Диана Дуэйн - Lifeboats

Four: three: two: one…

“Last one off the planet,” Nita said softly as they looked their last on Tevaral, “turn out the lights…”

And the momentary darkness of gate transport fell over them, putting the lights out.

ELEVEN:

Wednesday

Some while later they were standing in line near the 400 hexes in the Crossings, waiting to catch one of the dedicated gate hexes back to Grand Central. There the local gating staff were waiting to process them through the locally anchored timeslide that would return Earth-based interveners who’d needed a timeslide to their departure time on February 2nd.

…Or at least Kit was standing in line at the moment. He was holding Nita’s place, as she’d gone off to the various-kinds-of-ladies’ room.

“Penny for them,” said the voice behind him.

Kit turned and saw Tom there, in his winter jacket with a backpack over his shoulder. “Hi. …Uh, sorry, what?”

“You’re looking thoughtful. Or maybe it’s just fatigue.” Tom yawned and rubbed his eyes. “Wouldn’t be just you. This has been a real slog.”

“Maybe you’re just not used to going out on errantry like the rest of us,” Kit said with a grin.

“Hey now,” Tom said, and gave him a mock-warning look. “…But seriously: I know that expression. What’s on your mind?”

“Well,” Kit said. “I was talking to one of the Fourth…”

“Or possibly more than one of them,” Tom said. “Difficult to tell, I imagine. How did that go?”

“Like you suggested,” Kit said. “Weirdly.”

“But something came of it.”

“Maybe,” Kit said. “I’d be happier if I understood just what. Or how.”

“Tell me about it,” Tom said with a sigh. “The story of all our lives…”

But Kit took Tom at his word for the moment, and told him about his conversation with the Fourth. Tom listened to the details without reaction, and finally shook his head. “So?” he said at last.

“So the question is… how did it know what it knew? This multidimensional thing they’ve got—does it mean they can see ahead in time somehow?”

“More like ‘ahead in space’, actually,” Tom said. “If I understand it right. Which I may not.” He chewed his lip for a moment. “But the two get so tangled up. Time’s such an odd thing… So malleable, some ways, even though people tend to think of it as immutable. There are so many ways the natural universe twists it around. It’s easy to forget that every time we look up at the sky, we’re looking back in time. Eight minutes, for the Sun; hours, days, for the outer planets. Years, for the stars… hundreds of years, thousands. Time and our perceptions are always messing with each other. Add other universes to the mix, and our intersections with them, and things get even odder. Then add wizardry, and shake…” He shrugged. “Time’s arrow may be in flight, but when it gets sucked into a tornado, who knows where it’ll come down?”

Kit blinked. “Want to mix a few more metaphors in there?”

Tom grinned. “I’ll work on that. But you know, causality can be as much an illusion as time, in some situations. This might be one.”

He moved forward with Kit as the line shuffled forward. “And whether you like it or not, you’re the star of the hour,” Tom said. “While they’ll be debating the actual mechanism for a while, it’s plain where and when the change started: where you were. The timeline of increased gate accesses, in particular, starts spiking soon after you returned little Besht’s pet the second time. Then the ripples start to spread.” He shrugged. “You can’t argue with the stats. So?”

“I told it a story,” Kit said. “Or I told Ponch a story, and he passed it on.”

“Must have been some story,” Tom said. “Care to share?”

So Kit repeated it for him. Tom was quiet for a while, and then just said, “Interesting. Not so much a joke, though. A parable. Those tend to have a certain punch.”

“Um,” Kit said, and considered that for a moment.. “Okay.”

“And the other party wasn’t just your dog… not that you don’t know that… but an aspect of the One. Getting a bit theoretical—” Hands in the small of his back, Tom stretched. “It’s not like the One isn’t paying attention to all of us all the time. That’s what It’s there for, apparently. Or, if you need another take on it, that’s what we’re here for. To be given attention to. You, however… have a lot more of the attention of one of Its aspects than is possibly strictly usual. And every now and then, if the right set of circumstances come together in the right order and the right shape, if all the pieces of the puzzle snap together correctly… unusual results can occur. Extremely good results, you’d have to admit.”

“Okay,” Kit said. He wasn’t sure he knew how he felt about any of this just yet. He shook his head. “It’s just that it was, I don’t know… Such a little thing.”

Tom gave him a look. “There are no little things,” he said. “Only things whose full relevance hasn’t yet become plain. Give it time.” And he glanced at his watch. “Speaking of which—” He patted Kit on his shoulder. “They’re calling my gate. See you at home.”

And he was off.

***

And when Kit and Nita caught their own gate, maybe twenty minutes later, and got into Grand Central and the shielded end of Platform 23, they found that the reverse timeslide had already been implemented for them. It was ten minutes after their initial departure time from GCT.

Kit stared at his watch. “This is so weird. It does not at all feel like it, but it’s Wednesday again.”

“And you still have a test on Friday.”

“I was hoping you would wait at least five minutes before reminding me of that,” Kit said. “Five minutes?! …But no.”

“And I am completely shattered,” Nita said in horrified realization. “Why am I feeling it all now? I was fine five minutes ago…”

“Five minutes ago,” Kit said, “tomorrow wasn’t a school day.”

“Ow,” Nita said. “Revenge. You are so mean to me.”

“You started it…”

“No I didn’t.” She sighed. “Anyway, it’s timeslide backlash. We’ve had it before. Just not when we weren’t also completely wrecked by other things.”

“Speak for yourself,” Kit said.

“I am. As usual. …But you know what I really want before I crash?”

“Tell me,” Kit said, as they walked around toward the protected transport area.

“Pointlessly crunchy chocolate cereal with no nutritive value.”

“Go for it. All I want is some saltines.”

“Why did I know you were going to say that? Never mind. Let’s go.”

Kit had almost forgotten how good it felt to be free to do a beam-me-up spell. Moments later they popped out in Nita’s favored landing spot out in the sassafras-shielded part of her back yard. Within a few minutes after that Nita was having her cereal in a house that was blessedly quiet, as her pop was at work and Dairine wasn’t back yet. Kit waited only long enough to see that she was sitting down, as he could tell she was fading already.

“My folks are waiting,” Kit said. “I should go.”

“Oh God,” Nita moaned, dropping her head onto the table beside the cereal bowl. “Tomorrow really is a school day. I hate this!”

“Yeah,” Kit said. “Look, you really are wrecked. So am I.” He reached out and rubbed her arm. “See you tomorrow morning?”

“Yeah.”

***

Kit walked home and found his mama and pop standing in the kitchen, looking expectantly at the back door. Kit looked at them blearily. It’s so weird, he thought. It feels like I left them standing here a hundred years ago…

“Twenty minutes,” his pop said. “You’re late.”