Chapter 5 - Coming And Going
Over the next several days a steady stream of men poured onto Jack's ranch. They were the hands who he was paying to go along on the cattle drive. It appeared to Mei-Wan that Jack had hired nearly half of the adult male population of Pierce Valley. She wished they'd left the odd stares they directed her way back in town.
She was convinced they had nothing to do with sex. Oh, the occasional glance had that leering quality to it, but the majority of them communicated an attitude she couldn't place. However, she was certain it wasn't a positive one. She just wished she knew why these men thought so poorly of her.
Soon, it wouldn't matter. She'd be in a time where every one of these men had been dead and buried for nearly half a millennia.
After having spent two days doing her best to avoid the crowd of people who descended on Jack's ranch, Mei-Wan left her room and went in search of her husband. There was a last conversation they needed to have.
She found Jack walking toward the cellar door around the back of the main house. He carried a large wooden crate in both arms.
Jack stopped as he noticed her approaching him. "I haven't seen you very much lately."
"I decided it was best to avoid your new friends," she said with an irritated gaze.
Jack exhaled and set the crate on the ground. "Sorry about that."
"About what?"
A pained expression came to his face. "You have to understand, Mei. A Chinese woman, well one married to a..." He stopped and shook his head. "I can't believe I have to get into this." His eyes found hers.
"What is it, Jack?"
"People in this time period have some very strange notions about different racial groups."
Her brow raised. It finally made sense. "They’re bigoted."
"They don't know better."
She shook her head. "So these people look down on me because my ancestors come from the other side of this planet."
"Unfortunately, that's the case."
She shot him a fierce glance. "Is that how you see me?"
Jack rolled his eyes. "You know better than that."
"I used to," she said. "But you've been here for five years. People can change a lot in far less time."
He walked up to her. "I married you, remember? I'd never think less of you for a reason as stupid as your geographical or racial origins."
She forced a smile. "Sorry. I guess I'm just not used to this sort of thing."
"Fortunately, humanity is past all that in our..." He stopped.
"It's still your time, Jack."
He walked back to the crate. "I'm not having this discussion again. I told you I'm staying."
"Even if it means billions, maybe trillions will pay the price for your choice?"
He spun about. "I'll do my best to avoid changing history."
"I'm worried it may already be too late for that," she said.
"Can't you even begin to understand why I want to stay?"
"This century has lost its charm since I began noticing how people react to me."
"This place is real, Mei. There are living things everywhere I go. The grass under my feet is alive. The food I eat comes from real animals, not some pattern out of a computer. This is the world we were meant to live in." Jack put his hands on her shoulders. "You could stay here."
For a moment she believed he said what he did because he wanted her back in his life. But it didn't take long for reality to pull her back into its harsh embrace. "And how would I be treated here? Would I ever be accepted as an equal by anyone else but you?"
Jack's looked away from her. "No. Probably not."
"Neither of us belong here. That's a fact we can't avoid." She stepped away from him. "I have to go back and stop Dasari or whoever it is that's changing the course of history for their own ends. You should do the same."
"That's an impossible battle, Mei," Jack murmured. "How can you stand against such power if from one moment to the next you have no guarantee you'll be the same person or if you'll even exist?"
"I don't know," Mei-Wan admitted. Her eyes stared into his. "But I know we have to stand against it, otherwise no one is free. No one's choices in this Galaxy will mean a damn."
After several moments, Jack looked at her. "No. This one isn't my fight, Mei."
"You've already fallen victim to it. That's how you ended up here. Prange's sons will fall victim to it and Hickok will too. None of them have any idea what's going on or how they fit into this, but you do. You're a Starfleet officer, a starship captain from the twenty-fourth century. You've been trained to take on such challenges."
"There's no way to win against something like this, Mei. Let me take what joy I can from the life I have here."
"You can't defeat something like this if you refuse to make the attempt."
Jack watched her walk away. "Mei, I wish you good luck in stopping this."
She turned back to him, but refused to join his gaze. "Goodbye, Jack."
***
An hour later as the last light from the evening sun was replaced by a starry sky, Mei-Wan found Hank standing at the western edge of Jack's property, looking out into the tall trees standing silent vigil in the forest beyond.
"I take it Jack hasn't changed his mind."
"I suppose it was foolish to think he would, but I had to try one last time."
"I think I understand why he'd want to stay here."
Mei-Wan leaned up against the wooden fence. "But he doesn't belong here."
