Chapter 5
They went into the kitchen and he had her sit at the table. He sat down beside her. He knew that he would have to coach her on how to survive in this world that was so backward compared to her world. If she made a slip, the public would brand her either a crazy person or worse, the UFO nuts would hound her to death.
" I don't even know your name."
"It's Thea."
"Thea, I don't think that you're ever going to get back to your world again. I have always been taught, as apparently you have, that time travel is impossible. The people or things that brought you here and dumped you aren't coming back either, as far as I know. I got the impression that they don't think very highly of humans. I'm going to have to clue you in on what to expect in this world. You can't go making changes real quick or people will start suspecting something. I'm sure that you're going to see us do a lot of things that you think are backward and, probably, you know a better way. You're just going to have to accept out ways. Later, we might be able to tap into your brain and improve on a few things. We'll have to do it slowly though. As I told you, I am a scientist and I can use your knowledge to create some improvements in the way we do things. One of the main things has nothing to do with science. You have to wear clothes. We're a little different here than the men in your world. Men and women still practice a courting ritual and sex is a big thing in our society. You'll be arrested if you walk down the street naked. That would bring a whole new set of problems because you have no identity. I'll have to figure a way to make you a person of our time. He paused to make sure she understood what he was telling her.
"I understand. I don't have any idea how to get back to my time either. I would never try to change anything in this time period. It would have far-reaching effects on the future."
He leaned back in his chair, "How about your family back in your time? I'm sure you're going to miss them. Can you handle knowing that you'll never see your family again?"
She got a serious look on her face, "As I told you, our methods of having children are a lot different than yours. When the eggs are harvested and the males donate sperm, the eggs and sperm are gene-mapped and cataloged. The eggs and sperm are genetically altered for whatever purpose is required. I have no real father or mother. I am probably the child of many people."
He sat the chair upright again, "For the next few days we'll stay here at the lake and I'll give you an intense instruction on the way our time works. Doesn't work would be more like it."
She nodded her agreement and they started discussing how a few of the basic things worked in this world that she had landed in. He told her that he would like her to watch the television for a day to see a visual image of a lot of the things she would encounter when she went among the citizens of the 21st century.
"You said that you were a scientist and work on weapons," she said. "I take it that you work for your leaders. What types of weapons do you work on?"
He proceeded to give her an overview of the weapons that he had been instrumental in bring into existence. He left out the top-secret weapons that he had recently designed and only told her about the weapons that had been released to the press by the Pentagon.
"What about the new weapon that you said would involve much pure research?"
"I don't even know if the damn thing will work. It's just a theory. As a result of a theoretical study I did 3 years ago, they've asked me to go ahead and try to design the thing. It's just a theory. I think that the type of radiation that will make the weapon work does exist, but I can't prove that it does. If it does exist and I can find a way to harness it we would be light years ahead of everybody else. What it is supposed to do is release the bonds that hold molecules together and whatever you point it at disintegrates into a pile of the atoms that it is composed of.
Suddenly she got a shocked look on her face. The look turned to rage. Thea got up out of her chair and hit him so hard across his face that he was knocked to the floor. He tried to pick himself off of the floor. He could taste blood where his teeth had dug into the inside of his jaw. As the stars began to clear, he heard her screaming.
"Murderer! You scum. Why are you still alive. The history books said you were executed for treason by your leaders."
He got up and grabbed her arms and pushed her back into her chair. She fought him and he lost his grip on her a few times. Each time she took another swing at him. Luckily, he avoided her fist. When she finally calmed down enough she stopped swinging at him. Although her rage was still seething, he let her go and backed away from her.
"You murderer! You're the one that developed the MDD. Don't you realize what you've done. Why were you ever created?"
He held up his hands in front of her and tried to calm her down. When she had calmed down enough to be talked to, he sat back down. She took another swing at him and missed.
"Wait a minute. What the hell is going on? What is an MDD? Calm down and talk to me so that I know what you're talking about."
She spoke with a lot of venom, "How could you do such a terrible thing to mankind? You have the blood of billions of people on your hands."
It suddenly dawned on him what she was getting at, "Thea, the weapon hasn't been designed yet. It's only theory. I don't know if I can make one. What happened? Did I succeed? Did it fall into the wrong hands?"
She looked into his face and she saw that he didn't know the reason for her anger. She stood up and started to pace the floor in the kitchen.
"You did succeed in designing the weapon. In late 2003, the Tibetans revolted against the Chinese. Somehow the Tibetans got hold of an MDD, that's a Molecular Disintegration Device. They copied it and distributed it to their armed forces. They forced the Chinese out of Tibet. The Chinese captured one of the devices and they copied it and started selling it to anyone that had the money to buy one. They improved on it and attacked Tibet again. Today there are no Tibetans in existence anymore. The entire culture was wiped out. Terrorists got hold of the MDD and started to use it against civilian targets. There is no more Israel and most of the Arab population was also wiped out. When a defense against the MDD was finally found 2/3's of the world's population was gone. Entire countries were gone. Many cultures have ceased to exist. Very few people live in china in my time and Russia lost over _ of their people. There were even reports of children finding an MDD and using it against other children for fun."
"But why did my leaders execute me for treason?"
"The world turned against your country because they had developed the MDD. War was almost sure to break out against your country and the rest of the world. Your country arrested you and obtained a confession from you that you sold the MDD to Tibet and to terrorists. You were publicly executed."
He leaned back in his chair. So, he was right. The thing couldn't be controlled. Surely the government had weighed the pros and cons of the weapon. Why didn't they see the possible ramifications the weapon falling into the wrong hands. It suddenly became clear to him. They knew of the problems but they thought that they could overcome them. They were going to let the weapon fall into the hands of the "good guys" and collect them after the "good guys" had won the battle. If anything went wrong, and Mr. Murphy would make sure that it did, they would offer him up as a scapegoat.
"Thea, you just changed history. That weapon will never be built. I'll make sure of that."
"How can you stop it? You said that you have already completed the study. They will use that study as the basis for more research and build the weapon in spite of you."
" You don't understand the scientific community in the time I live in. It is very competitive. I wrote 3 errors in the formulas. I made the errors believable. Unless you know where to look for them, you'd never find them. I always do that to protect my work. There's a stupid mistake in the beginning of the study. Some of these guys are so lazy that they'll find the mistake at the beginning and have the whole work thrown out."
"I'm sorry I hit you. It's just that so many people lost their lives because of that weapon. Do you really think that it will never be built?"
"No! I can definitely assure you that it won't, not after what you've just told me. Now let's start your education. This has to be a first. I'm going to have to unlearn you. The problem now is, that if you could go back to your time now the world would be over-populated because all of those people that the MDD didn't kill have procreated."
Roy showed her how to work the TV remote and made her sit in front
of the TV and watch whatever she wanted. He told her to watch the news
programs sparingly because he didn't want her to think that only bad
things happened in 2002. He sat at the kitchen table and started to
draw up a plan for her uneducation.