To Love Through Space and Time Tinnean

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. He reached acrossthe space that separated us and took my hand. I don t wantthose either. Then tell me something: How are you going to react ifTony or the twins tell you they won t want you in their livesas long as you re with me? That it would be your choice: meor your grandchildren? I don t want to put you in thatposition. I won t give you up, Nick.They ll have to accept thatyou re a part of my life now. Jesus, I hope you won t regret this! I ll never regret having you in my life, but what aboutyou? There s that difference in our ages. Sixty is the new thirty; hadn t you heard? That actuallymakes you five years younger than me.He laughed, as I d hoped he would, and I ran my thumbover his knuckles. And if we don t get home? Don t you understand, Easy? It doesn t matter.None ofit does.This could be hell, but as long as you re with me, I dhappily spend eternity here. My voice cracked.Shit, I dbecome emotional.I brushed my other hand across my eyes. I m sorry. Don t be.Somehow we ll get this to work.Meanwhile,we have to get home first.Let s worry about it then. I& I don t think I ve said it, but I love you, Easy.To Love Through Space and Time * Tinnean86 You did say something to that effect when you killedthe lion. I did? I don t remember. I d been too petrified to thinkof anything beyond the possibility of Doc dying before myeyes and me not being able to do a goddamned thing toprevent it. I love you too, Nicky. His fingers tightened on mineconvulsively, and I brought our hands to my mouth andpressed a kiss to his knuckles. We d better get to sleep.Tomorrow will be here soon enough.AND it was, and we repeated the process all over again.Lions would pace ten or twenty yards from usoccasionally, but for the most part, they gave us a wideberth.From time to time, we d pass what looked like shells ofsome sort of structures, either burned out or shrouded invegetation.The hunters refused to approach any closer.It was the same with what were obviously burialgrounds of some kind.We could see monuments andmonoliths tipped at odd angles, but we weren t given theopportunity to examine them any closer.I wasn t going to let that stop me, though.There was afull moon one night, and after everyone had fallen asleep, Islipped out of camp.I d never believed that bullshit aboutwalking in a graveyard at midnight.Maybe I should have.And maybe I should have takenEasy s XK-50 with me.Any names or dates that might have been on themarkers had been erased by time and the weather.Therewas something that looked similar to a mausoleum, butTo Love Through Space and Time * Tinnean87again, it was covered in vines.The door was rusted in place,and I couldn t enter.And if there were any engravings, Icouldn t feel them under my fingertips.On the way back to camp, I crossed paths with a lionessand her cub.I d never climbed a tree so fast in my life.Abranch tore my jacket, and my gun spilled out of my pocket.I turned the night blue with my swearing, then settled into wait.I d have to come up with a logical story as to how I dtorn my jacket.And then I realized I had the truth: a branch hadsnagged it.I d never had any intention of keeping where I dbeen from Easy.I d just omit this little incident.The lioness got bored after a while, or maybe she figuredher cub needed easier game to take down than me.Fortunately, she wasn t interested in my gun, and I found ita couple of yards away from the tree when I climbed down.I managed to make it back to camp before sunrise, and Islipped under my blanket. Where were you, Nicky? Easy asked softly. Went to check out that burial site. What did you find? A whole lot of nothing. I wished you d wakened me, he said wistfully. I d haveliked to go on an adventure.I leaned over and brushed a kiss across his lips. Nexttime, I promise.ON THE tenth day, Zelle paused at the edge of a marshwhere beaver dams formed numerous pools.She gestured forus to join her.Fifty yards ahead of us was an obelisk that rose upabout a hundred feet at a forty-five-degree angle.We couldTo Love Through Space and Time * Tinnean88see where flooding had left high-water marks.Its base wasconcealed in the muck, and its highest point was adiscolored triangular capstone. Doc? Hank sounded uneasy.Further to the east was Am I losing my mind, Doc?Even from this distance, we could see that the buildinghad lost part of its dome. This isn t possible! Ed was shaking It can t bepossible! This damage& it has to be centuries old! Van Allyn, we ll skirt the marsh. Of course the hunterscouldn t understand why we d be upset. The wise ones dwellthere. And Zelle gestured toward the right of what was leftof the US Capitol building.I was riding with Lish again. Get Rill over to Van Allyn.I knew the shit was about to hit the fan.Easy was ourleader, and he d have to take the fallout, but he wasn t goingto take it alone.With a nudge with his knee, Lish had the elephantmoving. I m sorry, Easy was saying to Ed and Hank. I hadn twanted to face it, but unless we buy into Ed s alien-abduction theory&.Easy had talked about it, and if he believed it, then Iwas pretty much ready to believe it too.Especiallyconsidering what we d found here: people who were like usdown to ten fingers and toes and a belly button, who spoke alanguage similar enough to our own that we d been able tounderstand them after only a week or so.Meanwhile, Easy continued to voice his hypothesis. &or explain the presence of lions and elephants? This is Terra.Hundreds of years beyond our time, but&.I reached across to touch his shoulder. It s not yourfault!To Love Through Space and Time * Tinnean89 How can this be Terra, Doc? Ed urged his hunter tobring the elephant they were riding closer to Easy s. Howcould this have happened? he demanded. Fuck how it happened! Hank was almost frantic. Howdo we get home?Would we ever be able to? Forget the damage done tothe Emmy s forward thrusters; even if we could get herrepaired, did we have enough fuel left to get her back intothe sky, much less out of the exosphere?Easy knew that as well as I did, and Ed should as well,being the pilot.Hank most likely knew it too, but he had afamily back in our time, and why would he want to facethat? Before we left, I spoke with Dr.Perkins about histheories of time as a fourth dimension.They happen tocoincide with mine, Easy added parenthetically.He lookedtired, and he ran a hand through his hair.When had itgotten so gray? We have no idea how long the Emmy was inhyperdrive, or how fast she was going when she entered it. So you re saying that somehow we broke the timebarrier? That that s how we got here? I don t blame you for wanting answers, Ed.I just wish Ihad some to give you. He glanced across at me.I shruggedand gave him a small smile; as long as we were together, Ididn t give a fuck about where or when we were.He lookedrelieved. I don t care how we got here! Hank snapped. All Iwant to know is how we get home! I don t know, Hank. Easy rubbed a hand over his face. Maybe these wise ones can tell us something. Then what are we waiting for? Zelle, can we hurry? Of course. She didn t tell the hunters how to make theapproach; they must have done this before.And theelephants were comfortable making their way across theTo Love Through Space and Time * Tinnean90marsh.In some spots the water was up to their knees, inothers it barely got their feet wet.We could see that the walls of other buildings hadcollapsed.Roofs had caved in. Easy.He jumped [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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