Two
It was time to start the rest of my life, I thought wryly. It had been three days. Benny had been especially understanding. She didn’t talk, just changed the bandages on my arm, fed and watered me, waited for me to awaken from my grief-induced stupor. I was exceptionally grateful to her.
I got up and went looking for her. She was outside. “So, you’re finally up.”
“Yeah, and I have some questions.” I looked around. “Starting with, how is the house bigger on the inside than the outside?”
“First of all, its not a house, its a spaceship, and it isn’t bigger on the inside, Its just that only the inside makes use of the fourth dimension.” She was looking at me, gouging my expression to see if I believed her.
“There are only three dimensions.” I said. Immediately after I felt my face burn. What did I know?
“in all actuality, there are twenty-seven, not counting half dimensions, and there are millions of those.” She didn’t smile at my mistake.
“OK.” I decided I believed her. “What were those, uh, weird things?”
“They are called ‘Strange Ones,’ I don’t know what they are really, but they’re probably aliens.” Her face was blank of all emotion. She was like a stone.
“Um, ‘Strange Ones’ isn’t very creative on your part, why not something like ...” Truthfully, I couldn’t think of anything.
“Let me know when you think of something.” I realized I’d never seen her smile. A normal person would have at least cracked a grin at my lame attempt. “Next question.”
“Where are we?” I was worried that someone was looking for me. Then I realized there was no one to look for me.
“Andes Mountains, but a more appropriate question would probably be: when are we.” I took the bait.
“When are we?” I blinked, “How long was I unconscious?”
“One day, but that’s irrelevant.” She sounded like making these cryptic little remarks was the most fun she’d had in years. Looking at Benny, I realized it probably was. “What year do you think it is?”
I answered easily, “Two thousand twelve.”
“No.”
“Two thousand thirteen.”
“Not even close.”
I sighed. “When then?”
“It is the year sixty-two hundred.”
three
“The house is a time machine?” It didn’t seem too ludicrous, mostly because I had accepted it as a spaceship.
“Yes,” She seemed satisfied that I had grasped it. “ Do you want to go home or what?”
I was startled. “Oh, well I guess ...” I hadn’t really thought about going back all that much after I realized I had nothing to go back to.
She sighed “key word there, ‘want’ as in ‘do you want to go back.’ You don’t have to. Its not like I have anybody else to talk to.”
I smiled “Its not like I have anybody else to talk to either.”
“True.” She considered this. “Also, you will need some help with those scars. They go deeper than the skin... They make you more intelligent for one.”
“Yeah right.”
“What’s 78 times 193?” Benny said.
Of corse I don’t know that. Nobody can do that kind of math in their - “Fourteen thousand four hundred seventy-five”
“So there.” She looked smug. “Also, there is some trouble with nerve damage, random pain flashes around the scarred areas, Enhanced reflexes, and apathy.”
“So that’s why you’re so...” I waved my hand in front of my face. She ignored me.
“If you want to go home, or somewhere else, I will gladly take you.”
“Go home? Ha! I have an open invitation to save the world. How cool!”
“Maybe the symptoms are different for you. You seem to care.” Benny cocked her head, “Or maybe I’m the crazy one.”
“No comment.” I’d seen the way she handled a gun. I wasn’t going to get on the wrong side of her.
“We need to go on a mission soon, we need different clothes, and we’re running out of food.” I liked that she said ‘we’ like we were a team. I didn’t like her next comment though, “I’ll have to teach you how to handle a gun.”
“I know how to handle a gun! I’ve done it millions of times.” Frankly I was insulted.
She shook her head. “My Hawk won’t be invented for several centuries after your time.”
“Oh...” I obviously didn’t know how to handle a gun.
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She obviously didn’t know how to handle a gun. When I first gave her the Hawk she asked where the trigger was. I couldn’t believe it. Triggers were so inefficient. They hadn’t made any guns with triggers since the 3000s. My Hawk aimed and shot by telepathic commands. The idea of it having a trigger was insulting.
After she got the hang of shooting it, she asked how many rounds it shot. When I blinked at her she said ‘you know, how many bullets at a time.’ Bullets! It was amazing! My Hawk shot lazar charges. Then she asked how often it needed to be charged! Wow. My ego (and that of my gun) was bruised. As if I would ever get a gun that didn’t have at least two nuclear batteries!
“Alice. The only maintenance my gun ever needs is to wipe the blood off it after a close shot.” I said the words slowly so that she could understand.
“O.K. No need to get uptight about it.” She rolled her eyes. “Sheesh”
I pinched the bridge of my nose.
“Sorry, now I know though, I’ll never ask stupid questions about your gun again”
“OK. Now you know how to use it. Time to go shopping.”[b]
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