Mutiny On the High Seas
Chapter 33
XXXIII
Tess turned to Liz with a worried look on her face. "Liz, what are we going to do about getting back home? How many more thugs do you think Nicholas has on here? And where are Kyle and Michael? We need to find out what happened to them."
Liz swallowed hard. "Yeah… I'm beginning to get really worried about Michael and Kyle, too. I don't know how many more thugs Nicholas has onboard. I don't know how many he needed to run this thing. If we run into any more… maybe we can use a mindwarp to make them think the deck goes that way…" -Liz indicated the ocean off the starboard side- "and make them walk off the side or something."
"I think we may need the Captain, Liz… I don't know how to run a yacht. Do you?"
"No. I've never even been on one. I just got my solo spacecraft license right before I left Antar… that year I spent there. I wonder if a yacht's anything like a spaceship."
"You learned to fly a spaceship?"
"Yeah. Well, Max said I should. He said that in the other timeline I knew how to fly them and even repair them."
"That's so cool!"
"He said that you did, too, Tess."
"Me? Liz, I can't even fix a vacuum cleaner when the belt breaks!"
Liz smiled. "I guess you just don't know what you can do until you've done it, Tess. Max said you were quite good. He said you and I helped to repair the Antarian mothership, the New Granolith, once when it was badly damaged on Earth."
"Wow! That's really… excellent! I never imagined…"
"Let's take a walk around this yacht and scout it out," Liz said. I want to see what's up there on the bridge running this thing."
Tess shuddered involuntarily. "I hope it's not Kivar! Can we mindwarp Kivar?"
Liz thought a moment. "I don't know. I really don't know."
Liz led the way until they found some stairs that looked like they might lead up to the bridge. Then the two carefully climbed the stairs and slowly opened the door. It appeared that there were only two men on the bridge… the Captain and a First Mate.
"Stay with me, Tess."
"You don't need to tell me, Liz. I'm your shadow!"
Liz crept over to the Captain and looked at him. Then she looked at the other man.
"Tess, take a look."
Tess looked at the two men.
"Kyle?"
"And Michael," Liz said. "What do you think they're doing up here on the bridge?"
"And why aren't they looking for us," Tess said.
"Exactly! Ooh! I'm starting to think some naughty thoughts, Tess."
Tess smiled.
"You, too, huh?"
Tess nodded.
"You take Kyle. I'll take Michael," Liz said. The two girls looked at each other then shoved Michael and Kyle out of their seats at the same time.
"Kyle! What the crap!"
"You shoved me!" Kyle exclaimed.
"I didn't shove you… You shoved me!"
"I didn't shove you, Kyle! Who shoved me?" Michael looked around the room… "Okay, Liz! Where are you? Show yourself!"
Michael and Kyle heard giggling then laughing, as the two girls appeared… sitting in their seats.
"Very funny," Michael said. "Where did you girls come from?"
"The question you should be asking, Michael, is "Why wasn't I out there trying to rescue Liz and Tess when they were about to be thrown overboard with concrete shoes on?"
Tess pulled Kyle up by the ear. "I'm waiting to hear that answer, too, Kyle!"
"Ow, Tess! Leggo of my ear! That hurts!"
"I know more things that can hurt, Kyle… unless you start explaining."
"We were looking for you, Tess… then we were attacked by a couple of those big gorillas Nicholas got out of a zoo somewhere."
"We gave 'em a banana and sent 'em back to the zoo," Michael added.
"What does that mean," Liz asked.
"We threw 'em overboard," Kyle said.
Liz and Tess stared at the two guys.
"What? You don't think we could do it?"
"I don't know, Kyle," Tess said. "Michael could have alien powers or something, but how did you…?"
"Kyle just ducked when the big goon swung at him," Michael said. "Then when the big lug fell over him, Kyle just stood up and let him roll over his back… and splash! Into the water he went!"
"Okay… but why didn't you come to rescue us then," Tess asked.
"We did," Michael said. "After we found out where you were, we went to rescue you, but we saw two of those gorillas walking toward the door carrying some cinder blocks and cement. We hid behind some crates figuring we'd attack them and get you girls out when they opened the door; but then they started yelling that you were gone."
"At first, we couldn't figure it out," Kyle said. "Michael thought you must be hiding in the room somewhere, but when we saw something kick that big galoot's ass and then something kick Nicholas' ass and Nicholas almost do a somersault, we figured it out."
"Yeah! Then we watched the big gorilla throw Nicholas over the side," Michael continued. "Then the two big guys went back toward the bridge, so we followed them. We figured you girls would be okay after that. That's when the two thugs saw us, and we threw them over. We found the Captain on the bridge. He was by himself. We tied him up and put him in the stockroom. He was easy… nothing like the steroid gorillas. I think we've got 'em all now."
"I didn't know you could pilot a yacht, Michael," Liz said.
"Kyle's teaching me."
"When did you lean to pilot a yacht, Kyle," Tess asked.
