Timelines

by Bob Blink

  From the reaction of Agent Finney I had expected something like this. I was surprised he had been allowed to come. He was a distraction to their efforts to learn about our facility. I said as much.

  Jeff agreed. “There were a number of objections raised against allowing him to come for just that reason. The military wanted to see first hand if the threat you claimed was real. Then they could see how to proceed. The president insisted. Political posturing. He explained that the FBI was to observe only. We would decide later what charges, if any were applicable.”

  So, when this was over, if we survived, some of us were going to have to deal with that problem as well.

  “Why a bunch of colonels?” Carol asked. ‘Why not send the decision makers?”

  “More politics. They don’t work that way. Despite the strength of your evidence, they wanted their own people to see for themselves. Then, the generals could react without fear of possible political embarrassment. Can you imagine what it would do to a career if it came out the top generals came running out to witness a hoax?”

  “I got the sense most of them were mostly interested in how they could take over operational control,” I said. “I’m not sure the magnitude of the problem impressed them. I had hoped they would have the foresight to see the risk of not destroying this place before the aliens can return.”

  “Your concern about the lure of this place was well founded. From the few meetings I was allowed to sit in on, there was a great deal of speculation about the technology that could be gleaned if everything you stated was real. My boss even indicated the president was loath to destroy the facility. He told me he could see the politicians were already seeing the implications of controlling such a device. Especially if the progress you had been making would lead to being able to control the times that could be accessed.”

  I wasn’t surprised. We had expected this from the beginning. All of history showed that politicians would take almost any risk to maintain their power base. The primary goal of any politician is to stay in power. Everything else is secondary. “Did any of them see the real threat?”

  “My boss understands,” Jeff explained. “But it’s not clear how much influence he will have in the final decision. It’s not the kind of thing our organization often gets involved with. He is also not that close to the president. They have disagreed on several key issues already. That’s not good politically. I know that Colonel Sanderson of the Air Force seemed to be leaning in your direction. Colonel Spangler of the Marines has been against you since before he got here. You didn’t make a friend of him while he was here either. I really don’t know about the others. Hopefully my boss will be in on the discussions and will feed back information to me.”

  “So you don’t think there is much chance they will deliver?” Carol asked dejectedly.

  “I have my doubts. Maybe the reality of the situation came through. My boss was convinced. Maybe reason will win out. However, I recommend you approach any offer for help with caution. The prevailing attitude before was to find a way to wrestle this place from your control. Then they would see about the alien threat. It’s hard for them to evaluate the threat properly. They see that a group of scientists were able to stop the aliens already. That’s makes it hard to admit the military couldn’t do better.”

  Jeff had been brutally honest with us. The knowledge was sobering. It was hard for us to see anything but the extreme danger that was approaching. Why others might not see the same was hard to fathom. We might have to face the fact we wouldn’t be getting the support we had sought. We might even face hindrance from these same people. They knew where the entrance was now. Even though we could keep them out, they could just as easily make it impossible for us to use the home entrance any more. It was a bad way to end the meeting, but no one had anything else to add.

  Chapter 52

  Time Complex

  52000 BC

  [Seattle Time: Thursday, 5 October 2006]

  Carol had been moody all morning. It wasn’t hard to figure out why. The central passion that had occupied all of our lives was all coming to an end, no matter how things actually played out. I guess we had known it had to happen eventually. After years of little or no progress we had fallen into a pattern of day-to-day activity, and it had seemed we had years of experiences still ahead of us. Then suddenly, events had progressed swiftly to where we were now. Maybe we each had held an unrealistic vision in the back of our minds. We would find the ‘Builders’, set things right, and somehow unlock the secrets of the device and have it to use as our private toy, tool, or study device for the rest of our lives. That wasn’t going to happen. We had two to three weeks left. Then it would all end.

  There were still many questions left unanswered. It would probably take years to sort through all of the materials we had stripped from the complex and from the ship. Maybe we would never figure it out. I think that possibility bothers me most. There are also the many strange devices we have taken that remain a mystery. Most of them we haven’t a clue how to activate or what they might do. Even if we figure many of them out, their usefulness might be lost without access to the complex. We would continue to try. Despite what we had learned, the major question still remains unanswered. Why? Why were the aliens doing this? But it is beginning to look like there will be no more input. We had everything the ship and the complex contained. We would have to make do with the clues already in our possession.

