Aliomenti Saga 6: Stark Cataclysm (28 page)

Charlie looked confused. “But why? We got everything we needed from your memories. There’s no need to get back in.”

“I know,” Fil said. “I’m doing this for reasons of my own.”

Charlie shook his head. “I don’t understand.”

Fil stepped into the chair. “I’ve spent decades now struggling to sleep at night because the instant I fall asleep, I have dreams of my wife and daughter dying. I remember the news stories and conversations about the damage I caused after. Those memories are so overwhelming that I can’t remember them before that time. I don’t remember what my wife sounded like, Charlie. I don’t remember what it felt like when my daughter flew into my arms.” He took a deep breath. “But earlier, when I was in this chair, remembering what happened the day of the fire? I felt
everything
. Heard everything. It was like Mom was there with me. I could feel her holding my hand. I could almost…
almost
… sense Dad standing next to me. I could hear their voices, really
hear
them, not just remember the words. I realized something. I could use this machine to truly remember Sarah and Anna. Maybe, just maybe, if I can remember what they were like when they were alive, I’ll finally be able to get some closure.”

Charlie stared at him. “I had no idea.” He motioned Fil into the machine and closed the machine. “Take as long as you need. I’ll be here. as long as you need me.”

Fil felt a rush of excitement. He’d finally “see” Sarah and Anna once more.

As the cocoon sealed, his words slipped out. “Thanks, brother.”

XVI

Testing

2175 A.D.

Angel looked at the sleek craft in front of her and nodded with satisfaction. “It looks pretty good, doesn’t it?”

They’d created three-dimensional digital models of the time machine by merging images culled from the memories of the Fire. The full sized model would remain here until they used it for the trip back in time to rescue her father, a man she’d never met in person.

She’d always been able to sense his presence, or more accurately his existence. Her ability didn’t seem to be dependent on distance. She could sense Fil with the same intensity whether he was in the same building or on the other side of the planet. She’d accepted without hesitation that isolation was his way of protecting her and Fil. She’d long wondered if that was truly necessary; by all accounts, just by virtue of her parentage, she ought to be able to hold her own against any Aliomenti of negative intent. And Fil, having managed to get the older, Energy-trained Will as
his
father… well, surely nothing could possibly hurt
him
, right?

And then the Hunters snuck into Fil’s house while he’d been out of town, Dampered little Anna, escorted both of them to their own craft for a return to Headquarters. They’d never know what the Hunters of the Leader intended to do with them, for the insane new Assassin, Abaddon, absconded with the two of them with a plan to unleash Armageddon.

In hindsight, now, her father’s decision to stay hidden, to stay away, to avoid drawing any type of Aliomenti attention, seemed all the wiser.

If she and Charlie ever had children, if she was ever able to overcome the hurdles of ambrosia, she’d probably do the same thing. She’d probably do what so many others had done and raise her children in the Cavern or one of the undersea ports where detection wasn’t a concern.

Perhaps by then it wouldn’t be necessary to try to hide.

“I think we can smooth it up a little bit,” the Mechanic sad. “But it’s perfectly sealed, and that’s the key right now.” He nodded at the smaller replica, one-tenth the size of the original. “Is our test craft ready?”

“I’ve got the battery juiced up and installed in the front of the vehicle,” Fil said. “How far are we moving it into the future?”

“Ten seconds,” Adam said. “Just enough time to know that it’s vanished, but not so long that we need to wait a seeming eternity for it to reappear.” He frowned. “Or fail to reappear, as the case may be.”

“Be positive,” Eva said. “The tests are done now to identify errors that would be far more disastrous when the three of you are traveling.”

“Fair enough,” Adam replied. He stepped up to the craft and looked inside, checking the settings on the dashboard. Fil’s initial belief that the time machine was an automobile was no accident. The travelers were old enough to be familiar with old ground cars, and the style was conducive to the cargo they’d transport. Angel noted that six–year-old Fil would be far less frightened of a time machine that looked like a “cool car” than some unfamiliar design.

More importantly, they wanted to ensure that the craft they used meshed with the memories of what had already happened.

“Okay, I’ve set it to jump forward to 3:05pm,” Adam said. “Mechanic, if you can check my entries?”

Adam backed away from the machine the Mechanic slid next to the craft. Adam would bear “navigator” responsibilities, responsible for ensuring that all of the components were operational before each leg of the journey. Fil would be responsible for collecting everything other than their father—including, to his disgust, the Assassin—and Angel would handle boring the tunnel they’d use to transport their father to safety.

The Mechanic, who’d overseen a large portion of the construction effort, checked the settings. “This looks perfect. The settings to the right hand side of the display will control the physical coordinates. Right now, they’re set to the current location of the craft. If for some reason I’m not around when it’s time to send Will Stark to the distant past, make sure that you adjust those coordinates to the spot where he’s supposed to arrive.”

Adam frowned. “Any reason you
wouldn’t
be around to set things up?”

“None that I know of,” the Mechanic replied. “But it’s always best to have a backup plan.”

Adam nodded. “Quite true.”

“Anyone want to volunteer to hit the start button?” Fil asked.

“I’ll do it,” Angel said. She leaned into the cabin, pressed the large green button on the dash, and leaned back. The activation button triggered the machine to check all component systems, form the top and seal the cabin, and make the jump through time once the time circuits had pulled in sufficient power from the batteries. They’d constructed the top from new nanos based on the future technology recovered from Pleasanton.

