What If? Ch. 01

Test 5 – Another mouse vanished, never to be seen again, as it's box travelled through the shaft. The amount of time spent in the shaft was equal to the first mouse, so there should have been something in the box, but it was empty. They determined that the mouse had travelled back along it's own timeline, and was where it would have been six months ago, probably in a pet store somewhere.

Test 6 – Fifty MeV, the cyclotrons hummed, the blue glow was solid, and Mariah watched along with everybody else as objects in the room flickered as they were moved back along their own timeline though the Cannon. It was working, with physical as well as living objects, they just had to tune it.

Test 7 – Eighty MeV – they had to replace three Cyclotrons as they had given up under the near constant load, but the power level was approaching human level, as Mariah called it. They knew how to keep the power flow constant, and how to keep the portal stable for timeline travel, but it was still very singular. Whatever went in, would travel back on it's own timeline. This was not really time travel, it was personal exploration, in a lot of ways.

Mariah cheered along with everybody else as the clock struck midnight. She was 21 and it was time for a party at the Campus. She danced with Ian and a bunch of others until the very wee hours, then Ian finally took her drunk ass to bed and laid her with a ferocity that she had not felt before.

He was passionate and lusty, and fucked her solidly into the mattress until Mariah finally passed out from multiple orgasms and exhaustion.

She woke up around 9ish to the sound of a firm knocking on the door. Ian was also roused and he was getting up, Mariah pulled a robe around her and followed him downstairs, then she stopped. Two police officers were standing at the door, talking quietly to Ian. One of them glanced up at her, then Ian turned, and Mariah saw that his face was drawn with sorrow.

"Ian, what's the matter. What's happened?" She said. He walked over and gathered her into his arms, then firmly holding her, let the two officers explain.

Her mind whirled. This wasn't real, it wasn't happening. Charlene was just late. Tad had distracted her, or they'd taken a detour. They were just around the corner. They'd be here any time. This wasn't real!

She began to fight Ian, but he held her fast as she struggled, then screamed at him and collapsed into his arms. The rest was a blur, she only barely heard the police finish giving Ian the news, then she heard the door close and was wrapped in Ian's strong arms as he held her, but her mind was numb. Charlene was dead.

She spent the next two days in a daze, not sure what she was doing, Ian had done his best to support her, as had the other students on the team. They all realized this was the moment that she had been expecting, but none of them knew just how brutal it would be.

She shook herself out of her reverie and went to finish the outfit that she knew would have to work. A Spring style wetsuit, made of a lycra and neoprene blend, made out of a brilliant purple dyed fabric. Inlaid with pure silver wire encapsulated in clear plastic tubing that was piped all along the suit so it was a loose mesh of silver covering the entire suit. This was the conductive travel suit she would wear.

She had to fix this, she had to change an event so that Charlene did not die. She had to make this right somehow.

Test 8 – Despite everybody's arguments, Mariah stood by the shaft as the power ramped up, dressed in the neoprene suit. No tongue piercing, no jewellery, just a pair of soft shoes and the suit.

"Ninety MeV, Mariah. Get ready – we're almost there." Ian called. She turned and nodded to him.

"We can still ramp it down, Mariah. You don't have to do this." Teg yelled above the roar of the cyclotrons.

"I have to fix this, I have to do it. Let me know when we hit a hundred." She called back.

"Almost there ... now. One hundred Million Electron Volts. Mariah, you are good to go." Ian yelled.

She took a deep breath and walked into the portal.

She was in a bathroom, the bathroom at the pub. There she was standing at the mirror checking her own makeup. Mariah waited until she turned and gasped.

"Who are you?" she was asked.

"I'm you, from the future." she replied.

"Is this the mistake you wrote about?" her younger self asked.

"Yes, You didn't focus enough. When you use the portal, you have to be very focused on when you want to be, otherwise, it kind of chooses for you." she explained as she looked at herself critically in the mirror.

She gave her younger self the instructions, then stepped back and thought hard about Ian, she felt a surge, like she was suddenly pulled sideways, and then she was back in the centre of the Cannon, no Cerenkov flash, and the cyclotrons were all scaling down.

