The couple in front of us was refused entry because they appeared too young to be consenting adults. The girl scanned their marriage certificate as proof they qualified and a portal opened. A bubble emerged, broke free, and gyrated as it drifted away. I anticipated a similar problem.
“We’re on our honeymoon,” I whispered and the portal opened.
I gave Albert’s sleeve a tug and he glided across the threshold. However, his weight advantage propelled me in the opposite direction. I grabbed his fluttering pant cuff and trailed after him like the tail of one of Earth’s kites. The concept of air movement as in Gone with the Wind was foreign to us.
Albert’s momentum sent him across to the opposite surface, and he bounced back past me toward the portal. It no longer existed. We were encased in a gravity-free sphere, its surface transparent from the inside. Albert sprung his legs, and like from a trampoline, he shot across the room headfirst ping ponging back and forth. Hovering in mid space, I gave his butt a shove as he passed by, and again we headed in opposite directions. We played tag and then dodge ball using our bodies as the projectile. We rolled, tumbled, and jostled until the straps of my gown slid over my shoulders. I aimed a head dive into his mid section, and he grabbed me around my chest causing the tape across my breasts to loosen on one side. He pulled it off, twirling me like a top.
As our momentum slowed and our paths crossed, I grabbed Albert’s shoulders and reminded him of our goal. He nodded and began to undress. I burst out laughing when he set his clothes in mid air, as if dressing an invisible manikin. I slid out of my gown and stood it upright next to Albert’s creation. With the straps draped over make-believe shoulders, I shaped the front to imply a full bosom. Observing the cross from my mother’s necklace nestle in invisible cleavage, I felt a shiver travel my spine. I had a vague recollection of a Twentieth Century concept that I could not bring into focus. More research after Albert and I copulate.
Like life-sized puppets, we directed our alter egos to dance, hug, and even simulate intercourse. Gazing into each other’s eyes, we slid our underwear down our legs and over our feet. The action caused us to tumble, and when we caught each other, we were inverted, my face buried in his groin. I felt myself getting wet. Albert’s head had lodged between my legs, his mouth open. He spat out hairs. Sparse strands on his scrotum tickled my nose, and in the absence of gravity his penis floated to a near erection.
I had lost all desire to have him enter any orifice, and it was apparent he would have been unable. Hand-over-hand, we worked our bodies face-to-face. We expressed spontaneous agreement for our next move. We gathered our clothes and I pressed the exit button. Our love nest burst like a soap bubble, and a robot-chair scooted alongside. We fastened our seat belts and clung to our clothes until gravity gently settled them onto our laps.
While we dressed on the roof of my building, I had a Twentieth Century inspiration. I said, “Would you like to come in for a drink?”
The elevator opened to our living space, and I scanned the room to my parents’ bedroom door. It remained open as when I left, the interior still dark. Shoes in hand, I beckoned Albert across to my room and gave the opposite bedroom another quick glance. No ghostly silhouette of Mother standing in her nightgown, but Dad offered ample evidence of his sound sleep. I joined Albert and closed my door.
I led him to my bed and whispered, “Tonight you have a choice, me or Sera.” He gawked, first at me and then at my naked avatar twin as I pulled the covers back. I hadn’t instructed my body double to wear pajamas.
He pointed and laughed. “That one.”
“Maybe you could practice on her until you get it right.” I detected a frown. “That is if you still want to consummate our experiment.” He shrugged, and I closeted the playmate who has been my constant companion since she and I had been toddlers. Her sprouting pubic hairs had alerted me that changes had also begun in my body.
“Do you use it to trick your parents often?”
“I hadn’t needed to until this evening.” I caught Sera’s wink before I pulled the drapes to her cubicle and glanced back at Albert. “Do you disapprove?”
“I got a puppy when I was a child. My dad didn’t trust any creature that doesn’t eat and poop.”
“I meant disapprove of using her for deception.”
“It’s dishonest to fool your parents.”
I sensed a possible mock serious expression, and I cracked a smile. “How are you going to explain your absence to your parents?”
