The Titan Drowns: Time Travel Romance by Nhys Glover (highly recommended books .txt) 📕

But for them the chaos was short lived once the stewards had shunted them off in the right direction. Cara’s cabin was down a small passage and had a porthole that let in streams of bright sunlight. Theirs, on the main passageway they colloquially called “Scotland Road” or the “alley,” had no such source of natural light. She was already envying Cara’s cabin, not only for the light, but for its potential quietness at night.

In all other ways, their cabins were identical. They had white walls and bunks and a sink with a holding container above it that she knew the steward would refill with fresh water daily. The bunks had mattresses, linen, pillows and blankets. There was no space for wardrobes, so bags had to be stowed under the bottom bunk and coats hung on hooks on the back of the door. What they lacked in size, they made up for in freshness. The smell of starched sheets, fresh paint and a slightly acrid scent she determined was the glue used to adhere the lino to the floor, all pointed to the virginal quality of their accommodation. All in all, considering the times, the cabin was remarkably comfortable.

Once they had checked out each other’s cabins, they retired to their own berths. Luke and Bart took the top bunks without asking and neither she nor Pia complained. She had no desire to scramble up to the top bunk in her long skirts, and she imagined Pia felt the same. They all slumped onto their new mattresses and relaxed for the first time since dawn.

‘I sure prefer our method of travel. It might be pure hell for a few seconds but then it’s over. I thought we‘d never get on board the way it was going down there,’ Luke said from the bunk above hers.

‘The future does have its distinct advantages.’ Eilish laughed and turned over on her wire-sprung mattress. It was worlds apart from the bed she’d slept in last night in the hotel. Well, sleep was not the right word for what they did in that bed, but it was certainly much more comfortable than what she had now. She wondered what Max’s bed on B Deck would be like.

Stop that! You have left that world behind for now. Focus on your job, not your creature comforts.

‘I’m starving! When's lunch again?’ Luke asked, after a comfortable silence had fallen between them for a few minutes.

‘After the ship leaves the dock at noon. What time is it now?’

She could hear Luke rummaging around in his pockets for his watch. ‘Hmm, it’s just gone eleven. So no food for another hour and half then. I wish I’d eaten more breakfast. But even so, it’s been more than five hours since we left.’

‘Oh, for heaven’s sake, stop moaning.’ She sat up, rummaged through her own small satchel and produced leftovers from her early-morning breakfast feast. She handed out somewhat dented croissants to each of her cabin mates and settled back with her own. ‘You can thank Max for his foresight. He ordered a breakfast this morning that could have fed half a dozen lumberjacks. I would have brought the jam and butter, but I did not think they would travel well. I have four apples too, but I think I better see if the others want them.’

‘You’re a doll, Irish. Glad I had the good sense to make an honest woman out of ya!’

‘Yes, thank you Eilish,’ mumbled Bart between mouthfuls. He was turned on his side stuffing almost the whole pastry into his mouth at once. He looked so hungry that she tore off half of her own croissant and offered it to him as the last of his own disappeared.

For a moment, he hesitated, torn between hunger and politeness. Then when she nodded at him and smiled, he took it from her and gobbled the other half down. ‘You’re a growing boy, Bartholomew. You need to keep your carbs up.’

‘Here,’ Pia said, offering up half of hers too.

Eilish refused to take the pastry from the quiet girl in the bottom bunk. ‘No, you haven’t eaten for hours, either. Bart’s had enough to keep the wolf from the door for the moment and the boys can wait another hour or so for more.’

Eilish felt rude rejecting the offer. Pia seemed to take it as a personal rebuff and nodded with embarrassment, drawing back the food as if hers wasn’t good enough to share with the boy.

She had partnered with Pia on several missions over the last few years and worked closely with her during the planning for this one, but she’d never been able to break down the girl’s reserve. The only people she’d ever seen her relax with were the children and Jane. But then, few people could keep up their barriers around Jane.

It was almost like Pia felt unworthy to be there with them. As if she thought there’d been a bureaucratic error that had allowed her to participate, but that at any moment it would be corrected and she’d be out. Didn’t she realize how good at her job she was?

Collecting the four red apples from her valise, she made her way to the other cabin and sat down to catch up with the inhabitants for a few minutes.

‘Luke looks better,’ she said as she perched on the edge of the bottom bunk next to Jane.

‘Thanks to you,’ Cara replied from the bunk across from her as she took a bite of apple. ‘Oh, I needed this. I’m starving.’

‘Told you to eat more before we left,’ Jac said absently from above her, chomping into his own apple with relish.

‘The food was Max’s bright idea. He has them quite often.’

‘Luke says you have formed an attachment with your Target,’ Jac said, a note of concern in his voice.

