by Randal Sloan
She stared at the Master in wonder. “This is the most perfect instrument I have ever held. It is worth many times what I told you I would pay for it.”
“Your former Master called me on a VR a few days after you called in your order. He was using a VR! I almost made the mistake my young apprentice just made when I saw him. That got a laugh out of him, I tell you. Anyway, he told me about you, and he told me that your life would one day depend on these knives. So I dropped everything else I had in the shop to work on these knives. I’ve put everything I know about my craft into them. I only finished my last task just a short time ago, because the Master told me that they are that important and that you are that important. He told me when they had to be ready, and he paid me the balance on your account as well as a huge bonus, not that it mattered at that point.
“I only ask that you keep these knives with you wherever you go that there is a risk to you. And someday, you will know when, you will need to order a set equal to these for your daughter. You can pay me then, because I know what it will mean to you to be able to buy them for her. Because I believe those will save her life, too.”
Julie looked at him with tears in her eyes. “I thank you then. I will always use them with honor, and I will always appreciate just how perfect they are. I don’t want you to lose work over it, but please, start making my daughter’s as soon as you can. I will definitely be back for them.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Somethings Change, Some Things Never Do
Julie was really getting spoiled by the X-plane. Uncle Ted had sent it to Hong Kong to pick her up. So after her pizza, the taxi driver had given her the grand tour of Hong Kong before taking her to the Space Tech terminal at the airport. Unfortunately, this time she did have to go through customs, and it had taken her well over an hour to get her knives through their screening. It had finally taken a call to Space Tech corporate to get them approved.
All of this meant that it was pretty late Hong Kong time when Julie finally boarded, so she had immediately gone to sleep while the pilots were still getting clearance for takeoff, which had been delayed because of the weather. When they were finally in the air, it was only a little over an hour’s flight back to the Space Tech airport, but again they were delayed in their landing, having to circle the airport for several minutes.
All of it worked out just perfectly for Julie. She had gotten nearly two hours of sleep, enough to hold her for what would be a very extended day. She had traveled backwards against the clock much faster than the clock moved, so it was late morning Space Tech time when she got back. To Julie, it was like she woke up in another world. She had left the somewhat primitive monk world, and when she awoke, she was back to the very modern civilization that was part of the Space Tech world. Quite an extreme change that required her to shift her mental processes. She was very glad to see Uncle Ted’s assistant, Andrea McDonald, waiting for her at the X-plane terminal.
Andrea helped her with her bags and they climbed into the back of the secure SUV from Space Tech. As they settled in the back, Andrea explained, “I thought this would give us a good opportunity to talk, since we haven’t been able to have any of our lunches.”
Julie didn’t mention how glad she was to see Andrea with all the jet lag issues she was dealing with, but she told her, “Yes, I’ve missed seeing you. Talking by VR is just not the same. A lot’s going on, but I will try to do lunch with you soon. We’ll just have to work it in.” Sighing, she said, “Too much going on,” She laughed to herself. So serious. When did I ever get to be like that?
“But I will make time,” she told her. Smiling, Julie pointed at her hair. She had her nanites flash a section of it to black for a second, causing Andrea’s mouth to drop. “I think I will probably be going as Miranda most of the time in public, at least for now. It’s funny. I know who I am but I really still think of myself as Miranda sometimes. I can change my appearance from one to the other in a few moments with my nanites, so I will at times be one or the other of the two. And you know, I believe I even think a little differently as one versus the other. Maybe you can help me figure that out.”
Andrea liked that idea a lot. She had missed spending time with her. “Sounds like a challenge to me. I’ve always enjoyed a challenge.”
They talked for a few minutes, Andrea even giving Julie some of the office gossip. While they were talking, their driver had completed the journey to Space Tech Corporate, stopping at the front entrance. Before they could get out of the car, Andrea looked at Julie with a huge smile on her face. “Emily is waiting in the lobby. She has a couple of surprises for you, including a big one that you will never guess.” When Julie looked at her, ready to ask for more, Andrea gave her the sign for sealed lips, refusing to say anything else, but the laughter still showed in her eyes.
As soon as they entered the lobby, Emily rushed over to give Julie a big hug. “I am so glad you’re back, Sis. I’ve really missed you.” But she pulled back rather quickly, her excitement a rather obvious distraction. “Let’s go. I have so much to show you, and I do believe this one has really worked out.”
Realizing she wasn’t going to get any juicy details from Emily either, Julie sighed. “Ok you two. Let’s get up there so I can see it, and finally find out what the two of you are hiding from me. Lead on.”
The trio hurried through security, although Julie had to leave her knives with them. She would have to address that with Uncle Ted to get them on an approved list. Leading the way into the high rise elevator, Andrea did the honors on the biometric scanner.
Julie turned back to Emily, “You know, you never did tell me who you were getting to help you.”
Emily laughed. “No, I didn’t, did I?” Then she refused to say another word.
