Dissonance (The Machina of Time Book 2)

by Daniel R. Burkhard

  Wyatt watched the three of them and thought about Aldan. While the four of them were all in their early twenties, Aldan was older, pushing thirty. He had aged more because he had found a haven, where he could hide outside of the time travel.

  "Have you read yours yet?" Jeremy asked, turning toward Wyatt, and pointing toward the envelope.

  "No," Wyatt said with a quick shake of his head. "I want to, but every time I think about it, I worry it might mess something up."

  "Aldan said he has read his, and it didn't mess anything up," Jeremy said.

  "Does that mean you have read yours?" Wyatt asked, rising from the sofa. He stepped toward the counter to stand between them. Avery shifted to her left to give him some space as he placed his envelope down on the counter.

  "I wouldn't read it yet," Brooke said, forcing a smile at Wyatt. "It might be kind of scary."

  "Besides," Avery started, "just think of what we went through the last time with Aldan's older group. Maybe that was due to his reading his contract."

  Wyatt shook his head and looked down at the contract envelope. They were right. Lenny Janson, their supervisor had warned them not to read their contracts. Wyatt remembered the way that older man had told them there were only two days they got to see their contracts. The day they began working for the Machina and the day they retired.

  "I don't want to know what I messed up until I retire," Brooke said.

  "But what if knowing something now would prevent what we just went through?" Wyatt asked, placing both his hands on the counter. The plastic envelope crinkled under his fingers, and he couldn't help glancing toward the many stains on it. Some of those stains were from when he had first received it, and not wanting anything to do with it, had tossed it into the garbage. Those stains were from some old spaghetti from his apartment.

  He glanced toward Avery as she laughed at him, and he thought back to the night he first saw the envelope. That cold evening, November 3, 2039, was also the last night of his normal life. An older version of Avery had come for him, with a contract for him to sign. He didn't sign the contract she had for him, at least not at that point. But that was when it had all started. After barely escaping the huge earthquake of November 4, 2039, his life as a future fixer had been set.

  "Do you feel that?" Brooke asked, leaning across the counter. She said it silently enough Jeremy and Avery didn't seem to hear her. Both had shifted to the corner of the counter near the side of the room where Jeremy leaned close to Avery.

  Wyatt looked up at Brooke, saw her smiling away her concern. Her eyes squinted at something, and it took a moment for him to notice.

  "The resonance?" Wyatt asked, keeping his voice just as quiet as she had. The dizziness of the time travel changes washed over him lightly and he was glad his hands were already on the counter.

  "Who would be traveling?" Brooke asked. "Do you think Aldan is going back to visit his haven?"

  Wyatt nodded once, stepping around the counter and leading her to the left side of the room. Before moving far, he turned back and grabbed the envelope with his contract.

  That side was where he, Avery, and Brooke had their sleeping areas. The small beds were set up inside squares that were twelve feet on a side. Even though it didn't have walls, it at least gave them some personal space.

  Brooke followed him around that side of the kitchen that stood in the middle. He stepped toward his bed in the corner near the bathroom entrance and deposited his envelope into the footlocker at the foot of his bed. It was full of the terrible fluorescent orange shirts, shorts, and overalls they wore in the Machina's warehouse.

  After placing his contract into his footlocker and taking a quick cursory glance to make sure everything else was still in there, he stepped toward her bed in the middle of that side. He stopped when his eyes caught the light on under the bathroom doorway.

  "That has to be Aldan," Wyatt said, glancing back toward Avery and Jeremy on the other side of the kitchen. The room was set up with nine squares that were twelve feet on a side, each one denoted a separate area. The kitchen was the middle square, and the counter faced the only doorway into their dormitory.

  The six bed spaces filled the left and right sides, with the bathroom directly behind the kitchen area. Unfortunately, the bathroom door sat on the same side as the bed space Wyatt had chosen.

  "Have you found a haven like he suggested?" Brooke asked. The way she asked it made Wyatt consider for a moment before answering.

