Tempest in a Teapot
Chapter 37: Preparations for the Future
Helen was pulled out of her reflections on the events of the past three days when she heard the men's arrival behind her. She turned, still leaning against the window frame, to face them.
"I can honestly say that I still hate the feeling of teleporting," James complained as the pulling sensation ceased and he was able to regain his bearings again.
"You complain like a little old man," John chastised in good humor as he stepped away from his best friend and moved towards the long table where Helen had spread out all her notes.
"Little?" James groused back in equally good humor. "I am 6 feet tall and in my early forties. I am hardly a little old man."
"I'll give you the height part," the taller man replied, "but you were always 'older' than me personality wise."
"So what you are saying is that you have always been more 'immature' than I," Watson returned with a waggle of his eyebrows as he looked around at his new surroundings. "This is a nice cottage," he praised. "Very bright and airy."
"That is not what I said," John disagreed, "though I do agree about the cottage."
"Actually, it kind of is," Helen waded in and grinned as the father of her child shot her a mildly annoyed look while James winked at her.
Rolling his eyes, John complained, "You always take his side."
"That's because she knows I'm always right," James smirked as he came up to the table and looked down upon the items scattered on its surface. Helen hadn't gotten much further than the last time he had talked to her the sleuth gloated to himself. She may be the queen of the laboratory but he was still king of solving puzzles.
"I didn't say that," Helen corrected as she joined them.
"Oh, but it kind of is," James insisted as he cheekily raised an eyebrow at her.
"Is not," she shot back as she tried to give him a stern look.
"Is too," he teased back.
John rolled his eyes again. "I take back what I said about you being more mature. But I'm still taller than both of you." The trio then laughed at the silly turn their conversation had taken. They were about to have a serious planning discussion and the humor helped to lighten the mood.
"You have some news for us," Helen prompted.
James tilted his head in acknowledgement as he pulled out a pile of papers from his coat. "I have cracked Worth's code," he proclaimed proudly as he spread out his papers. "There were subtle changes between how he wrote certain letters throughout his notes. I would not have noticed the changes had I not been looking for some variation in Adam's writings." He tilted his head the other way as he turned the notes slowly 45 degree in a counterclockwise motion before righting them again. "Adam's handwriting is most intriguing. The pressure with which he writes sometimes is lighter and other times harsher… almost as if he's angry. There's also subtle slanting that correlates with those changes in pressure." He paused. "If I didn't know any better I would have thought that two different men wrote these notes."
John and Helen exchanged pointed glances which didn't go unnoticed by Watson. "What?" he prompted.
"Ever read the novel, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson?" John asked and received a warning glare from the mother of his child.
"That's hardly my type of reading," James snorted then stopped as he saw the look Helen had aimed at Druitt. "But I am willing to broaden my horizons and try something new."
Ignoring Helen, John encouraged James on. "I think you will find it to be a very stimulating character study."
"Duly noted," James answered as both he and Druitt nodded at another in defiance of their colleague.
Rolling her eyes at their male bonding, Helen poured herself a glass of water and took a seat at the table. "If you both are finished with your reading recommendations, perhaps we can move on." The two men seated themselves at the table and, for the next ten minutes, James walked them through Worth's notes and the trio used the information to fill in the details on building the support structure.
The continuum device and the other equipment bits Druitt had taken from Adam's flat were brought out for inspection by Watson, whose sideburns positively twitched with excitement at observing the advanced technology up close. Exhaling loudly, he flopped back in his chair and exclaimed in an awed tone, "To think… time travel is a true to honest possibility. That man… and woman… are able to walk from one point in time to another. Fascinating. Absolutely fascinating."
"It is possible… as our being here is proof," Helen confirmed with a smile. "And now that we have the information to complete the support for the device and how to wire it together we can move on to the next step."
"Which is assembling the device and powering it up to return back to your time," James replied. "How exactly are you going to power the device? Based on Adam's notes it will require an enormous amount. That can't be easy to produce."
"There is one source that can produce that much energy," Helen answered, unable to hide the small smile that graced her lips.
"Oh no," John groaned. "There has got to be another way."
"Can you think of one so readily available?" she returned with one raised eyebrow.
"What now?" James sighed. Honestly, these two could make a saint drink himself blind. And James Watson was no saint.
