Last Chance (8 page)

Connor pulled his hand away from April’s, shook his head, and paced around the small room. “Wait a minute! How do you know about all of this? Do you know this crazy old man?”

April responded, “He is not a crazy old man, and yes, I have known him for quite a while.”

Walter walked over to April and grabbed her hand. “She has been a part of the movement for many years.”

Matthew asked, “What movement? April goes to work every day like everyone else.”

“Boys, I want to tell you the story of a freedom movement that has been fighting back against Supreme Leader Hathmec for close to two hundred years. In order for you to understand why this movement exists, you must first understand where the Supreme Leader actually comes from.”

Walter took a seat by one of his workbenches and asked, “Are you willing to listen to this story with an open mind and really search your own minds and hearts to determine its truth?”

Matthew responded, “Yes, I want to know the truth.”

Connor rolled his eyes before he responded, “Yeah, let’s hear it.”

Walter began, “In order to understand where the Supreme Leader comes from, you must first understand that the Hathmec is not of earthly design. The Hathmec is made up of both alien technology and alien physiology. In order to understand it, you must first know how it arrived here and how it got into the hands of the self-appointed Supreme Leader.” Walter Wainright spent the next hour telling the boys and April the story of Liam Liot.

Liam Liot was an alien traveler from the planet TERAH who was tasked with the job of scouting Earth for intelligent life and determining whether Earth could be used as a planet to inhabit should something ever happen to TERAH. The flight from planet TERAH to Earth took approximately two years to complete, so Liam and his partner-wife, Saras, were placed into a cryogenic sleep for the trip.

The technology gap between the planet TERAH and Earth was extensive, so this trip was expected to go off without a hitch, but that was not the case. Liam awoke from his cryogenic sleep to discover that his ship had crash-landed in the western portion of North America. Liam checked the ship to discover that his wife, Saras, was killed in the wreck. Her Hathmec pendant had become separated from her during the crash and she had no way to heal from her injuries. Liam was distraught and contemplated ending his life right then and there, but he decided that a good soldier would attempt to complete his mission.

Liam determined that the ship was beyond repair, so he took what he could from the vessel and made his trek across the country to the nearest inhabited area. Liam had landed in the early 1700s, and there were few people living in the western half of North America at that time. Liam looked like any other person on the planet, but he had the intelligence and technology of a master race of aliens in the Hathmec. The Hathmec gave its wearer a special set of skills, depending on the charms that were linked to it.

Matthew jumped in with an obvious question. “What do you mean, special set of skills?”

Walter responded, “I’m glad you asked. Let’s use my Hathmec and charm as an example.”

Walter held his pendant in his hand and pointed to a charm that looked like a snake suspended in midcoil. “This is the health charm of the Hathmec. It gives the wearer the ability to quickly heal from wounds, keep illness at bay, and reduce aging to a crawl.”

Connor chimed in, “Reduce aging? How is that possible?”

Walter pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to Connor. “What is on that paper?”

Connor looked it over and said, “It says it’s a birth certificate for Walter Wainright.”

April asked, “What year does it say Walter was born?”

“It says 1955, but that’s impossible. You would be over two hundred years old.”

Walter replied, “I’m actually 230, but with the Hathmec health charm, I only age one year for every fifty years.”

Matthew asked another question. “Then why do you look like you’re in your fifties? Did you not start using the health charm until later in life?”

Walter chuckled and said, “We’ll get to that as I go through the rest of the story.”

“Liam made his way to the American colonies and learned as much as he could about the humans that inhabited this planet. With the use of his attribute and memory charms, he was able to quickly learn skills of the day and determined what the people of that time were thinking. Liam never had problems getting his way due to the power of the control charm. The control charm is used by security teams today to control the citizens of the planet.

“In fact, Liam became particularly involved during the time of the American Revolution. There were stories from British soldiers about a creature in the forests of the colonies that would torment their soldiers but could not be stopped by their bullets. It was actually Liam using his element charm and transport charm to confuse them. They thought they were seeing ghosts. He never actually killed anyone himself, but he was growing more compassionate for the American revolutionaries and wanted to help.”

Matthew interrupted the story again and asked, “OK, so now there’s an element charm and a transport charm. What do those do?”

Walter responded, “We’ll get to all of that in a bit, but let’s finish the story first.”

Connor raised his hand and Walter said, “This isn’t school, my boy. You can ask without raising your hand.”

Connor grinned and asked, “I don’t understand the control charm thing; do you just look at someone and they do what you say?”

