Morning Star Full Novel

Chapter 8

"I find it interesting that in the age of cavemen, we invented a God in order to explain the supernatural, and now that we are modern man we have chosen do disbelieve our own past, and choose to continue to believe in the God," Tony said.
"Don’t be so sure young man," Brinkman replied. "We have some new results on the skeletal remains that may change your mind."
"You sound like old man Parsons," Tony added. "He’s into that kind of stuff too, like creationism, God and all that miracle mumbo jumbo. What do you have that’s so interesting anyway?" he asked.
Brinkman paused and rubbed his chin." You know about the DNA database that we’ve been checking all remains against?" Brinkman asked.
"Yeah, It’s all that CIA, DOD, NSA crap spy stuff," Tony said.
"Crap?" Brinkman asked. "You won’t think so for very long."
"I’m listening" Tony said.
"We checked the DNA from your remains in storage against a sample we took recently."
"You’ve been digging through my hairbrush?" Tony asked.
"It’s all necessary and quite legal," Brinkman replied. "And the results were beyond belief."

Tony sat confused waiting for an explanation like a dumb dog staring at its master waiting for a treat.

"You don’t have DNA," Brinkman said. "At least like any I have ever seen before."
Tony thought he was joking and waited for the real answer. After a moment he spoke up and asked, "You think I am an alien or something?"
"You have sequences and strands that no other man woman or child has" Brinkman said. "Beyond the normal set."
Tony did not know what to say. He rubbed his hands together and contorted his face as he absorbed this information. He looked at Brinkman, then at the floor, and back again scratching his ear as he twisted and bobbed his head like a bird.
"Nope, don’t get it," he said. " I don’t have any extra body parts growing out of me. Sorry."
"Not all DNA has to do with physical make up you know," Brinkman said. "It may have something to do with your talents or mental abilities."
"Mental abilities?" Tony asked. "I can’t levitate spoons. I wish I could. Neat party trick."
"Or it could be a by-product of your travels through time," Brinkman said. "Like a mutation made from radiation bombardment."
Tony stumbled for the right words to say. "You don’t think that’s it do you?" he asked.
"No," Brinkman answered. "I think there is a much larger story going on than either of us understand. You are special Tony."
"If I were special I could have stopped Dorothy from being attacked and almost burned to death," Tony replied.
Both Tony and Brinkman sipped their coffee and headed back out into the field ready for another day’s work at the site. Tony’s mind was full of the images of Dorothy running through the dark of night in a ball of flame being trampled on and put out by military men. The smell of her burned hair and skin still sickened him and he felt guilty for feeling this way.
The two men caught a ride to the site on a Hummer feeling the extreme heat once again burn their skin like fire. Brinkman wore shorts and sunglasses and Tony opted, for a wide brim hat, and jean shorts, to go along with his sandals. In the back of the vehicle were there work uniforms strangely suited for work in the cold.
Alex and a crew of many men, met Tony and Brinkman at the entrance of the building smoking a cigarette. Alex wore a tank style T- shirt, allowing a long scar to be visible, running the length of his chest from shoulder to opposite hip. The scar was almost invisible hidden behind a mat of dark chest hair and glistening sweat
"So did you learn anything from the download?" Alex asked Tony.
"Yeah, I did," Tony responded. "Something became painfully obvious to me after viewing the recording."
"What was that?" Brinkman asked as he blocked the sun from his eyes.
"That time travel is a naturally occurring event," Tony replied.
Alex wiped the sweat from his brow and took a drag off his cigarette, squinting as the bright sunlight beat down upon him. He put his hands on his hips and shuffled his feet as if he were nervous.
"Naturally occurring?’ Alex asked not believing what he had just heard.
"Just like life in the universe," he said. " If the conditions are right, it just happens, spontaneously, no God, no miracles."
Both men just looked at him waiting for him to tell them it was a joke. Even though they were all men of science, to make such a claim was to stab at one’s faith and belief systems, obviously Tony had no such beliefs. The temperature was approaching ninety degrees and there was no breeze as the men continued to try to understand the problems they were facing.
"And what is your theory Dr," Alex asked.
Tony turned and looked at Alex like the skeptic he was. There was no use trying to convince this man for he had predetermined values and beliefs that no one, especially Tony could shake. Alex had the look of an opponent waiting to do battle. No matter what Tony said it would not pass the judgment of his senior colleague.
"It was the lightning," Brinkman said.
"That is correct," Tony said as he quickly turned his head in amazement. "It stood out like a sore thumb."
"Are you trying to tell me lightning somehow sent that plane back in time?" Alex asked. "You didn’t even believe traveling back in time was even possible two weeks ago and now you have stamped your seal of approval on your own theory."
"The video proved it," Tony said.
"The video proved nothing," Alex replied. "I saw nothing that would lead me to believe lightning had anything to do with this. It was an act of God."
Tony started to get agitated and argumentative with Alex hoping to prove him wrong. The only problem was that he only had a theory and had little evidence past the recording, which was average to poor at best.
"Somehow the electricity effected the plane at the molecular level, changing its properties enough to phase it out of our space and time. I will need time to work out the details but it isn’t important now anyway," Tony said.
"And why not?" Alex asked.
"It’s not like we are planning to duplicate it. Now that we know what happened we can stop these passengers from facing the same fate twice."
"Twice? You assume this is only the second time this loop has occurred?"
"You are correct. We may be in a forever looping chain of events, but let us hope it is not and we can stop it before it recycles again."
"How do you propose to do that?" Alex asked.
"Retire the plane, I don’t know. It can’t be that hard."
"If this a never ending time loop, there will be no way to stop it from repeating. If we are the only three men who know of the truth of the matter, then it is not possible, that we would be able to stop it from continuing to the same fate," Alex said, "The most plausible scenario is that we will be unable to stop it. Most likely we won’t live long enough to try."
"All we really have to do is clean up this mess and bury it under some secret military installation and pretend it never happened," Tony said. "As far as I am concerned this is a closed book. I am satisfied with my findings, I am sorry you are not Dr. Parsons."
"What makes you so positive?" Alex asked.
"I have studied time travel since I first read science fiction comic books as a child. I have spent twenty years on and off researching and formulating ideas and concepts concerning its likelihood and had come to the conclusion as a grad student that time travel into the future was not only plausible but possible and happened all the time. Time travel into the past is another story all together."
"Go on," Alex said. "You seem to be contradicting your own research paper."
"I will admit I don’t know all the answers. I just think the popular concept of time travel is incorrect." Tony said. "From the stand point of physics you can draw some conclusions that I will stand behind as fact."
"Like what?" Alex asked.
" If you approach the speed of light, your body in relation to whence you came slows the aging process," Tony replied. "In effect, allowing your home base to continue to age at a faster rate. Once you again incorporate with once you once left you will have found yourself in your future and you will appear to them from the distant past," Tony explained.
"What on Earth travels at the speed of light? How can this be a naturally occurring event? You’re theory is flawed," Alex said.
"Not everything has to move very far or in the same direction," Tony rebutted.
Brinkman just watched the men go at it. Alex was set aback by this last comment and had no answer. Tony felt he had finally got him on that point.
"It would be like a microwave oven," Alex said. "Like a burned instant burrito."
"True, but not if all the matter was moving in the same direction. You don’t burn up when you walk do you? All your molecules head in the same direction."
"I see," Said Brinkman. "Makes more sense to me now."
"Sounds like science fiction to me," Alex said, and he headed off leaving Tony and Brinkman to discuss the issue further.
"I may have a job offer for you." Brinkman said to Tony as he watched Parsons disappear behind into the building. "If you don’t mind working for the government that is."