by A. C. Ellis
Stepping over Krueger’s body, she went to the closet on the far side of the room and took down her uniform. She ignored the bleeding gash over her right eye and quickly got dressed. After pulling on her boots and fastening them, she removed the pendant from the pouch at her waist and slipped it over her head.
She held the lump of cold metal lightly in her prosthetic fingers, concentrating on the exact instant, only a few moments ago, when her duplicate had appeared behind Krueger. She pictured herself standing naked before him, while he held a blaster pistol on her.
It didn’t work. For some reason, she couldn’t make the jump. And yet, she knew she must. She had seen it happen.
She tried again, with exactly the same result.
Then, suddenly, she realized what was wrong. Her mental image of that instant was not complete. It wasn’t specific enough. She had to re-create the exact circumstances in her mind, remembering everything from the grossest element to the most minute detail. She even had to remember her thought processes for that instant in time.
She built up the mental image bit by bit, until she was certain it was a precise copy of the actual occurrence. Then she added her thoughts just prior to her duplicate appearing behind Krueger. She had thought that Krueger’s presence in her room meant Admiral Renford was behind the attempts on her life.
Still nothing.
What was missing? She held in her mind the exact scene as she had experienced it before. She held the thought she had been thinking. Why wasn’t the jump taking place?
Then it hit her. She had to actually see herself appear behind Krueger.
Dressed in Fleet red, a pendant hanging from its silver chain around her neck, the bleeding gash over her right eye…
Again, as she had so many times in the past few days, she felt the dizziness. And the throbbing ache built behind her eyes.
In that instant she stood behind Krueger, just as she had watched herself do a few minutes before. He was about to say something, something her past self wanted to hear. Something she wanted to hear.
Could she let him say it? She hadn’t let him say it before, but could she now?
No—because she hadn’t!
With practiced accuracy she delivered her karate chop, and Krueger fell forward. The barrel of his pistol caught her naked self above the right eye as he went down.
For an instant, as her other self staggered back a step, she thought about finishing Krueger off, but she couldn’t. She had not done so before, when she had watched herself strike him down, so she would not do it now.
She glanced at the blaster the man still held in his hand. Should she take it?
No! Again, because she hadn’t before.
She threw that other Susan a glance as she went to the door. It irised open and, wiping at the cut over her right eye, she stepped out into the corridor.
Just as she had watched herself do before.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Susan shuffled down the corridor in Luna’s one-sixth standard gravity, trying to put as much distance as possible between herself and the man laying on the hospital room floor. When Krueger came to, he would again come after her.
She had at first thought that Hyatt’s impostor was behind these attempts on her life, and he could still be responsible for some of them. But now it was becoming increasingly clear that Admiral Renford was at least partly responsible— he had sent Krueger after her.
Why? Why did Renford want her dead?
She tried to force that question from her mind; she didn’t want to deal with it. She wanted to forget the whole thing, to get onboard Photon and simply head out into the asteroid belt, or to some other star system entirely—anywhere she could be safe and away from it all.
But she knew she couldn’t. They would follow, continuing the attacks until they killed her.
If she couldn’t stop them first.
She would have to accomplish that alone—Susan knew that now. Clayton would not believe her story, any more than Karl would. No one would believe what was happening to her. From here on, she would have to depend strictly on her own resources.
So, what now?
Instantly, some of it began to fall into place. Hyatt’s impostor had called her at Darcy’s apartment, telling her to meet him at the mining camp. That had been just after the real Hyatt had called to say he would meet her at the ship.
But Krueger somehow found out about the meeting and got there first. He killed Hyatt’s impostor.
Or had it been the real Hyatt Krueger had killed? Might he be working for the impostor? Was the real Hyatt actually dead, and had the plan been to eliminate both Susan and Hyatt simultaneously?
If that was true, it meant Hyatt’s impostor was still alive. He was here, in Luna City—somewhere. But where? Where could she find that other Hyatt?
Then she knew. If he was taking the real Hyatt’s place, she could probably find him in Hyatt’s office.
There was no longer a guard outside the office when she arrived, and the receptionist who had been stationed in the anteroom earlier was gone as well. She stepped to the inner office’s entrance, and the door irised open.
The impostor sat behind the small gray desk, signing papers. He looked exactly like Hyatt—the dead Hyatt, the real Hyatt.
Or was he the real Hyatt?
He looked up and smiled as Susan entered. A pendant like the one she wore hung from a silver chain around his neck.
“I’ve been expecting you, Captain,” he said, motioning her to a straight-backed chair beside the desk. “We have much to discuss.”
“We have nothing…to discuss.” Her voice was returning, becoming stronger, but her throat was still sore.
She stood defiantly before him, knees slightly bent, ready to spring. If she sat, she would lose whatever advantage standing gave her. Although this man was many years her senior, she did not doubt his abilities.
“But you’re wrong,” he said. “We could be of considerable benefit to one another.”
“If you’re trying to buy me, it won’t…work.”
