Chapter 3

Stringfellow Hawke stood before the mouth of the hangar at Saninti Air sporting tan slacks with a green button down shirt, a leather aviator jacket and sunglasses perched on his nose. He looked upon the sight rolling towards him along with Dominic Santini and Caitlin O'Shannessy. Rolling towards the hangar was the black Trans Am followed by a very unusual looking Delorean.

Dom asked, "What was so urgent that Michael Knight had to come right here and talk us without the FIRM?" He stood wearing blue jeans with a white shirt under a green jacket and red cap.

"Don't know." String stated observing.

Caitlin asked, "Is that a Delorean?" She wore blue jeans as well with a plaid shirt.

Dom squinted, "What did they do to it?"

The two cars came to a stop before the hangar. Michael Knight emerged first. He had listened to the recording that KITT took of Jackie and Marty on the way and knew there was more to the pair.

Marty and Jackie emerged next from the Delorean. They had switched seats and Marty had driven the car. Marty knew nothing about being a stunt man but had faced some real life situations and thus figured he could bluff his way. Jackie looked about and found they were way over their heads.

"Hi!" Marty waved and smiled. "How ya doing?"

Stringfellow Hawke looked at Marty and then at Michael. "This better be good." he muttered.

Michael approached and kept his voice low. "I need you to give the old man employment and a place to stay."

String asked, "Why?"

"Well, I know how this is going to sound but that car is not just a car. It appeared out of thin air on the highway right in front of me going ninety. KITT picked up a huge energy spike and the inside has a computer system that makes KITT look obsolete. The old man said it's a time machine."

String squinted, "Time machine?" he asked unbelieving.

"KITT scanned the car. It's got an energy signature that is off the charts. When the car appear KITT picked up 1.21 gigawatts of energy. That's like a lightening bolt." he then added, "They spoke as if they had traveled through time." He then introduced the group. "Caitlin, Dom…meet two friends of mine. Marty and Jackie."

Marty introduced himself and Jackie. "I'm Marty…Mc…" he paused and looked at Jackie for he didn't wish to expose his last name. "McDonald." he came up with the fast food chain. "This is my daughter, Jackie."

She winced, "Jackie McDonald?"

Dom replied, "Nice to meet ya. That's an interesting car you got there."

"It's a Delorean." he nodded. He glanced at Jackie to assist coming up with a cover story.

She sighed, "If I ever get back home everyone will think I'm nuts."

"A little help." he pleaded.

She looked upon the audience. "Okay! I need a place to work on the car and we are kind of stuck here so we need a place to stay and jobs for money."

String asked, "Where are you two from?"

Marty stated, "Hill Valley."

Caitlin remarked, "That's a little town not far from here. Can't you just go back home?"

"Not for a week." she remarked.

"Why not?" she asked.

Jackie motioned towards the car. "It takes a week for the flux capacitor power house to charge." She then added, "I also need access to electricity to charge the battery banks."

String asked, "Flux capacitor? What does that do?"

She replied, "It warps space fabric and creates a wormhole."

String looked at Dom and Caitlin a bit bewildered. He then stated, "If you want to store the car here and have access to tools and electricity then I need to see what you are doing."

Jackie asked, "You know anything about physics?"

"I do!" he nodded.

She grinned at Marty. "Maybe we won't need to go find Doc after all."

"I still need to warn him." Marty insisted.

String walked up to the car and looked inside. He blinked upon seeing the updated computers. He stuck his head inside the car and then looked to the back where the flux capacitor was mounted. He pulled his head back out and looked at Marty and Jackie. "You better start telling us what is going on. Michael said this car just appeared on the highway out of thin air and KITT's sensors picked up a huge power spike."

Jackie asked, "KITT?"

String motioned towards the Trans Am.

She looked at the car. "The old Trans Am?"

Marty asked, "Didn't you look inside, Jackie?"

"I glanced at it." she shrugged. "Why the vintage Atari set up?"

Marty stated, "That's not standard for a 1984 Trans Am, Jackie. That's a computer system."

"Really?" she asked confused.

Marty sighed, "Millennial."

"I'm sorry!" she huffed back. "Not everyone is on par with the boomers."

Marty clarified "I'm gen x. That old guy is a boomer." he pointed to Dom.

She told him, "You look at old as he."

He rolled his eyes.

Caitlin had looked inside the car and did a walk around. She then spoke at Marty and Jackie. "Okay! You two better explain yourselves." She then added. "I just found three bullet holes in the back of the car. What happened?"

"Three big white vans tried to box us in and one guy hung out the window and shot at us." Marty told her. "Jackie was driving. I told her to gun it to out run them. When we hit eighty eight miles per hour the flux capacitor engaged and here we are." He then admitted, "I was aiming for 1985. My finger slipped on the touched screen and it rolled it back another year."

She asked, "What do you mean you were aiming for 1985?"

Marty waved, "It's a time machine and apparently there is some kind of time war. Doc disappears and I was trying to find him. He invented it. He's my friend."

Jackie stated, "We traveled forty year into the past. It was 2024. Marty traveled through time before. Everyone thought he was a crazy old man. I just spent the whole damn summer putting Doc Brown's time machine back together and we were driving out for a test when three big white vans tried to ambush us on the road. We did not intend to come here. We were only going to test it at an abandoned mall."

Caitlin asked, "You call your father by his first name?"

Her head rolled back. "He's not my dad okay. My dad is a loser. My last name is Tanner. My whole family are losers. Marty hired me to help around the house after his wife died. He adopted me as his daughter."

Michael asked, "Is your last McDonald, Marty?"

