Comfortably Numb
Chapter Six - Bring The Boys Back Home
They found themselves in a dimly-lit room with all sorts of technological gadgets on benches and shelves. Gary was lying, unconscious, on a long bench on the far side of the room, with a maze of tubes sticking into him all over his body.
"Gary!" screamed Phoebe and Yvonne in unison, rushing forward.
A figure in the corner, wearing clothes made of an odd-looking material, turned, startled. "What the - how did you get in here?"
Ron and Reg immediately ran to him and pinned him to the wall. "What have you done with Gary?" Ron snarled.
"Don't worry, he isn't in any pain," said the man.
"Let him go!" shouted Reg.
"Oh no, I'm not giving up on a prize this good. Your Gary's going to give me whatever I want!"
"Explain!" Reg barked.
"Do you think I'm that stupid as to tell you everything just so that you can wreck it all in the nick of time? Owww!" He winced in agony as Michael ran over to him and punched him as hard as he could in the nether region.
"Let my Daddy go, you horrible evil man!"
"Explain, or we'll let Michael hit you as often as he likes!"
"Ooof!" the man exclaimed as Michael dealt another blow. "Alright, just get that kid off me!"
Reg whispered, "All right, son, you can stop now. Till I say start again." He gave Michael a wink and a smile. Michael nodded.
With Reg and Ron still holding him firmly against the wall, he began, "My name is Dirrick Yarn. This is the year 2306. In my time, Gary's famous. One of the first of the Elite."
"Elite?" asked Ron.
"In my time, those who can travel through time whenever they wish are the... what's the word... aristocrats of our society. They can have anything they want. The rest of us, like you, can only travel through a time portal under very unusual circumstances. But I had forgotten about the boy."
"What's Michael got to do with it?" asked Reg.
"It's something in the DNA. A genetic mutation. Gary's son has a fifty-fifty chance of inheriting it. Looks like he has." He glared at Michael with loathing. Michael returned the look and then some. "But I can extract Gary's DNA and superimpose it on my own, giving me the ability to time-travel."
"So, you've extracted his DNA," said Ron. "Now let him go!"
"No, I need just about all his DNA for the process to be effective."
"You mean you're going to bleed Gary dry?" Ron exploded.
"Not a very delicate way of putting it, but that's about right, yes."
"If you let Gary go now, will he be alright?" asked Reg.
"No, it's too late for that," replied Yarn with a smile.
"OK, son," said Reg to Michael, "Fire away!"
"No, no, he will be alright, it's not too late," Yarn exclaimed quickly before Michael could hit him again.
Meanwhile Yvonne and Phoebe had been trying frantically to stop the machine doing whatever it was doing to Gary and to disconnect him from the mass of tubes. Fortunately they didn't penetrate too deep; they were like drips in a 20th Century hospital. Gary began to come round, though he was very groggy.
"Let's get you 'ome, Gary Sparrow," said Phoebe as she and Yvonne hoisted him onto their shoulders.
"Michael, can you find the tickly barrier again so we can get home?" asked Reg.
Michael ran to the spot where they had first arrived. "Here it is, Uncle Reg."
"Good stuff," said Ron. "Over here, girls," he called out. He and Reg then dragged Yarn to the place where the time portal was.
"You're not going to take me back to the 20th Century with you?" Yarn exclaimed in horror.
"We can't leave you here to try this all over again when our backs are turned. If what you said is true, you can't travel in time under normal circumstances, and you can't do what you've done to Gary again if your equipment is in the 24th Century and you're in the 20th," said Ron.
"But I'll never survive in the past! It's a nightmare!"
"You can learn," said Gary weakly. "I did."