by S D Taylor
“Flying Raven wasn’t interested in being our water taxi. He didn’t feel safe going back to the camp. I thought about trying to talk him into it, but I knew it wouldn’t work. He has the safety of his people to think about. Can you make it to shore?”
“Sure. Let’s just keep it slow and steady. We will be fine.”
“Slow and steady it is. Save me a spot on the beach.”
Megan was glad the shore was closer this time. It took about twenty minutes but they were on the rocky beach before they knew it. Both were breathing hard from the long swim, but they had a sense of accomplishment. In the distance they could see the Haida canoe slowly making its way south. Tom imagined he saw the Chief wave at them, but without his binoculars he couldn’t be sure.
They had come ashore north of the camp in a small quiet cove that was surrounded by forest. “This would be the spot to build our cabin if we lived here.”
Megan laughed as she wrung out her pants as best as possible. “So you are scouting real estate now, huh? It does have a nice view and is a bit sheltered on this side of the island. I’ll bet the fishing is good.” She thought about how she wished that their only challenge was to find a nice place to settle down. She felt so drawn to Tom that it was an appealing thought to just find a spot and stay there. No pirates, no time travel and nobody to interrupt their time together.
She walked over to Tom who was pouring water out of his boots. “Tom. We really should go over there in the trees and get out of these wet clothes. Give them a chance to dry a little.”
Tom didn’t look up and was distracted by thinking about the hike back to the camp. “We need to get back to Doug and Ying. They probably wonder . . .”
Megan knelt down behind Tom and put her arms around him and whispered in his ear. “We need to go over there and get out of our clothes so they can dry. Don’t you agree?” She leaned forward and kissed his ear.
Somewhere in Tom’s distracted mind, bouncing around between the struggle of the swim and the attack of the hover vehicle, a small light came on. He turned he head slowly toward Megan and smiled. “I guess it couldn’t hurt to have slightly drier clothes for the hike. How much do you think they will dry in an hour?”
“We may not be drying them for that long.” She kissed his cheek and walked towards the thick undergrowth. Tom grabbed his wet boots and was right on her heels.
Chapter 11
Erin was speechless. Even with all the events of the past week, nothing prepared her for emotional shock of meeting the person she saw in front of her. In the cell that Dara had taken her to, sitting on the edge of the bunk, was a woman who was in her late forties. She had bright eyes and long red hair with just a few gray strands. Her hair was tied back in a pony tail and she was wearing a very well-worn Red Sox cap. She stood up gracefully and walked across to the door. She was thin but not emaciated and seemed to be very healthy. She was smiling broadly.
“I never thought I would ever see you again. It has been a long time. And even if I had a mirror, the image I see now would be different than it used to be. Would it be immodest for me to say how very beautiful you are?”
Erin wanted to ask how this could be possible, but she knew exactly how it was possible. Dara and the insect man-robot had taken her from the cell she shared with Peter and Gaby and brought her to this meeting. A meeting that turned out to be with a future version of herself. The older model must have been living on the island and then brought back to this time by one of the time rifts caused by the vortex weapon. Unless Dara had done it.
“May I go in and talk with her?” Erin turned to Dara with a hopeful look on her face. The time for resisting her captivity could be delayed. She had to get Dara’s cooperation so she could talk to this woman. She had to.
Dara paused long enough to make Erin wait and realize who was in control of the situation. Then she acquiesced with a simple nod. Insect man opened the door of the cell just wide enough for Erin to go in. She stood there, three feet from this woman who looked so much like the image she saw in the mirror. The two of them looked at each other, acutely aware of the weirdness of the situation, but also fascinated by the opportunity to exchange thoughts across the mists of time.
“Come here and hug me. You remind me so much of my daughters.”
Erin wasn’t at all prepared for that comment. It never occurred to her that there would be a story of her future that involved children. She put her arms around the older woman and hugged her, thinking how much she wanted to watch the entire movie of this woman’s life. Her life in many ways. At least one possible version of it.
The older Erin smiled and said, “Let’s go sit down. You probably have some questions to ask me.” The two women, still very similar in appearance despite nearly twenty years difference in their ages, sat on the lower bunk and got comfortable. Erin wondered how long Dara would allow them to talk so she decided to ask a few key questions quickly just in case they were cut short.
“We may only have a few minutes. How did you get here?” Erin still felt the waves of disbelief flooding over her but she made up her mind to focus on the reality of what was right before her eyes. And make the very most of the opportunity.
The older woman leaned forward and spoke softly. “I was gathering some eggs when their flying saucer came after me. Katelyn and Alannah were not with me so these bad people didn’t capture them. Dara and the insect man don’t know about them, so this is the last I will speak of them. For now anyway. They are my daughters. One is almost eighteen and the other one is fifteen.”
“Who is the father?”
The older Erin smiled. “Who do you think? Some Viking?”
“Where is he? Where is Doug? Ah, the older version of Doug. Your Doug.”
There was a long pause while the two women looked at each other. One afraid of what she might hear and the other afraid of having to say what she had to say.
