Time and Again

by Paperback Writer

This is a story of pure fantasy, with some science facts thrown in. It's dedicated to all the women scientist hotties out there who know that science can in fact be quite sexy!

Dr. Janet Ostrovsky was a 36-year-old research astrophysicist in the University of Arizona's Physics Department in Tucson. As the head researcher, she was a serious scholar and devotee of Stephen Hawking's space-time model in which the universe had no boundaries and an ardent pursuer of black hole properties.

At 4' 10" and 110 pounds, Janet physically resembled an 11-year old 5th grade girl, the age at which, due to a hereditary thyroid defect, she had stopped growing when she was growing up amongst the cornfields of the Midwest. Ironically, other than a few early wrinkles and surgery scars on her abdomen, she hadn't changed over time. She wore the same black-rimmed glasses, wore her brown hair in the same ponytail, and had the same pale skin, freckles, skinny body and flat chest as when she stopped growing. The photograph on her ID badge looked very similar to her 5th grade school picture. Even the style of her clothes were unchanged – underneath her lab coat, she always wore t-shirts and jeans. (One of her academic heroes, Albert Einstein was rumored to have worn the same shirts, pants, and shoes every day until he married his second wife, Elsa.) Although Janet had a few dates while in college, most of the men she knew at work were married or intimidated by her intellect, so she lived a life of academic celibacy – totally focused on her research, there was no time for husband or lover.

Her lab assistant was a 15-year old child prodigy named Atiyah Keenan. After graduating from her high school two years early and being accepted at the U of A, Atiyah had been partnered with Dr. Ostrovsky in the high potential/mentor matching program. Atiyah was a pretty Black girl, taller than tiny Janet by 10 inches and heavier by 15 pounds (unlike her older mentor, under her lab coat she was fuller figured, with well-formed and sloping breasts). Although Janet never noticed, soon after she started working as her lab assistant Atiyah had her hair straightened and pulled it back in a ponytail to emulate her mentor. She began wearing the same t-shirt and jeans outfits under her lab coat. She even changed her glasses frames to a pair that closely resembled Janet's own. Behind closed doors, their colleagues in the physics department started referring to the pair as "Yin and Yang" – white and black identical twins.

The truth was that Atiyah adored Janet, although Dr. Ostrovsky was focused on her research and hadn't a clue this was the case. She loved how her mentor always spoke to her as a peer, not a student, and when some physics concept arose that Atiyah didn't understand, (and working with Dr. Ostrovsky, there were plenty), the older woman would break things down and explain them in a way that made everything crystal clear. There were days after leaving the lab that Atiyah could almost feel her brain getting stretched.

One day during lunch, Atiyah brought up the subject of time travel. She had just seen a movie involving a man who falling in love with woman in a photograph taken several decades before, and how he developed a machine to take him back in time to be with her. Just for fun, she said, "Maybe somewhere there's a physicist working on a machine like that. Wouldn't that be something?" And she laughed.

She was surprised by her mentor's reaction. Dr. Ostrovsky turned very serious and replied, "Why, Miss Keenan, you surprise me – of course people are working on it - why would you even consider it to be impossible? You've studied the theories of Dr. Feynman, the 1965 winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics, I'm sure. You'll recall he demonstrated how charged particles can travel from one location to another along multiple paths through the space-time continuum."

Dr. Ostrovsky continued, "The idea behind Dr. Feynman's theories, Miss Keenan, is that there are multiple history paths in time running concurrently. It's like for each decision ever made, there is another universe in which the decision is made differently. It is entirely possible for an object to travel along 2 different paths departing from the same beginning point and arriving at the same ending point, but following two entirely different time paths. By definition, if you can somehow travel to a specific starting point you can make the trip via a different route and end the time journey at the same destination, like flying on Tuesday at 7am from Tucson, arriving at 11pm in New York City. You can fly via any number of connecting cities but still ultimately arriving at that night in New York. It's that simple! The hardest part is finding the airport, or in this case, the spacetime port. If only I can do that, the rest will be easy! And that's why I've been devoting so much time much lately to black hole theories. I think I can use a black hole as a virtual shuttle to the port, taking me back in time to the departure point.

