And then the Hunters snuck into Fil’s house while he’d been out of town, Dampered little Anna, escorted both of them to their own craft for a return to Headquarters. They’d never know what the Hunters of the Leader intended to do with them, for the insane new Assassin, Abaddon, absconded with the two of them with a plan to unleash Armageddon.
In hindsight, now, her father’s decision to stay hidden, to stay away, to avoid drawing any type of Aliomenti attention, seemed all the wiser.
If she and Charlie ever had children, if she was ever able to overcome the hurdles of ambrosia, she’d probably do the same thing. She’d probably do what so many others had done and raise her children in the Cavern or one of the undersea ports where detection wasn’t a concern.
Perhaps by then it wouldn’t be necessary to try to hide.
“I think we can smooth it up a little bit,” the Mechanic sad. “But it’s perfectly sealed, and that’s the key right now.” He nodded at the smaller replica, one-tenth the size of the original. “Is our test craft ready?”
“I’ve got the battery juiced up and installed in the front of the vehicle,” Fil said. “How far are we moving it into the future?”
“Ten seconds,” Adam said. “Just enough time to know that it’s vanished, but not so long that we need to wait a seeming eternity for it to reappear.” He frowned. “Or fail to reappear, as the case may be.”
“Be positive,” Eva said. “The tests are done now to identify errors that would be far more disastrous when the three of you are traveling.”
“Fair enough,” Adam replied. He stepped up to the craft and looked inside, checking the settings on the dashboard. Fil’s initial belief that the time machine was an automobile was no accident. The travelers were old enough to be familiar with old ground cars, and the style was conducive to the cargo they’d transport. Angel noted that six–year-old Fil would be far less frightened of a time machine that looked like a “cool car” than some unfamiliar design.
More importantly, they wanted to ensure that the craft they used meshed with the memories of what had already happened.
“Okay, I’ve set it to jump forward to 3:05pm,” Adam said. “Mechanic, if you can check my entries?”
Adam backed away from the machine the Mechanic slid next to the craft. Adam would bear “navigator” responsibilities, responsible for ensuring that all of the components were operational before each leg of the journey. Fil would be responsible for collecting everything other than their father—including, to his disgust, the Assassin—and Angel would handle boring the tunnel they’d use to transport their father to safety.
The Mechanic, who’d overseen a large portion of the construction effort, checked the settings. “This looks perfect. The settings to the right hand side of the display will control the physical coordinates. Right now, they’re set to the current location of the craft. If for some reason I’m not around when it’s time to send Will Stark to the distant past, make sure that you adjust those coordinates to the spot where he’s supposed to arrive.”
Adam frowned. “Any reason you wouldn’t be around to set things up?”
“None that I know of,” the Mechanic replied. “But it’s always best to have a backup plan.”
Adam nodded. “Quite true.”
“Anyone want to volunteer to hit the start button?” Fil asked.
“I’ll do it,” Angel said. She leaned into the cabin, pressed the large green button on the dash, and leaned back. The activation button triggered the machine to check all component systems, form the top and seal the cabin, and make the jump through time once the time circuits had pulled in sufficient power from the batteries. They’d constructed the top from new nanos based on the future technology recovered from Pleasanton.
Angel listened as the time travel circuits warmed up, drawing power from the battery Fil had charged. They watched the clock, watched as the seconds ticked down to the launch.
“Three… two… one… now!”
The time machine shivered and did… nothing.
Angel felt her spirits sink. She’d been convinced it would work perfectly the first time. The craft would disappear and then materialize in the same spot ten seconds later. The clocks they’d synced inside and outside the craft would be ten seconds apart when compared, proving the machine had jumped forward in time.
But the craft hadn’t moved.
The Mechanic seemed unperturbed by the failure. “This is a good start. The time circuits activated and drew power. The circuits didn’t fire, however. We need to investigate that.”
They stood a moment in silence. Angel wished Charlie was there, able to offer insights. But he was in South America, scouting for the sites they’d use before and after the Hunters tracked her father. There wasn’t much information on the location, only a blurry image of a map in the Aliomenti aircraft Will had used to complete his escape from Headquarters. Charlie expected the trip to take several months. She was glad they were spending so much time working with the time machine; it made the time apart pass more quickly.
Fil started laughing. “Well, we don’t know if the machine works or not. We didn’t set the seconds, so it thought it was supposed to leave at exactly 3:05 and arrive at exactly 3:05. The correct action was exactly what we saw.”
The others looked at each other and laughed as well. “A glorious triumph for science,” the Mechanic quipped. “At least this time I didn’t fall on my backside.”
They set to work. Angel used a remote to open the top of the machine. Adam powered the time circuits down. The Mechanic checked the readings on the dashboard for any other potential issues. Fil opened the front of the vehicle, pulled out the battery, inserted his hand into the opening, and discharged Energy to refill the battery. Angel and Adam did a visual inspection of the machine, searching for any structural damage. The machine worked by warping time between two points, “folding” the times together. The warping effect would cause instant death to anyone exposed. A complete seal was essential, and physical inspections after each jump critical.
