by Shawn Jones
“Yes, Father.”
Cort had a thought and asked, “Why aren’t they in a warp bubble? If you saw them, they aren’t traveling faster than light. And we are a lot more than ten days from Earth at sublight speed.”
“I don’t know. They are utilizing an unknown drive system.”
Cort thought about the dilation of time that occurs when a ship approaches the speed of light outside a warp bubble. “Don’t chase them with the standard drive, George. I don’t want to lose time right now.”
“You cannot interfere with the past, Father. The potential for paradox is too likely. Your daughter is not a priority.”
Cort stopped and said, “George, are you going to fight me on this?”
“Of course not, Father. Because Mother and Dalek are with us in this stream, I don’t believe creating paradox will affect them. But it will likely affect the Ares Federation of the future.”
“Explain.”
“Igor Dmitriyevich Novikov theorized that…”
“Dumb it down.”
“If you make decisions that change your past, the Ares Federation may be affected. For instance, if you prevent the wreck that kills Diane…my sister?...if you save my sister’s life, the Cortland Addison that is on Earth might not take part in the experiment that sent you to the future. You would not be here to save her. It creates a temporal contradiction.”
Cort felt relief when George referred to Diane as his sister, and tried to wrap his head around the physics of what George told him. He asked more questions, and understood very few of the answers. Finally, he said, “Son, I have to find a way to save Diane. I’m just asking you to give me time to do so. Don’t let us pass her in this stream.”
“Yes, Father.”
Cort said, “Can you keep up with the other ship without dilating time?”
“I can. Rather than increase our speed and dilate this timeline, I will make a series of jumps. Whenever the other ship begins to pass out of range, I will jump to catch up with them.”
“Okay,” Cort said, still not sure he understood. But George was giving him the time he needed. “Thank you son.”
--
An hour later, Cort sensed Kim’s presence. While he waited for her, he looked at the scant weapons in the armory. He had his HAWC, a CONDOR, several FALCONs, and a few infantry weapons. He knew several of his Marines had FALCONs and CONDORs as well. The Heavy Armor Warfare Component, or HAWC, was ten meters tall, and turned its wearer into a living tank. The Combat Nanotube Defense OpeRations suit, Cort’s CONDOR, was about three meters tall, and nearly impervious. With its active camouflage, it could be almost invisible. The FALCON Flexible Armor Light COmbat Nanotube suit was as light as a skinsuit, but still enhanced his strength, and provided a moderate amount of armor, as well as near invisibility.
Kim stared at his back. He said, “If I could use the HAWC, this would be easy. But there isn’t enough material on the ship to print everything we need to arm it. I’ll have four or five dozen slugs for the railgun. Maybe I could jump in front of the ship in the HAWC and let them hit me. Or use the railgun in plasma mode, if they can’t shield against it.”
“No. You aren’t getting in front of it. What if we scavenge unnecessary gear from the ship?” Kim asked, as she put her hand on side of his waist.
“Liz and George stripped the ship of nearly everything when we came home, even printers. Liz needs them more than we thought we would, so we were giving her a head start. We don’t even have enough material to print the food we will need if we are here too long.”
It was supposed to be a quick jump home. Just a few hours to Solitude. Thanks to whatever or whoever had activated the Nill medallion, those few hours had turned into over three centuries. But the father inside Cort was thankful. He had an opportunity the younger Cort Addison on Earth did not; he could save Diane.
“Which is more important?” Kim snapped him out of his thoughts with her question. “Stopping that ship, or food for the people and aliens we brought home?”
Cort turned, and looked down at Kim’s small form. As always, he was reminded of beauty and the beast when he looked at her. Though not as thin as some other modern humans, she was lean and strong. Shoulder length dark hair framed an oval face and dark eyes, which now held worry, fear, compassion, and anger, all at once. When Cort looked into them, he saw the one reflection of his own soul that he never had to look away from; she was never ashamed of him. Her light olive skin tone, thanks to the mixing of ethnicities and early iterations of synthetic blood, was almost flawless.
Next to her, his nearly two-meter tall, muscular body set him apart from other men of his time due to his immense size alone. He felt and looked like a beast. While post-Cull humans had very little body hair, Cort was practically an ape. Post-Cull humans also had few scars due to the rapid healing properties of synthetics, and his body was like a map; a reticulated web of scars that marked the path he had chosen in life. Every flaw in his pale skin told its own story, usually one of the prevention, or delivery, of death.
The psychological beast in him had eradicated entire civilizations to rescue their son. A few thousand more lives, against the chance to have his daughter back, didn’t faze Cort in the least. Not when it came to balancing the scale of his life.
“You know the answer to that, Kim. Don’t make me say it.”
“What about Dalek?”
“I’ll protect the two of you and George with my dying breath, but I can’t let that ship get to Earth.”
He felt resentment from Kim when he told her he’d ordered George to print a small shuttle to evacuate his family and the Jaifans. Taking her by the shoulders, he said, “Listen to me. If it comes to that, you can and will be on that shuttle. Otherwise my life has been for nothing.”
