A Dream From The Past

They were now standing at the bottom of the steps leading to the Tele Port, outside the building transports were zipping about picking people up and dropping others off. There were trees, bushes and flowers laid out in beautiful but unnatural patterns around the building, along with benches and advertisements as one might expect for a public building. The steps and sidewalk leading to the building seemed harmless enough, but it was the building itself that caught Albert’s attention. For a moment he stood in awe looking at the amazing building before him. There appeared to be nothing but glass supporting the whole structure, and what was going on inside?

“How are they doing that?” Albert asked, referring to the people inside apparently walking on nothing.

Josh smiled and replied, “It’s an optical illusion. Come inside and see for yourself.”

So the three men walked up the steps and across the sidewalk past the trees, flowers and bushes then up to the building. They were heading in the direction of what appeared to be an entrance, for there was an archway just inside, but something was missing. There was no handle, no door, and no clear hinges to this glass entryway. Josh went through first to show Albert how it was done; all he did was walk right up to and then through the entrance, and the glass looked as if it simply disappeared and then re-appeared as Josh went through. Albert was next, and sure enough the glass vanished for him too, and then re-appeared again. Albert felt a slight tremor of disorientation as he passed through the arch. Shivu followed directly behind, and bumped into Albert on his way pass the arch.

“Oh! Excuse me professor. I didn’t know you had stopped.” Shivu said.

“What was that?” Albert asked looking back at the arch.

“Oh, that is a security scanner. It makes sure you aren’t carrying any deadly weapons.” Shivu replied.

Josh walked a few paces in, turned around to look back at Albert, then grinned and said, “As you can see, the illusion is revealed.” as he made a sweeping gesture with his hands to the ceiling of the main floor. He continued, “The whole building is made of various types of glass and reinforced by carbon in the form of nanoscopic tubes—millions of them.”

Shivu was getting a little excited; the anticipation of eating was beginning to make him believe he was feeling hunger pangs. “Shall we take this party to the third floor? I’m starving!” he exclaimed as he gave Josh his trademark big toothy smile.

Josh paused and shot back a look as if he was sizing him up for a fight, “Oh really! Then I guess we’d better get a move on,” he said with a bit of sarcasm.

Albert for his part remained oblivious to their conversation, as he was very caught up in the moment and gazing around at the very bizarre scene playing out about him. When Josh and Shivu took notice of this they decided to continue the rest their journey in silence and allow Albert to take in the whole panorama of wonder without interruption. The people around them wore bizarre clothes, if you could call them clothes. Some were wearing what looked like garbage bags complete with pull ties; others seemed to have their clothes painted on. As one woman walked past them, she strongly resembled a candy cane as her entire body had red, white and green swirls from her head to her toes; even her hair had the swirls and it curved just like the top of the candy would. Her male companion seemed to have on a suit and tie, but it was actually a skintight body suit with the pattern of a suit and tie built into it. As another woman came walking toward them she wore a bright green glowing dress, but as she walked past them it changed to red and then as she walked away it changed to purple. Then there was the couple in the corner who were looking rather blue—no really their skin was actually blue, and the whites of their eyes were yellow with dark green in the iris.

“Are those aliens over there?” Albert asked pointing in the corner.

“No.” Josh said under his breath a little amused, “They are humans. They just chose to have their skin pigment changed; I guess it’s to express their blue period.”

Shivu and Josh both chuckled while Albert just glared at Josh and looked back at the couple—he was too astonished to be amused.

They made their way to the escalators, the strange stairs looked as if they were floating in the air—and they were moving. As you looked carefully in between the steps you could see the chain and the gears working away to pull the steps along. The three men continued in silence once more, but a new question began to form in Albert’s head, “Are there aliens from other worlds among us?”

“Maybe,” Shivu responded this time, “There may be aliens, but if they came here they would have to be far more advanced than we are, and some of them may walk among us—studying us. If there are, there would have to be only a handful of them, so you are most likely not going to meet one any time soon.”

Albert wasn’t sure whether to be shocked or concerned about this new revelation, “So do you really think there are aliens among us? How couldn’t we know?” he asked.

“We don’t know this, but we have a strong suspicion that some may be here and that they may have been here a while, since the drop of the first atomic bomb,” Shivu answered.

In front of them coming down the escalator on the other side was a young teenager wearing black elephant hide and it appeared as if he had studs growing out of his nose, neck and wrists.

“We don’t really know much, except that some say scientists are working with them to reverse engineer some of their technology as they are learning some of our technology.” Shivu finally added. “That’s about the extent of my knowledge about them.” He turned to Josh, “What about you?”

