Silence and Lies

Please Read and Review. I'd like to know what I'm doing right (to keep doing it), and what I'm doing wrong (to correct it).

Hill Valley, October 30, 1985
After School

"I am amazed the Doc didn't think about it." Marty said, scratching his head. "I mean, it's really obvious." He walked around a kid dressed as a cowboy, who surely had convinced his parents to let him wear his Halloween costume a day early.

"You two were still reeling from what you had gone through. You coming back and finding everything was different, Doctor Brown seeing a dead city. Compared to that, mine was easy."

"Well, yes… still, it had to have been weird…"

"Yup, until you started to remember. The timelines really fused together."

"I don't know if I'll keep my original memories along with the new ones, or only this timeline…"

"Don't worry about that. We are going to mess with time. So I'll have the same problem."

There was one house without any Halloween decorations. Brown Manor. Doc hardly even noticed the seasons, much less the holidays, always busy working. The garage door was wide open. Doc and Marty had spent the evenings repairing the damage. The car still looked a bit banged up. But the important parts had been replaced, repaired and assembled. The DeLorean was ready.

"Ah, Marty, Jennifer! Glad to see you!" Doc was busy covering the car with a tarp. The white truck's extendable ramps already waiting in position. "The suits are here." He tapped on a box next to him.

"Uh, Doc? Isn't the government going to be watching this kind of buys?"

"I own the factory, Marty. It's a very small side business of mine. I sell the suits to hospitals and small outfits dealing with radiation. These were registered for purposes of quality control. Duly checked."

"Uh, that's good, Doc."

Doc used his remote control, to guide the car into the truck. Once it was inside, he flipped a switch, and the machine turned off. Another switch, and the ramps retracted. The door closed itself a moment later. Doc turned the remote off, and retracted the antenna. "I suggest we all go to sleep, we meet again at the Lone Pine Mall at, say," he checked his right wristwatch, "1:00 am. We spend a few hours investigating, and we return a minute later." He checked his left wristwatch, "at 1:01 A.M.!"

"I prepared some equipment, packed three backpacks, one for each one of us. I got a good deal in emergency rations. I wouldn't trust we could find any edible food in the future. Who knows how long we will stay in the future until we can find the data we need. For starters, we need to find out about First and Second Impact. We need to check the Library, and the City Hall."

"Doc? Also the School."

"Yes, yes! Good thinking, Marty," he wrote a note in a small notebook, "Our reach will be limited, of course. Depending completely on the DeLorean's fuel tank, and on paved roads. I already checked the Mall parking lot. It is in acceptable state for our purposes. That will be our arrival point."

"I wish we could take my truck… 4x4… seats for everybody… extra cargo space…" Marty mused.

Doc stopped in his tracks, and looked at Marty with big round eyes. "Top speed? Can it reach 88 mph?"

"Uh, yes. 110 tops."

Doc mumbled a series of numbers, tapping his forehead with his left fist. "Amazing! Marty! Your truck would be of great help! Converting it into a second time machine would multiply our reach in distance and cargo! We can even carry jerrycans of fuel!"

"I would have to convince Dad first. He might not take it well if we just put holes in it!"

"Would take about two months to convert it, anyway I need to order the parts, refine the data, make calculations. Build a new flux capacitor…"

"I'll talk to him later, Doc. Maybe tell him the mods are for some rally or something."

Doc shook his head, "First things first. Get in the house and try the suits on. Tonight, bring warm clothes, comfy shoes, scouting boots if you have'em. I'll bring some helmets and leather gloves. Can't be too careful. First aid kits too."

"What about Einy?" Jennifer was busy petting the dog.

"Right, right. I'll leave him at the vet. He needs a check-up anyway." Einstein whined at hearing this.

"Oh, don't be such a baby, buddy. A grooming session will do you good!"

Lone Pine Mall.
October 31, 1985; 01:05 A.M.

Two twin tracks of fire shone bright in the night.

Lone Pine Mall Ruins
October 27, 2016; 08:57 A.M.

A booming noise heralded the arrival of the time machine.

"Are you two okay?"

Marty and Jennifer looked at each other, Marty answered, "Sure, Doc."

The scientist nodded, "City Hall is closer, let's go there first."

Hill Valley City Hall
October 27, 2016; 09:07 A.M.

"There's something strange here, but I can't put my finger on it…" Jennifer whispered, looking all around, while Doc drove the DeLorean on the empty streets, ocassionally going round an obstacle. A fallen tree, a crashed car.

Doc drove carefully. Slowly, looking constantly around. "The effect could be only local, or worldwide, or anything in between." He switched a small radio on. "This little one will scan for transmissions. One of us should carry it constantly. If it receives a transmission, we will for certain there are survivors, if not… well… maybe they are not transmitting."

They parked in front of City Hall. Doc opened the car trunk, and passed a backpack to each of his companions. "Here you go. Tools, rations, first aid kit, flashlight, walkie-talkies, extra batteries. Let's test everything works before entering this or any other building."

They did so. Doc gave each a miner helmet and a leather belt. "Clip the battery pack to your belts, same with the walkie-talkies." He demonstrated with his own equipment. "Let's stay on sight of each other. No one wanders away."

Marty and Jennifer looked at each other and nodded gravely. "Got it, Doc. Together. Not really a good place to go alone, anyway."

The silence was deep and oppressive. The only sound was the radio hum, as it looked for a transmission.

"This feels even worse than I thought, Doc." Marty whispered.

"Like being the last people in a dead world," Jennifer agreed. "It's horrible." She hugged herself for a moment, and Marty wrapped her into his arms.

