Dr. Snip

Feeling somewhat comforted Steve jumped.

The Future

Steve had discussed the Future with Angel previous to going to the Moon. In conversation he had assumed that she had been for a look into her own centuries future. She had been shocked at the very idea of it, and had told him again that the B.T.O. was not a time travel friendly organisation, but would like to ban it if possible.

They would never allow a Time Agent to travel to the future, as they believed that there wasn't a fixed future to travel to. Any knowledge learned from the future would influence decisions made in the present, which would change the future, ergo, no travelling to the future.

Steve thought that was a load of rubbish and had said so, he pointed out that he was in his own future and it seemed pretty fixed to him. To which she said that she could only trust that anything he learned about her time, wouldn't prompt him to try and change anything that had happened between his century and hers, or she might not exist for much longer.

He promised not to deliberately do anything to upset the temporal applecart, and although she obviously didn't like it she had to accept it because the World Brain said so. His game plan was simply to go to the year 3000, picked simply because it was a round number, and see what was going on, then return and have a think about it.

Steve arrived at the same spot from which he left, the location of his house, it wasn't there of course he could see nothing but trees. He sat down by an old oak tree and sent a thought to his implant. 'Merlin?' HELLO STEVE, WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG?

'Thank God, I wasn't sure that you would have survived, are you all right?' I AM ALWAYS ALL RIGHT.

'Can you give me a brief update on the situation today?' Merlin gave him a brief list of major events that had occurred during the intervening centuries. It was presented to him as a menu, each major heading having many sub-headings that he could access if his wished to know more about any particular event. EXODUS CONTINUES BARSOOM RESTRICTS IMMIGRATION BIRTH-RATE STILL DECREASING SEA LEVELS STILL RISING

Steve studied the data as he sat under the oak tree; it appeared to be scrolling across the inside of his eyelids, at a comfortable reading speed. The Exodus was the mass emigration of parts of humanity from the Earth to Mars.

To be precise, to the Mars of six million years ago. It had been named Barsoom, after Edgar Rice Burroughs fictional Mars, mainly to differentiate it from the present Mars.

Where the Mars of today was a dead dusty world, Barsoom was almost Earth like apart from being colder than Earth due to the increased distance from the Sun.

Apparently the powers that be, had decided to restrict certain parts of humanity from going there. The stated reason was to ensure that the Earth wasn't left empty, and all humanities eggs were not in one basket.

Steve however on reading the list of proscribed races had a sinking feeling that eugenics had spun out of control during the intervening years and therefore only the genetically pure were being allowed to leave the Earth.

For some reason the birth-rate was decreasing, but the reasons given were a bit technical so he skipped that one. The sea levels were rising due to the icecaps melting, a lot of low-lying coastline had been lost to the sea, and there was nothing that could be done about it.

This was the depressing side of time travel, there were lots of situations where knowing what was going to happen didn't help, the sea levels would rise with or without time travel. His mother would die of a heart attack regardless of him being able to travel in time, in such cases time travel was irrelevant.

Steve simplified his thoughts of what he had learnt. He couldn't do anything about the birth-rate of humanity. He couldn't do anything about the rising sea levels around the world. Could he do anything about the colonisation of Mars? And did he want to?

'Merlin, any star drive yet?' NO

'I am really disappointed; we should be out amongst the stars by now, why not?' IT IS DIFFICULT TO CONTROL A POPULATION THAT IS SPREAD AROUND THE GALAXY.

'You mean it was a political decision to keep us in our own little backwater of space?' YES.

'Who decided this on humanities behalf?' BRITAIN.

'Why am I not surprised, tell me Merlin do you agree with this policy?' IT DEPENDS ON YOUR POINT OF VIEW. IT IS SAFER FOR HUMANS TO STAY IN THEIR OWN SOLAR SYSTEM. HOWEVER IT MAY NOT BE BEST FOR THEM TO STAY IN THEIR OWN SOLAR SYSTEM. IT IS NOT MY PLACE TO CHOOSE FOR YOU. 'What your saying is that a human has to choose between two different paths, both having their good points and bad points.'