"You Doctor? You're going to do use yourself as a lab rat?" Atiyah's eyes were wide.

Janet quickly corrected herself. "No, Miss Keenan, I meant a theoretical person, not me. Ha-ha-ha-ha – that would be crazy," she said, not entirely convincingly.

One day Atiyah came into the lab and saw Dr. Ostrovsky hunched over a new workstation. It was a large silver console with several keyboards and a screen the size of a big-screen TV. In the center of the giant screen was the image of a cluster of stars, a black circle in the center surrounded by two fairly bright and large but highly circles – an effect known as an Einstein ring. This was a black hole! "Wow, Dr. Ostrovsky," she said, "Is that a real black hole?"

"Yes, Miss Keenan, it is," she replied. "The image is being sent over from the Radio Observatory 12 Meter Telescope on Kitt Peak. This is a new workstation designed for monitoring black hole activity, and we just found one in a Magellanic Cloud in the southern hemisphere. I've been sending radio signals to it for the past week, and we've been able to get some monitoring dishes pointed at it over at the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence dish array. All we've heard is space noise until tonight, but listen to what we just recorded!" She pushed a button on the console, and the harsh sound of static emerged, but punctuated by bits of faint music here and there, more like a static-filled AM radio than the normal noise received by a SETI dish.

Dr. Ostrovsky turned to Janet. "OK, here's where it gets reaaaaally weird," she said. At the 5:17 mark, music began to overpower the static just long enough for Atiyah to hear what sounded like the introduction to a theme song, and then the words came out: "We're goin' hoppin, we're goin' hoppin' today, where things are poppin', the old rock'n'roll way…" and then there was only static again.

Atiyah looked at Dr. Ostorvsky, with the strangest look on her face. She said, "That was the theme song from an old American teen dance show! What's it doing in outer space?"

Janet reached up and used her small hands to cup Atiyah's face. "Atiyah, it's my theory that music is emanating directly through that black hole from an alternative history path! You beautiful girl, you, we've just found the spacetime port!" And she pulled Atiyah's face down to her and kissed her full on the lips. Atiyah's heart rate increased by about 30 beats per minute as the woman she had secretly adored for months had not only called her by her first name, which she seldom did, but was kissing her as well!

Then, suddenly, Janet looked at her watch and was off, shouting over her shoulder. "Gotta run! I have to make a full report of these findings to the Department Chair! Keep monitoring those transmissions, Miss Keenan!"

*********************************************************************

In the next few weeks, Janet seldom left the lab, working furiously at the black-hole workstation. Not only did she keep monitoring transmissions, but she kept sending digital pulse messages back through, analyzing readings, finally determining that the sporadic transmissions were coming from the year 1983. Another week went by, and more tests. Janet found she could initially target her pulses to a specific month, then as she became more practiced, specific date. It took her another two weeks to develop the ability to focus on a specific geography. Unbeknownst to anyone, Janet was focused on a specific date: Her 13th birthday, Saturday, July 16th, 1983, and the location: Grinnell, Iowa, population 9,236 - her home town.

During this testing period, Janet only went back to her apartment sporadically, preferring instead to sleep and shower in a nearby empty dorm room, a double with two single beds. Feeling the need to work just as hard as her mentor, Atiyah asked Dr. Ostrovsky for permission to sleep on the other bed in the dorm room, to enable the Doctor to work uninterrupted as much as possible.

One night, Janet had a terrible backache from hunching over the terminal without a break and Atiyah, who had taken a relaxation and massage course for a PE credit, shyly offered to give Janet a massage to relax her. To her delight, Janet accepted.

After her shower, clad in her bathrobe Janet came into their dorm room where Atiyah was waiting, wearing a sweatshirt and matching sweatpants. She asked Atiyah how they would go about doing a massage, as she had never had one before.

