Encompassing

by Richard Lord

  “They smell your presence; you are the first target.” Solstice replied, fighting the poison, but clearly affected by it.

  “So it is I, the person who taught you how to do this, that you are truly angry with?”

  “If you don’t die,” she calmly stated, “the plan could fail.” Then with a push from inside her she reeled again and glared at him, “Your failure to stop me causes you pain!”

  Renfield asked, “Do you know why?”

  The reply was unexpected, the look on Solstice’s face. Although from something inhuman, was pure anger and derision. The flood of adrenaline was overcoming the drugs Jacobs’ body had provided. “WHAT is SHE doing here?”

  Quickly Renfield turned to see what caused the disturbance and he too is shocked. “Christina, how…?”

  “You’re not a dumb guy Ren, I knew you had some plan. I can’t do what you do, but I listened to what you said and got myself here.” Christina looked at him as if he was a complete idiot.

  “Go!” Renfield screams out in his mind. Then he follows immediately out loud with, “No. Damn!” He thinks for a moment then adds, “No, you’ll die trying to get out now. Damn! Why are you here? What? No!” Renfield was recalculating everything in his head as fast as possible. If something happened to Christina he would lose her. Solstice would never be. It was an unacceptable outcome.

  Christina ignores his panic and calmly said, “So you’re my daughter? You’re what’s inside me?” Then she looked at Renfield and drew her sidearm and looked at Renfield with anger and then at Solstice. She pointed the gun at her and then at her own womb and yelled, “I can kill you now”, motioning to her stomach, and then she raised the gun and pointed it at Solstice’s head, “or I can kill you now! Do you understand?”

  Solstice was wondering why she couldn’t communicate with her beasts, why were they not responding, then again, what would they do? She would never exist if her mother didn’t give birth. She looked over at Renfield, “As fast as you are you wasted…” Then she went quiet.

  Renfield, closer than he had ever been and seeing this chance fall apart was still thinking. He knew there wasn’t time to explain everything to Christina, he could see the look of determination on her face and knew he had mere seconds to make decisions.

  “Christina!” He barked. “Put it down, now!” He was unwavering in the order. “She is ours. If it weren’t for her we would have never met. She’s more than I can explain, but you are about to make a huge mistake. STOP NOW!”

  She was conditioned to orders and it gave her pause, as Renfield was counting on. Christina looked at him and as tears started ran down her face she asked, “Why?” Her hands didn’t waiver from her aim.

  Renfield really was trying to keep it simple, given the urgency of timing. He could see Solstice was coming out of the drug-induced malaise. He knew she had learned the lesson of speeding metabolism and that was specifically why he knew, before he even came in, it would be the challenge.

  “Her older sister will be here soon, that’s why!” he blurted out.

  Both Christina and Solstice turned to him instantly and simultaneously shouted, “What older sister?”

  Solstice continued, “Keep her out of this!”

  Renfield looked down in resignation, “She’s not a threat. She is younger than you right now. She never got to learn any of this, but she travels.”

  Solstice pointed out the obvious, “So you’re afraid that you’re going to lose. Why not just jump again?”

  Renfield put a knee to the ground and said, “Why haven’t you?”

  CHAPTER 28

  “Souls find a way to pair, even as they fight against their destinies.” -- from the book of Christina

  With a wry grin Solstice considers that Renfield really had thought much through. At that moment a woman carrying a small child runs into the area and looks at Renfield and says, “This is insanity! What’s your plan, Ren?”

  Christina looks at Ren and yells, “Who is this?” As her free arm motions to the woman carrying a baby. It’s a very odd scenario and the weirdness of it all doesn’t escape Christina who currently doesn’t trust anyone in the room.

  Ren looks at her and cocks his head and replies, “Really, didn’t we go over this? I’ve had other lovers, dear.”

  “Who is she?” Christina demands.

  “Don’t worry. By now, she knows you well. As she should. She’s not under any illusion as to my being umm…”

  Renfield tumbles for a word as both women fill in the blank for him, “Faithful?”

