Storiesonline.net
-------

                            Antelope Freeway
                             by hammingbyrd7

Copyright© 2006 by hammingbyrd7


-------
Description: The Conclusion of:
1) Love's Equal Loss 2) Path of the Blue Spirit 3) Curse of the Blue Spirit 4) Close Encounter 5) Return Encounters 6) Antelope Freeway (Complete at last!) A.F. is the finale of the series, and is the story of Earth's side of the plague years.

Codes: MF FF fant TimeTr slow hist ScFi vamp humor tears rom 1st teen cons het anal pett lac mod
-------

-------

Copyright© 2006

-------

Chapter 1

Jim Arnold looked at his watch in the early morning light and sighed. It was 7:20 AM, more than a half hour after sunrise, and the traffic jam he was caught in was monumental. Nothing had moved since daybreak. Facing westbound on I-80, he was at least grateful he didn't have the intense heat of the August morning sun shining in his face. The air outside felt like a furnace, very hot and dry; and it was already approaching 90F. Jim thought wistfully about his decision to get the super economy package and not have AC with his new Chevy, but then he reminded himself he just didn't have money for those kinds of luxuries.

The eastbound lanes were absolutely clear of traffic, and Jim thought that was a really ominous sign. He searched the radio again for a traffic report, but all he could find were country & western music stations and the ubiquitous news reports on Iraq. Looking down from the elevated Interstate, he tried to remember whether he had crossed into Nebraska yet or if he were still in Iowa. But then he remembered driving across the bridge over the Missouri River in the pre-dawn light, shortly before hitting a solid wall of unmoving cars and trucks.

"So this must be beautiful Omaha," he thought to himself, looking around. "It's not bad actually... Thank goodness I built so much extra time into the schedule. I don't have to be in San Francisco for another eleven days..." He scanned his radio to another country song. "Damn... Come on, come on... There's got to be a traffic report here somewhere... How can they not report on this?!"

As Jim continued scanning, he shook his head at the delays he was having this morning. When he broke camp before daybreak, he noticed one of his tires was flat. A close inspection revealed a very fluke accident. The value stem-cap was missing, and a tiny pebble had bounced in and wedged against the pin, slowly releasing the air. There was no permanent damage, but it took twenty minutes to get out the bicycle pump and inflate the tire. And now this, a major-league traffic jam, his second delay of the morning... 

After a few more minutes of scanning, Jim finally found a traffic report. He groaned when he heard that both a gasoline and an oil tanker were involved in a multi-car collision just west of Omaha. Miraculously, no one was seriously injured, but gasoline and oil were leaking all over the road and I-80 was going to be evacuated. Looking at his map, Jim decided he would try to head north and pick up Route-30 for his westward trek. And two hours later, that was exactly what he was trying to do.

"Shit! What an idiot! Why did I ever leave Route-75? Trying to cut across the triangle like this was insane! Where the hell am I?!" Jim was lost in a maze of featureless roads, the high corn of mid-August blocking the views of everything except the immediate road in front of him. Jim had a nagging suspicion that he might have been driving in circles for over an hour. He was navigating by the sun shadows, trying to make progress by traveling to the west and north, but some of the intersections were now looking horribly familiar.

Jim pulled over to the side of the small road right before an intersection, brushing his car against the corn. Like all the other intersections, all four corners were devoid of street signs. "Hell! How can they do this to me?" Jim whined in his thoughts. "Don't people in Nebraska believe in street signs?!" He stared at his roadmap. Unfortunately it just wasn't showing him any topological detail, and without street-signs for reference the map was completely useless.

He looked back up and stared down the road to the horizon, hoping to see someone to ask for directions, but the scene was completely devoid of a human presence. The maze of roads in the featureless corn seemed endless. Jim thought he hadn't passed a car or a house since he left Route-75.

He shook his head in bewilderment and stared at his odometer. Jim prided himself on his sense of direction, and his feelings now weren't making any sense. He should have hit Route-30 more than half an hour ago. Jim looked out along the road again, and for the first time in quite a while he felt a faint glimmer of hope. There appeared to be some sort of sign by the side of the road, a few hundred feet passed his current intersection. Jim started his car and pulled up to the sign. He stared at it, and it made him pause.

It was a small sign, almost invisible among the tall rows of corn. A simple wooden stake was holding up a sheet of looked like plain white cardboard. Hand written across the cardboard in block letters were the words "ANTELOPE FREEWAY -- TWO MILES" with a crude arrow pointing straight up.

"Antelope Freeway?" thought Jim as he blinked his eyes. "In Nebraska?! Isn't that outside L.A.?" He stared at his map in confusion. It was a new map, and there was no mention of any such freeway. But he did find the sign a bit intriguing, and when he came to the next intersection, he decided to continue straight, even though a left turn would have been a more westward direction.

After traveling for a couple of minutes down a road bordered by the endless rows of corn, Jim saw his first building in over an hour and it made him smile. It appeared to be a spacious quick-pump convenience store, a perfect spot to ask for directions. He looked at his gas gauge and the digital readout told him he had less than two gallons left. "Ah, convenient indeed," he thought happily. But just before he turned into the store's parking lot, he saw something that was vaguely disturbing. Across the street from the store was another handmade sign saying "ANTELOPE FREEWAY -- ONE MILE" with an arrow pointing horizontally directly at the store. There was no other cross road in sight, except for the driveway pulling into the store's parking lot.

Jim pulled over to the self-service pumps. The store itself looked clean, with a quaint comfortable veranda in front. The store also appeared unlit and Jim wondered if it were deserted. Guessing that the place was closed, he was a bit surprised to find the pumps active. He filled up with over nine gallons, gulping a bit when he saw the meter approach $60, but at more than $6 a gallon it was what he was expecting. He consoled himself with the thought of how far his new Chevy Marathon could travel with a full tank.

Jim finished pumping and walked into the store. The interior was very quiet and well lit with sunlight from the many bay windows. The solid hardwood shelves and flooring reminded him of an old-style country store. Jim started to wander among the shelves, filled with packaged food and large assortments of hardware supplies. He started to worry that the place was so peaceful it might truly be deserted. But then he came to the end of an aisle and saw a very old man sleeping soundly in a wicker chair near a cash register. There was a quick unbidden thought to just drive off without paying. Jim shook his head and admonished himself for even thinking such a thing, and then walked up to the register.

"Hi! Good morning! I need to pay for some gas."

The old man snorted, blinked his eyes for a moment, and then focused on Jim. "Aye-uh. How much did you pump?"

"Sixty dollars even..." Jim got out his wallet and started pulling out some cash. "There's a huge accident on I-80. They've closed the road. Do you know how I can get to Route-30?"

"Heading west?"

"Yep."

"All the way to Wyoming son?"

"All the way to California." Jim looked at the man and smiled. "Ha! Should I call you dad? Granddad would probably be a better fit." Jim guessed the man to be about ninety years old.

The old man smiled back. "Aye-uh. What's your name son?"

"Jim Arnold. I'm pleased to meet you."

"Arnold? Like the traitor?! Any relation?"

Jim looked around the store before answering. He was impressed with how neat and clean everything looked, and it was surprisingly cool in the store, unusual with only the side windows open for ventilation. Another pleasant surprise was that the store was stocked with various quick-meals for camping trips, just the sort of things he needed.

Jim turned and looked back at the old man. The old man's question was all too familiar to Jim, but he didn't mind. "Well, uh, to tell you the truth, I don't know. My dad skipped out on my mom the day I was born, and then my mom skipped out on me about a year later. At least they had the sense not to name me Benedict. I grew up in foster homes, in Pennsylvania."

"Oh yeah? What part?"

"Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love..."

"Aye-uh... Not too much of that left around anymore... How old are you son?"

Jim smiled again. Striking up random friendships had been part of the purpose for his cross-country trip. "Eighteen years and seven months." Jim looked thoughtfully at the old man and tried to guess his ethnicity. It was unexpectedly difficult. The man was quite handsome, a very fit body for someone so old. He had snow-white hair and a beautiful light brownish skin. Jim guessed Native American Indian at first, but then thought maybe that wasn't it. There was something about the eyes... 

The old man chuckled. "On your own huh? Well, it appears you've done okay for yourself son. That shiny new car out there yours?"

Jim glanced out one of the front bay windows to his car in the parking lot. "Yep! My pride and joy. I won a National Science Foundation scholarship. I've never seen anything outside of Philly. I thought I'd drive cross-country, see what the country is like."

"Good thinking... Heading to school?"

"Yeah, Cal Tech."

"Ewe-hee, good school son! What-cha gonna major in?"

"Quantum physics," Jim said with a smile, and then he boasted, "I already have several papers published, in refereed journals! My latest three are in Oxford Press."

"Is that a fact? And now you're heading to Cal Tech... Didn't like Princeton, huh? Too close to home?"

Jim stared at the man astonished. "Wow! You're absolutely right! Princeton is the other major university that does my kind of quantum research. I'm impressed. How did you know that?"

The old man paused for a second. "Being a farmer doesn't mean dumb, son."

Jim blushed at the retort. "No, it sure doesn't. Sorry. No offense."

"None taken. Son, Route-30 is going to be a nightmare for you."

"Well, what choice have I got?" Jim finally handed over the money for the gas and laughed. "Ha! I saw a sign for an Antelope Freeway pointing into this driveway. What was that all about? Is it some kind of joke?"

"Oh no. The freeway itself is open, all finished. The builders just haven't linked connecting roads to it."

"What?! That doesn't seem... Why does the sign point into your driveway?"

The old man shrugged his shoulders. "Because that's how you have to get to it for now. There's a farm road in back of the store. It'll take you right to the freeway."

"Huh? A real freeway?!"

"Aye-uh. Very limited access. Shoot you straight across the State. Hardest part will be staring at all the barriers alongside the road. Ugly things," the old man chuckled in a whisper. "High too. Not at first, but too damn high, and getting higher all the time, once you get to the middle, and then in both directions..."

"What?!" Jim whispered. It was such a strange thing to say that Jim didn't know how to reply for a moment. The old man's words flowed together in easy speech, but they didn't make any sense. "Now I know you're joking!" he said at last. "Ha! Who would ever build sound barriers for corn fields?!"

"I didn't say it made sense son; just that it's there. Take a look. It's only a mile down the road."

Jim stared at the man in bewilderment. The conversation was making so little sense, he wondered again if it were all a practical joke. "Take the road in back of the store, huh?"

"Aye-uh. Can't miss it. There are signs too but you won't need them. You want to buy anything else? I'm having a special today on bottled water."

Jim looked around the store and nodded, happy to get away from the bizarre conversation. "Yeah. Your food stuff is just what I need. I'm camping my way across the country, have a small pup-tent in the car..." Jim noticed a wrapped carton of twenty- four one-liter water bottles on the floor, with a price tag of $3.99. "Wow! What a great price! I'll take one of those too..."

Jim started going through the store, marveling at the cheap prices. He wound up buying a hundred dollars worth of supplies, and thought he had enough food to last for the rest of his trip. The old man helped him load the grocery bags in his hatchback. Jim was surprised but grateful. Outside the store, the heat was rising rapidly in the mid-morning sun and it was nice not to work up a sweat. Jim thought he was all finished when he saw the old man come out of the store with a second carton of the water bottles and a small foil package on top. Jim thought it might be a snack-food pack of potato chips.

Jim shook his head at the second carton of water bottles. "Uh, I think I bought just one."

"Well, that's the special. Didn't I tell you?" asked the old man, placing the carton in the back of the car. "Two-for-one. Try some of these dried vegetable chips too, on the house. They're great!" He opened the foil pack and handed it to Jim.

Jim took a quick glance at the bag. There was a picture of a volcano on the foil, and the dried vegetables inside smelled interesting. The bag was labeled Spicy Kilauea Power Chips. Jim pulled out a chip and bit down on it, and noticed a peppery taste that was completely new to him. "Wow! What a totally different taste! Thanks a lot!" The old man smiled in approval.

Jim stared at the back of his car. All the supplies just fit inside his small hatchback, and Jim's conscience was beginning to bother him. "Uh, here, take another couple of twenties. I used to stock grocery shelves, working my way through high school. I think you're giving me this stuff below cost."

The old man shook his head. "Naw. Consider it a thank-you present. You could have just taken off with the gas."

Jim blinked. "Well... Gee, thanks again... You're gas prices aren't bad either. I've been seeing prices of $6 to $8 a gallon my whole trip..."

"Aye-uh. Hell of a world, with all these shortages... And it won't be getting any better..." The old man sighed, and a look of great sorrow crossed his face. "It really won't."

"Yeah... That's why I bought the Marathon. I couldn't afford a car otherwise..."

The old man nodded. "Take care of yourself son. I think you're gonna do okay for yourself. You're a smart 'un. Road to the freeway is right in back."

Jim smiled back. "Thanks. Nice talking to you. You take care too."

The old man gave Jim a last chuckle and said, "Just remember to keep thinking both inside the box and outside the box. * Me * ke * aloha! *," the old man sang as he laughed and went back into his store. Jim paused and smiled for a second at the odd comment and then started his car, driving around to the back of the store.

Jim's smile quickly evaporated when he saw the road the old man had mentioned. It was a tiny grass road, much narrower than the towering height of the corn. The path would barely fit the width of his small car, the corn leaves would be rubbing against both sides. After checking to make sure there was no other road, Jim was about to give up when his curiosity got the better of him. "Ah well," he thought, "I can always just back out. I won't go far..." Jim reset his trip odometer to zero and entered the cornfield.



-------

Chapter 2


Jim reached over and rolled down the window on the passenger-side door as he made his way slowly through the cornfield. The ultra-high-tech 980-cc three-cylinder engine made almost no noise as he drove, and the sound of the buzzing insects in the cornfield was the only thing he could hear. He crept along for a couple of minutes at barely 10 mph, and then began to feel very foolish. "This has to be a joke. Why am I doing this?" He thought about backing up, but up ahead was a sign, and he decided to see if there was a cross-road that might be a little bit wider to get him out of the cornfield.

He got to the sign and paused. It was the same simple construction as before, with the words "ANTELOPE FREEWAY - ONE HALF MILE" written in block letters. An arrow pointed straight ahead, as if it were necessary to show direction, but there was nowhere else to go. "Wait a minute!" he thought. "That's not true! I can just back out of here! Why the hell am I doing this?!"

Jim paused and stopped the car for a moment to consider. He was convinced the signs were some elaborate joke, but somehow that didn't square with his impressions of the old man. The man seemed both serious and caring, and Jim couldn't imagine the guy would be wasting his time sending him into an ordinary cornfield. Logic was telling him to back out, and curiosity was pulling him forward.

Eventually his curiosity and playful nature won out. Another half mile to see what the joke was wouldn't be a problem, especially when he had come this far. He had a full tank of gas and plenty of time before he was due at Cal Tech. Feeling a call for adventure, Jim decided to press on.

After another minute of driving, the next sign became visible up ahead on the road. Jim was not surprised at all to read, "ANTELOPE FREEWAY - ONE QUARTER MILE". He squinted into the bright daylight and could just see another sign further along. In less than a minute, he was staring at "ANTELOPE FREEWAY - ONE EIGHTH MILE", with the arrow still pointing straight up. "Damn! This joke had better be worth it," he thought. Jim continued to follow the road as it started to bend into a curve.

Jim had barely driven a hundred yards when he saw the next sign. "ANTELOPE FREEWAY - ONE SIXTEENTH MILE" with the ubiquitous up-arrow. "Well," he thought, "I think they've got the distances measured correctly, I'll give them that. Ha! This corn is so unbelievably dense. I can't wait to see what's at the end of all this! Maybe a giant chicken or something..."

All thought of turning back dissolved when he read the next sign, "ANTELOPE FREEWAY - ONE THIRTY-SECOND MILE". Laughing out load at how ridiculous this all was and thinking he only had another 165 feet left to go, he continued to follow the curve of the tiny grass road.

Four signs later, Jim stared thunderstruck at the road before him. The last sign was by the side of his car, "ANTELOPE FREEWAY - ONE FIVE-HUNDRED-TWELFTH MILE". Jim turned off his car and walked in astonishment along the last ten feet of the grass path. There was a buzz of insects around him and the air smelled of rich earth, but it all went totally unnoticed. Just ahead of his car the grass road and the cornfield ended, and there before him was a pristine entrance ramp beyond Interstate size and quality.

The asphalt looked as smooth as glass, and it led down to a spacious freeway with absolutely no traffic on it. The freeway was at ground level, with two wide lanes and a breakdown lane in each direction. There was a grass median a hundred feet wide separating the eastbound and westbound lanes, and an additional buffer of grass and wildflowers separating the shoulders of the freeway from the sound barriers.

The sound barriers were remarkable. They looked like super-smooth concrete, just over twelve feet in height and the color of light sandstone. Jim thought the barriers didn't look high at all, but their cost must still have been monumental. Jim couldn't imagine why the State of Nebraska would go through all the trouble of shielding the corn from the road noise. But the road was there, and with its ridiculous barriers was pointing due west. Still shaking his head in disbelief, Jim got back in his car and entered the freeway. He glanced at his watch. The time was 10:20 AM.

One of the first things Jim noticed was how monotonous the road was, super high quality but straight as an arrow with absolutely no variation. Once he set the cruise control to 55 mph, there was very little to do except steer straight. Thinking that he'd have to be extra careful not to drift off to sleep, Jim yawned and tried turning on the radio but there nothing but a soft hiss. The car's ride was so incredibly quiet; the hiss was the loudest sound around.

After a few minutes of fiddling with the radio and enjoying the fragrances of the wildflowers through the open windows, he gave up and yawned again as he popped a CD into the car's player. Jim liked Jazz a lot and thought the lively music would keep him alert.

But he didn't count on the heat of the day. The hot air was making him feel drowsy, and the perfume of the wildflowers seemed to make his mind want to drift. Jim shook his head and tried to clear it. He tried to focus his thoughts on the amazing freeway he was on... 

"Incredibly smooth ride, it's like riding on glass... The proportions are huge. And the flowers smell so nice. These lanes must be fifteen feet wide each! So oversized, so easy to stay in the lane. Let's see... Gee these flowers smell nice... Call it forty-five feet for the two lanes and the breakdown lane, another fifty-five feet to the sound barriers... Look at all the wildflowers... So pretty... Huh? What? The barriers are not really high at all, twelve feet maybe? Maybe a bit more? No, I guess about twelve feet... Gee, such nice flowers..."

Jim shook his head again, trying to clear it. He still felt lightheaded. "What?! What did the old man say about the barriers? I can't remember... It's hard to remember... Why is it hard to remember? These flowers... Sweet and tart, like a rose... They remind me... remind me of what? Flowers... They remind me of a woman's perfume. They remind me of Susan I guess... This road is so amazing... Susan was so amazing. I still miss her. Such amazing flowers... They remind me how Susan used to smell... stepping out of a shower..."

Jim's eyes glazed over, and his face began to have a dazed expression on it. The car continued traveling down the road. The Jazz music playing went totally unnoticed. "Susan... so beautiful... getting dressed... how I'd love to watch her dress... Sweet as the flowers, they smell so nice... in the morning... her playful smiles... catching a glimpse of a bare leg, in the slit of her skirt..."

Jim sighed deeply, his heart slowing down way below its usual beat rate. "How sweet her skin used to smell, like the flowers... how beautiful her breasts looked from the side... how beautiful... our first date... holding hands... the flowers smell so nice... how shy I was... when she kissed me... how beautiful... Susan... the flowers... such a cute face... the way she would smile at me... smile with her eyes... such pretty eyes... so alive with her laughter... her eyes... her eyes..."

The car continued down the road, mile after mile. A small spark of Jim's consciousness was quietly keeping the cruise-controlled car aligned with the super straight lane, but otherwise his mind was deep into a different reality, immersed in the one brief love affair of his life.

"So nice to help her... to care for her... Carrying groceries, fixing her apartment... lying down with her... The memories are so sweet, like the flowers... She smells so nice... Her skin is so soft. Such wonderful breasts... so soft... How she would smile when I would pet her, in the beginning... Susan... How beautiful you are... Such soft breasts... So mysterious... So different... Such a wonderful smell. The smell of her breasts. The smell of the flowers. The smell of her nipples..."

Totally unnoticed to Jim, his penis began to get erect, "Susan... How beautiful you are... So soft. Stroking her flat stomach. So soft. Her fur beneath... So soft, so silky, so mysterious... It smells so nice... The smell of sweetness and goodness... Like a flower... Sweet and tart... Susan... So beautiful... Like a rose... Like the flowers, the wildflowers... She smells so nice..."

The sun made its great slow arc across the sky as the car continued down the road. The CD had finished playing, and the soft rush of the wind was the only sound of the car's passing. "Susan... Drifting apart... not liking my attitudes... not liking my study time... not liking me anymore... not liking me... She thinks I'm dull! She wants someone else! She has someone else! Susan! How beautiful! Soft and warm and how beautiful! She has someone else! Susan! Susan! Susan..."

Unnoticed to his mind, Jim's penis was throbbing in an erection, pushing up stiffly against his pants. His hips were rocking back and forth as his thoughts exploded in overwhelming desires to mount and thrust. The primal urge to orgasm was building in his body... 

Through tear-filled eyes, Jim's mind noticed a change in the extremely monotonous landscape. Up ahead across the median on the eastbound side of the road there was a movement of red and white color, moving up and down and then in circles. His brain started engaging with the new perceptions, and the activity snapped Jim out of his daze.

Jim was totally shocked as he suddenly realized how deeply he had been drifting, and he braked the car to a halt, amazed that he hadn't driven off the road. He felt he had just woken up from a very long and sexy dream, and he felt emotionally drained. He was shaking and stunned to realize he had been crying and that his penis was fully aroused and his groin was pleading with him for some stimulation to push it into orgasm.

He shook his head in bewilderment and looked across the road. All thoughts of releasing himself sexually or trying to figure out what had just happened to him were put aside. Across the median in the opposite breakdown lane was another car, and a person was feebly waving red and white clothes at him. Jim shut off his car and began to jog over.

The heat of the day was oppressive, intense sun and very dry. Jim thought it must be close to 100F. As he approached the other car, he realized that the driver was a young woman, about his age he thought. She was alone, Oriental, perhaps Chinese, and she looked to be in a great deal of distress. Jim closed the gap and in a few seconds was standing right beside her.

"... Water..." she croaked in a super dry voice.

Jim's eyes widened. "Oh my gosh! Yes! I have it! I'll be right back!" In less than a minute, Jim was back with three liter-bottles of water. He unscrewed the cap of one and handed it to her. She grabbed it out of his hands and began to gulp it down. While she was drinking, Jim opened a second bottle and began to drink himself. He was surprised to find he was also very thirsty, almost dehydrated. He looked at his watch and was shocked to see why. It was 2:30 PM. He had been driving for four hours.

The woman made a whimpering sound and beckoned for the remaining water bottle. Jim handed it to her but said, "You might want to wait a few minutes, if you can. I have lots more, that's not a problem. But you might want to give your body a few minutes to adjust..."

The woman nodded, unscrewed the cap and took a big swig. Then reluctantly, she screwed the cap back on for a moment. "Yeah. Thanks. I think you just saved my life. I was pretty close to passing out..."

"Your car break down? My name's Jim, by the way. Jim Arnold."

"Cindy. I'm Cindy Li. No, not exactly. I ran out of gas. Two days ago. I thought I was going to die... It's been so hot here... So hot, even at night... A furnace... A nightmare..." She unscrewed the cap and took another big greedy gulp, rinsing the water around in her mouth before swallowing. "Thanks again for the water. It's such a relief to drink, you have no idea."

Jim nodded. "Yeah, sure..." He looked at her car and blinked. "Out of gas, huh?" He thought it was probably the most expensive car he had ever seen. "Wow, a Mercedes!"

Cindy's eyes lit up with pride. "Yep! A present from my parents, for my eighteenth birthday." Cindy took another gulp of water. "It's a CL600 Coupe, 493 HP at 5000 RPM." Cindy looked back at her car and smiled as she boasted, "It has a twin- turbocharged 5.5L 36-valve V-12 engine." She paused for another big gulp. "Goes from zero to sixty in 4.6 seconds. At least that's what the owner's manual claims..."

Jim smiled at her. "How long have you had it?"

"Five weeks..." Cindy took a long slow sip. She was definitely starting to feel better.

Jim laughed, "Somehow I'm not surprised!"

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?!"

"Hey back! I didn't mean any offense! It's just that you still have a lot of enthusiasm for your car. I do too, for mine. I only bought it a couple of months ago."

"Yeah? Well... Okay... Sorry... I really am grateful for the water."

"It's okay... So you've been here for two whole days?"

Cindy nodded as she took another sip. "Yeah. It's been so brutal, you can't imagine. Your car was the first one I've seen. It's been absolutely deserted otherwise. I tried yelling for help over the sound barrier, but never got a response. I thought about hiking to the next exit, but I didn't want to leave my car."

Cindy paused for a drink. "And then this morning, I suddenly realized I was so weak from dehydration, I might pass out. I thought I'd have a better chance of being found if I stayed here with my car."

Jim smiled at her and nodded. "Makes a lot of sense. I think you made the right choices."

Cindy took another sip and nodded back. "Yeah... Could I have another water bottle, after this one? It was insane! Totally deserted! I kept wondering why they've closed I- 80. The Interstate is closed, right? What's the reason?"

Jim looked at her in bewilderment. "Huh? They did close I-80 this morning, just west of downtown Omaha, but two days ago? Wait a minute! Don't you know? This isn't I- 80."

Cindy's eyes widened in surprise, and she looked up and down the road. "Well, I admit, there are no signs. What road is this?"

"Antelope Freeway."

"What?! In Nebraska?! Hey! I don't feel like joking around!"

"I'm not joking! I'm just as surprised as you are; what it's like. Uh, speaking of which, do you know how far west the next exit is."

Cindy shook her head, and for a moment looked unexpectedly embarrassed. "No! Uh, when was the last time you passed an exit from your end?"

"Uh..." Jim paused. Cindy's question reminded him of the deep daze he had been driving in. He still felt troubled by the experience, and was reluctant to talk about it. "Uh, I'm not sure. I got on this road North of Omaha, near the Iowa border. How about you?"

Cindy drank the last of her second bottle and sighed. "I got on at Pine Bluffs, Wyoming, at the Nebraska border on the west. It was two days ago, very early Wednesday morning, a little before 6 AM Mountain time, August 26, 2009. This sound right to you? I'm not delusional, am I?"

"Nope. Sounds right to me. It's Friday now, August 28, a little after 2:30 PM. So you thought this was I-80, huh?"

"Well, yeah. What else could it be? There's only one expressway near Pine Bluffs. Or at least, that's what my map says. I was driving along an access road, heading for I-80. It was raining, dark, and I was wondering if it would turn into a thunderstorm. Then there was this big bolt of lightning, really close! And then I saw the entrance ramp... Antelope freeway, huh? Uh, can I have some more water?"

"Uh, yeah, sure. Want me to bring you another bottle, or do you want to walk over with me? I've got lots of food too."

"You do?! That sounds great! I haven't eaten in two days!" Cindy started walking across the median towards his car. Jim smiled at her and followed.

A minute later Cindy's eyes lit up as she took another water bottle and gazed at the trunk filled of food. "Wow! This looks great! I'm so hungry, this is like looking at a candy store! Can I have one of these meal packs, and maybe some of the trail-mix?"

"Sure. I haven't eaten lunch yet either. I'll join you. Help yourself."

"Thanks!" They were soon sitting in Jim's car eating lunch, keeping both doors open to let out some of the heat. Cindy had almost finished her third bottle of water, and Jim was working on his second. Cindy wiped the sweat off her brow. "It's such a relief to sweat again, you have no idea. I can feel it cooling me off. Boy, it sure is hot out here! Any guesses, how hot?"

"Ah, why guess when I can measure..." Jim punched a few buttons on his display. "98F. Yeah, pretty hot."

Cindy stared a moment as his display. "My car was reading the same thing, 98F, even at night. It never changed. So bizarre, it never cooled off. I left my flashers on, the first night. I was thinking, someone would drive by, see the blinking lights and stop..."

"Yeah, sure..."

"I did it the second night too. When I woke up this morning, the car was totally dead. I think I drained the battery..."

"Yeah... Here, let me show you something..." Jim punched a few buttons and a large diagnostic display lit up on his dashboard. "This car has two battery systems. The first one is just a normal 12-volt battery to start the engine, but there are also twin high- performance deep-cycle quick-release batteries, arrayed in series to 48 volts, together they can deliver 400 Amps for 30 minutes... When I brake, the energy gets stored into the batteries, instead of heating the brake linings..."

Cindy nodded. "Cool... So this is a Chevy Marathon, huh? I've heard about them. Do they really get a thousand kilometers between fill-ups?"

"It's close, but yeah. It has an eleven gallon tank. I've been averaging 59 mpg on my trip so far, when I'm on the highway." Jim started punching up more information on the dashboard display. "This mode here gives me a continuous display of fuel consumption rates... The car keeps a lot of diagnostics on its power consumption..."

Jim punched a few more buttons. "Wow! For the last four hours, I've been averaging 65 mpg. I've never seen it so high; it's right at the theoretical limit... But this road is super high quality, flat as a pancake and smooth as glass, and I wasn't braking at all. I guess it makes sense... See this display? I've traveled 221 miles since I reset the trip odometer. I've used 3.4 gallons of gas, and have 7.6 gallons left."

Cindy was genuinely interested. "Wow, I'm impressed. Even my car doesn't tell me all this, and do you know how much it cost?"

Jim shrugged his shoulders. "I could guess... Over sixty thousand?"

"Hah! Base price is $132,000, and I've got over $20,000 worth of options on it."

Jim was somewhat horrified at the figures, but he was polite enough not to show it. "Wow... Your options were the price of my car..."

"Really? Well, I'm not surprised. This thing is so small. It's half a car! Only two seats, plus the curved hatchback. It looks really funny... Sleek though... How's the ride? Smooth?"

"Well, not like your Mercedes, I'm sure. Cindy, do you want to see for yourself how it rides? How about I give you a lift to the next exit? I'll drop you off at a towing service."

"Yeah, I've been thinking about that. Thanks. I hate leaving my car out here though..."

"It's insured, isn't it?"

Cindy's eyes lit up. "Yes, of course! What am I worried about? Yeah, I'll go with you. Thanks again." She was silent for a moment. "Uh, could I grab one thing from my car? It's my flute."

Jim nodded and walked back to Cindy's car with her. As she retrieved her purse and flute case, she looked at her own trip odometer. "Wow. I just remembered something. I reset my trip odometer too, just as I entered the freeway. It's showing 220 miles. So I guess we're right in the middle of Antelope Freeway, as far as Nebraska is concerned." Cindy locked her car and began to hike over the median again.

"What?!" muttered Jim. Cindy's casual comment had an unexpected impact on him. He suddenly felt nervous, and tried to remember what the old man had said about middle of the freeway, something about the start of monstrous sound-barriers, something that didn't make any sense.

Jim looked at the barriers and studied them as he followed Cindy back to his car. The barriers still looked the same, maybe twelve feet tall, a bit shorter than he'd expect sound barriers to be. But why in the world were they here anyway... Jim decided not to share his uneasiness with Cindy. "What would be the point?" he thought. "I'll just drop her off at a garage at the next exit." They climbed into his car and were about to start when Jim noticed Cindy looking unexpectedly nervous.

"Uh, Cindy, everything okay?"

Cindy looked at him and gave him a quick smile that turned into a frown. She looked as if she was about to say something, but then changed her mind. One of her hands went to the door handle but she did not quite open it. In a flash of inspiration, Jim knew that the problem was.

"Nuts," he said. "You're right to be cautious Cindy. The world is full of monsters, especially monsters that ask you to trust them. If you like, I'll drive up alone and just send a tow-truck back for you. I'll leave you a case of the water too."

Cindy nodded and looked thoughtfully at him, and then smiled. "You're very perceptive... and kind. I should trust you..." Cindy sighed. "These last two days here, they were a nightmare. This morning I was thinking I was going to die here. I did a lot of soul searching. I think maybe I act sometimes like a spoiled rich kid. I made a promise to myself, to try to do better if I survived. And then you showed up, and it was so easy to forget my promise... If I start to act... well... just let me know, okay?"

Jim was deeply moved by her request. "Yeah, sure. Actually, I'm enjoying this immensely. It's a great boost to my male ego, to rescue a fair damsel! All set to go then?"

Cindy laughed and nodded. Jim started his car and they began heading west.



-------

Chapter 3


They drove in silence for the first part of their trip. Cindy would occasionally put her hand outside the window and let the air flow through her fingers. "Ah," she said at last, "I haven't driven with open windows in ages. When I was with my parents, it was just so easy to keep the climate system on and listen to music..."

"I've got some CDs if you like. Mostly Jazz, but also some Spanish guitar and choral music... Some Rock & Roll from the 60's and 70's too..."

"Sounds good... Nothing more modern?"

"Ah... No, I guess not."

Cindy raised her eyebrows. "What's the matter? You don't like the modern stuff?"

"Not really... especially these last few years. The lyrics are all about sex or drugs or how great it is to have an ego. I just can't get into it."

"I can't either. I think we have the same tastes..."

Jim smiled at the thought, and then he remembered something. "Ah, speaking of tastes, try one of these." He handed her the open bag of Kilauea Power Chips

Cindy looked at the bag for a while without eating. It appeared to be made of a shiny metallic plastic, very light and tough. "Funny. They don't list the ingredients. They don't say anything in fact. And there's no bar code on this bag. How unusual is that?" Cindy sniffed the bag, and then got out one of the dried vegetable chips and took a small bite. "Wow! These are fabulous!"

The ride continued. Cindy happily munched the rest of the chips in the bag. When she was finished, she noticed a faint trace of a green spice on her fingers and licked her fingers in appreciation. "It's a completely new peppery taste! It's not black pepper, not red pepper, not paprika. I've eaten lots of Indian spices too. They have nothing like this! What the heck is this?"

Jim shrugged his shoulders as he drove. "No idea. It's just something I picked up in a convenience store near Omaha."

"You like it?"

"Oh yeah, they're great."

"I love them too! See? I told you we have the same tastes..."

Jim laughed good-naturedly. "Well, maybe not in cars! How's the ride, compared to your Mercedes?"

Cindy shrugged her shoulders. "Well, I guess a bit stiff. Driving my coupe is like riding in a plush easy chair." She turned thoughtful for a moment. "But my car is out of gas and yours is not... Jim, why are you heading west? I mean, what's your destination?"

"Heading off to college, Cal Tech. How about you?"

Cindy smiled. "Ah, the same. College! I'm heading to New York City."

"Oh yeah? I'm from Philadelphia, not that far away. What school?"

"Julliard."

Jim gasped. "At Lincoln Center?!"

"Yep, the very one!"

"Wow... Wow, wow, wow... I insist you play something for me, before we part."

Cindy laughed. "Okay! But I should warn you, my music teachers say my originality is what fascinates them, not my form. Julliard will have to do a lot of polishing with me."

"Really? That's interesting... A number of my science teachers have said the same sort of thing with me. My physics teacher sometimes chided me for my lack of mathematical rigor, but he said my intuition on how to frame problems is the best that ever was... It was a hell of a compliment, I felt giddy for a week..."

And so they began chatting with each other, and the miles glided by. Jim talked about growing up in foster homes and his interests in science. Cindy described her family history in Hong Kong, the shipping industry her father owned, and her love of music and poetry. The afternoon rolled by easily. Cindy felt herself relaxing and really enjoying herself, happier than she had been in a very long time. But then she noticed Jim beginning to get very quiet, and shortly afterwards a worried frown appeared on his face.

"Jim, something the matter? You look pre-occupied."

"Huh? Oh... Yeah, there's something a little weird about this road. More than a little..."

"Yeah, I've noticed it too. We've been traveling for what, an hour now, right? And still no exits."

"It's not just that. My odometer says we've made fifty-five miles, a very long distance for no exits. But what's really getting to me is there have been no overpasses."

"Huh?"

"No overpasses, none at all. How is this possible? It means the area south of here is totally blocked off from the north. For fifty-five miles?! That makes no sense!"

"My God, you're right. I didn't think about that. Weird... Spooky... Why would they do such a thing?"

Jim frowned. "I don't think there could be a good reason, and yet... here is the road. It's so strange. And the sound-barriers..."

Cindy looked out the windows. "Huh? What about them?"

Jim felt a pang of unfocused fear, and his voice broke into a whisper. "Why would anyone ever build sound barriers for corn fields?"

Cindy shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. Who cares? Maybe it's a Nebraska State requirement or something. Do they bother you?"

Jim didn't answer directly. "Don't they look bigger now? Taller?"

"Well, yeah, now that you mention it. So what? Maybe they were twelve feet high by my car, maybe now they're... I'm guessing seventeen feet. So what?"

Jim grimaced, silent for a moment as he thought how to respond. He then started to tell Cindy about his stop at the convenience store.

"That's so bizarre," said Cindy when he was finished. "... starting once you get to the middle, and then getting higher in both directions... Are you sure those were his exact words?"

"Maybe not verbatim, but yeah, that's more or less what he said."

Cindy considered. "Well, it's a really weird way to put it, but maybe the old man just meant the walls are at a minimum height in the middle..."

"Well, yeah, that's a good point..."

"And you had to get to the freeway through a cornfield, so ridiculous..." Cindy shook her head in disbelief. "That's probably why we haven't seen any traffic yet, there are no connecting roads to the Freeway. But Jim! You must know what the sound-barriers look like, east towards Iowa. You just drove it this morning, right? Before we met..."

"Well... I... well..." Jim gulped. He thought for a long moment, and then glanced at Cindy. She was waiting patiently for him to respond, and she gave him a kind smile. Jim smiled back and decided to trust her with his embarrassment. "I don't understand what happened to me this morning, right after I got on the freeway. I'm not epileptic. But this situation is getting so bizarre, I think I should tell you... With all the details... I really, really don't want to offend you. Give me some feedback if I start to..."

Jim took a deep breath and began to describe in as much detail as he could exactly what he went through after he entered the freeway, up to the time he met Cindy. It took him over ten minutes to finish... "And then my eyes caught the movement of you waving your white and red clothes. It snapped me out of it. I was an emotional wreck. I had been crying. I was sexually aroused. I was feeling that Susan had just dumped me ten minutes ago..." Jim took a deep breath. "Thanks for letting me tell you all this. Talking about it really helped."

Cindy nodded thoughtfully, and then did something that surprised even her. She reached up and petted Jim's shoulder for a moment, two very light strokes and a couple of pats. She pulled her hand back and sighed. "Now I must be honest too. The same thing happened to me. That's why I have no idea what the western half of Antelope Freeway looks like."

Cindy paused for a long moment, took a deep breath and then continued. "All I've ever done is casual dating, even in high-school. I've never been emotionally intimate with anybody. Oh, a bunch of boys were interested in me. But I think I was a bit snooty... maybe even more than a bit... I assumed they were all after my money..."

Cindy became quiet and stared out the window for a while, and Jim wondered if she had changed her mind about talking. A mile passed by quietly. Then she turned to him and confided, "My dream on Wednesday wasn't as intense as yours. It was just about... well, about masturbating," she whispered, and then sighed. "I was shocked out of my dream when my car ran out of gas. I was panting, and not from the heat of the day. The AC had been on. I couldn't believe it was after 9 AM. More than three hours had gone by! It really shook me up... I was aroused, and wet, and... mostly I was just scared."

They rode for a while in silence. Then Cindy sighed again. "But I'm not scared any more. I'm really very grateful you told me your story. I think it means there's nothing wrong with my mind. There's nothing wrong with your mind either. It was something external, for the both of us."

Jim nodded. "Yeah... There are wildflowers here too, by the barriers, but they don't smell the same. Do you remember any distinctive smells, from two days ago?"

"No, I guess not. Just a lot of embarrassing images... racy... too racy... Jim?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you trust me enough to answer a really personal question?"

"I think so. Go ahead."

"Did it hurt that much in reality? I mean when Susan dumped you for real?"

Jim blew air through both his cheeks as he thought. "Wow. That's an interesting question... Yes and no. In reality, I had to work. It was painful, ending my hopes, changing my expectations. I didn't have to do all that hard work in my dream. But in the dream! It was as if my ego and my id finally got total control of my emotions, and they really went to town with the power..."

Cindy nodded. She couldn't think of a good reply at first, so she just reached up again and petted his shoulder for a while. Then she leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes, trying to rest. "Yes, that's very perceptive. I think it was the same in my dream. My id was in control, filled with desire, pushing me where I didn't want to go... I never knew my id had such power, such raw power to push my body like that..."

Cindy rested in her seat, keeping her eyes closed, and Jim smiled at her and thought she might try to take a nap. With her eyes closed and her body peacefully at ease, Jim thought she was very beautiful, and he smiled again as he thought how much he was enjoying helping her. And the miles passed by... 

After a while Cindy began to squirm around. She opened her eyes and sat up to look at the road. "Uh, Jim?"

"Yeah?"

"Have we passed any restrooms lately?"

"Huh? Oh!" Jim laughed. "No..."

"Could we stop anyway? I drank a lot of water..."

"Uh, yeah sure, me too..."

Jim pulled over by the side of the road. By unspoken agreement, they walked in separate directions to the sound-barriers, Jim west and Cindy back east. When they were finished, Cindy went back to the car, but Jim came only partway back before returning to the barrier. Cindy got back out of the car and walked over to join him.

Jim ran his hand over the wall. "It's so smooth! More than polished... Much smoother than I thought it would be... So smooth it almost feels wet... like a super smooth oil..." Jim appeared lost in thought. Cindy finally took his hand and squeezed it, tilting her head and glancing back at the car when his eyes met hers. Jim nodded and they were on their way a minute later.

They drove in silence for a while, staring at the monotonous road. Finally Jim broke the silence by commenting, "Well, we've gone a hundred miles now. No exits, no overpasses..."

Cindy grimaced. "I don't want to think about it..." But her mind was drawn to ponder the strange road. After a few minutes she said, "I wonder why there're two lanes instead of three..."

"Huh?"

"Well, I think the standard lane width for Interstates is twelve feet. These lanes look at least three feet wider, and the breakdown lane is just as wide as the traveling lanes. That's very generous. They could easily have made this a three-lane highway just by painting it differently..."

"Yeah..."

Another minute passed in silence. Cindy commented, "At least it's cooling off. Can you feel it?"

Jim punched a control button for his dashboard display. "Yeah, outside air is 88F, definitely nicer than 98F."

Cindy leaned over and rested her hand on the display controls. "Can I play?"

"Sure, go ahead. The menu will give you instructions..."

Jim watched the road, not really paying attention to what Cindy was doing. After a few minutes, she said, "Oh no! According to this, we're getting 200 miles per gallon! What have I done wrong?"

"Huh?! No way!" Jim started punching buttons on the dashboard display. "You didn't do anything wrong... What's going on?" Jim worked with the display for a while. "Nuts..."

"What?"

"I think I'll have to take this car to a Chevy dealer. See this diagram here?"

"Yeah. It's a display for your batteries, right? One steady green and two flashing blues."

"Yep. The green one is the car's starter battery. It's fully charged, and it always should be. But the power storage batteries! I was expecting them to be a little over half- charged, with a color code of white to show neutral discharge status."

Cindy stared at the display. "Well, they are over half charged." There were two numbers by the storage battery icons on the display, 73% and 75%. As she stared at the display, the 73% changed to 74%. "So what's the problem?"

"The trade-off with this car is that I need a boost from the batteries when I accelerate. The engine delivers only 70 HP at its redline. That's a bit underpowered for highway driving. The quick-release storage batteries are a marvel, an engineering breakthrough. They're using the new staged-ion technology." Jim continued to stare at the display. "They combine to kick in 400 Amps into an electric motor. At 48 volts, that's an extra 25 HP."

Cindy nodded. "And the batteries are charging now?"

"I'm not sure what's going on." Jim changed the display. "Here's a diagram showing the power flow of the car. It's showing the storage batteries are feeding 13 HP into the drive-train, and they're also getting charged up with an additional 2 HP. That's why they're flashing blue. Yellow is for discharging, blue for charging. At 55 mph, this car uses 18 HP, 5 HP to keep the engine turning over, run the water and oil pumps, and 13 HP to push against the rolling drag and the air drag on the car."

"Okay. I think I follow this. So?"

"So where's this extra fifteen horsepower coming from? My storage batteries are actually charging right now, just a bit, and this display says the engine is just idling." Jim pushed a few more buttons. "Yikes! The fuel tank says it's down only another half gallon. I've got 7.1 gallons left. It's confirming the ridiculous display on the batteries... But that can't be right! I hope the car isn't breaking down."

"Jim! Up ahead! On the other side of the road! Look!"

Jim looked up, and became as excited as Cindy. Across the median in the opposite breakdown lane, another car was sitting with its lights flashing... 



-------

Chapter 4


Jim and Cindy both got out of the car after Jim pulled into the breakdown lane. Across the median about 200 feet away sat the other car, its flashers brightly blinking. Jim thought it was a large car, expensive looking... 

Cindy was the first to speak. "I don't believe it! It's another Mercedes Coupe! My gosh, it's my exact model too!" She then had a shocked look on her face. She gave a strangled cry and began racing across the median to the other car. Jim began to walk after her to the eastbound lanes, and he was halfway through the median when Cindy reached the car. She began to scream. Her wails were horrific, filled with terror, and Jim raced the rest of the way to her side, expecting there to be bodies in the car.

But nothing seemed amiss when he got to her. Cindy gave him a wild look, and Jim saw a monumental battle being waged behind her eyes, judging whether to think of Jim as a friend or as a demon. The desire to trust finally won out, and Cindy ran up to him and hugged him fiercely, with deep sobs racking her body.

Jim hugged her back for a moment, unsure of what else to do. A small part of his mind was noticing how wonderful it felt to hold her, but otherwise he was filled with bewilderment and concern. "Cindy... What? What?"

"My car!" she gasped. "Damn it! It's my car!"

"Huh?!"

"Yeah..." Cindy took several deep breaths, trying to compose herself. She finally released her grip on Jim, and he also let go. "Take a look..."

Jim stared through the windows into the car. It certainly looked like her stuff. The world seemed eerily quiet.

Cindy keyed her car-module on her key-chain. The car immediately chirped and popped open its locks. It was a sound Cindy had heard many times before, but the sharp chirp seemed out of place in the silence. She stood there for several minutes not saying anything with Jim by her side. Cindy finally whispered, "Any guesses, how this was done?"

Jim spoke in pure disbelief, "Or even more bizarre, why?! What the hell is going on?"

Cindy shook her head. "I don't know. How was this done? Let's worry about the why later. Why will be more difficult..."

Jim slowly nodded. "Yeah... Well, we've traveled 110 miles in about two hours..."

"Yeah..." Cindy moved over to stand close by Jim's side. She reached over and put an arm lightly around his waist.

Jim could feel her body shaking, and he knew inside she was battling to avoid hysteria. He realized he felt the same way, as if he were about to go insane. His mind was desperate for some physical explanation. "Is this even possible? There were no exits, on either side, over the last 110 miles..."

"I know..." Cindy hugged him for a moment, shivering... 

"Let's say there's an exit a mile ahead, and one a mile before we met. If a tow-truck took your car, let's say there's another highway right alongside this one... I know that's a lot of assumptions... If they only had to go 114 miles, and traveled 70 mph..."

"Who are they, Jim?" ask Cindy.

Jim ignored her question. "That gets to the why, I'm still working on how. Let's see. About an hour and forty minutes at 70 mph. That would give them ten minutes on each end, to load and unload the car... I guess it's possible... They would need a few extra minutes, to drive out of sight... I guess it's possible."

"Can a tow-truck tow at 70 mph?"

"A flat-bed, sure. Probably even a regular tow-truck... Be pushing it..."

Cindy continued to shake. "I don't see any tire tracks except my own. Nothing from a tow-truck."

Jim studied the faint markings on the road. "Yeah, you're right. I don't either. The road is clean. Everything here is so clean." Jim reached over and put his arm around Cindy's waist, holding the top of her hip and returning her hug. They both stared and stood there silently for a while, holding each other and trying to adjust to the reality before them.

Cindy was the first to break the hug. She leaned over and gave Jim a quick kiss on his cheek, and then let go and walked around her car. "No scratches. They were gentle about moving it. Replaced my dead battery too, or recharged it. Add that time into your schedule."

Jim nodded. "I know. It sounds ridiculous, I know."

Cindy opened her driver's door and sat in her car for a moment, typing on her display. "No luck. Still no signal on the car phone... nothing on the radio... nothing on the satellite radio either... Now why would that be?"

"No idea."

"Jim, at the risk of sounding insane, can I put the elephant on the table?"

"Yeah, sure, go ahead. I think I know what you're going to ask."

"Yeah. Did we drive in a circle? Are we back to where we started from two hours ago?"

Jim was quiet for a long moment. "No. Impossible. I was watching the sun shadows. We were heading west the whole time. And look at the sound-barriers, look how tall they are now."

"Oh. Yeah, you're right. Twenty-five feet maybe, double from where we met. You're right. Sound barriers don't grow, do they?"

Jim smiled at the thought. "Not that I know of. Uh, Cindy, does this place look like your old spot? Except for the barriers, I mean."

"Yes, it does. But the landscape here is so incredibly uniform, I don't know... Wait, I do know. The barriers are higher. This can't be the same spot. Jim, I'm sorry if I panicked."

"Hey, don't apologize! I was panicking too! And we haven't addressed the why question yet. We probably should be panicking over that."

"How could... Oh hell, I can feel my mind freaking out over this. I can't think anymore." Cindy's face turned into a deep frown. "Let's do something."

"Okay. What?"

"I don't know. Suggest something."

"Well..." Jim looked at his watch. The time was a few minutes past 5:30 PM. He looked up at the sky, and guessed they still had two or three hours till sundown. "How about we just keep going? We'll take the first exit we see. And if Nebraska was crazy enough to build the entire freeway without exits, we'll be in Wyoming while the sun is still shining."

"Yeah. Sounds like a plan. Can we leave now?"

Jim shuddered. "You bet. Let's get the hell out of here." He quickly walked with Cindy back to his car.

After they both climbed in, Jim stared at his display system before starting the car. "Let me check something..." Jim punched up his battery display. Both storage batteries were labeled blue and 95% and 96% charged. Jim looked at his watch. "Well, at least it's consistent. Fully charged, the batteries can deliver 25 HP for half an hour. The magical 15 HP is charging them both at 2% per minute."

"Oh," said Cindy. "Now I get it. This really is impossible, isn't it?"

"Oh yeah. So logically, it must be the display." Jim stared at the display a moment longer. "Let's prove it. I'm going to drive just on batteries, with the engine off."

Cindy looked surprised. "You can do that? Yikes! If you drain the batteries, will we be able to start the car? The engine I mean."

"Oh yeah, that's done with the 12-volt starter battery. It's not part of the drive train." Jim flipped two switches on his dashboard and pulled out into the first travel lane. The car was running on batteries only, and sounded eerily silent. Jim sat thinking and typing on his display for a minute. "I'm going to do a power profile of an acceleration run, from zero to sixty. It should take at least forty seconds. Ready?"

"Forty seconds?! That long? Wait! Don't go yet. How do you even know that?"

"Well, I've only got 25 HP from the batteries, unless the magical 15 HP is real. Here, let me show you something." Jim typed on his display for a moment. "The car currently weighs 1290 kg. Here are the profiles for all the drag forces. With 25 HP from the batteries, the car's maximum speed would be 74 mph. That's where I need 25 HP to resist all the drag forces. Under perfect conditions with just batteries, the car will go from zero to forty in 14 seconds, zero to sixty in 40 seconds, zero to seventy in 81 seconds. At the higher speeds, there just isn't much power left to accelerate the car." Jim pointed to his display. "See? It's all here on the power profile curve."

"Got it... Wait. How do you know how much the car weighs?"

"It's right here on the display."

"But how... Wait a minute. The car weighs itself?"

Jim nodded. "Yeah, it's its own scale. It's part of the suspension. Base weight of the car is a little under 1000 kg. You, me, the gas in the tank, and all the supplies are an extra 300 kg.

"Why did GM put all these diagnostics into the car?"

"Well, I think the idea was to get the public interested in the physics of conservation. This part of the car is heavily subsidized."

"Oh... It did work? The subsidies I mean..."

Jim shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. I haven't seen too many Marathons on the road. All set?"

"Let 'er rip!"

Jim started accelerating. Cindy saw the status displays of the storage batteries switch from blue to yellow. Much sooner than she expected the test was over. The display plotted a curve, and the battery status remained yellow. Cindy called out, "Twenty seconds Jim."

"Hell..." Jim's eyes went back and forth looking at the road ahead and then switching to the display. "It's consistent with getting 40 HP for the acceleration run. The magical 15 HP is real, sort of."

"Sort of?"

"Well, it can't really be real. There's probably something wrong with the batteries. They're discharging faster than they're designed to. This is not good." Jim looked at the yellow status. "Right now we're using 16 HP against the drag, the 15 magical and 1 HP from the batteries. But it's all coming from the batteries..."

"How can you be sure?"

"Where else could it come from? The engine is off. Here, I'll prove it to you..." Jim reduced the car's speed a bit until the battery status switched to white, and then he locked the speed on his cruise control. "There! We're going 58 mph, using 15 HP. We have to be draining the batteries at 2% per minute. We have to be. No matter what the display says, the car will run out of battery power within fifty minutes. I'm just going to run like this until it does."

"And if it really is magical?"

"Well, I guess we could drive like this forever."



-------

Chapter 5


The miles glided by. The ride was incredibly quiet; the only sound the rush of wind by the windows. Cindy had been relaxing with her eyes closed, her body tired but her mind too excited to rest. She finally gave up trying to sleep and opened her eyes and looked at the clock. "Past 6:40," she said. She let her fingers play with the wind outside her window. "At least it's still cooling off some more. What a relief! Still doing fifty- eight?"

"Yep, speed is steady..." said Jim, very quietly.

"See any exits yet?"

"Oh, I would have told you."

"Yeah, I guess so. We're over forty-five minutes into the test now, aren't we?"

Jim sighed. "Yeah, fifty in fact. My sanity will start to go very soon."

Cindy smiled and activated the display. "We're still showing both packs charged at 95%." She sat back in her chair and waited.

Five minutes later Jim spoke up. "Well, I guess maybe I do believe in magic. Let's punch this test up a bit. I won't mind at all getting stopped for a speeding ticket." Jim accelerated the car to 74 mph and locked the speed. "There! We're using 25 HP now, pulling 10 HP out of the batteries. According to this display, we should be able to do this for about seventy minutes... Uh, Cindy?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you mind if I travel this fast?"

"Heck no! I always drive this fast. You want to know about magic? My dad says it's magical I haven't gotten a speeding ticket yet!" Cindy tried to smile but it turned into a frown. "Jim?"

"Yeah?"

"Have you been thinking, about... well, my car?"

"Yeah, sure have. The tow-truck through the exit ramp scenario is impossible. Maybe the sound-barriers can be moved, to make an opening. Or maybe they used a big helicopter as a crane... So absurd... I can't believe I'm saying this..."

"Well, you were right about it not being the same spot. I've been watching the sun shadows too. You were right, we're still heading due west, not traveling in a circle. And the sound-barriers too, they're bigger than ever."

Jim nodded. "Yeah, over thirty-five feet I think... I'm going to be so happy when we leave Nebraska..."

They drove in silence as the miles flowed by. It was past 7:30 when Cindy gave a whimpering sound.

Jim grimaced. "I see it too. Just stay in the car when I slow down. I'm going to drive right across the median and park alongside." In less than a minute Jim pulled up along Cindy's car in the eastbound breakdown lane. The battery icons on his display cycled back to blue. "Another hundred and ten miles," Jim said. "Exactly the same as before."

"Uh huh," muttered Cindy. "I'll go check my Globalstar system again. Who knows? Maybe I can get a satellite signal now. It'll tell us where we are." Cindy got out of Jim's car and sat in her Mercedes. She played with the car's navigation system for a while, and then called out, "No luck."

Jim's eyes lit up. "Wait a minute! It can probably tell us even without the satellite link. Cindy, all we need to do is mark when the sun goes down." Jim smiled when he saw they probably had a half hour of sunlight left. They chatted until the last of the sunlight left the top of the northern sound barrier, and marked the time as 8:19 PM. Jim typed for several minutes on the Mercedes display, and then looked up and whispered, "Damn..." There was a very worried scowl on his face.

Cindy was standing by his side outside the open door. She reached in and ruffled his hair for a moment. "Hey! It can't be that bad. What have you got?" Her hand petted the back of his neck once and then rested on his shoulder.

Jim looked up at her. "It's bad Cindy. There's a lot of intelligence built into this system, astronomical data tied in with the map info. For today's date, sunset at Pine Bluffs would be at 8:35 PM. I'm speaking Central Daylight time. Omaha would be at 8:03 PM."

"Oh..." Cindy frowned. "And we're right in the middle, aren't we? Which means we're right in the middle of Nebraska..."

"Yeah, exactly. We've traveled two hundred and twenty miles west from where I picked you up. We should be crossing into Wyoming now. Maybe within a mile of where you got on two days ago." Jim looked around in the evening twilight. "These sound barriers are huge! They must be fifty feet high. Do you remember them being this large, when you first got on?"

Cindy stared at the barriers "No. I don't remember them at all. It's possible, I suppose. It was dark, and I think I entered my daze before the sun came up on the freeway..."

Cindy concentrated for a moment, and then gave a soft whimpering sound. "I don't have any memory... any memory just after entering the freeway... none at all... except for x-rated dreams... Shit... Shit, shit, shit... Oh, pardon my language..."

Jim shook his head and gave her a kind smile. "Oh, I don't mind. I feel like cursing with you."

Cindy shrugged her shoulders as she stared down the road. "So, what'll we do? Actually, if I can make a suggestion, how about we have some dinner and just sack out for the night? I'm feeling exhausted."

They ate a quiet meal together, commenting on the relief of the cooler temperature. Both cars were showing an outside temperature of 77F. Jim noticed Cindy was looking a little pre-occupied. "Well," he said, "Want to sack out now?"

"Yes... Jim?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm trying to figure out how to ask you this without it sounding like... well... Would you sleep with me tonight?" Jim nodded and Cindy broke into a big smile. "Thanks! I thought we could both sack out in my car. The two front seats are very plush."

It was a little after 9 PM when they turned in. The night was quite dark, but the outside of the Mercedes was lit by the running lights, the battery gauge still showing a full charge. Cindy's hand was lying near Jim's side, and he reached down and gently held it. Cindy squeezed back, sighed and whispered, "What could possibly explain all of this? You don't really believe in magic, do you?"

"I'm trying not to. To believe in magic means to believe in nothing else. Nothing is understandable, once you start believing in magic. And yet... There are impossibilities in all directions. I checked the Marathon's batteries before turning in. They're fully recharged. Impossibilities in all directions; are we even on Earth anymore? No one would ever build a freeway for two hundred and twenty miles with no exits and no overpasses."

"So what should we do?"

Jim shifted in his seat. "I have no idea. These rising sound-barriers are scary. How about we head east tomorrow? Maybe if we can get back to where they're twelve feet high, we can climb over them, or at least take a look north and south."

"Okay. Sounds like a plan..." They both began to rest in the still of the night. After a long period of quiet, Cindy whispered, "Asleep?"

Jim opened his eyes. "No, not yet..."

Cindy leaned over and rested her head next to his and kissed him. "Jim, I'd be going crazy if you weren't here with me."

Jim woke up enough to realize he was still holding Cindy's hand. He reached over with his other hand and caressed the top of hers. He tilted his head to her and they shared another brief kiss. "I feel the same way. I'd be embarrassed to get hysterical in front of you. You're what's keeping me sane. By myself, I think I'd be a wreck. I'm so happy you're here with me now."

"Hah!" Cindy gave a small laugh and kissed him again. "Body odor at all? I haven't showered in three days."

Jim kissed her back. "Seriously, I kind of like the way you smell." Jim brought Cindy's hand to his nose. He sniffed it for a moment before kissing her hand and pressing it to his face. They stared into each other's eyes for a long while, in the light of the outside flashers. Both of them slowly realized they weren't quite prepared to take this conversation any further, at least not yet.

Cindy stroked her hand across his face in a light caress. "Let's try to get some sleep. It's been a hell of a day." In the quiet of the night, they dozed off.

The stillness of the night was shattered by a tremendous crack of noise. Cindy and Jim were jolted out of their sleep, both disoriented for a moment as they woke up. Cindy recovered first, and as she looked outside the car's window she was hit by a warm blast of super humid air. The lightning and thunder rumbled again, sounding very close.

Cindy's eyes opened wide and a big smile appeared on her face while Jim was still trying to wake up. "Hot dang!" she exclaimed. "I was just dreaming of this, taking a shower in a shower! Come on Jim! Let's get clean together!"

"Huh?" said Jim. His eyes opened in astonishment as Cindy began to strip off her blouse and skirt. She was soon sitting next to him wearing only a bra and panties. The only thought in Jim's sleepy mind was that he had never before seen such a lovely creature.

"Come on! Take a shower with me!" Cindy spun around and pulled out a bottle of shampoo from a suitcase in her backseat. "We'll get the towels later! Uh, Jim?"

Jim tried not to stare at the very attractive breasts held in her bra. "Uh, yeah?"

"Just don't ogle me, okay? That would be embarrassing!"

"Uh, sure. No, of course not." What else could he say? He turned his head politely away as Cindy took off her bra and the panties, but he couldn't stop himself from glancing back as she opened the door. Jim eyes caught a fast glimpse of a very shapely naked female butt as Cindy zipped out of the car. Jim started to take off his own clothes as quickly as he could.

A warm torrential rain began to burst from the sky as Jim exited naked from the car. He joined Cindy in front of the headlights. Her hair was already filled with suds. Laughing, she tossed him the shampoo bottle. The next five minutes were the most magical of his life, laughing with her while they washed together in the rain. Jim barely succeeded in not ogling her as he listened to her sweet laughter, catching many glimpses of her shapely and athletic legs, her tight butt, thick patch of pubic fur, flat stomach, and bouncing taut breasts pointed with dark chocolate nipples... 

They ran back into the car as the warm downpour began to wane and the air rapidly turning cooler. Jim turned politely away again as Cindy rooted for towels. They dressed as the last of the rain ended. Neither wanted to break the magic of the moment with more conversation. They went back to sleep without another word.



-------

Chapter 6


"Oh hell, Jim. Hell... Look at the odometer. It's right on schedule." It was now 8:40 AM. Jim slowed down and stopped by Cindy's car. Cindy noticed the battery status flip from yellow to blue, as the current charge of 33% began to make its 2% per minute ascent. The day was starting out just as whacky as the last one had ended.

They had had an early breakfast and had started traveling eastbound on Antelope Freeway at 7 AM sharp, a few minutes before sunrise. Jim had decided to drive at 67 mph, figuring he could pull 5 HP out of his fully charged batteries for two and a half hours. But as the miles started to roll by, both he and Cindy began to worry. The sound barriers were definitely not getting shorter. They were in fact still increasing in height. By the time they reached Cindy's car again, the barriers were a hundred feet high.

"Jim, how about we turn around and drive right back, on this side of the road?"

"Drive westbound in the eastbound lanes? Sure, why not?" Jim turned the car around and began to retrace their path. "I'm going to drop my speed, just a bit. I'd rather not completely exhaust the batteries." They traveled westbound at 60 mph for 110 miles, until they reached Cindy's car again. Both battery packs were down to 16% as Jim finally stopped the car at 10:33 AM.

Jim sighed and said, "Why don't we get out and stretch our legs, think things over?" A short time later Jim and Cindy were sitting next to each other on the grass in the shadow of the giant sound barriers. The temperature of the morning was much cooler than they were expecting. It was 60F.

Jim reached over and hugged Cindy. Cindy gave him a fierce hug back and they sat quietly holding each other, staring at the sound barriers. She shook her head in disbelief and finally asked, "How high do you think they are now?"

"Two hundred feet, as close as I can guess. I hate to say it, but they really are growing. It doesn't matter what direction we travel in, or on which side of the road. They're always increasing, maybe doubling with each loop we make. I think the whole Freeway, barrier to barrier, is just about a hundred yards wide. The barriers look just about two thirds that distance now. Damn! When we first met, they were only twelve feet high. I could have pulled my car over to the barriers. We could have climbed over. But who would have ever guessed THIS would happen?!"

"Yeah..." Cindy lightly caressed the side of Jim's arm. "Want to know something else spooky?"

Jim sighed and rested his head against Cindy's, taking a deep breath and enjoying the fragrance of her clean hair. On impulse he kissed the side of her head. "Sure, why not? Go ahead."

Cindy turned to face him and returned the kiss before replying. "My first two days here, it was so unbearably hot. My car was registering the outside temperature at 98F the whole time, at least until my battery died. It didn't cool off at all at night. But the temperature has been dropping on each of our four trips, first to 87F, then to 77F, then to 68F, and now finally down to 60F for this last cycle. Want to bet it doesn't get colder and colder, the longer we travel?"

Cindy pushed his body down to the grass, lying alongside him. She reached across and laid her arm across his waist, and then she kissed his ear and whispered, "Jim, I can't imagine us surviving this insanity. I think we might die here."

Jim wrapped his arms around her, not saying anything for a while. He finally kissed her again and said, "It's certainly weird, fantastic... But there's nothing particularly deadly here. We have lots of food, and a fair bit of water. Maybe we should try to collect more, if it rains again. At least we're saving the empty bottles... Cindy?"

Cindy rested the side of her head against his and whispered, "Yeah?"

"The old man, in the store... My gut keeps telling me the guy wasn't malevolent. He said I would be fine. I still feel like trusting him..."

"Even though he betrayed you? Why should we trust him?"

"He had a certain sense of humor about this whole thing. I can't explain it. The road signs, all the ridiculous road signs for Antelope Freeway, so pointless... Or maybe..."

"Huh? Maybe what?"

"Maybe their point was to add some laughter to this, to show us not to take this too seriously..."

Cindy stared at Jim in disbelief. "Oh, I don't know Jim. It's not just the monster sound barriers and the impossible loop of this road. My dream! My wet dream from last Wednesday! I still feel violated, being pushed into arousal like that. I'm struggling with how to get over it..."

Jim was quiet for a moment. "Yeah. I think I'm still struggling with my dream too."

Cindy sat up, keeping her hand on the center of Jim's chest to hold him to the ground. She looked into his eyes and sighed, giving him a kind smile. "You are? Do you trust me enough to tell me how?"

"Yes... Cindy..."

"Yeah?"

"I like to push myself to be gregarious, but I tend to be kind of quiet around people. Being bounced around in lots of foster homes, it taught me not to get too close to people. I used to have trouble trusting anyone. With you though, I can't imagine myself ever not trusting you. Really. I can't explain it..."

Cindy nodded and then smiled. "I sort of feel the same way. I'm usually shy with people too, especially men my age. But with you, all I want to do is return the trust. Wait! It's more than that... A lot more... I should tell you..." Cindy pulled her legs underneath her and got into a lotus position. She had one hand gently petting the top of Jim's head while they looked into each other's eyes.

Cindy took a deep breath. "I've had so many images about you in my dreams last night. Sexy ones and ones that are more than just sexy. They're procreative, about starting a family with you. Last night, after our showers, I had dreams about getting pregnant, childbirth, breast feeding... And you were with me, in all my dreams... You were holding me as I was giving birth. I think it was our child, a girl. I'm sure it was a girl... But I can't remember her name..."

After a moment of recollection, she continued. "And then in another dream, you were with me when I was nursing her. We were alone with our daughter and I was afraid. We both were afraid. From what, I don't know. We were all alone, the three of us, in some sort of log cabin. There was a huge amount of snow outside, a fantastic snowstorm..."

Cindy saw Jim look at her in shock as she described her dream. "Jim, where are all these images coming from? I had this really vivid dream of traveling with you. We were heading to meet my parents and brother and sister. You were going to meet them for the first time. I can still remember all my intense anticipation of showing you to my family... And then it all faded away..."

Jim looked up and Cindy and stared at her, unsure whether she was finished. Staring at each other's eyes, both their hands sought each other and met in mid-air. Jim was about to reply, but then Cindy continued.

"And mixed in with this are all sorts of sexual desires. I can't remember all the different ways we made love to each other last night... in my dreams I mean. Jim, I wasn't just snooty in high school. I was also more than a bit shy when it came to boys. It's not like me to be this forward, even in fantasies. It's not like me at all."

Cindy shuddered. "I'm scared Jim. I want you. I want you as a friend. I want you to be affectionate with. I want you to be sexy with. I want you to start a family with. I've been keeping the sexy part under control, sort of. And starting a family with you is insane! We just met yesterday! I'm scared! I don't know if these desires are real, or just something foreign, something that's been injected into me, into my mind... I guess I'm finished."

Jim was silent for a while as he considered what Cindy had said. "That would be hideous, having emotions injected into us. More than hideous, monstrous. Cindy, I'm having the same feelings about you, and I think the same dreams. Our daughter's name was Charlotte."

Cindy looked horrified and whispered, "That's right..." She then shouted, "Her name was Charlotte! Oh Jim, how can we be having the same dream?! The monsters are real!" Cindy wailed and jumped up, desperate to escape from the horror. Jim suggested they continue driving, more for the security of being in a moving car than anything else. Cindy quickly agreed, and they began heading west again at 60 mph.

They drove in silence for forty-five minutes, both of them deep in their own thoughts. Jim looked at his clock and saw it was noontime. "How about we stop soon, pull over for something to eat?"

Cindy seemed rather listless. "Yeah... Okay..."

"Cindy?"

"Huh? Yeah?"

"How are you feeling?"

"Uh... Resigned I guess. How about you?"

"Not too bad. Still a little optimistic maybe..." Jim was quiet for a moment and then whispered, "Hopefully not insanely optimistic."

Cindy shook her head in disbelief. "You still don't think we're up against all-powerful monsters?"

"The power is awesome, I'll give you that. But yeah, I'm still hoping they're not monsters."

"Jim! Injecting emotions into us! I could scream!"

"I'm not sure that's what's happening. I think my feelings for you are real. More than real, my own."

Cindy was quiet for several minutes. "My emotions feel like they're my own too. And I like my emotions, I like the desires I'm feeling... But how can all this be possible? Would I want to start a family with you, after knowing you for a day?! Isn't that absurd?"

"Well... Yes and no. Maybe it's more accurate to say it's absurd for us to be expressing such desires to each other so soon."

"Huh? Wait! I dimly see what you're getting at. Go on."

"I'm guessing we've both been exposed to a drug that has given our ids a lot of expressive power. Maybe love at first sight is a real effect, as far as the sub-conscious is concerned. Maybe the effects of the drug are still in our system, and we're thinking and expressing with more raw emotion than is usual... a lot more... at least for our culture..."

Cindy was silent for a moment. "Jim, what are your thoughts about me?"

"I think I'm feeling the same things you are. Such sexy dreams and desires! But it's more than just sexy. The desire to care for you, it's incredible! There was something the old man said, about how I should think both inside the box and outside the box. How can I ever think outside the box of my own mind, and decide if an emotion is truly internal? I don't know. But it all feels real to me, real and wonderfully correct and beautiful, wanting to care for you. I think... I think and I hope it's all real..."

Cindy was quiet for a long while, and then was about to reply when something caught her eye. "Look! On the horizon ahead of us! Look!"

"Yeah, I see it too. A line or something across the road." Jim increased his speed a bit. "We'll be there in about five minutes. This should be interesting..."

Seven minutes later Jim stopped the car. They both got out and placed their hands on the super-smooth stone wall just in front of the car. Cindy muttered, "Well, not very interesting after all, is it?"

"No, I guess not. Look how the road comes right up to meet it. You can just see the beginning of the next dashed line. It's as if someone dropped a sound barrier right on top of the existing road."

Cindy nodded. "How high would you say they are now?"

"Close to 300 feet I guess, maybe a bit less. The odometer says we made fifty-five miles from your car, half the distance of one of our loops."

Cindy frowned. "Jim, let's get back to my car, as quickly as we can. We can eat later." As they walked briskly back to the car, Cindy asked, "Can I drive?"

"Uh, sure..." In less than two minutes, Cindy turned the car around to head east and then accelerated to 85 mph. "In a hurry?" Jim asked.

"A little I guess, yeah. What's my maximum speed with just batteries? What if I turn on the engine?"

"Yeow! I'd rather not use the gas unless we have too. What's the rush?"

"I'm afraid we'll hit another sound barrier before we come to my car, be cut off from it."

"Oh. Well, don't turn the engine on just yet..." Jim typed for a few moments on his diagnostic display. "With everything we've got, the engine, the batteries and the magic, the car should go 129 mph, at least until we exhaust the batteries. But the tires, the shocks, the whole car really, it's not designed to travel that fast."

"Yeah, okay. How about if I just keep going eighty-five?"

"Well, let's see... We have fifty-one miles to go, both battery packs are at 90%, and it takes 34 HP to make this car go 85 mph..." Jim computed for a moment. "We'll just make it, assuming the magical 15 HP stays with us. We'll probably drain the batteries within a mile of your car, but we'd want to start slowing down then anyway."

"Great, 85 mph it is then." Cindy looked as if she just wanted to drive, and Jim didn't want to distract her with the car going 85 mph, so they just rode in silence for the next half hour. Then Cindy called out in a whimper, "Oh no, oh no. Look!"

Up ahead on the horizon, another line was forming. Cindy floored the accelerator, and the car slowly sped up to its maximum of 91 mph. Jim thought of telling her this wouldn't get them there any sooner, but then he realized in was just a matter of a few seconds anyway and just kept quiet.

About two miles from Cindy's car the Chevy drained the last of the power from the batteries, both status lights switching from yellow to red on the display. The roaring wind quickly decelerated the car towards 58 mph. Cindy breathed a sigh of relief as she saw her car up ahead on the road, with a massive sound barrier right ahead of it. As she began to brake to stop by her car, Jim was relieved to see the battery status lights switch from red to blue. He glanced at his watch and saw it was 1 PM.

Cindy made a final U-turn and stopped the Chevy about twenty feet behind her Mercedes. They both got out to take a look, and marveled how the massive sound-barrier seemed to almost touch the Mercedes' front bumper. Cindy put her car in neutral and they pushed the Mercedes backwards a few feet.

"What do you think Jim, four-hundred feet?"

Jim looked at the height of the massive sound barriers. "Yeah, I would guess. They're boxing us in on three sides here. They're so high, it feels really strange. Scary."

"So what do we do now? We're trapped at both ends, with no exits in between."

"Yeah..." Jim thought for a moment but there seemed nothing to do. "How about some lunch?"



-------

Chapter 7


It was just after 1:40 PM when Jim and Cindy returned from his car to their grass picnic area by the sound barrier. "I checked the batteries." Jim commented. "They're 80% charged now. At least the magic is still with us."

"Uh huh..." Cindy said idly. She was carrying her flute from the car, and she walked over and sat down on the picnic blanket, taking off her sneakers and socks. She lifted her head up and gazed at the white clouds above her. The weather was delightfully cool, 53F, very unusual for a sunny August afternoon in Nebraska. But the cool weather went almost unnoticed as they pondered their situation.

Jim looked down at Cindy and thought she looked stunningly beautiful, curling her bare calves and feet around her as she sat. Jim took off his shoes and socks and joined Cindy being barefoot, and lay down on the blanket to join her watching the clouds. His head was on the blanket just touching the sides of her hip and thigh through her skirt. Cindy looked down and smiled at him for a moment, and lightly caressed the side of his head, holding it to her body. The time passed quietly.

Jim closed his eyes and rested, thinking of their situation. After a while he heard Cindy open her flute case, and a moment afterwards sweet music began to fill the Freeway. Jim was enchanted with the quality and artistry of her play, and sighed heavily when it ended. "That was Debussey, wasn't it? The Girl with Flaxen Hair..."

"Yes... It's one of my favorites. La fille aux cheveux de lin... A perfect piece for an alto flute... It would sound even better with the piano..."

Jim laughed. "It was so beautiful just as you played it..." He rubbed his head against her thigh and lightly kissed her hip though the plaid skirt.

Cindy giggled and lay down beside him and snuggled, lightly stroking his bare foot with hers, and laying her arm across his chest. In the cool of the afternoon breeze, the warmth of their bodies felt delightful to each other. They shared a brief kiss, and then Cindy rested her head, using Jim's arm as a pillow.

Eventually Cindy sighed and her thoughts returned to their predicament. "Even with full batteries, I don't think we should go anywhere."

Jim had been delightfully drifting in the warmth and feel of Cindy's body. He opened his eyes and considered. "Yeah. If nothing happens for a few days, we might want to rethink this, but for now, yeah..."

Jim had one arm under her head and the other under her breasts and around her shoulders, cuddling with her. Cindy's hand came up and reached for his. They stared into each other's eyes, both of them enjoying the peacefulness and tenderness of the moment. Cindy moved her hand down holding Jim's hand until it was centered low on her stomach. Then she sighed and closed her eyes, an expectant smile on her face.

Jim was lying on his side, holding Cindy in his arms, his hand held between her hand and her stomach. Gazing at her, he began to pet her, light lazy circles around her stomach and ribs. Cindy sighed and pressed her body closer to him. His hand found her rib cage and he held her firmly. Cindy cooed and turned her head and with both their eyes closed they shared a kiss that seemed to last forever. Jim could feel the beat of Cindy's young heart in the palm of his hand.

Jim broke the kiss and looked down at her. Her eyes were still closed and she was still smiling in expectation. His hand drifted up. Cindy's body shuddered but she kept still as his hand slowly surrounded her breast. It was so soft and warm to the touch, filled with magic and mystery. He had a brief pang of worry that he might be pushing things too fast, but Cindy only shivered and nodded her head as his hand caressed from one breast to the other. Cindy leaned up and soon they were kissing again. Jim's hand drifted down and rested on the soft fabric of her skirt over her hipbone, holding her body closely to his. The quiet moment seemed to linger forever.

Eventually Cindy broke the kiss and opened her eyes. "I feel so peaceful... Peaceful and excited and relaxed and eager... all at the same time. I had no idea... being aroused... wanting you... wanting to hold you so fiercely... I had no idea how peaceful it would be... I had no idea... how strong the feelings would be... how much I would want you..." Cindy gasped as she whispered, "want you inside me..."

Jim opened his eyes and gazed at her in love. "Cindy..." he whispered. He was almost crying tears and the words just wouldn't come.

"Hush. I know. It's okay..." Cindy smiled and sat up and petted his head for a moment. "You know, the all-powerful monsters could probably be making this a lot more painful for us... Jim?"

Jim smiled at Cindy and curled his arm around her butt as she sat, his open hand pressing against her bare outer thigh just below where the skirt ended. "Hmm? Yeah?"

"I can sort of see your point, about wanting to believe that the monsters don't exist. I'm not being forced to love you. My affections for you, my desires... They're all real, all internal... I think..." Cindy took a deep breath and then blew the air from her cheeks. "But, how could we ever dream the same dream? You obviously seeing something here that I'm not. You're not suggesting that both of us calling our dream daughter Charlotte is a coincidence, are you?"

"No, I'm not..." Jim paused for a moment, staring upward and watching the clouds, collecting his thoughts. "This may sound wacky, but it's no wackier than assuming aliens are feeding thoughts into our minds. My idea is, what if our ids are communicating with each other while we sleep?"

Cindy laughed at the idea. "You mean, like telepathy?!"

"Well, yeah... I guess..."

Cindy just smiled for a moment but then started to consider the idea seriously. "What you're suggesting should be an observable phenomenon. Want to try an experiment?"

"Wow! Spoken like a true physicist! Sure. Want to go first?"

"Okay. I'm thinking of a number between one and a hundred..."

"Yikes..." Jim tried to guess what number Cindy might have picked. He playfully buried his head into her skirt, pushing into the side of her hip. "Uh, thirty-four?"

Cindy laughed and caressed his head. "Ha! Eighty-nine. Try again! I'll kiss you if you're right! Maybe anywhere you want!"

"Wow!" came the muffled reply from inside her skirt. Jim felt he was making a wild guess. "Uh, thirteen?"

Cindy laughed again. "No, thirty-one! Here, why don't you try?"

"Okay." Jim pulled his head from her hip and thought for a second. "I've got a number from one to ten."

Cindy smirked at him. "What a chicken! Only ten possibilities! Let's see... Six? No, maybe seven."

"Well, pick one or the other."

"Seven?"

"Nuts. It was six." Jim sighed. "This isn't very impressive. Let's try something else."

"Okay. Like what?"

"Let's try to read emotions, not abstract concepts like numbers. Think of a scene where you had a lot of emotions."

Cindy nodded thoughtfully. "Okay. For this kind of experiment, let's not be touching each other. Close your eyes. I'll close mine too."

Jim nodded and then let go on his hug on her butt after kissing her. He closed his eyes for a moment. "Wow. My choice seems obvious. Pride and happiness, as if I've just accomplished something tremendous."

"Wow! Great guess! I was thinking of getting my admissions letter, learning I passed the entrance auditions at Julliard. You try something..." A quiet moment passed. "Ouch! Primal fear, mixed in with abandonment. What the hell happened to you?"

"I was with two people who should never have been foster parents. The State social workers found out just in time. I'll tell you about it sometime. It was pretty scary stuff. I was seven at the time..."

"My gosh Jim! What have we just done?!"

"Yeah... Let's keep going."

"Okay. My turn..."

Jim paused for a moment. "Guilt? No... Embarrassment. Embarrassment and anger. I get the impression you were a lot younger too. Pre-teen?"

"Yep! I had just turned eleven. I was being teased at school by a bunch of boys. It was the day I entered puberty, and I had an accident during history class. The boys were merciless. Your turn now..." Cindy laughed. "This one's easy! Sexy desire. Wow! Lots of sexy desire, and then bliss!" She laughed again. "Let me guess, the first time you scored with Susan?"

"Uh, not exactly..."

"Huh?" Cindy was quiet for a moment. "My gosh, it's me, isn't it? Wait... When I was taking my shower with you..."

"Yeah..."

"My gosh, my gosh... Such powerful emotions... Raw desire... Am I really that sexy to you?"

"Well... I was trying not to ogle you."

"You didn't! You were so sweet! I was watching. I think I ogled you though. That was some erection you had! But you were so sweet just to glance at me and not stare, I didn't mind... I thought it was cute, that you would have such a physical reaction over me... But I didn't realize how strong your emotions were, your desires... I'm sorry if I teased you."

"Oh no, you weren't teasing me." Jim looked into Cindy's eyes and whispered, "The moment was pure magic to me. I'll cherish the memory forever... This time with you now... I'll cherish this too..."

Cindy laid herself back down and rolled over and pushed the length of her body against Jim's side. Then she kissed him fiercely. "So my id wants you as my husband, huh? And your id wants me as your wife? I'm surprised our ids care about what we name our daughter. I would have guessed that's a conscious-mind kind of thing."

Jim's hands came around and he held Cindy firmly by her waist. He sighed and said, "Yeah... Well, maybe our conscious minds talk too, when we dream..." Jim kissed her lips and then her cheeks, and then rubbed his nose against hers until she giggled from the sensations.

Cindy felt a burst of sexual desire. Gazing down at his body, she saw Jim becoming erect for her. She opened her mouth and gently held Jim's nose in her lips as she rolled her body on top of his. She gave his nose a quick, playful lick with her tongue while it was still inside her mouth and then broke the contact, lifting her head and gazing down at him in love.

She wiggled her hips. "Your conscious body is certainly talking now! I can feel it pressing up into me, through my skirt. I can feel its passion, and I know where it wants to go..." Cindy lifted up and repositioned her body, and then lowered herself so that his penis was pressing directly into her pubic. Then she relaxed her body against his and sighed.

Jim nodded and lowered his hands to hold her low on her hips, locking her pelvis to his but resisting the urge to start thrusting her through the clothes. He could feel the firmness of her pubic pushing into his erection. They kissed for a long while, Jim lightly caressing her flanks and the bare backs of her thighs, but he did not go underneath the skirt to her butt.

Cindy finally broke the kiss, wiggled her hips playfully against his erection and laughed. "Ha! What are my emotions now?"

Jim opened his eyes and smiled. "Delightfully aroused, like me. Also more than a bit nervous, like me too."

Cindy nodded. "Yes, I know. I can feel you, feel how eager you are for me. I can feel your passion, your desire to mount me. Nothing is hidden... I can also feel how shy you are about this. I'm shy too."

Jim smiled and gave an affectionate pat to her rump, low on her buttocks, just above the backs of her thighs. He let his fingers lightly dance across the soft fabric of her cotton panties under her skirt, and then he let go of her hips and butt. "Cindy, we can wait. And we should wait. I don't mind... much..."

Cindy nodded again and slid her body off Jim, returning to lying by his side. "Yes, thank you... Wow! What a gift, to know each other's emotions. It certainly would be different, to have such a bond with a husband. Jim, I need time to think about this, lots of time. Maybe more time than we have."

Jim nodded. "Our ids are running way ahead of our conscious minds. Marriage is a lot more than raw desire... We should wait." He began to caress her hair while holding her in his arms. "Being able to share our emotions though... You're right, it is a gift. And it's not a gift that a monster would give us..."

Cindy sighed and nodded, curling up against him and cuddling in the cool of the shade. She closed her eyes and felt her body deeply relax in the warmth of Jim's arms around her. "You really don't mind waiting? Not about commitment, I mean about sex. We might die here."

Cindy yawned and nestled her head into his arm. After a while she was breathing evenly and deeply, and then muttered very sleepily, "You really don't mind waiting? I think I would have sex with you, if you asked me to..." She gave another sleepy sigh. "Right now, if you asked me to..." Cindy took another very deep breath and sighed and then was very still.

Jim turned slightly to look at her, putting his nose against her head and inhaling slowly, enchanted with the fragrance of her smell. He loved the intimacy she was offering him, how she was entrusting her body to him as she fell asleep in his arms.

"No, I don't mind," he whispered. "To hold you in my arms like this... It's all I need... Oh Cindy, you are so beautiful..." Jim kissed the side of her sleeping head and closed his eyes, soon following Cindy into her dreams.

A few hours later Cindy stirred in her dream, sighing with deep contentment as she shifted Charlotte to her left teat. As her daughter resumed her suckle, Cindy blinked her eyes open and gazed around the room.

It was a rustic lodge, with a fierce snowstorm blowing outside, the panoramic windows providing a magnificent display of brush and short woods leading down a small hill to an expanse of a frozen lake or sea stretching to the horizon. There was almost complete darkness outside. Only the horizon of the southern sky had a faint bit of pinkish light to it. Cindy glanced at the clock. It was noontime. Somehow it all seemed to make sense.

Jim was there, standing by the window, looking peaceful but tired. No, not tired. Older? Jim turned to her and smiled, saying in fluent Cantonese, "This storm is really something. The temperature outside right now is -45F, and it's going nowhere but down."

Cindy replied in Cantonese, "Jim! We're dreaming again! And listen to you! You just spoke Cantonese! Can you understand what I'm saying?!"

Jim looked startled, and then looked at his hands and then around the room. He continued to speak in Cantonese. "Yes, I sure can. I can switch back to English too, if you want."

"Yeah, let's talk in English," said Cindy. "Jim, your Cantonese was excellent, no accent at all. You sounded like a native of Hong Kong."

"Well, I had a great teacher... you..."

"My gosh... This is a dream, isn't it? We're both still back on Antelope Freeway for real, right?"

"Yeah, I guess." Jim sat down on the plush couch by Cindy's side. "Great dream though. Look at our daughter. My gosh Cindy! She's so adorable!"

"Look at us Jim! We both look years older! This kind of detail in a dream?! It doesn't make any sense!"

"I know... And yet, I think I could pull the plug on this whole thing, wake up with you on the Freeway at any time."

Cindy felt a rising tide of panic, and she fought to hold it down. "Let's do it! Wake up I mean, right now!" Cindy shut her eyes and concentrated, and felt the comfort of the couch slip away from her body. She opened her eyes to the late afternoon shadows of Antelope Freeway, still being held in Jim's arms as he slowly began to awake.

With Jim still half asleep, Cindy whispered in Cantonese, "Jim! Reply at once! How old are you?"

Jim yawned, his eyes still closed, and then he muttered in Cantonese, "Eighteen here, twenty-two at the lodge..." His eyes blinked open. "What?!" he said in English. "Did I just say something? It sounded like gibberish." He sat up to look at Cindy, but the view behind her grabbed his attention. "Oh Shit!" he shouted.

Cindy sat up and looked around, and then screamed in horror. Down the road several hundred feet to the west stood a new barrier blocking their last remaining direction. They were now boxed in by massive 400-foot sound barriers on all four sides.



-------

Chapter 8


Jim and Cindy spent the next half hour walking the inside perimeter of their 300-foot by 500-foot prison. It was after 5 PM, and sunlight was reaching only the upper parts of the northern and eastern walls. Everything else was in shadows.

Cindy felt a great wave of resignation wash over her as they completed their walk. "Do you think we'll ever get any sunlight down here?"

Jim muttered, "Not much..." without thinking, but then began to consider the issue. "Certainly not near the winter solstice, but now? Maybe. Let's keep track tomorrow when and where the sunlight is..."

Cindy nodded and looked at the high walls. "Yeah, okay. What else is there TO DO? Shit Jim. This situation is so bizarre... Wait a minute! Could this be a dream too, like the lodge?"

Jim stared at Cindy in amazement. "You're serious, aren't you? The lodge seems real when we're there, not dreamlike at all, just like this feels now. But we can wake up from the lodge. If we wake up from this, where will we be?"

"Yikes! Yeah, a scary thought. Do we have any clues? Wait! How about we take another look at that bag of vegetable chips?"

A minute later, Cindy and Jim were examining the bag outside his car. The bag itself seemed to be made of very thin foil. The front side had a cartoonish picture of a volcano spewing all sorts of vegetable chips out from its conical top. There were little tongues of fire erupting from the chips to show their hot taste. The words Spicy Kilauea Power Chips were written underneath in many wild colors. The back side was a blank gold background with some tiny lettering on the bottom.

Cindy squinted and said, "I can barely read it, but I think it says Product of QFA, and then underneath it says Quantum Farmers Associates, Where Building Dreams Come True. What an odd slogan... Sounds more like the theme of an amusement park. What's it doing on a veggie bag? This is all so insane..."

Jim nodded and took the bag. "Yeah, it sure is..." He stared at it for a while, but could pull nothing more from it. Eventually he looked up and said, "Cindy, I'm hoping we can dream our way back to the lodge. Let's not wake up if we do, at least not at once. We should try exploring there..."

Cindy blinked in surprise at the suggestion. "But it's only a... Oh, why not? Yeah, okay. Tell you what. Let's both imagine ourselves in the lodge before we sleep, but in younger bodies. Maybe we can control where we enter the dream. It'll be easier to explore without an infant to care for. I know this sounds insane. It's only a dream! But still..."

They had a light dinner and tried to sack out, but the dread of their situation kept them awake for hours. They chatted with each other for half the night. They finally realized they could relax and get sleepy by petting each other's bodies. Keeping the caresses moderately non-sexy, they both fell asleep shortly after 2 AM, their hands resting on each other's stomachs. Jim thought it felt like about an hour later when he woke up on the couch.

Jim was sitting on one end of a long couch. Cindy was sleeping peacefully lying down on her back across the couch. She was wearing shorts and a halter top, and her bare feet and calves were resting in Jim's lap. Jim smiled and began petting her feet and lower legs until she woke up.

Cindy opened her eyes, smiled and yawned. "Wow! Look at all the light outside!" The view out the windows was spectacular, short trees and flowering brush dropping down and leading to a beach and calm water. There seemed to be a bay to the left and an open sea to the right. The sky and the sea were different shades of deep blue. The landscape looked pristine and very beautiful.

Cindy looked at Jim thoughtfully. His hand had drifted up and he was caressing her bare thighs and her hips through her shorts. Cindy found herself pleased with the physically intimacy, and yearning for more. She found herself completely at ease with the display of affection. "My love..." she whispered.

"My love..." Jim whispered back.

Cindy smiled and was silent for a moment, sighing and enjoying the caresses. She finally said, "Come on, we should explore! Want to take a walk?" Jim nodded and they both put on their hiking boots and went outside.

They took a short walk down the hill and were soon standing at the edge of the land. A huge circular arc of land was visible to their left. It curved around and seemed to end about a kilometer and a half directly in front of them forming a bay to their left. To their right was an open sea. Gentle waves were lapping the sloping beach. Cindy turned around and stared back up at the lodge. It was superbly camouflaged in the rocks. The entrance was about twenty meters above sea level and 120 meters from the shore and almost invisible, its oval walls blending in with the foliage. The sun was barely above the horizon, and now hidden by the house.

Cindy commented, "Look at the sun Jim! Somehow I'm certain the sea is due south of home... Huh? I mean that lodge. But the sun is behind it now, due north..."

"Yeah, it's summertime here. Late summertime I think. Don't ask me how I know. Still pretty cool, 50F maybe. Maybe it's midnight. We must be very close to the pole."

Cindy nodded and stooped down to dip her hand into the ocean. "Yikes! It's freezing! Ice water..." She stood up and looked around, surprised to feel how homelike the environment felt. "Come on, let's take a walk."

The two began to hike the shoreline, walking with the sea to their left and away from the bay. The shoreline was clean sand in places, arctic brush in others. It was a beautiful nature hike. Several parts of the pristine beach even had sea caves. It was close to three hours later before they were back from where they started.

Cindy looked up at her home at the end of the hike. "This island! It must be a dream! What do you think Jim?"

"Yeah. Only a dream could create such symmetry! A perfect circle, I think, except for the two spiral peninsulas. I think the core island is a perfect circle. Let's call the home the point of zero degrees."

"Radius of about one kilometer?"

Jim nodded. "Yeah, maybe even exactly... Perhaps we could make some surveying equipment, make some measurements. With the peninsulas, I mean... What a fantastic dream! And it all seems so real..."

Their circular island had two large spiraling peninsulas projecting from opposite ends of the circle. Viewed from above, the island was in the idealized shape of a galaxy, with a one kilometer circular core, and two graceful and symmetric spiraling arms rotating in a clockwise motion to points 2.5 kilometers away and directly opposite from the center of the core circle.

With the lodge at zero degrees for a reference, the first spiral was attached to the core island starting at 90 degrees on the circumference and ending at 110 degrees. From there the peninsula made a tapering circular arc (of radius 3 km) an additional 1.5 kilometers away from the shoreline. The peninsula was about a quarter kilometer wide (bay side to ocean side) for about two kilometers, and then tapered to a point at 180 degrees on the reference circle of the main island.

During their hike, Jim and Cindy had cut across the peninsula and continued to hike the circumference of the core island. On the other side of the island, they found an identical peninsula, attached to the core island from 270 to 290 degrees, and spiraling out to a point at 360 degrees. It was this second spiral that formed the bay seen to the left of their lodge.

Cindy stared at the spot of their home when they finished their circular hike. "With the peninsulas, maybe 4.5 square kilometers of land?"

"Yeah, a very good guess..." Jim was silent for a moment. "What do you want to do now, explore the interior or check out the lodge?"

Cindy stared into the interior of the island. "Amazing how difficult it is to see the lodge, even when we're so close... I know exactly where it is, and I still can't see it... Let's look at the lodge first."

They returned to the lodge and walked around its outside perimeter. It was in the shape of an oval, with a short axis of six meters, and a long axis of twelve meters. The long axis was aligned radially with the main island. There was an interior wall along the short axis, dividing the lodge into two bullet-shaped rooms of about 300 square feet each. The front room faced the ocean and bay, and the back room pointed to the center of the island.

Cindy and Jim walked inside. Both rooms were set up to be living rooms, with just a couch and some easy chairs and side tables in each. The temperature inside was a comfortable 68F, even though there was no visible heat source, nor any light sources except for the windows. The floor was warm stone with some rugs thrown on top. The back room had an outside exit, plus an empty closet along the interior wall separating the two rooms. Cindy and Jim finished their exploration and returned to sitting on the couch in the front room.

"Well," said Cindy, "What do you think?"

"Not much of a lodge, only two rooms. I'm surprised there's no kitchen area... And yet..."

"Yeah, I feel it too. This is our home, and it's a good one. Baths, bedrooms, a wonderful kitchen, a library. There's a machine shop, near the top... Huh?!" Cindy looked up at the roof. "Why did I say that?" She paused for a moment. "It's all here... But where?" Cindy looked confused and then burst out laughing. "But it's all a dream anyway! Why should I care?"

Jim shook his head. "Oh, don't think that! That's the way to wake up, and I want to stay here for a while. I wonder if I can, stay here I mean, if you wake up..."

Cindy nodded, and then said in Cantonese, "Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Jim looked at her startled and then tried to reply in Cantonese. "A little..."

Cindy giggled at his accent. "Ah, I shouldn't laugh. I did understand you."

Jim sighed and switched to English. "I think you've already started to teach me. This is so amazing, so impossible..."

"Yeah... What year is it Jim?"

"Here, in the dream? Summer of 2010 I think, a year from now. Early September? Don't ask me how I know..."

"Yeah, I think so too, summer, one year from now... And why are we here?"

Jim was quiet for a long while. Then he whispered, "Because we want to be."

Cindy nodded. "How about in our earlier dream, with Charlotte... You told me you were twenty-two. I think you were right. I think that was early March of 2013. And why did we bring Charlotte here?"

"Why? Yeah... Why... Because... We're hiding... That's why, we're hiding! But from what? It feels like we're running from something... something huge... Are we escaped convicts or something?"

Cindy nodded. "I feel it too, something huge, something awful, and... And what? Did we rob a bank?" Cindy gasped with a sudden burst of intuition. "No! It's bigger than that! Something awful has happened! We're running from... running from everything, I think. And we want to protect our daughter! Our future daughter! Somehow she's in danger! Or should I say she will be in danger? She's... She's what?"

Cindy blinked as she considered her words. "Why should we be worried about something like that? Why would anyone be after our daughter? She's only an infant! Is she contagious or something?"

"I don't know. But yeah, our daughter is going to draw a lot of attention if she's found. We're worried that people, the government I think, will do what? Medical experiments with her?"

Cindy shivered and hissed, "These are awful dreams! We're protecting our daughter from being dissected, or worse. Aren't we? Jim, let's get out of here. Please?"

"Wait Cindy. Somehow... Somehow I feel the key to understanding all of this is here, not back on Antelope Freeway..."

"Some freeway. It's a prison."

"Is it? We have the power to leave. Look at us now."

"Oh, come on! This is a dream! Some escape..."

"Well, yeah, I'll give you that. But it feels just like reality, not like a dream at all."

"Can we just go?! Please?"

"Well... Can we try something first? How about you try to wake up, and I won't. Let's see what happens."

"Deal! Wait! What if I shake you and can't wake you up, back in the prison?"

"Give me ten or fifteen minutes, then I'll come."

"Okay." Cindy lay down on the floor and closed her eyes. "I can feel myself starting to wake up," she whispered.

Jim felt a great dimming in his mind. It became very hard to hold onto the dream. And then he blinked his eyes awake. Everything was the same, except Cindy was gone. "Interesting..." he thought.

He sat in one the chairs for a moment to think, and then got up and idly started walking around the walls of the two rooms, running his hands lightly across the wall. The tactile sensations were superb, he realized, exactly like being awake. A part of his mind kept nagging him to go into the empty closet, and he finally entered it.

It seemed common enough, a simple storage closet. The interior was totally empty, no pole or shelves. The inside space was just over two meters by two meters, and the floor and walls looked like polished stone. Jim stared at it for a moment, and then on impulse he closed the closet door from the inside.

His eyes popped open in astonishment as the ceiling glowed a faint yellow, illuminating the closet and the floor started to drop into the earth. He was sure he was down at least several meters when he felt his body start to shake from side to side. He closed his eyes from the dizziness, and a moment later opened them to see Cindy shaking him awake.

"Hi! I was watching you sleep. You made a sudden jerk. I thought I'd try to wake you up."

Jim frowned for a second, then sat up and looked around. The morning shadows were everywhere, with sunlight already on the uppermost hundred feet along the entire length of the western wall. Jim looked at his watch. The time was 7:21 AM. "Look at this. The sun must be due east now..." Jim leaned over and kissed Cindy, and then told her about the closet.

"Are you upset with me?" she asked when he was finished. She hugged and kissed him. "I think maybe I woke you up just at the wrong time."

"Heck no. You did what we agreed to. Why should I be upset? Our next sleep cycle though, let's head to the closet first thing."

"Yeah, okay."

They spent the day chatting and walking around the grounds. In the afternoon Cindy played her flute for Jim for several hours. Jim also started to keep a log of the sunlight, using the prison walls as a giant sundial. He recorded that sunlight began to touch the prison floor at 9:21 AM, a line of sunlight beginning to touch the ground along the northernmost twenty-nine yards of the western wall. Maximum sunlight occurred 12:40 PM, when the sun was due south and all the ground within fifteen yards of the northern wall was bathed in the warm light.

They had a picnic in the sunshine, and then watched the shadows slowly devour the light. The last of the sunlight finally left their prison floor, the shadow of the western wall becoming 500 feet long at 3:54 PM. They watched the shadow of the western wall creep up the eastern wall in the late afternoon and evening, marking sunset at 7:12 PM.

They turned in at 9 PM after a quiet dinner. They were both lying in the plush seats in Cindy's car, holding hands and waiting for sleep to take them.

Cindy woke up sitting in a flowering meadow, rough rocks and brush all around them. There was a stiff cool breeze blowing in off the sea, but she didn't feel cold. The sun was shining from across the island, and Jim was sitting near Cindy's side. He seemed to be asleep. Cindy leaned over and kissed him, and he opened his eyes.

Jim smiled and kissed her back, and then said, "Home is over that way."

"Yes, I know. Come on, let's go."

They were soon both standing inside the large closet. "What time do you think it is, Jim?" asked Cindy.

"You mean the season, here in the dream? Same as before, I think. Late summer of 2010."

"Yeah. That's what I think too. Now, how do I make this work?"

"Just close the door."

Two seconds later the closet floor began to drop smoothly into the ground. It descended through about many meters of granite rock, which then opened up to reveal a spacious circular machine shop area, twelve meters in diameter and three meters in height. There was ample lighting, with working wall sockets everywhere. The room was packed with fabrication equipment, and along the wall opposite from their entrance elevator were both a stairwell and another elevator door.

They spent the next hour laughing at the opulence and functionality of the complex. There were ten levels below the machine shop, a library, a kitchen, two levels of living / recreation areas, and six lower levels of large bedrooms and baths. Each level had the same dimensions as the machine shop, with close to 13,400 square feet of floor space in the entire structure. The gourmet kitchen was packed with food. All the power and water and waste facilities were in magic working order. They finally made themselves ice- cream floats in the kitchen, and then went up a flight laughing to one the reading areas of the library, sinking into the thick leather chairs.

Cindy took a sip of her root-beer float. "Oh, I love it! The vanilla ice-cream tastes so creamy! It's just like being awake! Bravo Jim! I couldn't have dreamed better myself!"

