A Rift in Time Read online

  A Rift in Time

  Clark Graham

  Cover art by JJ Schutza

  elvenshore.blogspot.com

  [email protected]

  A Rift in Time

  © Clark Graham 2019

  All Rights Reserved

  Note from the Author.

  I tried to write book two A Hole in Time, as a stand-alone, but this book relies heavily on the first two books of this series. You can still read it as a stand-alone, but you’ll be confused as to where some of the characters came from. For the best reading enjoyment, you should read the first two. Thank you.

  Time Loop Series

  Book One

  A Loop in Time

  Book Two

  A Hole in Time

  Book Three

  A Rift in Time

  Chapter One

  Off the Coast of New York

  1925

  “She’s down there all right. It’s a plane, but like no plane I’ve seen before. No propeller and only one wing on the bottom. The upper wing either tore off or it never had one.” The captain smiled, showing his chewing tobacco stained teeth. His blue cap was weather worn and sweat-stained. Scratching his grey stubby beard, he continued. “I had to get a bigger crane. This machine of yours was larger than I expected. We’re ready to pull her up. All you got to do is say the word.”

  “An airplane. Of course.” Ted smiled. “He was traveling when he lost it. That explains how he was stuck out in the ocean. How did you find it?”

  “I took the captain’s log of the Wilhelm. It was the ship that picked him up. It took me a long time to figure that out, though where it was though. The crew was interred because they were in New York City when our country entered the war. The logs and all the papers were saved in the City Library. I read where the ship was when they found a survivor in the water. It was still a large area to search, but I caught a break when I saw a clam dredge boat alter its course, then go back on the course it was on. I talked to the captain later on, at a tavern. He told me there was something on the bottom there, so he goes around it. He’s lost gear there before. I figured that’s where it was, the machine you were wanting.”

  “Good work, bring her up.”

  The crane’s hook splashed down into the water at the captain’s signal. Two divers, in large diving suits with hoses attached, soon followed. The process was tedious. A diver would be brought to the surface after an hour and another one took his place. A man would be exhausted after being in the suit for long periods of time. When rested, he would go back in and another would come up to take a break. They repeated this every hour.

  The two barges were lashed together with long timbers, leaving a gap between them. The crane was positioned on one barge they were going to put the time machine on the other.

  The project was halted at nightfall, but early in the morning, the men were at it again. When the plane was finally secured to the crane’s hook, the massive yellow crane came to life. Steam and smoke came billowing out. The cables tightened and wound up slowly.

  Ted could see the shape of the craft under the water as it neared the surface. He was like a boy in a candy store. The time machine would soon be his to play with.

  As part of the plane cleared the surface, the captain came up to him. “Here’s the hard part. Instead of moving the thing over onto the other barge, I’m going to pick it straight up and move the barge under it. Less chance of the crane tipping over that way.”

  “Good idea.”

  As the plane broke the surface, Fishing nets and ropes hanging from it. Ted’s enthusiasm waned. The thing was in a lot worse shape than he’d supposed. Seaweed and barnacles were all over the craft. Parts of it were broken and bent too. His heart sank.

  The crane strained to hold the plane in place. The timbers were untied and a tug pushed the second barge under the time machine. Slowly, the battered time machine was set down on the barge. After tying the plane up, the tug locked on to both barges and began towing them back to New York. Ted and the captain followed in the dive ship.

  It was as if the captain read Ted’s thoughts. “Things always look bad when you first pull them from the water. I’ll get her cleaned up for you. It’ll be better, you’ll see.”

  Ted nodded. “Yes, it does look bad, but I don’t much care for what it looks like. I need the thing to work. It doesn’t look like it ever will.”

  “That, I can’t help you with.”

  When the tug pulled up to the pier a few days later, the plane was unloaded into one of the bays of a warehouse. Ted had it leased. The salvage company took on the painstaking task of cleaning the wreckage. They chipped off all of the barnacles, pulled out all of the seaweed, marine growth, and silt.

  After months of work, they called Ted in to look at the project.

  The captain, still in his blue stained cap, pointed out several things he had discovered. “It looks like there were two motors. One over the other. I don’t know why, but they are different types.” Pointing at the landing gear he continued, “We were able to deploy those. They were tucked up inside the body. The tires have rotted away. At least we think they had rubber on them at some time.”

  He moved to the front of the plane. Ted looked up. “Two seats?”

  “Different controls.” The captain brought Ted around to the side where his men had built a staircase up to the cockpit. “The controls in the back controls the time machine. It has month, day, year, settings. It was set for May 5, 2035. The other controls, in the front flies the plane. This is a time machine, only, we don’t know how to run it. Are you going to ask your friend for help? I mean, the guy that flew on this thing?”

  “No, he must never know we found it. I’ll bring in experts, maybe they can figure it out.”

  Chapter Two

  New York City, New York

  1925

  A scaffolding erected over the airplane had a half dozen men inspecting every square inch of the time machine. They had disassembled and reassembled every part, taking pictures as they did. Another man walked around jotting down notes.

