by Dan Glover
"It is a synthetic blend of plastic and metal. My nanobots are so small they can go right through normal material."
She took his word for it as well as for his claim that the nanobots were his invention when of course they were not. Kirk had disappeared after handing him the box, however, and as far as he knew, the boy had no interest in the nanobots.
"If you can't see them, how do you know they are inside the box, Micah?"
She had him there. Perhaps Kirk was merely playing an elaborate prank on him. The box felt empty when he lifted it. Though he had tried everything short of smashing the box he could discover no way of opening it.
"I infer their existence, Karen."
She hadn’t seemed to guess he was making it all up... that he had no idea what the box was made of or if there really were nanobots inside of it. He took credit for them yet he knew he would meet up with Kirk again.
What he hadn’t reckoned on was there would be two Kirks.
The first Kirk was caught up in a quantum loop in time forever reliving the same life. He had disappeared centuries ago when he had come to old America with Nate to rescue Lady Lily.
The second Kirk was someone to be reckoned with.
It was clear that whatever genius drove the man to invent the nanobots also manifested itself in myriad other ways. Kirk was a quiet man for the most part preferring to spend his time with Luciana and their newest family members, but he also seemed to enjoy talking with Nate deep into the night while they sat near a roaring fire on the beach in front of Toulon castle.
Nate had always been the inventor but now his creations had taken on a whole new tone... they bordered upon surreal in both their ingenuity as well as their engineering, as if the man had plumbed depths heretofore unknown.
Though he couldn’t be sure, Micah suspected Kirk was behind it all though for some unknown reason he refused to take any credit for the work. Micah had taken to visiting the warehouse where the men did most of their labor on new devices and though he often offered his input it was summarily ignored most times.
"The warp field has to stay energized long enough for the presaging to take place... otherwise you are risking a bounce back."
Kirk looked at him with the twinkle in his eyes that Micah found so infuriating and yet endearing at the same time. He seemed to be weighing his words as he often did before speaking.
"A bounce is what we are attempting, Micah. It is the only feasible method of reaching so far into the future."
"That's how you got here, isn't it, Kirk."
It would be an understatement to say Kirk's arrival at Toulon was a miracle. It was so totally astounding to everyone that stories would still doubtlessly be told about that day even ten thousand years later.
"It was Mindy and Kendra who gave me the idea, Micah. I remember watching them play hopscotch in front of my old house in Kurgan. I was trying to figure out a way to get home to Luciana but I had no power source energetic enough to transport me here.
"I realized I could bounce just like those two little girls... rather than teleporting directly here, I could bounce back into the past when I was just a baby and transport myself in that fashion.
"My primary concern was keeping my consciousness intact. I realized while reading Einstein's mathematical calculations leading up to his paper on the theory of relativity that matter and energy are interchangeable.
"What that means is that while we normally think of the material world bringing us into being, it is actually the other way around. Our consciousness brings the material world into being.
"Rather than focusing upon matter, I brought my attention to bear upon mind. Since matter displaces time, at least according to Einstein, I reasoned that mind does as well, only in a negative way.
"Remember the old illustrations of how gravity acts as a well? A cloth was stretched across the top of a box and a heavy ball placed in the middle. That created a depression around which other balls would roll until finally coming to rest in the center.
"What I realized was that the same feature worked with mind as well, only in a mirror image sort of sense. Rather than attracting, mind repels. Think of it as the two ends of a magnet... when you bring one positive end into juxtaposition with the same positive end of another magnet, they are repelled.
"Mass acts as a negative charge that balances out the positive charge of mind. When the two become unbalanced chaos ensues. However, if a state of quantum superposition is introduced, it is not only possible but plausible to marry both mind and matter... in fact, we do it all the time.
"That day when I was watching Mindy and Kendra hopping down the sidewalk I had an insight into separating my own consciousness from one body and introducing it into another... again, my own body, only a younger and smaller version of it.
"Using that analogy allowed me to build an algorithm aimed at using that repulsive energy to positively propel my mind first backwards in time to settle into me as an infant and then by reversing polarity I was able to teleport the new me into the future by way of the energetic bounce I picked up.
"That is the key to getting to Lily... we've managed to bring back the others but so far everything we've tried has failed when it comes to the Lady. I think it might have something to do with how she arrived in that timeframe... Nate tells me they never ran a program to send her there like when her friends went to join her."
"How do you know all this, Kirk?"
"You taught me, Micah."
The man smiled as he turned and walked away.
Chapter 78—Mistrust
She hadn’t wanted to go.
Although Natalia was feeling the weight of her years in ways she hadn’t imagined possible for thousands of years, she would have rather stayed with Lily and died an old woman than to leave her Lady again.
They didn’t give her a choice. One moment she was languishing on the black sand beach just down from the concuba mansion and the next she was opening her eyes back on Earth. Had she really been living on an alien moon in a distance star system or had it all been but a dream? When she saw the triumphant look on Nate's face she had her answer.
