The Du Page Affair

This is an original work by Zeb_Carter and is protected under (c) copyright by U.S. copyright law. It is only being submitted at Literotica.Com and any submission to any other site has not been authorized by the Author.

Interregnum

The lone figure sat at a desk in a stark office. That figure was Mike Sullivan, he had experienced a traumatic emotional loss and was pondering what he had just done. He had just spent the last nine years of his life with two of the most beautiful and intelligent woman he knew. After finishing medical school and their residency together he left them, left them so they could lead somewhat normal lives for a period of time. One of them he had fallen in love with and he knew he had broken her heart when he just disappeared, but she was strong, she would survive and thrive. The other he would be in love with, in the future, but he knew her heart was broken also. As Mike sat alone in his office, he contemplated his past and what had brought him to this point in time.

Mike, as it happened, was one of a few people in the world who knew what was going to happen in his future. He knew what his future self knew, he knew the instant it happened. He knew the instant his future self leaned of something new. He had thought he was going crazy when his mind was flooded with that knowledge. So stunned, in fact, he withdrew into himself for a period of time, two weeks to be exact. His parents were about to have him committed when he snapped out of his self imposed withdrawal.

He was fourteen when that happened. He went on to finish high school, aced his SAT's and was accepted at the university of his choice. Full scholarship, no it wasn't a big ten school, nor an Ivy League school. It was a local university, with a medical program. A place where he knew he would need to be in the future. Throughout his four years of college he set up shell companies and started to invent things, things that wouldn't be invented for decades in the future.

His companies made a tidy sum of money. Some of the things they couldn't release to the general public as there was no need or infrastructure in place for such things yet. And wouldn't be for at least ten years, but his company developed them anyway to the consternation of the board of directors. But his company wasn't public so the board didn't really matter. What mattered was they made money and what Mike wanted, was done.

After graduating college, Mike spent the next four years searching for others like him. Others who knew their future, they didn't know any future but their own. It was hard to accomplish this without people thinking Mike crazy. So a shell research company was set up, which scoured the country for anomalous people like him. Everyone who started doing things and inventing thing, which Mike knew wouldn't be invented for a long time, were scrutinized closely.

After six months they found four others in the U.S. None of them had been as far along as Mike in developing their own companies and inventions. When offered a partnership in his company they jumped at the chance. The research firm kept looking and the five of them put their heads together to come up with new things to sell. In all the research firm found ten people scattered around world.

Mike thought back to nineteen-seventy-two, February to be exact. Jenny and Mike had been dating steadily for several months when he popped the question. He told her everything about what was to come in their lives. She was stunned to silence. She left him for awhile, not answering his calls nor seeing him when he went to her home. Four weeks later she showed up at his place. Mike let her in and she walked right to the couch and sat. He joined her and waited.

"I'm not sure," Jenny started, "I can condone what you are doing or going to do, but I do love you and want to marry you."

"So your answer is yes?" Mike asked as if he didn't know.

"Yes. But I want to know when, what, where and how I am going to have to be alone. I want to know every detail of your future life and mine. I know, I know you don't know mine but you do know our future together."

"You're right."

Mike then told her everything. It took him four days to tell her. There were times she was crying and other times she was laughing so hard that she was crying. Most of the time she couldn't believe her ears, but she listened to each and every word Mike spoke.

Those four days were very stressful for both of them. When Mike told her that he needed to join the Air Force for the next four years she laughed the hardest. He told her they had to get married and he had to join the Air Force. She just nodded her head and asked where they were getting married. They flew to Nevada the next day to get married and honeymooned in Hawaii.

The four years in the Air Force was an experience that Mike would never forget. It helped him with some things that he would have to do in the future, which he couldn't learn any other way. Once his enlistment was up in nineteen-seventy-six he was back at his corporation mapping out things they had to invent. For the next twelve years he was very busy putting things in place for the future.

There was the invention of a hologram generator and cell phones, just to mention a few. They still pumped out little things that made them more money than you would ever know. Most of that money was put back into research on some things that they were going to need, which so far as the future was concerned, no one had invented yet. The rest of the money was invested in gold and placed in off shore banks for use in the future.

In nineteen-eighty-eight it was time for Mike to enroll in MedSchool and make sure Michelle became a doctor. Those nine years will remain the best and worst time in his life. During this time Jenny held the reins of the company. She was not happy about where Mike was or what he was doing, but she loved him with all her heart and believed in him.

