“Yes, hmm, I never thought of my mom and dad. It would be helpful if we could get my dad to believe us, I’m sure he’ll pressure your dad.” Harriet’s sapphire eyes had gone dark as she frowned.
“Martin, what about Maggie? Will it help you any if we fill her in? At least she’ll realize how many obstacles there are in you two ever becoming a permanent couple.” Harriet didn’t want that to sound so harsh. But the truth is painful sometimes.
“I already told Joe earlier that I should be the one to tell her, but thanks for the offer.” He smiled at Harriet and could see he hadn’t offended her.
“To be honest, I’ve given it a lot of thought… it’s been so difficult measuring everything I say and worrying about letting something slip. The variation of the truth you gave her four years ago has helped and I’m grateful for that.” He stopped, deep in thought.
Joe and Harriet had learned that Martin needed as much time as Arthur 5 before continuing. So they remained quiet, leaving him to work out his thoughts.
“I am not sure I have impressed on you how dedicated I am to Arthur 5 and his crusade. Our android friend has vowed to fight until the company has removed John Weatherby from his place of power. He is a threat to the SPA and the men and women he is trying to coerce into taking part in his mad breeding scheme. Weatherby is a danger to everyone. If word gets out about what’s going on in the SPA, it would ruin the company and all the good work we do there. We love our jobs. The advanced research is miles ahead of our competitors. But it’s not only the competition, it’s also the benefit to mankind and the satisfaction we derive from each new discovery.” His eyes were shining with determination. It was a side of Martin, they hadn’t seen.
“I realize as much as I love Maggie, I can’t abandon my goal. I have to stop this madman. If we involve Washington, we could risk losing the entire project. We need that government funding to continue.” Joe’s pressuring had made Martin face the truth of his situation.
“Next year we are coming up to our five-year audit. That will include a team of inspectors from Washington. Our deadline is only eighteen months away to get that man out of his place of power. I have to get back to help which means I have to cut short my time here. Maggie has to be told. I am fooling myself to think otherwise.” He’d been pacing as he spoke. He sat down looking tired and defeated.
All was quiet as each digested the information. It was like a bucket of cold water. This was real. There was no more time. They had to move fast if they wanted to stop Joe’s parents from what could be a fatal mistake. It was also clear that it may be impossible to keep Maggie’s heart in one piece.
“Things are a mess,” Harriet said, understating the magnitude of what they were dealing with.
“Do you want us there when you talk to Maggie?” She looked at Joe who nodded. This was a good question.
“I think it would help.” The torment in Martin’s eyes was clear. This would be hard for him. This was not a love-them-and-leave-them situation. They could see his heart was breaking as hers soon would be.
“I’ve been thinking about this, guys.” Joe said. “Maybe we should do this at Mom and Dad’s. We’ll offer to bring the burgers and stuff for a barbecue. If we have them altogether, it might have more impact when we tell them. I’m certain it will be better for Maggie. She won’t think this is a story you cooked up to get out of staying with her. Also, my parents will realize that we have nothing to prove by telling Maggie a made-up story. I think it will work and be far more effective.”
“Yes, I agree, that could work. You set it up and I’ll be there… as long as you drive me,” Martin said with a crooked grin. He hadn’t lost his sense of humor.
“I think it’s fantastic. I’m sure they’ll believe it.” Harriet gave Joe a hug. “Sometimes you’re better than good, you’re brilliant!” She kissed him hard. This wouldn’t make it all better, but it would make it easier for all concerned.
After Martin left, they talked for most of the hour before bedtime. “If we hadn’t seen firsthand what a madman the commander is, I’d try to convince Martin to stay, for Maggie’s sake. But this is too important.” Joe hated that this had to happen.
“You’re right. But now we can hope that Maggie takes it well. I think she will.” Harriet knew her friend, but Maggie in love, was something new for both of them.
Joe flipped on the local news. The anchor was reading a story about kidnappings in their area. Any kidnapping was news and they seemed to have one every few years. But in this case, there had been six people taken over the past two months—three men and three women. The video report was lengthy, showing photos where each happened and eyewitness interviews.
“In every case, the man and woman knew each other, and had been dating. The pattern is unusual and has police scratching their heads. The alleged abductions all happened within a fifty-mile radius.” A map of the area with pins showed they all happened not far from Debert, and Truro.
“In one case the witnesses spotted a car, broken down on the side of the road, with a couple inside. Another vehicle, with what the witness describes as two large men, stopped to help them. The witness watched the couple drive off with the two men, leaving their car on the side of the road. The witness took down the license plate numbers of both vehicles. When checked, the car with the two men had stolen plates. The vehicle was later found abandoned at Bentwood Ski Resort, near Debert. The investigation is continuing.”
“Oh my God, Do you think the commander’s behind this? He sure liked our DNA from the past. Has he given up on us, do you think?” Harriet’s jaw dropped as she looked at Joe.
“I wouldn’t let down our guard just yet.” Joe didn’t doubt that this was the work of John Weatherby.
“How can we go to the police and convince them it’s time travelers from the future? They’d lock us up!” Harriet was wringing her hands.
