by Randal Sloan
Zeke had to think for a minute to figure out how he could do that. If he adjusted the fields to be just the tiniest fraction off the center point and that was aimed straight down, that should do it. He would have to compensate by increasing the power a fractional amount due to the mis-alignment of the fields. He just nodded as he instructed the AI how to set the fields.
Looking at her console, Julie went on, “I don’t see anyone on the scans anywhere close to the base. Not even on infrared. Make it as big as you dare. I want to be sure we get them all.”
Zeke quickly finished his tweaks to the field. “Ready!”
“Firing.”
The missile struck in a huge explosion that swallowed the entire base in a pillar of fire. But with the fields aimed straight down, there wasn’t the traditional mushroom cloud she expected. It was still a terrible thing to see, with the explosion so big the AI automatically darkened their viewport. When the explosion cleared, there was nothing left but a huge hole dropping straight into the ground, a perfectly round crater that went down many hundreds of feet.
“It’s done,” Julie said. “You did that one perfectly. Nothing left in that hole but fused glass.”
Zeke keyed his headset and broadcast to the watching world. “This ends here! Those that would do evil, be warned.”
#
Doctor Sam Randolph had very nervously watched as his daughter and brand new son-in-law rushed off to save the world, in their wedding clothes of all things. Knowing how close he had come to losing her once before, Sam could barely stand to watch. He didn’t think he would be able to take it if she didn’t survive. He felt like his heart would explode.
Just in the shuffle of things, he had wound up sitting next to the makeup lady, Jess. He had know her from the time she had helped him with his disguise when he had been trying to protect Miranda. Naturally, he started talking to her, telling her what was happening; somehow talking about it helped him to feel better. But she responded by trying to comfort him, and telling him just how smart and capable she had found his daughter and Zeke to be. If anyone could pull it off, the two of them would. Somehow, her certainty helped him and he started to believe it was true.
At some point, he noticed she was getting cold and he offered her his coat. So when finally, miraculously, his daughter and brand new son-in-law had accomplished what had looked impossible, Sam realized that most of the wedding party needed to get to Space Tech station to see Julie and Zeke when they returned. He immediately called for one of the shuttles equipped with the new anti-grav plates to come pick them up directly at the Presidential estate.
Sam insisted that Jess keep the coat on until they got inside, so it was that the two of them boarded the shuttle together. By this time, Sam had come to realize he wanted to find out a little more about this special lady who had cared enough to help him through his terrible crisis. He knew he owed her a lot.
Sam had no way of knowing it, but in their temporal reality, the last piece slipped into place.
#
Many hours later, Julie and Zeke were finally alone. They had returned to Space Tech station where the two had briefly talked to the media. Julie and Zeke had watched the VR replay on the way back and she still didn’t know how they had survived. She had been amazed at the number of messages that had come into Space Tech station and astonished at how many of the messages told them how worried they had been and that they were so glad they had survived.
“Thank you all for your messages of concern,” Julie told them. “We won’t forget that all of you cared so much.” She had been unable to hide her tears.
She went on to answer questions, but everyone saw that her heart was not in it, so the media guy ended the session quickly. They all knew they would be able to find out more later, but the details really didn’t matter. The most important thing was that the two were there talking to them.
Julie and Zeke then met with their family and friends who had made their way up to the station, the group gathering in that same conference room where they had watched months ago when Julie and Zeke had first changed the world by destroying the Organization Camp. Well, they had just changed the world again.
After those same family members and friends gave them many hugs and kisses, Julie learned that all the work on the new module in the station had been for the two of them. It was to start as their honeymoon suite, but in the future it would become the family module where they would live along with their other family and friends who wished to remain on the station with them.
That same family and friends had given them final hugs and kisses and sent them off. So they had gone off into the family module and were finally alone. They opened and sipped the champagne that they found waiting, finally able to realize that somehow they had survived and their life together really was beginning.
That brought them to where they were now. They sat looking in each other’s eyes, the love they felt for each other as strong as a roaring fire.
Julie smiled as she made sure of what she already knew to be true. “Zeke, as you already know, with our nanites we can choose when we want our child to be conceived. We can choose to make that tonight if you want to.”
“You know how I feel, love. I’m ready to see our daughter and watch her grow up into that beautiful young lady we saw. And watch all the trouble she gets into and out of. And find out what she did that you shouldn’t be too mad about. I know you feel the same way.”
“Yes, my love. I do. I love her already, and I love you even more for feeling the same way.”
Their lips met in a kiss. They never noticed when the AI automatically faded the lights.
Epilogue
A long time in the future and far away from earth somewhere on an unknown planet, the real Organization heads were meeting, listening to the latest report on their temporal war. “We lost this one,” the man giving the report was saying. “There’s just too much interference to try again in that time. The last three attempts to open a connection have failed outright. Besides, I don’t believe we would ever succeed. Those two have turned out to be a puzzle we cannot solve. And if anything, we’ve made it worse. They named the American-Chinese accords after them, for goodness sakes.”
“But yet,” said the one beside him, “every time we’ve looked, that family has been the key to keeping our goals from succeeding, and if we cannot stop them here, we have to try against the children.”
The man leading the group nodded, “Yes, and since we’ll have to wait to try again close to the twenty year limit, that indeed means the children will be our next best chance. I’ll assign someone to look into it.”
The other man sitting just below the leader on the table spoke up, “We’ve still got the other effort where we successfully took out the girl’s parents to split them into two timelines. Unfortunately, our reach there is going to be more limited due to overlap between the temporal realities. We probably will only be able to open a couple more connections there. However, as you know from your temporal theory, the two timelines must eventually merge or one will win out, so this one is still worth some effort. We still have a chance to make it work, even though it is a low probability branch. Especially if our group there succeeds with the asteroid strike, which would drastically shift the balancing effect of the temporal realities. Of course, you’re dealing with the same girl, but who knows what taking out the parents has led us to. Maybe we can somehow prevent the two from getting together.”
“Yes, let’s concentrate on those two possibilities for now. Both of those do look promising. Although we’ve lost a few battles, the war is not over.”
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