The Time Travel memoirs: Lost And So Alone

Holy Shit.
Lloyd and Stryker informed me that John had gone missing when we were gone. There was no sign of the former Captain anywhere on the whole ship; Lloyd had checked when he didn’t turn up for lunch. I had got in touch with the Spartans again on the planet below; they did a thorough planet scan and informed us that no human life existed below. An hour later when John would have been out of the star system we figured out why.

John Storm was a demon, his diary had said so. I had shown it around the ship, it created an excuse for everyone to sigh. “I just don’t understand why he did the other diary entries, they all seem perfectly normal.” Lloyd had said. I put my head in my hands and mused. John had been one of the bravest men I had seen, that I had met, he was amongst everything, a source of inspiration, but, how do you react when you find out that for the past few months, he had been replaced by a demon?

“I can only think that a little part of John was alive inside of him, the demon had to let some of John’s thoughts out every once in a while, or he’d probably die, possession isn’t completely unheard of man, it’s a big universe.” I nodded, “that’s a nice way to think of it, I just wish we had the real John here, you know?”
Lloyd sat back on the comfortable seat in the living room of the Majestic and pondered the situation; he was wearing reading glasses and was smoking one of his cigars. The smell didn’t get to me anymore, I didn’t crave it, but I had certainly begun to enjoy the familiar smell of power and safety. Lloyd took another drag, a long one and said; “you knew something wasn’t wrong though, didn’t you sir?”

I looked over to Lloyd’s place and put my feet up on a soft green chair. “I had my doubts; I wouldn’t have guessed he was a demon though.”
Sachar sat on the bench of the adjoining kitchen, listening intently, whilst polishing the sleek silver of his champion sword. He looked up and raised an eyebrow at my words, “what made you doubt, if you don’t mind me asking sir?” I sniffed and scratched the bridge of my nose, the thoughts made me uncomfortable, but these men were my crew and they were the closest friends I ever had, they deserved to know everything.
I stood up and began pacing the room; I took one of my magnums from the bench and began to remove the bullets, just for something to do whilst I talked.

“Sachar... John was a compassionate man, he loved life, he was charismatic and cool, he was a pirate, yes, but he wouldn’t ever see another human die if they could have lived. I learned that on Woodervech. What he did to the men at Blackbeard’s headquarters wasn’t John, he would have devised a plan, and he would never simply go in, all guns blazing. No, that wasn’t John, I couldn’t even believe the man would change his views; he wouldn’t change them in a million years. That simply wasn’t John we found with Sachar, that was a setup, we knew from the beginning, but for a time, it was simply convincing. John is dead; we have to make peace with that.”

Lloyd nodded solemnly, my talk had affected my crew differently, and Sachar sniffed and rubbed a tear from his green eye. Stryker had taken out a hip flask and had begun taking long drags from it; I saw the warrior wince as the liquid ran down his throat. Whatever was in that bottle wasn’t orange squash, for sure. Lloyd sat looking at me in awe, he understood everything, I felt sorry for him deeply, all he had seen since he left the disaster of the Titanic, was more disaster, he deserved more, but I didn’t know how to give it to him.
To my surprise I saw a smile touch Lloyd’s cheek, he lifted an empty glass and I saw him draw a hip flask of his own and pour an amber liquid into the glass. Sachar did the same; this made me feel remarkably uncomfortable. I wandered over to the fridge and took out some Sazkarelli beer, the planet Sazkarelli was known for its beer and fine ales; I popped off the top and sniffed the glorious liquid. Lloyd lifted his glass; “here’s to John Storm, a man who was easy to respect, a man who was courageous and a man who held the world record for drinking rum. To John.” There was a murmur around the small comfortable room and glasses and my bottle were raised and we all sank into our alcohol, not drinking to forget, but to drown our sorrows.

