Once Upon A Time Traveler
Chapter Seven
Penn rolled lazily over in her bed. There had been no recurrences of the unusual dream which caused her heart rate to escalate, or her breathing to elevate. Just a simple dream of some people from the distant past sitting around a table, talking. It was rather odd, though. Usually whenever she had a dream she was usually' a participant in it. This felt more like viewing it on a screen. Alright, so having been a 'remote viewer' on that 'other' top secret project had left a lasting scar on her, but, this really was quite unusual. There had been 'that' man sitting there with that group of men…. And Mina… What the hell is going on?
Now, where she would have bet that Mina would have sensed her, she didn't, or if shd did, she didn't indicate one way or the other. Indeed, the only one who seemed at all aware of her presence was that man, that amazingly troubled, long-fingered, soft-handed man who could only seemed able to scowl his sense of irritated bemusement at her whenever they 'met'. It was odd, even though he was seated, he seemed to 'move' in the dream. She would lazily sidle over toward his general vicinity while that older man was talking in his baritone voice. Whenever she moved towards her 'Victorian Friend", he seemed to actually Evaporate, not entirely mind you, but, he'd 'move' away, fingers pressed to his brow as if both shielding himself from seeing her, and he, from being seen. Frustrating wasn't the word.
However, Talmedge's office had become a sort of battle ground. The atmosphere was very different. Where Penn was feeling frustration, Mina and Olga were taking their concerns regarding Nate's high-handed treatment of Penn to a higher court. Namely, to Dr. Talmedge.
A stand-off now ensued, wherein Talmedge was going to yet again, be made referee between the women and Nate.
"Now,
sir, I ask you, what's the point of having an unannounced drill if
you're goin' to announce it?", Nate was definitely on the
defensive and moving swiftly towards an offensive.
Olga
interjected before Talmedge could reply, "Sir, I don't think
that's the point that Mrs. Harker and I felt compelled to address
here, today."
"Indeed,
it is not, sir.", Mina smoothly agreed.
Nate, now pushing the edges of his suit jacket past his pants pockets, placed his hands on his hips, and turned to scowl in Talmedge's direction, "Well, then, I think I've got a right to know why I was called in here!"
Talmedge motioned for Nate to park his rear in one of the comfortable chairs in front of the desk.
"Nate, I think what these two ladies here are trying to say is that our new chrononaut has had a lot to deal with, not just before she got here, but, with your prodding, since then!", Talmedge nodded as he acknowledged Olga's quick expression to add more information. "Yes, Ms. Volkovich, I know. I'm going to address that concern as well."
Olga
seemed to stand down in her eagerness to clarify Talmedge's comment.
Now turning to Nate, Talmedge asked the Security Chief, "You
know where we secured Penn's assistance from, don't you?"
"Same
loony bin that you got Parker from, I'd expect.", Nate scoffed
openly.
Talmedge
cleared his throat at the insensitive remark, "Yes – Um Nate,
I don't think that's exactly the correct –" He cleared his
throat again, finding the sadness almost insurmountable. "She
was under treatment for a far different reason than Parker."
"I
swear, I don't know why you types keep going to the Animal Shelter
for chrono chimps when we've got pilots with pedigrees linin'
up around the compound just beggin' us to take them!"
Mina was far to sure of the answer to that question. Until such time as the craft and the project's mission could be made more 'palatable' to both the public and the Government 'suits' whom the public had actually elected, the project would remain under wraps, under ground, and under lock and key. And, they would continue to use 'disposables' to continue testing and 'tinkering' until the government got the 'attitude' of the country 'just right'.
At this particular point in time and history, 'fiddling' with the past was deemed a big 'no-no-. Until of course, the Republicans seized the office and decided to rid themselves of any 'opposition' that was hindering their particular agenda. That was to have been the True Test for the project, but, by that time those higher up than Talmedge and Ramsey would have written the orders for Talmedge's and Ramsey's 'retirements' as well.
