Chapter 8

Thursday, February 19th, 1987

Trilogy Hill Valley

8:47 P.M.

"Holy shit."

That was really all you could say when confronted with a huge steam locomotive that had been converted into a almost Jules-Vernian time machine. Doc, Marty, and Mystie all gawked at the machine before them, taking in everything they could as Emmett stood proudly by. "What do you think?"

"Heavy," Marty breathed. "And you built this thing all out of 1880s parts?"

"Mostly. I also used the hoverboard my Marty had left behind with us to design some simple circuitry for the flux capacitor and the time circuits. And I also had it hoverconverted in the 2020s." He looked over at Doc. "You should know about that from my journals, actually."

Doc didn't respond. Marty grinned as he saw Doc was practically panting over the train. "I think he's in love with it."

"Are you drooling?" asked an astonished -- and amused -- Mystie.

"What?" Doc said, slowly coming back to the world of the living. "Oh, drooling? Of course not." He quickly tried to wipe his mouth without anyone seeing. Mystie and Clara exchanged a knowing glance. "How -- how long did it take to build this?"

"Years. Clara helped, but I had to improvise practically everything. The hoverboard was of immense value."

Doc laid a hand on it. "Does it have to achieve 88 miles per hour for temporal travel, like the DeLorean?"

"Yes, but while I was in the future, I hooked up a series of energy capacitors to the walls. That way it doesn't take an inordinate amount of time to get up to the proper speed."

"What does it run on? I mean, I know plutonium was unheard of back then," Marty asked, puzzled.

"That's what I spent most of my time on. I finally rigged it to run completely on steam. Took four years, seven months, three weeks, and five days, but I did it. Of course, it took an additional three years to make it a viable time machine."

"Amazing. I'm very impressed," Doc said. Emmett blushed, taking that as a very high compliment. "I can only hope I'd be as ingenious, stuck in a similar position."

"I'm sure you would be. After all, we are, at heart, the same person." He checked his wristwatch. "Well, we'd best get going. The longer that doorway stays open, the more chance of someone else discovering it and upsetting the balance between dimensions."

"Yeah." Doc gave Marty and Mystie some parting hugs. "I'll see you in just a few."

"We know. I love you, sweetie."

"See ya later, Doc," Marty said, squeezing Doc's hand.

Emmett hugged Clara and Martin as well. "I don't know how we're going to explain all of this to Jules and Verne," Clara admitted.

"We'll find a way. We always do." He kissed her. "I'll be back shortly." He grabbed Mystie and Marty, and together they got in his DeLorean and headed back to Seattle and their reality.

Doc smiled awkwardly at Martin and Clara. "Goodbye then."

Clara blushed. "I am sorry for using the gun on you earlier," she said softly. "I just lost my head."

"It's all right. I hope everything goes well and you can have your husband back soon." They shook hands.

Martin hesitated a moment, then gave Doc a quick hug. "Stay safe. I don't want anything to happen to either one of you."

"Thanks. I'll do my best." He patted Martin on the back. "Goodbye -- and good luck explaining all of this to the kids." Clara and Martin both laughed. Doc got back into his DeLorean and set the TDL for Seattle. After carefully lifting off, he gave Clara and Martin one final wave, and headed off to the rainy city.

He arrived back there with no problems, to his relief. After a moment's searching, he located the ripple "door" to his home dimension. He positioned himself in front of it and waited for the crucial moment.

Finally, 8:54 arrived. Both Doc and Emmett set their time circuits, gunned their engines, and raced toward the doorway.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Doc held tightly to the steering wheel as the car rocked wildly. He dreaded to think what would happen if he somehow got tossed out. Would he be trapped, like Lovecraft's Dunwich horror, born between dimensions and unable to ever get free? Would he ever be able to return to his own dimension? Would he even be able to live?

Then the question became academic as the car steadied, and he found himself rocketing over Seattle.

It only took him a moment to ascertain that he was back in his home dimension. Marty's heartbeat was back in his chest, and the ripple he had come through had disappeared. Relieved, he did a few victory laps over the rainy city.

As he prepared to go home, he thought briefly about his counterpart from the alternate 1987. I hope he made it through all right. Great Scott, I can't wait to see Clara --

Clara?

Doc blinked. Just for a moment, he had felt like he was the other Dr. Emmett Brown. Like a strange flash of temporal intuition. He smiled as he realized that Emmett had felt just as relieved and happy as he himself did. So he got home safely as well. What a relief for us both. Good luck, Emmett Brown. He turned his DeLorean back toward Hill Valley and home. Thursday, February 19th, 1987

VD Hill Valley

9:01 P.M.

Mysteria, Marty, and Jennifer were all waiting for him with open arms. "Oh, thank God," Mystie said, looking relieved. "Marty told me you'd made it through okay, but I had to see you to believe it. . . ."

"It's good to have you back Doc," Jennifer said happily, hugging him.

"It's good to be back," Doc said, hugging back. "Those last few minutes were some of the scariest of my life. I was terrified it wasn't going to work, and that I might never see you again."

"Same here," Marty admitted, joining in on the hugs. "I'm just glad you made it through okay."

"Me too. And the doorway you described is gone now. Our little experiment must have worked just as predicted." He patted Marty on the back. "Thanks for bringing that to our attention."

"No problem. I knew absorbing your personality would come in handy sometime."

Doc chuckled, then turned to Mystie. "So -- I believe you have some punishment to dish out," he said, blushing.

"That I do," Mysteria agreed, turning stern. "Part one of which is that you don't go anywhere near that lab for the rest of the night."

"Fine with me. I don't want to lay eyes on a DeLorean for the next week."

The End