Chapter 4 - Other Possibilities
Hank Evans stood looking out at the wide expanse of land which made up the McCall Ranch. The first rays of the rising sun peaked over the horizon as Hank took a sip from a steaming cup of coffee.
"You're up early," Jack said, walking up next to Hank. "I'd have figured you would have taken the opportunity to sleep in."
"I intended to do just that, but I was restless."
"Too much noise?" Jack asked taking in his fill of the morning air.
"Too little," Hank stated. "I guess I'm used to the constant low throbbing aboard a starship."
Jack smiled. "Is this going to be another attempt to talk me into coming back with you and Mei?"
"Nope. I figure you'll make the choice you need to when the time comes." He glanced over at Jack. "Whatever that ends up being."
Jack McCall nodded. "I'm glad someone trusts me to make my own decisions."
Hank took a drink from his cup. "Tell me, how'd you end up being a cattle rancher of all things?"
"There something wrong with it?" Jack asked with a grin.
"I suppose if you like spending all your time with large, noisy animals, it's a fine way to live," Hank said, casting a mischievous eye Jack's direction.
"After I'd been here for a couple of months with no rescue in sight, I decided doing odd jobs around town wasn't going to lend itself to a life much beyond simple survival," Jack said as the plain around them grew brighter with the rising sun. "I heard John Prange was looking for some hands out on his ranch so I went to work for him."
"The same man who wants you dead?"
"Yeah," Jack said with a nod. "The same man." Jack's mind went back to those days nearly five years before. "Horace, John's youngest son, used to follow me around all the time. For some reason he took a real liking to me. Funny how with the passage of time a bright-eyed kid who used to worship the ground you walked on is now the young man you're afraid might shoot you in the back some dark night."
Hank looked at Jack. "Or the commanding officer who's jumping down your throat at every opportunity."
"When did I ever follow you around?"
"Everywhere I went on the Bonifacio."
Jack laughed. "God how that seems like a lifetime ago."
"Actually, it won't happen for another five hundred years, young captain."
"I guess it depends on your point of view," Jack said.
Hank shook his head. "I'll be glad to put this time travel business behind me. I've never had the knack for it."
"Who does? We weren't meant to have to deal with such things."
"Mei seems to come by it almost naturally," Hank said with a smirk.
"Sometimes Mei is too damn smart for her own good," Jack told him. "But I don't think I'd want her any other way."
The sun's whole disc was now above the horizon surrounded by a blue sky. Hank finished the last of his coffee and noticed some men on horseback in the distance. "Looks like someone else is up early too."
"Those are the men who keep an eye on the herd during the night. I need to go out and meet them."
"You know, since I left the Academy I think this is the longest stretch of time I've spent on the surface of a planet," Hank said. He smiled and turned to Jack. "I think a man could come to like this."
Jack returned his smile. "This man did."
***
An hour later, Jack walked into the house and grabbed himself a glass of milk. It was going to get hot and he'd need to stay hydrated for the work that would fill his day.
He stopped at the sound of someone coughing.
That's Mei, he thought. He followed the sharp hacking into the kitchen.
Mei-Wan stood over the large metal basin where vegetables were usually cleaned.
"You okay?" Jack asked.
Mei-Wan spun about. "Yeah," she said with a repressed cough.
But Jack could see how flush her face was. Something was definitely wrong with her. "Maybe you should go into town and see Doc Welby."
"I'm fine," she barked at him. "Really Jack, I'm okay."
Jack gave a slow nod. He knew she wasn't being honest, but he wasn't exactly in a position to demand anything from her after their conversation the previous evening.
He decided it was best to change the subject. "There's something I'd like to show you." He darted out of the kitchen.
A moment later he was back with a wide smile on his face and an envelope in his hand. "Here," Jack said, handing her the envelope.
Mei-Wan turned it over. Several postage stamps adorned the upper right corner. It was addressed to Jack in an elaborate style of handwriting. But what caught her attention was the return address.
"Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain?" she read.
Jack nodded like a young child agreeing it was time to open presents on Christmas morning. "I wrote to him about a year ago."
"You really shouldn't have done this."
He wasn't deterred. "I know, but I thought, what the hell?"
Mei-Wan couldn't keep from grinning as she opened the letter. "I suppose it's better than going to see him."
