean Harrison followed closely behind the Marines.
Chaos and confusi
on erupted immediately within the halls of the Tace Technologies building. The United States Marines surrounded their Army counterparts with their rifles raised. Unsure how to respond, and without sufficient time for the order to be communicated from their superior officer, the Army soldiers countered with their guns pointed back towards the Marines. Both parties nervously aimed guns in every direction. It was a standoff between the two branches of the military. The Marines continued to shout their orders to stand down while aiming their rifles, and the soldiers who had held the Tace employees hostage for a day pointed their guns directly back, nervously looking at each other, unclear about their next move.
A Marine emerged from the crowd and directed his attention towards Lieutenant Garcia and shouted, “Sir, order your men to stand down! Your executive order has been revoked. Under direction from the President, you will stand down immediately.”
Lieutenant Garcia looked around at his men and shamefully confirmed the order. “You heard him,” he said, putting his own gun into its holster. “Lower your weapons.”
The occupation of Tace Technologies lasted one day. But within seconds of the United States Marine Corp’s arrival, the standoff was over. The Marines took control of a very crowded laboratory and removed the Army personnel one-by-one, guiding the team that had held Tace Technologies under gunpoint to a staging area outside of the building where they would be detained until further instruction.
Once the room was clear, the senior Marine looked at the shocked Tace employees and said, “Ladies and Gentlemen, you are free to go home. On behalf of the United States, I am truly sorry that this happened.”
All twenty-two Tace employees were standing. Despite being freed, no one wanted to leave without an explanation. Kris Harrison asked the simple question that they all wanted to have answered. “What happened?” he said, looking directly at his father who had rushed in behind the Marines.
Sean Harrison explained, “You were all held under a presidential order for illegally transporting a human in time. However, it turns out that a member of Congress falsely created the evidence presented to the President. Once it was discovered that it was not true, the President revoked the order. The men and women that were holding you were simply following orders. It wasn’t their fault. It’s now over. You can go home.”