“Ditto.” He looked her up and down. “Last time I saw you, you had a broken leg.”
“That was over eighteen months ago.”
“Not for me. It’s only been a few days.”
“Wow.”
She glanced past him to the time machine. Nothing had moved. The door was still shut. What were they doing in there?
Maybe Quinn had some answers.
She turned to Kane. “I don’t think the two of you have met. Kane this is Quinn. Quinn this is Kane.”
Quinn eyed him suspiciously. No doubt he still saw Kane as the enemy.
“Somehow,” Quinn said, “I sort of expected you to be flying that thing.” He waved a hand toward the time machine.
“It was stolen a month or so ago,” Kaitlin said.
“You trust this guy?” Quinn asked.
He was still regarding the other man with suspicion, and she decided to get past that as quickly as possible. They had things to do. “I’m in love with Kane. So get over it.”
Quinn’s jaw dropped. “You’re in love with ‘that fucker Kane’.”
“Yup.”
Kane stepped forward and held out his hand. Quinn looked at it for a moment and then reached out and shook, albeit briefly. “I don’t know whether to congratulate or commiserate.”
“A little of both, I suggest. It’s not been easy.”
Quinn grinned. “No. I imagine not.” Kaitlin punched him on the arm. “Ouch.” He turned to the woman at his side. “This is Melody. Kaitlin, you’ve already met. Kane, I may have mentioned.”
Melody stretched out a hand. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”
They shook. Now to find out what the hell was going on. First, she needed to check in with Jake.
“Jake? Are you seeing this?”
“I am. Does Quinn have any idea what’s going on?”
“Just about to find out. I thought I’d check in first. There’s been no movement from the time machine so far.”
“Okay. We’re heading your way.”
She turned her attention back to Quinn. “Please tell me that you have some clue as to what’s going on here.” She waved at the huge spaceship.
“Some,” he said. “But not all. Melody can maybe tell it better.” He gestured for her to take the lead.
“This is what we think we know,” Melody said, taking over. “Some of it’s guesswork, but I think they’re pretty good guesses. That—” she said, pointing at the spaceship, “—is the Krellian mothership.”
“Krellian?”
“The Krellians are an alien race who lived in a distant system. They’ve been at war with another race—the Bhaxians—for longer than anyone can remember. The Bhaxians were the ones who destroyed their planet. The surviving Krellians escaped on a ship carrying the survivors but also a database of DNA which would allow them to reproduce the rest of the planet—people, animals, plant life. Everything.”
“And that’s it. So, what happened?”
“There is a lot I’m not sure of—this is history for me, something we were taught in school. So, of course, what we learned was filtered. Anyway, all I know is that the mothership vanished. It was always believed that it was destroyed by the Bhaxians, but no one knew how or where. Now, it’s starting to look like it will be destroyed here on Earth, and its destruction will result in the cataclysm.”
