In Times Like These: eBook Boxed Set: Books 1-3

by Nathan Van Coops

  Mym has her arms wrapped around me.

  She’s safe and whole.

  She’s real.

  I never want to let her go.

  I exhale the tension from my body and turn around, dripping all over the rocks. Doctor Quickly is staring at the water.

  “Where did you send him?”

  I watch the flames dancing over the spot where Zurvan disappeared. “I think it was an hour into the future. I couldn’t really see the chronometer, but it was something close to that.” Little waves slosh against the rocks, and I imagine what’s going to happen when Zurvan reappears and is fused with water from all different parts of the lake. I’m suddenly worried. Will Doctor Quickly and Mym think I’m horrible for having condemned him to such a gruesome fate?

  The worry is short-lived. Doctor Quickly kicks a stone into the water, sending cascading ripples across the lake and further disrupting the water. “Good riddance.”

  Mym tightens her arm around me. “Thank you for stopping him.” She looks up at me and studies my face. “Which one of you am I talking to?”

  Staring into her eyes, I realize I don’t know. “I’m not . . .”

  The realization that I can simultaneously remember both realities grips me, and for a second it makes me dizzy trying to wrap my mind around it, but Mym is there at my elbow to steady me.

  “Are you okay?”

  Looking back at her, I realize that I really am. I’m just me again. I stare up at the night sky. No sun. No Neverwhere. I’m just alive.

  I put my arms around Mym and kiss her. I don’t stop until Doctor Quickly clears his throat.

  “Bit of a mess we’ve made.”

  I tear my eyes away from Mym. The view around the lakeside is drastically changed.

  The fog is gone.

  Clumps of Eternals are still recovering from the attack by Zurvan. None of them attempt to stop us as we pick our way across the rocks. There are a few people who aren’t getting up. Most seem to have survived, however, and are helping one another away from the vicinity of the altar. Atop the steps, the bodies of Elgin and Longcase are still lying prone on the floor. I climb the steps and check them for any signs of life, but when I press my fingers to Elgin’s wrist, I get no pulse.

  I also notice that Doctor Quickly’s chronometer is gone. Mym’s pendant chronometer and ring have disappeared as well. It’s hard to say if one of Elgin’s Eternals nabbed them or if it was one of the locals with especially light fingers, but it’s clear from the number of people retreating into the hills that we’re unlikely to see them again. I inform Doctor Quickly about the theft when we descend the steps.

  “Well, unless they discover someone with a chronometer charger, they won’t be getting especially far,” he says. “And we’re a few thousand years away from the nearest one I know of.”

  Searching the area, I see no sign of Melchior, but the Starfire Epiphany has stopped shedding beams of light from its sides. When we climb the hillside and approach the ship, we find Melchior outside, smashing the last fragments of the Labyrinth machine against a boulder.

  “How is she?” Doctor Quickly asks.

  Melchior stomps on a chunk of the machine and grinds it into the dirt with his heel. “He almost destroyed her, but she’s still with us.” He kicks away the now useless trash and turns to look at his ship. “She’s done a lot of incredible things in her day,” he says. “But I think today will top the list.” He runs a hand along the ship’s outside hull. “She held the fabric of space and time together for us against all odds. We owe her now more than ever.”

  When Melchior turns away from the ship, he locks his eyes on me. “Ah. I see you’ve come out of this all right, too. One less consciousness adrift in the Neverwhere.”

  I still don’t know how he can tell, but I nod. “I’m not sure what happened, but I’m not complaining.”

  “I told you what needed to happen. You just needed to be single-minded and stop trying to control one another. Looks like you found the one, strong enough motivation that both of you were willing to sacrifice control of your life for.”

  I grip Mym’s hand in mine. “I guess all it took was a psychopathic, immortal magi from the future trying to hurt the girl I love. Surprised it didn’t happen sooner.”

  Mym looks up at me and smiles. Her blue eyes are sparkling. “So you love me?”