Instead of replying, John pointed to each one of them with his right hand while holding up three fingers on his other hand to indicate the three of them. When he held up a fourth finger, he turned two fingers on his right hand down and placed them in front of his mouth as he looked pointedly at Watson.
Recognizing the fang implications, James pulled a face. "Tesla? I thought you didn't want him involved because his younger counterpart was too inclined towards bringing the vampire race back to power."
"Oh, we aren't going to involve Nikola directly in this. We just need access to his Colorado Springs laboratory to generate enough power to activate the device and open the doorway, so to speak. A nice stormy night wouldn't hurt either," she mused. "The electric show would be a rather amazing way to depart."
John narrowed his eyes at her as he recognized the unsaid inference in her response. "You don't plan on telling Tesla about all of this, do you?"
Giving a nonchalant shrug, Helen demurely took another sip of water and batted her sapphire eyes at the pair.
"Why would you want to let Nikola in on the secret of the continuum device?" James queried with a furrowed brow. "He's a conceited little git."
"She has a soft spot for short, snarky and fanged," John explained as he continued to stare hard at her. "And why would you want to bring him into this?"
At James's look of surprise, Helen's dimple appeared as she said, "He's an acquired taste. He's really quite brilliant." When both men exchanged looks of disgust, she added, "As are you both. We are all brilliant and arrogant in our own way. That's part of the reason we all came together in the first place."
"And here I thought it was because of our desire to push the boundaries of science," James sarcastically quipped.
"That too," Helen said, amused by the pair's reactions to the mentions of their vampire counterpart.
"You still haven't answered my question," John demanded.
"I answered your question, in a roundabout way. Nikola's brilliant. We will need his help in dealing with the fallout from Adam's explosion. It will take all of the skills of The Five to prevent as many deaths as possible. When the time comes for him to join us then we will tell him the truth." Cutting John off before he could protest again, she continued, "He had the chance to take the device and do what he wanted with it, but he did not take it. Instead, he left it in my possession at my sanctuary. The mature version of Tesla can be trusted to join us in our task. He is one of us," she assured the two skeptical men.
Biting down on her bottom lip as the stubborn pair continued to sulk, Helen resisted the urge to roll her eyes at them and instead decided to bring the conversation back to a topic closer at hand. "We need to discuss the topic of a temporary home and James's death," she threw out suddenly, catching Watson off guard enough to cause him to sputter "My death?" and leap up out of his seat.
"I thought the plan was to prevent his death," John asked in confusion, to which James nodded his vigorous agreement.
"I never said we would prevent James's death," Helen replied and held up her hand as both men protested at the same time. "James must die on schedule… we just need to make sure he lives beyond that point."
"So I am dead and alive at the same time?" Watson exclaimed in alarm as he began to pace back and forth. "That hardly sounds logical… or much fun." Stopping to point an accusatory finger at her, he said in a gravelly voice, "Our deal was that I help you crack Adam's code to return you back home in order to save your offspring and in turn you help me to live on to help with the second battle. I kept my end of the bargain. I expect you to keep yours."
"And we shall," she smiled back at his indignation. He was rather cute all puffed up in his alarmed state with his cheeks flushed pink. "Calm yourself, my dear friend. We have to keep up the appearance that you have expired so that the original timeline stays as intact as possible beyond the few changes needed. At least up until we all rejoin the original timeline and band back together. I've worked out a schedule for our plan."
"Of course you have," Watson grumbled as he reseated himself.
"What's the plan?" John asked, almost afraid of her response after her comments about James needing to be dead and alive at the same time.
"We should set the device to return us back to our time at the point of five years before James's death," she began, only to be interrupted by Watson's strained "And that would be when?" "You don't want to know the specific time of your death," Helen chastised gently. "It would only make you paranoid and twitchy as the time approaches."
"That's easy for you to say considering you know what all occurs and it is not your death we're discussing here," he gristled back in annoyance.
She continued on as if he had not interrupted. "John, we want to arrive at a point roughly five years before James's death. That will give me enough time to deliver our child and wean it before we delve back into the fray. Can you program the device to that time?"
John nodded, thinking that five years would also give them enough time to decide how to solve the problem of Ashley's abduction and death. It would also afford them a few peaceful years to raise their youngest child.
