Maelstrom

by Scott McElhaney

  “I had a mole on my inner elbow!” I almost hollered, “Were our arms amputated? If so, why?”

  “All in due time. A premature answer to your question would only serve to confuse you at this moment. I promise an answer in due time,” she replied.

  “Why are we here?” I said, rising from my seat, “I’m serious. I can’t abide by the promise of no questions. Why are two suicidal women abducted and brought here from… from what, the past?”

  “Hunter, have I done anything at all to make you feel unsafe or unhappy? Am I an enemy?” Eight asked.

  “Is this really supposed to be 28-something? Are we really in the future because I’ve got to say… I’ve seen nothing around me that looks futuristic,” I argued, “Can I just go home while you prank someone else?”

  “Yeah, where are the hidden cameras?” Mercy added as she rose next to me, “There ain’t no way that this is some futuristic hospital. So how about you show us out of here and we forget everything.”

  Eight stood there with her arms crossed in front of her, looking from me to Mercy. She appeared to be upset, but not angry. Her expression was similar to that of a frustrated parent looking at her disobedient children.

  “You know what? How about we take the basketball with us to the port observatory,” Eight said.

  With that, she merely turned around and grabbed the raggedy basketball from the counter, then proceeded to lead the way out of the hatch and into the corridor, “Walk this way, ladies.”

  I looked at Mercy and shrugged. To my surprise, Mercy took my hand in hers and then started for the open hatch. I couldn’t remember the last time a woman held my hand. It had probably been my grandma at the funeral of my parents.

  We followed our captor down the corridor, then up a set of stairs which led up to a single small room with a bowed metal wall. I immediately discovered the purpose for this unusual wall when it suddenly split down the middle and started to spread apart with a metallic whir. I gasped when I realized that a domed window was revealing itself behind the metal slats, offering us a partial view of the Earth beneath us and the moon in the distance.

  Mercy released my hand and rushed over to the glass dome which was now completely uncovered by the bowed metallic plates. Eight stood by the window with a smile as she watched our expressions. My expression was probably filled with more fear than awe. The fear came from the fact that if our captor had been telling the truth, then we truly were in orbit and it really was some seven or eight hundred years in the future.

  Five

  We continued bouncing the ball between the three of us for the next several minutes, trying to move it faster and faster. Then after that, we practiced throwing and catching without allowing the ball to hit the floor. What concerned me the most throughout all of this was just how hard it was to do this. Something was seriously odd about the use of our hands and arms.

  “So, we’re up in space and this is really the future. I’ll go along with it. Why did you rescue two women from suicide?” I asked.

  “You are needed. Chronocidal Guard goes back all the time and rescues people who have chosen to take their lives. Sometimes it’s done in mass quantities and others, like in this instance, they search out two specific people who meet a specific need,” Eight said, “We needed two athletic and attractive women between twenty and thirty years old.”

  “For what purposes?” Mercy asked, passing the ball back to Eight.

  “And what happened in the past when I leapt from the bridge? Wouldn’t they notice a missing dead body?” I asked.

  “Hunter Ray’s body was found as could be expected. An exact and identical clone is always created to take the place of a rescue,” she explained, “And for what purpose, you ask? You serve a greater purpose than you can ever imagine.”

  Eight passed the ball to me which I readily caught. My reflexes were getting better.

  “If these purposes are sexual in nature, you can just send me back to that bridge in Akron,” I said.

  “Ah, quite the opposite, as a matter of fact. The two of you needed to be beautiful and athletic because it’s the only way you’d be able to move about freely and undetected in such a world. No one will be hurting or abusing you, rest assured,” Eight said, just as I flung the ball back at her.

  “How about you stop talking in riddles and tell us why your Chrono-Guards kidnapped us. Tell us what makes you believe we’d even do your bidding. What is it that’s going to keep me from slitting my wrists again?” Mercy demanded.

  Eight dropped the ball to the floor as she seemed to glare now at Mercy. I hadn’t expected such an expression from her. Finally Eight shook her head and then led the way back to the stairs.

  “You two are in so much of a hurry and now you’re going to start threatening suicide? I had hoped to get to know you a little better before you talked to Stormer,” she said.

  I was a little fearful now as we followed her down the stairs, then through a short corridor and into a dimly lit room with lush carpeting and padded walls. The hatch closed behind us while Eight hollered for someone or something called “Stormer”

  Suddenly, a holographic figure appeared in the center of the room. This appeared to be a middle-age man who wore a uniform similar to the short man we’d first met.

  “We weren’t supposed to meet until tomorrow,” the lighted entity said, looking around the room, “Why’d you bring them here today, Eight?”

  “Mercy has threatened to kill herself,” Eight said, pacing in front of the holographic man who truly seemed to have visual access to us, “These two want answers and none of my rebuttals could satisfy their curiosity. I leave them in your capable hands.”

  “My capable hands,” he repeated, looking at Eight in disappointment, “Very well. Leave us, please.”

  Mercy and I watched as Eight made for a quick exit. The door shut behind her, then it sounded like it had locked with a noticeable click.