Josh’s reply almost shocked Shivu as he stated matter- of-factly, “It’s classified. I can’t actually speak on the subject anymore unless we are in a more secure location and you both have been cleared.”

There was a moment of silence while Shivu just stood there, mouth open, staring blankly at his friend, and just when he was about to say something, Josh grinned and said, “I’m just kidding. I really don’t know any more on the subject than you do. It’s all conjecture at this point.” They all chuckled, and that put an end to that conversation.

Upon reaching the second floor, and on their way to the escalators leading to the third floor, they had to swerve out of the path of a robot that was cleaning the floor. The name on the side read ‘Robo-Vac’. It was a simple looking machine that stood about four feet tall and was shaped like an up-side-down ice cream cone with sleek curves and soft bumper pads. It wasn’t a very complicated robot with algorithms to deal with every possible scenario; instead its programming was much simpler. Its dome had sensors that allowed it to scan the entire floor for dirt and then it would plot the best course to reach those areas with the most dirt. If it encountered obstacles that were un-movable it went around, but if other objects were in motion it simply said, “Pardon me, coming through!” and plowed right on through. Therefore it was up to the humans to pay attention to where they were going, as much as it was the robot’s to warn them. It also made it necessary to divide the floors up into sectors and have only one Robo-Vac per sector so that they wouldn’t run into each other. Any spills that would cross a sector would be cleaned up to the line then abandoned for the other Robo-Vac to clean. Specialized versions of the Robo-Vac would clean the walls. During the slow periods the floors would be buffed and polished by the same robots. This kept the Port looking amazingly immaculate.

On the escalators going up to the third floor they passed another robot coming down the escalators. This one was more humanlike with a head, arms, legs and a body, but it was clearly mechanical and not human. It’s metal body and appendages were very slender, reminding one of a stick figure, but its head was square. It took notice that Albert was staring at it, and turned to look back with its glowing eyes.

Its expressionless face gave away no secrets as to whether it was amused or annoyed by Albert staring at it, but before long it nodded its head and said, “Good afternoon, sir. I hope you are well!” Its voice was cheery but not mechanical like the voice of the transport.

The sudden realization that it was talking to him gave Albert a start, but he quickly recovered and replied, “Why thank you, I am well and good afternoon to you!”

The robot nodded again and turned back to look down at the second floor.

Albert turned to Josh looking stunned, “They are very courteous aren’t they?”

“That’s how they’ve been programmed.” Josh responded, amused by Albert’s childlike wonder.

As they reached the third floor, Shivu made a beeline for an archway along the wall.

“Where’s he going?” asked Albert.

“To our version of the restroom, no doubt to clean out his system and prepare for this meal.” Josh answered.

As Shivu walked through the archway a brief flash of light zipped across his body front to back, and when he came out on the other side, he had an expression of pure ecstasy; he sighed heavily and proclaimed, “I’m ready now.”

“He seems to be making a big deal out of this lunch, and you must tell me how those machines work,” Albert stated as they made their way to the Café de Flore.

“He sure is, but then again, he doesn’t get treated so well very often. Having lunch with you is not something anyone gets a chance to do… well…ever. Oh, and Shivu you must tell Albert how those nifty arches work,” Josh replied.

Shivu answered excitedly, “Yes! I can do that, but let’s get seated first. In my country, we still eat at least once a day. It’s something I have missed deeply, since I came to work here in the Americas.”

“Hey! You got to eat with me the last time we entertained a dignitary.” Josh said.

The three walked in to the Café and over to a tall table with a small round surface that had four barstools and took a seat; Josh motioned for the waiter.

Shivu replied, “Yeah, that’s true, but that was over a month and a half ago.”

Albert began to put two and two together, but couldn’t believe the conclusion he was coming up with by listening to their conversation and so he had to ask the burning question, “What do mean by that, Shivu? You said that at least you ate once a day and it sounds like you and Josh just said you haven’t eaten in over a month. Is that what I just heard?”

“Yep, although…uh …well technically I ate for Max, just today. For the three minutes I was in the time jump, I had about three meals a day for just over a month while I was in 1955.” Josh stated, bragging a little.

Shivu looked at Josh with surprise, “You DOG! I’m jealous,” he exclaimed.

“Hey! That’s how they survived back then. You’re the historian—you knew this. Besides, it isn’t that easy having to remember to eat all the time.” Josh retorted.

“Yeah, I know; I’m still jealous.” Shivu said and slowly looked down at the table trying to look dejected.

