The Shores Beyond Time

by Kevin Emerson

  There was a large entry room where you normally would have checked in and waited for an appointment with a medic, but most of the lights were out, the chairs overturned. A large digital wall was heavily cracked, sparks shooting from the gaps.

  Mina peered into the gloom. “Hello?”

  A silhouette appeared in the red light down a corridor. “This way!” the woman called, waving to them.

  They pushed the pods toward her, passing a set of sealed blast doors that normally would have led to another corridor, but when Mina pressed up onto her toes and glanced through the small, thick window, she saw only twisted wreckage and the black of space. The sight caused a fresh tremor of fear to ripple through her.

  The woman motioned them into a compartment crowded with pods and patient beds in tight lines down both walls. There were a few more lights on in here, along with the blinking from pod readouts and bedside monitors. Four other medics and assistants were moving from one patient to the next, studying their readings and scans on holoscreens. Mina saw blackened burns, stained wound pads, pained faces. Most seemed to be unconscious, but here and there someone moaned in agony.

  “I’m Dr. Inara,” the woman said. Her blue lab coat was streaked and stained. Strands of her silver-and-black hair had sprung free from a hair clip, falling in front of her face. A welt there on her temple, as if she’d slammed into something. She moved her pad over the displays on Lana and Gerald’s pods. “Are these Saunders and Chang? From the missing Delta Four Five cruiser?”

  “Yeah,” said Mina. “We need to wake them up right away.”

  “Hold on, I’m syncing their vitals. These pods haven’t been updated in a while.” Dr. Inara tapped her pad. “Wow, okay. It’s a miracle these two are alive, all things considered.” She read the scrolling data. “They’ve been in continual stasis for over forty-three years. Smoke inhalation, radiation exposure, the male has a fractured ulna . . .”

  “Will they be okay?” Mina asked.

  “They should be. I’m going to have to wake them at a slow acclimation cycle, in order to be sure their injuries remain stabilized and that their cognitive response isn’t impaired.”

  “How long will that take?”

  “About forty-five minutes.”

  Mina gritted her teeth. “Okay.”

  A technician brushed by her shoulder, moving around a nearby bed.

  “Probably best if you find somewhere else to wait,” said Dr. Inara. She gazed at Mina’s parents again. “I’d love to know how they got here, when there’s time.”

  “Yeah, so would I.”

  Dr. Inara eyed Mina quizzically but returned to her readouts.

  Mina kept staring at her parents. Shawn pulled her arm. “Come on.”

  They retreated up the corridor and back out into the main hallway. Mina leaned against the wall. She felt a smooth humming there, the sensation of the ship’s engines executing a burn. “I don’t hear any more explosions. I wonder if the fighting is over?”

  “Seems like it,” said Shawn. “That was crazy back there on Delphi. My dad and I were standing in line at the climbing domes. If our stateroom hadn’t been so close by . . .”

  Mina winced, tears streaming out again.

  “Arlo?” said Shawn. Mina nodded. “I’m sorry.”

  Mina wiped harshly at her eyes. “This is all too much.”

  “Good morning, Mina and Shawn!”

  JEFF rolled down the corridor toward them, his panda face with its perpetual wide grin, his old wheels making their familiar crunching sound.

  “Morning where?” said Mina.

  “Good point,” said JEFF.

  “How are things going on the bridge?”

  “Stable for the moment. We are en route away from the supernova. Our countermeasures against the Telphons were effective in warding them off, but we were not able to neutralize the threat entirely, as we had hoped.”

  “You mean they escaped?” said Shawn.

  “Correct.”

  “What about Liam?” Mina asked. JEFF’s eyes flickered for a moment and Mina felt a surge of adrenaline in her belly. “JEFF . . .”

  “You said that you have seen Liam, and he told you he was okay.”

  “Yeah, but what do you know?”

  More flickering. . . . “I have only limited information. Liam contacted me from the skim drone just fifteen minutes ago. He was on his way back toward us, with Phoebe, but the signal cut out. I believe the skim drone was shut down by the electromagnetic pulse we created when attacking the Telphons. Unlike the starliners, a skim drone has no EM shielding.”

