by P. S. Power
The Director spun, surprised.
"That's... her maiden name, what she was called before we married. Devorah Timberland. I never met any of her family... She always told me they were too far away to easily visit."
Hobbs nodded.
"Yes. The whole family is gifted with strange precognition, so strong that most of them aren't precisely sane by the age she looks here. They make up one of the six families of gifted in my world. I wonder..."
He didn't say what he wondered and just shook his head when asked.
"If she is of that lot, then nothing she does or says is happenstance. No word or deed is a mistake or wasted. They make powerful enemies, but aren't unstoppable, their flaw is that they become overwhelmed by all the possible futures around them, so they tend to become addicted to a single line and work toward it without end. Come at them from another line and they won't always see you. It's hard to explain, but it can work. At times. It would help to have another of her kin though."
Brian laughed and shook his head, relating everything she'd said, most of it not picked up by the microphones at all. What the man had said about possible futures fit perfectly. Marcia stood close to him and Hobbs nodded, a happy looking smile on his face that didn't seem precisely fitting to the situation. Of course he'd just found another person from his own world, possibly at least. Maybe he dreamed of them chatting about old times and the foods they missed from home?
Of course it probably meant that Hobbs was actually from a different reality rather than just insane. Brian would have to change his thinking on the man a bit. Luckily he liked him anyway. That made it easier to accept.
"So," Marcia filled in after they'd all stopped talking. "If she can be trusted at all to be telling the truth, some kind of massive war is coming. We need to get ready."
Brian took her hand and nodded.
One way or the other, things were about to get serious. He had a lot to think about and to learn, apparently. If that wasn't all just hot air to keep him preoccupied of course. The woman, he realized, had been clever, no matter what he did now, he'd always be second guessing himself and that would eventually lead to errors. He said this out loud.
"So don't. Just pick the course you feel is right and sail it." Hobbs told him, sounding like this would be a simple thing to do and surprised Brian hadn't thought of it himself.
"In the end that's all any of us do anyway."
Brian shrugged.
That really was all he could do, he knew. Try to find what felt right to him and do it, and hope he wasn't being a moron in what he picked.
Later he and Marcia went back to nine and sat in the dining room with everyone else. Brian sat between Karen and Penny, both of whom held his hands on the table top. After about an hour of discussion the director came in with Rachel and sat down too. No one spoke for a long time. Christian, the one who, no doubt, knew what everyone was thinking broke the silence.
"We're all with you Brian. What do you think we should do first?"
He told them.
