Artemis Fowl linked hands with Julie and Holly. A question burned in his mind. What would Holly become to him in the future? Were they merely partner scientists combining DNA? Perhaps they had struck some sort of 'if I'm thirty and you're a hundred' deal. Maybe it was what lurked in the confines of his subconscious too dangerous to make it to the surface. A metamorphosis started as soon as he laid eyes on Holly. It was a classic Pinocchio story. He changed from a ruthless wooden trafficker into a boy with genuine integrity. It seemed likely that in the future he would grow to love Holly, and their love would culminate into a child. Julie had been listening into his thoughts which he forgot to retain.
"I don't think I'm comfortable relinquishing that information. Is there anything else you want to know?" Julie said. Artemis racked his mind for something else that could be useful. He put that question aside for now along with all the other clues he accumulated. He was slowly putting together their future as one would put together a jigsaw puzzle. Now if only he could find something analogous to puzzle glue.
"What's that apparatus in your wrist, maybe we should stop by your time and get a few of those things" Artemis asked. Artemis intentionally hid his real intentions about the wrist apparatus.
"No can do, bringing people past the length of their lifetime is strictly forbidden" Julie replied
"But going back to a time before you're birth is totally legal…" Artemis accused. He wanted one of those wrist attachments enough to guilt trip his daughter.
"No… I suppose as hard as we try the Fowls never really go legit" Julie admitted throwing the guilt back in his direction. It stung
"It would help our cause, if all of us had some of that tech. Perhaps it could even save our lives. Let's just try, if it happens then it's meant to happen" Holly said.
"Mum… I think that's the first time you've ever agreed with Dad" Julie mused. Then she sighed signaling her defeat.
"Shall we focus on the future then" Artemis suggested. Julie knew they couldn't really do that. Left to their own devices they would never make it.
"You guys just keep your minds locked on mine, I'll locate the correct time and place" Julie said. Julie sent out images of her time into the stream.
The time stream ejected them into a strange floating glass cube over a vast ocean. The floors, walls and ceiling were all made of the same clear glass. The sky seemed surreal though, there was light but no sun or clouds where the sun could hide.
"Where are we?" Holly said looking out the sides of the cube. It was miles of ocean everywhere they looked. There was not a speck of land on any horizon. There was no wisp or white or brown to cut the seas of blue. Holly was sure they were lost.
"Oh, don't worry about the walls. That's just holograms. We're in my office in Times Square" Julie said casually as she opened a drawer. She pulled out two iridescent cases, that would look like ring boxes if not for the color. She gave one to each of her parents. Holly held it gingerly in her hands. She wondered briefly what it would like to be presented one of these in black. Then she realized what her daughter said.
"If you're in Times Square… it means you're on the surface, how is that possible?" Holly asked. Artemis took in the scene. This tidbit of information had extraordinary implications. His oversized intellect went into overdrive.
If she had an office on the surface, it could mean one of two things. She disguised herself as human or global cross species acclimatizing had occurred. Also, it seemed that Times Square was intact in the future, meaning that New York probably still existed. This meant that global warming had not swallowed up Manhattan after all. What wonderful news!
Holly looked quizzically at them both. No one had answered her question for a full minute. Julie scanned the parameters on her computer before looking back up to meet her mother's gaze. She looked a little too edgy for the lines she was about to deliver.
"Things are different now. Humans and Fairies share the surface. Sometimes things get a little polemical but for the most part we've all learned to live together" Julie explained. Artemis took in this information with great relish. He surmised the next step in a cross species world. Why not, it had happened with Homo sapiens and Neanderthals.
"Then there must be more like you? Half-elven people..." Artemis asked as he looked out into the ocean abyss. Perhaps Fairies and Humans were not so incompatible after all.
"Yes and no… I'm still the only one of my kind" Julie said uncomfortably "Others have tried but their offspring do not survive. One made it to a toddler before having an aneurism.
Julie paused briefly as if she were recalling a very painful event. Then she continued when she was sure her voice wouldn't break.
"I think it's because you both are neither human nor fairy. Your eyes are switched along with bits of DNA. On the bright side, pixies and dwarfs have managed a few kids" Julie ended in a half-hearted joke
Artemis doubted that could be a bright side for anything. His overactive imagination quickly out put a couple of Koboi Mulch kids into his mind. It was hideous.
Holly was more preoccupied with the 'neither human nor fairy' part. She flexed her fingers. They felt like a fairy's fingers. She didn't felt any different after she switched eyes with Artemis. She couldn't really be 'not really a fairy' could she? Yet doubt pooled in her mind. Had time travel really tainted her this much?