"Why did you bring me back here, my precious Nate?"
"You were dying, my darling mother. The timeline where you were at was coming to an end. Had we left you there you would have perished."
"How could you know our timeline was compromised, my darling Nate?"
"You, Lauren, and Kāne are entangled with our timeline. When the anomaly began, we detected it immediately and began working to bring you back."
"I have no idea what you are talking about, my sweet Nate."
"I have trouble understanding it too, my precious mother. The best way for me to comprehend it is to think of each unfolding moment as the beginning of a whole new universe. Each of these creations has its own laws and follows its own music.
"The timeline where you were at began to run down. Eventually the moon upon which you lived would have become too cold for life to exist but long before that the light of that sun and all the other stars in that universe would have gone out.
"Finally, all motion would have stopped completely. The energy of that universe would have been drawn off into a singularity so vast that no one could have recognized it for what it was."
"Is that how our universe will end too, my sweet Nate?"
"We do not yet know enough to make that judgment, my precious mother. However, we are learning more every day about teleporting between potential universes that could sustain life indefinitely. For now, however, we are focusing upon bringing our darling Lily back."
"Where is my darling Lily? Is she still in that depleted timeline?"
Looking about her, Natalia could see Kāne and her Lady Lauren resting on a sofa in the other room but Lily wasn’t there. She could feel it.
"We're working on getting her out of there... so far, we haven’t been able to lock onto her to teleport her back into our time."
"You should have left me there too, my pr
ecious Nate. Is Lily all alone?"
"For now, yes she is. But soon we will work out the algorithms needed to bring her back to us. I promise you that, my darling mother. Believe me when I say we would have brought Lily back if it was at all possible.
"We had to start somewhere so we began by bringing the three of you back. That wasn’t easy but it was doable. Lily presents special challenges we have yet to solve. Kirk is helping me, however, and we hope to grasp onto Lily before..."
"Before what, my darling Nate?"
"Before the singularity encompasses everything in Lily's universe... if that occurs before we are able to bounce her back here, then she is lost to us forever."
"Excuse me, my darling Nate, but I thought for a moment that you said Kirk was helping you. Did you misspeak?"
"No, my sweet mother... in fact, Kirk was instrumental in bringing the three of you back. If not for his algorithm, we never could have achieved the desired effect."
"And this is the Kirk that I knew?"
"Yes and no... he is the Kirk you knew but not the same Kirk. He returned to Toulon during your absence but as a young man with a mind of staggering genius. We assume it had something to do with the nanobots creating new neural networks within his brain but no one is sure about that... not even Kirk."
"Is this a man to be trusted, my darling Nate?"
"He is the one who determined you and the others on Miranda were in trouble, my sweet mother. When he brought that news to my attention we decided we had to bring you home again. I trust Kirk."
She knew her son. He was a good man but he had always seen the righteousness in others while disavowing the negativity that too often bred in the mind of human beings and even those of the Lake.
If Kirk wanted them back here on Earth, there had to be an ulterior motive. So far as she knew the man had never in his life done anything to help someone else unless there was something in it for him as well.
She remembered too well the near fiasco that he had perpetrated upon them supposedly under the influence of Marilyn. She had voted to exile him that day, to send him to his death. That he was allowed to stay at Orchardton Hall and to live had never set well with her.
"He is your friend, my precious son, but he is also someone to watch. Take care that he does not lead you astray. Kirk may have designs of his own that will not be revealed until it is too late to avoid the consequences of following them. Now, please excuse me... I am tired."
She sincerely hoped she was wrong. It was true that she had been away a long while. Many things had changed including Nate's renewed relationship with his two wives, Ginger and Amanda, and she couldn’t help but notice the profound change in Micah and Kendra.
The two of them were obviously far closer than ever before and not only that, their personalities were shaped in ways that did not comport with her memories of either person.
The old Kendra was a dowdy thing even after living alongside the Ladies for centuries. While others like Karen, Amanda, and Ginger had grown in beauty and grace, Kendra had remained a mousy little thing that rarely spoke and smiled even less.
Now, while she was still unmistakably Kendra, she had grown so far in beauty that she rivaled that of the Ladies. Her voice had taken on a lyrical quality almost musical in nature and her laugh was infectious.
What bothered her most was that no one else seemed to notice the changes in Kendra. As for Micah, he was a strikingly handsome man of stature who bore none of the distinguishing features that he had heretofore been know for, such as his frailty and his marked isolation.
Apparently Micah and Kendra were a couple now with a burgeoning family... and what of Ena? Natalia was afraid to ask... she sensed whatever had become of the girl wasn’t good.
It was as if she was returned to a world that was at once familiar and yet strangely out of sync with the one she remembered.
Chapter 79—Gravedigger
He took leave of the Lake during a particularly warm spell that seemed to portent changes which he knew were coming yet could not articulate to others.
