Remember Me

REMEMBER ME | PROLOGUE SPRING 2019-3-1

NICK AND JOEY WALKED around the loungers near the pool looking for a seat.

“Now this is what I call working, why haven’t we gone on a cruise ship with clients before now?” Asked Joey as they skirted a large family spread among seven chairs in a row.

“We aren’t with clients now; remember we are on this cruise to see if we feel comfortable providing our personal security services to families while at sea or on the excursions the cruise line provides. You know we received this request from a travel company along with the tickets for the cruise. I really had not thought of expanding our business to being with families on a cruise before now, the travel agency would like to advertise our services and cruises are a big part of their business.” Nick replied as he took in the largest of the ship’s three pools and scanned the deck for a pair of seats.

There were loungers around the pool and looking up to another level revealed more loungers and sunbathers in two semi-circles at either end of the pool. There was a full-service bar doing a brisk business with most patrons. Returning to the pool with a drink containing an umbrella seemed to be a treat for all ages, as there were some children and their parents and grandparents enjoying the sunny weather of a Sea Day on the Mediterranean. Just as they found two chairs at one end of the pool, Nick spotted a gorgeous blonde with a stunning figure and curves in all the right places getting out of the pool and drying off with a towel near the large family.

Joey noticed his interest and teased Nick “You aren’t married anymore and as you just reminded me, we aren’t working on this trip. Maybe she would like some company?”

Nick jokingly replied, “your wife wouldn’t like you looking at other women around a pool, even if you are trying to set me up, you married guys can’t stand to see a happy single guy.” Nick couldn’t seem to take his eyes off of the woman, there was something about her that reminded him of someone but he didn’t know who.

Joey offered to get them each a beer from the bar and Nick settled on his lounger, where he watched the woman settle onto her lounge chair. She was reading a novel and soon her face was covered with a wide -brimmed straw hat to keep the sun from her fair complexion.

Maggie pulled herself out of the pool where she had been attempting to swim laps until the pool became too crowded. She walked around a large family that was seated close to her lounge chair and picked up her towel and quickly dried off, while feeling self-conscious.

She smiled at the women who were wearing Burkas. Two of the women, an older woman and a middle-aged woman about her own age, smiled shyly back at her and then quickly glanced at the men who were having a spirited discussion while eating pizza and waving their arms. Maggie put on her straw hat to cover her face to keep it from burning in the bright sun, sat on her lounger and picked up her novel while she took a drink from her water bottle.

Maggie’s friend Bella was to accompany her on this trip but had to cancel at the last minute when her daughter went into early labor with Bella’s first grandson. Maggie’s husband Ian had passed away almost two years ago from a sudden heart attack while running in a charity marathon, and it had taken until now for Maggie to get the courage to travel again without him. This cruise had come about because of a half price offer and promotion Maggie had received in the mail. Money was not a problem for her as Ian had only been fifty-five and they had an excellent insurance policy, which meant she did not need to return to her nursing job after his death. Traveling alone for the first time after Ian’s death was a big step but one that she knew was necessary to move forward with her life.

She had just settled in with the characters in her novel when one of the men to her left started choking on whatever he had been eating. Maggie quietly got to her feet and watched as his face started to turn blue.

“Can you speak?” she asked as she approached him. The man’s hands were grasping frantically for air at his neck when Maggie stepped behind him and put her arms around his abdomen to give him the abdominal thrusts for the Heimlich manoeuvre to hopefully dislodge whatever was blocking his airway. The man was large for her smaller five-foot five frame and as he started to lose consciousness she yelled, “Come on Nick! For Pete’s sake you’re a marine! I need some help!”

Nick jumped from his lounger and came to Maggie’s aid just as the man started to go down. Nick caught the man, eased him to the ground and helped Maggie position the man on his back where she was able to dislodge the large piece of pizza with a few abdominal thrusts. The man was able to breathe with a noisy gasp followed by extensive coughing. As Nick helped Maggie roll the man on his side, it vaguely registered on both of them that they worked well together as if they had done so sometime in the past.

Both were startled from their thoughts as the ship’s crew members were on scene to take over. As it often happens after a crisis awareness of her surroundings crept back in, and Maggie became aware of the two women who were loudly crying and then appreciatively hugging Maggie. She patted their backs, reassured them and returned to her seat to gather her belongings and attempt to escape to her stateroom.

She was very aware of the tall well-built man with the dark hair and piercing blue eyes that she had screamed at like a fishwife to come and help her. She was still prone to blushing at her age and she had noticed him checking her out when she got out of the pool. She could feel her face flaming with embarrassment as he turned to look at her. Maggie’s friends had given her a festive send-off before the trip and encouraged her to let loose, dance, drink and take some man to bed. If she were going to have s*x, this man made it to the top of her list with his physical attributes alone.

