The Legend of Things Past (Beyond Pluto SciFi Futuristic Aventures Book 1) (20 page)

“Everything is theoretically impossible, until it is done.”

—Robert A. Heinlein

May 5, 2258

Santa Monica, CA

Donovan Knight

General McGregor was an imposing man. He was a full head
shorter than Donovan but still managed to make him feel like a teenager if he
ever did something wrong. He reminded Donovan a little of his dad, though they
looked nothing alike. For as long as he had been a part of the army, Donovan
had answered to this man above all others.

No one seemed to remember a time when Hesekiel McGregor was
not in charge. He was a four-star General—commander of the entire army.

Donovan stood at attention and gave his report while General
McGregor listened with an expression almost like a glare. He always looked like
that—like he was on the edge of anger. But this was his neutral expression.
Donovan knew him well enough to see that he was actually quite pleased.

The criminal had been loaded into a car only minutes before,
cuffs still intact around his wrists, body sagging in the arms of two Privates.
They dragged him in unceremoniously, knocking his head against the door twice.
Donovan felt a sense of accomplishment. There had been no deaths. Tons of action
but no property destroyed.

“You did a good job,” the General said.

“Thank you, sir.”

“I have another mission for you, Knight.”

“Already sir?”

The General raised his eyebrows. “Crime never sleeps,
Knight. So neither can we.” The General opened the door to his private skycar.
“Get in.”

Donovan climbed into the back. The General sat across from
him and closed the door. The driver steered them toward the sky.

“Knight.” The General leaned forward, looking Donovan in the
eye. “I have a lot to tell you. And you’re not going to believe a word of it.”

Donovan tried not to laugh. “What is it, General?”

Donovan didn’t believe it. Not at first. It was a wild
tale—about him. Him and his grandfather and General McGregor. A tale of
idolizing a monster only to discover that Donovan had been right all
along—Tobias had betrayed General McGregor a few years after the lab was
destroyed.

It made no sense. Donovan couldn’t remember any of it, so
how could it have happened?

“That version of you disappeared because I won’t send you
back in time tomorrow.”

Donovan still didn’t understand. “Even if what you’re saying
is true, why are you telling me all this?”

The General cleared his throat. “Well, we got the results
back of your last physical. It revealed some… abnormalities.”

“What do you mean?”

“We found the primer virus in your blood, coated with an
altered version E-X45.”

“What?” Donovan said. He suddenly felt itchy. “What does that
even mean?”

“It’s like I told you. E-X45 enhances the virus Tobias
created. It gives a person almost supernatural strength, hearing, sight…”

“But I don’t feel strong. I don’t feel any different.”

“We believe that this altered version is a little slower acting
than the original. But you
will
feel strong. You
will
change.”

“Why would this be in my blood?” Donovan asked, ignoring the
implications of what the General was saying. He didn’t want to think how this
would change him. He didn’t want to know the things he was being told.

“There’s only one explanation for its presence in your
body—Tobias is alive.” The General watched Donovan carefully. “We need you to
help us find him.”

“And you need to keep a close eye on me while this
thing
develops
inside me.”

The General nodded.

Donovan dropped his head into his hands. He didn’t know what
to think. Time travel? Seriously? He would think this was a joke if he didn’t
know that the General had no sense of humor.

“I can prove it to you,” the General said. “I can show you
all of the classified files. It’s all documented in detail.”

They flew to Fort Belvoir in Virginia. Donovan called his
wife to let her know he wouldn’t be home until late.

The General led Donovan up to the fifty-fourth floor. He
used a white access card. They went into an office at the back of a huge, empty
room filled with rows and rows of desks loaded with computers.

Once they sat down, the General began to play back the
recordings. Even though he’d been warned, he was still startled to see his own
face appear on the screen and hear his own voice saying words that he never
remembered saying.

“I stole the formula and went to Lohiri, hoping to get
information from Tobias.”

The record cut to a woman with blue streaks in her hair. “I
survived the attack because one of my comrades accidently knocked me out. When
I awoke, I went into stealth mode and entered the lab.”

Later there was a young boy, white with red hair and
freckles dotting his face. “I went with the solider to help rescue Donovan. I
had to do something.”

Who was this kid? Why did he use Donovan’s first name?

