| Generated by Google Flow text-to-video AI software, powered by Veo 3 |
Admiral Tinaya Leithe. That’s what it says on her name plate. She has one
more job to do before she can rest in peace, and if what her son from the
future told her is true, it’s going to be her longest job yet. That’s
exciting—she wants to be alive, of course—but it’s also pretty stressful and
scary. She’s already so old, and so tired. She’s really gonna be leaning on
Lataran to take the brunt of the work here. Which should be okay. She’s
still youngish, and is showing no signs of slowing down. It might not matter
anyway. Captain Oceanus Jennings hasn’t sought either of their counsels.
Still, day in and day out, they come to their giant joint office, and make
themselves available.
Tinaya sighs. “What am I doing here?”
“Hold your fingers up like this.”
“Okay.” She mimics Lataran’s gesture. “Then what are you gonna do?”
“Try to flick the football between your thumbs.”
Before Lataran could do what she proposed, Tinaya drops her hands, and
reaches over to her docked tablet. She puts in her search parameters.
“Uhh...is this meant to be association football, or
North American football? Or foosball. Are you sure it’s not
foosball?”
“It’s none of those things. It’s paper football.”
“That explains why it’s a triangle, and it’s not a triangle in any of these
reference photos.”
“Do you wanna play or not?”
“Not,” Tinaya answers. “You’re the one who asked, not me.”
“Well, I’m tired of RPS 101 Plus. I was just trying to change things up.”
“You could always get into Quantum Colony, like everyone else.”
“No, that game gives me the willies.” Lataran shivers. “There’s something
too real about it.
“Yeah.” Tinaya stands up. “I’m gonna take a walk on the trails.”
“You do that,” Lataran replies. “You’re welcome, by the way!” she calls up
after Tinaya is some distance away. She never lets her friend forget that
she’s the one who built their little corner of paradise as a gift.
“Thank you!”
Just as Tinaya is reaching the entrance to the path, the doorbell rings.
“Thistle, who’s that?”
A floating hologram displaying the doorbell cam appears right in front of
her. “Audrey Husk. She does have Admiral Hall clearance, so she didn’t break
in.”
“She’s a little young to have clearance for anywhere on this ship besides
home and school.”
“I can’t explain it. Her authorization didn’t come through me. It’s just
there,” Thistle replies. That’s weird. He’s meant to know everything that happens
on this ship.
While Lataran has seniority here, they treat it as a democracy. She’s
standing by the door, waiting for Tinaya’s go ahead. When she gets it, she
opens it up, and greets their visitor.
The little girl, Audrey takes one step over the threshold. “Admirals Keen
and Leithe, my name is Audrey Husk, and I’m here to speak to you regarding
Silveon Grieves and Waldemar Kristiansen.”
“Oh, are you their new little friend?” Leithe asks, gesturing to her to come
on in.
Audrey accepts the invitation. “Little is the right word, because I’m
shorter than I will be.”
“Uhh...”
“That is, I’m shorter than I’m used to being...”
Tinaya widens her eyes, and looks over at Lataran in fear.
“She needs to know what’s going on anyway,” Audrey claims dismissively. “So
go ahead and give her the deets.” She crosses her arms like she’s going to
wait for it. But it’s not her call. It’s not even Tinaya’s.
“I’m afraid that I would need to consult both Arqut and Silveon, as well as
maybe Zefbiri.
“I don’t have time for this,” Audrey says. “Admiral Keen, Silveon is a time
traveler who sent his consciousness into his younger self’s body so he could
fulfill a mission to protect the future from a violent dictator.”
Lataran absorbs the information for all of four seconds. “Got it.” To be
fair, she’s a time traveler too, and it was this whole thing.
“I’m guessing something went wrong, and you’re here to give the timeline a
third chance,” Tinaya says. She’s not happy about this kid spilling
the beans, but she knows that they can trust Lataran, so everything will be
okay.
“Oh, no, I’m not from a different timeline,” Audrey begins to explain.
“Silvy and I were contemporaries. He chose to send himself back alone,
believing it to be a solo mission. The others and I disagreed. I secretly
sent my own mind back at the exact same moment. I’ve been watching over him
without him even noticing.”
“How is that even possible?” Tinaya questions. “If he knows you in the
future, wouldn’t he notice you acting weird in the past? Surely you’re
making choices now that he wouldn’t predict, unless you’re a really good
actor.”
Audrey chuckles. “He is a singular man of singular focus. That is precisely
why we decided to do this behind his back. He misses things sometimes. He
needs others more than he will admit.” She smiles, presumably remembering
something from their future. “But yes, I am a good actor. I recently
successfully inserted myself as the third leg of their friendship tripod,
but things immediately got complicated.”
That sounds gross. “Don’t tell me there’s something going on between you
three in a...romantic sense.”
“Oh, God, no. It’s nothing like that. I was chosen for the
supervisory mission specifically because there weren’t any feelings in the
first timeline, and because I’m the right age. I came at this mission as a
total professional, as did your son. Waldemar, however, knows nothing about
what’s to become of him. To him, this is just life. I’m afraid that your
son’s interference with Waldemar’s childhood development has had unforeseen
consequences. As I believe you know, Waldemar is incapable of love. His
brain isn’t wired for it. He is also a man of singular focus, and his drug
of choice is ambition. But Silveon has been teaching him to assimilate
better into society, allowing him to approximate—read: fake—emotional
connection. I’m trying to tell you that Waldemar has found a love interest,
and I don’t know what it means.”
