The Great Altruist

by Z. D. Robinson

  Presently, Roger sat on the bridge of the vessel as Archer and the crew ran a series of checks.

  “Well, Roger, wherever you got this thing, it seems to be able to do all the things we need it to do.”

  “That's a good thing, right?” Roger asked.

  “Sure. In fact, it means we can do things safer. The other craft – which now sits safely at the bottom of the ocean – was never designed for space flight. But the space-time continuum is a lot easier to manipulate in empty space.”

  “Then it's a marvelous stroke of serendipity that we came upon our new home.”

  Archer tried to read Roger's expression but he just sipped his tea – while simultaneously giving Archer a wink.

  “No matter where you got this thing, it seems to be in good order, almost as if it's never been used. We should be ready to leave in the morning.”

  “Very well, Doctor. The expedition crew will be at your disposal. They all have their assignments and will serve you well. Did you look over that itinerary I gave you?”

  Archer bowed his head a little. “I did, but...”

  “But what?” Roger asked.

  “Well, I don't understand why you need me to find a lot of these things. I mean, I'm a physicist and you have me tracking down water sources on the moon.”

  Roger had indeed given Archer a laundry list of side-missions to achieve, none of which were necessary. On the contrary, while he and the civilians carried out their assignments, the one thing the crew needed was to keep John Archer in the dark for two months. Roger asked Val for a suggestion and Archer's itinerary was the result – a sort of cobbled together agenda filled with impossible or pointless tasks that would take up most of his time. Many of the items would be useful if found but hardly relevant to their ultimate goal; and they were abstract enough given Archer's limited knowledge of the plan. “The teams will be quite busy already, Doctor Archer. The list I gave you contains a few things that either could not be fitted into anyone's schedule or fell outside anyone's realm of expertise.” Roger paused to sip his tea. “You should be flattered you were only given two months to achieve it all. Anyone lesser would've have required twice as long.”

  Archer smiled, although he was accustomed to Roger's form of flattery. He never doubted Roger's respect for him, but in this instance, he felt it far more likely that he was being sent on a wild goose chase instead of given a real top-secret mission. “Thank you, Roger.”

  Roger exited the vessel and returned to Val's room. Gently, he knocked on the door.

  “Come in,” he heard her say.

  He opened the door and walked in. Val was milling about the room in her typical undressed state.

  “Val, you'll promise to start wearing clothes more often after we get my wife, won't you?”

  She turned to him, laughed, and nodded. “How do you know she won't mind?”

  “Because, like most women I know outside of Mardi Gras, she's a very modest woman. Anyway, the reason I came by is that Doctor Archer accepted his assignment, but less than graciously. We're set to leave tomorrow.”

  “Great,” she exclaimed. “Are you sure you don't want to leave him behind?”

  “Not at this time. A part of me still hopes all it'll take for Archer to see our point of view is two months in the nightmare you described.”

  “And if he doesn't?”

  “Well, he'll have to take his place with the rest of the crew. It will be sad to see any life lost, but Archer is in a unique position: he'll have been warned.”

  “Then I guess your conscience should be clean, right?”

  He nodded. “I just wanted to let you know that upon our successful return, and after the weapon is fired, you and I will leave promptly to get Jennifer. She'll be very proud of you.”

  “I'm looking forward to meeting her.” Val smiled. “And Roger?”

  He turned and raised his eyebrows.

  “I don't believe I've ever thanked you for bringing me here.”

  “Don't give it a second thought, my dear. Would you like to join me in a toast?”

  “Sure.”

  “Good. Meet me in the mess hall then...after you've put some clothes on.”

  He turned and left. She reluctantly dressed and followed him a few minutes later. As they walked down the hall together, they both had a slight bounce of excitement in their steps, unaware that their mission set to start tomorrow, would be postponed by disaster.

  The damage to the ship was only slight, but the sabotage destroyed the entire time machine component. The crew worked quick to put out some of the fires caused by the small explosion. Archer stood nearby, surveying the damage in stunned silence. Val heard the explosion but was intercepted by Roger to stay in her room. As far as he was concerned, whatever happened had not altered their plans.

  When Roger got to the bridge of the ship, which he since dubbed the Apocalypse, he saw Archer in a panic, moving back and forth around the ship seemingly without direction.

  “John,” Roger said, to which Archer stopped and turned to face him. “Were you hurt?”

  “No, I'm fine. I was nowhere near when it happened.”

  “Where are they?”

  “The saboteurs? In a storage compartment downstairs. Members of the crew have them under guard.”

