Excelsior (34 page)

Chapter 31

Three Days Later - June 6th, 2790

(The Lincoln’s Frame of Reference)

Alexander watched their final approach to the Looking Glass on the main holo display. It still looked like a clear glass marble to him. It was hard to imagine that bubble of distorted spacetime was a tunnel from one galaxy to another.

Davorian had spent his time in orbit well, studying the stars and trying to identify familiar galaxies and their distances from Wonderland in order to triangulate Wonderland’s position in the known universe in relation to Earth’s. Apparently all of his stargazing had paid off, because he was now 99% sure that Wonderland was situated inside the local group at just over three million light years from Earth. More specifically, Davorian had determined that Wonderland was located inside the distal arm of the spiral galaxy M33, otherwise known as the Triangulum Galaxy.

“ETA five minutes until we enter the wormhole,” Davorian announced from the helm.

Alexander nodded. “Keep me posted.” Turning to his XO, he said, “Looks like our mission was a success, Commander.”

She nodded without looking away from the forward display.

It didn’t feel like the forward display. With the engines lying directly behind them, generating one G of thrust in order to simulate gravity, it felt like they were lying on their backs, staring up at the ceiling.

“How’s Max doing?”

“He’s still in med bay under quarantine, but Doctor Crespin and McAdams can’t find anything wrong with him. We should probably release him. If you’re worried, we can keep him in a pressure suit until he gets to his G-tank. The tank will act as an effective quarantine unit.”

Alexander nodded. “I think that would be the safest course of action. If viruses on Earth sometimes take weeks to incubate, then the same could be true for Wonderland, and we may not know we’re dealing with a harmful pathogen until it’s too late.”

Korbin nodded once more. “That’s what McAdams said.”

“Well, she’s a smart girl.”

Korbin turned to look at him, arching one eyebrow.

“What?” he said.

“Just rumors, Captain.”

Alexander frowned. “What rumors?”

Korbin switched to a private comms channel so that the rest of the crew wouldn’t overhear. “Before we entered the G-tanks, McAdams left the memorial service saying she was going to go find a bunkmate for the night. At that point you were the only one who’d left the officer’s mess without a partner. We all just assumed…”

“That the captain was sleeping with his junior officer, and breaking his marriage vows while he’s at it.”

Korbin shrugged. “You wouldn’t be the first to give into temptation in absentia. What happens in space stays in space, Captain.”

“Well, I didn’t. McAdams came to my quarters, drunk. She tried something, but I turned her down—and that’s more than I should be telling you. Next time you hear the crew gossiping about their captain I hope you’ll have the sense to put those rumors to rest before they travel.”

“Yes, sir,” Korbin replied.

Alexander blew out a breath and shook his head. He hadn’t meant to be so defensive, but it wasn’t just about the inappropriateness of the crew talking about him behind his back. It was about the sanctity of his marriage, and the fact that everyone just assumed allowances could be made for infidelity due to the nature of their circumstances.

What happens in space, stays in space.

Those words echoed through Alexander’s mind with mocking clarity.

What if Catalina felt the same way about their situation? Was giving into temptation in absentia, as Korbin put it, somehow any different? More acceptable?

Now that he knew they were going home, and much sooner than anticipated, he wished he hadn’t given his wife permission to move on. He’d been a fool. What if she took his advice? He could only hope she hadn’t gotten his message.

Thinking about messages reminded him what they had to do next. “Hayes—”

“Sir?”

“Get ready to send a message through the wormhole with what we’ve managed to reconstruct from our mission data along with my report and the crew’s messages for their loved ones.”

“Is that wise, sir? We don’t know who’s waiting to receive our message on the other end.”

“We have to risk it. There’s a chance that something happens to the Lincoln while we’re all asleep, and we don’t make it back. Then all of this will have been for nothing. Use the best encryption algorithms you can and punch it.”

“Yes, sir.”

*

May 22nd, 2791

(Earth’s Frame of Reference)

Caty didn’t even turn to look when she heard the front door open. She sat at the kitchen table, warming her hands around a cup of hot tea and chewing her lower lip as she thought about the impossible predicament she was in. Peripherally, she saw David walk in. His stride faltered when he saw her sitting there.

“Hola bella,” he said.

She didn’t reply. She didn’t feel beautiful, and besides, she wasn’t talking to him. He pulled out the chair in front of her and reached for one of the hands wrapped around her tea cup.

“Mi amor, perdóname.”

Forgive me. She wasn’t even thinking about him slapping her, but this was probably the thousandth time he’d apologized for it over the past four days. There hadn’t been any further incidents, but her trust in him was still thin and brittle as ice. She risked glaring at him, and saw his brown eyes big and sad and full of hope—hope that this time she really would forgive him.

Forgiving and forgetting are two different things, she thought.

On the other hand, could she really afford to be so strict with him now? They both had bigger issues to deal with. Part of her was bursting with joy, but the other part…

Afraid. She was afraid of how he would react. What if he lashed out again? She could smell the alcohol on his breath from here. He wasn’t drunk, but he wasn’t sober either.

“Háblame,” he implored. “Por favor. I’ll even talk to you in English. Just don’t ignore me.”

Her lip twitched and she looked down into her tea cup. She began circling the rim of the cup with her index finger. “There’s something I need to tell you.” Looking up, she found his eyebrows raised, and head tilted with one ear angled toward her. He wrapped both hands around hers, trapping them between the tea cup and him.

“Anything, my love. Tell me. I will listen.”

Caty wanted to object to the way he kept addressing her in a romantic way, but she contained herself. David might not be the prince that Alexander was, but he was here, and he was trying to make amends. Maybe that also meant that he deserved a second chance. She took a deep breath and let it out in a shaky sigh. She could work her way up to it some more, but she didn’t want to draw this out. Sometimes it was easier just to deal with things head-on.

