Chapter 29

Jane and Susan waited calmly in the comfortable waiting room at the White House, they had several small packages with them, Velvet lined cases. One contained a crystal ring, the second contained a small cube with an attached lamp and the third a slightly larger cube accompanied by six crystals decorating a tennis sweat band. The objects, while odd, had been thoroughly tested by the Secret Service and contained no trace of explosives or drugs. The cases had been completely disassembled and checked. No danger could come to the President in physical form from the objects. Unless they were thrown at him. A Secret Service agent would be on hand to insure that didn't happen.

The Secretary of Education had met with the two women, who were now conservatively dressed.

"This is a most unusual request. If it weren't for your outstanding credentials, I could not have obtained you the time you asked for. As it is, the President has granted you twenty minutes to state your case, if he feels it worthy he has the option of granting you the full hour you asked for." he said.

"We asked for an hour and a half, Mr. Secretary." Jane said.

"Just the same. This is the best I could do. Perhaps I could arrange more if you would tell me what this is all about." he said.

"No, Mr. Secretary. An hour will be sufficient. Our message is for the President only." Susan replied.

"Well, suit yourselves. That's the best I can do under the circumstances then." he said.

"Thank you, Mr. Secretary, that will suffice." Jane said, by way of dismissal.

The Secretary did not like that at all. He was tempted to call off the meeting. But ... These women did represent the two single most prestigious Universities in the world.

Jane and Susan waited.

Eventually an aide came by and ushered them into the oval office, (re-) announcing them to the President.

President John Foster was from the Texas school of Politics. He didn't beat around the bush -unless it was to his advantage. He was tall and broad and handsome. He was also used to being right. He had the political clout to back himself up. He was, without question the most powerful man in the world. He looked like he'd aged ten years in the past one.

"Dr. Cowan, Dr. Rowe. It is seldom that I have the pleasure of entertaining two such attractive and talented people in my office. I am very pleased to meet both of you." said the President, offering his hand first to Jane, as elder of the two.

He was thinking that the reports might be in error. These women did not look the ages listed in the files. The hardly seemed to be thirty.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. President, Thank you for meeting with us." Jane said, shaking hands.

He shook Susan's hand, fighting the urge to linger.

"Please, be seated. Perhaps a cup of coffee or something?" he asked.

"No, thank you, Mr. President, as our time is short I think we should get straight to the point of our visit." Jane said.

"Certainly, what can I do for you two ladies? I'm afraid we're a bit short on finances these days." said the President, smoothly.

Susan chuckled.

"If you've read the files on us, which I'm certain you have, then you know that neither of our organizations is in need of money. Rather, I think it is a question of what we can do for you, Mr. President" she said.

"Oh, how's that?" her asked.

The women didn't seem to notice him not using their titles. They had, but they'd expected it.

"We bring you three presents, Mr. President. One, will affect the entire field of education from now on. The second will solve your energy crisis that you have encountered since the death of the nuclear power plants and the third may well change the world of diplomacy." Jane said.

"That's quite a claim to be coming out of two such young ladies as yourselves." chuckled the President.

"We may appear young, Mr. President, but together we represent the two most prestigious University's on earth -responsible for development of the highest technology available today- and you know it. So you can either take us seriously, or we can and will take our technology elsewhere." Jane said, easily.

The President seemed taken back. These women were threatening him. They were confident and serious. He didn't doubt that they could back it up.

"My apologies. Miss Cowan." he said.

"It's Doctor Cowan, and this is Doctor Rowe." Jane replied.

"Yes, of course, Doctors." he said, not liking it a bit.

"If I may continue, Mr. President?" Jane asked.

"Yes please, Doctor Cowan, continue." he said, gritting his teeth.

Jane brought out the small cube. The Secret Service agent in the room watching her like a hawk.

"This cube, Mr. President, represents the end of the energy crisis. Through a technology, which we are not about to reveal, it would provide enough energy to run a typical household indefinitely, that includes electric heat in an Arctic environment. We have larger cubes that will provide the equivalent output of the non-functional nuclear power plants. This is just a small sample." Jane said.

The President looked at her disbelieving, trying to digest what she was saying.

"Are you serious, Doctor?" he asked, simply.

"If I may, Mr. President?" Jane asked.

"If you may what?" he asked, dropping the title.

"If I may demonstrate it, Mr. President. I don't wish to appear a threat to you. With your permission I will switch on a very bright light. That light will burn indefinitely, giving you adequate time to have your experts evaluate it." Jane said.

He looked up at the Secret Service agent.

"Have these object been checked out?" he asked.

"Yes, Mr. President. They have. We found no evidence they were anything but a very tough glass." the agent replied.

