“Thanks, Harry, or I should say, Admiral Harry. You called my bluff. You predicted every single detail of this battle. The past three days have been hell, but the thing that I’ll always remember is how you called the shots. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but you’ve convinced me. I now believe everything you’ve told me, including your claim that you’ve traveled through time. We’re heading back to Pearl Harbor and should be there in six days. I promised that I would let you go to hunt for that wormhole thingamajig, and I always keep my promises. I’ll help you in any way I can. Just let me know what I can do. In a way I hope you won’t leave us. After the past few days I’ve come to think of you as a friend, an amazing friend.”
“I feel the same way about you, admiral. But I’ve been gone for 11 days, and my wife must be going nuts. The only thing that calms me down is that time flies on the other side of a wormhole. I’ve probably been missing for just a few hours in 2018 time.”
Spruance cracked up laughing and slapped me on the shoulder. Talking to a time traveler is a mind-altering experience, as Spruance discovered in the past few days.
Chapter 7
“It’s 1600, Sandy. I cannot believe that Harry’s been missing for eight goddam hours.”
“Meg, I hate to see you so upset. Hey, remember what Admiral Dexter said. He’s called NCIS and the FBI. Right now, they’re scouring this base looking for Admiral Harry. You’re a positive thinker and so am I. I’m sure there’s a logical explanation why he’s been missing. I’m going to make you some chamomile tea to help you sleep. I’ll sack out on the sofa. I know it won’t be easy, but you should get some sleep.”
Sandy was right. I did need sleep. But the most important person in my life has been gone for hours and we have no idea where he is.
***
“Harry, where are you?” I screamed.
It was 0800 and I’d just woke up from a nightmare. I had dozed on and off for a few hours. Then I realized that my nightmare was true—Harry was still missing.
Sandy walked in with coffee and bagels. She’s an early riser so she went out to get us breakfast.
“Hey, Meg, get this. When I was at the bagel shop I met Phil Toomey, the head of the shore patrol. He told me that a naval officer showed up at headquarters yesterday afternoon babbling about being lost. The man claims that he’s the gunnery officer on the USS Enterprise.”
“The Enterprise was decommissioned a few years ago, Sandy,” I said. “Is this guy a flake?”
“Meg, the man says he’s from the old Enterprise—from 1942. You and Admiral Harry told me all about your time travel stories. Do you think this guy could have come here from a different time?”
“Where is he?”
“At fleet headquarters. My shore patrol friend said that Admiral Dexter is talking to him.”
Sandy typed in a number and handed the phone to me.
“I just called Dexter’s office. Something tells me you want to speak to him.”
“Meg Fenton here, admiral. My aide says that you’re interviewing an officer who claim’s he’s from the past. I think I should be there with you.”
“I was just about to call you, Meg,” Dexter said. “The whole country knows about the time travel journeys that you and Harry went through. Get here as soon as you can.”
Sandy and I got into my car and drove to headquarters, about a mile away. Sandy insisted on driving because my hands were shaking so much.
“Meg, do you think that maybe…”
“Yeah, maybe Harry bumped into a wormhole.”
***
“Admiral Dexter will see you now, lieutenant,” his assistant said. I insisted that Sandy join in the meeting.
“Sam, this is Lieutenant Meg Fenton, the aide to one of our admirals, Harry Fenton. She’s also his wife. Ensign Sandy Borman is Meg’s aide. Because Meg is known as a Flag Lieutenant, and is aide to an admiral, she rates her own aide. Meg, Lieutenant Parker has a story that I find strange to say the least. Go ahead, Sam. Tell Lieutenant Fenton what you told me.”
We were seated around a conference table in Admiral Dexter’s office. I intertwined my fingers to stop my hands from shaking. Parker was a tall, handsome guy, as Sandy seemed to notice. His uniform looked kind of old.
“As I’ve told Admiral Dexter, I thought I may be losing my mind. I’m Lieutenant Sam Parker, gunnery officer of the USS Enterprise. Please call me Sam.”
