Chapter One
Suddenly, Last January
My name is Jason Bond, and I am writing this because I need to put down what has happened to me. I don’t know if anyone in my time will ever read this, but I plan on sending this back when I get completed with this journal. Either I’ll take it back myself, or I’ll try to send it back if I am unable to go.
I guess I should tell you something about me, or at least who I was back in my time. I was just an average guy, working a crappy job as a security guard at a local factory. I had just gotten out of a bad relationship and was having trouble finding another. To say I had a hard time with the ladies and gentlemen would be an understatement, and I guess I should tell you that I am bisexual, which, considering the world of the twenty-first century, was as bad as you could get.
So here I was, working on the night of January 26, 2005, doing my midnight round a little early as I always do. I was in the receiving area when my watch beeped midnight, and then it happened: I was overcome by a flash of light and felt weightless. For a moment, I thought something had blown up and I was about to be vaporized, but then the bright light went away and I fell down onto the floor. Noticing that, instead of the concrete floor that I normally trod over at work, I was lying on some kind of natural wood floor.
Lying on my belly, I turned over and realized that I was not in Rutherford County, North Carolina anymore. Or, at least, the Rutherford County, North Carolina of my time. The first sight I saw was a blue-skinned woman who was clearly alien, as well as a gray haired man who looked like the very definition of a college science professor. I heard another male voice as well, and turned to see a young man roughly in his early twenties.
The blue skinned woman said, “Doctor Chronenberg, I think he’s awake!” Dr. Chronenberg came over and looked at me, and I was trying to talk, but, for some reason, I couldn’t speak. He took out some sort of scanner thing and waved it over my body, and I surmised that it had to be some sort of medical scanner.
Dr. Chronenberg spoke to me, “Can you hear me? Do you understand what I am saying?” I tried to talk, but my throat was incredibly dry, so I nodded. I made a motion with my hand going to my mouth, hoping that they would understand that I wanted something to drink. “Tana, get him some water, please.,” the doctor said, and the blue skinned woman did so, bring it over in a glass with a straw. The young man, who I heard the doctor refer to as Alan, helped me up onto a sofa. Tana sat beside me and put the straw up to my lips and I slowly began to drink.
Finally, I was able to speak after drinking most of the glass of water. “Where am I?,” I asked. The three looked around at each other nervously. Dr. Chronenberg stood right in front of me and knelt down, asking me, “What was the last thing I remembered before I arrived here?”
“Well, I was walking inside the plant on my round, and I was just about to leave the receiving area when a flash came over me. Next thing I know, I’m here.”
He asked me another question, “What year is it where you lived?”
I got a funny feeling that something big was up, so I answered, “2005. Why? What year is it here?”
Tana asked the doctor, “Should we tell him?” Dr Chronenberg sighed, got up and walked around the room, running his fingers through his hair. I could tell that whatever his answer was, it would not be one that I would like. He turned around and asked me my name. “My name is Jason Bond. Please, tell me what year it is here, because I suspect that I am in the future somehow.”
Dr. Chronenberg nodded, then answered me, “Jason, you are in the year 2505. The date is January 26.”
“So I traveled exactly 500 years into the future, you’re saying?,” I said, leaning back on the sofa. I was shocked by this, but not overwhelmed. Curiously, I was sort of pleased with this turn in my life.
Tana spoke to me, and I was amazed at how fluent her English was, “Things are a lot different now than they were in your time. The town where you once lived has changed dramatically, and we are concerned that it might overwhelm you.”
Alan noticed a light blinking on the console, and punched up something on what looked to be a computer of some kind. “Doctor, it’s Dr. Shalitar. She says she picked up a energy spike coming up from the lab, and wants to know what you are doing.”
I clearly saw the doctor gulp, as if he’d been caught with his hand in a cookie jar. “We have to get him out of here. Tana, take him over to my home and set him up in the guesthouse. See to it that he’s given something to eat and drink, and I’ll be over there shortly. I need to buy some time.”
Tana nodded and helped me up, and we walked out of the lab and down a corridor. I was regaining some strength, but I was very tired and just wanted to get some rest. We walked out into a parking lot and that was when I noticed the familiar curve in the road that was beside my now-former place of employment. It was dark, and I guessed that it must be close to midnight. I asked Tana, “What road is this?”
Tana hesitated at first, then she told me an answer I was expecting, “It’s Railroad Avenue. I am curious about that name, because it doesn’t appear that trains ever came through here.”
As she escorted me to something that looked like a car, I told her, “Once, long ago, there was a railroad track that ran along that berm across the street. They covered it over a few years ago, in my time, because trains stopped using them.”
Tana smiled, and helped me into the car. She took her position in the driver’s seat and asked me, “Did you ever read about flying cars when you were a kid?” I snorted and said, “I was a science fiction buff back in my time, and I always thought that flying cars would never come about. Why?”
She smiled again and told me, “Well, you were wrong. Buckle up, because we’re about to take off.” I could hear a slight rumble under the car, and I felt us lift off the ground. Soon enough, we were lifting off into the sky, and I could tell that traffic was light in the sky. However, I was shocked to see wave after wave of futuristic looking buildings, trailing off into the darkened horizon.
I gasped and spoke to her, “My God! This isn’t the Rutherfordton I knew! How big is this place these days?” Tana smiled and said, “It’s no longer called Rutherfordton, but Rutherford City. Years ago, there was a war and it wiped out most of this area. The survivors came here and rebuilt this area into a great city, and it is now home to one billion souls.”
