Agent Daniels was continuing to look all over his body. Everything had happened so fast that he had not had time to fully observe his own body. It was fleshier than he had expected but he was remembering everything that had been happening and he could see everyone going about their business around him. To look at him he looked exactly the same as he had done before, he was acting a little differently but it was nothing that would attract any attention towards himself. But internally it was a completely different story, everything that was Agent Daniels had been stored away and replaced by something new, something unrecognisable. He was no longer in control of his own body and there was nothing that he could do about it. It was like his body was a car and his conscience was the driver, but now there was a new driver and the old one had been shunted away.
As he looked around his surroundings he could see all the different people and pieces of equipment around him and he thought that it was a strange place. Although a new consciousness had changed he could still access the memories and he was beginning to remember everything about the company and the people around him.
One thing that did marvel Agent Daniels was when he saw Jessica on the other side of the warehouse like room. It only took him a moment to access the memories about her but even so he still could not get over her size. He had never seen a living thing that was her size and he remembered her gentleness but also her great power. One thing that Agent Daniels liked to do was to oversee training exercises and he had viewed Jessica training on numerous occasions. He had seen first-hand just how powerful she was and although he thought that might be stronger he knew that Jessica was still extremely powerful and equipped with her lighter healing abilities and extended life he thought that she could be a threat to him. But for now there were too many unknowns to make any kind of move. For now he was happy to observe and gain more information before making any moves. He had waited too long for this opportunity and he wasn’t going to scuttle it just like that.
“Hey Jack,” said a female voice. He instantly turned around responding to his name. At first he thought that it was some kind of threat but instead he could see Agent Perry. She had taken off her helmet but was still wearing the rest of the suit. She had seen him just standing there and she had been concerned with him. “Are you alright, you haven’t exactly been yourself ever since you fell over.”
“I’m fine Kate,” replied Agent Daniels as he began to walk away from her. “I just need a moment.” His voice seemed to be cold and distant and it only furthered her concern but she thought that it was best to give him some space for now. They had just been on a dangerous mission and she thought that the pressure had gotten to him a little. She thought that he would be alright if she just gave him some space.
She watched as he walked away and she could still see that he was walking a little strange. It wasn’t something that would be considered to be an unusual walk but it was not the way that Agent Daniels normally walked. His strides didn’t seem to be as long as they normally would and it still looked like he was unsure on how to walk. She knew that she would have to keep an eye on him but for now she let him go. She had no idea what was truly going on underneath so she just walked away so that she could take her suit off. It was very heavy and she wanted to take it off as soon as possible so that she would be able to move at top speed once again.
A short time later Tucker finally emerged from his session with Professor Trump and the two men were laughing with each other as if they were old friends. They had been in a small room together where shrink sessions would normally but it was more than apt for Professor Trump’s interview. From Tucker he had learned a great deal of additional information that he planned on adding to Home’s database on Earth. He had learned a great deal on the sport of football and he found it strange that in some parts of the world it was called soccer instead. He had also learned that there had been a rumoured alien landing in Roswell back in the nineteen forties and he jotted it down so that it could be further investigated. So far Home had come across very few civilizations that had achieved interstellar travel and Earth was too far away from any of them to actually make a successful trip. So far only the people of Home could travel such distances and he knew that it was nothing to do with them.
Throughout the interview there was always an agent present just in case anything happened. Although they didn’t really see Tucker as a threat he still needed to be supervised around the clock. With Jessica preoccupied she couldn’t fulfil her duty so for a short time Chloe had taken up the responsibility. They also thought that things would go more smoothly if he saw a familiar face and on the extreme off chance that something did happen, Chloe was more than capable to deal with it. She was also intrigued with everything that had been said and she wanted to visit Earth herself. Before she didn’t have much interest in it but after meeting Tucker and hearing everything that had been said she wanted to visit Earth. The only problem was that she knew that the next time any agent would go back to Earth it was to take Tucker back and most likely it would be Jessica who would have that responsibility.
