Scrapyard Ship 4 Realms of Time (14 page)

Mollie couldn’t stop laughing. Alice, her six-legged drog, was acting ridiculous. Uncle Brian and Betty stood at one end of the Zoo corridor, while Mollie stood at its other end. They threw Alice’s favorite toy, a Frisbee. Full of teeth marks and barely able to fly, they’d been throwing the thing back and forth for twenty minutes. Alice never seemed to tire. Mollie was sure Alice smiled when she was happy.

“
See? She’s grinning.”

From the far end of the corridor, Brian said, “You’re crazy; animals can’t smile. They’re too stupid.”

Mollie and Betty both laughed. “That’s mean, Uncle Brian. Alice is smart.”

Mollie’s throw came up short and Alice leapt up and caught the Frisbee halfway between them. She lay down and began to tear and rip the plastic apart.

Mollie ran forward, shouting, “Stop that. Stop that right now, Alice!”

“
Yeah, like I said. The animal’s a real genius,” Brian said, with a smirk.

“
Be nice, Uncle—”

Mollie lost her train of thought. Standing before her on the other side of the HAB 12 portal window was a small woman. No, she was Craing. Dirty, sweaty and bloody. Mollie held out an arm and pointed.

Brian and Betty went to her side, both seeing what Mollie was pointing at.

“
Gaddy?” Brian said. “I know her …”

* * *

The Lilly emerged from the wormhole with her three rail cannons deployed. Ricket guessed she was already at general quarters and primed for battle. He watched as the sleek ship moved into position and fired onto both Crystal City ships. With her recent Caldurian defense upgrade, The Lilly was a formidable opponent. With the exception of the newer, more powerful Minian, few other ships would be able to best her in battle.

Admiral Reynolds’ face appeared on a forward segment of the display.

“
Ricket, what’s your status?”

“
No damage, Admiral. Multiple hails to the Crystal City vessels have gone unanswered.”

“
It’s time to return fire; we need to get them away from Earth.”

“
Yes, sir.”

Ricket targeted both ships and fired, continuously, with the Minian’s powerful plasma cannons. Within seconds, the two Caldurian vessels ceased firing and moved farther out into space. Moments later two wormholes had spooled and the vessels were gone.

“
Ricket, I’m sending over a team to temporarily relieve you. There’s something I need you to see. Make preparations to phase-shift to The Lilly immediately.”

Ricket instructed Traveler and First Reflection to stay behind. He’d configured the two remaining drone pairs to be accessible remotely, allowing him to deploy them to Earth from The Lilly, if necessary.

He’d been directed to The Lilly’s Zoo, which was strange in and of itself. Ricket phase-shifted to the Zoo’s large, circular entrance area and spotted the admiral and several others halfway down the corridor. The admiral saw Ricket arrive and gestured for him to hurry it along.

Something was going on with the HAB 12 portal. It was darkened. Something was blocking the window on the outside. Ricket joined the group, composed of the admiral, Mollie, Betty, and Brian. He stepped in closer. Standing outside was Gaddy. She looked terrible. Bloodied, wearing ragged, torn clothes, she looked back at him with a curious expression.

“
No one here knows how to open this thing,” the admiral said.

“
It has the highest-level security. Do you wish me to open it?” Ricket asked.

The admiral gave him an exasperated look. “Of course I want you to open it. Why else do you think you’re here?”

Ricket moved over to the keypad and input the lengthy security code. Beep, beep beep. The portal window disappeared and Gaddy half crawled, half fell into The Lilly’s Zoo corridor. Ricket reached for her and helped her stay on her feet. She hugged him, pulling him into her arms. She held him close for several moments; Ricket was surprised at the amount of strength in her embrace.

Eventually, she stood back and looked up at Ricket. “Emperor Reechet?”

“
Not Emperor. Not for a long time. But yes, it’s me, Ricket. I’ve reversed the process commonly known as the transformation of life. Enough about me. What are you doing here? How did you get here?”

“
For God’s sake, give the poor girl a second to catch her breath, Ricket,” the admiral admonished. “She needs time in a MediPod.”

Gaddy shook her head. “Brian,” she said, seeing him at the back of the group, “I need to speak to your brother. Where’s Captain Reynolds?”

“
He’s on a mission. But whatever you need to tell him, I’m sure it can wait. Let’s get that arm of yours fixed up first, okay?”