She looked around at all the faces, smiled, and said "Success." then promptly collapsed.

Travel though her own timeline caused all sorts of havoc with her energy levels. Mariah slept solidly for twenty hours. She then spent the next two days explaining to the entire group just what had happened, how she had managed to move backwards, and what the effects had been while she had been back there. They determined that if it held true, travel backwards would be limited to a few months, maybe six at best before your body aged so much that you could not make any contact as you would be so old as to be dead when you appeared.

Test 9 - As her body tumbled from the platform, Ian caught her and carefully laid her on the ground, she was beyond icy cold, and she glowed with an inner blue light from Cerenkov radiation. She was frozen totally solid, but part of him knew she wasn't dead, she was literally frozen. Stuck somewhen that was not now. Something had gone wrong when she stepped through the portal.

...

"I do not understand who you are?" Kitty said, leaning against the counter and staring at the mirror image that was her, and yet was definitely not her.

Mariah had cleaned up the broken glass and dumped it into the trash bin beside the stove as she had looked around. Letting her other self get used to the idea. She then walked over and stood almost nose to nose with her other self.

"What do they call you?" She asked.

"I'm Kitty." Kitty replied.

"Kitty was a pet name, a name for a child. Your name is Mariah." Mariah replied, looking at the other woman and noting a number of things that were becoming obvious.

"My writ names me as Kitty Jacobson. That is my name, and the names of my children. I have not been Mariah for over a decade." Kitty replied, sitting down and looking at the other her.

"Jacobson? You're married to him?" Mariah asked, still keenly observing her other self, noting faded bruises, and a weariness that belied the youth of the other woman.

"I'm a chattel wife. JJ Jacobson bought my writ more than a decade ago, he is my Master Husband. Where are you from? Are you from Kanata?" Kitty asked, fear and hope battling in her heart for this strange woman.

Mariah cocked her head at the terms. "This is going to sound very odd, but where exactly are we? What country?"

"We're in the Washington Territory, part of the Confederate States of America." Kitty replied. "Where did you think you were?"

"I sideslipped. Oh God, this is a parallel." Mariah said, mostly to herself. She looked at the clock, 11.30am. She looked back at her other self.

"You know how when you wash dishes, you add in the soap and it bubbles up all the time as the water fills the sink?"

Kitty nodded. "Imagine that each bubble is a place, and every time something happens, that bubble splits to make another bubble. That is what happened here. You are in a different bubble than I am. We are the same person, but different places. Where I am from, there is no Confederate states, no Chattel wives, slavery was abolished over a hundred years ago, in my bubble." Mariah explained.

"The Freedom revolution was won by General Lee in 1864. President Davis rose to power that same year. They taught us that in school. When I last went to school." Kitty said, her voice trailing off.

"I've got to get you out of here." Mariah said.

"Where will you go? You don't even have a writ, you'll be caught and put on the auction block before you get half a mile down the road." Kitty protested.

Mariah smiled. "No I won't. The method I used to get here gives me a unique ability that nobody else on this planet has, I can walk through walls." she stood and looked at the front door. As Kitty gaped, Mariah's body seemed to stretch sideways and she looked like she slid across the room and out the door in a wave of bluish light. Then it repeated itself and Mariah was standing in the middle of the living room, breathing hard but grinning at her other self who was shocked out of her skin by this strangeness.

"That is too weird." Kitty finally said.

"That is how I will be able to get out of here. You're coming with me, I need to right a wrong that has occurred and I think you are that wrong. This should never have happened." Mariah explained.

"I have children, I can't just abandon them." Kitty protested.

You bore children to that bastard?" Mariah exclaimed.

"He's my owner, I don't get a choice. It's the law. You really aren't from around here are you?" Kitty asked.

Mariah pulled out a chair and sat on it, then looked at her other self. "Give me a history, as brief as you can, tell me how your world works, Kitty."

"You mentioned the Freedom Revolution. That was back in 1861. The North fought against the South, and the South won. President Lincoln was killed early on in the war, and the South managed to achieve victories, then it became a rolling battle and General Lee captured Washington. President Davis was nominated and won the federal elections. Since then, Chattel and slavery rights began to expand, but we still have them. Slavery is alive and well, and I am JJ's slave." Kitty said, then walked into the kitchen and began to brew a pot of tea.

