Before I could reply, Coleen squeezed herself between the guards and stood in front of me.
"No he doesn't," she said angrily. "He needs to stay right here until Sonja returns from meeting with the Pleiad."
"We won't harm your savage, Doctor O'Neil, but he is too dangerous to be allowed to roam loose. This project is my responsibility, and I'll not have it jeopardized because you three decided to pick up a pet along the way," Mendez said.
Old Doctor Mendez was wearing on my nerves about then, as I did not especially appreciate being called all those names. I had met many officers like Mendez during the war. They were men full of themselves and the authority they had been given. They were small minded men who rigidly followed the rules, even when it led them to defeat. The two guards Mendez had with him had moved up close to my sides as Mendez was speaking. The women were even taller than Sonja and quite a bit stouter. They were dressed in black trousers and black knitted shirts with a folded over high neck. I stood still and kept my expression open and non-threatening while I attempted to reason with Mendez.
"That is not a very neighborly way to treat a guest, Doc. Especially one who means you no harm," I said calmly.
Mendez snorted and replied, "I seriously doubt a Neanderthal like you knows enough about civilized conduct to correct me, Brock. When I report to the Pleiad what we found sequencing your DNA, you'll be out in the dead lands with the modern version of your ilk before the sun sets."
I surreptitiously checked the guards on either side of me as Mendez spoke, as I figured their attention was on him and not me. In a move I had perfected disarming dozens of drunken cowboys, miners and railroad men, my hands shot out from my sides and grabbed both of their stunners. I pivoted on the balls of my feet and snatched the small weapons out of their grasp. Before the stunned doctors or guards could react, I reversed my grip on the surprisingly light-weight weapons and pointed them both at Mendez. All of that was well and good, but as I stood there, I realized I was still just as trapped as I had been only a minute before. I mean I was in a strange place hundreds of years in the future; where could I go?
I took both weapons into one hand and grip first, handed them to a wide-eyed Coleen. She took the stunners and I turned to Mendez.
"Find me some clothes and lead on, Doctor Mendez. I will wait to see what your council says, as long as you understand that I am your guest and not your prisoner," I said with as much braggadocio as I could muster.
Mendez gave me a fearful, angry look, but nodded his head curtly.
"Lawson, see to some clothing for Mister Brock," he ordered one of the guards.
Lawson nodded her head, walked to the door, fiddled with something beside it at about chest level, pushed the door open and slipped out of it. We all stood there in an uncomfortable tableau until Lawson bustled back in with an outfit for me just like the one she and her partner wore.
I dressed with as much dignity as I could muster, slipping the trousers on before tossing off the ill-conceived nightshirt. The clothes were of a texture and weave that was beyond anything I had ever owned. The clothes were clearly utilitarian, but very high quality. The trousers were slightly too short, but the waist stretched accommodatingly. The shirt fit as if it was a second skin, but it was not uncomfortably tight. Lawson handed me a pair of cloth slippers, but even though they stretched, they were not even close to fitting on my big clod-hoppers. Lawson giggled at my vain attempts to stretch the slippers over my feet, but stifled it when Mendez shot her a disapproving, school marmish frown. I gave up on the slippers, told Mendez to lead the way, and we filed out of the room. As we walked down a long corridor, I could not help but notice that all four women were walking close to me, while the two men acted as if I did not exist.
We had only walked about forty feet when Mendez stopped at a door that had the words 'MEDICAL QUARANTINE SUITE ONE' painted on it. Mendez took what looked like a playing card from his shirt pocket and stuck it in a slot by the door. As soon as he did that, the latch made an audible click and he pushed the door open. Mendez stepped aside and gestured me through the door, I walked in with Coleen close on my heels. Coleen still had one of the stunners in her hand and the other one tucked in the waist band of her loose trousers.
Mendez did not like the idea of Coleen joining me in the room.
"You are jeopardizing your career with your actions, Doctor O'Neil," he said warningly.
Coleen shrugged, handed him the stunners and said, "Someone has to show him how things work and keep him company until Sonja returns. I am partly responsible for him being here, so it is my duty to make sure he is treated properly. You don't seem to realize that if it weren't for Jeremiah, neither we nor the Hawkingium would have made it back. He deserves much better treatment than he has received so far."
