Timelines

by Bob Blink

  “Not a chance. They would have pulled me back immediately without something that really supported that kind of far out theory. I wanted to see how it would work out. It looked like something was going to happen when Williams discovered the daughter had slipped away, but then it all turned sour.” I knew he was remembering the accident.

  I sensed he was being truthful. That meant nothing about us had been revealed. “Why aren’t they searching for you?” I asked.

  “Oh, you can bet there is an investigation. But there is nothing for them to work on that the FBI doesn’t have. You’ve been lucky twice, and there is nothing to connect us. I guess I helped a bit in my case. I wanted to see what was really going on, so I made sure that nothing would interfere to prevent you from bringing me here. Maybe it was a bit risky, but I read you correctly.”

  I had to admit I had wondered a bit about his cooperation in the past. “And now, based on everything you’ve seen, you think we need to do something differently.”

  “I’ve seen what you have done with the technology you have available to you. Mike has set up a pretty impressive defense perimeter, and so long as the same group of aliens comes back, you should be able to defeat them. You have nothing in place to destroy the complex if it appears you are going to lose.”

  “You think it will come to that?” I asked.

  “Not at first, but we really don’t know their capabilities. I think we should be prepared to do so just in case.”

  “And that’s what the military could bring that we don’t have?” I asked doubtfully.

  His answer surprised me. “They could, but they won’t,” he said. “Assuming you could even get them here in time, the political issues that are going to surround this discovery would disallow anything that would destroy such a find. You are right about that.”

  “So I’m not sure what we have accomplished. You and I agree our best near term approach is to do just exactly what we are already doing. What do you want then?”

  “I want to participate. Just sitting here being the guy everyone has to keep an eye on is ridiculous. I’ll work for you, and won’t try to get word back. Just let me help.”

  I laughed. “Trust me,” I said. “Sorry, but I can’t do that. Not yet.”

  He started to object, but I held up my hand. “I understand, and you might well mean what you say. But we can’t count on it. What you can do, though, is make a plan. Actually make a couple of plans. I want a contact plan for the team to use in the event we do lose the first encounter and the system is cut off or occupied by the aliens. Even more important, I want a means to streamline the approach in the event we win, but find we have even bigger problems. I expect that to be the most likely scenario.”

  “Okay,” he agreed. “But any real plan would mean I would have to be a part of the group that made the initial approach. My involvement would be a significant factor in speeding up any approach.”

  I agreed. “If we get to that point, the need for secrecy will be past. I’ll have no problem with your taking the lead on the interface. Start thinking about what things will help them quickly realize there is a real threat that’s requires drastic action.”

  Mike was still waiting for my response as I reviewed the conversation in my mind. “He approached me the other day as well,” I admitted. “I asked him to do some planning, but I realized he wants a more active role.” For some reason I trusted him, but was curious how Mike felt. “Do you think it’s wise to bring him into things at this point?”

  “”I think he’s sincere,” was the response. “Besides, he can’t even get into the tunnel room with the guards posted there. And he can’t leave without access to a key. He might have some good ideas, and he is trained in combat. My vote is to use him, but then I’ve been for bringing him on board all along.”

  That simply, Jeff became the newest member of our team. At the time I didn’t realize how important his participation would become.

  Chapter 34

  Monday, 18 September 2006

  Bellingham, Washington

  I was coming up on Bellingham during my drive north out of Seattle. It was uncomfortable for me being away from the center, with the constant feeling that something important would happen while I was out of touch gnawing at my gut. But I had been in the complex or at the base since Naiya and I had returned from the Rome office, and the truth was, I really wasn’t needed there. John and his team were even moving out, with copies of the alien’s data loaded onto the alien version of a computer. There wasn’t a strong reason for them to remain in the center any longer. They could do their work in a more secure environment. Only Mike and his people would be remaining in the complex, on guard against the pending return and monitoring the progress of the new tunnels. They would inform us if anything changed.

  Meanwhile, the majority of our 21st century effort was being relocated to the Canadian facility we had set up some years before in Vancouver. Ed, our downtime base manager, would be moving up soon to take charge of the facility now that many of his team from the base had transferred there. The facility was a copy of the residence we had used so frequently outside Seattle, complete with the underground levels, but which had sat mostly idle since its construction. It was actually located just south of Port Moody, just a little north of Vancouver proper. Early on we had wanted a facility outside the United States, but readily accessible. Now, with the large numbers of people to be relocated, it would serve to house our major effort away from prying eyes. It would have been impossible to try and work at the consulting offices. Many of the people were not even associated with the business, and the lower level secure area was not designed for so many people.

