F U T
U R E B A
R R I E R
( The 2nd
Novel )
Secret
Technology, Unrequited
Love, Absolute
Vengeance
© October
2014 Written by David
Wicker
Please do
not reprint
without permission
CHAPTER 5 - TELEPORTATION
[ CHOOSE A DIFFERENT
CHAPTER TO
READ ]
* * *
This chapter is
Rated: TEEN
Jeffrey didn't believe it, "Now wait just a minuette ! Didn't Tyr go through, 'Regression' for her crimes ?"
Murphy sighed and leaned back a little. The holographic chair he was sitting in bent to match his back comfortably. "Jeff, 'Regression' isn't permanent. I've always been against it, you know that. While still considered the most humane form of execution, which may change, the criminal still ages in the time period we send them to."
"She was 28 when she was Regressed to the age of 1, an infant, before sending her back in time to be rid of her. Our records indicate she was 10-years old when she received the Achilles Project package. You remember the terrible business with the Gate that happened to her."
"I think the original intention was for her to receive it when she was older so she might have a clearer knowledge of how to use it, but there was an error in the time way coordinates. So there's a good chance she doesn't know what it's used for, at her current age."
"In any case, she is young enough we should be able to retrieve it without her knowing and not further disrupt her new timeline. Our records indicate that it was sent to her through use of an outdated and highly illegal time transport capsule by her husband, whom is still in hiding, we have yet to locate him."
"While we are certain all of Tyr's memories were wiped through the regression phase, he could have recorded her stasis onto a Deep Scan Implicit and he's hoping to reunite with her later, whatever her age might be."
"All we know is the project, or plugin, has been activated, either by her or someone NEAR her. It's vital we get it back and leave Tyr in her time unchanged or there could be untold devastation throughout her future, quite possibly affecting us."
Jeffrey nodded. Sally let go of his shoulder. Her vengeance would have to wait till later.
Murphy continued leaning forward again, "On another note, Jeffrey, while I have you for a moment, how are you three enjoying Eden 02 ? Have you found any problems with it ?"
Jennie put his arm around Jeffrey and pulled herself closer to him. Jeffrey spoke, "No, it's great ! Excellent fruit. Good job on the river-chocolate too. Sally found it delicious."
Sally coughed noisily for a moment though it sounded suspiciously like, "F**k you."
Murphy nodded not understanding Sally's outburst, "I'll let Josh know. No dangers though especially, right ? That's the important thing. It's supposed to be completely safe for everyone."
Jeffrey squeezed Jennie's hand who had taken his. "Really safe. Really fun. I hope to return when we're done with this nasty business."
Murphy blinked tiredly and pinched the bridge of his nose with two fingers. It looked like he could use a vacation too. "Right. I'm sending you an air car now. Standby, see you at base in a minute."
The image vectored out and deconstructed quickly like laser-lines were erasing it even after Jeffrey had lowered his arm. In front of them on the road a large futuristic vehicle without wheels started being constructed quickly with the same kind of laser-line technology whispering the air around it as it was built from nothingness.
It was shaped like a small sleek minibus, a kind of hard acrylic plastic covered it, dull-grey in color, and smoked glass appeared and floated into place in both the front and rear windows.
In less than a minute, the hatch to it opened up vertically and the vehicle raised to float a foot above the ground. Inside were comfortable seats made out of the spongy acrylic material. As soon as Jennie stepped in the mud around her started to vanish and burn away, as if it were not permitted in the vehicle.
It was a little disconcerting and there was a bit of a peeling sound so she gripped Jeffrey's hand concerned rubbing her arm at the sticky uncomfortable feeling.
He answered her, "It's okay, Jennie. I know it feels kind of creepy for it to do that. The Reagent for this vehicle has a different signature. Perfectly safe."
She nodded understanding, and when they were sat down she tilted her head into his lap as if she were tired from her earlier adventure in the river. Jeffrey, shocked at her sudden actions, carefully put his hand in his own lap to caress her face there. She cooed up delightedly at him.
