Chapter 10 - I'll Keep Remembering Kisses From Lips I'll Never Own
"I saw it with my own eyes!"
Robin snickered. "I could say something about how your eyes perceive things, but I think I'll just keep my thoughts to myself."
Li-Na Lau grumbled words Robin Nelson knew it was better she didn't hear, lest she'd have to do something about them.
"Haven't you noticed how Mei has been sneaking around lately?" Li-Na asked.
Robin applied a few more brush strokes to the canvas she'd spent the evening on. She had hoped she'd finish the landscape before going to bed, but the youngest of the Lau sisters had all but destroyed that dream. "You know, Li-Na, when most people are born the umbilical cord is cut. I suggest you try it sometime."
Li-Na Lau rolled her eyes. "Robin, this is important."
"So's my painting," she reached for a tall glass of red liquid nearby and took a sip from it. "Why don't you go find yourself a guy and go out on a date? Or maybe even have sex?"
A heavy exhale left Li-Na. "I'm not like Mei."
Robin chuckled. "Or do you have to get permission from mommy and daddy for that too?"
"Do you want to talk about me, or helping out Mei?"
"I'm surprised you'd admit the two of you are separate human beings."
"I am her sister."
Robin set her glass back down and returned to her painting. "Yeah, which is different from a parent."
"My parents are right about Todd," Li-Na insisted. "He's not serious about his career. You and I both know he'll never get beyond the rank of a full commander." She watched Robin continue applying paint to her canvas. "Mei's better than that. She deserves better."
Robin set her brush down and turned to Li-Na. "She deserves to be happy."
Li-Na fought off a grin. "Is that why you haven't spoken to her the last couple of weeks?"
Shaking her head, Robin dipped her paintbrush into a small container to clean it. The last person she wanted to tell about Mei-Wan's pregnancy was Li-Na. "That's between Mei and I."
Li-Na smiled. "Then you've finally realized how stupid this relationship between her and Nakano is too."
"No, just the opposite. I told her she needed to stop playing games and tell you and your parents to stay out of her life."
Li-Na frowned. "I should have guessed that came from you."
Robin's eyebrow raised. "She told you that?"
"Tonight." Li-Na glared at Robin. "You pushed her into this!"
"I didn't push her into anything. I just think she needs to make her own decisions."
"You know damn well how bad she is at that! If it were up to her she'd have married that idiot Joss or worse, Negev."
Robin shook her head and smiled. "I'm just glad to hear Mei is finally standing up for herself."
"Don't get too giddy just yet, Robin," Li-Na jabbed. "She's running off to elope with Nakano."
"How can you know that?"
"She just as much as said goodbye to me when I saw her not more than an hour ago."
Robin shook her head thinking of the conversation she and Mei had had almost a month earlier. "I certainly hope you're wrong. She shouldn't run away from you or anyone else."
"Okay, so neither of us wants her to run away," Li-Na said with a touch of hope and not a small part of manipulation. "We can argue our different reasons later, but we need to stop her from doing this."
Robin downed the last of her drink. "Are you sure about this?"
"I checked the computer. Mei and Todd met with Hank Evans earlier tonight. Who does everyone on this ship go to when they have something they want kept from the captain and Negev?"
"Like the use of a shuttle?" Robin suggested.
"Exactly!"
"Okay, but I want to hear Mei's side of this before I accept your interpretation of events."
***
Mei-Wan followed Hank toward a set of doors on Deck Twenty-two. "Don't you think the captain's yacht is a bit much? Weren't you the one who talked about keeping a low profile?"
Hank touched a control which opened the doors. "This is the fastest ship aboard. Of course we could wait until we met up with the Abdiel and take that instead, but stealing a Defiant class starship might catch someone's attention."
"And the yacht won't?"
"The yacht can be operated by two people," a voice said from behind Mei-Wan.
Both she and Hank turned to see Todd Nakano standing with a smile on his face.
"Todd, what are you doing here?"
"I noticed someone powering up the yacht and since Captain James doesn't usually take the thing on joyrides I figured it had to be you two." He approached Mei-Wan. "You should be more careful. I'm not the only one who pays attention to such things."
"In another ten minutes it won't matter," Hank said. "We'll be gone."
Todd handed Hank a PADD. "This will help you stay within the Chamberlain's blind spots until you get out of sensor range."
Hank took the device, confused. "I didn't know it had any blind spots."
Todd looked at him with a wide grin. "It does now."
"Thanks," Hank said with a chuckle. "I better get to work. Don't be too long, Mei."
Hank entered the small craft, leaving Mei-Wan and Todd alone in the corridor. She looked up into his eyes, a part of her not wanting to say the words she knew they would.