  I squeeze her hand a little tighter. “More than life.”

  The Starfire Epiphany still flies. Melchior says there will need to be repairs, but she’ll hold together well enough to get us home. Which home we choose is a bit of a question mark.

  “Unless we take the comet back out to the Oort cloud to find another ride into the solar system, we’re stuck using Borisov C/2014 Q3,” Melchior explains. “We can make the extra jumps and try to make the transition to a different comet, but I’d prefer to have as few entries and exits as we can until I can get some repairs done. Problem is, that only leaves us 151 year windows to drop you off in. Do you want to go back to 2165, or would you prefer I leave you in 2014? I need to go retrieve my crew, but I think I could manage a stop along the way.”

  I consult with Mym. I’ve personally had enough of the future and would prefer something closer to home. 2014 will have to do. Mym seconds the decision.

  After we’ve hitched the ride on the comet and are heading back inbound for Earth, I finally have a chance to ask Melchior a question that has been bouncing around in my mind since I’ve been aboard. I catch him near a meta window looking down at the steadily growing view of Earth.

  “You said your mission as a Magi was to visit moments of spiritual significance in human history. Does that mean that there was someone significant that you were coming to see in 2165 when we met you?”

  Melchior puts his hands up the sleeves of his robes again and crosses his arms. “We were looking into a moment in history that affected all of us. That day in 2165 was the beginning of something new and incredible in your timestream. It was a moment of enlightenment that would affect the entire human race.”

  “Who was it? Some sort of prophet or something?”

  “She was a revolutionary,” Melchior says. “One of the first great minds of her kind.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “She was a synth. The first synth in the burgeoning social revolution to see the spiritual accomplishments of the human race as worth preserving. While other synthetic uprisings across the Fractal Universe merely assimilated the human race, or fought to destroy it, she sought to understand it. She recognized that even a superior synthetic intelligence from the future could still learn from its past. She started a movement within the evolution of synthetic consciousness that would one day have a profound impact on the way it dealt with the end of our civilization.

  “When the synth collective mind in this timestream learned of the destruction of the planet at the hands of Zurvan, they didn’t abandon humanity as happened in other timestreams. They began constructing ships. Ships that could travel back in time and escape the black hole. They decided that they would collect and preserve the best of humanity’s collective knowledge and ferry it to safety, out among the stars.”

  “You mean she created the Magi?”

  Melchior smiles. “The Magi are merely the hands they use to do their work. These ships themselves are the true vessels of humanity.” He looks up at the walls of the sphere around us. “You are looking at the future of the human race, Ben. These ships now carry the best of our history and the greatest revelations mankind has experienced in our brief time on Earth. They represent our collective consciousness at the peak of our evolution. They mean to save us and give us a future.”

  “So a synth revolutionary in Port Nyongo was the start of the entire chain of events that led to the preservation of the human race?”

  “Indeed.”

  “Do you happen to know her name?”

  “I do. She was a cargo pilot turned social catalyst. Her name was Captain Mira Jumptree.”

  �
��Holy shit.”

  Melchior studies me. “Do you know her?”

  “Did she happen to mention why she had a change of heart about the human race? She didn’t mention any particular person that inspired her new outlook, did she?”

  “We don’t know. That was one of the things we were hoping to investigate. If there was a particular human in 2165 that convinced her that humanity’s achievements were worth saving, I suspect they would be a very unique individual. Well worth meeting.”

  I smile and put my hands in my pockets. “If unique is what you’re looking for, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.”

  The Starfire Epiphany enters the atmosphere late at night and descends us over the Gulf of Mexico. I’m not sure what wizardry Melchior and the ship employ, but we enter United States airspace uncontested. No fighters scramble from MacDill Air Force Base. Air traffic control in Tampa seems unperturbed by our presence. Perhaps to them we are merely a meteor, or perhaps they see nothing at all.

  The ship lands on a deserted stretch of Fort De Soto State Park at the bottom of the peninsula. The only welcome we get as we open the boarding ramp is curious stares from a pair of portly raccoons.

