The Source: Book III of the Holding Kate Series (11 page)

“Yeah, y’all go on and find ‘em. We got plenty of help for cleanup.”

They retrieved a couple of undamaged golf carts from the garage, hopped in, and rushed back home.

Wallace, bent over a contraption that looked like an encyclopedia-sized cell phone, jerked up when they entered the boathouse. With large magnifying spectacles on, he looked like one of the giant bugs. Trip subdued a snort. Schmitz heaved a large crate onto the jump pad.

“Report,” Dirk commanded.

“Corey and Kate and two of the Cheleuthi warriors jumped. I found a site in Ampeliagian history that indicated foreigners had intervened.”

Dirk swore. “How long have they been gone?”

“An hour, tops.”

“We need to get there, now.”

“The remote is almost finished.” Wallace redoubled his efforts on the contraption.

“Okay, we need to decide who goes and who stays.” Dirk turned to look at the remaining Keepers and warriors.

Tara and Trip both stepped forward, crossed arms over their chests, and said “I’m going!” They both turned to look at each other. The identical stance and expressions of determination on their faces made them grin.

“Yeah, I figured you were going,” Dirk laughed. “Eunavae, you and Donnie speak the language. We could really use your help.”

“I’m coming,” Eunavae said without reservation.

Donnie turned to Mel, his hand reaching for her abdomen.

She whispered, “Go. Protect Kate.”

“No.” Donnie shook his head and wrapped his arm protectively across her midsection. “My place is here with you and the baby.”

“That’s fine. We are going to need someone we trust on this side to coordinate,” Dirk said.

“Tara, explain to our Cheleuthi friends that they have a choice. They can go back to their own time and home or they can come into their history with us.”

Tara began explaining the plan to the Cheleuthi Warriors. Only Starlythe spoke. The others stood in stalwart agreement.

“They are coming with us. They will not allow their sword brother and sister to take all the glory for this quest. They work as a team and refuse to be separated.” Tara darted a glance at Trip through her long lashes.

He understood completely. Tara and Trip were a team. Trip registered the truth; she was still his partner. No matter what else they had been to one another, or had not been, they were partners in battle, always.

His fingers itched to reach out and touch her, to affirm her thoughts. He didn’t. He clenched his hands into fists and ground his teeth.

The urge passed when Dirk said, “Okay, let’s go.”

“I packed all of your supplies.” Schmitz pointed to the crates and trunks on the QHR pad.

Wallace screwed a plate on the back of the contraption and handed it to Dirk. “This is the backup remote. Corey knows what to do with it.”

“Then let’s hope Corey is still able to tell us.” He arched a brow at Wallace and stepped onto the QHR pad.

They gathered around the supplies, waved goodbye to Donnie and Mel, and jumped.

Tara blinked away the blinding sunlight as the sphere dissipated. They landed on the outskirts of a small mountain village. A rocky path wound into town down the side of an incline lined with crisp evergreens and toothy crags. Trip whirled around and clamped his eyes on her, relaxed his shoulders, then slowly turned back around and surveyed the area. It sent a jolt through her heart to see his concern displayed so openly. She schooled her features into their normal mask of indifference.

“Eunavae, I need you to translate everything I say for the Cheleuthi,” Dirk said.

Eunavae told the Cheleuthi what he said and they nodded.

A young boy jumped out of a tree onto the road. He cocked his head sideways and then took off toward the village screaming at the top of his lungs. “Landing day, landing day, they are here! They have come.”

Eunavae, the Cheleuthi warriors, and Tara laughed. “They’re expecting us, it seems,” Tara said to Trip and Dirk.

Toting the luggage and supplies, they trekked toward town. In the distance Tara saw the little boy duck into a large timber structure. Two adults poured out of the building and hastened toward them. It turned out to be Kate and Stealthlin. Kate made a beeline for Tara and jumped into her arms.

“You came! You are here!” she whispered into Tara’s ear in perfect Ampelese.

Tara chuckled and peeled her off. Kate immediately jumped into Trip’s arms and hugged him, then Eunavae and Dirk. Stealthlin greeted his sword companions with hugs and chest slapping salutes.

“Kate, how long have you been here?” Dirk asked.

“Thirty seven years,” she said and began pulling Eunavae and Dirk toward the village. “Come, we have made you homes in preparation for your arrival,” she and Stealthlin escorted them to a street with small homes tucked into perfectly sized and manicured lots.

“Tara, can you guess which one is yours?” she asked.

