“If James and his people were ever to leave their company, the way YY Corp treats the other crews, it would tank. No wonder why they at least had the presence of mind to leave him and his crew alone. I don’t want the company to go bottom up though. We’ll figure something out to help the situation improve. However, perhaps without James, YY Corp will wake up.”
Eliza pondered some more, coaching herself quietly, as she listened intently, “Businesses who create toxic work environments should learn their lessons, or stumble until they do. We need James and his crew for something greater than money, status, or power, and if needs are, our gloves are off. Hopefully, I can convince James and his crew to partner with Yesha and me. Our goals, missions, and purposes behind the creation of Pathway can then begin. James has the depth of character I admire. Plus, I think he’s actually a pretty cool guy, maybe there’s a future for us, but I’ll just relax where emotions are concerned and let time take its course for now.”
Once the dinner orders were finally taken down, Eliza nodded toward James, and as if they’d known each other for years, they got up and got back into the line to have their meal requests prepared for service and delivery.
After chatting, laughing, smiling, and flirting with each other quietly in line, and making their orders, they returned to the table. Each of James’ crew and family members observed Eliza throughout their interactions and each viewed her as a respectful, extremely intelligent, gracious, and charmingly attentive individual to everyone there. She asked them to tell her a little about themselves, and as introduced, they started with Anne and went counter-clockwise and all the way to Brandy. She listened and responded to each of them objectively as they exchanged questions about work, family, and life. To Eliza, James had played a positive and prominent role in their lives, and there seemed to be an unexplainable bond between James and his crew.
No matter where the conversation began, as they spoke, laughed, and chuckled with that comfortable and genuine heir of peace and contentment, the crew and their family members all seemed to drift back to James, his background, stories of shared moments, and how wonderful he, as a boss, was to them. He called his crew and himself, The 97, and together, based on all of the news articles, economist journal publications, and interviews about his buildings, he had kept YY Corp solvent and made the most of everything in every possible way. Not a single member of his team lived in fear. Instead, they loved him, were loyal to him, and were part of the best construction team, hands-down, and Worldwide.
James meanwhile, was gracious and humble about any compliments sent his way, and he would quickly direct the conversation back to his workers and their families, their ingenuity, and on occasion, he would lead the conversation back to Eliza—which intensified Eliza’s attraction to his innate character even more. Although she fought to think of her fascination toward James as something that was related to a desire for a professional partnership and nothing more, she also felt and tried to squelch the fact that there might be an attraction in a romantic sense. James and his crew talked, laughed, and enjoyed their meals as they brought her in. Once done with their entrées they showered her with compliments.
At one point, before their dessert and the final bottles of wine were served, Eliza politely dismissed herself from the table to “freshen up,” so in truth she could text or link with, Yesha. While she was away, the people at James’ table were still enjoying the last bit of their dinner prior to dessert, while occasionally conversing, exchanging glances, and imagining, as well as chiding James about wedding bells, gowns, and tuxedos.
They admonished James that while it was too soon to tell, and while they were in many ways kidding around with him, that he should most certainly consider maintaining contact with Eliza. “She is a winner and a one-of-a-kind person. We’ve never met someone so astute, so observant, so calm, so collected, and so beautiful in every way. You two would make a wonderful team, professionally, following the dreams you always talk about, and I’d imagine you two would quite amazingly make a wonderful team, even in a romantic sense,” said the large-statured, attractive, and brusque-voiced Nordic woman, named Anne.
“Yesha, you won’t believe who is in Massachusetts tonight!” Eliza was texting quickly, hoping Yesha would see her phone, “Do you remember that one gentleman, the gorgeous and brilliant one we talked about earlier today? He is the award-winning architect and engineer we studied about from YY Corp. He’s here at T.O.’s tonight, and with his crew on vacation!”
