Chapter 5 - Journey

"He's now with them, and they had sent a large enough squad to guard him. We can't do much now except to wait for the others to regroup."

"And where are they?"

"On the way to the location. Our ship is ready for take-off."

*******************

"Countdown to take-off is ten minutes, sir," Andy reported from the cockpit.

"Got that," the Captain coolly replied. "Get onboard everyone!"

Jacques, still holding Kit, stared at the body of the spaceship from the moment the camouflage and forceshield was taken down to facilitate the entry of the troops. He was awed at seeing such an amazing vehicle in front of his eyes. This was a page taken straight out of a science-fiction book, he thought.

With a slight tug, he found the Captain standing right beside him.

"That's the USS Keo, it's basically just a smaller version of the cargo ships back home but this baby is equipped with time-travel technology. And if you don't get moving soon, this will be the last time you'll ever see it again."

"This is just... just amazing!"

"Yep. Now move soldier!"

"Yessir!" Jacques laughed and climbed up the metallic steps.

Inside the ship was a dashboard with a large array of electronics and a touch screen, some buttons were also vaguely labeled in English. He glanced to the back and passed through a corridor before reaching the cargo holding place. Along with the vans locked in place were some twenty seats in two rows facing each other. Jacques took a seat beside Mark, with Scott helping both strap on the seatbelts, which uses two straps to secure the seater in place, similar to military vehicles.


"ETA for lift-off is one minute. Docks secured, please take your seats, buckle up your seatbelts and return your trays in an upright position," The pilot announced.

Scott lightly elbowed Jacques, "It's a really old joke."

"Booster rockets ready, liff-off in three... two... one... Stealth mode enabled."

"Good, we're outta here."

The vehicle trembled slightly as it rose silently into the evening sky, clearing the troposphere, stratosphere, messosphere and thermosphere before reaching Earth's outer atmosphere.

Jacques was reasonably comfortable in his seat, still holding his cat in his arms, he started to Mark and started talking.

"I'm glad that you came along."

"Yeah, I still didn't knew what I was thinking."

"You weren't thinking at all. End of story." Jacques smiled.


"Sir, there's an unidentified craft quickly heading towards us. I'm guessing it's not the air force."

"Any communications with the unidentified craft, Andy?"

"None, sir."

"Full speed ahead and prepare for Hyperspace Drive, get us away as fast as you can from that craft."

"Yessir."

"Reaching location of Hyperspace Drive in exactly... one minute."

Jacques was looking into the window behind him when a powerful impact jolted him from his seat, the straps held him from falling onto the floor. Warning sirens began to rang throughout the whole ship, but everyone remained calm.

"Shit! Sir, they're firing on us!"

"Switch to evasive tactics at once!"

"Yessir."

The next minute was an horrible ride for Jacques, never before did he experience an almost ninety-degree turn and spins that would even make the most seasoned rollercoaster enthusiast vomit.

He handed the cat over to Mark and pulled Scott's strap tightly, "Where's the paper bag?"

Scott directed a finger to the bottom of Jacques' seat.

"Right, thanks!" Jacques replied before launching his face deep into the bag.


"We've arrived at the spot for launching Hyperspace Drive."

"Launch Hyperspace Drive, set year to 2407, same day when we arrived here."

"Yessir."

"Launching Hyperspace Drive in three... two..."

"Arh, we've been hit again!"

*******************

"Hyperspace Drive completed. Systems are sixty-five percent stable, defence shields and energy generator are not working. Other than that, everything else is fine."

"At least we made it."

"Yeah."

"Control, this is USS Keo. Mission accomplished. Permission to land on base."

Nothing but silence came out of the transmitter.

"Control? I repeat again, this is USS Keo. Mission accomplished. Permission to land on base."

The Captain turned towards Andy, "Are the communications down?"

"No, sir. It's supposed to work fine."

"Set stealth mode again and head back to base. What in blazes happened?"

