Day 9

When they did awaken Daniel was sure it was to the smell of bacon. No one else could smell it but he seemed to be able to. They of course at this moment had no idea they’d slept through and entire day. Everyone took turns in the bathrooms. It worked out well. In not too long a time everyone was dressed and ready to find out what it was that they were supposedly destined to be a part of. When no one came they pulled the cord that the servant had showed them before they’d gone to sleep.

“I feel kind of awkward letting someone else do things for me.”

“I know I’m not so sure I like the future if we go back to having servants.” Peter affirmed what his sister had said.

“Technically, not to take such things away from Rodger,” Marian smiled at him.

“By no means, go ahead.”

“Servants weren’t necessarily a bad thing in our history. I’m not sure how currency works here but in our past history servants were a sign of wealth. As were of course slaves. The difference between slaves and servants was that the servants usually received a wage while slaves were usually kept in a state that caused them to remain slaves. They didn’t get a choice who they wanted to be unless they managed to escape or scavenge up enough money to buy their freedom. With a servant they get to choose their course in life. Some of them got paid quite well for the work they performed.”

“So you don’t mind servitude?”

Marian wasn’t sure of Joshua was accusing her of something or just genuinely curious about what she thought. “I think that it servitude it done properly there isn’t much cause to be troubled by it. Anyone who is forced to do what they don’t want is just cruel. However if people want to do that kind of work and are paid fairly. I don’t see a problem with it.”

It seemed as though Joshua was about to say more but the door opened and one of the servants walked in. “How may I be of service?”

“Well, we were thinking it might be us who are needed but we don’t know exactly what we’re supposed to be doing. Could you give us a hand?”

At first the man looked at him in a bit of alarm but then something seemed to register. He nodded as if to himself. “Would breakfast be agreable? The king will speak with you afterward.”

After they’d eaten the king did show up with Rebarto not far behind him. He almost would have seemed like a little dog except that he was always so happy and that he held himself in a way that made people think something of him. It was like he was privileged to have his position and he demanded the respect that came with it. Not that he was in some way obliged to be there at his masters beckoning call.

“I hope you all slept well? How was the food?”

“It was all very fine and I’m sure we all thank you for your kindness. But I’m sure you can imagine what it is like for us to want to know what has been so far planned for us. There are a lot of things we might not agree on. I know there is a lot of things we aren’t used to but most importantly I think we’d like to know why we are here. Please tell us.”

The king’s face grew quiet grave after hearing James words. “Yes, yes, come everything is ready. It is time for you to know what faces you.”

He led them to an open balcony. It had no rails, instead it was more like a platform on which there were some kind of aircraft. These are AstroStars. You named them yourselves when you were here last time.”

“Wow! Do we get to drive?” Rodger was nearly bouncing from one foot to the other.

“Not yet.” He gave another deep laugh. “There is a lot of learning for you to go through. Our scientists and technicians have put together quite a program for you. These men and women will drive today.”

Once everyone was seated. It didn’t take long for them to get to a landing site with a huge building that seemed to have a huge AstroStar sticking up through the roof.

“Come in and see what has been built for you.”

Peter stopped him, “Wait, so you built us a ship? No,” He looked back up at the building, “A spaceship?”

“Yes, does that seem to be a problem?”

“It is okay Rebarto. I think I know where Peter is going with this.”

“Come I will tell you the reason for the AstroShip as we walk. There is much anticipation at your arrival. An I’m afraid that not everyone welcomes it as they should.”

The group followed him as they walked toward the massive building. There were people everywhere. Little motorized carts, more aircraft, and even a few robots that seemed to be very adgil ran about amongst the people.

“Technology was taking over the planet. Everyone was going cybor and jobs were being done by machines and robots. People didn’t have jobs to do anymore. As far as our historians can tell that is what caused what happened to us. Humans just didn’t know where to turn. They stayed in their homes watching television and playing games that got more advanced all the time to the point where people were contracting strange disease scientist didn’t know how to fight. I’m sure there were a lot of things that causes these problems although the inactivity of people seemed to be a major cause. Then there was the fact that people didn’t have jobs and weren’t making the money they needed to keep living. Everyone still needed to be able to pay for all the things that robots and machines were creating. Some of the business owners and such were making tons of money. However it wasn’t going anywhere. The man in charge, you wont know him and I can’t be telling you too much of your future, anyway, he mandated that every job a robot or machine was doing that a human could be doing was to be giving to them. A wage was set for a while but then it seems that people went back to bartering for items. Currency has become unnecessary. People work, they eat, everyone has a place in society. From the paperboy to the man who travels the globe in search of the new printed on the paper, from the farmer to the fruit merchant, from the mechanic to the ferryman, from the lawyer to the clockmaker that needs help with a lawsuit. Life is the currency that flows through the air we breath.” He stopped to open the oversized metal door. “That is what ended up bringing us to space travel. I wouldn’t say we overpopulated the planet but the taste for adventure couldn’t be sedated by Earth anymore. We didn’t have any alien landings or anything but the human race has done their best to populate space as far as they can reach out. Which isn’t as far as some of them would like to touch. The curiosity of man is never satisfied.”

“That is really fascinating but I still don’t see why we're here.”

“Aw, well earth has become sort of a distant mother planet. There are those born on other planets that have never seen Earth. It is one of these such people who is causing us a bit more trouble than we can handle. I have been told that he is part of a cult who thinks that the human race has sinned against God by allowing our people to travel out beyond the place He created for us. There is more to it then I know, I’m sure. One thing's for certain that we can not allow him to continue threatening to destroy earth. He already sent one missile to Earth. We have shields up protecting the planet.”

“Force fields?”

“Rodger, I’m sure it is something like that. So we need you to travel out into space and find him. We would like for him to be brought back to Earth if at all possible.”

“Couldn’t anyone travel out to get him?”

“At first that is what I thought we would do. However you arrived and told us it needed to be done by you. I don’t know if we did something and you had to come and fix it or what but I do know that we have gone to a lot of work to make this the way you told us it would be.”

“Enough of all that. Come and see. Rodger I know for a fact that you're going to get a kick out of this.” He and Rebarto pushed open the double doors.

There before them was the biggest thing they had ever seen. It wasn’t quite like the AstroStars although very similar. The silvery metal gleamed in the fluorescent light of the high ceiling. Over half of it was bathed in sunlight from the partially opened roof.

“This will be launched just before your training is finished. You will have a good grip on how to handle her by then. Once she is christened you’ll be free to go. That is a ways off yet.”

The group could only stare up in awe at what they were looking at. In their day none of this was in the near future. It was all still a dream that even the geeks weren’t sure how to reach. It was almost too much to take in. There wasn’t a nice way to tell these young people that they were being sent into space to find a guy at was planning on destroying a whole planet full of people. Not only that but they had been transported to the future to do it. Who would do that to someone?

Marian sat down where she was. It was all too much to ask. For what insane reason would she want to go into space. Why would her future self allow such a thing? All she wanted now was to go home. It wasn’t the ideal place but at least it was something she was familiar with. Something she could grasp at and understand. There were a lot of things she wanted to do but it was all back home. How was she ever going to get back there?

Rose came over and sat down with her. “We all need to talk about this don’t we.”