Jim smiled and took a big slurp of his float. "Yeah, and we don't have to worry about calories. It's all just a dream."

"Oh, don't say that. That's the way to get back to Antelope Freeway. I want to stay here and enjoy my float for a while..." Cindy took another big sip, and the then burped. "Oh, excuse me!"

Jim nodded and then burped himself. "Amazing how real the dream is, the carbonated dream soda is even giving us dream burps! It all seems completely real."

Cindy looked at him thoughtfully. "Let's get down to work. What were we doing here, in 2013?"

"We were... uh, we will be hiding. We'll be protecting our daughter. Uh..."

"Yeah, Uh what? I get pregnant two years from now... My gosh, I deliver Charlotte here, don't I?!"

"Yes... I was... I will be so scared..."

"I know this is only a dream Jim, but still... We're protecting her from what?"

"From being discovered, that's all... What else could it be? An infant can't commit a crime. It must have been something we did, not Charlotte. Does it become illegal to have kids out of wedlock? I can't remember a marriage ceremony... This is so bizarre! I'm trying to interpret a future dream while I'm still dreaming! This is so absurd!"

Cindy shook her head slowly. "Take another sip of your float. The ice-cream tastes absolutely real. This is no dream! At least, not in any sense we're familiar with."

"But we can wake up from this."

"I know. It's a dream, and it's not a dream... Both things true... Both things true at the same time... How is this possible?" Cindy frowned, her mind deep in thought.

They were both silent for several minutes. Finally Cindy said, "Charlotte gets born in the fall of 2012. I'm nursing her here in the late winter of 2013... That's when our first dream was... will be... This is so strange... so bizarre... so sad. I know it's just a dream... And yet it's not a dream. And... And it's not a vision of the future either, I don't think. We still have free will. None of this ever has to actually occur... I don't think..."

Jim nodded. "I think you're right. Maybe all this is just a future possibility, where we will be if we make certain choices. Hiding on an island is not my idea of how I want to live my life. Why are we hiding?"

Jim took a long moment to answer his own question. "Does it become illegal to have kids out of wedlock? It sounds absurd, but in a dream, why not? Maybe it's illegal in 2012, my gosh, maybe it's illegal now, in 2010. That's why we built this house. What a totally weird dream!"

Cindy looked confused. "Jim, how did we build this house? No, what am I saying?! It's all a dream. The question makes no sense!"

Jim shrugged his shoulders. "Are you sure? You said it yourself. This is no ordinary dream. Maybe the answer is, we build this place by learning to control our imaginations. We've learned to control our dreams. Ha! But what does that mean?!"

Cindy shook her head. "I don't know what that means either, but I think you're right. I think your physics teacher was right. Your intuition on how to frame problems is fantastic... Maybe our imaginations are shaping this house now. Maybe we can build by pure desire and imagination. Ha! Pity it's not real!"

Cindy closed her eyes and sank down into her leather chair, her mind deep in thought. "Isn't this bizarre? Having Charlotte... It was a mistake, wasn't it? I don't mean having a child together. That urge is just beautiful. But we had Charlotte too soon. And then we leave Antelope Freeway... and our dream house... to give Charlotte a life... And then we find we can't get back, don't we?"

Jim shook his head. "I think we knew beforehand that we couldn't get back. I think we made the sacrifice for Charlotte. The thought of having her spend her entire life in our dream... It was too horrible to bear..."

Cindy nodded. "But it was also a big mistake to leave. Or should I say will be a big mistake? I don't know why... This is so sad. Bizarre and sad and I don't even know what I'm talking about! But back on Antelope Freeway for real, it's still 2009. Maybe it's not too late. Maybe we can change our minds..."

Jim got up and stood by her side. He gently caressed her hair and near her closed eyes with his fingertips. "This is so incredible Cindy."

"Yes. And we have some time to think. You don't impregnate me until 2011. We're married by then. I don't know if we ever have a social ceremony, but we consider ourselves married to each other. And the world... And the world... And the world is a horror! And we are hiding from it!"

"Yeah... But why? I don't know... Well, thank goodness it's just a dream." They both returned to sipping their floats, not saying anything.

"Is it Jim? Is it just a dream?" Cindy whispered at last.

Jim was silent for a long time. "I don't know. Maybe not. Antelope Freeway is real, not a dream... Maybe this isn't either..."



-------

Chapter 9


Cindy leaned against the northern sound-barrier and sighed, enjoying the warmth of the small window of sunlight. She finished her picnic lunch and drank the last of her last bottle of water, and reflected again on how amazing her life was turning out to be.

She had been together now with Jim for almost two weeks. They had been making progress in several ways, and were utterly stymied in others. They still saw no way out of their Freeway prison. They paced the perimeter and grounds for exercise now. Neither was hoping to find anything useful. Each day the due-south shadow of the sun crept closer to the northern wall by more than three feet. The sun was at an azimuth of 180-degrees now, due south, and there was only ten and a half feet of sunlight left along the northern wall.

"I calculate the sun's maximum altitude at fifty-four degrees today," said Jim.

"In three more days, we'll lose it all, won't we?"

"At noon time, yeah. We'll have brief pockets in the northern corners, in mid morning and afternoon, for another few days, but then say goodbye to the sun until spring."

"Oh, hell. We'll be long dead by then."

"Well..." Jim couldn't think of a good response. He leaned over and hugged her. "Want to go back home now?"

"Uh, yeah, sure. This place is starting to depress me. I'll meet you in the upper-level living room..."

Cindy and Jim returned to Cindy's car, got comfortable in the plush seats and closed their eyes. One of their major feats had been to cut down the time it took the reach their island home. They could now reach it within two minutes of closing their eyes.

Another achievement had been on where to spend their sleep time. Amazingly, they discovered that their apparent waking moments on the Arctic island did not count as sleep time, and far as their bodies were concerned. They tried for a while sacking out separately in the luxurious beds of home, only to awake every time on Antelope Freeway. It was just yesterday when they both finally managed the skill of waking up from sleep within a dream, being able to wake up in the soft and comfortable beds of home.

Cindy stretched her arms and opened her eyes, smiling at Jim a short distance away. He was sitting in one of the lounge chairs. Jim smiled back and said, "Well, one thing is nice for sure. Wishes do wash dishes in this place. Every time we pop back in here, we imagine all the dirty dishes are clean."

"Yeah. Maybe sometime we should try to imagine a mess before coming here, just to see if we can do it..."

Jim nodded. "Want to go for a swim?" Three days ago they were both stunned to find an exit door on the other side of the elevator on the lowest-level bedroom floor. The door led through a short tunnel to a huge underground cavern heading towards the center of the island, a circular area of 132-meter diameter with a 44-meter high ceiling. There was a jogging track around the perimeter and a huge pool a hundred meters in length and at least ten meters deep. Jim had it on his agenda to plumb the depth. Jim found swimming in the deep water very enjoyable, and yesterday Cindy had delighted him by showing up in a bikini.

Cindy leaned over and kissed him. "Let's go swimming later. How about we try to brainstorm for a while?"

"Okay." The two sat and chatted for a while, but neither felt any bursts of insight that would tell them more about their predicament.

Finally Jim said, "Hey, I've got an idea. Let's head off to the library." A minute later they were standing among the many shelves of books. Jim turned towards the nature section. Cindy sat down at one of the reading tables to wait for him.

A short time later, he sat down by her side, opening an illustrated book on wild birds. "Here, take a look at this. Pick an animal you'd like to be."

"Huh? Why? Oh! Oh my gosh..."

"Yeah. Why not? We already have the skill to wake up outside the house, if we think about it before falling asleep at the prison. Why not try to imagine we're eagles? We could fly away from here, check out the world."

"Gee Jim, don't birds have to learn how to fly?"

"Well, I suppose. But this is a dream, right? Maybe we'll just know, and if not maybe we could just practice till we get the hang of it."

Cindy looked skeptical. "Oh, I don't know... We have no more real food or water... We don't have as much time as you might think..." Cindy stared at the picture. "Can I imagine myself as an eagle? They don't look very human..."

"Well, there are other books. Want to try being a monkey first?"

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?!"

Jim looked suddenly worried. "Oh! Sorry!"

Cindy laughed and kissed him. "I was just teasing! I suppose I could try to be a bird... An eagle though, I don't know. That face! It just doesn't look human!"

"Well..." Jim nodded as he turned the pages. "Yeah... How about an owl? Their faces are more human-like..."

Cindy stared at the pictures. "I've always loved owls..." She flipped through the pictures, intently studying the pictures of the Barn Owls, the Northern Barred Owls, the Horned Owls, the Western Burrowing Owl... "They look so beautiful, so wise... Yeah, an owl..." Cindy continued to flip through the pages. "There! If you'll try it with me, I'll try to imagine myself as this!" Jim looked down at the page and read slowly, "Aegolius acadicus, huh? What a beautiful bird! Hmmm. The body length is only about eight inches, not very pretentious... Okay, it's a deal." Cindy and Jim stared intently at the large picture for over an hour. It was a picture of a Northern Saw-whet owl. They tried for four days, each time coming to the island as humans and shrugging their shoulders. They would then head to the library to study the picture again. It was during the afternoon of the fourth day that Cindy was thunderstruck with two inspirations, and she decided to try an experiment without filling in Jim with the details... 

She made two very large diet root beers, and got Jim to drink his rather quickly along with her. Then she said, "Jim, there's just a bit of sunlight left at the prison, at the corner of the east and north walls. Let's jump to it, right now!"

"Huh? Okay."

Cindy ran up to Jim and hugged him before he could have a chance to think. "Wake up and jump right now! With me!" Cindy pulled the plug on their dream home, intently thinking of the northeast corner of the prison and concentrating on holding Jim in her arms as she woke up.

Cindy knew she had not succeeded even before she opened her eyes. She had become very familiar with the 53F temperature of the outside air of the prison, and as she awoke she began to feel the warmer environment and plush seat of her car. But there were two realities. She could also feel herself holding Jim in her arms as she stood, and she focused on holding onto that branch of the reality as she finished waking up. She and Jim opened their eyes. They were standing in the one small patch of sunlight left on the prison floor.

The time was 3:05 PM on September 12, 2009. Cindy and Jim were standing just a few feet away from the northeast corner of the prison. The area of sunlight they were standing in was at a local maximum, covering a rectangle over five feet along the northern wall and 123 feet along the eastern wall.

Jim looked around and made a comparison with his prediction. "We're right on target. The sun's azimuth should be seven degrees west of southwest right now, with an altitude of forty degrees. These are exactly the shadows we should be... should be... Cindy! My gosh! What were you thinking of, trying to wake up here in the sunlight?!"

Cindy laughed "Yes! I owe it all to you! I don't think I could have done this by myself. I would have woken up in the car, where we fell asleep this morning. Here! Let me try something. Trust me." Cindy walked behind Jim and held him in a Heimlich position. She lightly squeezed his diagram, and Jim burped. "There! Taste the root beer?"

"Yeah, I sure do. My gosh, my gosh. Cindy! You're a genius!"

"Ha! Thanks!"

"How did you ever guess?"

"I'm not sure how I guessed we could wake up in any spot we want. Pure intuition I think. For the root beer, I noticed that I wasn't hungry or thirsty here at the Freeway, as long I ate a nice meal at home first. And, well, forgive me for being crude, but we're both still urinating and having bowel movements here. I know it's absurd to think that meals in our dream home could actually feed us for here, but heck, this whole place is crazy. Why not?"

Jim smiled at Cindy with intense admiration. "Brilliant Cindy! Bravo! The implications of course are mind boggling. This prison is as much a dream as the arctic island. I guess the scariest question is, where are our real bodies?"

Cindy beaming smile flashed into a deep frown as she shouted, "Shit! I didn't think of that! Shit!"

They began to walk their familiar tour of the inside perimeter wall. At 3:38 PM, the last of the sunlight on the prison floor disappeared. The sun's azimuth was thirty degrees south of west and it's altitude dropped below 35 degrees, causing the shadow from the western wall to reach 500 feet across the prison floor to the bottom of the eastern wall. Jim put his arm gently around Cindy's waist as they walked. He could sense her intense anger.

"Still think they're not monsters, Jim? Shit! They've stolen our bodies! My God, where have they put them?!"

"Yeah..."

Cindy frowned. "We were drugged and knocked unconscious as soon as we entered Antelope Freeway. Nothing since then has been real."

Jim frowned deeply at the thought. "And then again... Maybe not. Cindy, my love for you, getting to know you, your character, your goodness, all the time we've had together these last two weeks, it seems so real! What if both of these places, the prison and the arctic home, are all there is? Maybe there is no third place where are real bodies are."

Cindy sighed, and then reached over and hugged him fiercely. "You think so? My love for you seems real to me too. I haven't expressed it to you yet. You've been very sweet not to push for... well, not to ask for sex. I can feel your desire for me, how strong it is. Thank you for being so patient with me, and so kind."

Jim kissed Cindy. "I love you."

"I know. And I love you." Cindy gave another deep sigh. "And I'll try to share your optimism, even though I don't understand it." She kissed him back, and then they both lay down in the cool grass and began petting each other's bodies. The afternoon shadows crept across the northern and eastern walls of the prison.



-------

Chapter 10



Aina: 5:51 AM, day 217 of 1406 H.E. (Hopewell Era), thirteen minutes before sunrise, morning after the Red Bird Festival

Earth: Thursday, 10:00 AM, October 22, 2009 Eastern Standard and Central Daylight Savings Times

Mark awoke first, the screeching of the migratory birds finally pulling him from his dream. He blinked his eyes open, and then he smiled at the sight of naked Anuhea sleeping in his arms.

They had just married the previous evening, and had spent two hours afterwards hiking with a small tent deep into the orchards that Anuhea loved. It became quite dark as they hiked. It would be New Mahina in just ten days, and their path was only lit by starlight and a thin sliver of the binary planet. Fortunately Anuhea knew the way so well the lack of light didn't matter. She practically ran the trails in her eagerness, and Mark got quite a workout keeping up with her.

Mark breathed slowly through his nose, savoring the smell of Anuhea's body. He was amazed that Anuhea could sleep through the predawn racket, but then thought the bird cries must sound so natural to her; she'd only awake if they weren't there.

Mark lifted his arm and gently began to caress her. Anuhea's body was thin and wiry. She was an incredibly strong young woman, with powerful hands and feet. Mark loved to watch her climb trees while she tended her orchards. Using only her bare fingers and toes for gripping, Anuhea could climb a tree trunk as quickly as Mark could walk up a flight of stairs on Earth.

Mark drifting hand wandered to her breasts, two oases of feminine softness against the sleek supple layers of her ribcage muscles. He lightly pinched her nipples between his fingers, rolling them until they began to swell. Anuhea stirred and took a deep breath, opening her eyes.

"  Good morning my love  " she sang, a traditional Hopewell greeting between spouses.

Mark smiled and cupped her left breast in the palm of his hand, singing the same notes back to her. He playfully began to lick her nipples.

Anuhea grinned and stretched, holding his head to her breasts. "I told you the hike would be worth it. I love the privacy out here! We're probably ten kilometers from the village."

Mark came up for air, grinned and nodded. "Yes... Anu, you're so beautiful!" He returned to suckling her. "Tasty too!"

Anuhea laughed, glancing down at her wet nipples. "I remember a nursery rhyme, from one of the early books I used to learn English. Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?"

Mark gulped, thinking of Kara and Va'an.

Anuhea sat up and pushed Mark down to lie on his back. "I was just teasing! And I really shouldn't. It's just that my heart is bursting with happiness! I want to play!"

Anuhea laid her body on top of Mark, supporting most of her weight on her limbs, but pressing and rubbing her pubic against Mark's penis. She laughed again. "Feeling frisky?!"

"After last night?!" Mark chuckled. "Where do you get all your energy?"

"Ha! Hormones I guess. I just learned about them last month..." Light as a feather, Anuhea floated off his body and sat between his legs. She reached out and held his penis in both her hands, her face turning thoughtful as she stared at his shaft and sac.

"Mark," she whispered, as she wetted two fingers with her tongue and then began to lightly stroke the head of his cock. "Get erect for me, okay?"

"Uh, sure..." Mark was expecting to cuddle first, but Anuhea's mouth dropped to engulf his penis and her hand began to pump its base. The stimulation was intensely sexual, and Mark quickly swelled to a throbbing erection. Anuhea slipped the penis from her suckle and began to probe its tip with her fingers. Mark sighed with pleasure at first, but then gasped in surprise as Anuhea popped open his penile slit. She gazed at it intently for a moment, and then returned with her mouth. Mark was anticipating more exquisite pleasure for his penis, but she gave him a quick sharp nip instead on the sensitive head. Mark yelped in shock, looking down and was astonished there was no blood.

"Raise your legs for me Mark. High up. Touch the back of the tent with your feet."

"Huh? Okay..." Deciding to trust her, Mark arched and exposed his vulnerable scrotum. Anuhea ignored it. His butt was also on display for his new bride, and Mark felt his anus wetted just before a finger slipped inside him. A moment later he felt his prostate gently probed. He blinked in surprise, and looked at Anuhea's face. She had a look of intense concentration. "Are you playing with me Anu, or is this an examination?"

Anuhea nodded and withdrew her finger. "A little of both, I suppose. Va'an, Kara, and I were all talking, about a sibling for Amy..."

"Huh? Oh yeah... Kara and I might try soon. We've been so busy though... Maybe in another season. The core transfer for Jumpstart should be over by then."

Anuhea nodded. She made a hand gesture for Mark to lower his legs, and then she returned to lie down by Mark's side. They kissed for a while. Anuhea kept stroking his penis lightly to maintain his erection. She smiled. "Yes, I know. Va'an and I will both be  Hapai Kokua  to you and Kara, during the conception."

"Hmm?  Hapai Kokua?  " Mark sang. "I'm not familiar with those notes."

"Well, you're not supposed to be. You're father to Amy, of course. But you haven't sired yet."

"Huh?"

"Ah, my most precious husband! Forget we had this conversation, at least until Kara conceives. Here, I'll give you something more interesting to think about!" Anuhea lifted up her body so gracefully it seemed to float in the air, and then she lowered her groin on top of Mark's, sliding his erection inside her, her tight warm moisture engulfing him.

Anuhea began to ride him, and Mark's mind drifted back to the intense sexuality of the previous night. "Unbelievable," Mark thought. "There just might be one more orgasm left in me. Thank God I'm still a teenager... Oh this feels so nice... so hot... so slick... oh..."

As Mark felt himself approaching climax, Anuhea bent over him and whispered in his ear, "I can feel you... How long you are... When you cum, press high and tight inside me. Explode your seed into me! And bite my nipple, swift and sharp, as I did you..."

Anuhea grunted as the intense pleasure of Mark's thrusting shivered her body. Then she lifted up, offering her breasts. Mark suckled a tit deep into his mouth, pressing the nipple high up against the roof of his mouth.

Mark felt Anuhea's body coiling with tension. As he felt his own orgasm about to overwhelm him, he let the breast slide from his mouth, giving a swift nip with his teeth at the engorged nipple, holding back only enough not to break the skin. Anuhea cried out loudly, and Mark felt her vagina spasm around his cock as she began to orgasm. His penis was being held in an incredibly tight grip, and Mark used his major hip muscles to penetrate her fully and explode his seed high and tight against her cervix.

Anuhea rode him, shaking and gasping as her orgasm ran through her body. And then she collapsed upon him and began to cry openly. Mark was bewildered for a moment, holding her hips and wondering if he had bitten her too hard. His heart broke when he realized she was weeping in gratitude.

Simultaneously on Antelope Freeway... 

Cindy smiled and shook her head in amused bewilderment at the sight of Jim. He was so proud of his newest breakthrough, making a sextant in the machine shop and then dreaming it from their arctic home back to Antelope Freeway. "What's so interesting about the shadows anyway?" she asked playfully.

Jim looked away from sighting through his sextant and tried to smile back. "There's 191 feet of shadow on the southern wall now. It should minimize at 170 feet today, later this afternoon. What's the big deal about all this? I don't know. Just something to do, I guess. It's the one piece of the environment that seems to be still moving. The temperature here is always 53F, same as the arctic island. But time here seems to be moving. The arctic home seems forever stuck at the end of summer in 2011... And it's so strange we can't dream of being with Charlotte anymore..."

Cindy blinked. "Oh, I've got my own theory about that. I think we decided not to have her. As the possibility of her future existence disappeared, so did she..."

Jim looked at Cindy thoughtfully and nodded.

Cindy took a step closer and hugged Jim, giving him a brief kiss. "I'm not saying we'll never have children together. It's just that we're both smart enough now not to have our daughter before... well..."

"Yeah, before we get out of this nightmare."

Cindy laughed. "Hey! I thought you were the one who kept insisting we weren't put here by monsters!"

"I did say that once, didn't I? Have we switched sides? We've been here almost two months now. I've been coming around to your idea, of seeing all this as outrageous injustice..."

Cindy responded by leaning over and licking Jim's ear. "Come back home with me? We haven't cuddled in days, and I'm starting to miss it."

Her bright smile and eyes, so full of promise, finally dispelled the last of Jim's depression. "Sure! Want to try walking it again?"

"Yep! That way is the most fun..." Cindy and Jim linked arms and started walking west along the short stretch of the Freeway. After a few seconds, they both closed their eyes. Cindy began to talk. "We're walking the beach, the bay to our left and behind us, the ocean ahead. It's midnight, and both the sun and our house are due north of us." On her next step, Cindy felt her foot sink into soft sand, and she began to smell the cold, salt air. She opened her eyes and laughed. "Wow! That was fast! Just a few seconds..."

They hiked up the short slope to their home. Jim was wondering if Cindy wanted to head to the lower levels, but she just shed her coat, boots, and socks and lay down on the large couch in the front entrance room. She then turned to Jim and batted her eyes sweetly.

Jim laughed and sat down on the couch beside her. He then began to massage her back, something he knew Cindy adored. The morning flowed quietly, neither speaking. He started with her shoulder muscles, slowly working his way down her spine to the upward curve just at the start of her buttocks. Cindy was completely quiet, except for occasional sighs of contentment.

Jim felt a tug on his mind, Cindy's request for linkage. He allowed the mental connection to occur, and then thought, "I love you..."

"I know..." Cindy thought back in silence. "I can feel it, all the emotions... Jim?"

"Yeah?"

"You were right the first time, pointing this out to me. It's an incredible gift, to share this utter intimacy. It's not a gift that a monster would make..."

"No... I suppose not... Still, two months! Are we trapped here for eternity?!"

Cindy sighed and decided to speak out loud. "Patience my love! A lot has happened in these two months. Look at all the things we've learned to do. Link-speak to each other, bring items from here to Antelope Freeway, and over the last week... I've been having new dreams too. I think I'm dreaming I'm an owl."

"Really?! Cool! Flying through the air?"

"Well... Not exactly. Flying around in trees, I think, really strange trees. We should both keep practicing, staring at the owl pictures. I think it's starting to work... I think..."

"Okay. Want to go below now?"

Cindy sighed and switched back to link-speech. "Not right now. This backrub is too heavenly!" She closed her eyes and cooed. After a while Jim felt all tension leave her body, and her breathing became very deep and regular. He lay down beside her, kissing her and gently caressing her butt through her jeans. Curled up beside her, feeling her warmth and smelling her fragrance, he soon followed her into sleep.



-------

Chapter 11



Cindy was asleep for about an hour when she began to have a most amazing dream. At first she was at the bottom of an enormous cylinder, perfectly shaped and filled with crimson light and so vast it was beyond comprehension. There was a great golden spiral curving up around the inside of the cylinder, making one and half revolutions before reaching the top miles above her.

After a moment the scene blurred, and Cindy was falling backwards against giant red soap bubbles, a deep red light glowing all around her. The bubbles were much, much larger than her body, and her body felt strange, smaller and more agile than it should.

Cindy felt very calm. The slippery bubbles would compress when her body hit them, almost stopping her momentum before popping in a burst of red light and dropping her into the next bubble. No, not dropping, she decided. It felt as if each bubble pop were accelerating her into the next bubble. She could also feel Jim's arms around her in the alternate reality of sleeping on the couch, his hand still cupping the left cheek of her butt through her jeans. "Jim, what is this?" she link-thought in Cantonese.

"Quantum foam," Jim's sleepy thought returned in English.

"Huh?"

"You're so beautiful... Such lovely fur..." Jim thought in great drowsiness. "All the lovely brown and red stripes..."

"Huh?!"

"Lots of cute feet too..."

"WHAT?!"

And then the dream changed. The bubbles were gone, and Cindy appeared to be inside a cave. The cave sloped up and ended about ten feet in front of her, with an exit hole in the roof of the very smooth rock, almost polished. Two legs in jeans and hiking boots were just exiting the cave, pulling up a backpack tied to rope.

"Mark!" Cindy heard a woman's voice cry out, "How the hell did this storm move in so quickly? There were just a few puffy clouds here an hour ago!"

And then a man's voice from outside the cave shouted out in reply, "I don't know, I've never seen anything like it!" Cindy scampered up quietly to the tunnel exit, amazed at the quality of the dream. She heard the man's voice call out again, "Kara, there's not really any snow cover yet on the mountain. Let's get down from here before we get trapped!"

Cindy heard the two people walk away, and jumped up out of the tunnel to investigate. Astonished by what she saw, the link breakage with Jim's mind went totally unnoticed as she leaped outside the tunnel.

Cindy was at the top of a conical mountain, and around her was a howling snowstorm. The white light provided her with a good look at her new body. She gaped at what she had become, a large six-legged squirrel, with dark brown and red tiger striping covering her body, even her bushy tail. She felt her body in wonder, and realized her fur was far more luxurious than any squirrel's.

A sound from the two humans caught her attention. They were right at the edge of visibility through the snowstorm, and Cindy realized she could only still see them because they had paused for a moment to rope themselves together. As they resumed their descent, Cindy had an instant to decide whether to lose them from view or pursue them. Cindy moved quickly and followed them.

The next two hours were the most amazing of her life. Even in the cold snow she felt completely warm and comfortable. She realized her body was superbly adapted to the cold weather, and the six legs provided incredible agility. Keeping the two human hikers in sight was very easy, and she spent considerable time testing the agility and flexibility of her body as she followed them. She dimly wondered what her spinal column must be like to provide such fantastic six-legged balance and turning ability.

Both the snow and the daylight faded as Cindy continued to trail the hikers. Then the sun set and the hikers began to set up a tent. Cindy watched quietly from a nearby tree, delighted that she had walked straight up the trunk with no effort at all. The snowstorm had ended, but high clouds were still obscuring the night stars. It was extremely dark when she decided to approach the tent. She started to make out the man's words as she got close.

"... Worst-case scenario is that we are lost forever. But that can't be right, can it?"

And then the woman replied. "I don't know. The Hopewell lived in this canyon a thousand years ago, and then they just vanished forever... I'm just glad I brought the second Glock. Let's be sure to mount the scopes before we sack out."

Cindy shook her squirrel head in bewilderment. "What the hell is going on? They seem like nice people. The man's name is Mark, the woman is Kara. Should I try to communicate? SHIT! What am I thinking of?! I'd probably scare them half to death as a six-legged monster. Mount the scopes? Glocks? Pistols! Shit! They're armed! Cindy, be careful!"

The man's voice called out, "Want something to eat?"

Kara answered. "Yeah, I guess... Can I look at your GPS receiver?"

"Sure, go ahead..."

A moment of rustling passed. Then Kara said, "What do you think Mark? Did the sun set an hour ago?"

"Oh, at least. I think we were hiking in twilight for quite a while. I thought it was just the darkness of the snowstorm... My sense of time is all messed up..."

"Mark, when should the sun have set?"

"Uh, just after 5 PM, I think."

Kara gave a mirthful laugh. "Yeah. Well, the GPS is reading 1:53 PM now. It's a lot earlier than I thought. The fading light fooled me too. Hell, the sun must have set around 1 PM, maybe even before!"

"... Yeah..."

Kara shuddered. "Four hours earlier than it should?! Did a black hole pass by the Earth, change the tilt?"

Mark laughed. "No way! I can't think of an explanation though. Anything that could cause such a major change should have destroyed the planet... at least the surface..."

"Well," said Kara, "something changed the orbit. It's pitch black outside, and the GPS is reading 1:54 PM, December 26, 2008. Some Christmas vacation this has turned out to be!"

Cindy's mind was frantic. "WHAT?! No it's not! It's October 22'nd, 2009. What the hell is going on?!" Cindy's body was shaking from her emotions. "I don't like this dream anymore!"

Cindy tried to wake up from her dream, and realized in horror it seemed impossible. The reality around her was rock solid. She was stunned to realize she was awake. And then she realized her second horror. Her mind link with Jim was totally absent. After a long moment of panic, Cindy turned around and raced back to the tunnel where the all the insanity started.

The trip took an hour, even with her superb sense of direction. It was mostly uneventful, though she did pass a large six-legged creature heading in the opposite direction as she neared the mountain. Cindy thought it looked vaguely like a bear, though its massive head and jaws were way too large. The bear glanced at Cindy as she passed, and then ignored her. The creature was hungry, but it also knew that tiger-squirrels were impossible to catch.

Cindy raced up the mountain, eager to leave the insanity and get home. She got to the apex, and then stood shock still. The circle inside the short stone wall was packed with loose gravel. The tunnel had disappeared.

Cindy stood on the wall for long moments, the brisk winds ruffling her thick fur. She felt at a total loss for what to do next. She finally decided to let her animal instincts take over and direct her. She climbed down the short mountain and bedded down in a tree for the night.

She spent a fitful night trying to sleep, her mind trying to integrate her human and squirrel consciousness. She decided she seemed to have an extensive set of instincts on how to act as a squirrel, and thought she probably had a reasonable chance of surviving for a while. In the thick shelter of the tree, she finally fell asleep.

She awoke at the break of day and began to explore the tree. All thought of being on Earth disappeared. The tree was a conifer-deciduous hybrid, with maple-like leaves on top and pine needles below. Cindy began to munch on the nuts at the transition layer.

Cindy smiled a bit how her dual mind was responding to the taste. The nuts were very oily and had faint pine-oil and strange alkaline flavors. She thought a human would not like their soapy taste at all. But her squirrel mind thought the nuts were pure ambrosia, and she ate her fill with great relish.

There was a movement within the tree. Cindy realized she was no longer alone. Her body coiled into a tight spring as she tried to decide what to do. The movements bifurcated, surrounding her, and Cindy was desperately trying to pick an escape path when a pack of tiger squirrels appeared from all directions.

Cindy froze, wondering if they would treat her as a foreigner invading their territory. But they only seemed inquisitive, and after a few moments several of the young males began to make play offers to her.

And then in a flash, as quickly as they had appeared, they were gone. Cindy blinked her eyes and walked a branch to the outside of the tree, trying to find them. Her eyes went wide as she realized the woman Kara was only ten feet from her. Cindy stopped moving, hoping her tiger striping would blend in with the brown bark and reddish pine needles of the tree. But the woman was turning her head, and a second later they made direct eye contact with each other. The woman screamed and her hand snapped to her pistol. Cindy was petrified.

"Kara, what?!" the man shouted.

"LOOK!" she replied. Both humans began to stare at Cindy. Fearing she'd be shot at any moment, Cindy finally spun around and vaulted to safety. She heard Kara's voice calling out, "Not a mutation Mark! Did you see how coordinated it was with its legs? There's nothing like this on Earth..." Cindy exited the tree from the other side and raced away.

The two humans did not pursue her, and Cindy spent the rest of the morning wandering around and mapping out the landscape. By mid-afternoon she began to feel hungry again and climbed into another food tree. She was only moderately surprised to find some members of the squirrel pack there. After eating lunch, a number of the males again offered play positions to her. Cindy at last agreed and spent the next hour playing a delightfully complicated game of tag.

She took a moment to catch her breath after the end of the last game, smiling inwardly at her performance. She didn't have quite the speed or agility of the young males, but her human mind and reasoning ability had allowed her to hold her own in the complex game. Proud of her accomplishment, she didn't notice one of the young males approach her from a high branch until he jumped down right before her. He froze into a stylized position and began to make a high-pitch purring sound. Cindy recognized it as the first step of a courtship dance.

Cindy's instincts kicked in. She sat down shielding her vulva and hissed, signaling that she had already chosen a life mate. The young male before her hissed back and spun around to race away, brushing the side of his tail across Cindy's face as he did so. Cindy wasn't sure if he was being playful or just rude. She finally decided a little of both. She thought she would recognize him if she saw him again, and in her mind she called him Jackpot, the name of a large stuffed animal she once won at a fair as a little girl.

It was late afternoon, less than an hour before sunset, when Cindy heard a distant sound that made her pause. The pack seemed quite shaken by the sound, and Cindy realized it was gunfire, a lot of it. The other squirrels hissed warnings to her, especially Jackpot, but she left to investigate.

The gunfire abruptly ended soon after she left the tree. Cindy thought it might be a kilometer away, and with the maze of hills reflecting the sounds she pondered her chances of finding the site. She decided to try anyway. She searched for an hour without success and then climbed into a high tree to sleep for the night. The temperature was dropping sharply, and she wondered if her thick fur was up to the challenge.

She began to doze, and then blinked in surprise as she realized there was something in the tree with her. Then she heard a familiar purr, low-pitched, not a courtship call. She answered the call with a low-pitched purr of her own, and felt Jackpot curl his body around her. Nestled in the fork of a large branch, they shared warmth as they slept through the night.



-------

Chapter 12



Cindy awoke after daybreak and discovered she was alone. She continued her search for several hours without success, and then heard a number of human voices coming from nearby. She climbed a ridge to investigate and was horrified by what she saw.

Cindy guessed there were seventy dead human bodies in the field before her. The snow was red with their blood. About thirty men and ten women were moving among the corpses. Cindy climbed a tree and stared at the carnage, trying to make sense of it.

It appeared two different groups had fought a battle, one group wearing furs and the other wearing clothes that Cindy thought looked like woven grasses. All of the people currently walking around were wearing woven clothes. The fatalities in woven clothes looked like they had been hacked to pieces. A number of them still were impaled with spears. Most of the fatalities though were wearing furs, and Cindy thought just about all of them looked like they had died from gunshot wounds.

"Could two pistols do all this?! I doubt it. Do other people have guns around here?" Cindy pondered as she stared at the people walking around. "None of these do... Nuts! Are they singing?! How could they sing in a scene like this?!" Cindy watched them quietly as the morning progressed, slowly understanding. "Wow... A singing language... It's so melodic... But what the hell is going on?"

Cindy sat on the branch and watched for over an hour, trying to understand the singing language. After a while several of the people started pointing at her and watching her back, puzzled by her behavior. Cindy suddenly realized that tiger squirrels were not such patient observers, and she ran from the scene. By midday she rejoined the squirrel pack. They jumped and welcomed her when they saw her, and Cindy decided to travel with them for a time, at least until she could think of a more concrete plan of action.

The pack spent the next several days slowly migrating eastward, taking frequent breaks both to feed and to play. Cindy realized she was traveling far away from the mountain which once had her entrance tunnel. In its journey the pack passed close to a human village, and Cindy marveled at the large circular lake nearby. She guessed from its shape it was formed by a meteor impact, and then looked thoughtfully at her new family, considering how innocent they were of such understanding. Cindy vowed to herself she would never court or procreate as a squirrel. She thought that sexual partners should be equals. With her more advanced mind, having sex with a squirrel would be too much like raping an innocent soul.

They finally came to a narrow gorge which contained a swift deep river. It was there that Cindy learned another surprise about her new species. They were omnivores, hunting in the shallows of the river for minnow-like fish. Cindy thought the new food was delicious, but a small voice from her human mind was again telling her that a human would not enjoy the fare. Cindy spent her time in peace, sharpening her fishing skills, enjoying the many play periods, and sleeping curled with the pack at night against the cold winter air.

And the days flowed by. Within a couple of weeks the temperature warmed considerably. Spring had arrived, on a planet Cindy thought the singing humans perhaps called  Aina . A few days later a large mixed group of adult humans arrived at the river to fish alongside the squirrels. The pack was wary for a while, but not overly so. Cindy slowly realized the two groups were not really in competition for the food. The squirrels were hunting in the shallows for minnows, and the humans were dragging baited hooks in the deep parts of the river.

The humans came to fish on a daily basis, and Cindy was delighted to find that the humans spent much time teaching each other their languages. The singing language seemed to be native to all of the men and half with women, and the other language native to the other women. Both languages sounded completely unfamiliar. Cindy spent long hours watching them pantomime the meaning of their words to each other, and she slowly learning both languages with them. She would often rehearse her day's learning in her mind at night, while watching the strange and bright constellations.

And the weeks flowed by. There began to be a tremendous amount of daylight. The nights became shorter than anything Cindy had ever experienced. Her large pack of squirrels picked up one day and began heading north. Cindy traveled with them for a full day, but the next morning realized they were on the start of a great migration.

Cindy stopped to consider. They were heading into deep country that appeared totally uninhabited by humans. Would they ever return? Could she find her way back to the human village if they didn't? Cindy decided to return to the humans while she was still only a day away. She started heading south.

Cindy screeched in surprise as she felt something pulling her tail. She turned and was shocked to see Jackpot had bitten into the fur on at the tip of her tail. He was trying to pull her northward. Cindy dug her claws into the earth and hissed at him. Though clenched teeth, he gave a low-frequency purr back, and then made a crying sound.

The rest of the pack became quite agitated too, jumping around the two. Several squirrels, both male and female, tried to push Cindy northward but to no avail. The morning progressed, and then finally with great consternation the pack gave up and resumed their migration. Cindy heard Jackpot calling to her constantly until the pack finally moved out of earshot.

Cindy started her southward return. She spent much of the time hiding in trees from huge red hawks that glided far overhead. In a pack the tiger squirrels would mount such a spirited collective defense that even the great hawks avoided them. But alone Cindy realized she was very exposed and vulnerable. It took her two days to return to the human village.

She made a home in the fruit orchards that grew near the village, and continued to spend long hours listening to the language classes the humans would have below her. Incredibly, everybody also seemed to be learning English; and her job of learning the singing language and the other strange language became a lot easier.

Cindy would often see one of the women staring at her as she perched watching the classes. The woman was very young, but Cindy had a hunch she was the resident tree expert of the village. The woman could climb a tree faster than Cindy thought possible for a human, and they would often bump into each other among the branches. The woman also seemed to be good friends with Mark, and Cindy finally learned her name when she heard Mark call her Anuhea.

Weeks passed, and the spring began turning into summer. And then one warm evening, after a long day full of work and light, Cindy saw Mark and Anuhea lying down with each other in the orchards by an old stone wall, petting each other's feet. It distressed Cindy a bit. She thought Mark and Kara would have made a good pair, and she wondered if they had broken up.

Over the next several days a crisis occurred in Cindy's world, one that drove all such idle speculation from her mind. The last of the various nuts she had been eating vanished from the trees, and there was nothing else for her to eat. She traveled to the river gorge, but the tasty minnows were also gone. The days passed and she had absolutely nothing to eat.

Cindy began to panic, and in the course of a week she went from hungry to starving. In desperation she tried to eat some of the fruits in the human orchards. Her human mind registered the tastes as delicious, but her squirrel body reacted violently against the diet, forcing her to vomit. As Cindy clung to a branch, weak and gasping, she wondered if she were dying. Her stomach still felt like vomiting, but all she was producing were dry heaves. She glanced over to the other side of the tree, and saw Anuhea watching her thoughtfully.

Seventy days later... 

Aina time: Sunset, 5:35 PM, day 78 of 1406 H.E., first day of second week of autumn

Earth time: 12:42 AM, Monday, June 8, 2009, Central Daylight Savings Time

Mark and Anuhea cuddled with each other at the end of a long day of work. After kissing for a while, they got playful with each other, and Mark reaffirmed his commitment to Anuhea by petting the undersides of her breasts.

Anuhea sighed with the pleasure. "Ah, that feels so nice... I still find it hard to believe I'm engaged to you... I know it's been a full week... I'm so happy..."

Mark nodded and they kissed for a while, holding each other and waiting for the stars to come out. Mark gazed at the binary planet above his head. "Nice we'll have some light for the walk back."

"Yeah. We'll be up to half-Mahina in just four days... Oh look! My friend is back!"

"Huh?" Mark looked around. The orchard seemed vacant. Anuhea laughed and pointed up into a nearby tree. Mark was puzzled. "What?"

"Keep looking, there's still enough light to see. Follow my finger."

Mark stared for a while. "The tiger-squirrel?"

"Yeah... Watch this!" Anuhea waved her hand at the squirrel. The squirrel responded by waving its tail.

Mark blinked in surprise in the evening light. "Wow! I didn't know they were that social."

"They never are, not with humans. This one's a real exception. She's patiently inquisitive, watches the tribe for hours. It's unheard-of behavior for a tiger squirrel."

Mark stared at the squirrel thoughtfully and then waved to her. The squirrel waved her tail back. "Wow..."

Anuhea nodded. "Yeah, wow is right. I've been feeding her."

"Huh?"

"You should never see tiger-squirrels this time of year. They migrate north for the summer and fall. Their food supply won't be ready here till almost winter. This one though is super inquisitive about us. She didn't migrate, even though it was death to stay here..."

"Oh... What are you feeding it?"

"Oh, just some nuts we collect in the winter, for the soap making. We have more than enough to feed one extra squirrel. I found this one about a season ago, so weak she was dying. She let me care for her, bring her back to health, even pet her. It's absolutely unheard-of behavior for a tiger-squirrel. She likes to watch us, when the tribe holds language classes in the meadows. She'll just park on a branch and stare at us for hours..."

Mark nodded and rested his head next to Anuhea. After a while the squirrel waved its tail in goodbye and departed. Mark shook his head in wonder. The stars came out soon after. Mark and Anuhea held hands as they walked back to the village.



-------

Chapter 13

Aina: 8:04 AM, day 217 of 1406 H.E., two hours after sunrise, morning after the Red Bird Festival

Earth: Thursday, 12:13 PM, October 22, 2009 Central Daylight Savings Times

Cindy crept up the mountain, her body shaking with fear. A great red hawk was hunting her overhead, and she felt very exposed on the bare rocks. This was the first time she had seen the awful predator since last summer, and she was dismayed at the added complication. Her only salvation was that the humans were close by, only twenty meters away now, too close for the hawk to attack. At least she hoped so... 

Cindy crouched in the rocks and waited to make her final dash. Her eyes were glued on the lookouts at the summit, her body tensed into a tight spring as she waited for a critical second when they would both turn away. Her mind wandered back to the incredible year she just had... 

It was near the end of the human harvest time that the winter nuts bloomed and Cindy could finally stop depending on Anuhea for food. A few weeks later the squirrel pack migrated back into the area. Cindy was both surprised and touched at how joyous many of the squirrels acted when they saw her. Jackpot had found a mate during the summer, a very foxy looking female. Cindy decided to call her Lola. Cindy had to smile at herself occasionally when she caught herself feeling faint pangs of jealousy when she saw Jackpot mounting his very eager mate.

The winter was mild. There was no snow throughout the season, just occasional frost on the morning meadows. The rains though were frequent and soaking, and Cindy found herself wishing along with the rest of the pack for the dry coldness of the snow. Cindy also began to see a lot of Earth technology appearing around the village. She saw large precision telescopes, electric lights in a new building complex being constructed, even people carrying laptop computers. She also watched the construction of an array of wind towers erected on the ridge line of Crater Lake.

It finally dawned on Cindy to trace where all the Earth goods were coming from, and she was shocked to learn that the tunnel connecting to Earth would occasionally open. Abandoning the pack, she had spent the last several weeks of winter alone, waiting for her chance to go home. The hardest part was forcing herself to be patient. She knew she'd only get one shot at the tunnel. The humans had it well guarded, and it would be very easy for them to erect a wire fence around the opening, if they thought wildlife transfers were a problem.

And the moment was NOW! Both guards were looking the other way. Cindy raced in a blinding flash up the remaining rocks to the summit, hearing the distant cry of the great hawk above her.

"Shit!" screamed Kalea. "Stop that squirrel!"

Anapela had no time to unsheathe her knife. She tried to block the route with her body, but Cindy dashed between her legs. Cindy felt the woman's fingers brush by her tail, but she was too fast by an instant for the woman to get a grip.

And there was the tunnel! Cindy flew in and began to race down the spiral. She heard Kalea singing out behind her, "  Team!  Tiger-squirrel  in  the  tunnel!  Stop  it! "

Down the spiral Cindy could hear numerous porters acknowledging the call. She was trapped, but she was amazed to realize she could also feel Jim's mind again, for the first time in more than a year. And then, somehow... It felt really weird. The tunnel seemed to have four spatial dimensions. Cindy didn't go down the spiral, nor left or right, nor through the roof or floor. She turned and fled in a direction orthogonal to everything else, and found herself floating in a large, sparkling-blue soap bubble.

Jim's sleeping mind felt right next to her, floating with her inside the soap bubble. "Oh hi," said Jim calmly in great drowsiness. "Where'd you go?"

Cindy was speechless and then furious at him for being so nonchalant. They had been apart for a full year. "Jim! You turkey! Wake up!"

"Huh?!"

And then the giant soap bubble glowed a bright blue and popped. Cindy felt an incredible sense of acceleration, and a hand resting on her buttocks... her human buttocks... She opened her eyes and gazed about the room.

She was sleeping on the couch in the top level of their arctic home, Jim lying by her side and holding her butt. Jim blinked his eyes open and the smiled, gave her butt an affectionate pat and then withdrew his hand. "Hi. I just had the strangest dream..." Jim stared at Cindy glaring at him and he began to frown. "Uh, did you just call me a turkey?"

An hour later... 

Jim walked from the kitchen counter to one of the two dining areas, carrying two plates loaded with lunch. "Cheeseburger with everything on it, just the way you like it!" There was also iced-tea and large salads and chips. Cindy smiled and dived in.

Jim smiled at her halfway through lunch. "How did you pick the name Jackpot?"

Cindy grinned back. "Except for the six feet, you wouldn't believe how much he looked like a favorite stuffed animal of mine. Summer of 1993, I was on vacation with my parents at a carnival. There was this game where you toss a quarter at some clear glass plates, and if the coin stays on top of a plate you win a prize. My coin bounced forever from one plate to another and finally spun out on a pale pink plate in the center of the game."

Cindy grinned and finished her burger before continuing. "I knew what I wanted immediately, the largest tiger on display. It was red with black stripes and almost as big as I was. When the carnival man handed it to me, he said: Little girl, you won the jackpot!"

Cindy munched on her few remaining potato chips. "It was the first time I ever heard the word. I thought he was telling me the tiger's name... Jim?"

"Yeah?"

"You don't think it was all a dream, do you?"

"Oh, hell no. At least, not in the old way I used to think of dreams..."

"What?"

"I've been trying to make some physical sense of what's been happening to us, trying to build a framework to model the reality of it. I've been porting over some of my ideas from quantum physics. It's very wild stuff, but it makes sense, in a crazy sort of way. It would consider everything we've experienced as a channel of quantum..."

Jim paused for a moment. "I haven't picked the words to describe the mathematics yet. Shadows, bubbles, foam... They all seem to fit."

"And you think we're caught in this quantum channel?"

Jim looked deep in thought for a moment. "Yeah, lost in its shadows..." He looked up and smiled at Cindy. "Your trip to  Aina  was one path out of the channel. My model would be that Antelope Freeway is still inside the channel, just like here, but in a different branch."

Cindy nodded. "You should sing it as  Aina , by the way. The notes are important, not just the phonetics. It's a true singing language... So I'm back in October, 2009 now, huh? The same day I left..."

"Well, we both agreed before the arctic home here seems frozen at September, 2010. But yeah, you experienced a whole extra year of living and I didn't." Jim leaned over and kissed her. "I forgive you for calling me a turkey."

Cindy turned her face and offered him her cheek. "Here. On Aina, it's customary to kiss a person on their cheek when you're forgiving them."

The next kiss drifted into petting. Cindy was just beginning to feel herself getting sexually aroused when Jim's eyes sprang open. "Wait a minute! I left the sextant at Antelope Freeway. I could probably make a good latitude and date measurement with enough solar observations."

Cindy nodded. "I hate to admit it, but I wouldn't mind seeing the Freeway again either. Let's go and get the sextant." Cindy moved her dining chair to Jim's left side and then sat back down. They both closed their eyes as they held hands. Cindy leaned back. "We've both sitting in my Mercedes. Soft leather seats, feels like my car, so plush..."

Cindy felt her body sinking into the leather, still holding Jim's hand. She smiled and opened her eyes and gasped in astonishment. "Look!" she shouted.

The Mercedes was parked in the eastbound breakdown lane, in the shadow of the southern wall. But part of the westbound lanes and all of the grass of the northern buffer area was bathed in brilliant sunshine. Cindy and Jim got out of the car and gaped at the scene.

"I don't even have to measure," said Jim. "The shadow ends right on the divide between the two traveling lanes. There's eighty-five feet of sunlight before the northern wall. And look! It goes all the way to both the east and west walls. The sun must be due south, right now..."

Cindy got back into her car and turned on a display. She whispered, "Jim, come take a look at this." Jim poked his head in through the window. Neither said anything else for a long moment. The time on the display was Wednesday, 1:43 PM, August 18, 2010.

Three weeks later... 

Earth time: Wednesday, 5:33 PM, September 8, 2010 Central Daylight Savings Time

Aina time: 12:55 PM, day 254 of 1407 H.E.

"Still think today is the big day, Mr. Claus? Nothing much so far..."

"Ho, Ho, Ho! Hey Cindy! It wasn't my idea to plunk this island down smack-dab at the North Pole!"

"I still can't see how you can be right. There's no island at the North Pole, and the library books confirm it! The ocean atlas lists the sea floor depth as 4087 meters at the Pole. There's no land anywhere near it!" Cindy kicked up some sand from the beach.

Cindy and Jim were on an afternoon hike before dinner, a six-plus kilometer hike around the circumference of the core island. They were walking counter-clockwise, with the ocean and bays to their right. They had just cut across one of the peninsulas, and were at longitude 269-degrees with the open ocean to their right and the peninsula right behind them.

The sky seemed to brighten for about a second. Both Jim and Cindy looked around puzzled and then ignored the mild flash. The skies looked clear. It didn't seem like lightning. Cindy asked, "What the hell was that?"

Jim shrugged his shoulders. "Northern lights? I don't know... Cindy, the sun doesn't lie! I'm using the same techniques that Peary and Henson used in 1909, except I've got more stable ground to do the shadow measurements. I'm telling you Cindy, we're at ninety degrees north! Spot on! And the gravity is just like Earth."

"Aina was a different planet, and the gravity felt just like Earth. Maybe this isn't Earth either."

"Well... I wish the sun would set. The stars would confirm it. But the sun's spectrum is exactly right for Earth, the day is exactly twenty-four hours long too, as close as I can measure it... Cindy, this has got to be the North Pole of Earth. It's got to be..."

Cindy leaned over and gave him an affectionate kiss. "I was just teasing you, Mr. Claus! I think so too. I still worry though, that this island is a dream, and when the dream pops we'll be swimming in 4,000 meters of freezing ocean. Where do you think all the ice is?"

Jim laughed and pointed in every direction. "That's easy! South! Somewhere the dream has to end and interface with Earth's timeline. Where's the boundary for the reality interface? I don't know. This is so incredible. Something is shifting reality to make this all possible, shifting the quantum reality of Earth's timeline. The technology is pure magic..."

"Ha! You still think it's technology, huh? Not real magic? I went back in time 300 days, lived 300 days, and then we both popped 300 days into the future. Seems like magic to me, not science!"

"No... It all fits my new model. I've been integrating some ideas on gravity and spacetime. This fits right in, as an example of the conversation of temporal momentum within a folded space manifold."

"Huh? But I was the only person to jump back, and then we both jumped into the future. Doesn't sound like a conserved balance to me."

"Ah, you're thinking of linear or angular momentum. Temporal momentum principles are quite a bit different..." Jim paused for a moment to breathe deeply of the cool salt air. "If you stayed on Aina in December 26, 2008 for just an instant and then jumped, just you would have jumped 600 days into the future, to August 18, 2010. The analogy would be a spring or a pendulum swinging to an opposite extreme position. But you lived the 300 days first. So the 600 days of stored temporal momentum carried the two of us 300 days in the future."

Cindy shook her head. Jim's comment made no sense at all. "How do you store time?"

"Not time, temporal momentum... The quantum interface needed to support going back in time... That's really scary. I still don't understand how it's possible to do it without causality violations..."

Cindy at last nodded and sighed, still not understanding but grateful Jim seemed to. She watched her footprints being made in the pristine sand for a while. "I know how hard you've been working on this... And you think this is the big day, huh?"

"Oh yeah. The sun keeps circling at an elevation of 5.6 degrees, just above the horizon. But is should be spiraling down, going below the horizon sixteen days from now. Yet it keeps circling... Time here is frozen at September 8, 2010."

"And now Antelope Freeway time is catching up with it?"

"Yep. The temporal collision should be quite a bump."

"Well, I'm glad that... Hell! Did you see that? That flash again! What is it?"

Jim and Cindy looked around puzzled. The skies seemed clear.

Jim finally got back to the conversation. "These last few weeks, I've made a lot of progress with my models on quantum channels. It's actually an extension of some work I've already published. I never dreamed I'd witness it for real though..."

Cindy smiled at him and then looked ahead and screamed. A hundred meters up the shoreline a bunch of Paleo boys were emerging from one of the sea caves, carrying throwing rocks and spears. The spears reminded Cindy of the frightening carnage she saw in her first days on Aina. The youths looked up at her cry, raised their spears and began to charge.


-------

Chapter 14


Future Interlude I: A Day At The Water Park... 

Aina time: 9:17 AM Day 36 of 1467 H.E.

It was the start of the midsummer school break on Aina, a full week with no school. In the early morning, the two mothers currently parenting the twins asked them where they'd like to go for the day.

In one voice, Kalea and Mayoni answered with a shout, "L&M's!"

So Jennifer and Kara packed box lunches for everybody and they took the subway to the Aina's one and only Water Park. The two women joined their daughters for a few of the gentler rides, but then bowed out and settled down with some books in a shaded lounge area by the side of a large diving pool. Mayoni and Kalea continued to play with a large group of their age mates.

Kara watched her daughters for a while, admiring their athleticism and grace in their diving. She smiled at her sister-wife Jennifer who was reading a book, "Ah, to be young again!"

Jennifer looked up from her book and smiled at Kara. "Feeling your age?"

Kara laughed. "A little I guess! In another month I'll be eighty-eight, sixty-eight in Earth years. How the time has flown Jennifer! But my body is starting to notice the years. I can feel myself slowing down."

Jennifer nodded thoughtfully. "You still look great though, very healthy."

"Well, you too."

"Do you think so? Lately I've been feeling so tired. And... I got a call from Dr. Aikane last night. I've been meaning to tell you..."

"Jen... What's up?"

"Hopefully it's nothing. Dr. Aikane wants to do some more blood work. I have another appointment at 4 PM today."

Kara was silent for a moment. "The girls will be fine without us. I'll come with you."

"Oh, there's no... well, thanks..." Jennifer sighed and settled down in her soft patio cushions. She admired all the children at play for a while. "Look at this place! It's packed! Remember all the resistance people put up when Leon and Mark proposed building it?"

Kara laughed. "Sure do! There's no word for amusement park in the traditional Hopewell vocabulary. And those were difficult times, the years before L&M finally got the tribe's approval..."

Kara gazed out at her daughter on the high dive. Kalea waved back happily before making a very graceful jackknife dive off the five-meter springboard. There was almost no splash at all. The boys nearby applauded good-naturedly.

Kara frowned. "Jennifer, do you think it was wise to let Mayoni and Kalea wear bikinis here?"

Jennifer looked at Kara and blinked in surprise. But then she remembered Kara's own torturous childhood, being molested and later raped by her step father. "Relax Kara! You know all these boys, don't you? Don't you trust them?"

"Yes, I do... Still..."

"Still what? Kara, look at it this way. The twins are old enough to vote!"

"That doesn't mean anything!"

"Of course it does!"

"Yeah? Well, look at it this way. They're not even teenagers yet!"

Jennifer raised her eyebrows. "What?!"

"In Earth years, I mean. Think about it."

Oh, Earth years..." Jennifer was silent for a moment. "My gosh, you're right. But they're close. In another month, they'll be thirteen... I guess I really don't think in terms of Earth years any more..."

Kara smiled. "Jennifer, forgive me. I think I was being rude. And it's funny in a way. You lived much more of your life on Earth, yet I'm the one who likes keeping time on Earth's clock."

"Well, not surprising at all. The plague years were a horror on Earth. I have a lot more memories that I'd like to forget..." Jennifer took a deep breath and sighed. "Kara, it's not really the bikinis, is it? Isn't it really the fact that in one week our daughters are heading off to Athens University?"

Kara was silent for a moment and then nodded. "I'm not the only one worrying about this. Anuhea shares my concerns, Va'an and Mark are sitting on the fence on the issue. It's really you and Leon and Hiapo that have championed the girls' cause. And... I guess that's enough for me. I respect all of your opinions immensely."

Jennifer leaned over and kissed Kara's cheek. "I don't think you were being rude, but of course I forgive you anyway... Kara, the reason I support the twins going... I lived through the plague years on Earth in the 2020's. Things got really brutal, and the last generation of kids mostly lived through it. Those not killed in the wars I mean. Kids are tough. And Mayoni and Kalea are so smart it takes my breath away. Not just in math either. I'm talking about their insight into the human spirit. Trust them dear wife. They really are ready for this..."

Kara smiled at last. "Cluck! Cluck! Cluck! Am I being a mother hen? Perhaps!" Kara settled back in her lounge chair as Jennifer returned to her book. Watching the children playing so joyfully with the rides, Kara's mind drifted to philosophy.

"It's idyllic now," she thought, "But it hasn't always been like this. I remember how happy we all were, when we ended our war with the WFM back in the winter of 1451. We thought all our problems were over..." Kara closed her eyes and sighed, her mind skipping back through the years... 

Trouble began in Aina in 1456 as Mayoni and Kalea were turning six, soon after the completion of the residential complexes in Athens. Without the plague crisis with Earth to unify the society and the city construction to occupy their time, the people lost focus and began to drift apart. Displays of rudeness that were unheard of in the earlier years became common, and there were isolated cases of senseless vandalism from the older teenagers.

In an effort to take the pressure off the teenagers approaching adulthood and to give them more time for education, the society changed the marriage class year from 23 Aina years (18 Earth years) to 27 Aina years (21 Earth years). And in an effort to foster more social responsibility, the Hopewell opened the voting franchise to the older children. The voting age was lowered to 16 Aina years (12.5 Earth years), lower than any country on the old Earth had ever attempted. Shortly afterwards the adults were shocked when 40% of the population voted and expunged the requirement for adult marriage, effectively abolishing the marriage class system.

A poll was taken and a solid 42% (heavily weighted with the younger voters) said they would never allow a compulsory marriage requirement. There was great bitterness with the older majority of the voters, in letting the young minority control such a major change to the fabric of the society. A proposal to nullify the constitution reached 37%, and everyone was wondering if the entire structure of the government would have to be rebuilt. Paradoxically, a growing minority of people were clamoring to abolish minority rule.

On the second leap-day (day 289) of 1457, Anuhea addressed the nation during the annual oration assembly. She was 75 years old at the time (58 Earth years) and still serving as head of the judicial branch of Congress. She made an impassioned plea for people to withdraw their votes to expunge the constitution, pleading with the people not to dissolve the government. She asked that the Congress be given one year to study and find a compromise to the marriage question. Anuhea's plea touched the hearts of the people. The vote to expunge the Constitution dropped to less than 8% by the end of the day.

The year 1458 was a year of much soul searching for the Hopewell tribe. It was the first year for the tribe to be without a marriage class in almost a thousand years, and the loss of the excitement and the joy was felt even by those opposed to the custom. It was during this time that Leon and Mark began pushing the tribe for resources to build a water amusement park. Kara at first thought their timing was absurd, but in time she came to realize their brilliance in encouraging people to play.

On day 216 of 1458, on the 53'rd anniversary of the end of the Paleo-Hopewell war, a special vote was held in lieu of the Festival of the Red Bird. The people were voting on a proposed constitutional change.

The tribe had been growing at about 0.4% per year since the end of the war with the Paleo, and the total Hopewell population was 4,325 on that voting day, including 3,072 voting adults and 405 older children with voting rights. The Congressional proposal was to keep the marriage class system, but to make it completely optional. The normal age to join the class would remain at the new value of 27 Aina years, but the classes would be open to all adults of legal marriage age (minimum of 23 Aina years). Judicial members of Congress would also marry citizens of legal age at any time for those who did not wish to be part of a marriage class.

There was a great collective sigh of relief when the suggestion was adopted with over 3,400 yes votes.

And the years rolled by. Surprisingly almost no one eligible decided to opt out of the marriage classes once the custom became optional. The acts of vandalism disappeared and the society settled down, grateful that the governmental mechanism for solving problems had worked. Research and development in the sciences continued, but the period was also noted for a profound lack of exploration.

Earth remained completely uncolonized except for a small research center in the Appalachian mountains, at the site of the slip bubble connection to Aina. The researchers stayed on Aina time and would travel through the bubble after work to live with their families at Olympus, a small town by the side of Blue Spirit Mountain.

Earth had undergone a number of changes in the 6.5 million years since the Hopewell's encounter with the WFM. The sidereal day was now 24 hours and 2 minutes, due to the breaking of the moon on Earth's spin. Earth was also in the last stages of an ice age. Long-range drone aircraft revealed that the entire land mass of what was once Canada was covered with retreating glaciers. Except for images from drone aircraft, both Aina and Earth remained unexplored.



-------

Chapter 15


Earth time: Wednesday, 5:49 PM, September 8, 2010 Central Daylight Savings Time

H.M.S. Resolute, depth 200 meters, speed zero knots, six kilometers from the undersea Lomonosov Ridge... 

Captain Jacobs drifted over to helm control. After a moment of staring at some displays, he asked, "And what's your opinion bosun?"

John McHale looked up from his station, shrugged first and then smiled. "Warrant Officer Stevenson is the best there is, sir. But I'll bet you sterling to navy beans his e-techs find nothing..."

The captain nodded slowly as he thought of the engineering teams that were troubleshooting the sensor systems. "My gut says that too... All the diagnostics are reading fine now... Three independent systems... hell..."

"Yeah..." John typed a few commands and replayed the sensor logs. "ARCI picked it up first, big as a mountain and right in front of us. Collision avoidance systems kicked in, got a confirming pulse with both the high frequency sonar and CAVES. Managed to get one clean image, and then the whole thing vanished..."

John punched up the Conformal Acoustic Velocity Sonar image on his tactical display. "Hell is right captain. That mountain reads almost ten kilometers in diameter at the base, a very steep cone, so perfectly circular... goes all the way to the surface, a fair bit of land... Ha! Santa Claus land sir, an island dead center at ninety degrees north."

Captain Jacobs scowled. "Hell... Three independent sensor arrays... It's impossible!"

"Well sir," John replied slowly, "The plague is impossible too. Yet it exists..."

Earth time: Wednesday, 5:50 PM, September 8, 2010 Central Daylight Savings Time

The Paleo youth raised their spears as they charged. Cindy's voice screamed in Jim's mind. "RUN! Back to the house! Cut across the island! Move! Move! Move!"

Cindy's frantic plea shocked Jim out of his daze and he began racing up the short hill, away from the beach and the charging Paleo youths. In a straight line he was about 1.4 kilometers from home. Cindy's voice kept screaming in his mind the whole time he climbed the hill. It wasn't until he neared the top that he took a second to glance back. What he saw broke his heart.

Cindy's mental voice: "Don't you DARE break stride! Keep moving! As fast as you can!"

Jim's mind roared back through the mental connection: "Cindy! What the HELL are you doing?! You'll be killed!"

"No I won't! I have a plan! Trust me! Get to the house and lock up! I'll explain later!"

Cindy had spent a year living on Aina eavesdropping on conversations about the Paleo, and she was sure the Paleo youth would pursue her and not Jim. She fled down the beach to draw the attack force away from him. Cindy had been expecting to outdistance the Paleo youth, or at least stay out of spear range. She was an adult in excellent physical shape, and more importantly knew the path so well that she knew exactly where to plant her feet.

One quick backwards glance though showed the Paleo were keeping pace with her. She thought she counted eleven boys chasing her, and perhaps three of youngest were after Jim. "Shit," she thought. "The boys after Jim don't look more than six-years old! Why are they trying to kill us?!"

As she came to the peninsula Cindy realized that the Paleo boys would cut her off if she tried to angle back to the house. "So, we go with Plan A," she thought as she ran. "Sure hope this works." She kept running along the beach, along the outside arc of the peninsula and away from the path to home. The Paleo youths chasing her smiled. They had their prey cornered.

As Cindy raced down the peninsula she put on a burst of speed and sprinted with all her strength, fleeing into the rolling dunes and becoming invisible to the boys chasing her. The leader of the boys took a few moments to form a skirmish line across the width of the peninsula, placing a warrior every twenty meters across the quarter kilometer width. When they were all in position, they began an easy jog down the length of the thin arc of land. In the time it took to form the skirmish line, Cindy had built a kilometer of separation from the youths. She continued her sprint, knowing in two more kilometers she would run out of land.

Jim meanwhile reached home and dashed through the entrance in the back room, slamming the door and locking it. Panting from his run, he heard the Paleo youth approaching right behind him. He suddenly realized the front door was open, and raced to lock it. He got to it and slammed the bolt home a second before the handle turned and the door was tested from the outside. Jim trembled with relief that the bolt held. It looked very solid. He turned to the window, and saw in horror a young Paleo youth running straight towards the window with a large rock held high above his head, with another boy by his side ready to throw a spear. The youth ran full speed right up to the window and hurled his rock against the glass.

Future Interlude II: Mission Of Gravity

Aina time: 2:00 PM, day 150 of 1472 H.E., one week after the Festival of Ice and the start of winter

"Holographic generators online, manifold is stable with spherical symmetry..." Aegis took a quick look around the Level-two lab before returning to his displays. He struggled to keep his excitement under control and out of his voice. "This could be it!" he thought as he shivered.

Ajax called out beside him, "Graviton gravion flow matrix engaged. Gravity at point eight in the inner core." Except for the four directors of the Blue Spirit Quantum Labs, he and Aegis were the most senior gravity technicians on Aina. They were also twin brothers.

Ajax made a slight adjustment to a resonance control. "Neutral gravity... Mark! Gravity at negative point five... gravity at negative three... gravity at negative twelve... gravity at negative twenty... negative one hundred... Bounce mode locked and stable... Kalea, how far you want to push this?"

The young teenage girl answered without looking up from her displays. "Punch it to negative fifty thousand. Let's get a nice tight inversion before the main experiment..."

Her twin sister Mayoni nodded without speaking, glancing up from her own displays to her brother Havika monitoring the holographic generators. Havika was the senior lab director present in the room and thereby technically in charge of the experiment. He was quite happy though to assume the role of safety officer for the nested series of test chambers and let the two junior lab directors, his two younger sisters, take operational control.

When the base field of the inner core leveled off, a small 10.2 gram aluminum disk would be pushing up against the top of the inner chamber with a half ton of force. As the five researchers waited for the first gravity hologram to reach its target level, Mayoni's thoughts drifted back across her whirlwind years as an undergrad and grad student at Athens University... 

It was in the winter of 1467, when Kalea and Mayoni were still freshmen, that Hiapo, Havika, Kalea, and Mayoni made their breakthroughs and began to build their first graviton generator. It was Mayoni's initial burst of insight that led to the development, modeling gravity as a holographic illusion projecting from a 2-D flatland universe without gravity. This bizarre step enabled her finally to satisfy both the surface and volumetric boundary constraints of the quantum gravity mathematics.

The resulting technology seemed like magic, enabling the construction of virtual perpetual motions machines by drawing on the almost infinite densities of the dark energy and dark momentum of spacetime vacuum. All need for hydro-electric power and hydrogen fuel cells vanished. The technology appeared to make exploration of the three worlds incredibly easy, and in the summer of 1468 the Hopewell launched their first gravity probe to map Aina from low orbit. And then something unexpected happened.

With control of gravity, a true orbit for the 130 kg probe was unnecessary. The plan after launch was simply to have the probe hover 200 km above Blue Spirit, safely out of the planet's atmosphere. But the launch team lost contact with the probe just as it cleared the atmosphere of Aina. Minutes later, they were relieved to regain contact as the probe started falling back to Aina. Probe diagnostics had recorded a system-wide power failure of the graviton holograms. The probe appeared to be functioning normally again after contact was reestablished, and it was guided back to Olympus for analysis.

Over the next several weeks it was discovered that the graviton generators suffered the same constraint that the Blue Ring portal openings had in the war with the WFM, namely neither would work much farther than 100 km above the planet's surface. Further research revealed that a minimum amount of background gravitational curvature of spacetime (9.4 meters per second squared) was needed to stabilize the holograms of the gravity generators. The limit translated to staying below 133 km on the daylight side of Aina (where the star's weak curvature would subtract from planetary gravity), and below 139 km on the night side, where the curvature of planet and star added to each other.

The limit was maddeningly close to the edge of the atmosphere, as far as building an orbital telescope. Even worse, the estimated surface gravity of Mahina was 9.212 meters per second squared. The graviton generators would be useless even on its surface. The dream of gravity bus rides to Mahina would have to wait, but exploring Aina and Earth became absurdly easy. Small graviton powered research ships could move to any spot on either planet in forty minutes.

The technology rekindled the society's desire to explore and they began to cover both planets with sub-orbital weather and communications grids. The only throttle on production was the limited space within the slip bubble for manufacturing the graviton engines. The interior of the slip bubble was the one physical location in the entire universe where graviton generator construction was possible.

At the beginning of 1469 a three-year project was started to rebuild Spirit House. All functionality not related to movement between Earth and Aina or gravity research and manufacturing were moved to the new upper Levels above the slip bubble. The hexagonal structure above the bubble was greatly expanded, from the original 12-meter sides to 48-meter sides, providing over 64,000 square feet of floor space on each of the upper levels. The maximum width of the building (vertex to opposite vertex) was 96 meters, almost half of the 200-meter diameter of the circular granite surface at the top of Blue Spirit Mountain. The new building had seven upper Levels (Levels 4 to 10) and was offset to one side of the granite surface in order to maintain a landing pad area for the graviton ships.

And then, in the evening of day zero of 1472, Kalea was relaxing in the new Spirit House library on Level-Eight after the close of the Festival of Light. She and Mayoni had just been awarded doctorate of science degrees, and had also been given a beautiful apartment on Level-Ten of Spirit House. Kalea still unsettled by the honor of the tribe's gift. No other children were allowed their own housing. Kalea's mind was wandering with the emotions of the day, and she started idly to scan the old-Earth archives. She came across a research paper from 2009 that caught her attention... 

Earth time: 11:30 PM Santiago, Chile time, Monday night, December 21, 2009

A'moth had been jumping around the planet for the last two hours, mapping the speed of the new biologicals as they infected the world. She was beginning to feel fairly confident she had gotten to Gary and Isabelle in time. Her best estimate was that the biologicals would not reach central Chile for another two hours, more than sufficient time for her vaccinations to take effect. Except for South America though, the rest of the world seemed uniformly covered with the strange... A'moth blinked and thought. The mysterious biologicals were so bizarre, she didn't even know what to call them.

A'moth thought about jumping back to Gary and Isabelle, but decided to jump to one of her safe homes first to wash and get a fresh set of clothes. She looked around at the Madrid street she was on. At 3:30 AM in the morning local time, the area was deserted.

A'moth decided to jump directly to her safe home at Pine Bluffs, Wyoming. The distance was 7,922 kilometers along the great circle of the planet, and the jump-line through the planet was 7,423 kilometers. It was somewhat passed the limit of her ability to jump without getting dizzy, and she was expecting a modest momentary lack of balance when she jumped.

As she reached her home, her eyes widened in surprise at the severity of her dizziness, and she grabbed a nearby table to keep herself from falling. "There is was again! That strange distortion..." Probing with her mind, she could sense an odd vibration about 200 miles east of her position. Intrigued by the sensations, she decided to put off washing and investigate.

A few minutes after changing her clothes and putting on a small backpack of supplies, she jumped into central Nebraska. The time was approaching 10 PM Central Time, and she found herself in a deserted fallow cornfield. There was snow on the ground and a clear sky overhead. There was a waxing crescent moon near the horizon, and A'moth's experienced eyes estimated she had about an hour and a half of moonlight before moonset.

She pulled out her binoculars and began making short visual jumps around the area, 300 to 600 meters at a hop. During each hop, she would probe for the direction of the strange distortion she was feeling in her mental scanning. Within twenty minutes, she was standing directly at what she considered to be ground-zero of the disturbance.

A'moth looked around the area. There appeared to be nothing at all remarkable about the site, but then... Yes, that same strange feeling she had at the North Pole months ago... It was just as if there were two spots for her to stand in, both exactly in the same location. A'moth sat down on the cold ground and closed her eyes, probing with her mind the structure of this strange bifurcation of reality... 

And as she sat there and probed, the bifurcation transformed. One channel of the reality was now a long deep tunnel, in a new direction that seemed totally orthogonal to her senses of the 3-D world around her. A'moth probed deeply into the tunnel with her mind's eye, seeing a dark nighttime location where the corn was still growing, towering over her in all directions. A'moth was astonished, and tried to pull back. She found to her horror that the tunnel appeared to be like a Chinese finger puzzle, collapsing to zero width if she tried to go in the wrong direction. Her mind was already trapped on the other side; she had no choice but to jump.

It felt as if she were floating in absolute darkness, and she began to feel very sleepy. An undetermined amount of time later, she opened her eyes and found herself sitting in a dense forest of corn.



-------

Chapter 16


Future Interlude III: The Holographic Gravity Experiment

Aina time: 2:06 PM, day 150 of 1472 H.E.

Havika called out. "Inner hologram stable at target parameters. Kalea, you are clear to proceed."

"Thank you. Aegis, take the outer shell curvature down to 9.395, and then make a base stability measurement."

"Acknowledged..." After a few minutes he replied. "Base test complete. Outer shell curvature is at 9.395 meters per second squared, inner shell at negative 50,000 gravities. Kalea, we are right at the edge of losing the inner-shell hologram."

"I confirm..." said Mayoni, staring at her own displays.

Kalea turned and nodded at her sister. "Mayoni, this was your idea. Want to take control?"

"Yes... Thank you..." Mayoni took a deep breath. "Ajax, please begin elliptical deformation of the inner holographic manifold."

"Acknowledged. Targeting base spatial dimension... Beginning deformation now... Spherical at 1.00, elliptical at 1.01, elliptical at 1.05..."

Aegis called out, "Inner shell hologram still stable..."

Kalea raised her eyebrows and looked at him. "Well, I would hope so! We should be adding to its stability..."

Ajax continued calling out his numbers. "1.15... 1.20... Mayoni, how far should I go?"

"You're doing fine. Keep going until you start running out of solution space in the Mandelbrot. I'm hoping we can get very close to two..."

Several minutes of calm reports followed as Ajax tuned the holographic structure of the inner shell. "Elliptical at 1.994... elliptical at 1.995... elliptical at 1.996... I'm picking up M-3 oscillations..."

Mayoni called out immediately, "I see it too! Back it down to 1.995."

A moment later Ajax replied, "We're steady at 1.995, no oscillations..."

Mayoni nodded and then turned to her brother. "Havika, you have the honor."

Havika smiled back at his sister. "Decreasing curvature of outer shell, 9.38 and dropping..."

"It's working!" Aegis called out. "The inner shell is still stable!"

Havika continued to drop the gravitational curvature of the outer shell, the group becoming ecstatic over the results. He called out, "Kalea, what's the theoretical limit?"

Kalea replied, "With our current configuration for deformation, the model is predicting stability until 8.636 meters per second squared."

"We're there now! 8.637..." There was a pinging sound as the aluminum disk was suddenly released from the crushing 50,000 gravities. It shot down and banged into the bottom of the inner chamber.

Aegis called out. "Mark! Inner hologram collapsed at 2:15:07 PM. Outer curvature was at 8.63629 meters per second squared... It works!"

Mayoni laughed. "Something exciting for the evening news! Let's power down. We have a lot of data to analyze." Ten minutes later Mayoni and Kalea left the labs and took the elevator up to their apartment.

Earth time: Wednesday, 5:55 PM, September 8, 2010 Central Daylight Savings Time

Cindy dropped out of her sprint two kilometers after entering the peninsula. Off to her right was the main body of the island, across just over one kilometer of bay. The width of the peninsula was still almost 200 meters, but it was beginning to narrow rapidly. The rolling dunes that were hiding her position were also flattening out. She still had the option of running another kilometer along the tapering point, but then she would be at the point of land's end. Previous water measurements showed the temperature of the ocean and bays to be below 40F. Swimming across the bay was not an option.

Cindy looked back at the direction of her pursuers and gave a feral smile. Thinking they had her boxed in, they had taken the time to fan out and ensure she had no angle to leave the small peninsula. Cindy dived into the last of the arctic dunes for cover, panting heavily from her sprint. She tried to relax.

"Here goes! I'm in my car, my car, my car..." Cindy and Jim had done a great deal of experimenting over the past month, and had discovered a number of unusual properties about the transfers to and from Antelope Freeway and their arctic island. One of the interesting things they noticed was that they could appear anywhere on the arctic island from Antelope Freeway, and anywhere on Antelope Freeway from the arctic, but they could not make direct intra-location transfers. In both directions though, the key to the transfers was calmly thinking of the desired location and becoming bored and disinterested in the current location. That was why neither Cindy nor Jim could jump while they were being chased. Both had found it impossible to be bored by people running them down to kill them... 

"My car... My car... Come on... My car... My car... Nice car... Nice plush seats... So nice... My car... So nice... My car... My car... My car... I can smell it!" Cindy felt herself sinking into the soft leather. She opened her eyes, saw the dashboard and sobbed in relief.

Meanwhile Jim was grimacing in horror as he stood two meters from the window and saw the rock coming straight at him. The rock hit the glass and bounced off, striking the attacking youth square in his face with full force. The youth fell over backwards from the vicious impact.

Jim slowly walked to the window and looked down. The youth from outside the door join his companion with the spear and they both stood around their fallen comrade. His nose was completely gone, crushed and pushed into his skull. Jim shuddered as he realized the fallen attacker was not breathing. He was just a kid.

Jim tried to link with Cindy and got absolutely nothing for a mental connection. He was horrified to think she might have been killed, but then suddenly felt the strong presence of her mind.

"Cindy, where are you?!"

"About eighty meters below you, in the living room. Can you join me?"

"How did... ?! Oh, Antelope Freeway! You managed to make the jump?!"

"Yeah. It was harder than I thought it would be... But I'm here... Jim?"

"Yes?"

"I take it both doors are locked?"

"Yeah... The house appears unbreakable. I'm safe... Cindy, it was close for me too. One of my attackers is dead. He was just a kid."

There was a long mental pause. "Jim, can you come down here by the Freeway too? I'd rather not reveal the closet entrance to our... our guests. Just sit on the couch by the window and let them watch you jump. Let's show them what we're capable of. Maybe it'll make them back off..."

"Yeah, sure..." It took Jim almost six minutes to jump to the Freeway. He met Cindy in the living room a few seconds after that.

Earth time: 10:18 PM Central Standard Time, Monday night, December 21, 2009

A'moth sat quietly in the cornfield, getting her bearings. The air had the rich, fertile smell of earth to it, and the corn all around her looked extremely healthy and vigorous. The air temperature was cool but pleasant, A'moth guessed a little above 50F. The place was very quiet, and completely dark except for some starlight.

A'moth felt a rising tide of panic when she realized she had no jumping ability at all, for the first time in 5,000 years. Her ability to project her mind's eye was completely gone. She tried for a minute or two, then shrugged her shoulders and stood up.

As she stood she saw a sudden brightening along what she thought was the east-southeast horizon. As she stared she was astonished to see the sun jump from the horizon and begin to rapidly transverse the sky. She stood in wonder as sun made a great arc in the sky and set just two minutes and a few seconds after it had risen. She sat down utterly flabbergasted in the darkness, wondering if she had just imagined the impossible scene.

Shaking her head at the impossibility of what she was seeing, she looked up and saw the stars rapidly spinning around. And then the sun rose again slightly less than four minutes after it had set, and began to make another rapid transit of the sky. A'moth got out a watch from her backpack and began to time the oscillations.

In the next half hour A'moth timed five daily cycles, she estimated each taking about one second less than six minutes. It was frightening to see the sun zip across the sky at a one degree of arc per second rate, but the cornfield seemed peaceful and completely unaffected by the cosmic nightmare. After five cycles, A'moth decided to get up and begin exploring her new environment. Picking north was easy. The entire night sky was visibly spinning around Polaris. A'moth decided to hike north.

She took her time, carefully walking north about 70 meters in a little over a minute. And then the sun rose even sooner than she had been expecting it. A'moth stopped and started timing the cycles again. The duration of the daily cycle had changed to about 2 minutes and 54 seconds. A'moth waited and timed another two cycles to confirm her incredible observation. It seemed the universe she was in was speeding up. She was amazed the landscape was so tranquil. The forces needed to accelerate the planet like this should have torn the planet apart.

A'moth began walking north again almost unconsciously. By the time she was an additional 20 meters north, the daily cycle was just two minutes, and after an additional 20 meters the daily cycle lasted just one minute and eight seconds. A'moth mind was stunned by what she was observing and she continued to drift north without thinking.

By the time she walked an additional 10 meters north, the daily cycle was down to 41 seconds, and 10 meters north after that the cycle was just 15 seconds, about 6 seconds of daylight and 9 seconds of darkness. The universe appeared to be accelerating to infinity and there seemed nothing she could do about it.

A'moth drifted north another 5 meters, her mind numb watching the daily cycle speed up to 1.6 seconds. The sun was a streaking flash across the sky. She took a small step of about 30 cm, and saw the cycle time cut in half to 0.8 seconds. The flashes of the solar day began to have a strobe-like quality to them. A'moth took another step north, an even smaller step of 20 cm, and the daily cycle collapsed to just 0.27 seconds. The track of the sun was beginning to look like a solid band of light across the sky.

She leaned forward another 7 cm, and started seeing twelve daily cycles pass for each second of perceived time. Another cm forward increased the rate to over eighteen cycles per second. The band of sunlight moved northward across the sky, its great migration path from winter to summer solstice compressed into just ten seconds. A'moth's mind was frozen by the cosmic carnage. The band reached its northern-most arc and began to cycle south again.

A second after it crossed the autumn equinox position, A'moth experienced a thunderous shock of recognition, and she changed perspective on what was happening. She fell down backwards in shock, traveling a meter south and seeing the length of the days increase to 2.7 seconds. Trembling in fear, she spun around and fled south.



-------

Chapter 17


Future Interlude IV: Reflections At Home

Aina time: 2:43 PM day 150 of 1472 H.E.

Kalea came in first to the apartment she shared with Mayoni. She kicked off her shoes and sat in one of the plush lounge chairs in front of the bay windows. The view was due west, and sunset would be at 2:51 PM. The scenes of the snow capped mountains in the setting sun were spectacular.

About ten minutes later Mayoni came in carrying a piece of paper. She joined Kalea, discarding her shoes and jumping into an adjacent lounge chair. Neither said anything for several minutes as they both watched the setting sun.

"I'll never get over it," Mayoni said quietly. "How beautiful it is..."

Kalea remained silent for a few moments, and then asked, "Did you tell Hiapo the good news?"

"He was asleep. He left us a note." Mayoni handed her sister a folded slip of paper.

Kalea opened the note and read it out loud: "I knew it would work. Congratulations to us all! Love, Hiapo." Kalea slowly refolded the paper and sighed. "How did he look?"

"He was sleeping peacefully. I don't think he was in any pain at all."

Kalea sighed. "Thank the Spirit for that..." She grimaced. "These last two years... We lost so many people! Jennifer, Lois, Tal... Tal! She was always so full of life! I thought she was indestructible... And now Hiapo..."

Mayoni stared at her sister. "I saw you talking with Dr. Ort. Is there no hope?"

Kalea shook her head. "It's a matter of weeks..."

Mayoni let out a long sigh. "Dr. Ort told you this?"

Kalea nodded. "He still remembers me as Hiapo's wife. With Lois and Tal gone, well... All the radiation exposure, the years they were on Earth... Dr. Ort also suspects they were exposed to early versions of the WFM's bio-weapons. He's found trace signatures of a primitive carcinogen initiator in Hiapo's blood."

Mayoni didn't say anything for a while. She got up and stood behind Kalea's chair. She started massaging her sister's neck and shoulders.

Kalea broke down into tears. "I was hoping, these last few years... that I would get my memories back while Hiapo was still alive. That he would get a chance to talk to me, talk to me as his first wife again. He'll never get the chance..."

"Oh Kalea..." Mayoni bent down and kissed her sister's head. She thought about saying more, but decided against it. She continued to caress her weeping sister.

When Kalea calmed down, Mayoni finally spoke. "I spoke with Marcus this morning. His guess from a week ago was correct. The new bio-code from the solar tower does refer to our memory blocks."

"And?"

"We should recover our memories very soon after reaching eighteen years of age."

Kalea blinked. "What?! We'll both be twenty-two in less than two months!"

Mayoni nodded. "That was my first thought too. But Marcus reminded me the Blue Ring tends to quote time in Earth years. In Earth years, we've just turned seventeen."

Kalea was silent for a moment. "So... next year's Red Bird Festival?"

"Yes, late winter or early spring next year, right around the Red Bird Festival... Marcus says the coding suggests it'll happen very rapidly, a cascade failure of the memory blocks. We'll get back everything, probably within a single day, maybe within a single moment..."

Kalea did not reply. The two sisters returned to watching the sunset. The sun had just disappeared, and the sky was full of bands of orange and purple clouds. Mayoni finally broke the silence. "Want to have dinner in the Olympus common room tonight?"

"Uh... Sure... I guess... Pet me for a while?"

Mayoni returned to massaging Kalea's shoulders. After a while she got a comb and starting combing her sister's hair.

Kalea felt herself relaxing in the love from her sister. "I've got some news for you too, Mayoni."

"Oh?"

"I finished my research in the library archives. I have absolute proof. I've committed plagiarism. At least, my former self did."

"Kalea, we've been through this before. You're being much too hard on yourself."

"Mayoni! It was the core of the slip bubble formalism. It was lifted right out of three key research papers from Oxford Press. Lois was sending them to Kalea, to me, during the portage of Jumpstart in 2009..."

"Kalea! It was a primitive society back then! The concept of plagiarism probably didn't even exist! And then they were in the middle of a war with the WFM. Your former you had better things to do than worry about footnotes..."

"Well... Legally Anuhea agrees with you. I've talked this over with her. She says I've got nothing to worry about. But I'm still going to post a confession on the web..."

Mayoni finished combing Kalea's hair. She gave her sister one last kiss and returned to sitting by her side. "I've read the papers Kalea. They are brilliant. I wonder what ever happened to the author?"

"Oh, I looked it up. It was very sad. He was killed in a car accident, something about a gasoline tanker explosion, in Omaha, Nebraska, a few months before the plague broke out. He was only eighteen at the time..."

Earth time: Saturday, 8 PM, September 11, 2010 Central Daylight Savings Time

Day 3 of the Paleo invasion... 

Jim link-thought to Cindy in the underground machine shop, "I count thirteen here, right outside the windows. They're just standing there, growling at me. Ah, here comes another rock. Thank goodness these windows aren't made of glass... Cindy, are you sure this is all of them?"

"Uh... Yeah." Cindy shielded her doubts from the mind link.

"Then you're clear to jump. Please be careful!"

Ten seconds later Jim felt Cindy's mind re-connect. "Wow! Cindy, I'm impressed! Two five-second jumps!"

"Yeah, I'm getting good at this. I'm on the peninsula, right at the tip. If you stared with the binoculars, you could see me waving at you. Don't do it though! I'm deploying the sensor package. It's cold out here Jim! I would guess about 15F..." Cindy was quiet for about a minute. "Package deployed. Wait a minute... There's something I want to check out..."

Jim waited anxiously for about a minute for Cindy to link-think again.

"Uh, Jim?"

"Hi! You okay?"

"I'm okay... Jim... I... I miscounted. There's another body out here. It looks... well... I think he was beaten to death."

"Ah..."

"I'm guessing it happened when they first got here, when they were chasing me down the peninsula. They were probably assuming they had me, and then started taking out their frustrations when they came up empty handed."

"Yeah... I've been watching the kids outside the windows fight. They fight to kill. Their violence is frightening. Why do they hate so much? Wait! Cindy, your job is finished. Get back here!"

"Jim, are all the boys still by the house?"

"Yeah... Well, you're assuming this is all of them. Remember we have no proof at how many there are."

Over the next three minutes, Jim felt Cindy's mind reconnecting as she jumped around the island. He finally felt Cindy's presence in the home below, and he jumped via Antelope Freeway to join her. They had not eaten dinner, and they prepared a light meal in the kitchen.

Cindy started munching on her sandwich and salad. "What do you think they're eating?"

Jim shrugged. "I've seen them digging up roots. They're also building snares. They were roasting a rabbit yesterday."

"Yeah? Well, one rabbit isn't going to go far with thirteen kids..."

"No, I suppose not... You're not thinking of feeding them, are you?"

Cindy nodded. "Sure. Aren't you?"

Jim shrugged. "Watch them fight..."

"Jim, they're young kids, six to eight years old!"

"I know! But it's Lord of the Flies out there! Cindy, watch them fight!"

"Should that matter? We would still be safe."

Jim grimaced. "Are you sure? And once we start feeding them, we'll feel obligated to continue. I think they would lay a trap for us. Try to pick us off if they had the slightest chance. And if one of us gets wounded, what do we do?"

"Hell... I didn't think of that..."

Twelve hours later... 

Jim woke up in his bedroom, surprised but delighted that Cindy was in her nightgown sitting on his bed. Cindy leaned down and kissed him. "Cuddle with me?" she asked.

They were soon both under the blankets and lightly petting each other. Jim liked to sleep without any clothes, and he was happy to feel how eagerly Cindy dived under the blankets to join him. He could also sense though that Cindy didn't want to get too sexy, just be held. He gently caressed her. "Cindy, how are you?"

She was quiet for a moment. "Disturbed. I followed your suggestion, watched the boys for an hour this morning."

"And?"

"They tried to burn our house down." She felt Jim tense and saw his eyes go wide. "There's no damage, none at all... Jim... Another boy is dead... Stoned to death... I saw it happen..."

It was Jim's turn to be quiet. "... Shit..."

"What makes them do it Jim? They're filled with rage."

"I don't know... You were on Aina, not me. See anything like this? Anything this ugly?"

"Yeah, at the very beginning... From the male Paleo adults, during the war. But not from the kids."

"Well, the kids are getting older, turning into adults."

Cindy frowned. "That can't be it."

Jim sighed. "You're right. Sorry. Forget what I just said..."

Cindy smiled. "You're supposed to offer me your cheek when you apologize." Cindy leaned over and kissed him. "And now I sing: * Apology * Accepted! * "

Jim caressed her hip through the soft cotton nightgown. "It's a beautiful custom. I like it. It encourages people to apologize. They get a nice kiss when they do. And it really puts the issue to rest."

"Yeah... Jim... I looked at the data from the sensor."

"And?"

"The temperature outside is 11F. And when I was jumping around the island yesterday, the ice... All around the island... It's getting closer, almost touching both peninsulas."

Jim nodded. "I made a measurement through the window upstairs. The sun is lower too, down to 4.5 degrees above the horizon... It's finally coming, arctic winter."

Cindy didn't reply. She just nestled her head against Jim's body and shivered.

Earth time: Unknown, Autumn solar cycle, lost in a maze of corn... 

A'moth sprinted south for more than two minutes before she stopped to consider what to do next. She still felt thunderstruck that the speed of the cosmos, or at least her perception of it, could be controlled by where she stood in the cornfield. She pulled out some material from her backpack to take notes, and started to use some skills she hadn't needed in centuries. She made a crude sextant out of a protractor, and spent the next ten minutes making observations.

At the end of her observations, she estimated the daily cycle at her current position would be a few minutes longer than one hour. She logged her observation in her notebook and continued heading south.

Over the next ten hours, A'moth walked twenty-five kilometers, spending about half her time measuring the speed of the cosmos with her watch and sextant. She found that the cosmic daily cycle maximized to about seven hours, fifteen kilometers south of her first observation position, and then decreased to six hours and twenty minutes five kilometers further south. She retraced her path back north and made another measurement. The daily cycle was back to a seven-hour timescale.

A'moth thought the next obvious step would be to test the east-west direction. She felt tired, in need of sleep, but the sense of losing time in the accelerated universe was profoundly disturbing. She flipped a mental coin, and started to hike west.

One kilometer later she made another observation and smiled. The daily cycle was now just over eight hours. She had guessed right. She continued hiking west into the setting sun.

Four hours and ten kilometers later, A'moth came across an ordinary looking asphalt road, running north-south. It was more than three hours past sunset, but with her adaptive eyesight the road was clearly visible to her in the starlight. She made another measurement, timing the rotation of the stars, and estimated the daily cycle was now lasting eighteen and a half hours. A'moth calculated the sun would rise at her current location in another four hours, and she decided to give in to her fatigue. She crossed the road and twenty meters later bedded down for the short night.

In the faint pre-dawn light A'moth's body snapped to wakefulness. She lay motionless, fully awake and puzzled as to why her body was so tense. Her millennia of survival skills took over. Without moving, her mind and senses began a meticulous scan of the area... Yes... thirty meters... closer now... from the direction she called south... something was in the cornfield with her... and it was stalking her... 



-------

Chapter 18


Future Interlude V: A Chat With Dad

Aina time: 6:50 AM day 151 of 1472 H.E.

Mayoni was just stepping out of her morning shower when she heard the phone ring. Kalea had already left the apartment for the University, so Mayoni dashed out of the bathroom naked except for a towel around her shoulders. "Hello?"

"Hi Mayoni. It's dad. How are you?"

"Oh, hi dad! I'm fine. Where are you?"

"In what used to be southern France." There was a pause, and then Mark laughed. "Actually, the Mediterranean looks a lot different now. Maybe this was Spain."

"Find anything interesting?"

"Oh yeah. We've been observing a herd of wooly pigmy rhinos."

"Cool! Friendly?"

Mark laughed again, "No, I wouldn't say so, no. Their ancestors were rather ornery critters if I remember, and the children are just as cranky. We finally had to raise the ship a hundred meters to get some sleep last night, to stop being rammed."

"Sounds fascinating!

"Oh, it is! Being an explorer is the most interesting job in the world. It has to be..." Mayoni heard Mark sigh over the phone. "Something strange happened to Earth Mayoni, and not too recently either. There's so many new species around, and I'm not just talking about the super-foods. And so many of the old animals are gone..."

"Are you thinking about an extinction event?"

"Yeah, maybe. The evidence is still very puzzling..."

"Yeah... Who's with you?" Mayoni ignored the slight chill of being without clothes and sat down and started typing on her laptop. She glanced out the window. Sunrise would be at 9:07 AM this morning, more than two hours away. It was still pitch dark outside.

"Oh, the usual crowd. Your two mothers of course, Kara and Va'an. Anuhea was tied up with Congressional commitments, working on that civil reform proposal. Leon's here, plus Nalani and Ura. We also have nine people from the marriage class, five women and four men. It's a good team."

Mayoni nodded. "I'm bringing up a display of the area now..." She continued typing. "Cross-referenced the ship's transponders on Earth's global sat grid... I have you pin- pointed. I'm getting a real-time picture of your ship... You're using the Galileo, huh?"

"Yeah, it's my favorite research cruiser. The only thing wrong with it is that it's too opulent. We never get a chance to rough it."

Mayoni blinked. "Rough it? You're the only team that stays out. All the other researchers come back to Aina at the end of the work day."

"Yeah, with these new gravity ships... Home is never more than forty minutes away from anywhere on the planet. It does take some of the fun out of the exploration... Ah, I can't complain. Except for the marriage class, everyone here is about seventy years old, Earth years I mean. We could never do this without the opulence... Uh, say Mayoni?"

"Yeah?"

"We got Kalea's message. We'll be cutting our trip short, be back by this evening. We also canceled our schedule for the next month."

"Yeah. Thanks dad. Hiapo will like that. I'm sure he'll love to sit around with you and chat about old times..."

"Yeah... It is sad... How's Kalea taking it?"

Mayoni paused for a moment. "It pains her. Kalea knows she looks exactly like she did when she married Hiapo, back in 1390. Hiapo notices too. He loves us all, but the way he looks at Kalea... Well... It's very touching."

Mark sighed, not saying anything for a moment and then changing the subject. "We saw you and Kalea on the evening news last night, a video of the gravity experiment. Congratulations!"

"Thanks! It's a big deal. It raises the limit for the gravity generators, on Earth and Aina, to a maximum range of 413 to 420 kilometers. Our first priority is to get the improvements into the satellite grids. The increase in stability also creates a maximum limit on Mahina of 197 to 203 kilometers. We can start running a one-hour Aina-Mahina shuttle service, have it running in a month if we had to."

"Great! How would it work?"

"There's really not much to it. Do a half-circle racetrack orbit around Aina at 1300 gravities. That'll take less than a minute and get the speed up to 700 km per second. Take a slingshot ride out and then do the reverse at Mahina. The whole trip should take about an hour. We'll have to nail the entry position on Mahina. Below 150 km, the cruiser would burn up from friction before it could decelerate. Above 200 km, the gravity generators would never engage and the ship would sail into infinity."

"Yikes. Think that'll be a problem?"

"In practice? Oh no. We should be able to nail the entry point to within one kilometer. We plan to do some testing with probes first, but the research cruisers will probably be ready to go to Mahina by the end of the summer. The bio-contamination question is the only real issue left."

"Sounds great. So what's next for you and Kalea?"

"Havika wants to explore multiple dimensional stability control. Currently we're just deforming one spatial dimension of the manifold. There're ten more."

"Wow! The newscast didn't mention... You can do that? How?"

Mayoni laughed. "No idea! We'll need some inspiration. It's not just a development effort. But I don't think the mathematics will be too difficult. If we can deform two dimensions, minimum curvature will drop to 4.86 meters per second squared, 0.79 for three dimensions, 0.015 for four, 0.00002 for five... We can have powered graviton flight anywhere in the galaxy if we elliptically stabilize six of the eleven dimensions."

"I can go anywhere in the galaxy?"

"Well, just under the speed of light. The time dilation could get you across the galaxy in a few days of perceived time. But 50,000 years will have passed on Aina."

"Yeah... I think I love my home too much for that. Let's leave exploring the galaxy to the probes."

"Yes, I agree dad. They will be gifts of knowledge to our children."

"Yeah... Well, speaking of the quest for knowledge, I should get back to work. We'll see you this evening Mayoni. I love you."

"I love you too. * Me * ke * aloha! * "

Earth time: Sunday, 8:30 AM, September 12, 2010 Central Daylight Savings Time

Cindy had been lying by Jim's side for several minutes, each enjoying the intimacy of the quiet moment. But then Cindy rolled her body on top of Jim's, wiggling in a delightfully sexy manner and offering to kiss. Jim gladly accepted the offer, and spent the next several minutes kissing Cindy and feeling himself get erect. He was pressing into her pubic area through her nightgown, and she didn't seem to mind at all.

Jim floated in the tender sexiness, caressing the back of her thighs and her butt until her nightgown rode up to her waist. Jim felt an intense wave of pleasure as he petted her bare butt and thighs. Her bare skin felt so soft and warm and wonderful. Aroused with desire, his fingers started exploring and caressing the soft flesh of her inner thighs... until his fingers felt an unexpected string. "Oops... Sorry!"

Cindy laughed. "For what? Would you like to unplug me?"

"Huh?!"

"You heard me! I'm in the mood for something a little larger than a tampon!"

Jim couldn't help it. His hips thrust up into Cindy's groin as he realized what she had said. A few minutes later, their positions were reversed. Cindy's nightgown and tampon were gone, and she was lying on her back, her long hair to one side, her legs raised to give Jim an easy angle for coupling. She wiggled her hips lewdly, begging Jim to fuck her.

Jim was poised above her, feeling her breasts and hard nipples brushing across his chest, his penis sliding in the folds of Cindy's labia. It felt so incredibly moist and sexy. His penis was wet with her desire and menstrual flow. They were both panting heavily.

Jim was lost in his love for this darling and most precious creature beneath him. He was thrusting up and down along Cindy's slippery labia. She timed his thrusting and lifted her legs high and wide just before his downstroke, raising her vagina up and pointing her toes, opening herself in invitation. Jim felt his sliding penis catch Cindy's vaginal entrance and he started to slide into her. His penis head was engulfed in something hot and slippery and infinitely desirable. Though an intense burst of will, he stopped himself from a quick deep hip-thrust into her.

"Cindy... Cindy... ?"

Cindy kissed him and whispered in his ear, "I love you Jim, now and forever. I want you, want you now and forever. Take me... Please?"

Jim shivered and gently linked with Cindy's mind. The emotional intensity was so great that they both lost their ability to form words. They began exchanging vows of commitment using only pure emotional constructs. The boundary between self and mate disappeared. When they were done, they pulled back slightly from the compound mind they had created, and shared their first kiss as husband and wife. Together they felt the eager penis sheath itself into the depths of the moist and silky smooth vagina. They spent the next timeless moments thrusting with each other and weeping to each other in gratitude.

Cindy's mind became filled with such adoration and praise that Jim became embarrassed, feeling unworthy of such love. He quietly slipped back into his own mind, and then felt a primal wave of sexual desire wash over him like a mighty river. He started a vigorous thrust rhythm into Cindy, driven by an animal need to orgasm. Cindy cooed and wrapped her legs and hands around his butt, carried away with emotions as she felt the fast pulses of his strokes. Her mind swirled around the tempo of the hip thrusts, feeling the strong clenching of Jim's butt muscles as he plunged into her depths. The pleasure was so intense it was almost unbearable.

Cindy cried out loudly and arched her back, the intensity of her orgasm spasming her legs and pelvis. Jim's penis was suddenly held in a super tight grip, and he made one last major hip thrust before depositing his seed high and tight into his bride, straining himself against her far back walls and cervix. Their orgasms were explosive, and seemed to last forever. Jim finally collapsed on top of Cindy, delirious with pleasure and love and possessiveness for his new mate. Still coupled, they held each other and drifted... 

Earth time: Unknown, Early pre-dawn light, autumn solar cycle, lost in a maze of corn... 

A'moth's breathing was calm and steady, her body motionless, her mind and muscles on a hair-trigger to spring into action. The thing in the corn was an expert hunter, slowly weaving to close the distance in almost perfect silence. It was right on the edge of A'moth ability to detect it with her acute senses. She was in a semi-trace, letting her instincts take over the critical fight-flight-wait response matrix. She had two thin throwing knives in her backpack. They were exquisitely balanced and A'moth was an expert thrower, but in the past five-thousand years her jumping ability had been a perfect defense mechanism. She had gotten careless about always keeping the knives in immediate reach.