Luckily for Julie, the elevator went really fast. By this time, Julie was determined to find out what was up, so as they reached what was to be her office area, she headed straight for her office, for the moment bypassing the empty area where her assistant would be sitting. Julie guessed she would have to figure out what to do to get an assistant hired, but she was too distracted to worry about that at the moment.
The first thing Julie saw when she stepped into her new office was a welcome basket with fruit and chocolate! That momentarily distracted her from her mission. The monks lived a good life on their island, but they really missed out on a few things. Like chocolate. She should have instituted that rule before she left there. But the team here was already points up.
Emily smiled, knowing exactly what Julie was thinking. “Don’t look at me. I didn’t think of the chocolate…”
Chocolate in hand, Julie finally looked around her office. The furniture and the paintings blended together perfectly. She had paintings! All of them with a space theme. Stepping around to the other side of the room, she spotted the next thing. She had her own coffee service in her office! More points up. Finally, she turned to the two of them. “Wow! This is awesome. I absolutely love it. Whoever you got to do this, you’ve got to tell me now.”
Emily just laughed. “Nope. Not just yet. You have another room to look at. Your very own executive conference room!” She led the way back out of the office and through the door leading into the conference room.
When Julie stepped into the room, she immediately recognized that it was top notch, with the right balance between elaborate as due the CEO of the world’s largest corporation and practical to match Julie’s needs. The huge picture of Space Tech station that covered nearly the entire back wall was absolutely awesome! Immediately, Julie spotted a coffee service there too.
That was as far as Julie got in looking over the room. Sitting in a chair at the far end was a slight figure, one of the girl students from their school she supposed. The one Emily had said she was getting to help. Her back was turned so Julie couldn’t see her face and her head was covered with a hoodie, making it impossible for Julie to recognize her.
Emily waved toward the mysterious person. “Are you ready to meet your
decorator or do you want to wait for another day?”
Julie rushed forward, the girl turning around slowly as she approached. Then Julie stopped in total shock. It was Caitlyn Erwin, her old Space Academy nemesis and probably the last person Julie would have expected to see.
“Hello, Julie,” Caitlyn said timidly. She was terrified of getting rejected, a look of near panic on her face.
For a moment Julie just stared at her, her surprise total. She wanted to be angry, but everything really was awesome. Finally she said, “You did this? All of this, the office, the conference room?” When Caitlyn nodded, Julie gave her a big smile. “Wow. This is all amazing, like you read my mind. I don’t think I would change a single thing.” She turned to Emily, “So this is it. The big secret?” When Emily nodded, Julie turned back to Caitlyn. “We’re going to have to talk, but first, show me the rest.”
That got Caitlyn smiling too. Maybe she had a chance. She tapped the VR controls on the table. “Check out the VR setup. You’ve got nearly the same thing in your office, but it’s more impressive in here since it’s a bigger room.” The VR sprang to life and filled the majority of the room. The Space Tech logo exploded across the room and then expanded into an intro page with the current status of events across the Space Tech world, from the current mining operations to the space station to the shuttle launch facility. Another virtual tab gave financial headlines and another current world events. Julie even had her own dedicated AI, a virtual tab set up to ask it questions. Wasn’t that something! But Julie knew she would soon be putting it all to use.
Julie managed to tear herself away from the VR, turning to Emily and Andrea. “Ok, you two miscreants go find something to do for the next hour. I’m going to have a little chat with Caitlyn and then do a little work. Then Emily and I have to go see Zeke.”
Surprisingly, the two left without argument, or maybe they were afraid?
Julie wandered over to the coffee service, making herself a cup while she gathered her thoughts. While attending school at the Space Academy as Miranda, Caitlyn had been Miranda’s nemesis, and Emily’s choice of Caitlyn had caught Julie completely by surprise. The soccer star at their school, Caitlyn had also been interested in Zeke, and so had given Miranda a lot of trouble over it, with her soccer buddies as co-conspirators.
However, Miranda had been very instrumental in rescuing Caitlyn and her soccer team when they were held hostage in Kinza, and Caitlyn had expressed a change of heart, she and the other team members thanking her for helping to save them. Julie had forgotten about that, with all that had happened to her since then.
Finally, she carried her coffee over to the huge table and sat down beside Caitlyn. Giving her a tentative smile, she told Caitlyn, “So why don’t you tell me your part in this, and then we can go from there.”
Caitlyn didn’t hesitate, doing exactly that. “Ever since Kinza, I have been able to see things very differently than the way I did before. Things I thought were important before are really rather insignificant.” Julie nodded. Life and death experiences tended to change you.
But Caitlyn went on, “And then I find out that after I have treated you so badly and as if you were unimportant, it really it turns out you are one of the most important people in the world.”
Caitlyn was not one who tried to put on an act for others. She meant exactly what she was saying and she wasn’t doing it just to try to appeal to Julie’s ego. She never hid what she was to anyone, despite her other faults, so Julie could tell immediately she was being sincere. “None of us knew who I was, not even me. And I found out I was rather more like you in the past than I would have wanted to believe. The money and privileged thing hits closer to home than I would want to admit.”
