[TFWC] Through the looking Glass

Kat was studying the equations on her whiteboard so intensely that she didn't notice the sailor enter her lab. He stood for a moment watching her with a look of amusement on his face, without speaking he walked towards a laptop on an otherwise empty desk however before he got to it a voice said “ if you touch my computer you will lose your fingers navy boy!”
“Well that would be excessive, when did you get so secretive?” He asked with mild annoyance
“It was around the time the university cut my funding in half and I had to sell my soul to the DOD just to keep the lights on, you don't even have clearance to use my calculator.” she finally turned her attention from the equations and turned to face the sailor now sitting at her desk wearing full dress whites. “What's the occasion?” she asked with a puzzled look
“It was the funeral this morning” his fingers anxiously started to tap the desk.
“Right, I'm so sorry Max you know how I am. I get lost in my own little world.” she replied feeling foolish.
“Relax I'm fine I don't need you to mother me” he said confidently, his eyes gave away how desperate he really felt
“Max you just buried your best friend, it's ok to let yourself feel it besides your my baby brother it's my job to mother you in the absence of our mother” her eyes watched him carefully
“Less of the baby, you are barely five minutes older than I am and anyway it's bad enough I have to deal with mom smothering me.” He stood up and walked over to the whiteboard, he began to study the equations intensely in the same manner Kat did when she wanted to throw herself in to work.



Kat stood next to her brother and felt a wave of familiarity wash over her making her smile “The last time you and I worked on the same problem it was still illegal for us to drink”
“Lucky for Alice we couldn't drink” Max replied with a chuckle, surprising himself.
“Yes she is a puritan that one and judgemental, Honestly you are lucky you enlisted and escaped her grasp.”
“She's not that bad, you are both as stubborn as each other” He scolded
“I'm allowed to be stubborn, she's an AI she is supposed to be helpful but she is condescending and downright annoying.” Kat exclaimed
“ And I wonder who she learned those traits from while I was away? Face it I wrote the code for the perfect computer programme with the ability to learn and grow exponentially and you taught her how to be premenstrual.” He said trying not to laugh and failing, Kat looked at him in disgust before replying “She is far from perfect but she is without doubt one of a kind.” Max took two bottles of water from the mini fridge in the corner and tossed one to his twin
“So tell me what are working on that has got you so worked up that you are forgetting to attend funerals.”




“Really? Quantum transport, I am in the military and even I think giving them the ability to move anything they want from one side of the planet to the other instantly is a bad idea. What are you thinking?”Max shouted
“I was thinking if I can figure out this technology then so can someone else, If I do it I can build in fail safes!” Kat was angry her voice shaking she had not anticipated her brothers reaction to be so hostile “ You are the one person I thought would support me Max!”
“I will support you in everything, you know that but we can't just hand them a one way ticket to world domination that is the very reason we decided to keep Alice a secret because even when we were writing her code we knew exactly how powerful she would become.” Max tried to reason with his sister. “Dear god Max you are such a boyscout, This technology could be used for so many great things and so could Alice, I keep her running at minimum because that is what you want but this is what I want. This could change the world for the better.” Kat was getting angry and Max could see that his argument wasn't going to penetrate her irrefutable logic.
“Your right I'm sorry, you know what you are doing and it's not my place to be the physics police” he said flashing a childish grin. “ So how about you show me how this works!” he said pointing at the grid on the floor.
“Basically this platform here is going to be point one, the idea is to create a quantum bridge between point one and point two.” she explained while typing furiously on her laptop.
“I assume you haven't built the second platform yet since you appear to still be running power simulations” He asked
“Once again little brother your grasp on the obvious amazes me, Now lets feed some juice in to this baby and see what she can take” Kat typed a series of numbers in to the computer and hit enter.


There was a flash of brilliant white light and then total darkness.




Max woke up on the floor of the lab, he tried to stand but dizziness overcame him and he fell to his knees and vomited. “Kat” he called out but the dust in the air caused him to choke. He stood up and tried to get his bearings when he heard movement behind him “Kat” he yelled, as he turned to find her something struck him hard on the side of his head and he slipped in to unconsciousness.

Continued...