As Tucker and Professor Trump walked down the hallways still talking and laughing Chloe followed closely behind them. Sometimes when she travelled around the facility she would purposely stretch her legs so that the trips were easier for her but in this hallway the ceiling was much too low to do another like that. Besides in her mind her guard duty was close to an end and she could get back to some of her other important work. She had a mission to complete herself but unlike the terraforming mission that had just taken place this one was only a routine check up on a distant planet. She wasn’t expecting anything exciting to happen in particular but it was still something that they needed to do.
When Tucker entered another large warehouse size room he discovered Jessica sitting down with a small group of young people in front of her. There were roughly have a dozen of them and they looked to be in their late teens, going into their twenties. At first while he was approaching them he couldn’t hear what they were saying but as he got closer he could hear them asking her different questions about missions and other training exercises. He took a few moments to think and he realised that these must be the trainee agents that Jessica had mentioned some time before. He could hear her calmly and sweetly answering all of their questions and much like many of the other people on Home none of them seemed to be intimidated by her at all. Despite her enormous size Jessica was still able to make people comfortable around her and so far she had done nothing to warrant their fear. There were a few people who were afraid of her but they were the minority. Long ago she had won the acceptance of the people on Home and she would continue to do so as long as she didn’t use her superior size and strength to intimidate people and to get her own way.
“Agent Snape how much time do we have to complete the mid-term exam?” asked a short girl with blond hair. She looked no older then seventeen and Tucker saw Jessica smile down at her.
“Please call me Jessica and the exam has a two and a half hour time limit but you’re a smart girl,” replied Jessica giving the junior agent some confidence. “You won’t need all that time but the best thing you can do is not panic. If you fail it won’t be the end of the world, you’ll have opportunities to make up the grade. But don’t forget that the day after you all have another exam but this one has no passes or fails so you can somewhat relax with that one.” She looked over and saw Tucker with Professor Trump and Chloe and she smiled over to him before focusing back on the junior agents. “Sorry guys but I’ve got training to do myself, don’t forget to study and if you need me for any reason don’t hesitate to ask for my assistance. You are the future of the company and I know that each of you will make great agents one day. My door is always open and if you want to bring any baked goodies you don’t have to ask twice.”
The junior agents all giggled for a moment at Jessica’s little joke before they dispersed. Each of them wanted to study for the next exam and they all liked to be around Jessica. She was very nice to them and she wouldn’t hesitate in helping them if they had a problem. A couple of the boys even had a crush on her even though she was old enough to be their distant ancestor. A couple of the girls had even asked her on beauty tips and she shared with them her secrets on how she kept her body looking perfect. She even told them that she was nowhere near as a good as a beautician as her old friend who had taught her everything she knew about beauty.
With the junior agents gone Jessica could finally turn his attentions back to Tucker and the others. She was happy to see that he had finished with his talk with Professor Trump, she had wanted to see him ever since she had come back from the mission but she knew that he would probably still be busy. She knew that as soon as he had finished he would be returned to her supervision and she had been looking forward to it for the last few minutes. While she waited she had decided to counsel a few of the junior agents before he returned. She watched as he walked up to her along with Professor Trump and Sue.
“Hey there Tucker,” said Jessica with a wave. “How did it go?”
“Bloody lovely Jessica,” replied Tucker with a smile still remaining on his face. “My mate here is a diamond geezer.” He had his arm around Professor Trump and he laughed. Professor Trump was also smiling although he didn’t fully understand what a diamond geezer was but from the context and tone of Tucker’s voice he deduced that it was a compliment.
“This is a remarkable man Agent Snape,” said Professor Trump, he was a balding man wearing a clean shirt and black trousers. He also wore a tie and a jacket and it was like he was wearing a business suit. “Out of all the people I’ve ever had the pleasure to speak with Mr. Martel here is definitely the most fascinating. I have learned a great deal from our little talk and I wish to have another session with him in the near future. The information that he’s told me will fill in many blanks that we have on Earth.”
