BackTrek (4 page)

“Let me see!” Brandon said, as he tried to
peek around her hand.

“What about you, Brandon? How was your day?”
Tracey asked.

“It was okay.” He said, clearly distracted by
the palms of his sister’s hands.

“Did you turn in your homework from last
night?” Tracey asked him.

“Yeah.” He answered, as he shut his door.

“Excuse me, sir?”

“I mean, Yes, mam.” He said carefully.

“Do you have any homework tonight,
Bella?”

“No, mam.”

“Do you have any homework, Brandon?”

“No, mam.”

“Good, how would you guys feel about going
out for pizza?”

“Pizza? All right!” Brandon yelled as Bella
chimed in. They buckled their seatbelts as Tracey started the car.
Maybe they would understand, she thought. She knew that if she
bribed them with pizza it wasn’t going to hurt anything. It might
just make it easier for them to deal with the news that she had to
share. She knew how much they loved their father, and already they
missed him because he spent so much time with his job. She took a
deep breath and fought back the tears that wanted to come.

When they reached the restaurant, Tracey
requested a booth near the rear. She did her best to smile and make
light hearted chit chat with Bella and Brandon while they waited
for the pizza. She couldn’t help but be relieved when the waitress
brought out the steaming pizza. She blinked back tears as they
shoveled the pizza into their mouths. She nibbled on her
slice.“What’s wrong, Mommy.” Bella asked, as she chomped into her
last piece of pizza.

“Finish your pizza sweety, and I’ll tell you
and Brandon at the same time.”

“Is Daddy okay?” Brandon asked, his eyes
suddenly lit up with concern.

“Yes, your Daddy is fine. But he and I have a
few problems that we need to work out.” She began, and realized
that now was as good a time as any. “Your Daddy needs some time to
work out his love for us. It’s not that he doesn’t love us, guys,
it’s just that with his work and all, it’s real hard for him to
show it. He and I discussed it, and we decided that he needed to
take a little vacation for a while.” She had promised herself that
she wouldn’t tell them that he was on a vacation, but now it was
too late. It had seemed to be the softest way to put it, and it
came out of her mouth so easily.

“Why couldn’t we go?” Brandon asked almost
immediately.

“It’s kind of like a vacation, but not
really. He has some things that he has to work out, and he needs to
be alone to do that, sweety.”

“You threw him out, didn’t you Mom.” Bella
shot at her.

“No honey. Not really.”

“Mom! You threw Dad out?” Brandon’s eyes
swelled in fear.

“Calm down, Brandon. It’s not like you guys
aren’t going to see him. Once a week, when he’s not to busy, he’ll
come over for dinner, or take you guys to the movies or
something.”

“But Mom, you threw Daddy out? How could you
do that? What’s wrong with Daddy? He doesn’t beat you like that guy
did on COPS the other night. Has he got a girlfriend?” Brandon
asked, clearly puzzled as to why his Daddy had to go.

“No, no, sweety, it’s nothing like that. Your
Daddy had some problems related to when he was still in the Army,
and he just needs a little time to straighten things out, that’s
all.” Tracey tried to comfort him, but the pain in his eyes was
evident. Though in her own eyes, it had seemed like Jack never had
time for their son, but in Brandon’s eyes, Jack was always there.
There enough for Brandon to know that his father loved him with all
his heart, and now she had gone and thrown him out of the house.
This conversation was not going at all like she had planned.

“Will you ever let him come home, Mommy?”
Bella asked her softly, almost afraid that the answer would be
no.

“Yes, dear. I hope he comes home soon. But
he’s got to work these things out, and he’s got to do this on his
own. We all love your Daddy, honey. But for the time being we’re
just going to have to do without him.” She said as she saw that her
words had begun to comfort them a little.

“It’s not fair, Mom.” Brandon said.

“I know sweety, but it will be all
right.”

“But I want to live with Daddy. It’s just not
fair. I didn’t ever do anything to make him mad, why can’t I go
with him?” Tracey began to fight the sudden wave of tears that hit
her. She had been afraid that they would take this personally.

“No baby. This has nothing to do with you or
your sister. This is just between your Daddy and me. It’s nothing
that either of you have done, so don’t you dare feel that way.”