  “Thank you, Ben Travers,” the ship addresses me as Mym and I begin to descend the ramp. “Thank you for helping me.”

  “I didn’t do much,” I reply. “Melchior disabled the Labyrinth.”

  “You did what needed to be done for all of us,” the ship replies. “I hope we will meet again.”

  I search the walls around the boarding ramp, not sure where to address her. “I hope so too.”

  To my surprise, Doctor Quickly doesn’t step off the bottom of the ramp with us.

  “I need to get back to 2165, to check on Carson, as well as Professor Chun,” he explains. “But also, Melchior has made me quite a tempting offer.” He gestures toward the Magus. “He’s invited me to come have a look around time with him aboard his ship. We’ll need repairs first, of course, and I’ll need to pick up a few things for the trip. But since it seems like you are back in good hands with one another, I thought it might be an opportunity to do a bit of exploring.” He searches his daughter’s face. “Would you miss me too terribly?”

  “We will miss you,” Mym replies. “But of course you should go. It’s the sort of opportunity you’ve been looking for your whole life.”

  “You are invited to join as well,” Melchior adds. “You both would be welcome.”

  Mym has her arm wrapped around my waist and tilts her head to look up at me. “Ben? What do you think?”

  I read the look on her face and I know my answer immediately. “It’s a wonderful invitation,” I reply. “For the moment, I think we’ll just take a little time with each other.”

  Melchior nods. “I thought you might say that.” He smiles and descends the ramp to say goodbye. Doctor Quickly is smiling as well. There are warm embraces and assurances that we’ll meet up soon, and then the Starfire Epiphany is back on its way. Mym and I sit on the beach watching its flight back over the gulf and we stay there long after it’s gone, till there are only stars and waves and the cool night breeze to keep us company.

  The sun has risen by the time we make it back to a main road. We walk for a long time before we’re picked up by a pair of friendly fishermen willing to share the cab of their truck. They are headed a different direction after the bridge, but drop us at a bus stop and spot us the money for the fare the rest of the way.

  It’s a strange feeling to be back in a time I recognize. I keep glancing at the city skyline, making sure it’s still the way I recall. There might be a few additions in 2014 that weren’t there in 2009, but no solar arrays or space elevators punctuate the horizon.

  When we step off the bus in my neighborhood, I look around and relish the changes.

  The neighborhood is noisy. The good kind of noisy. Dogs are barking in yards. Occasional cars rumble along the brick streets with inefficient, gas-powered engines. A plane passes overhead. No drones. No starships. Not yet.

  Mym is still holding my hand. Since we’ve been back on the surface of the planet we’ve been like this. Connected. Alive. We haven’t talked a lot. We’ve just been content to be with each other.

  When we reach my street, I turn the corner and take in the view of my apartment. My pick-up truck is parked in the driveway. Mym puts her hand on my arm.

  “You sure you want to do this? We’ve still got options. We could go to my dad’s and pick up a chronometer. You could still go back to 2009 and pick up right where you left off.”

  I put an arm around her and kiss the top of her head. “This is better. This way I get to see. I think Melchior was right. If we’re really going to do this life as time travelers together, then I’m going to have to let go of trying to control everything. It’s time to embrace the future.”

  She arches an eyebrow. “After all you’ve seen, you call 2014 the future?”

  “Well, hey. It’s baby steps, but I’m making them, right?”

  She looks back to my apartment. “Okay. Let’s see what happens when Ben Travers has been gone for five years.”

  The spare key is still under the flowerpot.

  When I swing the door open I’m not sure what to expect. I’m fearing the worst, but the apartment is still much how I remember it. The TV is new. Bigger. Flatter. A few pictures on the wall have changed. Someone has subscribed to some martial arts magazines. There is a calendar on the wall with a date circled in heavy black ink. I realize it’s today’s date.

  “Hello?” I call.

