by Ann Williams
As they moved among the people, Marina’s attention was caught by the presence of many pregnant women, some in greatly advanced stages of pregnancy. Apparently not all of Sammell’s people were as untutored in the ways of love as he’d been.
Sammell, too, had noticed the protruding bellies on many of the women. Some were very young and some years older than the age of thirty. Puzzlement filled his mind. There was a certain look about them…he couldn’t name it, but…they all seemed to glow as with an inner light.
Noting his expression, Darryn said, “Our movement is not new. Our people have been meeting in secret for some time now and slowly withdrawing from society to form their own community in these caverns.”
Sammell was offered a bowl of thin broth by a very pregnant young woman and found it difficult not to stare. He knew that women had once grown the embryos inside them, but to actually see a woman ripe with child…
His glance found Marina. Thanks to her, he not only knew the clinical aspects of reproduction but had experienced its pleasures, as well. She turned to accept a steaming bowl of broth, and her unfettered breasts jutted against the thin material of the jumpsuit. Sammell’s senses stirred, and all at once his clothes felt too tight for his body. How would she look ripe with child—his child?
“Let us sit.” Darryn motioned for Sammell and Marina to take a seat near one of the campfires. When they were seated, he continued, “There are many like us. This group is but a small portion of a worldwide movement that has been in existence almost from the beginning of Wyndom’s insanity.
“When he and his people put their plan to dominate the world into effect, they were not as smart as they thought. Many people in distant lands who did not drink from a public water supply were not infected by their drug.
“The unaffected people banded together to form small pockets of resistance and fought the soldiers Wyndom sent to try to force them to drink the contaminated water.
“Many of our people died, but so did many soldiers. That is when Wyndom began to send in his death squads. Thousands of our people have been wiped out in the intervening years by these devils.
“But despite all Wyndom’s efforts, the number of rebels has increased and they continue to fight. Gradually we have driven the soldiers out of the mountains and valleys and into the cities now held in Wyndom’s iron fist.
“And our people have done this—managed to fight these heavily armed soldiers—with little more than courage and wit, having only their family’s strength to keep them going. That is why more than a generation ago Wyndom decided to separate us by refusing us the close ties of family life. In family there is strength and hope.”
Several of the group murmured their agreement, some reaching for the hand of a loved one. Darryn reached for Gissel’s hand and placed it beneath his on his knee.
“When we live alone as we have been forced to do, there is no hope of unity.” He raised their joined hands. “But in family we have strength.”
Sammell felt Marina’s shoulder slide against his and knew the man was right. Already she had become his family. And soon he would lose her. The thought brought him great pain, but her safety was all that mattered. He would survive…and so would she.
“We have been fighting our enemy with primitive weapons, and though we make progress despite this, we are growing weary of war. Too many of us die every day.
“That is why we need your help,” Darryn said, turning to Sammell. “You can help us end this war and bring peace to our land with your time machine. Gissel and I have been working on such a plan for several years, but it will take many more to reach the stage you have already achieved.
“That is why we worked to get assigned on project Deliverance with you. Your brilliance in the field of matter transfer has become legendary. And your defiance of Wyndom’s laws has been an inspiration to our young people.”
“Why,” Gissel asked, “did you never seek out others like yourself?”
Sammell was amazed by all that he’d heard. And never more so to realize that his movements had been closely observed and approved by these people for a long time.
“I thought there was no one else like me. I knew nothing of the fighting. I was afraid I would one day disappear like my parents if I did anything to put myself under suspicion.”
“Yes,” Darryn said, nodding, “your parents. That is sad. They were terminated many years ago. Your father, also a brilliant scientist, was secretly working on the development of a machine such as MDAT. His work was discovered and he and your mother were killed.”
Sammell’s expression remained unchanged, but Marina felt his tension in the muscles where her hand rested on his thigh. If they had been alone, she would have offered him comfort. All she could do at the moment was squeeze his leg in sympathy and hope he understood how she felt.
“I often wondered what had happened to them,” Sammell murmured, “and why they had left me alone. But why did the police question me if they were responsible for my parents’ disappearance?”
“Your father knew about the Wyndom drug,” Darryn said. “He had removed it from his and your mother’s injections. I think the police wanted to know how much you knew of his work. But he removed only a portion of the drug from yours. He was worried that it might be too obvious to others if he removed it completely from yours. It appears that you reacted differently from most people who were on the drug—it didn’t affect you as totally as it appeared to affect others.”
Sammell frowned. “How do you know all this?”
“Your father was my uncle,” Darryn replied, meeting Sammell’s incredulous look, “and he was a driving force in the rebellion in this sector for many years before his death.”
“Your uncle? But…how do you know this?”
Darryn smiled. “We have spies in many areas of government who have access to many secret files.”
Sammell didn’t know how to react. Ever since Marina had explained the things a family did together, he had wondered what it would be like to be a part of a family. And now he was, but it was so unexpected that he would have to give it time to become real to him.
