Quest through Time
By Time Guardian
Chapter One – Desolation
In the afternoon sun over Maine, four black helicopters were heading back to their clandestine base. Their formation was quick and tight, and their missile carriers were all empty.
They had their mission and their target, and only moments ago the mission was carried out swiftly and quickly.
The pilot in the lead helicopter checked his onboard clock, and with a decisive gesture, spoke into the microphone built into his helmet. "Storm Hawk One calling base, Storm Hawk calling base, come in."
The communication channel he was on was specially picked by his boss. The pilot knew that their organization had taken great pains to conceal their purpose, and knew that the channel had been scrambled. Everything had to be perfect. Their boss would want nothing less.
Moments after he had sent the hail, the lead pilot finally received a reply. "Storm Hawk One, this is Proud Eagle. I am receiving you, over. Please report on the status of your mission."
The pilot spoke quickly and precisely. "We flew over the Quest compound as instructed and took up our positions. All of our units fired all missiles on the main house, and the target has been flattened. There were no visible survivors."
Chuckling came over the channel. "Excellent. What about the lighthouse, is it intact?"
"Per your orders sir, the lighthouse has remained standing," the pilot replied calmly, "the dampening field that you have supplied us with is doing its job – we have not been followed in the air nor has anyone tried to contact us."
Laughter came through this time. "Excellent, Storm Hawk One. You and your squadron will receive a bonus for this. Return to base and await further orders. Proud Eagle out."
As the communication channel cleared, the lead pilot smirked. How easy was it to strike out of nowhere, attacking a target in Maine of all places? The pilot put the thought quickly out of his mind. He had no need of further worries since his part of the mission was over.
Now the rest of their plan all depended on the computer inside the lighthouse.
--
One hour later -
Everything that Jessie Bannon knew and loved was gone.
The main house of the Quest compound was a burning, smoldering mass of rubble, her family and friends destroyed. She couldn't help but feel a cold numbing dread settle over her - if she hadn't stayed behind at school for a makeup test that day and arrived home late, she would have probably been in there with them.
By the time she had arrived home on her bicycle, the fire department had put out most of the fire, but had also found five charred bodies in the house, based on the sight of the coroner's van and various cop cars and unmarked cars surrounding the main entrance to the compound. Jessie struggled to hold herself together as she watched from her vantage point behind a group of gawkers who had apparently come out to witness the aftermath of the destruction. The tale-tale body bags were slowly wheeled out one by one to the van. Jessie struggled to hold herself together as she had counted five body bags and realized with a sinking feeling that even their housekeeper hadn't been able to escape the destruction.
Silent tears ran down cheeks unchecked as she watched the coroner and his team finish their work quickly. Uniformed officers and men in suits surrounded the team as they closed the doors to their van and prepared to drive off. Jessie shook her head silently as anger threatened to overshadow her grief. Thoughts were going through her mind crazily, but one point stood out – something was seriously out of place here, and she was hell bound and determined to find out what had happened.
There were two policemen guarding the main gate, so she left her bike by the edge of the main gate and slipped onto the main grounds when their backs were turned addressing a small crowd of onlookers that had also amassed nearby. Since she knew almost all of the grounds like the back of her hand, it was easy for her to duck in behind what was left of the shrubs and fence, and get in to where the main authorities were.
Numerous firemen were still on the scene, trying to douse the last smoldering embers from where the main house had once stood. The lighthouse from her vantage point looked strangely unscathed, which initially puzzled her all the more. Jessie tried reasoning out what could have happened when she heard a stern authoritative voice behind her.
"Miss, you shouldn't be here!"
She turned around quickly to find that she had backed into a male uniformed officer. He looked angry and ready to kick her out on the spot. Jessie thought as quickly as she could. If she was going to get to the bottom of this, she needed all of the help she could get, and began to plead. "Officer, I knew the people in this house. Please, what happened to them?"
The officer's scowl was then replaced with one of sympathy. "I'm sorry miss. I know you are concerned about what happened and all, but this explosion has claimed the lives of five people that were home. This scene still isn't safe. You could get hurt by debris if you stick around." He reached in his pocket and pulled out a business card. "Come by the station in the morning, and maybe we can get to the bottom of this."
Her anger and grief returned in full force, and Jessie struggled to maintain her composure. She had even recognized the man as a regular patrolman that normally patrolled the neighborhood around the Quest compound and was shocked that the man didn't even recognize her. To be polite, Jessie pasted a smile on her face and took the card, stuffing it in the pocket of her jeans. "Thank you anyway, officer. I have to go."
She headed back towards the main gate as fresh tears fell from her eyes. Well, that went over well.
