Ta'rokh Ze'otokh, a member of the Va'mbrudh race, was 35, a tall (6'5") muscular man with rock-hard abs, a chestful of dark brown hair, and a physique that could take your breath away!
Like all Va'mbrudh, he had dark brown hair, ridges on his nose from the bridge most of the way down that lay flat against his nose. He had ridges on his temples as well.
Each ear was pointed and had four sections that lay flat against the side of his head, appearing as if he had four ears for each ear.
He also had swirl-shaped markings, three rows across, framing his face that went down his neck and down the outside of his arms all the way to the tip of the outside of his smallest finger.
He had the same markings on the outside of his legs and feet. Ta'rokh had dark brown eyes, short dark brown hair, and a deep resonant voice. Dark brown chest hair peeked through the tops of his shirts.
He was recently widowed and had three children. He had a 17 year old son, Ba'lanh, from a previous relationship when he was a teen, and 12 year old twin daughters, A'zhahra and A'klahra, his children from his marriage.
They lived on Va'klas 9, their home planet, with his parents.
His wife had killed herself after she'd left him for her lover. Her lover had immediately rejected her, upsetting her so much that she'd killed him. She then went back to the house she and Ta'rokh lived in with their kids.
After sending him a message on her mini, she had hanged herself.
To add to the family's pain, their young daughters had discovered her body!
************************************************************************
Terra
Sol Star System
Interstellar Federation territory
Five years later
************************************************************************
Ta'rokh was now working as an attaché to the Va'mbrudh Ambassador in Terra Chicago.
He was 40, a tall (6'5") muscular man with rock-hard abs, a chestful of hair, and a physique that could take your breath away!
Like all Va'mbrudhs, he had ridges on his nose from the bridge most of the way down that looked as if he'd been cut, yet they lay flat against his nose. He had ridges on his temples as well.
Each ear was pointed and had four sections that lay flat against the side of his head, appearing as if he had four ears for each ear.
He also had swirl-shaped markings, 3 rows across, framing his face that went down his neck and down the outside of his arms all the way to the tip of the outside of his smallest finger.
He had the same markings on the outside of his legs and feet. Ta'rokh had dark brown eyes, dark brown hair, and a deep resonant voice. Dark brown chest hair peeked through the top of his uniform shirt.
He was widowed and had three children. His son, Ba'lanh, was now 22. His twin daughters A'zhahra and A'klahra were now 17, and still lived back on Va'klas 9, his home planet, with Ta'rokh's parents. Ba'lanh was married with one son, Qu'sulh, aged 2. He and his wife had recently bought their own home.
Ta'rokh and his kids lived streamed twice weekly. He was fully involved in his daughters' lives, as much as possible anyway, visiting once a year, and had final say on everything in their upbringing.
The girls visited twice a year, spending the bulk of their school breaks with him.
He was sitting in the Ambassador's office having a briefing on that weekend's formal dinner with Interstellar Federation's Ambassador.
Ta'rokh had moved to Earth as part of the Ambassador's team five years earlier.
He was a relative loner, keeping his coworkers at arm's length except for when he was helping those in need of guidance or advice. If you needed encouragement, or just a listening ear, he was your man.
He was friendly with most everyone, but very cautious about letting anyone get too close to him.
Ambassador Theodore Soval a slightly muscular 50-year-old man with short black hair and a neatly-trimmed mustache and beard, had been the Va'mbrudh Ambassador for 6 years.
Soval and Ta'rokh were discussing the upcoming dinner when one of the security officers, 25-year-old Bentar Fo'skh, rang the buzzer on the Ambassador's door.
"Come in", Soval called to the deputy. Fo'skh walked in the office, looking positively ashen-faced and more than abit visibly shaken.
"Bentar, you look like you've seen a ghost!", said Ta'rokh, smiling ever-so-slightly.
"What's wrong, son?", Soval asked.
"Sirs,", Fo'skh said shakingly, "I'm not sure what I've just seen, but you both most definitely need to see this! May I use your large-screen please, Ambassador?"