I shook my head, “Excuse me, but did you say…a BILLION?” Tana nodded her head, and I said, “Well, this is going to take some getting used to, that’s for sure. So where does the doctor live?”
“Asheville. You see Rutherford City stretches to what were Nashville and Lexington to the west, Washington to the north, Wilmington and Charleston to the east, and Savannah to the south. Like I said, it is a large city.”
“So what race are you? Clearly you are not human, unless genetic engineering has gone way overboard in the last five hundred years.”
Tana laughed and said, “No, I am Elaren, from the planet Elara. Don’t worry about finding about all about this right now. It’s going to be difficult to comprehend it all, but we’ll help as much as we can. Just know that we’ll look after you and make sure you are well taken care of.”
“Are you going to send me back?,” I asked. She looked over at me and placed her hand on mine, saying, “I’m not sure, Jason. That is up to Dr. Chronenberg. Our experiment was just to try and see into the past, before the Second American War and World War III. Don’t worry, I’ll explain it to you soon enough. Something went wrong, and there was a flash of light. When it went away, we saw you on the floor.”
We glided into a landing in front of a rather large house with an impressive front yard. She helped me out of the car, as my legs were weak for some unknown reason. A woman came out of the main house and spoke to us in a familiar Southern accent, “Johan told me what happened. I don’t believe it! Is this the person who you folks ‘pulled’ into the future?”
“Yes, Mrs. Chronenberg. His name is Jason Bond. He’s from five hundred years in the past!”
“My God! Five HUNDRED years? You must feel like your lost, don’t you?”
I nodded and said, “Lost? Yeah, that would describe it.”
Chapter Two
The Next Day
It was the morning of January 27, 2505, and I awoke to a cool, crisp Tuesday morning. It was not surprising to see the mountain fog outside my window. What was surprising was to see the massive skyscrapers and flying cars poking at various points all along the horizon, and it reminded me that I was not a mere security guard anymore.
Mrs. Chronenberg and Tana knocked on the door and, after asking me to let them in, came in with breakfast for me. It was traditional fare from my time: sausage, scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, and orange juice. Tana even brought in some clothes for me, saying “I’m sorry if this is too baggy for you, because I had to guess at your size. When the time comes, we’ll get you some proper clothes.”
“Thanks Tana, Mrs. Chronenberg…”
Mrs. Chronenberg interrupted me, “Please, call me Sarah! It’s an honor to have you here as a guest. Johan will be here sometime this evening to check on you, so don’t hesitate to make use of the yard or come over to the main house if you’d like. He did recommend that you stay on the property for now, so you don’t become overwhelmed.”
I nodded to her, “Good idea. I need to get my body rested and well fed before I face this new world. Do you have a television here or something? Computer perhaps?”
Tana and Sarah glanced at each other, then Sarah said, “Well, you should be ok watching the video screen, and it wouldn’t hurt to let you get on the computer network. Tana, since you have the day off, maybe you should stay here and help him out.” Tana nodded and went to a flat screen that I hadn’t noticed when I came in, activating it with a touch of her hand. A newscast came on, hosted by an Arab woman speaking in slightly accented English.
I concentrated on eating while Tana put up the clothes she had bought me. They mostly consisted of simple button-up shirts and pullover shirts, as well as casual dress pants along with what seemed to be jogging pants. She also brought some boxer shorts, socks, and a couple of pairs of shoes. I looked them over and they seemed to be a size too big, but, after trying them on, they fit reasonably well.
“How are you this morning?,” she asked. I replied, “Tired, still, but feeling better. I am still trying to mentally process all of this. It’s not every day that you go to work and wind up five hundred years in the future.”
She laughed and said, “Well, you are handling it better than I expected. Much better in fact. It seems as if you dreamed of something like this.”
“Well, I always said I was born two hundred years too soon. I’ve been a space buff and amateur futurist since I was a kid. I never quite fit into the world I was born in. I always felt like I was an oddball, a square peg. So this, well, it’s strange, but not too strange. You know what I mean?”
Tana nodded and asked, “Do you have a girlfriend back in your time?”
“Not anymore. I had one, and we were briefly engaged, but it fell apart. If you don’t mind, it still hurts and I’d rather not talk about it right now. In time, I’ll speak about it, but not now.”
“I understand, Jason. I hope you will enjoy life here, but I’m not sure if you can stay just yet.”
I nodded and replied, “Yeah, I know. If the decision were mine, I am not sure exactly which way I would go. I mean there’s a lot about the time I left that I miss. Mostly my family and some friends, and a few other trivial things. But, and I know this is going to sound strange, it feels more comfortable here in this time. Granted, I’ve not even been here twenty four hours yet, but it seems like this place is more peaceful than where I used to be.”
Tana nodded and added, “Well, there’s a lot to learn about the past. Do you have any interest in history?”
“Yeah, I wanted to go into teaching it, but never could get back to college. Didn’t have the money. So you will show me what I’ve missed?”
Tana tensed up, but was agreeable. “I will, but I must warn you that in the few years from where you lived, things got very violent.”
“I know. Something said about World War III and a Second American War. I’m interested in hearing about it.”
Tana led me over to a computer terminal, typed in a few words, and a visual image came up. It was a video of a rally of some sort, in front of a church that sat on a little knoll in front of the main street of the town. “I know where that is! It’s Main Street in Forest City! And the church that they are holding that rally in front of is First Baptist Church! What is that rally about?”
