TIME & TIED: AWARENESS

ARC 1.1 - Of The Device

PART 3b: THE PLANE TRUTH 2

"In the Bermuda... what?" Frank shook his head, an incredulous look on his face. Carrie felt the urge to slap it off, so she did. "Ow! Will you cut that out?!"

"You were going to laugh, weren't you? Well, it's not funny!" Carrie said, turning away and folding her arms across her chest. "It sounds stupid but that's what happened! What's more, ever since then everything has been screwed up with our family. Dad used to think she would come back, he's such a pathetic romantic. I didn't even get the whole story until I was practically a teenager. I wasn't sure if I could believe him even then, but I double checked the story myself with my grandparents." Carrie looked over at the visible clock again. "But in less than three hours... I can change all of that.”

She'd tell her mother not to get on the plane. Get her to give the Bermuda job to someone else. Then her mother would still be around while she was growing up, her father could spend more time with her because he wouldn't be thinking about his wife and... and well, she would have a real family and it would just be better.

Frank cleared his throat. "Carrie, you obviously have some strong feelings you're expressing here, so I hesitate to bring this up, but... we don't know anything about the repercussions of time travel. Particularly with respect to changing the past."

Carrie shrugged noncommittally. "I've seen 'Back to the Future'. In this case I'm saving my parents' relationship instead of splitting it up. No big deal."

Frank pressed a hand to his forehead. “I’m more worried we’ll end up re-enacting the movie '12 Monkeys'," he muttered. “I mean, this past may be unchangeable. Consider, if time travel has apparently been invented, why hasn't someone already gone back and prevented the two World Wars? Or 9/11?"

Carrie stared. "Frank, we're not talking atomic bomb scale here. I'm simply going to tell my mother that she shouldn't get on her plane - that she should let someone else film her documentary."

“Yeah, and how can you convince her to do that? Are you going to say that you're her sixteen year old daughter, who has traveled back in time to warn that if she doesn't do as you say, she'll be lost in the Bermuda triangle?"

"Yes!" Carrie stated emphatically. "Or... no, maybe not that much detail," she amended, bothered at the way the conversation was going.

“You think she'll cancel all her plans simply on the word of some girl she meets at the airport?"

"I... I'll show her my ID!" Carrie continued, reaching for her shoulder purse. "Damn it, no I can't, I left my purse back in your lab... how could you let me do that?"

Frank blinked. "How could I let YOU...?"

"Oh, never mind. She'll believe me! She HAS to! I'm sure she'll sense our mother-daughter bond!"

"So there's no chance at all she'll think you're a lunatic."

"Do I look like a lunatic?"

Frank paused on that one, which made Carrie wonder if she should slap him again. But before she could completely raise her arm, he continued swiftly with, "Okay then, let's look at this from your 'Back to the Future' perspective. Your mother doesn't do this job. Someone else takes her place. Say they vanish instead. As a consequence, this other person no longer gives birth to a person who was supposed to become the Prime Minister, which means you could inadvertently cause--"

"Shut up!" Carrie cut in, standing up and clenching her fists again. "Stop speculating like that!"

"Carrie, I'm just thinking that we don't want to save one life at the possible expense of other--"

"You don't know what's going to happen! You don't know how this will end up affecting things! You don't know anything!"

"No, but you don't know either!"

“I know anything would be better than what I’ve got! How dare you be so cold and analytical about this?! We're talking about my MAMA for God's sake!!" She tried to swallow the lump in her throat. "I never should have told you anything in the first place." She moved to slap him again but he moved his head back out of the way.

One well placed kick later, and Carrie was running, pushing through the small crowd, trying to get away from Frank and his stupid theories. For the damnable thing was, his concerns felt valid. Sure, Carrie had minimal qualms about toying around with the lives of people who deserved it... but this went past that.

Did she really have the right to risk permanent change to the lives of people she didn't even know? Yet she had to save her mama! Now that she could, why was doing it seeming so damn complicated?

***

Frank sat against the wall, rubbing his bruised shin and stifling a yawn. The crowd had seemed to buy his "rehearsing for a soap opera" story, but he really wished Carrie hadn't made a scene like that. Of course, he could be partially to blame, for getting her riled up... but he hadn't meant to upset her.

Frank adjusted his glasses, alternately glancing at the time machine by his feet, and over at the nearby women's washroom; Carrie had picked a good place to hide out for the last hour or so. She had to come out eventually though, and then... well, then they'd find a way to resolve this. Somehow.

Frank wondered how was it that time travel often seemed so fun and exciting in science fiction books and movies. He supposed he'd never thought about much about it outside of that. Frank made a mental note to look into the phenomenon a little more scientifically, outside the realm of Hollywood movies. Assuming they ever made it back.

