They left her room and headed for the commissary. As they walked down the corridor, Roger noticed something peculiar about the way Val walked – it was with an air of confidence that seemed to transcend mere comfort in her own skin. Now, she moved with a skip in her step that Roger could only describe as arrogant. Whatever else happened in the future, it had hardened Val.
Roger spent several days nursing Val back to health. Although she appeared healthy, the ship's doctor said she was malnourished and so Roger ordered her to stay in her quarters and get some rest. He checked in on her often and within a week, she was ready for duty.
His next assignment for her was a mission onshore. Before departing, he asked Archer if the teleporter could be modified for travel to the moon. Archer wasn't given a reason, but then again, he never was.
Where Roger and Val were going wasn't disclosed until they were already in the air. Val was dressed more professionally than he was accustomed to seeing. She was also less chatty. Besides what she disclosed the night she got back, she spoke very little of her life in the future. Whether she was ashamed or because none of it was relevant to their goals she never said, and Roger never pressed her for more information than she offered.
“I assume this is a secret mission?” she asked, tying her hair back.
“We're going to meet the Cabal,” he answered her very plainly.
“Are you going to tell me why?”
“Of course. It was always Jennifer's vision for the factions to be one day brought together, to put aside their petty differences and pool their resources. Although I'm nearly certain of the answer, we're going to offer the Cabal a place in our future.”
“How many will be there?”
“I've asked all of them to attend – about four or five. If any of them come, it will be just the leaders. We never bring security.”
“You're awfully trusting,” she said.
“It's never been a problem before. I do have an ace up my sleeve, however.” He reached up his sleeve, removed a wrist teleporter, and threw it to Val. “We could just as easily use these to get there, but I don't want to reveal too much tech. If something goes wrong – assuming it might, given the subject matter – we can escape quickly.”
“What would you like me to do?”
“To be frank, the Cabal has become more and more like a gentleman's club. Few of the leaders trust women, which I've always found to be odd, given our founder's gender. Still, I feel that having a woman present may do one of two things: remind them of our original goal – unity – or reveal what's in their hearts. If they scoff at you, then I'll know they've come too far and I will sleep better tonight having left them behind.”
“I'm glad my genitals can once again serve a useful purpose,” she laughed, and for the first time since she returned.
“Funny how versatile they can be, isn't it?” he laughed along.
“So where are we going?”
“Cleveland.”
Val tried to hide her surprise as she imagined something more out of a James Bond movie – perhaps the French Riviera, at least going by Roger's description.
“Are you shocked?”
“It just seems like the place where the fate of humanity is discussed would be a little more...dramatic.”
“Then you're going to be really surprised when you see the hotel!”
Less than an hour later, Val saw what Roger meant. The movies clearly affected her perceptions a lot more than she realized because instead of a secure bunker to hold a discreet summit, Roger led her to the conference room at a Holiday Inn. A couple of cardboard tables were set up in the middle with about a half dozen folding chairs surrounding it. Waiting for them at the table were the heads of the other organizations.
“Sorry to keep all of you waiting,” Roger said with a smile.
None of the other men returned the smile, although their collective glance shifted to Val as she entered behind Roger. Roger walked in without a care in the world; after all, it was he with the solution all of them so desperately wanted for themselves.
“Roger, do you mind explaining why you called us here?” one of the men demanded.
“Certainly, Dave,” he replied. “I called all of you here to...bury the hatchet, as they say.”
The men chuckled at the idea. Another of the men put out a cigarette and shook his head. “It's too late for all that.”
“Is it? Look, I know we've all had disagreements since my wife died...”
“You took New World right from under me!” Dave shouted.
“I'm not here for this, Dave,” he answered. “The fact remains that all of us have been chasing the same thing, just from different directions.” Roger finally sat down at the table. Val followed.
“Now,” Roger continued, “since my wife's death, we've all been searching for the ultimate solution. Dave, your men have done a fine job of hiring militias. But did destroying the capitol bring the end you sought? All of you need to ask yourselves the same question.”
The men sat motionless.
“I'm here for one reason, gentlemen. We started this mess together, and I think it only appropriate we end it as one.”
The men exchanged looks, some intrigued, while others skeptical. “What exactly are you suggesting?” a man called Vincent asked.
“I'm offering you all a home for reconstruction. We've come into a possession of a weapon that was built as the ultimate deterrent for nuclear war.” Val knew his words to be untrue but sat expressionless. “Essentially, it will eliminate all life on earth with the flick of a switch. Those left are the ones who will be able to claim the earth for the righteous.”
