Chapter 11: Destiny Has Led Me Back to You

Nyk disembarked the shuttle and stepped onto the transit platform. He found a lift with access to the maintenance decks. The liftcar door slid open. He rode it to the lower level and proceeded to bay four. “Zander sent me,” he said to a group of workers standing near a tender shuttle.

A worker beckoned Nyk to a corner and handed him a flat pasteboard box and a polycard. Nyk slipped the box into his travel case and examined the card. An address in Brooklyn was hand-lettered on one side, and one in Oklahoma City on the other. “We’ll be boarding in half a segment. Don’t stray too far -- we don’t have the luxury of waiting around for passengers.”

Nyk had no intention of straying anywhere -- the maintenance level was dark and foreboding. Workers maneuvered tanks and containers on levitating pallets. Some were marked hazardous. He wandered around the tender shuttle, examining it.

The hatch dropped and a worker called him inside. He sat on a bench along the rear bulkhead. Another worker sat in the pilot’s seat. The hatch raised and locked into position, the pressure door closed and the bay depressurized. The spacedoor opened and the tender slipped into the void.

The craft pulled away from the transit platform. Nyk craned his neck to see where it was heading. A large spacecraft, much larger than a passenger packet, loomed in the viewport. The vessel had two nacelles attached to the main hull. The shuttle approached one and a door opened to admit the tender into the forward bay.

The worker lowered the hatch. “This is ExoScout 327. You’ll want to keep yourself confined to this shuttlebay. They’ll divert to Earth as soon as they get underway.” He pointed to the aft bay. In it was a shuttlecar, similar to the one Nyk had used in Wisconsin, except this one resembled a minivan. “Feel free.”

The workers unloaded some canisters from the tender and placed them on levitating pallets. The pressure door closed and the tender departed. Nyk walked around the aft shuttlebay.

White indicators glowed above the viewports. He found a jump seat and belted himself in. The viewport shutters closed and the lamps glowed blue. He felt the subjump; then the main warp jump. The indicators darkened and the viewport opened.

Nyk climbed into the shuttlecar and began prelaunch diagnostics. The pressure door closed and the bay depressurized. He pulled back on the unistick and the shuttle backed into space. As he drew away he appreciated the immensity of the vessel and recalled the 300-series scouts were the smallest in the fleet. He watched the cruiser vanish into her warp jump.

He tuned the shutlecar’s guidance to the comm relay station and pulled into its shuttlebay. In the wardroom he dressed in Earth clothing and picked up his wallet, keys and identity papers. Then he returned to the bay and backed the car into space.

The shuttlecar’s subjump placed him in orbit around a familiar blue orb. He piloted the craft to his landing spot along the Wisconsin country road and guided it into the city, keeping a wary eye for police cruisers. He arrived at the house and pulled into the garage.

Nyk unlocked the front door. The place was empty. He picked up the phone, heard a dial tone and placed an order for a seat on the 7 AM flight to New York, then ordered a taxi to pick him up at 6.

He planned his day. It was 2 AM Monday. His flight would arrive at LaGuardia around 10, and he’d take a cab to Suki’s house in Queens. He’d be there by 11, in plenty of time to talk her out of her 2 PM appointment. Then he’d run his errand in Brooklyn. He stretched out on the bed and laced his fingers behind his head.

The cab deposited Nyk at Milwaukee’s Mitchell airport. His ticket was awaiting him at the counter, and he paid for it with one of the credit cards Zander had given him. He walked to the concourse and sat in the departure lounge. A glance at the placard announcing his flight sent a chill through him.

It read, “cancelled.”

He went to the gate podium and stood in line as passengers were rebooked. “We can put you on our 12:50. You’ll be in New York by four.”

“Four! That’s too late. I must be there by noon at the latest!”

“I’m sorry. This flight has been cancelled due to mechanical problems.”

Nyk picked up his new boarding pass and headed for a bank of payphones. He called Suki’s number -- no answer. He called every fifteen minutes.

The gate agent announced the flight was ready for boarding. The clock in the departure lounge read 12:35. Nyk trod up the jetway and took his seat. He had one more chance. Once airborne, he’d use the air phone.

He fastened his belt and settled into his seat. The time display on the air phone caught his eye. It read 13:40. The time zone -- Milwaukee is in the central time zone!

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.”