by Dan Glover
If he reckoned correctly, though the part of him teleported to the future would revert to that of an infant, his mind would remain as it was. Besides, what he was actually interested in teleporting was his consciousness. He had to trust that Luciana was still there and what's more, that she would find him. Otherwise he might well perish.
On the other hand, the other part of him that bounced back to the present would be an imbecile with the mind of a two year old. That fit... from what he remembered, he had once been a stuttering simpleton incapable of even tying his own shoelaces. That part of him would just have to remember to get to Orchardton Hall when the time came.
That was the one hitch in his plan... how could he manage to get the idiot Kirk to Orchardton Hall on the day of the Great Dying? The boy would not remember any of this.
Opening the singularity inside the old wooden house would cause it to burst into flames. Whatever remained of his unique inventions wouldn’t be recognizable as anything of importance... otherwise the objects might well contaminate the time line. If that happened, he would end up in a future foreign to everything he remembered.
He could time the cold fusion globe to fold in upon itself—taking with it the remains of the anti-gravity device he needed to open the wormhole—the moment his purpose had been achieved. The resultant fireball would doubtlessly be attributed to a natural gas line leak.
He considered warning the neighbors but decided that constituted an unnecessary risk. They would all be dead within the year anyway. His eyes went back to the two little girls playing on the sidewalk in front of the shack... one of them reminded him of Amanda. Perhaps she was the girl's mother... Kendra had been her name... and the other had to be Mindy, Ginger's mom.
A flash of insight occurred to him.
"Hey... two you girls... would you please come over here a minute?"
Though he tried to ask the question from a position of innocence for a moment he thought they would both run away. In a moment though they walked up to the front door where he was standing. There was no mistaking them... what were the odds of running into these two girls on the eve of the Great Dying?
Kurgan was a small village. Kirk told himself it was only natural that Kendra and Mindy might show up in front of his house, but still, he couldn’t remember seeing them before.
"What do you want?"
Timid Mindy spoke while the other girl hung back a few steps as if allowing her friend to test the safety of talking to a strange boy.
"Is your name Mindy?"
"Yeah... do I know you?"
"That doesn’t matter. Listen... something bad is going to happen here. Don't be around here in an hour... otherwise you might be hurt or killed."
"I don’t understand."
"That doesn’t matter either, Mindy. Go downtown for a little while. Play in the park or visit the drugstore. Here is some money. Have a hot fudge sundae. But don’t come back here for at least an hour."
The other girl stepped forward.
"Your name is Kirk, isn’t it."
"How did you know that? Do I know you?"
"I don’t know... I don’t think so. You just look familiar. I guess someone must have told me your name. My name is Kendra."
"I know... now scoot, you two. And one more thing..."
"Yes?"
"In a month or so, everyone in this village is going to get extremely sick... you too. When you wake up on that day you'll see lots of people falling down in the street. That's how you will know the time has come. Now listen carefully... you will both die unless you are on the highway at a quarter past eight in the morning where Main Street intersects with it. You have to stand in the middle of the round about, otherwise they won't stop. Two ladies will pull over to let you into their car. You won't know them but that is okay. Go with them anyway. They will take you to a special place."
"We're not allowed to get into a car with strangers."
Mindy said it matter of factly as if what Kirk was asking of them was completely out of the question. He didn’t know why he really cared but he did. These girls were part of the music. They had to get to Orchardton Hall, otherwise they would perish.
"These women will be doctors. They help people get better. You girls don’t want to get sick and die, do you?"
"No... I don't."
Mindy looked at Kendra as the other girl shook her head.
"So you will go with these women? Tell you what... I will be with them. Will that make you feel better?"
"Yes, I guess so."
"Promise me."
"We promise."
As the girls walked away he saw them muttering to one another as they looked back over their shoulders at him. He couldn’t save the world... he understood that... but at least he could save the two girls who inspired the thought that would bring him back to Luciana.
Walking down to the river where he had played a million times while skipping out of school he picked up a rock. By taking it back to the shack where he lived he would entangle it with the singularity and then return the stone to the river bank. That way, the imbecile Kirk would be teleported here rather than back to the doomed house.
There was someone standing beside the river with a fishing pole in his hands and a half empty bottle of rot-gut gin stuck in the sandbar in front of him. Kirk recognized the boy immediately... it was Lucich Drummond.
"Hey... I have a favor to ask, Drummond..."
"Yeah? What's in it for me, Kirk?"
"How about all of the finest whiskey you can drink and your pick of every girl in the world?"
Chapter 73—Time Enough
"Do you think they made it, precious Nate?"
Despite her objections and trepidations Karen watched as Lauren, Natalia, and Kāne walked directly into the singularity and promptly vanished without so much as a whiff of smoke or a flash of light.
"By going over the telemetry sent back by our probes before they vanished I think I've isolated the time frame into which they disappeared. I'm having a hard time believing it, but all my calculations point to some billion of years in the future."