“No such weapon exists,” Dave said dismissively.
“No, not yet,” Roger said. “That's the other part of our plan. Without giving away too much, I believe I've given you all enough information to consider my offer on its merit.”
“And what's to become of us?” Vincent asked. “Will we be forced to answer to you?”
Roger shook his head. “These politics will soon be a part of the past. Such pointless bickering has gotten us nowhere, Vinnie. My offer stands. You all know how to reach me. Val?”
He nodded to Val as they stood up and turned to leave. As they approached the door, Dave cleared his throat.
“You're not going anywhere without us,” he said with menace in his eyes.
Roger nodded, understanding the threat. “I truly hope you're right. I look forward to hearing from all of you. But time is shorter than ever.”
They left the room quickly and proceeded directly to the car waiting outside. They got in but there was no response from the driver. Roger got out, walked around to the driver's side, and saw the driver – dead. Without panicking, he gestured for Val to get out.
“What's wrong?” she asked.
“We're taking the short cut; forget the plane. Let's go.”
A dozen men with the Cabal stormed out of the hotel with guns drawn on the car. The dead driver was inside, but Val and Roger were gone.
“Did that go as well as you hoped?” Val said, laughing aboard the top of the rig.
“It did, actually. No matter, they need to make up their minds. It looks like a few of them already have by the looks of that driver.”
Val stopped laughing to catch her breath. “These things can't be tracked, can they?”
“Not unless Archer's got a factory in Taiwan making these things for retail. No, they can't be tracked.”
Roger and Val left the bridge of the rig and retired to their separate quarters. He stayed up half the night, hoping for a positive response from the Cabal. No one called.
Chapter 6
Val lied still in her bed, staring up at the ceiling and wondering if anyone from the Cabal had made contact with Roger yet. Although disappointed by outward appearances, she knew that Roger was the real deal and that meetings of their kind were always low-key affairs. If she didn't know better, she would have thought the men in that room were there to sell eac
h other Amway. Still, as she lied there, she wondered why Roger made the gesture at all – especially since he knew their answer in advance. Maybe he still cared for the men he used to call friends; maybe he was just fulfilling his wife's request. In either case, she jumped a little when she heard a knock at the door at 4:00 A.M.
Val jumped up from bed and rushed to the door, neglecting to cover her nakedness. It was Roger.
“Did you hear anything?” she asked.
He held up his phone: the message was just a string of digits – the coordinates to their base. “We have to move.”
“Let me get dressed.” A moment later she appeared, ready to follow Roger anywhere. “Where are we going?”
“I don't know how they found us, but I can promise they are coming, if they haven't sold us out to the government first. I just met with Archer and he is rigging the entire base to teleport. We still have a few hours before we're ready.”
“What do you need from me?” she asked.
“I need you to decide where we go. I will program the coordinates myself in Archer's device; you and I will be the only ones who know. You're the only one I can trust. Especially if we have a saboteur on board.”
“Do they know we're just an oil drilling platform sitting somewhere in the Pacific?”
“Yes, and they'll know where to look.”
“I have an idea!” she whispered. “Meet me on the deck in five minutes!” Val took off down the corridor without saying another word.
“Val, wait!” he yelled after her. When he rounded the corner to chase her, she had disappeared. Instantly, he knew her plan. As quick as his legs could move him, he ran to the deck and waited.
Val reappeared from thin air in the middle of a desert. A hundred meters away, she saw a guardhouse with a solitary soldier sleeping. She snuck up behind the man and broke his neck. It won't matter here in the future. She opened the door with the guards hand and before leaving him, she grabbed his sidearm.
Downstairs, she saw a labyrinthine web of stairwells and corridors running in all directions. Looking down, she saw the ground floor, an area marked by red, flashing lights. She teleported to the bottom level, skipping past the myriad of guards wandering the base. Once at the door, she peeked inside and saw several well-armed troops guarding another door inside the next room. She knew she'd need something other than a gun to disarm them.
Inside the door, the troops held their guns ready when a beautiful, naked girl appeared before them, seemingly out of nowhere. They flinched and kept their guns aimed, but hesitated when they saw her smile. It was enough to distract them. She shot both of them, opened the door she teleported through, and put her clothes back on. The next door was sealed, but it opened easily – all she had to do was enter a code, which she already knew.
The base Val had broken into had a singular purpose: to guard the most advanced craft ever designed by the United States government. The ship, built to endure spaceflight, was large enough to hold the entire platform Roger needed to move. Fortunately, she was not the only one who could travel through time; the government possessed a similar device as Archer and conveniently affixed the one and only prototype to their flagship spacecraft – which Val was about to steal.
