Chapter One
July 14, 1971
The Brady Home.
It was what passed for a normal day in the Brady house. The two older girls, Marcia and Jan were chattering on about their latest crushes while Cindy the youngest rolled her eyes. Greg and Peter were arguing over the phone and Bobby was in the laundry room playing with the new chemistry set he had just gotten for his birthday.
The instructions, for his new set, even said there was a brand-new chemical called Endothermazine. It was followed by a paragraph assuring parents that this new chemical, whose name no one could pronounce, was perfectly safe.
Bobby, however, couldn't care less about the instructions. He was just excited to play with his new bright blue chemical.
He decided to mix it with another chemical. He picked out a clear chemical and poured all of it into the beaker with the Endothermazine. suddenly the solution began to glow an eerie blue light. It also started to churn and bubble more and more violently.
Seconds later there was a massive blast of the blue light. Instantly this was followed by a violent earthquake. That was triggered as some of bobby's residual compound poured into a crack in the ground under the house and exploded. The violent earthquake shook and shook the ground.
Power polls snapped over like tooth picks. Powerlines sparked as they snapped like so much dental floss. The ground itself shuttered and convulsed and cracked.
When the earthquake had finally stopped, the Brady house was nowhere to been seen.
New Los Angeles
July 14, 2478
A young man with brown hair and brown eyes was making his way through the giant cave system underneath New Los Angeles. He paused every so often to check specific geologic formations as he went. His way was illuminated by three free-floating light pods that followed him as he moved.
Just then his Communicator chimed. He pressed the receive button on his watch to activate it.
"Go for Steele." He said
"Matt," said a man's voice, "This is Archer here."
"Hi General," said the boy, "What's up?"
"How is the geologic survey going?"
"Nothing out of the ordinary to report." Said Matt, "Just the usual stuff so far, but yesterday Lt. Sawyer reported a new tunnel had opened up just ahead. She hasn't explored it yet though."
"It was probably opened by that tremor we had a few days ago," replied Archer. "She probably just didn't have the right equipment for wild cave exploring."
"But I do." Said Matt, "I told her I'd check it out for her."
"Why am I not surprised." Chuckled Archer, "Okay be careful."
"Always." Replied Matt before ending the call. A few more feet and he was standing in front of the newly discovered passage.
He removed the metallic looking backpack that he was wearing and set it on the ground in front of him. the pack looked to be only six inches wide but from it he materialized a helmet and an anti-gravity belt. He put on a pair of climbing gloves and started into the cave passage.
he went about a mile back into the passage and suddenly stopped short. His mouth dropped open at the sight before him.
there was a whole two-story house down here at the bottom of this chasm. It was encased in what appeared to be a cocoon of ice. The strange thing was that the ice wasn't melting.
Matt pulled out his scanner tablet. and took some scans.
"This house appears to be from around five centuries ago." He dictated into the recorder on his tablet. "Scans indicate that the house is sealed inside a mountain of Ice made from the chemical compound Nervano. This is incredible, of course Nervano is commonplace now, it's used to cool the fusion crystals used to power the hyperdrives on starships. it was thought that Nervano wasn't fully discovered and identified until the early 22nd century."
Matt pulled out his disruptor pistol and firing a steady beam he opened a hole in the ice up to and through the front door. he had to hurry Nervano was a type of coolant that could refreeze itself so Matt had to hurry. He hurried in through the hole and took a look inside the house to see what he could see.
He was astonished. There were people frozen in here!
#######
Matt Steele stood with General Archer in the waiting room in the Med Center of New LA.
Archer shook his head.
"You're sure it was Nervano?" he asked Matt
Matt nodded.
"The nine people we recovered, and the entire house we recovered, were encased in it." he said
Just then Doctor Lyon the head physician came out through the sliding doors.
"Doc," said Archer, "What were you able to find out about that family in there. how long have they been dead?"
"They're not dead." Said Dr. Lyon
"What?!" said Archer
"They were frozen by a Nervano compound so instantaneous and perfect that they are fully preserved and living!" Replied Dr. Lyon, "They should be coming around in a few minutes."
A few minutes later, Matt was sitting in the room with the family. They were all laying in hospital beds. There were three adults and six kids, three girls and three boys. The oldest boy and girl looked to haven been originally frozen at about his own age give or take a year or so.
Just then they started to wake up. One by one they sat up and looked all around.
"Hi," said Matt, "Welcome back to the land of the living."
They all turned and looked at him.
"Hi," said the adult man, "Who are you?"
"I'm Colonel Matt Steele." He said. the oldest daughter looked at him incredulously.
"You're a Colonel?" she asked
Matt nodded and shrugged.
"I guess you could call me something of a genius." He said, "I have three doctorates and I'm a commissioned officer in the Earth Defense Corps."
"Earth Defense Corps," asked the Man, "What's that?
Matt was about to answer when he was interrupted by the voice of the youngest boy who was looking out the window.
"Uh mom, Dad," he said, "You'd better come look at this."
The whole family got up and went to the window only to be shocked by what they saw! Shining buildings of all colors everywhere. And what appeared to them to be all manner of flying cars and busses zooming hither, thither and yon.
"What is this place?!" cried the Father turning to Matt, "where are we?"
"May I ask your names first," said Matt, "You know my name already."
"Oh, I'm sorry," he said politely, "I forgot my manners, I'm Mike Brady this is my wife Carol our kids Greg Marcia Peter Jan Bobby and Cindy and last but most certainly not least our house keeper Alice."
"Nice to officially meet you." smiled Matt. He used his commlink to send the Surname to the archivists, "Now to answer your Question, you are in the central med center of New Los Angeles."
"New Los Angeles?" asked Carol, "What are you talking about?"
"You may want to sit down for this?" suggested Matt.
"Nine Chairs," he Commanded and a chair for everyone materialized in the room.
Stunned, The Bradys all sat down.
"Now," said Matt, "What is the last thing you all remember before waking up here."
"We were at home," said Carole, "it was a normal day, suddenly there was a flash of light and a cold wind and that was it."
The others nodded in agreement.
Matt nodded. His tablet chimed and he did a quick review of the information the archive sent.
"As near as our archivists can tell that would have been in July of 1971. I've just received word that there was a family meeting your description that disappeared about that time and were never seen again. They were believed to have lost their lives in a massive earthquake at that time."
"That time, would have been? What are you talking about?" asked Mike. Matt took a deep breath before answering.
"This is not 1971 this is 2478 as in the 25th century," he said, "You've all been frozen in suspended animation for 507 years."
TO BE CONTINUED… PLEASE REVIEW