Fil felt an overwhelming sense of guilt. Hope’s physical deterioration began when she’d reversed the effects of ambrosia for him, and she’d abstained from ambrosia throughout his life until well after Angel’s birth. The seven years between their births had taken a steep toll on their mother. By the time Angel was born, it took significant effort for Hope to look less than fifty years of age, even with her immense Energy skills. By the time Angel could walk, she looked an old woman. Angel had never seen their mother in her natural state, had never seen the youthful exuberance and boundless energy and optimism. “I can’t wait for you to see her like that either.”
Angel patted him on the arm. “Stop feeling guilty, big brother. You didn’t ask for any of this, any more than I did. Let’s finish our mission, find Mom and Dad, and finally be together as a family. Physically. In one room, at the same time. No disguises.”
Fil nodded. Then he reached back, took the hair, and put it in his pocket. “They’ll know we were here now.” And it would remind him of his mother’s sacrifice any time he started losing his motivation.
Angel looked around. “Do you think there’s anything here we should take with us?”
Fil glanced around and thought about the contents of the simple dwelling next door. “No. I think we should leave this place just as it is. I think they left it like this for a reason.”
They walked back to time machine, which gave Angel a chance to see the island. “You said when you were going to teleport us that you didn’t think we’d be detected. Why?”
Fil smiled. “Look up. Now that you know Mom and Dad lived here… do you see it?”
Angel looked up and laughed. “Of course.”
Their parents had invented the same scutarium mist Shield that surrounded the Alliance camp. Or they’d gotten it from the Alliance. The mist shielded the island, making it effectively invisible to Energy detectors. Fil felt a sudden chill. Had his mother or father been living among them at the Cavern or in one of the ports in disguise? His father had likely taught his mother the concealment tricks he’d learned. No one would find her. With the exception of Angel, no one would know with certainty that either was alive.
They walked along, in no hurry to return. Their young father’s recovery would continue unabated without their presence; the internal healing nanos didn’t need anything other than an injured body to fix. Smokey would sleep soundly until they allowed her to awaken. Adam could explore this island in perfect safety as well. They’d still arrive back at their Alliance camp at the designated time. It was a mini vacation, one all of them needed.
Fil chuckled at the thought. “You do realize that we exist twice in this moment, right?”
Angel frowned in thought, and then laughed. “We’re probably at the camp telling the Mechanic about our detour right now, aren’t we?”
Fil smiled. “Yeah. I’m sure he’ll find the story entertaining.”
They approached the time machine and found Adam there, seated inside, absentmindedly stroking the fur of the unconscious dog on the seat beside him. Adam appeared to be deep in thought, his eyes distant, the gentle breeze brushing his thin brown hair around. He sensed Fil and Angel’s approach, and turned toward them, plastering a forced smile upon his face. “I see Angel decided to explore as well.”
Angel nodded. “I hadn’t intended to do so, but Fil found something rather important.”
Adam startled. “He did? I mean… what did you find?”
“This is the place that Dad brought Mom all those years ago, when he took her away to fix what the ambrosia withdrawal had done to her.” He wondered why Adam looked so surprised, what he’d been thinking about, but realized that they’d just finished a round trip through time and accidentally detoured on the return trip to a tropical paradise that no one but Will and Hope had found. “It must be the secret island paradise Dad found centuries ago, where he went to escape the Aliomenti as they moved farther and farther away from the ideals Dad believed in, where he worked on the first submarine.”
Adam blinked. “You found evidence of the first submarine here?”
Angel nodded. “There’s a small hut and a large workshop downstream, near the river, and we found what looks to be one of his early prototypes there. Lots of notes, drawings, things of that sort.”
“And… you’re sure it was your parents who were here? That they lived here for some time?” Fil frowned. Adam’s questions seemed… strange.