She heard the soft whoosh of something being hurled, and her body snap-rolled away without need of conscious thought. She tumbled into a fighting stance, low and perfectly balanced, a straight vertical backbone, her arms and legs positioned in one of her favorite defensive postures, her eyes scanning into the dim pre-dawn light. A spear was imbedded in the ground where she was lying a second ago, and another was flying right towards her. A'moth crouched and deflected the spear with a lightning-fast arm block. There was a swift rustle in the corn, and then what A'moth thought was a pigmy charged her with a third spear.

She was barely conscious of her decision to fight and not flee. Her body relaxed as the pigmy closed the distance. In a burst of violence, she pivoted away from the spear thrust and rotated in close against her attacker, squatting low to counterattack and snapping her arm into a back-knuckle strike to the solar-plexus. With her strength and speed, she could easily have made the blow lethal, breaking the breastbone and driving it straight into the heart, but she pulled her punch so as just to stun. She gasped in surprise when her attacker collapsed to the ground and went into convulsions.

A'moth was by his side a second later. "My God! It's not a pigmy! It's a young boy! Eight years old?! My God, have I just killed a child?!" A'moth tried CPR but it was unsuccessful. In a very somber mood, she dug a grave in the very soft earth.

The sad job finished, she stood up and thought about her plans for the day. She decided she would make another time measurement and continue westward. While she made the measurements, she also forced herself to eat several ears of the corn. They were very sweet and juicy, and she knew her body needed the water.

Over the course of the next half hour, she estimated that the daily cycle was 18 hours and 36 to 37 minutes at her current location. She sat down at sunrise and started doing some calculations in her notebook.

When she finished she stared at her notebook in silence. Her map was consistent with a circular area with a radius a little over 23 kilometers. At the edge of the circle, time would flow infinitely fast. Within the circle, the daily cycle seemed to be 24-hours times ( 1 - x ), where x was the percentage distance to the edge of the circle from the center. She shuddered as she stared at her numbers. According to her calculations, she had come within 3 cm of the edge of the temporal universe.

A'moth took one last look at the spears of her attacker. "Clovis spear point," she thought. "Classic design... What the hell is going on?" She stood quietly, letting her senses reach out. She felt very alone, no more predators. A'moth stared at her homemade map and estimated she was about 5.2 km due east of the center of the circle. She started to hike west in the morning sun, quietly hoping there would be more than just more corn at the center.

After an uneventful hike of 3 km, she made another solar measurement, and estimated the daily cycle was now about 20 hours and 40 minutes. The data point fit her model perfectly. She continued her westward trek.

After 500 meters, A'moth broke out of the dense field of corn. There was another simple asphalt road before her. Across the street was a small parking lot with a gas pump and, amazingly, a convenience store, just sitting there, as normal as could be, right in the middle of the insane universe. A'moth blinked her eyes in disbelief. Further west there appeared to be an enormous block structure, rising hundreds of feet into the air. A'moth guessed it might be at the exact center of the circular universe. She shook her head at the absurdity of the scene, and then crossed the street and walked into the store.

The inside of the store was pleasantly warm, A'moth guessed 70F or just below it. The place was very clean, and stuffed full of packaged foods and arrays of household hardware items. She was grateful to see several cases of water and drank one of the bottles. She then wandered the isles for a while until she came to a door along the rear wall of the store. It was closed but unlocked, and she went through.

The room was a simple one-person bedroom, a bed, a desk and chair, a small dresser, a display case, a single shelf of books above the bed. A'moth walked over to the display case and admired the contents. Fully half the case held a longbow and a quiver of what A'moth recognized to be a dozen match-grade steel arrows. A'moth had lived many years in Wales during the time when the English longbow was the supreme terror weapon of the world, and she was an expert archer herself.

A'moth stood by the case silently, admiring the compound bow. It was just over two meters long, and her mind went back to the battle scenes of Agincourt in 1415, shortly before she migrated to Romania. The bow was magnificent. A'moth guessed it to be a slightly heavier pull than the longbows she was used to.

At the bottom of the display case near the quiver was a small archery trophy. A'moth opened the case and stared at the inscription. She was surprised and vaguely pleased it was in English: HAVIKA, 1448, 200-meter Long-shot Champion. A'moth shook her head in confusion. The year 1448 certainly had longbows, but not compound bows, and the trophy was of a very modern construction. After a moment, A'moth returned the trophy to its case.

The other side of the case contained numerous pictures of people, many signed and with notes. It was obviously a large and close family. A'moth thought the people beautiful, and with her experienced eyes she guessed them to be Hawaiian. One picture in particular caught A'moth's eye. It showed two women, one in her early twenties and the other probably in her late thirties. They were both smiling and hugging each other in the easy closeness of sisterhood. The younger woman was very pregnant. The photo was signed: "Amy and Mayoni, autumn of 1435, infinite love to our baby brother Havika."

At the bottom of the picture was a small card. A'moth picked it up and read it: "Mayoni 1387-1436, Amy 1405-1436, dearest sisters of infinite love and bravery, in the fullness of the Spirit's time we shall meet again!"

After a moment A'moth returned the card to the display case and closed the glass door. She took another brief look around the room, and then left through a rear door.

She saw the body almost immediately, across a short stretch of asphalt and in the dirt by the side of a narrow grass path. A'moth walked over and studied the corpse.

From the advanced stage of decay, A'moth guessed the corpse to be about a year old. As a 5,000-year-old witness to death, she also thought she saw the cause. The bones were not simply decayed, they were deformed and eaten through with what A'moth guessed was a super nasty form of bone cancer. The corpse's clothes were neatly piled a few feet away, and in a flash of insight A'moth saw that the man had come out here alone to die.

There was a small note pinned to the clothes. A'moth picked it up. The scrawl was almost unreadable, but she finally got it: "Great Spirit, accept me as your child." The note was written with an extremely shaky hand.

Putting the note down, A'moth began to walk west, down the grass path. After about 700 meters, she came to a sign in the path, "ANTELOPE FREEWAY - ONE HALF MILE." A'moth stared at the sign in confusion for a moment and then walked on.

Eight signs later, A'moth was standing by the final sign and in front of an enormous expanse of blank wall. She walked up and ran her hand against it. It felt like wet polished stone. She stared at her hand for a moment, surprised it wasn't damp. She finally got out her sextant and made a solar measurement, deciding the daily-cycle was within a few minutes of a full twenty-four hours. She spent the next hour making two slow passes around the structure's perimeter, often running her hand along it. She began to wonder if the wall was an absolutely frictionless surface.

After the two passes she was back at the path and she stopped to think. She estimated the structure was 300 feet in the north-south direction, 500 feet in the east-west direction, and uniformly 400 feet high. She had no idea if it were completely solid, or if these were just walls. She smiled briefly to herself. It certainly didn't look like a Freeway! And she had heard the buzzing of insects, but somehow she doubted that she was going to see any antelopes. The obvious question was, what to do next?

A'moth decided to walk back to the country store for something to eat and also to do an inventory on all the hardware goods. As she walked back, she also remembered there was a shelf of books above the bed, and when she got back to the store she went to them immediately. She was only mildly surprised to see the books were in English. She stood for a moment studying their titles... 

Almost all of them were advanced texts on quantum physics. There were also two history books, one on the history of archery and one labeled: The 3000 Year History of the Hopewell People, 1500 B.H.E. to 1500 H.E... A'moth glanced through it; she didn't understand it at all. She glanced at the publisher: Sparta Press, 1506. It meant nothing to her, and she shrugged as she placed the book back on the shelf. Her eyebrows rose as she realized the last book on the shelf was a journal.

A'moth pulled it down and opened the cover and stared at the first entry. It appeared to have four different dates to it. She began to read:

Old: February 17, 2112, day 254 of 1537

New: August 26, 2009, day 159 of 1406

"By the Spirit, hope is not lost! I don't think I avoided the bio-weapon, not this time. I don't think anybody did. Such hatred! They infected everybody, including the children! But there's a shadow channel connected to the solar tower. And I'm not alone. There's a young woman from Earth in the channel with me. Great Spirit! She's from the next loop, from before I was born! Great Spirit, from before the plague! How is this possible?! It violates the core mathematics..."

A'moth blinked. "Plague?" she thought, looking at the date labeling the new loop. "Four months ago, two months before the strange biologicals... And a hundred years in the future?! What the hell is going on? Loop? What loop?" A'moth skipped a few paragraphs and read on... 

"My entrance must have been a trap-door. Since I know of the existence of the next loop, I can't go back without a massive causality violation. But there's nothing to go back to anyway. It's all death and sorrow..."

A'moth jumped over a few more paragraphs. "... The shadow channel is quantum magical! I've created so many things with just my imagination. The power is godlike. The Blue Spirit! It so fond of opulence! No, wait... That's too judgmental. It's fond of abundance... abundance and majesty. The staircase! The incredible staircase! The Blue Spirit certainly likes to play with numbers! Especially the 3,4,5 combination!"

A'moth skipped over a bunch of pages. "... But there are limits... I know now I probably have less than a month to live, and I can't change that. How ironic. After all the billions of trillions of years, there's so little time left! How can I save this next loop without disrupting causality? In this loop, my knowledge of the past loop becomes knowledge of the future. The danger of a causality violation is immense!"

A'moth blinked. "What in the world is this?!" Some dark clouds covered the sun outside and it began to rain. A'moth walked over to the desk, and turned the switch on the lamp. Somehow she wasn't too surprised when the bulb lit up brightly. Shaking her head in wonder, she sat down with the journal and began to read carefully from the beginning... 



-------

Chapter 19


Earth time: Thursday, 1 PM, September 30, 2010 Central Daylight Savings Time

"That's it Jim," Cindy link-thought. She was standing up against one of the front-room windows. Having rocks thrown at her head was now such a frequent occurrence; she wasn't even flinching when they would bounce off the glass. "I've got all eleven of them either in front of me or in their shelter. Go!"

Jim came out of the closet and closed the door, then quickly walked six meters across the back-room. There was a large pile of boxes stacked near the backdoor. Taking a deep breath, he thought the go-code to Cindy.

Cindy started beating on the glass and yelling at the boys, making as much noise as possible. Simultaneously Jim opened the rear door and started hurling the boxes out the door as fast as he could. He was making good progress, just getting into the rhythm of the impossibly strenuous work, when he heard Cindy's mind screaming at him, "Close! Close! Close!"

Jim hurled the package in his arms through the door and reached to slam it. He heard an "Uff!" noise as his package struck one of the approaching boys. He had no idea they were that close. He slammed the door and locked it, and then felt the door tested almost simultaneously.

Cindy ran in from the other room. "I'm sorry!!! I'm so sorry!!!" Jim looked up at her. She was as pale as a ghost.

"It's okay! We're okay!" He rechecked to make sure the door was locked, and then held Cindy in his arms and started kissing her cheeks. Cindy held him tightly. When she finally opened her eyes, she saw the Paleo boys gathered around the windows, hissing at her.

"Jim, let's get out of here." She closed her eyes and hugged him tightly. "I'm standing by my car. My nice peaceful car..." She opened her eyes and smiled, breathing a sigh of relief. The prison walls of Antelope Freeway were a welcome site. "Wow Jim, that was fast! Just a few seconds... Good job!"

"You mean the jump? It was all you. I just hung on for the ride..." They were soon sitting down on some patio furniture they had jumped over the previous week, creating a small picnic area in the exact center of Antelope Freeway. Except for the changes in the solar cycle, the weather on the Freeway seemed locked at 53F and a pleasant spring setting. The wildflowers seemed perpetually in bloom, and Jim and Cindy now thought of the prison more as their private garden.

Cindy stretched out in a plastic-tube lounge chair. "How close was it?"

Jim chuckled. "So close, you don't want to know."

"Yikes... Sorry again. I know you've already forgiven me. What'd you manage to get out?"

"All the arctic clothing, a good deal of the food. I didn't get to the gear. Perhaps it's just as well."

Over the last several weeks, Jim and Cindy had been observing the boys as the arctic winter set in. The ocean around their island was now pancake ice, large layers of frozen salt water bobbing in the waves, and they were both expecting it to freeze solid any day. Six days ago, on September 24, the sun dipped below the horizon. They were now a twilight halfway between sunset and true night.

The youths had dug a shelter near the front door of the arctic lodge and were constantly testing the strength of the windows and doors. Jim tried to convince Cindy that the boys were so vicious that they should not be helped, and at last she agreed. But then something happened on September 28 that changed both their minds.

They both saw it happen. The youths were just standing around outside the house, exhausted from their latest futile attack, when one of the youngest looking boys had what was obviously a heart attack. He clutched his left arm, then held his chest, then collapsed to the ground and died.

It was the reaction of the other boys that made Jim and Cindy rethink their perspective. The boys showed obvious frustration at the loss, but also treated it as a totally natural occurrence. Jim and Cindy had a long conversation later that night.

"So you think it's medical? So do I." Cindy curled up and cuddled with Jim in their warm bedroom. She shivered thinking how ill-prepared the Paleo boys were for the arctic weather outside. All of them were already showing the black signs of serious frostbite.

"Yeah, I think so. Some chemical imbalance maybe. It's burning out their bodies, filling them with rage, and they know it. Hell, they know they're dying, and they still can't stop the rage. This is so sad Cindy..."

"Jim, if it's a chemical imbalance, then they're truly insane, and not accountable for their actions. It's not their fault. We should help them."

"It'll be risky... But I agree."

Cindy leaned up and kissed him. "I love you..." The next hour passed in gentle love making... 

Earth time: Unknown, mid morning, autumn solar cycle, Day-5 at the country store... 

A'moth walked out of the store after a late breakfast and started heading down the path to Antelope Freeway. She was carrying the bow and arrows. All the other gear she would need had already been carried to the worksite the previous evening, including some heavy rocks to act as an anchor for the rope.

She was very relaxed as she walked. She knew Clovis spears were no match for a longbow, and her senses were also telling her she was very alone.

A'moth was all business when she reached her destination. The uncoiled fish-line from the store had already been unrolled and color-coded with length markers every two meters. She had cleared the corn out of a straight path just over 400 feet in front of the towering wall. The thin nylon fish-line was laid out in long straight loops along the path.

For many centuries A'moth had been a fan of flight shooting. She was present in 1987 when Don Brown set the world record with a shot of 1336 yards. She was at the Olympic Games in Barcelona in 1992 when Antonia Rebolla lit the Olympic torch with a flaming arrow.

A'moth prepared for the shot, and then took a moment to steady herself. She had the right bow for the job, and the right skills and muscle. A shot to clear a 400-foot obstacle would ordinarily not be a problem. But she had never tried distance shooting while trailing a fish-line.

A'moth notched the arrow and pulled back the full length of the bow. The power was incredible and she loved it. She sited for a moment high above the wall, realizing that she needed to have the arrow travel at least 400 feet beyond the top of the wall. From 400 feet away, she released the full power of the bow into the arrow.

Her shot was perfect, clearing the wall by over a hundred feet with the great thin arc of the fish-line shining and still rising in the morning sun. A'moth ran up to catch the line that was hanging down on her side of the wall.

She was overjoyed to feel some tension in the line when she got to it, as if it were impaled on something on the other side. Her distance marker was showing 805 feet of line deployed from the arrow to the bottom of her side of the wall. A'moth smiled. Before her shot, she had no idea if she were firing onto a roof, or into a bottomless pit. Her job for the moment was done. There was nothing to do now but wait.

Earth time: Friday, 10 AM, November 26, 2010 Central Standard Time

Cindy and Jim were taking their daily morning exercise run, jogging ten times around the swimming pool jogging track at their arctic home, then jumping to Antelope Freeway to jog the same number around the barrier perimeter. They happened to be jogging counter- clockwise, eastward about midway along the southern wall, when Jim stopped and gasped.

Cindy looked up and did the same. "I see it too! Are we under attack?!"

They both stared as the arrow glistened in the sunlight as it arched over the eastern wall. It landed in the center divider between the eastbound and westbound lanes, burying itself into the soft earth. Keeping a wary eye for more arrows, they slowly approached the landing site.

"Fish-line Jim!" said Cindy, as she squatted to examine the arrow.

"Yeah, I see it."

"And a message, painted on the arrow! It says, PULL ON LINE. Think we should?"

Jim thought for a moment. "Yeah, I do. How about you?"

Cindy smiled and answered by starting to pull on the line. After a few seconds Jim helped her reel the line in. They began to create a large pile of it near their feet.

A'moth was overjoyed to see her fish-line going up the wall. She had only been waiting about a minute, and had been prepared to wait till at least sundown. After an additional fifty feet of fish-line, a much heavier nylon rope started being pulled up the wall. A'moth watched the note attached to the beginning of the rope, until it disappeared over the wall. She couldn't have hoped for better results.

A few minutes later Jim and Cindy were opening the note. "SECURE THE ROPE. I WILL CLIMB OVER." Jim looked over at Cindy and smiled. "Well, in for a penny..."

"... in for a pound. Why don't you drive your Chevy over? We can tie the rope to the bumper." Within five minutes, the rope was secured. Jim and Cindy looked at each other and waited.

They soon felt the line being tested, and then it became taut. They were tense with anticipation, occasionally looking at each other but not talking. Twenty minutes later they saw a single figure at the top of the wall. The figure waved at them, and then began to slide rapidly down the rope.

"Look how rapidly he's coming down," said Cindy. "And I think he climbed 400 feet in twenty minutes... This is one expert climber, Jim."

Jim was staring at A'moth sliding rapidly towards them. "Yeah... Uh, Cindy? I don't think it's a guy..."

A moment later A'moth landed and turned to face them. They stood there in silence for long moments, six meters apart, sizing each other up. Both parties were expecting the other to take the lead in explaining what was going on.

A'moth was the first to realize what was happening. "Hi. My name is A'moth. You're prisoners here, like me, aren't you?"

Jim nodded. Cindy turned and looked at him, and realized how captivated he was by A'moth's unusual looks. Cindy turned back, and considered A'moth with a much more objective eye. She was also leery of the two thin knives hanging loosely from A'moth's belt. Cindy called out, "You're not human, are you?"

A'moth shook her head. "No, and in case you don't know, this isn't Earth either. It's not even a planet. I think it's a small bounded universe, with an edge to infinity about 23 kilometers away. We have a lot to talk about. Can we share stories, about how we got here?"

Earth time: Friday, 5:23 PM, November 26, 2010 Central Standard Time

The three were sitting in the lounge furniture in the makeshift picnic area in the center divider. Everyone was feeling a bit tired from their seven-hour discussion. During the conversations, A'moth made a decision to trust Jim and Cindy completely, and she told them almost everything about herself, including her age, her origin, and her ability to teleport. She decided to withhold the fact that she was also a vampire.

The complete trust was not returned. A'moth saw Jim and Cindy staring at each other in astonishment as she told them her story, and they frequently excused themselves to talk in private.

A'moth knew there were major things being kept from her, but she bided her time. Jim and Cindy looked far too clean and healthy to have lived the last fourteen months within the walls of Antelope Freeway. As the last of the sunlight left the top of the eastern wall, Jim and Cindy excused themselves again and went to sit in Cindy's car.

"Cindy, why don't you want to trust her?"

"Hell, Jim, teleporting around Earth for five-thousand years?! Duh! Do you believe it?!"

"Sure, why not? What's more unbelievable, that, or you spending a year on another planet as a six-legged squirrel? Duh!"

"It's not the same thing! Double Duh! And I was a tiger squirrel, not a squirrel!"

"It IS the same thing! Duh to infinity!"

"Jim, do you WANT to believe everything she's saying?"

That brought Jim up short, and he stopped playing. "Want? What does want have to do with anything?" Jim thought for a moment and tried to answer the question. "No, of course not. A horrible plague, humanity heading towards extinction... Cindy, how can you even ask? But A'moth was attacked by the Paleo, just like us. And what she says fits our dreams about Charlotte. Everything she says fits."

"Not everything. Maybe A'moth is lying about the time compression. We haven't observed anything like that."

Jim frowned. "I've been thinking about that. I think these walls... I'm guessing they're not... I think they might be temporal reflectors... The physics, the engineering behind this is so vast..." Jim stared into Cindy's eyes. "Do I want to believe A'moth? Of course not! From the journal entries, the old man died about a month after we met, and it sounded like a horrible death, alone and in pain. No one deserves to die like that... Cindy, what?"

There was a shock of realization on her face. "My gosh Jim! The Paleo kids! Maybe they were exposed to a bio-weapon too!"

Jim was silent for a moment. "Maybe... If they were, it was one sick weapon... making you die of hate... We could ask A'moth her opinion, if we told her about the arctic..." Jim leaned over and rested his head against Cindy's. She was silent, but he realized inside she was thinking furiously. Neither said anything for several minutes.

Cindy took a deep breath. "Jim?"

"Yeah?"

"I think you've convinced me. I'm being an idiot. Let's go talk to A'moth, tell her everything..."

Three hours later... 

Earth time: Friday, 8:38 PM, November 26, 2010 Central Standard Time

"Just hold onto me and let me hug you back." said Cindy.

A'moth laughed. "Okay! This is so ironic. I've jumped other people in my life, but here my inner eye is totally blind. This is my first time as a jumpee."

A'moth felt a distinct difference in the jump. Her jumps were always a sharp clean pop from one location to another. Transferring with Cindy felt like waking up from a dream. A'moth looked about the room of the lodge. The temperature inside felt like a pleasant 68F, but the weather outside looked frightful. A'moth walked over to the window and stared out at the raging blizzard.

Jim walked over to a radio receiver. "Peninsula thermometer is registering -41F. Let me turn on the spotlight... Can you see their tunnel entrance just to the left?"

A'moth followed the spotlight into the swirling snow. "Yes, I see it... You say there are only three left?"

Cindy grimaced. "There were three this morning, I think the three oldest ones. They've been dying about one a week. It's been horrible. One horrible fight a month ago, but the others were just brought out of their shelter dead. Jim and I are thinking more heart attacks... Their condition is deteriorating, even with the food and clothes we gave them. The look in their eyes now is pure feral... the ones that are left. They're burning up with hatred..."

A'moth nodded slowly. "The Hopewell history book mentioned something about this, about sixteen violent Paleo boys entering the Blue Spirit mountain and vanishing forever..."

Cindy joined A'moth by the window and stared at the blizzard inches away. "There were fifteen here, plus your attacker at the Freeway. It can't be a coincidence."

"Oh, I agree," said A'moth. She was quiet for a moment. "Havika named the quantum channel Antelope Freeway after what happened to these boys. He wrote he was trying to honor the innocence of the white antelope, a remembrance to the monstrous horror that was done to it... and to the Paleo..."

"Turning an entire species of animal into a bio-weapon..." Cindy shuddered. "Such sick minds..." Cindy reached up and hugged A'moth, resting the side of her body against hers. "A'moth... I'm so sorry for not trusting you."

A'moth rested her head against Cindy and sighed. "If I've read the Hopewell history book correctly, I think I'm supposed to kiss your cheek now."

Cindy replied in a whisper, "Only if you forgive me." A'moth gave Cindy a very thoughtful kiss on her cheek while hugging her. Cindy sighed and returned the hug. She looked up at A'moth and smiled. "Come on. We'll show you our home."

All three were soon riding down in the closet elevator. Cindy jumped into the role of tour guide. "This is the only entrance, except for jumping. We measured the shaft with a thread. It's about sixty-six meters of rock. Below that there are eleven levels, four meters apart, three meters of head room. Opposite this shaft, there's another elevator and a stairwell, connecting all the levels. On the lowest level, the elevator and stairwell open in both directions, to the lowest bedrooms in one direction and to the gym area in the other."

A'moth raised her eyes. "Oh? Can I see the stairwell?"

"Huh? Uh, sure..."

After a quick walk across the machine shop, they were all standing at the top of the stairs. It was a simple switchback leading down. A'moth shrugged her shoulders. "Ah... I don't know what else I was expecting... Something grand maybe. In his journal, Havika wrote the stairwell was spectacular..."

There was a moment of silence. Finally Jim said, "Well, why don't we give you a quick tour? You can pick one of the bedrooms..."



-------

Chapter 20


Early next morning... 

Earth time: Saturday, 6:18 AM, November 27, 2010 Central Standard Time

Aina time: 6:25 AM, day 45 of 1408 H.E. (mid summer)

A'moth completed her eighteenth lap on the underground jogging track and glanced at her watch. The track was very springy and a delight to run barefoot. A'moth was pacing herself to one lap per minute, a nice easy run for her. The diameter of the vast cavern was 132 meters, and A'moth was running about 1.5 meters from the wall. Each lap was 410 meters, just over a quarter mile.

A'moth had a late dinner with her new friends, and they had stayed up close to 1 AM talking. During her tour of the complex, A'moth had picked a bedroom on the lowest level, one of the smallest bedrooms in the shelter. Level-eleven's space consisted of a corridor running towards the center of the 12-meter circle, where there was a small common sitting / reading area.

Off of the common area were four rooms of 200 square feet each, three bedrooms and a bath. All the bedrooms were beautifully furnished with hardwood floors and plush furniture, and A'moth felt a little unsettled by the opulence. From the elevator and stairwell, the direction opposite led directly to the gym area.

A'moth thought that Jim and Cindy were probably still asleep, but her own body only required about four hours of sleep per night and she felt well rested. She continued her run, deciding on whether to try the huge pool next. It was 100 meters by 50 meters, with diving towers at one end ascending all the way to the 44 meter ceiling. The water temperature was pleasant for swimming, about 77F, and the deep water looked very inviting.

After twenty laps, A'moth stopped and reversed direction. She intended to run clockwise around the track for an additional twenty laps. But she was only halfway around the track when she pulled up and stopped. Running from the new direction, she thought she noticed a very faint indentation somewhere in the wall, directly opposite the entrance to the gym.

A'moth studied the wall. The track wall was painted in many different styles along the track. The particular pattern here was a Mandelbrot fractal geometry pattern, numerous spiraling circles and curves. A'moth ran her hands lightly along the walls, wondering if she had really seen something or was just imagining things.

Her sensitive fingers detected a slight warmth to one of the circles. After a second of thought, A'moth pushed on the circle. A door-size opening appeared as part of the wall pulled back and slid aside. A'moth stood in the doorway, gaping in amazement. Then she spun around and raced to the other exit.

Two minutes later A'moth stepped out of the stairwell on Level-six. The entire level was a single gigantic bedroom and bath area. A'moth had grinned and thought of it as a honeymoon suite when Jim and Cindy had first shown it to her. Jim and Cindy were both naked and sleeping soundly. A'moth couldn't help but smile before she waked them. There were several clues around that they had been making love with each other before sacking out last night.

"Heh hem!" she called out. "So sorry to disturb you, but this is important."

Cindy woke first. A'moth smiled again as she saw Cindy cover Jim's nakedness before she covered her own. "Uh, good morning. What's up?"

Ten minutes later all three of them were standing by the fractal wall. A'moth pushed the button and all three of them walked through the doorway. They stood on a small platform overlooking an enormous cylindrical cavern. The scale of the scene was so far beyond human technology, all three of them had trouble at first understanding what they were looking at.

Finally Jim said, "There's a laser rangefinder in the machine shop. I'll go jump and get it." He closed his eyes and five seconds later was gone. Cindy barely noticed, her eyes were riveted to the scene before her. After a few seconds A'moth tore her gaze away from the vista and started to make a closer inspection of the platform.

A very short time later Jim reappeared on the platform. His quick return brought Cindy out of her daze. "Wow Jim! Four jumps in what, less than a minute?"

"Yeah, I'm catching up to you..." Jim said absently. He started taking readings with the rangefinder. "I'm getting a nice spectral reflection off the opposite wall. I'm reading 1450 meters... Let's see... I'm about two meters from the wall here. So the diameter of the cylinder is 1452 meters... Let me try the verticals next..."

"Jim, Cindy..." A'moth called out. "Both these stairs and the platforms are numbered. Each stair is numbered, the top one is labeled 25,200. And I think the platform itself is labeled zero-degrees."

Cindy nodded. "I've been counting the platforms. I think there's one for each fifteen degrees of rotation, thirty-six platforms in all maybe..."

Jim reported, "I think the ceiling is the same height as the gym, 44 meters from here. The floor is... You're not going to believe this... four thousand meters down from here, exactly. Axial length of the cylinder is 4044 meters."

"What a beautiful staircase..." whispered Cindy. "You were right, A'moth, about Havika I mean... Havika was right too... What a beautiful staircase..."

A massive cylindrical volume of open space spread before them, pleasantly lit from softly glowing walls. Along the wall was a great spiral staircase, making one and a half revolutions before reaching bottom four kilometers below. About every 220 meters along the spiral path, there was a small horizontal observation platform. They could dimly see the end of the great helical spiral, directly across from them and four kilometers down on the floor of the cylinder.

"Jim," asked A'moth. "This cylinder is at the exact center of the island, isn't it?"

Jim nodded. "Yeah, I think so. We knew our home and gym area were oriented inward. This cylinder has a radius of 726 meters. Add the 132-meter diameter of gym, the 4- meter connection tunnel, the 12-meter diameter of the underground house... That gets you up to... let's see... That adds up to 874 meters to the elevator... another 6 meters to the front door... We've measured about 120 meters horizontal from the front door to the shore line... and about a 20-meter drop... Yeah, it all fits. This cylinder is at the exact center of the island."

"The angle orientation is correct too," added Cindy. "We think the point of Earth's axis of rotation is at the exact center of the island, and that our home is at zero degrees longitude. From the pole, our house is in the direction of London. This platform really is platform zero, zero degrees longitude, with the North Pole 726 meters away... And do you see that there's something at the bottom?"

A'moth had brought her binoculars with her and was using them. "Hard to make out from here what it is, even with the binoculars. It looks like a sparkling blue diamond... right in the middle of the floor. Up for a hike? It'll be almost eight kilometers of stairs..."

Cindy smiled. "Down for a hike, you mean. How can we resist? We can jump back and rest if we get tired. Can you jump in here A'moth?"

A'moth tried for a moment. "No."

Cindy nodded. "Then you can jump with us again. Let's go!"

It took them almost ten minutes to reach the next platform. Jim and Cindy were grateful for a spot to rest, A'moth felt fine. She looked around the platform as Jim and Cindy sat down and massaged their knees. A'moth called out, "The step level with this platform is labeled 24,500. It's consistent, 700 steps between platforms, 36 platforms to the bottom... There also an inscription on the platform handrail, 15 degrees..."

Cindy smiled and asked playfully, "So A'moth, to what great cities have we traveled?"

It took A'moth a second to realize what Cindy was talking about, and then she smiled back. "Naples, Italy and Prague in the Czech Republic are both near 15 degrees East... The next platform will get us to Odessa in the Ukraine..."

Cindy nodded and then turned serious. "A'moth, I don't know if my knees can take walking down four kilometers of stairs. Jim, how about you?"

Jim shrugged his shoulders, looking uncertain. A'moth spoke up. "I have a good pair of binoculars. Have you ever tried mini-jumps?"

Jim stared at A'moth. "Mini-jumps?"

A few moments later A'moth was coaching Jim as he stared through the binoculars at the next landing. "It shouldn't be hard," she said, trying to build his confidence. "I can mini-jump a kilometer on a clear day with a good pair of scopes. Scan the area, imagine you're there... The key is to visually acquire the site... Lock it into your visual memory..."

"Okay..." murmured Jim. After a few moments he said, "I got it... I think..." He let the binoculars hang loose on the strap around his neck. "Here goes..."

Jim closed his eyes, and three seconds later he was gone. Six seconds after that he appeared on the landing at thirty degrees. He was just a tiny figure from 220 meters away, but A'moth and Cindy saw him clearly. They waved and cheered back. A few seconds later he rejoined them.

"This is fabulous! Thanks a bunch A'moth!" Jim smiled broadly at his two companions. "How about I jump both of you over? Cindy, you can try next."

And that's how they make their journey down the staircase. Cindy gulped a bit when she saw Jim and A'moth in a close hug before their jump, but she quickly got used to it. She also learned the technique, and she and Jim alternated, Jim jumping the team from the odd to even platforms and Cindy jumping the group from the even to odd.

After a few platforms, they had the routine down to a smooth easy rhythm. A typical routine would be Jim jumping Cindy to a new platform. While she studied the next platform, Jim would jump back to Antelope Freeway, jump to the previous platform, then jump with A'moth back to Antelope Freeway, and finally jump with A'moth to the new platform. The four jumps took about a minute, by which time Cindy would have acquired the next site. She would hand Jim the binoculars and jump him via Antelope Freeway to the next location.

After a few cycles to polish the technique, they had the process down to a smooth flow, averaging a platform transfer in just over ninety seconds. In an hour of focused effort, they reached the floor of the great cylinder. There was something shining in the distance, a sparkling blue something over 700 meters away, at the center of the great floor. The three of them stood quietly pondering their next move.

Cindy spoke first. "This may sound childish, but I could use a bathroom. A shower and some breakfast wouldn't be a bad idea either. How about we take a break and jump back here in an hour?"

Jim was dying to explore the sparkling light, but then A'moth said she thought Cindy's idea was excellent. Jim relented and they spent the next hour at home preparing for the next phase of their exploration.

Earth time: Saturday, 9:03 AM, November 27, 2010 Central Standard Time

Aina time: 9:10 AM, day 45 of 1408 H.E. (mid summer)

The group started their trip across the cylinder floor. The floor felt as if they were walking on polished hardwood, and Cindy joked that they should try jumping down here sometime with roller skates. They walked the distance to the center in less than ten minutes and made several loops around the sparkling light. "It's a shadow, I think," said Jim at last, "a quantum shadow of the Blue Ring A'moth mentioned... in Havika's writings... What do you think, Cindy, A'moth... three or four meters in diameter?"

Levitating a meter from the floor was sparkling torus of blue light. The group orbited it several times, lost in its shimmering beauty. Then Cindy stopped abruptly and a worried look fell across her face. "Jim?"

"Yeah?"

"I just remember something. It's 4044 meters to the ceiling from here, and then another 66 meters of rock. We measured the island plateau at about 22 meters above sea level. Jim, maybe this Ring is right at 4,087 meters below sea-level. Remember what the ocean depth is at the North Pole? The real North Pole..."

"Yeah, sure do... 4,087 meters... Good point..."

Cindy looked very worried. "Can these walls take it? The pressure I mean..."

Jim put his arms around her. "They would collapse in an instant if they couldn't, and they're not collapsing. But I don't think these are ordinary walls, not simple matter I mean. The engineering behind all this, it's so impossibly advanced, so impossibly beautiful..."

A'moth spoke up. "Havika wrote that the Ring loved to play with numbers when he described this place, especially the 3,4,5 combination."

Jim raised his eyebrows. "3,4,5? That's the lowest integer solution to x-squared plus y- squared equals z-squared."

A'moth nodded. "My thought too. I was jumping around the North Pole a few months ago. Well, a few months ago for me. More than a year ago in Earth time, October of 2009. There was this funniest feeling right around the Pole, in a circular area maybe six kilometers in diameter..."

Jim considered. "You're suggesting the radius of the quantum sphere is five kilometers, aren't you? Four kilometers to the surface, then a three-kilometer bubble radius at the surface."

Cindy blinked. "What are you guys talking about?"

A'moth replied, "The distance it would take to re-enter Earth's timeline. Jim and I are both guessing... Well, the peninsulas go out to 2.5 kilometers. We think you'd be back on Earth, the real Earth, about 500 meters south after that... Jim?"

"Yeah?"

"I've got to get you the books from the store. Havika wrote in his journal some shadow- channel transitions are like trap doors, one-way only. I didn't know what he meant then, but I think I do know. Antelope Freeway is an entrance trap door from Earth, and I'm guessing the arctic bubble is the exit trap door. If you walk more than a half kilometer south from the peninsula tips, you won't be able to get back."

"No... I think you're right. All our magical jumping ability would be gone."

"My gosh, it's just like our dreams Jim," added Cindy. "We leave the arctic to give Charlotte a life, and then find we can't get back."

A'moth looked puzzled. "Charlotte? Who's Charlotte?" She was met with silence, and finally continued. "I think I'd like to try it, leave the arctic, and soon. I have family. People who are as close to me as family. I really need to check up on them."

Cindy looked shocked. "A'moth, you'll freeze to death!"

A'moth laughed. "You're forgetting we seem to be of opposite polarities. You can only jump within quantum bubbles, and these bubbles are the only places where I can't!"

Next morning... 

Earth time: Sunday, 11:38 AM, November 28, 2010 Central Standard Time

Aina time: 12:09 PM, day 46 of 1408 H.E.

A'moth spent the rest of Saturday preparing to leave the quantum-shadow channels. Jim and Cindy jumped her back to Antelope Freeway, and she made two round trips to the convenience store, climbing the high walls four times in order to bring back the dozen books. Jim found it almost impossible to tear himself away from the physics books once he realized what they were.

The wind was howling across the barren western peninsula tip at 180 degrees. The temperature was 38F below, and the night sky was shimmering in green northern lights. In a quantum instant, three arctic clad people were standing on the tip.

"Take care of yourself A'moth. Come back soon," said Jim as he released her from the jump hug.

"Yes," added Cindy. "Remember we'll be checking the Freeway everyday at 10 AM. A'moth?"

"Yes?"

"I know we've only known each other two days... When you come back... You're coming back as family, not as a guest... Okay?"

A'moth paused in the bitter wind. "Okay. I feel the same, for both of you..." Her eyes were moist with tears. "It's cold out here. Let's go!" A few seconds later A'moth started hiking due south. A few moments later Jim and Cindy started trailing her, staying about forty meters behind her. A'moth walked with her head turned, watching Jim and Cindy and waving to them often.

After walking for about five minutes and just 380 meters from the peninsula, A'moth suddenly felt her jumping abilities return, just as her view of Jim, Cindy and the peninsula winked out of existence. Following their plan, she waited several minutes to make sure they wouldn't appear, and then made two six-thousand kilometers jumps to a much warmer environment.

Jim and Cindy both shivered a bit when they saw A'moth shimmer as she went through the quantum boundary, shivering not from the intense cold but from losing their new friend. They cuddled with each other and closed their eyes, and were back at Antelope Freeway a few seconds later.



-------

Chapter 21


Earth location and time: Miami Florida, Dade County Family Court, Monday, 9:40 AM, November 29, 2010 Eastern Standard Time

Aina time: 11:29 AM, day 47 of 1408 H.E.

"Mr. Connors, can I ask you a question?"

My lawyer's quiet question brought me out of a daydream. My daughter Isabelle was sitting in a chair on my other side. Her eyes were closed, but I sensed a subtle shifting of her head as she plugged into the conversation.

"Of course," I whispered. "What's up?"

"While you were still in Chile with your daughter... with all the national child-grabbing going on... Didn't you think it odd that Chile was forcing you to come back to the U.S. with Isabelle for a custody battle?"

I paused for a moment before answering. "Yeah, I guess. Several of the local lawyers I spoke with were surprised about it too. But it is the law. Isabelle and I are both U.S. citizens. I don't know why our applications for Chilean citizenship were never... Why are you asking?"

"I'm getting a really bad feeling about this case."

I sensed Isabelle shivering and nodding her head in agreement. Was I the only one in the dark? "What do you mean?"

My lawyer grimaced. "This hearing was scheduled for 9 AM. It's Florida State law that petitioners for child custody have to be physically present in contested cases, to be available for cross examination."

"Yeah, okay. So?"

"The docket is packed for today, especially with it being right after the Thanksgiving holidays. Yet this judge has been waiting patiently almost 45 minutes now for Isabelle's biological dad to show up. This is unheard of behavior. The only possible explanation is that we're in... well..." My lawyer was quiet for a moment, and then whispered, "... a show trial. I'm afraid we're just going through the motions..."

"What?!" I hissed as my counsel's words sank in. "Hell... The judge has been bought off?"

My attorney sighed. "I don't think money alone would account for something like this. This judge is owned by somebody. I think we're up against something we don't even understand, something nasty... Damn..."

"My gosh... What can we do?"

"The hearing hasn't started yet. I'm so sorry Mr. Connors. Maybe just walking out of here with Isabelle... It might be your only chance..."

"Christ!" I hissed again. I looked at Isabelle. She gave me a slight nod. I stood up and offered her my hand.

"May I ask where you think you're going?" the judge called from his bench.

"Uh, yes, your honor. I'm taking my daughter to a restroom."

"Sit down! Bailiff, escort Miss Perez to a restroom. Make sure she returns here."

Isabelle winced at being called her hated last name, but she was very brave. She gave me a hand signal that meant hang loose, and then walked off with the bailiff.

"Hell..." I whispered to my lawyer. "He can do that?"

"He shouldn't... but yeah, ever since the plague, there's been a lot of power shifting around. This would never have happened a year ago. We've lost so many of the good people..."

My lawyer looked completely dejected. He whispered to me, "Hell Gary, I think we've beien bagged. The only thing keeping this travesty going is that Isabelle's biological dad isn't here yet... I'll appeal of course... Objectively, we have a hell of a strong case... But for today... I can't see how you and Isabelle are going to leave this courthouse together... I'm so sorry..."

I felt numb, absolutely numb. I sat back into my hard wooden chair and tried to blink away my tears before Isabelle returned. My dear trusting daughter! I had talked her into the idea of coming here, and now I realized I had led her right into a lion's den. I felt like shit.

Isabelle came back more than ten minutes later, a little longer than I was expecting, especially for an unnecessary rest stop. For the first time in a long, long while, I saw Isabelle smiling. She returned to her seat next to me, and after a few moments opened her purse and hauled out her all-time favorite Lion beanie-baby to hug.

"Lumpkins?" I whispered. "I thought you forgot and left him at home..."

"Yes... Well, she's here now..." Isabelle whispered back with a smile.

"She?" I whispered. "Lumpkins is a... !!!" In a shock of recognition, I realized to whom Isabelle was referring. A'moth! Isabelle gave me a quick nod and then gave me another one of our coded hand signs, asking me to keep quiet. I signaled back that I understood.

The judge waited until 10:00 before starting the case without the bio dad. The hearing was a mockery of justice, clear and gross violations of the law. Juan Perez's lawyers made outlandish accusations about me having sex with Isabelle and petitioned the court that permanent physical and legal custody of Isabelle be granted to their client. Isabelle never even got a chance to speak.

And my presence on the stand was a joke. The judge was constantly interrupting to warn me not to perjure myself. All my lawyer's objections were overruled. The judge even referred to Isabelle as "that innocent violated little girl". I was outraged and embarrassed that Isabelle had to hear such sordid insanity, but there was nothing I could do about it. Mercifully, the whole hearing lasted less than an hour.

The judge awarded temporary custody of Isabelle to the State of Florida, and then became verbally abusive with me. Of course I felt like retorting, but then I felt Isabelle's hand lightly resting above my own, and I realized what was happening. The judge was trying to get me to explode, in order to find me in contempt of court and lock me up.

In other circumstances, the urge to take the bait after losing Isabelle might have been irresistible. But with A'moth near... I just sat back and stared at the judge with big eyes and let him make a fool of himself... I whispered to Isabelle, "Hotel lobby..."

The exasperated judge finally stopped his senseless diatribe, after looking around the courtroom and realizing everybody was staring at him. He ordered that Isabelle be escorted to one of the county holding pens, and I was ordered to leave the courthouse. The joke trial was over. I left without a word.

I stood outside in the sunlight for a moment. I thought briefly about waiting around for my lawyer. He was a decent guy and I'm sure he thought I must be frantic by now. But my one thought was to leave the danger area as quickly as possible. Getting arrested now on some trumped-up charge would be a disaster.

I tried to take a taxi back to the hotel, but with all the gas shortages it was impossible to find one. I finally wound up hiking, my heart a unique mixture of hope and despair. The walk back to the hotel took close to an hour. I packed up and checked out, and then waited in the lobby with two bags, mine and Isabelle's. The wait was painful, but fortunately it didn't last long. A'moth's disguise was excellent. She looked nothing like she really does. She caught my attention by pausing nearby. I followed her to a nearby elevator. We walked in, and as the elevator door closed, A'moth hissed without moving her mouth, "Not yet. Monitors."

We rode up silently and were soon walking along a top floor hallway. "Where are we going?" I whispered.

She whispered back. "Just to the stairwell. There are no security monitors there."

We entered the top platform in a deserted stairwell. A'moth was all business. "You first, then the bags," she said. She looked around for a second to acquire the site as I dropped the bags, and then she hugged me. I was in my home in Santiago, Chile an instant later.

"Daddy!" yelled Isabelle, and she rushed across the living room to hug me.

A'moth disappeared, and then returned with my bags a moment later. She found my daughter and me locked in a tight embrace. We were both crying our eyes out.

After brief hugs all around, A'moth insisted on putting off explanations until we cleared the house of everything we cared about. I was shocked. When she first jumped me back to Chile, I thought my problems were over.

So Isabelle and I spent the next hour packing. A'moth is the world's best mover. She jumped in a bunch of moving boxes for us. All we had to do was pack and close the box to show it was ready to go. A'moth would jump the boxes away much faster than we could pack them.

We packed lots of clothes, family pictures and remembrances of Carlotta. Isabelle loaded up her laptop, several boxes with her dolls and stuffed animals, and her favorite chess set of course, the one she got from Carlotta on her seventh birthday. I emptied my one key filing cabinet, packed my two laptops... I asked A'moth several times if this were really necessary. She kept saying yes, kept saying she would explain later, kept saying to pack as if we were never coming back... 

It was over an hour before I felt I had all the critical stuff. A'moth jumped away my last box from my downstairs office, and I went to search for Isabelle. The clock in the living room was reading a little after 4 PM, but Miami time it was just after 2 PM, and I was wondering if my daughter wanted a late lunch.

I found Isabelle in her bedroom. A'moth was there too, allowing Isabelle to lean on her, A'moth's hand resting on Isabelle's shoulder. Isabelle was standing quietly by the bay window, gazing at the garden and swimming pool below. I didn't have to guess what was going through her mind. I was just starting to speak when the alarm system began flashing. Someone was on top of the perimeter wall.

"Hit the floor!" A'moth hissed. We were all kissing the carpet a second later. "Gary, I'll be back for you in a few seconds!" A'moth lay on her back, and Isabelle rolled on top of her immediately. They hugged each other tightly, and then they were gone.

I lay there on the floor, panting and wondering what the hell was going on. Who were we running from?! This was my house, damn it! Why shouldn't I just call the police? But I also knew I was on record for checking out of a Florida hotel less than two hours ago... What was my story for getting back to Chile so quickly? I lay there steaming for a while, and then I began to worry. A'moth had left more than two minutes ago. Was something wrong?

A'moth finally popped into existence less than a meter from me, lying by my side. She whispered, "Gary, you have one inquisitive daughter!"

"Oh yeah..." I smiled.

A'moth smiled back. Just then the flashing of the alarm ended, and it chirped its reset sound. "Damn!" I hissed. "They have the damn key, and the code! They've just shut off the alarm from inside the front door! They're in the house!"

"Mount me Gary, just like Isabelle..." I did as she asked. There was a brief unexpected burst of sexuality as she wrapped her arms and legs around me, and then we jumped. It was to a bed somewhere, some empty house I think. It looked rustic, and I felt my ears pop a bit. I caught a glimpse of a conical mountain through a window. And then we jumped to another bed, in a finished basement of another house. My ears popped again. Isabelle was standing nearby smiling. A'moth and I shared a brief kiss before I dismounted her.

"Gary, I want to go back to Chile, watch what the intruders do. You and Isabelle should just stay here. I'm the legal owner of this house. I'll introduce you to the neighbors later. But for now, just stay down here in the basement. There's a full bath and a snack bar... Oh, one more thing. There's a computer and a cable modem down here. Don't use them for now. I'll explain later. Just hang out, okay?"

Isabelle and I both nodded. A'moth kissed me and shared a brief hug and kiss with Isabelle. Isabelle's hug back was very affectionate, the way she used to hug Carlotta. A'moth nodded her head to me one last time and vanished.



-------

Chapter 22


Earth time: Monday, 12:40 PM, November 29, 2010 Mountain Standard Time

Aina time: 4:29 PM, day 47 of 1408 H.E.

After A'moth left, Isabelle and I wandered about and looked at our boxes. They were neatly stacked in two separate piles in the room. Isabelle looked so excited I decided not to press her for explanations, let her decompress first.

A'moth's downstairs area was very comfortable. It was a nice deep basement, more than seven feet of head room. There was one large living area plus a separate utility area and bathroom. The bathroom was very nice, brightly tiled and spotless and packed with fresh towels and all sorts of toiletries.

There was a full-sized frig with food and a microwave at the snack bar. It was more than a snack bar, a small kitchen really, complete with a full sized sink. Isabelle made us soup and tuna fish and crackers for lunch. After we did the dishes we even tried a game of chess, until both of us started laughing at all the errors we were making. We offered each other a draw simultaneously.

"Dad, would it be okay if I take a shower? I'm feeling dirty from this morning."

"Yeah, great idea. I'll take one after you..."

I got dressed in the bathroom after my shower. As I came out, I noticed Isabelle sprawled out in a Lazyboyreclining lounge chair. Her eyes were closed and she was breathing very slowly, but I didn't think she was asleep. I went and sat down on the couch very near her.

After a minute she spoke up. "The jump-line from the Miami courthouse to our home in Santiago is 6,368 kilometers. That's right at the limit of what A'moth canwants to jump when she's jumping somebody..."

I reached up and petted Isabelle's head for a moment. "A'moth told you all about herself, huh?"

"As much as she had time for. It wasn't much. She was surprised I didn't know everything you do."

"Well... I made a promise... I know A'moth revealed herself to you last year... Still..."

"Oh, A'moth doesn't mind. She thinks it was sweet, how you kept your promise, even though it wasn't necessary... I think so too..."

"Ah... thanks sweetie..."

Isabelle sounded very stressed when she replied, "I made promises too, to mom. Promises that I think now are no longer necessary to keep..." She was quiet for a moment. "We're at Pine Bluffs, Wyoming, on Butler Avenue. We're very close to the border. The State of Nebraska is only about a thousand feet east, that way..." she said, pointing with her hand.

"Oh... Okay..."

"The jump line from our home to here is 8,260 kilometers, definitely farther than A'moth would want to jump while carrying us. So there was a stop in Panama..."

I nodded. "Yeah, I remember the other bed..."

"Yeah... me too... This house is 5,000 feet above sea level. Our home in Santiago is at 1500 feet. The stop in Panama was midway... near the Baru volcano... to help with ear pressure..." Isabelle was quiet after that. She closed her eyes and seemed to be relaxing in the lounge chair. No, not relaxing. Isabelle's lips were quivering. I worried about what to say next.

After I while I asked, "You okay Issie?"

There were a few seconds of silence, and then Isabelle sobbed out the word "No!" and the dam burst. Isabelle's face grimaced into a world of pain as she cried. She started telling me of her ordeal earlier in the day. The bailiff had led her to a women's restroom. Fortunately the bailiff was a guy and stayed outside. Isabelle thought she was alone in the restroom and she checked the windows. They were securely barred. Isabelle was resigned to relieving herself and going back to court with the bailiff when she was suddenly grabbed from behind, a hand over her mouth. She found herself home in Chile an instant later.

A'moth explained to her that she would get us both out of the fix we were in, to just be patient. Isabelle picked up Lumpkins from her bed to act as a signal for me, and then A'moth jumped her back to the restroom.

The scariest part for Isabelle occurred after the disgusting trial. She was led by two bailiffs to a holding area, where she saw two men in government uniforms waiting to take custody of her. They were dressed in tan military uniforms, with the insignia of YPM on their arms. She recognized them as buddies of her biological father. It brought back a lot of the awful memories of her early childhood. She didn't like these two at all. Isabelle thought they were cruel and sadistic, and they would often leer at Carlotta before the divorce, when Isabelle was a toddler.

"Leer at mom?" I asked.

"Dad... You don't know... Mom made me promise..."

"Sweetie, you don't"

"No! I think mom would want you to know now! It's time for the promise to end! Mom is beyond shame now! Mom... There was so much sadistic control... She had to earn the right... to wear clothes..." Isabelle's breath caught in her throat and she whispered, "Mom refused... when other men... were in the house..." My daughter gasped and then screamed out, "He hit her! HitHe hit her hard! In the nose!" Isabelle wailed and she burst into tears again. "So much blood! I was so young! I didn't understand!"

Isabelle got up from the chair and collapsed against me, crying from the depths of her heart. I held her and tried to comfort her, but wound up crying with her. Carlotta! My dearest, precious Carlotta! My beautiful gentle wife! How insane, how senseless to degrade her! How was it even possible, that such evil could exist?! My mind felt numb.

I slowly returned to reality. I noticed Isabelle was hugging me. We were hugging each other. Isabelle was petting my head. "Here," she said, handing me a tissue. "Blow your nose."

We wound up drying each other's tears with the tissues. Isabelle returned to the Lazyboy.her chair. She closed her wet eyes and continued her story. "The two government men were insisting they be allowed to leave with me. There was a court clerk there... along with the police... saying the judge had to sign a paper first. The clerk was assuring the guys it was just a formality, that the judge already had the paperwork..."

Isabelle took a deep breath and was silent for a while. She then continued. "I was locked in a holding cell. It was almost an hour after the trial by now. My room had a big glass wall and door with lots of thick wire in it. I could still see and hear everything at the main desk... I felt so alone... Then the clerk at the desk announced that the papers from the judge had arrived. I started to panic! And then all the lights went out, a power failure. Everything was pitch dark... A'moth jumped me back home..."

Isabelle opened her eyes and looked at me. "A'moth told me after the jump she was in the basement of the courthouse, by the master circuit breaker. She tripped the power before jumping me... She knew the locations of the video monitors... She cased the place... during the morning... during the horrible trial... Daddy?"

"Yeah?"

"Why does A'moth love us so much?"

"Ah... That's a bit complicated..." I felt very strange. I wasn't about to tell Isabelle A'moth was a vampire, not now. And yet, I didn't feel like hiding things either. Isabelle was waiting for me to continue, and I opened my soul to her. I whispered, "Life... and emotions... they can be so strange sometimes... strange and wondrous..."

"Dad?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you love A'moth?"

"Sure."

Isabelle shook her head. "No, that's not what I mean. Do you two love each other, as husbands and wives love each other? I see the way A'moth looks at you, when she thinks you're not looking. It reminds me of mom... Mom did the same thing... A'moth looks at you in love... husband and wife love..."

"Ah..." I took a deep breath and was silent for a long moment. "She does, huh? A'moth and I... No... not exactly... Not yet anyway..." In a burst of honesty and realization that Isabelle deserved to know, I added, "Things might have been different, if I had never met your mother."

"Oh... Well... Just to let you know... You and A'moth..." My daughter was blushing. "I won't mind if you do..."

I stared at Isabelle. She was smiling at me, her face a bright red from embarrassment. Eventually I smiled back. "You won't, huh? Well, that's nice to know... Ah Issie, you're so precocious! Not just brilliant, precocious... It's so easy for me to forget. Are you sure you're still only eight-years old?"

Isabelle didn't answer directly. She got up and hugged me again. We were quiet for a long while. "I used to dream about you, in Miami," Isabelle finally whispered.

My eyes were deeply closed. "Huh?" I murmured. "You mean before we met?"

"Yes... You are my perfect dad, who never forces me to be older than I am." I opened my eyes and gazed at my daughter. After a while she raised her eyebrows at me. I recognized it as Isabelle's play posturing. She kissed my cheek and asked, "Up for a game of chess?"



-------

Chapter 23

Earth time: Monday, 3:38 PM, November 29, 2010 Mountain Standard Time (51 minutes before sunset)

Aina time: 7:27 PM, day 47 of 1408 H.E. (16 minutes past sunset)

Isabelle won the flip and started as White. I gulped when she offered me the King's Gambit by pushing P-KB4 on her second move. The game was on its way to some major league fireworks.

A'moth popped into existence just as I was accepting the Gambit. "Ah, you'll have to wait on that! We have an arriving train to catch, the 3:40 at Cheyenne. Please bear with me, I'll explain shortly. Gary, I'm going to jump you into a restroom. Just pick up your bags and meet Isabelle and me outside." A'moth took two random pieces of my luggage and disappeared. Two seconds later she was back hugging me. A second later I was standing in a deserted restroom. My two bags were at my feet. I shrugged and picked them up and walked out.

There was a small crowd of people descending from a train platform, several of them heading to the restroom I had just exited. A'moth had timed this pretty close.

It was a typical Amtrak station. There was a voice over a speaker system announcing that Train-8205 had now arrived from Denver. Isabelle and A'moth walked out of a women's restroom a short distance away, and we all casually carried our bags to a nearby long-term parking lot and a waiting car.

A'moth drove. We were soon heading east on I80, the setting sun to our backs. Isabelle had her face pressed to the window, gazing at all the new scenery. The car was a recent model, a 2009 Ford. Nothing flashy though, a simple sedan... 

A'moth finally spoke. "Gary, this car is registered in both our names. Our new names I should say. We're married, Isabelle... Oops! Sarah is our daughter... Open the glove compartment... and say goodbye to your old life."

I pulled out some envelopes. I felt like Mr. Phelps on Mission Impossible. There was a Wyoming driver's ID in there with my picture and new name and signature on it, social- security cards, notarized birth certificates and marriage license, a joint First National Bank savings book showing $23,000... I was two months younger, my daughter was eight months older. My ID was showing an address on Butler Avenue at Pine Bluffs. "My gosh A'moth! This all looks so real!"

"Don't call me that! My name is Lisa! And you ID is real, completely real. Your driver's ID is completely real. So is your new SSN. It's listed uniquely to you, imbedded and certified on the master government records. I have backdoors... teleporting backdoors... We'll be back at Pine Bluffs in less than an hour. Tom and Sarah, we have a lot of rehearsing to do! I'll explain everything later tonight. For now, remember to call me mom Sarah, and I'm Lisa to you, dearest Tom!"

A'moth / Lisa took a deep breath. "Live the identify! Don't fake it, live it, become it. You have to drum it into your brain over and over, so that it becomes automatic. You look at me Tom, you're looking at Lisa. You're thinking of me, you're thinking of Lisa. You ask your wife to do something for you, you're asking Lisa. You're upset with me, you're upset with your wife. You're thinking I'm pretty, you're thinking your wife is pretty. You're thinking I'm ugly, you're thinking your wife is ugly. all thisYou got all this?"

"Uh... Almost. Not quite all."

"You can't think of me as your wife?"

"No, not that. I'll never be able to think of you as ugly."

My daughter gave an affirming laugh. After a while my new bride laughed too. "Thank you Tom! Nice compliments from my spouse are always appreciated!"

I smiled and took another look at my new driver's license. "Hey! It's got my picture on it! And the signature is Thomas O'Brien, but it's my handwriting! How did you ever do this?!"

Lisa laughed. "Don't you recognize the name?"

"Thomas O'Brien? Hell! The Vice President of Investor Relations in New York?"

"Yes. A person names Gary Connors left him a memo with a hand-written post-it note on top, when he was called back to New York in November of 2008. Fortunately Gary didn't sign the middle initial. I gave you a different middle name."

"A'moth! No, sorry! Lisa! How long have you been planning this?!"

"I create a new identity every year or two. I keep about a dozen active, all over the world. Close them down so people won't notice I don't age. In the beginning of 2009, I picked Pine Bluffs, and decided to add slots for you and Isabelle too, just as a backup for emergencies. I'm so glad I did. You and Sarah, I should say..."

We drove east along the highway, memorizing our new identities. Lisa is a freelance journalist. She writes under pen names. I'm a freelance consultant. I'm also thinking about writing a book. We have a lot of inherited money. We both have Master Degrees from UCLA. That's where we met. That's where Sarah was born... 

I kept nodding my head as Lisa explained our new identities. The ID is so deep, if I want more copies of Sarah's birth certificate, I just write to the California Department of Health and fork over a few bucks to the Bureau of Vital Statistics. The ID is that good. And we're home-schooling Sarah... We have been on the road for several years, but we're thinking of settling down for a while... All three of us worked on the details, over and over, as Lisa drove us home.

We got to a small branch office of First National at Pine Bluffs shortly before its 5 PM closing. The bank manager recognized Lisa. My wife deposited some fairly large checks from Atlantic Monthly and Harpers magazines. She also introduced the manager to me and our daughter. He seems like a nice guy. Our neighbors at our house seem very nice too. We also met several people at the food-mart... Everybody seems very friendly... 

One of the more amusing things that happened is that several different people commented how much Sarah looks like her mother. They're right. I've noticed it myself. They both have a classic Spanish beauty. My daughter has thick black hair and her eyes are very dark, not the jet black of her mother Lisa but close. They also have similar facial features, bushy eyebrows and cheekbones. And they both have athletic bodies, classic Spanish form. Isabelle's carriage is trim and fit, and she loves to exercise. And their eyes... They both have an aura of intense intelligence and fierce determination in her eyes... 

It was after 8 PM by the time we settled into the house and had a light supper. A'moth, or should I say Lisa, is a good cook, and she has good tastes in decorating. The house isn't very large, only two bedrooms upstairs, but the furniture is very tasteful and comfortable. Probably the only unusual things about the house are the kitchen appliances and the security system. They are both first class.

After dinner, Lisa and I sat down on a couch in the living room. Sarah was in a chair nearby. Lisa took a deep breath and sighed. "Let me tell you what really happened in Miami. It's horrific."

"Mom, wait!" said Sarah. "Can we tell us where you've been?! Since the plague hit..."

Lisa frowned deeply and looked upset. Sarah suddenly looked very nervous, wondering if she had upset her mom. But then Lisa apologized to both of us. "No, I can't Sarah, not even to dad. It's not a matter of trust. There's a real physical reason why I can't. I'm so sorry."

Lisa was quiet for a moment. "Sarah, your other life, think of it as a dream. In your dream Sarah, do you know what your biological father did?"

Sarah said nothing for a moment, then got up from her chair and sat down between us on the couch. She cuddled with her new mother, and Lisa kissed the top of her head. Our daughter sighed. "No mom. He used to have... Uh, I used to dream he had business meetings in the evenings, with other people, almost always men. My dream mom told me he ran an import-export company. I don't think my dream mom knew much either. She never told me. In the dreams, I mean. I never dreamed of her telling me."

Lisa nodded. "Very good Sarah..." My new wife looked at us thoughtfully. "Sarah, Tom, I can only tell you about my dream self starting from two days ago. I began my dream in Chile, searching for you. I tried to track down your dream family, found they moved, made lots of phone calls, finally learned what was happening with the courts, with Miami... from the neighbors... next to the dream house. I dug deeper, my dream self has lots of resources, resources you can't imagine..."

Lisa petted our daughter's head in love, slowly stroking her from the top of her head to the back of her neck. "Sarah, your dream dad... He was involved in child trafficking, even before the plague..."

Sarah shuddered, holding her mom tightly with one arm and reaching for me with the other. All three of us were cuddling a moment later, with our daughter in the middle.

Lisa continued. "Once the plague hit, the world governments became insane... They areThey're focusing on stockpiling children... for the future... I guess the thought is that the nation with the youngest population will win the race to extinction... by being last... So insane! Such stupid, senseless nationalism!"

Lisa took a deep breath. "The governments have entwined themselves with brutal and amoral people. There's been tremendous shifts in governmental power, both in Chili andall over the U.S... world. That's how the intruders got the security codes, for the dream house in Santiago... They almost ARE the government now, the child traffickers, at least a branch of it... Raw power, and completely amoral... It's obscene! Back in Miami they call the child trafficking YPM, Youth Population Management, as if changing the name makes a difference..."

Sarah shuddered. "My dream dad whispered a nightmare to me once, near the end of his divorce with my dream mom. He said my dream mom would pay for her mistakes, and that I would pay too... Mom?"

"Yes daughter?" Lisa whispered back.

"My dream dad is still coming after me, isn't he?"

"No, sweet daughter. That part of the dream has ended... forever."

Sarah was quiet for a long time. "He's dead, isn't he?"

"Yes..."

"Did he suffer?"

Lisa's voice was the softest whisper. "No. He went to sleep, and then the sleep became infinitely deep. There was no pain."

Sarah was quiet for another long time. "I'm glad. There's too much suffering in the dream already. I love you mother... And I love you for not adding more suffering to the dream."

Lisa cried softly, and then whispered back, "And I love you, now and forever and to the depths of who you really are. You are my true daughter, in all of my dreams."

Sarah sighed and cuddled in her mother's warmth. It had been a huge, exhausting day for all of us. I sat there almost in a daze, feeling it was impossible that I was in a Miami court just this morning. The house was very quiet and Sarah fell asleep, right there on the couch. I carried her up to her new bedroom. She woke up slightly when Lisa changed her into pajamas, and then again when we both kissed our daughter goodnight. She gave us very sleepy goodnights back.



-------

Chapter 24


After tucking Sarah in, my wife begged to take a shower first, before we talked. I changed into a new tee shirt and cotton shorts, and sat of the king-size bed in our bedroom waiting for her. I was so tired. After a few seconds I lay down to rest. My mind was desperate to think about something pleasant and non-threatening. I started thinking about the house... 

It's a good house, comfortable, simple, a non-pretentious boxy cape. It feels like a home. Foundation size is about 10 meters by 12 meters. There are four nice-sized rooms on the main floor, living room, kitchen, dining room, and play room. The upstairs is interesting, just two bedrooms, but with lots of closet space and a full private bath for each. I like the colors, mostly earth tones, with occasional splashes of bright color... My wife has good tastes... My wife... My wife?!

I blinked my eyes awake. I must have been dozing. The shower wasn't running anymore, and after a moment the bathroom door opened and Lisa walked out, drying her thick black hair with a towel and wearing just a bathrobe. I felt a pang in my heart. Gosh, she was so beautiful... 

"Lisa," I said. "We need to talk, back in our old identities."

"Yes, I agree Gary," said Lisa, transforming into A'moth. "I owe you so many explanations. First off though, about sleeping. Our cover identities don't force us to act immorally. You're very kind to cuddle with me when I feed, but otherwise, I'll jump to the basement to sleep."

"Huh? No way! I'll be the one sleeping in the basement."

"Huh? Certainly not! As A'moth, this is my house, not yours! I can't treat a guest that way! And you're my dearest friend, not a guest!"

A'moth was smiling in playfulness. I felt like playing too. "But I'm the guy, and you're the woman! I must be allowed to be chivalrous! I insist!"

"I insist too! I'm sleeping in the basement! And if you follow me down, I'll... I'll call the police and accuse you of a sex crime!"

That brought me up short. A'moth and I just smiled at each other until we both laughed.

"Besides," said A'moth, turning serious, "Isabelle is up here. What if she needs you?"

"Ah, Isabelle... A'moth, she's thinking of you as her real mother now. She's not acting."

It was A'moth's turn to be brought up short. "That's true. I know."

"As her mother, it's just as important for you to be there for her, when she has her nightmares."

A'moth grimaced. "Does she have them often?"

I nodded. "I think she'll be okay tonight. She looked very peaceful when she went to sleep, more relaxed than I've seen her in a long time."

A'moth was silent for a moment, and then sat on the bed. "Let's table our sleep issue. Will you hold me for a while?"

We were soon lying down, gently holding each other. I was petting A'moth's head. Gosh, she smelled so wonderful. "I love you," I whispered.

"And I love you. I came so close to losing you... I was frantic when I was searching for you... I didn't find out which hotel you were in until after you left for the courthouse. And if I had come just a few days later... It would have been too late, at least for Isabelle."

I shuddered. "Losing Isabelle... How could her bio father be so cruel, to sell her into slavery?"

A'moth shook her head. "Not slavery. Death."

"What?!" I whispered.

"The plot was to have you frantically searching for her, and then find her just in time to witness her rape and murder. And then you would be pinned for both crimes."

I stared at A'moth in horror. I tried to speak but couldn't.

"Juan Perez was furious when he learned that Carlotta had died of the plague, not that she was dead but that she had escaped his plans for revenge. But if he could destroy her beloved daughter and have her new husband executed for the crime, his revenge would be complete."

I lay there in shock, still unable to speak. My daughter! "How do you know all this?" I finally managed to whisper.

"Remember the first time we met? I can produce organic chemicals... with my body... control chemicals... I jumped into Juan's bedroom, several hours before dawn. I made Juan very weak... and then I read him... read his mind... I wasn't planning to kill him, not at first. But then I read him, read right down to the core of his diseased soul..."

A'moth shuddered in my arms. "I know everything, far more than I want! His sick desires, how he tried to destroy Carlotta's spirit, how he used to scream at young Isabelle. I know it all. Oh God, how I wish I could forget!"

A'moth was shaking so hard I thought she might vomit. I held and caressed her, told her I loved her. She held me tightly, and whispered her love back.

"A'moth?"

"Yes?"

"It's been thirteen months... May I feed you?"

She nodded. We kissed for a while. Her hand slipped into my loose shorts, her fingers soft as feathers as she caressed me. I drifted into the sexuality, felt myself get eject, felt myself sliding into warmth and wet softness, felt her throat beginning to suckle me. I sighed and floated. Her wonderful fingers, soft feathers across my sac, then penetrating to fondle my testes, dropping to open my anus, something swirling around my anus, wet and insistent and so, so sexy... 

I sighed and relaxed, and then blinked as I realized I was being penetrated. But I could also feel A'moth's fingers from both hands, kneading my testes, and holding my butt cheeks open for... 

For what? I suddenly realized it was her tongue. My cock was engulfed in her mouth and her tongue was still able to slide out and seek my anus. I felt it wiggling inside me, corkscrewing deeper in a wet, wildly sexual search for my prostate.

My hips started thrusting up and down. A'moth's mouth kept my cock locked in position, her throat with a suction pull on my penis head, and her feeding teeth deep inside me at the base. I could feel her incredible tongue, sliding across my testes, sliding up my wet butt, sliding across my rectal walls... 

There was a hot spark of pleasure, from the tip of her tongue pushing down on my prostate, and I exploded, gasping for air as the waves of pleasure rippled through my body and mind. I kept thrusting up into her mouth, pushing my seed deeply into her suckling throat.

She pumped me until I finally collapsed exhausted. I lay there for a moment catching my breath, and then I turned to my side to cuddle with her.

During the months of 2008, when A'moth and I were doing monthly feedings, she confided to me that she found our feeding encounters sexually arousing for herself too. We experimented a bit, lots of playful trials with our bodies, until we finally found something that would help her unwind from her arousal.

Right after feeding, she would lie face down with me by her side. I would pet her back and butt and the backs of her thighs until her breathing relaxed. She especially liked me to trace out the curve and indentations in her backbone. I gather her spinal cord is better protected than in humans, and her backbone feels distinctly non-human when I massage her.

After getting her back massage, A'moth wants to fall asleep. She'll turn over and lie on her back, and I'll stroke her breasts and stomach until she sighs and drifts off. I don't let the petting go below her waist. Her pubic fur is incredibly thick and silky, deep black and as dense as a mink. I resist the urge to pet it. It's very inviting, but being stroked there is very arousing to A'moth. What she wants is to be cuddled and loved and to drift away from her arousal.

Tonight though, there was a dramatic change. A'moth's body was twitching as she unlocked my penis from her mouth. Her skin was flush and sweaty, and she had a glassy look in her eyes. Without a word, she spun around and mounted me, not sheathing me but laying her body over mine. She lifted her bathrobe to expose herself below her waist and pushed her pubic against my penis, burying my shaft in her thick black pubic fur. It felt rich and silky and so sexy. A'moth stroked my shaft with her silky pubic for a short time, panting heavily. And then she pushed down hard and orgasmed.

At least, that's my word for it. What she did was beyond human intensity and duration. Her entire body spasmed, all the muscles in her arms, legs, abs, her butt... They were all rock-hard muscle, ropes of muscle visible in her arms and below her breasts. Her breasts were flush and ripe, the nipples expanding and becoming reddish in color. Her back was arched into a deep curve, and her face was a rigid mask of... of what?

At first I thought it looked like pain. But then I probed with my empathy. Wave after wave of searing pleasure, pleasure so intense I think it would have burned a human mind. I gazed at her in astonishment and awe. I don't think I could have remained sane, being subjected to such intense physical pleasure. She was breathing in strange gasps. I don't know how else to describe it. It was a very non-human breathing rhythm.

It finally ended. The tension disappeared and her body collapsed on top of me, all feminine curves and softness now, her muscles in a deep state of total relaxation. I turned to my side and carried her body by her hips and shoulders to the bed beside me, kissing her and whispering that I loved her.

I was getting some strange feedback. My senses weren't detecting any change in her body, but my empathy was telling me she was hearing me clearly. And then even that disappeared. A'moth was fast asleep in my arms, a sleep so deep... maybe a better word would be unconscious.

I got up and undressed her, taking off the slightly damp bathrobe. She was so beautiful. I climbed back in and curled up with her, bringing the sheets and covers over us. My arms were holding her in the same way Carlotta would like to be held in sleep. A small part of my mind noted with amusement that I didn't feel guilty at all. I felt that Carlotta would be happy for me. I fell asleep by A'moth's side, caressing her breasts and feeling the rise and fall of her breathing.

It was in the dead of night that I woke up. I was in a strange state, relaxed and excited, awake and asleep, in control and driven... I noticed a faint odor. It was alluring... very alluring... sexually. It was the strangest feeling. I had a stiff erection, but I didn't feel like having intercourse... I looked at A'moth. She was so beautiful, but my mind was filled with her smell. My hands were on her breasts, her beautiful breasts, stroking and massaging her beautiful breasts... They seemed ripe, full, begging to be suckled.

The urge to feed became irresistible. I moved my body, lowered my head to her breasts and sniffed her nipples. They're oval, never round, never human, but still so beautiful and sexy... Yes... My mouth opened and I suckled a soft oval nipple into my mouth. I moaned in pleasure, opening my mouth wider to engulf her breast, sucking half her tit into my hungry mouth. My fingers began to work the breast beneath my suckle, gently at first, but then pushing firmly, deep down into the milk duct tissue. The breast swelled, becoming engorged under my stimulation.

I worked the nipple, pushing it against the roof of my mouth with my tongue, locking the nipple with a suckle and pushing my tongue into the ripe teat below. I suckled strongly and stripped my tongue through the full tissue behind the nipple, stimulating the milk ducts to flow. I felt the nipple expand and ripen, and the breast swelled. Outside my mouth I held her breast and squeezed it. It felt very heavy and full as my fingers probed it.

I increased the intensity of my suckle, pulling on the swollen tip with a steady rhythm. The breast discharged. A warm fluid began to flow. I shivered in the sexuality and suckled greedily, swallowing every drop. Far sooner than I wanted, the flow stopped. I whimpered in frustration, until I remembered her other breast was still ripe with promise. It was only was I drained her second teat that my sanity returned. My gosh, this is not human milk! What have I done?!

"A'moth!" I hissed. "Can you wake up?"

She looked at me very sleepily, her eyes almost closed. "Gary?" she murmured.

"A'moth, I've just suckled you. You're lactating. I drank from your breasts... Both of them."

She looked unconcerned for a moment, just sighing and snuggling with me. Then her eyes blinked wide as she finally realized what I had said. "Gary, are you okay?! Lie down! Show me the memory. Let me read you..."

A'moth was soon present in my mind. We've only done this a few times before, but this time it felt a lot different. It was a lot easier to make the mental connection, and I was getting a whale of a lot more feedback on the link than I was used to. It was as if our two minds had finally learned how to talk with each other.

A'moth's mind focused on my visual and tactile memory, while my mind explored the new depths of our emotional intimacy. The connection was pure delight for me, beyond sexuality, pure love and delight. I drifted in the love. A'moth finally smiled at me and through the mental connection asked if we could begin to untangle the mental embrace we were in. We broke the last of the mental contact about ten seconds later.

"Wow Gary, wow... Did you read me well enough to understand what's going on? How do you feel?"

I thought for a moment. "I feel fine. Sexy... Sexy and happy... Do I understand? Not much. I think I could have understood more. Your mind was completely open to me. But to interact with your emotions, all that wonderful love... It took all my attention."

A'moth nodded and smiled. "I'm glad you're feeling okay. That tells me a lot. Gary, if you don't want me as your wife, I owe you a lifetime of apologies. And I'm not talking about Lisa now either. Think! How much do you understand?"

"Your milk... It changed how we can read each other, hasn't it?"

"Oh, it's done more than that! To answer your question, yes. But oh, it's done so much more than that!"

"I feel fine. I feel wonderful in fact. What's it done?"

"Gary, before I answer. Do you want me as your wife? Your real wife? Being unsure would be a perfectly reasonable answer."

I lay there and thought. "No, there's no doubt. None at all. I do want you... as my wife... if you want me."

A'moth was still for a long moment, and then whispered. "I do... more than anything." She stretched out and lay by my side. "Gary, you are so patient with me! I see you staring at me sometime when I'm eating regular food, but you've never pressed me for an explanation, about why I need your blood and semen."

I kissed her. "Well, I'd thought you would tell me sometime. I didn't mind waiting."

A'moth kissed me back. "I'm driven to it by my reproductive system... The urge to feed, it's part of my sex drive. Didn't you ever wonder why I need your semen?"

We petted each other lightly while A'moth collected her thoughts. She continued. "Chungieran females, when they reach breeding age, are purchased by a male, and then feed only from that male. After a full cycle of feeding, more than four years in Earth time, the female body adapts to the male being her only feeding source."

A'moth sighed. "She produces a special milk that the male drinks. The milk completes a feedback loop between the couple, the milk changing the DNA of the male's sperm and blood, and the female picking up these changes in her next feeding. The process continues until the female is completely dependent on that one male for feeding. He becomes her master. The female also becomes extra fertile for him..."

I lay there stunned. "You mean... You and I can have children?!"

"I don't know. Maybe. I'm almost as surprised about this as you are. But after 5,000 years of satisfying my reproductive system with human sperm... Well, I guess it's adapted."

"Wow... So you've only fed on me..."

"I started the night we first met on the train, just before dawn on Saturday, July 7, 2007. I'll remember the day forever."

I laughed. "Me too!"

"My last feeding before that was in 2004. It's completely out of my system now. My reproductive glands are now locked to you... Gary! Did you think I was also feeding on others?"

"Well..." I felt very sheepish. "Last night... It's been thirteen months... I thought you would need at least a pint and a half... But I think you took a lot less... I was wondering... Forgive me for thinking this... But I thought you might have fed on Juan, before you killed him." I paused and then whispered, "I'm sorry..."

"That piece of filth?! Yuck! I'd rather go insane, than pollute my body like that!"

"Sorry!"

A'moth reached over and kissed my cheeks several times. I blinked in surprise, but then realized she was telling me she forgave me. "Gary, I need to apologize too. It should have occurred to me that this might happen. My body was deeply aroused, sexually, the last few times I've fed from you. I should have realized this might happen, that my body would lock onto you."

A'moth grinned and petted my head. "My pheromones must have been very enticing to you, urging you to suckle me, to take me as your mate. I'm so sorry for not warning you about this earlier. To take me as your mate, that should be your free choice."

"Oh, it is!" I leaned over and kissed A'moth's cheeks several times. She got the idea. She cooed and wiggled in happiness. I petted her and she actually started purring. "What exactly does it mean?"

"Well, part of what it means is that my body wants to be your sex kitten. I'll try to keep myself under control, but my body is... well, I can manage it... maybe..."

I smiled, continuing to pet her lightly. "Wait! The plague!"

"For us? It won't matter. You're immunized anyway. Isabelle is too."

"My gosh, my gosh... I forgot about that! Can Isabelle have children?"

A'moth was quiet for a long moment. "I don't know. She's fine, but the sperm of infected males is not. The plague manifests in the placenta, but is present everywhere, except for you and Isabelle. Once Isabelle becomes an adult, I think she would be fine with pre-plague frozen sperm, but other than that, I don't know... Maybe not..."

"Infected males?! Is the plague a virus then? I haven't heard anything like this on the news. Has there been a breakthrough?"

A'moth suddenly looked extremely nervous and afraid. She sat there speechless, and then begged me with her eyes not to press the matter. I nodded and we returned to cuddling with each other. "My wife, my wife," I murmured as I kissed her.

After a while A'moth asked, "Husband?"

"Yeah?"

"Isabelle has accepted me as her mother, but... Do you think she'll accept me as your wife? It's not the same thing..."

"Oh, she's already given me permission to marry you."

"What?! You mean, as Tom and Lisa?"

"No, from before, earlier..."

"What?! Our daughter gave us permission to have sex with each other?!"

"Not exactly... though she was blushing. She knows that was partially what she was saying. But it was more about giving us permission to marry..."

"Show me?"

"Of course." A'moth was in my mind a moment later. I tried to stay focused on the verbal thought connection, but the urge to float in A'moth's emotional attachment to me was just too enticing. I began to realize just how deeply her body and hormones were driving her to be my sex kitten... Her emotions were racing with images of hundreds of different ways we could mount each other. I blinked when A'moth broke the connection.

"Well..." whispered A'moth. "My daughter is an incredibly sweet girl, but she and I also need to have a little talk."

"Ah, be gentle with her A'moth."

"Oh yes, I know. The purity of her love is rare and priceless. I'll be gentle. Gary... I saw Isabelle as a baby, as a toddler, in Juan's mind. She has a great gentleness, and an infinite capacity to love..."

"You could see her... wow... A'moth, there's something I don't understand."

"Yes?"

"Jumping into Juan's bedroom, the holding pen for Isabelle... Don't you have to be in a location first, have a visual memory of it, before you can jump to it?"

A'moth nodded thoughtfully. "That used to be true, until a friend, a long time ago, pointed something out to me."

"A friend? He or she? Historical? Famous?"

"Famous? He is now, oh yeah. I was introduced to him through a mutual friend, Conon of Samos. We were all in Alexandria Egypt, in the Library, about 260 B.C., I think. I'd have to check the knots in my diary for the exact year..."

I smiled at the memory of A'moth's skills in Quipu, the string writing, and then I stared at her in awe when I realized what she said. "You saw the Great Library?"

"In Alexandria? Oh yeah. It was the place to be back then. It didn't burn down until about 200 years later. There's so much myth about how that happened. Let me tell you the real story sometime... Anyway, Conon introduced me to Archimedes."

I gasped. "You're joking, right?"

"Why would I do that? No, not at all. Archimedes was one of the best friends I've ever had. He was one wild and crazy guy! He took after his father Phidias. I knew his dad through some astronomy connections. Anyway, Archimedes and I were great friends. I cried for hours when I heard a Roman soldier killed him."

"Uh, A'moth..."

"Yeah?"

"Did you... well... feed..."

A'moth blushed. "Well... A few times maybe... I was very promiscuous back then. Do you mind?"

"Uh... No... I guess not... Wow..."

A'moth kissed me. "Archimedes thought I was both a sorcerer and a seer. I described a little of my ability to jump to him, and my need to visualize my destination. Archimedes pointed out to me that my ability of avoid jumping into people and furniture implied a real-time image of my destination, not just a visual memory. It got me to thinking..."

A'moth stopped talking for a second and shivered. "I'm still feeling very sexy. I feel like demanding that you fuck me, raping you if your refuse... Will you pet my butt? Nothing too sexy... It'll help me unwind."

She laid herself prone on the bed. I started rubbing the small of her back and letting my caresses wander down her butt cheeks and across the backs of her thighs. A'moth sighed in happiness.

"Thanks Gary, that feels wonderful. Anyway, I started experimenting. If I stay still in one location and start probing with my mind's eye, I can start to build a spatial matrix of what my surroundings are like. It takes a lot of concentration, but after about ten or fifteen minutes, I can start to jump around within the matrix, without a past visual memory of my jump targets. I can only do it over short distances..."

"Oh, how short?"

A'moth cooed and wiggled in appreciation as my hand drifted to caress her inner thighs. "Uh, what? That feels so nice! Uh... Oh yeah. The longest I've ever done it was just over six kilometers."

"Oh... Still pretty long..." I leaned over and playfully kissed her butt. A'moth wiggled and invited me to do it again.

"Oh yeah! Long enough to make me the world's best bank robber."

"What?!"

"Gary, how do you think I gotten most of my wealth? I've accumulated several billion dollars worth of currencies and tangibles... Do you mind?"

I was silent for a while, thinking and petting. "No, I guess not. I would have done the same... I think..."

"I try to have some morals about it. For the last several hundred years, I've only stolen from drug traffickers."

"I thought you said you robbed banks?"

"Well, they had banks before several hundred years ago. But I still do, rob banks I mean. I rob safety deposit boxes of drug traffickers. It's a perfect setup for me. You're not supposed to store cash in these boxes anyway. It ruins their business, and they're powerless even to report the loss! I also rob the drug houses, the safes and hidden places. I find drugs and guns too. I just jump those into the garbage. I have my own personal dump. I use deep ice chasms in Antarctica. When the chasms close, my garbage is buried under kilometers of ice. Juan Perez's body is there now."

"Oh... Wait! How do you get inside the safes and the bank boxes?"

A'moth laughed. "The same way I got into a locked filing cabinet, to get your post-it note to Tom O'Brien in New York. I remote teleport."

"You what?"

"Here," said A'moth sitting up. "As much as I hate stopping you from petting my butt, let me give you an example." She closed her eyes and thought for a moment. "I'm jumping the bathroom cup to the bottom of the sink. I'm jumping the cold water tap to the open position." I started to hear water running in the bathroom. "I'm jumping the tap closed." The sound ended. A'moth opened her hand, and a cup of water popped into it from nowhere. A'moth drank it in one greedy gulp. "Ah, breast feeding makes me thirsty!" The cup disappeared. I heard the water running again. "Want a cup?"

"Uh... Okay..." She handed me a full cup a second later. I stared at it for a moment before drinking. "From how far away can you do this?"

"It's been a long term goal for me, to improve both the mass and the distance of what I can remote teleport. I can jump thirty kilograms over ten meters now, and something really light more than twenty..."

A'moth yawned and looked very sleepy. "I jumped the battery connectors to the emergency lights in Isabelle's cell, just before I tripped main power. I jumped Isabelle in total darkness into the courthouse basement. Then I jumped the connectors back. They'll never figure out why the emergency lights didn't come on for a few seconds." A'moth lay down on her back. "Pet my stomach?" she asked softly.

She lay on her back and I started to stroke her, my eyes couldn't resist gazing at her dense patch of pubic fur. But I knew she wanted to move away from her arousal. I tried to chat about non-sexy things... 

"A'moth?"

"Yeah?"

"You didn't want us to use the computers. I think I can guess why."

"Oh yeah. Plugging in you laptops would have been a disaster. The network could query your hardware MAC address. We'd create an electronic link from your old identity to this home's IP address"

"Hell! I didn't think of that!"

"And even if you used my PC, you might have forgotten, logged into an e-mail account, or even just issued a search pattern that's characteristic of a person named Gary Conners. I'll give you and Isabelle some training..." A'moth yawned, "... before you log in..." She stretched her naked body and then deeply relaxed. "Your petting is so nice..."

"A'moth?"

"Uh huh?"

"You know so much... About your body... About the Chungiera... How is it possible? Weren't you just four years old when you were orphaned?"

"Yeah..." A'moth was silent for a moment, thinking of the memories. "The other women at Caral... I was the only child. I was a bit of a mascot, everybody's daughter. Many of them tied strings for me, as books to teach me. Fortunately my mother taught me how to read... before the massacre..." A'moth gave another deep yawn.

"Ah, the Quipu... How does it work?"

"Huh? You want an explanation now? It's a complex system..." A'moth woke up a bit and continued. "The base mode has braided strings of six different colors. There are eighteen two-string knots."

"Oh, like an eighteen-character alphabet?"

A'moth giggled. "No! Quipu is word oriented, not character oriented. Each two-string knot has a primary and secondary color. So there are 540 core words with the two-string knots. My first childhood books had nothing but two-string knots... And over half the core knots are either connectors or emotional punctuations..." A'moth sighed.

"Huh? What?"

A'moth smiled. "Earth languages don't use punctuation much for emotions. I don't know why. It's a very good system."

I shook my head, not understanding. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you can use an explanation-point for excitement, and a combination of a question- mark with an explanation-point for astonishment, but other than that... I'll give you a Quipu example. Take the sentence, I see the dog. In Quipu, I can tie the knots for that and then add a punctuation showing I'm mildly sad that I see the dog, I'm terrified that I see the dog, I'm relieved to see the dog... There're thousands of different punctuation marks that signify emotions..."

"Thousands?! But you said there are only 540 possibilities."

"Oh, that's just the two-string knots. There are twenty-four three-string knots. After choosing primary, secondary and tertiary colors, that's 2,880 new words, There are thirty four-string knots that produce another 10,800 words..." A'moth yawned. "The order of the colors is important. Primary color is the top color on the knot, relative to moving down the braid... And then there are the connectors..."

"Connectors?"

A'moth nodded, keeping her eyes closed. "Sure, for making compound words. A single connector between two four-string knots gives over a hundred million combinations, and there are lots of different connectors in Quipu..."

What she was saying finally hit me. "My gosh! What a complicated system! Uh, I'm almost afraid to ask. Are there five-string knots?"

"A few... The specialty knots... They do different things, like changing the base of the writing..."

"Huh?"

"There are different styles of writing. Normal writing, one for poetry, one for mathematics, one for chemistry..."

"Chemistry?"

"Sure. Earth languages are so handicapped. You have to do it with pictures, showing the chemical bonding relationships of a compound. In Quipu, you describe everything with just knots, the full 3-D spatial relationship..." A'moth's words were fading to nothingness. She was falling asleep. "My mom once told me there's a legal mode too... But nobody ever tied me an example of it..."

I continued to stroke her as she drifted. She shivered in delight when I stroked her breasts, and sighed in contentment when I petted her ribs and stomach. She's so unusual, so non-human, so beautiful. I felt giddy with joy that A'moth wanted me as her husband. I turned out our small light and noticed that the faint light of pre-dawn was already coming in through the windows. I gently caressed my bride and whispered that I loved her. She whispered back her love for me and then fell totally asleep. I lay there gazing at her for a long time, my hand cupping the warmth of her ripe breasts, my heart filled with hope and happiness. More... I was filled with awe.



-------

Chapter 25



Earth time: Friday, 5:55 AM Mountain Standard Time, December 24, 2010

Aina time: 6:54 PM day 72 of 1408 H.E. (Festival of Harvest, first day of autumn)

Kara walked home alone after the tribal council meeting. It was an hour after sunset and a beautiful evening for a stroll, pleasantly cool after the warm day. Mahina was a brilliant waxing half-circle of blue light in the southern sky, and there were even a few solar-panel lights mounted on poles around the village, providing more than enough light for the journey home.

Kara walked into her hut and smiled at her two sister wives. Anuhea was massaging Va'an breasts, catching the flowing milk into a small bladder. Va'an's daughter Amy was still a few months younger than the traditional Hopewell weaning time, and Va'an was still lactating. Va'an would sometimes enjoy suckling Amy on one breast and infant Mahi on the other. But lately Amy had been reluctant to take milk she thought should go to Mahi. Va'an sighed as Anuhea milked her swollen teats. "My little daughter is growing up," she thought and smiled as she thought of Amy.

"Hi everybody!" Kara chirped as she closed the door. She was soon sharing a simple evening meal with her wives, with Mahi nursing from all three of his mothers, Anuhea slipping the nipple of the bladder into his mouth as he clutched at her breasts.

The group cleaned up and played with Mahi for a while, and then bedded down for the night, Anuhea thanking Kara for the pleasure of letting Mahi sleep on her stomach. Mark came in shortly afterwards. He greeted and kissed his other wives briefly, and then bedded down with Kara. It was Kara's turn to sleep with him.

"Busy day?" asked Kara. "I didn't see you at the Festival."

Mark nodded. "I hated to miss it. But we had some trouble rectifying the power from the wind turbines. It wasn't a job that could wait."

"How are they now?"

Mark shrugged. "Well... We've got a patch working for now. Leon volunteered to baby-sit the array overnight. We'll be running more diagnostics tomorrow. How about you? Festival go okay?"

Kara smiled at the thought of her responsibilities. "Sure. The main part is leading the singing for the autumn Spirit Song. What could go wrong?"

"Yeah... Well, you've been ruler now for exactly one full year. How do you like it?"

Kara couldn't stop herself from giggling. "Well, I'm glad half my term is over. Being the leader is a tremendous amount of work! I hope you'll still enjoy petting me, if my hair turns white next year."

Mark laughed and cuddled with his first wife. After a while he licked her nipples and tasted her sweet milk on both of them. "May I?" he asked playfully.

"Oh, please do! I'm feeling almost painfully full. Amy is feeling guilty about stealing milk from Mahi, and Va'an loves switching over. I was the last to feed Mahi tonight. He almost didn't take anything from me."

Mark nodded and kissed with Kara for a while. Then the kiss drifted down her neck and throat, lower to full breast, lazy kisses circling the large nipple. Kara finally whimpered and begged Mark to begin. Mark played and licked her nipples. Kara grunted and wiggled her breasts in invitation. She felt a strong, sexual suckle a moment later, and sighed and relaxed in the pleasure.

Mark cuddled with Kara after draining her breasts. "I take it Mayoni and Amy are at Anuhea's parents?"

"Yep... A nice deal all around. The kids love it, the grandparents love it, and I get to get sexy with you without my teenage daughter ten feet away!" Kara paused for a moment and listened, hearing the even breathing of sleep from both Anuhea and Va'an. "Don't you ever get embarrassed, your nights with Anuhea or Va'an, that your daughter might hear you orgasming?"

Mark sighed, letting his fingers play in Kara's pubic fur. Kara stretched her legs to invite Mark to explore. They kissed for a while. A light fingertip began tracing the outline of her vulva, and Kara felt herself moistening in response.

"A little, at first," Mark finally confided. "Enough to ask Mayoni once... if she were ever embarrassed... about the grunting..." Mark gave a grunt of his own as Kara's hand on his penis began to slide the skin up and down on his erect shaft.

"What'd she say?" asked Kara, and she grunted herself. Mark's finger was now sliding into her labia, coating itself with her slick moisture. The finger then found her feminine opening and slipped up inside her.

"She's so young Mark!" Umph!" The finger wiggled, seeking the sensitive area along the top of her vaginal tract. "It's still... Umph! It's still... UMPH!... two years before her marriage class..."

Kara panted and rolled her body on top of Mark, the finger releasing the pressure on her G-spot and sliding out of her. She squatted and lifted her rump up for coitus, felt the velvet penis head find her. Mark took her in one swift hip thrust, sheathing himself fully in his eager wife's moisture and warmth. Kara gasped and dropped to Mark's chest, hoping he'd give her vagina a chance to get used to the fullness of his cock before starting a thrust rhythm.

They tried to be discrete in their lovemaking. Gentle thrusts, no loud slaps of hips slamming together. Kara couldn't help but cry out as her orgasm washed through her. She whimpered as she felt Mark's sticky semen coat her cervix. The penis slipped out. Kara rolled off and lay on her side, butting back and lifting her leg. Mark accepted the offer, sliding the head of his wet cock on her anus and labia in slow strokes until the penis began to soften. Mark then re-coupled into the vagina. They both liked to fall asleep with the limp penis held in a warm and loving embrace.

"Mark?" Kara whispered.

"Huh?" Mark said sleepily. He gave a couple of rocking hip thrusts in a losing battle to stay erect. "Yeah?"

Kara wiggled in appreciation. "Mayoni... What'd she say?"

"What? Oh yeah. She was a little embarrassed I brought the issue up, about the grunting. Maybe you should have..." Surprisingly, Mark found himself getting erect again. He bragged about his new length by playfully butting Kara's cervix at the back of her vagina.

Kara yawned sleepily and then her eyes blinked open as she felt the pulse to her uterus. "Yeah, maybe... I'm glad you did though. Somehow I think she finds it easier to talk with you about sex... What'd she say?"

Mark pulled almost completely out, then scooted up, riding up the backs of Kara's thighs and sinking back down into the depths of her sweet opening. "She sang she rarely notices the grunts, but when she does, she finds them very relaxing."

Kara shivered and gasped at the sexuality of the penis re-entering her. "Relaxing?"

Mark began kissing the back of Kara's neck as his fully engorged penis began stroking in and out of Kara's vagina. He licked her ear and whispered, "I'm trying to remember her exact notes...  My parents are affirming love for each other. What could be more relaxing?  "

Kara lifted her leg and arched her back, signaling the Mark she was nearing orgasm and not to stop. "Oh... Oh! Oh... Uh, my daughter sang that?"

"Yes... Oh... So beautiful..." Mark grunted as he increased his tempo, surprised but delighted to feel himself splashing new semen into Kara just as her vagina clamped down into a viselike grip. They rode their orgasms together until they both collapsed, panting heavily. Mark leaned and returned to kissing the back of Kara's neck, petting her stomach and giving her gentle thrusts with a sopping wet and wilting penis.

Kara cooed and wiggled her hips in appreciation. "Ah, my precious daughter..." Kara sighed and sang quietly, "  'Uhane, Ha'awi, Lawe, A'o mai, Pa'ani, Maha  "

"Hmm?" asked Mark, "Spirit day, Sow day, Reap day, Study day, Play day, Rest day..."

Kara sighed deeply and sang, "  I love 'Uhane and A'o mai. I love having you inside me...  "

Mark and his three wives had tried various schedules for their sleeping arrangements. Within a month after the 1406 Red Bird Festival, when Anuhea had joined the marriage, one thing became clear. They all realized that no one likes the idea of getting sexy as a threesome and leaving one member out. So they started experimenting... 

Their polygamous union finally settled into a traditional Hopewell pattern for a three wife marriage, the first wife (Kara) having sleep rights on Spirit day and Study day of the six day week, Va'an taking Sow day and Play day, and Anuhea taking Reap day and Rest day. Occasionally they would take three-day periods of common cuddling, which would often drift into a sexual foursome and give the women time to explore their bi-sexual natures. But mostly they preferred sex one-on-one, and male-on-female.

Mark sighed in deepest contentment, gave one final hip thrust into the core of Kara's womanhood and started drifting off. Kara was also content, but her mind resisted sleep for the moment. Feeling Mark's body inside the center of her pelvis and his hand holding her breast, she breathed deeply and thought about Earth and Aina, about the plague on Earth and how miraculously Aina seemed immune to it. She thought about how the seasons and the calendars of the two planets were sliding against each other.

The yearly one or two-day leap holidays were completely off-calendar days. Each season on Aina had twelve six-day weeks, the seasonal festival days always occurring on Spirit day, the Festival of Light at the beginning of summer and the new year (day zero), the Festival of Harvest at the beginning of autumn (day 72), The Festival of Ice at the start of winter (day 144), and the Festival of the Red Bird at the start of spring (day 216).

Kara blinked her eyes awake. Mark was fast asleep, his soft penis barely holding its place in the soft folds of her labia and vaginal entrance, his semen and her lubrication coating her inner thigh. Va'an had already asked for the pleasure of breast-feeding Mahi for his late night meal. Kara sighed and felt completely relaxed and sheltered from the worries of the plague and ruler of the tribe, sheltered by the love of her family.

"Christmas Eve, back on Earth," she thought sleepily. "What an incredible two years here! So hard to believe... just two Earth years ago... I was a freshman... at the Colorado School of Mines... Just two years... Now I have a husband... and two wives... and three children... I have so much... I have so much love... from my family... from my tribe... Am I worthy? So much love... So much love..." Kara closed eyes fluttered and she finally surrendered herself to a deep sleep.

Earth time: Friday, 8:41 PM Mountain Standard Time, December 24, 2010

Aina time: 10:02 AM day 73 of 1408 H.E.

"Any sign of him?" asked Cindy, and Jim entered their underground bedroom.

Jim shook his head as he undressed and climbed under the covers with Cindy. "No. And the new snow is undisturbed by the burrow."

"Hell, he probably died then. There's no one left to carry the body out. This is so sad Jim."

Jim nodded. There didn't seem anything left to say. It was approaching four weeks since A'moth had left. Two of the last three Paleo boys had died a week ago, both from heart attacks. From the Hopewell history book, Cindy and Jim knew the boys were suffering fatal doses of adrenaline from hyperactive adrenal glands. Jim nestled against Cindy's naked body and petted her gently.

"How are you coming with the books?" asked Cindy.

"Oh... fine... It could be a lifetime of study, understanding the ten quantum books. There are five authors, Mayoni, Kalea, Havika, Hiapo, and... and me... me... posthumously... my papers... from Oxford Press... scary..."

Cindy smiled and then laughed. "I'll never forget the look on your face when you first saw them..."

Jim sighed. "Mayoni's mind was the most brilliant. Her intuitive grasp of quantum physics was... beyond belief. Unfortunately she died... will die... on the mission to West Virginia." Jim sighed again. "It could be a lifetime of work, understanding all they created..."

Cindy leaned over and kissed him. "Forget physics for a while. It's Christmas Eve!" She rolled her naked body on top of his. "It's the season of love and acceptance." She wiggled her hips in invitation across his. "I'm feeling very accepting..."

Jim smiled and petted her flanks. He soon coupled with his precious bride.

Earth time: Friday, 9:41 PM Mountain Standard Time, December 24, 2010

Aina time: 11:02 AM day 73 of 1408 H.E.

"Sarah all tucked in?" my wife Lisa asked. She looked up from her work of sliding the last of the presents under the tree. She saw the frown on my face and frowned back.

I had just come downstairs. "Yeah. She asked me to read her the Christmas story. Her dream mom Carlotta used to do that. It felt kind of strange... taking Carlotta's place... Sarah was crying a bit at the end..."

"Oh..." My wife locked eyes with me for a moment. I opened myself for reading, allowing her to share my recent memories. Then she nodded at me and popped out of existence. I finished putting up the stockings, picked up a book, tried to read the newspaper a little, finally turned on the TV at 10 PM to watch the daily half-hour science summary on the plague. The show ended. I closed my eyes and just thought for a while.

A'moth has kept a close watch on Miami and Santiago, to see how the child traffickers would react to the disappearance of Juan and Isabelle. At first, Juan's underlings were frantic about losing their boss and not understanding what was going on. Finally Juan's superiors took over and the shit hit the fan within the organization. The higher-ups were furious that so much effort had been made only for revenge. There's no profit in revenge. There never is... 

A'moth said Juan's two buddies were liquidated as a warning to the others, and the countrywide police bulletins about an abducted girl were pulled. They said it was all a clerical error. We're pretty safe now. Well, not quite safe enough to go back to Santiago. A'moth is sure the ringleaders are still fuming and dying to know what really happened. They're focusing their efforts hunting for Juan. Good luck guys... Search any crevasses lately?

It's been peaceful here in Pine Bluffs. A number of school personnel came over to test Isabelle / Sarah and go over our curriculum for her. They were none too enthused about home schooling at first. But then they saw the results of their tests. Sarah's IQ is off the charts, above 200, where it's almost impossible to define good metrics. But she's definitely 99.99999+ percentile, and maybe in the handful of the smartest people in the world. And she still only eight years old. With her Sarah ID, she turns nine in February 2011 instead of October. The school is happy to let us handle things. They say they wouldn't know how to teach her anyway.

