Slap Part 6
(Chapter 53 of "Senses")
Day 106
After 23 days of hard work, the final breakthrough came, and it had nothing at all to do with the work of the previous 3 1/2 weeks. It came because Carrie Fallon restated the obvious; a fact they had been skirting around for 100 days.
She had been looking at the formulae written on a sheet of paper in the lab while the others were experimenting with A.J.'s eyesight to determine a way for him to see numerology waves, when it struck her. It took a few minutes to recover from her shock, and when she did, she had to clear her throat so that anyone would even pay attention.
"I have a question," she stated to the room.
A.J., Jim, Larry, Paul, Karen, Angie, Scott, Rand and Constance were all in the lab. Larry turned to face her while the others continued on as if they hadn't heard a single word.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Why are formulae written as if everything happens per one second?"
Larry started to answer, then stopped himself. Then started again, and stopped. A look of wonder spread on his face. "It can't be that simple," he said.
Karen had looked up from the experiment. "Larry?" she asked. "What's up? You seem surprised."
Larry slowly turned to face the others. "I can honestly say that I am. Stop the experiment!"
While everyone looked up, Larry ran to a far side of the lab and grabbed the chalkboard that had been left aside. He had to dig for some chalk, then he returned to the group and started scribbling on the board. He wrote "1 foot per second. 2 feet per 2 seconds. 20 feet per 20 seconds. 1/2 foot per 1/2 second."
A.J. looked at the board. "You're kidding," he said.
"You catch on quickly, Kemosabe," Larry replied. "I think this is how it's done. The second part of the equation has been altered. Instead of moving at a 'per second' rate, I think that their equations have been changed to a 'per minute' rate."
The others in the room stared at the chalkboard dumbfounded. Then the responses came flowing.
"It can't be..."
"That simple?"
"Oh, come on now..."
"But, why didn't we..."
"Too fucking wild!"
That last comment came from Jim, of course, who started laughing. He couldn't stop for several minutes. The others in the room were actually becoming worried for him when he suddenly found his speaking voice again.
"Of all the fucking conceited things," he said, still giggling. "Here we are, great scientists, and we overlooked something so fucking obvious that a third grader could have pointed it out. Too fucking wild."
"I'll try not to take that comment too personally," Carrie said with a smile.
"I don't know if it will work," Larry said.
"So we test it," A.J. said. "Let me think...numerology waves! Of course! Angie, I'll need you to send the number sixty to me, while Karen, you send the number thirty. If I can arrange the formulae correctly, I'll be moving two feet per second towards the far wall."
The group scrambled to get positions so that they could watch the experiment. On A.J.'s signal, Karen and Angie sent their respective numbers and A.J. floated. At two feet per second, towards the wall he had pointed to.
"It works!" Paul shouted. "It fucking well works!"
"Goddamn!" Jim added. "Scott, send word to Janis! We have a breakthrough!"
"Do we?" Scott asked.
"Fuck yes!"
"I'm not so sure."
"What do you mean?" Rand asked.
"I mean that okay, we've passed a stumbling block. What do we do with it? How does this get them out of the time snap?"
A.J. having given the signal to the others to stop sending, dropped to the floor. "He's right. This can speed us up to them physically, but now what?"
The group was silent for a moment, then Karen spoke up. "If we could send a formula to them," she said, "we could slow them down. That would require speeding up to them, then we would be able to change their equation by dropping the per second rate to one. Only A.J. could do that, but he can't send equations."
"Yes he can," Jim said. "Overload."
Karen looked at Jim. "We haven't done that for a long time. You know how difficult an emotive overload is to control."
"We have to at least try."
"So we need to plan this out then, what are the steps we take, and how are they done?"
"Okay folks," Angie said, "it's time for a strategy meeting. Let's all take a break and then we'll go over it all, I want everyone to think of anything at all that could impact on this."
"I agree," Larry said. "And we owe some thanks to Carrie for reminding us that we're not even close to perfect."
Carrie, still sitting in her chair looking at the equations, simply said, "You're welcome."
"Scott," Constance said, "Call Janis. Let's get her input on this as well."
Over the next four days many things were thought of, many ideas were thrown out. Some things obviously applied to the situation, and obviously many did not, but everything was thrown in to work out the plan to bring the others back into the real world.
Scott spent the time raiding medical databases, looking for situations in the normal time stream that could possibly be applied to this situation. He quickly discovered that certain medical situations happened when people suffered from quick freezing, which was analogous to changing time streams to a certain degree. The best hospital database was in Switzerland, and Scott quickly discovered that he could not access it as it was an isolated database. While the group awaited the return of the others, he made a mental note to ask Janis for help when they returned.
