Chrono Voyage

Chapter 14: Professor Adam

     “Ahh… this is what we are fighting for,” Elizabeth stepped out of the machine and looked around the tall pointy futuristic white buildings, flying cars, people looking at their holographic tablets and phones making no conversation between them at all.

     “This is the future?” asked Benjamin. “I don’t like it.”

     “What? Why?” Elizabeth looked at him confused.

     “I don’t know it’s all… artificial, we really forgot the good things about baroque architecture, and dressing code,” he starred at the bypassers just wearing a black suit that covered their body fully like it was a one piece of clothing for the upper and lower body. Elizabeth looked at him with his top hat, long coat a golden chain across his vest, his gray pants, and then she looked at herself with the leather brown pants, brown vest, and white shirt, she sighed.

     “We stick out like sore thumbs,” it was nothing new they did the same in St. Petersburg. They bought their one-piece suit and walked around town, the busy sidewalk the flashing neon lights on the billboards it was all too much information for Benjamin, he was really feeling weird and uncomfortable in the clothing it was really something new that he would have to adjust to. Elizabeth raised her hand at a taxi that was driving down the boulevard it stopped near them. Benjamin inspected the contraption it all looked the same as the previous cars he had seen, the doors opening the same way except these did not have tires on them rather there was a fire coming from beneath them.

     “Where are the round things? And why is it on fire?” he looked at Elizabeth.

     “It’s not on fire it`s the thrusters, come on I will explain later,” she entered inside the taxi, since she entered it must be safe he thought as he also opened the back door and entered inside. There were many things that Benjamin did not like about the future but the car interior was something else, the leather was clean and smooth, the memory foam was just so cozy and comfortable he could fall asleep and never leave the car, he looked at the seat in front of him where Elizabeth leaned and saw a screen with a bunch of buttons, it was sort of like a panel that he saw back in Prypyat, and so he did the only thing he knew how to do when around buttons, he pressed the red one of course. The screen flashed with images of crazy colors and the volume was all the way up, Benjamin jumped on his seat, he nearly got a heart attack.

     “Sorry for that mate, those bloody drunkards leave it at full volume every time, bloody wankers” the taxi driver looked at Benjamin.

     “That accent… British?” Elizabeth looked at him.

     “Born and bred,” answered the driver. “You?”

     “Well he is from America, he is one of them fancy doctors, and I am just a traveler, but I am from England as well.”

     “A bloody shithole if you ask me, hated the weather, took my family and kids here in America. Gone were the days of Queen Victoria.” Elizabeth lately really started to hate Victoria but who is she to say what people like or not. “Where exactly do you live in America?” the driver looked in the mirror straight to Benjamin, but he had no idea what the mirror was used for, he didn’t even have the idea that he was talking to him as Elizabeth looked at him.

     “Oh… sorry,” he jumped. “I am in Fifth Avenue.”

     “Fifth Avenue? Well, I guess the doctor’s job must be paying fancy.”

     “We are here,” Elizabeth pointed at the building that they were headed for.

     “M.I.T? I heard they were developing some sort of new technology, a device that will help us in space travel, exploring space and whatnot.”

     “You don’t seem too keen about it,” Elizabeth looked at him.

     “Ah well, I say there’s so much going on here on Earth, don’t know if we are even capable of such a leap.”

     “Guess that we are gonna have to find out,” smiled Elizabeth, they paid the taxi driver and came out of the car, stepping on the pavement of the institute. Elizabeth looked around everything seemed so bright, her nostrils filled but the cold air, she was safe and comfortable as she crossed her arms around and closed her eyes, she really enjoyed herself, there was something that she really liked whenever she traveled to the future, she liked the future even thoug Benjamin thought otherwise.

     “It's nice,” Benjamin looked at the building with the columns and the round top, he looked around and saw a nice courtyard with lush trees and well cared for grass, concrete walkway, people in white coats just roaming around, students and teachers all around. “What are we doing here?” asked Benjamin. “In fact what is this?”

     “There,” Elizabeth pointed at the old building in the center, above the columns, it read: ‘Massachusetts Institute of Technology.’

     “I’ve heard of it,” commented Benjamin. “It wasn’t built that long ago,” he looked at her.

     “Benjamin, we are not in the 19th century,” she reminded him.

     “Oh… right… so then where are we?”

     “We are at the dawn of space travel,” she looked at him all excited. “This is where the technology gets developed, rather one man comes up with it, and we are here to meet him,” she struck Benjamin at the shoulder.

     “Argh… What was that for!?” he cried out.

     “Sorry, I am excited is all.” 

     “Is that what they are doing here? Technology?”  

     “Ahh… It's something like Cambridge, an American version of Cambridge,” she smiled.

     “Cambridge I have heard off, most definitely, that thing was founded in the middle ages,” he commented, as they made their way to the entrance. “Didn’t Isaac Newton go to Cambridge?”

     “How do you know that?” she looked at him strangely. “In fact how do you know Isaac Newton?”

     “Well, back when I was a student we needed or rather we were forced to learn a bit of physics, even though it has no connection to medicine, and so I know a thing or two about Isaac.”

     “Well, not everything, I’ve met him, and he isn’t the pleasant person to be around,” in fact Elizabeth didn’t like Newton at all.

     “Somehow… I am not surprised…” Benjamin seemed to agree with her.

