Jack was the sheriff of a small Oregon town called Eureka, and he’d been its sheriff for almost ten years now.

From the outside, Eureka didn’t look too different from any other sleepy small town, but looks were deceiving.

After the war, with the help of Albert Einstein and other trusted advisors, President Truman commissioned a top-secret residential development in the Pacific Northwest that would serve to protect and nurture America's most valuable intellectual resources. America's greatest thinkers, the uber-geniuses working on the next generation of scientific advances, would be able to live and work in a supportive environment.

So was born Eureka - a secretive government-run company town operated by a government-controlled corporation called Global Dynamics (GD) that, due to the nature of the research done there, is overseen by the United States Department of Defense. The town's existence and location are therefore closely guarded secrets.

Ever since then, the town remained at the most cutting edge of state-of-the-art. The government kept their technologies hush-hush, of course, and pumped all of the inventions and discoveries of the town’s geniuses through GD for the purpose of giving the technology providence and a totally innocuous and completely legal paper trail that leads away from any connection to a town of geniuses called Eureka.

For all its familiar, small-town trappings, things in this seemingly normal town were anything but ordinary. Most of the quantum leaps in science and technology during the past 60 years were produced by Eureka's elite researchers, but their experiments go awry regularly, inevitable if all you had were geniuses who had very little time for boring things like safety and security.

That was why the town’s police force, in the person of the sheriff and his deputies, was so important. However, after an accident that took his leg, Sheriff William Cobb decided to retire, and the Department of Defense hired Jack Carter, a US Marshal passing through town at the time and helping them with solving the latest “incident.”

And for more than five years, Jack Carter did his best to cope, handling everything that came the town’s way with dedication, humor and his own brand of homespun street smarts that none of the scientists seemed to have. He even had time to fall in love with Global Dynamics’ brilliant director, Dr. Allison Blake, and to find a best friend, Dr. Henry Deacon, who happened to be Eureka’s smartest genius as well as the town’s mayor.

However, after over sixty years of never-ending accidents, emergencies and skyrocketing costs, the government decided to shut down the magnificent experiment.

The town’s citizens didn’t take that sitting down, of course. With the help of a secret super-rich benefactor with the clearly made-up name of “Trent Rockwell,” they “bought” the town from the government, and they’ve been running Eureka and Global Dynamics on their own ever since.

It was a wake-up call for the townsfolk because, ever since, for over five years now, they’ve had to cope on their own and earn their own keep (they didn’t have access to the government’s bottomless wallet anymore), and not turn to the government for everything.

That’s partly why Jack was on his way to Eureka’s town limits to welcome its new client.

Dr. Jennifer Connery, one of the world’s foremost roboticists, was working on a hush-hush project over at the government’s other super-secret brain trust, Area 51, but she had hit a snag that she couldn’t seem to solve.

She, through Defense Department intermediaries, contacted Allison Blake and Henry Deacon and, despite their misgivings at working with the Defense Department again, they couldn’t turn down the $500 million up-front fee. Besides, it was a chance to work with the famous Doctor Connery, the so-called Queen of Robots.

- - - - -

As he was driving, Jack’s communicator started beeping, and he pulled it out. It was Dr. Allison Blake, Jack’s wife of five years, and GD’s present COO.

“Hey, Allison,” he said pleasantly, “what’s up?”

“Hi, Jack,” Allison replied. “The kids and I just left for my folks a few minutes ago. Just wanted to make sure you’re all set.”

“Aw, Allison, I can manage. Say hi to your folks for me. I’m sure they’re still in shock that we got married. And tell your brother he still owes me money from before.”

Allison laughed. “I’ll be sure to tell Marcus that. Sarah has the house fully stocked so you’ll be okay until we get back on Saturday, and Henry’s all set for Dr. Connery.”

“Great, great. How about Andy?”

“Great idea on that, by the way. Henry just finished running him through a checkout in the robotics lab in Section Ten, and had him spruced up and cleaned. I’m sure Dr. Connery will be pleased to check him out.”

