Dimension Shift (Hammer's War Book 2)

by James McEwan

  The trip to the spaceport was quick and because no one was paying any attention to anything outside they failed to notice that they were back in the same spaceport where they had landed when they came to Earth. There was no security or customs, no one to check their ID or search their baggage.

  The exited the limo and all took turns giving Quincy a hug, even Kára hugged him. A porter in a white uniform loaded their baggage onto a hover cart and pushed it towards the loading ramp of the yacht that was sitting on the pad. After they said their goodbyes to Quincy, they turned to the board the yacht.

  St. Claire was the first to notice. “Does that yacht look familiar to anyone else?”

  “Looks like hundreds of yachts that I have been on. What makes this one different?” Kára asked.

  “Because we have been on this one before.” Thad said, as he pointed to a short man who appeared at the airlock door.

  “Well I’ll be an Orillia’s uncle!” St. Claire said when he saw his friend walk towards them.

  “I heard you need a lift and I thought well, I’m going that way, they could ride with me” Mr. Black said.

  “Good to see you again, but I thought you were already on your way back to Nueva Texas?” Thad asked as he shook Mr. Black’s hand.

  “I was about to leave when I got a call from the good Doctor. He told me what you had done to save his family and informed me that you were still in need of my help. So I used my contacts to clean up the mess you left behind. Don’t worry, no one is going to be asking any questions now. It has all been buried; no one in the government wants it to get out one of their operatives went rogue. After it was all done I contacted Doctor Hammer, and he told me that you were going back to Nueva Texas, so I thought I would give you all a lift.”

  “I, for one am I glad you chose to hang around. I just love those little sandwiches that your cook makes every day” St. Claire said, and everyone laughed.

  The trip back to Nueva Texas was better than the one to Earth just because Thad knew that he was almost home. Once they were on Nueva Texas Mr. Black bid them goodbye, then had them transported in a black limo straight to the hospital.

  The trio found the room in which Thad had first appeared. Just outside the door, Thad stopped. “Okay this is the point of no return. Are you sure about this?” St. Claire and Kára both nodded in agreement. “Al lright, first thing Doctor Hammer said is that I have to turn off my particle stabilizer. Now, he said, there could a risk of me dematerializing and not coming back, so if that happens, take this.” Thad handed St. Claire the repaired trans-dimension device. “That way if I disappear you can still cross over.”

  Thad held up the device that stabilized his particles. “Here goes nothing.” he pushed the button and the light that indicated it was working, went dark. At first, nothing happened then Thad became slightly transparent, then he was solid again.

  St. Claire slapped Thad on the back. “Looks like you’re still with us.”

  “For now, let’s get this done before it happened again.” Thad said.

  “One quick question, are we going to need one of those?” Kára asked.

  “Doctor Hammer said that my particles were fine until I came in contact with Marcus. That is what made them unstable, so if you run into your alternate, don’t touch them” Thad said.

  “Good to know” St. Claire noted.

  Thad, St. Claire, and Kára found the right hospital room and slipped inside. Unfortunately, the room was not empty. Inside they found an old man lying in the bed. He had tubes stuck in all kinds of places and when he looked up at the three, St. Claire was quick to speak. “Sorry to bother you Sir, but we are the housekeeping managers and we are just checking the work of our housekeeping bots.”

  The old man looked at them strangely. “It takes three of you?”

  “Yes Sir, you know how big bureaucracies are. I do the work and she has to check my work, then he has to approve of the oversight, and so on, and so on.” St. Claire answered back.

  “Oh, okay.” The old man seemed to buy their excuse.

  Thad whispered. “Over here.” He led them to the spot that he was standing when he crossed over. “Now for this to work both of you need to be holding on to me. Kára, you on this side and St. Claire on the other.” Both of them took ahold of Thad’s arms. Flanking him on both sides, they were ready.

  “Does it hurt much?” St. Claire asked.

  “Why would you ask that?” Kára asked him.

  “What? I just want to know if I need to start being manly now.” He smiled at her.

  “No, it didn’t hurt the first time, but I have no idea about this time” Thad said.

  “Very comforting” St. Claire mumbled.

  Thad held up the device. “Here goes nothing.” He pushed the button to activate. A flashed blue energy washed over the trio, faded and disappeared.

  The old man watched them go, and then a young and very attractive nurse entered the room. He smiled at her. “You seem to be in a good mood, Mr. Goodson.” she said.

  “Why wouldn’t I? I just died and went to heaven” he said, as she checked the monitor with his vitals on it.

  “What makes you say that?” she asked.

  “It must be heaven, because I just watched three bureaucrats disappear right before my eyes, and we all know that lawyers, billionaires, and bureaucrats are not allowed in heaven” he said, with a large smile.

  The three felt the same buzzing feeling that Thad felt the first time he crossed over. Their vision faded to darkness then back to what looked like the same room, but in this room, a pregnant woman was in the middle of giving birth. Her husband was coaching her to breathe, while the doctor was between her legs giving updates as the baby’s head was starting to crown. All the nurses had their backs to the corner of the room when the trio materialized. Only the woman saw them appear.

