Sitnalta Page 15

Rus and Jason stood feeling helpless as they watched the security agents exiting the compound with the Midici family and Howie Hayes. Rus looked at Jason and saw Jason almost in tears. Rus whispered, "What are we going to do now?"

Jason struggled to gain control of his emotions. "I've got to take care of Ellen."

Rus asked, "What are you going to tell Natalina about her father being taken."

"I don't know. I just hope she doesn't jump to the wrong conclusions." Jason pointed over to the corner. "Do you see the Barabbas Computer over there?"

"Yes."

"See if you can communicate with Howie in the way you communicated with Minchkin. If you can get the keycode from him, you will be able to use the Barabbas to open my cell and give orders that I not be arrested."

Rus stared at Jason. It was still hard for him to comprehend that Jason was in two places at once. Rus walked over to the Barabbas and turned it on. He glanced back at Jason as Jason stepped back through the door to be with Ellen and Natalina. Rus then looked at the monitor and saw a blank screen. Rus moaned, "And I'm just supposed to know how to operate this thing."

A voice boomed from the computer speaker, "You must concentrate."

"Okay, how can I accomplish with Howie what Minchkin accomplished with me? Howie must have Ellen at the top of his thoughts. I must picture Ellen." Rus did his best to picture Ellen but he could not get the image clear in his mind. "I must go look at her." Rus stood up from the Barabbas. He walked toward the room where he knew Jason and Natalina were with Ellen. He opened the door and stood looking into the room. He watched Natalina clutching her mother's hand.

"You must wake up," Natalina pleaded with her mother.

Rus walked into the room and looked at Ellen. He closed his eyes to see if he could still picture her face in his mind. The image changed in his mind and she looked younger. Then he saw a wallet and realized he was looking at a picture in the wallet.

Suddenly the image changed and Rus saw a great fire.

"Dang! What is going on."

Jason asked, "What?"

Rus screamed, "I see a fire. I feel its heat. I think Howie Hayes is on the edge of where there is a fire."

Jason rushed to his interfaced communicator and turned on a computer in the room.

Jason stared at the monitor. "Why is this picture there? Totally weird."

Natalina whispered as she stared at the image, "Mother painted that picture a year or two ago. She said that he would be my little brother. She said he would not be a Thinkster but would be a leader."

Jason shook his head. "But there is no way she could carry a child to term that would not be a Thinkster. I don't think there is a way. Who had she been talking with? Did your father think there was a way?"

"Father's ambition was to free mother and me from being a Thinkster. He could never see, plan, beyond that. Father loves me, but he swore he'd not have any more children unless they could be free."

Jason looked at Rus. Then he looked back at the picture. "Would this picture favor you if you didn't have a goat head?"

Rus said, "Not really. Why would you ask such a thing?"

"No reason. It was just a thought. I'm trying to figure out why this has happened to Ellen. It is something that did not happen any of my other trips back attempting to change time until I met you."

Rus looked at Jason and then looked at Natalina. He wondered why he hadn't noticed it before. Natalina favored his mother. He didn't volunteer the information to Jason. Instead Rus stated, "Next time you come back, don't try having the Thinksters perfect your dangerous technology."

Jason stated, "There will not be a next time. What ever happens this time, I will surrender to what must be God's will." Jason asked, "Can you still see the fire?"

Rus heard the fog horn of a ship. "It must be near the ocean."

Natalina said, "I must go to the docks. I must find out what is happening to my father."

Ellen screamed, "No. You must not go to the docks."

"Mother. You are awake."

Ellen said nothing else and Natalina felt weak. Natalina whispered in a weak distant voice, "Oh my God. It is over. I think I am dying."

Jason said, "No! Don't say that." Jason looked at Rus. "Why is it that you being here has caused time to be altered in such strange ways? What are you doing?"

Rus said, "I'm not doing anything to upset your plans. I've been trying to help." Rus thought a moment. "There was a plane. I saw a plane when I was in the ocean. Maybe I'm not the only one who ended up being transported through time here."