     “Oh… you,” Elizabeth smiled and tapped him on the shoulder as they entered the institute. They traversed the corridors and finally found what they were looking for, the office of Doctor Adam a brilliant scientist with curly blonde hair and always sporting a big happy smile.

     “Care for a visitor?” Elizabeth leaned on the wooden door frame of his office, he was sitting down on a wooden chair reading some papers fully concentrated on his work.

     Adam turned from the papers and looked towards the door. “Elizabeth…” he stood up from the chair, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing, Elizabeth has been the kind of person to pop in and out of existence for some periods of time someone would think she has been traveling through time or some dimensions or something. “What are you doing here?” he asked as he walked toward her for a hug.

     “Adam…” she smiled at him. “How is the warp technology coming?” she asked.

     “Why is it that every time we see each other you always ask me about that?” he was growing suspicious.

     “I am all about progress, you know me, and I am really waiting for the day we start exploring space, who knows what kind of voyagers we are going to have,” she smiled knowing damn well who the Voyagers are going to be.

     “Well it’s coming along,” he said walking back to his desk. “Except me and the team have been working on something else, something really promising,” he added.

     “Do tell.”

     “It’s called Terarium, it came out of nowhere, simply our satellites detected it in space, but it’s very useful with crafting materials, and for medicine it enters your system and if programed correctly it could kill off the viruses,” he finished.

     “Sounds dangerous,” Elizabeth looked at him.

     “A mineral that does the work for a doctor, that is ridiculous,” burst Benjamin.

     “Oh… this is my colleague, he is a doctor of medicine this is Doctor Benjamin,” Elizabeth introduced him.

     “Nice to meet you, I am Doctor Adam,” they shook hands.

     “Doctor…” Benjamin smiled at him, every man that shared the same title as him was a friend of Benjamin and for those who were below him, he would simply become judgy about them a rather unpleasant trait to have. 

     “Anyhow, enough science talk…” Adam smiled. “We should catch up. How has life treated you?” he looked at Elizabeth. “No, wait… How about we talk about it over a nice lunch?”

     “Actually we are in kind of a hurry…” Elizabeth scratched the back of her head. “We are simply running low on time and lots of places to be,” she looked at Benjamin.

     “That is correct,” confirmed Benjamin. 

     “Listen I need a favor,” she looked at Adam.

     “Always something with you,” Adam had concerns. “Are you in some kind of trouble?”

     “You could say… so about that device that translates ancient languages…”

     “What about it?” Adam looked at her from an angle.

     “I kind of need it…” she smiled.

     “The translator?” Adam looked at her with disbelief.

     “That’s the one,” she smiled.

     “Why would you need that for?” he asked.

     “Um… well, me and my partner,” she looked at Benjamin. “We have… lately we have…”

     “We’ve been working a paper on ancient civilizations, and we are in possession of some texts that need translating so we can better understand their culture,” Benjamin pitched in.

     “Nice save,” she whispered at him.

     “That is a property of the institute, and no one is going to give you access to a worthy piece of technology so that you can write an essay, besides what kind of ancient texts do you have? I am sure they are worth as well and should be handed to an expert, speaking of which you can just hire one to translate for you…”

     “Did I say texts? I meant artifacts, that is broken and not worth at all, no,” Benjamin lied again. “And there are these scribbles on them.”

     “Yeah… and they are far away, so the translating has to be done on the spot.”

     “So you have them? But they are far away?” he looked at them suspiciously.

     “Look Adam… I am going to level with you,” she looked at him.

     “Please do,” he was becoming frustrated.

     “Our project is far more serious than we have told you, there’s an ancient archeological site that me, him and a team of professionals are working on, now we don`t want to leave it into the hands of the greedy, but I know whatever we find it`s going to belong in a museum.”

     “So you`ve become Indiana Jones?” asked Adam.

     “You could say,” she smiled.

     “But I thought you were a medical doctor, not an archeologist,” he looked at Benjamin. “And what do you know about archeology,” he now turned at Elizabeth, they really got caught in their own lie, they should have rehearsed before they entered like that unprepared. Of course, Adam got no answer from them as they just stood frozen thinking that he would call the cops on them, but it wasn’t to be.

     “Look, I don’t have access to that part of the building, the archeologists do, and they are not going to want to give the device that is helping them make breakthroughs.”

     “Oh… come on they sell them like toys in other places,” she whispered.

     “What was that?” he asked.

     “Nothing… What if…” she looked at him. “Someone was to borrow it? Let’s say for an hour?”

     “You mean steal it?” Adam looked at her.

     “Not exactly because I said I am going to bring it back.”

     “Look… I can’t really help you with this one, but if you do plan on doing anything just remember you didn’t get the information from me, and we never spoke today.”

     “Actually you’ve helped me just enough,” she hugged him and ran out of the office with Benjamin following behind her.

     “How good is your knowledge of ancient Egypt?” asked Elizabeth.

     “I have always been fascinated with that civilization, more so with the Roman Empire.”

     “Good because it’s gonna be useful to get those archeologists and chat them up about it.”

     “What use is it? Are we really going to excavate an ancient site?”

     “I’ll do you one better…” she stopped in the corridor. “We are going to visit them, we are going to visit one in the making, oh… it’s gonna be fun,” she laughed as she started running down the corridor, well now she has gone crazy or as the British say, she lost her marbles thought Benjamin.