A RANGER'S TIME

Chapter 2 - Upton

Upton

June, 2220

Russell trembled with nervous anxiety. He feared something would go wrong this time. This would be his third attempt and with each trip he'd gotten a little more nervous. His first two time jumps were without incident. In fact they were somewhat exhilarating, in a strange sort of way. Having one's atoms disassembled and then reassembled in another place and in another time was a little daunting. There were so many things that could go wrong, and Russell worried about each one of them.

"Relax," Michael said. "You've done this before and never had a problem."

"That's easy for you to say. You're not the one being ripped apart," Russell replied.

Russell Hicks, a young scientist specializing in theoretical physics and astrophysics, was one of three technicians assigned to the top secret time travel and teleportation project. These black projects are owned, operated, and funded by the government. But no one knew exactly who in government. The lines connecting the DARPA projects to any government agency were blurred at best. Officially, they don't even exist. The National Lab in Upton, New York housed the time project, although, no one would admit it.

Michael O'Riley and Steven Marcohen were the other two techs. Steven and Russell graduated together and were hired by the government right out of college. Michael, the "old-timer" of the project, had been there the longest and was designated Lead Technician because of his seniority.

Russell looked at his reflection in the glass wall of the time chamber. "I look like an idiot in these clothes." He wore a tie-dyed tee-shirt, dark blue jeans that were a little too tight, and white vinyl gym shoes.

Steven tried to hide his snicker. "No, no. You look... fine." He turned away trying to hide his laughter.

"Yeah, go ahead and laugh, Steve. Next time we'll send you back to the cavemen!"

"It'll be fine, Russell," Michael said with a smile. "The archive chips reported that in 1992 people wore these... these... What are these called?"

"Tee-shirts!" Steven said.

"Right, tee-shirts and jeans," Michael continued. "Did you dose?"

"No. I don't like the way that stuff makes me feel."

"The meds are supposed to relax you, Russell. That's what they're for. Everybody doses. At least every once in a while."

"Thanks, but I'll pass," Russell said. "I'll be fine."

The lab door opened and a man in a grey suit entered and walked toward them. Russell looked at the clock; 9:20 PM. His time jump was scheduled to execute in ten minutes. Civilians were not supposed to be in the lab outside of the day shift. As he got closer, Russell recognized him as Paul Camber, a sales representative for one of the hundreds of companies contracted with the government to supply project parts.

"What the hell is he doing here?" Russell whispered to Michael.

"Go check the power panels," Michael said. "I'll handle this guy."

Russell and Mr. Camber met a month earlier. He left their meeting with a cautionary feeling about this salesman. He had a feeling that Camber was not to be trusted. Paul Camber saw Russell and looked away. Michael stopped Paul and the two briefly talked.

Russell waved his data cell over a sensor in each power panel and the information appeared in a virtual display above that panel. With the data results captured in his cell, he moved to the next panel. He was engrossed in his data retrieval and hadn't noticed Paul Camber had left.

"Russ!" Steven called out. "It's time."

Russell took a deep breath and walked over to Steven. Michael joined them.

"Let's go over it again," Steven said.

Russell rolled his eyes. "How many times do we have to go through this? Like Mike said, I've done this before."

"It's a good idea, Russ," Michael chimed in. "We need to make sure we all know the plan."

"Okay, okay. I'm supposed to check pollution levels in 1992. And then slightly disrupt a specific event to see if there is a butterfly effect across time, right?"

"Exactly," Michael said. "In August of ninety-two a young boy won first place at the Amarillo Fair for his animal. He went on to hold political office in Texas. We want you to change the outcome of him winning that first prize and see if it makes a difference in his future, or anyone else's future."

"How will you know?"

Steven explained. "We recorded the major happenings in the boy's life period. We also recorded what happened to the two runner's up. Those files are sealed away. When you get back we'll record them again and then unseal the pre-recorded files and check for any differences. Now get ready."

"You got six hours," Michael added. "Then we're bringing you back, whether you're finished or not. Got it?"
Russell nodded and smiled at Michael but the smile was not returned. In fact, Michael never raised his eyes to look at Russell.

"Just do what you need to do and then find a place to hide until we retrieve you." Michael walked over to his console and sat without another word.

"What's got into him, all of a sudden?" Russell said under his breath.

Steven shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. "Who knows? Don't worry about it. You know how moody he gets. It's time." Steven walked to his console leaving Russell standing alone in front of the glass chamber that housed the time travel apparatus. Russell took a deep breath and set his ID chip and his data cell in a lockbox. He entered the glass chamber and climbed the two steps leading to the titanium platform. Two six-foot concave disks were mounted on the platform, one silver and one gold. They faced each other and were about three feet apart leaving enough room for Russell to stand between them. Russell positioned himself between the disks and looked through the glass walls at Steven. He looked at Michael, who normally would be watching. Michael sat at his console with both hands on the controls and his back toward Russell.

Steven slipped on his eye protection and gave Russell the thumbs-up. Russell wanted to step away and halt the jump. He couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right. He reluctantly returned the thumbs-up signal to Steven. Steven turned to his console and Russell watched the red digital timer across the room start the countdown. When the counter reached one, Russell closed his eyes and held his breath. There was a bright flash of light, a loud snap of electricity, and the glass chamber was empty.