Nick stopped Maggie and asked her how she knew him, to which she replied, “I am sorry but I don’t know you, but I am grateful for your help.”

Nick was puzzled. “But you called me by my name and you knew I had been a marine.”

“I must have overheard you speaking with someone, I don’t know you, and if you will excuse me, I want to go to my room,”

CHAPTER TWO

JUNE 1999

Maggie was standing in her galley kitchen waiting for her coffee to brew when her phone rang. When she answered a very official sounding woman said,” Hello, is Miss Margaret McGuire in please?”

“Yes, speaking,” Maggie replied.

“Miss McGuire, I am Sergeant Eunice Johnson from the United States Army Research Division and I am helping recruit people for a project you sent in an application to participate in.”

“Thank you for calling Sergeant,” Maggie said as she frantically grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and started taking notes. “I am interested in finding out what is involved and excited that I am being considered for this opportunity, please tell me what is required.” Maggie tried to calm the butterflies in her stomach, so that she would come across sounding like the professional nurse she was and not some overeager teenager.

The Sergeant started speaking, almost in a monotone, obviously reading from a standard outline and Maggie wondered if the Sergeant got tired of these phone interviews, because she wasn’t very enthusiastic sounding.

“I would like to tell you about the research we are doing and then ask if you are still interested in applying after I tell you what is involved for the eighteen-month project. The United States Army is involved in a project to study the feasibility of sending a group of people to colonize a planet like Mars in the future. The project will recruit ten couples, chosen from a varied pool of applicants from a wide variety of occupations. The occupations will be chosen using sociological and psychological models to create a healthy mix of people that would serve as a template in the future when space travel is feasible for a larger group. The couples will be matched using a computer compatibility program. This compatibility program will be applied to the total group of applicants and then ten couples will be selected based upon occupations that the selection committee wants for their community.”

The sergeant paused and took a breath. Maggie could hear her shuffling some papers.

“The couples will be married legally on the first day of the project by an army chaplain. The marriages are expected to be consummated and the couples will be provided a home and a vehicle and a livelihood to help sustain the community while they are involved in the project. At the end of the eighteen-month project, a divorce will be legally processed and the participants will be given a safe medication that will cause them to forget their spouse and the project. The purpose of this is two-fold; It is to allow the participants to return to their previous lives without any un-wanted attachments to a spouse that may have only been tolerated for the project, and to protect the recollection of any possibly classified information.

“The women will receive birth control to prevent any pregnancies. Monthly meetings with a group of scientists involved in the project will take place to collect information and the questions may be found to be intrusive. Illness or significant problems coping can be a reason to terminate the project early, but the participants will be chosen for their likelihood to complete the term.”

After a pause that seemed like hours the sergeant asked, “Are you still there, Miss McGuire?”

“Yes, I am just trying to take it all in.”

“We will, of course, provide detailed documentation”, she replied and went on.

“If you choose to continue today, it does not guarantee you will be chosen. Only those who are chosen will be contacted after today, and you will be given one month to tend to your affairs and an airline ticket will be provided to take you to the site chosen for the beginning of the project.

We are currently looking at three possible areas and securing ten homes for the couples to live in. The communities will not be large cities and may be rural with some couples living on farms with livestock. Upon arrival at the airport closest to the location where the project will take place, the women will be taken to a community hall where they will be introduced to each other and given an orientation and time to prepare for the wedding. The weddings will take place one couple at a time in a separate room, followed by a short celebration and luncheon. The men will be given instructions on the location of their homes and the keys to their assigned vehicle. Each couple will leave the reception to travel to their new home which will be stocked with needed supplies to begin the project.

I Know this seems overwhelming, and I admit to being a bit winded after I read the whole outline to each potential participant. As you can see now the reason the salary offered is so generous, it is a lot to ask of people. We are quite determined to see colonies on other planets some day in the future and the more information we can gather about how to take a group of people and force them to live harmoniously the better off we will be. Because, of course, there will be no coming home from Mars if you don’t get along with others. Now do you have any questions before I ask for your decision?”

Maggie did feel overwhelmed by the amount of information she had received and asked the first question on her mind. “Will the participants get some time to know the men we will marry before the ceremony, and will there be a medical hospital nearby for me to work in or if someone becomes ill?

The Sergeant replied, “Your nursing skills will be used in some fashion, possibly at a small local clinic or doctor’s office because of course medical services are important to a future colony and there will be a larger centre within two hours of where the community is established. You will not have time to get to know your future husband before the ceremony. Frankly, the scientists are afraid some people might back out if given too much time ahead of the wedding ceremony so they have decided to start the project as quickly as possible once the couples arrive. Arranged marriages in many other cultures take place around the world where the bride and groom do not meet each other until the ceremony. I believe the scientists wish to study the effects on new couples with occupations from different walks of life who experience colonization. Any other questions?”