Musings From A Demented Mind (7 page)

                     Valparaiso, IN

“These shall do fine,” Melinda said as Dave handed her several dresses off of the rack in the Goodwill. 

Several people were staring at them.

“We just got back from a sci-fi convention,” Dave said loudly.  “Go back to what you’re doing.”

“Thanks again for helping us,” Melinda said as she grabbed several dresses for her daughter.  “Kendra, you’ll look cute in these.”

“Really, mom, flowers.  When have you ever seen me in flowers?”

“Kendra, we have to blend in.”

“I found several flannel shirts for your sons,” Dave said.  “I hope they are ok out there in my van.”

“They’re checking the database from this timeframe.  Hopefully they can find a way to send us back to our time.”

“Melinda, why did you come to my time anyway?”  Dave asked.

“Our compound was under attack.  By whom, we don’t know.  If it wasn’t for our friend, Marty, we would have never been able to escape in time.  We didn’t have time to adjust the year to travel back to.  This is where the tranzer decided to send us for some reason.”

“Why go back to it then?”

“We’re planning on traveling back before the attack and hopefully stop it from happening,” Kendra answered.

“Do you have a plan?”

“Hopefully, Garth and Jepkins can come up with one.  I think we have enough clothing.  Can you afford all of these?”

“Trust me, with their prices, this is nothing.”

After paying for the clothing, they walked outside and over to the van.  Garth had the passenger window down and was waiving at them.

“Did you find something?”  Melinda asked.

“I think I found a way home,” he answered excitedly.

“That’s good news,” Dave said.

“There’s a problem.  This won’t be easy. Dave, do you know how to get to Edwards Air Force’s remote base in Nevada?”

“Area 51?”  Dave looked at him stunned.  He knew he was getting himself involved in a suicide mission.  “You just don’t walk onto that base.”

“That’s why we need to come up with a clever plan.  We’ll discuss it on the way there,” Garth said.

Melinda stared at David with a look which made his heart almost melt.  “I guess we’re going to Nevada.  We better stop and get something to eat first.  We have a couple of days drive ahead of us.”

               Edwards Air Force Base

                    Area 51, Nevada

“What do you think could have caused an energy spike of that magnitude?”  Malcom asked.

“Sir, I’m not sure.”  Wayne stared at the computer screen sorting through all the data the satellite had transmitted.  “I have a drone en route to Valparaiso.  I hope that whatever the source of the energy spike is it’s still there and we can find it.”

“Imagine the possibilities if we could harness that type of energy,” Mason said, looking at the data on his laptop.  “The energy there could be the key to making the J’onn 6 go even farther into space at a faster speed.”

“Then finding this energy source is a top priority.  Wayne, contact Agent Venable and send his team to Valparaiso.  Have them poke around and see if anybody witnessed anything out of the ordinary,” Malcolm commanded.

“Right away.”  Mason rushed out of the room.

Malcom looked out the window of the conference room toward the J’onn 6 sitting in the hangar below.  He looked back over at Wayne who was on the phone with the mission control center at NASA.  He looked concerned.

“Wayne, what’s wrong?”

“Jennifer Perez at NASA just informed me the energy readings the satellites picked up match the ones we detected in 1947 before the spacecraft crashed in Roswell.” 

“Put the base on high alert,” Malcolm ordered.  “I’m going to contact the Pentagon.”

“Sir?”

“I think we have some unwanted visitors,” he said as he rushed out of the conference room.

                       Queen’s Diner

                    Outside of Chicago

“They won’t let us onto the air base.  It’s a government installation, not a tourist attraction,” Dave warned as he bit into a potato wedge.

“That’s not the plan.  I found a conspiracy theorist website that had an article about a top secret spacecraft spotted flying around Area 51.  There is a sketch of the spacecraft and it’s definitely the tranzer.  This must be the year the tranzer went fully operational, which is why it transported us to this timeframe.  I can hack into its system using your tablet and pilot it out of the base and directly to us,” Garth explained.

“How did it end up in your timeframe?”  Dave asked.

“On the tranzer’s first mission, it traveled far out of our solar system and hit a ripple in the space time continuum and ended up in our timeframe, 2684.  Our scientists were able to develop a way to make time travel possible from the data it collected.  It sits in a hangar at our compound and when it’s activated, it spins around at a speed so fast it creates a gateway through time.”

“That is why we think the compound was attacked.  Our enemies wanted possession of the tranzer,” Jepkins said.

“If they took control of your compound, wouldn’t they be able to travel through time also?” Dave asked

“It will take time for them to figure out how to use the tranzer, which gives us a few days to complete our mission.  We are going to travel to a few hours before the compound was attacked.  We will have our forces defeat whoever was behind the attack. We’ll need to fly the tranzer out of the solar system and through that ripple in the space time continuum.  I’ve memorized the data it collected on that mission when I was at the compound.  I’m sure I can travel its exact course.  For this to work, our future selves still have to travel back in time and encounter you, Dave,” Garth explained.

“Sounds like we’ll be in an endless time travel loop,” Kendra pointed out.

“Unless this doesn’t work,” Jepkins said.

“It will,” Melinda assured.  “Garth’s plans always do.”

             Edwards Air Force Base

                   Area 51, Nevada

“Sir, I think you should see this YouTube video someone from Valparaiso recently posted,” Wayne suggested.

Malcom stood behind Wayne as he played the video.  It was filmed off of someone’s cell phone.  He could see two females in silver metallic uniforms grabbing clothes off of a rack.  An older, balding gentleman, wearing a blue flannel shirt and black slacks, was handing a dress to one of the females.

“Can you enhance the audio?” Malcom asked.

“Yes.  Give me a second.  Let’s replay it.”

