by Karl Morgan
“Dad, I’ve seen Aria a couple times in the last month. I still remember every detail of her stays. I even remember Dave’s wife, Darlene was with her the last time,” Matt said. “I remember all the great food Aria cooked for us. I just assumed she was a chef somewhere.”
“Matt and Rob, everything you are hearing is the truth,” Dave began. “When Darlene and Aria came the last time, their purpose was to recruit you two as well as my own son, Bill. He also believed they were crazy until his sister, Cybil jumped there with me. I know this all sounds ludicrous, but we are here on important business tonight. In the future, Rence here is on a team that will perfect human DNA. In 3187, most people live to be four or five hundred years old. Medicine and science have made miracles over the centuries since today. After the DNA team completes it work, disease will be virtually eliminated and people will live as long as a thousand years.”
“That’s impressive for a science fiction story, Dave,” Rob said. “But why tell us this? What does it have to do with Matt, Elaine and me?”
“Rob, you and your brother, as well as both of my children are on that team,” Dave said. “Without both of you, there is a strong likelihood that the project will fail. We need you to help us.”
“Dave, we are both engineers, but not doctors,” Matt said. “I don’t think our qualifications could be better than people in the future. It doesn’t make sense.”
“Admiral Brewster is correct again,” Muncie started. “Before we found Dave Brewster in our timeline, we felt that our medicine had advanced greatly. Once Dave became aware of his potential in the future, we started to find evidence of the DNA project. We took a great risk and went further into the future and learned about this team.”
“You have to understand why I jumped to the future,” Dave said. “Society in the future had stagnated. People became so intellectual that society lost its spark, that certain something entrepreneurs have to take a risk and find new solutions to problems people didn’t even know they had. In my case, the Temporal Command found that Charlie and I could kick-start humanity to reach out into space and establish new worlds and meet new civilizations. It didn’t make sense to me either when I was an unemployed accountant. Since I’ve been there, we have started to rebuild two abandoned colonies and have located two new worlds for mankind to explore and inhabit.”
“You did that in a month?” Rob asked.
“Time travel has unique benefits, Rob,” Dave continued. “Charlie and I have been living in the future for a year now. When we jumped back, we came here one month after we left. I had the same brain-freeze on this. When we are in a specific time, days go by one by one. Humans do not know how to deal with jumping in time. It upsets our internal clocks.”
“I’m still expecting someone to come out of the closet and say we’re on Candid Camera,” Elaine said. “You can’t seriously believe we would accept this. Matt, let’s go before the kids get scared.” She stood to leave. Kally moved to block the door. Alana began pressing keys on the device on the table.
“Elaine, let’s hear them out,” Rob said. “We haven’t eaten yet and Charlie is my dad. I know it sounds crazy, but all of these people keep telling us the same story. It’s just one evening after all. Tomorrow, we’ll all be laughing about this, okay?” Elaine shrugged her shoulders and sat down again.
“Dave, shall I signal the Io Star Port now?” Rence asked.
“Yes, Rence,” the admiral replied. He turned to Matt and Rob and said, “When my son Bill had a hard time believing us, we took a jump into the future with him. Seeing is believing, after all. There is a time portal in the next room. We will now jump to 3187 and the star port orbiting Jupiter’s moon Io. Rence has arranged us to arrive there at dinner time. We’ll be dining in the main dining hall with the scientists who work there. I recommend that Bea and Alana stay here with Sophie and Brian. We’ll go, eat and come back. We have planned the return jump to come back in thirty minutes Earth time, although we can stay there as long as you like. Okay?”
After a few moments of consideration, they walked to the portal room. Muncie went to the control panel and started pressing buttons. Other than the people and control panel, the room was completely empty. After a few moments, a small black dot appeared on the wall opposite the door. The dot grew quickly to a seven foot black circle. There was no sound from the portal, just shimmery perfect blackness.
