The Unveiling

Chapter Nine: Alien tech transforms the world

Jeff woke up past eight and headed for the bathroom.

"Where are you going?" Valerie asked. She was in bed, facing the opposite way.

"It's my day off. I'm going to the city to meet with my support group. Remember? I told you last night."

"Oh, that again."

"Yeah, that again." Jeff sneered visibly. It was a good thing Valerie was facing the other way and couldn't see his facial expression. Since the Balazons' unveiling, they did plenty of fighting and he was already late.

The members of the Xsalma Survivors Group met once a month. Many had gone through similar experiences as Jeff and considered themselves lucky to be alive. Others had been fairly mild, such as hearing strange voices and seeing ghostly images. But Jeff went for another reason besides moral support. He enjoyed meeting and talking with others who didn't trust or like Balazons. Even his daughter had been eventually brainwashed. A few days ago, Jeff had watched the newest Saturday morning cartoon, Balazon Rescue, with Stephanie in the three dimensional virtual reality TV room, or VRT for short.

Jeff still got a mild pain in his stomach sometimes when he thought about the technological advances the Balazons had initiated in only the past three years or so. He didn't have a problem with the technology itself, more so the fact they had simply given it to humans. Well, that wasn't totally true. The Balazons had set up research facilities in which they showed scientists and engineers how advancements could be perfected and expanded to be used in everyday life. But to Jeff, it sounded more like a sixth grade science experiment than actual discovery.

The cartoon show Jeff had watched with Stephanie dramatized the Balazons' invisible influence throughout history. The time was the Second World War, and the aliens were trying to decide how to stop Hitler from destroying the world. The German leader was a rare individual who'd managed to totally remove his conscience- bubble on his own. From behind the scenes, Khur-ak decided to try to bring the military might of America into the war by subliminally suggesting to the Japanese ruler to attack Pearl Harbor. It was supposed to be an educational program for kids, but Jeff still didn't like it. He didn't believe his children should be watching as much of the VRT as they did, but it was nearly impossible to drag them away. They spent most of their free time there.

Jeff entered the washroom and the light automatically came on. He thought how good it would feel to transport back in time a few years, even for a minute or two, and enjoy the chore of hitting the switch himself. He closed the door and went over to the shower.

"Usual temperature of 100 degrees, Jeff?" the built in home computer, named Bert, asked as it sensed Jeff near the shower.

"Let's try a little higher today, one hundred and five degrees Fahrenheit." Jeff thought of the very first time the computer had asked him that. Around room temperature had sounded good. "Seventy-five degrees," he'd said, but yelped. It was too cold. He increased his original estimate by multiples of five until settling on one hundred, never again forgetting what temperature suited him.

The water came on.

Jeff had resisted getting all the new gadgets installed at first, but eventually relented. Valerie and the kids begged for them, and everybody else was doing it, and they were reasonably priced, so he figured, what the heck. Besides, he knew deep down the advances were good. His problem was with the creators. All the flurry of activity, new surprises by the Balazons, new discoveries, and endless turmoil of his changing world would never make him forget. Others enjoyed it and went with the flow, but Jeff refused.

After his shower, Jeff went downstairs to get some breakfast before heading for the city. He went to the food dispenser and verbally requested Golden Grahams cereal.