by Karl Morgan
“Dave, it is good to see you again,” Taron began. “This must be Darlene,” he said reaching through the window to shake her hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. My name is Taron. Charlie and Aria are waiting for you both inside. Dave, you know the drill. Kally will take you inside.” Taron touched his belt and the gate slid open easily.
“Thanks, Taron,” Dave said, as he pulled ahead through the gate and up the driveway. “Nice place, right Darlene?”
“It’s unbelievable Dave. I’ve never seen such a beautiful house before,” Darlene replied as she squeezed his hand. “I noticed the guard looks a lot like Aria and the others. Did you ever find out where they were from, sweetheart?”
“Yes, but I think I’ll let them explain it all. It was a bit complicated,” he said as they approached the front of the house. Kally was already out the door and approaching them. Kally opened Darlene’s door and offered his hand to help her out. She thanked him, and he hurried over to Dave’s side. Dave handed him the keys, and the group headed toward the front doors. Charlie was waiting at the door. He kissed Darlene on the cheek and shook Dave’s hand heartily.
“I’m so glad you two were able to come this evening. Follow me over this way. The rest of our guests are waiting for us through there,” Charlie said. They crossed the room to an open door and stepped in. They were in a small room with a large computer panel, and Dave immediately recognized it as the portal unit. Rence was standing behind the control panel, quickly typing instructions on the keyboard. “Darlene,” Charlie started, “I don’t know if you remember seeing Rence that day at the restaurant with Aria and me?”
“Hello, Darlene,” Rence said. “We’ve very glad you could come.” He continued tapping on the keyboard.
“Dave,” Darlene asked apprehensively, “What is going on here? What is this place?” She held his hand tightly.
“Dave, let me handle this one.” Charlie continued, “Darlene, we are going to join Aria for dinner now. There is nothing to be afraid of. Rence, please signal Aria to join us here.” Rence keyed a new command on the panel. On the far wall of the room, a small black circle began to appear and grow. Within a few seconds, it had grown to seven feet in diameter. It was absolutely black with no sound or heat or any other sensation, only blackness. A leg appeared in the black circle, and almost immediately the rest of Aria stepped into the room from the black circle. Dave could feel Darlene’s legs buckle a bit and he put his arm around her waist to support her.
Aria stepped forward and kissed Charlie lightly on the cheek. “Is everything okay here sweetheart?” she asked him. Seeing Darlene and Dave, she moved to them and said hello, kissing each on the cheek.
“Darlene doesn’t know anything about what’s going on yet, you know,” Charlie said. “This must be quite a shock to you. Aria and I wanted to take you somewhere special for our first dinner together. That place is just through there,” he finished pointing to the black circle on the wall. We’re going to be late for our reservation, so let’s go.” Charlie took Aria by the hand and the two stepped into the black circle, and were gone.
Darlene looked pensively at Dave. “Honey, I know none of this makes sense, but we need to follow them. Everything is going to be okay, and we’ll be together the whole time,” Dave said, trying to calm her nerves enough to make that first step. “Take my hand; this is going to be fun.” He turned to Rence, “Hey, are you coming too?”
“I’ll be right behind you two,” he replied.
Darlene took Dave’s hand and smiled at him. They stepped toward the black circle. Dave could feel the fear in her and rubbed her back a bit to calm her. They stepped into the circle and were gone. Rence set the automatic shut-off, and hurried around the counter and stepped into blackness. A few seconds after he stepped in, a blinding flash filled the portal room, and the black circle was gone.
Dave and Darlene stood in absolutely blackness. She tried to speak to him but he could not hear her words. Soon, a white dot formed in front of them, growing quickly to a seven foot circle. They could hear sounds from the white circle and thought they could even smell food. Dave took her hand more tightly and motioned her to step through the circle with him. They stepped through the circle and into a restaurant halfway up the Eiffel Tower.