  About half of the people scheduled to move to the site were already in place, along with all of the portable computers and equipment needed to work their assigned tasks. I wanted to check out the facility and see how smoothly things were running and whether any additional facilities or equipment was going to be needed, but my trip had another purpose. We wanted to move some of the larger uptime processors from the downtime base into the Canadian site. While extremely small by current standards, especially given their processing power, they were large enough that they couldn’t be hidden, and were distinctly futuristic. Any inspection of the hardware crossing the border would generate questions we didn’t want asked. It was one of the reasons we hadn’t brought any of the units across the border before this. I wanted to look at an alternate route into Canada.

  Despite all the fuss trying to patrol the borders and protect against terrorists, the simple truth is that the US and Canada have a very large common border, most of which is not patrolled. I had discovered this for myself a couple of years back on a target shooting trip. Naiya and I, along with one of my long time shooting buddies had been camping in northern Washington. One afternoon we were just driving around looking at the countryside and ended up headed north on an unmarked little country road. Without even realizing it, we had crossed over into Canada, with a pickup filled with guns and ammunition. Realizing the potential problem, we had quietly turned around and slipped back into the US, no one the wiser. But the possibility had remained in the back of my mind. Now, if the road was still open, it might be of use to us.

  Shortly after passing through Bellingham, I turned east on a smaller two lane local access road, and headed away from the ocean and Highway 5. This section of the road was still heavily traveled, and I was only one of a dozen or so vehicles, mostly pickups, headed east. A similar flow of traffic headed west where they could merge with the highway I had just left. It was a pretty September day, and I was enjoying the scenery as some of the leaves were just starting to change along the highway. Traffic moved along at 45 miles per hour, which was fine. It would take me almost an hour at this rate to reach the small country road that headed north, but it was early in the day. I figured I would cross the border in less than two hours, and then it would be only another 45 minutes to the Port Moody facility. I hoped this would work. An alternate approa
ch of slipping the computers in by sea had been suggested, but I suspected the coastline was better patrolled than these back roads.

  As I traveled inland, traffic heading my direction gradually thinned. When I approached my turn-off, I had the road to myself. It was exactly as I remembered, and I slowed before turning into the small one lane gravel road. Even though it was small, it had been well maintained allowing me to make good time. I was able to make the same speed I had been traveling on the paved road I just left. I watched open fields pass by, some with occasional horses or cattle. I didn’t see any sign of farming along the road, although there were a number of ranch houses sitting back from the road a half mile or so. I hit one long stretch where I didn’t see any houses, and then finally passed an old decaying structure I remembered that had to be over a hundred years old. I knew that I had crossed over into Canada. Thus far I hadn’t seen any sign the road was monitored, and if I could continue for another ten miles I would intersect highway 401 and be able to head back west towards the ocean. It looked like the backdoor was still open.

  Gene Burlton and Sandy Fischer greeted me when I arrived. They were in charge here, with Gene the long term overseer of the place. Gene would be acting as the number two man when Ed arrived, something that suited him fine. He was more comfortable managing the facility, not all the people who would be coming. I had talked with him frequently of late, but we hadn’t seen one another for a number of years, and then only briefly a couple of times. I knew Sandy better, having worked with her both downtime and at the main offices in Seattle. Most recently I had read the materials she had recovered outside Ottawa that documented the fate of Martin’s unfortunate expedition.

  The Port Moody facility was ideally located. Out in the countryside, and separated from other properties by more than a mile, it was located on a medium sized access road. This allowed the increased activity associated with the arrival and departure of our people to go virtually unnoticed. With vehicles and people hidden in the underground levels, the casual observer would note no differences from the quiet residence it had been for the past several years. At the same time, it was only minutes from Vancouver, which provided access to international air travel, and all of the advantages of a major city. Best of all, we were officially out of reach of the US Government, should that become an issue. Of late, the US and Canadian governments had not been as cooperative with each other as in some years past, and the official ownership of everything here was by a Canadian citizen.

  I had planned to stay the night and return the next morning by the more direct route. Just before dinner Gene came looking for me and quietly pulled me aside. “Mike wants you back at the complex,” he said quietly so no one else could hear. “He says you should head back right away. One of the tunnels has stopped.” He checked around to see if anyone seemed to be paying attention.

  I thought it an odd way to say it. “Stopped,” I asked. “You mean the tunnel is completed?” That might mean the alien’s return would be very soon.

  Gene obviously didn’t know. “He said stopped,” he responded. “It didn’t sound like he meant the process completed normally.”

  “Is there something else?” I asked.

  He shook his head.

  I couldn’t see any reason for this to be a secret from the team. In my mind it was better if everyone was fully informed. People responded better if they were kept in the loop. After making a point of getting people together and bringing them up to speed, I left with a promise to send a status update in the morning. The trip back only took a couple of hours since I followed highway 5 all the way, but it seemed much longer. I knew something would happen while I was gone. I headed directly to the complex and prayed that Naiya had come back today as planned.

