A Loop in Time

by Clark Graham

  “Good then, find a man to stick in a bed. I will alert my nurses of what is happening. Meanwhile get those MPs off of my floor.”

  Granger replied, “Yes, Sir.” He wanted so very badly to say something else, but he kept silent.

  Granger marched over to John Doe’s bed straight from the meeting and relieved the guard. He turned and scowled at John before turning on his heel and walking out. John scratched his head. He had had no idea why he was being guarded and now he had no idea why he wasn’t. He also wondered why Granger hated him so much.

  It was now up to Granger to implement the Colonel’s orders. He walked towards to Sergeant Johnson’s desk. The Sergeant had not guarded the prisoner yet so he would be an unknown to him. Granger did not like the Sergeant, either. The Sergeant was married and Granger always considered that a sign of weakness. He had served with married men during the war and he wondered if they were more concerned about their wives and kids back home than they were their brothers in arms. He needed to trust them to be brave in a firefight instead of running and hiding so they would live long enough to see their families again. He kept this prejudice with him even after his return home from the war.

  When Granger got back to the office, he approached the Sergeant. “I have an assignment for you.” The Sergeant was a husky man who loved to lift weights. He was around five ten, with large muscular arms and chest. His jet black hair was a contrast to his bright blue eyes and square jaw.

  “Yes, Sir.” Johnson knew that Granger did not like him, but he did not know why. He knew if the Lieutenant had an assignment for him, it was going to be an unpleasant one.

  “You will pretend to be a patient at the hospital to get close to the John Doe that is in bed 203. You will not reveal to him your real name or the fact that you are a part of the military police force.”

  “How long is this assignment?” Johnson’s family lived on base and he liked going home every night.

  “It could take months. We don’t know who this guy is because he has amnesia, but he could gradually get his memories back. You need to be there when he does. You are to get to be his friend. Your name will be J. J. Smith.”

  “But my wife and children...Sir, will I be able to go home to them every night?” Johnson looked very alarmed.

  “Not for the duration. You will have to stay in the hospital. Your family will not be able to visit you because they might slip and call you by your real name.”

  “But, Sir…” Johnson did not get to finish his statement.

  “Those are your orders. You will present yourself here at seventeen hundred hours where you will be given a hospital gown and your new identity.”

  “Yes, Sir,” Johnson said through a tense jaw.

  Granger left the room smiling to himself. He always got a perverse satisfaction out of making someone else miserable. ‘After all,’ he thought to himself. ‘The army didn’t marry your wife, you did.’

  Chapter Three

  Major Carl Stubbs looked over the wreckage from the crash site. It was like no plane he had ever seen before. There were a lot of pieces to it and it seemed that none of them had been made out of metal. All of the pieces were a black fabric looking material, but hard, very hard. The craft had gone in nose first and then shattered. There were wing pieces and tail pieces that were still intact, but the fuselage, if it ever existed, wasn’t there.

  “What is this stuff?” one of his sergeants came up to ask.

  “I have no idea. Never seen anything like it. Make sure the men get every single piece of this thing picked up, no matter how small. We have been lucky so far as the locals think that this is a military plane crash. I don’t want to be all over the news in the morning trying to explain any of this.”

  “Yes, Sir.” The Sergeant went back to work.

  Five military vehicles were sure to draw a lot of attention, but Stubbs had preempted a lot of that by announcing to the local radio stations that an experimental military helicopter had lost control and crashed. He asked the public to stay back because of the sensitivity of the desert ecosystem and the top secret military hardware involved.

  Those working on the wreckage would be sworn to secrecy and the plane would be taken to a secure hanger on the base. The main problem was the hot Arizona sun. It had already taken out three of his men with heat prostration. After that they started working after dark, but now they were dodging rattlesnakes. Still the sun had taken three and so far the rattlesnakes had not gotten anyone, so he would continue working in the darkness.

  Lights had been set up on the trucks that were parked around the crash site so the working conditions were not so bad. One of the Lieutenants came up to him. “Sir, are we looking at an alien craft here?”

  The Major smiled, despite his best attempt not to. “I saw the pilot when they brought him in to the hospital. He looked human enough. But what do I know? I have never seen an alien.” His own words caused him to reflect a minute.

  “I recognize circuit boards and some of controls, but the rest might as well have come from Mars. It has a lot of boxes with electrical components in it. I have no idea what they do.”

  The Major shifted his weight. His subordinates always took that as a sign that he was getting nervous about how the conversation was going. “What about the main wreck? Are we going to get that out of here by morning?”

  The lieutenant nodded. “Yes, we have a crane truck. I thought we would have to bring in something a lot heavier to lift it, but this stuff is light. We won’t have any problem getting this stuff out of here with the equipment we have on hand.”

  “That’s good news. I want the major pieces out before the sun comes up. I don’t want a plane flying over us and asking, ‘What the heck is that?’”

  “Yes, Sir, we have all the large pieces strapped up. We should have them in the trucks and under tarps within the hour.”

