"Joe mentioned last night that he wanted to go out shopping today. Does anyone have something they wanted to do?" Carol asked at the breakfast table.
"Well, I'll need to stop by my apartment and get some more clothes. I only brought the ones I'm wearing," Janine replied. "I also need to do some work this weekend. I've got the finishing touches to the thesis portion of my dissertation."
"I vote we move all of her stuff over here. She does belong here after all," Debbie said grinning at her lover.
Just as Carol opened her mouth the phone rang, and Debbie jumped up to answer it.
"Deb, let Mom get it; it's for her," Joe said sadly. Carol looked at him in concern, and he continued. "You have to, Mom. For what it's worth, I'm sorry I couldn't warn you."
Carol was nervous as she answered the phone. Tears came to her eyes as she listened, she finally thanked Janine's Aunt for calling, and told her she would call once she'd made arrangements. She came back to the table, sat down, put her head in her hands, and cried.
Debbie moved over to comfort her mother. Whatever that call had been about had upset her greatly. Since Carol either couldn't or wouldn't talk about it, Deb looked at Joe.
"Ron was killed last night in his holding cell. Because of the nature of his crimes, they tried to put him in a cell by himself, but couldn't. One of the jailers on the night shift hadn't read the paperwork on his case, and ended up putting a man in with him that had just been arrested for DUI. The man was the father of one of Ron's victims," Joe explained quietly.
"Why couldn't you tell me? What possible difference would it have made if we could have saved him from dying? Or from that man killing him?" Carol cried through her tears.
Joe almost cried at the pain in her voice. Ron may have been a molesting son-of-a-bitch, but she still had loved him for sixteen years. Joe took a deep breath. "Because then the man in question would not be in prison when another man arrives and becomes his best friend. They will save the lives of several guards during a prison riot." Joe stopped abruptly because he was about to reveal too much.
"What difference will that make?" Carol asked tearfully.
"The same one as a price increase for tea in Japan affects the crime rate in Indonesia," Joe said cryptically looking back at her.
She looked at him in confusion for a minute before her brain kicked in. "Domino Effect."
Joe nodded, "I knew telling you would mean warning the jail about Ron, saving his miserable life, and costing the lives of those guards in the future. Even if I didn't know the final result, I couldn't have done that. If we pull the wrong thread, the whole tapestry would unravel."
Carol swallowed hard, and nodded. "Was that the real reason you couldn't sleep last night?"
"That was a good part of it," Joe answered.
"What are you two talking about?" Debbie asked totally confused.
Carol wiped her eyes, and hugged her daughter. "Nothing for you to worry about baby. Joe just helped me to understand something is all."
"I know I'm the new guy here, and I don't mean to start trouble, but keeping secrets is not a good way to keep a relationship going. I may not know much about them, but this is the one thing I do know," Janine said.
Joe sighed, "I agree with you, love. In this case though, I have to disagree. For whatever reason, I can see events before they happen, and sometimes what would have happened if we hadn't changed something. Like meeting you; your old boss will be shot to death in about twenty minutes during a robbery. If we hadn't met, you would still be working there, and you would be there when the robbery happens. I know you don't believe in this yet, but if you did, how would that knowledge affect your actions?" Joe asked.
"I'd at least call and warn him. He was a jerk, but that's no reason he has to die," Janine said paling a bit.
"Okay, there are some possible secondary events; He doesn't believe you and it happens anyway. Or he does believe you, because he's involved with the robbers, he calls off the robbery, and then comes after you because you can see the future. Or instead, he later rapes and kills April after the store closes and is shot when police try to apprehend him.
"Knowing these possibilities, would you still try to prevent him from getting killed?" Joe asked. When she was about to say yes, it didn't matter, he continued. "Okay, let's say you know a child of April's will discover the cure for cancer, saving billions of lives, but she won't have that child for another five years. Now, if she were to die before she had that child, the cure wouldn't be discovered, and billions would die. Remember, you know these events to be true probabilities, not possibilities. Would you still act to save the manager's life?" Joe said. He noticed that all three women were thinking hard. "There are things I cannot tell you because they will have a detrimental affect on the future, even though the impending event looks evil and vile, there may well be a good reason for it happening. I have to keep secrets from all three of you. I don't want to; I have too."
Janine looked back up at him. "How do you know? I mean if you can really see all these things, how do you know what to change, and what to leave alone?"
"There are an infinite number of time lines," Joe explained. "All woven into each other. If I look closely at one, I can follow where it leads. However, if I don't look closely at each, and only look at the major events I can see how to either avoid them, or navigate through them." He shook his head. "I can't really explain it, because there isn't the right words. But if there is something bad coming, and I want to see how to avoid or safely get through it, my desire will lead me to the proper thread, showing me the right path. Where to take action, and when not to."
