2

Planes came and departed from Tom Nevers Field on Nantucket all the time. The top three airlines were Aeromass, run by the petulant and difficult Roy Biggins, and the other was Sandpiper Air owned and run by Joe Hackett, a well-liked resident of the island constantly just struggling by on his own, but most of his money was from privately flying heir William Collins from Collinsport, Maine around New England. The third airline was Nantucket Skies in the alcove between Aeromass and Helen Hackett’s lunch counter. While it may not have had the popularity of the other two, it also doubled as a car rental place. Over at Helen’s lunch counter, the former Helen Chapel, former local fat girl and eternal true love of Joe Hackett, shared and recreated the dishes, sandwiches and soups she loved so much. Enjoying a cheese sandwich and salad with lemonade, Tipton Hotel candy girl Maddie Fitzpatrick was enjoying her freedom by coming out to the island for rest and relaxation.

“Maddie…” Helen wiped off some of her trays. “How do you keep getting out here? You’re never on Sandpiper and I know you don’t take Roy’s planes.”

“Oh…” The cute Tipton candy girl sipped her soda. “I’ve kind of got my own ride…”

“Oh, you mean London’s plane takes you around?”

“Something like that…” Maddie finished off her fries. “Would you believe I can get places where no one else can?” She had a secret of her own she was concealing.

On the other end of the terminal, Sam Beckett came in behind his passengers, a romantic couple arriving on a vacation, two residents, a struggling artist and a young beauty that worked in the hotel business to check out the local island inns. The last was Helen’s look-alike cousin, Chelsea Chapel, a transplanted Seattle heiress who had decided to retire on the island with her family fortune to live with her newly discovered family members. She looked much like Helen except she had long curly brown hair, unblemished alabaster skin and a finely toned figure with a thirty-eight double-d chest. She did a lot of shopping back in Boston, and on the way back, Sam allowed her to land the plane… mostly because he couldn’t.

“That was so much fun!!!” She was excited. “Thanks, Brian…”

“Yeah,” Sam looked to her not realizing her reputation as a pilot. “You seemed to enjoy it.” He did not see Brian’s brother, Joe, coming up behind him. Sam watched Chelsea shining ear to ear, her chest filled with pride, and carrying her shopping bags out to Antonio’s taxi. Casey Chapel, the Sandpiper counter girl and Helen’s sister, looked to Joe reacting with a bit of annoyed and surprised astonishment and dropped down out of sight to avoid his tirade.

“You let Chelsea fly the plane?” Joe sounded annoyed.

“Well,” Sam started to improvise, but then told the truth. “She really wanted to, and… we haven’t let her do it in a while.” What he didn’t remark about was that he wasn’t really Brian Hackett and that he didn’t know how to fly.

“How’d she do?” Joe wasn’t get upset. Given Chelsea had nearly crashed the plane twice before, he was taking it well. Casey rose back up wondering why Joe wasn’t exploding.

“Well,” Sam looked back at Chelsea sharing her new wardrobe with Helen. “I think she did well.”

“She didn’t have a power trip?” Casey asked.

“Power trip?” Sam wondered what history Brian was aware of that he didn’t know. Out the corner of his ear, he heard Al entering the imaging chamber door in their native time-line, which allowed them to interact in the past.

“Sam…” Al spoke up. “They’re speaking of Chelsea Victoria Chapel, born January 9, 1957, she’s the surviving daughter of William and Victoria Chapel of Chapel Industries in Seattle, Washington. They were murdered in a mugging attempt when she was eight years old and since then, she’s been drifting around trying to find a purpose in life. In 1990, she briefly worked as a pilot of Bluegrass Skies near Nashville, Tennessee but was fired because she developed a god complex and flew her plane straight into an electrical storm, risking the lives of her and her passengers.” He looked the brunette beauty over and obsessed over her body. “How could such a major hottie like that be so unbalanced?”

“It was…” Sam turned back to Joe and Chelsea. “Just a landing…”

“As long as she didn’t crash it…” Joe saw the good side.

“Or dump it in the ocean.” Casey added. Sighing a bit, Joe traveled over to get his lunch from his wife at the counter. Gradually getting immersed into this leap, Sam crossed behind Casey and entered Joe’s office, gesturing to Al to follow him. Looking around the holographic simulations around him, Al walked through the wall to join Sam in privacy.