“It fits every clue we have,” Angel said. Her tone gave no hint that she noticed Adam’s discomfort, but Fil knew better. “Dad left behind a vial of sand when he took Mom away. We thought it was a clue to their location. It was. The sand came from this island.”
Adam nodded slowly. “That makes sense.”
“If you look, you’ll notice a scutarium mist around the island, so they can come and go without worry of detection,” Fil added.
Adam looked up, and a smile crossed his face. “That does seem to seal it, then. This is quite the place. But…” He paused. “Something’s bothering me.”
Angel nodded. “I’d noticed. What’s bothering you?”
“Here’s the thing,” Adam said. He climbed out of the time machine and began to pace. “We set the coordinates, date, and time for our trip back in time to get Will and Smokey and the Assassin. Right?”
“Of course.” Angel nodded. “Is that in… question somehow?”
Adam ignored her question. “The ship was programmed to return us to the same spot, a few minutes after we departed. That was set before we left. I looked at the coordinates.
Fil shrugged. “So… what does that mean?”
“It means… how are we here?”
Angel frowned. “Maybe the time machine malfunctioned? I don’t know.”
Adam shook his head. “The machine didn’t malfunction. We traveled back in time nearly two centuries and moved thousands of miles to a precise spot. We landed in a precise location in a basement, and our ship moved so perfectly that the only thing we noticed when we arrive was that the basement slanted enough that the machine wobbled a bit. The test machine we sent to ourselves in the past moved with similar precision. There’s nothing wrong with the time machine. So… why are we here?”
Fil felt a sense of understanding. “You think the coordinates were tampered with?”
Adam shook his head. “Not tampered with. Tampering would mean someone wanted us hurt.” He looked around, smirking. “I could stand to be hurt like this a lot more. No, I think the coordinates were changed. We arrived in this precise spot for a reason. I just don’t know how.”
Angel frowned, and Fil glanced at her before turning his focus back on Adam. “I’m just as interested in knowing who did it, and why. Those answers might well tell us the—”
“Dad did it,” Angel whispered.
Fil looked at her, and heard Adam’s clothing rustle, indicating he’d done the same. “Dad? How? I don’t understand.”
Angel started nodding. “It makes sense, doesn’t it? He gave us the vial of sand. It wasn’t a great clue, but it was the best he could do outside giving us exact coordinates. We never found the island. Dad wants us to know about this place, and since we hadn’t found it before, he sent us here directly.”
“Why would he want us to know about this place?” Fil asked.
“History, for one thing.” Angel began pacing, and her speech gained speed. “This is where he envisioned so much, where he built the submarine that’s been so critical to letting us move around without Aliomenti detection. We needed to see this place. But I think it’s more than that, though. You said it yourself: nobody else could find this place but him.”
Adam started nodding. “Of course. Now I see.”
Fil scowled. “I’m apparently missing something, because I still don’t get it. Why rig a time machine to bring us here?”
“Because we may, at some point, need a safe place to go.” Angel stopped pacing and looked at him. “At some point, Fil, there’s going to be a wa
r with the Aliomenti. You know it, I know it, Dad and Mom know it. If nobody can find this place… of course he’d want us to know about it. Because then we can get here in a time of need. And…” She paused, and waved her hands, indicating the faint haze around them. “We can teleport here. The entire island is Shielded.”
“And now that we’ve been here, we have that image we need to get back,” Fil said. Deeper understanding dawned. “That’s why they left the old sub prototype sitting out, isn’t it? That wouldn’t exist anywhere else in the world. With that image, we can get here safely at any time, so long as we’re in range.” He felt his mood darken at the words. “With appropriate safety precautions for those left at the starting point of the hop, of course.”
Angel’s face clouded, and he could feel her sympathy for him. “Of course.” She brightened. “But you’re right. That’s why he sent us here — to make sure we could get here, to make sure we had the image, and probably to give us a visual clue that Mom’s fine as well. Something more tangible, beyond just my strange ability to sense a living soul, that is.”