  She started screaming and her husband squeezed her hand. “It’s okay honey, breath.”

  She stopped screaming at turned to her husband. “It’s not the baby you idiot, it’s them!” she pointed.

  Everyone in the room turned to look at what she was pointing at. Thad waved. “Hi there! We come in peace.”

  “Who are you and what are you doing in here?” The doctor demanded.

  St. Claire was quick on his feet. “Sorry about this, bad college prank. You see my students were playing with the new matter transfer beam and they thought it would be funny to beam us over here.”

  “Oh, well, then please leave, I’m trying to deliver a baby!” the doctor commanded.

  St. Claire and Thad made straight for the door, while Kára walked up to the bedside and touched the woman on the hand. “Congratulations dear.”

  “Thanks” she said, with a mixed look on her face.

  Thad left the room and went straight to the nursing station. “Excuse me, but I was just wondering about a patient. Fiona Hammer, she would have been here about two months ago?”

  The nurse was an older black woman who reminded him more of a battlefield commander than a nurse. “Hm, let me see. Nope, no one by that name two months ago.” she said as she looked through the records. Thad’s heart broke, worried that he had missed his own dimension. “Wait.” Thad’s hope perked. “Yep! Fiona Hammer and her sister Freya were both patients here, but that was a year ago.

  Freya was a patient, he wondered why. Then it hit him. “A year ago? That can’t be right.” he said, as he grabbed the screen and swung it around to see for himself.

  “Well just help yourself Mr.!” The nurse chided him with hands on her hips.

  He read the screen and was floored. “There must be some kind of time distortion between universes” Thad blurted out.’

  “Look sugar, I don’t know what you are going on about, but you best be getting your hands off my screen and get off my floor before I call security, and it won’t be to throw you out, but to protect you from me!” the nurse said, with her arms crossed and a stern look on her face.

  “Sorry” was
all Thad could say, as he turned the screen back around.

  “Damn straight, now you get on out of here!” She barked at them.

  “Come on Thad I think she means it” St. Claire said, as he pulled the stunned Thad towards the lift.

  In the lift, Thad’s mind was spinning. “A year, they must think me dead. I need to get home.”

  “Why don’t you just comm them and let them know you are alive and back?” St. Claire asked.

  “Yeah, that would go over well. 'Hey honey I am alive and I have been in another universe for a year, how are you?'” Thad said, in a mocking tone.

  “I guess that is kind of something would want to do in person” St. Claire admitted, once he thought about it.

  “Besides, my home is not the easiest place to put a comm call through to” Thad remarked.

  “Where is your home anyway?” St. Claire asked.

  “The moon of Nome.”

  “Where?”

  “Exactly.”

  “Oh.”

  The door to the lift opened and the trio exited into the lobby of the hospital. They made their way to the cafeteria and ordered some food. Thad used a number on one of his accounts to pay for it, further proof he was home. “My accounts seem to be here” he said.

  “That is good, so now what?” St. Claire took a bite of a sandwich.

  “I have to do something before I go home, but what about you? What are you two going to do?” Thad popped a chip into his mouth.

  Kára, who had been quiet since they left the room, spoke. “While you two were going on like a couple school girls, I have been busy hacking the government systems to create new IDs for us. It turns out that the St. Claire of this universe retired from the police force and turned private investigator and disappeared on his first case. He is presumed dead and there is a hearing for anyone to come forth and claim his assets scheduled for this afternoon. So if we hurry you can step into his life.”

  “That would be a lot easier than creating a new life” Thad said, then ate another chip.

  “Then, what are we waiting for? Let’s get going!” St. Claire said, then jumped up to leave.

  Thad stood up and shook his new friend's hand. “Take care of yourself Dom, and if you ever need me or just want to say hi you can reach me through this comm frequency.” Thad wrote the number down on a napkin and handed it to him.

  “Thanks, I will be calling. You can count on it” St. Claire said, and then turned to leave. Then he stopped, turned back around and came back. He had in his hand a strange looking coin with some kind of circular writing on it. “I got this from a funny man in a red fez and he told me that when the time came I would know what to do with it ...” he paused and handed it to Thad “he was right. I believe he intended it to go to you.”

  Thad took the coin and rolled over in his hand. “What am I supposed to do with it?”

  “I would tell you the same thing he told me. You will know what to do with it when the time is right. Take care my friend.” St. Claire and then left before Thad could say anything else.

  Chapter 34

  It didn’t take long for Thad to find his mother in this universe. Here, she had not retired but stayed in the Star Guard. She had been promoted to Admiral, which didn’t surprise him in the least. What surprised him was where she was currently stationed. She was here in New Dallas, assigned to oversee the dismantling of the organization that created him.

  After a short cab ride to the Red Star Mining Corporation headquarters building, he found himself staring at the large glass doors that comprised its main entrance. Thad thought about trying to sneak into the building and up to her office, but he decided to try the direct approach.

  He entered the building and passed through the security checkpoint without a problem. He went straight to the main information desk and asked the young man behind it. “I’m looking for Admiral Amanda Hayes.”

  “Do you have an appointment?” the man asked.

