Chapter 20

Seven returned with Suzy and Bill in a few moments to the kitchen of the house on Earth. Suzy was moving as if she had never had a problem with her back. Both of them looked to be in their mid-20s.They all looked at the two in complete surprise. Judy asked, "What happened to you two? You look 30 years younger than you did when we last saw you!"

Suzy smiled and said, "Seven had us hooked up to a special machine which supplied enough power to un-age us in only one day. Isn't it wonderful to feel young again?"

"You two look spectacular! It's hard to believe that you are the same people we met only a short time ago! Did you get the full training?"

"Yes, we did, even though we understand that you want us to do a desk job for now."

Jase said, "Yes, we need somebody to do a quick computer simulation to see if we should kill a particular person or save him because of some future need. Can you do that for us? I'll use this Sharky as an example. Normally, we would just kill him and return his soul to the pool for rebirth, but he might be important for some future event. We need to know that before we act, and we usually don't have time to wait for a study by someone who doesn't appreciate the fact that we are in a hurry. That's why we need you to do the work for us."

Bill said, "Ha! You know my opinion of Sharky, and how I would want to answer. But I understand what you are saying and, yes, I could do an honest analysis of the situation. It seems to me that you would want an in depth analysis which might take days, but would want us to jump back in time to when you asked the question for us to give you the answer. That way, subjectively, it would be an immediate, real time answer."

"Yes, that is exactly what I mean. I understand from Seven that such a series of time jumps would be possible."

Seven nodded her head, "Yes, that would be easy to arrange. I will set up a direct link to the time jump machine for Suzy and Bill so that they won't have to find me to make the connection to you. The fifteens have come up with a communication link that will let you talk to Suzy and Bill at GPD headquarters no matter where/when you might be. By the way, Jase, they have the same sort of thing setup for you and me to communicate directly, too.

"Suzy and Bill are taking an apartment at GPD headquarters similar to mine, so that they won't have to be jumping back and forth. I've made arrangements for them to give up their apartment here on Earth. As far as Earth is concerned, they will have simply disappeared. You know, like they had been abducted by a UFO." This generated a laugh all around.

Jo said, "Seven, before you leave, I have a suggestion for improving the body armor. When we wanted to talk to the juvenile delinquents who were beating Bill, and later when I went to talk to Suzy, we had to turn off our invisibility and show our armor. Please ask M'rth if they can rig our armor with a hologram projector which we can turn on to make us look like whatever we want to at the moment. For example, one setting would make me look like me, another setting would make me look like you, and a third setting would make me look like M'rth, etc. That way, we could be visible without alarming the person we are talking to."

"An excellent idea, Jo. I'll bring it up as soon as I get back to headquarters. Unless there is something else, Bill, Suzy, and I will be returning to GPD now. Bye."

A few moments later, Seven was back with a request, "All of you please come with me and bring your armor. M'rth has your hologram modification ready and wants to fit it on you, now."

Within five minutes, they were standing in M'rth's laboratory and he clipped a small device to their visor. "You should now be able to change your appearance any time you like. Use your internal radio as you do for other commands. The command is 'hologram, ' followed by whatever form you want to project. For example, if you want to look like me, and I'm sure you all do, just say 'hologram, fifteen' and 'hologram, off' to return to your normal appearance. Please give it a try."

Suddenly, the laboratory was full of fifteens, all of whom looked like M'rth. "OK, turn the hologram off, please. You are making me dizzy. To look like yourselves, simply say your name, and to look like any of the other members of your team, simply say 'hologram, ' followed by his or her name. Please give it a try."

It was funny, the way the room filled with multiple images of various members of the team dressed as they might normally be for a trip in public. The images flipped back and forth as the team members tried out various selections; suddenly, the room was filled with images of Seven. She laughed and said, "Now, you're making me dizzy. Please cut them off."

M'rth said, "The image will follow all of your body movements, so your actions will appear to be normal. Now, unless there are questions, I must ask you to excuse me, as I am very busy on another project."

Seven popped them back to Earth and said, "Your hologram generator is programmed with an appropriate image of every sentient being in the galaxy. The command 'hologram, help' will list them for you, with a small picture, on your visor. I, too, must excuse myself. Goodbye."

The members of the team spent some time playing with the hologram images until they tired of the game. Judy said, "There are some, there, that I hope I never have to meet or to impersonate! Whew, what variety there is in the universe."

They went to their rooms to take off the armor and then met in the pool for another round of grab-ass. For some reason, they never seemed to tire of this game.

Finally, the big day came to go to court to finalize the adoption of Shirley. The whole team went; even Jeff and Ann took time off from school to attend. They whizzed through the formalities and everybody congratulated Shirley Stewart on her new name! They went out to lunch to celebrate, and the celebration lasted well into the afternoon. Eventually, they took pity on the restaurant staff and left, after leaving a big tip.

The next stop was at the bank to add Shirley's name to the account, but the bank was closed by then, so that had to put that off for another day. Shirley was in no hurry, she knew that she was covered. Mary had already been added, so she had no problem.

They went home, and, on the way, Jeff asked, "Why are we wearing clothes? We now always wear our armor wherever we go outside the house, so we can just use the hologram to project the semblance of clothes. We have the memory capacity, so we can even include different outfits. I, for one, am never wearing clothes again!"

They all thought that this was a great idea and agreed to follow it. Jase commented, "Jeff is absolutely right. If we wanted to stop a crime right now, we would have to get rid of these clothes or risk getting ourselves or them damaged. I like the idea better and better, the more I think about it. Imagine trying to find 8 phone booths so we could make like Superman or Underdog!"

When they got home and stripped, Jase said, "I think it's time for a team meeting to decide what to do about Sharky and his loan sharking. I'd like to close him down tonight, if we can find him at the tavern."

Judy said, "I still look like I'm over 25; let me talk to him like I'm a new customer. That way, we should be able to pinpoint exactly who in the organization we need to eliminate and who will just fall by the wayside without Sharky to carry them along."

"That's a good plan. Anybody want to elaborate on it?"

Jeff said, "I think that we should all go, in case this turns into a big deal. Some of us can go as tavern customers and some can be invisible."

Pedro offered, "I have an alternate suggestion. Suppose Jo and I go as a couple who want to open a coffee shop, but we can't get backing from a bank. That will be a big sum of money and may force Sharky to reveal if he has some financial backers. We could ask for $125,000. That should raise some eyebrows and force Sharky to extend himself. If he turns us down, we can drop back to Judy's offer."

Murmurs of approval arose immediately, and Jase said, "OK, that's what we'll try first. Shirley, Mary, and Jeff should be the invisible ones. The rest of us will start drifting in about 8:30, looking like ordinary people. Until then, let's relax in the pool."