“Al…” Sam regained his composure. “I was so scared we were going to crash, but then when she asked to land, well…”

“Don’t worry about it…” Al held up his comlink. “Let’s see here… it’s November 11, 2008. You’ve leaped into Brian Hackett, a former NASA pilot now working as a charter pilot for his brother’s charter system on Nantucket Island. Your brother is Joseph Hackett, a pilot himself, married to Helen Chapel-Hackett, a cellist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a childhood friend of the brothers. Helen’s sister, Casey, works as the brother’s attendant, and the sisters have a cousin you just met, Chelsea Chapel, an heiress who runs Helen’s lunch counter when she’s on tour.”

“What am I here to do?” Sam postured around Joe’s desk.

“Easy…” Al looked up. “Don’t get killed.”

“What?”

“Tomorrow, Brian Hackett takes his last flight…” Al read the accident report from Ziggy’s Internet search. “On November 12, 2008 at 1:25 PM, Brian takes a plunge into Nantucket Sound on his flight to Boston. No one survives, and because the FAA blames it on pilot error, the families of the victims sue Joe, the co-owner of the business, into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. He never recovers from the incident and vanishes from the public eye, moving to Boston with his wife to live out his life in secrecy.”

“What if…” Sam thought it out. “Someone else takes the flight?”

“Ziggy says there’s a 75.8 chance that could save the business, but who are you going to get?” Al looked back at Sam. “Joe? He’s on medical restriction for stress. Mrs. Power Trip, she thinks she’s a god every time she gets at the stick…”

“There are no other pilots on the island?” Sam asked. Al held two fingers up.

“…And they both work for Aeromass, Joe’s competitor, and Roy Biggins, the owner of the company, is a piece of work.” Al revealed. “He doesn’t do favors.”

“What if…” Sam looked out the door of Joe’s office to the Cessna parked in their hangar. “We just grounded it… skipped tomorrow.”

“Let’s see….” Al started punching figures in to his comlink. “That could work….”

“Perfect….” Sam had his answer, but as the younger brother, he had to convince Joe. There was no reason to ground the plane when they had eleven charters that day, but it was just that one afternoon Nantucket to Boston charter he fretted about. He could take the earlier ones and then claim strange noises on the flight just before the time of doom, but why chance it? Given his inability to fly at all, he much preferred more to fly at all. He just had to convince Joe.

“Is there any reason in particular you can’t take the flight?” Joe looked at the person he believed to be his brother.

“Well…” Sam tried to think. “Let’s just say… I’m not feeling myself these days.”

“Uh-huh…” Joe looked at him, rose from his desk and headed out to the front desk. “Casey, how many passengers tomorrow on the 1:00 charter to Boston?”

“Eleven to Boston, none so far for the return trip, but Mr. Collins wants you to fly him to Norwich, Rhode Island if you have the time.” Casey may not have had the warmth of Faye, the previous attendant, but she was very efficient. “How am I doing?” She starved for a good word of praise.

“Great…” Joe grinned to his sister-in-law then closed the door to his office and looked back to his brother. “Brian, I can’t do it; you really need to take that flight.” He started out into the hangar.

“I’m going to die.” Sam put it on the line. Joe turned around.

“What?”

“I can’t explain it…” Sam tried to play a fear-of-death card. “But… I’ve got this… premonition that if I take the charter tomorrow that… I won’t be returning from it. I know it sounds weird, but…”

“Well, funny you should say that, but…” Joe headed out to his plane parked in the hangar. “I lied. My stress isn’t up. I… kind of had a premonition I could die tomorrow myself.”

“What?” Sam was incredulous. Two brothers having the same fear? What were the odds of that! “You’re kidding, right?”

“Nope.” Joe mused and looked around determined not to take that flight.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I didn’t want you thinking I was crazy!” Joe looked up into his plane, braced on the wing and sighed a bit. Sam started to say something, made a brief noise and turned to him. He wasn’t sure how Brian acted in these circumstances, but he was going to act a bit more responsible to Joe’s feelings.

“Joe… look…” Sam reached out to him. His hand reached out over brotherly love to lend his support, but upon actually touching Joe, there was an attraction of static electricity and lights flashed over him. He wasn’t leaping, but he could see the hangar. Joe was changing in appearance, one façade falling away and another taking his place. Sam was looking over at someone other than Joe Hackett. It was then that he realized the truth: he was looking at another leaper! Touching him forced their neurons and maisons in sync so that they could recognize each as they really were.

“Who are you?!” Sam was in shock.

“Oh boy….” His counterpart looked to be just as much in shock as he was.