Earthbound by DM Arnold (read book .TXT) 📕

“Destiny is that cruel and She's singled us out for exceptional cruelty.”

Nyk awoke to a kiss on his cheek. “Bon'matina!”

“Bon'matina,” he replied.

“Nykkyo, I thought about it last night before falling asleep and I've been thinking about it this morning. I'll keep the baby.”

“That's the right decision.”

“I can't do it alone.”

“You have your parents.”

“I can't ask them. Nykkyo, I need your help. I don't know to whom else I can turn. I don't have the strength to do this alone, but I would with you by my side. You said I might never be free from temporal interference. You've interceded twice, maybe more, to correct temporal damage. Maybe Destiny needs you by my side to keep the timeline in balance.”

“Maybe this is the price Destiny demands -- my reparation for my behavior with you. I must replace the man who was to be in your life.”

“That's why Destiny gave us our love for each other. Can't you see it, Nykkyo? I promised you I'd follow my path to whomever it leads. It led me back to you. I see it as plain as day -- don't you?”

“Yes, I do see it. My Nick Kane identity is iron-clad -- I can slip into the population here ... find work ... there's nothing for me on the homeworld ... I despise Floran City and Sudal has nothing to offer...” He looked into her eyes. “This time I'll make a deal with you. You carry the child and I'll stay and help you raise him. Is it a deal?”

“Deal.” She grasped his hand and shook it.

“It's all making sense -- this is what Destiny wants. It even explains why She made me sterile.”

“You're sterile?”

“Yes -- There'll be no more Kyhanas after me. Do you remember telling me of your fight with your father? You told him the Kyhana line dies with you.”

“Yes, I remember.”

“You were wrong. It dies with me. I am the last Kyhana. I suffer a genetic defect known as atypical female syndrome. Genetically I'm a woman, but physically, anatomically, emotionally I'm a man. My sperm can't make a woman pregnant.” He closed his eyes tightly. “If there were one thing about my life I could change, it would be that.”

A tear formed and rolled down her cheek. “Don't cry, Suki. All good things must come to an end. It's been a good family -- two hundred plus generations of Kyhanas. And -- Kyhana blood lives on. Early in my world's founding vigorous interbreeding was encouraged to build up genetic diversity. I'd estimate that from one in a hundred to one in a thousand Florans have some Kyhana blood. It all can be traced to you. That's between twenty-four million and a quarter billion people who can trace their line to you. Enough to populate New York City from a few to many times over.” He kissed her forehead and she smiled at him. “Such a large family!”

Nyk descended the stairs holding Suki's hand. He walked into the kitchen and spotted Suki's mother. “Good morning, Mrs Kyhana.”

“Please, call me Yasuko.” Yasuko! Koichi's daughter's name!

“Then, call me Nick.”

“Call me George.” Her father looked up from a copy of the Wall Street Journal. “My parents wanted me to have an American name.” He folded the paper, tucked it into a pouch in his briefcase and headed out the door. “Good day, all.”

“Mom -- please cancel the appointment for tomorrow.”

“Are your feet cold again this morning?”

Suki shook her head. “I've changed my mind.”

“You'd be wise to change it back.”

“Mom, if I change it back I can still have the abortion. There's time. I don't want to make a rash decision.”

“Don't wait too long.” Yasuko set plates of buckwheat pancakes in front of Nyk and Suki.

Nyk examined the card with the address in Brooklyn. “I must deliver a package to this address.” He showed the card to Suki. “Could you show me the best way to get there? I suppose I could take a cab.”

“I'll check a map.” She opened a cabinet drawer and removed a map of New York City. “Here's where we are,” she said, pointing to the map. “Here's where you're going. You can get there on the subway.”

“Subway?”

“Yes, you know the trains that run in a hole in ground? If you'd like, I can come with you. We can go to my office at NYU afterwards.”

Nyk followed Suki to the subway station and down the steps. “Best plan is to buy a day card,” she told him. He walked up to the vending machine. “Put in five dollars.”

“I don't have any currency.” He withdrew one of the credit cards. “Will this work?”

“Sure. Stick it in here and order a day pass.” He picked up the pass and they headed through the turnstiles. Suki demonstrated how to swipe the pass card.

He held her hand as they waited on the platform and boarded an inbound train. He looked at the service maps on the wall of the car. “Conceptually similar to the tubecar.”

The train stopped at the Jackson Heights station. “Here we transfer to a G train,” Suki explained, “then to an F train to Brooklyn.”

Nyk stepped from the train onto the platform in Brooklyn and Suki pointed the way to the street. He looked at the card and showed it to her. “Over there,” she pointed and he followed her. He located the office and walked in.

“May I help you?” a late-middle-aged woman asked from behind a desk.

“I'm Nick Kane.” He displayed the box. “I'm here to drop this off.”

“Just a moment.” She pressed a buzzer twice. An inner office door opened and a man beckoned him inside. Nyk handed over the box. The man cut the tape, opened it and examined its contents.

He opened a safe, removed a plastic, hard-sided briefcase, handed it to Nyk and escorted him from the office. Nyk joined Suki, took her hand and headed toward the street and to the subway station. He rode with her under the East River to Manhattan and climbed to the street near Washington Square.

