Time Past, Time Future

By Jan C. Schindler

How to make Galactic Gumbo

Get a large pot. Throw in a girl, her cat, a wormhole, time travel, a handsome alien, a witty avatar, strange beings, little green men, droids, and sentient Ships. Sprinkle in some stars, pulsars, nebulae, and galaxies. For some spice, the girl falls in love with the handsome alien and then the avatar. For some lagnappe, add a talking orca and cat.

Stir in some space battles, kidnappings, and voyages to faraway planets. Mix it all up and let it simmer for one heck of a story. Best to read it while watching a sunset on Venus, sipping one of those funny umbrella drinks.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jan C. Schindler
• Release date: Jun 10, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223654865

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

THE END, THE BEGINNING

The work is okay. At least I am in my general field of Fine Arts. I don’t think anyone will come knocking at my door wanting my paintings anytime soon, though. My boss is easygoing, so that helps. I supervise six book cover designers for a company. The work pays the bills so I can’t complain too much. Another day, another dollar, I often hear my boss, Jenny say. In my ideal world, I’d sell enough paintings so that I could paint full time. I’d have a nice loft studio with space for me and Minnie to live. Momma always said I had my head in the clouds. Maybe that is why I was attracted to René.

I let the guys go early as it was Friday and they were eager to hit the corner bar for their pint. They always ask me to go and I sometimes do but not today. I was tired, and I just wanted to veg with my favorite cat, Minnie. I am glad I have her. Since René left three months ago, I haven’t felt like socializing much.

I said my goodbyes and headed out the door for home. The office occupied the top floor of a nineteenth century renovated building in downtown New Orleans. Lots of brick and windows. It would make a great studio. I rode my bike to the ferry and got on. I rent a garage apartment from some friends across the river in Algiers. They had a kind of shed that we converted into a studio for me. Marie and André are actually my dad’s friends, but I’ve known them all my life. The set up suits my needs.

I opened the door and called to Minnie that I was home. Kinda silly, but she’s all I’ve got right now. She always comes running and rubs up against my legs. She’s my sweetie.

I popped a pizza in the oven and got myself a beer, kicked off my shoes and put on some comfy sweats and a tee shirt.

Hey, Min, ready for an exciting evening with the big cats? What about some sci-fi instead? Minnie was not a fan of it; she hissed at Worf in Star Trek. I guess she didn’t like the way he looked.

I plopped down on the sofa with beer and a slice of pizza and turned on the TV. Minnie came over and sat in my lap.

I wish there was a way I could talk to Claire and tell her how much I loved her for saving me off the streets. It was always a never-ending struggle to find food. I sensed she was an excellent human. I hung around her door here until she came home one day. As she rode up, I came out of the bushes, meowing nonstop. I let her pick me up and, well, the rest is history. She gave me a can of tuna. Best meal I’d have ever had! We’ve been together for five years now.

She always teases me about hissing at that Worf character. He just creeped me out. The story was okay, just not a fan like she is. Give me a cat program any day. I’ll even watch a dog program, just not sci-fi. Most of the stuff I like is nature programs. I AM just a cat. I really like the Big Cat programs. A warm lap and some scratches under my chin and I’m good.

As Claire munched on her pizza, I started feeling uneasy. The feeling did not go away after I got up and paced around. I sat back down on her lap, but that didn’t help either. I got up, gently patted her cheek and sat back down. She gave me a hug and asked what was wrong. Oh, how I wished I could talk to her.

It started as a low hum, then a whistle ending in a crescendo of sound and a violent shaking. Suddenly, there was a powerful sucking—I can only describe it that way—that lifted me, Claire, and part of the sofa up and out of a large, ragged hole in the roof. Claire was screaming, and I was howling, clinging frantically to her shirt. It didn’t last long—thank Bastet—as it dumped us into a white room with no windows and no door that I could see. Claire was trying to get up, but she had the blanket tangled around her. There was stuffing and fabric from the sofa strewn about the room. Suddenly, part of a wall opened and three figures ran in. They helped Claire get unwrapped from the blanket. She had lost her glasses, so I don’t think she took in the figures initially. One looked fairly human, one had four legs and two arms, while the other one looked like it had light grey feathers on its head! Oh, Bastet, where in the world are we?

Claire finally noticed the strange people as she let out a brief scream and backed away from the four-legged creature who was trying to help her up. Amazingly, he spoke English! Claire just stared at him and then fainted. The Earth-like guy carried me out as the four-legged one took Claire. We left the building and ran to some kind of car, only it had no wheels and was floating about two feet off the ground. We got in and it whisked us away. There was a loud boom. I looked back and saw the building we had just ran from engulfed in flames. More explosions followed. The screams of the people running from the building faded as we flew away. There were some funny-looking trees we flew over and away from the destruction. ‘Dorothy, we ain’t in Kansas anymore.’