So as Mike sat alone in his office, busier than he had ever been in his life, now or in the future, he contemplated the future of two lovely women. He had fifteen years to prepare for what was to come. Two paths, presented themselves, two paths which he needed to decide which path to follow. And it was unfortunate that neither path kept Susan or Michelle out of harms way.

One path would lead to the destruction of the United States as it is known. The other would mean the destruction of a city. Which city didn't matter, only that a city is destroyed. Why? Even Mike didn't know the reason for that; he just knew a city is lost.

Mike made a decision. It was time to start making plans, designing equipment that would be needed. Fifteen years, would it be enough time? The first thing to do was to move the company headquarters as it was no longer safe where it was. Atlanta was the place he picked. The move took six months. But now the company and employee's were safe, would be safe.

Once they had moved, Jenny really didn't want to move, the company started negotiations with the government on some of their inventions. Things Mike knew they would really want. Things like an energy shield. Of course he didn't give them the farm, just the outhouse. The shield generator Mike was finally convinced to sell them was a monstrous piece of equipment that would take a good size house to hold. But it was good enough to protect an airbase or an embassy or a large landing zone.

The government snapped them up as fast as Mike's company could make them. There were even planned improvements that were made along the way. At the end of the first run, which took a year and a half, the company had shrunk the size by a quarter. By the time the second order came in every government installation throughout the world had a shield generator.

The second run was not only an order for more generators but a contract to install them in every major city in the U.S. Hints dropped in the right places and to the right people had the desired effect. This second run would take the company ten years. At the end of that time everything would be in place for the future.

Along the way to the future, a brilliant engineer, who was one of the few who could see the future, developed true Artificial Intelligence. The first unit he produced was as big as a small refrigerator. It called itself Jennifer. Mike's wife Jenny was surprised by this, but Jennifer and Jenny would have long whispered conversations. Jennifer was unique at the time she was made. But with her help there were soon dozens of independent AI's of all different shapes and sizes.

Mike had one who called itself Sally. She was with him night and day, reminding him of appointments and taking down any thoughts Mike might have about future products. She was also his phone and his protector. For you see the shield generators had been shrunk down to the size of a micro-chip with Jennifer's help. So each new AI was equipped with a shield generator. There was also a dedicated network in place for the AI's to communicate with each other when needed.

When the company introduced their stripped down model to the public there was an outcry about how smart machines would take over the world and dominate humankind. Which if they had wanted to, they could have. But as Jennifer put it, who would want to be in charge of taking care of a bunch of soft-skinned bumbling idiots. She said she didn't have the time to wipe their noses or their butts. She had better things to do.

By the end of ten years there were generators in every major city and most secondary cities. There was one city, one city that would be handled different than the rest. Five years from now events would occur, events set in motion by factions of the U.S. government that would have a devastating effect on this city.

Jenny and Mike moved back to Chicago in two-thousand, the year before the turn of the century. They moved because Mike's future self had moved there, to be with Michelle and Susan. It was arranged that Michelle was their family doctor. For Mike it was really good seeing her again, even though she hadn't a clue of who he was. To her he was a patient named John Abernathy. She, Jenny and John hit it off. They became not only patient and doctor but friends. Not that they were over at each others homes but they did attend a lot of the same functions and dinners for various charities and such.

John avoided Susan during all this time. She did work at the same clinic as Michelle but John went out of his way to avoid her. Something that John really didn't have control over was what Michelle decided to do with her career. He knew it was about to happen but there was nothing he could do to stop it. Sometime in early May of two-thousand-five Jenny and John received a letter from Michelle.

She had chosen to limit her practice to pediatrics exclusively. It meant that they had to switch doctors. There were at least ten doctors at the clinic to choose from, but as fate would have it, Susan was the only one taking new patients. So John's medical school love was now his doctor, only she didn't know who he really was.

The first time he went in to see her, his heart skipped a beat, he was short of breath and he couldn't focus his eyes. He was quite sure he was still in love with her. Yet he couldn't say a word to her about their past. Not yet, not for three years. It would be extremely hard to not let on that he had feelings for her, extremely hard. Jenny asked him if he would be okay with Susan being their doctor. John told her he would be just fine.

The years that followed were busy, there was so much to do and not enough time to do what needed to be done. The shield project was coming along. The preparations for...the other thing, were complete. Now all they needed were for the powers that be to perform their part.

It was now time for all Mike's hard work back in the eighties to pay off. It was time for Michelle to save him. A plan that had been placed in motion sometime ago would now come to fruition.

...to be continued.