"So to answer your question, Ashley, you must understand some things never, ever change. Murder, stealing and so forth in the Ten Commandments are all still morally wrong. People are still punished for committing those crimes.

However, as far as how people of the future live and think, yes, there have been major changes. This is partly due to the influence of the technology you see all around you, and the advancement of literacy and information which makes it possible for more different types of people to add their voice to this thing called humanity.

Now, let's take a tour of this house, and I'll explain how everything else works."

Lisa took a deep breath and stood after this speech. Every step was a delicate one at this point. She wanted to fascinate and inspire them, not terrify them to the point of shutting down and closing off.

She was in a very ordinary tan dress without hoops. It was almost bland enough to be a maid's dress. Lisa had dressed trying not call attention to herself and come across as reassuring. Scarlett, however, wondered for the first time just what ladies wore in the future. If it was more like this outfit, she would have to make some adjustments.

They had all eaten a lovely breakfast, mysteriously produced from the partly visible kitchen-like area. There were no servants. Lisa had gone in the other room, made noises and smells indicating cooking for fifteen minutes, and had come back with a complete meal for all of them.

The late afternoon sun streamed into the kitchen as they all walked in. None of the windows were open, but there was no heat from the stove. The building was oddly cool, even though it was hot outside.

In the next half hour, they marveled at the refrigerator, gasped at the flameless electric stove and oven, and were silent when shown the dishwasher and kitchen sink.

"But", asked Rhett, "Why have a machine to do this chore when it does not load itself and put the dishes away? It seems kind of pointless when one can do this all by hand in a shorter time."

Lisa laughed. "That's a good point. However, in the future you will find people are more aware of sanitation and that includes germs."

Ashley opened his mouth and closed it. He wanted to know more about germs, but it had already been almost too much information. He had heard of them, and had a vague notion as to what they were, but no need to know everything at once.

They continued into a larger adjacent room where three rows of tables were set out. Each of the rows had several objects hidden under small blankets.

Lisa held up the small object they had seen and heard before, and put it at the end of one long table. She walked to the opposite end and uncovered a strange device with a wax cylinder held in a machine which, judging by the colors and cast metal, was more from their time, not a far future.

"Let me show you how we got from Edison's wax cylinder to the tiny device that plays all the songs you heard." As Lisa uncovered each advancement, from the wax cylinder to the flat record on a gramophone, to tape recorders with reels of tape, to much smaller cassettes, to DVD's, and then to a laptop, a flash drive, and an MP3 player, she explained briefly the person or persons who had invented it, when it was invented, and what it did.

Once she got to the recording tape and how it worked, she could tell she was mystifying everyone but Rhett. The rest nodded politely, but looked mostly bewildered. Melanie, unfortunately, was looking pale and ill again.

Lisa made a mental note to put her on the triage table in the room with medical equipment. The triage table was from 100 years in her future, but then she had grown up with the idea of man made miracles.

At the end of the lecture on audio recording devises, she asked if there were any more questions.

"I have one", said Scarlett. "Why does everyone in the future need music everywhere? We got along fine without all this, it seems very distracting and lazy to me."

"Well, my dear", Rhett said smoothly, "I know how you hate it when something besides yourself steals the spotlight".

Scarlett glared at Rhett in annoyance. Before she could say anything, Melanie uttered a small cry and fell to the floor in a faint.

Ashley carried her slight body into the triage table, following Lisa's instructions. As the table scanned her body, they could all see a clear outline of her shape. Ashley's brow was furrowed, but then he smiled as Melanie sat up, looking healthy again.

Lisa frowned at the screen, and then produced another odd tool. It was pointy metal piece with several buttons. She pointed it at a spot on Melanie's lower right arm and said "This will sting for a moment." then a spark jumped from the device to her arm as Melly let out an involuntary squeal of surprise.

"What did you do?" Ashley stepped between Lisa and Melanie, suddenly stern and protective.

"I had to..." Lisa paused. They were already stressed, but maybe getting some unpleasant truths out of the way was the only way forward.

"I had to kill something someone else put inside her". She said flatly.

"What?" Ashley and Rhett exclaimed simultaneously.

"I want you to realize there are people who don't want us to succeed in our mission. They want humanity to stand still or even go backwards in our evolution. They don't want us to be our best selves. To this end, they will do and try almost anything to stay in power and keep us down."

Lisa looked into each of their eyes, hoping they would understand.

"Someone put a very small device in Melanie's arm. I don't know if that happened a few days ago, or if they have been here and compromised this area, but the device slowly releases poison and makes it look like an illness. They knew Melanie was physically weakest of all four of you, so they went after her."

Lisa didn't add they wanted to kill the four-week-old baby in Melanie's belly as well. She was guessing none of them knew yet, but if she had not fainted, Melly would have had Lisa re-arranging centuries of plans by dying in front of them.

They were on the razor's edge of history here. One false move and all would be lost. It was time to deal with the hardest part and move on as fast as possible.

"There's more, we may as well get it out of the way

I'm going to give it to you straight, and I know you won't like some of what you hear. I will warn you; I consider my society to be more advanced than yours in many ways, but at a disadvantage in some other ways. Overall, though, I think we are better off now than in your time. You may disapprove of some things, but I will explain how we've evolved as a people, and I'm sure you will agree our way of life is better in the future."

"If you get to the point, maybe you can let me judge that for myself.", Scarlett said abruptly.

"Ok then.", sighed Lisa. "Here we go. These are the two things I know will bother you the most, so let's get them out of the way."

"Women have voting rights, and most of them work outside of the house for pay. They can wear either a skirt or pants. Many women get divorced and remarried, or don't bother to marry at all. Also, they can control their ability to be with child."

"Oh dear!", cried Melly.

"They can buy and sell houses, land, start a bank account on their own, and start their own businesses." Lisa continued, "

They have all the rights men do and are even able to enlist in the military. One was even elected as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, which includes England, Wales, North Ireland and Scotland."

"And the other big change is", Lisa paused and said a quick inner prayer.

"People who are not white have made a point of being equal to and accepted by white people. It's completely legal for whites and nonwhites to marry in our country.

They can legally have the same jobs as whites, live in the same neighborhoods as whites, as well as having all the other rights and privileges of whites including education. Most people of the future strive to integrate all people and make one's race a minor point in the overall consideration of who they are as people."

"I want you to know, I am happy about both those things. I think these changes symbolize the evolution of modern man. I, and many others like me wish for all men and women to feel that, as long as they are not harming themselves or others, they have a right to live as they choose."

There was a stunned silence. Before anyone could say anything, an alarm went off went off in the building.

"Quickly, outside!" Lisa swiftly turned toward a panel in the wall, opening a hidden door and pulling out what looked to Rhett to be some sort of futuristic rifle.