by Randal Sloan
Just before the hour, Julie began her meditation in front of the mirror, Zeke beside her, also in the meditative state. It was only a couple of minutes before she felt the connection form up. There in the mirror reflecting the alternate timeline was Julie and sitting beside her was her Zeke. All four of them could only stare in wonder for a moment.
Finally Julie broke the ice. “Wow, this is so awesome. So I guess that means you have a connection to your Zeke in your timeline too. My Zeke and I are connected because of our nanites. I suspect your connection is some sort of psychic link. But either way, isn’t it just awesome?”
The other Julie gave herself a big smile. “It is the most amazing thing in the world. It allows us to feel each other’s love in its entirety and to be able to reach each other at a moment’s notice if we need something. And even when we are apart, we can each still feel the other and know that everything is ok. Unfortunately, everything may end tomorrow if we can’t stop the asteroid from striking the earth.”
Julie answered her with a sigh. “There are so many things I want to ask you, but I know we just won’t have time. I’d already figured out about your asteroid when I was talking to Catherine about the alternate timeline. We believe that we may be able to help you. As I understand it, we are fighting a temporal war, and the other side doesn’t care who they hurt to accomplish their goals.”
The other Julie nodded. “I know a little about it. I guess you know that I have been having visions involving our son, and he has been attempting to explain the situation. In the temporal war they are supposed to have rules, but the bad guys keep breaking them.”
Julie told her. “Yes, I’m a little worried that we’re possibly violating those rules by communicating like this, but after what I’ve seen them do here, I’m not that worried about it. They gave our opposition a terrible weapon, which is supposed to be illegal, but they did it anyway. We think there is one more of them that we’ll have to face tomorrow.”
The other Julie answered. “Yes, Sam told me that their trick with the asteroid violates their rules too, but apparently they don’t care. And if we don’t stop it, billions will die. And right now, we have some of the pieces to do that, but not all of them. Most importantly, we have nukes, but we don’t believe that they’ll be enough to stop the asteroid.”
She stopped a minute. “How much do you know about the Chinese rebels in your reality?” At the uncertain response, she went on, “They have been working for centuries aiding the other side in this war. We’ve had to struggle to overcome their efforts to prevent us building our anti-asteroid defense. They were able to destroy the unmanned platform we were building, using what I suspect is the same illegal weapon you mentioned, what we’re calling a quantum warhead.”
At the nodded response on the other end, she went on. “We’ve been trying to build that quantum warhead, but we haven’t gotten it working yet.”
Zeke had been listening quietly to the two Julies talking. It was quite fascinating to watch. But at that he broke in. “Zeke, can you see the fields? You have to be able to see the fields to adjust them correctly.”
The other Zeke just stared at him for a moment. “I guess so, but it didn’t click in my head until now. How does that help us?”
“You should be able to adjust them based on what you can see. You keep adjusting until you get the shape you need.”
“How do I need to adjust them?”
That brought a quick response. “Be very careful even in testing. I found out the hard way when I destroyed a lab. You adjust the fields to give an asymmetric shape with everything coming to a point where you want to release the explosion. Of course, it’s in three dimensions and you have to spiral the fields to get them to that point. My Julie says each spiral builds it even more, so the bigger the explosion you want, the tighter the spirals. Does that help?”
The other Zeke answered him very excitedly. “Yes, I see it now. I think I can do it. You may have just saved us all.”
Zeke looked at him with a frown. “Ok, but one more thing. Do you know how to build shields? You have to have very strong shields if you are going to survive this.”
The other Zeke told him. “Again, we are close but no, we don’t. We actually figured we wouldn’t survive.”
That’s when Julie jumped back in. “No! We can’t have that. We need the two of you alive. You’ve got to be alive if we’re to bring the timelines back together.”
Zeke told her. “I think I can tell him. Why don’t you talk about the Chinese rebels while the two of us put our heads together to build the shields?”
The awesome got even more awesome as the two Julies were indeed able to talk while the two Zekes were talking. “Do you know about the rebel base?” When Julie shook her head, she went on, “That’s where they launched the missile that destroyed our platform. We dropped a kinetic strike on their base to destroy it, but I’m still worried that we didn’t get all the missiles. We have a Chinese team heading on site to make sure of that, but they won’t get there before we have to deal with the asteroid.”
She glanced at her VR. “I can give you the coordinates to the base in our reality. I bet it’s the same there too.”
Suddenly a set of coordinates appeared in Julie’s head. When she checked them, they pointed to a range of mountains in China. “I’ll have to double-check to be sure, but I expect you’re right. I guess I’ll have to follow up on that here.” She looked back up at the other Julie, “Thanks for telling me about the rebels.”
“It’s the least I can do. If your Zeke is able to save us, we’ll owe you our lives.”
Julie looked at her counterpart. “I have one more request. Show me our future son!”
Smiling, the other Julie shared some of her visions of their son, Sam. In response, Julie shared the one of their daughter, Juliette, and her space race.
