Heart Of The Machine (Soulmates Book 2)

by Don DeBon

  "Oh I see, so they thought you were a part of the situation instead of trying to help?"

  "Exactly. I told them of my ability, but of course they didn't believe me. And at that point I think that even if they did, I would have been locked up to find out how I do it. I decided I needed to get out of there and fast. I had no intention of being a lab rat." They continued walking towards a group of rocky outcroppings in the distance. By this time the terrain had already changed from a soft grassy plain to jagged rocks laying haphazardly. James stumbled and Red sighed as she helped him, yet again, to his feet.

  "Can we rest? We have went a long way. Surely we are safe now?"

  Red rolled her eyes. "Not yet, once we get to those caves, then we can. We are still too exposed here. You don't know dinosaurs, they rarely give up once they get your scent. Well the carnivores anyway. The herbivores you only have to worry about them stepping on you." She pulled at James' arm. "Come on will you. I thought you said you were top of your class?"

  "I was. But the training didn't include early Jurassic!"

  When they finally reached one of the caves, they both collapsed on its dirt floor and James immediately removed his shoes to rub his aching feet. "I don't suppose you know where the closest restaurant is?"

  "Sure, thousands of years in the future," Red chuckled. "But I think I can come up with something a little closer. I noticed a tree with fruits when we came in. I will go get some of them. Will you be okay?"

  James nodded. "Yes I will be fine." He said sitting down on a large rock, patting it. "All the comforts of home."

  Red smiled as she turned to leave. "I will be back."

  A short time later Red appeared at the cave entrance carrying two large plum colored oblong objects. Both were larger than her hands and she had to carry one under each arm. "Here you are," she said handing him one, "but be careful, some inner pods are seeds and will break your teeth. Also, if you ever find some that look like these but are shiny, don't eat those. They will kill you in one bite."

  "How do you know?" He said as he chewed the sweet fruit.

  "I got lucky enough to watch something else take a bite. Believe me, you don't want to try it." Red said as she broke open her fruit and popped a small yellowish oblong piece into her mouth.

  "Thanks I will keep that in mind. You said you were here before and it took twenty jumps to get back? Why so many?" James said as he finished the last of his fruit.

  "Well, going forward is much more difficult than going backwards in time. I don't know why. But I do know it takes a lot more energy and concentration." Red raised her hand. "And before you ask, it will be about another day before I can try again. Believe me, I don't like being here in dinosaur world any more than you do. But still, this is better than Salem."

  James eyes grew wide. "Salem?"

  "Yes you know of the city right?"

  "Of course, but how can you say this is better than Salem?"

  Red laughed. "Okay, well in modern times I agree, but if you land in the middle of a witch trial looking like this from a storm what would you think just happened?"

  "You are kidding? You were in Salem during the witch trials?"

  "I wasn't there during the witch trials, I was the reason for them! Sadly I landed right at the feet of a judge. Of course he immediately called everyone around and shouted witch. And just my luck, he wasn't the only one that saw me land …"

  Want to read more about Red and James? Then visit your favorite book store and pick up a copy of Red Warp! Available in both print and ebook editions.

  Time Rock (Red Warp II)

  Professor Keleeigan sat over one of his consoles tweaking several wave guides on the display. He rolled his chair over to a large piece of equipment filled to the brim with various circuits and electronics. He carefully reached inside and soldered a new chip into place. The status lights on the box continued to flash orange for a few more minutes, then blinked green. "There," he grunted, "it is finally finished." A knock at the door brought him out of his thoughts as he walked through the maze of tables and equipment that covered the lighthouse floor. Pulling open the heavy wooden door he smiled as his eyes fell upon on the young man standing in front of him. "Kim! Good you could come!"

  Kim Lee stood in his usual well-worn shorts and t-shirt. "Hello Professor, your message said it was important? Why did you want to meet back here at the lighthouse so soon?"

  Keleeigan grinned. "Why to show you the fruition of our work."

  Next to Kim a woman uncomfortably shifted from one high-heeled foot to another. "Fruition? How? We are a long way from testing."

  Keleeigan glared at Trisia Swain. "Hardly. Or don't you trust my work?"

  Trisia shifted again in her heels. She was on her way for a fun night on the town when she received the Professor's message. She shivered as the wind blew up her blue minidress. "Professor you know that we both trust your work. It is why we agreed to join you on this project. And in secret I might add."

  Keleeigan gestured for them to come inside. "Well don't just stand out there come on in. I know it is still a bit chilly after the sun sets. If we are lucky, a storm will follow soon."