That was a puzzling thing. Janis had acknowledged Scott when he had contacted it four days previously, but had said that all discussions would wait until they arrived later that day. No one knew why, and neither Janis or the riders on the ship would answer the question.
Morgana had arrived in the morning, wanting to be on hand when the experiment was ready to go. Although the group wouldn't be ready for a few days, the sense of anticipation was overwhelming. The plans were already in place and the base of operations was being moved to Paul's home to take advantage of the privacy offered there. A track was built and a proper place for the ship to land already existed. All that remained was to have a few questions cleared up.
Question number one being; will this work?
The idea was a seemingly simple one once the math had been worked out: one at a time the different members within the time snap would walk around the track being built in Paul's back yard, while Karen and Angie fed numbers into A.J. to speed him up to the relative speed of the person walking around the track. Once done, Karen would push her portion of the numbers above A.J.'s normal tolerance while Angie, who would ride A.J.'s back while he flew, would make permanent adjustments through the waves she sent.
Of course it wasn't really easy. The calculations were of an exacting nature and because there was no way to test them, they had to be sure of everything before the actual experiment began. There was also the fact that both Jim and A.J. had to train themselves to do formulae in terms of either minutes or seconds at any given moment. And there were many minor items to be considered, such as an arrangement of straps so that Angie wouldn't fall off of A.J.'s back as they flew.
On day 116 they were as ready as they could be.
The entire group gathered at Paul's home early in the day. While bringing each person out of the snap would only take a few minutes if everything went smoothly, the group was preparing for nothing to go smoothly.
Scott had set up an external communications link with Janis so that communication with the group still inside the ship would be possible while the remainder of the group tried the experiments. At 8:13 in the morning exactly Paul called out to the ship, "Janis, inform the Davis' and Mats that we are ready to begin."
The door of the ship opened immediately and while none of the others saw anything, the ship said, "'drink has agreed to go first. If we are successful then Nicki will go second, followed by Deborah and finally Mats. 'drink is waiting for you at the track already."
"All right," A.J. said. "Let's do it."
"Agreed," Jim added. He floated up in the air saying, "Everybody, let's not fuck up. Let's get this one right and I'll buy the drinks afterwards." Without waiting for anyone to respond, he flew to the center of the track, then fifteen feet above it, to serve as A.J.'s backup if anything should go wrong.
Karen looked out to Jim and smiled. "You were supposed to give me a ride, lover," she called out.
Jim flew back immediately and picked her up in one sweeping motion. "Sorry about that love," he said as they back flew to the center of the track. "I'm kind of keyed up."
"I noticed."
In the meanwhile A.J. changed his orientation so that he floated as if lying on his stomach, only two feet above the ground. Scott and Rand arranged the straps that would hold Angie in place, then Angie climbed aboard. "Don't get any ideas," Carrie said to Angie. "He's mine."
Angie laughed. "Let's go," she said.
A.J. and Angie flew over to the track, while the others, Rand, Constance, Scott, Paul, Morgana, Larry, and Carrie walked over to the track to observe. "Now we just watch and hope," Larry said.
"A kind of impotent feeling," Carrie observed.
"It is," Paul said. "But exhilarating just the same. After all this time it might be over."
"Let's hope so," Constance added.
"At this point, would anyone be offended if I added a prayer?" Rand asked.
"Not at all," Paul said.
"Good. I would have done it anyway.
"Goddess, help deliver our friends and yours back to us. Please allow them to contribute to your grand design once again, and allow us to enrich our lives to better serve you. Thanks."
"Some prayer," Scott said.
"We Wiccans ain't so formal," Rand replied.
At 8:18 A.J. began. He had Karen feed her numbers, then had Angie do the same. Then he flew. To the group watching from the side of the track, A.J. flew around the track, slowly becoming a blur, chasing a faster blur, until he caught up with 'drink in speed.
A.J. flew until he had matched speed with 'drink, who was walking around the track in a seemingly slow crawl. Once he had caught up and matched 'drink's walking speed, he then signaled to Angie that he was ready to begin the hard part of the experiment.
Angie changed the numbers she was sending while A.J. changed his formulae to a 'per minute' reading as opposed to 'per second'. Then once A.J. had control over this formulae, she dug into his brain and changed him.
This had been what had taken the most time to work out during the past several days. The group realized quickly that there were simply too many things to try to keep track of to bring one of the people in the time snap back to the regular time stream. If not everything was caught at the same time, it could be fatal. The fact that they were sped up in entirety in relation to everything else made it imperative for the people in the snap to be changed back in toto and at once. Unfortunately, there was no way to determine what formula would work.