"Thanks for all your help."
"This might be the only way I can get my Mei back, so..."
Mei-Wan nodded and looked down at her hand. She slowly pulled the engagement ring off her finger. "Here," she said as she handed it to him. "When you do see her again, you'll need this."
Todd took it in his hand and smiled. "Thanks."
"She's a lucky woman."
Todd's smile faded. "What if this doesn't work? What if after you go through all of this, you come back and everything is as it is now?"
Mei-Wan knew that was a strong possibility. There was no way of telling if they could find the right moment in the past to get Jack and even if that was the cause of the change in the timeline.
"If that happens..." Mei-Wan leaned forward and touched her lips lightly to his. "Then you can ask me to marry you again."
He tilted his head and grinned. "You will tell me which Mei-Wan I'm proposing to this time, won't you?"
"Yeah, I promise."
He smiled wide. "Good luck, Mei."
She watched as he turned and walked away. Several tears fell from her eyes.
"No…" she whispered. She wanted this life. She couldn't tell how much of it was a result of memories from the Mei-Wan of this timeline or from herself. But it no longer mattered. She knew the truth now. Aside from living through different events, they were the same person, they wanted the same things.
She took a step to follow Todd. She didn't want to give this up!
But she stopped.
There was one important difference between her and Mei-Wan Lau. Mei-Wan McCall could see what her other self never would. She knew her life had been consumed by her own narcissism: her need to be protected, and her longing to be loved.
And Todd Nakano loved her, flaws and all. And he was willing to risk his very reality for her.
She knew all of this in her heart.
But for the first time in her life, Mei-Wan let what was right override what her heart wanted. And she hated herself for it.
***
In a corridor on Deck Twenty, Li-Na adjusted a tricorder. "I knew it; they're at the yacht. Mei, Todd, and Evans."
Robin ran up next to Li-Na and grabbed the scanning device. "Why the hell did you interface a tricorder with the computer like that? Do you always spy on your shipmates?"
"No, just my sister."
"You have some serious problems, Li-Na. As your superior officer I think I'll recommend some time with a counselor after this is over," Robin said as they hurried to the nearest turbolift.
"As long as we can stop them from running off and getting married, I don't care what happens afterward."
***
Mei-Wan sat down in the co-pilot's seat at the front of the yacht as Hank readied the ship. He looked over at her as she stared out into the darkness of space.
"You okay?" he asked.
She shook her head. "Let's hurry and get the hell out of here before I change my mind."
Hank nodded and returned to his work.
Mei-Wan placed her hand on her abdomen, thinking about the life growing within. If everything worked as planned, that life would be gone once she returned to her own version of reality. A part of her wished it could stay, but she was beginning to think once everything was back as it was supposed to be, it would probably be best to put everything about this life here behind her. This child belonged here, not with her.
"Powering up engines," Hank announced. "Disengaging from Chamberlain."
A second later, Mei-Wan felt a sharp jolt. The sound of the yacht's drive systems filled the cabin with a dull roar as the vessel angled away from it's berth.
"We're clear," Hank said, reaching for another set of controls. "Going to warp."
The stars outside the window streaked past in the familiar pattern of a ship leaping around the light speed barrier.
It's over, Mei-Wan's mind cried. Todd, my sister, little Cindy, and Robin... soon they will be nothing more than a dream, a memory of what might have been. She looked over at Hank as he made fine adjustments to their course based on the information Todd had given them.
"It should take us a little over two weeks to get to my asteroid, and then another three weeks to get to the system we're headed for; so I'd suggest relaxing as much as possible now. I doubt we'll have much opportunity for rest once we go back to the 1870's," Hank told her.
"No time for that. I need to make sure I'm as well versed in nineteenth century American culture as possible." She forced a grin. "Just in case this crazy idea actually works."
"After what we've been through, I'm beginning to think it just might."
Mei-Wan sighed. "After what we've been through, I figure it's only a matter of time before something goes wrong."
Mei-Wan didn't have long to wait.
The door to the command deck opened. Both Mei-Wan and Hank turned about.
"What the hell?" Hank exclaimed.
"Okay, where's Todd at?" Li-Na Lau asked.
"This isn't the way to do this, Mei," Robin said as she walked up from behind Mei-Wan's sister.
"What are you two doing here?!" Mei-Wan jumped to her feet and ran over to them. "You have to leave now! Hank, take us back!"
Hank joined her. "We do that and we will be detected."
Robin's eyes narrowed as she watched Hank and Mei-Wan whisper to each other. "What's going on, Mei? Where is Todd?"
"Back where he's supposed to be!"