  A panel was removed and everything behind it would be layed out on a table, photographed, and then put back. All Ted could see was stacks and stacks of photos and documents. The bills were adding up, too, rent on the warehouse, not to mention the men’s salary.

  He tried on several occasions to talk to the man in charge, only to get snapped at. “We are not done. You’ll have to wait for the final report.”

  These men were expert in the fields of aeronautics and engineering. If they couldn’t figure out how the thing worked and what it was going to take to fix it, nobody could.

  A month and a half later, the completed report sat in front of him. “Well, give me the short version. I’m not going to read a thousand pages of engineering mumbo jumbo which I probably wouldn’t understand anyway.”

  Lawrence Hardy’s face flashed red for just a second before the man regained control. Ted could tell he didn’t like talking to people he considered inferior to him. Lawrence was a total introvert in Ted’s eyes.

  “Well, the report details out how to put this thing together and where every part goes and their relationship to other parts. The plane was under water a long time and a lot of the aluminum parts are corroded. They will have to be replaced. The ailerons and spoilers are run by hydraulics, but that system is contaminated. Those components will have to be taken out, too. Most of the wires run along…”

  “I don’t care about where the parts go,” Ted interrupted. “I want you to tell me how to fix it.”

  Lawrence took a deep breath, then started in, talking really slow. “That’s the hard part. We know what most of the parts are, but have never seen some of them. The green boards in the electrical boxes are a my
stery to us. I can tell you what happened. The oil tank was shot up. When the engine ran out of oil, I’m talking about the top engine, it seized up. The other engine is more intact, except for hitting the water at a high speed. It ran out of gas. These engines are so far advanced from the technology of today, that the ideas behind them have not been thought of yet.”

  “You can’t fix it?”

  Lawrence shook his head slowly back and forth. “No, we don’t have the technology to fix this thing.”

  Ted glared at him. “All that money I paid you and you can’t deliver?”

  “You paid for my services.” Lawrence glared back. “I provided those services. I went over this thing with a fine-tooth comb. It's all there in the report. We now know so much about it, but we don’t have the technology to fix something from the next century.” He turned and walked out without another word.

  Ted walked around the machine. “What are your secrets and how do I get them from you?” He walked over and grabbed the phone receiver. After dialing a number, he said, “Those guys couldn’t help me. It’s your turn to try.”

  “I’ll see you in a few hours, Ted.”

  The same story played out again. They looked over the report from the previous attempt, then pulled the thing apart and put it back together. Jay, the man in charge of the team, wasn’t a report writer. He pulled a couple of parts out and brought them over to Ted. “I can’t fix it until you can tell me what these are.”

  Jay held out two green circuit cards.

  “You’re the expert,” Ted snapped.

  “I’ve seen hundreds of planes, some with dead bodies in them. I’ve been to my share of crashes and I’ve pieced planes back together that were in a million pieces, but I’ve never seen anything like this and nobody else has either. If you can tell me what they do and how to fix them, I might be able to get this thing running again.”

  Ted studied them. “I’ll find out, then I’ll get you back here. Meanwhile, you and your men can take a break until you hear from me.”

  Chapter Three

  New York City, New York

  1947

  Ted sat across from Dr. Rendahl of New York University. He had watched the doctor look at the panel he brought him, scratch his head, and then look at it again.

  “I can’t even guess what this thing does. It’s so small, but it has a lot of pieces to it. They’re glued together somehow. I can’t help you, Sir. I’m truly sorry.” He handed the part back to Ted.

  Ted nodded and left. It had been over two decades and still he couldn’t figure out how the machine worked, or even what it did.

  There was still one man he hadn’t asked after all these years. Dalton had been sick lately, so Ted thought he would finally risk it. He called Mary. She said he could come by for a visit.

  He drove out to the house. Mary answered the door. She wasn’t smiling. Her lovely red hair was now grey. “Hello, Ted.”

  “How’s he doing?”

  She shook her head. “He keeps telling the doctors how to cure him, but he names procedures that haven’t been invented yet. They stare at him dumbfounded.”

  “I see. Is he up to visitors?”

  “Yes, he would love to see you.”

  She escorted him to the back bedroom where Dalton lay. He smiled when he saw Ted. “It’s been a long time. How are you doing, Ted?”

  “Great, Adalwolf. You’ve been better, I hear.”

  “Those doctors won’t listen. I’m dying of prostate cancer. It would be easily cured if I was back in my own time.”

  “That’s what I’ve come to talk to you about.” Ted handed him a panel from the plane. “I’ve got it. I pulled up the time machine. We can get you back to your time and fix you.”

  Dalton’s eyes widened. “No. Destroy it. It will be the end of the world if you use it. Promise me you’ll destroy it.”

  Ted shook his head violently. “We have to get you back to save you. Don’t you understand?”

