by S D Taylor
Peter looked her in the eye for moment, glanced at Erin. She held his glance for a few seconds then closed her eyes and nodded slightly. He shrugged and took his pill as well.
Erin pushed her chair back and stood up. “I am glad you two have made up your minds. You have each other and I can understand why you might want to stay here. Good luck.”
She picked up the pill and the water and started towards the rooms that Pentha had told them about. “For now, I need to lie down for a while and rest. This whole thing has worn me out and I don’t have much enthusiasm for continuing as a lab rat.”
Peter started to say something but Gaby grabbed his arm. “Let her go, Peter. She is tired. Let her rest. She will see things more clearly in the morning.”
“Unless she sleeps in and gets terminated before she has time to wake up.”
“Maybe we should inquire at the front desk about a wake-up call.” Peter had a surprised look on his face as he turned to look at her and then realized she was kidding.
Erin reached the door and like the other doors it opened slowly as she approached. Inside she found a well lighted hallway that looked like a futuristic hotel with stainless steel walls. The hallway was several hundred feet long and she wondered how many of the rooms were occupied. Each of the rooms had a number and a name that seemed to be formed from letters that emanated from within the stainless steel. The first door she came to had the number 6 and the name Patrick. Numbers 7 and 8 were both labeled ‘vacant’ and number 9 was Gaby’s room. Erin noted that her full name Gabrielle was on the door. There were several more vacant rooms and then Peter’s room number 14. She was wondering if she would ever get to her room when she suddenly felt a shiver go through her, stopping her in her tracks. Number 15 was labeled Douglas.
Erin stood there frozen in place staring at the door for number 15. The door didn’t open and she didn’t knock to see if anyone was home. Could it be Doug? Had they gone and gotten him from her world? They could travel to any point in time and space so they could have conceivably retrieved an earlier version of Doug. Would he even know her? Had they put that name there as a test? Just to see what she would do? She walked further down the hall and found that she was in the next room, number 16. “Erin” in red letters hung there beneath the number as if the molecules of the metal door had been dyed that color. She wondered how they achieved that display technology. As with all the doors in this future world, this one sensed she belonged inside and slowly opened.
The room was much nicer than Erin expected. It was by no means a jail cell, even if she could not remove that concept from her mind. There was a low bed centered beneath a large window that provided a view of the grounds north of the building. The sound was visible further on with the snow capped mountains in the distance. It was a scenic view and she noted that it had to be a better view than the rooms that had a window on the courtyard side.
The bed had a unique pillow concept in that there was a single tube shaped pillow attached around half the bed in the shape of the letter “U.” It provided a place to rest your head at the top of the bed or halfway down either side. This arrangement would also be useful to keep you from falling out of bed, but since this bed was only six inches above the floor, falling out didn’t seem to be a big worry.
Against the wall opposite the bed was a combination desk and couch unit. Above it, the metal wall had a flat screen display embedded in it. It was made of the same metal as the door and yet was displaying a picture of the Yir-Lak compound that was photographic quality. On a whim, Erin said “mountain” and the scene changed to a display of a mountain scene. She smiled briefly at this bit of cleverness on her part.
The last feature of note in the room was the shelf that ran along the wall at the height of Erin’s waist. It seemed to come directly out of the wall and had no visible means of support. Laid out neatly on the shelf were two jumpsuit-like garments, one white and one light blue. There was also an assortment of strange looking undergarments and socks, along with a pair of athletic shoes that had no visible ties or closures.
Erin picked up one of the shoes and stared at it for a second, dropping it with surprise as it opened up suddenly. She quickly put her foot into it and it closed around her foot, gently gripping it without the need for Velcro closures or shoelaces. When she pulled gently on the shoe it opened to release her foot. She was beginning to see where Dara’s confidence about her world’s technology came from. These shoes were pretty cool and Erin could imagine what their reception would be like back in her world.
She was staring down at the shoes when she felt the presence of someone else in the room. She didn’t turn around as she gave herself a couple of seconds to think if there was anything she could use as a weapon. If it had been Peter or Gaby, they would surely have said something. For someone to sneak up on her, there must be something else going on. She set her pill and the glass of water gently on the shelf and prepared to turn quickly and launch herself into the intruder. But he saved her the trouble.
“Hello Erin. It’s been a long time since I saw you looking like this. The memory of you has left me speechless.”
Erin spun around, her heart beating rapidly as the adrenalin shot through her. She wasn’t ready for what she saw and the look of surprise on her face betrayed her shock.
The gray hair and full beard of the man in front of her wasn’t enough to disguise him. Nor were the lines in his face that revealed the rough, outdoor life that he had lived. The rough sound of voice gave him away. Erin knew Doug when she saw him. And this was the Doug that belonged with the Erin that had been left behind by Jelk. That older Erin had lived nearly twenty years of adventure with this man, surviving against the odds and raising two children while living as far from civilization as anyone could imagine.
“Hello Doug. It is good to see you . . .” That was all she managed to say before she ran to him and hugged him. He was surprised by her gesture, but put his arms around her and held her for a minute while they both tried go come to grips with their surprise and conflicted emotions. “Rin told me you were dead. That you had died two years ago in her time. She will be so happy to see you again.”
