She still believed in him.

“He is impressive,” Dani said as the door closed behind Mei-Wan. “I see now why you are attracted to him.”

“Was attracted to him,” Mei-Wan corrected.

“You can't lie to me.”

Technically, Dani wasn't a telepath. It was only during their more intense sexual encounters that Dani entered Mei-Wan's mind. But she had gotten to know Mei-Wan so well during their now seven month long relationship that Dani knew when Mei-Wan wasn't being truthful, even if Mei-Wan was lying to herself.

It was these unspoken conversations between them that Mei-Wan had grown to enjoy so much.

But still... there were times Mei-Wan wished she could lie to herself just a little.

“You still love him.”

“He was a part of my life, he...”

“Is still a part of your life,” Dani said, inching nearer Mei-Wan. “And that is what troubles me.” Her white in white eyes peered into Mei-Wan's human eyes for more than a minute as if seeing past them into Mei-Wan's soul.

Dani leaned away. “There is something more here. Something I don't believe you are conscious of, but on some deep instinctual level are indeed aware of it. This is quite strange especially since I have not noticed it before.”

***

A few hours later, as they settled into bed, Mei-Wan relaxed in Dani's embrace. She placed her hand on Dani's face as a grin crept across her own.

She needn't say anything. Their dance had become second nature.

Early on, they had merely replicated human sex. Dani at times would cause her body to grow the human male member. Mei-Wan had found that kind of sex with Dani extremely satisfying, that is until Dani had suggested something different two months ago.

Mei-Wan rose from the bed to stand at its foot, watching.

Dani rested on the bed, spreading her body out like a liquid, but as if bound by an invisible container.

“Come to me,” Dani's voice came from the fluid.

Mei-Wan walked over to the bed, climbing atop the rectangular blue shape which had a few minutes before been Dani, but now covered most of the bed. Mei-Wan rested as the surface held her up.

“I'm ready,” Mei-Wan said.

The surface tension gave way slightly and Mei-Wan began to sink into Dani. It felt like resting in a pool of warm milk.

The gelatin-like substance of Dani's body flowed about Mei-Wan's own until finally she was fully submerged.

Mei-Wan had been anxious the first time they had done this especially when Dani's substance flowed down her throat and into her lungs. It was like drowning, but Dani's mind had reached out to Mei-Wan, assuring her Dani wouldn't let any harm come to her.

Now that she knew what to expect, Mei-Wan could relax and enjoy the ride as layers of her mind peeled away, allowing Dani to become a mirror for her, letting Mei-Wan understand so much about herself. Through this process she had learned to accept her parents for who they were rather than for who she had wished them to be. She still believed they were destructive people, driven by a worship of ancestors and culture which Mei-Wan could not accept, but as people she had grown up loving, she could at least love them again, and through that, pity them for being locked away in a life neither of them had chosen for themselves.

As their minds merged, Mei-Wan drifted away, becoming less of herself and more of herself at the same time.

“Why are we attracted to Jack?” Dani-Mei-Wan asked together, their minds now nearly one entity. “What is it about him...”

The events of Mei-Wan's life with Jack flashed rapidly in her mind.

“Yes...” Dani's voice said, now dominating their ruminations. “Why did you meet...”

Mei-Wan screamed as the world ripped away from her, and she was a gain alone.

It felt like dying.

In what seemed like a few seconds, Mei-Wan opened her eyes to find Dani, back in humanoid form, seated on the floor against the far wall of their bedroom, shaking.

“I am sorry I pulled away from you so quickly,” Dani said, sounding as if she were crying. “I was afraid.”

Mei-Wan hurried to Dani's side, wrapping her lover in her arms. “You were afraid?”

“Yes.”

“But I've never known you to fear anything.”

Dani turned to Mei-Wan. “Jack McCall.”

“What about him?”

“You... your life... your...” Dani rose from the floor, and walked over to the open windows at the far end of their bedroom.

Mei-Wan followed and stood next to Dani. The night air was cool and comfortable. Ordinarily, she would have enjoyed it. But she couldn't with Dani in this state.

“Dani, please, tell me what's going on.”

“He distracts you,” Dani said, peering into Mei-Wan's eyes. “That's the reason you divorced him. A part of you knows Jack McCall is wrong.”

Mei-Wan couldn't imagine what might cause Dani to say such a thing. She had tried to understand Dani's thought processes. But Dani didn't have a brain anything like a human being. Her mind was distributed throughout all the structure of her liquid body. It's solidity was merely a matter of choice on Dani's part. She could take the form of anything, though unlike most shapeshifters, she couldn't take on the appearance of something else, instead retaining the color and texture of her own species.

