POINT OPTION: A Time-Travel Military Thriller by Ian A. O'Connor

Author:Ian A. O'Connor [O'Connor, Ian A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pegasus Publishing & Entertainment Group
Published: 2021-10-29T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 15

Tuesday night – Wednesday morning, June 22nd

– June 23rd

Fleming was in his stateroom, enjoying the profound sense of relief that he was again among friends and in familiar surroundings. He had taken note of the multi-colored bruises on his torso when showering, trophies acquired when he had been violently blown away from the ejection seat. And aching muscles in his back foretold of more such souvenirs yet to be discovered.

Like many military officers, Fleming kept a daily diary, a habit picked up while a cadet at the Air Force Academy. Some entries were longer and more detailed, others no more than a single sentence. But in the fifteen years of faithful recordings, he could only remember missing a handful of days, and most were recounted later. These diaries were actual hardcopy books and not merely electronic logs in computer files. Fourteen were now stored in his parents’ home in Sedona, Arizona, the fifteenth, and current one, was with him now on the LBJ. He harbored secret visions of one day turning them into a best seller, or a blockbuster movie, or even … ?

It took him an hour to transcribe the events of the last two days. Because the admiral had placed a TOP SECRET blanket over the incident, he had been extra careful with his choice of words. Satisfied, he closed the diary and snapped shut the locking mechanism.

Fleming picked up a magazine which had been on his desk since his arrival. The banner headline read: “PROPERTY OF USS LYNDON BAINES JOHNSON PLANKOWNERS.” He flopped down on his bunk and snapped on the reading lamp. Speedreading through the introductory Welcome Aboard message from the Captain, he settled in to learn some of the more interesting facts about the world’s most potent warship.

‘The LBJ has much more room for storage than her older generations of sister carriers simply because she is not required to carry thousands of tons of ship's fuel just to keep the screws turning. This has freed up much more space for additional aviation fuel and weaponing, enabling her to roam the seas for extended periods and strike an enemy repeatedly.’

Fleming put the magazine aside, snapped off the light, closed his eyes, smiled into the darkness, and thought, none of this impresses the average eighteen or nineteen-year-old plankowner. Nope, those kids live only to go from one shore leave to the next, and dream of scoring while guzzling gallons of local beer.

* * * * *

It was now shortly after midnight, and the carrier lay three miles from the mouth of the harbor at Livorno. Captain Blizzard was talking quietly with his XO, who had just remarked that the fathom depth readings and channel markings on their paper charts weren't worth a damn.

“Miles, I've been thinking about that Russian sub. Birdwell’s on the right track about time warps, fourth dimension transitions, and what have you. The submarine incident supports his theory. One second she wasn’t there, and the next moment all hell was breaking loose. And

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