Sexual Healing #6
Erica frowned. Sean wasn’t a kook or a flake.
She’d learned that very well during their week together.
He was well grounded and possessed a tremendous sense of scientific curiosity.
She knew that there were breakthroughs in science every year, but moving through time was more science fiction than science fact.
He broke into her thoughts. “Would you like a demonstration?”
She nodded and he stood. “Come here.”
He picked up the black disc and Erica stood beside him. “I’m going to move your chair five minutes into the future.”
Erica watched as he pressed a tiny button on the disc and a small window opened. He scanned the chair, then used his thumb to push several symbols that appeared on the screen. “Now watch.”
She looked at the chair and observed as it disintegrated before her eyes. “Impossible,” she whispered.
“Maybe for the science of this age. But in my time—”
“What is— When is your time?”
“Twenty-seven forty-three.”
A giant hole opened in her stomach. “That’s more than 700 years from now.”
He nodded. It made a strange kind of sense to Erica.
He’d seemed like such a stranger to her world, so amazed by everything he saw and smelled and tasted.
“We’ve made progress, Erica. Energy, technology, medicine, culture .
. . Things have changed radically, and now that I’ve been here, met you, seen your world, I know that it’s not all to the good. ”
“I’m not sure I understand.”
“Our race is dying out,” he said. “And it’s attributable to a form of genetic manipulation that will be discovered and implemented in your time.”
“And you came to stop it?”
“Yes.”
“Won’t that cause a whole avalanche of repercussions in the future?” she asked, realizing that she had accepted his theorem. She actually believed he was a time traveller.
“We hope so. I was sent to interfere with the scientist who develops the process that causes our world to become physically and culturally sterile.”
“How?”
“Any way necessary. Even kill him.”
“Kill? As in murder?”
He nodded. “But I’m no killer, Erica. And I certainly can’t kill a child.”
“What? You’re scaring me, Sean!” she said, just as the chair reappeared. She sat down on it, hard. “What child?”
His jaw clenched and he looked away. “We had the dates wrong. We thought he would develop his devastating procedure in 2015. I came to intercept him a few years early – or so I thought - just to be on the safe side.”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of stones that glittered in the light.
“Are those diamonds?” Erica asked.
“Yes.” He dropped what had to be a hundred diamonds on the table. “I didn’t know how long I would need to stay, and we knew diamonds have value in your time. I sold one the day I arrived. That’s the reason I have some money, how I was able to buy these clothes.”
The diamonds were astonishing. Erica didn’t know a lot about jewellery, but all of Sean’s were larger than any engagement diamond she’d ever seen. “These must be worth a million dollars.”
He shrugged. “When I first met Drew, I knew I’d come far too early. He probably developed Fusion XJ in 2035, not 2010.”
“Wait. Drew? Drew is the scien—”
She stood abruptly, her heart in her throat. She’d never believed the damn thing could break. But now she knew differently. “It’s Drew that you. . . Get out! Get out of my apartment, now! I can’t believe I ever—”
“Erica, wait. I’m not going to hurt Drew. I couldn’t hurt your son. I have a plan.”
Her eyes welled with tears, but she brushed them away and marched to the front door. She felt defeated inside, as though he’d just crushed every one of her newly rejuvenated emotions.
But when he came to her and embraced her, Erica found she didn’t have the power to resist. She’d been so sure they’d connected in an elemental way. She closed her eyes and tried not to feel the overpowering sense of belonging, of security, in his arms.
“Come to the future with me. You and Drew. He can grow up there and pursue his scientific career far more effectively in my century. You both can.”
He eased away from her slightly, and put a couple of fingers under her chin. There was an intensity in his eyes, a look of restrained passion. “I love you, Erica. And I’ll always want you.”
He kissed her lightly, then released her and returned to the table. Gathering up the diamonds, he brought them back to her and poured them into her hand. “These are yours to keep. You can stay and finish your studies here in 2010 without financial worries.”
She bit her lip as she gawked at the incredible wealth in her hand.
“Or you and Drew can come with me, to a world that will be new and different for all of us. Because, yes – what I’m doing now will have repercussions for the future.”
She glanced over at the strange, incredibly advanced black disc that rested on her ridiculously commonplace Formica table, and then up at Sean. She knew there was no question of what she would do.
She hugged him close, then slid her hands up to his neck and pulled him down for her kiss. “I love you, too.”
He held her close and returned her kiss, and Erica felt him pour everything he had into it before easing away. “Let’s go and wake Drew,” he said. “We ’ve got a big day ahead of us.”