A Loop in Time (14 page)

It was at the graduation of Jason from the Air Force Academy years later that Judy finally revealed what she had known all of those years earlier. She had sat next to John as the diplomas were handed out.

“How long do I have left with my son?” she asked.

“What do you mean?”

She turned to face him. “How long do I have my son until the accident that takes him away from me?”

John faced her, “Mom, I will always be with you, as long as I live. He will take his loop in time in four years, but you have had two of us. That is more than most moms get.”

Judy began to cry and wrapped her arms around John, “I love you, Son,” she said through the tears. “Thank you for being here for me.”

“I love you, Mom. You have been a great mother for me.”

They sat there and held each other for the longest time with the people around them in the audience wondering what it was about the graduation that had the two of them so emotional.

That night there was a big family dinner at a local restaurant. John had rented the hall for the occasion. There were toasts all around and then dancing and music. Jason had brought a girl with him.

Emily was a little jealous. “Who’s that?” she asked. “Your younger self seems to like her a lot.”

John smiled, “that’s Lisa. She was my study partner. We hung out a lot together. There is nothing romantic going on between them, I assure you.”

“I don’t know about her little red dress, and I do mean little.”

John just laughed, then added, “If we were able to go find you at this age, who would we find you with?”

Susan just folded her arms. “Never mind that.”

John laughed again.

When the song was over Jason and his date came up to his mom. “We have a graduation party to get to. Do you mind if we leave here a little early?”

Judy looked over at John to see if that was a good idea. He just nodded, so she said, “sure.”

The two left and John took Susan and danced with her. Tim grabbed Emily and joined them on the dance floor. They stayed on the floor during the next dance but switched partners.

It was during the band’s intermission that John tried to excuse himself. “I have got to go, but I will be right back.”

“Where on earth are you going?” Susan asked.

“I have my future self to save from a thrashing at a bar. The same bar that my Uncle John came in and rescued me.”

“By all means, hurry,” Judy said.

John left.

Jason had dropped off his date and then went to hit a bar before he headed home. It was the same place he had been two days before. That skinny kid he had beat in pool last time had gotten mad, but wasn’t able to do anything about it. This time he had two very large friends with him.

“There he is,” the skinny kid said as Jason entered. The two large friends started walking towards Jason.

“I don’t want trouble,” Jason said as they approached.

“You may not want it, but you got it,” the largest of the friends replied.

“Stand down, boys,” came a voice behind Jason.

Jason turned to see his Uncle John standing there. Boy, was he glad to see him.

“Who are you?” the skinny kid asked John.

“I am John Buck; you might recognize my name. If not, you might look at your scholarship checks, Randy, you will see my signature on the bottom of them. You wouldn’t want those checks to stop, would you, especially over a game of pool?”

“Come on guys, it’s time to go home,” Randy said to his friends.

Jason was shaking his head. “What just happened?”

“Just a misunderstanding, come, it’s time to get back to the party.”

“You’re paying his tuition?”

“Trust me, that boy will pay me huge dividends in a few years, but he will always suck at pool.”

Jason just looked at him, “you’re amazing, Uncle John. Thank you.”

“I am positive that you would do the same for me.”

They both left the bar and went back to the family’s party.

When Jason got there, everyone gathered around him to find out what had happened. He told them how his uncle had saved his life with just a few words.

Emily asked him, “What happened to the girl?”

“Oh, I took her home after the party. She isn’t much for staying out late.”

Emily smiled, but she should have believed John in the first place and she knew it.

After the party broke up, John kissed his mother and then Susan and said goodbye. Emily and he started home that night.

Jason looked at his mother, “You know, he isn’t actually related to us. He is just a good family friend. I don’t know if kissing him is appropriate.”

“Jason, you have a lot to learn. He saved my son; of course he gets a kiss.”

“Oh, that.”

“There it is again, just like yesterday.” The radar technician looked down at his screen. “Just one blip and then it’s gone again. It’s been five days in a row. What do you make of it?”

The lieutenant shook his head. “That is the weirdest thing that I ever saw. Every day it moves close to us, and then disappears. I will inform Command; they wanted to know if it happened again.”

“Do you think they will scrub the flight test because of it?”

“I don’t think a hurricane would scrub the test this time around. It has been scrubbed six times already. I think it’s going to be a Go, no matter what.”

General Avery was going over all of the final reports when the lieutenant was allowed in. He was in his early fifties but very fit and energetic. He was the ideal person to head up a program such as this. If the new engine worked, it would revolutionize fighter development for the next fifty years. It would be way ahead of anything the Russians or the Chinese could do.

Avery only had a small amount of grey hair on the edges of his sideburns. He stood six two and had a pleasant smile that was sometimes lost in his businesslike exterior.

“Yes, LT, what do you have?” he asked.

The Lieutenant cleared his throat. “Sir, the blip happened again. It is still coming closer.”

“What do you make of it?”

“It’s like there is something there, but it keeps disappearing. I have never seen anything like it.”

The general thought for a minute then said, “Keep me posted. If you figure out what it is, let me know right away, even if it’s only an errant weather balloon.”

“Yes, Sir, do you mean like the ones they have over Roswell, Sir?”

The General allowed himself to smile. “If it’s a Roswell type weather balloon, I expect you to run, not walk to me office and report it.”

“Yes, Sir,” the lieutenant said and then he was gone. 

The general went back to his reports, but he was soon interrupted again. This time it was Dr. Andy Zurcher, his chief engineer.

“Come in, Andy. What’s going on?”