“Good to know. Ummm, you’re not driving, are you?”

“Ah, no. Kevin is.“

“Ummm, do you think that’s a good idea?”

Allison sighed. “Jack, he’s seventeen already. And he’s had his driver’s license for a month!”

“Well...”

“Lemme, put you on speakerphone.”

“Ummm...”

“Hey, Jack,” Kevin, Allison’s son from her first marriage, said. “How’s it going?”

“I’m good. How about you?”

“God, Jack! We’re not even ten minutes from the house!”

“I’m sorry, Kev. I’m just a bit worried – you’re driving your sisters and your mom...”

He sighed. “I’ll be careful. Mom and the girls will be safe.”

“Good enough for me! How’s Jenna? How’s little Kimmy doing? She liking the car ride so far?”

Kevin laughed. “She’s been giggling nonstop! She and Jenna are pretty good. They’re in the back seat with mom.”

“Great! Okay, Big Kev. I’m counting on you to take care of the family, okay?”

“You’re worse than Mom, Jack. Anyway, leave us alone so I can concentrate.”

Jack laughed. “Okay, Kev. Bye, Allison! Give the girls a kiss for me.”

“Talk to you later, Jack. Love you!”

Allison hung up, and Jack suddenly felt lonely.

“All alone...” he muttered.

Jack worried if Allison’s kids, Kev and Jenna, and his own daughter from his first marriage, Zoe, would take to little Kimmie, but they took to her right away, and Kev and, especially, Zoe fell in love with their little bundle of sunshine. In fact, for her two-week vacation this year, she decided to spend it in Eureka just so she can spend time with her five-year-old little sister. Which is amazing since she rarely takes time off from being a medical research resident in Johns Hopkins.

He stopped at Eureka’s single stoplight, and waited for the green light.

There was a girl at the corner, also waiting for the light to change. It was ridiculous, actually, as there was no traffic. But the two of them still waited.

Jack and the girl looked at each other and both burst into laughter. Well, Jack did. The girl didn’t and just looked like she was laughing. Ellie was one of the kids of one of Eureka’s top researchers. She was both deaf and mute, owing to a congenital ear defect. And she was just waiting for the doctors to tell her she was old enough to receive her new hearing implant, and that should be any day now.

“Why don’t you cross?” he signed to the fourteen-year old.

“Why don’t you?” she signed back.

“Can’t,” he replied. “I’m the sheriff – I have to show an example.”

Jack learned Sign Language when he was growing up with a deaf best friend – a skill which helped him get to know Ellie. In fact, Jack became one of Ellie’s closest friends, almost like a big brother or uncle – in fact, her only real adult friend.

Ellie stuck her tongue out at him, and giggled again.
The lights changed.

“Light’s green,” she signed.

“Right,” he replied. “have a good day, Ellie.”

“Later, Jack.” And the girl crossed the street, skipping all the way.

Jack passed the last of the town’s houses, and streetlights gave way to trees and more trees. Typical Oregon forest. So he started to pay more attention to his driving. Can’t afford to have an accident, he thought, without anyone around to help.

Normally, this need to meet visitors didn’t used to be necessary - it used to be that visitors would drive directly into town on their own.

But without the shield that the government used to have around Eureka, the town have had to think of other ways to discourage unwanted visitors until they could get a new shield up. So since the town’s “privatization,” electronic mapping (by special arrangement with Google and the other street mapping services) had been disabled to discourage visitors.

Jack pulled up near Eureka’s white Welcome Sign that marked the boundary of the town, and prepared to wait for the arrival of this new scientist.

The sign indicated that the town had a population of 3,501 – a little up from the old number. Over the past few years, they’ve had to hire a bunch of new people to replace the ones that did not sign on again after their previous contracts were automatically terminated when the government pulled out. Aside from these vacancies, there were also positions that used to be filled by government people so they had to hire new people for those vacancies as well.

