“I am.” He smiled “Not biologically of course, but I would have been if the future hadn’t been manipulated. I’m not really anyone’s son if we’re talking technically, I came out of a tube, and I’m babbling.” His face dropped.
Sarah laughed. “Where’s the other one? Don’t I have a daughter too?”
“She’s still in the pod. Due to come out in a few hours. You could have a look if you like, after the introductions.” Spencer said.
“I recognise you too," Sarah said. “From the videos.”
“Yes, we were good friends in the future. Your only unrelated female friend really. Simon would have been lurking in the video too.” she motioned to Simon.
“Oh, yes. Hi.” She smiled at Simon. This was all very strange. They all looked at her with affection, despite this being the first time she’d met them, it felt simultaneously heartwarming and uncomfortable. Well, she wouldn’t have to be disquieted for long, she’d share that look soon enough, she supposed.
“The last one is Beth," Victor said. “She’s new for all of us.”
“Nice to meet you, finally," Beth said. “I’ve heard a lot of nice things.”
“So, you’re not from the future?”
“No. I arrived late to the party, but they were playing my jam. I’ve not experienced a mind write yet, I’m hoping to soon.” Beth smiled.
“That’s actually even more reassuring since you decided to stick around and you’re willing for a write. So, where’s my daughter’s pod?”
“It’s over there, behind the screen. You might find it alarming to see her submerged in there, but she’s fine, it’s almost her birthday.” Victor said.
Sarah followed his prompt and moved behind the screen, Victor followed. She smiled at the girl behind the glass.
“She looks like me.” She looked at Victor, then back to the girl. “There’s some of you there too, definitely.”
“You always said it was her eyes.”
Sarah looked at the girl’s eyes, then back to Victor’s, then into them. She looked away and smiled coyly. Victor returned the smile. She looked back into the pod.
“What’s her name again?”
“Julie, or Jules, after Doc Brown’s kid.”
“Who was named after Jules Verne.”
“Yeah.” Victor smiled. “We originally bonded over our similar tastes in science fiction.”
“There’s so much about us that I don’t know, and I can’t stand it any longer. I want to know the rest of it.”
“Fair enough," Victor said with a smile. “If you want to follow me to where you’ll be seated for the next few hours, I’ll grab your helmet on the way.”
She followed him to a rack adorned with what looked like an array of slim metallic bicycle helmets. Victor selected one painted in her favourite colour and handed it to her.
“This one is your own personal helmet, so you can make it fit perfectly and not have anyone change it.”
“So, you knew I was coming back here eventually then?”
“I hoped.”
She took the scanner and placed it on her head, adjusting the fitting as she followed Victor.
“Just sit here and recline, keep the helmet on, we’ll do the rest.”
She did so and continued to make the helmet more comfortable as Victor walked away to his workstation. He opened the mind write software and found the correct file.
“Okay, so I’m about to hit start.” Victor raised his voice so that Sarah could hear him from her location. “You’ll lose consciousness, and when you wake up, you’ll remember everything from our other life. It’s also a refreshing nap. Are you sure you want to do this? You’ll keep every part of yourself that’s there now, but it’s going to change your life, you definitely won’t be going back to your job, and if there’s anyone special out there, you haven’t had a chance to say goodbye. I never asked you if you were dating, I know you weren’t when we first met, but it’s been some time since that was supposed to happen.”
“It’s fine, I won’t miss my job, and my friends will still be my friends, right?”
“Some might be, but you might remember arguments that haven’t happened yet with others, you might have to adjust to a few things.”
“Okay. Let’s do this.” She made herself comfortable.
“Alright, see you in a few hours.”
“Later.” she said with a smile.
Victor hit Start.
Chapter 41
Sarah woke from her merge and glanced around the room at each of the people who eagerly anticipating her first words. She waited for the sudden rush of memories and their related emotions to settle, but they just kept coming, she began to take slow deep breaths, trying to hold back the tears, but the tears appeared regardless. Victor came to her side and removed her helmet for her; Sarah hid her face behind her hands. Victor knelt beside her, and she reached out and pulled him into a hug.
“It’s okay, you’re back now. Take it easy, try not to relive all the new memories at once, it will overwhelm you. Continue to focus on your breathing, it will help slow the flow.”
She took a few more calming breaths and looked into his eyes. “I don’t even want to think about the possibility that these memories might have been lost forever. Thank you,” she looked at the other faces around the room. “all of you, for getting them back to me.”
There was a chorus of you’re welcomes as she wiped away a few more tears.
“Let’s go get our daughter," Victor said. “She’s completed her growth, we just need to wake her up.”
They walked to the dividing screen together, Sarah picked a dressing gown off the hook near the pod and a few towels from the table beneath.
“Can I go in there alone?” Sarah asked.
“Of course, she’ll want to be decent before anyone else sees her. Spencer might have to help you get her onto the gurney before you wake her.”