Max was strapped to a chair in a small room that smelled of damp and tobacco, the room was empty except for the chair he was in and the empty chair directly across from him. This is not good he thought to himself as the door to his left opened and a man stepped through. He was dressed in black cargo pants with a white t-shirt which read, If you think i am ugly, you should see my wife in Black letters. The man was about sixty years old with short grey hair and an expertly groomed grey beard, Max thought he looked like Kenny Rogers. The man sat across from Max and smiled before starting to speak, “I know you must be wondering what's going on around about now, let me assure you nobody here is going to harm you in any way. All I want is to ask you one question.” His voice was gravelly and when he spoke it was apparent that every word was chosen carefully, Max thought to himself that this was not the type of man you played games with. “I understand” Max replied
“Excellent, I'm sure you have a hundred questions for me and I have hundreds more for you but all I want to know is what year is it?”
“It's 2013” Max answered without hesitation, his answer seemed to startle the man.
“Thank you Max, I think it's time I brought you up to speed.” he seemed nervous as he rose from his chair and took a blade from his boot, Max gasped expecting the worst when the man cut him free of the binds tying him to the chair.
“Where am I?” Max asked
“Harvard campus directly below the Schlesinger library, Max before I can let you out of this room there are some things you need to know so no interruptions.” He paused trying to find the right words to explain before deciding there were no words for situations like this. “It's not 2013 It's 2041 and before you ask I have no idea how you ended up here but I have a suspicion that has something to do with the QTN.”
“what's the QTN” Max interrupted, the bearded man looked annoyed for a second before continuing
“The Quantum Transport Network, it went live exactly 28 years to the day from when Dr Katherine Mitchell and her twin brother Lieutenant commander Max Mitchell were killed in a lab explosion while testing her QTN prototype. It went online this morning precisely when you appeared, Now obviously that was no explosion and you are not dead so the question is what now Commander?” he paused waiting for an answer, Max stood up and paced for a few moments before answering. “ I need to find my sister, that is all that matters right now” before any kind of reply could be made the entire room shook violently and the sound of screams came from above, Both men ran for the door.



The smell of burning flesh caught in Max's throat as he walked through what was left of the library, The bodies of men, women and children lay scattered across the room. The man who resembled Kenny Rogers was standing where the north wall used to be staring up at the sky in bewilderment.
“What can I do to help” Max asked but he didn't answer
“Jack! Pull it together” a pretty blond women screamed at him. He turned to face her, tears streaming down his cheeks and suddenly there was an intensity to his eyes almost like he had just discovered his true purpose. “ Tell everyone to grab what supplies they can carry, we move out in ten. Max if you come with us we can help you find your sister but it's your decision” Max picked up what looked like a pistol from one of the dead men, he also took his clothes, boots and ammunition.



It had been Three days since Max had arrived at Rebel Headquarters by now everybody knew who he was and they took great joy in getting the time traveler up to speed on what he had missed while he was away, what they told him hit him hard. The United states had been disbanded in 2020 paving the way for the United Earth Empire, the Emperor and Empress now rule over the entire planet with an iron fist, the only people safe from their wicked wrath are their children Prince George, Princess Elizabeth and Princess Diana. The world is now split in to 10 sectors, The north American continent is sector 4 and that in turn is split in to 26 districts. The only district in north America that is not under imperial control is district X, district X ranges from Massachusetts to Nebraska and as far south as Kentucky. All of the Rebel camps are inside district X, the imperial forces usually stay out of the district returning every once in a while to reduce the Rebel numbers by blowing the camps to hell with drones. The cold hard truth is most of the rebels are refugees fleeing from the imperialist, very few of them are fighters . Max thought about how much the world had changed and he wondered why they even bother to fight, from what he could see resistance was futile.



“Max” he heard someone call his name waking him from his dream.
“What can I do for you?” he asked the pretty blonde as she walked in to his tent
“The captain wants to see you.” was all she said before turning and walking out, she had a confidence to the way she carried herself which max found very interesting. He pulled on black cargo pants and a T-shirt, tied his boots and found his pistol and headed for the captains tent. Captain Ryan sat behind his desk looking at what Max thought could only be a computer screen.
“Come in commander I have some good news for you, we have located your sister.”
“where is she?” Max demanded
“New york city, SID headquarters”
“What's SID” he asked knowing he wasn't going to like the answer
“Security and Intelligence Division, think NSA, CIA and FBI all rolled in to one big pot of alphabet soup. They are the elite of the imperial security forces and they do not play nice.”
“I am going after her captain, she is my sister I won't leave her.” he said sounding panicked
“I know commander and I am going to give you the help you need to get her out.”
“Why would you do that? New York is Imperial loyalist territory, it's practically a suicide mission” Max tried to keep his voice steady
“This rebellion is not going well Max! We are vastly outnumbered not to mentioned out-gunned, I will do this for two reasons. Firstly your sister is one of the greatest scientific minds of her generation she would be the greatest asset we had if we can get her to work with us and secondly if I help rescue your sister I think you will help me in return.” Max pondered this for a moment before replying “ What do you require of me in return?” he quizzed
“Thats very simple, I want you to train us to be soldiers”
“What makes you think I have the knowledge or capability to do that?” he spoke carefully
“Please? My friend, I know you were DEVGRU and I know if any of us have a chance of surviving this rebellion it will be because of what you can teach us.” Max smiled a knowing smile and said
“When my sister is safe you can consider me under your command captain”

