Meet the Press

It was Thursday, and nearly a week had passed since Marina’s homecoming and Shivu was standing at the entrance to the Interstellar Tele Port in New York City. He checked his watch again, and exhaled with exasperation. Every time Marina arrived back from an expedition naturally Josh was late to all his appointments, but this was one appointment Josh didn’t want to miss. For the fifth time, Shivu tapped his watch and began to call him, but stopped midway realizing it was pointless as Josh simply wouldn’t answer.

Meanwhile, just over his shoulder and behind his head the Solar News Report had been going on for some time. Shivu mostly ignored it until a name caught his attention. He spun around to view the screen just as the story ended.

“Computer!” Shivu exclaimed, and the disembodied voice of the station—sounding feminine and slightly mechanical—replied,

“Yes, Dr. Math, how can I help you?”

“Play back the last story on the view screen that I’m looking at right now,” he ordered.

The voice replied, “Certainly Dr. Math.”

The image of a crime scene investigation appeared on the screen as the news reporter inset at the top right of the screen cheerily added his commentary to the images.

“SBI officials were called in to investigate yet another mysterious disappearance, bringing the total to 53. Dr. Ryan Jorgensen, a Quantum Mechanics Physicist well known for his work in warp theory and the practical applications of warp drives, was reportedly on his way to the Station Zed-Alpha-Three base between Earth and Mars when the teleporter pad announcing his arrival, flashed briefly and then went offline. This is a new lead that the investigators are looking into further…”

The reporter went on to say the teleporter was dismantled and diagnostics were run through the whole system with no trouble found. There’s a chance that multiple teleporters may be taken offline, but this was uncertain; however, Shivu was no longer paying attention, as Josh had decided to take that moment to finally make his appearance.

“Shivu! Hey man. Have you been waiting long?” Josh said.

“Yes!” his exasperation clearly exuding from every pore, “And you even wanted to be at this event.” Shivu responded.

Josh tried to look solemn.

“Sorry, Marina’s getting ready to go back tomorrow. I just couldn’t…well you know,” Josh said, and then gave Shivu a knowing grin.

To which Shivu beamed back his own toothy grin, “Stocking up for the long haul are we?” They both laugh heartily and the mood lightens, “Well come on then, we probably won’t get good seats now, but hopefully we will get to snag him afterward.”

They made their way out of the station and were almost down to the sidewalk when it occurred to Shivu, “Hey! Josh did you see the Solar news?”

“Well normally by this hour, I would say yes, but not today. Why?”

“Ryan just came up missing.”

“No way,” Josh was stunned. “What happened?”

“Vanished on the teleporter,” Shivu answered.

“What the Devil is going on?” Josh asked.

“That is a very good question.” Shivu said.

“Do they think it could be a teleporter malfunction?” Josh asked.

“I don’t know; they were talking about it briefly when you decided to show up.” Shivu replied. “I can pick up the replay.”

He tapped his watched and asked the computer to replay the latest report on the disappearance of Dr. Ryan Jorgensen and they both watched the report as they made their way to the World Trade Center tower.

The sun was hot, there was a slight breeze, and the sky was cloudless; the streets were noisy with swarms of people busily making their way through the man made maze this way and that; advertisements were rampant and poking at the men from every angle, but Josh and Shivu were unaffected and could not be swayed from the holo-projection as they held a vigil for their friends’ story playing out before them, but even after replaying the story three times they were still none-the-wiser for it.

“I can’t believe that’s all they have to say about it.” Josh said finally, and then using a mocking tone, “Officials are looking into it, but are confident that they are dealing with a localized malfunction…blah blah blah!”

At that moment the light bulb went on and Shivu’s eyes lit up. “I wonder if we should get involved in the investigation,” Shivu said, “Maybe it’s a temporal disturbance.”

Josh stopped abruptly and turned to his friend. “Wow! Shivu you might be on to something there!” he said, “Let’s put that to the board and see what they think, and in the mean time you could do some research on it back at your office next week when you get home.”

“I could do it tonight after we get done h…” Shivu began to offer, but Josh cut him off.

