“I guess I’ve been preoccupied with the Triangle since I got it. Besides—” he shrugged “—what is so great about Hawaii?”
“Hey, if you don’t know, telling you wouldn’t make a difference—” she rolled her eyes “—how long have you been here?”
“Five years.”
She stared out at the endless water before them. “You’ve been looking for this evidence for that long?”
“No, I just hung out in the Bahamas for the first four years. I guess I was trying to find myself—” he paused “—I didn’t believe in any of the stories back then.”
Her interest piqued. “What changed your mind?”
He cleared his throat. “A friend of mine told me about an experience he had here, and I trust him. I had to find out why.”
She nodded her understanding. “Okay …so you just decided to go out and solve one of the biggest mysteries in the world?”
He was silent, and then said, “Actually, at first, I think I was just hoping that the sea would just swallow me up somehow.”
He didn’t say anything more, and she turned to face him, “What do you mean?”
“I went through a bad divorce, and then my parents died. After that, I felt as if I had no purpose in life. I guess, I just thought, for a while anyway, I …” he left his sentence hanging.
She waited to see if he would continue. When he didn’t, she changed the subject, “Do you have any kids?”
“I did,” he said quietly.
For a while, they sat in an awkward silence. Finally, she asked, “Do you think Stewart will still be angry?”
“I have no idea. I haven’t known him that long, but we are friends. I’m really surprised by his behavior—” he looked away sadly “—I really don’t understand why he just walked off that way.”
“Maybe—” she said hesitantly “—his reaction wasn’t that strange.”
“Why do say that?” He stared out at the water without speaking.
“Well—” she took a deep breath and averted her eyes “—we didn’t make it very easy for him, no warning or anything.”
When he finally spoke, his tone held strong regret, “I suppose you are right. I guess I thought his jealous act was a little funny, but I would probably have been angry too. I am surprised that you always seem to be defending him though. I don’t think he has been very nice to you.”
“People have their reasons. Please try not to be angry with him for that—” she said quietly “—I’m sure he was genuinely trying to protect you.”
He stared at her, confused. “Why would he ever think he needed to protect me from you?”
She broke the lock he had on her eyes, and turned to away.
When she didn’t answer, he prompted, “Ashlyn?”
“Don’t worry; I’m sure things will be fine after we get back.”
“I hope so—” he clinched his jaw “—I truly …hope so.
***
On the second day of their return trip, when they were still about seventy-five miles from their destination, storm clouds began to gather.
“So much for the clear skies—” Ashlyn looked up “—do you think we’ll have bad weather?” It was almost dark.
“Maybe some rain but …” he drifted off as he studied the sky. The clouds were oddly shaped and seemed to be swirling a bit. He glanced down at the instruments and then at Ashlyn. “We may get lucky after all,” he grinned at her.
“What? I’m confused.”
“Look at the compass.”
She focused on the spinning needle, and then she understood.
“Honestly—” she shook her head “—the rest of the world freaks out when their instruments stop working, and you are excited. I know this is what you are researching and all, but are you sure we are safe?”
“Well …,” he shrugged, but didn’t finish.
“Oh great—” she punched him in the arm playfully “—you are supposed to lie to me if you don’t know.”
He cocked his head and thought about it for a minute. “There have been literally hundreds of reported missing boats and planes. Maybe we will disappear—” he made a ghostly sound “—Ooh ooh!”
“You are mocking me, sir,” she accused him.
“Me? I’m hurt—” he laughed “—you said that if I didn’t know that I should just lie to you.”
She rolled her eyes, “Ha ha—wrong kind of lie.”
He dropped the anchor. “I’ve been looking for a year and have found some anomalous electromagnetic readings in a few places, but this is the first time that I, myself, have actually had any kind of weird experience out here.”
He examined her; she was beginning to look ill. I can’t believe that she isn’t excited about this—sometimes he had trouble understanding people.
“We will be okay,” he promised.
He pulled her close to him and she didn’t resist. Suddenly, there was an odd, electric feeling in the air.
Mark let go of her gently. “I’ve got to get some readings.”
He ran down the stairs quickly and started flipping switches on recording devices. When he came back up, she was in the pilothouse.
“Are you alright,” he asked, just as all the power shut off.
It was fully dark now, partly from the lateness of the evening, and partly from the weird clouds. Neither one of them said anything; they just stood there.
She followed him up the stairs to the flybridge. The stars were entirely obscured.
“Can we go back inside?” she asked quietly.
“Are you scared?” his voice was gentle.
“Sorry—” she nodded and buried her face against his chest “—I am a little, but …I’m kind of cold too.”
There was a slight chill in the air—it hadn’t been there before.
“Come on.”
He took her hand as they made their way down the darkened staircase; first to the pilothouse, then down to the aft deck, and then into the salon. He had a flashlight, but apparently, the batteries were dead. He fumbled in the darkness for another one, which he knew would be in the cabinet under the desk with the telephone.
