Kicking Ashe (25 page)

“Time is a bitch, is it not?”

It surprised Ashe to hear him use her line, surprised Timmy even more. He scowled.

“So you remembered some. Doesn’t change anything. You’ll just forget again. Or we’ll both die here with our world.” His smile was on the oily side. “You won’t do it. You’ve got that noble streak. You won’t let the future die. You didn’t the last time we met like this.”

The last time he didn’t have me at his back.

She felt the sigh that shivered through Shan, the leach of that last hope that it wasn’t Timrick.

How can he be my brother, but not?

The family DNA wheel will sometimes spin to the same place, spitting out a twin, or an almost twin. Hasn’t anyone ever told you that you look like Uncle fill in the blank?

Then he is my true brother?

Ashe let Lurch give him the inner nod. Didn’t mean the Timrick from Shan’s other time was squeaky clean. A thread of betrayal could connect these two in time. Like golden threads, Ashe saw the strands stretching back in time, felt the forces of time gathering around them.
I think my time senses are back.
Yes, she could see the threads, see right time swirling around and through them both. They belonged together, in this place and in this time. This wasn’t their future, it was their present, though it was wrong. Little Timmy had wiped out his present and his planet. Good plan, Timmy. He’d probably had help browsing through time, help in finding a place in the past to shunt Shan, one where it would be difficult for him to fulfill his destiny, one where the restrictions of the past would confine and contain him. Then, by bringing the past version of Shan forward, he’d be an ill fit, too. Both would struggle against the bonds of their lives, and send warning flares into the time plain. And, when Ashe had set off the big bang, the instability caused by the wrong time had splintered into this.

The bugs are getting closer.
If Lurch had had feet, they’d be tapping.

Ashe opened her thoughts to give Shan a prompt, but he was already there. Lurch might not like him, but he had to admit the guy was no slouch in the brains department.

It is a recent development.

Ooh, bitter.

“You are not smart enough to do this alone. You are a puppet. Someone else yanks your strings, little brother.”

Timmy didn’t like that. “If only I could kill you.”

That wasn’t a denial.
Shouldn’t we get a life signs reading if the puppet master is close?

“But you can’t. Time won’t let you. It keeps bringing us back to this moment, because you are not man enough to fill my shoes, to take my life. It calls me back. It wants me in my place.”

If someone is out there, they are cloaked or shielded.

Makes sense if our evil overlord is helping them. He had access to Time Base tech.

Shan smiled, though Ashe could not see his face. She felt it though, felt serenity fill him. Serenity wasn’t his go-to place, but he made it work.

“Your puppet master didn’t tell you this could happen, did he? Will you enjoy ruling over this?”

Timmy snorted, but Ashe saw uncertainly in his weak, blue eyes. “When you return to the past, my future will be grand.”

Shan shook his head. “Not this time. We will end it here.”

“Fine.” He raised the weapon.

Ashe raised hers, painting a mental target on his back.

It’s ready.

Do it.

Ashe wasn’t sure who got their licks in first, time or Lurch. The horizon shuddered and the EM flashed. Ashe didn’t know if she felt it or saw it, just knew her suit went down with the Zelk’s camo. The nanites had long ago learned to protect themselves against pulses of any sort, but they lost contact with the bird’s sensors when Lurch put up his EM deflectors. She’d have shot Timmy then, but still no order. At least Timmy had his back to her, though he did glance to his left and then his right.

“What did you do?”

“Did you think I did not know?”

“It doesn’t matter. You will still die here, brother.” He sneered the word.

“Go ahead. It is better to get shot than eaten.” He angled his head. “Can’t you hear them?”

Timmy’s eyes widened. He must have sent an order to his now visible Zelk, because they turned out, forming a defensive circle around him. Ashe ducked down behind the tumbled remains of a wall, though they had to have seen her. Only they didn’t react. And now that she could see them, there was precision and cohesion to the way they moved. No wonder Timmy had hid them. He’d have been beyond obvious hanging with these peeps.

Shan snorted his disdain. “Do you think your few lizards can hold back a tide? I barely got my craft airborne before they ate through the hull.”

“It is a trick.”