So we're home schooling Sarah. Our daughter does go over to the school for some social activities. She made a few friends. The kids around here are pretty accepting... I like the area. There's a certain serenity to the open places, and the sheep. Sarah still isn't sure what she thinks of Wyoming winters though. Nothing in Miami or Santiago prepared her for the deep cold... 

I blinked my eyes open as my wife came down the stairs. I had been drifting, almost dozing. She sat down on the couch near me, cuddling by my side.

"How is she now?" I asked.

"Sleeping... Peaceful and sleeping... Gary..."

"Ah... A'moth... You let her be Isabelle?"

"It's always her choice, who she wants to be. I encouraged her to be Isabelle tonight. All the pain Gary. She can't work through the grief as Sarah. The grief is too real..."

I nodded, leaning against A'moth and petting her. "We're asking a tremendous amount from her."

"I know. I feel the guilt too. But we have no choice."

I sighed, neither of us saying anything for a while, just petting each other. Eventually I stretched. "Watched the science summary..."

"Yeah?"

"The world population is 6.6 billion today, almost exactly, as far as anybody can measure. A little less every day..."

"Yeah..."

"There's a new cult on the West coast. We're all going to be saved by divine aliens arriving on comets."

"You heard this on the science summary?!"

"Ah, no. The newspaper. Want to see it? It's pretty funny."

A'moth sighed. "Maybe later. Anything else on the summary?"

"The bio-labs in South Korea have a new proof the plague cannot be a virus. Funny how they never picked up on what you felt... last Christmas..."

"Yeah... It all died away in about a month. There's nothing left but the precursors..."

"Wouldn't an electron microscope at least see that?"

A'moth considered. "You would think so... Perhaps the precursors have a self-destruct mechanism, disassociate when they're probed..."

"Wow, what an idea. Is that possible?"

A'moth suddenly looked worried. "Uh... I shouldn't be talking about this..."

"Huh? Oh. Yeah... Okay."

She turned to me and kissed me. "I love you, for how much you trust me."

We sat there for a while, staring at the Christmas tree. All over the world, this was the first Christmas of the plague, the first Christmas with no pregnant women and no children under a year of age. It was a sad time the world over. Sad and frightening. Almost nothing at all had been learned about the plague, except for its symptoms. Nothing at all about its core nature, how it works or... critically... how to stop it. And now humanity was one full year closer to extinction.

I reached up and began to fondle A'moth breasts. "I don't think I got anything at all last night when I suckled." Her breasts were back to their usual tautness, wonderful and intensely erotic to suckle, but her beautiful oval nipples had produced nothing for me.

A'moth closed her eyes for a moment and relaxed, clearly enjoying the caresses. "No, I think I've dried up. The first phase of locking our DNA is complete. Gary?"

I kissed her and my hand dropped to hold her by her waist. "Yeah?"

"It'll be safe now, for us to spend some time apart. I want to go on a trip, take Isabelle. Go somewhere where it's really safe, and where we're really needed. I'll come back for you as soon as I can."

I nodded. A'moth and I have been through this before. She still can't tell me anything about this. She pleaded with me to trust her, pleaded with her eyes. And I do, without limit. "When do you want to go?"

"Yeah... Let me think... Isabelle..." I knew what A'moth was thinking of. Isabelle had packed her Christmas week with activities, parties and get-togethers and sleepovers. This might be the last chance for our daughter to socialize with other children in quite a while. A'moth finally said, "How about we go after New Years?"

"Okay... Uh, can I ask? Go where?"

A'moth sighed. "This is going to sound so ridiculous. To a cornfield, in the center of Nebraska. I can't tell you more, not yet."

I nodded. We sat quietly for a while, just holding each other. I asked A'moth if she'd like to listen to some music, but she shook her head no. A little before midnight we hit the sack.

Earth time: Monday, 1:20 PM Mountain Standard Time, January 3, 2011

Aina time: 5:21 AM day 83 of 1408 H.E.

After having lunch with Cindy, Jim returned to studying the Hopewell physics texts. Cindy wandered about their house a bit, did a little reading, thought about watching a movie, and finally decided to get some exercise. She went to the small lodge at the top of the lodge and checked the monitors, +5F even at the tips of the two peninsulas, warmer than it had been in weeks. She decided to go for a walk. She bundled into arctic clothing, and then dream-jumped first to the Freeway and then to the tip of the peninsula across from the lodge.

Cindy stood on the last rock at the very end of the tapering point of land. She looked up into the clear polar sky. The North Star was directly overhead, and the sky was filled with the whistler modes of electrons trapped in Earth's magnetic field. Shimmering vaporous curtains of greens and blues danced across the sky, lighting up the snow and ice in strange and unworldly patterns. Cindy stood still for several minutes, her head raised, watching the frost from her breath sparkle from the displays of the heavens above her.

There was a snap of a foot stamping hard against the snow. Cindy turned her head and looked just in time to see a spear go flying past her, chest high and less than a meter to her left. She gave a short gasp of fright and then dived into a crouch position, scanning the peninsula before her in the dim light.

She quickly spotted her adversary. It was the remaining Paleo youth, due east along the narrow path the peninsula tip and less than thirty meters away. He was kneeling on the icy rocks, breathing in gasps and staring at Cindy. At his side were several more spears.

Cindy's mind raced as she considered her options. To head south out the slip bubble would be suicidal. East would take her directly to her would-be killer. Cindy considered running North across the head of the bay to the lodge, but she and Jim both knew the swirling ocean around the bubble was much warmer than the true arctic, and that the ice was not to be trusted. Cindy wondered if she could calm herself enough to make the dream-jump back to Antelope Freeway.

Would she have the time? She stared at her attacker and considered. He was glaring at her in anger, but had not yet gotten up and attacked her. Cindy stared back and suddenly realized what had happened.

The arctic had been through a period of intense cold. The Paleo youths had been suffering from frostbite for months, and this last survivor had not taken refuge in the snow cave. Driven by an overwhelming urge to hunt and kill, he had been stalking the island, hoping to catch Cindy or Jim in a vulnerable position. He had finally succeeded, but at a terrible price. As he slammed his leg down to complete his spear throw, his semi-frozen shin bone had shattered, causing him to fall and his spear throw to drift to the right.

The Paleo youth started howling. In horror, Cindy realized it was not from pain but the frustration of not being able to kill her. He picked up two spears and began crawling towards her. Cindy stared at him in astonishment and pity.

His fingers were so badly frostbitten that he couldn't keep a grip around the spears. Whimpering in frustration and growling at Cindy, he worked to hook the leather throwing loops around his hands so he could drag the spears. He finally managed to grab the loops with his teeth, and he continued his crawl.

Cindy felt overwhelmed by compassion for this child, realizing he was totally blameless for his actions. She finally relaxed enough to dream-jump but then thought the boy was in such poor shape she didn't need to. Calling out to her astonished attacker that she wanted to help him, she walked up to the Paleo boy and hugged him, dream-jumping him to the center of Antelope Freeway.

They were in the grass of the center meridian, the ubiquitous 53F of the Freeway feeling balmy after the rigors of the arctic. Cindy rested the boy's head in her lap and looked into his eyes.

"Can you understand me? Can you speak English?"

The youth was dying. In the afternoon shadows of the Freeway, Cindy saw his face was almost completely black. His entire body was involved with severe frostbite. Cindy thought it incredible that he was still alive. The intense fire of his hatred had burned so deep it had kept him alive. But she also knew he had only moments to live. His body was totally wasted, destroyed with frost from the outside and consumed with raging hatred from within.

"I'm so sorry," Cindy cried. "I'm so sorry this was done to you! I don't even you're your name! Evil, evil people have done this to you! I'm so sorry! I don't even know your name!"

The youth panted, feeling incredibly weak and sleepy. He rested his head in Cindy's lap as she cried and petted him. "Eto..." he whispered.

"What?!" Cindy whispered.

"Eto... My name is Eto..."

The boy looked up across the short fields to the walls, not understanding where he was, but noticing the bright and colorful flowers among the grass. For the first time in many months he smiled, remembering his early childhood and the spring flowers on the Awa, the roof of the world, the Paleo name for the great northern plateau on Aina. As the organs in his body began to shut down; his hyperactive adrenal glands collapsed. His adrenaline levels returned to normal for the first time in years.

"My name is Eto," he whispered through broken and bleeding lips. "I tried to kill you... I don't know why..."

"I forgive you Eto," Cindy cried. "None of this is your fault! You are completely innocent! I forgive you..."

Under Cindy's sobs of love and gentle caresses, Eto's heart finally found peace. He sighed and appeared to go to sleep, and he stopped breathing a moment later.



-------

Chapter 26



Earth time: Monday, 4:29 PM Mountain Standard Time, January 3, 2011

Aina time: 8:30 AM day 83 of 1408 H.E.

I was standing in a barren cornfield in the center of Nebraska. It had taken us close to four hours to drive here from Pine Bluffs. A'moth and Isabelle were walking around a short distance away, the dry icy snow crunching and squeaking beneath their boots. The car registered to my new identity was parked on a narrow farm road about a hundred meters away.

I shivered in the cold. The outside air measured -15C when we left the car twenty minutes ago, and I didn't think it had warmed up any. I looked at the sun making its way slowly to the horizon. We still had about an hour of daylight left, but the light had no warmth to it.

I had only the dimmest of ideas of what A'moth was doing. She and Isabelle were both wearing backpacks over their parkas. A'moth would walk a few meters, stop and pause, walk a few meters in a different direction, stop and pause, again and again.

The three of us had debated whether to do this in daylight or darkness. We finally picked daylight, both to make it easier on Isabelle and the time was a better fit to our cover story of searching for a lost dog. I sighed in the cold, patiently watching my bride through my frosted breath. My mind wandered back to our incredible last night together.

There have been major changes in both our bodies. I started noticing mine Christmas day. My eyes and hair are darkening, turning black. My face is changing to more masculine features. And my body is becoming more powerful. I ran a mile yesterday in five minutes flat, almost two minutes better than my previous all-time best. And I wasn't even pushing it.

A'moth's changes are more subtle. She looks more wiry, and she's confessed she feels filled with nervous sexual energy. Over the last two weeks A'moth has been having an increasingly difficult time controlling her urges to have intercourse with me. I cuddle with her nightly, petting her in non-sexy ways to help her relax and unwind.

Last night was a watershed. We had completed all our preparations for today, and had turned in early to be ready for our four-hour pre-dawn ride. A'moth was undressed and I was sitting on the bed next to her prone body, petting her ass.

It's a strange activity, very calming to her but quite erotic for me. A'moth has a very sexy butt, as least to me it is. It's full of taut muscle, very powerful. It's also covered with a light, downy fur. It feels absolutely wonderful to pet, ultra smooth and silky.

My petting last night wasn't working at all. A'moth had one of her hot flashes, and she started to pant and sweat. I was lying by her side, trying to be gentle with her and wondering what to do. A'moth almost decided for me. Without speaking a word, she lifted her hips and splayed her legs. She rotated her pelvis so that her rump was about a foot off the bed and turned up for copulation.

I sat up and went behind her, and she started wiggling her butt up and down at me. Her vulva was quite human looking and closed, but also flush with blood and very pronounced. The body language was unmistakable. She wanted me to mount and be inside her.

I almost couldn't control myself, she was so beautiful and desirable. I tried to link-think with her, but all I got was a swirling mass of frenetic emotions, image after image of flashes of being a female, being mounted and entered, intense waves of anticipation of submission and orgasms.

I persisted trying to link-think with her. I didn't want to hurt her, or me. I finally got out a few disjointed words from her. "Gary!... Don't... Fuck... Dangerous!!!"

I looked back down at her vulva. I could see her muscles clenching it closed. It a burst of realization, I saw the monumental battle raging inside A'moth's body. In another burst from our shared mind, I saw the danger of me caressing her sex, having the vulva open for me in invitation. I saw a vision of me overcome with lust from smelling the sex pheromones of her vagina. A'moth started to whimper with the decay of her unfulfilled orgasm, and I saw another danger in her mind, the unreleased sexual tension tearing at her body, damaging her reproductive system.

I decided to help her orgasm without fucking her. The mind link between us disintegrated. My hands were still on her butt, and I gripped her cheeks and separated her, getting my first close-up view of her naked rear.

I gasped and shook my head in bewilderment. There was no anus. None at all. Her vulva was a bright red from her arousal, but the crack of her butt was smooth and unbroken, all the way up to her back. And then I saw something... 

It was a hairline crack in a fold of skin, about halfway up her butt, running from one butt cheek to the other. I bent low and sniffed it. It smelled interesting. Almost without thought my tongue came out and licked it. A'moth let out a loud gasp. I tried to link- think again. It was an absolute chaotic jumble of emotions, but I got the idea that A'moth was pleading with me to do it again. I began to lick the center of her butt crack.

After a few licks I was hooked, joining with A'moth's arousal and washed over by the emotions. I teased the hairline crack with the tip of my tongue, and crack pulled down, just like an eyelid, exposing a pink and tense circular muscle beneath. I laid the flat of my tongue against her anus and began to moisten it, large vertical strokes across her exposed anus, my tongue tasting the engorged muscle as I stimulated it.

In a dim region of my mind, I finally understood A'moth's intense interest and pleasure in licking my butt and rectum. Her taste was highly arousing, salty and a bit bitter and so, so sexy. I quickened my licks, flattening my tongue and drawing it forcefully across her, stimulating her entire anus. I kept it up until I drove her to orgasm.

A'moth started to shriek, her entire body vibrating and covered with sweat. I tried to link-think with her but her mind was a churning mass of white-hot emotions. I backed away in astonishment and more than a little fear. I sat there behind her on the bed, wanting so much to help her but at a total loss for what to do. Fortunately the orgasm ran its course, and A'moth was soon lying on the bed, panting with exhaustion.

"Gary..." she stammered as she worked to catch her breath. "Thank you... Thank you for resisting... It would have been very dangerous... for you... to copulate... my mating tooth... my cervix... Sex is different... with Chungierans... Your body... isn't ready yet..."

We petted each other for a bit. A'moth was relieved we'd probably be apart for at least the next few days. She gave me a quick kiss and popped to the basement to sleep... 

"I have it Gary!" A'moth called out. I snapped out of my daydream in the cornfield. A'moth and Isabelle were standing about fifty meters away. I hiked over to their position. The field of barren corn all looked identical to me, but A'moth seemed very interested in this particular spot.

A'moth smiled at me. "I'm all set, and I hate long goodbyes. If I manage to jump Isabelle with me, I'll meet you in Chicago as planned. Otherwise, it's Plan B. You and Isabelle head back to Pine Bluffs. Goodbye my love!"

My tongue was tied, I just nodded my understanding. A'moth had previously confided that the particular jump she was trying to make was so difficult, there was no way she would try to jump Isabelle and me together. Our plan was to separate. Isabelle came and gave me a swift strong hug and then went back to A'moth. They hugged each other tightly, and then... 

It was completely weird. A'moth's jumps are always clean, sharp pops into nothingness, but not this time. She stood still in deep concentration for about thirty seconds, and just as her face broke into a deep frown, she and Isabelle were surrounded by what looked like millions of tiny bright-blue fireflies. My last look at Isabelle was at her face, her eyes wide open in wonder. The fireflies swirled around them faster and faster and then collapsed, brightening and collapsing to nothing.

I blinked my eyes. What had I just seen? I waited for ten minutes, but the cornfield remained barren and unmoving. I hiked back to my car and my new identity as Steven Smith.

Future Interlude VI: The Bonding Of The Twins

Aina time: 5:25 PM day 210 of 1473 H.E. (one week before the Red Bird Festival)

The last of the day's sunlight was fading from the skies as Kalea left the faculty lounge and headed to one of the residential housing complexes at Athens University. She admired the great variety of trees as she walked across the campus, thinking that the extensive garden forest in the center of the University was probably one of the most beautiful sites in all of Aina.

She walked along a stone path, watching the deep golden sunlight mix with the Earth spruce and hickory trees, the super-food breadfruits and allnuts, and the ripe buds of the native trees. There were stands of the bushy Orangewoods and towering Silverblacks, and then the distinctive aroma of the low-hanging candle-nut trees. The granite paving stones beneath her feet were still covered with traces of wet snow from the morning storm, and the air had the cold but fertile smell of life waiting to burst forth. "Looks as if spring might start a little early this year..." Kalea thought idly.

She climbed the wide steps of the entrance to an undergrad dining hall and walked inside. She looked around and soon saw Mayoni and Ekela sitting together and chatting. Kalea served herself a light dinner from the buffet, smiling happily at the selections and serving herself a selection of fresh super-greens and breadfruits from the Southern Hemisphere, local fish, and a large glass of orange juice fresh from a semi-automated farm in what used to be Central America.

Kalea heard a familiar voice sing out behind her, "  Aloha honored and revered great aunt and professor!  "

Kalea laughed and turned around to greet Ku'uaki. "Ha! What a title! And how are doing, great nephew and guardian brother?" Kalea couldn't help grin as she said it. Ku'uaki was the son of Lynnea, Mayoni's daughter, and thus Mayoni's biological grandson and thus Kalea's great nephew. But he was also a year ahead of the two sisters throughout primary school, and Ku'uaki had always acted like a protective older brother to the two girls.

"I'm doing just fine Kalea! Being a sophomore is a lot more fun than being a freshman, more electives!"

Kalea smiled and nodded. "What in particular do you like?"

"The pre-med, I think. I think I might follow in my grandmother's footsteps, become a doctor."

"Speaking of whom, want to join us for dinner?"

Ku'uaki smiled and shook his head. "Uh, I've already eaten. And I'm heading off to a planning meeting with the marriage class."

Kalea flashed him a knowing smile. "Have your sights set on anyone in particular?"

Ku'uaki blushed, "Ah, perhaps..." They exchanged goodbyes and then Kalea walked across the dining hall and stood behind Ekela.

"Mind if I join you, o' noble one?"

"Oh hi Kalea!" said Ekela looking up, smiling at the reference to his Hopewell name and gesturing to a vacant chair. He glanced at Kalea's tray. "I see you like the  deep-river fish  too!"

Kalea nodded and took the invitation, sitting down on the other side of her sister. "My nephew Marcus has a great recipe for this! He roasts the fish with Earth citrus and green pepper spices."

Ekela nodded and then laughed. "Kalea! Marcus is your nephew! I never thought about it. It must have raised a lot of smiles..."

"That he's fifteen years older than I am? Yeah. He used to tease me about it when I was a toddler. He loved calling me Aunt Kalea..." Kalea noticed a small frown appear on Ekela's face. "Ekela... What?"

Ekela blinked. "Huh? Oh! I was just wondering. Should I be calling you Professor Kalea here?"

"Huh?!" Kalea burst out laughing. Mayoni looked at her sister and smiled. Kalea had been getting a bit moody lately, and Mayoni was glad to see her having such a good laugh. "Certainly not! Ekela! How long have we known each other?"

"Oh, I know, more than twenty years, we met in pre-school. Still... I am your student."

Kalea shook her head and tried to stop laughing. "You're taking a course from your girlfriend too. Do you call her Professor Mayoni when you kiss her goodnight?"

"Well..." Ekela was blushing.

"So keep the titles for the classroom, and maybe my office if there are other students around." Ekela nodded. Kalea ate a few bites of her supper and then continued, "So, how's your course with Mayoni coming?"

"Okay. Oh my gosh! Speaking of which, Mayoni... Isn't your exam on entanglement tomorrow?"

Mayoni stared at her boyfriend. "Well, not just entanglement. The test also covers Chapter 1 of Quantum Consciousness. You should be familiar with the papers of Penrose and Arnold."

"Yikes! You mean all of them?"

Mayoni smiled. "As a first-year undergrad?! No, of course not. The test is on the basics. Just review Hilbert-space formalism and Godel's theorem."

"Oh... Okay. Uh, mind if I go study?"

Mayoni smiled and shook her head no, and then hugged her boyfriend. They shared a brief but affectionate kiss, and then Ekela took off for an evening at the dormitory library complex. Mayoni finished the rest of her dinner chatting with her sister.

At the end of the meal as Mayoni was rising, Kalea quietly asked, "I take it nobody has complained about you dating a student?"

Mayoni shook her head. "I've talked to the administration. They trust that I won't do anything stupid... They trust Ekela too..."

Kalea nodded and walked with her sister away from the table. "Staying at the University tonight?" They cleared their trays to a conveyor. Nearby was a stairway leading underground.

Mayoni shook her head. "No. Tomorrow morning my teaching assistant will administer the test to my undergrads, and my graduate class isn't until the afternoon. I'd thought I'd go home and review my plan for presenting some new material. How about you?"

"I'm free tomorrow. I'm heading home too." Kalea smiled. "Well, free except for a reporter interview. Havika and I are giving short blurb on 3-D mirror elliptical symmetry for the masses. Ah, my dear brother. It was all his idea. I just added some minor help with the mathematics."

Mayoni smiled and held hands with her sister as they walked down the stairwell. They soon reached the subway platform. They picked a small two-person car that would take them first to the transport hub at center city Athens, where they would catch an express lane to Olympus. They sat in the car and Mayoni pulled the hatch closed. She then typed in their destination and stared at the transport display for a moment.

"The new vac-lane is available..."

"Sure," answered Kalea. "Go for it."

Mayoni typed for another second and then settled back into her seat. The car started to slide soundlessly above the flat track with its small graviton engine. Mayoni turned to Kalea. "I saw the news report on the satellite reprogramming. The threefold symmetry matches Havika's theory perfectly. Minimum spacetime curvature is reduced to 0.79 meters per second squared. We now have graviton power up to 14,000 km above Mahina, over 16,000 km above Earth and Aina."

Kalea nodded idly. "Yeah, it's a big improvement. That far above the planets, it'll be a lot easier to do communications relays..." Their car switched lanes at the hub station and went through a small high-speed airlock. They were now in a featureless vacuum tunnel and began to accelerate rapidly. The thirty kilometer journey to Olympus would take less than a minute. Kalea continued, "When are moms and dad coming back from Mahina?"

"End of the week. They'll be here for the Festival. Personally, I'll be happy when they're back. Those critters on Mahina that dad loves to study so much are knockoffs of Earth velociraptors!"

Kalea giggled. "Well, except for the feathers and the eight eyes!"

Mayoni sighed, thinking of the latest documentary. "It's amazing how much Mahina looks like Earth's late Cretaceous period... the equatorial regions anyway... Leon's latest report from the northern desert is unbelievable!"

Kalea shook her head. "Mayoni, don't worry! Our family has more exploration experience than anybody!" A few seconds later their car stopped and opened. Mayoni and Kalea began a short walk up some stairs to catch a quick cable-car ride up to Spirit House.

They walked into their Level-ten apartment a few minutes later. "Need a shower?" asked Kalea.

"No, I worked out at a faculty gym before dinner, took one then. I'm pretty sleepy. Maybe I'll put off the course work until tomorrow and just turn in."

Kalea nodded and then stretched her arms and yawned. "I'm a bit sleepy too. Want a back-rub before you turn in?"

Mayoni smiled at her sister. "I'd love one. Just give me a minute to change."

A few minutes later Kalea walked into her sister's bedroom. Both the young women were wearing simple cotton nightgowns. Mayoni was already lying prone in her bed, and she turned her head and smiled as Kalea entered the room. Kalea sat down by the side of the bed and began rubbing Mayoni's back.

"Oh, that feels heavenly..." Mayoni murmured after a while. "Don't forget my tailbone."

"Ah!" laughed Kalea. "That's my favorite part too." The minutes passed silently as Kalea expressed her love for her sister in her massage. "When did we talk last, a week ago?"

Mayoni sighed in her pleasure of the back-rub. "Yeah, I guess. Life goes by so fast sometimes... My gosh, you're right... a full week... How are things with you?"

"I'm... well... I'm a little tense maybe. We've been eighteen Earth years for over two weeks now. Have you gotten any memory flashes?"

"No... nothing. Maybe a strange dream or two though... especially last night... You?"

"Really? I think I had a really weird dream last night too... But I can't remember it... I think we could get our memories back at any time..." Kalea hands moved down to Mayoni's buttocks. She gripped her sister's muscular rump with her fingers, and began to push her thumbs up and down along Mayoni's coccyx.

Mayoni cooed and wiggled her rump in appreciation. "Ah, that feels so nice..."

"Ekela give you back-rubs too?"

"Huh? No! Not like this! Not on my butt!" Mayoni laughed and then sighed as her thoughts turned to Ekela. "I have been thinking of offering him my feet though. I almost did on our last date."

"Ah... It's getting serious then..."

Mayoni giggled. "He has asked me to join the marriage class next year. Not to push me for a marriage commitment, just to join him in some of the class projects. I think I'm going to do it..."

"Yeah..." Kalea sat up and knelt between her sister's legs. Mayoni spread her legs wide to give her sister some room, and Kalea scooted up to continue the back-rub, her knees holding Mayoni's legs open high on her inner thighs. Kalea started pulling the cotton nightgown above Mayoni's waist. "Mind if I get this out of the way?"

"Huh? No, I guess not... I love the feel of your hands..." Kalea started kneading the muscles in the small of Mayoni's back. She glanced down and briefly admired her sister's athletic butt and legs. Mayoni's exposed vulva and soft downy pubic fur were clearly visible near Kalea's knees... 

Kalea felt an unexpected flush and she panted for a moment. She pressed down and traced Mayoni's well-developed butt muscles with her fingers. "I see you've been working out. Nice job!"

"Yeah, thanks! I find myself wanting to look attractive for Ekela..." Mayoni sighed again in the pleasure of the massage. She closed her eyes and drifted. Unconsciously she raised her rump for her sister, lifting her vulva into clear view. Kalea continued her massage and the moments passed quietly.

Mayoni sighed in contentment, her body becoming deeply relaxed. "Did you see the latest report from Earth's geo-analysis team? It just came out yesterday."

"Not yet. Anything new?"

"Yeah. You should read dad's reports. His hunch from his previous expedition was correct. It's not just tectonic plate motion. The shorelines are well above where they were 6.5 million years ago when we were battling the WFM. And Earth is in an ice-age now!"

Kalea sat thoughtfully as she continued her massage, moving her hands down from Mayoni's butt to massage her thighs. "How much extra water does Earth have?"

Mayoni wiggled her body in appreciation. "Best estimate is forty to fifty million cubic kilometers."

"Wow!"

"Yes! Wow indeed! Enough to raise the world's sea-level more than a hundred meters, compared to the old baseline... once the ice-age ends..."

"Uh... What's the elevation of the slip-bubble on Earth?"

Mayoni blinked. "Huh? Oh! About nine hundred meters, I think, no danger there... It's in the center of the Appalachian ridgeline. Yeah, it would be scary if the Earth side of the connection went under water..."

Kalea's fingers stopped kneading. She flattened her hands and began soft caresses of her sister, stroking Mayoni's thighs and butt. "I wonder where all the extra water came from..."

Mayoni sighed deeply in the pleasure of the caresses. "Yeah... Everybody at the Earth science station is wondering too... Dad's guess is from outer space. Where else? Maybe a comet hit or something... Not all at once... Fifty million cubic kilometers?! That would have destroyed everything..."

"Yeah..." Kalea's mind drifted back to the present. "You sure Ekela doesn't pet your butt like this?" On impulse Kalea lowered her head and gave her sister's ass cheek a quick kiss.

Mayoni laughed and wiggled her butt in a mock display of sexuality. "No! Kalea! This kind of physical intimacy is for family, not for dating!"

"I saw how he kissed you goodnight. I think he wants to be family."

"Well, maybe he has the hope of it. Maybe I have the hope too."

"But we still don't have our memories back..." whispered Kalea. Her eyes locked on her sister's exposed sex, and she unexpectedly began to pant again.

"Oh, I know. Ekela does too. We won't be getting serious with each other till that happens. Who knows how my memories will change my personality? It wouldn't be fair for either of us, to give commitments now..."

"Yeah..." Kalea ran the back of her hand across Mayoni's vulva. Mayoni shivered with both pleasure and bewilderment. She decided to say nothing, assuming it was a simple error and not wanting to embarrass her sister. Kalea flattened her hands and gently stroked the sides of Mayoni's hips. She felt her sister completely relax in the expression of the love. "Mayoni?"

"Yeah?"

"Aren't you worried about it? Afraid of it?"

"Integration? A little I guess... But what choice have we got?" Kalea's fingertips began to stroke up and down the crack of Mayoni's butt, very softly. Mayoni cooed and kept her eyes closed. "Oh, that feels so soft it almost tickles. Feels really nice though..."

"I'm afraid, more than a little... Maybe more than you..."

"Yes... I think I can guess why..."

"Yes!" Kalea hissed. Her fingers tightened on Mayoni's ass, separating her ass cheeks. "You seem to have the same personality as the old Mayoni. I am shy, more than a little awkward with people socially. I cringe in horror when I read what a flirt Kalea was! Do you know she... I... once lifted my dress, bent over and asked our dad to fuck me?!"

"No! When was this?!"

"The first summer our parents were here, right after the Paleo war. Dad was just starting to date Anuhea. He was trying to teach Kalea... me... calculus..."

Mayoni's eyes were wide open. "When did dad tell you this?"

"About a month ago. He was blushing about the memories, but thought it would be easier beforehand if I knew. He wanted to reassure me, not have there be any shame when I got back the memory of it..."

"Ah... Dad is so thoughtful..." Mayoni giggled. "Can I ask? Did dad give in to the temptation?"

Kalea laughed. "No! Need you ask?! I did press him for the details. He finally admitted he got erect over the sight. It turns out our father thinks I have a very cute butt. But he steered the lesson back to calculus."

Kalea's hands returned to massaging the rump of her sister. Her fingers were soon gripping the soft flesh at the base of the rump, Kalea's thumbs pushing in and making wide, slow circles just where the butt joined to Mayoni's crotch and inner thighs. In the part of the cycle where the fingers were pushing away from the crotch, the massage would lift and separate the butt cheeks. Kalea stared at her sister's anus as it became visible in the muscular caresses.

Mayoni sighed and relaxed, realizing how exposed she was but completely at peace with it. She realized with a start she was finding it agreeably erotic. "Kalea?"

"Yeah?"

"I've read the histories too. At this age, when you married Hiapo I mean, you weren't a flirt. You were a bit shy, just as you are now. The flirting came later."

"I know. But when the memories integrate, who will I be?"

"Yes, I know. I have the same fear. Who will I be?"

Kalea nodded and her fingers dug deep into Mayoni's ass, lifting the butt and fully exposing the anus. Kalea stared at the tight circular muscles for a moment, and then on impulse she bent her head down and firmly licked it.

Mayoni jerked and shivered but kept her position, allowing her sister to keep her butt cheeks separated. Mayoni became intensely aware that her anus was on full display. "Whoa! What was that all about?!"

"I don't know! I'm feeling very aroused! Did you like it?"

Mayoni trembled. "I did... A lot..."

Kalea needed no further encouragement. Her head descended to the waiting anus and her tongue began to explore it, lapping the tight, sensitive skin and then trying to push in with the tip of her tongue. After a while she felt Mayoni rotate her hips upward, offering Kalea easier access to her rear. Kalea glanced at Mayoni's feet as she paused in the anal stimulation. Mayoni's feet were curled and raised back, her toes pointing in the air. Kalea dropped her head again and began a direct suckle on her sister's anus.

Mayoni gasped and moaned. She spread her legs wide and went rigid, her breathing changing to quick, sharps gasps. Kalea felt Mayoni's body trembling with sexual desire, and she dropped her suckle from the anus to the waiting vulva before. The labia parted for her almost at once, revealing a heady smell from the clear liquid coating the soft inner folds.

Kalea buried her lips and mouth in Mayoni's labia, lapping the sweet fluid and gripping her sister's ass to keep her butt cheeks separated. Her tongue began to enter the folds near Mayoni's vagina, and she traced the outline of Mayoni's hymen with the tip of her tongue. Mayoni tried to grunt something, but it was completely incoherent. And then Mayoni's back arched as her orgasm took her.

It was a quick orgasm, strong but quick. Kalea lifted her head up and watched her sister silently as the orgasm ran its course. Mayoni was soon gasping for air and trying to recover. Kalea was suddenly struck by a strong pang of guilt. "Mayoni! I'm so sorry! I've broken so many taboos..."

"Oh, don't worry about that! How are you feeling? Still feeling sexy?"

"Extremely!"

"Then lie down, front or back, I don't care which!"

Kalea eagerly lay down on her back by Mayoni's side. They kissed for a while, and then Mayoni pulled Kalea's nightgown off. There was more kissing and petting, Mayoni's mouth drifting down to suckle Kalea's tits. The nipples were super stiff and puffy, and Kalea's body broke out into a sweat as Mayoni suckled them. After a while Kalea started to whimper. The intensity of her sexual desire was becoming unbearable.

Mayoni's head drifted down, kissing Kalea's ribs and stomach, soft kisses across her waist and naval and abdomen, finally dropping through the stiff hair of her sister's pubic fur to find a pronounced button waiting for her. Mayoni's fingers slid and played with the pubic fur until she got a good grip. Then she pulled the pubic fur up, popping Kalea's clitoris from its protective hood. Mayoni's lips first kissed then suckled the bright pink button.

Kalea's mind felt numb. She felt buffeted by chaotic waves of sexuality and lust, the waves of pleasure racking her body were almost unbearable. The only path to sanity led though an explosive orgasm. Kalea began to cry out uncontrollably as her orgasm neared.

Mayoni backed off on direct clitoral stimulation as she sensed her sister nearing climax. Her tongue dived deep into her sister's labia, and she tasted the tight membrane of Kalea's hymen as her sister shook and shivered in her orgasmic release. The taste of her sister's vagina filled Mayoni's mouth. She lapped eagerly as Kalea came in her mouth.

The two sisters lay naked panting and lightly petting each other as sanity slowly returned. Kalea began to blush a bright red. "My gosh... My gosh... Mayoni! What have we done?!"

Mayoni was silent for a moment, shivering and feeling her sister shiver in return. She then sang, "  I offer Hilahila ho'ohiki  " She took a deep breath and shuddered. "I will never tell anyone about this. Never! I promise Kalea!"

"Yes, thank you! I accept and offer the same oath!" Kalea and Mayoni kissed each other's foreheads, the traditional Hopewell sign of sealing an embarrassment oath. Mayoni reached over and covered them both with a blanket. Holding each other, their bodies naked and spent, they both found refuge in sleep.



-------

Chapter 27


Time: Unknown, transversing a slip channel conduit... 

Isabelle's mind was filled with wonder as she sped through the column of blue bubbles. She could sense being held tightly by her mother, but that sensation seemed to exist in an alternate reality. Isabelle cried out to her mom, trying to make contact.

"Mom! What is this stuff?"

Isabelle sensed rather than heard an answer. "I don't know! This isn't what I was expecting! Hang on!"

The lights were so pretty, broad swatches of rainbow and bluish pastel colors shimmering on the waving bubbles. There was no sound to the popping, and Isabelle felt dry even through the sensations of being sprayed and splashed by the foaming chaos.

"So pretty," Isabelle thought. "It's like being inside a cartoon..." And then she blinked her eyes open, as if awakening from a dream. Her body was surrounded by A'moth's arms. Her mother let her go as they both realized the ride was over.

Isabelle stood up and gazed at her new environment. The sun was shining low overhead. It felt like mid to late afternoon. The air temperature was comfortably cool, a little above 50F. Isabelle was overjoyed to be away from the extreme cold. "The corn! It's so lush! Are we in the Southern hemisphere?"

A'moth smiled. "Good guess, but this isn't Earth at all. Welcome to Antelope Freeway! Give me a few minutes and I'll explain." A'moth took off her backpack and took out a sextant and a periscope with telescopic sights. She extended the optical tube four meters in the air, above the high tops of the corn... 

A'moth surveyed the horizon and saw her objective almost immediately, the 400-foot walls at the center of Antelope Freeway. From the sun position, A'moth guessed the walls to be approximately in a southwest direction, and then she felt a stab of fear. Her rangefinder on the periscope was estimating the distance at twenty-three kilometers, which would put her right at the chaotic edge of the small universe. A'moth grimaced but then looked again at the sun's position. It seemed stable and unmoving.

"Isabelle, let me put off explanations for a few more minutes. I've got to make some measurements with the sextant."

Isabelle yawned, and the then shook her head as if to clear it. "Sure mom. Can I take a look with the periscope?"

A'moth gave her permission and spent the next several minutes timing the progression of the sun. When she was finished, she felt a bit puzzled. The sun's speed was consistent with a 24-hour day, as close as she could measure it.

"So what's next?" asked Isabelle. "Do we head for one of the two buildings?" She stretched her arms and sighed deeply.

"What?!"

After a moment of conversation, A'moth took a look herself with the scope and confirmed Isabelle's observation. There appeared to be two large buildings, each about twenty-three kilometers apart, in opposite directions on the horizon. Finally A'moth spoke. "Isabelle, I don't understand what's going on. The building to the southwest might be a hair closer. Let's head to that. I'll explain what I know as we walk..."

Isabelle wobbled on her feet for a second, then nodded her head and began hiking with her mother. They had only been walking for a few minutes when Isabelle started to lag behind. A'moth turned to her. "Something wrong?"

Isabelle nodded and wobbled again. "I'm so sleepy. I don't know why." She smiled and tried to make a joke. "Maybe I'm Dorothy approaching the Emerald City. Where's my dog?" She looked at the ground for a moment and then laid herself on the ground. A'moth stared at her in astonishment as she thought Isabelle was pretending to go to sleep.

"Isabelle, we don't have time..." A'moth suddenly realized Isabelle was not playing. She rushed over and examined her.

Isabelle's eyes had a glazed look to them, and she seemed to be semi-conscious. "So pretty..." she muttered. "All the people..."

A'moth sat by Isabelle's side for the next two hours, until the sun set. She was very alarmed by Isabelle's state, but at a total loss for what to do. As twilight fell, she set up her small tent and carried Isabelle inside. Her daughter was mumbling incoherently. A'moth knelt by her side watching her. Isabelle would occasionally look around the tent, but did not seem to recognize her presence.

"Isabelle, can you hear me? How do you feel?"

Isabelle panted. "So intense... I never realized... So intense... Nice though... attractive... enticing..." Her eyes drifted. "The emotions... so powerful... so beautiful..." She panted again for a while, her glazed look drifting around the tent. "I'm not ready... I love you..."

A'moth didn't know what to do. Isabelle would occasionally pant and break out into a sweat, even though it was quite cool in the tent. A'moth stroked her daughter's head and waited, hoping Isabelle would come out of the stupor on her own.

A'moth debated whether to try to read Isabelle's mind. She didn't need her daughter's cooperation to make the link. She had read Juan Perez's mind fully, despite his frantic efforts to stop her. But to force read would be a profound invasion of privacy, and without Isabelle's permission A'moth couldn't bring herself to do it. She wound up sitting by her daughter's side and gently petting her head.

The time passed slowly. The cornfield at night was silent, except for the slow chirps of a few distant crickets. A'moth was deep in her own thoughts, and then she felt her daughter's hand reach up and pet her. "Hi mom..."

A'moth blinked and looked at the time. It was more than two hours past sunset. "Hi sweetie! How do you feel?"

"Fine... Strange..." Isabelle stretched. "I just had the strangest dream."

"Yeah? What about?"

"Uh..." A'moth saw Isabelle blush. "Well... It was kind of... well..."

"Embarrassing?"

Isabelle nodded and shrugged. She looked like she was trying to say something, but wound up remaining quiet for a long moment. "Do you need to know the details?"

A'moth shook her head. "No, that's okay. I was just worrying about you, that's all. Hungry?"

"Sure!" said Isabelle, eager to change the subject. "Can I help with anything?"

They spent the next two hours sharing a meal and chatting. A'moth filled Isabelle in on all her previous experiences with Antelope Freeway and Jim and Cindy. Isabelle was quiet for the first hour, but the second was filled with questions. A'moth answered as best she could, and she was very impressed at Isabelle's analytic mind, and how rapidly her daughter understood her incredible tale.

"I guess I see why you never told us about all this," Isabelle commented after a while. "You were afraid of changing Earth's timeline, weren't you?"

"Yes. Jim Arnold was amazed by what was in the physics books, but he was also bewildered by the implications of the mathematics. Havika was too. Havika wrote that what he was observing was in direct conflict with core of the slip-bubble formalism, and Jim's first impression was to agree with him. But now Jim has had more than a month to study the texts. I can't wait to see if he's changed his mind."

"But the concept makes no sense!" said Isabelle with exasperation. "How can free will be an illusion?!"

"Yes, I know... The mathematics wasn't quite suggesting that. But what it was suggesting was just as bizarre. That if free will were not an illusion, then going back in time should have caused a causality violation."

"Which would do what?"

"Jim wasn't sure. He wasn't too happy though. He muttered something about all of reality unraveling, and then looked very embarrassed... more confused than frightened. I can't wait to talk with him again."

The two walked outside the tent to stretch their legs. The night stars had the familiar look of Earth. "Mom? This looks just like Earth! But where's the moon?"

"The moon? I don't know. Think of the view as an illusion. The entire third spatial dimension really doesn't really exist here. It's a holographic illusion. It's all part of the gravitational illusion."

Isabelle shook her head in confusion. "I don't understand. What does that mean?"

"I don't know. Ask Jim when you meet him." They were both wide awake, and Isabelle tried one of the ears of corn after roasting it over a small fire. She commented that it was the most delicious illusion she ever ate.

The rest of their night was restful and uneventful, and they broke camp shortly before daybreak. "Look mom! There's the moon. But the crescent is pointing in the wrong direction!"

"What?"

"Yesterday the moon was a waxing crescent, but today it's pointing in the direction of a waning crescent."

A'moth studied the sky for a moment. "You're right. And the stars look like the spring equinox position, maybe even a little passed it."

Isabelle looked very thoughtful. "Do you think we moved in time? Dad will have... did have... a long wait... How do I say it?"

A'moth smiled. "I'm not sure. English tenses aren't designed for time travel. But I get your idea."

They continued their hike. Within four hours they covered eighteen kilometers, and A'moth estimated they were only about five kilometers from the towering walls. They crossed several asphalt roads in their journey, but the roads ran roughly perpendicular to their desired direction, so they kept walking across the cornfields.

"Look mom! Birds!"

"Huh?" A'moth looked up into the morning sky. High overhead two birds were circling them. As A'moth stared, she realized they were also descending.

Future Interlude VII: Memory Integration

Aina time: 2:50 AM day 211 of 1473 H.E.

Mayoni was turning fitfully in her sleep. Her sister Kalea was doing the same, waving her arms while her eyelids fluttered with the rapid movement of REM sleep. Both young women were experiencing intense and vivid dreams... 

Mayoni opened her eyes within her dream and looked around. There was a howl of wind all around her, and she realized she was lying in a small tent. She turned and saw Keona beside her, smiling and holding her low on her waist. Mayoni blinked and felt a shiver of... of what? Embarrassment? Arousal? She was naked, naked with a man! She should be so embarrassed. And yet... "Keona! You are my husband!"

"Yes! Hi!"

"But... You're also dead!"

Keona smiled. "I know."

Mayoni blinked and considered. "This is still a dream, isn't it? I've been having whacky dreams all night."

Her image of Keona nodded. "I know. I am you, your older you. I've just awakened. Mayoni, it's time for us to integrate. I thought you might find this easier if I projected as a male."

The teenage Mayoni blinked in her dream, and then stiffened with fear. "Am I about to die? My personality, I mean?"

The Keona memory smiled in compassion. "A little, I guess. It can't be helped. I feel the loss too. My young self, I am so proud of you." He/she gently petted Mayoni's head. "You are so sweet! You are good and kind and..."

The dream image took a deep sigh. "But you haven't felt my losses... my bitter sorrows. The integration will change you... For the better I hope... But you will lose some of your sweet innocence... my sweet innocence... We have no choice Mayoni."

Mayoni laughed. "I know! Hah! My innocence! I just had sex with my sister!"

"Oh, don't worry about that. The memory blocks have been failing all evening. Both your minds sought sexual expression as an outlet, a release from the building pressure on the sub-conscious. There is no shame, my dear young self. No shame at all. You'll understand when we integrate."

"Okay... What do I have to do?"

"Nothing. Just relax and let the dream take its course." The howling of the wind grew louder. Young Mayoni suddenly recognized the image, her first flash from her old memories.

She cried out, "The Northern Plateau! Orna has just died... My dear friend Orna! I see her, feel her, love her, standing by my side as I sing to the Paleo warriors! We are so young! My gosh! Look at my parents! My parents are so young! Keona! You are my husband! Flesh of my flesh and center of my heart! How could I have forgotten you?! Oh Keona! I see you dead in Hawaii!" In her dream, young Mayoni wailed in unbounded grief.

Mayoni finally managed to control herself. She hugged her memory of Keona fiercely and whispered to herself, "How appropriate that I join to myself in your image!" The dream-image of Keona nodded in agreement and laid his naked body upon his/her younger self. The dam burst and a lifetime of memories came flooding back into Mayoni's integrating mind, young no more, but young and old and foolish and wise. And timeless love began to knit the two souls together.

Mayoni's mind floated and drifted. She imagined herself to be a cork, bobbing in a swirling and infinite sea of memories. As the dream neared its end, Mayoni imagined Keona's body pressing down on her. She lifted her young legs and locked him to herself, her mind filled with memories of marital coitus. Keona's body melted and sank down inside of her, filling her to completeness.

Mayoni sat up bolt upright in bed and looked around the room. Her Spirit House bedroom seemed novel for just an instant, and then the easy familiarity came snapping back. The motion of sitting up jarred Kalea awake and the two sisters stared into each other's eyes for a long moment. Without a word being spoken, they realized integration had occurred in both of them. Then Kalea's eyes went wide with astonishment and fear.

"Mayoni! You were right! At Honolulu! The quantum shadow channel! It existed! Therefore it still exists! Therefore the danger still exists! How the hell could we have forgotten?!"

Mayoni stared at Kalea in puzzlement, both sister and aunt now, and then her face drained of color and she grimaced in fear. "Of course! My catastrophe theorem! My gosh, my gosh!" In the dead of night, the two sisters now also niece and aunt rushed to put on their clothes... 

Earth time: Friday, March 29, 2019 4:10 PM Central Standard Time

Aina time: 11:37 PM, day 242 of 1418 H.E. (two weeks before expected Aina - Earth tunnel opening)

My boss had been trying all week to get us a slot on the V.P.'s calendar. He got word yesterday evening that we could have a half-hour from 3:30 PM to 4:00 PM. Our meeting was now running ten minutes over.

The senior V.P. (in charge of exploratory research at Locus Pharmencia) stared at me as I finished my presentation. "Let me see if I got this straight Stevie. You have a proof the plague was caused by a DNA modification you call Trap-Door Encoding?"

I nodded my head. "Almost. We still need to do a few experimental measurements to confirm the entropy constraints of my model. But this is by far the simplest explanation of how the plague could have happened."

"But wouldn't we still see the triggers?"

"Yeah, I know. I can only guess they have a fast decay time. There were some preliminary results right after the plague started in January of 2010. They're from several independent labs, but they were never able to be duplicated. The results tend to be ignored because nobody can reproduce them. But they fit my model perfectly."

"Yeah, I see that." The V.P. and my division boss exchanged a long stare at each other. They're both sharp guys, Ph.D.s in biochemistry. The V.P. turned back to me. "One more time, just so there's no possible misunderstanding. You have a proof the plague cannot be cured?"

"Well, we need experimental confirmation, but... yeah. Maybe I should say it's a proof that no drug could work. That's the core of Trap-Door Encoding. You fall through and there's no way back up. You would need to violate entropy to undo the change."

The V.P. had a huge frown on his face. "How many people know about this?"

"Just the three of us. My boss ordered me two months ago to collaborate with no one when I first described my idea." Man, looking back, why did I say that? Maybe I'm just hopelessly trustful of people, I don't know... 

"Stevie, do you know what percentage of our research is plague related, plague funded?"

"This year? Almost all I guess... Over 90%?"

"Good guess! It's 92% this year, projected to be 97% in 2020. And do you know what our non-plague research budget will be in 2021? Zero! Plague First! It's the world's motto now, in case you haven't heard. And now you're telling me our company... our company of over 40,000 employees... should go out of business?!"

"Well... I didn't mean to put it like that. But hell, the goal is to save humanity, isn't it? What's the use of getting paid for useless research if we all become extinct? We could focus our efforts in other areas."

The V.P. stared at me. "What other areas?"

"Well, how about artificial wombs? I know it sounds crazy, but think of transplanting the fetus in the twelfth week, before the placenta forms."

"Are you nuts?! That's impossible!"

"Now, yeah. But in thirty years, I think we might have a shot at it."

"But?! Our company has no expertise in that direction!"

"By we, I meant humanity, not Locus. Hell, we're only going to get one shot at this. We can't become extinct and then try something else."

The V.P. stared at me silently for a moment. "Yeah... You've made your point. I'll take your proposals up to the Board on Monday."

I smiled gratefully. Man, I can be so naïve sometimes. "Thanks! All I need is a month to do some fairly basic research. I think we can make a big contribution."

"I agree." And with a nod of his head he dismissed me. "Oh, one more thing. Keep this strictly under wraps until the Board meeting. We'll contact you next week, Tuesday at the latest."

"Sure thing." I replied, not knowing I was signing my own death warrant.

Time: Unknown, stopped in the corn on Antelope Freeway... 

The two birds descended and landed on a corn plant quite near A'moth and Isabelle. Close up the women could see they were owls. A'moth stared at the features and tried to remember the species. The owls flapped their wings often in excitement and made a lot of eye contact, very unusual for birds. And then they both flew off. One kept circling them far overhead and the other flew straight towards the towering walls. After a moment A'moth and Isabelle continued their hike.

They walked at a brisk pace, and twenty minutes later when A'moth stopped to take a sighting, she saw they were only about three kilometers from the walls. Isabelle called out to her, "Look! The other owl is back, and they're coming down again."

The owls landed very close to them. One of the owls had a wad of paper in its claw. It raised its foot and gestured for A'moth to take it.

A'moth unfolded the paper and read it out loud. "Welcome back! I am Jim, the other owl is Cindy. Welcome back! You need to climb the wall for us to talk." A'moth stared in astonishment at the birds. They bounced up and down and flapped their wings at her, clearly overjoyed to see her. After a while, A'moth couldn't help but smile at them. She and Isabelle continued their hike.

Isabelle was amazed by the height and super smoothness of the walls when they finally reached them. She looked worried as she watched A'moth prepare to climb. A'moth reassured her daughter that she wouldn't be asking Isabelle to climb herself, although how to get Isabelle over the wall was still an unsolved problem. A'moth began her climb.

She found human versions of Jim and Cindy waiting for her on the other side. They looked just the same as when she had left them at the North Pole six weeks ago, and A'moth breathed a sigh of relief that perhaps their trip in time was only a few months.

Jim spoke first. "Hi! My gosh A'moth! Cindy and I are overjoyed to see you again. The child with you, she looks so young! Is she an edge baby?"

"What?" A'moth felt a burst of fear in the pit of her stomach. "What's the date, including the year?"

Cindy frowned and then answered slowly, "March 23, 2019."



-------

Chapter 28


Earth time: Saturday, March 30, 2019 5:51 AM Central Standard Time

Aina time: 1:50 PM, day 243 of 1418 H.E.

I love my weekends. I love working out. My routine is to take Route 61 southeast from home at Minneapolis Minnesota and drive out to the Richard J. Dorer Memorial Hardwood State Forest. A huge place, thousands of square kilometers of virgin forest, and with all the preoccupation with the plague, almost deserted. I love turning my body loose to run.

I locked my car and looked around, enjoying the coolness of the morning. It was just above freezing, and the air smelled clean and rich with the fragrances of the forest. The sun would rise in a few minutes, just before 6 AM, but there was plenty of pre-dawn light to star running. I did a few quick stretches and took off.

It's been over eight years since I've seen A'moth, eight long and lonely years. We'd had planned my fake-ID as Steven Smith to be only something temporary until she returned, but as the months changed to years I began to give up hope.

It's been an interesting life, I'll say that. My body continued to evolve after we split, becoming more Chungieran I guess. My hair and eyes have darkened. I've become quite muscular. And then my body stopped changing. Completely... I look exactly as I did eight years ago. I'm beginning to suspect I'm not aging. Chungierans don't age either... 

My nickname at the Labs is Stevie Bod, though I work very hard to keep my real strength and speed hidden. I've taken up karate, and I'm my sensei's best student. I can also run a kilometer in two minutes flat when I open up, even over rough terrain. That's what I'm doing now, flashing through the forest at 30 kph. It challenges both my endurance and my reflexes. It's a dense forest, and I've never run into a tree at 30 kph. I really don't want to try it.

Once my face stopped changing, I picked Minnesota as an area to settle down in. I tried to teleport for a while, absolutely without success. I then started looking around for jobs in financial modeling, but the world's economy was in such a depression, the market for economists was almost nonexistent.

So I made a career change. I switched to analyzing the physical sciences. After looking at the job ads for a while, I went into medical research, kind of an obvious choice with the plague. Great job security, as long as anybody is still alive. Prostitution may be the oldest profession, but searching for a cure for the plague might well be the last.

It's sad, so incredibly sad, to see the total absence of young children in the world. The very youngest humans on Earth now are nine years and three months. My very last image of Isabelle was when she was eight years and three months. It's been that long ago. I often wonder what Isabelle looks like now as a teenager. That is, if she's still alive... Oh Isabelle... 

The world's population now is just about 5.5 billion, heading down and getting older each day. In sheer numbers, it's where the population was 26 years ago, in 1993, but the age profiles are all wrong. The average age has just crossed 37 years, a few months higher for females, a few months lower for males. That's way too old. There's still a lot of grim determination to find a cure for the plague, but after nine years of absolutely zero results, the grim is growing and the determination... well... decaying... 

Part of the problem is how incredibly stupid humans are. There have been hundreds of nuclear weapons used this decade. In August of 2012, there was a devastating nuclear war on the Korean peninsula. And then in May of 2015, two more hell-bombs went off, one in Israel and one in a jet over the Atlantic. It was heading for New York City. It's shear luck the city still exists... 

The war in Korea turned into a gender war, and the females won. The world's estimate is that Korea is 100% female now, mostly from the north. After all the decades of being brutalized by men, I can't say I blame them. But the gender wars are spreading. All sorts of nasty little wars in Africa. And northern India is an absolute mess right now. Latest word is the guys are losing again. Damn, I hate the gender wars. Our species is racing to extinction, and all we can do is step on the gas... 

But the lack of young children, that's the key hardship. People take off from work now just to stand outside the primary schools and watch the children. There's a surplus of teachers now. All the kindergartens and classes one through three are deserted. Everybody's looking back at the old problem of school overcrowding with wistful yearnings... 

Oh, what I wouldn't give to hug Isabelle again, even once, hug and be hugged back by an eight-year-old girl. No one in the world has that pleasure now, no one... I sighed. At least the child-traffickers are slowly going out of business.

My senses are super-developed. As I approached a clearing in the forest, the wind was to my face. I sniffed and detected a super-faint trace of human sweat, and something else... gun oil I thought. A bit strange, the white-tail deer were not in season now. I slowed down my speed to something that's humanly possible as I emerged from the deep forest and into tall grass and shrubs.

There was a short ridge ahead of me, maybe 50 meters high and 150 meters away. My eyes picked up a flash on the ridgeline, and my sensei's training took over.

I have to be careful in the dojo, not to reveal the true speed of my reflexes. They are absolutely inhuman. I have less than a sixty millisecond response time to stimuli. But this was the real deal, no holding back here. I snapped my torso to the right, diving into the tall grass and shrubs as quickly as possible. I felt brief flashes of pain on both my arm and along my ribs. "Shit! Those idiots! Do I look like a deer?!"

My hearing cranked up to maximum alertness. A'moth once described it to me as scanning. I didn't really understand what she meant then, but I do now. I heard a man's voice from the ridgeline.

"Got him!"

A second voice spoke up. "Are you sure?!"

"Get out the shovels! Didn't you see the way his body jerked?!"

A third voice answered. "Yes! But he jerked sideways, not backwards!"

"I'm telling you! I was dead center on his heart! My shot was perfect! This Stevie Smith guy is history!"

"Christ!" I thought, "They're trying to kill me! And they know my name!" The reality of what I was up against hit me like a ton of lead bricks. I combat crawled back into the deep forest and took a moment to examine my body.

I was unbelievably lucky. The bullet had slightly grazed my lower bicep and ribcage, so slightly it left just a thin scratch on both. But there was no blood. So incredibly lucky! Talk about threading a needle... I took a look at my clothes, olive green sweatshirt, brown pants, not bad... 

What to do? My would-be killers had no idea what I was capable of. And I felt like striking back! I could circle around, and then move it so fast... Oh hell, why bother? I was alone, unarmed, and up against an enemy I didn't understand. I shuddered as I realized these three were probably not the only people hunting me. I picked a new direction, south, and started to run as fast as I could.

Earth time: Saturday, March 30, 2019 7:00 AM Central Standard Time

Aina time: 2:59 PM, day 243 of 1418 H.E.

The V.P.'s private cell phone began to vibrate. "Yes?"

"We got another report. Alpha team is still sure they scored a solid hit, but it might not have been an immediate kill. They haven't found the body yet."

"What?! What the hell kind of report is that?!"

"Relax boss. We have all the teams converging on the area. There's no way for him to escape, even if he wasn't wounded. And Chester is sure his shot was good. Stevie Bod is toast."

"So they at least found blood?!"

"Uh... I didn't ask. But relax boss. We have him boxed in. We even have a team at his car. He has absolutely no place to go."

"You know he's a third-degree black-belt?"

"I don't give a shit. We're the ones with the guns, and we know how to use them. The guy's got no chance, absolutely none. He's either dead or dying right now."

"I want confirmation! I want to talk to the men who bury him!"

"Sure thing boss. I'll have the guys with the shovels give you a call back within the hour."

Two hours later... 

Earth time: Saturday, March 30, 2019 9:00 AM Central Standard Time

Aina time: 4:59 PM, day 243 of 1418 H.E.

I just managed to catch the local bus at St. Charles, and was heading east on I-90. I'll be on an express bus within the hour, and in Madison Wisconsin by nightfall. My body is relaxed, but my mind is racing. I don't expect I'll get any sleep until I catch the overnight bus to Indianapolis. And after that, well, I've got a lot of thinking to do.

I smiled and shuddered at my close escape. Less than three hours ago I was peacefully exercising. Now I'm a hunted man. I ran over fifty kilometers over rough terrain. If the world were still having Olympics, I'd be standing on the podium for my gold medal.

A'moth taught me well about undercover identities, including the importance of a dead- drop. Deep in the forest there was a knapsack sealed in plastic and hidden under a boulder. I shaved off my mustache, trimmed my hair, put on some fake eyeglasses and changed clothes to a style Stevie Bod never wore. And then I kept moving.

I have that knapsack with me now. Inside are my old running clothes and hair clippings. In my pocket is some new ID, including a wallet with a current Massachusetts driver's license. It's got my picture and new name on it. I also have some gold coins and several thousand in cash. I'll be okay. Maybe I'll head to Boston... 

Ten days later... 

Earth location and time: Cambridge, Massachusetts, Tuesday, April 9, 2019 6:09 PM Eastern Daylight Savings Time

Aina time: 4:00 AM, day 254 of 1418 H.E. (Nine minutes before sunrise. Blue-Spirit Path has been open for twenty minutes).

I walked up the stairs to my small apartment as Simon Nelson. The Redline wasn't running again and it's taken me over an hour to get home. I've had a job for a week now as a short-order cook. Tomorrow I work the evening shift. It's good cover. I'm just a regular working Joe now. Pay isn't bad, and I can lose myself in the rhythm of the work. I just don't want to think about where my life is headed. Not yet. It's too depressing. Ah, who am I kidding? My apartment is a dive and my job is depressing too. My boss is a Nazi.

I got to my apartment door and fumbled for my keys. I scanned inside with my senses first, pure habit, before I inserted the key. Shit! How the hell have they traced me?! I'm just thinking how to back away when I feel a tug on my mind, something I haven't felt in over eight years... "Gary?"

"A'moth!" I shouted in my mind. I frantically entered my flat. My heart was beating so fast, my mind was racing into overdrive... There she was! I closed the door and we're embracing fiercely a second later. Tears started to fall from my eyes. "My wife! My wife!" I called to her silently in my mind.

"Yes, yes, my darling husband..." A'moth answered through the mind-link. "I'll explain everything."

"Isabelle! Is she okay?!"

A'moth nodded. My heart was bursting with joy. A'moth spoke for the first time. "I'll take you to her, right now. We have the jump to Nebraska first."

"The cornfield?"

A'moth smiled. "Yes. I'll tell you everything in a few minutes. Anything here you need to take?"

I grabbed my ID, the gold and the cash. No sense being careless. I locked the door but left the deadbolt off. "Let's go!"

We hugged again fiercely, and a second later I was standing in a plowed field. It was about an hour before sunset in Boston, but here it seemed like mid afternoon. There was the sound of distant farm machinery around, about a mile away, but we were unobserved. A'moth spent several minutes walking around, an intense look of concentration on her face. It brought back distant memories, of a cold January day in 2011... so long ago.

"Got it!" she called out. I walked over to her and we hugged tightly. "Just be still and let me concentrate Gary. These jumps are very difficult..."

I nodded but otherwise remained silent. Nothing happened for a while, and then suddenly there was a tremendous shake and we appeared to be falling down an infinite tube, filled with bright bluish-glowing bubbles. It appeared as if we were falling through foam, but I could breathe fine. The situation was so bizarre it was difficult to be anything, even afraid. "Is this was you were expecting?" I thought to my wife.

She thought back, "Sort of. I wasn't expecting the jolt at the beginning. Just hang on!"

"Yeah..."

I seemed to be dozing. I opened my eyes and looked around. It was like waking up from a dream. A'moth was standing by my side. The air was cool, not much different than before the jump. But that was a plowed field at the beginning of spring. Now I was standing in corn twelve feet high.

A'moth pulled out a periscope from her backpack and began to make some sightings above the corn. I just looked around for a while to give her some time. In the plowed field, it looked like we had about three hours of sunlight left. Here, the sun was much closer to the horizon, maybe one-hour left... Were we back in Boston?

No. You don't have 12-foot high corn in April in Massachusetts. Were we in the Southern Hemisphere? When the sun set, maybe the stars would tell... 

"Can I take a look?" I asked, after A'moth was finished.

She smiled and handed me the periscope. After a minute she asked, "What do you see?"

"Endless fields of corn. And yet... At the horizon... Some sort of barrier? It completely encircles us, 360 degrees."

A'moth laughed. "True! The barrier separates Antelope Freeway from the cornfields. We must be directly opposite the barriers. All great-circle paths lead to Rome, or in this case Antelope Freeway!"

"Huh?"

"Imagine standing on the surface of a sphere covered with cornfields, where half the circumference is just over twenty-three kilometers. Imagine that light travels with the curvature of the sphere. Imagine one tall building at one location, and you're standing directly at the opposite side of the sphere..."

I stared at A'moth for a moment, as her words sank in. Then I looked through the periscope again. "But! There's daylight everywhere! Wouldn't half the sphere be in nighttime now?"

"No. The entire vertical direction is an illusion. My analogy with the sphere isn't perfect either. It's a closed universe, with the same topology as a sphere's surface, in terms of how far it takes to go from one spot to another."

I looked up at the sun and pointed. "That's an illusion?!" I was incredulous.

A'moth nodded as she packed her periscope. "Yes. A person named Jim Arnold called the sky here a shadow-channel reflection of the sky over central Nebraska... Gary, I don't understand it either... Jim showed me one of his papers he published in 2008, about a year before he got here. He was already theorizing about something he calls quantum turbulence, something that would enable an illusion like this to exist. He called it a reality shift."

"A reality shift? That sounds kind of... scary..."

Yeah... Come on. We can talk as we walk to the wall. I'll tell you everything I know. Wait! How are you feeling?"

"Me? Fine."

"Dizzy?"

"You mean from the blue-tunnel trip? No."

"Not just that. Not sleepy? Not even a little?"

"Uh... no... Should I be?"

A'moth stared at me for several long seconds and then smiled. "Apparently not. I guess you're more Chungieran than I realized. Let's go. Tell me at once if you start to feel sleepy."

"Yeah, sure..." We started walking, then jogging, then finally running, talking as we went. After a good hour, we covered close to twenty kilometers. We then set up a small tent for the night.

"Let me see if I've got this right," I said, as we ate a light meal. "You couldn't tell Isabelle or me anything about this on Earth, because you were afraid of something called a causality violation?"

A'moth nodded. "That's right. Jim sees tremendous danger in the mathematics, of a core breakdown in cause and effect. The quantum books I found here write of it happening once before, and the universe sealed the damage in a time-loop. A second violation within the loop will unravel reality completely."

"Unravel reality completely? Uh, what does that mean?"

"I'm not a quantum physicist! I think Isabelle understood Jim's math somewhat, but I was totally lost. You'll have to ask Jim. The analogy he used though, was to imagine all of reality as a dream, and then the causality violation causes the dreamer to wake up. What happens to the dream?"

I was silent for a moment. "Shit..."

"Yeah. According to Havika's writing, we're part of a time loop, one that lasts 6,498,295 Earth years. The end of the loop on Earth occurs in the year 207,145 C.E., when a fusion missile causes the Blue Ring on Aina to open a slip bubble back to Earth, in the Miocene Era."

"And you took a trip in time too. You and Isabelle..."

"Yeah, three thousand days exactly, from January 9, 2011 to March 28, 2019. Biologically, Isabelle is still just eight years old." A'moth paused and then added, "At least when I left her."

I didn't catch what she meant then. "That was just two days before my employers tried to kill me."

A'moth shook her head in wonder. "I missed you by less than a day. I scanned your apartment Saturday night. There were four men waiting for you. I wouldn't be surprised if they're still there. You really stirred up some determined enemies! What did you do?"

"I had this idea about the plague. It's... Ah, it's not important. I'll tell you later. I'm just so glad you found me. How'd you do it?"

A'moth sighed and looked tired. "It took me over a week... I have my methods..."

I cuddled with her in the small tent. Feeling her against me again was infinitely satisfying. I felt like jumping for joy, felt like laughing into the wind, felt like crying. Both of us were shaking a bit. I was still working with the idea that from A'moth's perspective, we had only been apart for two weeks, while for me it's been over eight years. "Hungry?" I whispered.

A'moth shook her head. "I would like to cuddle though..." We spent the next hours talking and petting each other, drifting in and out of sexiness. It was well past the middle of the night before we finally sacked out. I had the most peaceful sleep in years... 



-------

Chapter 29


I awoke about an hour before dawn, breathing deeply and totally relaxed and refreshed. A'moth was still sleeping in my arms, but I could sense she was right at the edge of waking up herself. I began to nuzzle her neck and pet her stomach.

"Ah! Good morning Gary..."

I glanced out the tent. It was still dark outside. "Gary... Yeah... I haven't been called Gary in years."

A'moth nodded. "It was the same for me sometimes, over the centuries. You're the first person who knew me as A'moth..." She smiled at me. "Did you get enough sleep?"

I smiled back. "Yep. Ever since I've changed, I only need about four hours a night."

"Really?" A'moth sighed. "You don't know how grateful I am, that you're not angry with me for changing your DNA... without asking your permission first..."

"Hey, it saved my life! I'd be six feet under in a Minnesota forest if I were still human..."

"You're very forgiving..."

"A'moth! I want to be your husband!" I pushed A'moth down and lay on top of her. We played for a while. I think she was surprised by how strong I was. We finally snacked on a light breakfast and broke camp shortly before dawn.

We ran the rest of the way to the wall. The sun came up behind us as we got to the barrier. As I stared up at the height of it, A'moth spent a few minutes making some measurements with a sextant and then sighed. "Gary, I think we made another trip in time."

I was quiet for a moment. "How far?"

"At least nine months. Both the star positions last night and the sun's location are suggesting mid December, maybe a few days before the winter solstice, the best I can measure it... It's probably just after 8 AM Central Time. But I don't know the year..."

I nodded and shrugged. "So what's next? We climb the wall?"

"Are you comfortable doing it? We got Isabelle over in a stretcher that Jim and Cindy built."

I stared for a moment at the ropes ascending the 400-foot wall. "Piece of cake. Let me carry your backpack."

A'moth laughed and kissed me. "Okay! Remember the walls are super slippery. You can push against them, but there's no shear at all." I nodded as I tested the wall with my hands for a moment, and then started to climb.

The climb was uneventful for both of us. I was incredibly curious to see what Antelope Freeway looked like, but I slowed down a bit near the top, not wanting to turn the climb into a race. We were both soon walking around the interior.

"A'moth! This 2009 Marathon! It looks brand new!"" The door was unlocked. I took a look inside, saw the keys in the ignition and activated the dashboard display. "Less than four thousand miles..."

"Yeah... Jim Arnold had the car for just two months before he got trapped here... This place is weird. The corn grows and dies, and there's some kind of ecosystem with the bugs, but most things don't age at all."

"How is that possible?"

A'moth shrugged her shoulders. "Jim said it was Havika's choice, when he created the parameters for the Antelope Freeway dream. The key thing to remember is that this is all an illusion."

I stared at her for a moment. What she was saying about illusions still wasn't making any sense to me. "So... What now?"

"We wait. Jim and Cindy visit here every day at 10 AM. They did it for over eight years, before they met Isabelle and me."

There was some patio furniture in the median, at the exact center of the Freeway. A'moth and I sat there and chatted, continuing to catch up with our lives. About an hour later, probably about 9:30, I blinked in astonishment as a small owl suddenly popped into existence, perched on one of the nearby lounge chairs.

The owl and I locked eyes together for a long moment, and then the owl went ballistic, flapping its wings madly and screeching, hovering about ten feet off the ground. And then it just disappeared. I turned to A'moth. "Uh, Jim or Cindy?"

"I'm not sure. It looked smaller than either of them..."

Isabelle popped into existence a few steps away. "Dad!" she cried, and she ran up and hugged me fiercely. She was exactly as I remembered her, eight years old, and she was sobbing in my arms. I kissed the top of her head and held her close. My tears started to flow too. I had dreamed of this moment for years.

Isabelle finally tore herself away from me and hugged her mother. "Jim and Cindy should be here in a few minutes. I had to wake them up. Mom, it's been over thirteen years. Today's date is December 17, 2032."

Future Interlude VIII: Meeting With The Congress

Aina time: 7:50 AM day 214 of 1473 H.E. (three days after memory integration)

Havika, Mayoni, and Kalea, the three directors of the Blue Spirit Quantum Gravity Labs, sat at the center of a large table facing the gathering members of Congress. Also at the table on both sides of the directors sat the six senior members of their R&D staff. Additional citizens were filling the observation seats along the sides of the Level-7 amphitheater, and the proceedings would also be holocast live across the three planets. The researchers were all looking more than a bit tired from their recent lack of sleep. Their report to the Congress was due to start in ten minutes.

Kalea was staring idly at the main entrance when a beaming smile burst upon her face. "Moms! Dad!" She rushed up and a second later had Anuhea and Kara locked in a fierce three-way hug. Her sister Mayoni was right behind her and was similarly locked in a deep embrace with Mark and Va'an.

Mayoni turned and realized who else was standing by her side. She turned and was soon lost in the arms of her beloved uncle. "So you all came back," she whispered, "... a day early."

"Yeah, wouldn't miss it..." murmured Leon as he kissed the top of Mayoni's head, enfolding her in his arms and sighing. "Ura and Nalani are here too, should be here in a few minutes... We've heard the medical reports, how both of you have your memories back..."

"It's true."

"How much do you remember?"

"Everything. My first childhood, hiking with you on your first trip to Aina in the spring of 2010, my undergraduate years in Hawaii, my wedding night with Keona, my sharp fears during the 1436 expedition, all my joys and sorrows Uncle Leon... and embarrassments... It's as if they all happened yesterday. Everything is crystal clear." Mayoni gave her uncle a grinning smile. "And how I ever forgot how much I like to tease you, I'll never know..."

Leon smiled in love back at his niece as he caressed her in his hug. "Oh my gosh!" he whispered playfully as he smiled, and then he turned serious. "There're a lot of scary rumors, about what you have been working on these last three days..."

"Yes. It's time for the rumors to end too. I just wish we had better news..."

Kara took over hugging Mayoni next. "I haven't seen you looking this tired since you were Jennifer's and Linda's doctor at the end of 1449..."

Mayoni just sighed in her mother's embrace, nodding her agreement as she leaned her head against her mother's breasts.

A few minutes later the First Speaker of the Congress began the meeting with a brief introduction, and then Havika as senior lab director began the Quantum Lab's report. He yawned and then focused on the audience before him.

"  Aloha kakahiaka!  ", he sang, the traditional Hopewell morning greeting. "I'm going to give a brief overview of our understanding of slip bubbles, in particular with the time-loop connection that existed between Earth and Aina. I'm then going to have Mayoni and Kalea speak. I also take this time to formally petition the Congress that Mayoni and Kalea be appointed as the Quantum's Lab's senior co-directors, with me as subordinate. I have seen ample evidence over the last three days that their integrated minds are now vastly superior to my own in quantum understanding."

Havika sighed and looked around the Congress. "Our written reports are on your screens now. It summarizes the time loop from Earth's perspective. From our knowledge of decrypting X-tree, we know the Earth side of the time loop lasts 6,498,291 Earth years, from 6,291,147 B.C.E. to 207,145 C.E. The corresponding times in Hopewell Era units are in the reports."

"The time loop begins on Earth when the Blue Ring opens a Path from Aina to Earth's Miocene Era. It ends at the exact same moment, as the great closed bend in time completes its loop. Over the last twenty-two years, a key unanswered question has been, when does the temporal loop reset itself on Aina? It clearly cannot be at the same time as the Earth's reset, since there is continuity of the first Aina inhabitants fighting their war, destroying the slip ship, and then slowing dying of the plague."

"Until three days ago, the quantum staff thought this question of Aina reset to be of academic interest only. Our connection to Earth is to a time approximately 6.3 million years after the end of Earth's time loop, and Earth being free of the time loop would imply Aina is also free. At least, that's what everyone thought."

Havika looked around at the silent Congress before him. "Let me back up. Our standard interpretation of time loops is based on the many-worlds model of quantum theory, that each loop is another of the quantum probabilities for the universe occurring. Hiapo wrote in his papers in the 1450's that, before they were turned into infants, Mayoni and Kalea had many verbal arguments over the many-worlds model."

A member of the Congress asked, "And what's that?"

"The model is one possible way to explain the indeterminate nature of quantum effects. Mayoni in particular rejected the formalism due to its lack of conservation of the universe's total energy and momentum, as well as an implied entropy violation at the time loop's completion. Unfortunately, we were in a middle of a war with the WFM then, and these verbal arguments were never written down."

Havika shrugged. "And then Mayoni and Kalea became infants. Until three days ago, the only written records of these debates were Hiapo's incomplete recollections."

"The core of Mayoni's conjecture was that there is only one universe. You don't have a time-loop spawning infinite versions of universes sailing off into the future. Rather, Mayoni's theory is that each loop, at some point in each cycle, becomes unique due to indeterminate quantum resonance, not due to many-worlds effects."

Havika sighed and then dropped the bombshell. "Mayoni's conjecture implies that there is no future beyond the time loop."

The First Speaker Keilani stared at Havika. "What do you mean, no future?"

"Just that. Just as there is no time before the creation of the universe, there can be no time after a time loop. The physics forbids it. Future reality ceases to exist. The entire universe relives the loop over and over again. The only possible continuity would be a folded-space construct, such as a slip bubble or a Blue Ring."

Keilani was silent for a moment. "I dimly see the horror. But Earth is millions of years in the future of the loop. So this disproves the theory, correct?"

"Not correct. It's so tragic that the slip bubble connection to Earth formed hours after Mayoni and Kalea lost their adult memories. If it had occurred immediately, they would have warned us. As it is, we lost twenty-two years playing with gravity, completely unsuspecting of the impending doom rushing towards us." Havika grimaced and was silent for a long moment. "With your permission, I turn the presentation over to Mayoni and Kalea."

Kalea nodded and gestured for Mayoni to begin. Mayoni cleared her throat. "Good morning. Before I begin, I'd like to say that Kalea and I both feel it's appropriate for Havika to remain senior lab director. He's done a tremendous job. And now for my report: The gist of the problem is what my aunt... sorry, my sister and I used to call my catastrophe theorem."

Mayoni looked grimly at the Congress. "Based on the rejection of the many-worlds formalism, my theory predicted that all reality on Aina would reset to the past sometime in the next two thousand Earth centuries, the time between the plague years on Earth and the destruction of the slip ship orbiting Aina. But there was no way to measure how far back into the past the time loop extends on Aina, back before the slip ship entered orbit."

"We have that data now, from our observations from Earth, our impossible Earth. Kalea and I now agree on the mathematics, but it's difficult to describe in words what the equations are saying. You will all probably have just as hard a time understanding the concept as we do, but my theory is a direct extrapolation of the papers of Jim Arnold, perhaps humanity's greatest quantum physicist."

Mayoni took a sip of ice-water before continuing. "It's not really Earth we are visiting. Rather, it's a quantum shadow of a future Earth possibility, a quantum shadow channel expanding at light speed, filling the universe on Earth's side of the slip bubble. We got quantum signature confirmation of this with our experiments last night."

Havika had dropped the bomb. Now it was Mayoni's turn to detonate it. "As bizarre as this might sound, you have to think of Earth as a holographic illusion. Our measurements also confirm the hologram's unstable nature. Without a slip ring as an anchor, the holographic bubble will soon pop, destroying all future reality on both the illusion-Earth and Aina sides of the slip bubble..."

The Congress and spectators stared at Mayoni in stunned silence. Finally Keilani whispered, "How long?"

Mayoni shuddered and looked at Kalea. Kalea spoke up. "The holographic bubble is expanding at the speed of light. My calculations show it will pop when it touches its first spacetime singularity, commonly called a black hole. The nearest known black hole is orbiting visible star V4641, about 1600 Earth-light-years away. Until yesterday, I thought we might have a chance of existing that long. But Mayoni has done some additional calculations. Mayoni?"

Mayoni nodded. "The bubble itself is unstable. We currently have a rough approximation for the time till failure. The calculations are predicting one to three giga- seconds, measured from when the illusion of Earth was created in the year 1451. I hope to have a much more detailed answer in a few months. We need to build a Max-Zender interferometer on Earth's illusion and measure entanglement shifts. We'll also need precise measurements on the gravitational permitivity of free space on the Earth side of the bubble. We'll need to land a laser reflector on Earth's moon to make the measurements. Fortunately the new graviton engines can function at the lunar surface."

Mayoni looked around at the Congress. "For now, I'm estimating we have perhaps another sixty years, until the 1530's, until the end of everything. From all perspectives, including our own, future reality will cease to exist."



-------

Chapter 30


Earth time: Tuesday, December 21, 2032 4:00 PM Central Standard Time

Aina time: 7:15 PM, day 126 of 1436 H.E. (first day of autumn Makule, one month before the Festival of Ice)

Jim Arnold put down his marker and walked away from the whiteboard to sit with A'moth and me, Antelope Freeway's newest arrivals. We had spent our first couple of days socializing with each other. Then Cindy converted one of the Arctic bedrooms into a classroom, and over the last two days, she and Jim and Isabelle had been briefing us on all that they had learned over the years. Some of it A'moth already knew. It was all new to me.

Jim sighed and closed his eyes as he stretched in his chair. "And that's where we are now Gary. We have a passive system to monitor Earth radio. The population now is 2.1 billion, 1.7 billion women and 400 million men. And as for children? Zero. The very youngest humans will be turning twenty-three over the next few days..."

Jim opened his eyes and gazed at Isabelle for a moment. "Issie, you would stick out like a sore thumb. The quantum shadow resonance keeps us from aging, but it also has cut you off from having a life on Earth. You'd probably be dissected if you were seen now."

Isabelle gave a sarcastic laugh. "The last dozen years were one gendercidal war after another, each one dirtier than the last. Look what happened in Indonesia last year, all the horrors... So what have I missed? And besides, I can still go back as a Saw-whet if I want."

A'moth and I stared at our daughter. It's been difficult for both of us to accept Isabelle as an adult, especially the way she looks. But she is an adult. I have to think of her as almost twenty-two years old. She was born October 17, 2002, and then she took a three- thousand-day trip through time with her mom. So her effective birthday is January 3, 2011. She might look like a cute eight-year-old girl, but her mind is awesome! And her latest comment?

I blinked. "You think you can leave Antelope Freeway as an owl?"

Isabelle nodded. "Cindy left the shadow channel and lived on Aina as a squirrel for more than a year. An Aina year, I mean. Jim thinks leaving here as owls would be the equivalent. We would lose our ability to jump back to humans of course, plus our ability to think-link."

A'moth nodded thoughtfully. "But you've never tried it?"

Isabelle shook her head no. "Not yet. There would be no way to get back to Antelope Freeway, not yet anyway. But in a few months... Jim, Cindy, you want to explain?"

Cindy nodded. "From the Hopewell history book, we know the times of the path openings on the previous time loop. All indications are that our current loop has not yet broken quantum resonance from the previous loop. The next scheduled path opening is in 125 Earth days, April 25, 2033. That's 127 Aina days, day 253 of 1436. The people on Aina are scheduled to launch an exploratory mission to Earth. They have no idea what they'll be walking into, what a horror Earth has become. In the last loop, their expedition ended in disaster. No one made it back alive..."

A'moth nodded. "We have to warn them, help them."

Isabelle shook her head vigorously. "No! Not warn them. Help them? Maybe, if we can be discrete about it."

Jim nodded. "This was Isabelle's insight. Over the last few years, she's convinced me she's right. Issie, you want to explain?"

"Yeah. Let me back up and tell my dad about the history of the previous loop. Thirteen Aina years after the 1436 expedition, the Path opened again, in 1449. The Earth date was June 17, 2043. By then, the Women's Freedom Movement was on the verge of completing their extermination of human males on Earth. Aina sent a search and rescue team to find the 1436 expedition, not realizing they were all dead. The rescue team was massacred, and the existence of the Path was confirmed on Earth."

"The next Path opening was seventeen Aina years later, in 1466, Earth date September 21, 2056. The Hopewell history book calls the date the War of the Bubble. Aina lost control of the Blue Ring, and when the tunnel closed, it closed on the Aina side, leaving the Ring and the core bubble connected to Earth."

"The next Path opening was nineteen years later, in 1485, Earth date July 20, 2071. The Hopewell called the date the First Worlds War. The WFM must have solved the problem of the Earth plague, at least in terms of having children. There were huge numbers of WFM militia that invaded Aina. They looked about twenty years old. They all died. It seems there's a plant of Aina that triggers plague activation, even if the women are not pregnant."

Isabelle sighed and shook her head sadly. "That's where the detailed history ends. The book was published on Aina year 1506. The next scheduled path opening was in 1508, Earth date June 30, 2089. The Hopewell referred to it as the coming Second Worlds War. Havika mentioned it briefly in his journal. The WFM still didn't realize what had killed their first army. They tried to invade again. They also launched their latest bio- warfare inventions. It killed most of the Hopewell population, only a few hundred people survived. The invading WFM army died also, and this time the WFM realized what they were up against, that Aina was forever completely uninhabitable to them."

"The final Path opening occurred twenty-nine Aina years later, in 1537, Earth date February 16, 2112. The WFM took their plague activation knowledge and turned it against the Hopewell, activating the super cancers in all the survivors from the previous war. And then they popped the Aina bubble, forever separating Aina from Earth. Jim and I both think Havika was right, that a quantum shadow channel opened in the Aina solar tower just as the bubble popped. Havika couldn't figure it out. It violates the core mathematics. The real implication is staggering. It implies something Havika never realized..."

Isabelle looked very sad and just sighed. She clearly didn't want to continue.

Jim picked up the story. "For a shadow channel to make a new connection in a spacetime continuum is impossible. Isabelle and I have gone over the math many times. It would violate the base quantum integrity of the Aina timeline."

"Huh?" I asked. "But you said it happened."

Jim nodded. "Because there was nothing left to violate. The only possible explanation is the bubble popping is simultaneous with the reset of the Aina side of the time loop. The Aina future ends on day 254 of 1537."

We were all silent for a long moment. A'moth finally spoke up. "Anything we can do about it?"

Jim shook his head. "Not on the Aina side. But the Earth side is another matter. There are a lot of asymmetries in the mathematics. There might be a possibility for ending the loop insanities at Earth's timeline reset. But that won't happen for another 205,000 years..."

I thought about this for a while. "Well, okay... But I still don't see why we can't help the Hopewell now, even if they're all doomed. At least they won't be exterminated like vermin."

Isabelle spoke up. "We can help the Hopewell dad. We're going to try. We just can't let them know that we are. The time loop must reset on Aina with the Blue Ring on Earth, therefore the Hopewell must lose their war. The trick is to have them lose intact before Aina reset, which means the WFM has to win the war against Aina and seize the Blue Ring as soon as possible, without ever realizing Aina exists."

"Yeah, right! How could you ever do that?"

"Well," said Cindy, "Here's the plan..."



-------

Chapter 31


Future Interlude IX: Love By The Stonewall

Aina time: 8:40 PM day 288 of 1473 H.E. (77 days after memory integration, First leap- day of 1473, two days before the Festival of the High Sun and day zero of 1474)

Mayoni and Ekela walked through the quiet orchards well north of the old deserted museum-village, holding hands and enjoying the lush beauty and sweet smells of the fruit trees around them. The sun was very low on the horizon and would set in twenty minutes, and the native Aina chuckle-birds were just starting to chirp it up. The location of the Hopewell nation was in the middle latitudes, 46.8 degrees, and with the planet's tilt of 34.5 degrees the sun would rise just 5 hours and 38 minutes after sunset, at 3:00 AM. The temperature was very pleasant, in the mid-70's F, with a modest breeze blowing through the trees.

Ekela adjusted his backpack and smiled at Mayoni, giving her a quick kiss.

Mayoni smiled and kissed him back. "This certainly feels different! Back in 1410, unmarried couples would have been chaperoned on a trip like this!"

Ekela smiled and then laughed. "Think of our ages! We both turned eighteen Earth years months ago! Back in 1410, we both would have married at the last Red Bird Festival."

"True..." They walked quietly for a while. "I think I like the new way better," Mayoni said at last. "We have all the benefits of the marriage class, but there's no ticking clock."

"Huh? Clocks tick?"

"What? Oh! It's just an expression from old Earth. They used to have mechanical clocks, non-electronic. Yeah, they used to tick."

"Ah..." They walked another short while in silence. "I saw the morning's science holocast before we left. It was devoted to your measurement results..."

"Yeah, 2.1243 gigaseconds, plus or minus 100,000 seconds. The universe ends on day 254 of 1537, give or take a day."

"What's that in Earth time, old Earth time?"

"Huh? You mean before the Earth-loop reset?"

"Yeah."

"Ekela, that's not the right way to think about it."

"Oh, I know. What would it be anyway?"

"Assuming we were still linked to Earth's old timeline, the date would be February 16, 2112."

Ekela was silent for a moment. "I thought so! That was one of the dates on the old Path opening schedule, wasn't it?"

Mayoni nodded. "You're very observant. Several staff members noticed that too. Nobody knows what to make of it."

"And today's date?"

Mayoni was silent for a second as her mind did the calculation. "April 12, 2062."

They continued their walk. A few silent minutes drifted by. "So another fifty Earth years... It will be a full life for us."

Mayoni sighed. "Yes, I agree, and even for the children being born now. We must seize the moment! I think the reset has reminded everybody how precious time... how precious life is..." Mayoni slipped her arm around Ekela, and they continued their walk holding each other by their waists. "I wouldn't be surprised though, if the birthrates drop off in another few decades..."

"Yeah... It'll be sad, not to see the young children around near the end, a sad echo of Earth's plague years..."

"Yeah..." Mayoni shivered and hugged Ekela.

He kissed her and hugged her back. "Mayoni, would I be a geek if I asked you a shop question on our date?"

Mayoni laughed. "Heck no! What's on your mind?"

"The time-loop reset mathematics. I've been working with the new formalism you and Kalea published."

Mayoni smiled. "Uh huh. And?"

"I don't get it! It implies that time-loop reset must occur simultaneously across the entire spacetime continuum. The entanglements of the photons demand it. And all the clocks on the photons are already stopped. They travel at the speed of light, therefore there's no perceived movement in time from the photon's perspective."

"Quite correct. You figured this out all by yourself?! Ekela, I am so proud of you!"

"I'm not proud of me! What am I missing? How can Earth and Aina reset the time loop at different times if the entire spacetime continuum resets at once?!"

Mayoni laughed. "My aunt, and she was my aunt back then, had the same problem, in the winter of 1434. Kalea called it her one equals zero proof. It drove her nuts." Mayoni giggled at the memory of Kalea shouting curses down the empty science hall. She was about to tell Ekela, but then remembered her promise to keep quiet about Kalea's outburst.

Ekela had a deep frown on his face. "You have a way out of the paradox?"

"Oh yeah. Can you guess what it is, oh noble one?"

Ekela was silent for a long moment, and then his face burst with astonishment. "Earth and Aina! They're not just on different timelines. They're on different spacelines too. Two totally different spacetime continuums!"

"Bravo Ekela! Brilliant!"

He gave her a quick kiss. "I have a great teacher!"

Mayoni smiled. "Kalea and I have a proof we haven't published yet, that time-loops must involve at least two spacetime continuums. You can never reach Earth from here without the slip bubble. We're a billion light-years away, but we're also on a different membrane of the multiverse. Just think of the anti-matter galaxy we've observed here. I don't think they exist in Earth's continuum. Neutrino evolution is different there."

"So when Kyle and Brianna went through the spacetime singularity..."

"Yes, their trip through their black hole was a gateway out of Earth's spacetime universe. They must have inverted the polarity on their homo-polar slip generator. They generated a negative slip bubble inside a singularity. Mathematically, that's equivalent to colliding with an object at light speed and with the mass of the black hole. That took a lot of guts!"

Ekela frowned. "But it also tears the fabric of spacetime. Isn't that impossible, even for a black hole?"

"It's not the black hole. It's the slip bubble inside a time-loop. The temporal bend on the slip creates an unbounded graviton oscillation within the singularity. The resonance builds until spacetime fractures. When we get back to the labs, I'll walk you through the math..."

Ekela nodded and sighed heavily. He continued hiking with Mayoni in the last of the fading sunlight.

At the northern end of the orchard, they came to an old stone wall. Mayoni smiled and took off her backpack, hopping up and sitting on the wall. Ekela soon joined her. They cuddled and petted each other in silence as the sun set and the cool of the evening began to form.

"I love you," whispered Ekela.

"I know..." Mayoni whispered back. Her eyes were closed and her body deeply relaxed, enjoying the caresses of her body. She opened her eyes and sighed, and then reached down and began taking off her moccasins.

Mayoni's bare feet were soon hanging in the air, a few inches above the grass. She was breathing deeply and she could feel her heart beginning to race. The previous day, she had thought long and hard about whether to paint her toenails, almost asking Kalea, but then she decided to leave them their simple, natural color. Mayoni saw Ekela staring at her feet, and she wiggled her toes in invitation.

A sharp memory came into her mind, from the harvest time of 1409. She and Kahoku were sitting on this very wall, at this exact spot, and Mayoni had bared her feet for Kahoku to pet. It was a sacred custom of Hopewell courtship, the first step for a courting couple to bond in emotional intimacy. Mayoni felt a lump in her throat as she suddenly wondered if she would be rejected again.

Ekela was gasping for breath, almost crying. He hopped off the wall and sat by Mayoni's feet. He started to caress her a moment later. Mayoni sighed and hopped off the wall, lying down in the soft grass with her bare feet and lower legs in Ekela's lap. She sang an ancient Hopewell song of love and appreciation as Ekela petted her.

By the time she finished her song, the first stars in the sky were appearing, and her feet felt wonderfully relaxed. Ekela got out a small lantern from his backpack and turned it on. Mayoni sat up and snuggled with him, gentle kisses and hugs. She tried to keep her caresses light and playful, but she could also see the stiff erection Ekela had for her in his pants. Mayoni rested her head against his shoulder and sighed deeply.

Ekela sighed back. "What are your thoughts Mayoni?"

"My mind... I feel both excited and peaceful..."

"Yes... For me too... The feeling of peace is surprising... and unexpected..."

Mayoni was quiet for a long moment. "Ekela?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

"I know." Ekela brushed his lips softly over the side of Mayoni's head by her temple.

"Have you noticed much of a change in me, over the last few months?"

"You mean from the memory integration? Sure..." Ekela gently butted Mayoni's head with his nose, and then licked her ear.

"How have I changed?"

"Hmm? Oh... Mayoni?"

"Yeah?"

"We haven't pledged commitment to each other, but we have pledged intimacy, not to hide anything at all from each other... I'm guessing you want a totally honest answer."

"Yes..."

"Well, you're... you're even more wonderful than before! You were always good and kind, but now... You're awesome! So incredibly thoughtful and perceptive. You take my breath away Mayoni. I sometimes worry you're so far beyond me that... well, that I might seem uncouth to you..."

"Oh no Ekela! Never! I have my own fears too, that my attitudes might make me seem like a much older adult to you. My body is young, but I'm a virgin in body only. I was married to Keona for over thirty years. Ekela, are you... well..."

"Yes, I'm sure. I am so incredibly happy to be courting you. I love you! I know we shouldn't rush this, but... My heart is bursting with hope that someday... we will marry..." Ekela trembled and Mayoni hugged him fiercely. "Mayoni?"

"Uh huh?"

"I know your heart dearest. I know its infinite capacity for love. I know I won't be a substitute for Keona, that your heart has room enough for both of us... Really Mayoni, I don't mind..."

Mayoni wailed in gratitude. The sweet sound of release from her center of her heart drifted through the trees and mixed with the laughter of the evening songbirds.



-------

Chapter 32


Earth time: Saturday, March 19, 2033 6:00 PM Eastern Standard Time (29 minutes to sunset)

Aina time: 5:15 AM, day 216 of 1436 H.E. (53 minutes to sunrise, morning of the first day of spring and the Red Bird Festival)

"Visual image locked?"

I nodded. A'moth and I were in a tight embrace, staring into each other's eyes. I linked with her mind, she join the lock of my mind's eye on my target destination ten feet away. An instant later we were both there.

"Excellent Gary! You needed almost no boost at all that time. You are so close to teleporting on your own! I don't understand why you're not solo jumping now."

"You think so? How close?"

A'moth was thoughtful for a moment. "Let me think. It's been five thousand years... From where you were in ability five days ago, to my first jump, I did it in less than an hour..."

"Yikes! Maybe my mind just can't do it."

"Oh, don't think that way! A key part of jumping is the confidence." We walked back ten feet. "Try again. Lock the image, and then link to my mind..."

A'moth and I would practice for another half hour, till sundown. We were working out about a kilometer from our home base, on top of a narrow ridgeline in an incredibly twisty maze of passages in a box canyon in West Virginia.

We have our base camp in a cave whose only entrance is at the back of a deep crack in a sheer vertical wall of granite, over fifty meters from the canyon floor. The slit entrance is invisible unless you're right next to it, and it opens to a small limestone cave, high enough for me to stand in and about ten meters deep. It's nice, cozy, dry inside even when it rains, which is often. There's a flat part at the back where we sleep. It's so wonderful to be with A'moth again! These last three months have been the most amazing in my life... 

I spent two months on Antelope Freeway, relaxing and healing from my years of separation from my family. Reconnecting with Isabelle was indescribable. And getting to know Jim and Cindy was wonderful too. They are two of the nicest and smartest people I've ever met. And determined... 

It took Cindy four years to learn how to dream herself into an owl, Jim five. Isabelle learned to do it in less than six months. Jim and Cindy still wonder if that means a child finds it easier to keep the dream connection to the quantum shadow channel. Personally, I think it's just Issie... 

There is an opening of the classical channel next month, near the end of April. From studying the Hopewell history books, Jim, Cindy, and Isabelle are firmly convinced this is the time we should try to alter history, push our current time-loop into a new branch of reality. A'moth and I agree. The last 1436 Aina expedition was a complete disaster for the Hopewell. It sealed their doom in the future openings. Our time to make a stand is fast approaching... 

Jim is still unsure how much control over the quantum interfaces to Earth and Aina he'll be able to have, but he's pretty confident we still haven't left the last loop's timeline. One indication is that a man got trapped in the classical channel during the opening to Aina in 1418, when A'moth was bringing me to the Freeway. It was a guy by the name of Leon. Just as he was starting the trip from Aina to Earth, A'moth jumped me in the shadow channel in Nebraska, and Jim thinks our entry caused the classical channel to collapse, well before it was supposed to.

I guess all this makes sense. How we can still have free-will and be doing the same things exactly as we did in the last time loop, I don't know. Jim and Isabelle kept telling me that was not the right way to think about it... 

Jim, Cindy and Isabelle... They certainly have guts. They studied the original plans of the 1436 expedition from the history book. Their idea was to split up, fly one owl above each of the three teams heading to Davis, Parsons, and Harman, just try to find some way to warn the people what a horror Earth has become without revealing the existence of Antelope Freeway.

That's the key. Jim is sure the Aina people have to lose their Blue Ring to the WFM. The completion of the time loop pivots around that fact. Jim is deathly afraid if the Hopewell had the power of the shadow channel, they'd try to stop the gendercide on Earth, try to make a stand against the WFM. It would be a cosmic disaster, something Jim calls a type 1-A causality violation.

I don't know. Trying to follow the logic of this makes my head spin. But Jim's an incredibly bright guy. I've decided to accept his judgment.

The arrival of A'moth and me changed everything. A'moth's ability to teleport opened up a huge number of options for how to support the expedition. Our tentative plan is for A'moth to be jumping around, keeping track of all three groups. Jim will fly with Leon, Mayoni and Amy to Parsons, Isabelle and Cindy will fly together south to Harman with Kara, Lois, and Mahi. If needed, A'moth can jump an owl to track the team heading north to Davis... And me? I'm the wildcard in the deck. I can be a huge asset if I can learn to teleport in time. If!

A'moth... My dear wife... She left for Earth a week after we reached Antelope Freeway, just before Christmas. We had a little time to cuddle, but never got very sexy with each other. I did feed her just before she left. The plan was for her to scout all the jump sites she might need, all over Tucker County. About a month ago, near the end of February, I joined her. The arctic island can pick up radio waves from Earth. A'moth sent a signal, and I just walked south and met her. Man was I cold! The North Pole in February is nothing to mess with... 

"What was that?" A'moth asked. She interrupted our lesson and walked to the edge of the ridgeline. She screamed as she lost her footing on the ledge and started to fall over. She was in my arms a second later, ten feet from the edge, my mind buzzing with a headache and my heart beating a mile a minute... 

"Brilliant Gary! Two jumps in less than a second! And it was all you! You did it!"

"You tricked me!"

"Well, yeah..." A'moth turned and offered me her right cheek. I kissed her of course. Nothing is more delightful than forgiving someone you love. And my lesson for the day was over. I was lying down on the ridgeline a few minutes later, having my head petted in her lap. Yeah, I did it. Yeah!... yeah... 

It was a lot to think about. And I rested in her love as the stars came out... 

"Gary?" A'moth whispered.

I opened my eyes and smiled. "Uh huh?"

"How are you feeling?"

"Fine. Peaceful... My headache is all gone."

"Really?! So soon? Great! That's a good sign... We'll rest for tonight, start some new stuff tomorrow morning."

I yawned. "Sounds good."

"We could jump home. Hungry?"

I thought for a moment. Home for now was our cave, and it was kind of nice just watching the stars. "No, not too hungry..."

"Yeah... Me neither... Gary?"

"Hmm?"

"It's such a relief to me that you can jump. I was worried that... that I modified you enough to take away your humanity but not enough to... well..."

"To teleport?"

"No, not that. To sire a child in me..."

"Huh?! Oh... Wow... Do you think we could? Be fertile I mean, with each other..."

"Yeah, I think so. It would be a girl of course."

"Oh yeah? How do you know?"

"My body. Humans and Chungierans use the same basic system for sex genes. The details of the sex chromosomes are different of course, but in both species, the females have two X's, and the males have an X and a Y..."

"Ah... And my Y chromosome..."

"... is still fully human. My body didn't know what to do with it. My DNA is self adapting, but it doesn't have the template to convert your human male-Y to a Chungieran male-Y. Other than that, I think you're fully Chungieran. I find you very sexy... desirable... But this isn't the time for you to get me pregnant..."

"Yeah... Uh, A'moth, how often do you..."

"Ovulate? About once every seven-hundred Earth years..."

That got me. I bolted upright. "What?!"

"Well Gary! What did you expect? Chungierans don't die of old age. If we reproduced like humans, we'd overpopulate like crazy!"

I blinked. What she said made perfect sense. "Uh... Are you fertile now?"

"Yes."

I thought for a moment. "Wow... And when your mother was raped, when you were conceived, she must have been fertile too... Once every seven-hundred years... What an incredible coincidence..."

A'moth kissed me and shook her head. "No. That's not the right way to think about it."

I blinked again. "What is the right way to think about it?"

"Once I'm fertile, I stay fertile until I'm impregnated. After I give birth, it'll be seven- hundred years before I'm fertile again..."

"Oh..." I sighed and was quiet for a while, gazing upward at the stars and enjoying being caressed. "A'moth, tell me about your home world? You've never really talked about it."

A'moth sighed. "I didn't want to scare you off. Gary, I owe you a lifetime of apologies. Gary..." She trembled but didn't speak.

"A'moth... What?"

I couldn't understand her silence. Then she whispered, "Gary, Chungieran sex is designed to be unpleasant for the males."

"What? Unpleasant? What are you talking about? The females did this?"

"No, the males. They controlled the population. They were the dominant gender. The females were slaves. Most of the females in my group were banished for not being docile enough."

"Oh... oh shit..."

"Gary, Chungieran males don't ejaculate when they copulate. Ejaculation is only for feeding."

"Huh?!" I took a deep breath and semi-shouted, "What?!"

A'moth started to cry, and she blurted out, "The male gets erect and enters the female, just like with humans! But in the female, the Chungieran uterus tapers into a long coiled cervix... When we couple, the top of my vagina will create a suction lock on the head of your penis, suck radially outward, open your urethra slit and push your slit against the tip of my coil!"

She was gasping for breath through her cries. "A mating tooth near the bottom of my vagina will inject a specialized neural inhibitor into you... Gary, forgive me! It will prevent you from orgasming..."

In the starlight, A'moth finally allowed me to look into her eyes. They were filled with despair and guilt. I could see her tears falling down her face. She continued, "During sex, once I've locked your penis, my uterine coil will slide into your penis, through the male sex ducts, down into your scrotum... Gary, forgive me! My uterus will suckle sperm directly from your testes..."

I shivered and whispered, "How painful is it?"

A'moth shrugged and cried. "I don't know! I was just a young girl! I never asked... My mother! I think my father wanted to know what it was like, to ejaculate into a female. My mother was so deeply drugged..." A'moth looked at me with sad baleful eyes, and then started bawling. "Forgive me," she whispered.