“But Mommy, if Daddy still loves us, then why
isn’t he here? Why isn’t he telling us about all this instead of
just you?” Bella asked. She was always sharp and to the point, but
Tracey hadn’t really thought that either of them would see it this
way. She wanted to tell them herself, alone, because she thought it
would be easier on them, and on Jack. But suddenly she found that
she was second guessing herself.

“I felt that it would be best for all of us,
sweety.” She said as finally the tears began to flood out of her.
Shocked by the sudden onslaught of tears, Bella looked from her
mother to Brandon. She leapt from her chair and went to comfort her
mother. Seconds passed as Brandon sat quietly, and then decided to
join his sister. He knew that she was usually right, and he too
comforted his mother. Tracey hugged them both as hard as she could,
and knew that somehow, someday, everything would be all right. It
just had to.

Atwater walked into the lab and nodded to
Phillips. He could see Dr.Morgan and Ted inside the inner lab as
they worked at the face of the large machine.

“May I?” He asked Phillips, but walked
through the open door before he could answer. “What answers do you
have for me gents?” Ted looked up, while Morgan continued to work
intensely on a control unit.

“Afternoon, sir. I’m glad you could come.”
Ted shook his hand.

“So, what is it? Good news, I hope.”

“Yes, sir, I believe so. We have made some
progress on the frequency theory. Give him just a moment.” He said
as he nodded at Morgan. With the last tweak of a potentiometer, Dr.
Morgan looked up and nodded to Atwater.

“General, sir. As I have mentioned before,
there seems to be a harmonic frequency or vibration, if you will,
to the gravitation wave form being generated by the gate. Once the
gamma beam has torn into the fabric of time and space, we have been
unable to stabilize the opening, or to reliably increase its
microscopic size.”

“I heard this before. So what do you have
new?” Atwater asked, his patience already diminished.

“Well, sir, we have had some very optimistic
results when varying the harmonic frequency of the gravitational
wave form.”

“What the fuck does that mean in English, Dr.
Morgan?” Atwater demanded. Morgan was taken aback by his brashness.
He looked back to Ted for support. Ted nodded for him to
continue.

“Well…sir…we’ve been able to stabilize the
opening, sir. In the earlier result where we had some success,
you’ll remember that Ted here appeared to exit the gate on the
other side, seconds before he actually entered the gate. In
reviewing the high speed video capture we were able to ascertain
that he did indeed exit the wormhole, in our timeline, seconds
before he actually entered it from that same time line. Hence our
proof of concept that time travel into the past was possible. But
what remained a problem was that the opening into the wormhole had
begun to rapidly deteriorate from the very moment of its creation.
So fast in fact, that it literally winked out of existence
fractions of a second after he entered it.”

“True enough, I had traveled into the past.”
Ted confirmed. Morgan went on.

“However, without stability in the opening,
he was in grave danger. As would be anyone that attempted to enter
the gate. If it closed while they were…” He paused, unsure how to
continue. Phillips spoke up as he entered the inner lab.

“If it closed while they were entering or
exiting the gate, it would literally cut them in half, with half of
their bodies in the present, and half in the past.”

“And very dead, either way.” Ted said.

“Yes. Very grave consequences.” Morgan
agreed.

“Okay, I get it.” Atwater replied. “So
everybody dies. What’s new.”

“It’s the frequency, sir. All along since we
began pursuing this theory, we’ve been attempting to harmonize the
frequency with our current gravitation wave form. But that’s not
the correct solution. It’s the frequency of the gravitational wave
of the destination point. Not the origination point. That’s what
has to be harmonized.”

“English, Doc. English.” Atwater said,
clearly exasperated.

“That is English, sir.” Morgan replied, the
confusion evident on his face.

“It’s like this, sir.” Ted began. “We have to
oscillate the gates electromagnetic field in such a way, that it
reaches a harmonic frequency of the same gate, but in the past.
It’s like with a wireless digital transmission. The transmitter and
receiver must be in synch in order to communicate.”

“Exactly!” Morgan agreed. “When the
gravitational wave of this gate, here and now, is in synch with the
gravitational wave form of the same gate in the past, we can use
the gamma ray beam to rip the space time fabric, the
electromagnetic field will open the gate, and as long as the
harmonics continue, the gate will stay open and stable.”