The ship yawned loudly towards as the speed gradually picked up and delved back into Earth's atmosphere. It glided eeriely across the skies, in search of the base where they were supposed to land.

They arrived in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and approached the Californian shoreline and headed West, towards the Salton Sea. When they reached the shot, there was nothing but a vast desert of sand all over the place. Captain DeMarco spotted the Salton Sea and Colorado River but there was nothing there. No buildings, no vehicles, not even a single soul. This was bad, terribly bad.

"Where, no... When are we, Andy?"

"But it's supposed to be twen... Oh..."

"What?"

"The time programmer malfunctioned when the second blast hit us just now. Instead of bringing us four hundred and three years to Kharak, it took us four hundred and three years back. We're currently in the year 1601 A.D."

Jacques emerged behind the cockpit door and saw the surface. It was mostly desolate and barren.

"Where are we?"

"1601 A.D."

"That's bad."

"Very bad."

"Find a suitable spot for landing, we need to get this ship repaired."

"Yessir."

*******************

Smoke bellowed out from the time programming engine when Andy managed to pull out the mangled piece of metal covering the section.

"This isn't good, but I sure as hell will try my best," Andy mumbled before disappearing into the underside of the ship.

"When do you think will the damaged be repaired?"

"I'm guessing a couple of a days... Say, do you know any mechanics around here?"

"Don't joke with me right now."

"Uh, okay."

Jacques wasn't impressed at the current situation, being stuck under the scorching sun and four hundred years away from civilization. He just hoped that he didn't have to die right in this place.

Wearing a cap, he covered his eyes from the harsh sunlight and scanned the surrounding err... sand and headed right back into the ship, there wasn't anything out there. Besides, America wasn't even close to starting development at that time, and no native people existed in that area. Only an insane person who would live in the middle of nowhere.

Jacques preferred the future more than the past, for living in the past might be memorable, almost there is to know about the past has already been known. The only exception would be somewhat obscure issues that never became popular and faded away into nothingness.

The future brought hope to Jacques and he had hoped he would be able to bring hope to the future. His eagerness of being in the future brought even more disappointment at the current situation.

The USS Keo's metallic exterior shined and shimmered under the midday sun, but the internal air conditioning system was still holding strong. Hot and dry winds carried nothing but sand into every nook and cranny imaginable. Jacques had dumped a shoe-full of sand before boarding back into the ship. There was a limited supply of food and water inside the ship but it wasn't enough for more than 2 days.

Kit had been placed into a mobile pet cage right after they had landed. Jacques found a cage lying in the corner of the ship, turns out that it was mostly used to transport wild animals, it served its purposes in keeping Kit contained too.

Mark had an opportunity to interact with the rest of the men, playing cards seemed like a good idea, if it wasn't for the differences in the rules, but they still had fun nonetheless.

Scott was tapped lightly on the shoulder. Turning around, he saw Jacques behind him.

"Is there anything to read here? I'm getting bored."

"Why don't you join us?"

"Nah, I don't like card games much. Didn't have much luck in them."

"All right, e-book is over in that corner, knock yourself out!"

"Thanks!" Jacques replied but he wasn't sure if he heard him, Scott seemed to place his concentration back on the game as soon as his back had been turned. He wasn't very lucky with cards either.

Jacques slipped the e-book from a drawer and turned the thing on. Encased in a black cover and very light, it was similar to the designs already created at that time. A small green LED flashed and an interactive touch-screen was enabled, giving him an option of selecting between a hundred different novels available. Some familiar names like Michael Crichton, Agatha Christie, Stephen King and even Danielle Boone were included in the e-book! Jacques took note of the unfamiliar names and went through the synopsis of each novel, book genres had been significantly evolved, even the science-fiction genre had way more outlandish themes and plots than the current ones that he knew.

Jacques then came across a book which explained about the city, Kharak.

He tapped on the little icon of a globe and the contents of the book unravelled before his eyes.