  “No I don’t, but I am pretty sure she will want to see me.” Thad answered the question.

  “And why is that Sir?”

  “Tell her that her son is here to see her.” Thad said.

  “Just a minute Sir, while I comm her secretary” he said, then proceeded to do just that. After a short conversation, he said to Thad. “All right Sir, you can go up. Just take the lift to the…”

  Thad cut him off. “Thanks, I know the way.”

  In a few short minutes and sixty floors later Thad was standing in front of the secretary’s desk looking at the tall wooden doors. The brass nameplate now read Admiral Amanda Hayes. The security was a blond-haired female commander with a warm smile. “You can go in, she is expecting you.”

  “Thank you.” Thad said, then pushed open the tall doors. He walked in to see his mother, his real mother in this universe sitting behind what used to be Thorne ’s wide mahogany desk. She looked the same as she did in the other universe, only she was dressed in the duty uniform of an admiral.

  “I wondered if you would ever show up.”

  “I wondered the same thing myself.” Thad surveyed the redecorated office.

  “Please have a seat.” She pointed to one of leather chairs that faced her desk.

  Thad sat down. “Thank you. I love what you have done with the place, much better than the last time I saw it.”

  “The last time you were here, you left a trail of bodies that covered several floors of this building.”

  “I take it you know about that. Wait! Of course, you know about it, you’re an admiral.”

  “As head of the team that was assigned to clean up the mess, yes I know. I saw the security footage and read the files, at least what was left of them.”

  Interested, Thad leaned forward. “What was left of them?”

  “Yes, it seems that once you went psycho killer on them, Thorne tried to activate a program to scrub the files. The program was able to erase most of the files and most of the footage before something stopped it. We still have no idea how that happened.”

  Eve, that is what happened, he thought. “So what do you know?” Thad was fishing for information.

  “Not much, we have a copy of the completed files that were sent to the police, but any reference to you, and the other people in the footage…”

  He took up where she left off. “And you were hoping that I would fill in the blanks.”

  “I was told that you were a sharp one.” She gave him a warm smile.

  Thad chuckled. “It didn’t take a genius to figure out what you wanted, and yes, I will do what I can.”

  “Good! It would help to fully understand what took place here. However, before we begin I have someone I think you will want to meet.” Amanda stood up. “Please follow me.”

  Thad stood up. “And where are we off to?”

  She smiled. “Nowhere nefarious, I assure you.”

  Thad followed her to the lift, which took them down to the second floor. While in the lift Amanda asked. “There is one thing I would like to know, a personal item about you. Not just what was in the files.”

  “What would you like to know?”

  “Are you a good man?”

  That was not the kind of question that he was expecting. It took him a minute to think of a response. “I have to admit that I didn’t start out as a good man. I was a monster, a killing machine, a man of no morals. However, I would like to think that I have overcome my beginning. I would like to believe that nothing remains of the man that I once was.”

  Amanda smiled. “Sounds like a yes to me.”

  “I guess it is.” Thad returned her smile.

  The lift door opened and she led him to a daycare center. She showed her ID even though everyone knew who she was. Thad was given a visitor ID and they were allowed into the area where Thad saw a bunch of children playing. “The children you see here are all children saved from the program. Once we found out what had been done with our DNA, it was decided that the officers whose DNA was used would be given a cha
nce to adopt the children. After all, they are family. We were able to find homes for all of them. Not one of their families turned them away.”

  “That is good to hear.”

  “Yes I was really proud of it.”

  “This is all very nice to see, but I seem to remember you wanted me to meet someone” Thad reminded her.

  “Ah yes, I did, and there she is!” She pointed to a raven-haired little girl. She looked to be about four years old and she was a little taller than the other children.

  The little girl finally noticed the observers. A large smile formed on her little face. “Grandma!” she squealed, and ran over to them. Amanda bent down and opened her arms. The little girl ran straight into them and hugged her. Amanda scooped her up and hugged her back.

  Thad lifted an eyebrow. “Grandma?”

  “Say Hello to Ruby.” Amanda ignored Thad’s question.

  “Hello Ruby” Thad said, as he looked into her steel gray eyes.

  She smiled at him. “Are you my daddy?”

  “Ah.” Thad didn’t know.

  “Yes dear, this is your father.” Amanda said and handed Ruby over to Thad.

  Ruby hugged his neck tightly. “Oh, I knew you would come for me.” Something about this little person hanging on him that made his heart melt. A tear came to his eye and he didn’t know what to say. Ruby pulled back and locked eyes with him and her little face wrinkled up. “What took you so long?”

  That was it, he needed no other proof she was his daughter. “I’m sorry it took so long, but I was very far away and it took me a long time to get here.” Thad said.

  “That’s okay daddy, you are here now.” she gave him a kiss on the cheek.

  He returned the kiss, and then looked at his mother. She took Ruby back. “Okay honey, your daddy and I have some things to talk about. Why don’t you go back to playing? We will come get you in a little while.”

  The little girl smiled and jumped down. “Okay” she said, and ran back to her friends.

  “I can’t believe it, she is mine?” Thad asked, stunned at this new revelation.