Yesha had finished her jog and showered up—her towel was wrapped around her, with another towel wrapped around her head as if in a beehive hairstyle when she saw her phone light up. She typically kept it in silent mode since telemarketers would persistently call, and she had too much heart to say no, so instead she ignored the calls completely. They seemed to have a knack for typically calling at the most inopportune of times. If it was important, they could leave a message. Still, texts from certain individuals were set up with a distinct vibrating sound, so she decided to see who it was.
She checked her phone and realized Eliza had texted, rather than neurologically linking. As she walked to reach for her phone on the nightstand next to her bed, her towel fell off exposing her optimized physiological aspects to no one but herself. She quickly forgot about her towel, saw herself in her mirror, and realized how perfect her perky aspects were. She then grabbed her phone and sat on her bed. She didn’t mind sitting there on display, and she knew that no one else would have if they had seen her, or so it was that she had imagined, but they wouldn’t see her since no one else was home. The only one that would return home at the moment would be her mother, Yesenia, and she always was cool and down-to-Earth, anyway.
Yesha was a woman of increased confidence and she had grown to know that there was nothing indecent about the human form. As a matter of a fact, she knew it was quite unhealthy for the human mind and by association the physical health of anyone to not appreciate the beauty surrounding someone. Whether it was of Nature or of optimized physiology or their prized aspects, the splendor to the eyes, the heart, and the peace to the soul they brought, she viewed it as inhumane or ungodly to ignore or shun it. It was inhumane because it was bad for their health to constantly wander around in jealousy, anger, and frustration when it was so unnecessary.
Texting back to Eliza, Yesha wrote, “I just got your last text. I can’t believe you just happened to run into James! What are the odds? Well, hmm… have you had a chance to talk to him about Pathway or the LLC we’d like to form, build, put together, or have the infrastructure to make happen and improve upon, especially when it comes to our capabilities?”
“I talked to him and his crew a little about it, but not much. I’m with seven members of his crew and six of their family members. They’ve had some interesting stories and have a lot of good things to say about him. I can tell they all love him. Apparently, his entire crew and their families are in Cambridge right now, but only a handful of his crew and their family members are here with James at the T.O. Three daughters from members of his crew are planning on going to Harvard next season, so they all visited Cambridge and Boston to check it out; one is with us tonight. His crew is pretty closely-knit, but they don’t want to bombard one establishment with 97 people, four retirees, and their families, so James is here with thirteen people.
“I need to get back, though. I told them I had to ‘freshen up’ and I don’t want to be gone for too long and send off a bad impression.”
Yesha texted back, “I completely understand. How about this, Eliza? If you can keep them entertained, I’ll pick things up around the estate and head that direction. Sound good?”
“That sounds perfect.”
Yesha, just after cleaning up, and just before heading out, remembered just in time that she needed to get dressed. “That could have been an awkward introduction,” she thought, “for them. Well, maybe not, but too much too soon takes away all the fun.”
She grabbed her smart suit, put it
on, and put it in professional yet metro-casual mode. Once she was ready, she headed to the T.O. using her optimized physiology to arrive quickly.
When she arrived at her destination she dampened her glow, made sure no one bore witness to her capabilities, and then Yesha saw Eliza from the window. “She is one enigmatic and beautifully artistic masterpiece of Mother Nature combined with the gorgeous ingenuity of the human mind,” she played out the thoughts of it all within her mind, and then when she entered, she saw James. He was much more stunning in real life and he looked good in his pictures as well, “Nature did right by him, oh my! He is a treasure, and in every way!” Her glow started to kick in again. Eliza turned to Yesha, having picked up Yesha’s neural link in her mind and her amazing curves out of the corner of her eye. Looking directly toward Yesha, she smiled her prize-winning smile, teaming with purpose, and genuine ferocity. She could understand Yesha’s reaction completely.
“You’re glowing, Yesha. Don’t worry. I was too.” Like that Yesha’s glow dimmed before anyone else seemed to notice.
