A Dream From The Past

I feel it coming on again. Sometimes I can sense it creeping up on me, like you can tell in those ancient B-rated horror movies when the music starts to get intense and so you are forewarned that something is coming but you aren’t supposed to know what, but you do know. In a way, it’s comforting to know. Because then you can work into the fake surprise or feign the frightened animal knee jerk reaction by tossing your popcorn in the air. You can reach for your honey and wrap your arms around her for protection, then secretly smile to yourself that you managed to get closer to her. I know those movies are fiction, and so they never bothered me, but when I’m in this dream, I can’t tell if it is fact or fiction. I’m back in that uncomfortable seat, with that jocular captain back on the loud speaker, and the cottonmouth and the cold but dry water in my cup. This feels real! The plane launches down the track, up the vertical and boom we explode!! Pieces of me are scattered to the wind, but I’m still conscience and falling…That feels real.

Josh stood at the Tele Port of Marseille (in the south of France), anxiously awaiting Marina’s arrival, nervously chewing on his fingernails and fidgeting with his watch.

Just a few more hours and she’ll be here. After a while he stopped staring at his watch, for he could swear that the numbers kept moving backwards. Two years had been a long time; they were never apart that long before, and when he combined all the time he was away on his missions it added up to an eternity…well maybe an extra year…but it felt like an eternity. He had wasted no time that morning, as soon as he woke up; he skipped his usual morning routine, jumped straight into the Juve which doubled as his own personal teleporter and zipped off to the Tele Port. Personal teleporters are rare and usually reserved for dignitaries and the very rich, but some people with very special jobs could have them installed—paid for by the company of course—usually they were just built into the Juve for short distance hops—like to the Tele Port of Marseille. This worked out well for Josh’s aversion to transports.

He probably didn’t have to be so early, but he wanted to be there early in case she got there earlier. Marina had followed her initial homecoming message with an additional one showing more pictures, and as she actually stepped into the telepod by the point, had her exact departure and; therefore, an estimated arrival date and time. She was going to be at the Port by about 3:33 this afternoon; Josh had arrived at 6:41 this morning. Ok, sure he was early, but sometimes the Ports over estimate the arrival times giving an average of the actual times with the longest times thrown in there for the maximum amount of relays involved in the transit. By 10:57 Josh was thinking maybe he should have hung out at the house a little longer. After another thirty minutes or so, Josh consulted with the tech one more time and the tech confirmed that the incoming transit schedule for Marina was nearly on time with just a two minute early arrival time.

OK, thought Josh, maybe it’s time to go get a drink. The Nomad’ Café being the only choice at this port, he went there. It is said that the original café had been in this very spot and that the Port was built around it. That made perfect sense because the Port had the look and feel of being very old, but the story probably wasn’t true. What is true is that they had the most amazing tea and coffee selection in the solar system. Josh sat down at the bar stool closest to the telepods, so that he could see any changes. The waiter—human this time—recognized Josh and grabbed a lunch menu, after all this was France; who doesn’t eat in France? He slid up to Josh’s side and set the menu down at his place at the table.

“Bonjour, monsieur de Josh. Queest-ce que je peux obtenir pour vous aujourd’hui?” (Good morning, Josh. What can I get for you today?) He said.

“Merci, Julien. Je prendrai juste un thé pour maintenant, Un Earl Gray de comte et extra doux.” (Thank you, Julien. I will just have a tea for now, an Earl Grey hot and extra sweet.) Josh said.

“Oui monsieur, très bon.” (Yes sir, very good.) Julien replied, and then he was off.

This was a small port with only fourteen pods total and the one café. Most people would use the Interplanetary Port in Paris since it was cheaper to port there, and then take a transport to anywhere in France in minutes. Now that was a big port nearly encompassing the whole of the airport originally built there. Transports buzzed in and out of there by the thousands. There were hundreds of shops and cafés, as well as hotels, night clubs and holo-arenas. However, this port was cozy, and most of all quiet, barely a handful of people milled around the port. Maybe a hundred or so would show up in the morning to go to work and then again in the evening to come home, leaving the port nearly empty the rest of the time.

Josh sat in silence mostly, waiting, nursing his tea for hours. He passed the time reading the newspaper and catching up on his reports. The tables in this café may have looked to be 200 hundred years old, but they were every bit as modern as the telepods in front of him, and the newspaper was neither paper nor pad; it was actually a 3D projection from the table itself. So, too, were his reports that he had downloaded to the table from his watch. He had turned part of the table directly in front of him into a keyboard interface so that he wouldn’t have to talk at all, but instead he could quietly type in his thoughts. It actually turned out to be a very productive day.

When he finally did finish off his first cup of tea, Julien quietly slipped by and with a practiced fluidic motion he placed a fresh cup of tea down and snatched up the old cup so quickly that Josh almost didn’t notice.

