The Legend of Things Past (Beyond Pluto SciFi Futuristic Aventures Book 1) (7 page)

It was
certain that Tobias Knight created the virus and infected the human race with
it. We didn’t know its purpose at the time, but it couldn’t be anything good
considering the message from the future. The option of revealing our
investigation to Tobias and interrogating him was lost due to his illness. So
we had to go on what we had.

We
confiscated everything from Tobias’s old lab and began studying the materials.
Someone came up with the idea of putting the old virus into an isolated time
machine. It doesn’t actually send anything through time but speeds up or slows
down time only within the space of the machine. When the virus had experienced
a simulation of thirty years, it began destroying human cells.

We
don’t know why Tobias did this—we can’t question him now—but he has attacked
the entire human race. He is now facing charges of treason and conspiracy. It
won’t do much good—he won’t even know that he’s been caught.

There
is, as yet, no cure for his invention. Everyone on the planet may very well die
if a solution isn’t found.

Brigadier
General Knight, you were selected for this mission because you know your grandfather
better than anyone. The two of you were very close before he became sick. We’re
hoping that you will have an edge, will have insights into the way his mind
works. We sent you back to find Tobias in his right state of mind.

If he
has already created the virus, then you are to interrogate him and discover the
potential whereabouts of a cure, or, failing that, you are to stop him from
creating it in the first place—at all costs.

Succeeding
at this, you will return to your proper time period.

I know
this will be hard for you, Donovan. This is the reason I made you accept the mission
before telling you about it—I was afraid that you would not agree. I would have
gone myself, but I already exist in the year 2180—in fact, I should be a Colonel
in the A.S.F. I can’t risk running into myself.

You’re
the best we’ve got. This is for the sake of the world—don’t forget that.

Find a
cure, Donovan, or the human race will become extinct.

“
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
”

“Who will guard the guards themselves?”

—Juvenal

May 4, 2176

Fort Belvoir, VA

Donovan Knight

With shaking hands, Donovan hit the stop button to prevent
the brief from playing all over again. His insides had turned to mush. He felt
like he was going to vomit.

How could this be happening?

There was no way this could be real. It had to be a setup.
There had to be a reasonable explanation. The Tobias he knew was strict, maybe
even ruthless at times, but this was ridiculous. To say he was a psychopath out
to destroy the human race was just… crazy. The grandfather he knew wanted to
help the human race, not destroy it. Maybe the whole thing had been an
accident. Maybe the virus was meant to help people but had gone wrong.

Donovan stared into his lap.

Breathe. Stay calm. Don’t panic. Think objectively
.

After a few long minutes of complete silence in which General
Umar just looked at him, Donovan spoke.

“I’ll agree to investigate my grandfather,” he said. “But
I’m not going to hurt him. He’s going to tell me the truth. Then this whole
charade will be over.”

General Umar didn’t respond to his words. His face said that
he thought it would do him no good.

“I’ll have you escorted to your quarters now. You can review
the laws of time travel and get some rest. If your mind will let you. We’ll
reassemble tomorrow and decide what to do.”

General Umar pushed a button on his desk. A voice came
through some hidden speaker.

“Yes, General Umar?”

“Will you please escort Brigadier General Knight to his
quarters?”

“Yes, sir.”

The speaker turned off with a click. “He doesn’t know where
you’re really from. No one does except me. Everyone here has been led to
believe that you’re an Army Specialist from this time period brought in to help
on a special case. They don’t know what the case is about, but they know it’s
important enough that you teleported directly into my office.”

The General pointed into the corner. There was a narrow tube
large enough to fit one person. It was teleportation machine. It looked much
like the time machine that was hidden in the wall.

“Keep your watch on. I need to be able to communicate with
you at all times.”

General Umar gave Donovan his phone number and told him to
memorize it.

“Yes, sir.” More than anything Donovan just wanted to get
out of there and have time to think to himself.

The Private, whose name Donovan was too preoccupied to
remember, led him to what would be his room for however long it took him to
meet with his grandfather and get the necessary information out of him. He
didn’t expect that it would take long. In 2176, his grandfather was fifty-four
years old—already a well-known scientist for having created teleportation in
2157. It was odd to think that he was older than his own grandfather.

The government had already recruited Tobias so Donovan would
have no problem finding where he lived. It was just a matter of knowing how
much he could tell his grandfather without breaking any time-traveling laws.