James saw them both and his heart was moved, yet he knew not why, but he respected both of these young ladies for a host of untold reasons rather quickly. Yesha and Eliza picked up on it right away, and in reciprocation, they were also absolutely charmed by him.
“James is a kindred spirit and brilliant, you don’t fall easily, Eliza, and I can see why,” she told Eliza through their link.
“Maybe this was meant to be,” Yesha continued to converse within her mentally.
“Oh, I am smitten, I can’t believe we just happened to run into each other at random; regardless, we’ve chatted a bit and worked away from the awkwardness. I am trying to think of this as an informal, professionally promising, and a chance meeting. I believe he’ll make the third member of our little venture, and as such, he will be one of the three leaders, alongside you and me. Each of his crew members is a leader in their own right, so all told, there are 213 people with him in Cambridge. He’s a true gentleman and has a heart of gold.” Eliza continued to talk to her through their neural link, and James crew saw her wave Yesha over to the table with a brightened countenance.
After introductions, Yesha appreciated the warm reception, the experiences shared, and the ease with which they made space for her, sitting on the far end across from Anne, and to Eliza’s left. James introduced himself to her, and she noticed that Eliza looked as though she’d known James for years.
Yesha listened to the crew and responded to them, while also trying to stay on task, “He is handsome, you are right, yet there is so much more to him; I can see it already,” she told Eliza through her link. Eliza sent a neural experiential package to her mind, so she understood immediately all of the details of the night’s conversations, “We have a lot to do, and so, no matter how all of this plays out, we can’t let each other lose focus for too long, thank goodness your neuro nanos kicked in and you’ve blazed a substantial trail with regard to The 97 and James, himself. Something’s running wild in you, Eliza, and we have got to let our spirits fly so we can get back on track—I have an idea. I know what we can do.”
As she looked around listening to each person, she noticed as the two teenage boys in the group were obviously dazed looking in a smitten fashion toward her direction, “cute kids,” she thought, and then spoke up. “Do you guys and gals mind if Eliza and I steal James for the night? I promise we’ll return him to you in one piece and in mint condition tomorrow.” Strangely enough, as optimized as her neural nanos were, the unspoken yet thick double-entendre of what she had just said seemed to hang in the air.
After gazing at her briefly and sternly, they laughed to put her at ease. The rather attractive lady with the brusque voice at the far end of the table from Yesha, named Anne, answered, “Of course we don’t mind. He’s lovely to have around, but I suppose we can let him go for a short period of time. And, James, please give us a call if you need anything? I am sure I’m not the only one who picks up a good vibe from these two, so have fun!” She looked around the table and everyone else nodded in the affirmative.
With that, Eliza, Yesha, and James bid the rest of his crew in attendance at the T.O. a farewell until tomorrow at the grange at ten in the morning, and the three-headed toward Eliza’s estate home. When they arrived, James was rather impressed with the architecture, the white columns, the burnt brick and ivy, the high windows, and the landscaping.
Yesenia, Yesha’s mom, had returned from her daily activities, still beautiful no matter her age, she was sixty-seven, but she looked no older than forty-five, and she had arrived in time to greet them at the door. “Well aren’t you three a splendid trio!” They all smiled, followed Yesenia into the living room. While Eliza and James sat down on the sofa, obviously ensconced with each other, Yesenia went to get some hot ginger-mint and clove tea. Yesha went to get their extensive and drafted copy of the Pathway LLC infrastructural plans from her laptop but got lost for a few moments as she pored over them, making sure everything read according to standard, especially for someone well-versed in architecture for more than a decade, like James.
When Yesha returned, laptop in hand, Yesenia had served the tea, but sensing a bit of romance building between the two, Yesha noticed that she had gone upstairs to take care of some personal business and had retired for the night. Yesha also noticed and appreciated that Eliza was explaining everything quite well. She did well even though she was obviously gushing to James the details of the last week and twenty-four-hours. After telling him about her search for an architect and team, and how she accidentally found him, he asked, “How did you two decide to do this?”
