The Time War Ch. 14

The Time War

By Gary LM Martin

Chapter 14: The Foundering Founding Fathers

The Temporal Social Justice Warriors:

The women were not happy.

There was a constant schism in the Community between the men of color and the women without color. Each felt slighted by the other. Maria Jefferson, as a white man miraculously transformed into a trisexual Latina black woman of color, had to bridge the gap.

It increasingly seemed to the women that the men always got the best jobs. It was a man, Elijah Ellison, who Maria had put in charge of learning the secrets of the Time Shaft from their captive scientist, Marsha Kalinsky. It was a man, Red Bull, who Maria had put in charge of base security. And it was another man, John Cummings, who Maria tasked with strategy and planning.

And what kind of jobs did the women get? Chloe Weatherly was in charge of the kitchen. Dana Slotkin was made her assistant and also made "Queen of the Laundry". Alyssa Goldenfrau was put in charge of "morale", which usually meant having sex with Maria. And even Hillary Ashanti, their lone black woman, was put in charge of "costumes", that is, getting period clothing for whatever time period they were set to visit.

It rankled on them.

And they weren't the only ones unhappy. Ahmed Ahmad was increasingly dissatisfied with their missions. He wanted to do something which would benefit followers of Laquinta. So far, Maria had only paid lip service to his concerns. Red Bull was in the same category. He wanted to see what Maria would do for Superior Americans.

Maria tried to placate the women in the oldest way known to man. But there was only one of him, and three white women, so two were bound to be disappointed. The previous night he had taken Alyssa Goldenfrau into his bed, and the disappointing stares of Dana and Chloe were almost palpable. As Maria took Alyssa into his master bedroom in their laboratory complex, Katie Lang, the resident lesbian, saw an opportunity and took it. She wrapped her arms around Dana Slotkin and started kissing her.

Dana reluctantly kissed her back. Dana was no lesbian, but she knew that rejecting Katie would be dangerous; it could open her to charges that she was not open to redistributing her sexual wealth, or even worse, that she suffered from lesbophobia. Dana didn't want that. And so Dana let Katie take her into her bedroom, and she cried silent tears as she was compelled to munch on Katie's rug.

And then the following morning Maria, stretching his arms, came out of his bedroom refreshed, and announced the time had come to change the shameful stretch of North American history known as the United States of America.

"Are we going to make all the presidents women?" Chloe asked hopefully.

"No, they should be black! They should all be black!" said John Cummings.

"Hey baby, we can have our cake and eat it too. Let them all be black women!" said Hillary Ashanti.

"There should be no America as we know it. It should be the preserve of the native Superior Americans," said Red Bull.

"It should be part of the Caliphate," Ahmed Ahmad opined.

"There will be an America," said Maria softly. He wrapped his arm around Alyssa Goldenfrau's waist. "There will be an America, but one like nothing you've ever seen before."

*********

Calle and Sarah were having sex.

After their first time, Sarah had hinted that she might be open to having sex with Calle occasionally, from "time to time". "Time to time" turned out to be twice a week, almost like clockwork. All Sarah would have to do is cock her head in a certain way, or give him a certain intense look, and Calle would find himself nodding, and right after their respective shifts had ended he would find himself back at her apartment, making love to her.

Calle wasn't attracted to Sarah's body. Sarah did indeed have a tight love passage as she promised. But she also had the body of a prepubescent boy from the waist up. And so, the next two times he made love to her, he continued to raise his chest, so he wouldn't feel her flatness against him, and close his eyes, and think of Marion as he pushed himself to climax.

Why did he do it? If he wasn't in love with Sarah, or even that physically attracted to her, he at least found comfort in sexual communion with her. Sarah had been right; working at the Continuity Service was a very tense job. The decisions they made always affected billions of people, for better or worse. Calle was increasingly second guessing the decisions the organization was making, and wondering if their absolutist motto "We leave things as we found them" was the right policy. Calle's cognitive dissonance played out in stress; and if at first he found Sarah's vagina to be a useful stress reliever, he quickly got addicted to it, and found it to be an essential one.

