Chapter 3

"Better now than never is sometimes best never said."
~Sam Penston, from "The Tempest and the Fool" Early Works, 18th Remove

"Shhhhh!" hissed Chase. "Someone's coming. Terry or somebody, douse that fire."

"Who is it?" whispered Madeline.

"I dunno. Could be Baker. But he's going the wrong way... And he's running. Maybe he still thinks we are down there where that log was, but I'm not sure. I thought I saw someone walking toward the cave earlier today. I have no idea who is coming back. I don't doubt Baker could handle himself. But caution is best." Chase continued to watch as the figure continued to get closer and maintained a clear path towards the first location where they crossed the creek. From the initial intelligence gathering, they'd agreed the log would be a perfect spot to rendezvous from their arrival location. Chase pilfered his memory to see if there was any way he had neglected any clue to alert whoever this was to their presence. "No. None. I'm sure of it" he assured himself. The only other problem is that if there's no clue as to their direction for a stranger, there's none left for Baker. He had completely forgotten to indicate where they went and how to find them. But it was too risky to fix that now.

By now the entire group was watching the figure emerge from the twilight.

"What's more concerning? His direction or that he's running... He's clearly in a hurry." Charles Smith frowned. "Terry, we should consider intercepting. That's not Baker. He's too short. It is definitely a he. A short haired woman running that fast would not be a normal sight."

Terry had his hands in his pockets. One hand on a small caliber dillinger and the other on a pulse continuum communication device. He knew how the dillinger worked, but he had no clue how the communicator worked. "Science stuff" he mused. But nothing came. Within moments, Terry agreed. "Yeah. Let's get someone over that way to do a quick intercept. He's still, what? Maybe more than a mile away. Chris, do you and Marilyn think you can get there in time? Back to the log, I mean?"

Both nodded. In moments they were sprinting the quarter mile behind the nearby treeline. They had agreed to start a fire if it was all clear. Chase would be watching from his rocky outpost. He had remained almost motionless in his gillie suit from the moment he saw the person emerge from the horizon.

The sun was behind them and and lit the oncoming person well enough to tell the clothing was certainly not Baker. It looked like a young man. "Maybe mid teens. Definitely a dude." whispered Chase.

"Remember, 'Dude' isn't a common expression in this period. Who knows, it may not even be a word when we get back!" piped Felicia.

"Thanks, Doc. I'll remember that for my paper. Now shut up. He's getting close enough I don't even want a sneeze... Especially not a sneeze to give away our position." Chase chastized. "Terry, I can see Topper and Marilyn are at the log."

"I sure hope they act like a married couple. It would be socially odd for a man and woman to be out like this alone if they were not married or courting." Madeline was correct.

* * *

As Ben approached the shore, he saw the couple at the log, "That's our log!" his panicked thoughts rose. "Why are they at our log?"

Chris looked on as Ben bounded through the water. "Is everything well with you, sir?" he addressed Ben.

"Yessir. I just gotta get home."

"Where are you coming from?" Asked Marilyn.

In breathy speech, Ben answered, "The caves. I'm late. Gotta get home. Gotta plow the field." Then a bit more calmly, "Did either of you hear the crack that came from the caves?"

Chris and Marilyn looked at each other in veiled surprise. "Crack? I heard nothing. But we were wandering through the forest earlier. Possibly we did not hear?" replied Marilyn. "Was it the caves?"

"I don't know. I went in Bottom's Cave, you know. The big one." Ben pointed back towards the caves. "I didn't see anything in there. Even with the sun shining directly into the cave, there was only so far I could see without a torch."

Then with renewed purpose, "I really must return home. My brothers are going to have my head as I am not there to help with the field. Good day sir and ma'am." Ben resumed his sprint.

* * *

The fire at the log was warm. Part of the team joined Chris and Marilyn to debrief and agree that all seemed well. "We dodged a bullet." Chris affirmed. "We need to get back to the cave and move the pod elsewhere in the early morning. It is possible this boy may return with clear intentions and possibly find the pod."

Terry agreed. "We will return before first light so we can be quick to move the pod." Terry looked over his shoulder as he heard splashing, "Hi Baker! It's nice of you to join us."

"I take it you saw the kid?" Baker chuckled. "He was about 10 feet away from the pod. I was only a few feet further away. I watched him come in and look around. I had an idea to knock him out while he couldn't see. But I wasn't sure what that would do to our mission. He didn't see me or the pod. We will need to move it. He'll be back. Not sure when."

It was decided. Tomorrow morning as early as they could, they'd all return to the cave and cover their tracks. Terry extinguished the fire as they all returned to the rendezvous location. It was time to get some sleep. "Beast has been on watch since we got here. I'll take next round. Baker, you and Chris get some rest. It'll be your turn tomorrow." Terry chided.

