Chapter 13 — Wonder — Full!
“So he’s putting you up to this?” Abby questioned. She had been prying information out of Kaylie for the last fifteen minutes as they dangled their feet in the water, impatiently worrying over Rick’s absence.
Kaylie was baiting her to demand more info. “No, I just told him that you two make a perfect couple and you really seem to belong here. Alex, Jessie, and Anna all really love you and think you’re the perfect mother—”
“You really told him all that?”
“Yeah, and you act like you want to stay too. And he should ask you to—”
“What did he say about that?”
Hook, line and sinker, Kaylie smiled inwardly as she reeled her in. “Oh, he said you already told him no—”
“But that was two years ago!” Abby argued.
Kaylie mentally high-fived herself, “Well, I think you should let him know you might have changed your mind,” she suggested.
“But how do I tell him?”
Kaylie was amused at Abby, acting like a high school girl with a crush on the quarterback. I thought I was supposed to be the immature one, she thought to herself with a smile, then decided to give an immature answer, but good advice, “Duh, with your mouth... speak! You’re an adult, right?”
Abby chastised herself, “Gosh, you’re so right. I’m being childish! No wonder you and Rick are such good friends, Kaylie. You are a smart and mature young lady,”
“Thank you,” she replied, sincerely flattered.
Luckily, Kaylie was holding the rope loosely; it nearly pulled her into the water when it suddenly tightened. She practically jumped out of her skin.
“Kaylie?” Abby asked, startled too.
“It just scared me,” Kaylie said, indicating the rope. “Rick’s coming back!” she yelled to the girls across the water and they all splattered over to her.
Twelve eyes stared intently at him as he emerged from the pool. Nobody spoke, anticipating the details of his photography session. He quickly pulled out the bag, opened it and handed it to Alex. They were like ducks after a single piece of bread, swarming, jockeying for position. As the pictures appeared on the screen, a collective gasp filled the room (or emptied it), followed by random “Ooh’s” and “Aah’s.” After only fifteen pictures, Alex abruptly turned the camera off.
“What are you doing?” Anna protested.
Alex tore off her pants and extra shirt like they were on fire, “We’re going in there!” she declared and waded into the water.
The other girls hurriedly shucked their clothes as well.
“Wait!” Rick demanded, “We need to pack some stuff to take with us, and nobody is going until I’m at the other end to make sure you get there safely.”
Alex angrily swam back and started to get out, but then slumped back into the water. “Is it cold over there?” she asked.
“It seemed a lot warmer, but I was so excited that I really can’t remember.”
“We should take our extra clothes,” Abby decided, pulling out a roll of trash bags and tearing one off. She gathered all the clothes now strewn about the cavern. Rick added the cube and the camera. Jessica and Christy jumped in with a splash to join Alex, and Anna followed shortly.
Rick turned the lantern on. “I’m gonna leave this burning so we’ll have some light when we come back.”
Kaylie sidled up to him and whispered into his ear, “She’s staying, all you gotta do is ask.”
“Really?” he jerked his head to look her in the eye.
She simply winked in reply as she headed toward the pool.
“I’m gonna adopt you someday, I swear,” he whispered back to her.
Abby, noticing some communication between the two, joined Kaylie (probably to eavesdrop on whatever secrets they were sharing) and slowly walked into the pool with her.
Rick checked the bag, tied it tightly while expelling the excess air, and tossed it near the tunnel, barking out instructions to the others. When he was sure they understood, he snatched the bag and swam through the hole. He deposited the bag just seconds later and dove back to wait for Alex, who was supposed to go first.
He tied a flashlight to the rope at the bottom of the ramp, and Alex showed up seconds later, head first. Rick grabbed an arm and shoved her toward the ramp. Christy came next, feet first, sliding down the rope like a fireman’s pole. Rick caught her leg and twisted her toward the ramp. Jessica came right behind her, giving him little time to snag her under the arms and propel her on the way. Anna was next. She stopped before she got near the split and Rick could sense she was terrified by the flailing rope. He thrust off the wall toward her.