Albert was now full of questions, “How is this possible? How can y…”

But before he could finish, the robotic waiter popped up at their table and stood over Shivu’s shoulder, “Excuse me, I’m sorry to interrupt sir. I am Jacques and welcome to Café de Flore. Are you ready to order?”

Although he spoke in English he used a French accent, no doubt to add to the atmosphere of the restaurant. He looked very much like the robot on the escalator with only a few differences; his face seemed a little rounder and he wore the colors of France—or rather they were painted—over his metal body. Shivu beamed, for he had never been to this café before, and he’d had no idea just how upscale it was. Most mainstream cafés, coffee shops or bars just had a holographic service similar to the ‘driver’ of the transporters, and the tables were set up to teleport your drinks to you. More exclusive cafés use a waiter, various and unique ways of cleaning up, and at times real dishes—unless you’re in France, where you will find most cafés are ‘old school,’ using human waiters—even chefs, and real dishes.

Josh decided to have a little bit of fun, “Parlez-vous français?” (Do you speak French?)

“Oui monsieur. aimez-vous passer commande en français?” (Yes sir. Would you like to order in French?) Jacques answered in perfect French.

“Nein, sprechen Sie Deutsch?” (No, do you speak German?) Josh asked.

“Jawohl mein Herr, möchten Sie auf Deutsch bestellen?” (Yes sir, would you like to order in German?) Jacques answered in perfect German.

“Wunderbar! Das ist großartig!” (Wow! That is very good.) Albert proclaimed.

“¿Ningún gracias, cómo sobre español? ¿Puede usted hablar español?” (No thank you, How about Spanish? Can you speak Spanish?) Josh added.

“¿Sí senoir, usted tiene gusto de ordenar en español?” (Yes sir, would you like to order in Spanish?) Again Jacques answered in perfect Spanish.

Shivu wanted to play in this game, “Kisa lagabhaaga hindii? Kyaa aapa merii bhaashaa ko bola sakate hain?” (What about Hindi? Can you speak my language?)

“Haan kaa mahodaya, kyaa aapa hindii men aadesha dene ke liye pasanda karenge?” (Yes sir, would you like to order in Hindi?) Jacques answered again in perfect Hindi, without missing a step.

“That was great, but that was all my favorite languages,” Josh finally conceded, “Let’s just order in English, unless you want to try a few more Shivu.”

Shivu just smiled and shook his head.

Josh continued, “Then I will have an horchata de chufa, please—original Spaniard style.”

“Very good monsieur,” Jacques responded again in English with a French accent, “and did you want to order something to eat as well?”

“Yes I would,” Josh responded.

Jacques quickly added, “Very good monsieur, just a moment.”

Jacques made a fist and knocked on the table three times as if trying to discover if anyone was home. At the third knock the table suddenly grew in a fluid-like motion to twice as big in size and the three men’s chairs scooted back accordingly; the fourth chair simply disappeared into the floor as if it had been heated to searing temperatures and melted away. Josh could just hear Albert quietly exclaim, “Oh dear!” and then he let out an audible chuckle.

Josh smiled, but then cleared his throat and began again, “Thank you Jacques, let me have a 5-bean burrito with cheese and I’ll have rice and nachos for side dishes, with fresh salsa and guacamole for dipping—Classical Mexican style.”

“An excellent choice!” Jacques exclaimed and then he turned to Albert, “and you monsieur?”

“I would like a glass of water, light on the ice.” Albert replied.

“Pardon?” the robotic waiter said. If Jacques could show expressions, his face would have shown utter confusion.

“Just serve it lukewarm and he will set his own temperature.” Josh assisted, and then winked at Albert to reassure that he would fix it.

“Very good monsieur, and would monsieur also like to have something to eat?” Jacques said.

“I would but I don’t have a menu, how do I know what I can order?” Albert replied.

“Now monsieur is being silly. We don’t tell you what you can order; you tell us what you want.” Jacques responded with just a hint of jest.

“Try him, you will be surprised,” Josh insisted.

“Well…um…I guess I will have the Vegetarian Kishke.” Albert answered.

“He’s from Ulm, Germany. Make it vintage 1905.” Josh added, and then he turned to Albert, “I hope you’re pleasantly surprised. The Café may have a French name, but they don’t stay with only French dishes. People come from all over the Solar System to these Ports, so the restaurants cater to all cultures.”

Jacques turned to Shivu and got his order, an orlemonado (a carbonated orange, lemon and lime drink that varies in flavor with the temperature)—Brazilian style, and Spicy Jeera Chicken—from Bombay. Then he turned and zipped off in the direction of what must have been the kitchen.