The all too familiar murmur of bugs closing made Ashe want to get the shooting started. She had no desire to get eaten. Now would be a great time for a time wave, one that swept them to a time before the bugs. Timmy so needed shooting, but be better for his character if he got eaten. Wished they could go and leave him behind.

Timmy glanced around, still not checking his back though, as if trying to pinpoint the bug-apocalypse, then swung back with clear intent to fire. “You—”

An energy beam flared from Shan’s two o’clock. It tracked toward Timmy, dropped him like a rock, his look of surprise frozen on his face. His fall seemed to freeze the lizards, too. A pity with the bugs still incoming. Could have used the firepower.

Shan dropped to a knee by Timmy, felt for his pulse. Through their connection, she felt the flutter of Timmy’s pulse. Did that mean someone didn’t want him dead? He looked around, then rose with Timmy’s weapon in hand.

“Drop the weapon, Shan.”

Ashe wasn’t that surprised when Bana—or a version of her—stepped out from behind some rubble. Family first, in good times and bad. She felt a flicker as the bird’s computer system reconnected with Lurch, her suit came back, too, and the beginning of a warning from Lurch just before the poke in the back.

“You, too, Garradian.”

Okay, Calendria wasn’t a huge surprise either. She dropped her weapon, raised her arms. Maybe a little surprise. Calendria had collected all the automaton parts under the cloak. The Zelk would have been all over the camp if Time hadn’t gotten there first. Just couldn’t see why the old girls would be doing this.

I am sorry. The system did not come up fast enough.

I should have expected it. Forgot to expect the unexpected.

“Only those you trust can betray you.”

Shan didn’t sound bitter. Or surprised. He was learning. Ashe felt his body tensing for a possible leap. Perhaps Bana saw it or sensed it. She lifted the weapon a bit.

“Calendria will kill her before you can take me down.”

They are well armed.

Top of the top of the line 5000. The Time Base’s latest and best energy weapon.

Let me guess. You left yours pointed at something big.

If she’d been issued one, yeah. They didn’t hand those out to rookies. Despite the implied lack of confidence from the Time Council, Ashe felt loose, hyper alert, ready to react. Adrenaline and drones coursed in her veins. Didn’t wince or care when she tossed most of the weapons clear. Bana would expect her to keep one or two back. Hopefully she wouldn’t expect how many she kept back. And if they did a pat down? Odds were they’d miss something. Not that she needed weapons to take down two old ladies. A pity they weren’t their only problem. She dropped her camo, just enough to look weapons free. “Hey, Bana. Calendria. How
quaint
of you to join the party.”

“Lose the rest, Garradian,” Calendria ordered, through gritted teeth, giving her another poke in the back.

That was kind of cold. Here she thought they bonded over the laundry basket. Neither seemed too concerned to be pointing weapons at two, battled trained warriors. Okay, they had the weapons, but they’d have to hit what they pointed at. Of course, Calendria would have to really suck to miss with the barrel against Ashe’s back. The recoil on the 5000 was supposed to be a bitch, though. And the weapon was uber light. She still liked her odds. She felt Shan’s battle readiness as surely as she felt her own.

You can both leap tall buildings and out run locomotives. But not the bugs, which are coming.

After another jab to the back, Ashe produced two more weapons and tossed them on the pile, her gaze slicing between the two women, as if trying to pick whose ass to kick.

Bana waved the 5000, probably sensing Ashe’s weapon envy. “Drop your camo.”

Ashe expected it, but didn’t like. Not that she liked much. Felt the camo go down again, even though technically she couldn’t. Felt a little silly in shiny, silver, with Keltinarian rustic over the top. But was glad for the rustic—if they didn’t do a pat down.

“You know this will pierce your shielding.” Bana moved the 5000 again, just in case Ashe didn’t know what she meant.

Ashe nodded, added a shrug cause it had to hit her to pierce anything. Calendria didn’t try a pat down. That was kind of smart, kind of dumb. Cause Ashe could have taken the 5000 away without breaking a sweat if Calendria took a hand off it for said pat down. But that left Ashe still packing, which they couldn’t prove without a pat down. Two to two was almost a yawner, if she took out the incoming bugs. Which, sadly, she couldn’t.
How long?

Five minutes.