Sarah didn't seem to mind. She knew that he was fantasizing about other women when he climaxed; indeed, she had even given him the idea. She was using him just the same as he was using her. Sometimes, after they both had finished, she would gratuitously reach out and wrap her arms and legs around him, not to engage in another round of coitus, but merely to feel the warmth of another human body. She would hug him tightly, and at times even tremble a bit, which surprised him.

But if Sarah was satisfied with their relations, Calle wasn't, not entirely. He felt that he disrespected Sarah by thinking of Marion whenever he came inside of her. He tried opening his eyes sometimes when he was plowing into her, but the sight of her flat chest did nothing to help him get to where he needed to go.

And then, on the fourth time they were having sex, Calle tried something different. As he was making love to her, he leaned over her, almost horizontally, until their chests were almost touching. And then he stared at her face, to the exclusion of all else.

Sarah had a lovely face. She had thick strands of blonde hair, and cute dimples, and piercing green eyes (like Marion's, and yet also unlike them), and a little nose and narrow lips which were not exactly sexy and yet somehow they also were, because they were her, all part of what made Sarah Sarah. Calle stared intently at her face as he pounded into her.

Sarah looked at him with puzzlement as he did this. She was used to seeing him with his eyes tightly shut, using her as little more than a masturbation tool while his imagination took himself to climax. But now he was staring straight at her, and as he did, Calle started to pant, a telltale sign.

And then, before her very eyes, Calle's eyes got wider, his mouth opened, and he said, "Aaaaaaahhhhhhh....." every so softly, but to Sarah it was like the sound of a trumpet, and she realized he had come inside of her, all while staring at her face.

She blinked several times as he rolled to the side of her.

"Did you just...."

"Yes," said Calle looking at her, and the look of surprise and pleasure on her face was reward enough. And then, a few moments later, when Sarah mounted him to extract her own pleasure, it seemed she did it with more effort and gusto than usual.

********

Afterwards, as they lay together, Calle said, "Tell me about my predecessor, John Collier."

Sarah looked away. "What is there to say?"

"What happened to him?"

Sarah didn't answer.

"Doctor Vladek said he got burned out by stress. Major Reynolds told me he was killed by one of our opposite numbers. What really happened to him?"

When Sarah still didn't respond, Calle gently took her face in his hands and turned it to face him. "Sarah?"

"Curiosity," Sarah whispered.

"What?"

"That's what killed him."

********

The change happened while Calle and Sarah were having sex, though they didn't notice it until they reported back to their underground base. But they immediately noticed the buzz of activity when they returned to Main Base.

Sarah went over to Naomi. "What's happened?"

"There's been an incursion," said Naomi, studying a dozen holoscreens at the same time.

"What kind?" Sarah asked, sitting down and rapidly activating her own screens."

"It's America," said Naomi. "It's... been fundamentally transformed."

********

"It seems we now live in a completely different country," said Colonel Strayker, in the briefing room. "Everyone has a right to a guaranteed basic income. There are now 14 kinds of marriage for 23 kinds of gender. The marginal tax rate is 92%. The United States no longer has any borders; anyone anywhere can declare themselves a citizen and register for voting and welfare rights immediately. All health care has been nationalized, and private doctors and hospitals have been outlawed. The First Amendment, Free Speech, and the Second Amendment, the right to bear arms, don't exist. Apparently, they never existed."

"And the World Government?" Major Reynolds asked.

"Somehow, the United States has become the World Government. They are one and the same. But it's not like the World Government we know," said Strayker. "Naomi and Sarah have been looking into this. Apparently, the incursion occurred in 1787, when the Constitution was being written. Alex, I want you to take a team in to find out what went wrong, and fix it."

"Yes sir," said Major Reynolds.

An Indian woman with long flowing black hair and jiggling buttocks approached Strayker with a cup of atomic coffee. "No, not now," he said irritably.

********

History was being made in Philadelphia's Constitution Hall. Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and John Adams, among other notables, were meeting to thrash out the specifics of the new Constitution. The first attempt at an American government, the Articles of Confederation, had failed miserably, giving too little power to the central government. Now they were trying again, with a new form of government, but the exact delineation of those powers was subject to much debate. Calle and Daniel Acton listened quietly.

