The Jovian Legacy (30 page)

Jack
did a quick laugh and then said, “Ready?”

“Let’s
do it!” replied an excited Ewen.

Jack
sounded a short repetitive tune to attract Patricia’s
attention. At first she quickly looked up and around then buried
herself back into her cheque writing. Jack turned up the speaker.
Patricia then rose out of her chair and looked out the window,
supposedly wondering where the music was coming from. Jack didn’t
want to scare her by speaking into the microphone so he continued the
tune. As Patricia turned her head, puzzled, she caught sight of the
computer screen. She froze, and for a few seconds stared wide-eyed
at the image of Jack and Ewen grinning at her.

“Do
something!” Ewen elbowed Jack.

“Okay,
okay,” Jack answered, rubbing his side. This time he spoke
into the microphone.

“Please
don’t be alarmed, Mrs Smith,” Jack began. “May I
introduce myself? I’m Jack Dunlop and we have contacted you
from a very distant place. I would like to also introduce you to…
Ewen Griffiths, your first husband.” Jack held his breath.

The
expression on her face remain the same for another ten seconds, then
slowly made her way across to the computer and sat down in front of
it. She said something but Jack couldn’t hear her. He told
her to switch on the microphone.

“Ewen?”
Patricia enquired in a small voice. She looked lost, sad, and
awfully tired. Her eyes showed she’d had a hard life.

“Yes,
Patty, it’s me. This is not a dream, my love; I didn’t
lose my life in the Bermuda Triangle, I was propelled from my plane
and ended up in this place. It’s called Jovian, and it’s
thirty-five light years away from Earth.”

“Oh,
okay…” she answered, looking even more lost.

Jack
and Ewen glanced at each other and Jack decided to take over.
“Jovian scientists have been taking people travelling across
the Bermuda Triangle by aeroplanes and yachts for many years by
transplanetary travel. People haven’t been going missing as
such, but have been fortunate enough to have been given the chance to
live in a perfect world free of disease and crime,” Jack
thoroughly explained.

“Sounds
like Heaven,” Patricia answered, still not looking quite there.

“Patricia
- Ewen and I have taken quite a while to reach you, due to your
marriage to Mr Smith. We would understand it if you chose not to
continue our contact,” Jack explained.

“What
are you, nuts?” Ewen shouted at him.

“Let
me do this, Ewen,” Jack said in a low voice.

Patricia
began to laugh. “That’s my Ewen, fiery as ever! Oh, my
darling, how I’ve missed you. I love you so much.”

They
had got through to her. Tears streamed down her face, then tears
streamed down Ewen’s face. Next, Patricia started kissing the
screen, so Ewen did likewise. There was this extremely weird kissing
thing going on, which Jack noticed was leaving marks all over the
screen. He knew this was his cue, and quietly excused himself from
the room, making a mental note to disinfect the screen later.

The
next morning Jack received a call from Ewen, who excitedly told him
about what he and Patricia had talked about for the next few hours,
not that Jack really wanted to know. He was happy for his friend
though, and felt a great sense of achievement for completing his
second contact, so he listened to what Ewen had to say.

“By
the way, Michelle
is
my daughter. I knew it as soon as I saw her anyway!” Ewen
declared, on cloud nine.

“Did
you speak to her?” Jack asked.

“No,
she wasn’t there, she was out with friends. Patty is going to
prepare her for meeting me next Tuesday though, when David goes to
his poker game.”

“Oh,
okay. It’s going to be a long week for you then, isn’t
it?” Jack pointed out, wondering how much of Ewen’s
incessant talk he was going to have to put up with. Then he had an
idea. He decided to set up the communication link from Ewen’s
own computer. That way Ewen could hover over it for the rest of the
week without annoying him, and he would simply go over to his house
on Tuesday night to instigate it.

Tuesday
came around all too quickly for Jack. He drove over to Ewen’s
house to initiate contact. Ewen greeted him at the door and Jack
took a step back. He hardly recognised his friend. Ewen had gone
out and had a ‘man makeover’ by one of the professional
stylists in the city, and had also splashed out on buying himself a
new suit.

“Far
out, you look great!” Jack praised.

“Well,
I’m meeting my daughter tonight, aren’t I?” he
replied, puffing out his chest. “I have to look good for her.”

“Good
on ya, mate,” Jack said, patting him on the back. Let’s
make a start then, shall we?”

When
they logged on and into the home of Ewen’s family again, they
were surprised to see his wife and daughter sitting in front of the
computer, waiting. Their eyes lit up as Ewen came into view.

“Darling,
this is your daughter, Michelle,” Patricia announced, beaming
as her daughter gasped.

“Hello,
Father,” she greeted hesitantly.

“Michelle,”
Ewen replied, tickled pink to be called ‘Father’, “you
are beautiful!”

“How…are
you?” Michelle awkwardly asked.

“I’m
very well, and so very pleased to meet you.” Ewen was blushing
with success.

Once
again, Jack decided to bow out and leave them to it. Just as he
turned to walk out, he heard another voice bark through the computer.

“What
in God’s name is going on in here!” A man’s voice.
David had come home early from poker (or wherever he was) and had
stormed into the room.

The
two women became frightened. What they next witnessed disturbed
them, and was extremely upsetting for Ewen. David Smith grabbed his
wife by the hair and pulled her off her chair. Michelle tried to
push him away from her mother, but his arm came up and whacked her
with the back of his hand, hitting her square in the face and
knocking her off her stool.

“You
bastard!” Ewen screamed down the microphone, “I’m
going to kill you!”

David
peered at the screen, a murderous look on his face. “Whoever
you are, if I ever see you speaking to my family again, I’m
going to kill you first! Got it?” With those words he bent
forward and switched off the computer.