The “1” in the count was, of course, the town’s youngest citizen - Jack’s and Allison’s new baby, Kim, named after their friend and Henry’s girlfriend, Kim Yamazaki-Anderson.

Jack didn’t have long to wait. In about fifteen minutes, a shiny, bright cherry-red Tesla Roadster came into view, and a large Freightliner box truck followed it.

The sporty Tesla pulled up right across from Jack, with the truck right behind it.

“Hi!” a beautiful brunette girl said as she leaned out of the driver-side window and waved. “You’re Sheriff Carter, from Eureka, right?”

Jack walked towards her.

“How did you guess?” Jack smiled.

She shrugged. “I don’t know – I guess there’s just something sheriff-y about you.”

Jack laughed. “Yes, I’m Sheriff Carter. You’re Dr. Jennifer Connery, then?”

“Yes, I’m afraid, and before you ask, no relation.”

“Pardon?”

“You were about to ask if I was related to Sean Connery,” she giggled.

“Ahhh. Not really, but now that you mention it...”

“Yes, no relation.”

“Got it. Anyway, I am supposed to escort you back to GD so you can meet with Dr. Henry Deacon...”

“Dr. Deacon! I’ve wanted to meet the legendary Dr. Henry Deacon for a long time now!”

Jack laughed. “Yes. Around here, we love Henry, too.”

“No doubt.”

“But I have to check some papers and check your, ummm, luggage.”

Jennifer laughed. “By all means.”

She stepped out of the car and handed Jack a folder. Jack went over all the paperwork, checking it against the papers Allison gave him the day before and they all checked out.

He then ran his little pen-scanner over the signatures and the DoD hologram seal and they all checked out as genuine.

“Hey, Sheriff Carter?” Jennifer asked. ”Can you take a picture?” She handed Carter her phone.

“Sure.”

He took a picture of her leaning against the town’s Welcome Sign.

“Thanks!” she said, and took her phone back.

“Send me a copy of that. Ummm, Doctor Connery,” he said, “I need to check your truck now.”

“Of course, Sheriff. And please call me Jennifer,” she said, and led him to the truck.

The truck’s driver and two others dressed in US army tactical uniforms, and very well armed, too, got out of the truck’s cab.

At Jack’s approach, the three actually saluted.

“At ease guys,” Jack said, “just your friendly neighborhood sheriff.” He turned to Jennifer. “Well, that’s a change.”

“What do you mean?” she asked as she led him to the back of the truck. The three soldiers followed.

“The saluting.” Jack aped the soldiers.

“Well, they’ve been briefed for this delivery run to Eureka, and they know all about you. You’re sort of a legend over in Area 51.”

“Is that so?” he grinned.

“I’m afraid it is,” Jennifer laughed.

She opened the back of the truck and stepped aside.

“Here you go.”

Jack nodded and climbed inside.

“Holy!” Jack cried. In the back of the truck was a giant figure in shadow. It had two glowing red eyes. Jack was startled, to say the least.

“Sorry, Sheriff,” Jennifer said as she climbed up as well. “That’s my robot. Don’t worry, he’s harmless.”

Jack just nodded, brought up his scanner and pressed a button. A bright flash like a camera flash bathed the inside of the truck. The robot stirred and stood, and raised an arm, palm forward. He looked like Iron Man trying to fire a repulsor beam or something.

But nothing came from his palm, and all Jack heard was empty clicking, like the clicks from a camera.

“What’s it doing?”

“Ross thinks you’re trying to hurt him so he was trying to fire his weapon at you, but he’s been disarmed.” She waved it down and the robot lowered its arm.

“Oh. What is it usually armed with?”

“Anything at all. But standard are electronic stunner guns that have the effect of mild tasers.”

“Well, thank god it’s disarmed. But isn’t that dangerous? What if your robot does that again when it’s armed?”

Jennifer nodded. “You’re right, of course. Ross isn’t finished, and that one is one of the things I’m still fixing. That’s why I’m here. I’m hoping to ask your people to help me finish him. What was that flash about?”