Suki signed him in as a visitor at the union. “I want you to meet Cathy. We'll get the latest police report.”

“Police report?”

“Yes -- Cathy's cousin's brother-in-law is on the NYPD and he's been keeping an eye on their search for the guy who attacked us. He'd like to be the one to bust him.” Nyk rode the elevator with her to the top floor.

Suki opened the door to her office. “It's me, Cathy.”

Nyk saw a slightly built woman with light brown hair sitting at a keyboard. Cathy removed headphones and felt for a pair of dark glasses. She stood, turned and extended her hand. Suki approached her, touched her hand and they embraced.

“Who's your friend?” Cathy asked.

“I brought Nick Kane to meet you.”

Cathy extended her hand again. Nyk reached for it and she stepped to him. “Pleased to meet you. Suki said you were out of town on an extended assignment.” She lifted her hand. “May I look at your face?”

“...Yes...”

She felt Nyk's face. “You're right, Suki -- he is cute. Please, have a seat.” She reached behind her, turned her chair and sat.

Suki switched on her computer. “As long as I'm here, I'll check my email.”

“I'm surprised to see you,” Cathy said. “I thought you'd be home, recuperating.”

“No, I chickened out.”

“Are you going back?”

“No. Not right away, at least.”

“You're thinking of going through with it? Suki, you're the last person I'd expect to do such a thing! What changed your mind?”

“It's a feeling. I must do what seems right. What's the latest from the NYPD?”

“Nothing. They have no leads, no witnesses and no other similar assaults. It's a tough case.”

Suki switched off her computer. “I figured as much. Shall we all do lunch together?”

Nyk held Suki's hand as she led him to the subway station. “You and Cathy have become good friends, haven't you?” he asked.

“Oh, yes. Since the attack we've really bonded.”

“I feel so sorry for her. I can't imagine being blind -- it must be terrible. How did she lose her sight? How long has she been that way?”

“All her life. She was born blind.”

“How does she manage by herself?”

“She lives with her brother and his wife. They're very supportive. Don't you have blind people on your world?”

“I suppose we must have a few, but I've never encountered one.”

“Don't your people have accidents and lose their sight? Congenital defects, or illnesses?”

“We can grow a new eye from stem cells, and we've eliminated all pathological microbes. Most congenital disorders were eliminated from our gene pool a hundred generations ago.”

“What about nerve damage, or a tumor?”

“Tumors can be neutralized. We can repair or create nerve pathways with neural induction. Aahhn used it to repair your brain.”

She looked up at him. “Was I that far gone?” Nyk nodded. “Oh, God, Nykkyo.” She squeezed his hand.

He followed her down the steps to the subway platform. “Eye contact is an important social cue to my people. I felt so awkward talking to Cathy without it.”

“So that's what it is about you and eyes.”

“Yes. Our training instructs us to avoid eye contact with Earth people, as it can be unsettling to them. I can't help myself with you, Suki -- your eyes are so beautiful.”

“It unsettled me. When I first sat with you and you looked into my eyes, I felt it. It frightened me.”

“Is that why you avoided me at first?”

“Yes. It felt like you were staring into my soul, and it scared me. Here's our train.”

Nyk found a seat and placed the attaché case on his lap. Suki sat beside him and he reached for her hand. She pointed to the case. “What's next for that?”

“I must take this to someone in Oklahoma City. I'll check the airlines and arrange a flight for tomorrow or the day after. With luck, I'll return the same day.”

Nyk called for a taxi to take him to LaGuardia. He stood in the ticket line and automatically answered the agent's questions. “Has your baggage been out of your sight?”

“No.”

“Did anyone other than yourself pack this?”

“No.”

She handed him his boarding pass. He headed toward the security checkpoint and placed the case on the x-ray belt. A security attendant beckoned him through the metal detector. He picked up the case and waited in the departure lounge for the boarding call.

He stuffed the briefcase under the seat and belted himself in place. Soon the aircraft was hurtling down the runway and lifting off. As he settled into his seat something flashed in his mind. “Did anyone other than yourself pack this?” Yes! He pulled the briefcase from under the seat and examined it. It was equipped with a thumbwheel combination lock. He tried the latch but it wouldn't open.

Nyk waited for the seat-belt sign to extinguish. The light winked out and he headed, clutching the briefcase, for the airliner's lavatory. He secured the lavatory door and propped the case on the washbasin. His fingers began manipulating the thumbwheels, methodically running through the possible combinations -- 001, 002, 003.. He felt beads of perspiration on his forehead as he turned the knobs -- 083, 084, 085...

Someone knocked on the closed door. “Just a minute,” he yelled. He continued to turn the wheels -- 255, 256, 257, 258...

Another rap sounded on the door and he recognized the voice of a flight attendant. “Are you all right in there?”

“Yes!” he called out. “I'm almost done.” He twisted the knobs -- 328, 329, 330, 331 -- the case popped open. He gasped as he saw the contents.

It was stuffed with bundles of hundred-dollar bills. He estimated it contained at least a quarter million dollars. He snapped the lid shut, scrambled the thumbwheels and worked his way to his seat past a short line of passengers standing by the lavatory door.

The plane landed in Oklahoma City and he hailed a cab. The address