Chapter 7
Her weapons were her crystal eyes
Making every man a man
Black as the dark night she was
Got what no one else had
Wow!
– Bananarama (Venus (Reprise))
=/\=
Everyone got off the Perfectionists' call except for Helen Walker and Donald Oliver. They knew who they were speaking with – being fellow time travelers, sometimes required to work together, made their acquaintance not only possible, but advisable.
Donald spoke. "Milton said I was gonna be in charge when he left."
"Things have changed," she drawled. Her accent was a product of her upbringing on Titania, where everyone speaks with a gentle Southern drawl reminiscent of the Carolinas on Earth. Tom Grant had the same drawl, although they did not know one another.
"Where is he?"
"A safe place."
"You won't tell me, will you?"
"It's on a need to know basis, Donnie. And you don't need to know," she smiled, "now, ya'll want the one big mission or the two smaller ones?"
=/\=
They beamed over to Lafa II together. "I appreciate you letting me tag along," Tom said.
"I don't just need you to witness this," Rick said, "I also, well, we both know we're not going to be let out much, probably for the duration. So you should at least tell Eleanor that in person."
"Well, thanks."
"I'm doing this for her benefit," Rick added, "she's been hurt too many times." Always the big brother.
She greeted them at the museum once she saw them, kissing each of them on the cheek. "Tom! I'm so pleased!"
"I'm glad to see you, too," he said, "but this may be it for a while." She was crestfallen. "We're being ordered to mainly stay in. It may be a while before I can see ya'll again."
"Are you in any danger?" Her question hung in the air momentarily, like a thick black cloud.
"We're not sure," Rick said, "and there's a lot we can't tell you. Let's just say the future is unknown."
"Isn't it always?" she asked. She led them to a portion of the museum that was encased in a huge transparent aluminum dome. "Now I think you both know this, but it bears repeating. The museum is in possession of the first human habitation here on Lafa II. We have the house, the grounds and everything. You can see the kitchen, the video photograph wall, bedrooms, where Lili and Doug Beckett slept or watched the viewer or whatever, with or without their children. The day lilies and the asparagus still come up every year, without fail. The museum chef even cooks the asparagus." She was a docent, and this was a part of her spiel.
"All right," Tom prompted.
"And here in the back are the headstones," she led them there, "once two of the sons had been buried here, after all of the elder generation had gone, the surviving family decided to use the regular human cemetery instead – it had been established by then. They didn't want the back yard to simply be overrun, and turned into a boneyard. They wanted the children and grandchildren to continue to feel comfortable playing there."
"If I remember correctly, in order from first death to last," Rick said, "they are Kevin Madden-Beckett, Douglas Jay Hayes Beckett, Charlotte Lilienne O'Day Beckett Reed, Malcolm Reed, Melissa Madden, Leonora Digiorno and Thomas Digiorno-Madden, am I right?"
"How many is that?" she asked.
Tom went over them again in his head. "Seven."
"Right," she said, "and how many headstones are out there?"
Rick counted. "Eight."
"It gets better," she said, leading them closer, "look at who the extra one is for."
The engraving was plainer. It was clearly not a professional job. Tom read off, "Richard M. Daniels, 05202192 – 29120250."
The last eight numbers were not just a palindrome, but were also the reversed images of the first eight.
"Reversed script," Rick said, "What do you think?"
"Well, didn't one of the first human settlers have a business called Reversal?" asked Tom.
"It was a restaurant," Eleanor said, checking a PADD.
"I can see why you realized this didn't belong here," Rick said, "I wonder – why would they mock up a headstone, for me, I guess. Is there a body under there?"
"No," she said, "we took scans and there isn't a body, there's no coffin and no evidence of digging, save to make sure that the headstone stays in the ground. All of the other seven have coffins – Kevin's is smaller, of course – but this is meant to differ."
"The writing is different as well," Tom said, "the others are more decorative, and Lili's headstone even has an engraved day lily. But this is just plain, sans serif writing."
"I bet it was done by an amateur," Rick said.
"We are fairly sure it was engraved by use of a hand phaser," Eleanor said.
