“I suppose that's true.”
“Plus, of course, we'll be able to run her down in about a minute-and-a-half. I felt that, all things considered, it would be time well spent if it kept us from accidentally killing her.”
“Thank you, Miss Zelbizarre, you've made your point.”
“I don't know, Rob,” she sighed, “sometimes people have to go extreme measures to make sure you get the point.”
“This isn't one of those cases,” the traveler replied. “Just get us as close as you can, as quickly as you can.”
In under two minutes, the tractor beam had Celeste’s ship frozen in space.
“Any chance anyone on Duck à l'orange has spotted us?” Robert asked.
“None,” Vox replied, pushing buttons on the console. “We're still too far out and Celeste has the ship running on very minimal power. Plus, it's got a very early version of a stealth generator.”
“What's she got turned on?”
“Just the engines, that primitive stealth generator, the comm, and the environmental systems on the bridge.”
“Gravity generators?”
“Nope.”
“Environmental only on the bridge?”
“Yep.”
“So the rest of the ship is...”
“Cold, dark, and stuffy,” Vox replied.
“I guess we'd better wear spacesuits...”
“Looks that way.”
“I hate spacesuits.”
“You and me both, brother.”
“What?!” Morgan replied. “Spacesuits are awesome!”
“You ever wear one?” Vox asked.
“No, but...”
“Then, you can tell me how awesome they are after we get back,” Vox interrupted.
Minutes later, the crew was in the armory. They put on the aforementioned spacesuits – complete with helmets – grabbed shield belts and one energy pistol for each of them. In addition, they each put on a pair of magnetic boots.”
“What's with the guns?” Morgan chuckled. “Even if she won't come quietly I don't think we're going to need to shoot her.”
“Be prepared,” Robert replied.
“Doc,” the young man laughed, “you look like a giant bobble head.”
“What would you expect, Morgan?” Doc replied. “My helmet has to have room for my horns.”
“I suppose that's true. Anyway, what don't you like about wearing spacesuits, Rob?”
“I don't like their color,” Robert replied, leaving the room and heading for the car.
“You could get them in a different color,” Morgan observed.
“You can't wear cufflinks with them.”
“You never wear cufflinks.”
“I do, on formal occasions,” the traveler replied, doing a voice Morgan didn't recognize.
“This isn't a formal occasion.”
“Yes, it is,” Robert disagreed. “We're rescuing a fair maiden.”
“I've done that several times,” Morgan pointed out. “I was never wearing cufflinks.”
“You don't have any sense of style.”
“Robert doesn't like them, Morgan,” Doc said, interrupting the inane chatter that he had had just about enough of, “because they make him feel like he's walking around in a sack – which he basically is – and because gloves – no matter how well made – make your fingers less sensitive, which can make certain tasks more difficult. Rob, why can't you ever just give him a straight answer?”
“I like speaking in riddles.”
“Why?” Morgan asked.
“Because...”
“Would you two just shut up and get in the car,” Vox said with a chuckle.
They shut up and got in the car. Shortly after this, their vehicle was magnetized to the hull of Celeste's ship. The crew switched on their boots, climbed out of their conveyance, and made their way toward the nearest entrance. Robert opened a nearby access panel and installed a portable power unit – complaining basically non-stop about working with gloves on. This done, he powered up the portal.
“It's weird that we're upside-down,” Morgan observed aloud as Cleo worked to open the door.
“We're not, the ship is.”
“What makes you say that?”
“He thinks he's the center of the universe,” Cleo asserted.
“In some ways,” Azure added, “he kind of is.”
In less than a minute, they had gotten through the door and into the ship. All of them turned the lights on their helmets on and began magnetically making their way toward the bridge.
“This feels strange,” Morgan said.
“Which is why I don't like spacesuits,” Robert replied.
“No,” the young man corrected. “I mean; being weightless. Except for my feet, I guess.”
“Your feet are weightless, too – well, almost weightless – they just happen to be magnetic at the moment.”
“Sure. But, you know what I mean.”
“I do.”
“Could I turn my boots off and float around in here?”
“No.”
“Why not?” the young man asked.
“Because, I won't let you,” the traveler pointed out.
“Come on, man! I've spent – I don't know how many – hours in space now and I've never gotten to be weightless.”
“It's overrated.”
“I'd like to find that out for myself.”
“There are certain things that a lack of gravity can make very interesting,” Cleo observed aloud. “At least, so I've heard.”
Morgan swallowed.
“You’d better not have heard anything like that,” Robert asserted.
“Think whatever you want, Rob,” she replied. “But, they say playing soccer in zero-G is wild.”
“Maybe it is,” he ceded, “but, it's boring to watch.”
“No, it isn't,” Vox replied.
The moment they reached the bridge, Robert pounded on the door.
“Celeste,” he said loudly, “open the door, would you?”
“Will she be able to hear you through the vacuum?”
“We're not in a vacuum,” Doc pointed out. “The ship is pressurized; the air just isn't circulating or temperature controlled.”