"Tough indeed, they could be used to drill holes in diamonds. Mr. President." Susan chuckled.

"Alright, continue with your demonstration, Dr. Cowan." the President said, smugly.

Jane smiled and touched the cube. The room was filled with brilliant white light. The President and Secret Service agent gasped, covering their eyes.

"If you would care to call someone to take this away then it might be more comfortable for us all, Mr. President." Jane said, easily.

The president reached out and touched something on his desk, an aide appeared seconds later. He came into the room and gasped, covering his eyes.

"Yes, Mr. President?' he asked, shielding his eyes.

"Take this thing out of here. Keep it safe until I direct what to do with it. Do not damage it." the President replied.

Jane handed it's case to the aid.

"Be careful that you do not touch anything but the case, you could get a fatal electric shock from it." she said.

The aid just nodded and carted the light out of the room, shielding his eyes.

"Well, that certainly was a profound demonstration, Doctor." said the President, half angry.

"Forgive me, Mr. President. I was looking for a profound demonstration to indicate the seriousness of my offer." Jane said.

"Yes, well, time will tell about that. We will of course verify your claims, Dr. Cowan." the President said.

"I fully expected you would, Mr. President. If they will tap energy off the wires leading to the lamp, then they will be able to verify the load I mentioned. They can butt larger wires to the metal areas on either side of the cube for higher currents." Jane said.

"Alright, Dr. Cowan. Assuming that the tests verify your claims, what's it going to cost us?" the President asked, eyeing their other packages, warily.

"You -the government- nothing, Mr. President. The utilities, ten percent of what they would charge for the power to be distributed between our two Universities." Jane said.

"That's a lot of money, Dr. Cowan." he said.

Jane chuckled.

"Not hardly, Mr. President. They have no overhead. No cost of producing the power. We could simply start our own utilities if we wished to charge the full amount ourselves. In fact we could easily sell our power for half what the utilities do and drive them out of business. Given the resources, in time we could market cubes that size directly to the home owners and totally bypass the utilities. But we do not wish to do that. We do not believe in usury. We will contribute the cubes to the utilities for their usage, in exchange for agreements of ten percent of the expected consumer cost, based upon what they were charging when the Nuclear materials all went dead." Jane said.

The President hardly flinched, but heard the exact verbiage. These women knew that the nuclear arsenals were also inert. The recordings of the session would be studied for months to come.

"Alright. we'll make our tests. Shall we continue, Doctor?" he said.

"Certainly. Mr. President. Susan, if you would." Jane said.

Susan took the case with the glass ring in it and opened it.

"To prove to you, Mr. President, that this ring works differently than that cube, I will first place it upon my finger, You may have your secret service agent try it on too if you'd like." Susan said, slipping the ring onto her finger. It was too large, but did her no damage.

The Secret Service agent stepped up and the President nodded to him. The agent took the ring from Susan and slipped it onto his finger. Nothing happened.

The President reached out his hand and the agent placed the ring into it, but stayed near by.

The President examined the ring. It seemed to be a simple, clear glass ring. He slid it onto his ring finger of his right hand. It seemed to fit perfectly.

"Very nice. Anything significant about it, Dr. Rowe?" he asked.

"Yes, Mr. President. If you will simply think a question at it. Pick a history question, or something like the population of a city or the preamble of the constitution." Susan replied.

The President seemed dubious, but found a question and addressed it to the ring.

Suddenly he got a very shocked look on his face as the answer appeared in his mind.

"Jesus! " he said, pulling the ring off.

The Secret Service agent was suddenly by his side.

"No, it's alright." the President said, "I was just startled ... damn answer just popped into my mind like it spoke to me."

He held the ring shakily in his hand and then slid it back on. Again he seem surprised, but not as shocked.

"This is incredible!" he gasped.

"Quite so, Mr. President. If you accept our offers, that is a gift for you. For you personally. You may find it useful, we stocked it with the congressional record. In addition to anything else we could think of. You may wish scholars of your choice to verify the accuracy of the information." Susan said.

"What? The entire congressional record?" he asked.

Susan chuckled and nodded.

"Yes, Mr. President. Not up to the library of Congress yet, but certainly equivalent to a large public library." she added.

The President sat looking at the ring for a moment. Then chuckled.

"I just asked it if I would be re-elected and it said: Insufficient information." he said.

"The ring can answer specific requests for recorded information it contains. But it will not speculate about the future, Mr. President..." Susan informed him.

He chuckled and pulled the ring off, putting it back into it's case, almost reluctantly.

"Most incredible. Yes, it would certainly influence both education and diplomacy, Doctors." he said.

