Escaping Relativity
Chapter 11

This was no girl. Xander had spent all of his adult, and even semi-adult winter cycles training, learning, and Tracking. He’d seen things most people would have nightmares about, and he’d done things he had nightmares about. Yet in all of his travels, in all of his training and Tracking, he’d never seen anything like this woman.

She was cool under fire, she actually smiled at him, she enjoyed the hunt, the chase, but she wasn’t blood-thirsty. When they finally reached her conveyance piece, she practically glowed while strapping into her weaponry. Her half of an arsenal, was also full of his favored antiquated weapons; and her knife was in her boot while his was on his thigh. No, she was like nothing he had ever seen before.

And he would turn her over to Sojo. Could he truly do such a thing? For his brother...yes. It would be one more thing he would have nightmares about, but he would do it.

She parted from her ship as though it hurt her feelings to do so. He understood. To lose his Velociraptor would pain him deeply. Maybe he could find a way to return her. Shaking his head, he refused to dwell on it. She was a Time Keeper.

Oh, damn! He hadn’t checked her DNA yet.

“What?” She asked him. She must have sensed his distress.

“Hold out your arm, please.”

“You aren’t going to shoot me are you?” She asked him, a small smile on her face.

“No, I need to make certain you are who I’m looking for.”

“Well, if it’s going to take any time, then we need to get behind cover to keep from being caught out in the open.”

No. Nothing like her before.

He simply nodded his head, not trusting what he may say otherwise. He followed her to the side of her ship where they were covered on both sides between the ship and some large plants.

Pulling out a chain from around his neck, he held a small clear card. Pressing it to her forearm, he waited, each second feeling like an hour. For the briefest of moments, he wondered if he could pass her off as the Time Keeper if she wasn’t. Just to get his brother back. He would try.

It beeped once and glowed green. The match was confirmed. She was The Time Keeper.

“You are in fact, who I am looking for.”

“Good for me,” she said.

Instantly, she pulled her firearm on him.

By God, he was certain he was falling in love with the woman.

“I’m not going anywhere with you, unless I get some damned answers. Got it?”

“As long as we don’t take more than a minute. We literally have only ten minutes left,” Xander said, not bothering to pull his weapon in return. It wouldn’t soothe either of them.

“Who are you, who sent you, and what the hell do you want with me?”

“I am Xander Collins, The Master Tracker. I have been sent by two different Factions to find you, The Allegiant, and The Dilligara, and I need you to get my brother back. The Dilligara is holding him ransom and will only return him to me if they get you. He is my only family.” There, it was out. Xander had no reason to lie to her, she would eventually find the truth anyway. Maybe she would come willingly if he was truthful with her from the beginning.

“What do they all want with me?”

“You are The Time Keeper. You have a rare genome; a genetic anomaly which allows you to move time and space when hooked to a special machine. Whoever has you, can control the known universes.”

“You’re telling the truth,” she put down her weapon and looked up at the sky, sighing heavily.

“Yes, and I need you to come with me now. We can figure out the rest of it once we’re safe, but we aren’t safe yet, Time Keeper.”

She didn’t say anything, she just looked him in the eye. Her eyes were the clearest form of blue he had ever seen. They were like looking into water under glass. Pointing her head toward the outdoor entrance, she began to move.

She was going with him. No, she was leading him.

Xander followed The Time Keeper in the same crouched run from her conveyance vehicle to another one. As Xander made the relative safety of the next ship, a burst from a phaser struck the side of the conveyance ship behind him.

“What the hell was that?” The Time Keeper yelled, looking at the small smoking holes in the side of the vehicle behind them.

“It’s a phaser burst. They shoot in quick repetitions of three,” Xander informed her, while checking the ammunition in his weapons.

“Did you see where it came from?” she asked.

“I believe it came from over there next to the main entrance to the pentagon.”

“Okay, they want me for whatever reasons, so they won’t shoot me. However, they seem to have less issue with killing you. So, you stand up, and I’ll see where they shoot from, then you take off to that car two up and one over. I’ll lay out some cover fire and take out who I can, so our path through the back entrance will be as smooth as possible. Got it?”

