“It’s a flash stick, something we usually use to take memories, but in cases where it’s been used on an individual before, we can return those memories.”
“I don’t need no damn flash stick!” Turn says, his earlier smile now turning to a sneer of anger.
“Really?” Mark says. “Then tell me… when were you born?”
Turn chuckles. “That’s easy, my birthday is…” He trails-off as he realized he can’t seem to remember. “It’s…” He bites his lip and glances around at the others nervously. “I… I don’t know.”
Mark holds up the flash stick before Turn’s face. “Would you like to?”
Turn bites his lip even harder, then gives a slight nod. Mark nods as well, then moves the flash stick closer to Turn’s face, to his ear and then behind it. He pushes the button and there’s a slight flash. Mark pulls his arm away and looks at Turn, who’s blinking rapidly, as if coming out of a deep sleep.
“Soldier,” Mark says, looking into Turn’s eyes, “when were you born?”
“December 12, 1982,” Turn says. No hesitation.
“Regimental history.”
Turn straightens-up, as if giving a report to a superior… which in a way he is. “I Marine Expeditionary Force, joined-up September 12, 2001, the day after the towers fell. Finished basic November 21. Shipped out to Afghanistan on December 4, saw action at Tora Bora, Zormat, and of course Kabul. Tour ended December 2002. Rejoined, went back to Afghanistan for a few months, then shipped to Iraq. Invaded Baghdad in April 2003. Last mission was in Fallujah on…”
“On December 22,” Mark finishes for him, “the day you lost your legs… the day that started you on leaving your time to enter this one.”
“Damn!” Bobbie says, while beside him Walter whistles.
“It’s a lot to take in, I know,” Mark says, “I’ve experienced it before myself.”
“What about me?” Bobbie asks. “Have I experienced it?”
Mark takes in a deep breath and looks off before answering. “Although I haven’t seen your file… well, the fact that you’re a super soldier makes it likely.”
Bobbie nods at the flash stick still in Mark’s hand. “Can… can you?”
Mark nods again and just as he did with Turn, he leans forward and puts the flash stick up against the back of Bobbie’s ear. It flashes, and a moment later Bobbie is sitting back with that same dazed and confused look that Turn just had.
“Well?” Walter says.
“I joined up in 2018… on my 18th birthday.” He chuckles a mirthless chuckle. “Just in time for World War Three.”
“That was a helluva conflict,” Mark says, “one that was instrumental in getting the 177th off the ground in the first place.”
“The 177th?” Turn says.
“The 177th Time Travel Division based out of Area 51,” Mark replies. “Its heyday was, or will be, the years 2030 to 2036.” He smiles. “That’s when John Titor was in command.”
Blank stares from Turn and Bobbie meet those words, and Mark can’t help but chuckle to himself. Did I look the same way the first time I heard it? He figures he did.
“Look,” he says, growing serious once more, “we’ve got some time to kill. Let me explain.”
29 — The 177th
“It started with Project Pegasus, which was a classified, defense-related research and development program headed up by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency… or DARPA,” Mark begins. “The science behind it was based on the work Nikola Tesla did in 1943 when he developed schematics for a teleportation machine based on radiant energy. This type of energy had the power to bend space-time and would form a shimmering curtain between two elliptical booms. Going into that curtain would put you into a vortal tunnel that would instantly deliver you to your desired time and space.”
“God,” Turn says.
Mark nods. “It gets worse. They used children, as the strains of moving between the past, present and future was easier to handle at that age. Still, as the program really got going in the 60s, problems cropped-up. For instance, one poor young boy came back from his temporal voyage before his legs. He was writing in pain on the floor, stumps where his legs had been.”
“Jesus,” Bennewitz says this time, “I never heard that one.”
“Happened in ’71… was awful,” Walter says, shaking his head as if remembering it firsthand. Maybe he does, Turn thinks.
“Anyways, Mark continues, “John Titor is the man who knows the most when it comes to time travel.”
Turn rolls his eyes. “Well, if I never heard of Project Pegasus or all the rest of it, you know I’ve never heard of…”
“Commander John Titor,” Mark says. “First joined up with Florida’s Fighting Diamondbacks when he was just 13-years-old, though on an alternate timeline from ours, and in the year 2011. That lasted until 2015 when WWIII started, though the conflict was just a continuation of the Second American Civil War which had started in 2008.”
“Still followin’?” Bennewitz says, looking over at Turn with a big grin on his face.
“Man, I stopped followin’ back when Paul introduced himself,” Turn says with a chuckle, “now all I do is listen and hope some of it sticks.”
“Good enough,” Mark says, and goes on. “The US split into five separate regions and the fighting went on for years. During that time Titor stuck with the US government — now located in Omaha, Nebraska — and joined their Air Force, becoming an officer and pilot.”
“And can you guess where he was stationed at?” Bennewitz asks, a hint of a smile turning up one corner of his mouth as he looks at Turn.
“No, but I bet you’re gonna tell me.”
“Dulce.”
“Shit.”
Bennewitz smiles and nods. “He was one of the first to fly the TR-3B spacecraft… or what we might think of as those triangular-shaped UFOs.”
“His real test came in 2036, however,” Mark says, taking up the story. “By that time — and in that particular timeframe — time travel had been perfected to such an extent that a whole wing of the Air Force was dedicated to it.”
“This was the 177th Time Travel Division,” Bennewitz says. “Titor commanded it, and that all came about because of one mission he was on, the most critical mission the world has seen.”
“It all goes back to 1975, the year that IBM created their 5100 computer, a model that ran on APL and BASIC programming… two languages that relied on a signed 32-bit integer storage system.”
“Tell it to me in English,” Turn says.
“The 5100 could only calculate time and dates from 1975 until January 19, 2038. After that they’d suffer an internal meltdown, effectively bringing down their computer-reliant society with them.”
“If that happened it’d be back to cave man days,” Mark says, “and that’s why Titor was chosen to go back to 1975 to get an original IBM 5100 so as to debug those still propping up the systems in 2038.”
“Titor was chosen because his grandpa had helped build the damn things back in the day, if you can believe that!” Bennewitz says with a laugh.
Shit, I’ll believe anything at this point, Turn thinks to himself, but just nods silently.
“Anyways,” Mark says, “we should get back to the problem at hand. What we have to focus on now is the Trifecta, or dad’s original plan to take this planet back.”
“And where in God’s Name do we start?” Walter says.