2. T.I.T.O.R. Project

John grinned. "Coward."

John's fist flashed and knocked Harold unconscious. John put the gun back and lit a cigarette as he walked to the door. The visitors were flabbergasted, watching John walk away.

"I won. Give Phil the money, or I'll search you all over America," John said, then leered at Harold's girlfriend. "Ah, and you, Honey. If you want to have fun, ask Phil for my number."

John walked out of the place. The crowd was stunned, no one expected John to beat Harold. Harold's big name in the area was enough to convince them. Unfortunately, no one knew who John really was, except Phil.

"Captain John Myron. The most elite member of the American special forces. He's crazy, but not a braggart. Well, he asked me to send him the CCTV footage at the entrance. And, well ..., I didn't want to get in trouble with him, so I sent the video. All he has to do is match your faces with intelligence data to trace where you live. If I were you, I would keep my promise and pay the bet," Phil said.

Hearing that, the visitors rushed over to Phil, who was standing behind the bar counter. Phil smiled as he glanced at the hologram screen under the table, which read "CCTV not working."

***

In the Golden Whale Apartment unit, a human-shaped robot just hung up the phone and then turned to the woman sleeping on the bed. The robot came over and shook her shoulder.

"Nina, Nina Tipler." The robot kept trying to wake her up.

The girl named Nina shook off the robot's hand and then rolled over. "Don't bother me, Nuke."

"Your dad just called," Nuke said.

"Tell him I'm tired," Nina replied, reluctantly.

"Your dad said there was something important," Nuke replied.

"For my dad, everything is important. Don't worry about it, and don't disturb my sleep." Nina pulled the blanket over her head.

Nuke shook his head then pressed a button at the bottom of the cot. Not long after, iron pipes appeared in every corner of the bed and sprayed water soaking Nina. Suddenly Nina got up with a red face.

"Ah! What are you doing, Idiot?!" Nina cursed.

"Nina, if it wasn't an emergency, I wouldn't have woken you up," Nuke explained.

"I told you that you always—"

"A giant meteor is about to hit the Earth," Nuke interrupted.

"What?" Nina gasped and immediately pressed the hologram button on the wall.

Soon, a holographic screen appeared on the wall displaying data directly connected to the DST. The numbers in the data moved quickly. Nina's eyes widened; her mouth half-opened, unable to believe what she was seeing.

"Oh, my God! The meteor is speeding towards Virginia," Nina murmured.

Nuke said, "Nina, your father said you should help President Hemmingway's emissary with this matter."

Nina rushed to the bathroom. "Okay. After I change my clothes, I'll go."

A few minutes later, Nina was already driving down the streets of New York. The car was flying at high speed. But suddenly, a warning came over the speakers.

"Nina, someone is following us." The vehicle's safety system alerted her. Nina glanced in the rear-view mirror and saw a black motorbike behind.

"There are always annoying people on the road. Well, speed up, Omega," Nina ordered the car system.

They overtook each other in turn. Several times Nina had to zigzag through the traffic, but the biker was going faster than her and leaving her behind.

"Why is he heading in the same direction?" Nina thought for a moment. "Omega, who is that guy?"

"Please wait." The image on the holographic screen changed to coordinates until it finally stopped right where the biker was. A second later, the face of a handsome, dark-haired man appeared on the screen.

"Oh, no ..., why him?" Nina sighed.

Not long after, Nina drove her car into the DST office car park. Apparently, the black motorbike had arrived first. Seeing Nina's arrival, the motorbike rider took off his helmet.

"What kind of President sends an idiot like you, John?" grumbled Nina as she got out of the car.

John glanced at Nina and chuckled. "Well, you supported him in the election last year, didn't you? So who was an idiot?"

Nina held up a middle finger as she walked away, leaving John behind. They entered the lift that took them to the top floor. Arriving at the control room, Dwight Tippler greeted them. Certainly not with a warm welcome. Dwight gave them a quick, unsmiling glance, then returned to the holographic screen.

