Chapter 42

Stringfellow Hawke spoke candidly with Michael Knight before class. They compared details of the close encounters each had experienced with the orbs. String asked, "It was hovering right over you and KITT?"

"Right on top of us." he confirmed. "KITT was able to detect it with an energy signature. It's similar to the signature that Sam's engine gives off but not exactly the same."

"It buzzed Dom on a movie set yesterday morning, you late last night and in 2022 it buzzed me and Sinjin taking Mac for a spin in Airwolf." he concluded. "Dom said it looked just like the foo fighters that buzzed his squadron in World War Two."

"Whatever these things are…it has warp drive." Michael stated. "Can come and go in an instant."

"If Sam were to put her next prototype in Airwolf that would come and go in an instant too once the engine is engaged. It would just disappear and then re-appear when it came out of warp." String stated.

"KITT said the same thing." Michael agreed. "What about Dr. Beckett's project? Where are we on that?"

"Tony put himself in the accelerator to stop the military from shutting down the power and taking it. Still trying to find a way to get him and Dr. Beckett back." String reported. "I hired a few men to help guard the accelerator and the engine. Mercenaries! KITT recommended we get a hold of them. The Colonel is the brains. He's got a good team. 5th Special Forces unit." he debriefed.

"How is KITT getting along with Ziggy?" he wondered. "KITT always prided himself on being so advanced."

String puffed out his cheeks with an exhale, "Ziggy is a flirt, female personality and KITT is a polished male personality." He reached for how to describe it, "Occasionally, they talk over each other. They sounded like an old married couple during last nights debriefing."

Michael cocked an eyebrow, "KITT?"

He nodded, "Bonnie, older Bonnie, thinks they are feeling one another out. She sees them more like kids setting boundaries. She says they are learning from one another." He shrugged, "Sound like an old married couple to me though."

Michael had to chuckle, "That's got to be something. Wilton Knight wants to meet your niece this weekend. It's at a private golf club."

"We will be there." he assured him.

The first students filtered into class.

Michael excused himself, "Better get to my class now."

"See you later." String gave a nod.

Later that Day

Tony went to lunch with his class. He debated if he should change his life and go in a different direction than being a mechanic. He wasn't sure if he would return to 2022 or just relive his life and he wasn't sure he wanted to do the same thing all over again. One thing he noticed was how much better he felt in his younger body. No aches, no pains and loads of energy. He found himself living every old man's dream, to have a young body again and still keep what he learned from living his life the first time. In a way he wished he could just go back to 2022 in his young body and never be old again.

He gathered the tray of food and then soured, "Was this stuff always this bad?" he wondered allowed.

Rhonda stood beside him and gave a funny look, "Yes! Always been this bad." She gathered her tray and went through the line.

Tony followed and took a seat beside her. He wanted to talk about her future and their relationship. He sat down and began, "You know, Rhonda…you are really smart."

She looked over at him unsure what he was talking about. "Then why am I in the stupid class?"

"I don't know." he replied. "But I think you could go a lot further in life than I could. Maybe…becomes a medical doctor."

She gave a baffled look, "Where is this coming from? You and Sam trying to what? Get rid of me by convincing me that I could go to medical school?"

He told her, "Time travel is real. I know this is hard to understand. I know I look like I did when I was young. I guess the government has been playing around with this technology for a while." he started.

She gave him the most bizarre look, "Are you high?"

"No," he shook his head. "I lived my life and then I got sent back. I'm trying to buy time for this scientist trapped in this accelerator. You do become a doctor, Rhonda. I went into the Navy, got out and opened a garage. You actually did get into medical school. We lost touch, I don't know if you got married but I do know you go a lot further in life than I do."

"What?" she cocked her head. "Are you ill?" she worried he was hallucinating. She used her hand and felt his forehead.

"I'm not ill." he assured her. "We don't get married. You go on and get this great career. Karl joined the Air Force and becomes one of the highest non commissioned officers. He's a lifer. Jose…" he tailed off.

She asked, "What happens to Jose?"

"He died of cancer. Left behind kids and a wife." he explained.

She gulped wondering if perhaps Tony was telling the truth after all. "Cancer?" she winced.

"Mr. H. knows. That's why he told him he would be there for him even long after school is done." he explained.

She asked, "What is going on with Mr. H.? He's been acting strange…stranger than normal."

