Fractured Futures

by SY Thompson

  “We even have ships capable of traveling outside the solar system.”

  “When this is over, you are going to tell me everything.”

  “I promise.” Ronan gave her a fond look before returning her attention to the debris-laden streets. “If anything happens to the vessel, it would destroy their movement or at least set them back a few decades. We have to get to that ship, plant some explosives, and get out of there before it goes up.”

  “That easy, huh?” Sidney’s eyebrows rose. “I don’t suppose you have transporter pads like something out of Star Trek standing by to beam us aboard?”

  Ronan ignored the sarcasm. “They have some sort of a matrix that they use to send bodies to the ship for replacement. If we could find out where that matrix is we might be able to use it to get there ourselves.”

  Sidney was silent for a few minutes and Ronan allowed her the time to think about the situation. Perhaps she could come up with something Ronan hadn’t thought of. Then she remembered the package she had picked up from Schultz. Ronan started to lean over to get the papers from the glove compartment when a military vehicle suddenly swung in behind her and began flashing its lights.

  “What is it?”

  Sidney sounded worried and had every right to be. Ronan was very concerned as well. She wondered if the Regime knew she’d been involved in freeing the rebels. Then she remembered the overheard conversation between Sloan and her former partner. The Guard and anyone else in on their plans already considered her a target. For a second she considered trying to outrun them, but gave it up almost immediately. Chances were good that only Kinsky had seen her at the warehouse and if she did run, the military was capable of surrounding her very quickly. She would have to act as if nothing was wrong and hope they got lucky.

  “Don’t say anything,” she directed as she began to pull over. “Let me do the talking, but hand me the envelope in the glove compartment.”

  Sidney handed her the forged papers and Ronan pulled her own out of her wet hip pocket. She plastered on a smile and rolled down the window.

  “Yes,” she politely addressed the guard. “Is there something wrong?”

  “Papers, please.”

  The guard was young, but his life in the military had obviously hardened him. There was no smile in his eyes, only a brooding suspicion as he surveyed the two women. Ronan felt that he looked right through her and knew that she was a fugitive. She kept up her calm front, but it was hard to do. Ronan tried to convince herself that he was just a foot soldier, not high enough up the chain of command to know anything of true importance.

  After a quick vehicle inspection, he turned his attention to their identification. Ronan had pulled Sidney’s new papers out and shoved the envelope under her butt before he walked back around to her door.

  “Why are you and your documents so wet?”

  “I...I was pushed into a swimming pool,” she replied quickly. “You know how people can be when they don’t appreciate law enforcement.”

  His dead eyes looked up at her and Ronan wondered if he could tell that she was lying. Then he handed her back the documents. “You should have arrested them. That’s assault, you know. They could have joined the execution at Konamin Square, but I just heard a few minutes ago that the rebel scum have escaped somehow. Make sure you keep a look out for them. They are dangerous to the Regime.”

  “Of course.”

  Ronan tried not to shudder at the casual proclamation that someone should die for pushing her into a swimming pool. What was this world coming to? Still she felt a slight wave of relief when the guard walked away.

  “Why didn’t you tell me you had papers for me? I almost had a heart attack when he pulled us over.”

  “Sorry about that,” Ronan responded, amused in spite of the situation. “We’ve been a little busy.”

  “Yeah, well, don’t let it happen again.”

  She smiled to let Ronan know she was teasing. Ronan drove away from the curb and Sidney said, “I’ve been thinking about the transport device.”

  “Yes?”

  “I would suggest that we question Sloan about where this thing is, but it would be too dangerous for you to go back to the EDU at this point, or for that matter even be seen in public. Also, this time frame is so confusing for me that I’m liable to make a blunder and get us into some serious trouble. Instead, I think we should go back to my time and make our move from there.”

  “What can we do there? The only members of the Black Guard we know about are already dead.”

  “Yes, but remember the professor’s phase inducers? We can go back to just before we revealed them. We know who they are now and we can use their transporter to destroy the ship there. The Regime must have another ship in orbit in my time because they would need a base of operations. They can’t just be seen lugging bodies around. I just can’t figure out how they’d hide such a thing.”

  “That part is easy. Cloaking technology could easily hide such a craft. My question is how they would have transported it back to the 21st century,” Ronan speculated. “A space vessel is much too big to fit between the rails of the professor’s time machine.”

  “You’ve got me on that one. Maybe we need to have another chat with your professor and find out if he knows something. He seems pretty friendly with the current government.”

  Ronan felt stunned at the idea that Professor Horton might be in league with these people. “He’s not like them, Sidney. If he’s helped them then it’s because he’s been deceived.”

  “I’m not suggesting that he is, only that he might be able to give us some information. Ronan, there is something that I’ve been wondering about.”

  “Yes?”

  “I’m no scientist and I’m sure you know more about this than I do, but it seems to me that we’re going about all this the hard way.”

  “How so?

  “Didn’t Einstein propose that time isn’t constant, that it bends and flows like a river?”

  “Something like that,” Ronan allowed, intrigued by Sidney’s line of reasoning. “Why?”

