Chapter 6
Flashback
Sometime after 8:00 am
October 25 1985
Hill Valley California
"C'mon Marty, we need to get to school," urged Catherine.
"We've got plenty of time. It's not even 8 yet," corrected Marty, pointing to the myriad of clocks adorning the walls. "I'm gonna play some tunes."
"Fine then, go ahead. I'm going to do something useful."
"Like what?"
"Like try to clean up some of this mess."
"Clean whatever you like, just don't break anything." Marty walked over to the amplifier and started turning everything up.
"Marty, won't that be a bit loud?" called Catherine.
"Don't worry; I know what I'm doing." Marty plugged in his guitar and strummed a cord."
"Kathoom!" Marty flew across the room and landed against a bookcase.
"Marty! Are you okay?" Catherine ran over and started pulling papers off him. She was rewarded for her efforts by having a load of papers dumped over her.
"Riiiing!"
"Hey, it's the phone! I'll get it," cried Marty. He searched through the papers and answered the phone.
Catherine heard Marty's end of the conversation. "Yo. ... Hey, hey, Doc, where are you? ... Wait a minute, wait a minute. 1:15 in the morning? ... What's going on? Where have you been all week? ... Where's Einstein, is he with you? ... You know, Doc, you left your equipment on all week. ... Yeah, I'll keep that in mind. ... Right."
The clocks all struck 8 o'clock, startling Catherine slightly. She heard Marty say, "Yeah, it's 8 o'clock. ... Wait a minute. Wait a minute, Doc. Are you telling me that it's 8:25?"
"8:25? We'd better get out of here!" Catherine said in a shocked voice. Marty threw the phone down and they ran to Marty's truck.
They squealed into the school parking lot, running through the door just in time. A figure poked around the corner.
"Marty, Catherine, around here. Strickland's after you."
"Thanks Bess," said Marty as he ducked around the corner. "Can't talk now, gotta get to class. See you at the audition."
"By Marty," said Bess as he vanished down the hall.
Catherine and Bess walked the other way into their own class.
########
4:51 pm
October 25 1985
Hill Valley California
Catherine heard Marty's truck pull into the driveway. She ran to greet him at the door. "Hi Marty, how did the..." she noticed his downcast face, "...audition go?"
Marty shook his head. "Judges kicked us out before we got past the intro. We were too loud."
"Oh. Too bad. Well, there's always next time, and you're still sending that audition tape to the record company, right?"
"Look, I already went over all that once with Bess, alright?"
"Okay, I'll drop it. I'm just sorry I couldn't be at the audition."
"That's okay, there was nothing to see. Still, letterbox-dropping mustn't be much fun."
"No, I really don't understand what she and all the others in that society see in the clock-tower. I mean, like, it's broken. Who wouldn't want to fix it?"
"Shush Catherine, Mom might hear you, and then she'll start telling stories about herself at our age, for the thousandth time."
"That reminds me, are you and Bess still planning to go to the lake?"
"If we weren't, I'd be looking a heap more depressed than this."
"Oh. Say, I never got a chance to ask you what Doc rang about this morning."
"Oh, that. Yeah, I meant to tell you. Doc wants us to meet him at the Lone Pine Mall at a quarter past one."
"In the middle of the night?"
"That's what he said."
"Why?"
"I'd tell you if I knew. It must be something pretty big though. You know Doc's been in and out of town a lot for the last few months. Maybe he finally invented something that works."
"Who knows?"
"I guess we'll find out."
###########################
1:05 am
October 26 1985
Hill Valley California
"I said, it's time to wake up."
"Okay, okay. There's no need to wake the whole house."
"There will be if you don't get out of bed right now, Marty."
"Alright already. I'll be right out."
"I'll be waiting out the front door," Catherine answered as she left her brother's room.
#############
1:10 am
October 26 1985
Hill Valley California
"Marty!"
"Huh?"
"You went back to sleep!"
"Did I?"
"Yessss."
"Oh, I guess I did. We'd better be going."
Catherine sighed in annoyance. She almost made a nasty comment, but was mercifully prevented by the ringing of Marty's phone.
Marty grabbed the phone and answered. "Hello." He looked at his watch. "Uh Doc, uh no. No, don't be silly."
Catherine rolled her eyes.