'Do we have the technical capability to expand into the galaxy?' NO

'No, what do you mean No; we weren't that far from it in my century. We were already on Mars, even if it was only with remote probes, are you telling me we never went there in person.' THE FIRST HUMANS LANDED ON MARS 10.10.2020. BEFORE THEN IT WAS NOT CONSIDERED WORTH THE EFFORT. EVENTS HAPPENING ON EARTH OVERSHADOWED THE SPACE PROGRAM.

'Yes Angel explained about the plagues, and wars etc. what happened to kick-start it up again.'

A PORTAL WAS TAKEN TO MARS BY SPACECRAFT AND SET-UP NEAR THE NORTH POLAR ICECAP.

'So we can now step from Earth to Mars.' NO,

Steve was taken aback for a minute, 'Why not, what was the point of it if you can't use it?' THE PORTAL ON MARS WAS THE FINAL ONE OF THE ONE HUNDRED PORTALS NEEDED TO TRAVERSE THE DISTANCE BETWEEN THE PLANETS.

'Why on earth do we need so many to get to Mars?' SAFETY, THE DISTANCE BETWEEN THE EARTH AND THE MOON IS APPROXIMATELY A QUARTER OF A MILLION MILES. EVEN WITH ONE HUNDRED PORTALS EACH IN A PRECISELY KNOWN POINT IN SPACE, THEY ARE STILL A QUARTER OF A MILLION MILES APART FROM EACH OTHER. THE DISTANCE BETWEEN THE EARTH AND MARS IS APPROXIMATELY FIFTY MILLION MILES.

Steve was suitably impressed at the distances involved, 'so how is it done then?' I AM ABLE TO COMPUTE THE POSITIONS OF ALL THE PORTALS AND IT SEEMS TO THE TRAVELLER THAT THEY ARE CONNECTED TOGETHER TO FORM A TUNNEL THE LENGTH OF ONE HUNDRED THICKNESSES OF A PORTAL.

'So a traveller just walks along a steel tunnel made up of one hundred portals and then steps out onto Mars. However in reality, with every step they take in the tunnel they travel a quarter of a million miles nearer to Mars?' CORRECT.

'You can do this easily?' NO, I HAVE TO CONCENTRATE.

Steve got the impression that Merlin was not joking, and Angel was worried about jumping from the Earth to the Moon. 'When did Mars become dead?' ONE MILLION YEARS AGO IT WAS HIT BY A PLANET KILLER ASTEROID AND LOST ITS ATMOSPHERE.

'So at the most, moving to Mars of six million years ago will give humanity five million years before they have to think about where next.' THE PLAN IS TO MOVE BACK TO EARTH AS SOON AS THE SEA LEVELS DROP AGAIN.

'Cant they see how short-sighted the whole business is, there is an entire galaxy out there waiting for us to explore it, and we are content to shuffle back and forth between two little planets for eternity. What if a planet killer hits Earth again? This will need some serious thought before I can even decide what's right, let alone what to do about it. Lets go home, I miss Angel and I'm dying for a cup of tea. Steve said goodbye to the Merlin of the future, and jumped back to his house in the twentieth century.

'Merlin could you ask Angel to join me please wherever she is, I need to talk to her.' I WILL ASK HER.

Steve was pleased to be home, and after cooking and eating a big meal he went to bed to sleep on the information he had received. First thing in the morning he spoke to Merlin again.

'Have you contacted Angel yet?' YES

'Is she coming?' UNKNOWN.

Steve thought he knew where she would be so took a chance and jumped. He arrived on the ledge in the Jurassic, overlooking the lake. Once he had orientated himself, he looked around and saw slim white shape swimming in the lake fifty feet below him.

Steve could have used his QT to get down to the beach, but he now admitted to himself that whether or not she felt anything for him, he loved her madly and needed to impress her. Consequently he screamed out Geronimo, and leaped out to plummet down the fifty feet into the clear water.

As he kicked his way up to the surface sunlight, he was joined in his ascent, by a smiling mermaid. Naked as usual, and effortlessly swimming around him as he broke the surface of the lake. Compared to her lithe grace he was splashing like a paddle steamer, scaring some of the local denizens but attracting others.

He made it to the beach and dragged himself out of the water; she helped him out of his clothes and spread them over a set of branches to dry in the hot Jurassic sun. As he lay on the sand drying out and getting his strength back, Angel crouched on a large rock to one side of him, just looking at him.