  “Good. Make sure they aren't hurt. I'll speak with them directly. Is there anything you need from me?”

  “Not right now. Let me get the damage contained and we'll talk.”

  Roger nodded and headed away from the bridge. Once out of earshot of Archer, he tapped his earpiece and said: “Val, grab a gun and meet me in storage in two minutes.”

  A few minutes later, Roger and Val were face to face with the saboteurs, both of them a little bruised and bloodied by the crew, who were all excused when Roger and Val arrived. The saboteurs were a man and woman, both of them in their thirties, and both of them unremarkable in every way.

  Roger cleared his throat for their attention. “I take it you aren't going to die without giving me the message you carry first? Who do you work for?”

  The man spoke first. “Who else, Roger? You've kept your technology from us for the last time.”

  “And your wife will never live again!” the woman shouted.

  “The Cabal,” Val whispered. She turned to Roger: “How did they get aboard?”

  “They must have gotten through the screening process. Doctor Archer interviewed them. It doesn't surprise me, Val. After all, they possess the same desire we do – for change – but we differ only in method.”

  “I have a message for you,” the man said. “My superiors want you to know that if they can't come with you, no one goes at all.”

  “I offered all of the leaders a chance. They were all told about this and they refused my offer. You were lied to,” Roger said.

  Val approached the woman. “You realize how futile this all was, don't you? We're just going to rebuild.”

  “They'll find you first,” the woman answered.

  Val shook her head and chuckled. “Not likely. We're outside their reach, aren't we?” she asked Roger.

  He nodded. “You both think we're still on Earth, don't you?”

  The couple looked at each other as fear overcame them. “You're lying.”

  “Not so,” Roger said. “We're on the dark side of the moon as we speak. Rebuilding will not be a problem.”

  The man snickered. “Not with Archer's work destroyed. It was all on-board that floating platform we destroyed.”

  Roger laughed aloud. “You see, my dear,” he said to Val, “this is why you keep secrets.” Turning to the couple, he said: “You're referring to the other ship that Archer built, yes?”

  The man and woman nodded victoriously.

  Roger went to the intercom by the door and spoke into it: “Doctor Archer?”

  “Yes, sir,” came Archer's voice.

  “Where is the other vessel you designed?”

  “Where we left it, Roger. On the ocean floor.”r />
  Roger turned to face the conspirators and saw the disappointment on their faces. “Is there anything else you both would like to say?”

  The woman approached the fence that separated them from Roger and Val. Swiftly, she spit in his direction. “May your wife burn in hell!”

  Roger snorted and left the room, but not before giving Val the unmistakable nod of permission. Seconds after he left, two shots were fired from Val's gun, and the saboteurs were no more. She exited the room and smirked. “Two down. Seven billion to go,” she said as she went back to her quarters. Roger walked off in the other direction, but only after shaking off Val's callous talk, which he was unaccustomed to.

  Back on the bridge of the ship, Roger returned to check in on Archer's progress.

  “Where are the criminals?” Archer asked.

  “They will no longer be a problem,” Roger said.

  “I see,” Archer answered. “Why did you ask me about the other ship?”

  Roger sat down in the captain's chair and closed the door to the bridge so he and Archer could be alone. “We're going to scuttle the other ship for parts. How long will it take to transfer its time-machine here?”

  “Six months, maybe more,” he said.

  “Then let's do it. When you have some free time, we'll also need to look for replacements in the Philanthropy group.” Roger really didn't care if replacements were actually found – his mission could be just as successful with ninety-eight fertile participants. Still, to keep up appearances for Archer's sake and to fill the number Jennifer requested, he made the demand anyway.

  “Very well. Let me get a team together and we'll head back to the ground ship.”

  “Thank you, John. Take your time – we have plenty to spare, but we need to get this right. And I'm strengthening security protocols. I expect no further incidents, but the work ahead of us is our chief priority.”

  “Yes, sir. I'll get to work immediately.” Archer left the bridge and was beneath the surface of the ocean an hour later, salvaging all he could from the sunken – but operable – vessel.

  Archer sat behind the desk in his office where a massive pile of books was stacked. Roger entered suddenly and took a seat directly across him.

  “So the ship is finally ready. Have you found a new civilian to replace the moles?” he asked.

  “No. Six months, and I can't find an altruistic soul out there.”

  Roger nodded in approval. “That doesn't surprise me.”

  “I've found several of interest, but none really jump out. Except for this fellow who started a children's charity a few months ago. Are you sure you don’t want to just keep it the way it is: forty-eight groups of two?”

