Warrior Chronicles 1: Warrior's Scar Read online

  Sköll had been a pup, just weeks old, and bit Cort twice before he had been able to cut the wire-wrapped paracord from around the pup’s ankle. He had planned on just setting him free, but when the trapper appeared Addison realized the man had been hoping for the wolf. He had three wolf pelts thrown over his shoulder. Two were grays. When Addison confronted him about the endangered animals, the man ended up dead. Two other wolves had watched the contest. But they were content with feeding on the loser. The pup was of no consequence to them, as it was too young for the pack and its mother was dead, a victim of the poacher. That night the pup had slept curled up in the crook of Addison’s arm. Cort couldn’t know it, but two of the pelts he kept belonged to the pup’s parents. Their smell kept the little one near him.

  “I need to run some errands. Care to come along?” he asked while running a finger over the curve of her shoulder.

  “I can’t leave you alone. It’s in my orders. Of course I’ll go. Where to?”

  “One thing. If you go, it’s off the record. You don’t tell them about the last stop. Agreed?” When she nodded, he continued. “A cigar shop, a liquor store, and a Radio Shack. In that order. I have a few things I want to take that I’m sure they won’t supply. Wanna shower first?”

  “We’d better hurry, so no. Lockdown is in three hours. It’s almost an hour to Las Cruces.”

  “Do you really think they will lock me out?”

  “Good point. Let’s have that shower.”

  Six Hours From Event

  “Mr. Addison, let’s go over things one more time.” Dr. Barr was speaking.

  “How about I walk you through it? Then if I miss anything, you’ll catch it.” Addison scratched Sköll’s head as Barr looked at Natsumo. Before Natsumo could nod, Cort continued.

  Cort stared at Natsumo as he began. The look made it clear Cort didn’t buy into the official reason for the experiment. “The stated purpose of the experiment is to test a transdimensional displacement theory. A few seconds after I am sealed in the chamber, we begin a countdown. The event occurs when your elusive twin particles are created. One will stay here. One goes with me. Then I will feel a shift. No one knows what that shift will feel like, because no one has ever felt it. But I should feel something. When I do, I open the particle chamber. That should release the particle and pull me back into this time stream. One minute later I will open the chamber and hope for the best. If you guys did your math right, I wake up three hundred and four years, one hundred and eighty-two days in the future. In this exact spot. If your math is off by just whatever the fuck percent, I may find that the chamber is in the middle of the Moon. Or maybe a thousand feet above New Jersey. Either way, Sköll and I are dead after the air and rations run out, or gravity claims us. We may also be dead even if your math is perfect. A meteor strike or other astronomical event related to any of the reference anchors could throw the jump off. But assuming the error is less than all those zeros and the two, and assuming no significant astronomical event occurs, then I will open the chamber and be somewhere in this exact room.” Cort looked around the giant cavern. It had been cleared of everything but a few cables and some equipment connected to the chamber. Nearly half a mile in diameter, and over thirty feet tall, it had been constructed for weapons testing several decades before.

  “Once we are out of the chamber, we will gather our gear and leave via the southernmost access tunnel, providing it still exists. If it does not, I will try and find another way out. After I exit the cavern, I locate the nearest military base and identify myself using this card around my neck. Then it’s out of my hands. Does that about cover it?” Cort was looking at Natsumo again as he asked the last question.

  “Cort, you’ll be very wealthy when you arrive if our government still exists. They will already have all the data from the experiment. Your arrival will just confirm it. So you will be free to collect your identity and move forward with your life.”

  Bullshit, Ben. Yeah, I’m going to walk onto a military base first thing. So I can be taken away from the public eye and poked, prodded, and studied before people like you decide to dispose of me. I don’t think so, Ben. I’ve made my own arrangements. But you have planned on that, haven’t you? No, you won’t risk it. So someone in the future will be waiting for me. To take immediate custody of me and Sköll, right? I don’t think that’s going to happen the way you hope, Ben. I have other ideas.

  “Director Natsumo, I have always held up my end of the bargain with you. But if I get there, or should I say, if I get then, and my money isn’t there, I will find every one of your descendents and wipe your DNA from existence. The sins of the father, Ben. Now, I have to finish packing the chamber and going over things with the people who don’t order death.” He saw Natsumo’s eyes contract. “Yes Ben, I have a few more things that I purchased for the trip. Cigars, booze, etc. But I’m sure Miss Hansen told you all about that.” But she won’t tell you about one purchase I made. Because she knows you too.

  Two Hours From Event

  “What happens in the case of EM interference, Cort?” Barr was in control of the pre-flight again.

  “The chamber shouldn’t be affected. It is essentially a powered Faraday cage inside a passive Faraday cage. All my electronics and data will be safe. As will my power supplies. All of my devices are powered by the same battery type. I have three batteries for each device. As well as eight chargers. Two chemical, two solar, two thermal, and two kinetic. Power will not be an issue. Did you get the data I requested?”

