by RJ
The joy didn’t last for long. The mutant felt shakes on the leg, and when he opened the eyes, Doc was there, pulling on his trousers. JB removed the earphones to pay attention to his companions.
“How do you like Atlantis, JB?” Nea asked.
“I'm not sure yet,” the man shrugged.
Nea noticed that broad red cable of his.
“That is an audio device of your time, right?” she imposed another question. “Where did you get it?”
“Took from a dead guy,” JB replied carelessly.
“Did you kill a man for a pair of earphones?”
“No,” the mutant resigned. “Who kills a dude for their earphones? That one was dead already.”
“So you knew him?”
“Why do you think so?”
“You’ve just called him by his name,” she tried to explain her thinking. “You said it yourself: ‘Dude.’”
“A dude isn’t a name. At least I don’t know anyone by such name.”
“What is it then?” Nea kept pushing.
Having a bit of a struggle with that conversation, JB looked at Mark.
“You go ahead. Don’t be rude, answer the lady,” Doc smiled, satisfied.
“Well, a dude is,” JB started thoughtfully. “It’s like… I don’t know how to break it. Hold on. I need a sec,” JB took a few moments to think it through. Then his hands went on gesticulating along with the lips. “For example, I’m a dude, and you’re not. Gibson can be a dude if he tries, but is unlikely to succeed. So I can call Doc a ‘dude,' or talking about him as a ‘dude,' but he ain’t no ‘dude’ inside.”
“That is absurd,” Nea make a conclusion.
“Exactly,” JB confirmed. “Street smarts can be proven by time, not logic.”
Being even more confused, the girl looked at Doc in hopes to gain some sensible explanations.
“‘Street smarts’?” Nea asked.
“You don’t want to know,’ Gibson said. “I had to listen to that stuff for two months straight.”
Nea turned to JB again.
“Are you a dude?” she asked. And then rushed to supplement right away. “Inside?”
“That’s right!” JB affirmed. “And after death too.”
“Like that dude, which you have taken the earphones from?”
“No, not like him. I’m different. And I didn’t take the headphones from him, I took it from his pocket.”
“Is there a difference?”
“I don’t know… Just thought it was worthy of mentioning.”
The next thing Nea watched was as JB tried to drink from the empty flask and then threw it on the seat disappointedly. Even though the mutant was big and threatening, somehow that small action seemed cute to her. She smiled. JB’s behavior felt quite unusual, sometimes brute, and often meaningless, but Nea started to like it.
“Yo, dude!” she called for him, purposely using his language.
“Yeah?” JB asked suspiciously.
“We’re here.”
Soon all three of them came to the familiar hall where they had met earlier in the morning. The door to the mayor’s office was open, so they went right in. JB and Doc were counting on a private conversation with the mayor, but, to their surprise, there were about fifteen people waiting for them. The council sat around the oval table. With the first look at the visitors, the mayor got up to welcome them.
The mayor came closer and looked up to the mutant’s eyes. He smiled widely, then offered his open hand. JB gave Aghastos a strong handshake to show that he was up to a serious conversation. Van Deen shook Gibson’s hand then. The scientist, on the contrary, acted friendly and relaxed, he felt safe there. That brief seconds were enough for the mayor to see which one of those two might be harder to bargain with.
“Hello, my friends! Have you rested well?” the mayor spoke cheerfully.
“It was quite wonderful, we’re grateful for your hospitality,” Doc replied just as gladly.
“You probably have a lot of questions, isn’t that right?” the mayor walked them to two empty seats at that table.
Nea went across the room to stay a bit aside, but still in JB’s and Doc’s sight. They felt much more confident when she was around, as a silent prompter who was always ready to assist. JB had his share of worries about that since he couldn’t know for sure to whom her loyalty belonged.
Aghastos occupied his own seat at the head of the table. The discussion went on then.
“Look, man,” JB took the initiative. He glanced at Nea, she was watching him carefully. “We’re grateful to you for this warm reception and all… But, let’s cut to the chase. Why are we here?”
“A true man of business! No chit-chat. I like this guy!” the mayor went on with a broad smile.
Then he nodded at one of the councils to pass the word.
“Let me introduce myself, gentlemen,” a young man in blue uniform rose. “My name is Beck Siir, I’m Head of the Internal Affairs Service. First of all, I have to say that it was our people who apprehended the rest of your group.” Doc fidgeted on the seat, he went worrying. At the same time, the mutant didn’t look very concerned. A bit of dislike appeared in his expression, though. The officer rushed to continue. “And I assure you, they are alright.”
“Where are they?” JB asked.
“To eliminate any possible consequences of their contact with the city, we had to temporarily isolate them. They tend to believe that it’s two thousand sixteen now,” Beck continued.
“That’s correct, sir,” Doc said. He decided to take a word from the partner, seeing how his mood had changed.
“You believe that too?”
“We did when we arrived, yes.”
“The first thing we do when strangers come to our city is an ID check. If you were citizens of the Galaxy Union, there would be the records of you in our database. After thoroughly studying the DNA samples of each of you, no match was found in any database. So we supposed that you were telling the truth,” the counselor finished his part and then nodded to one of his colleagues for him to take over.
