Vortex of Evil (41 page)

Jontu looked down at his feet.  “Will we ever see our mom again?”

Bealma smiled.  “Yes, of course.  Your mom is the toughest, most capable person I have ever known.  She will overcome whatever they throw at her.  And they will be sorry they chose her to go after.  You can count on it Jon.”

Erin was struck by how mature the question sounded coming from such a young boy and how confident Bealma was in her sister’s capabilities.  She thought for a second about how she would have answered it.  Erin couldn’t imagine Dara failing at anything and she had both Dougs and Jelk to help her.  She smiled and said quietly, “Your mom will be with us before long.  Nothing will keep her away.”  She looked at Bealma who smiled slightly and nodded.

Larn had red eyes but he wasn’t crying.  “Ok, then we better be strong until then.  That’s what Dad told us when he had to go away.  That we had to be strong to help Mom.”

Erin hadn’t considered what the departure and ultimate death of the boy’s father must have been like.  Larn’s comment brought the reality of it home to her like a slap in the face.  She imagined a tearful farewell like a family might experience before the father left for a business trip.  But in the case of the boy’s father, Dara’s husband, he was leaving for his termination.  They would never see him again.  Night after night, his chair at the dinner table would remain empty.  He would never again come home for dinner or sit in that chair.  She felt the tears on her cheeks as she thought about how this culture imposed such unnecessary pain on innocent little children and on couples who loved each other and simply wanted to share their lives together.

Erin took the seat in the middle between the children.  “We all need to help each other.  We are going for a trip to where I live.  It won’t be long until we get there, but it might get a little bumpy.  Are all your seat belts tight?”

The children all checked their belts and nodded.  “What about Balla?  She doesn’t have a seat belt.”

“Then you will have to hold on to her.  But not too tight.”

Julti turned to Bealma.  “Do you think I could hold Balla, Mommy?”

Bealma smiled at Erin.  If only they had more puppies for the children to hold.  Nothing helped changed the mood like a puppy.

“Maybe later, sweetie.  For now, we need to be sure we have our seat belts tight in case we have any bumps ahead.”

Olunda had detailed instructions from Jelk.  She was to fly at 2000 feet altitude and follow the flight plan he had entered into the control computer.  It would take them out to sea for about an hour before they engaged the time/space locator.  Once they confirmed they had transferred through the vortex into the time location where they found Erin, they would proceed to the island and try to make contact with Tom.  Jelk told Olunda that Tom knew all about the plan and would be expecting them.  But he also told her to keep her eyes open for trouble in case anything had changed on the island.  Erin had told him about the history of people appearing from various other times and places and he didn’t want to put his family at risk.

The hover vehicle was a pretty smooth ride.  And at the low altitude, Olunda could see that the tsunami warnings had been all too accurate.  Much of Lopfa was flooded, but the water seemed to have risen steadily rather than in a single devastating surge.  It would require a huge effort to clean up, but the town looked relatively intact from the air.  She hoped that there hadn’t been any deaths from the flooding.  People in Transarctica usually followed instructions from the authorities without question so she was pretty sure that the tsunami warnings were heeded.

The flight went without incident and there did not appear to be anyone following them.  There was little air travel in Transarctica so there wasn’t much air traffic to watch out for.  The onboard systems on the hover vehicle could detect any possible threat from one hundred miles in any direction so Olunda had a sense of security about the whole adventure.

The children had settled down after Erin told them some stories from her childhood.  It wasn’t classic literature, but she made growing up in Boston sound interesting enough for kids that young.  After a while she got up and joined Olunda on the flight deck while Bealma kept watch over the kids.

“I’m sorry I got so upset earlier.  I wasn’t expecting the way this turned out.  I have lost Doug once more and I don’t know if I will ever see him again.”

“I understand.  It wasn’t very fair, but the fates that drive our lives are seldom fair.  So we are always expected to adapt.  It is never easy.”

