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The
Biologist
Coronado, California
Thursday October 1st, 2015 9:20 am
The next person Sarah found was the
biologist, Tara Coleman. Tara
was a single parent with three children.
Tara’s parents were both dead so her children
were her only family. Tara
lived on a boat and would dock it in a slip located on San
Diego Bay. Most of her work involved oceanic plant life,
so she often used her boat for work.
Aaron had hoped to get Tara
to visit them in Nashua, but she
had nobody who would be able to care for her three children while she was
away. She came from a small family and
both her parents had died years ago. Her
husband had left her suddenly, shortly after their third child was born. He sent her mail from time to time, and it
was usually sent from different parts of Mexico. He was not Mexican and had no ties to Mexico,
so she had no idea why he might be there and what he was doing. In some ways, she was relieved he was
gone. While he had been caring person,
he had never helped with the children and rarely had a job. As the years had gone by, they became more
like friends than lovers. She was upset
when he left, especially since he left so suddenly. Until she finally did get a letter, she
feared the worst. Her logical mind told
her he could not be dead, since he took what little possessions he had.
The children felt the loss more
deeply. Tara kept
what she knew from them for a while. Finally,
she just outright told them he left and hopefully he would be back. They were naturally upset and blamed
themselves for whatever thing they remembered doing to upset him last. For example, Elizabeth,
the oldest, had accidentally knocked his wallet overboard. It sank too quickly to retrieve. He was too afraid to use scuba gear to find
it. He would always panic when breathing
through the regulator. Tara
went scuba diving for it but couldn’t find it.
The wallet was made of black leather, and there was a large amount of
scum and mud under the boat on top of the ocean floor. The bottom was covered with over a foot of
mud and dead vegetation. It was so murky
down there that even with Tara’s special lights there
was less than two feet of visibility in any direction. In the end, it was no big deal to replace all
the things in the wallet. It had less
than $100. The cards were all easily
replicable. Even his license was easy to
replace, even through the DMV’s archaic website. After filling out the online form, he got the
replacement the very next day. He had
been upset, but it was not entirely Elizabeth’s
fault. On a boat, if you leave things
topside, you are asking for trouble. He quickly
forgave her, but she could not stop thinking that if she had not knocked it
over he would still be home with them.
What made it worse was all the effort they had made to try to recover
it. Had he simply given up on the search
and not sent his wife diving for it, the loss would not have stuck in Elizabeth’s
mind so vividly.
****
Since Tara could not
come to Nashua, Aaron and Sarah
both went to San Diego and stayed
in one of a trendy Coronado
hotel. They were up early and ate
breakfast together. It was almost like a
vacation. It was rare for them to be so
close to the ocean. Even though New
Hampshire did have a small coast, it was too long a
drive to be worth the ride from Nashua
unless the kids really insisted. However,
since they started high school, they got friends to drive them. Once Kara got her license, she could drive
there herself. So it was not much of a
loss to Sarah and Aaron, but seeing the water in San Diego
hinted to them that they took the ocean for granted. Of course, the ocean water there was much
clearer and warmer than New Hampshire’s.
Tara had told them
to meet her at her boat after 9 am. Sarah drove their rental car, which was a
BMW, to the marina her boat was docked at.
When they had picked up the car at the rental place, the clerk was very
insistent that they not take it into Mexico. If they did take it across the border,
insurance would not cover any damages or its loss and they would have to pay
the entire cost of the car.
When Aaron and Sarah got to the marina,
they quickly found the gate to the set of docks that had Tara’s
boat. Occupants used a thumb pad to
unlock the gate from the outside. There
was a small-weatherproofed computer touch screen for visitors to look up
residents. The system would tell the user
if the resident they were calling on was currently docked by electronically
checking the slip. If the boat was
docked, it would allow the visitors to connect to the boat’s private radio
frequency.
Aaron typed in Tara’s
name and the screen said the boat, The
Oceanic Shrubbery, was docked. Aaron
pressed the call button and after a minute, Tara’s voice
came through. “Come in. I’m at the end of dock C on the left side.” The door then made a buzzing noise and
unlocked.
They walked down the dock and most people
they passed said hello to them. Respecting
their typical New England breeding, they only said hi in
response and even that was awkward. It
was almost as if they said, ‘Hi, we’re strangers so don’t talk to us and we
won’t talk to you.’ Such a creed had led
to many a fine friendship.
At last they got to Tara’s
boat. It was very big compared to the
other boats they had seen. All but the
first set of boats they passed had room to live on board. The aft of the boat had been specially
designed to allow divers to get in and out of the water easily. Some diving equipment was on the deck. Tara came out of the
boat to meet them. Tara
was wearing denim shirts, a white t-shirt, an algae-green baseball cap that
said, ‘Algae is your friend,’ and white sneakers with green socks.
Tara said, “Hi. Welcome to my ship,” as she shook Sarah’s and
then Aaron's hands.
They exchanged some more pleasantries;
then Tara invited them inside. For a boat, it had a surprisingly large
interior. In fact, it seemed bigger
inside than it looked from the outside.
When they came in, there was a room with some chairs, various children's
toys, some clothing strewn about and a TV/DVD combination machine. Toward the aft was a closed door and toward
the fore was a slightly lower area that contained a kitchenette complete with a
stove, refrigerator, microwave, sink, and table. Beyond the kitchenette was another door
leading to the fore of the boat.
Aaron and Sarah sat in chairs, and even
though there were more than enough chairs for all of them, Tara
sat on the floor. Tara
explained, “Oh, like, don’t mind me. I’m
more comfortable down here. Would you like
something to eat or drink?”
