TIME part 2

Copyright (c) 2019 by Randall R. Peterson ALL RIGHTS RESERVED This is a work of fiction. All persons, locations and actions are from the author's imagination or have been used in a fictitious manner.

By R. Peterson

The world’s most brilliant scientist and inventor, Alvin Sullinger was showing John Masters around the time expanding level inside Gravitron City when he collapsed on the floor. Masters was too engrossed in the spectacular sights of the dark universe to catch him. “Are you okay?” The reporter for Time Magazine started to lift the frail body from the strangely spongy floor but it felt like a child’s doll clumsily put together with glue and matchsticks. “I need a drink,” Alvin gasped.

John looked around the vast cavern of darkness and felt helpless. He didn’t even know how he’d gotten into this micro dimension let alone how to summon help or acquire something as simple as a glass of water. When he turned back, Alvin was drinking from a glass half filled with ice.

“How did you do that?”

“Most people don’t realize,” Alvin said with a grin, “that we always get what we wish for. I just sped things up a little.”

A few seconds later John found himself and Alvin transported into a gleaming medical facility. A nurse was helping a semi-conscious Alvin onto an examination table. “Is he going to be okay?”

The nurse smiled. He recognized her as the woman who had met him with the euphoric towel at the pool. “I don’t think Alvin has ever been okay … but he’ll live … for a while.”

-------2-------

A team of doctors were looking over Alvin, so John and the nurse stepped into a hallway. “I don’t believe I caught your name,” John said.

She smiled again. It was her best quality. “What makes you think I have a name?”

            “Most people do.”

            “What makes you think I’m a people?”

For the first time John seemed unsure of himself. Since arriving at the magical city floating one mile above the Nevada desert almost everything had felt like dream. Her eyes were a deep almost neon blue. “Are you?”

            “No,” she said. “I’m simply a weighted hologram designed to be the perfect helpmate.”

John looked at her sure that she must be joking then decided that she wasn’t. She was too perfect to be real. “Weighted?”

            “The entire universe, when broken down to subatomic particle levels, loses the properties of matter and becomes nothing more than an elaborate hologram distorted and shaped by the fibers of space time.” She laughed this time, put her hands on John’s chest and pushed him back.  “I’ve been weighted by dark energy to permit physical interactions.”

            “Are you always so flirtatious with your guests?” John felt a tingling sensation course through his body at her touch.

“Only when I want to be.”

John suddenly thought he was being made a fool of. He imagined some geek behind a computer screen laughing as he directed the action. “And pay no attention to the man behind the curtain …. Right?”

“I do what I’m told because it’s my job the same as you,” she said, “but my choices belong to me.”

John sensed hurt feelings and thought of the demanding editors at Time Magazine often referred to by new employees as slave drivers. “Then you’re ahead of most of us.”

Three doctors came into the hallway. John couldn’t tell by their expressions whether the prognosis was good or bad. “Alvin is awake now,” one said. “We still have many tests to run. Would you like to see him?”

-------3-------

Alvin was sitting up in bed, but his oversized head still looked like it needed support. “I’m sorry about that,” Alvin whispered. “I must have caught one of the rare and deadly bugs that have been imported into our city. Thank God we had an antidote.”

John gasped. “I hope it wasn’t me,’ he said. “I haven’t felt ill for years but I never considered that I might be a carrier.”

            “It wasn’t you,” Alvin said. “When we did the block of matter transfer from your swimming pool to ours it may have seemed to you instantaneous but in reality you were checked for several hours by our doctors and security personnel to make sure you were carrying no espionage items or harmful biological attachments.”

            “But you said deadly bugs have been imported into Gravitron City?”

            “There are more than thirty-six thousand persons working in this floating complex,” Alvin said. “We’ve known for months that a small percentage of them are spies working for the United States Government. The fact that they have now found a way to import biological weapons is something new that we’ll have to deal with.”

            “Why would they want to see you dead?”

            “There is an old saying in the CIA,” Alvin said. “If you can’t control it … then kill it. The government has been trying to bring me and my technology under control for years now … it looks like they’ve decided to implement the second part.”

            “Do the doctors know what kind of bug you’ve picked up?”

            “They’re not sure at the moment.” Alvin coughed. “They think it might be a contamination in the medicines I take for Hydrocephalus.”

            “Is there anything I can get for you?”

            “Why don’t you have Leisha show you where the dining facilities are,” Alvin said. “I think I’ll try to get a little sleep before the doctors come back.”

-------4-------

            “Leisha?” John smirked as the girl led him toward a transporter.

            “Do you like that name?”