Doug stepped back and looked intently into her eyes. “You talked to her? How? Is she here?” He felt his pulse start to quicken as he digested this news.
“She ended up in my time due to one of the vortex events. Seven days after you and I first met. Then they captured her and she was with me on the boat right up until we came to this time.”
“What happened to her? What did they do with her?” Doug was suddenly more animated and looked around towards the door. He seemed ready for action at the thought that they had harmed his Erin.
“She isn’t here. Just before we came to this time, they pushed her out of the boat and my Doug rescued her.”
He simultaneously seemed both pleased and deflated by that news. “Why? Why would they do that?”
“It could be that Dara wanted to reunite her with the girls. That she had a sudden burst of human emotion.”
The older version of Doug laughed out loud at that suggestion. “That doesn’t sound like the Dara that I have come to know over the past few weeks. More likely she wanted to put my Erin with your Doug and put the two of us together and see what happened. My Erin got the better of that deal. You got stuck with the old codger.”
Erin laughed. “You don’t know how glad I am to see you. I was about ready to skip the pill and put an end to this life in the zoo. But with you here, I can see a reason to go on. We might have a chance to do something now.”
“You always had a chance to do something. You aren’t here alone. What about Peter and Gaby? I saw the three of you in the courtyard earlier.”
“I think they plan to stay here and make a life for themselves for the time they have left. Somewhere along the line they appear to have fallen in love with each other.”
Doug laughed. “At least fallen in lust with each other. Danger, adventure and being lost together in the
woods, fearing for your life, encourages people to explore relationships they may not have considered previously.” He raised his eyebrows as Erin shot him a glance.
“I noticed. So we ended up ‘happily ever after’ with the two kids and the cave with a view, huh? Who would have imagined that when I was just trying to go on vacation to Alaska to see my friend. I didn’t think it would take me over three hundred years to get here.”
Doug took her hand and looked into her eyes. “You, ah, my Erin, turned out to the best partner that I could have ever hoped for and a great mother for the girls. I wouldn’t trade a minute of our life together.”
Erin felt a tear run down her cheek. “She told me about the life you two had together. It was both exciting and sad to hear about it. It is a life I can never have now and I feel sad about what might have been. But I am very happy for the two of you. I guess you turned out ok. Just like I thought you would.”
“What? You already thought that much of me after seven days? I thought I had a lot more convincing to do. If I had known . . .” Doug smiled at her as he walked over and sat on the couch. He wore one of the jumpsuit garments, but his was dark blue. He seemed very fit for a man that was nearly sixty.
“So you saw Rin, as you referred to her, my Erin, this week? And she told you I have been dead for two years?
Erin joined him on the couch. “Yes, but with their technology, they could have gotten you at any time in your timeline, then come to my time. Erin and the girls ended up in our time due to one of the vortex fractures. Dara and Jelk said they are trying to stop the vortex events and find all the temporal spawn and eliminate them, but I think they have a misguided approach. In any event, Rin and the girls believe you are dead. Killed in a fishing accident.”
“Dara must have shared a lot more with you than she did with me. I was unconscious at first after they stunned me. I tried escaping and I tried attacking them. Nothing worked. I finally decided to take my pill and bide my time. I am glad I did. But the concept that Erin and the girls have lived two years since I was taken is pretty bizarre. I must be just a faded memory to them by now. And my ego is pretty deflated that they all accept the story that I died in a fishing accident. I am getting a little older, but I am not ready for retirement home just yet.”
Erin smiled. “It does look like you stayed in good shape. I think the fishing accident was the best they could come up with since there was no evidence of what happened to you and ‘stolen by future people’ wasn’t anything anyone considered.” She got up and walked over to the shelf and popped the pill into her mouth. She downed it with a large gulp from the glass of water. “There. Now I won’t die tomorrow morning,”
Doug looked at her and smiled. “You mean you won’t die due to being terminated for this world’s version of an identity crisis. You can’t rule out dying from something else.”
Erin laughed. “Right. Thanks for keeping me grounded. I wouldn’t want to get all happy and optimistic. You never know when a fishing accident could strike.”
Doug turned serious. “With their technology, unless we get someone to help us, we are going to be staying here a long time. And so far, I haven’t had much luck getting help from anyone.”
Erin sat next to him and took his hand. “I’m glad you are here, Doug. It gives me hope we might figure out a way to get out of here. At some point.”
He squeezed her hand. “Glad to hear I could provide a shred of optimism for you. I will do everything in my power to get us both back to the place we belong with the people who love us. I have no intention of leaving my wife back there in your time any longer than absolutely necessary. I doubt I can trust the motives of that young handsome guy you’ve been hanging out with and I would hate for her to have the choice of a new model with less mileage.”
It took seeing his smile for Erin to realize he was kidding.