“It was a rally held on the Fourth of July, 2017. The President of the United States, a religious conservative from the Republican Party, was holding a rally there with the Governor of North Carolina and several high ranking Christian televangelists. He ran on a ticket to bring Christian values to the Constitution, and, at this rally, he was going to issue a declaration saying that Christianity was the official religion of the country and that all other religions would be outlawed. Worship was going to be mandatory, and anyone failing to attend an official church would be subject to fines and jail time.”
The video showed the president heading to the lectern, and, just before he began to speak, explosions rocked the town. The camera panned around and saw troops pouring out of the side streets and gunning everyone in sight. The officials on the platform tried to get away, but were cut off by more troops and were gunned down in front of the church.
“This is Jessica Price of E-911! We need help here! We’ve got some sort of attack going on in downtown Forest City and…what is that noise?” The video showed an old friend of mine, Jessica Price, at work, and all hell was breaking loose.
“Get out! They’re soldiers comin’ in with guns! Get out!”
Jessica ran out of the office when the explosions started to get closer. She got out of the room, and, a few minutes later, soldiers in green-gray entered the office. “Secure the facility. Find the people who worked here and arrest them!,” said a voice.
I stopped the video image and sat back in the chair. “What happened to Jessica?”
“I’m not sure. Did you know her well?”
“She was a friend of mine online. Never had the chance to meet her in person. She worked at the emergency call center. I hope she got out alive.”
Tana said, “I’ll see if I can find out something. Records from that time are somewhat incomplete.”
“What about the fate of my family?”
Tana’s face fell, and I asked, “You know, don’t you?” She began to cry and said, “Dr. Chronenberg found out about your family this morning while doing research on you. I’m sorry, Jason, but your family was killed in the fighting.”
I sat back in my chair, leaned my head back, closed my eyes and tears came to me. “Damn!,” I said softly. Tana replied, “I’m sorry, Jason.”
“Thanks. I know they’re long dead, but to imagine them gunned down or killed in the violence…it hurts.” I started crying heavily, and she reached out and hugged me, laying my head on her shoulder.
That evening, after learning some more about what went down in the past, Dr. Chronenberg came by to check up on me. “How are you, Jason?,” he asked.
“Fair enough, doctor, all things considered.”
“Tana tells me she showed you the incident that started the Second American War?”
“Yeah, she did, doctor. It was sobering to say the least. She’s helped me read up on it all day long, and it’s been a bit draining.”
Dr. Chronenberg stroked his chin and studied me for a second, finally saying, “You’re holding up well, much better than I expected.”
“Are you going to try to send me back? I know that I was an unexpected result of whatever experiment you were running, and I’ll understand if I have to go back to preserve the time line…”
“Well, Jason, I’m not sure if we can even send you back, and I don’t want to risk your safety unless you really want to go back. You’re welcome to stay here as long as you’d like, and we’ll help you fit in as best as you can.”
“Thanks, doctor. Let me think about it and I’ll come to a decision soon.”
Tana came running up to the house, and entered it. “Doctor, it’s the dean of the department. She wants to meet with you tomorrow in her office. It’s about what happened late Monday night.”
Dr. Chronenberg’s face blanched, and he sighed, “This may get a little sticky, Jason. If they start sniffing around, I may have to send you out with Tana and the rest if the university launches an investigation. I’m sorry about all of this, because it’s not your fault.”
“I understand, doctor. If you have to have me travel around a bit to avoid the authorities, then that’s fine with me. It’ll give me a chance to see a bit of the world.”
“Jason, it’s not just the world I was talking about. I may have to send you off world, perhaps to Mars, Venus, maybe even out of the system and into alien worlds. Are you sure you can handle it?”
I smiled at him and said, “You don’t understand, doctor. Back in my time, my life was boring. If living here means things have to be a little adventurous, then so be it!”
Dr. Chronenberg laughed and shook my hand, and Tana reached up and kissed me on the cheek. We then headed into the main house for dinner as the sun set behind the mountains.
Chapter Three
Three Weeks On
Today was the 19th of February, and it snowed like crazy here. We got at least a foot here, but the streets never got any because of some electromagnetic thing that I don’t understand how they never let the snow hit the pavement. Go figure!
Oh, and they still celebrate Valentine’s Day here, which surprised me. I’ve learned a lot about the Second American War and World War III in the last three weeks, and it is shocking to say the least. You see, between the time I disappeared in 2005, and the attack in 2017, the political rift between liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans grew into a chasm that could never be bridged. Secularists began to split from the Democrats and wanted to push a full-on secular agenda, while Fundamentalists began to break from the Republicans because the moderates wouldn’t play ball with them.
Add onto that the scourge of talk radio commentators whipping up the masses into frenzy, and you had the formula for civil war. The military was worried about the rise of the Fundamentalists, so the Joint Chiefs began to secretly plot to overthrow the president and call a state of emergency to try and control things.
Conflict wasn’t limited to the States, though. Muslim extremists overran Turkey, and Europe, fearful of terrorist attacks, began to ready itself for a war on the Middle East. Add China, India, Russia, and Japan feuding and prepping for war themselves, and the pressure of holding down the coming war was too much.
The two wars were fought separately at first, but, as the Secularists began to get the upper hand, strange alliances were made between Christian and Muslim fundamentalists took hold and prolonged the war, as well as the suffering. The wars soon intermixed and Secularism began to take hold over the world.
Finally, the war began to wind down, and the Secularists were on the verge of winning. The Fundamentalists began to concentrate themselves in the southern United States, mainly in the Carolinas. The Secularists made their way through the South, and the battles laid waste to rural and urban area alike.