“He died two years ago. He was fishing and must have slipped, hit his head and fell into the water. We never found his body. We tried and tried but I figured the waves just took him.”
There were tears in the eyes of both women as the thought about this ending for Doug. “He was a wonderful partner and a great father to the girls. We had a difficult life here but he made it worthwhile. He was the love of my life and I wouldn’t have changed a moment of it. I think of him every single day.”
Erin was speechless again as she leaned forward and hugged her older version. This woman seemed like her mother in so many ways. And yet she also was showing Erin the chapters of her story that had yet to be written. What if her Doug had been killed by the energy burst and she would never have a life with him like this older Erin had. Were their realities linked somehow? Could her own story match this woman’s? Would she have daughters? With Doug? Somehow hearing about this vision of the future, a possible future, was causing her as much pain as it was intriguing her.
“Don’t worry, Erin. You can’t be expected to grasp all this right away. Doug and I talked many times over the years about the possibility that we might run into different versions of ourselves. It isn’t like it hadn’t happened before. Since the weapons testing here caused temporal rifts, they could occur at any time in our lives as we went from day to day, year to year. We had a long time to consider what had taken place and come to grips with it.”
Erin’s mind was racing. Almost to the point she couldn’t form a coherent set of questions for this Future Erin.
“Did you ever see Dara or the Insect Man when you were my age?”
“No. Yesterday was the first time we saw them. Doug and I survived an attack by the pirates all those years ago. I am guessing your version of that attack would have just happened since Dara said something about a pirate attack on the group before that took you. The pirates attacked us just before sunset. The helicopter came in shooting at everyone while the rest of them came at us from the forest. Before he was wounded, Tom shot down the helicopter with a small missile. With Peter’s help, we manag
ed to kill most of the pirates. After that, Doug, Peter, Gaby and I went to Peter’s old camp. We were looking for some better medical supplies for Tom. He was too badly wounded to travel, so Megan and Ying stayed behind to look after him. We stayed at Peter’s camp for two days and when we returned to the main camp by the shore, Tom, Megan and Ying were gone, along with all the zodiacs. And we never saw them again.”
“You never saw them again? What do you think happened to them?”
“We never had a clue. In nearly twenty years, we have no more idea now than we did at the time. They just disappeared into thin air. We don’t know if they were taken by pirates we didn’t know about, or if they had to leave for some reason. The day we found out they were gone was the saddest day I experienced on this island until the day Doug was lost.”
The story of her possible future was provoking strong emotions in the younger Erin and she felt a tear running down her cheek again. “Quite a story, Erin. Did you notice any of the vortex events recently? That might explain why you ended up here in this reality.” Erin tried to change the tone so they could both have an emotional break.
The older of the two women thought for a minute. “Something happened yesterday that changed our world and I assume that is the event you are referring to. It must have happened when we were asleep. When we woke up, there were other items in our camp. Food, bottled water, guns, ammunition. All our stuff was there but the new things were there also. It was as if the past and future versions of the place had been merged. The really weird part was that in the morning there were more trees around our camp. Did I mention that we still live in the shelter where Peter and John had set up their camp?”
Erin looked at her with surprise. “Then there is a chance that Doug or Tom may be meeting your daughters any time now. They planned to visit that camp. If my Doug is still alive. He was hit by a beam from the insect guy and it knocked him down. He was trying to stop them from kidnapping me.”
“Don’t worry, Erin. I bet he is fine. He was always notoriously hard to kill. And you can call me Rin if you like. Alannah started calling me that when she was a toddler and it stuck. Doug calls me that sometimes. I imagine we will be spending a lot of time together in the years ahead.”
“But I hope it will be back with our people, not stuck here as their prisoners.”
Rin had a sad look on her face. “Didn’t Dara tell you? They plan to take us to their future world and we won’t be coming back.”
Chapter 12
Erin sat in her cell with Peter and Gaby and thought about what Rin had said. Spending years together. She wondered why she had said it like that. Did she know something about the plans of these “Saucer People?”
Peter and Gaby leaned close to the newly returned Erin. “Where did they take you?” Peter whispered so the jailers couldn’t hear. Or at least he thought they couldn’t hear.
“You won’t believe me if I tell you. I went to see my future self. From twenty years into the future.”
Peter and Gaby exchanged glances that implied they thought that Erin might have found the boat’s liquor cabinet.
“And I am quite sober and quite sane. She even has a tattered old Red Sox cap if you don’t believe me. If Insect Man ever takes you out for a walk, you should see if they will let you talk to her. She has quite a story to tell.”
Gaby put her arm around Erin. “Why are you crying? Did she tell you about sad things?”
“Sad and happy. And just plain weird. Hearing about the unwritten chapters of your future life is pretty strong stuff. I didn’t handle it all that well.”
Peter’s curiosity was running in high gear now. “Is she here alone? Is there a future version of Doug or any of the rest of us with her?”
