Timelines

by Bob Blink

  Next came Colonel Mort Thompson of the Army. Another officer with years of combat experience. He was older than Colonel Spangler, but with a full head of hair, now mostly gray. His brown eyes held mostly curiosity and a quiet assessment of me as we were introduced. I sensed he was gathering intel. Decisions would wait until he knew more. This man I wanted to get to know. I suspected his was the service that would best fulfill the mission I thought was required.

  The FBI’s Morton Finney didn’t disappoint me. Standing all of five foot seven, he was as caustic as I expected, and I knew he and I were going to have problems. I almost expected him to whip out his handcuffs and little snub nose revolver and place me under arrest on the spot. Instead, he shook my hand, watching me for any wrong moves with his mean little eyes. He wasn’t interested in anything other than payback for the embarrassment resulting from a number of past events he now knew I had to be responsible for.

  After Finney, Jeff introduced me to another army officer. This one, a Colonel Jed Wilson, was harder to read. His intelligent blue eyes seemed to take in everything about me in a glance. I had seen him watching the others as they were introduced to me, judging the reactions of each. His uniform was more subdued as well. A senior officer, he had the minimum of metals pinned to his chest. I suspected he might have the right to wear more, but he didn’t seem to feel the need. We talked only briefly, but I could sense his interest. Afterwards he walked across the room, rather than moving over where the others were gathering.

  Captain William Bartlett of the Navy was next. Balding, and a bit overweight, the Navy Captain was a confident, but older leader. I sensed he was good with people. He would be concerned with those in his command, and comfortable with his abilities. I would have expected him to be a higher rank given his age. I suspected a story there somewhere.

  Finally came Colonel Charles Sanderson of the Air Force. Grey eyed and a bit abrupt, he also made it clear that he would most likely represent the government in this task. The Air Force had the responsibility for all things space, and having learned that the complex was located in orbit had settled the issue in his mind. The fact that time, rather than space travel, was the primary function of the device, and that the orbit was around a future earth didn’t change the logic in his mind. Maybe he was correct. The problem was about aliens, and they were from space after all. I hoped that the Air Force wouldn’t be the primary interface, or at least he wouldn’t be involved. I could tell he and I wouldn’t work well together.

  A table had been set up in the large living room. It was a makeshift conference room at best, but I wanted to meet with these people before we made the trip out to the complex. Once everyone was seated, I went through the usual meaningless welcoming introductory remarks that they were used to in these kind of circumstances. It wasn’t difficult. I had chaired dozens of meetings in my role as a consultant over the years.

  “It’s just you?” broke in Finney. “I thought the rest of your leadership team would be here as well?”

  “You’ll meet them in a little while. There didn’t seem to be much reason to bring everyone out here when we will be headed back to the time complex in a bit. I just wanted to answer some initial questions and prepare you for what you are going to see. I suspect Major Cohen here has pretty much prepped you anyway.”

  “This is an impressive little place you have here,” said Colonel Wilson. “I can see why you have managed to keep things below the radar for as long as you have. I’m told we will be staying here for the night? Why not inside the complex?”

  There were a couple of reasons why we didn’t want them inside all night, but I told him the reason that was most politically acceptable, and which would make the most sense to them. “There are no facilities inside the complex itself. We have room at the base, but I assumed each of you might want to be able to contact your respective organizations to discuss what you see today. Communications wouldn’t be possible from the base.”

  “When you reference this base, you are referring to the facility that is supposedly some thousands of years in the past?”

  “That’s correct,” I agreed. “We will be going there as well as to a couple of other eras.” For today you will have to take my word about the dating of the base. There isn’t much to provide a date reference. Later, we can show you or your representatives how we know the time in which it is located. A couple of the other stops will be considerably more obvious.”

  “The base is where you held Major Cohen against his will?” piped in Finney. I hadn’t misjudged him at all. He was already worrying about the wrong thing.

  “That’s correct,” I agreed, hoping to derail him before we got onto the wrong issues this early.

  “I’m assuming that’s where you held Kurt Morris after kidnapping him as well. You and your people have been responsible for quite a number of violations along the way. How do you expect to justify your actions?”

  There were several ways I could have handled this, but I wasn’t in the mood. I was still tired and Mr. FBI needed to get off the subject.

  “I don’t,” I stated bluntly looking directly at him. “I have no intention of discussing those events, nor any of the dozens of other crimes your organization might feel we have committed over the years. If that’s what this is about, then arrest me and forget the rest of this meeting. However, you should realize, if that’s the course you want to follow, all of you might as well start for home now. You won’t be able to access the complex. You might know where the entrance is, but the way we have things set up now it doesn’t open without help from the inside.”

  A lie, but I was hoping that Jeff didn’t know about the keys, or if he did hadn’t told them about them.

