by Alan Seeger
Needless to say, that much alcohol every night for several years straight was not terribly beneficial to Keith’s health. He began having health problems. One day, after throwing up on the ground an hour after eating lunch, both he and a co-worker noticed blood in his vomit, and Keith’s boss insisted that he see a doctor. “You’re one of the best workers I got, McCandless,” the man said. “Can’t afford for anything to happen to you.”
And so he had gone to the doctor recommended by his boss, because he had never bothered to go to one before, and had no idea where else to go. The doctor walked back into the exam room with a grim look on his face after leaving Keith to sit and stew for nearly half an hour.
“Mr. McCandless,” he said.
“Please, call me Keith,” he said amicably. “Mr. McCandless was my dad.”
“All right, Keith.” The doctor smiled, but Keith noted that it didn’t reach his eyes. “Your blood tests show that your liver function is somewhat impaired, but still within acceptable limits. However, your blood sugar today is 419, and your kidneys are showing signs of considerable damage.”
“419…? I don’t know nothing about blood sugar, doc, I —”
“A normal blood sugar level should generally be somewhere between 80 and 120. Hyperglycemia, or high blood sugar, is a symptom of diabetes. There are a lot of different reasons why diabetics’ blood sugar levels get too high. The two main culprits are that the pancreas doesn’t make enough insulin, which is a hormone that helps sugar go from the blood into the cells to be used for energy, and a condition called insulin resistance is the other, which is when the body’s cells resistant to the insulin.
“Now, here’s the thing — high blood sugar levels, if left untreated, can cause you to feel tired, be thirsty all the time, pee a lot, and even have blurry vision. In the long term, though, there’s a lot of different complications that you’re looking at; a type of eye problem called retinopathy that can lead to blindness; kidney problems that can cause you to have to go on dialysis or get a transplant, and nerve disease or neuropathy which can lead to amputations. Diabetes can also contribute to heart disease, which of course can kill you, so you can see how important it is to control your blood sugar.”
Keith sat quietly, not knowing what to say. Then he nodded and said, “I sure don’t want to mess with any of that.”
The doctor had given him prescriptions for a blood sugar testing device and test strips, an insulin pen and some other medications designed to help him get back on an even keel. He took them religiously for about three months, then began to slack off.
It had been that way off and on for the last twenty years or so. He’d be good for a couple of months, then let himself stray. He’d start drinking again. He’d feel rotten, and go back to the doctor; rinse, repeat.
Finally he had woken up one morning with his leg on fire from the knee down. This was what they meant by neuropathy, he realized. He was prescribed a medication called Neurontin that was supposed to help reduce the effects, but the prickly, tingly feelings were almost always there and occasionally it felt like a lightning bolt struck him starting at his toes and zapping its way up to his knee. It wasn’t long before he started getting those same sorts of sensations in the other leg as well.
It was in 2018, at the age of 55, that the shit had really hit the fan. His right leg went from having the typical neuropathic sensations to being numb to being sore and swollen. Soon he couldn’t walk on it. He called for an ambulance which took him to the emergency room, where they diagnosed him as having osteomyelitis, an infection in the bone of his leg. It was deeply rooted and the doctors advised him that while they could try a long-term round of antibiotics, it was unlikely that his leg could be saved.
So at the age of 55, he became an amputee.
During the same stay in the hospital, he was diagnosed with Chronic Kidney Disease or CKD and referred to a nephrologist.
Now, two years later, he was on home hemodialysis, with a home health care nurse who came in to administer his treatments nightly. It wasn’t what he’d hoped his life would be like at the age of 57 — he’d imagined touring the country on a Harley-Davidson Electra-Glide, from Florida to Washington State, New York to Los Angeles — but he supposed it was better than the alternative.
And then October 29 came.
Tulsa was hard hit, but the little town of Skiatook where Keith lived was far enough from the nearest attack site that he had no need to evacuate, and from what he could figure the fallout would be drifting east and north, so that wouldn’t affect him either.