  Kim's eyebrow raised as he closed the door behind them. "A storm? Why would that be lucky?"

  "Because my boy, a storm is what we need!"

  "I don't follow you."

  Keleeigan sat back down at one of the large lab tables then swiveled his chair around to face them. "Well you know we couldn't generate enough power to create a stable time-field, right?"

  Trisia's eyes narrowed. "Professor is this going to take long? I had other plans for tonight."

  Keleeigan laughed. "My dear it won't take long at all. If you would let me finish explaining."

  Trisia's eyes lowered as they fixed on the ancient wood floor. "Sorry."

  "No problem my dear. Now as I was saying, you know that the new power cell I developed wasn't quite powerful enough to open a temporal field right?"

  Kim nodded. "Yes and I thought you were going to build another?"

  "Yes that was my original plan, but it will take months to build and test a new cell with these systems. You know how finicky they are."

  "Yes we do, all too well." Trisia said sighing deeply. It was part of her job to try and get the systems to work together in harmony. A lot more difficult than anyone originally thought due to the intricacies of the self regenerating power cell. Having to run to the basement for each calibration on the large cell didn't make the job any easier.

  "Well I think I may have found a workaround, and it should expand the field as well."

  "A workaround?" Kim said looking rather perplexed.

  "Yes and it should be here soon."

  "Be here soon? I still don't quite follow."

  "Well we need a massive amount of power and I think I found a good source. It won't be enough for a two-way trip in this case, but it will allow testing of the theory and equipment."

  Thunder boomed in the distance as the rain began to pelt against the windows. Trisia looked through the dirty glass and started moving towards the door. "Professor I am sorry but I don't have time for games, and I had plans for tonight. I need to head out before this storm gets any worse."

  "But my dear this is what we need."

  "You keep saying that, but we still don't know what you mean."

  "You will." Keleeigan said as he punched a button opening a small door at the top of the lighthouse releasing a small weather balloon.

  Kim pointed to the button. "Professor, what did you just do? I don't recognize that panel."

  Keleeigan smiled. "Why I started our trip of course, don't worry this will work. I have no doubts." His words hung in the air for a microsecond before a large lighting bolt struck the weather balloon and traveled down its connecting wire to the power accumulator that Keleeigan had installed in place of the giant light. It glowed brightly as it reacted to the sudden power surge. "Okay here we go!"

  Trisia's eyes widened and she bolted for the
door. "I am leaving!"

  "You can't! The process has already begun!"

  Trisia opened the door but just beyond it an energy field covered the exit. "What have you done?! I am getting out of here!" She yelled running to the window on the far side, her heels clicking loudly on the wood floor.

  "That won't work, the field is covering the whole lighthouse."

  "The whole building? But that is impossible! Our calculations indicated a small stable rip would require more than the power cell was capable of. Let alone a whole building." Kim said as he ran to the panel that showed the energy level rising and going higher than the gauge could reliably measure.

  "It is possible, and I am proving it!" Keleeigan said as a light flashed and blew out under the increased load. Another panel sparked and exploded.

  "Professor! You must abort this madness!" Trisia said waving her arms.

  "I can't! It is too far along!" Keleeigan shouted as the building began to twist and tear as though it was made of putty. "Don't worry we are only jumping a day ahead."

  "No!" Trisia shouted before she fell backwards sliding across the floor with the sudden lurch as the lighthouse surged with power flickering in and out of existence then disappearing entirely leaving only an empty hole where it once stood.

  The lighthouse twisted and pulled inside the temporal field but managed to snap back into shape. Keleeigan held on to the table as all sorts of images flashed through his mind. Distant past, possible futures, but as soon as it all started it stopped. The lighthouse emerged from the temporal warp with a loud crash.

  Kim sat down and shook his head. "What was that?"

  "The temporal field must need an adjustment." Keleeigan said still holding on to the table. "Whew, what a ride."

  "So where are we?"

  "Not where, but when. Should only be one day ahead in time."

  Trisia got to her feet and quickly walked to the door, eager to leave but when she got outside, nothing was as she expected it. "Um Professor, I think you had better get out here."

  "What's the matter dear? Something happen to your car?"

  "In a manner of speaking, it is not here."

  "What do you mean? We only went ahead a day."

  "I don't think so, I think we moved distance rather than time."

  Keleeigan walked outside and looked at the landscape. The grass covered land stretched as far as he could see. "This is impossible, I didn't change the land coordinates, only the temporal. Yet I don't see the coast line."

  Kim sat down at one of the consoles and activated the mapping system. He tried several configurations but they all returned the same error. "Professor I can't get a fix on any GPS satellites. It is like they don't exist."