  “We need fifty couples.”

  “Then this Grant fellow it is. He’s full of passion.”

  “Passion is a good thing. What's his background?”

  “That's the strange part: up until a year ago, he was just some guy living at home with his parents. His father died a few months ago, just after he married. He took the money given him in the will to set up the charity.”

  “You're kidding me!” Roger said as he reached across the desk to read the report Archer handed him. “It says here he’s already married. What do we know about her?”

  “Nothing. She has no history, no social security number, no maiden name. She seems to have appeared out of nowhere.”

  “Keep looking, John. I want people we can trust.”

  Roger turned to leave. Archer cleared his throat. “There’s something else, sir.”

  “Go on.”

  “There have been some mysterious entries in the time-travel log in the past few days.”

  “Oh? I thought someone had to have a security code to engage it.”

  “They do,” he said. “It was your code.”

  Roger shook his head and said: “Do you have the log?”

  “Yes, sir, right here.” Archer handed him the paper. Roger scanned it and then crumbled it as he stormed from the office, tossing the paper into the waste basket on his way out. Once in the hallway, he touched his earpiece and said: “Val. Come to my office immediately.”

  “Be right there,” she said.

  He stormed down the stairs to the lower level and slammed his office door behind him. Val was already sitting in front of his desk. “You broke my trust,” he said.

  “What are you talking about, Roger?”

  “Your late-night trips through the time machine.”

  “How did you know?”

  “You should know by now that there is nothing on this ship that happens and escapes my attention.”

  "So you spied on me?”

  “I can’t believe you did this, Val. We are so close to making this all a reality. Tell me: what was so important that you couldn’t come and tell me about?”

  She paused before speaking and shook her head. “I wanted to see Paul one last time. I only spent a month with him before he went to war and died.”

  “What did you tell him? And don’t play games with me. You look different than you did before. Surely he recognized that. What did you tell him?”

  She said nothing.

  Roger finally sat behind the desk and opened a drawer. He removed a small gun and set it between them on the desk. She stirred at the sight of it, unsure of his intentions. “So you went back in time and told someone where you were from. I’m sure you can see the problem you’ve created for me. And I don’t need to remind you what happens to people who stand in our way.

  “If you’re going to shoot me, go ahead and get it over with. Otherwise, I need to take a shower.” She stood and walked to the door.

  “Sit down!” Roger shouted.

  She turned around with a scowl across her face and reluctantly sat down and put her feet against his desk.

  “I’m not going to shoot you. But should you choose to remain here, you will do so as one of the civilians.”

  “Are you kidding me? For that?” She stomped her foot into the desk and jumped back out of her chair. “I use the time-machine so I can see my husband and you turn me into a whore?”

  He stood and came around to the front of the desk. He picked up the gun and placed it back inside the desk drawer. “With the saboteurs gone, we are down two people. I’m willing to give you one of those spots - with the provision that should things work out, you can rejoin the leadership. But my wife will have to decide that. She wanted one hundred civilians, and I want to deliver as close to that number as possible. As far as I’m concerned though, your job will be the same as all the others: make babies. Is that acceptable to you?”

  She folder her arms in protest, stewed in anger, and fell into her chair. “Do I have a choice?”

  He looked back the drawer with the gun and then looked away. “No, you don’t. You’ve seen more than anyone else on this ship, and I’m greatly disappointed in you.”

  “Why don’t you just kill me then?”

  He took a deep breath and sighed. “Promises are promises.”

  Val’s stomach was churning as the rage stirred. “So who is the other civilian?” she asked.

  “Doctor Archer has his heart set on a philanthropist he found. At this point, I’m inclined to give Archer whatever he wants. I think he’s getting a little suspicious. There’s a problem: this Grant fellow is already married, and we know nothing about her. We can’t use her.”

  “What do you want me to do?”

  “We need him on board with the mission. I don’t want him to know everything; he’ll know as much as Archer does. I want you back at my side, Val. But I can’t overlook what you did. You’ve put us all in grave danger. So until you meet my wife, I’m setting up a contingency plan to ensure that you survive. That’s what Grant is all about; he is your ticket to my good graces. If Jennifer wants you as one of us, then so be it and we can dispose of Grant with Archer and the others.”

  She hung her head and weighed her options. Although furious with Roger, she still believed in his goal.

/>   “Here,” he said as he tossed her a wrist device. “You’ll need that to move about. Make this happen, Val. For your own sake.”