Chapter 40

2022 - Arizona

Donna Beckett had returned to the Project Quantum Leap facility. She found a black mustang and a classic orange truck also parked at the facility along with a government owned black SUV. She walked inside to see what was going on.

Standing in the reception area was a man dressed in an Army uniform who held the rank of Lt. Colonel. He was tall with gray hair. Donna recognized the officer who wanted to shut down the project, Colonel Davis. She did not recognize the men standing between the Colonel and the door to the accelerator.

Older Michael Knight and Tony Villicana stood between the officer and Ziggy. They refused to budge.

Michael huffed, "You shut this project down now and you will kill Dr. Beckett. I'm not letting you do that."

"Step aside." the Officer demanded. "You are interfering with official government business. Dr. Beckett is dead. The D.O.D. paid for this project and we want to take possession of it."

"He is not dead." Michael insisted.

"He's dead!" the Officer deemed. "If he was alive that would be a different matter. He's dead. We are taking possession of Ziggy and the accelerator."

Donna spoke up, "My husband is not dead, Colonel. I have proof."

He turned on his heels and looked upon her rather painful. "What is your proof this time, Mrs. Beckett?"

She stated, "Mr. MacGyver saw him in 1984."

He rolled his head back unbelieving, "1984?"

Tony asked, "If you had someone in that accelerator then you would leave it?"

The Colonel admitted, "Then we would have no choice but Dr. Samuel Beckett is dead. The Project is finished. Please step aside before I have you arrested."

Tony gave a wicked smirk, "You bet." He then turned and bolted down the hallway figuring if he could get himself in the accelerator it would buy time for Dr. Beckett who he knew was still alive. He ran into the accelerator room where Angus MacGyver was trying to find a way to secure the system.

"Mac! Have Ziggy direct me into my body in 1984." he then stepped onto the accelerator pad.

Mac turned and asked, "What are you doing, Tony?"

"Saving Dr. Beckett." He called, "Ziggy! Put me in my body, 1984."

As Ziggy activated the accelerator Mac stood helpless, "Tony! Don't!" he reached for him but it was too late and older Tony was gone.

The Colonel arrived in the room and asked, "Where did that man go?"

"In the accelerator, Colonel." he replied. "Dr. Beckett is alive and Tony just sent himself into that accelerator to prevent you from shutting it down."

"Damn!" the Colonel huffed as his plans to clear the facility was stopped by the old mechanic.

1984

Dr. Beckett woke Tony up on the bus. "Tony!" he nudged the boy. Older Tony opened his eyes and found he was laying down in the back of a school bus. He wasn't sure where he was or what he was doing. He could see Dr. Beckett. He asked, "Where am I?"

"We're going to eat." he told him.

He sat up and looked down at himself. "I remember this jacket."

"You okay, Tony?" Dr. Beckett asked.

"I don't know." he confessed. He shook his head clear. He began to recall some of his life but not all. "Am I in school?" he wondered.

Dr. Beckett nodded, "Yes, we are at the diner. We're getting something to eat." He assumed the boy was just confused from the sleep.

Tony then stood up and looked about. Sam Hawke lingered as she noticed he was not waking up. He recalled her, "Hey Sam!" he smiled. He wondered, "Where is Mr. H?"

Sam Beckett did a double take. He then looked at Sam Hawke.

She winced, "Oh' boy."

Soon, Dr. Beckett seated the class for lunch in the diner. He needed to speak to Al to find out what was going on but so far Al had not shown. He excused himself to go to the bathroom as did Samantha Hawke. They met in the hall between the two restrooms.

Dr. Beckett asked her, "What do you make of this? What's going on with Tony? I think he can see me now."

"It looks like he stepped into the accelerator, Dr. B." she replied.

He paused, "Dr. B?" He asked amused.