  “She means well but she is far too empathetic,” he said, drawing our attention back to the holographic figure in the center of the room, “You want answers and you want them now. You do not wish for us to concern ourselves with your psychological health. You don’t want us to take the necessary steps to help you acclimate at a healthy level. I’m here to give you what you want. Is this what you want?”

  I looked over at Mercy, then back to the holographic figure, “Yes, we want answers, even if you feel we’re not ready for them.”

  “Very well,” he smiled and nodded, “My name is Stormer and I am your teacher. I’m the man who will help you to become the most powerful forces the world has ever seen. I’m here to make you warriors, killers, and heroes.”

  “I’m not a killer,” Mercy interjected.

  “Oh, you will be. Let me ask you one more time before I begin. Are you ready to skip a dozen steps and to be frightened beyond compare?” he asked.

  He was truly starting to scare me. Mercy also looked a little worried as we shared a look of concern. She shrugged, getting a nod from me.

  “Sure,” Mercy said, “Frighten us.”

  He chuckled, “Look at your left arm and then I want you to think these words in order – ‘Separate, Weapon, One’. Do it now.”

  I looked down at my left arm and imagined those words in order. I screamed at the very moment that the flesh on my arm hardened, then it separated into hundreds of small geometric scales across my entire arm and hand. Then immediately after that, those polygons of plastic flesh twisted, shifted, and spun about, revealing three sturdy black pipes which erupted from where my hand should have been. I noticed just then that my broken robotic fingers were folded backward on all sides of those pipes.

  I was a Hasbro Transformer! I now had no left arm at all and certainly no hand. Instead, I had what appeared to be a frightening-looking machine gun for my left arm. I moved it about, still having a metal joint at the elbow.

  “What the heck is that?” Mercy shouted.

  “Now, I want you to think these words �
��Sight, Weapon, One’,” Stormer said.

  “Why do I have a robotic arm?” I cried, the tears betraying my true feelings, “I want my arm back!”

  “Are we even human anymore?” Mercy pleaded, “Am I a robot now?”

  “This is the reason we slowly acclimate you to this new existence. Your reactions are entirely expected, but this is exactly what you wanted,” Stormer said, “No, you are not robots. Yes, your biological arms have been amputated and replaced with superior upgrades to help you to perform at top levels. You still have all the feelings and abilities that come with normal human arms, but when in danger, you also have concealed weapons and tools that will protect you. Do you wish to continue in your training, or do you wish to have your arm back to normal at this time.”

  “I want my left arm!” I cried.

  “Look at it and think these words. ‘Disengage, Weapon, One’.”

  I stared at the frightening weapon and thought those three words. Suddenly, the pipes retreated as the polygonal scales of hardened flesh rotated back into place. Then once I could see a normal arm and hand coming into existence, the scales were brought together. Then they immediately softened into human flesh, leaving no evidence behind that that skin had ever separated.

  I reached over with my right hand and squeezed my forearm. I felt along the skin, searching for areas where the flesh could come apart. I then looked over at Mercy who was still looking down at her metallic weapon. She hadn’t commanded her arm to become flesh again.

  “This isn’t right,” I sputtered as I backed away from Mercy and Stormer, “What gives you the right to do this to us?”

  “I think it’s sort of cool, actually,” Mercy said while she pretended to aim her weaponized arm at Stormer.

  “And we haven’t even gotten to your right arms yet,” Stormer smiled at Mercy, then turned to me, “And what gives us the right? Hunter, you killed yourself. In the initial version of history, you can agree that you most certainly leapt from the bridge with the intention to die. You have a second chance now and judging from your accelerated heartrate and the look of terror on your face after you’d jumped, I’d say you had second thoughts. I know Mercy had second thoughts.”

  “A second chance would have involved rescuing me and returning me to my vehicle,” I shouted, “Not this!”

  I held up my left fist when suddenly I heard a rapid clicking sound coming from Mercy. Her right arm was now transforming into what appeared to be a wider tube with two metal arrows jutting from each side.

  “I merely guessed that ‘Separate, Weapon, Two’ would do something to my right arm,” Mercy explained with a satisfied grin.

  I stared at her with my mouth hanging agape, wondering why she looked so pleased. She now had no arms or hands, but rather two frightening weapons on each side of her.

  “Hello!” I hollered at Mercy, “What would either of us do with machine guns for arms?”

  “Now, there’s the question you should have been asking all along! Would you two care to proceed with your education? I have an awful lot to share with you,” Stormer said.

  I just stared at him and shook my head. Mercy’s weapons transformed back into arms with some noticeable rapid clicks and zip-sounds. She approached me with her hands held out and a pleading smile on her face.

  “When I was a little girl, I used to play with GI Joes and Nerf guns,” she said, taking my hands into hers, “It was never Barbie dolls or princess tiaras. I had two brothers and we mostly played like we were in a war. What if we embraced this?”

  “Mercy, I’m not bullet proof and I really don’t think I could ever shoot someone. This isn’t the sort of world I come from,” I groaned.

  “The two of you were rescued and upgraded because we need you to save the lives of thousands of women. Thousands of our women, our wives, and our daughters. Could you shoot someone who was hurting our people?” Stormer added.

