Once Upon A Time Traveler by Paula Kaye © 2005

Chapter Nine

Nemo overheard this slip of Dorian's tongue and glared at the immortal who arched his eyebrows at the oceanic warrior in mock surprise.

"Oh, did I say that out loud?",he smiled evilly.

Henry tried to hear nothing. What he did hear, in fact,were thescreams of the woman that was still on board the craft as it started to take on water. He had not one clue that the screams he heard weren't imagined. Mina looked to him with concern as she realized he'd heard them as well.

Yes, Penn was in the sphere. Having hit the chest harness that had kept her so securely pinned to the flight seat, the newest chrononaut had been trying to put out the flames on the console. Instead, she wound up being hit in the head when the chronosphere started to fall apart from the impact. There had been two options that she'd thought of. Stay in the flight chair and drown, or get on her feet, fight the flames that blocked her exit from the blown hatch, and perhaps get out into the water.

She'd never thought of the third option. Get out of the flight chair, try to fight the flames and wind up unconscious.

A longboat was discharged from the side hatch of the Nautilus. Ten men were aboard and all were straining to reach the geodesic capsule before it sank. It's once perfectly shimmering aqua tiles were splitting and singed, the sparks that flew through the air only gave further testimony that it could erupt and be swallowed by flames at any moment. Thankfully, the fuselage was empty. Having come such a long way, Penn's craft had barely coasted into the atmosphere.

Penn was now laying on the floor of the craft, half in and half out of the hatch. Nearly four inches of water sloshed on the inner deck, and her shoulder was held up out of the water by the four inch plate of steel that served as the lower lip of the hatch frame. As the waves hit and rocked the tiny bubbled craft, the hatch's opening was lowering just enough into the water to dip the top of her head under the waves.

Odd, Mina thought as she utilized her unnatural eyesight. It appeared as if the woman inside the craft was being given some sort of odd baptism. Perhaps it was a true baptism of fire.

Ishmael's boat now arrived at the capsule's edge, and two pairs of arms reached out to gingerly lift Penn into the longboat. The arms laid her on the floor of the boat and the men took off faster than they'd arrived. Penn's ship in response, sparked worse and hissed more as streams of steam and other pollutants unknown and undiagnosed by nineteenth century technology continued to leak dangerously into the oceanic depths.

Peering through binoculars, Nemo saw what Mina's unnatural eyes had already seen. Penn, for all intents and purposes, had safely been brought aboard by two of his crew.

Penn couldn't tell if she was dreaming or actually 'living' what she was seeing. Mina standing in the sphere telling her that she was chosen for a most unusual adventure. The things that they'd spoken of that night came flooding back into her memory as she tried to decipher the words and phrases Mina's voice now spoke. Or, did she speak? Her reddened lips didn't move. But, the words were in her head. Penn began to psychically argue. Such a double standard was abhorrent to her sense of principle. Yes, it was the principle of the thing, Penn emphasized. That was all that mattered, that the proper principles were given a chance to breathe.

Proper pinciples - ? They needed to breathe? In her nearly comatose state, the threshold of revelation was upon her. What made sense therecould never be explained anywhere else.The Universe's stream of wisdom was her's to explore as she willed.

Mina's voice sounded in Penn's head, again. "Then, let freedom breathe."

Mina approached and saw Henry as stood over the unconscious pilot. No longer did he appear as an empty, haunted shell of a man. He was now, Mina realized, a true physician. Mina drew her breath involuntarily.

There was an energy about him that caused her to feel awe in his most gentle actions. He'd quickly taken charge of the situation, instructing Ishmael and his squad to have her taken below to his quarters. At the arching of eyebrows, (Mina's specifically), he only replied, "It's quieter and more comfortable than the Infirmary."

That much was true. It also afforded more privacy. Though the crew were well disciplined, her mode of travel was certain to be one of the highlighted topics of conversation among them. Henry wanted no further impediments to Penn's recovery. From well-meaning types claiming to have pulled Infirmary duty to the ship's own doctor mucking about and possibly harming her in some way. He was surprised by his possessiveness of her already. Regardless, he would take the responsiblity of her recovery onto his own shoulders. It was his duty as he saw it.

His nimble hands worked quickly, though he could feel a tremor in them. Yet, his resolve remained unshaken, his eyes a tranquil clear blue-green and Edward firmly relegated to the back of his mind, waiting in the darkness.

The only clue to Henry's worry was his knitted brow that sprouted beads of perspiration as he worked to diagnose the degree of trauma and carefully bandage Penn's wounds.He regarded Mina, who was acting as Penn's nurse. With true worry, he shook his head sadly, "I've no oil to dress her wounds with."