“Then, why did we turn the radios in these suits on?”
“There wasn't air outside,” Robert replied, “and these helmets are hard to hear in. Celeste! Come on, Mama – I mean, Sis. You did real good. You even almost got away from me but, we caught you fair and square. Just open the door and we'll talk about everything that's going on. I'm honestly planning to try to find a way to let you see the kids or whatever it is that you're wanting to do.”
“Give her your word, Rob,” Cleo said, shaking her head, “I'm sure that'll convince her.”
“Thanks for the suggestion, dear.”
No amount of banging or pleading – even from her husband – elicited the slightest response. This caused Vox to become extremely concerned about her welfare – which nearly put him into a state of hysterics. While Doc and Robert worked to calm him down, Cleo quickly hacked her way through the door. Celeste wasn't on the bridge.
They all made their way into the chamber before closing the door behind them. Robert then pulled off his helmet, fired up the intercom, and asked Celeste to please come to the bridge. Having waited for several minutes without hearing anything from her, they scanned the ship for life signs. Theirs were the only ones detected.
This greatly concerned Vox until Robert pointed out that either of them could avoid such a scan if they were expecting it. This being the case, they decided to split up and search the vessel manually. Morgan tagged along with Doc, feeling that it wasn't safe to be alone with Cleo, even with both of them wearing spacesuits.
“I'm a little concerned, Morgan,” Doc said, as the pair made their way down a long dark hall. “This isn't like Celeste.”
“What isn't?”
“Hiding,” Doc replied. “I can understand her motivations for everythin
g she's done up until now. But, there's no point in hiding from us. She knows that we would never give up until we had found her.”
“What do you think it means?”
“I don't think she's here.”
“I'm glad these radios have such short range,” Morgan replied. “In his current state, that is something Vox certainly doesn't need to hear.”
“You're right,” Doc nodded. “Although, the radios have a very long range if need be. They're just set to the local channel.”
“How do you change it?”
“You say; channel select channel local.”
“I mean if you want long range.”
“You would say channel common.”
“So; channel select channel common. Like that?”
“Yes, Morgan.”
“So now everyone can hear me?”
“Yes, Morgan.”
“That's awesome.”
“Would you shut up, Morgan,” Robert's voice replied. “None of us want to hear one side of your conversation with Doc.”
“Sorry... channel select channel local.”
Although they didn't find Celeste, Doc and Morgan did make a discover that they felt it was important to share with the rest of the crew.
“Rob, we've found something,” Morgan said.
“What is it?” Robert's voice replied.
“An escape pod was jettisoned during the fighting.”
“What fighting?” Cleo asked.
“Well, not fighting really,” Morgan replied, “but, the point is, there's one missing.”
“That's interesting,” the traveler replied thoughtfully.
“She must have hidden the plans in the escape pod,” Morgan said, channeling Darth Vader.
“Maybe she did,” Robert chuckled.
“Look, Sir, Droids.”
“That's enough, Morgan. I'm trying to think, man.”
“Sorry.”
“Alright,” the traveler said, after several seconds of silence. “In order to work out what she did, we have to think like Celeste. However, she was trying to outsmart me, meaning she would have to do her best to think like I do. Meaning, of course, that, in order to think like her, we need to think like me.”
“Meaning what exactly?” Morgan asked.
“Meaning that we need to head back to the ship.”
Just minutes later, the crew was once again standing in the armory; this time, putting away all their equipment.
“What piece of essential equipment did we forget to take with us on that outing, Morgan?” Robert asked.
“Stealth-belts?” the young man said after a moment's consideration.
“Why would we have needed stealth-belts?” Azure asked.
“In case,” Robert replied. “Morgan, grab one for me, would you?”
“Sure thing,” Morgan replied, opening the shelf that contained the devices in question. “That's weird.”
“What is, Morgan?” the traveler asked with a wide smile.
“There are four missing.”
“I'm sure there are.”
“How did you know?”
“I didn't,” Robert replied, “but, I suspected as much. You see, if I knew I were chasing me, I'd also know it was only a matter of time before I caught me. So, I'd have to have backup plan after backup plan in order to keep escaping. However, I'd also know that I'd be watching me to make sure I didn't escape. So, I'd have to be very clever about it.
“If I needed to use an escape pod, for instance, I'd know it would have to be cloaked if I were to have any chance of getting away. Of course, if I could get my hands on some off-the-shelf stealth-belts, I'd be able to hook two pair up in series and then join those in parallel to create a stealth field capable of hiding a pod that size.
“Vox, your wife is a genius.”
“Looks that way, bro,” Vox sighed. “I just wish she wasn't using it against us.”
“I'm sure she doesn't see it that way,” Robert pointed out. “To her, this is just forcing me to let her do what I should have done in the first place. She’s wrong, of course, but, I can see where she's coming from.”
“So, what do we do now?” Morgan asked. “Go back and get her from earlier?”
“If we do that,” the traveler said, “she won't use the pod, will she?”
