Chapter 5
The next morning he found Jeff and Henry busy at work. "What are
you doing?" he asked.
"Got blueprints of the motorized torpedoes," Jeff answered. "We
really have to talk."
The General nodded. "Let me get some breakfast," he
answered. He looked at his watch and realized that if Jeff's
prediction that he would disappear in 48 hours was true, they didn't
have much time. He noticed all the children were still in the
house. "Isn't this a school day?" he remarked.
"Mother called the school," his youngest son answered, "and told them
because of what happened to sister we wouldn't be coming in, that we'd
be taking several days off."
"Oh," his father sighed, "I really wonder if that is necessary, but
where your mother has done it we will abide by her wishes. But go and
get some homework assignments. I do not want you to fall
behind. You can email your teacher."
"Yes, father!" the children answered, and hurried off. His
wife came out in her dressing robe.
"Oh, bless our dear maid!" she moaned. "How the neighbors
have talked since we took her in! Some of them think it was for
more reasons than Carter being your best friend."
"I know!" the General answered. "I overhear some comments
at the base, but it's something that doesn't worry us right now."
His wife hesitated a moment then continued. "I don't usually
interfere in your military affairs, But I want to know the
truth about Jeffrey. That young man is kin, I can feel it in my
bones. You can't tell me he isn't, yet I've never seen him
before, though he looks VERY familiar."
Jeff sat down his cup, stared at his wife for a moment, then simply
told her everything, let it pour out. She never said a word 'til he got
done, then she sat down in the nearest chair and went "Oh my God!
No wonder he seemed so familiar! Now that you've said it, yes, I
can see his mother and father's features in his face! My
God! What are you going to do? How can you change
things? Everything we know may disappear!"
"I have no choice!" Jeff answered. "I don't doubt that what
Jeffrey says is true. This history, this life, this way, is a
dead end. It only leads to the destruction of mankind. We
have to keep it from happening! I'll HAVE to go back into the
past. That, probably now, is unstoppable. But how I'm going
to change things I haven't got the foggiest! I'm scared to
death! But somehow I've got to get back, and make someone back
there understand that they have to go back into the past and fix
things, or it's too late, mankind is finished."
Jeffrey entered the kitchen. Mrs. Davis got up, kissed him on the
cheek and asked "Have you had breakfast, dear?"
"No, ma'am," Jeffrey answered, blushing.
"Well, I'm going to make flap jacks. Sit down. I know
what's going on. You can talk in front of me."
Jeffrey looked to the General who nodded. "These blueprints
confirm what we believe," Jeffrey began. "No boilermaker made
these plans, the technology is made to look like it came from the
1800s, but it came from much later."
"How much later?" the General asked.
"No telling!" Jeffrey answered. "That's a question we might
never be able to answer! But it's definitely NOT from the time it
was supposed to be from. Somebody gave this man these
plans! He didn't make them up, no matter how much he said he
did. He's the key! There's a date here...when he started
work on the torpedo in the sanitarium's workshop. When you go
back you've got to make somebody understand they have to go back and
tell those in authority to watch him, and when someone gives him these
plans, the plans have to be destroyed, that person executed! He
mustn't return! He'll simply try again somewhere else, somebody
else!"
"But WHO?" the General asked, "Who can I get to, and how do I
make
them believe me?"
Jeffrey took another piece of paper from the stack and laid it before
the General. The General looked at it for a few moments and then
nodded. "Of course!" he said, "Of course! He would be the
only one! And I would be just able to reach him! But how
old would I be when I get back there? Would I be able to make him
believe me?"
"No telling!" Jeffrey answered. "Can't be predicted.
But it's believed the closer you are in history to the point of
diversion, the less you will age as you go back. But that's not a
guarantee. It's only a theory. You need to learn as much
about him as you can, find something that way few people know."
The General's wife came over, looked down at the paper and
smiled. "Oh!" she said, "We don't have to worry about
that! We know something about that man that isn't even in the
history books!"
The General's eyes widened. "Of COURSE!" he remarked, "Of
course! That date is only two months off, almost to the day
before The Battle Of Hampton Roads. He had to have been given the
plans only a short time before. They wouldn't have had the time
to build the torpedoes. We've got what we need. Now we have
to pray we can succeed. But it really bothers me, it really does,
that The Confederacy has to die. There should be something, some way we
can keep that from happening."
"Not without destroying everything," Jeff answered. "There is
simply no way! If The Confederacy survives, the history that I
come from will come to pass. There is no question of it. We
can't change that, no matter how much we want to, we simply
can't! This was never meant to be. We can't change that, no
matter how much we want to, it CAN'T happen!"
The General sighed. "If that's how it is," he managed, "that's
how it is! And we can't change it. But I feel we have
accomplished so much and I hate to see it lost."