Title: Times Destiny
Author: Anaika Skywalker
Author's Email: lindsay30@austarnet.com.au
Rating: PG
Summery: A rip in time brings Harm and Mac's daughter into the past, along with her RIO, but they soon find out this isn't their past and those around them aren't their family.
Disclaimer: I don't own JAG; I just like to spread my wings occasionally.
Author's Note: I've always enjoyed alternate universe, parallel timeline stories. I even wrote a Star Wars one that got good reviews, so I thought I had to have a go at a JAG one. I hope you like it.
Times Destiny
Chapter One: The arrival
Over the North Atlantic Ocean
On Route from Norfolk NAS
14th July 2022
Lieutenant Harmony Rabb straightened her Nighthawk out. "How's that swell, Skates?"
Lieutenant David Hawks glanced at the radar. "There's no way around it Hammer."
"Okay, call Liberty Control and tell them we're going to be late."
He dialed the frequency. "Liberty Control this is Bandit One, we're approaching a weather swell, ETA is now one hour."
"Rodger Bandit One, Liberty Control is standing by," came the reply.
Harmony guided the sleek F-32 Nighthawk into the weather swell, lightening flashed around them, thunder boomed occasionally and rain splattered the canopy. Harmony's father had flown Tomcats before and after she'd been born, he'd kept his hours and qualifications up even after becoming a lawyer. So it had been no surprise when his little girl had become a pilot. David's mother had flown with her father, and had done so until her untimely death when he'd been in his late teens.
David glanced back down at the radar. "Hammer, we're approaching what looks to be a mist."
"I see it Skates," she pulled back on the stick gaining altitude as well as speed, leaving out at Angles 30, the mist was still there. "Looks like we're going through it."
"Looks like it."
The mist quickly eloped the fighter as they flew into it. Harmony fought to keep control of the Nighthawk, turbulence was bad and electrical interference was too. "Hang on Skates,"
"You don't have to tell me twice," he announced.
She chuckled, keeping a good hold on the control column. By the time they were coming out of the mist, her arms were being to ach though; finally she regained control as they cleared the mist, the Nighthawk shooting out into clear skies.
"Nice flying Hammer,"
"Thanks Skates, call us in,"
"Liberty Control this is Bandit one," he got nothing by static. "Liberty Control this is Bandit one," there was still nothing. "Something is wrong, Hammer."
"What's on the radar?"
He checked. "We have contact, one aircraft carrier, no id and two unidentified jets, heading our way."
"I'm going to drop us down and take a look," she informed and rolled the jet down, leveling out at twenty thousand and slowing her speed. She looked twice. "Skates, tell me I'm seeing what I'm seeing?"
He looked. "This is some kind of joke right?"
"I don't think so,"
"They're Tomcats aren't they?"
"Yeah F-14's, Dad use to fly them," she answered. "He took me to see one in the Air and Space Museum."
"Well they're trying to contact us, the computer is locking onto their frequency," he reported, and then announced. "Frequency located."
"Lets hear it,"
"Unidentified jet, this is Raptor 105, do you copy?"
Harmony saw the expression on her RIO's face, they both knew about the Raptor's and which carrier they'd flown off. She replied to the summons. "Raptor 105, this is Bandit 305 on route from Norfolk NAS to USS Liberty Island."
There was a pause, then. "Bandit 305, you guys are obviously off course, I repeat off course."
"That's impossible," David told his driver.
She knew that. "Raptor 105, we're approaching Bingo fuel,"
"Stand by Bandit 305,"
She found they were now flanking her and she kept a respectable distance. There was only one thing that made sense. "Skates, I have a feeling we've done more then just fly off course."
"So do I, Hammer. You're going to think I'm crazy but I think we've come through time."
"I don't think your crazy, I've been thinking the same thing."
They received the call they've been waiting for. "Bandit 305, this is Raptor 105, we've been ordered to escort you to the USS Patrick Henry. Follow us in."
"Rodger Raptor 105," she replied and stayed with them. Seeing the Patrick Henry come into sight. "Skates get a look at that."
He did. "It doesn't look much different to the USS Liberty Island."
"Except it doesn't have a grave net or symbiotic auto drive," she noted. "Which means I'm going to have to land the Nighthawk manually."
"You mean a manual trap,"
"Yes," she saw him roll his eyes. "Relax, Skates I'm good at manual traps,"
"I know, I've been with you in the back seat on all of them, remember."
"Yeah, and I know you've hated everyone of them," she mussed.
"True,"
"Bandit 305, this is Raptor 105, throwing you to Paddles."
"Throwing us?" She wondered.
Another voice came over the radio. "Bandit 305, this is Paddles, dirty up."
Harmony frowned. "Dirty up?"
"I think they want us to lower our landing gear and tailhook." David guessed.