The last battle was fought on the site of the first battle, in Forest City, as well as its Tri City partners, Spindale and Rutherfordton. Millions fought in the last, climatic battle, and when it was over, the whole area was wiped out. Buildings collapsed, houses gutted, forest wrecked, it was a sorry sight.
Most of the eastern seaboard was a waste, as well as the west coast and most of the built up areas of America. The United States effectively ceased to exist after the war, so the people of North Carolina and South Carolina, those that survived, decided to merge and become their own nation: The Republic of Carolina. The capital was temporarily in Charlotte as a new capital was built upon the site of where the Tri-Cities once stood.
Now, Rutherford City is home to a billion people, and the de facto capital of the world. The Republic of Carolina still exists, but now it covers the entirely of the old United States, Canada, Mexico, and most of Central America. Earth is united under the Global Alliance, which is, not surprisingly, sited here as well.
It should be pointed out that not all of those billion souls are Human. About five to ten percent are aliens, from over 100 different races known to Humanity. The embassies are here as well, and they all essentially circle the former Tri Cities. Parliament Hill stands where the courthouse once was, and the new building is a wonder of glass, steel, and aerogel beams.
And I am no longer Jason Bond, or at least not in this world. Dr. Chronenberg found an alias for me to use: Trent Richards. He died about two days before I got here, and the good doctor managed to get someone to hack into the system, change the records, and turn him into me. Mr. Richards has no immediate family, so it was a cinch to assume the identity.
So I have a place of my own, in a massive tower that lies on where Rutherford Hospital once stood. I live on the twenty-ninth floor, and the view is awesome, to say the least.
The old Trent Richards was a professor of twentieth century history, which was a stroke of luck for me. Thanks to some of Dr. Chronenburg’s friends, I am on sabbatical until the fall semester working on a book on sports before the wars. It helps that I have a good memory about sports back in my time, and they lucked up and found the remains of video and text archives in and around the former site of ESPN in Bristol, Connecticut. So I have been studying history like a madman as of late, with the possible exception of my time away from here with Tana, who’s been showing me around the city, or at least the heart of it.
It’s amazing, this future. I can’t believe how wonderful this place here. But my cynicism isn’t around for a reason. I worry that Dr. Chronenburg is hiding something from me, because I don’t see him as often as I used to. His wife, Sarah, comes to visit every few days to check on me, and Alan does come by every day with new stuff he found for me to read about the past, both before, during, and after the war. I hope that the investigation goes by quickly, because the longer this goes on, the more I worry that I’ll be found out and that it could cause me a whole lot of trouble.
Chapter Four
The Ides Of March Are Upon Me
Well, they tried to send me back. One night, I asked them to because I worried that the timeline would be affected too much and that I needed to be back in my own day and age. I was very seriously injured and rushed to a nearby hospital. Don’t ask me how, but what would have been fatal injuries in my time turned out to be a simple matter of an overnight stay, one in which Tana and Dr. Chronenberg fretted over because of fears that my DNA would not match the one in Trent Richards’ file. They haven’t suspected anything yet, but Dr. Chronenberg is looking to send me “on tour” of the colonies of the Global Alliance as well as a variety of worlds within the Galactic Confederation. He thinks that this will throw them off the trail for a while, or at least long enough to fix whatever discrepancies are in the DNA database. Frankly, I wish he would own up to what he did and face the consequences, but I see the stress he’s under and I am not sure if it would be wise to do so.
It took me about a week to fully recover from my injuries. I stayed in my apartment, and Tana, whose own place is in the same building, came by and stayed with me. We talked a lot about how I was adjusting to things, and I frankly told her that I hated being hidden out like some sort of outlaw. Tana understood and said she’d talk to the doctor about things. Then, she told me that she wanted to have sex with me.
I was a bit stunned, and told her that it’s not everyday that an alien (albeit a very sexy one) asks me to sleep with them. She then tells me that Elarens are sexually compatible with humans, and that things are much more liberated in this time period. About 200 years ago, human females were genetically manipulated to not produce eggs until a certain procedure was done to “switch on” the ovaries so that they could reproduce. The switch can be turned on and off as many times as the woman wants, so it’s not unthinkable in this day and age for women to have children into their triple digits.
Oh, I guess I should point out that people live a LOT longer these days. According to the physician that Dr. Chronenberg had me see, he told me that, after I went through some special procedures, I could live to be well over 300. Now, I was 33 at the time I was ‘abducted’, so the idea of living almost three centuries longer is kind of baffling. He also said that his statement was rather conservative, and, with the right care, it would not be out of the realm of possibility that I could make 500. Of course, technically I am already 533 years old!
So, Tana and I had sex. Since all sexually transmitted diseases were long since eradicated, I figured what the hell! It was amazing! Tana’s deep blue skin feels like silk, and it was amazing how long the session lasted and how many times I came that night! Tana later admitted that Dr. Chronenberg had made sure the physician I saw added some medication to help boost my sex drive.
As a result, I’ve been sexually promiscuous during this time period. Tana has a lot of friends, and, after admitting that I was bisexual, she brought over her friends, alien and human, and it’s been a very interesting time indeed. It’s rare these days for me to fall asleep with just Tana in my bed.
