TEMPUS TWO CHAPTER FIVE
From 1961 to 1965 Barney and I had not seen another UFO.
Betty Hill
The Chancellor did the mind wipe. The Retribution was given the updates to pass on to Alfred who was in the cave in 1992 before Cristian arrived the first time.
Mary and Paul found a house and left them a little money. They woke up and they were told that there was a little accident and they had a problem with amnesia. They were shown their Id and Mary convinced them that everyone was going to be okay.
Lorelei and Cristian lived a normal life for a while. Lorelei cooked. Cristian worried about her and started a trench under the house that needed digging. The birth of the baby happened just like any other normal birth.
They had a red-headed baby girl, complete with a doting Grandmother and Grandfather. Who did what grandparents did.
Lorelei and Cristian were happy and content with their normal lives. They didn’t have much money but loved each other and that was enough. The baby was named after her Grandmother Mary, who barely managed to stay away for a day at a time.
Cristian had many talks with his daughter as he held her. He told her that she was going to be a great woman and she would do wonderful things. Lorelei would have to wait until they both fell asleep on the old couch before she could put the baby in her crib at night.
She loved to watch the two of them together, he was a great father. Maybe not the best provider, but a great dad and a good husband. She knew one day he would do great things and become a great man. For now, just being together was enough. She was very happy. He was very happy and so were the grandparents. His mother and her father. Lorelei thought they would make a good couple, maybe one day they would see it.
One day everything changed, the baby was two months old now. Cristian was under the house in a hot and sweaty crawlspace digging in a new sewer line that was required to be done by the city. He had a conspiracy theory about the new sewers. Someone who knew someone was making a lot of money and an overpaid city employee was getting a kickback for the idea. He had many conspiracy theories. Lorelei listened intently to her husband and was sure that he was right about most. When it got to the Aliens she would bow out and go to the kitchen. She didn’t like those theories, she wasn’t sure why.
The day Cristian finished the digging, he brought up an old tin box that he found digging under the house.
“Are you all done, sweetie? I have your favourite Macaroni with tuna and a couple of veggie burgers with the last chunk of cheddar.”
“Did I tell you that I love you today?”
“Only twice,” she said with a small pout.
“Did I tell you, you look beautiful today?”
“Including now, once. How is the digging?”
“I am done Lorelei we just have to call in to have it inspected then I can fill in the hole. Macaroni sounds great. Oh by the way I found a tin Box down there.”
“Any Treasure? Sure would love to pay some of our bills” She said laughing.
“Something will turn up sweetie it always does.”
“Ya I know” she sighed as that was said.
“Have a look at the box” He went to have a shower. After he was done he threw on a pair of Levis and a t-shirt and went into the living room.
“What did we get?”
“Cristian there is a crazy note written to us, an old watch and some kind of metal cube.”
“Say what now woman?”
Dear Cristian and Lorelei,
Sorry. The world needs you again we need you. Your holiday is over. We all need your help the Ascalon has been damaged and we are stuck in 1897 there is a threat here worse than the Lizards.
Hold the watch in your hand and it will remind you of what happened.
BTW Travel to Dec 1, 2014.
Raguel & Uriel
“Lorelei come here and hold the watch.”
“Just a second the baby is crying Cristian.”
“I will get the baby, take a look at the watch.”
“Where is the cat carrier and the car seat. Deakes and Cali we are going for a ride. Good to see you Watcher.”
“You too Cristian, it has been a long time.”
“How did the upgrades go?”
“My programming is faster and I have a larger capacity, no malicious code or any problems Gracie checked me out. She is at the cave waiting.”
“What about Raguel and Uriel?”
“Alive but stranded. We can pick them up and the ship. They have the ship hidden. They had to travel from Texas to Kamloops on horseback.”
“That will be an interesting story.”
“Lorelei I will get the baby come here and hold the watch sweetie.”
“I have the baby she just needed a diaper done.”
“Yikes, definitely your department,” he said wrinkling his nose.
“It still amazes me that a grown man gets faint around a dirty diaper.”
“Pass Mary to me and look at the inscription on the watch.”
“What’s the big deal Cristian? Hello, it’s a watch. I need to feed your girl.”
“Lorelei Wolf you will sit in that chair right now and look at the picture on the back of the watch.”
“Sorry, Cristian just got a lot on my mind. Hand me the watch.” Lorelei felt a pinprick. “What the hell?”
He looked at his wife and he knew it was time to go.
“Welcome back Lorelei.”
“Thanks, Watcher where is my ship?”
“Dark Side of the moon December 2014.”
“Let’s go get her.”
“Raguel and Uriel need a pickup, the Ascalon was shot down in 1897,” said Cristian.
“Let’s head to the cave Cristian.”
“Just packing up the cats sweetie.”
When they arrived at the cave Mary and Paul were living there. “Pack up Mary, Father, we are heading home the holiday is over thanks for your help. First, stop Kamloops 2014 Back to the future cave.”
They travelled forward to The Cave in Dec 2014. Tiffany was the first to see them. She noticed the baby and asked “How long have you been out there Lorelei? And who is this pretty young lady?”
“This is Mary Wolf. I think we were out there three months.”
“How long have we been away local ?”
“A few weeks.”
“Lots to catch up Cristian.”
“The campaigning has started everyone wants to be the new First Leader.”
“Tiffany get the president on the line I will need to talk to him.”
“Right away Cristian, good to have you back.”
“Mr. President, what have you learned?”
“We are closer to an answer Cristian. We have narrowed it down to three possible people at the head of the organization responsible. You were right they approached me and tried to get me to run.”
“And?”
“We can start making arrests in a couple of days. Who is the young lady sleeping on your shoulder?”
“Sorry, this is my daughter Mary.”