Hyatt’s smile broadened. “Perhaps you will cost more than Krueger did,” he said, “but I promise you, Captain, you can be bought. Everyone has a price.”
“Then Krueger is working for you, after all.” A statement rather than a question.
The impostor nodded. “We were hoping to get both you and my double at the same time.”
“Double,” Susan said. “That’s a strange way to refer to him. After all, you are the impostor.”
His smile broadened. He was enjoying this. For him, it was all just a game.
“I’m as much Hyatt as he was,” the old man said.
Susan’s mind raced frantically, trying to work out what he had just said, but it made no sense.
“You’ve been working under the handicap of ignorance and misinformation long enough,” he said. “If you are to decide whether or not you will join us, you must know what this is all about.”
He fell silent for a few seconds. Finally, when he realized Susan wouldn’t respond, he continued:
“Like I said, I am as much a true Hyatt as was that other. And yet, we are separate individuals.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m a future Hyatt,” he said, “from nearly five years from now. Therefore, I am Hyatt. And yet, because I am from that other’s future, I am a completely different individual.”
Susan’s knees became suddenly weak, and she staggered back a step. She collapsed into the chair he had offered a moment before.
Her mind couldn’t grasp what he had just said. There was something wrong with it, something horribly wrong. Something that made absolutely no sense. And yet, she couldn’t quite pin down what it was.
Opening her mouth, she started to speak, then realized she did not know what to say. Until now, she had believed her experiences since arriving on Luna a few days ago the strangest possible, but what this man was saying made them pedestrian by comparison. What he had j
ust said tore at the very fabric of what she considered reality, filling her mind with a dread far greater than anything she had yet experienced.
But it couldn’t be true. He simply could not be from Hyatt’s future.
She recalled everything that had happened to her since that short dark man had attacked her in her quarters on Fleet Base: the second attempt on her life in the exchange area, her spotting that figure out on the lunar surface during the floater ride out to Luna City, the time-jump at the deserted mining camp that had put her in a position to become that very figure. And there were those unexplained discrepancies between what she remembered and what everyone else remembered. Bill Darcy was Luna City’s mayor, and his brother had been dead for years. The power satellite and the mining camp…
Alone, all those things meant nothing. Together they gelled into something nearly concrete.
Nearly, but not quite.
Suddenly, she knew what he had said was true; she felt it deep within her. This man was from the future, from five years hence.
And the pendants somehow made it all possible.
Then it hit her: she knew what hadn’t seemed right a few seconds ago. This man had murdered his past self, or at least had his past self killed. And yet, he still existed. If he had died in his past, how could he still exist?
Susan asked the man as much.
“As long as I am wearing a pendant, I exist outside the time stream,” he answered. “And, although I am no longer subject to time while I wear it—maybe because of that—I can react within time, in any period.”
Susan frowned. The concepts he was dealing with were difficult to grasp. Perhaps impossible.
“You don’t believe me, do you?” he asked.
Susan shook her head.
“I know, it is hard. But it’s real!”
“The differences in the world around us,” Susan asked, “the power satellite, the mining camp, and Bill Darcy as mayor—how did they come about?”
“I am responsible for them,” Hyatt said. “Actually, the only thing I wanted to change was Darcy. I wanted to eliminate Sam Darcy, making sure he never became mayor of Luna City. He was, of course, as I am certain you remember.”
Susan nodded.
“But as mayor, Sam Darcy was a hard opponent. I could never have gotten my D.I. program past him. On the other hand, I could manipulate his brother, Bill. So I went back into the past and made sure Sam would never become mayor. The other changes—the mining camp and the power satellite—were simple by-products of that conscious change.”
Again Susan nodded. “But why did you kill—your past self?”
Hyatt smilled. “I must see that things come out the way I know they must. That, you see, is my destiny.”
“And you can actually know your destiny?”
“Yes,” he said. “As strange as it might seem, I can. In fact, I do.”
Control, Susan thought. With Hyatt, it was all about control. And the means to that control were the pendants.
“Where did you get it?” Hyatt asked.
“Get what?” Then she realized that, as she had thought about the pendant, her hand had strayed to the device hanging about her neck.
But she couldn’t tell him how she got it. In that knowledge might rest the very element he needed to make his conquest a success. She couldn’t tell him anything.
“No matter,” he said when he realized she would not respond. “Eventually you will tell me everything I wish to know. But for now, we will let it go.”
“Damn,” Susan responded, “I wished I had a blaster. Then I would stop you.”
“You two are so very much alike,” he said.
“What do you mean?” Susan asked. “Which two?”
“That doesn’t matter right now, either,” he said. “And a blaster probably wouldn’t do you any good—particularly one from another time. A power weapon carried across time lines simply does not work.”
She thought about the belter in her quarters on Fleet Base, and the tall man outside the Exchange area. That explained why neither had used his weapon.
“But now for the negotiation of your price,” the old man said, scattering Susan’s thoughts.