"It's McFly." he confessed. "I thought I should use a cover. I had to use a cover when this happened to me when I was a kid." He stated, "Thanks for the gas money, Mr. Knight. Me and Jackie will go find Doc and see if he can help us." He motioned towards the car to leave.

"Wait." String sounded.

Marty paused.

"If there is a time war then you two are gonna need help. So will the inventor." he declared.

Caitlin assessed, "You two are just a couple of civilians."

Jackie asked. "You military?"

"I'm a former cop." she told her. "What are the odds that a civilian made and owned…time machine…just appears on the highway before KITT?"

Jackie asked, "That old outdated thing?" She motioned towards the car.

"KITT is state of the art." she told her.

Marty grinned, "That is the coolest car I ever saw. Beats the Dodge Charger on the Dukes of Hazard."

Jackie asked, "The Dukes of what?" She never heard of the old television show.

Caitlin cocked an eyebrow, "It's a very popular television show. Don't you watch t.v. in the future?"

She shook her head. "I don't waste my time watching t.v."

Dom grinned as few people rebuffed television. He found it refreshing. "See! It's not just me who doesn't like that show." He then asked, "You like the movies? Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers?"

She recognized the names. "The old black and white stuff! I like to watch some of that. I'm usually busy working."

Marty agreed. "You do work a lot. That's why I hired you." He looked at the group. "I know you guys don't know me and this must look really strange to all of you but we are in a bit of a pickle here. We don't have money from this era, we don't have a place to stay, we're stuck here for at least a week and the one man who could help us has not built the time machine yet and if we are being followed, I don't want to endanger Doc." He pleaded, "Can you help us? We have no idea who tried to ambush us."

Michael Knight asked, "You are not really a stunt man, are you?"

"No," he sighed. "I was an office manager. I took early retirement when my wife died. I'm a musician on the side. Sometimes, I play at the local bar for something to do."

Jackie stated, "I play the violin. I'm a high school student and I'm trying to get into MIT. I'm good at engineering."

Dom looked at Marty. "Do you know anything about mechanics or aviation?"

He admitted, "No! Just basic car maintenance."

Michael Knight asked, "Why did you say you were a stuntman?"

"I figured I could pull it off. I had to pull off some feats to get back home when Doc and I ended up in 1885. I drove the car while it was being pushed by a train." he tried to explain.

Jackie spoke up. "Marty told me all about what happened to him when I was putting Doc's invention back together. When he was my age, in 1985, he went back to 1955 and met his parents as teenagers. Now, he had a little issue and was nearly never born but he fixed it. Doc put him undercover in the school to make sure his folks got together so he would be born. Then he went to 2015. This where it gets interesting and why I think we are in a time war. His first trip to 2015 was different. He said there was technology there that we don't have in 2024. Floating skateboards, antigravity tech and such. Real Star Trek level stuff. We don't have the technology he saw when he traveled to 2015 back in 1985. Then he ended up back in 1885. He help save Doc and Doc's wife and that's when they used a train to get the car up to the 88 mile per hour threshold. Doc Brown visited Marty one time after he got back home in 1985. He had gone even further to the future and modified a train engine. It had levitation capabilities. Then Doc, his wife and two young boys disappeared and Marty never saw any of them again. Marty asked me to help rebuild the car so he could find Doc and his family. He's missing somewhere in time."

Marty pleaded, "I know how it all sounds. Believe me, I know! The whole damn town thinks I'm a crazy old man because I started telling people happened to me after my wife died. But it's the truth."

String asked, "You have no money at all?"

"I have money." Marty told him. "It's just I know from experience that the money I have is all dated from the future and they changed the designs a bit. If I try to spend it folks will think it's fake."

"Let's see it." he held out a hand.

Marty retrieved his wallet and handed String a 20 dollar bill.

Jackie squinted, "They changed the money?"

Marty nodded, "Back in the 80's the money looked different."

She walked over to String as he pulled out a 20 dollar bill from his own wallet and compared. "Wow! It does look different."

"Back in 1885 we used gold and silver coins." he told her. "They changed the quarters too, Jackie. We can't spend any of our money here and your pay app on your phone is useless. Your phone is useless for that matter."

Her shoulders slunk, "Ah, damn. I got a time machine and I'm broke."

Michael stated, "I believe them. I know what I saw on the highway."

Caitlin entertain the idea. "If what they are saying is true, then Mr. McFly is one man on the planet that knows some rules about time travel. He would have real experience." She looked at the car. "We could really use this with Airwolf and KITT."

Marty and Jackie traded glances. Jackie asked, "Airwolf?"

String explained, "It a top secret attack chopper capable of Mach One. We do secret missions for the FIRM. You and your time machine would be a hug intel asset."

Dom warned, "If they have an actual time machine String, we cannot tell the FIRM about it. We need to protect it and Mr. McFly and his adopted daughter."

Caitlin nodded in agreement. "We need to keep this a secret."

Michael stated, "I think we need to keep this between ourselves."

Dom stated, "We can store the time machine here. I can tell everyone it's a prop for a movie. No one has to know it's the real deal." He looked at Marty, "I can hire you as an office assistant and teach you anything you need to know about aviation."

"I appreciate that." he replied grateful for help. "Jackie is a drone pilot. She can fly remote control drones."

String spoke up. "She needs to be in school. She's a teenager. You two need to maintain a cover story. Go with the father and daughter story. She can work here after school."

"You mean…go to the actual school?" she asked worried.

Marty grinned at her. "No remote learning, Jackie. You can't just take a course on the computer. You have to show up in person and make actual friends."

She winced, "But school sucks."

Marty rebutted, "School always sucked! Get use to it. It even sucked in the 50's."

Dom stated "You should have gone to school in the 30's then. Ya step out of line and ya get paddled."

Jackie winced, "Oh boy."