Not Quite Time, Not Quite Space

“We need to get out of here,” Auden said after he guided Emma through the backdoor of Audra’s home. In Emma’s hands the box rested with its top discarded and the object inside still tapping away.

“What is this thing?” Emma asked.

“The Reverse Clock Crown.” Auden answered while he peeked out a window at the dwindling funeral guests. Thankfully, most had left, but some still meandered about the featureless property. Checking the locks on the windows and doors, Auden noted his mother’s home. The lingering scent of cinnamon and grass cheese, a kind of lotion Audra used to soothe her weary body after long travel, and the ticking of several clocks from planets and moons across the galaxy. Auden also noticed the many framed photos of him as a child and even one of him as an adult cut out from a newspaper. How long had it been since he had spoken to his own mother, and how long would it be until he could speak to her again? Auden shuffled those thoughts away. Now was a time of survival, not second guesses.

“What is a Reverse Clock Crown?” Emma asked from the kitchen. She placed the box on a countertop and was now searching the undersides of drawers for a hidden weapon. “Audra always keeps something in here,” Emma whispered to herself.

“The Reverse Clock Crown is one of the oldest objects in the universe. No one knows who made it and I’m sure most would think it long lost to space. The crown doesn’t belong to any king. It’s just an object, in the same way ‘king’ is just a title. The belief behind it is what gives it its power. I’m sure Count Gree is after it, in which case we need to find him, before he finds us.”

“Right. We need a blessing. A place to fight and then Count Gree can show up.” Emma reminded herself as she pulled a moon awl from the underside of a drawer and placed it in her back pocket. “Well, if we need to get out of here, let’s get out of here.” Emma nudged to which Auden shook his head, sending his ebony ringlets cascading across his umber brow. “Not that easy. You’ve been traveling with my mother. Self-intergalactic travel is easy for her because she’s been doing it for thousands of years. I can do it sometimes because I had an excellent teacher, but most of the time I need a shuttle.” Auden’s answer perplexed Emma. Audra never went into great detail about how she could travel in the blink of an eye from one planet to the next, but it made sense that experience had something to do with it. “Downstairs.” Emma said, taking the box from the counter. “There’s an escape shuttle downstairs. Audra got one for me just in case I needed to get out of here and Earth wasn’t the place I needed to go.”

Downstairs was not the musky, dusty place Auden thought it would be, or as it was when Audra was raising him on another planet. It was clean, organized, and Auden was not the least bit surprised to find out it was Emma who insisted on keeping the area managed. The teardrop shaped shuttle was big enough for two people and maybe a dog and a couple of cats. Its gunmetal finish shinned brightly, as did its single panorama window which encircled the upper third of the shuttle. Inside were two seats to buckle into as if this thing was just a minivan going to the grocery store and behind those seats was a slide and lock where one could stow an extra seat or kennel. At eye level was the panorama window. Above that was storage, and far above storage was a sleep seal or a place to rest without fear of falling downward into storage.

“Have you ever operated this thing?” Auden asked, but the answer came quickly as Emma set the shuttle’s synchronizer to her own liking. Auden watched as Emma’s hands danced over the buttons, levers, switches, awl-like handles, and more as she started up the shuttle’s vents, primary engine, secondary engine, and backup positioning unit. Inside the shuttle came to life in a flurry of neon and Auden realized this also was something Emma did. She made the shuttle all her own. Transfixed on Emma, it took Auden hearing her question a second time before he could answer.

“Where to?”

“Planet of Codd, in the Sleeper Solar System.” Auden said, removing the bow from his body and placing it along with the arrow in storage.

“Uh, in celestial coordinates, Auden.” To this Auden blushed, but hid it by looking out the window while he gave the coordinates. Auden felt the shuttle shift below his feet, shake lightly, and then levitate between the basement’s floor and ceiling. Within seconds, Emma activated the basement’s escape hatch. At the basement’s wall there was a misplaced garage door, with its fixture taking up the upper half of the wall and part of the ceiling. Outside Auden had no time to glimpse at the people below as the shuttle quickly ascended and was beyond the planet’s atmosphere within seconds.

“This thing has an intergalactic pusher attached to it thanks to Audra, so we’ll be there in a few minutes.” Emma said, unbuckling her seat belt and snapping a final switch in place. Behind her, she grabbed the box with the crown inside and took it out. It was much too large for a human head, but its circular design was familiar to Emma. By first look, the crown appeared plain, almost like an oversized wedding band, but bringing it closer to her eyes she saw her reflection in the near black of its shine.