Chapter 28
Erin sat on the couch after Doug left. They made plans to go to eat in an hour after she freshened up and put on something from her new futuristic wardrobe. Each room had its own bathroom that not surprisingly contained a toilet, sink and shower. At least the basics hadn’t changed Erin thought with smile. There were new designs that Erin hadn’t seen before but they were not so radical that she couldn’t use them. Apparently the long-running global debate on paper versus water had been settled by the reduction in trees for paper production. She was surprised there was no mirror, but when you stood in front of the sink and looked up, the wall suddenly became reflective and provided Erin a chance to see what her wilderness adventure had done to her appearance. She decided the shower was an essential next step. If she could figure out how to make it work.
She took off her well-worn clothes, folded them and put them on the shelf. She wondered if there was any way to get them cleaned. The thing about being in a completely foreign world, whether past or future, was that you had to discover how to do everything from buy toothpaste to use a bathroom. Everybody had the same human challenges to solve but they all took slightly different paths to get there.
The shower was a clear circular tube in one corner of the small bathroom. Inside the cylinder was a metal ring that slid up and down and sprayed water from all directions. The ring waited at the top, above the small door, until you entered and closed the door. Then all hell broke loose as it made one pass from top to bottom forcefully spraying plain rinse water that was slightly cooler than Erin would have been preferred. The ring then made its way back to the top emitting some form of soap/shampoo mix that smelled like lemons. Erin tried to lather up her hair but decided it would take a couple of passes to get the job done. On a whim she said ‘repeat’ and the ring went down and then up again with the soap. Three more passes of soap did the trick and she had to repeat the rinse cycle five times to get it all off. She wondered if wasting water was a way to get negative life credits.
The ring was also able to provide very high power blow drying but the wild, tousled effect on her hair was less than satisfactory. Fortunately she had a small brush in her pocket when she was abducted and she managed to get the tangles out and tie it up in a pony tail. She stared at the weather beaten Red Sox cap and decided to give it a day of rest while she explored the new landscape of this prison resort where they were staying. She settled on the light blue jumpsuit and headed out to the courtyard to meet the group. But she didn’t expect to meet Jelk in the hallway and she stopped in her tracks and started slowly backing up.
“Hello, Erin. Can we talk for a minute?”
She was wary of Jelk, despite having been briefly exposed to his more human side. “What do you want now? I thought you were done with us when you slammed the door shut in my face.”
“I was just following our procedures. You must not attribute every action to my personal choice.”
“So is this little chat your personal choice or are you just following procedure?”
“Let’s go into your room for a minute. I will explain everything.”
Erin looked at him for several seconds before she decided to go along with his request. She hoped she didn’t regret it.
Inside her room, she positioned herself against the wall and turned to face him. “So what do you want with me? I am uncomfortable being here with you.”
“Don’t worry, Erin. My intentions are entirely honorable. I want to verify you took your tablet.” But the look on his face indicated he had something else to discuss. He held his metallic index finger to his lips and extended his hand to Erin as if he expected her to take his hand.
Erin again stared at him in disbelief, but his sincere face convinced her that she might want to go along just to find out what was going on. She held out her hand and he gripped it lightly with his cold metallic hand. She suddenly felt a light tingle in her hand and could hear the words, “Can you hear me?” in her head as if they had just materialized there. She nodded to him, but said nothing. Somehow, he had the ability to plant telepathic thoughts into her head. She assumed this was his way to avoid havi
ng anyone overhear their conversation.
The thoughts continued. “Don’t say anything. Just listen and nod. I am scheduled to be terminated in three months. I don’t want to be terminated and I am not ready to leave my family. Dara is in the same position, but she decided not to approach you since she worried she would be discovered or that you wouldn’t be receptive to working with her. Do you understand what I am saying?”
Erin nodded but she was curious where this was going. She was afraid to get her hopes up, but this moment was the first time she felt even a glimmer of optimism. However weird this seemed, it was providing her a bit of hope.
Jelk’s thoughts continued on. “We have to continue on our missions to capture all the temporal spawn we can locate. But that may give us an opportunity to do what you suggested to Dara when you spoke with her on the boat. We could go to a place in the past or future where we cannot be followed and start a new life there. Would you be willing to help us if it meant that you could be saved as well?”
Erin looked at him and wondered if this was a real offer or just a more sophisticated test to see how the rat would respond. She was curious how many people Jelk and Dara had killed in their missions. Dara had implied it had been thousands. How could she possibly trust anyone like that? Or work with them? Talk about a deal with the devil, she thought to herself.
“We aren’t as bad as you think. We may not have killed as many people as Dara led you to believe.” Jelk was trying the soft sell on the skeptical Erin.
Erin looked at him with surprise. She didn’t realize the thoughtlink worked both ways.
“How bad are you? I saw you blow up the pirates in their helicopter.”
Jelk looked at her with intensity as his thoughts came streaming into her head. “We did that to save the people that the helicopter was attacking. But I can’t say that everyone that died during our missions was a totally bad person. There were deaths of what you would call innocent people. And I imagine you hate us for that and for what we have done to you. But will you take a chance and work with us if we can help you get back to your time? It doesn’t mean you approve of what we have done. Only that in this narrow sense we have a common interest in getting out of here.”