“Just wanted to see what all the reports say, other than the one I wrote.”

Avery looked over his desk, “they say that everything is a Go. The engines are tuned, the airplane has been inspected and reinspected. The pilot’s in prime health.”

“I only wish we had built a whole new airplane around the engine instead of just sticking it in an existing fuselage.”

The general sat back in his chair. “We spent all the money they allowed us and even quite a bit more. We did the best we could with what we had. If the test goes as well as I expect it to, we will have all the money we need for an all new airplane.”

“I hope you’re right. Did we get another one of the blips today?”

“Yes, even closer,” Avery replied.

“Swamp gas?” Zurcher smiled as he said it.

“That guess is as good as any.”

“Do we scrub?”

“No, not over swamp gas.” The general smiled.

“I suppose not,” Andy agreed.

Andy left and Avery finished reading the reports. He went home early to prepare for the tests in the morning.

“Control, can you hear me?” Jason said through his headset.

“Moondog, everything looks good from up here. Go through your preflight checklist.”

“Roger, Control, going through the list.” John looked over to the side where a built in metal clipboard was. He went through each item one by one. Flaps, brakes, stabilizer and ailerons. They all checked out good. “Preflight good,” John reported.

“Roger that. Clear to start your engines, Moondog.”

“Roger, starting engines.” A loud roar started up behind him as he pulled the engine start switch. Then it settled down to a deep hum. He checked his engine status and oil pressure. “Engine running good, Control.”

“Roger, you are clear to taxi out to runway 32.”

“Copy.” John put the throttle forward until the plane started to roll. When he left the hanger and got out into the bright sunshine, he put down the sun screen on his visor. It didn’t take long for John to align himself with the runway. “Ready for takeoff.”

“Roger, Moondog, you are clear to takeoff.”

“Copy.” John pushed the throttle forward and the low hum went to a dull roar as the plane started to vibrate. John released the brakes and soon the plane was building speed as it rolled down the runway. When the speed was sufficient, John pulled back on the yoke and the plane sliced gently up through the air. It did not take long before he could see the runway far below him.

“Moondog, get to a cruising height of 35,000 feet.”

“Roger, Control.” John watched as the world passed by below him. He was up above some mountain peaks that were snow capped. He recognized the city of Denver below him.

John leveled off the plane then reported in. “At the cruising altitude, Control.”

“Roger, Moondog, it is time to activate the auxiliary drive.”

“Roger,” John said and reached for the button marked ‘Vmax3 Drive.’ When he hit the button the plane jumped forward and his head was pushed backwards in his seat.

He looked at his controls when it smoothed out some. “Holding steady at mach 0.5 Control.”

“Roger that, we are reading the same thing.”

Suddenly John heard a loud pop behind him and the plane started buffeting wildly. The stick was shaking and all of the aural warnings went off at the same time. “Massive system failure.” He was now going mach 1.5, faster than the fuselage was designed to go.

“We’re losing him!” The normally calm controller was yelling.

There was a sudden flash of light from the monitors then all of the monitors went blank.

“Get him back,” the general had lost his calm. “Get him back!”

“He’s gone,” the controller replied.

“No data,” reported the lead technician.

“We need men on the ground, get a grid search out there, I need aircraft too, find him and bring him back.” The general was upset. He didn’t want to have lost a pilot and the plane that they had spent so much money and time on. It would be a catastrophe.

“Yes, Sir,” the lead technician responded.

The controller called out all available craft to start searching the latest reported place that the plane could have been.

“What am I going to tell the family?” The general sat down heavily.

“Sir, he didn’t explode, Sir. I would have gotten partial data as the different pieces of the airplane fell to the ground. It’s like he just... disappeared.”

“Planes just don’t disappear. There have to be parts of it somewhere.”

“Yes, Sir, I was just reporting the data.”

“I understand. I am going to my office to file a report then I am headed to the search area. I at least hope we can find him alive.”

“Yes, Sir.”

The general rushed to his office to change clothes. He decided the report could wait; he wanted to get out there right away. When he passed his secretary, he didn’t notice the man sitting across from her, waiting for him.

“Sir, there is someone to see you,” she said as he rushed past.

He turned and saw John for the first time. “I am sorry, I am having an emergency. I cannot meet with you now.”

John just smiled. It was good to see his former commanding officer for the first time in forty five years. He had just the thing to stop the rushing man in his tracks. “I know where your plane is.”

That spun the general back around
. “What?”

“I know where the F117 went down. You will never find it.”

“Come into my office immediately.” It was a command and not a request. The general slammed the door after John entered. “How do you know about a top secret project and what do you mean you know where the plane went down? That’s impossible.”

“I was a part of this project; that’s how I know about it, and I was in the plane when it went down.” John waited for the general’s face to show utter confusion before he went on. “My name is John Buck, but you know me as Jason Ralston. You sent me forty-five years into the past when you put me in that plane this morning. You will not find any wreckage; the United States Army and time have taken it all away. I do know where the black boxes are, though. We can get those back, at least. They are in a time capsule in Arizona on a military base.”

“If this is some type of sick joke, it’s not funny. I have a good mind to have you arrested.”

“Take my DNA; do anything you want with me. I tell you I am Jason Ralston and you sent me into the past.”

“That is impossible.”

John just sighed, “You keep saying that.”

The general opened the door, “I need the MPs here. I want this man escorted out.”

The secretary was very surprised, but called for the MPs right away.

“You’re wasting your time. I am the pilot and I know where the black boxes are,” John told him.

“You are a nut job,” the general said as he was leaving.