“But the Enterprise was decommissioned a few years ago, Sam.”
“So, the admiral told me. Let me elaborate. My ship is the USS Enterprise, CV-6. It’s not the same Enterprise you’re referring to. The Enterprise that I’m talking about is the flagship of Admiral Raymond Spruance.”
“Tell Lieutenant Fenton what year you believe it is, Sam.”
“Nineteen Forty-two, but Admiral Dexter tells me that today is May 28, 2018. He also told me that a big battle, which will be known as the Battle of Midway, will be fought in the first week of June. May I please have another glass of water?”
“I told Sam all about Harry’s disappearance and about your experience traveling through time. You and your husband have convinced me and the rest of the world that it really happened. The entire country watched the news reports when you and Harry and a ship full of people returned from a prehistoric time.”
“Do you have any Scotch to go with this water, admiral?”
I couldn’t help but notice that Sandy seemed to have a hard time taking her eyes off Sam. He was a good-looking guy.
“Tell me what happened, Sam. How did you get here?”
“I was in a structure known as Building 19, a place used to store junk and old files. I went there to gather records that I needed for our upcoming deployment. I was the only one in the building. I walked through a doorway, and suddenly I felt extremely dizzy and nauseous. The daylight turned dark and the ground rumbled. After a couple of minutes, the daylight returned, and the rumbling stopped. I opened my eyes, and I was no longer in a building, but standing on a patch of grass near the pier. I turned around and the Enterprise was no longer there but had been replaced by a giant carrier. It’s the USS Gerald R. Ford, as you know. I’m told that it was, or is, your husband’s flagship. A shore patrol car was driving toward me, and I flagged it down. I asked if I could be taken to Admiral Nimitz’s office. He is—or was—the CincPac in 1942 after Admiral Kimmel was relieved. I think the shore patrol guy thought I was nuts, and I think he may have been accurate. He told me that the acronym CincPac has been replaced by COMPACFLT. He drove me to this building, where I was introduced to Admiral Dexter here.”
“So, if I understand you lieutenant, the daylight turned dark and the ground rumbled. That all took about two minutes when the daylight returned, and the rumbling stopped.”
“Yes, that’s exactly what happened.”
“That” I said, “is the classic event that accompanies a trip through a wormhole. Yes, lieutenant, you’ve traveled through time.”
“Meg, why don’t we ask Lt. Parker to take us to the spot where he experienced the incident,” Sandy said.
“My thoughts exactly, Sandy. Would you care to join us admiral?”
“No, I have a staff meeting in a few minutes. I suggest that you and Ensign Borman go with Sam to the strange spot. Could it be what you and Harry refer to as a wormhole? Report back to me, obviously, after you investigate. And hey—be careful.”
As we walked out of his office, I stopped by his assistant’s desk.
“Betty, would you please give me a printout from Wikipedia of the Battle of Midway.”
Just a hunch, but something told me it may come in handy. Sandy grabbed me by the arm and whispered, “Wow, this guy is good looking.”
We drove to an area of overgrown weeds and shrubbery next to the pier. The road continued for about 300 yards to the entrance of the pier.
“There’s the spot,” Parker said, pointing to an area of grass. “I remember that tree, which I grabbed when I almost fell over.”
�
�Sandy, stop. Let’s take a look. If you were Harry, jogging or walking along this road intending to board the ship, what would you do?”
“Knowing Admiral Harry as I do, I’d take a shortcut across that grassy path next to the tree rather than continue along this road. The admiral loves short cuts as you’ve often told me.”
“I think I see a scenario,” I said. “Harry walked through the same wormhole that Sam came through.”
“Sam, let’s go,” I said, walking toward the tree.
“Meg, where are you going?” Sandy asked. “I should go with you.”
“Sandy, you need to stay here as a witness to what’s about to happen.”
“Not necessary, Meg. I’ll just take a picture of the spot and email it to Admiral Dexter, with a copy to my shore patrol friend. I think I should go with you.”
I realized that Sandy didn’t want to see her handsome new friend disappear into the past.