What did affect him was the fact that his caregiver didn’t show up for his dialysis session that night. He tried to call someone about it, but no matter what number he dialed, all he could get was an out of service recording.
He fell asleep in his chair, and when he woke up around 7am the next morning, he tried calling again. Still the same recording.
He was getting a little nervous, but he decided to sit tight. Surely someone would show up tonight; they couldn’t just leave him like this, could they?
Could they?
Apparently they could.
It seemed that the office where his home health care was based was very close to one of the targets that the Chinese selected, an oil refinery in Tulsa.
There were no survivors.
Three weeks later, unattended and apparently forgotten, Keith was not a survivor either.
CHAPTER 65
2016
After introductions were made all around, the two Terrys, the two Sarahs, Rick, Stefanie, Nigel and Randall found a secluded place in a far corner of the room to confer.
Terry-2 and Sarah-2 confessed as to the reason that they had dared to come here, “piggybacking” on the fact that Nigel had already opened a portal to this particular time and place, risking the possibility of some sort of time paradox as had been postulated for years by both scientists and science fiction writers.
Despite the dangers of Nigel knowing what lay in his future, they told him exactly what they had experienced; his death in the Chinese nuclear attack, which they were now attempting to avoid.
By the time they were done, not only was Nigel aware of what his future held, but Terry-1 and Sarah-1 were aware of the fact that Nigel had come to recruit them to his staff. None of them faded away; no one exploded or imploded. So far, so good, thought Terry-2.
“Wow! So we’ll be, like… Time Lords?” said Terry-1. Both Sarah-1 and Sarah-2, aware of Terry’s his love for the BBC’s ‘Doctor Who’ TV series, rolled their eyes simultaneously. Terry-2 smiled.
“No,” replied Nigel drolly. “The Time Lords are fictional. You do not get to travel in a TARDIS, although I’m sure Sarah would have made a marvelous companion for any of the Doctors.”
“Why, thank you, Nigel,” said Sarah-1.
Sarah-2 interjected, “We have to avoid being sent to 2020, Nigel. We won’t be able to proceed without your leadership.”
“On the contrary, Sarah,” said Nigel. “Even though the events of this day as I originally envisioned it have been changed by the arrival of your older counterparts, you likely still have a memory of me standing in the banquet room and telling you that studies showed that Terry was one of only three persons in history who would be able to solve the problem we are dealing with. Do you still remember that?”
Sarah-2 stopped and thought for a moment. She looked confused. “You’re right, I still remember you saying that. How is that even possible, since you wound up never giving us your little spiel?”
“I don’t fully understand it myself,” he said. “The only thing I can deduce is that somehow, your secondary arrival in this timeline did create a sort of time paradox — but not the kind that leads to you killing your own grandfather prior to your father’s birth. This seems to result in the events of the original timeline spinning off into its own separate timeline, leaving you to experience the secondary timeline as if it were the original — yet you still retain the memories you had of the original events. It’
s confusing, I know.”
Everyone in the room had a look on their face that was somewhere between confusion and amazement.
“The bottom line is,” said Nigel, “that if I died in the original timeline, I’ll die in this one as well, and likely quite soon. It’s just a matter of time.” His face was grim.
There was silence for a moment. Then Rick spoke up.
“Can we all go?”
Terry-2 stared at him. “What?”
“I don’t see why not,” said Terry-1. “You went back to 2000, Stefanie went back after you, you tried to change your own personal histories by traveling through the Gatespace… this thing has been used more like a taxi service than I’d have ever imagined.”
“You attempted to change the past?” said Nigel.
“Let’s do it. Is everybody in?” said Rick. Heads nodded all around, except for that of Randall. Rick looked at him. “You coming with us, boss?”
Randall was silent for a moment. “No,” he said with a half-smile, “I’m gonna stay here and hold down the fort. I’m too old for big adventures these days.”
“If you’re sure,” said Terry-1. Personally, I can’t wait.”
They said their farewells to the man who had founded the company that made the invention of the HOT6 possible. Then Nigel opened a third Gate, and both pairs of Terrys, both pairs of Sarahs, Rick, Stefanie, and Nigel all went through it, and all three Gates collapsed in on themselves with a crackle.
CHAPTER 66
2020
The crowd continued to grow as the word spread that the members of Gemini Genius were at the hotel. It wasn’t long before there were more than a thousand people there, spilling out into the parking lot. More and more of them were asking Brad what they should do, where they should go.
“Why are you asking me?” he said.
“You’re the most visible person here!” said a man nearby. “You know what my wife calls you?” He turned to the woman standing next to him. “Tell him, honey.”
She flushed bright red. “Oh, I couldn’t…”
“Go on, tell him.”
“The Bard,” she said. “I listened to your CD all the way through the first day I bought it, and I told my husband, “The singer’s name is Brad, but he’s really The Bard.”
Brad smiled at her. “Thank you.”
CHAPTER 67
1960
A figure wearing a long, black overcoat appeared in an alley in the low rent district of Los Angeles on a summer night in 1960. If anyone had been there to see it, they might have noticed a dancing green glow, but as it was five in the morning, no one was around.
He walked slowly out to the on-street parking that was near a particular apartment building, watching carefully to make sure he was not observed, although he knew that there was nothing about his appearance that would cause anyone alarm. He looked up and down the street and quickly found the vehicle he was looking for — a black 1954 Ford sedan.
The man sidled up to the car, admiring it. He tried the door, and found it unlocked. He shook his head; he couldn’t imagine leaving any car unlocked in a metropolitan area like Los Angeles, even in this time. Whatever, he thought. He reached in and stuck a folded piece of paper between the slats of one of the vents. He made sure that the writing on the exposed part of the paper was visible: JAKE.
Then he hurried back into the alley and returned to the place (and time) from which he had originated.
CHAPTER 68
1960
Time Team Delta was divided. Geoff and Janelle had activated the Gate device, and had their weapons trained on Terry, Sarah and Nigel as the latter three watched Jake Benson’s black 1954 Ford disappear in the distance, the desert sand billowing as he sped away. Their hearts sank as they realized that Geoff and Janelle had betrayed them.
“Geoff,” Nigel intoned, “what the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
“We are sending you home, Nigel. You have no business dealing with things you aren’t equipped to handle.”
“Sending us home?” said Nigel. He gestured toward the green, spinning Gate. “What I see on the other side of this gate isn’t our home. From what I see there, it’s hardly 2802. It’s some city far back in the past, perhaps the 20th or 21st century.”
“Shut up,” said Geoff. “You’re going to go through the Gate, and you’re going to do it now. I have no desire to kill you; I will if it’s necessary, but I would much rather let you go through the Gate and give you a chance to deal with the situation you find on the other —”
Suddenly they heard the roar of a gasoline engine, and Jake Benson’s big black sedan exploded over the crest of the nearest sand hill and came barreling toward them. Geoff and Janelle gave a shout and scrambled to avoid the oncoming automobile; amazed, Terry, Sarah and Nigel took shelter near the scrubs that grew close to where the Gate had been opened.
As they looked on in shock, Geoff aimed his weapon at the car and fired.
An orange beam of energy shot toward the black sedan, striking it on the angled surface of its windshield. Much to the surprise of everyone, the majority of the beam appeared to reflect off the windshield at an angle and shoot upward into the sky, while only a small fraction of the beam made it through and struck Benson on the shoulder and one side of his face. He whipped the car around in a circle just as Geoff fired again. This time the beam struck the drivers’ side rear view mirror and reflected back toward Geoff, striking him nearly full force in the chest. Geoff cried out and fell to the ground.
Janelle scrambled toward him, a look of fear on her face. Terry and Sarah went to him as well and began to check his condition. He wasn’t seriously hurt, and soon Terry and Jake had Geoff and Janelle secured.
Jake Benson emerged from his car and ambled over to where the Time Team members were attending to Geoff.
“Is he —” Janelle said.
“He’s alive,” said Terry, “But he took the brunt of his own weapon fire. He’ll be all right after a while, though.” He confiscated Janelle’s weapon and stuck it into his pocket.
“But, Jake,” Sarah said, “What made you come back for us?”
“It was the note,” Benson said. “Which one’a you left the note in my car?”
Terry and Sarah looked at each other. “What note?”
Benson produced a square of yellow lined paper from his jacket pocket. “I found this folded up and stuck into one of the air vents on my dashboard when I went out to start up the car this morning.”
He walked over to the Time Team members and showed them the paper with its hand written message:
Jake — stay close to Nigel and his friends today. No matter if they tell you to leave, stick close. They are going to need your help. — A Friend
“Who could have left you this message?” Sarah asked.
“I dunno,” Jake said. “It was just stuck in one of the vents.”
They all looked at each other. No one said a word.
Finally Nigel broke the silence. “Jake,” he started hesitantly. “I appreciate the fact that you came back and kept us out of what might well have been a very, very difficult situation.”
“Sure,” Jake replied. “Happy to help. Weren’t no big thing.”
The three looked at each other, not knowing what to do next. They didn’t really want to reveal the Gate technology to Jake, but they knew that after getting the mysterious note and seeing that they had already been in danger once, he was not going to be willing to separate from them. They didn’t know how to handle the situation.
“Jake,” Terry said gently, “I think that whoever left you that note knew, somehow, what Geoff and Janelle were going to do. It’s, uh… it’s okay for you to go now.”
Jake cast a glance at the small group and shook his head. “This note says I shouldn’t leave no matter what. I ain’t one to argue, but…”
Nigel smiled at Jake and patted him on the back paternally, leading him over to his car. “I feel certain that the crisis that this note was written
to avoid has now passed. I don’t think there’s anything more to worry about, Jake.”
Jake looked at Geoff and Janelle, who were sitting on the ground with their wrists bound. He shook his head again and told Nigel, “What are you gonna do with them two?”
“I’m not sure,” said Nigel. “We’ll have to discuss it and determine the best course of action. Nothing like this has ever happened in the Ti… er, within our organization before.”
“Well,” said Jake. “I know what we’d’a done with ‘em back in Oklahoma.”
“Oh?” said Nigel.
“Hell, yeah,” Jake answered with a frown. “We’d’a strung ‘em up!”
A glance was exchanged among Nigel. Terry and Sarah. “You mean…?”
“We’d have hung ‘em,” Jake said sternly. “They was goin’ to kill you!”
“I appreciate your concern, Mr. Benson,” said Nigel, “but we will be transporting them back to our headquarters where they will stand trial.”
There was a moment of silence, broken by Sarah.
“Nigel,” she said. “Can we tell if things have changed, as far as the… uh… event that we were hoping to prevent?”
Nigel hesitated for a moment, eyeing Jake, then he shook his head and addressed the trucker.
“Jake… I suppose it’s already quite clear to you that, as you asked the other day… we aren’t from around here.”
Jake broke into a wide grin. “Oh, you bet. My momma didn’t raise no fools. You’re one of them English fellas, like that Roddy McDowall guy.”
Sarah and Terry struggled not to laugh. They didn’t want to hurt Jake’s feelings. He had done so very much for them. Saved their very lives, in fact. It wasn’t his fault that he lived in an era where the only mass communication was radio. If he could see CNN, or the Internet…! They pulled themselves together to see how Nigel would handle the situation.
“Jake,” Nigel said, deciding to lay their cards on the table, “we traveled back from the future to try to prevent a worldwide catastrophe.”