  Chapter 35

  Time Complex

  Effective Date: Thursday, 21 September, 2006

  After three days we decided the change in the tunnel room had been a false alarm. No aliens had appeared. For whatever reason, the swirling lights in one of the four areas where we thought new openings were being created had simply disappeared. Examination of the area only revealed one of the slightly indented circles in the wall of the tunnel room where the lights had been seen previously. It looked exactly like the indentation that had marked the location of the closed tunnel to Carol’s home time for so many years. One question was answered however. The indented area had been one of the two tunnels that had been closed by the aliens. Not the tunnel taken by Martin and his team, but the second of the tunnels the aliens had closed. Whatever else had occurred with the termination of the light pattern, the tunnel that had once been in this location was clearly gone. A new tunnel had not been formed. It didn’t make sense that the intent had been simply to close the tunnel. Besides, Carol’s previous experience had shown that closure occurred fairly quickly. We also knew that the tunnel that Martin had taken was closed, and that section of the tunnel room was still active with the swirling light pattern.

  “Something went wrong,” John stated unequivocally. That’s what we all suspected, but it seemed his statement was based on more than just his gut feeling.

  “What do you mean?” Carol asked. She had been back since early this morning. Naiya was here as well. We had gathered all the key members, and were currently in the main meeting room at the base. Her trips had met with moderate success. Only the attempts to solve the interface to the alien network had failed to produce results. They had similar technology uptime, but not similar enough it seemed. At least she and one of John’s key hardware guys who had gone with her had been unable to find anything that helped with the problem. Unfortunate, but alternate means of processing the files and directories were being developed. The backup approach was slower, but surprising headway was being made.

  John explained. “Using the network access we have been able to use the computers in the lab to monitor the activity of the two active computers in the control area. Among other things we have found, was an active graphic that seems to be associated with each of the four new tunnel regions.”

  I had been unaware of this development as well. But the last couple of days John and his team had been isolated, and knowing this meeting was planned had put off earlier status reviews. Since the rest of us were fully occupied with the possibility of a sudden alien return, we hadn’t minded the delay.

  “I assume you have been able to translate the graphic,” Naiya asked.

  “Only part of it so far. That’s been one of the key tasks at hand. Dates have become pretty standard fare for us, and we think we know the target periods for each of the four new pathways.”

  He suddenly had everyone’s attention. If he was right we might know the periods in history that would be opened to alien manipulation, and have some idea on the possible ramifications to ourselves. The same question was on everyone’s lips, but John explained before it could be asked.

  “Since we have not yet figured out much of the graphic, our conclusions have to be considered a bit preliminary. There seems to be no other reason that each of the four graphics has a number that corresponds to dates in earth history.” He paused as if considering the best sequence to present the information, then started with the tunnel we had been discussing for the past half hour. “The failed tunnel, and I say failed because the graphics have been active since we discovered them, with several items changing. One of the four graphics went static the other day, at the same time the light pattern disappeared. Since that time the graphic has not changed at all. Several fields have shifted to display values of zero, but we have been unable to decipher the identifiers associated with the numbers. The date we extracted from the graphic for that one was about 250 years uptime from the period that Carol originally came from. That would make it a little over a thousand years uptime of us, or about 3050.”

  So whatever was intended with that one, it shouldn’t affect our current timeline, if our guesses about causality were correct, that is. I felt a bit of relief, which didn’t make sense because there wer
e three others John had yet to identify, as well as all of the existing paths, many of which could have drastic effects on the timeline as we knew it.

  “What about the others?” I asked.

  “All of the new windows are targeted at times uptime of us. Interestingly, the new tunnels appear to fill in the gap between Carol’s time and the farthest uptime period to which we have had access. We have speculated why that period was seemingly being ignored, especially when they seem very interested in the uptime window as shown by their last visit.” John looked thoughtful as he continued. “It’s also interesting that the windows seem too evenly spaced across the period, as though they are blanketing the time span so they can examine it in some way. But to answer your question, the remaining three target the periods uptime of us by 3500, 4000, and 4500 years respectively, with the existing uptime window being 5173 years ahead of us.”

  So at least their immediate interest is not likely to affect our period, I thought. Although, there were sufficient existing windows that they were free to tinker with our own history.

  Dave sat across the table next to Al. He appeared unsettled at the disclosure. “That’s not good,” he said quietly.

  Each day the translated files had served to confirm what we had suspected from the bits and pieces that had been recovered from the log books earlier. The aliens were tinkering with the timeline, changing history here and there apparently trying to achieve a specific outcome. They hadn’t been successful as yet as demonstrated by their continued efforts, but we all suspected they were looking for something in the far uptime era that had been checked during the last visit.

  “We still haven’t found anything that sheds light on why they are doing this,” Dave added. “But we all know by now that what they are doing must be stopped. They have documented quite well specifics of actions they have taken. Every day John’s team brings us additional files from their records. We have so many we can only scan them for now, hoping to find a key bit here and there. We have seen many alternate histories changed by their actions in the past. We now know they are getting desperate.”