Chapter 5: Ride

Location : Melbourne, Oceania, Earth
Era : Thursday, 22 November 2283 CE

“You are going to need some extra minerals to help the tarka colonize your body,” Ichigo said taking a container from her bag. A glass mug of hot liquid emerged from a panel at the rear of the cabin. She poured some powder from the container into the mug, then stirred with a rod, that had been stored inside the container. She then handed him the drink.

Mark took a sip from the drink. It tasted of Chocolate and Mint, but with a metallic taste, presumably from Ichigo’s powder. Mark suddenly felt an overpowering craving for the drink, and would have skolled it, if it had not been so hot. He finished and said, “More.”

“Really! I usually can’t stand the stuff. Of course I have never needed it as badly as you do, right now,” she said. Ichigo grabbed another hot drink from what seemed to be some sort of automated drink maker, poured in the last of her mineral supplement, stirred it then passed it to him.

This drink seemed to be hot lemon and ginger. As he drank it the inside of the limo seemed to become brighter. Everything became sharper and clearer. The tiredness he was feeling dropped away and was replaced by energy. He became aware of the whirring sound of the wheels as they traveled over the road and the smell of soap from the bed sheets and Strawberry and Mint from Ichigo.

“That seemed to pick you up. Would you like some Champagne?” she asked, offering him a flute of something bubbly.

“I thought I was not allowed alcohol.”

“Well those drugs have been purged from your system, and the alcohol won’t fare much better. Alcohol is wasted on us, I’m afraid. It is one of the things I miss, getting a buzz from alcohol, but at least it still has a nice taste.”

He took the offered flute and sipped it slowly. She took a second flute from the drinks dispenser.

“Have you given any more thought about the deal I proposed?” she asked.

“What deal?”

“Where I help you with your project and you help me with mine.” Ichigo returned her half empty drink to the dispenser. Then snuggled up to him, resting her head on his chest.

“I will help you whether you help me or not. I think you are worth helping, Ó he said.

“You hardly know me.”

“I know you always think about others before you think about yourself. You have a keen sense of fairness and justice, and a strong sense of responsibility. Even when you are trying to be fun and irresponsible you cannot help but think of others.”

“Ouch! I didn’t realize I was so un-fun. That is quite a lot to get from such a short collection of conversations,” she said.

“They were conversations under intense circumstances.” he commented.

“Before you jump to volunteer, I need to confess that what I am going to attempt will be very dangerous.”

“Saving your friends and family?”

“Yes, some of them are believed dead, others are missing, while others are in prison. The first item on my list of people to save is my parents who died when I was 16.” she said.

“So you are going to try to change the past. Wouldn’t that cause a paradox?”

“No, because it is impossible to change the past. A comprehensive Time Travel Rheory was discovered in 2143, remember? The implications of the theory are clear. The past is fixed.”

“Then how can you save your parents?” he asked.

“My theory is that my parents never died, that a future version of me went back in time, and faked my parents death, and spirited them away. The alternative being that a future version of me went back in time, and died trying to save them.”

“What about an alternative where a future version of you never went back and tried to save them?”

“That is not a decision I would ever make,” she stated.

“What makes you think this is dangerous? What could kill you?”

“I told you before that the laws of probability are distorted in, and around time loops. Any path that has inconsistencies, or contradictions has zero probability of happening, even if it was almost certain to happen, without the presence of the time loop. The events we are talking about are already part of the time loop we are traveling, they have already happened. It is like reading a book. By the time you start reading a book the author has already written the ending. It is only your ignorance that maintains suspense. There is nothing you as a reader can do to change the outcome. As with a book, there is no way for me to change the outcome of this loop. If I am right then I have already rescued them. If I am wrong something prevented me from rescuing them. It could have been something that would normally be improbable. I could have been killed by a falling meteor or struck by lightning, or killed by a suddenly appearing assassin from future.”

“You seem comfortable with the thought of your own death,” he commented.

“I have been under a death sentence for 11 years. At any time I could have been shot through the head, from long distance by a sniper, or from up close, when I discovered too late that someone I trusted was a government mole. It has made it easier than it would otherwise have been, to overcome my attachment to my continued existence. It was that or go insane from fear.”

“So who is the author in this metaphor? Destiny, God?”

“As a Buddhist I don’t anthropomorphize the universe in that way. And just because I believe that past events are fixed, it does not mean I don’t believe in free will,” she stated.

“I thought you just explained how you had no way of effecting events.”

“Cause and effect, and the laws of probability are far more complicated in the presence of time loops, but they still apply. Events are fixed, not because I have no free will, but because I have already exercised my free will, and have already made my decisions.”

“I can almost follow your reasoning, but only be twisting my head into a pretzel,” he said. “I did not realize you were a Buddhist.”

“The way I keep on referencing the eight-fold path, I would have thought you would have realized.”

“I don’t remember you mentioning the eight-fold path.”

“While I did not say those exact three words, nevertheless the topic came up several times,” she said.

“What makes you think that rescuing them is even possible?’ he asked.

“Because I think I have done something similar. Remember the friend of mine that I was supposed to meet, but who never turned up so I ended up meeting you instead? He had disappeared from 2299. He seems to have disappeared about a month before he sent the message. I think that a future version of me was actually the one who sent that message, in order that we would meet. If I could setup a recursive time loop in order to meet you, then setting one up to save my parents, does not seem such a stretch.”

“What if your friend was actually the one who sent that message? What if it was only a coincidence that we met? What if your parents actually died all that time ago?” he asked.

“Then I am totally fucked, and not in a good way. Alive at 16 in 2288 and dead at 27 in 2288. Speaking of getting fucked. There was a reason I asked for a limo with a bed” Ichigo removed some padded restraints from a cabinet. Since you cannot be trusted not to wave that broken arm about, perhaps we should try a little bondage. She fastened his bad arm and leg to the side of the vehicle. “You know, perhaps you should sit out my parents’ rescue. It is going to be a simple snatch and grab, or rather a simple grab and snatch. You can help with the next rescue. We will rescue Selena next. No! On second thoughts, I am not going to enjoy dealing with Selena, and trying to make her understand how much has changed for me in the last 11 years. We will rescue Nightingale next instead. At least she is going to be helpful.” She said not bothering to explain who Selena or Nightingale were.

“No I want to help. I don’t know what I would do if I lost my parents. Well I suppose they are long dead here in 2283 but they are alive back in 2017. Losing them both at 16 must have been hard for you.”