  “How? Why?” I turned to him.

  “Let’s slow things back down and proceed as originally intended. Would you care to be educated a little?” he asked.

  I turned my attention back to Mercy who truly seemed to be pleading with me. I looked down at my hands still being held in hers and then I finally nodded.

  “I don’t believe I really have any other choice at this moment,” I breathed.

  “Very well, let me tell you a little about the world you saw outside the observatory. It’s quite different than you will remember.”

  Six

  Stormer increased the lighting in the room so it wasn’t so dim and dreary. Then he proceeded to bring us up to date while explaining the true reason for our abduction.

  “Almost twenty years ago now, we had our first encounter with what we believed to be a mass murderer. On the night of March 22, 2878, two hundred and thirty-three women disappeared from downtown Los Angeles and no one witnessed a thing. These were all very attractive women who happened to be enjoying themselves at four of the local dance clubs. Needless to say, the police and the nation as a whole became quite suspicious when no one claimed to know what happened,” Stormer explained while Eight returned with some foldable chairs for us to sit in.

  Mercy and I sat down while we listened to the pacing hologram.

  “On the night of September 22, 2878 – exactly six months later – all the students at the Homecoming dance of one of the Los Angeles schools disappeared. The total ended up being a hundred and eighty-six. Again, there were no witnesses and none of these people were ever seen again. As you can imagine, on March 22, 2879, three hundred and eight women disappeared from several dance clubs in downtown Las Vegas. Again, no witnesses.”

  “Are you saying that these people never turned up later? No bodies, no blood, and no survivors?” Mercy asked.

  “I’m saying that on or around March 22nd of every year, hundreds of young women disappear from major cities across the United States. On September 22nd of every year, hundreds of high school students disappear from those same cities. Sometimes it’s during a football game and other times it’s during a dance. We’ve never found evidence of these people ever again, neither dead nor alive. There’s also no video evidence even though there are cameras in most of these establishments.”

  “Okay, so the cool thing is that you have a time machine and you can go prevent these things from occurring. You don’t need us,” I offered.

  “We’ve done that, and then it occurs somewhere else. No matter what we do, the abductors still grab the same number of people elsewhere.”

  “So find the abductors and go after them!” I said.

  “We have found them. It’s a massive spacecraft that arrives every six months at the same time. They come, they steal our people, and then they leave for God-knows-where.”

  “And you’re up here in orbit watching it while it happens? Shoot it down!” Mercy demanded, “You don’t need us!”

  “We do need you because we want to take that ship and the only way that’s happening is if we have someone on the inside. Once we have the ship, we can have the most recent group of abductees back, and then we can also get into their logs and locate the planet where these people are being taken to. It’s time to get all our people back and to stop this once and for all.”

  “What’s so hard about closing all dance clubs on March 22nd? Or how about keeping all students home on September 22nd,” Mercy said.

  “We’ve done that on multiple occasions. And do you know what happens on March 23rd? Or let’s close all the dance clubs across the nation for a week. Guess what happens on March 29th!”

  “Wow, so one way or another, they snatch a number of people and leave. Are they aliens?” I asked.

  “We’re honestly not sure, but we have reason to believe they look just like us. Whether that’s natural or a disguise, I don’t know.”

  “So, Hunter and I are supposed to get abducted and then what – take over the ship and fly it back here?” Mercy asked.

  “More or less,” he nodded as he looked at us.
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  “Why did you go to the extreme of bringing us here from the past to do something like this?” I asked, “You’ve got a planet full of people down there, perhaps even some attractive military women who would be trained for such a task.”

  Stormer stopped pacing, then he turned to us with his hands clasped in front of him.

  “The two of you have… well, you have an innate quality that doesn’t exist anymore in humanity. Over the years… the centuries actually, there seems to have evolved a strong desire for self-preservation. Basically, suicide isn’t something that plagues humanity anymore. Whether it’s the subtle sort of willingness to die, like those who used to claim they’d die for their country or for their family, or whether it’s a true desire like you two had, it simply doesn’t exist anymore. It’s why I’m a hologram. I don’t want to die while teaching you about your new weapons. I have no desire whatsoever to die and I’m not even willing to die for those women and children that have been kidnapped.”

  “So, mankind is now a race of cowards?” Mercy asked, “I mean, if you’re not willing to die for anything, then you’ve probably got nothing worth living for. Do you have a wife? Children?”

  “Yes, I have both and I love them dearly. They are well taken care of,” he replied, “And no, we aren’t cowards. We simply value our lives.”

  “What if someone was going to shoot your child? Would you-”

  “Let’s not get into this. Our generations will never understand each other. I say this from experience as I’ve built powerful modern armies using suicide rescues throughout history. You always refer to us as cowards and we always wonder why you don’t value your own lives,” Stormer said.

  I just looked at the man, shaking my head. I was just a skinny girl who used to get doted on by my last boyfriend. He opened the car door for me. He literally carried me across a muddy creek so my expensive shoes wouldn’t get ruined. And this is the girl that the future requires to fight their battles? Why? Because I once tried to kill myself!