“Assuming she just used it, no.”
“Oh, I think we can safely assume that. She would have wanted to wait until the last minute to jettison it. If she'd jumped ship at her first stopping point, for example, it would have taken her weeks to reach some place where she could steal another ship. From here, she can reach Duck à l'orange in about five days.”
“So, if we go back to stop her before she does it,” Morgan replied, “she won't, and we'll be trapped in a paradoxical loop.”
“Absolutely. For the second time, she's managed to catch me in a time-trap. That lovely lady is truly brilliant. Vox, you should be proud of her.”
“I will be as soon as we get her back,” he replied.
“We will shortly.”
“How?”
“We're going to break out the big guns,” Robert said with a smile. “We're going to use psychology to figure out where she's going and then stop her at the last possible second.”
“That seems risky,” Morgan replied, shaking his head. “I mean; she's already outsmarted you twice...”
“She hasn't outsmarted me at all,” the traveler denied. “She just managed to get one move ahead of me a couple of times. Outsmarted is past tense, Morgan. She won't have outsmarted me unless she actually manages to succeed. Which she won't. Meaning that I'll have outsmarted her before all is said and done.”
“Okay... Well, as we're not talking past tense, I think it's fair to say that; she keeps outsmarting you.”
“No, she doesn't.”
“Can we at least agree that she keeps doing things that you haven't anticipated?!” the young man replied.
“That much is self-evident,” Robert admitted.
“That being the case, it would be better to go ahead and work out some way of escaping the paradoxical trap that we're currently in. Then we can go back to before she jettisoned the pod and grab her then.”
“I disagree,” the traveler said, shaking his head.
“Why?”
“Because, she's almost succeeded,” Robert explained. “If we stop her anywhere along her plan, she may always believe things like: if I had timed things better I might have escaped or if I had managed to make it to the escape pod in time, Rob wouldn't have caught me. We need to let her succeed as much as possible this time so she won't ever be tempted to try something like this again.
“Not to mention the fact that, now that she's this close to her goal, it will probably be easier to track her down. What do we do if we go back further than this and she bails out in the middle of deep space? It'll be like trying to find the smallest needle ever made in the largest haystack that ever existed. Plus, if – by some completely unforeseeable series of events – we don't manage to stop her, we'll be able work on escaping the trap then.”
“Valid points, I suppose,” Morgan nodded. “So, how do we figure out where she's going?”
“The first real question is: when?” the traveler replied. “Fortunately, she had to do her time-travel and space-travel as separate stages. Considering how well she planned all this out, we can be fairly certain that travel-time was something she considered.
“I would guess that she probably went back to somewhere between three weeks and a month before she wants to be wherever it is she's going. Now, it took her ten days to get the ship and send us the message, three days to get from Baumkuchen to here, and her escape pod will touch down on Duck à l'orange in roughly five days. Considering when she started from, this is a rather dangerous time for her to be there because she and Vox are still down there living out their lives.
“In fact, Vox, you'll turn fifty-five – which is to say, you'll celebrate your fifty-fifth birthday – six days f
rom the time she reaches the planet.”
“In that case,” Vox said solemnly, “I know exactly where she's going.”
“Where is that?” Robert asked.
“To see her mother one last time,” Vox replied. “She died in her sleep the night I turned fifty-five. Celeste had planned to go visit her that morning but, we were also wanting to go to the lake for some fishing, a little water skiing, and to have picnic with just the two of us. Due to one little thing after another, we ended up running behind. I told her not to worry about it; to go ahead and visit her mother for a few hours before we headed out.
“She didn't want to do that, though, because it was my birthday and she had the whole afternoon and evening planned out. So, she called her mother and told her that she'd see her the next day. She passed away later that night. Not getting to see her that last time has always really upset Celeste.”
“I can certainly understand that,” Azure replied.
“It's not like she was a neglectful daughter or anything, she visited her mother twice a week, every week from the day we got married.”
“It would still be hard to deal with,” the blue maiden pointed out. “I lived at my mother's side from the time she got sick right up until she passed and, if I thought there was any chance at all of getting away from Rob, I'd try to go back and see her.”
“Well, there isn't any chance,” the traveler replied. “You also shouldn't need me to stop you; you should stop yourself.”
“I know,” she sighed. “I wasn't being literal. I'm just saying that I understand why Celeste did what she did.”
“So do I,” Robert replied.
“Maybe we shouldn't stop her,” she suggested.
“We have to for two reasons. First, it's important for her to realize that she can't just outsmart me and run back in time whenever she wants. Second, I have to make sure when I plan out her visit that it won't change the time-lines when I take her back to see her mother.”
“You'd do that for her, Rob?” Vox asked.
“I'd do a lot more than that for her,” Robert replied. “Besides, not to seem callous, but your mother-in-law only lives for a few more hours. Her seeing Celeste one last time probably won't mean much to the time-lines but, it'll mean the world to Celeste.”
Bad Behavior (The Last Time Traveler Book 3) Page 20