  “Wait,” said Shawn. “Are you saying he’s stuck out in space?”

  “I do not think so. Earlier, I placed a tracking beacon in Liam’s shoulder, before the Telphons captured us. Up until a few m-m-minutes ago, that tracking beacon was giving off a signal. Then it gave a number of very strange error results and disappeared.”

  “Like the blast fried it?” said Shawn.

  “No. The beacon was still functioning after the blast, likely protected by Liam’s space-grade suit and the fact that it was implanted subc-c-cutaneously. Before the signal disappeared, it transmitted errors in its time code. I believe that Liam has traveled in time again, thus escaping from the marooned skim drone.”

  “Whoa, hold on,” said Shawn. “Traveled in time? Again? He’s done that before?”

  “Affirmative. He and Phoebe were both gone for quite a few years on the journey here.”

  “Man,” said Shawn.

  “So . . . ,” said Mina, “we’re just going to fly out of here without knowing what happened to my brother?”

  “You said that he visited you, and that he said they are okay.”

  “Yeah, but . . . that’s not enough, JEFF! I need to know where he is!”

  “I understand, but if my recent experiences with Liam are any indication, it is likely that our best course of a-a-action, given all the variables, is to wait for him to find us.”

  Mina sighed and clenched her jaw. “None of this makes any sense!”

  “I know it is not ideal. For the m-m-moment, we are all safe. Now I must visit the maintenance portal down the hall and plug myself in for a much-needed s-s-system update. I would likewise suggest the two of you get some food. The forward galley has basic provisions.”

  “I am starving,” said Shawn.

  “Me too. JEFF, how much longer until the supernova?”

  “One hour, forty-six minutes, thirty-eight seconds, roughly. It is fascinating: the timing that Liam described will allow us to reach a speed nearly four percent faster than our normal maximum. I look forward to hearing how he arranged that.” JEFF rolled down the corridor.

  “I don’t understand any of this,” said Shawn. “Time travel . . .”

  “Yeah, my brain hurts too. Let’s get food.”

  The forward galley was nearly empty, only occasional crew members hurrying in and out, having just been awakened from stasis, on their way to their posts. The nutrition bots had laid out a sparse selection of quick-grab foods: nutri-bars, strips of OrangeVeg, and synthetic lime pudding.

  “This is as bad as school lunch,” said Shawn, grabbing one of each.

  They sat alone in a sea of empty tables. Mina took a bite of nutri-bar and nearly gagged, but she eventually forced it down. Neither of them spoke, just tapped at their links, but with the VirtCom down there was nothing to do other than look at pictures or play games in offline mode.

  Mina had a million questions rattling around in her head, but for the moment, she scrolled through her photos. The dates on the most recent ones were decades old, yet to Mina, they’d been taken mere hours ago. First were the selfies with Arlo from right after they’d woken up at Delphi. Next were ones from all the way back on the ride from Mars to Saturn, when she and Arlo and their drummer, Kiana, had been practicing for the show they never got to play, a few moments when she’d managed to smile in between worries about her family. Before that, pictures of them messing around in
the climbing domes back in their core while waiting for departure from Mars, before anything had gone wrong. Her and Arlo together on the space elevator, the rusty glow out the skinny window, a last photo of her empty bedroom that morning, when she’d been sad but more so excited to finally be getting on to a new adventure, never imagining what would happen next. . . .

  Mina turned off her link and wiped her eyes. She finished her nutri-bar and stood. “I’m going to see if my parents are awake yet.”

  Shawn looked up from an old-school racing game he’d been playing. “Cool. My dad’s going to meet me here in a couple minutes, but—” Shawn half stood. “I can come with you, if you need me, or . . .”

  “No, I’m fine.” She patted his shoulder. “Thanks for your help.”

  Shawn kind of blushed. “Anytime. Let me know how they’re doing.”

  “Okay.”

  Mina returned to the med bay. As she started down the corridor, she paused at that sealed emergency door and gazed out through the tangled wreckage into space. Stars in all directions, the bright orange glow of Centauri A and the cool blue of Centauri B, both coin sized behind them. She felt a nervous rush: so little stood between her and nothing. Was that the last thing Arlo had thought? Before he froze? Did he see the stars in all directions, realize he was going to die? What would that have been like . . . ?