My work has started to take shape, as Dr. Chronenberg has sent over a myriad of books, videos and audios for me to study. Not just pre-war, but the post war stuff as well. Today, he sent something that shook me: a book by my friend, Jessica Price, who barely escaped the start of the wars here. I haven’t read much, but I have found this out: she managed to survive it all, and wound up living in Australia, where she died at the age of 104 in Adelaide. Her book is considered to be ‘the’ survivor’s account of what happened during those turbulent years of war. From the ‘dust cover’, if you can call it that these days, it tells of how she ventured north with a rag-tag bunch of people, helping where she could, then traveled across the ocean when the war came to New York City and she and her friends had to escape before being caught up in the battle.
I put it aside because it bothers me to read it right now. With so much going on, I need time to let this soak all in. Living five centuries in the future isn’t easy, believe me. I’ll talk about the war when the time comes, but for now, let’s focus on the present.
Rutherford City is considered by most to be the proverbial center of the universe. The Galactic Confederation had never had an ‘official’ headquarters, and, as part of the rebuilding process, they decided to build them here as proof of their commitment to peace and to honor those who had perished during the wars.
They still celebrate the Fourth of July, although it is now called Remembrance Day, and it is a very big holiday. The irony is, while the Secularists fought against those who wanted to mandate religion, a new religion was born of their efforts. It is called Essentialism, and basically the Essentialists took what they liked from religions of the past and threw out what they didn’t like. Of course, there is still religious freedom, but Essentialism is bigger than Christianity ever was.
The Cathedral of the Fallen stands where the First Baptist Church of Forest City used to stand. It looks a lot different than the red brick building of my youth. It bears a similarity to the spires at the Holy Family Church in Barcelona, Spain, except this one is made of metal and glass.
I’ve just gotten word that Dr. Chronenberg needs me to go to Cydonia, Mars with Tana and the others. Apparently, university administrators are asking hard questions about me as well as what Dr. Chronenberg has been up to, so he’s asked me to run some errands up there for him. So Tana and I are heading to the spaceport in what was Chesnee, South Carolina as I write this. Where I’ll be next time I get a chance to write is anybody’s guess!
Chapter 5
Happy 534th Birthday to Me!
Today is May 8, 2505, and it’s my five hundred thirty-fourth birthday. Somewhere along the way, I’m missing memories of quite a few of them.
I’m not on Earth anymore, or even in the same solar system. I’m in Tana’s hometown of T’siere, in Kirtal province, on the Elaren homeworld. I had been on Mars for about five weeks when the proverbial crap hit the proverbial fan.
But before I get into all that, let’s talk about Cydonia and Mars. It’s been completely terraformed, with breathable air, pressure to support life forms on the surface, oceans, trees, rivers, and so on and so forth. You can still tell you are on Mars from the sunsets, but you can get lost in the idea that you are still on Earth.
They began terraforming about three hundred fifty years ago, with a breathable surface being achieved about a century ago. The old domed colonies and underground cities are still around, but the domes have long since disappeared and the underground cities are being exposed to the surface at a fast rate. Standing on the floor of Valles Marineris without the need for a spacesuit is stunning to this sci-fi geek.
We mainly stayed in Cydonia, in apartments near the “Face” or that object that appeared to NASA scientists to look like a carved face when the Viking probe flew over and took pictures. Not knowing any better, they thought it was an effect of light and dismissed it, setting of generations of conspiracy theorists.
Well, I hate to break it to them, but it WAS a face! There was life on Mars, eons ago. Despite the odds against it, the native Martians became a highly advanced society, albeit sadly without a space program. On the first manned mission to Mars in 2105, they went into a cave and found a doorway, which led to wild speculation as to what was inside. When they managed to find a way to protect the door from the elements outside, they found that it wasn’t hard to open. Once they did open it…
…they found that it was an airlock to an underground colony. Once through, they went down a long, winding tunnel, then through another airlock, and finally through one last door. I saw a video documentary on all of this at the Museum of Martian History in Hellas, and, from what I saw, it looked like all the people in the world at that time were transfixed by the live pictures coming from Mars (albeit on a time delay due to the millions of miles).
When they opened the door, the viewers were far from disappointed. What they found were actual living Martians, residing underground for all these eons. Sad to say, they weren’t all green-skinned, but a rich shade of orange. Their underground civilization had been fighting against the drying out of their world, and there were fewer than three million of them left.
What almost happened to them was similar to what happened to the dinosaurs: a massive asteroid plunged into their planet and caused massive devastation. In an instant, entire cities were wiped out. Billions died, and the record of their existence seemingly wiped out. However, there were a few hardy souls who managed to head underground, and, through luck and hard work, found a way to sustain themselves in underground shelters for ages until they could build what would become a network of underground colonies, connected by an incredible network of subway cars.
Today the native Martians, whose native name I still can’t pronounce, are once again on the surface. Thankfully, the explorers avoided the mistakes that wiped out the aboriginal natives back on Earth when Europeans went exploring, and took pains to avoid wiping out the Martians with our germs, or wiping ourselves out with theirs. They had been monitoring our signals since the first satellite was put into orbit, and had wondered if we would ever pay them a visit. They themselves were as transfixed by first contact as we were!
Native Martians, and those who are born here, are extremely tall, due to the light gravity. They mainly stay on their homeworld or in space as Earth gravity is extremely harsh on them, due to the fact that Martian gravity is 38 that of Earth normal. However, they have adapted English as their second language, mainly because it’s easier than their native tongue. There are plenty of slang terms that I had to get used to, on top of all those I had to learn back in Rutherford City.
