Rayne's Return (Hearts of ICARUS Book 3) (22 page)

“Via encrypted text encoded in routine transmissions to this vessel.”

“Controller number fifty seven,” Landor said, his hands clenched so tightly that his nails dug into his palms, “there is currently a security lock out blocking
all
signals to and from any transmitter installed on the
Armadura
.  Are you still able to send and receive transmissions?”

“Negative.”

Landor released a sigh so deep it felt like it came from his toes.  “Thank the Creators for that much,” Con said hoarsely. 

Landor could only nod as he struggled to regain some semblance of calm.  After a few moments he sighed deeply, then crossed the room for a chair which he carried back to where Pip now laid.  “We might as well get comfortable, Con.  We’re going to have to hit on the right questions to get whatever information this thing has, so we’re probably going to be here for a while.”

“The first of which should be how to deactivate the Controller permanently,” Con said, grabbing his own chair.

“Good idea,” Landor said.  “We’ll ask that right after we find out how to get it to respond without having to preface every question with
Controller number fifty seven
.”

.

Chapter 10

364 Days in the Future

“Wolef, I’m not going to be able to get out of this cell without killing a Doftle,”
Rayne said right after the maintenance Doftle had taken away her empty breakfast bowl.

“That won’t be easy,”
Wolef warned.  “
They’re very strong and difficult to harm.”

“I know, but I see no alternative.”

“Please explain.”

“My initial plan was to wait for the evening maintenance Doftle to leave, make myself unseeable when he turned his back, then slip out the door right behind him.”

“Good plan.”

“Except that, now that I’ve been here a few days, I see that it won’t work,”
she said.
  “The Doftle never look right at me, but they don’t turn their backs to me, either.  Each time a Doftle comes in, the door automatically closes and locks behind him.  When he’s ready to leave he slides his card through the reader without turning his back to me, then the door slides open and he backs out.  I hoped one of them would break that routine once they got used to my borderline catatonic behavior, but they never do.  If I make myself invisible, the Doftle will see me vanish and immediately raise an alarm.  I’d never be able to stop him because they’re far too strong, and I’m far too weak.” 

“I certainly see your problem,”
Wolef said. 
“But how will you manage to kill one when, as you just pointed out, you’re weak and they’re strong?”

“I’m going to need a weapon.  I’ve got an idea or two about that.”

“Have you ever killed before?”

“No, never.”

“Are you certain that, when the time comes, you’ll be able to do it?”

Even though Rayne had given this question serious consideration already, she took a moment to consider it again because it was a question worthy of careful thought.
  “Yes, Wolef, I can kill a Doftle without hesitation.”

“If you fail, they’ll hook you up to those machines again, and we’ll lose our chance at freedom.”

“I know, but I don’t see what choice I have.  Tomorrow is the last day, right?”

“Yes, that’s right,”
Wolef said. 
“After tomorrow sending you back in time will only land you in the Doftle’s custody.”

“Then it’s this, or nothing,”
she said.
  “I’d rather try and fail than give up.”

“I’d prefer that you try and succeed, but I do see your point.”

“Is there a particular time we should do this?”

“The closer to the time you were abducted, the better.”

“It was at night,”
Rayne said, closing her eyes as she tried to remember the image of her wrist device when she sent her transport beacon to the
Ugaztun
.  After a few moments she smiled. 
“A couple of minutes short of midnight.”

“Very good,”
Wolef said.  “
That means you can wait until after the nightshift begins, when there are far fewer Doftle on duty.”

“Wait, Wolef,”
she said, frowning. 
“It’s highly unlikely that midnight here, on the
Facility,
is the same as midnight on Garza.”

“
It doesn’t matter,”
Wolef said. 
“It’s matching the time in your own mind and body that matters.”

“So if it’s midnight for me here, now, then it’ll be midnight where I end up?”

“Yes, something like that,”
Wolef replied.
“It’s the same reason I’m sending you back exactly one year in your calendar, a length of time of no particular significance to the galaxy as a whole.  How do you feel?”

“I’ve been practicing with my shield so I can keep it up without much effort, and I’ve been walking my cell to build up my stamina.  I’m probably going to need a little help from you with that, though.”

“Don’t worry.  I’m prepared for that.”

“I suppose the time has come for me to ask you a couple of questions about time-travel.”

“I’d wondered when you’d get around to that.”

“It’s easier for me to take one new scary thing at a time.  It helps me to focus on what I need to be doing instead of worrying about whatever’s coming later.”

“I’m sure that in some cultures, to some people, that’s a perfectly sensible way of looking at things.”
  Rayne sent him an image of her rolling her eyes, which made him chuckle. 
“What question do you wish to begin with?”

“Since I’m going back in time, there will be two of me in existence at once, correct?”

“Of course.”

“Won’t that cause some sort of…anomaly?”

“You have two identical sisters,”
Wolef said dryly.  “
Does that cause an anomaly?”

“It’s not the same thing and you know it.  We’re different people with different minds, souls, and personalities.”

“You got to the crux of the matter even more quickly than I expected,”
Wolef said. 
“Good for you.”

“Thanks, but what do you mean?”

“I mean that, in this case, the number of bodies you have doesn’t matter.  Bodies are simple.  Aren’t the Nomen clones you spoke of identical to one another?”

“Yes,”
Rayne said slowly.  “
But this is different, isn’t it?”

“Indeed it is.  Each body is allotted its own individual soul, even clones.  But I’m not going to duplicate you.  I’m going to send you back in time which will cause there to be two Rayne Dracons in existence at once.  Not you and a copy of you, but two of you.”