“Bastard!”
Ewen screamed again, beside himself with rage.

“Jack!
We have to do something!! He’s hurting my girls!” Ewen
yelled at him in despair.

Jack
was worried.
“There’s
not much we
can
do,” he replied, his hunch proving correct.
“I’m
so sorry, Ewen.”

Ewen
broke down and sobbed. Jack didn’t know what to do. He hadn’t
been in the company of a distraught man before. He went looking for
an alcoholic drink, and found a bottle of something written in
Egyptian in a cupboard. Jack hoped that it was alcoholic and poured
a glass, handing it to his friend. Ewen swallowed it in one gulp and
handed the glass back to Jack for another. Jack took a very
inebriated Ewen back to his house that night to keep an eye on him.
He wasn’t sure what Ewen was capable of doing with such a
highly-strung nature, as upset as he was. Jack put his friend to
bed and arranged for the house staff to look after him in the morning
with a bath and a good hearty breakfast. Jack had a shower and went
to bed.

The
next morning he told Megan everything. “I don’t know
what to do, Megs, I knew something like this was going to happen.”

“Can
his family be brought here, just like we were?”

“Don’t
know, I hadn’t thought of that one. But I’m not on a
rescue mission. I was only assigned to reconnect lost families,”
Jack answered her.

“Could
you ask? He really needs your help. And his wife and daughter need
your help,” she pressed.

“I’ll
give it a shot, but I’m not going to say anything about it just
yet to Ewen. I know him, it’ll be the last straw if he gets
his hopes up and nothing eventuates.”

“Cool,”
Megan said, kissing her boyfriend.

Ewen
didn’t stir until 11 a.m. The house staff had waited for him
to appear for hours. They were keen to carry on with their own tasks
for the day, but dutifully waited to be on hand for Ewen as Jack had
requested. As soon as he did appear they sprung into action, cooking
a healthy breakfast and running a bath. Ewen wolfed down his meal
and made his way to the bathroom to the steaming spa bath awaiting
him, remaining there for another hour before he emerged again.

T
he
hierarchy of Thebes had turned down Jack’s proposal for Ewen’s
family to be purposely brought to Jovian. Jack kept the
disappointing news to himself.

Ewen
tried a few more attempts to contact his family again, but the
computer must have been completely disconnected from the wall. He
fell apart and drank himself into the Thebes City Hospital, where he
was hospitalised for two weeks. It was a huge setback for Jack, who
almost lost interest in the whole reconnecting lost families program.

“It
doesn’t end up happily ever after all the time,” Megan
sympathised, rubbing his back.

Jack
thought seriously hard about who he’d choose for his next
subject. Megan suggested the husband and wife that she had met at
the reunion who had been passengers in a Cessna when it ‘went
missing’ in 1984. They had showed Megan a well-handled photo
of their daughter, her husband and the family that they’d left
behind.

“They
were such nice people; do it for them Jack,” Megan urged,
giving him
that
look
.
Jack melted and yanked her into his chest, kissing her on the
forehead.

The
next morning Jack got in touch with Mr and Mrs Bitner, who were
gobsmacked to have been chosen for Jack’s project. It was
talked about that he’d begun the reconnection program, and
people were queuing up for it. Mrs Bitner was slight with impish
looks whereas Larry carried a tall and thickset build with a full
head of greying hair and a moustache (typically American) and who
hadn’t lost his American accent even though they had been
living on Jovian for twenty years or so. They handed the address of
their daughter to Jack. Claudia’s family lived in Arkansas,
where they had also lived.

Jack
set to work immediately, hoping he’d be able to make a
difference in the Bitners’ lives.

A
nice difference,
he considered,
not wanting
a repeat of Ewen’s experience.

Thankfully
it proved a relatively easy task to find this new family. After the
two previous searches he’d fine-tuned his skills to the point
where he’d mastered it.

The
Bobak house looked very interesting. They had several views of the
house, as the Bobaks’ computer had a private monitoring system,
indicating a large house with loads of activity.

Wealthy people.

J
udging
by all the trophies sitting on the antique sideboard in the spacious
living room Jack figured they must be accomplished people as well.

His
assumptions proved correct when he saw a large number of people spill
in, dressed formally and in high spirits. A long cherry-wood table
in the far corner of the room was groaning with food, and everyone
began to mill around it. The sight of the immaculately presented
food made Jack’s stomach grumble. His attention turned back to
the people fast filling up the room. A couple strolled in, smiling
and chatting to others. Helga Bitner made a squeal of delight as she
saw her daughter and son-in-law for the first time in years. Jack
thought about turning the speakers on, but hesitated. He’d
hoped that the daughter and her husband would be alone in the house,
not entertaining a large amount of guests. He knew that the timing
had to be perfect for something like this.

He
turned to Larry and Helga and said, “I think we should wait
until their friends have gone before we announce our presence. It
will be alarming enough for them to see your faces on their computer,
let alone have it happen in front of all these people.”

Reluctantly
they agreed, although bitterly disappointed. Larry dotted his eyes
with his large handkerchief. (Jack didn’t think anyone used
handkerchiefs anymore.) Larry was clearly overwhelmed at seeing his
precious ‘little girl’ again, the apple of his eye, Jack
guessed. Jack showed them to the door, making a time for them to
return the next day, and hopefully catch the Bobaks at home by
themselves. After they had left Jack went back to the computer to
switch it off. As he did so he literally jumped when he saw a sea of
faces looking at him on the screen.

“Oh
shit!” he said out loud, wondering how he was supposed to
explain himself without the parents there with him. He gingerly sat
down in front of the computer and turned on the speakers, hearing an
explosion of American accents. A forty something, good-looking man
leaned into the screen and spoke to him, the voices in the background
dropping off.