Walter regained his train of thought. “No, Connor, the only way that you can control someone with a control charm or use any of the other charms is to place a carrier stone on that person or animal.” Walter opened his hand and showed the boys a very small polished stone, similar to a small piece of marble, and said, “This is a carrier stone.”

Walter sat the stone on the adjoining table and explained its use. “For someone who possesses a Hathmec pendant, the carrier stone allows him to either take or receive the powers of the charm. For example, Matthew, at the game when you felt that rush of energy and all of your aches and pains went away, I had shared my health charm with you.”

“When did you put a stone on me?”

“I slipped it on you when I patted you on the back. It was a much smaller stone, more like a speck of dust.”

April said, “So anyone who has a Hathmec can create their own carriers just by thinking about it?”

“The wearer of the Hathmec has their very DNA interwoven with the power of the pendant. It rushes through their blood and skin. This combination of physiology and technology allows the wearer to accomplish amazing things. This includes the creation of carrier stones.”

Walter asked the group, “Now, can I continue with the story of Liam Liot?”

Johnson replied, “Yes, please continue.”

“Liam Liot muddled around the colonies, was around for several wars, and even helped put in the first railroad systems around the country, but he was lonely. He determined that he was never going to be rescued by his native planet and had no way of repairing his own spaceship, so he decided to let time run its course naturally and simply pass away when it was time.

“Before he could do that, he wanted to make sure that Saras’s Hathmec was never found by humans. Since a Hathmec charm is almost impossible to destroy, he decided to remove the charms from the pendant and give some of them to families he had met during his time on Earth. He would hide the others. This would keep them away from anyone who might determine a use for them.

“Liam’s plan to fade as any other human took a sharp turn when he met a woman named Lana around the turn of the nineteenth century. Lana was a breath of fresh air for Liam and reminded him of why he had loved Saras so much. He took a different name, William Elliott, and wed Lana in the early 1900s. He wasn’t sure if a human could have children with an alien until it was discovered that Lana was pregnant in 1902. She would go on to have two sons by the names of Evan and Daniel.

“Liam lived and aged with Lana. He was content raising his two sons and growing old with this new love. He had removed his own Hathmec before they were married and placed it at their home around Washington, DC. He acquired a job as a city engineer and life was good. All was well until 1920, when his oldest son, Evan, was struck with a disease that could take his life. Doctors couldn’t help Evan, so Liam had to make a decision that would alter all of our lives forever.

“Liam decided to pull out his Hathmec pendant and create a new pendant for Evan. He then copied his own health charm and gave it to Evan for his pendant. Within minutes, Evan felt better, and within the day, he was completely healed. Liam made the decision that he wanted to give both of his sons the ability to heal from illness, so he also gave a Hathmec to his younger son, Daniel.

“Liam refused to use his Hathmec several years later as he watched his wife pass away in 1959. As Liam began to grow ill in early 1960, he brought his two sons together. Both were still young, as they had used the power of their Hathmec charms for years. Liam decided to tell his sons of his true origin and gave them the option to use the power of the Hathmec to help this world. He turned over his own Hathmec to Evan, who then gave a full copy to his brother, Daniel. Liam’s pendant contained all of the charms needed for each skill. Liam Liot passed away early on a Saturday morning at his home in Washington, DC.

“His sons, Evan and Daniel, decided to use the full powers of their Hathmec pendants to change the world. The brothers worked together for over twenty years until the younger of the brothers, Daniel, saw that he and his brother weren’t working toward the same goal. He wasn’t happy with the methods Evan had used to get things done, so he confronted him. Since Liam had given his original charms to Evan, he had the full control over any copies of them that were produced, even Daniel’s. Evan took Daniel’s charms from him and had him killed.”

“Wait a minute, Mr. Wainright,” interrupted Matthew. “Are you telling us that this Evan Elliott is the Supreme Leader?”

Walter cleared his throat. “Yes, Evan Elliott is the Supreme Leader and he killed his own brother, a very good friend of mine, Daniel Elliot.”

April told her boys, “Walter was close enough with Daniel that he told him this story before he was killed. He was concerned about what his brother might do when he confronted him. Walter has been leading the fight against the Supreme Leader ever since.”

Connor asked, “Where did you get your Hathmec pendant?”

Walter looked at the pendant and said, “Daniel copied his own and gave it to me a few weeks before he was killed. He only copied the health charm because he was worried about the effects that the other charms might have on true humans.”

Matthew asked, “True humans?”