"Mr. President, that is not the diplomatic tool we were referring to, however it would be useful for that application. We have one other item to show you. I think you will find it the most profound of the lot." Susan said.

"I find that hard to believe, Doctor, but what is the item?" he asked.

"First, Mr. President. We requested an hour and a half of your time. The twenty minutes you allotted to us are almost up. The demonstration of the third item will take one further hour of your time. But I can guarantee you that you will find the hour most rewarding and even quite pleasurable." Susan said.

"Certainly, you've earned it, Dr. Rowe." he said.

"We are not to be disturbed until further notice." he said, pushing a button.

"Yes, Mr. President." a voice answered.

"Please, continue, Dr. Rowe." he said.

Susan took out the larger cube and placed it upon the desk. Then took the headband and handed it to him.

"What do I do with this?" he asked.

"It goes on your head, Mr. President. But first I would like you to carefully note the time. Your Secret Service agent can watch us that we do not fool with it." Susan said.

The president noted his clock.

"Do I have to wear this? What does it do, Dr. Rowe?" he asked.

"Yes, you must wear it. It is a communications link with this cube. When you put it on, just think yourself at the cube. Mr. President." Susan replied.

"Are you joking? This a communications link?" he asked, chuckling.

"Mr. President. Between the two of us we have five Ph.D.'s and an MD. They were honestly earned before either of us got into a position of authority at our Universities, we decline any honorary Ph.D.'s. All of our degrees are in science related fields. We are not into mysticism or crystal worship. You have just witnessed two demonstrations that are inexplicable by science known to other Universities. That is a communications link. If you will give it the opportunity." Susan replied.

"Alright, I'll try it." he said, slipping the headband on.

He looked at the cube. Then he seemed to just stare at it, blinking from time to time.

The President suddenly found himself standing on a deck of a house, in Malaya.

Susan and Jane were wearing bikini's laying on reclined chases, sipping Ice teas.

The President looked around with his mouth open.

"Mr. President. How nice of you to join us, we've been waiting for you for some time now. If you will just look at this clock and wait a few minutes then we can get down to an enjoyable chat and vacation for you." Susan said.

"I don't understand. I was sitting in the Oval office just a moment ago." he said.

"You are still sitting in the Oval Office, Mr. President. Your mind is now experiencing the artificial environment within the cube. The reason I mention the clock, is that time passes much more slowly in here. For an hour outside, you can spend a month in here. If you will wait a few minutes you can return to your office and verify that no -or very little- time has elapsed on your office clock. Once you have done that, then we can talk at our leisure." Susan replied.

"A month to an hour?" he asked.

Susan nodded, Sipping her tea.

"Would you like a drink? We have most anything you'd care for." She asked.

He just looked around a bit, then sat down, bewildered.

"I assure you that this is real, Mr. President. We haven't teleported you anywhere, you are not under the influence of any drugs." Jane chuckled.

The President looked at the two of them then looked around his surroundings some more. He got up and sort of felt his arm with his other hand, then his legs. As if taking inventory.

"How do I get back to my office?" he asked.

"I guess it's been a long enough time for you to compare with, Mr. President. If you will note, several minutes have passed by on this clock here. I'd rather keep you a day for example, but I can see you are nervous. So blink your eyes three times in quick procession and say good-bye." Susan said.

He did so and vanished.

He blinked and he was back in his office, staring at the cube. He shifted his gaze immediately to his clock, starring at it. It hadn't moved a more than a second or two.

"Welcome back, Mr. President. We'd take those coffee's now if the offer still stands while you take your hour." Susan said.

"I don't understand, how can you be sitting here and in there?" he asked.

"They will explain the whole thing in there, Mr. President, if you will give them the hour out here." Jane said.

He looked at them a moment.

"Certainly. Get them some coffee, do not disturb me for one hour." he told the baffled. Secret Service agent.

He looked at the cube again and his focus softened.

"Welcome back, Mr. President." Jane said, wearing an evening gown.

It was night. The stars overhead matched the Southern hemisphere.

"I don't understand. It was daytime and you both had bikini's on." he said.

"Time dialation, Mr. President. And thank you for noticing our bikini's, I'm flattered. Will you join us for dinner and we can answer all your questions." Susan said.

He nodded mutely and Susan took his arm and led him inside. It was not the same environment inside. They were suddenly in a rooftop restaurant overlooking the New York skyline. The room was empty of diners save them. A steward showed them to the table. There was a chamber orchestra playing quietly. Nothing had been heard outside. The President walked as in a dream to the table.

The steward seated them and passed them their menu's Including a wine list.

"If you would be so good as to pick the Wine, Mr. President." Jane asked.

