A Loop in Time (3 page)

It was another nightmare. John was looking down at the displays in his airplane. The engines were out of control and the airspeed was way too high. Suddenly they were flickering on and off. All the gauges had gone haywire. Then the flames started. He could not see out of the cockpit window.

All of the fire alarms went off so he pulled all of the fire handles he had, but still the flames did not stop. It was only then he pulled the eject button. His head was leaning forward as he looked down and the onrush of wind outside the plane snapped his head back into the seat. That was when it all went dark.

He was sweating and tossing around. He felt someone holding his hand. He woke up suddenly.

“There you are. I was worried about you. Another nightmare?” Susan was holding his hand in hers and smiling at him.

“Yes, was I restless?”

“Very! What do you see when you have these nightmares?” she asked.

He was staring into her eyes and listening to her sweet voice. He did not want to spoil it by talking, but she had asked him a question and was waiting for the answer. “I lose contact with the ground. I check my gauges and computer screens, but there is no indication of a problem until the plane bursts into flames. I had to eject.”

She giggled. “They don’t put computers in planes, silly. Computers are large things that take up whole rooms.”

He looked shocked. “I thought for sure I saw one. Maybe I made it all up. I don’t know. I’m so confused.” He sat there contemplating, but was so confused, he finally let it go.

Andy leaned over to the nightstand on the other side of him and started taking notes. He cursed the cast that made it hard for him to write. ‘They could have put it on my non dominant arm, you would think,’ he thought. He turned back over, but as subtle as he tried to be, Susan had seen him and she scowled at him. When she had been told that John was to be spied on she was against it, but it was an order that she cooperate and she obeyed orders.

She turned back to John and smiled again, “Sit back and relax. I brought you some books that should be more up your alley. I got you a fantasy book, something about little people. I also brought you a Sci-Fi, and if you don’t like those, I have a James Bond one. It’s about sex and violence. All guys like those things, I suppose.”

That last one made him smile. “That was very nice of you.”

“It wasn’t that I was being nice. I wanted my book back. I am at a good spot and I had nothing to read on my day off.”

He laughed, “Of course. Take it; I wasn’t getting into it anyway.”

She grabbed the book and then patted his arm as she left. She waited until she was next to Andy and turned and scowled at him again. He just shrugged. He didn’t like the assignment any more than she did.

Once a day an orderly was sent to pick up all the trash in the ward. He would also sneak over and pick up Andy’s notes. The orderly would then take the notes and give them to Major Stubbs and his team working on piecing together all of the wreckage. The Major wasn’t pleased that his suggestion to shut down the base had been ignored. He only had jurisdiction over his own team, so he cancelled all weekend passes until further notice. It wasn’t enough to keep any strange virus from spreading but it was better than nothing, in his mind. It was all he could do.

When the note was passed to the Major about computers in the airplane, he went to his Lieutenant and showed him.

“What do you make of this?” the Major asked.

“That’s impossible. Computers are large and bulky; they couldn’t fit in an airplane.”

The Major walked over to one of the shelves where a badly crumpled electrical component sat. “Could this have been a computer? It had a glass front at one point. There are still shards around the edges.”

“That is extremely small for a computer. It couldn’t be.” The Lieutenant wasn’t sure of his answer though.

“What would it have been, then? It looks like a very small television, but why would you put that in a plane? Do we have a computer expert on the base or nearby?”

“We have one on the base,” the Lieutenant replied. “I will send for him.”

It was just another day at the office for Phil Mortensen. He was an introvert who liked his peace and quiet and he had found the perfect place for that at the computer lab. The machines hummed as he checked the logs one by one. His six foot frame supported a thin skinned head with red hair. He was alone most of the time in the lab so when he was not busy he would read trade magazines. He was up on the latest technologies. He could get totally absorbed in computers, and not have to worry about interpersonal relationships.

Around him was a white room with light colored tile floors and florescent lights. In the middle of that were fifteen computers, all with large tape drives spinning round and round. He would monitor these and when they got full, he would replace them with new ones. He wore a white lab coat to keep the dust down and it covered up his olive drab uniform, which he hated. He often wondered why he had joined the army in the first place, with his abilities he could be working for the best up- and- coming companies and making bucket loads of money.

When someone entered his lab, he was resentful of the intrusion. “Yes, what is it?” It came out a little snappier than he intended though.

“You forget how to salute, Corporal?” The Lieutenant replied.

Corporal Mortensen gave him an appropriate salute. It didn’t help his resentment that the intruder was barking orders.

“Good, the Major wants to see you.”

“But, Sir, I have to run the lab.”

The Lieutenant glared at him. “It’s an order. If you have to shut down the lab, then do it. You need to come now.”

