Chapter 15



It was the first of September, 2001, and I was changing the fuel cell on my car. I had come to the point where I had finally had to refill the damn things. I did it, though. Everything I needed to recharge the thing was available in this time, except one vital ingredient. This ingredient had been provided in a large enough quantity by my older self, to last until it became available in the near future (according to the elder 'me', and the computer).

I now had two fully charged fuel cells, and a feeling of accomplishment. I sighed, and told the home computer - via the car's link - to pull the town car out of the barn, and park it behind the house as usual. I watched as my car drove itself, with the computer's help, out of the barn. I still got a thrill watching it do that. The technology in the car represented a huge advantage to me if I could somehow convert it into cash.

Unfortunately, it was also a danger. If the government found out about it, and/or me, my life would be over. The government would seize my car, the computer, and everything I had; 'for the good of the people', of course. The edge that this technology would give the US government was too much, in my opinion.

While I approved of most of what my government did, they did too much under the cloak of secrecy that was totally illegal and contemptible. Oh, it was always for the betterment of 'the people' or 'the world'.

I snorted. How many times have I heard this used as an excuse by megalomaniacs, the world over? Governments, individuals, corporations, it didn't matter. Those who always 'knew better' than the average person, scared me. The government said it constantly, by saying we did not have the full picture. Then they always failed to give us the full picture. Well, most of the time, anyway. Secrecy, of course, was the reason to keep everyone clueless.

Which brought me to another thought that was disturbing. Was I any better? I had at my fingertips, medical discoveries to come for at least the next 50 years. A lot of those were huge. I could ease and save lives, just by revealing what I knew. If I did that, though, it would mean the end of my freedom, and life as I knew it. What was I to do?

I was selfish. I liked my freedoms that were guaranteed and mentioned in the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence. For the most part, the government did a great job of watching over them for us. The problem came into being when the rights of the government and the rights of an individual came into conflict.

For example, when the government established laws giving the government broader powers, the individual rights of people shrank. They were getting smaller as the years went by. Always under the guise of 'for the good of the people', of course. Freedom won out over my responsibility to 'the people'.

I would figure something out, but I was not going to endanger my freedom, and become a drugged slave or prisoner of the government, doing what they wanted for the rest of my life. Or worse, until they figured out a lobotomy might be better for me, than to have my abilities be uncontrolled by them.

It would happen, too, if they discovered me and my full capabilities.

As altruistic as the government claimed it was, as benign as it seemed, it would not hesitate to either force me to work for it, for life; or cancel my abilities totally, whatever worked.

It was a sad commentary to my thought process, but I had seen enough to make me afraid of loosing control of my life.

"Get a grip," I muttered to myself.

I went back to the house and puttered around for a while. I worked on one of the rooms that had remained unfinished, working towards finishing it. I enjoyed working with my hands, and it was a joy and a feeling of great accomplishment when I finished a portion, and was ready to move to the next phase.

Courtney was very busy with several groups at the hotel downtown, and was spending more time in her apartment that she had been given at the hotel. I missed having her around, but she did have a job to do. Whenever she had time for me, she would call. I would teleport to her room, pick her up, and teleport us back to my place.

---

I was storing more and more power for my own use for time traveling. I figured out that I was now storing enough power to make it over two hundred years one-way. What I mean is, I didn't have to use local power sources. I was using stored power, that I was siphoning out of the world, for my own use.

As a matter of fact, I was trying to increase the stored power so I could dive deeper into the past. There were places I wanted to go, and history to see. I might not have much power to draw on, once I got there. I definitely didn't want to risk Courtney, who loved 'time diving'. I wanted to be sure I always had enough power stored, to get us to safety.

I also had a long conversation with the computer. Apparently, my future self, at one point, had taken the option of eliminating severe threats to his safety. This meant I was going to do the same, most likely. It was something I had thought about off and on, but I saw no way out of it. I just didn't want to become so used to simply killing, or storing people in the 'between', that I became complacent. I didn't want to become the same as those I feared.

I also had a discussion with Courtney, about how to let some of my knowledge out, and to capitalize on it. I researched several people who were going to discover a processes or breakthroughs in manufacturing, or engineering, or medicine. One thing the computer pointed out (but only after I had explained my idea to it), was that several of these people had a silent partner, or investor.

It was not beyond the realms of belief that I could be this partner, and feed enough info to the talented guy who makes the discovery, and incidentally receive a portion of royalties for my trouble, as a "consultant's" fee. The computer admitted this to me only after I pointed all this out and came to the conclusion.

I had the computer fake an educational record for me, and had me specialize in two subjects, one of which I really was good at: computer programming. The other was that I would specialize in tailoring computer programs for specific projects. This would be for outright pay. If you didn't have my fee, for a small percentage of the royalty if and when the discovery or process went public, I was willing to take a backseat. Perfect!

