Yesterday's Future

by Jason Ford

  The election of Charles Foster to the presidency had filled Keith with disgust. If only the voters had known what kind of person he really was.

  Beckett Enterprises was founded in September with the goal of improving people’s lives through technology. Improving on his designs, Keith was able to shorten the DNA test time to under five seconds. Using paid volunteers as test subjects gave some rather interesting results. A few families split up once the truth came out. One case involved prison time when it was discovered that a “pillar of the community” man’s grandchildren were actually his and his daughter’s children.

  Keith was a year away from rolling out the handheld testing kits. The portable kits could only contain a decade’s worth of information at a time, so he would have to release a new version every ten years. Keith had purchased several large tracts of land in North Carolina and Virginia. After a long talk with Sam, airlifted every piece of equipment and furniture he owned, sold his property in Barstow, and built a large house in Davie County, about fifteen miles from her. After reassembling the time equipment and adding a layer of bulletproof glass in front of the control panel, Keith had a shooting range built on his property. The memory of José Jr.’s life slipping away, while trying valiantly to stop the bleeding, haunted Keith’s dreams. Keith threw enough money at the city council to buy Winston Airport and have it expanded. He also bought all the land around it for a mile and started building the Beckett Manufacturing complex.

  By the time Keith and Samantha celebrated their one-year anniversary of dating, things were getting serious. Her father took him aside one day and asked what his intentions were. Salvatore Giotti knew what young men were like, and he didn’t want to see his little girl getting hurt. Keith looked him in the eyes and told him straight.

  “I love Sam and I want to marry her someday. We haven’t even talked about it yet. I would never do anything to dishonor her or your family.”

  “You’re the kind of man I always wanted my daughter to have when she started getting interested in boys. If you want to marry, you have my blessing.”

  Keith knew he needed to have a serious talk with her about the future—both their future together and the future that he came from.

  He found the opportunity one afternoon when they were sitting in the den, watching a sci-fi movie.

  Keith asked her, “If you could go back in time and change the past for the better, knowing that you could cease to exist in the process, would you do it?”

  “It depends. Would I be able to go back to whenever I wanted to?”

  “Yeah. But, say you go back to 1863 and watch Lincoln give his Gettysburg address. You could not then go back to 1812 and help the British win the war. You would create a paradox.”

  “Sure, why not?”

  He got up from the couch where they had been snuggling and brought down some photo albums.

  Samantha laughed at the geeky kid in the photos. “Wait, you graduated high school at sixteen?”

  He nodded.

  “Right now, I’m Keith Beckett at eighteen years old. My memories go all the way forward to the year 2061. In July 2061, I came back in time to January 1992 as an eighty-seven-year-old man to try to change history for the better.”

  “If you came back as an eighty-seven-year-old man, why are you eighteen now?”

  “A memory transfer into a younger version of myself.” He changed the channel and started watching the Montreal Canadiens and the LA Kings in the final game of the Stanley Cup.

  “If the Canadiens win, then I’m telling the truth. If the Kings win, then I’m lying.”

  The Canadiens obliterated the Kings, and the TV showed the resulting riot.

  “That was luck!”

  He pulled up the information for the 1993 Stanley Cup Championship. He also pulled a picture out of his wallet. It was the picture that Consuela took of him on his last birthday before he crossed over. He handed both the tablet and the picture over to Sam.

  She looked at them.

  “Why would you hand me a blank picture?”

  Of course! The timeline split back in 1913. “Come with me, I want to show you something.”

  Keith led her to the wall and pressed his thumb against a panel she had not noticed before. The section of the wall pivoted, and a lighted stairwell appeared, leading down into a finished basement.

  Guns and swords lined the walls. Cases opened to display weapons of every kind imaginable. A large computer that looked like something out of the sci-fi movie they’d been watching powered up and spoke.

  “Good afternoon, voice print identification, please.”

  “Beckett 7494 Foxtrot.”

  “Hello, Keith. What can I do for you today?”

  “Display living room picture, June 25, 1992.”

  The screen displayed an old man and a young man in matching recliners, the young man wore a work uniform and the old man wore a Hawaiian shirt.

  “Was that you?”

  “That was me at eighty-seven years old. I really don’t know what will happen now to me. Do I invent another time machine in the future and keep going back and forth? Or do I die sometime between now and then?”

  He walked over to another door, put his palm against it in the Vulcan salute, and the door hissed open. To Keith, this was an exact recreation of the lab he had in Barstow. To Sam, it just looked like a bunch of futuristic equipment with a donut shaped thing in the corner.

  “If the time ever comes when you want to marry me, you need to ask my father first.”

  “He has already given us his blessing whenever we want to do it. I have to tie up some loose ends first, but the time will be coming soon.”

  Keith led her back upstairs and into the garage to his truck. He opened the driver side door for her. He got in the passenger side and said, “Watch this.”

  He pushed the button marked “START” and the engine hummed to life.

  “Keith, honey, how am I supposed to drive this?”

  “Engage Auto Drive. Destination: 300 Kensworth Drive.”

