And after he helped this planet recover, he could go out there if he wanted to.
The idea of that flat scared him more than he wanted to admit.
He moved over to the kitchen area and pulled out a popcorn maker and started it up.
Gina had not said a word since they got back. She had gone around and sat down on the couch staring out into the dark night and all the stars beyond the windows.
He poured them both a glass of white wine, even though he wasn’t sure if she even liked wine, and walked over and set both glasses down on the coffee table in front of her.
Then, saying nothing, he went back to the kitchen area to wait for the popcorn to pop. He was pretty sure she hadn’t even noticed him.
Finally, when he had a large bowl done and two glasses of ice water as well, he went back to the couch and sat down a little distance from her.
He put the green plastic bowl of popcorn between them. It smelled wonderful and he had salted it, again without asking if she liked popcorn or salt on popcorn.
He set her glass of water beside her untouched glass of wine, then leaned back sort of sideways on the couch so he could see her beautiful face. Her gaze was distant, not really in the room. He had no idea what she was thinking about, but he needed to find out.
And he needed some answers as well.
“Mind telling me who this Chairman Ray person is?”
She seemed to come back into her eyes at that point, then nodded.
She took a drink of water, then seemed to see the wine for the first time when she set her water glass down. She picked up the wine and sipped it.
“This is good,” she said. “Thanks.”
He took a drink of wine as well, then a handful of popcorn, waiting for her to answer his question.
“As far as I know,” she said, holding the wine in her hands, “Chairman Ray is one of the oldest and most powerful of all Seeders. No one knows how old he really is, but he and his wife are rumored to be maybe two hundred thousand years old, if not more.”
Benny had the popcorn half-chewed when she said that. His mind told him from the information he had gotten in the training program that extreme long age was possible. But grasping that kind of age was far, far beyond him.
He was still having issues with the fact that Gina was two hundred years old.
“Powerful how?” Benny asked, pushing the age part back. “My understanding from the training thing is that there is no real organization that runs the Seeders.”
“That’s true,” Gina said, “as far as I know. But with age comes respect and the oldest tend to help plan things. But realize, I haven’t had much more Seeder history than what you got earlier.”
“So I have some special Seeder gene, more so than most Seeders, and it seems so do you,” Benny said. “Any idea exactly what that means?”
“Not a clue,” she said. “I wish I did. I didn’t even know there was such a thing as a Seeder gene until they told me that was the reason you could remember the ship.”
Benny realized that in the training program he had gone through, there was not one word about that either.
“So we’re both kind of flying in the dark here,” he said.
“Pitch dark,” she said.
She took another sip of wine and nodded. “You would think after two hundred years, this kind of thing wouldn’t happen to me. I feel like I did when I was approached to be a Seeder. Confused and puzzled.”
“Good,” he said. “That makes two of us.”
She laughed and set her wine down and took a handful of popcorn. After she tasted a handful she smiled. “Perfect.”
“So do you think I should join?” he asked. “Get the training?”
“That’s up to you,” she said.
“Have you ever regretted it?”
“Not for an instant,” she said.
“So I know it’s my decision,” Benny said. “But I could use your opinion.”
“My personal opinion is that I want you to join for selfish reasons,” she said. “I want to work with you, get to know you better, and save a lot of people with you.”
“Some of that doesn’t sound so selfish,” he said. “But we can do that without me joining.”
“For a while,” she said, nodding. “But I have a hunch if you could do some of the things I can do, and we both get whatever advanced training Chairman Ray is talking about, we will be even more effective. And save even more people.”
Benny glanced out over the dark city. He remembered clearly those green lights on the screen in Gina’s apartment on the ship. Each person, each green light, needed help. And some needed it quickly or they would not survive for long.
He had to make this decision quickly. And then get on with the job at hand.
“Let me sleep on this for the night,” he said. “And I’ll have a decision in the morning.”
“Good idea,” she said, nodding.
“But honestly,” he said, “I’m leaning toward signing up.”
When he said that, it felt right.
She smiled. “I hope you keep leaning.”
“So one more question and then we can relax and watch a movie or something,” he said.
“Anything,” she said.
“How far is a light year?”
She looked at him for a moment, then laughed. “Light travels at one-hundred-and-eighty-six thousand miles per second.”
He nodded. He remembered that from school somewhere.
“A light year is how far light travels in one year’s time,” she said.
And once again he couldn’t imagine that distance. He got the thousands part.
He shook his head. “Some way to relay to me how big this galaxy is?” he said.
“There are billions of stars in this galaxy. Many billions.”
He nodded, looking out at the stars.
“If this planet was represented by one speck of dust here on the coffee table,” she said. “Using that scale of this planet as a speck of dust, this galaxy would be far, far, far bigger than this planet.”
“And there are a lot of galaxies?” he asked, trying to even pretend to grasp that much distance.