“I’ll go through with Elaine,” Dave said. “Charlie can go through with Matt, and Rence can take Rob. This is a very unique experience. We will be temporarily leaving space-time and entering a wormhole. Inside, you won’t be able to hear anything. We’ll just step in and wait for a white circle to form in front of us. When that circle becomes stable, we’ll step through and be there. I’ve done it plenty of times, so there is nothing to worry about.”
“Admiral, Io reports ready,” Muncie said. “You are cleared to enter.”
“Thanks, Muncie,” Dave replied. “Elaine, please hold my hand. Everything is going to be okay. If you all go with us now, you’ll be back here before Sophie and Brian know you are gone. After you are back here, you three need to decide what you want. If you don’t want that future, Alana will erase certain memories, especially this trip, and you can go back to your everyday lives. I guarantee that.” She had taken his hand, and Dave could feel her trembling.
As they stepped toward the blackness, Elaine turned her head to look at her husband. “I love you, Matt,” she said. She turned her head and stepped through the event horizon with Dave Brewster. She could feel her body being stretched between the absolute blackness and the room she was leaving behind. She felt the warm air in the room on her leg that had not yet passed through the event horizon. Inside the wormhole, she felt nothing except Dave Brewster’s hand in hers. She looked at him and he smiled back. Dave squeezed her hand and pointed in front of them. Elaine could see a small white speck in front of them. Within a few seconds, it had grown to a seven foot circle, gleaming into the blackness. Dave squeezed her hand again and they stepped into the whiteness. Again, she could feel herself stretched between the black and white. After a second, they were in another room with a short, blue man manning the control panel. His large unblinking black eyes were dazzling.
“Admiral Brewster, how good to meet you,” the blue man said. “You must be Commodore’s Watson’s daughter-in-law,” he said as he extended his hand to her. “My name is Conomus. I am a scientist here at the Io Star Port. As you will learn, I am from the Kalidean community of planets. Please move over there.” As they stepped aside, Charlie and Matt appeared out of the circle. They were quickly followed by Rence and Rob.
“We’re all here. Let’s eat!” Dave said as he led them out the door.
Chapter 19
Dave and his group entered the main dining hall. The large room had a glass dividing wall across the center. They could see huge bird-like creatures on the other side of the glass. They appeared to be enjoying their food and conversations. Several tables were set against the wall. They saw humans and Kalideans sitting on this side talking to the bird-men on the other side. Dave led them through the buffet line, where they were given servings of pot roast, steamed vegetables and baked potatoes. Everything smelled so good and the jump had activated everyone’s appetites. Dave had them sit at a large table against the glass wall.
“Dave, what is this place and what are those things on the other side of the glass? Are they dangerous?” Elaine asked.
“Not at all, Elaine,” Dave replied. “Those are Galliceans. They originated on a gas giant planet called Gallia. The Greater Gallia community of worlds has thousands of planets.”
Charlie jumped in, saying “Dave’s wife negotiated a planet sharing treaty with them a year ago. We gave them Jupiter and Saturn to colonize. This station was greatly expanded so that we could all work together. Come to think of it, Dave, we need to start visiting their systems to see how many Earth-like planets they can offer to us.”
“I can’t believe
I’m seeing this with my own eyes,” Rob said. “This is so unbelievable, Dad. Are we going crazy, or is this real?”
“Oh, it’s real all right,” said a pretty young woman who approached the table with a man. She bent to kiss Dave on the cheek. “Hi, I’m Cybil Brewster, Dave’s daughter. This is my baby brother Bill. My dad asked us to meet you folks and give you our perspective having moved to this time recently.” Cybil and Bill walked around the group introducing themselves. She returned to Dave, and said, “Dad, Bill and I will get some dinner and be right back.” They walked toward the buffet.
A large bird-man sat at the table across from them and put his hand against the glass. Dave put his hand against the glass near the Gallicean. Charlie quickly pulled three communicator ear-pieces and offered them to the twenty-firsters. They could hear loud squawking from the alien, but when they inserted the devices, it resolved into perfect English. “Admiral Brewster, it is an honor to have you and Commodore Watson with us tonight. I thought you were examining another planet for colonization.”
