“It wasn’t even that hard,” Sera said. There was no hint of bragging in her voice. It wasn’t some lame attempt to fish for compliments. To her, it was just plain true.
Dak looked up at her. “So let me get this straight. My parents, who have PhDs from Amancio University and SQIT, have been working on this device for twenty years, and you figured it all out in a couple of days?”
Sera shrugged. “They helped. A little.”
Dak threw up his arms.
“Hey, careful with that!” Sera snapped. She snatched it away from him. “For the love of mincemeat. I’m just kidding, and you know it. They did most of the work — ninety-nine-point-nine percent of it. Maybe they just needed someone with fresh eyes to come in and seal the deal. Figure out the missing piece of the puzzle. Like I said, it was —”
“Yeah, I know,” Dak interrupted. “Easy. Piece of cake. Like . . . naming the presidents in order of how old they were when they got elected. Kid’s stuff. But how do you know for sure that it does work?”
“Because all the formulas are balanced. The mechanics of it make sense now. I’d go into more detail, but based on how riveted you were by my earlier explanations, I think I’ll spare you the pain. But I know it works. The same way you know that two plus two is four.”
“Thanks for keeping it at my level. Anyway, what do we do now, genius?”
A huge smile lit up her face. “We tell your parents all about it.”
He suddenly wanted to throw up and run to China.
Dak’s parents were due home around seven o’clock that evening. His grandma figured he was a big boy and could take care of himself between dinner and their arrival, so she packed up, gave him a creaky hug, and went home. Dak loved her to death, but she had barely moved out of her chair in the guest room since showing up, so he wasn’t quite sure why she was there in the first place. In case he needed a knitted sweater out of the blue?
The last half hour waiting for his mom and dad to walk through the front door was agonizing. He and Sera sat on the couch in the living room, the tick tick tick of the clock on the wall the only sound.
Dak’s hands were slick with sweat. There just wasn’t any way that this could go down without getting ugly. He tried to think about how he’d break the news, and nothing sounded right. Not a single historical anecdote seemed appropriate to soften the blow. Taking the keys alone was enough to make his dad turn beet red and get his mom shrieking like a diseased monkey.
Three minutes after seven the door opened.
His mom stepped inside, holding a small suitcase in one hand and a giant purse in the other. His dad followed with the rest of their luggage. He shut the door with an elbow, then both of them noticed Dak and Sera sitting before them in silence.
“Well howdy do!” his dad said, a little too loudly. Dak didn’t think anyone would ever need to know anything else about his father except that the man often said the words Well howdy do! That pretty much said it all.
“What are you two little munchkins up to?” his mom asked as she put her things down. “How nice of you to greet us — our own private welcoming committee! Where’s the band and the cocktails?” She snorted a laugh, something that sounded like a pig getting tickled.
And these two people were geniuses. Well, Dak thought, gotta love ’em.
“Now where are my hugs?” his mom said with a mock hurt face. “Don’t just sit there all day like two bumps on a pickle! Come over here.”
Dak stood up . . . and suddenly had an idea. There was only one way to tell this story and survive to see the next day: backward.
“Mom, Dad,” he said, hoping to make it clear that he had something serious to tell them.
Both of them had made it about halfway into the living room, but now they stopped and stared. They’d sensed it all right.
Dak smiled, trying to show what good news he had. “The Infinity Ring works now. She’s all ready to go.”
Dak’s mom and dad both had confused looks on their faces, as if they mostly thought he was kidding but weren’t completely sure.
“Come again?” his mom finally asked.
Dak stuck with telling the story backward — he wanted to leave that little tidbit about him stealing their keys until the very end. “It took all weekend, but Sera was able to fill in your missing piece, and now it works.”
Sera was fidgeting beside him, still on the couch, her knees bouncing. His parents shared a look that he couldn’t quite read.
Dak decided to keep going, thinking this just might work without an explosion of rage, groundings, unnecessary murders, stuff like that. “Look, we can fill in all the details later — but this is exciting, right? We need to get out there! Sera can explain, but the Infinity Ring is ready to be tested!”
“Who else knows about this?” Dak’s mom said. Her voice was flat and commanding — it actually scared Dak a little.
“What . . . what do you mean?” he asked. Sera stood beside him now, and he could tell she sensed the bad shift in the mood.
Dak’s mother put her hands on his shoulders. “This is important, son. Did you tell anyone what you were up to? Anyone at all? Your grandmother, maybe? Sera’s uncle?”
“No,” Dak said. He looked over at Sera, who shook her head. “Mom, what’s going on?”
Dak’s dad drew the curtains closed, his face pinched with worry. “This isn’t a game, Dak. What on earth were you thinking?”
He yelled that last bit, something Dak had never, not once, experienced before.
“I’m sorry, Dad. But . . . we figured it out.”
“You also might’ve signed our death warrants,” his mom replied.
“We can’t waste another second,” his dad said. “Show us.”