"I still don't understand; how do you know your actions won't make things worse?" Debbie asked.
"He can see multiple random possibilities in the blink of an eye. He can see a point of decision, and almost instantly know which thread will give him the desired result. Hundreds of billions of quantum equations in a single nanosecond," Janine said in awe. "If you can truly do that, you would have the most advanced brain in human history."
"Huh?" Debbie said brightly.
"Students at Cornell University wrote out a single quantum equation dealing with the structure of the universe around us. Remember this is only one equation. In order to solve it, they needed to lease time on one of the largest, fastest computers ever built. The equation took nine hours to upload to the computer. The computer took three days to solve it, and it took eight days to download the answer; an answer that they are still trying to decode years later. What Joe is doing in his head, is a trillion of those equations in a single moment," Janine explained. "It's almost impossible to even imagine."
"Well, I don't see them as math problems; I see events; cause and effect. Does this mean you believe me, or do you still need proof dear?" Joe asked smiling at her.
"You mean you don't already know?" Janine asked back saucily.
"Sweetheart, I can see events before they happen, I can't read minds," Joe replied. "This is more like underwater basket weaving though."
Janine chuckled. "It sounds like you'd do well with physics."
"Sort of, I'll be studying computer science, at least I will be once we get where we're going," Joe said cryptically.
"Can you tell us where that is?" Carol asked. She was still sad, but doing better now that she understood that Ron's death had served a purpose.
"I think you'll enjoy it, I can't tell you the exact location, but it's in Australia," Joe grinned at his mother, because he knew she had always wanted to go there. "Now, I thought we had things we wanted to do; like moving our wife in with us, and shopping?"
"Janine love, knowing Joe, he neglected to actually ask you if you wanted to move in with us. I know I would prefer you to live here with us, and I can see from Debbie's excited expression that she wants you to live with us; it's still nice to be asked. Would you like to move in with us, and be our wife? Will you marry us?" Carol asked.
Janine beamed with love, and looked at Debbie who was nodding vigorously. Joe grinned. "Deb, she wants you to ask her too."
"Will you please move in with us, and be our wife?" Debbie asked. When she turned to let Joe ask her again, officially, Janine found that he had gotten out of his chair, and was on one knee beside her chair. He took her hand in one of his own and looked up, into her eyes.
"Janine Aspen, Will you marry me, and be our wife?" Joe said smiling at her.
"Although I've only known you less then a day. I feel like I've known, and loved you my whole life. The love I feel for each of you is overwhelming. The mere thought of spending a night away from any of you is terrifying to me." Janine said looking at each of them. "The three of you complete me; you're my heart, body and soul. It would be my dearest dream come true to be your wife and live with you where ever we are."
Joe kissed her hand. "I'll take that as a yes."
"Good, 'cause that's what it was," Janine said, smiling broadly.
"Honey, how much stuff do you have? Will we need to rent a truck?" Carol asked.
Janine's smile turned into a grin. "Nope, I actually have a truck. I really don't have that much to move; just my clothes and computers. I would ask that we park my truck in the garage though."
"That shouldn't be a problem; I'd rather sell Ron's old car anyway. Since your grinning like a cat with a big bowl of cream, I assume there is something special about your truck?" Carol asked.
"Well, you could say that. It's a prototype of one of my experiments. How valuable would a vehicle be if you never had to put gas in it?" Janine asked.
"With the way gas prices are; it'd be worth a lot. Your truck doesn't use gasoline?" Carol asked with a fearful look on her face.
"Nope, it runs on water. I put five gallons in the reservoir when I built it last year, and it's still full. It doesn't use any petroleum products at all. The transmission and differential oils, as well as the tires, are synthetic, bio-degradable replacements. The oil companies would kill to keep that information under-wraps," Janine said proudly. "I just haven't figured out how to get the backing to manufacture the retrofit kits and sell them. Not to mention setting up a company and getting the patent filed. Once I file it, the oil companies will be all over me."
During Janine's explanations, Carol glanced at Joe to see if this was what he'd told her about last night. He shook his head telling her, no, this wasn't the break-through that he was talking about, although this was one of the other 'issues' that lead up to the war. Carol was relieved.
"Let me talk to Bill and see if he has any suggestions, he's had a crush on me for years, and will do just about anything I ask. I trust him completely," Carol said.
"Gee, I've got competition already!" Joe teased.
