Chapter 41: A Blast from Futures Past

". . .and wait in-system until I can get you word about the interrogation results."

Standing at the top of the Crimson Light's ramp, Gary smiled and nodded. "You got it, Avocato."

"The engineers will stay until all repairs are complete. We'll remain in orbit at least until then." Avocato looked past Gary to where the remainder of the crew, even KVN, had gathered to see him off. "Thank you," he said to them once again, absolutely sincere in his gratitude. "For everything."

"We'll see you in seven years, General," promised Nightfall with a knowing smile.

She was considerably warmer towards him once she realized the engineers intended to give the Crimson Light a complete overhaul. They hadn't balked at anything, not even her repair wish list that included things like replacing the bulkhead Ash had blasted away or painting the hull where it had been scraped and gouged in the battlefield of Ziga Turi. The engineers were very excited to have their leader back, and they since plainly wanted to impress him, Nightfall let them go to town. After Gary had declined any money to cover the expense of looking after Avocato, Nikos insisted on completely restocking their supplies from food to medicines to spare parts to having the blaster tear in Gary's jacket repaired. Knowing what they had to face when they got back to their own time Nightfall cast him a stern look when he looked inclined to protest, so Gary relented and let them fix and clean and restock to their hearts' content.

"Yeah," said Gary, "and don't forget what I told you when you were eighteen!"

"I'll wait," Avocato assured him. He looked to Little Cato, reaching out one last time to put his hand on his son's shoulder and give him an affectionate squeeze. "I made the right choice in asking Gary to watch over you, and so did you. Take good care of each other for me."

"Will do," Little Cato said, and mouthed a final 'Dad.'

Avocato smiled softly and nodded before he stepped back to where Nikos was waiting. With his aide half a pace behind him, the second-in-command of the Tera Con Empire gave them a final graceful bow as he turned and walked down the ramp and back into the role of a military commander. He and Nikos exchanged a few quiet words, but by the time they reached the dusty ground of the docking bay, Avocato had reverted to a warlord comprised of equal parts of ice and steel.

Gary put his arm around Little Cato's shoulders as they watched them leave. Avocato's coloring made him easy to follow until he was out of sight, rows of soldiers falling in behind him. Gary was glad they had started saying their goodbyes so early and so often. The separation hurt, as expected, but not nearly as much as he thought and not nearly as much as every other time Avocato had been torn away from him, from them both.

"Did you deploy the playing cards, Spider Cat?" Gary asked after a moment.

"Pfft. I deployed them so good, he has no clue. Packed them in the case with the Regru blade. He'll won't find them until it's unpacked."

"Sweet." He offered his fist. Little Cato brought his own down atop Gary's, then let Gary repeat the motion before they brought their hands together in a fist bump. "What about his guns?"

"He said to hold on to them, that he'll need them when we get him back." Bolstered by his sire's confidence in him, Little Cato stood a bit taller as he looked up at his adopted dad. "He left me his old uniform coat, too. He said there's a memory chip in the wrist guard I'll want to see."

"Oh?" Gary's eyebrows rose with sudden interest.

"Will you watch it with me?"

"Of course, kiddo. Just name the time."

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

As they descended the ramp to join the officers waiting patiently at a distance, Avocato muttered, "I know that look, Nikos. Stop judging me."

Nikos kept on with his sly-eyed, teasing look. They had just a few moments more of this freedom, and he would not waste a single one. "So . . . a human? Would congratulations be in order?"

Avocato snorted faintly, meeting his friend's eyes. "In ten years."

"I thought you found them annoying in the extreme."

"I do, and now I know why."

A chuckle answered, and then all levity was set aside as they got back to running an empire.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

The engineers were finally finished and the Crimson Light was in tip-top condition once again. The new coil for the lightfold engine was installed, calibrated, and ready for action. Every crack, ding, and scratch was fixed, every surface cleaned and polished, every loose wire tightened, every poor, abused system was checked and repaired until the last item on Nightfall's list was completed to their satisfaction. Eight gung-ho engineers and one small ship allowed for a lot of work to get done. AVA in particular was pleased because she hadn't been this perfect the day the lightrunner rolled off the factory floor.