She hadn't spoken to him yet apart from indicating that he should strip off, and now she was experiencing a strange emotion, she was shy. Not because she was naked in front of him, she honestly didn't give that a thought, she just didn't know what to say to him.

The time alone had given her a better perspective on the events at the Hilton, and she now realised that she hadn't been at fault. She was however embarrassed at running away from him, and leaving him defenceless for so long.

To give herself time to think she leapt from the rock back into the lake and swam out towards it's center. As she swam strongly away from the beach she remembered how she felt when she heard his shout echoing around the lake. The sight of him falling into the lake had made her heart leap with joy and a stupid smile had appeared on her face.

As she escorted him in to the beach she was drinking in every feature of him, and getting him to strip off was only partly to get his clothes dry. She had just wanted to see as much of him as possible, what was happening to her? Angel had been perfectly happy with her own company before she had met Steve, but now, time, without him with her, seemed wasted. What was she to do?

Steve was content to lie on the warm sand and relax, he had found her and that was enough for now. He smiled as a tongue moved across his belly, and he was about to sit up when a blast of fetid air washed over him. He opened his eyes very slowly, and found himself looking directly into a red maw rimmed with teeth the size of dinner knives but not as clean.

Steve only had a dim recollection of how to handle a Tyrannosaurus Rex from watching Jurassic Park three times, they apparently saw moving food better than static food. Food of course being anything living that wasn't it, including other T.Rexes.

He considered punching it in its mouth and running away while it staggered back in shock, but then decided he would just lie still and hope it got bored and went away. T.Rex didn't have very good eyes but it did have a good nose, and its nose told it that this was food and to bite it and see what happened.

It roared at Steve to freeze him and brought its huge bony head up high above him in, order to slam its teeth down into his body. As its head reached its zenith a white blur flickered past its small red eyes, and the entire head carried on going backwards until it rolled down its own back and landed behind its body.

There was a lot of blood in a medium sized Tyrannosaurus and it was shared equally between Steve and Angel, as it spurted out of its neck and covered them both. Walking towards him as he lay there in the red sand, she looked as if she was wearing a red cat suit, and her teeth blazed white in the red mask of her face.

'I can't leave you alone for five minutes without you getting into trouble?' she scolded him, 'I've decided I'm not going to leave your side from now on whether you like it or not.'

'Sorry Miss I'll try and do better,' he replied contritely, 'and thank you for saving my life.' 'Pleased to be of help, now lets wash this stuff off before it gets sticky.' They both jumped into the lake and splashed around until they were clean.

Just for the hell of it Steve made a small fire and cut off a couple of T.Rex steaks, he stuck them on two sticks and let them dangle over the fire to cook. While they were waiting, he told Angel what he had been up to since they last met.

As soon as he mentioned the future she became very uneasy, and asked him not to tell her any details as she had been indoctrinated not to meddle in the future. He restrained himself to informing her that he believed Mars was the key, and he wanted to go there to see for himself what was going on.

By this time the steaks were cooked, and they sat and devoured them washed down by the clear lake water. Steve knew that despite old films of cavemen fighting dinosaurs it had never happened. The dinosaurs had become extinct millions of years before humans had evolved. He was therefore the first man to ever eat a T.Rex steak, and although it was a bit tough and gamy he relished every bite.

Looking across the fire he watched Angel as she neatly sliced off small pieces of the steak with her fingernails before popping them in her mouth, seeing her made him happy and he was glad that they were friends again.

Angel was thinking as she ate, and as the fight with the T.Rex had got her worked up again, what she was thinking about was him. He hadn't bothered to get dressed yet, and seeing him lying beside the fire eating his steak that she had provided made her feel as if they were both primitives and she was his woman.

The thought was surprisingly comforting, and she wondered what he would say if she asked him to stay here with her for ever as a sort of Adam and Eve in the Jurassic. It was a fantasy of course there was this thing he had to do for the World Brain, but the thought was nice and who knows what the future might bring.

The more she thought about him the hotter she became until she suddenly got up and walked over to him. Steve smiled at her as she knelt down beside him, 'Hi, it appears I'm in your debt again, I'm never going to be able to repay you for all you have done for me.'

She had intended to just ask him outright for sex, but she had come to realise that he found her centuries ways a bit cold blooded, so instead she simply leaned over and gently kissed him. 'I need you,' she whispered, and found that this approach worked just as well.