"Well, I would suggest you remove your robe and lay face down on my bed," Atiyah replied formally. Janet did so, stretching her small pale frame across her roommate's single bed. Atiyah looked at Janet's small ass cheeks, so like a child's, and felt something in the depths of her lower abdomen begin to get very warm. Smearing some massage oil on her hands, Atiyah began rubbing the woman's shoulders.

"Dr. Ostrovsky, you've got some really deep tension knots here. This may take me a while," she said as she began to manipulate the balls of tension from the smaller woman's muscles. After about 20 minutes, the shoulders were free of tightness. "How does that feel?" she asked.

"Oh, Miss Keenan, that was wonderful," Janet told her. "I feel like a new woman already. You don't have to go on."

"Oh, no, Dr. Ostrovsky, I haven't even begun to work on your back. I'm sure that your upper and lower back muscles are is causing you more pain than you realize." Atiyah moved her strong hands to the neck area and started working on the trapezius muscles, focusing on tension she found there.

"Oh God, Atiyah, that's IT! Ohhh, I hadn't realized how tight I am there." She caught herself, then tried to become formal again. "Forgive me, Miss Keenan, I hope you don't mind if I address you by your first name."

Atiyah smiled, and tired to answer in a tone as seductive as a 15-year-old could make it. "Of course not Doctor. After all you've done for me, you can call me whatever you like," she uttered, her hands moving smoothly lower down the smaller woman's back, the strong fingers expertly kneading the latissimus dorsi muscles.

Letting out another groan of relief, the older woman smiled, "And given the fact that I'm lying here totally naked in front you, it would be silly to have you keep calling me Dr. Ostrovsky. Please call me Janet."

Concentrating now on the knotted muscles of Janet's lower back, Atiyah ventured to ask about something that had been bothering her. "Dr. Ostrovsky – Janet – the other night when you found the spacetime port and called me beautiful – did you mean it?"

Janet paused before answering. Never socially adept, talking about her feelings made her feel awkward. She responded, "Well, er, yes Atiyah. One could consider you quite attractive. I'm sure you have a boyfriend or two mooning after you," knowing full well that the 15-year-old was studying constantly.

Atiyah continued, "And why did you kiss me? I was kind of confused by you doing that. I mean, like, does it mean something, or something? Y'know?"

Janet thought about it – kissing the girl was impulsive, sharing the joy of discovering something with incredible potential. And yet, in her heart she discovered that was only half the truth. She had wanted to kiss her young ward for a while now, but professional ethics had forced her to deny her feelings. The discovery had ostensibly served as an opportunity to finally act on her impulses without appearing unprofessional.

"Well, Atiyah," Janet said, beginning to shut down her feelings for the lovely girl again, "it was rather impulsive – I was lost in the moment, celebrating a major astrophysics breakthrough, and I wasn't thinking. If I offended you in any way I do apologize, and can assure you it won't ever happen again."

Summoning up her courage, Atiyah made her play. "Oh, no, Dr. – I mean, Janet. I didn't mind it at all. I rather liked it – you made me feel very special. In fact, you can kiss me anytime you'd like. Even now."

Janet noticed for the first time that Atiyah had beautiful skin, light brown like a cup of coffee with cream, and her pretty young face had a gentle smile. Janet felt a long-forgotten feeling creeping in to her midsection. She realized it was lust.

Distracted, Janet rolled on to her back without thinking to look at her masseuse, exposing her naked chest and pussy. Atiyah found herself breathless looking at her and sat down at the same moment the little professor sat up, wrapping in her arms and kissing her before Janet could begin her discourse on professional ethics and conflict of interest and how additional kissing wouldn't be appropriate. That argument flew out of her mind completely as she began to pull the girl's sweatshirt off, exposing the teenager's beautiful brown body. Involuntarily, her mouth was drawn to one of the dark nipples.

Atiyah gasped, throwing her head back in passion with her eyes closed, as she began running her hands over the professor's flat chest, down to her belly, her fingers exploring the moistening slit. Janet likewise ran her hand past the elastic waistband of Atiyah's sweatpants, clumsily getting tangled in the cotton panties as she sought out the girl's vagina. As Atiyah spread her legs more, Janet began kissing her way up the brown breasts to the girl's collarbone, then her neck.