He cheered, "You were right! He's the guy in the red suit. Remember the night in the desert when the bus broke down and those lights we saw in the sky. They were aliens and they gave him this red suit that is infused with these tiny robots called…nanites…and that makes it so he can fly around like Superman. Thing is, the aliens took the suit away. He got too famous. They erased everyone's memory and all newspaper articles. He went nuts because no one remembered and no one believed him. I remembered! I told him that I remembered. But in the future no one has any memory of it even thought it's all over the news here. He loses it. Sam came here and found out he was telling the truth and not crazy."

"And Sam is from the future too." she smirked not sure if she should believed the tale.

He debriefed, "Her real name is Dr. Samantha Hawke, she is a twenty two year old child prodigy genius and she invented a warp drive engine. The engine overloaded and created a wormhole connecting 2022 to 1984. Dom is her great uncle. He went to the future for 3 days. She came back with him. It's like a door. You can go back and forth like walking through a door. It's in the hangar. The money was her. In the future the kids use their cell phones for everything…and I mean everything. It's not like the cell phones nowadays. These phones are called smart phones. They are mini computers. They can use their phones to pay for stuff. They have all these different apps, cyrpto currencies, all this stuff. Sam knew she could not use her phone so she got some cash out of the bank, went back with Dom and spent it, not knowing it was different. That put the FBI and the CIA on her tail."

She sat dumbstruck by what she was told. "Sam is a genius from the future who came here and accidentally spent money from the future. Those bills are real?"

He nodded, "It's real! I even got my set own of those quarters. It was a big thing when the new quarters came out."

"She twenty two years old. Why is she in school?" she wondered.

"Cover." he replied. "It's to throw off the CIA and any other secret bull shit three letter agencies who would want to get their hands on her or her engine. You should see the guards her uncle String just hired." He sat wide-eyed, "Oh boy!" he shook his head.

"Who is backing this thing she has got going?" she asked.

"No one." he replied. "She was working alone."

"If this is real than she is way over her head." Rhonda figured.

He nodded, "And how! I'm in over my head too. I sent myself back through time and into my own body. I have no idea how to get back or if I can. Dr. Beckett was stuck leaping for decades."

"Who is Dr. Beckett?" she asked.

He replied, "He's another time traveler. He invented this accelerator that would be needed to help stabilize a warp drive engine. He was lost in it. They were about to pull the plug so I went in to stop them. If they pull the plug then Dr. Beckett dies." He then figured, "I might die too."

"And who is Dr. Beckett?" she wondered a bit confused.

"He's Mr. H. right now. His project works differently than a wormhole. It's be more complicated." he told her. "I'm not really sure to how it all works. I did get the blue prints for it though."

Rhonda asked, "So…Mr. H is actually Dr. Beckett and Sam is Dr. Hawke and…they are both from the future. Did I get that right?" she asked unbelieving.

He nodded, "You are following this better than I am." He stated, "When you go into medicine, go into neurology. I remember Dr. Beckett's wife saying something about the technology works on neurological pathways."

"Did you just tell me to become a brain surgeon?" she asked unsure what to make of the claims.

He nodded, "Yeah! Do that!" He grinned, "Who knows, maybe in the future you can help get me and Dr. Beckett get back out."

"And where do I go in the future to get you and this doctor back?" she asked amused. Surely this was some kind of joke.

"The hangar in 2022." he told her. He scooped up some food and took a bit. He soured, "Maybe I should pack a lunch. This is worse than I remember."

Rhonda suggested, "Or maybe time travel affected your taste buds?" She was still debating Tony's story in her head.

He shrugged, "Could be."

Karl, Jose led Sam to the table to join their class for lunch. The trio sat down. Rhonda noticed Sam had an insulated box filled with food instead of buying lunch.

Rhonda never saw that particular style of lunch box at any stores. The shell was blue and the top of the box was rounded. The container zipped open at the top. Beside the box was a large steel thermos. That too was different and was light blue in colors with a cartoon like scene of snowman and two girls. The name Frozen scrolled across the thermos much like a brand name.

Tony immediately realized that Sam brought a thermos and lunch container from the future to pack her lunch into. He sat amused for he recalled the movie was a huge hit.

Rhonda asked, "Where did you get that thermos from, Sam?"