“Doctor No-o-Ka, it is great to see you again,” Dave said. “Please let me introduce you. These are Charlie’s sons, Matt and Rob, and Matt’s wife, Elaine.”
“It is a distinct pleasure to meet you all,” the doctor smiled. “Dave and Charlie are great friends of Greater Gallia, and I look forward to working with each of you as well.” He focused on Dave, saying, “I had heard that Colonel Watson had trouble recruiting them to our time. I’m glad you are having more success. I have been briefed by High Commissioner Daniels. He told me how important these people are to your future history.” No-o-Ka put his two hands on the glass in front of Rob and Matt, and said, “Welcome to our time. There is much work ahead and plenty of adventure. I hope you have long and healthy lives.”
Rob and Matt put their hands on the glass. Rob said, “Thank you Doctor. I have to admit this is almost too much for me to comprehend. We only arrived a few minutes ago.”
No-o-Ka laughed out loud and said, “Well, I suspect you never imagined to see someone like me! I believe the largest flying creatures in your time were eagles or albatrosses.” No-o-Ka stretched out his wings to their full forty feet. “I’m a little larger than that!”
“Doctor, I was hoping to see the governor while we are here. Do you know where he is?” Dave asked.
“That’s odd. I thought you would have known. Darlene contacted him and invited him to join your expedition to the new maklan world. The Kong-Fa jumped to Station 801 only one hour ago,” No-o-Ka replied. “He took several Gallicean diplomats and three hundred maklans.”
“That is wonderful news, friend,” Dave said. “That is just like Darlene. Poor Dave is the last one to know anything. Thank you, No-o-Ka and I hope you enjoy your dinner.”
“Farewell, my friends,” he replied as he left the table and joined a large table of Galliceans in the center of their portion of the hall.
Cybil and Bill rejoined the group and told Rob, Elaine and Matt their story of choosing the thirty-second. It had been simple for Cybil. Her job was not fulfilling, but she needed the money to complete her graduate degree. When her parents told her about the future and what she could accomplish, she eagerly agreed. Bill was not so certain. Dave had to convince him they were not crazy and to at least try a jump and see what happened. Bill had been instrumental in deciphering the maklan language to avoid an intergalactic crisis over Neptune.
“Okay, I’ll bite. What are maklans and what does Neptune have to do with anything?” Matt asked, clearly confused again.
A crystalline spider floated through the room on its silky wings and landed on the table. “I can help there,” it said. “My name is Pamalakara Benomafolays, but you can call me Pam if you like. I am a maklan.”
“Hi Pam,” Bill said. “I haven’t seen you since the translation job. What brings you here?”
“My brother Jake told me what Charlie and Dave were trying to do, so I offered to help,” Pam said as she glowed light blue. “My species has been in the galaxy for billions of your years. One billion years ago, we learned that our sun was going to become a nova in two hundred thousand years, which would kill all life. We took all that time to develop portals like the one you took to get here. Ultimately, all maklans relocated to one of five hundred star systems that seemed compatible with our needs. Ten million relocated to this star system. Over time, we lived on all but the two innermost planets. We abandoned Earth, Jupiter and Saturn when we discovered nascent life there. Our society believes we must not interfere with any planet’s natural progression. We colonized Mars for half a billion years. Since it is a small planet, the atmosphere was slowly dissipating. After years of research, we moved to Neptune, which we call No-Makla. A small portion of our population settled on Nok-Makla, which you call Uranus. How am I doing, Admiral?”
“Perfect, Pam, but it’s your history so you should know it best,” Dave replied.
“Not long ago, when Jupiter and Saturn were given to the Galliceans, they came to explore our worlds. They misinterpreted our communication as an attempt to attack them. At the time, many Gallicean leaders were under the mind control of another maklan species, the Predaxians. They turned that misinterpretation into an opportunity to destroy our planets and pull vital defenses off the Predaxian frontier. Fortunately for us, my brother Jake teamed up with Admiral Brewster and the great Gallicean general, Fa-a-Di to turn the battle and save our worlds.”