“Okay, “I said. “Here’s the drill. We’ll follow Sam, because he knows the exact spot, having crossed it only yesterday. Sandy, you’ve never done this before, but here’s what you’ll expect. Just as Sam said, the daylight will turn dark and the ground will rumble. In two minutes the daylight will return, and the rumbling will stop, and, I hope, we’ll find ourselves in 1942. You will probably feel dizzy and nauseous. Sam, after you.”
He walked a few feet and disappeared. I followed him, with Sandy behind me. I felt dizzy as hell as the rumbling darkness surrounded us. The daylight returned, and I reached out to the tree to steady myself. The tree wasn’t there. We were no longer in a patch of grass, but inside a building, Building 19.
“Be careful,” Sam said, “this building is loaded with junk and it’s dark as you may notice.”
I took out my cell phone to turn on the flashlight app. It didn’t work. We carefully groped our way to the door.
“What the hell is that engine block doing in the middle of the floor?” I asked.
“It’s pretty stupid if you ask me,” Sam said. “I complained about it to shore patrol. Somebody can fall and bang his head against that damn thing.”
When we got to the door we found it was nailed shut. Sam, a big man, stepped back a couple of feet and lunged at the door with his shoulder. It burst open, and we could see the new world we just entered. Or is it an old world?
Chapter 8
“Where’s my ship?” Sam said. “The Enterprise isn’t there.”
“My guess is that it’s steaming to or from Midway Island. From the brief history I just read, the Battle of Midway was fought from June 4th to June 7th. Let’s get a newspaper from that coffee shop.”
The date on the paper read, June 13, 1942. I pulled the printout from my pocket and read through the history of the Battle of Midway again.
“Wow, I’ve been gone almost a month,” Sam said. “But I was in 2018 only a few hours.”
“You’ve just experienced one of the weird aspects of time travel, Sam. Time goes by differently on the other side of a wormhole.”
I read from the first page of the paper.
“It says here that the battle ended on June 7, and that the Enterprise headed back to Pearl Harbor after the engagement. The article mentioned that Midway Island was 1400 miles from Pearl Harbor, so it should take them about six days to get back. My God, that’s today. The Enterprise should be tying up at any time. Sorry, Sam, but you missed one of the most decisive battles in naval history.”
“Thank God you weren’t there, Sam,” Sandy said. “You could have gotten hurt—or worse.”
I could almost envision butterflies around Sandy’s head as she stared dreamily at Sam.
“Let’s go to fleet headquarters,” I said. “I assume it’s still in the same place, about a mile from here. Let’s walk it. We’ll introduce ourselves to the Commander of the Pacific Fleet, what’s his name, Sam?”
“None other than Admiral Nimitz, who relieved Admiral Pye, who briefly served after Kimmel was dismissed after the attack on December 7.”
“This should be interesting,” I said. “We’ll just tell him that we came here from 76 years into the future and were wondering if there were any messages for us.”
“I bet your wife misses you, Sam.” Sandy said.
“I’m not married.”
“Oh really?” she said.
I hoped Sandy realized that an inter-time era relationship would be unlikely to work, but the way she looked at him, I didn’t think she cared.
We walked into the reception area of fleet headquarters and Sam introduced us to the petty officer on watch.
“Good morning, I’m Lieutenant Sam Parker, and I’m afraid I missed my ship’s movement.”
“Oh, dear God, lieutenant. You’ve become known as the Mystery of Pearl Harbor. You just disappeared on us. I’ll call Admiral Nimitz. I’m sure he’ll want to see you. And who are you two ladies?”
“Long story,” I said.
***
“Sam Parker,” Admiral Nimitz said. “We’ve been wondering where the hell you’ve been, to make an understatement. And who are these two officers with you? Odd looking uniforms I must say. I assume you young ladies are nurses.”
Sandy and I wore our standard fatigue camouflage uniforms, which must have looked odd in 1942. And no, we’re not fucking nurses, although I didn’t put it so bluntly.
Sam gestured to me and said, “I’ll let Lieutenant Fenton introduce herself and Ensign Borman.”