  Renfield replies, “I wouldn’t put it like that. However we don’t have time for the finer points here.”

  Solstice interjects, “You never change, father. That’s what will make it so easy to end you. You already realize I’m gathering. Why all of this when it will soon be a foregone conclusion. Yet again, but this time you’re not jumping back in time to force another try. Why? You know you won’t live this time.”

  Renfield looks at Solstice and deeply replies, “No my girl, maybe I won’t this time, but you will. It’s what everyone wants.”

  “Why would everyone want me to get away? I can leave at will!” Solstice yells back. Although it is clear she would have taken action if she could.

  Christina, obviously confused, yells at Ren, “OK, Mr. ‘Full of Surprises’, what’s going on here.”

  “Tell your mother about some of the old timelines. The good you did with what you know. Go on Solstice, think back that many jumps ago. Explain to her what changed you.” Renfield stood up and moved towards Solstice as he spoke.

  “That was a long time ago, irrelevant and good is a matter of perception.” The body that Solstice is in begins to droop in a weary headed fashion.

  “I see some of my cynicism is still in you. Although, isn’t that what you despised about me?” Renfield replies.

  “I don’t despise you, Dad, I want you dead so you leave me alone.” Solstice snaps back. “Despising you would indicate I care either way. I don’t.”

  “Yet you just referred to me as Dad again, so clearly, you do. You realize that.” Renfield moved closer and smiled at Solstice with a look of pride towards her that was strange, given the circumstances.

  “Father…” Instantly she moved, faster than Renfield expected. So soon. She grabbed him and he twisted with near equal speed and simply held on to her. Quickly he thought to her, “You can never take this back.” She paused and he used the time to grab a limb and she twisted and lunged back, faster than Renfield could move. She paused again and thought back to him, “I’m faster than you now.”

  Christina eyed for a shot, but she inwardly thought, “If I shoot, I’ll kill both of them, probably because I want Renfield dead as much as the threat. My daughter? How is that thing in me?” At that thought she lowered her weapon and turned around and looked at the small child. She knew she couldn’t take that child’s father from her in front of her. Then she looked at the other woman, the love she had for Renfield so apparent in her eyes and she knew that woman loved him too. Christina wondered to herself, “Why would Renfield have risked bringing either of them here? It wasn’t just the threat of this situation that would make someone cautious, but the terrain itself is not suitable for a woman and small child to traverse. Why?”.

  While Christina was thinking, Sara remained still. Renfield continued to avoid Solstice and her movements had caused the drug to begin flooding her system again. Christina realized what Renfield’s base game theory was. The rest of it was far beyond her imagination yet. Christina thought to herself, “He knew this would happen. He knew the only way to stop it would be to stop me from doing something I’m not even sure I want to do or already would have done. He brought them here to save his own daughter from her own mother. Why? She’s planning on destroying the world he said. He wasn’t surprised to see me, he was counting on me following him because he knew I would. If he knows Solstice knows too! Why would he have even allowed me to become pregnant?”

&nb
sp; She watched the blur of the two of them moving so quickly they became a haze of movement and she decided to think rather than waste her time at trying to keep aim on one or the other. She thought, “This all has to be a dream and I’m going to wake up from it.” The she thought, “I wish!”

  Suddenly, she threw her weapon down and yelled out, “Do either of you love me?”

  Renfield moved swiftly, grabbed Solstice from behind and held her limbs so she couldn’t move. “Answer your mother, honestly!” He could see Solstice’s mind just wanted rest, but this was the moment he had waited for.

  Solstice gestured to be let go and Renfield complied. “Mother, you’re why he’s here!”

  Sara turned and took the child quickly.

  Christina asked, “Why?”

  “Your husband believes in love and in good. He thinks he can force me to go back to the original timeline when all seemed ok to him. It’s not OK!”

  Christina looked at Renfield and mouthed, “Husband?” Then directly said, “What does she mean?”