We left Mars about three weeks ago when they suspended the good doctor. The university administrators found out that Dr. Chronenberg had been conducting unauthorized experiments and have suspended him until their investigation is complete. This meant that it would be a whole before I could go back to Earth, and it was Tana’s idea to head out of the solar system. From what I had discovered, Tana’s family is extremely wealthy, so all this travel isn’t exactly breaking them. I also am lucky in the fact that the old Trent Richards socked away plenty of money himself.
We first stopped off at Atlantis, a marvel in itself. The science of this age is flat unreal! They managed to take all the rocks in the asteroid belt, bring them together, and construct a “Dyson’s sphere” out of these rocks. So what Atlantis had become was a world inside another world. The planet has an artificial atmosphere, and inside the planet is another world on the ‘flip side’, several miles down under the crust, with it’s own ‘sun’ (a massive lighthouse which is a fusion generator that spins the planet to produce gravity). We stayed there for five Earth days, and then caught a flight to Elaren.
Yes, Virginia, they have broken the light barrier, or at least found a way around it. They use artificially created ‘wormholes’ to travel between star systems, which are a combination of jumpgates from Babylon 5 and stargates from Stargate SG-1, except on a much larger scale. Interstellar flight isn’t really that bad, as they have artificial gravity on the ships, and inertial dampeners help to resist the effects of ultra-fast travel.
The Elarens live about 400 light years away from Earth, in a solar system of fourteen planets, three of which are Earthlike. They have oxygen-nitrogen atmospheres, so breathing for me wasn’t a problem, and neither was the gravity, which was 94 that of Earth normal and not much of a problem either. It’s a very beautiful place.
I described earlier that Tana’s skin was a deep blue with a silk-like feel. It has something to do with a combination of the light from a distant star as well as ancient genetic manipulation to protect themselves from the radiation from the solar winds when they began to travel in space. They also have three hearts and three lungs, but they are pretty much on the same level as Humans when it comes to strength and endurance.
Her people are very friendly indeed, and they are so hospitable that it makes we ancient southerners look like pompous, upper class, stuck up aristocrats. Tana’s family was especially kind to me, as they put me up in their mansion without hesitation. It’s weird to sleep on a world where the day is thirty-four hours long, but Tana’s been a great help to me on that topic!
I’m not exactly sure what the future holds here for me. I’ve not talked to Dr. Chronenberg in weeks, and Tana wants to wait until he contacts us. In a few days time, I’ll be heading out with her to more worlds in the Confederation, staying long enough to rest up, catch a few sites, planning for the next jaunt, and moving on. I have no idea when I’ll be back on Earth, if ever.
Chapter Six
Resolutions and Decisions
I’m back on Earth, and for the Fourth of July no less, although, as I said earlier, it’s Remembrance Day here. So all of Dr. Chronenberg’s worries were over one person: Dr. Awri Shalitar, whom I mentioned earlier. She’s a Persian woman, quite beautiful in face, and she’s also a bureaucrat’s dream. When she found out what happened, she confronted the doctor, and asked that I be found and brought back to Earth. I arrived about a week after I left Elaren.
I went before a special committee appointed by the chancellor of the university, Valentina Sonoreva, and I told them all about what I had been through. I held nothing back, and they seemed to be moved by my story. They decided to bring the President of the Republic into this, and told her what had gone down. Portina de Soto debriefed me herself, and, after telling me my side of the story, added me on to her staff as a senior advisor so she could learn more about the pre-war effort, because history is a passion of hers. I could still keep my university job, which I will, but I won’t have to teach a class until her term expires in five more years.
However, I have a decision to make: I have been given the option of going back, despite the risks. It could kill me if things don’t go right, and there’s no guarantee that it’ll put me back in the exact time. It may be a few hours off, a few days, or even a few years.
I don’t know yet if I can fit myself into this world, but, then again, I never did quite fit into the world of my own times. Had I still been in love with my now-ex-girlfriend, it would have been an easy choice, but since things are the way they are, I am unsure.
Dr. Chronenberg doesn’t want me to go back, but he’s given me his word, or Dr. Shalitar has forced him to give his word, that he’ll help me try and get back to my own time. However, the longer I wait, the harder it’ll be to get back as close to my own time as possible. When I was ‘abducted’, it was in an area with little foot traffic, but the risk is that I’ll ‘reappear’ on top of someone and ‘merge’ with him or her, resulting in a very painful death. I worry, though, that if I don’t go back, that history will be altered, no matter what the physicists tell me it’s ok for me to stay here, as any changes would have been noticed.
Tana doesn’t want me to go back. She hasn’t said as much yet, but I can tell by the way she tenses up whenever the subject is brought up. Our lovemaking has been fierce these last few nights, and she has brought over many of her friends as well to participate and try and convince me, in an indirect way, to stay.
Despite its immense size, Rutherford City is a beautiful place. My apartment is a wonderful abode, and my neighbors are wonderful. Dr Shalitar has told me that, if I stay, I can assume the ‘role’ of Dr. Trent Richards and teach twentieth century American history once my time as presidential advisor was over with. She has bent over backwards to help me out since I came back, and she makes a very convincing argument to stay.
Today is Remembrance Day here, as I said earlier. I joined the president at the Cathedral of the Fallen for the solemn ceremony marking the lives lost in the wars. Downtown Forest City has changed dramatically since I was last there five hundred years ago, but Main Street looks the same, as it still has that split in the middle and, somehow, they have managed to salvage the burnt chimney monument that marks where the road splits on the west side of the street. Thousands of humans and aliens, quietly holding candles, listen on as the various Essentialists and clerics of other faiths chant whatever religious texts they use to underline the theme of peace, love, and compassion that mark the day. It’s a beautiful sight to behold.
