Fiolas watched the other Keisha run out of the room. What was he supposed to do? There were two of her, and one of them returned his affections. Did he owe some sort of loyalty to the Keisha who hadn't gone on a journey yet?
"Hey Fiolas," Tempus called out. "Come 'ere." Fiolas wheeled over to where Tempus and Andromeda were standing. They were working on some sort of combustion-type thing.
"What is this?" Fiolas raised his eyebrows.
"Hey, I've seen that before. Is that the same holding tank I saw on the Icarus?" Keisha came up from behind him. "This matches the same schematics I found on the ship. Is this where the dark matter combines with the engine?" She moved forward and got to work on whatever machinations the dark matter needed to make the wormhole. Keisha might be an electrical engineer, but Fiolas knew she was a builder at heart. He had seen her take things apart and put them back together in new and wonderful ways.
Mrs. Rose sauntered over to where he and Carter had been pushed back to. "So, what now? Do we get to just sit back and watch them save the universe?" Carter made a face that said he thought that was a pretty good idea.
Fiolas just rolled his eyes at her. "This isn't some sort of competition Mrs. Rose. If they can save us we need to help them however we can. Sometimes, that means we just stay out of their way."
"Hey Fiolas, can I borrow your man over there?" Zayd was still holding the captain at gunpoint. He nodded his head at Carter. "I can't take them all the way to the brig by myself and I'm not sure we could trust anyone else to watch her. It's mutiny." Carter shifted his weight and looked down at his feet.
"You don't have to do this if you feel uncomfortable Carter. She's your captain too and I know you didn't sign on for all that's happened tonight." Fiolas said to him.
"The captain herself ordered me to obey your orders sir, even if they felt strange and unwarranted. If you order me to take her to the brig and watch her until further notice, that's what I'll do. I've seen stuff today that doesn't make any sense. How many captains could there be? Maybe this one, in particular, is the 'bad one'? She told me to trust you, so that's what I'm going to do." Carter stood awaiting orders.
I'm starting to really like this guy. "I trust Keisha, from the future, from the present, from the past. If Keisha says she's dangerous and needs to be locked up then that's what we need to do."
"You don't know what you're doing." Captain Anna Katapodis stood to her feet. She had been silent this whole time but now there was fury in her voice. "Andromeda Katapodis is dangerous and not to be trusted. I was taking her offline for the safety of us all. I went aboard the Icarus, right after it touched down. I saw Dr. Sturletto's body, I saw the video feeds. She ordered the death of my crew, and now you're just going to let her install tech we don't understand. What if she kills us all?" She spat through where Andromeda's holo image was.
"Mother, that wasn't me. It was the fifth iteration of me, I've told you this." Her eyes were hurt. "I would never hurt this crew. She was not supposed to do that. I asked her to detain him. I do not understand why she would do this. But we have to do this. We cannot risk continuing to go back and creating a sixth iteration of this crew. My gravity well slows the time-shift, it does not negate it. Please understand."
"You betrayed us all." Her mother shouted back.
"OK, let's go." Zayd pulled up a sullen Dr. Sturletto to his feet. "Andromeda, can you give my key card permissions in the brig?"
"Already done." She nodded at Carter to take the lead. "We'll speak again soon Mother, you will see I am not a betrayer."
Once they were gone the room felt emptier and quiet. Fiolas felt himself starting to feel heavy again. One of the Dr. Mirlaj's noticed and came over and felt his pulse. "Did you go back for the second treatment I ordered for you today?"
"No, I lost track of time on the Icarus," Fiolas admitted.
"Keisha, I need to get Fiolas back to the Medbay and give him his treatment, do you need him here?" Dr. Mirlaj asked.
"What treatment?" She looked over at Fiolas. "Oh, of course, I'm so sorry Fiolas. I wasn't thinking. We're almost done here, Andromeda had most of this done already ---"
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
"I'm sorry Keisha, we do not have time. The other Pytheas is headed towards us on an interception path. They can not also go through the wormhole or we will have two ships with the same crew. We need to go now." She looked up at Tempus, her clear blue eyes cutting through him.
"Yeah, ok, we can make this work. I need to get to the Icarus and set the coordinates up there, we'll hook in and use their guidance system. Y'all can stay here and push this button manually when I need you to." Tempus got up and started towards the door.
"Wait, you can't go." Dr. Mirlaj shouted. "You were able to take your suits off because of the strength of Andromeda's gravity, the hangar bay is too far. Once we go through the wormhole then we will all be on the same time phase and you will be free."