"John, Nina, look at this." Dwight pointed to the red numbers moving erratically on the screen. "Did you know that our UNIX system is experiencing power loss due to cracks in the atmospheric dome?"

"Because of the meteor?" asked Nina.

Dwight nodded. "Recent meteor strikes have weakened the atmospheric dome. And right now, a giant meteor is heading towards Earth. Imagine if that happened."

"Well, at least I don't have to exercise to burn fat," John joked.

"Stupid," Nina grumbled.

Dwight smiled at them, then changed the image on the hologram screen. This time a computer appeared on the screen. It was square, cream-colored, and ancient-looking.

"Wow! Is it a cake?" John joked.

Nina rolled her eyes. "Dad, I told you this man is stupid. I don't understand why President Hemmingway sent him?"

"Hey! I was just kidding! I know that's an old computer!" John protested.

"Just admit that you are stu—"

"Nina," Dwight interrupted firmly, "set up the time machine."

Nina sighed roughly and walked away.

"A time machine? So, I must take that ancient computer to save America from a giant meteor?" John shook his head. "Ridiculous."

Dwight smiled. "This IBM 5100 has the UNIX system needed to increase the thickness of the atmospheric dome."

"That makes no sense. How could ancient technology do that?" John couldn't believe it.

"Well, that is the truth. Your opinion doesn't matter, John. All you have to do is go back to 1975 and retrieve the computer. You can read how to retrieve it on your watch by pressing the 'T.I.T.O.R.' button. This mission is called the Temporal Interdimensional Travel & Observation Research Project (T.I.T.O.R.)." Dwight handed him a holographic watch. "I will also give you the coordinates through this."

"Okay," John responded.

"Perhaps the machine is ready." Dwight took John into another room.

Inside the room, a tube stood in the corner. The tube was the most advanced time machine at the time. It could send a person within a thousand years. Meanwhile, the time machine that people used at that time could only send humans up to ten years ago at most.

Nina was watching the screen attached to the wall of the tube. "The power is weakening, Dad."

"I know. But it's still enough for this mission." Dwight took the time belt. "Put it on, John. The belt is an additional device, but the time machine is embedded inside the watch. Actually, without the belt, the watch still works. The belt is to return you to the tube if you return to the present, and there are other functions."

"This belt is lighter than the previous one," John said after putting it on.

"It's also simpler. You don't need to be in a dimensional coordinate to time travel," Dwight added.

"So I can travel from anywhere, and if I return to this time, I'll appear in the tube?" John asked.

Dwight nodded. "As long as there is enough power, there will be no problem."

Nina looked back. "Dad, it's ready."

"John," Dwight glanced at the tube.

John stepped into the tube. Soon, the tube closed and spun in place quickly. A few seconds later, there was electricity running through the tube.

Meanwhile, inside the tube, John stared at a point of light that grew larger and formed a vortex. However, a second later, the vortex reversed direction. This was not the first time John had traveled through time, but never before had he seen a vortex reverse direction. However, before his surprise was over, he heard Nina and Dwight's panicked voices.

Dwight exclaimed, "Nina, open the tube quickly!"

Nina replied in panic, "I did! But—"

Suddenly, the vortex pulled John in with great force. Inside the vortex, John was floating and spinning around. His muscles loosened, and his strength weakened; his chest felt tight as if it were being crushed by a very heavy object. Soon, there was light on the other side—the light was the end of the dimension. Once again, it was as if someone had pulled John hard and brought him out of the vortex.

It was only a few seconds later that he slid out of the vortex. His vision swirled for a while. However, when it cleared, he looked around.

"Is this really 1975?" John muttered, looking at the surrounding buildings and the few pedestrians a hundred meters ahead of him. Luckily, he was in a dark alley by himself, so no one saw him come out of the vortex.

"I need to finish this mission and get back to my time." Just as John stood up, there was a sudden voice that took his breath away.

"Hey, don't move!"