Teleport This Read Online Free

lifetime.
    Gilbert and Simon had speculated on the duration and comfort experienced during the teleport. Based on the elapsed time of the guinea pig’s journey, it seemed likely to expect the trip to take only a few minutes, if that. Since the guinea pig was returned with a note, they also surmised that someone or something was at the other end waiting for them. They also assumed that since the guinea pig was returned, Gilbert would be able to return. The agreement was that Gilbert would return or send a message as soon as he could.
    It was with these expectations that Gilbert stepped onto the teleport. He knew that in the next minute or so he would be conversing with someone not of Earth. He just wasn’t sure if it would be St. Peter or E.T.
    The trip was in fact so close to instantaneous that Gilbert barely had any sensation of movement. One second he was in the lab looking at Simon and the next he was sitting on a sofa in what looked to be a somewhat stark, but nicely kept room.
    “I’ll be there in a second,” a voice said.
    Gilbert evaluated his surroundings. Is this the way this room always looked or was it done up special to put him at ease? The voice spoke in a very colloquial tone without any accent, hard to believe it may have only recently learned English. Try as he might, Gilbert found it hard to imagine that voice coming from something non-human, but he was preparing himself for the worst. It was almost anticlimactic when a very normal looking man entered the room a few minutes later.
    “Hello,” he said, extending his hand. “You must be Simon. My name is Jon. A pleasure to meet you.”
    “Actually, I’m Gilbert,” said Gilbert as he stood and took the outstretched hand, “I’m an associate of Simon’s and the pleasure is mine, I assure you. Where are we, Jon?”
    “Oh, quite far from where you were a few seconds ago,” said Jon. “A different galaxy entirely, I believe. Does that bother you?”
    “No, not really,” said Gilbert. “Should it?”
    “Well, some people it does and some people it doesn’t. Most get used to it.”
    “Where are you from, Jon?”
    “Not Earth, Gilbert, but someplace like it.”
    “Are you human?”
    “Close enough. I’m sure if you compared all 25,000 genes in our respective DNA strands, you may find a few differences here and there, but nothing all that significant.”
    “What is this place?” asked Gilbert looking around at his surroundings.
    “Ah, this is the Initial Contact Center and, as the name implies, this is where we monitor and manage the integration of newly discovered worlds, such as yours.”
    “What exactly do you mean by managing the integration?”
    Jon’s face went entirely blank of expression and he yelled out, “We are the Borg, resistance is futile!”
    “What!”
    “Ha! Just kidding, I really had you going there for a minute, didn’t I? You should have seen your face, I’ll show you the video later, believe me, you’ll laugh.” Jon motioned to the sofa and he and Gilbert sat down. “Managing the integration is kind of like the first few dates with a new girl. You chat it up a bit to get a feel for each other and then you make some decisions on how far you want to take the relationship.”
    “And what happens if you decide the relationship won’t work out?”
    “No need to think about that,” said Jon. “You’ve already made it to first base. The only question is if and when we go all the way.”
    “And ‘going all the way’ means what?”
    “Same here as it does there. Applied to our little situation, full disclosure with Earth’s governments on what’s what and who’s who in the universe. But don’t worry, I think that’s still a bit further down the road.”
    “Why’s that?” asked Gilbert.
    “Earth is in a volatile phase that will likely take it a couple hundred years to work through. And since there’s no need for us to make our presence known, we’ll just let it play out and loop back in a few