"Hey! For what? I love you! And if we can..." The words caught in my throat. "... a daughter someday..." I held A'moth tightly. "Well, I'll just try to think kinky thoughts the night she's conceived..."

I thought my words would sooth her, but they seemed to have just the opposite effect. She started wailing. I cuddled her in my arms, and it was a long time before her cries faded into soft sobs. We linked minds, exchanged pure emotions for a moment that seemed to stretch into eternity. Words were completely unnecessary. She finally jumped us home for sleep.



-------

Chapter 33


I woke in the cave after four hours of sleep. A'moth was gone. I lounged around for a while, thinking about life. A'moth's story about Chungieran sex really shook me up. Not just my personal situation, but the fact that the dominant male gender on her world intentionally changed their reproductive act to be unpleasant. Somehow, I can't see the guys of Earth jumping on that bandwagon, no matter how crowded life got. But then again... Oh, I don't know. It was just that I was face to face with a truly non-human way of solving a problem... It was scary... 

A'moth popped back a little after 2 AM with a breakfast from around the world. We feasted on spinach, pistachios, oranges, pineapples, and raw oysters, everything super fresh. She gathered up the trash and jumped to her garbage dump in Antarctica, returning in less than a minute.

I walked to the slit entrance of our cave and looked outside. The sky was unusually clear that night. We'd been having lots of cloudy weather. It was just past full moon, and the moon was high in the sky, probably near its transit point. With my Chungieran eyes, I could see as well as a human on a cloudy day at noontime.

I smiled at A'moth. "Up for being a teacher a little early today?"

She smiled back. "Oh, you bet! I'm dying to know what you can do."

I was soon standing on the familiar ridgeline. A'moth was about ten feet away. "Just jump to me, here by my side."

I stood there feeling puzzled for a while, trying to remember how I had done this. And then I was there in an instant, less than an inch away. I lost my balance and bumped into her. "Oops! Sorry!"

She gave me a quick kiss on my cheek. "No problem. Gary, that was great! How are to feeling?"

"Fine."

"Really?"

I took a moment to think. "Yeah, really. I feel okay."

"Great! Here's what I want to try next..."

We jumped around the canyon for hours. It's as easy as walking, once you get the hang of it. No, what am I saying?! It's a lot, lot easier! And fun!

... until you try to jump too far. A'moth had me jumping to destinations I could already see for a while and that was fine. Then she kept jumping me further and further away and having me jump back to our first location, either solo or jumping her too. Her eyes lit up at first when I jumped her back with me, but she didn't say anything. She just kept increasing the distance until we were almost three kilometers away. The sun was just coming up. I tried to jump back, and suddenly, after all the feelings of pushing through easy water, it suddenly seemed I was trying to push through molasses.

A'moth saw the look of tension in my face. "Gary, we should quit. Don't push it if it's hard."

I didn't follow her advice. I forced the jump, found myself on the ledge without A'moth, feeling dizzy and ten feet away from where I was trying to be. I had one foot hanging over the great unknown and I started to fall off the cliff. A'moth appeared just as I jumped again. I went only ten feet but now I had such a headache I just sat on the ground and held my head with both hands. "Oww," I whimpered.

"Oh nuts Gary! I pushed you way too hard!"

I winced. A'moth seemed to be talking very loud, even though I knew she wasn't. I took a deep breath. It seemed to help, just a bit. "No you didn't. It was just my last jump. And you warned me not to do it..."

A'moth disappeared for a few seconds and got me a glass of ice water. I was soon lying down having my head petted. Her lap is so soft and inviting. My head wants to live there forever... 

One week later... 

Earth time: Sunday, March 27, 2033 5:34 AM Eastern Standard Time (36 minutes to sunrise)

Aina time: 7:23 PM, day 223 of 1436 H.E. (37 minutes after sunset)

It was pouring rain outside our small cave. Fortunately the floor tilts down slightly at the exit, and the back of the cave had damp air but dry rocks. A human eye would have still seen the outside as pitch black, but I could easily see the approach of dawn. Of course, A'moth could jump us anywhere in the world to practice, but she said as a student I would be better off staying in Tucker County.

There are distortion waves coming from the Blue Ring. A'moth says it makes jumping more difficult. But the path will open in 29 days, April 25, about ten minutes before 5 PM. The critical question is, how well can I jump in Tucker County one month from now? So A'moth wants me to keep practicing here. It makes a lot of sense... 

I was cuddling with A'moth in the back of the cave. She had just fed off me, just a few swallows, and then she playfully suckled me until I orgasmed. We do it for the pleasure and the bonding, to express our love for each other. She was purring happily in my arms... 

"A'moth?"

She opened her eyes and smiled. "Yeah?"

"Tell me about your childhood, learning how to jump..." I had been nudging A'moth to do this for the last week. She didn't want to bias my expectations with her experiences. So much of jumping is confidence and doing what you expect you can do... 

A'moth sighed and kissed me. "Yeah, okay! I did my first jump near my twelve birthday. That's a few years early for a Chungieran, at least for a girl anyway. I never got around to asking about how well the males jump..."

"Ah..."

"My first year, I could only jump with a direct visual lock on my destination, maybe a hundred meters. I learned the trick of jumping from visual memory when I was thirteen, it was an immediate boost to jumping up to five kilometers. I learned the trick just in time to save my life... Over the next seven years, I doubled that to ten kilometers."

"What?! It took you seven years just to double?"

"Yep! And it's my understanding that's a fast pace. My mom would have been very proud of me." A'moth smiled at me in the dim light. I saw the point she was making.

It's been a week now since I first teleported on my own. With A'moth's help, I've been practicing every day since. For six days, I kept doubling my distance every two days, and then yesterday, nothing! No improvement at all, from before dawn to after sunset. A jump-line of 23,140 meters was a piece of cake, even jumping A'moth with me, and 23,141 meters by myself was a brick wall my mind didn't want to touch. I thought about A'moth's rate of progress, and started to feel like an idiot for moping last night.

A'moth read my emotions, laughed and nodded. "One more thing. I couldn't jump cargo anything near my own body weight until well after I reached my final jump distances. Gary, I'm so proud of you!"

I smiled back. "I guess I should be grateful."

"Oh yeah! Think! The Hopewell expedition next month, their farthest trip will probably be to Parsons. The jump-line from here to there is about twenty-five kilometers. Gary, you're already there! You'll be able to jump from any two points where you're needed in two jumps, maybe only one. Gary, starting today, we should focus on having you acquire jumps sites, in the towns and along the roads the expedition will take..."

I nodded. "How many have you acquired?"

"Over ten thousand. No joke. We'll only get one shot at this. I've got this terrain locked. You need to lock it too. We'll start at daybreak."

I nodded again, and then thought for a moment. "So you think my jumping distance might increase someday?"

"Oh yeah. A good indication is how close you are between easy jumping and impossible jumping. It shows a tremendous potential."

"Huh?"

"It was tight for me too, my first hundred years of life. Well, not as incredibly tight as yours, but tight. My difficult range always stayed about 10% above my easy range, as my easy range slowly increased to 6,000 kilometers. Then my difficult range slowly increased to double my easy range. That's the last step to developing the ability."

"Ah... And your ability to jump to places you haven't seen, and remote teleporting, like with the glass of water?"

"Those were unheard-of abilities among the group at Caral. I'm beginning to suspect I got them from... well, feeding on humans. It's changed me..."

"Oh." I smiled happily. The thoughts of such abilities were intoxicating. We started my training on Tucker County jump sites a few minutes later. And the days flew by... 

Earth time: Monday, April 25, 2033 5:40 PM Eastern Daylight Savings Time (tunnel opening day, 2 hours, 25 minutes to sunset)

Aina time: 5:29 PM, day 253 of 1436 H.E. (2 hours, 18 minutes to sunset)

"Ten minutes..." A'moth whispered as she looked at her watch.

"Yeah," I whispered back. We were on a high ridgeline, near one of the rim walls of the box canyon, several kilometers from our home cave. I looked through my binoculars at the Grotto below. According to Hopewell history in the last loop, the classical slip channel would jump here for its new opening. Whether it did now or not would be a good test whether we were still locked with the last loop's timeline... 

My binoculars were blurry from the raindrops. I felt around for a dry tissue, realized I didn't have one, and jumped to home cave without thinking. I cleaned the lens and was back with A'moth a few seconds later.

"Try to stick with me," A'moth whispered.

"Yeah... sorry..."

A'moth took a moment to kiss my cheek. We continued to wait in silence.

This last month has been incredible. I've acquired thousands of jump sites. I know this landscape like the back of my hand. Occasionally A'moth and I would have to dodge people, but the area is mostly deserted. Last week, in a deserted house, I tried to jump into a closed closet that I had never seen before. A'moth just stood by my side with a look of wry amusement on her face. It was very satisfying less than two minutes later, to walk out of the closet and see her look replaced with complete astonishment... 

"Time... Mark!" whispered A'moth.

We stared intently at the Grotto. The back wall which would have the slip bubble channel was out of view. Jim Arnold had been doing years of theoretical research on the bubble, and he thought he had a way to make a permanent connection to the Earth side of the bubble from the quantum shadow channel, once the bubble was open. About twenty seconds after opening time, three owls flew out of the side of the Grotto. They flew high and circled for a while, and then landed near us, the smallest one very near my face. I leaned over and kissed Isabelle very lightly on her feathers.

We had worked on sign language, my months on Antelope Freeway, wing and hand signals. The plan was for A'moth and I to withdraw, keep completely out of sight but be there as a reserve force if needed. Cindy gave us the signal that an old woman had walked out of the Grotto first, another good sign. That would be Ellen, Mark's mother. We were probably still in the same timeline.

Over the next couple of hours, Jim, Cindy, and Isabelle did a fine job of long-distance tracking, flying far above the Aina expedition as they made their way from the Grotto to the house at Cider Junction. High above in the gray sky, the owls were never noticed. The expedition got to the house after sunset and bedded down for the night. So far everything was going as planned. The five of us stayed nearby overnight, about 200 meters from the house.

It was so dark even I was having trouble seeing anything. But about 4:30 AM, a thin crescent of the moon peaked for a moment through a small hole in the clouds near the horizon. It would last for just a moment. I heard the softest rustle of wings. I look around and saw Isabelle. She had just killed a rabbit, and was devouring it happily. She glanced up and saw me watching her. She gave me a wing signal for a shrug and a smile, and then went back to her meal. The light faded away.

I sighed. Cindy had told me about her year on Aina as a tiger-squirrel. She said it's not like being a human mind with an animal body. It's more like being the animal, mind and body, and having your human mind too. I sighed again. Bon appetit Isabelle.



-------

Chapter 34


Later that morning... 

Earth time: Tuesday, April 26, 2033 9:00 AM EDT

"God damn it you asshole! We haven't got time for that! Run and get me the bolt- cutters! Move!"

"Sure thing Carl! Just be a minute..."

I heard someone run off, leaving Carl fuming on the outside of the generator hut and pounding on the door in frustration. I was just a meter away from him on the inside. Fortunately there were no windows. Generators around here are priceless, and this one was extremely well guarded. I took a moment to smile at my brilliance. So far my plan for a diversion was working.

Jim is solo tracking Mark's team heading north to Davis, with A'moth occasionally jumping in to check if he needs help. Otherwise she's spending her time with Cindy and Isabelle tracking Kara's team heading south to Harman. From our knowledge of the highway patrol around here, they're biking into disaster, but we haven't found a way to stop them yet.

A'moth and I spent the last month throwing branches on the deserted roads, trying to discourage them from exploring. It didn't work.

Our mission today is clear. Do not let Aina know about us; do not let Earth know about Aina. If either of those things happens, we've lost, game over on a cosmic scale. But we're also compassionate. Saving the expeditions' lives is on all of our minds, at least as many as possible.

I spent the night thinking about Parsons. About 5 AM, I whispered something to A'moth. She nodded and jumped, returned a few minutes later with a small tube of glue and a medical needle. I filled up the needle and jumped twice, and then squirted some glue deep into the keyset of the padlock on the generator hut... 

I've been tracking my team since daybreak. The two women Mayoni and her younger sister Amy are being led by an older guy named Leon. I've also been jumping every fifteen minutes for a few seconds back to our cave home in the canyon. A'moth and I have some signals worked out with small stones. If either of us is desperate, we place a stone in a certain way, and then the other will wait for us in the cave... if possible... 

My team is biking right into the lion's den. I racked my brain during their trip, but I couldn't see how to stop them. They're biking down to the Last Castle Café right now. So I went with my plan for a diversion. A few minutes ago I jumped to a deserted warehouse which has a torn bag of fine sand. I grabbed a handful and jumped inside the generator hut and threw it on the generator, just at the junction with the rotor. The generator began to make noise and get hot almost immediately.

My next stop will be to take out their communications system. With the generator growling, I was about to jump out of the hut just as I heard someone run up with Carl's bolt cutters... There's a heavy steel chain outside. It'll take him a few minutes to cut it. The generator started to make a grinding, high-pitched whining sound. Carl was cursing furiously, almost crying in frustration. Have a nice day guys!

My next jump site was tricky. There was a woman chained to chair running a ham-radio station, name of Jennifer I think, and a guard about ten feet away. The guard was a pervert. He was under orders not to touch the woman, but he would stand behind her and talk about how he would like to touch her. It was sick... 

I prepped my body and jumped inches behind the guard. Then I ran my finger along the back of his neck.

My first year on Earth after A'moth and I got separated, I realized something. In addition to her muscle power and acute senses, I also have her chemical abilities. Among other things, I can excrete a sweat that humans find horrible. It gives them stomach cramps within seconds and then moves down to the intestines. This guard was such a creep I would have killed him if it were necessary. Having him spend a nasty morning on the toilet didn't bother me at all.

I jumped to the next room as I completed my finger swipe, heard the guard swear as I'm sure he whipped around and found nothing there. Maybe he decided it was a spider or something, I don't know. In less than a minute he was running for the hopper.

Now, how to take out the radio? Just then a call started coming in. I recognized the call sign of the patrol car north of Harman. I was just starting to worry when the lights went off and I heard a big bang a split second later. Aha! Scratch one generator. I am good! I glanced at my watch, 9:09 AM. I was a few minutes overdue for the cave check. I took a deep breath to clear my mind and jumped.

A'moth had set up a stage-two alert with the rocks. It meant her team was in serious trouble, and to try to meet up with her. I left a signal that said I'd jump back to the cave in five minutes, and then took a quick jump north to check on Jim. He was circling high overhead, spotting Mark's team for me. I jumped again, and saw that Mark, Va'an, and Kiana had forded the creek bed and were just a few minutes south of Davis. A'moth and I knew what a trap Davis was, but I thought Mark would be smart enough not to walk into it.

I jumped back to the canyon home cave. It was empty, but A'moth left me a sign showing she saw my reply. I waited and wondered, my mind racing with the possibilities of how this day would end.

A'moth jumped in a few minutes later. "Gary, what's your situation like?"

"The team north to Davis is okay. The team in Parsons walked right into being captured. There was nothing I could do about it. I did blow main power on the Parsons generator, which means the area comm system is down too."

A'moth nodded. "Good job. My team got picked up a few miles before Harman."

I shuddered. "Those Lords of Discipline assholes?"

"Yeah, you guessed it."

"Hell... Well, we saw this coming. Let me guess again. Mahi's dead and Lois and Kara are being raped."

"Just about. They have Mahi locked in their squad car for now. The rapes were about to happen when I jumped here. Gary, this is not the time for compassion! We can not help them if it means revealing ourselves! We lose everything if we do!"

I know, I know... Damn..." I stood still for a moment. "Take me to the site?"

A'moth nodded and held me tightly in her arms. We jumped.

We entered the scene about a hundred meters from the road, near the edge of some deep cover. We made our way a little closer, but there was a wide field with just some short weeds near the road. We couldn't get too close. We stared for a while at what was happening. High overhead, there were the faint shrieks of owls as Cindy and Isabelle voiced their frustration and anger. None of the people on the ground seemed to notice.

The minutes flowed by. "This is sick..." I whispered.

A'moth nodded with a hand signal. Otherwise she was motionless.

More minutes flowed by. I couldn't take it anymore. "We have to do something..." I hissed.

A'moth looked at me and mouthed the word cave. We were both back there a second later.

"Gary, we can NOT reveal ourselves!"

"I almost don't care anymore! The hell with the universe! I can't let this abomination stand!"

"Gary! Let Kara be a role model for you!"

"Huh?"

"She still has her pistol! Her Glock is in the back of her shirt! She's biding her time. Lois is acting as a decoy. These people are superb! Learn from them!"

That got me. I was silent for a moment. "Yeah, okay." A moment later we jumped back to bide our time.

Earth time: Tuesday, April 26, 2033 9:44 AM EDT

A'moth and I were waiting silently off the road near Harman. Occasionally, one of us would jump for a short while to check on the other teams. Up north, Mark is doing a fine job of not entering Davis. Leon's team in Parsons is still holed up in the hotel lobby of the Last Castle Café. The situation there is tense but stable. Leon still has his gun, and his team looks like they're trying to connect a laptop to the internet, what's left of the internet anyway... There's something going on there we don't understand... 

Back at Harman, Bert looked just about finished with all his sick preparations for anal sex... "He's going to mount her soon..." A'moth whispered.

I nodded. "Kara will make her move then," I whispered back.

A'moth gave the hand signal for agreement, and then frowned. "She'll be killed..."

I grimaced. "Can you help her?"

"How?"

An inspiration hit me. "Remote teleport the bullets out of Steve's gun?"

A'moth considered my suggestion. Her face was a mask of intense thought in weighing her options. "I'm a little too far away for that. But there's no cover any closer... I guess I could try so sneak up a bit. It'll be risky..." The world seemed silent.

A'moth and I suddenly gasped. In a tree nearby, Cindy and Isabelle were flapping their wings and trying to regain their balance. The humans by the road didn't seem to notice anything. I looked at A'moth. "What the hell was that?"

A'moth's eyes went wide. "The time loop!" she hissed. "That's what I tried in the last loop! I tried to remote teleport a bullet, and I didn't make it! I think we've just broken temporal symmetry with the last loop! I just had another idea!" A'moth surprised me by starting to take off her clothes. She didn't stop until she was stripped naked.

"A'moth," I whispered. "What the heck are you doing?"

"I'm going to speed jump. Jump in and catch the bullet and jump out with the bullet still inside me. It'll jump the bullet with me!"

"What?!" I hissed. "Like hell!"

"Gary, it's the only way!"

"No! And besides, they'll see you!"

She hissed back, "No! That's why I'm doing this naked. I can jump faster. And if I time this right, I'll be in and out so fast; Kara will never be sure what she sees. It doesn't matter what Steve sees. He's about to die!"

"Oh A'moth... You sure?"

"Yes! Now shut up and let me concentrate!"

A dim memory echoed in my mind. A'moth giving me a playful kiss and saying those exact same words as we were on our way to Paris before the plague. Carlotta was still alive then. Breakfast in Paris, no worries about plagues... It seemed like so long ago... I nodded to A'moth that I understood.

A'moth positioned her body, her eyes intensely focused on Steve and Kara. She was pre- programming her two jumps so they would be automatic. My God, she's so beautiful, like a beautiful angel. I remained absolutely silent. The moments flowed by... 

After all his sick preparation, Bert finally squatted into a mount position behind Lois, high up above her butt. He arched his pelvis back and tensed his massive thigh muscles, and guided the head of his penis to Lois's anus. I could see his obscenely huge erection hanging between his legs and it made me sick. Lois jerked her body down and shrieked just as Bert started to snap his hips forward. He missed his entry into Lois's rear and his fire-hose erection fuck-thrusted into the empty air. Bert howled in frustration.

That was the key Kara was waiting for. She whipped her pistol out from behind her back. My gosh she's fast! And hell, Steve's is even faster! A'moth jumped an instant before they both fired.

A'moth was back with me in the blink of an eye, before I even heard the sounds of the pistol shots. The time between her two jumps must have been less than forty milliseconds. She jumped back next to me rotated so the back of her hand was next to a tree, and I heard a "thwack!" sound as a bullet buried itself into the trunk. The explosions of the pistols shots reached us an instant later.

My eyes were locked on Steve. I'm sure he was trying to fire again, but Kara's shot had hit him low on the breastbone, and the shock of taking a supersonic slug into his chest cavity had spasmed his muscles. For an instant, he couldn't release the trigger. Kara rapidly fired again. Her second shot was dead center on Steve's throat, a direct hit through the soft tissue to shatter the top of his spinal column. Blood gushed from his severed neck arteries and his trigger finger relaxed, never to squeeze again.

Kara fired a third time, almost dead center on Steve's face. From my angle, I saw the shot exit the back of his head with a spray of blood and cranial matter. A wild thought flew through my mind, an assassin targeting me and yelling out that this Stevie guy is history. Kara completed an overhead arch and killed Bert a couple of seconds later with a similar shot to the head.

I tore my eyes away and looked at A'moth. A'moth's face was a mask of pain. I stared down at her hand and saw why. Her hand was exploded, torn to shreds. In horror I realized I could see a gaping hole right through her palm. A'moth looked dizzy. I grabbed her and jumped her back to the home cave.

"A'moth!"

She hissed through clenched teeth. "Gary, jump back and get my clothes!"

"What?!"

She hissed, "Do it!"

I did as she asked. She started to wrap her hand in her shirt. The blood was bad. Not as bad as I might have guessed.

She looked furious. "Gary, I'm going to get very sleepy very soon."

My heart was in maximum overdrive. "Shock?"

A'moth shook her head and grimaced through clenched teeth. "Hibernation. Damn! My hand burns like a motherfucker! I didn't think the wound would be this bad! Shit! That damn gold pistol! What the hell was it?!"

"I don't know... Hibernation?"

A'moth took a deep breath and held it for a moment. "My body will repair this. I need a place to rest." She started to pant.

"I'll stay with you."

"Like hell! Gary, we have three teams out there! Stay with the teams!"

We argued for a bit, even though I knew she was right. In a few minutes, I saw the bleeding was controlled, almost stopped, and A'moth kept insisting I get back to the teams. She looked very sleepy, kept saying she needed to rest. I jumped back to the road outside of Harman.

I spent the next hour jumping around, a few minutes with each team and then back to A'moth. Up north, Mark was doing a fine job keeping his team out of trouble and not taking the bait at Davis. I talked with hand signals with Jim. He's going to turn into an Omen Bird and flap his wings in front of them if they try. We both hope that won't be necessary.

The situation in Parsons is critical but stable. Leon still has his gun, so he's not exactly a prisoner. I'm spending most of my time there. I have a feeling though that this is Leon's battle to win or lose, not mine.

Kara's team is doing a fine job over covering their tracks at their battle scene. A little before 11 AM, I jumped back to check on A'moth. I think I startled her out of a daze.

"How are we doing?" she asked. I spent a minute giving her a summary. I looked at her bandaged hand. I hoped the bleeding was completely stopped. She concentrated on my report, had to shake her head a few times to clear it. "Not bad," she said at last.

"Yeah. I think the odds are good that Mark's and Kara's teams and the base team will make it back to Aina. Leon's team, who knows? But this is a lot better than the last loop."

A'moth nodded. She looked very sleepy.

"Why don't you rest? Take a nap..."

"Once I fall asleep, you won't be able to rouse me. I'm forcing myself to stay awake." I handed her a canteen of fresh water from the stream near Kara's site. A'moth gulped a long grateful drink. "Gary, get back out."

"You sure?"

She took a deep breath. "Go!"

I tried to jump to Mark's area. My collision avoidance sense kept warning me not to go. I tried a dozen sites. They all felt as if I were about to jump in front of a moving truck. What the hell?!

"Gary, go!"

"No, I can't! Wait... My God! It's a tornado! It's huge!"

"You can sense its size from here?!"

"Yes! It's tremendous! A super twister, heading north... It's just north of Davis now, heading north... I think I can chance jumping south of Davis in another minute..."

"My gosh Gary! Your sense of the jump-map is off the charts! Once it fully develops, you're going to be awesome."

"You mean jumping to where I've never been before?"

A'moth nodded. "That's a part of it. Your trick with the closet a week ago, it would have taken me ten minutes to do it. It took you less than two..."

I smiled. "How about remote teleporting?"

A'moth smiled back. "That's finesse, not power. I'll teach you what I know. I got so good at it, I could yank a single bill out of someone's wallet, if I were sitting near them on a bus..." A'moth sighed. "Seems like so long ago..."

I nodded. A moment later, I decided to risk a trip to Davis. I gave A'moth a quick kiss and jumped.

It took me a while to find Mark. His team seems okay, and they're heading back south. Yes! No sign of Jim. I looked for a few minutes, then realized he must be holed up somewhere from the wind. I glanced at my watch, 11:12 AM. I jumped towards Harman, got there in time to see Kara's team walking their bikes back north. They must have just started. Cindy and Isabelle were sitting in a tree nearby. They flapped their wings at me. I waved back.

I spent the next two hours jumping around, giving A'moth a brief report every hour on the half hour. The two teams returning are making good progress. Leon is still stuck in Parsons, I don't think he'll be able to make it back now. And I can't find Jim anywhere. The good guys are taking some serious hits. I think we have a good chance though of keeping Aina hidden from Earth though. That's the mission. My heart is breaking for Leon's team though... and Jim... 

It was 1:22 PM went the lights came back on in Parsons. I did a final check on Mark's and Kara's teams, and then jumped to give A'moth an update. She kept blinking her eyes, otherwise she looked alert.

"So that's where we stand," I said. "Mark's team just made it back to the house at Cider Junction, Kara's team should get there in about ten minutes. I jumped Cindy and Isabelle to Jim's last known position. I plan to spend my time at Parsons and Davis. Oh, one more thing. There's a caravan of eight SUVs heading north slowly on Route 32. I think they may be looking at the bicycle tracks. I don't know if they're heading to the Cider Junction house or not. They'll get there around 2 PM if they are."

A'moth looked uncertain for a moment, and then realized what I said. She blinked. "Huh? Oh! Sorry. I am paying attention. Can you slow them down?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "You mean like try to puncture their tires or something? Maybe..." I thought for a moment. "Risky..."

A'moth grimaced. "Too risky. It will alert them to a definite enemy. Right now, they still don't know if they're in a war or not... You're right. Don't do it."

I was silent for a moment. "I'm going to help search for Jim. This part of the canyon is completely deserted. You be okay for awhile?"

"I'm so dizzy; I wouldn't want to jump now. But I'm not in any danger. Go."

"I'll be back in an hour." A'moth and I shared a brief kiss. I jumped.

I was all business when I jumped back to give her my 2:30 PM report. "Leon and Mayoni and Amy are in an SUV driving east on Route 72. I think they're heading to Cider Junction. The mayor is with them."

A'moth seemed to be in a semi-daze, but eyes went wide as I spoke. "Sal?! You're kidding!"

"No. I don't know what the heck is going on, but Leon still has his gun. My guess is he's got some sort of story going with the mayor."

"Good for him!"

"Oh yeah!" I paused. "The news from Cider Junction is complex. Most of the expedition is about a third of the way back to Aina. I'm guessing they're home free. There're also three people trapped in the house, Mark, Kara, and Kiana's husband Kohoku. There are about thirty cops parked around the house. I hoping the cops think the house is deserted."

"Shit... And Jim?"

I sighed. "Still no sign of him. I'm trying to organize a grid search with Cindy and Isabelle. Cindy's taking this pretty hard, but she's holding up... Fortunately there's no one around to see us. The tornado destroyed Davis... completely..."

"Get back out there Gary."

I nodded and jumped into a basement closet at Cider Junction. After a couple of minutes I had a good feel of the jump-map within a few hundred meters of the place. I could expand it if I stayed longer, but the situation seemed stable. Was there anything I could do to help Mark and Kara? Nothing came to mind, so I jumped north to Davis and spent most of the next hour searching for Jim, with occasional jumps back to the house.

I was about ten minutes late for my 3:30 report to A'moth. "Great news from Cider Junction! Leon's team is well on their way to Aina, Mark's team is about five to ten minutes behind them. It's going to be close, but I think they all might make it! A'moth, I think we've won!"

"What the hell happened to the thirty cops?!"

"You're not going to believe this. Leon ordered them out of there! And they obeyed! Not before Sal killed one of them though. It was bizarre."

"The cops are gone?"

"Sort of. They're parked about a half kilometer down the driveway, away from the canyon."

"Doing what?"

"Having an argument with Sal. If they rushed right back, they still could overtake Mark's team with their SUVs. Leon's team is probably safe right now. They'll be past the ledge before the SUVs could reach them. After that, the cops would have to pursue on foot, and the Aina teams have bikes. The large team with Lois is in the best position of all. They're already two thirds of the way back. They'll get to Aina ahead of everybody." I paused for a moment. "There's still no sign of Jim."

A'moth sighed. "Less than five hours of daylight left. I don't think he'll have much of a chance if we can't find him by sundown."

I grimaced and nodded. "We completed our grid search; nothing so far. We're going to go back and refocus on the direct touchdown points of the tornado. It's a huge area, hundreds of acres of downed trees. The tornado started directly in Davis, and then headed north."

"Is the place still deserted?"

"Completely. The carnage is incredible."

A'moth surprised me by standing up. She was a bit wobbly on her feet, but she forced herself to walk around. "Jim, jump me north of Davis. I'll help search."

I had never seen A'moth look so tired, but I nodded and held her and jumped.

I took a five-minute break at 4:30 to check on the canyon. Cindy, Isabelle and A'moth gathered to hear my report. "The main expedition with Lois is only a few hundred meters from the Grotto. I'm estimating Leon's team is about forty minutes away, and Mark's team about fifteen minutes behind Leon. I think Leon will make it; Mark's team is right on the edge. If it starts to rain again, he'll probably miss the window."

We went back to searching. It was well after 5:00 PM when I heard Cindy screeching from a position just south of Davis. I jumped there a second later.

Among a cluster of fallen trees Cindy had found Jim's body. His left wing was crushed. At first I thought he was dead, but as I examined him I realized he was unconscious but still breathing. I jumped A'moth to the site just as Isabelle joined us.

In five thousand years of living, A'moth had learned quite a bit about how to treat injuries, but it was obvious to everybody Jim's only chance would be to get back to Antelope Freeway and dream these injuries away. I made three round-trip jumps to the ridgeline above the Grotto, jumping Cindy and Isabelle in each of my arms last. We peeked over and saw Mark's team racing towards the Grotto.

"Tunnel open?" Isabelle queried with her wings.

I looked at my watch and nodded. "Four minutes to go. I'm going to check on who else is in the canyon." There was a tremendous blast of lighting right before I jumped; the ground trembled from the impact. I started traveling back along the path from the Grotto, making small hops of about 100 meters each. A heavy downpour started as I was jumping.

After about two minutes I came to the cops. They were tracking the bike marks along the path, doing a damn good job too considering all the rain. I watched them for a moment and then jumped back to the ridgeline by the Grotto.

It was less than a minute till tunnel closing. Cindy screeched and flew down through the rain until she just had an edge view of the Blue Ring at the back wall of the Grotto. Precisely at closing time she screeched again and flew into the Grotto. Isabelle flew down after her.

I can't jump directly into the Grotto. It's part of a slip bubble, and I have no jump-sense there at all. But I jumped A'moth just outside the entrance, and then I went back up to get Jim. A'moth had him covered to keep him dry. I walked into the Grotto with him just in time to see Isabelle fly into a solid rock wall and disappear.

Cindy walked out of the wall in human form a second later. "Give Jim to me!" She carried Jim to the wall and paused and then cried, "I can't dream him back with me!"

Isabelle in human form walked out of the rock a few seconds later, and also tried and failed to dream Jim into the quantum shadow channel. She handed Jim to me and tried to dream A'moth through. She failed again. Then she tried just herself, and an interesting thing happened. Isabelle disappeared, but her clothes fell empty on the gravel floor.

Isabelle returned a few seconds later, wearing new clothes. "Nuts! Jim was afraid of this! In the return direction, we don't have the ability to dream anything through except our own bodies."

A'moth and I stared at each other, both of us dripping wet. Our minds can not control the dream connection the way human minds can. We were planning on Isabelle and Cindy to take us back to Antelope Freeway. And what to do about Jim?

A'moth took Jim's owl body from me very gently and began to examine it. After a few minutes I commented, "The police force is tracking the bikes here. We still have at least an hour, probably a little more..."

A'moth nodded and leaned close and spat into Jim's beak. A few seconds later he fluttered his right wing and his eyes dimly opened.

"A'moth?" whispered Cindy.

"A powerful stimulant. Short term, this won't last long... Jim, can you hear me?"

Jim eyes weren't focusing, but after a moment he nodded his head.

"Jim, I'm going to hold you next to the quantum shadow channel. Focus! Dream yourself back to Antelope Freeway! It's your only chance. Focus!" A'moth held his broken body next to the rock wall. I idly ran my hand against the wall. It felt like simple solid rock. Within the slip bubble, Cindy and Isabelle both had the ability to mind-link with Jim, and they were both yelling mentally at his dizzy mind to wake up and dream himself into the Freeway. A'moth and I waited silently.

Cindy sobbed a cry of relief as Jim's body suddenly vanished from A'moth's arms. Cindy ran and disappeared into the rock wall immediately, leaving another set of clothes behind.

A'moth, Isabelle and I stared at each other for a moment, Isabelle trying to decide whether to follow Cindy. Then Jim and Cindy walked out together from the channel, both naked. Isabelle gave a cry of relief and rushed up to hug Jim.

Jim kissed the top of her head. "It's great to hold you too Issie." Jim looked up at me. "You all were right. It was easy for me to dream the injuries away, once I was in the channel. Forgive the lack of clothes. Cindy and I thought we'd leave you with two less extra sets of clothes to dispose of."

I nodded. "So we go with Plan B. A'moth and I will get back through Nebraska."

Cindy hugged A'moth and kissed her. "Will you be okay?"

A'moth nodded and returned the kiss. "My wound will heal. And Jim's jumping ability is superb. We're in almost no danger. Uh... It might take me a few days before I can jump again, and maybe a couple of days after that before I'd want to jump through the Nebraska channel."

Jim nodded thoughtfully. "There's no way for us to predict what the temporal shift will be on the Nebraska fork of the channel. Good luck. We'll search for you every day on the Freeway, no matter how long it takes." He paused for a moment and then smiled at Cindy.

Cindy smiled back at all of us. "We did it! Complete success! All the expedition members are safe home. Earth knows nothing of Aina." She laughed. "All they know is that Leon's team gave them the slip. So what! And Aina knows nothing about how we helped them. We did it!"

Jim turned to A'moth and me. "How about we return here to the Grotto tomorrow? Check to see if you're okay?"

A'moth blinked her eyes awake. "Huh? Isn't that risky? Can you probe the Grotto before coming here, check to see if it's empty first?"

Jim frowned. "No, not yet. I'm still working on that problem."

A'moth shook her head. "Jim, even if you found a way, we're not going to stay in the area long. If you came back, you'd have to search for us, risk who knows what, and then maybe get cut off from the Freeway if people camped out in the Grotto. The risk reward ratio just isn't worth it."

I agreed with A'moth's decision. "Jim, Cindy, Isabelle... Don't come back. The bike trails lead here. For the next few days, this Grotto might be under intense observation. And after that, we will have already entered the Nebraska channel. I can forage for any supplies we'll need. We'll just meet you back on the Freeway."

Jim and Cindy nodded, Isabelle just frowned. We said our last goodbyes, gave our last hugs. I blushed for a moment when I hugged naked Cindy, but she was very affectionate and didn't seem to mind at all. I held Isabelle in my arms for over a minute. And then A'moth and I were standing alone in the Grotto. We looked at each other. We had a lot of planning to do. A'moth took a deep breath and trembled and then her eyes rolled up and she passed out. I managed to catch her just before she hit the ground.



-------

Chapter 35


An hour later... 

Earth time: Tuesday, April 26, 2033 6:49 PM EDT

Aina time: 7:00 PM day 254 of 1436 H.E.

I was in the back of our home cave with A'moth. She's in a deep sleep, breathing easily. I'm hoping she'll be okay. She did warn me her body would hibernate as it repaired itself and grew a new hand. I was lying with her, caressing her, just enjoying holding her. Occasionally she would sigh contently in her dreams. I think she knows I'm cuddling with her. Yeah, I'm hoping she'll be okay. She just needs to rest.

It's still raining outside, with a dull gray fog. The entrance to this cave is less than a meter wide, and it's completely invisible from the canyon floor below. I'm guessing we're safe here, safe enough for me to sack out, even though there are squads of police searching the canyon... 

Did we leave any clues in the Grotto? Over a half hour ago, once A'moth was settled here, I jumped back and inspected the Grotto thoroughly. The people from Aina left nothing in it, and we didn't either. The police... They should be getting to the Grotto just about now... I was very curious how they would act when they came up empty. Very curious... My mind wandered, drifted, expanded, probed... 

I suddenly realized I had a jump sense of the Grotto. I could be there in an instant if I wanted. I had all the feedback that I needed for a jump. But instead of jumping, I just tried to do the mental equivalent of focus my eyes. My jump sense got more and more detailed by leaps and bounds. This was the first time anything like this had happened to me. I had a full visual understanding of the Grotto in all directions, all at the same time. It was great! And I could move the visual presence around! I moved it outside the Grotto and took it up.

It was so cool! It was as if I had a real-time satellite image on a screen that filled my vision and my mind. I could zoom in or out at will. The ability and control were fabulous! I zoomed out, took the visual lock far above the canyon, broke through the clouds, saw the sun near the western horizon. Up, up... 

Eventually I couldn't go any farther. I probed with my jump sense, 23,140 meters from my current position, mostly straight up. I could feel my body warning me not to make the jump. The shock of decompression would be explosive. I reframed and was back looking at the Grotto an instant later.

The police were just coming into the Grotto, from the opposite direction of what I was expecting. They must have walked to the dead-end a little further down. A few looked grateful to get out of the pouring rain. All of them looked dead tired, and a few appeared boiling mad. There were vibrations in the air, speech. I expanded my jump sense, and was astonished to hear them talk.

A thin guy with just a pistol seemed to be in charge. He looked both nervous and furious, and he started screaming, "Kurt, you fuckhead! I used to think your tracking was good!"

A guy nearby, Kurt I guess, gave a deep frown. "Hey, knock it off! I told you there were no tracks past here!"

"I'm not talking about the last hundred meters dickhead! I'm taking about you leading us down this fork! Damn it Kurt! You worthless piece of shit! You blew it!" The man was livid.

Kurt spat on the ground in disgust at being chewed out. "Hey! It's not my fault! The bike tracks lead here!" The people around these two started backing up in dismay. The Kurt guy looked too tired to care anymore about the danger.

"Yeah?! So where are the bikes dickhead?! Where are the people that rode them?! They must have double-backed on you! You asshole!"

"Shit! I'm warning you Sarge, knock it off with the foul language!"

"You're warning me?!" Both people were screaming at each other. The thin guy's face was purple with rage. Kurt looked as if he didn't care.

It was probably his last chance to apologize, but Kurt said instead, "And they did NOT double back!"

"You expect me to tell Sal that?!"

"I'll bet my life on it!"

"You just lost your bet!" The thin guy fired his pistol twice. The gunshots echoed loudly in the Grotto. A few of the younger cops looked shocked, most of the older ones just turned away and watched the rain fall. I tried to make sense of the matter... 

I realized this was the same thin guy who was in charge at the house at Cider Junction, after Sal had shot the police lieutenant. The guy was flipping out over being Sal's new Number-Two man. He couldn't take the pressure. I remembered a comment Mark made in the house. I wondered how Sal would take finding out this guy had just wasted Tucker County's best tracker... I sighed and wandered about the Grotto a bit and then moved out to explore.

I played with my vision for over an hour. Parsons is a little beyond my range, but I checked out the scene at Davis. There are several cops there now. They have some really bad news to tell the mayor, and they weren't looking forward to it... 

I wandered about, listening in to their sad conversations. After a while I tried an aerial view of the road to Parsons. I saw a squad car racing west on Route 72, about twenty- two kilometers from me. I'd be able to stay with it for less than a minute. I entered the car with my presence, heard two men in front talking about how to tell Sal they still hadn't found Steve and Bert. There was no radio in the car... I suddenly realized I could jump into the back seat if I wanted to, piece of cake. I could jump into a moving car, no problem at all. I was sure of it.

And then suddenly the car scene popped from my mind. I tested the distance, 23,140 meters... I sighed and shut down my sense and tried to get some sleep. I couldn't wait to tell A'moth about what I could do.

Next morning... 

Earth time: Wednesday, April 27, 2033 8:21 AM EDT

Aina time: day 255 of 1436 H.E. 8:54 AM

"Show me?" asked A'moth.

"Sure! Just link up and I'll take you for a ride!"

A'moth stared into my eyes, joined my mind a moment later. I jumped my vision as high as I could, and then spent the next several minutes zooming down through the clear sky to the Grotto. I could feel A'moth's shock in her mind as she zoomed with me, but she kept quiet.

Soon my presence was drifting among the few desolate cops that were still searching the gravel in the Grotto for clues. They had been at it all night. They grumbled at each other occasionally. We could hear them clearly.

"Pretty cool, huh?" I link-thought to A'moth. "Just like being the proverbial fly on the wall!"

"Sound! My gosh, my gosh..."

"And can you smell their sweat?"

"Yes! Smell too?! My gosh Gary!"

"Yeah. Pretty cool, huh?"

"Yeah, pretty cool! Did they find Steve and Bert yet?" In two seconds we were there in the stream, the water flowing swiftly around the trashed SUV. The bodies were attracting a lot of flies. Sometimes it's nice to jump with just the vision... 

I jumped effortlessly around the edges of my sphere of influence. I even entered our cave. We saw ourselves cuddling with ourselves. It was a bit strange, nothing like a mirror, totally different. Finally I went around the canyon and looked at all the search teams. The closest team was about a kilometer from us. We need to keep out of sight, at least in the daytime. I shut down my jump sense and my wife unlinked from my mind.

A'moth was silent for a while. "Wow..." she whispered.

I kissed her. "Want some breakfast?"

"In a bit. Uh, I am thirsty..." I handed her a full canteen. She drank greedily and smiled. "So what's on the menu?"

"Odds and ends, nothing like what you find." I smiled, "I did raid Sal's larder in Parsons though..."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah. Want some caviar? I have crackers too..."

We stayed in the area for several more days. A'moth slept a lot and healed rapidly. We practiced being spies. It was ridiculously easy. I'd double jump holding A'moth about twenty kilometers north of Parsons. The area is totally deserted. We picked an old building. A'moth would link with me, and I would scan Sal's office. It got boring. A'moth started making practice jumps on her own. By the end of the third day we were both ready to leave.

Earth time: Sunday, May 1, 2033 12:03 AM Central Daylight Savings Time

Aina time: day 259 of 1436 H.E. 3:04 AM

I called out, "You sure you're ready for this?"

A'moth flexed the fingers in her new hand. All the major tendons had reconnected. Her hand is still scary to look at without the bandages. A'moth says give it another week... 

Her eyes were bright and alive. "Oh yeah! Gary, let's do it!"

We were standing in the Nebraska field, at the entry of the strange shadow channel. The temporal jump we were about to make could take us anywhen. It weighed on both our minds. What if we went thousands of years into the future? Or into the past? I took one last look at a familiar Earth... 

A'moth had popped us here in one easy jump. I had linked with her mind first, watched how she set up a jump matrix so far beyond my own abilities. She is magnificent! So graceful and elegant! For all my short-range powers, I'm a clumsy bull compared to her... 

I breathed in deeply from the field around me. It was completely overgrown with weeds. I don't think corn has been planted here in years. I sighed and took a one last look around with my jump sense. My easy and impossible limits are still exactly the same, 23,140 meters. There was no one around for many kilometers.

A'moth stood quietly nearby, giving me as much time as I wanted, realizing what I was doing. She said at last, "Going to miss it, aren't you?"

"... Yeah. I feel like a god with this power..." I was silent for a while, my mind in deep thought. "Uh, A'moth?"

"Yeah?"

"If you jumped us, we could be in Chile in a few seconds..."

A'moth paused. "You're thinking about your family, aren't you? Carlotta's family..."

I nodded. "Francesca in particular! She was fifteen when I last saw her! It was more than twenty years ago! And her brothers, my nephews! My God A'moth! This world is such a nightmare! What happened to them?"

A'moth said nothing at first. She came up and hugged me. After a while she kissed my ear and whispered, "The power is godlike. But we aren't gods Gary. The power comes with a responsibility not to be a god."

I stood there silently, considering what she said. "But the duty to help..."

She broke in, "must be balanced by principles of effectiveness! Where would it end Gary, if we tried to be gods and undo all the horror of the world? We would fail Gary! We can't fight the time loop alone! We need Jim and Cindy and Isabelle, and they need us!"

"So we don't head south..."

A'moth sighed. "No. It's not our purpose now... And we can't win divided."

I trembled and was still. "I agree."

A'moth hugged me tightly and whispered, "I know Gary. I know how this is tearing at your heart. It pains me too..." We held each other for long minutes. The night was deep and peaceful. A'moth finally kissed me and said, "Let's go!" We linked minds. I think I saw how she prepared the jump matrix for the shadow channel. She probed for a moment and then we entered the channel in a burst of rainbow light.



-------

Chapter 36


Four years later... 

Earth time: Friday, April 24, 2037 9:25 PM Central Daylight Savings Time

Aina time: day 0 of 1442 H.E. 2:00 PM First day of summer and the Festival of the High Sun

Cindy walked into her bedroom at her arctic home and saw Jim lying naked in a very awkward position on the bed. Cindy herself was feeling terrible, weighed down with an enormous burden of sadness and despair, and she took off her clothes and lay by Jim's side. They stared into each other's eyes for a moment, and Cindy realized Jim was in even worse shape than she was. He looked completely lost.

She cleared her throat. "I feel as if I've been hit by a train, but you look as if you've seen a ghost."

"I feel as if I am a ghost."

Cindy smiled and tried to get Jim to smile back. "A friendly ghost? Can I call you Casper?"

Jim just shook his head. "Cindy, are you real? Am I real?"

"Sorry... Jim, what's up?"

"I... I can't talk about it..."

"... Okay..." Cindy sat up on the bed and pushed Jim into a straight prone position. He allowed his body to be moved without comment, and Cindy began to caress his butt, kissing and running her hands down his butt cheeks and the backs of his thighs. In all their years together, they both knew this was one of Cindy's ways to ask Jim to have coitus with her.

Jim sighed deeply. "Cindy... I just can't..."

"It's okay..." Cindy continued the caresses. It suddenly occurred to her she didn't understand Jim's last comment, whether he was re-affirming he couldn't talk to her, or he was declining her offer for sex.

She thought about offering a mind-link contact. That would bring instant and total clarity. In all their years together, Jim had never refused to link, and she had never refused him. But Jim looked now so completely lost and lacking in self esteem, Cindy did not want to press him to share his innermost thoughts. She chose instead to continue her kisses and caresses of his butt and thighs, repeating her desire and request to be mounted. She allowed the back of her hand to slide very lightly back and forth across the soft skin of his scrotum. The quiet minutes drifted by... 

"I came from the Earth monitoring room," Cindy whispered at last.

"Ah... What an absolute mess. I surprised you still have the guts... More death and destruction?"

"Yeah... The Army of the Allegheny has surrendered. The Battle of Pittsburgh is almost over..."

"Surrendered?! But all the men will be killed!"

"They know! They did it to save the lives of the women!" Cindy sobbed. "And we did nothing! I feel like shit!"

"What could we do?! The time loop dictates the Women's Freedom Movement must win the war. It would be impossible to stop this! Truly impossible!"

"That doesn't make it less painful! I FEEL LIKE SHIT!" Cindy screamed and threw her body down next to Jim, slamming her fist into a pillow.

Jim reached up and gently stroked her head. They both said nothing for a long while. Jim finally sighed and whispered, "So Pittsburgh has fallen."

Cindy shrugged. "Just about. The Equalists still have some irregulars in the center city, down at the point by the three rivers, but their position is hopeless. And it's not just Pittsburgh..."

Jim nodded. "Yeah. The entire Ohio Valley is now wide open to the WFM First Army. The Equalists are sitting ducks. Their northern front is collapsing too. I think the WFM Third Army will push them out of Canada completely by summer."

"Yes... There's no escape for them. They'll be encircled, probably somewhere in the American Midwest. The Equalists are warning they'll use their atomics if the WFM pushes for complete extermination."

Jim shuddered, "Hell... Think they will?"

"Yeah... This time I think they will. I think I would..."

"It won't save them. Just for revenge?"

Cindy gritted her teeth. "Why not?"

Jim sighed. "And yet, the time loop implies the WFM wins. Somehow Earth survives intact..."

They settled into another long spell of silence. Cindy returned to asking Jim to couple with her, stroking his penis and giving his shaft quick, light jerks with her hand. She reached over and kissed him and laughed without humor. "I saw you and Isabelle monitoring Aina this morning. I take it your observations were more pleasant?" Jim shuddered and said nothing. Cindy was suddenly alarmed. "Hell! Something bad happen on Aina too?"

The arctic home of Jim, Cindy, and Isabelle now had extensive facilities for monitoring events both on Earth and Aina. Radio signals from Earth could be picked both from their arctic home and their connection in West Virginia.

On Aina, Jim was delighted several years ago when the Hopewell connected the lower levels of Spirit House to their internet servers at Sparta. Mayoni's trick of phased- shadow handshaking to steal data was openly described on the Aina web, and Jim and Isabelle had used the technique to be a hidden presence on their internet. Anything loaded onto servers connected to the Aina web was available to them.

"Not exactly Aina..." Jim whispered and then looked at Cindy. "You deserve to know. Isabelle and I were watching the noontime news report on Aina. They were showing a replay of a big fountain dedication this morning, where they're going to build Athens. Such artistry! It was very beautiful. Isabelle was really enjoying herself. And then she noticed that the sys-ops at Sparta had loaded another hundred terabytes of their Earth data onto their web..."

"Yeah. Go on..."

"Isabelle started downloading some new movies for us. I started going through the new archives. We finally have access now to news reports from August 2009."

Cindy's ears picked up immediately. "Wonderful! I always wondered what the world thought of my disappearance! Did I get much press?"

"As a matter of fact, quite a bit. With your family's wealth, the police were sure you were kidnapped. The FBI traced you to Pine Bluffs, Wyoming, and then you just vanished!"

"Yeah! I sure did!"

Jim frowned. "Gosh, I wish I could talk to A'moth again. It's been four years now. She and I had a theory. She had a safe house at Pine Bluffs. We think she might have teleported just as bolt of lightning hit nearby, in August of 2009. Our conjecture was that chance coincidence deflected enough temporal torsion from her jump to twist open the Nebraska channel for you. You and Havika entered Antelope Freeway simultaneously, Havika the instant before Aina reset of the time-loop. The coincidence is unbelievable..."

Cindy smiled. "I remember all this. I don't believe it! Isabelle once said nothing is a coincidence inside a time loop."

"She did say that, didn't she? Issie and I are still arguing the subtle points of that..."

"But it wasn't really Antelope Freeway at first, was it?"

"No, that was Havika's idea. He understood the physics of what was happening, how a quantum shadow channel could skip and reenter the time loop out of synch. He thought up the design for the Freeway to give us some time to adjust. Things were so fluid back then..."

Cindy looked puzzled. "Fluid?"

"Easy to push around, easy to dream the structure, the reality..." Jim sighed. "At least I used to think so. Remember Charlotte?"

"Of course! And when we have a daughter for real, that will be her name, right?"

"Sure."

Cindy had a playful look on her face. "... and Charles for a boy!"

"What?! Are you joking?"

Cindy laughed. "Yes!"

"Great! Because my heart is set on Benedict!"

"What?! Oh!!" Jim playfully stroked Cindy's labia. They both laughed for a while. "I remember Jim, how we used to be able to change our ages, within the dream..."

"Things were more fluid then, the future less certain. We were very close to rupturing the time loop. Remember the time A'moth first got here? The time stream at the Freeway was in a very unstable mode then, before it collapsed to its present size. Eternity was pushing right up against the circumference. Issie and I still don't understand it..."

"Collapsed?"

"It was huge at the beginning. Isabelle thinks the 400-foot walls are temporal barriers. They've stabilized the quantum spacetime matrix of the channel, stopped the collapse..."

Cindy shook her head, not understanding. She returned to petting Jim. They became playful and then aroused with each other. Cindy kept tugging on Jim's penis until it was erect, and she found herself becoming moist from his amorous caresses. She bent over and popped his penis into her mouth, licking and tasting it. She popped it out and commented, "It doesn't taste like a ghost cock to me!"

"Huh? Oh! Oh yeah. I should tell you."

"Definitely! Go right ahead. Speak!" Cindy slid the erection back into her mouth, pushing the head against her lips until they parted from the pressure. She didn't stop until she was sliding the sensitive head around her moist throat.

Jim gasped and shivered with the pleasure. "Uh, yeah... Okay... I looked up my own disappearance... On the Aina web... Oh, that feels so nice... They have me listed as dying in a car accident in Omaha, just like in the last loop..."

"Hmm?" murmured Cindy.

"But Havika didn't let that happen it this loop... He put... He managed to put..." Jim started to pant. "He put a pebble in my tire valve... Slowed me down... I missed my own death..."

Cindy slid the penis out of her mouth, and then licked her way down to his testes. Her lips and tongue fondled his sac. "That's nice..." she whispered, just before slipping a testicle into her mouth.

"Huh? Oh... Yeah... He saved my life. But we seemed... ah... ah... to have stayed... in synch... Ah! Uh, seemed to have stayed in synch with the last time loop for another twenty-four years..."

Her mouth full, Cindy popped a quick question with a brief thought-link. "What does Issie think?" With spittle dribbling from her mouth, she wetted her left index finger. Her other hand slid under Jim's butt and pushed apart his ass cheeks. Cindy then started running her moist finger over his anus, strumming it like the head of a drum.

Jim panted, "Issie's not worried... going to do more research... How is this possible Cindy? I'm... Oh... AH! I should be... Ah... both alive and dead. That's a class 1- B causality violation... AH!!!" A moist finger had slid up his butt and was caressing his rectal walls.

Licking and prodding the testicle still inside her mouth with her tongue, Cindy reestablished the thought-link. "Dearest, violate me, right now!" Feeling Jim trembling in agreement, Cindy slid the testis from her mouth and her finder from his butt and lay on her back, curling her legs up to raise her vagina, offering herself for coitus. Jim copulated a moment later. Their mating was long and passionate, as both their bodies and minds entwined with each other. When Jim finally orgasmed deeply within his wife, his soul found peace and renewal in her love.

Five days later... 

Earth time: Wednesday, April 29, 2037 11:25 PM Central Daylight Savings Time

Aina time: day 5 of 1442 H.E. 5:50 PM

"You're working late tonight. Everything okay?"

"Oh, Hi Uncle Jim! Yeah, everything is fine. Actually, you have a minute? I've got something neat to show you."

Jim sat down at the console next to Isabelle. She mumbled, "This will just take a few seconds..." Jim looked at her thoughtfully as she typed.

Like all their bodies, Isabelle was not aging. Her body was frozen in a developed state of eight years and two months, its age when she entered the quantum shadow channel in January of 2011. Even with her 3,000-day trip through time, her perceived age was now 26 years. Jim sometimes wondered how difficult it was for her to have a 26-year-old mind inside an 8-year-old body, but Isabelle would just shrug her shoulders when he asked her about it.

Jim also wondered what her sexual interests were like. As humans, he and Cindy had developed a close but informal relationship with Isabelle, thinking of her as a niece and ignoring the age issue. But as owls, flying high above Antelope Freeway for exercise and recreation, owl Jim would sometimes feel brief but powerful urges to mount and feather owl Isabelle.

In their mind links, where nothing was hidden, owl Isabelle had confided that she didn't mind his desire, actually found it pleasant, but thought it might create problems when they were humans if they acted on their owl urges. Jim agreed, and they had an easy truce over the issue... 

"Right here! Take a look Uncle Jim." Isabelle pushed the monitor to his view.

"Oh... Another story on my death... So?"

"Yes, but this one mentions the exact time of the oil and gas tankers exploding, 8:19 AM! Don't you see?"

"8:19 AM?! But that was... that was about when I was getting off Route-75. Maybe just when I entered Antelope Freeway!"

"Exactly!" Isabelle piped. "The police didn't realize how far the oil and gasoline had penetrated downhill through the substrate. An entire section of I-80 exploded in flames. It took them all day to get it under control. Hundreds of cars melted in the inferno. The loss of life was horrific."

"Ah... So people just assumed I died in the fire."

"Yeah. Many of the bodies were turned into ash, never identified. I think in the time loops without Havika being born, you die instantly in the initial crash. Perhaps the 48- volt batteries in your Marathon ignite the gasoline. But without your car there, the explosion doesn't happen until over an hour later."

"Wow..."

"Yeah. Scratch one 1-B causality violation Uncle Jim! You're not a ghost!"

Jim leaned back in his chair and smiled. He leaned over and gave his niece a chaste kiss. "Thanks Issie..."

Isabelle looked very thoughtful. "Oh, it was nothing, just one small puzzle piece. So much of the big picture is still so weird... and dark..."

"Yeah... Anything in particular you're thinking about?"

Isabelle shrugged. "Lots of things. There's my initial jump in time with my mom A'moth. We traveled 3,000 days into the future, starting on January 3, 2011. I was born on October 17, 2002. The difference between those two dates is also 3,000 days. A meaningless coincidence?"

Jim sighed. "Hard to say... It's your conjecture that you can't have a coincidence inside a time loop... And the Blue Ring does like to play with numbers..."

"And the math Uncle Jim! It's so discouraging! In order to break the time loop without destroying the universe... Well, from an Aina perspective, the loop must be broken from Earth. But from an Earth perspective, the loop must be broken from Aina! And with loop reset occurring at different times in the two spacetimes, doesn't that imply success is impossible?" Isabelle grimaced and began to tremble.

Jim was silent for a moment, and then her reached over and hugged Isabelle. She reached up and wrapped her arms around him and rested her head against his chest. Jim kissed her gently and said, "We can't give up hope Isabelle, we just can't. We don't have a rigorously sound proof for failure. I know the mathematics appears to show that our doom is guaranteed..." Jim took a deep breath and smiled, "... but appearances can be deceiving."



-------

Chapter 37


Six years later... 

Earth time: Sunday, June 14, 2043 5:50 PM Eastern Daylight Savings Time

Aina time: day 251 of 1449 H.E. 4:19 AM

Isabelle looked at the wall clock and felt a rising tide of exasperation. "People! In exactly three days the tunnel will open! We need to come to closure on this."

Cindy took a deep breath and paused to look around the situation room. They had made many changes to their arctic home over the years, and currently one entire floor was devoted to mission planning. The sweeping circular walls were covered with various maps, charts, and data displays. Much of their most critical data had been obtained in just the last six weeks... 

At the end of April 2043 Cindy made the startling discovery that their portal in the Grotto in West Virginia was picking up a carrier wave for wide area wireless internet service. It took the three of them several days to understand the packet protocols of the system, and then several more days to spoof their way onto the network.

They quickly realized they were now plugged into the worldwide web of the WFM, and through the use of phased shadow quantum effects began to pull vital intelligence about the current state of Earth. Their new knowledge led to radical new plans of how to handle the imminent tunnel opening.

Jim looked as if he were about to say something, but Cindy with a link-burst asked if she could speak first. Jim nodded, and Cindy looked at Isabelle. "Issie, why do you want to come with me? Don't you think Jim might need your help at Ring controls?"

"My understanding of quantum slip physics will never be on the same level as Jim's"

Jim replied softly, "I'm not so sure of that Issie."

Cindy broke in, "Wait Jim, let her speak."

Isabelle shook her head. "Anyway, the big unknown is what we'll run into in West Virginia. This opening seems even more critical than the last. Through an incredible piece of bad luck, the WFM has challenged Hawaii Special Ops to make an appearance in the box canyon just as the Aina tunnel is due to open."

Jim chuckled. "Your conjecture that there are no coincidences inside a time loop seems more and more convincing."

Isabelle laughed back. "And it's you who taught me years ago that appearances can be deceiving!"

Jim looked over and saw Cindy deep in thought staring at several pictures mounted on the wall. They were taken in June of 2033, when a Federalis inquisition battalion finally found the bodies of Steve and Bert in the SUV ditched in the forest stream north of Harman. The pictures were captured by the WFM in December of 2035 when they overran the Federalis capitol of Atlanta Georgia, and Jim had recently lifted them from a WFM archive through the phased shadow quantum effect.

The pictures were several large blowups of the distinctive slashes in the leather of the driver's seat, a three-slash K, the calling card mark of Kilauea Security Forces. Cindy shook her head. "How did she know Jim?" How in the world did Kara know to leave that mark? And all the other false leads they made back to Hawaii... leaving Mahi's registration papers with Steve's body... traces of Mayoni's laptop to Hawaii... dumping Hawaii web addresses into the BIOS of WFM root servers... It was brilliant! But how did they know to do it?"

Jim was silent for a moment. The three had web access to Aina since July of 2027, when the lower levels of Spirit House were connected to the Aina internet. One of their primary data searches concerned the reason why the Hopewell left behind all their fake clues about Hawaii during their 1436 expedition. In all their years of searching, the three hadn't even found a reference indicating that the Hopewell knew about the clues, let alone the reason why the clues were left... 

Jim finally shrugged his shoulders and said, "No idea. We've been over this many times. Either the Hopewell don't know about the fake leads, or they're keeping their knowledge of them off their internet. Both possibilities seem unlikely, but what's left? It is a mystery, probably an important one..."

There was silence for a moment, then Isabelle spoke. "Getting back to the mission... The point I was trying to make is that we might need all the recon and operations capabilities we can muster on Earth. The issue of whether Aina remains hidden from the WFM will be decided in the field. We can't plan for this in advance. This loop has been evolving differently now for ten years. We're in a much better position, but we no longer have knowledge of the future..."

Cindy spoke, "One thing for sure Issie. If you do go, it's only as an owl. Earth people would go absolutely nuts to see an eight year old girl running around now."

Isabelle laughed. "It's the same for you! The edge babies of Earth are thirty-three now. You and Jim look your age, fifteen years younger. You'd stick out almost as badly as I would! I totally agree. We go as owls. And if we die, we leave only owl bodies behind..."

The debate continued. It was close to an hour later when the three decided Isabelle would accompany Cindy to Earth. Jim would monitor the Ring in the great circular chasm alone.

Over the next three days Cindy and Isabelle made several sorties around the box canyon, returning through the quantum channel for quick snacks, so as not to eat and drink from the radiation polluted environment of Earth. They had perfected a technique for observing the Grotto without completing the transit from the quantum channel. When the tunnel opened in the late afternoon of June 17'th, at 5:50 PM, Cindy and Isabelle were perched on the same ridgeline they were on when the tunnel closed ten years ago.

Outside the bubble, they had no telepathic ability, but their wing-sign language had evolved to be almost as good as a spoken language. Isabelle fretted with her feathers and signed, "Possibility disaster tremendous!"

Cindy nodded agreement. The path was scheduled to be open for 23 hours and 38 minutes, and the three of them suspected the people of Aina might have learned enough about Ring control to force the tunnel to remain open even longer. With all the army patrols in the canyon, Cindy guessed the Aina presence would be discovered in a few hours, even less if they started sending exploration teams out.

The first hour passed quietly with the Aina expedition staying inside the Grotto. Cindy and Isabelle were both grateful for the rain that was reducing the visibility. Then Cindy's worst nightmare happened. An Aina team left the Grotto and began making its way down the canyon, carrying what appeared to be a portable antenna. Cindy and Isabelle tracked them as they hiked a kilometer from the Grotto and then appeared to set up a radio station. Cindy and Isabelle both knew if they started transmitting they would be lit up on the WFM radar network.

Isabelle flapped her wings excitedly. "Sitting ducks!"

Cindy flapped back, "I know! What can we do?!"

Isabelle was still for agonizing moment. "Nothing perhaps..."

Time moved very slowly. Cindy and Isabelle both commented that the team leader was Kara, and one of the other two women might be her daughter Amy. Given the situation with the WFM patrols, they were at least grateful the Aina people were all women.

About 7:25 PM the drizzle stopped and Isabelle flapped, "I'll scout ahead. Be back in ten minutes."

Cindy nodded and Isabelle flew off into the gray sky. She was soon invisible. Cindy returned to watching the Aina team from the ridgeline. Five minutes later, sooner than Cindy expected, Isabelle dived out of the sky and landed next to Cindy. "Disaster! Two army WFM with radio walking up this fork!"

"How long?!"

"Be here in five minutes!" Isabelle was frantic. "We must do something!"

"What?!" Cindy thought frantically and then flapped, "If we try to interact with Kara's team, we will only be a distraction, worse than useless."

"Should we try to stop the WFM?"

"Issie, they have radio!" Cindy flapped furiously. "We do something weird, they'll report in!"

Isabelle stretched her wings, almost shrieking. And then she calmed herself. "Agreed. We wait and see." Through the gray evening light, the two owls watched hopelessly as Kara's team stood idly around their radio antenna.

After a few minutes, Kara started talking on her radio. A moment later all three women pointed their firearms at the fork of the approaching WFM. Cindy and Isabelle both realized Kara had somehow been warned of the danger.

"Could Jim have sent a message?" Isabelle flapped.

"No! We can't reveal ourselves..." The two owls watched the alerted team capture two army personal and after a minute disarm them. They then began to lead their prisoners back to the Grotto. The owls flew out ahead, checking the path. They saw nothing or interest. Isabelle did notice that the sight of low flying owls was spooking a number of rabbits along the path, but she didn't see a reason to be concerned... 

They got back to the Grotto just in time to see most of the Aina expedition heading back into the hexagonal tunnel. Left behind were two Grotto teams of three women each, both teams manning small radio towers, plus Kara's team still about five minutes away.

Cindy and Isabelle picked a spot across from the Grotto and waited, their presence ignored by the people in the Grotto. The owls watched Kara's team arrive with their two prisoners, and then everybody evacuated down the hexagonal tunnel, leaving the Grotto pristine and empty.

There was a soft rain falling, and the sound of distant thunder in the air. Aina Ring Control turned off the lights in the tunnel, but the huge conduit would be plainly visible with anyone with a flashlight. Isabelle panicked when her owl ears heard the faint whirl of helicopters. She flew into the Grotto, closely followed by Cindy.

Isabelle landed near the tunnel, almost touching the Blue Ring, and felt a rising sense of despair. She thought it highly likely that WFM Special Ops Forces would be in the Grotto in minutes, and the tunnel to Aina was wide open. And then, as she stared at the tunnel entrance, it winked out of existence.

"What?!" flapped Isabelle.

"Follow me!" flapped Cindy, and flew directly into the adjacent shadow channel. Isabelle quickly followed Cindy to a store room in their arctic home.

"What the hell?!" shouted Isabelle in human form.

"No time for talk!" shouted a naked Cindy, as she opened a liter can of red paint and grabbed a paintbrush. "Issie, wait here!" Cindy locked a dream connection back to the shadow channel and disappeared.

"Wait here?!" thought Isabelle. "No way!" She focused and followed Cindy into the quantum shadows.

Isabelle in naked human form was standing in the Grotto. Cindy was painting a huge K on the back of the granite wall. Just then the area outside the Grotto was lit to noontime brilliance by several spotlights from hovering helicopters. Cindy grimaced and then looked furious. To Isabelle's astonishment, Cindy ran towards the front of the Grotto and hurled the can of red paint into the open. The moving can was immediately tracked by the spotlights, and then the can smashed against the rocks with a bang, spraying paint in all directions. Cindy paused for a second to admire the mess.

Isabelle hissed, "Cindy! We have to go! NOW!" Cindy turned and ran for the channel. She entered together with Isabelle.

The Grotto was empty and for a moment nothing was moving. The few wild rabbits there looked around in confusion. The outside was still brightly lit, and filled with the sound and the wind of the copters. Several metal canisters fell near the Grotto's entrance and added a hissing sound to the whirling blades. The wind quickly filled the Grotto with a heavy sweet smell of almonds and very ripe apples. The rabbits' noses twitched at the smell, and then they began to convulse as the deadly nerve agents took effect.



-------

Chapter 38


A few weeks later... 

Earth time: Tuesday, July 10, 2043 7:33 AM Central Daylight Savings Time ( 1 hour, 17 minutes after sunrise on Antelope Freeway )

Aina time: day 277 of 1449 H.E. 4:34 AM ( 1 hour, 24 minutes after sunrise at Spirit House )

Isabelle rushed into the situation room three minutes after the meeting was supposed to start. "Sorry I'm late!"

"No problem Issie." Jim replied. "How was your workout?"

Isabelle smiled. "Pretty good! Ten kilometers in forty minutes! It's nowhere near as fast as my mom can run, but for me that's pretty fast!" Isabelle sat down at the mission room table.

Cindy smiled back. "Faster than I like to run. So, Isabelle, you want to start?"

"Sure. I checked the Aina medical logs right before my workout. Both of Mayoni's patients are still unconscious, but primary repairs to their stomach ulcers are complete. The doctors are weaning both patients from the coma drugs."

"How long?" asked Cindy.

"Maybe a day to two until they wake up. At least, that's what Mayoni is expecting. The situation is still critical about the extract supply. Nothing new there since our last meeting. They still have a little time, a couple of weeks. Mayoni is still fiercely hopeful in her logs... I guess that's it for me."

"Yeah..." nodded Jim. "Good job Issie. For my own monitoring, I'm happy to report that Aina still believes the Blue Ring itself inverted the control override for Path opening. They have no idea that I was responsible for the early closing, and if they don't suspect by now, I think we're home free."

Cindy smiled. "Your finest microsecond Jim! Absolutely brilliant! You have no idea the impact you had on me, turning me from despair that the WFM was about to find the tunnel, to suddenly realizing we had completely succeeded!"

Jim smiled back. "It was your finishing touch that was brilliant! Without it, all the WFM would know for sure was that two soldiers had disappeared. So what? But now, as far as the WFM is concerned, Hawaii is a race of gods... They're off the hook..." His smile faded. "It's the Equalists' last possession. The news from New Zeeland is awful. The battle's over..."

Isabelle asked quietly, "The WFM showed no mercy, not even at the end?"

Jim slowly shook his head no.

Isabelle sighed. "I wish my mom were here, and my dad. Any hope at all, Uncle Jim, of figuring out when they might show up? It's been ten years now..."

Jim frowned. "Nothing yet. The Nebraska channel is a real anomaly. A'moth once compared it to a Chinese finger puzzle, easy to slide down, impossible to go back up. I don't know how to probe it from here... Cindy, you want to add anything?"

"Only that I've picked up some web references that the WFM had a major setback in their research with incubator technology. Their new target for being operational and having children is now 2050, not 2047. They still expect they can save humanity with women 40 to 50 years old... at least the female half of it..."

Jim grimaced. "I hate to be rooting for them, but our success is tied to theirs. We still have major hurdles before us. The WFM has to win their war and capture the Blue Ring... It's our only chance..."

The discussion lasted a while longer. The group adjourned shortly before 8 AM.

Time: Unknown, exiting the Nebraska conduit... 

Gary opened his eyes. The sensation was one of waking from a dream, but he was also acutely aware of his recent experience in the quantum channel conduit. It was only his second ride through the channel, but this time he had a powerful jump sense, and he had closely studied the channel structure during the trip... 

He stood up and breathed deeply and looked around. A'moth was just waking up and rising with him. It was night in the cornfield, and the stars had the fake familiarity of Earth... 

"No bumps this time," Gary commented.

"Yeah, pretty smooth..."

Without thinking, Gary tried to probe the area with his jump sense. "Hey A'moth! I thought you said it was impossible to jump around here!"

"Huh?! It is impossible!"

"No it's not! Try it!"

A'moth tried for a moment. Her inner eye seemed totally blind. "Gary! You think you can jump?"

"Sure, piece of cake." Gary jumped easily to the other side of A'moth. "Nothing to it."

"I don't understand..." A'moth felt totally confused, and then was surprised to find herself annoyed that Gary could jump and she could not. She admonished herself for being so petty and banished the thought. "Gary, this is great! How far can you jump?"

"I don't know... Let me test..." Gary focused for a moment. "My gosh, the geometry! It feels so strange, the curvature in space. I can feel the walls around Antelope Freeway in all directions, about 23 kilometers away. We're exactly at the opposite side of the planet again."

"Uh, it's not a planet."

"Uh, yeah, poor choice of words, but you know what I mean."

A'moth looked thoughtful. "Can you jump through the barriers?"

"Hmm. That's an interesting question. Let me try... No. They're totally opaque. But I can jump to the top of them! Here, hold on!" Gary held A'moth tightly, and a second later they were both standing on the thin ledge at the top of the 400-foot barriers around the Freeway.

The walls were only about one foot thick, and without her jump sense A'moth felt a little uncomfortable standing there. The top of the wall was absolutely frictionless, and they started to fall off. Gary quickly jumped again with A'moth to the patio area in the center of the Freeway. He let go of her and looked at the stars. "What do you think? An April sky?"

A'moth looked up and was quiet for a moment. "Yeah, I think so too. I should have looked before we jumped. These walls are blocking some of the view."

"Hey, no problem!" Gary held A'moth, and an instant later they were standing on top of the wall again, and a second after that they were in the parking lot outside the convenience store, one mile from the Freeway. A'moth gave Gary a quick kiss as he let her go.

Gary looked around happily and A'moth studied the clear night sky, and then a look of astonishment crossed his face. "My gosh, my gosh! A'moth!"

"What?"

"My maximum jump distance! It's a perfect fit to this place!"

"Huh?"

"The half-circumference! I can feel it! It's 23,140 meters and... maybe a half meter more... My jump sense is just touching itself, as I go in opposite directions... an exact fit..."

A'moth frowned. "It can't be a coincidence..."

"Oh no..."

"So it means what?"

Gary shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know... I guess we can ask Jim. Let me explore for a bit..." Gary became very quiet and still. A'moth waited patiently. With her night- vision eyes, the starry night was bright enough to look around, and she stared at the convenience store for a while, her mind deep in thought.

"A'moth?"

"Yeah?"

"Our entry point. Can we go back to it?"

"Sure."

A few seconds later Gary made the jump holding A'moth. He smiled as he kissed her. "I knew it! The transfer conduit doesn't end here!"

"You can sense it? The path from Nebraska? Can you jump it? Don't try it! But can you?"

Gary shook his head. "I can sense it, but I would never jump it. It feels like an infinite mesh of thorny vines from this direction. I think it would tear me to pieces. But the conduit doesn't end here. It continues... in a direction orthogonal to everything else... Smooth and slick... I think I could jump it if I tried."

"Where does it go?"

Gary was silent for a long moment as he probed. "No idea. It extends beyond my jump sense." There seemed nothing else to do at the site. After a few minutes, Gary jumped A'moth back to the patio area to wait for morning.

The next morning was a repeat of some distant memories, the appearance of a small owl which shrieked and disappeared, Isabelle running into his arms a few seconds later. Gary held her in his arms as she sobbed. It was over a minute before she blurted out, "April 13, 2044."

Cindy and Jim arrived a few minutes later. After some brief rejoicings, they all spent the day in the arctic mission room briefing each other... 

"And that brings us up to date on our end," said Cindy. Mayoni had a meeting three days ago, with the Hopewell's Congressional sub-committee on Earth Affairs. In her report, she sounded very hopeful about finding a chemical key to open the path to the solar tower."

A'moth nodded thoughtfully and sighed. "The solar tower... A life-form designed by the Blue Ring... Do you think Mayoni is on the right track?"

Isabelle shrugged. "We'll have to wait and see mom. I hope so. We'll know as soon as the rest of Aina does. Their web is very interconnected. Through the lower levels of Spirit House, we have access to everything they know about."

Jim looked over at her. "You look tired A'moth. We shouldn't be pushing you like this. Our war with the Tucker County militia ended eleven years ago for us. I keep forgetting it was just a few days ago for you and Gary. And your hand needs to heal. We should let you rest."

"No, it's okay. It's not my hand. It's just that... well, my mind keeps drifting. I've taken four trips through the Nebraska channel, and each one has moved me forward in time, a 300-day jump in December of 2009, then a 3,000-day jump with Isabelle, then a 5,000-day jump with Gary, and now another 4,000-day jump with Gary. For me, less than eight months of perceived time has gone by since this all started. It's so easy for me to close my eyes and feel it should be August of 2010... Especially looking at you Isabelle! You still look eight years old." A'moth smiled at her daughter.

Isabelle laughed. "The strange miracles of the channel! I can change my species, but not my age. Jim doesn't understand it either..."

They talked until late into the night, finally sacking out well after midnight.

Six months later... 

Earth time: Sunday, October 23, 2043 12:32 PM Eastern Standard Time

Earth time: Sunday, October 23, 2043 7:32 AM Honolulu Daylight Savings Time

Aina time: day 177 of 1451 H.E. 3:49 PM (sunset at Spirit House, mid-winter)

"Mom, dad! Wake up!"

I opened my eyes and found Isabelle in bed with me, in her nightgown kneeling between A'moth and me. "Hi Issie. What's up?" I blinked and realized Isabelle was crying.

"The WFM! They're about to attack Hawaii! I'm sure of it! I'll go wake Jim and Cindy!" She jumped off our bed and raced out of the room. We all met in the situation room a few minutes later.

Jim and Cindy spent the next hour going over Isabelle's observations. We used to be incredibly well connected to the WFM network through our wireless link in Tucker County. But then the Hopewell learned how to move the Earth side of the slip bubble, and they repositioned it from West Virginia to Hawaii in June. We have great access to the Equalist's network now from both a basement lab and the Martian Planetia shipyards, and we still have our network links to Aina through Spirit House. But our hidden eye into the planning of the WFM has disappeared..."

A'moth and I sat quietly nearby and watched as Jim and Cindy went over Isabelle's data analysis. So much has happened since we returned. I remember when we first got back, Cindy showed me some aerial photos from the WFM archives, of the Grotto area in West Virginia.

The Women's Freedom Movement have it torn completely apart, looking for clues for how a paint-can got ejected from the Grotto right under their noses. Their special ops teams in bio-hazard suits moved into the Grotto minutes after they hit the place with nerve gas. All they found were a few dead rabbits and a two-meter high K painted on the back wall. It drove them absolutely nuts... 

"There! Don't you see? The WFM is attacking, and they're attacking now!" Isabelle pointed excitedly at a data display.

Cindy looked absolutely sick. "I agree. All these radio codes are agent-activation signals. The WFM has launched everything! Sabotaging the Equalist comm grids, releasing their new bio-weapons... Jim, there's no other explanation. The final phase of the war has begun."

Isabelle looked at the clock and shrieked. It was just after 8:30 AM Hawaii time, and the deadly bio-weapons were probably already in the air. "We must DO something! NOW! We can warn them!"

Jim grimaced, tears falling down his cheeks, and he whispered, "We must do no such thing."

Cindy got up and hugged Isabelle. She was soon joined by A'moth. Jim and I just looked sadly at each other. I tried to talk to Isabelle, repeat our logic and our goals. "It's our one chance Issie. To have any chance to break the time loop, we have to give it a path to normal reset. The WFM is very close to capturing the Ring without ever discovering the existence of Aina. All our wild hopes are coming true..."

I felt like such a heel speaking. All that I admired in the Equalists, their perseverance, their bravery, their dedication to saving the planet, not just themselves... it was all about to come crashing down as the WFM exterminated the last couple of million guys on the planet. I don't know what we could have done even if we wanted to stop it. The five of us have some interesting abilities, but we don't have enough power to stop 900-million women hell-bent on killing men. Still, just to sit around and do nothing... We all felt like shit. No, I take that back. Isabelle looked too furious to feel like shit.

A few minutes later both the Equalist's civilian internet and military-net went down simultaneously. We still had local access to the JABSOM basement lab, and to the Ring shadows at the shipyards, but otherwise we were blind.

Jim spoke up from a console. "We'll have better data access in the chasm." Cindy hugged me, Jim hugged A'moth. In a few seconds we were on Antelope Freeway, and a few seconds after that we were 4,000 meters beneath the arctic sea, at the bottom of the great chasm with the Blue Ring. There were many tables and diagnostic displays arranged around it.

Cindy walked over to one of her familiar monitoring stations. "If they're launching a full-scale attack, we should pick up an E.M.P. very soon."

Over the last decade, the WFM had been doing a lot of research on the plague. Not to find a cure; they had concluded that was probably impossible. Their goal was to incorporate some of the plague abilities into their bio-weapons. Before we lost contact with them in June, we learned they had succeeded. They had combined the plague activation trigger, an electromagnetic pulse, with one of their most deadly advances in micro nerve agents.

With their new power, the WFM began debating whether they could strike and annihilate Hawaii before Hawaii could respond with their magic. And then in June, when Aina moved the bubble from West Virginia, we lost contact with how the WFM debate was going. The Equalists were totally unaware of the danger and, hard as it was, we didn't warn Aina either... 

"I have the pulse!" Isabelle cried out.

"I see it too... massive..." Cindy replied.

Isabelle was in tears. "My gosh! Look at the size of it! Enough to cover all the islands! They must be attacking everything. Mom, what's the Aina log status on personnel?"

It was an area of expertise A'moth volunteered to cover months ago. She was already at her console. "About average. A team of eight is scheduled to be in the Labs, four men and four women, including Kalea and Hiapo. And Mayoni and her husband Keona are somewhere in Hawaii, probably at or near the JABSOM center.

I was working my own consoles, getting limited reports from Kilauea security, both from JABSOM and the shipyards. "I'm getting reports of massive deaths among males, complete extermination! The Kilauea women are coming under attack at the shipyards..."

Isabelle grimaced. "Hiapo and Keona are already dead."

"No!" A'moth called out. "I'm getting a current status report! Hiapo was in Level-two of the Spirit House with the three male technicians when the attack hit. What a stroke of luck! Wait! Kalea ordered the three female technicians back to Aina too. She's ordering the evacuation of Spirit House too! She must be alone in the lab."

"What's she doing?" called out Cindy.

Jim called out. "She's programming major shifts in Ring stability fields... My gosh! I think she's going to pop the core bubble! The lower levels of Spirit House will be destroyed!"

None of us could talk after that. We watched our displays, recording the drama as it unfolded. Aina personnel sensors detected Mayoni returning to the basement lab and joining Kalea. We all cheered. That left only Keona unaccounted for. We all gasped in astonishment a moment later when our bubble connection popped, leaving us blind to both Aina and the JABSOM center. Our links to the Martian Planetia shipyards were still active... 

"What the hell happened?" Cindy called out. "Did Kalea succeed in popping the core bubble?"

"I don't think so," Jim called back. "I think... maybe... yes... I think it was the Earth bubble that popped, not the core!"

"What?!" shouted Isabelle. "The Ring was in the Earth bubble! Wouldn't that destroy it?"

Jim shook his head. "Not necessarily. Think in terms of quantum shadows Isabelle. It was just one shadow that got destroyed... There's so much here I don't understand..." Jim began to whisper. "But I guess we've succeeded. The WFM has the bubble, Aina is cut off from Earth, and perhaps no one of Earth knows where the Ring shadows came from... I guess we've succeeded... completely..."

Our complete success felt completely empty to me. It was the saddest day of my life. We spent the next twelve hours watching the WFM slaughter the last of the female Kilauea forces at the shipyards. They died with hearts of iron, Earth's last stand against the horrors and insanity of gender hatred.

Casualties among the WFM were massive, almost as much as the Hawaiians. The women Equalists put up an incredible fight. The WFM finally resorted to carpet bombing Honolulu and exterminating the remaining women on the island with more bio- weapons. The Equalists put up an incredible fight... and then they were gone. None of us slept well for weeks... 



-------

Chapter 39


Six years later... 

Earth time: January 1, 2050 12:01 AM Eastern Standard Time

I was reading a book in the main library, sitting in one of the comfortable reclining chairs. Isabelle came into the room and sat on my lap and kissed me. "Happy New Years dad!"

"Huh? Already?" I kissed her back and looked at the clock.

Isabelle shrugged. "I was thinking of Aina base time. They used to use Eastern Standard Time as a reference... from their connection to West Virginia..."

I nodded. The Freeway is still locked on West Virginia time too, but our portal to the WFM internet is through Hawaii, through the Ring shadows in the slip ships. We tend to think in Hawaiian time now... "Yeah, I remember. What time would it be on Aina?"

Isabelle shook her head. "The bubbles are no longer connected. Your question does not have a well defined answer."

"Oh, I know, but still?"

Isabelle paused for a moment as she thought. "It would be day 75 of 1458, three days after their autumn Festival of harvest, a little after 2 PM I think. But really dad. That's not the right way to think about it."

"I know."

Isabelle rested her head against my chest and sighed. I smiled and petted her and kissed her again, this time on the top of her head. After a moment I put my book down and turned off my reading light. I closed my eyes and put my arms around Issie and hugged her. She hugged back. We both were enjoying the contact profoundly. Neither of us moved for a long while. Then we started talking to each other with our eyes closed.

"Dad?"

"Yeah?"

"I was monitoring the WFM, their medical journals... the latest blogs..."

"Ah... Yeah... Do you think they'll find the problem with their incubator approach soon?"

"They just did. The leaders were not pleased. The top researchers were executed for their failure."

"Oh, that was smart..."

Isabelle whispered, "Once you get used to killing... to solve your problems..."

I nodded, kissing her again, my eyes still closed. "Yeah... What the latest on their population?"

"Right now? Just about 700 million, about where Earth's population was 350 years ago. But the age profiles are all wrong. The average woman is 55-years old now. Earth is starting to become a ghost planet. Large areas are totally vacant... around the Great Lakes in North America of course... but not just that, large areas in Africa and Europe too... Well, except for isolated pockets of wilds. They're in such rough shape, the WFM isn't even bothering with them." Isabelle sighed deeply.

"How many guys you think are left?"

"Oh, about the only guys left are in captivity. WFM records list 42,000 of them. WFM bio-weapon experts estimate there are less than one hundred men not under WFM control. Their Y-chromosome weapons are that potent..."

"My God... Well, we shouldn't dance on the WFM's grave. We need them to succeed, in order to succeed ourselves..."

"Yeah... Dad..."

"Yeah?"

"You ever think of South America any more? Of Santiago?"

I sighed. "Sometimes... I love A'moth. She's my wife, and I'm her husband... But yeah, sometimes I still dream of Chile... and Carlotta... It still feels like home..."

"Yeah, for me too... Did you know Earth's youngest person was born in Chile? The WFM had a show on her. She turned forty yesterday. She was born in the evening of December 31, 2009, just a couple of days before mom died. She's the youngest edge baby known to have survived... The WFM has 150,000,000 women ages 40 to 44. It's the core of their hope to jump-start the population again, if they can fix the problems with their incubators..."

"You saw it coming Isabelle, how their research was heading into a dead end. None of us did. You had a lot of foresight Issie... to concentrate in the medical sciences... since the war..."

"Dad?"

"Yeah?"

"I think I see a solution to their problem. Think I should work on it?"

I was silent for a long moment, drifting in my daughter's love. "Yeah... I think I do..." I sighed deeply and fell asleep, my darling daughter dozing on my chest.

Five years later... 

Earth time: Monday, March 15, 2055 1:44 PM Central Standard Time

I stood in the cornfield, the walls of Antelope Freeway twenty-three kilometers away in all directions. A'moth was giving me one last hug, and neither of us was eager to have it end. This hug was going to be one for the record books. A few feet away, three owls waited patiently... 

It's been a strange five years, rather quiet for us, a death struggle for the WFM. A number of plagues have broken out on Earth, not THE plague, but still very deadly. There's a nasty version of the AIDS virus that spreads as easily as the common cold. The elderly are very susceptible to it. The great winnowing of the population continues... 

At the beginning of the year, the last time the WFM completed their census, there were 420 million people on Earth, probably about what the number was in the 1400's A.D. But these are all women, with an average age of 56, almost the same average age as what it was five years ago. The reason it's not higher is that so many of the elderly have died. The WFM counted 360-million women between 45 and 64-years of age, fifty million between 65 and 79, and only ten million 80-years and older... 

It's a cold utilitarian world. If you don't produce, you get cut off from all resources, including food and medical care. Probably 200 million people died over the last five years, not from old age but from war related diseases and radiation and a simple lack of care.

But the age profile of the WFM is about to undergo a radical transformation. They now have over 100,000 fetuses in incubators in various stages of development. Some of the unborn are less than three months from full term. They expect to have a million incubators operating by 2057, and ten million the year after that. Their goal is to create an explosive burst of up to 100 million children over the next decade, before the current generation of wombs gives out. They still need to carry the embryo inside a human mother for the first twelve weeks after conception... 

Their long term plan is to have the 100 million blossom into four billion in several great cycles of breeding. They seem hell bent on a complete re-population of the planet. I'm not sure why... 

My family has watched numerous video shows about Patricia Collins, the WFM savior of female humanity. What the WFM doesn't know is that all their accolades are misplaced. Their real savior is Isabelle Connors. In late summer of 2053, Issie came to A'moth and me and told us she was positive she was only a month away from solving the final hurdle with the incubator problem. A'moth and I spent the next month brainstorming about how we could quietly transfer the knowledge to the WFM. We even had a plan of A'moth going undercover and working with the WFM researchers.

Isabelle laughed at our efforts when she heard them. Instead, she typed up her solution in a tight, three-page write-up, and e-mailed it to Dr. Collins with the title, "Hey Patty! How about this idea?!"

At the time Dr. Collins was less than two months away from missing her deadline for mandatory progress, and the WFM has a very literal interpretation of the word deadline. What would you do? Patricia copied the solution into her own notes, and deleted the e- mail, which is good. The WFM would have been very, very confused if they had ever tried to trace where it came from... 

I took one last look around the cornfield. I broke my hug with A'moth, waved goodbye to my three owl friends. Without me to jump them, they would fly back to the Freeway, A'moth would jog. There were five hours of daylight left, and even with climbing the barriers she'd be back in the arctic in less than two. I sighed. It was time for me to go.

I probed the unknown channel with my mind as I had done so many times before. It's so strange, even stranger than the Nebraska channel that lead here. This new channel is different; no simple shapes at all. Think instead of a helical toroidal path with strange oscillations. It was downright spooky to probe, but we all decided we needed to see where it led. After much heated discussion, I'm going alone. My huge backpack must weigh a hundred kilos. Thank God for Chungieran muscles... 

My mind was intently probing the tunnel, deeper than I had ever gone. I felt the channel pulling me, and my jump sense of A'moth and the Freeway faded to nothingness. At the last instant, I suddenly realized that the channel seemed alive, pulsing and contracting with power. I had the horrible feeling of sliding down the throat of a gigantic beast. Instinctively I tried to back out, but I had penetrated too far. I had no purchase to push back, and I began sliding down an infinite spiral chute. I was soon enveloped in a dazzling swirl of fireworks.

Back at the cornfield, Isabelle jerked her owl head up and screeched at the changing sky.



-------

Chapter 40


Future Interlude X: Proposals In A Tent

Aina time: 4:40 PM day 66 of 1474 H.E. (145 days after memory integration, one week before the start of autumn and the Festival of Harvest)

Ekela finished his portage from Maluhia, the small resort hamlet the Hopewell had recently built along the eastern line of the great rim mountains. The hamlet consisted of a single hotel and a few small buildings for supplies and emergency medical support. The hotel could house a hundred people, but Ekela, Mayoni, and Kalea had never seen it more than a quarter full for the entire two months (36 days) they had been there. As Ekela stood and enjoyed the view from his campsite, he realized he was not even counting his group among Maluhia's population. Except for brief trips for supplies, he and the two sisters had been camping together in the open range.

Ekela stood still and drank from the spectacular vista of the great Hopewell valley. It was a clear day and with the late afternoon summer sun, he looked west and thought he could see forever. Maluhia was hidden by a ridge of native trees. Logically, he knew he could run there in a half-hour and then take a graviton air-cab to Athens. The 300- kilometer sub-orbital trip would take less than five minutes.

But from his mountain view the modern world was completely hidden, and after two months of camping the world's problems seemed like a distant memory. Mayoni and Kalea had happily started to wash his clothes in a mountain stream after he went for the supplies.

Ekela smiled as he thought they were probably the only two young women who knew the technique, and certainly the only two who would be so cheerful about doing it. But Mayoni and particularly Kalea had spent their first childhoods in the 1300's, when such labor was not just common but mandatory and reserved for women and girls. He could hear now the distant sweet song of their voices as they sang traditional Hopewell holoi himeni, wash songs, as they worked.

Ekela stretched and admired his muscles. His small group had taken minor breaks for recreational hiking, but the last two months had been packed with technical climbing instruction under the master tutelage of Mayoni. Ekela smiled at the thought that he was now one of the top mountain climbers of the three planets. The Congress had requested that the three learn the skills before making a formal petition for access to the solar tower.

Ekela chuckled now at his reaction to the request when he first heard it. Most of his mind was overjoyed with the fact the Congress would never request such a thing without the intention of granting the petition. After several near fatal attempts to enter the solar tower in the late 1450's, the Hopewell realized there was still much about the chemical entrance protocols that they didn't understand, and the area was declared off-limits by law.

Ekela chuckled again. A second part of his mind was at first dismayed at the prospect of leaving his studies and research for so long. That dismay was now unfathomable. Ekela knew he would treasure these last two months as the most beautiful and peaceful in his life. His love for Mayoni had grown immensely, and Kalea was as dear to him now as a close sister. He sighed now at the thought of ever leaving this idyllic life, but they were all due back in Athens in four days... 

"Oh noble one!" Kalea called out happily, returning to the camp with her sister carrying armloads of clean damp clothes and waking Ekela from his daydream. " Mahalo for the supplies!"

Ekela smiled and shrugged his shoulders and called back, " Mahalo for your excellent work with my clothes!" Ekela joined them by the larger tent and unpacked the new box with the fruit. Super-food plants were both abundant and in season in the area, and there was no need to carry in food from the hamlet. But Kalea and Mayoni were extremely keen for wild oranges and raspberries imported from Earth, and Ekela had grown very fond of them too.

After brief hugs, the group lit a bonfire for drying the clothes and began preparing dinner. "I checked the comm log, no issues," commented Ekela. He was surprised two months ago, when both sisters politely asked him to leave his sub-satellite phone at Maluhia. Now though, the peace and serenity of their retreat were priceless to him.

They spent their next hour eating dinner, turning the drying clothes near the fire, and planning for the next day's lesson. They were already far more proficient than they needed to be to scale the wall to the sunflower fields, but Ekela was looking forward to testing the limits of his expertise. A few minutes after sunset, they gathered around their camp fire and sang songs.

Ekela sat in a marriage class position, wedged closely between two of the most beautiful women he thought he would ever know. They sang and chatted until the last of the twilight faded into a star filled sky. The wind began to pick up, a cool brisk northern wind, brisk and sharp, and the temperature began to drop sharply. Smelling the crackling wood fire, Ekela thought happily of the clean warm and cozy blankets he would soon be wrapped in.

Ekela was surprised a short while later, when he heard Kalea's voice just outside his tent. "Uh, Ekela, you decent?"

Ekela was about to turn in and had already changed into his clean nightclothes, the soft fabric smelling faintly of wood-smoke and candle-nut soap. "Uh, sure. Come in!"

Kalea entered the small one-man tent and gave him a big smile.

Ekela smiled back and asked, "Hi Kalea! Do you need something?"

"Yes, I do. Do you remember that I am in charge of this expedition?"

"Huh? Oh! Yes, of course. Is this an official request then?"

"It is indeed. I am declaring a need for Pilikino pono'i mana'o, " she sang.

"Huh?" Ekela thought for a moment. "Private meditation time?"

"Yes. As leader, I am entitled to a quiet place to reflect on the progress of our mission. You wouldn't believe how much noise Mayoni can make when she turns over in her sleep. For tonight, I am commandeering this tent for myself!"

"What?! Well, okay..." Totally confused, Ekela picked up his blankets and started to exit the tent.

"Ekela! Do you expect me to freeze while I'm trying to meditate?! Leave the blankets!"

"But Kalea! It's too cold to sleep outside without them!"

"Consider it a wilderness survival test. There is a solution. A direct order Ekela, leave the blankets! Stop! Leave your parka too! I might need an extra pillow! Scoot!" Kalea quickly nudged Ekela, giving him the bum's rush out of the tent. For a critical second he was too startled to resist.

And then there he was, standing outside the tent in just his nightgown. Kalea flashed him a brief burst of a smile as she zipped the entrance closed. The wind was crisp and super clean and filled with the complex subtle fragrances of the late summer mountain flowers, but the only thing registering in Ekela's mind was that it was probably below 40F and he was absolutely freezing. Six meters away the two-person tent was still partially unzipped and had a lantern on at low power. The survival solution seemed obvious.

Ekela poked his head into the second tent, his teeth chattering but his face bursting with laughter at what Kalea and Mayoni were doing. "Uh..."

"Ah, Ekela! It's about time! It's freezing in here! Close the tent on your way in!"

There was one large two-person mat in the tent, plus lots of inviting blankets. Ekela had a brief glimpse of Mayoni's bare arm and she reached for the lantern, and he guessed she was also in her nightgown. Ekela zipped the tent shut and dived into the blankets, lying head-to-toe with Mayoni and facing away from her, a traditional Hopewell sleep position when non-family members had to share sleep warmth. But the last thing on Ekela's mind was sleep as he shivered into the blankets. They were still warm from Kalea's body heat, and he was acutely aware of Mayoni turning the lantern down even lower but not off. The tent was now quite dim, colors barely visible.

Ekela shivered, feeling his body begin to warm, his mind racing as he considered what he should do or say next. Then he felt Mayoni's soft hands on his cold feet.

"Ekela! Your feet are frozen! Let me warm them!"

Mayoni shifted her body and began to caress his feet. After a moment she moved her head and began blowing her warm breath against them, adding gentle kisses to her massage. Ekela lay breathing heavily and was very still. Both he and Mayoni were completely aware of the custom. Mayoni was committing herself to be his wife.

Ekela tried a few times to respond with an ancient song of appreciation, but his voice failed him completely. He lay there panting, his eyes filled with tears. And outside the night wind sang to them of the beauty of the planet and of life.

The flow of the moments seemed timeless. Eventually Ekela turned and embraced Mayoni, surprised but overjoyed to find her naked. They were soon locked in a fierce embrace, her beautiful mind and body pressed tightly against him. Mayoni sang of love and commitment, old verses from a thousand years of Hopewell history.

They snuggled for a while, Mayoni enjoying being caressed and encouraging Ekela to pet her on her hips and waist. Eventually Ekela's hand moved up and he began to stroke the soft undersides of her breasts, first the left, then the right. Mayoni accepted the caresses, accepted Ekela as her mate. Under Hopewell law, the two now had the same legal obligations to each other as husband and wife.

Ekela gazed in love at his bride. His singing voice partially returned, and he sang the male counterpart of Mayoni's courtship song. At the end of singing, Mayoni began to sob very softly, and Ekela kissed away her tears and whispered, "You're so beautiful, so incredibly beautiful... I'm so happy Mayoni... Mahalo" he sang in a whisper. "Maholo Mayoni for choosing me... "

They hugged fiercely. Mayoni could feel Ekela's stiff erection pressing into her pubic through the nightgown, but neither expected this night to get much sexier. The anticipation of the Red Bird Festival two seasons away would be something they would share and enjoy together.

"Mayoni?" Ekela whispered.

"Uh huh?"

" Maholo for accepting my commitment now, not making me wait four months to offer it. I know how much you value traditions..."

"Hah! Not quite as much as the first time I grew up! Living with my sister! She has a bit of a bawdy streak. It's rubbed off on me. I'm not quite the same person I used to be."

"I think you're perfect! Really!"

Mayoni sighed and kissed him, leaning over and pressing the length of her naked body against him. "I'm not complaining. I like who I am, like the way Kalea has changed me. But I do have my faults. You're just being sweet not to see them now..."

"Well... Love... marriage... a truly critical eye would be unpardonable, don't you think?"

Mayoni sighed and nodded in contentment. "I do indeed..."

Filled with each other's warmth and commitment, the two lovers drifted off to sleep.



-------

Chapter 41


Time: Unknown, Blue thunder on Antelope Freeway... 

Just as Gary completed his jump, the light in the cornfields of Antelope Freeway changed from the normal afternoon sunlight of late-winter to something so bizarre that A'moth gasped in astonishment. All the colors of the green corn and brown earth were replaced by a bright cornflower blue, the entire world one great expanse of great blue glowing light.

The sky above was incomprehensible, a uniform blue without clouds, but with a huge arc of the sky lit even brighter with a blue and yellowish light. The arc was immense, covering a considerable fraction of the entire dome of the sky, stretching from eastern to western horizon. A'moth was dimly aware of Isabelle screeching in dismay, and then Isabelle flew and landed on A'moth's shoulder, finally pulling A'moth out of her state of shock.

"What the hell is this?!" Isabelle flapped with her wings.

"A temporal storm!" Jim flapped in reply. "It's massive!"

A'moth shouted, "We must be close to the edge of eternity! We have to move out of here! Now! Say together!"

A'moth picked a random direction and ran as fast as she could. The owls flew around her. After two minutes, A'moth stopped to reconsider. Her running did not appear to change the observed environment at all, and she was sure she had run a full kilometer. She squinted and took a determined look at the glowing sky.

A normal human can see a flicker in an oscillating light if the oscillation is 30 Hertz or lower. But Chungierans have the ability to accelerate their sensory perceptions, and for a brief moment A'moth could force herself to be ten times as fast in flicker perception. As she stared at the great glowing band in the sky, she realized its coverage exactly matched all possible paths the sun would make in its annual migration cycle from winter to summer and then back to winter solstice position. At the edge of her perception, she could see the band of yellowish light as a great vibrating string stretched across the sky, each single vibration representing a full year of solar migration cycle.

"About 250 vibrations a second!" A'moth yelled out. "I think a thousand years are passing every four seconds!"

Cindy flapped, "What can we do?!"

The obvious question brought A'moth up short. Yes, exactly! What should the group do?! The owls couldn't dream their way to their arctic home unless they were on the other side of the barrier walls. It would take A'moth over forty minutes to run the twenty-two kilometers to the walls, another period of time to climb them... A'moth thought furiously. "Let's see, one hour, a thousand years every four seconds... Shit! 900,000 years! SHIT!!!"

She spoke out loud, "Jim, Cindy, Isabelle! You want to fly ahead of me? How fast can you fly to the Freeway and get out of here?!"

"No, no, no!" flapped Jim. "We separate in this kind of temporal gradient, we'll lose each other for all eternity! Remember the time loop! There were only about 200,000 years left until Earth loop reset! We separate now, it'll be a disaster! Stay together!"

A'moth grimaced as the realization of what Jim had flapped sank in. "The time loop!" she thought. "How could I forget?! 200,000 years... that's... What?! Thirteen minutes?!" A'moth quickly told her estimate to the team. And then for a moment they stood in silence.