Erin paused and looked out the view port at the open sea ahead.  “Are we doing ok?  On the planned flight path so far?”

“Yes, I believe we are.  Aside from having a very inexperienced pilot, things are on track.  I am going to open the vortex with the time/space locator in a few minutes.”

“Have they tried it with a hover vehicle?”

“No, this will be the first time.  I hope that it all goes well.”

Erin wasn’t all that comfortable with this first flight test of flying time travel, but there were limited options.  Getting away from Transarctica had been her focus from the moment that Dara’s boat had first brought her here.  But now, with Doug back there in the hills above Lopfa, she wanted desperately to tell Olunda to turn the hover vehicle around and go back.  At the last moment, she decided to say nothing and when the microvortex opened, she felt a tightness in her chest that would stay with her for a long time.  She wondered if she would ever see Doug again.  She patted Olunda on the arm and then returned to the passenger compartment and sat down with Bealma and the children.  She checked that everyone had their seatbelts fastened.

“Are we going back in time now?”

Erin turned toward this woman who looked like a younger, taller version of Dara.  “Yes.  It seems to be working correctly.  How are you feeling?  I am sorry I didn’t ask you sooner.”

Bealma signed.  “With all the action, it is fortunate we are still in one piece.  No apologies needed.  I am sorry about what happened and how Doug had to stay behind.  I am sure he will be fine.”  She touched Erin on the arm and for just a second Erin thought she heard the words, “unlike my husband.”

Erin thought back to her.  “I am sorry.  What happened to your husband?”

Bealma jumped as she was startled by Erin’s thoughts.  “I didn’t realize . . . I’m sorry.  I should have considered that the thoughtlink would be necessary for you and Doug to work with my sister.  My husband was much older and he had his termination ceremony three years ago.”

Erin could tell she touched a raw nerve.  “I am sorry.  I hope we can make sure all the children will have a different kind of life than you have had to endure.”

Bealma gave her a sad smile.  She let go of Erin’s arm and spoke softly, “I hope so, Erin.  For their sakes, I hope so.”

There was a slight rumble and some mild turbulence for about a minute.  Then their smooth flight continued.  Erin waited for a few minutes and returned to where Olunda was piloting the craft.  In front of them was the open ocean with a green form laying on horizon, just slightly to the left of the current heading.  And there were bright blue skies.  Olunda and Bealma stood looking at them in awe. 

“Look.  There.  That  bump you can just see on the horizon.”  Erin pointed to what could have passed for an alligator laying still at the surface.  An alligator that was several miles long.

“Is that the island?”

“Yes, it is.  But I am not sure where that smoke is coming from.”

Chapter 44

Olunda turned the hover vehicle and was quickly flying parallel to the island, about a mile offshore to the west as they checked out the cause of the smoke.  There was a bonfire on the beach that must have had green branches put on it to maximize the smoke.  The letters T O M had been spelled on the beach in dark-colored rocks.  Tom had followed Jelk’s instructions to the letter, but the smoke was a wrinkle that Jelk hadn’t known about.  Erin had to admit it was a pretty good way to get attention, but with some of the unwanted attention they had received in recent weeks, she thought a slightly more subtle approach to signaling might have been prudent. 

Olunda turned the craft to the left and began to descend.  She flew over the sign, but couldn’t see anyone below on the beach.

“They are probably back home.  We should land by the lake.  It is right over that ridge.”

“Ok.  Go stay with the children.  Please.  It may be a little bumpy as we land.  I am not very experienced in this sort of thing.”

Olunda’s skill as a pilot wasn’t great, but she managed to land the hover vehicle without incident and the only sign they had touched down was a minor bump.  She happened by chance to face the view port towards the high ground that housed the original cave where Erin and Doug met Arny.  It would take a while to walk to the shelter that Rin and the girls lived in, but Erin knew that Olunda would not be comfortable trying to land the hover vehicle in the smaller clearings that were closer to that location.  She didn’t want them to fail at this mission because Olunda clipped a pine tree and went down in a ball of flames.  