“…no no not right now, when we have to prepare for our next mission…”

“…you mean I have to prepare for our next mission. You won’t be doing anything until Marina’s gone and…”

“…ok ok, I get it; however, at least one of us should be focused on the upcoming mission so at least we are prepared.”

“Have I ever steered you wrong?” Shivu replied.

“Well…there was that one time…” Josh started to say, but Shivu had to interject,

“Oh, no you don’t! We’re not going there. First, I was a rooky and second, how was I supposed to know Thomas Edison had a dog named Pepper? There is nothing in history—recorded or otherwise—that he ever had a pet.”

“Well I guess there is now,” Josh added with a grin and a dash of sarcasm.

By this point, with the help of the moving sidewalks and the transport tubes they had managed to reach the World Trade Center and were approaching the elevators to take them to the conference room where Albert was about to be introduced to the world—once again. Josh pushed the call button instinctively—even though it was totally unnecessary as the elevators could sense their presence and one was already on its way to pick them up and take them to their floor. These elevators were even kind enough to read your intent as you stepped through the doors and would take you to your proper floor without you saying a word, and while Josh knew this, he still enjoyed the tactile feel of the buttons and had had a bit of practice when visiting certain eras of the past.

After pressing the buttons, he turned back to Shivu.

“Still Shivu, I think we should stay focused on the tasks at hand. We have a lot on our plate already and that kind of research…well…you know what kind of time it would involve.”

“Ok,” Shivu conceded, “You’re right, of course, but it would be interesting.”

Josh grinned and added, “let’s shelf this convo’ for later and go see Uncle Albert, shall we?”

They stepped into the elevator of crystal clear glass and were instantly whisked away to the conference floor. When the doors opened Shivu could tell they were late, because Salina was already addressing the press and announcing Albert’s arrival. They squeezed their way through the doors and into the room to find it was a standing-room-only affair.

“So much for even the worst seats in the house,” Shivu grumbled under his breath.

Josh just gave him a contemptible glance as they pushed their way to a corner where they could at least see Albert and Salina. Salina fielded a few questions and then Albert stepped up to answer few and was amazingly witty with his responses. The audience was both mystified and entertained, as the questions came at him rapid fire and he handled them better than a professional politician.

Good job, Salina, thought Josh, you get a gold star, for you definitely prepared him well.

When the conference was over, Salina, along with two large men in black suits, escorted Albert out of the overfilled room, passed the barrage of holographers and videographers scrambling to get those few last shots in, as the quartet made their way into a quiet sitting room. This was where Josh and Shivu met up with them, while the two suits waited just outside the door.

“Kudos to you Salina, once again you are amazing, and you Uncle Albert. You could have been running for president in there.” Josh said.

“Thank you.” Salina responded.

“Thank you, I think” Albert replied.

“I agree,” Shivu added, “You both were great. Well played.”

Salina and Albert both nodded their approval to Shivu, and then a quiet pause descended on them as it seemed that everyone wanted reflect on the moment.

“Well… Once again we are your chaperone uncle,”

Josh stated, breaking the silence, “I guess you know Salina has a report to give our superiors and mountains of emails to respond to so we have you for the rest of the day. What would you like to do?”

“Eat, I suppose.” Albert replied.

“Ack!” Salina exclaimed, “He does that a lot, and don’t get me wrong, I kind of like it, but it gets kind of expensive—and the budget we have for him has been…well…overextended. I’ve had to dip into my own funds”

Josh chimes in, “It’s ok; Shivu said he was buying this time, right Shivu?”

Shivu gets a deer-in-the-headlamps look, “Me? W…w…well I suppose.”

Josh smiles and saves him, “I’m just kidding; why do you always fall for that one?”

“Well you sounded so serious this time, and you’re always going on about how I should pull my own on the monetary side of things.”

“That’s ‘pull your own weight’,” Josh corrected, “Not really expecting that, Shivu, and definitely not right now. You know it’s almost an unwritten rule that the stepper always pays.”