“That’s not an easy concept, but I think I understand.  What’s the downside?”

“Downside?”

“What’s the thing you haven’t told me yet?”

“Ah, yes, I see what you mean,”
Wolef said. 
“You were granted one soul, Rayne.  To my knowledge a soul cannot be duplicated, and there is nothing in the Thousand Worlds or beyond that would ever entice me to try.”

“I’ve got no argument with that,”
Rayne said with a shudder.  “
So what does this mean for me?”

“It means that even though two of you will exist, there will still only be one soul.  If I don’t send you back with that soul, an empty shell will arrive in the past and that won’t do at all.”

Rayne took one full turn around her cell while she turned Wolef’s words over in her mind. 
“You’re telling me that there will be another version of me that remains a prisoner of the Doftle, but it will have no soul.”

“No soul, and no conscious or subconscious mind,”
Wolef said. 
“The very instant that you arrive in the past, the body that the Doftles have in their possession will become an empty shell.”

“When I come back here and destroy the
Facility
, that body, the empty shell, will be destroyed too, obviously.  When that happens, will I die, too?”

“If it did there’d be little point in any of this for you.”

“That’s not an answer, Wolef,”
she said.  Wolef did not respond, so she took another few minutes to think over everything he’d said. 
“I know that the future isn’t set.  If it was, then sending me to the past wouldn’t change anything.  And, even though I’ll try to change what happened the first time, I won’t know what the results will be until they occur, and that includes the question of whether or not I’ll survive.”

“Precisely,”
Wolef replied.

“I get it, Wolef.  I take this risk with a clear understanding that there are no promises.  If I die as a result, then that’s my fate, but at least I’ll have a chance to warn people about the Doftle.  That’s enough for me.” 

“I’m glad to hear you say that,
Solin
, because the truth is that I don’t know the answer to your question.  The power to fold time is one rarely granted, and even more rarely used.  When it is used, a traveler is sent back only to a time before their birth so that there can be no overlapping.” 

“Then you don’t really know if this will work, do you?”

“On the contrary,”
Wolef said
.  “I know with certainty that it
will
work.  What I do not know is what will happen to you when the body of your past self is destroyed.”

“How do you know…,”
she trailed off as the answer to her question came to her.
  “You’ve done this before, haven’t you?”

“Yes, I have,”
Wolef admitted
.  “On three different occasions.  I made the same deal with them that I’ve made with you.”

“And yet, you’re still here,”
she said slowly.
  “Did they all break their promises to you?”

“Perhaps,”
Wolef said.
  “It’s possible that they didn’t survive long enough to return and keep their end of our deal, or even that they tried, but failed to find their way back.  Who can say?”

Rayne shook her head, not buying that for a moment.
  “You know,”
she said.
 

“Yes, I do,”
Wolef agreed with a chuckle
.  “One intended to return, but the Doftle’s experiments had caused too much damage to his body, and he perished before he was able to fulfill his end of our bargain.  The other two never tried.”

“It’s a wonder you’d trust anyone again.”

“For a couple of hundred years I didn’t,”
Wolef said
.  “But I trust
you
, Rayne Dracon.  You will not break your word.  If I never see you again, I will know that it’s because you didn’t live to find your way back, or that you couldn’t find the
Facility
.”

“
Thank you, Wolef.  It means a lot to me that you trust me that much.  I won’t let you down, either.  If I have to spend whatever remains of my life searching for you, that’s exactly what I’ll do.”

“I know that you will,”
Wolef said.
  “I also know that I should tell you to quit looking if you don’t find me within a reasonable period of time.  Apparently I’m more selfish than I thought because I can’t bring myself to do it.”

“It wouldn’t matter if you did,”
Rayne said.
  “As I said before, I will keep my promise, or die trying.  I’m curious though.”

“About?”

“About why you haven’t used your ability to fold time to send yourself back so that you can escape the Doftle.”

“One who holds the power to fold time cannot perform that magic upon themselves,”
Wolef said.

“Why not?”

“It would be like standing in two places at once,”
Wolef said.
 “If I’m the one being sent back, how can I perform the magic at the same time?”

“I wouldn’t know since I can’t do magic,”
Rayne said. 
“If I could, I would take you away from this place with me.”

“I appreciate your desire to see me free,
Solin,” Wolef said after a short silence
.  “It touches me.”

“But?”

“But freedom has a different meaning for me than it does for you.”

“I don’t understand.”

“My soul is trapped, Rayne.  Trapped in a body that exists only because the Doftle will not allow it to do otherwise.  A machine makes my heart beat and my blood flow.  Air is forced into my lungs.  Nutrients are pumped into my stomach.  My body exists, but it does not
live
, and it never will again, but I cannot escape it.  I will be free only when it’s destroyed.”

Chapter 11

The next couple of days passed uneventfully on the
Armadura
.  The only time Rayne used her shield was when she left her room alone to use the treadmill in the mornings, and that only because she’d promised her men that she would.  She had breakfast, lunch, and dinner with the Bearen-Hirus, during which they enjoyed long, comfortable conversations about whatever came to mind.  She discovered that they had a dry sense of humor that, surprisingly, complimented her own quirky humor perfectly, and that their dreams of family and children were the same as her own. 

After dinner each evening they took her for long slow walks through the ship, showing her everything from the bridge to the flight decks.  She discovered more about who the Bearen-Hirus were as individuals, and the more she got to know them, the happier she became.  The rest of the time she slept.