She gave us time to absorb that information.
Then she said, “Your first mission is to go back to the moment when mothers gave birth to the first babies with successfully modified genes, the first babies with photosynthetic capabilities. That was not handled well. Because human beings back then had persecuted others with skin colors a different shade of tan than their own, scientists feared that babies with green skin would be killed. There were tribes in East Africa that had reacted horribly to people born without pigment. Here, let me show you what they looked like.”
The image of a young boy with skin as white as snow and blue eyes and another image of a woman with pure white skin and red eyes flashed before our eyes.
Dr. Molyneux said, “People in certain East African countries believed that albinos like this carried special powers. They believed that albinos were ghosts or demons, and that using their body parts in potions would bring great luck. People hunted the albinos and hacked off parts of their bodies—arms, tongues, genitals, any kind of part—to make their potions. There was good reason to hide the first generation of green-skinned photosynthetic babies away in a secret location. The mothers were all told that their babies had been born dead. It was believed to be the best way to protect the generation designed to save the human race. Maybe it was. But scientists failed to set up adequate mothering conditions for these babies. Many had impaired cognitive development and emotional problems, which became apparent in childhood and plagued them throughout their lives. You’ll all see this firsthand on your initial mission, so that you can advise on the babies born from our new gene-splicing experiment. Babies won’t be taken away from their mothers, but there may be other important things to look out for. Your second mission will be to go to different locations and time periods to gather blood and tissue samples for gene-splicing. You’ll need to do this in ways that are humane. Further instruction will follow on this. For now, I’m going to notify each of you as to where you’ll be going for your second mission. Take a picture of the time and place when it appears on your lenses. Your assignment for tonight is to research that time-place location. You’ll receive more precise information on your exact destination in the next few days.”
Roswell, New Mexico—Early 2000s appeared in front of my eyes. The land of the famous UFO Incident. At least it wasn’t the year 1947. I didn’t want to be the green-skinned human mistaken for an alien and dissected for science. That was not what I had in mind when I decided to become a time traveler.
Dr. Molyneux threw her long blue hair over her shoulders. Folding her hands and smiling, she said, “Good luck with your studies. You’re about to embark on the most important missions we’ve conducted in a long time.”
Chapter 11
Waylon Quill was my assigned time travel partner. We participated in quite a few bonding exercises before takeoff. He was a good match. We got along well and our skill sets were complementary. We were both Medical; but he was History while I was Anthropology division.
We arrived at the launch pad wearing the tight green suit and helmet that would monitor our bodies’ systems and send the information back to TTA. They would bring us back if we ran into problems where both of us could no longer work the controls.
We strapped ourselves into our seats, did a preflight check, and drank a vial of the blue potion that would help us deal with acceleration beyond the speed of light and movement through the curved fabric of space-time. All our missions before this involved infinitesimal space-time distances compared to this one.
I napped while the computers and robots spoke to our pod, making sure that all the systems were in working order.
Finally, the countdown began. 60… 59… 58… 57… All the way down to 1 while the chatter continued between machines and vehicle.
Then the words: Cleared for launch!
The pod accelerated faster and faster, eventually moving beyond the speed of light. As it broke the light barrier, a display similar to the Aurora Borealis surrounded our vehicle. Our pod became a metal fish swimming through liquid rainbow. I knew that back on Earth, observers would witness a ball of light bursting out of the sky much like an exploding sun.
The experience of accelerating beyond the speed of light is difficult to describe. I felt nauseous and developed an intense headache. That part’s easy to report. But my mind flooded with strange thoughts and languages, bits of events and conversations happening all around us in the space-time fabric as we sped through it. No doubt our empathic radar was working like an antenna, trying to acclimate us to points in space-time that we were only hurtling past.
When we landed, the screen attached to the pod hull relayed 360-degree views of our surroundings. We were relieved that we’d landed in the exact place we had planned: an empty field in the middle of a forest next to the birthing center for the mothers bringing the first generation of green people into the world.
A chill went up my spine. We were actually here, at that moment in time that had radically changed the appearance of the human race and improved our ability to survive on an increasingly hostile planet.
The pod had lots of room. It held several bedrooms and a kitchen, a library and a medical unit. The medical unit included two surgery bays. The pods had been designed for extended stays.
We spent two days resting, drinking potions, and allowing our bodies and minds to adjust to our new location.
As soon as we’d recovered from the flight, it was time to accomplish our mission.
We put on the medical protective suits meant to disguise us. When those first babies were born, no one knew for sure if bacteria and other natural pathogens we all have inside us might mutate along with the babies’ genes, so medical personnel wore the same kinds of hazmat suits used in the care of patients with highly contagious, deadly diseases such as Ebola.
Waylon and I painted our faces and hands with tan pigment that bonded with our skin to such a degree, we’d need to use special fluid to take it off. Then we put on the hazmat jumpsuit, apron, boots, gloves and hood. Since we couldn’t wear our usual large black neural-connective lenses over our eyes because they hadn’t been invented in that time period yet, a similar type of screen was built into clear plastic goggles that were sometimes worn over the hoods. We were warned not to leave them behind, as ours had modern technology built in. Information displayed on the goggles would only be visible to the person wearing them, not to anyone else observing them. We didn’t have to do anything to disguise our eyes. All modern people had green or blue eyes and those were common back in the time we were visiting.
We strapped on our goggles; then walked the short distance to the birthing center, making sure no one saw us step out of the woods. The outfits were cumbersome. We knew if anyone saw us, we’d be in trouble. At the hospital, these outfits were supposed to be kept as close to sterile as possible. They weren’t allowed to be worn for a hike through the forest and across the grounds. We knew from the history books, however, that no bacteria mutated within the babies in any kind of dangerous way. We had special spray we’d use on the bottom of our boots when we got inside the hospital. Otherwise, we posed no danger to the moms or babies.