  The materials had been spread through several time eras, with the largest collections in our home time and in the Roman Era with Dave’s large team. A smaller group still remained in 1877, but the other offices were closed down. The teams would continue to study the materials in hopes of finding an answer. They would leave behind the hidden messages once access to the tunnels was lost. Canada had become the center for our activity in the present time. The United States was going to be a bit unfriendly for us in the near term. If it wasn’t so hard, we would probably move even further away. Everything from the consulting office closed area had been secretly packed up and shipped off to the private facility outside Vancouver during the past couple of weeks. We knew we would be bringing too much attention down on ourselves once we brought in the government, and much of the information and devices we weren’t yet ready to hand over to someone else. Added to the concern were the insights from Jeff. The key players from our group were at risk for past events from various groups within the government. We have some ideas there, but it remains to be seen how they would work out.

  One of the hardest things we had yet to face was going to be the people. The time had come to choose. Many had made their choices some time ago, but this time it was probably going to be final. Where, or rather when, did they want to spend the rest of their lives? Most stayed with the choices they had made a few weeks ago prior to the alien’s arrival. A surprising number didn’t want to come back to the 21st century. Dave’s group was going to be the largest by far, and a significant number were staying in the post Civil War era. Even though we closed the smaller offices, some of those people were remaining in the periods they had lived the past few years.

  The people that elected to come home did so a couple weeks ago before the government knew about our secret location. Most would be able to integrate themselves back into society without worry of harassment from the government. They had been below the radar all the time they were with us. Many had been part-time support, or officially listed on jobs in foreign locations. Our records wouldn’t be available to give them away. They would be financially set for life. They would also be a private resource should we need them along the way. Perhaps a dozen of us would face a more difficult time because the government now knows who we are. Some have discussed choosing another time just to avoid the possible issues we would be facing. Naiya and I talked about it as well. After all, the time where Dave has his group is the time from which she originally came. She has become used to our way of life and doesn’t want to give up the modern conveniences. So we will stay and take
our chances.

  But all these people and places are going to be forever lost to us. We would never again be able to be with these people who have been at the center of our lives for so long. It doesn’t matter if we simply damage the complex severely, manage to totally destroy it with the help of the military, or lose it back to the aliens. Our access would be lost, and with it the people and places that have been so much a part of our lives. Along with them would be a large part of the purpose that has driven our lives for so long.

  So I understood some of what was bothering Carol. I think she had an added weight that the rest of us didn’t fully appreciate. She never did learn exactly what had happened to her brother. She knew he must be dead, but why and just where they took him has never been answered. She was also more torn than the rest of us where to settle down. She has spent as much time uptime as she has with us. Living a double life, she must now sacrifice one of those existences. I wished I knew a way to make it easier. Naiya had talked privately a lot with her the last couple of days.

  The lack of activities inside the complex also made it hard. Being busy had kept our minds off the situation for a long time. Now, however, we were mostly finished, and simply waiting to hear. John was off uptime a few years working on a special task. He would be back sometime tomorrow. Al and one or two of his team were still working on something at the base. We seldom saw them. He hadn’t yet indicated when his group would be leaving. His best estimate on the arrival of the alien ship had been updated for us the evening before. We had only seventeen more days. He had provided a graph we could use to keep track of the alien’s progress, so it wouldn’t be hard to see if the timeline changed. I knew he would be checking daily as well.

  A long meeting with Dave had outlined the magnitude of the task ahead of his team, and the other groups sorting through the documents. We had made a division of responsibilities, but the tera-bytes of files that had been translated into English represented years of effort, no matter how one split it up. He had left a short time ago for his own era. We had promised to try and make it downtime for one last feast. No matter how much fun it would be, I knew it would leave us all melancholy. That would be the last time.

  Preparations have been made to do as much damage to the complex as we are able, just in case the military decides against helping. We have stripped as much hardware from the facility as we can. In addition, all of the computers, displays and internal data network are being wired with the strongest explosives we could gather. The long walkway leading to the airlock has already been fitted with a special shaped charge that rings the walkway. It might be strong enough to cut through, separating the lock and exposing the complex to vacuum. Then again, it might not. We have had poor results with tests made on the thicker samples of the alien steel. It’s really remarkable stuff.

  We also have plans for a similar explosive in the power room. Al was able to identify the components that carry the incredible heat from the equipment off to the radiators. If we can damage those components, the heat generated may do further damage. All of the explosives will be wired to a common detonator. The delay is only about sixty seconds, and it will be located adjacent to the tunnel that takes us home. Last man out will trigger the timer. The work should be done in a couple more days. Then we will have nothing to do but wait. We have no way of knowing if the damage will be sufficient. It’s the best we can do unless we get the nuclear devices we requested. Given more time we might be able to find something better in the periods recently opened up by the aliens. Unfortunately, the cultures in those periods are increasingly strange, and would take us longer than we have available to learn our way about. We have abandoned any hope of finding solutions there.