Between kisses Janet whispered, gasping, "Atiyah - I have – to tell you – something – I haven't – done this – before - not – experienced – may not be – very good. Atiyah stopped Janet with a deep kiss, their tongues dancing passionately.

Pulling back for a second, Atiyah managed to gasp, "Dr. Ostrovsky – please shut up. You can't be a teacher all the time! Ohhhhh!" Janet's fingers finally managed to make it past the panties, and found their target. "Besides, I'm not – aaaah – experienced either – ooooh – I'm only fifteen…" She stopped talking after that, as Janet's manipulations of her young womanhood brought on the first contractions of an orgasm, followed by the main burst. Thrusting her pelvis towards her mentor's caressing hand, she moaned loudly as she came, then collapsed into Janet's body, holding her closely in the afterglow.

"Janet," she whispered, "I love you. I've loved you since the first time we met, and you talked to me like a real adult, not just a kid." She kissed Janet's face, then her lips, but noticed that her professor was crying. "Janet, what's wrong?" she asked, "Have I said something wrong?"

Her eyes brimming now with tears, Janet took a deep breath. "Atiyah, darling, it's not you – it's me. I have a deep secret that no one knows. Before you go promising your love to me, you'd better hear the whole awful truth." Atiyah said nothing, but nodded her head to indicate she was listening. "There's a genetic fault in my father's family that hits the women of every third generation – it shuts down our thyroid glands. We stop growing, and can't have babies even though we have our periods. My body stopped growing when I was 11. The pills and shots they usually use to remediate the condition made me sick, so I had no other options. I had gotten my period, but everything else kind of shut off. I didn't even get to grow boobs! At first it didn't bother me, but as the rest of my classmates began to blossom, it did."

She took a breath and continued, "At the time, I had a best friend, Dory Bundcher. I'd known her since first grade. We did all the typical girl things together. Since she was exactly my size we used to trade clothes all the time, that kind of thing. She was also an 'A' student as well as an astronomy nut like me, and we would spend hours looking at the summer night sky. Neither of us ever said it, but we also had girl-crushes on each other. But we were young, didn't know what to do about it.

By the time we were 12, though, I still looked 11. Dory sure didn't – she looked 16. She had shot up 6 inches almost overnight, and her chest filled out considerably. Suddenly, girls who used to call her 'science nerd' and 'brainiac' were now her friends and she was really popular. Thanks to her blossoming chest, boys were also paying her a lot of attention. I wasn't any of those things. There I was, still plain old four-eyed, flat-chested Janet the science geek. I began to resent my own best friend.

When it came time for my 13th birthday party, I didn't even want to invite her but my mom made me. So I had to invite some of her dumb 'popular' friends, too. During the party I barely talked to her, but towards the end of the afternoon she cornered me and told me she had a special gift for me – now that I was 13, she wanted to give me my first kiss. Initially I was shocked, but then a plan began to form in my mind. I told her to go wait in the closet under the basement steps – I'd meet her there in 15 minutes after everyone else had left. She almost ran down the stairs to the basement.

"In the meantime, I told one of her popular friends that Dory just came on to me, and was waiting in the closet. It took all of 5 minutes for the gossip to spread among the popular girls. One of them, the alpha female Karyn McClelland, asked me for proof. I told her to follow me downstairs and see for herself."

"I went downstairs and opened the closet door. Dory was waiting – she had put on lipstick and even unbuttoned her blouse to reveal her glorious boobs. I remember to this day the look on her face as I opened the door. It went from happy to horrified as she first saw me, and then all her friends standing behind me. "See? I said, "It's all true!"

