Acme Time Travel Incorporated - Volume 2

The ACME-HUB (orbiting space satellite)

The MED unit’s lid had opened, and Gabriel sat up. Sara and Zackery were watching him from across the room.

“Would you like a little drink?” Sara asked.

Gabriel felt the side of his head. It still felt painful, but the pulsing pain he had felt earlier seemed to have been replaced by a vague memory of that pain. It was vaguely there and even as he thought about it, it seemed to be receding.

“I’ll get you some water,” said Zackery.

“Thanks,” said Gabriel. “How’s Ginny?”

“Come and look,” said Sara.

Gabriel accepted a cup of water from Zackery, then walked over to the med unit in which Ginny was laid. The unit was still filled with a light crimson haze. Laying on the cot, Ginny seemed to be asleep. What looked to Gabriel like bandages seemed to be restraining her body, running across her chest, stomach and hips.

“The webbing helps to stop her moving during the process,” Sara answered Gabriel’s unspoken question.

A web of golden rays seemed to be criss-crossing a path along where her legs would have been. As the rays pulsed, they were leaving behind them newly-constructed legs.

“The unit has opened up nerve endings on the stumps of her legs,” Sara said. “The new legs will have sensitivity. They will feel just like her original legs.”

“Will she need to learn to walk on them?” said Gabriel. “Will she need to use crutches or anything?”.

“They are grown directly onto the stumps, Gabriel,” Sara said. “The MED unit that amputated her legs left the bone and muscle sculptured so that new legs could be attached. After the re-grow process has been completed, she will need about two to three days for her body to finish bonding to them. Then it will be just as though they were her own legs.”

Gabriel looked incredulous.

“She just needs to make sure that she rests for two to three days. Less than that and the bond may be unsuccessful.”

“Will ACME INC let us stay here for another two to three days?” Gabriel asked.

“I think that I can answer that.”

They all turned to see who the new voice was. Someone had entered the room.

A small man in a very smart suit was standing just inside the MED bay doorway. He looked very anxious. He was maybe forty years old. His hair was thinning. His skin looked very pale, as though he rarely saw the light of the Sun.

“Director Swan,” Sara said, partly as an acknowledgment of his presence and partly as a means of introducing him to Gabriel.

As if released from some sort of stasis, Swan rushed over to Gabriel and shook him vigorously by the hand.

Gabriel noticed that Swan’s grip seemed very weak ... his hand was somewhat clammy.

“It’s really good to see you,” Swan said. “We’ve all heard about you, you know.”

“Director Swan is the senior data-tech specialist in ACME INC,” Sara explained. He is responsible for ...”

“Thank you, Sara,” Swan said, reading her name off her name tag on her jacket. “I don’t think we need you to explain my credentials, thank you very much.”

Sara looked shocked and flustered by Swan’s rudeness. She flushed and turned away in the direction of her colleague, Zackery, who was looking uncomfortable himself.

“I’d like to thank you,” said Gabriel, “for letting us use the med bay facilities. I guess you maybe heard that we suffered a few ‘cuts and bruises’ on the journey to bring your STU back.”

“Yes. We’d heard that you needed a bit of patching up. This is the least we can do, Gabriel ... the least we can do.”

“But we’d wondered ... that is Ginny and me had wondered ...”

“Wondered what, Gabriel?”

“If you could maybe ... maybe let us have a spare STU ... to give to the wife of a friend of ours ... when we get back. It would be a great kindness.”

Swan looked astonished at Gabriel’s suggestion.

“Just a minute, Gabriel. We are grateful that you brought us back a very expensive piece of equipment, and we know it has been at no small inconvenience to yourselves, but what you are asking ... we aren’t a charity you know. Just the cost of the re-growing your companion’s legs is ...”

“But we ...”

“And these are very difficult times for ACME INC, as I’m sure you’re aware.”

“We’ve heard there’s massive amounts of litigation ...,” Sara said.

Swan turned to face Sara, his face like thunder.

“If we need notes on business strategy from med-bay staff, I’ll be sure to come down here straight away next time,” Swan snarled.

Sara bit her lip.

“So, what we’ll do,” said Swan, turning back to face Gabriel, “is we’ll give you a few days using our facilities. Take time to heal. Keep the use of the STU, just for now. It will help you to use the apartment’s features. While you’re doing that, we will re-build the coordinates database. Then, in a few days’ time, we’ll take back the STU and give you a ‘one-trip’ device. It will take you back to your own time.”

“And that’s it?” said Gabriel.

“And as I said before ... please accept our thanks.”

Gabriel turned away from Swan, as if to consider the proposal. As he did so, he heard Vicky whispering to him faintly.

“Gabriel. I don’t trust Director Swan. Can you take the earpiece out of your ear and try to put it into Swan’s jacket pocket? That way we can maybe hear what he says after he leaves us.”

Gabriel glanced over towards Swan, who looked like he was about to leave.

“Just a minute, Mr Swan,” he said, fumbling in his ear. “Can’t you tell us a bit more about what is going on at the moment? We may not meet again, and it would be great if ...”

Swan looked annoyed.

Gabriel walked up close to Swan, who looked even more annoyed; anxious to leave.

Sara could see that Gabriel was trying to do something, but she didn’t know what. She turned and picked up a small pair of forceps but let them fall from her hand.

She bent from the waist to pick up the forceps.

Swan watched Sara; admiring her taut figure.

Sara, her face down at her knees, turned her face up to look up at Swan.

She smiled to him as she picked up the forceps.

Swan awkwardly returned Sara’s smile.

Gabriel slipped the earpiece into Swan’s left jacket pocket.

Sara stood up, putting the forceps back onto the shelf from which she had taken them.

The spell over Swan appeared to have been broken.

“I think that the STU can tell you all that you need to know about us ... about ACME INC,” said Swan, with a sense of finality. “I don’t think that we will be meeting again, Mr Gabriel, so thank you again for bringing back the STU. I trust that the experience made it all worthwhile.”

He turned and left.