Josh smiled and nodded at Shivu, and then he turned to Salina, grabbed her hand as if to shake it and then placed his other hand on top of both their hands, “Once again it is a pleasure to meet you—you should join us.”

Salina smiled and said, “While that’s tempting, I have less than an hour to finish my report and get to my office for the big meeting. Then there’s that mountain of emails I must answer, that you so eloquently pointed out; therefore, I must gracefully decline.”

“I understand,” Josh said as he steps aside to open and then hold the door for her to step through.

Anyone else would have thought the gesture was old fashioned, but all three men were well versed in chivalry—as was Salina.

As the door closed…“Where shall we go?” Shivu asked, “There are a great many of places around here—too many to choose from...”

“…and all of them will most likely get Albert recognized and then he will be swarmed with everyone from well-wishers to reporters.” Josh interjected.

“Oh dear,” Albert exclaimed, “I was popular in my time, and used to it, but at least I could go out to eat in public.”

“Well I’m sure that will be possible again eventually, once the novelty of you wears off, until then, you will have to lie low and stay with your chaperones. How about we go to the Top of the Tower?”

“That’s a great idea, it’s quiet and small,” Shivu answered.

Albert looked befuddled for a moment, “What’s a great idea? Oh! Is that a restaurant?”

“Indeed,” Josh answered, “and a great one. Very few people know of it and fewer still can afford it.”

“Can you afford it?” Shivu had to ask.

“Well, let’s just say, the budget will be overextended for while, but it will be worth it,” Josh replied with a small smirk. “…and I may have to have words with Marina when I get back home.”

As they made their way to the elevator Albert noticed something was not quite right, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. This time Josh simply allowed the elevators to do exactly as programmed and said nothing as they walked up to them, then into the first doors that opened. Josh and Shivu walked straight to the back and beckoned for Albert to stand between them. The crowd stayed pretty steady in the elevator as they ascended to the top floor. The elevator did its job efficiently and stopped only at the proper time to allow people on and off and to and from their floors. At first Albert wanted to say something, perhaps carry on a conversation, but Josh just put his finger to his lips and that discouraged him from attempting any further conversation. They stepped out at the top floor, into a foyer of sorts. The small room was decorated with a single plant, two paintings and a sign above a doorway that read “Top of the Tower”. Just inside the doorway was another sign—smaller and closer to hip level—it read “Welcome to the Top of the Tower, Please wait to be seated”.

As they stepped through the doorway, immediately a very human looking waiter moved with super human speed to the entrance and greeted them.

“Good afternoon, gentlemen. What may I do for you today?”

He stood six feet tall with broad shoulders, blonde hair and ocean blue eyes. His face was unnaturally smooth and perfectly balanced. His hair seemed to flow perfectly, with not one hair out of place, as it waved from front to back. His hands were both soft and strong no visible scars and the fingernails were perfectly manicured, at least one could see as much through the three menus he held in his hands. His body followed suit with his well groomed uniform form fitted to a very well formed and anatomically correct body. He reminded Albert of the Barbie dolls’ male companion.

Without thinking it through, Albert blurted out, “Are you a Robot?”

This brought a chuckle from Josh, Shivu and the waiter, but then Josh realized immediately the he needed to do some damage control.

“You can move amazingly fast! How do you do that?” He asked.

“Oh,” he giggled, “Sorry about that; I’m human. I take accelerators; it helps me get all my work done faster and then gives me brief respites throughout the day. I’m Ken, by the way.”

This time Albert laughed out loud, while the others looked on.

“Like the doll?” He finally asked, and that’s when it dawned on Josh and Shivu and they joined in the laughter. Still Ken seemed to be left out of the loop.

Finally he interrupted their jovial moment to ask, “Was it something I said?” but this only spurred the laughter on, so he straightened up and asked, “Can I help you gentlemen with something?”

This seemed to do the trick, and Josh was the first to sober up. “So sorry, Ken. Yes, we were going to have lunch today.”

“Very good, if you will just follow me, I will show you to your table.” Ken stated, staying in good humor.