Finally they had all completed their tasks, and it was back to the four of them looking at each other. The two Julies had even talked about the weddings the next day and amazingly their wedding dresses appeared to be nearly identical. But it was coming up on the hour and Julie suspected they wouldn’t be able to hold the connection open longer than that.
So Julie told the other Julie. “We’re not going to be able to talk tomorrow night other than to tell you if we’re ok. We’re going to be busy,” she said, unable to keep from blushing a little. “Let’s try to get back together the next night. There’s so much I’d like to learn about you.”
Julie told her. “Yes, I find you quite fascinating too. Your world seems to be different from ours, but yet the same in many ways. I agree about tomorrow night. I’ll let you know if we’re ok. After that, we’ll have to figure out a schedule to stick to, and a way to meet back up if we miss. Maybe we can use dreams or something. I expect the boys won’t care to be there every time, so it’ll be easier if it’s just the two of us. But it sounds like a really interesting way to talk. And when the babies arrive, we’ll have to compare notes on our Juliettes too.”
The two Zekes rolled their eyes at each other. “Our worlds will never be the same, will they?” Zeke asked his counterpart. The other Zeke just nodded.
Finally, they each wished the other well the next day. They all knew that in both timelines, the next day was going to be a big day, in more ways than one.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
A Wedding and a Big Reception Party
The day of the wedding, Julie and Zeke flew very early to the Presidential estate. Today they were skipping breakfast so she grabbed a bite along with her coffee. Although excited that the day was finally here, Julie felt an urgency to talk with her surrogate mom. So she left Zeke at the tiny little airport terminal while he waited to meet his family who were flying in on the X-plane. As soon as she was escorted onto the estate, Julie rushed forward to see the First Lady. As expected, she was in her spot in the gardens.
Giving her a hug, Julie quickly pulled back so she could ask her, “I had a vision yesterday. Is there any way I
can share it with you?”
“Actually, if you had gotten the training you should have, you would already know how to do it. Of course, it only works with someone else that has the gift too. But yes, take my hands and concentrate on the vision. I should be able to see it. It usually takes several tries with someone new.”
Taking the First Lady’s hands, Julie concentrated on the vision. She could feel some kind of connection between them, so she knew it was working. She passed along both versions of the vision.
“Amazing, you did it the first time, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone else’s vision that clearly before. So something bad is going to happen today about the time of the wedding. And Xiu’s father is coming here, so that means we’re looking at the second vision. I assume you had something to do with that?”
“Yes, but I don’t know for sure what’s going to happen, other than it’s something to do with the Chinese rebels. I was warned about them from the other Julie in the alternate reality. Apparently they’re the ones she’s having to battle instead of the Organization. They’re part of this temporal war too. It appears they have been for centuries.”
“Chinese rebels,” the First Lady mumbled as if in a trance. She’s having a vision of her own, Julie realized. “This is bad, Julie. Let me share my vision with you. We’ve got to find an answer to this one.” She grasped Julie’s hands again.
Julie saw through Catherine’s eyes the events that would happen after the wedding. The Chinese rebels were planning to take over the Chinese base that Chen Wu was so worried about. He was explaining the base had a new type of missile. The design was like nothing Julie had ever seen before, another cheat by the bad guys, she suspected.
In the vision, Julie and Zeke rushed off in their ship to try to stop it, but the new stealth design made the missile very hard to see, and they had to get really close to it to shoot it down. It must have been another of those quantum warheads from the bad guys in the temporal war, because there was a huge explosion. In the vision they apparently didn’t survive because nothing came out of the explosion.
The First Lady spoke softly to Julie, “Now I wish I had somehow had more time to train you. We must concentrate on the vision and try alternatives to see if it changes the result. We must figure out a way for you two to survive. What if you try leaving the second you fire the shot, before you know if it will hit the missile?”
Julie smiled, “I don’t miss, so ok, I could turn immediately away without the normal behavior of watching the shot.”
“Good. Concentrate on the vision with me.” They saw the vision appear much the same as before except their ship turned away and accelerated away faster. But, still they did not appear to survive.
About that time, Zeke came bursting into the garden arbor. “How high?” he asked.
“Sorry, I tried to stop him,” one of the Presidential aides came trailing in behind him.
“It’s ok,” the First Lady told him. With a glare at Zeke, the man left. “What are you asking, Zeke?” she asked him.
Zeke had reached Julie by this time, pulling her into his arms. “How high are we in feet? I can tweak the shields for that exact height to get a little more out of them.”
They both looked at him in surprise for a moment, but Julie realized what he meant.
“Zeke can see my visions sometimes, especially if we’re close together when it happens. It’s part of the connection we have with our nanites. But Zeke, how would I know how high up we are?”
“Concentrate on your view from the control panel. What does the altimeter say?”
Julie concentrated a moment. “How did you know that would work? Ok, I see it. It’s 40,000 feet.”
This time the vision repeated in two versions. In one they survived, but in the other they did not.
Julie asked the First Lady, “Does that mean what I think it does? That maybe we’ll survive and maybe we won’t?”
