The Return of the Manhattan (27 page)

“All right. First the Excalibur is about to slow to sub warp speed and should be entering the solar system shortly. They should arrive here in less than three months.”

“Are you sure?” Alan Albee turned to Bill, “Is she on the level?”

“Yup, she sure is. The mission was highly successful and the ship is loaded to the gills with crude oil.”

“Wow, and not a moment too soon. But we really didn’t expect them back for several more years. But, please go on with your story Miss Ashton. Why are you here?”

“It’s Mrs., but please call me Marie. I was killed as history records, but a future time traveler rescued me twenty six years later. I know it sounds crazy, but if you stop and think, with time travel, stranger things are possible.” She changed tactics abruptly, “Anyway, you will soon have the honor of opening the last box under that desk.” She pointed to a desk on the side of the room.”

Alan gasped, “How… How did you know about that? Bill did you tell her? As I recall, you told me that was a sacred traditional trust known only to presidents over the last five hundred years.”

Bill slowly shook his head in the negative, “No Alan, I said nothing.”

Marie sighed, “The man who put that box here in your office told me about it. He traveled through time and placed the box here in your office hundreds of years ago. It contains plans for constructing the time machine I told you about.” She handed him the envelope Roger gave her, “I wish I didn’t have to give you this, but I’m convinced it’s the only way I can see my daughter again.”

“I don’t understand; where is your daughter?”

“Go ahead and open the envelope, it’ll help explain and I know it’s up to you, but I’ve committed myself to the success of this mission and I will not in any way try to change the plans our future president made. I will not tell my daughter or David, but with your permission I would like to have contact with my mother. She will keep my presence secret.”

President Albee opened the envelope and sat reading silently with an occasional raised eyebrow. He finally set it aside and turned to the former president, “Bill, I apologize to you. I blamed you in part for the fake stories you told about a critical oil shortage. There is no oil shortage! You’ve been in on it all from the beginning. We have been convinced of the shortage so that we would fund the Excalibur and this next mission which has been dubbed ‘The Manhattan Project’.”

Bill was confused, “Thanks for your vote of confidence; may I see the letters?”

“Sure go ahead and read a little of history in the remaking.” He turned to Marie, “I thank you for the great sacrifice you and the whole crew of the Excalibur has already made. Today, we as a nation have an abundance of crude oil because of what your husband and Roger Dorn have accomplished. We will have a welcome home celebration for the Excalibur but the nation will probably never know the full implications of the mission. Even the crew cannot be told the whole truth. That will be a secret the three of us must keep.” Bill handed the letters to Marie, “I suppose you should read these too, as long as you are so deeply involved.”

After Marie finished reading the letters, she responded sadly, “I will be Brenda Kay Brockway, if that is your wish.”

The Manhattan with Roger in command returned to its launch pad within seconds of its departure without David, en route to the White House, being aware of its absence. David stewed and fretted, trying to guess the reason for his summons to the White House, but he finally gave up and went to sleep and didn’t awaken until his shuttle arrived in Washington.

He waited outside the Oval Office a few minutes before the president’s private secretary ushered him in. President Talmage greeted him cheerfully. “Hi David, I’m sure you know the rest of these gentlemen.”

David was surprised to see the two former presidents he had worked with over the years, and greeted them warmly.

Alan Talmage waited until David was comfortable, “David, I suppose you are wondering why we brought you here.” He paused, but David said nothing, “We heard that you have proposed marriage to Brenda Brockway.”

David, startled, nodded, “But, she refused… Did she tell you?”

“Yes, she told me a few days ago, but even if she hadn’t refused, we couldn’t allow it!”

David was totally confused and looked toward the former presidents, but they offered no explanation. He stammered, “Why… Why not?”

President Talmage grinned, “Because you’re already married!”

He pushed his buzzer and Marie walked in. Her hair was relatively short but it was already mostly back to her original red color. As she walked toward David, she took off her dark framed glasses revealing for David’s view her full facial features the first time in almost thirty years. She took another couple of steps toward him and pulled the retainer and crowns from her mouth revealing perfectly straight teeth. Her voice changed and there was no longer any doubt in David’s mind as Marie covered the remaining distance throwing herself into his arms.