On the hill, hidden by the brush, Tom lay on his stomach next to Rin and Megan.  He was holding an AK-47 that was aimed at the hover vehicle.  “Just being cautious.  You never know what might have happened.”

“Do you think Doug and Erin will be on that thing?”

Tom didn’t have time to answer when the hover vehicle door opened and Erin stepped out of the hover vehicle door holding a small dog.  Quickly following behind her with three small children and a unknown dark skinned woman in a white dress.  Jelk had not shared his thoughtlink photo gallery with Tom so he didn’t recognize Olunda.

As Olunda stepped on of the hover vehicle and into the meadow, couldn’t believe how many trees there were around them.  She had lived her whole life in the world of the twenty-fourth century and the ravages of climate change had left a landscape where the trees were present but only in certain places.  But this island had many sections that were totally covered in thick trees and shrubs.  She was glad that the children would have a chance to see the world the way it had been before the climate changes really took hold in the second half of the twenty-first century. 

Bealma came out next, leading Julti, Jinnee, Jontu and Larn.

 “Well, I guess we were probably not expecting that whole group.”  Tom laughed as he put the rifle down and stood up.  “Over here, Erin.”  He waved his hand over his head.  Megan and Rin started down the hill towards Erin and her entourage.  They were going to hug her, but the dog was barking at their sudden approach so they stopped.  For formal introductions as it turned out.

“Hello, Erin.  It is wonderful to see you.  Ah, is this everyone who made it back?”  Rin was wondering the same thing as Tom and Megan.  Where was Doug?

“Yes.  I will fill you in on everything, but first let me introduce everyone.  This is Olunda, Jelk’s wife.  And this is Jinnee, their daughter.”

Tom still found it hard to believe that Jelk had a wife and daughter, but they all shook her hands and he said “hi” to the tiny, smiling girl who waved at them from behind her mother.

“And these fine looking boys are Jontu and Larn.  They are Dara’s children.  And this is Balla, their dog.  And this is Bealma, Dara’s sister, and her daughter Julti.”

Rin was completely stunned by this news.  She hid her reaction as she knelt in front of the four children and greeted them.  But she was in disbelief that these boys could be Dara’s children.  Evil Dara had children?  How could that have happened?  And a sister that looked like her, only taller?  She actually came from a family?  Not hatched in a cave somewhere?

She was still kneeling there with dog and kids when Erin said a combination of the words she was praying for with the words she feared most.  “We found your Doug alive.  But we were attacked and had to leave him behind my Doug, Jelk and Dara.  Peter and Gaby stayed with them as well.”

“Why did you leave him behind?  Were they dead?”

“We had to leave quickly to protect the children from the attack.  That was the most important thing.  And I honestly don’t know if Doug was alive when we left.  He had been hit by a grenade blast and was down on the ground.  I am very sorry.  My Doug went to rescue him and we had to leave or we might have all been killed or taken prisoner.”

Rin didn’t look at her, but bowed her head into her hands.  The mild shaking that seemed to be all over her body was the only visible sign of how devastating this news turned out to be.  The children were confused and Bealma quickly stepped in and distracted them by pointing out some birds that were nesting nearby.   Erin bent down and briefly hugged the woman who was a slightly older version of herself, then picked up the dog and waited for the news to sink in for a few moments.

Rin could not focus her thoughts.  After two years of thinking Doug was dead, having a report that he was still alive an hour ago but may be dead now was a torture as bad as anything she could imagine.  Tom started toward her but Megan grabbed his arm.  “Let her have a moment to digest this.  In the end, the news that he was still alive will probably win some positive space in her psyche.”

Tom stood in front of Erin and offered his hand to the pup.  She was growling softly but wagging her tail at the same time.  Tom took a chance and petted her on the head.  She was immediately licking his hand and wagging her tail even faster.  “Nice dog.  We need to keep an eye on her with all the big birds around here.”