Hank smiled. "As much as we like to think our century is the pinnacle of human existence, there's a part of each of us that wants a simpler life; a life where we're the master of our own destiny, where we make our way on our own strength and our own determination."
"You don't think we do that in the twenty-fourth century?"
"No, not like Jack has done here." He put his hand on Mei-Wan's shoulder. "Maybe we need to let him live the life he's got, Mei."
She stared out into the darkness surrounding Jack's ranch. The distant howl of some unknown animal caught her attention and her curiosity. Even here, there were things which intrigued her. But she knew this wasn't her time and it wasn't Jack's either.
"The only thing keeping Jack from making a life on his own strength and determination in our time is Jack himself." She looked at Hank. "He's hiding here from things he'd rather not face."
"He didn't exactly choose to come here."
"But he is choosing to stay."
"Shouldn’t that be up to him?"
Mei-Wan nodded. "In the end it is."
"Then I say we get back to where we belong, Mei."
Mei-Wan considered a list of possible arguments she might still use to convince Jack to come back with them, but she doubted any of them would change his mind. Jack's life was his to live, not hers.
"We need to get our things."
Hank turned to her. "How about we meet back here in about an hour? It's out of the way and no one's likely to see us go."
Mei-Wan agreed and walked with him back to the house.
***
A gentle breeze blew through the tall grass. Mei-Wan listened to the rhythmic rustling of leaves from the nearby forest as she watched Hank Evans walk toward her location. She picked her bag up from the ground as he approached.
"You have everything?" she asked.
Hank only nodded.
Out of the corner of her eye, Mei-Wan noticed a figure standing near the house some two hundred feet away. She could tell from the outline of his form in a light from the house that it was Jack.
"Goodbye," she whispered. And with that, Mei-Wan and Hank walked toward the forest.
Once they were certain they had gone far enough so that no one would see them leave through a hole in space and time, they stopped. Mei-Wan looked up at the canopy of leaves and branches above and then back toward the house. A part of her heart found it painful to say a final farewell to the man she had called husband for two years, but she had become used to such things lately.
"So what do we do?" Hank asked with a perplexed look on his face.
"Since the Guardian is aware of the full expanse of time, my guess is all we do is ask." Mei-Wan took a step forward. "Guardian."
They both waited. The only sound was the rustling of the tree branches above them.
"Guardian. We are ready to return."
Still nothing.
Hank sighed.
"Ahwi Dasari," Mei-Wan called. "This is Mei-Wan McCall and Hank Evans. We are ready to come back to the twenty-fourth century."
They looked about their location. Nothing out of the ordinary showed itself.
"I think we've been had," Hank stated.
Mei-Wan frowned. "Dasari has to know there's nothing more we can do here."
"Maybe there's a set of magic words she forgot to tell us about," Hank snorted. "She is only sixteen. She's bound to mess up from time to time."
Mei-Wan shook her head. "I don't think this is a mistake. I don't think any of this has been." She turned to Hank. "The Vedala sent us to Folam Six. They knew we'd find a time device there. And Dasari just happened to find us on our way to the Guardian?"
"But she did help us get to it."
"Or she intercepted us before we could use it or some other means of time travel on our own."
"Son of a bitch." Hank's face twisted into a snarl. "She's using us."
Mei-Wan's eyes narrowed. "Not that you're above using someone for your own purposes."
"When I use someone it's because I don't have..." He chuckled. She had him. "I'm really starting to hate that about you."
"Hate what?"
"Your recent knack for pointing out my own hypocrisy. It's becoming a very annoying habit."
"Sorry."
"Well, what do we do?" Hank asked.
"Head back to Jack's place until we can figure out what Dasari is up to."
Hank picked up his luggage and followed Mei-Wan back the way they had come. "I knew I should said no to that Folam mission."
They were only fifty feet from Jack's house when Mei-Wan stopped walking. "Folam," she murmured.
Hank stopped and turned back to her. "What?"
"Folam Six," she said, now smiling. "Jack isn't the only one here. Remember the G'voda ship entering the time portal?"
"Yeah, so what about it?"
"If Jack came here, chances are it did as well."
"We never found any record of it coming here in the historical reports and an advanced alien spacecraft would have been something to catch people's attention."
"Which means it came here and then left unnoticed."
"So what's the big deal?" Hank asked.
"Dasari or the Vedala or whoever is behind us being here wants that ship stopped." Mei-Wan looked up into the sky. "Dasari would have known Jack would never come back. He was just the bait to lure us here. The G'voda ship is the real goal."
"Then I say to hell with it. Let the little bitch come back here and take care of it herself."