"I'll go." Keisha stood up. "I can do it."
"I'm going with you." Fiolas sat up in his chair. What he really wanted was a nap, but he wasn't about to let her leave him again.
"Can you make it?" Keisha looked worried.
"I'll be fine." Fiolas lied.
"Ok, let's go." Fiolas led the way out the door and they sped through the Medbay once again. Thankfully hangar bay B was in the next ring up and not very far. When they got to the connecting hallway Fiolas let Keisha push him. At the hangar bay, Fiolas was relieved to find it still empty of guards, but next to the ship stood Keisha and Zayd. Keisha ran him all the way up to the Icarus. The other Keisha had clearly been crying and there was a wet spot on Zayd's shoulder where he had been comforting her.
"I had to see it for myself." Keisha turned and looked at them.
"You have to hurry Keisha, they're almost here," Andromeda spoke to them through their implants.
Keisha looked at the stairs and then looked at Fiolas. "What's wrong now?" Zayd asked.
"The latest version of Andromeda is not the kind person you met today and she's on her way to hitch a ride to the future. We have to get out of here before she gets here." Keisha said.
"You two go ahead, I'll bring Fiolas," Zayd said. The two Keisha's looked at each other. Both of them had their shipmaster black outfit on, but the Keisha who had been about to get on the Velos was clean and well-rested. The Keisha who had brought the Icarus back had her hair up in a messy bun and looked like she could use a nap. Fiolas wouldn't be able to tell the two apart just by looking at them, but he knew he would be able to tell them apart when they spoke. The Keisha who had returned with the Icarus also returned with a sense of purpose. She had returned with the confidence to trust her decisions. Whatever had happened out there had given her the confidence Fiolas had always wanted her to have.
His confident Keisha led the way into the ship and the other one followed behind. Zayd helped pull him onto his back to carry him in. It wasn't as comfortable as the support system Carter had created, but they were in too big of a hurry to recreate it. Fiolas would have to just rely on Zayd's strength. It was a lot more fun when Carter was the one carrying me.
By the time they reached the bridge, his Keisha was already in the captain's chair pulling up system files. Zayd dropped him in what he guessed was a second-in-command chair and sat himself down at a chair in the back along with his Keisha.
"Ok Andromeda, what now?"
"You'll need to input these coordinates ---" Andromeda started.
"Pilot Keisha Brakas," Another Andromeda broke in. "Thank you for getting this all set up for us. Please prepare for boarding." They felt the ship rumble.
"We must be caught in their gravity well, our ships are heading straight for each other now." Fiolas pulled up the Icarus' navigation system. "We need to cut their propulsion soon in order to escape it and get through the wormhole without them."
"We don't have access to any of the Pytheas defense systems from here," Keisha called out.
"I'll take the Velos, it's still here in the hangar bay." Zayd looked over at the Keisha next to him. "We outfitted it to take down the Icarus if we couldn't find any other way. I can use it to kill the propulsion systems on the other Pytheas and buy you guys some time."
The Keisha in the captain's chair turned around, "You won't be able to do that and make it back in time. We can find another way."
"No, Zayd's right." The other Keisha started unstrapping. "This ship already has a Keisha, it doesn't need two. I'm coming with you Zayd. You'll need a co-pilot."
Fiolas' Keisha stood up and hugged her. "You're braver than you think." She looked herself in the eye. Keisha turned to him, "Take care of future me eh?" Fiolas could only nod in response.
"I'll keep a close eye on her," Zayd said to Fiolas. Before he could gather his wits they were gone and Fiolas watched the Velos take off through the bridge windows on the Icarus.
"Pilot Brakas? Tempus here. We're ready to go on your mark." Tempus said through the comms.
"Roger that, we need to give the Velos time to disengage the other Pytheas from following. Anj, where do we need to go?"
"Ke--, send us --, 45-- 89--- degrees," Their Andromeda's communications were getting cut off.
"Fiolas, what do I do?" Keisha asked.
"I'm looking up their star maps. Here. There's a triple star system we can get to that should give us lots of hiding places." Fiolas used the Icarus' messaging system and sent the coordinates to the captain's chair Keisha sat at.
"This is Pilot Runslo to Pilot Brakas, we're engaging now, standby." Zayd clicked off on the comms. Fiolas felt the ship go free from the gravity well and their propulsion systems gain their normal speed.
"Got it, hang on. Tempus, now!" She yelled out. He must have heard her because the entire ship felt as though it was being pulled into something strong and fast, then the world went dark.