“Yes, you have to remember that Daniel and Evan are half human and half alien, so they weren’t sure if the full power of the pendant could be used by someone that didn’t have some alien in them. It turns out that humans can handle the power, but they have a lessened ability to use it.”

Connor asked another question. “I’ve never seen a security guard throw a carrier stone at anyone, so how do they control people?”

Walter put his head down, as if he was ashamed to answer Connor’s question, but he eventually looked up and said, “The reason that guards or anyone else with a Hathmec can control anyone, without using a carrier stone, is due to something that still haunts me.”

“Evan Elliott didn’t think it was good enough to only have control over someone when he could place a carrier stone on them. He orchestrated a plan so that every baby, after they were born, would be injected with serum that carries faint traces of carrier stones from his Hathmec.”

Matthew interjected, “So, you’re saying that all humans are injected with these carriers during a child’s vaccination shots?”

Johnson added, “He started using the shots in the year 2020, and by 2050, he could control the vast majority of the world.”

Walter continued, “Since every Hathmec copy that has ever been made, besides the one that I have, came from Evan Elliott, he has total control over every man, woman, and child on this planet. The health charm on my pendant protects me from the copies he has made for his security teams and governors, but it is no match for his, one on one.”

Matthew walked over to April and Connor and tried to figure out what to say next. “If that’s the case, what can anyone do to stop him?”

Walter showed a small grin on the left side of his face and slyly responded to Matthew, “I’m so glad you asked me that, because we do have a plan to stop him, but we will need your help.”

Matthew, confused by the comment, responded, “Our help? What in the world can we do to fight the Supreme Leader?”

Johnson took a quick peek to a door at the far side of the room and asked Mr. Wainright, “Should we go ahead and take them to room 3?”

Walter shook his head no and said, “It’s already been a long day for these young men and April. How about we let them get some rest and we can show them room 3 in the morning.”

Matthew and Connor both showed their displeasure. Connor demanded, “We don’t need any sleep; we need more answers.”

“Yeah, go ahead and show us this room 3 now.”

Walter turned to April. “What do you think?”

April took one look at the boys and said, “They won’t be able to sleep anyway. Let’s go ahead and see what’s behind door 3.”

“Mr. Johnson, please lead the way.”

Johnson led the two boys, April, and Walter to the door labeled room 3 and put his hand on the doorknob. He turned to April and the boys. “Now, when you go in here, keep to the side walls and don’t get too close to the…well, you’ll know it when you see it.”

As Johnson turned the knob on the door, the boys’ hearts raced with anticipation and dread as to what they would see on the other side. The door opened and Matthew could see inside the room. Only one thing came from his lips: “Oh my god!”

Chapter 7

the rorimite tunnel

“What is it?” uttered Matthew, as he looked at the stray images flashing through a wall in the center of the room.

Matthew walked closer to the wall when Johnson put his arm up in front of him. “I told you not to get too close. Get back here with the rest of us.”

April grabbed both Connor and Matthew’s hands. The boys were mesmerized by the images as they flashed back and forth across the opening. It was the size of a doorway but had no boundaries of structure, like a doorframe. A person’s face flared in and out, along with scenes of buildings and animals. The images were blinding at times, but were also soft, as if looking at a cloudy sky or an insect as it ran along the grass. There for an instant and then gone; moments in time preserved by this strange mirror.

April asked, “Walter, what are we looking at? It’s like a movie suspended in air or a storm contained in a bottle.”

Walter Wainright walked to the far side of the room and pulled a lever attached to a small console secured to the wall. The doorway to the images vanished in the blink of an eye. The other side of the room had replaced the exciting views of the doorway. Connor exclaimed, “What did you do that for?”

Walter moved back to the front of the room and said, “There’s no sense in using any more power than we have to. You’ve seen what you need to see.”

Matthew strolled into the area previously occupied by the bizarre images and asked, “What exactly have we seen, Mr. Wainright?” Walter crossed his arms and raised his brow. “I mean Walter. What exactly have we seen, Walter?”

“What you have before you is a technological marvel that was originally part of Liam Liot’s spacecraft. The problem was that Liam Liot couldn’t use this wonder due to an extreme lack of a power source. He had no way to run it.”

Connor asked, “Run it? Is it some kind of movie projector or something?”

Walter scoffed at Connor’s statement. “No, it’s not a fancy movie projector.”

Walter placed his hand on the control module. It was clear that he was still impressed by the magnitude of what it could do. “It’s the only known time machine in existence.”

Matthew and Connor’s eyes grew to the size of tennis balls as they stared at each other in disbelief. Connor replied, “A time machine? You’re out of your mind, old man.” April shot Connor a stone-cold stare and reminded him about his manners.