She looked back to Watson. "That will also give us five years to establish a home base for all of us, including you, to reside. To the rest of the world your death will take place as it had originally. You will fade into the woodwork alongside us. We can work out all the details for your disappearance when we met up on the other side of the time portal. You will need to secure the safe house for us and quietly shift some resources for our needs. I will be able to access some of the funds I've stashed away for emergencies without much risk of detection but initially you will need to bear the brunt of the financial set up."
"Alright," he replied. "Is there a particular place you had in mind for the flat?" he asked and was not at all surprised to find she had an answer. She instructed him to purchase the penthouse flat in an expensive apartment complex in a section of Edinburg, Scotland.
"Why Scotland?" John asked. "Is it because the London Sanctuary is hours away?
She nodded her head. "Precisely. It would be far away enough to give the appearance of a private retreat. Do you remember the three calderas on the holographic map? They may have been the largest, direct access points to Praxis but the map, upon later inspection by Nikola and myself, showed other smaller offshoot routes. There were indications that other cities existed along those routes. One small city was abandoned in the late-1800s near a route outside the Vancouver, Canada area. The amenities of that city and its dimensions would serve well as a new sanctuary location. It is tucked into the mountainside and if we are lucky the city is wired with the same technological advances as Praxis."
"Why do we need the flat if you want to set up camp in the abandoned city?" John questioned.
"Because for five years James will need to have a vacation home to retreat to as he secretly meets with us while carrying on publically as Head of House of the London Sanctuary. It will raise suspicion if he often just disappears into the ether with no destination in mind. Plus, the flat can serve as an entry and exit point when we need to move about in public. You can teleport us back and forth between locations. It's safer than if any of us drive directly to the new sanctuary location. We can be tracked to the flat but not beyond that."
"That actually makes sense," James mused aloud, earning him a glare from Helen. "Well, you have to admit, some of this sounds ludicrous for my part. We are planning for my 'death' in a far distant time as well as establishing a new sanctuary base. All things that currently I am unable to fully grasp given my limited frame of reference."
"I know," she conceded, "but there's more. We will need some help in setting up the new location. Not a large staff, per se. I think one or two individuals at the most. One will need to be technologically savvy and the other handy enough to help us rebuild and secure the new facility. Keep that in mind as you meet others in the late twentieth century." As he crinkled up his brow in deep thought, she added, "But not the boy you will choose as your number one at the London Sanctuary. He will need to remain in that position to carry on the original timeline."
"And his name would be?" Watson prompted, and then groaned at her smug reply of "You'll know him when you make the decision to make him your second in command."
"Anything else, your majesty?" he asked sarcastically as he worked on mentally compartmentalizing all the details she was throwing his way. He could already feel a headache coming on from information overload.
"Yes, Dr. Watson," she replied. "There is the matter of sanctuary politics. I have always felt that if abnormals were able to be presented in a positive way to the public that they would come to accept and possibly embrace them. That governments would come to see abnormals as a minority class to be protected and allowed to flourish alongside normal humans." She paused and gave James a sad smile. "I was very naïve in my thinking. You, old friend, need to help me, in my other form, see the error of my thinking. Help to carefully steer me and the Sanctuary network away from deep government interference and financial dependence. This will be a rather tall order, I'm afraid. My younger counterpart will be stubborn on wanting to work within those parameters so you will need to put to use all your persuasive powers of influence over me."
"So you freely admit that you are stubborn and completely off base with your assumptions about abnormals and humans openly coexisting?" James summarized with a smirk. "There may be a god after all if you're willing to admit to such a huge deficiency in character."
"Ha ha," Helen snarked back as both men snickered. "I can admit that I am wrong… on those rare occasions that I am." She reached for her glass of water and held it up. "Meanwhile, I would like to propose a toast." Both men poured themselves a glass of water and mimicked her position. "To being reunited with dear friends, to saving our loved ones, and to changing the world into a better place."
"Here here," the two men cheered and clang glasses with her.
"This would have been better with a fine whiskey," James observed as he squinted in disdain at his drink. "Water is just so bland and common."
"Or a good ale," John agreed. "Why exactly are we toasting with water anyway?"
"Because I am pregnant and if I have to suffer than so do you," Helen retorted in good humor. They had finally found the solution to their problem and would soon be headed home. Home to advanced technology and Chinese takeout and shoe shopping galore. And more importantly… home to fulfill the promise that she had made to her six year old daughter Ashley that she would always come for her. All the tears she had shed in the past three days were worth the price to return home.