It’s late. I have a decision to make soon. I have until, officially, the end of the year to make the decision, but it’s better if I make it soon. Do I go back to my own time, regardless of the risks, and return to a world I know all too well? A world in which I have struggled to deal with because of my own demons, but at least I knew how to navigate that world.
Or do I stay here in this ‘modern’ world, where I have the job I always dreamed of, lovers who care for me like I’ve never been cared for before, friends who have treated me with such love and respect to have touched me deeply, and a woman who has given so much of herself to someone that just showed up one day that I never can repay her? But I am not of this world or of this time, and I am not sure if I will able to successfully adapt to this time period.
Decisions, decisions.
Chapter Seven
The Road to Decision
It’s Labor Day, or as they call it here, Celebration of Labor Day. Basically, it’s the same holiday as it’s always been.
I’ve been in an upbeat mood as of late, working with the President as her senior advisor, as well as working on some history stuff. I signed a book deal (yes, they still have books here in this day and age, but the paper is synthetic) to write about the war, specifically the lead up to the war. It’s been interesting to see how things went so out of control in America as well as the rest of the world from the time I left the scene until the time war broke out.
I’ve been reading Jessica’s book as well. To say it’s chilling would be an understatement. One line that she wrote in it, “When I was younger, I watched the occasional horror film, but there is nothing more frightening than having to literally run for your life from people who want to kill you for what you believe in.” She talks about how she managed to escape the outbreak of the war, fleeing north and managing to make it to New York. She describes how her Jeep was riddled with bullets as she sped through Washington, DC, as the battle for the government had dissolved into urban warfare along the Potomac.
I’ll comment on it later on, because every time I read it, it depresses me. I never actually met Jessica, just had her as a friend on a social website called LiveJournal. In her photos of the time, she was always smiling. However, the marked change in her in the book is that all the photos of her inside show her with a sad frown, as if her heart had been broken. I imagine seeing what she had witness could do that to anyone.
I work on the site where she once worked, as the Sheriff’s office has become the Presidential Palace, right next to the Parliament building. Unlike in the past, the executive, legislative, and judicial buildings are connected to one another. It can get a bit crowded, as old Rutherfordton was built mostly on a steep hill, but the view from my office is breathtaking. Politics are still a figurative blood sport in this day and age, but at least it will never go to the literal kind. The people here are keenly aware of their history, and don’t want to repeat the mistakes of the past.
I should mention that President de Soto is married…to a woman. Marriage has been for all consensual adults for years, and even polygamy is legal in this time. Since people live for centuries nowadays, it was seen in the past to allow multiple couplings so as to help ease the strains of a marriage. Divorce is quite rare in this day and age, as it’s both difficult to get married and difficult to get divorced. You have to go through a mandatory counseling program for each, and it is a major statement of love to get married. Marriages aren’t that common anymore, because most people aren’t willing to go through the requirements of getting married. However, civil unions are permitted for those who don’t want to go through the whole marriage thing, or who aren’t ready for marriage.
Homophobia is a relic of the past, too, thank goodness. Gay couples are almost as common as heterosexual couples, and more and more people are calling themselves bisexual these days. My neighbor, Haswari Bento, is a professor of sociology, specializing in human and alien sexuality. She says that bisexuality has become almost a given in most people these days, and has been rising past acceptance and into the mainstream for centuries.
So it comes as no surprise that I’ve long since had my first same-sex experience, and it was wonderful. It was a bit awkward at first, but once I got over my initial anxiety, I relaxed and enjoyed the experience. I have about a dozen lovers, Tana being the main one who lives with me, and it is an even split between the sexes. I don’t have sex every night, mind you, but it’s rare when I don’t.
I know what you are thinking as you read this, “When will he make this decision of his?” It’s not as easy as you’d think. I can’t stress how different things are here, and how tough it is to adapt to living in this time. I can honestly say that I spend every second from the time I wake up until the time I go to sleep learning. It’s not been easy, to tell you the truth.
The summer time is ebbing away, and soon it will be fall. Yes, they still play American football here in this day and age. It’s a co-ed sport now, by the way. Sports are pretty much the same now as they were in my time. Baseball is still played, as is basketball, hockey, soccer, and so on and so forth. Sports are still extremely popular, and I have added time in my schedule to participate in various pick-up leagues. And with medical technology as advanced as it is, I can look forward to a long career in sports, albeit knowing I’ll never make it into the professional ranks.
I have decided to give myself as much time as I can to make this decision. I have set a deadline of Christmas Day for myself to come up with a decision. I chat about this with my friends on a regular basis, and they keep lobbying me to stay. I must admit that I am leaning that way at the moment, but whenever I read Jessica’s book, I lean towards the other way.
You see, if I go back into the past, then there is a chance that I could stop all of the madness to come. It would not be easy, but it would mean that I would at least have the chance to save the world from the madness that descended upon it. I know the odds would be against me, and I am told over and over again that I could only do so much, and that there were others who stood up and tried to stop the slide into the abyss that the world was taking. Nevertheless, I have to at least consider going back, because reading the past everyday has me thinking that I could not live with myself if I didn’t at least try.
Night draws near, and Tana is on her way over for the evening. I have much to discuss about with her, as I seem to do every night. She knows that the decision is near, and I know how she feels, but she knows that, in the end, this is my decision, and I have to consider all sides before committing myself to a path.