She looked directly at Cort’s chest, as if trying to see into his heart. “I won’t leave you.”
“Don’t make this harder than it has to be, Kim. If I have to die, it has to be knowing the people I love are safe. That means that if I can’t find another way, you have to leave with George and Dalek. If you are on this ship with me, I might not be able to protect you, and I won’t be able to protect Diane.”
“Then you had better find another way,” Kim said, wondering if he meant to protect Diane or Angela. She looked back up to his eyes and added, “Because I’m not leaving you.”
“Gods, but you are obstinate. I’m saving Diane, not Angela.”
“Baby, how will it affect paradox?”
“I don’t know about paradox or causality or commonality or any of that crap. I don’t even understand half of what George tried to explain me. That’s for scientists and physicists. But I have to find a way to save my daughter.”
“I know,” Kim acknowledged. Resentment fostered in her mind, as she realized that he would also need to rescue his wife Angela as well.
“I don’t have to save Angela, and I won’t. But I do have to stop that ship and protect my daughter. Otherwise, it doesn’t matter. Study it with George and see what you can figure out.”
“Okay,” Kim said. As a mother, she knew he did have to save Angela, but she couldn’t face explaining it to Cort yet. “I’m going to ask Clem to watch Dalek for a while. I’ll work on it then.”
Kim seemed distant and preoccupied. Cort sensed her doubt about his true intentions, given all that had transpired. Broken thoughts and images of Quinn Faulks filled her mind. Then something about Diane and Angela. “Kim, I hurt for the loss of another child. I feel no loss regarding Faulks. And certainly not for Angela.”
Cort tried to reassure Kim of her worth to him, “I am yours. Despite all that has passed, I am only yours. You wouldn’t even let the universe take me from you. No other woman ever could. You don’t have to worry about my loyalty.”
Her thoughts hit him as she struggled with her own insecurities about having to share him with a former wife. He put his hands on her shoulders and looked deep into her eyes. “You’re wrong. You only have to share me
with my children. I love you and you alone. No one else has any power over me. No one ever will. Not even Angela.”
“Thank you for that, but she’s alive down there too. The whole reason you are here is that you loved her too much to go on living there.”
Cort took a deep breath, and prepared to face something he had lied to the world about. “I need to tell you something about that, Kim. Something only George knows.”
Kim’s eyes focused. “George?”
Cort shook his head when she started to ask what he meant. “That’s a different subject, but only he knows what I’m going to tell you now. Angela wasn’t who the family trust thinks she was. She wasn’t a good wife. She wasn’t much of a wife at all.”
He told Kim about Angela’s drinking, her infidelity, and the reasons which led up to it. He admitted, with shame, that he hadn’t been a good husband.
“But you quit that work before Diane was born,” Kim protested. “You told me that yourself. I didn’t hear it from the family history.”
“I was there, Kim. But I was still killing, too. She could never handle that. Remember how I got my scar? Angela was there. And in that store, too. She had always known there was blood on my hands, but she couldn’t bear to see it.”
“But still, you were there. You weren’t absent.”
“I probably was absent. Maybe not physically, but I’ve always had a darkness in my soul. In some ways, I was emotionally paralyzed, and Angela pushed me away. I’m that man now, too. I’d still be absent a lot, except you follow me into my darkness.” Cort looked at Kim’s hands in his own. They both remembered Lex, one of Cort’s descendants and his top general. When Lex died at the end of the Cuplan war, Cort retreated into himself. For months, the only times he emerged from his personal hell was to use her body to sate his needs. He knew she was remembering those times, too.
He raised her fingers to his lips and kissed them, then said, “Thank you for that. That’s the difference. You won’t let me fall into my darkness alone.”
Kim leaned in and pulled Cort’s head down to her. She whispered, “You’ll never be alone as long as I breathe.” Then she kissed him lightly.
That’s why no one else has power over me, Kim.
--
Kim spent two hours studying the information George had gathered about the ship they were pursuing. Nothing about it made sense. It was traveling faster than light, but there was no measurable dilation effect. Nor was there a warp bubble around its hull. The tear-shaped vessel had measurable mass, existed in this space-time, and yet it defied a dozen other accepted concepts of particle and astrophysics.
Kim rubbed her eyes and decided to take a break. She changed her viewscreen to a feed provided by Tur, the Jaifan head of Dalek’s security team. In the image, her son Dalek sat on a makeshift dog sled that was being pulled by the family wolves. Bane and Shart were harnessed in tandem to the sled, and pulled it around the empty shuttle bay. In a nearby corner, Clem played chess with another member of the Jaifan team. Seeing him take the king’s rook from the insectoid filled Kim with sadness. She realized that Cort wouldn’t be able to play anymore, since he could now read people. She wished Bazal was there to help.
In another part of the galaxy, an octopod in a tank filled with briny water heard his name pass through her thoughts. Who is this?