The Founding Fathers were all taking a break after a long negotiating session which had left all of them exhausted. George Washington was regaling a pair of young wenches with bright blue eyes of his tales of heroism during the Revolutionary War.

"And after we clobbered the British in Brooklyn, we moved on to Kip's Bay," said Washington. "And then we smashed them again at Harlem Heights, and again at White Plains."

"George, you ran away from the British at Brooklyn and Kip's Bay," said Alexander Hamilton. "And you also ran away from them in Harlem and White Plains."

"We engaged in tactical withdrawals after securing strategic victories," Washington said, giving Hamilton a 'Don't cock-block me' stare.

"That was your real key to victory, wasn't it, George?" said John Adams. "Running away. You made the British so tired that they ran out of breath!"

The Founding Fathers all laughed, and Washington's face turned red. "My maneuvers always had strategy in mind, yes. It took skill, and brilliance, to exercise the strategy which ultimately brought us to victory."

"Step one. Run away," said James Madison. "Step two. Run away. Step three. Run away. Step four, get the French to come in and win the war for us."

And everyone laughed again. George Washington's ears turned red.

"Where were you in the war, James?" George asked. "Oh, yes, I forget, your injured ankle prevented you from serving, didn't it? It didn't seem to stop you from playing on the Continental Lacrosse Team."

People were laughing again, but now at James Madison.

Madison glared angrily at George Washington. "Yes, George, my ankle injury prevented me from serving. I couldn't run away quite as fast as you and your men could. You have to be a real full time sprinter to have served in your Continental Army, George."

As Washington's face turned redder, the laughter once again turned against him.

But James Madison wasn't done. "How are matters in your home, George?" Madison asked sweetly. "Are you and Martha doing well?"

A hush descended on the parlor.

Madison knew full well that they weren't. Martha was furious with Washington, and it wasn't because she had recently gotten a splinter on his wooden teeth while kissing him. Martha was continually complaining that Washington was paying more attention to the comely female house slaves than he was to her. She put her arms on her hips one day and declared that if he kept this up, that 'Washington 'would become remembered more as a black name than a white one. When Washington compared notes with Thomas Jefferson, he learned that Mrs. Jefferson had made a similar prediction.

George Washington looked furiously at James Madison, and the two might have come to blows, if Ben Franklin hadn't interjected. "Now now, calm down, both of you. I know these marathon negotiating sessions are leaving us all a bit on edge. I think we all need a break, and I know just the thing." Ben Franklin rang an ornate bell by his chair.

A steward appeared.

"You rang, sir?"

"Yes," said Franklin, "Kindly bring my friends and I some young boys, sir."

The steward blinked.

"Did you hear me?" Franklin asked.

"Let me check, sir," the steward, and he left.

"What we need right now to relax are some nice young boys," said Ben Franklin. Alexander Hamilton and George Washington nodded in agreement.

But when the steward returned, he had depressing news. "I'm sorry sir, but our cellars are severely depleted of young boys. All we have left are a pair of heavily used 14 year olds."

"14 year olds?" Franklin said, sitting up abruptly. "That's an outrage!"

"I'm sorry, sir, but Thomas Jefferson took most of our best stock with him as friendship gifts when he became Ambassador to France," said the steward.

"Well, work on procuring more, at once!" said Ben Franklin. He sighed and put his right hand in his pants as the steward left. "What distressing news! There's nothing I could use better right now than a handsome twelve year old boy!"

"A twelve year old boy, are you daft, man?" said Alexander Hamilton. "At that age their voices start to lose their delightful girlish timber!"

"Have you ever tried one covered in chocolate syrup, or caramel?" James Madison asked. "The possibilities are endless."

The tension seemed to go out of the air as the Founding Fathers reminisced of the innocence and pleasures of boyhood.

"So far, everything sounds normal to me," Daniel whispered to Calle. The sexual preferences of the Founding Fathers was a well known historical fact. Calle heaved a sigh of relief. At least it appeared the timeline hadn't been tampered with, at least not yet.

********

As time wore on, the debate on the new form of government continued.