Mina had witnessed such coups. In China, in Japan, nearly every country had endured it's own forms of hostile
take-overs. Russia was one which still made her shiver. Nicky had had no idea he was such an ineffective ruler. Like most of the royals, he had no clue just what was 'fair' for his people. And, hence, his family and those who would have ruled fairly were disposed of before they ever were given the opportunity to assist in healing the country's ills which had gone on for far too long.
Yes, the entire messy oil painted picture was there on display for anyone who could detect the brush strokes of destruction. However, she had an agenda of her own. One that she hoped would assist in meeting the specific needs of her Pilot friend, her League and Henry Jekyll simultaneously.
Again, Talmedge felt the need to motion Olga to try to remain calm,"Nate, about your disparaging remarks."
"What disparaging remarks?", Nate indicated in the direction of Penn's sleep chamber. "Oh, you gotta be kidding me, sir? Are you serious? Did you not even see what she did to me last night?"
"Having difficulty in confessing to being caught in a head lock by a woman?", Olga couldn't resist chiding.
"Oh, very funny, Volkavich!", Nate sneered. "She's just lucky 'cause she caught me unawares, is all."
Then,
sensing he could earn some suck-up points, the Chief of Security
added, to Talmedge, "I'd never hit a girl, sir."
"Nathan!",
Talmedge shouted so loudly that the guards on their posts, broke
their watch momentarily to look to each other, wondering if Talmedge
would feel better having them nearer.
Trying
to beat the white 'spots' before his eyes, signaling his blood
pressure rising dangerously, Bradley Talmedge desperately tried to
regain control over the meeting, "The
comments you've made in these recent months have
been
counterproductive
at best, and damaging to the project and the pilot's effectiveness,
at worst!"
"Nate, I would like to interject something here, as well.", Mina's icy tone demanded respect.
Instinctively, Nate prepared himself to meet a challenge to his authority. However, in his fit of anger he'd only just then remembered that Mina Harker was no 'mere' woman. This equated to a rather funny 'movement' on Nate's part. Nate's scowl now veered off from making that hypnotic eye contact with Harker's widow at the last minute. Quickly, he refocused his eyes on the floor, away from her power.
"What?", he nearly squealed, his self-recrimination evident.
"May I, Dr. Talmedge?", she looked to the elder man as she indicated Nate now unwillingly, though, only slightly subdued..
"Please do, Mrs. Harker.", he waved in Nate's direction.
Mina nodded, and continued, "You remember how it was that Penn came to our attention, don't you?"
"No, and I never asked.", Nate flatly stated. Now, feeling a bit more comfortable, Nate glared at Talmedge, "I don't like asking questions I don't wanna know the answers to!"
Then, casting the same glare towards Olga, Nate clarified, "I've found that I get to live a little longer that way!"
Mina now looked to Olga. Olga happily stepped up to the task to back her nocturnal friend up.
"How do you think your psychological read outs would fare if you'd endured the horrific events that Penn lived through?", Olga made the attempt to get Nate to see things from Penn's perspective. A not-so-successful tack in dealing with a true 'non-believer' like Ramsey.
"It's not relevant to our work here!", he insisted on stubbornly clinging to 'his' reality.
Mina nearly purred, "Oh, but, it is Nathan. She was perhaps one of the most clair-sentient remote viewers as well as one of the top psychic subjects that ever tracked any of our agents in the field. Why do you think securing her abilites with this project was such a coup for us?"
Suddenly, something struck a cord with Nate. "The Valkyrie Project?", he was stunned.
Olga smiled slightly to Mina knowing that the vampire had struck the right vein, (as usual!).
"But – That was a –", Nate began.
"A myth?", Mina finished for him.
Nate shrugged, "Well – As far as Black Out Ops goes." His head tossed back and forth for another way to present the fact, yet decided on the one word that said it all, "Yeah."
Olga couldn't help good-naturedly puncturing Nate again,
"Oh, like the existence of Vampires?", Mina once again smirked.
"Hey now! I don't go around drinkin' stuff outta folks like they were equipped with their own sippy straws!", he was pointing and backing up towards Talmedge.
"Why Mr. Ramsey, I don't do that either;", she smiled most broadly for effect while her feline-like fangs extended and the whites of her eyes darkened to Pigeon's blood red, "I have my own straws, thank you."