“I fought with Colonel McGregor. The E-X45 gave me the
strength to defeat him. I left him alive but with serious injuries. No doubt
the formula healed his wounds. I just couldn’t kill him after knowing the man
he would become. It was for nothing, though—he probably died in the explosion.”

Another man appeared. “I had to do something. I couldn’t
just let Jonathan fight alone. So I took the bomb and joined him. He created a
distraction for me while I snuck inside the lab.”

Donovan’s own face showed up again. “We ran and hid behind a
boulder for protection against the bomb. There were a number of casualties. The
exact amount was undetermined. We sent the civilians to earth.”

The footage paused.

“Is that enough proof for you?”

“Tobias, the real one… he escaped the explosion?”

“Yes. We had secret escape pods. Our security detected the
bomb just as soon as it was planted. That was how I got away, as well.”

“This is unbelievable.”

“But true,” the General said.

“But true,” Donovan repeated.

“We don’t know Tobias’s goals, but he’s clearly still
playing around with that virus of his. Will you accept this mission, Donovan?
It’s completely voluntary. After what I did to you last time… Well, I can’t
send you on another mission in which you don’t know the full details.”

His own grandfather had tried to kill him. His own
grandfather had injected his blood with some mutant disease. Tobias might even
come after Donovan’s own family.

There was no question about it.

Donovan looked the General in the eyes, wondering for the
first time who he really was. He was going to find out. He would accept the
mission.

“How could I say no?”

Donovan Knight:
An Army Specialist whose job
it is to find and eradicate cells of the terrorist group x5 The Liberation
Contingent. His grandfather, Tobias Knight, raised him. Tobias taught Donovan
the ins and outs of the sciences, especially physics, quantum physics, and
astronomy. He was really good—a child prodigy—but preferred not to be a
scientist like his grandfather.

Tobias Knight:
A scientific genius, known
worldwide as the greatest mind since Stephen Hawking. He is the inventor of the
modern teleportation machine (publicly) and inventor of the time machine
(secretly). He grew up in a bad neighborhood and in an abusive home, but
science was his refuge.

Nona Knight:
Donovan’s wife. She grew up in
the slums of Bakersfield. She is a geneticist working to reintroduce extinct
species into the wild.

Lamar Knight:
Donovan’s youngest son. He grew
up in the wealthy city of Santa Monica and now runs a non-profit organization
which caters to the needs of the poor.

Jason Knight:
Donovan’s oldest son. He grew up
in the wealthy city of Santa Monica and now works as a designer for Liao
Inserts.

General Hesekiel McGregor:
The General in
2258, a Colonel in 2180. He is a computer systems specialist—the brightest mind
in the field.

Captain Brian Umar:
A very talented biologist
and geneticist. His status in 2176 is unknown.

General Cornelius Umar:
The General in 2180.
His status in 2176 is unknown.

Tracee Patricia Parker:
Tracee is an Army
Specialist in 2180. She specializes in combat as well as teleportation and
space navigation.

Global Climate Change:
From August 2078 to
October 2081, scientists worldwide united in daily meetings in order to solve
the problems of global climate change and environmental destruction. This group
called themselves the Scientific Community United for Earth (aka SCUFE). As a
result, there are international laws that protect the environment and they are
strictly enforced. Factory farms are prohibited and only local farming is
allowed. Hunting any animal of any kind is illegal.

Clean Energy:
Also as a result of the SCUFE
meetings, petroleum was outlawed. Scientists discovered a powerful source of
clean energy on a planet in a nearby galaxy. Once, it was harvested from the
planet every ten years. By 2180, after Tobias Knight invented teleportation,
humans have access to the planet any time they need it. It was the beginning of
unlimited clean energy. It powers the skycars, the skycycles, the jetcars, and
all technology running on electricity.

Landfills and Waste:
SCUFE sent all of the
waste and garbage on earth to another planet (1000 plus degrees) to be
destroyed. This “cleaning of the planet” happened over a span of twenty years—2078
to 2098. Plastic was banned in 2081. In 2258, the time period that Donovan
Knight lives in, you can drink from a stream without fear of getting sick.

Endangered Species List:
The species of
animals that were endangered have all recovered with the help of biologists and
geneticists. Scientists have even made an effort to bring back extinct animals
using DNA from fossils.