Mendez snorted derisively.
"He might have helped, but I doubt if it was for any reason other than his own gain. Think about it, doctor, he embodies everything we are struggling to overcome. His kind are what almost destroyed the human race."
Before Coleen could respond, Mendez stalked out of the room, slamming the door emphatically as he departed.
Coleen started apologizing for Mendez's conduct as soon as he was out the door. I shushed her and told her I had seen plenty of his type when I was in the glorious Army of Northern Virginia, and that I took no offense to it. Coleen seemed much relieved by what I said. She gave me a big hug, then led me by the hand through my new digs. I was much impressed with the indoor plumbing and the flameless cooking stove. Coleen tried to explain to me about something she called electricity that made the stove and bright lights work. Except for the fact that electricity somehow came from windmills and the sun, her explanation went in one ear and out the other with nary a stop in betwixt. I had much less trouble grasping how to make the simple controls work. Turn a knob one way and a burner turned red hot, turn it the other and it was off again. Same with the handles for water, except one handle was for hot and another was for cold.
I was also impressed with the thick mattress on the large bed in the bedroom. I do not know what it was ticked with, but it was the most comfortable I had ever felt. It felt as if it would be too soft when I first laid on it, but after my body sank into it, it firmed up just right. Coleen was smiling as I luxuriated on the fine mattress, until I grabbed her hand and pulled her down on top of me. She squirmed in my arms as I kissed her, and freed herself enough to move her lips near my ear.
"Someone is watching and recording everything that happens in here, so behave yourself," she whispered sternly. I did not like the idea of being spied on one little bit, but I nodded and let her up.
We adjourned to the sitting room and took seats on the couch, while Coleen told me more about every day life in the future. Helena had been correct when she said that I would see enough similarities with what was common place in my time, to be able to function in theirs. We had been chatting for an hour or so, when the door swung open and Sonja and Helena swept into the room and made a bee-line to me. Both women had changed clothes somewhere along the line and were now wearing the same black trousers as I. Instead of a black shirt, however, Sonja wore a blue one and Helena's was yellow. When they stopped in front of me, I could plainly see the concern and touch of anger in Sonja's eyes.
"Are you okay, Jeremiah? Someone called me and told me that idiot Mendez had you locked up," she said.
I tried to downplay what had happened, but Coleen kept butting in with details I had glossed over. Sonja's expression steadily became stormier, until Coleen came to the part of the story where I disarmed the two guards. When Coleen relayed that tidbit, Sonja's eyebrows tried to climb onto the top of her head.
"He disarmed Lawson and Habib? I'd have paid to see that, I've seen them both best three opponents at one time in the gym."
I did not know where this Jim's place was, but it dang sure did not cater to cowboys, miners or railroad men, if those two could whomp three of the customers.
Before I could say anything about that, Coleen butted in yet again.
"I think that they were distracted, being in Jeremiah's presence for the first time. I need to run a few tests to confirm my suspicions, but I am beginning to have an inkling of why that might be," Coleen said.
Before anyone else went off on another tangent, I asked the question that was foremost in my mind, "So anyway, what did the council decide, Sonja?"
Sonja smiled for the first time since she arrived.
"Oh, them. They were ecstatic about the 15 kilos of Hawkingium we brought back, and they are most appreciative of your efforts on our behalf. The other idea is going to take some debate as to how we might best utilize your talents."
Sonja stopped talking for a few seconds and frowned before she continued.
"Our big problem is the quarantine order Mendez has you under. He told the Pleiad that he had good reason for it, and asked to see them privately later this afternoon. Of course the council is not going to overrule the Chief Medical Officer until they hear his story. What caused him to do that anyway, Coleen?"
Coleen had a ready explanation.
"When Doctor Pierce ran Jeremiah's DNA, he found the gene that modern men are missing which prevents the formation of the protein molecule for sexo-social aggressiveness. That was probably enough for Mendez's action, but then Pierce discovered that Jeremiah's DNA had one of the other two genes in that codon out of sequence, and Mendez felt justified in taking extreme action. I think that the out of sequence gene is the reason women of our time seem drawn to Jeremiah. My theory is that Jeremiah's aggressiveness gene has mutated in a way that expresses itself as a pheromone that attracts women."