Charlie stood there smiling, holding two white buckets, just in case. Aria stepped forward and handed each of them a flute of champagne. “Welcome to Paris you two!” she giggled. Everyone enjoyed a sip of champagne. Dave and Darlene were led to their seats, which had a magnificent view of the city rising along the Seine. The nearby Arc de Triomphe was shining under the lights as vehicles zipped along and above the Champs-Elysees. The Brewsters had always dreamed to traveling to Paris after they retired. They never had the money to take a family vacation to such a place. Now, here they were. But it looked so different from the pictures and television programs they had seen.
“Dave,” Darlene whispered in his ear, “are we really here? Ten seconds ago we were in San Diego, and now Paris. How is that possible? What about the nine hour time difference? Shouldn’t it be six in the morning in Paris now? Also, everyone here has the same features as Aria and the rest. What’s going on?”
Charlie stood up and turned to Dave and Darlene, saying “Darlene, I know you have a million questions going through your head right now. And while we enjoy a fabulous dinner, we are going to explain everything. We have two special guests joining us who will help explain everything.” The two men had been sitting at the table, but Dave was too preoccupied with Darlene to have noticed them. Chief Engineer Lanz and Bishop Itzak rose and stepped over to Darlene to welcome her.
Course after course of dishes were brought to the table. Champagne and wine flowed freely. Dave was thankful that at least these decadent pleasures from the twenty-first century had not been lost. Darlene hovered between the joy of the location, the food and Dave’s nearness, and the fear and doubt about what was being said. Itzak led the discussion while Lanz focused on the technological aspects of their journey through space and time.
The narratives were the same that Dave had heard at the San Diego mayor’s office. Dave was destined to found many new colonies for humanity. Darlene the Benevolent was recorded in history as well, as she helped bring many races of the universe together to enable friendly expansion of each. Itzak noted a specific example of the Galliceans. They were a race that thrived on gas giant planets, occupying three thousand worlds near both the Kalidean and human spheres of influence. Ambassador Darlene Brewster negotiated a treaty exchanging access to earthlike planets in Gallicean systems for gas giants in human star systems. That enabled all of them to have access to more planets while sharing resources and building their bonds of friendship.
As the waiters cleared the table to serve dessert, Darlene broke in, “This is an incredible story. Thank you for taking your time. Now, I am a simple woman from your past, and I have a few simple questions.” They nodded politely for her to continue. “First, what happens to our family in our time? Would we ever see them again?”
“Darlene,” Charlie said, “Please let me answer that one since I have personal experience with this. As Dave knows, I have two boys in the twenty-first century, Matt and Robert. I worked out a deal where I can visit my family from time to time. Recently, I’ve been spending a lot more time in the twenty-first, while I’ve been recruiting you two. Normally, I spend a year in the thirty-second and then I jump to the twenty-first for a one week visit.” Darlene frowned. “But, you have to understand time travel, Darlene. After that one year, I jump back to just a week or two after I left. To my family, it hardly seems like I’ve been gone at all.”
“But how can you do that? Can’t they tell by your age?” she asked. A week later you look a year older. That doesn’t make any sense.”
“Darlene,” Aria started. “We weren’t at that point yet, but people in our time live between three and four hundred years.” When Charlie joined us in the thirty-second, he was given the same immunizations and
vaccinations that we all receive. With his strong metabolism and drive from his time, he’ll probably outlive us all!”
“Darlene,” Itzak said, “You and Dave would be a great asset for us in our time. As we’ve told you tonight, our future history will be greatly improved and humanity will thrive for thousands of years in the galaxy if you join us. It would be foolhardy for us not to protect such great people. How many planets can you colonize or how many peace and trade treaties can you negotiate if you live only another thirty or forty years?”
“Plus your work is not yet complete in the twenty-first,” Lanz said. “There are the others to be considered, Itzak.”
“Yes, I know. I am not certain that tonight is the time to speak of this, but since you brought it up, and I am a member of the High Council for Humanity, let’s show all of our cards,” Itzak replied. “Aria, please share what you have learned of our future.” Charlie, Muncie and Rence looked very surprised. Clearly, this was information that they had not yet been told.
