Key Inheritance: A Desperate Plan

CHAPTER ONE: Start of a journey

The year was 2050 on an Earth not much unlike our own. The world had been ravaged by what they had called the Great Resource War. No one knew how it started but, in the cold nuclear aftermath, no one cared either. Major cities and infrastructures were all reduced to ruins. The streets had a faint smell similar to burnt plastic and disinfectant where Geiger Counters detected high radiation. The pungent smell of death was always present; no one without proper protection lived very long out on the surface. There were survivors scattered within the major city’s winding subway tunnels and underground facilities. The water within the deeper, older pipes was safe to drink after boiling and food could be grown using moss as fertilizer. There was power within the underground tunnels thanks to backup systems already in place. Communication and information was sporadic at best but the information that came in painted a rather bleak image. The Earth was approximately ten years away from becoming completely uninhabitable. They had sealed their own fate.

Then, a miracle occurred. An armed group who had been dubbed the Survivor’s Army found a large old castle styled mansion that had miraculously survived the war intact. It looked like something straight out of a fantasy story. The mansion had seven rounded towers; four in the rear and three in the front. The entrance before them looked more like the heavy gate to a secure bunker. General Butch Bowman, the leader of this group, assembled a team of eight to venture inside to investigate. He was a tall and muscular man of 55 with crew cut brown hair and green eyes. He took the front, utilizing a 20 watt battery charged flashlight to illuminate their path. The team moved in basic two by two cover formation, sweeping the entryway for anything useful. What they found raised their curiosity as well as their hopes. Through the heavily damaged walls ceilings and floors, they found what they could only guess was a large complex machine of an unknown design. Whatever it was appeared to be in working order despite the age and heavy internal damages to the mansion. As the group moved deeper into the mansion, they met a tall and fit man who appeared to be in his thirties. He was suspiciously clean given the world outside. He sported an eighteenth century gentleman's suit with knee high riding boots, a top hat covering his raven black hair, and carried a silver tipped cane with a large diamond. His eyes were hidden behind round shining glasses as he held a toothy, almost sinister grin. He softened his smile as Butch and his team slowly approached with their side arms at the ready.

“Welcome, ladies and gentleman.” Calmly, he said. “My name is Jon Smith and I have been expecting you; the time machine is charged and ready.”

Butch raised a single eyebrow. “Time machine…?”

Jon nodded. “Yes, General Bowman; the time machine. My family has long been obsessed with time. They and I built this massive device along with seven others in the far corners of the world over the course of many generations.”

Butch exchanged confused looks with the members of his team then turned back to the mysterious man, Jon. “You seem to have me at a disadvantage, Mr. Smith.”

“Only because the first time around, you discovered this machine days after I had already gone back into the past.”

Butch’s eyes widened. “Say that again…”

Jon smiled, looking bemused. “I must say, your plan was a work of pure genius. I took the liberty to prepare everything so you may begin your operation sooner.”

A young teenage girl with hazel eyes and long brown hair shook her head. “If that is so, why is our world still dying?!”

A young woman, a near replica of the girl politely hushed her. “Easy, child.”

Jon softly chuckled. “The answer is simple, Sarah Veronica; you had not yet gone back to the year 1980.”

The young woman seemed unnerved. “How do you know us?”

Jon maintained his smile. “I know all of you, Ms. Viva Veronica. As I had explained, my family was obsessed with time. You might remember me from your archaeological studies. I am the man who cannot die.”

Veronica’s eyes widened as her jaw dropped slightly. “The first Pharaoh, The brother of Hercules, Merlin the Wizard…”

Jon nodded. “I was known by many names through history; not all of them were regarded highly.” He shrugged. “As they say, it is the winners who write the history books.”

The entire team stared at Jon with their mouths half open in shock. They all had silently wished to go back in time and here they were staring at a man who had done exactly that.

Finally, Butch broke the silence. “Okay, hot shot time traveler; what is this plan you say we had put together.”

Jon motioned to a table. “The plan was yours, jotted down on literally hundreds of small pieces of paper throughout your life. When you found the time machine, you put your plan together much like a jigsaw puzzle.”

Sarah looked over the papers, carefully taped together. “We had developed technology that can reverse the ecological damage we had done to the planet but it was too late.”

Veronica shed a tear. “The realization came too late; the Earth is dying, we sealed our own fate.”

Jon smiled. “Part of a poem you wrote when Sarah was born.”

A slightly older girl with hazel eyes and long brown hair spoke up, a look of realization on her face. “If we take this eco tech back to say 1980, it could save the Earth.”

“Jon nodded. “Exactly, Felicia Graves. That and present day genetic technology.”

A tall, fit man with longish brown hair and hazel eyes gasped before his face hardened. “what!?”

Butch frowned. “Never…”

Jon pointed to the center of the papers. “Your idea. You wrote, quote…”
By changing the DNA of a select few unseen adolescents, we can make them physically and mentally superior. This alone will catch the attention of all and our message can be delivered. This will also allow us to grant them everything our present time has left to offer.

Butch sighed. “Yes, it was my idea but understand that this technology has side effects. It will cause those affected to develop physical and mental abilities lost to time and myth.”

Jon’s face hardened, startling the team. “Changing time, the lives of literally billions of people is a heavy responsibility, General Bowman. However, our past and future will both be a moot point if the Earth and all creatures on it go extinct.”