  “Great, let’s get back to work.” As the Lieutenant walked off, the Major reflected on what he had said about the stuff around him looking like it could have come from Mars. It bothered him a lot. What if it did, and it was infected with some type of germ? He and all of his men would be spreading it throughout the world. He called another one of his officers over. “Everyone here is quarantined for the next thirty days. We will put this group in a separate barracks. I don’t want to chance anything.”

  “Yes, Sir, what about the alien?”

  “Alien?” It took the Major a minute to realize who he was talking about. “You’re right, by now the whole base would have been contaminated by him or those who have come in contact with him. I’ll talk to the Colonel. I believe we should lock down the base.”

  It wasn’t until the last truck arrived from the crash site that the orders to lock down the base reached the ears of the Colonel. It wasn’t the Major’s place to order that so the Major was sent for to explain himself.

  “Are you mad?” was the first thing out of the Colonel’s mouth. He had been saying that a lot lately. His face had the red glow that showed he was upset.

  “I was going to seek your approval before the order was carried out, Sir. We have a craft of unknown origin that has crashed not far from a military base. We have a pilot that we do not know anything about. If I am in error here, it is only because I am willing to err on the side of caution.”

  The Colonel had to sit and think about it for a long time. He finally replied, “I don’t want to cause an uproar for no reason. Let me talk to the doctors and see if that is something we need to consider.”

  “Yes, Sir.” the Major replied.

  The Colonel called Doctor Ralston. The doctor had already given up on the idea of taking the day off so he was still on base. He wanted be around in case Granger tried something new.

  When the Doctor arrived the first thing out of the Colonel’s mouth was, “Is that John Doe an alien?”

  Despite himself, the doctor let out a brief laugh. When he got his composure back he replied, “He is as human as you and I are. Whether or not alien
worlds are populated by humans, I don’t know. I have not been to one as of yet.”

  “Do we need to quarantine the base because of unknown viruses or other diseases?” The Colonel had managed to look past being laughed at.

  “No, I really see no reason for it. The patient isn’t running a fever or anything like that. He goes into cold sweats at night, but I know it’s from his frequent nightmares.” The doctor was being as honest and open as he could. “He is just a scared man, trying to get his memories back. One of the memories is causing him a lot of trauma; that is why his consciousness is suppressing it. He does not want to relive it.”

  “Do you think that he is a spy? Maybe a Russian, like Lieutenant Granger thinks?”

  “If he were a Russian, he would have started out by speaking Russian when he came to. He has amnesia; he would not have remembered to speak English. If I were a guessing man I would say he is an American of Scottish descent, like I am. As a matter of fact, if you look at him closely, he looks like he could be my son.”

  “I see,” the Colonel had a lot to ponder. “I will take what you said under advisement. Thank you for your assessment.”

  The doctor excused himself and went back to his office. He thought it was funny that one unknown had gone through and caused the whole camp to go into a panic. Talk of quarantine, aliens and guards on prisoners. What was the world coming to? When he got to his office, he locked it and then headed home. He had had enough of the craziness that was going on around him. He hoped that cooler heads would prevail in the morning.

  Sergeant Andy Johnson was pushed into the ward in a wheel chair. The bed next to John had been vacant, so it was the perfect spot for the Sergeant to get close to him and find out more about him. They had put a cast on his right forearm and a bandage on his head. None of it looked authentic because the nurses who put it there did not like what was happening, and did a sloppy job of it, but John wasn’t looking closely so it didn’t matter.

  They put him into bed. Andy had to consciously not help; otherwise he might just give everything away. When he got settled in, he decided not to talk right away. He did not want to come over as overbearing. He would miss his wife and kids. Leave it to Granger to use the only married guy in the outfit in an assignment more suited to someone who was single.

  When it was dinner time they brought Andy’s meal to him. His wife was unquestionably the best cook on the base. He looked over his hospital food and grimaced. He knew for sure he was going to have a long, hard, miserable time of this.

  Chapter Four

  It was another nightmare. John was looking down at the displays in his airplane. The engines were out of control and the airspeed was way too high. Suddenly they were flickering on and off. All the gauges had gone haywire. Then the flames started. He could not see out of the cockpit window.

  All of the fire alarms went off so he pulled all of the fire handles he had, but still the flames did not stop. It was only then he pulled the eject button. His head was leaning forward as he looked down and the onrush of wind outside the plane snapped his head back into the seat. That was when it all went dark.

  He was sweating and tossing around. He felt someone holding his hand. He woke up suddenly.

  “There you are. I was worried about you. Another nightmare?” Susan was holding his hand in hers and smiling at him.

  “Yes, was I restless?”

  “Very! What do you see when you have these nightmares?” she asked.

  He was staring into her eyes and listening to her sweet voice. He did not want to spoil it by talking, but she had asked him a question and was waiting for the answer. “I lose contact with the ground. I check my gauges and computer screens, but there is no indication of a problem until the plane bursts into flames. I had to eject.”

  She giggled. “They don’t put computers in planes, silly. Computers are large things that take up whole rooms.”

  He looked shocked. “I thought for sure I saw one. Maybe I made it all up. I don’t know. I’m so confused.” He sat there contemplating, but was so confused, he finally let it go.