Sally sat on the opposite side with her arms crossed, fuming at the obvious way she threw herself at him. She would get back at Jeffrey later for her beauty treatment once he got home later tonight. And she would bring lipstick. He has to sleep sometime.
A powerful engine glowed in the back outside the vehicle but no heat. With half the brightness of the sun, the vehicle suddenly shot straight ahead plowing through people, trees, buildings, everything, as if they were all mirages. Jeffrey recognized a friend of his as the vehicle went by and he waved friendly at him.
His friend was in his swim trunks and had a surfing board under one arm. Nearby rapidly pulling out of view you could see the crashing surf and another homemade hut where fish were frying from a violet flame, though the fish had no eyes on them. It sped out of sight as the vehicle exceeded the speed of sound in its travel.
10-minutes later, a glowing telepod was seen ahead from the front windshield, also outside, and there was no outer covering for it. The air car careened tilting sideways slightly to approach it, making a slight electric hum as if it were straining against the unseen engine of the vehicle.
It stopped comfortably just beside it and the clam-shell door opened up as the engine whined to close down. Jeffrey roused Jennie from his lap and both him and her stepped out followed by Sally. There was a piercing bright light as the vehicle deconstructed behind them and the large opaque disc-shaped pedestal stood before them.
A control console was nearby, made out of pure crystal and slightly smoked and transparent with glowing lights appeared inside occasionally.
They stepped onto the pedestal as the vehicle behind them vaporized in the familiar laser-lines. They walked forward and turned around until they made a slight triangle where they were standing.
They stood motionless. Jeffrey looked around. Sally was fidgeting uncomfortably with one of her hands. He nodded his head to her suddenly and she flinched and put her arms at her side. He looked around again, certain everything was accurate and they were standing the correct way.
"Teleport." he said suddenly. Sally gulped nervously. She never did like this.
* * *
The pedestal they stood on rumbled suddenly and then a crystal sheath appeared over them like being built up by glass soap bubbles, only up to their head, covering them and freezing their movements. A few acrylic tubes rolled down to click to the sides of their cocoons flashing a few lights of energy inside of them.
Other devices were fabricated from the air by laser-lines and wavered down in sight near their heads but awaited the next spoken orders before they would proceed. Billows of grey fog wafted from under the pedestal onto the grass around it, apparently the byproduct of a coolant to prevent the machine from overheating.
Jeffrey spoke, his head still able to move, but not the rest of him as the glass soap bubbles held him in place. "Diamante Research, Lab 04, please."
The console beeped an acknowledgement and then their heads were covered in the crystal sheathes as well, like sticky glue. Jennie's long hair was frozen in time, strands sticking out as if they were made out of ice in midair.
For a moment Sally's chest could be seen breathing hard against the cocoon and her head trembled even against the hard grip against it to keep it still during transport.
Then that froze and there was a deep sound of energy, almost as if under the planet and the sunlight seemed to dim slightly in their view. The other apparatus near their heads snapped on rapidly, special crystalline discs for the eyes, spongy rubber acrylic for their ears, nose, and mouth.
There was a sound of uncertain breathing from Sally and then thick gelatin shot up through the tubes to all 3 noses and mouths.
Sally made a wet choking sound for a minute from the unexpected loss of air but then stopped when a brighter flash of light enveloped their cocoons and the sound of an immensely strong engine powered up. Laser-lines appeared and rapidly deconstructed the 3 leaving their cocoons empty.
There was a hissing sound and the cocoons themselves suddenly dissolved as if being burned by the air around them. There was a clacking sound and the apparatus from their faces shot up out of the way and deconstructed in midair as well. The machine powered done, its job complete.
Then there was nothing. A stillness. And there was a middle between that stillness. A soft kind of darkness, darker than empathy and malice combined. And there were divisions between that, and between that as well, until there were millions of molecular divisions where a very particular course of darkness was chosen amongst the billions around it.