“I told you that he was a one in a million guy,” replied Jessica. She lowered her hand down in front of Tucker. He didn’t hesitate in taking his arm off Professor Trump and stepping onto her hand. He felt completely safe with her as she gently rose him up into the air and he sat down on her soft palm. If he didn’t know any better he would have thought that he was sitting on the world’s softest pillow but in truth the only thing that was softer than her hand was the giantess herself. “And now we’re going to have a bit more fun before we break for lunch.” She looked down again at Professor Trump and Chloe and gave them another smile. Thanks for looking after him while I was gone.”
“Don’t sweat it Jess,” answered Chloe. “You still up for a girl’s night out next week?”
“I’m sorry Chloe but I have to wash my hair that night.” Jessica gave her friend a quick wink and Chloe picked it up immediately. She knew what was going on and she just gave Jessica a quick nod.
“Ok that’s cool I’ll tell the other girls.” She turned around to walk away but she waved at Jessica before she left. “Just take care Jess you big lummox.”
With that Chloe led Professor Trump away leaving Jessica alone with Tucker. She was happy to have him again and she watched for a moment while Chloe and Professor Trump walked away. Both had important work that they needed to complete so they were eager to get started or else they would be able to get back home. Tucker was also glad to be back with Jessica, ever since he had come to Home he had felt lost when he wasn’t with her. She was like his guardian angel while he was here and if he didn’t have her, then he thought that the place would have driven him insane by now. He had been getting use to the advanced technology that was available on Home but without her he would have no idea how to do anything or where he would need to go. He most likely would be on the streets and he felt that living on the streets of Home was just as difficult as living on the streets on Earth. He couldn’t be more thankful for her letting him stay with her before he had to go back to Earth. He knew that she didn’t have much choice in the matter but she didn’t seem to mind at all. She had never showed any regret for letting him stay with her; in fact it seemed to be the opposite.
“So how did the mission go?” asked Tucker with much interest. “Does that planet now have a breathable atmosphere?”
“For now no,” replied Jessica. “That takes time unfortunately but at this stage everything is going according to plan. Hopefully before we know it we can start colonizing the planet. I’ve heard that they might be using it as a nature reserve for various different species of animals but I’m not too sure yet.”
“Can you put dinosaurs on there just like in Jurassic Park?” He waited for a moment and saw a confused look on Jessica’s face. He realised that she had not understood what he had said since she didn’t know what a dinosaur was and she had definitely not watched Jurassic Park.
“What’s a dinosaur and what’s Jurassic Park?” She was very curious and she could guess that a dinosaur was some kind of creature but she had absolutely no idea what Jurassic Park was.
“Dinosaurs were a race of reptiles that ruled Earth millions of years ago. They’re all extinct now and Jurassic Park was a film about dinosaurs.” He could still see a small amount of confusion in Jessica’s face and he thought of a little joke that he could use. “I’m surprised that you haven’t met a dinosaur. I could have sworn that you would have gone to Earth when they were still around.”
“Hey I’m not that old you cheeky little man.” She couldn’t help but find the joke funny and she did respond to it with a smile before she slowly stood up to her full height and walked away. She had a training session to complete before she could go for lunch but she knew that Tucker would enjoy it.
As Jessica walked towards the training area Tucker looked down from her hand and he still couldn’t get over the view. Everyone around him looked so tiny from where he was sitting, only on a few occasions in his life had he ever been this high up before he met Jessica. He couldn’t believe that this was the view that Jessica saw every day of her life. He could imagine how a person could think that they were above everyone and not just in the literal strength. From what he had seen of her she acted just like she was a normal person rather than a being that could destroy everything in sight if people didn’t do what she wanted. There was only one word that he could use to describe her, she was a gift and not just to him but for everyone in the galaxy. He didn’t know where his life would have taken him if he hadn’t of met her, his life had been a downward spiral for some years and she was the first good thing to have happened to him in that time. He wanted to enjoy his time with her as much as he could.
After several minutes Jessica was standing outside a large door that had been specially scaled up for her. Just by the side of it was a much smaller door that was made for normal sized people and Gloria was standing there waiting for them. She was one of the most gifted scientists that the company had to offer and she had been informed what was about to happen. Jessica had asked her superiors first whether or not Tucker was allowed to set up a training scenario. They thought that his input would benefit the training exercises and the fact that they were going to erase his memories when he returned to Earth they saw no harm in allowing him to create a training exercise. But just before she entered the training room she placed Tucker gently on the ground right next to Gloria. He recognised her but he couldn’t remember her name.