“A hologram camera. I was cross-checking your truck’s contents with the list that was provided us.” He looked at a little screen he held in his hand. “And everything checks out except those three cases.” He pointed to them. “I take it this one’s you personal effects?”

“Yes.” She opened it and Jack ran the scanner over it.

“What about these two? My scanner can’t see the contents. Are they shielded?”

Jennifer hesitated.

“Come on, Dr. Connery. I have to know what’s in there. Otherwise, I can’t let you into the town.”

“All right,” she finally said. “To answer your question, yes, the crates are shielded. They contain various weapons and components of weapons, to be tested out on the robot platform.”

“You mean ‘Ross.’”

“Yes.” She brought out a key and opened the crates.

Jack peeked inside and recognized several of the pieces – they were mostly advanced hand weapons of Eureka design. The Global Dynamics logo stamped on the sides confirmed it. It seemed that it wasn’t just the soldiers that had been studying up on Eureka.

He looked back at Jennifer. “I have to call in these weapons,” he said, and brought up his communicator and called Henry.

Jennifer and the soldiers could hear their conversation clearly, but Jack wasn’t really trying to keep it quiet.

Essentially, Jack told Henry that Jennifer needed the weapons for her work with “Ross,” but he wasn’t happy to have weapons outside of Section Five, so Henry was forced to have Jack bring the weapons into GD instead of Jennifer. Jack got the soldiers to move the two crates of weapons to the back of his jeep and Jennifer shut the truck back up.

So the three vehicles made for GD, with Jack’s jeep at the head followed by Dr. Connery, and the truck trailing.

In less than twenty minutes, they reached what looked like an old washed-out bridge with a broken-down “Bridge Out” sign and barrier stopping people from continuing on.

Jack stopped, and the others stopped as well.

Jack got out of the car and went to Jennifer’s window.

“Bridge out, huh, Sheriff,” Jennifer said.

“Listen,” he said to Jennifer, “you’re gonna see something incredible. But you have to trust me and follow my lead, okay?”

Though Jennifer was puzzled, she nodded nevertheless.

Jack went to the truck and told the driver the same thing.

After which, Jennifer and her soldiers did, indeed, see an incredible thing – Jack driving his car to the bridge, and, as he reached it, he and his jeep disappeared.

“It’s some kind of hologram!” Jennifer exclaimed. After a few moments, Jennifer decided to trust Jack, took a deep breath and floored the accelerator!

As soon as she passed the image of the broken-down bridge, it was like she emerged into a totally different place. She saw a long road and, in the distance was a big, high-tech kind of building on a low hill festooned with several large radar and microwave antennae, and other things that she barely recognized.

Jack had pulled up several hundred meters away. It seemed that he knew she’d floor the gas, and had given her enough room so she wouldn’t rear-end him. She pulled up behind him.

After a minute, the truck also barreled through.

Jack gave them a moment to get their wits back, and then they continued on.

After passing through a more conventional security gate manned by human guards, they were in Global Dynamics, arguably the most advanced scientific research facility in the world.

They parked in an underground loading dock, where technicians and other people helped unload all of Dr. Connery’s equipment onto large carts, and brought it all to the Robotics Lab in Section Ten.

As for her robot, it followed her obediently. It was over seven feet tall and had a menacing, robotic look. Sure, it had two arms, two legs, a head and a torso, but no other efforts were taken to make it look more humanoid. It didn’t even have proper hands or even a face – totally mechanical and robotic.

As Jennifer and her little procession, minus Jack, crossed the main rotunda, Henry came over.

“Dr. Connery,” he said, extending his hand, “it’s a pleasure to meet you. Your reputation as one of the world’s foremost roboticists precedes you. Andy, your other robot, has been a great help to the town. Welcome to GD.”

“As does yours,” she smiled and shook his hand. “Thank you, Doctor Deacon. It’s great to finally meet the legendary genius.”