"But... I thought you were running off to get married."
Mei-Wan looked at Li-Na and frowned. "I wonder where you might have gotten a crazy idea like that."
Robin turned slowly to Li-Na, a fierce look on her face. "I wonder..."
Li-Na stumbled for words only a moment. "Well... what about the ring?"
"Ring?"
"The engagement ring Todd gave you."
Mei-Wan held up her left hand. "I gave it back to him."
Robin shook her head. "Thank you for dragging me along on one of your delusions, Li-Na. I really appreciate looking like a fool."
Li-Na Lau wasn't about to back down. "No, she's up to something! This is just her way of covering up what she's really doing!"
The yacht shuddered, causing them all to fight to remain standing.
"Now what?" Hank bellowed as his eye caught something coming down from the ceiling--- actually someone.
They all spun about to see Ahwi Dasari descending slowly. As her feet touched the floor she looked at Hank with a smile.
But Hank already had a phaser pointing her direction. "You!"
"Put the weapon away, Evans. All you'll end up doing is hurting someone other than me."
"Who the hell is this?!" Li-Na demanded.
Ahwi ignored her and instead watched Hank and his weapon. "How are your ribs, Evans?" she asked with a touch of mischief in her tone.
"Better," he said, still pointing the phaser, his finger sliding a micrometer from contact with the trigger. But a moment later, he smiled and lowered the weapon. "If you remember our last encounter then..."
"Then I must be from the timeline you come from." She grinned wide and brushed a portion of her hair away from her eyes. "You're getting better at this sort of thing, aren't you?"
Mei-Wan stepped over to the young girl. "But how can you remember?"
"Will someone please explain who this little girl is?!" Li-Na stood with her arms crossed, giving the impression she was tired of being ignored.
"She's Ahwi Dasari," Hank said. "General troublemaker. Aside from that, I've got enough suspicions of what else she might be to fill a spacedock."
"I'd be curious to hear your list sometime, but now isn't the time," Ahwi said.
"Then how about we get to the reason you're here?" Mei-Wan asked.
"I'm here to help you find Jack McCall and set the timeline back to the way it's supposed to be."
Robin Nelson took a step backward; her mind filled with apprehension and for the first time in a very long time, fear. "Timeline? Mei, what's going on?"
Mei-Wan spent the next ten minutes explaining in detail about the G'voda time device, New Year's Day, Jack, and every other aspect of her and Hank's temporal dislocation. The result wasn't too surprising.
"Are you out of your damn mind?!" Li-Na said with laughter. "That's the craziest thing I've ever heard!"
"No," Robin whispered. "It's the only thing that makes sense. And it explains a lot."
Mei-Wan looked at her friend. "I wanted to tell you, but we couldn't take the risk."
"Then we know each other in your timeline?"
Mei-Wan smiled. "We were best friends."
"Were?" Robin asked.
Mei-Wan looked at Hank who gave a quick negative gesture. But she was happy at last to be telling the truth. "You died during the war."
It took only a moment for the implications of that to add up for Robin. "And that's how you want things to be?"
Mei-Wan shook her head. "I don't want you to be dead..."
Ahwi had listened to enough. "I hate to interrupt this little heart to heart, but we have things to do."
"As far as I'm concerned, no one invited you to this party," Hank told her.
Ahwi looked at him with a smirk. "Without me, you'll never get past the admittedly pathetic defenses Temporal Investigations has protecting the Guardian's planet. My ship can extend its cloak around yours and with a couple of other tools I have I'll get you safely to the surface."
"And exactly why should I trust you?"
"Because we both want Jack McCall back when he belongs and we both want to reverse the changes the G'voda made. Isn't that reason enough?"
Mei-Wan stared at the girl for several seconds. She had always found Dasari unsettling for some reason and her arrival now with a quick and easy solution to get them to their destination did nothing but enhance that feeling. "How do we know that's what you want?"
Ahwi turned to Mei-Wan. "Why else would I take you to the Guardian?"
Hank exhaled and looked at Mei-Wan. "It sure would cut our travel time in half. The less time we're cruising space the less chance there is we'll get caught by Starfleet."
She didn't want to accept Hank's point, but he was right. The sooner they got to where they were going, the better. "What about these two?" she asked motioning to Robin and Li-Na.
Ahwi didn't give Hank a chance to answer. "They'll have to come along. It's too risky to drop them off anywhere for now."
"And what if we don't want to go with you?" Li-Na asked with a building defiance.
Ahwi placed a hand slowly on the weapon in the holster strapped to her thigh. "You chose to come aboard this craft, Li-Na. Now you, and everyone else, will have to live with it."
