Justification For Killing

by Larry Edward Hunt

  “Okay John I heered yew. That Ronald Regan one, I’ve seed him in the movies, your Ronald Regan president jez got the same name? And what about them two Bush names - did he get elected two times?”

  “Quick answers Clem - Ronald Regan, IS the same movie actor you watched in the movie, and no there wasn’t a Bush president that was elected twice, well they did get elected twice, but this is confusing. Just let it go... it was two different men. One was the father and the other his son.”

  Before they all realized it, the large mantel clock over the fireplace had struck eleven.

  “When do you think we need to get started Clem? The clock just indicated the bewitching hour was about to arrive.”

  “The betwich... twitch... what... ah John you just use to many of them fancy words.”

  “It just means it’s eleven o’clock I believe it’s about time to get started over to Double Pond Lake. What about it Clem?”

  “Dadburn, your rite John, let me jest turn over to KDAL Channel 5, and see the weather and we’ll be off, is that okay.”

  At 11:30, the local news and weather finished, and Clem announced he was ready. “John that weather man said it was goin’ to be cold tonite’ you got a coat or anything?”

  “Just these stolen duds everyone says are a red shirt and blue overalls Clem, that’s it.”

  “Well I got your red overhalls back from Mr. Simpson. They looked like they would keep you purty warm. Penelope wher’d you put’em.”

  Penelope retrieved the flight suit from the hall closet, and the Captain pulled it over his red flannel shirt and blue denim overalls. “Snug as a bug in a rug,” he said patting his stomach. “Let’s be off, my good man,” he laughingly said to Clem.

  “That’s a good’ern John, never heered that one. Got to see if’en I can remember it.”

  Walking to the front door Captain Scarburg stopped and extended his hand to Penelope saying, “Miss Penelope Ruby - it has been a great pleasure to meet you. I want to tell you how much I have enjoyed your meals, and the good company since you both took me in. Words cannot express how much I appreciate what you and Clem have done. You will never know what you both have accomplished these past few days... your lives will go on as if nothing has happened because to you it will not seem to change, but you’ll never know how much it will mean to you and millions of other people. From a grateful nation – thanks to you both.”

  He leaned over gave her a big hug, and kissed her on the cheek. “Good bye - May God bless and keep you.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  TO SADDLEHORN GULCH

  “Right up here is that Saddlehorn Gulch turn-off road John. Hang on, when I said road, I might have mis-spoke a tetch, maybe I should’ve said trail. Anyways it’s purty rough. Jest grab ahold and I’ll git you to yer flyin’ machine.”

  Clem wasn’t lying about the road. Trail might be giving it more importance than it deserved. It would have to come up a notch or two to qualify for that name. But after bouncing over gullies, rocks and sometime small trees they arrived at the place where the Captain left Pegasus. Unfortunately, they needed a big ole full moon to illuminate the whole area; however, that would be more than two weeks later. Tonight it was just a sliver of a crescent showing. It wasn’t bright enough to see without any other light. Fortunately, the headlights on Clem’s wrecker brighten the area considerably. ‘John’ found the stump right away. He did not see Pegasus. He walked up to the stump, reached his hand out almost expecting to touch something – nothing. He swung his hand back and forth across the stump. He still felt nothing, yet he knew his flying machine was right there in front of them both. He could not see anything, but the air felt different - something like a fresh rain in the summer time. You cannot see the rain, but the air feels and smells invigorating. This is the same sensation the Captain was observing standing on that stump in the middle of the cow pasture in nowhere Texas.

  Clem stood watching, “what you doin’ John, thar ain’t nothin’ here.”

  “Wrong Clem! She’s here all right. We just can’t see her yet. Do you smell that? She’ll appear, just wait.” The smell ‘John’ was referring to was the ozone Pegasus creates when she was arriving or leaving.

  Before leaving the Ponderosa, Penelope had loaned her watch to John, or Captain Scarburg. She had wound it up real tight and set the hands while mentioning the watch kept perfect time. ‘I hope she is right’, thought ‘John’. According to her watch the time was 12:20. Even if Pegasus had been close enough to check the time on his Iphone it would be of no use - the Iphone was out of power and the Captain had forgotten his charger; however, once entry was gained to Pegasus a power adapter installed in the control console would allow for the charging of the Iphone.