  Keleeigan walked quickly to check the screen Kim was looking at. "Why you are right. I guess we jumped a lot farther into the future than I thought. And moved in physical location as well."

  "Professor? Do you have binoculars? I think I see something in the distance," Trisia called.

  "Yes, I will be right there." Keleeigan said as he grabbed his large binoculars from another table and joined Trisia outside. "Now what are you looking at?"

  Trisia pointed to some spots in the distance. "Over there. I think they are moving. Cars perhaps?"

  "Too slow to be cars. Not to mention too big to be seen at this distance." Keleeigan said raising the binoculars to his eyes. "Oh no! But this can't be! This is impossible, how could I have made such an error?!"

  Kim ran to join them. "What do you see?"

  Keleeigan passed him the binoculars. "Here take a look for yourself."

  Kim focused the binoculars and gasped. "Dinosaurs!"

  Keleeigan sighed. "Yes, dinosaurs."

  Trisia blinked. "How? I thought you said we were going into the future?"

  "I don't know my dear, I don't know. It would seem that we have gone far into the past, back before this was coastline. So we didn't move in position as I thought, only time. But a lot more than I wanted."

  "Professor I hate to say this, but I think they are coming this way." Kim said still looking through the binoculars.

  "Yes I suspect they will. And more will join."

  "Why?"

  "Because my boy, dinosaurs like temporal energy. They are attracted to it for some odd reason."

  "And how do you know this?" Trisia glared at Keleeigan.

  "From a friend."

  "And how did this friend know?"

  "Never mind, let's just say I am sure she knew what she was talking about."

  "We need to get out of here." Kim said finally lowering the binoculars. "They will be here soon."

  "I agree, but we need lightning for a stable temporal field. And I don't think that is likely to happen any time soon," Keleeigan said gesturing to the bight sunny day, "do you?"

  "No but we can't just sit here!" Trisia said.

  Keleeigan turned to go back inside. "Nor will we. I have an idea."

  "I hope it is a good one." Kim muttered under his breath.

  "It is, close that door Trisia."

  "Why? That won't keep them out."

  "No, but a force field will."

  "Force field? Are you joking?"

  "Hardly, if I adjust the harmonics of the field generator that I used to produce the temporal effect it should feel like a brick wall."

  "How long will it last?"

  "Should give us plenty of time, enough to wait for a nice lighting bolt."

  "But even if we do, how will we get back home? You still don't know why we are here in the first place."

  "Oh I will find out, trust me."

  Keleeigan checked several circuit boards inside the temporal guidance system as another dinosaur slammed into their makeshift shield.

  "Why don't they give up?" Trisia sighed as she looked out the window. Another raptor had joined the others, making six raptors and one Tyrannosaurus rex circling outside.

  "That field while protecting us, also attracts them. A double edged sword. And I think I found the problem." Keleeigan said producing a small burnt chip from deep inside the guidance system. "It looks like this chip fried locking us on to several million years ago instead of a day into the future. Very strange considering nothing else is damaged in the system."

  Trisia glared at him. "Can you fix it?"

  "Sort of."

  "What do you mean 'sort of'?"

  "Well I don't have a lot of spare parts here. A few yes, but this is a very delicate chip with an intricate clock. I can bypass it, but I don't know what will happen then. We could end up in a even worse position."

  "We may not have a choice." Kim said emerging from the basement. "I double checked the power cell, it is down to 76% and dropping fast. I don't think we have more than a few hours before the shield gives out."

  Keleeigan nodded. "Yes based on the current drain, we have about four hours left. I didn't count on the dinosaurs constantly attacking the shield. It is draining much faster than I anticipated."

  "Then what do we do?"

  "We try to jump as soon as I bypass this chip."

  "Now? I thought you needed a lightning strike?" Kim said.

  "Wait a second! You said that if you bypass that we will have no way of knowing were we are going!" Trisia said running over to grab Keleeigan's arm.

  "My dear, if we don't try we will be dino dinner. Would you prefer that outcome?"

  "No! Of course not!"

  "Then let go of my arm so I can finish this!"

  "Sorry professor." Trisia said releasing his arm looking embarrassed. "But what about the power level? You said we needed lightning?"

  "Well we needed that boost to stabilize and exit, not enter the temporal field."

  "Well at least we can enter … wait … if we can only enter that sounds like we will be trapped?"

  "We could be. It is only a theory of mine. And I hope I am wrong."

  Kim frowned. "Professor, most of your theories are proven true."

  Keleeigan sighed. "I know. But what ot
her choice do we have?"