Everywhere Fiolas looks he saw two Keisha's, two Zayd's, and two Dr. Mirlaj's. His head was swimming. Behind the table he saw a steely eyed Captain Anna Katapodis and Dr. Sturletto, both with wrists bound and being guarded by one of the Zayd's. There were a few guards who looked as though someone had gotten the jump on them slumped over in a corner.
He had never seen a room like this on the Pytheas. Most of the ship was bright and accented with the color of the research being done there. The rings all had large windows and various artwork on the walls some of the scientists had done. It was all very aeshtetically pleasing.
This room was small and cramped, or maybe it felt that way because so many people were shoved in here. The lights were dim in here, with the main lights coming from various displays around the room. It cast strange shadows across everyone's faces. There were large wires all over the place and some led to the central bed in the middle. One of the Keisha's stood next to the bed protecting it at all costs, even from her other self. They all just stared at each other for a moment.
Dr. Mirlaj broke the silence first, both of them, "It worked! They're here."
"My suits! Someone is wearing my suits. Who are you and how did it work?" The two of them went straight to Tempus and Mrs. Rose and both them started asking questions at the same time which in turn led to them asking one another questions.
"Someone needs to explain what is happening here." The Zayd pointing a gun towards the Captain shouted out.
"I agree." The other Zayd shouted from beside Keisha. The two Dr. Mirlaj's quieted down.
"Why don't we start out by having everyone lower their weapons." Fiolas called out. Surprisingly, everyone did. "Ok, great. Now, who can explain why there are two of most of the people in this room?" Fiolas looked back and forth between the two Keisha's. Before Keisha could respond Andromeda appeared in the middle of the room. She wore a warm light blue dress and appeared to be gently blowing in the wind and Fiolas noticed her feet didn't quite touch the floor.
"Hello everyone." Andromeda gave one of her huge smiles and waved.
"Who is that?" The Zayd nearest the Captain shouted.
"You're the girl from the Icarus." the Zayd closest to Fiolas shouted at the same time.
"This is Andromeda" The Keisha by the bed answered, "she's the Captain's daughter. She's been walking around this ship for weeks, how do you not recognize her?" All eyes turned to Andromeda.
"It's true. My name is Andromeda and I am the daughter of Anna Katapodis." She gestured towards her mother as though there was nothing strange happening. "However Keisha, only you and Fiolas were aware of my existence until recently. As you can see my body is here connected to the Pytheas," Keisha moved and Fiolas could see the bed was indeed occupied by a young girl with long blonde hair. "I am able to transport throughout the ship using various methods, mostly the medical transponders all crewmates are required to have. To allow for Tempus and Charlotte though, I am currently using our holographic technology." She turned directly to them, "I am so glad you were able to make it." She turned to Carter, "I don't know why you are here, but welcome." Carter looked as though his mind was about to explode. Everyone else seemed too stunned for words. Fiolas had always known there was something off about her, but could never quite pin her down.
"I brought you all here, to help me fix a problem that has been ongoing for quite some time. You see this is the fourth iteration of the Pytheas and this is the fourth time we have tried to remedy the time-shift. The other three times were complete failures and resulted in the ship and all crew members being destroyed. This is the closest we have come so far and our fifth iteration is just now coming up on Klokos II to save Keisha and Fiolas yet again. I have informed them of our current progress so if we are destroyed they may try a different tactic."
She turned to the group of duplicates nearest Fiolas to his left, "It was my fifth iteration you encountered aboard the Icarus as I was much too busy getting all of you here. She is quite a bit more forward in trying to resolve our problem." She gave a smile.
The Keisha who had been protecting her turned and looked at the bed, "Andromeda, why are you connected to all these wires? How are you able to do all this?"
The other Keisha moved slowly to stand next to Fiolas and put her hand on his shoulder. Fiolas looked up at her, she seemed different than the Keisha he had seen that morning. More confident, more sure of herself. What happened to her?
"I do not have time to give you all the details, but you should know I am very special. My mother gave birth to me a very long time ago on the way to Alpha Centauri while going faster-than-light." She looked straight into Keisha's eyes and smiled.
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"That would mean you would both need to be over 700 years old, that's, that's not possible." Keisha looked as though her mind was about to explode.
"Time is funny that way. It would indeed be 700 years according to earth time, but I do not react to time that way. My father was very young when he started his trip and my mother was only slightly older when they met. As Dr. Mirlaj may have informed you time is a factor of two things, what gravity well you are currently in and where your biologic form begins. Being the only person born in faster than light has given me a very unique perspective on time."
"But why are you connected to the ship?" The Keisha next to Fiolas asked.
"Oh, I am the artificial intelligence officer onboard this ship. I must remain connected to all the systems of the Pytheas or we will all die."
