The Predecessors 

They were chosen as subjects for this, the riskiest experiment ever undertaken, because they were considered the dregs of society; they had been diagnosed with mental illness. It would be seen as no big loss if they did not survive.

The subjects, Julia, John, Belinda and Samuel, agreed to participate because their lives were already as bad as they could get. They had no fears, not even of death. Especially of death.

Dr. Frankel, the project chair, observed the four subjects through the two-way mirror/window. He had picked them from the outpatients who attended a mental health rehab center, making sure that they all knew and got along with each other. If anything went wrong, which it probably would, they would need to be able to comfort and support each other.

Dr. Frankel smiled as he entered the room. "You have been chosen for a very exciting but risky project. The project's goal is to prove, once and for all, that there is an alternate universe. We're not sure how we did it but, as you already know, we've stumbled on the technology that we think can transport you to that universe."

There was no response from the tense subjects. Dr. Frankel went on, "The alternate universe is identical to our own, except that there will be one thing that is different --"

"Oh, I know," Samuel said. "I'll meet the bad me there."

"Or maybe you're the bad one, and you'll meet the good you there," Dr. Frankel said. Three of the subjects laughed and, a second later, John forced a chuckle of his own.

The project chair went on. "We don't know how the lines are drawn. It could be 'good vs. bad'. But it could be 'smart vs. dumb' or 'monogamous vs. polygamous', for all we know. Whatever the difference is, you will meet your counterpart --."

Julia and Samuel's eyes lit up.

" -- I will give you recorders, and I expect detailed reports when you get back." Samuel and Belinda groaned. "I'll help you," Julia said.

"When do we get back?" Belinda asked.

"In one week."

The four subjects entered the just-built transport chamber and followed the instructions. Everything went black.

Julia was the first to wake up, maybe because she had been given smaller doses of the transport drugs than the others had been given. Repeated bouts with anorexia had made her too slim to tolerate high doses of drugs.

She stretched, yawned, and opened her eyes. The same chamber, the same machine sounds, even the same smell as before transport. She sat up. The others were still asleep. No, John's eyes were open. He lay quite still, though.

Julia was not worried, because she knew that John's first-stage response to stress was catatonia. She went over to him and smiled. "Hi, John. We made it!" John, of course, could not respond yet. Then Julia noticed that Samuel was awake.

When Julia looked at John again, he was sitting up. He was a powerful, six-foot-tall, 45-year-old man with a mind that was still pre-pubertal. Julia liked him for his childlike simplicity and sincerity.

Belinda woke up and said, "So, how many times did you white trash do it while we were asleep?" John made no perceptible response. Julia just smiled. She knew that Belinda's first-stage response to stress was to lash out irrationally at the people she liked the most.

The door opened. All four of them tensed up, although John's tension was no more visible than it had been earlier.

The man who came in smiled and shook their hands. "Hi! Welcome, welcome! I'm Dr. H, or you can call me Henry. C'mon, let's go eat!"

"Are you hungry?" Julia asked John.

"It's rolling around in my stomach," John said. Julia was still not worried, because she knew that John's second-stage response to stress was to talk in enigmas.

This universe looked the same as the other one. They were in the same lab, with the same cafeteria. People were dressed the same. The food was just as, well, institutional.

"When do we meet our counterparts?" Samuel asked Dr. H.

"We'll meet John's counterpart first."

Everyone looked eager to meet this person but John. John just emitted a soft grunt.

"This is Gary," Henry said. Gary looked a great deal like John but was not quite his spitting image. The two counterparts stood and looked at each other in total silence.

Dr. H said that he would be right back and left the five of them standing in a barn that was cleaner than most people's apartments. A quick tour had revealed that the barn contained at least two of just about every kind of mammal in existence.

"What is this, Noah's ark?" Samuel asked.

"It couldn't be, you idiot!" Belinda said, hitting Samuel lightly on the arm. "There's only mammals in here. 

Samuel grinned and returned her love tap. It was obvious to Julia that the two of them were enjoying their freedom from the Rehab Center, where absolutely no physical contact or signs of affection were allowed.

Gary and John were still standing face-to-face. They were still silent, still expressionless. Yet Julia got the distinct impression that they were communicating.

Dr. H rushed back into the room. "Sorry to keep you waiting," he said to just the three of them. "The goal of Gary's team is to establish communication with all the mammals he can."

"What do you mean?" Belinda asked. "Like telepathy?"  

"Telepathy is a good word for it," Dr. H said.

"What have the animals told Gary's team?" Julia asked.

"Quite a bit. It turns out that each species of mammal knows a little bit about nutrition, herbs, and health maintenance. The animals have actually taught us, through the team's telepathic mediation, exactly what to eat and in what amounts."

Belinda guffawed. "You obey animals?" she said.

"Yes, most of us do, because people who stick to the mammals' composite dietary recommendations hardly ever get sick. We live to be almost 200 years old. And besides that, those of us who obey the animals have children who are completely free from hereditary or congenital illnesses."

"Wow!" Samuel said.