Mei-Wan raised an eyebrow. "Do you want to go back to our own century?"
Hank let out a sigh. "No choice, huh?"
Mei-Wan grinned. "There are choices and then there are choices. We look for every opportunity to do it our own way."
Hank smiled. "I like the sound of that."
"And then when we get back, we force Ahwi Dasari to tell us what's really going on."
Hank's eyes came alive. "Oh, I think I'll enjoy that interrogation. I think I'll enjoy it a lot." He thought a moment. "One problem. Exactly how do we find this G'voda ship?"
Mei-Wan took a deep breath. "Jack is tied into all of this somehow. Since we aren't getting back to our own time by snapping our heals together, we'll have to play this out until an answer presents itself to us."
"So we go on the cattle drive?"
"We go on the cattle drive."
***
"You what?"
"We're going with you."
Jack McCall shook his head. The morning sun had just begun to peek up above the horizon and shine through the kitchen windows. "I told you I'm not going back, Mei."
"I know, but there's still the matter of the G'voda shuttle."
"The what?"
"The shuttle that entered the time portal on Folam Six."
"Oh, that," Jack said, finally remembering. "I haven't seen it."
"Which is why we're coming along."
Jack frowned. "I don't follow you."
"I think there's a connection between you and the shuttle. You both were sent to the past by the same device at essentially the same time. My guess is the energy from the torpedo blast caused something to go wrong, sending you to one point in time and the shuttle to another, but I think you're connected in space."
Jack's eyes narrowed. "But if I was killed by the Pranges according to what you saw in this other timeline, then wouldn't that break any connection between me and the shuttle?"
"I don't have any real answers, Jack. I've got a theory and not a very good one, but it's all I've got."
"From what I remember, that was usually good enough."
"I hope this time it is," she said.
"Okay, I'll talk to Jedediah and we'll figure out something for the two of you to do."
"Something for us to do?" Mei-Wan asked.
"You don't think you're coming along just for the ride do you?" He smiled. "Everyone on my cattle drive works, or they get left behind."
Jack walked away and Hank stared at Mei-Wan. "Thanks for adding to an already abysmal experience, Mei."
She shook her head. "How hard can it be?"
***
"I don't like this at all, Jack!" Jedediah bellowed. "A cattle drive is no place for a woman and especially not one on its way to Wichita. That's no place for a man to take his wife to!"
Jack nodded. "Look, you just let me take care of that part."
Jedediah grumbled, but held his tongue.
Jack waved Mei-Wan and Hank over.
"Mr. Evans, you go on over there." Jack's range boss pointed to a group of young men standing next to their horses. "You'll join our other drag riders."
Hank gave a quick nod and was on his way.
Jedediah turned his attention to Mei-Wan. "And Mrs. McCall, you come with me." He stormed away.
Mei-Wan took a moment to glance at Jack. "Thank you."
Jack chuckled. "Let's see if you thank me a week from now."
Mei-Wan followed the gruff man through the crowd of cowboys assembling their gear. "You don't like me very much, do you, Jedediah?"
"Truth be told, I like you just fine, ma'am," he said still making a path. "I just don’t think you should be coming along is all."
He stopped in front of a set of three covered wagons. "Crawfish!" he shouted. "Come on out here!"
A scraggy man with a haggard face jumped off the back of one of the wagons. A cigarette hung halfway out of his mouth; a thin wisp of smoke rose from it.
"Mrs. McCall, this is Crawfish Jake, one of the best damn cooks I've ever had the pleasure to be fed by. He's from all the way down in Louisiana, but we don't hold that against him."
Jake took a draw of his smoke and looked Mei-Wan up and down a couple of times. "Ya say, Mrs. McCall?"
Jedediah smiled. "I did indeed."
"I never knew Jack was married."
"Well, she's gonna help out with the cooking. So find her something to do."
"Now just a damn minute!" Jake demanded as he threw away his cigarette.
"I don't have time," Jedediah said as he started to walk away.
"Thank you, Jedediah," Mei-Wan told him.
"Don't thank me until you find out what kind of hours you gotta keep." Jedediah disappeared into the crowd.
Crawfish Jake looked Mei-Wan over again.
"Ya know how to cook?"
"Well," Mei-Wan said with a smirk. "I make a great Denebian murashu."
He gave her a sour look.
"I can cook basic things. Bacon, eggs, steaks, potatoes."
"Damn Yankee foolishness," the man said under his breath. "You do know how to clean pots and pans, don't ya?"
Mei-Wan forced a smile. "I think I can handle that."