"Ahem!", Talmedge realized he needed to step up his game. While watching Nate in the midst of dumping in his shorts was a sight rarely seen, he was worried that the girls would take the game a bit too far, this time.
"Sir, I object to being looked at like the last juice box on a desert island!", Nate's defensiveness had returned him to 'reality'.
"The point is Nate –", Talmedge began, then winced, realizing that the puns were becoming infectious. "Sorry – ", he offered to Mina as Mina's and Olga's instantly contorted with constipated amusement. Just to show 'no hard feelings' she allowed Nate to see her fangs return to their more 'normal' retraction.
Talmedge ignored their attempts to suppress their mirth, not that he was upset, he just didn't see any reason to give Nate any more verbal ammunition against them.
The head of the Back Step Project pinched the bridge of his nose while speaking, "Penn McNeil was a part of a very sensitive detail. They were referred to as Guardian Angels. Can you imagine why that was Nate?"
Nate stood there doing his best impression of a confused Doberman. He furrowed his brows in a real frown, brought on by the pressure of concentration. Finally, he did a one shoulder shrug and shook his head in the negative.
Talmedge
felt they were achieving some sort of headway as he continued, "It
was because of remote viewers such as Penn, in there, that most of
our agents in the field were spared being taken prisoner or being
tortured. And, they were responsible for the location of several
agents who were unable to communicate with us in any other
way,
effectively
being a life line towards their rescue and recovery."
"What's that got to do with Penn's lack of marbles? What is she, some kind of burnout?"
Olga sighed, "It was revealed to me, through her physician at the hospital that what she was suffering from was as a direct result from actually discovering, and subsequently uncovering a plot against one of our own agents."
"You mean she protected a Russian agent?", Nate, as ever, got it screwed up.
"One of our American agents, Nate.", Talmedge felt compelled to answer.
"She was chased, almost literally from coast to coast in her quest to bring the truth to the right authorities.", Olga specified.
"C'mon, now, you mean this woman actually lived 'North by Northwest'?", Nate rolled his eyes and wondered just whose ass they'd pulled that story out of! He had a guess, and he really didn't care.
Talmedge looked to the women who now appeared to be very silent indeed.
"Penn – Ms. McNeil – psychically witnessed the murder of one of the agents she was responsible for – ." Talmedge's voice fought back his emotion. Anger, helplessness, and guilt fought for first place as he tried to remain objective.
"She was helpless to stop it, and didn't realize what was happening until the agent's safety had already been compromised.", Mina offered, actually amazed that she was able to bring herself to speak of it. Just because she was a vampire didn't preclude her from having very strong opinions and feelings where the people she cared about were concerned.
"Don't see how you can call her a very good psychic, then!", Nate shot back.
"These remote viewers weren't given combat information. Their only responsibility was to locate the agents. Link with their minds and guide them as they were ordered.", Olga's throat closed on her suddenly. "That was why she had such difficulty finding someone with the proper designation to intervene and get the program shut down.. But, that didn't happen until – ", Olga couldn't go any farther.
"Penn was forced to witness a murder that she was unable to prevent.", Mina concluded for Olga. "In fact, it had been the erroneous information that she'd been given that took the agent in question into danger."
"You mean, it really was an inside job?", Nate seemed to be having his doubts about more than just Penn's sanity just then. "And, she wasn't the one who – ?", Nate now realized that Penn had been the sacrificial lamb.
Why not? It served the public's best interest. What could be gained from pointing an accusing finger at those in the highest offices of the Government? No. Being whom she was, and better still, what she was – and add into the mix her daily psychological challenges just from harnessing all of that energy; both internally and externally, like some sort of Cosmic Communications Operator; and you'd have yourself a nice little patsy, ready for the media to massacre.
"Yes.", Talmedge had recovered enough to confirm Nate's suspicions.
"You sure about this?", the Head of Security asked the Head of the Operation.
"Absolutely certain.", were Talmedge's only words on the subject now.