But the following day, Alexander Hamilton got a nasty gleam in his eye, and announced that the Constitution must guarantee everyone equal incomes.

"What?" said George Washington, who had been idly sanding down his front teeth.

"Everyone must have the same income. There must be no inequality of income," said Hamilton, speaking in a forced voice. His eyes looked glassy. "The government must act to be sure that everyone has the same wealth."

"But... that's preposterous!" said Ben Franklin.

"Ridiculous!" said John Adams.

"Not only that, but there must be no private property," said Hamilton

"No private property? Then who will all the lands belong to?" Washington asked.

"The people," said Hamilton, in a dreamy voice.

"What's happened to him?" Daniel whispered.

********

Calle, Daniel, and Lieutenant Don Riegel had been introduced as emissaries from France come to watch the Constitutional Convention. They had all been brainstamped with the French language, and could even speak old English with a French accent. They had been observing the meetings from the sidelines for several days, not knowing exactly when the incursion had begun. This was the first odd thing they had noticed.

They listened as Alexander Hamilton gave an impassioned plea for the government to own all land and private property.

"Alexander Hamilton would never say that," said Daniel. "He was an ardent capitalist."

"Someone's gotten to him," said Calle.

********

They went back to CS headquarters to report.

"It sounds like he's been brainwashed," said Colonel Strayker. "Probably by the Temporal Social Justice Warriors."

"How?" Calle asked.

"Simple," said Strayker. "They grab him, bring him back to their headquarters, brainwash him, and then bring him back."

"How are they doing that?" Calle asked.

"That's what you have to find out," Strayker snapped.

********

Temporal agents from the Continuity Service were trailing all the major notables now, James Madison, John Adams, Ben Franklin, and George Washington, watching to see if or when they disappeared. Sarah was also called into play, since she could easily impersonate a man.

Calle was assigned to follow James Madison. He followed him everywhere, to his living quarters, to the meeting salon, to the dining area.... every single place that Madison went, Calle followed. Calle winced as Madison went to bed for the night, accompanied by one of his 12 year old apprentices. Maybe there were some aspects of history he really didn't want to learn more about.

And then the next day, Madison suddenly announced that he agreed completely with Alexander Hamilton, and that private property should be abolished. Furthermore, Madison declared, America must be a nation without borders, and anyone coming in must immediately be given free food and board and healthcare.

"Healthcare?" said George Washington, his eyes narrowing.

"Leeches, bandages, whatever they require," said Madison. "And voting--anyone should be allowed to come here, and start voting immediately."

Washington and Adams and Franklin looked at him like he was mad. But Hamilton and Madison were in agreement.

Sarah pulled Calle aside. "You were supposed to watch him!"

"I did!" said Calle. "I went everywhere he went."

"Then how did they get to him?"

"I don't know," said Calle.

********

The next day it was Benjamin Franklin's turn to have a change of heart. He announced that the Constitution they were writing must guarantee the rights of boys to become girls and girls to become boys, to use each other's bathrooms, and compete in each other's sports. Furthermore, the new government must pay for surgeries to change boys into girls and girls into boys.

"Are you daft, man?" John Adams asked. "How can a surgeon change a boy into a girl?"

"Well, we may not have the means now, but we surely will in the future. We must protect that right when the means to achieve it come into being."             

********

Daniel had been assigned to watch Ben Franklin. He told them he had been with Franklin everywhere he went.

"Everywhere?" Sarah insisted.

"Just about," said Daniel firmly. "I almost went into the outhouse with him."

They all turned and stared at each other.

********

The next day, Calle watched George Washington go into the outhouse. He counted to thirty, and then went in after him.

The outhouse was empty.

Five minutes later, however, Washington came out of it, a new man. He had had an epiphany while urinating, he said; he suddenly realized that the Constitution had no need for the right to free speech or to bear arms.

********

"They are snatching them from the outhouses," said Sarah. "They are only gone in relative time for a few minutes, but obviously when they are taken back to the Temporal Social Justice Warrior headquarters, they can be subjected to brainwashing techniques for days or weeks."

"I see," said Strayker, pacing back and forth. He looked stern in his tan suit with high collars. "So how can we counter it?"