Angel kept an eye on the clock. They needed to understand how long it took to handle the startup process. There was no evidence they’d need to do anything—not even recharge a battery—but as the Mechanic had noted, contingency plans were important. They’d carry far more charged batteries than they needed to prevent need for a recharge and build the machine to pull from all batteries at the same time.
Fil finished the charging effort and installed the battery back inside the craft. “How long?”
“Inspection and recharging took seven minutes and eleven seconds,” Angel replied.
“Too long,” Adam said. “Given everything we have to accomplish in our time back in 2030 and the window we have, we wouldn’t be able to get through all of this.”
Angel nodded. She checked the clock, then looked at the Mechanic. “How far can the machine travel with the battery fully charged?”
He considered. “For the smaller model, we’re using a smaller, low capacity battery, so… thirty minutes? Maybe an hour?” He nodded as he spoke. “That’s actually something we need to test and plot out. Run tests for various amounts of time, note how much energy is used, and refine our formulas. We need to know how much energy we need for all of the trips, and really can’t afford to run out of power during a time jump.”
Angel felt a chill. The idea of her father vanishing—truly vanishing—was terrifying. Time seemed to operate in a loop once travel through the fourth dimension occurred. Their existence today meant their father had made the trip successfully the last time he’d existed on the loop. If they failed this time, though, if they didn’t build the machine correctly, or if they didn’t supply enough power, he’d vanish, her mother would likely die before turning twenty, and she and Fil would never exist. Would they cease to exist on this time loop? She didn’t care to think about that. “Whatever the computed answer might be, we should add a large contingency.”
“Agreed,” Fil replied. “I don’
t care if all of us are filling batteries for a week leading up to the trip. We can’t leave anything to chance.”
Angel checked the clock. “If we set the target time to 4:30, we should be fine.”
Adam nodded. They repeated the process once more. Adam set the time circuit targets, the Mechanic confirmed all was well, and Angel activated the device. She heard the thrum as the time circuits activated and teleported out.
Thirty seconds later, the craft disappeared, winking out of existence as if they’d turned off a light switch.
All heads swiveled toward the clock—4:22.
They each took a few steps back. They’d not tested the ability to move the machine to different physical coordinates just yet, but as a precaution had marked a “safe zone” around the perimeter of the machine. If the craft moved and reappeared in the same place one of them occupied… well, they didn’t want to find out what happened.
Angel looked at her brother. “I’m heading outside until 4:30. Need some fresh air.”
Fil and the others nodded, and she walked through the wall of the building.
There were many depopulated regions of the planet even now, a century after the Cataclysm. They’d found an abandoned tract of land on what had once been New Zealand and had set up a series of buildings created from nanokits. They lived here, conducted their tests on this plot of land, unwilling to test the machine inside a Port or the Cavern. They didn’t know what a malfunctioning machine with batteries storing mammoth amounts of electricity might do. They kept their tests here to limit any potential damage. Still, she worried. What if one of their tests resulted in a time machine materializing atop someone hundreds of miles away? She shuddered. Best to keep the negative thoughts away. She wasn’t as powerful as Fil, but she’d felt her Energy strain to attack when her emotions were aroused. No point in becoming fearful of something that hadn’t happened, and in the process causing damage she didn’t intend. Fil had given her the ultimate example of what could go wrong.
Fil stepped through the wall and waved her back in. “It’s here.” There was a smile upon his face, a rare sight since the Cataclysm.
It was here?
Angel sprinted back to the building and through the wall, nearly colliding with Fil. It was there, right where it had started. The exterior was slightly less glossy than before, but was otherwise intact. She pulled the remote from her pocket and dissolved the top before they moved in to investigate.
Adam checked the exterior surfaces and frowned. “There’s actually a lot of damage. The warping looks to have cracked the exterior, though the cracks didn’t occur until the journey finished.” He glanced at Angel. “When the time machine appeared, we all heard loud cracking noises.” He steepled his fingers together. “We’ll need to reconsider the exterior material, or add some type of reinforced shielding.”
Angel inspected the interior. “I don’t detect much damage in here, although…” She frowned as she checked the dashboard. “Yeah, it looks like the crack let in enough of the warp energy to hit everything. The dashboard is fried.” The stench of burning plastic hit her sensitive olfactory nerves as she spoke. “Whew.”
Fil had carefully opened the “hood” of the time travel car, but jumped back as the lid opened. “Oh, this is not good.” He scowled, concern etched into his brow.
Angel hopped out of the cabin and walked around, aware of a new smell. The source became evident. The “brains” of time travel, the computer that calculated the jump, pulled in the necessary energy, put the time warp field around the vehicle and activated the actual travel sequence, was…
“Destroyed.” She spoke in a whisper, trying to avoid the tone of despair.
Adam came and joined them, nodding. He placed a comforting hand on each shoulder. “This is not a catastrophe by any means.”
