by Larry Hunt
Chapter Forty
GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS
Captain Scarburg was finishing his second cup of coffee preparing to pour his third when the door to his office burst open. He had been at his office since early yesterday morning and had pulled an all-nighter waiting on answers. It was a few minutes past 4 a.m., almost twenty-four hours since Pegasus ‘vanished’. Startled, Grandpa turned to seek the source of the intrusion. It was Mike Watkins.
“What the devil Mike... come on in... hope you have good news.”
“Sorry, Captain, but I knew you wanted answers to the missing Pegasus, and you wanted them as soon as possible. I got’em. As you know, we worked all day yesterday and on through the night. The persons who took Pegasus were clever; they switched off all the cameras and disabled all our intrusion detection devices in effect, at the time Pegasus disappeared. We could not see anything. We had no apparent photographic images, but they did leave a few nice fingerprints on the buttons and knobs they turned to change the flight setting. We extracted the prints and have spent most of the last twenty-four hours having the FBI identify whom they were.”
“Grab a seat Mike and fill me in. What did you find out?”
“Captain, I’ve got some good news and some bad.”
“Oh Mike, please...okay, give me the good news first.”
“We know who ‘stole’ Pegasus.”
“All right give me the bad.”
“It was Forrest and Olive Marie!”
“What? You must be mistaken! Not Forrest and Olive Marie, they are probably at home right this very minute.”
“Already checked Captain, both are missing.”
“I’m not totally surprised, especially after we found his coat, and neither of them came into work yesterday either. They both were upset because I would not let them have an actual part in going back to Dallas. What other information do you have Mike?”
“The security-monitoring camera and computer systems have a backup, but the backup system had been compromised too. We knew from the beginning it was an inside job since it took someone with detailed knowledge of our security systems to change the passwords that allowed us to get into the various computers, and see the security footage. It took our computer guys most of the day and into the night to break the codes, but by the time they had figured them out we had gotten the fingerprint information back from the FBI. The prints were a perfect match for Forrest and Olive Marie.
“Once we were able to gain access, the backup camera system plainly shows Forrest resetting the launch commands on the master control panel, and we also saw both of them entering Pegasus. Forrest set the launch time for ten minutes from the time he pressed the ‘LAUNCH’ button – ten minutes later your time-machine vanished, along with Forrest and Olive Marie.”
Topping off his cup Captain Scarburg walked across the room and sat down. His face was expressionless. Sitting there the Captain stared off into space as if no one were in the room with him, Mike asked, “Captain! Captain, are you all right?”
Taking a sip from his cup, he turned his attention to Mike as if he had not heard Mike’s comment, “Okay, now the big question. Did you determine the destination and period of time they where trying to achieve?”
“Captain, I have not changed any settings on Pegasus since you returned, and the recording computers indicate Forrest only changed the setting for the departure date. He changed it to yesterday’s date December 6, 2012. Forrest and Olive Marie were going back to Texas. If all went well they should have arrived on the same day and in the same place as you did previously. That would be 12:30 p.m., Wednesday, November 20, 1963 in your cow pasture near Celina, Texas.
“Yeah, you’re right. The time and the place had been erroneously changed on the onboard computers. Shouldn’t your master control computer have the arrival date as Friday, November 22, 1963?”
“There was one abnormality to your flight I discovered we didn’t know existed until now. The man I talked to... Clem something or other...”
“Yes, Clem Ruby.”
“Right, Clem Ruby, he reset Pegasus’s computer, but he could change the onboard computer only. The master computer here at SCAR picked up on the change and reprogrammed itself. In doing so the master computer changed another extremely critical date - it changed the Parallel Universe. You left in one Parallel Universe and returned in another. They left in the current Universe, but they are going to arrive in a totally different Parallel Universe. The master computer indicates they are going to another Parallel Universe, one yet to be identified.
“You mean they will not arrive in the same Parallel Universe I was in? What are you saying Mike, speak to me so I can understand! How could this happen?”
“Captain, we never anticipated someone would be able to change the onboard computer to a different time and date as originally set on the master computer. The circuitry on the master just duplicated Pegasus’s computer when it began its return flight, and changed its internal program accordingly.” For some reason, unless we specifically program in the specific Parallel Universe we want to travel to, the master computer will assign the next available Universe in its program.”
“I think I am beginning to understand - tell me if I am wrong - Forrest and Olive Marie changed the departure date to yesterday Thursday, December 6, 2012 at 4:35 a.m. They were destined to Celina, Texas and should arrive on Wednesday, November 20, 1963 but in a different Parallel Universe. Pegasus will leave Texas on Saturday, November 23, 1963 at 12:30. How am I doing?”
“Good, but not so good Captain. You have it right until the coming back part. The master computer has them locked into a return exactly twenty-four hours after their arrival. That would be 12:30 on Thursday, November 21, 1963! They do not have until Saturday the 23rd!”
“Wait a minute Mike. Are you telling me...? What exactly are you telling me?
“Captain, I believe Forrest arrived on Wednesday the 20th, and will assume he and Olive Marie will have until Saturday the 23rd to get back inside Pegasus and return to the 2012. I’m afraid if they wait until Saturday they are going to be two days late. Pegasus IS going to leave on Thursday the 21st!”
“Okay Mike, now I’m really getting worried. Tell me exactly when we should expect Pegasus to reappear in the lab.”
“I have already given this some thought Captain. If they left here at 4:35 a.m. yesterday morning, regardless of the 12:30 arrival time in Texas, Pegasus will disappear at 4:35 a.m., our time today and return to our lab.
From Forrest and Olive’s prospective Pegasus will disappear Thursday at 12:30, their time.”
“So, Mike your saying we have to sweat it out until 4:35 tomorrow morning?”
“I’m afraid not Captain. I have been trying to call them using the Tachyon communication system, but a couple of things had to have happened for it to work. To begin, Forrest or Olive Marie must have had their Smartphones with them, and they must have the phones turned on. For the Smartphones to work, even if they are turned on, they will still have to have to be within five miles of Pegasus. I tried every hour on the hour since yesterday morning, without success.”
“What are you saying Mike?”
“Captain you have six minutes until Pegasus should return and I emphasis ‘should’ because we are never sure it WILL return, but if it’s coming back it should reappear downstairs in our lab with Forrest and Olive Marie inside in a few minutes.”
The time was 4:29 a.m., Friday, December 7, 2012.
