Minutemen- Parallel Lives

by David Danforth

  “You’re done?” Agent Jessica said. “But we just met you.” She smiled.

  “I really missed that smile,” Kaylan said. “I just hope I have enough.”

  “Enough for what?” Agent Kaylan asked. “You’re not making any sense.”

  “I know I’m not,” Kaylan said. “Not for this Earth anyway. Not yet.” She sighed. “Say hello to Jon for me.”

  “How did you...I’m not married.”

  “Yes, you are.” She smiled at Agent Kaylan. “You met him in 865 A.D.”

  “How did...who told you that?” Agent Kaylan’s voice rose.

  “You did. Fifty years from now, your time.”

  The agents looked at each other.

  “OK, so you’ve obviously met older versions of us,” Agent Kaylan said. “What else did they tell you?”

  “Yeah, what does the future have in store for us?” Agent Jessica asked.

  Kaylan was about to tell them. She was so close. After all, all of her education and experience had taught her that the worst that would happen would be another Earth would be born. One in which they would be ready for the Guardians, they would win, and hardly any human casualties would be suffered.

  But for the first time in a long time, Kaylan thought about her home. Not with Elder Jess and her Viking tribe, but 2075 and TPC and Jessica and Gabriel and Travis, and yes—even Thorpe and Kildere. If things didn’t go to shit here, would Kyle attempt to reset the universe? Would she and the agents sitting across from her have needed to try to stop him? In turn, would her home turn out to be what this Earth’s future would be? The Guardians of Time’s surprise attack and eventual domination, and humanity all but wiped out in fifty years? She doubted it, but she couldn’t take the chance.

  “Oh, nothing much,” she said, beginning to cry. “Just wondrous time-traveling adventures, growing old together, and having families.” She pulled out the device, tracing the third button with her finger.

  “That’s a neat box,” Agent Jessica said. “What’s it do?”

  “You like it? You made it,” Kaylan said, looking at them one last time. “It lets me go home.”

  Kaylan pressed the third button and disappeared.

  EARTH PRIME

  1

  “ Jessica Waters, we have your fortress surrounded. You will come out and surrender now, and serve as an example for all who oppose us.”

  The Anarchists’ “fortress” was the old advanced education facility in this district. Specifically, the six-story administration building. Jessica recalled Kaylan talking about where she went for her education, and Jessica remembered it was near the water. Jessica had left orders with the Anarchists to come here just after the Guardians arrived a week ago. Jessica was surprised to find it abandoned, but when the end of the world is announced, you want to be with your family, she supposed. After all, Jessica was with hers now.

  Jessica had been getting dressed when the ultimatum broke the silence of the morning. The sun had just peeked over the eastern mountains. Gabriel was there to meet her at the door. He was the early riser. This morning, Jessica wished she was.

  “It’s your friend from Sacramento. His ship is hovering above us, but for some reason they haven’t blown us off the Earth yet.”

  She kissed him. “He wants to make an example out of me. Didn’t you hear?”

  She grabbed the polished black stone that Slithen had given her off her nightstand and rubbed it.

  “Slithen, we need you. Get your forces to this location now,” Jessica spoke into the stone.

  Two seconds later, she heard her voice echo in the courtyard.

  “Oh no,” she said.

  She grabbed her purifier and went to the window at the end of the third-story hallway where a dozen Anarchists were gathered. She peered out the window and groaned.

  Slithendor, his injured leg wrapped with cloth, and nine other Guardians were out front in a line, each holding an Atheist captive, each holding a purifier to their red-hooded heads. Even from this distance, Jessica could tell Slithendor held his group brother, Slithen. Behind them, more than one hundred Guardian troops stood ready to invade the Anarchists’ base.

  “What do we do?” one of the Anarchists—a young woman who used to be a student here—asked.

  “Jessica Waters, I will not repeat myself. You will surrender now—”

  “Sorry!” Jessica yelled. “No one here by that name.” She shattered the window and shot her purifier. The beam struck a Guardian standing three feet to the right of Slithendor. Unfortunately, the Guardian’s death reaction blew a hole into the Atheist he was holding. They both went to the ground dead.