The shockwave jostled the car and the First Minister adjusted as it raced away.

"I hope Menar and his staff made it out, but that doesn’t look nor sound good," First said.

"No, it doesn’t. I guess we lost all of his work," Reedmer replied.

"He backed up most of his work in the central computer. But the recent work, no. He just kept going, refining his numbers, hardly ate. To finding what went wrong... that is going to be hard," Sura said.

"No more wormhole experiments for a while, Reedmer replied. Such a shame. It would have been nice to have a shortcut to the humans. At least, we have one." He looked at Claire and smiled.

"But what happened? How did she end up here?" First asked.

The hovercar began a slow descent to a low building. During this exchange, Claire woke up and started hyperventilating, eyes wide. She was stunned and terrified.

What is your name? Reedmer asked.

Cl... Mac... Claire... Claire Mackenzie. Who are you? How do you know English? Where AM I, where...? Panic welled up. She clutched Minnie, her cat, to her chest.

I know English because I studied it along with many other of your languages. We’ve been aware of humans for a long time now. You are safe. I’m going to give you something that will calm you down. He touched her shoulder, and she passed out.

Oh, dear, I think I gave her too much. She’s out.

Minnie sat unperturbed on Claire’s lap.

BACK ON EARTH

People ran towards the destruction. Claire’s landlords and friends, André and Marie Boudreaux ran outside to find a large hole in the roof of their garage.

Claire was home, wasn’t she? André asked.

Marie nodded slowly as she looked through the gaping hole. Mon Dieu, what has happened?

They checked the apartment, but no Claire and no Minnie. No blood, just gone. The police and fire department were called. Everything seemed okay except for the large hole and part of Claire’s sofa missing. The FBI was called. Rumors swirled. There was residual radiation in the apartment. Was she a terrorist making a dirty bomb? Was she a victim of some secret experiment of the government? A new Russian weapon? Aliens? On and on. Few took the abduction of her by aliens seriously, even though it was the most accurate. The story went from page one to ten in the newspapers and online and then faded as other incidents of political intrigue, murder, Hollywood scandals, and billionaires in space captured the headlines of Earth. The pandemic raged on.

They arrived at the Sci6 facility. The rooms were configured for a biped and had added human touches. Reedmer’s knowledge of Earth was extensive. He surmised Claire was from a western culture, given her dress and spoken English. He pondered what happened, how she got here and was glad she seemed okay, although very confused.

First landed the craft. Two attendants met them and helped get Claire inside. She was still drowsy but able to walk with some support. Sura carried Minnie. The small tuff of feathers on her head fascinated Minnie. The room was down a hall away from the labs.

"I think it’s best if we fit her with a translator at the very least and do a bio scan," Reedmer suggested.

"Yes, what about nanos?" First inquired.

Let’s see what the scan shows, Reedmer said. It probably would be a good idea, since we don’t know how an actual human will react to our world. They seem to be like Kneffs in biology, but a minor difference could be a major difference for her. She also can be checked for any injuries she may have sustained in the transfer.

"Sura, can you see if they can do that here?"

"Yes, there is a med-wing here and I’m sure they could. I’ll make sure they have things programmed for human/earth biology," Sura said.

Tell them to access the primary data base: ‘human-Reedmer-research’ if there is any problem, Reedmer offered.

"Will do. What about the, uh, creature?" Sura asked.

"I’ll take care of her. She should be okay though. I’ve looked into their physiology as I have an interest in them—what a bonus! he exclaimed. A human AND a cat!"

"What happened, Sura?" First asked.

She paused, took a breath. "My guess is that Menar added too much energy too fast to the system. This was the longest hole we were going to create. But how and why it sucked Claire and the umm, cat, I don’t know. That shows to me it contacted Earth, but it was supposed to be in the outer part of their system, not the planet itself. We’ll have to go over all Menar’s notes, but we don’t have any from the past week. I was after him to input it, but he always brushed me off with ‘later’. Maybe with the other techs we can piece something together, but I have a feeling it will take a while."

"You know what Prime is going to say. Reedmer looked at First. He never was on board with the project."

"No, he wasn’t, First replied. He is happy the way things are. If it wasn’t for Harry and the Ships he never would have agreed. It would have been easier to just use the Ships. But Prime wants to have as little influence from them as possible. We can do things alone he’s often heard saying. First sighed. That has got to change."