“Here it is—” his relief turned to confusion “—It’s dead too.”
“What could cause this?” she asked, worried.
“An EMP maybe—” he didn’t sound convinced “—I doubt that would explain the batteries though.”
“I’m not sure what that is,” she said honestly.
It had become so dark that he could not see her at all even though she was standing next to him. The blackness around them was becoming almost palpable.
“An EMP is an electromagnetic pulse—” he explained “—it happens after nuclear blasts and other things like that.”
Alarmed, she asked, “Do you think someone set off a nuclear bomb?”
He regretted his example choice, and quickly replied, “No, that’s only one thing that can cause it. A sudden change in the magnetic field around the Earth, like from a solar flare, can cause things like this but—” he paused “—I don’t think that this is related to that. I know that the Aurora the other night was because of space weather, still …,” he trailed off.
Perplexed, she asked, “Why don’t you think they are related.”
He was contemplative for a while, and then he said, “People have been experiencing weird events here throughout recorded history. Solar flares couldn’t be that specific. The solar wind they create would hit a huge part of the Earth, not a specific spot in the ocean repeatedly.”
“What else do you think it could be?”
“There are some odd magnetic rock formations in the area, which I have measured, but if they were the cause then it seems like the weird experiences people had would always happen in consistent locations. There must be some kind of random flux in the magnetosphere.”
“You’re kind of losing me,” she apologized.
“Sorry, I read a report a while back on the NASA Web site about a tare opening up in the magn
etic field around the Earth. They only picked it up because of an orbiting satellite, which was in the right place at the right time. I really can’t remember the details, except that it was something that they had previously believed to be impossible. There are many things about electromagnetism and gravity that we don’t understand.”
“I guess all that fancy equipment won’t be of any use in recording this.”
“Yeah, I just hope my stuff isn’t fried. If it is some kind of an EMP, it could ruin everything electrical. All the circuits on my ship are set up with specialized EMP protective devices, which should, in theory, automatically reboot after about thirty minutes, but we won’t know until we get power back.”
“What if—” a worried expression crossed her face “—we don’t?”
“Don’t what?” he asked, confused.
“Get power back,” she asked, the fear in her voice more pronounced now.
“I’m sure we will be fine—” he put his arm around her and guided her out to the aft deck “—just because we don’t understand what’s happening doesn’t mean it’s unnatural.” They sat down on the sofa, and he held her closely.
“I’m not sure how you can say that—” she leaned her forehead against his neck “—this seems really unnatural to me.”
The darkness around them began to turn into a mist with a faint greenish glow, and even though the boat was anchored, it felt as if they were slowly beginning to spin.
“People used to think the Earth was flat—” he smiled “—things that appear to be unnatural are really only natural occurrences that we don’t understand yet.”
“I suppose that could be. Do you see that weird green fog or am I just …?” She didn’t finish her statement because even while she was asking, it grew brighter.
“Let’s go up on the flybridge”—he looked excited—“so we can see if it’s all around us.”
“I think you’re crazy. I want to get out of here. Right now”—she shook her head—“I’m wishing this boat had sails instead of motors.”
“If you want”—he grinned—“I can get out and push.”
“You really aren’t scared at all—” she stared at him “—are you?”
“No—” he paused “—I guess I haven’t felt as if I have had anything to lose for a long time.”
“You said before—” she hesitated “—that you had kids, past tense. What happened?”
He genuinely didn’t want to talk about it, but he answered anyway, “I had two boys”—he looked away—“twins. Our dog ran out onto a frozen lake. The boys ran after it.”
“I tried to stop them—” his voice broke slightly, and he waited for control before continuing “—but I couldn’t get them out when the ice broke. There was a current in the water and …,” his voice trailed off. There was no need to finish.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to bring up such a painful subject. I didn’t know. I thought—” she shrugged “—you meant they were with your ex-wife or something.”
“Our marriage fell apart after that. We just couldn’t”—he shook his head—“stop blaming ourselves and each other.”
“That’s why”—she asked hesitantly—“you wanted the sea to take you, some kind of atonement for what happened?”
“I guess so …I’m going up there”—he stood up—“do you want to come with me or not?”
“I guess I’m coming. I don’t want to stay here”—she shuddered—“alone.”
They went up to the flybridge. It was much easier to find their way with the odd greenish glow of the mist surrounding them.
“Look”—he pointed at the water—“the boat is definitely spinning, albeit slowly.”
“Thank goodness,” she said.
He shot her a confused glance.
“I was worried that I”—she grinned—“was just crazy.”
They both laughed at that, and then just as light began to appear from the east and the green mist vanished. The power came back on. Everything appeared to be normal except that the sun was rising. They both stared at the sunrise, confused. It was evening, or it was supposed to be. The sun had just set when the clouds had come. It could not have been more than a half hour, and yet it appeared to be morning.
She studied her watch. It was flashing from being powered off. “Mark?”