Walter removed his hand from the console with the lever and said, “I don’t blame the boys for not believing me, April; this is a hard one to swallow. You see, this time machine can only be powered by the sector power crystals that were installed in all the districts about twenty years ago.”

Matthew asked, “How does it work?”

“Glad you asked.”

“The minute that Liam Liot’s spacecraft crashed on Earth, it began recording history and storing it inside this panel. The power required to record was next to nothing; it actually used reserves from a type of alien battery internal to it.”

April said, “So it’s some type of recorder. Something you can use to see what actually happened from the time Liam landed to present day.”

Walter replied, “That is one use for it, but the truly extraordinary use is that you can actually go back to those times through this powered portal. It is called a rorimite tunnel. Loosely translated, it’s a time mirror tunnel.”

With the rorimite tunnel shut down and the lights to the room powered up, April noticed all of the control systems and panels that lined the room’s walls. The control boards lit up like Christmas lights and the panels illustrated pulsating graphs and power readings from throughout the room. The balance of the room was similar to a doctor’s office from the twentieth century: white walls, clean smell, but no personal touches of style at all.

Connor revealed a wry grin and chuckled to Johnson. “You actually believe this junk? If Liam Liot could time travel, why didn’t he just go back and save his wife from the crash?”

Johnson tapped Connor on the head with his index finger and said, “You’re not listening, little man. The tunnel didn’t start recording until after they crashed. Even if it did, there was no power source to run this thing until a few years ago.”

Walter added, “Yes, the main power drivers from the spacecraft were damaged beyond repair. Earth just didn’t have the technology or structure at the time to help Liam. Besides, Liam eventually came to terms with living on Earth and the life that he could have here.”

April reviewed the control panel. “What makes you an expert on this machine, Walter?”

There was a large wall full of books that Walter leaned against as he replied, “Daniel Elliot trusted me with things that he didn’t even trust his own brother with. For quite some time, Daniel knew of his father’s library of technical specifications for the spacecraft and all the equipment that was within it.”

Matthew asked, “Is that stuff in the other room from the craft, too?”

Johnson said, “Some of it is, but a lot of it is just artifacts from the early 2000s.”

Connor picked up one of the books and joked, “I guess everything in the alien specifications are written in English to make it easy on you, right?”

Walter snickered at the boy’s wit but explained that one of the first pieces of alien equipment that did work was a translator box. He used the translator over several decades to decode all of the alien specifications.

“I am the world’s only expert in alien time travel,” revealed Mr. Wainright. “This is the only weapon we have against the Supreme Leader and his followers, and I need your help to use it against him.”

“I still don’t get it Walter,” said Matthew. “What can we do that you couldn’t do yourself in the past?”

Walter pondered the question and presented his response in three distinct validations. “Number one, you cannot time travel within your own lifetime. That pretty well takes me and Johnson here out as far back as 1950. Number two, the goal of this trip is very specific to both of your ages.”

Walter paused for a moment, and Matthew asked, “What’s the last reason?”

Walter scratched his head and turned to April. “I just think that you and your family are meant to do this.”

Connor picked up an old cell phone from one of the tables and said, “Well, that’s reassuring; he has a good feeling about not killing us in the alien time machine.”

April asked, “What is it exactly that you want us to do for you?”

Walter grabbed a small notebook and reviewed it before answering April’s question. He explained, “If you remember, I told you that Liam Liot had separated his alien wife’s Hathmec and presented some of the charms to people or families that he had run across during his early time on Earth. One of the families that Liam gave a charm to was the Curry family. This was back in the early 1800s.”

Walter removed a photo from one of his folders and passed it around. “You see the young lady in the center of this photo?”

Connor and Matthew started to grin and in a muted volume said, “She’s really cute.”

Walter rolled his eyes and took the photo from the boys. “Yes, she is a very cute young lady, but she is also the owner of Saras’s attribute charm for the Hathmec pendant.”

Walter saw that April and the boys were befuddled, so he clarified, “You see, this is Amanda Curry. She was sixteen years old in 1984 and had been the owner of this alien treasure since her birthday of that year.”

Connor started counting on his fingers and asked, “You said the Currys got the charm in 1800; doesn’t that make her 184 years old?”

Walter shook his head no and explained, “The Curry family was given the charm in 1800, and it was passed from family member to family member over those 184 years. In fact, Amanda’s grandmother had planned on giving her the charm when she was born, but Amanda’s mother kept it until she thought Amanda was mature enough to take care of it.”