After several minutes, David and Marie became aware that the president and the two former presidents were patiently waiting. David stammered, “Sorry… Sorry sir. You have no idea what this means to me. I don’t know how it all happened; I’m overwhelmed.”

President Talmage threw his arms around both of them, “David and Marie, it’s our pleasure. The three of us have been planning this session for a long time. In terms you would understand, Roger Dorn visited me a few hours ago and asked me to bring you here. While you were en route, he took the Manhattan on a rescue mission and brought Marie back several years ago. You can thank him and please forgive us for keeping Marie’s identity from you all these years. Marie can explain everything.”

David turned to his wife, “I’m sorry Marie; I encouraged Laura to remain in the twentieth century. You will never see her again.”

Marie responded lovingly, “It’s all right David. I knew she would stay long before you did. We made the most of it for the last fourteen years. I was her mother in every sense of the word. She didn’t know who I was, but she called and treated me like her own Mom. I’m glad I was able to be there for her.”

President Albee chuckled, “Don’t be so hard on yourself David. I’m sorry we couldn’t let you in on the secret. It was a good secret around here and watching you and Brenda tiptoe around was more fun than a barrel of monkeys.”

“But what about Commander White? Did he come back too?”

“Yes, who do you think we sent on the return mission?”

David could only shake his head.

“David, I think we can help. Remember your mission back to the time of Christ?”

“Sure, I really enjoyed that and I hope those videos and images helped someone learn more about Jesus Christ. He certainly became real for us!”

“You are about to embark on another mission back to the twentieth century. This time Marie can go and spend as much time as she likes with her daughter. You can delay that trip until the birth of your first grandchild if you like, but you’d better get back to the Manhattan and prepare for a couple of visitors from the past.”

CHAPTER 51

David called the executive council together to plan for the arrival of their visitors. Marie took her place back on the council and Thomas and Annette White were invited to join them as honorary members. David began, “The President didn’t say who they are, only that they would arrive from the twentieth century sometime this week and we would have to take them back with the Manhattan. He said they will inadvertently come through one of our warps you’ve been monitoring.”

A few days later, Roger called on the intercom, “David, it’s happening. Someone is in the warp!”

“Who is it?”

“Hard to say, it’s a small craft similar in size to the Marie. It appears to be solar powered; either that or the engines have been shut down. There are two small heat sources, probably two souls onboard.”

“I’ll be right there.”

David joined Roger along with most of the council in the control room and waited anxiously until Roger finally confirmed, “They’re on the beam, David. You can communicate with them now.”

David’s voice was projected across space into the cockpit of the small aircraft, “Unidentified aircraft, Identify yourselves!”

Startled, the pilot pressed the transmit switch, “We are Solar Two Four One en route to Tel Aviv. Who are you?”

David’s voice came back warmly, “This is Manhattan Control. There is no need for alarm nor is there a need to use the radio. We will have you on the ground in a few moments. You have no need to fear us.”

The pilot came back almost immediately, “Doctor Ashton, I presume?”

David stammered back, “You… You know who we are?”

“If you are Doctor David Ashton, Commander of the Manhattan, we do.”

“Who are you?”

“I’m Paul Barnes with my wife Sara. We work for Colonel Anderson and your daughter Laura.”

“That partially explains it, but why… I mean why… Did they tell you all about us?”

“They didn’t tell us everything. What year is this?”

“Twenty six Oh Five. Lower your landing gear and we’ll bring you aboard the Manhattan on our beam.” The aircraft was gently lowered and pulled inside the Manhattan. Paul helped Sara out of the aircraft as they stepped out onto the deck. The hangar structure loomed ominously above them as they walked toward the entrance, escorted to Dr. Ashton’s office by Sandra Davis, one of the young ladies from the Manhattan’s crew.

David, greeting them warmly, “Sorry we didn’t recognize your names immediately. Laura did mention you in her diary and we have found you in our computer data base. How are you feeling?”

Paul let Sara speak for them both, “We’re fine. A little dizzy, but okay. We were spinning like crazy in the time warp, but it must not have been that long.”

“Good, how did you know you were in a time warp?”

Paul laughed, “This wasn’t our first trip! There must be a lot of those warps in that part of the world.”

David was thoughtful, “Unfortunately, you’re probably right. We know and keep track of only a few of them. You’re the first humans we can say for sure who came through one, although we suspect others have encountered them before. It might explain some of those unsolved mysteries we hear so much about. The Burmuda Triangle mysteries may finally be solved.”

