Chapter 9 - The Plan Starts
Leonard sat with Penny, holding her hand, Amy joining them a few minutes after they had pulled apart from their embrace, all of them sitting and not talking much, they were all lost in their own thoughts at the moment. Penny was a little overwhelmed, her mind racing at what was going to happen next, while Leonard felt like doom was just around the corner and there was nothing he could do about it. Amy was just numb, they all now thought Sheldon had hidden here for a while before he left, that was the hard thing for her to understand, also Leonard was pretty confident he traveled through time, and knowing Sheldon she wasn't honestly surprised.
The three of them were pulled out of their trance when they heard Bernadette's loud voice. "Well why don't you go in there and ask them!" Turning to see the security guard at the door with Bernadette and Howard behind him.
"It's okay, we called them." Leonard told the flustered man, Leonard for a moment sympathizing with him, Bernadette could be very scary sometimes.
Their friends walked in the room looking around, Howard's amazement evident in his eyes, "Wow." he mumbled several times while walking around all the equipment. Finally he walked up to Leonard and was given a quick rundown on all that they had discovered in the last couple of hours.
Penny was telling Bernadette what she knew, with Amy just sitting next to them listening, when Howard's outburst surprised them all, "WHAT THE HELL, LEONARD!" They all now looked at Howard as he became extremely animated and agitated, which made Bernadette get up to calm him.
"Howie calm down, what's wrong?" Penny had not gotten to telling Bernadette everything before Howard's outburst.
Howard just looked at Bernadette for a second then began. "Bernie that arrogant asshole really did it this time. This crap around you is a time machine, a real freaking time machine, and that crazy bastard used it to go back in time!"
Bernadette now looked around in disbelief, "Your kidding." she said with a small smile because she thought he was joking, then that smile turned to a frown as she saw how serious Leonard and Howard were. "No, that is impossible." Bernadette shook her head not wanting to believe them.
Penny sniffled a little, again rubbing her hand on her baby bump, then feeling Amy's hand on her back rubbing it, obviously to comfort her. She was having a hard time trying to understand what was going to happen to them all now, and desperately wanted someone to tell her everything was going to be okay. "Amy are we in trouble?" she whispered her voice now like a little girl's.
Amy just looked at her, "Penny I don't know, the theories about time travel are many and quite diverse. I just don't know."
"But things will not change or people will not disappear will they?" Penny was almost pleading, she felt so helpless and useless right then.
Amy shook her head, then sighed, "Some of the theories, believe that is exactly what will happen, if something changes. I don't know." Amy seeing the change of expression on Penny's face suddenly realized that maybe the truth was not appropriate at this time after all.
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The car ride to the airfield was quiet and now the attention Sheldon had been getting in town, due to his high rank, seemed worth it, because the men with him appeared too intimidated to ask him questions. That was one of the things that bothered him most about this whole situation, questions, because although he had learned to lie better over the years, and he had studied history before he left his time, he was still on fragile ground. If anyone got too deep into his past or his knowledge of the Army, he was going to fold like a cheap suit and that still scared him. However right now he could just rest an enjoy the ride, the men in the car quiet, so Sheldon could just think.
It surprised him, when after all he had gone through that day, his thoughts went immediately to Amy, and how he so missed her. She had been one of the big mistakes in his life, the biggest, and as things slowing came in perspective to him, after Lewis published his paper, Sheldon realized that he had made the wrong choice years ago. Another thing he hated to admit, was Leonard and Penny were right, the need and excitement of a Nobel Prize would come, then go, as he would strive for bigger things, but Amy would always be there for him, how could they be so right and him so wrong. He knew he wouldn't be here if Amy was with him and a slight doubt came into his mind, but as quickly as it came it was gone, Sheldon shaking his head, to concentrate on his plans for what he was going to do next.
It was just a little bit later when Sheldon saw the airfield in the distance, it was in the right place, but he was still concerned, because he really didn't know much about it. The relief he felt during the quiet ride to the airfield was now over, as the fear of the unknown took over, Sheldon would have to 'Wing it' as Leonard would say and Sheldon had never winged it before.