Mei-Wan had asked Dani to show her true state several months earlier. The many tentacled form was beautiful.

“You were in another timeline several years ago,” Dani said.

“Yes,” Mei-Wan replied. She had assumed Dani had seen those memories, yet they had never talked about it. For Mei-Wan, it was just another part of the background noise of her life.

“In that timeline you were in love with a man named Todd Nakano... the man at the reception tonight.”

“Yes,” Mei-Wan said, looking away as if to hide the truth from Dani despite knowing it was impossible .

Dani turned to Mei-Wan. “You considered staying with Nakano in that timeline, but you chose to leave.”

“I couldn't allow Jack to die in the past,” Mei-Wan said.

“Jack McCall...” Dani hesitated. “I can't follow all the intersections. The lines are twisted, complicated. I suspect that is by design to keep anyone from seeing it.” She placed her hand on Mei-Wan's shoulder. “You have gone in and out of a very large number of timelines.”

“Yes,” Mei-Wan said. “Some more pleasant than others.”

“In how many of the other timelines with Jack McCall were you truly happy?”

“Well... I...”

“One,” Dani said. “Just one.”

“No, there were others.”

“Momentary happiness,” Dani said, now looking into the night sky. “The timeline in which you had several children, the timeline where you were taken to a council which was very curious about your timeline shifts, that was the one.”

“Yes, I believe I was truly happy there.” Mei-Wan smiled at the memory. She so loved their children in that reality, and she loved that version of Jack.

“But it was a sterile existence. You lived on Earth, doing work that did not threaten anyone's understanding of the universe.” Dani turned to Mei-Wan. “I think they very much wanted that to be the timeline which was the final result of all of this. And perhaps you will find yourself back there again in the future. It is a cage. They have tempted you with that life, and you would betray everyone else to embrace it.”

“No,” Mei-Wan said. “It's not the true timeline. I know that. I told them...”

“Yes, you did,” Dani said. “You thought they were seeking a way to keep reality locked onto theirs. But I believe they were testing your choices.”

Mei-Wan felt the world swirling about her. But eventually one question came forward above all the noise.

“Who is doing this to me?” Mei-Wan asked, desperate for answers.

“I'm not sure. My people have vague memories of beings manipulating time. The question is why you? What is it about you which is central to whatever they are doing?” Dani asked.

“This is insane!” Mei-Wan said, spinning about to go back to the bed.

But Dani caught her arm, and held her fast. “You can't run from this any longer.”

“Let me go!”

“I will not allow you to lie to yourself any longer, Mei-Wan. This galaxy has had its destiny stolen from it, and you are the fulcrum upon which it all turns.”

“I'm nobody! I don't matter!” Mei-Wan cried.

“You matter to whoever is doing this!” Dani shouted at her.

“I just want to live my life and be happy!”

“That's what they used to manipulate you,” Dani said

Mei-Wan felt as if her mind were exploding. “But how is that...”

“Possible?”

Mei-Wan nodded.

“Those responsible can access reality up and down the sequence of time,” Dani said.

For some reason, Dani's voice now calmed Mei-Wan.

“They needed choices to be made by a lone, linear lifeform.” Dani nodded. “So they would not appear to be manipulating time. Yes, this is all subtle enough.”

“Subtle enough for what?”

“To hide what they were doing from more powerful entities.” Dani said. “My species has long suspected there are caretakers of reality, keeping watch to make certain the universe does not unravel. Once a species has warp capability, they have all they need to manipulate time. Yet, reality remains so very stable.”

“Because there are those who remain unseen, watching over it,” Mei-Wan said. She had read papers on this very possibility. They seemed fanciful, but there was an element to them which rang true, and physicists who specialized in temporal mechanics had begun to suspect for more than a century such beings were the only thing which could account for the stability of reality in a universe in which time travel technology was so relatively easy to attain.

“But if the timeline changed in what appeared to be a random act by a being who by comparison appeared no more significant than a bacteria, they would see no need to intervene as long as their own existence was not threatened,” Dani said.

“I was used to make such a change?”

“I am growing more certain that is indeed the case.”

Mei-Wan wanted to scream. The thought she had been manipulated to create a reality for someone else made her feel as if her life was only a tool for the purposes of others she couldn't see.

“And Jack...” Mei-Wan hated the thought of it. “He...”

“I believe he is a critical part of all of this,” Dani said. “But I also believe he is dangerous.”

GO TO CHAPTER 8