Into the Ether

by Andrew Bardsley

  Chris was almost out the door, when Sarah chirped up, “Wait Sir! We need to do some planning for the article or at least get your body measurements for some clothes.”

  As she said this, Chris paused for second which gave Abby time to call in from the next room, a tailor. Abby directed him over to Chris. The receptionist opened the door, to let in a smaller man with a tape measure in his hand. For the next five minutes Chris stood still while he was measured for clothing.

  The tailor asked if he had any preferred style. Chris said, “Just casual, I haven’t really been into any clothing styles.”

  Chris was about to attempt to escape again, when Abby said, “You’ll also need to do something about your hair. It’s looking a little wild at the moment.”

  With that, Chris just walked back to his workshop. Back to safety, he again reviewed the new inscriptions he had been developing. As the pillar of Ether, was to do with space-time, Chris had been able develop items within that surrounding area. The new inscription he now, had would enable people to start exploring the stars to new lengths, as folding space had now made faster than light travel possible.

  Future aspects that seemed possible from the work he had done, but were not yet possible, were on his horizons. One potential set of inscriptions dealt with the manipulation of time by changing the rates of time for different volumes of space allowing for different time to pass in different areas or extending a person’s reflexes. One of his favourites that he had now started to develop was a method to make a person almost immortal, by preventing the bodies being affected by time or any physical force. He had not shared any of this knowledge, even with Ben.

  With a sigh, he went back to work on more inscriptions. Soon, he would have to begin recharging the daily allotment of stamps and scrolls.

  ---

  From Chris’s point of view, the time for the reporter to do the article on him, came too fast. Abby had said, in a meeting that Abigail Rogers had jumped at the chance opportunity to write the life style article about Chris. Sarah had arranged a whole week of activities interspersed with work. Chris was largely uninterested in the whole thing and left all the planning to Sarah and her team. The first meeting today was with the reporter to go through the schedule for next week of activities. Chris had been summoned by Abby to meet the reporter, in an informal setting before the week of activities started. He was walking to the conference room at the moment, having just got his beard and hair trimmed. Chris was in his usual set of smart casual clothing, but this time, they were clean and pressed.

  As he entered the conference room, he saw Sarah chatting to another woman, presumably Abigail Rogers. She was best described as photogenic and very comfortable with her appearance. She was wearing a smart business suit, but with an element of sexiness that a normal business woman would never show. Her hair was long, with a deep shade of brown, arranged in very un-business-like style. Chris thought the style would more suit a model.

  As Sarah saw him enter the room she said, “Here he is. Doctor Chris Prof, this is Ms. Abigail Rogers.”

  Chris walked over and shook her hand, “Pleasure to meet you Ms. Abigail Rogers.”

  Abigail smiled, “You can call me Abigail if I can call you Chris.”

  Chis smiled back and said, “That's fine Abigail.”

  All three sat down around the conference desk and Sarah started to speak, “In front of you is the itinerary for the week. If you noticed, there is event during each day and an event during each night. Abigail, I have been coordinating with your camera crew for each event and the logistics they will need to cover it.”

  Abigail nodded her head and said, “Yes, they should have it all covered now, thank for helping out.”

  Sarah said, “It’s important to keep to the schedule as Chris will need to work around the events.”

  Abigail said, “What work will that be?”

  Chris answered quickly, “Mostly research and recharging stamps and scrolls for sale.”

  Abigail said in a quick response, “What are you researching into at the moment?”

  Before Chris could think of a response, Sarah interrupted and said, “Abigail we don’t have time to go into that now. We’ve got to keep on track and need to finish talking about next week.”

  For the next ten minutes Sarah detailed every event with questions from Abigail, but none from Chris.

  ---

  Over the weekend Chris was having a meal with Ben in the lockup kitchen and was talking about the arrangements for the next week.

  Ben sat as Chris had complained to him for a while before finally speaking. “Let me see if I’m right about what you are complaining about. You’ll being forced to spend the week in the company, of what most people consider, is a beautiful woman, who is actually going to be asking you question about yourself. Also, you will be going to parties every night. In my humble opinion it does not sound like the worst thing you have ever had to do.”

  Chris nodded and smiled a little, “I guess it all about perspective. Anyway, how's the treatment going?”

  Ben replied with a smile, “it's been a long road so far but I’m doing well at the moment. I’m starting to get my life back together. You have been a real help.”

  Next week came very quickly for Chris, as he was walking through the offices toward the conference room for the first event, he still felt overwhelmed. This morning, as Chris did not own a home to show off for the magazine article, he was going to spend the day touring properties with the intention of buying one. This was all for Abigail’s benefit, to get picture of him in trendy houses showing off his wealth. Sarah had arranged a suite of properties to be viewed. Chris didn’t even know if he would ever own one, let alone live in one of them.

