“Val, all of this was a risk. We knew this from the start. But I needed you - I knew you had your mother's passion in you; the same determination, even. I never meant to hurt you.”
“I'm truly sorry,” Jennifer said.
Val continued stewing and refused to make a sound.
“Val,” Roger finally said, “we should get back to the future.”
“I'm not going anywhere with either of you!” Val screamed.
Roger reached for his wife’s hands and shook his head. “I knew this was a bad idea.”
“There was no other way,” Jennifer said.
Val rolled her eyes as a tremendous anger boiled within. “Sure there was! You could have made sure I ended up in the hands of someone more responsible.”
Roger left his wife’s side and approached Val, the scowl on her face too impossible to hide. “I have many regrets in my life,” he said. “What we did was foolish, but we wanted to make it up to you the best way we could. And when we made the decision to bring real change to the world, we knew we couldn’t leave you behind.”
“Val,” her mother said, “your father was raised by a Nazi scientist in exile. In Brazil. Can you imagine the hardships
he
endured? But those very hardships are what gave him all of the wonderful talents he possesses now. I’m sure the same could be said of you.”
Val saw her parents move closer to console her, but she had no need for their affection. She folded her arms and resisted any attempts to calm her rage. “If you are twenty-five,” she said to Jennifer, “then that means I am a seven year-old girl right now, living in a trailer overrun with cockroaches. Do you know what happened to me when I was seven?”
They shook their heads.
“My mother’s boyfriend molested me. Are you trying to tell me that was a good thing? That it made me stronger?”
“Of course not,” Jennifer said, her eyes welling with tears as she listened to her daughter. “In all of your father’s visits, he never told me of that.”
“That’s because I never knew,” he said, then realizing he had just given away their most precious secret.
“Wait!” Val said. “You’ve been visiting her with the time-machine? But you forced me to seduce another man as punishment for seeing my dead husband?”
“Your mother already knew of our plan. Your husband didn’t. It was too big of a risk.”
Val’s rage was uncontainable. They reached to put their arms around her, but she broke free and stormed to the other side of the room. She tossed her wrist teleporter to the ground and crushed it beneath her foot. “I’m done being your whore.”
“But Valerie, we have great things planned for you,” her mother said calmly.
“I'm choosing my own path.” Then, she disappeared into the stream under her own power.
Jennifer and Roger stood in shock. “Oh, no,” Roger said.
“What happened?” his wife asked. “Where did she go?”
“We've made a terrible mistake, my love. A terrible mistake.”
Jennifer shook her head in disbelief. “Roger, what are you talking about? How did she do that?”
She never heard his answer. She doubled over in pain and slumped forward as Val emerged from the stream naked with a knife in her hand, its edge lodged firmly in her mother’s back.
“No! Jennifer!” Roger screamed. “I love you!”
Those words turned out to be his last. Without warning, he lost consciousness as his daughter exacted revenge and struck his head with a small statue. Val left Jennifer to die on the floor and smashed a nearby window to give the appearance of a break-in. Without a trace of Roger’s blood in sight, she lifted his body and carried him into the stream, ensuring that the other Roger would continue his work as before and see his wife’s death as a victim of a robbery.
Roger never regained consciousness again. His daughter made sure of it, leaving his naked body somewhere on Earth with just seconds remaining before the
Apocalypse’s
terrifying weapon fired into the atmosphere. He was but one of seven billion casualties.
Chapter 4
James and Genesis returned from the distant past to a barren, forsaken earth – devoid of all human life. Above them in the night sky, the
Apocalypse
loomed overhead. The night air was calm and animal life roamed about the city with reckless abandon in man's absence. The young human pair who suddenly appeared did nothing to displace the small creatures that now treated the streets as their own.
“I have nothing to be afraid of, do I?” James said as a pack of wolves spotted them from down the street.
Genesis shook her head. “Of course not. We need to get aboard that ship.”
“You can do that, can't you?”
“Are you coming with me?” she asked.
“Sure, give me a second; I think I may be able to fend for myself for once.” He ran across the street and down an alleyway to the other side of the city block. The hospital they left earlier was across the street. Right where he left it, the wrist device lied on the ground, underneath the scattered and torn rags of former
clothing
left behind by the human race. He picked up the device and fastened it to his wrist. Suddenly, and despite his expectations, the device activated.
Genesis approached from the across the street. “What did you find?”
“The wrist device I had before. It works now for some reason.”
“That's good, isn't it?”
“Let's hope so. When I teleport, do you think you'll be able to follow me in the stream?”
“I should be,” she said.
“Good, because the first thing we need to do when we get aboard is get some clothing – at least for me.”
She giggled. “Lead the way.”
He input the coordinates of the vessel that were programmed in the device and disappeared. A moment later, he was in his old quarters aboard the ship. The last time he was there, he knocked Val unconscious to get away from her; a small spot of her blood still lingered on the carpet.
A split-second after he arrived, Genesis appeared. “So, this is where you lived with that girl?” she asked, but not jealously.
“No, this was my room. But she left her clothes from the mission here. She's the same height as you, I think, so feel free to take what you like.”
Genesis began sorting through the bag of clothing near the dresser when she noticed the blood on the carpet. “Is that blood?”
“Hers,” James answered as he sifted through his closet. “Once I discovered what they were up to, she tried to kill me. I hit her with that lamp to get away.”
“So she went from trying to seduce a man to killing him, huh? I didn't think black widows grew to her size.”
“You know the funny thing about the whole trip?” he asked non-rhetorically as he began to dress. “Even though you were gone, the idea of cheating never entered my mind – at least in the beginning. What I mean is, the thought of betraying you was so far removed from my mind that I never realized she was coming onto me.”
“Really?” she asked. She finally found some of Val's clothing that seemed to match and started dressing.
“Well, at least in the beginning. Eventually, she made her intentions painfully obvious. Even then, I never gave in. You believe me, right?”
She laughed as she tried to fasten one of Val's bras and realized it didn't fit - too small. “I see now why you didn't.”
“If you're referring to the fact that you're
way
prettier than her, you're only half right. But I knew I was going to see you again, and so to me, you were never gone from my life.”
She finished dressing and approached James. “I love you, James,” she said. “And believe me:
when
we make it out of this, I'm going to make everything up to you.”
“Gen,” he said, “you owe me nothing.” He kissed her.
A moment later, he was finished getting dressed and ready to explore the ship. He looked at the clock and noticed it was still early in the morning, just before dawn. “Everyone on board is probably still sleeping. The first person we
need
to find is Roger; he's the guy in charge.
”
The pair ran down the corridors as softly as they could. Just as expected, the ship was silent except for the ever-present sound of its engines humming. Not far from James's quarters was Archer's office. The light was off and most of the pages on his desk were disheveled as though someone had recently rummaged through his work. Along the corridor was the large storage compartment that served as civilians’ communal bedroom.
Further up the hall was the bridge and control room, which James decided they should avoid because of the guards undoubtedly roaming about. Oddly enough, in all their time snooping, James and Genesis never saw a guard. Then he realized they might already have been sent to earth for destruction with the rest of the crew.
“Keep an eye out for Val. She's probably not far,” James warned.
They finally reached the office of the late Roger Cooke. Before they could open the door, they felt the subtle shift in weight from footsteps behind them. Just as they were about to turn, they heard: