The Legend of Things Past (Beyond Pluto SciFi Futuristic Aventures Book 1)

by Phillip William Sheppard

He understood that he was having a panic attack and crawled to the bathroom. There had to be a paper bag in there somewhere. He found one in the cabinet under the sink and opened the top, fingers fumbling. He breathed into the bag, his chest rising a falling rapidly.

  You’re still alive. You’re still alive.

  After a few moments, he calmed down and wiped the sweat from his face with the sleeve of his shirt. He walked back to the bed and collapsed onto it. He made a concentrated effort not to think too deeply about the consequences of this assignment. He shuddered, feeling weak.

  No more thoughts came to him as he lay there. He slipped into a stupor, mind blank with fatigue. He fell asleep almost immediately.

  Chapter 6

  “And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places.”

  —Roald Dahl

  May 5, 2176

  Fort Belvoir, VA

  Donovan Knight

  Donovan awoke to the sound of a bell. It was his watch. It was ringing. He had slept soundly, with no dreams. It was the kind of sleep that went by quickly—when he woke up he wasn’t immediately aware that it was the next day. For a moment he was surprised to see that he was not in his own bed. Then the events of the previous day flooded his memory. A sinking feeling dripped into his stomach.

  Donovan closed his eyes again, not yet wanting to face the day. Finally, he answered his watch.

  “Brigadier General Knight.” Donovan recognized the voice of General Umar.

  “Yes, sir?” The remnants of sleep colored his voice.

  “Report to my office at 1300 hours. You have five clean uniforms waiting for you outside your door.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “I need you focused, Knight. See you in twenty minutes.”

  Donovan hung up and let his arm drop by his side. He sighed. He didn’t want to do this. He didn’t want to save the world if it meant he would lose himself. He wished he hadn’t been so quick to accept this assignment without having more information. He had trusted General McGregor too much. He would never have expected him to do this.

  Donovan had said he was ready to sacrifice everything, that he was willing to die—and he was. But not like this. It would be okay to die if his wife and children remembered him. This wasn’t anything like that—he would just disappear as if he’d never been and then no one he cared about would remember him at all.

  There would be a whole different copy of himself in the future, completely different from who he was now. In a sense, it wouldn’t even be the same person.

  Donovan dragged himself from the bed and into the shower. He stretched under the water, working out the tight kinks that had formed in his neck and back. When he was clean he cracked the front door and spotted a white cloth bag. He tugged it inside and shut the door. Just as General Umar had said, it contained five identical uniforms, each signifying his rank with a blue and white striped pin and a gold star.

  He pulled on the uniform and checked his appearance in the mirror. He stared into his own blue-grey eyes, which looked tired.

  You’re going to die.

  The morbid thought was unexpected and he banished it from his mind. He pocketed his watch and left the room.

  Donovan walked into General Umar’s office at exactly 1300 hours. A group had already assembled there. The first person he noticed was Tracee Parker, the woman he had met yesterday. He was both surprised and pleased to see her there. Maybe he would get to learn more about her. He was eager to test his own skills against hers. He hadn’t met very many female army specialists before.

  She gave him a small smile and a wink, a lock of blue hair falling in front of her face. She pushed it back with a flip of her head. Only after he had taken her in did he observe the others in the room.

  There were three men, all with the rank of Lieutenant. One had bright red hair and looked very young to be a Lieutenant. Freckles dotted his small nose. Another had electric blue eyes and jet black hair that fell around his ears. He ran his fingers through the curly locks, pushing the hair out of his face. The last was short with brown hair and a large nose. They were all very muscular and fully loaded with weapons. They had the full range of e-guns, from stunners to rapid fire lethal shot guns.

  There was also another woman, of the same rank as the men. She was equally as fit and carried the most lethal weapons of the group. Her dark brown hair was cut perfectly even and hung just above her shoulders.

  General Umar sat behind his desk.

  “Welcome, Brigadier General Knight. Now that you’re here we can get started. Everyone take a seat.”

  There were folding chairs spaced out at regular intervals around the General’s desk. Donovan sat in the middle. Tracee sat next to him. General Umar introduced the rest of the assembly. The redhead was Jonathan Chaplain, the blue-eyed man, Eric Kirk, and the short man, Blaise Contreras. The woman was Paula Kingston.

  “Donovan, would you please play the brief for us?”

  “Yes, sir.” He removed the watch from his wrist and laid it flat on the General’s desk. Donovan tapped the play button of the brief’s audio.

  He leaned back in his chair and stared at General Umar’s desk as the horror of the brief played all over again. He felt sick to his stomach. When it was over he looked up. Everyone was looking at him. General Umar cleared his throat.

  “Well, you’ve heard it. Donovan Knight is an Army Specialist from the year 2258. This is a mission that needs to be completed with the utmost secrecy. You will have your headquarters here, on the fifty-fifth floor. I may add or remove members of this team as necessary.”

  “So wait,” Tracee said, “time travel…” she was shaking her head.

  “Yes,” General Umar said. “It’s real. It was invented some years ago. Of course it cannot be public knowledge. No one can know that this technology exists. Our job is to complete the mission while assuring the stability of time. Everything must remain the same.”

  With a look a Donovan he added, “Or mostly the same.”

  Donovan was startled out of his dejected mood. So General Umar had thought that far ahead. He knew what this would cost. Donovan wondered if the others had realized it yet.

  Probably not. They were still trying to wrap their minds around the idea of time travel, let alone its implications.

  “Parker, you’ll be in charge of all the travel details of this mission. You will be the pilot of all vessels. You will also act as a guard for Knight in cases of combat.”

  Donovan shot him a displeased look.

  “Not that he needs it,” the General added. “The rest of you will serve as backup for Knight. You are to help him conduct searches and, if necessary, you will help Parker to defend him. Protecting his life is a priority. If he’s killed, our number one link to Tobias is lost. We’ll lose our edge. Is that understood?”

  “Yes, sir,” they all said in unison.

  “Your first assignment is to conduct a search of Tobias’s home. He just left town for a business trip in China. He does have surveillance in his house. You’ll need to destroy any evidence that you were there. I’ll be sending you his address. Approach from a distance. You’re dismissed.”

  They filed out of the room. Tracee took the lead and gestured for them to follow her. They crowded into the elevator in the hall outside and went all the way to the basement.

  The basement was where Fort Belvoir kept its fleet. There were skycars, skycycles, jets, and space craft. All state-of-the-art vehicles and vessels. Tracee led them to a small jetcar. It was a mix between a skycar and a jet plane. It was slightly larger than a skycar but had the speed and comfort of a jet. The sleek metal was a shiny silver but had blue stripes along the short wings. Tracee pressed the button on her key and the jet beeped, much like a skycar would. A set of stairs lowered to the ground from the right side.

  The inside was all leather and pinewood surfaces. There were two seats up front—for the pilot and copilot
. Tracee sat in the pilot’s seat. Paula took the copilot seat. The rest of the crew took seats in the back, each of which was like a comfortable leather chair nailed down to the floor of the jetcar. The seatbelt reminded Donovan of a child’s car seat. One strap came from each side to buckle in the middle. Some inner mechanism pulled the belt tight across his chest, keeping him securely in place.

  Tracee turned on the engine and stood to face the rest of them.

  “Listen up,” she said. “While you’re on my aircraft, you are to follow my orders at all times. In the event that I should become incapacitated, the copilot will take over.”

  Eric smirked. “We’re only going to search a house. It’s not like we’re going into battle.”

  “If Tobias is capable of infecting the human race with a deadly virus, then who knows what else he’s capable of?” Tracee gave the man a stern look. “We have no idea what defenses he has in his house. We have no idea if this will escalate. We’ll aim to make this go as smoothly as possible, but in the event that our plans fail, we need a chain of command in place while aboard this vessel.”

  “Yes, but…”

  “That’s enough.” Tracee’s eyebrows dipped low in a forceful warming, “That is the chain of command while aboard my jetcar. While on the ground, Brigadier General Knight will take the lead and I will be second in command. Is that understood?”

  Something in the way Tracee stood, staring Eric down, made him shut up and nod. Donovan was impressed. He felt that tingling in his extremities that was becoming all too familiar.

  When Tracee turned her back, the other guys fell into silent fits of laughter. Eric’s ears turned red.

  Tracee took the pilot’s seat and raised the aircraft from the ground. It floated gently around the basement, passing all of the other vessels as it looped up and around. Finally, they came to a huge slot in the wall that led outside to ground level.

  Tracee flew the jetcar straight ahead, picking up a massive amount of speed all at once. Donovan was almost afraid that she would knock off a mirror as they sped through the narrow opening. The jetcar made it safely out and within seconds they were in the air, soaring above Fort Belvoir.

  Tracee put his grandfather’s address into the navigation system. Donovan wasn’t sure where his grandfather lived in this time period.

  “Where are we going?” he asked.

  “Atlanta, Georgia.”

  The trip didn’t take long. Within an hour they had crossed the border into the state. Tracee landed just outside the city, right at the edge of the forest. She turned on the Mirage Builder installed on the vessel, and it blended into its surroundings. To any passerby there was nothing more there than trees, grass, and birds.

  They walked the additional mile into the city using the navigation system on Tracee’s watch. Once they reached the first tall skyscraper, Tracee came to a halt.

  “Tobias’s home is not far—about a mile southwest. From here, we’ll head to the nearest rental skycar place. We’ll rent a vehicle and disguise it with the Mirage Builder on my watch. We’re going to be in the renovation business today. Once that’s done, we’ll enter the target’s house.”

  She glanced at Donovan when she mentioned the target. Everyone else was not so subtle—they all looked at him questioningly.

  “What?” Donovan snapped.

  “Well, this is your grandfather isn’t it?” Eric asked.

  “What’s your point?”

  “The point is,” Paula said, stepping forward, “whose side are you really on? If you feel conflicted, we’d be more than happy to conduct this search without you.”

  Only in retrospect did his team’s random glances in his direction and the whispers behind the hands become significant. He had been too preoccupied with thoughts of his existence to notice that his peers didn’t trust him.

  You’re slipping Knight. Donovan could hear General McGregor’s voice in his head.

  “Look,” he said. He looked each of them in the eye as he spoke. “I’m risking my life for this mission. What do you think will happen to me if we fail? That I’ll go back to my time-skipping happy life because my grandfather managed to escape? My wife and children have this virus. When I left, my wife was already sick. If we fail, my family dies and so do I.”

  Donovan could see that they were less skeptical now. They were ready to trust him enough to follow him into enemy territory, even if they didn’t trust him implicitly. But Donovan couldn’t stop speaking, so caught up in the emotion of what he was saying. It was as if saying it out loud finally made it real.

  “And if we succeed?” Donovan continued. “I still die. It’ll change the future so that I was never raised by my grandfather—I’ll be an entirely different person. In essence, the man who stands before you will no longer exist. So no one gets to question my loyalty. I’m screwed either way. But at least if we succeed my wife will still live. I may still meet her… She may still give birth to the same children.”

  Donovan realized that if he kept going his composure would break.

  “No one gets to question me.”

  e stomped forward and they all stepped aside to let him pass. He didn’t turn around to see if they had followed. He didn’t care. He would get to the bottom of this whole fiasco with or without their help.

  Moments later, he heard their footsteps behind him, crunching through the underbrush.

  Donovan searched for the nearest car rental business and put the address in his watch’s navigation system. They arrived within minutes. Tracee secured the skycar with the funds the military assigned to the mission. They flew to a deserted alley with no windows and made sure the coast was clear before using Mirage Builder to change the vehicle into a renovating team’s skycar.

  His grandfather’s house was huge—the size of a small mansion. Donovan knew that his grandfather hated living up high in apartments. He hated sharing space with other people. In the future, he convinced the local government of Santa Monica to let him have his own property on the condition that he used his land to grow food. Apparently, he’d been doing that a long time.

  Judging by the size of the place, they’d probably be there all day. The front of the house was styled much in the way of old houses that Donovan had seen in history books. It looked as if a mayor or senator had lived here in 2020.

  There were four white pillars holding up the balcony that bordered the second floor. The porch was wide and held a rocking chair, a small table, and a hammock. Tons of potted plants and flowers littered the floor and the banister that ran along the front of the house.

  Donovan crossed the yard, which was crowded with vegetable plants and fruit trees, and knocked on the front door. The others crowded around him with buckets of paint and brushes. He knew no one was there—he just had to do this in case anyone was watching—but he had an irrational fear that his grandfather would come to the door.

  When no one answered, Jonathan stepped forward with his phone and held it up to the door knob. There was a click and the door creaked open. Donovan looked at him.

  Jonathan shrugged and smiled mischievously. “I’m a tech specialist. I hacked his security system and programmed a renovation appointment for five minutes ago. The house has been expecting us.”

  Donovan felt ashamed—he hadn’t even assessed the value of his crew before leaving. He had no idea who could do what. No wonder they hadn’t trusted him. It looked as if he didn’t care about this mission at all.

  You have to get a hold of yourself, Knight. You have to focus. General McGregor’s voice was clear in his head again.

  Donovan took a deep breath and walked inside the house. The others marched in purposefully behind him, the sound of their footsteps and the swish of their clothes echoing in the huge space of the foyer. Someone closed the door.

  They were in.

  The foyer was a round room that led off to the other places in the house. To the left was the doorway to the kitchen. Next to that, an opening with a small set of stairs; they led into t
he living room. Directly ahead, a set of steep stairs curved up and away to the right.

  To the right of the stairs were two closed doors. Upon opening them they discovered that the room next to the stairs was a rather extensive science library. They were all awed by it—libraries didn’t really exist anymore. The next door led to a small room filled with leather chairs and solid wood tables. Another door inside the small study opened up to the library.

  Donovan could definitely imagine his grandfather living very comfortably here. This would be paradise to him.

  They began the search.

  Everyone donned a pair of blue latex gloves. They used special military scanners to search for anything out of place—blood, hair, fingerprints. They wanted to know everything they could about Tobias—who kept him company in this large house when he got bored with the library, where he spent most of his time.

  It was clear that Tobias spent many hours inside his library and the attached study. His fingerprints plagued the place, more so than in his own bedroom upstairs. The rest of the rooms in the house were cleared within minutes for lack of anything interesting.

  They didn’t find the lab spoken of in General McGregor’s brief. But Donovan thought that might be because this was an entirely different house—maybe he hadn’t built a lab in this one. Their scanners sensed no extra rooms—no extra security where there should be nothing.

  They concluded that perhaps Tobias hadn’t built the lab yet. If that were so, it would make it even more difficult to find clues. If he was using military labs for his private experiments he would clean up behind himself scrupulously.

  They searched the library the most thoroughly, spending the bulk of their time there, trying to find helpful clues where there were none. The trouble was, they weren’t exactly sure of what they should be looking for.

  The shelves towered above their heads, reaching up to the full two-story height of the house. They were built into the walls, lined with book after book of every shape and size. The room had row after row of tall bookcases, all filled with books, old articles, or periodicals.