Jessie had all but decided that she wasn't going to receive any help from the authorities. They had seemed more concerned about cleaning everything up than investigating and asking questions. Well fine, if they weren't going to do anything about it, then she sure as hell would.
The question was what could one sixteen year old girl do all alone?
Indecision and grief marred her thinking until she remembered an adventure that she and Jonny Quest had had not too long ago. It had nearly been the end of the world, but thanks to the program they had used in Quest world, they had been able to set everything right again.
Did that program still exist? It had been full of glitches at best when they used it, but they were able to set things back on the right course. Much of their computer equipment had been damaged during that journey. Jessie had also remembered Dr. Quest's video message to Jonny, and the reason that Dr. Quest had put away the program in the first place. Would going back be for her personal gain?
As she walked to her bike lost in thought, Jessie heard a couple of people talking amongst themselves within the small crowd of gawkers that had accumulated to the side of the main gate.
"There were four of them-"
"Helicopters shooting missiles, it was terrible!"
"Those poor people never stood a chance."
Her thoughts turned to their comments. Considering that the main house would be attacked and they left the lighthouse unscathed? It was more than a possibility that they knew what was contained in the lighthouse. In fact, the precision of the attack on reaffirmed her belief that they would be back once the authorities were done with the place.
Running to get her bike, Jessie went to find a hiding because judging by the scope of the crazy plan developing in her mind, the cover of night would definitely be needed.
Night crept up before she knew it, and she had grown stiff waiting for it. From her vantage point in the surrounding trees just outside the compound, she risked a glance out, and noted that all of the rescue vehicles had left, and the scene was wrapped with police crime scene tape.
Police? Hah, what little good they would do. Considering the description of the helicopters that had taken out the compound, there was a serious threat looming. Jessie rode her bike back to the main gate, then got off and ran. It took longer than she expected due to the amount of debris, but Jessie finally made her way around and onto the path to the lighthouse.
Moment's later when Jessie opened the door to the lighthouse and stepped inside, she could almost feel like things were normal, and at any point Jonny or Hadji would come and-
She stopped herself before she could slide into another wave of sorrow. Jessie reassured herself that her plan was sound, there was no harm in trying it, and that was what she kept telling herself.
She found the computers to be in perfect shape, and said a silent prayer of thanks to Dr. Quest, who thought to house most of IRIS' systems in the lighthouse. Jessie sat down at the main terminal and first programmed what was left of the security system to provide as much protection against intruders as she could. In the next few hours, she would be too busy to protect herself, and the more barriers between her and her enemy, the better.
Time now for the search that she prayed would succeed. She spoke quickly. "IRIS, find program 'Rachel'."
"Working," Came the curt reply. Precious seconds passed before IRIS returned with the answer she had hoped to hear. "Program found. Shall I display?"
Yes! Her fingers worked furiously, bringing up the program and its parameters. From what Jessie could tell, the programming seemed intact, and that was all she could hope for. After programming some automated parameters that hopefully would take the place of a real monitor, she quickly grabbed for a visor disc and placed it quickly over her ear.
Jessie ran over to one of the main seats in front of the Quest world monitors and sat down. The monitors began a silent countdown as her visor activated, sending an arc of brilliant green light across her eyes.
Now that time was here, Jessie fought back a wave of nervousness. Now wasn't the time for regret - she had nothing to come back to anyway.
It was time to finalize her journey. She spoke the words to activate the monitor programming that she had just put into IRIS. "Quest world, Logon! Subject, Jessie Bannon, going hot!"
The monitors counted down...
:03
:02
:01
and Jessie Bannon was then transported into Quest world.
She materialized on the familiar green and black of the Quest world domain. Clad in her cyber suit, she could only hope that she wouldn't stand out too badly in the time period she was going into.
Jessie had no idea why the Quest compound was attacked, and she had initially wondered how far back to go. As a precaution, she programmed two points in time, and she decided to try the first one, forty-eight hours before the compound was attacked. "Iris, activate program Jessie one."
She waited as IRIS complied, materializing a hover board and a large machine that looked like a power generator on steroids.
Once the machine materialized, it emitted three tachyon beams that converged at a single point. Her portal materialized in a brilliant square flash of light. Jessie hopped onto the hover board, and took a long look at her surroundings.
Well, here goes everything.
And with that last torturous thought, Jessie took off into the square of light and vanished.
To be continued...
--
1/4/08 – My friends, this is what we call a do-over. This first chapter has been edited in an effort to bring a little bit more suspense and emotion into the story, and I am doing this particular chapter edit on my own.
My thanks go out to Goddess Evie and Sigokat. Their pep talk helped me to take a fresh look at this story, and maybe save it from a fate of mediocrity. As always, I leave that judgment in your hands, my readers. Now, to send chapter five to Goddess Evie for the edit and read-through. ;)