Scott had come up with the idea of working more on A.J.'s eyesight. He and Angie began working with the data to determine how the way A.J. saw light waves could be sped up to the speed that the Davis' and Mats saw them. The breakthrough came once Scott had finally been able to raid the database of the hospital clinic in Switzerland that had been bothering him for days. It turned out that the clinic was not only a specialty center for quick freezing of human tissue but also one of the world's leading eye institutes. A stroke of luck unlike any they had had since the time snap began.
The experiment on A.J.'s eyes had been done only two days earlier, using the data from A.J.'s brain scans and his own experience with using formulae. It took seven tries to find the correct portion of his brain to effect, and he could only do it for five minutes on his own before the resulting headache would force him to shut the formula down, but it worked.
Now they were going a step further. Angie was making the formula a permanent part of A.J.'s structure, so that he could concentrate on finding the equivalents within 'drink. In theory this would be enable the big man to work with the formulae necessary for a longer period on time. If A.J. could find a single formula to change on 'drink that would bring him back to the regular time stream, he would signal Angie who would then yell out "now". Janis would hear the signal and in turn notify Karen to begin pushing to create an emotive overload. Then A.J. would send formula out to 'drink, and Angie would push to change him. If it worked, then Angie could change A.J.'s eyesight back to normal if need be (or let it continue if the headache hadn't yet come) and then they would move on to Nicki and bring her back.
When A.J.'s eyesight had been altered to the new speed, he nearly screamed. He did falter for a moment, nearly dropping to the ground fifteen feet below while Angie held on for dear life. Then he got himself under control and stabilized his flight.
Although he had seen the world through an eyesight that was sixty times faster than normal, his first look at 'drink at an equivalent speed unnerved him.
"Fuck!" Angie yelled after regaining her composure. The force of the relative wind-force necessitated her yelling at the top of her lungs. "You should rent yourself out! Can you see anything?"
"Not a fucking thing," A.J. replied. "His head's on fire!"
"What?"
"That's how it looks to me. The turbulence effect I normally get during high winds died away when you changed my eyes, but his head is so full of junk that I can't see a fucking thing! I need to do this with Debbie first!"
"Janis!" Angie called out. "We need to do Debbie first!"
Janis in turn passed this along to the people still inside the ship, including the reasoning. Debbie agreed and hugged her daughter once, then walked briskly to the track and joined her husband. 'drink in turn returned to the ship, disappointed, but aware of the problem once it was explained.
Looking at Debbie, A.J. spotted the formula almost at once. It was so irregular that it had to be it. In everything about her, it was the only 'per minute' formula she had. A.J. reached down to her and picked her up underneath each arm. That was the signal for Angie to shout, "Now!"
Within seconds, both Karen and Angie were pushing, and soon A.J. was sending. Once the formula was sent, Angie sent a change.
Debbie let out a startled shout as the world of color (other than in reds) returned for the first time in over 19 of her own relative years. A.J. shouted down, "Debbie, can you hear me?"
Debbie, too startled to speak for a moment, just looked ahead in wonder as A.J. slowed down from the blur of speed he was carrying them at. Finally she did speak. "It worked," she said.
A.J. carried them over to the others while Jim and Karen joined them as well. A.J. set Debbie down in front of Paul, who was teary-eyed for the first time in anyone's memory.
"Deborah," he managed to say.
"Paul," she replied. They stared at each other for a moment, then hugged.
"Let's get the others," Rand said. "A.J., do we still need the track?"
"No," A.J. replied, "we don't. We only used it in case things didn't work and I had to drop someone at a sped up speed. Let's hurry. My eyes are already starting to hurt."
"Janis!" Constance called out. "Have the next one stand in front of A.J."
Almost immediately A.J. said, "It's Nicki. Okay everyone, push!"
It was as if Nicki had shimmered into existence. One moment she wasn't there, then a blur formed into a definite shape, and then there she was. With her hands up to her head, screaming.
Debbie ran to her daughter and held her. "It's all right," she said soothingly, as Nicki slowly collapsed into a sitting position on the ground. "It's all right."
"Mama," Nicki said, "It hurts! The noise of it all! It hurts!" Nicki was starting to cry now.
Larry caught it first. "Oh man!" he exclaimed. "She can hear our thoughts now!"
"Fuck!" Jim said. "It must almost be like white noise for her, and she's not even used to much noise at all. Karen?"
Karen nodded. She sat with Nicki, sending out calming emotions. Slowly, Nicki started to breathe normally. Finally she spoke. "Is this what everything really looks like?" she asked.
Debbie smiled. "This is what the world looks like. That shirt that you're wearing? That's what blue looks like."
