CHAPTER EIGHT
A/N: Tony takes one giant leap for mankind as he attempts to contact Hadji. Possible trouble starts for Jeannie and Mahrouf in the past.
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Both astronauts sat on Tony's green couch, lost in thought for a moment before Roger asked, "So, what's the plan for getting her back?"
Major Nelson pulled out the piece of paper from his pocket and said to his best friend, "We'll use this! ERIC gave me the answer! I just have to analyze the information and come up with an idea."
Roger took the piece of paper from his friend and studied it. After a moment, he muttered, "I don't think it'll work…".
"Of course it'll work!" Tony said. "All I have to do is use the ST-23's communication band to contact him!"
Roger gripped his friend's arms trying to shake some sense into him. "Tony! Tony! Tony!" he exclaimed. "It's not like you can just waltz into the satellite room and operate that thing!"
"Why not? NASA's been working on Project Outreach for years!" Major Nelson exclaimed, trying to drum up courage and assure himself that he could do it at the same time. "The ST-23 satellite has the most sophisticated technology in the world. I can pinpoint the exact location of where this Hadji might be and contact him. I know he'll help me find Jeannie!" Tony started.
"And if you start fiddling with that thing without permission, you better hope you do contact Hadji, because if he is a genie, he'll be the only one who can save you from Doctor Bellows and General Peterson! You know that they treat that project as if it was their own flesh and blood!"
Tony looked at Roger with a calculating expression. "That's where you come in," he said. Roger backed away, holding up his hands.
"No, oh, no!" he pleaded. "Please don't make me do this! I love being an astronaut too much."
"I do, too, but I've gotta get her back!" Major Nelson told his best friend. When Major Healey saw the almost desperate look in Tony's eyes, he relented.
"Okay," Roger said to Tony. "What do you want me to do?"
"Just keep Doctor Bellows busy so that he won't tell General Peterson," Major Nelson said. Roger was aghast.
"It should only take me about an hour...maybe two," he said. Before Roger could say "no", Tony was out of his office and going toward the secondary communications room. Major Nelson's best friend sighed as he headed toward the psychiatrist's office.
The things I do to help someone in love! Roger thought.
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After Roger walked to Doctor Bellows' office, Tony snuck into the backup communications room. Checking the manifest for assigned personnel that day, he hoped for, and was rewarded with, the information that they would not come on duty for at least another forty-five minutes.
Major Nelson fired up the computer, punching up the correct sequences that would not only link him to the satellite, but that would also hopefully keep the people in the primary communications room from spotting the usage of the system. The machine whirred to life, and with it, Tony's renewed hope of finding the Genie Master.
Fishing the paper ERIC had provided from his pocket, he punched in some more numbers. "Let's see…" he muttered, "Baghdad…Middle East…". The data screen's green display flashed as it followed Tony's input. About two minutes later, his face fell when he read the latest information.
"Data unavailable," he said. "I wonder why." Tony ran through any number of reasons why the most powerful satellite couldn't contact the Master of all Genies. He thought about Jeannie, and about where she came from and then Tony smacked his head.
"Of course!" he shouted. "I 'm such an idiot! Hadji is in the past, like Jeannie probably is, so the ST-23 won't be able to contact either of them. The range is too far, unless…".
He cast his mind to his last walk in space before Jeannie had left. It had been a routine fact-gathering mission about the area beyond the moon. A probe had been sent to get data so that NASA could study the findings and, possibly within ten years' time, land an actual robot on a planet without having to refuel it or without the other dangers in space getting to it.
While Major Nelson had doubted that they would be able to send one so far into space in so short a time; to say nothing about the drop in temperature which would freeze the mechanical being before information could be retrieved, one interesting phenomenon did catch the eye of himself and NASA's top scientists. It seemed that there was a theoretical anomaly in space which resembled the early formations of a black hole; theoretical, because if the hole actually did exist, it would mean the end of Earth and neighboring planets.
Tony knew that if that black hole did exist, a signal could be beamed from the ST-23 and, using the hole like a giant radio antenna, it could be amplified, maybe through time as well as space.
Remembering the year that Jeannie had been born—64 B.C.—Tony put that information into the computer link. He also typed in all of the information ERIC had given him on Hadji's projected location. Setting the final coordinates a moment later, Tony entered his command: using Longitude, 74 WEST by Latitude 37 NORTH, find Hadji in 64 B.C., Baghdad, Earth.
The computer started working on the problem at hand. Tony sat back, his mind racing as he saw the rapidly blinking lights on the display panel.
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Mahrouf lay back on the beautiful pillows which covered a huge couch in his room. His dark orbs looked at the airy place and its polished white marble floors. He reached over to the purple bottle on the table and held it up.
"Jeannie?" he queried into the bottle.
"Yes, Master?" Jeannie's tiny voice asked.
"Are you all right in there?" Mahrouf responded.
"Oh, yes, Master," Jeannie answered. "Is there anything you need?"