  Mina shook it off and entered the compartment where her parents were. Dr. Inara wasn’t around. Things had quieted down, most of the patients asleep, only a medic or two left checking monitors. The mellow blinking of lights and blipping of sensors here and there.

  Amber lights glowed around the inner rims of both pods. Dad’s was still closed, but Mom’s was now open.

  Mina put her hands on the edge of Mom’s pod. She had an oxygen mask over her nose and mouth, a fluid line in her arm that attached to a bag hanging on a nearby rack. There was a bandage over the side of her head.

  “Hey, Mom.” Mina’s eyes rimmed with tears again. She rubbed her mom’s shoulder. “You’re gonna be okay.”

  Mom’s eyes fluttered. It was impossible to know if she saw Mina, but her lips moved, as if she was saying something, though it was too faint for Mina to hear.

  “What’s that?” Mina leaned closer.

  Mom tried to speak again. Her brow furrowed and her fingers brushed weakly at the mask.

  Mina checked over her shoulder, then slipped the mask down beneath Mom’s chin.

  “Mom. What is it?”

  “No,” Mom said. Her eyes were still closed, but she winced.

  “You just need some time to recover,” Mina assured her. “You’ve been in stasis a long time. Over forty years. I know that sounds crazy, but—”

  “Ariana, don’t do this.”

  “Mom, it’s me, Mina.” Was she referring to Phoebe’s mother?

  Mom’s eyes popped open. “We have to go with you!” She gasped for breath, blinking rapidly, her arms moving like she was trying to prop herself up, but she was still too out of it. “Ariana, please! He’s my son; I need to know—you can’t—”

  The words made Mina’s heart race. “Mom! What are you talking about?”

  Mom looked at Mina blankly for a moment, uncomprehending. Then she squinted. “Mina?”

  “Yeah, it’s me.”

  “Oh, honey . . .” Tears came to her eyes. Mina leaned into the pod and gently hugged her. “I’m so glad you’re safe,” sad Mom, and yet they’d barely hugged for a moment when she tried to look over Mina’s shoulder. “Where’s JEFF?” she said anxiously.

  “He went to reboot, I think.”

  Mom gripped Mina’s shoulders. “You have to stop them. Call security. Get to JEFF now. They’re going after Liam but we can’t trust them! They’re the enemy!”

  The words made Mina’s brain feel slow, like heavy puzzle pieces were sliding together in her head. “Who? Do you mean Ariana?” Mom nodded. “Wait, she’s here? On the ship? And she’s the enemy? Is that what you’re saying?”

  “I just saw her,” said Mom. “They’re the ones who caused the accident on Mars.”

  “Mom, are you sure? I mean—”

  “Mina, now!” Mom croaked. “They came back because they need JEFF. He’s the only one with information on where Liam and Phoebe went, and we can’t let them—” She tried to sit up again.

  “Oh, is she awake?” Mina saw Dr. Inara crossing the compartment.

  “Get to JEFF!” Mom hissed, her eyes pleading.

  “Okay.” Mina whirled and rushed past Dr. Inara. “Call security!” she said. “We have intruders on board. Paolo and Ariana Dawson!”

  “I don’t—”

  “Tell colonial security to head for the bot service node on the forward deck!”

  Mina raced back to the main corridor and sprinted in the direction of the elevators. The service node had to be one of these compartments—

  She was just past the doorway when she skidded to a stop and darted back.

  There was JEFF, lying on the floor. Or most of him was.

  His smiling panda head was gone.

  2

  EARTH YEAR: 2256

  TIME TO CENTAURI A SUPERNOVA: 00H:56M

  Ariana held JEFF’s detached head in her lap.

  Ariana, whose real name was Marnia-2, who had been born on the planet Telos, grown up there, raised a family there, before the humans had burned the surface of the entire planet in Phase One of their colonization plan. Who had lost her son in that firestorm, and whose daughter had, just moments ago, disappeared into the cold dark of space.

  No, you haven’t lost Phoebe yet, she told herself.