“Billions,” she said.
And once again he couldn’t imagine the size and scale. “I think I’m going to need one of your learning programs to actually understand any of this. Sorry I asked.”
She laughed, moved the popcorn bowl to the table and came over and leaned against him, putting her head against his chest and stretching out on the couch.
Damn that felt good.
And it felt right.
And tomorrow when he woke up he knew what decision he was going to make.
He was joining this beautiful woman. In every way he could.
CHAPTER FORTY
GINA AWOKE THE next morning to the smell of bacon and toast cooking.
The sun was just coming up over the city and the sky was a deep blue. The water around the island looked calm and a dark gray, contrasting with the metal and steel and stone of the giant structures around them.
This city was a beautiful place, of that there was no doubt. She could see why Benny loved it so much.
Last night she and Benny had tried to watch a movie, but both of them had fallen asleep.
Benny woke her up after a short time and got her headed to her own bed in her apartment. She had made some groggy mention that she would like to sleep with him and he had said they both needed the sleep. And if she slept with him, neither of them would sleep.
She had known he was right.
And now, after sleeping, she did feel rested.
A moment later there was a knock on her door.
“Come in,” she said, sitting up in bed and working to straighten out her bed hair. She had slept in a t-shirt and a pair of running shorts.
“Breakfast in ten minutes,” he said, smiling at her.
Her heart damn near beat out of her chest. He was more attractive than before, if that was possible, stand
ing there in his jeans, dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and a yellow plastic spatula in one hand.
“Smells wonderful,” she said.
“Do you drink coffee?” he asked.
“I do,” she said. “Black. Do I have time for a quick shower?”
“Make it real quick if you want warm eggs and toast,” he said, smiling.
Then he turned away and headed back to the kitchen.
Eleven minutes later, showered and wearing jeans and a thin blue blouse with a sports bra under it, she padded into his kitchen with her shoes and socks in hand.
He was just serving up two eggs, light toast, and a slice of ham for each plate. He also had what looked to be orange juice in glasses at the table.
“I told the professor we were going to have breakfast up here,” he said as she took her seat and he slid the plate in front of her.
The food smelled heavenly and she dug into the slice of ham, letting the slightly salty taste melt in her mouth.
He sat across from her, eating as well, and they didn’t speak for a few minutes until finally he said, “I’ve decided to join up. I can see no reason not to and about a thousand reasons to join.”
She smiled, then stood and went around the table and kissed him, long and hard.
Just about the point where neither of them were going to finish their breakfasts, she pulled away and went back to her side of the table. She barely made it back. She really just wanted to make love to him right there.
He was smiling and she could feel that she was as well.
“How long will this training take?” he asked.
“Not a clue,” she said. She pointed out over the city. “We don’t have a lot of time for some of the people out there.”
“I was thinking that,” he said. “So after breakfast let’s ask and then get to work.”
“We’ll do it from my office in the ship first,” she said, “find the person who needs the most help soonest and get there.”
“I was going to suggest the same thing,” he said.
He finished his breakfast and pushed the plate away, taking one last sip of orange juice.
She did the same and they stood together.
“Door is still locked,” he said, “and the professor won’t be expecting us down there for a good hour or two.”
She nodded. “Let’s go find out what this training is all about.”
She reached out and took his hand and he held it, his grasp firm in her hand, his skin wonderful against hers.
“Chairman Carson, would you contact Chairman Ray? Benny and I are ready to go.”
“Wonderful,” Chairman Carson said after a moment. “My office.”
“You ready?” she asked Benny.”
“Scared to death and I have a ton of doubts,” he said. “Sort of like climbing on the old roller coaster on Coney Island back in the day. So why not?”
She nodded and squeezed his hand, not really knowing what he meant.
“I’m worried as well, but not scared of what’s coming. I know it can only be good if we do it together.”
“Now that I agree with,” he said.
She again squeezed his hand and said, “Two to transport aboard.”
Then a moment later she had them standing in Chairman Carson’s office facing a smiling Chairman Wade Ray.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
BENNY SMILED AT the man with the long, gray hair and the broad smile.
“I’m ready to go, Chairman,” Benny said. He indicated Gina. “We both are. Together.”
Ray nodded. “That is fantastic to hear.”
“How long is this training going to take?” Gina asked. “We have a lot of hurting people in that city below we need to get to and rescue.”
Ray smiled, but his eyes were serious and Benny could tell that saving people was important to Ray. “Twenty minutes for the training, maybe another hour for me to answer your basic questions.”
Benny nodded. They could take that time. It would be more than worth it, he had a hunch.
“We can do that,” Gina said.
“We’ll need to go to my ship in this galaxy first and pick up my wife Tacita,” Ray said. “Then we will jump to another ship for the training.”
Benny had no idea exactly what Ray meant, but he had a hunch he would in an hour or so.