Its waters were brimming with their descendants though Ena had long ago ceased to recognize him as her husband. She seemed a different person all together though he imagined himself changing as well over the eons they had spent there.
Life on land was not unduly harsh though his interactions with human beings grew precarious with the passing centuries. They seemed both attracted to him and repelled at the same time.
Alpin had always been taught that his presence was a panacea to those who had no gills though he soon discovered should he come into contact with one of them and then leave them behind, they invariably grew sick and died.
Though he did not mourn their passing over much the ones who were left behind began to blame him. Unlike the human beings among whom he lived, Alpin did not age. In time tales were told of how he was inhabited by demons intent upon wrecking havoc on the tiny village by the shores of the Lake.
Eventually he fled. It became a template for his life... wandering the countryside a pretty girl would catch his attention, they would make love, and when he left her behind the news of her death would reach him in the next town down the line.
From time to time plagues would sweep over the land to which he seemed as immune as he was to aging... they all seemed related to his travels, somehow, as if he was the progenitor.
Rumors began hounding him. When he was heretofore welcomed in the small hamlets and villages his journeys took him through, now he found armed guards who forbade his passage.
In one town he was arrested and jailed on the word of an old crone who said she recognized him as a man who once helped on her family farm seventy some years prior. The prison sat on a hill isolated from the village by a deep river
"He hasn’t aged a day, I tell you."
She said it through toothless gums while pointing an accusatory crooked finger at him. He had no idea if he had ever met the woman before so when he was brought to the village to stand trial he answered the questions put to him truthfully and from his heart.
The judge did not believe him.
He was sentenced to hang the following fortnight yet before the sentence could be carried out the judge was dead as was the old crone who accused him of witchery and nearly all the town's people. The only people who were not sick happened to be the jailor and his daughter who lived in an apartment above the cell where Alpin was held. He could hear them discussing what to do with him.
"If we kill him, father, we too will die. It is a curse he has brought with him."
"It is my duty to carry out the sentence, daughter. Hush now and go to bed. The hanging will proceed at midnight."
He was surprised to hear someone fumbling a key into the locked door of his cell not an hour later. The sun had just set so he knew it couldn’t be his executioner coming for him. His hunch was right... the daughter put a finger to her lips to hush him, waved her hand for him to follow, and led the way down the outer steps to freedom.
"Take me with you."
She looked up at him with eyes brimming tears and a sob in her voice. She wasn’t a pretty girl yet there was something overtly sexual in her gaze. When he walked away she followed and he did not stop her.
"The people of my village say you're the devil come to bring disaster upon us all."
They had walked through the night stopping at the first hint of dawn in a stony hollow where a creek swollen with the spring thaw ran through the bottom and bitter weeds grew plentiful and high enough to hide them during the day.
"I am just a man."
"You have no ears."
"No... it is a deformity of my birth."
"My name is Danielle."
"I am Alpin."
"You are not from here."
"No... I was born in Scotland."
"Are all men from Scotland as handsome as you are, Alpin?"
He hoped the pink light of the sun breaking over the horizon would cover his blushing face but Danielle didn’t
seem to mind. She shifted from her perch on a rock opposite him to sit by his side. He suddenly realized he was mistaken... she was actually a beautiful girl and her lips were ripe for kissing.
He woke to the sound of dogs. At first he thought it was merely a nearby farmer who kept hounds to chase away the coyotes and foxes from his chicken coop but the baying grew closer.
"They're coming after us, Alpin."
He hadn’t realized Danielle was awake too but he knew instinctively that she was right.
"Stay here, Danielle. They won't hurt you."
Gathering up his clothing he leaped into the creek. A second later he heard a splash behind him. It was Danielle. It was clear that she could not swim as she struggled against the deep current pulling her under its cold embrace.
He knew he should leave her... she was as good as dead anyway. Her only chance was to stay with him yet to achieve that meant staying above the surface. He cursed his ill luck, swam to the top of the creek, and gathered her into his arms.
The dogs were right beside them running along the shoreline now perhaps leery of bolting into the raging waters or perhaps held back by their masters' calls as they followed on horseback.
"I knew you wouldn’t let me drown, Alpin. I love you."
A moment later the first arrow caught him in one of the wrists he had shattered during his trip through the Grampians so many centuries in the future. Danielle stared at it stupidly as if she couldn’t quite understand what was happening.
"We have to go under, Danielle. Hang onto me."
The second arrow caught him just below his right shoulder blade causing him to lose his grip upon Danielle. The pain was exquisite. He gave up trying to rescue the girl as he dove deep into the murky waters in order to avoid any more arrows.
Each movement was agony so he drifted with the current only maneuvering around boulders large and hoary dotting the muddy bottom while looking upward every few seconds for a sign of Danielle.
He hadn’t removed either arrow but he knew unless he was able to reach help he would slowly bleed to death. He could taste his blood as his gills filtered out the oxygen from the water that he needed to survive.