Tara scanned the cottages and found it immediately. It was an exact replica of her cottage from the two century jump. “Yes.” She beamed. “Thank you.”

“It was Corey’s idea.” Kate’s eyes sparkled at Tara’s reaction.

“Where is Corey?” Trip asked at the sound of his name. Tara realized since Kate had been speaking Ampelese, he didn’t know what she had said to this point. Tara translated everything she had said so far. Kate waited while she explained.

“Corey and Candol are at the hospital.” Kate tacked onto the end of Tara’s translation. Her face fell. “They have worked day and night to find the cure for the Plague of Sleeping Death.” She shook her head and pressed her hands together. “So far all they have done is prolong the sleep phase. They are disheartened.”

“Take me to them.” Eunavae took Kate’s arm.

“Me too,” Manifus insisted.

“Okay, the rest of you pick out your homes and get settled. Stealthlin will see to any needs.”

The trio walked briskly toward the center of town. “This one is mine!” Tara laughed and pointed to the cottage obviously intended for her. The thatched roof curved down to emphasize the arched wood slat door. Rose bushes climbed the chimney, and stepping stones dotted the path from the street to the door.

“We have designed them with three bedrooms each. This one belongs to me and Candol.” Stealthlin pointed to the first house on the left, a plain A-frame with a wide front porch. “This one is Corey and Kate’s.” He pointed to the cottage that resembled a small version of First Cabin across from it.

The remaining two cabins were hewn of rough logs. “Eunavae can stay with me,” Tara said.

“I think we should integrate.” Starlythe pursed her lips.

“What do you mean?” Tara asked.

“We do not know how long we will be here. The sooner we consider ourselves one team, the better. I think we should live intermingled.”

“Okay.” Tara shrugged and turned to Dirk to translate her words.

He nodded and waved to Brashtor and Drayse, then turned to Trip. “You in with us?”

“I’m with Tara,” he said in a tone no one dared counter. Her insides squirmed.

“Manifus and I will live with you, too.” Krenne moved to stand beside Tara.

“We will take the last house and live with Eunavae,” Starlythe added, and Eunavae nodded.

They divided the supplies and settled in for a new adventure.

“WHERE IS SHE?”
The ginger-haired scientist rampaged through his lab, tossing over tables and beakers, computer monitors and consoles. He had searched for her for three weeks, since the attack on the village was ineffective in producing her.

She was still out there. He knew it. They would have all been hysterical if she and Corey had died in that building. But they were not, they were quite sedate, cleaning up his mess. He pushed his chair back and put his head in his hands.

“Where are you?” The last he saw of her, she was being yanked into the doc’s office by Corey. A few seconds later the Cyclops toppled into the exact spot he had last seen her.

“Idiotic Cyclops almost killed her.” His hands shook with the fear of losing her and his eye twitched repeatedly. He feared she had been crushed in the collapse.

Then she vanished.

He was able to monitor everything that happened in the jumps through his surveillance technology. He had consulted with the most brilliant minds in all of history, but it wasn’t until he studied the chair that Kate was bound to as The Mother that he was able to tap into the science that allowed him to record and view at will everything that happened in the quantum jumps.

It was the effect that made Kate feel omniscient as The Mother. She could see everything that happened on the dragon world through the technology of the chair. Gregory had been able to adapt that to the spheres. The only problem was finding the coordinates and triangulating the place with the time. Once that was accomplished he could view anything that happened on significant junctions in the quantum flux. Points of decision that led to significant repercussions vibrated in the quantum flux and could be recorded. He’d gone back in time and seeded the information with his younger self.

Right now, he wanted to know where The Kate had vanished to.

It was as though she disappeared off the face of the—

“Of course! She jumped! But where and when did she go?” He whirled around to his desk and began tapping on the desk top.

He couldn’t believe that they already had their spheres working. His last attack left the village decimated. It should have taken months to recover. That is why he never considered that The Kate had left the village. He assumed she was there helping with the cleanup, but couldn’t locate her.

Videos of The Kate blinked out. The holo monitor rose out of the pad he fingered, and he scrolled through the latest jump destinations.

He had discovered that every jump leaves a trace fluctuation in the space time continuum and he could chart all of the jumps across the world. Though the theories had been around for a while, the actual reality of Quantum jumping was fairly new so there weren’t many with the capability. One site in Bulgaria, one in Kyoto, Japan, and the one at Heartwork Village were the only official jump sites on the planet. Gregory knew of several unofficial sites, most of them were his, but a couple of rogue jumpers out there had succeeded in building a stable sphere. None of them had his remote capabilities, as far as he knew.