Time Agency (22 page)
Authors: Aaron Frale
The maid came back with a box. The four-post bed curtains were drawn, and the coughing had not subsided. The maid set the box on her vanity. “I brought the box for you,” the maid politely said. “Do you wish me to draw the curtains?”
“I'm quite capable of doing that on my own,” Nanette croaked from behind the curtains. The lady of the house was always performing tasks on her own. It was a wonder why she had any servants at all. She was fiercely independent, and all the servants knew to stay out of her way. Her independence still didn't prevent them from asking, to which they always received a trenchant response. It was best to stay out of the lady's way. The maid intended to do so now.
Nanette climbed out of bed. She was past the age of being unidentifiable as young or old. She was wrinkled and worn. The illness and life had sapped her existence. She could barely walk to the vanity. She was weak and unable to move. Her bones ached, and her body was failing. She didn't have a lot of time. It would not be long before age took her. She was looking forward to death. She had lived so long that she felt as if she had experienced everything. The one experience she never had was death.
Death would not be taking her today. “Is the door locked?” she asked the maid.
“Yes, lady but...” The maid double checked the lock.
“Remember when I swore you to secrecy?”
“Yes, lady.”
“You have done admirably. You will need to be silent again. You will be tempted to attribute what you are about to see as the work of God or the devil, but I assure you that it is very much the work of humans. You may not understand, and may never understand it. But it's imperative that you tell no one.”
“I will tell no one. But if I may ask...why?”
“The survival of the human species depends on it.”
The maid looked at the lady with incredulous eyes. Her disbelief will be short-lived. Nanette creaked open the dusty box. It had been buried for years. It was quantum locked to her DNA, so the maid or anyone who might have found it would never know what was in it. Inside the box were her suit and a syringe. She stripped her nightgown off, and the maid helped her put on the suit. Nanette at least learned to get help dressing when she was too weak to do it on her own. The maid was obviously very shocked by the manliness of the clothing, smoothness of the fabric, and the fashion differences.
Whatever opinion the maid had on the clothing, she smartly kept it to herself. It was simply a matter of accepting that her employer was peculiar. And these clothes were just one facet of a peculiar personality. The maid had seen much when Nanette first arrived. She saw Nanette using her nanomachines to cure a lame horse. The maid witnessed two time agents appearing from the future, who somehow tracked the use of nanotechnology out of the proper time period. The maid watched in fear at what looked like a battle of mystical and magical powers. Technology looked like magic for those that didn't understand the science. Her maid must have thought Nanette was a sorceress. It was a myth Nanette didn't attempt to dispute.
After she was fully dressed, Nanette looked at herself in the mirror. She had lost so much weight from the illness. The suit hung on her. If she had her nanomachines, they would adjust the fabric to be a perfect fit. Unlike in the past, people only had a few sets of clothing from Nanette’s time. Nanomachines could change the very fabric and nature of the clothes. A shirt could be a jacket with pure thought. People also didn't grow old or get sick. So an old lady with a draping suit was a sight.
She reached into the box once more and pulled out the syringe. It was full of nanomachines. She had realized after curing the horse that the conspiracy from the future could track nanomachine use during any era. She would not be safe so long as she still had nanomachines, so she took them out and put them into this syringe. Her clothes and a couple of pocket items were the only things from her time left. She buried the artifacts as deep as she could. Only Nanette and the maid knew the location. Once the withdrawal symptoms kicked in, her maid nursed Nanette back to health.
She buried everything because she knew there would be more time agents, and she needed to disappear completely. When time agents arrived, they scanned the area and even scanned her, but without nanomachines in her body, she was indistinguishable from a normal nanomachineless human. If the conspirators bothered to pass around a photograph rather than her quantum signature from the nanomachines, they would have spotted her, so she lived out a normal life to hide from them. After years of looking, the time agency must have concluded that she was no longer in this time period. She was tempted just to live out her life, but she knew humanity needed saving. Hiding time was over. It was time for action. Maybe she could grow old again when she finished her task. She would make fewer mistakes the second time around. She injected the syringe into her neck.
The maid gasped as Nanette's body began to change. It was small at first as the nanomachines had to replicate themselves. Her skin cleared the liver spots, and it began to tighten on her bones. Her breasts began to rise. The color returned to her hair. The atrophied muscles filled out. She was getting younger before the maid's eyes. The maid stumbled backward.
Within a matter of minutes, Nanette was restored to her ageless self. She was neither young nor old again. While her mind still maintained the memory of growing old, her body had no trace of it. Her body grew into the draping suit and filled the suit to where it was a perfect fit. She was completely restored to youth. She understood why people would never turn off their machines and usually incinerated themselves if they wanted to die. Growing old sucked. She felt better than she could remember. The shock on the maid's face could not be contained. The maid began to sign the cross when Nanette stopped her.
“This is the work of humans. Not of God. There will be some men and women coming by to look for me. For your own safety, tell them nothing.”
The maid could do nothing but nod. The transformation was too much. To top it off, Roman and Jerry appeared in the room. Jerry was back in his agency suit. He was well-dressed and pretty sexy. She would have to take advantage of his youth later.
“My lord...” the maid said shocked.
“Yes, it's me. Are you ready my dear?” Jerry said.
“We will only get one shot at this,” Roman added.
“Mr. Bingley?” The maid curtsied toward Roman out of habit.
“Remember, not a word,” Nanette told her maid. “And why did you pick such a stupid name?”
“What? It's funny,” Roman said.
“We should go,” Jerry said urgently.
“Then shall we?” Nanette proffered her arm to both of her boys. They accepted her offer and locked their arms around her. Within a split second, they were gone. There was no trace of anyone in the room except a shocked maid.
Thank you for reading.
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