Nate shifted his stance, flinging the outer edges of his jacket forward and assuming a kick ass attitude.
"Well, what the hell we standin' around here for - ? Let's go get the sonofabitch!"
Talmedge raised a warning hand, and spoke, "It's no use Nate. Just after the incident, Penn was removed from the facility to the mental hospital. It was nearly three weeks after that when she was able to speak again."
"She was there for what - ?", Nate seemed to think to himself, "Two years?"
Now Nate was even further incensed. "I say we drag that brain-fried bimbo in here and have a little confab of our own!"
"Nathan!", Talmedge was in no mood to mince words. "Those are precisely the sort of remarks and just exactly the attitude you will cease immediately, or you will be forcibly retired."
Nate's dropped jaw met the murderous glare of Talmedge, "What?"
"You heard me, Nate."
"You're
– you're – you're gonna pick – her – over me? Sir?",
Nate was more than perplexed as he stood stammering.
"She's
got that intel somewhere in her fractured frontal lobe, and who knows
just how close the bastard could be? How close? I can't believe you
wouldn't wanna find out everything you could – Sir!", he just
simply couldn't believe that they were going to let the scumbag get
away…
"You
know how to fly a craft Nathan? Are you willing to sit your butt down
in sphere that uses alien technology and a controlled explosion, that
could quickly become uncontrolled, to catapult it and you though the
unseen time channels that ring the world? Are you willing to put your
life on the line for total strangers just to be certain
that
the sun will come up tomorrow?", Talmedge's face was dangerously
red, and Olga stood quickly and nearly ran to Talmedge's side taking
his pulse as he continued.
He tried to shake her off, but, Olga insisted and fixed him with a glare as he continued to Nate, "To take that kind of a risk without looking for some ticker tape parade to greet you when you landed, every single time?"
Olga
tried to use her softest voice as she
gently warned, "Sir, I don't wish to alarm you – but, you
really need to – ", she stumbled over her words as Talmedge
turned yet another acidic glance askance towards her.
Undaunted,
the Russian physician continued, albeit, carefully, "Watch your
temper."
Talmedge released a sigh through his flared nostrils and Olga darted glances everywhere but towards her superior officer. "Just saying – sir.", she beat a hasty retreat and resumed her seat.
"A month after she was hospitalized the facility was attacked. Only a handful of those employed to remote view and guard were still alive, though only technically. And, as a result, the project was closed, permanently.", Talmedge felt the best course was to let Nate in on nearly everything. No sense letting him go off on a mission of his own. It wouldn't have been the first time he'd gotten an embarrassing phone call about the old war horse's antics.
"You'll forgive me expressing my opinions, sir, but, I really don't think that it's safe to have someone like her entrusted with –" , Nate was doing his best to be diplomatic now. He Really didn't want to have to shoulder the responsibility of being the cause of Talmedge's stroke-out.
"That's the beauty of this Nate, if I'm wrong, you get to take over.", Talmedge now smiled to the Southerner, confident that he'd found a way to both salve the man's pride and give him something to look forward to.
"That's providing there's something left to take over, sir!", Nate sarcastically added.
Nate was still struggling to understand, "But, if she didn't have anything to do with it, why'd it hit her so hard?"
Olga intervened, to try and bring the conference back to the true issues at hand.
"Even
though she wasn't to blame, as such, she felt guilt. Coupled with the
traumatic events that unfolded, seemingly, in her mind, alone. There
was no time to warn anyone of the danger, and thus, she
was
paralyzed by the atrocity she was forced to view.", Olga sighed.
"It was her job, you see, to guard and watch over those agents
assigned to her. And then, silenced in the brutal way she was – ",
Olga shivered remembering her time in training in Siberia.
The
political prisoners were given nearly the sametreatments' that Penn
had tried so hard to forget. And, though she tried to forget, Penn
knew there would be no way she could forgive' the off-the-cuff
dismissal she'd received.
"Having
those who are supposed to believe in us being the very ones who doubt
us the most can have a devastating effect on a person. Almost as
devastating as being betrayed by someone you trusted implicitly.",
Mina bitterly remembered. She didn't think of it often, but, she knew
that there had been times in her life, and un-
life,
that she'd had dealings with people who weren't as trustworthy as
they presented themselves to be.