Janet continued with her awful confession, "Atiyah, from then on life was pure hell for Dory. I had been so wrapped up in my jealousy, I didn't foresee how bad it could be for my former best friend. She was an outcast, shunned by all. This was, after all, a bible-belt Midwestern town. She couldn't walk down a school hallway without somebody taunting "whory Dory", "rug muncher Bundcher", "lesbo-freak", "pussy breath", and on and on. They never did it loud enough for a teacher to hear, mind you, but always loud enough for Dory. There wasn't a single day I didn't see her crying. She never spoke to me again. I tried a couple of times to approach her, but she always ran away."

"What was even more sad was that I still wasn't popular – the popular girls turned on me, too. Besides the usual 'four eyes', they started calling me 'ironing board' because of my flat chest, and 'girl bait' because no boy would want me, only lesbians. It didn't bother me, though – I knew Dory was being treated far worse."

"Finally Karyn's parents told Dory's parents that she was a lesbian. Being super-religious, they were horrified. They immediately placed her in a psychiatric facility to 'cure' her. She stayed there, trapped for 3 awful years before they said she was 'cured'. By then, her family had moved away, and I never saw her or heard from her again. Because of my jealousy, I cost her three years of her life. I was sick inside at what I had driven her to do – and still am. She was my best friend, had tried to love me, and this is how I had repaid her love. The guilt was, and is, overwhelming. This is why I've devoted myself to my work, Atiyah. It gives me something to focus on so I can forget about the guilt for a little while."

Janet looked at Atiyah, her expression a portrait of remorse and anguish. "So now you know my secret. I understand if you think I'm a monster, Atiyah. I would agree with you. If you want me to request a new mentor for you, I'd be happy to – you are the brightest girl I've ever worked with, and whoever takes you under her wing is getting a jewel."

Atiyah did not hesitate in her answer. "We all make mistakes, Janet. It doesn't change the fact you've been so good to me, or change how I feel about you. I do love you, and I don't want any other mentor. I'm yours, mind, body and soul." To drive home the point, she took her mentor into her arms and kissed her deeply, not letting her go for several minutes.

Janet looked at Atiyah, her smile reflecting happiness and pain at the same time. Atiyah continued, "Besides, Janet, it's over now. You have to concentrate on the future – you can't change the past."

Janet got a funny look on her face, then held up her finger in a professorial manner and said, "Not necessarily, Atiyah."

Sitting up and pulling her bathrobe on, suddenly excited she began to explain, "First of all, the human body is a conductor, not an insulator. The inside and outside of our cells are bathed with fluid containing positively and negatively charged ions with electric potential, like the positive and negative poles on a battery. When one nerve fires an electrical signal across a synapse to another nerve, it causes the release of special transmitter chemicals from tiny containers which enable original nerve cell to build up charge ready for the next 'firing'."

"This whole cycle of charge and discharge, can happen several hundred times per second. These discharges are widely dispersed in the millions of cells throughout our bodies and are incapable of building a strong enough charge to, say, power a light bulb. If you could find a way to harness these diverse charges into one unified organic electronic pulse, theoretically it could be used to project the persona of its human "battery". That's what I've been working on with Dr. Scott, the organic chemistry specialist, and Dr. LaBouve from electrical engineering department – a device that can aggregate human electrical energy into that unified organic electronic pulse."

Atiyah's brain quickly connected the dots as she processed where Janet was going with it: "And if you could project that unified organic electronic pulse into the spacetime port we've identified…"

Janet finished Atityah's thought for her. "Exactly, my dear Atiyah. Time travel. And with your help, I WILL change the past."

*****************************************************************

The following night, Janet sat at the giant console, Atiyah standing next to her, helping her adjust what looked like an open-faced space helmet with wires running into one of the control panels. She pointed at a power indicator, and gave last minute instructions. "Atiyah, when the power meter indicates the required amount of my electrical energy for the electronic pulse transmission, the transmitter will automatically send it to the black hole via the SETI dish. You'll see the pulse on the digital on the transmission analysis display. If anything appears to be going wrong, hit the blue emergency switch. Wish me luck."

Atiyah bent down and gave Janet a long, lingering kiss, stepping back as the machine began to hum. "Hurry back," she whispered. Then everything lit up…

To be continued...