"Chase." Madeline corrected.

"What?" Terry asked? "Oh. Yeah. I forgot, our character names." Turning, they headed back to the rendezvous.

* * *

As the team entered the cave the next morning, Baker recounted the events of the previous evening. Chase stood watch at the cave entry to alert the crew if there were any unexpected visitors.

"That was far to close!" Madeline gasped as she stood where the young man had stood only hours before. "Just a few more steps and he'd have at least been standing at our false wall." The lights on the pod illuminated the area surrounding. the damp clay floor showed plenty of foot prints. "Had he no more than had a lamp, he may have seen all our footprints, some of which terminate underneath our false wall. We will have to move and we will have to recalculate our exit path. Paul, you're going to be earning your paycheck."

Paul Ayers (Sybill) agreed. "A simple move to one of the adjacent caves will take a few hours to calulate."

Chris was puzzled, "I've never understood why we always have to recalculate when we move the pod more than, say, ten feet."

Paul continuously had to explain the concept of time travel. "It's not just traveling through time. Space and time are inextricably linked. We're sitting here in this cave. But this cave is sitting on a spinning planet which is being tugged on by all the other planets. Not to mention our planet circles a massive star... and not in a perfect circle, I might add. To top it off, everything else is moving, too. The solar system as a whole is moving. Our galaxy. Everything is moving. Hell, that's half the reason we don't go backwards in time more than 700-900 years unless we absolutely have to. It's dicey calculus! The wrong math, we end up in an ocean or a rock wall... or worse, in empty space."

"Sorry I asked." Chris chided with a grin.

Paul got to work generating the navigation data for the trip back by finding the future anchor points.

Madeline interjected her idea, "There are caves all around this cliff line. Let's go far enough down the rock face as to be safer from intrusion. Terry, do you think we'll need to have someone work security? Or are we going to turn the pod cave into home base?"

As the team decided where to move the pod, John Abel Adams, worked to get breakfast under way. "This is the sixth mission I've worked with the name John Adams." John and Felicia had worked 20 missions together. Each mission had been under Merrek. This was their first time working with Madeline "Sakky" and they had only just met this security detail.

"I asked they give me a consistent name, else I'd forget it 10 minutes into the trip. I actually asked all my friends to start calling me Felicia as my nickname. I've gotten so used to it that I don't think I'd actually answer to Katherine or K.C. My first mission cover was Gabby... no, Abby. Something like that. It's been so long." Felicia had a habit of talking with her mouth full.

"Yeah, I don't think I remember my first mission name." John said. Then to the crew who had finally gathered for a quick bite, "Does anyone here remember their first mission name? What was it?"

The conversation continued as they all shared memories of past missions. Everyone was cleared for that level of information. If anyone had wanted, they could easily access historical records, mission logs, and reports of completed missions. But it was more fun reminiscing. Besides, everyone knew there were things that were left uncolored, or totally omitted, for mission logs. Some things don't do well for committee briefings if they're recorded in full detail. But they made wonderful "campfire" stories... even when you were using a butane stove.

Only the security teams really had secrets. Each one had stories to tell... but they never could.

"Breakfast is over, folks. Clean up your messes. Now the real work begins."

Each person worked to plan the pod movement. It was relatively light weight. A quorum of the team could pick up the pod. Luckily it had wheels just for instances like these.

Chase indicated an all clear. He and Chris took up before the pod got within view of the door. Each outfitted with their home century's military grade range-finding binoculars.

"All we have to do is get the pod about 50 yards that direction," Chris said pointing southward toward where the trees obscured the base of the cliff, "and we'll be in the clear to get the pod in a good location... About a quarter mile further down in the woods is a similar sized cave. While I think it is connected to this one through some back channel, It would be much more treacherous. Shortest distance, it's a straight shot, folks. See, I can do science, too." He grinned at Paul to which he received a pronounced eye roll.

"Terry, jump in and turn on power. We're going to need to drive it through the woods." Chris prompted. "And be careful. This ain't no four-wheeler."

About an hour later, the team was standing at the opening of a slightly smaller cave entrance. While the cave itself opened up much larger than the previous location, the entrance had one slight issue... A single stalactite hung just low enough that it made it difficult to enter without risking damage to the hull of the pod.

"Dammit, why didn't I measure this!? Oh, I don't have a measuring tape." Terry visibly frustrated. "We could leave the pod outside the cave and invite almost certain disaster. The leaves aren't fully covering us. Anyone comes over those hills over there," pointing for clarity, "they're most certainly going to want to know what this odd shaped thing is." Then to Madeline, "Remind me to put in a request for a camo paint job on this thing when we get back."