The Private sent Donovan’s room key to his watch. Donovan
waved his wrist over the scanner under the doorknob and it beeped green,
unlocking.

“You’ll find that you have rather extensive accommodations,
fitting someone of your rank. There is a map and directory of the base inside
your desk drawer.”

“Thank you.” Donovan quickly dismissed the Private, assuring
him that he didn’t need any assistance.

When he was gone Donovan went straight for the twin bed in
the right corner, which was unusually comfortable. He lay on his back and
stared at the smooth white ceiling. It was his habit to thoroughly examine his
living quarters when on a mission—get settled into the place, check out the
base if he hadn’t been there before—but right then he needed quiet. He needed
to lay there and do nothing.

He still couldn’t truly believe that his grandfather was at
fault. He played through the brief again, letting the facts run through his
mind:

They had found an older version of the virus in Tobias’s
lab.

They found other human-friendly viruses, the purposes of
which they didn’t know.

They found design and operation manuals of Liao Inserts.

They found various paraphernalia indicating that his
grandfather had experimented with cloning.

These were the facts, but what did they mean? Certainly,
they were suspicious. Certainly, they required some type of government
punishment, but had they fit all the clues together accurately?

Yes, maybe his grandfather did create the viruses, but did
that mean for sure that his intent was to destroy the human race? Wasn’t it
possible that he had created the virus to cure common illnesses? To strengthen
the human body rather than harm it?

So what if the virus had turned bad. Didn’t intent matter?

But what about the manuals?

So what?
Donovan thought. It could be a coincidence.
It didn’t show beyond reasonable doubt that his grandfather programmed the
world’s Liao Inserts to infect them with the virus. General McGregor just had a
bunch of dots that he was trying to force together because of the message he’d
gotten from the future.

The only thing Donovan could see that his grandfather was
guilty of was cloning and negligence. It would earn him a long prison sentence
for sure—but at least he wouldn’t be guilty of treason.

Cloning and negligence Donovan could believe. It made much
more sense than Tobias plotting to kill everyone on the planet. His grandfather
was a zealot of a scientist. He was passionate about pushing limits, about discovering
things that previous generations had thought were impossible. It was far more
likely that he would break the law for the sake of discovery.

Donovan remembered his grandfather’s fervor more than
anything else about him. There were times when Donovan was a boy when Tobias
had given him lessons and Donovan had suddenly thought that his grandfather was
slightly insane. The memory came through in a flood.

***

“And what is the logical conclusion? If we cannot
disassemble the atoms and reconstruct them elsewhere? What do we do?”

The thirteen-year-old Donovan stared at his grandfather,
willing the answer to him. Sometimes he wished he could see into his
grandfather’s mind and make copies of the information there for himself.

Tobias had a fire in his eyes that Donovan was all too
familiar with—it was as if Tobias wished he could turn the cogs in Donovan’s
mind and make him come to the right conclusion.

Donovan often felt as if his brain was dusty, muggy even,
compared to his grandfather’s. The wheels in his mind were not properly oiled and
would not work as smoothly.

Donovan ventured a guess. “Then we should…”

Tobias’s eyes widened, an expectant expression on his face.
He looked a touch crazy, as if he would lose his mind if Donovan gave him the
wrong answer.

“…We should bend the space-time continuum, which eliminates
the need to break down the atoms in the first place.”

“Precisely, my boy! Precisely!” The look on Tobias’s face
was euphoric, like he’d come to some life-changing realization. He was so happy
that it made Donovan laugh.

“That’s it. I knew you could think of it on your own. You
have my genes, my boy. No mistakes there.”

Donovan grinned, proud of himself and grateful for his
grandfather’s praise.

“You could go far in the sciences you know.”

“I don’t know…”

“Of course you could! Do you know what you just accomplished
here?” Tobias had a maniacal gleam in his eye. “You just discovered the secret
to teleportation! On your own, at the age of thirteen.”

Donovan just smiled and let his grandfather rant. He had yet
to tell Tobias that he didn’t want to go into the sciences—he wanted to join
the army, like his father. Donovan wasn’t sure he’d ever work up the courage.
For now, he just let Tobias shove information into his brain.

“Granted,” his grandfather continued, “you did have me to
help you. But there are plenty of adult physicists who can’t figure this stuff
out with or without help. I think my genius skipped a generation. Your father
wasn’t very much good at this.”

Donovan became still and his smile faded a little.
Here
we go.

“He joined the army to be a
weapons specialist
. As if
that would do any good for the world.”