Gina nodded. “Let’s get started.”
Chairman Ray glanced at the silent Chairman Carson. “We will return in an hour or so.”
Carson only nodded.
A moment later Benny found himself standing on what looked like a conference room in a building. It had no windows and only a long table surrounded by leather chairs that were pushed in. There were photos on the wall of various stars and beautiful images of colored clouds in space.
A woman with long black hair appeared next to Ray.
Ray said, “My wife, Chairman Tacita.”
“An honor to meet you,” Gina said, bowing slightly.
“Yes, an honor,” Benny said, nodding toward the woman with the dark eyes and a slight smile.
Ray took Tacita’s hand and a moment later they were standing on a massive control area of a ship. A good dozen people manned stations around the room the size of a small gym. And two white chairs molded together and facing front were down two levels.
Benny couldn’t hear a thing. Everyone worked in silence at their stations, not even noticing that four people had arrived.
“Where are we?” Gina asked.
“This is the control bridge of our main ship,” Ray said. “We are, at the moment, about seventy galaxies away from the Milky Way Galaxy.”
Gina staggered a little and Benny put out his arm to hold her. She clearly understood distances. Maybe it was better, for the moment, that he didn’t really understand just how far they had jumped in that instant of time.
“I’ve never seen a ship this size,” Gina said after a moment.
“There are none this size in the Milky Way,” Tacita said, her voice flat and matter-of-fact, “and won’t be for another three hundred years.”
“But two are on their way there now,” Ray said.
Benny had no idea what any of this meant, but he had to admit that if this was just the control room of a ship, how huge was the ship itself? He didn’t figure they would have time for a tour, since all this was only supposed to take just over an hour.
Ray led them over to two chairs against a far wall facing two large screens and indicated that they should sit.
Gina did and Benny found himself only hesitating for a moment before sitting down as well.
The chair looked like a hard plastic, but it molded around him and supported his back perfectly as he sat down. Nice invention.
“Please put both hands on the surface in front of you,” Ray said.
Benny did at the same time Gina did beside him.
And that was the last thing he remembered about being in that large bridge until Chairman Ray said that they could sit back.
He felt like he had just had every bit of information in the New York City Library forced into his brain, organized, and stored.
And so, so much more.
He knew that now he was a Seeder. In all respects.
He stood and Gina slowly stood beside him, her hand on his arm for support.
Then Benny looked up into the eyes of Chairman Ray and Chairman Tacita and bowed slightly. He knew them, he knew that they were much, much older than even rumored, that this ship they were on was the first Seeder Mother Ship, and so much more.
“Thank you for this honor,” Benny said. And he meant it. More than he had ever meant anything in his life.
“Yes, thank you,” Gina said, and she also bowed slightly.
A moment later the four of them were in a very comfortable lounge with four chairs and light crackers and cheeses and glasses of water on a wooden coffee table in the center. Each chair was an overstuffed brown leather chair and as Benny sat, again the chair formed comfortably around him.
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After all four of them were seated, Chairman Ray said, “That process took exactly twenty-one minutes. You have been gone now from Chairman Carson’s ship for just under thirty minutes. I know time is of the essence to you at this point in the rescue, but I hope you will take this next hour to ask us any question you feel is necessary.”
Benny looked over at Gina and she nodded.
“We can take the time,” he said.
Benny now understood exactly how far they were from his New York City and the Milky Way Galaxy. He just understood it. He wasn’t sure how, but he understood it now and was impressed. But he had one question he still didn’t understand.
“All Seeders have a Seeder gene,” Benny said. “What makes the one we have so special? Does it give us extra powers?”
Ray smiled. “Not so much, but in a way, yes. You can remember things over centuries better than others and you both have the ability to transport vast distances, far greater distances than any normal Seeder.”
“But the biggest factor is that the gene,” Tacita said, “gives you the ability to chairman with a partner one of these mother ships.”
“Oh,” Benny said, sitting back. In his mind the size of a Seeder mother ship was clear. They were as large as most moons. And could carry millions of people.
“Wow,” Gina said.
They talked for another thirty minutes, Benny just confirming basic knowledge he had in his mind more than anything else.
Finally he said something that had been bothering him, because he knew that Seeders, especially Seeders like Ray and Tacita, never did much of anything without a plan.
“So with me and Gina now working on my home world, that makes six of us there, four you saved from the disaster twice.”
“Actually,” Ray said, “Since yesterday we found yet another who survived. And another showed up just after the last wave hit from another local planet. They have teamed up and both are being recruited.”
“So eight there,” Benny said. “What is it, the water?”
“We honestly don’t know,” Tacita said.
“So what is your plan for all of us?”
“We want you all to help save the population of your planet first and foremost,” Ray said, “along with thousands of other Seeders helping out around your planet.”
Smith's Monthly #11 Page 20