"Ideas anyone?" flapped Cindy. They stared at each other, everyone hoping somebody would come up with a brilliant idea. But their environment was totally out of their control. Finally Cindy flapped, "A'moth, how much time do we have left?"

A'moth thought. "Eight minutes at most!" She stared at the glowing bluish yellow band in the sky again. "Still about a thousand years every four seconds. It's not slowing down at all."

They all looked at each other nervously. There seemed nothing to do. In spite of the insane cosmic speed of the cosmos, the next few minutes passed in agonizing slowness. Then Isabelle screeched. "Havika!" she spelled out with her wings. "The quantum tunnel opened at loop reset on Aina! Maybe it will open here too!"

A'moth stared at the owl. "You mean, we head back?"

Isabelle nodded her owl head. "To where Gary left!"

She started to fly back, the other owls following her. A'moth began to run after them, wondering if they could find the spot in the few minutes they had left... 

Time: Undefined, sliding in a slip channel conduit

The ride I was in was nothing like the Nebraska channel. This one was spinning me around so much, it was a great battle not to puke. I seemed to be enveloped in some sort of bubble, very tough, and I was glad of it. Every time I would bounce against the spiral walls, I seemed to knock off shards that spun and twisted as they traveled with me. They looked wickedly sharp and absolutely flat, true two-dimensional pieces of God know what. Their jagged edges were frightening, but they didn't seem to be able to cut my bubble.

There was a fork coming up in the channel, one branch looked like more of the same, and the other looked like hell, thinning and tapering to a point. I would be crushed if I took it. I instinctively flinched at the sight, and I tried to jerk my bubble away from the disastrous fork. Surprisingly, I seemed to have some control over my bubble, and I jerked it away from the death channel. I sped down the other fork, my mind frantically probing for what was up ahead. And then I saw it, the abrupt end of the channel. It looked like a solid wall of glass, and I was hurtling straight for it, and there was nothing I could do about it.

No! Not glass, a mirror! I could see an image of myself. It seemed my last moment would be slamming into myself at 100 mph.

Time: Unknown, Lost in the Blue Thunder

A'moth circled back on her loop, trying to find the exact spot where Gary had left. In the strange glowing light everything looked both unfamiliar and uniform, and she began to lose hope. A short distance overhead three owls were flying a grid pattern, but they hadn't found anything they thought was the channel location either. They were certain they were in the right area, perhaps within a hundred meters, but how to find the exact spot.

A'moth thought there was less than a minute left, and as the remaining seconds of her life passed by she fought a rising sense of panic. Grimacing with despair, she turned her head and saw an amazing sight. For an instant, she saw a shimmering horizontal tunnel form about thirty meters to her left, and then Gary came bursting out the end of it, still wearing his backpack. There was a flying cloud of shards bursting out with him, and they exploded into the cornfield, shredding and dicing the plants in their path.

It was all over in an instant. As A'moth tried to comprehend what she had just witnessed, she suddenly realized that the familiar colors of brown and green had returned. She looked up, and saw a peaceful sun stationary just above the eastern horizon. A'moth guessed the time to be about ten minutes after sunrise. The sky was a calm blue, and she thought the sun position might be near summer solstice... 

Time: Unknown, a joyful reunion... 

I picked myself off the ground after tumbling with my backpack, grateful for a moment just to be in one piece. I was astonished and then overjoyed to see A'moth running towards me from a short distance away. I had been afraid I had left her halfway across time and the cosmos. We hugged before saying anything. Three owls landed near us and flapped their hellos.

"How long?" I asked.

A'moth gasped out, "Thirteen, fourteen minutes maybe..."

"What?! Hey, that's great! I was expecting years!"

A'moth did something completely unexpected. She started to laugh. "Hold off on the happiness for a bit! It might be years too, lots and lots of years..."

A'moth gave me a brief description of what happened. We then had a very brief meeting with the owls. Our one topic of discussion was to agree to get the hell out of here as quickly as possible. I did some relay jumping, and had everybody back near the Chevy and the Mercedes within a minute. Then Jim and Cindy jumped us to our arctic home. Isabelle took a few seconds to glance inside the Chevy before she jumped... 

We were soon back in the mission room, and the familiar sense of home felt mighty good. Jim, Cindy, and Isabelle were back in human form, and they were all busy at different consoles. A'moth and I just sat around the discussion table and waited for them. After about a half hour they joined us at the table.

Jim spoke first. "We have two atomic clocks here. They're both saying it's June 7'th, year 204,855, a little before 6 AM Central Standard Time..." Jim paused for a moment. "Well, that standard probably doesn't even exist any more..."

A'moth whistled. "Two hundred thousand years?!"

Jim nodded. "Yeah, a little over. Our trip was 202,800 years and a few months..."

I asked, "How close to loop reset?"

"Good question! 2,290 years... We were within nine seconds of the end of time, back on the Freeway. You had a really great estimate for the vibration speed A'moth. The instruments here are saying we were experiencing somewhere between 250 to 260 years a second..." Jim looked at Isabelle. "Issie?"

"I just wanted to add I checked the clock in the Chevy. What I saw made no sense, it had a negative date! But I think the clock is storing elapsed seconds as a 32-bit integer. It must have overflowed a thousand times..."

Cindy shook her head. "But wouldn't the cars decay in... Oh, never mind. They don't age... Anyway, let me report we're still getting complex digital signals with both our arctic and Hawaiian receivers. The fact that we still have a port at Hawaii implies the slip ships are still there. Also, the airwaves are filled with satellite transmissions. Some form of advanced civilization has managed to survive..."

I looked at Jim. "Jim, those shards, the ones that diced the corn... What the hell were they?"

"Yeah, I saw them too." Jim was quiet for a moment and glanced at Isabelle. "Issie, want to take a crack at this?"

"Sure! It's the stress of the time loop on quantum reality. All the counterfactuals and errors that the quantum world has to compensate for... My gosh! This close to loop reset, the stress to causality must be enormous!"

Jim smiled in admiration. "Excellent Issie! And once they were out of the conduit, classical-level reality would collapse the contradictions in less than a second. The shards appeared to evaporate, but in reality, they ceased to exist." Jim sighed. "In another two thousand years, the universe won't be so lucky. There will be no more classical level reality to dissolve the contradictions. I think we saw a foretaste of how the universe will end..."

It was a sobering thought. We were all quiet for a moment as we contemplated what we were facing. And yet, a lot can happen in two thousand years. We got back to discussing more practical matters.

Our discussions lasted for hours. There were so many things to talk about. We finally decided to keep a low profile for a while and concentrate on understanding the information in the RF signals. Isabelle did some analysis during the meeting, and reported she thought the signals were still based on packet protocols, but their internal structures were extremely complex and totally different than the internet standards we were used to. No surprise there. When we finally called it a day, it was time for dinner, and we sacked out soon afterwards.



-------

Chapter 42


Five years later... 

Earth time: April 27, year 204,860 9:00 AM Antelope Freeway Standard Time

After my morning workout with A'moth in the arctic gym, I was all set for our usual 8:00 AM staff meeting, but Isabelle said she and Jim are working on something interesting and she asked if we could postpone the meeting till ten o'clock. So I asked Issie to jump me to Antelope Freeway so I could practice my jumping for a while. I practiced for about a half hour, and then got bored. I parked in one of the lounge chairs in the center of the Freeway and waited for Issie to pick me up.

My jumps are easy and smooth now. I don't know what my distance limit is. I can jump anywhere on the Freeway with ease, but I could do that in 2033. Sometimes I dream of walking south from our arctic home. I'd only have to walk about 500 meters from the peninsula tip, and then I'd know how far I can jump. But how to get back? The Nebraska channel is so dangerous and unpredictable; it's not worth the risk.

We spent our first year in this new era keeping a very low profile and just making passive observations. It seems this time loop is true to form. The WFM has survived for over 200,000 years now. As much as I hate their guts, I have to admit they've withstood the test of time... sort of... 

What do I mean by true to form? In Havika's original time loop, the Blue Ring starting singing to Kalea soon after their disastrous 1436 expedition. In our loop, we broke temporal symmetry during that expedition, and the Blue Ring didn't reveal itself until the following Path opening.

Anyway, Havika's Hopewell history book describes how Kalea, Hiapo and Havika decoded the X-tree information from the solar tower. The book describes how a single pair of young adults from this era takes one of the slip ships from Earth to Aina. So we know how the loop completes, how time manages to back into itself. I remember a meeting we had four years ago, where A'moth was going nuts trying to understand this... 

"But this still makes no sense!" she said in a semi shout.

Isabelle was there at the table. "The math is very tricky mom, but Jim and I both think our model is sound."

"Oh, it's not the math, daughter! How can you predict our free will is gone?!"

"It's not. I'm not predicting that."

"But if the future is determined, where is our free will?! I thought we broke temporal symmetry with the last loop during the Hopewell's 1436 expedition!"

"We did!"

"Aha! So why are we converging to the same history as the last loop?"

"Because we're still inside the same loop! The reality interface demands it!"

"Isabelle, that makes no sense!"

Jim broke into the conversation. "A'moth, if I could interrupt... Are you familiar with the butterfly effect?"

"Sure. A butterfly decides to flap its wings or maybe not, and six months later the world's weather patterns are all different. The future is infinitely sensitive to the past, no thresholds for sensitivity, truly infinite."

"Exactly!" Jim smiled happily. "An initial perturbation, no matter how tiny, propagates and creates more changes, which create more changes, which cascade into the future until everything is changed."

A'moth looked thoughtfully at Jim. "Okay..."

Jim continued. "In normal physics, chaos maximizes the diversity. But we're inside a time loop. It's a self-organizing phenomenon, a driven system with positive feedback. The time loop is allowing the future to influence the past. The future is self focusing in order to be in a state where it hands off reality to the past at loop reset. Within the restrictions of loop reset, we still have free will. But there are some things we're powerless to change..."

Isabelle spoke up. "Think of a hurricane mom. That's a self organizing phenomenon too. You see it coming, but you can't stop it. You still have free will, but there are some things you just can't change. Time loop physics is very tricky, but the free will is still there. The normal diversity of the universe is being focused by the time loop. Quantum reality converges rather than diverges, which causes the classical-level reality to converge too."

A'moth was silent for a while and then gave a deep sigh. "I dimly see what you're getting at. I can still make choices, but my power to change reality is limited..."

Isabelle nodded. "... by the loop! You have it! The paths leading to certain events are still undetermined, but the loop imposes some boundary conditions on how the future will evolve. The time loop creates destiny, and the Ring is destined to be on Aina. It has to happen."

"So we're doomed? All of humanity is doomed?"

"Not quite," said Jim. "But we'll have to break the loop to get free..."

Ah, memories... I looked around from my lounge chair, looked at the barriers and the pristine Chevy and Mercedes. After all these years, they look so familiar now... 

We made a lot of progress that first year. All five of us worked on how to decode the new internet packets. By June of 204,856 we were all busy learning to understand the WFM's spoken language. The words are different, sure, but it was amazing how much of the basic structure was still the same. All through our second year here, that's what hit us the most, how little progress has been made. The WFM has had the slip ships for 200,000 years, and they only made a few test flights to nearby stars around the end of their war... 

Most of the test flights were in the years between 2120 and 2130. In the year 2120, the WFM officially declared victory in their war against the Equalists. Even after the fall of Hawaii, they were paranoid about the possibility of unknown pockets of enemy, especially in Africa, a continent they never spent much time with. But the WFM was the only society with the incubator technology, and when you can reproduce and your enemy can not, time becomes an ultimate and invincible weapon. By 2120, the youngest fugitives would have been 110 years old, and the WFM finally decided it was safe to ignore the possibility of their existence.

Their philosophy of mass producing people was frightening. By the end of the year 2059, they had over thirteen million incubators running, churning out two million babies a month, almost all females. There were just a few males conceived for breeding stock, and the WFM was already busy with their sick goal of destroying male reasoning abilities. The next generation had the rate up to ten million babies a month by the year 2090. Thirty years after that, the WFM stabilized the population at around four billion. And then they did a few test flights with the slip ships.

And then... nothing! How is that possible?! Well, maybe a few more test flights three thousand years later. There was a brief burst of curiosity and a few more flights, mostly to the outer planets in the solar system. And then... nothing! They've had the keys to explore the universe for 200,000 years and they never bothered! How is that possible?!

They did turn Earth into a garden planet. I'll give them credit for that. It's beautiful, and mostly wild and free and pristine. They cleaned up all the wastes and carnage of the wars. The planet is also very well monitored, at least around their population centers. If we ever leave our retreat, we'll have to be careful how we do it... 

I said they've sort of withstood the test of time. They have a huge problem on their hands, a lack of vitality in the human genome. They have a sophisticated technique of immunizing against all viral infections, but our species just wasn't meant to breed forever through incubators. The top leaders have a myth going with the general population; that the declining numbers are a result of social desires for a slowly shrinking population. But in reality, the WFM has been struggling for 200,000 years against a declining ability to reproduce... 

After all that time, the old plague infection isn't an issue anymore. The red sage grass and the ocean X-tree snippets have died out. They were never designed to last forever in Earth's ecosystem... And the old plague code has been bred out of the human genome. We now know why Kyle and Brianna aren't killed by green pepper bush spores when they first land on Aina. It was a puzzle... 

The women of the WFM could actually choose to be pregnant again, but nobody does. It's all done with incubators now, right from conception. The concept of parent has followed the concept of gender equality into oblivion. It's so sad... 

Kyle's future existence is still a puzzle. The WFM has about forty million citizens now, and about forty million sexpets, the devolved males of the species. In the last loop, Havika interpreted the X-tree writing to mean that the Blue Ring launched an X-tree snippet that repaired a male zygote in one of the ten current WFM city breeding facilities. But Isabelle insists that can't be right. She's become our medical expert, and she's sure there must be some other explanation... 

The WFM is interesting in how they're settled around the globe. They have half their population scattered in ten major cities averaging two million each. The two largest cities are in Korea (Ulsan the world capitol with 4.0 million, and Kangnung with 2.6 million), and the smallest is in Hawaii with 1.0 million. The other twenty million non- city citizens are scattered around the globe in a hundred cluster-towns ranging from 100,000 to 300,000 in size. But all their critical technology, the root internet hubs, the incubator laboratories, all the primary schools for children, the fission reactors... It's all city based.

Each city incubator lab produces about two thousand children a month. Until the child reaches adulthood, everything is very regimented. But once you become an adult, it's a nice life being a citizen of the WFM, though I think I'd find it boring. Most people make it to their two-hundredth birthday, and almost all the work is automated. There's almost no research going on either. It's a society were almost everybody puts in a few hours a week being a bureaucrat, and just lounges around otherwise. Lots of super-food plants everywhere... 

Each of the ten cities has an array of small underground pebble-bed helium-gas cooled fission reactors. Jim and Isabelle admire their design. Jim calls them very safe and efficient; Isabelle calls them elegant and refined. The cluster-towns get their energy from a combination of hydro-electric, solar, wind farms, and imported hydrogen from city disassociation plants. It's a clean, idyllic life. People paint and sculpt for recreation... There are a number of guilds that produce novels and multicast shows... The recreation guilds are centered around the Mediterranean area. They have yearly Olympics in Greece too... I'd be bored... 

Back at our arctic home, in addition to our war-room floor, we have a full floor dedicated to Earth monitoring. We have secret agents implanted in each of the ten root city-servers of the WFM network. Besides the two in Korea and the one at Honolulu, their other seven cities are near the old locations of Lima Peru (with 2.0 million citizens), Tokyo Japan (1.9 million), San Francisco and San Diego California (1.8 million each, also called the twin cities in the WFM), Cape Town, South Africa (1.7 million), and Jakarta Indonesia and Hong Kong China with 1.6 million each. The cities don't have these names, of course. But it's very close to where they are.

In addition to the ten cities, almost all of the hundred cluster-towns are situated at or very near the oceanic coastlines. Cindy figured out why. Her family used to own a shipping business in Hong Kong, 202,850 years ago. The WFM uses hydrogen jets for travel, but almost all commerce is done by shipping.

The cluster-town idea is something I like. Each one has a hub town of around a 100,000 people, and then six to eight satellite towns called wards. A ward is typically ten to thirty kilometers away from the hub town, and has 10,000 to 20,000 citizens. Roads connect each satellite town to the hub and nearly wards. Whether in a city or a cluster-town, it's all communal living. Everybody lives in apartment complexes. There are no private houses. None... 

The WFM loves the Mediterranean coastline. Thirty-four cluster-towns are there. Another thirty-one span the eastern seaboard of North America, all around the Caribbean and then up the coastline until well into Canada. The remaining thirty-five clusters (about seven million people) seem randomly scattered around the globe. Seventeen are along the coastline of Northern Europe, mostly in the former UK and France. There are six coastal towns along the southern horn of Africa near Cape Town, four cluster-towns each in India and Southeast Asia, and one in South America about a hundred eighty kilometers north of Lima city.

Only three cluster-towns are away from the coastline. One is at 305 meters above sea level on the great central plateau in Australia, just a few kilometers from Ayers Rock. Another one is in the American Rockies at around 1800 meters, near where Colorado Springs used to be. And the last one... well, it's smack-dab on the site of the ancient city of Chicago, along the western shore of what used to be Lake Michigan. The cluster- town was built as a testament to the WFM's expertise in restoring the ecology of the Earth. No thought at all for the Equalists they killed there with their tactical nukes, just a tribute to the engineering accomplishments in cleaning up the mess they made doing it. It's 175 meters above sea level.

"Dad, wake up!"

"Hmm?" I opened my eyes. My daughter Isabelle still looking eight years old was standing by my lounge chair. She was bending over me, a few inches from my face.

She gave me a sweet smile and an even sweeter kiss. "Sorry I'm late."

"Oh, that's okay. I was just day-dreaming. Your meeting with Jim go okay? What time is it?"

"Almost 10:30." Isabelle wrapped her arms around me. "Actually, I want to meet with just mom and Cindy now. Would you mind waiting a bit more?" She jumped me to the arctic before I could reply.



-------

Chapter 43


Isabelle's meeting with A'moth and Cindy wound up lasting the day. I had a friendly lunch with Jim and then we started playing chess in the afternoon. His understanding of physics is light-years ahead of me, but in chess we're about equals. We like to play game-thirty, thirty minutes on the chess clock for each of us, regardless of the number of moves. We have an unspoken rule not to use the clock to win drawn positions.

The women weren't coming out of their meeting, so Jim and I kept half an eye on Earth in the monitoring room and just kept playing. My final score for the afternoon was two wins, one loss, and three draws. The gals broke up their meeting just before dinner time.

We normally reserve the evenings for recreation time, various games or a movie, stuff like that. Isabelle picked one of her favorites that we lifted from the Hopewell archives, Titanic, and dreamed up some popcorn for everybody.

We like to cuddle with each other when we're watching movies, usually Jim with Cindy on one couch and A'moth, Isabelle and I together on another. But tonight, Isabelle drifted over to Jim and had him in the middle of a sandwich with Cindy. I was happy with that. The lights were turned way down low, and A'moth and I cuddled in our throw blanket and got a lot more sexy with each other than we would have if Isabelle were with us. After the movie we all headed off to bed. I asked A'moth once or twice in bed what their big meeting was about, but she just smiled and winked at me.

Ah, patience is a virtue. I fed her and orgasmed before falling to sleep, surrounded by her arms and love.

Later that night... 

Earth time: April 27, year 204,860 11:00 PM Antelope Freeway Standard Time

Jim climbed into bed tired and happy, his mind still idly reliving the scenes from the sinking of the Titanic. He was delighted a few moments later when Cindy joined him naked. Her hand was softly stroking his scrotum a few minutes later, as they were lost in a kiss full of promise.

Cindy smiled at Jim playfully. Jim nibbled on her ear and whispered into it, "So, what did Isabelle want to talk about?"

Cindy nibbled back. "Well, we spent the first hour talking about her meeting with you earlier in the morning."

"Oh yeah... She has a complete plan. It's brilliant. In three days, the WFM is about to make a rare and major change in their internet. It's the perfect time for us to start messing with their heads, start the random deletions and error insertions with their personnel files..."

Cindy nodded and laughed quietly. "Isabelle predicts one week before they switch back to their old protocols."

Jim laughed too. "Not that that will help them. Their new protocols aren't the problem. They know nothing of phased-shadow quantum effects. They'll never figure out what's happening."

"Yes! And in a few years, if we show up with fake ID... Well, by that time, they'll distrust their own records so much... Ha! Yes! I agree! Isabelle is brilliant!" Cindy was quiet for a moment. "The next thing we talked about, was Isabelle's conclusion that the Blue Ring could not have created an X-tree snippet to repair all the sick changes the WFM has made to the human Y-chromosome..."

Jim sighed. "Yes. I know. I don't understand what's going on either. Isabelle's reasoning is very persuasive. Maybe in some other time loops, I can imagine how events might be different... But not in our loop... The Blue Ring doesn't have any power outside of these slip bubbles... And the WFM reproductive labs are very well secured..."

Cindy kissed him and murmured, "That's what we were working on this afternoon. What if it wasn't an X-tree snippet? What if it were A'moth? After a few years of messing with the personnel files, we could slip her into the genetics labs..." Cindy's hand drifted down Jim's stomach to his groin. She began stroking his penis.

"Hmm, that's nice... But how could A'moth repair a Y-chromosome?"

Cindy began suckling his nipple, her hand becoming more insistent as he grew to a full erection. "She can remote teleport, even something as small as a sperm... But not repair... replace..."

"Hmm..." Jim suddenly gasped and shouted, "What?!!!"

Cindy kissed him fiercely and whispered, "It was Isabelle's idea. She thought it best if I asked you. A'moth agreed..."

"My gosh Cindy! Do you know what you're asking?!"

"Yes."

"But... but..."

Cindy sighed heavily. "He'll be your son. I know. Kyle will be your son. And you are the light of my life. Kyle will be my son too. Maybe not in genes, but spiritually, where it really matters..."

"But... But he'll be a slave!"

"Oh, it's even worse Jim, I know. His morals will be shaped by the WFM. He'll be a lone reasoning boy on a planet of women who will have no respect for him. And the WFM will teach him, teach him not to respect himself, respect his own goodness... But I also think... I also hope his adult life will be full of love and purpose. In the balance Jim, it will be a good life, one worthy of living..."

"A'moth has agreed to this?"

"Yes. She'll leave us, probably for years, and then risk the Nebraska channel to return. Isabelle is thinking of going too. She might even need her father. A lot of this is still very tentative. We have years of planning to do."

Jim was silent for a long time. Cindy released his penis and cuddled with him, brushing the back of her hand against his thigh. Jim's breath was ragged, his eyes moist with tears. "Is there no other way?"

Cindy shook her head no. "You have the only normal sperm on the planet. The WFM's version is an abomination, and Gary's sperm is more Chungieran than human... Jim?"

"Yeah?"

"You don't have to decide tonight. We have years..."

Jim tried to reply, but words failed him for the moment. He lay there panting, wiping his eyes and caressed by Cindy's love. "No... I think I want to decide now..." He was silent for a moment. "And I choose life... Life for Kyle... life for us... and life for a future beyond the loop..."

Cindy began weeping with him. She turned and laid her body upon him, both of them clutching each other fiercely. Cindy felt Jim's erection return and press into her pubic. She was surprised to feel herself washed by a wave in intense sexual heat. "Here..." she whispered, as she guided his erection into her moist folds. "Make love with me! Not just sex! Impregnate me! Pretend you're breeding me! I'll pretend too! Tonight, our son is conceived!"

Jim slipped inside her, his mind rolling in emotions and his body flush with a burning need to orgasm and create. He and Cindy thrusted against each other for timeless moments, and when his orgasm finally came, it was explosive, in his mind filling Cindy's womb with their hopes and dreams for the future.

Fourteen years later... 

Time: April 18, year 204,874 9:23 PM Peruvian Local Time

The old deputy director of the genetics labs scowled at the new recruit. "This is the SEVENTH time this year! Sink!" Then she looked a little embarrassed for using a curse word with a new recruit.

The young woman tilted her head to the left, the common gesture for a subordinate to signify agreement with a superior. The old woman gave her a brief grin and went back to looking at her monitor. After a while she said, "So Lisa, you studied and were assigned from Hong Kong?"

"Yes mistress."

"And what do the network e-techs in Hong Kong think about all these file errors?"

"You mean the J-5 versus J-6 protocols, mistress? I guess they're evenly divided, just as they are everywhere else. Half say it couldn't possibly be the cause, the other half say the coincidence is too large to ignore..."

"Yeah..." After a moment, the deputy sighed and spent the next several minutes typing. "There! Our lab director has delegated Ruling-Four authority to me. I've cleared all the inconsistencies. Lisa! You are now officially assigned to Alpha Peru Procreation Labs as Advanced Genetic Journeywoman."

A'moth smiled and gave the expected response. "Thank you mistress! I promise that my service will be diligent and true."

"Lisa, we run a tight lab here. Friendships among workers are tolerated, and what you do four days out of five is your own business, but your first slip-up on duty here will be your last!"

"I stand by my words mistress. You will find my work acceptable."

"Hmm... We'll see." She looked at the clock. "Are you ready for an immediate solo shift? This sinking system routed our two best AGJ's to Hawaii this morning! They were both due to work tonight's shift!"

"I'm fully qualified mistress. Solo will be no problem."

"We'll be monitoring your every move of course."

A'moth sighed, her mind flashing to the micro-packets of lightly-anesthetized sperm and ovum embedded in her uniform. Gary had walked south from the polar home carrying it less than two hours ago. Isabelle's calculations were that maximum vitality would occur in another five hours. After all the years of planning, everything was falling into place perfectly... A'moth glanced at the collar and three-star e-tech rank of the woman before her. "My work will be diligent and true mistress. You have my word."

"Very well..." The deputy smiled and finally lightened up. "It's a relief to have you here. It's not our fault, but our director will catch the sink if Alpha Peru misses its quota."

A'moth nodded sympathetically.

"You familiar with the area?"

A'moth couldn't help but smile inwardly. She was born less than two hundred kilometers north of her current location, in 3000 B.C. at what became the ancient city of Caral, almost 208,000 years ago. "I've been here before. It was a long time ago."

"Fine..." There was a long pause. "We're breeding males tonight..."

"Ah..." A'moth nodded. "Standard eightfold rotations?"

"That's right. A full deck too, one-hundred fifty rotations... Males..." The old woman gave a sideways shrug in a vague expression of scorn... 

"Oh, I don't mind mistress. I will remain alert and do excellent service, even with males."

"That's the right attitude Lisa! Welcome aboard!"

By 2 AM, A'moth was half-way through her six-hour shift. The system control console flashed a recommendation for her to take another five-minute break. A'moth keyed in the accept code and relaxed, closing her eyes and stretching out in her ultra-comfortable command chair. She thought about her new job.

"We were right," A'moth thought silently. "But it's still something to experience, even after all the schooling. It's all busy work. This society is so incredibly automated! Except for Child Control, 99% of the work is busy work..."

The city in practice was running itself, but layers of extraneous human control and decision making had been layered into the automation in order to satisfy the human need for accomplishment. A'moth's job for the night was to "control" the fertilization of 1200 ova and oversee the delivery of 1200 male zygotes into waiting incubators. Alpha Peru would normally have three such runs a month. Their monthly target was to produce 3,000 male live-births after attrition. Additional culling of the males would occur afterwards.

Eight ova would be fertilized simultaneously, in a four-stage process. In front of A'moth were four primary buttons controlling the system, with a green light above each button. At the start of each rotation, her job was to push the first button, and then wait for the green light before pushing the next button. After getting the fourth green light, she was expected to assign a common "name" to each batch, and then push the reset button when she was ready for the next rotation.

Without manual overrides, each rotation needed less than eighty seconds to complete, but the job was still thought strenuous enough to be assigned to two people. An identical control station lay dark and dormant on A'moth's left.

There were several ultra-high-tech monitors before her, and she also had numerous sensors diagnosing the quality of the ova and sperm. While the sperm were plentiful, the system would pre-select ova from a limited and dwindling supply, offering A'moth what it judged the best quality. Since males were being bred tonight, all the ova were Class-B. There was a worldwide critical supply of Class-A ova. They were all reserved for breeding females.

A'moth sighed as she opened her eyes a crack and saw she still had two minutes on her break. The job did not have to be completely mind-numbing. There were simple-to-use controls and joysticks that let her do very complex selection and positioning operations. In a normal male-breeding shift, A'moth knew it was common for the two operators to reject perhaps five to ten ova each, ones passed by the system but so badly deformed they would obviously fail in the incubators. As sole shift operator, all anybody was expecting of A'moth tonight was for her to complete the deck and not bother with manual quality overrides.

But a love for the sanctity of life was buried deeply in A'moth's soul, and in compassion she was exerting a great effort to manually guide the ova through the process. Their quality was poor, and though still viable the automatic positioning system would have ruptured their thin walls. A'moth was not quite as fast as the automatic process, but many hundreds of the delicate eggs would have ruptured without her care. A'moth's rupture count was currently six. She had also rejected 237 ova as unsuitable for fertilization.

As her break ended, A'moth decided to make her move. The eight new ova of Rotation #106 were before her. A'moth judged one badly deformed, but she did not target it for rejection. The egg cell passed its final system certification as a Class-B ova, and slid into the injection tube. A'moth did a double remote teleport with the ova first, flushing the Class-B into a sewer line and transferring Cindy's egg cell to the tip of the injection nozzle. A second later she did a similar double remote with the sperm. Her monitors showed the new sperm dancing in anticipation at the chemical signature of the ripe egg.

Twenty seconds later A'moth watched the conception-birth of Jim Arnold's son as one of his sperm won the race and Cindy's ovum was fertilized. A few seconds later, her hand was keyed above the display to name the batch. She had selected Kyle from the list, but her hand paused before she hit the accept key.

"My free will," A'moth thought. "It's here. I can feel it. No power is forcing me to name these eight children Kyle. But what is my desire? Do I want to fight the loop's destiny, force it to pick another path? No, of course not." A'moth hit the accept key. "Happy birthday Kyle! Long life!"

At Rotation #122, A'moth started running into serious quality trouble with the remaining ova supply. She focused on her work, ignoring the clock and rejecting her break recommendations... 

It was 4:53 AM before she partially completed Rotation #147 and then gave up. She thought the entire remaining set of Class-B ova was garbage and she typed in a recommendation that it be flushed. She looked at the clock and saw she still had six minutes left on her shift. The normal practice would be for her to remain at her station for the full shift, doing nothing or chatting with the second operator. But as sole shift operator, especially so close to the end of the shift, it would be acceptable for her to leave early.

But A'moth had trained extensively both with mock-ups at her arctic home and later with the actual equipment at her college in Hong Kong, and she was not completely satisfied with her unit's performance. She switched her monitors to tactical-system diagnostic mode and then frowned when the post-operations check she ordered gave complete green clearance to the equipment.

A'moth punched in requests for several higher-level diagnostics targeting specific components of the system. She went through several cycles of troubleshooting the system. After studying all the results, she typed in three recommendations, two for alignment servicing and one for an injection subsystem replacement.

A'moth had no authority to effect repairs, but the system considered the new test results and suggestions. Minutes later, A'moth smiled in satisfaction as two components on her tactical display switched from green to yellow, and another to red. All three of her recommendations had been accepted.

She looked at the clock, 6:17 AM. The 7:00 AM shift would start in forty-three minutes, breeding females with the Class-A ova. Females were conceived one ovum at a time, and the eggs were in much better condition. A'moth's repairs would take forty minutes to make. She had just missed upsetting the lab's breeding schedule. She sat back and glanced at her Class-B reject display. The count was at 921, not counting the several thousand still remaining in the original pool.

A'moth sighed, thinking of her commitment to join the WFM society. She had been in Hong Kong for three years, starting her masquerade as a sixteen-year old exiting the primary school system. It was right at the age limit of what she could fake, but the WFM was a very lonely society and A'moth's timeless appearance in age had never been questioned. She spent three years in college interacting with almost no one except the automatic teaching machines, earning her Journeywoman degree and building a solid identity before transferring to Peru.

A few minutes later the door to the ops-room opened and a woman approached. A'moth saw her uniform was of Level-4 rank and she guessed the woman might be the Lab director. "Lisa, follow me," the woman said simply. A'moth followed her to a very opulent office.

As A'moth sat quietly, the woman spent the next fifteen minutes working with monitors and reviewing A'moth's work. A'moth took a closer look at the command stars on the woman's collar, fourth-level e-tech. She finally turned to A'moth and said, "Your days of breeding males are over!"

"Mistress?!"

"Yes, and if I have any say in the matter, and I do, you'll never work another AGJ shift again! Look at your rejection count!"

A'moth lightly read the woman emotions. She seemed very excited but not angry. "The quality mistress! I did the best I could!"

"Just give me a candid estimate Lisa. How many viable zygotes do we have from your run?"

"About eight hundred I'm comfortable with, another three hundred probables. The last fifty are very questionable. I had to give up and cut the rotations short, but we'll probably get a few non-deformed births from the last rotations so I let them go."

"Give me a number!"

A'moth thought for a moment. "Acceptable quality males that will reach maturity, 1010 very probable and 1060 if we're lucky, my best guess 1030."

"And if you ran a straight deck, without all your manipulations?"

"Less than a third! Three hundred at most! Mistress! These Class-B ova are so delicate! Isn't my work acceptable?"

The woman burst of laughing, a bright smile covering her face. "Acceptable?! Oh Lisa! I've looked at all the ova you've rejected. I don't think a single one was viable. Your control skills are remarkable! And just at important, your dedication is too. You saved this run from disaster. And your post operations diagnostic work was also superb. Lisa! I want to recommend you for Genetic e-tech training, starting immediately!"

A'moth sat back and sighed in relief. "Thank you mistress! I'd like that very much!" A'moth had realized years ago that an e-tech position for her would be infinitely more valuable to her group, but the e-techs were a tight group and well known to each other. It was not possible to inject a bogus identity directly into such a small and elite society.

The woman smiled. "Just call me Endera, Dr. Endera if non e-techs are around."

"Thank you Endera."

"Lisa, do you know the number of citizens at command level?"

"Uh, it's not public knowledge."

"I know. Guess."

A'moth intentionally guessed very close. "About forty thousand?"

"Good guess! I think the actual number is just over forty-one thousand. Now guess the ratio of rulers to e-techs."

A'moth decided her next guess should be reasonable but not too close. "Most will be e- techs... Eighty percent?"

"Not bad. I think the actual numbers are around... Wait... Why estimate when I can look it up..." The director typed on her console for a moment. "There are currently 13,995 commanders and 27,342 e-techs. Most of the commanders are embedded in Child Control."

A'moth nodded. "Makes sense."

"It does, doesn't it? Lisa, if you're as good as I think you are, I think you can make first- level e-tech in six months."

A'moth smiled happily. She knew the first tier of the true engineers on the planet had about 22,000 members. She also knew the supreme governing body of the WFM was currently composed of nine Level-6 commanders and seven Level-6 e-techs. There were no Level-1 commanders, but they outnumbered the e-techs in all the higher levels.

"Lisa, before I tell you more, and there's a lot more to tell, I must ask you. The life of an e-tech, particularly in this era a Genetic e-tech, is filled with real work. Your skills are so valuable... No, I shouldn't say more, not yet."

"Endera... You're thinking of the quality crisis?"

"Ah... You see it?"

"Of course. The evidence is overwhelming. And I'm not talking about tonight's Class- B's either."

Dr. Endera nodded. "The data is hidden. Just ten thousand years ago, over half of our current Class-A ova production would have been considered Class-B. And as for males, well, rumor has it we may abandon breeding them within a hundred years, except with Class-A ova for a minimum fertility stock. We're right at the cusp of losing viability for male breeding..."

A'moth stared at the woman in compassion. A'moth had studied the data for years, the complete data, and knew far more than Dr. Endera. The WFM's methodology for reproduction was cascading to a system-wide crash. In another few thousand years, their Class-A quality would be at their current Class-B levels, and A'moth thought the WFM would go extinct soon afterwards.

Of course, the time loop was due for Earth-reset in two thousand years, so in some sense it didn't matter, but A'moth's heart still broke at the thought that these people were so blind in their rejection of bi-sexual reproduction that they couldn't see the only way out of their death spiral.

The two talked well into the morning. A'moth began her new training two days later, and was delighted with its intensity.



-------

Chapter 44


Nine years later... 

Time: February 27, year 204,883 7:52 PM Peruvian Local Time

The door opened and an angry young girl stomped into her dorm room. She then froze in astonishment and yelled, "Who the sink are you?!"

"Hi! My Short is 714. I've been transferred here from Kangnung."

"The plunge?! They're transferring kids now?!"

"So it would seem. Hello 825."

"You expect a sinking hello back?! You have a lot to learn! Get the plunge out of here!"

Short-714 shrugged her shoulders. "This is my home... And I like to learn. I don't mind."

The other girl looked momentarily bewildered at this strange eight-year-old girl on the second bed. She was calmly lying prone on top of the blankets in her pajamas reading a book. Her bare feet were up and relaxed in the air behind her. Short-825 couldn't understand why the girl wasn't running from the room in fright. She tried to sound menacing as she whispered, "You like to learn, huh? Well, listen and learn this 714. You really, really don't want to room with me."

"I was assigned here. It's not my choice. But really, I don't mind."

"Sinking yet!" The young girl slammed the door and threw herself down on the other bed in the small two-child dorm room. "You don't mind sinking yet! Do you know who I am?"

"Just your Long and Short. Your full ID was listed in my transfer log. 349877535:999:784:007-825."

"You sinking piece of filth! You've memorized my long?! What are you, a 999 too?! And tell me, you sinking 714, do you know what that double zero means?!"

Short-714 sighed. "Please, I'm not your enemy. You don't have to abuse me. And to answer your questions, yes to both. My aptitude index is 999, just like yours, and I know what that double-zero means. You've been black flagged. And seven is the code for O.C.D."

The other girl whipped out her black ID card waved it wildly in 714's face. "Sinking yes! Sinking Oppositional Conduct Disorder! So why the plunge don't you plunge yourself out of here?!"

Short-714 stared at Short-825 for a long moment, and then sat up on her bed and faced her directly. "I don't like wars. I don't like to fight them. There was a reason I was looking forward to meeting you, but if you want, we can pretend tonight that neither of us exists, and I'll request a transfer to another room first thing tomorrow morning. It might be a minor social demerit for me, but you've been black flagged. The last thing you need is... No... Wait..." Short-714 gave a long sigh. "It's not my place to judge. I apologize. Just tell me what you want."

"I want you to go plunge yourself!"

Short-714 astonished Short-825 by starting to laugh. "Oh, I don't think so! But I do understand you. Goodnight 825. I'll talk to housing in the morning." Short-714 turned off her reading light and went under her blanket, facing the wall by her bed.

Short-825 was quiet for a while, then rooted around for her bathrobe, hissed "Sink you!" and slammed the door on her way out to the common showers. Short-714 lay quietly, tired from her long day but far from sleep. Short-825 returned about a half hour later and did not slam the door again. She read briefly, and then turned off the light and lay on her bed.

The hours passed slowly. A few minutes past midnight, Short-714 heard the faintest of a whisper, "Asleep?"

Short-714 turned and faced the other bed in the darkness. She whispered back, "No. It's been a really big day for me..."

"Yeah... so you're a 999 too huh? You're the first one I've met in years..."

"Really? A city this size... two million... Shouldn't there be some others?"

"Oh, there are a few. Child Control keeps me isolated from them..."

"Oh... I've been isolated too... I was raised in a child incubator... the nine-year ones..."

"The plunge! Yes! I've heard about Korea! You've spent your whole life isolated in a tube?!"

"Yes. They cracked my seals less than a week ago. After the usual gestation incubator, I was put in a tube for another eight years and three months. All my life, my studying, my exercising, my social interactions... They were all computer simulations. The control systems used electrodes to develop my muscles..."

"The plunge! That doesn't sound fair..."

Short-714 sat up on her bed. "Well, maybe not. It's efficient though." She paused for a moment. "It doesn't sound fair what they did to you either, the isolation I mean. And the Black Flag..."

"Huh? Oh..." Short-825 shrugged. "Yeah, well... You don't know... There was an incident a few years ago... With me and some of the other 999's... Things got pretty ugly..."

"Oh..."

"Yeah... An incubator kid, huh? Gosh, I feel like excrement, the way I abused you. Welcome to the real world 714."

Short-714 felt a deep pang of guilt over her deception, but she kept it well hidden. "Yeah, thanks..."

"May I ask you a question?"

"Sure."

"When I first walked in... You said... You said you had a reason... for wanting to meet me... What was it?"

"Well... I guess I do know a bit more about you. On the jet from Kangnung, I pulled up your public bio from your Long..."

"There's nothing in there..."

"It's got what you listed for a vocation, physics. That's what I've listed too."

"Get out! We must be the only two 999's on the planet listing physics!"

Short-714 yawned. "Yes... For our age, very likely... What is it, about one a year for the whole planet?"

"Just about... You sound tired."

"I'm too excited for sleep. I'm going to be beat tomorrow."

"Tomorrow... yeah... uh, 714?"

"Uh huh?"

"Tomorrow morning... if I try to hold off with the foul language for a while... maybe could you skip going to housing?"

"Sure. I'd like that very much." Short-714 yawned again. "Goodnight 825."

"Yeah..." Conversation ended for a while in the dark room. There was the sound of distant thunder outside their windows, the Peruvian summer rain beating lightly against the plasti-glass. "714... May I ask you something else... something really personal?"

"Sure."

"Have you picked your adult name yet?"

"I haven't told anybody..." There was a long pause. "I've picked Isabelle."

"Oh wow! What an ancient name! Nice!" There was another long pause. "May I call you Isabelle?"

"Well... In here... Maybe not in public."

"No, of course not. I don't want to get you into trouble." Silent minutes drifted by. "I'm starting to think of myself as Brianna."

Isabelle gave a quick gasp before she could stop herself. "She IS the one!" she thought.

Brianna completely misinterpreted the gasp. "Yes, I know! I'm black flagged! I'll be harvested in October because of my double-zeros... Still, I don't want to die as a number..."

"No, of course not... I'll turn nine in October too..." Isabelle yawned heavily. "Goodnight..."

"Yeah... Goodnight. Sorry about my language. It won't happen again."

"It's okay..." Isabelle gave a deep yawn and sighed. The night drifted on. Isabelle murmured half asleep, "Thank you Brianna, for accepting me..." Brianna spent a long time staring at the wall, her eyes wide open. It was the first time anyone had called her by her chosen name... and the first time she could remember that someone had treated her with respect and compassion... 

When Isabelle woke the next morning the dorm room was deserted. She washed and headed off to breakfast, but was stopped by a Child Control executive just before she reached the commons. "714! Follow me!" The two walked into the adult section in silence. Isabelle was soon sitting in a low chair before a very imposing desk.

"I've been reading your transfer papers."

"Yes mistress."

The executive frowned. "Call me Dr. Ceres."

"Yes Dr. Ceres. Thank you."

"My! For an incubator-9, you are a polite one! I'll talk to you straight, 714. I don't know why you were sent here, and I don't think I want you here. The home peninsula doesn't transfer children period, let alone the nine-year incubator stock. To be frank, the techniques used to breed you have a very poor reputation. Most incubator-9 attempts are classified... unusable..."

Short-714 nodded. "I know. I expect the method will be abandoned when the trial period ends. And it should be. It's a horrible way to grow up."

Dr. Ceres stared at the child. "Are you damning yourself for execution?"

"No, of course not. I enjoy life. I was referring to the process that created me. With all respect Dr. Ceres, I can't change what I am, only what I will become. What else would you have me do?"

"I... err..." Dr. Ceres kept staring. Isabelle decided to just smile back. She noticed the epaulets on Dr. Ceres' shoulders indicated she had Level-three command authority. Eventually the smile was contagious. The doctor smiled back. "I'm beginning to look at you in a completely different light 714. Your social stability index is listed as 999, in addition to your aptitude index. I've never seen a double 999 before. And considering your breeding, I was certain your scores were just another of these awful system errors..."

Isabelle nodded. "I'd be happy if you want to run any tests..."

"I'm running one right now."

"Agreed. Perhaps I should have said I'd be happy if you want to run additional tests. But I didn't want to sound..."

"Too intelligent?"

"No, not that, like a know-it-all brat."

Dr. Ceres gasped. "Ah... Excellent 714. I see your 999 social score is well deserved. I'll assume your aptitude index is likewise accurate. The fact that you are incubator-9 stock is incredible, but... I'm considering clearing you for junior command training."

Isabelle blinked in surprise. "Thank you Dr. Ceres! But I really do love physics."

"Indeed? 714, think! You might be one of the rulers of the planet!"

Isabelle sighed and finally said, "It's a lot to think about. Can I do both?"

Dr. Ceres's eyebrows shot up and she laughed, the first time in many days. "Both?! Well... Here perhaps your experience with the incubator has failed you. But I'll let you try, just to teach you what failure is. Let me offer you something else that I'm sure you will enjoy. I'm moving you out of 825's room immediately!" The doctor was shocked a second time when the child gasped and looked distressed. "Don't tell me?!"

"Yes, we've become friends."

"Impossible! 825 doesn't make friends!"

"I speak with my heart Dr. Ceres. And it's not just me. I think I can help her."

"Help her?! Do you know she's damned?"

"The Black Flag, of course. But we have almost eight months..."

Dr. Ceres sat back in her chair and thought. "We?" she murmured. "Interesting... Very interesting... I need time to consider this. You're dismissed."

"You have my gratitude for your consideration Dr. Ceres." Isabelle quickly left the office.



-------

Chapter 45


Two months later... 

Time: May 4, year 204,883 2:27 PM Peruvian Local Time

Isabelle sat in Dr. Ceres outer office, glancing at the clock occasionally. She had been tersely ordered to report for a two o'clock meeting, and it was unusual for Dr. Ceres to be late. Suddenly Dr. Ceres walked in from the hall and with a quick hand gesture waved at Isabelle to follow her into her inner office.

"Sit down after you close the door 714," the doctor ordered as Isabelle walked into the room. Isabelle was soon sitting before the large desk. She tried to smile.

Dr. Ceres did not smile back. "After two months of analysis, Korea still can not understand why you were sent to us. The investigation continues. Meanwhile we ran a full historical profile on you. We checked everything."

Isabelle remained silent.

"We compared your DNA to the child taken from the incubator three months ago. Not just comparing the digital records but making new tests with the original blood samples. The vaults also had blood from your gestation date eight years ago and we tested those samples too. Again, not just the digital records but the actual preserved blood samples. Guess what we found."

Isabelle swallowed. Her throat felt suddenly dry. "Is there something wrong with my genes?"

"A question is not a guess!"

Isabelle fought to keep her emotions under control. "You're quite right, it's not. I apologize. I will guess the genes I have now match the genes I had when I was born." Isabelle shrugged and thought she might look as bewildered as she felt.

Dr. Ceres stared at the child. "Correct! I was so sure! I was so sure we'd get different results! But we now have irrefutable proof you are the same child that as the infant that entered the incubator-9 tube eight years ago!"

"Well of course I am! Otherwise, what? Dr. Ceres, did you think I'd been switched somehow?!"

"Yes!"

"Oh... On purpose or by accident? No, wait! It's not my place to interrogate you. Dr. Ceres, what do you want from me?!"

For the first time, Isabelle saw a glint of pity in the woman's eyes. "714, I want your ID." Isabelle silently handed over her white ID card. Dr. Ceres handed her a red ID in return. "714, you are hereby officially informed that you've been Red-Flagged. You are going to be placed under the control of a team of ten Level-5 e-techs, the world's leading experts in reproductive security. They're going to pick you and your genes apart looking for some answers."

"To the question of what? That I might be a mutation?"

Dr. Ceres nodded. "That's our preliminary finding... Do you have your own suspicions?"

Isabelle shrugged. "Some things are easier for me than others... I've sometimes wondered... Red flagged? So I'm going to be executed?"

"Very likely 714, you're on track for it... But unlike 825, your final execution decision still needs further review. When you girls reach nine years of age, both your ovaries will be harvested. That part of you might survive into the next generation. It'll be up to the e- techs to decide."

Isabelle grimaced and spoke in a hoarse whisper, "Is there no hope then?"

Dr. Ceres saw tears in Isabelle's eyes, though her body was outwardly calm. "Well... I guess there might be... It depends on whether all your mutations are judged positive. So far our tests have revealed both positive changes and other changes that were once judged negative but are now officially classified as neutral. But that's up to the e-techs to decide, if you survive your ninth-year control gate, and if your ova will be used if you don't."

"And in the meantime? What about my life here? What about 825?"

Dr. Ceres tilted her head at the questions. "Ah yes, 825... You can't hide it, can you? Not that you try... To answer your first question, as I've said before, that will be up to the e-techs. As of today, you have been transferred. You are out of my control. As to your second question... I do know 825 is trying to control herself, working harder at it than she ever has before... but Black Flags are almost never rescinded. The circumstances have to be exceptional... 714... You feel compassion for her, don't you?"

"Of course. I study with her, live with her, sleep with her. Therefore she is my... family..."

Dr. Ceres nodded and then looked bewildered. "That concept is so foreign to normal people..." She then shrugged her shoulders. "But compassion by itself is no longer a Red-Flag emotion. Incubator-9 stock has many problems, but strong empathy and compassion are not among them. The fact that you have them in such abundance... The e-techs have concluded it's a clear signature of mutation. They also say your genetic markers are ancient, a throwback. It's happened recently with a male too..."

Isabelle replied quietly, "Yes, I know, the talking male Kyle. I've heard of him. The other kids in our dorm wing are teasing 825 to take him for a pet-mate, so they can be executed together when they reach nine-years old... Perhaps they'll tease me now too, that we will all die together..."

Dr. Ceres sighed. "I really don't know 714, what will become of you." Her face hardened. "Return to your room and pack your bag. Transport is scheduled to take you to the genetics labs at 5:30 PM. Be ready for them when they arrive. 714, you are no longer my concern. Dismissed."

Isabelle returned to her dorm and packed. She had very few personal items. They all fit easily into a single small duffle bag. By 3:20 PM she was finished, and she sat quietly at her desk, waiting for the call from Child Transport and gazing out her dorm window. The view of the Pacific Ocean through her window was very beautiful.

The door behind her opened, and then slammed shut. Isabelle heard Brianna gasp as she saw Isabelle's bag packed on the bed. In a breaking voice, Brianna whispered, "So the rumors are true?"

Isabelle nodded. "Transport will pick me up in less than two hours."

"Red-flag? Is that true too?"

Isabelle nodded again.

"Show me!"

Isabelle pulled out her bright red card. "Brianna..."

"Sinking excrement Red-flag?!" Brianna was on the verge of screaming. "These pieces of filth deserve to be plunged!"

"Brianna, please! You've made so much progress! Wait! Where are you going?!"

Brianna shrieked, "We're both plunged Isabelle! I'm going to do some plunging back!"

"What?! No you're not! Brianna, stop!" Isabelle threw down her dreaded ID card and jumped out of her chair, running and catching Brianna just before she got to the door. She hugged her and whispered, "Please, please, talk with me first..."

"Oh Isabelle, what's the use?!" Brianna sobbed.

"Please Brianna... Don't throw it all away... All we've worked on... We've worked so hard... Please... Don't throw it all away... Please..." A moment later they were both sitting on Brianna's bed, Isabelle holding Brianna in a deep hug.

"I don't know how you can be so calm about this," whispered Brianna as she cried. "Red-flag means the same thing as Black-flag."

Isabelle nodded, knowing that the only difference was that Black was for behavior and attitude executions and Red was for medical rejections. They would both need a Level-4 commander to stop their deaths. Isabelle stroked Brianna head and whispered back, "Brianna, we have five months, more... Hope is not lost! Please don't give up..."

"I've worked so hard... It's so hard..."

Isabelle leaned over and kissed Brianna's cheek. Brianna blinked in surprise. Isabelle's mind wandered to the fact that her dorm room had been bugged for months. She stood up. "Come on! We have time! Let's take a walk on the beach!"

A short while later the two girls were walking down the deserted beach in their shorts. It was mid autumn in the Southern Hemisphere, but they were only twelve degrees below the equator and the day was very warm, almost 90 F. They held their sandals in one hand and held each other's hand with the other. A stiff sea breeze was flapping their shorts and thin tops and blowing their hair towards the land. They entwined their fingers with each other as they held hands, and they walked without speaking along the beach at the edge of the surf... 

"Oh Isabelle, I've worked so hard, at not being angry..."

"I know. And you're making great progress. Please don't give up."

"How can I do that?" Brianna remained silent, comforted by loving touch of Isabelle's hand in hers and the beauty of the ocean and dunes around her. She collected herself and thought about how Isabelle had kissed her. She looked up and the gulls overhead. "Isabelle, how do you do it?"

"Remain hopeful? It's my choice, isn't it? It's your choice too."

"I don't like choosing insane optimism! Your hope has no foundation!"

Isabelle sighed as she gazed at the ocean. "Yes it does. You just haven't got the perspective to see it." She paused for a moment to breathe in deeply the fresh salt air. She smiled as the clean cold ocean brine swirled and foamed around her bare feet.

"Oh yeah?! Well, illumine me! I'm listening!"

"Fine!" Isabelle took a few moments to collect her thoughts. "There're two ways to see hope, I think. The first way is to consider that the adults are our enemy, and we are at war with them."

Brianna was silent as she walked, looking down and staring at the sand. As they walked, they drifted a few feet away from the surf. Brianna watched the footprints she and Isabelle were making, silently considering her roommate's words. "I like this first way... Tell me more."

"Brianna, in war, it's always better to out-think your enemies than to outfight them, and if you destroy your enemies' definition of who you truly are, you become invincible."

Brianna smiled at the sight of the crying gulls above them. "Huh?!"

Isabelle turned her head away from Brianna, gazing at the grass covered dunes. "Think of warfare as an art-form. The highest art-form in war is not to attack your enemies, but to attack your enemies' strategy. Make what they are doing exactly the wrong thing for them to do to reach their goals. Try to use their own energy against them."

Brianna gazed out at the ocean. "Yeah... Yeah... Neat! You learned this in an incubator?!"

Isabelle admired the white fluffy clouds above her, smiling at them as they blew inland to the east. "Uh... Not exactly... From real life..."

"Hmm... I think I can do this... And what's the second way to hope?"

"This is even trickier... The key to the second way is to realize it's our choice, whether we even have enemies or not."

Brianna idly kicked at the sand. "Huh?!"

"The world Brianna! It's full of people's desires and goals and visions of what reality should look like! It's so turbulent! And in the turbulence, windows of opportunity are constantly opening and closing. And almost everything is beyond our control, and so much is beyond even our directed influence. But we own our free will! Our attitudes and our responses to the world around us can be anything we want them to be! We don't have to hate! We don't have to define an enemy! At the core, it's our choice!"

"But... It would be so impossibly difficult not to hate..."

Isabelle and Brianna continued their walk in silence. "No! Not impossible... It's a discipline, but the rewards are fabulous. And even within the discipline you can still choose to hate. But you will own your hatred, and you will own the results of your hatred. There's an ancient word for this discipline. It's called being proactive."

"I... I dimly see what you're getting at... I think I like the first way better."

Isabelle bent down and picked up a seashell with her hand carrying her sandals. She gazed idly at it for a moment. "Then be smart! Act smart! Our goal is survival, and we have to outthink our enemy! And we need to be really, really clever if we're going to win the war..." The two girls continued to walk in silence. "Brianna, I love you..."

Isabelle stopped and looked at the sun. She spoke out loud for the first time, "Ah, look at the time. We should be heading back... Want some exercise?"

The two girls let go of their hands and turned around. They began running back to their dorm room, the Pacific surf crashing around their flashing legs, cooling their bare feet and washing the sand from their calves.

"Outthink, yeah..." thought Brianna as she raced, her young body enjoying the release of her pent-up energy. "Yeah..."



-------

Chapter 46


Two hours later... 

Time: May 4, year 204,883 6:30 PM Peruvian Local Time

After an uneventful trip, Child Transport dropped Isabelle off at the office of the top Genetic e-tech of the city. The secretary electronically signed the transfer log, and then gestured for Isabelle to enter the inner office. As Isabelle did, she heard a soft hiss as two layers of doors closed and sealed the entrance behind her. She looked around the new room.

The opulent office was somewhat dim with the panoramic windows shielded with blinds. There was a large desk with a lone woman sitting behind it, working with a monitor. She bore the rank of a Level-5 e-tech on her collar. There was also a single chair obviously positioned for someone to sit in, and after a moment Isabelle did just that.

The woman did not look at Isabelle at first. She ignored her completely as she worked at her desk. Isabelle sat patiently as the minutes flowed by, waiting for the e-tech to speak first.

The woman finally did. "This room is completely bug-free now, no listening devices, no microwaves are bouncing off the windows. I guarantee we are not being recorded or observed. So tell me Isabelle, what are your thoughts?"

Isabelle stared at the five stars on the woman's collar and then smiled. "Gee mom, five stars! Nice! I don't know whether to hug you or salute you!"

A'moth glanced down at her collar and smiled. "Yeah. Two years is the absolute minimum time between promotions. I just made five-star a month ago..."

A'moth and Isabelle were soon locked in a fierce embrace. "Oh, my true daughter..." A'moth murmured. "My dear, precious daughter..." She kissed the top of Isabelle's head. "Ah! Have you grown?" she whispered.

Isabelle nodded, burying her face into her mother's body. "Yep! Over a centimeter, in just two months! I'm finally doing it! After all the decades at Antelope Freeway and the arctic, I'm finally aging again!" Isabelle finally let go of her mom and headed back to her chair. "How's dad doing?"

"Fine," said A'moth as she sat back at her desk. "... still hanging out at Acapulco. It's funny. He and I joked once, about how he'd like to spend some time there. But I don't think he ever planned on nine years..."

At the end of her college years at the Genetic Institute of Hong Kong, A'moth jumped to the North Pole after her plane landed in Peru and met Gary as he walked out of the arctic home. After three years, A'moth needed to be fed, Gary was carrying Jim's sperm and Cindy's ovum. Gary's skills at teleporting would also be needed to carry out their master plan.

Over the next five years, Gary's powers increased dramatically. He was still locked at a range of a little over twenty-three kilometers, but within that sphere he had almost unlimited power. As a test, he once remote teleported a ten-ton rock from twenty-two kilometers south of him and a hundred meters below sea level to a similar spot twenty- two kilometers north of him in a single jump. He could also speed jump to any location within his sphere, even locations never visited. After years of practice, he could comfortably travel around the planet at twenty kilometers a second, enabling him to be anywhere on the planet in a thousand seconds.

The Caribbean gulf had a dozen cluster-towns, but the Pacific coastline from San Diego to Caral Peru was totally deserted. And with his infallible sense of all people within twenty-three kilometers, it was very easy for Gary to remain completely hidden around the Acapulco bay area. With a jump-line to the bay of 4,014 kilometers from her office in Lima, A'moth could be with her husband in the blink of an eye if necessary. And with a Great Circle path of 4083 kilometers, Gary could easily make the trip himself in less than four minutes.

With Jim and Cindy's help with information over the web, Gary used remote-teleporting to switch certain blood samples in a Korean vault with Isabelle's blood. The group targeted one of the incubator-9 tubes for their mission, teleporting a deceased infant out of the tube and using their phased-shadow quantum techniques from the arctic to fool the Korean computers into thinking the tube still had a live occupant.

A few days before the tube was to be unsealed, Isabelle left her arctic home and joined her mom and dad. After all the years of training for her mission, Gary remote-teleported Isabelle into the empty tube from twenty-three kilometers away, seconds before its seals were broken.

The one part of their grand plan that could not be thought out in advance was how to find and support the future Brianna in finding Kyle and falling in love with him. In the end, Jim said they would have to rely on the time loop to find the path of least resistance in its grand motion towards its destiny. A'moth now thought that Jim's faith was justified. His guess at who Brianna was had been proven accurate... 

Two of the seven Level-6 e-techs on the Ruling Council were in genetics, as well as ten of the thirty-five Level-5 e-techs. The science of genetics was critical to the WFM's survival, and there was one Level-5 Genetic e-tech at each city.

A'moth now reported directly to the Supreme Ruling Council. Her rapid rise through the ranks was based in part on her scientific expertise, but mostly on her seemingly godlike skills in playing politics. With Jim and Cindy's abilities to monitor all communications with phased-shadow quantum agents, A'moth was in the ultimate poker position. She could see everybody's cards, and no one could see hers... 

Jim and Cindy were now spoofing the multimedia displays from A'moth's office that were being sent to the government offices in the other nine cities, using fractal algorithms to repeat variations of Isabelle's and A'moth's first quiet minutes together. Jim typed a message in his arctic home that appeared on A'moth's monitor.

"Jim and Cindy send you their love," A'moth said with a smile.

"Tell them I send my love in return."

A'moth typed for a moment and then sighed. "So tell me, how did Brianna take the news?"

Isabelle sighed back. "She was upset. I think she'll be okay for a little while, but she might do something... stupid if she's abandoned. We really have to help her mom, and soon."

A'moth smiled. "I won't tease you any longer. As of 6 PM this evening, both you and Brianna are Blue-Flagged."

"Really?! Excellent! She'll be so relieved! Wow mom, did you use your new authority to do that yourself?"

Isabelle knew what Blue-Flag meant. Creating a Blue-Flag required Level-5 authority at a minimum, and implied that there were vital State reasons that the child or adult should automatically pass any control gates.

A'moth smiled at her daughter's question. "Even better! It's not even my idea. Through a bit of subtle politicking and suggesting, I got our entire group of ten Level-5 e-techs to make a recommendation for the Blue Flags to our supervisor, a Council Commander. She's just officially issued the flags herself."

Isabelle nodded and laughed. "Level-6 Blue Flags! Neat! So the only way it can be overridden..."

"... is through a vote of the entire Supreme Council, and that's not going to happen. Brianna's safe Isabelle!"

"How soon can she know?"

"Tonight. Our plan is to keep you two together, and observe your compassion for her, to study it... I know this sounds sick. It is sick. Isabelle, remember! You'll be under constant observation, audio and visual." A'moth paused for a moment. "The ten e-techs running this project are the genetic heads of the ten cities. I'm project coordinator since this experiment is running in my city. I doubt if you'll ever meet the other Level-5's... But Isabelle! I can't stress this enough! Never let your guard down. Never!"

"I understand mom."

"Really daughter, live the part! Your trick with the surf noise doesn't work. You were very wise not to have a private conversation with Brianna during your walk on the beach. Even here in my office, always wait for my okay. Never assume it's safe to talk."

Isabelle nodded and smiled, happy with the thought that if she had fooled her mother, then she had fooled everybody.

A'moth looked at her daughter in sympathy. "And I know this will be hard, but you can't reveal our true nature to Brianna. Ever."

"I'll be careful mom... Mom?"

"Yeah?"

"These people... The WFM... All of them... For so many years, I thought of them as my enemy. I despise their hatred and their morals... But... They're not my enemy. They are so close to where they should be, and so far away... I pity them."

"Be very careful Isabelle. They would treat your pity as an insult if they ever knew of it, and strike you down without compunction."

"Oh, I know. Still, they're not my enemy, not anymore."

A'moth sighed deeply, "I know. I feel the same way. I've lived here now for twelve years. These people... so many of them are my friends... as much as these people are capable of friendships... But daughter! Our mission continues!"

"Oh yes! No argument from me on that one mom. Our mission continues!"

A'moth nodded and sighed, her finger poised over her keyboard. "So, ready to go live with the e-techs?"

"Wait mom! Brianna and I. I have to tell you about our finger language."

A'moth looked puzzled. "Finger language?"



-------

Chapter 47


Several hours later... 

It was almost 10 PM before Brianna was led by building security to her new home, the upper levels of the Central Government Complex. After going through a number of rigorous medical exams in the labs below, Brianna was surprised to be allowed to discard her flimsy medical smock and to put on newly issued clothes. And then she was escorted to an ascending elevator. Brianna had assumed she'd be kept in one of the sub-level holding pens, and was half expecting that the medics would begin harvesting her ovaries immediately. And once they began, they would not stop with her ovaries... 

As the elevator kept ascending, Brianna thought long and hard whether there was anything she could have done differently. There was no place to run, but even to be free for a short time would be one last statement of defiance, one final yell against the injustice of the world. She looked casually at her guard. The guard seemed bored and inattentive to the eight-year-old girl standing close by her side... 

Would it be possible for Brianna to overcome this woman, grab her green ID card and exit the building? No, of course not. Security cameras were everywhere. But should she die trying to anyway? To go meekly to the harvesting knife was not Brianna's idea about how she wanted to die. The only thoughts stopping her were Isabelle's finger-words from the beach. "Don't outfight! Outthink!" Brianna kept thinking them to herself, over and over again.

The elevator doors finally opened, revealing the beautiful marble entrance hall of a palatial adult living suite. Brianna stepped out in wonder, and the doors hissed shut behind her. Brianna was startled that the guard did not follow her, and she felt bewildered about what to do next. And then her dear friend came running to her from an adjacent room.

"Brianna!"

"Uh?!" Brianna looked around at the room, flashing her eyes in warning that there were probably hidden cameras and microphones.

Isabelle laughed. "Oh yes! I know. We've being intensely observed. But here! There is compensation!" In Isabelle's hand was a bright blue ID card.

Brianna stared at it for a moment. "Is this some kind of joke?"

"No! It's real! And it's yours! Take a look!"

Brianna stared at the ID. 349877535:999:784:886-825. "Yeah, it's me all right... 886?! Level-6 Blue Flag?!"

"Yes, for me too!"

"What's the price?!"

Isabelle nodded. "Yes, there is one. Let's go to the living room. I'll tell you all about it."

The two girls picked one of the plush leather couches to sit in. "What's the price uh... can I call you..."

Isabelle nodded. "Isabelle? Yes, I've asked. In fact, we're supposed to act completely natural with each other. That's the whole point of all this. And there are holographic cameras everywhere, including the bedrooms and baths. That's the price Brianna. Zero privacy. Absolutely none. Our whole lives are being recorded and analyzed, every single second..."

"And they told you this?"

"Yes. Can you see why?"

Brianna thought. "Yeah, I think so. They want us to get used to the idea, not be suspicious, not fight it..."

"Yes, exactly!"

"Isabelle! You're smiling about this?!"

"It beats the knife! Even now, our IDs will let us roam freely through all the public areas of the Complex. We can even go outside, even take a walk on the beach! All we have to do is stay inside the city limits. In about a week, we'll be able to go back to school."

"To school?!"

"Yes. Until then we'll be living here. But Brianna! They'll let you start your junior science track! I can even stay in my junior commander program." Isabelle spent the next half hour describing her visit with the Level-5 Dr. Lisa, the public version that the other e-techs saw.

Brianna frowned at the end of it. "Seems hard to believe..."

"Want to test it? We're allowed to go through any doors our cards will open."

Brianna was silent for a moment, and then nodded. "Yeah, I think I do."

The two girls took the elevator down to the main public halls. The security guards had been alerted to their presence and simply nodded at them as the walked out of the building, and then just waved them through when they returned. Brianna started to laugh and she ran back outside the building, closely followed by Isabelle. Brianna laughed her heart into the night air, and was soon joined by Isabelle in the release of their tension.

After catching their breath, they came back into the complex, waving to the guards with bright smiles and heading for the elevators.

"Want to sack out?" asked Isabelle.

"Soon... Sleep with me?"

"I'd love too."

Brianna had a mischievous grin on her face as she entered the elevator. "Just one more test..." she whispered as she slipped her ID into the elevator control slot. She studied the display for a moment, amazed at the options her Blue-Flag clearance was giving her. She keyed in the codes for the lower-level medical labs. Isabelle raised her eyebrows playfully but said nothing. Brianna gave her a wicked smile back.

The elevator doors opened into the medical reception area. Isabelle and Brianna stepped out and idly wandered over to a bulletin board near the front desk.

The medical assistant on duty was absolutely shocked that two unescorted children were standing a few feet away from her, calmly reading the medical staff's notices. She frantically pushed the call button for her supervisor.

A woman with a clipboard showed up a few minutes later. Brianna recognized her as the Level-1 medical e-tech who had given her a colonoscopy earlier in the evening, and she had been none too gentle about it either. The woman looked furious.

"What the sink are you two doing here?!" she hissed.

"Exploring our environment," said Isabelle calmly. "It's a test mistress. Don't you know?"

"Why?!" The woman looked livid. "I'm calling security! You pieces of... How dare you question me!"

"We won't question you again mistress," said Brianna in a sweet, calm voice, her face bursting with a smile, "but perhaps we should warn you..."

The woman hissed at Brianna. "You warn me?! You piece of filth!"

"... perhaps a better phrase would be we'd like to advise you," offered Isabelle, "in a friendly sort of way of course..." The woman glared at Isabelle and looked as if she were about to hurl her clipboard at her.

"That this entire conversation," continued Brianna.

"With visual, don't forget the visual," added Isabelle smiling broadly.

"Is being transmitted with visual..." Brianna started to laugh.

"Oh, and don't forget to add intensely studied either," laughed Isabelle.

"Indeed! And intensely studied... by ten Level-5 e-techs! All over the world! And we all know to whom they report!" Brianna doubled over in laughter.

Isabelle also had laughter pouring from her body. She hugged Brianna and together they calmed each other a bit and giggled their way back towards the elevator. Isabelle waved at some of the many security cameras. "Goodnight, Supreme Ruling Council!" she called out happily. The woman with the clipboard stared in horror and when her aide pointed out the children's Blue-Flag status on the monitor her face turned ashen white.

A short while later Isabelle and Brianna took showers in separate bath rooms in their opulent penthouse, Isabelle frowning a bit at the total lack of personal privacy but resigning herself to her new life. After she finished drying herself, she slipped into a simple child nightgown and went to the largest bedroom of the suite. She turned the lights down low and climbed into the massive bed, gazing out the windows at the beautiful lights of the city and the Pacific Ocean beyond.

A few minutes later Brianna joined her from her shower and climbed into the same bed. They both stared out the window for a while, talking about the day and their ideas about what the future would look like. After a half hour they got quiet and turned out the lights, petted each other briefly and said goodnight. Lying very close to each other, they sighed and closed their eyes.

Underneath the blankets and between their bodies their hands found each other. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you Isabelle!" Brianna's fingers quivered, so lightly that a person staring at their hands would not even be able to see that their fingers were moving. All the movements were ultra subtle shifts of pressure, the sensitive fingers pressing and releasing against each other with the lightest of touches.

"Hey! Hang loose!" replied Isabelle. "And this finger language was your idea! It works! Congratulations!" In reality it was both their idea. The third night after they first met, Brianna was crying in bed after being teased by the other girls on their dorm wing. She was astonished when Isabelle crawled into bed with her and started to hold her. She slowly calmed down, holding hands with Isabelle.

They began playing an idle rhythm game with their fingers, wiggling simple rhythms with their fingers and having the other echo the pattern. Soon the rhythms became quite complicated, and they spontaneously developed signals to stop and correct each other's mistakes. The simple control signals evolved into a highly complex signaling system with lightning speed, and they both realized they had invented a super-secret form of communication.

"Hang loose?" queried Brianna. "Oh, I get it! Nice way to put it! Isabelle?"

"Yes?"

"Dr. Lisa! How well do you know our enemy? Does she hate us?"

"No! She is businesslike, not cruel. She was open with me, laid out the rules plainly."

"Could be dangerous..."

"Danger is everywhere! But there is no cruelty in Dr. Lisa's heart."

"And we have to outthink her Isabelle! Is she smart?"

"Very smart, I think. Level-5 e-tech, remember?"

"As smart as us?"

"Maybe... maybe at least."

"Excrement!"

"Relax Brianna! Look at Dr. Lisa's eyes when you meet her. There is no cruelty. All the other adults... They don't know how to see... see the lack of cruelty... Look at Dr. Lisa's eyes Brianna! She is stern, but the sternness never touches her eyes."

"Okay... I'll trust your judgment... for now..."

"Gratitude. Goodnight Brianna..."

"Yeah... I'm tired too... Goodnight Isabelle... Thank you for saving my life..."

"Ha!"

"I'm serious!"

"I know... I love you."

"You keep signaling that. Someday maybe I'll understand what you mean, what love means..."

Isabelle sighed deeply. "For tonight, love means caress. Here, I'll show you." Isabelle began to pet the back of Brianna hand with the tips of her fingers. Brianna cooed with the pleasure, and fell still by Isabelle's side. Isabelle gazed at her for a while and then followed her to sleep.



-------

Chapter 48


Seven months later... 

Time: November 2, year 204,883 7:00 PM Peruvian Local Time

In the month of October 204,883, Brianna and Isabelle and 1,679 other Peruvian girls passed their ninth-year control gates. The graduates began using their chosen names, and on the first afternoon of November they were all allowed to begin touring the male puppy farms, entering the pens and playing with the boys and choosing which ones they would like for pet-mates. By the end of the second day, over sixteen hundred girls had made their selections. Brianna and Isabelle were not among them... 

The two girls returned to their dorm room after dinner. Brianna went to her desk and popped up her mathematics workbook on her monitor. She was soon lost in her studies. Isabelle went to her own desk and pulled up her work lessons in civics. The time passed quietly... 

Speaking out loud, Brianna said after a while, "So, what did you think of Gregory?"

"Gregory? Uh, which one was that?"

"What?! Isabelle! How could you forget?! The cute sandy-haired puppy in the south pens, in the same pen as Anthony. You know, the one with the dimple on his cheek. He's so playful! And cute! And did you see his legs?! Very handsome! I like him a lot. Isabelle! How could you forget?!"

Isabelle shrugged, and did not look up from her civics studies. "Well... These last two days, we looked at an awful lot of puppies..."

"None of them were as cute as Gregory!" Brianna started to whine, "There aren't many puppies left Isabelle! I had no idea you and I had such different tastes in boys..." Brianna frowned and added, "Maybe we shouldn't have volunteered to double up..."

"Yeah... Maybe not..." Isabelle sighed and went back to her studies... 

The normal practice for the WFM was to have 20% or 30% more boys than girls for the girls to choose from, using the surplus for replacements for older children and adults, for medical research, and culling the rest. But in the year 204,874, there was a worldwide problem with the ova quality used for male breeding, and there were only about an equal number of boys born that year as girls. The problem temporarily disappeared, and only a few high-level commanders and genetic e-techs realized how serious the issue was.

As a means to cope with the shortage, the girls had been offered a choice to "double-up" and share a single pet-mate. There were not many volunteers... 

Isabelle looked up from her studies. "Mark was nice..."

"Mark?... Which Mark?"

"Mark 49, the one that"

"That Mark?! Isabelle! He was so short! He's shorter than I am!"

"So?"

"No way!"

"He was nice! And did you see how he likes to cuddle?"

"No! No! No!"

"Hey?!" Isabelle looked exasperated. "Okay, I give up! Let's just go with your Gregory then!"

"Really?!''

Isabelle sighed heavily. "Yeah, it'll be okay."

"Thank you Isabelle! You won't regret this!" Brianna started typing on her console happily. "Excrement!"

Isabelle looked over frowning. "Now what?"

"Norani picked him an hour ago!"

"You're kidding?! I thought she was looking for something more athletic."

"This is all your fault Isabelle! If you just would have listened to me yesterday, Gregory could have been playing with us right now! Now... Oh Isabelle! There are so few left!"

"Hey! This shortage is not my fault! Stop blaming me!"

"Fine!"

An hour went by before the girls spoke again. "Isabelle?"

"Uh huh?"

"I'm sorry."

Isabelle leaned back in her chair and sighed. "I forgive you... Pull up the breeder's web site. Let's see what's left."

The girls stared at the puppy web pages for several minutes. "Sixty-three left, not much of a selection," murmured Brianna.

"Midnight tonight, our first choice status disappears. Research will probably pick up the lot. I doubt if any will be culled... Want to wait for next year?"

Brianna shook her head vigorously. "No, I want a puppy now!"

"Well, see any boy you like?"

"Not really... How about you?"

"I wouldn't mind waiting."

"Oh heck, you're no help..." Brianna flipped through several more pages in silence. "Sorry... I know this isn't your fault."

Isabelle leaned over and lightly kissed Brianna's cheek. "It's okay. Really, pick any boy you like."

"Really?"

"Well, any cute one..."

"Yeah..."

Brianna browsed for a while, considering. The picture of Kyle came up and she stared at it for a surprisingly long while. "Isabelle, what about the talking boy?"

"Yeah, right! Click on next."

"There is no next. Kyle's at the end of the list."

Isabelle shrugged her shoulders. "So why don't we wait for next year? There'll be a plentiful supply, not like now. We can even have our separate pet-mates..."

Brianna kept staring at the last picture. "Why don't we take Kyle now?"

Isabelle stared at Brianna. "You're serious?"

"I think so... yeah..."

"It would be novel, having a boy who talks! But can you imagine cuddling with him?! Brianna, what are your thoughts?"

"I've been dared, so many times... I think I'd like to do it."

"Brianna! Taking care of any puppy is a big responsibility! Don't take a talking one because someone dares you to!"

"Oh, I know. Still... Please?"

Isabelle stared at the picture. "He is cute... Nice athletic body... I remember he waved at me and smiled when I passed his pen... He certainly is friendly enough... and I like his eyes. Look at his eyes Brianna! Such beautiful soft blue puppy eyes... Okay! Let's take him!"

"Thank you Isabelle! You won't regret this!" Brianna kissed Isabelle and entered the selection web-page... 

The next evening Kyle joined them in their dorm room. He had some mats on the floor to sleep on, and Brianna and Isabelle were delighted by how well he could talk. Kyle picked up on the subtle social keys that Brianna was more interested in him than Isabelle, and he sat quietly by her side on the floor as she did her homework, fascinated by her monitor. Near the end of the evening, Brianna promised to teach him to read, and he wept with gratitude.

Several hours later, Kyle was asleep on the floor, and Brianna came and crawled into Isabelle's bed. About ten minutes later, their hands quietly found each other's under the covers... 

"He's so docile Isabelle!"

"I know! My heart breaks! It was an abomination, what was done to him! He accepted his role as pet-mate to survive! He knows he would be killed otherwise, or worse! He's adopted the morals of the WFM."

"Huh?" Brianna was quiet for a short time and then signed, "My gosh! He might discover us! Turn us in! Are we in danger?"

"Minimal. He is super eager to please us. He was trained for this. I don't think he even understands the concept of suspicion, as far as we're concerned. Unless we treat him cruelly..."

"My heart breaks at the thought! I had no idea, how disgusting this is!"

"Yes! The WFM has no respect for him, and they taught him not to respect himself. A disgusting abomination!"

"You're right Isabelle... This is turning my world upside down. We almost sound like Equalists."

Isabelle signed, "Regarding Kyle, I am an Equalist! Going to turn me in?!"

"Yeah, right!"

"Then join me!"

There was a long pause. "You shame me Isabelle. Morally, I see your correctness. But this goes against all my..."

"All your deep-rooted gender bigotry?"

Brianna's hand was still for a long time as she considered. "Yes... Yes, you're quite right. Thank you Isabelle... I look back, and I don't like the person I was..."

"It'll take time Brianna. Give yourself time to change..."

"Wow Isabelle! You had so much foresight, overhearing Norani, planning our skit for the cameras. I don't think I would have ever realized what I monster I was, if I hadn't played with Kyle for a while... I think he wants to bond to only one girl though. That's what he was trained to do. The two of us are confusing him."

"I agree."

"You want to be his prime mistress?"

"No."

"Really? I'm glad. I think I do. I think I have a lot to learn about not being a bigot. I think caring for Kyle will help me..."

"I love you Brianna."

"I know. Caring for Kyle... Maybe it'll teach me how to love too... Maybe I'll finally understand..."

Two months later... 

Time: December 25, year 204,883 9:23 PM Peruvian Local Time

"Are you sure mistress Brianna will be back in two days, mistress Isabelle?"

Isabelle looked down from her monitor to Kyle. He was curled up lying at her feet as she worked. He had a hand holding the top of her bare right foot, just the way he liked to rest when Brianna was here. Isabelle sighed and reached down and ruffled his hair. "Just two more days Kyle. We both have to be patient. I miss her too." Kyle nodded and sighed, and then began to pet Isabelle's foot. Isabelle smiled at him for a moment and then went back to her schoolwork.

Isabelle began her living with Kyle profoundly troubled by how pleasurable it was for her to cuddle with him. She did a lot of soul searching, and finally decided that above all else, the intimate physical contacts were expressions of love and trust, and therefore both appropriate and acceptable as long as they were not sexual. She reached down and idly stroked his shoulder as she worked.

It was the period of the solstice break for the school. In her end-of-year finals, Brianna had scored top science honors across the entire planet for her age-group, and her prize was to pick a vacation of her choice. She chose the cluster-town of London, where the ancient country of the United Kingdom once existed. A college there was the center of the WFM's very limited population of several hundred physicists, and Brianna was getting a tour of the campus.

Isabelle finished her work and glanced down at Kyle. He was breathing easily, content and asleep by her feet, his hand gently cupping the back of her heel and ankle. Isabelle glanced up at the date display on her monitor. "Merry Christmas Kyle," she thought, remembering her own childhood and her brief happy years in Santiago Chile. "And may all your future Christmases be bright!"

Puppies don't usually travel with children, and alone Brianna would have been expected to place Kyle in a kennel before her trip. Isabelle smiled in love as she looked at him. They had spent the afternoon racing up and down the beach with the summer sun high above their heads, occasionally jumping into the cold Pacific and splashing each other with the clean foaming waves. They were now both exhausted from their day. Isabelle led the sleepy Kyle to his mats and tucked him in.

"You're so nice to me, you and Brianna." Kyle muttered with great drowsiness. "You're more kind to me than I've ever dreamed..."

Isabelle smiled and cuddled with him until he cooed with pleasure and then was still. "Goodnight Kyle," she whispered as she kissed him and thought silently, "One God's child to another, goodnight."

Isabelle was soon falling asleep in her own bed. "My gosh, my gosh," she thought sleepily, her thoughts drifting. "He looks so much like his father! Forgive us Jim, forgive my gender, when you monitor us... You have so much to forgive... Kyle is so sweet, not to hate me... An exact image of Jim... not to hate all females... An exact image... of Jim..."



-------

Chapter 49


Ten years later... 

Time: December 26, year 204,893 4:30 AM London Local Time

Nineteen year-old Brianna walked out of Kyle's kennel and joined Isabelle who was waiting for her in a car. Isabelle, though mentally much older, also had a nineteen year- old body, and was wearing brand-new epaulettes showing her rank as a Level-2 Commander. Brianna's graduation from the College of London was one month away. She had one last step remaining in her doctoral program, the completion of her dissertation. And for the first time in several thousand years, it was a thesis in experimental physics.

The two girls aged out of their primary school and their period of intense observation when they reached sixteen years old. Judged uncommon but safe and potentially very useful, the ten e-techs had recommended that the study be terminated and the girls be given normal adult green-IDs when they passed their last critical control gate. Brianna took Kyle and left for college in London. Isabelle went to the world capitol of Ulsan, Korea for commander training at the principal government academy.

They were half a world apart from several perspectives, and the outward appearance was that there was little contact between them. Appearances can be deceiving... 

"How did it go?" Isabelle asked quietly as she drove.

"He agreed. He'll join me on the slip-ship to NBHX35. That's the big thing! He loves me... And I love him. That's the big thing too!"

Isabelle nodded. "It is indeed."

"And he's not just my pet-mate anymore! I love him as my sex-mate! When I walked in on him, he was asleep, dreaming of me. He had an erection, his penis showing his stiff desire for me. I masturbated him to orgasm, just as he awoke. I was so horny, I felt like mounting him. I was so horny, I almost did."

Isabelle blushed but said nothing.

Brianna was quiet for a while. "I also feel like excrement, deceiving him like this..."

Isabelle was silent for several minutes. "It was your call to make. Want to change your mind?"

Brianna sighed. "No. Kyle still suffers a bit from low self-esteem. After all they did to him, he still feels a call to be obedient to the WFM. They trained him too well as a puppy. It's better that he not know he has to be smuggled onto the slip ship in secret. I'll ask him to forgive me once we're orbiting the black hole's event horizon. We'll work on building his self-esteem once we're free... on the other side of NBHX35..."

Isabelle nodded. "Nasty Black Hole X35..." she muttered.

"Isabelle! Last call! Want to join us?"

"I... I can't Brianna. It's not possible."

Brianna sighed heavily. "Once we reverse polarity and pop the slip bubble, we won't be able to come back for you. Ever!"

"I know. You and Kyle will carry my love out with you. I can't go myself."

"Are you part of the Equalist team that's smuggling Kyle into the slip-ship?"

"Uh... I can't say..."

"Ah... Sorry..."

"Hey! That's okay." Isabelle smiled.

"I feel so loved Isabelle! You have contacts with a secret Equalist society I had no idea even existed. I feel so loved, that all these unknown people would risk their lives for me like this."

"It is our joy and our purpose Brianna. Our species deserves a better fate than the WFM. Your hopes are our hopes too."

Brianna nodded and sighed. "Are you sure you won't need any help with Kyle?"

Isabelle smiled. "Just leave everything to us."

"Okay Isabelle..." Brianna looked at her dear friend's uniform and smiled. "Or should I call you deputy Isabelle?"

Isabelle laughed. "I'm still not used to it, though my graduation was more than a month ago! Did you know I'm the superior of everybody in the military?! Everybody! That's the hardest part, having everybody in the army salute me, even the generals!"

"How many deputy commanders are there?"

"It's not public knowledge..." Isabelle paused for a moment and then said quietly, "Right now there are 11,664 Level-2 commanders worldwide."

"I'm glad for you Isabelle. I really am. And you look quite dashing in your uniform!"

Isabelle laughed. "Yeah..."

Six days later... 

Time: January 1, year 204,894 8:46 PM London Local Time

Time: January 1, year 204,894 9:46 AM Honolulu Local Time

(2,251 years until Earth-loop reset, 14 minutes until launch of The Daughter of the Stars)

"Candidate Brianna, all telemetry reads normal. We are at minus fourteen minutes and counting."

"Acknowledged launch control, I copy and concur. All systems go for launch."

Outwardly Brianna appeared calm, inwardly her heart was breaking. She had run a thorough inspection of the slip-ship less than an hour ago, cargo holds, medical bay, living quarters, the numerous small science labs, everywhere aboard the modest ship. Kyle was nowhere to be found.

Not that finding Kyle would have been welcome. Until ten seconds before launch, she had just learned that the slip-ship internal sensors were piped directly into launch control. The presence of a stowaway would be seen immediately.

The slip-ship's flight plan would never be under her control, not even after launch. Launch control was expecting direct control of the ship even at NBHX35. They would never have agreed to the solo flight otherwise. And it would be under their control, sort of. Until, at least, the secret physics of Kyle's and Brianna's doctoral work came into play... 

"Candidate Brianna, we are at five minutes from launch and counting."

"I copy," replied Brianna from her command chair, "five minutes and counting." Inwardly she was wondering if she would ever get another chance at this. She knew that the answer was no. "Oh Isabelle," she thought. "I'm so glad you're not here with me. There's no sense in both of us dying..."

Time: January 1, year 204,894 8:56 PM London Local Time (four minutes to launch)

Time: January 1, year 204,894 9:56 AM Honolulu Local Time

Time: January 2, year 204,894 4:56 AM Ulsan Korea Local Time

I was waiting in the open countryside at our rendezvous point, about twenty-two kilometers from a ward-town of London-cluster where Kyle was being kenneled. Kyle was sleeping peacefully and deeply on his mats. In fact he was drugged. It had been a very easy thing to do. Five minutes ago I formed a special chemical in the saliva of my mouth, and teleported it directly into Kyle's mouth.

He was a bit surprised by the taste but not alarmed. He probably thought he burped it up. After a couple of minutes he bean to feel sleepy and went and laid himself down on his mats. The group of army personal guarding him didn't care a bit. And as for Kyle, in about twenty minutes, he'll be as good as new. And very, very far away, if we pull this off... 

After all the years of careful planning and slow progress, things suddenly got very hectic. Our base plan was to teleport Kyle directly into the slip-ship in the ten-second window between the end of on-board launch telemetry and the launch itself. We thought a simple missing puppy report from half the world away wouldn't change the flight plan once the launch was made.

But then some high-level commander noticed the fact that the flight candidate was black- flagged as a child for attitude problems and was also the legal owner of a talking male. It raised quite a stink until a ruling-council e-tech authorized a squad of military cadets to guard Brianna's puppy for the duration of the flight. That made everybody happy. The guards even reported that Kyle asked them sweetly when they showed up if they were taking him to join Brianna in the slip-ship. Not exactly how a conspirator would act. Everybody is relaxed about the issue now.

It shocked me when I heard about the guards coming. I couldn't believe Level-6 Dr. Lisa would do such a thing, but then again I didn't know of her communications with Cindy and Jim at the arctic home... 

I looked at my watch, two minutes and twenty seconds to launch. This was going to be close. Lisa popped into existence by my side, holding Jim tightly in her arms. He had just walked south from the Pole, leaving Cindy alone to mind the store of Antelope Freeway. His hair was cut to the male WFM style, and he quickly slipped out of his arctic clothes. All his clothes in fact... 

After all the years of separation, we just had time for a quick nod at each other before I began my instructions of how he should lie down. With a visual lock on Kyle, I positioned Jim's body exactly the same, and then did a double remote teleport, pulling Kyle and then pushing Jim forty milliseconds later, at T minus 50 seconds from launch.

Almost all the ten cadets guarding Kyle were watching the holocast of the launch from Kyle's holding pen, but unfortunately one of them was looking directly at Kyle when I made the switch.

"Hey! Did you see..."

The sergeant turned her head and looked at Jim pretending to be Kyle sleeping peacefully. "See what?"

"Uh... Apologies Sergeant. I guess I just blinked my eyes wrong."

"What?" The Sergeant shook her head dismissively and went back to watching the holocast.

At T minus forty-one seconds, A'moth hugged Kyle tightly in her arms and jumped, returning for me eleven seconds later. By T minus twenty-three seconds, we were both standing at our targeting location, in the lush forests on the main island of Hawaii and surrounded by piles of supplies. We were deep inland, near the center of the island, over twenty kilometers north of Honolulu and the ancient Martian Planetia shipyards... 

I blinked my eyes in the bright morning light. It was quite a change from the foggy pitch black London night.

"Never a dull moment," A'moth murmured, and then kept quiet and let me concentrate. Locking the living quarters of The Daughter of the Stars was no trouble at all. At T minus ten seconds, I felt the telemetry feeds cut from the ship, and I pushed Kyle an instant later. I called out to A'moth, "Go!"

She had already pre-scanned. Ulsan Korea was 7,147 kilometers away for me on the surface, but only 6,779 kilometers for A'moth with her long jump-lines through the planet. She made it in one hop with just a touch of dizziness. As for me, the Great Circle arc back to London was 11,642 kilometers. The jump-line would have been 10,092 kilometers, much farther than A'moth would be comfortable with when carrying somebody. So we got here with a jump-line from London to the ancient site of Thompson, Manitoba (5705 km), and then another jump-line of 5,963 km to reach Honolulu... 

Our plan was for me to be sure Kyle left with the slip-ship, and then head back and keep a close eye on Jim. It would take me about ten minutes to get back to London. Sometimes I envy Lisa's range, but I wouldn't trade my power within my sphere of influence for anything... 

E-tech ruler Dr. Lisa opened the door to the council chambers from the private washrooms eight seconds before launch. "Told you I'd make it," she laughed quietly.

The council chairwoman smiled at her in return.

The instant after I pushed Kyle, I started working on the fifteen cargo pallets hidden nearby. We had been preparing for this moment for the last two years, and I was psyched. I began pushing the pallets in stages into the various cargo bays and open spaces as fast as I could. Each one weighed over twelve tons, and I thought I could do thirteen with luck and maybe even fourteen.

The pallets were filled with things we thought the newlyweds would need on their mission to start a new world. Extensive copies of the world's body of knowledge for their library, breed stock for hundreds of the WFM super-food plants, practical survival and manufacturing equipment. The first three pallets were upgrades to the slip-ship's medical bay.

With her background in genetics, A'moth fears that Brianna's and Kyle's children will be weak and fragile. After two thousand centuries of genetic breeding, going back to males impregnating females who give birth is not going to be a smooth transition. Being the biological son of Jim and Cindy, Kyle is fine. But after 200,000 years of genetic manipulation, Brianna's genes are only marginally suited for the natural form of bisexual reproduction. We gave the newlyweds all the help we could, but they're not going to have an easy time at parenthood.

Brianna stared at her controls as time collapsed to T zero. In a phase shift without duration, the slip-ship began orbiting NBHX35 from a distance of one billion kilometers.

I lay panting on the ground in Hawaii. I think I had pushed my fifteenth and last pallet about twenty milliseconds before launch. I am good! I scanned the area for a few moments, admiring the lack of the slip-ship and the quiet workings of the city of Honolulu. Everybody seemed calm and happy. Marvelous! I gave a happy grin and began my long journey back to Jim.



-------

Chapter 50


Time: January 1, year 204,894 9:11 PM London Local Time (T plus 12 minutes)

Jim was lying quietly on his mat, his eyes closed and pretending to be asleep. He suddenly noticed a slight lemon taste in his mouth and breathed a sigh of relief. It was Gary's signal that he was back in the area, and lemon was the code for full success. Profoundly happy that his son was almost free forever from the grips of the WFM, Jim settled down and tried to get some real sleep.

Time: January 1, year 204,894 10:21 AM Honolulu Local Time (T plus 21 minutes)

After spending twenty minutes examining the external sensors and internal ship diagnostics, Brianna sat back down in her command chair and opened her audio log.

"This is Candidate Brianna of the slip-ship The Daughter of the Stars, at twenty-one minutes into the launch. It worked! Mathematically I know exactly what happened, but to experience it in practice... It worked! My gosh it worked! Orbit injection worked perfectly! I am at NBHX35, in a circular orbit of one billion kilometers radius. Observed mass of the Black Hole is registering at 13.768 standard solar masses, near the center of our preflight estimate. My current orbital period is 1700 days, though that will... will... soon change... What?! Ah!"

Brianna heard a rattling in the deck below her, and for a moment she thought some cargo might have shaken loose. She was puzzled for a brief instant, for there should have been no vibrations within the ship to rattle anything. But then the noise returned, and louder. There was an unmistakable sense of purpose to the noise... 

Brianna shivered in fright in her command chair on the flight deck. There were now unmistakable sounds of footprints approaching her from below, and all her childhood fears of monsters of the deep and nasty black holes seemed to have come true. She stared in dread at the open hatch, and then let out all her breath in one explosive burst of astonishment as Kyle's head appeared in it.

"Hi Brianna! Hey, this is neat! Uh, you okay?"

Time: January 1, year 204,894 1:00 PM Honolulu Local Time

Three hours after launch, the slip-generator shifted reality, and the slip-ship's orbital radius decreased from one billion to one-hundred million kilometers. The orbital period decreased to 53 days 18 hours... 

Ten minutes later... 

"Still another pleasant surprise Brianna!" Kyle called out over the open comm line. "Cargo Bay Two. Looks like material for prefab shelters."

"Yeah. I'm still unpacking all the goodies in the medical bay. You won't believe our good fortune! Uh Kyle, meet me in the astrometrics lab."

"Sure." He was there a minute later.

Brianna walked over and kissed him. "I want to remind you I owe you a lifetime of apologies for not completely trusting you."

Kyle nodded and smiled. "And I'll probably spend my entire lifetime deciding whether to forgive you. In the meantime though, want your feet petted?"

Brianna laughed. "Oh, I love you!"

"I love you too." They spend several minutes in a passionate embrace.

"Uh, Kyle?"

"Hmm?"

"Are you totally sure, about when you got here?"

"The troops at my kennel were watching the holocast. I remember the announcer calling out the T minus ten minute mark. And then... I don't know why... I just got sleepy. I went and lay down."

"This makes no sense!"

"I know. And all this cargo too. We are in so much better shape than we dreamed possible!" There was a faint whir in the ship. "Ah," said Kyle. "We're about to make the second planned mini-jump."

At T plus 3 hours, 20 minutes, the slip-ship shifted from one hundred million to ten million kilometers from NBHX35. The orbital period of The Daughter of the Stars was reduced from 53.75 days to 40 hours and 48 minutes. Kyle and Brianna studied the readouts in the astrometrics lab as the jump occurred.

"Analysis of the jump should be available on the bridge. Want to go back up?" asked Kyle.

"Not yet. There's something down here I want to see," replied Brianna.

"The safety-cord bit?"

Brianna laughed. "Ha! No, not that..."

Communication between the slip-ship and Earth was limited to two separate bits of information. The slip-ship and Earth Control were following a pre-programmed series of entangled jump sequences, the last jump being the one that would return the slip-ship to Honolulu at the end of its scheduled 24-hour flight. Brianna's one bit of information that she could send to Earth would be to collapse one component of the dual slip channel controlling the slip-generator. She could do that by breaking the seals on the slip- generator bay.

Earth would then have the choice of doing nothing, or collapsing their component, which would cause the slip-ship to return immediately to Earth. It was this ability of absolute control and that allowed the xenophobic WFM to make a few limited flights with the slip-ships, three thousand years after the gender wars. But even this absolute control was vaguely troubling, and a lack of the ability for complete monitoring stopped the ships' further use for almost two thousand centuries.

Brianna walked over to a console in the astrometrics lab. "I wanted to make sure we're recording everything. This is a completely new perspective for observations, and we'll never come this way again."

Kyle nodded. "Recording anything interesting?"

Brianna was quiet for a long moment. "This part of space is very vacuous. But there's a red giant just sixteen light-days from here. The red giant and NBHX35 form a loose binary star."

"Ah, let's see..." Kyle stared at the displays for a while and made some adjustments with Brianna. "There's a gas giant in orbit around the red giant... Just about the same size as Jupiter, as far as I can measure... and a little further out than Jupiter is from the sun."

"Yeah, I see it Kyle. It's still getting a fair amount of heat from the red giant though. Look at the thermal readings! It's a heck of a lot warmer than Jupiter..."

"And take a look at the spectrometer readings... Interesting! A lot different than Jupiter! I'm getting line patterns for free molecular nitrogen... Interesting! And water! Look how strong the water lines are..."

And the time passed quietly for the two young scientists.

Time: January 2, year 204,894 6:03 AM London Local Time (T plus 9 hours, 3 minutes)

"Wake up puppy! Puppy want to go for a walk?"

"Sure! I'd like that very much mistress!" Jim had actually gone to sleep during the night. He stretched and rubbed his eyes and tried to act casually. He finally had to get up, and he was a bit embarrassed about being naked in front of ten young women he didn't know. But he knew this was normal for the society so he tried to grin and bare it, smiling a bit at his own thought pun.

One of the cadet's eyes went wide open. "Yeow! I keep forgetting that this pup talks!"

"I heard he reads and writes too!" another cadet called out.

"It this true pup?" another called out.

"Yes mistress!" called Jim, trying to sound friendly and obedient.

"There's a good dog!" Another cadet called out, one that seemed to Jim to have higher rank. "Reading or no reading, I think he's cute!" The woman shocked Jim by bending over before him and arching her rump up for him. "There's a good puppy!" She patted her rump and called out, "Puppy want to mount?" The woman's army pants were stretched tight across her hips and crotch, and Jim could see the clear outline of her labia beneath the fabric. He tore his eyes away from the inviting sight that was almost in his face.

"Corporal Caroli!" bellowed the sergeant. "Cut that out immediately! We're on duty!"

Time: January 1, year 204,894 10:00 PM Honolulu Local Time (T plus 12 hours)

Twelve hours into the flight, the slip ship jumped from ten million kilometers to two million kilometers from NBHX35. The orbital period jumped to 3 hours and 39 minutes.

"All systems go," Kyle called out to Brianna from a science station on the bridge. "The new orbit is circular up to our ability to measure."

Brianna nodded. "Eight hours to go, Hawaiian base time, until we cross the event horizon."

Kyle nodded. "Should be quite an event," he said, attempting a pun.

Brianna chuckled and blew him a kiss. "It will be sooner for us of course, with the time dilation."

Kyle smiled. "I can't wait to cut the cord."

Time: January 2, year 204,894 11:00 AM Venice-area-cluster, Italy Local Time (T plus 13 hours)

Returning to her office from a morning meeting, Isabelle was surprised to see new orders waiting for her at her console. Her supervisor, a Level-3 commander in San Diego, wanted Isabelle to be in Tokyo immediately and rule on a policy dispute within the city transportation department. Isabelle frowned and thought about the time. Her assigned hydrogen plane was scheduled for departure in six hours, one hour before Kyle and Brianna would enter NBHX35. Isabelle took a moment to consider.

Once black hole injection occurred, Lisa was supposed to pick Isabelle up in Venice and jump her to Nebraska. The team's plan was for everyone to rendezvous there and risk the channel ride back to Antelope Freeway. It seemed unlikely that Isabelle missing a flight one hour before event-horizon injection would cause slip-ship flight control to abort Brianna's mission, but what would be Isabelle's excuse for missing her flight, and what would happen if her excuse was found to be a lie?

Isabelle thought about how closely Kyle / Jim was being guarded, and finally decided not to take a small but unnecessary risk. She started typing on her monitor to Cindy, asking her to tell her mom that there was a slight change in plans... 

Time: January 2, year 204,894 1:00 AM Honolulu Local Time (T plus 15 hours)

Five hours before black-hole injection, the slip ship jumped from two million kilometers to 380,000 kilometers from NBHX35. The distance from the slip-ship to the NBHX35 was now the same as the distance from the Earth to the moon, and its orbital period was reduced to 18 minutes and 8 seconds.

In the living quarters, Kyle was on top of Brianna, vigorously thrusting her while she wrapped her legs around him and encouraged him to go even faster. They had sacked out an hour ago in a vain attempt to get some rest before the main event. Kyle cried out as he orgasmed into his beloved mate below him, and Brianna held him close and whispered a lifelong pledge of love and fidelity... 

Time: January 2, year 204,894 1:00 PM London Local Time (T plus 16 hours)

A couple of the cadets took a lunch hour break from noon to 1 PM, and then the sergeant left with the rest of the squad when the pair came back. Jim heard the sergeant joking about how ridiculous it was for ten army regulars to be guarding one docile puppy, and he realized the sergeant had no idea how high up her orders had come from. Jim noted with some alarm that one of the two women guarding him now was Caroli, but what could he do about it? He glanced at the clock. "Hey, just four hours to go!" he thought. "What could possibly happen?"

Corporal Caroli and the even younger cadet with her looked bored. They took Jim out for a long walk lasting almost an hour, holding hands with him and occasionally giving him light pats on his rump. Jim thought it was more of a friendly gesture than anything else and just smiled in return.

The two cadets looked rather uncertain when they returned to Jim's pen. Jim realized they were expecting the main group to be back by then. Jim wondered what he should do. He looked over at Kyle's bookshelf and saw Kyle had left a number of journals on his physics work. Jim's eyes lit up with pleasure as he realized he finally had the chance to look over some of his son's work. Kyle and Brianna had entered almost nothing of it onto the web.