“Thank you so much!”

“I’m afraid to say, though, that Andy isn’t completely mine. I only designed his basic endoskeleton, motorized muscles, navigation, motor actuators and controllers. But the rest are mostly from DARPA, MIT, Ohio State, Cornell and Carnegie-Mellon university labs.”

“Ahhh. I didn’t know that.”

Henry went around her and looked at her new giant robot up close.

“So this is your robot. Big fella, isn’t he? What’s his name?”

“Yes, he is. We call him ‘Ross.’”

Given Jack’s discovery of the weapons, Henry re-evaluated this new project. It would almost seem that this “Ross” robot wasn’t just any robot, but was indeed some kind of weapons system from the Department of Defense. And looking at the robot itself now, Henry thought that assumption was probably correct. Maybe it would be better to house Dr. Connery and her robot in Section Five, after all, Henry thought. In the end, though, Henry decided to give Jennifer the benefit of the doubt and just let her new billeting in Section Ten stand. They’d know soon enough if there was something to worry about.

Henry and Jennifer talked some more as Henry politely escorted her to her new lab.

“Where’s Sheriff Carter, by the way?” Jennifer asked as they stepped into a large cargo elevator.

“He’s taken your weapons over to Section Five for inventory,” he answered. “I’m sorry about that, Doctor, but we needed to do that. Safety et cetera, et cetera.”

“No need to apologize. I totally understand.” She looked at the indicator lights. “Where are we going?”

The elevator opened and they all stepped out into a wide hallway with several large warehouse-size doors on the left side, all marked.

Henry started leading them down the hall.

“The GD plant is made up of several levels. What you see aboveground are the main offices – what we call Section One. The laboratories and research facilities are in all the other sections underground. Like here.

“Section Two is dedicated to the Quantum Frequency Project.” He gestured to the first set of doors marked “Section Two.”

“Section Three is Records and Primate Studies,” he continued, as they were about to pass its doors. “Section Four is the EM barrier control room. Right now Section Four isn’t in use - still undergoing refit. The government took our EM and other defense shields and systems and we’re required not to replicate them. We’re currently brainstorming equivalent technology to replace all of it at the moment. Right now it’s pretty empty.”

“The people I’ve talked to always mention Section Five...”

Henry grinned. “Well, yes, Section Five is pretty well known. It’s the section for military tech. But we’ve lost almost eighty percent of our military projects, so the labs there are looking pretty empty as well. We’re still trying to find other contracts to cover for the revenue shortfall, actually.”

“Are we going to Section Five, then?”

Henry looked at her suspiciously. “Are you saying Ross is a military robot, then, Dr. Connery?”

“Oh, not at all,” she replied. “I guess I was just hoping to see Section Five. Besides, your contract is with the Defense Department, after all, right?”

Henry looked at her suspiciously.

“If it’s not a military robot, then what kind of robot is it?”

“It’s an all-purpose robot – it can be programmed to do anything - its arms can be changed to use any tool or implement, its legs can be changed for any kind of locomotion system for any terrain. It’s meant to handle anything, especially repetitive, predictable or managed tasks, with the highest level of precision.”

“That includes handling firearms, then?”

She shrugged. “Of course. I work for the Defense Department, after all. I can’t be naive about it.”

“I suppose.”

“So where am I going to be?”

“You’re going to be in Section Ten,” he said. “The Robotics Labs are there, as well as other labs. You’ll find everything you need there, and everyone is ready to collaborate or assist.”

As they passed Section Five, they heard someone call out.

“Henry!” Jack called.

They all turned, including Ross – it swiveled its whole upper torso via a hinge at the waist.

“You gotta see this!” Jack’s tone made him sound excited but he had a worried look on his face. He held up what looked like a high-tech sawed-off chrome shotgun.

Suddenly, Ross swiveled around again, with its arm outstretched. The blow hit Jack and threw him against the wall. The shotgun-like thing clattered to the ground.

