Crossover Earth '98
Meeting Dr. Martin Jay Shaffstall & Nestor D. Rodriguez
The "Catskills Government Research Facility" obviously didn't want visitors. The chain link fence topped with barbed wire was a clear indication, along with the armed guards at the gate and regular patrols inside the fence. The facility was hidden within a wooded area about an hour from New York city.
The Traveller had made his way there after following government agents who were attempting to follow him. The men had been waiting where he was supposed to meet Dr. Martin, so he felt safe in assuming that Dr. Martin was inside the facility. Getting inside wouldn't be trivial, though.
Under the name Jack Trail, he went to the nearby town and rented a motel room. He'd picked up enough cash with odd jobs along the way to put him up here for a week or so. After that...well, someone always needed something done.
Jack Trail lived in town, subsisting on the odd job, for a month. At night, the Traveller would watch the government compound in the woods. Before too long, he had the pattern of guard patrols memorized. The obvious security cameras weren't well placed, providing him with some blind spots he could slip through. The fence was wired with an alarm, but he didn't expect to trigger it.
Finally, he was as ready as he could be. He approached the fence at the chosen spot, flexed his knees slightly, and jumped. He cleared the fence with a meter to spare and landed on the other side. Without waiting to see if he'd been seen, he sprinted along the path he'd mapped out through the security cameras' blind spots.
His goal was a series of what looked like small apartments. From what he'd picked up in town, everyone working at the facility lived on-site. That was where he'd find Dr. Martin. And, just maybe, a few answers about his past.
Peering through windows, the Traveller found one room with a small light. A kitchen, and at the small table in the center of the room was Dr. Martin. The window was open slightly.
"Dr. Martin," the Traveller called softly.
The man inside looked up in surprise.
"Please, don't be alarmed." The Traveller spoke in a soothing tone. "You know me as Jack Trail. We were supposed to meet in the city. I still need to talk to you. Can I please come in?"
"Jack Trail? Oh, the one who called. I remember." Martin sighed, a long drawn out sigh full of grief. "I'm afraid I'm not the best company right now, Mr. Trail. But come in if you want." Dr. Martin waved a hand holding a glass. As the Traveller opened the window fully and climbed through, he noticed a bottle of whiskey on the table. The smell of alcohol filled the room.
The Traveller approached the table and sat in a chair across from Martin. He searched Martin's face for some hint of memory, something that would explain why he was drawn to this man. A sense of importance seemed attached to Dr. Martin, as if there was a mission to be fulfilled.
"I sympathize with your loss, Dr. Martin, and I apologize for intruding," the Traveller said. "I'm afraid that I'm not really certain why I'm here. You see, my memory only goes back half a year or so, to when I awoke in the desert. I don't know who I am, but I do know that I'm here for a reason. And that reason seems to have something to do with you."
"Is there some aspect of your work that could have a critical impact on the world?"
"Critical effect on the world?" Martin laughed, but it was a laugh full of sorrow and despair. "No, not to the world. Just to me. Once, I would have told you of the beneficial effects of my experiments on the world."
Martin seemed to come to a decision. "We're alike, Mr. Trail. You have no past, and I have no future. In an instant, my family was killed. My technical achievements are like ashes. But I can change it."
"My experiment will liberate a tremendous amount of what I'm calling quantum energy. It's the chaotic order that makes the universe run. I can harness that energy to travel back in time and prevent my family from dying."
Martin sighed. "It's either that, or give up living myself."
The Traveller's mind reeled. Liberating quantum energy, time travel, changing the past...it all sparked something in his memories.
...the cataclysmic quantum explosion rocked the very foundation of spacetime. Before this, time was fixed and unchangable, and afterward...well, afterward we have the possibility of multiple...
There was more, but only vague feelings and hunches. The Traveller knew that he had been sent to ensure that Martin's experiment succeeded. Did that mean that he was from the future? The Traveller shook his head. He couldn't resolve the paradoxes all of this raised, but he knew one thing.
Dr. Martin thought he could save his family by running this experiment.
So the experiment would be run.
Meanwhile, on a lonely road in northern Ohio, Vagabond walked. His trip to the university had unlocked all of his memories. He knew just where he was going and why. The only question was, what would the other do?