The Void - A Bucky Barnes Novel

Chapter 6. The Calm

This chapter carries on from Rhodes and Sam leaving the briefing in Chapter 4. It also happens concurrently with events in Chapter 5. Sorry for the science stuff ... I got carried away. 🙂

About fifteen minutes after leaving in the quinjet Rhodes received a text message from Pepper Stark giving him a set of coordinates. He inputted them into the quinjet's computer and set the autopilot to fly to that location. Then he transferred them into his map application and learned the location was Rose Hill, Tennessee, a small town. He looked at Sam.

"I think I know where we're going," he said, "and who we're seeing. Do you remember a young man, at Tony's funeral? Tall kid, serious looking?"

"Yeah, I do," said Sam. "He didn't talk to anyone except Pepper and Morgan. Who was he?"

"A kid that helped Tony after the Mandarin attacked him in Malibu," he said. "Tony paid him back by setting him up with his own lab as the kid was a bit of a genius himself. Paid in advance for his college as well. I'm guessing Pepper has kept in touch with him."

"Well, let's hope he's as much a genius as Tony was and can fix your suit," said Sam.

Neither men said anything until the quinjet set down in the yard next to a garage. As they lowered the ramp the door to the garage opened and the kid, now a young man of 22, came out and walked up the ramp towards the two men.

"I'm Harley," he said. "You're War Machine?"

"Colonel James Rhodes," he said. "Just call me Rhodey. The suit is War Machine. This is ...."

"Captain America, Sam Wilson," said Harley, with a smile. "I wasn't expecting you. Pepper said it would only be War Machine. What happened to the suit?"

Rhodes explained what happened in the Void as they each picked up a section of the suit and carried it out of the quinjet. Inside the garage both Rhodes and Sam were amazed at what Harley had for a lab. He stood there with a bit of a grin on his face.

"Tony set me up but I've added on some other things," he said. "Once I got my degrees Pepper kept me busy with design work and the like. I make a good living, take care of my mom and sister. Now, let's see what your AI can tell me."

He began hooking up all sorts of leads to the suit and opened up panels that Rhodey didn't even know existed. After some time setting up everything he asked the AI to playback the mission that caused the problem. They all watched as on a large screen the playback started with the arrival of the portal, then the flight into it and immediately being overwhelmed by the electronic interference. Harley pressed a button repeatedly during the distorted playback, presumably taking screen shots, and when Rhodes reported being struck by something from the ground Harley replayed it several times, pressing the button repeatedly during the playback. Then the video showed Rhodes leaving the portal and crashing to the ground followed by Sam's fall as well. Everything after that was garbled as the AI kept trying to restore the systems. Harley stopped the playback and looked at the two men.

"Another planet with an obviously extremely active sun," he said. "Anything else you want to share?"

"They're pretty sure the planet is Earth billions of years from now when the sun is a white dwarf," said Sam. "They think the 1859 Carrington event created the means for these portals to open between the past and the future. The creatures share 98% of DNA with humans."

"They're descendants," said Harley. "Cool. Sam, your suit was damaged as well but the vibranium protected it longer, am I right?"

Sam nodded. "The Wakandans are building me a new suit, with better shielding," he said. "The drones that were in there with us were military grade with EMF shielding and they worked just fine. We brought in Dr. Wendy Martel from Nellis Air Force base with a couple of her bigger drones to send in every time a portal opens. They'll send in food, ammunition, whatever can be fit into the drone's storage compartment."