"Absolutely. Go right ahead!", Soval replied.
Fo'skh went to Soval's keyboard, typed in a few words, then directed the men's attention towards the large-screen on the office wall.
Onscreen was a section of hallway in the facility's restricted area. It was completely empty.
Ta'rokh asked, "What are we supposed to be looking at, Bentar?"
Fo'skh replied, "Wait just a few more seconds."
All three watched the screen intently, seeing only an empty hallway of the building's restricted area.
Suddenly, an image popped up on the screen from out of nowhere that had not been there a split second before.
"What the hell was THAT?!?", Ta'rokh asked, shocked to his core.
The men reviewed the video twice to see if they'd really seen what they thought they saw.
One second the hallway was empty and a split second later a human woman, a little girl about five years of age with a bright pink doll stroller, as well as handfuls of several full plastic bags, had appeared out of nowhere.
The woman had long blonde hair with purple streaks in it. The young girl had blonde hair but no streaks.
Ta'rokh commented on how beautiful the woman was.
The woman was wearing a tshirt with the caption, ”On bad hair days, there's always lipstick.“ A monkey with disheveled hair and wearing bright red lipstick was below the caption.
She was also wearing purple shorts and bright purple sandals with rhinestones on them. Her hair was styled in a ponytail.
Her fingernails were painted purple, and had a flower design on the ring fingernail of each hand. Her toenails had the same color and design, although the design was on her big toes.
The woman wore dangly earrings, plus small hoop earrings all the way up her ears, including the cartilage, as well as in the centers of her ears.
The little girl was dressed in a sparkly pink princess tshirt and pink shorts, pink sandals, pink sunglasses, and pink earrings in the design of a flower.
The girl carried a sparkly princess purse and pushed a doll in a doll stroller.
The woman took something out of what the men assumed was her bra, appeared to press something and put the object to her ear.
“What the hell is that? Is that a mini? Did she just take it out of her bra?”, asked Ta'rokh.
“I'm not sure, but anything's possible. My wife does the same thing with her mini.", the Ambassador said.
They watched the screen as the woman and girl walked around the hall abit, stopping to look at the lights on the walls.
"Fo'skh, is there audio with that?", the Ambassador asked.
"Yes sir.", Fo'skh replied as he typed something on the keyboard that turned the audio feed on. They watched and listened as the woman and young girl walked around.
"What IS this place?", she said. "How did we get here? This isn't our apartment building. It isn't even our apartment. I know we walked into our building! Stay close to Momma, sweetheart.
"I'm completely confused by this. I can't get a cell phone signal. I paid the internet and phone bills, so I know we weren't shut off! I can't even log on to Xfinity wi-fi with this!
”I'd say we've been robbed, but this doesn't look anything like our apartment!“
Ta'rokh was absolutely mesmerized, completely enthralled, by this woman. He also thought her daughter was adorable! She reminded him of his girls when they were that age.
"What's this?", she asked as she walked in the direction of the sliding door. As she approached the door, it slid open.
”This definitely is NOT the door to our apartment! Maybe we got off the elevator on the wrong floor. Let's get back on the eleva... what the hell? Where'd it go?“, she exclaimed.
”Momma, I'm scared.“, her daughter said.
”It's alright sweetheart. Stay by momma. We'll figure this out.“, the woman replied, gathering her daughter closer to her.
Strange music played in the background; a very rhythmic song that included the words,
”Another one bites the dust!“
The two very slowly and tentatively walked through the open door.
"This must be a dream. There's no way we're not in our apartment building!"
Ta'rokh said, smiling,
"We'd better go check them out and see what's going on. Fo'skh, let's make sure our phasers are set to "stun" just in case. We don't want to kill them unless absolutely necessary.
“Ambassador is there a way to research what Terran era they could be from? If we find that information out, maybe we can figure out what's going on."
The men set their phasers and, locating the part of the embassy compound the two were currently in, went to investigate.
"May I help you?", Ta'rokh asked from behind. The woman and young girl spun around, screaming as they saw the men.
