Chapter 15

It was the first of September, 2001, and I was changing the fuel cell on my car. I had come to the point where I had finally had to refill the damn things. I did it, though. Everything I needed to recharge the thing was available in this time, except one vital ingredient. This ingredient had been provided in a large enough quantity by my older self, to last until it became available in the near future (according to the elder 'me', and the computer).

I now had two fully charged fuel cells, and a feeling of accomplishment. I sighed, and told the home computer - via the car's link - to pull the town car out of the barn, and park it behind the house as usual. I watched as my car drove itself, with the computer's help, out of the barn. I still got a thrill watching it do that. The technology in the car represented a huge advantage to me if I could somehow convert it into cash.

Unfortunately, it was also a danger. If the government found out about it, and/or me, my life would be over. The government would seize my car, the computer, and everything I had; 'for the good of the people', of course. The edge that this technology would give the US government was too much, in my opinion.

While I approved of most of what my government did, they did too much under the cloak of secrecy that was totally illegal and contemptible. Oh, it was always for the betterment of 'the people' or 'the world'.

I snorted. How many times have I heard this used as an excuse by megalomaniacs, the world over? Governments, individuals, corporations, it didn't matter. Those who always 'knew better' than the average person, scared me. The government said it constantly, by saying we did not have the full picture. Then they always failed to give us the full picture. Well, most of the time, anyway. Secrecy, of course, was the reason to keep everyone clueless.

Which brought me to another thought that was disturbing. Was I any better? I had at my fingertips, medical discoveries to come for at least the next 50 years. A lot of those were huge. I could ease and save lives, just by revealing what I knew. If I did that, though, it would mean the end of my freedom, and life as I knew it. What was I to do?

I was selfish. I liked my freedoms that were guaranteed and mentioned in the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence. For the most part, the government did a great job of watching over them for us. The problem came into being when the rights of the government and the rights of an individual came into conflict.

For example, when the government established laws giving the government broader powers, the individual rights of people shrank. They were getting smaller as the years went by. Always under the guise of 'for the good of the people', of course. Freedom won out over my responsibility to 'the people'.

I would figure something out, but I was not going to endanger my freedom, and become a drugged slave or prisoner of the government, doing what they wanted for the rest of my life. Or worse, until they figured out a lobotomy might be better for me, than to have my abilities be uncontrolled by them.

It would happen, too, if they discovered me and my full capabilities.

As altruistic as the government claimed it was, as benign as it seemed, it would not hesitate to either force me to work for it, for life; or cancel my abilities totally, whatever worked.

It was a sad commentary to my thought process, but I had seen enough to make me afraid of loosing control of my life.

"Get a grip," I muttered to myself.

I went back to the house and puttered around for a while. I worked on one of the rooms that had remained unfinished, working towards finishing it. I enjoyed working with my hands, and it was a joy and a feeling of great accomplishment when I finished a portion, and was ready to move to the next phase.

Courtney was very busy with several groups at the hotel downtown, and was spending more time in her apartment that she had been given at the hotel. I missed having her around, but she did have a job to do. Whenever she had time for me, she would call. I would teleport to her room, pick her up, and teleport us back to my place.

I was storing more and more power for my own use for time traveling. I figured out that I was now storing enough power to make it over two hundred years one-way. What I mean is, I didn't have to use local power sources. I was using stored power, that I was siphoning out of the world, for my own use.

As a matter of fact, I was trying to increase the stored power so I could dive deeper into the past. There were places I wanted to go, and history to see. I might not have much power to draw on, once I got there. I definitely didn't want to risk Courtney, who loved 'time diving'. I wanted to be sure I always had enough power stored, to get us to safety.

I also had a long conversation with the computer. Apparently, my future self, at one point, had taken the option of eliminating severe threats to his safety. This meant I was going to do the same, most likely. It was something I had thought about off and on, but I saw no way out of it. I just didn't want to become so used to simply killing, or storing people in the 'between', that I became complacent. I didn't want to become the same as those I feared.

I also had a discussion with Courtney, about how to let some of my knowledge out, and to capitalize on it. I researched several people who were going to discover a processes or breakthroughs in manufacturing, or engineering, or medicine. One thing the computer pointed out (but only after I had explained my idea to it), was that several of these people had a silent partner, or investor.

It was not beyond the realms of belief that I could be this partner, and feed enough info to the talented guy who makes the discovery, and incidentally receive a portion of royalties for my trouble, as a "consultant's" fee. The computer admitted this to me only after I pointed all this out and came to the conclusion.

I had the computer fake an educational record for me, and had me specialize in two subjects, one of which I really was good at: computer programming. The other was that I would specialize in tailoring computer programs for specific projects. This would be for outright pay. If you didn't have my fee, for a small percentage of the royalty if and when the discovery or process went public, I was willing to take a backseat. Perfect!

My computer was a joy to own. It was able to slip all sorts of things into college computers for me. I had records of everything I needed to be successful in my new occupations: the 'auto restoration and reselling business', and the 'tailored programs consultant' business. I was set. I got started on the consultant part. I was already starting to make my way with the restoration business, and had already sold two cars.

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