Anna was clutching the rope tightly with both hands, eyes closed firmly. Rick tapped her shoulder and her eyes sprang open. The tension in her fingers seemed to loosen instantly upon seeing her uncle and he slowly pried her hands from the rope. Grabbing her around the waist, he floated down the rope, dragging her toward the ramp. He shoved her up and out of the water, where she began spitting and crying. He had seen Kaylie coming out of the corner of his eye and rushed back just in time to snag her under an arm and trudge back up the ramp to gather a few breaths.
Finally, he saw Abby’s foot lightly supporting her against the current at the split and hopped back in. He wove his hand into her free hand, pulling her in the direction of the ramp.
“That was fun!” Abby exclaimed as she broke the surface, then her elation turned to fascination as she saw into the room past his head. She practically climbed over him to enter the room.
All the girls were standing silently on the stone floor, staring, mouths agape. Except Anna, who had her back to the room, sitting half in the water, coughing and complaining, “I almost drowned!” she was yelling at him, splashing him with fists in the water.
Rick climbed past her, placed his hands under her arms and jerked her out of the water, slung her around and dropped her at the top of the ramp facing the room.
Anna stopped complaining.
Rick noticed Christy and Jessica standing with their arms folded over their chests, shivering, and opened the bag, “Here, dry off then get your other clothes on!” They all dressed while relentlessly bombarding him to be allowed to enter the room and look at everything.
“OK, but don’t touch anything... anything! Got it?” he ordered.
Several excited nods later, they were darting about the room.
Nothing could hold the girls’ attention long, something prettier, shinier, weirder kept beckoning them from somewhere else. Kaylie and Alex were checking out the desk, Abby was studying the walls, explaining each depiction to anyone who would listen, Christy and Jessica were looking at all the different buttons and switches, daring each other to touch them. Anna was focused on the time machine in the center like a collector at an antique car show; Rick fully expected her to kick its tires, if it had any.
Rick knelt down and opened the cube. He sat there a moment and watched the girls as they all ooh’d and aah’d, captivated by their utter enjoyment. He grabbed the camera and took several pictures of the girls, capturing their complete bliss, overflowing with pride. He finally looked back down at the open cube. The time stone begged him to pick it up. He did.
Feeling the excitement as he held it in his hand, all eyes suddenly turned to him expectantly.
A crack of lightning couldn’t have made them blink as Rick walked over to the machine, “Stay back, please.”
Butterflies were battling buzzards in his stomach as he approached and placed the tear-drop gem into the slot. It fit perfectly. Nothing happened right away. Rick turned and shrugged questioningly at Abby. Before his shrug could finish, a soft, monotone female voice said, “Initialization of universe complete, destination, please.”
“What?” Rick asked.
“Please, identify yourself, voice unrecognized,” it answered.
“Rick,” he replied.
“Hello, Rick, will you be controlling displacement parameters?”
/> “Um, I guess so.”
“Authorizing Rick, I guess so. Destination, please?”
Rick looked at everyone, puzzled, and then turned back as if it were a real person he had to face when speaking. “You mean a place to travel?” he asked it.
“No, a date, Rick.” Although the voice had no inflection, Rick felt as if the woman were teasing him.
He couldn’t think of anything at first, but then instinctively remembered the most famous date he could think of, “December 7, 1941.”
Rick jumped back, as did everyone else, when a five-foot sphere appeared two feet above the podium. It was Earth, in spectacular detail, not just a model of the planet, but the actual planet, as if they were looking at it from space. It was complete with weather patterns.
“Would you like to manually or verbally choose a location, Rick?”
Rick was too awestruck to answer, so Alex did, “Pearl Harbor.”
“Please identify yourself, voice not recognized.”
“Alex,” she responded.
“Hi, Alex, I cannot change location — Rick is controlling parameters. Would you like to share or give control to Alex, Rick?” the machine asked.