A
soft knock came on the door, and Penn, without waiting for a signal
opened it. She smiled to those somber faces in the room, and
announced, "Okay. I know I bitched last night about Nate waking
me up again for one of his cockamamie dry runs, but, now, I'm left in
the conference room all alone? What gives?", she looked around
again,
thinking
that her smile would have been greeted with similar faces, but, not
so. Everyone, except Mina, seemed uncomfortably on edge.
Then, Talmedge shot Penn a reassuring smile and stood, "Well, I think this young lady's got a point. Don't you, Nate?"
"Uh, Yeah.", Nate replied, rubbing the back of his neck. Then, remembering whom he was addressing, added, "Uh – Yes sir."
Mina stood, and moved towards Penn, taking the woman's elbow and speaking in a calming manner, "Are you ready for the other dry run we're going to have today?"
Penn laughed, "Yeah." She looked over to the perspiring Nate, and remembered how red-faced he'd been only a few hours before, and laughed, "Hope it's going to be more fun than last night!"
Mina nodded to Olga, who in turn nodded once. Mina moved to escort Penn out of the office as Nate scowled, Olga looked elsewhere and Talmedge glowered at Nate.
Once in the hallway, Penn quickly asked Mina, "Okay. What's going on?"
"I
don't know what you mean.", Mina sidestepped.
"Oh,
it's gotta be good if you're avoiding it!", Penn
asserted.
"Honestly, I have no idea what you're referring to.", Mina fixed Penn with a look that caused the young woman to halt any further probing.
"Alright. I get the hint.", Penn conceded when they arrived at the entrance to the preparation room.
A young soldier opened the door for them and they entered.
"Now, then, do you have those letters I gave you?", Mina asked. She certainly hoped her Victorian self would know to test the blood on the letter designated for herself. That would be the best way to actually identify the letter as authentic.
"Uh, yeah.", Penn patted her flight suit's knee pocket.
"Good. Don't forget to give them to me as soon as you can.", Mina admonished gently.
Now Penn's features showed her concern, "Hey, what's going on? Really, I mean. You sound more caring than a Mom sending a kid off to school in the rain. What gives…?"
Mina now felt self conscious. Not a feeling she was especially acquainted with, "I'm going to tell you something, and I want you to keep an open and clear mind about it."
"Alright.", gone was the flippant joker, and now, Penn truly appeared worried. Penn reached for her space suit, and wriggled into it.
"When you get to your destination, it will be another time line. An alternate time line. Do you understand?"
"Duhhh! It's just my job now – remember?", Penn was trying to piece the puzzle together. Zipping up, she now turned her attention to her flight gloves.
"When you see me again, I won't know who you are.", Mina was deadly serious.
"Okay…
That much I get – how do I get past it?", Penn couldn't fathom
the depth to which Mina was referring.
Penn
hesitated reaching for her helmet, and suddenly fixed Mina with an
incredulous frown, "Just how far back am I going?"
"The letters. They'll help you.", Mina avoided altogether the answer Penn sought. Quickly, she felt she needed to fill up the air with more words so as to deflect any attempt Penn would have to get back to her questioning of the scientist. "Here, take these." Mina pressed three small pill bottles, minus the labels, in her hand.
"What're these for?", Penn asked as she looked at the bottles.
"You're going to need them more on this mission than on any of the others. You'll certainly recognize their shapes and they're clearly marked on the meds themselves as to what each of them is.", Mina reminded her.
Penn did as she was told. She put these bottles in her flight suit's pockets and zipped them closed firmly.
"Let's go.", Mina flatly said as she knocked on the door.
The young soldier opened it again for the women, and Penn, though confused, headed out of the door and towards the launch pad where the sphere was already humming a welcome to it's pilot.
Penn couldn't stop the feeling of anxiety that was starting to grow into full on fear of betrayal. Now, when she stood next to Mina she saw at her side, not her friend; but someone whom she truly feared was a feral stranger, after all.