“Now that that’s out of the way, I realize Uncle Albert, that you have many questions, but if I may. I would like to ask you just a few questions first. Then we will try to answer a few questions for you.”

“Ok, I will try to hold back my curiosity.”

“That was kind of going to be one of my questions, actually. I realize that you may be greatly overwhelmed by everything that you have seen and heard in just this short amount of time. My question is; are you overwhelmed in a good way or a bad way?”

“I most certainly would have to agree that this is overwhelming, but not in a bad way. My curiosity is extremely piqued.”

“Great! Are you comfortable talking here or would you rather head back to haven, where you can have at least a small sense of comfort with some familiar looking surroundings?”

“Actually I don’t think I want to wait until we get all the way back there to have my questions answered, so comfortable or not, I will stay here.”

“We could get back there in a faster way, do you see those five milky white glass looking pods over there that are about two and half meters tall and glowing green and blue? Those are teleporting pods; we can step into those pods and step out in your closet doorway.”

“I think you will have to tell me how that works, first, before I try that.”

“Fair enough, Uncle Albert. Last question: The Saturday before you left 1955 was my last day with you then. The moment after you said the words, ‘What do we have to do?’ I left Max and jumped back here to my time. We time ported you here that following Monday when you had the heart attack that was to take your life. Can you remember what happened that Saturday and the following days?”

“That’s when Max declared that I must have done whatever was necessary, because you were gone. He said you must have been an angel, for when you came to him in a dream you filled him with so much love and affection that you had to have been sent from God himself. He told me God must want me to come home really bad. Then he stood up and said his job was done. He said that he would miss me and had a great time with me, but said that he was supposed to spend the weekend with his girlfriend’s family. Then he asked if there was anything he could get for me. I said I would be ok, and would probably be going home on Monday anyway. He said he was sure I would be. I thought I understood what he meant, but I didn’t think that this is what I meant.” A thought seemed to disturb Albert and he went silent in deep thought.

Josh decided to give him a moment and then finally replied, “That’s sweet. My mom used to call me an angel. You must be wondering the whole afterlife thing, huh? Me too. Many thousands of years later, and we still can’t answer that question with a definitive answer. It’s an age-old question though, and no matter how knowledgeable we get there will always be more questions than answers.”

Before anymore could be said, Jacques appeared again with a tray full of goodies, “Here are your drinks,” he said as he sidled around the table placing each drink in front of its owner. Except for Albert’s, the glasses looked as if they had just come out of the freezer with ice forming on the sides and little wafts of moisture floating away like smoke.

“Would Messieurs care for some batons de pain? Breadsticks?”

“Are they free?” Shivu asked innocently.

“Oui monsieur, it is complementary wis your meals.”

“Wow! Great then I will have two for now,” Shivu requested, his enthusiasm growing by the minute.

Jacques set down a disc and placed two breadsticks in front of Shivu—tiny traces of steam rising from them.

“What are you worried about, Shivu, you’re not paying for this, are you? I’ll have two as well please.” Josh said.

“Jes twying to sabe you mummy.” Shivu jibed, his mouth now crammed full with a whole breadstick, “Lemme hab two more, pweez.”

Jacques, having served Josh, placed two more breadsticks on Shivu’s disc and then turned to Albert who was about to wave off the breadsticks.

“Uh-huh, sure,” Josh said and then he looked over to Albert, “You have to try these—they are incredible.”

“Ok then, I guess I would like to try some, may I have two, please?”

Jacques placed a disc in front of Albert then two breadsticks and announced, “I will be back with your meals shortly,” and then he was off again.

Albert picked up a breadstick and examined it, the steam gently rolled off of it, but it wasn’t too hot to the touch—just very warm. He took a bite and was taken aback by the explosion of flavors going off in his mouth. It was astounding how the surface of the bread cracked and crunched softly under his teeth and yet the center was slightly chewy and tender. There was a hint of garlic and other spices, but the flavor of the bread sweetened with every chew until it became soft and silky, so that Albert almost didn’t want to swallow it. He wanted to savor every bite, but before he knew it he had eaten both breadsticks, and now he wished he had ordered more than two like Shivu.

“You can have as many as you like, Uncle Albert,” Josh said, noticing the longing look on Albert’s face, “However, you may want to save room for your meal.”

Albert nodded in agreement—if his meal was going to be anything like the breadsticks he couldn’t wait. He reached for his glass, and Josh quickly reached over to stop him. Josh set the glass back down and tapped it twice on the rim, then wrote the number 12 with his finger on the side of the glass. The glass glowed with the number 12 where Josh had written it and then added oc for degrees Celsius, and then iced over just like the other two glasses. Slowly the writing on the side faded and went away completely—apparently indicating the nominal temperature of the liquid inside had been reached

“Try that temperature first, Uncle. If it’s too warm you can try 6oc,” Josh said softly and then took another bite from his last breadstick, followed by a sip from his glass.