“I can see your eyes glazing over,” Cybil said. “I’ve been here almost a year, and I’m still learning this stuff. Just let it wash over you and accept it. You’ll learn, don’t worry, right Billy?”
“That’s for sure, Sis,” he said. “I’ve been here half a year and I’m just beginning to understand how things work. It took me a long time to figure out the toilets, so you can imagine how complicated everything is!” Everyone laughed.
“But is it worth it to leave everything you know behind?” Elaine asked.
“For me, absolutely,” Bill replied. “I’ve done things here that really matter. I am now studying to be part of the team to fix human DNA. I know that’s why you are all here too. It’s amazing here and they treat those from the twenty-first very well. They know why we are here and that they need us. Back in the twenty-first, I was on a team of engineers trying to enable amputees to move prosthetic limbs with their minds. I was very happy knowing my work could help many unfortunate people. After two years, the company canceled the project. That was two years of my life down the drain. That doesn’t happen here.”
“I fully agree,” Cybil joined in. “Not only am I going to be part of that DNA team, I have been able to study and travel.” She turned to Dave, saying, “I was going to ask you something Dad. No-o-Ka has offered to fly me around Jupiter. I remember you and Charlie talking nonstop about your trip around Jupiter. Can I go?”
“Of course, sweetheart, I couldn’t deny anyone that pleasure. Just hang on tight,” Dave responded.
Rob had been staring at Cybil, watching her eyes light up as she spoke about the future. “Dad,” he said, “do you think I can stay overnight and go flying with Cybil? If that’s okay with you, Cybil?”
She smiled broadly at Rob, saying, “Sure, the more the merrier. I’ll contact the doctor and arrange another flyer.” She winked at him.
“It’s okay with me too,” Charlie said. “So, kids, what do you think about the future?”
“I’m in, Dad,” Rob said. “This place is amazing. I was so certain that you two were crazy, but now, I’d be the crazy one to go back to 2012. What about you, Matt?”
“I need to discuss this with Elaine. This has big implications on our whole family. We have to think about her parents, my mom and our children,” Matt said.
“That’s completely fair, son,” Charlie said. “You two should go sit at another table and talk about it. But before you go, let me make it a bit easier for you. The High Council has been very generous with those of us from the twenty-first century. The number of peo
ple authorized to jump through time is very small. The risk of altering the flow of time and events is too great to have people popping around history. Since your contribution to these people is so great, you will get that same reward. Dave and I are allowed to jump back to our time once a year for vacation. I’ve been doing this longer than Dave, and what I have done is jump back to the time one week after I left. That way, while I’m getting my job done here, the people in the twenty-first hardly notice I was gone. Since time is not an issue, I could jump to the twenty-first and spend months in that time and then jump back just after I left, keeping my vacation.”
Rence said, “We don’t really allow that though. We prefer to have the return jump at least one day after the jump out. In that way, the risk of creating ripples or eddies in time is eliminated. We’ve also found that if people are in a different time for more than a week or two, they can forget what they were doing when they left. But Charlie is right, the Temporal Command will be generous with you. You can imagine the benefit to our society if your team helps us double human life spans.”
“That’s why I need to keep working,” Dave said. “As people live longer, the population will keep rising. All those people need places to live and jobs to do. That’s where I come in. Think of me as the ultimate real estate broker.” Everyone laughed.
“Matt honey,” Elaine said. “I don’t need to have a private chat. If you can do all of those wonderful things here, that would be amazing. As a mother, if you can help our children live longer and healthier lives, I’d be crazy not to come here. We will need to visit our mothers for a couple weeks a year.” She turned to Rence, saying, “Was there anything in your history about me? I don’t need to extend lives or found worlds, but I’d like to know I have a place in the thirty-second.”