Steve couldn't have been happier; he would definitely not forget this day, now as he made love to his woman beside the dead body of a T.Rex. Afterwards Angel went to the head of her kill and removed the biggest tooth in its mouth, she walked over to Steve and presented it to him as a souvenir of their day. When they were both ready, they jumped back to the B.T.O, to arrange their trip to Mars.

Mars

With the assistance of Merlin it didn't take that long to arrange for their trip, and soon they were walking hand in hand through the Mars Tunnel. Even knowing what was really happening, Steve felt nothing unusual about the trip, and he really did think it was just a steel tunnel about one hundred yards long.

'I've noticed that you use Imperial measurement in your century, what happened to Metric?' He asked her as they walked the tunnel. 'Britain uses Imperial measurement, and now so does the rest of the world because we say so,' replied Angel in an off hand manner.

They arrived at the end of the tunnel and with little ceremony stepped onto the surface of the red planet Mars. Again the difference in gravity was noticeable, although not as much as it had been on the Moon. The main base was located on the equator for warmth such as is was, but it was still dependent on Earth for survival.

All the water and supplies were Portalled from Earth, there was water at the poles but it was cheaper to get it from Earth. This wasn't a tourist planet, it was a hard frontier world and humans had only been here for just over two hundred years. They were in the process of terraforming it, but that was a slow process and everybody still had to live in pressurised domes.

They were in one now and had to endure the security procedures required, to allow them to pass through into the main base. This comforted Steve, as it would be impossible for any assassin to enter unrecorded. There were also no projectile weapons of any sort allowed on Mars, for fear of a dome being punctured.

Mars was a cold planet, its average temperature was minus 67 Fahrenheit but at the pole it was minus 200 Fahrenheit. It had an atmosphere but it was unbreathable, and it was best kept outside the domes.

They had been advised to wear thick furs for safety, as although the insides of the domes were heated, it was never very warm anywhere. Again they had to share a room due to restricted space, but they didn't mind that in the least.

Angel had decided to become Steve's lover, and had told him so when they were in the Jurassic. He had been delighted at this news, and had sworn in turn to stay faithful to her. She had looked at him strangely, and explained that being lovers didn't proscribe them having sex with anyone else. It just meant that they would, more often than not return to their main partner afterwards.

Steve had promised her that his custom was that although he probably couldn't physically stop her having sex with someone else, he would beat the shit out of any other man he caught having sex with his girl.

To his surprise she had seemed pleased at hearing this and had initiated further love making, he decided that he didn't understand women and went with the flow.

As he was desperate to see as much of Mars as possible they asked if there was a vehicle for hire. The short answer was no. All vehicles were the private property of the terraformers, and were jealously guarded. However they might be able to persuade one of them to take them for a trip around, if they made it worth his while.

They were pointed in the direction of the nearest bar where the terraformers liked to relax and have fun. It was a harsh world and the men who chose to go and work there, considered themselves harder than those on Earth. The entertainment leaned towards hand-to-hand combat, with boxing, weight lifting and arm-wrestling the current favourites.

Gambling was endemic and they would bet on anything. Steve felt a bit intimidated by all the bulging muscles on both the men and women drinking in the bar. After buying themselves a drink, they asked the bartender if he knew anyone who would take them out for a sightseeing tour.

The man said he would be surprised if anyone here would bother, unless there was an incentive. Steve assured him that they had plenty of money, but was told that all the people in the bar had plenty of money. Terraformers earned fantastic money, but there was very little here to spend it on.

Things were normally done as the result of a wager, so if he wanted a trip outside, he would have to bet something worth having in return. Apart from the credit given him by Merlin, Steve didn't own anything worth betting.

Angel walked into the center of the room and removed her thick fur coat, under which she wore the standard overalls of a terraformer. However these overalls were stretched tight over her breasts and buttocks, and looked as if they would split if she bent over. As usual she was naked underneath it, and it showed.

A hush spread around as men and some women stared at her in undisguised lust. In a closed society, she was something novel and worth a second look. 'We would like a trip outside please, is anyone interested?' she asked the quiet room.

A big rugged man with a large Dragon tattooed across his naked chest stepped up to her, 'What do you offer in exchange for this favour, Beautiful one.' Angel smiled and shrugged, which made her breasts bounce in the lighter gravity, 'what do you suggest Handsome man?'