Adam glanced back and forth between them. “I’m convinced that you’re right about the who and the why. But how did he get us here?”
“Dad was in the basement,” Fil said. “He had us—Mom and young me—surrounded by nanos, probably more advanced varieties than we’ve developed so far. That’s how we got away from the Assassin without detection, and that’s how we weren’t hurt by the explosion and fire. Mom and I got to see what we just lived through as witnesses. Dad was there.”
“And it wouldn’t have been a stretch for him to slip over to the time machine while we were busy and adjust the physical coordinates.” Angel smiled. “Clever. There’s no way we would have noticed a change at that point.”
Adam nodded. “That makes sense.” Then he grinned. “Unless Smokey changed it, of course.”
They all laughed.
“We can probably get going now,” Fil said. “I think we’ve found what we each needed here.”
“Indeed,” Adam replied.
Fil felt an eagerness to move forward. He needed the strength to get through his role for the next two months. The trip here had provided him that strength.
“Thanks, Dad,” he thought to himself.
They clambered into the time machine. Fil lifted Smokey and put her on his lap before sitting down. In the back seat, he heard Angel shifting their father into a more comfortable position. He knew she held him in a protective embrace, savoring the chance to be with him even in so limited a fashion.
Fil put his hand into the scutarium gel and released Energy, watching as the batteries reached full capacity. Adam changed the spatial coordinates to the original camp.
“Ready?” Adam asked.
“You bet,” Fil replied.
“Hope we end up in the right place and time this hop,” Angel said.
The top closed, the time circuits thrummed to life, the top went opaque, and they felt the sense of displacement of the time machine once more.
XX
Angel
2219 A.D.
She didn’t pay attention to the time machine’s operational sounds and sights on this jump.
Her father’s head rested on her lap. She saw every bruise, every welt, every scrap across his face. She’d gotten most of the blood out of his hair. They’d take care of that in time. For now, though, she focused on his presence, pretending he was merely taking a nap after a long journey. She no longer recoiled at the horrific image. This was her father, the man she’d never met. In many ways, she’d still never met him. She’d still never talked to him. This physical contact would have to suffice. For now. She rested an arm protectively across his chest, taking care to set it down gentle to avoid further damage to the broken ribs he’d sustained. She rested her other hand atop his head.
The machine wobbled once more when the jump completed. She watched as Adam surveyed the console. “Well, if the readouts on the screen are accurate, we should be back where we started.”
He glanced at Fil. “You okay?” Fil nodded.
He glanced at Angel. “You okay?”
She glanced down at her father. “Never better.”
Adam pressed the button to unseal the cabin and open the top. All three conscious human passengers exhaled deeply.
The Mechanic hurried over to them. “That was possibly the longest three minutes of my life.” He noted the passengers. “It looks like you got everything.”
Adam nodded. “The Assassin’s in the trunk. I doubt he’ll be happy when he wakes up with a raging headache.”
The Mechanic looked puzzled. Fil laughed. “I was… not gentle with him.”
The corner of the Mechanic’s mouth curled up. “Perfectly understandable.” He glanced at Smokey. “And who is our canine friend?”
Fil put his arms under Smokey and stood, then laughed and teleported both of them outside the time machine. “This is my old friend, Smokey. She tried to make a meal of the old Assassin’s leg. I figured we could give her a better meal as a reward.”
The Mechanic nodded. “I remember seeing you carrying her in your memory videos. I always thought it curious that you’d make a second trip back for her.”
“I’d make a second trip back in the time machine for her,” Fil said. His mouth formed a thin line.
The Mechanic glanced at the dog and nodded. “She has a good friend in you, Fil.”
Adam climbed out of the time machine in a more conventional manner. “We need to be careful moving Will. The injuries were substantial. It was difficult to tell in the videos, but we only just got him in time”
The Mechanic’s face clouded. “Did you give him the sleeping solution?”