  Thought was also given to trying to damage the external components that ring each of the tunnels outside the station. It would be a difficult undertaking. We have suits capable of working outside the station, but we have no experience doing so. The tunnels would have to be shut down first. We think we might be able to do that, but not selectively. It would mean a power fault that would shut them all down. That means the tunnel home as well. The team that stayed to try and plant the explosives would be trapped on the station. It would be a suicide mission. Several had volunteered, but we haven’t agreed. Maybe if the military gave us an official turn-down we would think more about it.

  The complex was too quiet, as was the downtime base. It was clearly getting on our nerves. We had to stay until we knew for sure. Besides, we wanted to track the aliens and be certain they actually did return. Still, another two weeks of this waiting around was going to be difficult. Other than Carol, Naiya, Al, his assistant, and myself, only Mike and his small team of defenders remained. Then I remembered Doc was still here, but he was leaving a bit later in the day. He wanted to follow through on a few things first.

  I checked my watch. Good, it was almost noon. The three of us had a lunch scheduled with Jeff and it was time for him to be arriving. Maybe he had some news. It had been more than two days since the group had left for Washington, and we still hadn’t heard a thing. No news is good news my brother used to say. Now I wasn’t so sure. We would have liked to get out, perhaps a run into town. We decided it wouldn’t be wise. When we considered the possibilities it didn’t seem beyond reason that if the three of us were together outside the complex an attempt might be made to grab us. They might try and use us as a lever to gain access. It depended on what they had decided. So we stayed put. Jeff would have to come to us.

  Naiya and I met him at the tunnel entrance. He hurried up the trail where we waited. Something in his step indicated events had changed. It must be that Washington had finally taken action. I was right. He had heard from his boss just this morning and had been anxious for this meeting so he could pass the newest developments along.

  “They have agreed to provide the bombs,” he told us as soon as we got inside and Carol was with us to hear the important development. He was personally surprised. His guess had been they would refuse, hoping we would give in when our options fell through and allow them inside to deal with the threat as the backup option. His boss had indicated his own surprise at the decision when he talked with Jeff earlier.

  Apparently there had been almost continuous meetings back in Washington. His boss had been a participant in some of them, but not all. We could almost guess the division between those that supported our stand and those who opposed. If nothing else the visit had convinced all of them that what we claimed was real. We indeed had a working time device, and the aliens we claimed as a threat were real. The assessment of the severity of the threat differed depending on who was doing the reporting.

  “They are unhappy about destroying the complex,” Jeff explained between bites of his lunch. “Now that they are convinced what you have is real, they would like a chance of examining it in detail rather than losing it all. According to my boss there has been a real battle on how they can salvage as much as possible. At least one of the groups has been trying to make the case that it wouldn’t be necessary to destroy the complex at all. They feel the aliens could be defended against. That of course, is what the president’s group would like to hear.”

  “I hope they carried back the message that we aren’t willing to allow them free access to the complex.”

  “That’s been one of the issues. You aren’t very popular with the powers that be right now. They are not used to being given ultimatums. Whatever they offer you, I would be prepared for repercussions when this is over. Once you lose the bargaining chip represented by the complex, they aren’t going to forget how you have handled all this.”

  He hesitated. “You might want to slip into one of the other times. Deciding to try and live in this time might not be wise.”

  “We’ve talked about that,” admitted Naiya. “But there is more to do and we prefer to try and stay. We have a couple of ideas that might change the situation.”

  “They know about the revised time for the alien’s arrival?” Carol asked.

&
nbsp; “That’s what seems to have pushed them to accept your request,” he answered. I noticed he used the polite term. I would have said demand. Maybe Jeff had spent too much time in Washington.

  “So how is this going to work?” I asked. “Who is going to be our interface, and when should we start expecting the arrival of the devices.”

  “The Air Force was put in charge,” Jeff explained. “They have decided that some continuity would be best, so the colonel you met will be your interface. He will be reporting back to a General Colter. My boss knows him. He has mixed feelings about the man. He feels he is a little too much by the book. Not especially flexible. That shouldn’t be an issue in this case, but it is something to remember. Anyway, Colonel Sanderson will be back here in two days with his advanced team. They have some preparations to make before the weapons themselves arrive.”

  “When do we expect the weapons?” I asked. “And what kind of preparations?”

  “I’m told the weapons will be here in three to five days. They aren’t something that we have just laying around. Especially the size of devices you have been asking for. Despite what the public thinks, most of the nuclear devices are considerably smaller than a megaton yield. I’ll know more when I get back to Washington, and will give you an update.”