Mina smiled gently, and replied, "You've bandaged herwounds as best you can, now let God heal her."

Henry shook his head again feeling the nagging of his training egging him on to be his best. He looked down at the traumatized woman in his bed. "I haven't the time to wait for God."

The hands that had wokred so diligentlyto heal her now took one of her hands into his as he now sat next to her as she lay unconscious, "I don't knowthat she has that sort of time left, either."

Penn had brought something out in Henry that Mina never knew had existed. His care for Penn's safety and well-being transcended anything that he would have ordinarily allowed to interfere. His focus was completely on healing her completely and as soon as possible.

Now stripped of her black space suit, and her smooth fitting olive drab flight suit, Penn now reposed in her 'traditional' flying attire. Her 'breathless pink' mini cami and her boy cut panty shorts. In a word, her pajamas. It had always been a source of great mirth for the only women on the Military Project that Penn flouted 'recognized' regulations in favor of personal tastes. Mina and Olga would chide Penn that one day, she might be discovered in only her little 'night things', and Penn challenged them to fly the craft in anything less than the most comfortable 'clothes' around!
As she lay abed, in Henry's bed, new bruises made their presence more evident. Welts rose and a slightly split lip matched the line of blood which Henry's deftly gentle hands caringly worked to re-dress. It wasn't too deep, and he was thankful no stitching had been needed.

He had checked her pupillary responses, but, her eyes continued to roll in her head. Her mutterings rising to near understandability, and then receding again to mere unintelligible whispers. She seemed to be in a fever. But, not one of bacterial or viral origins. Nemo offered that he knew of times when some of his crew, in their haste to board ship after harvesting specimens and foodstuffs for the ship's galley, experienced painful spasms that mimicked epilepsy. The 'bend' they'd called it. Due to the fact the body would 'bend' itself over in agony.

Henry knew he had heard her say Mina's name, but, how could she have known – ? More and more, Henry realized, the woman before him was a puzzle that he probably would never unravel completely. Far from upsetting him, he was finding this challenge to be less disconcerting and more enjoyable by the minute. If only - if only she'd wake up.

Penn's body wasn't the 'nicest' place in which to be, at this time, and as such, she would travel, astrally. Leaving the pains of her body and sometimes heart behind her; her spirit flew free and whatever she wanted to know, she had ways of discovering. She had to chuckle to herself. If it hadn't been for her dentist, she probably wouldn't have been tagged to undergo Project Valkyrie.

With a certain detachedness that comes with high fevers, she philosophically thought to herself, and nodded, that yes, she had been quite an exceptional subject for research. No empty boasting. Just remembering the things that had been said. And, how she'd been so foully used by those in power at the time. She didn't wish to remember any of it. So, her mind turned itself to viewing the curious object in the bed. Her body. Hmmm, the 'Bends', her spirit thought dourly. Oh, so That's what it was! The lithe limp body raggedly shook again.

Oh, that can't be good.

She had no fear for her own safety. As far as she was concerned, there was no reason to go back. No reason to continue the battle. She was completely lacking any feeling of distress concerning her own physical welfare. Disregarding the direness of the situation, she was content to simply float above the scene below, while watching the handsome, troubled man working to save her life, such as it was. She was enjoying a certain serenity she had always sought when she was in her body. She now saw him and felt a certain shock of recognition go through her. His face! His hands! The hands that held her's in his and he appeared to have a prayerful pose about him! This was unusual!

However, the reason for the disturbance in Penn's body wasn't the dreaded spasms that afflicted deep sea divers when re-surfacing too quickly. It was thel bio-chemical weapon that was attacking her neurological system, having been released when Penn's ship first hit the "unauthorized atmosphere". A dirty little trick played by the
government. Apparently, it was only one of many.

Penn's spirit looked about Jekyll's cabin, taking in the exotic atmosphere of the decor as she floated some eight feet from the bed. She could dimly hear what was being said over her body. She was only mildly concerned when Mina knitted her brows together, put a hand on Jekyll'sshoulder to console him andthen, made to leave. She felt a tug at her heart as she saw Henry's shoulders sag, heard him sigh as he sat in a chair next to her bed, and as if admitting defeat, placed his head into his hand, apparently at a loss for any further treatments.

She longed to put her arms about his neck and soothe him. Even though Penn had been only 'mildly' poisoned by the gasses, it was still in the "golden hour" that immediately follows just after a catastrophic medical emergency. None of them could have known that Penn had been poisoned by the gasses which had escaped when the sphere crash landed onto the initially hard surface of the water. None except Mina. She detected an odor of bitter almonds and something – like – a corrosive acid. Cyanide? Arsenic? Who knew? A heavy metals test to be run on her blood would have shown the way for the doctor treating her, however, such a test had yet to be invented.