  That produced a thunderous volley of purifier blasts from the troops below. Jessica and her group ran from the window, which, along with most of the wall, disintegrated in a smoky haze.

  “Hold your fire,” Slithendor hissed. “Hold your fire, damn you.”

  “OK, this is a little bothersome,” Jessica said, coughing from the dust.

  “Jess, we need to retreat.”

  “Retreat to where, Gabe?” Jessica asked, helping him up. Even if she could supply her entire group with purifiers, the Atheists were off the board. And she couldn’t forget about the colossal starship casting a shadow over the whole advanced education campus.

  Jessica closed her eyes tight, then walked to the edge of what was left of the hallway. She stopped at the edge of the floor. All that was left ahead of her were two steel girders.

  “Slithendor. Give me a minute. I’m coming out,” she shouted.

  “The hell you are,” Gabe yelled at her.

  Jessica grabbed his shoulder. “Maybe I can give you enough time to sneak out the back and off this campus. Take the Anarchists down to the shoreline. Swim in the damn ocean if you have to. That’s our only play left, Gabe.”

  “I’m taking out as many of those reptile bastards as I can.” Gabe raised his purifier, but Jessica grabbed his arm and made him lower it.

  “No, you’re getting out with the rest to have a shot at living,” she said. “You can’t die, Gabe. Please.”

  “Jessica Waters,” Slithendor screamed from below. “I’m waiting—”

  Jessica heard a weird sound, like someone dribbling a basketball.

  “What was that? I couldn’t hear you. Speak up.”

  She looked out the side of the building in time to see the front row of Guardians—all nine of them, Slithendor included—fall to the ground. Their heads had been cleanly severed from their bodies. Green liquid sprayed everywhere.

  The troops aimed their purifiers at Jessica, at the building they were in. They aimed them, but they weren’t firing. They were frozen in place.

  “Oh, my God, look there.” Gabe pointed off to the right, then ran down the hall to their room, and came running out two seconds later with a pair of U-Specs. “It’s Kaylan, and she has an army.”

  “What? Let me see.” Jessica tried to grab the specs, but Gabe pulled away.

  “Wait a second,” he said. “It’s...they’re all Kaylan!”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” This time she snatched the specs away and looked through them. There, on the gentle rise of a foothill, off to the right of the campus, stood nearly fifteen thousand women who all looked like Kaylan.

  Except one.

  She was an old woman who advanced a couple of steps.

  As Jessica absorbed the scene, she heard a voice in her head.

  [Attention, Guardians. This is your only warning. Stay the fuck away from my friends.]

  “Now that’s our Kaylan,” Jessica muttered, then quickly spoke into the black stone.

  “Slithen, get your troops moving now!” she screamed and started firing into the mass of lizards. This was all for nothing though if they couldn’t do something about that spacecraft looming above them.

  2

  They all appeared at Denver, right in the middle of a Guardian encampment. Kaylan used the element of surprise to order Mutant Kaylan to mask them from
the Guardians’ minds and to locate Jessica’s mind. It took a minute, and sweat appeared on Mutant Kaylan’s bald head, but she did it.

  [San Luis Obispo.]

  She ordered Magic Kaylan to mass teleport all of them there. Another huge drain on the powers of one of her key soldiers, but Magic Kaylan was able to do it.

  They appeared on a hillside, near where Kaylan had finished her education track. Where Kildere approached her with an offer she couldn’t refuse.

  Kaylan smiled. She remembered it all now.

  For the first time, she saw the Guardians—dozens of them, lined up in rows like a squad going through drill exercises. They were tall, green, scaly—like small, armored dragons about to burn the campus, Jessica, everything, to the ground.

  “Does anyone have U-Specs?” Kaylan shouted down the line. Luckily someone did. A Kaylan who she didn’t quite remember—there were thousands of them—but that Kaylan had what she needed at the right time.

  Kaylan peered through the specs. Nine Guardians were forming a front line, all holding other Guardians...captive? Why would Jessica care if they killed their own kind?