“Merci, Julien,” Josh called out before Julien slipped through the door and back into the kitchen.

He had finished up his report on the Warp Drive project and was grading some papers from his Quantum Physics students when his watch beeped, indicating it was 3:30. He hastily transferred his work back to his watch, cursed at himself for not setting the watch to go off earlier and got up to go get closer to the telepods. Just as he had sidled up to the two techs in charge of the inbound pods, pod 4 lit up with Tyhke Base on the inbound sign. Josh was hit by a wave of nervous anticipation followed by nausea; she was finally here.

The soft glow from the telepod grew brighter and brighter then darkened in the center as a shape began to form. It shimmered for a moment and the form took the shape of a human female out of focus at first, and then as if someone was adjusting the lens of a camera, she quickly came into focus. The first thing Josh noticed were those intoxicating deep blue eyes as they gradually turned to face him. Her eyes weren’t genetically blue at birth, but blue was her favorite color, so…Josh went with it. Once Marina focused on him she smiled and the smile touched her eyes. Josh suddenly felt warm all over.

“Hello my love,” she said.

“Hello beautiful, I have so very much missed you,” he replied, and a wave of emotion moistened his eyes briefly.

“I missed you too,” she said, and she stepped out of the pod and they embraced and kissed passionately.

The techs glanced at each other and grinned.

After what seemed like only a moment, but must have been a while, one of the techs made sound as if to clear his throat and said, “Excusez moi, monsieur et Madame.”

That’s when they realized that they were blocking the telepod. They both giggled and stepped out into the open hall.

Marina glanced back apologetically at the techs and said, “Désolé, monsieur.”

Then they embraced again and once again locked lips in a passionate kiss. Josh didn’t want to let go, and Marina wasn’t inclined to either; however, when they finally opened their eyes to look at each other they noticed that they were drawing some attention, not so much from the passionate kissing—this was France—but because they were standing out in the open hall for all to see. That’s when Josh saw his cup of tea still sitting on the table at the café. Clever Julien, very clever, he thought.

“I have an idea,” he said, “let’s eat.”

Marina’s eyes brightened, “You sure do know how to treat a woman,” she beamed, and they turned and walked to the café. “By the way, did you get the pictures I sent you?”

“I sure did, and she is a cutie, just like her mother. I got some new ones just this morning ahead of you,” Josh said.

“I had Alana send some new ones shortly before I left and I brought some with me too,” Marina said, and she tapped her watch to download them to Josh’s watch.

Josh grabbed his old seat back at the café, and Marina cozied up to him on the next seat and they linked up to the table’s 3D display. Marina slid her arm inside Josh’s and together they watched as the beautiful images of their kids and their new granddaughter danced across the display. After a bit Josh, looked up from the display to glance in the direction of the kitchen and caught site of Julien. Julien took his queue and sidled up to the table with menus and a fresh cup of tea.

“Julien! Si bon pour vous revoir. J’aurai mon habituel, s’il vous plait.” (Julien, So good to see you again, I will have my usual, please.)

“Tres bon, Madame!” Julien replied, and then added,

“Que vous inquiéteriez-vous pour manger aujourd’hui?”

Marina had to concede, “I’m afraid my French is a bit rusty Julien.”

“So sorry, Madame, would you care to eat something today?”

“Indeed we would,” Josh replied

It was a splendid meal; the best Josh had ever had and; although, the food was indeed great, for it was prepared from real grains and vegetables by a real chef, it was the company that made it fantastic. They talked at length about LitaMarina, Alana, Ling, Robert and Christopher, and the kids’ plans for the future, and how much they missed each other. With dinner gone, and all the pictures cycled through…twice…they decide to go home. It was late, when they finally arrived at the chateau.

“What shall we do now?” Marina asks.

“Oh, I don’t know…” Josh replied, and then he gathered her up into his arms and she melted like putty, laying her head on his shoulder and they kissed again…a long and passionate kiss.

Josh reached up to the collar behind her back and rip, rip, rip off came her shirt.

“Oh really?” she says, and she grabbed his sleeve and with a vicious yank she ripped his shirt off.

They both giggled and stumbled and fumbled their way into the bedroom as the rest of the clothes went flying, then they fell into bed giggling laughing like school children. They pulled the sheets over their heads and made mad passionate love until they both collapsed from exhaustion. Rather than just lay there and rest Josh jumped up panting heavily and slipped through the Juve.

“Hey!” she said in a fit of giggles, “What are you doing? That’s not fair.”

“I’m making up for lost time,” he said with grin that nearly wrapped around his head.

Once more they made love until Marina had to stop and take a breather, but when Josh got up to go through the Juve again Marina yelled, “Hey! Now that’s really not fair!”