What no one in the government had counted on was Penn. Her loopy reasoning and defiant logic nearly always challenged the proscribed protocols laid down by those who 'knew' what was best. The odd thing though, was, it worked. For her, anyway. Anyone else was lost when attempting to re-create the results Penn seemed to so easily
manifest. "Sheer Fucking Luck.", as Nate had so once described it in a bitter confirmation that she'd outdone one of his more insidious challenges.

To her credit, Penn had succeeded in blowing the capsule's hatch, a little over a half of a mile before hitting the water. If she hadn't been so worried about the landing splintering the sphere and killing her, she might have been dead from the poisoning! Blowing the hatch at that height was dangerous enough, and at that speed, it didn't
seem like 'much', however, it was the slim difference between life and death. So much of Nate's hoped for deadly gasses' escaped into the atmosphere, (uh – yeah), that Penn's throat was only mildly damaged. Her nervous system would recover, however, Henry had no idea of this, and was quite sick thinking that the love of his dreams would cease her life in his bed.

Henry refused to leave her side, and Mina would periodically check back in as if letting him know she was still there to assist should he finally take her advice and get soem rest.

"Where would I rest?", he would ask with a wry expression, "She's in my bed."

Mina felt it obvious that she would allow him the use of her's, but, she realized it was futile at best when attempting to divert one so deeply devoted as Henry Jekyll.

In the Main Parlor, Nemo had attempted to distract the Adventurer in yet another game of chess. However, the scene was incongruently played out. This was no ordinary game, and the desperation that all, save Gray, were feeling was as thick in the air as the incense Nemo had been offering to Kali. So, Quatermaine drank, Skinner sulked, Sawyer pontificated, and Nemo, having had enough of the passive and somber mood, stood.

"Where're you going man?", Quatermaine gruffly growled.
"In times such as these, my friend, I find it a singular comfort to seek the arms of my Goddess.", he responded with a slight bow.

"All eight of them?" Quatermaine attempted a joke.
"The better to hold you with, my dear.", Dorian mildly chided Nemo.

Nemo leaned in, ignoring this jibe of Dorian's and with a bit of a smile, clarified for the astounded British Ex-patriot, "Kali is indeed the Goddess of Death. But, to whom else would you suggest I pray to for a soul to be returned from her domain and back into the World of the Living?"

With not so much as a glare, Nemo passed by sourly trumped Mr. Gray and made his way towards his cabin.

Nemo passed the Doctor's cabin. The masculine form slumped in the chair next to the bed. Mina sat up, reading to herself. As the Captain glanced, Mina looked up and quietly closed her book. She looked to the sleeping Penn and stood carefully and went into the hallway to speak with him.

"Will she live?", Nemo asked while watching Penn's seemingly lifeless form laying very still.
Mina sighed. "It seems so, however – ", she non-commitally commented, as she shrugged slightly. "She hasn't said anything that would give her away as yet."
Nemo nodded, remembering many sieges of his own. "Yes, these things are very difficult indeed, to predict."
Nemo's tone seemed more intent as he whispered, "If either of you has need of me, I will be in my quarters, speaking with one whom I feel may be able to sway events in our favor."

With a courteous nod and a half-bow, the Warrior left the Vampire where she stood.

Dorian stood in the Main Parlor and announced, "While this little vigil has been most entertaining, I feel it's pleasure waning for me."

Sawyer, who now occupied the seat that Nemo had left vacant, looked up with vague dissatisfaction at having had his concentration disturbed.

"Go on then.", Quatermaine growled as he waited to see if he could capture young Sawyer's Queen.

Dorian moved quietly about the cabin. Mina was never one to be especially careful. However, he wanted no tale tell signs of his visit left behind. Two of her journals, not very well concealed were taken. He'd come back for a drop or two of her blood, later. He smiled as he thought of the way he'd harvest it.

Penn felt herself fall as if from a small height, and her body jumped suddenly. A gasp emitted from the patient and some slight coughing erupted, though Penn had yet to reach full consciousness. Penn rolled onto her side as she felt her body involuntarily convulsing back to life.

Mina looked to the sleeping doctor and moved to check the patient's pulse. Yes, Penn had one. And, it felt acceptable. Mina still tried to decipher the strange bar code tattoo on the inner forearm of the woman. Must be some sort of tribal marking, she mused as she dismissed the military's 'demarkation and identification' of their pilot.

Penn moaned and rolled over onto her side, facing towards Mina.