“I must tell you about Larkin,” Sammell said, feeling his way. “I think he must be responsible for stealing the mother board I first built for MDAT—the one in my lab, not the state’s lab—from my desk at work. And I think he tried to break into my lab the other night to make certain I did not have another one with the special chip I developed that makes time travel possible.”
“We know this,” Gissel said. “We have been aware of his duplicity for some time now. Bartell suspected you of sedition and set Larkin to find out what he could. He was supposed to trap you into giving yourself away. As I have already said, the government has been aware of your nocturnal journeys for many years.
“We, too, have been aware of them,” she added.
“But what you do not know is that Larkin has the mother board with the matter-time sequence chip,” Sammell said. “I found it in MDAT’s twin the day Bartell demanded a test.”
Gissel looked at Darryn. “Does that mean he has the ability to travel through time?” the man asked.
“He might,” Sammell responded. “All he lacks is the correct formula for the plasma jet—and he may have that by now.”
“That is not good,” Darryn said. “It makes our need for weapons even more critical.”
“Weapons?” Sammell asked, recalling Gissel’s earlier words on the subject.
“We want you to help us gather weapons with your time machine,” Darryn continued. “The weapons will help free our people—your people.”
“What good is freedom if it costs you your life?”
“You must look beyond your own personal misgivings about the use of weapons,” Gissel said in a stern voice. “Think of the future. With weapons we can defeat Wyndom. We can win back our freedom—our lives—and the lives of our unborn children.”
“I can stop Wyndom’s madness without weapons.” Sammell leaned forward
to stare into Darryn’s eyes over the fire. “No one else need die.”
“How?” Darryn asked.
“I can travel back in time and prevent the Wyndom drug from being produced. None of this need ever happen.”
Gissel and Darryn looked at each other. The other members of the group stared at one another.
“You would change time—like Wyndom plans to do?” Darryn finally asked.
“No—not like Wyndom. I would prevent his madness from ever taking place.”
“But if you do that,” Gissel protested, “we may never exist.”
“Yes,” Sammell agreed, “that’s possible. Then again, maybe not. Carson Wyndom will still be born and he may even become president. If I can stop him from producing the drug, our world will still exist, but without the oppression that we now live under.”
There was fear in the look Gissel cast Darryn. “We would be different people.” She looked at Sammell. “Would we be different people?”
“Perhaps.” He shrugged. “Perhaps not.”
“What do you think?” Gissel asked Darryn.
Darryn looked at the people around them. “It is not my decision alone.” He turned to Sammell. “You are certain you can do this?”
Sammell hesitated. At the back of his mind was the memory of the vase and its destruction. He felt Marina’s hand on his thigh and was reassured. This was a flesh-and-blood woman sitting beside him, and after the first few days, when she’d slept many hours and experienced periods of dizziness—which could have been from hunger—there had been no adverse signs in her condition.
“I brought Marina from the past into our world,” he said gravely. “I think I can safely travel into the past and do what must be done.”
Darryn stood up and gazed into the faces around them. He motioned for Sammell to stand also. “This man has a plan. I want you all to listen to it.”
Sammell spoke in clear carrying tones, his voice reaching to the back of the great hall, bouncing off the ceiling and walls. He explained who he was and what he’d achieved in the past few years. He asked them to consider the reality of Marina, and then he told them what might happen if he changed an event that would alter the course of history—their history.
He explained that if he accomplished what he set out to do, many lives could be saved. And then he explained how time changed could affect their own lives. When he was finished, he took his seat next to Marina. It was out of his hands. He’d done all that he could.
“You have heard his words,” Darryn said. “You know there is a chance that we, and our world as we now know it, will not exist in this new past Sammell will help create.
“But every day more of our people die in this fighting. The decision is yours. The majority will rule. What is it to be? Do we fight? Or do we let Sammell journey to the past and try to prevent the production of the drug?”
For several minutes the people spoke among themselves. And then silence descended over the entire group.
“What is your decision?” Darryn asked. “Do we fight? Or do we let Sammell have his chance?”
“Let him stop Wyndom if he can,” someone said.
“Yes,” another voice chimed in, “give him a chance. We can still fight if need be.”
“Then we are in agreement,” Darryn said. “Sammell, you may have your chance.”
Marina slipped her arm through his and squeezed it. She wanted him to know she was proud of him and she was on his side. Even knowing the results of his plan, the fact that they would most likely be parted forever, she loved him for the way he had stood his ground—stood by his convictions—holding nothing back in his explanation to these people. It took courage, the kind she wasn’t certain that she possessed.
There was a moment of silence, and then Darryn dismissed everyone. Motioning for them to follow, Darryn assisted Gissel to her feet and swept across the floor to the smaller chamber where Sammell had first been summoned.
“So,” Darryn asked, once they were alone, “how do we go about this?”
“We must get MDAT from my home lab and bring it here,” Sammell said.
“That will be dangerous. Your cell is being watched.”