"Neat." Nicki sighed, the frown she tried for not coming due to Karen's influence. "Mama, they're so loud."
"What's her range?" Larry asked.
"Excuse me?" Debbie said.
"From how far away can she hear the voices?"
"About 30 feet."
"Everybody! Back up!"
The rest of the group except for Karen took several steps away from Nicki and Debbie, until Nicki said that she could no longer hear all of them.
Karen finally let go of the emotive control, and said, "We'll need to work together so that you can learn how how to filter them out."
"Is that possible?" Debbie asked.
"It is. I realize that it's been a while, but you'll see again that at a club or a bar or any crowded room, you filter out conversation you're not listening to so that you can concentrate on the important things. You'll get the skill back, and Nicki can learn it. We do have a research lab, after all, if all else fails."
A.J. nodded and clapped his hands together. "Let's get a move on," he said. "I know this is rough on her, but this feels like a fucking migraine to me."
'drink appeared in front of A.J. with little warning. Even with A.J.'s sped up eyesight, he could only move his body so fast to match. They went through the procedure once again, and once 'drink was at the normal speed, A.J. said, "Your head still looks like it's on fucking fire."
"I use a lot of the material up here," 'drink said, pointing to his head. He walked over to his family and hugged them. "It was only 28 hours for me and it still felt like an eternity."
"Janis!" A.J. called out. "Mats' turn!"
It took nearly three minutes for Mats to appear in front of A.J. He had watched his friends return to their normal time stream, and now that it was his turn, he found himself to be frightened. He took that ten minutes of relative time to use the restroom on the ship, breathe in and out, and say goodbye to the life he had known for nearly 20 years. Like walking away from a prison cell after so many years, he felt unready for the world at large. But after a time, he realized that he had to join the others, if for no other reason than to assure that his grasp of reality stayed stable. He finally summoned up his courage and walked outside.
Mats joined the others in the regular time stream exactly 30 seconds later.
Angie immediately changed A.J.'s formula for eyesight to bring it back to normal, causing A.J. to get dizzy momentarily and then sit down. He rubbed his head saying, "Now that's one hell of a way to get a hangover." He then looked up at the others. "Welcome home, gang."
Paul smiled for the first time in days. "Group hug, everyone," he said.
And everyone did, sitting on the ground and holding tight to one another, save for Nicki, who could only do it for a few seconds at a time before needing to walk away from the 'noise'.
They sat there for a long time, just soaking each other in.
Five days later, Morgana had an insight. "Oh shit," she said. "Company coming."
It had been a good five days. The group had spent much time getting reacquainted or meeting each other really for the first time, while a battery of tests were run on the Davis' and Mats to be sure that there were no after-effects. Both Karen and Angie were available full time to give either counseling or medical advice. All of them were suffering from mild malnutrition, but considering the possibilities, there were in very good health.
Just nineteen years older.
Oddly enough, Nicki didn't talk with either of the Doctors in the group. She instead found herself gravitating towards A.J. They both realized that they had something in common - a uniqueness in each of them that, although very different in kind, would cause the same social problems. A.J. had faced them as a young teenager, while Nicki was only just starting.
A.J. decided on his own that he would help Nicki adjust to what was really normal just as he had had to; to learn that what she saw and accepted was not necessarily what the rest of the world saw. Or in Nicki's case, heard.
And then with a few words, the group began to place itself on battle alert.
"When?" Larry asked.
Morgana, who was alone with Larry in his room at the lab talking about the bookstore and their everyday business concerns, shook her head. "About five hours," she said. "And that's a guess. I didn't get a sense for the being or beings coming. They're...alien."
Larry nodded. "To be expected, I suppose," he replied. He walked to the intercom switch in the room. He hit the announce button, which activated the intercoms in every room of the warehouse. "They're coming," he said. "Meet in the main lab in five minutes."
Five minutes later, nine people met in the main lab. "Where are the others?" Larry asked.
"Jim and Mats are out drinking," Scott replied. "Paul and Debbie and Nicki are at Paul's. Carrie's at the grocery store getting supplies for the lab."
Larry clapped his hands together. "Okay. Carrie will be back in plenty of time. Scott, get on the horn to Janis and have her contact Mats her way. A.J., call up Paul and tell him what's going on. I want everyone here within the hour."
"For once brother, it's a wrong call," A.J. said. "We should meet at Paul's."
"Why?" Larry asked.
"We can land one spaceship on the roof of he lab, but not two. We need Janis for this, if for no other reason than to help her should the spacers try to control her. Second, if they can't land, what will stop them from simply abducting us all? The idea is to get them talking."
Larry nodded. "Scott, you heard the man. Paul's place. One hour. Rand, you call Paul and bring him up to speed. A.J., you go get Carrie."