Crime:
People still have their vices. Though
humans saved the planet with modern technology, the earth has not become a
utopia by any means. People consume technological products at a rate three
times that of their 2015 counterparts. There are almost unlimited resources but
limited access to them. Those in power keep the resources to themselves. As a
result, there are wealthy cities like Santa Monica, as well as slums like
Bakersfield. There is still murder and theft. New recreational drugs exist that
are far more dangerous than the drugs that existed one hundred to two hundred
years ago.

The Legend of Things
Past
began with an idea:

An Elite Army Specialist is recruited to travel back in time
to an unknown destination that will take him to a different planet in order to
stop a catastrophe here on earth in the present. What he does not know is that
for him to succeed, it will require him to travel back in time to kill his evil
grandfather. The question is will he go and do what he must do. It would mean
his own wife may never have met him in the future and his own two children may
not have been born. The stakes have never been higher for civilization as his
grandfather is the creator of a gene, which he carries, that will wipe out the human
race once fully matured. He has less than three weeks to come back with the
cure. The year is 2258. What he could not have known is that his grandfather anticipated
as much and created clones whose descendants are on the very planet he is
heading to. Their objective is to destroy the people on Earth and inhabit it
for themselves.

I would like to thank the following people who loved and
helped me over the years and who have believed in my talents: Theresa Sheppard
Alexander, Arthur Theodore Sheppard, Lintonia Sheppard, Lois Winona Sheppard,
Patricia Ruth Sheppard, Phillis Isabella Sheppard, Lois P. Quillian, Hattie
Booker Peterson, James Mitchell Sheppard, Uncle James Mitchell, Thomas Linton
Quillian. They are always there in the most trying of times.

These business people have steadfastly supported me, on this
journey, over the years and have trusted me and helped me in crucial times in
my life: Mr. Aaron Cooperband and Mr. Dan Zuckerman, Theresa Sheppard Alexander,
and Michael H. Alexander.

Thank you to these very special friends who support me: Joseph
Tillman, Holly Hoffman, Philip Smith, Glenn Richards, Lesley Bracker, Keith
Finkelstein Kat Endorsson, Benjamin “Coach” Wade, Ryan A. Corillio, Bobby Mason,
Diane Hardy, Ellen Cohen, Wendy Kram, Jodi Taylor and David Hume Kennerly. A
Big Shout Out to the entire
Survivor
family, fans and CBS Television.

I would also like to thank author, editor, and publisher of
Neworld
Review
, Fred Beauford, who appointed me Associate Publisher and has me
write columns in his magazine, “A Man About Town.”

Phillip William Sheppard is a reality TV star in Santa
Monica, California who is famous for participating in two seasons of the hit TV
show
Survivor
™. His reputation as a celebrity gave him more than 100,000
Twitter™ followers. Learn about his journey as a famous personality and book
author.

Leaving home at the young age of sixteen, he joined the US
Army and later on became a federal agent. He also worked in technology
enterprise sales for the last eighteen years of his career. He is a Former
Federal Agent and US Army Veteran.

While roller-skating in Santa Monica, he was discovered by
TV network CBS to become part of the 22nd season of
Survivor
called
Redemption Island. He also made a second appearance in the show's 26th season,
Survivor:
Caramoan Fans vs. Favorites
. "It's all pretty heady stuff, but I'm
never content just to be satisfied. It's not in me. I always look to engage the
fans, too. They're really what it's all about," said Sheppard in a recent
interview.

On
Survivor Redemption Island
, Jeff Probst, Executive
Producer and host, credited Phillip with creating a legendary and iconic
character in "The Specialist." Phillip has been very thankful for the
network and its production crew for giving him several opportunities to appear
on the show.
Survivor
has given him a way to do other things in life
like writing a book, giving back to charities, and having a chance at fame and
fortune.

Phillip is the only Survivor to have written a fictional
novel about his persona "The Specialist" while still a contestant on
the show. He is also an author and Associate Publisher at NeworldReview.com™
where he writes two columns, “A Conversation” and “A Man About Town.” Phillip
is one of twelve siblings which include his twin sister. He is a single parent
and currently lives with his son and his dog named Spike. The only thing that
he wants now more than ever is to entertain and to bring happiness to his fans
the world over.

Find Phillip on Twitter: @PSheppardTV

www.PhillipWSheppard.com