Earthbound by DM Arnold (read book .TXT) 📕

The aircraft taxied to the runway and lifted off. His heart was in his throat as he watched the minutes tick by. 13:55 ... 14:00 ... Her appointment was for two PM. Was he about to experience the ultimate conclusion of temporal interference? What would the other passengers experience as he winked out at the moment the fetus was separated from her womb? No! He never would have been there at all! If he were never there, he couldn't have caused the interference. Would he oscillate between existence and non-existence? Could timespace itself survive such a paradox?

The airplane droned on toward New York. Nyk continued to watch the time display ... 14:30 ... 15:10. He had no idea what Suki's procedure would be like. Would she be awake or asleep? What would she experience, suddenly shifting onto an alternate timeline? Would she have any recollection of him at all? Would she blissfully wake to a different life, one in which he never existed?

He heard the announcement for the initial descent into LaGuardia. The time display read 15:45. Nyk was hyperventilating and choking back tears. How long will it take? He pressed his fist to his lips and shut his eyes. An older woman in the adjacent seat put her hand on his shoulder. He jumped. “Are you all right, young man?”

He shook his head. “I don't know.”

The aircraft turned, made its approach over Long Island Sound and headed for the airport in Queens. It touched down. Nyk heard the pilot announce they must wait for their gate to be freed. The time display read 16:20 when the aircraft pulled to the gate.

He stood and waited as passengers retrieved luggage stuffed into overhead bins. His path clear, he left the aircraft and sprinted down the jetway and into the terminal. He ran toward ground transportation and hailed a cab.

Nyk stepped from the taxi and paid the driver. He ascended the steps to the front door of the house in Queens. It was now nearly six in the evening. He reached for the doorbell and contemplated his own hand. Perhaps he was wrong. Perhaps this wasn't the child...

He pressed the button. The door opened and he saw Suki's mother. Her eyes brightened. “Mr Kane -- so nice to see you. Please come in.”

“Is Suki in?”

“She's upstairs, resting. You're welcome to stay for dinner, if you'd like.”

“Thank you -- that's very kind.”

“I'll get her.”

Nyk looked around the room. An older man entered from the rear of the house and eyed him. “Hello. We haven't met.”

Nyk approached him and extended his hand. “I'm Nick Kane.”

“I'm Sukiko's father. I'm pleased to meet you. She told us how you helped her. Her mother and I are most appreciative.”

Nyk saw Suki had inherited her coloring from her father. He was a steely-looking man in his late fifties. His eyes were penetrating and his English was purely American.

The apartment door opened and Suki stood at the head of the stairs. She started down, then Nyk's eyes met hers and she broke into a run. He opened his arms and embraced her. “Oh, Nick! What a surprise! I wasn't expecting you. I thought it might have been Cathy.”

He pressed his lips to the top of her head and inhaled. “Shouldn't you be taking it easy?”

“Pregnancy isn't a disease.”

“Didn't you have the... go to the clinic...”

She smiled. “I got cold feet. They understood. I'm supposed to go back, day after tomorrow. How long are you in town?”

“A few days, I'm not sure.”

“Maybe you can come with me and hold my hand. Do you have a place to stay?”

“I just arrived. I'll find a hotel.”

“You can stay right here. I'd enjoy that.”

Suki's father approached. “Dinner is served.” He gestured toward the dining room.

A low table was set upon a platform covered with tatami mats. One end of the table was over a pit, so western guests could sit comfortably. Suki's parents kneeled at the table. Nyk sat with his legs in the pit. Suki assumed the lotus position beside him.

Suki's mother handed her a bowl that she passed to Nyk. “We're having donburi,” Suki told him. “It's not vegetarian, I'm afraid.”

“That's fine with me.”

Nyk followed Suki into the kitchen where she was assisting her mother in clearing up after dinner. “Mom, I've asked Nick to stay over.”

“Shall I make up the guestroom?”

She looked toward Nyk and smiled. “No, I think I'll put him up with me in the apartment.”

Nyk followed her to the stairs. “How do you like my father?”

“He's a man with presence. I felt a bit intimidated. I'm not comfortable around him.”

“That's all right. I've been around him twenty-seven years and I'm not comfortable, either.”

“I remember our talks of feudal Japan. I think, two hundred years ago, your father might've made a good samurai.”

She showed him around the apartment. He sat on the sofa and she snuggled against him. “Mmm...” she said. “I was so surprised to see you. Mom told me I had company, but I never expected it to be you. How did you get here?”

“I'm helping another Floran Agent with a special project.”

“I'm so happy you're here. You're welcome to stay as long as you like. Hold me, Nykkyo -- it feels so good when you hold me.” He slipped his arm around her and held her. She leaned against him and ran her hand along his thigh. “Mmm...”

“Suki, we have something we must discuss.”

“Do we have to, now? Can't it wait?”

“No, it can't. I was desperate to get here before you had your ... operation. I was terrified I'd be too late.”

“It was an odd experience, today. Mom and I were in the waiting room. I was scared, and she was holding my hand. Then, I had another out-of-body experience -- just for an instant. I closed my eyes and I saw us sitting in the waiting room. Then it was over. I was spooked. I told Mom I couldn't go through with it. They told me second thoughts are normal and I should take a couple of days to resolve it in my own mind so I won't have any doubts. Mom made another appointment for Wednesday.”

He looked directly into her eyes. “Suki, please don't have the abortion. I know it seems a lot to ask.”

“Nykkyo, I've had time to think this through. It's not an easy decision for a woman, believe me -- even under these circumstances. I'm not ready to be a mom. I don't think I'm meant for motherhood.”