I could not follow most of what Coleen said, but I understood that it had something to do with how I smelled. I know it was a simpletons action, but I could not help raising my arm and taking a cautious whiff.
After Coleen said her piece, Sonja asked her a few questions about whether anything about whatever I had different about me would be a danger to the community. When Coleen assured her absolutely not, Sonja walked across the room and opened a small cubbyhole door I had completely missed. The open door revealed a device that resembled the machine that counted down our time until departure back in the cave. Sonja tapped a sequence of the buttons with letters on them and a few seconds later, the face of a handsome older man appeared on the black slate-like portion of the machine. My curiosity got the better of me, so I asked Coleen who was the man in the picture.
"That's the chairman of the council. Sonja is the council's lead troubleshooter, so she has great credibility with them."
Sonja finished off her conversation with the council chairman and dragged Coleen off with her, so Coleen could brief the headman in person before the council met with Doctor Mendez. Helena stayed with me to keep me company and probably to keep me out of mischief. Helena took Coleen's seat beside me on the divan. I figured since she took Coleen's seat, she could answer my questions too. The first question I asked was about how the government worked here in good old Paradise Valley. Helena was happy to fill me in.
"We live in a participatory democracy, Jeremiah, where every person eighteen and older who has completed our mandated civics class has a vote. The Council of Citizens is the head of the government. Members of the council are chosen at random from among eligible voters for a four year mandatory term. There are ten council members at all times. All ten councilors participate in council business, but only seven, the Pleiad, have a vote. Every year, one or two of the councilors' terms expire and one or two new ones are appointed. The councilors who served for the previous year without a vote move up to the Pleiad. Members of the Pleiad can be removed from office if two thirds of the citizens vote for it.
"Every major decision of the council is voted on by the citizenry. Votes are cast via computer and the voting window is forty-eight hours. All council meetings are open to the public and available on video, so citizens can watch matters debated at their leisure. In our constitution, it is every citizen's sacred duty to participate in our democracy. In the one hundred and ten years our constitution has been in effect, there has never been a vote in which fewer than ninety percent of those eligible voted.
"We have a small civil service that administers the government. Members of the civil service are held to the highest standards of conduct, and their salary and advancement are based strictly on merit. We have a small judiciary system that is constitutionally limited to one lawyer per thousand citizens. All lawyers are part of the civil service, and their services are free to anyone. Most legal matters are handled by a panel of five lawyers appointed by the council, but on the rare occasion a trial is necessary, both the defense and prosecuting attorney are chosen at random. A member of the civil service convicted of violating the publics' trust is automatically banished from the valley."
What Helena told me about their government was very interesting to me, and I could not find many faults with a system where the people actually participated in their governing on the scale the future men did. After the civics lesson, Helena crawled up into my lap and kissed me passionately.
"Enough talk, Jeremiah, you have a clean bill of health, I'm protected now, and we have some unfinished business," she said sultrily.
I told her what Coleen said about being watched. Helena frowned then stood up and went to the same place from which Sonja called the councilman. Her fingers were a blur on the small buttons with letters on them as she mumbled to herself.
" ... this really is an old system ... they probably had something better than this in your time, Jeremiah..." she muttered under her breath.
Helena stopped talking and the buttons stopped clicking at the same time.
"That takes care of that," she said with a smirk.
Her smirk turned to a squeal when I growled, swept her up in my arms and stomped toward the bedroom. After she squealed in surprise, she moaned, and pressed her face into the crook between my neck and shoulder as I walked into the bedroom. Helena had barely stopped bouncing from where I tossed her onto that fine mattress, before I was out of my shirt and working on my trousers. Helena was in as big a hurry as I was, so clothes were flying everywhere. In fewer than thirty seconds, we were both naked and I was swan diving onto the bed. I immediately started doing those things that I knew made lovemaking better for a woman. I wanted our first time to be special for Helena. When I started heading south with my kisses, she wrapped those long lithesome legs around my waist and stopped me.
"Save that for later Honey," she sighed. "I think if I have to wait another second for you to be in me, I'll start screaming."