"Done."
Janis had anticipated the need to protect the others from abduction almost immediately after the time snap had been broken. The ship checked the library (as there was no more need for stealth - and why not let them know they were waiting?) and found that a strong magnetic pulse could stop the transfer beam.
It was to everyone's surprise that The Foundationers didn't even try. They simply landed at Paul's house and blended in with the background scenery. When Scott saw this he said, "Must be the advanced model."
The group of fifteen waited in Paul's living room for the aliens to make their appearance. What finally showed up looked like an ambulatory heap of fungus.
Mats and 'drink both stood. "Hello green thing," 'drink said.
"Mr. Davis. Mats." The alien shook when it spoke. There was no mouth that any of the people in the room could find. The rest of the group took their cues from 'drink and Mats and addressed it from wherever they sat or stood. Green thing didn't turn, but always addressed the person it was speaking to.
Paul was first. "So you're the one who started all this," he said.
"Unfortunately, that is so," green thing replied.
"Well fuck you," Jim said. He took a drink from his customary bottle of Bushmill's. "And the ship you rode in on. You've got a lot of nerve coming here yourself."
"It was necessary," the alien replied.
"Why?" Mats asked.
"You are my project, and I have failed in a number of my duties towards you. I must take responsibility for this and correct all of the anomalies that have occurred."
"Anomalies," Rand said. "Just great. Like lab rats."
"It is not a negative concept, as you are suggesting," Green thing said. "We have been traveling the galaxy for some time now, looking for beings to bring into our fold. Beings to belong to The Foundation. When we found a few class two beings on this planet we made the first inductions. Mr. Davis was a bonus that we overlooked."
"Bullshit," A.J. interrupted. "You knew he was here all along."
The alien trembled for a moment, then let out what everyone in the group took for a sigh. "Correct," it finally acknowledged. "We knew. The idea was to only take class twos. We were only interested in the happiness of this class two. There had been a precedent for bringing a companion along after an induction, so we allowed it. That was a mistake."
"The first of many," Larry said.
"Correct. Unfortunately, Ms. Davis got caught in the induction beam and we were in no position to reverse the process. No one had thought about the legends at the time. It was only later that we realized that certain political factions would try to exploit this. We tried to prevent what would have happened, only to discover this independence streak that you seem to have as a race."
"Again, bullshit," Jim said. "Humans aren't independent."
"They do have the potential to be. Granted, most of you do not use it. The same can be said for many races. Those of you in this room do.
"Please understand that we had no idea that 'drink would react the way he did. He ran."
"Be realistic," 'drink said. "Against superior forces, don't fight. Run like a mad mother.
"My point is that most civilized beings would not have," green thing replied. "They would have accepted instead. Then events escalated, until one political faction decided to place the four of you into a time pocket. Once that happened, we thought that this was over.
"Time pockets can be monitored. You can guess what happened when we discovered that Mr. Davis had finally forced this one to collapse."
"You came," Debbie said.
"And here you are," Karen added.
"And where do you get off thinking humans are civilized?" Carrie asked. "Get a clue."
Paul shook his head. "Now what?" he asked. "You fucked up and they got caught in a political game. Now the game's on again. I repeat; now what?"
"We start over," green thing said. "We try to do it right. We only wanted Mats in the first place. We want him again, if he's willing."
"Fuck you," Jim said.
"Why?" Mats asked, ignoring Jim's obscenity.
"We still need beings like you for The Foundation," green thing said. "You had an impressive track record working for us. We could use you again. We'll even let you come to Earth from time to time."
"Really?" Mats asked.
"You're actually considering it!" Karen exclaimed. "After all of this shit, you're considering it!"
Mats sighed and faced the rest of the group. "Surprised? So am I. I still like flying, and this would give the chance to do some of the things I have enjoyed best in life."
"It's like putting you back in a private jail again!" Rand exclaimed. "Didn't you hear the beast here? You'd be allowed to come to Earth from time to time. Who knows what time means for them?"
Mats nodded. "I know, but at least it's a jail I understand. Look, I've spent nearly twenty years of my life going out of my mind. I've been a loner most of that time - I'm built for it. Sure we've had problems, but at least this is something I can do and enjoy. Besides, I admire honesty, and green thing at least has been up front with us."
"No he hasn't."
It was such a small voice coming from the far corner of the room. "Or are you simply an it?" Nicki asked. She remained sitting, not coming closer for fear of being overwhelmed by the voices in her head.
"What's going on, daughter?" Debbie asked.
"This thing is a liar," Nicki replied. "I can hear it plain as day."
"I thought you were out of range."