"Um, yeah, we're on our way." Marty hung up the phone. "Doc wants us to grab his video camera on the way to the mall."
Catherine mumbled something unintelligible to herself.
"Huh?" asked Marty.
"You told Doc you didn't fall asleep, right?"
Marty shrugged and left the room. Catherine followed, noticing his skateboard in his hand.
"You don't intend to skate all the way to the mall do you?"
"Just watch me."
"I don't think so, Marty. There's no way I'm running all the way to the mall. Besides, we don't have the time."
"Fine then, drive."
"Not my car. It'll wake the whole street."
Marty considered for a brief moment, and unlocked his truck. "Just give me a push out of the driveway. We can't be too careful."
Catherine wasn't sure that it was a good or necessary idea, but she figured they wouldn't get anywhere unless she played along. Fortunately, the slight slope of the driveway helped her push the vehicle into a very slow roll. Marty waited until he reached the middle of the street and started the engine. Catherine jumped in and gave him an annoyed look for making her do all that work. He pretended not to see it and drove to Doc's house.
Marty parked at the mall at exactly 1:15. "Whew, we're just in time for a change."
"No thanks to you," retorted Catherine. "Uh, could you please explain why you've parked at the opposite end of the mall to Doc's work van?"
"Catherine, he's testing an invention. I don't want my truck anywhere near, okay?"
"Good point. Hey, there's Einstein."
"Einstein, hey Einstein, where's the Doc, boy, huh?"
"He can't answer you," Catherine answered drolly."
"Not funny."
The doors of Doc's big van opened and wisps of smoke or fog wafted out. A strange looking car reversed out, travelling down the ramp and onto the asphalt.
"Interesting numberplate," observed Catherine, seeing the letters 'OUTATIME'. "I wonder what it means."
The gull-wing door of the car opened and Doctor Emmet L. Brown stepped out.
"Doc?"
"Hi Doc!"
"Marty, Catherine, you made it!" Emmet greeted warmly.
"Yeah!"
"Eventually."
"Welcome to my latest experiment," Emmet began. "It's the one I've been waiting for all my life. "
"Um, well it's a DeLorean, right?" Marty asked.
Emmet had more important things to do than answer questions. "Bear with me, Marty, all of your questions will be answered. Roll tape..."
"Okay."
" ...and we'll proceed."
"Doc, is that a De..."
"Never mind that now, never mind that now."
"All right, I'm ready."
"You're never ready," Catherine said under her breath.
Marty didn't hear her, but Emmet gave a small chuckle before starting his speech. "Good evening, I'm Dr Emmett Brown. I'm standing on the parking lot of Twin Pines Mall. It's Saturday morning, October 26th 1985, 1:18am and this is temporal experiment number one. C'mon, Einie."
"What's Einie doing in the car?" Catherine wondered.
"Just watch and you'll see. Hey, hey boy, get in there, that a boy, in you go, sit down, put your seatbelt on, that's it!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, OK."
Catherine giggled.
"Please note that Einstein's clock is in complete synchronisation with my control watch. Got it?"
"Yep, it looks like it to me," Catherine confirmed.
"Good. Have a good trip Einstein, watch your head." Emmet carefully shut the door and pulled out a remote control unit.
"You have this thing hooked up to the car?" asked Marty, rather befuddled.
"Watch this," answered Emmet again.
"Yeah, OK, got it."
The car unexpectedly started driving, being controlled by Emmet's remote.
"Hey, that's neat!" Catherine exclaimed, stepping forward.
"No, step back there, you're in the way of the camera. No Marty, keep it on the car."
"Oh, sorry," apologised Catherine, stepping back. She watched the car skid around the parking lot. "But whatever is this supposed to prove?"
"Just setting up, testing the acceleration and handling. Now, if you'll join me over here..."
Catherine and Marty followed Emmet across the empty parking lot. "Uh, you do know the car is pointed towards us?" she warned as the scientist revved the engine and spun the wheels madly.
"If my calculations are correct, when this baby hits 88 miles per hour, you're gonna see some serious... er..." he searched for an appropriate word. "Just watch."
Catherine mumbled something pessimistic about his calculations as he released the break. The car shot forward, accelerating rapidly. Catherine and Marty started to edge out of the way.