"I've been on a few," Kyle said. "Football parties and all, you know. Some of the team owners have some pretty big toys… a few of the players do, too."
"Oh. You never took me on one when we were married."
"We were just out of high school, Tess. I didn't know all these rich people back then."
"By the way, Liz," Michael said, "When did you learn to become invisible?"
"Well… I…"
"Isn't it cool," Tess said. "Liz taught me how to do mindwarps!"
"Liz taught you to… What!" Michael looked at Liz with a shocked look…
"Liz, are you out of your frikkin' mind? Do you know what you did? What were you thinking? You and I are going to have to have a serious talk!"
Liz stuck her tongue out and smiled. "Well, you didn't come to rescue us, so we took matters into our own hands. You didn't think we were just going to sit there and let them put cement on our feet and throw us overboard, did you? I mean… if we had to depend on you two…" Liz grinned and shook her head…
"You didn't think we had to depend on you guys, did you?"
"Well…"
"Well, what? You think we can't take care of ourselves?"
"Well…"
"Oh, really!"
"No… No… I know you can take care of yourselves. Why do you think we didn't help you?"
Liz gasped.
Kyle grinned. "You're digging your hole deeper, Michael. I was married… I know. Give it up. You can't win."
"It's okay," Liz said. "I'm just giving you guys a hard time because you didn't show yourselves and we were… concerned… a little… not too much… just a little."
"I'm touched," Michael said.
"Well, don't let it go to your head," Liz said. "We may not come to save you the next time."
"Save us!" Michael exclaimed, his mouth open.
Kyle laughed.
"Well, they did come looking for us, Michael. You've gotta give 'em that! And they found us. It looks to me like nobody needed saving."
"Just don't worry us like that again," Liz said.
"I thought you said you weren't too worried…"
"I didn't say I was worried, Michael. I just said don't do it again."
Michael smiled. "Thanks, Liz."
"For what?"
"For coming to rescue us."
"You're welcome."
"Did you, uh, talk to Tess about… you know… the reason we're here, Liz?"
"Oh! …yeah, sort of… not completely…"
"Liz said you want me to go back with you or something?"
"Well, not exactly, Tess," Michael said. "You can't go back right now, but we need you to want to come back… Does that make any sense?"
Tess shook her head. "Why do you need me to [b]want[/b] to come back if I can't go back with you?"
"Liz? You answer that. You're
the one who went to the future and came back with that message. I don't really
understand it exactly myself."
"Well… it's what I was told," Liz said. "Max said that we all need to be together for the life we had before to resume the exact course it was on before. If any one of us doesn't want to return to that timeline, then we… that person… won't… and the timeline will be different in ways that we can't totally predict. It's like this… if Tess isn't there… then the work she did on the New Granolith wouldn't have happened in any new timeline that doesn't include her. And anything else she ever did or said there would be…" Liz waved her hands in a gesture that meant, "gone… poof." "If Tess hadn't helped us fix the ship it might have taken longer… or worse, we might not have escaped from Zwolinski's squad."
"Yeah," Michael said. "Tess was the one who put a bubble around Zwolinski and the others to keep them from shooting at us anymore and give us the chance to try to save the ones he'd shot. I don't want to think what the adjusted timeline would be like if she hadn't been there then."
"I did all that?" Tess asked, her cheeks flushing a rosy pink.
"Yeah," Michael said. "You did… and a lot of stuff I can't tell you."
"Good or bad?"
Michael thought for a moment. He started to say, "In which timeline?" But he decided that would be unfair… not to mention confusing. The timeline he remembered from long ago was no more. In the timeline he hoped to return to, Tess was different… that was the Tess he knew now… or had known… before he screwed up that timeline.
"Good," Michael said simply. "All good."
"And I have to want to go there? What will happen to me if I don't want to go?"
"You'll continue to live your life… the one you're living now… in this timeline," Liz said. "Nothing will change for you because you didn't go…"
"Maybe I want it to change," Tess said. "Nobody needs me here. Well, no one but Kivar, but he's not… you know…"
"Yeah," Liz said, smiling.
"Are you going, Kyle?"
Kyle nodded. "I'm crazy, Tess, I know. It's not like me… but when Dad was killed… well, they explained that in the timeline they knew, he didn't get killed. He lived on Amstar…"
"Antar," Michael corrected. "Get it right, Kyle. You lived there."
"Yeah. Antar," Kyle said. "It's funny, but it's starting to sound right to me… starting to grow on me… you know?"
"I came from there," Tess said. "I don't remember it… much, but it's in my DNA, so I would be going home in a way. And I would be with friends… friends who actually need me… not just people I needed… to hide me. I want to go, Liz!"
Liz looked at Michael and smiled.
"That makes it a full house, Michael."
Michael nodded. "Yeah. Well, technically, Jim never agreed to go, but I can't imagine that he wouldn't want to… under the circumstances."
"Dad will be glad to be there," Kyle said. "I'll be there."
"Good point," Michael said. "So it's a full house. What do we have to do now, Liz?"
tbc