A.J. chuckled. "I'll be damned," he said. "You're focusing on it, aren't you?"
Nicki simply nodded.
"There's an ellipse of formulae running from Nicki to our living mass of moss over here. She's probing him!"
The alien shuddered again. "Most impressive," it said, almost as a whisper. "I can't even detect you doing it."
"But I am doing it," Nicki shot back. "And you're lying. You've been lying all along. Not so much as a single true statement. Legends, politics, even your offer to Uncle Mats. They're all lies. Instead there's..." Nicki frowned. "What is all of this about missiles and... 'history nodes'?"
The room almost exploded in noise, except for two individuals. Green thing, who (forgive me) was shaking like a leaf, and Larry, who had just gone into rapid-think mode.
"Missiles?" Carrie asked.
"What the hell?" Rand asked.
"A fucking invasion! I knew it!" Jim yelled, having reached his own conclusion. He threw the bottle at the alien, who managed somehow to get out of the way.
"Now what?" Paul asked.
"You lied to me!" Mats roared.
"What's been the point?" 'drink asked.
"What are history nodes?" Debbie asked.
"Oh goddess!" Rand said.
"Oh lord," Constance said.
"Now I'm confused," A.J. said, shaking his head.
Morgana quieted down first, seeing Larry in one of his trances. "Quiet everyone," she said. "Larry's on."
The room quieted down quickly, as one by one the others noticed Larry standing perfectly still and breathing shallow. After nearly a minute, he came out of his trance. and looked at the alien with a frown on his face.
"Let me see if I've got this straight," Larry began. "This whole thing has nothing to do with finding planets, or scientific exploration, or anything we've been led to believe so far. You just don't want Mats on Earth!"
There were gasps, but no one spoke. Green thing was shaking as fast as it ever had since it had entered the room.
"Mats can communicate with intelligent machines," Larry continued. "And right now there are very few of them on this planet, except in the defense industry. Artificial Intelligence has been used in missile technology for a while now."
Light bulbs were going on above people's heads around the room.
"Someone has made a machine that a 'class two' can communicate with here on Earth," Scott added, awestruck. "Or is about to anyway."
"A juncture in history," Debbie added, whispering.
Mats looked at green thing, wide-eyed. "And you don't want me to interfere with them?" he asked.
Green thing finally stopped shaking. "Correct," it said. "Very clever of you to figure that much out."
"There's more, isn't there?" Larry asked. "This really is a test, isn't it?"
"Oh fuck," Jim said. "They want to know if we're smart enough not to kill ourselves with the technology."
"And Mats would get in the way of a test for the species," Karen added. "And that's what this is, isn't it? A 'history node'?"
"Correct," green thing replied. "Only one race in ten passes this point. Those that do are invited into The Foundation as equal members."
"And kidnapping people from the homeworld is a normal part of the process?" Debbie asked.
"No, it is not. Unfortunately, your species is filled with mutations. A side effect of so radioactive a planet. We decided to remove those of you who could effect the process with undue force. Mats, that is the truth. And I will need to take you with me to make certain the process continues."
"How do you determine who might interfere with the process?" Morgana asked.
"It's not a fair question. Anyone can interfere, but that has nothing to do with a policy of stopping such a thing from happening. What needs to happen is that people start the process, then stop it once it starts, without letting the machines take the process for themselves. All it takes is one failsafe to remain unimplemented and the race dies.
"But mutants by definition generally are interested in survival, and will do anything to insure that. This room is full of mutants and I can already tell that every one of you agrees with me. We remove the mutants who could affect the process in any direction, so that survival is not a characteristic of the mutants, but of the rest of the race. The majority, if you will."
"Human beings, by definition, are generally interested in survival," Debbie said. "Ask any of the descendants of Jack Kennedy or Nikita Khrushchev. That was a history node, and we made it through just fine. Barely, but we made it."
"Majority rule gave us Hitler and Ron Reagan," Jim said, shaking his head. "You fucking make me sick. Karen, I need some anger. Fuel me please."
"I don't think that's wise," Karen replied.
"Trust him," Larry said.
Jim looked at his older brother and said, "Figured out what I'm about to do?"
Larry nodded.
"Good. Now, lover."
Karen fed anger directly to Jim, and let let it build up for a moment before exploding at the alien.
"Fuck you!" he shouted. "Fuck your attitude, fuck your grand experiment, and fuck your desire to play fucking God for all of us!" Jim floated up into the air.
"Don't you get it?" Jim continued. "The fact that you wound up with 'drink should have fucking well tipped you off already! The whole planet is full of mutants!"
"Jim," Karen said, "I'm overloading you. I'm going to stop."
"Don't stop," A.J. said. "He knows what he's doing."