“Uh, no.”
“Would you like to allow anyone else to share control, Rick?”
“No,” he decided quickly.
“Would the rest of you like to identify yourselves now?” the machine asked.
Rick thought the machine had a hint of loneliness in its voice. “How do you know anyone else is here?” he asked.
“I am reading seven human biosigns, Rick. Am I mistaken?”
“Wow! No, you’re right. That’s amazing...”
“I am programmed to do that, Rick; it would be amazing if I did something I’m not programmed to do.”
Rick chuckled at what certainly sounded like a joke from the computer. Christy stepped forward, “I’m Christy. What’s your name?”
“Hi, Christy. I am Tedium. Nice to meet you.”
“Tedium? What kind of name is that?”
“It is the designation I was given by my creator, Dr. Jonathan Taylor. It is actually derived from the initials, TDM, which stands for time displacement machine. You can call me T if you like; John always does... or did.”
Again, there was no tone change, but everyone could sense sadness in her voice.
Rick decided to ask, “Do you know what happened to John?”
“I assume you were addressing me?” T asked.
“Yes, sorry, T.”
“That’s quite all right, Rick. I am not accustomed to crowds and it is much easier if you direct comments or questions to someone by name. I can tell if you are facing me, but that does not always mean you are addressing me. Please, identify everyone, then we can discuss whatever you like,” T said.
Abby spoke first, “I’m Abby.”
“Hi, Abby.”
“I’m Anna.”
“Hi, Anna.”
“I’m Kaylie.”
“Hi, Kaylie.”
“I’m Jessica, but you can call me Jess or Jessie, if you like.”
“Hi, Jessie,” she responded, with no hesitation to decide on which name to use.
Once she had all the greetings out of the way, she answered Rick’s original question, “John died on March 21, 1756, but you know that—”
“How do you know that, T?” Rick asked.
“I have all of time in my memory banks, Rick, and I’m fully capable of comprehending it as well. For instance,” the sphere displayed Rick’s gang as they watched Taylor’s last entry, “I can see you watched this recording of John and I can determine that you are capable of discerning that he could not have survived very long with that wound. He died 21 minutes, 32 seconds after this recording ended.”
The sphere instantly changed to that scene. They watched as John buried the cube and staggered through the woods to his ultimate death.
“OK, that’s enough, T,” Rick interrupted and the display reset quickly back to 1941.
“As you can see, he successfully hid the time stone as well as the key and chronicler from Bergamiser. I am very glad that you found the key instead of Bignose, Rick. You are all good people. He was not.”
Rick considered the fact that she just admitted to cheering against Bignose — and called him Bignose! T definitely had some kind of personality and… feelings? “Can you help me understand what to do here, T? I don’t want to make any fatal errors.”
“Of course, Rick. I am programmed to address any concerns you have and will never displace you unless you confirm the destination and location and ask to be displaced.”
Rick turned to Abby, “What should I ask?”
T spoke instead, “Although I’m 99.3% certain you were addressing Abby, I believe I’m more capable of answering that question if you don’t mind, Rick.”
“Sure! Any time you have an answer, I’d like to hear it, T,” Rick said gladly.
“First, as you now know, you choose a destination — or time — which you have done. Then, select a location. If you know the exact coordinates of the location as well as an altitude, you can say it. If you prefer a general area, you can say that. For example, Alex’s response of ‘Pearl Harbor’ would have resulted in this view.” An aerial view of Pearl Harbor popped up. “If you said New York City,” the display instantly changed, “you would get this view. Notice it is larger, formatted to fit the viewing area, as this would be for the general area of Spain,” it switched again, much further out, “much more distant.”
The world view shifted back into place. “You can normally select a location manually, as well. Use your hand to slide the view — one finger to zoom in, two to zoom out. Please, try, Rick.”