Sarah went behind the screen to birth her daughter for the second time, Spencer followed. Sarah looked at the woman curled up on the floor of the pod through its viewing window, and a new wave of emotion came over her. From one perspective it had been mere minutes since she last saw her daughter, but the Sarah from before the merge still resided within her mind, so all of this felt fresh and new. She was overjoyed that her daughter would get to experience more of the world before the fall, she’d been mostly deprived of it in their alternate timeline. Sarah hoped that Jules wouldn’t get too wrapped up in their work to enjoy it a little, they now had an extra pair of hands to share the load. She had some explaining to do, the others must be tired of telling the story and glad that she would be taking this one. Sarah had pieced most of the story together from both timelines, there might be some specifics that the others would need to fill in, but she wanted the mother-daughter time.
She tapped a few buttons on the pod’s touchscreen control panel, the fluid drained, she opened the door, dried her daughter with towels, then Spencer helped move Jules to the gurney. Spencer returned to the opposite side of the screen while Sarah placed a sheet over Jules and disengaged the tentacles. The sheet was relatively thin and, like most mothers, she worried that her daughter might catch a chill and placed a second over Jules while she began to open her eyes and take in her surroundings.
“Hey, sweetie," Sarah said soothingly.
Jules sat up and looked at the pod. “What happened?”
“Well, you were kind of bodiless there for a bit, hun, your old one got deleted along with that whole timeline.”
“Simon.”
“Yeah, but the Simon from this time helped with a method of rescuing your last backup.”
“Wow. How was that even possible?”
“That’s something I’m still to learn, I’m as new here as you are. I got deleted too, but thankfully I had a body in this time, I didn’t need a clone. Your father expertly sweet talked me back into it.”
“Oh my God, you were all killed. I thought that was all a dream for a second.”
>
“Yeah, but it didn’t stick. Might have worked out for us all in the end.” Sarah motioned to her chest. “These things are back to the height I like, no augmentation involved.”
Jules smiled. “When are we?”
“Twenty eighteen. Mankind’s back, you’ll get to eat something other than nutrition bars for a while. A very long while if we can do something to ensure it.”
“I think I’m gonna like it here.”
“Alright, Little Orphan Annie, get yourself dry and warm, and I’ll see you outside. Your brother and father can’t wait to see you. It looks like you have some clothes chosen for you.” she pointed to the pile just outside the pod and left to join the others.
Victor was sitting in an office chair waiting for her, he beckoned Sarah towards him, then slapped his hands on his lap. She laughed and took a seat on his knee, draping her arm over his shoulders, pulling him into a hug.
“Hey there stranger," she said, Victor let out a huge sigh. “You know, we should have done this long ago without waiting to be forced. We got too engrossed in the work. I feel revitalised just being here.”
“And your body is younger, that helps.”
“Yes, it’s strange, I’m the same age I was, but feel younger with the old memories back. Old future memories. Weird.”
She alighted from Victor’s lap and went to her son for more hugs.
“How’s the past working out for you?”
“It has the greatest coffee.”
Victor laughed. “That’s all I’ve had an opportunity to introduce him to so far, he was only hatched yesterday. So much has happened since this morning, it feels like forever ago.”
Jules appeared from behind the screen, dry and dressed. She went to her mother and brother for a group hug, Victor joined them. After a few moments of family affection, Simon and Spencer went to join them in the scrum.
“Get in here," Spencer said to Beth.
Beth bashfully joined in on the hug, keeping clear of James who she still hadn’t forgiven for his strange antics. After a few more moments in the hug, they separated.
“Alright, the gang’s all here. Let’s get this rescue train rolling.” Victor said.
“Haha, cringe," Jules complained.
Chapter 42
After adjusting to their new environment, and some orientation the new time-displaced members of the team got straight to work. Simon, Victor, Sarah, and Jules were brainstorming for ideas on how to complete their teleportation technology, Simon had some catching up to do since the others were almost a century ahead of him in development of the theory, though it didn’t take long until he was up to speed. James had been tasked with teaching Beth about physics, though Beth had made polite objections to their choice of tutor.
“Calm down, it’ll all be over in a couple of hours," James had said.
“A couple of hours? I’m a relative novice, it will take years.”
“You’re not too quick on the uptake. You keep forgetting how this works.”
“I’m not slow, I know there’s time manipulation stuff, but I would have thought we’d still have to experience it before sending the new knowledge back here.”
“It doesn’t work like that, for reasons we still don’t fully understand. Either the original timeline and it’s first tangent are tied together in some way — so they merge and skip over the original events — or we’re an alternate timeline. We could be the metaphorical second route, whenever we’re making changes, we get transferred to a second fork through time without being conscious of it.”
“Even taking that into account, once I get the new memories, I’ll remember the time it took to learn the first time around, so it won’t feel like a couple of hours.”
“I suppose you’re right there. In a normal chronology, it will only be a couple of hours, but you’ll be conscious of the full experience so it won’t feel like you’ve saved any time. Well done, maybe I underestimated you.”