“I’m pregnant,” she said.

David flinched, his head jerking back as if she’d punched him. His hands recoiled from hers.

“Como? Es imposible! Tienes…”

“I’m three weeks late. I got a blood test. It’s positive. Then I got another one to be sure. It’s positive, too.”

David’s eyes narrowed suddenly. “You tricked me?”

Caty’s jaw dropped and hot rage came boiling into her chest, puffing it up with air. “I tricked you?”

“You have an implant. Everyone does. You’re supposed to be sterile until it’s disabled. So you must have disabled it without telling me. Then you seduced me…” He began nodding as if it all made perfect sense. “All you wanted from me was a baby. You used me.”

Caty shook her head, incredulous. “No.” Unbelievable! She began rising from the table. “Never mind. I’ll figure this out on my own.”

“Wait.” He grabbed her wrist, turning it white.

She eyed his hand. “Let me go.”

“If you didn’t plan this, then how did it happen?”

“I don’t know! Implants fail. Sometimes they move out of position or they just don’t work. They’re not a hundred percent effective.”

His grip loosened and some of the suspicion left his gaze. She jerked her wrist out of his grasp and turned away, shaking her head.

He caught up to her in a flash and stood in front of her, blocking her way. She felt cornered. Her heart began to pound…

“I’m sorry for the way I reacted. Give me another chance.”

Caty frowned and crossed her arms over her chest, regarding him with thinly pressed lips. She thought she’d just given him a second chance. Now he wants a third. Three strikes, you’re out.

He went on, “I’m still processing. This is… good news,” he said, as if trying to convince himself. “Yes.” Now he smiled, fully convinced. “Very good news. I promise I will do everything I can to be the best father, and… more than just a father, if that’s what you want.”

“I don’t know what I want yet, but you are the father, so you’d better be a good one.”

“I will. The best.” David grinned.

“Good. You can start by not drinking anymore.”

David blinked, shocked. Then his lips curved up in one corner. “If I don’t drink, I’ll die of thirst. I have to hydrate myself.”

“I agree, but water is better than alcohol for that. No more alcohol, David. I’m serious.”

His wry expression vanished, and he blew out a sudden breath. “I need to relax somehow! You never see me drunk do you?”

“I don’t know. Maybe you just hide it well.”

He shook his head. “One or two drinks a day, that’s it.”

“Every day. And how do I know that one or two doesn’t turn into three or four? Listen, you want to make this work, you want me to forgive you, you’re going to have to show me you’re serious.”

David hesitated, eyes narrowed, teeth grinding… at last, he nodded. “Okay. For you, mi amor.”

“Good, but alcoholics don’t just quit because they want to.”

“I’m not an—”

She held up a hand to stop him. “Whether or not you are one, you’re going to go get yourself adjusted. Tell them you slapped me, and that you have problems with alcohol. You’re in the North, not the South. All it takes is a few minutes in a gene parlor and you’ll be cured.”

“You want to turn me into a puppy dog who will sit and roll over when he’s told? How am I supposed to protect you if you take away all of my strength?”

“You slapped me. I had a bruise on my cheek for two days. Mrs Walton asked me about it, and I had to lie and say I was robbed so that the police wouldn’t come for you. Does that sound like protecting me?” David swallowed visibly, but said nothing. “You’ve been coming home smelling like beer for weeks… months now that I think about it, and that’s the last thing you need with your impulse control problems.”

“I…”

“Don’t do it for me. Do it for yourself, and for your baby.”

“I will go tomorrow. Te prometo.”

“Good. I want to see the adjustment report. If we feel like they over-adjusted something, we’ll go back and fix it.”

David began nodding. Before she knew it, he wrapped her up in a big bear hug, picking her up off the ground and spinning her in a circle. “Te amo, Catalina!”

He loved her. Did she love him? Did it matter? They were going to have a baby together, and for that baby’s sake, she had to do her best to make things work. “Yo tambien te amo, David,” she said, but it came out sounding like a question.

He put her down and withdrew to an arm’s length to look her in the eye. “Me amas?”

He obviously didn’t hear the question mark. She hesitated. “I care about you,” she said, trying to backtrack from love.

“What about Alex?” David asked, again choosing not to read between the lines.

“He sent me a message over a year ago, telling me to move on. To be happy. I just got it—the day that you slapped me.”

David’s eyebrows floated up. “He told you to move on?” He shook his head. “Then he never loved you.”

Caty recoiled from him, shoving him away. “How dare you!”

David took a deep breath and held up his hands in surrender. “I’m sorry. What I meant was… I can’t imagine ever letting you go. I don’t know how he could do that if he still loves you. Maybe he has also moved on, and that is why he told you to do the same.”

Caty’s jaw dropped. That hadn’t occurred to her, but maybe it should have. He was a captain on a ship with plenty of women, and over the past ten years he’d spent far more time with them than he had with her. Maybe he’d been cheating on her for years already and she hadn’t even known? She remembered the engraved pocket watch she’d given him before he left, and then she remembered that he hadn’t thought to get her a parting gift. Suddenly, that looked more like neglect and emotional distancing than simple forgetfulness.

“I am sorry, Caty. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. He’s gone. What we had is in the past. It’s time to focus on what lies ahead. Even if he comes back, it’s too late. Too much time has passed, and I’m having a baby with you, not him.

David nodded, stepping in close to her. “You have made me a very happy man.”

Caty searched his eyes, trying to gauge the truth of those words. The love she saw shining in his gaze warmed her heart and melted some of the ice between them. She relaxed her posture and smiled. “Get yourself adjusted, David. We have a whole life ahead of us, and I need you to be the best possible version of yourself if we’re going to make it work.”