“You may have felt like you’ve been gone for only a few months,” Josh explained, “but for me it has been two years.”

Then he looked fondly at her and mustered up the cutest rounded puppy dog eyes. She melted in his gaze. Then she got up and slipped through the Juve, giggling all the way.

“This could be a long night,” she said.

“I hope so,” he replied.

Why am I in a transport heading to Mars? That’s odd, transports can’t make it to Mars let alone leave orbit. Oh man! This isn’t going to end well. I need water, maybe something stronger, where is that flight attendant. “Hello! I’m Johnny Appleseed and I’ll be your pilot for this flight,” says the disembodied holographic head floating above controls with its sing songy mechanical voice. What the…! This is different, I have to be dreaming, but why can’t I wake up.

The transport grows rocket engines, and immediately they blast the transport down the orbital launch track. It banks into the up curve, shimmying and shaking and rattling Josh’s teeth out. Then the whole transport starts to fall apart and he gets pulled out the side door. He tries to grab hold of the seats, but he isn’t strong enough. The G-forces and the blast from the wind wrench him from the transport and send him sailing out into the clear blue New Mexico sky, flailing and screaming as he plummets to certain death.

“Gaaahh!!” Josh screamed, and he jumped up panting heavily.

Marina was startled awake, “Wha..! What is it Honey?”

“Sorry baby…it’s just a bad dream. Go back to sleep.”

“Are you sure you’re ok,” she said, clearly concerned, “Are you still having the same nightmare? I thought you were going to see someone about that.”

“I can’t go,” he answered.

“…and why is that?” she asked.

“…because…” he replied sheepishly.

“…because, why?” she persisted, a touch of annoyance in her tone.

“I can’t be declared mentally unstable right now, they would pull me out of my rotation—I might even be pulled off the project,” he finally conceded.

“Isn’t there some way you can be treated without them knowing?” she retorted, easing up on the tension.

She reached over and placed her hand on his check.

“You really need the release.”

“Unfortunately the council would find out; they have their ways. Besides, it’s only a nuisance, it doesn’t really affect my work,” he said, and he placed his hand over hers. “Let’s go back to sleep,” and he grabbed her hand and wrapped it around his chest as he rolled over, pulling her close to his back as she snuggled up behind him. They were both tired enough that sleep quickly found them both again in no time at all.

The sun came up and worked its way across the sky, and before long little chinks of light began their invasion into the bedroom from around the door frame and from cracks in the blinds of the windows.

“Ugh!” Josh exclaimed, “I really ought to get some modern blinds.”

“Good Morning to you too, grumpy head,” Marina jibed. She sat up, stretched, and said, “What time is it?” though to no one in particular, but was startled when her own voice answered her back in a cold tone, “The time is 11:30 in the morning.” Marina stared blankly at Josh for a moment and then finally had to ask, “You reprogrammed the computer to sound like me?”

He giggled, “What? You don’t like it? Your mom thought it was fantastic.”

“My Mom! Did you do this in her apartment too?” she was flabbergasted.

Josh giggled again, this time uncontrollably. In between the fits of giggles he managed to eke out a feeble, “Yeah.”

Marina couldn’t help but get caught up in the giggle fits. “You are such a nut case,” she managed get out.

They slid out of bed and both got one more time through the Juve, this time they both slipped into matching blue gray, very light and comfortable one piece suits that covered them from the neck to the toes, leaving the hands open at the wrists. Although it could be used in public, this suit was just for puttering around the house. Once dressed they moved into the kitchen, grabbed a cup of coffee and made their way out onto the veranda that overlooked the coast, where two cozy chairs and a small table awaited their arrival. Josh began to pull up the morning news, when Marina stopped him.

“What is it dear?” Josh questioned.

“Let’s see what pictures arrived first,” she replied.

“Oh! Of course, there should be several batches by now,” he said.

So they linked with their emails and downloaded all their new messages. True to her word Alana kept a steady stream of pictures and videos flowing with every new development of their granddaughter. It took just a half an hour to go through them all and Josh and Marina were both pleased with the progress.

As they sipped their coffee they caught up on all that had been going on with the other kids and with mom. Robert was studying music, drama and dance at Julliard in New York and doing well. Christopher was studying law at Yale, and had a new girlfriend. He wanted to bring her home for Christmas, and said “This may be the one.” Robert said he was too busy for a girlfriend, but what they figure that really meant was that he didn’t want to settle on just one, and with the ability for humans to switch genders at will, he hadn’t decided if he wanted to stick with just girls either. Mom hadn’t been far from her home the whole time Marina was gone. Josh had shared an evening drink with her whenever possible, and she had been keeping herself updated with all the comings and goings of the grandkids as well as keeping her own library up to date with pictures and videos from Alana and her great-granddaughter. She even hinted that there may be another man in her life, but that may just have been speculation on Josh’s part.

