No Future Christmas (10 page)

“I can do that?” Mike felt his spirits lift.
“I wish I’d
known that.”

Shauna sat on the edge of the table.
“Mike, we’ve been
running from the law.
At first there wasn’t time.
Now we’re hiding but you’ve
been so busy.
Don’t brood.
Here.” She pulled out her all-purpose black device
and tapped the side of it.
A virtual keyboard popped out and she scribbled a
note.
When she finished she turned it around, tapped the other side of the
device and showed Mike a holographic picture of the text.

Scott, I know you’re frantic and I’m sorry for the delay
in reassuring you that I’m fine.
I’m working on a project with a friend of mine
and will be back as soon as I finish here.
Sorry I couldn’t get this message to
you sooner and I’m sorry I missed Christmas with you.
I’ll explain when I see
you.
Much love, Mike.

“Good,” Mike said.

Shauna said to her device, “Send.
Okay, the message will
show on Scott’s computer.
He should have it now.”

Relieved Mike blew out a breath.
His hair flew up and he
raked a hand through the rumpled mess.
“I can’t believe you can communicate
with the past.
If I let myself think about this whole situation, it’s really
unnerving.”

“So far I can only communicate and travel to the time I have
set in the traveler’s device.
That’s what I named this.” She waved the two-inch
square device.
“One day I hope to be able to set it to communicate with any
time that the owner wants to learn about.”

“Pretty incredible, Shauna.” Mike shook his head.
He finally
processed the fact that he was living in 2110.
Oh, he’d seen the changes, lived
them for a short time.
But communicating with his brother back in 2004 while he
lived in the future was bizarre.

A beep sounded.

“What’s that?” Mike asked.

Shauna looked at her device and a huge smile split her face.
She pulled up the hologram and said, “Look.”

Mike stared at the message flashing back at him.

It’s about time you got back to me, bro.
Even Dad was
showing signs of concern.
That shocked me, that’s for sure.
Whatever secret
project you’re working on better keep you safe and alive or I’ll come after you
and beat you to a pulp!
Next time don’t miss Christmas.
Love, Scott

Mike laughed.
“That’s Scott.
Well, thank you, Shauna.
I feel
much better now.
First a shower and shave.
Then food.
After sustenance I’ll
tackle this test.” He pulled Shauna into his arms and hugged her.
Then he
stroked his finger down her silky cheek.
“Thank you, love.
I needed that
connection to home.” He kissed her lightly on her lips then left her standing
with her mouth gaping open.

Love.
He called her love.
Did that mean he loved her?
Shauna
pushed the thought aside and left Mike to his shower and test.
She left a
platter of fried chicken breasts, broccoli and rice on the table next to his
textbooks and headed back to her computer and her search for her parents.
She
had made progress in the last few days.
She’d traced the email back to a
hand-held device that was registered to someone who didn’t exist.
But they were
her parents, she knew.
Only they would use the name Roverdale.
That was their
secret name since her Springer Spaniel Rover had died.

Happy to know they were alive, Shauna sat at her desk.
Tracking the device that sent the message was a problem.
She knew that they’d
fiddled with the hand-held to make it illegally untraceable.
She would have
done the same thing.
But there must be a way to find them.

She stared at her parents’ original message.
She’d followed
the encrypted words back again and studied the pattern they showed.
Nothing.
She couldn’t see how she’d get any further than she had.
She spiked her short
hair not realizing that she looked like she’d stuck her finger in a socket.
“Damn.
Where are you Mom and Dad?
Show me how to find you.” Shauna knew they
wouldn’t have contacted her if they didn’t want her to find them.
“I need to
clear my head,” she muttered.
She worked on the program for her time travel
device, refined it, smoothed it.
She sent the revisions to Nate Ridge, her
boss.
Thank goodness TravelPlanetCom had its own internal system.
The joys of
working for a communication corporation.
The Global Guardians would need an
emergency directive to tap into their system.
One they’d have to get from the
Fearsome Foursome.
Emergency directives were hard to get, even for the cops of
the world.

* * * * *

“Here’s the finished test.” Mike said a few days later.
He
dropped the pages on Shauna’s desk, startling her.
“Oh, sorry.
I thought you
heard me come in.”

“No problem.
I was pondering the mysteries of the universe.”
She laughed at Mike’s quizzical expression.
“I’m stumped.
I’ve traced Mom and
Dad’s message as far back as I can.” She rose from her desk, grabbed the papers
and said, “Okay, I’ll grade this now so you don’t have to wait.”

“Where do you get the answers?”

“Oh, they’re on the worldnet.
Anyone can access them.
But
don’t think you can get them before you take the test.
You have to register to
begin your skycar training, then each time you complete a section you get
access to the next section of training.”

“Well, that leaves me out.
Since you’ve already taken the
test, how can you access the answers?”

Shauna grinned up at Mike.
“I have my ways…”

“Okay, mysterious woman,” Mike laughed.
“Grade the test.
I
need to grab a shower and food.” Mike leaned toward Shauna and kissed her
deeply on the mouth.
He tickled her lips apart and pushed his tongue inside her
mouth.
“Umm.
You taste good.” With a tender swipe across her wet lips, he
arched an eyebrow and left the room.

