Departure(58)
“I’m told that the Titan in 2147 goes by Nicholas.”
“Oh.”
“Oliver and Nicholas wanted to keep the passengers of Flight 305 here. They thought that extracting Nick, Yul, and me from our world would prevent the Titan Foundation from achieving its goals, in particular derailing the immortality cure and thus preventing the subsequent plague.
“The other faction, led by Yul and Sabrina in 2147, wanted to reset the quantum bridge between the universes after the passengers were evaluated and the vaccine was verified. They believed that the Titans had no right to take two hundred lives from the other universe, half of whom wouldn’t survive exposure to the virus. This universe’s Yul and Sabrina favored nonintervention, but the Titans felt they had a moral obligation to prevent the pandemic in our universe. They wouldn’t approve any plan that didn’t include saving our world. Yul arrived at another, even more incredible solution. The original plan was for the quantum bridge to be reset and for all the passengers of Flight 305 to return home after the vaccine was verified. What Yul and Sabrina didn’t realize until our plane crossed into this universe is that Oliver and Nicholas never had any intention of following the plan—of letting the quantum bridge be reset. In fact, their primary objective wasn’t even testing the vaccine. That was all a cover for their true goal: ensuring that the passengers of Flight 305 remained in this universe forever.”
“Why?”
“Love. Oliver and Nicholas choose Flight 305 because it carried two people they loved very much, at crucial points in their lives.”
“Grayson.”
“Yes. Oliver wanted to fulfill his last desire: to give Grayson a second chance at life. Flight 305 was perfect—it took off at a turning point for Grayson, right before he would throw his life away.”
“And for Nicholas?”
“Love of a different sort. Flight 305 was his only chance to see the love of his life again, a woman who died in the aftermath of the outbreak. For seventy-six years he’d dreamed of the day he could bring her here, start over with her, the woman he could never be with in his time, not as long as he was an immortal Titan, and she wasn’t. For Nicholas, the object of bringing Flight 305 here was you.”
32
For a moment, Sabrina’s voice echoes in the empty lab, her words hanging in the air, waiting for me to respond. But my mind is blank. I can’t wrap my head around it. Nicholas, the future version of the Nick Stone I’ve come to know, crashed Flight 305 to bring me here.
“Me?”
Sabrina gives a curt nod. “In the years after the creation of the Titan Foundation, you and Nicholas worked very closely together. You become close friends, then much more. In 2071 he stole the immortality therapy to save your life.”
The passages from my journal . . . My forbidden love. It was him. Nick. No. Nicholas. God, it’s so confusing. I turn the facts over in my mind, trying to make sense of them. He stole the therapy for me, my future self, to make me a Titan so that we could spend eternity together. It’s bizarre and dramatic, but at the same time . . . it’s so very romantic. I’m not used to that.
“Nicholas’s plan was simple. After you received the therapy, you and he would undergo surgery to alter your appearance, then depart as settlers on a new orbital colony sponsored by the Titans. Oliver and Grayson would join you.”
I can only sit, in a daze. My mind is completely blown at this point.
Sabrina drones on, oblivious to my catatonic state. “When you and Grayson died after they stole the therapy in 2071, Nicholas and Oliver were devastated. Since that day, they’ve devoted their lives to recovering the two of you, to starting over. They manipulated the Titans, steered Yul and Sabrina here in the future, and us in the past. They tricked and connived, all to get you and Grayson here. Nicholas will go to any length to be with you. He’s killed for you, and he’s planning to kill again.”
It’s hard to imagine the Nick I know taking a life, but I have to remind myself that this is another person, separated by over a hundred and thirty years’ time, someone who has changed a great deal, no matter what he may look like.
Sabrina pauses, reading my expression. “After our plane crossed into this time, Nicholas and Oliver launched their attack at Heathrow. Their first targets were Yul and Sabrina, the keys to resetting the quantum bridge and returning the passengers of Flight 305 to 2014. During the fighting Yul tried to reset the bridge, but he was unsuccessful—he only sent a series of disturbances along the link.”
“Which crashed our plane.”
“Yes. Nicholas killed Yul and Sabrina before the bridge could be reset.”
“Those are the bodies I saw in the lab next door?”
“Correct. About half of all the Titans were killed at Heathrow. Ten remain loyal to Oliver and Nicholas. There are twelve here. Since the crash, they’ve been looking for the three of us.”
“Why?”
“They want Yul and me to complete our counterparts’ work, to reset the bridge and return Flight 305 and its passengers to 2014.”
“Is that possible?”
“We’re not sure. We’ve been working on it. And another project, the original plan to save the world we came from.”
Sabrina’s usually stoic mask fades a bit. That makes me nervous.