by Dan Glover
She wondered though if it was only a temporary solution... perhaps the instant Kirk disintegrated the remaining nanobots had begun to incorporate a new and more powerful nexus. Not that it mattered to her one way or another, but she hated to think all the sacrifices people had made in order to purge the tiny terrors from the world going for naught.
She blamed Micah but he wasn’t the only one with big dreams. In fact, the boy was only a pawn in the scheme of the music though he did not yet realize that. Perhaps now he did... but it troubled her that the trajectories of Kirk and Micah were so similar and closely enough together that they might well end up in similar space times.
A vision of Lady Lily floated before her... an illusion no doubt caused by the rippling currents of the Lake yet also a powerful reminder of all that had been lost. Grandfather Nate had come to Ena distraught and unable to even tell her why for several minutes.
The Lady had been accidentally sucked into the singularity of the anti-gravity craft. After Ena had reassured him that Grandmother Lily was not dead, only teleported into a different space-time continuum, he had immediately set about questioning her on how he might retrieve her.
"Remember those probes you and Pete sent to the moon in the Bernard's Star system, Grandfather Nate?"
"Of course I do, precious Ena... what does that have to do with this?"
"The wormhole you opened between here and there remained open long enough that Grandmother Lily was possibly pulled into it as well. Wherever those probes ended up, you might well find her too."
"But you said they were lost in time somewhere, darling Ena."
"Yes, Grandfather Nate... and so is Grandmother Lily."
"So I will never see her again?"
"That depends upon you, Grandfather Nate."
Ena knew that the man didn’t understand what she was telling him... or perhaps he did and simply refused to believe it. Either way, she imagined he would mourn the Lady for a while and then go back to Toulon where he belonged.
As for her, if she must, she would live out the rest of her days here in the depths of the Lake safe in her solitude and content in knowing she had once been loved. Looking up at her reflection silhouetted on the underside of the surface she noticed her dark eyes were turning blue like the Lake and her black hair had gone a shiny shade of blonde.
She reminded herself of someone but the memory faded as quickly as it emerged.
Chapter 62—Homecoming
At first she refused to even consider Alpin's request.
He had appeared unlooked for at Toulon like a ghost emerging from a thick early morning mist that had draped itself over the Mediterranean coast followed closely by the man she knew as Kāne, the lone surviving male of the Lake people.
They looked like twins, each with long ragged black beards and long thick black hair hanging over their shoulders and with the same black eyes that seemed as if they had seen things no one else could see.
"I need your help, Dr. Karen."
He spoke like a reprobate who had nearly lost the capacity for language due to long ages apart from any other intelligent being. It reminded her of the time Kāne had first appeared at Orchardton Hall and she wondered what unheard signals Alpin might even now be sending out to those capable of understanding.
"You know I'll do anything you ask of me, darling Alpin. Are you hungry? Do you wish to eat first and then we can talk?"
"Feed me, please."
Kāne spoke up immediately while Alpin shuffled his feet and stared down at the sandy soil as if uncertain he wanted to wait that long before asking the favor he desired. Finally he nodded his head and followed the others into the kitchen.
"Where is everyone?"
Karen cracked a dozen eggs into a bowl, added chopped chives, onions, garlic, and cheese, and poured the mixture into a large cast iron frying pan while they talked.
"Amanda and Ginger are in the vineyards, darling Alpin, and I think Pete is there with them. It's harvest time and we have so little help these days. I just happened to come back to the villa to make everyone some lunch. You two are welcome to come along with me when I go back."
"I don't understand... are there no Lake people here any longer, Dr. Karen? Where is my wife?"
"I have no idea where Ena is at, sweet Alpin. I understand that she left some time ago with Micah on a trip to old America. Neither of them returned. Maon and Sileas took a cabin just east of here... they enjoy their solitude, I suppose, after so many years of shepherding the humans."
"Does this mean you have discovered a cure for Lake Syndrome, Dr. Karen?"
"I wish I could take credit for that, my precious Alpin, but no. I don't know for sure but I suspect Micah's nanobots finally evolved to the stage where they can do what he initially envisioned them doing... prolonging life and enhancing the health of human beings."
"Where is Grandfather Nate? I thought he came here to live too."
"He left here centuries ago, sweet Alpin. I believe he was living at Orchardton Hall for a long while and then he came north to the Isle of Skye. I don't know what happened to him after he left there. Perhaps he too went back to old America.
"Luciana was bereft when she lost Kirk. She blamed your grandfather for taking him along on their ill-fated trip to old America hundreds of years ago. Perhaps to make amends to her, Nate went back there to try and recover the man's remains... to provide closure to Luciana."
"She says that he visits her at the Isle of Skye."
"Who, my darling Alpin? Grandfather Nate?"
"No... Kirk... she claims he appears at times on the hillside overlooking the villa where she lives."
"For all intents and purposes, sweet Alpin, the man has been dead for seven hundred years. Perhaps Luciana has been having hallucinations due to her prolonged solitude. I hate to think of her all alone in that dark and dank place. Here... eat."