"We've had wars, many of them, three World Wars, which the British Monarchy won every time, although the last two were won with our help as well as Kanata and Russia's."

"Why do you call it Kanata? That is the country to the north, right?" Mariah interrupted.

"Yes, the Federation of Kanata withstood the Union after the Freedom Revolution. They stood strong with their anti-slavery stance, and with Britain and France's help, they defended their border against us. We have the longest guarded border in the world with Kanata. They have a simple policy, if you can cross the border, then you are free. They will not question or dispute your status, if you can set foot on Kanata soil, then you are no longer a slave." Kitty said, stirring the pot and waiting for it to boil.

"They are that strong militarily?" Mariah asked.

"They have nukes. We don't. The threat is over our government's head. We breach the border, and war is declared, our major cities will be radioactive." Kitty replied.

"All the more reason to get you out of here, Kitty." Mariah said. "How did you end up as Chattel?"

Kitty turned off the stove and poured the boiling water into the teapot with the two bags of black tea that she enjoyed. "My parents and aunt were killed in a car accident when I was nine. With no other family members alive to take possession, I was placed in the system, which meant I was available to be bought by somebody who had the means to raise me. JJ bought my writ six months later, and I became his legal property. When I was sixteen, I became his Chattel wife." she said as she poured the tea into two cups, and handed one to her other self.

"They never looked into the cause of the accident, or charged the other driver?" Mariah asked.

"It doesn't work that way. If there is an accident, it goes to whoever has the money to repay the damages or to pay for the costs. In this case, the other driver was unknown for years, I only found out on my wedding day."

"Who was the driver?" Mariah asked.

"Johnathan Jonas Jacobson." Came a deep voice from the hall and both women turned to see Kitty's Master Husband standing there.

"Just who the hell are you?" He growled, looking at Mariah as she got to her feet and faced him.

"Nobody important, just a friend to your ... property." Mariah replied, slightly adjusting her stance as Tad had shown her a year ago when he taught her the basics of Tai Chi for her own balance and self-defence.

"You her sister or something? You look like her, where's your writ?" JJ growled, stepping towards her on unsteady drunk legs. He'd already finished the bottle of Bacardi and had come home for a quickie and a refill.

"I don't need a writ, I'm from Triumf. I'm just here to talk, not looking for a problem." Mariah said, then watched JJ's actions very carefully as he unsteadily moved towards her, then he turned and looked at his wife, also standing, but not looking as strong and self-assured.

"I came home to spend some time with my wife. So if you are just here to talk, that talking is done. Get out so I can be with my woman." He said, pulling Kitty to him and holding her tightly against his tall body.

Mariah turned and walked to the front door, she turned back to look at the couple, Kitty had a slightly pleading look in her eyes, and Mariah locked eyes with JJ. "I will be back later, take care." As she opened the door and stepped out, closing it behind her. She leaned against the door for a moment, catching her breath. JJ was alive, he was not quite like she remembered him, this version was not as physically imposing as her version, or it may be that she was more self-confidant now so he just didn't seem as imposing.

Mariah began to walk down the street towards the centre of the city. She needed to find Ian, or whomever was running the physics team at Uwash. She had to figure out how to get back to her reality, and sooner rather than later. She didn't notice the flicker around her, but did suddenly notice the change, as the car she was walking up to suddenly changed from red to blue. Something had happened.

Kitty was afraid, but that only lasted a little while. As soon as the other woman closed the door, JJ put his hands on her waist and lifted her onto the counter while he began to fumble at his belt to undo his pants. Kitty obediently spread her legs for him to have access as he roughly kissed her and then nuzzled her neck. She knew what to do to make him feel good, she had been doing this for years. His pleasure was her focus, she was his property.

His pants slid down to the floor with a soft thud and she felt his erection rubbing against her pussy, then with a wince as she was not moist, he slid into her as he grunted with the effort. As he began to thrust into her, her body began to add lubrication so it began to get easier, but it was never what she would call a good experience. He was big, and long, and it hurt her every time he took her, which was just about every day, as long as he could get it up.