A black haired man stepped out from the desk.
“My name is Mahmoud Adi, I represent the science community.”
The man used his bracer to control the desk projectors. The DNA structure appeared in a 3D layout over the surface. Some writings and formulas were beside it, JB didn’t get much of it. He looked at Doc. That one was entirely dedicated. It seemed like Gibson had some clarity on the matter.
“We wanted to study your DNA in depth,” Mahmoud continued. “And the results we got were quite impressive. It confirmed your story. You see, for the last thousand years there were several significant events that changed human DNA drastically. And the code of yours matches the one which we suppose our ancestors could have.”
“And here is where questions arise, gentlemen,” Minister Beck took the word back. “The first question: where did you get a time machine? The second question: what are your intentions?”
Meanwhile, Gibson was thinking about that science community, which Mahmoud had mentioned.
“Excuse me for going off topic, but what establishment exactly do you represent, Dr. Adi?” Mark couldn’t resist asking.
“The central solar system research station, of course - ‘Pythagoras,'” the man said proudly.
Having his own sympathies for a fellow scientist, Mahmoud wanted to delve on that for Gibson’s satisfaction. He entered a command into the projection’s interface. The illumination dimmed and the projection changed. A star map appeared there. Dr. Adi highlighted a particular star, the Sun, and the scale of the solar system expanded to a close view. There was the star itself, the planets and other space objects, including those stations. Mahmoud pointed at one of the stations that one was placed in the orbit of Mars. He looked quite proud, almost smug, as if showing off with his work establishment.
“That’s impressive!” Mark admired. But then he recalled the glimpses of what he had seen just before, on the star map.
“Hold on a second. Dr. Adi, could you, please, zoom out back to the galactic scale?”
“Sure,” Mahmoud confirmed and his fingers did the task instantly.
Mark leaned towards the projection to take a closer look. He stretched so much, it seemed he was going to climb on the table any second. Doc looked so obsessed that everyone else couldn’t think about anything but wondering what was on his mind.
“But…” Gibson wanted to say something, then stopped. He laid his hand on his chin and went on thinking. “What is that? Our galaxy?” He finally put out at least one clear sentence.
“Yes,” Mahmoud confirmed. “Is there something wrong, doctor?”
“Here we have Rigel and Mintaka, the closest stars to the Sun…” Gibson pointed his finger at the projection. “I’m not an astrophysicist, but as I remember it, they shouldn’t be there. This map doesn’t come even close to the truth.”
“Excuse me, doctor. With all due respect, this is a precise model of the nearest cosmos, I assure you,” the second scientist said.
Gibson didn’t want to make a fool of himself, so he dropped the argument. Nevertheless, his suspicions stayed with him. He looked at his partner in hopes of seeing a sign of support. JB looked concerned too, he obviously did like the idea of being that much behind in his knowledge than locals, yet Gibson’s disclosure of that just revealed it even further. JB hated to show weakness.
The pause lasted for too long, so Van Deen decided to bring some life into the conversation.
“So, my friends, is any one of you going to tell us your story?”
The warm, kind face of the mayor had loosened up and changed towards more exacting expression.
JB sat still, judging by Mark’s poor poker face, it was clear that he would be the one talking. Even though he wasn’t greatly fond of revealing all the truth about himself, to start lying then seemed as a bad idea. The mutant took a deep breath, laid his palms on the table and looked over the council. Gibson sat back.
“It all started in two thousand sixteen, as you already know. We were flying over the Atlantic Ocean, the flight from Ukraine to America. During the flight, we got into the storm, a weird one. It was full of colorful lightning and stuff. It was the last thing I remember from that day. Then the plane crashed on the one quite unusual island. It was there where Doc and I met. He and I planned a rescue mission for the rest of the group. We brought the people to the drug manufacturers’ camp where – where we stole two swingers. Then we flew over the ocean for a while, until we got here. You know the rest of the story.”
“How exactly did you pass to our time?” Mahmoud asked.
“To be completely honest, I have no idea. There was no time machine, we just got here. I think it all happened during the light storm, maybe it was the reason for the crash…”
What was supposed to be a half-hour meeting with the mayor turned into a six hour straight discussion that felt more like an interrogation with the council. JB and Doc were telling stories about the island, about their lives before the island and about everything that the participants were interested in. The only topic, which was strictly avoided by either of them, was JB’s mutation and the gibsonium. It was a too valuable secret to share it with strangers.
Every time the talk was getting close to fighting monsters or JB’s strength overall, he put on a dumb smirk and used dirty jokes to drew unwanted attention away. In fact, it felt so unusual for those people for such brutish behavior with all that openness, that they liked him right away. As for Bridgers himself, there were a few moments when he felt close to the edge and nervously lowered his hand to check on the gibsonium crystal on his belt. It was the only thing that could make him nervous. Even a thin possibility of losing that rock might throw him in a cold sweat. Such power had to be protected.