"Mental illness is one of the hereditary diseases," Julia said quietly.

"I'm not at liberty to discuss mental illness at this time," Dr. H said.

For about ten minutes, Julia felt sure that Gary’s team and the animals had eradicated mental illness. Then she learned that Gary lived in an adult home just as John did in her own universe. Gary was housed, fed, and cared for, because he couldn't take care of his physical needs on his own. He had no non-psychiatric illness that Julia could see, and he had John's same ultra-shyness. He must have a psychiatric illness.

But, if Gary was that seriously mentally ill, how could he hold such a responsible position? She wished that Dr. H would talk about it.

Gary and John were sitting on the floor, silent, looking into the eyes of a huge tiger. Now Julia knew that there was communication going on. Was Gary teaching John?

Belinda and Samuel were standing a respectful distance away.

"Go join them!"

"You go join them! If the tiger doesn't eat you, maybe I'll come over."

Julia went over to talk to John. In a clear and matter-of-fact way, John explained to her that he would like to spend the rest of the week here, with Gary and the animals. He also said that he would like Julia to visit him every day. Julia promised that she would. She remained calm, but it was difficult to squelch her elation at John's sudden communication breakthrough.         

As the three subjects and Dr. H walked back to Dr. H's car, they passed a woman and a little girl. "What's an intuit?" the girl was asking.

"An intuit -- is a special person. Intuits can do things the rest of us can't do."

"I wanna be an intuit when I grow up," the girl said.

"You can't. You're either born an intuit or not. And you weren't."

"How do you know I wasn't born an intuit?" the girl said.

 "I'm sorry, baby," her mother said. "You just don't have the special skills an intuit has."

"But how do you know?"

"You were tested. Everybody gets tested. I don't have the skills either."

Julia heard this transaction. She asked Dr. H if Gary was an intuit.

"Yes he is," Dr. H said.

Dr. H drove the three of them to the world's top physics research facility. There they met Samuel's counterpart, Samuel. Since the two had the same name, Dr. H decided to call his own universe's Samuel "Sam2".

Sam2 and his team had designed this universe's transport chamber. Samuel and Sam2's conversation became so technical that neither Belinda nor Julia could understand it. Belinda kept listening anyway. Julia turned to Dr. H.

"Sam2 is an intuit."

"Sharp," Dr. H said under his breath.

"Belinda's counterpart will turn out to be an intuit too."

Dr. H said "sharp" with just his eyes this time.

"My counterpart --" Julia's mind clouded over with the confusion that comes before a leap of intuition. "I don't have a counterpart."

Dr. H's eyes told her that she was catching on.

"And why not?" he asked, pushing her mind into even deeper confusion.

Just then, Sam2 said goodbye and left.

"I didn't know you knew physics," Belinda said to Samuel.

"I don't know a thing about physics," Samuel said. "But as soon as we get back, I'm going to start taking the courses."

Uma. That was the name of Belinda's counterpart. She was the world's foremost expert in chemistry and genetics. When Uma and Belinda met, they rushed into each other’s arms like long-lost sisters, although the resemblance between them was not all that strong. Uma could hardly get her story out, Belinda interrupted with so many questions.

Uma had taken chemistry beyond its traditional boundaries. By genetic manipulation using chemicals, Uma and her team had taken most of the hatred and violent urges out of the human body. No one born within the last twenty years had committed a violent crime. At this rate, crime would disappear within 50 years and war would likely disappear as well.

Samuel said to Belinda, "You're going to study chemistry, aren't you?"

"Yep. Same college?" Belinda asked.

"Same college," Samuel said.

"OK," Belinda said, "Let's go. I'm just dying to meet Julia's counterpart. 

Julia thought for a moment. "I don't have a counterpart.

"Why not?" Belinda asked.

Julia looked at Dr. H, who didn't say a word. "Because --" and then she knew the answer. "Because I don't need one."

Belinda rolled her eyes and walked away.

Julia and Dr. H had just finished supper and were seated on a comfortable sofa in a comfortable living room. In the corner, Belinda and Samuel were having their own quiet conversation on another sofa. Julia was sure that John was doing fine with Gary and the animals.

"We were chosen," Julia said, more to herself than to Dr. H, which was good because Dr. H didn’t answer her.

"You picked us. We all have a lot of potential. We're being groomed -- no, that's not the word, because we're acting completely on our own."

Dr. H took another sip of a delicious herbal tea the animals had helped create.

"You were ready and waiting when we arrived. Dr. Frankel's team didn't invent our universe's transport chamber. Sam2's team did. Then you sent somebody over to our universe to get a job in Dr. Frankel's lab and make sure our universe built a chamber too. But why? We could have just used yours."

Dr. H was looking out the window. Actually, the view was pretty good. 

"You didn't want Dr. Frankel to know about you, did you? He was convinced that his team had invented the chamber."

Silence.