Looking at Joe, she was on the verge of tears. “What are we going to do? This is a nightmare. Call Martin, he won’t be in bed yet. At least let him know.”
Joe agreed. Martin needed to know right away.
He was still up, and Joe ran through the details of the news report. Martin agreed it had to be the work of Weatherby. “Let me sleep on it, Joe, and we can get together again tomorrow.”
Chapter 28
Help from the Past
October 2124
“So, my young friend, I would say that your idea has worked out splendidly.”
Luke beamed with pride at the praise he was getting from John Weatherby. It had taken him a while to win the little man over, but their devious way of thinking seemed to connect.
Weatherby spun his chair back around to face Luke who sat in front of the big glass desk.
Luke was now wearing one of the SPA uniforms and was letting his hair grow back to its natural dirty blond. He’d continued to lose weight. He missed all his snack foods, but what he saw in the mirror encouraged him to make the most of it. Trimmed down, and groomed, he wasn’t all that bad looking.
“Are your latest guests settling in okay, John?” Luke refused to think of them as victims, feeling the benefits of their new status far outweighed any inconvenience their kidnapping may have caused them.
Weatherby smiled coyly at his new lover, “We have given them the best we have to offer. They will soon learn that they have hit the jackpot. Once we have them tuned in to our way of thinking, and conditioned to meet the challenges of living off-planet, we will ship them off to the lunar colony. Frankly, that won’t be too soon for me. I have a sense that not everyone approves of this project. They too will come around. This will put us on the map. It is a brilliant plan, and the sooner we get it going the better chance it has to succeed.” His eyes had darkened. He knew that there was a faction at work against him.
“There is always a risk that someone will spot the group while they are here at the SPA.”
The six were taken daily to the Lunar Center to prepare them for living in the alien environment. They wer
e transported in the limousine with the blacked-out windows and led through the basement passages to the lower level of the conditioning center.
“What can I do to help?” Luke leaned across the desk and grabbed one of Weatherby’s small hands, stroking it as he would a kitten.
“You have been such a blessing, Larry. I have a lot of opposition… so few people here share our vision. It was brilliant of you to suggest that we bring in others from your century who are already copulating. It almost guarantees the chances of them producing live offspring, while recruits from this century, have only a one in ten chance of a viable pregnancy.”
“After what you told me about things here, it only made sense. Half the girls I know back home get knocked up by the time they’re sixteen or seventeen. The guys can’t keep it in their pants, and the women are nearly always horny. Keep them drunk or high and they won’t give you any trouble.” Luke laughed remembering some of the wild parties at his buddy’s cottage near Truro. That’s where he’d got his list of recruits. These couples were all people he’d met over the past three years. They all knew each other, so he figured that would make it easier for them to settle in. There was more than one of the group Luke wouldn’t mind sleeping with.
“Do you really want to help?” Weatherby said reaching across the desk to squeeze Luke’s hand.
“You know I’d do anything for you.” Luke squeezed back.
Luke hadn’t fooled around with a guy since he was fourteen. He did it on a whim. His hormones were raging, and he was whacking off five times a day. He and his buddy were in a field playing hide and seek with some other kids on their street. They both ended up in a construction shack that had a loose board. Laughing at each other for knowing about it, they huddled close together peeping through a crack. The proximity of the warm body next to him made his own young body react. His friend could see it when he stood up.
“Hey, Luke, you got a huge boner there man.”
“Ya, I get ‘em all the time. My paw says it’s normal.”
“What do you do about it?” His buddy stood up, close to him.
“What do you do?” Luke knew something weird was going on. But, he liked it. He moved closer until their bodies were touching.
“You ever jerked off someone?” His friend unzipped letting his jeans drop and reached for Luke’s hand.
Shocked, but liking what was happening, he let everything play out. He’d never had another occasion like that, but he’d never forgotten it either.
Snapping back to the commander’s question about helping out and having misread it, he asked, “You lookin’ to get laid right now?”
“No, no, of course not, it’s the middle of the day.” His surprise wore off and he smiled. “Mind you, what I had in mind wasn’t too far off. I was thinking, since you know these people, I would like you to infiltrate their group. They don’t know that you were behind this. You can tell them that you were kidnapped but your girlfriend got away. We kept you, and since you’re alone, for now, we put you in with the other six. Tell them we’re trying to find you a partner. They’ll feel sorry for you and probably confide in you. It will give us a better idea how well they are settling in.”
The commander would enjoy hearing about his new partner’s exploits. Plus, he wanted these women pregnant and reproducing. Men from the last century were still mostly fertile, adding to the chances of the women reproducing. He had no illusions that Larry would stay true to him.
Moving Luke out of the SPA would solve another problem for him. It had become increasingly difficult to keep the time traveler out of sight since his arrival. He didn’t want him to be faced with questions about who he was.
Luke loved the idea but was suspicious. He didn’t want to find out he was being set up. “Are you okay with that, John… really? You know I’m happy with you. You’re the best lover I’ve ever had.” He lied, but who’d find out?