“Unfortunately, yes. And the visions seemed to have stopped, so all we know is that it may work.”
They all sat in silence for a few moments. There was not any question, they would have to attempt to destroy that missile. They all knew the fate of the world depended on it.
Finally, the First Lady rose, telling them, “I’m going to leave you two alone a few minutes. Come and get me, Julie, when you’re ready to get started.”
Julie just nodded and pulled Zeke closer. She sat for a few moments more, just feeling his love. Finally, she looked up at Zeke. “We’ve got to put this out of our minds for now. We have a wedding coming up and nothing else matters.”
Zeke smiled and held her close for one more moment. “You’re right. I know we’ll figure it out when the time comes. Let’s go have this wedding.”
He kissed her before slipping away. He knew they would have to spend their time apart getting ready. “Love you,” he told her.
“I love you too, so very much.”
#
Julie had set up all the plans in advance for everyone to travel to the wedding. She was determined that they all get there safely. Luckily, her wedding party was pretty small.
Xiu and her father were picked up by Joe and Caitlyn, flying his corvette. Joe’s corvette was by far the safest way for them to travel.
Although Chen marveled when he saw the amazing little ship, he was too worried about his situation to take it all in. It certainly made the trip faster than he could have imagined, taking them well less than an hour total. It took them nearly as long to get through the security at the Presidential estate as their flight had taken.
Just in front of them were James and Nicole. They had arrived on the X-plane with Uncle Ted, Carla, and Zeke’s family. Julie and the First Lady saw all four of them as they were coming into the garden. Julie told her, “Nicole knows nothing about her parents, but she looks so much like Xiu it is amazing.”
The First Lady smiled. “Use your second sight. Can’t you see it?” When she saw the recognition cross Julie’s face, she went on, “Their auras tell me they are sisters, almost close enough to have been twins if they weren’t different ages. That’s another thing you would have known from our gift if I just had enough time to train you.”
Something inside Julie clicked into place. “I think we’re all here together so we can help them see that. It just feels right.” Grasping Catherine’s hand, she led her over to the four, who all looked up in surprise.
“Welcome to our wedding,” Julie told them. “My friends, please let me introduce our hostess, the First Lady, Catherine Scott. Lady Catherine, I believe you know James and Xiu. Nicole is James’ adopted daughter and Chen Wu is Xiu’s father.”
Once they all had a chance to digest her introductions, Julie went on. Taking Xiu’s hand and placing it on Nicole’s, she told them, “I have something amazing to tell you. Our hostess has the ability to see what others cannot and she just told me what she saw with the two of you. I don’t know the details of the situation, although I know Nicole has never been able to find out anything about her parents. But you two are sisters and I don’t mean half sisters. Both parents.”
Xiu’s father had been listening to the talk around him with only half an ear. He was very worried about the situation he had left behind. But when Julie came up, he snapped back to the current situation.
“How is this possible?” he asked. “I haven’t seen my wife in years.” Even as he said it he was looking at the two girls, and he was struck by the truth of it. Suddenly he felt a little faint. He had another daughter? He stared at them in astonishment. It was obvious to him now that he looked at the two of them together.
Xiu answered for Julie. “I haven’t been able to talk about this before now, but a few days ago I was given a special vision of my mother. It was from several years ago, I think. She didn’t tell me the details, but it all makes sense. She was in trouble and had to get help. I suspect that help was an American adoption of her daughter.” She turned to stare at Nicole. “I have a sister!”
&nbs
p; Nicole had been caught completely off guard. She stood there looking back and forth between her father and her sister, tears in her eyes. “I have a family. Well, actually, I now have two fathers,” grasping James’ arm.
“Come,” the First Lady told them and led them to an area that was somewhat off by itself. “Sit here so you can talk. I’ll send someone to get you before we’re ready to start. And maybe,” she pointedly looked at Chen and James, “maybe we have another thing to help draw us together today. I must warn you now, this day is going to have huge historical significance, so we have to make the best of our opportunities.”
Grasping Julie’s hand, she led her away. “The rest is up to them,” she told her.
As they walked away, Julie heard Chen speak softly to James. “Tell me about our daughter, if you will, James. It appears I have missed out on so very much.” Tears were pretty much in all their eyes.
The First Lady led Julie to the area she had set up for her dressing room, and there Julie was able to actually touch her wedding dress for the first time. VR pictures hadn’t done it justice, even when it’d been a life-sized version that she’d been able to walk around and look at in every detail. But with everything going on, that was all that she had been able to do. At least, with modern technology, she knew it would fit. She’d thought it was beautiful then, but now she could feel it. It was Julie’s turn to have tears in her eyes.
“It’s so beautiful. Thank you so much.” Julie immediately turned and hugged her surrogate mother. “When I saw my mother at the obelisk on my return visit with Dad, she talked about you and how I needed to treasure you. I wish she could be here for the wedding, but since she can’t, I’m glad that you are. Thank you for all of this.”