  A door opens in the hallway and my other self walks out. Benji. He’s aged a bit, but it’s hard to say if it’s equivalent to how long I’ve been gone. He’s wearing ripped jeans and a faded T-shirt. He’s grown a beard.

  “Hey,” I manage.

  He leans against the wall. “About damn time. This is the real one, right? Home to stay?”

  “Maybe. Not making any decisions about that yet.”

  Benji slouches away from the wall. “Well, I have.” He disappears into the back bedroom briefly, then comes back out carrying a duffel bag, already packed. He sets it by the door, then goes back into the bedroom, this time returning with a backpack. He’s also now wearing my leather jacket. “I’ve paid all the bills for this month. Phone’s on the coffee table. The phone is new, but the number’s the same. Gassed up the truck and the bike. You should be set to go.”

  “Uh, thanks. Wait, the bike? You got it back?”

  “Oh. Right. A few years ago this kid showed up with a dude made of metal riding the motorcycle. They had a dog in the sidecar. Said you knew them and they were bringing back your bike.”

  “Jonah and Darius? Holy crap. What else did they say?”

  “I don’t know. I’m not your message service. You want to talk to them you can go find them. Said they’d be around the area for a bit. They wanted to see the sights in the twentieth century, so apparently they had your bike on tour. Said they might stop back by in a few years. Not sure how a kid, a robot, and a dog managed to roam around this century without getting arrested, but I figured that’s their business.”

  I smile at the thought of Darius getting to share an adventure with Jonah. “I knew that kid would turn out all right.”

  “Sure. Works out for everybody.” Benji moves toward the door. I spot the chronometer on his wrist.

  “Hey, wait. You can’t go yet.”

  “Why the hell not?”

  “What’s the big hurry?” I ask. “You have to leave right this second? I thought you were all gung-ho about being back at work and getting to have a normal life.”

  Benji glances at Mym, then back to me. “Look. I told you I’d take care of the place while you were gone. I did. Our business is concluded. I just decided I don’t want to stick around.”

  “What did you do?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Are the cops going to come knock down the door as soon as you go and arrest me for whatever you’ve been up to?”r />
  “Cops? Please. I’m still a time traveler. You think I’d be stupid enough to get caught doing something the police could catch me for?”

  “Well, you’re getting out of here in an awful hurry. What trouble did you get into that’s worse than—” I freeze, the memory of the phone conversation I watched him make coming back to me. “Francesca. You’re running from Francesca. Or was it Kaylee you pissed off? What did you do, man?”

  “How did you—” Benji studies me sideways for a moment. “Francesca and I were—Look, whatever. That was my business. You weren’t around so you don’t get an opinion.”

  I feel like telling him that I was around, but the idea of explaining my ghostly eavesdropping on his life doesn’t feel like a conversation he’d be ready for.

  “Look. You can go. I’m not going to stop you. But I need you to do me a favor.”

  “What kind of favor?” he growls.

  I think about the shack in the desert where I first met him. The grizzled old time traveler who showed me how to survive. He’s still a lot of years away from being that man, but I’m convinced it’s him.

  “It’s a long-term sort of favor. It’s going to take a while. But you do get to own some real estate in California.”

  Benji’s expression is quizzical. “Why would I want to be involved in this favor?”

  “Because whatever you did to Francesca, this would make it up to her.”

  Benji frowns. “What makes you think I owe her anything?”

  “Because you’re me. So I know how much she means to you. Sooner or later you’ll want a chance to make things right.”

  Benji snatches up his duffle bag and slings it over his shoulder. “Fine. Maybe I’ll be back. Eventually. You can explain your grand plan for my romantic rehabilitation then. Looks like you’ve got your own love life to figure out.” He nods toward Mym. “Good luck, Miss Quickly. He’s your problem now.”

  “Hey, wait up a second,” I say.

  “What now?”

  “I need that jacket back.”

  Benji looks down at the leather jacket and frowns. “You left it with the motorcycle. I figured you didn’t need it anymore. I really like it.”