“You say this like you have done it, Morgan.”
Atwater replied. “You said, ‘will stay open’. Is that what you
mean? Or do you mean ‘might stay open’?”

“Well, theoretically, it will stay open.”

“How about this Doc.” Atwater began. “Take
that theory crap and shove it up your ass. Call me when it’s fact.”
He turned and walked out of the inner lab.

“Touchy.” Morgan said.

“Sir!” Ted called after Atwater, and hurried
to follow him.

“Let’s get on with it.” Dr. Morgan said to
Phillips behind him. “Prepare the initiation sequence.” Jack
followed Atwater out of the main lab and caught him in the
hallway.

“Sir, could you take it easy on him. He’s
making progress.”

“Progress? He should be making progress. It’s
been ten years, Truman!”

“But, sir. The progress we’ve made in the
last few months is more than we’ve made all of that time. We’re
almost there. I can feel it.”

“Maybe your right, Truman. I’ll see if I can
tone it down with him…but he just drives me crazy with all of his
techno babble.” Ted smiled at Atwater’s frustration.

“Trust me, sir. It’s not babble.” Atwater
turned to walk away, but stopped and turned back.

“Hey, you make any progress on King?”

“A little. I’ve located his assigned precinct
and have reached out to his captain. But, sir…”

“Yeah, I know. Don’t count on it.”

“Right. It’s a long shot at best.”

“Jack, it’s about time you got here.”

“Hey Cap’n! I’m twenty minutes early!” Jack
exclaimed. The large shouldered man frowned at him, as the
fluorescent lights glared off of his shiny forehead. Being a police
captain for five years had begun to age Captain Howe almost
immediately. His waste line had grown quickly, the veins on his
nose had turned a deep crimson revealing his alcoholic self
medication, but only in the last two years had his hairline began
to recede. Jack often wondered if he would ever began to comb his
hair forward, like other men did when they began to lose their
hair, or if he would just keep it slicked back like he hadn’t even
noticed that his forehead had grown four or five inches longer.

“We’ve got a mess on our hands.” Howe said,
grabbing a file from his desk.

“What today, Boss?” Jack said as he
approached the Captain’s desk. As usual it was covered with files,
empty Styrofoam cups, dusty pictures of his multiple families that
had divorced him over the years, and the empty ashtray. He had quit
smoking over two years ago, but he refused to throw out that
ashtray.

“It’s the D.A. On the McNally case.”

“What about it? It was open and shut.”

“Not according to them.” Howe said and shoved
the file into Jack’s hand. He opened the manila folder and glanced
at the notes. Howe leaned back in his chair, and placed his hands
behind his neck. Jack skimmed the notes.

“The D.A. had a problem with my deposition?”
Jack asked, the confusion evident on his face.

“I’ll say.” Howe replied. “You know, they’re
charging the guy with man two.”

“Manslaughter?” Jack asked. Howe nodded. “But
he shot the perp that broke into his house! It was a good
shoot.”

“Yeah, but their point is that he followed
the guy outside, and then shot him in the back.”

“That’s bullshit, Cap! That son-of-a-bitch
held his family at gun point! That freak raped his wife, and then
raped his 14 year old daughter. Right in front of him.” Jack said,
clearly disgusted.

“Exactly! And when you tried to explain your
point to the D.A. they threw you out of the depo.” Howe
answered.

“They weren’t listening.”

“To what? You yelling at them that they’re a
bunch of dumb fucks? That they don’t know their ass from a hole in
the ground?”

“You heard about that?” Jack asked. Howe
nodded.

“And something about kissing your ass-“

“I know. I know. I lost it.” Jack said, as he
laid the file back on the stack on the desk. He exhaled slowly, as
he shook his head. “They can’t do that to the poor guy.”

“They will, and they did. He’s down in
booking right now.”

“Cap. You know that’s not right.”

“It doesn’t matter what I think. Or more
importantly, it doesn’t matter a rat’s ass what you think. The D.A.
interprets the law and decides what charges will be filed. That’s
the way it works around here, and you had better get a grip on that
concept, once and for all, Jack.”