Time Salvager (Time Salvager #1)(18)

The soldier turned and smiled. Then he pointed toward the shiny wall, which was almost too bright to look at. “Beautiful, no? Now I see why you killed me to get it.”

“That’s not how it happened,” said James.

“Yes, yes.” The soldier laughed. “You had no choice. Your Time Laws and everything. More important than my life, ja?”

Upon closer inspection, James realized that the soldier wasn’t wearing his uniform, just a shirt and a pair of trousers from his era. He looked every bit a boy and not at all like a mass-murdering fascist. The boy pointed up at a small, intricate gold chandelier suspended from the ceiling.

“You missed that, did you know?” he said. “Forgot to take it with you. Is your rich patron, the one who probably put the Amber Room in his private display, going to mind?”

James shrugged. “Abyss if I care.”

The soldier fell in next to them as they left the room and continued down the hallway. “You save the pretty trinkets that you don’t care about, yet kill what weighs heavily on your mind. Mixed priorities, ja?”

“It’s just my job,” said James as they turned the corner toward where he had first entered the castle.

The soldier smirked. “I bet your rich patron is sleeping well tonight.”

They passed the three guards whom he had encountered at the castle. They were standing at the window looking out at the courtyard in the center of the castle, where a massive bonfire burned, blanketing their faces with an angry red glow. They turned to him in unison and waved.

“It’s all right,” one of them said. “We’re dead anyway. I hope that lets you sleep better at night.”

“Hey,” one of them remarked angrily. “I was supposed to live and have a son!”

“Yeah, but you all drowned,” the first said. “Dying here is much less painful than drowning. He did you a favor.”

“You only think that,” the one who was supposed to live said.

James and his two escorts stepped out of the castle and entered a dark hallway littered with refuse. A familiar foul stench wafted into James’s nostrils. It was the smell of human misery and death.

James’s mind froze in recognition; they were on Mnemosyne Station. Panic seized him and he tried to retreat into the castle, but the way back had disappeared, replaced by rusted gray and slimy walls sprouting large iron tubes running across the length of a hallway.

Grace laughed, ignoring that they were standing ankle-deep in liquid shit. “Oh pet, you can never go back to where we came from. You have to move forward, isn’t that right?”

“Another Time Law, ja? The present is all that’s important. Fuck the past!” said the soldier.

They continued on down the hallway and James relived those terrible days all over again. In the distance, he could hear the cruel chatter of the gangs, the screams of victims, and the constant banging and hissing of steam pipes. That loud hollow ring, like a cracked bell, echoed nonstop across the station, just as he remembered. James squeezed his eyes shut and tried to push those painful memories out of his head.

“You’re no longer the child you once were, pet,” Grace said, caressing his face. “Besides, don’t you want to see her?”

That “her” snapped James back to reality. It could mean only one person. He opened his eyes and saw a little girl with matted auburn hair and large round eyes. She was barefoot and in rags, with a dirty satchel in her hand. She stood at the end of the hallway and waved. Then she turned and ran.

“Sasha!” James screamed, taking off after her, past the cubbyhole they called home, through the makeshift air-hatch market, and down past the guard offices. No matter how hard he ran, Sasha stayed a step beyond his reach. He continued chasing her, his heart thundering in his chest as his body threatened to fail him.

Every time she turned the corner, he willed himself to go faster. His legs began to feel heavy, but he kept urging them on. Faster! Harder! His desperation increased. Somehow, he had lost her. Finally, exhausted, he collapsed onto the floor, sucking in large gulps of air and retching at the same time. The layers of grime mixed with stagnant pools of feces forced his stomach to tighten and twist harder than any time jump could.

James picked himself up and staggered forward, barely able to stay on his feet. He leaned against the slimy walls for support. Turning the corner he entered a crowded room filled with dozens, no, hundreds of people. They were all relaxed and chatting with each other. As he entered, all of them turned to him in unison and waved.

James’s blood froze. He had seen these people before. On his left were a group of pilgrims from 2235 that had suffocated when their life support system failed. In the center was the crew of the battleship Judas, destroyed during the Core Conflicts. Behind them were the Luna Base Delta scientists who had caught the asteroid virus 2C-F. The faces and times went on and on. Each of them was a past assignment, people he had left to die.

Then he saw Grace, bouncing Sasha on her knees, running her old wrinkled hands through his little sister’s tangled auburn hair. “Such pretty curls you have, dear,” Grace cooed into Sasha’s ear. She turned to James and smiled that patronizing Grace Priestly smile. “Nice of you to finally join us, pet. Why don’t you have a seat and catch your breath.”

James took a labored step forward, and then another. He was almost within reach of Sasha when the station cracked, tearing a line across the floor. He stared helplessly as the room drifted away. There was a massive explosion of air escaping into space, and the moisture in his mouth evaporated. He stretched out his arm in a futile attempt to reach his sister.