No Future Christmas

by Barbara Goodwin

  “Whose eyes are you trying to pull the wool over?” If the computer could sigh, Shauna would have heard one.

  “James,” Shauna laughed. “I’m putting the test through now.” She put the twenty pages on a scanner-like surface. The machine whirred on, the pages flipped like a wind had ruffled them and then James said, “One hundred percent correct, my lovely. Tell the gentleman in question he did a great job. Not many pass the first time, let alone with a perfect score.”

  “What makes you think it’s a man who took this test?”

  James the computer effectively shook its head. There was a slight rumble from the speakers and he said, “Handwriting analysis, sweetie. Bold scratches, deep indentations, dark marks. Trust me, I’m a computer.”

  Even though she’d grown up with talking, thinking computers, Shauna was embarrassed to be caught by a machine in a fib. “Oh, fine. I’ll tell him you approve of his brains.”

  “You do that. Not many humans can impress me. And that skycar test is one of the hardest tests to pass. Now, is there anything else you want from me?”

  “Nope. That’s it for now. Thanks James. Computer off.” The blue light blinked twice and went out.

  “Who were you talking to?” Mike asked when he strolled into the room. “It sounded like the actor James Earl Jones.”

  “It was. Sort of. That’s the voice I have for my computer. He has such a dreamy, deep, divine voice,” Shauna sighed. “I named my computer James for its voice.”

  Mike laughed. “Talking computers. I always hoped they become a reality. How come I haven’t heard it before?” He strolled to the computer and studied the monitor. Small by twenty-first century standards, about ten by twelve, it was a flat screen that stood on a round base. That hadn’t changed much since his time but still the monitor looked nothing like one from his day. The material was a clear plastic-type with striations of blue, green, yellow and orange running through it. He didn’t see a CPU but there must be a chip or something somewhere.

  “Because I had the voice feature turned off.” Shauna grinned at him. A knowing grin. A secret grin.

  “Well, what did old James have to say?”

  “That you passed your test with a score of one hundred percent. He admires your human brain.”

  “Whoo, hoo!” Mike jumped up in the air and pumped his fist to the ceiling. “When can I start flying lessons?”

  “As soon as you want.” Shauna laughed.

  “Now woman, I need to feel speed. I need to get out. I’m feeling cooped up. Now.” Mike wandered to the patio and stared at the tropical plants and flowers. Yellow, pink, orange and red colors all backed by every tone of green on the planet stared back at him. He turned to Shauna. “Well?”

  “Get your boots on, cowboy. You’re going for one helluva ride.”

  * * * * *

  “Wait…wait. Too fast!” The skycar shot into the air and dipped alarmingly to the left. “Pull up. You’re losing altitude.” Shauna now knew how her father felt when he taught her to fly. She tightened her harness and ground her teeth. “Watch your instruments, they’ll tell you everything you need to know. Good. Smoother. Now pull the throttle back—slowly. There you go. See? You can do it.”

  “Wow! What a rush,” Mike hollered. They flew over Isla Atlantica. The blue ocean sparkled in the yellow sunshine, multiple colors blurred from the tropical foliage below. “It’s amazing how clean and pure the sky is. I’ve never seen a blue that color.”

  “Watch your instruments. Watch your altimeter. Oh for God’s sake.” The skycar fell forward, nose pointing toward the ocean. “Pull back on the stick!” The skycar porpoised up and down for a while then leveled out. So did Shauna’s breathing. “Okay, easy, gentle maneuvers. Think of the stick as a delicate instrument. A little goes a long way.”

  Mike’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh, yeah? Say, a little touch here,” he put one finger on the neck of the stick and gently caressed it. “Or a light stroke there?” He pulled his finger down the stick, slowly, intentionally touching the side of Shauna’s thigh in the process. “Is that what you mean?”

  Shauna felt parched. Her thigh quivered and moved closer to Mike’s thigh, all on its own. Her mouth opened and closed like a baby bird waiting to be fed but no sound came out. How could such a light stroke render her speechless? Make her body yearn? She barely felt his touch, yet it seared her to her soul.

