The Return of the Manhattan
Page 28
Startled, the pilot pressed the transmit switch, “We are Solar Two Four One en route to Tel Aviv. Who are you?”
David’s voice came back warmly, “This is Manhattan Control. There is no need for alarm nor is there a need to use the radio. We will have you on the ground in a few moments. You have no need to fear us.”
The pilot came back almost immediately, “Doctor Ashton, I presume?”
David stammered back, “You… You know who we are?”
“If you are Doctor David Ashton, Commander of the Manhattan, we do.”
“Who are you?”
“I’m Paul Barnes with my wife Sara. We work for Colonel Anderson and your daughter Laura.”
“That partially explains it, but why… I mean why… Did they tell you all about us?”
“They didn’t tell us everything. What year is this?”
“Twenty six Oh Five. Lower your landing gear and we’ll bring you aboard the Manhattan on our beam.” The aircraft was gently lowered and pulled inside the Manhattan. Paul helped Sara out of the aircraft as they stepped out onto the deck. The hangar structure loomed ominously above them as they walked toward the entrance, escorted to Dr. Ashton’s office by Sandra Davis, one of the young ladies from the Manhattan’s crew.
David, greeting them warmly, “Sorry we didn’t recognize your names immediately. Laura did mention you in her diary and we have found you in our computer data base. How are you feeling?”
Paul let Sara speak for them both, “We’re fine. A little dizzy, but okay. We were spinning like crazy in the time warp, but it must not have been that long.”
“Good, how did you know you were in a time warp?”
Paul laughed, “This wasn’t our first trip! There must be a lot of those warps in that part of the world.”
David was thoughtful, “Unfortunately, you’re probably right. We know and keep track of only a few of them. You’re the first humans we can say for sure who came through one, although we suspect others have encountered them before. It might explain some of those unsolved mysteries we hear so much about. The Burmuda Triangle mysteries may finally be solved.”
“How many are there? Where do they come from?”
“They might be a natural occurrence, but the one you traveled through today is man-made. It’s a passageway between your time and ours created by the Manhattan on one of our trips returning back from the twentieth century. We’ve been constantly on alert watching for travelers like you who may have accidentally fallen into one of them.”
Paul was slightly puzzled, “But we traveled both ways from our time to the time of Christ and back. Is there some connection?”
“Possibly, we made one round trip back from the twentieth century to that time period. Tell us about it!”
“I was a twentieth century fighter pilot, shot down over Israel when I fell through the first time warp. I found myself in a completely different world, two thousand years earlier, during the time of Christ. I met Sara and we became disciples of Jesus. After His crucifixion, we built a balloon, re-entered the time warp and arrived back in the twentieth century. We made the mistake of telling our story to the wrong people. Of course the Israeli government didn’t believe our story and the Mossad, their secret police, began harassing us. Brad and Laura heard about our tale of time travel and pulled us out of trouble when they came to investigate. We were on our way back to Israel working for the Solar Magnetics Administration when one of the Israeli fighters attacked us. We would have gotten away except for my concern about Sara’s advanced stage of pregnancy. I know a missile was launched at us and the next thing we knew, we were in another of your time warps.”
Sara winced in pain, “Paul… .” She grabbed his arm gripping hard for a moment, “It’s time. He’s not going to wait any longer.”
CHAPTER 52
Christopher Allen Barnes was born July 21, 2605 in the infirmary aboard the Manhattan. He was a product of the first, twentieth and twenty seventh centuries. Dr. Baker assured Paul that everything was fine before he left Sara’s bedside. Paul went in search of Dr. Ashton and tried to make up new words to the old Johnny Cash song that kept running through his head, “I’ve got a nineteen fifty, fifty one, fifty two, fifty three, fifty four, fifty five, fifty six, fifty seven, fifty eight, fifty nine automobile.”
After a couple of wrong turns in the corridors, he was finally directed back to David’s office. David stood, “Paul, come on in and let me be the first to congratulate you. Dr. Baker tells me everything’s going just fine.”
“It would be if Christopher can ever reconcile his birthdate. I think this future shock may be too much for me let alone Sara, or Christopher. Sara was just getting used to the twentieth century.”
“I understand how you feel, but I know you both have enough faith in God to carry you through. Up until a few minutes ago, I didn’t have any idea why we needed to take you back. But President Talmage said we would have that opportunity, and my wife and I are both excited about the possibilities. It may take us up to four years to make the trip, but we’re ready.
“But if you make one of these warps whenever you traveled through time, couldn’t we get back in one, going the other way?”
“That’s a definite possibility. Dr. Dorn is checking out your theory right now. A time warp in which we could travel as often as we like might come in handy. We could even see our grandchildren once in a while.”
“That must be hard on you and Laura too. But if you could go as often as you like, it would be like traveling crosstown. Like normal grandparents, except you wouldn’t have to be sitting on pins and needles waiting for the grandchildren to be born.”
David laughed, “It hasn’t been easy, but at least we have Laura’s diary. Gee, if those warps would stay open… . Right now neither Sara nor your son should be subjected to any such trip. Let’s wait and see how things go.”