Connor strutted over and put his hand on Walter’s shoulder. “So, we just need to go back to 1984 and take the charm from this girl and bring it back to you?”

Walter removed Connor’s hand and said, “I wish it were that easy, but it will take a bit more skill than that. A Hathmec charm cannot be taken from someone by physical force and then be used by that person. It is linked to the owner, and only the owner of the charm can relinquish that power to someone else. It must be of their own free will.”

Matthew asked, “So, if we take the charm from her, it’s just a useless decoration?”

Johnson replied, “That’s right; you need to find a way to get Amanda Curry to give you the charm of her own free will.”

Walter pulled the Hathmec from his shirt and stared at it. “The charms from Saras’s Hathmec are the only objects on Earth that compare to the power of Evan Elliott’s Hathmec. We must find all of them before he does.”

April found it difficult to take her eyes from Walter’s Hathmec and asked, “Are you saying that the Supreme Leader is looking for these missing charms as well?”

“No, April, he has already found them. He found them over the last two centuries, with his first find coming in 1984. It was Amanda Curry.”

Matthew utilized his logical mind and asked, “Wait a minute…won’t we change history if the Supreme Leader isn’t the one who finds the charm?”

Walter replied, “Another good question, my boy; that’s why we are going to let him think that he found the charm with a decoy.”

Walter reached into the drawer of one of his many workbenches and pulled out a small, square, shiny yellow charm. “This replica of the attribute charm should do the trick. I’ve worked on it for years to make sure that it is identical to the real thing, beyond having alien powers. This is what you will use to trick Evan Elliott into thinking that he was successful in retrieving the attribute charm.”

Connor grabbed the fake charm. “This is never gonna work. The Supreme Leader is all knowing; he’ll see right through this, April.”

Walter cringed for the first time and started to reveal his own frustrations. “Stop calling your mother by her first name!”

Connor was stunned and backed away from the table. He watched as Walter’s face grew red. “She is your mother, or your mom, or mommy; I don’t care what you call her, but not April. No one in 1984 called their parents by their first name. If they did, they were smacked in the mouth or grounded, so you might as well get used to calling her Mom.”

Johnson added, “Another thing—you two are brothers, plain and simple.”

Walter continued his tirade. “The Supreme Leader is no god; he’s just a man who has too much power. This will succeed if you will work together to make it happen. You three are our only chance.”

April concurred and asked Johnson and Walter to give her a minute alone with her boys. They agreed and left them alone to talk.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t able to tell you boys everything about me. I thought you were too young to understand all of this.”

Connor’s body shook with nervous energy, and he couldn’t look his mother in the eyes. “I still don’t think we really know everything we need to know about your past, April—or Mom, whoever you are.”

April replied, “I am your mother and I am Matthew’s mother, and I care about you boys more than anything in this world.”

Matthew asked, “How did you meet this guy? Did you always know he was gonna ask us to do this?”

April shuddered as she prepared herself to answer that difficult question. “I met Mr. Wainright just before Connor was born, and he helped me through some tough times. He taught me, just as he has been teaching you, about the true history of the world and what the Supreme Leader has done to control it and us.”

Matthew tried to wrap his head around all of it. “Do you really believe all the things Walter’s telling us? I mean, do you really trust him?”

April responded without hesitation. “I trust Walter with my life and I would trust him with yours. Walter has been putting these plans together for a very long time. He knew he would need a young man to do the job, and when I had Connor, he saw his chance to recruit me. He knew it would just be a matter of time before you boys were old enough to help.”

Connor pounded his fist on the table. “So I’m just here to do his dirty work for him?”

“Of course not, but I knew once you and Matthew learned the truth, you would want to do everything you could to help Walter’s cause. I promise both of you that I am as passionate about this as anyone. It just happened a bit earlier than I had hoped.”

Matthew responded, “What do you mean it’s happening earlier than you’d hoped.”

April described the conversation that she had with Walter Wainright fourteen years earlier, while holding Connor in her arms as a newborn baby. “Walter Wainright helped me and I promised to help him. We had planned on introducing you to all of this when you turned sixteen, but plans can change at the drop of a hat.”

Matthew placed his hand near the rorimite tunnel where the images had been earlier and said, “So Connor’s being asked to help save the world, but what about me? How do I fit into this?”

April put her arms around Matthew. “You were the blessing that I never expected. You were added to my little family just days after Connor was born. From that point on, I decided that you would be raised as brothers and we would all work for the common goal of helping Walter and his followers.”