Before I could reply, she grasped my member and positioned it against her womanhood. I could feel how ready she was by her slick wetness. She seated me at the portals of heaven and groaned when I pushed firmly forward. Even with her being as wet as she was, gaining purchase within her tightly clasping channel was slow going. Every time I pushed, she let out a little whimper and her tunnel would ripple around my invading staff. I tried to stop and give her time to accustom herself to me, but when I did, she pulled me towards her again with the powerful muscles in her legs.
Making love to Helena was right up there among the best things that had ever happened to me. I believed her when she said she felt likewise. Our first time, once I finally managed to get us joined, was fast and furious, but very mutually satisfying. Once the edge was off both our ardor, our second was not near as frantic. We made slow languid love with much kissing and whispered terms of endearment. All three of the women from the future loved being close to me and they loved to cuddle. I think part of my attraction for all three of the women was that I was a hopeless romantic at heart, so cuddling with them was not an imposition in the least.
We were lying on the bed, relaxing and catching our breath, when something started chiming in the pile of clothes that Helena and I haphazardly flung on the floor. Helena squirmed around until she could hang over the end of the bed, and retrieve a small black object from the pile. I was not a bit surprised when she held the object in front of her face and talked into it. "This is Helena," is what she said.
Sonja's voice instantly answered her, "Your vid is off Helena. Does that mean what I think?"
Helena looked at me and her cheeks turned pink.
"I'll tell you later. I hope that's not why you called."
Sonja's laughter tinkled out of the device.
"No, I called to let you know Lawson is headed your way with Jeremiah's clothes and boots. When Jeremiah is ready, Lawson will take you two over to one of the dorm's poly-suites. The Pleiad voted to release him to us. They want to meet Jeremiah tomorrow and talk to him about how he might help. To appease Mendez, Chairman Griggs assigned Lawson to accompany Jeremiah anytime he is out of the suite. Tell Jeremiah he needs to be on his best behavior, because they issued Lawson a new type of stunner."
The conversation with Sonja energized Helena. She leapt out of bed and ran toward the bathroom.
"We stink, get out of that bed and into the shower!" she yipped.
Helena and I were sitting chastely on the couch when Lawson rapped her knuckles on the door of the room ten minutes later. Helena opened the door and Lawson stalked in. She dropped my clothes and boots on the table. Lawson was looking at me none too friendly, so I immediately apologized for disarming her earlier. I was sincere when I told her how sorry I felt for overreacting. When I finished apologizing, I held out my hand to her so we could shake and start over. When she clasped my hand in hers, her eyes blinked a few times, then she licked her lips and smiled.
"Bygones, Mister Brock, and please call me Tonya."
Tonya and Helena decided I would draw less attention in the black outfit, so I slipped on my boots, made a bundle of my other clothes and followed Tonya out the door. As Tonya led the way, I realized that she was even bigger than I had first thought. If she was not six foot two and at least a hundred and seventy pounds, I would eat my hat. For a big person, she carried her size with a surprising cat-like grace. The more I saw of her, the more I decided that it had to have been mostly luck that allowed me to disarm her.
We walked for quite a ways before we exited the building. I was completely disoriented by all the turns we made as we marched down seemingly endless deserted corridors. I was much relieved when we finally climbed three sets of stairs and passed through a door out into the late afternoon sunlight. I took a long look around after my eyes adjusted to the bright sun. For the first time since my arrival, I was awed by what I saw. The building we walked out of was two stories tall and built much like the government buildings I remembered from Richmond. We had come out of the two story square building onto a pathway made of a smooth hard material. The pathway meandered through a small grassy glade with some large oaks shading it. Around the other three sides of the glade, rose magnificent buildings at least one hundred feet tall and sporting acres of glass windows.
Helena and Tonya smiled indulgently at me as I stood with my head tilted back as if I were a goose trying to drown myself.
"This is the science quad, Jeremiah. The building we were in houses classrooms, laboratories, an auditorium and the time portal. The other buildings around the quad are all residences for science students," Helena said, then she turned to Tonya and asked, "Which hall are we in?"
Tonya pointed to the building straight ahead and replied, "Asimov Hall, apartment 2E."
I kept up with the women as they briskly walked towards the building, but it was an effort, because one new sight after another caught my attention. I think next to the buildings, the most amazing thing I saw on our little jaunt was the young people casually lounging around in the grass. Some were laying on blankets practically naked and seemingly asleep, while others sat in small groups talking animatedly. Amazing to me was the fact that there were at least as many women here as there were men. I had never heard of a university in which men and women attended together. We, on the other hand, drew very little attention as we walked purposely toward our lodging.
