Authors: Linda Pohring
All of a sudden, the sound of foliage started to rustle in the distance. Maxim bolted back to where his sister waited, and once again hid behind the boulder.
Nexa grabbed his shoulders.
Listen to me, Maxim. Quiet your mind until I speak again.
Maxim nodded because he also suspected what Nexa feared and focused on quieting his mind with a method their father taught them as children.
The sound came closer while the two huddled together in complete silence. The dreaded visitors, whom they suspected, came out into the clearing. The first one to appear was the humanoid, Tinley, closely followed by its creator, Nero.
Maxim struggled to keep his mind activity under control while he gazed upon his father. Nero still looked like a twenty year old, except for his bald head. This ageless man was a human tree in height, and his impressive body had flawless skin appearing to be thin and translucent with a bluish tinge. Maxim’s feelings screamed with a mixture of yearning and anger towards him, but he managed to keep his thoughts immobile while he spied on them.
Tinley removed Oddily’s mother from the car and took off running in the same direction they had come. Nero stayed, gathering Oddily up in his arms and rocked her gently back and forth until the headlights of another car stopped and someone climbed out.
“
I’m calling for help,” the stranger called out.
Nero paused for a moment as if deciding something, then placed Oddily back into the wreckage. After gathering up the woman’s purse, a diaper bag, and the contents from the glove compartment, he backed off into the night.
Maxim didn’t need his sister to poke him this time to follow. His instincts became razor-sharp while they managed to pursue from afar, finding themselves headed back to Stafford Manor. When Nero disappeared inside the residence, they continued to watch him through the windows to find out in what direction he went. He headed for Maxim’s workshop, the garage on the west side of the structure.
Maxim led Nexa to the backside of the house and quietly entered the kitchen area adjacent to where Nero had disappeared. Fortunately, the doorway leading to what someday would become one of his workshops had been left wide open. The two were astounded by what they saw. It looked more like a futuristic, ‘high tech’ lab with equipment that neither Maxim nor his sister had ever seen before.
After ducking behind the large center island of the kitchen, they had a perfect view of Oddily’s semi-conscious mother laid out on the table. Nero busily entered a code on the keypad to scan her body.
The results were instantaneous, because Nero gave his diagnosis. “The frontal lobe to her brain is hemorrhaging. Hurry, download her memory before we run out of time.”
The humanoid, a.k.a. Tinley, retrieved a metal object with blinking lights and pressed the small device to the right temple of the woman. As soon as he did, her eyes began to flutter rapidly.
“
Stay with us,” Nero tapped her cheek gently. “Come on…stay with us for a few more minutes.”
“
Almost done,” Tinley reported.
“
We’re loosing blood pressure!” Nero hurried to another control panel and prepared himself.
“
It is finished!” Tinley removed the device and stepped back.
Nero’s fingers flew across the keyboard as an electrical dome shaped shield appeared over the dying body. Then, a laser beam of light started to scan the girl from her head, down to her feet.
“
We’ve got her!” Nero looked pleased as the humming noise quieted and the shield disappeared.
“
And just in time,” the humanoid added, handing him the small device. “We have lost her.”
“
Thank you Tinley, you have done well as usual. Go ahead and preserve her body.”
Maxim’s heart sank in his chest. Oddily’s mother was dead. She died right before his eyes and at the hands of his own father. The disbelief and anger welling up in him became palpable. He struggled to keep his mind from lashing out at the man he used to admire. Now he knew what those cyber tanks in his workshop were used for because Oddily’s mother was now submerged in one. It was an eerie sight to see the naked body floating around in an unidentified fluid, and Maxim needed to turn his head before he lost the contents of his stomach. He couldn’t allow this heartless fiend to know that he and his sister watched.
Instead, he kept his eye on Nero who nonchalantly walked over to the purse and diaper bag and spied on him rummaging through it. His father appeared to have no adverse reaction regarding what had just occurred while he found what he searched for, the woman’s driver’s license. This seemed to satisfy him as he returned to the control panel of the scanning table and removed a disk.
Nexa put her arm around Maxim to try and comfort him as the two continued to view the horror unfolding before them. Nero went to another sophisticated computer placing the disk and the device Tinley had given him into the machine, and downloaded its data. After removing just the blinking device, he went to stand in front of two inoperative androids, one in which they knew well. It was to become their future nanny, Willa.
Maxim wished he understood what his father was thinking or doing, but Nero’s thoughts were in a dialect that he had never heard before. All he could do was to stay hidden while Nero chose Willa and plugged the device into the back of its head.
The android slowly started to move its wrist while coming to artificial life. The head moved slightly as if waking from a long slumber. The left arm rose, and it seemed to stare at its fingers just before the metal body started to thrash about with its limbs. If it weren’t for the iron restraints, the machine would have gone berserk.
“
Calm down, Willa.” Nero ordered.
“
What has happened to me?” the computer-generated voice spoke. “I can’t breathe! I have no heartbeat!”
“
You’re alive,” Nero assured her. “I was able to save you.”
“
My baby,” the machine pleaded in a human way. “Where’s my baby?”
“
She’ll be fine,” Nero declared. “Your daughter has been rescued.”