Rick stuck his finger right into the solid-looking image of the United States, roughly where New York would be, and the view quickly started to zoom in. He noticed it would zoom faster if he pushed in further. Within seconds, he had an amazing image of the heart of New York. He placed his palm on the edge of it and slid it sideways, the image scrolled with his hand. He maneuvered until he could see a sidewalk. Amazed at the detail, he pressed more and adjusted until he could count the hairs of a man’s eyebrows who was reading a newspaper on a bench. He rotated then by twisting his hand until he could see the back of the old man’s head, switched to two fingers to zoom out and caught the inside of the building behind the man, then pulled back so he could watch the people inside the building actually in the midst of working in several offices.
“Amazing! We can look inside of things, even through things?”
“Yes, Rick, this is a fully functional 360-degree 3D projection system. Quite common, actually… well, not during your time, I apologize—”
“No need to apologize, T. I’m sure a lot of things you consider common are extraordinary to us, like time travel.”
“Actually, nobody else in recorded history has ever developed time travel except Dr. Jonathan Taylor, although our history ends, for humans at least, in 75,252.”
“Wait… you hold all of history… in memory?” Rick asked, floored.
“Yes, Rick. The crystals you are standing on — which are encased in acrylic — as well as the ones above and many more meters deep than you can see, are hyper-dynamic molecular memory cells. Each one of them can hold 45 billion of what you call a terabyte and there are more than 785,000 of them. There are actually more of them, infinitely more, stored in an infinite array of quantum states, or universes, if you will.”
Rick froze as he contemplated the enormity of T. He couldn’t even wrap his mind around the concept.
“I can see you are having difficulty, so let’s get back to our introduction, Rick.”
“Yes, please, T. Where were we?”
T described how he could move and rotate the image using voice commands as well as hand movements, listed all the basic commands and abilities, and detailed the use of the necklaces and chronicler. “If you have any further questions, Rick, please feel free to ask,” she fin
ally concluded after the lengthy review. The girls were all sitting on the floor now, almost completely dry.
“Where’s the nearest bathroom, T?” Anna asked.
“All you require is here, Anna, you only need to ask,” she replied as a silvery four-foot box with a door, rose out of the floor.
“You cannot be serious!” she said, amazed.
“On the contrary, I can never be anything but serious, Anna.”
“What else can you do, T?” Kaylie asked.
“It would take a very long time to detail all of my functions, Kaylie, are you sure you would like an entire list?”
“About how long?” she inquired further.
“Approximately 32 days, Kaylie, would you like me to begin?”
“No thanks,” Kaylie instantly decided, eyes bulging out of her head.
“Very well, I will answer any requests you have,” T addressed everyone.
As Anna stepped cautiously into the bathroom, Kaylie perked up asked, “Can you make food, T?”
“Yes, Kaylie.”
“What kind?” Jessica asked.
“I can replicate any food you desire, Jessie.”
“Can you change the temperature and lights and stuff, T?” Alex asked.
“Yes, Alex, I can. Do you require a change at this time?”
“Not really...”
“OK, let’s get to the important stuff, girls...” Rick stopped them.
“Like the missile?” Alex asked.
“Yeah, T, can you show me 81,373 BC, June 1?”
“No, I cannot, Rick,” she answered just as evenly as everything else.
Rick was taken aback, “Why?”
“Those memories have been removed, Rick.”
“Removed? Who removed them?”
“Yes, Rick, they were removed by Ferdinand Bergamiser.”
“Can we get them back?”
“Yes, Rick,” she answered flatly. Rick thought he sensed another hint of emotion in the answer though, as if she wanted to say more but couldn’t.
“How?” he asked.
“I am not permitted to tell you that, Rick.”
“What can you tell me about it, T?”
“I can tell you he left a message, Rick, in case he was no longer available. Would you like to see it?”
“Can we be... displaced to that time, T?” he asked instead.
“I am not permitted to displace anyone within five hundred years of that time until those memories are restored, Rick.”