            “It was my mother’s name … Leisha Johnson Masters. She and my father were married for twenty-six years … but how did you know?”

            “I didn’t. This is the first time I’ve ever been called that.”

John knew without a doubt she was telling the truth. “Why Leisha?”

            “I’m sure Alvin has his reasons,” Leisha said. “Maybe he wants us to interact on a more human level.”

-------5-------

            The eating facilities were enormous and Leisha explained that this was only one of hundreds of restaurants inside the city. With walls and ceiling made of clear glass, every table had a spectacular view of the moon-lighted desert at night. Music played softly in the background. John didn’t recognize any of the songs but the feeling was growing euphoria. “How expensive is this place?” John gulped when a waiter wearing a three thousand dollar Ralph Lauren tuxedo brought their menus and finally vanished with a puzzled look after asking “Quel sera votre plaisir?”

            Leisha giggled. “If you have to ask … you can’t afford it.”

John noticed there were no prices attached to the Table d'hôte suggestions.  Everything looked and sounded fabulous. “Do they accept Visa?” He was already reaching for his wallet.

Leisha slapped his hand. “Didn’t Alvin tell you that people here can make gold or uranium out of sand?”

            “He did mention that.” John shook his head sheepishly.

            “People work here because they enjoy what they’re doing,” Leisha told him. “Instead of leaving a tip, sincerely compliment the waiter … honest praise is something money can’t buy.”

John was entranced by her flawless skin. Her touch was stimulating and intoxicating. He felt like he’d just fallen out of an airplane or been shot out of a cannon … he was flying.

John smiled when the waiter appeared. “I’m sorry but I’m new here,” he confessed. “And I don’t speak a word of French. Everything looks wonderful. Why don’t you just bring us what you think we’d like.”

The waiter visibly beamed and spoke English for the first time. “I will make this a night you will always remember,” he said.

-------6-------

            They found out the waiter’s name was Carl Landon and he had a wife and two children. “Gravitron City pays all my expenses and they also put money into a trust fund for when I decide to leave. The same goes for my wife Judy who teaches second grade English.” He delighted in surprising them with exotic appetizers designed to heighten the senses, rare wines said to loosen tongues and clothing, and to leave them in breathless wonder as to what was coming next.

            “Feel like going for a walk?” Leisha suggested.

John was expecting a walk through the gleaming city and was surprised when they appeared on the desert floor. “Isn’t this dangerous to be outside?”

            “The anti-velocity force field extends outward for fifty miles in all directions,” Leisha said. “We have no fear of humans here.”

            “What are you afraid of?” John asked her. He was aware of the beating of her heart as she put her arm through his.

            “There is no shortage of dangerous creatures in the desert at night,” she told him. “Wolves and coyotes hunt in packs and some of the most dangerous snakes are nocturnal. Bats and buzzards and bumble bees … sucking sand and poison trees! But the most frightening thing about a night like this …” She gestured toward the full moon. “Is to be taken captive by love. No one ever escapes … and the pain of rejection can be horrendous.”

To escape the many varieties of cactus that carpeted the sand they put on special anti-gravity shoes that allowed them to walk in the air several feet off the ground. John remembered the towel when he came out of the pool water and these foot coverings did the same thing for his feet. “Did you pick out the color? He pointed to the ruby red slippers glistening in the moonlight.

            “These were my sister’s!” Leisha cackled like a witch escaped from Oz.

When Leisha began to dance and to laugh … John became her willing shadow.

Several pairs of eyes watched them from the shadows.

John was now sure that he was in a dream but he didn’t care. They came to a small pool of water surrounded by trees. A thousand stars were reflected in the dark clear water. “Imagine a place like this surrounded by miles of sand and cactus!”

            “I just did,” Leisha said. “Do you like it?”

And then he kissed her.

-------7-------

“It’s much worse than we thought,” One of the doctors told John and Leisha the next morning. “Alvin Sullinger has contracted an engineered form of Anthrax. He is now in a medically induced coma.”

            “But you can cure him?”

            “If anyone can find a cure, the medical professionals in this facility will be able to,” the doctor assured them.

            “I’m sorry,” Leisha said. “You’re visit here has been much less than you expected.”

            “This is the most astonishing place I’ve ever been to,” John gasped. “You have nothing to be sorry for.”

            “I will miss you,” Leisha sighed.

            “I’m not going anywhere,’ John told her.

            “What will you do? Alvin could be in a coma for weeks, months maybe even years…”

            “I’m going to find out who your spy is,” John said. “I’m going to find out who is trying to kill Alvin.”

TO BE CONTINUED …