Fast Forward

Chapter 10

“Should we help?”, Rage asked.

“I’m still not sure about him”, Jesse said. “He’s fighting for his life but he doesn’t know anything yet. How can he possible understand us from his perspective?”.

“I could say the same about you, Jesse”, Elle replied.

“Yeah, Elle, you could say that about everyone, but we are talking about him”, Jesse said pointing at Calvin.

Beef just grunted at them as he turned back to watch Calvin and Aun fight. He always enjoyed a good fight. Beef smiled. Anyone that could hold his own with Aun was worth watching.

“How do we know that he’s not a plant?”, Jesse asked.

“It might surprise you to know that I’m not able to answer that question”, Elle said. “History says that he was always anti-establishment despite being a liberal”.

“Yeah”, Jesse said, “But how do we know he’s not from an alternate reality? Time travel isn’t as easy as moving forwards or backwards in time. He could have easily come here diagonally”.

“I am aware of infinite possibilities”, Elle said, “I’m just not able to calculate them all within a reasonable human time frame”.

“It’s not your fault, Elle”, Jesse said turning back to watch the fight. “It’s just I want to believe that is ‘The’ Calvin James and not just ‘A’ Calvin James”.

“As do we all”, Rage said, “But what other option do we have?”.

Jesse didn’t say anything. He had come too far and fought too long to fall into a trap. “Elle, tell me everything you know about how he got here”, he said sitting with his back up against a wall as an explosion showered them with debris from the fight. He glanced back at Calvin and Aun and when he was convinced they were still evenly matched, he turned back to Elle.

“As you know there are an infinite number of possibilities that could have pulled your ancestor here. I have been able to narrow down a number of possibilities by what he has said up to this point about his journey. He mentioned a car accident on 1604 on his way home.”

Elle brought up a holographic map in front of Jesse and the others, “The historical records I’ve been able to pull together correlate to an explosion that took place March 3, 2015.”

“Wasn’t that the day China attacked?”, Jesse asked.

“Correct. China had been secretly attacking the United States computer systems for several years prior to 2015. On March 3, 2015 China attacked the US first through the Internet first. Airlines, railroads, traffic lights, hospitals, military bases or anyone that depended on computers found themselves with no computers or they found the computers working but working against them. A week later, the US satellites were blown out of the sky. A month later, China took Alaska and the West Coast”.

“What does all that have to do with Calvin?”, Jesse asked.

“As you know, the damage from the attacks were pretty severe for an average hacker to piece together what had happened to Calvin on that day,” Elle said, “But as you also know, I’m no average hacker.”

“You’re not human either but you won’t here any complaints out of me”, Jesse said.

“That is correct”, Elle said. Jesse thought he saw her smile, but it must have been his imagination. She did say she wanted to be more human. She just didn’t know the appropriate times to smile or laugh or anything that required an emotional response. That was fine with Jesse because she made up for that easily with her database and her healing abilities.

“What I was able to piece together was this: A military base near the location of the explosion was experimenting with time travel”. Elle said.

“Fort Sam Houston?”, Jesse asked.

“No, this was Fort Kennedy”, Elle said.

“Fort Kennedy?”, Jesse said. “There was no Fort Kennedy in San Antonio, Texas”.

“Yes…”, Elle said pointing to an area on the holographic map, “…there was a Fort Kennedy. It was near the intersection of what use to be 35 and 1604. I was able to recover records showing that Fort Kennedy was about to receive a shipment of liquefied heavy metals that had the potential of moving someone through time and space. The truck carrying the heavy metals collided with another truck carrying unknown materials which started a fire. Somehow the fire and the liquefied heavy metals interacted in a way that allowed you ancestor to travel here”.

“And as soon as he arrived”, Rage said, “Aun and the government picked up a unique scent that could only be certain heavy metals that could be used for time travel”.

“It seems that he’s gained more than the ability to time travel”, Elle said. “Or rather, he’s using time travel in a way that is instinctive. He doesn’t seem to understand how to control his abilities. That makes him dangerous to the government and quite possibly everyone”.

“How so?”, Jesse asked.

“My analysis of this fight shows that while he seems to be super fast, ultra strong and invulnerable, he’s actually using time travel to appear that way”.

“Why?”, Jesse asked.

“It’s my guess he was a comic book geek growing up”, Rage said. Beef grunted in agreement.

“So if we help him we could possibly endanger ourselves and others because he doesn’t know what he’s doing?”, Jesse asked.

“Affirmative”, Elle said.

“Well”, Jesse said standing up, “he is a James and he is fighting Aun. I really doubt he has any love for this government”.

“There is a 78% chance that he will not like the government of 2015 once he knows what we know”, Elle said.

“Yeah, that was a disgusting time and the federal government did little to stop China before the invasion and did little after the invasion. Look, we do this because we believe in each other and we believe there is a better way. I have to believe that Calvin will do the right thing. He has to or we are all history”.