For The Future

"I'm sorry, Dean," she said to herself. "I had no idea I was the reason this happened to you."

According to later reports, Dean died on this day while walking across the street to a deli he frequently visited. But the reports were old and didn't say what time of day it was going to happen, so Eve had no idea it was that early in the morning. The reports suggested that he was going to the deli for sandwiches, which he often does, but the researchers believed he was going for sandwiches for either lunch or dinner, not breakfast sandwiches.

When Eve heard him say he was getting them breakfast sandwiches, she suddenly had a bad feeling about what was going to happen to him. She had hoped that her feelings were wrong and that Dean would come back safely with the breakfast sandwiches. After which, they would enjoy their breakfast and she would have to make an excuse to leave, and then later in the day he would get another kind of sandwich for lunch or dinner, and that's when he would be killed by that truck. But unfortunately, she was wrong, and he died to bring her breakfast in an attempt to keep impressing her.

She went back to the rendezvous point to meet up with Jada. It was at an apartment, one of hundreds around the world and throughout time, that the program acquired a place for the volunteers to stay and make their time jumps.

Jada saw how sad Eve looked and asked her what happened. They sat on the couch, drinking coffee, as Eve told Jada about the sandwiches and how she realized she was the reason he was going to die today.

"It's not your fault; you had no idea," Jada said, trying to make Eve feel better.

"I know, but I can't help thinking that if I hadn't broken protocol just to have some fun with him a little longer and just left right away like I was trained to do, then he would have had no reason to want to get those breakfast sandwiches and stay alive."

"Or he would've gone for those sandwiches for himself since he did that regularly," Jada countered.

"Or this is how history was supposed to play out," said Eve. "I was supposed to come here and break protocol, which set up the chain of events that led to his death."

"If that's the case, then that's how it was supposed to be. He was already going to die today anyway; it's not like you could've done anything about it even when you realized what might happen."

"No, I couldn't," said Eve. "Even after I guessed that was the moment he was going to die, I knew I couldn't say anything because history needed to play out as it was going to happen so that history would tell the researchers that this is the time and place I was supposed to be."

"Exactly, this is how it was all supposed to happen. So, you did your job."

"I suppose, but that doesn't mean I don't feel bad about it," said Eve, still feeling upset about the situation.

"I suppose it's only natural to feel that way," said Jada as she put her hand on Eve's shoulder, still trying to console her.

They got an alert from their intertemporal communicators. The future was calling them.

"Volunteer Eve, this is Temporal Officer Candace; are you there?" said the voice from the communicator.

"I'm here, and I have the most recent samples," Eve responded.

"Volunteer Jada, are you ready to be transported to your next time period?"

"Yes, ma'am, I am ready," said Jada.

"Then both of you need to be ready in 90 seconds for your time jumps," said Candace.

"Before we go, I should give you my recordings of my encounter with Dean," said Eve.

"Thank you," said Jada. "Too bad there's no time for me to hack into your brain to experience the full sensation of it."

"It doesn't matter; I only let Kristie have a full hack into my brain anyway."

"I hope I find a woman I can trust to have access to my brain like that."

"I hope one day, you do," said Eve.

Eve put her right hand on Jada's left temple. Both women closed their eyes as Eve's mental implant uploaded the memories of her encounter with Dean into Jada's implant. She gave her everything from the moment she first met Dean to the next morning, after they had sex for the second time. She left out the part of what happened next because she felt it was too personal to share.

Afterwards, they quickly stepped on their own transport pads and prepared themselves for the time jumps.

"For the future," said Eve.

"For the future," Jada replied.

A bright light appeared, and a wave of energy covered both women's bodies. The feeling was intense and frightful, something that no volunteer was ever able to get used to. A moment later, Eve found herself back in the transport room of the facility. Jada was gone in her next time period to meet her new guide.

Eve stepped off the transport pad and saw Kristie running up to her. Both women held each other tightly as they had the longest kiss they ever shared. In that moment, Eve felt better about what had happened with Dean as she was just glad to be back with her wife.

"I'm so glad you're back," said Kristie.

"I'm glad to be back here with you."

They were soon met with Program Director Elizabeth Tomlinson.

"Congratulations on a successful tenth mission," said the Director.

"Thank you, Director," said Eve.

"Once we remove your vaginal implant, which I'm sure you're glad to finally be rid of, we can discuss the additional privileges you have earned in our society. Privileges that also extend to your wife, of course."

"We already know what privileges we want to take advantage of first," said Kristie. "We want to get pregnant."

"Of course, you two deserve it."

"And we would like to use the samples from my latest mission for the pregnancies," said Eve.

"We do?" Kristie asked Eve.

"I'll explain later," she told her.

"Well, that is unprecedented," said the Director. "But I'll make sure you get it. I assume you each want to do one boy and one girl, like most other couples."

"That's correct," said Kristie.

"And I'll produce the boy," said Eve.

Kristie gave Eve a curious look. "You're full of surprises today."

"That could all be arraigned when you're both settled."

The director walked away, and Kristie took Eve by her hand and escorted her to get her implant removed.

"I'm assuming something happened in your last mission for you to have these requests," said Kristie. "You want to talk about it?"

"I'll tell you everything later," said Eve. "By the way, how do you feel about the name Dean for our son?"