"Just who are you, then?", the vampiress murmured, rhetorically.

Mina was a little more than surprised to hear a voice hoarsely whisper, "Don't forget, you still owe me fifty from the rat race, yesterday."

How queer? How should she know my name, then?

Mina couldn't tell if she was more surprised that she'd gotten an answer, or the answer that she got!

Henry started to rouse at the word 'rat', and he blearily looked to Mina, rubbing the back of his sore neck. Just then, it clicked in his mind that it wasn't Mina's voice that had stirred him! He leaned forward and looked into the face of the woman who'd admonished Mina to pay up.

"What'd she say?", he seemed more confused by the cryptic response than his impromptu nurse.

"Something about a race.", Mina replied as she looked to the woman who, once again, was in a deep sleep.

Henry took hold of Penn's wrist and reached for his pocket watch again. He sighed, and shook his head. "She seems to be coming out of it."

He again took inventoryof her bandages and noted that she hadn't bled through them or loosened any of them in her sudden movements.

Penn was in her dreams again. There was a hulking man in front of her. His eyes were glazing and his smile tended to twitch as though he were unused to the sincerity he was trying to project towards her. He appeared to be afraid. Or, angry, or perhaps preparing for the rejection he anticipated.

Penn now looked down at her lower half, which was in a lake of sorts. One of white foam. There were corpses all around her, swathed as if prepared for burial. People whom she didn't recognize hauled out more of their dead and placed them with loving care into the lake nearly brimming with Death. The foam now seemed to rise up to her midriff. Penn looked to the red-headed giant with only a little concern. She seemed more perplexed as to why she was there, too perplexed to cry out or fear an Otherworldly outcome.

Without a word, the massive man moved towards her, on the rim of the lake and reached his huge hands towards her. She lifted her arms up to him as a toddler would, and his hands grasped her around the waist. Being nearly six feet taller than she, he easily pulled her from the foam that was beginning to solidify. He moved as if preparing to put her safely onto the ground, but, she clung to him, afraid of the earth that she somehow knew would open under her feet and swallow her up.

She shivered again, and he sensed her need. In response, he held her close to him until the shivering had passed. They spoke no words, yet he looked into her eyes, astounded by her trust. She stroked his stubbled, mutton-chopped cheek and gave him a look of such softness, that his own cynical heart gave him no other choice but to soften in return.

Her comparatively tiny arms almost made a complete circle around his muscled neck and she longed to hold on to the man who'd rescued her. However, with a kiss as gentle as the brush of warm air, she let go, and he now lay her down carefully, under the dappled shade of a tree that seemed situated light years away from the horror that had previously been her 'known reality'. She was further comforted to know that he sat watch next to her as she slept. She could 'see' him in her minds eye, looking out towards a sunlit horizon while soft breezes swept over her body.

Henry had finally taken Mina's advice and allowed one of the Infirmary crew to keep watch over Penn as he joined the others for a hasty lunch. Hasty for him, as he wished to return to her side if she should need him. No matter how much Mina reasoned with him, he felt an urgency to be next to her until he had a chance to find out if she was indeed, 'the one'.

Very little was said to Jekyll, even though he tried to smile and put on a face of indifference. They all seemed to sense the reality and all were awaiting confirmation of the same kind. Dorian, as usual, however, seemed impervious to the sensation of pins and needles. His focus was more on what he could learn about the woman, not about any proposed treachery that had been rumored. These rumors of course hadn't been uttered in Henry's presence, which also led to more uncomfortable silences. Yet, Henry was blissfully unaware of any conspiracies afoot. He was too preoccupied with the welfare of his patient. Or, so he led himself to believe.

Ever vacillating, he couldn't figure out if she were merely his patient or an Unearthly Lover sent to heal him of his past pains. Perhaps, she was to be both. Inwardly, he shook his head. That was impossible. It went against the very creed by which he'd taken his oaths of healing. Yet, once again, there was another 'hand' which said, if he were, indeed, the only one who could heal her, and he was already in love with her, what harm could there be in his assisting her to be healed of her physical wounds?

His was a tortured soul. One that had been dealt pain upon pain. He was the one, in fact, who'd been torturing himself for years. Ever since – "Henry?"

Mina's voice cut through his reverie and he realized he was now just outside of his cabin when he'd heard her. He held a finger up to his lips, and frowned for her silence. Mina did as she was bid, and came closer, catching up the distance between them. "I only wanted to say – " , she began.

But, Henry took her by the elbow and led her from the door. This was a new attitude to experience from him. Taking charge of a situation and control of the environment in which he would discharge his intellect, rather than being a victim or plaything of the conversation. No apologies, and no hesitation. He was as much of a man as the elderly adventurer, now. Now, that he was in his element as Physician.