Continued...



Max stood in the command tent with Captain Ryan, Jack and the Blonde women called Ruby, they were discussing how best to approach the SID building. The computer projected an image of the building onto the large table in the centre of the room, Ruby used a display system that appeared on the desk in front of her.
“Civilian access to that area is restricted sir, our movements would be detected before we got close” she said
“I have an idea” Max offered “ can you still access the internet” he asked curiously
“ Of course! Why?!” she enquired
“May I?” he used the display she was using and executed a command to access a secure cloud drive, he entered his password. “ how do you give this system voice commands?” he looked at Ruby knowing it would be her who provided the answer. She handed him a small pink device, “ Put this in your ear” she told him as if she was teaching a child how perform the simplest of tasks. Max decided that she thought he was an idiot and he was determined to prove her wrong, he put the device in his ear and immediately heard a soft buzzing tone and felt a small electric shock in his neck. When he opened his eyes he felt a wave of hyper awareness before he realised he had a direct neural link with the rebel computer system. “Wow” was all he could say, “ Execute Alpha protocol” he spoke directly and instantly the entire system rebooted itself.
“Identity confirmation required” He heard the voice in his ear and turned to see if the others had heard it, from the looks on their faces they had and were worried.
“Code in Alpha Charlie Mike 25175837”
“Voice analysis match, identity confirmed Max Mitchell.” the voice was female and spoke with an upper-class English accent, Captain Ryan rounded on Max his eyes filled with fury
“Who the hell is that?” his voice was panicked and harsh
“That's Alice she's a self aware artificial intelligence that can gain access to any system anywhere in the world. Essentially she is a master key for any digital file or system you could ever want access to but more importantly she is going to give you an edge in this rebellion that neither myself or my sister could ever give you.” Max spoke directly to the captain without dropping his gaze
“And how exactly is she going to do that?” he asked sounding unconvinced
“First she is going to erase all of your men from the imperial watch lists and then she is going to open a back door in to the drone defence network and finally she is going to help me turn your refugees into soldiers!” Max paused for a moment to let the captain digest the information before continuing “ but before she does any of that she is going to analyze the data and figure out the best plan to safely rescue Kat, Then and only then will I allow you and your men access to her.”




New York city was a completely different city, the population less than half of what it was in 2013. The entire island of Manhattan was a militarized zone with constant foot patrols and countless drones circling overhead, which was why Alice decided their best chance for a successful outcome was to travel through the old subway lines. The trains didn't run anymore so there was no danger except maybe from the several hundred people living underneath the city.


The plan was simple Jack, Ruby and five other rebels were to create a distraction by blowing some explosive charges in the building across the street from SID HQ, Alice would take control of the drones and turn them on imperial security forces While Max infiltrated the building and extracted Kat.



Max heard the explosions just as he reached the floor Alice had told him Kat was located “Alice what is Kat's current location?”
“Down the hall fifteen meters turn left, two guards in the hallway Kat is Located in the room numbered 137 B” Alice replied as she used the drones outside to mow-down a group of loyalists trying to flank Ruby's position.
“Copy that” Max acknowledged, he reached the corridor and crept up behind the two guards. Silently he drew his blade and sliced opened the first guards throat, the second guard tried to call for help but he was dead before he could get to his comm device. Max opened the door to find Kat bound to a chair and blindfolded, She screamed as he approached.
“It's ok Kat it's me calm down.” he said softly
“Max, is that really you?” she questioned him sounding terrified, he cut her ties and removed her blindfold. She gasped and threw her arms around his neck, “Max, I am so glad to see you I thought you were dead.”
“No time to chat, we need to move now.” he grabbed her arm and took off down the corridor
“Alice, send up the elevator” he spoke through the comm interface
“Did you just say Alice?” Kat asked confused
“Yes , Alice now stop with the questions and move” he pulled her around the corner as the elevator doors opened and a guard stepped out, before he could draw his weapon Kat grabbed the knife from Max's waist and threw it. She hit her mark, the knife impaled the guards throat and he went down without a scream.