  “Yes, and that was good thinking. You have what amounts to the Encyclopedia Britannica on steroids. Over seven thousand texts. Medical, scientific, how-to, everything you asked for. I also threw in a large collection of historical fiction and history. Even some sci-fi, so you can compare our vision to what will be reality.”

  “Matt, I have a question. How good is your math? Really.”

  “It’s perfect. I used secondary reference anchors as well. You will arrive within two centimeters of where you left.”

  Cort pushed a button on a small device in his pocket as they leaned over the open transport chamber. “Don’t look up or at me. Just keep working. I want you to move the emergent locus. I want to appear as close to the secondary exit as possible. I don’t trust Natsumo. I’ve known him too long. And I sure don’t trust the Ethiopian. He’s got his own agenda. I trust you and Amber. That’s it. Can you do it?”

  Barr’s mind was racing. It took away the margin of error. Completely. But Addison was right. Natsumo and Kevellen were playing a different game. They had agendas that went way beyond what the experiment suggested. How do I change the EL without moving the chamber? “I can’t put you by that exit. I can get you within fifty meters of it though. The problem is the rotational axis. Earth’s I mean. I can... If I change the clock on the control computer by an attosecond, I can move you along the Earth’s rotational axis. That would put you….forty-eight point two meters to the north, er, left of the secondary exit. Would that work?”

  “Do it. And thank you.”

  “You’re right not to trust them. The experiment has failed two times. This is the last chance.”

  “Why did it fail before?” Cort asked.

  “We don’t know. Well, they don’t. I think I do. We’ve tried electronics, but I don’t think they work outside of our space-time. Neither did a mechanical spring. Or a backup chemical switch.” Barr turned toward Cort. “I think this is going to hurt. A lot. I think all the laws we know stop working outside of our time stream. Either they are dependent on a consistent time stream or, which is my opinion, the universe changes. That means once you leave our space-time, you will die. On a cellular level. The pain will be incredible. You have to hold it together long enough to open the particle container. Or you will die outside of the universe. And you may die anyway. I don’t know biology. That means I don’t know how long your cells can be dead without you joining them.”

  “They’ve put trackers on the chamber, right? Inside or o
ut?”

  Barr was shocked. Addison didn’t even bat an eye talking about the tracker. There was no question in his voice, no doubt. He spoke of it as if he expected nothing less. The man was definitely a thinker. And paranoid. “Inside. They will activate when you open the chamber, after you emerge. It’s a standard PLB frequency. I think they actually modified a SPOT locator. But we can’t disconnect it. It will set off alarms.”

  Cort patted Barr’s shoulder. “I don’t want to. I just needed to know that Ben was still Ben. You can speak normally now.” Touching the device in his pocket, he said, “You did a great job, I guess, Matt. But I’ll take triggers and targets any day though.”

  --

  “What did they talk about in the final prep?” Dr. Kevellen asked Amber Hansen.

  “I have the audio. The books Addison requested. The accuracy of Barr’s work. Oh something about some sci-fi series. Valhalla’s Call or something. Nerd stuff.”

  “Thank you Miss Hansen. You’ve handled our guinea pig quite well.”

  You’ve no idea, you bastard.

  Minutes From Event

  “I’d like to shake your hand, Cort. We’ve been through a lot. There was a time when we were friends.” Ben Natsumo held his hand out to the man who was going to be the first to travel through time. A theoretical impossibility until a stable and controllable graviton was created. And its identical twin, the supersymmetric particle known as a graviton sparticle. The graviton that would be created would last forever. Because that’s the nature of gravitic matter. But its twin would only exist for the blink of an eye. And that sparticle would be what linked the transport chamber to another century. Created in one specific point in space and time, aligned with the light which was sent to us from a thousand different stars millions of years ago, the sparticle would cause the transport chamber to cease to exist, almost. Actually, being antimatter, the graviton sparticle, which had only been theoretical a few years ago, would push the chamber out of space time. But if Kevellen and his team were correct, Addison and the chamber would be pulled back into their own space time over three hundred four years in the future. That would be the next moment the Sun’s gravity could be counted on to align the graviton particle, which would be held in a small, magnetically sealed compartment in the gravitational center of the transport chamber.

  Addison took the smaller man’s hand. “I won’t say I don’t miss our friendship, because I do. But I’m glad to be leaving you behind.” Cort climbed into the chamber and sat down in the middle of crates filled with supplies. After hearing the description of what was going to happen, he asked that the pilot seat along with its mount and safety harness be removed. Along with over two hundred pounds of other erroneous equipment. As Sköll lay with his head in Cort’s lap, Amber leaned in and kissed Addison. That was the first moment Kevellen and Natsumo thought something might be wrong. Before either could comment, the chamber was sealed. There were just five seconds until the timer would signify the event had occurred. Addison pressed another button Natsumo didn’t know about. It immediately began jamming the locator beacon. But I still don’t trust you, Ben. I never should have. You cost me all the things that mattered. That’s how you really got me here, Ben. When they were all gone, I had nothing left to stay here for, did I?