“Why wouldn’t I be? You will make a good spy. That’s what I need more than anything now, people I can trust. I don’t have anyone. Maybe Arthur 5, but he’d be no use to me on this mission. No, you’re perfect. One more stud in the harem won’t hurt.” He leaned forward on his desk, “Mind you, I will require a full report. I expect you to share every single little detail with me.” He scrunched up his nose and made a kissing motion with his lips toward Luke.
Luke stood up and leaned forward, kissing him. “You know I’d do anything for you, baby. When do you want me to start?” He could feel himself harden at the thought of being turned loose with the three couples.
“Immediately. You will have to change into your last century clothes before you see your friends . And try to look a little less happy, my dear. Remember, you are a kidnapping victim by big bad me.” He laughed, his little girl high-pitched giggle. “Arthur 5 will show you the way.”
“I’m on it, sir!” Luke stood up and gave the commander a mock salute. “When do you want me to check back?’
“Hmmm, maybe when you have something to report, let the guard know. In the meantime, I’ll send for you when I need you again.” He winked, and turned his chair, his dismissal signal. “Oh, and don’t discuss where you are from with anyone in the SPA,” he added, not turning around..
Luke couldn’t believe his luck. Holy shit, this is way too good to be true.
***
Arthur 5 tapped behind his ear. “Yes, sir?” It was the commander.
“We have a guest who has been staying in the Center; I want you to escort him out of the compound to another location. Come to my office now, I will give you further instruction.” The commander didn’t ask, he ordered, treating the big android as he would any other robot under his command.
Arthur 5 went to the commander’s office curious about why he was escorting a guest to an outside location. The SPA was meant to be a comforting haven for those fortunate enough to win a spot in their program. The request had set off Arthur 5’s suspicion that something odd was happening at the SPA and he intended to find out what it was.
The problem with the android’s reasoning was that he assumed this was one of the SPA’s usual guests, there for cosmetic or medical treatment.
***
Robots did not question, they obeyed orders. This made Arthur 5 smile to himself. He was no ordinary robot. He was one of a handful of androids that had received human attributes. Most of those experiments had failed. But not so with Arthur 5—he far surpassed anything the scientists had dreamed possible. However, it also gave the large android the sense to hide his more advanced human traits. If his creators found out how advanced he truly was, they’d want to take him apart to find out why. So he played dumb. He still displayed a highly advanced artificial intelligence, but within what was expected of an android. To the commander he was just another human-looking computer programmed to obeyed orders. The robot had plans for his future, and it required that he give nothing away.
“Sir, what can I do for you?” Arthur 5 stood in front of the commander’s desk waiting for orders.
“Oh, yes, I want you to take one of our guests to this address on the outside. You can take one of our air-cars. If I need him back here, I will call on you to pick him up. I want you to keep this address to yourself. No one is ever to know about it. If I find out it has leaked, you will end up in the computer graveyard. Do you understand?”
“Yes, sir, I understand.” He reached across the desk and took the address. The commander had already turned his back.
Arthur knew better than to question the commander about his mission, so he headed for the man’s room in the Center and knocked on his door.
Chapter 29
Preparing for Tomorrow
August 2024
Joe checked with his dad the next day about a weekend barbecue that would include Harriet’s folks, along with Martin and Maggie.
“Let’s keep the menu simple, Dad, hamburgers and hot dogs. We can supply the meat and buns and I’ll bring some beer.”
“We can get all that stuff. Just
bring the beer. You know your mom—she’ll organize the whole thing. We could start things around four if that sounds okay with you?”
“Harriet’s just as bad. She’ll bring enough stuff to feed the neighborhood.” Joe laughed. “I have to warn you, Dad, Harriet and I have something to tell you. That’s why we wanted everyone together.” His dad’s head popped up from the desk.
“No… don’t tell me, you’re not expecting already, are you?” He went for the obvious.
Laughing, Joe said, “Oh God, no! You’ll just have to wait. Sorry, maybe you better not say anything to Mom. You won’t convince her we’re not pregnant.”
“Okay, fine, but this’ll keep me thinking until Saturday. I’ll call your mom and let her know now.” Joe detected a note of disappointment in his father’s voice.
That night when Harriet got home, Joe kissed her, and then told her to check the messages on their Internet desk top phone “There’s one there for you, it came in before I got home.”
They had the Internet phone in the apartment, because, with Harriet’s job she couldn’t carry her cell while she was working, plus phones were banned in the classroom, so they often gave out both numbers. The service allowed international calling for a nominal fee—something Canadian cell providers couldn’t match.
She listened to the call. It was from Bio-Tech asking her to call to talk about a job. She hung up and turned to Joe, “They didn’t say much, just to call as soon as I can. I can do that first thing tomorrow. I don’t have to leave for the pub until eleven.”
This was exciting. She knew that she had few options if she wanted to stay in Halifax. And Bio-Tech was her first choice.
“I hope they remember that this’ll only be part-time. I need the flexibility to work on my master’s.” But the job was perfect. The company’s diversified research would provide the opportunities she was seeking.
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