“Yes, Sir, just let me check my tapes real quick and then I will come.” Making the officer wait was only a minor victory, but he still enjoyed it.

The Lieutenant didn’t go away but waited in the doorway for him to follow. Phil grumbled under his breath, “If the Major wants to see me, why didn’t the Major come see me? If I have to leave the lab, who knows what’s going to happen while I’m gone?” It wasn’t loud enough for the Lieutenant to hear, but it made the Corporal feel better, being able to say it.

After he finished checking his tapes, he let himself be led to the hanger where the Major was. The helicopters had been rolled out of the hanger to make way for the inspection of the wreckage. When the Corporal entered the room, he remembered to salute the Major.

The electrical box had been taken off the shelf and put on a table. “What is this?” The Major asked.

Phil started looking at it. “I don’t know, maybe a monitor?” When he looked at the components the hair on the back of his neck stood up. He picked some of the larger ones up and looked at them. “Wait, this is more than a monitor. This can’t be. Everything is so small. No, this can’t be.”

“What is it?” the Major asked.

“I will need to look at it in more detail. Do you mind if I take this back to the lab with me?”

“Knock yourself out. Take it apart, if you need to; it’s already damaged beyond repair,” the Major replied.

Phil was ecstatic. He took the box back to the lab and got out his tools. After putting it on his desk he started examining every little detail of the box. He spent the next eight hours examining it, forgetting to even eat. When he realized he was starving, and only then, did he shut down the lab to go get something and then go to bed. Finding he could not sleep for all of his excitement, he went back to the lab and continued taking apart the box.

It was in the early hours of the morning when Phil made his way back to the hangar where the wreckage was being kept. Major Stubbs wasn’t there yet but the on-duty Lieutenant let the Corporal in. The Corporal made his way to the shelves where he picked up several of the electrical boxes and set them on the table. He made sure they had the information that he needed to show the Major. Phil wanted to be there in person to see the look on the Major’s face when he told him what he had found out.

Major Stubbs had gotten breakfast before he headed into the hangar. He didn’t know what to do with all of the wreckage, just guessed that he should piece it together the best that he could. When he entered the hanger, he was surprised to see Corporal Mortenson standing there.

The Corporal saluted and said, “Good morning, Sir.”

“Good morning, Corporal. I suppose that you being here means you have figured out something.”

The Corporal smiled. “And then some, Sir, and then some.”

“What have you got for me?”

“We will start with that box you gave me. Not only is it a computer, but it is more powerful than all of the computers we have on the base combined. It has more memory and more computing ability.”

The Major’s eyes got big and round. “Is it Russian, or is it alien?”

“Neither, Sir. It was built right here in the good old United States of America.” The Corporal smiled.

“How can that be? We don’t possess that kind of technology, do we?” The Major was very confused by this point.

“No, we don’t, but we will.” The Corporal was really enjoying himself.

“
We will?
What are you talking about? Just tell me what is going on.”

“Come over here, Sir,” the Corporal said as he led the Major to the components he had taken off the shelf. “Look at the manufacturing date on these boxes.”

“Jan. 17, 2012. That’s impossible!” The Major looked at the Corporal to size up the man. He wanted to check if he was being taken for a fool.

“I spent all night researching that box you gave me. It has microcircuit technology that is light years ahead of what we possess. I was totally stumped so I looked at the manufacturing data on the serial number plate. The box had been built in 2010 in Akron, Ohio. So when I saw someone in the hanger I ran over here to see if I could find any other dates on this stuff. I have a range of them from 2009 to 2012. This is all state of the art stuff, from around forty five years in the future.”

The Major was stunned. He tried to form words around his thoughts, but the words just did not come. He just kept looking at the plates and the manufacturing dates. “How is this possible?” he finally managed to stammer out.

“I don’t know, Sir, but this is some pretty interesting stuff. Too bad it’s all busted up. I could have had a lot of fun with this.”

The Major got his wits about him. “I must swear you to secrecy. You must not tell a soul about this.”

“Yes, Sir. I pretty well figure that no one is going to believe me anyway, so I am okay with that.”

“I, on the other hand, must find a way to tell the Colonel. I want you there when I do. Bring me that box back. It and all of this stuff are now going under guard. No one must find out what we have here.”

“Yes, Sir, right away, Sir.” The Corporal went straight over to retrieve the box.  

Sergeant Johnson woke up to find the orderly, who had a message from the lieutenant, standing over him. “Here,” the man said.

Andy looked over to see that John was still sleeping so he read the note.

‘You have not talked with the Russian yet. You are supposed to be getting to know him and finding out about him. Talk about sports; see if he knows who won the World Series. The sooner you get the info the faster you can get back to your wife and family.’

