Girl Out of Time by Clyde Boyer

Author:Clyde Boyer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Girl Friday Books
Published: 2023-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 32

Mara sat alone on her deck and looked out across the lake. The sun was setting behind her and cast a warm glow across the meadow, the lake, and the fields beyond. Silently she watched the mirror image of clouds and their reflection off the water’s surface slowly roll by. She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply. The air was warm and smelled of summer grass.

<Mara?>

SID’s voice broke the evening calm. Mara ignored it.

“This is the most wonderful smell.” Mara opened her eyes and leaned back in her seat to look up at the darkening sky.

<You decided not to tell her.> SID modulated its voice for the greatest receptivity.

“Today was a very good day. Can we just leave it at that?”

<Based on the substance and direction of your earlier conversation with Anna, this afternoon would have been the optimal time. She has the right to know. It impacts her too.>

“And what should I tell her, SID? The future is not what she thinks it is.”

<No, I’m referring to your situation. She believes she has a future with you. Don’t you think you owe it to her to be more forthcoming?>

Mara paused before replying.

“How long have we been doing this, SID? Over three years?”

<1,105 days to be exact.>

“Okay. For the last 1,105 days, we’ve traveled to how many destinations?”

<Twenty-six.>

“And the pattern has been like clockwork, correct? We arrive at a new destination and anomalies appear in the time delta almost immediately. Within a week, trumpets sound in the sky. Wormholes open up. Creatures escape from other worlds. Chaos. And then what happens, SID?”

<We detect the presence of the Others.>

Mara had no idea what to call them. SID could only detect changes in energy signatures. But Mara saw those creatures in real life and in her dreams⁠—images of featureless bone-white creatures that felt so alien she could find no better word. The Others. From the first moment in the distant future, when she saw one across the street staring at her with eyes containing spinning galaxies, she knew that these creatures were hunting for her.

Her initial encounter with the Others came on her first day of time travel. She had just returned from her maiden trip, which lasted no more than fifteen minutes and served as a test run to prove she could travel to a specific time and location with precision. It seemed to have worked so well, and SID’s numbers proved it out. Time travel was possible. She ran from her lab, excited to tell her father and mother. She carried images from the past on her iCom as well as a small extinct flower she’d plucked from the ground during her time travel as evidence.

She struggled now to remember what her old home looked like, but she would never forget the expression on her father’s face when he failed to recognize her that distant morning. Her father refused to open the door for her. Worse yet, he looked frightened of her. A quick scan of the network revealed what she was beginning to fear herself.

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