"How much room do we need to get under this thing?" George said. "Let me get my engineering chops on this. If we are careful, we could lean the craft on two wheels... no, wait. Terry, can we partially retract the wheels?"

Terry shook his head. "Nope. They don't move up or down."

"Okay. Let's let the air out of the tires. They are inflated, arent they?" George interjected.

Paul laughed, "That's such a brilliant solution! Simple, and elegant. Why didn't I think of that!"

George humbly added, "It's not my engineering. Dad was a mechanic. I can't tell you how often he schooled me in the shop." Then to Terry, "This thing does have built in air compressors for inflating for the tires, right? Don't tell me we have tires we can deflate, but not reinflate."

Paul showed George where the air pressure regulators were for the entire system. "Yep. The thing can even tell you how low the tires are, and the tires can withstand being used with no air at all."

George lowered tire pressure to just under half full and the whole pod slid under the rock by inches. A few more feet, and they were able to turn on lights to navigate back into the depth of the cave.

* * *

Having gone quite a bit further in the cave, the team gathered in the pod while Terry and Chris stood watch at the cave mouth. This planning session would be the last one they'd endure for at least four days.

"This is where the rubber meets the road, folks." Terry emphasized. "Each of you know your specific targets. We have received word back from home that our initial interaction with the young boy is showing no signs of course alteration. Apparently he heard the sonic crack when we appeared. But he seems to have dismissed it as thunder. I think we're in the clear with that one."

"But that was way too close." Madeline more than a bit tense. She continued a little louder to the entire team, "We have to remember that small interactions are like tiny gravitational pushes on a planet. Sure, small pushes may not amount to much. But enough pushes can make major impacts. We have to make sure we follow our protocol of limited interactions outside of our mission."

Looking at the small group, Madeline continued, "Each of you took the time to memorize your portion of the timetable, correct?" With nods of affirmation, she went on, "Are there any questions of your interdependent roles? Do you know who you need to work with at what times?"

Chase piped up, "I've seen the timeline. I noticed there is a gap in it. This is the first time I've ever seen a gap in the timeline. I assume there's something coming to fill that gap, but when will we see that?"

Madeline looked at Terry as he slowly stood up and made his way to what seemed to be the agreed speaker's position. He was quiet for a moment as he made a sincere eye contact with Madeline.

"Something went wrong on Merrek's mission. That's all I'm at liberty to say and, that's really all I've been told at this point. I don't even know what happened." That was a partial lie. While Terry didn't know the leading circumstances, he did know the conclusion... and, at this point, to Madeline, that was a secret he'd have to die keeping. "It's no secret we arrived almost three years earlier than our original target date. That said, here are the lines, read between them. Part of our mission is to, in all honesty, fix whatever went wrong on Merrek's mission. If we succeed, and I have no doubt we will, we actually have a turn of fortune that not only will we gain our initial goal of shortening The Great War, but we may actually create a protracted period of peace." He chuckled internally... he loved coming up with alliterated phrases. "We have been assured that our first half of our mission, the part before that gap, is all prep work. We will be setting the trap, or, a better illustration, setting up the Rube Goldberg Machine. During the Gap, we will either get an abort, or... we will be given fourth quarter instructions and the final bit of the adjusted timeline where we set things in motion."

Terry was in awe of himself. He felt like that was almost as convincing as Reagan's 3rd term speech that shook the foundations of Communism.

Chris and Chase both looked at each other. Terry avoided their eye contact. Surely everyone else has considered what happens if a mission goes horribly wrong. Surely they figured out that there was a fix.

Terry knew all too well. Some missions were all or nothing. Sure, not all were that critical. But some inflection points were so precise they could not be a micrometer off. Terry didn't know the science of it all. He had no idea about the math that was required. That was for the specialists. That was for Sybill, for Callan, for Kyle... For KC, Lansing, Mal & Fallon. And yes, it was for Sakky. He winced at the thought.

Terry continued, "It's my full expectation that we will prepare and execute one of the most intricate, precise, and perfect removes of our current history. It's my expectation that each of you have stories to tell your grandchildren... Fictions founded in facts." He grinned; he had done it again, "But we need to hit every mark, and every point. Find your spots. Measure twice... hell, measure a hundred times. If you need to refer to your briefing, you can do so in the pod. But I caution you to not return here often after we leave. Get some rest. Most of us have our initial work starting tomorrow. If your work doesn't start tomorrow, find a way to support your team. From here on, You are your mission name and your back story is your history. Madeline and I are on schedule to begin our work. You know your communication protocols. Baker, you're on point. We will see you soon."

That felt like a championship coach's delivery. Glancing at Madeline (no longer Sakky), they exited the cave. It was early evening. Chase gave Terry a quick pat on the back as they headed out.

As with every mission, the ball in the pit of his stomach was massive.

It was go time.