Bazal! Kim sat bolt upright. Is that you? Are you here? Cort needs you! Oh, thank gods!
I am Bazal. But who are you? You are not familiar to me. Bazal turned his attention to the human who was reaching out to him. You are human. I have not bonded with humans. Who are you? How do you know me?
Kim was confused for a moment, and then she remembered the time shift. I’m sorry Bazal. You weren’t supposed to know me yet. I’m Kim, you call me Kimberly. Kimberly Addison. That doesn’t matter though. Cortland needs you.
Cortland? Do you mean Cortland Addison? The human warrior? Bazal knew of Cortland Addison, but only through his search for missing Nill transition medallions. Several of the powerful coins were on Earth, and Cortland Addison had hidden one in a grave.
Yes! Kim thought. In the future, in our future, we are all friends. You are his closest confidante. He needs you now.
He is safe on Earth. He knows nothing of me. How could he need me? Bazal also wondered how they could possibly become friends, now or in the future.
No. He’s here with me. On the Remington. There was a horrible… Oh gods. Bazal, he needs you. Please help him. You don’t know him now, but you will. You will be the closest of friends. Please! I know you. You know I am telling the truth. Please gods! Help him. Kim remembered the Nill Core. Use the Core and come to him.
The Nill Core was an immense, tachyon computer that had been used to facilitate faster-than-light travel across a significant portion of the galactic arm. It was destroyed in Cort’s war against the Tapon, after the ape-like species had kidnapped his son, Dalek. But in this time, the Core was still active.
You are telling the truth. The Collaborative will forbid interference. We are facing our own struggles. If I help you, I cannot allow them to know. I need time. But first tell me your tale. You say you know me. Then you know how to feed me. Give me your thoughts quickly, Kimberly Addison. I will help my future friend if I can. Though I don’t know how he will become so. Or even how he could live so long. He is war. I am peace.
That’s exactly why you become friends Bazal. Your bond completes both of you.
Tell me your tale, human.
Kim cleared her mind and began remembering everything that had happened since Cort first appeared in the future. She spent thirty minutes relating what was over two decades of Cort’s history to Bazal. When she was done, he told her he could not sense her Cort.
What do you mean?
I believe you are being honest with me. And the crystal planets are the challenge that the Collaborative Government is facing. Please do not tell me any more of your memories. I cannot allow your knowledge to affect our decisions. It is good to know that we will be victorious over them, though. I believe that whatever changes the stroke caused, have shielded your Cortland from me. That is saddening. It means that I will lose the bond you say I am destined to share with him.
Oh, Kim thought sadly. I know, Bazal. It saddens me too. He will never connect with you again. Not that way. Please though, isn’t there something you can do to help him?
I don’t know, Kimberly. We have to address the other things you are facing first. Tell me about the ship you are following. I believe there is a Fate at work. I only hope it is Lachesis and not Atropos.
What do you mean?
You are not familiar with human mythology? Lachesis weaves the thread of fate into the tapestry of life. Atropos cuts it.
Oh. Why do you believe there is a Fate at work?
I believe the future of my species is dependent upon the decisions my future friend makes.
Two
In the Remington’s observatory, Cort watched an enhanced image of the ship they were chasing. He was in a small room with a domed ceiling, but every surface, including the floor, was a viewscreen, allowing Cort to look into space in every direction around the Remington. Depending on how much he zoomed in on images, the heavens around him appeared as either pale dots in a sea of darkness, or great, sparkling clouds on a pitch-black canvas. At that moment, he only had eyes for his prey. The ship was so far away, and so small, that George’s AI had to designate it with a red circle. Cort wondered why they had decided to run from him, and he sensed Kim’s presence. She’s troubled. Dammit. Hell, who’s not troubled right now?
He waited for the door to open behind him. “Hey. What’s bothering you?”
“It’s so weird to have you read me, Baby.”
He snapped, “It’s not like I have any choice in it. You think I chose this?”
Kim’s shock permeated his brain and Cort immediately felt guilty. “I’m sorry. I’ll try not to.”
“It’s okay, Baby. I know you are just getting used
to it.” She wondered if her deep-seated feelings about Angela were all evident to him.
Cort turned from the viewing wall, and faced his wife. “Sometimes. I can’t always sense what you think. Sometimes it’s just general emotions. It changes constantly. Maybe it’s more intense when I am stressed. It seems to be, anyway. I need Bazal to help me figure this out. He’s the expert on this stuff. But he’s not out there. At least I can’t reach him.”
He looked back to the red circle on the wall and told Kim he’d tried to reach the octopod. “I know I shouldn’t have. All the paradox crap, but I need him. Now more than ever.”
“That’s why I’m here. I’ve talked to him.” Cort spun around, both concern and anticipation evident on his face. She recounted her interaction with Bazal and told Cort that due to his stroke, Bazal was no longer aware of him, but that he was also concerned about paradox. Cort’s heart sank even lower. His bond with Bazal was gone.