She dished out the omelets to the men before cutting a loaf of bread and starting to make lunch for the girls in the vineyard. She wondered absently if the men would be willing to help in the harvest but thought better of asking the new guests to start working right away upon the arrival.
She watched as Kāne wordlessly set to work on his eggs shoveling great globs of them into his mouth with his fingers as if he was oblivious to the rest of the world while Alpin seemed to dawdle over his, like he was troubled over something.
"What's the matter, darling Alpin? Did I fix them wrong for you?"
"No, Dr. Karen... the eggs are great."
"Tell me what it is that you need my help with, sweet Alpin."
"I'm not exactly sure, Dr. Karen."
"Thank you. I am going to work in the vineyard now."
Kāne rose and left the kitchen as if someone had tied a string to him and pulled him out the doorway. Karen understood that the man operated on a different level than anyone else she had ever known but she was thankful he would be helping with the harvest.
"So tell me what you know, darling Alpin, and maybe together we can figure out how I can help you."
"Three days ago I was lying in my cot when I heard Ena calling out to me. At first I thought she had come to the Grampians to visit like she used to do centuries ago. I jumped up and ran outside all excited to see her again but she wasn’t there.
"A day later I was just waking up when I heard her calling out to me again. There was no mistaking her voice this time. Again, I jumped up and ran outside but I couldn’t find her.
"She kept saying: come to me, my wondrous Alpin. I need you. So I rushed to the Isle of Skye thinking she was still there. When I arrived, I found Kāne fixing the roof of that old villa. I helped him finish it so we could sail here immediately. I thought this was where Ena had gone."
"Did you leave Luciana there all alone, darling Alpin?"
"She wouldn’t come with us, Dr. Karen. We both begged her but she refused. She is convinced Kirk is coming for her."
"That poor girl... so what are your plans now, sweet Alpin? How will you f
ind Ena? Are you planning another trip to old America?"
"No... last night I had one of those dreams... you know, the kind where you think you are really awake... and Ena was there. She told me that you were the only person who could help me get to her.
"She said that she is in a kind of paradise, that we both can live out the rest of our lives there. She explained the process needed to reach her but it is a one way trip... once I go there I can never return.
"I've let her down so much during my life, Dr. Karen. I thought I could be happy living alone in the Grampians but I am miserable. I'm cold in the winter and there is never enough to eat. I live like an animal."
"Are you sure your mind isn't being affected by your close proximity to Kāne? His presence has deleterious effects on others close to him."
"I thought about that, Dr. Karen, but I don’t think that's the case. Ena began speaking to me before I went to the Isle of Skye and teamed up with Kāne. Tell me, please... what do you know about anti gravity devices?"
Chapter 63—High Sea
That look in Kirk's eyes haunted him.
Niall had never been big on sailing and when they finally set out for old France he promptly got seasick for the first three days. He thought that he might have been more miserable at one time or another but he couldn’t quite remember when.
The liquor had slowed Kirk's reflexes ever so slightly, otherwise Niall was sure the man would have sensed the impending danger bearing down on him and dodged the impact at the last second... or had it all been predetermined?
A fire flared deep inside the steel eyeballs of Kirk just as the singularity around the anti-gravity craft bore him away into eternity. That fire spoke of success, not of failure. Had Kirk known all along that they were out to destroy him?
"Why were you so close to Kirk, Grandfather Nate?"
Once Niall found his sea legs he was able to help on the ship though once the sails were set and the tiller manned there wasn’t a great deal to do but to talk. He had always enjoyed his conversations with his grandfather though the man hadn’t been around Toulon a great deal during the last century Niall had spent there.
"I honestly don't have an answer to that question, Niall. I suppose he was there when I needed a friend. We used to sit around a campfire on the beach behind Orchardton Hall and talk... nothing profound, mind you... just talk. It was comforting somehow not to have to put on airs.
"The Ladies always told me how I was looked upon as someone others aspired to be. I didn’t want that. But according to them, I had no choice but to be a leader of the People... to show them the way even though they didn’t want to know it.
"Kirk didn’t seem to care about any of that. I don’t mean to say he was a simpleton... he wasn’t... but he didn’t seem to look up to me like all the others. He accepted me with all my faults. I liked that about him."
"But what did you two have in common, Grandfather Nate? I don't remember him saying much other than teaching me about growing grapes and making wine. He seemed sort of slow of wit."
"Maybe that's why we got on so well, Niall. We had nothing in common."
"I heard that he tried to kill the Ladies once."
"Well then, you heard wrong, Niall. Kirk got caught up in some nonsense that a woman named Marilyn filled his head with. She talked him into doing things that he never would have done on his own."
"Are you sure about that, Grandfather Nate?"
"I'm afraid I don't follow you, Niall."
"Have you ever considered that maybe he was the one who talked Marilyn into doing what she did?"
"Well... no, I never did, to tell the truth. It seems too far fetched."
"Why is that, Grandfather Nate?"
"Kirk was a wonderful man, Niall, but you said it yourself... he wasn't a smart man. That isn't to say there is something wrong with that... Dr. Karen once told me that she thought his mother drank too much alcohol while Kirk was in her womb. She said there was a good likelihood that he had something called fetal alcohol syndrome."