Li-Na turned to her sister. The fight in her voice was replaced by fear. "Mei, please! You can't change time! It's not right!"
"I'm only returning things to the way they were."
"What kind of life do I have in the your reality? Please tell me!"
Mei-Wan didn't answer. She couldn't. Seeing the fear in Robin's eyes when she told her the truth had been hard enough.
"It seems neither you or I exist in her timeline, Li-Na," Robin said solemnly. She looked at Mei-Wan. "I don't know how you can live with yourself, Mei. I sure hope the timeline you live in is worth killing Li-Na and I."
Ahwi shook her head. "She's not killing you. Two months ago, neither of you were here."
"I remember my life, damn it!"
"Only because time changed."
"And who decides which timeline is the right one?!" Robin demanded.
For the first time since Ahwi had arrived, the grin and playful attitude disappeared, replaced by a seriousness found usually in those three times her age. "Sadly enough, I know the answer to that. But I doubt it would make you feel any better." She appeared lost in thought for a moment. "It would only frighten you all the more."
Both Mei-Wan and Hank stared at Ahwi Dasari. They'd eventually be demanding answers from the young girl, but at this moment, they needed her help. Their questions would have to wait.
***
A dying red sun hung in the consuming blackness of space, its small supply of hydrogen nearly spent. This star didn't have the mass to turn into a supernova or even a nova. It simply fused hydrogen to helium, waiting for the day, not far off, when it would go dark.
Around this star, a planet orbited. While its parent star gave little reason for living beings to take notice, this world, a barren place covered in silver colored sand, gave even less reason. But that was only to the uninformed.
What appeared to be nothing more than a worthless ball of gray dust had indeed attracted the attention of certain living beings. In orbit of the desolate world, a small space station stood as sentry to deny entrance to what stood on the surface of the planet.
On board the station, sixty some members of the Federation organization known as Temporal Investigations usually stood a careful watch. Usually, that is. This day, they were all unconscious and slumped over their posts.
A single figure stood at the large curved window on the command deck. The Asian looking man with jet-black hair and intense brown eyes waited and watched. He knew he wouldn't see it, but looking for it helped him relax. His thirty-eight years of life had taught him patience, for there was much he had been forced to wait for. But now, his patience had reached fulfillment. However, he wondered if there might not be more to gain from showing further patience.
The unit on the forearm of his armor sounded a soft alarm. His armor was of the same design Ahwi Dasari wore, but in his case it was all black.
He lifted his arm and activated the display. It showed him the track of an approaching vessel.
He smiled. "It's good to see you haven't completely abandoned your mission, Ahwi," he whispered. The man touched several controls. "And it appears everyone is where they are supposed to be." He deactivated the display and let the arm fall to his side.
He stared out the window trying to find the position of the two cloaked vessels as they approached the surface. "But you have gotten sloppy child. I should do my duty and finish cleaning up your mess, but..." He grinned as a thought came to him. "I don't think you're yet aware of how much of a disaster you have created. How I would so like to be there when you do."
He let that possibility dance about his imagination for nearly a minute. "Yes, I think I'll let you dig yourself just a little deeper." He turned and walked away from the window, his soft laughter filling the quiet halls of the sleeping space station.
***
A cloud of dust filled the air on the surface of the older than old world, but a few moments later, the material settled back to the ground. Two ships faded into view where the dust had moved. One of them was the yacht, Bucephalas, from the starship Chamberlain.
The door opened and Hank Evans and the others emerged. Each of them took a moment to look up at the dull gray sky overhead before moving on, all except Ahwi Dasari. She knew this place and where she was going.
Mei-Wan stopped as something caught her attention. She looked at the mountain ranges in the distance, her eyes focusing on single peak. "Is that... is it a city?"
Ahwi spun about with a smile on her face. "You can see that?"
"See what?" Hank asked trying to figure out what they were talking about.
"Nothing," Mei-Wan replied. She didn't understand why Hank couldn't see the gleaming collection of tall towers and glowing lights, but discussing another mystery would only keep her from what they had come here to do.
They climbed a path from where the two ships rested, up a steep hill to a wide plateau of rock. Recessed into the gray walls of the plateau, stone figures stood silent watch over the object in the center of the flat area.
"Guardian," Ahwi commanded as she walked toward the large, deformed ring. "Identify, Ahwi Dasari, Engineer Fifth Class."
"Ahwi Dasari, identity confirmed." the Guardian's voice stated, filling the air.
Mei-Wan, Li-Na, Robin, and Hank all stopped and gazed in wonder at the ring which glowed with every word from its booming voice.