“How many are there? Where do they come from?”

“They might be a natural occurrence, but the one you traveled through today is man-made. It’s a passageway between your time and ours created by the Manhattan on one of our trips returning back from the twentieth century. We’ve been constantly on alert watching for travelers like you who may have accidentally fallen into one of them.”

Paul was slightly puzzled, “But we traveled both ways from our time to the time of Christ and back. Is there some connection?”

“Possibly, we made one round trip back from the twentieth century to that time period. Tell us about it!”

“I was a twentieth century fighter pilot, shot down over Israel when I fell through the first time warp. I found myself in a completely different world, two thousand years earlier, during the time of Christ. I met Sara and we became disciples of Jesus. After His crucifixion, we built a balloon, re-entered the time warp and arrived back in the twentieth century. We made the mistake of telling our story to the wrong people. Of course the Israeli government didn’t believe our story and the Mossad, their secret police, began harassing us. Brad and Laura heard about our tale of time travel and pulled us out of trouble when they came to investigate. We were on our way back to Israel working for the Solar Magnetics Administration when one of the Israeli fighters attacked us. We would have gotten away except for my concern about Sara’s advanced stage of pregnancy. I know a missile was launched at us and the next thing we knew, we were in another of your time warps.”

Sara winced in pain, “Paul… .” She grabbed his arm gripping hard for a moment, “It’s time. He’s not going to wait any longer.”

CHAPTER 52

Christopher Allen Barnes was born July 21, 2605 in the infirmary aboard the Manhattan. He was a product of the first, twentieth and twenty seventh centuries. Dr. Baker assured Paul that everything was fine before he left Sara’s bedside. Paul went in search of Dr. Ashton and tried to make up new words to the old Johnny Cash song that kept running through his head, “I’ve got a nineteen fifty, fifty one, fifty two, fifty three, fifty four, fifty five, fifty six, fifty seven, fifty eight, fifty nine automobile.”

After a couple of wrong turns in the corridors, he was finally directed back to David’s office. David stood, “Paul, come on in and let me be the first to congratulate you. Dr. Baker tells me everything’s going just fine.”

“It would be if Christopher can ever reconcile his birthdate. I think this future shock may be too much for me let alone Sara, or Christopher. Sara was just getting used to the twentieth century.”

“I understand how you feel, but I know you both have enough faith in God to carry you through. Up until a few minutes ago, I didn’t have any idea why we needed to take you back. But President Talmage said we would have that opportunity, and my wife and I are both excited about the possibilities. It may take us up to four years to make the trip, but we’re ready.

“But if you make one of these warps whenever you traveled through time, couldn’t we get back in one, going the other way?”

“That’s a definite possibility. Dr. Dorn is checking out your theory right now. A time warp in which we could travel as often as we like might come in handy. We could even see our grandchildren once in a while.”

“That must be hard on you and Laura too. But if you could go as often as you like, it would be like traveling crosstown. Like normal grandparents, except you wouldn’t have to be sitting on pins and needles waiting for the grandchildren to be born.”

David laughed, “It hasn’t been easy, but at least we have Laura’s diary. Gee, if those warps would stay open… . Right now neither Sara nor your son should be subjected to any such trip. Let’s wait and see how things go.”

Two years later, Roger announced that the time warp was open and as far as he could tell the warp they planned to use would deposit them in close proximity to the time Brad and Laura’s first child was born. If not the exact time, they could do a short leap to arrive when they wanted. David wasted no time in preparation for their voyage not wanting to risk the closure of the warp before they had a chance to use it. Paul, Sara and Christopher had been on standby waiting and were on the Manhattan within a couple of hours ready to return home. As soon as they were aboard and safely strapped in, David gave the launch order and Roger began the countdown placing the Manhattan into position to enter the warp.

Paul and Sara had experienced the warp earlier, but nobody knew whether the warp was large enough to handle the Manhattan or how the Manhattan would ride it out. Roger deftly moved the Manhattan closer until entry was confirmed by the spinning motion which was strong enough to encompass the entire ship. Roger felt helpless as control was lost, and the Manhattan spun slowly and all concepts of time and space vanished. Even though disoriented, Roger kept a constant vigil waiting until that moment they would be expelled at the other end of the warp. At that moment he hoped the ship would be in a stable orbit over the earth, but he would need to restore power to the cloaking devices to prevent someone in the past from getting a glimpse of the Manhattan.