"Oh," she did. "Landing gear down, tailhook down,"
He got green on his console. "Green to green, Hammer."
"Skates, remind me when we get home, to thank my dad for all those stories he made you and I sit through."
"If you don't, I will."
"You've got it," she agreed. "Okay, lets see it I've got this right," she announced and called it in, having brought the Nighthawk into a landing vector. "Bandit 305, Nighthawk ball, 2.5."
"305, Nighthawk, Rodger ball," the LSO acknowledged.
Taking a deep breath, Harmony brought the Nighthawk down, catching the number two wire as she landed. She sighed. "We're down." She taxied the Nighthawk onto the designated landing pad, as the two Tomcats landed behind them. She unclipped her mask and disengaged the engines. "Well Skates welcome to the past."
He unclipped his mask. "Lets just hope it's not a nightmare."
"Yeah. Initiate lock down protocol," she ordered.
"Rodger."
She began shut down. "Computer, this is Lieutenant Harmony Rabb, initiate lock down. Hotel, Alpha, Romeo, Mike."
"Lock down initiated," the computer informed. "Lock down complete."
She sighed. "Skates?"
"Lock down complete Hammer, we're good to go,"
She opened the canopy and released her harness, climbing out. David followed her down, remaining near the Nighthawk. They saw the armed Marines coming towards them and the Tomcat pilots and RIO's as they removed their helmets.
"Oh God," David exclaimed. "Hammer, it's my…"
She saw whom he meant. "Aunt Beth," she said softly. "And Admiral Hayden, Captain Medwick and Captain Williams. Except Hayden is a Captain, Medwick a Lt. Commander and Williams is still a Lieutenant. We are in deep shit, Skates."
"Tell me about it."
Both came to attention, from the future or not, a commanding officer was approaching.
Captain Mike Hayden had taken over as Cag when Captain Pike had retired. In his entire career he'd never seen a jet like the one before him. "At ease," he ordered and they relaxed their stance.
"Cag, look," Lt. Commander Elizabeth Hawks called his attention to the two names on the side of the jet. "This has to be some kind of joke."
Hayden looked at the two names, turning his attention to the two aviators. "Is this a joke Lieutenants?"
"No sir," Harmony answered him. "This maybe hard to except sir, but we're from the future."
He did find that hard to except, frowning as those around him smirked. He had a gut feeling they were telling the truth. "Sergeant I want this jet off the deck and in the hanger ASAP under twenty-four hour guard, no one other then myself or the Skipper get near it without our authorization. Understood."
"Yes sir."
He then addressed the Marine beside the Sergeant. "Corporal escort the Lieutenants to my office."
"Aye sir,"
Harmony and David went without hesitation, but both felt every pair of eyes following them off the flight deck.
USS Patrick Henry
North Atlantic Ocean
14th July 2004
Harmony paced the office, they'd been held their now for two hours, it was lucky the office had it's own head. Their flight gear had been removed; a doctor had given them both a physical and taken blood samples. Other then that they'd seen no one other then a Sergeant who'd brought them a dinner tray, then removed it when they'd finished.
"Harm, sit down," David suggested. "Wearing a hold in the carpet isn't going to get us answers any faster."
She did. "Sorry Davy, I just hate being kept out of the loop."
"I know,"
She ran her fingers through her short mousy brown hair; she was her father's daughter. Beautiful, tall, slim, and attractive and a killer flyboy smile that she'd inherited from her father. She got her determination from her mother, and her sense of time. But her blue eyes, they were like her dad's, full of emotion. "We've been here two hours, fifteen minutes, I'd really like some answers."
David smiled. "I wish you'd tell me how you do that?"
Harmony grinned. "I have great timing."
He laughed. "So you've been telling me for years," he smirked, and then became serious. "Harm, what if this isn't our past?"
"What?"
"Temporal dynamics," he theorized. "Remember we did a course at the Academy about it, the future is made up of infinite paths. Alternate timeline, in this timeline, path, whatever you want to call it, your parents might not be together yet. My mother may not of meet my dad yet."
"So you're saying even if they're not together, it's possible they'll end up together and I will eventually be born."
"Something like that, didn't you pay attention in that class?"
She shrugged. "Temporal dynamics wasn't my best subject. Cold fusion engineering, now that's a different subject,"
He chuckled. "You got a degree in that if I recall."
"As well as law, aeronautical engineering and computer weaponry," she boasted lightly seeing him roll his eyes, they laughed. Stopping when the door opened, snapping to attention as the two offices came into the office.
Harmony's eyes widened in shock, the two offices were her parents. Twenty-five years younger then she remembered them, but they were her parents. Her dad was handsome, and looked just as she saw in the photos in their family album. She'd always been daddy's girl, right from the moment she'd been born and now here she was face to face with them both.
