*** *** Weekend Write-In for 18th August 2017 *** ***

"delay": In 500 words, write a story in which you tell what happens when there is a delay.

Project Renew:

Mobile top secure location, French countryside October 11th 1944.

'I apologize for the slight delay sergeant. We'll be ready for you presently.'

'Not a problem sir, I'm just anxious to get back to it. My buddies are out there winnin' the war without me.'

The scientist smiled with his lips, but his eyes remained cold and dead. 'I assure you sergeant, once the procedure is completed, you will be more than a competent aid for your ... 'buddies.' Now, before we proceed, I will be stating some facts for the record ... though of course as you know these records will remain sealed for a period of no less than one hundred and one years. The document you signed requires that you do not reveal specific details about this project or its personnel. You are of course at liberty to ... how shall I put this ... 'fuel' the legend by means of general hyperbole.'

I nodded, impatient for the doc to get on with it. There was an 11% chance the blamed thing would kill me stone dead, but ya don't go ta war if ya think you'll live forever. The damn irony of that statement is that if the brain boys could do what they thought they could, I might just be around ta see those documents unsealed. But hell If I cared about that part right then - It was the other stuff that interested me - the stuff that would help me kill ratzis.

The cold fish Prof was talkin' - half ta another white coat and half into a recorder. 'Subject is a healthy male aged 22 years old, in peak physical condition. Record of service as follows: Recruited in early 1942 for Specialized Unit of Enhanced Soldiers. First action early August 1942 at Guadalcanal. Over two years of battle experience, preceded by approximately 6-8 months physical activity in the capacity of an unregistered vigilante. You may take the picture.' 

Now he was yakkin at a photog who was standin' by. An there's me in just my itty bitty briefs and ... 'Should I take off the ...' I began.

Cold fish flashed me a look of irritation. 'No sergeant. Please keep your mask on.'

The camera bulb flashed and just like that I was on the record ... the sealed record that is. Dunno why the brass or whichever spookshow was frontin' this op, wanted my face covered. It ain't like they didn't have my name and history on file. All I know is some bright spark got the idea from my costume name and I got ta benefit ... or die, by that brainstorm.

Cold fish spoke inta his recorder again. 'For the record, the sergeant will receive a course of injections, having been prepared by weaker treatments over a period of over six months. During this time he was active and observed under battle conditions. Due to his present training and levels of extreme physical fitness, the subject did not undergo cardio trauma or any other possible negative effects. Today however, we will administer the full dose and if successful the operative known as Father Time will receive the following benefits. Doctor Carsewell?'

The second white coat produced a file for the photog to shoot and spoke into the mike.

'Phase One: Enhanced strength and reactions. If subject's body does not reject the treatment we predict an 87% chance of permanent viability...

Phase Two: Enhanced healing. There is a 54% chance of permanence - the sergeant's metabolism will increase, body tissue will become more durable and capable of speeding up healing in instances of minor to severe trauma...'

He Paused. 

'Phase Three is predicted with an 11% probability. Regrettably we were over-ruled when the suggestion of advance testing was first ...'

Cold fish coughed loudly. 'That will be quite enough doctor. Scrub that last remark from the record and repeat without extraneous details.'

Carswell repeated. ''Phase Three is predicted with an 11% probability. It is speculated that should the subject receive trauma wounds so great that his healing mechanism cannot compensate for them, the subject will enter a brief period of renewal, perhaps in the form of a cocoon or similar embryonic state. With DNA from Subject C If this actuates, the sergeant will literally be transformed into a younger state, entering late mature growth. It is further speculated that if the treatment takes and the sergeant never encounters wounds so traumatic as to over-ride the healing properties harvested from Subject B, then this renewal might occur naturally in extreme old age. Though of course we will not be around to ...'

Fish hurumphed loudly. 'Again Doctor Carsewell and this time without venturing speculation.'

They finished and started on the injections. As I lay there I wondered who the subjects were - accordin' ta scuttlebutt around the lab techs two of em were dead but Subject B had got up n busted out after they autopsied him. They didn't know I was listening an I kept my mouth shut, but I knew. Not much, but I knew. A Canadian soldier ... survivor of an op that wiped out his buddies in the Devil's Brigade. Short, hairy dark haired guy they said. That's all I knew then.

Years later I met a guy like that an I got me a feeling it was the same guy, even though half a century had passed. Sometimes ya gut just knows stuff.

Oh an Phase One and Two took almost straight off. As for Phase Three ... seventy years give or take. What ya might call 'A Slight Delay.'

NOTE: This is the fifth and chronologically earliest Father Time story. If you're interested in reading them in order of writing they are all in this collection:

1. FROM THE ASHES - Recent Times. Middle East.

2. THE RETURN OF TIME - One Year After FTA. Darfur, the Sudan

3. FIELD OF BATTLE - 1968. The Nam.

4. MANANA - 1948. Panama.

Each story comes with some era appropriate music to listen to.

https://youtu.be/QrVaObffYNw