“That is not the worst of it,” Sammell continued. “We must find the mother board Larkin stole from me and destroy the machine in the lab.”
“So,” Gissel said, “Bartell has a working time machine.”
“No—not unless, as I said before, Larkin has discovered the correct formula for the plasma jet. In any case, we must get to him quickly.”
“I will take some men and go to your cell first and get your machine. Then we will visit Larkin’s cell and see if we can recover the mother board he took,” Darryn said.
“I will go with you,” Sammell said, much to Marina’s dismay. She’d seen the wicked-looking weapons the police carried, and she didn’t relish having one of them pointed at him. But she held her tongue. She’d encouraged him to join in this fight, and she couldn’t ask him not to at the first sign of risk. Besides, she hadn’t the right to try and stop him.
“We must go quickly,” Sammell repeated. “Time is everything.”
It was agreed that Darryn, Sammell and two other men would go. Marina listened to their plans with growing concern, knowing he had to go, but wanting to beg him to stay.
Sammell sensed her fear and it gave him pleasure. He knew it was wrong to get pleasure from another’s fear, but knowing her feelings stemmed from her affection for him somewhat appeased his conscience. Drawing her back into the shadows for a moment’s privacy, he held her face between his hands and spoke close to her lips.
“Do not worry. You will be safe here and when I return I will have the means to send you home.”
“Do you think I care about that?” Marina asked almost angrily. Sliding her hands around his waist, she drew him closer. “I don’t want anything to happen to you. Don’t you realize how much I care about you?”
“I care for you, too,” he whispered softly.
He would have left her then, but Marina hung on to him. She wanted to ask him to hold her but felt suddenly shy.
“I will return,” he promised, disengaging himself and turning away, anxious about the stirring in his body. Would a time ever come when being near her would not arouse the passion so new to him? With a stab of pain, he realized the time would come all too soon—as soon as he returned from this mission.
“Sammell!” Marina said quickly.
“Yes?” He refused to turn toward her because he didn’t want her to see the reluctance to leave her that he knew must be written on his face.
“Please—be careful.”
Sammell was surprised, yet unsurprised, to see Darryn hold Gissel close, touching his lips to hers. The other men embraced their women, too, before leaving. Only Sammell held back. And he held back for more than one reason. What he felt for Marina was very private. It encompassed his whole being, and he couldn’t allow it to be viewed by others.
Once the men were gone, Marina didn’t know what to do with herself. She would have liked to get to know some of the other women, but was afraid their attitudes might mirror Gissel’s. So far the woman had evidenced very little but tolerance for her presence in their midst.
Marina stood on the sidelines, watching the others go about the business of living, and fiddled with her hair. She didn’t have a comb and knew it probably looked like a bunch of wild snakes had nested on her head.
Suddenly a child of about eight stepped up to her and held out her hand. Marina hesitated, giving the child a tentative smile, then looked closer at what she held in her hand. A comb. The child was offering her a comb. She accepted it gratefully, thanking her with a smile.
The girl did not smile back. She stared into Marina’s eyes for a long silent moment, then quickly vanished in the crowd.
“I see you are making friends,” Gissel said abruptly from behind her.
Marina turned to the other woman. Pulling the comb through the snarls in her long hair
, she asked abruptly, “Why don’t you like me?”
The other woman’s lips quivered, but she steadied them by compressing them. “I neither like nor dislike you. I am indifferent to you. You do not matter. Soon you will be gone.”
Marina was taken aback by the woman’s almost hostile attitude. What had she ever done to her?
“Would you like to meet some of the other women?”
Surprised at the question, considering her attitude, Marina studied her face before answering. “Yes,” she said, when it appeared she’d never get beyond the unyielding barriers in the woman’s eyes, “I would.”
They moved through the great hall slowly, going from one campfire to another. Marina was introduced to so many people that she couldn’t possibly remember all their names. In fact, she remembered very few. But she felt warmed in the glow of smile after smile on the faces of the women. It seemed not all of them resented her for being there.
One thing stood out in her mind—many of the women were pregnant, but there were not many babies or toddlers in the group.
“May I ask you something?”
Gissel nodded.
“Why are there so few younger children?”
Gissel’s lips quivered. “Come, let us sit down and I will answer your question.”
They made themselves comfortable, and one of the other women brought them something hot to drink. Marina sipped the steamy liquid. It tasted a little like tea, but none that she’d ever drunk before. She wanted to ask what it was, but wasn’t certain she wanted to know the answer.
Gissel saw the question in her eyes. “Sassafras,” she said, nodding to the bowl in Marina’s hand. “That is sassafras tea.”
“Really?” She remembered her grandmother had made sassafras tea. She’d always maintained that it cured a number of ailments.
“What did you think it was?” the other woman asked with a hint of contempt in her voice.
Marina shrugged. “I didn’t know.”
“You asked about the little ones,” Gissel said after a moment while she sipped at her own tea. “I am sorry to say that these are all we have. And it’s the same in many of the other camps.”