Harm noticed the young woman staring at him; it was a little unnerving, yet when he'd walked into the office he felt a strong sense of déjà vu. He felt like he should know this woman. "I'm Commander Harmon Rabb, this is Lieutenant Colonel Sarah Mackenzie. We're from the Judge Advocate General's office."
"Lieutenant Harmony Rabb and Lieutenant David Hawks, sir," Harmony found her voice, pulling her gaze away from her father to her mother, noticing neither wore wedding rings, which meant this wasn't their timeline.
"Sit down Lieutenants," Mac ordered and they all did. "Lets start from the beginning shell we, with who you two are."
Harmony glanced at her RIO and friend, he shrugged and she addressed her alternate parents. "My full name is Harmony Patricia Rabb, I was born 25th of July 1997 to Harmon and Sarah Rabb. I have an IQ of one sixty, I went to the Naval Academy at sixteen, where I earned four degrees. I went to flight school and was assigned to the 216th Night crawlers and served a tour aboard the USS Enterprise, the USS Ronald Regan and finally the USS Liberty Island. We were on route from Norfolk NAS to the Liberty Island, when we encounter a weather swell and the rip in time that brought us here. It was the year 2022 when we left Norfolk."
"Eighteen years in the future," Harm calculated, spellbound by her story.
David smiled, he'd seen that look on his drivers face many of times. Not to mention his Uncle Harm's, his face. Damn it was going to be confusing.
"Your turn," Harmony smirked nudging him.
"Okay, my full name is David Harmon Hawks, I was born 4th of May 1996 to Elizabeth Hawks, I don't know my fathers name. I have an IQ of one forty-five; my mother was killed when I was seventeen. I was in my first year at the Naval Academy. I earned three degrees and went onto to RIO school; I was assigned to the 216th Night crawlers. I became Hammer's RIO while we were training, we've been together ever since," he paused seeing the Commanders expression of surprise when he mentioned his drives call sign. "I speculated we've entered a alternate timeline."
"Which leaves only the question of how do you get home," Harm stated.
"Yes sir, it does," he agreed.
Mac sat back in her chair. "How do we know you're telling the truth? Commander Rabb and I aren't married, nor do we have a daughter."
Harmony unzipped the pocket on the right sleeve of her flight suite and removed a photo. She handed it to the Marine. "It was taken the night before we left Norfolk."
Mac looked at it, in it she saw an older version of her and Harm, the two before them and a young man who was a younger image of Harm. She felt her stomach churn and passed the photo to her partner.
Harm looked at it, seeing what she had. He knew she wasn't lying but this photo could have been computer altered.
Harmony got to her feet, moving around. She always thought better on her feet. Stopping, she addressed her alternate mother. "You have a tattoo you've never told dad," she stopped and started again. "Harm about. Well you didn't until the night I was conceived," she jeered. Then addressed her alternate father. "Dad. Sir, when you were a kid. You and your dad went to a fun pack and engraved H2 in the Rolla coaster."
Harm felt his own stomach begin to churn. "What year did my father get shot down?"
"Christmas Eve 1969, he was flying off the Ticonderoga. He was transferred to Russia and in the late 80's escaped; he met a Russian woman and was killed saving her life. She had a son to him Sergei Zhukov, you meet him after you went to Russia to help sort out their legal system."
"My mother once told me you helped her get through being afraid to fly," David told him. "She said you two talked on Vultures Row, on the USS Patrick Henry. You told her how before your mishap you woke up feeling if you got into your Tomcat you'd die, you flew anyway and came back. You said you felt like it for a week, then it went away."
Mac glanced at Harm; she could see just by the look on his face he believed them.
Harmony could see her alternate mother didn't quiet believe them. She switched to Russian. {You've been in love with him since the Ross Garden, obviously you haven't told him in this timeline.}
As shocked as she was, she answered her. {No I haven't.}
{He's not afraid to tell you, he just finds it hard to say it,} Harmony glanced at her alternate father. {And sometimes actions do speak louder then words.}
Stunned, Mac fell her stomach rebel and with her hand over her mouth, rushed for the head. Harm followed her concerned.
David looked to his driver. "Well, that went well."
"I thought so," she sighed and sat down. "We're sitting here in 2004 in the Cag's office, my alternate mother is throwing up in the Head and with my alternate father comforting her. What more could a girl ask for."
He slipped his arm around her shoulders. "Well get home, Harm, I promise."
"Don't make promises you can't keep,"
"I haven't yet," he reminded.
She nodded and slipped into his waiting arms, excepting the one thing regulations allowed them. Friendship.
Harm and Mac came out of the head and stopped, watching the two of them. "How in the hell are we going to explain this?" He asked.
"I have no idea," she answered. "No idea at all."
To be continued….