  Renfield looked at Solstice with pride again and Christina noticed the look. He breathed, picked her up and carried her to her version of a throne. He set her down knowing she would be incapacitated for a while now that her burst had caused his plan to take effect. He looked over at Christina and said, “She’s important to the world. There is another threat. She stops it. Not without a price. She’s who we need to save, not ourselves.”

  Renfield turns to Sara as she is leaving. “What’s your take?”

  At that moment Solstice strikes. She impales Adam’s heart and he falls immediately to the ground. His mind races with any possible way to survive the eventual outcome. He can only focus on that one organ and nothing else around him, but Renfield is sure he can’t focus hard enough before his body looses the pressure it needs to survive for him to continue to focus on the healing.

  Sara looks down at her own baby. She walks over to Renfield and places the child in his arms. Solstice reaches out and grans her and the two disappear.

  Brady enters the room with a gasp. “What the hell is all this about?” He asks as he looks to Christina.

  Christina looks up in shock. “Sir, I have no idea, but we have to get him out of here! He’s going to die!” Christina can hear the rest of the men shooting the creatures that are no longer moving. She thinks to herself, “They have a lot of anger at those things, I’m not sure there will ever be enough of them to get that anger out.”

  Brady looks at Christina and then at Sara and the baby in her arms. “Who is this?”

  Sara looks up, “Do you mean me or your grandchild?”

  Christina and Brady both shoot a look at her. Brady speaks first, “OK, all of you, let’s go. Now!” Then he yells back to his team that he needs assistance ASAP. Jacobs is first in the doorway. He looks at Renfield and runs to help Brady pick up the body and begin moving it out of the caves.

  CHAPTER 29

  “I read every word of the books and I learned. It is why I was renegade and why I suffered.” -- from the book of Phillip

  Christina looked at Renfield. “You say a lot, but I would have never believed any of this if I hadn’t seen things with my own eyes. Explain.”

  “In our real future, no, our past, we were a happy family. Not that you don’t argue, but…” He grinned, then continued, “I learned how to do something and our daughter is smart and she noticed it one day and asked me to teach her. I did. Then the wars began. The technology on many sides was…well more than the world could withstand. It wasn’t just people who died. Most species were considered a threat and they were all wiped out too. She and I knew how to, hmm, click back to earlier versions of ourselves. Solstice went further and learned to go back to another body in a time when she existed. She exists, in you now. She also learned technology from me so she used that to setup a way to stop the things that were created by all sides. She saved the world then. There was a price. Neither of us wants to pay that price, but we have to because without that event none of what she did would have happened. She began clicking back over and over trying to find another way. Now she believes the only way is scorched earth.”

  Christina listened, but could not resist the question that weighed on her, “What was the price?”

  Renfield shook his head and tears fell down his cheeks. Christina was shocked. He looked up and said, “We both love you.” At that having gather enough energy, Solstice sat up and abruptly put a limb through his abdomen. Renfield looked her deep in the eyes and said, “I love you to.” Then he fell to the ground and began bleeding to death.

  Christina went into shock as Solstice moved slowly towards her. Solstice simply whispered, “I don’t think I need you anymore.”

  Renfield yelled out, “Now Sara, save your mother!”

  Sara moved towards Christina and blocked Solstice. Solstice grabbed Sara and both simply vanished.

  Christina ran to Renfield trying to put pressure on his wound, but not finding a good place to push.

  Christina leans over Renfield and asks, “What did you mean, by that, who is Sara?”

  Renfield grinned, “I wasn’t the only one who was unfaithful. Time is a weird thing. I met her by accident because she lived nearby. Sara is your second daughter, her daughter is my first.”

  Christina let go of Renfield trying to consider his words. She didn’t doubt him, but she had no idea what he was referring to. Then in automatic mode she refocuses on keeping Renfield alive. She hears Brady yell out, “Gauze! We’re going to need gauze!” Jacobs ran over and begins wrapping gauze tightly around Renfield’s guts.