  Andy leaned over to the nightstand on the other side of him and started taking notes. He cursed the cast that made it hard for him to write. ‘They could have put it on my non dominant arm, you would think,’ he thought. He turned back over, but as subtle as he tried to be, Susan had seen him and she scowled at him. When she had been told that John was to be spied on she was against it, but it was an order that she cooperate and she obeyed orders.

  She turned back to John and smiled again, “Sit back and relax. I brought you some books that should be more up your alley. I got you a fantasy book, something about little people. I also brought you a Sci-Fi, and if you don’t like those, I have a James Bond one. It’s about sex and violence. All guys like those things, I suppose.”

  That last one made him smile. “That was very nice of you.”

  “It wasn’t that I was being nice. I wanted my book back. I am at a good spot and I had nothing to read on my day off.”

  He laughed, “Of course. Take it; I wasn’t getting into it anyway.”

  She grabbed the book and then patted his arm as she left. She waited until she was next to Andy and turned and scowled at him again. He just shrugged. He didn’t like the assignment any more than she did.

  Once a day an orderly was sent to pick up all the trash in the ward. He would also sneak over and pick up Andy’s notes. The orderly would then take the notes and give them to Major Stubbs and his team working on piecing together all of the wreckage. The Major wasn’t pleased that his suggestion to shut down the base had been ignored. He only had jurisdiction over his own team, so he cancelled all weekend passes until further notice. It wasn’t enough to keep any strange virus from spreading but it was better than nothing, in his mind. It was all he could do.

  When the note was passed to the Major about computers in the airplane, he went to his Lieutenant and showed him.

  “What do you make of this?” the Major asked.

  “That’s impossible. Computers are large and bulky; they couldn’t fit in an airplane.”

  The Major walked over to one of the shelves where a badly crumpled electrical component sat. “Could this have been a computer? It had a glass front at one point. There are still shards around the edges.”

  “That is extremely small for a computer. It couldn’t be.” The Lieutenant wasn’t sure of his answer though.

  “What would it have been, then? It looks like a very small television, but why would you put that in a plane? Do we have a computer expert on the base or nearby?”

  “We have one on the base,” the Lieutenant replied. “I will send for him.”

  It was just another day at the office for Phil Mortensen. He was an introvert who liked his peace and quiet and he had found the perfect place for that at the computer lab. The machines hummed as he checked the logs one by one. His six foot frame supported a thin skinned head with red hair. He was alone most of the time in the lab so when he was not busy he would read trade magazines. He was up on the latest technologies. He could get totally absorbed in computers, and not have to worry about interpersonal relationships.

  Around him was a white room with light colored tile floors and florescent lights. In the middle of that were fifteen computers, all with large tape drives spinning round and round. He would monitor these and when they got full, he would replace them with new ones. He wore a white lab coat to keep the dust down and it covered up his olive drab uniform, which he hated. He often wondered why he had joined the army in the first place, with his abilities he could be working for the best up- and- coming companies and making bucket loads of money.

  When someone entered his lab, he was resentful of the intrusion. “Yes, what is it?” It came out a little snappier than he intended though.

  “You forget how to salute, Corporal?” The Lieutenant replied.

  Corporal Mortensen gave him an appropriate salute. It didn’t help his resentment that the intruder was b
arking orders.

  “Good, the Major wants to see you.”

  “But, Sir, I have to run the lab.”

  The Lieutenant glared at him. “It’s an order. If you have to shut down the lab, then do it. You need to come now.”

  “Yes, Sir, just let me check my tapes real quick and then I will come.” Making the officer wait was only a minor victory, but he still enjoyed it.

  The Lieutenant didn’t go away but waited in the doorway for him to follow. Phil grumbled under his breath, “If the Major wants to see me, why didn’t the Major come see me? If I have to leave the lab, who knows what’s going to happen while I’m gone?” It wasn’t loud enough for the Lieutenant to hear, but it made the Corporal feel better, being able to say it.

  After he finished checking his tapes, he let himself be led to the hanger where the Major was. The helicopters had been rolled out of the hanger to make way for the inspection of the wreckage. When the Corporal entered the room, he remembered to salute the Major.

  The electrical box had been taken off the shelf and put on a table. “What is this?” The Major asked.

  Phil started looking at it. “I don’t know, maybe a monitor?” When he looked at the components the hair on the back of his neck stood up. He picked some of the larger ones up and looked at them. “Wait, this is more than a monitor. This can’t be. Everything is so small. No, this can’t be.”

  “What is it?” the Major asked.

  “I will need to look at it in more detail. Do you mind if I take this back to the lab with me?”

  “Knock yourself out. Take it apart, if you need to; it’s already damaged beyond repair,” the Major replied.

  Phil was ecstatic. He took the box back to the lab and got out his tools. After putting it on his desk he started examining every little detail of the box. He spent the next eight hours examining it, forgetting to even eat. When he realized he was starving, and only then, did he shut down the lab to go get something and then go to bed. Finding he could not sleep for all of his excitement, he went back to the lab and continued taking apart the box.