  “Every time we go back and forth, we change something. Your world wasn’t like this when you left the first time, at least not to quite this degree. And I highly doubt the president-elect of the United States of America was supposed to be a time-traveling bandit bent on ushering in a fascist government.”

  “So each time we use the gate, it’s like diverting the flow of the river?” Ronan took a frustrated breath. “If that’s true then I set all of this in motion the first time I used the machine, but Sidney you have to know that I don’t regret it. I couldn’t just let you die.”

  Sidney took her hand. “I know and in a way that makes me just as responsible.”

  “Any idea how we turn back time?”

  “Not yet,” Sidney admitted. “I just know that things on this end are too complicated. If we can stop them from the 21st century, I think that’s what we need to do.”

  “You’re taking a lot on faith. What if there is no space ship back there, or a transport matrix?”

  “There has to be,” Sidney shrugged. “I can’t explain how, but I just know it.”

  Ronan thought about the situation while she drove toward her apartment. They couldn’t go back to just before the previous assassination as Sidney suggested. That had been the day of the inauguration and if anything went wrong, they wouldn’t have time to adjust. It would have to be sooner, but it would have to be a time when Sidney’s friends and colleagues already knew her. If they went back before that, people would question where she’d come from. Ronan wanted things to be as seamless this time around as possible.

  “How about if we go back to just after I started working for you? If we do that, my presence won’t be questioned and the plane ride through the Everglades would never have happened.”

  Ronan drove into the underground parking garage and sat in silence for a moment before she switched off the engine.

  “That might work,” Sidney ag
reed. “Roger won’t have been replaced and that incident with the stalker will never have occurred, but what happens after that? How do we integrate with our other selves once it’s over?”

  “From what I understand, once we remove the phase inducers we’ll simply merge back into our existing selves. Of course, we can’t be in the same location or we’ll explode. The professor says it’s like matter and anti-matter. From a distance, we should be okay. We’ll still have our memories, but over time what happened before will begin to fade.”

  “So we won’t remember our first kiss or the first time we made love?”

  Sidney sounded distressed and Ronan reached over to take her hands. “Eventually we won’t remember those things, no. But eventually we won’t remember the stalker either and eventually I won’t remember holding your broken body in my arms after he killed you. That’s a memory I can live without.”

  Sidney looked deeply into Ronan’s blue eyes for a moment before she suddenly leaned forward. She buried her face against Ronan’s chest and hugged her close. Ronan flinched slightly at the pain in her shoulder but wrapped her arms around Sidney, and held her tightly.

  “Oh, darling, what are we going to do?”

  “It’s all right. We’ll just have to make some new memories.”

  Sidney chuckled and pulled away. Ronan noticed the glint of tears in her eyes but didn’t comment. Instead, she leaned down and gently kissed Sidney. What she intended as gentle reassurance became something more when Sidney parted her lips and her tongue stroked Ronan’s full lips. The kiss deepened and she clutched Sidney against her. Passion flared as it usually did, but the seatbelts hindered free movement.

  Ronan pulled back and smiled a little tremulously. “Don’t worry, it will work out.”

  “Do you really believe that or are you telling me what you think I need to hear.”

  “No, I mean it. I believe in you, Sidney, and I know that we will get through this.”

  Sidney watched her for a moment as though assessing her veracity before she nodded and sat back. Somehow, she’d concluded that Ronan’s confidence was enough. She started to unbuckle the seatbelt but Ronan stopped her.

  “Before we go upstairs I need to warn you about something.”

  “Yes?”

  “There...there’s no easy way to say this. When I came back here looking for you earlier, I had a visitor. Actually he was hiding in my closet and tried to kill me when I turned my back.”

  “Ronan, are you all right? He didn’t hurt you?”

  “I’m fine,” she answered and smiled in reassurance. “But the assassin can’t say the same thing. He’s dead. I shot him, but I didn’t mean to kill him. It would have been better if I’d been able to question him.”

  Ronan was honestly regretful that she had killed the man. Taking another life wasn’t something she did lightly and was something that had been required far too often from her lately. If she expected Sidney to agree with her on this one, she was doomed to disappointment.

  “Good.” Her face was grim with anger when she continued. “If you hadn’t killed him I would have had to rip his throat out with my teeth.”

  “Sidney.”

  “Don’t sound so surprised. I can’t stand the thought that anyone might hurt you. I’ve already watched you put your life on the line to rescue me more times than I can count and I had to watch when they shot you. You can’t blame me for wanting to hurt someone that tried to kill you.”

  “You’re right. To be honest, I have to admit it makes me feel pretty good that you’re so protective of me.”

  Ronan reached up to cup Sidney’s cheek in her palm. She reveled in the sensation of warm flesh as she leaned into the touch for a second. “I suggest we get up to the apartment and take whatever we need before someone shows up looking for the guy.”

  “Agreed. Where do you think we should go, the professor’s house?”

  Ronan nodded and got out of the car. “I really don’t want to stay very long there either. Sloan knows he and I are friends. It’s probably not safe for him to have us around for very long, but we need to get those phase inducers.”