She knew what to do though, she wrapped her arms and legs around him and pushed back as he fucked her, adding to his rhythm to make it feel good for him, ignoring the stink of stale alcohol on his breath as it clouded her air, and kissed him back as his lips sought out her own.

His cock slid deeply into her on almost every thrust, the blunt head hitting her cervix and sometimes making her wince in discomfort as he thrust deeply into her body, this was his right. She as lucky to have him, instead of some of the other owners out there, who did not respect the law. JJ took care of her, he always made sure there was food for her and their children, he was never really violent, she got hit now and then when she did wrong, but he never just beat her for the sake of making her cry.

His hands tightened their grip on her hips as he began to thrust harder, and she could feel him begin to stiffen inside of her, so she began to gasp into his ear and groan in the way that she knew would make him finish as he solidly fucked into his woman.

She felt the spurts as his cock erupted and he gasped out his release, leaning into her as she sat on the counter, legs wrapped around him, feeling his cock spurting it's fertile seed into her sterilized womb. After their second child, as per the law, she had been medically sterilized as a chattel wife can only bear two children during her lifetime, to keep population under control. That was strictly enforced, and for those who violated that act, they could become chattel under the law.

JJ leaned against her, relaxing as his cock softened, then he pulled out of her and with a final kiss against her dry lips, he pulled his pants up and went to the bathroom to clean up. Kitty reached over to get a cloth and cleaned herself from the evidence slipping out of her, but did nothing more, other than close her legs and adjust the thin cotton dress so she was covered again. She remained sitting on the counter until he returned.

"Where's the rum, Kitty?" She heard him call out. "Fresh keg is in the pantry, Master." she replied.

The sound of him uncorking the keg and then the liquid sound of rum being poured into his travel bottle next reached her ears, and a few minutes later, he came back into the kitchen, full bottle in his hand, and slipped it into his satchel.

"Take it off." He said, and Kitty pulled the cotton dress up and over her head so she sat on the counter, naked to his gaze.

"I've been good to you, haven't I?" He asked in his deep rumbling voice.

"Yes, Master. You have." She replied.

"But, you don't want be my slave, do you?" He said, looking everywhere but at her directly.

"You know I don't, Master. This is not a secret. I want to be a free woman. I am your property, and I gave myself to you and have not done anything to make you question my loyalty, have I?" Kitty asked him, a twinge of fear in her belly. Reeducation camps were available for slaves who were not good for their owners. Kitty did not want to go to one of them.

"No, you have done fine, Kitty. This is just not what I envisioned it to be. You gave me two good kids, and I do my best for you and for them. It's not right. Something feels wrong." JJ said, then picked her up and put her on her feet. He roughly caressed her breasts and rough fingers massaged her still damp pubes from their coupling, then he stepped back again.

"I listened to what that other woman said, Kitty. I'm not stupid. She wants to take you away from this, from me." He looked at her, finally making eye contact and she could see the hurt in his eyes, even through the alcoholic haze.

"I never met her before, Master. I really don't know who she is." Kitty said, reaching out and gently caressing his cheek.

"I know that. I know, but ... you're stuck here. Because of me. What I did made you into my slave. I can't change that." He turned and walked into the living room to stand in front of the windows, looking out on the road that ran into the main part of the town.

"Do you want it to change?" Kitty said, walking up to stand beside him, heedless of her nudity. He was Master, if he wanted her to walk naked down the main street, she would do as she was bid.

"I want you to love me." He cried.

"In my own way I do, JJ. I love you as much as a chattel wife can love her Master. I have never strayed, I never allowed any other owners or slaves to use me, this is all for you, and only for you." She indicated her naked body.

"But you don't love me, not freely, do you?" He said, looking at her.

"How can I? I'm not free." She replied quietly.

"That is my fault, Kitty. I have to get back to work. But I tell you this ... if you see an opportunity to become free. You take it, understand me?" He said, his eyes boring into hers.

"JJ – I can't leave our children." She replied.