“Are you serious?” Marina asked.

“…As a heartbeat,” Josh replied.

“Well then, I’m going to have to have a little talk with my mother today, aren’t I?” she quipped.

“Indeed, and if you find anything out, you will have to fill me in,” he said.

For a while they sat in silence, simply taking in the scenery and enjoying each other’s company. He leaned over and kissed her and then reached for the news. The small table, like the table in the Port looked antique, but sported the same modern amenities with the holo-projector they used to view the pictures of the kids and the internet connection that allowed them to catch up on the news. Josh deftly configured the table with a keyboard so he could once again type instead of speaking the commands to pull up the news. As he read the “newspaper”, Marina somberly continued to take in the view of the coast, feel the warm breeze on her skin and smell the rich aromatic blossoms filling the air. Josh contently read the news and then filled himself in on the latest updates from his various experiments and projects that were in his charge. He made notes and left instructions for the scientists under his command to take the work in the directions necessary he felt would bring the best results.

As the day wore on the sun lazily worked its way high into the sky, and Josh had switched to Earl Gray Tea while Marina had a Chicha de Avena. She continued to sit in silence not moving from her spot, and for the longest time Josh stayed so busy he didn’t really take notice. By the time the sun had worked its way up to midday, Josh had finished all the work he could from home and needed to make an appearance at school and attend a meeting on the Worlds Outlying Warp Drive Project simply shortened to WoW. As he began to close down the holo-connection on the table, he finally noticed Marina and her expression seemed a mix between melancholy and consternation.

“Something wrong love?” he asked.

Marina pulled her gaze from the coast, looked Josh right in the eyes, cocked one eyebrow up and said, “Well I have some…news…it can be taken as both good and bad,” she stated.

“Go on,” he said.

“Alana and Ling have decided to rotate home and not reenlist for another five year contract on Tyche.”

“Really?” he said, “How could this be taken as bad news?”

“Well I was asked to come back and help the kids get ready to come home. You see, Ling is by now on an expedition to Amphitrite, while Alana is on her way to the temporary base under the ice of Oceanus and neither can take the baby with them and the other scientists are too busy to watch her.” She placed her hand on Josh’s thigh. “These are to be their last missions and had been in the works for years, so they can’t really turn them down or it would put the research behind schedule. They want me to come back and take little Lita home.”

Josh pulled his leg away and twisted in his chair to face away from her and toward the coast.

Clearly miffed he replied, “Well, why the hell didn’t they just send her with you on this trip? Instead they have you come all the way back home only to turn right around leave again!”

“You could come with me.” she pleaded.

“You know I can’t!” he spat back, “What were they thinking?”

“They just had her, they didn’t want to give her up after only being born, and I had to return on the rotation. You know that,” she said trying to be soothing, and she put her hands on his shoulders and gently began to rub.

“I know, but it’s just not fair. I only just got you back. I don’t suppose anybody else is rotating home, who could take her with them.”

“No, everyone else is staying. The work has actually picked up and more scientists are being sent out to man the new bases and run the remote explorers. They think there’s a remote chance that Amphitrite may still have liquid water, so there’s much to be done…”

“…and you would like to take part in some of that action,” Josh interrupted, and then it occurred to him.

He had a brief epiphany and it filled him with grief, tears welled up in his eyes at the thought. He had to ask, “Are you planning on leaving me?”

Upon hearing that, Marina spun him around to face her, threw her arms around him and kissed him square on the mouth then backed her face away just enough to look into his eyes and let out a breath in exasperation.

She finally responded, “Goodness no! You silly man! You know, I love you, always and forever. Sometimes I wonder what goes on in that brain of yours. You come up with the craziest of notions.”

“Sometimes even I don’t know,” he said, “You just have that effect on me. Any other situation, I can handle the pressures and take whatever comes at me, but with you I simply melt like butter at any notion that I could lose you. And besides, you would have to go a lot further than the outer solar system to get away from me,” and he beamed with his wrap around grin.

This time it was Marina’s turn to tear up. “First you get all crazy then you turn it around and say the sweetest things.”

They kissed again passionately, and then without a word they worked their way back to the bedroom. Later, over pillow talk she explained that she would be leaving out again in about a week, not for the full two year rotation, but for just over a year. She would only spend a few weeks there gathering things for the baby and seeing Alana off to her expedition then she would return with the baby. Josh had to go to work but he didn’t want to, so he stayed in bed holding Marina for a while longer. When he finally did decide to go, it was about three in the afternoon. They promised to get together later for evening drinks and then he stepped into the Juve to depart. Leaving her to make her plans for her return to Tyche base, talk to her mother and catch up with the other kids.