Olivia Becker hated crying. It left her nose all stuffed up and her ears plugged and her cheeks stinging. She had cried anyway when the scientists came to tell them it was time to go home. Najwa had, too, which was a comfort. At least it wasn’t just her.
They had changed back into their own clothes. The clothes they had arrived in. For Olivia, it was the slightly-smoke-scented garments she had run away in—a pair of capri pants, a t-shirt, a zip hoodie, and her duffel bag of every belonging she had left. Leonidas wore again his tunic with its rope belt. Najwa was once more in the bright clothing of Java with her hair plaited out of the way.
Everet was the only one who needn’t change. After all, he was already home. It isn’t fair. None of this is fair.
Except I agreed to it. Olivia sighed. And yes, I understand it, too.
That small voice in her head was right. She had the choice to say “no” at the start, and she didn’t. If she were being honest with herself, she knew she wouldn’t change that answer for anything.
Olivia sat next to Everet on a couch in a sitting room. Leonidas and Najwa had already been led away after hugs and farewells. It was just her, now. Their shoulders touched, and Olivia tipped her head back and blinked quickly to stop any fresh tears from falling.
“We couldn’t find your grandparent’s address.” The future boy leaned back beside her.
“That’s all right. I don’t want it. I’m going back to Amy’s house, I hope.”
“I can tell you now, you know,” Everet said gently.
“What?” Olivia looked at him, wiping her cheeks with the sleeve of her sweatshirt.
“I can tell you about Leonidas and Najwa, and you. It helps make this part easier, we’ve found.”
Olivia took a deep breath. “Yeah. Okay. Tell me about Leonidas first.”
Everet grinned, pulling out a tablet to read the file notes. “Well, his mother does divorce his father. They leave Paxi and go all the way across the Adriatic to Rhodes. And yes, he enters the Olympics at sixteen—and wins laurels and palms twelve times for running.”
“Wow.”
“Over four years. He wins three races every time.”
She couldn’t help but laugh. “I can see that. He runs everywhere.”
“You want to know the best part?”
“What?”
“That record won’t be beaten until your time—in 2016. He holds the title of most Olympic wins for over two thousand years!”
Olivia leaned back against the couch. “Wow. That’s … actually amazing. No wonder he was so good at outrunning that phantino.”
Everet laughed. “Maybe. He’s pretty private other than that, though. We don’t know much else about him, though the Project Hourglass simulation AIs made a pretty good guess about his other admirable traits.”
“Do you think he was happy?”
“I think so.” Everet smiled. “He’s cheery. People like him and he likes people. He treats women well. And we can tell that some of his genes are in the modern gene pool, so it’s clear he had a family. So yeah, I think he does okay.”
Olivia laughed. “Good job, Leonidas.”
“Najwa’s story is a little different. She told us about her father, but we can’t help him. And yes, we found that vial of nanites and confiscated it.”
“I didn’t think it would work. Can’t blame a girl for trying. But her father …”
“He’s going to die. Soon after she returns.”
Olivia’s heart sank. “That’s … that’s awful. I lost my mom, so I know how much that sucks. Only Najwa’s father is also their sole bread winner.”
Everet sighed. “Yeah. But there’s good news, too. She’s going to convince her mother to let her keep fishing. They stay in the village and no one says anything, because Najwa’s good at it. In fact, the other fishermen soon become protective of her.”
“Good!” Olivia said fiercely. “They should be—she’s amazing. Good for you, Najwa.”
“You don’t know the half of it. That’s not even the best part.”
“It isn’t?”
“In 1883, just two years later, the volcanic island of Krakatoa will erupt with an explosion that is detected even in faraway London. The ash-cloud will be so huge that it blackens the sky for hundreds of kilometers of land and sea. Najwa, all on her own, will head straight into all of that three times, and eventually lead seven ships out of the ash cloud. She’ll save their crews and passengers, as well as dozens of people from a capsized ferry. Then she will spend weeks leading relief efforts for coastal villages trashed by the following tsunamis.”
Olivia snorted. “Little Najwa? Holy cow!”
Everet smiled.
“Okay, but she wanted to come back here. Does she not get to?”
“Actually, we’re looking into it. There are … time paradox considerations. But Najwa fits into a special category, because there will come a certain moment when—maybe—a paradox window might allow it.”
“Really? How’s that?”
Everet, leaning forward, tapped at his tablet. “Just after the success of saving all those people during the eruption, Najwa makes it home to her village. Her local rubber baron sponsors her to go to school and she does well. Only then, one day, she simply vanishes. Her boat is found at sea, empty.”
“And that’s good because?”
“Dr. Cee says we may try to grab her just as she pilots the boat into a small thunderstorm. And amid the surrounding mystery, there’s no way anyone will suspect. Historical resilience will not be stretched at all. We think.”
“You said ‘try,’ though. Why did you say try?” Olivia asked with a frown.
“Well, Najwa will be fifteen then, and she might not survive the yank,” Everet admitted. “We’re hopeful, though. If she does survive, it means that she and I can go back to Noros together.”