  And they were flying! The wind under her craft, the weightless feeling of being suspended by air, the sight of Mike’s hard, chiseled jaw and determined tawny eyes combined with his sweet, musky scent drove her insane. She’d never felt so alive, so attracted to someone, so desperate. The close quarters in the two-seat skycar didn’t help. She coughed. “Keep your hands off me and on the controls. This is life and death, Mike. Flying can kill you in a second. You need to be aware of your surroundings at all times.” There, that ought to dampen his raging desires, she thought. But what about hers? Shauna shifted in her seat.

  “All the more reason to take each moment as they come.”

  Shauna groaned. The man would find a way to turn the tables and make flying a wildly sexing outing.

  “Wanna join the mile high club with me?” Mike had a natural ability with the skycar. His hands were sure and steady on the controls. The little craft seemed to hum under his control. It didn’t surprise Shauna that he’d taken to flying with ease.

  “No. Besides, that was a myth from the twenty-first century.”

  “What?” Mike turned to face Shauna. “Oh no, my beauty, it wasn’t. In the day of commercial jets, the biggest challenge was to make love on an airplane full of passengers. Most did it in the bathroom. Some, right in their seats under blankets. I even heard that a few lucky airline workers did it in the lower galley on the DC-10 airplane. What I would have given to see that,” Mike waggled his eyebrows.

  The skycar flew straight and level. “Make some right turns, please.” She needed to change the subject. The car smoothly eased to the right. “Now left.” Each maneuver was executed with skill and grace. “Okay, first lesson over. Let’s go home.”

  “Don’t worry, my pretty. One day we’ll join the mile high club. And I can promise you, it’ll be something you’ll never forget!”

  Chapter Six

  “Okay, this is what we’re going to do,” Shauna bit her lower lip as she concentrated on the computer. Her fingers flew over the keyboard. “We’re going to check out a few more sites then take off for parts unknown. Hopefully, we’ll know where the unknown is by the time we take off.”

  Mike shook his head. “I’m not sure if it’s good or bad but I think I understood that sentence. I’ll go and pack for the unknown. Maybe we’ll be able to use the cold weather clothing Winston gave us.”

  “Uh huh.” Shauna hadn’t heard a word Mike said. She didn’t even know when he left the room. “Come on…come on. Show me where you’re hiding, Mom and Dad.” She worked over the keyboard as she changed from site to site. Anything that mentioned Subversives, SubCorp, The Real Truth or any mention of discordant gatherings against the Fearsome Foursome might lead to her parents. She’d just left one site when a message flashed on her screen in bright red letters.

  GET OUT! GET OUT! THE GLOBAL GUARDIANS WILL PENETRATE YOUR ISLAND IN THIRTY MINUTES. M &D

  “Oh my God.” Shauna jumped up from the computer. “Mike! Mike! We need to leave. Now!”

  He came running down the hallway, bag in hand. “What’s up?”

  Shauna pointed to the screen on the computer, then raced out of the room. “I’m grabbing a few things, then we’re leaving.”

  “Right behind you.” He turned to leave but then swiveled back to the computer. “Computer print out the last page, then delete.”

  “Printing. Job finished and deleted from computer.” Mike grabbed the page from the printer slot in the computer and raced to the landing pad for the skycar.

  A cold nose nudged his hand. Rover whined. “You can’t go, boy. Stay here and protect the property.
We’ll come back to get you, I promise.” Mike bent down and kissed the dog on his head then ran out of the house.

  Shauna was already inside the skycar warming up the tiny jet engine. The whine grew in pitch and intensity then steadied to a regular hum. The passenger-side gull-wing door flew up and Mike entered, tossing his bag into the back storage space. Before the door had closed all the way, Shauna taxied down the private runway. The skycar gained speed and then shot into the sky.

  “Think we made it?” Mike asked as he looked at his watch. For a minute he stared at it with unseeing eyes.

  “What’s wrong with you?” Shauna asked. “Why are you looking at your watch like that?”

  “It’s my twenty-first century watch. I’m shocked it’s been working properly. I think this is the first time I’ve looked at it since I traveled here with you.”