What a kiss.
The man sure knew how to unbalance her.
A
moment ago she’d been deep in thought and now she wished she were deep under
the covers.
Had it only been a month and a half ago that she’d met this
incredible man in 2004?
Standing in the middle of the room, Mike’s musky scent
still teasing her senses, Shauna knew that Mike had come into her life for a reason.
She didn’t know what that reason was but she suspected it would change her
whole world.
A shiver raced up her spine.
Premonition?
Hopefully a good one.

“Computer, on.”

The computer blinked a blue light and said, “Welcome back,
Shauna,” in a very male voice.

“Can you patent your voice, James?” Shauna sighed.
She
always loved the low, melodic sound of her computer’s voice.
Nowadays you could
download hundreds of voices to personalize you computer and Shauna chose the
voice of some old actor from the twentieth century named James Earl Jones.
She’d found no voice more perfect than his.

“It already is patented, my lovely human,” James said to
her.
“Now, what can I do for you?”

“Grade this test, please.
Don’t send the results to the
Guardians.
It’s just a practice test.”

“Whose eyes are you trying to pull the wool over?” If the
computer could sigh, Shauna would have heard one.

“James,” Shauna laughed.
“I’m putting the test through now.”
She put the twenty pages on a scanner-like surface.
The machine whirred on, the
pages flipped like a wind had ruffled them and then James said, “One hundred
percent correct, my lovely.
Tell the gentleman in question he did a great job.
Not many pass the first time, let alone with a perfect score.”

“What makes you think it’s a man who took this test?”

James the computer effectively shook its head.
There was a
slight rumble from the speakers and he said, “Handwriting analysis, sweetie.
Bold scratches, deep indentations, dark marks.
Trust me, I’m a computer.”

Even though she’d grown up with talking, thinking computers,
Shauna was embarrassed to be caught by a machine in a fib.
“Oh, fine.
I’ll tell
him you approve of his brains.”

“You do that.
Not many humans can impress me.
And that
skycar test is one of the hardest tests to pass.
Now, is there anything else
you want from me?”

“Nope.
That’s it for now.
Thanks James.
Computer off.” The
blue light blinked twice and went out.

“Who were you talking to?” Mike asked when he strolled into
the room.
“It sounded like the actor James Earl Jones.”

“It was.
Sort of.
That’s the voice I have for my computer.
He has such a dreamy, deep, divine voice,” Shauna sighed.
“I named my computer
James for its voice.”

Mike laughed.
“Talking computers.
I always hoped they become
a reality.
How come I haven’t heard it before?” He strolled to the computer and
studied the monitor.
Small by twenty-first century standards, about ten by
twelve, it was a flat screen that stood on a round base.
That hadn’t changed
much since his time but still the monitor looked nothing like one from his day.
The material was a clear plastic-type with striations of blue, green, yellow
and orange running through it.
He didn’t see a CPU but there must be a chip or
something somewhere.

“Because I had the voice feature turned off.” Shauna grinned
at him.
A knowing grin.
A secret grin.

“Well, what did old James have to say?”

“That you passed your test with a score of one hundred
percent.
He admires your human brain.”

“Whoo, hoo!” Mike jumped up in the air and pumped his fist
to the ceiling.
“When can I start flying lessons?”

“As soon as you want.” Shauna laughed.

“Now woman, I need to feel speed.
I need to get out.
I’m
feeling cooped up.
Now.” Mike wandered to the patio and stared at the tropical
plants and flowers.
Yellow, pink, orange and red colors all backed by every
tone of green on the planet stared back at him.
He turned to Shauna.
“Well?”

“Get your boots on, cowboy.
You’re going for one helluva
ride.”

* * * * *

“Wait…wait.
Too fast!” The skycar shot into the air and
dipped alarmingly to the left.
“Pull up.
You’re losing altitude.” Shauna now
knew how her father felt when he taught her to fly.
She tightened her harness
and ground her teeth.
“Watch your instruments, they’ll tell you everything you
need to know.
Good.
Smoother.
Now pull the throttle back—slowly.
There you go.
See?
You can do it.”

“Wow!
What a rush,” Mike hollered.
They flew over Isla
Atlantica.
The blue ocean sparkled in the yellow sunshine, multiple colors
blurred from the tropical foliage below.
“It’s amazing how clean and pure the
sky is.
I’ve never seen a blue that color.”

“Watch your instruments.
Watch your altimeter.
Oh for God’s
sake.” The skycar fell forward, nose pointing toward the ocean.
“Pull back on
the stick!” The skycar porpoised up and down for a while then leveled out.
So
did Shauna’s breathing.
“Okay, easy, gentle maneuvers.
Think of the stick as a
delicate instrument.
A little goes a long way.”

Mike’s eyebrows shot up.
“Oh, yeah?
Say, a little touch
here,” he put one finger on the neck of the stick and gently caressed it.
“Or a
light stroke there?” He pulled his finger down the stick, slowly, intentionally
touching the side of Shauna’s thigh in the process.
“Is that what you mean?”