Our apartment was a corner unit facing away from the little glade that Helena called the 'quad'. The apartment had a nice parlor, a dining room with a table and six chairs, a kitchen full of equipment I could not identify, and an indoor privy. It also had an absolutely amazing bedroom with its own indoor bathroom and privy. The bedroom was probably sixteen feet on a side and was dominated by a huge four poster bed sitting squarely in the middle of the floor. I asked Helena the obvious question, "What is the purpose of having such a large bed?"
"This is a 'poly room' Jeremiah. There are a number of them in each resident hall. The rooms are for those students who have formed or want to form a poly. Poly is the word we use to describe a relationship between three or more people. The support and companionship the members of the poly provide each other is probably much more important than the sex. The unwritten rule is that every member of the poly participates fully in all of its activities, that is why there is only one bedroom and one large bed," Helena replied.
For once, I understood exactly what she was saying. I understood it because this thing they called a 'poly' matched closely my idea of the family I wanted for myself.
My next dose of future wonderment came when Tonya pushed a tall all-glass door to the side, and led me out onto a small balcony off the parlor. About fifty feet in front of the balcony, a wide black street ran left to right. On the street, these forevermore strange carriages and coaches whizzed along quiet as a gentle breeze. Most of the contraptions were large coaches that resembled railroad passenger cars, but there were a few smaller, brightly colored machines as well. I could see folks riding in the things, but what I did not see was any hint of what propelled them, no locomotives, no draft animals and no one pushing or pulling. On the edges of the road, other people were clipping along on two-wheeled conveyances that appeared to be powered by the pumping of the person's legs. Tonya was very patient with me as she explained what I was seeing, and answered my inane questions.
It was four in the afternoon when I came back inside the apartment from the balcony. I didn't need to look at the clock on the kitchen wall to know it was nearing suppertime, because my stomach was reminding me and complaining about missing lunch. Helena heard my stomach growl embarrassingly loud, and plucked her little talking device off her belt. After a brief conversation of which I only heard one side, she put the device away and gave me news I wanted to hear. "Sonja and Connie will be here in half an hour and they are bringing food with them."
Sonja and Coleen arrived right on time and to my great pleasure, they brought food that was already cooked. The meal was a couple of large round flat breads covered in tomato sauce and topped with some sort of sliced meat and stringy cheese. Sonja called the thing a 'pizza'. Even had I not been famished, I would have stuffed myself; it was one of the best tasting things I have ever thrown down my throat.
After our meal, Sonja and Coleen dragged me down stairs to help them move some of their belongings up to our new digs, while Helena and Tonya took off to bring back their stuff. I was loaded down like a pack mule when we walked back into the building. The thought of climbing the stair carrying three big valises made me glad we were only on the second floor. Turns out, there was another way up though, because Sonja detoured me to a set of metal doors. She pushed a button on the wall and a few seconds later, the doors slid open to reveal an empty room the size of a large closet. I followed the women into the room, Sonja pushed another button on the wall and the doors closed with a hiss. As soon as the doors closed, the floor seemed to move, and I had that same sense of unbalance I felt when we traveled in time. Sonja saw me jerk my head around and laid her hand on my arm reassuringly. "This is an elevator," she said. Then she explained how it worked.
Tonya and Helena returned an hour later and I repeated my duties as their beast of burden. It was near seven in the evening by then, and the sky was rapidly giving up the colors of the day. I was all set for a quiet evening, and excited about what the night would bring, when Sonja plopped down on the couch next to me.
"Your clothes are laid out on the bed. Go change, because we are going out tonight to celebrate our safe return."
When I nodded my understanding, Sonja kissed me on the lips and purred in my ear, "Don't worry cowboy, we won't stay out long. We have too much unfinished business to take care of."
I did not really feel like going out in public yet, because I knew so little about how I should comport myself around these future people. However, my women wanted to go and I wanted them to be happy, so I jumped up and did Sonja's bidding. Later on, I sure was glad I didn't raise any objections, because it turned out to be the best night of my life.