"How is that possible, darling Nate? Wouldn’t we have to use an enormous amount of energy to connect our wormhole to a time so far in the future?"
"We used an experimental technique in sending our probes to the Bernard's Star system, sweet Karen. By taking advantage of the gravitational lensing of our own sun we were able to boost the energy of our entanglement by an unknown factor. That's why we had to wait for the same precise time before sending them through."
She had expected something to mark their exit from the world yet it was as if they simply sauntered into another room. Now, they were preparing to open the door again, only this time into the past.
"I don’t know, darling Karen. I'm not sure we will ever know if they made it to their intended target. Are you ready, Alpin?"
"Anytime you are, Grandfather Nate."
They had reconstructed the flight line that Ena took when she crashed her anti-gravity craft into Kirk... the quantum communicator relayed information back to Toulon right up until the time the singularity vanished.
"The key to sending Alpin to the space and time that Ena inhabits lies in replicating the same conditions that were present when she backtracked."
"If that's true, my special Pete, then we basically solved the puzzle of time travel."
"No... not necessarily, darling Karen... we have to entangle whatever is being sent forward or backward with something from that time.. in this case, Ena. Otherwise, we could end up anywhere and in any time."
She had never appreciated it when he lied to her even though she knew it was his way of sheltering her from a truth he considered too harsh to share. She had never really forgiven him for taking off to old America all those centuries ago all the while telling her that the jet engines needed working on... she had thought he was dead.
The joy in seeing him again hadn’t erased that feeling of betrayal and now she was sensing it again. Pete didn
’t understand the challenges facing them but by putting on a show of confidence he was allowing these people who trusted him to go willingly to their deaths.
They would never know if Kāne and the Ladies made it to their destination. Everything they were doing was based on conjecture instead of hard science. Pete should know better.
Yet Alpin seemed so sure about the calculations he offered that were designed to send him to Ena. She didn’t understand his sudden fascination with reuniting with the woman who he had shunned for centuries. Was it guilt? And if so, if they catered to his whims and something went wrong, wouldn’t they too be responsible?
No one wanted to listen to her. It reminded her of the dark days working at the Centers for Disease Control... how all her male peers—especially Hector Ramirez, her lover and direct superior—had taken advantage of her naturally submissive nature, stolen her ideas, and even her papers, calling them their own.
She had allowed it all to happen. Even now, a thousand years later, she didn’t understand why. For centuries she had blamed her parents for her low sense of self esteem but they had been dead for too long for her to go on believing that myth.
The desire for fame and fortune had driven her to commit to choices that another person—one with morals instead of someone who flagrantly disregarded the welfare of others—would have never done.
The old guilt over being part and parcel of the Great Dying came roaring back. She had committed so many atrocities in her life that this one was nothing. Even if Alpin perished, what was his death compared to six billion others? And what of Hector?
Sometimes she woke up in the morning with him staring at her. In a micro second Hector's visage morphed into Pete's and she told herself it was only her imagination playing tricks on her, but she had purposely poisoned the man.
Would she have to pay for that sin? She didn’t believe in any god—science had always been her religion—but she understood that what went around in the world often came back around. Maybe it was only her subconscious mind working overtime... but what if some part of Hector was still here?
Movement out of the corner of her eye brought her out of her reverie. Everyone was pointing at the sea... and when she looked in that direction she too saw the tall sailing ship bearing down on them.
"It's Luciana!"
Alpin cried out in delight as he raced off to the beach though Karen couldn’t quite make out who was on the bow of the ship waving to them. Another figure stood at the wheel steering a course to the harbor.
It had to be Kirk.
Karen didn’t know how she knew it, but she was all but certain Kirk had returned. Luciana had sworn never to leave the Isle of Skye until her husband returned and despite the odds, he had, though she did not want to give voice to that opinion.
"I do believe that's Kirk at the wheel, my sweet Karen. How on earth..."
Nate had shaded his eyes and was peering intently at the ship as were all those assembled there to see Alpin off. He took off running after Alpin followed by a throng of others as they swarmed on the beach waiting for their long lost family.
Karen trotted along behind with Pete, sharing her doubts and her concerns as they hung back from the throng. She noticed Chester had appeared as if drawn by some mysterious knowledge which only he possessed. The big cat shined light a new penny... as full of life and vigor as he was the day he first came to them.
"I thought Kirk was dead, darling Pete, and whoever it is doesn’t look big enough to be Kirk. But that is definitely Luciana, and she swore she would never leave the Isle of Skye until her husband returned."
By the time they caught up with everyone else, the ship had dropped anchor and a skiff was being lowered into the water. Apparently only the two people were aboard as they dropped into the row boat and started ashore.
It was Kirk but not the same Kirk who had left Toulon so many centuries ago. He was a younger and more virile version of that Kirk... one who had the look of perhaps growing up in a house filled with love rather than hate and a place with food for his belly rather than liquor.