Ross looked at the shotgun for a moment, and then started moving towards it, its arm outstretched to pick it up.

Thinking fast, Jack dived for the gun and grabbed it. Ross was an instant too late. Instead, it whipped it arm up and Jack was thrown to the other side of the hall, and Jack fetched up against the doors to Section Nine. Jack saw that it didn’t have a red restricted light on the door controls, so he pressed the button. The doors slid aside.

“Henry, call Jo!” Jack yelled, and dived through the doors. He pressed the button inside and the doors slid closed again. Jack used his sidearm and fired at the controls, jamming the door closed.

He sighed. But then, the robot started hammering at the doors. Jack saw the door starting to buckle so he backed up.

Looking around, he noted that there was little to hide behind or to distract the robot. He didn’t have a choice so he stood behind a big freestanding cabinet. He stuck the high-tech shotgun into the belt behind his back, and held his handgun ready.

The pounding on the doors continued. The power of the robot was incredible because the doors, designed to withstand almost any kind of weapon currently known, started to give way.

“Just another day in Eureka,” Jack muttered and took aim at the doors. “Everybody back!” he called, and the people in Section Nine moved farther back into the labs.

After the doors went down, the giant robot was revealed standing there.

It stepped through the wrecked doorway. Jack waited until Ross was well inside the lab and opened fire, but his bullets just bounced off harmlessly.

“Shoulda known that,” he said. The robot moved surprisingly fast so Jack hurried to the back of another cabinet.

He ejected the empty clip and slapped in a new one. Peeking around the shelf, he sighted down his gun and aimed at specific areas – places where he thought the robot would be vulnerable, like joints, hinges, the neck or on the faceplate.

None of the spots he hit seemed vulnerable, but when he hit the joint at the robot’s right shoulder, the robot stopped. That arm dropped and it seemed like it couldn’t move it anymore.

But Ross seemed to decide to ignore that and started moving again.

That galvanized Jack. His shot told him he was on the right track and started reloading his gun. But the robot was already getting close.

Jack hit the cabinet with his shoulder and made it fall on top of Ross.

Many of the devices on the shelf were plugged in or powered up or doing whatever they were doing, so a lot of them exploded.

Jack had an instinct that told him that wouldn’t really cause much damage to Ross, so he backed up behind the next shelf, and finished reloading.

“Now’s your chance!” he called to the others in Section Nine. “Everybody out!”

All the frightened scientists ran for the broken doors and escaped out into the hallway.

As he expected, the robot wasn’t hurt much and, after a minute, it started to get up. It approached him again, and Jack made the new shelf crash on it again. There was another series of explosions but Ross recovered more quickly. Jack knew it wouldn’t fall for that trick again.

As it stood up, Jack moved back to the next shelf. But the robot stood well back this time.

Jack fired his gun again but didn’t get to hit any new vulnerable spots.

Aside from being able to learn, Ross also seemed to know anger, as well as to carry grudges.

The robot reached out with its good arm and pushed the shelf and, this time, the shelf fell over Jack.

This particular shelf was full of glass containers full of certain chemicals, and as the cryogenic containers broke, some of them quickly hissed into steam in the thermal heat caused by exploding equipment.

The robot then moved on to the next shelf and made it fall on top of Jack as well.

The equipment on that new shelf exploded as well, and several flashes exploded like little flashbulbs.

More of the chemicals from the previous shelf sublimated into steam but they quickly dissipated.

“Hey!” Jo Lupo, GD’s head of security called out and fired her gun at the robot.

Her shots were just as ineffective as Jack’s, as well as the shots fired by her security staff. Ross looked back at Jo and her people, and started moving towards them.

“Everybody back,” Jo called. “Keep on firing!”

But the robot was relentless and, in moments, was in the hallway. And everyone was out in the hallway, too.

Jo and her people stopped firing since they were clearly not hurting the robot, and they could actually hurt someone with a stray shot or ricochet.