Someone came out of the washroom. Frank looked back up, but it wasn't Carrie. He sighed. Could he have spoken to her differently? But she hadn't been considering potential consequences... you had to consider those in any experiment! Right? And changing the past, well, this was big time stuff - no pun intended. Someone had to play devil's advocate, and he was the only other time traveler here.

Still... Frank remembered how his pet goldfish had died when he was seven. If he could change that, would he do so? But then, that was hardly a good parallel for this circumstance, was it. He swallowed another yawn... how long had he been awake now?

The door of the washroom opened only a crack and Frank thought he saw Carrie peering through. Shaking his head to clear it, Frank stood, but the door closed again. A few seconds passed. Then the door opened completely and Carrie strode out, approaching him confidently.

As she got closer, Frank noticed that she had been crying again, but that she had tried to clean herself up to cover that fact. He decided not to say anything about it.

"All right," Carrie began as she reached him, putting her hands on her hips. "Some might consider me a bit shallow and self-centred, but I'll have you know that I DO consider the consequences of my actions. So listen to THIS.”

“I'll tell my mom that I'm an intern from her company. That we got word of bad weather in Bermuda, delaying the shoot for a day. That we can't reach the pilot of her connecting flight, but are advising her to hold off on flying out of Florida until sometime tomorrow morning. Furthermore, that they should use the time to double check the mechanisms of their aircraft. Thus, even if they’re not delayed a whole day, ANY delay, plus the possible repair of anything wrong should prevent her death without screwing up anyone else's future." Carrie allowed herself a self-satisfied smile. "So?"

Frank stared. "I must admit, I'm impressed. But don't you think your mother will double check your information?"

“Her phone was off during dinner. When she arrives here, she'll be running a bit late, so she shouldn't have time to contact anyone. Then by the time she's in Florida, no one will be working in the office to check with," Carrie stated.

She really HAD thought this through, Frank realized.

"Besides, if it turns out that we need more than my explanation, we can come back again to try something else.”

Frank blinked, wondering if he'd just heard correctly. "Wait. Come back? Carrie, paradoxes notwithstanding, we don't know how the device brought us here in the first place!"

"Oh, didn't I say? I figured that out too. Since I was thinking about my mother, the time machine picked up on that and brought us to this location," Carrie revealed, now sounding far too smug for Frank's tastes.

"That's not scientific," he countered in annoyance. "I don't remember seeing any 'pick up user's mental brainwaves' circuit incorporated into the device." Though he had to admit, he wondered if that would be something he'd recognize.

"Look again, maybe you missed it."

“We're not presently in a location that lends itself to poking around in the innards of this device! What if someone thinks it’s an explosive?”

"Hmph," Carrie grumbled. "So, tell me again why you came along?"

"I'm starting to wonder that myself," Frank sniped back.

***

Carrie shook her head. Still, she supposed it was only natural for Frank to be a bit upset at being shown up by a cheerleader. Truth be told, even she was impressed with her own deductive reasoning - the last forty-five minutes had been spent trying to tap into any and all resources available inside her, to reason through the problem. It was an actual life and death situation, after all.

However, maybe she should try and be a bit nicer to Frank. Without him initiating said reasoning, she might have made a fool out of herself in front of her mother.

“Look, Frank, if you want to do something useful here, I am thirsty after all the running from before. Since we have almost two hours to wait until my mother arrives, how about you buy me a drink?" Carrie proposed. She started to twirl a strand of her hair in her fingers. "I mean, I'd pay but I left my money back in your lab."

Frank stared. He opened his mouth like he wanted to say something, then closed it, then threw up his hands. "Sure, whatever, I’m thirsty too.”

Carrie smiled engagingly and turned to look around the area. "So where do they hide the refreshment stands in airports anyway?" she mused. "I never come to these places." She shivered involuntarily.

Frank pulled out his wallet and removed a twenty. "How should I know? Maybe-- oh, shoot, wait a minute. This bill... it wouldn’t have existed eleven years ago. I can’t pay for something using money that doesn’t exist yet, they won’t recognize it.”

"Bah, use change then," Carrie stated, airily waving a hand.

Frank fished around in his pocket, emerging with some coins, as well as his roll of quarters for powering the machine. "But even these have dates on them,” he pointed out. “I’ll need to check each one to see if it exists in this present."

"Oh, God, Frank, seriously – who bothers checking the dates on coins??"

"But the potential economic repercussions--" Frank froze. "Wait, did you just say people won't check the dates?"

"Newsflash, Frank. As long money looks authentic, most people don't pay any attention." Why did she even have to explain it?

"But... of course!" Frank said, excitedly. "It's a bit of a wild theory, but if I'm right... Carrie, I've now figured out how the time machine works!"