  “That’s cutting it fairly close Clem. The machine should reappear in about ten minutes. Have you got the wench on the wrecker ready? Okay... good... nothing to do now but wait. I hope whoever messed with the numbers in the computer did not, in some way, alter or change the time the five minute window would occur.”

  “Got my fangers crossed John. Ever thangs goin’ to be okay.”

  Captain Scarburg, leaning on the fender of Clem’s truck, watched the minutes pass. He was counting them down to Clem: “five minutes to go... four minutes... three minutes... two minutes... one minute. Get ready Clem she should be appearing any second now.”

  Slowly the slight breeze picked up considerably. A hint of a glow could be seen in the vicinity of the old stump. What was being seen wasn’t actually a glow it was more like a vapor. A crackling similar to a fire in a fireplace began, a slight high-pitched hum could be heard along with the beautiful sound of Amazing Grace on the bagpipes, which seemed to be playing off in the distance. Gradually, something akin to a blurred picture began to appear. Suddenly without warning it instantly materialized. It was beautiful, all shiny and slick in the light of the waxing moon. Clem could not say anything. If a person had not known better, he would have thought Clem was in shock, standing up. His mouth had fallen open, and his eyes looked like a deer caught in a car’s headlights. “Well I’ll be,” he said. “Well I’ll be!

  “Quickly Clem attach your winch. Pick that sucker up and sit it flat on the ground while we can still see it.” Clem, snapping out of his stunned state, and moved swiftly to attach the wench’s cable onto the lifting bar built into the front of Pegasus. Running around to the side of the wench he pushed the lever forward, and the slack in the steel cable tightened. The tension on the wench’s cable was tremendous...tighter and tighter the cable became. Could Clem’s small wrecker pick up this futuristic time machine? Slowly, slowly, straining under the heavy weight the wench began to lift the flying machine from the stump. Clem jumped into the cab of the wrecker and began expertly to lower the silver time machine a couple of feet onto the flat ground. “That’s perfect Clem let her down right there.”

  Clem got the cable un-hooked just as a loud hissing noise began. Clem looked at his wrecker - he thought the time machine’s weight had blown a tire. Nothing was wrong with the tires. The escape hatch opening was causing pressurized air to escape from inside resulting in the hissing should. Slowly a section of the skin on the titanium body started to move. A round hatch appeared and slowly opened.

  All Clem could utter was, ‘dadburn, dadburn.’

  The hatch was wide open - we’ve got five minutes to get inside - want a look-see Clem?”

  “Nah, I can see good from out here. Besides that thang might close with me inside.”

  “Don’t worry Clem. Once inside I can open the hatch whenever I want. We just cannot get back inside until the appointed time. Come on Clem it won’t bite you!”

  “Dadburn, I wish bite was all that thang could do to me. But okay I’ll take a peek.”

  “Good, pull the truck alongside we’ll just use it as a ladder to reach the hatch.”

  REPAIR PEGASUS

  Once inside the craft the bank of lights on the instrument were blinking wildly. The three gages indicated the
GPS coordinates were labeled, ‘DEPART’, ‘DESTINATION’ and ‘RETURN’. The Captain read the numbers out loud, ‘DEPART’ 38 degrees 57 minutes 0 seconds North 77 degrees 37 minutes 35 seconds West, ‘DESTINATION’ 32 degree 64 minutes 47 seconds North 96 degrees 48 minutes 30 seconds West and ‘RETURN’ 38 degrees 57 minutes 0 seconds North 77 degrees 47 minutes 35seconds West. I just wish I had looked at those dials before I left Washington; however, the gauge on my arrival time back in Washington is 12:29:31 just one second from my departure time.”

  “John, I jest hate to ask but what in the devil er you talking about, and most of all, what is that god-awful smell in here? It smells like one of them cows done got in here an fertilized this place.”

  Thinking for a moment, the Captain grinned when he thought of the towel he had used earlier to wipe the manure from his boot... it had been lying over in the corner, fermenting for the past couple of days. Clem was right - it was truly ‘ripe’. Walking to the hatch he tossed the white towel out into the night air.