There were lots of reasons for the government to be thorough about the ones visiting their city, of course. Still, JB had a bad feeling about their intentions. The council was too concerned with those who didn’t have anything. So the mayor with his colleagues had to have some interest in them, it was essential to find out what exactly.
After the discussion had finished, the council asked JB, Mark and Nea stay outside until the decision would be rendered. They went into the hall to take a familiar position, where Nea got to her workspace and the guests stayed on the sofa. The only thing missing was the mech. Nea turned to her workstation to do some of her work while waiting.
“What was it like, then?” the woman asked looking at the mutant.
“Excuse me?” he replied sluggishly, barely moving his jaw, which rested on the arm.
“What was the world like? In your time,” Nea clarified.
“It’s kinda too complicated a question. I don’t think there is a simple answer. What exactly would you like to know?”
“The people. What were they like?”
“Lost mostly. They didn’t know what they wanted from life, or how to be happy.”
“So, a thousand years didn’t change much, right?” the girl said.
“I guess…”
“Who were you in that life?” she continued.
The mutant got his head up with a rush. His look changed, he was so surprised by that question that it seemed ridiculous even to himself.
“Are you serious? What did we talk about there, for the whole night?” he nodded at the door to the mayor’s office. “I was a criminal. A bad guy.”
“You’re not that simple, JB. You don’t like to show the bigger part of your personality, do you?”
“It’s often easy to miss what is important,” the mutant relaxed again and sat back just as he had.
“I hope life in Atlantis brings you a purpose, so you won’t be lost anymore…”
With those words, Nea turned to the door, which opened a second after. The counselors began coming out. They all were in a bright mood, it seemed like a good sign for the guests. Not stopping by the heroes of the occasion themselves, the counselors were nodding and waving to them on the way to the lifts. The last ones to come out were the mayor and two of his assistants. Nea shut the workstation right away and joined her wards.
Aghastos, along with his assistants, walked across the room to meet their guests. He stopped in front of Mark first and offered him an open hand.
“Dr. Gibson, I hope you would honor us with an agreement to work at our Pythagoras science station. We would be more than happy to have a specialist like yourself among our brightest minds,” the mayor said officially.
The scientist lost his voice for a second. It was a huge deal for him since he was sure that they had left a bad impression. And such a generous offer set his mind spinning. So he didn’t overthink that and just accepted the handshake.
“Oh, it’s a great honor to me, sir,” Gibson said gladly.
“These are my assistants: Brant, and Ailen. They are going to bring you to the hotel and will be supporting you for the next two weeks, before your departure.”
Then a lost thought popped back up on the surface of Doc’s mind.
“Wait a second. What is going to happen to our people?” he asked.
“Tomorrow all of them will be assigned to the adaptation program. All of you are going to become sterling members of society,” Van Deen explained. “How does this sound?”
“Let’s go on, Dr. Gibson, we will get you up to speed,” the red-haired assistant stepped forward.
“What about JB?” Doc wondered.
“Don’t worry about your friend, doctor. We are going to take good care of him. You will meet him later.”
Mark agreed to the terms after all, he gained a silent confirmation from his partner and then followed his new guides to the lift. They all were gone in that greenish sphere. Once again it became quiet in the hall. Just three people were left there: JB, Nea, and Aghastos. Then the mayor turned to the mutant. His face still remained quite pleased, but without that widest smile anymore.
“Let’s talk in the office, my friend,” the short, merry man
said. Then he nodded to Nea so she would come along.
Without saying anything JB followed. Aghastos walked through the office to take his seat of honor, Nea took the seat next to his and JB landed at the opposite side of that long table.
“JB, you probably wonder why we asked you to stay?” the mayor started.
“Actually, you didn’t. Others just left. No one asked me to stay,” the big guy responded cynically.
“Well, true that. Yet, we have a good reason to treat you in a special way. Because you're special, aren’t you, my boy?” Van Deen looked at him with suspicion, as if it was a test. “When we got the results of DNA analysis, earlier this day, we noticed something. Thirty-two subjects proved to be entirely normal, but the one…” he made a pause. “Your blood results were very interesting.”
“Is it too red or something?” JB joked.
“You see; as a part of an interspecies civilization we sometimes struggle to collaborate with our allies. So many worlds in this one large system, so many cultures. The human body is vulnerable, not adjusted to the conditions of most of the civilized planets. Our people are always limited to all these machines, specialized complexes with artificial Earth-like conditions. And, in regards to other kinds, the most important things happen where humans can’t reach,” Van Deen was narrating with no rush, letting JB get a grasp over his thinking. “Our science department analyzed your blood and reconstructed a virtual approximation of you from your DNA. For reasons unknown to us, your body is extremely adjustable to various living conditions. High atmospheric pressure, temperature variation, an oxygen deficit and many other factors are nothing to you. You are able to land on any planet and stay there as long as you want to, without any health consequences, unspotted. Do you get what I’m saying?”
The situation was getting more and more clear with every word coming from the mayor. A sly smirk widened on JB’s face.