Fil stared at Adam, incredulous. Angel could sense what he felt: he thought this failure was entirely his fault. “How do you figure that, Adam? The control panel is destroyed. The time circuits are melted. We’ve lost everything we’ve built.”
“We’ve not lost everything,” Adam said. “On the contrary, this is a phenomenally successful first attempt.” He looked at them. “Look at the clock.”
They both looked at the clock on the wall, which by now read 4:40. “What of it?” Angel asked.
“Look at the clock that was inside the craft.”
They looked. “It says 4:32,” she said, shrugging. “So?”
“So? The machine didn’t disappear and reappear. It did exactly what it was designed to do. It moved forward in time.” He looked at Fil. “I fully expected the first test to result in the machine wobbling around, or exploding, or any of a number of undesirable things. Instead, the craft actually moved through time. On our first attempt. This isn’t good; this is phenomenal.” He waved his hand at the time machine and the various aromas emanating forth. “The other stuff? We can deal with that.”
“Adam, don’t you understand?” Fil’s eyes were flashing again. “We have to make a round trip in this machine. We’ll use far more energy than we’ll use for a mere eight-minute jump. If a short trip like this destroyed all of the parts, we can’t call it successful because we made it there. No, it will be an abject failure.” He paused. “Because we won’t make it back.”
“All fair points, Fil,” Adam replied. “And we have forty years to fix those problems.”
“More, actually,” Angel said.
“Okay, we have forty-four years,” Fil muttered. “That’s not a lot of time for a scientific breakthrough like this.”
Angel shook her head. “Guys, we have a time machine. If we don’t get it to work until 2230, we can still go back to 2030, get Dad, and return to 2219.”
“That’s true, but how do we live through the events of 2219 when we’re also trying to fix the time machine? And what happens if, after we send Will back in time… what if something happens to one of us?” Adam shook his head. “I understand your point, Angel, and you’re absolutely correct in theory. But there are significant complications if we don’t have the machine built before Will arrives in the future from the past.”
Angel frowned, but did her best to remain positive. “Those are worst case scenarios. For now, I prefer to focus on our opportunity to finish this process far in advance of the time we’ll need it. We have forty-four years? I think we’re ready in twenty.” She folded her arms, smiled, and nodded emphatically.
The Mechanic cleared his throat. “I think we’re far closer than that.”
They turned back to him. The Mechanic held the battery he’d removed from the time machine. He set the battery down and motioned them around to the front of the vehicle.
He pointed at parts of the machines as he explained his statement. “There are two critical items to notice here. We built the craft with a metal exterior due to the expected pressures of the time field. Metal is an excellent conductor of electricity. That means you need to make certain that you don’t have metal contacting metal.” He pointed, and each of them saw it. A wire sprouted from the battery compartment and led… nowhere. The loose wire wasn’t in contact with metal at this point. Given that the end was charred, however, Angel suspected that hadn’t been the case throughout the trip. “It looks like that wire was jarred free during the jump, and at some point touched the metal side of the craft. That energy surge may explain the damage to the exterior of the craft.”
“It might be the cause of the damage to the console as well,” Fil said, glancing at the interior compartment. “If that wire touched the metal and the metal conducted that electricity through the body of the craft, then…”
The Mechanic shook his head. “I think we’re looking at an insufficient amount of insulation for the wires. We’ll also need shielding to prevent electrical surges to the computer systems and dashboard. I suspect that the surge of electricity into the time travel circuits was matched by a surge to the computing systems and cabin dashboard. Those are simple fixes. We just need to rebuild the con
sole and fix the wires.”
“I can do that,” Angel said. “We should have wire insulators back at the port. I’m worried about the amount we’ll need, especially around the battery itself.”
“Ah, and that brings me to the other happy event we’ve seen today,” the Mechanic said. “Adam is correct in his assessment of this test as a success, and that was before he realized that the mistakes made leading to the outcomes we saw are easily correctible. And it was before he saw this.” He picked the keg-like battery from the ground and rolled it around.
They looked at the digital display readouts on the side. Fil saw it first. Then Adam. And as they began to laugh, Angel saw it as well. “This is too good to be true, isn’t it? Can that be right?”
The Mechanic grinned. “The display doesn’t lie. We used only twenty percent of the energy in that battery when our calculations said we’d need every bit of it to move that craft forward eight minutes in time. We’ll need to revise our formulas and calculations as a result of this and future tests. We know how much energy we’ll need to transport the craft to England due to our work with the transporters. But it looks like we’ll need far less electrical energy than previously suspected to get him to the correct year.”
They looked at each other for a moment. The smiles began forming on each face. Angel felt the happiness and sense of accomplishment. “Can that be right? Have we already identified all of the issues with just the one test? Are we… done?”
Adam shook his head. “If I’ve learned one thing in my time it’s this: surprises will always happen. Even when we think we have perfect information about the future or the past, the details we don’t have will have a major impact on plans.”
Aliomenti Saga 6: Stark Cataclysm Page 21