  “See those numbers,” the Captain said pointing with his finger to the glowing displays, “they indicate where I left from, where I was supposed to land and where and when I am to return. As you can see ‘DEPARTURE’ and ‘RETURN’ should be exactly the same, I know the ‘DESTINATION’ is wrong and look at the ‘DEPARTURE’ and ‘RETURN’ Clem - they are different. Notice the 37 in minutes in ‘DEPARTURE’ is 47 minutes in ‘RETURN’. I am thinking that will put me smack dab in the middle of the Potomac River. I do not believe I want that hatch opening up in all that water. Besides I don’t know if this thing floats, and Clem the date is wrong too. I left on the 21st, but the ‘RETURN’ date states the 22nd. That can’t be right.”

  “Okay John, let’s fixer. Tell me what to do.”

  “Do? Do? Clem, there’s nothing you or I can do. This, as you say, dadburn thing cannot be fixed from our end. A highly trained PHD in Computer Sciences and Electrical Engineering must handle these computers Clem. It takes years of training and experience to even touch the inside of this ‘gadget’ as you would call it. One slip up and the whole computer system will be fried.”

  As the Captain was talking he heard the faint rendition of The Stars and Stripes Forever, “What the...” Clem said.

  “It’s my Iphone ringing Clem. Let me see what’s going on.” He said removing his phone from the console where it had been charging. Putting it to his ear he hesitantly answered, “Hello?”

  “Captain Scarburg is that really you? Thank God you are alive. I have been so worried about you.”

  “Who is THIS?” Captain Scarburg asked.

  “Why... why it’s Mike Watkins... Mike your Flight Prep Crew Chief. How are things going Captain?”

  “What the... what a first question Mike! Where the blazes are you?”

  “Right where I have been since you blasted off - well since you disappeared out into the wild blue yonder, but you have only been gone a second or two.”

  “Mike, the wild blue yonder is a cow pasture about forty miles north of Dallas and just a bit north west of a place named Celina, Texas. Today is Saturday the 23rd of November 1963. You say I’ve only been gone a second or so - I’ve been here going on three days Mike! Oh well we’ll figure this out later if I ever get home.”

  “What can I do to help Captain?”

  “Mike I’ve got a problem. The program on my departure indicator shows my final destination will be the middle of the Potomac River there in Washington. But the main problem is the light next to the ‘RETURN’ dial is blinking. I know it’s red, I saw it during our testing, but I actually cannot tell the color right now. I’ll explain this later too... I hope. Right above this light is a red ‘ABORT’ that is blinking also. I know someone had sabotaged the computers before I left - so the question is: how can I fix them? And second, what does this red light truly mean? I’m actually afraid to ask - blinking red lights are usually not a good sign. Right? And before we get into that Mike, tell me one thing, how in the devil are we talking to each other.”

  “Captain, I was digging through some of the alien documents that had been de-coded, and I discovered a whole set of instructions on building a machine, which uses Tachyons to communicate long distances at speeds faster than light.”

  “Tackeyons? What the...? What, faster than the speed of light that can’t be.”

  “I can’t get into the particulars of them now, it’s too complicated. But Einstein called it ‘spooky action at a distance.’ Suffice it to say Tachyons were once thought to be a hypothetical subatomic particle that moves faster than light. They still are hypothetical to the rest of the scientific community! I haven’t told anyone about actually discovering them. Well, I didn’t “discover” them as you know, the aliens did, but who’s counting. I also constructed a receiver/transmitter for this device and placed it in Pegasus, and another one is here in my lab. Then I linked the receive/transmit frequency to your Iphone. The only problem, well so far, whoever is in Pegasus, must be materialized in a time equal to or earlier than the date shown on our master clock here in the lab.

  Mike went on to explain if someone tries to communicate with him and they are in a ‘time’ later than his time, he cannot talk to them because the event hasn’t happened yet! In simple terms, if Pegasus is in his future he cannot communicate with it. He said, when the Captain returned, he would try to explain more in detail about those Tachyons. Patting himself on the back he said, “But they work reasonably well, huh?” There was one other drawback, he further explained: for the Captain’s Smartphones sending or receiving calls the phones must to be within approximately five miles of Pegasus. Mike also installed an onboard computer, which will record every word transmitted. If needed, they can download any conversation on the return of Pegasus to SCAR’s laboratory. While on the ground, in any situation, Pegasus will act as a relay station and allow Smartphones to work in any Parallel Universe. “Pretty good, huh?” Mike remarked.