“Brad, I wonder what really happened to Paul and Sara. Her baby would have been about two now.” Laura mused.

“I don’t know dear. They never found a trace of them or the aircraft.” It was two days after Laura had given birth to a baby girl they named Gail Marie. Brad brought them home from the hospital and Laura was nursing Gail prior to laying her in her crib. “Laura, you might as well put them out of your mind. You’ve got your own daughter to take care of now.”

“I know, but it’s hard and there’s no way I can forget them so easily. Sara and I had so very much in common. We were both time travelers even if we were from the opposite extremes. I can’t find anyone else like her anywhere. I wonder if she ever felt as out of place as I often do. The world is so unfair…” She clenched her fist and raised her voice, “I’ll bet Paul’s old commander, Colonel Kabron, was the culprit.” Gail let out an annoyed squawk and Laura instantly relaxed.

Brad watched her settle back before responding, “President Dugan said as much, but he had no proof and the Israelis weren’t interested in pursuing it any further. You know you are missing your father and feeling your loss more acutely, which is only natural at a time like this. How about taking a trip to see Mom and Dad as soon as you feel up to it. They’ll want to see Gail.”

“I don’t know. Maybe, but your family can never take Dad’s place no matter how hard they try. All of your family has been so good to me. I don’t want to be dramatic yet I feel something important is missing in my life. I feel fine, but I’m not sure I feel up to taking Gail anywhere soon. I had a relatively easy time, but I sure missed Doctor Baker’s expertise.”

“Maybe Mom and Dad will come here for a visit?”

“Let’s wait a week or so and then we can take a few days and visit the whole family. Of course they are welcome to come anytime, but it would be much easier for us to do the traveling.”

Three weeks later, they were in the ‘Marie’ winging their way across mid America heading for Independence. Laura felt better after spending a few days at the office, getting adjusted to the world in which she lived.

Laura’s face lit up like a lamp as she spoke up excitedly, “Brad, Look over there!” She pointed ahead and slightly above them. “It’s the Manhattan?”

Brad watched the small object grow larger in the windscreen, “Well, I’ll be darned!” He cancelled his flight plan.

Brad turned the transponder off as David’s booming voice filled the cockpit, “Solar One One, you’re on the beam. Welcome home!”

Laura could hardly speak, “Dad, what are you doing here?”

“Had to come back to visit my favorite daughter and my first grandchild, didn’t I?”

“How did you know? I mean, that’s silly, of course you know. But…”

Laura was out of her seat before the aircraft could be secured. She unstrapped Gail and hurried out as soon as the hangar crew opened the door. She stepped down gingerly as her father reached up to help her down, enfolding them both in his arms as she stepped off the last step. She passed Gail to her father almost dropping her as she caught a glimpse of Sara and Paul standing off to one side with Christopher at their side. Leaving Gail with her father, she threw herself into Sara’s arms babbling excitedly and getting no answers to her almost incoherent questions.

David laughed at their confused expressions, “All in good time. But first, it’s way past time for you to say hello to someone very special to you.” He drew forward a beautiful lady, who looked like a slightly older carbon copy of Laura.

Laura screamed with delight and threw herself into her mother’s arms, “Mom, oh Mom… . It’s so good to see you again.” After a moment, she broke the embrace taking a closer look at her mother, “What did you do with your hair? It’s beautiful.” Marie smiled broadly and Laura exclaimed with glee, “Your teeth, you’ve gone all out.” She looked over at her dad, “You two got married didn’t you?”

David grinned sheepishly, “Yup, we certainly did. A long time ago.”

Marie was smiling brightly and clinging to Laura and finally spoke, “My Laura, my daughter. My baby and now with a baby of your own.”

Laura was puzzled, she blinked, “Brenda, you sound different. What happened to your lisp?”

“I don’t need the disguise anymore, and I’m not Brenda, I’m Marie. Didn’t you say I would always be your Mom?”

“You look just like the pictures of my real mom.”

“That’s right, I am your mother; and always have been. Now can I see my granddaughter? She took Gail from David’s arms and promptly took on the grandmotherly role.