Chapter 45 #2
“That feels good,” Kaitlin said. “Thank you.”
“It is the least we can do. I believe we have you to thank for our continued existence,” Torvil said.
“We were actually saving our planet,” Kaitlin replied. “You were just an added bonus. But I’m glad we saved you as well.”
“You have the thanks of our people.”
Kaitlin jumped down from the gurney and pulled her sweater over her head.
Suddenly, she looked at him and grinned.
“God, Sam would have loved this. He always wanted to go into space.” She looked sad for a moment, but then the smile was back.
“He would have been proud of me today. Proud of us all. I wish he could have seen it.”
They left the medical center and rejoined the group.
They were seated and someone had brought drinks.
They were alone—no blue aliens in sight.
He supposed they should think about their next move, but suddenly he was exhausted.
He found a couple of empty chairs and dragged Kaitlin over—she was busy examining the door mechanism—and sank down.
She sat beside him, but he could feel her restless energy.
The seats were big and comfortable, and he leaned back and closed his eyes, just for a moment.
“I suppose this is what I get for falling in love with an old man,” she murmured.
He growled but didn’t open his eyes. He’d show her what she got for falling in love with him, but later, when they were alone.
“I’ll look forward to it,” she said.
Finally, he opened his eyes and peered around. They all looked exhausted, even Kaitlin, despite her comment.
“What do we do next?” he asked the room in general. “Does anyone know what’s going on out there?”
“No clue,” Jake said. “Our cell phones aren’t functioning in here, so for now, we’re cut off.”
Maybe they could just stay here. It was peaceful, at least.
“And maybe, they’ll take us with them when they leave, and we can go and explore the universe,” Kaitlin said clearly picking up his thoughts.
He opened his mouth to answer, but at that moment, the doors opened and Krevil reappeared, a second Krellian at his back, a woman this time. “This is Kendall, our leader. She wishes to thank you.”
She lowered her head. “On behalf of our people I would like to extend our thanks and an offer to help you in any way we can. We plan to leave this planet as soon as the ship has been cleared, but in the meantime, if there is anything we can do for your people, you must let us know.”
“Why do you have to leave?” Kaitlin asked. “Can’t you stick around for a while?”
Kendall thought for a minute. “What do you know of our ship and our people?”
“Not a lot,” Kaitlin replied. “Melody—” she waved a hand to where Melody sat beside Quinn, “—comes from the future. Well from the old future, which I guess has changed now, and she’s met you lot before. She told us a little.”
“We lost our planet many, many years ago,” Kendall said.
“It was destroyed by our enemies, the Bhaxians, who have sworn to destroy our race.
The reasons are lost in time, but there has always been enmity between us.
We managed to flee our dying planet on this ship, carrying with us a database of not only our lost people, but also our fauna and flora—everything we need to build a new home in the image of our old planet.
“Since then, we have been searching for that new home. We saw your planet from afar and thought that maybe there would be a place for us here, that we could help you, share our technology, and in return, you would give us a corner of your planet. But the Bhaxians have harried us all the way. So far, we have kept far enough ahead, but one of their warships caught up with us a week ago and attacked. We lost them but our ship was damaged. We were unable to change our trajectory, so we are here.”
“What do you think?” Kane asked through his mind. “Are they telling the truth?”
“I think so,” Kaitlin replied.
“I do as well. Melody believes they are basically good people,” Quinn added.
Kendall was glancing between them. “I get the impression you have other ways to communicate.”
Jake looked at him, and Kane shrugged. “Go ahead.” They were done hiding what they were.
“We’re telepaths,” Jake said.
“Interesting.”
“So why do you need to leave now?” Kaitlin asked. “Why not stay and see if you can make a home here?”
“Because we fear that we will lead the Bhaxians to your planet. That they will destroy it in their need to destroy us. Your actions today have already shown us that they will stop at nothing if they discover our whereabouts, and they will likely be scanning the systems to pick up our trail again.”
“Maybe you could unload what you need, and then send the ship away,” Kaitlin suggested.
“That is one idea that had not occurred to us. I will take it to my people and see what they think. Can you speak for your people? Would they welcome us to this planet?”
Would they?
Who knew? Maybe they’d see the Krellians as a threat. Or maybe they’d lock them up and study them. You never could tell with the human race.
“What do you need?” he asked.
“Your atmosphere is compatible with our species,” Kendall said. “We can live on your planet’s surface. All we need is some space. As I told you, we have the means to replicate our planet’s flora and fauna. They will provide us with everything we need.”
“How many of you are there?”
“There are three hundred awake on the ship. A further six thousand are contained in the DNA database. They will be restored when we have found a home.”
“So you can actually restore people from their DNA—like clones?”
Kendall frowned. “Not quite the same. Your clones do not carry memories. Our process can reproduce an individual to the exact same status as when the DNA was taken.”
“Impressive,” Jake said.
It was, and an idea was stirring in the back of his mind.
He wasn’t sure it was a good idea, and part of him wanted to shut it down tight before it got out and couldn’t be put back away.
But beside him, Kaitlin had gone completely still.
He turned so he could see her face. Her eyes were wide. Then she blinked.
In fact, on second thought, it was a super bad idea. Really, really bad.
“It’s the best idea you’ve ever had. Do you think it could work?”
“No.”
“You wouldn’t have thought of it if you didn’t think there was a chance.”
“There are too many things that could go wrong. And maybe it wouldn’t work on humans. And we don’t even know if the time machine will function. And...”
“And we should try,” she said out loud.
Jake was looking at the two of them. “What’s going on? What should we try?”
“Kane thinks we should go back in time, get some of Sam’s DNA, and reproduce him.”
“Actually, no I don’t think that. In fact, I think it’s a really bad idea.” But he knew it was too late.
He was fucked.
And it looked like he was going back in time.
Likely they’d both end up ten thousand years ago, in the middle of the goddamn jungle, and the whole thing would start up again.