  “Not Guardians,” Kaylan said to herself. “Atheists.”

  “Magic Kaylan, do you have a spell to disarm those front-line Guardians?”

  Magic Kaylan stepped forward. “After this battle, we’re going to discuss proper code names. ‘Magic Kaylan’ is just silly.”

  Kaylan looked at her.

  “Well, I could use another translocation spell—”

  “Most of us are unarmed,” Kaylan said.

  “I meant on them,” Magic Kaylan said.

  Kaylan shook her head. “We need those red-robed ones unharmed and here for battle,” she said. Odds are their weaponry was close by. “No, we need a message sent to those others behind them.”

  Magic Kaylan rubbed her chin. “Well, I do know a spell. It’s rather drastic...”

  “Do it.”

  Magic Kaylan gestured, thrusting her left arm forward.

  Kaylan didn’t see anything, but she felt a rush of wind as if a slot car had just sped right by her. A moment later the Guardians who stood in front of the formation were beheaded; their bodies fell in a heap.

  “Mutant Kaylan, freeze the troops!” Kaylan yelled.

  She did.

  “Link me with their minds.”

  [I can’t pinpoint that ability specifically to them while I’m immobilizing them.]

  Sweat began to bead on Mutant Kaylan’s head again.

  Kaylan looked toward the building she assumed Jessica was in. “That’s all right,” she said. “Do it.”

  “OK, you’re linked.” Mutant Kaylan’s voice was weak. “You’d better make it quick.”

  [Attention, Guardians. This is your only warning. Stay the fuck away from my friends.]

  Mutant Kaylan collapsed to the ground, and then all hell broke loose.

  Dozens of red-robed reptiles—the Atheists—appeared from everywhere, as dozens of smaller triangular ships whizzed around above them. A firestorm of pulsating beams emanated from different floors of the building and cut into the massive group of Guardians on the campus grounds below. The Guardians, in turn, split their attack between Jessica and her group, and the Atheists.

  “Mutant Kaylan, tell the Guardians to attack each other,” Kaylan yelled.

  [The other one was right. Code names. It’s a priority.]

  Mutant Kaylan focused her mind on the green reptiles without red robes.

  [Attack those who do not have red robes. Anyone without a red robe is your ENEMY.]

  The Guardians immediately turned on each other. The Atheists hesitated for a moment, in shock from what they were witnessing. Then they let out a unified hissing shout at their good fortune and made quick work of the remaining troops.

  [I’m getting something.]

  “What?”

  [A stray thought...from Jessica.]

  Mutant Kaylan looked up.

  [We need to take out that ship, or we’re dead.]

  Kaylan looked up to the sky, currently blocked by the massive black belly of the Guardian ship. Then Kaylan looked to the west.

  Water. And lots of it.

  “Can you tell the pilot of that ship to crash-dive into the sea?” she asked Mutant Kaylan.

  Mutant Kaylan shook her head.

  [It’s tougher to convince a person to kill themselves. Besides, I’m spent.]

  They were so close to the ocean. Maybe the pilot didn’t have to dive.

  Kaylan turned to her Magic counterpart.

  “We need to get to the engine room,” she told Magic Kaylan. “Can you do it?”

  Magic Kaylan grabbed Kaylan’s arm. “I’m not sure where that would be. We’d have to check floor by floor.” She smiled. “Hold on to your lunch.”

  And they were off.

  Kaylan felt as if someone were repeatedly punching her in the stomach. Her vision was beginning to give her a headache too, as a kaleidoscope of colors assaulted her eyes. Black, green, red, yellow. Floors, walls, hallways, doors, tables, small animals being eaten, instrument panels.

  They stopped in a large room with instrument panels along all four walls. Guardians were intently watching them.

  “This looks important,” Kaylan said with a groan. “Slice through it, like you did with those Guardians.”

  Magic Kaylan thrust her hands in different directions, hitting different walls. Electrical fires erupted, Guardians screamed, and Kaylan felt a different lurch in her stomach.

  They were falling.

  “Get us out of here!” Kaylan screamed.

  The next instant they were back on the ground.

  Magic Kaylan collapsed.