  Jacobs looks up at Christina and says, “Well, not enough food, but they sent us with plenty of gauze.”

  Jacobs eyes turn are fixated on the baby on Renfield’s chest. “Umm, can you explain that?”

  Christina replies, while simultaneously picking up the child and holding her to herself. “Not even close.” Then Christina notices the baby hasn’t cried during any of the events that would leave any grown person to weep.

  Renfield looked like there was little chance of surviving, but he again grinned, and said to Brady, “Told ya, we’d be friends someday!” Then he looked at Jacobs and said, “So you understand?”

  Jacobs nodded and laughed a bit. “I didn’t sign up for easy. It was part of the mission. You didn’t let me die, I sure as hell ain’t gonna let you die.”

  Renfield smiles at Jacobs as he loses consciousness.

  As Brady and Jacobs walk away to whatever they need to deal with next, Christina leans over Renfield and pokes him awake. “Who is Sara? Why would she bring a baby into all of that?”

  Renfield flutters his eyes as he tries to awaken but he can only mumble. “Solstice loves her sister. That’s why she paused. That’s why we are alive.”

  Christina, clearly annoyed looks at Adam and smacks him in hopes to get a clearer answer. Renfield smiles and mumbles, “Hitting on me?”

  Christina realizes he is too injured to say much else and she let’s go of her anger as she heads to the campfire. She does wonder what they have decided would burn now. More motivating to her now was the feeling of hunger. She knows that where there is a fire with people around it, there is bound to be food. She briefly looks back at Renfield. Part of her feels sorry for the man but the overwhelming voice, at the moment, is anger. He got them all into this. She considers his words. That he was saving the world by doing so, but then she thinks to herself, “Isn’t that what they all say?” Then right before her eyes, she watches the baby become a young woman. Her mind searches for the off button. She wonders if she has gone mad or if the world around her is not what she had perceived at all.

  CHAPTER 30

  “Most people are uncomfortable with reality. It’s because most people are still children hoping that one day they will mature. Most believe they have, but their discomfort proves them wrong.” -- from the book of Illumna

  The next morning Christina sat holding Renfield’s head. She looked dow
n at him and said, “What happened to my daughters, were did they go?”

  Renfield coughed and tried to move, but couldn’t. He writhed a bit in agony, and looked at Illumna holding his hand and smiled. Then he looked back up at Christina, “Solstice did that, Sara can’t. It’s genetic and you chose the wrong guy that night.”

  Christina looked at him and said, “I’m serious, where are they?”

  Renfield grinned and looked back down at Illumna. “They’re sisters. They needed a quiet place to talk in private. If they work things out, none of this will have been.” Then he grins and looks at Illumna again and adds, “However, I don’t know what will be. I do know you have your granddaughter here and she will tell you all about her mother and your other daughter. She travels too so she knows a lot. And she’s pretty sharp.”

  Illumna said, “Dad, when will they come back?”

  Renfield replied, “Hmm, dear, I don’t know. I suspect today, but it might be awhile. Give your grandmother a kiss. Remember she doesn’t remember she knows you.”

  Christina looked confused, but understood. She reached out to hug Illumna and said, “So how did you get your name?”

  The girl hugged her and said, “You always say it was Daddy’s idea.”

  CHAPTER 31

  “Identify threats, identify allies, but most of all identify those that are blindly following the other two.” -- from the book of Illumna

  At the camp preparations are made to get back to the mainland. With radio contact now functional, the team listens to the reports on the radio. A plane from one country went down and struck a base of another country, while rumors swirl it was the plan of yet a third country.

  Illumna, sitting with her grandmother and the other men say, “The Bear strikes at the Eagle and the Serpent strikes the Bear while he is erect and distracted. The Bear knows the Eagle will eat the Snake and accedes to the Eagle. All trust is lost.”

  “What the hell does she mean by that?” One of the officers says to Christina. Clearly the lack of resources was making everyone edgy.