"Watch this, watch this," Emmet urged, motioning the siblings closer. The digital speed readout on the controller gradually increased until it hit eighty-eight. Light flashed over the car for a moment and it vanished into a bright cloud with a loud whoosh. A trail of fire ran by either side of the scientist, Catherine and Marty jumping out of the way either side of him.
The number-plate had managed to disconnect itself and escape from the fate of the rest of the car. It now spun and rattled on the ground. Emmet looked both directions before joyously proclaiming, "Ha, what did I tell you, 88 miles per hour! The temporal displacement occurred at exactly 1:20am and zero seconds!"
Marty stepped over to pick up the OUTATIME plate, but Catherine beat him to it. She dropped it instantly, yelling, "Ouch, hot!"
Marty wasn't particularly pleased with the result either. "Doc, you... you disintegrated Einstein!"
"Calm down, Marty, I didn't disintegrate anything. The molecular structure of Einstein and the car are completely intact."
"Where the... um, where are they?"
Catherine shook her head.
"The appropriate question is, when are they! Einstein has just become the world's first time traveller! I sent him into the future. One minute into the future to be exact. And at exactly 1:21 AM we should catch up with him and the time machine."
"Wait a minute, wait a minute, Doc, are you telling me that you built a time machine... out of a DeLorean?"
"The way I see it, if you're gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style? Besides, the stainless, steel construction made the flux dispersal..." Emmet suddenly checked his watch. "Look out!" He pushed Marty sideways.
Catherine was confused for a moment, but it suddenly clicked. She wisely covered her eyes, just in time. There was a bright flash and all manner of noise. She looked up to see the DeLorean skidding across the parking lot. Emmet walked up and touched it, extremely briefly.
"What, what is it hot?" Marty asked in concern.
"No, it's cold, er, extremely cold." He released the door. "Ha, ha, ha, Einstein, you little.. fella. Einstein's clock is exactly one minute behind mine, it's still ticking."
"Ooh!" observed Catherine. She watched the dog run to the van. "He's alright."
"He's fine, and he's completely unaware that anything happened. As far as he's concerned the trip was instantaneous. That's why Einstein's watch is exactly one minute behind mine. He skipped over that minute to instantly arrive at this moment in time. Come here, I'll show you how it works."
Catherine and Marty moved in to get a good view and listened to the scientist's spiel. "First, you turn the time circuits on."
"Looks pretty," observed Catherine.
"This readout tells you where you're going, this one tells you where you are, this one tells you where you were."
"Don't you mean 'when'?" asked Catherine, rather pointedly."
"Precisely. You input the destination time on this keypad. Say, you wanna see the signing of the Declaration of Independence..." He entered in July 4th 1776. "...or witness the birth or Christ." He entered in December 25th 0000.
"Assuming that was the right date, and supposing you could find your way to Bethlehem," interrupted Catherine.
"Yes, there is that little difficulty. Here's a red-letter date in the history of science, November 5th 1955."
"Hey, that's the day our parent's met," Marty piped up, trying to be helpful and not being.
"Yes, of course, November 5th 1955!" Emmet finally realised.
What, I don't get it. What was important to the history of science?" Marty said, perplexed.
That was the day I invented time travel. I remember it vividly. I was standing on the edge of my toilet hanging a clock, the porcelain was wet, I slipped, hit my head on the edge of the sink. And when I came to, I had a revelation, a vision, a picture in my head, a picture of this."
"A glowing 'Y', how useful," joked Catherine.
"This is what makes time travel possible. The flux capacitor."
"The flux capacitor," echoed Marty.
Catherine nodded, "I knew it was important. Odd name though."
"Vitally important. It's taken me almost 30 years and my entire family fortune to realise the vision of that day. My... goodness, has it been that long? Things have certainly changed around here. I remember when this was all farmland as far as the eye could see. Old Man Peabody owned all of this. He had this crazy idea about breeding pine trees."
Catherine laughed out loud. "Judging from the name of the mall, he mustn't have been very successful."
"No, he claimed aliens attacked his trees."
Marty shrugged and said, "This is uh, this is heavy duty, Doc, this is great. Uh, does it run on regular unleaded gasoline?"
"Unfortunately no, it requires something with a little more kick - plutonium!"
"Uh, plutonium, wait a minute, are you telling me that this sucker's nuclear?"
Catherine gave a reproving cough at his choice of words.