Seeing her expression, he looked at his watch. While it was digital, and flashing like hers, it also had a 24-hour mechanical dial. His eyebrows lifted when he saw the time. Sunset had been about 6:30 pm., so it had been fully dark at about 7:00, about the time the power went off.
“Look at this.” He sounded as if he were a kid in a candy store. The hands were pointing at 1932 military time, or 7:32 pm.
She stared at the dial for longer than necessary then looked at him, exasperated. “But it’s clearly morning …How can this be …?” she drifted off.
Clearly having more fun than she was, he just shrugged but could not wipe the smile from his face.
“Well, it is theoretically possible to create faster than light travel safely. If you could produce an anti-mass area with exotic particles repelling—” he paused and admitted “—I don’t have any ideas actually.”
“At least I understood your last sentence.” She cocked her head and smiled.
He thought for a few moments and then said, “Quantum physics definitely predicts the existence of natural occurrences that could bend space-time.”
“You mean like a black hole—” her expression was doubtful “—wouldn’t that kill us?”
“Well a black hole would for sure”—he nodded—“but a wormhole might not.”
“I thought those were only science fiction.”
He was staring at nothing, and then regarded her seriously. “Science fiction is often based on scientific theory; much of that turns out to be scientific fact.”
She focused on him thoughtfully, and then opened her mouth to speak, but instead looked down, memory shadowing her face. She shut her mouth and met his eyes.
“The existence of exotic particles in theory could create a barrier, which might balance out the tremendous forces of a wormhole, and maybe create a safe opening”—he shrugged—“regardless of how it happened, we did somehow travel through time, right?”
He waited for an answer. “I guess, but—” she shook her head “—I don’t know."
“You know what this means?—” Apparently the question was rhetorical “—if time travel is possible, so is space travel.” His whole body seemed animated.
She raised one eyebrow as if to say—duh, we have astronauts you know—but no words came out of her mouth.
Seeing her confusion, he wrinkled his forehead then shook his head. He was trying to explain what he meant, but it wasn’t coming out right.
“I mean space-time—” he watched for understanding “—as in relativity. We moved through time without moving through space, so the converse must also be possible. This means, we could move through space without moving through time.”
She considered that. “I guess that would be the case, though it seems more likely that we just had too much to drink.”
“We didn’t drink anything.” He was confused and then realized that she was joking.
“I know we didn’t. Even so, it makes more sense to me that we did and just forgot about it.” She smiled, looking drained from the sheer confluence of disconcerting information.
“One thing’s for sure.”
“What’s that?” She asked hopefully.
“I didn’t get enough sleep.”
“Well I hope you don’t expect breakfast anytime soon”—she rolled her eyes—“I’m going to bed.” She rubbed her forehead hard as if it hurt.
“You do that, I’m going to mark this spot.”
He studied his GPS, wrote down the latitude and longitude on two different papers, and then handed her one of them.
“Why would I want this?—” She stared at him blankly “—I wouldn’t ever want to come back her
e.”
“What?—” He cocked his head “—we have to explore it. What do you think I’m doing out here in the first place?”
Dubiously, she eyed the little piece of paper and then took it.
“Hey, if nothing else, you will be able to tell people where you were when that crazy thing happened, right?”
She gave him a half smile. “I guess so.” She put the GPS address into her pocket.
“I want to go get Stewart. It will only take a few hours.”
“You really like him don’t you?” she asked somberly.
“I guess—” he hesitated “—I think of him kind of like the brother I never had. Don’t tell him I said that, it sounds sappy.”
She walked closer, put her arms around his neck, and smiled at him. He leaned down, kissed her, and then she told him, “Goodnight, wake me up when we get there. I’m just going to lie down on the sofa in the pilothouse.”
“Why there?—” he asked “—surely your bed is more comfortable.
“I don’t want to be that far away”—she winked—“from you.”
He smiled and let out a barely audible laugh. He then pulled her closer to him and moved his lips gently over her mouth.
Her response made him think twice about going back to Bimini right then, but after a while, he loosened his arms from her; letting go felt almost painful. She smiled and went down the stairs reluctantly. He mulled over the idea of sleeping, but he knew he wouldn‘t be able to. He felt too elated.
***
When they arrived at Bimini Island, Mark woke Ashlyn as he promised.
“I spoke to the guy at the harbor office; he told me where Stewart was staying. I’m going to get him.”
“Wait”—she looked a little dazed and blinked a few times—“I’ll come with you. My sleep schedule is all screwed up anyway.”
“Yeah, I think I’m just going to force myself to stay awake until nighttime comes again—” he laughed “—and hope that this time it lasts for a few hours.”
He eyed her with a mischievous smile, and she raised one eyebrow slightly, “You really had fun didn’t you?”
He beamed like a child. “Let’s go.”
They had to stop several places before they found where Stewart had been staying. When they asked the manager which room he was in, he pointed across a sandy beach area without ever looking up from his magazine.
Time Storm Shockwave Page 5