Glad as he'd been to see the engineers, Gary was equally glad to see them go so the Team Squad could settle in again and Mooncake could come out of his hiding place in Gary's closet. Seated alone on the bridge, Gary sniffed the air. Some type of cleaner had been used in here, and he suspected it was the spaceship equivalent of a new car smell. The captain of the Vulpen Keo had contacted them and advised them to expect a call from Nikos in the next hour with an update. And so he waited, feeling unusually content after such an emotionally charged day. He missed Avocato, but Avocato the friend, not the lover. Missing his husband, Gary knew, would be a whole new, hitherto unexplored level of angst that would probably ambush him some sleepless night and leave him curled up in a blanket-wrapped ball of tears.

"And there's more motivation," Gary Goodspeed muttered aloud, trying not to fall into a funk. A moment later the communicator pinged, and he sat up straight to activate the until.

"Captain Goodspeed of the Crimson Light," he said briskly, trying to fool himself.

"Crimson Light, this is Vulpen Keo," said a raspy female voice. "Stand by for holotrans from Colonel-in-Command Nikos."

"Standing by." Gary rose, not wanting to show any disrespect to Avocato's friend, and waited by the communications panel. There was another ping, and then a life-sized hologram of Nikos appeared before him. The elegant Ventrexian officer bowed crisply.

"Captain Goodspeed. A pleasure to see you again, sir. The general has instructed me to transmit the results of the Scoti Bodek's interrogation, along with a preliminary analysis by the available science team. Are you prepared to record the data?"

"Uh, yeah, Nikos, just a sec," stammered Gary. "AVA, can you record this?"

"Of course," said the AI.

"Transmitting now." Nikos waited several long seconds, focused on a panel in front of him, then said, "Transmission complete."

"And saved," advised AVA.

Nikos nodded his satisfaction. "We'll be leaving Zee Secundus presently. After his interview with Geegua Spaceport's magistrate, General Avocato has decided to leave several light cruisers in orbit, along with a garrison of our troops and a number of auditors, lawyers, and administrators to look into the rumor of illegal trade dealings being conducted out of the spaceport. They have orders to assist you if you have any need or run into any troubles. If needed, you can reach them on this same channel."

"Thank you," Gary said, amused at the idea of the Tera Con Empire being so helpful to them. He knew the irony wasn't lost on Avocato, either. If the Lord Commode only knew . . .

"Is there any last message I can convey for you?" asked Nikos.

Gary smiled, still oddly content in his loneliness. "Yes," he said. "Please tell the general I look forward to meeting him again some day."

Nikos smiled at his choice of words. "Of course. I wish you a safe journey home, Captain."

He bowed in closing, and the image vanished. Gary sighed, not sure of what to do with himself now. He didn't want to sleep, but he really had nothing to do. Finally he returned to his seat and moved to pull up the data Nikos had just sent. Maybe he could start figuring out how they were going to get back to their own time.

"What are we looking at here, AVA?"

"There is an eight-hour recording of the interrogation session, transcripts, analysis, and-"

"And this is where I step in," said a new - and not entirely unexpected - voice. A brown-tipped finger reached past Gary's shoulder and tapped the screen in the panel before him with a flourish, freezing it and time in the same instant.

Gary smiled, suddenly glad for the company. "I've been wondering when you'd get here," he said, turning his chair to face the tall, green, lop-eared alien standing behind him. "How's it going, Sammy?"

Time Swap Sammy gave him a toothy grin. "Things are staying interesting, Gary. Having fun in the past?"

Leaning back, Gary gestured for the time guardian to make himself comfortable. "Fun's one way of putting it. So what took you so long?"

Sammy settled down in the navigator's seat, stretching out his long legs and making himself comfortable. "Mr. Goodspeed, you know better. I am always right on time. Wink."

"But what brings you here now?"

Sammy pointed behind Gary. "That right there."

Gary glanced at the screen full of data. "This info dump Nikos just sent? Why?"

"That information will eventually become the basis of my job, and is what will allow me to move freely through time. Scoti scientists discovered the basics of controlling temporal worms which will, when properly studied and harnessed, lead to temporal manipulation and time walkers like myself."

"So you're going to take this and give it to the people backwards or forwards in time to figure out how to do what you're already doing?"

"Long and short answer: yes."

Gary rolled his eyes. "But don't they already have it?"

Sammy laughed aloud, standing. "It had to come from somewhere, Gary. Bodek was the last of his team who had any idea of how the science works."