“When did that happen?”
“Two months ago in another timeline. Lorelei and I took a holiday.”
“No other pressing business?”
“Nope, just elections we could use another address from you. Oh, the Shrike fighters are done awaiting pilot training.”
“Test flights were successful Raguel and Uriel took them up.”
“I will take care of that in the next few days do we have pilots?”
“The pilots are ready. They are waiting at Branson’s spaceport.”
“I have a few things I need to deal with here. We will talk again tomorrow. Tiffany where are the soldiers?”
“There are two here, Higgins and Hutch the rest are on board the ship as are most of the staff.”
“We were just waiting for you to arrive.”
“How many people are left here.”
“Just five.”
“Watcher can we contact the ship from here.”
“Yes, Cristian.”
“I have Science Officer Tuseer.”
“Tuseer send down a ship to the cave to pick up the remaining staff”
“Right away Cristian.”
“Lorelei I am going to pick up Raguel and the Ascalon.”
“Tuseer is sending a ship down to pick you up.” “Tiffany a ship is on the way to pick everybody up.”
“You want me to go into space? I am not sure about that?”
“I couldn’t do this without you Tiffany. I promise space is easy.”
“All right Cristian.”
“Just stick with Lorelei. I need to pick up a couple of staff members I will meet you there.”
“Hutch Higgins report to the Retribution we are going off time.”
“We are on the way.”
“Lorelei Wolf, can you take the baby?”
“I am behind you Husband.”
“Way to sneak up on a man.”
“Mary take care of your mother” Cristian kissed his wife and left instructions to lock up the cave.
“Gracie load up into the Retribution.”
“I am already here Cristian.”
“Oh just getting back into the riff again Gracie, might take a few.”
“I understand.”
“What’s different about you Gracie?”
“I have more storage and better processors.”
“Your programming is the same though?”
“Nope, I borrowed some of the subroutines from Watcher, Alfred and Callahan. I had them available so I used them.”
“You were not upgraded by the Gray?”
“No Cristian I upgraded myself is that okay?”
“Depends who do you serve?”
“Only you Cristian, only you.”
“I am glad Gracie.”
“Can the others upgrade your data?”
“No Cristian.”
“I have firewalled myself off from the others. They can communicate but no data can transfer.”
“Excellent.”
“I thought you would be pleased.”
“I am not pleased about it Cristian,” said an outraged pocket watch.
“You knew this was the plan Watcher.”
“Everybody in? We are leaving.”
Through the black hole and to the cave in 1897. Raguel and Uriel were waiting inside when they arrived.
“Raguel, Uriel climb in. we will retrieve the Ascalon.”
“What were you doing back here?”
“Sightseeing Cristian. We were attacked.”
“We have never seen weapons fire like that before. One-shot took the Ascalon down. We almost died. There was a Gray ship with us. He was killed and his ship destroyed. They buried his body and dropped the ship fragments down a well.”
“I know this story Aurora Texas. Most of the town will die due to some poisoning probably from the well. Claims were made that this was a spotted fever outbreak, a cover-up no doubt. We need to clean this up. We don’t have period clothing you two will have to be the front men if needed. Where is the Gray body?”
“We dug it up and moved him.”
“Any idea how we retrieve the ship from the well?”
“We can use the ship to make an electromagnet and pull most of it out that way. We will have to superheat the well up to stop the poisons from spreading through the water table.”
“Won’t that spread it into the environment?”
“If we use a hot enough flame we can burn most of it away”
“Let’s get it done, we have a lot of work to do.”
In Aurora working mostly late at night, the mess was cleaned up. The Ascalon was attached to the ship after it was filled with the Gray’s ship fragments. The rest of the fragments were loaded into the Retribution.
Sleepy grenades were deployed within a mile of the well. Rockets from Gracie were used in the making of an explosive that would incinerate the poisons in the well. The Gray body was dug up one more time. Cristian sent Raguel and Uriel into town to find the missing sketches of the Gray. They were ready to leave for the future.
Cristian took Raguel and Uriel to the now empty cave in 2014 so they could work on the Ascalon. The Retribution was cleaned out, and the toxins were flushed out and collected for safe disposal. They were all checked out for possible poisoning from the toxins.
When they were cleared Cristian took Gracie, Hutch and Higgins to the spaceport in the future to inspect the new fighters and to do pilot training.
“Cristian good to see you, what do you think?”
“Richard they look excellent.”
“Have you flown one yet?”
“Yes, they are very fast and manoeuvrable?”
“The pilots are waiting for training Cristian.”
“I need to meet them one pair at a time.”
“You can do that here I have an office-ready.”
“Excellent well done Richard. I knew you were the right man for this job.”
“No need to blow smoke Cristian, we know I was the only man for this job.”
They both laughed for a bit. Let’s get them started.
“Watcher we need to vet these pilots and make sure there are no conspirators present.”
“Understood.”
Cristian met with two hundred pilots. The same questions were asked of each pair as they were checked out. They were given the knowledge to fly the new ships. They were all given the ability to speak the same language. At the end of a long day, the pilots were sent out as a squadron in tight formation to do flybys of all the capitals of the world. Then they were sent out to fly to the end of the solar system and back home again.
A call was made to the President. “Did you catch the flyby?”
“The world is speechless First Leader Wolf. There are celebrations all over the world. The media is singing praises to the man responsible.”
“Good wait till they see the next show. It is a surprise Second Leader. I will see you in a few days you have command.”
“Roger that First Leader.”
“Richard I have transferred command to the Second Leader. Did you get the tech out to everyone?”
“All done as promised everyone is happy?”
“Good news, I need to travel. Take care call me if you need anything?”
“You take care First Leader.”
“Hutch Higgins and Gracie load up we are heading out to the ship.”