Xander couldn’t help but grin. Her mind worked like a Specialist, but she moved like a Tracker. Her black hair looked almost blue in the sunlight, and her skin appeared even more white than he imagined it was, simply by comparison. Her expression was solemn, her head was in the war, but her strange blue eyes laughed at him with a joy only children seem to possess. If he could love a woman, she just might be it.

Xander shook his head to get rid of the strange thought, and at her questioning expression, he stood up as quickly as possible to keep her from pressing him about his thoughts the way women did.

Yet she didn’t.

As soon as he stood, another three round burst came from behind some foliage directly in front of them. The Time Keeper stood, and she placed one shot from her antiquated weaponry, into the middle of the hired soldier’s forehead. She continued to shoot into the man’s chest as he fell. When the unlucky squat dropped to the ground, another burst came from the right of them, but this hireling was under much better cover. Xander could empty a canister into the area, but without a way to flush him out, this hireling may just be able to take them both out, or worse, keep them from making their JUMP back.

“Down!” she yelled.

Xander hit the ground out of sheer instinct rather than trust, yet looking over his shoulder, he watched another hireling, one which Xander hadn’t known about, hit the ground, a strange looking axe protruding from his skull.

“What are you?” Xander yelled at The Time Keeper. He’d never seen a woman so quick to kill.

“I suppose I’m a Time Keeper,” she answered. “Now, stand up one more time, I’ve got this third guy to get before we flush any more out. He’s in a pickle of a spot.”

“He’s a what?” Xander asked, confusion over her light tone and strange words, while in the midst of a small war.

“Oh, just stand up again,” she told him, exasperation clear in her tone.

This time he thought twice about being bait for her, yet he could do nothing else, he sure as hell didn’t want to get stuck here. Standing up briefly, Xander watched as she lay on the ground, her feet braced against a black circle which protruded from the craft they were using as cover. Xander heard the slightest click as the hired soldier readied his weapon, and Xander ducked back down, waiting until the first burst was finished before he stood again.

In the same instance, a burst sounded from two different places, falling to the ground, he watched The Time Keeper take aim from the her position, shooting the soldier in the lower leg. He fell while continuing to fire, and Xander pulled his own weapon, this time firing back. He’d be damned if he let a girl out do him on a Track. Nope, this was his job, she was his to track, pack, and protect, not the other way around. The poor squat held close to twenty bullets in his torso, Xander was certain, but they were both determined to get out of that open air docking station alive; and it showed.

He watched her technique as she led him between crafts, ducking, running, covering him then allowing him to cover her. She was used to running missions, and she was used to running with a team. Working along-side––definitely; leading––absolutely. She had seen her own share of nightmares he imagined, which was probably why she chose to follow him after he mentioned his brother.

True Trackers, true Specialists took any opportunity to do good they could find, hoping it would outweigh the bad. No one who worked with munitions, searching, and dispatching had a completely clean list. No one. Therefore, they all utilized their own codes of conduct, followed their own laws, and helped the helpless where and when they were able.

She was such a person. Yet how could a Tracker or a Specialist be a Time Keeper? Time Keepers were pure, untouched by the worlds around them. It was the only way they could see truthfully without being biased or pulled in any one direction. It was the only way they could see purely the line of light and truth as it writhed throughout the universes, bringing specific points together.

After a oddly straight line, they made it into the inner courtyard, not ten feet from their original setting, when the Time Keeper turned and looked at him strangely.

“Xander?” she asked, her eyes glazing over.

“Yes?”

“I feel funny,” she said, reaching out toward him.

“The JUMP must be coming back for us, Time Keeper.”

Xander grabbed her just before she fell. She didn’t pass out, she simply fell. Then, looking up at him, her head resting on his thigh, her frightening gaze seeking out his eyes, she spoke softly, his name rolling off of her tongue in a light accent he was unaccustomed to.

“Xander, call me Charlie.”

It was there, in the midst of incoming fire, on a strange planet, that The Time Keeper fell into his arms, and he fell into her eyes, while the light of time pulled them back.

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