"Ah, would it be okay mistresses, if I looked at some of my books?"

The youngest cadet looked uncertain. "What do you think Caroli?"

"Well, his owner Brianna left them in the kennel with him. I guess it's okay. Sure puppy!" Caroli's eyes lit up mischievously for a second, and she sat down and patted the couch by her side. "Come here and cuddle with me first though!"

"Caroli?! The sergeant"

"is not here! Are you going to tell her Anupa?"

"Well, no. But this pup can talk!"

"Ah... Puppy! You won't talk if we cuddle, will you? I order you not to."

"Uh..." Jim's mind thought furiously. "No mistress."

"See? What's the harm? I won't take this very far. I've just never cuddled with a talking puppy before! Come here puppy!" The woman patted the couch in anticipation of being obeyed.

Time: January 2, year 204,894 3:00 AM Honolulu Local Time (T plus 17 hours)

Three hours before black-hole injection, the slip ship jumped to fifty thousand kilometers from NBHX35. The orbital period jumped to 53.91 seconds. The ship was now traveling just over 2% of the speed of light to maintain a circular orbit against the awesome inward pull of the black-hole's gravity.



-------

Chapter 51


Time: January 2, year 204,894 2:15 PM London Local Time (T plus 17 hours, 15 minutes)

Jim paused for a second, staring at the corporal beckoning him to the couch. He then felt a brief taste of lemon in his mouth, and he realized it was Gary reminding him that Gary would protect him if things really got out of hand. Jim smiled a bit as he thought of what Gary's definition of "out of hand" would be in a situation like this. He walked over to the couch.

"There's a good puppy! Such a nice smile! Sit right here."

Jim sat by the woman's side. She placed his arms around herself and began kissing him, running her hands lightly across his chest and nipples.

"You seem so tense puppy! Relax! That's an order."

"Yes mistress," Jim whispered. He held still and tried to be unresponsive as the corporal continued to pet him. She sensed his reluctance, and after a while reached into her pouch and pulled out what appeared to be a stick of chapstick. She uncorked it and Jim noticed a sharp, unfamiliar smell. Jim backed up suddenly as the woman tried to apply the stick to his lips.

"Mistress?!" Jim mumbled, as he tried to shy away.

"Bad puppy! Hold still! I order you to hold still!" Holding his helpless head steady, she coated his lips with the stick.

Jim's lips tingled from the stick and his head felt briefly dizzy. "Uh... What is this?"

"Hush puppy! It's just something to help you relax. Now don't speak again until I give you permission. That's an order!" Caroli corked the stick and then returned to caressing him, petting his chest and neck.

Jim looked up and saw the other cadet frowning and shaking her head before returning to keeping watch outside the window. Corporal Caroli was right, Jim thought to himself. He found himself starting to relax and enjoy the caresses. His eyes wandered to the afternoon shadows outside as the time passed by quietly.

Time: January 2, year 204,894 3:30 AM Honolulu Local Time (T plus 17 hours, 30 minutes)

Three hours before black-hole injection, the slip ship jumped from fifty thousand kilometers to ten thousand kilometers from NBHX35. The orbital period jumped to 2.4786 seconds. The ship was now traveling 8.46% of the speed of light in order to maintain a circular orbit.

Due to the relativistic Lorentz time dilation, each second of Kyle's and Brianna perceived time appeared as 1.0036 seconds to Honolulu flight control. From Honolulu's perspective, the next slip jump would occur in thirty minutes. From the slip-ship's perspective, the jump would occur in 29 minutes and 54 seconds.

Time: January 2, year 204,894 2:35 PM London Local Time (T plus 17 hours, 35 minutes)

It was physically pleasant and soothing to be caressed, and Jim felt his body relaxing as Corporal Caroli continued to pet him. But then her hand wandered down into his loose shorts, and she started to stroke his penis. Nothing harsh, just lightly running her fingers along its length, gripping it briefly and squeezing, and then back to the light fingertip caresses.

Jim sighed heavily and tried not to get aroused, but it was a losing battle. In spite of her demeaning attitude towards him, Jim still thought Caroli was very pretty and he found her physically attractive. He looked at her and give her a genuine smile, admiring the curve of her hips and her very shapely breasts... 

Jim sighed again as she stroked him, gazing up to her face and trying to guess her age. He thought she was a bit under thirty, and with the WFM's medical knowledge could expect to lead a full and active life for another one-hundred seventy years. Death would come rather quickly. In the WFM, the time between an active life and death was rarely more than a few years... 

"Cute puppy!" the woman whispered as she released his erection. Jim blinked and felt a brief moment of frustration at the lack of the very pleasant stimulation. He felt a bit bewildered why he was finding this so enjoyable. What would Cindy think?!

Caroli raised her arms and stretched, and Jim had a brief wild hope that she was finished. But then her fingers returned and started wandering around the inside his shorts. "Puppy! Why are you still wearing your outside clothes? Are you cold?"

"Err... Uh... A little maybe... mistress..."

"Nonsense! Here! Stand up!" Caroli pulled down Jim's shorts. He was somewhat dismayed to see what an eager-looking erection his body was sporting. Caroli quickly stripped the rest of his clothes and had Jim return to the couch.

She was soon back to her caresses, sliding her fingers lightly though his pubic fur, caressing the insides of his thighs, briefly teasing the sensitive head of his penis. Jim sighed and closed his eyes, embarrassed that Gary could see all this but admitting to himself that it felt pretty good. He smiled to himself at the thought of how his good friend Gary was probably laughing at his predicament.

The woman cuddling with him misinterpreted his sigh and smile. "There's a good puppy, such a nice smile!" she whispered in his ear. "Just relax. I won't hurt you. Such a nice puppy you are..." Her fingers descended to his scrotum, and as the quiet minutes past they pushed in and began to probe and fondle his testicles. Jim couldn't help himself. He sighed and shuddered with the pleasure.

The comm line into the kennel began to buzz. Caroli kept her fingers inside Jim's scrotum and waved her other hand at cadet Anupa to answer the phone. Then she returned to staring at Jim's groin as she fondled his testicles. Anupa talked for a moment on the line and then clicked off.

"Well?" whispered Caroli. She had Jim's penis popped up to a stiff vertical pole, and she was working the shaft slowly but deliberately with a velvet stroke.

"It was the sergeant," Anupa whispered back. "There was a minor problem, back at the mess hall. Nothing serious. It might be a couple of hours though, before the squad returns..."

"Really?! Hey! That's great..." Caroli lowered her head and softly licked the head of Jim's penis. His body tensed at the intense physical pleasure, and he started to squirm. Caroli sat back up and continued to stroke him. "Jump in on this Anupa, if you want..."

"What?" Anupa whispered.

"You heard me..." Caroli licked Jim's penis again, and then her kiss become very prolonged and the cock slid an inch into her mouth. She slowly drew her lips across the sensitive head as she lifted her head up. "Jump in, anytime you want," she whispered.

Anupa looked very uncertain and then shook her head no.

Time: January 2, year 204,894 4:00 AM Honolulu Local Time (T plus 18 hours)

Two hours before black-hole injection, the slip ship jumped from ten thousand kilometers to two thousand kilometers from NBHX35. The orbital period jumped to 0.2217 seconds. The ship now needed to travel 18.91% of the speed of light in order to maintain a circular orbit. Each second of Kyle's and Brianna perceived time appeared as 1.0184 seconds to Honolulu flight control. From Honolulu's perspective, the next slip jump would occur in twenty minutes. From the slip-ship's perspective, the jump would occur in 19 minutes and 38 seconds.

Time: January 2, year 204,894 3:05 PM London Local Time (T plus 18 hours, 5 minutes)

Jim was trying to relax under the intense sexual stimulation of corporal Caroli. Her fingers had been drifting back and forth between his scrotum and his stiff cock. Jim couldn't remember if Cindy had ever teased him with this much foreplay before coupling, but Caroli's fingers on his stiff cock and balls still felt wonderful and physically he didn't mind at all. He gasped and thrust his hips at the feel of Caroli's hand on his erection.

Five minutes ago Caroli had taken off her shirt and bra and halter and became bare from the waist up. Smiling at how captivated the puppy was with the sight of her taut breasts and erect nipples, she wetted her fingers with her tongue and then massaged the saliva onto the sensitive tip of his penis. After teasing his erection at its sensitive tip, she started a rhythm of suckling his penis briefly, licking his shaft and then her own hand to re- moisten it, and then grip his penis firmly and start to jerk him off. As soon as Jim's hips would start thrusting with her jerk rhythm, the hand would release and the fingertips would return to teasing the sensitive head, starting the cycle all over again.

Jim shuddered and groaned. His hips would continue to rock back and forth in frustration when her hand left his cock, and then they would wiggle in appreciation as the new moisture of Caroli's mouth and hand returned. Her mouth felt so soft and nice, Jim decided he wouldn't mind being driven to orgasm by this woman, if it came to that. No, he guessed he wouldn't mind at all... 

Time: January 2, year 204,894 4:20 AM Honolulu Local Time (T plus 18 hours, 20 minutes)

One hour forty minutes before black-hole injection, the slip ship jumped from two thousand kilometers to five hundred kilometers from NBHX35. The orbital period jumped to 27.7 milliseconds. The ship now needed to travel 37.82% of the speed of light. Each second of Kyle's and Brianna perceived time appeared as 1.0802 seconds to Honolulu flight control. From Honolulu's perspective, the next slip jump would occur in twenty minutes. From the slip-ship's perspective, the jump would occur in 18 minutes and 31 seconds.

Kyle joined Brianna on the bridge. He stared at the monitors for a moment. "I don't understand why the outside viewers aren't a blur of stars."

"Oh, they used to be. I've switched to tactical display. You're looking at a computer generated image of what we would be seeing if we were stationary. What disturbs me is the fact that tidal forces aren't ripping this ship apart!" Brianna started to giggle nervously.

Kyle laughed too. "Yeah... Here, let me check something..." He wandered over to a bridge console and typed for a moment. "We're in a gravitational field of just over fifty- four million Earth gravities..."

"Exactly! Mathematically, I understand the slip-bubble's point expression into physical reality, and why there aren't tidal forces within the ship. But physically, I feel like screaming!"

"Well, that's why the safety bit is here. We could pull it and Hawaii control would have us back at Honolulu in an instant."

Brianna started to laugh. "Kyle! No plunging way!"

Time: January 2, year 204,894 3:25 PM London Local Time (T plus 18 hours, 25 minutes)

Jim felt warm and cozy, cuddling with Caroli and drifting with the sexual stimulation and intimacy.

"Puppy want to suckle?" Caroli whispered.

"Hmm?" murmured Jim. His mind was filled with thoughts of caressing and mounting Cindy, and he did not open his eyes.

"Uh, corporal, maybe that's not a good idea," said the cadet keeping watch at the door.

Caroli hissed, "Hush Anupa! I can feel his pulse in my hand, right through the cock! This puppy wants me! I'm not stopping now..." Keeping a firm grip on the wet penis, Caroli rose up and began to brush the sides of her breasts against Jim's cheeks and mouth. The action made her erect nipples even more stiff and puffy, and Caroli began to pant from her sexual heat. She jiggled her breasts in the open air inches from his face. "Kyle! There's a good puppy!" she whispered. "Puppy want to suckle? Such a nice puppy... Open..."

She ran the nipple from her right breast across Jim's lips. Jim opened his mouth obediently. Caroli smiled and said softly, "There! Good! Now suckle... That's right... Take a little more... Oh, good puppy! Such a nice strong suckle! Such a good puppy!"

Caroli panted as she felt her nipple licked and probed inside Jim's mouth. The nipple swelled and became very stiff, and Jim pushed it to the roof of his mouth and worked it rhythmically with a suckling action, pretending to draw milk from this tight and sexy teat within his mouth. Caroli's hand descended back to flick his testicles, and then back up to his throbbing cock. She started to add quick tight squeezes to his erection in rhythm with his mouth pulling on her tit. Caroli looked up and flashed Anupa a smile of triumphant satisfaction.

Anupa shrugged her shoulders. "Oh, I don't know Caroli... How far you going to take this?"

"Ah... It feels so nice... This puppy is so well trained... I'm getting wet, I won't stop here... What? You have a problem with that?"

"Well..."

"Still worrying about the sergeant?"

"Uh... Not just that. Kyle here is not exactly a puppy. Don't you remember the sergeant showing us the pup's papers? Brianna got full ownership of Kyle a week ago. Caroli, you're messing with someone else's dog."

"Oh, she won't mind. And besides, she's not here."

"She will be, in a few days."

"Exactly Anupa. And what I'm doing is just for right now. Feel free to join in, if you want to make this a threesome..." Caroli gave the cadet a feral smile and began unbuckling her belt.

Anupa wanted to say no again, but the sight of Jim's erection and new sight of Caroli's bare pubic were starting to arouse her. She started to pant as she watched Caroli strip herself naked.

Time: January 2, year 204,894 4:40 AM Honolulu Local Time (T plus 18 hours, 40 minutes)

One hour twenty minutes before black-hole injection, the slip ship jumped from five hundred kilometers to one hundred kilometers from the geodesic center of NBHX35. The orbital period jumped to 2.5 milliseconds. The ship was now traveling 84.56% of the speed of light. Each second of Kyle's and Brianna perceived time appeared as 1.8732 seconds to Honolulu flight control. From Honolulu's perspective, the next slip jump would occur in twenty minutes. From the slip-ship's perspective, the jump would occur in 10 minutes and 41 seconds.

Time: January 2, year 204,894 3:40 PM London Local Time (T plus 18 hours, 40 minutes)

Jim's head was busy between Caroli's legs. He was driving her crazy running his nose and lips up and down her inner thighs. Jim was in love with the soft velvet skin between her legs, caressing her softness with his nose. He was also giving brief kisses and licks to her vagina and clitoris as he passed over them. Jim's eyes were closed, and his nose and lips were filled with the smell and the taste and the feel of her arousal.

Caroli was in a state of deep sexual heat and was flowing freely. Jim was eagerly lapping up her nectar as it appeared across the open and inviting vagina. There was a distant voice of guilt echoing in the back of his mind, an image of Cindy looking hurt and dismayed by his actions, but somehow he couldn't quite focus on those feelings. His world was filled with the delights surrounding his lips and nose.

Jim started making long, slow laps with his tongue up the length of Caroli's labia. She moaned and wiggled as his tongue made sliding circular probes into her vaginal entrance, his lips suckling the puffy wet inner folds as his tongue penetrated into the warm and tasty tunnel. Lapping up, he teased the tiny dimple of her urethra, penetrating the tiny slit lightly with the tip of his tongue.

Caroli gasped and lifted her bare feet off the floor, bending and separating her legs, raising and opening her vagina in an unmistakable offer for coupling. Jim responded by diving below the labia for a quick nip and lick on her exposed anus. As Caroli gasped at the unexpected stimulation, he returned to sliding his tongue up the length of the open wet labia, to the exposed apex of the slit.

Both minds were drifting in the intense sexuality. Jim's hand moved and curled into Caroli's dense short pubic fur. Gripping the silky hairs with his fingers, he pulled up hard on the hairs towards the naval, lifting the hooded folds at the top of the labia and exposing a bright pink bullet-shaped button. His tongue descended to give it a feather- light caress.

Caroli squirmed and moaned, her body shaking. She lifted her legs wide and high, arching her feet and pointing her toes to the ceiling. The stimulation on her clitoris was too intense. Caroli's body spasmed and the clit pulled back, trying to hide from the direct physical contact.

Jim pulled up harder with his grip, re-exposing the defenseless button. Jim's lips and then teeth slid along the tiny bright-pink knob, causing Caroli to thrash from the overwhelming sensation. Jim suckled hard, drawing the naked clit into his mouth and locking his teeth at its base. His tongue descended and he started strumming rapidly against the tiny super-sensitive knob, alternating fast light strokes and deep probing pushes into the wet and slippery turbulence between his teeth. Caroli's uterus spasmed with the intensity of a birthing contraction, and she started to scream.

Jim blinked in surprise when he suddenly felt a pair of hands grip his balls and cock, and then the hands started fondling him. He broke his suction lock and looked around, and saw a naked Anupa on her knees behind him. She was panting and aroused and she smiled at him playfully when he looked at her. She let go of his balls and slid the palm of her hand across her own wet vagina, and then gripped his penis with the wetness. Then she did the same with her other hand.

With his cock super stiff and covered with slick vaginal lube, Jim felt Anupa put both her hands on his butt cheeks and she started to push him forward on top of Caroli. Caroli's hips were rocking and gyrating underneath Jim, commanding to be fucked. Jim's mind and body were in ecstasy as he climbed on top of Caroli.

"Caroli!' hissed Anupa. "You want a normal mount?"

"No!" she hissed back. "Let the pup be on top and I want to see him! I want to stare into his eyes as he sinks me!" Jim lowered his body on Caroli, feeling the hard points of her nipples press into his chest. His hips were thrusting back and forth uncontrollably, he was that overcome with desire and lust. He cried out once in frustration, but then Anupa gripped his cock and guided it to the waiting entrance, pushing the penis head passed the wet folds and notching him directly into the puffy channel. The center of Jim's universe became his sensitive penis head being squeezed by the hot and moist vaginal tissues.

Jim needed no further help. With one swift, full-bodied thrust he buried himself into Carole's pubic, pulling out only for the pleasure of quickly thrusting back in again. His thrusts were deep and fierce. He could feel the press of the bottom of Caroli's pubic on his groin with every slapping stroke. On his down-strokes, he could feel himself slamming into the back wall of Caroli's vagina, giving hammer punches against her uterine neck and causing Caroli's entire pelvis to pulse up into the air on every stroke. And it felt so good to hammer her... 

The intense pounding stimulated her uterine blood to flow into the erectile tissue of her cervix. It became puffy and engorged, and the cervical slit leading up to the main chamber of the womb opened in anticipation of what was coming. Caroli started to scream, and she raised her legs even higher, wrapping them around Jim's back to lock him into the mating.

Jim pounded her unmercifully, flat sounds of powerful slaps filling the room as Jim drove himself into the center of her pelvis. Caroli continued to cry and screech, and then her screams rose in pitch to that of a woman in intense orgasm. Her whole body vibrated uncontrollably, and the pile-driver plunging into the core of her womanhood became the center of her existence.

Anupa was desperately circling Jim's butt with a super-slick finger, and when she finally caught him at the apex before a downstroke, she exploded up into his butt with her finger, curling it along the contour of his rectum and hooking him by his bowels until she found his male button. Jim continued to thrust back and forth inside the orgasming Caroli, Anupa staying with Jim and riding his butt with her hand, her squirming finger hooked and locked deep within his ass. She grinned with animal heat as she pumped his semen gland high inside his rectal cavity.

Caroli was heaving her body and arching her back in great sweeping motions. Her uterus was "tenting" under Jim thundering blows, deforming on his down-strokes from the impact and then pulsing back into shape with powerful contractions of her primary birthing muscles. Caroli's mind was awash and overloaded with the physical sensations, the feeling of white-hot labor pains and intense lust fusing together and driving her both to an unbearable orgasm and spasming the neck of her uterus to open wide.

Jim was gasping for breath, his mind and body driven to full sexual overload, and then he felt the most explosive orgasm of his life erupting from his groin. He slammed down into the depths of Caroli's body, Anupa's finger still sliding and pulsing against his prostate. His long cock was buried to the hilt, his penis head pressing deeply against Caroli's cervix. Her uterine neck was engorged and its slit had been orgasmed open, and Caroli cried out in astonishment and unbearable delight as she felt Jim's semen splash up her receptive cervix and into her uterus. Jim howled as he inseminated the convulsing mass of female beneath him, pulsing and feeling his hot load shoot directly up into the woman's womb and tubes.

There was a thunderous roar from behind all three of them. "CAROLI! ANUPA! WHAT THE SINK ARE YOU TWO DOING?!"



-------

Chapter 52


Time: January 2, year 204,894 5:00 AM Honolulu Local Time (T plus 19 hours)

One hour before black-hole injection, the slip ship jumped from one hundred kilometers to seventy-five kilometers from the geodesic center of NBHX35. The black hole's event horizon was a mere 3.5 kilometers beneath them. The orbital period jumped to 1.61 milliseconds. The ship was now traveling 97.64% of the speed of light. Each second of Kyle's and Brianna perceived time appeared as 4.6291 seconds to Honolulu flight control. From Honolulu's perspective, the next slip jump would occur in twenty minutes. From the slip-ship's perspective, the jump would occur in 4 minutes and 19 seconds.

Kyle was on the bridge with Brianna. He shook his head in wonder at the displays around him and shuddered. "After all the work, the theories, the modeling... To experience it for real... It's so different... To be face to face with the cosmic power of it all! This is so incredible Brianna! It's so incredibly scary, and yet so exhilarating at the same time!"

He turned and looked at Brianna. She was gripping the command chair and her knuckles were white. Kyle came over and held her. All his elation evaporated as he felt her tremble. "This jump position is our last call to abort," Kyle whispered. "Time will be moving so slowly on the next jump, we won't have the chance..."

"Yes..." whispered Brianna as her body continued to shake.

"Brianna," whispered Kyle. "Do you want to turn back? It's not too late..."

There was a moment of silence, and then Brianna stopped trembling. "Just hold me Kyle. I'll never fear death with you by my side."

Kyle and Brianna held each other by the shoulders and waists. In front of them on a tactical display, a counter for simulated Hawaiian reference time was racing towards zero.

Time: January 2, year 204,894 4:00 PM London Local Time (T plus 19 hours)

Corporal Caroli and Private Anupa were standing rigidly at attention. Jim thought they both were shivering, and he didn't think it was due to their being buck naked either. He could see his semen running down both of Caroli's inner thighs as she stood at attention, and Jim felt embarrassed for her.

For himself, he was allowed to sit on Kyle's sleeping mat by the side of the room. Jim kept shaking his head, trying to clear it. His body felt worn down, tired, abused... It also felt as if he were waking up from a bad dream. He took a deep breath and tried again to clear his head. He looked up, and saw the sergeant looking at him thoughtfully. He gave her a sheepish smile back.

The sergeant came over and bent her knees, squatting deeply and putting herself on his level. Jim risked looking at her eyes; and for the first time since he got here he thought he saw some genuine kindness. The sergeant started talking softly to him, "There's a good boy. Good boy Kyle. I don't want to hurt you. There's a good boy."

Jim sighed and blinked. "Yeah... Thanks... I'm okay... I'm so sorry..."

The sergeant blinked twice. "Yeah... I still can't get over you talking... This is so strange... Kyle, you're a good boy... I'm not going to hurt you fella..."

Jim nodded. The sergeant gently petted his head for a moment. Jim recognized it as an offer of pure compassion. There was no sexual overture at all.

"There's a good boy... Good boy Kyle... there's a good dog..." the sergeant whispered. "Be a good boy. Lift your head for me Kyle. Good boy... Now be still... I'm not going to hurt you boy. Just trust me Kyle..."

"I trust you sergeant..."

The sergeant blinked again and then nodded. She bent her head and moved her face directly to Jim's. For a brief instant Jim thought she was going to kiss him, but instead she placed her nose very near his lips and sniffed. Jim saw her face break out into a deep, angry grimace. She rose up and returned to her two naked subordinates. "Stim Sticks! You used stim sticks on someone else's dog! You people disgust me! Don't you realize how badly you can be busted for this?! How badly you are busted?! Straight to harvesting!"

Caroli just stood there and shivered, but Anupa started to lose it. "I had no part in that," she whined. "The stim stick was all Caroli's idea!"

"Anupa, you sinkhead! How did you EVER make it passed your last control gate?! Who's the bigger FOOL Anupa, the FOOL with the stim stick, or the FOOL who follows her?!"

"Uh... Uh..."

The sergeant shook her head sadly. "Idiots! Don't you realize what you did was illegal? Brianna has every right to press charges when she returns! And she's going to be world famous! The first woman to enter a Black Hole and live to tell about it. Want to bet she doesn't have a lot of strings to pull? Want to bet she couldn't send you two directly to harvesting? Want to bet she won't want to?! What the sink were you thinking of?! And the dog Kyle talks! We can't hide this! Your lives are finished! Busted out of the corps for sure, and sitting chickens for the courts and the recycling medics."

Anupa started to cry, and even Corporal Caroli started to tremble as the sergeant's words sank in.

Jim sat there listening. The sight of the two women and their ruined lives filled his heart with compassion. His mind wandered back to the intense and intimate sexual moments they shared. He knew he'd be safe if he just kept quiet. And yet... He and Caroli had shared each other's orgasms. Caroli had eagerly accepted him into her body, just as Jim had eagerly accepted Anupa's finger up his ass.

Jim sighed and spoke up. "Uh... Sergeant?"

The sergeant turned and looked surprised. "Yes?"

"I just want to let you know mistress... I forgive them, forgive them both, Corporal Caroli and Private Anupa. I realize now they used a drug on me. I still want to forgive them. I want to tell Brianna about this, but I think I can do it in a way... well, she won't press charges. Just let them have their lives back Sergeant. Please?"

The sergeant stared at Jim for a long moment. "Well if this doesn't beat all? You sure pup?"

Jim nodded. "Yes, I'm sure mistress."

The sergeant turned to the two naked soldiers. "And what do you two say about that? The pup you just abused is offering to give you your worthless hides back! So what do you say about that?"

Caroli blinked in confusion, but Anupa understood what the sergeant meant immediately. She cleared her throat. "Thank you Kyle. Thank you for forgiving me."

Jim nodded. "You're welcome mistress."

The sergeant shook her head in wonder. "One for the books," she muttered. "You two! Back to the barracks both of you! You're both on discipline duty for a month! Move!"

"Naked?!" cried Caroli. "It's cold out there!"

"MOVE!!!"

The squad left, leaving Jim and the Sergeant alone for a moment. They stared at each other. Jim finally spoke first. "I don't even know your name... mistress..."

The sergeant nodded slowly. "Oria."

Jim nodded. "Thank you Sergeant Oria. I wouldn't want to have two people die because of this... Brianna wouldn't either..."

The sergeant stared at Jim for a long moment and then sighed. "Yeah, neither would I. Goodnight pup. Take care of yourself." They nodded to each other and then the sergeant quietly locked Jim in his kennel room for the night. After a minute, Jim got up and stretched and walked over to Kyle's shelf of books. Jim noted with great interest that his son had left journals of his physics research with Brianna. Jim smiled happily and sat down and began to read.

Time: January 2, year 204,894 5:20 AM Honolulu Local Time (T plus 19 hours, 20 minutes)

Forty minutes before black-hole injection, the slip-ship's reality projection point jumped from 3.5 kilometers above the event horizon to one meter above the event horizon, approximately 71.5 kilometers from the geodesic center of NBHX35. The orbital period jumped to 1.50 milliseconds. The ship was now traveling 99.9993% of the speed of light. Each second of Kyle's and Brianna perceived time appeared as 267.8 seconds to Honolulu flight control.

From Honolulu's perspective, the next slip jump would occur in twenty minutes. From the slip-ship's perspective, the jump would occur in 4.5 seconds. Kyle and Brianna were locked in one last fierce kiss before eternity.

Time: January 2, year 204,894 5:35 PM Venice-area-cluster, Italy Local Time (T plus 19 hours, 25 minutes)

Isabelle was sitting near the front of the plane as it finally taxied to the long runway for takeoff. There had been trouble at the fueling depot with a liquid hydrogen release valve, and they were a half hour behind their scheduled take-off. Isabelle was one of only six adults on the flight. The other ninety passengers were children from the Tokyo primary schools, returning from a tour of Italy. Isabelle grinned at the children's laughter and energy and she took some time to chat at them. She thought back at what a good idea it was for her mother to push through her programs for child reforms... 

Children now got a much better view of the world before they left their city primary schools at sixteen years of age. They were also much, much better behaved than children from Isabelle's own true childhood. Isabelle smiled at her memories of old Earth and the thought of five teachers taking ninety nine-year-old girls on a multi-week trip halfway around the world... 

The child sitting next to Isabelle was staring at her in awe. Isabelle smiled back and tried to make the child feel comfortable. She guessed the child to be about nine years old, and started to think of her own life ten years ago... 

"Are you really a commander?" the child whispered, staring at the epaulettes.

"Uh huh. It would be a very serious crime to wear these otherwise," Isabelle replied with a grin.

"Oh! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean"

"Stop! I'm sorry too. I didn't mean to sound offended. Hi! I'm Isabelle. What's your name?"

"Tacara," whispered the girl. "Isabelle? That's very nice... Should I call you Dr. Isabelle?"

Isabelle shook her head. "No, that's for Level-3 and above. I guess you should call me Deputy Isabelle. Here, I'll show you..." Isabelle pulled out her gold ID card with a bright yellow 2 embedded in its surface. "See? I'm a deputy commander. I just graduated a month ago."

"Wow! A gold ID! I've never seen one of those before."

Isabelle nodded. "Gold is for commanders, brown is for e-techs."

"Yes. I know. Wow, a gold card! Deputy Isabelle, those things will open just about anything, won't they?"

Isabelle laughed. "Just about! Anything not sealed by a higher level commander." The plane started making its turn onto the main runway. Isabelle noticed Tacara looking very nervous. "Afraid?"

The girl nodded shyly and then confessed. "This is only my second time in a jet. I had nightmares before this trip. I dreamed we weren't allowed to land, and we kept circling and circling and everybody was crying. And then we ran out of hydrogen. It was a very scary dream..."

"Sounds like it! Do you have these dreams often?"

Tacara shook her head no and then with a shocked look on her face began to look terrified.

Isabelle suddenly realized what she had inadvertently done. "Tacara!" she whispered, "I'm sorry! I wasn't testing you. I'm not recording this for your control gate. Okay?"

"Yeah," Tacara whispered back. "Okay..." She was silent for a while. "All of us, we all just passed our ninth-year control gate. I'm sorry if I acted jumpy..." She stared out the window at the long runway, and then complained, "Deputy Isabelle, these flights take so long! Isn't being afraid of running out of fuel... well... valid?"

"Of course it is! You're fine! This is a long trip, and that's a very reasonable thing to think about." Isabelle smiled with relief as she saw Tacara finally relax. "But you don't have anything to worry about. Our trip from Venice to Tokyo will take less than six hours. Flight protocol states that we have fuel for at least an additional hour as a safety margin. The flight distance from Venice to Tokyo is 9574 kilometers. The permissible range of the jet is..."

"Yes?"

"Ah, 9600 kilometers. We are on the edge."

Tacara nodded her head. "I knew it!"

"But really Tacara, the permissible limit adds an extra hour of hover time. There's an adequate safety margin..."

"Hover time?"

"An extra hour to circle before landing. Flying at mach two, the fuel burn rates are high. But subsonic, the burn rate goes way down, more than a factor of two..."

"Oh... That makes sense... " Tacara sighed and tried to relax. "Thank you Deputy Isabelle. You're very kind." She tried to keep the conversation going. "We're the top ninety students of Tokyo's December control gate for nine-year olds. We got to pick a trip as a prize. We voted for the Mediterranean."

"Sure. A good choice."

The girl nodded. "It's lovely here. And when we get back, we get first pick from the puppy litters. Everybody is very excited about that. Do you know supplies are very tight this year?"

Isabelle frowned but tried not to show her distain. "Yes, I know."

"I have my eyes set on one puppy in particular. He has the most beautiful skin color, beautiful black eyes, and he's very friendly. His name is Hiaoto."

Isabelle nodded and tried to change the subject. "Any only five teachers to handle ninety girls just turning nine. You girls are very well behaved."

"Well, we're the best of the class. And there were six teachers. One got bumped off the flight for you." The LH2 turbine engines started to rev for takeoff. Tacara grimaced and squirmed in her chair as the turbojet began to accelerate down the runway.

"Here!" said Isabelle. "Hold my hand, okay?" At 5:48 PM local time, WFM Flight 1704 nonstop Venice to Tokyo lifted off from the runway, the thin wings of the 96-passenger turbojet stiff under the stress of the loaded fuel tanks... 



-------

Chapter 53


Time: January 2, year 204,894 5:40 AM Honolulu Local Time (T plus 19 hours, 40 minutes)

Twenty minutes before black-hole injection, the slip-ship's reality projection point jumped from one meter above the event horizon to five microns above the event horizon, approximately 71.5 kilometers from the geodesic center of NBHX35. The orbital period remained at 1.50 milliseconds. The ship was now traveling 99.9999999997% of the speed of light. A second of Kyle's and Brianna perceived time appeared as 4.75 days to Honolulu flight control.

From Honolulu's perspective, the next slip jump would occur in twenty minutes. From the slip-ship's perspective, the jump would occur in 2.9 milliseconds. Kyle and Brianna were at the threshold of forever.

Time: January 2, year 204,894 4:58 PM London Local Time (T plus 19 hours, 58 minutes)

I jumped into Jim's kennel room a couple of minutes before injection time. He was deep into reading a bunch of physics journals laid out before him.

He looked up at me and smiled, and then looked at the clock and sighed. "Nice to see you Gary. I guess we've succeeded. Time to go?"

I smiled. "We have time. Isabelle got put on a flight to Tokyo. The new schedule is for all of us to meet in Nebraska twenty hours from now. A'moth will pick up Issie when she lands. Want to hang out in Acapulco?"

"Yeah, in a bit..." He gazed at the hand-written journals before him.

"Kyle's work?" I asked.

"Yeah. My son is brilliant Gary, truly brilliant. He and Brianna discovered a whole new branch of science. It's not slip-bubble formalism, it's not quantum mechanics. They call it singularity mechanics. It's a whole new field. I'm trying to understand it. It's a whole new branch of science, the physics of singularities. And there's something strange in what they're doing. They have a theory for some strange way to cut the Honolulu control cord. I'm trying to understand it..."

"Want to just hang out here for a while then?"

"Gee, can we do that?"

"Sure. I can keep watch; jump us out of here if there's trouble. Expecting anybody?"

Jim shook his head. "No. Things should be quiet. The military is gone. And I'm not scheduled to be exercised and fed again until early tomorrow morning. This society would take some getting used to if we lived here for real. To be asleep by sundown I mean..."

"Yeah... So why don't we just hang out here?"

"Okay, thanks... Look! It's almost 5:00 PM right now."

We paused for a moment in silence and thought about our victory.

Time: At the edge of forever... 

The slip-ship jumped at T plus 20 hours into a state undefined by its originating spacetime continuum. Brianna and Kyle had worked long and hard on the issue of how to cut the Honolulu control channel. They did not understand the true nature of slip bubble shadows, and how crossing the Black Hole's event horizon would cause the other slip-rings to instantaneously vanish.

Their method to cut the cord was to orbit five microns above the event horizon for twenty minutes. Brianna was constantly worried someone would ask her why she had included this in her flight plan, but no one ever did. The purpose was to execute approximately one million orbits in a state of extreme time dilation.

Kyle had theorized that in the frozen time, the control channel could not rotate fast enough to adjust and would be tied into a twisted knot with each orbit. When they left the spacetime continuum, the control channel would be choked with a million knots, preventing any signal from Earth from reaching the ship. They would then have four hours to break the seals on the slip-generator room and reverse the polarity on the slip bubble before the slip-ship returned to Earth automatically.

Their idea in itself was valid, but there were severe unintended consequences. Enormous interspatial stresses were created by the knots in the temporal fabric of reality, and when they finally crossed the Black Hole's event horizon and the Honolulu rings ceased to exist, the net effect was that of a twisted rubber band of cosmic size stretched to the breaking point and then suddenly losing its anchors on both ends. The resulting cosmic whiplash fractured the slip-channel.

The immediate effect at Honolulu was not from the ruptured slip-channel but from the slip-generator shell casings aboard the remaining fleet of slip-ships still present at the shipyards. Deprived of the slip-rings, they assumed their normal weight of more than twelve million tons each. Comprised of thin shells of solid nuclear neutronium, they had the effect of being car-sized bowling bowls supported by the "thin air" of the rock beneath them. The casings plowed into the Earth's crust, accelerating rapidly. Minutes later, giant geysers of red hot lava began erupting across the expanse of the ancient Martian Planetia shipyards adjacent to Pearl Harbor bay. Honolulu slip-control began a hasty evacuation.

The two conduits of the dying channel whipped and snapped through spacetime. At the Black Hole location, the wickedly twisted cord went trans-light and burst into an inflationary expansion phase. It covered the sixteen light-day journey to the region of the red giant star in less than 50 milliseconds, locking onto the orbiting gas-giant planet in one great snapping motion. The outer channel enveloped the planet in a giant slip bubble 102,000 km in radius, about 30,000 km above the gaseous surface. Meanwhile, the inner channel was driven like a spike deep into the planet's liquid crust.

At Earth's end of the dual cord, the broken outer channel enveloped the planet, conforming to the Earth's surface at a height of eleven kilometers above the local surface of the globe. The inner channel was repelled by the Blue Ring shadow still present in the alternate reality at the North Pole. It raced southward at light speed and expanded to a circle with a circumference of seven thousand kilometers. Within milliseconds it was directly centered at the South Pole and had no place left to go. And then... 

Time: T plus twenty hours plus one second

Aboard her jet twelve minutes after takeoff, Isabelle was crossing 9,000 meters and rising rapidly to the jet's targeted cruising altitude. The jet would be climbing to 16,000 meters before going supersonic.

Isabelle heard an unusual pinging sound over the jet's intercom, and with her commander training she recognized the sound as a warning signal from the automatic guidance system of the plane. It had lost its lock on the carrier wave of the global satellite internet that was piloting the plane. Isabelle waited for a second signal that would tell her whether the primary lock was reestablished, or that the system was switching to one of the numerous backup satellite networks... 

The inner channel slammed into its south polar position like a hammer smashing into the defective bell of the outer channel. The collision ruptured the reality-creation interface boundaries of both slip-channels. The area above Earth's outer channel suddenly shared both quantum and classical reality with the distant gas giant. Earth's outer bubble pulsed and bifurcated.

An outer shell expanded outward at light speed and sifted through Earth's upper atmosphere and beyond like a cosmic fisherman's net. Loose gaseous molecules were too fine to catch, but anything solid and larger than a golf ball was encapsulated by the slip rupture and instantly transported thousands of light-years away to the region 30,000 kilometers above the gas giant.

At the South Pole, the inner channel brought together in direct contact Earth's south polar surface and a water-layer deep with the gas giant. There the inner channel had lodged in a phase-transition water-layer, a scalding hot triple point of ice VI, ice VII, and liquid water all co-existing as a slushy mix at 76C and 22,000 atmospheres of Earth pressure. At the surface of Earth's South Pole, with one atmosphere of air pressure above and 22,000 atmospheres of slush pressure below, the 7,000 kilometer circumference slip circle rocketed into the air, slamming into the bottom of the outer channel eleven kilometers above the Earth's surface 320 milliseconds later.

By this time the top Earth's outer channel had expanded to a sphere of radius 102,000 km, equal in size to the outer channel around the gas giant. The coincidence was the final death thro of the convulsing dual channel and it winked out of existence.

All satellites from LEO (Low Earth Orbit) to 96,000 km above the Earth's surface were now thousands of light-years from Earth, including the massive arrays at 35,800 km above the Earth's surface which formed the backbone of Earth's geosynchronous communication networks. All passengers aboard jets above 11,000 meters above the local Earth surface found themselves suddenly weightless and fatally positioned in a universe beyond their comprehension.

The jets had been designed for sub-orbital flights and they maintained their internal cabin pressure, but the hydrogen engines had no oxygen to burn in the vacuum of space and they shut down. The views through the windows showed a mammoth red-giant star centered a billion kilometers away, and the seemingly infinite expanse of the gas giant 30,000 kilometers below. The jets had no orbital velocity relative to the gas giant, and it took about a half hour before the jets started entering the outer atmosphere as streaking meteors. The passengers died in despair and utter bewilderment.

The impact to Earth from the inner channel was even more severe. Perfectly centered at the geo South Pole, a monstrous column of water had been created. It was 7,000 kilometers in circumference and 11 kilometers in height and with a temperature of 76C (169F). It was not rotating with the planet, and all along the 7,000 kilometer circumference the Earth was rotating at a speed of slightly less than 300 km/hour beneath it. The stupendous tower of scalding hot water acted as a giant drill boring into the Antarctic ice sheet across a circular area equal to the land area of Egypt and Spain combined, and with an eleven-kilometer-high pressure head of steaming water behind it... 

Released from the crushing gravitational pressure of the gas giant, the ice VI and ice VII flashed instantly to liquid form, causing the forty-three million cubic kilometers of the great cylinder of hot swirling water to burst outward... 

The Antarctic ice sheet below the horror didn't have a snowball's chance in hell of survival... 

Time: January 3, 204,894 1:36 AM Local Ulsan Korea time, (injection plus 36 minutes)

A'moth was thirty-six minutes into her first meeting of the morning. She had the city's top genetic e-techs debating ways to combat the ova quality crisis, and she didn't have the heart to tell them all their ideas were doomed to failure. A'moth's hand-maiden entered the conference room and gently touched A'moth's shoulder.

"Dr. Lisa, please... I'm so sorry to disturb you..."

"It's okay Joo-Eun. What's the matter? Did the Black Hole injection go okay?"

"I don't know. We have no word from Honolulu. Not just Honolulu, from anywhere in fact. The internet, Your Greatness. There's some problem with the internet they think. The council is calling an emergency meeting. The chairwoman is requesting everyone be in the council room at 2 AM."

A'moth blinked in puzzlement and then nodded. "I will be there. Leave me now. I wish to go to my room first. Thank you Joo-Eun."

Her maid nodded gratefully and slipped out of the room. A'moth was overjoyed with the perfect excuse to leave the meeting. She walked briskly to her personal quarters as she considered what to do. It was the start of a busy day. Sunset yesterday had been before 4:30 PM, which meant the expected sleep time was from 4 PM to midnight. A'moth finally reached her suite. Locking her door, she decided to visit Gary and Jim via a quick look-see jump to Honolulu. She probed a known spot directly at the Martian Planetia shipyards, and then... 

She recoiled in horror from the jump attempt, sensing the intense blast of heat waiting for her there. She retargeted a few moments later and jumped to a quiet spot with a good view of the shipyards from across Pearl Harbor bay.

A'moth made the hop in one leap, and then gasped in amazement at the pre-dawn scene across the harbor. In local time, it was about a half hour before sunrise, and the core shipyard area was one great glowing lake of molten lava, with several small streams flowing into both the harbor and into the Pacific Ocean on the other side of the shipyards. A'moth shook her head in wonder for a moment at the widespread destruction, and then heard someone approaching her position in the darkness. She jumped to northern Canada and then to London.

Time: Forty-one minutes past injection... From the instant of its creation, the tower of water began to burst at its base at shockwave speeds. Traveling close to 1400 meters per second, the wave-front moved from 80-degrees South latitude to 70-degrees South latitude in just fourteen minutes. By this time the column of water was approximately three kilometers high and approximately covering the entire 14,000,000 sq km of Antarctica. The potential energy released by the falling column was roughly equivalent to detonating a 100 megaton fusion warhead on each one of those 14,000,000 sq km. The momentum transfer fractured and pulverized the ice and the terrific pressure of the column blasted hot water deep into the great fissures. Only a fraction of the ice had melted by the first fourteen minutes, but by this time almost all the ice was separated from the land and mixing with the scalding water in a massive internal vortex. Great convection rolls were cracking and grinding cubic kilometer sized icebergs into tiny bits.

The shock wave began to slow, and its average speed dropped to 1000 meters per second over the next twenty-seven minutes. The wave dropped in height somewhat over the deep ocean, and then rose again as it approached land. Forty-one minutes after Black Hole injection, the wave hit the southernmost coast of the Americas at latitude 55-degrees South. It came ashore as a towering wall of water four kilometers high and traveling 800 meters per second, subsonic for the water but still more than 2.5 times the speed of sound in air. The water plowed into the land much faster than the sound of the total destruction.

Time: 43 minutes after injection aboard The Daughter of the Stars

"Nothing to it," called out Kyle over the intercom. He stared at the generator room display confirming the reversal of the homo-polar slip generator. "Should we punch it now?"

Brianna was on the bridge and she called back, "I can't see a reason to wait. Get us out of here Kyle! Hit it!"

A negative slip-bubble popped into existence and the ship transformed, exiting the infinite positive curvature of the Black Hole. A few seconds later Brianna called out over the intercom, "Kyle, can you get up here? Hurry!"



-------

Chapter 54


Time: January 2, 204894 5:44 PM London Local Time (44 minutes post injection)

I was keeping out of sight from the windows at the kennel; quietly scanning the area to be sure nobody could sneak up on us. Jim was immersed in his work. Several of Kyle's journals were laid out before him, and Jim was going through them slowly, occasionally making notes. Without warning, A'moth popped into the room with us.

Jim looked up and gave her a warm smile.

"Hi!" I said. "Did your meeting end early?"

A'moth shook her head. "It was just getting started. The council is calling an emergency meeting in fifteen minutes. It seems they're having trouble with the internet."

Jim looked at her oddly. "What kind of trouble?"

"I don't know. I think the global network is down though. Maybe even the intra-city net at Ulsan."

Jim frowned. "That doesn't sound likely. They have so much redundancy in their net. They rely on it for everything."

A'moth gave a short laugh. "Hey, I know! I rule this place! Jim, could it have anything to do with the Black Hole?" A'moth went on to describe her experience in Hawaii.

Jim did a few calculations for a moment. "Yeah, the generator casings... Not surprising. The trip through the core will be viscous though, even for neutronium. That should slow them down. They won't pop up on the other side of the globe."

"What about the internet?" I asked.

Jim shrugged. "Well, I can't see how the Black Hole injection could affect that. But the coincidence is too large to ignore. I would guess the two events are connected. A'moth, can you pick up Isabelle now? Why don't we just hit Nebraska now and get the hell out of here?"

A'moth shook her head. "She's on a jet, somewhere over Eastern Europe now. I can't jump into a moving plane. We'll have to wait for Tokyo." A'moth looked at the time. "I probably should get back to Ulsan; see what I can find out at the council meeting about the internet."

I spoke up. "There's no reason for us to stay here either."

A'moth nodded. "You're quite right. Do you want me to jump you to Nebraska?"

I thought for a moment. "Yeah, Nebraska will be okay I guess... Jim, how about we try my hideaway at Santa Fe? It'll be a lot warmer there, and it's only 800 kilometers from the Nebraska channel. If I had to, I can jump that with you in forty seconds."

Within the next minute A'moth jumped Jim, then Kyle's books and some supplies, and then finally me to the former site of Santa Fe, the ancient capitol of New Mexico. We were under the overhang of a shallow cliff, with a beautiful late-morning desert scene before us. The air was delightfully warm and dry and the natural beauty of the desert was idyllic.

Jim and I both gave A'moth a quick kiss goodbye before she jumped back to Korea.

Time: January 3, 204894 2:18 AM Ulsan Korea, Supreme Council Chamber #1, 1 hour 18 minutes post injection

A'moth was sitting quietly with the rest of the council, waiting for the last three members to arrive, the two Level-6 network e-techs and the general science e-tech. A'moth knew that being this late for any council meeting, let alone an emergency one, was very, very unusual, and she wondered what the heck was going on... 

A'moth took a moment to reflect on the council. It was comprised of nine Level-6 commanders, including the chairwoman, plus seven Level-6 e-techs, two in genetics, two in non-genetic medicine, two in networking, and one in general science, which was a catch-basket for all other scientific fields. A'moth thought the ratios among the e-techs closely reflected the WFM's scientific priorities. She also knew where the real power lay in the ruling council... 

In theory, a Level-6 e-tech was equal to a Level-6 commander. In practice, there were nine commanders to seven e-techs. In addition, it was the commanders who controlled the armed forces. The commanders were also a tight political group. Each one was an official sponsor to each of the other nine cities. In practice, they placed the interests of Ulsan and the WFM before everything else... 

The three missing e-techs hurried into the room. The chairwoman frowned at them and spoke a single word. "Report!"

One of the two network e-techs cleared her throat and began, "At 1:00 AM local time, we lost the internet, all of it, both the world and city networks, all of it. The world loss is still a complete mystery. We think we understand the city loss, and hope to have that piece up by 4:00 AM, perhaps as early as 3:40 AM."

The nine commanders stared at the e-tech, clearly displeased by the news.

"And the recovery for the world net?" asked the chairwoman. "When will that happen?"

The e-tech just grimaced and looked at her network colleague. The second woman spoke up. "We have to admit we don't know. We don't even understand what the problem is, let alone how long to repair it. The backbone of the world-net is a set of eight fully- functional, fully-independent satellite arrays, plus four additional emergency networks with somewhat limited functionality. All twelve networks are down! They all crashed simultaneously, on the exact second that blasted slip-ship was scheduled to enter NBHX35! Who authorized that mission?!"

The general-science e-tech spoke up. "It wasn't just me! We all voted in favor! And Dr. Lisa had some excellent arguments too for the exploration. I'm still not convinced that was the cause of the network crash!"

The first network e-tech rolled her eyes and shouted furiously. "You can't be serious! The exact second! The possibility of such a coincidence is zero!"

"But there's no physical way a slip-ship entering NBHX35 could bring down the net!"

"Prove it!"

"Prove it?! What do you mean, prove it?! They are two independent phenomena. There's no connection between the slip-channel conduit and our internet. Oh, some control consoles share bits of data at Honolulu perhaps, but there's no power coupling. The slip-ships are reality-shifters. And they have no power to affect reality except to change their position. I'm telling you, the slip-ship did NOT cause this outage!"

The network e-tech looked exasperated and then shouted sarcastically, "And I suppose your Honolulu team confirms this?"

The science e-tech retorted, "As soon as you get your network back up, I'm sure they will!"

"Silence!" shouted the chairwoman, banging gavel on the table and signaling the current conversation was to end. "Lisa, this is not your area of expertise, but I think all the council members here respect your scientific insight. What is your opinion?"

A'moth thought for a few seconds. She noticed the science e-tech was looking nervously out the west windows of the conference room. The city seemed well lit and functional. The outward appearance was that everything was in order. "Tan-Rae," A'moth asked, calling to the first network e-tech who spoke. "What was wrong with the city network, and how are you repairing it?"

The Level-6 e-tech tried to calm herself for a moment before speaking. "A number of years ago, almost a decade I think, we switched to the J-7 protocols as a guaranteed way of eliminating all those strange file errors we used to have. J-7 relies on the sat-net for critical redundant security gates. With all of the sat-nets down, all of them, the J-7 control-gates are hanging the root servers..."

The chairwoman frowned. "What?! This was never discussed. J-7 can not operate without a sat-net?"

The network e-tech looked sheepish. "Evidently not. There are so many redundancies and backup capabilities in the sat-nets, it was never flagged as an issue at the lower levels."

A'moth nodded. "So you're rebooting the servers with J-6?"

"J-5 actually. It's a simpler system to understand. We ran J-5 for centuries without trouble before we switched to J-6, and will allow us to be up in..." the e-tech looked at the clock. The time was 2:31 AM. "... another ninety minutes or less. It would have been noontime before we could get J-6 up."

The chairwoman nodded. "Suggestions for what else we should be doing?"

A commander by her side frowned. "We must assume the other cities and towns are also without local nets. Will they also reload with J-5?"

Tan-Rae frowned. "Without authorization from the council? I doubt it..."

There was a long moment of silence. "We need more information," A'moth volunteered at last. "Perhaps if we re-convened at 4:30 AM, after the city-net is up. Perhaps I should fly to Honolulu later, to confer with the slip personnel on the status of the slip-ship, and to authorize the loading of J-5. Bo-Bae," she called out to the science e-tech. "You seemed startled by my suggestion?"

Bo-Bae frowned and brought her gaze back from the window. "The sky is still clear. The sat-net flies the planes, and I checked with flight control before coming here. One plane landed ten minutes after the network loss. I thought we might be okay." She looked at the clock and trembled. "I think two other planes are now overdue."

"What?!" whispered A'moth.

Local Time: January 2, 204894 7:32 PM Cape Town, South Africa, 1 hour 33 minutes post injection

It had been a beautiful summer day at Cape Town, and many people were still strolling along the beaches enjoying the twilight of the evening when the ocean suddenly foamed and disappeared, carrying a number of evening swimmers with it. The people on the beach stared for a moment in astonishment, and then began running inland to escape a possible tsunami. Their flight was useless. One minute later a supersonic towering wall of water almost four kilometers high came ashore and in an instant washed Cape Town away. The first of the ten great WFM cities had been obliterated.

Time: 1 hour 40 minutes post injection, aboard LH2 jet Flight-1704

The single warning tone sounded again 100 minutes after the first time it sounded. Isabelle had been uneasy the whole time, but there was nothing she was supposed to do about the warning tone. It was a diagnostic signal which should never happen in flight. She looked about the cabin. Most of the teachers and girls were asleep, and the rest were quietly reading or politely talking below the level of the jet noise. The WFM did not believe in stewardess service, but there was a small buffet area near the center of the passenger cabin for anyone who wanted a snack.

Isabelle finally decided she had to do something. She got up and walked over to what she thought was the head teacher. The woman saw her coming and looked nervous.

"Are any of our students giving you trouble Commander?"

"Huh? Oh no! Nothing like that. That warning tone; you must have heard it. Do you know what it means?"

A couple of other teachers got up and gathered around. The principal replied, "No. I've never heard anything like it."

Isabelle nodded. "The plane can not lock the sat-net for guidance and flight control."

The principal frowned. "Wow... That's unusual. So it jumped to a secondary net?"

It was Isabelle's turn to frown. "I'm not sure what it's doing. It should have given an additional tone when it relocked; identifying which sat-net is in control. I've never heard a lock tone, just a repeat of the loss warning."

The principal blinked and looked confused. "Hoshi, you're the science teacher. What's your opinion?"

Hoshi was silent for a moment and then turned to Isabelle. "Commander, this plane can not fly unguided while supersonic. Without active adjustment of the center of gravity by the plane's internal network, it would begin to tumble. This plane is being guided. It must be."

Isabelle nodded. "Yes, but by what? I've decided to open the door to the control room. I thought you should know."

The other women looked shocked. Such a maneuver was so rare, Isabelle's proposed action was almost unprecedented. It had not been done in a hundred centuries. But Hoshi saw the wisdom of it. "Yes, I agree. Thank you Commander, for your bravery. We are lucky to have you aboard!"

A few minutes later Isabelle slid her gold card into a slot at the front of the plane and typed in a command for access. Within milliseconds the plane validated both the card and Isabelle's bio readings and opened the door. There were four small control seats in a small observation area in the nose of the plane, arranged in a 2 x 2 pattern. Isabelle walked over and took the front left seat, gesturing with her hand for Hoshi to join her on her right. Hoshi gulped and obeyed.

Time: 1 hour 51 minutes post injection

Since hitting South America 70 minutes ago, the leading wave of the Antarctic horror had stabilized into two primary modes. One mode was a deep ocean mode, a wave-front two kilometers high and traveling at 600 meters per second, much faster than a deep-water tsunami would travel. The deep-water wave was currently at latitude 28-degrees South, along all longitudes around the globe where there was deep ocean.

Across the land, the wave was higher and slower, traveling at a height greater than three kilometers over Australia, Africa, and South America at a speed of 400 meters per second. It was still slightly super-sonic to the air in front of it. Normally the supersonic shock wave in the air would act as an enormous brake, but the momentum behind the wave was astronomical, and the air in front of it had negligible effect. The wave was slightly higher than Australia's highest mountain. Nothing would escape total destruction on that continent.



-------

Chapter 55


Time: 1 hour 52 minutes post injection

Isabelle had spent the last several minutes running preliminary diagnostics. Hoshi looked on quietly and admired her expertise. The other four teachers were gathered near the door.

"This confirms it," Isabelle called back to the other teachers. "The plane has dropped back to its very last solution. It's activated both terrain mapping radar and gyroscopes, and is being guided by its internal map software."

"I didn't even know the jets had such capabilities," Hoshi whispered.

"Why did it leave the net?" the principal called out from the door.

Isabelle looked at the jet's log and replied. "It lost net-lock at 6 PM local Venice time, about twelve minutes after liftoff. It's saying it can't even find the internet carrier wave now."

"That's impossible."

"Yeah, well... It's still searching..."

"Why not just lock another sat-net?"

Isabelle gave a mirthless laugh. "That's what it has been trying to do that for the last two hours now. It can't find anything. I know how impossible this sounds. But the internal diagnostics don't show any local problem. I'm going to assume the sat-nets are down, all of them."

There was a moment of utter silence as the teachers considered her words. The youngest one, a woman Isabelle's age, asked quietly, "Are we going to die?"

Isabelle tried to sound optimistic. "Not today I hope. The plane should just fly to Tokyo and land by itself. But as an extra safety margin, I'm considering commanding the plane to fly an optimal altitude profile for its weight. Fuel efficiency will be slightly better in thinner air, and as the plane gets lighter we won't need as much lift... We'll catch a few more cosmic rays, nothing to worry about." Isabelle paused for just a moment, and hearing no objections began to type.

The teachers by the door looked very uncertain and shocked that Isabelle would do such a thing. Hoshi stared at her in pure admiration.

Time: 2 hours post injection

Cindy looked at clock and sighed. It had been two hours since she lost all contact with Earth. She had been expecting to lose the Honolulu connection through the slip rings, but her monitoring of the sat-net from the arctic also went down, and she had no idea why. She thought for a moment if there was anything she could do. Nothing came to mind, and she decided to walk around for a bit before trying the sat-nets again.

Time: January 2, 204894 6:03 PM Local Venice Time (2 hours, 3 minutes post injection)

The Level-1 network e-tech was in the archive room below the flight control tower, working to bring up a long unused diagnostic that might help her superiors upstairs understand the sat-net linkage failure. The last hour had been pandemonium as two different flights had failed to land. With the local city-net down, city communications were a horror and communications with the jet computers impossible. The Venice- cluster was located at the top of the Adriatic. It was both the northernmost town and the hub flight town for the entire Mediterranean area.

The e-tech frowned when she heard the door open behind her. She thought she had locked it, and she couldn't imagine her superiors coming all the way down here in the current situation. Turning, she had a shock of recognition and stammered, "Why! You look just like..."

A'moth gave a quick smile and flashed her brown badge with a bright blue 6 on it. "You recognize me. Great. There's no time to explain. I need some help with the archives, with the departing flights. Can you do local retrieval here, even without the net?"

"Huh? Departing flights? Well, yeah, I guess... Without the net to search the index keys, it'll take a few minutes. I had no idea you were..."

A'moth gave a curt nod, dismissing her bewilderment. "I need the details of Flight 1704. It departed this afternoon for Tokyo. I need the complete details of the flight route. I also need a technical document on how to manually program the plane." The e-tech stared at her in frozen amazement. A'moth barked, "Move!"

Time: January 2, 204894 12:23 PM Santa Fe, New Mexico local time (2 hours, 23 minutes post injection)

I jumped back to Jim from a small spring about twenty kilometers away. He was lost in his work, buried in Kyle's journals. He gave me a brief nod as I handed him some spring water. Then I turned and just watched the desert for a while. It was so beautiful... 

"Holy shit," Jim whispered. "Holy, holy shit!"

I smiled. "Find something interesting?"

"What an understatement! Holy cosmic catastrophe Batman!" Jim replied, trying to use some humor to take the edge off his worry.

"Well, that's just the way life is sometimes, Robin..." I replied. "What's up?"

"Kyle and Brianna. They twisted the slip channel before they snapped it, twisted it big- time. They didn't know! I don't think they knew what they were doing..."

"Huh? How bad could it get?" I asked, not really understanding my own question.

Jim looked out at the desert. "Well, Earth still exists. That's something..."

"What?!" I stared at him for a moment. "You're kidding, right?"

"No, not at all. Remember those shards you saw, when you burst through the Antelope Freeway channel?"

"The ones that chopped up the corn plants? Yeah, sure. So?"

Jim frowned. "You would get the same reality contradictions with what Kyle and Brianna did. A ruptured slip-channel filled with shifting reality potential. Except in their case, our case now, the shards were not contained in a slip-bubble as they were on Antelope Freeway. You had classical-level counterfactuals existing naked in the universe, without the covering of a slip bubble or an event horizon. It's probably the first time that's happened since the creation of the universe."

"Meaning what?"

"Meaning that it's anything-can-happen day; raw unbounded reality shifts."

"Oh... For how long?"

Jim sighed. "Not long. I first guessed less than a second at the Freeway. Isabelle proved the true limit is less than half a second..."

I shrugged my shoulders. "Well, injection was over two and a half hours ago. So we're okay now?"

Jim smiled. "Yeah, I guess. Except for some after-effects maybe..."

"After effects? Like what?"

"Anything at all. Like the Earth could have been kicked away from the sun at half the speed of light, or maybe straight for it."

"Holy shit!"

"Exactly!" said Jim. He looked at the peaceful landscape and sun before us. "But that obviously didn't happen. So I guess we're okay..."

Jim and I stared at each other for a moment, and then we both laughed to release some of the tension. "Jim," I said, "there's something I have to talk to you about."

Jim gave a deep sigh. "Caroli and Anupa?"

"Yeah..."

"I'm so embarrassed now about how much I... well, enjoyed it. Gary, you made the right decision not yanking me out of there..."

"I think so too, though it was a close call. Still, I want to offer you an embarrassment oath."

Jim smiled. "Ah, the Hopewell custom. Gary, I really appreciate the offer, but"

"No! I'm serious. You have my oath that I will never mention what happened to anyone. And to seal the oath, I'm going to tell you something deeply embarrassing to me."

"Gary... Oh, okay... Thank you."

I nodded. "It concerns Cindy."

"What?!"

"My last day at the polar home, before I left with your sperm and Cindy's egg... Ah, this is so embarrassing..."

Jim came up to me and gave me a hug. "Gary, I love you as a brother. I'll forgive you if you had sex with Cindy, but I must say I"

"Oh heck no Jim! Nothing like that!"

Jim breathed a sigh of relief. "Then what?"

"Well, if you remember, I remote teleported Cindy's egg out of her left Fallopian tube. I also jump-sensed her left ovary and left side of her uterus to get my bearings. She was lying down on the medical table, a bare midriff and trusting me completely..."

"Yeah, I remember. So?"

"Well, I found what I was doing was... arousing..."

"What?! To her?!"

"No! You idiot! To me! Oww, this is so embarrassing!"

Jim looked thoughtful and then smiled at me. "And a perfect counterweight to my own embarrassment. Thanks Gary!"

"Uh, wait Jim. There's one amendment I'd like to make to this..."

A few seconds later we touched our foreheads together to seal the oath.

Time: January 2, 204894 1:40 PM Latitude 12-degress South, Lima, Peru local time (2 hours, 40 minutes post injection)

Dr. Ceres stared out of her downtown office window in amazement. She had been promoted to Level-IV commander less than a month ago, and she had been spending the last several hours wishing she hadn't been. The combined losses of both city-net and sat- nets were driving her crazy. But then, over the last several minutes, she witnessed something that made all her other worries pale to nothingness.

"The ocean..." she thought slowly, "The Pacific Ocean... It's disappeared..." As far as the eye could see, the once blue ocean was a great expanse of dark brown sandy mud. Dr. Ceres knew about tsunamis, but from her 50'th floor visa the world still seemed safe and solid. It was only the view out the window that was impossible, not the reality of her building. A small part of her mind was screaming at her to do something, but she just couldn't comprehend the reality before her.

On the horizon ten kilometers away, a swirling line of whiteness appeared. Dr. Ceres stared at it, her mind balking at making sense of the images she was perceiving. She watched the white line swiftly grow, her mind refusing to understand the scale. Several seconds before impact, the three-kilometer-high wave seemed to fill half the sky, even though it was still two kilometers away.

A massive supersonic shock wave of air hit the building, shredding the window in front of Dr. Ceres and hurling her cut and broken body against the office wall behind her. She did not die immediately, but was mercifully unconscious when the water hit her office building five seconds later at 400 meters per second. The second of the ten great cities was no more.

Time: January 2, 204894 12:41 PM Santa Fe, New Mexico local time (2 hours, 40 minutes post injection)

A'moth jumped into our location, a few meters away from Jim and me. I had never seen her look more upset.

"Gary," she said. "There's no easy way to say this. I think Isabelle might be dead."

It felt as if I were in a down elevator, and the cable suddenly snapped. I could barely find my voice. "What?! You sure?"

"No, not sure. But it doesn't look good." Over the next couple of minutes, A'moth told of her research in Ulsan, Venice, and San Diego. "All three cities have a jet or two that was about to land before the net-crash and made it safely down. But all the following flights are overdue. Gary, Isabelle's plane was just twelve minutes past take-off when the nets collapsed. There're no reports of crashes. The planes have just vanished."

I felt filled with frustration. "What can we do?"

A'moth frowned. "More data wouldn't hurt. Let me check out one more city." She paused for a moment, and then a startled look fell over her face.

Jim noticed it too. "A'moth, what?"

"Lima," replied A'moth. "I can't get a jump lock. It feels as if I'm slipping into the Pacific Ocean."

"Too far away?" asked Jim.

"No, not at all, less than 5900 kilometers. Should be no problem."

I spoke up. "Is it like the Nebraska distortion?"

A'moth shook her head. "No. This is completely different..." She paused for a moment and frowned. "I can lock the cluster town of Caral fine. This is so strange. Gary, I'm going to jump to Caral and try to lock Lima from there." I nodded and a second later she was gone.

Time: 2 hours 41 minutes after injection, aboard the Daughter of the Stars

"Yep, there's no question," said Kyle. "Pure anti-electrons and anti-protons. It's a good thing we're still expressing a slip bubble. The flux would be pitting the hull otherwise."

"An anti-matter solar system then?" asked Brianna.

"Oh, more than that. It would have to be the whole galaxy."

"Sink! Could we have been inverted? Maybe we're anti-matter and the rest of the universe is not!"

Kyle shuddered as he thought about the possibility. "No," he said at last. "That would violate super-parity. Brianna! I think we might be in a totally new spacetime! I don't think our old universe had anti-matter galaxies!"

"So what do we do if this universe is all anti-matter?"

"Find another Black Hole I guess. But one observation isn't much of a survey. Let's head down to astrometrics and target another galaxy..."

Time: January 2, 204894 1:46 PM Caral Peru, 180 km north of submerged Lima (2 hours, 46 minutes post injection)

The wave-front was traveling 600 meters per second up the coast and slowing to 400 meters per second for the collision speed with the land. Caral's destruction would lag Lima's by five minutes.

A'moth jumped into the flight control building near the coast just seconds before total annihilation. Unfortunately the windows of the room were facing east, away from the ocean and A'moth could not see the approaching wave. She walked to the window and looked down, and became puzzled by the sight of so many people standing still outside and staring westward.

The entire building shook and swayed as it was hit by the monstrous supersonic shock wave of air in front of the water wave. A'moth heard multiple windows shattering on the other side of the building. Instinctively she sought a new location, and she jumped to a known room location in a ward town ten kilometers inland, not caring that there were people already in the room.

The people in the room were staring out the window. They and A'moth witnessed the instant obliteration of the hub town of Caral cluster in an instant. A'moth gasped at the perspective. The wave of water was more than three kilometers high, and showed no signs of slowing down.

A'moth watched in horror as the wave sped to her new location. The shock wave of air in front of the water wave was blasting and uprooting the trees as it passed. Ten seconds after Caral hub was destroyed, A'moth realized she had about another ten seconds before the air shock hit her building. One of the people by the window turned to her and blinked with surprise. There was no time to do anything. A'moth mouthed the word "sorry" and jumped back to Santa Fe.

Gary, Jim, and A'moth spent the next several minutes in a furious discussion about what to do. Gary and A'moth considered the possibility of splitting up, one of them searching for Isabelle and the other carrying Jim to safety through the Nebraska channel. Jim vigorously objected, and the three finally decided on an alternate plan. A'moth jumped Gary to San Diego, and he remote teleported some winter clothing for Jim and himself. Then A'moth relayed them both to the Nebraska channel location. Jim and Gary would wait for A'moth there, and risk the channel if a wave approached. A'moth left them to scout the world's situation. She thought she would look and Indonesia via Hawaii.

At 1:58 AM local time, almost three hours post injection, A'moth was on a beach just outside the city limits of Jakarta at latitude 6-degrees South. It was the exact spot where she first noticed the plague spores in December of 2009, so many thousands of years ago. A'moth looked around, and realized in horror that the ocean was gone. Jakarta was on the north shore, and A'moth knew the wave's height was far higher than the land. She took one last look at the city she loved, realizing it would all be gone in moments. She jumped to survey the planet and prepare for her council meeting in Ulsan. The third great city of the WFM died a minute later.

Time: 4:30 AM, January 3, 204894, Ulsan, Korea. latitude 35.5-degrees North (3 hours, 30 minutes post injection, global wave-front latitude: 3.7-degrees North)

Over the last half hour A'moth had scouted the coasts of the world, and had estimated the wave was racing north across the globe at a steady rate of 19.4 degrees of latitude an hour. She looked at the clock and did a quick calculation. She estimated that Ulsan had another hour and thirty-eight minutes to exist. Isabelle's destination of Tokyo was very slightly to the south of Ulsan's latitude. Tokyo would suffer Ulsan's fate about twenty seconds sooner.

The meeting started on time. The e-techs tried to be optimistic, focusing on a bit of good news that offered a promising way to recovery. The city internet was up and running with J-5. There were also a number of scientific satellites both in lunar orbit and at lunar distances orbiting the Earth. They were responding to control commands, and the network e-techs were working on reprogramming them to handle the J-7 security gates. Estimated time to completion: two and a half hours.

Also, Project Eveready would be launched in less than an hour. Six highly functional combination observation / communications satellites would be operational in geosynchronous orbit by the end of the day. Additional LEO (Low Earth Orbit) observation satellites were also being launched.

A'moth kept still and hid the sadness from her face. The meeting dragged on. A number of people were making suggestions about how to avoid a repeat of the network disaster. A'moth sat through the meeting quietly, hoping for some insight into what she could do about Isabelle. She thought in another hour she would abandon all hope and join Jim and Gary in Nebraska.

Shortly after 5:00 AM, a cell phone rang for one of the network e-tech. He listened and talked for a minute, and then faced the council. "There's a short delay with Eveready. The new expected launch time is 5:45 AM. We also have a report from the city's fiber hub. Our first look showed we have lit fiber from six other root servers. As soon as they can clear their J-7 control gates from the lunar satellites, we'll be able to reboot the world net. Another two hours, this nightmare will be over."

Another cell phone rang and the general-science e-tech began talking quietly.

The chairwoman frowned at the network heads. "Six root servers? What about the other three cities?"

The e-tech shrugged. "The three cities in the Southern Hemisphere. All their fiber is dark. We don't know why. It would indicate that the cities have powered off their root servers."

"Would they dare do that?" someone whispered.

"Well, they shouldn't. But maybe they have some idea about purging their system..."

Bo-Bea finished her call and smiled happily. "If I may interrupt... I just had a call from flight control. A jet has just landed!"

A'moth turned her head sharply. "What?!"

"Yes! Isn't this good news? A flight from Jakarta has just landed."

The chairwoman asked, "But Jakarta is one of the cities with dark fiber! Do the passengers say what is happening in the city?"

Bo-Bea shook her head. "No. I didn't ask. I don't think they would know. The plane departed Jakarta twelve minutes before the network failure."

"Huh?!" said A'moth. She had a stunning epiphany that Isabelle's plane also left twelve minutes before the network loss. "Excuse me. Madam chairwoman, I'd like to go interview the arriving passengers immediately."

The chairwoman nodded. "Go. How soon can you be back?"

A'moth had no intention of ever returning. She made up a meaningless number. She looked at the time, 5:09 AM. A'moth did a quick calculation, and realized that Honolulu's fiber would go dark in fifteen minutes. "Depends on the interviews. I will call back to report on my progress in one hour." A'moth's face completely hid the fact that the city had fifty-nine minutes left to live. She exchanged curt nods of agreement with the chairwoman, and quickly left the room.



-------

Chapter 56


Time: January 2, 204894 3:17 PM local time outside the Nebraska channel, 4 hours, 17 minutes after injection.

A lot can happen in 200,000 years. Nebraska used to be famous for its cornfields, but the area around the channel entrance was now a deep forest. After A'moth dropped us off, Jim and I spent some time hiking around a bit until I nailed the exact location of the entrance. The trick is to probe lightly. Too deep a mind-presence in the channel and I'd slide down without being able to stop.

The area is really different, all sorts of hardwood trees. It's mid-winter and the leaves are gone, but the sun is out and it's almost over freezing, not too bad at all. One of my favorite trees looks very much like a redwood, maybe with a slightly more dense and oily grain. I think it would make superb furniture wood. I idly thought I'd like to try to build something with Isabelle, if we ever got the chance. Maybe a nice desk. Isabelle once confided to me that she likes to work with wood... 

I looked around and breathed deeply of the cold air. I'll say one thing for the WFM, they keep a nice planet.

I thought again about the Nebraska channel. I could have Jim and me down it in a moment. Then a quick jump to the center of Antelope Freeway, Jim dreaming me to the edge of the arctic home, a quick run across the polar ice from the peninsula... I could be back on Earth with Jim safe with Cindy in a couple of minutes of perceived time... Perceived... That's the key. Would there be a temporal shift using the Nebraska channel? What year would I return to Earth? We just couldn't risk it... I looked at my watch and idly reset it to local time, 3:20 PM... 

A'moth popped into existence beside Jim and me. I locked eyes with her. "Isabelle?"

She nodded. "There's hope!" She turned her head. "Jim! No time to explain! I need to jump Gary to China. You'll be safe here for a couple of hours. One of us will be back by then, I promise!"

Jim spoke one word. "Go!"

A'moth nodded and grabbed me. We jumped once. I sort of recognized the area. I certainly have studied it enough. But I must say, the shipyards sure looked different as a lava pit. I turned to A'moth and asked, "Martian Planetia, right? The Great Circle arc from Nebraska was 5808 kilometers."

"Yes. I want to take a minute, to explain something here. I'm timing the speed of the shockwave."

I nodded. "I can scan. It won't sneak up on us."

A'moth nodded back. "Keep alert! In deep water, it can cover your twenty-three kilometers in less than forty seconds, about a minute if it's coming over land. But Pearl Harbor faces south, and the island is a mountain top dropping down steeply into the ocean. You'll sense the wave forty-some seconds before it gets here."

I gulped and nodded. "Isabelle?" I noticed A'moth had two pair of high-precision binoculars around her neck. She took one pair off and handed it to me.

"Earlier today, I knew of a few airplanes just about to land that landed after the net outage. All the others seemed to have disappeared. No crashes, no maydays, nothing. Then, a short time ago, a plane landed in Ulsan from Jakarta. It had just taken off before the net outage."

I thought for a moment and looked up at the sky. "Ah... You're thinking low flying planes might be okay..."

"Yes! And Isabelle's plane lifted"

"Wait! I feel it. Not the wave. The ocean! It's retreating!" A moment later the ocean began to bubble and rapidly recede. I had never seen an ocean move so fast. In less than a minute we seemed to be standing before an expanse of mud stretching to the horizon.

A'moth continued. "Isabelle plane lifted twelve minutes before Black Hole injection. I'm hoping she's okay. My poor child! She doesn't even realize the danger! I have her detailed flight plan from Venice. In a few minutes, I'm hoping we can intercept her in Korea, near the top of the Yellow Sea."

"Oh... How about picking her up in Tokyo, after the plane lands?"

A'moth shook her head. "Tokyo will cease to exist a half hour before Isabelle's plane is scheduled to land. Feel up to jumping into a supersonic jet?"

"Uh... Supersonic huh? Well..." A'moth stared at me as my face turned white and I started to tremble.

"My gosh Gary! I was hoping it wouldn't be a problem!"

After a few seconds, I finally found my voice. "No... Not that... The wave! It's... It's unbelievable! A'moth! Get us out of here!"

It was just starting to become visible on the southern horizon. Its speed and size were beyond imagination. With less than twenty seconds between us and eternity, A'moth hugged me and jumped.

We were in a deserted part of the Tokyo airport. It was a nice, easy jump-line of 5963 km for A'moth. She looked at her watch. "Four hours and twenty-four minutes after injection. The wave hit Honolulu right on schedule. It's not slowing down at all."

I looked at Tokyo in the pre-dawn darkness. "How long?" I whispered.

A'moth whispered back, "Tokyo and Ulsan will be hit almost simultaneously, forty-four minutes from now. It'll be about forty minutes before sunrise for Tokyo. They'll never see it coming. With the net down, they're completely blind."

"And Isabelle?"

"Her plane is scheduled to cross into Korea at 5:36 AM local time, eleven minutes from now, near where Seoul used to be. We'll intercept her there." A'moth stepped close and hugged me. We were in Korea a second later, at the coast with the dark waters of the Korean Bay to our west.

It was cold! Fortunately the air was clear and dry, and WFM jets travel with a lot of lights. Looking at A'moth's flight maps, I hopped A'moth around until we were at the exact location to catch the plane. We were right at the rocky edge of the coast, with thick snow covered trees to our east. We spotted the jet right on schedule heading for our intercept about six minutes later. A'moth and I turned to each other and let out a brief burst of laughter in relief. Our daughter!

The jet was moving close to Mach 2. And as I scanned, I realized they were also higher than we were expecting. "About 19,000 meters above sea-level," I called out, realizing with a jolt that the seas were everything but level right now.

A'moth frowned. "Their flight plan was for 16,000 meters... 19,000 is right at the upper limit for these planes. I wonder if anything's wrong."

"We'll find out soon enough," I said confidently.

Maybe too confidently. Mach two is fast, about a kilometer every 1.7 seconds. And we would be more than nineteen kilometers below them at the closest. The bird was moving fast! I scanned the plane and found Isabelle in the pilot cabin with another woman. The plane would be in and out of my range in about twenty seconds. I prepared to remote- teleport Isabelle to us, and then I realized in horror that I couldn't do it without her slamming into the surrounding trees at Mach 2.

So I thought up a chemical taste and jumped a microdot of saliva, just as the plane left my range. I frowned grimly at A'moth. "Come on! We have to move east!" At twenty kilometers per second I could easily outrace the plane. But that wasn't my problem... 

Time: 4 hours 37 minutes after injection, one hour before Flight-1704's scheduled landing in Tokyo, thirty-one minutes before destruction of Tokyo and Ulsan... 

Isabelle sat quietly in the control seat, monitoring the burn rates. They were definitely burning fuel at a slower rate than projected, and at first Isabelle was very happy to have picked the higher altitude. But then she realized the weight of all the children was considerably less than an adult payload would have been, and guessed most of the savings were due to that.

Regardless, they now had a very comfortable safety margin to Tokyo, and only had an hour to go. Isabelle checked her com-system again, still no sat-net nor communications with Tokyo. She looked at her display as they finished flying over the Korean Bay. The jet was currently 1158 km from its destination. They would go subsonic for the final approach to Tokyo in another 830 kilometers, in twenty-five minutes.

Isabelle felt a sudden pain in the back of her throat, as if someone had just poked her there hard with a tiny stick. She coughed and gagged and tried to steady herself. Hoshi looked over concerned but remained silent.

Isabelle was a bit bewildered by what had just happened, and then she realized she could taste a definite flavor of peppermint in her mouth. Her eyes lit up in surprise and happiness. "Hoshi," she said simply, "I'm going to close the control room door." Isabelle keyed in a command and sealed the exit to the main body of the plane.

Hoshi looked puzzled but simply nodded and wondered if Deputy Isabelle would explain. The minutes passed slowly as the jet continued its quiet flight over Korea. Isabelle turned occasionally and looked at the rear of the small cabin. Five minutes after entering Korea, they crossed the eastern shoreline about fifty kilometers south of Kangnung, and began crossing the Sea of Japan. Isabelle started to wonder if she had imagined the peppermint taste. They were due to drop out of supersonic flight in twenty minutes.

The flight across the Sea of Japan was uneventful, the jet automatically reducing its height 500 meters a minute. As the plane approached the islands, the jet reduced engine power and the supersonic bow wave quickly decelerated the plane. The aircraft would cross into Japan near the ancient site of Fukui at a height of 9,500 meters and descending. Isabelle glanced to her right and watched their brief flight over the head of Wakasa Bay. They were now 322 km from Tokyo and 35 minutes from their scheduled landing, flying slightly below sonic speed and decelerating. Local time was 6:02 AM.

There was a sudden jolt and the sounds of thuds and grunts as two bodies slammed into the closed rear door of the cabin. Hoshi's world turned upside-down when Isabelle called out, "Mom! Dad!" and jumped out of her chair. Hoshi turned to watch her and let out an explosive gasp of astonishment. There were two extra people in the control room! And one of them was male! And the other?! A supreme council member?! Hoshi started to laugh uncontrollably, and she fought mightily to retain her sanity.

Isabelle was bending over the council ruler and helping her to stand. She then hugged her. "Mom! Are you okay?!"

Hoshi blinked in astonishment. "Mom?! Dad?!!!" she thought. These terms were used only in animal breeding. Women of the WFM had not created parent-child associations in over 200,000 years.

A'moth stood up and tried to steady herself. "I'm okay, just had the wind knocked out of me." She shook her head to try to clear it and failed. "Hell! I feel dizzy! Gary, I can't jump! We're in trouble!" She appeared tipsy and Isabelle grabbed A'moth to keep her from falling.

A'moth struggled to break free. "Daughter! Let go!" She broke free of Isabelle's hug and rushed over to the pilot seat where Isabelle had been sitting. She pulled Isabelle's ID out of the control slot and inserted her own and started typing. "Gary?" she called out over her shoulder. She was typing with one hand and reading out of a technical document with the other... 

"Yeah, I'm okay." I replied. "Just a sore elbow maybe..."

"Gary!" she cried. "I can't jump, not now! I'm too dizzy!"

The implications hit me like a ton of bricks. "A'moth! Get us out of here!"

"Working on it," she hissed. She was frantically flipping through her document and adjusting some controls... 

Isabelle came and pulled me up. It turned into a very affectionate hug. Isabelle buried her head into my chest. "You came for me... I know the sat-net is out, but we were okay. Why not just wait for Tokyo?" she whispered.

I just nodded and kissed the top of her head. I glanced about the control room, and noticed a clock display. The time was 6:04:30 AM Ulsan time. Tokyo would be destroyed in approximately three minutes. I felt Isabelle stiffen in my arms as the plane began to bank sharply and turn from east-southeast to due-north and accelerate, all engines revving to full power. Someone began pounding frantically on the door behind us... 

"Mom!" Isabelle screamed. "What the hell are you doing?!"

Time: 6:06 AM Ulsan, Korea (5 hours, 8 minutes post injection)

The chairwoman of the WFM leaned back in her leather chair and sighed. The emergency meeting had been going on for over two hours now and it was having its ups and downs. On the bright side Eveready was launched successfully at 5:45 AM, and six very capable emergency satellites were on their way to geosynchronous orbit. An additional twelve small observation satellites were launched at 6:00 AM. These would be in a combination of equatorial, polar, and hybrid orbits and give the council detailed views of the planet within two hours. The chairwoman couldn't remember ever feeling so blind, and she was eager to have the experience end.

The news was not all pleasant. No additional jets had landed, and numerous flights were now beyond their fuel capacity to remain up. The chairwoman had a faint hope that perhaps some had diverted to Kangnung or Tokyo, but she knew this was probably wishful thinking. The thought of the lack of jet transportation capabilities for the near future was very distressing.

And the fiber links! More bad news. Why were so many cities turning off their root servers? There was a coastal road connecting Ulsan to Kangnung. Several army trucks had been dispatched to ensure Kangnung did not power off their internet. As for the other cities, well, the chairwoman thought the recycling medics would have some work to do... 

In another part of the massive cluster of government building, a Level-2 network e-tech gasped as she saw Tokyo's fiber link go dark. There was something so bizarre about the timing of all these dark links. The e-tech had a vague sense of dread with the progression of the failures, but she just couldn't quite put her finger on a valid reason for her fears... 

The chairwoman banged her gavel down on the table for everyone's attention and glanced at the clock, 6:08 AM. Lisa should be calling in soon. Just then there was a distant rumble and the lights flickered. People frowned and looked around uncertainly. The council chamber was deep underground and superbly shielded. The massive supersonic shock wave of air smashing into the building far above them was barely felt.

But then the water shock wave hit the city, and nothing above ground stood against it. And nothing below ground had been designed to withstand a multiple-kilometer pressure- head of water. The roof of the council chamber collapsed in a shock-wave explosion of materials and water, killing everyone instantly. And as for the two remaining cites of the WFM, Kangnung and San Francisco, they would suffer the same fate in another seven minutes. After enduring for more than 200,000 years, the great era of the WFM was finally at an end.



-------

Chapter 57


Sharing deep hugs with Isabelle, I spent the next six minutes describing the danger we were in. Hoshi listened in and occasionally giggled hysterically. I would occasionally look at her and try to reassure her of her sanity. It felt so strange to look at Hoshi, look at a healthy young alert woman who I knew would die within the hour... 

A'moth still had the engines at full power, punching the jet to Mach 2 and climbing to thinner air as fast as the engines could push us. There were no afterburners. I'm sure she would have turned those on too if there are. "How's your head?" I asked her.

"Better! Give me another five minutes, and then we can jump." A'moth leaned back and stretched out in her pilot's chair and closed her eyes, trying to rest and get over her headache.

We were heading due north at Mach 2 at an altitude of 13,000 meters and climbing. Over deep water, the shock wave travels just over Mach 2, and we probably had come within two minutes of it, definitely within three. It was that close... 

We gained some time as the wave crossed over Japan. The wave slowed to Mach 1.3 as we were accelerating to Mach 2. During the five minutes the wave spent on land, we probably gained more than an extra minute. A'moth and I both felt we were now pacing the shockwave about four minutes out in front.

I just found out I don't have the skills either to remote-teleport or even teleport just me if there are big differences in relative velocity. Since my maximum range is 23.16 kilometers, the issue of velocity matching Earth's curvature never came up. A'moth has been doing it since her childhood, but I never had the chance to practice. It just never occurred to me... 

I had found that teleporting into a supersonic plane was impossible. I used everything I had to match the subsonic velocity and barely got A'moth and myself up here alive as the jet crossed over into Japan. Our plan was for A'moth to jump the three of us to Siberia, a finesse jump even for her, right at her limit, but she felt sure she could do it. Afterwards she would jump us to Nebraska via Canada. Our plan had a near fatal setback when A'moth hit her head... 

"How are we doing?" I asked A'moth.

"Speed Mach 2.04, 13,900 meters and climbing. At full power, we have another 27 minutes of fuel..."

Isabelle was very distressed. "Mom, there are ninety young children aboard this plane!"

"Daughter, the whole world is dying! We have to get back to the Nebraska channel! Jim is waiting. Hawaii is gone! We'll jump to Siberia and then down through Canada..."

"Jump?" whispered Hoshi.

Isabelle was frantic. "And what about the children?! And their teachers?! Mom! How can you be so callous?!"

A'moth let out an enormous sigh. "I'm not a robot Isabelle, not immune to the sorrow. But what can we do?"

Isabelle turned and looked at me. "Dad! Come up with something!"

Me?! "What?!" I stared at her and then looked at my watch. It was 5 hours and 14 minutes post injection. "Kungnang will be destroyed in one minute! There's no place to land! The shock wave will hit this plane minutes after it runs out of fuel. You have no idea Issie, how strong it is! The plane will not survive the collision."

Isabelle was almost in tears. "Then we have to climb higher! Turn around and go over the shock wave!"

A'moth shook her head. "The plane can't climb that high Isabelle. And besides, where would we land? The world is being destroyed."

"Worry about landing later! Save the plane now!"

A'moth blew out a full breath of air. "How?!" She looked over at the controls. With her Level-6 clearance, she had the authority to reprogram the destination, and she had typed in 90-degrees north. The jet was flashing several warnings that it didn't have the fuel to reach its new destination.

The control room was silent. We all stood thinking for a moment. My eyes drifted to Hoshi. She had won the battle to control herself. She looked me in the eyes and said, "I think I've heard of you. Are you the Kyle?"

I shook my head. "No." I couldn't see any reason for deceit, not now... "Kyle left on the slip-ship to the Black Hole with Brianna. My name is Gary."

Hoshi giggled once. "No matter. Gary, Deputy Isabelle, Your Greatness Lisa... I don't care about me... but if you can save the children... or at least some of them... I beg you to do so."

Another minute passed in silence. Time was tight. We really should be going. A'moth gave me a silent nod that she was ready. I thought about wild ways to try to take one or two children with us. Could A'moth handle a fourth person? Should I pick a child at random? I could play God and jump one into the control room. But then Isabelle had a much grander idea.

"Dad! Can you jump a plane?"

"Huh? You mean this plane?! 200 tons?!"

"Well, yeah..."

I thought for a moment. 200 tons?! No way! But then again... but then again... I probed the plane with my jump sense, felt the delicate balance of the tremendous forces between the bow wave ahead of us and the nose of the plane... "Well, I don't think I want to try it while we're supersonic..."

"We have a four minute lead on the global wave, maybe a few seconds more," said A'moth quietly. "Enough time to go subsonic and make an attempt. Gary, it's your call to make. Is it possible?"

As I thought, Isabelle went over and hugged her mother. "I'm so sorry for calling you callous..."

"The cause is just Isabelle," A'moth whispered in reply, embracing her daughter. "You were right to fight for it. But I still don't know where we can land the children. The Mongolian plateau? Can nine-year-old children survive alone in such a harsh environment? Isabelle... Jim and our own lives have to be the first priority..." A'moth took a deep sigh and looked down at her controls. "Let me do some calculations, and see how much time we have before we have to be back for Jim..."

The time passed by in silence. A'moth worked on her calculations. Isabelle and I strapped into the two rear seats, holding hands across the small aisle. Isabelle sat back and tried to rest. I practiced again feeling the entire plane with my jump sense. It was so huge!

A'moth spoke at last. "It's 6:24 AM now. The cluster-town of New York will probably be hit in about three minutes. With very conservative assumptions, the wave will hit Nebraska eighty minutes later. We have at least that much time before we need to get to Jim..."

"What about Nebraska getting hit from the West Coast or the Caribbean?" asked Isabelle.

"I think the Rockies will stop the wave from the west. From the gulf, South America is protecting North America. Even though the wave topped most of it, the continent acted as a giant wedge, diverting the wave to the east and west. I don't think North America will suffer as badly as most places... It'll still be gruesome along the coast... Gary?"

"Yeah?"

"We have seventeen minutes of fuel left at full throttle. How are you coming?"

"I think I'd like to try it."

"Okay. I'm going to set up a program for a steep climb. We'll transfer our speed into altitude, go sub sonic... You'll have a few minutes... Isabelle, if this doesn't work, the three of us jump, agreed?"

Isabelle nodded slowly. "Agreed," she whispered and then turned to me. "How are the passengers doing?" Isabelle knew I could probe with my jump sense.

I grimaced. "The kids are strapped in their seats. A lot of them are crying. Everyone is expecting the plane to run out of fuel at any moment. They pretty much know they won't be landing at any airport... They've given up pounding on the door..."

Isabelle sighed in compassion. "Tacara's nightmare," she muttered. "It's come true..."

I probed the plane again and decided I was as ready as I could be. "A'moth, execute!"

A'moth typed a command and the plane started to rise, shedding its speed as it did. The engines were still at full throttle we started to risw rapidly. We went subsonic one minute later at an altitude of 19,300 meters. We were just slightly above the recommended altitude for flying this plane, but my thoughts were up, not north. I locked the plane and pushed a jump up, as far as I could go... 

"Dad... Are you okay? Please wake up..."

I opened my eyes, slowly. Isabelle was bent over me. She was petting my head, and she gave me a very affectionate kiss when I looked at her. "What happened?" I whispered. "How long was I out?"

"You did it!" smiled Isabelle. "You jumped us to over 42,000 meters high!"

I smiled back. "Where are we now?"

A'moth called out from the pilot seat. "Gliding north at about Mach 0.6, height just below 40,000 meters. Our descent rate is steady at 1100 meters a minute. Gary, you were out for two minutes. How are you feeling?"

"Fine... Tired... It was a lot of work..."

"Yeah... Up for doing it again? The jet engines when into automatic shutdown when you jumped us. There's not enough oxygen up here to run them. On our current glide path, I estimate the wave will overtake us in about five minutes. Our altitude will be about 34,000 meters then. High but I think still way too low..."

"Yeah... How high can this plane go?"

A'moth shrugged and started looking through her technical docs. After a moment Hoshi turned to me and asked, "Do you have a title?"

It took me a second to understand what she meant. "Oh no, just call me Gary."

"Okay... Gary, there is no maximum altitude for this plane. It was designed to fly sub- orbital when equipped with liquid oxygen tanks."

I nodded, decided I felt fine, locked the plane and pushed. There was momentary burst of extreme fatigue, but I didn't pass out.

A'moth called out from the controls. "Excellent Gary! We're at 62,000 meters! All our forward velocity is gone too, just like last time!" The air was so thin, much less than 1% of the pressure at the surface, that the computer guidance could not get the plane back into a glide path. We started to fall like a rock. There were some dim screams from the girls in the main cabin. So I pushed again. A'moth called out, "94,000 meters! Keep it coming Gary!"

I didn't want to, but I knew we were out of time. So I locked and pushed, and ten seconds later I locked and pushed again. That second push took everything I had. I felt very sleepy and collapsed back in my chair semi-conscious.

But I had done it. We were now 140 km (87 miles) above the Earth, in the vacuum of space just above the atmosphere. Isabelle inserted her ID into a slot along the side of her chair, and began typing at a console. A moment later numerous external sensors were feeding video to the cabin monitors. Hoshi cried out in warning, "Turbulence to starboard!"

A'moth activated the main-cabin intercom and called out, "Brace for impact!" The shock wave hit us a few seconds later. It was so incredible. The global shock wave was actually lifting Earth's atmosphere out of its normal layers. We were being buffeting by supersonic gusts of air... 

But there was no real punch behind the gusts. The air was just too thin. The plane shook a bit in the turbulence, but everything was fine. Twenty, forty kilometers lower, it would have been a very different story.

The jet's piloting program is a superb piece of adaptive logic. It actually managed to set up a glide path in the turbulence. We started to surf the supersonic shock wave, descending only slowly as we rode the wave north. I could finally catch a few minutes of rest. I sank back into my seat and tried to relax... 

I remember a conversation I once had with Jim about teleporting. I started out by asking him to explain how it worked... 

Jim laughed when I asked him. "You're asking me?! My answer is that what you're doing is absolutely, positively impossible!"

"Huh? But I can do it. A'moth too..."

"Yeah, I know. It's still impossible though. Or at least it should be."

"But it's not!"

"Yeah..." Jim took a deep sigh and turned thoughtful. "I have a conjecture that it has something to due with the time loop."

"Yeah?"

Jim nodded. "Yep. You have to tear space to teleport. That should be impossible. But the time loop is doing funny things to the space-time continuum. It allows reality to converge in strange ways. Without the loop the quantum counterfactuals will always have cascading divergence."

I shook my head. "What you just said makes no sense to me at all."

"Well... Think of it this way. If you jump off a cliff, and then teleport just before you hit the ground, do you slam into something at the new location?"

"No, I don't. I synch to be stationary with the new coordinates."

Jim nodded. "I know. Ever wonder where all the original energy and momentum goes?"

"Yeah, sometimes..."

"It gets destroyed. Or at least I think it does. That should be impossible, but that's what I think is happening. Incredibly, your perception of reality is manifesting a change in physical reality. That's why A'moth has a hard time jumping into a moving object. It's not the velocity relative to her original location. It's the velocity of the target relative to what you would perceive as the target's surroundings."

Jim smiled kindly at my lack of understanding. "Your mind wants to synch to the surroundings, and it's that perception which sets up the framework for the jump. You're looking at perception creating its own reality. You shouldn't see that type of phenomenon in the physical sciences, but... You jump. A'moth jumps. So it's real... incredible but real..."

I blinked my eyes open in the jet. I had been resting for about three minutes. "How are we doing?" I asked.

A'moth turned and smiled at me. "Okay for a little while yet, but we could use another boost if you're up for it."

We were at 135 km. The shock wave at the edge of the atmosphere had given us a ride and kept us aloft. But we were starting to lose it. So I locked the plane and pushed the jump straight up, 23.14 kilometers. "A'moth, give me a count. I'll try one jump a minute and see how it goes..."

We were out of the shock wave and high enough to call the outside a complete vacuum. In one minute we fell almost seventeen kilometers. I then jumped the plane back to the original height and also a tad less than sixteen kilometers to the east. A minute later I did the same thing.

I took a moment to relax and scan the interior of the main cabin. The girls had their faces pasted to the plane's small windows. From this distance they could see the incredible expanse of the destruction below. Korea was completely underwater now, and the global nature of the terror was clearly visible. The wavelength of the tsunami was thousands of kilometers. Not that tsunami is the right word. This was no harbor wave... 

A minute was up and I pushed again. A'moth turned and looked at me thoughtfully. "Gary? What do you think?"

I knew what she meant. I felt fine and at my current jump rate we could make almost a thousand kilometers an hour. Not too shabby, but Jim was over eight thousand kilometers away and we had to be there in an hour. If I couldn't do a lot better, we would abandon the plane. Jim came first.

So I tried a couple of jumps fifty seconds apart. That small change made a big difference. The plane would fall less than twelve kilometers, and I could make that up and still push a clean twenty kilometers horizontal. That got our effective airspeed up to 1440 km/hr. Next I tried a couple of forty second intervals. Our effective air speed was just under 2,000 km/hr.

"I still feel fine," I called out to A'moth. "It's more than just finding my limit. I think my mind is learning how to do this."

"I love you Gary," A'moth replied simply. "And what you're doing is so far beyond my abilities, I am in complete awe..."

I tried thirty-second jumps for a couple of minutes. The plane would only fall a little over four kilometers between jumps, and my jump-line elevation was only about ten degrees above the horizontal. We were now traveling over 2700 km/hr.

It was also 4:40 PM Nebraska time, and A'moth had calculated we had a deadline of picking up Jim by 5:47 PM. Over the next five minutes I reduced by jump time to ten seconds. The plane would fall less than half a kilometer between jumps and my jump angle was only one degree over horizontal. Our effective speed was 8337 km/hour. We were near the edge of meeting our deadline, but also on the good side of the edge.

I was also near the edge of my ability. My mind liked the rest of ten seconds between jumps. Maybe I could have pushed it to nine seconds, but why take the risk of wearing myself out? So I spent the next hour jumping us across the planet with hops every ten seconds while A'moth went back and explained some options to the passengers.

We tried to be as generous as we could be with their options. The cluster-town of Colorado Springs is at an elevation of 1830 meters, by far the highest town of the WFM, and A'moth thought it had an excellent chance of surviving the wave. We also felt uncomfortable with leaving the children to a life doomed to extinction. Cluster towns don't have procreation technology. They do have other specialties. London is for physics, Tunis is renowned for its wafer fabrication technology, a large number of clusters specialize in various entertainment fields... 

Colorado Springs specializes in animal husbandry for heights well above the sea-level range. Not for eating, but for managing the world's ecosystem. That's why Colorado Springs is up so high. Ordinarily the WFM likes to build at sea-level. Who could have seen what a fatal preference that turned out to be... 

So we decided to give the girls the choice to come with us. After a brief cockpit discussion, the three of us decided to also offer the teachers the choice. It touched my heart when Hoshi asked to come with us. She knew what it meant, renouncing her worldview of human males as pets. I was very proud of her. And our flight moved through Canada as we headed for Nebraska.

Time: 6 hours, 40 minutes post injection... 

"Nice clean solar wind," called out Brianna. "Definitely matter, not anti-matter."

Kyle nodded. "Definitely this whole galaxy is matter. I think all the nearby galaxies are too. And did you check out the spectral readings?"

Brianna smiled. When they jumped into this galaxy an hour ago, they found themselves only six light-days from a very promising star, a bit cooler than Sol, but the long range sensors were showing a pair of planets that looked impossibly like Earth... "We can't be this lucky Kyle!"

"You're right. This must be an illusion. So should I jump us somewhere else?"

Brianna laughed and blew Kyle a kiss. "Let's take a closer look!"

Time: 6 hours, 43 minutes post injection, 5:43 PM local Nebraska time... 

I dropped the plane straight down on Nebraska, just like in that Oz movie that Isabelle loves so much. When we got below twenty kilometers A'moth turned on one engine at low power, not for flight but to recharge the batteries that were running the jet's internals... 

With the engine power, A'moth lowered the wheels, and I teleported the plane to an open field about twenty kilometers west of Jim, a perfect three point landing. We bounced just a bit as the tires took on the weight of the plane. Then I jumped Jim directly into the cockpit of the plane.

We could see the wave entering Nebraska from the east as we dropped. It was a shadow of its former glory, subsonic and only several hundred meters high. The Nebraska channel is at a height just under 900 meters above the old sea level. It'll probably get topped with about a hundred meters of water. After seeing the global terror, this wave looked almost believable. Still deadly of course, but Colorado Springs is safe. That's the big thing.

The girls were interesting. All the teachers except Hoshi voted to be dropped off at the WFM cluster town of Colorado Springs. The girls were having a raging argument about the vote. They begged us for more time to decide. The five of us voted unanimously to give them another hour. Hoshi was very surprised and very grateful that we gave her a vote in the matter.

The distance to the hub town of the Colorado Springs from the Nebraska channel entrance is 478 km. As the cat-4 hurricane winds approached our position, I lifted the plane and headed southeast. I took my time and got to Colorado Springs in about six minutes, teleporting the plane directly into a vacant underground jet storage chamber at the side of a mountain. The WFM built the cluster town very well. The girls debated while the winds howled outside the bay doors.

At the urging of their teachers, the girls finally voted as a group and decided to stay at Colorado Springs. No one except Hoshi had decided to join us, but several of the girls including one Isabelle called Tacara kept trying to make eye contact with us. It gave me an idea... 

Our team was standing at the head of the plane in front of the open cockpit door. The four teachers were near us, edging closer and I thought they were going to rush us. So I teleported the four of them to a ward town about twenty kilometers away. I then had the girls pass us one by one. Once on the other side of us, Isabelle asked them what their final choice was. Anyone who truly wanted to leave was teleported to be with their teachers. We did this ninety times.

In the end six girls chose to stay with us, including Tacara. A few minutes later I jumped the plane straight up twenty-three kilometers and headed back to Nebraska.

When we got back to the channel location there were about a hundred meters of sea water swirling over it. I hovered for a moment at around 40,000 kilometers, well above the winds. We waited for a while until A'moth mentioned the batteries were running out of power. She asked if we could drop down to 19,000 meters so she could continue recharging. I dropped down there. The plane was being lightly buffeted, and A'moth took a second to read her docs again about the engine restart procedure... 

I'm not sure why I was so impulsive, but without consulting anybody I started to test and probe the Nebraska slip channel. As the plane dropped I lost my perspective and suddenly I started to fall mentally into the channel. It's a one-way street once you start. I just barely managed to lock the plane and jump it with me. In an instant the plane was surrounded and filled with a bright blue light and we left the quantum reality of Nebraska. Several of the girls in the main cabin started to scream... 