Donovan had heard this story a million times.

“He was smart. I know he could have gotten it, had he just
tried, but he was lazy up here.” Tobias pointed to his temple. “All he wanted
to do was shoot people. Completely uncivilized. Complete waste of talent.”

“Maybe he just wanted to fight to protect people,” Donovan
said, surprising himself.

His grandfather gave him an odd look. “He just wanted to
hold a gun and feel powerful. He could have saved people with science.”

“Maybe that just wasn’t his way of helping. Maybe he was
meant for something else.”

The way Donovan said it must have triggered Tobias’s
suspicion.

“Are you having doubts?” he asked. “Do you want to join the
army like your father? Specialize in guns and fighting?”

Donovan didn’t answer. He glared at his grandfather.

“You do remember that it was being an army specialist that
killed your father, don’t you?”

Donovan shrugged. “He died a hero.”

Suddenly, Tobias was on his feet. “He died a fool!”

“Not everyone can be a genius!” Donovan snapped back. “Not
everyone was meant for this.”

His grandfather was breathing as if he had just run a
marathon.

Donovan glared back at him. With something close to
desperation he said, “Not everyone can be like you.”

Tobias stared at Donovan as if he’d been struck—but he
wasn’t really looking at him. Donovan stepped off his stool and took a step
forward.

“Grandpa?”

Tobias’s eyes came slowly back into focus. His breathing calmed
and he began to nod his head as if answering an unspoken question.

He looked at Donovan as if seeing him for the first time. “Perhaps
not.”

With that, he turned his back on Donovan and left the room.

***

At times like those, Donovan had feared that his
grandfather’s mind was unstable. He could become so angry so quickly then
become calm just as fast—like the anger had never been there at all. It left
Donovan feeling tense—waiting for his grandfather’s temper to explode. It
didn’t always happen, but when it did it was always related to science and was
always unexpected. But Donovan refused to believe that this made Tobias a
criminal.

Most of the time, his grandfather had been normal, kind
even. He would take Donovan to visit slum cities and give out food to the
homeless. He initiated government programs and non-profit organizations that
would brought better education to the poor cities that still littered the
country. And on some days, when he wasn’t being a genius or a philanthropist,
he was an ordinary grandfather and took Donovan out for ice cream.

Donovan had loved those times, when his grandfather gave him
his full attention. There were no lessons, no scientists, no government
officials—just the two of them. They had gone to the duck pond near the Santa
Monica Square and fed the birds while they licked their desserts. In the summer
it was always a beautiful environment—the crisp blue water, the cloudless sky,
the many-colored kites that hung in the air, the chirping of birds, the quacking
and waddling of the ducks, the laughter of families having a good time
together.

It was amidst all this that they would sit in the grass at
the edge of the pond and talk. They would talk about everything from what
Donovan was learning in school to what his friends were like, and what area of
science he liked the most. In turn, his grandfather would tell him stories
about their family—everyone was dead by then, except the two of them. Donovan had
never met his grandmother and he was starting to forget his memories of his own
parents, so he would always ask a ton of questions about them. He didn’t want
his memories to fade completely. He needed his grandfather to keep them alive
in his head—otherwise it would be like they never really existed. And then who
would Donovan be?

Who were his parents, really? What were they like? Were they
nice people, good people? What had been his father’s favorite flavor? Did he
like spicy food? Did he enjoy rollercoasters? Were his parents really in love? Did
they really love Donovan? Why did his mother have to die too? What did it mean
to die of grief? Didn’t she love him enough to stay?

Tobias had patiently answered his questions, putting an arm
around Donovan’s shoulders. He had assured Donovan that his parents loved him
very much, that his father had loved spicy foods and that his favorite flavor
was caramel. He loved roller coasters. Donovan’s parents had been in love since
the day they’d met.

Some questions were not so easy to answer. Sometimes, all
Tobias had to give was a simple, “I don’t know, son.”

“Your parents were good people,” Tobias had said one day at
the pond. “They cared about others—about helping them. I never agreed with them
about how to go about it—but, still their intentions were true. You see the
beauty of this world, Donovan?”

Donovan had nodded, looking at their surroundings.

“We almost destroyed it once. But we used science to fix
it.”

Donovan knew this—everyone did.

“This world could be a utopia, but it isn’t—humans are still
humans. Without a world to destroy, we’ll destroy ourselves. The next step in
science is to figure out a way to save humans the way we’ve saved Earth.”