“Wait, are you going back?” Olivia sat up.
“Yeah. Jax and my moms and I talked it over. And I have permission to take a few bumblebees and bigger shuttles and train some storm-runners. We’re going to support small mining sites and map the continent and do research missions. We’re going to help with supply deliveries from the space station, too.”
Olivia smiled with him, though it felt bittersweet. “I’m so happy for all of you guys.”
“Well, you haven’t even heard the best part,” Riggin said from the doorway.
Olivia jumped. “Riggin!”
“Olivia.”
“What do you mean?” she huffed.
“I mean that Everet hasn’t told you about your future yet, has he?” The scientist gestured for the pair of them to follow him.
“No, not yet,” she said.
Everet faced her with a grin. “Olivia, in the time of troubles you become a scientist. In fact, you become the foremost expert on climate and natural disasters, specializing in storms. You develop a way to predict where natural disasters are going to occur and design a program that helps detect potential hurricanes and stormfronts well before they form—one we still use today. It’s in the satellites that are orbiting Noros.”
I do all that? Olivia’s mouth worked, but the words wouldn’t come out. She, who felt she didn’t know anything at all, was going to become a scientist who helped save the world? And she helped save Noros, too. Worlds, plural! She laughed helplessly.
“You do it all with your brother, too,” Everet added.
“What?” Olivia snorted, rubbing a hand down her face. “You mean Tanner? So our parents do get married.”
“Yeah, I guess they do.”
“You know what, I think that might be all right,” Olivia affirmed. She adjusted her hold on the duffel bag on her shoulder. “I think I can handle having him around. He reminds me a little bit of someone.”
“Who?” Riggin demanded.
“Everet.”
Everet laughed. “Oh man, no wonder you like him.”
“Don’t get a big head.” Olivia couldn’t help but smile, though.
They reached the room Olivia had first arrived in. Plush carpet, strange door, nothing else.
“All right, Olivia. It’s time,” Riggin said gently, guiding her to stand right in front of the door.
“Okay, I learn all that, just to forget it immediately?” Oddly enough, she felt fine. It did help, knowing that she would be all right in her own time and that everyone else would be in theirs.
Riggin stepped forward, a small silver cylinder in his hand. He pressed it against her neck, just behind her ear. She didn’t even feel the needle. “That’s the nanite serum that will help you forget, and it will dissolve the Broca device. And now it’s time to go.”
“Okay. What do I do?” she asked breathlessly.
“Step through the door and just keep walking,” Everet said, patting her back. “Don’t worry, Olivia, I won’t forget you.”
“You better not.” She tightened her grip. The door hummed to life. The back of it went gray. “Is it ready? Do I go now?”
Riggin nodded. “Goodbye, Olivia. You weren’t entirely awful.”
She chuckled, though a tear ran down her cheek. “Goodbye, Riggin, you neither. Goodbye, Everet.”
It was one of the hardest things she had ever done, to take that first step. I won’t forget, she vowed. I won’t forget Everet, or Noros, or the storms. I won’t forget Najwa or Leonidas. I won’t forget the colony, the trees, the flying fish, the sky.
She stepped through the door and kept walking, hands tight around her duffel bag. Everything was gray and flickering around her.
I won’t forget the future. I won’t forget the—
—address.
Olivia stood in the park beside the slide, staring at the street sign across the corner. If she could just remember the address to her grandparent’s house …
She sighed, sitting at the base of the slide and dropping her suddenly throbbing head in her hands.
“Running away isn’t the answer.” She knew that, even if she couldn’t put her finger on why. It was something more than the fact that she didn’t know where she was going.
Olivia Becker, you are very brave, she heard the small voice inside her say. Strange that it sounded a little mechanical this time.
But maybe I am.
Thunder rumbled overhead. Olivia looked up quickly. The unending gray haze over Calimesa had thickened and turned black as ink, with patches of lighter gray here and there. Clouds! Rain clouds! As she watched, lightning flickered and turned the whole world silver and white for a moment. Not just rain, a storm.
A storm …
For just a moment, Olivia thought she remembered a place with red trees and moss on the ground, and lightning flashing in the distance—near, but not near. And with that thought came determination and peace. This just has to get done.
What did? She frowned.
The first drops of rain began to fall. Olivia couldn’t help but smile. The rains were exactly what California needed right now. What the world needed. The storm couldn’t come soon enough. The rains would help put out the fires, and holy cow did they need to put out the fires. How many buildings had been lost to the blaze?
Speaking of putting out fires—that was what had to get done. I can’t run away and expect everything to turn out better. Running away won’t make Dad see that he’s doing something awful.
Lightning arced through the sky, and Olivia straightened up, grinning. But Amy seems like she gets it. At dinner she got it. I’m going to go and talk to her instead! She’ll help me talk to my dad.
She stood up, hefting her duffel bag and starting back to Amy’s house as thunder rolled overhead and the rain picked up. She was in no hurry. She wasn’t afraid of getting wet. I think Tanner might be right, too. I don’t need a brother, but I really, really think I could use a friend.
First things first, though. She had to get … home.