He walked them up a flight of circular stairs to the middle of the circular dining room where the floor was raised to the highest point; from there the floor dropped a level in concentric circles out to the windows.

He then turned to ask, “Would you like a seat here or near the window?”

To which Josh replied, “Here will be fine.”

While a window seat would offer spectacular views of the city below, the center of the room gave you a 360o view of the dark blue sky with some wispy clouds and even a hint of stars shown through. Josh didn’t like either view of course, but he could handle the sky view better than the view of the ground from the window seats. Shivu understood this choice all too well and graciously sat down at the center table without protesting. Albert followed suit, while Josh asked for the Juve. Ken pointed him to the circular stairs and explained he would find it to the right of the entrance that they just came through. Ken carefully laid out the menus on the table and removed the extra chair with a tap on the table. The dining room was mostly empty except for a couple seated at the window just north of them. They could tell it was north because the chandelier just above their heads apparently doubled as a compass.

“Would you like to turn?” Ken asked.

“I beg your pardon?” Albert puzzled.

“We’ll decide on that later.” Shivu replied.

“What would you like to drink?” Ken asked.

“Bloody Mary with a stick of Celery for me,” Shivu said.

“Red Wine for me, please,” Albert added.

“…and do you know what your friend would like?” Ken asked.

“Mountain Dew White Out circa 2012, with a shot of Bacardi O Flavored Rum.” Shivu answered, and then turned to Albert and said, “It’s the precursor that probably inspired orlemonado.”

Ken acknowledged and zipped away as fast as lightening, leaving them alone with only each other and the aloof couple at the window to keep them company.

Albert couldn’t contain his curiosity any longer, “Is it safe to talk now?”

“Certainly,” Shivu replied, “and to answer your first question, yes, we were trying to maintain a level of stealth, or at the very least remain inconspicuous. You see…Josh and I aren’t really supposed to be seen with you. At least not yet, it’s too close to your arrival and people could put two and two together. Our job is classified above and beyond secret, so great lengths have to be taken to keep it that way. Josh and I actually have the ability to disappear—at least from sensors and cameras. We can also appear as different people to others around us. It’s called stealth mode, but it’s more like re-direction. The technology within us actually makes people ignore us as if we weren’t even there, but it doesn’t work so well if we interact with the unshielded people around us because then their attention is naturally drawn to who that unshielded person is talking to.”

“Oh, and that unshielded person is me.” Albert exclaimed.

“Right, and we took a chance with you the first time we went out to eat, but it wasn’t a big deal—it still isn’t. People saw you briefly and thought you looked an awful lot like Einstein, but our shielding made most of them forget they saw you and some chalked it up to your personal choice to look like Einstein that day. Some people do that.”

“Why is it such a big deal now?” Albert inquired.

“Well now the public knows you really are here and that we brought you back from the past. They won’t remember that encounter, but they will remember this one—even with our stealth in place. As I said our shielding isn’t perfect. It only re-directs people’s attention and fools cameras and sensors into thinking we are someone else. It doesn’t really make us invisible—we could do that, but it would be more difficult to get around. People would walk or run right into us.”

Ken slid up and quietly placed three very different glasses on the table. Albert’s red wine came in a fancy crystal, gold rimmed wine glass—naturally. Shivu’s Bloody Mary glass resembled a small mug with an ornate handle and lavish decorations, while Josh’s Mountain Dew merited a goblet with only one handle.

“Are you ready to order?” Ken asked.

“Not yet, we’ll wait for our friend,” Shivu said.

“Very good,” Ken said, and as quick and as quietly as he had come up, he was gone again.

The sound of lumbering footsteps echoed through the room as someone came up the stairs. Josh appeared around the bend of the last few steps and sidled up to the table.

“Sorry I had to hit the juve for the height nausea and catch up with Marin…What’s this?” he said, “you ordered my drink for me, curious. What did you get me?”

Shivu grinned big, “I’m not telling. You’re going to have to guess.”