Angel listened as the time travel circuits warmed up, drawing power from the battery Fil had charged. They watched the clock, watched as the seconds ticked down to the launch.

“Three… two… one… now!”

The time machine shivered and did… nothing.

Angel felt her spirits sink. She’d been convinced it would work perfectly the first time. The craft would disappear and then materialize in the same spot ten seconds later. The clocks they’d synced inside and outside the craft would be ten seconds apart when compared, proving the machine had jumped forward in time.

But the craft hadn’t moved.

The Mechanic seemed unperturbed by the failure. “This is a good start. The time circuits activated and drew power. The circuits didn’t fire, however. We need to investigate that.”

They stood a moment in silence. Angel wished Charlie was there, able to offer insights. But he was in South America, scouting for the sites they’d use before and after the Hunters tracked her father. There wasn’t much information on the location, only a blurry image of a map in the Aliomenti aircraft Will had used to complete his escape from Headquarters. Charlie expected the trip to take several months. She was glad they were spending so much time working with the time machine; it made the time apart pass more quickly.

Fil started laughing. “Well, we don’t know if the machine works or not. We didn’t set the seconds, so it thought it was supposed to leave at exactly 3:05 and arrive at exactly 3:05. The correct action was exactly what we saw.”

The others looked at each other and laughed as well. “A glorious triumph for science,” the Mechanic quipped. “At least this time I didn’t fall on my backside.”

They set to work. Angel used a remote to open the top of the machine. Adam powered the time circuits down. The Mechanic checked the readings on the dashboard for any other potential issues. Fil opened the front of the vehicle, pulled out the battery, inserted his hand into the opening, and discharged Energy to refill the battery. Angel and Adam did a visual inspection of the machine, searching for any structural damage. The machine worked by warping time between two points, “folding” the times together. The warping effect would cause instant death to anyone exposed. A complete seal was essential, and physical inspections after each jump critical.

Angel kept an eye on the clock. They needed to understand how long it took to handle the startup process. There was no evidence they’d need to do anything—not even recharge a battery—but as the Mechanic had noted, contingency plans were important. They’d carry far more charged batteries than they needed to prevent need for a recharge and build the machine to pull from all batteries at the same time.

Fil finished the charging effort and installed the battery back inside the craft. “How long?”

“Inspection and recharging took seven minutes and eleven seconds,” Angel replied.

“Too long,” Adam said. “Given everything we have to accomplish in our time back in 2030 and the window we have, we wouldn’t be able to get through all of this.”

Angel nodded. She checked the clock, then looked at the Mechanic. “How far can the machine travel with the battery fully charged?”

He considered. “For the smaller model, we’re using a smaller, low capacity battery, so… thirty minutes? Maybe an hour?” He nodded as he spoke. “That’s actually something we need to test and plot out. Run tests for various amounts of time, note how much energy is used, and refine our formulas. We need to know how much energy we need for all of the trips, and really can’t afford to run out of power during a time jump.”

Angel felt a chill. The idea of her father vanishing—truly vanishing—was terrifying. Time seemed to operate in a loop once travel through the fourth dimension occurred. Their existence today meant their father had made the trip successfully the
last
time he’d existed on the loop. If they failed
this
time, though, if they didn’t build the machine correctly, or if they didn’t supply enough power, he’d vanish, her mother would likely die before turning twenty, and she and Fil would never exist. Would they cease to exist on
this
time loop? She didn’t care to think about that. “Whatever the computed answer might be, we should add a large contingency.”

“Agreed,” Fil replied. “I don’t care if all of us are filling batteries for a week leading up to the trip. We can’t leave anything to chance.”

Angel checked the clock. “If we set the target time to 4:30, we should be fine.”

Adam nodded. They repeated the process once more. Adam set the time circuit targets, the Mechanic confirmed all was well, and Angel activated the device. She heard the thrum as the time circuits activated and teleported out.

Thirty seconds later, the craft disappeared, winking out of existence as if they’d turned off a light switch.

All heads swiveled toward the clock—4:22.

They each took a few steps back. They’d not tested the ability to move the machine to different physical coordinates just yet, but as a precaution had marked a “safe zone” around the perimeter of the machine. If the craft moved and reappeared in the same place one of them occupied… well, they didn’t want to find out what happened.

Angel looked at her brother. “I’m heading outside until 4:30. Need some fresh air.”

Fil and the others nodded, and she walked through the wall of the building.

There were many depopulated regions of the planet even now, a century after the Cataclysm. They’d found an abandoned tract of land on what had once been New Zealand and had set up a series of buildings created from nanokits. They lived here, conducted their tests on this plot of land, unwilling to test the machine inside a Port or the Cavern. They didn’t know what a malfunctioning machine with batteries storing mammoth amounts of electricity might do. They kept their tests here to limit any potential damage. Still, she worried. What if one of their tests resulted in a time machine materializing atop someone hundreds of miles away? She shuddered. Best to keep the negative thoughts away. She wasn’t as powerful as Fil, but she’d felt her Energy strain to attack when her emotions were aroused. No point in becoming fearful of something that hadn’t happened, and in the process causing damage she didn’t intend. Fil had given her the ultimate example of what could go wrong.

Fil stepped through the wall and waved her back in. “It’s here.” There was a smile upon his face, a rare sight since the Cataclysm.

It was
here
?

Angel sprinted back to the building and through the wall, nearly colliding with Fil. It was there, right where it had started. The exterior was slightly less glossy than before, but was otherwise intact. She pulled the remote from her pocket and dissolved the top before they moved in to investigate.