  “Okay. We can get my clothes and head straight over.”

  “I did notice that you seemed to have taken a liking to my things,” Ronan said lightly.

  Sidney merely grinned back at her and didn’t reply.

  Although they were trying to keep their moods light, both were aware that there was little time. Black Guards could show up at any second so the plan was to get whatever they needed and get out.

  “One more thing,” Ronan added as they climbed the stairs. “We’ll have to go back to the EDU before we go to the professor’s.”

  “Whatever for? They’re probably already looking for us even if Kinsky didn’t have time to report in. I bet patrols and checkpoints have already been enhanced. Why do we have to go back there?”

  “When we get back to the 21st century we’ll still have to take out the Regime’s ship. Space vessels in this century are technologically sophisticated, at least more so than they were in your day. The only thing I can think of that would do the job properly is a half dozen plasma charges. Unless you’ve been hiding a few of those in your apartment, we’ll have to bring them with us. Besides, the faster we get them the better the chance that no one has reported us yet.”

  From the set of her jaw, Ronan could tell that Sidney wasn’t happy but she didn’t say anything and Ronan didn’t want to upset her anymore than she already had. With the teasing banter gone, they quietly walked down the hall to Ronan’s apartment.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  THE DOOR TO the apartment was ajar and with a quick hand signal Ronan indicated that Sidney should stop and be quiet. Sidney complied immediately with her eyes round in fear. All that she’d been through in the last few months had made her cautious and Ronan was pleased to see her crouch down against the wall to make a smaller target for anyone that might be waiting just inside.

  Ronan also squatted down near the doorway and pulled her laser pistol from her shoulder holster. She’d been very lucky she hadn’t lost it when the water swept her and Kinsky down through the underground tunnels. She tightly gripped the comforting metal handgrips. Listening intently, Ronan didn’t hear a sound from inside the apartment. Years of honing her instincts told her there wasn’t anyone inside, at least not anyone alive, but someone had been here recently. When she was sure it was safe, she quickly leaned forward and pushed the door open farther. The hinges didn’t squeak and Ronan hadn’t pushed it hard enough to hit the wall. Still there was no reaction so she dipped forward quickly and glanced inside before she pulled back again.

  No one shot at her and there was no startled shout. Heartened at the continued quiet she peered around the doorjamb again and scanned an empty room.

  “Wait here,” she whispered to Sidney.

  Sidney merely nodded and Ronan slipped inside the apartment. Quietly, carefully, Ronan moved from room to room but she found nothing out of the ordinary other than the broken coffee pot she’d discovered earlier. The bedroom was the last place she searched with the memory of her recent attacker fresh in her mind. The closet door still stood open from the previous assault and she could see that no one lurked inside. With few other hiding places available, Ronan stood erect and walked into the room. The assassin was gone. While she had been out someone had come inside her apartment and removed the body.

  Without a doubt, more evidence had been removed. At least Sidney wouldn’t have to endure the grisly sight.

  Reassured that no one was waiting for them, but aware that someone could show up at any second she went back for Sidney. “It’s okay. There’s no one here. Someone cleaned up.”

  Sidney stood up with a relieved look on her face. “That was considerate of them.”

  Ronan nodded. “Yes, but I still think we should hurry.”

  “No argument there.”

  Ronan closed and locked the apartment door while Sidney hurried into the bedr
oom for her things. While she waited for her lover to return, Ronan listened intently for any sounds coming from the hallway. A second later, she jumped at the chime of an incoming communication. Torn between whether she should answer the call or not, Ronan hesitated. If she didn’t answer it might look suspicious, yet if she did and an APB had been issued for her arrest, she’d be telling the authorities exactly where to look. She waited too long and the answering machine came on. The answering protocol showed the caller, but wouldn’t return a visual feed. It was the ultimate in call screening.

  The figure on the imager was distorted and darkened as though someone was deliberately trying to conceal their identity. Ronan frowned at the familiarity of the image before it clicked into place. She’d received a similar call months ago before she had ever started on her quest to save Sidney and eventually the fate of mankind. When the voice started to speak, she was convinced it was the same person.

  “I know you’re there, Lee. I saw you enter the apartment, but it’s probably better this way. By now, you know the truth, but you don’t have the full picture. You require more information to eliminate them. I assume you want to use plasma charges to destroy the ship. You don’t need them and all you would do is endanger yourself by returning to the EDU to obtain them.”

  Ronan wondered how this person could know so much about her plans and she squinted closer at the screen. Unseen by the caller she walked over to the console and began to tinker with the resolution and contrast controls as she tried to enhance the image.

  “Return to your friend’s time. Any imposters in that period will be in important positions and will have a transport matrix near them. It will look like a small pyramid with a green crystal at the top, small enough to sit on a desk like a paperweight. You’ll have to touch the green crystal and press the small indention on the base to activate it. Don’t worry where you’ll end up, it only goes one place: to the mother ship.”

  The image had lightened considerably and Ronan began to tinker with resolution filters. The snow on the screen began to dissipate until she could barely make out a male face. He had brown hair and very pale skin, but she still couldn’t see all of the details.