Josh sat down and took a sip, “Oh my! That’s good. Tastes somewhat like an orlemonado, but all the flavors hit your tongue at once, and…alcohol? It’s a bit early for that isn’t it? Looks like you two have one too.”

“Well what do you think it is?” Shivu asked.

Josh took another sip, “Ok, it’s fizzy with a lemon, lime and orange fruity flavor. Heavy on the citrus with the alcohol content being Rum—Bacardi perhaps—’cause that’s my favorite. I can’t quite put my finger on the soda drink mixed in. Must be something very old because you like stuff with a history, but what is that citrus drink? Sprite, maybe or is it 7-up?”

“Ha! Close, no not even…” Shivu gloated “its Mountain Dew the special White Out flavor introduced in the early 2000’s”

“What about the rum? That’s Bacardi O isn’t it?” Josh asked.

“Ok, very good, you got that part right,” Shivu conceded.

“I guess that’ll teach me to walk away from the table without ordering my drink first,” Josh said, “I have to admit though. It is good.” He took a swallow this time, put the goblet down, and said, “So…what have you two been talking about while I was gone?”

Shivu explains that they were talking about the stealth mode and the reasons for it, just as Ken quietly zipped up again to their table.

“Sorry to interrupt gentlemen, but are we ready to order?”

Though they hadn’t even glanced at the menu, they all agreed that they were ready to order and everyone chose a favorite dish. They barely got back to their conversation about keeping their public interactions on the down-low when Ken was back with their meals.

“Wow Ken! That was fast.” Albert exclaimed.

“The replicators are pretty efficient here.” Ken admitted.

They all thanked him as he placed each dish in front of its owner, and then he zipped off to tend to the couple at the window—who now seemed to be southeast of them.

Albert had only just noticed this and…”so that’s what Ken meant by turning…”

Apparently the whole dining room turned and could be set at a different speed and direction for each concentric circle—not exactly racing speeds—mind you—with the top speed being 2 mph.

They ate lunch in near silence only briefly catching up on current events with each other in between mouthfuls of food. Albert had spent most of his time as a tourist of sorts visiting mostly with scientists and physicists and getting familiar with the advancements of this time. Shivu had been hard at work studying and teaching history. Josh had been almost languishing as he had taken the week off to spend as much of it with Marina as he could—even went shopping with her and her mother, which is something he almost never did. When lunch was done, Ken swept in cleared the plates, replaced the drinks at near the speed of light and without a word he was gone again.

Albert took a sip of his wine and decided to bring up a personal subject.

“Josh,” he said.

“Yes uncle,” Josh said.

“With all the amazing technology and medical advancement of the day, why are you afraid of heights?”

“I was wondering when you would bring that subject up.” Josh responded.

“Me too,” Shivu chimed in.

“I’m supposed to be dead, so I’m told, but that’s only part of the story. Wow! Where should we begin? This story isn’t exactly linear, so that adds an extra challenge to make the whole story make sense.

“Perhaps I should start with my Grandfather; he worked on the Time Machine project shortly before I was born. They were only attempting to send inanimate objects and robots back in time then. Testing on animals was not going to work, because there was a ban on using animals for testing purposes and the chance that one might be injured or killed could not be ruled out. They spent the next twenty years perfecting the time step process. In fact, there was a whole industry built up around the ability to ship products back through time. It was exponentially expensive and replicators could produce whatever you want for a phenomenally less cost. That industry died out and time stepping once again became a scientific pet project. Human trials hadn’t started until I was just starting college; I actually worked with my grandpa on the project as a student. That’s when I met a fellow student, Michael Martin, who was undergoing the rigorous training to become one of the very first time Steppers. There were four in training, and my job was to help them through the mental challenges of time travel. This was no easy task, as no one really knew what to expect. Never-the-less we pushed on. After we were able to send humans back in time, scientists and politicians started to look at practical applications of the time travel program. The line of thinking went from observing specific historical events to retrieving precious lost artifacts. While some of this does actually go on, those ideas paled in comparison to retrieving…well…people like you Albert.