Aria cleared her throat, looking first at Charlie, holding his hand and then at Dave and Darlene. “When I jumped to the fortieth, I found that there had been a major change in human lifespan. People there lived as much as one thousand years. That is on a scale equivalent to the Kalideans or Galliceans. Apparently, the major shift occurred in the thirty-third. A team of scientists who received multiple medical and scientific degrees in the thirty-second and thirty-third had uncovered methods to perfect DNA performance, leading to the longer lives. When I researched the team, I found they were from the twenty-first as well as thirty-second centuries.” Aria took a long drink from the Badoit water on the table. “The team member names recorded were William Brewster, Cybil Brewster, Matthew Watson, and Robert Watson from the twenty-first century, and Lia Lawson, Rence Rialto, and Jake Maklan from the thirty-second.” She sat heavily in her chair.
“Wow,” Rence, Charlie, Dave and Darlene said almost in unison.
Chapter 9
After returning home, Darlene had a difficult time trying to sleep. The portal had been adjusted to return them at 10:00 PM on the same day they left, just as though they had gone to a dinner in town. Dave kept asking her what she thought about all of this during the drive home, but Darlene was lost in her thoughts. She never heard him say a word. When they arrived at home, she changed into her pajamas quickly, kissed Dave on the cheek and went right to bed. Sleep did not come easily. She tossed and turned with thoughts of the future flashing through her mind. Everything she had ever known was now out the window, and these strange people from the future were asking them to pack up and live in their world. As a wife and mother, Darlene had her share of sleepless nights, and had learned to push all thoughts from her mind. Then she would consciously force her mind to stay empty and quiet. After a few minutes, she fell asleep.
Dave was too overwhelmed with Aria’s admission to even try to sleep. He put on his pajamas and went to the family room to relax, giving his wife some privacy with her thoughts. He poured some whiskey over ice and sat on the couch with his feet up on a hassock. He took a sip and sighed heavily. His cell phone rang. “Hello?”
“Dave, it’s Charlie,” he began. “Darlene looked pretty dazed when you left us. Is she okay now?”
“She’ll be fine, Charlie,” Dave answered. “That information from Aria was shocking to all of us, in a good way. Did you know any of this about your own children?”
After a moment, Charlie replied, “No, no I didn’t. I was thrilled in one way, but a bit hurt that Aria hadn’t told me before.” There was a moment of silence, and he began again, “You have to understand the time travelers from the future, Dave. Only a handful of people are allowed to jump in time. The risk of contaminating the past or future with unforeseen changes is too great. I think I heard that there are only ten or twenty official jumpers in the thirty-first. That includes those of us who have been given special privileges since we have given up so much by abandoning our own time.”
“I guess that makes sense, Charlie,” Dave said. “All the science fiction I’ve ever read was full of warnings about time travel. What was that old paradox? Oh yeah, what would happen if I traveled back in time and killed my father before I was conceived? How could I exist in the future to travel if I had never been born? Something like that.”
“Lanz and Aria tell me that the universe is a lot more resilient than we think,” Charlie commented. “God, the universe and space-time take care of those things by not allowing them to work. Somehow. I don’t know, it’s way over my head. I’m just glad that Darlene is okay, and I hope she can get some rest. If you’re up for it, I’ll meet you for coffee at Starbucks tomorrow, okay?”
“I’ll try to be there. It depends on how Darlene feels after she has digested that fabulous French dinner and the revelation of being Darlene the Benevolent. Good night, Charlie, and thank you for being my friend. And for giving me a job,” Dave finished.
“Dave, by now you should have realized that the High Council for Humanity is your real employer. I’m happy to know you too, pal. Have a good night,” Charlie said, and broke the connection. Dave put his feet up to feel more relaxed, sipping his drink and imagining what would happen in the morning and how it would feel to be Dave the Founder of a Thousand Worlds. He finished his drink and went to bed.