“Hi Glory,” said Tucker trying to remember her name. It was as close as he could remember and he even needed to think about one of the villains from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
“Hi Mr Martel,” replied Gloria ignoring the fact that he had gotten her name wrong. “You remember me don’t you?”
“Yeah sure you were there when Jessica first took me on one of her missions. It’s hard for me to forget something like that.”
“Very good so we can skip the introductions. Just to let you know that you’ll be one of the few people who will have seen the inside of our control room. Not only that but you also have the privilege of creating a training exercise for Agent Snape.”
“How do I do that? I’m not too good with gadgets.”
“You don’t need to worry about that. You’re only limited to your imagination and the computer systems will do the rest.”
“But what if I break something? I seem to have that way with machines and from what you’re saying this sounds like very expensive pieces of equipment. I don’t want to be paying for it for the rest of my life.
“Don’t worry Tucker,” replied Jessica in her sweet angelic voice that gave Tucker more confidence. “Believe there is nothing that you could break, when we build something we build it to last and besides I know that you’ll be careful.” She then stood up to her full height and crossed her arms and she had a stern look on her face. “Now go and make the darn best training scenario on Home and don’t go easy on me. I feel like a challenge today and I won’t be happy with anything less.”
“You don’t need to worry about that,” answered Tucker with a somewhat evil grin on his face. “I have something perfect in mind for you.”
“Good because I’d be really disappointed if made the scenario too easy for me.”
With that the door to the training area opened up and Jessica walked through it as Tucker was taken into the control room. Inside he could see a couple of scientists looking at various screens, a couple of them were at a couple of different control panels and they were typing away. One other person who was inside that Tucker didn’t recognise was Agent Daniels, he was scheduled for a training session after Jessica and he was awaiting his turn. When Tucker looked at him he felt that something was off. He didn’t know what it was and he thought that his anxiety was just acting up. He could see the cold stare in Agent Daniels eyes as he just stood there looking at a large screen. The screen showed Jessica waiting in the training area in what seemed to be a completely blank room. She had her arms crossed as she waited for the session to activate but since it had not even been created yet she might have had to wait for a couple of minutes.
The room itself was more advanced than anything that Tucker had ever seen before. Almost every piece of equipment was decades, even centuries ahead of anything on Earth. If he were to try and operate any of the equipment he would have absolutely no idea where to begin. He could imagine some of the most brilliant minds on the planet would fail to operate such equipment. The ceiling was relatively low in comparison to many of the other rooms that Tucker had entered but he figured that most of them had been intended for Jessica to walk through normally. Rooms like this where she wasn’t required to enter were kept scaled down for normal people. It was similar to a few of the rooms that Tucker had entered where Jessica was never intended to go. He wondered if Jessica was normal size whether she would be able to operate any of this equipment. He had heard that she was very intelligent so he didn’t think that she would have too much of a problem.
As Tucker walked past Agent Daniels he was taken to a console that had a helmet attached to it by a series of cables. The console was fixed to the wall and had a small screen attached to it as well. The screen was much too small to be viewed by several people and for the moment it seemed to be blank. He watched as Gloria picked up the helmet and gentle placed it on his head, it was surprisingly light and he was confused with what was happening.
“What is all this?” asked Tucker with much confusion in his voice. With the helmet on he felt like he was about to experience some kind of virtual reality game.
“This is what we use to create our training simulations,” replied Gloria. “You simply think of the simulations and the systems will pick up on your brainwaves and then create the simulation. It’s a marvellous piece of technology if I do say so myself.”
“So I can think of anything and it’ll just be created just like that?”