“Her Doug is dead. He died two years ago. Or more correctly, he disappeared and they finally assumed he must be dead. She is quite alone here. She didn’t mention either of you in regards to her current world, but you were all together with her right after the Rasputin was destroyed. But in her story, there was no hover vehicle. Just an attack by the pirates with the helicopter providing air support.” Erin didn’t mention the daughters. She didn’t want to put them at risk by revealing their presence to Dara.
Peter and Gaby were puzzled. “How did she get on the island at this time? If she is an older version of you, shouldn’t she be in the future?” Gaby asked.
“Doug and I talked about the possibilities of the temporal fractures. When they occurred during the pulse vortex weapon tests, they opened windows between realities, whether two days ago or a thousand years into the future. We all seem to have gone through a fracture that brought us to the past. At least the past relative to when we started. We may be in the 1800s now. The Vikings were brought forward. These saucer people seem to be from a long ways into the future. So for Future Erin to be here from only twenty years from now isn’t all that amazing.”
Peter laughed. “I guess your definition of “amazing” has been somewhat changed by the events of the last week. I am still of the opinion that the whole thing is amazing.”
Gaby put her arm around Peter and lay her head on his shoulder. Erin stared at the two of them and realized that she must have missed something along the way from the time that Peter was standing there on the shore with Gaby tied up as his prisoner. Now they seemed to be snuggling like two people who were pretty close friends. Or more than friends. She thought about how her feelings for Doug had progressed rather quickly, but she would never have expected these two to find any friendship or affection for each other. Before she had a chance to say anything, Dara showed up at the door, alone for once.
“Could you come with me, Peter? And please don’t get any heroic ideas. I am protected in ways you would not understand. If you touch me, you will receive the same activity adjustment pulse that your friend Erin received on our transport vehicle. I was told that she did not enjoy it.”
Erin didn’t respond to this provocation. She wanted to take a swing at Dara just to see if the pain would start before her fist connected with Dara’s smug face. But the memory of the pain was still fresh. She passed on the chance.
The door of the cell opened quietly for Peter to go through. He stood in front of Dara, towering over her as she watched him with the interest of someone visiting a zoo. He glanced over his shoulder at Gaby and Erin who were watching him nervously. He winked at them and turned to follow Dara who was already walking towards the door that led out of their cellblock.
“I hope they don’t do anything bad to Peter.” Gaby seemed very concerned about her new friend.
Erin sat on her bunk and motioned to the tall, blond German woman to join her. Gaby sat on the opposite side of the bunk and pulled her legs up under her. “You are probably wondering why I am so concerned about Peter.”
“It had occurred to me, but I didn’t want to say anything. The two of you seem to have found each other. I know what that is all about since I found Doug in these same circumstances. Who knows when you will make a connection with someone.”
Gaby smiled at Erin. “I am glad you are understanding and don’t question my motives. I feel some attraction to Peter and he has made me realize that the things we were doing with the vortex weapon were fundamentally wrong. Regardless of your politics. Causing the temporal problems we are seeing now was initially unforeseen. But it was inexcusable once people knew it was happening. And my father knew what was happening. He told me that is what happened to my mother.”
“I know. He told me about her. Just before he died.”
Gaby seemed surprised that he had told Erin about her mother. He had guarded the secret from Gaby until three days ago.
Erin reached out and took Gaby’s hand. “He seemed to care deeply about your mother. But he was very angry he lost her and very sad. And I already told you he was equally as sad and angry when he thought you had been executed. I don’t agree with what your father did, but he seemed to be devoted to his family.”
Gaby wasn’t used to sharing
her feelings with friends. Especially woman friends since she so seldom had any. Following her father around, she was often in the company of rough, uncaring men who considered her an object of lust. At least until they realized they would lose body parts they cared about if they tried anything with her. She looked at Erin and realized that this woman was the genuine article. A good person who was pulled into this world of deception and was trying to survive it with a mix of compassion, toughness and her own brand of street smarts. Gaby realized that she could learn something about life from Erin. How to live around people who care about you and aren’t trying to kill you every minute.
“Thanks, Erin. I hope you can accept my apology for my father and the things that all of us on the Rasputin were doing. We have ruined your life in so many ways. And it just seems to get more complicated and bizarre with each passing day.”
Erin squeezed Gaby’s hand. “You don’t need to apologize. You can see a different path now and we all need to support you in that journey. I hope we can all work together to get out of this and that you and Peter can find out where your relationship might go.”
“Thanks, Erin. I will try to earn your trust.”
Erin got up and walked to the door. She felt uneasy about whatever they were doing with Peter. She felt that Dara represented a pure form of evil, especially since this future woman seemed to get some twisted enjoyment out of her ability to torment these helpless lab rats. As one of the rats, Erin was beginning to feel the simmering cauldron of anger inside her starting to boil over. Erin didn’t like that feeling or the kind of things she did when she got to that point. But somehow her reluctance to embrace her dark side would not apply for Dara. She would have no problem doing something bad to Dara. And she knew she wouldn’t get too hung up about feeling guilty later.