Darlene had a difficult night. She dreamed about flying through space with a ship full of those unusual looking future humans. She dreamed of meeting the Galliceans, who appeared to be blobs of gas with a thin skin. She saw Bill and Cybil in the future working in lab coats on extending human life. Bill came to her with a giant needle, easily three feet long, and told her that it would not hurt as he jammed it into her chest. She shot up straight in bed, drenched in sweat and breathing heavily. Dave was sound asleep next to her. It had only been a dream. She relaxed quickly and lay down next to Dave, caressing his face with her fingertips. She was about to drift off to sleep when a brilliant flash appeared in the living room, and she was frightened again. Was she still asleep? She did not think so, but was too afraid to investigate the flash.
She heard Aria’s voice saying softly, “Darlene, it’s Aria. I’m sorry to scare you like this, but there is someone I want you to meet. Please come out here, but don’t wake up Dave, okay?” Darlene composed herself and pulled on a robe, and walked into the living room, with no idea what to expect.
Cybil was standing there with Aria. Darlene ran to her and hugged her close. “My baby, it is so good to see you. What are you doing here, and how do you know Aria?” she asked. She turned to Aria, “What’s going on, Aria?”
“Mom, let’s go into the kitchen. I don’t want the light to wake up Daddy,” Cybil said. The three walked into the kitchen and Cybil switched on the lights. Darlene knew now that something terrible had happened. Cybil’s face had aged and her hair was turning gray. Aria also looked much older. Darlene touched Cybil’s face and tears welled in her eyes. Cybil took her mother into her arms and hugged her.
“What’s happened to you Cybil? You look so different. Did the time travel do this to you?” Darlene asked, crying now.
“No, Mom,” Cybil began, almost giggling. “I’m four hundred and fifty years old. Look at poor Aria, she’s over five hundred now. We thought it might be good to come here now and let you know that everything will be okay. Bill and I are still working together, even though the DNA project is finished.”
“Darlene,” Aria began, “we can only stay a few minutes. It took me a long time to get approval for Cybil to jump, even this one time. We will both be in a lot of trouble if we don’t get back to the thirty-fifth pretty soon. I want you to know your children are doing fine in the future, but it is still your choice whether to stay here or come with Charlie and me. Time is very resilient, and things will always happen according to the flow of the universe and God’s Will. Cybil, we need to go now.” As they turned to return to the portal, they saw Dave standing in the door crying.
Dave hugged his daughter and kissed he
r on the cheek. “My little girl, all grown up. Will I ever see this?” he asked.
“Daddy, you and Mom are still with us in my present,” Cybil said stroking his hair, “although you don’t have this much hair anymore.” She kissed him on the cheek. “We’ve got to go, but we’ll have our full lives together, here or in the future. I love you both.” Aria and Cybil walked into the living room and into the open portal. A flash of light lit the room, and then went dark. Dave and Darlene hugged, and walked back to the bedroom, warmed greatly by such a wonderful surprise.
Chapter 10
Dave Brewster could still remember the first time he met Charlie Watson. It has been several months now, but the events of that day were stuck in his mind forever. Dave sat quietly sipping his cappuccino in the lounge of the star cruiser Reliant. He took a bite of the luxurious chocolate croissant. Charlie had introduced that treat to Dave recently, and he had happily switched from cheese Danish. The dark chocolate worked so well with the flavor of hot coffee. He felt very relaxed, and looked about the coffee shop, watching other people enjoying their break or breakfast at the beginning of their day.
“There’s Dave the Explorer,” Charlie said as he entered the room and walked over the Dave.
“Charlie, you know I am not comfortable with that name,” Dave replied. Charlie sat down next to him and took a sip of his drink. They both felt very relaxed to share this time together.
A beep sounded in Dave’s earpiece and he touched it lightly, “Yes, Captain, what’s up?”