Chapter 8
A Chill in the Air, A Warmth in the Heart
Thanksgiving has come, and while some of the traditions and celebrations have changed, the meaning has not. Meats are still around, after a fashion, but they are synthesized from soybeans and other vegetables. It tastes remarkably the same, and cooks just like it. The reasons for this aren’t what you would think. Enemies on all sides poisoned most of the domesticated animals that were raised on farms during the wars, and it became so risky to eat any real meat that scientists came up with a way to simulate them in a lab, and nowadays farm animals are mostly for the spacious zoos that we have here in Rutherford City.
I’m still weighing my decision as I write this. The more it seems that I get closer to a final decision, the more things come up to cloud my resolve. Tana and my friends have been politely lobbying me to stay here, but they haven’t pushed it. It’s hard enough as it is, and it would be even more so if I had constant lobbying in my ear all the time. Thankfully they haven’t come close to the limits yet.
President de Soto is assuming that I am going to stay, and has already made arrangements for me to travel with her on her tour of the western part of the Milky Way Galaxy. It’s roughly a two-month trip, but we’ll still be able to communicate with Earth and the other planets in near-real time. I’m not exactly sure how it works, but I can talk to someone on the other side of the galaxy with only a few seconds delay. It’s an amazing thing, but it is a bit expensive. Luckily calls inside the solar system are basically free through my communications plan.
I was wondering the other day about if there were any homeless or destitute people in this time, and I found out that the government has a program to make sure everyone is fully capable of working and making it in this world. Brain treatments help those who are mentally challenged become fully functional people, and mental illnesses are taken very seriously, with a variety of treatments available. It’s not the “super race” that some people feared when we were able to manipulate genes, but it does help those who need the extra work to live their lives fully.
It may seem like utopia, but crime still exists, sad to say. It’s more sophisticated, mostly limited to fraud, computer hacking, and smuggling in illegal substances. Prostitution has long since been legalized, and is considered (and this will blow you mind, for sure) a noble profession. There are no street hookers, just brothels. I asked Tana to go to one a few weeks ago, and she jumped at the chance. You would not believe how sophisticated these places are. They are huge resort hotels that pamper you like only those of the Hollywood jet set had access to back in the day. They not only have plenty of Human females and males to have fun with, but a variety of Human-compatible aliens are also available.
And yes, Tana and I took full advantage of the facility’s services. In fact, we stayed a whole weekend there!
So here I am, in a day and age that would shock and amaze those back in my time, weighing whether or not I want to go back or not. I have a meeting with the president on Monday to talk it over, and then it’s on to my usually packed schedule of briefings, reading, and lectures. Makes me yearn for the days when I was a simple security guard!
One last thing: it’s snowing outside. They are able to manipulate the weather to even out the extremes, but they sometimes don’t quite get it right. Thus, we have snow for Thanksgiving! Of course, it’s not a big problem in this day of levitating transports and flying cars, but it does make walking a bit tricky. That is, only when you aren’t walking on a sidewalk with heated elements inside the pavement to melt the ice and snow before it makes contact.
The time for my decision draws near. I have much to think about, but, for this weekend, I’ll just concentrate on the holiday.
Chapter 9
Should I Stay or Should I Go (Back)?
In the end, it wasn’t a hard decision after all, and I told the president so on that Monday morning. “Are you sure?,” she asked me, and I simply nodded my head and said, “Time should be like an arrow. We should only be able to go forward.”
So, I’m staying here in the future. My family will go on, and so will my friends back in that time. Life’s full of mysteries, and whatever happened to me is one of them.
Tana is, obviously, happy, but she also understands how hard a decision this was for me. We’ve become so close over these last few months since I showed up, and I now can’t imagine my life without her. It’s a damn good thing interspecies relationships are sort of normal around here, because if I brought Tana back to 2005, they’re be a lot of explaining to do, to say the least!
Despite the fact that Christianity is largely blamed for the events that led to the wars, they still celebrate Christmas. Its religious meanings have been lost over time, but the heart of the celebration still remains, and I think Christ would be pleased. The rampant commercialism still exists, but it’s far more enjoyable nowadays. I have a tree in my apartment as I write this, which was kind of hard to find since the Christmas tree became less trendy several hundred years ago.
I don’t know if I’ll send this back into the past or not, mainly because I am not sure if it’ll make it there. Tana asked me a while ago why I still write these entries, and I told her that I needed to try and at least let all of my family and friends know what happened to me so my disappearance isn’t a complete mystery. Hopefully my mom and the rest of my family will be all right, because no record exists of what happened to them when the war began.
In a way, I miss my old life. I miss chatting with my friends back then, but I have to stay here. I have so much to live for in this world. Thanks to the medical advantages of this age, I can expect to live for a very long time. I am in the best shape of my life, and I have never felt this wonderful. For the first time in my life, I am at peace with myself. I am truly content.
Dr. Shalitar came by and asked me to makes some lectures at the university when I get back from my tour with the president, and I told her I’d be happy to. She also gave me a Christmas gift: a collection of videos from the great sporting events between the time of my disappearance and the outbreak of the wars. I have some catching up to do on that matter.
Tana and some of our dear friends have come by to open presents tonight, so I have to leave off writing this for now. I wish I could tell you what it’s like to live in this time, but it’s hard to put into words. Like I said earlier, it’s not quite utopia, but it’s better than where I once lived. And the view from my hill is a lot better these days.
The End