Aaron and Sarah both declined.
Tara asked, “So how
was the trip? Have you been to San
Diego before?”
Sarah replied, “The flight was
uneventful. We have both been here
before for business.”
Tara smiled, “Ah,
business. Like, so, you’re both in the
security business, right? So how can I,
like, as a biologist, be of help or interest to you?"
While they had not made a ploy about why
they were visiting Tara, as they had with inviting the Stefanos for a programming job, neither Aaron nor Sarah had
expected to be asked so bluntly and so quickly.
Aaron said, “Well, first we need your
assurance that what we tell you will be kept confidential. It’s very important not only to our project
but to the safety of people in the project that the information be kept
private.”
Tara nodded, “You
can trust me, I promise.”
Unfortunately, Aaron did not find her
promise very reassuring. Tara
had a bit of a valley accent, which made him nervous.
Sarah asked, “How do you feel about the
government?”
Tara said, “Oh,
well, I don’t pay too much attention; it doesn’t, like, consume my time you
know. But, I always vote Green Party . .
. even now when I have to write in the name because they get too few votes to
be on the ballots.”
Aaron asked, “How do you feel about the
ballot changes?”
“Oh, they’re awful. It’s like making it a yes/no or yes/yes vote. Most people I
know gave up and stopped voting. I feel
really bad for the Green Party; they really deserve better, you know?”
Aaron said, “If I told you we could
prevent such dramatic changes from hurting the future, how would you feel?”
“Well, first I think I’d want some of what
you’re drinking! Kidding aside though,
it sounds dangerous. If you could
prevent future harm, you could also prevent future good. But what are you really talking about?”
It was at this point that, while her
speech seemed simple, she proved herself intelligent. This caused Aaron to reply, “Let me give you
some background-”
“OK, cool.”
“I am close friends with a person who has
similar viewpoints as I do on how history has shaped our world and lives. We found that in many cases one event or
person completely changed the world with negative results-”
“Like Hitler and Stalin?”
“Yes, exactly.”
“But, like, in the same way some
individuals have changed the world with positive results like Joan of Arc or
Ben Franklin.”
“Right, so our project asks what would
happen if we removed the bad events or people?
What would happen if there were no September 11th terrorist
attacks? What would have happened if Republicans
lost in Florida?”
“OK, I get it. So shape time for the betterment of the
species.”
“Right,” said Aaron.
“Well, that sounds cool, but how could you
do it, you’d totally need a time machine . . . . Do you have a time machine?”
Aaron smiled, “Yes.”
Tara shook her head
no, “Impossible!”
Sarah said, “It’s true, we’ve seen it
work.”
Tara said, “OK, so
like you have this cool mission and you have the means, but why do you need
me? I’m just a single mom that likes sea
plants!”
Sarah frowned, “That’s actually pretty
special in and of itself! Regardless, we need a biologist . . . and
children.”
Tara said, “Woo,
OK, like now your freaking me out. We
aren’t going to join some bizarre cult!”
Aaron raised his hand to stop her, “No,
we’re not a cult. We want to live apart
from the rest of society because-”
Tara interrupted, “Because
you’re a cult!”
Aaron said, “Please, listen.” Tara sat back. “We can’t just go around messing with the
time stream. If I went back and
prevented September 11th, we wouldn’t be able to have this discussion,
as it was the catalyst that caused us to create this plan and the time
machine. We have to live separate in a
colony and monitor human evolution. When
a catastrophe like a nuclear war starts we can’t be in the thick of it. We have to be able to safely return to a time
far enough back to prevent the events.”
Tara said, “OK, I
get it. It’s still freaky, though. But, like, I guess my fondness of algae is
freaky as well. So you need kids for the
colony. Why do you need a biologist?”
Aaron explained, “We’re going to create a
biosphere and we need plants as well as an expert
to care for them.”
Tara smiled, “Ah,
flattery. So, like, how can you make a
biosphere work? You’ve surely seen how disastrous
previous attempts have been!”
Sarah said, “Our survival will rely on
this biosphere, which was never true before.
The stakes here are far greater, and so the effort must also be
greater. Also, we have a device to help
us regulate some things like air and water if levels get unbalanced.”
Tara said, “What
kind of device?”
Aaron said, “It’s a machine that takes
apart and builds atoms and molecules.”
Tara said,
“Incredible. I really don’t believe you
could have invented a time machine and something to build atoms!”
Aaron replied, “I would give you an
example, but I couldn’t risk CTF finding it.”
Tara giggled. “CTF is such a joke out here. Whenever they come by we all go out to the
ocean.”
Sarah said, “If only we were so
lucky. Although, they don’t bother us specifically
since we were in the FBI.”
Tara said, “Listen,
your idea seems cool. Where is the
biosphere going to be?”
Aaron replied, “Switzerland.”
Tara said, “When
you guys have it built, give me a call, and I’ll go.”
Aaron asked, “Really? Are you sure, even your kids?”
Tara nodded, “You
still need to make the biosphere. If you
can do it, I’ll go. I’ll even start getting a list for you of the
plants that will be key to oxygen levels and eating.”
Sarah said, “That’s great. Welcome aboard . . . no pun intended.”
Sarah and Aaron gave her the details of
the current time frame as well as information on who
the other colonists would be. When they
were done, Aaron and Sarah offered to take Tara to
lunch, but she said she needed to get to work if she was going to get anything
done before her children got home from school.
Aaron and Sarah left and were back in Nashua
in time for dinner.
Copyright (C) 1998-2001 East Coast Games, Inc. and 2001 -
2006 Forest J. Handford
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