  A haven, as Aldan had called it, was a place away from the cameras the Machina used to monitor changes to time travel. Aldan had come in with an earlier group of future fixers, and they left him behind as he grew older quickly.

  "I don't even know where I would start," Wyatt said, and watched the way she nodded, and her smile returned. "Nothing would be the same as I remember it. The Salt Lake City quake of 2039 ruined everything I knew. It left hardly anything standing."

  Brooke's smile faded and she stepped toward her bed, which was directly in the middle of the three bed spaces on that side. The orange bedding of her bed had been made neatly compared with the orange bedding of Wyatt's bed. It wrinkled around her slightly as she sat.

  "Have you gone back to talk to Hannah again?" Brooke asked.

  Having her ask about Hannah made Wyatt feel awkward. It didn't matter that Brooke had already said she would not have a relationship with a coworker.

  "Sorry," Brooke said. "I bet that made you uncomfortable."

  "Not really," Wyatt lied. "I haven't gone back to talk to her since we last ran into her. I worry it might be too much."

  "Makes you wonder if you could ever change the past," Brooke said. "At least, I wonder if the past can ever be changed."

  Wyatt smiled and sat on the right side of his bed, tossing the orange blanket and sheet up onto the pillow as he did. It looked better, but not as close to perfect as Brooke's bed had been.

  "We know we can change the future," Wyatt said after situating himself. "We just did that. But I don't know if the past is set in stone."

  "That's what I've been thinking about," Brooke said. "That's part of the reason I think you should go back and talk to Hannah. See if she has changed any since the last time you met with her."

  Wyatt felt his face growing hot with that comment and looked down toward his feet. In his peripheral vision he saw Brooke's smooth legs extending below her orange shorts. They were a distraction, and he clasped his hands in his lap to have something else to look at.

  When he looked back up at her, she was smiling again, her dark eyes were bright and watching him. "It's okay," she said. "I know you like her." She placed her palms down on her bare knees and swallowed. "Go back and make sure she is still there. See if anything changed because of what we did."

  Wyatt shrugged and looked toward her again. "It seems odd that you would be telling me to go back and check on her." He straightened up and placed his hands on the bed to either side of himself as if readying himself to stand.

  "Some things need to be done," Brooke said. "I'd go and check, but I'm not sure when you go visit her."

  The bathroom door creaked open on one of its older hinges. A quick glance showed him that Aldan must have visited his haven. Instead of wearing the oranges that the rest of them wore in their dormitory, he wore tan pants and a long-sleeved gray shirt. He smiled at Wyatt as he walked past.

  "Is it safe in there?" Wyatt asked. "You sure spent a bit of time in there." He thought it looked like Aldan had shaved his face recently and wondered at that.

  "Sometimes," Aldan started, turning around backward as he continued to move away, "we just need some time to clean up."

  Wyatt tried to think of a good rejoinder for that comment, but Jeremy beat him to it.

  "That may not have been the best thing to say," Jeremy said as he and Avery stepped around the kitchen area and intersected Aldan too quickly. Brooke pushed herself to her feet and stepped closer to Wyatt. In an effort not to face her small chest, Wyatt rose to his feet a
lso.

  Brooke seemed to have noticed his discomfort as she laughed once and started to turn away. Before turning far, she stopped and turned back to him. "I think you were right about Aldan," she said. "I bet he was visiting his haven." She shook her head. "And you should visit Hannah. We've all got our places of escape."

  "I'd get caught, I'm sure of it," Wyatt said, but she rounded on him and stepped closer. With her arms folded she looked up into his eyes and her smile faded.

  "I'll help you," she said. "Don't go the same way as Aldan. Come for a walk with me and we'll work it out."

  Wyatt shrugged and backed away slightly. He glanced toward his watch-like wrist terminal. Along with the current time of 1:22 pm., it also showed the most recent location code he had used.

  "Come on," Brooke said. "Now is your chance. I'll cover for you and watch out for you."