Doc tapped Marty's shoulders and looked at them, "The sooner we finish, the sooner we can go back. Let's get to work. Okay?"

The search in City Hall was almost useless. It seemed a few extra taxes had been added since 2002, some for reconstruction of the country, some to reestablish trade, and to finance a new UN organization. NERV.

"It seems the UN finally got its act together after the year 2000." Doc grumbled, "Second Impact Recovery Tax, 2002… Second Impact Rationing Program… UN Pacific Fleet Upkeep Tax…" He tapped at a document, "This gives us an approximate date for Second Impact." He rubbed his forehead.

"We've been here for hours, Doctor Brown." Jennifer stretched her arms.

"Let's take a break, I think we should eat something."

"Not hungry, Doc." Marty shook his head.

"Me neither. It would be like eating in a graveyard." Jennifer pushed away the book she had being reading.

"I completely agree, but nourishment is needed." Doc shrugged, opened his backpack, and pulled a package out. "Cold meal rations. Army surplus. Will keep us going."

They ate in silence.

Hill Valley High School
Library, 3:18 P.M.

"Man, this is heavy." Marty groaned. He carried a pile of books to a table. Doc and Jennifer had cleaned the surface of dust and debris. "Physics, Science and History. Just as you asked for, Doc."

"Well, done. Let's see how the world changed in 30 years."

Later.

"Ah, here it is! The elusive Second Impact!" Squinting, Doc read from the History book. "September the 13th, year 2000, a small meteorite impacted the Antarctic, melting the ice cap and causing tsunamis and rising the sea level. Great Scott! Four inches wide? At 95% the speed of light?" He stood up and began to pace around. "This can't be!"

"Uh, in English, Doc?"

"That size, at that speed… No. Impossible!" The scientist mumbled.

"Doc!"

"Look here!" He pointed at a portrait in the book, it was a dark skinned man, somewhat portly, with a pencil thin mustache. "This man, supposedly managed to register the meteorite 15 minutes before the impact."

Jennifer took the book and read the text. "Ceimoa Nan. Mexican astronomer. Strange name."

"There was no time to warn anybody." Marty gasped.

"No. A meteorite that small, at that speed?" Doc scoffed. "It conceivably could do that much damage, depending on the angle of entry. No. That's not what bothers me. Detecting it fifteen minutes before impact?" He pulled out a pocket calculator, "Fifteen minutes, multiply by sixty seconds, multiply by .95 the speed of light… that would put the object…"

"Doc? English?"

"The speed of light in a vacuum is 186,000 miles per second, 95% of that is 176,700 miles per second, right?"

"I'll take your word for it, Doc. Math is not my forte."

"That's just one second. Imagine something four inches wide, traveling at that speed. And you just happen to detect it? Fifteen minutes before it hits? At a distance of 159,030,000 miles?"

He shook his head at the blank looks he got in return, "Let me put it this way, 15 minutes at 95% the speed of light… would be equivalent to… 14.25 light minutes."

"What does that means, Doctor Brown?"

The scientist took the book again, pointing at Ceimoa Nan's picture. "It means that this guy managed to fotograph something a bit bigger than a softball moving at 176,000 miles per second at a distance that falls somewhere between Mars and Jupiter." He threw the book down at the table, where it kept open on the offending pages. "I hardly think technology could advance enough to make such a feat possible in only fifteen years!"

Marty and Jennifer looked at each other.

"I call bullshit, if you pardon the expression." Doc snorted. "Something stinks here, this explanation is too easy, too simple. Something happened there, but I'm sure it wasn't a meteorite."

"Then what did it?" Jennifer took the book, looking at the page.

"I don't know. But I bet this crap is just a cover-up." He slapped the page with the back of his fingers.

"Hmm," he looked again at the book. "Hah! First Impact! The collision that created the Moon! Nothing to worry about."

"What about Third Impact? Another meteorite?"

"Could be, but from what we found in the papers, the UN thought it would, somehow, be caused by the monsters. The Evangelion Units were built to stop them."

Jennifer thought about it, "Wait… that makes no sense."

"Why? Giant robots agains giant monsters? Kinda makes sense in my book." Marty shrugged.

"No, no. That's not it. It's the timing. Why build giant robots to fight giant monsters before any giant monster appeared? Second Impact was supposed to be a meteorite, First Impact a planetoid. Millions of years apart. Why expect a Third Impact so soon? And with giant monsters instead of another space rock?"

Doc gasped, "Great Scott! They knew. Somehow, they knew there would be giant monsters."

Doc selected a bunch of books to bring back to 1985, both textbooks and reference. The history books… he had hesitated until Jennifer pointed out that even if the Second Impact entry was fake, other events would be true.

As they came out the building with their cargo, they dropped the books.

They were not alone.

At the other side of the street, a teenage girl stood in silence, looking at them with sadness on her face.

She wore a blue dress with a white blouse. But the really striking thing was her hair. It was blue! Her skin was very pale, and her eyes were red! Like an albino!

She looked at them for a moment, and vanished!

Author Notes:

Wow… once I began to check the numbers, the whole public version of Second Impact just falls apart!

Something that has always bothered me, is Rei Ayanami's first appearance. it's never addressed, much less explained, how and why she appears near Shinji at the train station in the first NGE episode, at the same she is physically in the Geo-Front Hospital, too wounded to even sit up!

My personal theory is that the ghostly Rei belongs to a previous timeline. Some dialogue in the Rebuild movies seems to support this. Kaworu Nagisa seems to be aware of previous versions of the story