  For the first time in many years I didn’t have my key with me. Another precaution. I left it inside the complex. If they took me, they wouldn’t have any help getting inside. If everything went as planned, I would connect with someone at the complex when we arrived.

  Still trying to push his threat, Finney tried another tack. “You realize your actions could result in the confiscation of your business. The company you and your partner have run while engaging in these illegal activities would be forfeit.”

  I smiled at him. His was a meaningless threat. Even without the risk from the aliens, it was an idle threat. Money wasn’t an issue. I let him know just how shaky the approach he was taking really was. “What business?” I asked innocently. “You mean the Epoch, consulting firm Carol and I work for?”

  “Own,” he insisted.

  “Work for,” I corrected a second time. “If you check closely, the firm is totally owned by the employees. Carol and I don’t have even one percent of ownership.”

  This was true. Now. We had a long time ago worked with some very expensive and clever lawyers. There are some. Papers transferring ownership were signed at the beginning of each year. They just weren’t filed. The people hadn’t been told. At the end of the year, the papers were destroyed, and a new set prepared. Since the papers hadn’t been filed, the ownership had stayed under our control. The employees hadn’t owned anything during the year, so were not liable for reporting such. This year had been different. When we had seen how things were going, we had filed the papers. The company was no longer ours. The people would learn of it later in the year. Fifty percent had been split between six of the primary leaders of the firm. The remaining fifty percent would be split among the rest with a scale based on years of participation. All would be well off, some rich. We felt we owed them that much. We had done the same with other holdings. None of the people involved in the project had received anything from the transfer. That kept it clean. Money wasn’t a problem for the team anyway. We had essentially unlimited funds secured elsewhere.

  “You can still be imprisoned for many years,” Finney continued. “Some of the crimes we are talking about have life sentences associated with them.”

  I was getting tired of this nonsense. “You mean like having one of your agents kill the man he was
supposed to be protecting; or in Kurt’s case locating? How is that going to look when it comes up in a trial? Major Cohen was there. He will testify how Kurt was working with me, and how the NSG agents were the ones committing the crimes.”

  Finney wasn’t happy with my accusations or with me, even if technically they weren’t his agents, and had to try and flex his muscles. “Even if true, that doesn’t give you any protection from. . . . . .”

  “Finney, shut up,” crackled a commanding voice from down the table. Colonel Sanderson had run out of patience. I thought I saw a fleeting smile cross the face of Colonel Wilson across from me, but maybe I was mistaken.

  Finney clamped his mouth shut automatically. He looked down the table where Sanderson sat, but before he could say anything Sanderson continued. “I’m sorry, Crampton, but he was told to can it before we got here. He and his boss are not happy with your people. We were directed to bring them along, but if he says another word on this topic I will personally have him barred from any further meetings.”

  I wasn’t sure he had the authority. It would imply he was in charge and I could tell the others didn’t accept that. Finney wasn’t sure either, and chose to drop it for now. I shot him a nasty smile, and continued. It took about a half hour to brief them on the history, the status of the alien visit, and the places we would be visiting. Then it was time to head for the complex and our appointment with the rest of the team.

  It didn’t take long to drive the few miles to the tunnel entrance. With everyone out of the cars, I led them up the inclined trail and into the cave. A couple of our people were waiting, and they kept watch outside while I escorted the group inside. I wanted them to get a look around while the tunnel was shut down. They needed to understand it was a dead end without our help. I showed them the wall through which the tunnel would project when activated, and let them explore. It didn’t take them long to see there wasn’t much here. While they were doing their looking around, I walked back to the cave opening and talked to Fred, who was one of the couriers. He slipped me my key, and I moved back inside.

  I had everyone join me, and then moved forward toward the wall that I had just told them held the tunnel to the complex. I made some hand motions as though I was signaling someone. It was showmanship, and I didn’t know if I pulled it off, but if they thought someone inside could see us and decide whether to open the pathway, so much the better. While I was signaling, I slipped forward just enough to place the key in range of the automatic sensors. Even I was impressed as the tunnel entrance appeared.

  “My God!” someone muttered. “It is real.”

  I indicated they should follow and stepped forward into the tunnel entrance. Somewhat nervously, they followed me inside.

  As we emerged into the tunnel room, I explained where they were. This should have been fully covered by the video that Jeff had taken for his briefing, but I knew seeing it could be overwhelming the first time. The group looked around them, noting the tunnels spaced around the room. They weren’t that impressive until you knew what they could do. I could tell they weren’t particularly awed by the sight. I knew they would feel differently before the day was over. With no need to hide our presence in the complex, signs had been added above each of the tunnels indicating their time destination. It was mostly more showmanship, but made locating the target tunnel a bit simpler. If we were to have new people in the complex soon, it made sense. As we emerged from the tunnel and started across the room, we passed the tunnel labeled ‘Rome Office – 150 AD’.