“Maybe you did,” Beth replied irritably.
“You won’t need to worry about the time taken to learn though, looping changes your whole perspective. You know you’re not getting any older, so everything loses its urgency unless we’re talking about the fall since we keep shifting it forward.”
“Yeah, that’s worrying.”
“It’s as if reality itself decided humanity has had its time and it’s fighting back.”
“Or the group made bad decisions.”
“Well, yeah, that could have played its part too. Anyway, yeah, don’t worry about time, other than when it pertains to the end of the world. How old are you?”
“Twenty-five,” Beth replied, confused by the apparent sudden change of subject.
“Well, say goodbye to keeping track of that information.”
“What?”
“I’m twenty-four, at least physically but because of all the looping, but I’ve actually been alive a lot longer than that, plus we have technology for avoiding the ageing process in the future. We never really thought of keeping track of it all until we’d already lost it; I have no idea how old I am anymore. We could have used the quantum computer to record and correlate the information to keep us informed, but once we realised it was happening, it was too late. It didn’t matter in the end anyway, it’s unimportant. Like I said, you lose your sense of urgency.”
“You know, it’s funny you should mention all this because I always felt sorry for Marty McFly. He spends weeks in other timelines and because of that, he’ll always reach a new age before his birthday, and he can’t tell anyone.” then she caught James’ amused look. “I always think too much.”
“No, it’s always good to think, it will make my job easier. You’re right though, when Marty celebrates his eighteenth, he’ll have already been eighteen for a few weeks. It’s worse for him than for me, his body goes back too, and continues to age. He’s still celebrating the day of his birth though, so it’s okay.”
“Looks like we both did some overthinking.”
”Right,” James said with a chuckle. “Okay, let’s get on with this. I’ll make a note of the time and date now, and we should get a call from our future selves sometime right after.” The video conferencing software buzzed. “Like that.” he picked up the call.
“Hi, guys.” the Onscreen James said. “Mission complete.”
“E equals MC squared.” Onscreen Beth said.
“Wow. It really did work.” Beth laughed.
“In all honesty, though, it took two years, but she’s almost as good as us.” on screen James said.
On screen, Beth rolled her eyes. “Almost?”
“Well, we have a lot more years of experience than you, so almost is technically a compliment.” he smiled at her, then returned to talking with his past self. “We’ll send all the backups now.”
“Okay," James said as he accepted the transfer. “Anyone gone insane there?”
“No, all still in charge of our faculties, pinkie promise.” his onscreen counterpart replied.
“Good enough for me, there’s something about your face that I can’t help but trust.”
“Have fun, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. Be ya later!” On-screen James said and hung up on the call.
The transfer to the drive continued when the call ended since the data connection had been separated from the video stream. An instant message popped up on their screen. James moved the window so that it was easier for Beth to read.
There have been other breakthroughs besides Project Educating Beth. We’ll leave them as a surprise. ;)
“Sounds promising," Beth said.
∆ ∆ ∆
James joined in on the brainstorming session while waiting for the backup transfers to complete; his own was the first to finalise, but he waited for Beth’s to follow suit before entering the merge process.
“Want to cue up your first write?” he asked, shortly after hers became ready.
“Absolutely, I can’t wait," she said with a smile. “I’m about t
o get two years of experience in a couple of hours. Amazing. Two years seems quick, though, I would have thought it would take longer?”
“Well, I was planning on giving you the full PHD treatment, that usually takes twice as long at a traditional university, but I assume the hands-on experience helped speed it along. You might just have been a quick learner.”
“Are you going to merge too? There’s only one recliner.”
“Yeah, we should maybe get one or two more. You’re the purchaser girl, knock yourself out.”
“Hopefully, I’m about to become more than that. Maybe I can teach you about business next time, then we can share those duties.”
“I highly doubt that," James said. Beth punched him lightly on the arm.
“Do you think Simon will be okay if I use his bed for the write, then we can do it at the same time.”
“I’m sure he won’t transform into Stan if you do. He’s too busy to notice anyway, once he’s in the zone. The computer can handle both together. I’ll cue them up, you just need to press the button on your helmet to start it. It gives you a few seconds to get comfortable before it starts.”
“Alright then.”
They each went to their chosen siesta spot and made themselves comfortable. James started his immediately and fell unconscious, but Beth took a little more time, adjusting Simon’s pillows under her neck so she could rest her head without the bulk of the helmet causing a problem. Once she’d found her optimum position, she pressed her helmet’s initiation button, rested her arm back down beside her and joined James.
∆ ∆ ∆
When James’ merge ended, he removed his helmet and went directly to check on Beth. He was looking forward to sharing their secret knowledge. He had only to wait a few minutes before she woke. She opened her eyes, spotted James sitting next to her on the bed and lifted herself onto her elbows.
“You know, I’m worried about what would happen if we were in a write and there was a fire.” she said.
“Really?” he said. “That’s the first thing you have to say to me?”
“It was the last thing I on my mind as I went under.”
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