Artemis studied every detail of the office. He wanted to know everything because it could all be useful later on. A shiny golden plaque was nailed to the front of an ergonomic desk. It read "Julius Coral Fowl, The People's Ambassador". Artemis ran various scenarios on what that could mean. Most prominently was that her daughter seemed pretty well off due the sheer size of this office. Secondly, if her daughter was a diplomat then the People still considered themselves a separate nation apart from humanity. He wondered if they still used the term mud man or had it gone out of political favor like Oriental had for Asians.
"When humans finally discovered fairies, it must have been chaotic" Artemis began listing his most probable theory. Julie caught on quickly.
"I wasn't made to quell a cross species war" Julie said tersely.
"Made?" Artemis asked "You mean you weren't born?"
"Stop with the questions, it's not good to know too much about the future" Julie said annoyed. Artemis finally ceased his piercing blue-hazel gaze. He would file everything that Julie said for later pondering. Julie signaled for them each to open their boxes. Inside was a strange pulsating clear disk the size of dime. The disk seemed alive, and had something like an electric blue nerve running through the middle of it.
"Just attach it to your wrist or palm" Julie instructed. Holly carefully picked the tiny gelatin disk up and placed it on her wrist. It gradually melted into her skin leaving no trace that it had ever existed. She waited for a moment then a strange semi transparent screen appeared before her eyes. It was a screen that only she saw. She blinked a few more times but the screen remained in the air about three feet from her vision at all times.
"Do you see the screen yet" Julie asked looking at her mother rapidly blink.
"Yes, what do I do now?" Holly asked. Julie gently picked up her mother's hand and placed their wrists together. The semi-transparent screen suddenly printed out some words.
"Accept incoming information?" It read
"How do I say yes?" Holly said. The screen suddenly began filling with files, as though she had said yes.
"You just have to think it" Julie replied. Artemis looked into empty space. Obviously this gelatin disk was some sort of bio meshed nano wafer, one that used organs as hardware. He put it on his wrist, and watched it melt into his skin.
"This is ingenious, who invented this?" Artemis asked thoughtfully. He secretly wished that he'd be the one to make this someday. It certainly would be in his mental capabilities. What would make a good base material though? Capacitors were too big, nano bots maybe? Perhaps it was a new species of hyper minuscule organic cells.
"Not only is it ingenious, it's also very expensive. Uncle Myles invented it back in the sixties. Well I guess it's debatable. He was the person who designed the blue prints dated back in 2062. He was hoping technology would evolve and that someone would eventually be able to produce one. In his day, Pico-bots were inconceivable. Turns out the secret was organic rather than not. Once they figured that part out, it was possible to make some prototypes. The first one was engineered by Dr. Lillian Foaly." Julie explained in a tour guide manner. Artemis internally sighed, so he had not been the one to create this. Instead it was his resourceful baby brother. Somehow that was alright as well.
A semi-transparent screen appeared in Artemis' vision. He wondered if he could write some programs. He focused on programming. The screen remained blank. English wasn't the right language to program in. Julie said a Foaly made the chip. Perhaps ancient Centaurian would work. Suddenly a blank file sprung up accepting the thoughts Artemis composed. The base code was Centaurian but the interface seemed to be English rather than Gnomish. What an interesting method for distinguishing programmers and user.
"Dad, we don't have time for you to write programs" Julies said gauging her father's expression. His eyes seemed to move across emptiness. A vein was pulsating at his temple, something Julie remembered as a child. It meant dad was pensive. She took her father's hand and placed her wrist on top of his. His program saved itself and moved into a little icon on the top corner of the screen.
"Yes, accept" Artemis thought. Streams of information and odd programs filled the screen. One of the icons read 'Time-Line Surmised'. That one was probably a very important file. Another file read 'Wormhole Tether' that would be equally useful. One interesting file had the title of 'Collapse indicators' that sounded morbid. One icon read 'Chat' so some things never changed. The final one read 'Family photos'. That made Artemis very curious.
"Oops, didn't mean to transfer that one" Julie said pulling her wrist away. Sometimes the bio-mech integrator read subconscious intentions rather than conscious one. It was such an annoying bug in the mechanism
Artemis was happy though. He allowed himself a smile, his vampire incisors making their theatric appearance. Artemis had gained the upper hand on this adventure. He had all this information and all this technology. He could finally do something about this situation. Who said one could not control his destiny? He would remember, no matter the cost and despite the impossibility, he would remember.