My computer was a joy to own. It was able to slip all sorts of things into college computers for me. I had records of everything I needed to be successful in my new occupations: the 'auto restoration and reselling business', and the 'tailored programs consultant' business. I was set. I got started on the consultant part. I was already starting to make my way with the restoration business, and had already sold two cars.

For some reason, my computer failed to tell me of the events of 9/11. That had been a shocker to me, to Courtney, and for the country as a whole. I had asked it why it had not told me this event was coming up, and it responded by playing a recorded message from my future self. The message informed me that there were several dates he had instructed the computer to withhold from me, information wise! Damn. He said he had a reason, and it would become clear to me over time.

I pondered his reasoning and came up with several possible answers, but nothing definitive. It was also interesting that there were messages within the computer from my future self which I had not seen as of yet. Interesting to say the least.

The resulting 'knee jerk' security measures were a scary thing. While I had no problems with my government keeping the average person safe, it seemed to me, we were in danger of losing more freedoms than said safety was worth.

Courtney wanted to head back to England, to visit her family. I told her I could meet her there by teleporting to a place. I told her with a grin, that I would most likely beat her there. She punched me on my arm, and laughed.

It was in October that I escorted Courtney to Lambert International Airport. I watched her being treated like a criminal, as she went through security. There's nothing quite like searching a person to make them feel right at home, hmm?

I frowned as a man's hands got sort of familiar with my girlfriend. I was not titillated or excited by it. I was very angry that the government felt it had the right to basically treat every passenger as a criminal, until the government had proven that they weren't... this time!

There were also problems cropping up with specific names that were not allowed to fly. For example, a person who happened to have the same name as that of a terrorist or suspected person, would discover he or she could not fly. Considering the number of people that flew, duplications of names were bound to happen. The government never bothered to take this into account. An innocent person with the same name received the same punishment as the terrorist. The refusal to let that person fly. How screwy was that?

While I could understand the reasoning behind the government's feeling they had to do this, it also showed the danger of governmental trampling of basic human rights. No one had the right to search me, unless I had actually been caught doing something. By searching everyone, you negated the constitutional guarantees, by accusing all.

Sure, flying was not covered specifically in the Constitution or in the Bill of Rights, but every citizen had RIGHTS! Come on, it was as simple as right and wrong. To do this, they had to negate your basic rights. Basically, by doing this, the government was lumping me and every other person into the category of "criminal", until we proved we had no criminal intent, by not having what they considered a weapon or bomb. Sounded a lot like 'guilty until proven innocent', to me.

It was this type of attitude that I despised, and would fight tooth and nail. While Courtney was gone, I took the action of going to our nation's capital, and touring certain buildings, as well as the White House. I had my computer monitor the computer systems of Washington, to make sure I was not singled out. I kept an 'ear bud' in my ear, to maintain contact with my computer at all times.

I went via the 'between', into the past, and moved to the present. I also moved into the 'almost there'. I went to places that were not accessible to the general public. If I had to take action in the future, I was going to make sure I could find my targets. I marked several offices, by placing an object in the 'between'.

The White House was an interesting place. I looked in on the president working in the oval office, from the 'almost there' and made a connection with this room, just in case. Never know when a president might come in handy. If anything, I could prove a point to him. I also visited the movers and shakers of his administration in the building. Ok, that mission was accomplished.

Let's see... I had offices in the House and Senate marked, and the White House. I made my way to the Supreme Court of the United States and went through that building as well. I marked all the judge's offices. I looked at their hidden security, and it was impressive. The White House's security was better; but then, the president lived and worked there. Still, security in all these places was pretty good... and it was out of sight, for the most part.

After doing all that, I went home and had my computer place a copy of the Declaration of Independence on the screen. I read and reread it several times. Nowhere did it give the government the right to negate my basic rights. This was the document that the American Colonies used to notify the English that we were tired of being treated a specific way.

I sat drinking coffee, and hoping like hell I would never have to resort to taking the action that I thought I might have to in the future. When your government starts taking rights away, instead of safeguarding them... that was a warning signal.

Our government had fought a group called the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics for around seventy years, telling them that people had rights. Two conflicting ideological political philosophies vying for dominance. Communism lost, in that part of the world.

Personally, I liked our political system the best. Of course, I had lived it all my life. Now, it is true I was not a scholar of constitutional law, but right was right and wrong was wrong. I was afraid my government was sliding down a slope it would be reluctant to recover from. After all, all that power "for the good of the people" was what the government ultimately wanted, wasn't it? Who better than a centralized authority to use it?

Chapter 16