Two years later, Roger announced that the time warp was open and as far as he could tell the warp they planned to use would deposit them in close proximity to the time Brad and Laura’s first child was born. If not the exact time, they could do a short leap to arrive when they wanted. David wasted no time in preparation for their voyage not wanting to risk the closure of the warp before they had a chance to use it. Paul, Sara and Christopher had been on standby waiting and were on the Manhattan within a couple of hours ready to return home. As soon as they were aboard and safely strapped in, David gave the launch order and Roger began the countdown placing the Manhattan into position to enter the warp.
Paul and Sara had experienced the warp earlier, but nobody knew whether the warp was large enough to handle the Manhattan or how the Manhattan would ride it out. Roger deftly moved the Manhattan closer until entry was confirmed by the spinning motion which was strong enough to encompass the entire ship. Roger felt helpless as control was lost, and the Manhattan spun slowly and all concepts of time and space vanished. Even though disoriented, Roger kept a constant vigil waiting until that moment they would be expelled at the other end of the warp. At that moment he hoped the ship would be in a stable orbit over the earth, but he would need to restore power to the cloaking devices to prevent someone in the past from getting a glimpse of the Manhattan.
“Brad, I wonder what really happened to Paul and Sara. Her baby would have been about two now.” Laura mused.
“I don’t know dear. They never found a trace of them or the aircraft.” It was two days after Laura had given birth to a baby girl they named Gail Marie. Brad brought them home from the hospital and Laura was nursing Gail prior to laying her in her crib. “Laura, you might as well put them out of your mind. You’ve got your own daughter to take care of now.”
“I know, but it’s hard and there’s no way I can forget them so easily. Sara and I had so very much in common. We were both time travelers even if we were from the opposite extremes. I can’t find anyone else like her anywhere. I
wonder if she ever felt as out of place as I often do. The world is so unfair…” She clenched her fist and raised her voice, “I’ll bet Paul’s old commander, Colonel Kabron, was the culprit.” Gail let out an annoyed squawk and Laura instantly relaxed.
Brad watched her settle back before responding, “President Dugan said as much, but he had no proof and the Israelis weren’t interested in pursuing it any further. You know you are missing your father and feeling your loss more acutely, which is only natural at a time like this. How about taking a trip to see Mom and Dad as soon as you feel up to it. They’ll want to see Gail.”
“I don’t know. Maybe, but your family can never take Dad’s place no matter how hard they try. All of your family has been so good to me. I don’t want to be dramatic yet I feel something important is missing in my life. I feel fine, but I’m not sure I feel up to taking Gail anywhere soon. I had a relatively easy time, but I sure missed Doctor Baker’s expertise.”
“Maybe Mom and Dad will come here for a visit?”
“Let’s wait a week or so and then we can take a few days and visit the whole family. Of course they are welcome to come anytime, but it would be much easier for us to do the traveling.”
Three weeks later, they were in the ‘Marie’ winging their way across mid America heading for Independence. Laura felt better after spending a few days at the office, getting adjusted to the world in which she lived.
Laura’s face lit up like a lamp as she spoke up excitedly, “Brad, Look over there!” She pointed ahead and slightly above them. “It’s the Manhattan?”
Brad watched the small object grow larger in the windscreen, “Well, I’ll be darned!” He cancelled his flight plan.
Brad turned the transponder off as David’s booming voice filled the cockpit, “Solar One One, you’re on the beam. Welcome home!”
Laura could hardly speak, “Dad, what are you doing here?”
“Had to come back to visit my favorite daughter and my first grandchild, didn’t I?”
“How did you know? I mean, that’s silly, of course you know. But…”
Laura was out of her seat before the aircraft could be secured. She unstrapped Gail and hurried out as soon as the hangar crew opened the door. She stepped down gingerly as her father reached up to help her down, enfolding them both in his arms as she stepped off the last step. She passed Gail to her father almost dropping her as she caught a glimpse of Sara and Paul standing off to one side with Christopher at their side. Leaving Gail with her father, she threw herself into Sara’s arms babbling excitedly and getting no answers to her almost incoherent questions.
David laughed at their confused expressions, “All in good time. But first, it’s way past time for you to say hello to someone very special to you.” He drew forward a beautiful lady, who looked like a slightly older carbon copy of Laura.
Laura screamed with delight and threw herself into her mother’s arms, “Mom, oh Mom… . It’s so good to see you again.” After a moment, she broke the embrace taking a closer look at her mother, “What did you do with your hair? It’s beautiful.” Marie smiled broadly and Laura exclaimed with glee, “Your teeth, you’ve gone all out.” She looked over at her dad, “You two got married didn’t you?”
David grinned sheepishly, “Yup, we certainly did. A long time ago.”
Marie was smiling brightly and clinging to Laura and finally spoke, “My Laura, my daughter. My baby and now with a baby of your own.”
Laura was puzzled, she blinked, “Brenda, you sound different. What happened to your lisp?”
“I don’t need the disguise anymore, and I’m not Brenda, I’m Marie. Didn’t you say I would always be your Mom?”
“You look just like the pictures of my real mom.”
“That’s right, I am your mother; and always have been. Now can I see my granddaughter? She took Gail from David’s arms and promptly took on the grandmotherly role.