Chapter 14

Stringfellow Hawke stood before the class with test in hand. He spoke, "Most of you did well on the pop quiz yesterday." He began to hand out the test as he made his way through the rows of students at their desk. He came to Caitlin and smirked, "Could have done a little better." He handed her the test that she had objected to prior.

"Sixty-five?" she rolled her eyes. "I didn't get time to study." she reminded him.

"But this is advanced math and I know that you know it." he rebutted nearly flirting.

The students all looked on as they observed how the substitute teacher interacted with the new student. Eyebrows raised as young minds began to wonder about the relationship between Mr. Hawke and his student.

String finished passing out the test and then walked back to the front of the class. He went to the blackboard and wrote out a long math question. It's was a physics question that he knew few students would be able to solve.

The young geek of the class was able to read the question and understood it was very complicated. He asked, "Mr. Hawke?"

He turned and asked, "Yes, Anthony."

"That problem is college level stuff. I mean university level. This class cannot solve that." he told him.

"Funny, my niece did solve it." he bragged for it was the formula that Sam used to help design her warp drive engine.

"We're talking gravity waves." Anthony replied. "Does your niece work for NASA?"

"She hopes to." he admitted. He then told him, "She's a student here. She's a sophomore."

His eyes grew wide, "Why is she a sophomore?"

He asked, "I should be asking you the same question. Why are you a junior? You knew what I wrote."

He blushed, "I did." He wiggled, "I'm a geek so…" he glanced to his friend Samantha Baker and gave her a smile.

She gave a slight smile back as if the two shared a past.

String addressed the class. "This is a mathematical problem to solve interstellar travel. Anthony, tell the class what we need to build space ship like in the movies."

He spoke up, "We would need a warp drive engine."

"And what does a warp drive engine do?" he asked him.

"It warps space fabric to create a wave. If we could put in a ship, it would be like the Enterprise from Star Trek." he told him.

"Correct." String went back to the chalk board and wrote out another advanced mathematical problem. "And what does this do, Anthony?"

He sat working on the problem. "I'm not sure. What does it do?"

He instructed, "You tell me."

He sat back pondering the problem. "Wormhole maybe?"

Ferris asked, "What's a wormhole?"

Anthony replied, "It would be another way to travel in space. Say space was an apple and you want to get from one side to another but going around the apple would take too long so you open a wormhole and make a short cut."

String gave a nod, "Correct."

Anthony asked, "Your niece came up with these formulas. Because this NASA level stuff here."

"She did." he reported.

He asked, "Why isn't she in this class.?" He glanced about the class wondering where the niece would be.

String simply replied, "She has some other issues going right now."

Anthony asked, "Can I meet her? I would really like to hear her theories."

"We'll see." he told him. "Now, let's turn our books to chapter 3."

Meanwhile

Michael Knight made his way to Ralph's class. He wished to speak to Sam about what she did to KITT. He rapped on the door.

Ralph opened the door and greeted the man. "Oh, hello Mr. Knight. Can I help you?"

"Can I speak to one of your students? Sam!" he requested.

"Um…sure…" he turned and looked at Sam who sat in her chair looking at Michael rather expectantly. "Sam…Mr. Knight wants to speak to you."

Michael motioned, "Can I see you for minute?" He waved for Sam to speak to him outside the classroom.

"Okay…" she replied. She walked out of the classroom and then Michael closed the door. She stood innocently looking up at the man. She had to ask, "Who is your dentist?"

"What?" he asked a bit thrown off.

She told him, "You have the most perfect teeth."

He rolled his eyes annoyed, "What did you do to KITT?"

"Um…" she played dumb. "I have no idea what you are talking about."

"Really? Miss Samantha Hawke." he informed her that he knew her real name.

She winced, "Oh…KITT must have done some downloading."

"You took up half his memory!" he accused. "What exactly did you download into him?"

"You can't open it up?" she asked.

"It's not compatible. Bonnie is working on it now." he informed. "Oh, and when you were in KITT you dropped this!" He held up a penny.

She grasped the penny, "Ah shit."

"You want to start explaining?" he pressed.

She replied, "Come to the airfield after school. We will fill ya in." She placed the penny in her pocket. "What did KITT download from my phone?"

He cocked his head, "Phone? You don't know what was downloaded?"

"Just come to the airfield." she instructed and then slipped back into class.

Michael stood wondering just what the Airwolf team was hiding.

Santini Airfield - Later that day

Michael Knight drove KITT to the airfield and parked inside the hanger as instructed by String prior at school. He emerged from the car waiting for a answer. "String." he greeted the man. "Mr. Santini!" he gave a nod to Dom. He gave a Caitlin a slight smile, "Cait…" he looked to Sam, "trouble…" he miffed.

String teased his niece, "He knows you well."

Sam rolled her eyes, "This wasn't even my idea."

Michael asked, "So! How did you get Wilton Knight's private commands? I don't have that information."

"Come with us." String told him.