  A female computer voice replied, “Auto Drive engaged. You will reach your destination in twenty minutes.”

  “Just relax. I’m taking you to dinner, and then back to your place. I promised your father that I would not dishonor you or your family. So, before this goes any further, I want us to wait till we get married.”

  They pulled up to the restaurant and Sam exclaimed, “We’re going to the Village Green? I always wanted to go here!”

  The hostess greeted them by name at the front door. “Mr. Beckett, Miss Giotti, follow me, please.”

  They had a lovely dinner. As the dessert was being cleared away, Keith got nervous. It’s now or never.

  “Many people search for the one person that they think will make them happy. For a long time, I was alone. Then you came into my life, and I realized that you’re the one I’ve been searching for two lifetimes. I love you.”

  Samantha started to tear up as Keith got on one knee and opened a ring box with the biggest diamond she’d ever seen.

  “Samantha Marie Giotti, vuoi sposarmi?”

  “Yes! Yes! A million times yes!”

  Everybody in the restaurant started clapping. Out of the corner of his eye, Keith saw her family get up from the corner table and make their way over.

  “Welcome to the family,” Salvatore said, shaking his hand. Sam’s mother and brothers each give Keith a hug and stopped to admire the ring.

  “What date do you want to set?” Sam asked as she gazed at her new ring.

  “July 1, 1995”

  “That’s two years away!”

  “It’s three days after your twenty-first birthday, so we can have an open bar at the wedding.”

  “Are you going to invite your mother?”

  “I thought we would take a trip out there in a month to visit and tell her.”

  “Can we go to Disneyland?”

  “Sure. Anything for you, honey.”

  It wasn’t long until they
were relaxing in a private jet waiting for takeoff. Keith requested the intercom stay on during the take-off so he could enjoy it.

  The pilot’s voice came on.

  “This is Private Flight 1 from Greensboro to Orange County. Please fasten your seatbelts, we are starting the engines and will be taxiing shortly.”

  Sam stared as Keith started flipping imaginary switches along with the pilots’ checklists.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Reminiscing.”

  “Did you ever fly one of these?”

  “Not exactly. I used to have a full motion cockpit simulator, but I’ll tell you about that later.”

  Six hours later, they were on the ground at John Wayne Airport. Keith gave the cab driver his mother’s address, and they showed up at her door a little after three in the afternoon. His mother had changed for the better since he’d seen her. Without the stress of house payments, and being able to do what she wanted, she was no longer the bitter, angry woman he remembered. When he introduced her to Sam, her arms wrapped around her in a big hug, almost cutting off her air. Then she grabbed her hand and inspected the ring.

  “Is this custom made? How did you get the idea for it?”

  “Samantha’s family worked with me on the design.”

  “Have you guys set a date yet?”

  “July 1, 1995.”

  “Waiting to hit that open bar, huh?”

  Keith went into detail about his business ventures, trying to change the subject.

  “Well, I know that you’ll have no problem providing for her. Who’s hungry? There’s a Mexican place that just opened up not too far from here.”

  The next morning, they were at Disneyland before the gates opened. Keith hadn’t been there since he was little, and he enjoyed showing Sam around the park and going on all the rides. In hindsight, she probably shouldn’t have had a churro before going on Space Mountain. They left with a lot of pictures of them with all the Disney characters. The week-long trip seemed to just fly by. The last day before they were due to fly back to North Carolina, Sam got to dip her feet in the Pacific Ocean. On the flight, Keith told her about the future in his timeline.

  “All the technological wonders that people expect will happen do happen, but with consequences no one could have foreseen. Automation takes over, leading to a universal government wage for the ones who can’t find jobs. The education system collapses. Keep in mind, this is a slow process, happening over decades. The individual nations turn control over to the world government, who sweep away individual rights in favor of a heavily socialist collective.”

  “So, it’s like Star Trek?”

  “No, it’s much worse. Poverty is gone, hunger is gone, war is gone, and those are good things to be rid of. But there is no striving to make yourself better, no impulse for improvement. You can sit around and do nothing, and that’s what many choose to do. The time that I come from has no color, no life, just bland sameness all around.”

  “That sounds horrible!”

  “I don’t want our future to turn out like that. I want a better one.”

  TWELVE

  November 1994

  Keith and Sam were in the den watching TV when the midterm election results came in. The House now had 300 Republican seats, and the Senate had seventy, turning the second half of the Foster presidency into a lame duck.

  Beckett Enterprises had been expanded into Beckett Engineering, Beckett Defense, and Beckett Diagnostics. Beckett Engineering was divided into aerospace and civil engineering divisions. Civil division was in the process of designing better infrastructure. Aerospace division was developing the next generation of prototype aircraft with fully automated flight characteristics out at the newly expanded Winston Airport. There were even plans on the drawing board for a fully automated, reusable, liquid-fueled rocket. Beckett Defense was developing a new class of weapons and defensive capabilities for the twenty-first-century soldier. Tests were being conducted at the Virginia range, with some promising results. Beckett Diagnostics had just rolled out the miniaturized, three-second DNA test. The first customers who lined up were the producers for the daytime talk shows. Keith didn’t care much for the talk shows, but he did enjoy seeing his company’s name on TV.