  “Why wouldn’t it work?” Shauna circled the island. “I don’t see any green and whites.” She flew north toward the mainland. “Skycar heading 6502, altitude thirty-three thousand feet.”

  “I don’t know, it just doesn’t fit this time and place.” Mike shook his head, baffled as he studied the silver and dark face of the Rolex he’d splurged on the year before. “So, if the Guardians aren’t following us, then we made it out in time, right?”

  “I hope so. I also hope this rented skycar doesn’t have a working GPS system. We’ll find out soon enough.”

  “I had the computer print the message then delete it. You okay with that?” Mike leaned back into the seat and glanced at Shauna.

  “Perfect. Thank you. I didn’t think to do that. When a modern day computer deletes something from its data bank, it’s permanently gone. The computer manufacturers made that feature to prevent identity theft years ago.

  “We have to be careful when deleting items. Most people don’t delete for fear they’ll lose something important.” Shauna scanned the sky for flashing red and blue lasers. The Global Guardians still used the intimidating red and blue colors from old police cars to pull over skycars and ground them. But now they were laser beams and instead of ancient bull horns, they used internal speakers to tell you when to pull over and hover or land.

  “So, somehow, your Mom and Dad were tracking your progress on your search for them. Why didn’t they just tell you where they are? Isn’t there some way to get an encrypted message to you?” Mike asked.

  “Yes, we can encrypt messages nowadays. But Mom and Dad may be using someone else’s computer, or maybe they went to a World Starbucks to use their computers. If they did that the computer would have a tracer on it but it would only tell the Guardians what time that the person was at that specific Starbucks. Maybe they modified a computer illegally and it doesn’t have a tracking device on it.” Shauna stared at the clouds that hung below her. She flew through crystal clear blue skies. The downy white clouds dotted her way like an arrow pointing toward the unknown.

  They had been flying for twenty minutes and were nearing the mainland when the internal speaker blared, “Skycar 54098, pull over and hover!” Red and blue lasers swirled over the car, blurring the sky in front of them.

  “Not on your life, buddy,” Shauna muttered. “Hold on.”

  Mike tightened his harness but Shauna had already floored the vehicle and it banked sharply to the left. Another skycar in the lane next to them dived down to avoid a collision and honked his screech horn at her.

  “Sorry.” She waved to the man who flipped her the bird. “Fine, don’t accept an apology.” They descended to thirty-one thousand feet and flew a zigzag course to avoid the red and blue lasers.

  Mike scanned his rearview monitor to see where the Guardians were. “They’re gaining.” He searched the interior of the craft.

  “What are you looking for?” Shauna studied the lane patterns and the traffic to plan her next move.

  “My weapon.” He loosened his harness, stretched over the seatback and rummaged in his bag. With a flourish he pulled out his pistol from 2004. “Good. I feel better now that I’m armed.”

  “Oh, that’ll do you a lot of good. The tasers the Guardians carry are fast and lethal. Your little six-shooter will puncture our skycar causing a rapid decompression. Want to go through that? Also, your bullets won’t hit their skycar. They have protective shields on them.”

  “Oh.” Mike stared forlornly at his pistol and stroked his hand along the barrel. “Well, maybe this baby will come in handy when we’re on the ground.”

  “This is your final warning, Skycar 54098. Pull over and hover, or we’ll shoot you down.”

  “They wouldn’t,” Mike stated.

  “Oh, they would. Let’s give them a run for their money.” The craft pitched forward into another descent but suddenly shot up and to the right. Skycars scattered across the sky. Screech horns hollered throughout the lanes.

  Sharp white lasers covered the area they’d just been in. Shauna flew the vehicle like a pro. She did one-half Cuban eights and reverse Cuban eights, then she did a Hammerhead stall. “Follow that, creeps.”

  They were now at a lower altitude than the Guardians and following their green and white skycar. The maneuvers caused a couple of accidents and red medical skycars with a white Red Cross-type symbol flew up to rescue the flyers.

  “Do you have a destination in mind?” Mike croaked.

  “You don’t have to sound so grumpy.” Shauna looked at Mike and saw a green tinge to his face. “Oh. Sorry. I’ll level out and let your stomach settle. Reach in the glove box. There’s a package of anti-nausea pills. They’ll help.”