-------

Chapter 58


Future Interlude XI: The Sunflower Field

Aina time: 9:05 AM day 198 of 1474 H.E. (277 days after memory integration, first day of the last month of winter, 18 days before the Festival of the Red Bird and the marriage of Mayoni and Ekela)

Two hours after sunrise the pheromones took effect and the X-tree sunflowers curved their leaves into graceful arcs and bowed down before Mayoni, Kalea, and Ekela. In her earlier adult life, Mayoni had already witnessed this firsthand with her parents and Kahoku, but for Kalea and Ekela it was a new experience, and they both found it disturbing to have the flowers appear to worship them. In silence, the group of three started their hike to the solar tower under cloudy skies, the sunflowers bowing before them as they passed.

They walked single file, Mayoni with her experience taking the point. Ekela smiled as he watched her from behind. She would be his wife in one more month, and he thought she was the most beautiful woman imaginable. Their quiet walk continued, and Ekela's mind drifted to the thoughts of all his briefings of the Hopewell's history with this strange environment.

Through a number of painful and two almost fatal lessons, the Hopewell had learned that the procedure for safe entry was not just a matter of the correct chemical signal from the green pepper bush. The number of people in the party was also important. Three seemed optimal for successful entry, and the number could never be greater than six. It was also essential to perform the ritual approach of walking through the sunflower field. The two near fatal attempts were with missions that approached by sea and by air... 

Ekela gulped and shivered as they left the sunflower fields and crossed the short beach. Thousands of tiny powerful crabs with razor claws scurried out of their way. Thorny ivy vines and white pulsating mounds of needlepoint spikes also cleared the annular path around the tower as they approached. Ekela breathed a heavy sigh of relief as they entered the tower and the door sealed behind them.

Following the discoveries of previous expeditions, the three walked halfway around the donut-shaped control room. The great inner core of the solar tower formed the inner wall of the room. Opposite their entrance door, Mayoni applied the X-tree chemical to the inner wall and it opened to reveal a spiral staircase leading up. They went inside and began to climb. After one complete revolution, they walked out onto the second floor of the solar tower.

From the outside, the tower walls looked uniform though the color would sometimes change. It was currently a dull gray purplish color. But from the inside of the second floor, the walls were completely transparent, so clear Kalea had to sense the boundary with her hand to perceive it. She then wandered over to where Mayoni was sitting, at a master control station along the inner wall. She watched intently as Mayoni started activating the control system in front of a large yellow oval along the inner wall.

"You were right Mayoni," Kalea whispered, as she watched Mayoni work. "It is a Ring control system. It has to be," she said pointing. "There's the primary slip-interface system, and on your right are the harmonic feedback diagnostics and polarity control. That upper left console must be the equivalent of a tunable laser array... This has to be a Ring control system..." Kalea paused for a moment and then continued, "but one far more sophisticated than anything we ever dreamed of building at Spirit House..."

Mayoni nodded thoughtfully and continued to explore the functionality of the controls... 

Time: December 25, 206659 3:27 PM Colorado Springs (1,755 years after the global tsunami)

The old woman came out of the ground floor medical bay and slowly walked over to the primary-battery status display. Sighing, she decided to skip the elevator and take the stairs to her third floor living quarters. After several minutes of strenuous activity, she made it to a comfortable lounge chair set before a series of large bay windows. She collapsed and caught her breath and relaxed, calmed by the majestic views of the setting sun against the towering snow-capped Rockies.

She took a nap. When she awoke it was dark and she felt surprisingly refreshed. She walked over and sat by a nearby monitor and typed, "Hello Ghost. Are you there?"

A few silent minutes drifted by. She turned her head occasionally and looked at the cold bright stars outside the windows. It looked as if a storm were moving in. Her monitor came to life. "Hello Hope. I am now. How are you?"

"I ran the diagnostics you asked me too, on the skin blotches." Hope paused for a second before continuing. "It only confirmed what I already knew. It's the White Rash."

There was a long pause on the monitor before she saw a reply. "I'm so sorry. Are you in pain now?"

"No burning yet. I'm still in Stage One. And I have a huge supply of pain killers. I won't suffer much."

"I wish there was something I could do for you."

"Ah, my echo ghost! You've done so much already! I would have died of loneliness years ago without you... I don't know... Perhaps there is a bright side to all this."

"There is no bright side. I can't bear the thought of being without you."

"Well, all my worries about energy and food supplies... I have more than enough for the next few months... A computer that can't bear a thought?! You are such an adaptive program, such a mystery!"

"That's not what I am. I'm crying real human tears now, and not just for you. I will miss you, and I fear the coming emptiness."

Hope shook her head and smiled. "Such amazing adaptive logic. High Point scientists proved centuries ago you are a program of the lunar satellite array."

"Hope, I just don't have the will to debate this any more. If it pleases you, I will accept the role."

"Good! Finally! So, my lunar program, tell me something to cheer me up."

"Okay. Here are some nice close-ups from Flyby-Five. Just give me a moment..." A short time later there appeared a number of aerial views of a rolling countryside. "These are shots taken just a few hours ago. The northwestern coast of the Mediterranean is just a few kilometers south. Do you see the rhinos?"

"Yes! Look how many there are!"

"Colorado Spring's last expedition to Europe six hundred years ago. It's bearing so much fruit. The grasslands are becoming filled with animals again!"

"Yes! Complete success, and Earth deserves no less. Thank you Ghost. This is indeed a worthy legacy of our efforts. You are so smart, so insightful... Tell me, all the knowledge you have given us, do you know the history of how your knowledge survived the Purging?"

"By being outside the bonfire. Anything in particular you're referring to?"

Hope nodded unconsciously as she typed. "Yes. The Religions! So many of the mythologies were assumed lost forever. And yet... your knowledge stores are vast, and filled with forbidden knowledge!"

"Amusing!" came the reply. "You see me as the Tree Of Life?!"

"Almost. Certainly the year of my death fits the paradigm."

"Oh? How so?"

"In your incredibly ancient texts, the number six is symbolic for incompleteness. I expect I will last the week, but certainly not the season. My death will be early in the year 206660. My death will be show incompleteness in all three dimensions, incomplete from every perspective, and surrounded by the emptiness of zeros. A fitting year for my death, don't you think?"

"No, I don't. Hope, I'm so sorry about the cancer. But you will live on, in my memory and in my heart. And perhaps... Perhaps the religions are not all mythologies."

"Yes, perhaps... And if I don't have the right to hope, who does?"



-------

Chapter 59


Time: Unknown, parked in a field of corn... 

We all woke up about the same time in the cockpit. Hoshi looked totally confused and surprised that we were still in one piece. The view outside was that of a setting sun. The plane was surrounded by a vast expanse of corn... 

I probed with my mind and sensed the 400-foot sound barriers in all directions, about 23 kilometers away. I probed a little more closely. I think my seat in the cockpit was directly opposite the center of Antelope Freeway. I noticed A'moth looking at me. "Uh, sorry about that," I mumbled.

A'moth nodded thoughtfully. "Oh, don't apologize. I think I know what happened. Just imagine if you hadn't managed to take the plane with you. We would have been left above the flood with a few minutes of fuel..."

I nodded and gulped. "You would have had no way to save the children..."

Hoshi looked at us bewildered, yawned and said, "What are you talking about? Where are we?"

Isabelle remembered first. "Welcome to Antelope Freeway. Hoshi, you're going to feel very sleepy in just a moment. All the girls will too. Don't try to fight it. It's a mental adjustment as your subconscious learns to deal with the new power available to it. There's nothing to fear. We'll watch over you."

Hoshi shrugged and nodded, looking at the peaceful scene outside the window. Within a few minutes she and the six girls in the main cabin entered an uneasy dreamlike sleep.

Jim and I felt uncomfortable about witnessing the process we knew was coming, especially with the young girls. So we had a short discussion with A'moth and Isabelle. They would stay with Antelope Freeway's newest arrivals, and Jim and I would go find Cindy. Before we left, A'moth noted happily that the Freeway hadn't lost its touch. The jet's batteries were magically charging on their own. Running the ventilation and the lights would be no problem.

I thought finding Cindy would be a snap. I jumped Jim and myself directly from the cockpit to the top of one of the temporal walls, and then down to the patio area. Within the walls, Jim dreamed us back to the arctic. We were there seconds after we left the jet, and we started searching the floors looking for Cindy.

And she wasn't there. Jim and I were dumbfounded. We finally went up to the arctic surface. I was half expecting the island to be under 200 meters of water, but it appeared the same as when we had left it. The sun was also about 24-degrees above the horizon, right at the summer solstice position. We had moved at least half a year into the future... Or the past... With the water level the same as before, had we moved into the past? That was a scary thought... Could be meet ourselves if we did? And where the hell was Cindy?

We started checking out the terrain on the arctic island. Jim was jumping us to the Freeway and then back again to the island in various spots. For about an hour we found nothing, and then at one location near the center of the island, I noticed something and pointed it out to Jim. There was a rabbit about ten meters away from us, looking absolutely shocked by our presence. Jim and the rabbit locked eyes. "Cindy?" Jim whispered.

The rabbit nodded once and then disappeared. A moment later Cindy in human form appeared and she ran to Jim sobbing and hurled herself into his arms. After a minute of fierce hugging and gasping, she finally calmed down enough to speak. "Jim! The year! It's 207145, June 21'st of 207145. It's the year of Earth-loop reset!"

Future Interlude XII: The Solar Tower

Aina time: 11:58 AM day 198 of 1474 H.E.

Ekela wandered around the second floor area, being very careful not to touch anything. He drifted back to where Mayoni and Kalea were working with the slip controls. The speed in which the twin sisters chatted and experimented with the controls astonished him. They had already activated a date and time display on one of the strange looking monitors, in English no less! The rest of the displays looked like gibberish to Ekela, but he heard Mayoni and Kalea referring to the graphics as raw X-tree symbolics... 

"Look at this," Mayoni whispered to her sister.

"What?!" Kalea's eyes went back and forth from the monitors to the controls. "Those look like resonance pump controls for a reality interface!"

"Yes, I know."

"But what's it doing here? We're not inside a slip bubble!"

"You sure?"

"  Ah!  " sang Kalea happily, and she started activating additional controls on her own.

Ekela stared at the sisters. They seemed so happy in their explorations, almost cheerful. He shook his head in wonder and then stared at the day's date and time. Mayoni and Kalea were acting as if they were back at their Spirit House quantum labs. They both seemed so relaxed! For Ekela, the place gave him the creeps... 

Time: 11:16 PM June 21, 207145 Nebraska reference time

The five of us were together at last. I jumped Jim and Cindy back to the jet. A'moth and Isabelle had Hoshi and the girls all lying stretched out on the comfortable chairs in the main cabin. We would occasionally hear a soft gasp or sigh as they struggled with their ids. It was two hours after sunset, and if our own experience was a guide, Hoshi and the girls had another two hours to go... 

The five of us had a conference in the small cockpit... 

"You're sure Cindy, about the date?" Isabelle asked. Cindy just stared at her in return.

"Jim," asked A'moth. "How much time do we have left?"

Jim shrugged. "It could happen at any time. Havika's writings from the previous loop mention that Hiapo and Kalea got the reset date from decrypting X-tree code from the solar tower. He mentioned the Earth year of 207145, but he never mentioned the date. So... I guess anytime. We have a 50% chance that we have at least three months. Let's be optimistic and assume we have that much..."

"So what do we do?" I asked. I looked at Jim first, then Isabelle.

Isabelle finally answered. "We never came up with a plan that made any sense. We'll just have to use our imaginations and hope... that we come up with something..." Isabelle noticed Cindy was looking kind of shell shocked. She went over and held her in a hug.

Cindy started to weep. "You have no idea, what it was like. Almost five hundred years of loneliness! I almost went insane..." She gasped, "I thought of suicide... walking south from the island out of the slip bubble... either drowning or freezing to death... And then... I started to hang out with the rabbits! I learned how to dream myself into a rabbit. They became my friends, my family..."

Jim came over and sat down by her other side. "Husband," she whispered softly, and she reached up and stroked his cheek. They started holding each other. After a while Cindy sighed deeply.

"Cindy," I asked, "Is the WFM still around?"

She shook her head. "No. They're all gone. I'll tell you the story..." She needed a moment to compose herself. We all waited patiently.

"Ulsan got eighteen satellites up in orbit before it was destroyed. They built well! Seven of them are still functional now, at least to some degree. I have visual recordings of what the first days of the wave were like, from all over the world. About 87% of the land area of the world was directly submerged by the global wave, almost all of what escaped was in the northern hemisphere. The sloshing went on for weeks. It destroyed both the Arctic and Antarctic ice caps. When the waves finally subsided, water levels worldwide were up 200 meters."

Cindy frowned. "The oceans took over a month to find a new equilibrium. Instead of water covering 71% of the Earth's surface, it covered 79%. There was that much land less than 200 meters above the old sea level."

"Is the arctic home under water?" asked Isabelle.

Cindy shook her head. "Not since the first few days of the flood. It was so awesome! Waves two kilometers high would wash over the island bubble, but not over the island itself. Experiencing it was breathtaking! And then the island grew vertically. It looks the same now as it always did."

"Where did all the water come from?" A'moth asked Cindy.

Cindy cracked a grim smile. "I don't know exactly. Slip-bubble madness, right husband?"

Jim smiled back in love at his wife. "Yep."

"Anyway, you were all so smart to drop your passengers off at the Colorado Springs cluster. It was absolutely the only WFM site that survived. At the beginning of 204894, they started off with about 200,000 women between the ages of 16 and 200, plus all their sex-pets of course... also the 84 nine-year old girls you dropped off..."

Cindy shook her head in bewilderment and went on. "How could any society be so smart and yet so dumb?! Hundreds of thousands of years of separating ova into Class A and Class B, constantly breeding the males with the worst genes, but still needing the males for reproduction in the next generation. How could they be so stupid?"

A'moth sighed. "It was bigotry Cindy. I've seen it so many times on Earth, in so many different ways. It blinds you, destroys the inner vision of your mind to see the new and better and correct perspective. In all my years with the WFM, I was never able to guide the society to do anything different. Their debasement of the males became a self- fulfilling prophesy, a prophesy of doom for them all..."

Cindy grimaced. "They listened to me, but it was too late. After a few years, when you didn't come back, I felt very lonely. I started chatting over the net with the survivors at Colorado Springs..."

Jim's eyebrows went up at this.

Cindy shrugged her shoulders, "Well, I figured they already knew something of our presence, through the teachers and girls you dropped off... And... Oh Jim! They were in such a desperate situation! We worked together, on converting their animal husbandry skills to human reproduction. The city breeding techniques were impossible to reproduce. The cluster hospital at Colorado Springs restored male fertility, and women started having real babies again... But it was too late..."

Cindy sighed. "They did their best. It was a hopeless task. The human genome was very weak, and Colorado Springs didn't have the city skills in handling such delicate reproduction. And they couldn't reproduce the city techniques for general viral immunity. Without that, life expectancy plunged from two hundred years to less than sixty. The children they did birth were weak and often ill..."

Jim frowned. "Yes... We were worrying that Kyle and Brianna would have the same problem..."

Isabelle spoke up. "But Kyle's genes were pure and robust, straight from the twenty-first century. It probably made all the difference..."

Cindy sighed. "I hope so. Those two deserved so much better... Colorado Springs never did stabilize their population. By the year 205,100, the last of the children you had dropped off died. The population was down to 100,000 people. They were managing to produce about 2100 births a year, but genetic deformities were a huge problem. They tried to stay optimistic, but... well..." Cindy sighed.

Isabelle sighed too. "Yeah..."

"They spent their time repairing the damage from the great flood. They devoted their lives to the cause, worked on it for over a thousand years, even though they knew in their hearts the Earth was not for them. They repopulated many, many animal species, all over the continent, as far as they could reach, from their breed stocks... They loved the Earth, they really did..."

Cindy was quiet for a moment, cuddling with Jim and Isabelle. Then she continued. "Seven hundred years after the flood, by 205,600, there were only 8200 women left, plus about a thousand sex-pets. They were all living in a single ward town called High Point. They were averaging less than two hundred births a year..."

"Three hundred years later it was forty births a year. It was a thousand years after the flood, and the population of High Point was 1830. They tried so many different ideas... Nothing worked... They had an Olympics that year, in 205,894. For the first time in a thousand years they had an Olympics. It was so sad, comparing the performance to the records before the flood. Their Olympic champion took almost nine minutes to run a mile, after a year of training... The human genome was so weak..."

"By the year 206,200, they were down to eight births a year and a population of 375. Two hundred years later it was three births a year and a population of 140..."

"They never gave up, not till the very end. In the year 206613 the population was down to 37 and they hadn't had a viable birth in a decade. The entire population of Earth was living in a single modest building. The human genome had completely collapsed, as far as reproduction was concerned. They gave up then. By 206660 they were all gone... Hope... That was the name of the last child who survived... Her name was Hope... She lived to be 57... And she was my dear friend..."

There was a long moment of silence; then Cindy whispered, "I used to hate what the WFM stood for, but... It was so tragic to see them die. Their way of life was so wrong... but it was tragic to see them die... And then for hundreds of years I was completely alone... I began to see my immortality as a curse... I was so lonely... Oh Jim, just hold me..."

I looked at Jim and caught his eye. We both nodded at each other, reading each other's minds. I jumped Jim and Cindy to the opposite Pole of Antelope Freeway, and there Jim dreamed Cindy back with him to their arctic bedroom. I returned to the jet and tried to get some rest with A'moth and Isabelle. We were all dead tired from our incredibly long day, but we all had trouble falling asleep. Cindy's story haunted us all.

After tossing and turning in the cockpit, we finally went to the back of the main cabin and found a spacious double seat. The three of us sacked out together, my wife A'moth on my left and my daughter Isabelle on my right. Surrounded by their arms and love I finally drifted off.



-------

Chapter 60


Time: 1:47 AM June 22, 207145 Nebraska reference time

Jim and Cindy had been lying with each other in their arctic bedroom for over an hour. Both of them were trying to relate to the perspective of their partner. Cindy was trying to grasp the concept that Jim had left her two days ago. Jim was trying to grasp the concept that Cindy had lived away from him for more than two thousand years.

They tried several times to talk to each other, but they both felt shy and at a loss for what to say. So they tried a different way of rebuilding their bonds, using touch to bridge the gulf of time between them. They lay with each other and petted each other's body. Gentle massages, strokes drifting in and out of sexual arousal, eyes often meeting, sharing smiles with each other and sighs... The time passed slowly as they affirmed their commitment to each other.

Eventually the petting drifted back to sexuality. Jim was lying on his back and Cindy sitting on the bed by his hips, lightly stroking his penis with one hand while brushing the fingertips of her other hand against the skin of his sac. They were both looking at each other's eyes and smiling, and then Cindy's smile broke into a big grin. She wetted her lips and lowered her head, engulfing his erection in his mouth.

Jim gasped at the overwhelming sexuality, feeling his penis head penetrate the wet lips and slide along the slippery tongue until it nestled in the back of Cindy's throat. Cindy started a rhythmic suckle action on his cock as her fingers penetrated into his scrotum to fondle his testicles. After a while, Jim's hips began to thrust upwards in synch with the exquisite suckling.

"Cindy, what would you like?" he whispered.

Cindy popped the penis from her mouth and looked at him, panting from her own arousal. "I want to fuck like bunnies!"

Jim gulped and then saw Cindy raising her eyebrows at him. He started to laugh. "Oh, good one!"

Cindy gave a very nervous laugh. "Thanks! That's the one thing I really missed when I lived with the rabbits. They don't have much of a sense of humor. They never laughed at my jokes!"

Jim nodded and grinned. "And how do bunnies fuck?"

Cindy batted her eyes and him. "Here! I'll show you!" Cindy knelt on all fours, lowering her head near the bed covers but keeping her rump high in the air. "Kneel behind me... Good... Fucking like bunnies is really quite simple. Put your paws... uh, your hands on me and hold me down... A little higher, just above the small of my back... Good... Now, just take me! One quick thrust! Not too deep, your goal is to penetrate, not to hammer..."

Jim felt Cindy trembling under his hands. This wasn't how they used to make love, and in a part of his mind he was a little uneasy about coupling so quickly with someone who hadn't seen him for over two thousand years. And yet, this was Cindy, his wife, the woman he remembered leaving two days ago. He desired her, and in a wave of tenderness mixed with sexual arousal he coupled to her as quickly as he could, hearing her grunt as his penis slid up high into her vagina.

Cindy started to gasp. "Ah! Now, fuck me! Straight and simple! Bunny fucking is straight and simple! There could be hawks overhead and we're lunchmeat if we get caught doing this! So, do your business, quick and neat! My vagina is a sheath for you to jerk off in. Fast strokes, but don't hammer me. Your goal is a quick fuck to impregnate me and then a getaway. Pump and dump me!"

Jim tried to follow Cindy's advice. He tried to become what Cindy was asking him to be. He kept up a fast rhythm, stroking his cock in and out of her warmth and wetness as fast as he could without hammering the back wall of her vagina. Jim would have much rather taken this at a much slower pace, but he sensed he was fulfilling a deep need of Cindy, a need he didn't understand. As he fucked her with fast rear strokes, he kept her locked into position with his hands pushing down on her back. He started to breath in gasps, both from the exertion of the stroking and his own sexual arousal... 

Cindy felt the penis inside her lengthen and she realized Jim was seconds away from orgasming. She began to purr and arch her back to receive his sperm.

Jim was somewhat alarmed to hear Cindy purr. It sounded very nonhuman, but the vibrations of it were also very arousing. He could feel his groin begin to pulse as his semen began to shoot through his ejaculatory ducts, and he moved his hands from Cindy's back to grip her firmly by the sides of her hips, holding her tightly to his body as he made one last final thrust inside of her with his major thigh and butt muscles, plunging the head of his cock high and tight against Cindy's cervix and then exploding his cum deep within her body.

Panting with the release of his sperm and his desire, he collapsed to the side of the bed, still coupled to Cindy and dragging her with him to roll over and lie on her side.

Jim slowly caught his breath, kissing the back of Cindy's neck and petting her breasts. He whispered to her that he loved her and then gasped in surprise as she burst into tears.

"Cindy?!"

"Oh! Oh!", she gasped, "Please! Please! Forgive me! Please!" She started wailing in despair.

Jim felt completely flummoxed. "Cindy, what? There's nothing to forgive..."

"The hell there isn't! And you know it! Oh Jim! I'm so sorry!"

The reality of her distress came crashing in on him. "Oh... I understand... Cindy, my love, my wife... There's still nothing to forgive. You weren't unfaithful to me."

"Yes I was!"

"No you weren't."

"Yes I was!" she sobbed. "Hundreds! Hundreds of different suitors!" She caught her breath for a moment and then whispered, "Rabbits are very promiscuous..."

Jim continued to pet her and kiss her, trying to think of something to say that would comfort her and assuage her misplaced fears. "Cindy, I love you. You are my wife, my dear friend, and the better part of who I am. It's okay. It's really okay. It's been two thousand years, more time than I can comprehend... I forgive you as much as you feel you need my forgiveness, but really, I'm not upset about this."

"I started thirty years ago..." she sobbed. "I was in despair! I had given up all hope of ever seeing you. There was this one rabbit... They're very promiscuous... They'll mate with any female who's not pregnant or nursing... There was this one rabbit who was very persistent with me... In my mind I thought of him as King Peter... He kept trying to mount me. Jim... It got to a point where I didn't want to resist anymore..."

"Cindy..." Jim covered the back of her neck with kisses while stroking her breasts and belly. "I'm not upset about this. I'm really not..."

Cindy was silent for a long time, trembling and gasping and finally getting her sobs under control. "You're not?"

"No, of course not. Gosh, Cindy... Two thousands years... The gulf seems so vast... I'm just happy you're still thinking of me as your husband... And I should tell you, you weren't the... well... I had a rather sexy experience too..." Jim spent the next half hour describing in detail his encounter with Caroli and Anupa. Cindy turned and faced him and listened with rapt attention, occasionally asking questions but mostly listening quietly. At the end of Jim's story, she hugged him fiercely.

"They used a chemical on you to make you horny?"

"Yeah, I guess. I don't remember ever picking up on this when we monitored their web. I guess it's not something they talk about much..."

Cindy's hand started caressing his hip. "But it works? The chemical works?"

"Yeah, I guess. It's a little bit like being drunk, including being dizzy with a hangover at the end. It's not really a good way of having sex..."

"Well, Caroli used it just on you, not herself. You were just a sex toy to her. Whether it was good sex for you was irrelevant."

Jim nodded. "Still, I thought of them both on the plane, Sergeant Oria too. Caroli was a bit cruel and used me, but Anupa was more playful than anything, and Oria was actually quite kind to me. I was thinking of them, when I was alone in Nebraska... and later on the plane, when London cluster was being hit... how they were dying... All the people I had met, how they were all dying..."

Jim yawned and let out a deep sigh. "Perhaps I should have been angry at Caroli, but all I could remember was... how intense her orgasm was... how much I was enjoying being inside her in spite of being unfaithful to you... Cindy... dearest... forgive me?"

Cindy started kissing him, holding him close to her body and kissing and running her nose along his face, just the way she remembered he enjoyed. "Sweet, sweet husband... You're saying that to balance my guilt. They used a chemical on you! You're completely innocent."

"Well... I don't know. I try to look back, and I'm not sure what my mindset was. All I remember now is a lot of sexy arousal, and how much I was enjoying it..."

"Hush! I forgive you!" Cindy smiled, a warm and loving smile that touched Jim's heart when he saw it.

"I love you Cindy Li."

"And I love you Jim Arnold." They kissed for a while and then Cindy giggled. "Ha! I wonder what was going through Gary's mind while you were being sexually molested. I'm surprised he didn't yank you out of there."

"Well, to be honest... Guys have a different perspective on this. Gary thought I wasn't in any physical danger, and we were still a couple of hours before Black Hole injection. Why take the risk? Also, Gary told me he thought the two women were very cute..."

Cindy giggled again. "And that makes a difference?! And hey! Did you think so too?"

Jim blushed. "Yes to both. I'm ashamed to admit the flaw in my gender, but... yeah..."

Cindy rolled her body on top of his, wiggling her hips and pubic into his groin. "As cute as me?"

"Certainly not!"

"Right answer!" Cindy laughed, an easy confident playful laugh and showed Jim the issue was behind them. He breathed a sigh of relief.

"There's one more thing I think I should tell you about this," he whispered.

"Oh? What's that?"

"Gary and I took an embarrassment oath on this. He'll never mention this to anybody."

"Ah... So he offered you an embarrassment in return? Wait! Why am I asking that?! Why did you even tell me? Let me remember... Aren't these Hopewell embarrassment oaths supposed to be absolutely secret?"

"Yeah, well... Gary modified the concept. He asked me to include you in the oath if I thought it was a good idea..." Jim went on to describe Gary's part of the oath.

Cindy was silent for a while after Jim finished speaking. "Wow... Gary had the hots for my body when he extracted my egg cell..."

Jim nodded. "I think it bothers his conscious that you don't know. He'd like your forgiveness, but never had the courage to tell you and ask for it." He yawned heavily. The last time Jim had slept had been in the London kennel. Two thousand years ago for Cindy, and it was starting to seem like that long ago for him too.

Cindy smiled at the memory of offering her egg for Kyle's birth. "It was so long ago for me, I had forgotten. I have a dim memory of being aroused too. I think I felt him, felt Gary's mind I mean, probing my Fallopian tubes, back and forth from my ovaries to my uterus, searching for the egg cell."

Cindy shivered. "I could feel his mind inside my body, probing my reproductive system. It was an intensely intimate experience, physically just a very light tingling sensation, but emotionally, to have someone's mind inside the core of my womanhood... I think I was aroused too... Thank you Jim. I'll try to find some quiet time with Gary and forgive him... And I was aroused too. I'll ask for my forgiveness too..."

Jim yawned. He was feeling very sleepy and had a far-away look on his face. "So amazing... For you to feel his mind... The whole issue of teleportation really... They must be tearing space. A'moth and Gary... They must be tearing space to teleport... That should be oh so impossible, and yet..." Jim gave a one last huge yawn. "They're doing it..."

Cindy nodded and cuddled with him, and they were soon peacefully asleep.



-------

Chapter 61


Time: 6:07 AM June 23, 207145 Nebraska reference time

A glint of the first rays of the morning sun came in through the windows on the other side of the plane at fell upon my face. I smiled, feeling well rested. A'moth was already up and gone but I was still feeling the warmth of Isabelle sleeping by my side nearest the window. I opened my eyes, and saw one of the nine-year old girls watching me from about an arm's length away. She smiled at me when she noticed me looking at her.

"Hello. My name is Tacara. You talk, don't you? Is your name Gary?"

I blinked for a second. I used to be Mr. Connors to someone so young, but then I thought, the world has moved on. "Yes, I'm Gary. Good morning Tacara."

She nodded in reply. "Do you belong to Deputy Commander Isabelle? Are you her sex- pet?"

I gulped. "No, not at all. Isabelle is my daughter. Do you remember A'moth? A'moth is my wife and Commander Isabelle's mother."

Tacara shook her head. "You using terms used only for animal breeding. Still, it's amazing to hear you talk at all! If you want, I will teach you the correct words to use." She then looked somewhat confused. "A'moth?"

I smiled. "Ah, you probably know her as Supreme Ruler Lisa."

Tacara had a shocked look on her face and then a burst of a smile. "I knew it! I knew she was one of the Supreme Rulers! We girls were debating. Are you saying she's your..."

"That's right. Lisa is my wife."

Tacara stared at me, and then looked as if she had to hiccup. "Oh, that's so funny!" she cried, bursting out into laughter. "If you only knew what you were saying!" She continued to laugh uncontrollably, tears streaming down her face. The racket started to wake up Isabelle, and I helped by gently prodding the Deputy Commander in her ribs with my elbow.

"Uh, Issie, you might want to jump in on this..."

A'moth, Isabelle, and even Hoshi spent the next hour talking with the girls and explaining the new world order. Hoshi would occasionally glance at me and look embarrassed with how hard it was for the girls to grasp what the adult women were saying. Talk about having trouble with reality shifts! I just smiled back and tried to show her I wasn't offended. A number of the girls would just stare at me as the conversation progressed. I wasn't upset. I know this is going to take some time... 

I jumped around Antelope Freeway for a bit while the women and the girls continued their talk. After almost twenty years at Acapulco Bay, it was like coming home. I couldn't jump to the arctic home of course. That's a dreamlike reality-shift and a completely different process than jumping. But I wasn't concerned. Isabelle could take us to the arctic whenever we wanted.

I checked out the old convenience store. It was still overflowing with various hard goods and packaged foodstuffs. It gave me an idea. I opened a small food package and tasted it. It was fine... Havika dreamed so well, setting all this up.

It's a self replicating dream now, running on its own. The shelves are always full, no matter how much you take. The trash bins are always empty, no matter how much junk you throw in. The toilet always flushes and fills faithfully. Just don't ask where the water comes from. I asked Jim about it once, and he started talking about self-organizing reality shifts and undetermined quantum-classical interface layers... All this to fill a toilet?

Jim described to me once his one meeting with Havika. I think I would have enjoyed meeting him. It seems so strange to think of meeting a person from another timeline... A'moth showed me once where he's buried. There's no marker. A'moth said she thought Havika would have wanted it that way... An old Roman general once commented, better to have no grave marker and have people ask why there wasn't one, compared to having a marker and having people ask why it was there... 

I jumped back to the plane about 7:30 AM. The women had finished their talk with the girls and had opened the plane. Everybody was standing around outside and the girls were getting a bit of exercise exploring the cornfield. The plane was pretty big, but they had to stay close to keep from getting lost in the high corn. I went over to the women and told them of my plan... 

A'moth thought it was a fine idea. So I jumped A'moth and Isabelle first and then all the girls and finally Hoshi. Within a few seconds we were all standing in the parking lot outside the convenience store.

It'll be a halfway house, a stepping stone before we introduce the WFM refugees to the magic of the arctic. There's only one toilet and one shower. It'll be a bit communal for Hoshi and the six girls but... ah, they'll be fine... 

I jumped Issie inside the sound barriers so she could check on Jim and Cindy. She returned about five minutes later to find me admiring Jim's old car. What an antique! Over 200,000 years old and in perfect running condition. Jim left the keys inside the unlocked car. It started right up when I tried it; dream-gasoline I guess... 

Issie smiled at me though the car's window. "Wow! It brings back memories, seeing you in a car like that, memories of Santiago..."

"Yeah. I almost feel like taking it for a ride... not much road to drive it on though..." My smiled faded. "How's Cindy?"

Isabelle nodded. "I noticed it too, last night... I think she's going to be okay. She's still sleeping with Jim. She seems very peaceful, and... well, I think she's going to be okay."

And Cindy was okay. She seemed like her old self the next time we saw her, and as the days turned into weeks and the weeks into months, all twelve of us began to knit together as a large, extended family... 

Hoshi and the girls are interesting. We moved them to the arctic about two weeks after we arrived at Antelope Freeway, on July 4'th. We old-timers thought it was a good date for Independence, and Hoshi and girls were eager for a change. The cornfields are peaceful enough, but so uniform... boring... 

We spent a lot of time going over safety issues with the girls. During the summer it's quite pleasant on the island, mid 50F's on the core circular island and above freezing on the two peninsulas. But any further south the temperature starts to plummet and 500 meters south of the peninsula tips is the edge of the slip bubble and the reality-interface boundary with Earth's timeline. We made sure Hoshi and especially the girls understood that it would be an absolute one-way trip. Returning north would just get them to Earth's real North Pole, not back inside the bubble. And there would be no rescue attempts.

It's been five months since we got here and none of the girls have shown any ability to make the dream jump between the arctic and Antelope Freeway. Isabelle told me that it took her several years to learn the technique when she first came here in 2011. Maybe it's something difficult for a child's mind to do, but then again Hoshi hasn't managed to do it either... 

So we're all still here, mostly hanging out at the arctic but often asking Jim or Cindy or Isabelle for a lift to Antelope Freeway to see a bit of sun. The sun set at the arctic on September 25, over two months ago. It was a very solemn occasion, we all stood and witnessed it. The following days of twilight were very sobering. With the looming reset of the time loop, it seemed like Earth's final curtain call... 

And why are we still here? The bottom line is that none of us have come up with a plan that makes any sense. How do you stop the end of the universe? It has given me some second thoughts about what we did with bringing the girls here, but then I had an encounter with Tacara and Akako earlier this evening... 

Today was November 28'th. We introduced Hoshi and the girls to the concept of Thanksgiving Day. Jim and Cindy dreamed up a wonderful turkey banquet. We all sat around in the evening, singing some songs, mostly from Earth but also a few Aina songs from the Hopewell library. Everybody retired late, but I wasn't sleepy and went back to the living room to do a little reading. Just before midnight two of the girls came in dressed in their pajamas and sat down on the other side of my couch. The girls just sat there and observed me for a second. I smiled back and tried to look harmless.

"Gary?" Akako asked at last.

"Uh huh?"

"Do you ever have second thoughts, about bringing us here?"

I looked at the two girls for a moment. There was no anger in their eyes, just curiosity. I finally replied, "Yeah, I guess. All of us adults do. A'moth and I have talked about this, a bit..."

Tacara looked distressed. "It's just that... Well, we've seen Cindy's records, and all the satellite images. The girls who didn't come here! They all led full and meaningful lives, helping to repopulate Earth's ecosystem. For us, well... We're all going to die in another month, aren't we?"

"Huh? Who told you that?"

Akako shook her head at me. "Level with us Gary. We do have ears, you know..."

I sighed and looked at the two girls. They clearly didn't want false hope, but is my hope false? I thought for a minute about what to say. "Second thoughts about bringing you here? Sure. Back on Earth, we thought we had a couple of thousand years to solve the time-loop riddle. None of us thought of the possibility of how short life could be coming here. But our hopes are real. We're still working on a plan of what to do. Second thoughts? Sure. But A'moth and I both think we made the right decision, giving you the choice, even now..."

Tacara frowned. "Giving us the choice to die?"

I shook my head. "No, not at all. Giving you the choice to throw away your gender bigotry."

Akako joined in. "Even if it means our deaths?"

"Yes. The issue is that important."

"Why?" asked both girls at once.

I smiled. "Because we adults feel it's what God calls us to be."

"You believe that mythology?!" asked Tacara.

"No, not everything. In the times before the gender wars, even earlier, in the times before the development of scientific attitudes, people had a very different way of framing reality. Ask A'moth. She lived through it."

"We have!" answered Akako. "She tells us stories almost every night, about the ancient Earth. Her stories are so rich in detail! So amazing."

I nodded. "I know. I listen to her stories too. It was a time before women... and men... used the principle of test-and-learn to understand the world around them. They animated the world Akako. The wind was alive, volcanoes were worshiped; there were gods of the rivers and seas, gods of the mountains, gods for activities, for fertility and war... It was a very different way of framing reality. And yet... Tacara, Akako... A part of what they believed was correct, that the world is both wondrous and filled with purpose."

I smiled at Tacara. "And that's why A'moth and I feel pulling you out of the WFM was the correct thing to do. We feel God calls us to His purpose, and that God's purpose is good purpose. Debasing the male gender of our species, it's just not what God intended us to do. That's why we pulled you out, or at least gave you the choice to leave. It's as simple as that."

Tacara just looked thoughtful, but Akako replied in words. "Yes... as simple... and as complex... as life ever gets, I think. Thank you Gary. Some of the other girls are still thinking about this, but for me, I feel as if... you have taken a burden from me." She locked eyes with me and whispered, "Thank you."

I nodded. A few seconds later both girls got up and went to bed.



-------

Chapter 62

Time: December 3, 207145 6:57 PM Nebraska Standard Time

We started the meeting right after dinner, and had been working on the plan for almost an hour. All twelve of us were in Conference Room A, the primary situation room of the arctic home. Jim and Isabelle had finally come up with a plan of what we should be doing, and it was a doozy. All twelve of us had been debating it ever since. Even the girls were chiming in... 

"If we decide to do this, how soon should we leave?" asked Cindy.

Isabelle looked at Jim and then answered. "There's no reason at all to wait. None at all. Once we agree, immediately, as soon as this meeting ends."

"We've been very lucky so far," added Jim. "But we do know time-loop reset will occur sometime in the next four weeks. If we don't act soon, the loop will be forced to find another path to its destiny." Jim looked at the clock. "I'd be happiest if we all left right now."

We debated just a bit longer. No one felt like going out without at least a token stand against the end of the universe. So a little after 7:00 PM we took a vote, and it was unanimous, twelve votes to put all bets on a single throw of the dice. Another credit to the WFM, I'll give them that. They taught their kids to be courageous.

As soon as the meeting broke up, Cindy, Jim, and Isabelle started dream-jumping us from the arctic home to the center of Antelope Freeway. I jumped to sit on top of the 400-foot walls; and from there I started remote teleporting everybody directly into the jet twenty- three kilometers away. It was damn hard staying on top of such a slippery wall. I wound up hanging onto a rope for balance.

Cindy was last, porting several backpacks from the arctic filled with optical disks. I pushed those to the rear of the front cockpit, and then when Cindy was finished she waved at me and I jumped us both to the plane.

A'moth was already active at the controls. "Doors are already sealed. Batteries are full charged. Amazingly, there's still a bit of liquid hydrogen in the tanks. It never boiled off..."

I nodded as I sat in the pilot seat next to her. Behind us were Jim and Isabelle. Cindy and Hoshi were with the six girls in the main cabin. It was hard not to telescope the moment. After all the struggles, all of our successes and failures, after all the years, all of the deaths of so many good and not-so-good people, after all of the centuries and the eras... it was all coming down to one throw of the dice. I felt as if I were standing before the greatest cosmic crap table of all eternity, and the dice were red hot in my hands... 

"Anytime you're ready Gary," said A'moth calmly. "I love you."

I nodded, and before I could lose my guts, I locked the plane and jumped us into turbulence of the strange quantum shadow channel that exists below the Nebraska channel. The plane became filled with pulsing rainbow light, brighter and even more colorful than the trip from Earth.

Jim thinks the fork in this path is the degenerate shadow channel that Havika used to reach us from his timeline at the end of the previous loop. Normally these channels are strictly one-way, but so close to time-loop-reset Jim has theorized that the channel walls will be too weak to destroy us. He thinks the walls will rupture instead.

What happens next? A ruptured slip-channel is the universe's ultimate insanity. We're setting up one last chance for an anything-can-happen day. Infinitely dangerous, but hey! It beats certain death.

Outside the windows, we could see the channel expanding and pulsing like a great snake to accommodate the enormous width of the plane. The entire jet seemed encapsulated by an embryonic bubble, and quantum shards were dancing with us outside the bubble and down the channel. The ride started to become very bumpy, and up ahead I could see the terrible fork rushing up to us. Our rendezvous with destiny had arrived.

Future Interlude XIII: The Temporal Storm

Aina time: 12:34 PM day 198 of 1474 H.E.

Eleka had wandered over to the outer rim of the donut shaped room, gazing out southwards over the calm ocean. He turned and watched Mayoni as she worked. His bride to be! She was so beautiful, so perfect, so sexy... Ekela still couldn't quite believe she had accepted him to be her husband. He felt like the luckiest man in the world. Their future looked so bright... 

He suddenly heard Kalea scream out, "Mayoni!!! What the hell are you doing?!"

Mayoni yelled back, "I see it too! It's not me! It's massive! Some sort of temporal surge!" She stared at a new monitor and suddenly screamed, "Hang on!"

Ekela's breath exploded out of him as he felt as if his body were in a gigantic blue flashbulb that had just gone off. He turned to the outside and shook his head to clear it, and saw absolute chaos in the reality outside. The sun was streaking across the sky too fast to be seen, a great band of light vibrating across the sky in its annual range faster than once a second.

In a shock of recognition, he understood the horror. Aina time loop reset was scheduled to occur on day 254 of 1537, sixty-three Aina years in the future. If he was interpreting the outside events correctly, they would hit time-loop reset in less than a minute. The solar tower chamber was filled with a massive vibration and a thunderous roar that seemed to come from all directions. "Mayoni!" he cried out.

Time: Undetermined, riding a shock wave of reality

As we approached the fork in the shadow channel, I felt a tremendous pull guiding the plane into the main channel, the one that loops back to Antelope Freeway. But I shivered in fright as I stared at the closed circuit monitors showing the view out the rear of the plane. The quantum counterfactuals were tearing the channel apart behind us. The channel walls looked like shredded spaghetti, fading into a soupy mush.

The moment of Earth-loop reset had arrived. If we stayed in the main channel, we'd loop back to a Freeway that didn't exist anymore. We'd only get one shot at this. The spiraling branch looked hopeless, but the main branch was certain death. A moment before we would have passed it, I shouted "Now!" to A'moth, and jumped the plane directly in front of the spiraling path.

A'moth throttled the engines to full power. Amazingly, the instruments were reading full thrust, though I don't have the faintest idea what they were using for oxygen. We hit the spiral nose-on and placed our bet, matching the best plasti-titanium alloys of the WFM against the unbounded power of a rupturing shadow channel. The dice were in the air!

Point number three I'll give to the WFM, they know their metals! There were tremendous structural groans in the plane, but the fuselage maintained its integrity. Three LH2 engines were running at full power, draining the last of the fuel from the tanks. The cockpit started to vibrate like a roller-coaster ride that had jumped its tracks.

I tried to get a jump sense of the plane's integrity, and realized with a start that I couldn't sense anything at all, absolute zero. I hadn't felt this totally blind since before my first jump in West Virginia. For a moment my eyes were glued to the rear monitors, watching the counterfactuals tear apart the channel behind us. The slip channel wasn't just rupturing, it was disintegrating.

A'moth gave a whimper of fear, and I looked up through the forward windows. The channel ahead of us ended in what looked like a glass mirror. I could see an image of our plane hurling towards a collision with the real jet. We were seconds from smashing into the end of the channel. I just had time to clench my jaw and brace for our impact with eternity.

Future Interlude XIV: The Final Day Of Reckoning

Aina time:?

Ekela was stunned motionless. The inside of the solar tower remained filled with an intense blue light, and outside the great beat of the sun in its annual migration continued to whip at higher and higher frequencies.

Kalea cried out to Mayoni, "Try cross-circuiting to B!"

Mayoni cried back, "Already have! If we only had more time to think!"

Ekela stared at Mayoni and Kalea. They were both frantically working at their terminals, seemingly oblivious to the chaos around them. The massive vibration within the tower was rising to an ear-splitting roar.

Ekela whimpered as he looked at the inner toroidal wall in back of Mayoni's station. The large yellow iris was suddenly filled with hairline cracks, and the iris began to bulge outward. Filled with the realization of impending doom, Ekela's love for Mayoni finally broke him free of his paralysis. "Mayoni!" he called out, and he leaped to save her from the imminent explosion. In an instant he was behind her, hands on her shoulders and eyes on the back wall as it began to burst from the impossible pressure behind it.

Mayoni began shouting as Ekela lifted her under her shoulders out of the chair. "Ekela! What are... NO!!!" she screamed as he hurled her to the side just as the wall exploded, shredding Ekela's body with strange looking shards. A great bullet-nosed cone of metal came crashing out of the broken wall, slamming into Ekela's torn body and batting it to collide with the torn clear outer wall of the tower. Mayoni landed on the floor and slid on her butt in stunned bewilderment, trying to make sense of the chaos around her.

Her mind desperately tried to start putting the facts together. She realized the blue light inside the solar tower was gone. She blinked in astonishment as she realized the great bullet-nosed cone was the nose of some sort of aircraft, and she could see people moving around through the plane's windows. Her eyes caught sight of Kalea standing and gaping on the other side of the plane. And then Mayoni's heart froze. She saw Ekela's crumpled body lying in a bloody heap against the outer wall of the tower.

"Oh no, no, oh no..." she whispered, as she picked herself up and ran to him. She knelt down and cradled his broken body in her arms and began to weep, totally uncaring that his blood was soaking her clothes.

Mayoni's mind was in a state of infinite pain. "Oh no... Ekela... no... I refuse... oh no... I refuse... my beloved... oh no... not again... I refuse... Keona! Ekela! Oh no! Not again! I refuse! Oh no! Not again! I refuse!!!"

Mayoni dashed up and ran by her stunned sister to the undamaged slip controls at Kalea's work station. Kalea's mind felt numb as she stared at Ekela's bloody corpse and then her heart broke with the memories of Keona's death at the JABSOM center and the anguish of what her dear sister must be feeling.

"Mayoni..." she whispered as she started to turn to her, but the sight of the clock monitor froze her heart. "Mayoni!" she screamed, "We're at 254 of 1537! We're at Aina reset!" Kalea completed her turn towards her sister just in time to see Mayoni slam down a master switch on the slip controls. A bright red tunnel of swirling, shimmering light formed on the inner wall behind Mayoni's console, and she dashed around the controls to throw herself into the vortex.

In an epiphany of terror, Kalea realized what Mayoni was attempting. "No!!!" she screamed, and tried to stop her sister but it was too late. Mayoni disappeared into the glowing red maelstrom which then disintegrated into nothingness. Kalea stood there stunned, and then heard the sound of the door on the jet's nose being opened. She looked up and had one moment to look at the new people staring at her.

And then everything started to dissolve. The open door of the plane, the people inside, the entire nose, they all seemed to be breaking up into tiny bits. The people didn't seem to be in any pain. One man who Kalea was disturbed to find hauntingly familiar managed to give her a shrug of resignation before his body began to fall apart.

Kalea looked around the great room of the tower, and noticed that the air seemed filled with tiny flying shards. They were everywhere, flying and shredding, even the impossibly strong walls of the solar tower could not stand against them. Kalea had a brief sensation of an ocean breeze through the torn walls before that too disappeared in the shredding of all reality.

"It's the end of everything," thought Kalea. "Aina reset! This is what it's like, the end of time. Goodbye, my sister! Noble Ekela!" Kalea raised her hand in a gesture to Ekela's body, and she gasped as she saw her hand and then her arm shredded into nothingness by the flying shards. There was no pain at all. "Perhaps my love will survive," Kalea thought dimly. "Accept me Spirit!" her mind cried, and then she thought nothing at all.



-------

Chapter 63


Future Loop-Back Time: Inter Locus

Mayoni's mind was filled with grim determination as her consciousness drifted down the reddish maelstrom. She wasn't sure she could feel her physical body, but she was beyond caring. "No regrets," she thought, as she rotated down the vortex. "No regrets! The loop or the physics must end! My love demands it!"

There seemed a shimmering rainbow iris in front of her, filled with swirling reds and blues, and then she was through it. She found herself surrounded by an intense blue light, in a room filled with intense noise and vibrations. She was looking out over a great ocean, with a sun whipping back and forth across the path of its annual migration.

"It worked!" shouted Mayoni in her mind. She turned and saw her sister Kalea working furiously at the terminal behind her. Mayoni turned again and saw her other self at the primary slip station a short distance away. And then she saw the great yellow iris in front of her first self crack and begin to bulge.

"Mayoni!" she heard Ekela call out. In a flash of inspiration, Mayoni leaped to be behind the chair of her first self. Ekela ran right in front of her just as she got there, and she grabbed him and hurled him with herself away from the impending explosion.

As she sailed falling through the air to the floor, Ekela wrapped in her arms, Mayoni's eyes looked up and into the eyes of her other self still in the chair. There was one instant to exchange recognition and affirmation, and then the wall of the inner torus blew, shredding Mayoni's first body into many pieces.

Ekela let out a wail of anguish as he witnessed this, and then turned his crazed head to the person who had stopped him from saving his beloved mate. His eyes seemed to lose their sanity as he stared at Mayoni holding him in her arms.

"Ekela! My love! It's all right..."

Kalea was standing near the site of the explosion, her eyes flashing back and forth to Mayoni's torn body, the nose of the plane, and Mayoni's unhurt body standing up with Ekela. She started to laugh hysterically. "Mayoni! What?!"

The door in the nose of the plane opened, and a man who somehow looked impossibly familiar gestured to Kalea. "Help us please! We have to evacuate!"

Kalea nodded and ran to help. Mayoni and Ekela started to also, but then Ekela stopped by Mayoni's broken body.

Mayoni kissed him and whispered, "Later! It's okay!"

The three helped the passengers from the jet flee the plane. Incredibly there were several children with them. Kalea kept staring at one of the two men from the plane. He looked so hauntingly familiar. And he in turn kept staring at Kalea's sister, as if he were trying to recognize her. Soon all the passengers seemed off the plane except for one woman. She started throwing backpacks out the door.

"Cindy," yelled the man, "Forget the data! Get out now!"

The woman shook her head no and kept throwing the backpacks out the door. Then she leaped through the door just as the plane began to dissolve into broken bits. The crowd of people stood around each other in astonishment as the air seemed filled with little tiny shards of nothingness that tore apart the reality of everything they touched. Kalea glanced down at her body and her last moment of vision was to see her body disintegrating. There was no pain. "Time loop reset," she thought dimly. Kalea tried to shrug the shoulders she no longer had, and then she thought nothing at all.

Post Loop-Back Time: Inter Locus

Memories... Memories and dreams... Memories and hopes and dreams... Jim Arnold felt he was slowly awaking from a great peaceful slumber. His mind wanted to drift, to relive his life, all the experiences, the good and the bad, the joys and sorrows, the pride of accomplishments, the embarrassments of his failures and being teased, the first girl he ever kissed... It was all floating through in mind, images and memories and dreams, and above everything his emotions, which gave the memories meaning and purpose... 

He remembered one foster family he had spent almost three years with, from four to six years of age. During the summers of the mid 1990's, they would take him with their extended family to Wildwood, NJ, and Jim would spend most of his summers at the shore. It was one of the happiest times of his life, and he had many fond memories of playing in the ocean with his foster sisters and brothers, of flying kites and building sand castles at the surf's edge... 

So many memories, playing Frisbee along the beach as the sun would set, walking the boards and riding the tram cars, all the wonderful rides and arcades... Eating the soft ice- cream in waffle cones as he walked the boards in the cool of the night, his older foster sister holding his hand so he wouldn't wander off... 

Part of what he liked the most about the shore was the nature, so different from center city Philadelphia. The ocean smelled so clean, and the dune grass and the sand beneath his bare feet felt so fresh and alive... 

He loved the birds, the silent sandpipers and the noisy gulls. He would often go out in the early morning, at the break of sunrise way before his siblings wanted to be up. He would lie down at the surf edge and close his eyes and listen to the gulls cry at each other and at him. He never chased them, and after a while they accepted his presence. He would lie on the beach and stare at the gulls, admiring their sleek bodies and boundless energy. He loved to hear their cries... 

Jim's mind flashed forward years into the future. He was with Cindy and Isabelle at their arctic room. A'moth had been gone for eight years and Gary for five. Jim's son Kyle was now four years old. The arctic complex was monitoring Kyle closely, and it touched Jim's heart to see his son taking after him. Kyle would sneak out of his pen at night during the migration seasons, and listen for the wild geese flying along the Peruvian coast on their long journeys up and down the Andean mountains.

The kennel operators were rather amused by Kyle's love of nature, and as he always returned to his pen on his own, they decided in kindness not to stop his nocturnal excursions. Jim and Cindy spent many hours together, watching the exterior video feeds of the kennel's perimeter fence, watching their son lying on the grass at night, his head cradled in his hands, watching and listening to the wild geese above him. It brought back so many memories to Jim, seeing his son enraptured by the birds, just as he had been as a small boy... Jim thought he could almost hear the gulls crying now... and hear the ocean surf... and smell the salt air... and feel the warm clean sand beneath his body... 

He could. He could do all of those things. Jim slowly opened his eyes to an achingly clear blue sky filled with gulls that were crying out to him. Jim stared at the birds in wonder. Their cries were similar to the birds in Wildwood and yet subtly different... more complex he thought. And the carriages of their bodies looked strangely different too.

They were as agile as any gull he had ever seen, but they also seemed able to hover in place like a hummingbird, a strange rotating beat of their wings that was quite unlike anything Jim had ever seen before. He stared in amazement as one bird in particular hovered two meters in front of him and about five meters up. The bird seemed to float stationary with very little effort, and its cries to Jim sounded very complex and non- repeating, almost like a language... 

Jim sat up and looked around the beach. There were over a dozen people nearly, lying down and appearing to be asleep. Jim stood up and did an inventory. All twelve of his group were there, in addition to three people he did not recognize, two women and a man. Jim guessed they looked to be about his apparent age, about nineteen years old, though Jim's mind was several decades older. Jim shook his head and tried to remember the last moments of the plane ride... 

One of the new women began to stir. Jim knelt by her side and waited for her to wake up. He felt tugged by feelings of recognition, and he tried to place the memory. He glanced for a moment at the other unknown women. She had stared at him strangely in the great curving room after the crash, as if she were trying to recognize him. What was going on? The women beside him on the ground opened her eyes, and Jim looked down to greet her.

It was her eyes that brought the recognition. "Havika's picture!" Jim thought. "This woman is the close image of the picture of Mayoni, but looking a lot younger! But her eyes! Her incredible, beautiful eyes! So full of love! This must be Mayoni! How is this possible?! A descendent?" Jim cleared his throat and spoke out loud, "Mayoni?"

The woman nodded her head as she stared up at him. The sound of Jim's voice stirred the second woman to sit up and stare at him. She blinked for a moment and then exclaimed, "I don't believe it! You're Jim Arnold, aren't you?"

Jim gasped at being recognized by a total stranger. "Yes. And who are you?"

"My name is Kalea, and this is my sister Mayoni. Jim Arnold?! You're supposed to be dead?"

"What?! Mayoni is your sister? Kalea?! THE Kalea, Hiapo's wife?! How can you be so young?! What?! Mayoni's sister?! I thought Amy was Mayoni's sister!" Jim was almost shouting in his confusion.

Both Mayoni and Kalea said simultaneously, "Huh?!"

Time: Unknown, apparent sun position of late afternoon at mid spring on Aina

Jim took a moment to look enjoy the beauty of the ocean before returning his attention to the two women with him. He was having the most wonderful and challenging conversation in his life, and though he had known both Mayoni and Kalea for only a few hours, he almost had the feeling that he was sitting down with family... 

All the other members of their party had split up into three teams and had set off hours ago to explore the small peninsula they appeared to be on. Each of the three teams took two of the young girls with them. Both Mayoni and Kalea admired the very complicated language the girls seemed to speak, and they even seemed to speak some English. The two sisters also noted with amusement how circumspect the girls were as they watched Mayoni and Ekela being affectionate with each other.

Cindy and Gary's team headed west along the coast, Hoshi and A'moth's team headed east along the coast, and Isabelle and Ekela's team headed inland to the north. The remaining three adults spent their time trying to understand the physics of what had just happened. Over the last three hours Jim thought they had made tremendous progress... 

Mayoni smiled at Jim watching the ocean. "This must be Aina," she said. "The birds are native Aina birds, the sunlight is the color of native Aina, even the shoreline looks just as it did before. But the solar tower and all the X-tree life-forms are gone. I think this is what the shoreline would have looked like, if X-tree never existed."

"I'm still not convinced it has existed," said Kalea. "Not now, not yet. Mayoni! You set the slip controls to run in reverse! That must have been how the time loop was first created, five thousand trillion resets ago. To do so again, inside the loop, why didn't that destroy all reality?"

Mayoni smiled and looked at Jim. "You know the answer, don't you?"

Jim smiled back. "You and your sister keep staring at me as if I were Albert Einstein."

Kalea laughed. "Good analogy! Actually, both of us are more impressed with your work than his. You are the father of slip-bubble formalism. I'm still feeling goose-bumps talking to you!"

Jim laughed back. "I am so unprepared to be a celebrity! But... how did you know what I looked like?"

Kalea shrugged. "Back at the beginning of 1407, early 2010 in Earth years, I traveled back to Earth and spent several months there. It was a very difficult time for me. The people I was with, the people who paid for Project Jumpstart... We were all assuming the plague was on Aina too. I was very depressed. I surfed the net a lot... finally found a few pictures of you in newspaper stories on the I-80 Nebraska tragedy."

"I was in the newspapers?"

Mayoni chimed in. "Sure! It was a national tragedy. I remember seeing it on the news during a portage. An entire stretch of elevated road became an inferno. Hundreds of cars were incinerated... The press did a lot of human interest stories, on all the people who died."

"Wow... I never realized... Where'd they get a picture of me?"

Kalea smiled. "They had a few, one from your high-school yearbook. They also had one from a girl named Susan in Philadelphia... Uh, did I say something wrong?"

Jim sighed. "No, not at all. Susan and I dated for a while. I didn't think she would have kept any of my pictures. She did... wow..."

Kalea shook her head. "You have no idea how much your papers influenced me, back in 1406 during Jumpstart. You are the true father of slip mathematics. Jim Arnold, you are a legend to the Hopewell scientists."

Jim laughed at the thought. "A legend?! This is going to take so much time getting used to!"

Kalea stared at him thoughtfully. "I'm just so grateful I got the chance to meet you in person. This is serious..." Kalea took a deep breath. "Jim Arnold, it's only been in the last few years that the Hopewell have revered your work. I plagiarized it, passed it off as my own original ideas." Kalea took another deep breath and then whispered, "I beg your forgiveness." She turned her right cheek to him and waited.

Jim sighed in compassion. "I know the custom, from the Hopewell history book Havika left us." He leaned over and thoughtfully kissed Kalea's cheek. "Kalea, I really do forgive, utterly and completely. I think you're very sweet and moral even to ask. Back on Earth before the plague, plagiarism was common, and almost nobody ever admitted to it."

Kalea looked at Jim for a moment, then raised her arm and lightly caressed his temple with her fingers. "Your forgiveness means a lot to me. By Hopewell tradition, a payment is never required for forgiveness. There is no debt. That would diminish the value of your gift to me. Still, if you ever need anything, count on me as your friend."

Jim gave Kalea a bright smile. "Okay. Thank you..." He then smiled at Kalea's sister. "Mayoni! I never answered your question earlier, about the destruction of reality. Yes, I think I do see your brilliance. You went back in time just a few minutes into time, didn't you?"

Mayoni nodded. "Yes. A direct Class 1-A causality violation, right at the juncture of Aina reset and Earth reset, with the rupturing shadow channel connecting the two domains. My goal was to create a direct physical paradox, two versions of physical reality that could never interlock with itself. The time loop could not survive the contradiction. The insanity had to end."

Kalea laughed, spread her arms and laughed again. "And we are still here! Mathematically, our reality should have been destroyed with the time loop! The quantum should have collapsed in one great entangled mass of contradictions! I still don't understand!"

Jim nodded. "Havika's writings gave me the first clue. He kept saying he jumped across the reality reset barrier from one loop to the next. He found it so disturbing, how his jump was violating all the core mathematics, but... Mayoni! You are so brilliant! So brilliant and courageous! You know the answer, don't you?"

"Yes," she nodded. "There is more to the reality of the universe than the physics. There are the Creator's love and purpose. With the core contradiction of my existence at loop reset, the Creator had a choice. Let all reality be destroyed along with the time loop, or choose life. Through the Spirit's love, our existence has been allowed to continue. I must say... I feel more humbled than courageous... I had the opportunity to ask the Great Spirit a direct question... It was my hope the answer would be one of mercy and love..."

Jim nodded in agreement. "We share a similar faith. When God created the universe, He wrote a physics that was a direct expression of His intentions of how the universe would operate. Havika's calculations were correct. A causality violation at loop reset had to either change the physics or destroy the loop. God affirmed his intentions by letting the physics stand, and He affirmed His love for us by re-creating the quantum after its entangled destruction."

Jim looked out over the ocean and laughed. "There's an old Earth song called Morning Has Broken. It's literally what has happened here. This is God's re-creation of the new day."

Mayoni nodded. "Cat Stevens. We're familiar with the song. We have it in our Earth archives."

Kalea smiled. "It's one of my favorites too... Mayoni! You were right! In the shadow channel, at the end of the gender wars at Honolulu... You thought the Great Spirit would someday do this, release the Blue Ring from its temporal prison... You were right... It's finally happened."

Jim tilted his head in curiosity, but then noticed some movement in the nearby dunes. He stood up and said, "It seems our scouting parties are returning..."

All three scouting parties returned together. Several of the girls were carrying bunches of what looked like very large berries, a pale cream in color. Tacara walked up to Jim and shyly offered him a bunch.

Mayoni and Kalea were also delighted to get some. "They're Spring Waterberries," said Mayoni, turning to Jim. "Just break them in your mouth, you'll get about 15 cc of mineral water with each berry."

Jim nodded and chewed one, relieving his dry throat.

Mayoni continued, "The remaining fiber won't hurt you if you swallow it, but there's no nutritional value in it. Just spit it out."

Ekela laid out two different greens and something that looked like a cross between a potato and a carrot. "Along with the Waterberries, we found three more superfoods, about the best we could hope for with such sandy soil. At least we won't starve. Any survival gear in the backpacks?"

"No," said Cindy. "There filled with UV CDs. Very high density information, the readers use ultraviolet lasers in the 30 to 60 eV range. That's twenty times more detailed than visible lasers, in each of the three dimensions. Each disk can theoretically store almost a full petabyte of information, though in practice there's massive redundancy and error correction checks in the data layers. It reduces that data capacity..."

Cindy sighed. "I tried to save everything, everything from the history of the WFM. Multiple copies... Over 200,000 years... their arts, their sciences, the good... the bad... everything..." Jim leaned over and gave Cindy an affectionate hug. She kissed him back.

The group sat down and ate a friendly meal together, chatting with each other about their experiences. After dinner the sun was still about an hour from the horizon, and Isabelle and Gary took Hoshi and the girls off to a nearby dune and continued what they had been doing intensively for the last five months, teaching Hoshi and the girls English. The other adults continued their conversations.

"Great Spirit, was that you?!" laughed Kalea, staring at Cindy. "YOU were the tiger squirrel running down the tunnel at Blue Spirit mountain?! My gosh! Anapela would have killed you if she had a chance to unsheathe her knife!"

Cindy laughed back. "Actually, I was more afraid of the hawk that was circling overhead. I was definitely on the breakfast menu!"

Mayoni nodded wistfully. "My father mentioned you once to me, my mom Anuhea's pet squirrel... Way back in 1406, before the horrors of the plague began... Project Jumpstart, all the portages to Earth... It was so long ago..." Mayoni looked at her sister thoughtfully. "Kalea, I don't think we'll ever see our parents again. I don't know what year this is, but it has to be outside the time loop, so it's at least 1536. Our parents probably have been dead for decades... All of them..."

Kalea sighed. "I know. It grieves my heart too. And Earth jumped to six million years in the future when the Blue Ring popped the slip bubble. What if the same thing happened now? Ekela!"

"Yo!"

"Your team explored the river path. What was it like?"

"As far as we could go, it looked identical to the way it did this morning... Uh, I mean the first morning this morning, when the sunflowers and the solar tower were still here. But there's no killer-ivy on the far side ledge. I think getting out would be possible. Hike the far ledge to its end, and then swim across the river to the near side before its ledge goes underwater. It won't be easy, but I think I can do it. I didn't want to try it at the time. I would have had to abandon Isabelle and Matsuko and Arisu."

A'moth had been sitting quietly beside Mayoni. She turned to Ekela and asked, "And what is your opinion of the WFM children? Do you think they could fit into Hopewell society?"

Ekela nodded. "Of course... Or perhaps I should say, at least from the Hopewell perspective. Assuming this is 1536, I'm sure there will be many families eager to adopt them. But the girls will still be accountable for their own thoughts. Will they want to join a society based on gender equality?"

A'moth tilted her head to Cindy's husband. "Jim, as a male you might have better insight into this. Do the girls still have gender bigotry? What do you think?"

Jim was silent for a moment, looking across the dune to where Isabelle and Gary were conducting their language class. The father and daughter were conducting pantomime skits, and the girls were laughing and calling out the actions in English.

"Oh, I think they'll be okay. I think each one of the girls loves Gary now, at least in her own way. They know he would stand up for them if they needed help, even risk his life for them if it were necessary. And not as an obedient pooch, but as a loving adult who cares for them. Maybe one or two of the girls..." Jim looked thoughtfully at A'moth.

A'moth responded, "Tacara and Kameko?"

Jim smiled. "Yeah, Tacara and Kameko... Maybe those two might still be a bit wistful about the old order... But it won't last. They know Gary loves them, and his love is destroying their bigotry. Just give it a little more time..." Jim looked at A'moth in kindness. "And to change the subject, are you getting any of your jump sense back?"

A'moth shook her head. "No, absolute zilch. I am totally, totally blind. Gary is too... Mayoni, Kalea... What?"

Both the sisters were trying so hard not to laugh that tears were flowing from their eyes. Mayoni took a few quick gasps of air and spoke first. "Forgive us! But your descriptions of being able to teleport... It's so absurd?"

"Completely, certifiably insane!" laughed Kalea, chiming in. "No offense, but thank the Spirit you can't do it here!"

"Huh?!' said A'moth.

Jim came to the rescue of the two sisters. "What they're trying to say A'moth, is that your ability to teleport contradicts so much physics, I shudder to think about it. Your ability... Gary's too... It was part of the insane magic of the time loop. The fact that it's gone is additional evidence..."

A'moth got the point. "... that we're on the future side of the loop?"

Kalea nodded. "Yeah... Tell me A'moth, how long did your species have the ability?"

A'moth shrugged. "Several million years, I think."

Kalea smiled. "But not more than six million years, I'll bet."

A'moth sighed. "No, I don't think that long. But be gentle with Gary about this. He had a small jump sphere compared to me, but within his sphere, his power was godlike." A'moth gazed over and her husband laughing and playing with the children. "I'm surprised he's taking the loss so well."

"I think it's a sign of his great mind," said Mayoni quietly, "a sign of a truly great and good mind."

Ekela had a flash of insight. But before he could speak it, Cindy jumped up from between A'moth and Jim and pointed to the sky. "Look! Everybody, look!" she cried, calling out even for the children's attention. "It's some sort of airplane! My gosh! It's a flying saucer! A real one!"

A squat saucer-like craft made a graceful arc around them in the sky and then began to spiral down to their location. The children were pointing and talking in their complex language with great excitement.

Mayoni was overjoyed too. "Definitely a graviton engine!"

"Yes!" laughed Kalea, "which means there's still valid physics to support the channel connection between Earth and Aina."

Mayoni nodded happily, following her sister's logic in a burst of intuition. "Indeed! Good point!"

Jim felt absolutely dumbfounded. He shouted incredulously, "What?! You people have gravity engines?!"

A few moments later the craft landed softly on a nearby dune. Jim was struck by its utterly noiseless operation. Cindy tapped his shoulder and pointed to the sky. Two more such craft were circling slowly overhead. The group gathered in front of the craft on the dune, the great southern ocean to their backs and the warmth of the setting sun to their left.

There was a soft hiss as the airlock broke the pressure seal, and an indented door slid smoothly to the side. The first two people out of the craft were young Ainans, a man and a woman, wearing uniforms that Mayoni, Kalea, and Ekela did not recognize.

A very old man stepped out of the craft next. He walked up to Mayoni and Kalea with tears in his eyes. The sisters stared back without comprehending. Then the man turned and stared at Jim. "Great Spirit! Jim Arnold! Is it really you?!"

Jim smiled back. "Aye-uh! It's an honor and a pleasure Havika, to meet you again for the first time!"



-------

Chapter 64

Time: 6:00 PM day 267 of 1536 N.H.E. (New Hopewell Era)

Mayoni and Kalea were the first to enter the executive conference room on the ninth Level of Spirit House, a half hour early for the upcoming meeting. The western views out the panoramic windows looked very familiar. They should have. Mayoni's and Kalea's apartment was directly above the conference room on Level-10. Through all the years of their absence, the Hopewell had kept the apartment reserved for them. The two sisters sat down and waited for the others to arrive.

It had been and incredibly busy and joyous time for everyone. More than two weeks had passed since the destruction of the time loop. The society had spent the first week in an unprecedented party-mode, and it was just over the last week that the festivities seemed to be winding down. People were finally accepting the idea that through the courage of a small band of people, the Hopewell people had survived the terrible scythe of the time loop reset. Life again had purpose and a future. As a tribute to epic nature of surviving the loop, the Hopewell had voted to refer to post-loop time as the New Hopewell Era, even though there was no change to the calendar dates.

Mayoni and Kalea had guessed wrong about the impact of the impending doom. Rather than slow the population growth, it seemed to have accelerated it, as people decided to have children as an expression of hope and defiance against the coming darkness. With the new arrivals from the solar tower, the population of the three planets currently stood at 6307 humans and two Chungierans. Some of the few people not spending all their time celebrating had been the twenty-seven members of the Hopewell Congress. They had spent many hours considering the impact of including immortals into their society.

Ekela and Havika walked into the meeting room next at 6:10 PM. Mayoni sighed as she hugged and kissed her "younger" brother and wished him a Happy Birthday. Havika was born on day 267 of 1423, and was the biological son of Mark and Anuhea. He was now 113 Aina years old (88 Earth years). All of Mayoni's parents had been dead for more than a decade, as well as her dear sister Amy (born in 1405, biological daughter of Va'an and the Paleo chief Leo) and brother Mahi (born in 1407, biological son of Kara and Mark).

The most difficult adjustment Mayoni had to make was just missing being reunited with her two children. Both Lynnea (born in 1420) and Thomas (born in 1424) had died of natural causes within the last year. Lynnea's son Ku'uaki (born day 115 of 1449) had been age-mates of Mayoni of Kalea during their second childhoods.

Mayoni could not help but laugh at their relationship now. Ku'uaki was her grandson, and Mayoni vividly remembered holding him as an infant when he was born. But they also grew up together as children; and now he was 87 Aina years old (68 Earth years), easily old enough to be Mayoni's grandfather. He was also currently serving his third and senior year as executive of the Hopewell Congress.

The six adults who had made the trip from Antelope Freeway walked into the conference room about 6:20 PM. They were also currently staying in apartments at Spirit House, and were all returning from a day spent at Athens University. They chatted briefly with their friends as they waited for the meeting to begin.

Time: 6:21 PM day 267 of 1536 N.H.E. (New Hopewell Era)

The six of us took the cable car ride up to Spirit House from Olympus. As we entered the conference room Mayoni gave me a bright smile and made a hand offer for me to sit between Kalea and herself. A'moth nodded at me and the rest of our group went over to talk with Havika and Ekela. I sat down and was rewarded with kisses and hugs from two of the most beautiful women I think I'll ever meet.

"And how are you finding the Three Worlds?" asked Kalea.

"Oh gosh, it's so beautiful! We just got back from a three-day graviton tour of Earth yesterday. The sites are almost as breathtaking as the ones on Aina! Is Mahina this pretty too?"

"In its own way," Kalea responded. "I was only there once. It's very rugged, dangerous if you don't understand and respect the native life-forms. You'll have to go through a training class before you go there. The class is pretty intensive. There's a lot to learn..."

"Is your family settling in?" asked Mayoni.

"Yes. We've all been offered numerous job opportunities. The history department at Athens U. is going absolutely nuts over the prospect of my wife being a professor there. The thought of having first-hand observations from 3,000 B.C., it's driving them absolutely nuts! So many interesting stories! And you wouldn't believe how many mistakes there are in the history books..."

"Oh, I would believe it," laughed Kalea. "And your six foster daughters! How are they doing?"

I thought for a moment. "I think they'll all be fine. Tacara badly insulted a boy the second day she was here..."

Mayoni nodded. "I heard about that."

"... but she sincerely apologized for it and was forgiven. Other than that there's been no trouble at all. I kind of miss being a father figure to the six of them, but I think the tribe is doing the right thing..."

I sat back in my chair and sighed, thinking of our first week on Aina. After much discussion, the girls had been split up into three pairs and were now living with three different adoptive families. All three pairs now had at least one additional brother and sister within a few years of age. The Hopewell realized what a massive cultural change was being asked of the girls, but they were going right ahead and doing it, immersing the girls directly into family life with parents and siblings and gender equality. Was it a shock for the girls? Sure. But they're all responding to the love. I think they'll be fine... 

I looked out through the windows at the idyllic mountains. "What a view," I murmured. "And so much light! Sunrise was at 3:30 AM this morning, and what, we still have another two hours till sunset?"

Kalea nodded, "Just about. We pay the price at the winter solstice of course. Oh look! Here's Ku'uaki now!"

Promptly at 6:30 PM the President of the Hopewell walked into the conference room with Havika and started the meeting. I admired Ku'uaki for keeping things so informal. He just sat down with us and started to chat. "We'll have an official ceremony tomorrow to memorialize these decisions, but it gives me great pleasure now to welcome all of you as full citizens of the Hopewell tribe! Congratulations!"

There were smiles all around. Hoshi though looked a bit thoughtful. "There was no concern then, about the girls or I trying to start the gender wars all over again?"

Ku'uaki shook his head. "It was discussed, of course. But the idea would exist, whether you or the girls championed it or not. And what would be the attraction for our descendents to follow such absurdity? Our whole basis of government is built upon the idea of a lack of control between senior and junior generations. Each generation is free through the expunging branch to prune the law as their values see fit. It's an affirmation of trust; that goodness will prevail..."

Ku'uaki looked thoughtful for a moment and then continued. "The girls though, you too Hoshi, the Congress will strongly urge you tomorrow never to attempt procreation. We've studied your genome. It's a horror. Please, please don't take this as an insult. We understand your lifespan with be more than double ours. But the combination of the WFM breeding techniques and their use of the viral immunity overlays into your genome had left your genome in a terribly weak state. We don't understand all the secrets the WFM used in their procreation labs, and we don't want to know. Your children would be very weak and sickly, those that survive at all..."

Hoshi nodded and said shyly. "The girls and I, over the last five months... We studied the final years of the WFM on Earth. We understand... And through polygamy here, we can still be parents through sister wives... I don't if this will appeal to the girls or not. The concept of parental-child bonds... These concepts are so new to us! But I think we're all beginning to see the value, and... we don't want to inflict... well, the girls and I have talked about this. Tomorrow at the ceremony, we will all promise not to attempt procreation."

Ku'uaki nodded kindly and then turned to A'moth and me. "You! You two are so amazing! The thought of having a completely different species in our society, a species so superior in physical abilities compared to humans! It caused a huge amount of discussion!"

I just smiled and shrugged my shoulders. Ku'uaki smiled back and turned to A'moth. "The memory of Kara is revered by Hopewell people. I remember her as my great grandmother, but Kara is also the savior of our nation. She literally saved us from extinction so many times! And you A'moth! You saved Kara during the 1436 expedition. We've looked at Kara's briefs on that mission, realize now that you were what she called "her guardian angel" that took a bullet for her. You! To reject you would be an incredible insult to Kara's memory. Unthinkable! And yet, we accept you with some fear. To have immortals among us, the thought is..."

"Disconcerting?" offered A'moth.

Ku'uaki laughed. "A tamer word than what I was searching for! Think of the absurdity of the gender wars. Think of the absurdity of Earth's early racial bigotry, and then its gender bigotry, where the attitudes about differences were so objectively stupid. Is our species wise enough to avoid genetic bigotry across species, where the differences are real?"

A'moth nodded her head. "A deep question Ku'uaki, one I have no data with which to answer, except perhaps to point out that my husband and daughter and Jim and Cindy choose to love me, regardless of my genes."

"Yes," said Ku'uaki smiling happily and nodding back in complete agreement. "That was our conclusion also, that love is the answer to our fears. And besides..." He looked at A'moth sheepishly. "Can you really produce only one child every seven-hundred years?"

"Yep! Do the math! My mother tied in her knots to me that the native Chungieran population was a little one billion and a little over half female, call it 600,000,000 females to make the math easy. With a seven-hundred year gap between pregnancies, that's still a million births a year. It was rare if more than a few thousand immortals died in any one year, through accidents or executions..."

A'moth sighed. "That's why the Chungierans needed two additional steps to stabilize the population. They would exile undesirables in ion-drive star ships, and they modified the Chungieran reproductive system to make sex... unpleasant... for the males. Otherwise the population could double as fast as every fourteen-hundred years. That's far slower than old Earth's population growth rates, but... Chungierans could be concerned about timescales that are beyond what humans seem capable of worrying about."

"Yes, I agree," whispered Ku'uaki, "and it will be a benefit, to have some members of our society guarding the long-term interests... So! In ten thousand years from now..."

A'moth nodded. "... the maximum possible Chungieran population would be about sixty thousand, the female half born to Chungieran mothers and the men from the human species who will be willing to switch to Chungieran. My direct descendents will all be female. Ku'uaki? Will the Hopewell really accept us? Particularly the women? Accept us as vampires who will take your males as mates?"

"Yes. In gratitude and love, the answer is yes. There will be a bit of jealousy of course, humans facing death while Chungierans do not, women competing against offers of immortality to the males. Still, love demands a yes answer to this. Thank the Spirit though that you can't still teleport!"

Ekela grinned and then broke into the conversation. "That was my thought on the beach too! The description of Gary's powers, to spy on anything within his sphere... Great for war perhaps, but so deadly to the concept of privacy. It would have torn the society apart..."

Kalea also spoke up. "Regarding future population limits, in addition to the point that human populations can double much faster than in seven-hundred years, there's the issue of the graviton engines. Running at extreme time dilation, we can be anywhere in the Aina-Earth multiverse in just a few days of subjective time. Perhaps one day in the far future we will send out mixed crews into the cosmos, not to banish but to colonize..."

It was the unofficial end to the meeting. Ku'uaki stayed with us as a buffet dinner was brought in. We had a marvelous time chatting about all the different experiences in our lives. We also had a lot of fun teasing 68-Earth-year old Ku'uaki and 19-Earth-year old Mayoni being grandson and grandmother to each other.

And Mayoni and Havika! Sister and brother, and they have such a deep, abiding love for each other. It touched my heart to see it. I remembered the leap of faith Havika from the previous loop made, lamenting the deaths of Mayoni and Amy in his version of the Hopewell 1436 expedition. His faith was justified. In the fullness of the Spirit's time, he and Mayoni have indeed met again.

And A'moth looked absolutely radiant. I suddenly realized why. It was the first time since 3,000 B.C. that a society had accepted her for what she truly was. The long era of disguises and hidden abilities was finally and mercifully at an end.



-------

Chapter 65


Two days later... 

Time: 9:11 PM day 269 of 1536 N.H.E. (New Hopewell Era)

Isabelle was stepping out of a shower in her apartment at Spirit House when her doorbell chimed. "Just a minute!" she called out as she threw on a bathrobe. Deciding she was decent, she walked across the living room to her door, briefly admiring the last of the evening twilight and the first evening stars. She opened the door and found Kalea standing outside in a nightgown. "Hi Kalea! Something I can do for you?"

"Hi Isabelle! Mayoni and I are going to make some popcorn and watch a Star Trek. What to join us?"

"Sure, sounds great! Just let me throw some clothes on first!" Isabelle ran for her bedroom.

"Just a nightgown would be fine," Kalea called out from the doorway. "We have a bunch of bean bags..."

A few minutes later Isabelle and Kalea were lounging on a bunch of floppy bean chairs. Mayoni came out from the galley kitchen with several large bowls of popcorn. "Dig in!"

"Thanks!" said Isabelle. "Oh Mayoni! Congratulations on your wedding to Ekela. I saw the announcement on the web this evening. Another three weeks huh?"

"Yep! Day 287! A'moth and Cindy and I have been kidding each other about our lack of wedding dresses all day!"

Isabelle blushed at the joke. She knew the particulars of the Hopewell marriage ceremony. "Actually, I don't think my parents are waiting for the lack of a wedding dress. You should have seen the way my mom and dad were smiling at each other this afternoon. I think they're creating my future sister right now!"

Mayoni laughed and nodded. "I'm glad. I am so glad the tribe has accepted your parents. I owe all of you so much, but in particular... Gary and A'moth! Your parents saved all our lives, so many times, but especially in 1436..."

Kalea looked thoughtfully at her sister and nodded. "I was safe during the expedition, manning slip controls with my husband Hiapo. But I still remember the fears..." Kalea laughed. "Isabelle! Cindy told me her first daughter with Jim will be named Charlotte. Isabelle, any ideas on what your sister's name will be?"

Isabelle smiled back. "I've asked. I think my parents have picked a name, the way they smile about it, but so far they're not saying... Uh, Mayoni, can I ask you something? I thought the Hopewell only ran the marriage ceremony once a year."

"Well," said Mayoni. "That's the modern custom. We haven't had a marriage ceremony at the end of spring for over 800 years. But before that, during the early exploration times, wedding ceremonies at the beginning and end of spring were common. So many people were away on expeditions, the tribe needed two ceremonies to allow for all the schedules." Mayoni smiled and looked at Isabelle. "My sister says she saw you at the 1537 marriage class meeting."

Isabelle smiled shyly. "Yeah. I've signed up as a member. Kalea and I will be classmates... The boys were very friendly! My body may be nineteen years old, but my mind is decades older. The boys didn't seem to mind."

Mayoni laughed. "Huh?! Are you kidding?! Your heroism is legend among the people! And I understand you're being offered a professorship at Athens?"

Isabelle nodded. "In the political science department. It's what I've trained for, with the WFM. Actually, in 200,000 years, the WFM discovered a lot, in terms of what works and what doesn't work in government. I think there's a lot I can contribute."

Mayoni smiled and raised her eyebrows. "Isabelle! Let me critique you for a moment. You're extremely bright, very attractive, will be part of a prestigious faculty, and it wouldn't surprise me a bit if you ran for Congress in a few years. Are you really wondering why the boys are flocking to you?! You're what we used to call in Hawaii a Hot Ticket!"

Isabelle laughed. "I'm familiar with the phrase! It seems like so long ago though. I left Earth when I was eight years old, and playing with WFM puppies was definitely not dating! I have so little experience in this..."

"Relax Isabelle," said Kalea. "I'm probably the only person in the class with much experience. Hopewell children by tradition don't do much outside of friendships before the marriage class. All the boys and girls will be novices... Except me..."

Isabelle smiled. "I noticed the flock of boys around you was as big as mine."

Kalea smiled back. "I know. It was pretty exciting..." She smiled at Mayoni. "Sometimes I envy you sister, for already having Ekela. There have been some subtle shifts in attitudes, over the last sixty years. Ekela is from our time. His morals are just like ours. As for me, I was born in 1367. I have memories of Kikapua in his prime becoming leader for the first time. People are astonished when I say this. Sometimes I feel as if I come from an extinct culture. Life was so, so different back in the 1300's... Isabelle?"

"Yeah?"

"At the end of the year, when Mayoni marries, would you like to live here with me?"

"Really?! Sure! I'd love to!"

Mayoni sat by a terminal and typed for a moment. "I'm accessing the net's video library. Havika told me the Hopewell have spent a lot of time being playful in the last few decades, running the old movies through holographic generation software... How about Star Trek VI, The Undiscovered Country?"

The young women turned off the lights and started the Star Trek recording shortly afterwards. Mayoni and Kalea settled down and munched their popcorn, but the third bowl was forgotten. Isabelle stared in amazement at the projections before her. The opening credits had been simple text along a wall, but the first scene filled a good part of the room, and it was almost like sitting inside Starfleet headquarters... 

Time: Intermission

A'moth and I had been spending the last hour petting each other. I had never seen her this sexually aroused. She was panting in long deep breaths, and so excited she was practically vibrating.

My bride looked so beautiful, exactly as I first saw her so long ago, on a train to Santiago, the beginning of July in 2007. Jet black hair and eyes, black fingernails and toenails, the flick of a black tongue as she panted in her arousal, she was so beautiful. And so overjoyed with being accepted for who she truly was.

She pushed me onto my back and lay on top of me. "Gary," she hissed, "Are you ready?"

I nodded. "What should I do?"

"Just lie there. The female controls the mating. Gary, this is designed to hurt you. Not me, you. But I'm so aroused, I don't want to stop. I don't think I can. I won't be able to stop, once I start."

I nodded my acceptance. My cock felt super stiff and begging to be suckled, but instead A'moth raised her hips above my groin and opened her sex. Then she quickly sat down, plunging my erection deep into her vagina.

The penetration produced a mini-orgasm in her, causing her pelvic cavity to spasm and fire its mating tooth from behind the inner folds of her labia. I gasped at the pain. It felt like taking a 22-calibre slug right at the point between my penis and sac. I couldn't help it. I started to whimper and tears started to flow from my eyes. I tried to raise my hands to push A'moth off, but my arms felt like lead weights. The venom from the mating tooth was flowing through my body, leaving me helpless to A'moth's attack.

I looked up to A'moth for help, but she had a glassy look to her eyes. She rode me like a cowgirl on a horse, rocking her pelvis back and forth, working her venom through the tooth and sliding my erection hard against the back wall deep in her vagina. The battering stimulated her cervix to spasm and suckle my penis head high up into her core, pulling the head up and sucking it radially out to pop open my penile slit. I could feel the thin, abrasive, whip-like tail end of her cervix sliding across my penis head, searching for me, searching for my ducts... 

The texture of her cervical tail was that of fish skin, very abrasive, rough sharp tiny scales that cut as they rubbed. The tail rubbed back and forth across the super-sensitive skin of my opened urethra slit. The pain was excruciating. And then it found me. The tip wiggled at my penile opening for a moment, spiraling and shredding the sensitive skin, and then it started to drill down hard in a corkscrew motion.

It was hell's own version of being catheterized. My penis was locked with suction at the top and the mating tooth at the base. I couldn't pull out, and I was too weak even to cry out from the pain. In horror I realized I was too weak even to whimper. I felt desperate, my mind frantic as it searched for some way to tell A'moth how much she was hurting me. But she seemed totally unconcerned. I stared up at her, watched her grimace and saw her black tongue roll loosely out of her mouth... 

Was she in pain too? In a flash of insight, I realized it was just the opposite. She was orgasming, sweating and orgasming in a way no human female ever could. Her body was being racked by intense waves of pleasure as her uterus spasmed, again and again, each contraction intensely pleasurable and driving her cervix to elongate and drill down into my penis.

I felt her tip inside of me, lower than the base of my penis, at the juncture of my urethra forking to my bladder or scrotum. My entire length of penis was a long red-hot pole of pain. I didn't think it could get any worse, and then it did. In a white hot spark of fire she penetrated the value leading to my testes. She was rocking and riding me in a great pulsing rhythm; each thrust of her hips spiraling her cervical worm-tube deeper towards its goal. And then I felt her enter my sac... 

Her suckle tube had picked my left testis. I felt her sliding down my tubular connection, felt her enter the nut, felt her tip diffuse and begin to lap and suckle the sperm directly from the testis' inner tissue. A'moth riding finally ceased as she reached her goal. Her body would tense and relax, tense and relax, as her orgasms clenched and released her abdominal and chest muscles. Her black tongue was hanging out loosely, and she was drooling in a daze upon my chest.

My sac was in great discomfort. It felt like more than just a suckle. It felt as if my testis were being forced through the tiny holes of a colander. In a sudden burst of insight, I realized A'moth was not just suckling sperm but the testicular tissue too, all of it. When this mating was finished, I'd have one testis left. With so much of my tissue shredded, my neural system was beginning to lose its ability to transmit pain signals. I sighed and resigned myself to my fate.

I found I could move my own black tongue. I stuck it out and caressed it alongside the length of hers. A'moth blinked in surprise, startled out of her intense mental daze by my caress. She lowered her body until her face was directly over mine. Our tongues were playing and spiraling with each other, and her body was still orgasming as her uterus suckled my testis out of my body and pumped the sperm-rich pulp into the tubes leading to her ovaries. Our tongues firmly linked, A'moth gazed deeply into my eyes, and I gazed deeply into hers.

We thought we had lost the ability to read each other with the destruction of the time loop, but it wasn't so. Our tongues were far more sensitive than a finger on a pulse point, and with our eyes locked together we could read each other clearly. A'moth cried in horror as she realized how much she was hurting me. My heart burst with joy as I realized what incredible, intense pleasure I was giving her. The solution seemed obvious. I jumped into her mind, feeling my own body's pain fade into a distant annoyance that I was overjoyed to ignore.

I became female, felt the incredible pleasure of my body orgasming, felt my uterus spasming in delight as it suckled the sperm mass from my male body underneath me. It felt so good, so incredibly good, worthy of a lifetime of waiting, worthy of new life, worthy of creation and love... 

"Gary, you okay now?"

"Hmm?" I mumbled. I drifted out of a daze.

"Here," whispered A'moth. "Suckle my other breast."

I woke up enough to realize that I had a very nice tit inside my mouth. My head was in A'moth's lap, and I had been suckling A'moth teat. I had her fat flowing oval nipple high against the roof of my mouth and I was milking her. I sighed and reluctantly let go of the drained tit, and was rewarded with a fresh tit full of delicious nectar. I suckled greedily.

"My darling husband," A'moth whispered. "My perfect, darling husband..."

The moments drifted by as I suckled in contentment and A'moth caressed me. Eventually I had my fill. I released her breast and playfully kissed and licked her nipple in appreciation. "I feel fine," I mumbled sleepily. "There's no pain at all. How is that possible?" I reached lazily across my naked body and felt my sac. No, I had not imagined it. I had only one testis left.

"It's The Gift Not Taken," A'moth whispered. "You took it."

"Huh? What?"

"It's what my mother called it, what all the Chungieran women called it... My mother tied to me about it in her knots, but I never understood, until now... Oh Gary!"

"Yeah?"

"I had no idea, how brutal this was going to be for you. Or how swept up in my orgasms I would be, how uncaring! Forgive me!"

"Huh? For what? And besides, we're trying to create our daughter! Think we succeeded?"

A'moth gave me a thin smile. "I do. I'm not absolutely sure, but... I do..."

I turned my head and sniffed A'moth stomach, giving it playful licks. "Gift not taken?"

A'moth nodded. "The final insult, at least to a Chungieran male... Gary, remember when I told you females were slaves in Chungieran society?"

I kissed her stomach again. Gosh, she is so beautiful! "Yeah..."

The males were determined to get the population under control. They not only changed the genes to make sex painful and humiliating to the male, they made it so that sex was extremely, extremely pleasurable to the female. Can you see why?"

I nuzzled her with my nose for a moment. "Shit..."

"Yes, the males were outraged that their slaves would have so much enjoyment while the males suffered. It infuriated them. The result was that they very rarely coupled. There were only a few hundred births a year, even less than the few thousand losses a year. The Chungierans had a long term goal reducing the total population by half. It would take them several hundred thousand years to do it, but they finally found a way..."

I sighed and shuddered. "And the gift not taken?"

"My breast milk. It's designed to take away all your pain, accelerate the healing. You'll have your second testis back within a week. The Chungieran males would never drink it. To accept comfort from a slave was unthinkable. The women were tied to a rack after coitus. When she's not suckled, her milk sours within a few hours and pushes out on its own. I gather it was a somewhat painful process for the female... something the Chungieran males enjoyed watching... Gary, I love you..."

I rose up and cuddled with her. My mouth returned to her beautiful oval nipples, eager to get every last drop of her delicious milk. We were both soon lying down again, very sleepy and petting each other. I stroked my hand over her pubic fur, tracing the outline of her uterus and ovaries with my fingertips. "My perfect bride..." I whispered. I think I wanted to say more, but I start to drift away in the quiet and peace of her love.

Half awake, I felt A'moth long tongue, sliding down and tasting my back, and then going lower still and wiggling between my butt cheeks. Soon A'moth was slowly lapping me, nothing too penetrating, just wet, lazy caresses of my anus. I sighed in contentment. Foolish, foolish Chungierans! How could they ever be so stupid, to pass up the opportunity to love their mates as equals?

Time: End of Intermission

At the end of the movie, Isabelle blinked and stared at her uneaten popcorn. She munched a few kernels and then yawned, realizing how sleepy she has. She prepared to go back to her own apartment. Mayoni hugged and kissed her before she left.

"Isabelle, I wanted to let you know. I'm still officially part of the medical staff, from my credentials in my first life. I saw the results of the genetic analysis on you."

"Huh?" said Kalea. "What?"

Isabelle blushed. "I've given the doctors permission to release the data. It'll be on the net news tomorrow. Kalea, my plague immunity comes from my mother's vaccination, not the green-pepper bush. I can have children without the bush's help. And my genetic tests are indicating the trait will breed dominant. In time, my descendants can pull the tribe away from its dependency on the pepper bush for procreation."

Kalea was stunned. "Wow... This is huge..." Kalea walked to a window and looked out at the night sky and stars. "Such a huge change this will make, if we can move away from the need for polygamy..."

Kalea stared for a moment at the bright stars, admiring the constellation of the Lost Sparrow high in the western sky. It was her mother's Anuhea's favorite. Kalea whispered, "Star Trek calls space the final frontier, but perhaps it's not the space but the time... Perhaps the future is the final frontier..."

Isabelle came up and stood by Kalea's side, hugging and kissing her future roommate. "I think the final frontier is the soul. The final frontier is the human and Chungieran soul." Isabelle sighed. "And the future is where we will meet the challenge."

One month later... 

Time: 1:27 AM Day 288 of 1536 N.H.E. (Leap Day)

Mayoni and Ekela had picked the southern shore of the Mediterranean for the start of their honeymoon. In the sixty-three years of their trip through time, Earth had crossed a tipping point in its climate and was warming rapidly. Vast stretches of southern Canada and Northern Europe were becoming free of the glacial ice. Earth sea levels had risen more than ten meters since 1473 and the rate of increase was accelerating. The latest estimates had the ice-age ending completely in a mere four hundred years. The climate at their current location was quite pleasant, and ideally suited to their mood.

Mayoni and Ekela had been frolicking naked with each other for almost an hour now in their small craft. Mayoni was kneeling on all fours, panting and drifting in her sexual arousal as Ekela licked her vulva from behind.

"Oh... oh..." she murmured and cooed, her mind dimly wondering if Ekela would use a rear mount to deflower her or whether he would like her to turn around. The sexual stimulation washed over her like a turbulent river as her husband probed her clitoris with his tongue. Images of coitus flooded her mind. "Oh... Oh... Oh Keona... !!! AHH!"

Mayoni was absolutely mortified! But before she could respond, she felt Ekela's hands grab her hips and hold them firmly. And then he began to shower her butt with kisses.

"Ekela! What are you doing?!"

"Forgiving you! Lots of loving kisses on your cheeks!"

"Not those cheeks!" Mayoni giggled and wiggled her rump in appreciation. "Do you really forgive me?"

"Well, no, not really. There's nothing to forgive."

Mayoni turned and was soon cuddling playfully with her mate. "This isn't the first time I did this!"

"Oh?! Tell me more!"

"Once, just before Thomas was conceived, Keona entered me while I was asleep. I was having a wet dream, about my father no less! I woke up just as Keona orgasmed. I cried out my father's name!"

"My gosh..." Ekela smiled and kissed his bride, and then looked at her in adoration. "Mark... He was such a great guy... All your parents were, were great... really wonderful people... And now I have their daughter! Mayoni, I'm so happy to have you. I love you."

"And I love you. And I'll never forget how you sacrificed your life for me in the solar tower."

Ekela looked thoughtfully at his wife. "I have no memory of that. All I remember is you stopping me from saving your other self."

Mayoni nodded. "I know. It seems only I have the memory of the first track of the mini- loop. Perhaps it's just as well... Oh Ekela, I love you so... And I will work on calling you Ekela!"

A short time later Mayoni lifted her legs and accepted her groom into her body.

Next morning... 

Mayoni stirred from her bed and walked to the open bay windows, staring out at the landscape before her and smelling the complex fragrances of the early morning. A moment later she felt Ekela's hand on her naked hip.

"Husband," she sighed softly.

Ekela hugged her body from behind, playfully wiggling his hips and cock against her bare rump and holding her waist tightly. "Wife," he whispered as he bent and licked her ear.

Mayoni breathed in deeply at the morning air. "Look at this place Ekela! A'moth told me this is very near the location of the ancient city of Carthage. She said the Romans used to call Carthage the granary of Rome! At my time in Hawaii, Tunisia was a desert! And now look! Six million years later, and the cycle is complete! We're back to beautiful grasslands and hardwood forests!"

There was a soft click as a high-density graviton lens snapped on, cutting off the window breezes of the morning prairie. Mayoni and Ekela looked over at a console flashing a low-level advisory, and missed seeing the small tiger leap at them and crash into the invisible barrier. Bewildered but unhurt, the predator hissed at them briefly before disappearing back into the grasslands. Within a minute, the observation windows automatically re-opened.

"In six million years," Ekela commented, "they've forgotten to be afraid of us."

Mayoni nodded. "I hope we have the wisdom to be gentle with their re-education."

"Oh, I would think so... Mayoni! I love these two-person mini-rovers! They remind me of something out of a James Bond movie! Do you know this tiny vehicle could take us right to Mahina?"

Mayoni laughed. "We don't have the clearance for that! Or the new training... But you're right! They do make excellent love-mobiles! The bed is beyond king-size!"

"So where would you like to go next?"

Mayoni smiled, turning and pressing her naked body against her life mate. She bent down and gently bit his nipple. "How about some breakfast first?" Ekela shuddered as he felt Mayoni softly tracing her fingertip up his semi-rigid penis. "And then some more play?" she whispered coyly. Mayoni then flashed him a bright smile. "And then, Hawaii!"

-------

Epilogue

Eight years later... 

Time: 9:47 AM Day 37 of 1545 N.H.E.

A'moth spread out on the beach blankets with her book notes, a great calm ocean to her south and a warm mid-summer sun in the sky above. Her latest book project involved the Earth history of the start of the Bronze Age in China in 2000 B.C. The book was almost complete, just a few more chapters to go.

But the day at the beach was delightful, too delightful to pass up, and after a few minutes of work A'moth parked her notes for another time. Her revelation of the true purpose of the "oracle bones" of the Shang dynasty would wait for another day... 

Gary would be due back from the undersea South Polar Mahina expedition in another three days, and A'moth was yearning to be with him again. They could talk on the phone, but the round-trip light-speed delay of almost twelve seconds added to both the challenges of the conversation and the sense of separation... 

Gary's descriptions of the ocean floor life at the South Mahina Pole sounded so bizarre, an unbelievable environment. The strange cephalopod-like creatures were actually communicating now with the Ainan submarine, and the entire Hopewell society was thrilled with the implications.

Gary could laugh now about their initial close encounter, when he and the crew first thought that giant squids were attempting to devour their boat. A'moth couldn't help but fret a bit, even though she knew the graviton powered submarines were incredibly tough vehicles... 

A'moth looked up at the sun and smiled at how pleasant the sun was on Aina. The star's spectrum was much cooler than Earth's sun, and A'moth loved not having to use sun- screen lotion. She was out in just a bikini and would be wearing even less except for the other children and parents around.

Wearing a bikini, A'moth looked somewhat non-human. The power of her torso and limbs and the structure of her skeletal system were distinctly different from human norm, and the jet black nails of her fingers and toes stood out sharply against the light-colored sand. A'moth had not tried to disguise her true appearance now for almost an Aina decade, ever since her last day at Ulsan.

A'moth stretched out of the beach blanket, playfully wiggling her toes into the ground and enjoying the smooth feel of the sand between her toes. The graviton bus that had brought them all here was parked quietly on a dune behind her, and she thought she'd get up in a while and get a cold drink. But for now, it was time to be decadent and just enjoy the scenery and appreciate how good it was to be alive... 

A'moth glanced up at Carlotta playing with the other children in the surf. Following the long gestation period normal to Chungieran children, Carlotta had spent more than two Ainan years in A'moth's womb, and even last summer was still somewhat of a toddler, walking with uncertainty across the dunes.

But the one additional year had made a tremendous difference. Carlotta was now among the most agile of her age mates, and A'moth knew she would continue to make swift advances; rapidly accelerating passed the human limits of strength, endurance, and reflexes. It was only in this brief period that her age mates would be her physical equals.

A'moth stared at her daughter as she played, realizing she was less than five Earth years from her birth date, and just the age A'moth was when the Chungieran colony at Caral was destroyed in 3014 B.C. A'moth shuddered at the vivid memories, struggling against the ropes of the nets that had trapped her, witnessing the brutal deaths of her mother and extended family and the horrors of the following months, being hunted by the Earth women of ancient Peru who were so determined to complete their quest of genocide... 

A'moth blinked herself back from the memories. She looked out over the surf, and was delighted to see Carlotta splashing and playing and laughing and having the time of her life with the other children. A'moth was surprised. Carlotta was always a very polite child but also very shy; and it was rare but heartwarming to see her frolic so joyously.

A'moth took a closer look with her Chungieran eyes and realized why. All the other boys and girls, even the boys!, had painted both their fingernails and toenails a jet black to match Carlotta's colors. A'moth recognized the act for what it was; there was no other way to frame it. It was a pure offer of acceptance. She lowered her head into her beach blanket to catch all the tears.

A'moth wept.


-------
The End
-------
Posted:  2006-05-03
Last Modified: 2006-06-03 / 07:46:57 pm
-------
http://storiesonline.net/
-------