  His phone rang, and the caller ID displayed Jessica Beatty. Sam gave him a questioning look, and he gave her the tablet with Jessica’s historical record while he answered the phone.

  Sam shook her head in disgust as she read it. Jessica Beatty alleged that Charles Foster had sexually assaulted her in 1982 and that a child had resulted from the incident. After much convincing, Keith and Sam agreed to meet her in Alabama.

  Late the next morning, Beatty and her lawyer met them at the airport.

  “I’m Keith Beckett, this is my fiancée, Samantha Giotti.”

  “I’m Jessica Beatty, this is my attorney, Bill Hiram.”

  “Let’s head to my office and we can get started.”

  After taking sworn affidavits from Beatty and Beckett, Hiram wanted to know how the machine worked and how it could be so accurate.

  Keith decided on a demonstration instead.

  “The first prototype needed the DNA from both parents, as well as the offspring. The DNA would be matched against the recorded DNA of everyone, as well as the historical record. It took several minutes to perform the test. If only one person was tested, the screen only showed the identity and the date of birth. There was no storage media. With the new version here, it can be done in three seconds. Once a test is performed, the results are stored indefinitely. Let me show you.”

  Samantha gave Keith the cheek swabs of her and her parents.

  He placed them in the appropriate slots, and after three seconds a green light glowed, and the results were displayed on the screen.

  Father: Salvatore Giotti.

  Mother: Constanza Giotti.

  Offspring: Samantha Giotti.

  Probability of paternity: 99.999999%.

  He performed the test again with samples provided by Beatty. After the results were displayed, Hiram took a long pause before speaking.

  “I’m going to have to have this written up and witnessed, because without this, we don’t have a case. Mr. Beckett, would you be willing to perform this test in front of some very important people?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “There are procedures we need to follow, so please be patient.”

  He found a safe place for her to hide with her child and promised to do whatever it took to see this through.

  •••

  The next morning, Charles Foster had wrapped up a meeting with the Joint Chiefs in the Oval Office when his wife came storming in. She slammed the newspaper down on the desk and backhanded him across the face.

  “You better make this go away, or I will make your life a living hell! I’m not going back to that small house after living here!”

  He called the vice president. “Bill, you better make her go away or you’re out of a job!”

  •••

  Within a few days, Jessica was getting hate mail and threatening phone calls. Keith had tracers put on the phone lines, so it wasn’t hard to figure out where the calls were coming from. He also increased security around her and Samantha, since he knew the story would get out eventually.

  A week, later he and Jessica stood in front of a Department of Justice prosecutor. Together, they turned over stacks of documentation the results from the DNA tests.

  Charles Foster gave a sworn deposition denying all the charges.

  The DOJ prosecutor gave all the evidence to the House Judiciary Committee. The committee found sufficient evidence to bring charges of perjury and obstruction of justice against Charles Foster and William Howell. Both were impeached a week later. The dual impeachment trial in the Senate was the first in the nation’s history. Foster and Howell, along with their legal team, glared at the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. All witnesses were sworn in, and the president’s legal team tried to discredit all t
he witnesses right off the bat. Foster’s face drained of all color when he saw Jessica take the stand.

  The prosecutor laid into her. “Ms. Beatty, you’re alleging that President Foster sexually assaulted you in 1982. Could you describe what you were doing prior to the incident in question?”

  “I was almost done with cleaning the room he was staying in when he arrived unexpectedly. I tried to leave and explained to him that I would finish later, when he wasn’t around. He then proceeded to lock the door, and the next thing I knew, we were on the bed.”

  “So, it was consensual?”

  “Absolutely not! He forced himself on me! After it was over, he told me it never happened, and that I would be smart to forget it. A few weeks later, I found out I was pregnant.”

  “And you have never told anyone about your son’s paternity?”

  “I just told everyone it was a one-night stand, and I never saw the guy again.”

  “So, you have a lot of one-night stands?”

  “No, she doesn’t!” At this point, her teenage son stood up beside his mother. There was no denying he favored Foster in many ways.

  Keith was called to demonstrate the DNA machine and tested his own family samples in front of the Senate. Charles Foster refused to give a sample, but Ellen Foster reached over and yanked a hair out of his head. Keith took the hair sample from her and a cheek swab from Jessica and her son. The tester read the displayed text out loud, and the speakers were turned up.

  “Father: Charles Foster.

  “Mother: Jessica Beatty.

  “Offspring: John Beatty.

  “Probability of paternity: 99.999999%.”

  Ellen Foster fainted. William Howell started to cry.

  On February 15, 1995, the Senate convicted Charles Foster and William Howell on one count each of perjury and obstruction. The Speaker of the House was immediately sworn in as the new president and selected the senator from Arizona to be his vice president.

  Ellen Foster filed for divorce, took their daughter Bernice, and settled into a life of seclusion in Ohio.