Angel nodded. She’d done it reflexively as Adam and Fil chatted about the incendiary bomb and restarting the time machine. She vaguely remembered Fil or Adam reminding her, her father’s slurred words of thanks. “It helped him, no doubt.” She felt a chill. “I know we’re not supposed to start the healing process right away, but let him wake up and feel the pain so he doesn’t think it was a dream. I’ll be honest, though. I don’t think he’ll live through the next twenty-four hours if we don’t.”
Adam climbed back into the machine and leaned over the seat, picking up Will’s hand. He closed his eyes. Angel remembered now. Adam had his own unique talent, the ability to sense specific bodily injuries. He’d once told her how he’d helped Katherine Baker, a woman who’d been attacked after her husband, Michael, had been named Trustee of the Stark family estate, a position that put him in control of the disbursement of billions of dollars. When they’d gotten to the hospital, Adam held her hand and sensed her injuries, realizing that what kept the woman unconscious weren’t the physical injuries sustained in the attack, but an as-yet undiscovered brain tumor. He’d sent a burst of Energy to the tumor and destroyed it. With the pressure on her brain relieved, she made a full recovery with the techniques of conventional medicine.
Adam’s face clenched. “Angel’s right. We can’t wait. Get the healing nanos in him now.”
They didn’t argue. The Mechanic went to one of the two kegs he kept in his laboratory. One created batches of “general” nanos that formed the personal swarms controlled by each member of the Alliance. The other created “specialty” nanos that were modified with unique coding and features. He went to the latter keg, and Angel watched as he tapped buttons at a furious pace.
Angel unlocked her Shield and willed her Energy into her father’s body. The Energy smothered him inside and out. She could feel as the Energy soothed inflammation inside, helping his body fight against the myriad injuries.
Five minutes later, a soft beep sounded. The Mechanic collected the new batch of healing nanos into a syringe. Fil and Adam moved aside as the man moved into the time machine, leaned over the seat, and injected the mixture into Will’s burned arm.
“How long will it take?” Angel asked. It was a rhetorical question; she knew it would take as long as
it took.
“Keep doing what you’re doing, Angel,” Adam said. “He needs it.”
She nodded, focusing on keeping the positive Energy flowing into her father, listening as the men discussed the other steps.
“I don’t think we can work on the memory alterations right now,” Fil said. He kept his voice low, as though concerned Will would overhear.
“I agree,” Adam replied. “His brain needs to be fully focused on the healing that’s happening. We can’t be helping that process by tinkering with his memories right now.”
“We do know what memories to block?” The Mechanic’s voice had an edge to it that Angel couldn’t place.
“Familiar faces from Pleasanton that he’ll see here, and later faces he’ll see here that he’ll also see in the past. Other than Adam, Arthur, and the Hunters, everyone must be a new face when he gets to the North Village.” Adam gave a faint smile. “Of course, he’ll remember me when he sees my father, but that can’t really be helped.”
She realized they were forgetting something. “Don’t forget conversations we’ve had while he’s been asleep.”
Fil looked intrigued. “Good point. We’ll need to get rid of the conversations we held in the time machine from the time Angel gave him the sleeping potion until we finish the process.” He nodded. “That’s a good point to consider going forward as well. We’ll need time to have our own discussions out of earshot from him, where he can’t overhear even when his clairvoyance starts to develop.”
The Mechanic looked around the room. “We should set this room up for that purpose. There’s no sense making anyone leave the camp area when we can meet here.” He smiled and held up his hand. The golden Alliance tattoo glistened. “I’ll just tell the nanos that if you don’t have the tattoo, you don’t get in.”
“Should we get him to his own room, then?” Adam asked.
Fil nodded. “Everyone here understands the situation. Nobody will disturb him as he sleeps. It will also help with the private communication issue.” He shrugged. “And his memories showed him waking up in his own room, not in here. Let’s do it.”
Aliomenti Saga 6: Stark Cataclysm Page 26