THE NEXT couple of hours were a complete nightmare. First, Dak had to sit through Sera’s explanations on how everything worked and how she’d figured it out. His parents were short and bitter as they asked questions and demanded answers. Then Sera’s uncle came over and caused a major scene when he started screaming and yelling. Somehow Dak’s dad was able to calm the old geezer down, convince him that Sera desperately needed their help with an important homework project, and send him on his way.
Then there was another hour of scientific mumbo jumbo that just about drove Dak over the edge. Just when he thought he couldn’t take any more, he heard someone say his name. His head jerked up and he realized he’d been staring at the floor.
His dad was standing right in front of him, arms folded across his chest. “Maybe you should try listening harder — you might learn something.”
“Science isn’t my thing, Dad.” They’d had this conversation a million times. The truth was that Dak did well enough in the subject at school, but it just didn’t interest him. And they were talking about things well beyond anything he’d learned in school anyway. “But I’d be happy to tell you about the political implications after pyroglycerine was developed by Italy in 1847.”
Sera and his mom were still bent over a SQuare, gesticulating and talking in an excited rush. His mom had the Ring gripped in her left hand. Dak returned his attention to his dad, whose stern expression made his face look like hard stone. Both of his parents looked older than ever before, like they’d aged twenty years in a matter of days.
And then the lecture began. “I don’t think I need to tell you how disappointed I am that you broke some of our most sacred rules. A lot of bad things could’ve happened. Not just to our research, but to you. Quantum mechanics is not something to be messed with. Not to even mention the fact that certain parties wouldn’t be very happy to learn about what we’ve been up to here. Do you understand why we’re so upset?”
“Yes, sir.” Dak showed a sad face but on the inside he was leaping with joy — this was the lamest, shortest discipline speech he’d ever gotten. “I’m sorry.”
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His dad smiled. “I think she did it, Dak. I think this thing will really work.”
“You’re serious?” Dak was pretty sure he should be more excited about the time-travel device than his escape from punishment, but at the moment it was a tie.
“Dead serious.” Dak’s dad looked over his shoulder at his wife and Sera, then back at Dak. “We’ll try to act like all is normal until tomorrow afternoon, throw the scent off if there is one. Then your mom and I are going to do a test run. For your sake, Dak, I hope the SQ somehow missed your shenanigans.”
Dak had experienced some long days at school before. But this one was ridiculous. Knowing that when he got home, he was going to witness something momentous sort of put a damper on the usual school-day fare.
It was nearly four thirty when Dak, Sera, and Dak’s parents were finally gathered in the laboratory, sitting around a table, facing one another with grim looks that didn’t completely hide their excitement. Dak had always thought of his parents as a little bit on the goofy side, but they were all business now.
“Okay,” Dak’s mom said, leaning forward on her elbows. “You kids ready for this?” Evidently she included her husband in the subject of that question. When all three nodded, she continued. “Good. The plan is this: The two of us are going to take a very brief trip, then come right back here. We’d like you two to stay in the lab in case . . . well, to make sure everything goes as planned.”
“You’re both going?” asked Dak. “With a single Ring?”
Dak’s dad answered with a stiff nod. “The device works by warping the fabric of space-time to create a wormhole — basically a tunnel that leads from wherever you’re standing to wherever you’ve programmed the device to take you. But it doesn’t just transport the person who’s holding the Ring. In addition to the pilot, any person that the pilot is touching will get pulled along for the ride.”
“And so will inanimate objects,” his mom added. “Though there are limits as to how much mass we can take with us. If I were to use the Ring in a car, the car wouldn’t travel back in time with me. But the seat belt I was wearing might. Got it?”
“Got it,” Dak and Sera said in unison.
“We’d bring you a souvenir, honey, but we can’t interfere with the past,” his mom said. “Even stepping on a bug could have ripple effects that drastically alter the future. I mean, the present.” She gave a little snort-chuckle then, for the first time since she’d learned the Ring was operational.
Oddly enough, it wasn’t until then that the reality began to sink in for Dak. The idea itself had seemed so cool, but now it hit him hard and heavy. Panic flared inside him. What if his parents blinked out of existence and never came back? He couldn’t imagine letting them go, then being left to wonder what had happened to them.
They apparently didn’t share his concerns.
Dak’s mom stood up. “Okay. Let’s quit talking and let’s get warping.”
EVERYONE JOINED Dak’s mom at the glass case, where she carefully pulled out the Infinity Ring and held the shiny silver loop in her hands like a strange steering wheel. “Your dad and I decided last night that we want to protect this investment from being stolen and used by others. We can do that by keying the device to our DNA. No one else will ever be able to use it. Other Rings can be built when and if we share the technology, but this prototype is our family’s and no one else’s. Sera, we’re including you because of your obvious and amazing contributions.”
“Me?” Sera said. “You want me to do it, too?”
“Of course,” Dak’s mom answered. “I know we’ve been harsh, but it’s only because we care about you both. We want you to feel included, and if everything goes smoothly today, we may bring you two along on a later voyage. We might even need you to control the device if we’ve got our hands full.”
Sera nodded. Dak had never seen her look so proud before.