"Not hardly. He's not even in the same class as you are," Carol said. "Now his wife is sure tasty looking..."
"Oh really?" Debbie said, also teasing. "I would have thought you got your fill sucking all the cum out of my pussy!"
Janine just laughed and shook her head. "You guys are insane!"
The first stop the family made was at Janine's apartment. She quickly packed up her clothes, computer equipment, and one box of knick-knacks. She returned the key to the older couple that lived upstairs, apologizing for leaving without warning, and explaining something had come up, and she had to go quickly. Since it was a month to month rent agreement; the old couple gave her a hug and wished her luck. When the couple tried to give her back her deposit, she insisted that they hang onto it to have the apartment cleaned for the next tenant.
Joe, Carol and Debbie helped her carry everything out to her truck, which was in the garage behind the house. The old Chevy pick-up looked to be in really good condition, but other then that didn't look any different.
Janine opened the driver's door and showed the family some of her modifications. There was a computer screen mounted to the dash, and the speedometer and other gauges had been replaced with a heavily tinted plastic cover.
"Okay, now this is starting to look high-tech!" Joe said as Janine climbed into the driver's seat.
"You haven't seen anything yet, lover," She said as she placed her hand on the computer screen. A bar of light passed down the screen like it was scanning her hand, and a click was heard followed by a low humming. The windshield in front of her lit up with what looked slightly like a heads up display in a fighter craft, but without any target indicators. The very top of the display had a compass, heading read out, and GPS coordinates. The bottom of the display had fuel status, power plant output readout, and speed. In the upper right side of the display was an inset picture slightly larger than a mirror would have been.
"It also has a built in voice activated video phone, voice activated stereo system, and if I go on a trip, a small window will open in the lower left hand of the display with indicators of where I should turn. It has a three hundred, sixty degree proximity warning system, so I can't get too close to something. I wanted to work on an auto pilot for it, but that would be an even bigger project, I'm told."
"This is amazing sweetheart! But how did you come up with the money for it? It had to be expensive to build," Carol asked looking around.
"Research grants mostly, ironically enough grants from Oil Companies that claim they are 'Doing their best to reduce our dependency on Fossil Fuels'. They reviewed my request, saw that I was trying to create a fully renewable, water powered engine, and handed over a couple of million. They thought it was a hoot! I just kept my mouth shut, and cashed their check," Janine explained. "Once a year, they require a progress report in case they want to prove how much they're trying to do, but I don't think anyone actually reads them."
"My god, you mean they actually paid for something that would put them out of business?" Carol asked. "They haven't tried to shut you down or steal this?"
"Actually, I haven't told them I took the project to the prototype stage yet, and when I do, I feel very sorry for the poor bastard they send; the door handle scans the thumb of anyone attempting to open the door. If the thumb print isn't on file with the computer, it hits the person holding the door handle with an electric jolt equivalent to a tazer. If they manage to get past that, they have to have the computer scan their palm. If that fails; it stuns the occupant, and calls the police. If someone simply attempts to tow it, the computer will lock down all the systems, call the police, and immediately begin transmitting its location to my laptop. At that point, only my thumb print and my palm print will reset the system to normal operation."
Janine drove the truck back to the house. Debbie rode with her, while Carol and Joe followed in Carol's SUV. "That's quite the truck she's built," Carol said. "Are you sure that's not the main cause of the coming war? The economic impact of this technology will be devastating; especially on the United States and the Middle East."
"Oh, this will be one of the issues, yes. But by itself, no; it won't be the main reason. This engine will take a few years to get settled into the market place, and most of the countries will have time to adjust somewhat. Soon after Janine gets her doctorate, she will begin research on something she thought of during this project. When that gets out, it will be the final straw that collapses the economies.
"No, this invention of Janine's won't hurt all that bad. We won't have the ability to produce adapter kits fast enough to flood the market. The government will also try to step in and shut us down, there will be threats, law suits, and the whole gambit of ugliness that our free enterprise system has become. In the end, none of it will derail this; internal combustion engines are a thing of the past."
Carol looked dubious, but smiled. "So, how do we get this going?"
"We call Bill as soon as we can, and get the legal stuff in place. When the big check gets released to us next week, we find an old warehouse, and hire a few people. The manager we find is excellent, and gets things running really quickly, so we'll be able to leave for Australia soon. Between the lawyer Bill recommends, and the new manager, the business will grow quickly and become self-sustaining in only a couple of months," Joe replied.
"That would certainly take some doing. What you've outlined so far sounds impossible," Carol replied.
Joe smiled sadly. "There are a lot of things coming that are going to sound impossible, even unthinkable, but we have to be ready for them."