Butch was silent for a moment then slowly nodded. “Point taken.”

Jon nodded back, his charismatic smile returning. “I have taken the liberty of transferring the treasury into energy storage to be restored when and where you see fit.”

A way was discovered in the year 2000 to transform matter into energy and return it to its original state after being sent anywhere on Earth like radio waves. Hence had been dubbed riding the radio waves. Fortunately, only dead matter could be stored for any length of time without deadly effects.

Sarah raised her hand and Jon nodded. “Um… how exactly does this time machine work?”

Jon chuckled as the mansion literally shifted and changed all around them. The group was startled at first but became curious as they were gently lowered into the basement. There, they found a round raised platform in the middle of the room with seven large curved empty rectangular slots in the same formation as the towers they saw outside. Above them they saw the internal workings of the machine. It seemed impossibly complex and yet simple at the same time with layers upon layers of countless gears, wires and computer panels. They were so taken aback by the machine, they did not notice Jon walking up to a large podium that had raised from the floor.

Jon cleared his throat to gain their attention. “To answer your question, time travel is not as simple as going from one time to another like driving down the road. Our solar system orbits the milky way just as our world orbits the sun. So, by just going back into time, you will find yourself floating in space rather than firmly on Earth.”

A young woman with hazel eyes and long brown hair became thoughtful. “So, you need to determine where the Earth was in the targeted time to stay in the same place when going back.”

Jon smiled. “Precisely, Carla Towers. This is done by using star constellations, old and recently discovered, which provide the six points needed to find the target location from the our point of origin here in the present time. They are etched onto the front and bottom of crystal slabs. The bottom so the computer system knows the needed coordinates and the front so we see the coordinates to ensure we have the proper location.”

Sarah tilted her head, raising a single eyebrow. “Only how do you set the time you want to go back to?”

Jon motioned to the podium. “The time is set here on these controls and the computer system determines the power and frequency needed to send through the crystals.”

A towering, muscular man with hazel eyes and brown hair grunted. “This must take an incredible amount of power to break the space time continuum; do these crystals somehow power it all?”

Jon again smiled, annoying Butch to no end. He could only guess that the man was half mad if not completely and utterly insane. “Very perceptive, Jason Towers. Only the teleport part of the device is powered by core crystals. The time portal is powered and opened with the use temporal crystals which the large slabs are carved out of. These are two very carefully guarded secrets known only to my bloodline and only passed down to each head of family. The core crystals alone produce the equivalent of ten megatons of nuclear energy per pound. The crystal powering this device weighs ten pounds.”

Butch’s eyes narrowed. “What…?!”

Jon ignored him. He knew what the general was thinking. The raw power of the core crystals could have completely replaced oil almost overnight and given free energy to all. Only Jon knew the hearts and minds of humanity. They would first weaponized such incredible power and, through their own arrogance, destroy the very planet they live on.

He politely cleared his throat, catching the team’s attention. “By setting the time, the computer system determines the needed electrical current and frequency to send through the temporal crystals. So, in short, this machine opens two portals at once; time and space.”

For a moment, everyone was silent before Sarah gulped. “There’s no way back once we do this, is there?”

Jon shook his head, his smile fading into a look of sadness. “No, there will not. I had to wait centuries to come full circle but there is a bright side. You can be a part of the movement that saves the Earth from extinction.”

Sarah managed a smile though there were tears in her eyes. She had an idea of the price she would be paying. She will never again see those she had befriended growing up. In fact, they may never be born at all. Still, if they succeed, she will never see people die in an ecological and nuclear nightmare. She and the rest of the team General Bowman had put together would be among the lucky ones; to go to a time when the air was still fresh in most parts of the world. Where there was a time of relative peace, the literal calm before the storm.

The significance of what they were about to do was on the minds of every member of the team as they went over the plans General Bowman had pieced together. Soon, they were gathering everything they would need for their critical mission while Jon took to the controls behind an ancient podium. Jon turned to the controls. He then set the time and date by turning large gear shaped knobs before hitting a large red button. The entire mansion seemed to shake as a large curved rectangular crystal slab was slowly lowered into one of the slots. This was followed by six more, each with a specific star constellation etched into them. Once all of the crystal slabs were in place, the mansion shook violently for a moment before a nearly blinding light emitted from inside the large ring. A deafening thunderous boom shook the foundation of the mansion then all was silent and still once more. The team turned away for a moment then turned back to see what looked like a shimmering pool inside the ring with the seven crystal slabs illuminating it in an eerie blue light.

Jon sighed before motioning to it. “This is where we part ways, my friends. I will know if you had succeeded moments after you step through. If you do not succeed, fear not, I have a plan, centuries in the making, to breathe life back into the Earth.”

Butch sighed, seeing he had no choice as there was no knowing how many times the time machine could be used and Jon was not offering to answer the unspoken question. “We’ll see you on the other side, then.”

He nodded to his uncertain but determined team and they followed him up the three steps to the pool where they all literally fell through back into time. Once the last person fell through, Jon hit the red button again. The crystal slabs were raised back up into the machine and the portal became inert once more.

As the mansion transformed itself back to its original interior shape, Jon let out a long sigh. “I have come full circle in my quest. This is the beginning of yours; may your chosen faith watch over and protect you.”