“I’ll tell them I spent the night with you.”
“Why would you do that?”
“To convince them I’m not homosexual.”
“That isn’t possible. The gay gene had been destroyed.”
“Like the God gene?”
“I got your point. But please let them believe what they want until we’re sure I’m pregnant.”
“Aren’t you afraid?”
“Not really. I’ll have Sera mimic my pregnancy, and she’ll take me through the process.”
“Could she carry our baby for us?”
“Not if you want flesh and blood. I’m not even sure if she can self-replicate. That hadn’t been my parents’ purpose for obtaining her.”
His expression turned solemn.
“Are you afraid?” I asked.
“Nah. My part is easy. However, I wish I could see how it turns out.”
“Albert! You’ll be a parent just like your father.”
“Not if we get separated.” I thought he’d seen a ghost. “Disregard that.”
“What do you know that I don’t?”
“Nothing.” He stared at his feet as if contemplating his toes. “Please don’t ask.”
“Do I have to bring Sera back to bed so we can gang up on you?”
“Tell me your specialty first.”
Suddenly my extensive knowledge of the Twentieth Century paled in comparison to what Albert’s data might be. “I’m expert in the first electronic era of our former planet.” I hadn’t glorified my expertise before or even admitted my assignment to anyone other than my parents.
“I wish I’d been given a period of history. I’m most interested in the era of the Roman Empire. All I know about it comes from a movie I checked out at the data library.”
“What is your primary program?”
“I’m sorry, I can’t . . .”
“I just told you mine.”
“Can we have sex now?”
“Your body will determine that.”
“I don’t feel much like it.”
“If we undress and lay down it might help.”
“I am tired.” He yawned.
We undressed, each on opposite sides of the bed. His body showed no apparent interest in the task ahead of us. “Would you like Sera to join us?” I had been reviewing erotic literature from the 1980’s.
“Is she warm blooded? I’m not used to sleeping naked.” He shivered and pulled the covers to his chin.
“Any temperature you want. You don’t have to tell her. She can anticipate your needs.”
“Right now I need my puppy.”
“Do you want Sera to get him? She’d be undetected, unless the dog yelps.”
“He’s dead. Dad wanted to get me another, but I refused. I don’t want a dog to go through what’s ahead of us.”
What do you know? I drew blood from my lip to repress my question. “If you don’t mind, I’ll have Sera sleep with us.” Her radar might reveal his secret, if he lets his guard down in his sleep.
ARIEL GORDON: JOURNAL ENTRY #2
SUNDAY AM, JULY 2, 3150
“My dreams are blocked? Are you sure?” Albert rubbed sleep from his eyes and glared at me for waking him hours before daylight.
I touched his lips to shush him for fear our voices would awaken my parents. He sat frog-legged with his back against the headboard and pouted. I attempted to imitate his position but felt a surge of modesty and knelt at the foot of the bed and faced him.
I said,
“Sera has near perfect dream intercepting antennae. She and I play a game of who can better remember my dreams.”
I wished she’d allowed my nightmare to run its course before awakening me to relate Albert’s problem. Or had she purposely cut it short? I decided to badger her about it when this business with Albert concludes.
His pout morphed into a scowl. “I only vaguely remember dreaming as a child. Is a block something that happens naturally?”
“Sera said it had to be implanted.”
“Someone cut my head open and stuck it in?” He stroked the back of his head as if to sooth away a headache. He’d be entitled to a whopper after the events of last evening.
“Laser the block into the circuitry, I suspect.” I repressed a yawn. Sera remained covered to her chin, her eyelids fluttering. “She’s reconnected to the data library and will tell us in a minute.”
Albert peered askance at my avatar. “Can that thing talk?”
“And she has feelings,” I fibbed.
“Sorry.”
He pressed down on the bed and leaped, his genitals dangling, and he landed triangularly to Sera and me. “She can join us if she wants to.”