Rick sighed, deflated, “OK, let’s see the message…”
Bergamiser’s face loomed out of the sphere, causing each of them to involuntarily flinch. His voice immediately began reciting a poem:
“The Republic unwinds, by a knife from behind;
His successing young fellow wore a diamond of yellow.
Although the court thought, a witch she was not;
The first victim is seen with a diamond of green.
The great assassination, that rocked a whole nation;
Where the killer shot true lays a diamond of blue.
No virgin was she, but a vixen you see;
At His birth, in His bed, lays a diamond of red.”
“What the heck does all that mean?” Rick asked.
“I am not permitted to tell you that, Rick, but would you like to learn more about my memory technology?”
Rick furrowed his eyebrows in incomprehension, “Why would I want to learn about that?”
“I am programmed to anticipate your needs, Rick,” T said. Again, he sensed an urging in her total lack of tone, like a hint.
And I... need... to learn more about your memory technology?”
“Yes, Rick; you do.”
Rick turned to Abby and shrugged, totally baffled.
“I believe she’s trying to give you a clue, Rick.” Abby speculated.
Rick turned back toward T, “OK, T, tell me about your—”
“Wait, T, can you repeat that message so we can write it down?” Abby asked.
“I have transferred the message to your UC, as you call it. Would you like to learn about my memory technology now, Rick?”
Rick smiled briefly, “Yes, T, I would love to hear about it. And thanks for transferring the poem, to the UC.”
“I am programmed to anticipate your needs, Rick, but I wouldn’t classify that as a poem. Bignose has never been accused of literary genius before. You should refer to it as a list of clues, to be more precise.”
“Did I just hear a hint of cynicism? Or was that a joke?”
“I am programmed to speak to you in whatever vernacular you would most easily understand, Rick.”
She paused, switched the display to show a 3D image of a memory crystal, a red one. It rotated in front of them, filling most of the five-foot display. “Did you notice the shape of this?” T asked.
“A diamond?” Jessica muttered.
“Yes, Jessica, a diamond. What a coincidence that you would see it that way, I suspect Bignose saw it that way as well. It’s actually an octahedron, but its two-dimensional shape is a diamond.” It changed colors from red to yellow, green, blue, and back to red. As they stared at the bright crystals, a portal opened in the top of the console and an arm containing four slots emerged. Quite obviously the memory crystals fit into the slots. The display showed four crystals being inserted.
“Does it matter what color goes where?” Alex asked.
“No, Alex, color is irrelevant. I would guess that someone using four different colors would do so for a cheap dramatic effect.”
“That was definitely sarcastic!” Rick accused.
“Merely an observation, Rick. I only intend to educate you on the function of my crystal memory interface.”
Rick was quickly figuring out that T was on his side, helping him... and enjoying it.
“I believe you know all the information you will require about the crystal memory interface now,” she concluded. The arm retracted and disappeared into the console.
“So, T, where would we find these crystals?” Rick asked.
“I am not permitted to—”
“Yeah, yeah—”
“Perhaps you should be asking when instead of where, although where is certainly important also.”
“But you’re not permitted to answer that either, are you?” Christy asked astutely.
“No, Christy, I am not permitted to give any information regarding the time, location, or even the existence of any missing memory crystals.”
Rick chuckled at the total lack of noticeable emotion in her voice, yet the complete intent to undermine Bergamiser was so obvious that the girls could pick up on it.
“Can you give us the answers to the clues?” Anna asked.
“I am not permitted to answer—”
“Of course not!” Anna groaned.
“Wait,” Rick burst out, “T, if hypothetically we were to find four hypothetical memory crystals and… hypothetically place them into the crystal memory interface, and hypothetically travel to 81,373 BC, how could that possibly affect anything in this time? I mean, John said the time we enter is a copy of this time-space and cannot affect this time-space in any way… so how could we stop the missile from being launched in this time-space?”