  Wyatt laughed and nodded, lowering his left wrist with its wrist terminal. The white band was just tight enough to let him know it was there. They all wore wrist terminals and used them to open portals for time travel. The Machina, the machine and not the company named after it, released certain location codes to them through their supervisor, Lenny Janson. His wrist terminal currently showed R333PS, which was right outside their dormitory entrance.

  Brooke led the way, moving swiftly toward the door.

  "Where are you two going?" Avery asked, her voice raising with the question.

  "We're just going for a walk," Wyatt said.

  "A long walk or a short walk?" Aldan asked, smiling along with Avery. It seemed clear to Wyatt what he was asking.

  "I don't date people I work with," Brooke said, looking over her shoulder at Wyatt. "Sorry, but that is the way it is. We're just going to get some . . . warehouse air."

  "It's rough out there," Jeremy said. "Why not just go back to one of the places we have already been and go a different direction."

  "And risk changing the past?" Avery said.

  "Do you really think we can change the past?" Aldan asked.

  "I guess you're right," Avery said, folding her arms and leaning back against the counter for a moment. "If anyone would have changed the past, it would have been you. How many years did you spend away from your first group?"

  "How many hours have you spent away from us now," Jeremy asked.

  "Hey," Aldan said. "Don't be jealous of me for finding a way to get away from this filthy place."

  Wyatt caught Avery giving him the bird with both hands as she headed for the bathroom. "You guys be safe out there," she said as she rounded the kitchen area and walked toward the bathroom.

  Brooke had already opened the doorway by the time Wyatt turned back and he quickened his pace to catch her. At the door, she let out a sigh and smiled at him.

  "This is not a date," she said as she held the door and gestured him through.

  Wyatt stepped through the doorway and watched as she closed it. "You don't think they see this as a date?" he asked.

  She closed the door and chewed her bottom lip as she turned back. "I've seen that too often. When a group like this has that kind of involvement, it makes things a little tougher when issues arise."

  Wyatt felt his interest pique as he watched her. Something about the way she stood, chewing her lower lip between sentences, made him suspect she had thought otherwise recently. Just to press the issue, he threw in a question of his own. "Do you think that will happen with Avery and Jeremy?"

  She laughed and looked away, folding her arms as she glanced along the large aisle between shelves. Wyatt followed her stare and the mildew and dampness that hung in the air seemed to grow stronger.

  "We don't have much time," Brooke said. "I would get back here by 1:30 pm." She stepped closer to him. "And make sure you use the right year and date."

  Wyatt worked his wrist terminal as he nodded. He scrolled through the date and times until he found the time he wanted. "You know, I have all these times written in a notebook in my footlocker." He watched her reaction to his words.

  She laughed, unfolded her arms and stepped closer. "Go back and see if Hannah is okay," she touched his right forearm in a tender manner and looked up into his eyes. "I want to know if we messed anything up."

  Wyatt nodded. "I'll be right back." He finished setting his wrist terminal to the location R549PS, on Sunday, October 15, 2039, at 11:30 am. When he activated his portal the shelving directly in front of him on the right side of their dormitory entrance split open. It was like a curtain in reality splitting open from the floor to about five feet above it.

  He stepped through it as his mind swam with a wave of nausea and dizziness. That was the resonance.

  CHAPTER three

  WAREHOUSE ENTRANCE, R549PS,

  SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2039, 11:30 AM.

  "You're back," Hannah said. She smiled broadly as she looked up toward the area where Wyatt stepped through his portal.

  Wyatt couldn't respond. The resonance hit him hard, and he struggled to keep his stomach settled. Dropping to his knees, he shook his head and waited. Usually after a couple seconds passed, the resonance would fade. As it did, he welcomed the ozone and diesel exhaust odors that filled his nose. Anything was better than the stale mildew of 2090. The warehouse in 2039 was newer.

  "Are you okay?" Hannah asked. "It doesn't get worse each time, does it?"

