He called her Scarlet once but she corrected him.
“I’m not Scarlet.” She said. “I am Madroleeka. Jessie called me Maddy.”
His curiosity knew no limits and she brought in a space suit, showed him how to operate it and then allowed him to step outside. He marveled over the ships and the zero gravity and like her Jessie, he mastered the controls of the suit quickly. She refused when he wanted to fly the ship.
“Consider yourself lucky you are allowed to sit in it.” She said.
“Fine.” He said, unperturbed at being treated like a child. “Things will change when Scarlet wakes up. I can’t wait to get at that database, I have sooo many questions.”
Things did change. After the initial shock had worn off, there was much laughter and so much love it was palpable. The look of surprise on the boy’s face when they asked to see the database was priceless.
“I am the database.” She’d said. “What would you like to know?”
The two girls had laughed so hard Scarlet had to fan her face and had nearly choked.
The boy was so different than her Jessie and she saw how the love of a woman could change a man. He wasn’t angry at being stranded so far from home. He wasn’t depressed because he had failed and she had died. He wasn’t driven by vengeance to make Horowitz pay. He wasn’t raging at the universe.
Scarlet was as curious as the boy and after a week of answering any questions they had, showing her how to maneuver in a space suit and taking one of the ships out for a short cruise they sat down to a serious discussion.
Both bracelets sat on the table, the Osmitron beside them, its blue liquid ominous in the clear crystal container. Maddy explained what she knew of the dangers of jumping back and the boy understood. He had read the journals. He knew the other Jessie had jumped to the exact same coordinates three times and had wound up in three different times and places. They were too far away and were trying to go back too many thousands of years, the slightest abnormalities, the tiniest deviation changed things. They might jump together and be separated by years or thousands of miles.
“There is danger to go but there is also danger to stay.” She warned. “There is a price on Jessie’s’ life.”
“Oh. Jessie is a bad man.” Scarlet teased and ruffled his hair. “What did he do? Was he mean to an old lady? Maybe I turn him in for reward.”
“The pirates want his head for embarrassing them. The Queen of the Outer Reaches reprimanded them harshly for allowing an unauthorized vessel into her kingdom. To heap insult upon injury, she has decreed safe passage for him when he is in her system. Every time I go, they gnash their teeth in anger but dare not attack. When you leave here and begin your travels, they will be hunting for you. Her decree is only for her system, not the entire galaxy.
“Well, it shouldn’t be too hard to avoid space pirates.” The boy said. “They’re outlaws, right? They don’t wander around in civilized territories, do they?”
“Usually not.” She agreed. “But he has found disfavor with the Consortium. They also hunt him and they are everywhere.”
“What have you been doing out here by yourself?” Scarlet asked “I can’t leave you alone even for one minute without you making trouble.”
“Wasn’t me.” Jessie said. “It was the other guy. I barely woke up before you did.”
“Are they big problem?” Scarlet asked, the teasing in her voice gone.
“They can be.” Maddy said. “It’s like the mob or yakuza back on your world. We will take him to see a skin doctor, he will repair the scar. Yours too, if you wish.”
Scarlet touched the three white scars across her cheek and looked at Jessie’s that ran from his lip to his eye.
“No.” She said after considering it for a moment. “I don’t know if I like him as pretty boy. Maybe he starts making eyes at pretty girl then I have to kill him myself. We stay the way we are. Too handsome is ugly.”
“Any other reasons we shouldn’t stay?” Jessie asked. “Any other surprises the other me has waiting?”
There weren’t and the pair became excited again, ignoring her suggestions for new faces and new identities.
They wanted to make a life among the stars. Earth had very little to offer them and it wasn’t worth the risks to attempt a return. She was honored when they asked her to train them, teach them like she’d taught Jessie. They didn’t demand or expect anything and were worried they could never repay her.
“This is not a concern.” She said. “Thousands of years ago Jessie made a wise business decision. The proceeds from his tobacco empire have grown every year. He has more credits than he could possibly hope to spend. They are yours now.”
They were surprised and pleased about being wealthy but they had meant something else. How could they repay the kindness she was showing them? What could they do for her?
“When the time is right, when you are confident and proficient and I can teach you no more, I would like to be allowed to go.”
“You’re free to leave now.” The boy insisted. “You’re not our slave.”
He was fool hardy. They would be dead in a week if she left them to their own devices.
“Where will you go?” Scarlet asked.
She pulled up the sleeve of her sweater and showed them the third bracelet.
“Back to him.” She said.
49
The Traveler
Jessie sailed down to the ocean then turned south. Winter was coming again and he wanted to be someplace where there wasn’t snow. He wasn’t confident enough to go too far out, he liked to