"I only wished to express,", Mina began, a bit surprised at the acquiescence in her voice, "my admiration for the way in which you've taken charge of her recovery."

Henry nodded almost impatiently, careful not to look into the vampiress' eyes. "Yes. Thank you. Now, if you'd be so kind – ", he began.

However, Mina interrupted him. "I'm only a call away. If you need me, or if she comes out of it, I'd like you to send someone to my cabin to let me know."

He nodded again, doing his best to keep a check on the tremor in his hands, "I must see to my patient."

With that dismissal he looked up briefly, gave a pinched smile, and left Mina in the hallway.

Having sent the crewman from the Infirmary away, he watched as the woman's languid frame stretched luxuriously in his bed.

"What are we to do, now, Henry?", came Hyde's question. "We must discover if she is able to beroused, mustn't we?"

Henry tried his best to fight the drive commanding him. But, it was Edward who was master now.

Hedrew her sheet back carefully.

"We must know if she still is able to respond to stimuli, right, Henry?"

He'd spent years lying to himself about his experimentation, so, what was one more?

Penn only breathed that much deeper feeling the slight breeze caressing her. Then, a fore-finger drew across her leg. She gasped lightly.

Femoral response, check.

Up to her hip. A light moan.

Pelvic response, check.

Up to her side. A light giggle.

Thoracic response, check.

Over her breast. A lower moan.

Mammory response, check.

His body was nearing a dangerous turn as he attempted to reign Hyde in ever tighter under control. He wasn't going to allow Edward to plunder the woman he'd been unable to forget even though they'd never met anywhere except in his dreams!

He would 'finish' her 'exam' in his own way.

A finger tracing under her chin.Her body warmed to him, and she arched her neck and swallowed for him.

Esophageal response, check.

And, finally, the freckled fore finger restedupon her slightly pained lips.

Oh, my dear God in heaven. I want you!

He sat on the bed with both of his hands on either side of her. He was going to kiss her cheek most genteely but, she rolled towards the stimulation.

Lightly moaning anothersigh as her body slowly allowed her to awaken, she opened herdarker-than-brown-eyes and had her view filled with a man in proper Victorian clothing.

Although therewasonly light from a single source, the oil lamp on the opposite side of the room; it was enough that she felt her eyes sting fromsensitivity.

Still believing that she was dreaming, she allowed herself to enjoy the feelingof his hands on either side of her body; the bed giving under his weight as he pressed inward towards her. Penn reached for the man's face as he moved closer to her. She accepted his mouth, his kiss, moaning again ever so lightly. It was the delicious, though the stinging pain of it came from the delicate pressure he placed upon the reddened lips.

"Hey –", she sleepily noted. "You're not supposed to be able to feel pain in dreams."

"This isn't a dream.", Henry gently said, his eyes hungry for every inch of her to be his.
"Wha - ?", Penn breathed the word, attempting to fight the arousal that was sweeping her away, as his arm slid under her body, further pressing her into the softness of the bed.
"Darling.", Henry's muffled voice came from the mouth he had at her throat as nuzzled there, loving the feminine fragrance of her. Amidst the smudged smell of smoke was a softer, morevanilla-like aroma. It was her pheromone-laden skin that called to his beastial side. He longed to take a large bite out of her pale neck, to devour her sexually, if not literally. She tasted wonderfully enticing. In a quandry as to if what she was experiencing was, indeed, 'real', she felt his bodycalling to her's. Together, they were almost writhing asher body was responding to him, and he, now, was unable to stop himself from wanting her.

Her erotic aurawas now his drug of choice. And, Edward showed his pleasure at this by allowing his ruddy features to somehow twist into his version of a 'smile'. This was seen as little more than a loathsome leer, but, for Edward, it was a genuine show of happiness, for it meant that he would soon have Henry sated, and moreover, he would be allowed to take his 'pleasure' with her after Henry's unusually strong show of force was completed. While Henry was 'out', Edward could play!

So, in the dark, he waited, happily anticipating his turn.

That's it, Henry! Yes! Almost there!

Henry's other hand rose to cup Penn's breast, and the Victorian gentleman was amazed that her body seemed to so ferventlywelcome him. The once hesitant doctor felt the impulse to spread his large hand out over the firm mound of milky flesh. His palm was greeted by her hardened nipple, the prickling of her areola evident, even through the soft fabric of her flimsy cami top. Henry ached unbearably and moaned as his longing refused to be stilled by Victorian prudery. He buried his face in her throat and they both fell backwards into the large bed….