CHAPTER 39
There's a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will.
- William
Shakespeare
"Hamlet" V.ii.
"Normal Space."
Siverelle did not even notice the
computer's blasé announcement, so disoriented was she from being thrashed about
during her tumultuous ride through the slipstream. Fortunately, she had remained strapped tight in her chair, so she
was only slightly injured by some small objects that broke free in the tempest
and had been hurled about the cabin, occasionally striking her. A glancing blow to the head from a meteoric
tool had compounded her already stupefied state. When the artificial gravity reasserted itself, the blood from her
wound that had been drifting about the cabin splattered to the floor like red
rain.
Siverelle shook her head to try to
clear it, looking around for a clue as to where and when she was. The last thing she remembered was ramming
Etyiam's ship to prevent the young girl from doing the same to Sarwin. If she had time to think about it, Siverelle
would have been angry with herself for not having anticipated the girl's
treachery.
Since they had arrived in the past,
Etyiam was moody and surly. Obviously,
this was because of Sarwin's decision not to tell her of their true destination
until it was too late to abort. But
there was more to it than that. Perhaps
the girl had some secret agenda from Ampharix.
Siverelle would not put it past her mother to use the girl as a pawn in
some nefarious plan against Sarwin.
Etyiam was moody and uncooperative
in the first weeks of the expedition, but when Sarwin discovered primitive
creatures whose DNA proved a close match to that of saurians, she became
overtly brusque and difficult to work with.
Later, on the day they were preparing to depart for their home time,
Sarwin told Siverelle that Etyiam had come to him in secret the day before and
asked him if he loved her. Sarwin was
shocked, but had no choice but to tell her he did not.
Siverelle knew the girl had juvenile
feelings for her husband, but that in itself should not have been so a
dangerous thing. But after Sarwin's
rejection, Etyiam became completely withdrawn and secluded herself in her ship
until they left the ancient world. She
did nothing but read scripture and spoke to no one unless absolutely
necessary. When Etyiam did speak, it
was with the calm and dispassionate voice of someone who had made a fateful
decision. Siverelle shook her
head. Sarwin was too blinded by his
discoveries to pay any heed to the girl, but Siverelle should have
noticed. She should have seen it
coming.
Now it was too late. Siverelle's ship was spinning out of control
and she had no idea if her husband or the others were somewhere nearby, or even
if they were alive. A glance out of the
window showed the familiar face of the World, with its continents in the right
places. Siverelle knew she was home, or
at least close to it.
Unfortunately, she seemed to have
little control over her ship, as it had been damaged in the collision with
Etyiam. She fought desperately at the
controls, but they ignored most of her commands. It looked like she was going to hit somewhere in the western
Waythus continent. Realizing she could
not prevent a crash, she tried to make what adjustments she could to diminish
the impact. She transmitted a distress
signal, but there was no response. She
felt the ship begin to buffet slightly as it hit the outer atmosphere. This was it. She was going down and there was nothing she could do to stop
it. If she could only lessen her angle
of descent... She might have some small
chance of surviving.
Suddenly, Siverelle felt her ship
rock, as if something had struck it, and there was the sound of something
contacting the outer hull. She craned
her neck to look up from the view port and she could see the metallic curve of
another chronoship hull above. Someone
had connected their ship to hers! Now
she could feel the directional change as, out the window, her view of the
World's horizon tilted. The other ship
was pulling her out of her uncontrolled reentry and back into the safety of
orbit!
"It's okay, Siverelle, I have
you."
Siverelle bathed in the familiarity
of the voice that drifted in through her speakers.
"Sarwin!" she shouted
back, "You're alive! You made it
through the slipstream too!"
"I did," he replied,
"But there's a little more to it than that."
Siverelle looked out the window
again at her husband's ship and she noticed something strange. The serial number on the side of his ship
was the same as the number on her own and there was damage along the rim of his
ship that looked exactly like the damage she had just sustained from Etyiam.
"What's going on, Sarwin?"
she asked, "Where did you get that ship?"
"It's a long story," he
answered, "I'll explain it all as soon as we land. This ship isn't in much better shape than
the one you're in, so I'm taking us down."
With the immediate crisis passed and
her adrenalin beginning to subside, Siverelle began to feel a little
dizzy. She looked down at herself and
saw she was covered in her own blood.
The wound to her head was worse than she thought.
"Okay dear, I'll let you
drive," she answered with unintentional drollness, "Wake me up when
we get home."
Before she could hear his reply,
Siverelle faded into peaceful unconsciousness.
#
A few hours later, Sarwin stood in
the clearing of the rain forest and looked around himself. A ways off, the two chronoships were resting,
side-by-side, their metallic hulls glittering in the tropical sun. Siverelle was inside her ship, asleep. He had tended to her wounds and now she was
resting. She had been too disorientated
to understand his explanations of what had happened to him and to the
World. He would tell her all about it
when she was ready.
Sarwin had used the last little bit
of fuel he had left to leap back to the point when Siverelle first arrived in
this reality. This place in the jungle
was where Kleesic had told Sarwin he took refuge when he first arrived on this
world. He said the human's called it
the Amazon. It was a beautiful place
and it's warmth and humidity suited saurians well. But Kleesic said warned him that, over time, the humans
encroached upon the jungle to such a degree that it no longer provided a safe
refuge. Reluctantly, Kleesic and the
others had to move their base to the frozen wastes of the South Pole, least
they be discovered.
But for now, this place would
provide a sanctuary for Sarwin and Siverelle to wait for Kleesic and the
other's to arrive. It would seem, due
to the one-handed human's sabotage, his cohorts were unable to prevent the
accident. If they had been successful,
Siverelle should not have appeared here.
But conversely, since Siverelle did arrived, so would the others in
their time as well. And maybe, just
maybe, they could have another chance to win their World back.
But for now, Sarwin was happy. True, he had not yet restored the World to
what it had been, but Siverelle was alive and with him; safe from the
humans. And for that, Sarwin was
blissfully thankful. He still held
doubts about whether any divine will was behind anything that had happened. He didn't know if events were guided by
T'Chen, or Renoldson's three-in-one Jesus, or any of the other incarnations of
god, both on his World and on this Earth.
Perhaps it was no other god but that of fortune.
But right now, Sarwin didn't
care. Blind chance had no ear for
thankfulness and he felt the need to express his gratitude. To something. Anything.
Thus, as Sarwin turned from the
verdant sward to check on Siverelle, there remained behind a humble rough-hewn
altar, upon which he left offerings of blood.
And salt. And earth.
After all, it would do him no harm.
THE END