“Metal?” Emma asked. “No, rock. Something older than ore.” Auden answered. Holding the crown to her ear, Emma closed her eyes and listened to it tapping away. “What is that tapping sound?” She asked.

“It’s the crown’s inner core. In the same way a planet has a core which creates it magnetic field, so does the crown. I don’t know how it works, but the mythology is as clear as it can be, that crown magnifies beliefs.”

“Who sent it to us?” Emma asked.

“My guess? I think my mother knew this day would happen and prepared for it. I think she had the crown all along. A safe place for it would be in her hands.” Auden ended. “Why keep it? Why not destroy it?” Emma could not help but have her anger show. She felt it so selfish to keep such an item around.

“Emma, the crown is mostly harmless. It isn’t a weapon. My mother already had the power to create what she did, but likely the crown accelerated the power to make your world—”

“You mean the dream?” Emma threw.

“Yeah, the dream. That crown, plus my mother’s power, made the dream, and it’s very possible she’s not the only one who has used it for that purpose.” Emma opened her eyes to find Auden watching her intently, even sadly.

“You mean there’s other dreams like the one I live in? With people who feel just as real as me?” Emma asked.

“Yeah. It’s also possible by helping you and the dream you live in; it’ll help other dreams as well.” Emma chewed on Auden’s words, wanting to find the hope and goodness Emma thought Audra had. Emma’s cheeks felt hot, her chest hurt, and at her eyes stinging like a bee almost made her scream. “If Audra was as good as I thought she was, then why did my life suck so much?” Auden possessed no pity for Emma, but his compassion for her poured constantly.

“Are all your dreams good?” Auden asked. Emma shook her head.

“It’s the same for my mother. She did not dream your pain and while you did not deserve it, it happened regardless.” Auden watched the velvet darkness of the galaxy go by the window.

“Why did you leave your mother?” Emma asked. She knew there was no suitable time to ask such a question, but in the middle of nowhere, on the eve of something dangerous seemed like the right time. Auden’s reaction surprised Emma. The young man she knew was fiery in battle, as she had seen him hold his own against several enemies, but now he appeared beaten by a single question.

“I left because I’d made myself an island and it hurt to watch her try to reach me. I will not pretend my decision was right. I believe it was right for me at that time, but now I don’t know. I needed to leave her and do the things I did. Fight the people I did and conquer the places I did. I needed that experience.”

“Why?” Emma asked in a whisper.

“I don’t know. Something deep inside told me I needed to.” Auden turned from the window to find Emma watching him and so the watched became the watcher and the two held eyes like precious, living things until they arrived on Codd.

When the shuttle landed it did so on a patch of dying grass and the smells that escaped into the shuttle when its door opened were the kind a lesser traveled passenger would gag over. “This place looks great,” Emma muttered with the crown in her hands. “Why are we here on Codd?” Emma asked. Following her off the ship with the bow across his body and the arrow in his hand, Auden glanced over the scenery.

“This is the last place Count Gree destroyed. I think there might be something here that can tell us where to go next.” The depth in Auden’s voice spoke of guilt and horror, of things he had seen face to face and of a galaxy that claimed both darkness and light.

Codd, once a land of beauty, now left craggy with war and a dreary color of sickening grey. Not the living grey of a dolphin or the warm grey of a cat, but diseased grey that made every venturer to the planet believe themselves close to illness. As the two traveled over the land they saw small dust storms and leveled villages, skeletons and places once so loved turned to nothing. At the pocket on Emma’s pants, she felt something like an insect or crawler move. Reaching inside her pocket, she found the wilted marigold flower Auden gave her from Rosette Gok’s home. It was in full bloom and shinning like pure gold at her fingertips. “Auden?” Emma asked, and the young man turned to see the flower blooming more by the second.

“Count Gree probably used a time-replicator when he was destroying the planet. It’s a more advanced way to take over a place. Basically, a time-replicator nets a city and the user has the ability to force time forward in a matter of seconds. Natural resources degrade, the people age…you get the idea. As time restabilizes, it can often have a paradoxical effect. Instead of pushing time forward, it rewinds it back.”

“Are you saying we’re going to leave Codd as five-year-olds?” Emma asked, preparing for her obsession with marine mammals to return.

“No. It’s not powerful enough to impact a human, or even a cat, if there was one here. I’m more concerned that Count Gree used a time-replicator big enough to push time on an entire planet rather than a city.”

“What happens if he has that kind of weapon?” Now Emma was a bit worried.

“Our fight is already balanced towards Count Gree, but the possession of such a weapon would mean he already wins.”