Sera slid out from under the covers and sat adjacent to Albert and me. She flashed a see-what-I-mean smile to me as she crossed her legs at the ankles and tucked them under her body, a lady-like position I had yet to master. Momentarily, I reconsidered her warning about coercing Albert into fatherhood.
“Well, what did you find?” Albert appeared oblivious to our nakedness.
Sera’s eyes roved from Albert to me. Her voice smooth and modulated, she said, “Ariel is correct. Someone manipulated Albert’s dream capability but not during his prenatal state.”
“Who would do that to me and why?”
“And when, if not before you were born. With Sera’s help, we can pursue this issue after you impregnate me.”
Sera focused coffee-colored eyes on Albert. “I marked for your attention in the data library The History of the Roman Empire. You may want to check it out. Of course, Ariel has access to much of the Twentieth Century research about that era.”
Sera flashed the smirk that I repressed. I hold the trump cards in the exchange of secrets between Albert and me. What’s left is how to play them.
“Ariel’s body is ovulating. If you plan to impregnate her, now is the time while her parents are still asleep.”
“I don’t know.”
“Are you having second thoughts?” I asked.
“No. I just don’t know what to do or how to go about doing it.”
Sera unfolded her legs, stood beside the bed, and lifted the sheet. “Crawl under the cover and clear your minds of dream blocks, Roman empires, and getting pregnant. Ariel knows what movements are effective from experimenting together on the balcony. I will retreat and remain behind my closet drapes unless I am needed.” As she stepped back from the bed she muttered, “I envy you.” From behind the curtain, “I fear for you.”
Albert closed his eyes and his breathing became rhythmical, obviously faking sleep. Anticipating my frustration, Sera stepped from her closet to my bathroom and filled the tub. Her gesture made sense. It had been a long day.
When I returned to bed, Sera lay against Albert’s back with her arms around him. She inched free, and I snuggled between them and drifted to sleep.
ARIEL GORDON: JOURNAL, ENTRY #3
SUNDAY PM, JULY 2, 3150
“From where does the sun get its energy?” I asked Albert, as we sat on a branch between our buildings previously obscured by our balconies. Protruding through thickly clustered vines, it appeared to have sprouted from the outer wall of my house.
“Huh?”
Following last night’s adventure, he would hardly have expected my interest in physics rather than planning for my pregnancy. I dangled my feet and considered asking Dad to hang a swing or, better yet, build a tree house for Albert and me like the one the Swiss Family Robinson had.
“Water.”
“Water?” I’d almost forgotten my question.
“Yes. Separated into oxygen for breathing and hydrogen for nuclear fusion.”
“How do you know that?”
“It’s my . . .”
“Your specialty. Now you have to tell me all.”
He brushed a strand of blond hair from his eyes as blue as the shade of water from Dad’s hologram. “I can tell you everything about our past, but nothing about what’s in store for us.”
“Dad already explained the process. That’s what led to my question about the sun.”
“I know what he told you.” Albert leaned back and lost his balance.
I grabbed his arm and pulled him face-to-face. I definitely want that tree house. “Did your dad give that same lecture?”
“I helped him write the script.” He straddled the branch and carefully pressed his back to a vine clinging to my building. “How’d you like the hologram?”
“That was your bit of magic?”
“No magic, just the laws of physics.”
“Never mind. Skip to the part where my father left off.”
“The explanation of rotation and acceleration to create gravity?” He twirled his finger and swung his arm.
“A good place to start.”
“Not really.” He smacked his lips. Had I missed a kissing opportunity? He said, “I can fill in details preceding the account your father recited, starting with Halley’s Comet.”
I responded with information from my recent research. “Halley’s Comet viewed from Earth twice in the Twentieth Century would appear only once in the twenty-first. Its orbit, perpendicular to Earth’s, extends beyond that of Pluto.” I fixed my gaze on his eyes. “The year 2061 to be exact. I traced my ancestry to that date.”
Albert’s expression grew grim. “Are you sure?”
“Of course. I got the reprimand of my life for my effort.” A truth, but he needn’t know how minimal it actually was.