“Why come to me?” Tinaya questions.
“I don’t wanna out myself to Silveon if I don’t have to, but I require
advice. That is your job on this ship anyway, but I am well aware that
Captain Jennings is not the type to ask for it, leaving you with a lot
of...” She looks over at their desks, which are mostly there as decoration.
“...free time.”
“Who is this love interest of Waldemar’s? Do they reciprocate?”
“Unfortunately, yes. He chose a female, I believe, to later set himself up
as a nuclear family man with biological children. I know, that’s disturbing,
but I knew Waldemar very well in the future. Everything good or normal about
him was fake. I don’t think Silveon really sees it, but he’s falling into
the same patterns, just with a faster timeline. He had a family before. It
was inevitable that he would learn to fake human characteristics, like love
and empathy. That’s what sociopaths do. I’m afraid that your son’s efforts
may not be doing us any good.”
“He fears that as well,” Tinaya acknowledges. “I don’t know if there’s
anything that we can do about it, though. Let’s imagine taking this girl out
of the equation in whatever way, so she can never become his wife. He’ll
just choose someone else, won’t he, even if it’s not for a few more years?”
“That’s why I rang your doorbell,” Audrey says. “I can’t see a solution.”
She looks away, almost in shame. “And I don’t wanna go to Plan B.”
“What’s Plan B?”
Audrey takes a moment to respond. She turns her head back to face them with
dignity. “Waldemar will be an adult in two years. Both Silveon and I have
been given the greenlight to take care of the problem permanently any time
following his eighteenth birthday. It’s a last resort, but it’s not out of
the question.”
“Yes, it is,” Lataran insists.
“I told you, I don’t like it,” Audrey reminds her, “but we can’t go back to
the way things were. One life to save thousands.”
“No, I mean, it won’t work. I assume you know of The Question?”
Audrey is surprised that she mentioned this. “I do. What does that have to
do with anything?”
“Death is not the end on this ship. What you’ll be doing is making him mad,
and if anyone can find a way to return to base reality with a new substrate,
it’s a man dangerous enough to warrant two time traveling assassins in the
first place. Killing him will not have the desired effect. We’re not that
lucky.”
Audrey considers Lataran’s position. “You may be right about that. I just
don’t know what to do. I’m not even sure if I should do anything at all.
Maybe I’m wrong, and Silveon is skillfully leading Waldemar down the right
path, just as we planned, but I can’t see it, because I’ve had to keep my
distance to protect my own cover.”
Tinaya sighs. “This girl, is she being abused, or will she be?”
“That I don’t know,” Audrey admits. “I was relatively close to
Future!Waldemar, but not family close. If there was abuse with his
wife, it wasn’t made public, or even an open secret. It didn’t seem like his
wife could ever tell that he didn’t love her, but this new girl might
suspect, and that may place her in danger eventually. I can’t predict her
actions, nor his reactions to her actions.”
“I have an idea,” Lataran says, “but it’s not pleasant.”
“What is it?” Audrey asks. “What is it?” she repeats herself when Lataran
hesitates to elaborate.
“I’m still new to this whole situation, but you’re only about four years
younger than him. At the moment, that’s disturbing. In the future, it won’t
be that big of a deal. If you really wanted to stop some innocent person
from getting caught up in his lies, you could...take the job for yourself.
Again, you can’t do anything like that yet, but...”
Audrey stares into space. “No, that’s a good idea. In six years, I’ll be 18,
and he’ll be 22. If I play my cards right—as long as he isn’t in too serious
of a relationship with someone else—I can step in. I can be a shield for any
other potential mate of his, because I know what I’m up against, and I know
that I can handle it.”
“No,” Tinaya says, throwing up her hands. “No. I know you’re not really
twelve, just like my son isn’t really eight, but I can’t listen to you talk
about this. You’re planning to gaslight a human being into
pretending to love you so no one knows that he has a social disorder.
You’re saying it while looking like a twelve-year-old, with your
twelve-year-old eyes and your twelve-year-old voice. Jesus. Did you not
study ethics before you left the future?”
“No, I didn’t!” Audrey argues. “It was banned from the curriculum...by
Waldemar. This is the sacrifice that we make. I promise, I won’t do anything
until I’m legally an adult, and then it won’t be so weird for you. We don’t
even have to speak to each other again until that day comes, or maybe
ever. But I have to do something. The ship and its total population
aren’t the only concerns. The girl he’s dating has a name, and if he’s not
hurting her now, he might. I have to take that bullet, because I’m the only
one who can. The alternative is ethically worse. We already agreed on that,
didn’t we?”
Tinaya shakes her head. “Don’t make any plans yet. As you said, you have six
years before it’s even remotely okay for you to start dating. I mean,
goddammit. You look four years younger, but you are several
decades older. That makes it even weirder, and gives you a level of power
over any partner you may choose that I am not comfortable with.”
Audrey nods. “That’s true. I don’t think that my consciousness is quite as
old as you may suspect, but I see your point.”
“All right, this has been a very heated discussion,” Lataran points out.
“You better get back to whatever life you have. I’ll scrub you from the logs
so no one finds out that you were here.”
“Already done,” Audrey says as she spins around and heads back towards the
door. “Thanks for your help!” She exits.
The two admirals look at each other, neither one entirely sure what to say
after all this. “Welp. We’re not bored anymore, are we?”
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