"I'd considered it, but getting to Maine would take time and money I'd rather not spend right now." He walked up next to her as she read the letter. "And no, I didn't mention he'd have a starship named after him five hundred years from now."
Mei-Wan chuckled. "I doubt he'd have answered if you had."
Jack ran it through his mind a moment and grinned.
"You know," she said, looking up at him. "This would look good mounted on the wall in a certain captain's ready room."
Jack's mood broke. "Yeah," he said with a whisper. "I suppose it would."
***
Mei-Wan didn't see Jack for most of the day after that. She spent much of her time reading from the PADD she kept secreted away in her room. She hoped some small bit of information would shed light on the connection between Jack and the death of James Butler Hickok. Several times during the day she found it hard to resist the urge in her heart to look through Todd Nakano's service record again. Try as she might, she couldn't keep him out of her thoughts.
After several hours of reading, she checked the PADD's power level and the indicator flashed a number. "Damn," she said. It was down to fifteen percent. She had no choice but to put the device away and leave its remaining power only for vital information searches.
Mei-Wan made her way outside and despite the sweltering heat, she enjoyed the experience. There was something about this place which appealed to her. Perhaps, she considered, Jack isn't so crazy for wanting to stay here after all. It had begun working its charms on her back at the creek they'd stopped at on the way to find Jack. And now, it felt as if it were romancing her, enticing her to stay.
She pulled the pins out of hair, and because it had now had several months to grow, when it fell it reached her shoulders. Mei-Wan smiled as a warm wind rushed past her. This was the world of her birth. Why shouldn't it be a place she'd want to call home? It had been that for the first two decades of her life.
No, there's still so much I want to explore, she told herself. One world isn't enough for me.
But she could imagine there might be a time when the life this place called her to would be hard to resist.
***
Two hours later, Mei-Wan sat in a rocking chair on the front porch of Jack's home. She watched Jack, Hank, and Jedediah ride up on horseback, each of them covered in dust and dirt, but getting along well if the smiles and laughter were any indicator.
After they'd dismounted and Jedediah had gone inside the house, Jack and Hank joined Mei-Wan on the porch.
"You three seemed to be enjoying yourselves," she said, maintaining a steady rhythm in her rocker.
"We showed Hank how to rope a calf today," Jack said.
"Took me a while, but I got the hang of it," Hank said with a note of accomplishment.
Jack took his hat off and wiped his brow. "We'll turn him into a cowhand yet."
Hank laughed. "And here I thought I'd gotten too old to learn anything new."
Jack glanced at Mei-Wan, then headed for the door. "I think I'll go see what Jedediah's up to." And with that he went inside the house.
Hank sat down in a chair near Mei-Wan. "I know what you're going to say."
"What am I going to say?"
"That I shouldn't be going along with all of this; encouraging him in this life of his."
"I've gotten the impression that there's not much either of us can do to change his mind. Not that I'm ready to give up just yet."
Hank grinned. "You had me worried there for a second."
"Worried?"
"You've been so hell bent on bringing Jack back with us that I thought maybe something had happened to change your mind."
She stopped her chair. "I don't follow you."
"I wondered if maybe you'd had another one of those flashes of memories from the other Mei-Wan."
She shook her head. "No. A few stray thoughts from the life she had, but nothing like what I went through before." And for that she was glad. Remembering experiences from a life you hadn't led was disturbing. However, like the place she was now in, there was also an alluring aspect to those moments from another life.
"That's good," Hank said. He took his hat off. "I haven't said anything about you and Nakano to Jack."
"Thank you for that."
"I figure it's none of my business."
Mei-Wan started her chair to rocking again. "We need to consider the possibility he won't be coming back with us."
Hank looked at the wooden floor at his feet. "I know."
"I hope we've given him the information he needs to keep from being killed during this cattle drive," Mei-Wan said. "I'll talk to him the evening before he departs, but if he is still determined to stay, I think we should leave that night."
Hank exhaled. "Don't you think we should keep trying?"
"Every day we remain here is another chance we might change history." She frowned. "We've been here too long as it is."
Hank stood. "I better get washed up for dinner."
He entered the house without another word.
Mei-Wan placed her hand upon her stomach. But she wasn't thinking of food. She continued to hope that once she returned to her own version of the twenty-fourth century that her body would return to the state it had been in before all of this madness began. Despite how she felt about him, she had no desire to give birth to Todd Nakano's child. And if she remained in this time another five months, that birth would become a reality.