"Store," she shrugged. She popped the top and a rubber straw was visible to drink from. She didn't have to pour the liquid out into a cup like most thermoses of the day.

Rhonda grasped the thermos and looked over the designed, "This is professionally done." She then noticed the copyright mark, "2020?" she asked.

Jose and Karl both paused and traded glances. Karl figured, "Maybe Sam really is from the future."

Tony grinned at Sam, "Frozen, huh? Let me guess…you watched that movie a dozen times."

She confessed, "I love Olaf."

He figured, "Rhonda would probably like that movie. It's a chick flick."

"It's a kids' movie." she reminded him.

"It's a girls' movie. Now Cars was a boys' movie." he rebutted amused.

She laughed, "You watched Cars?"

"I watched the movie when I babysat for one of my employees who had to take his wife to the doctor." he explained. "It wasn't half bad for a kid's movie."

She laughed, "You liked it."

Karl asked, "What are you two talking about?"

Jose agreed, "Both are acting weird."

Rhonda stated, "Tony says he's been to the future and time travel is real."

Sam wondered, "You should be telling them that?"

He shrugged, "What's the worse that can happen? I get stuck reliving my life."

She puckered in thought, "Got a point there."

Jose asked, "What are you talking about, Tony?"

"In the future I did something. I put myself into this experimental machine called a 'quantum accelerator' to prevent the government from pulling the plug because the guy who invented it was trapped inside and if they pull the plug he could die. The government thought he was already dead but it turns out he's alive. I put myself in it to buy time. That machine sent me back in time and I'm reliving my life now. I'm sixty years old."

Karl suggested, "Maybe you just dreamed it, Tony."

Sam shook her head, "He's didn't dream it. I saw the plans for the machine he went into. It's real!"

Jose asked, "You a time traveler, Sam?"

She confessed, "I suppose I am."

He asked her, "What year are you from?"

"The year 2022." she confessed.

Karl wondered, "You made a time machine?"

She shook her head, "It was engine. I made a prototype engine that would be needed to travel to another planet. It got out of hand. It ripped a hole through space fabric and created a wormhole that directly connects 1984 to 2022." She then added, "The money! That was me. I didn't know money had changed so I spent my own money when I went to the mall with you guys. In the future that mall is empty. They want to tear it down. I never saw it with actual stores and shoppers in it before. You guys are my friends. When I was growing up, I was privately tutored. I never went to high school until now. I was too far ahead of the other kids."

Karl asked, "Then why did you get stuck in our class with us? We're the rejects."

She gave him a smile, "I don't think you're a reject." She explained, "This is all an accident. The wormhole brought Dom to the future first. He's actually my great uncle. He spent three days with me and my folks. They didn't want to send him back because he will die in a year. A bomb will take him out. It was sabotage. String is my other uncle. He gets wounded real bad and it changes him. He ended up alone and in a wheelchair. My dad is on the other end of the wormhole. We thought we could use this to change that. To save them! That's why I am here. Thing is, I screwed up and spent my own money when I went out with you guys. That got FBI and the CIA's attention. They know the money was real. So, the came looking for me. They found me too. That opened the door, so to speak, to more classified information. The project that Tony is risking his life in right now is one. It's an older project and time travel was Dr. Beckett's goal. Thing is, if we are going to travel the stars in the future, we need his invention to stabilize the warp drive on a vessel. Think Star Trek. That's where this invention leads to in the future."

Jose sat beside himself, "Wow! Can I like join the Enterprise?"

Tony chuckled, "We don't have ships yet."

"Bummer." he miffed.

Sam suggested, "Maybe we do? Those aliens gave Mr. H. the suit. That suit is beyond anything we have in 2022. Maybe we do have a secret space program and they are hiding it from us?"

He shrugged, "I suppose anything is possible."

Karl stated, "If Star Wars is real…then…I want to be a Jedi."

Tony miffed, "No you don't. That last movie sucked."

Karl asked, "You thought the Empire Strikes Back sucked?"

He clarified, "That one was good. The new ones sucked." He looked to Sam's thermos, "No wonder adults like PIXAR films."

She grinned back amused. "Do you wanna build a snowman?" she sang.

His head rolled back, "Oh' god!"

Rhonda asked, "What? Snowman."

"At band practice I'll show you Frozen." she offered.

"Huh?" she sat a bit confused.

Tony moaned, "Not that movie."