He seemed to shake his head.

He looked at the list.

"What are we having?" he asked.

"Anything on your menu, pick based upon your choice." Susan replied.

He glanced at the menu for a bit, then a bit more. Then picked a Gamay from the list.

"A meat and potato's man." Jane chuckled.

The President looked at her and smiled for the first time.

"I'm from Texas, Doctor. Did you expect less." he asked.

"No, and please, call me Jane. We're a bit informal in the cube. " she said.

"Okay, Jane. Call me John. Now how the hell is this done?" he asked.

"All in good time. Enjoy your meal first, John." Jane said.

"Okay, but they will shake me or take the band off my head in one hour." he said.

"So we have a month. John. And please call me Susan." Susan said.

He looked at her a moment.

"Have you decided, Mr. President?" the waiter asked, with a French accent.

"Oui. I'll have the Fillet Minion, medium rare, baked potato with sour creme and the baby carrots. Small dinner salad, French dressing." he said, in French, testing the waiter.

The waiter replied in French: "Very good, Mr. President."

He turned to the women and they both ordered in fluent French. The waiter went away.

The wine steward came out and proffered the bottle of wine, showing the label. The President nodded. The Steward opened the bottle and handed him the cork for examination pouring a small amount in his glass. He looked at the cork carefully and then tasted the wine properly. A smile spread on his face and he nodded to the steward who poured just over half a glass for everyone.

"Glad to see you know your wines, John." Jane said, sipping the wine.

"Will it affect me?" he asked.

"You wouldn't have a hangover out there, but you can get drunk in here if you drink too much." Susan replied, trying her wine.

Their salads arrived and the President busied himself with his. It was good. They had just completed them when the dinner arrived. It was perfect.

"Alright. You've proved how real it all can be. How is it done?" the President asked, between bites.

"My, so impatient. Alright. The cubes are resonant to mental ingrams, the things that make up your thought processes. You are visiting this cube. We two are permanent residents. The cube is to be yours as a gift from us. We hope to use it to educate you as to what we are capable of. Because of the time differential between the outside world and in here, you can spend a month in here for one hour a day outside, or over two weeks in half an hour. This gives us time to explain things to you while supplying you with a little vacation each day. We could easily spend the next couple of years in here -not quite a month of one hour sessions outside- telling you all about the technology we have developed. There are some very stunning aspects of this technology, as you are about to discover as our other guests have just arrived." Jane said, nodding toward the door.

The President looked over and Susan and Jane strolled in, wearing the outfits they had on in his office. The President looked back and forth between the table and the approaching women, his mouth hanging open, food and all.

"Please, Mr. President. Close your mouth, that looks dreadful." the first Susan said.

The President closed his mouth, but continued to stare.

The two women split and kissed Jane and Susan on the cheek in greeting, then themselves. They seated at the table and the waiter brought them pre-ordered meals.

Outside the women sipped at their coffee, seeming to ignore the President who sat looking at the cube, blinking a bit now and then.

"As I was explaining, John. We are duplicates of these two lovely ladies who are sitting in your office with you at this moment. As such, we will be here whenever you choose to visit us. Don't worry if you miss a few days, we can keep each other well amused. There is lots to do in the cube. You have witnessed but two of the many environments. You can go snow or water skiing, you can play golf. You can go horseback riding through the mountains in summer or stroll down the lane in Paris in springtime. If you have a favorite place on earth, just tell these lovely ladies about it and it will be provided for you." Jane -I- said.

The President was looking back and forth between the women, comparing them. He hadn't taken another bite of his excellent steak.

"He doesn't say much." Susan -II- said, chuckling.

"Give him time, he's still in shock." Susan -I- replied.

The women went on with their meal.

"Alright. You look real enough." John said.

"I'm sorry, was there a question there?" Jane -I- asked.

The President shook his head, as if to clear it. He tried going back to his meal.

"So what do you want?" he asked, a bit later.

"Want? What we want is to have the opportunity to present our technology to you at a rate you can digest it. We've had these technologies -some of them- for years. What we mainly want is your assurance that we will be left alone. There are people who would do us harm to obtain or prevent our technology from reaching the public. That's why we are giving the power cubes to the utilities. If we tried to market them ourselves ... well, there is just too much money at stake for them. Our lives would be in danger. We wish to gradually introduce our technology to the world. We won't introduce it to just the United States. We won't introduce it just to the Western block. We will introduce it to the entire world, and only the entire world. We are making similar offers to all government of the world." Jane -I- said.

"Yes, I can see you would be in danger. I can see you point. I also think I see your reasoning behind wanting to expose the whole world to it. But I don't understand you giving this technology away. It's worth literally trillions." John said.