“Very wise of you to notice, Rick. To answer your hypothetical question, he also said you could change the future of this time space with knowledge of that time-space, but,” she interrupted before he could ask the next question, “I am programmed to anticipate your needs. Although it may be possible to stop the planetoid from striking Earth in 75,252 with knowledge gained in the copy of our time-space, I would suggest you consult someone who might know how to configure the machine to travel once again in this time-space. However slight the effects, the launching of the missile itself seriously contaminates the time-line.”
Rick studied the display mindlessly.
“But you said Dr. Taylor was the only person in our history with that knowledge,” Abby reminded her.
<
br /> “And he’s dead,” Jessica contributed.
“Dr. Taylor is dead in 2007, but not in 1756, Jessie,” T pointed out.
“T, why don’t we just consult Dr. Taylor in that time-space, find out how to go into this time-space, and stop the missile in our time and forget all this riddle nonsense?” Rick asked.
“That would be feasible, Rick, if you had another time displacement machine. John made the mistake of allowing Bignose to alter programming, so I am not allowed to send anyone to that time until his conditions are met.”
Rick again caught himself staring at the rotating figure. “T,” he finally said with everyone deferring to him for some holy nugget of wisdom — because they sure had none to offer, “change destination to 44 BC, March 15, please.”
The scene instantly shifted back to an Earth view, the others gathered closely, wondering what he was plotting.
“Change location to Rome, please.”
T gave him an overview of Rome.
“You mentioned you can actually locate a person, correct?”
“Yes, Rick, as long as it’s a unique person, otherwise you would be required to provide further information.”
“Locate Julius Caesar, please, T,” he quickly commanded, and an image of Caesar zipped into view. He was sitting on a stool in his room, apparently having his hair styled. “Can you locate Bignose, T?”
No, I cannot, Rick. Ferdinand did not exist in that time.”
“When did he exist?”
“Ferdinand Bergamiser existed from 1735 to 1779 and 5542 to 5567, Rick, but I believe you are trying to find out what times he visited, are you not?”
“Uh—”
“Sorry, Rick, that was a very wise idea, but Bergamiser removed all records of his time travel.”
“Jerk!” Jessica muttered.
Rick was stuck in deep thought again and suddenly perked up, “Locate Caesar’s grand-nephew, Octavian, please,” he requested.
A curly blonde-haired boy appeared. He looked like a mere child, although Rick knew he was in his upper teens, probably seventeen, when he became Emperor, which would have been on this day. He wasn’t sure of his age, but that detail wasn’t important; he wanted to find something else.
Rick started manipulating the display, maneuvering the image, focusing up and down, especially on the neck, wrists, fingers... nothing.
Rick asked, “Can you show me his room, T?” and was rewarded with an instant display of Octavian’s sleeping quarters. It was elegantly decorated and looked more like a young girl’s room than that of the future Emperor of Rome. He had a large, canopied bed with brightly-colored fabric draped across the top, bottom, and down the posts, with a sheer red drape covering the sides with a slit on one side for entry. The floors and walls were two different shades of marble with large rugs covering most of the floor.
Rick moved the image around the room to the huge vanity and dressers and began inspecting the tables and drawers.
He searched for ten minutes before Alex finally said, “Dad, what are you looking for?”
“A diamond of yellow,” Rick mumbled.
“Oh, you think this… boy has it?”
“Well, there are questions about whether the Roman Republic’s end was when Caesar was killed, but there’s no question that Caesar’s death at least started the end of the Republic. He was stabbed in the back, either literally or figuratively, but there’s no doubt his successor was young, and I know no other Republic that ended this way and none with so young a successor in Rome.”
“It said ‘he wore a diamond of yellow’ so why are you looking through his room? And why now? Caesar is still alive at this time, right? Can I look?”
Rick thought for a moment, he was tired and hungry as well. “T?”
“Yes, Rick?”
“Can you get us something to eat?”
“You really need to learn to simply ask for whatever you want, Rick, it is becoming tiresome to fight back the temptation to reply ‘yes.’ Think of me as your slave, not a friend; I won’t be offended,”
“Does this mean I get to play with it now, Dad?” Alex asked.