"What if that was all a ploy?"
"What... Kirk's being slow of wit was only a ploy? I don't see how that is even in the realm of possibility, Niall. I remember when I was a kid that he stuttered incessantly. Everyone took advantage of him, even me, I'm ashamed to say. No... I cannot believe Kirk fooled us all like that. He was who he was."
"Just before that anti-gravity craft crashed into him, I saw something shining in Kirk's eyes... like he had planned everything... every moment of his life led up to that one moment when he entered the singularity. Where do you think he went, Grandfather Nate? Or did he just disintegrate?"
"I have no idea, Niall. During discussions with Karen and Pete, we deduced that when someone or something comes into direct contact with the warp field surrounding the anti-gravity craft they are teleported through a wormhole to some other place and time.
"When I landed at Orchardton Hall to visit with the Ladies, your Grandmother Lily ran to meet me. Before I could disengage the warp field, she was pulled into it, just like what happened with Kirk. I think she was teleported to a moon in a star system six light years from here but I don't know what time frame she inhabits now.
"When I get you home to Toulon, I plan on flying there in the new starship we developed to see if I can locate her. The thing is... I don’t know if she will be there when I arrive. She might be somewhere in the future. If that is so, I don't know how I will catch up to her."
"Why don’t you just stay with us at Toulon, Grandfather Nate? I'm sure Amanda and Ginger would love to have you back."
"I imagine they've moved on, Niall. They are probably happily married to someone else now. All I will be doing is stirring up old memories better left alone."
"I've been away for ages but the last I recall both Amanda and Ginger were waiting for you to return to Toulon. I doubt they've moved on at all, Grandfather Nate."
"Don’t say that, Niall... you'll make me feel guilty."
"I'm just telling you the truth, Grandfather Nate. There's no reason to feel guilty. Just talk to them... that won't hurt anything... will it?"
"I'll end up wanting to stay somewhere that I know I don’t belong
"So where do you belong, Grandfather Nate? I'm still trying to fit in someplace myself."
"I belong with your Grandmother Lily."
"No you don't. You belong with us at Toulon."
By the look Nate gave him Niall thought for a moment he might get tossed into the sea and end up having to swim home. He thought it was such a shame that his grandfather was such a fool... he had two beautiful girls waiting for him yet all the man could think about was fickle Lily. Even though the woman was his grandmother, Niall had never appreciated the way she treated others, especially the People.
"I don’t know how I could go back to living in the south of old France again, Niall. I appreciate you telling me how I belong with you there, but..."
"You think what you did was so wrong that Amanda and Ginger will never forgive you... is that it, Grandfather Nate?"
"I suppose that's part of it... I also feel responsible for Kirk's disappearance. I was the one who asked him to come along with me to old America."
"Did you force him into going, Grandfather Nate?"
"Of course I didn’t... he agreed to go, Niall. I would have never forced anyone to accompany me on such a dangerous trip."
"Why did he go with you?"
"He was my friend."
"He saved your life... right, Grandfather Nate?"
"Yes he did... if not for Kirk, I would have been the one who was attacked by the nanobots."
"Is that why you feel guilty?"
"No... I feel ashamed that I left him in old America."
"Was there anything else you could have done, Grandfather Nate?"
"Don't you think I've asked myself those same questions ten thousand times, Niall?"
"If you have, then you must know the answers... right?"
Chapter 64—Love in the M
orning
When Nate stepped on shore her breath caught up short in her chest.
She had forgotten how much she loved the man... the way the lines of his face ran so gracefully into the thick set neck and how his long loose hair was apt to blow in the wind. For a moment, Amanda thought of turning around and running away, of repaying him for all the hurt he had heaped upon her.
When he opened his arms to her, however, she ran into them embracing the man like she had dreamed of doing a million times over the last few centuries. She didn’t know why he was here or if he would stay... none of that mattered. Only his touch and the sound of his voice made life worthwhile.
"I'm sorry, darling Amanda..."
"Hush, sweet man... you have nothing to be sorry for. I love you now and I will love you always... even if our time is short my love is not."
She remembered their first time together and the way he made love to her so tentatively and so slowly as if it was his first and only time though she knew he must have been with Lily and Ginger thousands of times, and probably others she wasn’t aware of.
"Are you hungry, my darling Nate? How about you, precious Niall? Come to the kitchen and I will fix you something to eat... you too, sweet Niall... you both look famished. And Chester! I missed you so much!"
She wasn’t sure who she was happier to see... the two men or the big friendly cat that rolled on his back for her to reach up and scratch his belly the way he loved before hopping to his feet and bounding off no doubt to check on his pride.
Leading them to the kitchen Amanda motioned for them to sit while she prepared a breakfast of hotcakes and honey freshly gathered from the hives she kept at the edge of the nearest vineyard.
She noticed Nate peering out the window that overlooked the harbor. As the mist burned off with the rising sun a boat appeared anchored and riding low in the water not far from the ship Nate and Niall had arrived upon.
"Who else is here, sweet Amanda? I see another ship in the harbor. It looks laden for a journey."