One by one, they each pricked their thumb on a sterile medical device that plugged right into a port on the side of the Ring. Then Dak’s mom and dad each took a turn doing some programming, conferring with each other to make sure everything was absolutely correct. And then it was time.
“The Ring is programmed with the appropriate coordinates,” Dak’s dad said. “We’re planning on spending a few minutes at our destination. But the beauty of time travel is that theoretically we can be back here just a split second after we leave.”
“Theoretically?” repeated Dak.
“So for us, this trip will last a few minutes,” said Dak’s mom. “But from your perspective, we’ll be back in the blink of an eye.”
“Now step back, kids,” said her husband. “And cross your fingers.”
Dak looked on anxiously as his mom pushed a small button on the Infinity Ring. A hum filled the room, like a hive of bees had just awakened. There was a tingly vibration in the air, as if someone had just dinged a thousand tuning forks.
The dark amber liquid within the Ring glowed bright orange, filling the lab with light.
Dak suddenly couldn’t take it anymore. “We’re going, too!” He grabbed Sera by the hand and reached out to grip his father’s elbow.
He barely had time to see his parents’ shocked faces before everything around them exploded into a tube of light and sound that sucked the lab away and threw their bodies into a chaotic spin. Flashes of alternating color and darkness flew past him but he couldn’t keep his eyes open long enough to see any detail. His ears popped and his tongue swelled and his stomach rolled and the world seemed to press in on him. He tried to scream but the awful noise was so loud he couldn’t even tell if he’d done it. Pinpricks of pain broke out all over him, inside him, as if he were beginning to crack like an eggshell, about to burst into a million pieces at any second.
And then, just as quickly as it had started, it ended.
Dak found himself standing on a flattened patch of grass under a sunny blue sky. His parents and Sera were right next to him, all three of them looking at him with fire in their eyes.
He quickly dropped Sera’s hand.
“I’m sorry!” Dak blurted. “I couldn’t stand the thought of waiting around, wondering what happened to you guys.”
Dak’s dad pointed a finger at him. “You have no idea what you’ve —”
A roar behind them cut off his words. Dak spun around to see the source — about a hundred yards away, scores of soldiers dressed in red coats and white pants came running over the crest of a hill. Each one of them held a long rifle with a blade attached to the end. Dak was suddenly in his element, and the coolness of what he saw before him overwhelmed any sense of fear or guilt.
These were British soldiers, and those blades on the end of their guns were called bayonets. The muskets they carried weren’t like modern-day weapons that could shoot bullet after bullet in rapid succession. It took a lot longer to shoot just one bullet — or ball — with the guns that were pointed at them now. That was why they had the bayonets, so the soldiers could fight like sword-wielding knights when it came to that.
“No way!” Dak said. “You guys were going to visit the Revolutionary War without me?”
“This isn’t a game!” Dak’s dad shouted.
“We have a hundred men charging in to kill us,” his mom said rather calmly.
Dak had to admit that the bayonets seemed slightly less cool the closer they got.
Sera pointed at a copse of trees about thirty yards away, out of the direct path of the small army. “Let’s run over there. They’re obviously not after us, because they didn’t know we existed thirty seconds ago. We just happened to land in their path.”
Dak knew she was right. She was logical like that. “Good thinking.”
The four of them ran to the spot she’d indicated and slipped through the outer layer of trees to crouch behind some bushes. The soldiers had surel
y seen them, but Dak hoped they wouldn’t worry about a stray family — albeit a stray family in strange clothing.
The army had come into full view now, running down the slope to the area where Dak and the others had appeared out of nowhere. When they reached that spot, the soldiers were ordered to halt by a commanding officer. Then, without any kind of instruction, they lined up in three perfectly straight rows, still facing the direction in which they’d been heading.
“I need to fine-tune some of the satellite grid inputs,” Dak’s dad whispered. “Everything dealing with location is based on how things are mapped out in the future by the GPS system, but it’s not quite accurate enough. And we obviously don’t have the satellites now. We were supposed to be about a mile from here so we could watch this from a safe distance.”
“Where are we?” Sera asked. “And . . . when are we?”
Dak jumped all over that. “We’re smack-dab in the middle of the Revolutionary War. Those are British soldiers and they’re obviously expecting a battle with some American militiamen. Keep watching and you’ll see how organized and rigid the British are, and how wild and crazy the Americans are. I can’t believe I’m seeing this!”
His mom shushed him. “Quiet down!”
Dak felt an almost unbearable thrill of excitement as it finally hit him what was going on. They’d just traveled through time! He’d just leapt back hundreds of years using a device dreamed up by his own parents and perfected by his best friend. Judging by the half-glazed look on Sera’s face, she was coming to the same world-altering realization.
Movement out in the ranks grabbed his attention. Three red-coated soldiers were running toward them, guns raised.
“You there!” one of them shouted. “American spies! Come out or we’ll shoot!” He and his partners kept coming at full speed.
“That’s not good,” Dak said. “Do you know what they did to American spies? Because I do, and —”
Sera silenced him with a glance.
A Mutiny in Time Page 4