“There will be no negotiation,” Susan responded. “I will not deal with you, not for any price.”
He smiled. “Not even for Photon? It can be yours. But first, you will be of use to me.”
A chill rattled up Susan’s spine, yet she remained silent. He knew her weak spot—he knew his offer would tempt her. She wanted that ship more than anything in the world. She needed it. With it, she could get away from all this, leave it behind and begin life anew.
But there was no way she could bargain with this man. Deep down, he possessed an inhuman flaw. A flaw so evil it poisoned the very air he breathed. She didn’t know precisely what his motives were, but she did know that whatever he hoped to accomplish would not be in the best interest of humankind.
Yet, why would he make the offer if he knew she would refuse it? Why would he waste his time?
Maybe he wasn’t wasting it. Maybe he knew something she didn’t. Might he know she would accept his offer? Could she do that?
No! she thought. There was absolutely no way she could accept this man’s offer.
When she did not immediately respond, Hyatt said, “You do understand, of course, that you know too much to be permitted to live if you refuse my offer. You are either with me, or you are against me.”
As he talked, Susan’s mind raced, searching for a means to stop him. Somehow, she must kill this man. She knew that.
“I can almost predict what you are thinking,” he said. “You are trying to formulate a way to stop me.” He smiled and shook his head. “But you can’t, you know.”
Both were silent for a few seconds. Finally, Hyatt said, “I don’t have time for this, Captain. What is your answer?”
It was then Susan launched her attack. She lunged at him across the desk, grabbing the front of his Survey Service jumpsuit. The fabric tore beneath her prosthetic fingers.
A fraction of a second later, the man in her grasp vanished. Her fingers clutched at empty air.
The door irised opened behind her, and she spun about. Hyatt stepped into the room
“As I said, you can’t stop me,” the Survey Service Director said. In his left hand he held a blaster pistol he had not possessed only an instant before, pointed at Susan’s chest.
“You said a blaster won’t work,” Susan said.
Hyatt smiled. “One carried across time lines wouldn’t. I jumped back only a few minutes, went to the armory and requisitioned a blaster, then returned here. You can’t beat me. Eventually you must understand that.”
Susan didn’t know what to say.
One thing was certain: She could not stop him this way. She knew too little about the pendants and how they worked to put anything together, while he had far more experience with them. The best she could hope for now was a simple escape.
But how could she possibly accomplish even that?
Again, the pendant; it was the only logical answer. She had consciously made it work for her once before, less than half an hour ago, when Lieutenant Krueger had attacked her in her hospital room. Then, she had accomplished it only with considerable difficulty, and Krueger had not possessed a pendant. How might it work against someone who did?
She didn’t know, but she had no choice. She knew she must try. It was the only chance she had, and perhaps—just perhaps—she could make it work again.
She could not pull off precisely the same trick. Something as simple as that would not work on this man; he was far too shrewd. Besides, she would have seen herself behind him by now if she was actually going to do it.
But a simple escape…
She focused her thoughts on what she knew must be done. Clearing her mind, she concentrated on-
On what? If she jumped to some time in the past, they would only send someone after her. Someone who would have had considerably more pra
ctice with the pendants than she had.
No, she couldn’t possibly hide in the past. But what of the future? Might the pendant be capable of projecting her into the future, the same as it had the past?
Of course it could. It had already done exactly that, out on the lunar surface, saving her from dying of suffocation. Or had it?
Not quite, she decided. Then, the pendant had not projected her past a time she had already experienced. What she needed now was to jump to a time beyond any she had yet lived. A time that, in fact, might not yet exist.
But how could she do that? How could she possibly project herself to a time she had never inhabited?
She knew she couldn’t accomplish it consciously. Perhaps she could trick her subconscious into performing that feat.
Again she cleared her mind of all thought beyond those necessary to accomplish the task. This time, however, she replaced them with a vague, amorphous thought of the future. It was more a feeling than an actual visualization. After all, this was a future she had absolutely no way of knowing.
Suddenly, she felt the dizziness.
Then, nothing…
Chapter Twenty-Six
The scent of antiseptic nearly overpowered her, and for an instant she thought she was again in the hospital room in Luna City. But that wasn’t right. This room lacked corners; every line was strangely curved. There was a no-nonsense efficiency to it, and everything was colored a soft blue.
Before her sat a ridiculously bare control console. And her feet did not touch the ground. She floated in mid-air, and could not tell up from down.
Then it hit her: She was in freefall, onboard a ship. But not just any ship. She was aboard Photon.
And it was no longer on Luna—it was in space!
A woman hung suspended in the acceleration webbing between Susan and the console, her back to Susan. The woman was dressed in a black Base Security jumpsuit, and her dark hair was cropped close to her head.
Before she cleared her throat, forcing that other woman to turn around, Susan knew what she would discover. But still, when she did so, and the woman did turn her head to face Susan, Susan’s breath caught in her lungs. The woman strapped into the acceleration webbing before her was Susan herself!