“Just a minute, honey. T, give me a Whopper with cheese and extra tomato,” he ordered.
“Would you like fries with that, Rick?” T asked.
The girls hee-hawed at her reply.
“Yes, please, and a Sierra Mist, too,” he added.
A square column silently rose out of the floor and stopped at nearly chest height. Rick cautiously walked to it and opened a door on the side. Inside was a plate with the burger and fries along with a silver cup, which he assumed had Sierra Mist in it, a salt shaker, and ketchup bottle.
“I took the liberty of adding salt and ketchup, Rick; I am programmed—”
“To anticipate my needs, right. Thanks, T!”
A thin cylinder rose from the floor a few feet away and the top expanded into a round table about five feet in diameter, then four smaller ones blossomed around it to form seats. “Is that satisfactory, Rick?”
“Yes, thanks, T.” He sat down and started to pour ketchup and add salt to his fries and burger.
“I would like two Taco Supremes, a Nacho Supreme — extra sour cream and tomato on both — and an orange Gatorade, T,” Kaylie commanded.
“Please close the door to the replicator and reopen it, Kaylie,” T answered.
Kaylie obeyed, and her meal was ready, with hot sauce packets, just like she liked. “Cool, thanks, T.”
“No need to thank me, Kaylie. Who’s next?”
Kaylie took her food to the table as Jessica ordered, then Christy. When Anna ordered, an identical table rose from the floor. Anna grabbed her meal and sat there. Abby ordered, and Alex continued to play with the display instead of eating. Rick tried to convince her to eat, but she kept pestering him until he finally said, “T, allow Alex to share control, please.”
“Done, Rick. Alex now has permission to control the console.”
“T, I’d like a TV to watch...”
“Where would you like it, Rick?” T asked.
He pointed, “That wall, if you can?” A digital display formed instantly, it appeared to be solid, but he properly guessed it was holographic, like the display on the console. It was four feet high, six wide.
“What would you like to watch, Rick?” T continued. Rick pondered the question. Christy butted in, “Do you have cable here?”
“Better than cable, Christy, I can display any program or movie ever made. You can say whatever you want to see or I can replicate a remote for you.”
“Hold off on the remote, T. I want to watch next year’s first episode of Battlestar Gallactica,” Rick told her.
“Would you like it with or without commercials, Rick?”
“Without, please.” It instantly started.
“Is this volume level acceptable, Rick?”
“Perfect, T.’
“Whoa!” Christy shouted.
“Oh… my… gosh!” Anna cried, “I can tell my friends what’s going to happen on Degrassi next week!”
Rick felt a sudden pang of guilt, “Pause the TV, please, T.”
The image froze.
“I’d like to talk about this first, maybe we’re getting carried away already. We cannot discuss any of this with anyone. Period. And I’m not sure if we should even be doing it.”
Alex was busy, mostly ignoring the conversation taking place, following Octavian all over Rome.
“But Rick,” Kaylie said, “we already know about this, and we can’t unlearn it now, so what else can we do?”
“I think the damage is done, as long as we are responsible and don’t tamper with the future,” Christy stated convincingly.
“I agree with both of you, but it still makes me a bit uneasy,” Abby said.
“Does this mean I can’t tell any of my friends about—”
“Absolutely not, Anna! If you even think about it, I’ll ground you for life,” Rick vowed.
“T can probably za
p her memory out of her for you,” Jessica joked.
“Yes, Jessie, I am fully capable of manipulating memories.”
“Really, T?” Anna asked, shocked.
“Yes, Anna, that technique was perfected in the 24th century—”
“I won’t hear of any memory zapping of my—” Rick started.
Alex interrupted, “Dad! Come here. I found it!” she yelled, bursting with excitement.
“What?” Rick asked, jerking around to face her.
“The yellow memory crystal!” She told him.
Part II — When in Rome...