"We don't wish to hurt you. I promise you won't be harmed. You have my word."
She looked back and forth between the two men, trying to decide if she could trust them. She kept her daughter very close to her.
"Deputy Fo'skh,", Ta'rokh said, "please holster your weapon as a show of good faith to these young ladies. We don't wish to frighten our guests more than we already have."
"Yes, Sir.", Fo'skh replied, holstering his phaser.
"Ma'am, Miss,", Ta'rokh said, "we saw you appear in the hallway of our restricted area from out of nowhere. Who are you, and where are you from?"
The woman replied,
"I'm Cadence Marshall, and this is my daughter, Caitlin.
”We live in this building but, for some reason when we unlocked the door after getting off the elevator, it suddenly looked like we'd stepped off at the wrong floor or had gone into the wrong building. Do either of you know how to get to our apartment? We live at 3626 North Drake, apartment 627."
"I'm sorry Cadence, but there's no such apartment here in the compound, nor is there any such apartment by that address in Terra Chicago.", he replied. She looked confused.
"Where are my manners? Cadence, ladies, I'm Ta'rokh Ze'otokh, attaché to the Ambassador of the Va'mbrudh Collective. This building here is part of our embassy in Terra Chicago.
"This is our embassy's chief deputy, Lieutenant Bentar Fo'skh.", Ta'rokh said.
"It's nice to meet you.", they replied.
"Cadence, where exactly are you ladies from?", Ta'rokh asked.
"I was born right here in Chicago, as was Caitlin. We just got our annual Covid boosters while we were at Walmart.
After she'd said "Covid boosters“ and ”Walmart“, Fo'skh removed his small-screen off his sleeve and did a quick search of "Covid boosters". After a quick read, he handed it to Ta'rokh.
Ta'rokh looked up at Fo'skh, then over at Cadence, and back again at Fo'skh.
"No. This can't be right."
He handed the small-screen back to Foster. Cadence had been intently watching the exchange between the two, trying to figure out what the problem was.
She'd also gotten a juice box out of one of the bags and had handed it to Caitlin.
Taking a deep breath, Ta'rokh said, "Cadence, what year is it?"
"2029, Sir.", she replied.
"And who is the President of the United States?", he asked.
"President Kamala Harris just won the election in November and was inaugurated in January. We've finally got a woman in the White House, and my daughter was alive to see it happen!”, she said.
"How did you get from 2029 to here? How did you get from the elevator in your building in 2029 to our restricted area here in 3287?", Alynx asked.
"32...?", she said, her voice trailing off. "Restric...? 32, 87? What do you mean?"
Alynx calmly said, "Cadence, you and Caitlin are no longer in the year 2029. You're in the year 3287, 934 years in the future. You're in one of the few facilities in a safe radiation-free zone here on Terra, seat of the Interstellar Federation.
"After the Nuclear Holocaust on your planet 850 years ago that almost destroyed it, there are only a few places that are safe to be in. This is one of them."
Cadence was completely confused and, at the same time, absolutely terrified.
“Nuclear Holocaust? What's this thing you call Interstellar Federation? 934 years in the...?", she asked, her voice trailing off.
She suddenly became very lightheaded, and started to collapse while holding onto her daughter as tightly as possible.
The men caught her as she started to sink to the floor. "We should get you to the Ambassador's office. You can sit down there.
”Do you feel you can walk if i help you, Cadence?", Alynx asked.
"Tell me the truth. This is all a dream, isn't it?", she said, grabbing his sleeve tightly while trying to stay on her feet, a pleading look in her eyes.
"I'm sorry. It's not a dream." Tears started welling in her eyes. "Let's get you and Caitlin to the Ambassador's office.”
Спасибо за чтение!
Мы можем поддерживать Inkspired бесплатно, показывая рекламу нашим посетителям.. Пожалуйста, поддержите нас, добавив в белый список или отключив AdBlocker.
После этого перезагрузите веб-сайт, чтобы продолжить использовать Inkspired в обычном режиме.