The four lead him back into the hangar.

KITT's voice came over his wrist watch communicator. "Michael!"

"KITT," he replied.

"I am picking up a large energy spike in the area." he warned.

Sam soothed, "It's okay! It's stable." She continued, "What KITT's sensors are picking up is an energy spike from a wormhole. A wormhole that I accidentally created while running test on a prototype for a warp drive engine. My goal was space travel. To go to Mars and other planets. The wormhole created when an energy spike damaged the engine, the warp field broke containment and it accidentally brought Dom to my time…2022. He was for 3 days with me and my parents. We found we could send him back and he only lost 12 hours here. I was sent back with him. My name is Dr. Samantha Hawke. String is my uncle. Dom is my great uncle and you are about to meet my father, Saint John Hawke on the other side of the wormhole." She held up her phone, "You will feel a slight energy wave. KITT can maintain communications with you even on the other end of the wormhole." She activated the phone.

Michael felt the wave and the shaking. Then he was found he was in the same hanger but the area was different. He spied the table with the engine and the computer and the older man sitting at the computer with a cup of coffee and eating a bagel.

Sinjin put his food down. "That was quick." he miffed.

Michael spoke into his watch again, "KITT? Can you read me?"

"I read you loud and clear, Michael." he replied. "You were taken up in an energy spike. I'm gathering data."

He asked, "Can I get back?" he found KITT was not in hangar with him.

String assured, "Yes, you will get back. You were getting so close we figured we should fill you in. Michael, meet my brother, Sinjin Hawke. He's running things on this end."

Sinjin held out a hand. "Nice to meet you."

Michael shook his hand and noticed the man was much older than String. "I'm really in the future?" he asked unsure.

Caitlin assured him, "Yes you are Mike and if you want, we can even give you a tour."

"I believe you." he assured. "What is all this about? FIRM behind it?"

String shook his head, "The FIRM knows nothing about this and we want to keep it that way. Sam invented the engine. They will try to take it." he sounded. "We do not want her invention falling into the wrongs hands. The wormhole connecting 1984 to 2022 is a side effect. Not the intent. But, we are using it to fix a few things."

"Such as?" he asked concerned.

Caitlin stated, "Dom will be killed in less than two years and String will be severely injured."

Sam added, "Mr. Hinkley gets committed to a mental hospital and is chasing aliens."

He asked, "What happens to me?"

"Nothing, you are retired." she told him. "KITT is decommissioned and junked. I want to save him from that fate."

Sinjin stated, "My daughter loves your car. She wishes it was her car."

"Okay…" he processed the information. "The money?"

"Mine!" Sam confessed. "I knew I could not use my pay app so I got cash out and I forgot to look at the dates. I didn't realize it was different. I'm trying to get the money back."

Caitlin explained, "Michael…Sam is an adult. She invented an engine that would make space travel possible but it got out of hand and now we have a way to travel back and forth to the future. She went back to help her family. She's trying to save Dom and String. She accidentally brought her own money from the future and spent it. Now, those bills are in circulation and we need to get them back before the CIA figures out we have an actual way to travel through time. Will you help us?"

"Time travel! Who is overseeing this…experiment?" he asked.

String told him, "Just us! It's private endeavor."

"Oh…" he puckered in thought. "So, you guys have a private time machine at your disposal."

Sam suggested, "Let's stick the engine in KITT and make him into a time machine."

String shook his head, "And how will we navigate? Even if you put that engine in Airwolf and activated a warp field, we have no idea where we would end up."

"Hmm," she nodded, "kind of need to work on that…" she puckered in thought.

Michael admitted, "My mind is absolutely blown."

Caitlin asked, "Wanna look around? Go outside and see the world?"

"Yes!" he agreed.

Dom asked, "Who is going to take him for a tour?"

All eyes fell on Sinjin for he had the only vehicle. He asked, "If you don't mind a trip to the grocery store. I have to get some things."

Caitlin grinned, "I'll go too. There's plenty of room in that truck."

Sam took her seat at the computer, "I'll watch the engine, Dad. Take a break."

"What about KITT?" Michael wondered.

Sam assured, "I got him on my phone." She looked at her email notification, "Oh' good. KITT's upgrades are being delivered today."

"Upgrades?" Michael asked.

She nodded, "So he can interact with my cell phone and not lose half his memory."

"Um…" he sucked in a breath wondering of Bonnie should be present. "Bonnie…"

Sam nodded, "She sent me the list of things I need. She going to come back and help us upgrade him."

"Bonnie…" he looked confused.

"Our Bonnie." she told him. "2022 Bonnie. She's going to help us save KITT."

"Okay." he blinked.

String stated, "Me and Dom will stay with Sam and wait for Bonnie and the delivery. You go with Sinjin and Cait, Michael. We only got one vehicle."

He couldn't help but ask, "Is this a 'fly by the seat of your pants' operation you guys got going?"

They slowly nodded in agreement. String confessed, "It's family."