Gaddy swayed on her feet and Ricket moved in to hold her upright. “It’s all right, lean on me.” Together, Ricket and Gaddy walked toward the exit.

The admiral watched them leave, then looked down at Mollie. “What are you smiling at, birthday girl?”

“
Oh, nothing. Just that it looks like Ricket has a new girlfriend,” Mollie said.

The admiral grunted, “Perhaps. Seems like a lot of that is going around these days.” He gave Brian and Betty a sideways glance before heading after Ricket and the young Craing female.

Betty, looking embarrassed, grabbed the Frisbee from Mollie’s hand and threw it down the corridor. Alice took off after it.

Chapter 20

Chapter 20

“
Where to next, Cap?” Grimes asked. She pulled back on the controls and the Magnum rose up and away from the glassy-black mountainside. Two seemingly identical drone spheres sat side-by-side five hundred feet below them. Jason watched, still unable to shake his melancholy mood. Was it that the world he knew would no longer exist in thirty million years, or was it about death’s seeming finality? Who was he kidding? What he really needed to do was come to terms with Nan’s death. She was gone and there was nothing he could do to change that.

“
Cap?” Grimes repeated.

“
Sorry, Lieutenant. Guess my mind’s somewhere else.” Jason brought out his virtual notepad and projected the holographic image between them. He tapped at it and watched as the small representation of Earth slowly revolved on its axis. Five icons appeared; three of them were now light green. The remaining two icons, one in Asia and one in North America, still glowed a bright red.

The passengers in the rear compartment sat forward. “Looks like Montana … maybe northern Wyoming,” Rizzo said. “With luck, the next pairing will be as easy as the last.”

Entering into thick cloud cover, the shuttle’s interior darkened. Jason closed down his notepad and turned toward Bristol. A similar holo-representation hovered above the equipment on Bristol’s lap. A red icon faded in and out several times.

“
What’s with the fading icon?”

Bristol didn’t bother to look up. “The area here, what you call North America, has nearly twice the number of fluctuating time realms. I wouldn’t count on the next pairing being all that simple.”

Jason sat back and watched the clouds outside. Bright white bolts of lightning branched across the sky, followed by three loud thunderclaps.

Dira screamed, “Did that hit us? Did we just get hit by lightening?”

Bristol’s typically sour expression turned to a smile.

“
What?” she asked, turning toward him. “That didn’t scare the crap out of you?”

He shrugged, still smiling, and continued on with what he’d been doing.

Jason felt the shuttle’s rapid descent in the pit of his stomach. As they broke free from the cloud cover, emerald green filled the landscape beneath them.

Jason turned again to Bristol. “We should be within a mile or two; can you pinpoint the drone’s position?”

Bristol didn’t answer right away. Jason watched him work. Somewhere along the line, he’d scratched at his now oozing chin.

“
We have three time realms within a one mile circumference. I’m still waiting for more precise coordinates.”

The shuttle, once landed, went quiet as everyone stared down at the holo-display on Bristol’s lap. Two minutes elapsed and then it happened. For less than a second, the icon appeared and quickly flickered out. A moment later it blinked on at a slightly different location.

“
It’s either here or here … not sure which one is a phantom reading,” Bristol said, pointing.

“
How close are we?” Jason asked.

“
You got about, um … maybe three or four miles in either direction. I guess this area is more unstable than the others. You found a good place to set down, Grimes,” Bristol added, handing out a rare compliment.

“
Pick one, Bristol,” Jason said, starting to lose patience.

“
I’d suggest we try this one to the west first.”

“
Then why not fly in closer—save some time?”

“
Definitely not a bright idea. Drone’s are already acting fidgety—better to sneak up on it. Increases our odds it won’t bolt.”

Jason continued to stare at Bristol for several beats. He slowly turned toward Grimes and nodded.

With the gangway extended, everyone grabbed their packs and equipment and moved into the warm daylight. Jason stood and turned to the pilot. “Grimes, again, you’ll be staying with the shuttle. And Billy, we should have two SEALs, and one of the three rhinos to stay behind, as well. Set up camp with revolving sentries. Professor History, you’re with us,” he added to Rizzo.

“
Cap, have you taken a look at the time-reference date?” Rizzo asked.

“
Yeah, June 24, 1876. Is that significant?”

“
Oh yeah. We’re right dab in the middle of the western Sioux nation. My family visited the National Monument here when I was a kid. This is Montana. That water over there … That’s Little Bighorn River.”