  When Chris entered the conference room everybody was waiting for him. Sarah was there, as she and her team would be monitoring Chris at every event. Of course, Abigail was waiting in the room, looking fantastic and very confident. All of her crew were there, this including: two men controlling the cameras, a woman with the sound system, a producer and a woman that seemed to be in charge of making Abigail look good. The woman that was doing Abigail’s makeup, looked at Chris with shocked eyes as she took in his clothing and beard. She whispered a bit to Abigail, who then looked at Chris intently and then went over to Sarah. This produced another whispered conversation, which was slightly heated. During this time Chris went and introduced himself to Abigail’s crew and then sat down waiting. As the conversation got more heated.

  After waiting politely for a minute Chris decided to say, “Are we ready to go yet? I can come back later if you want to delay the event.”

  In a vain hope of being released he stood up and started to move toward the exit. As he was moving Abigail smiled and said, “No, let's go now, we can sort it out when we get there.”

  Sarah nodded and started leading the group out the door with Abigail following, talking to the makeup woman. Chris found himself at the back of the group, wondering if he should just wander off. As they exited the office door into the arboretum, about ten security guards joined the procession. Chris had never met any of the security force he had hired as he had not had much used for them personally. Mostly because he never left the offices and if he did, he never told anybody. Mostly the company used them for escorting the upper management and securing the office site. Now that the company was creating more offices in different countries the security force was getting to be larger.

  Chris was still walking at the back of the group, trailing behind Abigail’s crew. The security guards had taken up defensive position, around the group, surrounding Sarah and Abigail, who were still arguing about something. By the time the group had got the ground floor, Chris was far behind the group, at the rear. In front of the building, there were about five very smart black glossy magical vehicles. The front group and the crew got into the first and second vehicles, without looking back. The security force took their place in the remaining vehicles. As Chris tried to get in the last veh
icle, one of the security guards motioned him to leave and as he stepped back the final vehicle moved off, following the other.

  Chris was left standing on the pavement wondering what had just happened. Confused, he thought, “Oh well, I can get back to work and see when they sort it out.”

  With that he quickly walked to where nobody could see him and teleported himself back to his workshops. Picking up his latest project of inscription development and started losing himself in his work. It was a couple of hours until Abby came into his workshop. She was the only one who had access.

  As she saw Chris, she talked into a communication farseeing device and said, “Found him, you can call off the search. I’ll be back in contact in a while.”

  Abby said in an exasperated voice, “What happened Chris? We had everybody looking for you!”

  Chris said with a smile, “Well I was at the back of the group of people walking and for some reason they were arguing up front, and totally in their own world. When it came time to get into the last car, one of the security guards stopped me and off they went.”

  Abby seemed to calm down a bit and said, “Chris this is getting to be a problem, not even the staff know who you are. The security was there to protect you! Not Abigail and Sarah.”

  Chris smiled and said, “As you know, I’ve no need of protection. When I hired them, I was thinking about the people who work for me, not myself.”

  Abby sighed and said, “I still want you to have security if you are out of this office.” She waved a hand in exasperation. “That’s not the issue at the moment thought, you need to get over to them as soon as possible. This is important.”

  Chris nodded in acknowledgement, “Okay, show me on your farseeing devices the location I have to go to.”

  Abby got out a small square pane of glass and tapped some symbols on it. Soon an image of a map, of large house in open field, was seen by the two. As Abby zoomed out, so Chris was able to see his own position compared to the house's location. With that knowledge he was able to instantly transport himself to the ground surround the house.

  Suddenly he found himself standing in a well-manicured garden close to the property. He could hear loud voices around one side of the house and started to walk in that direction. As he came around a wall, he saw the security guard with Sarah, Abigail and her crew. Sarah was arguing with the head of the security detachment, while Abigail had look of annoyance on her face.

  Chris raised up his hand and shouted to the group. All the security guards dropped into a defensive stance as their coat’s inscriptions glowed. One of the more nervous security guards suddenly shot of a stun bolt from a weapon. This hit Chris in the chest with a flash, then all of a sudden, all the guard were shooting electrical arks, force projections and stunning bolts at Chris. To keep up with appearance, Chris dropped to the floor and closed his eyes. As the noise of the magic slowly faded Chris could hear Sarah screaming and shouting.

  All Chris could hear her saying was, “That’s Chris Prof! That the boss! What have you done to him? Is he dead?”

  Then Chris heard a man talk to Sarah in a questioning tone. There was soon realization of what had happened. The man in charge instructed the medic, in the guard group, to quickly check on Chris. Chris feel the medic try to find a pulse, but because of Chris’s magical shield he could not. Quickly the guards picked up his body and took it to the back of one of the black vehicles, to try and revive Chris with some medical equipment. As the group of man were laying him in the back to start treating Chris, he sat up.

  The security guards were shocked and stood there in a stupor, Chris said, “I need to talk to the head of security, now please.”

  One of the guards quickly ran off to the group around the house and brought somebody back quickly. Chris said to the head of security, “This is a complete screw up, how are we going to explain this to Abigail and her group?”

  The man who looked shock but was gaining his composure said, “Are you ok sir? You should be at least unconscious for a long time. You are Chris Prof?”