Mahrouf shook his head, replying, "no, thanks. I shall call if I need you."
"Very well, Master," Jeannie said.
Mahrouf saw that there was a steamy copper tub with scented water in it. The scent was one that complemented either a man or woman. It was woodsy, and he decided to wash the grime of travel off of his dirt covered skin. As he washed, the young man thought about Jalisha and blushed almightily at where his thoughts were going.
Hearing the swirling water in Mahrouf's tub, Jeannie materialized a drying cloth, a green silk robe, some clothes and a matching turbin on his bed.
After he dried himself, Mahrouf put on the clothes and turban. "Thanks, Jeannie," he told her.
Jeannie materialized in a puff of pink smoke, saying, "Thank you, Master."
"For what?" he asked, perplexed. Jeannie shrugged.
"For treating me like a genie, and not just a millstone around your neck," she said honestly. Mahrouf studied her, wondering who her previous Master could have been to treat her so shabbily.
He must have been a man of means, the male "guest" thought, someone who had no need of treasures or money.
"You wish to know about him," she pronounced. Although he was dying of curiosity, Mahrouf shook his head. It would not do to be rude, and he didn't want to make his genie sad. But he thought he might ask one or two questions about his genie's former Master.
"Was he handsome?" Mahrouf inquired.
Jeannie's head nodded. She thought about Major Anthony Nelson, with his dark hair and blue eyes. She was surprised to find that she wasn't crying any more when she remembered him.
"He was," she said, going on to describe him.
"Ahh..." Mahrouf breathed, "and was he a man who had wealth?"
Jeannie looked at the darker skinned male before her. "He didn't have any drackmahs," she said. Mahrouf's thick brows drew together, showing his confusion. Jeannie blinked, trimming them and his facial hair.
"Then I don't understand..." he began. Jeannie looked seemingly through him just then.
"He wanted to earn everything himself," she replied. "He never wanted me to do anything for him, except for meals, or if there was an emergency."
"He sounds like a man who is concerned with making his own way in the world," Mahrouf observed. "Most men tend to be that way. They see any interference by anyone as a threat to their independence. They think they shall be less than men if they give in even an inch."
Less than men...Jeannie's mind repeated as she hung on Mahrouf's words. She had thought that, by helping (or rather forcing her brand of help on Major Nelson,) she was keeping him out of danger. But, the way her current Master saw things, she was keeping him from experiencing life, bruises and all. The magic girl thought just then that if she had a second chance with Anthony, she would let him figure out more of life's problems on his own. Oh, it would be against her nature, but she would try, for his sake.
"Again, thank you, Master," she said softly.
"For...?" Mahrouf asked, oblivious to her inner thoughts.
"For making me see things from a different perspective," she told him. Mahrouf grinned, not knowing what he had done, but happy that he had made someone see a different point of view. Both genie and human reacted when, a second later, there was a knock at the door. Jeannie blinked herself back into the bottle as Mahrouf opened the door.
Princess Jalisha stood on the other side, anxious and worried. "I must speak with you," she told Mahrouf in a hushed tone. Her eyes fell to the bottle.
"I must also speak with your genie," she said. In response, Jeannie's smoke rose from the bottle.
"What has upset you, your Highness?" the former shoe cobbler asked.
"It is my father!" Jalisha told both. "He has taken leave of his senses! He came to my room just now, and he spoke of how, once Jaffey became his son, he would retire and turn the rule over to him! My father never acted that way! He always had said that there would be a balance of power between himself, me and any mate of mine. He always respected my decision to choose a husband in my own way, even when he disagreed with the way I went about it! Not only that, but the way he spoke of the two of you concealed extreme hatred, as though you had committed a serious grievance! It is possible that you two will be executed."
Mahrouf and Jeannie exchanged a fearful look. "The Sultan certainly changed his mind in a hurry!" Jeannie remarked.
"If you both are confined to the dungeons, you will wish you had been hanged," Jalisha said. "I do have a plan. If need be, we shall run away again!" Both women regarded Mahrouf as Jalisha told them her plan.
The former shoe merchant started thinking about what action they should take.
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In the future, the computer started relaying a signal out into space according to the data Tony saw on the screen. Roger came into the room and slumped against the door.
"Are you finished yet?" he asked his friend. Tony glanced at the blinking screen.
"I think we are," he told Roger. Major Healey studied the screen and sat beside his fellow astronaut.
"So when will we know if you managed to reach Hadji?" he asked.
Before Tony could answer, a noise like a deep sounding gong was heard. A stern, middle aged, dark skinned man wearing a red turban with a feather in it appeared. His crisp, white shirt had an elaborately decorated mid-length jacket with embroidery on it. He had deep, penetrating eyes, and he frowned as he spotted the two astronauts. He fixed the two men with a cold stare.
"So, you two humans have summoned me," he said as though they were not in the room. "What is it that you both want?"