Caitlyn nodded. “That used to be me. I’m so sorry for all I did. I know I told you that after the flight back. I meant it then, but I really mean it now. And I have decided I want to be a better person, and if you can forgive me, maybe give a little back to you.”
“I have already forgiven you. I have learned to take every day as it comes and deal with everyone as they are now. The past is already in the past. Some of that comes from having to make new memories nearly every day for all that time as Miranda. Of course, I’m not saying that I’m one hundred percent ok with you, if you can understand my feelings.”
“Well, I’m having to start over on a lot of things,” Caitlyn said with a thoughtful look. “I guess I will have to learn to do that too in a way.”
“So what is it you and Emily have planned? Or shall we say Emily planned and you got pulled into along with the rest of us?”
“I was so unsure of what to do that I went to talk to Emily a couple of days after you and Zeke were caught in that explosion.”
Emily had told Julie that Caitlyn was one of the first on the scene after the explosion at their lab and Caitlyn had been extremely distraught when she learned it was Zeke and Miranda. So in hindsight, Julie was not totally surprised to see her here.
Caitlyn went on, “I wanted to tell her how sorry I was about what had happened. But I knew that Emily has been a good friend to you, and she would be able to give me real advice. So we started talking about how I could show you how serious I was about making it up to you. She was gracious enough to talk to me even though her brother was still in a coma, and they were saying then it would be for at least six weeks.”
“Yes,” Julie told her with a little touch of the grief she remembered. “He almost died saving me. It was really bad for a while. But they were able to use the same treatment on him that they used on me. We’re pretty sure it’s working, it just takes time.” She certainly wasn’t going to give her any of the details on that! Especially not that she had given him her own nanites, not even sure what the effect would be on her or Zeke, and she wasn’t going to tell Caitlyn about her doubts or worries about the treatment either. It just had to work!
“I told her I would do whatever it would take to make things up to you, and that I had a lot to make up for. I don’t think she believed me at first, but the more I talked, the more thoughtful she became. I could almost see the gears turning, like when she tried to set me up with Zeke, and then when she really did help you guys get together. Emily’s that way I know. She’s good at figuring out how to accomplish what she wants without being obvious about it.”
Julie nodded, “Yeah, she’s sneaky, but she managed to steer me in more than one direction that I never intended to go but that worked out by far to my advantage.” Including helping Julie and Zeke to get together. They had both felt something on first meeting, but without Emily’s little nudges, it might have been a more difficult path.
“I know. I managed to mess the Zeke thing up on my own, despite Emily’s help. That’s alright, though, because I think the two of you were meant to be together.”
“We will have to take that up when he wakes up,” said Julie. “I don’t know for sure where it will go, but I really do think a lot of him. A whole lot!”
“Emily told me that she was worried about you. She told me that you were having to leave school, but she was planning to stay in until she finished. And you were going to be off in the crazy world of Space Tech without her to keep an eye on you. She told me that your father was missing, and that you were planning to try to find him. I can't imagine how that feels as I’ve sorta taken things for granted with my father. But over the last few weeks, I’ve called him several times just to tell him that I loved him, and at first, he was so surprised he wanted to know if I was ok.
“If you are willing to consider it, I would like to come to work for you in whatever capacity you would have me. I’m not asking to do it for pay or anything like that, but I think I could maybe coordinate things for you. I could even do it in the background so you wouldn’t have to see that much of me. But I can honestly tell you that I will do everything I can do to help you if you will let me give it a try.”
Julie looked at her thoughtfully for a moment, thinking about the way Caitlyn could be so
intense at times. “You know,” she finally said. “I started to tell you that you were crazy, but I really do believe you. In a sense, you and I are alike. We both put everything we have into accomplishing our goals, come what may. What better person could I ask for to help look out for me at work than someone like that? I do tend to forget about the world around me when I get deep into whatever I am thinking about at the moment.
“Just look at what you did here, entirely on your own. I wasn’t kidding about how great it is. So we can try it. I could always fire you if it doesn’t work out.” Julie couldn’t miss out on that tiny, tiny little barb. But, she was ashamed after saying it. Caitlyn seemed so sincere.
“I don’t promise you that we will be friends, not at first. We will just have to see how that turns out.” Julie gave her a smirk. “Of course, I do insist you do it at a level of pay that is appropriate for the job you will be doing. Working for free would be very noble, but not very practical.”
Decision made, Julie got down to it. “So I tell you what. Report to my uncle in the morning, and he will get you set up with a badge and all the stuff that goes with that. In between, I will get them started on the background check so we can get you the security approval you will need. When you get that, there’s a lot of stuff I will have to tell you that I can’t right now. Top secret and all that!” Julie said with a laugh.
Caitlyn could only stare at Julie. “That is so much more than what I’ve dreamed of after all I’ve done. Thank you so much.” By this time there were tears in her eyes. “And I promise I will do the best job I can.”
“I know,” Julie said, holding her arms out. “Welcome to the family.”