“Good morning, admiral. I don’t know how to summarize a long and complicated story, but I’ll just tell you the facts. We’ve travelled through time and came here from the year 2018. Before you have us placed under arrest, let me explain a bit more.”
“Fenton? Any relation to a man named Harry Fenton?”
“Oh my God, yes. He’s my husband. Do you know where he is?”
“He’s aboard the Enterprise. Admiral Spruance told me all about him before the ship left port. Spruance began by telling me that a nut had boarded the ship, claiming that he was an admiral, and telling a story about traveling through time. Your husband predicted the events at the recent Battle of Midway that turned out to be entirely true, as Spruance told me yesterday by telegraph. As he said in his message—wait, I’ve got it right here. ‘This guy Fenton is not only for real, he’s a brilliant tactician. His help was invaluable at Midway. Sounds crazy, but I believe he’s an admiral.’ Ray Spruance is a solid, calm, and serious thinker. If he believes your husband is for real, I’m sure he is. Now can you folks enlighten me about Lieutenant Parker here?”
“I slipped through the same time portal or wormhole as Admiral Fenton, but only in reverse. I saw the year 2018, and it’s amazing, admiral. I saw a carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, that was the most gigantic ship I’ve ever seen. Lt. Fenton tells me it’s her husband’s flagship. She asked if they could accompany me back across the spot where I traveled through time. In 2018, Building 19 was a patch of grass. I did as they suggested, and here I am.”
“Well, Lieutenant Fenton, you’ll be happy to know that your husband will return, along with the Enterprise, this afternoon at 1500. I’m sure you miss the guy. He’s been gone for almost a month.”
“Actually, sir, he’s been missing for about 24 hours. Time moves at a different pace in the future.”
Nimitz just put his face in his hands, shaking his head. The thought occurred to me that maybe time travelers should carry around a little brochure explaining the phenomenon, so that the person they spoke to didn’t think they were insane.
“Why don’t you folks be at the pier when the Enterprise ties up? I’ll be there myself. Admiral Spruance, with the help of your talented husband, just made naval history at Midway, and I want to welcome him. I’m dying to meet the admiral from the future. It’s now 1200, so you have some time to kill before the Enterprise ties up. I suggest the canteen downstairs. Food’s not bad, if you like Navy cooking. I’ve got a meeting in a few minutes, so I’ll see you on the pier at 1500.”
We took
Admiral Nimitz’s advice and went to the canteen for lunch. Sandy kept giggling like a little girl. It was obvious that she was falling for our 20th Century friend, Lt. Parker.
“I’m surprised you haven’t called your family, Sam,” Sandy said as she ignored the menu.
“I don’t have much family to speak of. My wife died of tuberculosis two years ago. My folks passed away in 1939. I tried to call my brother in Detroit, but there was no answer.”
“So, I’m sure you left him a message with the good news that you’re back.” I said.
“Left a message? How would I do that?”
When he said that, I realized that we were from different worlds, and 1942 was not a world with voicemail or text messages. I wished Sandy would realize that too.
“I enjoyed my brief stay in the year 2018, although I’m still having a hard time coping with this time travel stuff.”
“We’d love to have you back for a longer visit, Sam,” Sandy said. “I’ll personally take you around for a sightseeing tour.” She placed her hand on top of his as she said that.
“It was an amazing experience,” Sam said. “As I was being escorted to Admiral Dexter’s office I heard a ringing sound come from the guy next to me. He reached into his pocket and spoke into what I think you call a cell phone. As we waited for the admiral to show up, the guy told me all about this thing called email and the Internet. You folks are a lot more advanced than we are in 1942. He also told me that Germany and Japan are loyal allies of the United States. It’s nice to think that we’ll all be friends after we’re done killing one another.”
“I think Sandy’s idea of you coming back with us for another visit is an excellent idea,” I said.
“Well, the first time it was an accident, me stepping on that wormhole thing. If I go back intentionally, I’m afraid it would be desertion.”
The Violent Sea Page 3