"You -- Sam2's team -- spent years, maybe decades, first figuring out that there was an alternate universe, and then inventing and building and testing the transport chamber. Finally you crashed through to our universe, and what did you do? Did you put your heads together with our scientists to develop a plan to explore the two universes? No! Did you try to conquer us? No! To convert us, even? No! You kept the whole thing secret and tricked us into sending four, that's four, of our people, so you could inspire just the four of us to develop our potential."

Julia looked at Dr. H, not expecting an answer any more. But this time she got one. 

"Sharp," Dr. H said.

"You know something about our universe, something about us four. Three of your intuits have special gifts, and three of us have the corresponding gifts, of course, since they're counterparts --"

"Are they?"

"If -- if they're not counterparts, then how do they have the same gifts?"

"How do two people usually have the same gifts?"

"Well, heredity, but --" Julia jumped up and yelled so loud that it broke the concentration of the lovers in the corner.

"You lied! That machine didn't transport us to another universe! It's a time machine!"

"Nobody lied," Dr. H said. "We merely let Dr. Frankel's prophecies fulfill themselves."

Belinda came over and asked what the problem was.

"We're not in an alternate universe!" Julia said. "We've been transported through time."

"To the past?" Samuel asked.

"No, that couldn't be it, because these people are more advanced than we are. We've traveled into the future."

"Holy --" Belinda said.

"Why didn't you tell us what was going on?" Samuel asked.

"OK," Dr. H said. "Sit down and hear me out, right to the end."

They sat down.

"This is the year 2500 A.D.

"As of twenty years ago, this world was a horrible mess: crime, disease, war. And it was getting worse. You don't realize it because you're in the middle of it but, in your time, at the millennium, there was --is-- tremendous optimism. Scientific breakthroughs were being made every day. You were --are-- sure of being able to eventually solve all the world's problems."

Julia nodded agreement.

"Well, that's not what happened. Scientists in each and every discipline hit dead ends. For at least 300 years we weren't able to make a single significant breakthrough. We couldn't get to the root of violence, illness, anything.

"And then we discovered why. We were ignoring the intuits. As soon as a person tested out as an intuit, we would hospitalize or otherwise ignore the individual.

"Until one particular intuit, about fifty years ago, somehow managed to escape our inadvertent oppression. She found another intuit, Gary who, she knew, was able to communicate with animals. She talked him into developing his potential.

"Well, once we started getting the answers to the problems of disease and death through Gary, we opened our eyes and started giving the intuits a little respect. Then more intuits developed their skills, and more problems got solved. You look bored, Samuel and Belinda."

"Why do I want to hear about some friggin' intuits?" Belinda asked.

"Because they're you," Julia said. "'Intuit' is what they call a mentally ill person now."

Belinda looked at Dr. H, her eyes wide. He nodded that Julia was right.

Samuel said, "OK, so why do you need to take four mentally ill people out of the past and tell us about it? Now that you acknowledge mentally ill people's skills, you're solving all your problems."

"No, we're not," Dr. H said. He was looking out the window again.

"See that? That's all there is to the world any more. The total population of the world is no more than 50,000. By the time we started letting the intuits at our problems, it was too late. At least it was too late to save my wife and daughter.

"Almost all of earth has been destroyed by various combinations of thermonuclear and biological weapons. That one third of a continent sprinkled with people out there is our entire world."

Belinda took in a sharp breath. Dr. H went on. "The intuits are almost entirely responsible for building up what's left of the world to be as modern as your world is -- was. Thank your lucky stars you didn't see us twenty years ago!

"When Sam2 invented the time transport chamber, we were practically delirious with joy. We immediately sent 'spies', if you will, to the year 2000 to find the ancestors of as many of the intuits as we could. We were lucky enough to find three such people who all knew each other. Then we subtly influenced Dr. Frankel to transport the three of you, and Julia, to the future to meet your descendents. Do you see why?" 

"Yeah," Samuel said. "If you can get mental -- intuits recognized 450 years earlier, they -- we -- can stop hate and violence in time to prevent the world from being destroyed."

"Right," Dr. H said. "We know that it's not possible to change what's already happened. But we think, or at least we hope, that it's possible to move what's already happened back 450 years."

"OK," Belinda said, "so why the secrecy?" 

"Sure!" Samuel said. "Like Dr. H was going to march right into our millennium world and tell the man, 'Hey! Stop oppressing the mentally ill people, or the world will be destroyed.' The man would have said, 'How do you know?' Dr. H would have said, 'Because I'm from the future.' And the man would have locked Dr. H and all his friends up in a mental hospital for the rest of their lives."

"Well said," Dr. H said.

"Seems to me the same thing is going to happen to us when we tell them we traveled to the future," Belinda said.

"Then don't tell them," Dr. H said. "Just develop your skills. Please!"

"So Sam2 is not your counterpart, Samuel," Julia said. "He's your descendent, Samuel Junior, who happens to look a lot like you."

"And Uma is my great, great, great granddaughter or something. And you?"

"I have no descendents. I can't have children."

"Do you know what you need to do?" Dr. H asked Julia.

Julia thought of John. "Yes, I do," she said.

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