He leaped out the skiff and was promptly tumbled over into the water by Chester. The big cat seemed beside himself to see Kirk again as the two of them wrestled playfully in the blue surf.
Luciana looked renewed, as if Kirk's return had turned her into a new woman. Her dark eyes sparkled with a hint of blue as if they were turning colors to match her mood. As soon as he had extricated himself from Chester's embrace Nate rushed forward to hug Kirk. Karen was near enough she could hear their words to each other even while feeling as if she was eavesdropping.
"Kirk! I thought you were..."
"Hello, Nate! I know... you thought I was dead. I was, I suppose, in a way."
"I never had a chance to say thank you, Kirk. Thank you for saving my life."
"That's what I was along for, my old friend."
"I'm sorry I couldn’t do more for you, Kirk... we tried, but Micah told me when his nanobot nexus was destroyed, you were dead. We could lift you. The nanobots had turned your body into iron."
"I know you did all you could, Nate... now, what does a man have to do to get something to eat around here?"
Chapter 74—Finding Lily
"Where are we?"
For an instant Lauren thought they were back at Lake Baikal again but the water that filled her gills bloomed with exotic tastes that she did not recognize. Surfacing she realized they were no longer on Earth.
A smoldering sun dulled red and bloated hung low on the horizon taking up fully a quarter of the violet sky as she took a breath of fresh air inhaling the fragrance of a billion flowers she had no memory of.
"Well, I know one thing... we aren’t in Kansas any more, my darling Lauren."
Natalia giggled as she hopped into Kāne's arms draping herself over his body like a shirt.
"What is Kansas?"
"Oh shut up you big galoot and kiss me."
"Natalia! Behave yourself!"
The girl who had always seemed so serious was suddenly acting like a child. Lauren wondered for a moment if something had gone wrong... if Natalia's mental faculties had somehow been affected by the transit through the wormhole.
She gasped as Natalia kicked a splash of mauve colored water into her face.
"You did that on purpose! What has gotten into you, sweet Natalia?"
"Look!"
She followed Natalia's finger pointing to the distant shore. A figure was running on the beach and even from their outlying positions she recognized her.
"Lily is here!"
They moved like a school of fish swimming in unison toward the black shoreline while Lily swam out to meet them like a porpoise homing in on its family. Hanging back just a bit as Kāne and Natalia laced their bodies together with Lily, Lauren thought how she had never seen a more beautiful sight.
"Have you been here all this time, my darling Lily?"
"I think so, sweet Lauren... but I cannot be sure. I seem to slip in and out of reality. Maybe it is because I was so alone."
"You'll never be alone again, my sweet girl. We've come to rescue you from your loneliness."
"Are we to go back to Orchardton Hall, my darling Lauren?"
"No, my love... our beloved castle has fallen. We came to be with you here... we can never go back to Earth again... not unless Nate invents new machines to come here."
"Come... let us eat."
Lily led the way to the shore where she took her three lovers by the hands bringing them to her home. A magnificent mansion towered over them like their old home back at Orchardton Hall.
"Oh my sweet Lily... you have a castle of your own here!"
"These plants are my friends, my precious Natalia. They hear my thoughts as they hear yours too. Whatever I desire, they provide."
"Feed me, please."
Lily's eyes flashed in his direction. Lauren wondered for an instant if she was angry he had come with them, but then the girl took him in her arms and kissed him like the l
over he had once been. When she spoke, her voice was full of the music.
"What do you wish to eat, my lovely Kāne? Am I enough? Or do you require sustenance of another kind?"
Kāne looked as flummoxed as Lauren had ever seen until Natalia burst into giggles.
"He definitely requires sustenance of another kind, precious Lily... come, let us feed him well."
Taking both Kāne and Lily by the arms Natalia took them into the dim recesses of the castle, no doubt in search of one of the many bedrooms sprouting up like so many dandelions.
Knowing her own special time with the Ladies would come later, Lauren wandered outside to gaze upon the alien landscape. The gigantic red sun had gone a little lower toward the horizon while in the hazy distance she could see purple clouds hovering over magenta seas.
She didn’t regret leaving to come here but she missed her gardens at Orchardton Hall. Some of her most special moments were spent sequestered inside the private walls of her sanctuary.
As if by magic, plants began to erupt out of the black soil growing so quickly Lauren thought she must surely be hallucinating. Teleporting here had addled her senses, or perhaps she wasn’t awake at all but only dreaming.
Within a few minutes walls surrounded her with benches that had grown out of living plants and black flowers of so many different varieties popped up in front of her that Lauren was now certain she had either fallen victim to some elaborate prank of Lily's or else something in the air and the water of this place had affected her senses.
"It is the work of the concuba plants, my precious Lily."
Her lover's voice startled Lauren as she had assumed Lily would be away with Natalia and Kāne for hours if not days.
"I came back after helping Natalia and Kāne find a place where they might be alone... I've missed you so much, my darling Lauren. Do you like your new garden?"