Taking Krysty’s hand and raising it to kiss, Jamaisvous paused after his lips brushed the redhead’s warm skin, and recited, “‘All that is in you is voluptuous and light-sweet, gentle, caressing and tender. And your moral world owes its enchantment to the sweet influence of your external world.'”
“Is that verse?” Doc asked, his eyes lighting up.
Jamaisvous lowered Krysty’s hand and nodded at Tanner. “Indeed.”
“How quaint to be greeted in such a fashion, with soothing words instead of bullets. I must confess, as well-read as I am, I do not recognize the poet. Might you enlighten me as to his name?”
“He’s a local-was a local. Jose Gautier Benitez. Died back in 1880. Before my time, but some of his work can be found here in the library. I’ve tried to immerse myself in the culture and history as best I could. It pays to know your neighbors.”
“Doc can’t resist a good chunk of verse,” Krysty said with a grin.
“So many doctors among you? Your people come equipped with many blessings,” Jamaisvous said, and then paused. “Doc Tanner, you say?”
“Dr. Theophilus Algernon Tanner at your service,” Doc replied with a slight bow.
“It can’t be,” Jamaisvous said, his tone now dumbfounded and his face a slack mask of shock.
Doc almost chuckled. “Oh, but I assure you, sir, I am who I am…I think. Truth be told, there are many days I have my doubts as well.”
The man in the white lab coat stepped closer, waving back his watchmen, and approached Doc, looking him over from head to toe.
“Christ, Dr. Tanner, what in the hell happened to you?” he finally asked.
“A lifetime of tragedies, I am afraid. Which one are you referring to?” Doc replied, slightly puzzled by the line of questioning.
“I’ve read of you,” Jamaisvous said, pressing on, not hearing Tanner’s words. “In the old redoubt computer database records on time trawling. I studied your case from your arrival in prenuclear conflict 1998 until the year 2000, when you were sent ahead as a final part of the experiment. But there was nothing about such severe deterioration on your trawl forward into the future-our present day. And from what I read, I don’t think you’ve been here long enough to have aged so drastically, have you?”
“I have not,” Doc replied succinctly. “My current appearance is an unfortunate side effect courtesy of the destructive currents of the time-trawling process. Why it did not occur the first time I was swept away is a mystery to me.”
Their newly appointed host exhaled a long sigh. “Well, damnation,” he said. “This buggers all of my research.”
“Research?” Mildred asked, speaking for the first time since leaving the gateway chamber.
“Yes, Dr….Wyeth, was it? Research. I’ve spent the last two years rebuilding and experimenting with the mat-trans chamber behind you.” Jamaisvous gestured floridly at the huge room that housed the gateway, a full computer lab with multiple stations and units, a small reception lounge and other odds and ends in the high-ceilinged, yet cluttered area.
“What kind of experiments?” Ryan asked suspi- ciously, eyeballing the elegant gray-haired man standing next to Doc. Already, Ryan was unhappy with Jamaisvous and his seemingly lackadaisical attitude at having armed strangers pop up in what appeared to be his own private mat-trans unit.
“Why, time-trawling experiments, my friends. Your Doc Tanner and I share something in common regarding our places in this dark future world-neither of us are supposed to be here,”
“You were trawled?” Doc asked in disbelief.
“No,” Jamaisvous replied quickly. “I was a corpse-side. Cryo sleep.”
Mildred was about to speak up with a pithy “That makes two of us,” but a warning look from J.B. stilled her planned quip. Apparently the Armorer thought that piece of information should remain private, at least for now.
Unfortunately no such exchange of looks occurred with Doc, who, swept up in his excitement over meeting Jamaisvous, blurted out the fact Mildred was also a refugee from the world previous to skydark.
“So, two of my visitors are even more special than I imagined,” Jamaisvous said thoughtfully. He snapped his fingers and gave a dismissive gesture to the twin guards. “Garcia! Lopez! You may depart. I have nothing to fear from these men and women.”