She smiled, "I like it! I became aware of your program because you sent a stunt pilot our way. You eventually leave your project perimeters and can leap without a host. You just leapand people can see you. You sent Mac to Santini Air in 1984. He worked at a nuclear power plant. You got past security. Just showed up and gave him one of Dom's business cards and then disappeared. The timeline is changing on a grand scale. Walter Mondale beat Ronald Reagan in the election. KITT is connected to Ziggy in 2022. They are working together. Your project is kaput. Al has passed away. Donna is selling everything to keep power to the accelerator because she knows you are alive but the D.O.D. has declared you dead and wants the accelerator. Your accelerator has another application. It would be needed to stabilize and buffer a warp drive engine. If the D.O.D. wants a space program they will need your accelerator. Tony in the future is helping us. There's more! Ralph and his friend, Bill Maxwell had a close encounter with aliens. They gave him a red suit. I took it to 2022 and we analyzed it. It's infused with nanites. The suit will only work for him and those nanites are in his blood stream. We can have Ziggy use the nanites to get Ralph in the imaging room. The nanites are coded genetically. They also gave Ralph superhuman like powers when he wore the suit. The aliens took it away from him and wiped every human being's mind clean of it. KITT thinks there is a alien threat. Ziggy and KITT are working together in my time. We are trying to keep Ziggy and your accelerator out of the hands of the government. My best guess is Tony stepped into your accelerator for some reason. He was on his way to your facility in Arizona when I saw him in my time."

Sam Beckett nodded, "Okay…who's Donna?"

She cocked an eyebrow, "You don't remember?"

He shook his head. "No!"

"Your wife." she told him. "She came to see me. We talked! She gave me all your files, told me all about you. She misses you so much. She is sacrificing everything to save your life."

He stood beside himself, "I have a wife?"

She nodded, "And in 2022, she's at the end of her rope and all alone."

He gulped.

She mentioned, "You know there are two kinds of people in this world. Those who would throw themselves in front of a train to push an old man off the tracks and sacrifice themselves in the process and those who would stand by and watch…record it on an iphone and upload it to the internet. You are the kind of man who push that old man off the tracks and get hit by that train. Thing is, trains run out of tracks and by 2022, you are out of track. Tony did something to push you out of the way of that train." She then motioned, "I do have to go pee. I'll see you at the table." She turned and went into the rest room.

Dr. Beckett shook and went to the men's rest room thinking about a wife he could not remember.

Inside the men's room, Dr. Beckett had finished relieving himself and went to the mirror to wash up. Looking back at him was the image of Ralph Hinkley. He washed his hands when Al returned with a flash of light from imaging room door opening and closing.

"Sam!" Al called. "Ralph is insisting on speaking to you and his Sam but there is no way we get can that much power to the imagining room."

He replied, "You don't have to. I spoke to Dr. Hawke. Ralph had an encounter with aliens. He has nanites in his blood stream. She thinks Ziggy can use the nanites to establish a link for communication."

"Nanites?" he asked.

"Microscopic robots, Al." he told him. "Tony in 2022 did something. Dr. Hawke thinks he might have gone into the accelerator. Have Ziggy run a diagnostic for any energy signs of a recent leap. Even if he went in the accelerator in 2022, she should be able to detect the activity." He finished washing his hands and took a paper towel to dry them. "Al…who is Donna?"

Al paused like a deer in the headlight.

He continued, "Sam…My Sam…" he smirked, "informed me that Donna came and saw her in person before I leaped into Mr. Hinkley. She said that Donna was desperately trying to keep power to the accelerator. The D.O.D. wants it and Ziggy. She's depleted her resources to keep the power on. Apparently, I leap past the protocols and I can leap wherever I want and appear as myself. They think I'm dead and want to take possession of it for what Dr. Hawke believes is a secret space program. I asked her who Donna is, Al. She told me that she's my wife. Do I have a wife, Al?"

He slowly nodded, "You don't remember and she thought it would be easier for you to do what you have to do if no one told you, Sam. I'm sorry! What is about to happen in 2022?"

"The project is out of track and there are some very special people are trying to save my life, including one of Mr. Hinkley's students." he explained. He pondered, "If Ralph Hinkley has nanites, maybe Ziggy can use the quantum capabilities of those nanites to establish a link with 2022. She would be linking with herself but it would give her that extra range."

