Chapter 10

Jacob’s mouth was heavenly, as was the mind that immediately surrounded hers as their tongues touched, sliding together with heat and passion – and memories – memories that were not hers, but were of her – Katie/not Katie – but someone else; this unknown quantity of fire and independence named Tabatha; their differences she considered as she pulled back to gaze into Jake’s eyes.

The main similarity she noted between herself and the one whom Jake was most distressed about was the almost casual fearlessness with which this Tabatha person faced life. According to Jake’s mind, the woman wasn’t afraid of anything, and Katie found many instances of Jake’s beloved Tabatha facing down frightening opponents or circumstances to do what needed to be done as an agent of Tomlin Security, then more recently as a member of an elite band of thieves calling themselves the ‘Femgore Babes’, who kept Solar City fed back on old Earth after the trucks stopped coming.

Reaching into other memories, she came across an exhilarating incident of the pair launching high into the sky, then making fervent, passionate love in freefall while their capsule completed its suborbital arc and began to plummet back toward Earth, nearly frightening Jake to death but only creating a bit of excitement for Tabatha, who had launched them into space specifically to make gravity-free love to her new husband.

Katie frowned as her own memory of that incident solidified in her mind. ‘Maybe my memories aren’t gone for good after all,’ she thought hopefully, then realized that if she remembered this incident from her own point of view, it was time she acknowledged that she was really Tabatha. She could remember being in love with Jake – that was real to her now, at least in the memories she recalled, but she didn’t really feel it right this moment, even though he was a good kisser.

Another memory appeared in her mind; of them making quick, furtive love in a commercial StratoCruiser, where they had met for the first time, and she tried to find Jake’s memory of that, but it wasn’t there. Jake’s memories of their first meeting was waking in a hospice bed after she’d found him in the desert in New Mexico. As she watched that memory in his head, she remembered it, too, from her own point of view. Now, she had two memories of the first time they met.

‘What am I supposed to do with these?’ she wondered, feeling confused. As she gazed into Jake’s hopeful eyes, that grating interruption occurred in her mind, again.

‘Do you have a question?’

This time, the Praetor’s query was less annoying and more appreciated as the girl realized that the alien A.I. might actually be able to help.

Jake blinked rapidly several times as Tabatha came out of her daze and began separating her thoughts and memories from his. From the short glimpse he’d gotten of her mind during that kiss, he understood what was going on with her a lot better, especially now that he’d ‘met’ Katie (again; he’d met her – had known of her at any rate – as a child). There wasn’t a lot of difference between them – except Katie was less certain of herself than Tabatha – the Tabatha before she’d sealed Murielle and Miranda forever into the far distant past. Since then, Tabatha was ... subdued; her spirit broken by her crime – her sin – against two people for whom she had cared deeply.

Katie didn’t know exactly how to phrase her question to the Praetor, though she recalled ‘talking’ to it from before, when Beth had been alive. She remembered that it was pretty simple; inasmuch as the thing seemed to love hearing itself talk. She closed her eyes away from Jake’s gaze and formed the two images in her mind, with a mental question mark separating them along with the verbal query, ‘Why two first times?’

Ivory, sitting on the other end of the couch watching them, saw Tabatha close her eyes, seeming to relax, and chirped, “Well, learn anything? Frankie helps me remember a lot that way.”

‘The StratoCruiser incident does not occur in recorded history, which could mean several things: One, is that the incident never occurred and you dreamed it. Two,’ the Praetor added quickly before Katie could protest, ‘is that the StratoCruiser incident occurred in an earlier reality that was altered, and so you found your life-mate in the desert rather than on a StratoCruiser. The current reality is the reality in which you found Jake Hedron in the desert. I shall add the StratoCruiser incident to the data accumulated regarding the reality alteration at which you were the “Zero Point”.’

“What does that mean?” Katie asked aloud.

Jake, Ivory and the Praetor all began talking at once, each believing Katie’s query had been directed at them.

“Well, Frank’s memories...” “It means we can have...” ‘An individual who walks earlier in time... ‘ “ ... of me, the ones in his head...” “ ... a life together, darling...” ‘ ... then alters a specific incident... ‘

“Stop!” Katie yelped, her hands held up against the verbosity suddenly filling the room. With eyebrows raised in surprise at the effectiveness of her command, she quickly added (while she still controlled the room); “Okay. Praetor first; then you,” pointing at Ivory, “then Jake.”

‘This individual is the “Zero Point”, and as such can often recall events that do not take place in the newly altered... ‘

“Sorry,” Jake whispered noisily, “I didn’t know you were talking to a Pra...”