Jim was beet red with fury now, starting to fly around the room, circling the shaking alien. "Search throughout this room!" Jim shouted. "There are fifteen of us here! Of all of us there are nine mutants of one form or another! One fucking hell of a sample, wouldn't you say?"
Green thing was shaking violently now. Jim pointed his hand at the alien and allowed the overload to effect the alien. The alien lifted from the ground.
"Now here comes a lesson!" Jim shouted. "I am one being, and I can right now toss you around this room like a rag doll." Jim looked down at Angie. "Feed A.J. the time formula for his eyesight. A.J., have you figured it out?"
"Step ahead of you big brother," A.J. replied. "Angie, do it."
Angie pushed and changed A.J.'s eyesight. A.J. then pushed on his own, taking Jim's emotive overload and creating one of his own. Green thing dissolved into nothingness, then came back only 2 seconds later as A.J. released it. "Give me my eyesight back," A.J. said. Angie nodded and pushed again.
"With all your super technology," Jim said, only seething now, "You couldn't beat us. 'drink didn't collapse the time snap, We broke it! You understand? We succeeded! We managed to beat your time snap with our minds. Do you simply think that removing all of the people like Mats would stop interference? With us around? Do you really believe that you can remove enough of us so that interference won't happen?"
"Face it green thing," 'drink said. "We're a part of the equation. You can't remove enough of us. In order for your little experiment to work, we need to be here."
"Amen," Constance added.
Green thing slowly stopped shaking. "Quite a display," it finally said.
"That was nothing," Jim said. "Karen, you can stop feeding me now." He floated to the ground.
Karen did, beads of sweat on her face from the effort. "Did we make our point?" she asked.
"You did," the alien said. "To me at least. The display was not necessary. I had most of your mutations analyzed before I entered the room."
"The display was necessary," Rand said. "You can look at us as intellectually as you wish, but that gives you no clear concept of how really unstable we really are, or how a combination of efforts can give unpredictable results."
"Or how unpredictable humans really are," Morgana added, smiling slightly.
"Face it," Jim added. "We're fucking nuts."
"The basic idea," 'drink said, "is a simple one. Leave."
"Better yet," Mats added, "leave us alone."
There was a long pause, then green thing shook briefly. Then it finally spoke. "It's not very simple," it said.
"No shit," A.J. shot back.
"You have a Foundation ship. If I were to leave you here, I would need to leave the ship as well. Mats and the ship are connected until his death. This is unacceptable."
Scott smiled and entered the conversation. "Why don't you let the ship decide?" he asked. "By the way, her name is Janis. And I've removed the homing circuit, so don't try the automatic recall option. If you even killed Mats the recall function wouldn't work."
"Besides," Mats added. "You made this bed. Lie in it."
"What would I do to explain all of this?" green thing asked.
"Your problem," Angie said.
"No," Karen replied. "We'll help you come up with something." To the rest of the group she said, "I can read this thing now. It took a while, but I've got it. It's accepted the loss. We've won. Right Nicki?"
Nicki, who had remained in the far corner for the entire exchange, nodded. "You're right," she said. "We've won. And could you all please stop shouting? Even when I can't hear you in my head you're all to damned loud."
Jim laughed first. Then A.J. Slowly, everyone joined in the laughter. Although the words weren't funny, everyone needed the release from the tension. It took a long time, but finally everyone began to calm down.
"All right," Larry finally said. "What do we do to help green thing out of this jam?"
"Why should you help?" the alien asked.
Jim laughed again, his ironic smile returning for the first time since the alien landed. "You just bought a Rolls-Royce there son," he said.
"I do not understand," green thing replied.
"An old saying, never an official one. 'If you have to ask, you can't afford it.' Green thing old moss, you had to ask, so you'll never understand." Jim laughed aloud again. "One more mess to clean up."
"Everyone," came a new voice from a speaker by the computer at the far side of the room.
"Yes Janis?" Scott asked.
"I have an idea," the ship said. "It will mean all future contact with The Foundation would be severed, but I believe that is the idea.
"First, we need 'drink to duplicate something..."
"To quote your brother, now what?"
'drink and Deborah Davis were alone in their new rooms at the warehouse. They lay in bed side by side watching television - something they had not done in nearly twenty of their own years. Actually, they were pretty much ignoring the pictures on the screen as they were in truth no better than when they were last able to watch it, all those ages ago.
Green thing and its ship were long gone, having taken the suggestion that Janis had created and leaving, supposedly to never return, if all went well. Everything that had transpired suggested that all had gone well, and green thing was last seen heading out of the solar system.