"Set temporal coordinates for Sol System, Earth, local time frame 1874."
"Temporal coordinates stand ready."
Mei-Wan stepped up to Ahwi. "Is it sentient?"
"Well, it's not the greatest conversationalist in the Universe, but it is self aware."
"So, it's alive?" Hank asked.
"It would take more time than we have to go into exactly what the Guardian is and isn't," Ahwi said.
"What does it guard?" Robin inquired.
"What was, is, and will be," the Guardian's voice replied.
Robin took a step back.
"So this is the time machine?" Hank looked over the Guardian. "Not what I expected."
"The Universe rarely worries about our expectations, Evans," Ahwi told him. "If you and Mei-Wan don't mind, I do have other things to do."
"I bet you do," Hank retorted, turning to her. "Tell me something; why the hell don't you go and get Jack yourself? Why do you need us?"
Ahwi frowned. "He'd be just as unlikely to trust me as you are and even less likely to come back with me."
"Good point."
"Besides, a sixteen year old girl on her own in 1874 would be bound to draw attention to herself." She looked at Hank and Mei-Wan. "You two should be able to fit in a little better... I hope."
Hank nodded as he looked over the girl's armor. "You know, for years I've heard rumors about some bunch who had been mucking around with time. Considering your level of technology I'd say you fit the description of someone from the thirty-first century."
"The thirty-first century?!" Ahwi smiled wide, then laughed. "The thirty-first century! Oh, that is..." Her laughter consumed her.
"I didn't think it was all that funny myself," Hank said as they watched the sixteen year old attempt to regain her composure.
"I'm sorry," Ahwi said. "It took years of work to correct the disaster that bunch of buffoons from the thirty-first created."
"So not all time travelers are created equal I assume?" Mei-Wan asked.
"If there ever was a group of people for which the term 'rank amateur' fit like a glove, it was those simpletons." Ahwi smiled wide. "Think of a blind man trying to navigate an asteroid field in a broken down cargo carrier and you'll understand the nuisance from the thirty-first century. You can't manipulate a timeline very well from within in it... at least not if expect to get any sort of set result."
Hank shook his head. He wasn't finished asking Ahwi questions. "And your technology?"
"Ever the detective, huh, Mr. Evans?" Ahwi shot him a sly grin. "Some of what I use comes from well beyond the thirty-first and some of it comes from well before. Anymore than that, I can't tell you."
She handed Hank a small metal case. "Here, you'll need this."
He opened it and found a small stack of freshly printed American twenty dollar bills, all from the nineteenth century. "Money?"
"It's only about three thousand dollars, but you'll need to buy clothes, food, and other items while you're there," Ahwi told him.
"Exactly how long is this going to take us?" Mei-Wan asked, concerned by their need for money.
"That will depend on the two of you and Jack McCall."
Mei-Wan glanced at the glowing, out of shape ring in front of them. "Do we just walk through it?"
Ahwi nodded.
Hank looked at Mei-Wan. "You ready?"
"No, but it's not likely I ever will be."
"Hey! What about us?!" Li-Na insisted. "If you go back in time and make these changes you're going to destroy Robin and me, Mei. Please, this isn't right, even if it is to save your husband!"
Ahwi stepped up to Mei-Wan. "Robin and Li-Na will be fine."
"Don't lie to me, Dasari," Mei-Wan told her. "Or I'll stay and live the rest of my life in this timeline."
Ahwi's eyes widened. "No!" She took a breath and quickly steadied her emotions. "I'm not lying to you. Your friend and sister will be okay. Nothing will harm them."
Against her usual distrust of Dasari, Mei-Wan believed her for some reason. It may have been the look of terror she saw in the young girl's eyes when she suggested staying. However, it had been an empty threat. She was determined to see this through.
She took a last look back at Li-Na and Robin. "You'll be okay." Ahwi had insisted Mei-Wan and Hank bring them along. She assumed when this was finished that her sister and Robin would be returned to their lives in whatever kind of reality this timeline would revert to.
"Let's get this over with," Hank said as he began walking to the Guardian.
"I just hope this thing knows how to find us once we've caught up with Jack," Mei-Wan said in a worried tone.
"Once you've repaired the timeline, the Guardian will bring you back," Ahwi said.
Hank glanced at Mei-Wan with a smile. "You ready to get Jack?"
Mei-Wan took several deep breaths. "Why do I get the feeling this isn't going to be as easy as it seems?"
"Because nothing ever is," Hank told her.
A moment later, Hank and Mei-Wan leaped through the Guardian and into elsewhen.
TO BE CONTINUED…
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Dark Horizon Story and Characters Copyright ©2004 Michael Gray
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