“After your... injuries...”

“After this?” she held up her wrist. “Call it what it was. After my attempted suicide...”

“Yes, after that... we talked about your role in the founding of my world.”

“You told me you didn't know the specifics of what my role is.”

“No. I said I couldn't tell you the specifics. I was wrong. I must tell you what I know.” He shook his head. “I'm afraid you're not yet free of my temporal interference. You may never be free of it. My hope now is to keep the next generation free.” He looked down and took a deep breath. “Suki, your role is to bear a child.”

“A child?” She placed her hand on her abdomen. “You think it's this child?”

“I believe it to be. How many other children are you planning on conceiving?”

“I didn't plan this one ... Are you sure?”

“As sure as I'm sitting here. Destiny has traced a rocky path for you, I'm afraid.”

“How do you know?”

“Because of who you are.”

“Nykkyo, you're talking in circles.”

“I implore you, please don't terminate the pregnancy.”

“It's my body, Nykkyo. I'm just starting to find career opportunities. I can't take a break to have a baby. Then there's child care, school, sniffles, everything that goes with having a kid.”

“Suki, you saw my world. You saw the Myataxya colony. You're on the critical path for the creation of those and more. If you terminate the pregnancy, you jeopardize all that.”

“Does the destiny for all that flow through me and only me?”

“We don't know the answer to that. No one knows the true result of temporal interference. No one knows the ultimate solution to the temporal paradox, or how malleable the future really is. We can't afford the risk to find out.”

“Nykkyo, I had reconciled myself to having the abortion and getting on with my life.”

“Suki, there's more.” He looked directly into her eyes again, his own filling with tears. “If you terminate the pregnancy, there's an excellent chance you'll also terminate ... me. It's the temporal paradox again.”

“You? How?”

“When we were on Floran, I asked you to call me by my real name.”

“Nykkyo, yes.”

“Nykkyo what?”

“Nykkyo Kane.”

He shook his head. “No.” He brushed a tear from his face. “My name isn't Nykkyo Kane.” He stroked her face. “It's Nykkyo Kyhana.”

Her jaw dropped. “Your name is Kyhana?”

“Yes. You and I are related. You are my great, great, great... well, more than two hundred times great ... grandmother.”

“It's ... it's not possible ... how ... how can this be? How do you know?”

“Let me show you.” He opened his case, removed a handheld vidisplay and slipped a datacel into it. “These are some photoimages from Floran.” He brought one up. “This is my apartment. Senta's apartment, actually... Here we are -- Senta and me in happier times.” He pointed to an object hanging on the wall. “Do you recognize that?”

“It looks a bit like... the crest.”

“Here's a close-up.”

“That's impossible. It can't be the same one!”

“Suki, the destiny of me, of my people -- all twenty-four billion of us -- is funneled through the fetus in your womb. Your child -- your son -- will grow, marry, and have a child. You will pass the crest to him. For more than two hundred generations, the crest has been dutifully passed to the parents of the next generation of Kyhanas, just as your grandfather intended.

“You will have a great-great-great-great grandson, give or take a great. His name will be Koichi Kyhana, and he will be the greatest astral navigator Earth had seen. He and his pregnant wife will board the Floran, carrying this crest, and set out for Beta Centauri. After the warp jump -- and after the Floran finds herself lost in the fabric of time and space -- it will be Koichi who discovers the world they'll name after their vessel -- the same vessel whose hull sits in the center of Floran City as a monument to their sacrifice and courage.

“Without Koichi's skills, there's an excellent chance those thousand explorers will never find that world, and instead will die slow, cold deaths in deep space.” He brought up another photoimage. “This is Koichi. You're looking at the face of your descendant. How many have that privilege? What is he holding?”

Suki's eyes shifted between Nyk and the vidisplay. “Your grandfather's foolish notion becomes our family's most cherished tradition. The emblem on the crest is our family moniker.” He brought up an image of Senta. “Look on her shoulder.”

“What does that mean?” Suki asked.

“On my world a bride and groom exchange crests instead of rings. You never asked me about the tattoo I wear on my right shoulder. It's the Tibran crest -- Senta's line. Senta wears the Kyhana emblem on her shoulder.”

“Why? ... Why didn't you tell me before?”

“I was desperate to prevent influencing your future. I already had one brush with temporal disaster. When you told me you planned to terminate the pregnancy, I had to come here and tell you. I owed you the courtesy to tell you in person.”

“This is why you don't want to make love! It'd be incest!”

“Not to me or to my people.”

“Your people don't have laws against incest?”

“We certainly do. Our definition of incest is a sexual relationship between blood relatives with three or fewer degrees of separation, in any direction.”

She thought and then said, “So a relationship between someone and their great-great-grandparent isn't incestuous to your people.”

“Technically, legally, no. From a practical matter, it never happens. You and I have over two hundred degrees of separation. There are at least two hundred generations, and five thousand Earth years separating us. Despite a straight-line ancestry, you and I are not close relatives. You and I are less closely related than two strangers passing on the streets of Floran City.”

“Then why?”

“Because I didn't know your feelings about it.”

“God, Nykkyo, I'll have to think about this...” She stood and turned from him; then faced him again. “I'd still like you to sleep with me tonight and to hold me. When you hold me the pain goes away.”

She folded back the bedcovers. Nyk undressed and slid into bed. Suki slipped off her robe and slid into bed beside him. She snuggled to him and kissed his cheek. He kissed the top of her head and stroked her hair. “I still want you, Nykkyo.