  Chris said, “If you still do not believe who I am, I definitely not leaving the back of this vehicle until you do. But yes, I’m Chris Prof. I’m the one who pays you salaries to provide security and I’m not a security expert, but killing the boss, is not always the best career move. Before you lot try to kill me again, could you please confirm that I am the boss.”

  In the next few minutes the head of security was able to get confirmation from a furious Abby, that Chris was who he claimed to be. The poor man had to promise to her to provide security for Chris only and that nobody else counted. The last comment about not trying to kill Chris again was particular vehemently given. When the farseeing connection was over all the guard looked grim expression.

  Chris had had some time to think and there was no way he could explain this away. He would just have to have a miraculous recovery and not talk about it. Indicating that he was going back to the house to continuous with the event, the surprised security guard form up around in a protective perimeter. Chris was laughing in his head about the change of circumstance he found himself in.

  As he approached the group, he saw the following scene. Sarah was sitting on a small stone wall with her face in her hands, while Abigail crew was filming the scene. Abigail was talking intensely into a farseeing device. When the group saw Chris coming toward them, all of them froze. Abigail dropped her farseeing device while Sarah just looked blankly.

  Chris approached Abigail and said, “Sorry about the delay this morning, you could say that think went a bit astray from the plan, but anyway shall we get on with what we are doing?”

  Abigail recovered quickly and looked at Chris sharply, and said, “How are you not dead?”

  Chris said with a smile, “It’s always as sign of a good reporter, when they ask the best questions. Maybe we can address it later, but do you still want to do the article, or should I leave?”

  Abigail looked surprised and said, “Let’s continue then.”

  The rest of the group had managed to gain more composure and within a few seconds, they had been guided to the house for a tour.

  As Chris now walked in front, the crew started use their cameras to take both movie and still pictures. Inside the house were a smartly dressed couple waiting to show Chris around the house.

  Chris walked up to them and shook their hands in greeting and said, “Sorry about the delay, can you show us around the house and its grounds?”

  For the next half an hour Chris and the group went on a tour of the house and grounds. The guides were very professional, as they pointed out all the important features in each room. Chris did not know that such opulent items could exist. The amount of magic inscription in the house was amazing and costly. The house had been used by some very rich people for giving large parties. It had ten bed rooms, bars and entertainment rooms.

  Chapter 10 Life Style Choices

  As Chris was touring, every now and then Abigail would get him to pose in front luxurious item, most of the time with Abigail in the image. By the time they had finished the tour, everybody had regained their composure fully. Abigail sat opposite of Chris on this journey. Chris took out some of his research notes, mostly to see if he could ignore any questions from Abigail, but this was to no avail.

  Abigail coughed slightly and said to Chris, “What happened back there?”

  Chris tried to smile reassuringly. “Well… That certainly was not planned in today's list of things to do. Getting shot up by my own security force may be a first for your news outlet to report on. I guess there's no chance of you forgetting the incident?”

  Abigail laughed and said, “Certainly not. If that’s the only thing, I get out of this week it will make it worth it. But the more important question is how did you recover from that? It wasn’t just one stun but multiple and at what looked like the higher levels.”

  Chris said with a smile, “I guess you’ll have to put it down to luck, or just a miracle. That medic was r
eally good.”

  Abigail give Chris a look, ‘I know that you are talking rubbish’, while Chris returned one, ‘I know that you know I’m talking rubbish, but what can you do about it?’

  After this, the two fell into silence and Chris was able to get back to his research. It was about half an hour to the next property. The same type of tour was given, they had at the previous house, with the same opportunities for photoshoots with Abigail. This property was more splendid as the last. Chris thought at the end of the tour he should probably be asking the price of the house.

  So, just as Sarah was about to organize everybody into the vehicles for the next visit, Chris walked up to the guide and said, “So, what was the cost of the house?”

  The guide informed him quickly, “The prices can be found in all the deals we sent to your office, but the offers started at thirty million.”

  Chris almost stumbled at the thought, questioning to himself, “Do I even have a spare thirty million? Who would pay that much for a property?”

  While he was back in the vehicle, he asked Sarah if she had a company secure farseeing device he could use. She passed one over to Chris and he used it to access his farseeing account details. He had been keeping a track of company outgoings and incomings but had not checked on his overall wealth, for a long time now. The amount of money that was available now, was significantly more than the thirty million. That amount of money would not even drop his wealth a day's income. He pondered for a bit how life had changed for himself.

  Abigail trying to pry a bit asked, “So are you going to buy a property Chris?”

  Chris shook his head and said, “I’ve not seen one that I like yet.”

  She followed up with her next question, “Then what are you looking for in a house?”

  Chris shrugged his shoulders, “I’m not really sure.”

  Abigail laughed to herself a bit and said, “When I do this type of interview with most of the rich people or celebrities all have grand ideas of what they want. All of them are so picky about the details of the properties, but you seem not to be interested at all. Could we go to a property that you would like to live in?”