Chapter 25: Druthers
The short experience of less than twenty four hours that he had spent together with Claire and her family had largely perplexed Noah. He had seen a young woman who was ready to do anything for her family and cared a lot about her husband, if not loved him, a little boy who was content with both his parents and a man, who was doing everything he could to protect those close to him. But the Sylar he knew was incapable of love, or even if he would momentarily submit to it, he would screw up in a big way soon after.
For company man to be able to keep to this illusion of a perfect family of Claire's, he needed some hard evidence for. Or more so, he was meaning to provide some proof for his daughter that what she was doing was nonsensical and then he could warn her and perhaps save her some heartache . And for that, he needed a trip into the future that he was quite sure he could achieve by dialing a hero.
Noah did not give a year for Claire's little family idyll to last, but he had asked Hiro to transport him ten years into the future just in case. The Japanese put a hand on his shoulder and the next time he blinked they were standing in a shiny, metallic elevator where an automatic voice annoyingly repeated, "please press your destination...please press your destination..."
The company man looked at the buttons, eager to choose any level, at least that irritating sound would cease. His hand however, hesitated between the options. None of it made sense. Mars Transfer Point? Satellite Docking Station? Solar Observatory? "Where on earth are we?" Noah asked, not needing the answer. The small window behind him showed the planet, in fact he could see all of the globe turning slowly under him, and there were some cola sweetie wrappers floating as presumably space junk at the other side of the glass.
"No earth," Hiro winced and shrugged, using the little English he had learned from that one semester he studied it, "time no correct."
"Tell me about it," Noah was wavering whether to press the red Summon Rescue Ship switch or the one that said Base Level. "My daughter. Claire? Claire Bennett? Is she here?"
Hiro seemed thoughtful, then raised a finger in the air as if realizing something, then slowly moved the finger towards the buttons. Residential Planes was Level 3 and by the view from the window they soon neared it with sickening speed, yet their bodies did not register the movement. When the door opened, they did not need to step out to stand on a corridor with a lot of same looking doors while the elevator seemed to have disappeared from around them. But before they could start to worry, another automatic voice addressed them. "You are at the Orion Residential Plane. Please state your destination."
"We're looking for Claire Bennett," Noah tried to answer the machine.
There was a faint buzzing sound and the flicker of a light that scanned them quickly from top to bottom and next thing, once again they seemed to have been transported somewhere else, because now they stood in front of the a door on a similar looking corridor, that had no name plate and no individuality like other doors there. Noah count not detect no handle, no doorbell, no buttons and this time there was no voice urging them to answer either. He hesitantly held out a hand, hoping this was future Claire's apartment indeed and when he touched the doorway it turned as if it was a revolving one and they found themselves in a rather ordinary looking room that was in contrast more old style than anything else they have seen of this distant future so far, bar for the bath tub sitting in front of the large window with the view into space and the couch, that surprisingly looked more like shaped piles of compressed, living grass. And then there was Sylar, leisurely sitting in front of a three dimensional manifestation of a book with the title: The Homo Sapiens Hive Mind.
Turning the hologram of his reading material off, Sylar turned to see who his visitors were. His brow furrowed considerably, more in unconcealed amusement, other than anything else. His eyes opened wide and he took a breath in for talking, but it took him another few moment till he could utter some words, "eeeerhm....Jesse? Come here Jesse! Jesse!" He finally managed after leaning forward and peeking behind Noah where Hiro was trying to hide out of sight. Sylar frowned and stood up to meet a young teenager looking girl with dark hair, who stumbled into the room from down the stairs in a blinking, skimpy dress and a necktie.
"Honey, could you do the freeze?" Sylar addressed the girl again as Noah was getting himself together by being fazed out from all of this new experience. He only had a taser and this was decidedly stupid.
Jesse waved her hand in the air and Hiro and Noah found that they could not move, nor speak, but they could perceive everything that was going on.
"Who are these unearthly figures?" The youngster asked.
"They are from the twenty-twentyfirst century," Sylar explained, "that one in the back is the man who ever came the closest to killing me, and that one here is your ol' papa, Noah Bennett."
"Get out of here..." Jesse drawled, pacing round to take a good look, "this is wow! You gotta be kidding me! This is the guy Noah was named after?"
"Yeah, what's wrong with him?" Sylar asked, completely ignoring the time travellers.
"Just you know, I can not believe mom would answer to a hominid like that! So brrr...phlegmatical, you know?"
"Maybe you should let him speak first, don't you think?" Sylar laughed, "he is your grandfather after all." Jesse waved her hand in the air towards the company man and Noah felt his jaw unclench.
"Teenagers these days," Sylar addressed his once arch enemy for the first time, "Noah, this is Jestina, twentysecond child of Claire and me."
"But only their ninth girl!" Jestina chimed in, "and so very special," she winked at her da'.
"I must admit, I did not expect you to try to intervene after such a long time no see," gave Sylar.
Noah however, shook his head in disarray. It was hard to process it all, "twenty two children?"
Sylar nodded, patiently, "we would have had more, but nowadays they've got population control rules for every lifetime."
"Any...any chance I could talk to Claire? Is she happy?"
"Not in the flesh, you can't," future Sylar walked back to his console table, "she's on a foreign mission to the Zoldek, oh, that's an alien race, but I could call her for you." He pressed a few controls and in a few seconds a see through figure of Claire smiled at her husband.
Sylar raised his eyebrows in a meaningful manner and tilted his head towards the new comers. Claire's jaw dropped on turning and her figure walked out from the control table, solidifying a little, but obviously still a hanging 3 dimensional image.
"I have never imagined anything like this," Noah panted. His predictions were completely out the window. They were pulverized and mashed into nothingness and all he could think of was hugging all present.
The Well Over The Top Happy End.