Kat and Max took the elevator down to the sub-basement. “ it's good to know that even though the world has changed elevator music still makes me want to kill myself, next time we take the stairs” Kat said with a smile at her brother that told him she wasn't seriously hurt and that she was going to be fine. The elevator doors opened and they ran for the entrance to the subway tunnels
“Alice we are clear get everyone to the rendezvous point”
“Understood commander” Alice responded before asking “ Is Katherine ok?”
“She's fine Alice you can speak with her as soon as we get the hell out of this death-trap city.”




Back at the rebel base Max and Kat sat on a rooftop looking at the stars and drinking whiskey
“Thanks for getting me out of there” She said her voice hiding a secret trauma
“Well I wasn't going to leave you there, you are my ticket home” Max said with his trademark childish grin
“We can't ever go home Max, I don't even know how we got here in the first place. Of course I knew time travel was theoretically possible but only forward, Never back”
“I know, I asked Alice to look into it for me she said the same.”
“Well we are together that's what matters” she stated trying to sound calm
“True, plus we have Alice I figure considering we fell through the looking glass and ended up in wonderland having Alice along for the ride might be the smart move not to mention she is practically the only friend either of us has.” Max added
“It's not so bad here” Kat said as she took a gulp of whiskey and looked at the stars
“Yes, I'm sure you will make plenty of friends little miss popular” Max laughed as she punched him in the arm
“So what now little brother?” she asked
“Sleep and then tomorrow I have to train an army” he spoke with a renewed sense of purpose, Kat looked at him and noticed for the first time a painful determination in his eyes.

Nice story. Direct and to the point. SnF.

However, you could use a bit more polish on your punctuation. A tad hard to read.

Best of luck in the contest!

reply to post by Ph03n1x


Hey friend!
That was awesome! Helluva imagination...great detail!
I will forever picture Kenny Rogers in that t-shirt now, lol.
Good luck...S&F
jacygirl

reply to post by jacygirl


I just had to put a Kenny rogers reference in there..

the guy has always freaked me out...

To be perfectly honest i am pleased most of the words are spelled correctly, i got so lost in this story when i was writing it that i saw most of it in my head while i was typing, that never happens to me i am a stare at the keyboard kinda guy, so i think all in all my punctuation could have been worse

although after reading it again i notice i did go slightly overboard with the punctuation lol..

reply to post by Ph03n1x


Hahaha...have you seen Kenny Rogers recently? lol...plastic surgery gone wrong!!
I thought your punctuation was great, but then I worry about over-punctuation too. Those English classes were a LONG time ago.
Anyways...just a friendly reply, and a *bump* to keep your story recent.
jacygirl

reply to post by jacygirl


I came across a Kenny rogers meme the other day and it creeped me out, his face looks like it's melting before my very eyes....

My punctuation wasn't that bad but it wasn't perfect and those english classes were a long time ago but i learned english as a second language so i can use that as an excuse

reply to post by Ph03n1x


I would never have guessed that English is your second language! I think you're very well spoken.
Shameless *bump*....love to see the contest stories hitting the front page, lol.
jacygirl

reply to post by jacygirl


I can't exactly claim second language, i learned very young at school and then i moved to Scotland as a kid so i was using it everyday from then on.... technically it's not the first language i learned to speak but it isn't the last either

i find the english isn't my first language excuse helps me cope with my sometimes terrible grammar

reply to post by Ph03n1x


Howdy friend
That was really good. I thought I had already SnF ...but I guess not. I just gave my stars out and a flag

I really did enjoy the story. I read it the other day, I just didn't comment yet. You have a great imagination and the details are good. It was a mini movie in my head. Thanks for writing it and sharing with us.

Good luck to you in this contest

reply to post by natalia


thanks Nat,

I'm glad you enjoyed it.... it played like a movie in my head when i was writing, very weird .

i can get lost in my imagination sometimes but unfortunately i always have to return to reality

reply to post by jacygirl



All of the entries this month are great... i have been having a great time reading them all...

if only i could figure out my idea for the Halloween contest....

now that i have used this comment to shamelessly bump my own thread i will get back to trying to write....