Emmet noticed his assistant had stopped recording. "Hey, hey, keep rolling, keep rolling there. No, no, no, no, this is electrical. But I need a nuclear reaction to generate the 1.21 gigawatts of electricity that I need."
"Doc, you don't just walk into a store and, and buy plutonium! Did you rip this off?"
"Of course: from a group of Libyan Nationalists. They wanted me to build them a bomb, so I took their plutonium and in turn gave them a shiny bomb case full of used pinball machine parts!"
"Sneaky. Wait, you did a deal with terrorists?" Catherine asked in a shaky voice.
Emmet seemed not to hear. "You'll each need to get into a radiation suit, so I can reload."
"Reload?" echoed Catherine.
"I think he means he's about to stick more plutonium in it," Marty clarified.
"Oh, in that case, a radiation suit would be a good idea. I hope it fits."
Marty snickered, but fortunately both radiation suits fit well. Emmet slid on a pair of gloves, and carefully loaded a plutonium pellet into his reaction chamber.
"It that a normal nuclear reactor?" Catherine asked.
"No, otherwise it would be either a bomb or a power plant. I had to develop a special energy extraction system, which... but never mind that now." He locked down the cover on the reactor as he spoke. "Safe now, everything's lead lined. Don't you lose those tapes now, we'll need a record."
"Why do you need a record?" Catherine asked.
"You certainly have a lot of questions for this time of night," Dr. Brown answered with a laugh. "What would be the point of making a great discovery like this and not recording it? Now look what I nearly did: I almost forgot my luggage. Who knows if they've got cotton underwear in the future? I'm allergic to all synthetics." He placed a suitcase into the DeLorean.
Marty picked up on an interesting word. "The future, that's where you're going?"
"That's right, 25 years into the future. I've always dreamed on seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next 25 World Series."
"Uh, Doc," Marty began, a little hesitantly.
"Huh?"
"Uh, look me up when you get there."
"Me too," added the excited Catherine, who was wishing she was going to the future.
"Indeed I will. Roll 'em."
Marty restarted filming.
"I, Dr Emmett Brown, am about to embark on an historic journey," he began. Suddenly he gave a laugh at his own carelessness. "What am I thinking of, I almost forgot to bring some extra plutonium. How did I ever expect to get back? One pellet, one trip! I must be out of my mind!"
Einstein started barking, having noticed something.
"What is it Einie?" his master asked. He turned, and saw a blue and white van pull into the mall. "Oh my God, they found me, I don't know how but they found me. Run for it guys!
"Who, who?" the siblings asked together.
"Who do you think, the Libyans!"
"Holy..." Marty was interrupted by Catherine's elbow.
"How many times do I need to remind you to watch your mouth?"
"What makes you think I was about to...?"
"I just know!"
"This is no time to worry about language!" argued Marty as he pulled his sister behind the van.
"I'll draw their fire!" their fried suggested. He pulled out his pistol and fired the few shots it held.
"Doc, wait!" Marty yelled, but it was too late.
'Doc' threw his gun down. He collected several shots from the terrorists and fell to the ground, dead.
Catherine covered her eyes in horror, ignoring her brother's language. The Libyans spotted the pair and took aim. Marty froze, completely losing hope. Catherine opened her eyes and sincerely wished she hadn't. Then some sort of protective instinct took over and she started to run, dragging Marty with her.
This heroic effort would have been completely in vain, had not the Libyan's gun chosen that moment to jam. The teens ran for the DeLorean, having enough time to climb inside and start her engine. Marty found he still had the camera, so he tossed it to his sister and hit the gas.
He was not a moment too soon. The Libyans were right behind him, yelling. Marty had to keep speeding up as the terrorists gained ground. Finally his fear outweighed his sense of safe driving. "Let's see if these b..."
"Marty!"
"We'll see if they can do ninety." He sped up even further, starting to lose the pursuing Libyans.
As he approached ninety, Catherine noticed the state of the time-circuits. Her eyes flickered to the digital speed readout. "Uh, Marty, we're about to..."
Marty made sure he wasn't about to hit the photo stand.
"Flash! Rumble, rumble. Thump!" The parking lot vanished in a bright blue flash.
Marty found that the photo stand was the least of his worries: a scary face stared at him through the windshield. "Aaaah!"