"So it was done on the cheap," Tom said, "and there's no body. This is a message."
"Definitely," Rick said, "and Lili had met me before. Do you have a carbon date on the headstone?"
Eleanor checked her PADD again, "It's from the late-twenty-second century. I suspect we can trust the May twentieth of 2192 date. Lili O'Day was definitely still alive then. She was Lili Reed by that time."
"But why is she writing to me about Reversal?" asked Rick.
"Actually," Eleanor said, "I suspect it's not a reversal. It's a mirror."
"May twentieth, 2192, in the mirror," Rick said, "dammit, if there is something going on, then and there, I can't go."
"Why not?" Tom asked.
"It's a long story," Rick replied.
=/\=
Boris heard a trill in his ear. It was not a Communications chime. Rather, it was an indicator of an urgent data-only message. He grabbed his PADD. It was from a law firm, Koenig and Brooks, a name he did not recognize. He cautiously opened the message and the full force of what was happening smacked him right in the face.
He had been served with divorce papers. He read through them, quickly, panicking. This was not a no-fault divorce. The listed grounds were adultery and cruelty. And the named co-respondent was none other than his boss, Admiral Carmen Calavicci.
He was about ready to run into Carmen's office and throw himself at her mercy when he heard another trill. This one was definitely a Communications chime. It was Carmen. "Get in here," was all she said.
=/\=
"I can't go to the mirror then because, well," Rick sighed, "you ever wonder why, no matter what kind of a mission it is, you're required to take a birth control shot?" he asked Tom.
"I figured it was a standard precaution."
"It never used to be the rule," Rick said, "but something happened."
"A mirror girl?" Tom asked.
"Not just any mirror girl," Rick said, "but the Empress Hoshi Sato herself."
Tom whistled through his teeth. "How many of her kids were yours?"
"Just the one, her first born, Jun."
"I take it the mirror government was none too happy," Tom said.
"Carmen really went to bat for me," Rick confided, "first they wanted him to never be born, so we devised a bunch of ways to make his life palatable to them. This included sterilizing him."
"But it also included," Eleanor interjected, "Richard being banished from the mirror during Hoshi's entire lifespan. She was also told he'd died in a crash on Daranaea."
"You knew about this?" Tom asked Eleanor.
"Some of it. The gory details are, of course, not for me to know. But I did know of it, yes. Our own parents don't even know that they have a grandson."
"Who is older than a bunch of great-grandparent generations away," Rick said, "It's a mess and I suppose I can understand a bit about why the mirror government was so cheesed about it. But, yanno, he's my kid. He didn't ask to be born but now that he has been, I don't want to see him just snapped out of existence."
"What's his date of birth? It's not in 2192, is it?" Tom asked.
"No, he was born in the 2150s," Eleanor said.
"November first, 2156," Rick specified, "I have never seen him. He dies in 2258."
"But that's after Hoshi dies, isn't it?" Tom asked, "So you could see him then, right?"
"I haven't tried to," Rick admitted, "it feels like too much to explain."
"I am thinking someone needs to go to the mirror in 2192," Tom said, "and check out whatever the hell happened, whatever made the Reeds feel they needed to contact you."
"You should go too, Richard," Eleanor said, "they know you. They don't know Tom."
"Assuming Carmen allows it at all," Rick said absently, "look, we'd better get back. El, tell our folks, uh, I dunno, tell them I'm working like a dog and can't get away, okay?"
"Sure," she said.
Rick walked away to give them their privacy. Tom and Eleanor kissed, over and over again. He finally looked at her and said, "I want, when I get back, I don't want to be leaving you anymore."
"I don't want you to leave, ever again, either."
"That means probably what you think it does," he said, kissing her hand, "but there might be, it might be a while. And there are dangers we can't talk to you about. I love you."
"I love you," she said, eyes misting, "be very careful."
"I will, for I belong to you."
=/\=
She's got it
Yeah, baby, she's got it
I'm your Venus, I'm your fire
At your desire
Well, I'm your Venus, I'm your fire
At your desire
– Bananarama (Venus (Reprise))