15-light years away, three cocoons formed like frosting ice, on a similar pedestal appeared to have the perfect crystalline outline of the 3 being transported, but they weren't there yet. The pedestal rumbled as new energy poured into use. Grey vapor emitted around the pedestal as it operated.
A warning red light flashed above the console which finally turned yellow, and then green strobing rapidly stating correct activation. There was a pleasant beep and then a blinding flash of light within the cocoons. Laser-lines rapidly reconstructed the 3 within the crystal casings.
Jennie's hair flopped down suddenly and you could see Sally's chest still breathing hard in the crystal sheathe. There was an enormous pop and the layer of crystal around them broke and shattered like glass, dissolving in midair like liquid against cotton candy.
Sally fell over on the pedestal her hands on the surface, coughing noisily. She spat hard and globs of the wet teleport gelatin spewed from her mouth and vanished before they hit the floor.
The other two stood their ground perfectly motionless. Sally wiped her mouth angrily though the gelatin was designed to evaporate immediately upon transport. "Goddamit I hate that thing !" she said with acid in her voice looking up at the ceiling as if cursing the dead developer of it.
Jeffrey was unapologetic and turned to look at her, "You should hold your breath like I do."
Sally looked to Jennie but she just shrugged and smiled, also unsympathetic. Then everyone except Sally got off the pedestal. They looked to her questioning.
"I need to go home and get some rest." she said suddenly sounding very tired, and then straightening up to stand in the right posture. She closed her eyes tightly and her cheeks puffed out showing she was holding her breath this time.
Jeffrey smiled and spoke absently to the console, "Teleport dais three - Sally Weirstrom residence." and then he stepped away with Jennie not bothering to look behind them. The machine powered back up but they had already left the room and walked straight through a solid closed door that had an arrow facing up. They passed through it like it wasn't there.
As they were inside the door, the arrow changed to a square, and then back to an up arrow once they were clear of it.
There was a gorgeous hallway and instead of walls, it was one long display screen showing information all over it up and down the hallways that appeared to extend for miles. The floor's edges were also some kind of display screen as little advertisements from everything from soda to kids toys trailing along the corners leaving the middle of the floor clear.
Jeffrey looked to a soda ad that showed a pretty girl in a sparkly illuminated dress floating what appeared to be 20 feet up in the air on a comfortable jeweled pink chair and sipping a soda that sat on a floating pedestal. She drank it with a sparkling crystalline straw that changed and lit up with new colors each time she sipped through it.
The soda can had a viewscreen where a brightly colored cartoon was seen. Above that was a long thin screen that trailed the ingredients, flavors, and special codes to enter on your LifePod to win prizes and other toys. Suddenly the girl pointed excitedly to the screen and said, "It's RoseAFlo !"
Because all advertisements had to be silent so as not to disturb others, text appeared below showing what she said instead of verbally speaking it.
The advertisement finished up, "Drink Sapphire in new Flavor, TEAL ! Now with negative 5000 calories ! Watch a great new episode of everyone's favorite super-heroine, RoseAFlo, with every purchase ! Collect them all and don't forget the special codes to win those great FREE prizes !"
Jeffrey appeared confused for a second looking away, and finally spoke while tapping the side of a wall where a "?" suddenly appeared where his finger rested. "Location. Where is Murphy Auguire, please ?"
A delicious woman's computer's voice spoke in reply, "Murphy is in Meeting Room 23. Do you need directions to get there, Jeffrey Stansil ?"
"Thank you." he said ignoring the question and him and Jennie walked on, finally seeing a bright side of wall with a more complex design. Above it written and glowing in futuristic text was, "Meeting Room 23 - Criminal Cases." There was the telltale arrow facing up below it showing it was an entry mark.
END OF
CHAPTER 5
Return back HOME
prev chapter
Share This
Email
Facebook
Twitter
Read Request
My Library
Subscribe
Flag Writing