The note was signed by Lieutenant Granger.

The nurses were just bringing breakfast around when John started to stir. He sat up in bed when Susan handed him a tray. “Good morning, mystery man. Here is some food,” she said.

He sat up and looked around, “Good morning, Beautiful.”

Susan blushed a little. “Goodness, I knew I should not have given you that James Bond book. Already you are flattering the ladies.”

“I’m enjoying it, I must admit. Maybe I’m picking up a pointer or two. The story is very familiar though. Have they made this into a movie?”

“It’s brand new; of course not. They don’t make every book into a movie, you know.” She smiled at him and then patted his hand as she left. When she got to Andy’s bed she just plopped the tray down, scowled at him and then walked away.

He shrugged but it did no good. She wasn’t looking by that point. Andy turned towards John and asked, “so what do they have you in here for?”

“Amnesia. I don’t know what they are going to do about it,” John replied. “How about you?”

“Um,” Andy hadn’t made up a story yet and he was horrible at impromptu.  “Ah, head injury, oh and the arm too.”

“What happened?” John asked.

“Ah, Vietnam somewhere. I, uh, was in combat. Um,” He was having a hard time with this. “Grenade concussion. Yep, that was it. Grenade concussion.”

“Sounds like you are having a little memory problems too,” John replied.

“Yeah, boy, I’ll say. So how about the 1965 World Series? What do you think about who won?” The question came out very jumbled and completely random. Andy felt foolish asking it the way he did.

“I don’t even know who won last year,” John admitted.

Andy looked puzzled. “1965
was
last year.”

“It was? No way. You’re kidding! That doesn’t sound right.”

With a serious face Andy replied, “It’s 1966. I’m not kidding.”

“Oh.” John was deep in thought for a few minutes. “Who won then?”

“The Dodgers.”

The conversation had ended. John seemed upset by it so Andy didn’t pursue it. He just turned onto his side so that John could not see him write and scribbled down a note saying that John did not know who won the World Series, nor did he even know what year it was.

John was still very troubled. When Susan walked by he motioned her over. “What year is it?”  

“Now you are a silly man; it’s 1966 of course.”

“Then why does my class ring show that I graduated from the Air Force Academy in 2010?” He showed her the ring.

She stared at it for the longest time. She was utterly shocked at what she was seeing. “Don’t show this ring to anyone. I am sure that there is a perfectly good explanation but there’s a lot of rumor and mystery surrounding you. We don’t want to add fuel to the fire. Hide that ring.”

When she stood back up she looked over at Andy and saw he was busy writing down notes. She had already let the cat out of the bag. She felt really bad, but she didn’t say anything to John as she walked away. She went to pick up Andy’s tray and accidentally spilled the rest of his food all over him. “Whoops, sorry.”

Major Stubbs called Lieutenant Granger. “I need a guard on the hanger where the wreckage is kept. No one is allowed in there except for myself and Colonel Rodgers until further notice.”

“Yes, Sir. It will be difficult since I am a man down, but I can double shift a man.” Granger replied.

“No need to do that. We have found out that our guest is a red blooded American, so you don’t need to spy on him any longer. You can get your man out of there.”

“Yes, Sir, I mean, are you sure, Sir?” Granger was still thinking he was a Russian.

“We have absolute proof of it.” The Major didn’t mind Granger’s hesitancy. It was good for the head of security to double check everything.

“Yes, Sir.”

Granger marched straight over to the hospital. When he got to Andy’s bed, Andy was waving a note at the side of the bed so John could not see what he was doing. Granger walked over and grabbed the note and read it. Then he went over to John’s bed and said,” I want to see that ring.”

“What ring?” John asked. He was sad because he thought that Susan had told everyone about it.

“Your class ring from the Air Force Academy. Don’t play stupid with me.” The Lieutenant’s high voice showed his impatience.

John reluctantly handed it over. Granger looked at it. Shock showed on his face. Then he looked back at John and then back at the ring. “Is this some type of joke?”

“You tell me. I have amnesia, remember?”

Granger turned to Andy. “Your assignment is over. Get that silly looking dressing off your head and get a nurse to cut off the cast. I need a detail to guard the hanger where the wreckage is.”

Andy got out of bed a little sheepishly. “Yes, Sir.”

“You were sent to spy on me?” John was incredulous.

Andy just shrugged; he had not liked the assignment and he still had milk all down his front. He saluted Granger and marched out of the ward.

Granger turned to John, “I must show this to the Colonel. I hope you understand.” He marched out.

John was happy that Susan wasn’t the one who told on him. He wondered why Granger was suddenly showing him some respect. Was it because he was a fellow serviceman, or maybe he now believed he was an American? Maybe it was both?