"You could have asked the Scoti science nerds from twenty years from now!" he protested, sensing how senseless his protest was. With time being the lynch pin, there was no way to make real sense of or win this debate.

"Maybe. But then, I would have missed out on the pleasure of your company. Wink." He took a small device from his pocket and slid it into a dataport on the panel before Gary. The data zoomed across the screen in a blur, until the last shred of information had been stored. Pleased, Sammy pocketed the device and resumed his seat, waiting for the barrage of questions he knew was coming.

"So did you send that worm, or did you just let us save Avocato?"

Sammy leaned back against the controls, folding his arms. "Like the man said, Gary, space is big. Really big. Do you think it's just happenstance that you got swallowed by a temporal worm and ended up right in Avocato's lap?"

"I'm going to interpret that statement figuratively at the moment and say . . . I got lucky?"

"Not touching that. Wink," Sammy snorted. "And that time you went back to Tera Con Prime to nab a dimensional key – how do you think you ended up in the very time and place and company you needed to be?"

"We got really lucky?"

"No one is that lucky, not even you."

"So, what am I?"

"Funny you should ask that. You are an extremely rare and dangerous sort of individual, Mr. Goodspeed. You may be unique. You're a focal point for certain kinds of energy, a loadstone if you will, not for metal, but for specific people. Once you encounter them, you keep drawing them back to you, and events work out to bring you back together. Doesn't matter where or when. It's like the universe wants this to be."

He thought of all the times he had met and would meet Avocato. "Who are we to argue with the universe?"

"Only a fool would argue. Take it from me." Sammy regarded him fondly. "We're not sure how or why you can do this. Of all the Gary Goodspeeds in all the dimensions spread through the universe, you're the one who's out of step."

"I didn't close the breach," said Gary, remembering the glimpse he'd been given of countless dead copies of himself in the nightmare that was Final Space. "Quinn did."

As if he knew exactly what Gary was thinking, Sammy nodded his agreement. "You may not be the one in front leading the charge, but you're always the center."

"Center of what?"

"The people you draw in."

Gary considered. "Quinn?"

"Uh-huh."

"Avocato."

"Especially Avocato. I've seen it time and again, no pun intended, but literally, time and again with you two. More than anyone else in the universe, he completes you, Gary. Avocato is, quite literally, your other half."

"So . . . we really are married?"

Sammy's laugh rang through the cockpit. "Not sayin' nothin', pal. Wink."

"Tell me this much, at least - will he and I ever get a chance to just . . . be together?"

That odd green face softened. "Your time will come."

"Oh, ha, ha," was his sarcastic and amused reply. Gary shook his head. "So now what?"

Pleased with the response he'd generated, Sammy started pressing buttons on the navigation panel, entering data. "Two things. One, I give you the coordinates of a temporal worm that will take you back to when you belong. Two, the next time you meet Avocato, you tell him to wait for me at the vault on Tera Con Prime. I have something I need to return to him."

"The dimensional key." Gary couldn't keep a hint of bitterness out of his tone at the memory of Invictus stealing Avocato the moment they had gotten him back.

"Got it in one."

Gary frowned, then hesitated. "But . . . if the Lord Commander has the key, why would he order his generals to execute their firstborns?"

Luckily, Sammy seemed well versed in history, Gary's randomness, and the atrocities perpetuated by the Lord Commander. "The Lord Commander doesn't know what the key is. If he did, he'd be looking for the rest of them. He just knows it's rare and powerful and pretty. He lost something a lot more important that day."

"Mooncake," breathed Gary. "He's a piece of Final Space. I let him go so he could go find me. My god, it's my fault all those kids were-"

"No," interrupted Sammy firmly, raising a finger to stop Gary's flow of self-accusation. "He gave the order. He wanted to blame someone and the zookeeper was already dead. He was afraid of Avocato and trying to force him into being insubordinate so he could remove him. Mooncake was just an excuse." Reaching out, Sammy laid his hand on Gary's shoulder reassuringly. "Sometimes things have to happen the way they do. The universe always finds a way to make events come about. Sometimes the small details are different, but the major points stay the same."

"Nightfall said something like that to me a few weeks ago."

Sammy's smile reached all the way to his red and yellow eyes. "She would know. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a key to return and you have a worm to catch. Wink."