  “Rome?” asked the Navy Captain.

  “We have a more or less permanent facility back in the Roman Empire period,” I explained. “It’s one of the places we will be visiting today. Initially we were attempting to track down signs of the aliens, but later it seemed to make sense to have people spread through history just in case. It’s one of several facilities we have set up. The base is so far back it’s completely cut off from civilization.”

  I noticed that both Army colonels were more interested in the mounted laser and the two men with alien rifles we had stationed around the tunnel back to 1877. I explained. “We have one alien loose after the encounter. He slipped back through that tunnel while the battle was in progress. This is just a precaution against his trying to slip back into the complex. We have the tunnel rigged with a variety of sensors that would detect anyone or anything trying to get back in for additional warning. We also have a team deployed in the era looking for sign of the creature. They are also armed with a couple of those stubby rifles.”

  “And I suppose those are the weapons you have taken from the aliens?” asked the marine colonel.

  “The alien weapons and the laser are the only weapons we have tried that seem to work against them. Normal rifles are not of much use.”

  “I thought you had two of the aliens slip away from you?” Finney queried.

  “The second alien slipped into the tunnel up ahead. He has since been tracked down and killed by my wife and another of our people. That’s why she is in the hospital. The other man was killed in the encounter.”

  We had reached the tunnel in question, and given the conversation I decided I might as well explain the uniqueness of this particular tunnel. Pausing, so the entire group bunched up in front of the tunnel, I began.

  “This is where the alien escaped. I think Jeff explained that after the alien slipped away, my wife and a man named Dix followed. Shortly afterwards, the tunnel closed behind them. We thought that was it. They were gone. We have no knowledge of how to open tunnels, and the little exposure we have with the aliens actions to open them indicates to us that it takes weeks to establish a new pathway.”

  I could see Jeff was particularly interested in what I was saying. The others were waiting to see where I was going. “The short of it is we learned that this particular tunnel is not like any of the others in this room. It doesn’t take us to another time. It simply takes us to the surface of the planet below us. A form of teleportation if you will. The time through this tunnel is the same as the time in the complex. That also helped us date the time in which this facility exists. Incidentally, that’s what ultimately allowed us to reopen it and rescue our people.”

  “So what year is it here inside the complex?” asked the army colonel with the understated uniform.

  “Oh. I’m sorry. Gentlemen, welcome to 7179 AD! You are now roughly five thousand years in the future, or uptime as we like to say.”

  “That’s a little hard to believe,” was the reply that came back. “We didn’t experience anything coming through that pathway to indicate we had traveled somehow. You say we are in-orbit. Can you demonstrate that?”

  “I realize from the little you have seen so far it seems a bit hard to accept. Give us a couple of hours to take you through all of this step by step.”

  The tunnel room was the least impressive part of the complex, and I knew I had to get them upstairs and start showing them something that would make it all real. I took them up the ramp to the control area where Carol was waiting. After introductions we began the tour in earnest. Starting with the control area, we explained generally what the equipment functions were. Colonel Wilson was particularly interested in the large display when we explained our belief it showed the presence of other alien facilities around other stars and the small box that represented the alien mother ship we expected to return in a couple of months. Then we took them over to the alien ship. That’s when it started to become real for them. It was hard to deny what they could see when looking through the view ports to the planet below.

  After spending more than an hour in the ship itself, and explaining as much as we could, we returned to the complex where we completed the tour of the facility. There was a lot of interest in the hallway where the battle had taken place. They examined the walls for marks and damage, finding it a bit difficult to correlate the state of the corridor with the films they had seen of the encounter.

  “You can see how ruggedly constructed this thing is,�
�� I commented when they had completed their investigation.

  Two of the men were interested in making a tour outside the facility, and I promised to set it up for them the following day. We now had a larger number of the protective suits. Then it was time to take them through a couple of the tunnels.

  We visited the downtime base first. Jeff saw a couple of old friends and the rest were a bit surprised at the extent of the facility we had built. We showed them some of the equipment explaining much of it came from uptime. That raised a number of questions, many which we didn’t have answers to, or didn’t want to pass out too freely. I still wasn’t sure what might cause changes and ideas these men carried back might find their way into the timeline.

  They met Naiya, who was doing much better. I might have bypassed the introductions, but we needed to go to the lab so we could show them the remains of the aliens. The lab and hospital were adjacent, and Doc indicated that she was awake and doing great. She wouldn’t suffer from a few minutes conversation. I wanted them to meet her for several reasons. She was one of the key people on our team, but was also one of the two people from other times. I had explained the uniqueness of both Carol and herself. I also wanted Naiya to meet them. I would value her thoughts afterward.