Nero’s head snapped towards the kitchen when someone’s voice cried out. “Who’s there?” he demanded, lunging through the open doorway, but the room was empty except for two bath towels and two pairs of shoes that belonged to him. Nero smiled to himself while Tinley joined him to view the remains.
“
Your children will someday follow in your footsteps, master.”
“
Yes, apparently you’re right.”
31
Maxim and Nexa landed in a heap on the kitchen floor of the Stafford Manor and coughed from the dust threatening to choke them.
“
We’re back!” Maxim cried out when he realized he returned in one piece and swore never to travel though time again. He would rather spend a normal unparalleled life, in Oddily’s chaotic world.
What’s wrong?
Nexa noticed
Maxim behaving strangely.
What do you think,
he got to his feet.
My girlfriend’s dead mother is our former nanny, Willa!
I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have dragged you along with me.
All those years and Willa never breathed a word, sis.
Nexa began to fear for her brother while watching him unravel at the seams.
No wonder Willa seemed so real to us—she was!
Settle down Maxim. She still is—just not in an ordinary way.
I need to help her, and she must be told about Oddily!
Breathe, Maxim. You’re becoming too emotional.
Maxim tried to do as Nexa suggested until nausea began to overwhelm him.
Everything is going to turn out OK.
Nexa went to wrap her arms around her brother, but caught herself when she remembered their nakedness.
Look, dawn is only a few hours away and I’m exhausted. We can discuss this in the morning.
Go ahead, sis,
he struggled with sudden weakness.
I’ll be along soon.
Nexa left and was almost to the underground tunnel when she overheard Maxim cry out in surprise. She tried to connect with him telepathically, but their link was broken.
“
Maxim!” she screamed, only this time it was out loud. She ran back to the kitchen and stopped short when he wasn’t there.
Where are you?! Her musical voice echoed off the walls fading into absolute silence. She continued to cry out in fear while her instincts warned her of her brother’s danger.
Her intuition was right. Maxim had in some way returned to the timeline where he and his sister had just traveled. In his weakness, Maxim clutched at the kitchen counter in an effort to keep from falling. His vision began to distort while he listened to his father comforting the distressed, whimpering Willa inside the adjoining room.
“
I made a complete copy of you, Willa,” Nero’s deep voice sounded soothing as he spoke. “I recovered your memory capturing all personal data.”
The synthetic voice wailed in response.
“
I know this is hard, but hear me out. I scanned and mapped your organic brain in detail before you died and copied its structure into an advanced data device. This mechanism is now plugged into your new cybernetic brain, do you understand?”
“
No, no, no!”
“
I did the same with your body, downloading a replica of your features and body type,” then Nero paused. “There’s just one problem. I need one missing component to transform you into a perfect clone of yourself, and then you’ll be free to live your life here with me.”
Maxim experienced a surge of relief when he realized Nero had a compassionate heart after all. His father wanted to save Willa’s life and with only moments to spare, did the unthinkable to maintain her existence. Why couldn’t he have done that for his mother?
Suddenly, Maxim’s facial features distorted, and in a moment of panic called out to the man he loved before collapsing to the floor, “Father!”
Maxim’s voice sounded weak, but the thud of his body was loud. Nero raced over to the nude male sprawled out on the kitchen floor and recognized him to be his son.
Nero gathered him up into his arms and carried him to the same scanning table used for Oddily’s mother. He placed the palms of his hands above his sons flesh and started his own unique body scan. It was as he suspected. Maxim had traveled though time before his genetics were fully developed, and his molecular structure was shutting down. Nero knew what he must do regardless of the consequences, and it needed to be done quickly.
“
Tinley, hook me up. I need to transfuse some of my blood into him…hurry!”
Tinley inserted a needle into one of Nero’s blood vessels and filled a syringe full of his blood. When finished, Nero went to work separating the blood components until he found what he needed to stabilize Maxim’s immature system.
“
Don’t die on me son,” Nero’s voice sounded fierce with emotion. He started to transfuse his strong building block DNA into his son.
“
Father…I…can’t…” Maxim went into terrifying convulsions on the table.
“
Tinley, grab his shoulders while I hold down his legs.”
Maxim panicked while his body thrashed; and the fire raging through his veins brought every nerve ending to attention. The agonizing pain was overwhelming, and he cried out for Oddily just before passing out.
* * * * * *
Hours later, when Maxim awakened, his senses were keenly sensitive. He slowly sat up and looked around with an unusually clear, sharp mind, while a finely tuned sensitivity to his body caused him to feel intense stimulations.
What did you do to me?
Maxim stared up at his father.
I saved your life.
But why do I feel so differently?
I had to advance your genetics to full maturity.
His head bobbed up and down as if agreeing with himself.
Your body has successfully stabilized the molecular structure after the shift.
Something happened to me during my movement through time with Nexa, didn’t it!?
Yes
…
you both behaved irresponsibly.
We had no choice, Father. In the future, you leave us without guidance.
I wouldn’t do such a thing to my children!
Argue if you want, but you did!
Nero became curious.
Tell me, what happened.
One day, out of the blue, you informed us you needed to leave for awhile because of a secret project.
Interesting,
his father nodded.
How old were you two when I left?
We were fourteen.
Nero shook his head.
I’m surprised by this. Leaving you before full maturity doesn’t sound like a choice I would intentionally make, unless…