“Our compound was under attack.  By whom, we don’t know.  If it wasn’t for our friend, Marty, we would have never been able to escape in time.  We didn’t have time to adjust the year to travel back to.  This is where the tranzer decided to send us for some reason.”

“Why go back to it then?”

“We’re planning on traveling back before the attack and hopefully stop it from happening,” Kendra answered.

“Do you have a plan?”

“Hopefully, Garth and Jepkins can come up with one.  I think we have enough clothing.  Can you afford all of these?”

“Time travelers?”  Malcolm ordered him to replay the video.  After watching it a second time, he leaned over Wayne’s shoulder.  “Pull up the files from Roswell 1947.  I want to see the clothing the pilot was wearing.”

Wayne turned toward him in shock after looking at the photos from the Roswell files.  “They are wearing the same clothing!”

“I know.”

“I’m confused.  I thought little green men were piloting the spacecraft that crashed.”

“No, Wayne, it is what the government wanted people to believe.  The pilot was actually human.”

“Human?”

“Apparently from the future.  Which means the ship from Roswell had the ability to travel through time.”  Malcom looked at the paused video.  “Run the facial recognition software and get me a name on the guy who was with them.”

“Yes, sir.”

After a couple of hours of running the facial recognition software, the computer matched his image with the image from the Indiana BMV database.  Wayne rushed out of the conference room and into Malcom’s office.  “I have a name.”

“Who is he?”

“Dave Alexander.  He drives a green 2010 Ford E-Series Van.  He recently used his debit card at the Queen’s Diner outside of Chicago.”

“Check all the traffic cams around the diner.  Maybe one of them picked up his van.  Have our team head toward Chicago.  Once we have a visual on the van, send the drone to follow it.  We need to know where they are heading,” Malcolm ordered.

                      Valparaiso, Indiana

Agent Rick Venable watched two older women walk on the sidewalk at the Bicentennial Park in Valparaiso, Indiana.  A large family was having a party at the shelter in the middle of the park.  He was checking the radiation levels with his small Geiger meter while Agent Marilyn Austin stood next to him.  They were both dressed in blue t-shirts and sweats and also wearing sunglasses to blend in with the rest of the people at the park.  Even with her reddish hair tied back in a ponytail, she still looked like she was a federal agent.

“Radiation levels are a little high, but nothing to cause alarm.”  He kneeled down pretending to tie his left shoe and inspected the grass that had a black outline from being burnt by something.  “I think this was made by the source of the energy surge.”

“The black outline goes all the way over here,” Marilyn said as she followed the black outline toward the backside of the park.  “Whatever it was, it was massive.”

Rick snapped a few pictures of the ground and emailed them to Malcolm.  A few seconds later his phone rang.  “Malcolm, yes we are at its location.  Time travel?  If what you say is true, we’re standing where they came through.  No, there are no traffic cameras around the park.  The park is away from the main road.  Yes, sir.”

Marilyn walked over to him, trying to listen in on the conversation.  As he ended the call, he looked at her puzzled.  “Apparently, we are dealing with time travelers.”

“What’s our next move?”

“A diner in Chicago.”

               On I-80 Somewhere in Iowa

After a several hours drive on I-80, Dave and his group were heading through Iowa toward Nebraska.  Melinda was telling Dave about growing up in the future, meeting her late husband, and working with her children at the compound.

“Sounds like you’ve had a very interesting life,” Dave said.  “I think the most interesting thing I’ve ever done was to travel through Russia when I was younger.”

Kendra listened closely to the music.  “Excuse me, Dave.  What is this music?  I really like this one you’re playing.”

“This is the White Album by the Beatles, which is one of my all-time favorites.”

“This is better than the music from our time,” Kendra said.

“You don’t have rock ‘n’ roll in the future?”

“Our music is more ambient.  The Beatles are probably in our archives though,” Melinda explained.

From a safe distance behind the van, the drone followed them.

                   Edwards Air Force Base

                      Area 51, Nevada

Kyle Clark watched the video feed of the van the drone was following.   He was the UAS, Unmanned Aircraft Systems Operator, assigned to the base.  Wayne stood behind him watching the video feed.  He was reminded of the time he and his girlfriend had been glued to the television watching the police chase OJ Simpson’s white Bronco. 

“How long has he been on I-80?”

“Sir, for several hours.”

“He’s heading for Nevada,” he said as he realized where the van could possibly be heading.  “They’re heading for this base.”

“Sir?”

He stood there silently for several minutes thinking about all the reasons the time travelers could be heading their way.  He rushed out of the Systems Operations Room and into the conference room.  He walked up to the window and peered down at the J’onn 6.  He remembered Malcolm mentioning the crashed spacecraft from Roswell could possibly possess time travel capabilities.  He became concerned as he realized the danger they were in.  He rushed out of the conference room and into Malcolm’s office.  “They’re after the J’onn 6!”

“Are you certain?”

“The J’onn 6 is based off the technology of the Roswell spacecraft.  Since it appears the van is heading our way, they could be planning to modify the J’onn 6 for time travel.”

“We have a vast military presence here.  There’s no way they can get near the J’onn 6,” Malcolm pointed out.

“Do we really want to take the risk?”

“What do you suggest?”

“We take them out.  There’s minimal traffic right now on I-80.  A missile strike from the drone would do the trick,” Wayne explained.

“If the public got word we killed US citizens with a drone on US soil…”

“We can claim they were a terrorist group planning an attack on Las Vegas.”

Malcolm sat there quietly pondering the situation.  “No, we want to capture them.”

“Capture?”

“Think about all the technological advancements we can make with their knowledge of the future.  Send one of our choppers with some of our best soldiers to intercept them before they reach Nevada.”

“Right away.”