“My grandpa continued to work towards achieving that, while I went on to work on other projects. Like getting married, and following her around the solar system, like a puppy dog on a leash.” Josh grinned, and Albert chuckled. “Actually it was quite fun, I got to be a student professor at a few colleges and even piloted a shuttle around Jupiter for a while. When my wife and I moved back to earth I managed to get my old job back with Berkeley. Just before my firstborn came to be, I was supposed to take a trip to the asteroid Ceres for a field research project. There were no teleporters on Ceres so we had to travel there the old fashioned way, by space craft usually launched from Mars. That space craft never made it; it crashed shortly after takeoff.

“The next part of the story gets fuzzy and this is where the linear part of it breaks down. I was supposedly in the hospital dying from my injuries, when I get a visit from someone claiming he was Michael Martin. The doctors could easily repair all the damage to my body—which was apparently extensive, but the radiation poisoning from the shuttle explosion and being exposed on the Martian surface was deteriorating my brain, and they were having trouble with that. I don’t fully understand all the medical jargon they used—I try to steer clear of it whenever possible. This scientist was in the hospital room with me. Apparently he had decided to let the disease of his brain finish its course and take his life. He had about two more weeks to live. We would talk on occasion when we were both coherent, mostly about innocuous things. Sometimes we would reflect back on our lives, realizing we were both dying. One morning I was feeling very depressed, that my life was going to be cut so short and my wife was pregnant and that I would never get to see her again or the baby—she couldn’t travel by teleporter while she was pregnant and a space flight would take too long. That’s when the scientist stood up walked over to me and introduced himself as my old friend and colleague Michael.

“I was sure I was dreaming, or maybe it was just a trick of my deteriorating mind. Michael was very patient with me, though, and he explained how the whole time stepping process worked, and how this scientist was Donald Thorpe a distant cousin of his. He didn’t have to convince me to come back with him. I was ready to go; I just needed to be convinced that this was a genuine offer. Once I truly believed him, he lay down and the scientist Donald Thorpe died on the spot.”

Josh paused and took a couple swallows from his goblet, his throat was getting dry and the memory of the crash, and the subsequent time spent in the hospital on his death bed, had his hands trembling.

Albert took the moment to clarify, “So the plane crash nearly took your life, I guess that would definitely qualify as a reason to be terrified of heights, but…”

“Oh, it did take my life,” Josh interjected. “Just as your body died in 1955 and we reconstructed a new one for you last week, my body died in that hospital, and a new one was reconstructed for me just 2 months later. I don’t understand what came next, as my memory fails me here. When I returned from that mission to save me, I have memories of preparing Michael for that same mission and then upon his return we celebrated the very first successful subject retrieval.”

“Well call that time lag,” Shivu added, “Many of our first subject retrievals suffered from this in the beginning until we completed the set up of Safe Haven for them.”

“It still doesn’t make any sense; it’s like the puzzle pieces just don’t fit together and when I try to think of that time for too long, I just break out in cold sweats and start trembling.”

Josh grabbed his goblet and took a long draft emptying it.

Shivu decided to let Josh collect himself and continued the story, “Michael went crazy after that, and even after all these years, the doctors haven’t been able to figure out how to treat him. Michael broke a cardinal rule…well it later became a cardinal rule when we discovered what happened. He actually attempted to bring the host back too. When you open your thoughts and allow them to intermingle with your host this apparently messes with your mind so when the stepper returns, part of him gets left behind”

“That’s terrible!” Albert exclaimed, “…and so two minds were ruined and one was lost on that day.”

“If you are referring to Donald Thorpe as lost, well he wanted to die, but he took a piece of Michael with him when he did—a piece that the doctors will never be able to recover.”

While Shivu and Albert continued to discuss Josh’s and Michael’s mental health, Josh just sat quietly and stared at his empty goblet until finally he couldn’t take it anymore. “I’m sorry gentlemen, but could we change the subject now? That subject combined with this tower is just too difficult.”

Albert and Shivu apologized and quickly found a more innocuous topic to discuss. Ken came back to top of their cups and disappeared before they even noticed, and the rest of the afternoon was spent in much the same way.