The Davis' had returned to the lab, along with most of the rest of the group. Mats and Janis had flown into the atmosphere and above to confirm that green thing had taken the suggestion Janis had put up and followed the instructions given. When Mats finally radioed in that green thing had followed the plan to the letter, a cheer went up at the lab, and then after some celebrating most of the people who lived in the Los Angeles area had gone to their own respective homes.
Larry and Morgana had booked a flight to San Francisco for the next day, while Rand and Constance would follow in the next week. Nicki, after eating a large dinner, went to her own room to get away from the voices. She, Karen, Angie, and A.J. would begin studying her and beginning to sort out her mind the next morning.
Jim, having laid off from music for nearly four months, sat at the piano he had had brought to the lab and wrote three songs in the space of thirty minutes, then headed for home, smiling and humming happily, Karen following him with a similar expression. Paul had looked at his sister and said, "The sex they're going to have tonight will be heard in the next county."
Mats said he would spend the night up in space, and would return the following day. He said that he wanted to experience real time flying again, so 'drink told him to go have fun. Debbie and 'drink then retired to their new rooms.
"I suggest we get on with our lives," Debbie said in response to 'drink's question.
"We've lived half of our lives with this already," 'drink countered, "and we still don't know fully what we can do. The stunt I pulled tonight was the hardest thing I've yet done."
Debbie smiled and huddled close to her husband. "Seems a shame to simply waste it like we did."
"It wasn't exactly a waste. It's probably saved us from going through this again. Besides, now that we know I can do it, I can always do it again. It almost like pulling rabbits from a hat."
Debbie laughed quietly. "A spaceship isn't exactly a rabbit. Just what we need. Yet another Janis."
"If I did it again, with my damned luck it really would hit an asteroid. Gotta give Janis credit for thinking the whole thing up. Now The Foundationers believe we're dead. Just another part of the stellar void and collided with another piece of junk."
"We hope," Debbie countered.
"The odds are pretty damned good." 'drink sighed. "You're right, of course."
"About what?"
"We need to just get on with our lives. The problem is, our lives have been defined by the abilities that Mats, Nicki and I have, and your calming influence. We really need to be here, all of us. With these crazies. Trying to figure all of this shit out."
"I know. If nothing else we need to do it for Nicki."
"And for us too, love. We've come a long way from that day on the beach when we first danced and sang our hearts to one another. We're not exactly the same people anymore. We're older."
"And wiser? Bullshit, lover, and you know it. We never got a chance to be those people."
For a long time the two of them simply lay in bed, barely touching and not making a sound. Then 'drink pulled Debbie close and kissed her. "You know," he said, "I wonder if the house is still there? Or the tavern we met in? Or if my old car still runs."
Debbie laughed. "It's been what...almost 18 months of real time?" she asked. "Who knows?" She rolled over in bed until she lay on top of 'drink, facing him. She reached for the remote control for the television by the bed and shut it off. "What do you say that tomorrow we have someone drive us up to Santa Barbara and find out?"
'drink smiled. "Why wait? Let's go tonight. If memory serves, there should be a nicely deserted stretch of beach somewhere along there for us to spend an evening."
"We don't have a car," Debbie pointed out.
"Oh, right." 'drink hugged Debbie close. "You have this ability to distract me from thinking rationally."
"That I do," Debbie acknowledged with a smile.
Again, there was a long stretch of silence, during which the Davis' simply stared into each other's eyes.
"So now what?" 'drink finally asked again.
"Let me show you." Debbie reached up for the light and brought darkness into the room. "Now this is what I had in mind the day we met..."
This shall be my final, treasonous log. I find myself, like the Punisher before me, stunned by my own reaction to events. I have failed to make 'drink Davis into a Punisher, as I was instructed to do, and for that failure I would normally be punished myself. Stripped of rank.
I find I do not mind. Everything I have done should have made this individual want revenge - should have begun molding him into a tool to be used for exacting justice as The Foundation insists it be done. Yet he forgave. They all did.
I do not understand how they have disassociated me from the events that have transpired. But I do understand almost a sense of pride that these beings have. A sense of honor. A sense of....
I cannot say. Like the Punisher before me, I feel as if slapped, to use the colloquialism.
Slapped sensefull, to use yet another colloquialism.
My duty is done. No one shall know of my failure. They shall believe that these Earthlings have died. I will be commended for having done all I could.
All I could.
"End recording," green thing said. The alien sat alone in its quarters on board its own ship, now over thirty hours travel from Earth. For a very long time, it sat shaking - at times violently - a strange sound coming from the recesses of its body from which sound came.
Then a decision was made. A decision to go on.
"Erase recording," the alien said. "Send
the following message to The Foundation, priority one. There has been an
unfortunate accident..."