“We had worked for almost two years as full-time professors, and after having received top honors at MIT and Harvard we received little to no reciprocation for our efforts. When all was said and done, they and even the government, when it came to distribution of our latest breakthrough, and when requesting their backing and support, turned us down flat. As a matter of a fact, the tone of our last meeting pertaining to our three new prototype devices suggested that trying to build more and distribute them would turn the economy upside down, and the medical and pharmaceutical professionals would become jobless. They hinted at compliance for now, or else we should be prepared to face the consequences. We didn’t want people to be without their jobs, and we had no desire to turn the economy into oblivion, or even let the technology go to waste. The subtle threats…? Common, now… Don’t they know they are betraying humanity?”
James seemed to understand everything with clarity, yet he was intent on understanding everything even more fully, “And that is what led you to study who it would be that could help you two to build a quiet company, so you could grow it to a point to where you could safely leverage a better way, while not threatening anyone’s way of life?”
“Exactly, James... Yesha and I took part-time tenured positions in return for supposedly sweeping our findings under the carpet. We took our biopods home—and have both safeguarded and further improved upon them. Over the last week, we purchased several acreages, including the rights to everything above the surface, water, mining, and deep underground. We have also put together exhaustive plans for public and private arms of Pathway LLC. There will be an arm intended to vet advancements and have them become government-sanctioned for proliferation in increments to the public, and there will be a very covert arm that will allow us to produce some of the highest tech advancements and breakthroughs not yet known to even the most tech-savvy professionals throughout the world, to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands.”
“That makes sense. So, how would you like me to help?”
“We have researched how we will begin, have built exhaustive plans for infrastructure, and this is where you will come in, James. We would like to team up with you and hire a very capable team, your team, The 97 and perhaps their families, for the building of our infrastructure, our labs, hyperloops, docking and truck stations, and underground campuses. You should note
that we have fully vetted the prototype biopods that I talked about earlier. You, your crew, and anyone else you trust will see technologies that no one else knows about, are more advanced than anything released into the public at this time, and perhaps will not be released for quite some time yet. You’ll also understand soon why I would like to invite family members and significant others to come along and help. It’ll be like a volunteer project, but with huge dividends.
“With these biopods, a person’s physiology and neurology can be extensively optimized while leaving with them a lovely cadre of physiological and neurological healing nanos that can continuously optimize every aspect of their physique and cognition. These nanos will work in-turn to drastically increase ingenuity, innovation, clarity of mind for task completion, and the physical capacity to allow any recipient to endure harsh labor and environments while healing and enjoying everything throughout the process.
“To be clear and honest with you, James, both Yesha and I tested everything on ourselves to see how it works before trying it on anyone else. We knew we had to protect ourselves from the more austere parts of whatever seems to pull humanity’s strings at the moment, and from sudden and mysterious disappearances. We also needed to protect the technology that we worked so hard to develop, so we can help advance civilization and decrease the unnecessary suffering had by far too many. Our connected intranet and highly sophisticated software algorithms and programming can keep us neurologically linked, in communication with highly detailed and the latest bits of information, all while keeping us up-to-date on further advancements and abilities.
“This basically allows our bodies to be healthy and to look as perfect as our minds allow them to, and then set our appearance in static mode while changing our clothes using smart suits and compartmentalized regions of our minds dedicated to the fashion expertise of every sort. We will heal from pretty much anything—well, with the exception of a dive into the Sun or fall beyond the event horizon of a black hole—and, perhaps we’ll figure out how to mitigate that later; an idea is already coming to mind! I digress. We can also look like we’re twenty-five or twenty-two or any age of our choosing, indefinitely, or adjust as needed, and have minds free of insanity that can incur an accumulation of many millennia of wisdom and so much more without damage.
Further than Before- Pathway to the Stars Page 27