"True, but where would those trillions come from? And who would get them? You see, we don't need even billions, and a small country like, say Uganda for instance, couldn't afford billions. So the technology would end up in the places that need it least. The nations that are already prosperous. With our technology we can irrigate the deserts of the world. We can bring cheap energy to fuel poor countries. We can stop the rape of the rain forests by providing alternative economies to the people of those countries, we can easily populate frigid climates, eliminate global warming by eliminating the need for fossil fuels and left alone, we can develop the technologies to carry us to the stars, no joke." Susan -I- said.

"So what is to keep us from just waltzing in and taking these technologies?" Asked the President, pushing his plate away.

"Why, I guess it would look like nothing on the surface, but we have had these and other technologies for years. We are fully cognizant of how to use them. We have a projector but three-quarters of an inch square. It can project a totally different environment than you are in. It will look totally real. What if your troops suddenly find themselves out in the middle of the Mojave desert, what do they shoot at? What if a thousand pound block that will ricochet a tank round suddenly comes out and starts sitting on them a group at a time. But this is precisely what we wish to avoid. We don't want war. Didn't the loss of your nuclear weapons teach you anything? There is now the opportunity for world peace. It will come no matter what you decide to do." Susan -II- said.

"You're asking us to let the world become slaves to the whims of a bunch of women." the President said.

"Whims? An interesting concept. One of our scientists, a medical researcher by the name of Dr. Cindy Townsend, has cured cancer and stopped AIDS in it's tracks. I'd hardly call that a whim.

"As far as slavery is concerned, we are diametrically opposed to any kind of suffrage. Putting this technology into the hands of any single government would lead directly to a shift in the balance of power to that nation. We don't want that. We want to share our technology with everybody.

"We will retain control of that technology, because it can be very dangerous. The governments of the world today -and in the past- have proven themselves unworthy of any serious shift in technology. Every single time it has led to subjugation and war. We will not tolerate that." Susan -I- said.

"You are putting yourselves above the governments of the world. You really think yourselves qualified?" asked the President.

"Quite frankly, Yes. But are we putting ourselves above the governments? If the United States alone had developed this technology, it would be secreted away and developed as weaponry. One thing we will never be involved in is the development of weaponry. We are openly and freely offering to share this technology with the governments and the people of the whole planet. What would you do in the same situation?" Jane -II- asked.

The President was quiet for a moment. Thinking.

"You said travel to the stars, is that really possible?" he asked.

"Yes, quite possible. We have an inertialess or reactionless thruster. That may not mean much to you, but quite simply it holds the key to gravity control. We don't have to launch a massive rocket to put a person on the moon. We can simply float up at any speed we wish. Once we are out of the atmosphere, we can accelerate at thirty gravities toward the moon and then decelerate at the same rate when we get there. There are no rockets involved. Our first such vehicle is almost complete. We were to introduce this to you gradually, but you seem very anxious for answers right now." Susan -II- said.

"Thirty gravities! You'd be dead in moments!" he said, once a pilot in the military.

"Nope. The ship accelerates at that velocity, but the inside will perfectly cancel the acceleration or better yet, maintain a one gravity environment inside. No more problems with living in space. No long term effects because it is the same as living on earth. We could put a one-gravity shelter on the lunar surface. Anywhere inside would be one gravity, outside, one-sixth gravity." Susan -I- replied.

"I don't see how this could be possible, even given the wonders you've shown me today. I think it's a bunch of bullshit." he said.

"Think what you will. You are sitting in a restaurant in New York, outside that door is the Island of Panang in Malaya. You watched a one inch square cube light up a three hundred watt light bulb. It's still burning. There are a dozen people gathered around it in fascination. How could a one inch cube supply a constant three hundred watts? And it will supply much more than that. That cube will supply a constant twenty-kilowatts. And it's AC power. One hundred and twenty volts at sixty cycles. Just like it was hooked to a generator. It will supply that energy indefinitely. Are you going to deny that we can do other wonders if we wish?" Jane -II- said.

"I think, that this has gone far enough, and that you are all guilty of treason." said the president blinking three times "Good-bye." he said.

He was focused on the cube. He looked up instantly and said: "These women are under arrest for treason."

It never happened. Suddenly both men in the office were in the middle of the biggest orgasms they had ever experienced.

Jane and Susan calmly got up. They lifted the headband off the President's forehead.

"You fucked up, big time." Jane said simply, to the convulsing form of the President.

Susan picked up the cube and the ring and they left. Walking casually out of the office. Anybody that tried to stop them failed. Laying on the floor jerking in ecstasy.

They left the power cube.