  “Thanks.” Mike fumbled in the glove box and found a smashed box of pills. “How’d you know they were here?”

  “They’re required to be in every rental skycar in the world. Those look a little stale but they should work.”

  Mike popped the pills and washed it down with warm funny water. He felt the boost he always got and his stomach settled immediately. “Great, thanks. They sure work fast.”

  “The twenty-second century aims to please.” Shauna glanced at the screen that showed the rear view of the skycar. “Except the Global Guardians. They only aim to arrest. Diving.” The skycar pitched forward and dropped fifteen thousand feet.

  Mike pushed his hands forward to balance on the dashboard but the harness snapped him back to the seatback. “Goddamnit! Now I’ve got whiplash again.” He rubbed his neck.

  “Better that than a jail cell.” They flew forward at sixteen thousand feet. “If we can just make it over those mountains, I think I can ditch this buggy and we can hide.” She aimed the skycar at a dip between two mountains. “Come on…come on.”

  The white laser hit the back windshield and it exploded. Tiny shards of shrapnel covered the interior of the skycar. Cold wind rushed through the interior. Luckily, they were at a low altitude and didn’t have a rapid decompression. Bright yellow oxygen masks fell from the ceiling and they grabbed them. A soothing mechanical woman’s voice said, “Oxygen required, take mask, place over nose and mouth.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Shauna said as she grabbed the mask. She dipped the craft to a lower altitude where they didn’t have to breathe the forced air. She needed all the visibility she could get and the mask covered too much of her face.

  “Ten thousand feet,” the voice said. “Oxygen off.” The masks disappeared back into the ceiling.

  “Good, now I can see again.” Shauna turned the skycar west and they ran for a different hollow between the mountains.

  Mike checked the rearview screen and said, “They’re right on our tai—” A boom sounded and the skycar’s jet engine wound down. “Shit. We’re hit. They’ve forced us to land.” Mike tucked his revolver in his waistband and grabbed all the rounds he’d brought with him from the twenty-first century. “We’ll make it, Shauna. I have faith.” He reached over to stroke her hand. Shauna landed the skycar.

  “Our prisons aren’t nice, Mike.” She shut down the broken engine and turned to Mike. “You didn’t need to be in this position. I’m pro
ud of you. You’ve taken this jump in time well, adapted and now you’re going to be arrested, all because of me.” She leaned forward, kissed Mike then whispered, “No one’s ever done anything like that for me before. Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome, love. I’d do it again just to keep you near.” He stroked her lips.

  Desire flooded through Shauna. She wet her lips leaving a shiny wetness in its place. Mike groaned. “Don’t do that. Not now.”

  “Skycar 54098 passengers. You’re under arrest for fleeing from the Global Guardians. Come out of the car with your hands clasped behind your heads.”

  They climbed out of the skycar. Mike went first, then Shauna followed. “Just know that I’d do anything for you. This isn’t how I’d planned to spend the day with you today.” He gave her a cocky grin but his eyes were serious.

  The Global Guardians hauled them apart. “Mike! I’m sorry.” Shauna struggled with the man who slapped a clear plastic restraint over her wrists. “Let me go, you big creep. I’ve surrendered, for God’s sake.”

  “It’s okay Shauna. Really.” The Guardian shoved Mike forward. “Hey, I’m going already.” The plastic restraints automatically clicked over Mike’s wrists and settled into a position that was firm but not too tight.

  * * * * *

  “Where’d you get this ancient weapon, Mr. Forrester?” the Global Guardian asked. He turned the gun over in his hand, a look of awe on his face. “Did you steal it from the Smithsonian?”

  Mike heaved a sigh. “No, I didn’t steal it. It was…my…my great grandfather’s.” He sat slumped in a chair in an interrogation room off a corridor in the basement of Global Guardian headquarters in New York City. His hands were cuffed in front of him. If it hadn’t been so serious, Mike would have loved checking out the futuristic restraint devices. The three-inch wide cuffs were shaped like an S where one side faced up and the other down. There wasn’t any play between the two parts so his hands were locked very close together with no room for movement.