Whoa, you like to think that you're immune to the stuff, oh yeah
It's closer to the truth to say you can't get enough
You know you're gonna have to face it, you're addicted to love
– Robert Palmer (Addicted to Love)
=/\=
The engraving, such as it was, was finished by Malcolm and he and Lili waited. "I think the capital R is a little crooked," he said.
"It's fine. Don't worry. You're such a perfectionist."
"Well, I just want it to be right. Do you think Richard will understand what sort of a message we are sending?"
"I think it identifies time and place – at least on our side of the pond – pretty readily. And it's obscure enough that anyone who means him – or us – harm wouldn't immediately understand it. It's probably odd enough to draw him here."
As if he had heard her speaking, they saw and heard a ship in the sky above them. They walked to the side, near Joss's house. Joss had gone to work at the veterinary hospital, but Jia was home with Jay. She came out, holding him. "What's going on?"
"The stone," Lili explained, "it looks like someone took our bait."
"Hopefully, the right fish bit," Jia said, holding Jay a little closer.
"I hope so as well," Malcolm said to Lili quietly. He still had the hand phaser with him, and was still a decent shot, but his eyesight was failing a bit. He was none too comfortable with the idea of shooting someone, particularly in front of the baby, but if he had to defend them, he would. Even though he was no biological relation to Joss, he still felt a kinship. A stepson was as good as a son, so far as he was concerned. There was no step involved – the prefix had no meaning to Malcolm.
They need not have worried. The ship landed, and the pilot was careful to not land on top of the garden. Lili smiled to herself. The last time Rick had come over; he had landed right on top of the day lilies and the asparagus. Then he had knelt over the patch and done something to the soil. She didn't know what. But afterwards whatever grew there was always incredibly resilient. She did not know that it was Stem Cell Growth Accelerator, which was a substance added to his blood that made his body repair itself considerably faster than normal. The substance, in the soil, also affected the plants, so they survived and grew and even thrived. The asparagus eaten at the Temporal Museum in 3110 was a descendant of the plants right before them.
What Lili also did not know was that Norri and Melissa had added a little of that soil to where they'd planted the tofflin root on her own property. They had just thought it was particularly good, rich soil, nothing more.
The time ship landed and out stepped Rick, with a young man with a military bearing. They came over to her. "I see you got the message," Lili said, hugging Rick. "Who's your friend?"
"I'm Thomas Grant, ma'am. I am glad to know you. Your, uh, I've read about you."
"Me?" Lili asked, taken aback. "Read what?"
"Stuff," Rick said, "things we can't go into. Gotta protect the timeline and all. Suffice it to say, you're in the first pioneering family and we come from nine hundred plus years later, so there are books written and all." He didn't mention that the first – and it was considered to be the most authoritative title – one was a book by Norri, The Human Pioneers of Lafa II.
"Got it. Mysterious, magical things that I'm not supposed to know about," Lili said, smiling and introducing Tom to Malcolm. "Tom, you look a little like Tommy. I, uh, I never know what to call him. Stepson?"
"Stepson would imply that Melissa and Douglas were married at one point," Malcolm pointed out, "Then again, most of the time I call Joss my son and Jia my daughter-in-law. It seems rather foolish to stand on ceremony like that."
"In any event," Lili said, "Tommy is pretty similar in look to you."
"Well, I'm a desc –" Tom started to say.
He was interrupted when Melissa and Norri came over from the Reed home to investigate. "You remember us?" Melissa asked Rick.
"Sure I do," he replied, "for me, it's been around a year and a half. But for you, it's, what, three and a half decades, am I right?"
"Something like that," Norri said, "I guess the message was effective."
"Definitely," Rick said. He then turned his attention to Malcolm. "Now we need to destroy the extra headstone."
"But why?" Jia asked, shifting little Jay in her arms.
"We don't want anyone else getting the message," Tom said.
"But won't you forget it, or disappear or something?" Melissa asked, "You wouldn't have any reason to be here."
"We'll be fine. We're protected by a field that essentially keeps us outside of time," Rick explained.
"Hasn't that been breached?" Tom asked. "Remember what happened to Deirdre."
"Huh," Rick thought for a moment. "I still think it's a good idea to destroy it. If you and I forget, or if we're whisked back, someone here should remember. And even if they forget, they'll then try to get our attention some other way."
"We should take that stone out of the ground and put it somewhere else before destroying it," Lili said, "I don't want a phaser blast to accidentally scorch Doug's stone, or Kevin's."
"Understood. Tom, help me with this," Rick said. As they worked to move the heavy stone, Rick ended up removing his shirt, as did Tom. And that's when they spotted them.
Rick was wearing an old-fashioned skeleton key charm on a chain around his neck, along with a Xindi initiation medal. Tom had a metallic cuff on his left wrist. Both were made of a dull grey metal, a Calafan alloy.
Lili came over. "Uh, excuse me, but I think you have something of mine," she said to Rick. She pulled out a thin chain within her blouse, which had the selfsame key charm on it.
"And you have something of mine," Malcolm said, rolling up his left sleeve to show the same cuff that Tom was wearing.
"They must be your descendants," Norri said, "Unless those are duplicates pieces of jewelry."
"They aren't," Rick said, "and we shouldn't let them touch, or temporal integration will occur."
"Temporal integration?" asked Melissa.
"The two items merge," Tom said, "I'd lose my cuff, and Eleanor would be mighty disappointed."
"Eleanor?" Norri asked.
"My girl – she is also his sister," Tom indicated Rick.
"Ah," Malcolm said, "you do realize these pieces have very strong meanings for us."
"I do," Rick said, "I look at the inscription from time to time."
Malcolm smiled a little at that, "It's just a bit of doggerel."
"It's beautiful," Lili said.
Melissa put a hand up to shield her face from the four suns, "We might wanna get this done soon, folks." Her sleeve slipped, and you could see that she was wearing a thin bracelet with an oval charm. Inside the oval were three concentric circles. The piece was made of the same material as the other two pieces.
"Melissa," Tom said, "I do believe you are my forebear."
"I am?"
"Your bracelet. My mother owns it."
"Then I'm glad that it's the two of you who are here," Lili said, "You're family. We, uh, we won't tell anyone, right?" The other four nodded. "Let's get that stone destroyed, and then come in, I guess into Joss's house – is that okay, Jia?"
"Mi casa, su casa," she said.
"Thank you," Lili said, "we'll sit and we'll talk about what the message means, and why we sent it."
=/\=
You see the signs, but you can't read
You're runnin' at, a different speed
You heart beats, in double time
Another kiss, and you'll be mine a one track mind
– Robert Palmer (Addicted to Love)