The next morning I decided to show the crew my blueprints. Yes I had made blueprints, it shows I’m organised. Okay... I was bored.
“Alright chaps, we’ve got to have a way to get our troops into hell, we’re three troops short now that Susie, Zach and John are no longer with us, but no matter, we’ll take these bastard’s down with us yet.” Lloyd smiled sadly at the mention of the names, he missed Zach, they had had a good friendship, a friendship that I’d never had with anyone. I had devised a plan, a plan that I called; “operation time capsule people.” Lloyd and Stryker snickered. Sachar frowned and looked at me. “What’s a time capsule sir?” I heard the other two burst into an unintelligent torrent of laughter. “Basically it’s just a play on words Sachar; a time capsule is a term on earth where a person or a group of people would bury photographs or music or perhaps something important to themselves in a metal capsule, so perhaps in a hundred years time it would be dug up by others.”

Sachar frowned but nodded. “You humans are an odd bunch, our species only bury swords.” That got me interested. “Why do you do that?” Sachar took his newly polished sword from the sheath, the sword shone in the light of a dying star outside the window of the Majestic, its beauty almost got to me. It was encrusted with jewels, I certainly couldn’t identify any of the stones, they were from Marzon and I struggled getting to terms with the planet its self, never mind the precious stones.
“We bury our swords for a thousand years; Marzon’s have lived well over that, but only some. The swords are buried for a large amount of time as our species believe that the swords gain power beneath the earth, we believe that the minerals in the earth make the steel stronger and the jewels brighter, therefore the beauty and power is increased. The sword I hold in my hand is over ten thousand years old.” I smiled, impressed, “wow, it doesn’t look a day over fifty.”

Lloyd raised an eyebrow at the joke; I shrugged my shoulder in response.
“What’d the plan then George?” asked Stryker, he was eager to get going, but, what I had mind was going to take a lot of work. The time capsule is simple, we need to fit the bulk of soldiers in the capsule and transport the capsule to hell, you following me?” The men nodded. “Great, okay, the simple answer is, it can’t be done, we cant build something that size physically, it would exhaust us.”
Lloyd looked disappointed, “so these blueprints are for what?” I felt a little guilty for that. I shrugged my shoulders, “Without Susie on a night I have a lot more spare time, I got bored.” Lloyd snorted, “You pig sir.” I smirked, “hey, it was her who insisted, she said it helped her energies run strong.” Lloyd scratched his chin thoughtfully, “damn fine woman.” I held my hand up to stop him, “alright, forget the plans, my solution is better.”

Sachar nodded, “let’s here it.” He rubbed his little goatee and for a moment he looked young, like his son.
“When Beelzebub first sent me away from hell he sent me to kill John Storm, but he used one of the pocket watches to create a time portal, if you use the watch bare, without a vessel to carry you anywhere, the watch shoots out a portal, taking you to the place you need to go. I say we just unhook it from the dashboard of the Majestic, computer and all, so we can select the location and travel there through the portal.”
Lloyd smiled, “that’s a good idea sir, one hell of a good idea, and will all of the soldiers be able to go in at one time?” I nodded, “most likely, if they keep going in a continuous line and don’t stop to let the portal close. It leaves us with a problem though men.” Stryker laughed, “You of all people have left us a problem? No!” We all laughed. “Seriously though, the problem is, after the portal transports us there, the pocket watch stays where it is. The pocket watches need to staple themselves into reality, the watch cannot physically travel in time, that’s why we had to engineer it to on the Majestic, hence, a time machine.”

Stryker sighed, “that’s tricky, hang on sir, what about all of those years ago, when you were cursed with the watch, you tell us the story all of the time, you said that the watch was always with you.” I smiled, the memories were distant after over a hundred years, but they were still there. “It happened when I slept, I myself would be carted off to some other time period by the watch, the portal would open and Beelzebub would transport the watch himself.” “Are you sure?” asked Sachar. “Fairly, asked the computer. I gestured. Plus, Beelzebub seems to have a massive crush on me.” Sachar smiled, “oh really?” I shrugged my shoulders, “crush, grudge, same thing.”
The plan was ready now, we just needed to basically take apart the time machine, if we got back from the suicide mission to hell, then we could hook it up to the Majestic. “All who’s in raise your hand.” I said. My entire crew raised their hands. “Thank you; you don’t know how much that means.” Lloyd spoke for everyone, “don’t worry sir, we do.”
I smiled and slapped Lloyd’s shoulder with manly glee. “If all else fails guys, see you in hell.”