Sura went off down another corridor to attend to things.

They brought Claire and Minnie to the room. Claire looked around, bewildered. It looked very much like a small apartment with a sofa and two chairs around a coffee table. A bathroom and small bedroom stood off to the side. The kitchen had a small fridge and stove, and there was a rectangular opening on the counter. This was a food reconfigure, or refig, unit she would come to know. In the fridge there were basic Earth foods: a small jug of milk, orange juice, eggs and such. She took it all in and plopped on the sofa. She was feeling weak, disoriented. She wanted to scream but felt if she did, she wouldn’t be able to stop.

Reedmer came over to her. I’m going to give you something so you can sleep. We are going to do some medical scans to make sure you are okay. Is that okay with you? When you wake, we can answer your questions. Know that you and Minnie are safe, and no harm will come to you. I give you my word, Reedmer said.

I... I guess... Oh ... Oh, Claire whispered. Realization was setting in. Her eyes filled with tears and fear. Terror took hold as she slowly faded out of consciousness again.

They took Claire to the med-bay, where they placed a small translator behind her right ear. It was tiny and placed under her skin. It seemed to work as it began sending information to the hearing centers of her brain. The small knot also sent info back to the med-bay’s instruments. After several scans were done, the techs placed nanobots into her. They programmed them with human physiology, and they busily performed repairs in her body. The first was to fix her nearsightedness and to strengthen her immune system. Other tasks included strengthening her muscles and bones and fix the lung damage she had suffered from a bout of pneumonia she had had as a child. This took some time, so First and Reedmer left the med techs to it.

"We need to get Minnie checked out, too. She may want a translator, although it will be a shock to Claire to have a talking cat." Reedmer chuckled.

"You attend to that while I go check and see how things are at the lab. I have a feeling we’ve lost valuable people with the explosion." First took off down another corridor and out the door.

CHAPTER 2

DAMN ALIENS

Wonder of wonders. I can talk and understand what everyone is saying. That Reedmer dude is cool! Don’t care if he has four legs and two arms. He was so nice to me. We even had a little conversation. I told him not to tell Claire about my newfound ability. She has enough to deal with right now.

Reedmer explained he has a fascination with Earth cats. There weren’t any in his neck of the galaxy. He also briefly explained to me we were in a part of the Milky Way that was far away from Earth. I don’t understand what happened to us, only that I know this world is a lot different from Earth, even though some of them look human. My biggest concern was how Claire was going to handle all this.

Claire woke up to Reedmer sitting next to her bed. She looked around, taking in her surroundings. She was back in the small apartment. It was difficult to control the terror she felt. She took a deep breath, hoping that would allay some of her feelings. Reedmer gave her a smile, blinked a few times, and she felt the terror melt away. Minnie was sitting on Reedmer’s lap purring. He was petting her.

How are you feeling? Reedmer asked. Is the translator working? I am talking in my language.

It seems so. I... I can understand you, she said trembling. Did you give me something to calm me down? The terror I was feeling is less.

"Sort of. My species secrete certain pheromones that Kneffs and others find to have a calming effect. Some, not all individuals, are susceptible. Apparently, you are too. I hope you are not concerned about this. It is how I could calm you when you first got here. It usually doesn’t last long. We also can administer a mild stimulant. It also doesn’t last long. Just something peculiar with Quozans’s physiology.

If you feel behind your right ear, there is a little knot. That is your translator. If you press down on it, that turns it off if for whatever reason you would want that. Many people have it. It’s a way around learning so many languages. We did not fit you with a neural link to Knowledge. It is like having your web imbedded in your mind. We were not sure how you would react to that. We don’t want to overwhelm you with our tech. You can have access through a wrist band. It fits rather well and is external, no linking with your thoughts. A tad bit slower, but you may like it better. Sort of like a computer on your wrist, only much more powerful. You just speak what it is you want to access, and it displays the information on the small screen on the band. You can also access Knowledge via a computer terminal. We also placed nanobots inside you. They corrected your eyesight and gave your immune system a boost. We didn’t want to take any chances of you coming down with a strange disease. Claire’s eyes grew large.

Nanobots? I... d... don’t know what to... s... say. I am overwhelmed.

Reedmer nodded. "I would be surprised if you weren’t. About me, I am a Quozan from the planet/system called Quozanant. There are only two planets in my system. We are quadrupeds, as you can see. We value learning. My background is in sociology and anthropology, although I have served for a time in the RA military. I met E while studying here. That’s the Kneff person who