Al stated, "We will get a blood sample and get right on it." He opened the imaging room door. Gave a concerned look and then closed the door.

Sam Beckett spoke to Ralph's reflection, "Now what about this red suit?"

After School

Sam Hawke returned to the airfield after a long day at school with Caitlin. She debriefed Caitlin on the drive back informing her that she suspected Tony in the future had entered the accelerator. The only way to confirm that suspicion was to go back through the wormhole and find out what happened. They pulled into the airfield and found a black and gray painted van highlighted with a red stripe. They wondered who the van belonged to.

They emerged from the jeep to find four men standing by String. One of the men truly stood out as he was very large, had a muscular physic, dark skin, a Mohawk hair style and was adorned with gold chains and jewelry.

Sam and Caitlin spied the men and traded glances.

"What do you make of those guys, Cait?" Sam asked.

"No sure." she confessed. "I don't think they are stunt men."

The pair made their way to the mouth of the hanger to meet the men.

The A-Team looked upon the two attractive blonde haired women walking towards them. The Colonel smoked a cigar and looked on as the two came closer. He tried to judge their ages.

The Lieutenant was more smooth and the face of the group. He gave a smile to the women, "Ladies." he greeted.

The mad man of the bunch gave a wide eyed and wild look at the pair which made both Sam and Caitlin a bit uneasy.

The muscles of the team stood and simply observed the two women.

Stringfellow Hawke introduced them, "Cait, Sam this is Colonel John Smith and his special operations team. Lieutenant Templeton Peck, Captain Murdock and Sergeant First Class Baracus."

Sam made a face, "That's the A-Team?" She wasn't impressed. She began to wonder if perhaps KITT made a mistake in his calculations.

The Colonel asked, "Just how old are you, honey?"

She replied, "I'm minus 16." She subtracted the current year from the year of her birth.

The men assumed she was 16 years old and being a smart mouth. The Colonel stated, "I should take you over my knee and give you a good spanking."

"Kinky," she replied not impressed. "You into unicorn dildos too?"

Caitlin turned red as she blushed and tried to not laugh.

"Whoa!" Murdock stated impressed. She was talking back the Colonel and he found that attractive. "I think I'm in love." he declared.

The Sergeant stated, "I pity the fool who speaks in such disregard to the Colonel."

Sam looked to String, "What are these guys doing here?"

"We hired them." he stated. "Captain Murdock is a pilot. He can fly choppers. We need another pair of eyes. These guys will work for us and keep secrets."

Sam asked, "Are they nuts?" She had doubts about the mental health of the men.

The Colonel replied, "Just Murdock. We broke him out for this job."

"Out of what?" she asked.

"The mental hospital." he told her. "So, you are Dr. Samantha Hawke, kid? You made an engine that can make space travel possible for what we have been told. You need a security team. We're your team."

She asked String, "Did my dad approve this?"

"He did." he nodded.

She asked, "Where is Dom? I want a second opinion."

"Dom and Mac are on a movie set." he explained. "We still have a business to run."

"Do they know where the engine is and how to get there?" she winced.

String stated, "Haven't gotten that far yet."

She asked, "Are sure we should turn these guys loose in 2022?"

"Probably not," he shrugged. "Sinjin needs a break though. He's got air shows coming up and I'm flying Airwolf with him."

Murdock asked, "What's Airwolf?"

Sam noticed he held his arms up as if he was holding onto a puppy. He petted the air as if there was an animal in his arms. She cocked an eyebrow, "What are you doing?"

"This is Misty." he proclaimed. "My Chihuahua."

The team rolled their eyes for the Captain had a habit of having imaginary pets.

Sam slowly nodded, "I can see why the elite hired them the first time." She walked by, "I got things to do. Have fun with them, Uncle String." She then disappeared into the hangar.

The Colonel stated, "Your niece has quite an attitude."

He agreed, "She's a Hawke."

He gripped the cigar between his teeth, "I like it."

The Lieutenant asked, "Excuse me…2022?"