As Natalina slumped toward the hard floor, Jason and Rus both raced to grab hold of her. Jason begged, "Please don't die. Fight what is happening."

Natalina's delicate face struggled to present a reassuring smile to Jason and Rus. Then she went limp in their arms. Jason and Rus thoughtfully positioned her with care next to her mother in the bed. Jason felt Natalina's wrist for a pulse but as he expected there was none.

As unexpectedly as Natalina had collapsed, Ellen opened her eyes and bolted straight up in the bed. She glared at Rus. She screamed at Rus. "You! Haven't you done enough. My poor Ellen."

"Your poor Ellen. What? You are Ellen."

"She has lost her daughter. She has lost her husband. She is all alone now."

Jason said, "You will never be alone. I will always be with you."

"I don't think so." Ellen stated in the angriest tone she could muster. Biting at her upper lip she stated, "I think you will return to the future. I demand you return to the future and leave Ellen alone."

"I may have a future but I also have a past. Even as I sit in jail, that dank dungeon, I long for you. I love you. I want you. Even when I return to the future I will still be here."

"You want Ellen but she is gone."

Rus asked, "Who are you?"

Ellen hesitated. "You dare want me to tell you who I am, when you know who I am. You spoke of the plane. You just didn't speak of how you caused the plane to crash."

"I didn't!"

"I died in the plane crash. Ellen found my body washed up on shore. She thought I was her Natalina. When she wept over me and embraced me, I became one with her."

"How could that happen?"

Jason though a second. "Maybe she was also a Thinkster; a Thinkster from the future."

"From my time? Or could it be a different plane she is talking about?"

Jason said, "She is most likely from your time. When she became disconnected from the master computer in your time, through Ellen she tried to interface with the master computer in this time."

"There are no Thinksters in my time. There is no master computer that controls human robots."

"Maybe the master computer isn't destroyed when Atlantis is destroyed. Maybe somehow it survives and it is maintained. Perhaps only a select few know about it."

Rus said, "You know when I was with Ellen and I didn't know whether I could trust her or not, she told me that her daughter's name is Gurdy. She didn't mention Natalina. She said her daughter's husband is the King of the Nether Isles."

Jason shook his head. "I don't why she would have told you that." Jason looked at Ellen. "Why did you tell Rus that your daughter's name is Gurdy?"

"I am tired. I must lay back down" Ellen said as she laid back and closed her eyes. "I am so confused. I don't know why I spoke of Gurdy and not Natalina."

Jason said, "Ellen is not completely gone." Jason smiled. "Thank God she has not completely surrendered her identity to the stranger she found on the beach."

"Maybe Ellen is not completely gone, but what about Natalina." Rus said, "You previously said that when Natalina died, the master computer crashed and all the Thinkster's died."

Jason closed his eyes and frowned. "I know." Jason reached out and touched Ellen's forehead. "Trust me, I know. I can already sense the ghost of the dying Thinksters gathering. I swore I wouldn't try to change things again, but I've got to try. I've got to reach myself in the dungeon so that I can touch myself. When that happens, I will return to the future. I will then return here again. I now know that I must prevent Ellen from finding the body of the woman from your time."

"I still don't think she is from my time."

"Whatever!" Jason screamed as he rushed out the door. "I've got to get to the compound to free myself."

Rus yelled out to him. "What about the keycode you need to open the cell?"

Jason yelled back. "I've got a plan."

Ellen sat up. "I must find Gurdy. She will help me. I know she will help me and protect me from you, you horrid little goat boy." Then Ellen noticed the picture on the computer monitor. "What are you doing with a painting of my son on your computer?" Then she started screaming. "And what did you do to my plane? Why did you cause my plane to crash?" Ellen started screaming in horror. "Why have you done this to me."

"I didn't." Rus reached out to her. "Please calm down." Just as Rus was about to touch her, she vanished from the room and so did Natalina.