The robot was now standing in the hallway, and everyone had scattered. Only Henry, Jo and her people stayed. Jennifer stood by Henry as well while she frantically pushed buttons on a tablet. Presumably, the tablet was the robot’s control. In any case, they seemed to have no effect.

The robot started making for them, and then someone called.

“Hey, Ross!” someone yelled. It was a tall blonde girl wearing a loose khaki-colored sheriff’s uniform, but no pants. She stood in Section Nine’s broken doorway.

Ross swiveled his torso like before and, when he was facing the girl, she lifted the chrome shotgun Jack brought and fired it. A loud explosion reverberated in the hall and, whatever it was, it blew eighty percent of Ross’s head clean off.

In the sudden stillness, Ross stopped moving. And, after a moment, it toppled to the ground.

“Hey, Jo,” the mysterious girl said.

“Who are...” And then Jo noticed the uniform shirt. “Is that you, Jack?”

“None other,” the girl replied, and then fell down in a dead faint.

- - - - -

So they had Ross the headless robot quarantined in Section Ten, and questioned their new scientist, Dr. Connery, and cleaned up Section Nine. Investigations were ongoing, and repairs were underway. Things should be back to normal in a day or so.

As for Jack, they had the new girl checked out as thoroughly as they knew how, and had her released from the medical section in six hours with a completely clean bill of health.

So there he was in Henry’s office, after stopping by the cafeteria for several sandwiches (he was unaccountably famished), looking at himself in a mirror someone got from somewhere. At best, he looked like some twenty-year-old blonde hottie. Maybe younger. A lot younger. God.

The choice of clothes wasn’t that glamorous, he thought, but he seemed to be able to make it work. And, looking at his reflection, he was doing more than just making it work.

He wished Pilar had picked something more conservative. Now, he was thinking it was a mistake that he gave her his credit card for her to buy him a temporary wardrobe. He didn’t have a choice - Henry said it might take him a while before he figured out what happened to Jack, and even longer to figure out how to reverse the effect.

All Henry could tell him at the moment was that the chemicals and the flashes were what caused it. The question now was what exactly happened, and how to reverse it. The fact that Section Nine was GD’s “Epigenetic, Electrogenetic and Recombinant DNA Lab” gave Jack and idea, and it worried him.

As best as everyone could tell, he was completely normal and... non-infectious. For a girl, that is. And if Jack couldn’t trust the smartest people in the world, whom could he trust.

However, he worried if this change was permanent. He was sure Henry can find a way to change him back, but he still worried.

He thought he looked pretty good. But he looked a trifle young. He looked even younger than Zoe. Jailbait was the word he would have used. If he caught someone like his old self ogling the girl in the mirror, he’d have to say that guy was acting creepy, and would have half a mind to have a talk with him.

But it was him that was ogling himself. So would it technically be “ogling?” He was just looking at himself, after all.

This situation was really pretty weird, and actually a bit scary. But he had to hold himself together – I am the sheriff, after all, he thought. At least for now.

He wondered if he could still be the sheriff, or if the people will still want him to be the sheriff, once his changes had sunk in.

Eureka was pretty enlightened as far as sexual discrimination and equal opportunity employment went, but he was enough of a realist to know that the way people interacted with him would change, not to mention what they thought of him. Especially now.

Time will tell.

He continued to stare at himself. He still couldn’t get used to it. I’m sure Kevin will like the new me, he thought, grinning. But as he thought about it more, he frowned. That was creepy on several levels. God, what would Allison and the kids say?

But enough of this. He got his things and went to meet Henry outside. He and Grace agreed to put him up for a couple of days – he couldn’t face going to his house alone, as well as deal with Sarah, too.

He hoped tomorrow would be a better day, and Jennifer would be able to get that robot of hers under control. Even $500 million wasn’t enough for this, he thought.

I hope tomorrow will be a better day, he thought again.

to be continued in Episode 2: “When You’re Not Yourself” Jan. 6, Sunday 8PM Eastern On the BTTV Network