"Excuse me? Did you say die?" Fiolas looked around the room. "Andromeda, is there an AI program aboard this ship, or are you what we have been calling the AI?"
"There is indeed an AI aboard this ship, I care for it and instruct it. However, it is fairly primitive still so most of the necessary functions are seen to by me. The AI in it's current form would only keep you from self-destruction."
"Who's your father Andromeda?" the Keisha by the bed asked.
"Adam Scofield of course." She laughed a bit at that, "I thought you had discovered that already. My mother was a part of his original crew. They overshot Alpha Centauri by quite a lot and it took some doing to get back. When they did they assimilated back into society by joining the military on Chronos. My mother immediately started creating the Pytheas."
"Your dad is Adam Scofield? The Adam Scofield? Boy genius who is the only person to discover faster-than-light technology?" Fiolas asked.
"Yes, please try and keep up Fiolas." She gave him a pitying smile.
"Is he here? Is he on the ship?" Fiolas asked.
"No, there was a disagreement between my parents as to who should watch over me and whether it was ethical to connect me to a ship. I suppose my mother won as I am here. My father's whereabouts are unknown currently." She twirled around the room, "Good, now that is out of the way, Tempus Kline, I require the dark matter you have brought. Also your suits are no longer needed. This close to my gravity well, we will all be quite safe from the time problem."
Tempus walked up to her, "She got my name right! Alright star-girl, tell me what we're doing."
Charlotte was already taking her suit off, "Tempus, you cannot just agree to hand over dark matter to a strange ghost girl simply because she got your name right."
"Who are they?" The Keisha by the bed asked.
"They are the only remaining survivors from the Icarus." One of the Dr. Mirlaj's said. "Andromeda, may I help explain a few more things?"
"Of course." Andromeda said.
"Several weeks ago, Pilot Runslo, Pilot Brakas, Dr. Sturletto and I were sent on a mission to see if the Icarus was causing this time anomoly. We were successful in finding it and have now brought it here. However in the Velos we were far enough away from whatever strange time-gravity thing Andromeda does that as we flew we went back through time, arriving back on the same day we left. Or were supposed to leave. Is that about right?"
"Very good Dr. Mirlaj. It has been a treasure working with you on this project. Did I not say it would be very rewarding?" Andromeda asked.
"Yes, you did. Thank you for recruiting me all those years ago." Both Mina's laughed.
"This is so bizarre." Fiolas just shook head. "Ok, Tempus and I have a plan that if we can take the Pytheas forward through time with one of his wormholes we'll be able to right the flow of time for everything else around us."
"Of course, why else did you think I had Keisha bring the entire ship back. We will need it's wormhole technology. Tempus, I've created a workstation for you over there, but it will need your touch."
"What are we supposed to do about these two?" The Zayd guarding the Captain and Sturletto asked.
"Yeah, why are they bound again? Did they even do anything? If anything we should be guarding Mina." The other Zayd said.
"We bound them because they were hurting Andromeda." The Keisha by the bed said. "When we got here they were doing something that was clearly hurting her and the ship, so we stopped them." She looked towards Andromeda.
"They are right, but not for the reasons you may think. I believe that for now we should take them to the brig and keep them under guard. As for what Mina did, she was ordered to do so. We can discuss all of that when we get closer to the planet Henear." Andromeda said.
The Keisha next to Fiolas asked, "What planet? What are you talking about Andromeda?"
"We will have to hide from our fifth iteration before they get here. I have found the perfect place. You will all enjoy it." She clapped her hands and then started instructing Tempus on her designs.
While she was distracted with Tempus, the Keisha next to him dropped to her knees and pulled him into a hug unlike anything Keisha had ever done before. "I'm so sorry I left you. I shouldn't have left you here. I'm so sorry Fiolas."
"Keisha," He held her face in his hands, "There is nothing for me to forgive. You're brave and courageous, and if you can save people you choose to save them. I know that about you, and I love that about you." He brought his forehead to hers and whispered, "I'd follow you anywhere Keish."
She was crying and laughing now. It felt as if they were the only two in the room. "You may not remember this, but before I left you told me to come back and to choose to be with you. I did James. I choose to be with you no matter what. Any problem we have, we'll solve it together." She drew him in and kissed him, a firm sweet kiss to seal her promise. Fiolas' heart soared and he was sure he had the stupidest grin on his face, but he didn't care about how he looked, he only cared that she had finally chosen to live a life with him.
Behind him Zayd coughed and the two of them parted, realizing everyone in the room were staring at him. The Keisha at the table looked betrayed, "Andromeda, I think you have this." She stood up and left the room, leaving the other Zayd still holding the captain and Sturletto captive. He locked eyes with his other self and surprisingly the other Zayd walked over to relieve him. "I'll keep them under control. Go get her." He handed over his gun to him and ran out behind her.