  “Dadburn Mike... Pretty good? Pretty good? This is unbelievable. To be able to talk over a thousand or so miles in distance, and also stretch it over a span of forty-nine years in time, yes this is pretty darn good!! Okay, you can tell me about this later, right now you have to figure out how I can get this thing to de-materialize and get back home safely. I only have twelve hours left. Oh, one other thing Mike... why did you program in Amazing Grace with the bagpipes? It is beautiful.”

  “Thanks for the compliment Captain, wish I could take credit for the music, but it came with the alien plans. Once I constructed the transmitter/receiver equipment the song just, somehow, appeared. I had nothing to do with it.”

  “Okay, but it sure does soothe the nerves on awaking – I’ll have to thank Anhur and his cohorts someday.”

  Mike then began to tell the Captain he had bad news and more bad news. And he tried to explain. Mike believed he could work around the wrong Pegasus destination coordinates, if need be he could arrange for the Coast Guard to retrieve Pegasus from the Potomac; however, the onboard computers were another problem. The bad news concerned the distance: they were so far apart... 2,139 kilometers, to be exact, and forty-nine years in Mike’s past. If this weren’t bad enough the Captain would need a combination of an electronic and mechanical engineer who would register as a Mensa candidate just to get into the motherboard of Pegasus’ primary computer. Did he fail to mention those two experts would need to be well versed on the computer technology of the 21st century also? “That would help greatly.” Mike said trying to muffle a laugh.

  “Okay Mike, I get the picture. This pasture seems to be lacking those experts and forget about the watery landing spot just tell me how I can turn this red light off. As long as it’s blinking I can’t get this sucker to fly, right?”

  “That IS correct Captain. Okay I’ll try to walk you through it. First look for a square service panel to your left side and near the floor. It will be grey and has a recessed chrome, circular pull knob. Open this door - you will see three service lines coming into t
he panel. Two “hot” leads attach to a two-gang main circuit breaker that connects to two “hot” buss bars. Individual branch circuit breakers, rated to accept a fixed rate amperage of current should slide into the hot “buss” bar. Each breaker has a “hot” lead that...”

  Before Mike could continue, the Captain interrupted “Enough... whoa... whoa... stop... that’s enough Mike, don’t say any more, you’re making my head hurt... you lost me on the opening the door part.”

  Clem reached and snatched the Iphone from John’s ear. “Gimme that tellyphone - it’s a Me-phone now... Hello who’s this... Mike? Howdy Mike, my name’s Clem - I’m with John... What? John who? Heck the man you was just talkin’ to... John Doess... that John... Just tell me what to do... I know about these thangs... What you mean it’s above my pay grade?” I reckon I ain’t got me no pay grade, so jest splain me what to do!!”

  For the next couple of minutes, Clem listened intently saying only, “Un-huh... okay... yeah I know’d about that... okay... I believe I can fine it... un-huh... sure... here you go John he wants to talk to you agin.”

  “Yes Mike... oh the John thing... don’t worry I’ll explain it to you later... if I ever get home.” Captain Scarburg and Mike exchanged a few more words, and the Captain turned the Iphone off. Turning to Clem, “Mike’s last words were ‘Good-bye’ and he said he would break the sad news to my family. What do you think he meant by that Clem?”

  “I dunno John... he was talkin’ about C-Pee-Yous, hard drivers and circus boards. I’s built sheds and stuff so I know all about them boards and planks, I’ll be fine. I can fix this sucker. How long afore that there hole in the wall closes?” Clem said speaking of the escape hatch.

  “About ninety seconds.”

  “I jest can make it,” Clem said sliding through the hatch onto his wrecker. Grabbing a grease-encrusted red, toolbox he was back inside Pegasus in a flash. Well it wasn’t a flash, but it was less than ninety seconds, for sure.