Albert picked up his glass again and—just as he had done with his breadstick—inspected it up and down. He took a drink and again was amazed with how softly the water flowed over his tongue and down into his stomach. It was like drinking in a cloud; there were no strong odors or strange flavors. Now he had to put it back down and try Josh’s suggestion, so he tapped the rim twice and wrote 6 on the side. The glass glowed with 6°c and then began to crackle, as the ice on the glass and the liquid inside got even colder. Albert picked up the glass again and took another drink; it was clearly colder, but then there was something else he noticed. His fingers weren’t cold—the surface of the glass did not feel cold to the touch.

“This is amazing, how does it work?” Albert asked barely able to contain his excitement.

“Well I’m no expert on the subject, but I think there is a micro-freezer unit in the bottom of the glass, the sides are covered with a heat sensitive touch screen, and I believe the glass is actually powered by the table. Correct me if I’m wrong Shivu?” Josh replied.

“You’ve got it, and the heat is pushed out of the glass into the table or just the opposite if you have a hot drink. When you pick up the glass some of the heat is actually transferred to your fingertips.” Shivu added gleefully. He loved the subject of technology—especially the historical evolution of technology.

“How does this table work?” Albert asked, now that the curiosity bug was taking over again.

Josh nodded at Shivu and said, “Shivu?”

Shivu grinned. He was now in his element.

“The table is made of polymorphic glass—in fact the whole building is made of this stuff. The glass is actually grown into place using nans to form all the structures, and some parts are hardened to maintain the structural integrity of the building, while other parts are allowed to remain pliable to keep the building resilient against accidental collisions—like from runaway transports. The main ingredients are silicon and carbon in the form of nanotubes, one is a semiconductor and the other is a superconductor respectively.”

Albert looked very puzzled, “I know what a semiconductor is and a superconductor perhaps but what is a… nan did you say?”

Shivu smiled and went on, “You know that semiconductors are made of silicon and are used to direct electricity in one direction while superconductors made of carbon provide a super low resistant conductor to allow more electricity to flow with less power required. Nan is short for nanometer sized robots—also called nanobots, nanos or nanites—they are robots smaller than the width of a human hair. With nans and subtle changes to the rest of the ingredients and various levels of electricity, we can give the glass a multitude of features. For example; the outer wall of this building contains phosphorus and quartz, During the day it helps block out the sun, and at night it helps light up and warm the whole port. The inner wall has a special resin that was allowed to harden in the sun, thus making it impenetrable. The table, the chairs even the glasses use nans to form the various shapes and provide an interface for us to communicate our temperature desires and etc… I could go on for days, and still not cover all the properties of this material; it’s really great stuff.” But he wouldn’t get his chance.

True to his word Jacques was right back with their meals, again he scooted around the table picking up the discs with bread crumbs then placing utensils and these highly reflective dome shaped dishes in front of each person. Then he tapped the top of each dome and the dome disappeared into the dish to reveal a piping hot delicacy underneath. He also very cleverly brought refills on each drink and scanned Albert’s glass for the proper temperature setting and set his new glass with that temperature. Albert commented on how clever Jacques was, and each of the three men thanked Jacques as he passed by. Quick as a wink Jacques picked up the old drink glasses that still contained some liquid, then tapped the table and the empty ones melted away into the table while he retreated back to the kitchen. Josh and Shivu both smiled as once again Albert’s mouth opened wide in amazement and then he too grinned and chuckled to himself. Shivu uttered a silent prayer to himself, Albert watched respectively in silence. Josh smiled and added amen, and they all grabbed their utensils and began to eat. Albert marveled over how scrumptious his food was, every flavor seemed to burst out and wake up taste buds he wasn’t even aware that he had.

Lunch was indeed a tremendous experience for the three men, but there were still questions burning in the back of Albert’s mind, especially how those arches worked and those telepods. Albert could tell Shivu was very animated about this subject and seemed very knowledgeable too, so he was confident Shivu could answer his questions.

After finishing his last bite of lunch Albert wasted no time, turned to Shivu and asked, “Josh said you were going to tell me about those arches. How do they work?”

Shivu’s eyes lit up and his grin got bigger as he swallowed his last bite and responded, “Ah yes—the Rejuvenators—for that answer, I’m going to have to give you a lesson in history.”