  One Hour Later

  “Well, that was an expensive failure. Shut it down,” Ben Natsumo said. “The President has been informed. Do we know what went wrong?”

  Barr looked up from his tablet. “No sir. We didn’t even see the tachyon bursts we have seen in previous attempts. I can’t even be sure that he exited our time stream. According to Dr. Kevellen’s theory, if the experiment was a success, we should have observed the same type of tachyon burst as before. But there was none. Possibly because of a change in chamber mass, but best probability, some astro-event between now and the emergent date corrupted the particle alignment.”

  “Dr. Kevellen?”

  The tall Ethiopian physicist didn’t look up from the desk he was working at. He was afraid to. He didn’t want Natsumo to see the lie. “Barr is correct. The only explanation is an event which interfered with the removal of the chamber from our time stream. All we were able to measure was a drop in molecular mass. That would indicate that the chamber is either outside of our time-space, or the entire mass of the chamber,” Kevellen paused, “and its contents, were converted to an energy type that we weren’t prepared to measure. Without a graviton to align to, the subject is lost. I suspect human error on the part of Mr. Addison. Perhaps he released the graviton at the instant of transition. I’ve always stated that concern.”

  “So he’s gone. Something men the world over have attempted, and it was a barely measurable particle that did it. Damn. Well, he was my friend once. I think I’m going to go have a drink and remember those times.”

  As the Science Director and several others left the chamber, Kevellen turned to Barr. “Why did you disconnect the particle array?” Seeing the look on Barr’s face was all he needed to know the experiment was a success. “Yes, Dr. Barr, I know you sabotaged the detection array. Frankly, if you hadn’t, I would have. I may be heartless, and I may be cold and clinical, but I am still a scientist. And a human. If Einstein taught us anything, it’s that not all science is good. The government need not have that kind of power. Even I can see that, though I haven’t considered all the military ramifications yet. But tell me, what about the emergent event? Without success, Mr. Natsumo will not keep this facility in trust.”

  “I can answer that, Doctor.” The men turned to Amber. “This base has already been made off limits. Our hope, and it is just a hope, is that the facility will be forgotten. Especially with Dr. Barr working to label the site toxic. Your help would be very beneficial in that effort.”

  “I believe we should hit the evacuation alarm then, my fellow conspirators.” Kevellen lifted a plastic cover and pushed a round red button. Klaxons and rotating lights went off throughout the facility. As they walked quickly for the emergency exit, he asked, “But tell me, what do you think our friend will find when he emerges?”

  “Hopefully all the supplies we can think up that he might need in three centuries. And as for myself, I’m writing him a dirty note.” Hansen smiled to herself, leaving the two men to wonder. And envy the traveler.

  --

  Ben Natsumo was in an armored SUV with four other members of the project oversight committee when the call from the President came through. “Mr. President.” he said.

  “What do you think happened, Director?”

  “According to the team, we suspect a future event that was beyond our control interfered with the transition alignment. I’ve considered a problem at our end, but dismissed it. Barr and Kevellen dislike each other too much to cover for one another in the case of sabotage. Not to mention Kevellen is a heartless bastard. And both of them would have to be involved. I do believe his handler was compromised, though. According to documents Addison filed before the event, all his properties have been turned over to Amber Hansen. I don’t like it, but I don’t recognize anyway she could have undermined the project alone. Especially since she was not party to the actual experiment. The reality is that all three of them would have to have been involved in any attempt to help Addison sabotage the experiment. And even that is based on the supposition that Addison would have wanted to sabotage it. I do not believe that is the case. This was an escape to him. He would not have willingly committed suicide to spite me.”

  “So where does that leave us?” the President asked.

  “As you know, we have no more devices. While we suspect Addison had one such device as well, we haven’t been able to find it, nor did he take it with him. Without more of them, the project is dead. We simply cannot create the particles required to make the dimensional transition. I do have some of my more trusted associates from my time with Homeland Security going over Addison’s assets and trying to find out if he did indeed acquire one 1988 as I suspect. I have people searching his Calif
ornia property too. Unfortunately, several of them have been killed or injured by his security measures. We could take control of his assets and prevent any possible efforts by Miss Hansen on his behalf.”

  “No. That would be bad. Her aunt is too influential and we are in an election cycle. I don’t need the bad press that seizing her newfound wealth would attract. Very well, keep me apprised as you see fit, Director.”

  “One more thing, Mr. President,” Natsumo said. “The facility has been shut down. We had a mid level radiation event after the experiment was over. We don’t believe it will be a long term problem, but according to Drs. Barr and Kevellen, the site will be off limits for several years.”

  Four

  Three Hundred and Four Years Later

  The Cavern