“You should have been scolded.”
“What does that mean?” Had my father underestimated a serious offense?
“I can’t say.”
“Can’t or won’t?”
“We’ll have to wait and see.”
The boy from next door appeared to mature before my eyes, and it frightened me. “It was my mother’s DNA that I traced. Does that have any significance?”
“It will be our challenge, yours and mine, to find out.”
“Albert! I need to know. What do we, my family specifically, have to do with Halley’s Comet?”
He chuckled. “If I told you, I’d have to kill you.”
I refused to laugh. “Tell me everything you know.” I put my hands on my hips and leered over him. “Now!”
He pondered before responding. “Our habitat, the sphere where we sleep, play, and work, used to be Halley’s Comet. Still is Halley’s Comet.”
“We’re hitching a ride like a parasite?”
“We are the comet, at least an integral part of it. Embedded inside, controlling its trajectory.”
“Not doing loops around the solar system?” I considered the generations of disappointed schoolchildren anticipating the comet’s arrival.
“Just twice around to allow time to prepare our habitat and to align with Jupiter for the skip needed to break into outer space.” He beamed. “In conjunction with an atomic boost of our own.”
“Where are we going?”
“To Proxima Centauri, Earth’s nearest star, a little more than four light years distance.” He clung to a branch but gave a nonchalant wave with his free hand. “If it’s still there when we arrive.”
“It might explode like a nova?” I was proud of my knowledge.
“Not likely, but it may wander toward another arm of the Milky Way. If so, we’ll find a different one. We won’t arrive for another three thousand years anyway. Not the problem we’re faced with presently.”
“Which is?”
“How to start a new colony with a se
parate goal.”
“Can’t we duplicate the process?”
“There aren’t any comets available. The closest one spotted is more distant than the planet we hope to inhabit.”
“Planet? Inhabit?”
“Our ultimate goal.”
“Can’t we phone home for advice?” I chuckled at my twentieth-century movie allusion.
“We make periodic contact with Earth, mostly to update our computer technology. However, two-way conversation takes two years to transmit and receive.” He puffed up his chest. “Dad and I are awaiting acknowledgement for the glitch we located in last year’s computer patch.” Blue eyes turned up, but thank goodness, he didn’t whistle.
I allowed him the satisfaction his expression demanded. “Tell me from the beginning how and when Halley’s Comet was accosted.”
“In the year 2061, Earth scientists launched an unmanned space probe to rendezvous with the comet. Because of the probe’s extreme weight, composite material for its hull had to be manufactured on the moon and sections assembled in a moon orbit. Its prototype was the Sea Wolf class nuclear submarine.”
“They thought the comet was an ocean?”
“Not really, but the hull’s design could withstand the vacuum of space, and the nuclear reactor created power for robotic arms to carve into the comet’s ice core. Cold fusion reactors weren’t developed until Halley’s return trip. The hull still exists as a passageway to exit through the comet’s rear. The most serious challenge had been matching the velocity of the comet and attaching the cigar-shaped probe into its tail. Then a free ride for the next seventy five years, time to hollow out a thousand-foot-diameter cavern inside the comet’s ice and debris.”
“Like an Eskimo Igloo,” I interjected. “Actually two of them to create a sphere.”
He gave one of many shrugs and proceeded. “Meanwhile, back on the moon ten self contained capsules were constructed and outfitted, the string of pearls from your father’s presentation.”
“Let me guess. On this second round, people also got on board.”
“Only a crew of technicians, scientists, and biologists during the comet’s short loop around the back side of the sun to make the sphere inside the comet habitable. They used the nuclear reactor from the submarine lodged in the comet’s tail to ignite the fusion reactor inside the sphere, and an eco-system began to flourish. After preparing for a nuclear blast to propel the comet beyond the apex of its orbit and into deep space, these astronauts returned to Earth. Within the next hundred years, the habitat flourished and it reached our maximum acceleration of one-thousandth the speed of light.”
LIGHT YEARS FROM HOME Page 3