“Still talking to...” Katie hissed at him, then almost smirked at the completely chastised look on his face. ‘But at least he’s quiet now... ‘

‘ ... timeline. An example would be – your upset and grief upon remembering Beth being alive in an earlier timeline; yet here, as history has been recorded, Beth has not been among us for over a century.’

‘But I’m not even a century old yet!’ Katie fumed silently. ‘I just turned twenty-seven a ... a month ago?’ Her mental tirade melted away as the part of her mind that’s always thinking-calculating-observing put together the facts that the body she was currently in was older than she remembered being as Katie, plus the calendar date (the year) was a couple of centuries further down the road than she believed it should be.

Katie slumped down on her knees and looked around. Everyone was staring down at her; various emotions on their faces. Tanya was gazing at her as though trying to bore a hole through her head to find what’s inside; her face filled with a tired combination of grief and lost love. Frankie, her brother (but, not anymore?) gave her a slight nod as their gazes met, his face solemn and resolute as he silently promised undying support. Katie smiled slightly, acknowledging and accepting her brother’s love for her.

Ivory hesitated, even though she’d been told she could talk next. She drew a breath and opened her mouth to begin, and Katie smiled, saying, “I know. I’m not Katie.”

A heart-wrenching, almost whispered sob escaped Tanya’s throat, then Tanya and Frank were hugging each other silently, holding their grief away from the rest of the room, trying to keep it to themselves.

“No, you’re not,” her ‘husband’ Jake agreed, “but Katie is a large part of who you are; a solid base around whom Tabatha was created.” He placed his hands solidly on Tabatha/Katie’s shoulders to give her emotional support.

An image swirled around her; a memory of a ... not a man, but an ... archangel? dream-walking, standing behind her, hands on her shoulders to offer his spiritual support while they watched her body burn in a churchyard in Normandy. “I guess they want to be sure I’m dead,” she commented to her guide as they watched her blackened, smoking corpse being soaked with oil to prepare her for a second burning at the stake. Still shaken from being burned out of her body the first time, she cast a frightened look over her shoulder at her guide and asked, “It won’t feel it so terrible this time, will it?” The archangel gently smiled and shook his head, squeezing her shoulders reassuringly. She suddenly got a brilliant idea! “Can I stay here and haunt these fuckers for a while before you take me to Heaven?”

Jake squeezed her shoulders reassuringly and massaged the back of her neck with his thumbs until she shrugged and said aloud, “Huh. I never did get to Heaven, did I?” She smiled at Jake’s quizzical look, realizing she may not remember much about her life as Tabatha right now, but with her husband’s help, along with her friends, she was going to be all right. She stood up to hug her husband, then went over to put her arms around her par ... Frank and Tanya.

“I’m still me, mom,” she whispered against Tanya’s cheek, then kissed her father (as far as she was concerned, he was) on the cheek as well. “I’m not going anywhere,” she promised, “a least for a while.” But she did remember something that she wasn’t supposed to know, and she casually glanced toward the ceiling to check for...

There were two of them; with their long, spindly legs stretched above her from one corner of the room to the other, invisible to everyone but her. “Guess I’m not the only one they’re watching...” she thought, then looked around and tried to determine who else in the room might rate their own personal guide.

Jason smiled at his centuries-old mother, Alanna, who was dressed in a deep, royal-blue gown wrapped in a white sash that glittered with dazzling threads of gold woven through the silken material. The Queen smiled back, pulling nervously at the tight material as the slit up the back of her legs tried to creep higher.

“Not used to wearing clothes, mother?” he asked, first smirking at her discomfort, then apologizing with, “Sorry that dress isn’t more comfortable for you.”

“This isn’t the worst gown I’ve ever worn,” she replied, tugging at a fold in the fabric. “At least this one won’t try to eat me,” and turned away to join Sibilius. She looked forward to introducing him to the ‘delegation’ from the Earth Ship – the group Tia and Tara had given up their lives here for – in order to go into the past and recruit; at least that was what Elaine had told her.

For this auspicious occasion, Alanna also wore her golden crown, carefully pinned to her hair with dark, metallic skewers that vanished against her fiery red hair. Jason’s favorite pair of twins, Holly and Haley, were there in the palace ballroom near Northern Depot, as well as his least favorite pair of twins, his youngest cousins, the princesses Talina and Teresa, who were also there with their mother, the Golden Goddess Elaine.

Wolfgang, the Commanding Officer of the visiting space station from Earth stood next to Tia, almost smirking at the striking young woman as she kept tugging at the split hem of her skirt, also uncomfortable with having to wear a formal gown for this occasion; she certainly wasn’t shy about showing her body, but these clothes were tight and they itched. He was glad for Tia’s distracting antics, as they helped Wolf to forget his friend and Station Commander Bret, who was left behind on the bridge of the space station. ‘Somebody had to stay behind to be in charge, after all... ‘