  Kaylan doubled over and vomited until it was just dry heaving. She watched as the ship fell from the sky, leaving a burning trail against a blue pallette. The craft disappeared behind the campus’ buildings, but a moment later, Kaylan heard a deafening explosion, followed shortly by a volley of splashes.

  They both watched as the Atheists and Jessica’s group finished off the ground forces. Fifteen minutes later, it was over.

  “Magic Kaylan—”

  “Merlin,” Magic Kaylan said. “My code name is Merlin.”

  “Fine. Merlin. You and—”

  [Mental.]

  “Mental? Really? OK, you’re both with me.” Kaylan turned to the next group in front of her. “Wait for me here. Pass that down.”

  They walked down to the courtyard, where Jessica and the Atheists were celebrating their victory. They all fell silent when Kaylan joined them.

  “You changed your hair,” Kaylan started.

  “Fuck, you’re old,” Jessica returned.

  “You might want to send some people out to make sure—”

  “I sent a team, but the ship exploded over the sea,” Jessica cut Kaylan off. “No Guardian can survive the—”

  “Water,” they said together.

  “This battle will be remembered for centuries, Alpha!” Slithen exclaimed. “It will be talked about and told through generations of humans and Slaxxian. It will be remembered as the first battle of the war. Let us hope that we will be around to tell our children about it.”

  Kaylan moved in to hug her friend, but Jessica pushed her back and looked away.

  “You two and the rest of you...Kaylans? Is that the plural? Help yourself to food, drink, weapons. You’ve earned it,” Jessica said. She turned to Gabriel. “Gabe, take this one to holding.”

  “What the hell?” Merlin said and began to gesture.

  Kaylan held out her hand for Merlin to stand down. “I guess we should talk,” she said to Jessica.

  “A long-overdue conversation.” Jessica nodded. “Fifty years overdue, by the looks of it, and we’re going to have it today.”

  3

  Jessica found Kaylan doing pushups in her holding cell when she went to see her, four hours after she told Gabe to bring her here.

  “So,” she said.

  “So,�
�� Kaylan returned.

  Jessica held out her arms and spun around. “We’re still here. No multiverse bomb. The Guardians were sure as shit real though, just like I said.”

  “And we chased Kyle to the beginning of time, where he was going to detonate a nuclear device, just like I said,” Kaylan returned.

  They were silent for a while. Kaylan sat down on a steel bench; Jessica sat on a padded chair.

  “So this is what you did with your life?” Jessica asked. “Recruit yourself from different worlds? Man, you really were the daughter of Dorothy and Damien, weren’t you? Controlling and narcissistic.”

  “Controlling... Wait, what do you mean, ‘were’?”

  “Well, Dorothy isn’t with you, so I assume she’s lost in the time stream somewhere,” Jessica said. “And I left Thorpe’s bony ass back in Denver surrounded by a bunch of Guardians, so...”

  “She’s dead, actually.” Kaylan looked at the floor. “She sacrificed herself to stop Kyle from blowing that bomb.”

  Jessica’s eyes widened, but only for a moment. “Sacrificed herself? Doubt it. I’m sure she had an agenda. She always did.”

  Kaylan jumped up from the bench. “She did sacrifice herself. What do you know about it anyway? You decided to cut bait and run. Just when I needed my friend the most, you just fucking picked up and left us all.”

  Jessica jumped up from her chair. “That’s right.” Her voice rose. “And guess what I found? My new buddies, the Anarchists.”

  Kaylan rubbed her forehead and looked away.

  “That’s right,” Jessica continued. “They liked me. When they found out who I was, well, I’m their leader now.”

  “Someone told you,” Kaylan said quietly.

  “You should have told me.” Jessica ran up and shook the bars so hard, flakes of rust rained down from the upper section. “You should have told me,” Jessica screamed and gave the bars one more good shake.

  “Jess, I—”

  Jessica violently shook her head. “Hmm-mmm, no. No sir! You don’t get to use that,” she said. “Never again. I told you when I left, I was leaving to try to find my brother. I told you.” She was crying now, but she didn’t care.