"An abandoned mine and village."

"Impossible!"

"Nope...it's there, alright." The Cheese smiled at Two Voices, "It's tucked right up under a rock ledge. Impossible to see it from the air. We counted 32 houses...all wood, with concrete foundations. Twentieth Century construction...two by six framed walls, sheet rock, fiberglas insulation, tin roofs with camouflage paint, maple and oak furniture with machined joints. Inner spring mattresses, box springs...get this, iron bed rails...newest patent was 1999. 33 years from when we left our future.

"Kitchen chairs scattered on the kitchen floors, tables set with knives, forks and spoons...coffee cups. Natural gas stoves with teflon pans. Electrical outlets on all the walls...three prong too. Some special kind of thin television hooked up to a tiny radar dish on the roofs.

"The whole village looked like it was deserted in minutes...maybe even seconds. There were vehicles in some garages and Bill couldn't move them...and Bill can drive anything. We came straight back. You need to see it," Cheese tossed a toaster on the ground. "Spooky, real spooky. There's more. Let Bill tell it. Bill,speak up."

"People tell me I can hear horses in my head, they might be right. I didn't really need plowing lessons. I just "nudged" the team and they went where I wanted them to go. Well, as we were leaving, I felt a plea in my head, 'don't leave me, we need you, oh, please com...' and it was like I was either out of range or something got the crier. We need to go back but we need to go armed. Can we have Lori?"

""Yup," commented the Cheese, "Lori is all the protection we need. Good thinking, Bill."

Two Voices asked, "you don't want me?"

"You're too important to us to risk you. We don't know what's there."

"The carpets have a force field and Lori has her mind...and she's small."

"Lori? Will you go?"

"Absolutely, Two Voices. I'm,...we're needed. I've been bothered by crying voices since noon. We need to go now!" Lori just went. She was headed in the right direction.

"Go, Go, Gran will kill me if we lose her. Go!!"

They couldn't ask Carol or Gran, the women were in the Red Topped tipi and would be for two more days. So they followed Lori. Even at the carpets top speed it was well after dark when they reached the Village. Lori immediately homed in on the abandoned mine.

"They're in here, they're very weak and very frightened. There are weapons, I can't see how they work." She just flew in the cave and back out. "It's not a mine. All the walls are smooth and glowing. It hums. There's lots of pretty green lights and a few red lights and a great many buttons. There's a Flashing red light over a big door with a wheel in the middle. It's on the far side of the room. There's windows but they're either dark or covered.

"It's pretty complicated and I'm just a baby, and I don't understand this."

Having an intelligent conversation with a one year old baby who can fly, and talk, is a little weird, she's so smart but there's so much to learn.

"There's this (holding up a closed fist and two fingers) many girls, this many (two fingers) boys and a very old and crazy man. He's really dangerous. He pointed a metal stick thingy at me, it made a noise and threw something at me but I stopped it. Here, Bill, you take it. It's too hot to hold. Oh, sorry. He got really mad because I caught it. He threw the stick on the ground and jumped on it.

"One of the girls has a big bruise on her face. She's breathing but she's very still. I wish you didn't have to shut down the force field to get on the carpet. I have an idea. I need Two Voices. Hi!"

"Oh, baby Girl. That's a great idea, let's do it."

"Mom, Gran, Auntie Beck, Vickie. Look! I can stand" She wobbled a trifle too much and plopped down with a thump on her butt. "I don't see what's the big deal about standing, it hurts!"

"Poor baby," her mom, Carol, rushed to her and picked her and snuggled her, cooing babytalk. "Did the sweetums fall down, go boom?"

Babytalk always got a look from Lori, but the snuggles were very welcome. Kids are kids, no matter how magical. Kids are magical without powers. After all, they're why we're here.

Propagation of the species is the most important part of living. Mankind is endowed with a desire to achieve that end, and an extreme dislike of interference with a love of life. We have an instinctual desire to the perpetuity of the species, and an innate aversion to the thoughts of its entire extinction. Nature has directed us to the original and immediate instincts. Hunger, thirst, the passion which unites the two sexes, the love of pleasure, and the dread of pain. Those five drive us to apply whatever means necessary for us to achieve the final goal: continued existence. What ever else is there, is bonus, gravy to the bread of life.

Science wishes to eliminate the hormonal drive to propagate: let testubes do the dirty work. Religion wants to eliminate knowledge of pleasure: no decent moral human likes sex. Government wants to tax it...whatever, doesn't matter, tax it. Two Voices is here to restore Man: Science, Religion and Government have fucked us all and The Cheese thinks we're here to eliminate virginity.

"We need you to call a town meeting, Chief Jo," said Bill. "You're not going to like what we found."

"Why is it every time the shit hits the fan I get to be in charge?"

"Just lucky, Jo. You're just lucky."

"Can we do it tomorrow?" asked Jo, as she looked around at rapidly homeward couples headed to bed. "There isn't enough people here to have a meeting, and I'm not going to be the one to try and stop 100 horny boys and girls from what comes next." She eyed The Cheese, "speaking of what comes next...it had better be me!!"

"Bill, Jimmy," shouted Chione, from the door of their tipi. "I'm not broke now and I need stretching!"

"Yes ma'am. Tomorrow is just dandy."

"Right on! Man!"

"Dude!!!"