That thought though was quickly interrupted as the car Sheldon was in pulled to a stop in front of the main entrance gate.
Sheldon watched from the back seat as the guard walked purposely to the car, this part didn't actually make him nervous because his plan was coming together, he had prepared for this and he knew his papers would get him in without a problem. These people had never heard of photo shopping or laser printers yet, so he had perfect forgeries, the information on them taken directly over photos of actual papers on the internet. So Sheldon allowed himself a small smile as he watched the men it the car take out their papers and following their example, knowing he had nothing to fear.
The Private was surprised at the tall slender senior officer in the car when he looked inside the car, surprised of his rank, this was so unusual for this to happening. Never the less, he snapped to attention and saluted the Colonel as he recognized him looking back in the car. "Good afternoon Sir, can I see your papers?"
Sheldon smiled, and returned the salute, another thing he learning to be good at, since he had gotten there, now almost expecting to salute everyone he met. He was also pleased again that he studied military rank, because his ability, for almost total recall, was serving him again, letting him know that this man was a private and was much lower rank than him. "Certainly Private, here you go." Sheldon again had to hold back a smile, he was actually starting to like the Army, everyone seemed know their place and who their betters were.
The Private looked at the papers and they were all in order, however it was still strange the man had come to the gate, out of the almost nowhere, especially since he was from the Inspector Generals office. It was all just a mute point though, Privates didn't question Colonels, especially ones with these credentials, so he smiled, handed back the papers then saluted again. "Everything is in order sir. Thank You."
Sheldon saluted the Private back, putting his papers back in his pocket as he got comfortable in his seat again. Sheldon now really smiled, everything was working to plan, it actually made Sheldon relax some that he didn't have to verbally lie that much to these people, lying was still hard for him and he felt if it went on too long the ticks would appear again and give him away. However, that relaxed feeling ended quickly when the car he was in pulled through the gate and stopped next to another, this one olive drab, with a big white star on the side. It wasn't the car that disturbed Sheldon, it was the man outside it, he seemed confident and in charge and to Sheldon's dread he had the same rank Sheldon had on him.
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Howard had been working on the computer code for about an hour, getting more and more frustrated as he went through what Sheldon had left there running. The girls had remained in chairs away from them while Leonard had sat next to him quietly, to not disturb him, however his presence still reminding Howard how important this all was to everyone. Finally Howard sighed. "Leonard there is nothing I can do tonight, I am tired and not thinking right and this is a mess."
"A mess?" Leonard was confused.
"Yeah, you can see the screen is in 'Windows 8', but the program Sheldon developed is not really linked to 'Windows' or using its Graphical User Interface. He wrote the program code in C++ and all Windows does is open it and start it running. There are no notes either, when you run it, it just lists a series of blanks from 1 to 89 that the user needs to fill in, maybe Sheldon and his mind knows what to put in those blanks, but I sure don't know what the hell to do with them."
"Are you saying there is nothing you can do?" Leonard was now more worried.
Howard shook his head, "No, I am so not done with this, believe me, but I will need to decompile this code and run a Department of Defense program, I have, on it that allows me to get an idea of what it does. It is going to take a while, so I really suggest we call it a night."
"Is there anything we can do to help." Leonard and he knew Penny felt helpless, they needed to do something or they would go nuts.
Howard looked around, "Yeah, there is a lot of crap here, so if you could look around tomorrow and find any notes Sheldon made, it might help us to understand this software quicker."
Leonard nodded. "Okay."
Howard then whispered. "Leonard, we talked about real time travel, when you got that movie prop, and we all determined, except Sheldon of course, that it was a really bad thing. You're the physicist, you know more about this scientifically than me, has your opinion changed?"
Leonard swallowed, there was no way he could sugar coat this to Howard, "No it is bad, real bad."
Howard nodded, "Okay, then we'll do this tomorrow. I want to be with Bernadette tonight, you understand?" Howard looked into Leonard's eyes and saw the understanding.
Leonard nodded, "I understand." The sudden urge to spend the rest of the night with Penny in his arms now being prominent in his mind too.