  She stared into the android’s bright eyes, its pink grin, and finished soldering the loose wires hanging from its severed neck. JEFF was the only one who had been with Phoebe and Liam since Saturn. The only one who might be able to help Marnia figure out where her daughter had gone.

  “There,” she said, putting the soldering pen on the floor. “Now, JEFF, can you hear me?”

  “Hello!” said JEFF. “Please pardon my interruption in service. I am running diagnostics now to determine the cause of my brief system failure— Ah, that is the problem. I seem to be missing my body.”

  “Yes, sorry about that. It was the only way to fit you in these cramped quarters.”

  Marnia sat beside Calo-6, her husband and Phoebe’s father, known to the humans as Paolo. Together they were squeezed inside the tiny cockpit of Liam’s skim drone. The Telphons had salvaged it from space, where Liam had left it, and then they had used it to infiltrate the Scorpius in order to get their hands on JEFF.

  “Now,” said Marnia, “please tell me what has happened to you since we last saw each other.”

  “Acknowledged,” said JEFF. He recounted how, in the aftermath of the underground lab explosion on Mars, Liam and Phoebe had discovered the observatory of an extraterrestrial being called a chronologist, and her dead body inside, and how Liam had used this chronologist’s watch to see the future. How, after escaping Barro and Tarra on Delphi, Phoebe and Liam had used the watch together to travel to Phoebe’s home world, but on their return, they had been pulled off course by a doorway in space-time. How they’d found themselves on the Starliner Artemis, in the past, just before it was sucked through that very doorway. How the chronologist, whom they’d earlier found dead, had rescued them and returned them to the Cosmic Cruiser just before they’d reached the Centauri system. How through all of this, Liam had been developing his ability to somehow manipulate time and space—so much so that, just before the Telphons caught them in the Scorpius hangar, JEFF had seen Liam from another point in time and helped him set up a plan to escape. How the last thing Liam had said was that he was going after Phoebe, and how the last readings of his whereabouts showed him perhaps moving in time again.

  “She jumped out of our ship,” said Marnia. “They were both in this craft. I talked to him, but then when we found it . . . they were both gone.”

  “I can only assume Phoebe is with him now,” JEFF
concluded, “wherever or whenever they have gone.”

  “You’re saying they vanished from this craft . . . by time traveling,” said Calo.

  “That is, however improbable, the most likely solution.”

  “So where could they have gone?” Calo asked.

  “That I do not know,” said JEFF.

  Marnia heard Liam’s words in her mind: We’re going to find another way.

  “Could they have used that doorway again?” she asked. “Could they be trying to go after the Drove on their own?” She still had a hard time accepting that there was a race of beings out there with the power to blow up stars, but Phoebe had believed it, and here, right out her window, was a second star about to explode.

  “I cannot be certain,” said JEFF, “but Liam and Phoebe did learn that the Drove use doorways like the one they found to travel in and out of this universe. But the larger problem is—and again, this is according to Liam and Phoebe—that the very use of these doors appears to be endangering the universe as a whole. In his most recent message, Liam said, in effect, that this posed an even greater threat than the supernova itself.”

  “Wait, what most recent message?”

  “Liam spoke with his sister just over an hour ago. He also said that he was okay.”

  “Did he say anything about Phoebe?”

  “I do not believe so, but I would assume she is safe as well.”

  Marnia bit her lip. She gazed out the cockpit of the skim drone. The boiling Centauri A was fingertip-sized in the distance.

  They’d risked everything by flying back to the Scorpius and sneaking on board, and they were barely better off than before. Luckily, their human identities had not yet been flagged, as the only people who knew or suspected Marnia and Calo’s true identities were either dead, or, in the case of Lana and Gerald, still injured.

  Calo had strongly disapproved of Marnia’s decision to stop by their med bay. Stupid, she thought to herself now. For three years, she had fought any feelings of friendship for Liam’s parents, knowing that they had been part of the very team of human scientists who had decided to exterminate her species, whether they did so knowingly or not. Even after Liam had saved Marnia and the rest of the remaining Telphons from the starliners’ EMP counterattack, it was still hard to look at Lana and not feel that deep well of anger inside her, to envision her own young son, forever taken from her in the Phase One attack.