  He thought he heard her stepping across the aisle and eventually saw her feet in his downcast vision. "Sometimes, it is rough," Wyatt said. "But it's been a little bit since the last time I saw you." He wanted to mention that the last time he saw her might have been her first time seeing him but worried he might be sharing too much. At some point in her future, he was certain she would become the woman in white.

  "Well, how much time has passed for you, subjectively?" Hannah asked as he rose to his feet.

  Wyatt tried to calculate that, but his mind struggled with it. That was part of the reason he had been noting times and locations in a notebook buried under the shirts of his footlocker.

  "Maybe it has been four days, maybe six." He shook his head and frowned. "It's been a few days at least, or maybe more."

  Hannah laughed. "You sound like my cousin when he used to visit me often."

  Wyatt felt a little odd as she said that, with good reason. During his last mission he had learned she was Aldan's cousin. The only reason she was in the warehouse was so Aldan could keep her protected. He had dropped her off a couple of years in the future of where Wyatt stood now. Wyatt shook his head as the last of the resonance faded. Time travel unraveled all kinds of things. The first time he met Hannah, she had talked about meeting him earlier in her life.

  "Don't mention your cousin," Wyatt said, backing toward the shelving behind him. In the distance, he heard the diesel motors of the forklifts at the loading dock.

  The warehouse was huge and various parts were in different times and spaces. Supplies and shipments came into the blue areas. The orange areas were for storage. Any of the other colored areas touched orange areas to make transporting supplies easier. Red was for structural items, wood, bricks, tents, and other items used to rebuild. The Machina existed to predict and prepare for natural disasters, such as the earthquake of 2039, when Wyatt was drawn into the Machina's time travel group.

  "Don't you like my cousin?" Hannah asked. She smiled and stood facing him with her right leg forward and her weight on her left. Her arms were folded.

  "Aldan is easy enough to get along with," Wyatt said. "But that isn't why I am here." He watched her smile broaden and glanced around the large aisle of the warehouse. To his right, a blue line cut across the floor, as that portion of the aisle led to the loading docks.

  "Why are you here?" Hannah asked, her smile bright and filling her entire face.

  "To see you, of course," Wyatt said. "It's been a long couple of days, and we had to do some rough things. I just wanted to make sure we didn't mess things up."

  "Have you made that many substantial changes?"

  Wyatt pu
rsed his lips as he thought about the best way to answer that. She nodded, and he realized he had already answered it through his silence.

  "Too many changes can mess everything up," Hannah said. "That's why Aldan moves me to different times. He's trying to lessen my impact on things."

  "Do you think the past can be changed?" Wyatt asked. Before he finished asking that question, he struggled to make sense of what he had said. Just his presence with her in 2039 was changing his past.

  "I guess that depends on what you call the past," Hannah said, glancing at something over his shoulder. When her eyes landed on whatever it was, her smile faded suddenly.

  "What is it?" Wyatt asked, as he felt the dizziness that came with the resonance. It was not as strong as what he had experienced when he came through his portal, but he could feel it radiating from behind him.

  "Someone was standing over there," Hannah said, stepping closer to him and gesturing past his right shoulder. "But I don't see them now."

  Wyatt looked where she pointed and didn't see anyone. The resonance he felt could have been someone leaving the area or coming to the area through a portal. In the back of his mind, he wondered if Brooke had come back to watch him.

  "I think we need to go for a little walk," Hannah said. "This may not be the best place for us to meet."

  "But you said I could come find you at lunchtime any Friday, Saturday, or Sunday," Wyatt protested.

  Hannah grabbed his right arm with her left and pulled him along. Toward the blue line that crossed the floor. At that blue line, the shelving to either side of the aisle changed from orange to blue.

  Stepping across the blue line, he had to stop walking for a moment and let the resonance pass.

  "What time are we in now?" Wyatt asked.

  "What?" Hannah said with a smile. "Oh." She let go of his arm and stepped into a narrow aisle to her right. He followed.

  "I forget the lines on the floor affect you," Hannah said.

  "This whole warehouse affects me," Wyatt said. "Who did you see back there?" He pointed back in the direction they had come from.