“Just like that and you don’t have to worry about creating anything that could harm someone. As soon as a simulation been created the program is scanned thoroughly and all safety restraints are placed so that no one can be harmed. You could create a sea of lava or an army of soldiers with high powered weapons and they still wouldn’t cause any harm to a trainer. All physical attacks will be felt but won’t cause any damage, instead the systems will measure how much damage the attacks would cause if they were real. If the trainer receives too much of what we call theorised damage then the session is over. So far from the few centuries that we have been using training simulations like this we have had no trainer killed or even injured, the only part of them that takes any kind of true beating is their pride.”
“I see then I’ll give Jessica a session she’ll never forget.”
He had a couple of different scenarios in mind and he found it difficult to pick one. He wanted to use a couple of scenes from different films he had watched over the years or even have him fight cartoon characters that he used to watch as a child. There are a few of his childhood villains that he would love to watch Jessica combat. But one idea did pop into his mind and he thought that it would be interesting to see, it was something that had just popped in there at the last moment and he thought that it was a good idea. He concentrated on the idea and the systems began to scan it and almost instantly it began to create a simulation based around the idea.
The entire process only took a couple of seconds and Tucker was extremely surprised when the screen on the console read the words ‘Simulation complete, initiate when ready’. He had expected something like that to take minutes, maybe even hours but he never thought that it would happen in that short amount of time. The speed that everything had been processed at was almost impossible in his mind. He knew that the computer systems on Home were much more advanced than they were on Earth but even he didn’t think that everything would have been completed so fast.
“Bloody hell that was fast,” said Tucker in astonishment when he saw the ‘Simulation complete, initiate when ready’ message appeared on the small screen.
“Actually that was quite slow,” replied Gloria as she looked at the simulation creator equipment. “I might need to take a look at it when Agent Snape’s training has been completed, but I can see why you think it would be so fast. We’re amazed that your race even has computers, but your most advanced computer is but a fossil in comparison to our own.”
“I used to have a friend who was a computer whiz. I bet if he found himself here he’d have a fucking field day. Or most likely his head would just explode.”
“Very funny Mr Martel.” She did chuckle for a moment but she didn’t like his colourful language. “Now if you would just follow me we can begin.”
Tucker was more than eager to follow Gloria as she led him to a large console that was also accompanied with a very large screen. He could see Jessica was still waiting for the session to begin and she just kept her arms crossed and tapped on her arms with her fingers while she waited. The console had so many different switches and buttons that Tucker wouldn’t even begin to know which one did what. He feared that if he were to push a single button the entire complex would explode. It was a worst case scenario of course but the thought seemed to stick in her mind.
“So what’s all this for?” asked Tucker with curiosity. To him he felt like a child who had just gotten his hands on his mother’s mobile phone and was eager to find out what this button did.
“This is basically the brain of the training room beyond this wall,” replied Gloria. “Everything that happens in there is controlled by this console. We could create any simulation imaginable and if we see that an Agent is running into trouble we can pull the plug from here and the room will revert to normal.” She began to push a couple of buttons and the training room itself began to light up brightly. “Now let’s see if you’ve created a decent challenge for Agent Snape.”
Inside the training room Jessica could see everything change. It was a sight that she had seen on numerous occasions in the past so it was no surprise to her so she just stood there and waited for the room to adjust itself. Within seconds the room transformed from a bland featureless room to being in the middle of a city. As Jessica looked around she didn’t recognise which city it was but she noticed that a lot of things looked primitive in comparison to what she saw every day. She guessed that Tucker had created a simulation that took place in a city on Earth, she didn’t know it but she was in the middle of New York City. Many of the buildings around her did tower above her but they were not as impressive as the ones she had seen in her own cities. The streets were deserted but she could see several yellow taxi cabs all over the ground. She didn’t know that they were taxis and she was waiting for the danger to rear its ugly head. Tucker had never been to New York City but he was basing it on sources that he had seen in movies, TV shows and in magazines. It was what he imagined that New York City looked like but he just didn’t add any people to it. Jessica didn’t have to wait long for the danger and she felt herself become engulfed in a shadow. When she turned around she had to look up and up. She was amazed with what she could see and she thought that Tucker had actually given her a challenge.
“Well this is interesting,” said Jessica with a smile.