‘Yes. I would never have thought it possible. I have never been romantically involved with anyone… ever. And then I met Max and I felt like I had been hit with a brick.’

Jane laughed and nearly choked on a piece of apple. Julio jumped down from his top bunk and was at her side in a second, pounding her on the back until she recovered. When she stopped coughing Julio wrapped his arm around Jane’s shoulder and drew her in close.

It was such a sweetly protective gesture that Eilish was left to wonder if Max would have been so quick to assist her in such a situation. Yes, came the answer immediately. She felt a warm glow of contentment at the thought.

‘That pretty much describes it,’ Jac said from his bunk. ‘I was the first to fall foul of irrational passion, and I thought it was because I hadn’t made the shift into my new clone properly. I went crazy in those early days.’

‘Hey, you make it sound like a bad thing!’ Cara quipped indignantly and kicked the springs above her with her foot. Jac laughed and leaned over the side of the bunk to blow a kiss to his mate.

‘Never, my love. But it was unsettling, to say the least, after three hundred years of emotional stability.’

‘I thought there was something wrong with me too. I remember you taking me aside, Jac, and telling me I was in love. I did not believe you,’ Julio said with a little laugh, as he gathered Jane closer.

‘I guess it has been easier for me, because I have been witness to the rest of you, but I never thought it would happen to me. I did not think it was possible because I was prepubescent at the LGP. I thought that the mental aspect of romantic attachment had never had the chance to develop. I was wrong.’ She sighed soulfully, and then blushed as the others smiled knowingly at her.

‘I was only ten at LGP and I still fell, so I do not think that is a factor,’ Julio added thoughtfully.

‘I’m glad for you, Eilish,’ Cara said softly. ‘Luke says that he’s a good man and a suitable Target.’

‘Yes. He came to it very quickly, once the two of us started on him. And of course, seeing the Portal in action was just the icing on the cake.’ She did a quick change of topic. ‘I am glad Luke went home. He was a mess.’

‘I had been worried about him on this mission for some time,’ Jac said, sprawling out so one leg hung over the side of the bunk and the other was bent up until it almost reached the riveted bulkhead above him. The bunk was not going to be a comfortable fit for his huge build. ‘But he was closed down. Even Faith could not reach him.’

‘I know. He had convinced himself that he would not be coming back from this mission I think.’

‘What did you say to convince him?’ Cara asked.

‘I do not know for sure. He was telling me how afraid he was that he would C and B, and yet how terrified he was that he might cause problems on this mission if he stayed in his Original. I just asked him what a brave man would do when faced with such fears… and he knew the answer immediately. I think he had always known the answer. He just needed to reach that point when he was ready to own it.’

‘Yeah, timing is everything with change. Until someone’s ready, words are wasted…’ Cara said.

‘Not wasted. I think they are remembered later when the time is right. And sometimes you have to hear a message several times before it gets through.’ Eilish played with the edge of her dark woollen skirt, wishing for the feel of the clothes she had worn with Max. Annoyed with herself, she forced the comparison away.

‘Yes, you’re right, of course. I saw it often enough with my kids back home and with the kids at our school. Anyway, Luke’s now in his first clone with no adverse effects. Faith is relieved and happy, and Luke’s able to concentrate on his mission again.’

‘He looks so young!’ Eilish chuckled. ‘Such a baby face. All those tension lines are gone. Although they’ll be back in a few years. ‘

‘Baby face! I will call him that the next time he tries the Arian Pinup Boy on me again,’ Jac declared with satisfaction.

‘I might have to use it on him myself if he keeps up the Irish thing. He is so annoying!’ But, she was smiling as she said it, and she realised with a start that she had become very fond of Luke in the time they’d been together in 1912.

'How did the Integration happen?' she asked, curious for details she knew she wouldn't get from Luke.

'We were all there waiting to come through when he stepped back out of the Portal,' Cara explained. 'He said everything on the other side was fine, but that we'd have to postpone for a month because he was going to get Integrated. Then he just walked out, with Bart following along like a puppy behind him. By the time someone notified Faith and she got to the medical centre, he'd already gone through the process and was in his clone. She was furious that he hadn't waited for her, but that passed quickly once she realised what it meant for them.

'He probably didn't need the full month to get control of the clone, but we waited that time just so he felt confident.'

It made sense to her, knowing Luke as she now felt she did, that he wouldn't want Faith there with him when he went through the process just in case he Crashed and Burned. And he would want to do it quickly, like peeling off a plaster. Feel the fear and do it anyway. It was definitely Luke's mantra.

They felt the thrum of engines start up beneath them. The whole cabin began to vibrate slightly.

‘Is it time?’ Jane asked as Julio took out his pocket watch.