Roger waited on the deck of the platform and stared at his watch, wondering how close to five minutes he would need to wait for Val's return. With eighteen seconds to spare, he heard a thunder crack and followed the sound. Below the platform, the stolen vessel from the future was floating gracefully above the surface of the ocean. Roger was stunned by the size of it.
“Will this work?” Val said, approaching Roger from behind.
He turned and rapidly nodded. Overcome with excitement, he grabbed Val and hugged her tight. “How did you do it?”
“One of my loyal patrons at the club was a soldier. He talked in his sleep. I'm kind of surprised I still remembered the security code,” she said.
Roger laughed. “How are we going to explain any of this to Archer?”
“Oh, you'll figure that out, won't you? After all, I'm not allowed to see him yet, am I?” She turned away and skipped below deck, confidant she had done enough to earn a quiet night sleep. “And by the way,” she called out to Roger, “I hear the far side of the moon is lovely this time of year.”
Roger watched her run off and shook his head, chuckling. He pulled a com from his pocket and called out: “Bridge? We need everyone to the surface to evacuate immediately. Have Archer meet me in my office.”
Roger sat quietly in the conference room with all one hundred civilians present. Over the last week, they had all been forced to move everything they could carry from their home on the oil platform to the vessel they now called home. Roger was forced to lie to Archer and tell him it was stolen from the present. Archer never believed it but went along with the story.
True to Val's suggestion, the ship lied on the far side of the moon, away from the prying eye of any Earth satellite. Archer, Val, and Roger were the only persons who knew the ship was in space. While they were never lied to, the other celibates, the crew, and the civilians were told of the evacuation – all but Archer were told the truth (minus their location), while Archer thought the government was after them.
Despite the chaos on-board, the departure date was still approaching. Roger needed to go over the expedition itinerary with the civilians. That was why they were gathered now. Before entering the room, they were each given a copy of the constitution earlier presented to the celibates.
“So does anyone have questions about the new constitution?” Roger asked.
No one raised a hand.
“Well, as all of you already know, I have an open door, so if you have any questions, you are free to ask later.
“By now, all of you know the general nature of your place here. I stand resolute that if we tried to govern ourselves exclusively with what we know presently, we would be back in the same place a few thousand years from now. Although none of us will be here, those affected will be your direct descendants, so I'm sure all of us have an interest in our success.
“For that reason, each of your groups – doctors, artists, engineers, et cetera – will have two months in the future to gather what you can with regard to the advancements our race has made. I hope that we will not just bring back cures and technology, but knowledge – knowledge that will help us live in greater harmony with the planet and will enrich our lives.
“A confidential, intelligence-gathering mission has shown money to be a bigger status symbol in the future than it is now. The good news is that cash is still king and hasn't changed too much. You will each be given enough money to subsist for the two months and a little extra to get the most out of your journey.
“As for our return, I ask all of you to consider living by our constitution now. It will obviously undergo some revisions after we integrate what you learn, but it would still be wise to start practicing for the resettlement. While all of you are here to repopulate the species, we will still honor conventional relationships to maintain order. With that said, the priority on our return is to make babies. Therefore, for the first year of our arrival, there will be no formal marriages. We need every female pregnant as soon as possible. I know many of you are already working very hard to that goal...”
They all laughed.
“...and that is fine for now. When we get back, we'll need to get a little more serious. Since we have fifty men and fifty women with us, two in each field, you will all be required to live as husband and wife for the two months we are gone. If you would like to begin doing so now, I have no objections.”
The group sat quietly, many of them with broad smiles on their faces. Many looked around at the opposite sex, some even flirting across the table.
“Any questions?” Roger asked.
Still, not a word from the group.
“Okay, then I'll be in my office down the hall. You all know how to reach me.”
Roger left the room promptly and the civilians followed
suit – except the two from the Philanthropy group, who stayed behind and locked the door.
Chapter 7
The ship Val brought back from the future was far more advanced than Archer first realized. It already had time-travel capability and was well built for space. As always, Archer never asked where it came from, but Roger never tried to keep something this big a secret. When pressed for information about it, Roger would never confirm its origin directly, but would give away clues nonetheless.
One of the first tests conducted was on the time machine. It didn't take long for Archer to modify the teleporters to work with the new machine; it was based on the same technology. This revelation made Archer proud, since it proved just how far ahead he was of his colleagues (if his assumptions that the vessel came from the future were correct). In just days, Archer had enough teleporters ready for the entire civilian group and a few extra at Roger's request.
The Great Altruist Page 26