Time to find out what the freak they thought they were doing messing with time.

“Are you going to shoot me now, Bana?” Wasn’t as upset about that as she usually would be. Yeah, there was the family mantra about not getting shot, but there ought to be one about not getting eaten by bugs.

“She won’t,” Shan put in, “not before.”

Bana’s attention swung back his direction. “Before what?”

“Before Ashe explains how she knew.”

I knew?

He’s bluffing.

Oh, right. I knew that.

“She doesn’t know anything.”

Calendria’s scorn was a bit forced, like she wanted to convince herself. Didn’t have to have a schnozzle for smells to pick up the defensive in there.

“Then why am I here?” Ashe glanced around. “I love what you did with Keltinar by the way. Was dystopian rustic what you were going for? Cause you so nailed it.”

The waver was slight, quickly controlled. The quick glance around not so hidden. “This is just a way station.”

Not a Time school grad if she thought this was anything like a way station. And that glance away? A big, huge opening. Almost took it, but they didn’t know enough yet. Shan looked remote, a bit indifferent, but inside he was a big hunk of mad male ready to act. Sent a bit of a fizz along her nerve endings.

“Who told you this was a way station? Cause it’s not even a way station’s first cousin.”

“Don’t your recognize our outer wall, Bana?” He pointed toward the posts. “Our logo marked those pillars. This was the boundary of your world. Just over there was the chapel where your daughter was partner chosen.”

“Then it is just a slice of reality.” She sounded smug. Looked it, too. “My daughter exists in the
real
Keltinar.”

So she knew the big, bad guy. But did she know he was probably dead? “A sliced out reality wouldn’t last this long. They are too unstable. Only useful for a snatch and grab before they collapse.” This place wasn’t stable, but it was a different instability than she’d experienced during her brief pass through an actual sliced out reality. And the fact that she knew that was a bit disturbing.

“This is not a slice of anything. I saw it from the air.” Shan joined the conversation. “See the skyline of Keltinar Prime? You used to be able to see it from your bedroom over there.” He pointed into the rubble. “The farm stratum was that way. I saw where it used to be when we flew in. This
is
Timrick’s kingdom.”

She paled, down but not out. “A reset will fix it. And your return to your small, little life in the past.” Her aim steadied. Perhaps Shan shifted. Or she was worried he’d do something. “Don’t. We’ll get you both before you can think, let alone move.”

Cause the scientist and the cook would have faster reflexes than theirs. She was the gift that kept on giving.

“Yeah, about that reset.” Ashe shifted just a bit, getting her feet in position for a leap. “Your big, bad buddy is dead. Won’t be able to reset anything. And Time is just cleaning up the
debris
from his downfall.” Might be bluffing, but might not. Didn’t feel like bluffing.

Bana’s gaze hardened. Maybe she didn’t like being called debris. “Do you think I care about Smith? He was a tool. And a weak one. Our cause is bigger than one man. We do it for all men, for the better good of all women.”

Ashe doubted she could trigger that reset without Smith’s help. A least one puzzle piece fell into place. “You’re a Misogynist.”

The bizarre, all female cult had enjoyed a very brief, very limited flurry of popularity some seasons after the end of the Gadi/Dusan conflict. Adherents advocated a return to the old ways, where women were sequestered, though they called it protected—and men ruled from their positions of “greater wisdom.” No surprise it was more popular with men than women. If Smith and Bana had tried to boost the cult’s profile with time tampering—Smith so he could get his mitts on the Constilinium—that might explain the girl hunts that kept popping up in Shan’s previous realities. As she’d previously noted, devaluing females tended to result in scarcity.

“And I stood in your way.” Shan looked, he felt somber through the link, but he was relaxed and dangerous in a way Bana didn’t seem to notice.

“Yes.” She gave him a look filled with venom. “No matter how many times you are trained in the proper precepts, no matter how many times we shift you into the past, you find a way to break free, to enact reforms once any controls are lifted. It did not seem to matter how far into the past we sent you, you still found paths to take power, to defeat the Way.”

Had the Bana she’d met felt like this? Or had she been another placeholder in time? Or had Smith “mined” alternate realities for the wackiest version of her he could find? That would boost the instability, like tinder on a fire.