“
As in Sitting Bull and Custer’s last stand?”

“
Yes, sir, as in the U.S. Cavalry versus the Cheyenne, Sioux, and Arapaho tribes.”

Jason slowly turned three hundred and sixty degrees. In the distance were rolling hills with clusters of tall pines. The sky in all directions almost seemed charged, causing more of the wavering aurora borealis effect. “There’s no one here.”

“
The battle’s actually tomorrow. And I guarantee you there are eyes and arrows on us. We just don’t see them.”

“
With luck, we’ll be far away from here long before the fighting starts, and Custer gets his ass handed to him on a platter,” Jason added.

Dira moved up to Jason’s side. “Thought I’d see what the view was like at the front of the group.”

Without warning, a maroon 1957 Chevy Belair station wagon appeared out of nowhere. Growing up in a scrapyard, Jason knew his cars. Traveling at close to sixty miles an hour, the car was several feet off the ground when it hit a nearby tree.

The sound of the crash echoed across the landscape. Startled, everyone crouched down low to the ground. Billy and his SEALs quickly moved forward and encircled the car. Steam rose from the crumpled hood. Two exposed bloodied heads were held fast, half-in and half-out of the smashed windshield.

Dira pushed through the SEALs and approached the car. “How do you get into this thing?”

“
The door handle. Push the button and pull,” a young SEAL, whom everyone called Scotty, said.

Dira tried to pull open the door, but with the car’s body crunched, it only opened halfway. Scotty moved forward and with both hands pulled the door free.

Dira moved in and carefully felt for a pulse—first on the male sitting behind the wheel, and then on the female, who had been in the passenger seat.

Dira stood and shook her head. “They’re both dead.”

Bristol walked around the vehicle, still taking readings. “Now, this is cool.”

“
You think two people losing their lives is cool?” Jason asked, with a grimace.

“
No, that’s actually a bummer. But there’s so many time realms around here, they’re crossing into one another.”

Jason turned, looking for Billy, and found him behind him and to his left.

“
Already on it, Cap. We’ll dig some holes and put them to rest.”

* * *

One hour later they were roughly heading in the direction of the fourth drone. Jason and Dira took point and had fallen into a fast-paced rhythm.

“
Tell me about your family,” Jason asked.

“
Not much to tell. I have two sisters and a brother. My parents are still together. Everyone lives on Jhardon.”

“
Tell me about your dad. What’s he like? What kind of work does he do?”

Dira’s expression, behind her visor, changed. It was only for a second, but Jason caught it. Since Orion’s earlier comment about Dira being a warrior princess, and catching Dira’s reaction, he knew she was keeping something hidden.

“
I don’t know. He’s just … What does it matter what he does?”

“
He’s the ruling monarch,” Jason said flatly.

Dira didn’t answer right away, then looked over at him. “It’s not something I want people to know about me. You’d be surprised how differently people treat you when they find out you are the daughter of a king.”

“
So that makes you, what? A princess?”

She shrugged. “This is embarrassing. I probably should have mentioned it somewhere along the line. But how do you start that conversation? Hi, my name is Dira Caparri; I’m from Jhardon; oh, and I’m a princess.”

Jason laughed. “You are what you are. I wouldn’t have treated you any different. At least I hope I wouldn’t have.”

Dira bit her bottom lip and then continued. “Before you ask, the reason I’m here and not playing princess back on my home planet is because of my mother. Three years ago I finished medical school. I was prepared to start my practice. My mother made it quite clear. It was one thing to get an education; it was quite another thing to embarrass the family doing that kind of work. A princess does not engage in something so pedestrian as doctoring. Before they could stop me, I ran away from home. I roamed around the Allied planets and several space stations, taking odd medical jobs here and there. But it was your father who helped me secure the Medical Officer position on The Lilly.”

“
Have you been in touch with your family?”

“
My father and I talk once a week. He’s working on my mother. On Jhardon, the queen is no less powerful than the king. The two are constantly at odds during the day, but somehow make it work—they love each other and, for the most part, are the epitome of the perfect married couple. My father thinks she’s coming around. He wants me to come home and make amends. He misses me and wants his family to be whole again.”

“
Is that what you want? To go home … perhaps be the princess they want you to be?”

“
I definitely want to go home. But I’m not ready to play princess. I love what I do. I’ve built relationships on The Lilly. I’m not willing to give that up.”

Chapter 21

Chapter 21