  Grabbing his arm, Dalton looked him in the eye. “I let a little boy die. Just one little boy. When I came back to my own time, the timeline was destroyed. One little boy. I went back and saved him. Using that machine will cause catastrophic results. Destroy it. I’d rather die than have that machine available for someone to use.”

  Ted stared at him for the longest time. “You mean that, don’t you?”

  “Yes, please, get rid of it.”

  “I promise.”

  Dalton took a deep breath. “Thank you. I know you think you want to see the future, but you don’t. What if I had told you about the two world wars that first day I met you. Millions of people were going to die and all you could do is sit and watch. The horrors and joy of life will get here when they get here.”

  “I suppose you’re right. I wanted a peek. I wanted to know what to invest in. You’ve made millions. I wanted that for me.”

  “I know, but even if I wanted to, I couldn’t fix that machine. The parts to repair it haven’t been invented yet. That will come many years from now. You’ll be dead before then.”

  “Good to know, old friend. I must be going.”

  “Take care.”

  Ted gave him one last look before showing himself out.

  As soon as he left, Dalton turned to Mary. “I want to see Bryan.”

  “I’ll call him.”

  Bryan had his mother’s red hair. He stood six foot and had a slight limp. He’d been hit by shrapnel during the war while captaining a freighter in the merchant marine. His mother and father had begged him not to go to war, but he felt he had to do his part.

  Standing over the bedside, Bryan asked, “What is it, Father?”

  “Ted found the time machine. He promised to destroy it, I want you to make sure he does.”

  “I’ll make sure of it.”

  That hadn’t gone to plan. Ted ground his teeth as he drove away. He wanted help, not a lecture. He was deep in thought as he drove. Am I really going to destroy it like he promised, after spending a lot of money to get it? His emotions were still high when he turned onto the main road to New York City. He didn’t see the truck. It couldn’t stop. Ted’s car was cut in two by the force of the collision. He died instantly.

  Chapter Four

  New York City, New York

  1948

  There’s that bill again. What was my father doing, renting a warehouse at the wharf? Mel sat at his desk going through his father’s affairs. It had been six months since the funeral and he was still trying to clean up the paperwork.

  Jotting down the address, he decided to drive out there and figure out what was going on. When he arrived, he was stopped at the gate.

  “State your business.” The armed guard was abrupt.

  “My father was renting unit number 5 when he passed away. He. I need to see what’s in there.”

  “Papers.” The guard’s expression didn’t change. The brown eyes seemed to cut through the darkness.

  “I don’t know what type of papers you mean.”

  “I can’t let you in then.” The guard walked away before Mel could respond.

  When he arrived back at his father’s house, he tore the place apart. Finally, in an overcoat, he found a key and some papers with the letterhead of the wharf printed on it. It was too late to go back, so he slept on the couch and waited for the new day.

  At the pier, a different guard looked over the papers, then nodded and opened the gate. Mel drove up to the door of the warehouse. Trying the key, he had a hard time unlocking it. Something was stuck. He shook the door. That did the trick.

  In the center of the building, a large object was covered in tarps. He pulled them back to reveal the airplane. “Wow.” He walked around, admiring it. He had never seen one so large before. It was a new one without propellers, yet it looked very old and weathered.

  This has to be worth millions. A smile creased his lips. He covered it back up, and drove to his father’s place. He knew there had to be more information on it. His father kept meticulo
us records. Tearing the house apart again, he found nothing.

  An idea occurred to him. He called his father’s lawyer. “Howard, this is Mel. Listen, I keep getting a bill for a wharf on the waterfront.”

  There was a pause. “That bill was supposed to come to me. Don’t pay it, I’ll handle it.”

  “So, you do know about it then.”

  “Know about what?”

  Mel shook his head. “Don’t play stupid, Howard, it doesn’t suit you. You know about the plane in the warehouse. The one I went and took a look at this morning.”

  Another long pause. “Yes, I know. I wish I didn’t. That thing has been nothing but a thorn in my side since your father pulled it from the ocean floor. I now have the estate of Adalwolf Dalton breathing down my neck. They want it so they can destroy it. Trust me, you’d be better off forgetting it existed.”

  “What is it?”

  “Some apocalyptic device, according to the Daltons. They don’t know where it’s at and I mean to keep it that way. I’ve got to go. Send me the bill. I’ll handle it.”

  The phone went dead. Instead of feeling intimidated, Mel was more intrigued. Going through his father’s address book, he looked up Adalwolf Dalton.

  Two hours later, he sat in his car across the street from the Dalton home. He debated what to do. He couldn’t just ask what it was. I’ve found the machine, what does it do? Finally getting up his nerve, he went up to the front door and knocked.

  An older woman answered the door. “May I help you?”

  “I’m here to see Adalwolf Dalton.”

  “You’re too late. He passed away three months ago.”

  “Oh.” Mel let out a sigh. “I’m sorry to have bothered you in your time of mourning.”

  “May I ask who you are?”

  “I’m Mel. My father was Ted.”