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The Drifter
A Sci-Fi Serial Story
By Michael Bradley
Part Two
Tony paused, staring at the light stick in his hand as he illuminated the large screen in front. Where am I? He looked behind him at the amphitheater filled with his graduate students. His TA, Monica Salazar, stood operating the computer panel. She gave him a look of concern.
Tony remembered now, he was explaining the latest problems experienced with neural retrograde physiology. It was easier to modify children than to remove the troublesome thoughts and memories from an adult. The class murmured as he continued to remain silent.
“That is all class. Remember, the hurdle we face for peaceful coexistence is no longer in our next generation. Our children will be better than us. We must rise to the challenge to make ourselves better as well. Go ahead now, we are stopping early.” Tony put down the light stick and hurried from the auditorium. Monica followed close behind.
“Professor Perez, are you alright?”
He remembered her too, but not young like this. Yes, she had been his brilliant assistant, but now she was his lab manager. She had just told him twenty years from now to think about his index finger. Why?
“Yes, I’m fine. I figured it out, the block, the problem!” Tony Perez rushed to his office and started clicking away on his screen.
Monica looked on in awe as she saw him display the formula, the chemical compounds and the surgical procedures to isolate conflict and expiate them from the adult mind. “Professor, that looks like it will work. You have made peace on Earth possible in our life times.” She forgot decorum and jumped up and down, then lunged onto him, giving him a crushing hug.
“Monica, easy now, people will talk.” Her hug was so fierce she scooted his chair against the desk, crimping his finger between them. He held it up, his index finger was bleeding. My index finger?
Monica saw blood on the tip of his finger. “Oh, I am so sorry, let me get the first aid kit.”
Tony smiled, “No need Monica. You know, this is the only time I ever hurt this finger?”
She looked at him puzzled.
Tony explained, “I think I understand my index finger now.”
“Those are some deep thoughts Tony, you understand your finger?” The Earth President laughed at the control wheel of his private plane. “You crack me up Tony. This vacation in Maine is going to do us both a world of good.”
Tony was back in the co-pilot chair on the sleek jet, flying over New York City, the World Headquarters, with his friend. Tony’s mind reeled. It was just eighteen years ago, back in my office, or was it?
“So Tony, now that we have world peace and are colonizing space, what do you have planned? I mean, it must be kind of a let down, solving world peace and all.” The Earth President laughed. “I mean if I did something like that in my first term, I don’t know what I would run on next. Maybe it’s different for you brainy types.”
“Yeah…maybe…” Tony tried to get some perspective. He looked at his index finger. It had a tiny scar barely visible.
The President looked over, smiling, “I thought you said you had that finger figured out?”
Tony turned, “Yeah, it’s just…”
“It’s just what?” The rescue responder was shaking him.
Tony looked at himself, he was in the same clothing, but it was torn and tattered. “Who am I? What happened?”
“He’s a bit confused, let’s get him into the rescue pod and over to the PeaceCenter. The Peacekeepers will fix him up in no time.”
Tony protested. “Wait! My name is Tony Perez, I am a friend of the Earth President.”
The crew laughed. “Yeah, and I’m Moon President, that guy there is Mars President. Come on fellah, you ain’t the inventor of world peace and you sure ain’t with the President. His plane crashed yesterday and he’s dead.”
Tony felt tears drip down his face. “Dead? I was just there a minute ago?”
He felt a hard shelled case click and hiss as it was sealed over him. Outside he heard one more comment before the sleep gas took him.
“Yeah, this guy is definitely brain scrambled.”
Michael Bradley - Time Traveler 